Holy Ghost are sometimes used promiscuously to signifie all or any of these extraordinary gifts indifferently yet what is very material to our purpose sometimes nay very frequently they are distinguished And then by the Holy Ghost is meant not all extraordinary gifts indifferently but particularly those which respect our understandings not executive powers consisting rather in illumination than in power and action of which sort are the gift of tongues of prophecy of discerning Spirits of knowledg of revelation and such like Thus the lying against that part of the gift of discerning Spirits which consisted in understanding the thoughts and purposes of the heart is called lying to the Holy Ghost For so S t Peter who was endowed with this gift tells Ananias when he would have imposed upon him Why hath Satan filled thine heart saith he to lye to the Holy Ghost Acts 5.3 And S t Stephen's being filled with an extraordinary revelation of Christ's sitting at God's right hand in Heaven is called his being filled with the Holy Ghost Acts 7.55 But more especially the gift of Tongues and Prophecy is dignified with that name Thus in the 10 th Chapter of the Acts when the Gentiles in Cornelius's house begun to speak with Tongues upon S t Peters preaching it is said that the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word and that on the Gentiles was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost v. 44 45 46. The Disciples at Ephesus who being baptized with the Baptism of John cannot be supposed ignorant of the many miraculous Cures so much talked of among the Jews and of the strange effects of the Spirit in Jesus whom John preached did yet tell Paul that they had not so much as heard of the Holy Ghost Act. 19.2 which might very well be because the Holy Ghost or gift of Tongues and Prophecy were not given till after Jesus was glorified Joh. 7.39 But upon the preaching of S t Paul they were made partakers of it for when Paul laid his hands on them the Holy Ghost came upon them and they spake with tongues and prophesied Act. 19.6 And to name no more instances in this matter that place which I now hinted in the 7 th Chapter of S t John is a full proof of this restrained acceptation For there after all the instances of curing diseases casting out Devils and other effects of the Spirit in miraculous operations which Christ shewed wheresoever he came it is yet expresly affirmed that the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified by his Exaltation to the right hand of God v. 39. The Holy Ghost i. e. these gifts of Tongues of Prophecy and the like which are all that remained still to be shed abroad and which came upon the Apostles at the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost Act. 2. Thus is the Holy Ghost set to denote not all the miraculous and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit promiscuously but particularly those which respect the mind or understanding such as the gift of Tongues of Prophecy of deep Knowledge and the like And on the other side as for the word Spirit it is set to express not all extraordinary gifts and effects of the Spirit in general but those by name which respect our executive not knowing powers and which consist not in illumination but in action Of which sort are the gift of healing diseases of casting out Devils of raising the dead and other miraculous operations Thus the miraculous courage and valour which was given to Othoniel is called the Spirit of the Lord Judg. 3.10 as is that likewise which was given to Gideon Judg. 6.34 and the miraculous strength of Samson is called the Spirit of the Lord upon Samson Judg. 14.6 And upon Christs working the miraculous cure upon the man with the withered hand S t Matthew applies to him that saying of the Prophet the Spirit of the Lord came upon him Mat. 12.18 and his casting out Devils he himself attributes to the Spirit of God I says he by the spirit of God cast out devils v. 28. As by the Holy Ghost therefore are meant particularly the gifts of illumination in Tongues and Prophecy so by the Spirit are signified the gifts of Power in healing diseases casting out Devils and doing mighty and miraculous works And both these together take up the full compass of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit and are both distinctly expressed by S t Peter when he says that Jesus was anointed with the holy Ghost and with Power Act. 10.38 These then are the several meanings of the words Holy Ghost and holy Spirit They denote as the third Person in the Trinity the Holy Ghost himself so also those gifts and effects which proceed from him Whether those gifts are ordinary either in the endowments of our minds or the vertuous tempers and dispositions of our wills and hearts or extraordinary and miraculous Wherein yet we must observe this difference that the gifts of the executive powers in healing diseases casting out Devils working Miracles are by a peculiar name called the Spirit and the gifts of the knowing or understanding Faculties in Prophecies Revelations speaking with divers sorts of Tongues are by a contradistinct name called the Holy Ghost And thus having shewn what is meant by the Holy Ghost I proceed now to show 2. What is meant by sinning against it and which of all those which are committed against it is the unpardonable sin The only way whereby any men are capable to sin against God as was observed is by affront and dishonour for God is out of our reach for any other sort of injury and we cannot otherwise hurt him than by shewing our contempt and disrepect of him And in regard the Holy Ghost in his own person is very and essential God this must needs be the only way whereby we can sin against him likewise We cannot injure him in his Nature but only in his Honour but then we sin against him when we walk cross to him and oppose him or any way slight and contemn undervalue or reproach him or any of those excellent and Divine gifts which proceed from him Now this we do more or less in every sin For this Spirit of God is an universal instrument of faith and good life it has taken the utmost care by miracles and other its convictive evidences to evince the truth of Christs Doctrine and doth now still by his daily suggestions and sollicitations excite men to the observance of it And seeing the Spirit of God has shown it self so much concerned for our faith and obedience every act of unbelief and disobedience is a direct opposition to it and reproach of it and therefore is a sin against it But every such sin is not the unpardonable fault here mentioned For our very
explication of this sin for if they once knew what it is they would be at ease from such tormenting suspicions and unreasonable fears about it To explain this I will consider 1. What is meant in Scripture by the Holy Ghost 2. What is meant here by sinning against it 1. What is meant in Scripture by the Holy Ghost By the word Holy Ghost or holy Spirit according to an usual Metonymie of the giver for the gift or of the cause for the effect is very often meant the gifts or effects of the holy Spirit whether they be such as he ordinarily produces in us or such as are extraordinary and miraculous Sometimes it signifies such gifts and dispositions whether of mind or temper as the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God is wont ordinarily to produce in men It notes I say the good qualifications of our minds or understandings which as all other good gifts are wrought in us by the Spirit and derived to us from God Thus a man endued with wisdom and discretion such as Joseph advised Pharaoh to set over all the Land of Egypt is called a man in whom the Spirit of God is Gen. 41.33 38 and the Spirit of the Lord mentioned Isai. 11 is in the very next words explained by the Spirit of wisdom the Spirit of understanding the Spirit of counsel the Spirit of knowledge and the Spirit of quick understanding vers 2 3. It signifies also the vertuous tempers and good qualifications of our hearts which like as the former were are given us of God Thus that good and charitable temper which is so exemplary in God and which is wrought in our souls by him is called the Spirit of God 1 John 4. If we love one another God dwells in us so that hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us that loving temper of his Spirit ver 12 13. The temper which was so observable in Christ is called the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8.9 the temper of Elias is called the spirit of Elias Luke 1.17 the Spirit of the Lord is explained by the Spirit of the fear of the Lord Isai. 11.2 and that spirit which God hath given us says S t Paul is not the spirit of fear but the spirit of power of love and of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7 Thus doth the Spirit of God signifie many times in Scripture those ordinary gifts and Graces which are the good effects of the Spirit But besides these effects of it in the good endowments and perfections of our natural faculties whether of mind or temper which are common and ordinary sometimes it signifies more especially those gifts which are extraordinary and miraculous Of which sort are the gift of tongues of prophecy of healing Diseases without any natural means and performing other miraculous operations so famous in the first times of the Gospel Thus for example that Saying I will pour out in those days of my Spirit is interpreted by this in the next words And they shall prophesie Acts 2.18 And the elder Brothers which was a double share of the prophetick power of Elias is called a double portion of his Spirit 2 Kin. 2.9 And the Corinthians zealous pursuit of the miraculous and extraordinary gifts of prophecy speaking with tongues healing diseases and working miracles is called by the Apostle their being zealous of Spirits or as we translate it of spiritual gifts 1 Cor. 14.12 Now as for these extraordinary gifts they are all wrought in us by the same cause and proceed from the same Principle viz. the holy Spirit of God or the holy Ghost There are in the Church now in our times saith the Apostle diversities of gifts but yet one and the same Spirit is the Donor of them all For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom or of Gospel truths and revelations to another the word of knowledg or discerning of remote things and prophetical predictions by the same Spirit to another faith of his being Divinely assisted to produce supernatural effects to another miraculous gifts of healing Diseases without use of means by the same Spirit to another the working of miracles or the utmost activity and energy of powers in the highest instances and effects of them of which sort are raising the Dead casting out Devils inflicting bodily torments on contumacious Sinners c. to another prophecy or exposition of Scripture and inspired Hymns to another discerning of Spirits both in seeing into mens spiritual thoughts and intentions and also in discerning who wrought true Miracles and who Satanical Delusions who were divinely inspired and who were mere Pretenders to another the ecstatick gift of speaking divers kinds of tongues in such rapturous transports as permitted them not to stay to interpret what they said and made them afterwards forget it to another the gift of interpreting into the vulgar language of any in the Congregation those strange tongues But all these diversities of gifts worketh that one and the self same Spirit dividing all these different gifts to every man severally as he will 1 Cor. 12.4 8 9 10 11. And seeing it is the same Spirit or Holy Ghost which is the Authour and Giver of them all therefore are they all indifferently called by either name For sometimes all these extraordinary gifts both the power of miracles and the gift of tongues and prophecy are called the Spirit Thus when the Apostles began to speak with tongues and to prophesie as well as to work miracles and heal diseases it is said that the Spirit was poured out upon them Acts 2.17 18 19 and all these varieties of gifts oâ— one sort or other which are reckoned up by S t Paul in this twelfth Chapter to the Corinthians are attributed to the Spirit and said to be wrought by it and the Apostles being filled with the Holy Ghost and speaking with tongues is called their speaking by the spirit they were all filled with the Holy Ghost says S t Luke and began to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance Acts 2.4 And in like manner at other times all these same powers whether of understanding or action of tongues or miracles are called the Holy Ghost Thus the gifts of signs and wonders and divers miracles are reckoned among the gifts of the Holy Ghost Heb. God says Saint Paul bearing the Apostles witness with signs and wonders and divers miracles and other gifts of the Holy Ghost ver 4. And the signs and wonders which were done by the hands of the Apostles particularly that of healing the lame man so much taken notice of Acts 3 is said to be the witness of the Holy Ghost Acts 5.12 32. Thus I say by reason that all these extraordinary gifts whether relating to our minds in knowledge and speaking with tongues or to our executive powers in healing diseases and working miracles proceed all from the self same Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit the gifts of either sort are called indifferently by either name being sometimes called the Spirit and sometimes the Holy Ghost But although as I say for this reason the words Spirit and
himself so doth he instruct Timothy that he should do likewise For he tells him that the way whereby the man of God ought to deal with sinners even those of the worst sort who are not only subject but enslaved to it is not peremptorily to damn and seal them up fast unto destruction but in great meekness to endeavour to reclaim them that by recovering them to repentance he may restore them again to life and pardon The man of God says he must in meekness instruct even the refractory and contumacious or those that oppose themselves against him if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2.25 26. And to name no more instances of this nature but to summ up all in one even those great and enormous wilful sinners whose offences are so hainous as to make them fit to be expelled the society of Christians are not yet in their very Excommunication shut up irrecoverably under the pains of Hell but quite contrary are endeavoured by this very means to be reduced to repentance and thereby to pardon and acceptance Excommunication it self being as St. Paul says for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5.5 And the Power of the Keys in remitting or retaining sins that is in the excommunicating or absolving of offenders is intrusted with the Ministers of Christs Church for the edification of the excommunicated sinners themselves and not for their destruction 2 Cor. 10.8 and chap. 13.10 And by all this we see that the Grace of Christs Gospel is a grace of repentance and remission of sins all the way both before Baptism and also after it In all periods from the beginning to the end it is an instrument of pardon and a means of peace or a word and ministry as St. Paul says of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.19 If we break our Baptismal vows which are the condition of the Covenant once and thereby forfeit all our Right to Happiness it gives us liberty to repeat them For we have the freedom both in our private and our publick prayers to renew all our good resolutions and to make God new promises and to undertake for the performance of that wherein we have wilfully failed by new engagements Nay it doth not only allow that we may thus renew the Covenant but it requires that we should it has appointed an Ordinance the Eucharist or Lords Supper I mean for this very purpose For the Bread and Wine which we eat and drink there our Saviour tells us is a Federal form the New Covenant or according to the manner of the Eastern Nations who ratified their Covenants by eating and drinking together the re-entring or confirming of that Covenant which was at first sealed and confirmed in his Blood This says he is the New Testament or Covenant in my blood drink ye all of it and so according to the known Rite confirm this Covenant with God by it Luk. 22.20 Mat. 22.27 And this he has not only allowed but injoyned to all his Disciples Do this says he in remembrance of me And that not only at one time as it is with Baptism but at all times during your whole lives for in this manner of a Federal eating and drinking of this Bread and Wine you must shew forth the Lords death always even till he come again the second time i. e. unto the worlds end 1 Cor. 11.24 25 26. Forgiveness of sins then upon repentance is a Grace which is begun in Baptism and ever after continued being repeated in every Prayer and sealed in every Sacrament to the end of our lives So that no wilful sin can damn us if we repent of it but the damned accursed sinner is only he who lives and dyes impenitent Insomuch as that very sin for which St. Paul says there is no benefit from Christs Death nor any help of Sacrifice under the Gospel is therefore excluded from all Grace of pardon because it is from all possibility of repentance For therein it is that the irrecoverableness of those lost sinners consists It is impossible says he to renew them to repentance Heb. 6.6 Thus then we see that Christs Gospel has afforded us a remedy even for our wilful sins whether they be committed before Baptism or after it at one time or at another at all without exception so that although sometimes we do fall under them yet we shall not be eternally condemned for them Let us but repent particularly therefore and amend it and whatever sin we have wilfully been guilty of our work is done For our repentance shall set us straight and our reformation will make us innocent and if we are careful to do so no more our offence will be looked upon as if it never had been done at all But against this pardonableness of our wilful sins after our belief of the Gospel and Baptism into the Christian Faith some perhaps may be ready to object two places from St. Pauls Epistle to the Hebrews wherein he may seem to teach us a more rigorous and severe Lesson In the 10 th Chapter he lays down this as a great Truth If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge or open belief and acknowledgment of the truth of Christs Gospel there remains no more benefit to us from Christs sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall consume the adversaries v. 26 27. And in the 6 th Chapter to the eternal Terror of all willing and wilful Back-sliders he speaks thus to the same purpose It is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God if after all this they shall fall away to be again recovered or for any of us to renew them to repentance seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame v. 4 5 6. But now if our wilful sins after Baptism and belief of the Gospel be thus desperate and utterly excluded from all hopes of cure and benefit of Expiation by Christs Sacrifice as the Apostle in these places seems to intimate how can the Gospel be truly called a Ministration of Reconciliation Grace and Pardon towards all sorts of wilful sins To take off all this difficulty I will answer to the places severally that all those good minds which are wont to be perplexed by them may be more perfectly relieved by a particular and distinct understanding of them First then to begin with that the words of St. Paul in the 10 th Chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrews are these Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering Not forsaking the assembling of
hath proved to us abundantly that that Religion of his which we now renounce is a most certain truth of God All these marks are evidently attributed to that sin which the Apostle here speaks of and then what can any man think it to be less than an absolute Apostasie from the whole Religion and an utter abrenunciation of all the Laws of Christ Now whosoever wilfully falls under this I confess he is in a very deplorable and most desperate case Because for him as saith the Apostle there remains no more benefit from Christs Propitiation or Sacrifice for sin He has affronted that so enormously that God will never suffer him to be the better by it And this to a Jew ought to be no uncouth or surprizing Doctrine seeing he who thus renounced Moses could have no Sacrifice to atone for him For no propitiation was allowed for him who wilfully rejected any one particular Command of Moses but least of all if he had apostatized from the whole Law He that despised even any one particular threatning death in Moses's Law died without mercy under two or three Witnesses But now this Covenant and Law of Moses was sealed only in the blood of Bulls and Goats whereas this Covenant and Law of Christ which these men renounce that I am speaking of was confirmed in his own blood Moses the Authour of that Law was but a Servant whereas Christ the Authour of this was a Son If then the revolting from Moses was so unpardonable that it inevitably incurred death and put a man out of all hopes of propitiation and benefit of Sacrifice of how much sorer punishment as he most rationally argues must all Apostates from Christ be accounted worthy who by their falling away from his Religion tread under foot the Son of God himself a Person infinitely above Moses and count the blood not of Bulls and Goats but of the Christ of God wherewith this Covenant was sealed to be an unholy thing They are indeed irrevocably plunged in death and their apostatizing or drawing back from that Religion which upon so good evidence they had before acknowledged is to their own ruine and destruction ver 38. But although this total apostasie and abrenunciation of Christianity it self when 't is wilfully committed be thus remediless and desperate a sin yet is that nothing to the breach of any particular Law or to the wilful transgressions of any baptized man so long as he still continues Christian. For all his sins of one sort or other have the salvo of repentance provided for them and if he doth but once reform and amend them he shall not be condemned for them And thus having shewed that this place in the tenth Chapter to the Hebrews makes nothing against the pardonableness of any Christian mans sin upon repentance but only against the forgiveness of those who have apostatized from Christ and become unchristian I proceed now 2. To consider that other place in the sixth Chapter of the same Epistle where the Apostles words are these Therefore leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ wherein we are wont to catechize even Children and Novices let us go on unto perfection and to treat of such things as are fit for grown men not laying again for such as are apostatized from it the first Foundations of the Christian Doctrine as are the Doctrine of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God of the Doctrine of Baptisms and of laying on of hands and of resurrection of the dead and of eternal Judgment And this will we do if God permit without returning as I say to prove again the foundations of the Faith to them who are fallen from it which indeed were a very vain and fruitless undertaking For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened or baptized and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made Partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted of the good word of God and of the powers of Christs Kingdom or the World to come if after all this they shall wilfully fall away from this Faith it is impossible for them I say to be recovered or for us by any endeavours of ours to renew them again unto the Grace and Covenant of repentance because God is irreconcileably provoked by this revolt seeing thereby they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him once again to an open shame Here indeed the Case is as desperate as it was before and 't is no wonder why it should because the sin is the very same For it is nothing less than an universal backsliding an apostasie both in faith and manners a renouncing of all the Religion and Laws of Christ whereof all these severe things are spoken As for the word which is here put to note this falling away it signifies for the most part a fall which admits of a rise again and is recoverable but sometimes it denotes a fall that is desperate and beyond all hopes of remedy Thus the Apostle speaking of the incredulous Jews to whom the Religion of Christ was a stumbling block and a rock of offence distinguishes betwixt these two stumbling and falling making the latter to be much more dangerous than the former and denying it when he affirms the other Have they stumbled says he that they should fall mortally and irrecoverably God forbid Rom. 11.11 And thus it signifies in this place For the falling away here spoken of is nothing less than a revolting from all Christ's Laws and Doctrines and an apostatizing from his whole Religion Which appears from several things that are here said of it some whereof they are said to fall from and others are said to be implied in their falling It appears I say from some things which they are said to apostatize or fall from They fall away from their Baptism which is expressed by the word enlightened the common name in the antient Church to signifie the baptized from the remission of sins the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments which are such priviledges and gifts of God as are afforded to persons baptized from the hopes of Heaven and all the promises and good word of God from the gift of tongues and other effects of the Holy Ghost whereof upon the imposition of the Apostles hands they had been made Partakers and from the power of working miracles that were so conspicuous under the appearance of Christ those times of Messiah which the Jews were wont to call the Age or world to come If those says the Apostle who were once baptized or enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy Ghost and have tasted of the good word or promise of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away or apostatize from all these it is impossible to renew them v. 4 5 6. This as is evident is the Apostasie which is
repentance that being such a sin as God will never give repentance to Heb. 6.6 The sinning against the Holy Ghost in this sence then as it denotes the gift of tongues of prophecy c. which is the last evidence that God is resolved to make use of for the conversion of an unbelieving World is that unpardonable sin which shall never be forgiven And yet even here in this limited and contracted sence of the word Holy Ghost we must still proceed with some caution For it is not every affront and dishonour that is put upon these gifts which is the sin here styled irremissible Simon Magus cast a very high indignity and reproach upon them in his actions for he went about to purchase the gift of tongues and other sacred illuminations called the Holy Ghost which fell upon men at the imposition of the Apostles hands as if they had been only a trick to get money or a fit thing to drive a trade withal and make a gainful merchandise When Simon saw that through the laying on of the hands of the Apostles the Holy Ghost was given he offered them money says S t Luke saying Give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost Acts 8.18 19. This was a very great abuse and a most unworthy comparing of the heavenly and holy Spirit of God to a mercetable ware and vendible commodity thinking it fit to serve any ends and to minister to the basest purposes of filthy lucre and covetousness But yet this sin against the Holy Ghost in its strictest acceptation was not the unpardonable sin it came very near it indeed and would hardly be remitted but still in all likelihood it was remissible And therefore S t Peter although he be very severe upon this sordid man for the high affront doth not yet pronounce an irreversible doom of damnation upon him but on the contrary exhorts him to repent that the sin of his heart may be forgiven Repent says he of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee ver 22. But that which is the desperately damning sin against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven either in this world or in that which is to come is the sinning against it not by interpretation only in our actions but directly in our words and expressions It is our speaking reproachfully and slanderously of it as the Pharisees did of the spirit when they attributed it to Beelzebub And therefore it is expresly called the speaking blasphemously against the Holy Ghost Whosoever speaketh blasphemously against the Holy Ghost when he shall come it shall never be forgiven him neither in this world nor in the world to come Matth. 12.21 32. The great weight lyes in that for this heavy doom he denounced upon them says S t Mark because they said he hath an unclean spirit Mark 3 30. And thus at length we see what that sin against the Holy Ghost is whose doom is so dreadful and whose case is so desperate under the Gospel It is nothing less than a slandering and reviling instead of owning and assenting to that last evidence which God has given us of the truth of the Gospel in the gifts of tongues prophecy and other extraordinary illuminations called the Holy Ghost So that no man who ownes Christ's Religion and thinks he was no Impostor and believes that these miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost were no magical shows or diabolical delusions can ever be guilty of it No before he arrive to that he must not only be an Infidel to the faith but also a Blasphemer of it he must not only disbelieve this last and greatest evidence but disparage and rail against it If then there be any man who ownes Christ's Authority and obeys his Laws and believes his Gospel and hopes in its promises and fears its threatnings and expects that every word of that Covenant which was confirmed to us by the infallible evidence of the Spirit and the Holy Ghost shall come to pass he is not more guiltless of any sin than of this against the Holy Ghost for he doth not so much as sleight and disparage but ownes and submits to it If good men therefore are afraid by reason of the irremissibleness of the sin against the Holy Ghost they fear where they need not and their scruple is utterly unreasonable and groundless For let it be as unpardonable as it will that shall not hurt them for they can never suffer by it since whilst they continue such as now they are they cannot possibly be guilty of it or of any thing that comes near it CHAP. VII The Conclusion The CONTENTS Some other causless scruples The point of growth in Grace more largely stated A summary repetition of this whole Discourse They may dye with courage whose Conscience doth not accuse them This accusation must not be for idle words distractions in Prayer c. but for a wilful transgression of some Law of Piety Sobriety c. above mentioned It must further be particular and express not general and roving If an honest mans heart condemn him not for some such unrepented sins God never will BEsides these scruples already mentioned some good minds may be put in fear and doubt of the safety of their present state because S t John says that whosoever is born of God sinneth not being no longer a child of God if he do 1 Joh. 3.6 9. But the sin here spoken of as was observed above is defined by S t John himself at the fourth verse of this Chapter to be not every deviation or going beside the Law but a wilful transgression and rejecting of the Law it self And this indeed is inconsistent with a regenerate state and puts us out of Gods favour making us liable to eternal destruction But then the case for these sins is not desperate seeing if once we forsake them and repent of them we are as safe again as ever we were before we committed them For our repentance will set us straight and if we transgress not wilfully again we are without the reach of condemnation Others doubt whether when once they have wilfully sinned they ever can repent or shall afterwards be pardoned because they read of Esau that after he had sold his birth-right with the blessing that attended it when he would have inherited it afterwards he was rejected and found no place of a change of mind or repentance though he sought it carefully with tears Heb. 12.17 In answer to this it will be sufficient to observe that this change of mind or repentance which Esau sought but could not find was not in himself but in his Father Isaac It was not in himself I say for there he did find a place for it being he was really possessed of it For he was heartily sorry for his former folly in parting with his birth-right and for his present unhappiness in being