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Holy Ghost: 'I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him but whoso ever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, ible at the flesh with which I am clothed, you shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in that which is to come. This text, which Augustine deems the most difficult in the Scriptures, will become intelligible, if we examine the occasion and weigh the words.

but also from the works of the most celebrated of the fathers-I mean Chrysostom. The following is the substance of his paraphrase on the text in St. Matthew: You have called me a deceiver, and an enemy of God; I forgive this reproach Having some cause to stum

The occasion is obvious to understand Jesus had just cured a demoniac. The Pharisees had attested the fact, and could not deny its divine authority their eyes decided in favour of Jesus Christ. But they had recourse to an extraordinary method of defaming his character. Unable to destroy the force of the miracle, they maintained that it proceeded from an impure source, and that it was by the power of the devil Jesus Christ healed this afflicted class of men. This was the occasion on which he pronounced the words we have recited.

might not know who I am. But can you be gnorant that the casting out of demons, is the work of the Holy Ghost? For this cause, he who says, that I do these miracles by Beelzebub, shall not obtain remission.'

Such is the comment of Chrysostom, to whom we add the remark of an author. wor thy of superior confidence; it is St. Mark, who subjoins these words: Because the Pharisees said he hath an unclean spirit." Hence it is inferred that the Pharisees, by ascribing the miracles of the Holy Ghost, to an unclean spirit, were guilty of the identical sin against the Holy Ghost, of which Jesus Christ had spoken: as is apparently proved.

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The second text we shall explain, occurs in the fifth chapter of the first epistle of St. John If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death there is a sin unto death; I do not say ye shall pray for it.' On this question there are, we usually say, as many opinions as parties. Consult the doctors of the Romish church, and they will establish, on these words, the frivolous distinct on between venial and mortal sins; a conjecture both false, and directly opposed to the design of those from whom it proceeds. Because, if this sense be true, the moment a man commits a mortal sin, prayer must cease with regard to him; and he who commits a venial sin, will still need the prayers of saints to avoid a death he has not deserved; this is not only indefensible, but what the Catholics themselves would not presume to maintain.

The import of the expressions is no way difficult to comprehend Who is the Son of man? And who is the Holy Ghost? And what is it to speak against he one and the other? The Son of man is Jesus Christ reveal-as ed in human form. Without staying here to refute a mistake of the learned Grotius, who pretends because the article does not pre ede the word, it is not to be understood of our Saviour, but of men in general. To firm the sense here attached to the term. e shall only observe, that St. Luke, chap. x. 8, after calling our Saviour' the Son of man,' immediately adds, Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of min, it shall be forgiven him' where it evidently follows, that by the Son of man, Jesus Christ must be understood. And though the expression may elsewhere have other significations, they have no connexion with our subject.

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By the Holy Ghost, must be understood the third person in the adorable Trinity; considered not only as God, but as Author of the miracles achieved for the confirmation of the gospel. Hence, to speak against the Son of an,' was to outrage the Lord Jesus; trender his doctrine suspected; to call his mission in question; and particularly to be offended at the humiliations which surrounded it on earth. Such was their conduct who said, 'Is not this the carpenter's son? Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? A gluttonous man, a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.'

Waving the various glosses of the Novatians, and other commentators, do you ask what is the idea we should attach to these words of the apostle, and what is the sin of which he here speaks? We repeat what we have already intimated, that it is difficult to explain. However, on investigating the views of the apostle throughout the chapter, we discover the sense of this text. His design was, to embolden the young converts in the profession of the religion they had so happily embraced. With this view, he here recapitulates the proofs which established its truth: There are three that bear witness on earth, the water, and the spirit, and the blood. It is the innocence of the primitive Christians, which is called the water; the miracles which are called the spirit; and martyrdom, by which the faithful have sealed their testi

that those three classes of witnesses, demonstrate the truth of the Christian religion, and render its opposers utterly inexcusable. After these and similar observations, the postle says expressly, that he wrote for the

To speak against the Holy Ghost, was maliciously to reject a doctrine, when he who delivered it, confirmed the truth of it by so distinguished and evident a miracle as heal-mony, and which is called the blood: attesting ing a demoniac; and to ascribe those miracleto the devil, which, they were assured, had God alone for their author. Here, I conceive, is all the light we can derive from the text And as many persons determine the sense the text, not so much by the letter as the re-confirmation of their faith, and closes with putation of the interpreter, we must apprize them, that we have derived this explanation not only from the writings of our most cele brated commentators who have espoused it,

this exhortation: Little children, keep yourselves from idols.' Between these two texts, occur the words we wish to explain: There is a sin unto death: I do not say that

ye shall pray for it. Must not the sin unto death,' be that, against which he wished to fortify the saints; I mean apostacy?

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saves us, is not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience.' The answer of a good conscience, is the rectitude of conduct, resulting from the catechumen's knowledge and faith. Hence they commonly gave the appellation of illuminated to a man after baptism. The washing of baptism,' says Justin Martyr, 'is called illumination; because he who is instructed in these mysteries, is enlightened.' fence also the Syriac version instead of enlightened, as our rea 'ing which follows the Greek, has rendered it baptized.

2. They had tasted of the heavenly gift ;' that is, they had experienced the serenity of that peace, which we feel when we no longer fear the punishment of sin: having passed, if I may so speak, the rigorous road of repentance, into favour with God.

What you will say, is a man lost without remedy who has denied the truth; and is every one in the sad situation of those for whom the apostle prohibits prayer? God for bid, my brethren, that we should preach so strange a doctrine; and once more renew the Novatian severity! There are two kinds of apostates, and two kinds of apostacies: there is one kind of apostacy into which we fall by the fear of punishment, or on the blush of the moment, by the promises Satan makes to his proselytes. There is another, into which we fall by the enmity we have against the truth, by the detestable pleasure we take in opposing its force. It were cruel to account the first of these offences, a sin unto death; but the Spirit of God prompts us to attach 3. They were made partakers of the Holy this idea to the second. There are likewise Ghost. they had relished the good word of two kinds of apostates. There is one class, God, and the powers of the world to come.' All who have made only smal a tainments in these various expressions may be understood the knowledge of the truth; weak and im- of miracles performed in their presence, or perfect Christians unacquainted as yet, with achieved by themselves. The Holy Ghost the joys and transports excited in the soul himself has assumed this acceptation, in vaby a religion, which promises remission of rious parts of the Scriptures, as in that resin, and everlasting fel city. There is ano-markable passage in the nineteenth chapter ther, on the contrary, to whom God has given superior knowledge, to whom he has communicated the gifts of miracles, and whom he has caused to experience the sweetness of his promise. It would be hard to reject the first; but the apostle had regard to the second. Those, according to St. John, who have committed the sin unto death,' are the persons who abjure Christianity, af. ter the reception of all those gifts. In the primitive church, where some were honour ed with the endowment of discerning spirits, there probably were brethren who could dis-pents. In fine, the powers of the world to cern the latter apostates from the former.

These observations lead to the illustration of the two passages yet to be explained: the one is in the tenth chapter to the Hebrews; the other is our text. In both these passages, it is obvious the apostle had the second class of apostates in view. This is very apparent from our text. Throughout the whole of this epistle, it is easy to prove, that the apostle's wish was the prevention of apostacy. He especially designed to demonstrate, that to renounce Christianity, after attesting its confirmation by miracles, here denominated 'distributions of the Holy Ghost,' was a crime of the grossest enormity. He has the same design in the text. Let us examine the terms.

of the Acts, Have ye received the Holy Ghost?-We have not so much as heard, whether there be any Holy Ghost. The good word, says Grotius, is the promise of God. as in the twenty-ninth of Jeremiah, 'I willperform my good word towards you;' that is, my promise; and one of the greatest promises made to the primiti e Christians, was the gift of miracles These signs,' says Jesus, shall follow them that believe; in my name they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with tongues, they shall take up ser

come,' were, likewise, the prodigies to be achieved during the gospel economy; which the Jews call the age, or world to come; prodigies elsewhere called, the exceeding greatness of his power, and the mighty working of his power.'

These are the endowments, with which the persons in question were favoured; their crime was apostacy. It is impossible, if they fall away, to renew them again unto repentance.'

To fall away, does not characterize the state of a man, who relapses, after having obtained remission. How deplorable soever his situation may be, it is not without resource. The falling away in our text signifies a total defection; an entire rejection of 1. They were once enlightened;' that is. Jesus Christ, and of his religion. The fallthey had known the truth. They had coming away, according to St Paul, in the ninth pared the prophets with the apostles, the prophecies with the accomplishment; and by the collective force of truth, they were fully persuaded that Jesus was the Messiah. Or, if you please, they were once enlightened; that is, they were baptized;' baptism, in the primitive church, succeeding instruction, according to that precept of Christ, Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them,' &e. St Paul, at the beginning of this chapter, speak ing of baptism, expresses the same sentterized in the preceding remarks. ment. So also we are to understand St. Peter,

chapter of his epistle to the Romans, marks the first stage of obduracy in the Jewish nation. But the falling away in our text, is not only a rejection of Christ, but a rejection after having known him: it is not only to reject, but to outrage and persecute him with nalice and enmity of heart Here is all the information we can derive from the text. The unpardonable sin, in these words, is that of apostates; and such as we have charac

This also is the genuine import of the tenth

when he says, that the baptism which now chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews,' If we

sin wilfully, after having received the know-, an audience, it is an invariable duty to reledge of the truth,' as would be easy to prove.

Now, if you have been attentive to all the considerations we have just advanced: if you have understood the explanations we have given of the several texts, you may form a correct idea of the unpardonable sin. You may know what this crime was, at least, in the time of the primitive church. It was denying, hating, and maliciously opposing the truth, at the moment they were persuaded | it proceeded from God. Two classes of men might commit this crime in the apostolic age.

First, those who had never embraced Christianity; but opposed its progress in defiance of rational conviction, and the dictates of conscience. This was the sin of the Pharisees, who maliciously ascribed to the devil miracles, which they knew could have God

alone for their author.

Secondly, those who had embraced the gospel, who had been baptized, who had received the gift of miracles, and experienced all the graces enumerated in the text This was the sin of those, who, after conversion, abjured the truth, and pronounced against Jesus Christ the anathemas which his enemies, and particularly the Jews, required of apostates. These St Paul had in view, in the words of our text, and in the tenth chapter of this epistle. Of this St. John also spake, when he said, there is a sin unto death. Hence the sin described in these three passages, and the sin against the Holy Ghost, is the same in quality, if I may so speak, though diversified in circumstances: we have, consequently, comprised the whole under the vague appellation of unpardonable sin.

After these considerations, perhaps, you already rejoice. This sermon, designed to inspire the soul with sanctifying fear, has, perhaps, already contributed to flatter your security you no longer see any thing in the text, which affects your case; nor any thing in the most disorderly life, connected with a crime, peculiar to the primitive Christians. Let us dissipate, if possible, so dangerous an illusion We have done little, by tracing the manner in which the first witnesses of the gospel became guilty of the unpardonable sin; we must also inquire, what relation it may have to us.

In general, it is not possible to hear subjects of this nature discussed, without a variety of questions revolving in the mind, and asking one's self, have I not already committed this sin? Does not such and such a vice, by which I am captivated, constitute its essence? Or, if I have never committed it yet, may I not fall into it at a future period? It is but just, brethren, to afford you satisfaction on points so important. Never did we discuss more serious questions; and we frankly acknowledge, that all we have hitherto advanced, was merely introductory to what we have yet to say; and for which we require the whole of the attention, with which you have favoured us.

Though truth is always the same, and never accommodates itself to the humours of

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solve these questions according to the characters of the inquirers. The questions amount in substance to this: Can a man in this age commit the unpardonable sin? And, I assure you, they may be proposed from three principles, widely different from each other: from a melancholy, from a timorous, and a cau ious disposition. We shall diversify our solutions, conformably to this diver sity of character.

1. One may make this inquiry through a melancholy disposition; and mental derange ment is an awful complaint. It is a disease which corrupts the blood, stagnates the spirits, and flags the mind. From the body, it quickly communicates to the soul; it induces the sufferers to regard every object on the dark side; to indulge phantous, and cherish anguish, which, excluding all consolation, wholly devotes the mind to objects, by which it is alarmed and tormented. A man of this disposition, on examining his conscience, and reviewing his life, will draw his own character in the deepest colours. He will construe his weakness into wickedness, and his infirmities into crimes; he will magnify the number, and aggravate the atrocity of his sins; he will class himself, in short, with the worst of human characters. And, our reasons for self-condemnation and abasement before God, being always too well founded, the person in question, proceeding on these principles, and mistaking the causes of bumiliation and repentance, for just subjects of horror and despair, readily believes himself lost without resource, and guilty of the unpardonable sin.

Without doubt, it is highly proper to reason with people of this description. We should endeavour to compose them, and en ter into their sentiments, in order to attack their arguments with more effect; but, after all, a man so afflicted has more need of a physician than a minister, and of medicine than sermons. If it is not a hopeless case, we must endeavour to remove the complaint, by means which nature and art afford; by air, exercise, and innocent recreations. Above all, we must pray that God would cause the bones he has broken to rejoice; and that be would not abandon, to the remorse and torments of the damned, souls redeemed by the blood of his beloved Son, and reconciled by his sacrifice.

2. This inquiry may also be made through a timorous disposition. We distinguish timidity from melancholy; the first being a disposition of the mind, occasioned by the mistaken notions we entertain of God and his word; the second, of the body. The timerous man fixes his eye on what the Scriptures say of the justice of God, without par ing adequate attention to what is said of his mercy. He looks solely at the perfection to which a Christian is called, without ever regarding the leniency of the gospel. Such a man, like the melancholy person, is readily induced to think himself guilty of the unpar donable sin. Should he flatter himself with not having yet perpetrated the deed, he lives in a continual fear. This fear may, indeed, proceed from a good principle, and be productive of happy effects, in exciting vigilance

and care; but, if not incompatible with the liberty of the children of God, it is at least repugnant to the peace they may obtain; which constitutes one of the sweetest comforts of religion, and one of the most effectual motives to conciliate the heart.

ing called him Beelzebub; nor has any one received the gift of iniracles, and afterwards denied the truth, as those apostates, of whom we spake But a man may commit the crime, with regard to what constitutes its essence, and its atrocity. This also we hope to prove For, I ask, what constituted the enormity of the crime? Was it the miracles, simply considered? Or was it the conviction and sentiments which ensued, and which proceeded from the hearts of the wit

tion and the sentiments, and not the miracles and prodigies, separately considered, and without the least regard to their seeing them performed, or themselves being the workers. If we shall, therefore, prove, that the efforts which Providence now employs for the conversion of mankind, may convey to the mind the same conviction, and excite the same sentiments afforded to the witnesses of these miracles, shall we not consequently prove, that if men now resist the gracious efforts of Providence, they are equally guilty as the ancients; and, of course, that which constitutes the essence and atrocity of the unpardonable sin, subsists at this period, as in the apostolic age.

If a man of this description should ask me, whether one may now commit the unpardonable sin? I would repeat what I have just said, that this sin, in all its circumstances has peculiar reference to the miracles by which God formerly confirmed the evangelical doc-nesses? Without a doubt it was the convictrine; and consequently, to account himself at this period guilty of the crime, is to follow the emotions of fear, rather than the conviction of argument. I would compare the sin which alarms his conscience, with that of the unhappy man of whom we spake. I would prove by this comparison, that the disposition of a man, who utters blasphemy against Jesus Christ, who makes open war with the professors of his doctrine, has no resemblance to the style of another, who sins with remorse and contrition; who wrestles with the old man; who sometimes conquers, and sometimes is conquered: though he has sufficient cause from his sin to perceive, that the love of God by no means properly burns in his heart; he has, however, encouragement from his victories, to admit that it is not totally extinguished. I would assist this man to enter more minutely into his state; to consider the holy fears which fill, the terrors which agitate, and the remorse which troubles his heart; and in such a way as to derive from the cause of his grief, motives of consolation. We should never stretch our subjects, nor divide what Jesus Christ has joined by a happy temperature. If you look solely at the mercy of God, you will unavoidably form excuses to flatter your security; if you confine your regards to his justice, you will fall into despair. It is this happy temperature of severity and indulgence, of mercy and justice, of hope and fear, which brings the soul of a saint to permanent repose; it is this happy temperature which constitutes the beauty of religion, and renders it efficacious in the conversion of mankind. This should be our method with persons of a doubtful disposition.

But wo unto us, if under the pretext of giving the literal import of a text of Scripture, we should conceal its general design; a design equally interesting to Christians of every age and nation, and which concerns you, my brethren, in a peculiar manner: wo unto us, if under a pretence of composing the conscience of the timorous, we should afford the slightest encouragement to the hardened, to flatter their security, and confirm them in their obduracy of heart.

3. This inquiry.-Whether we can now commit the unpardonable sin?-may likewise be made on the ground of caution, and that we may know the danger, only in order to avoid it. Follow us in our reply.

1. A man, at this period, may sin against the clearest light. Do not say that he cannot sin against the same degree of light, which irradiated the primitive church. I allow that none of you have seen the miracles performed for the confirmation of our faith ; but I will venture to affirm, that there are truths as palpable, as if they had been confirmed by miracles; I will venture to affirm, that if they collect all the proofs we have of our Saviour's mission, there will result a conviction to the mind as clear, as that which resulted to the Pharisees, on seeing the demoniac healed.

2. What constituted the atrocity of the crime in the first ages, was attacking this religion, whose evidence they had attested. This may also be found among men of our own time. A man, who is convinced that the Christian religion was revealed from heaven;-a man who doubts not, among all the religious connexions in the Christian world, that to which he adheres is among the purest;-a man who abandons this religion;

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man who argues, who disputes, who writes volume upon volume, to vindicate his apostacy, and attacks those very truths, whose evidence he cannot but perceive;such a man has not committed the unpardonable sin in its whole extent; but he has so far proceeded to attack the truths, of whose veracity he was convinced.

3. What farther constituted the atrocity of the crime, was falling away; not by the fear of punishment, not by the first charms Satan presents to his proselytes, but by a principle of hatred against truths, so restrictive of human passions. This may also be found among men of our own age. For exWe cannot commit this sin with regard to ample, a man who mixes in our congregathe peculiar circumstances of those, who liv- tions, who reads our books, who adheres to ed in the first ages of the church. This has our worship; but who, in his ordinary conbeen proved, I think, by the preceding argu-versation, endeavours to discredit those ments; no person having seen Jesus Christ truths, to establish deism or impiety, and work miracles, and, like the Pharisees, hav-, abandons himself to this excess, because he

bates a religion which gives him inquietude and pain, and wishes to expunge it from every heart; this man has not committed the unpardonable sin in all its extent, but he has so far proceeded as to hate the truth.

4. What, lastly, rendered the crime atrocious with regard to apostates, was their running to this excess, after having tasted the happiness, which the hope of salvation produces in the soul. This may, likewise, be found among Christians of our own age. For example a temporary professor;--a man (to avail myself of an expression of Jesus Christ) who receives the word with joy ;a man, who has long prayed with fervour, who has communicated with transports of delights;-a man of this description, who forgets all these delights, who resists all these attractive charms, and sacrifices them to the advantages offered by a false religion; he has not yet committed the unpardonable sin, but he surely has the characteristic of falling away, after having been once enlightened, and tasted of the heavenly gift'

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You now perceive, my brethren, that all these characteristics may be found separately among men of our own age. But should there be a man in whom they all unite; a man who has known and abjured the truth: who has not only abjured, but opposed and persecuted it, not in a moment of surprise, and at the sight of racks and tortures, but from a principle of enmity and hatred; do you not think he would have just cause to fear, that he had committed the 'unpardonable sin.'

To collect the whole in two words, and in a yet shorter way to resolve the question,' Is it possible now to commit the unpardonable sin?' I answer: We cannot commit it with regard to every circumstance; but, in regard to what constitutes its essence and atrocity, it may be committed; and though men seldom fall so deeply, yet it is not impossible. Few complete the crime; but many commit it in part, and in degree. Some imagine themselves to be guilty by an ill-founded fear; but a much greater number are daily going the awful road, and, through an obstinate security, unperceived. They ought, of course, to reject the thought of having proceeded to that excess; but, at the same time, to take precaution, that, in the issue, the dreadful period may never come, which is nearer, perhaps, than they imagine.

APPLICATION.

What effects shall the truths we have delivered produce on your minds? Shall they augment your pride, excite vain notions of your virtue, and suggest an apology for vice, because you cannot, in the portrait we have given, recognize your own character? Is your glory derived from the consideration, that your depravity has not attained the highest pitch; and that there yet remains one point of horror, at which you have not arrived? Will you suffer the wounds to corrode your heart, under the notions that they are not desperate, and there is still a remedy? And do you expect to repent, and to ask for giveness, when repentance, is impracticable; and when all access to mercy is cut off?

But who among our hearers can be actuated by so great a frenzy? What deluded conscience can enjoy repose under a pretext, that it has not yet committed the unpardonable sin? Whence is it, after all, that this crime is so dreadful? All the reasons which may be assigned, terminate here, as in their centre, that it precipitates the soul into hell. But is not hell the end of every sin? There is this difference, it must be observed, between the unpardonable sin, and other sins, that he who commits it is lost without resource; whereas, after other sins, we have sure remedy in conversion. But, in all cases, a man must repent, reform and become a new creature; for we find in religion, what we find in the human body; some diseases quite incurable, and others which may be removed with application and care: but they have both the similarity of becoming incurable by neglect; and what, at first, was but a slight indisposition, becomes mortal by presumption and delay.

Besides there are few persons among us,— there are few monsters in nature,--capable of carrying wickedness, all at once, to the point we have described. But how many are there who walk the awful road, and who attain to it by degrees? They do not arrive, in a moment, at the summit of impiety. The first essays of the sinner, are not those horrid traits which cause nature to recoil. A man educated in the Christian religion, does not descend, all at once, from the full lustre of truth, to the profoundest darkness. His fault, at first, was mere detraction; thence he proceeded to negligence; thence to vice; next he stifles remorse; and, lastly, proceeds to the commission of enormous crimes: so he who, in the beginning, trembled at the thought of a weakness, becomes insensible of the foulest deeds, and of a conduct the most atrocious.

There is one reflection with which you cannot be too much impressed, in an age in which Jesus Christ approaches us with his light, with his Spirit, and with all the advantages of the evangelical economy; that is, concerning the awful consequences of not improving these privileges, according to their original design. You rejoice to live in the happy age, which so many kings and prophets have desired to see. You have reason so to do. But you rejoice in these privileges, while each of you persist in a favourite vice, and a predominant habit; and because you are neither Jews nor heathens, you expect to find, in religion, means to compose a conscience, abandoned to every kind of vice: this is a most extraordinary, and almost general prejudice among Christians. But this light, in which you rejoice,--this Christianity, by which you are distinguished,—this faith, which constitutes your glory, will aggravate your condemnation, if your lives continue unreformed. The Pharisees were highly favoured by seeing Jesus Christ in the flesh, by attesting his miracles, and hearing the wisdom which descended from his lips; but these were the privileges which caused their sin to be irremissible. The Hebrews were happy by being enlightened, by tasting of the heavenly gift, and the powers of the

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