of leaving their church; that is, in truth, of growing wifer and better.

3. The confideration of what hath been faid, fhould mightily inflame our zeal, and quicken our industry and diligence for the converfion of finners: for if the converfion of one foul be worth fo much labour and pains, and matter of fuch joy to the bleffed God and good fpirits, what pains fhould not we take, in fo corrupt and degenerate an age as this of ours; where impenitent finners do fo much abound, and the just are almost failed from among the children of men?

Our bleffed Saviour indeed, according to the extraordinary decency of all his parables, puts the cafe very charitably, and lays the fuppofition quite on the other fide. If there were but one finner in the world, or but one of a hundred; yet we should very zealously intend, and with all our might, the reduction of this one loft fheep; and fhould never be at reft, till this single wandering foul were found, and faved. But God knows this is not our cafe, but quite otherwife; which should quicken our endeavours fo much the more, and make us beftir ourselves to the utmoft; having always in our minds that admirable faying of St. James, He that converteth a finner from the error of his way, fhall fave a foul from death. He that knows the value of an immortal foul, and how fearful a thing it is to perish everlastingly, can think no pains too much to take to fave a foul from death.

4. Lastly, What an argument and encouragement is here to repentance, even to the greatest of finners? They, I am fure, stand most in need of it: and though they of all others have the least reason to look for mercy; yet they fhall not be refused: though they be like the publicans and Heathens among the Jews, who were not only reputed, but many times really were the worst of men; though, like the prodigal fon here in the parable, they have run away from their father, and wasted their eftate in lewd and riotous courfes; yet, whenever they come to themselves, and are willing to return to their father, to acknowledge their folly, and repent of it, he is ready to receive them; nay much more ready to receive them, than they can be to come to him. For when the prodigal was but coming towards his father, and was

yet

yet afar off, the father runs to meet him, and embraceth him with as much kindness as if he had never offended him, and entertains him with more joy than if he had always continued with him.

How does the great God condefcend to encourage our repentance, representing himself and all the bleffed company of heaven as tranfported with joy at the converfi. on of a finner, and almost setting a greater value upon repentance, than even upon innocence itfelf? And if our heavenly Father, who hath been fo infinitely offended, and fo highly provoked by us beyond all patience, be fo ready, fo forward, fo glad to receive us, and there be no hinderance, no difficulty, no difcouragement on his part; is it poffible, after all this, that we can be fuch fools, and fuch enemies to ourselves, as to be backward to our own happiness! All of us, the best of us, have too much caufe for repentance; and I fear too many of us stand in need of that repentance intended by our Saviour in the text, which confifts in the change of our whole lives.

But I will not upbraid you with your faults; having no defign to provoke, but only to perfuade men. I leave it to every one's confcience, to tell him how great a finner, how grievous an offender he hath been. God knows, we take no pleasure in mentioning the fins of men, but only in their amendment; and we would, if it were poffible, even without minding them how bad they have been, perfuade and encourage them to be better.

It is but a small confideration, to tell you how much it would cheer and comfort our hearts, and quicken our zeal and industry for the falvation of fouls, to fee fome fruit of our labours; that all our pains are not loft, and that all the good counsel that is from hence tendered to you, is not like rain falling upon the rocks, and showers upon the fands.

But I have much greater confiderations to offer to you; that your repentance will at once rejoice the heart of God, and angels, and men; that it is a returning to a right mind, and the restoring of you to yourselves, to the ease and peace of your own confciences, and to a capacity of being everlastingly happy; that it is to take

pity upon yourselves and your poor immortal fouls; and to take due care to prevent that which is to be dreaded above all things, the being miferable for ever: and, last of all, that, if thou wilt not repent now, the time will certainly come, and that perhaps in this life, when you fhall fee the greatest need of repentance; and yet perhaps, with miferable Efau, find no place for it, though you Jeek it carefully with tears; when you fhall cry, Lord, Lord, and the door fhall be shut against you; and fhall feek to enter, but shall not be able. To be fure, in the other world you fhall eternally repent to no purpose, and be continually lamenting your wretched condition without hopes of remedy; for there shall be weeping and wailing without effect, without intermiffion, and without

end.

And what cause have we to thank God that this is not yet our cafe; that we are yet on this fide the pit of deftruction, and the gulph of defpair? O the infinite patience and boundless goodness of God to finners! With what clemency hath he fpared us, and fuffered our manners thus long? And with what kindness and concernment does he still call upon us to leave our fins, and to return to him, as if, in fo doing, we should make him happy, and not ourselves? With what earnest longings and defires doth he wait and wish for our repentance, faying, O that there were fuch a heart in them! O that they would hearken unto my voice! when fhall it once be? Thus God is represented in fcripture, as patiently attending and liftening what effect his admonitions and counfels, his reproofs and threatenings will have upon finners, Jer. viii. 6. I hearkened and I heard, but they Spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, faying, What have I done? every one turned to his courfe, as the horfe rusheth into the battle.

And is not this our cafe? God hath long waited for our repentance; and once a-year we folemnly pretend to fet about it but many of us hitherto, I fear, instead of returning to God, have but more blindly and furiously run on in our course, like the horfe that has no understanding; yea, in this more brutish than the beast, that he rufheth into the battle without any confideration of death or danger, and destroys himself without a fyllogifm. But we finners

have reason, and yet are mad. The greatest part of evil-doers are fufficiently fenfible of the danger of their course, and convinced that eternal mifery and ruin will be the end of it; and yet, I know not how, they make a fhift upon one pretence or other to difcourfe and reafon themselves into it.

But, because the word of God is quick and powerful, and fharper than a two-edged fword, and comes with a greater weight and force upon the minds of men than any human perfuafion whatsoever, I will conclude all with those short and ferious counfels and exhortations of God to finners by his holy prophets.

Confider, and fhew your felves men, Oye tranfgreffors. Be inftructed, O Jerufalem, left my foul depart from thee. Seek the Lord while he may he found; call upon him while he is Repent, and turn your felves from all your tranfgref fions; fo iniquity fhall not be your ruin.

near.

SERMON

XVII.

Of the fin against the Holy Ghost.

MATTH. xii. 31. 32.

Wherefore I fay unto you, All manner of fin and blafphemy fhall be forgiven unto men: but the blafphemy against the Holy Ghoft fhall not be forgiven unto men.

And whofoever Speaketh a word against the Son of man, it Shall be forgiven him: but whosoever Speakerh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

T

HE occafion of these words of our bleffed Saviour

was, the blafphemy of the Pharifees against that divine power by which he wrought his miracles, and particularly did caft out devils. Which works of his, though they were wrought by the Spirit of God, yet they obftinately and malicioufly imputed them to the power of the devil. Upon which our Saviour takes occafion to VOL. I. B b declare

declare the danger of the fin, which he calls blafpheming of the Holy Ghoft; and tells them, that this was fo great a fin above all other, that it is in a peculiar manner unpardonable: Wherefore I fay unto you, &c.

For the explaining of these words, and the nature and unpardonableness of this fin, we will inquire into these four things.

1. What is the difference between Speaking against the Son of man, and Speaking against the Holy Ghoft?

2. Wherein the nature of this fin, or blafphemy against the Holy Ghoft, doth confist?

3. In what fenfe this fin is here faid to be peculiarly unpardonable? And,

4. Upon what account it is fo?

I. What is the difference between Speaking against the Son of man, and fpeaking against the Holy Ghost? The reafon of this inquiry is, because the text plainly puts a great difference between them, though it be not obvious to difcern where it lies. For our Saviour tells us, that whofoever fpeaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whofoever fpeaketh against the Holy Ghoft, it fhall never be forgiven him: and yet this blafphemy of the Pharifees against the Holy Ghoft was fpeaking against the Son of man. For to fay he caft out devils by the power of the devil, though it was a blafpheming of the Holy Ghost, by whofe power he wrought these miracles; yet it was likewife a blafpheming of Chrift himself; and was in effect to fay, that he was no true prophet, nor did come from God, but was a magician and impoftor.

For the removing of this difficulty, I fhall not need to fay, as fome learned men have done, that by the Son of man is here to be understood any man, and that our Saviour is not particularly defigned by it. That seems very hard, when our Saviour is fo frequently in the gofpel called the Son of man: and especially when St. Luke, reciting these words, does immediately before give him this very title, to put the matter out of all doubt, Luke xii. 8. 9. 10. Also I fay unto you, Whosoever shall confefs me before men, him fhall the Son of man alfo confefs before the angels of God. But he that denieth me before men, fhall be denied before the angels of God. Upon which it follows, And whof.ever shall speak a word against the Son

of