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God, in the face of Jesus Christ. These only have tasted of the heavenly gift, remission of sins, eminently so called. These have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, both of the witness and the fruit of the Spirit. This character cannot, with any propriety, be applied to any but those that have been justified.

And they had been sanctified too; at least, in the first degree, as far as all are who receive remission of sins. So the second passage expressly affirms, "Who hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing."

7. Hence it follows, that this scripture concerns those alone, who have been justified, and, at least, in part, sanctified. Therefore, all of you, who never were thus enlightened with the light of the glory of God; all who never did taste of the heavenly gift, who never received remission of sins; all who never were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, of the witness and fruit of the Spirit; in a word, all you who never were sanctified by the blood of the everlasting covenant; you are not concerned here. Whatever other passages of Scripture may condemn you, it is certain, you are not condemned either by the sixth or the tenth of the Hebrews. For both those passages speak wholly and solely of apostates from the faith which you never had. Therefore, it was not possible that you should lose it, for you could not lose what you had not. Therefore, whatever judgments are denounced in these scriptures, they are not denounced against you. You are not the persons here described, against whom only they are denounced.

8. Enquire we next, What was the sin which the persons here described were guilty of? In order to understand this, we should remember, that whenever the Jews prevailed on a Christian to apostatize, they required him to declare, in express terms, and that in the public assembly, That Jesus of Nazareth was a deceiver of the people; and that he had suffered no more punishment, than his crimes justly deserved. This is the sin which St. Paul, in the first passage, terms emphatically "falling away; crucifying the

Son of God afresh, and putting him to an open shame." This is that which he terms in the second, "counting the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, treading under foot the Son of God, and doing despite to the Spirit of grace.” Now which of you has thus fallen away? Which of you has thus crucified the Son of God afresh? Not one: nor has one of you thus put him to an open shame. If you had thus formally renounced that only sacrifice for sin, there had no other sacrifice remained; so that you must have perished without mercy. But this is not your case. Not one of you has thus renounced that sacrifice, by which the Son of God made a full and perfect satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. Bad as you are, you shudder at the thought therefore, that sacrifice still remains for you. Come then, cast away your needless fears! "Come boldly to the throne of grace!" The way is still open. You shall again "find mercy and grace to help in time of need."

V. 1. "But do not the well-known words of our Lord himself, cut us off from all hope of mercy? Does he not say, '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 whosoever speaketh a word against the Holy Ghost, it shall never be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come.' Therefore, it is plain, if we have been guilty of this sin, there is no room for mercy. And is not the same thing repeated by St. Mark, almost in the same words? "Verily I say unto you," (a solemn preface! always denoting the great importance of that which follows:) "All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is under the sentence of eternal damnation."

2. How immense is the number in every nation, throughout the Christian world, of those who have been more or less distressed on account of this scripture? What multi

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tudes in this kingdom have been perplexed above measure upon this very account? Nay, there are few that are truly convinced of sin, and seriously endeavour to save their souls, who have not felt some uneasiness, for fear they had committed, or should commit, this unpardonable sin. What has frequently increased their uneasiness was, that they could hardly find any to comfort them. For their acquaintances, even the most religious of them, understood no more of the matter than themselves. And they could not find any writer, who had published any thing satisfactory upon the subject. Indeed in the seven sermons of Mr. Russel, which are common among us, there is one expressly written upon it. But it will give little satisfaction to a troubled spirit. He talks about it, and about it, but makes nothing out: he takes much pains, but misses the mark at last.

3. But was there ever in the world a more deplorable proof of the littleness of human understanding, even in those that have honest hearts, and are desirous of knowing the truth! How is it possible, that any one who reads his Bible, can one hour remain in doubt concerning it, when our Lord himself, in the very passage cited above, has so clearly told us, what that blasphemy is? "He that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, hath never forgiveness; because they said, he hath an unclean spirit," ver. 29, 30. This then, and this alone, (if we allow our Lord to understand his own meaning,) is the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost; The saying, he had an unclean spirit; the affirming that Christ wrought his miracles by the power of an evil spirit; or more particularly, that he cast out devils, by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. Now have you been guilty of this? Have you affirmed, that he cast out devils by the prince of devils? No more than you have cut your neighbour's throat, and set his house on fire. How mar vellously then have you been afraid, where no fear is? Dismiss that vain terror; let your fear be more rational for the time to come. Be afraid of giving way to pride, be afraid of yielding to anger, be afraid of loving the world, or the things of the world, be afraid of foolish and VOL. X.

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hurtful desires. But never more be afraid of committing the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost! You are in no more danger of doing this, than of pulling the sun out of the firmament.

4. Ye have then no reason from Scripture, for imagining that "the Lord hath forgotten to be gracious." The arguments drawn from thence, you see, are of no weight, are utterly inconclusive. Is there any more weight in that which has been drawn from experience or matter of fact?

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5. This is a point which may exactly be determined: and that with the utmost certainty. If it be asked, "Do any real apostates find mercy from God? Do any that have made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, recover what they have lost? Do you know, have you seen any instance of persons, who found redemption in the blood of Jesus, and afterwards fell away, and yet were restored ? ' Renewed again to repentance?"" Yea, verily and not one; or a hundred only; but, I am persuaded, several thousands. In every place where the arm of the Lord has been revealed, and many sinners converted to God, there are several found, who "turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them." For a great part of these "it had been better never to have known the way of righteousness. It only increases their damnation, seeing they die in their sins. But others there are, who "look unto him they have pierced, and mourn," refusing to be comforted. And, sooner or later, he surely lifts up the light of his countenance upon them. He strengthens the hands that hang down, and confirms the feeble knees. He teaches them again to say, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour." Innumerable are the instances of this kind, of those who had fallen, but now stand upright. Indeed it is so far from being an uncommon thing, for a believer to fall and be restored, that it is rather uncommon to find any believers who are not conscious of having been backsliders from God, in a higher or lower degree, and perhaps more than once before they were established in faith.

6. "But have any that had fallen from sanctifying grace, been restored to the blessing they had lost?" This also is a point of experience: and we have had the opportunity of repeating our observations during a considerable course of years, and from the one end of the kingdom to the other.

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7. And, first, we have known a large number of persons, of every age and sex, from early childhood to extreme old age, who have given all the proofs which the nature of the thing admits, that they were "sanctified throughout,' "cleansed from all pollution both of flesh and spirit:" that they loved the Lord their God with all their heart, and mind, and soul, and strength :" that they continually "presented" their souls and bodies "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God:" in consequence of which, they "rejoiced evermore, prayed without ceasing, and in every thing gave thanks." And this, and no other is what we believe to be true, scriptural sanctification.

S. Secondly, It is a common thing for those who are thus sanctified, to believe they cannot fall: to suppose themselves "pillars in the temple of God, that shall go out no more." Nevertheless we have seen some of the strongest of them, after a time, moved from their steadfastness. Sometimes suddenly, but oftener by slow degrees, they have yielded to temptation; and pride, or anger, or foolish desires have again sprung up in their hearts. Nay, sometimes they have utterly lost the life of God, and sin hath regained dominion over them.

9. Yet, thirdly, several of these, after being thoroughly sensible of their fall, and deeply ashamed before God, have been again filled with his love, and not only perfected therein, but stablished, strengthened, and settled. They have received the blessing they had before, with abundant increase. Nay, it is remarkable, that many who had fallen either from justifying, or from sanctifying grace, and so deeply fallen, that they could hardly be ranked among the servants of God, have been restored, (but seldom till they had been shaken, as it were, over the mouth of hell!) and that, very frequently in an instant, to all that they had lost.

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