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by a course of penance, fuch as was prescribed in SERMthe ancient church to great offenders; and then they understand by adúvalov, not a natural, but a moral impoffibility; that which cannot be done according to the orders and conftitutions of the church; that is, the church did refufe to admit apoftates, and fome other great offenders, as murderers and adulterers, to a course of penance, in order to their reconciliation with the church; this Tertullian tells us was the ftrictness of the church in his time, neque idololatria, neque fanguini pax ab ecclefia redditur; "they "admitted neither idolaters, nor murderers, to the "reconciliation of the church." Though they were never so penitent, and shed never so many tears, yet fays they were jejunæ pacis lachrymæ, their tears were in vain, to reconcile them to the peace and communion of the church. He fays indeed they did not abfolutely pronounce their cafe defperate in refpect of God's pardon and forgiveness; fed de veniâ Deo refervamus, "for that they referr'd them to GOD:" but they were never to be admitted again into the church; fo strict were many churches, and that upon the authority of this text; though the church of Rome was more moderate in this matter, and for that reafon call'd the authority of this book into question.

he

But I fee no reason why these words should primarily be understood of restoring men to the communion of the church by penance: but they seem to be meant of restoring men to the favour of God by repentance; of which indeed their being restor❜d to the communion of the church was a good fign. This the apostle fays was very difficult, for those who after baptifm, and the feveral benefits of it,

did

SER M. did apoftatize from christianity, "to be recover'd CXXI. again to repentance."

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Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of "GOD afrefh, and put him to an open fhame." This is fpoken by way of aggravation of the crime of apoftafy, that they who fall off from christianity, in effect and by interpretation do crucify "the Son of "GOD" over again, and expofe him to fhame and reproach, as the Jews did; for by denying and renouncing of him, they declare him to be an impoftor, and confequently worthy of that death which he fuffered, and that ignominy which he was exposed to; and therefore, in account of God, they are faid to do that, which by their actions they do approve; fo that it is made a crime of the highest nature, as if they should" crucify the Son of God," and use him in the moft ignominious manner, even "tread under foot the Son of GOD," as the expreffion is to the fame purpose, chap. x. 29.

Thus I have endeavour'd, as briefly and clearly as I could, to explain to you the true meaning and importance of the feveral phrafes and expreffions in the text; the sense whereof amounts to this, that if those who are baptized, and by baptifm have received remiffion of fins, and do believe the doctrine of the gofpel, and the promises of it, and are endow'd with the miraculous gifts of the HOLY GHOST, if fuch perfons as these fhall after all this apoftatize from chriftianity, it is very hard, and next to an impoffibility, to imagine how fuch perfons fhould recover again by repentance, feeing they are guilty of as great a crime, as if in their own perfons they had put to death and ignominiously ufed the Son of GOD, becaufe by rejecting of him,

they

they declared to the world that he fuffered de- SER M. servedly.

Having thus explained the words, in order to the further vindication of them from the mistakes and misapprehenfions which have been about them, I fhall endeavour to make out these five things:

ift, That the fin here mention'd is not " the fin "against the HOLY GHOST."

2dly, That the apoftle does not declare it to be abfolutely impoffible, but only that those who are guilty of it are recover'd to repentance with great difficulty.

3dly, That it is not a partial apofstasy from the chriftian religion by any particular vicious practice.

4thly, That it is a total apostasy from the christian religion, and more especially to the heathen idolatry, which the apostle here fpeaks of.

5thly, The reason of the difficulty of the recovery of those who fall into this fin.

ift, That the fin here mention'd is not "the fin "against the HOLY GHOST," which I have heretofore difcourfed of, and fhewn wherein the particular nature of it does confift. There are three things which do remarkably distinguish the fin here spoken of in the text, from "the fin against the HOLY "GHOST" defcribed by our SAVIOUR.

ift, The persons that are guilty of this fin here in the text, are evidently fuch as had embraced christianity, and had taken upon them the profeffion of it: whereas those whom our SAVIOUR chargeth with the fin against the HOLY GHOST," are fuch as conftantly oppofed his doctrine, and refifted the evidence he offer'd for it.

2dly, The

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2dly, The particular nature of "the fin against the "HOLY GHOST" confifted in blafpheming the SPIRIT, whereby our SAVIOUR wrought his miracles, and faying he did not those things by the SPIRIT of GOD, but by the affiftance of the devil, in that malicious and unreasonable imputing of the plain effects of the HOLY GHOST to the power of the devil, and confequently in an obftinate refufal to be convinced by the miracles that he wrought but here is nothing of all this fo much as in imated by the apostle in this place.

3dly, "The fin against the HOLY GHOST" is declared to be abfolutely "unpardonable, both in this "world, and in that which is to come." But this is not declared to be abfolutely unpardonable; which brings me to the

2d thing, namely, That this fin here spoken of by the apostle, is not faid to be abfolutely unpardonable. It is not "the fin against the HOLY GHOST;" and whatever elfe it be, it is not out of the compass of God's pardon and forgiveness. So our SAVIOUR hath told us, "that all manner of fin what"foever that men have committed is capable of

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don, excepting only the fin against the HOLY "GHOST." And though the apostle here ufes a very fevere expreffion, that" if fuch perfons fall away, it is impoffible to renew them again to repentance;" yet I have fhewn that there is no neceflity of understanding this phrafe in the ftricteft fense of the word "impoffible;" but as it is elfewhere used, for that "which is extremely difficult." Nor indeed will our SAVIOUR'S declaration, which I mentioned before, that all fins whatsoever are pardonable, except "the fin against the HOLY GHOST,"

fuffer

B

fuffer us to understand these words in the moft rigo- SER M rous fenfe.

3dly, The fin here spoken of, is not a partial apoftafy from the chriftian religion by any particular vicious practice. Whofoever lives in the habitual practice of any fin plainly forbidden by the chriftian law, may be said so far to have apoftatized from chriftianity; but this is not the falling away which the apoftle here speaks of. This may be bad enough, and the greater fins any man who profeffeth himself a christian lives in, the more notoriously he contradicts his profeffion, and falls off from chriftianity, and the nearer he approaches to the fin in the text, and the danger there threatned: but yet for all that, this is not that which the apostle fpeaks of.

4thly, But it is a total apoltafy from the christian religion, more especially to the heathen idolatry, the renouncing of the true GOD, and our SAVIOUR, and the worship of falle gods which the apostle here fpeaks of. And this will be evident, if we confider the occafion and main fcope of this epiftle. And that was to confirm the Jews, who had newly embraced chriftianity, in the profeffion of that religion; and to keep them from apoftatizing from it, because of the perfecutions and fufferings which attended that profeffion. It pleafed GOD, when christianity first appeared in the world, to permit the powers of the world to raise a vehement perfecution against the profeffors of it, by reason whereof many out of base fear did apoftatize from it, and in teftimony of their renouncing it, were forced to facrifice to the heathen idols. This is that which the apoftle endeavours to caution and arm men against throughout this epiftle. Chap. ii. 1. "Therefore we ought to give the more earneft

"heed

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