3. It is a wilful, malicious, and blasphemous rejection of this truth, as sealed by the Spirit. To this blasphemy I spake before.
[1.] It is a wilful sin : Heb. x. 26, ' For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacri- fice for sin ; ' that which is committed with a full will, and a deliberate and obstinate malice. Sin may be committed either by a full will or a mixed will. Things may be done with a mixed will when swayed from the right rule by violent passions ; and with a full will when done with consent and obstinate will. It is not ignorance, fear, or violent passion. That which we do out of fear, we seem to do it unwillingly ; for the will refuseth a while, though afterwards, overcome with fear, it yieldeth; as a man throwing goods into the sea, it is done e/ctwy oeKovTL ye dvfico, willingly, yet with an unwilling mind. But what a man doeth wilfully and stubbornly against God is another case. There is a difference between sins wittingly and wilfully com- mitted.'
[2.] It is a malicious rejection, for it is accompanied with an hatred: John XV, 24, ' If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin ; but now they have both seen
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and hated both me and my Father.' Generally this sin is made to be an hatred of the truth as truth ; but that cannot be. It is true that the person which hath sinned this sin hateth the truth from whence he is fallen, hateth God, and hateth Christ. Conviction disappointed maketh a man turn devil. But to hate truth as truth is not agreeable to reason. Hatred hath evil for its object, not truth. A man cannot hate truth but as contrary to our carnal inclinations and interests, and that raiseth the malice that God would convince us of, that which we have no mind to.
4. This may be done either by infidels or apostates.
[1.] By infidels, and those who never received Christianity, but were or might have been, by the sufficient evidence of the Spirit's work, con- vinced of the truth thereof, but they did obstinately shut their eyes against the light thereof, and choose to scorn and blaspheme rather than to believe, and so become incapable objects of mercy. This was the case of the pharisees. Mat. xii.
[2.] Apostates. In the sixth of the Hebrews we find they were once christians, made profession ; they had some light and taste, some illu- mination, some consolation ; some sense they had, but it was superficial; some joy, like fire in straw. The stony ground received the word with joy, Luke viii. 13 ; there was not a firm adherency, and deep radication of grace in the soul ; they did but taste. To taste is a real participation, yet but in a little or low degree, so that it gets not a universal dominion over sin and corruption ; and therefore they might fall away, and after- wards hate, and persecute, and blaspheme the truth. This is a most heinous sin, and the highest degree of this sin, because they had received the knowledge of the truth of the gospel ; they were fully convinced that God had done much towards their salvation, not only by power and miracles without, but some effects within.
Because this is the way of sinning against the Holy Ghost. Now I must tell you that every apostasy is not this sin, but it is more or less heinous according to the wilfulness and malice of it. They that cast ofi" the profession of godliness for some great earthly hope, involve themselves in a more heinous sin than they that shrink from it out of some great fear ; for those things that we fear, as death, torment, and all matters of that kind, are destructive of our nature, and therefore it cannot be said how much nature abhorreth them ; but those things we hope and desire for the most part are such that nature may easily and without great inconveniency want them ; as great riches, splendour of life, noble affinities and marriages ; for these things are not absolutely necessary, but only conduce to our more abundant felicity ; not only our being, but our well-being is concerned in them. Our being may be kept and supported in a far meaner condition. Thence it is that great dangers, when they are at hand, are difficultly sustained, and the fear of them doth often sway us from the right rule. If we lose our great hopes, and be cut short in our ambitions or worldly expectations, it is no great matter ; wise and gracious men have easily borne ^it with a quiet and composed mind. The apostasy of those that are moved with such hopes is greater, more voluntary, and cometh nearer the great transgression ; and the repentance of them that lapse is more rare and seldom, as daily observation may inform you ; for they are only
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enticed away by their pleasure and lusts, which christians are obliged to deaden and mortify.