affectionately cautioned them against indulging so base a spirit ; assuring them, that all which they had said and done against Imn might be forgiven; but that if they should persist in this conduct towards the Holy Spirit also, and reject his testimony, they would cut themselves off from all possibility of obtaining mercy. Our Lord's address to them leads us to consider the extent of God's mercy; and shews us,
I. To what it will not extend —
It is of great importance to ascertain correctly what is meant by the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost —
[Many have thought that the sin against the Holy Ghost consisted in ascribing the miracles of Jesus to the agency of Satan. But this opinion is founded on a misconstruction of a passage in St. Mark's Gospel ='." The Evangelist's observa- tion, " Because they said, he hath an unclean spirit," was not intended to shew what the sin against the Holy Ghost was, but to specify what the occasion was, which called forth so awful an admonition. In that very place, the inspired writer contrasts the blasphemy against the Son of man, tvhich the Pharisees now littered, with the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, tvhich they were in danger of uttering, when the Holy Ghost should be sent down from heaven'': and he observes that the former might be forgiven ; but that the latter could not.
The sin against the Holy Ghost was the acting towards the Holy Spirit, as they now did towards Christ : it was the re- sisting of all the evidences of Christianity, so as deliberately to pour contempt upon the truths revealed by the Holy Spirit : and, the ascribing of his miraculous powers, and gracious influences, to the agency of Satan "^."j
a Mark iii. 30.
^ Mark iii. 28, 29. compared with the words following my text. Observe, he does not say " hath blasphemed," but "shall blaspheme."
•= This cannot be made more plain, than by the following para- phrase of a learned commentator: 'You have represented me as a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners, and as one who casts out devils by Beelzebub ; and you will still go on, after all the mira- cles which I have wrought among you, to represent me as a false propliet, and a deceiver of the people : neverthek ss all these grievous sins shall be forgiven you, if that last dispensation of the Holy Ghost, which I, after my ascension, shall send among you, shall prevail with you to believe in me : but if, when I have sent the Holy Ghost to testify the truth of my mission, and of my resurrection, you shall continue in your unbelief, and shall blaspheme the Holy Ghost, and represent him also as an evil spirit, your sin shall never be forgiven,