The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 158

the absence of such timely repentance it will be-punished both here and hereafter. Augus- tine has 1,everal refereno~s to this sin, but his opinion of the matter may be briefly 1mmmed up in eontinued resistance to the influences of the Holy Spirit by insuperable hardness of heart, and in perseverance in obduracy and impenitence to the last. Thus in his_ <:Jommenta1~ ?n Homans be ~~ys, "That man. sins against the Holy Spirit who, despamng or dendmg and ;desp1smg the preachmg of grace by which sine are washed away, and of peace by which we are reconciled to God, refuses to repent of his sins, and resolves that he must go on hardening himselr in a certain impious and fatal sweetness of them, and persists therein to the end." He further insists that neither pagans, nor Jews, nor heretics, nor schismatics, however they may have opposed the Holy Spirit before baptism, were shut out by the Church from that sacrament in case they truly repented; nor after baptism in case of falling into sin, or resisting the Spirit of God, were they debarred from restoration to pardon and peace on repent- ance, and that even those whom our Lord charged with this blasphemy might repent and betake themselves to the Divine mercy. " What else remains," he asks, "but that the sin against the Holy Spirit, which our Lord says is neither foraiven in this world nor in that which is to come, must be understood to be no other than persever- ance in malignity and wickedness with despair of the indulgence and mercy of God? For this is to resist the grace and peace of the Spirit of which we speak." 3. Modern expositions of this sin. Some of these reproduce or nearly so the inter- pretations of the ancients. They may in the main be divided into three classes. The first class consists of those who, like Hammond, Tillotson, W etstein, understand the sin in question to be the diabolical calumny of the Pharisees, in ascribing to the power of Satan the miracles which the Saviour by the Spirit given him without measure per- formed. Here was evidently the mighty power of God, but these men, maliciously, wantonly, and wickedly, as also presumptuously and blasphemously, pronounced the miracle just wrought before their eyes and in their presence to be an effect produced by the evil one. The connection instituted between the twenty-ninth and thirtieth verses of this third chapter of St. Mark by the word 11.-i, corresponding to the parallel 11,ct TovTo of St. Matthew,and the imperfect tAE')'ov, equivalent to" they kept saying," are,both in favour of this interpretation. Under this first class are several modifications, such as that which proceeds on the supposed distinction between" Son of man" and "Son of God," as though be said that whosoever spake a word against Jesus as the Son of man, having his divinity shrouded and veiled in his humanity, might obtain forgiveness; but blas- phemy against him as the Son of God, evidencing his divinity by miracles, could not obtain forgiveness. Another modification understands our Lord's warning the Pharisees that they were fast approaching an unpardonable sin bi wickedly rejecting the Son of man as a Saviour; that one step further-one other blasphemy, that of the Spirit who, if not then, might hereafter reveal this, or a coming, Saviour unto them, would deprive them of the means and agent and so of the hope of salvation, and consequently of pardon. Yet another modification is that of Grotius, following in the steps of Chrysos- tom, t-0 the effect that it is easier for any or all sins to obtain forgiveness than that this calumny should be pardoned; and that it will be severely punished both in the present and coming age. The second class, to which Whitby, Doddridge, and Macknight belong, holds that the Pharisees, by their conduct on this particular occasion or at the time then present, were not guilty of the sin referred to, and in fact that the sin against the Holy Ghost could not be committed while Christ still abode on earth, and before his ascension; because the Spirit was not yet given. They hold, therefore, that after our Lord's resurrection and ascension, when he would send down the Holy Ghost to attest his mission, and when his supernatural gifts and miraculous operations would furnish incontestable proofs of almighty power, any such calumny or blasphemy uttered against the Spirit then would ~ unpardonable. The _rea~o'?- ~as plain, because the Son of man while he was clothed m human flesh, and his d1vimty shrouded from human eight, a~d while his work on earth was not yet finished, might be slandered by persons unwittingly, or, according to the Scripture phrase, "ignorantly in unbelief;" but once the Holy Spirit had come down, and shed the light of heaven over the events of the Saviour's life from the cradle to the cross, and had illumined with glory unspeakable the scenes of Gethsemane and Calvary and Olivet, making plain to every willing mind the momento·1s import of all those marvellous transactions, the blasphemy of tha oe. m. 1-35.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. 153