heaven. For thefe three reafons therefore I cannot take the fin againft the Holy Ghoft to have been literally unpardonable.

If then this fin was rather difficult than impoffible to be forgiven, let us examine, in what this peculiar difficulty, for fuch no doubt it was, confifted.

It feems to have confifted in an obftinate determination to refift the greatest calls to repentance, which could poffibly awaken finners. It is impoffible for finners to have a greater, than their bleffed Saviour working miracles before their eyes and they who refifted this call, might well be fuppofed to refift every other call. They had hardened themfelves to fuch a degree, that no hope of their repentance remained.-The ftrefs therefore appears to be laid, rather on the improbability of their repentance, than on the impoffibility of their being forgiven.

Thus I have endeavoured to explain to you this very alarming text. Let us now, lastly, fee what

obfervations arife from the whole.

Tho I hope, my brethren, this awful passage furnishes no ground to alarm the weak confcience of the well-difpofed chriftian; it certainly gives juft occafion of alarm to the hardened finner. For

altho

altho the precife fin against the Holy Ghost cannot be found even in the wickednefs of thefe days; yet wickedness in thefe days may be found, very nearly allied to it. The Pharifees of old have their difciples among us; whofe fins, like theirs, are often of that hardened kind, which refifts all opportunities of conviction, and leaves them in a state only within a poffibility of repentance: and yet, unless they repent, and change their hearts, and lives, they fhall never be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the world to come.

The nearest to thefe are the open fcoffers at religion. A man may doubt, and honestly endeav our to get the better of his doubts. There is no

harm in this. St. Thomas doubted; and fo did others of the difciples.-Or a man may even difbe. lieve from not having taken pains to examine the evidences of religion: and yet fill, if he keep his opinions to himfelf, his infidelity is fhort of the wickedness mentioned in the text. Such a man will have an account, no doubt, to fettle with God almighty for paying fo little attention to a religion, for which fufficient evidence hath been afforded; but that account is a matter between God and his foul. He hath given no open offence to religion;

be

and if he be not one of thofe who love darkness, he may yet be enlightened by a beam of truth.

But if he proceed in his infidelity-if he let his profanencfs loofe in the world-and endeavour to corrupt the principles of others, he then becomes a direct imitator of those wicked Pharifees, who not only refufed to enter into the kingdom of heaven themselves, but prevented others, who were difpofed to enter it. His doom alfo is like theirs. He hath been guilty of a fin, which refifts the humble spirit of repentance more than any other. There is a pride, an arrogance, and felf-fufficiency about the mind of an avowed infidel, which too often flick by him to the laft. An infidel philofopher, who has the abilities to examine the truth, and the wickedness to pervert it, might be called, if the expreffion be allowed, one of the devils elect.*

But the man of wicked opinions, my brethren, is not the only finner, who refembles the Pharifees in the text. They who form wicked habits, and

per

*One cannot help recollecting here the horrid accounts we have of the French Philofophy, from BARRUEL, ROBISON, and others; and drawn to a focus in Mr. KETT'S Interpretation of Prophecy. We are at a lofs whether to abhor more the blafphemous and infernal tenets of this philosophy, deftructive of religion, government, and every thing valuable in fociety---or the diabolical zeal with which it hath been propagated through every part of Europe,

perfift in leading wicked lives, come exactly under the fame defcription. All these unless they repent, we are affured, will neither be forgiven in this world, nor in the world to come.

I fhould wish you therefore to confider attentively the dreadful nature of bad habits; and the great difficulty of getting the better of them—and yet, unless you do get the better of them, you must be fenfible, there can be no repentance.-Look round your acquaintances-(I do not mean to make you cenforious, or to think either uncharitably of your neighbours, or highly of yourselves-we have no business to judge-all these matters remain with God; but for your own inftruction, and warning, look round your acquaintances,)—and recollect how few of them you remember to have gotten the better of any old, favourite, indulged habits of fin.-You have feen among them, no doubt, many, who have been fhamefully addicted to drunkenness-to open, profane fwearing-to profligate fabbath breaking; and other fins, which are fo open, and manifeft, that we cannot avoid seeing them and yet among all these finners, I fear, you have not found many, who have appeared to you to get the better of their wicked habits. The drunkard continues to drink-no advice, no VOL. II.

D

warn

f

warning, has any effect upon him. The swearer continues to fwear.-Tell him of his wickedness, he allows it is great, but he continues to fwear on. In fhort, moft of thefe finners, I fear, who have fuffered the habit of fin to grow upon them, carry it down with their grey hairs to the grave.

any of

This is a melancholy---an alarming reflection--but I fear, it is a just one. I fhould be glad, if you, in your own minds, can recollect exceptions to it. Some, no doubt, there are, who fee their wickedness, and repent of it, before it be too late but there are fo many, who continue in their fins to their dying day, as to make it a dreadful warning to all who have yet repentance in their power, not to fuffer any habit of fin to get the better of them.

Inftead then, my brethren, of talking about the fin against the Holy Ghoft, and frightening ourfelves with fins, which we cannot commit---let us take under confideration fuch fins as we do commit---particularly let us examine our hearts, whether there are any habits of guilt, of any kind, getting ground there: for God's fake let us check them in time, before they attain their full, and alarming growth, Look at a neglected field. In

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