the New Testament as any other book, the truth of which we are at liberty to discuss, and the authority of which we are at liberty to admit or to reject. But let us remember the consequences of the conclusion to which we come. If the New Testament be false, the hopes of the Christian are blasted, and every thing beyond the grave is a dismal and cheerless gloom: but if the book be true, he that believes it may be exalted hereafter to endless happiness he that disbelieves it, and he that disobeys it, may be sentenced to irreversible and eternal misery. Speaking, therefore, merely on human views, and according to human calculations, the question which we have been discussing is one of tremendous interest: if we believe the Gospel, and if our belief is wrong, we shall at least have the benefit of its moral blessings here on earth and the infidel, upon his own hypothesis, can claim no advantage over us beyond the grave: but if we believe the Gospel, and our belief is true, we have indeed chosen the better part, and both here and hereafter we shall bless the choice which we have made. Is it then bigotry, is it a prejudging of the evidence, to approach this book with awe, and to pray to God that he will guide us in discovering the truth? On the cold and heartless system of the infidel, this prayer to God can at least produce no harm: but of those who do believe, or who have only an unsettled notion that this book proceeds from God, who would not, before he studies it, prostrate himself in prayer to Him who gave it, and humbly ask that his thoughts and his

will may be brought into see and admit the truth?

such a frame that he may Let this, then, be our first evidences of the Gospel :

care when we weigh the let us bring to the enquiry a teachable and humble mind; let us pray to God that He will assist our reason with the light of His Holy Spirit, and in reliance upon His wisdom, and in a full assurance of faith, we shall not fail to know of the doctrine whether it be of God.

SERMON III.

BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST.

FOR WHIT-SUNDAY.

:

MATT. xii. 32.

Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him; neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

THERE is an earnestness and solemnity in these words of our blessed Lord, which was well calculated to rivet the attention of those who heard them; and we may suppose that they were intended to make no slight impression upon ourselves, when we find them recorded by three out of the four evangelists. It is well known, indeed, that there have been persons whose piety and singleness of heart might have sheltered them from these fears, who yet have been agitated by doubts and apprehensions, as if they themselves had fallen into this grievous sin, and as if blasphemy against the Holy Ghost had shut them out for ever from the atoning mercies of their Redeemer. Sad, indeed, must be the state of that man who thus surrenders himself to depair, and who

thinks that his doom is sealed for ever by the commission of a sin of which he is not conscious, in which he cannot point out even the time or the manner of his committing it.

But there is surely something in the very nature and first principles of the Gospel of peace, which enables us to silence these fears, which tells us that, so long as we place our trust in the all-sufficient blood of Christ, there is no sin either committed outwardly, or lurking secretly in the heart, which cannot and may not be forgiven. We know that the Holy Spirit of God dwelleth in us, that it is his special care to inspire us with holy thoughts, to guard us from sin, to direct our prayers to the throne of grace. We know that this is so, because the glad tidings have been told us by the Son of God himself, and by his own inspired apostles. It is also too true, for we know it from our own hearts, that we resist the Spirit ; that in those struggles and conflicts which take place between the Spirit and the flesh, we too often lay aside that shield of faith, and that helmet of salvation, with which God himself hath armed us, and we are led by the cares and pleasures of the world to do despite to the Spirit of Grace'. And thus it is, as some persons have terrified themselves into believing, that we daily and hourly are in danger of committing that fatal sin against the Holy Ghost; and that, more especially, every evil word which our lips incautiously pronounce, brings us within the scope of that fear

'Heb. x. 29.

ful declaration which our Saviour delivered in the text.

The usual way which interpreters have taken to remove these fears, is by endeavouring to shew that the sin which our Saviour here denounces, cannot be committed in the present day. They tell us,

and so far indeed they are undoubtedly right, that our Saviour's remark was called forth by the perverseness of the Pharisees, in attributing his divine works to the agency of the devil; upon which they observe, that since miracles have long since ceased, and the blasphemy here spoken of relates to those only who saw and rejected the signs which were done before their eyes, we cannot literally be guilty of this sin. But this interpretation will, perhaps, not satisfy even him who looks no farther than the meaning of words and sentences; much less will it quiet the fears and apprehensions of those who read in this passage a condemnation of themselves, and who think that this, as well as every other warning of our Lord, was intended not only for that sinful and adulterous generation, which was then blaspheming the Son of man, but for all to whom the Gospel should be preached, in every nation and in every age.

Without examining this interpretation any farther, we may surely see, that though we have no longer the option of admitting or rejecting a miracle by the evidence of our senses, yet miracles are still one of the evidences by which we, as well as the Jews, are to judge of the divine mission of Jesus; and if they who saw his wonderful works, but