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which shall fall on the Jewish cities which have rejected the Gospel. And thou, Capernaum, which hast been highly favored, and exalted, as it were, to heaven, in point of distinguished privileges, shall be brought down to hades, i. e. to the lowest desolation. If the mighty works which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, that city would not have been destroyed. For I say unto you, in the judgment about to come, it shall appear to have been more tolerable for the land of Sodom, than for thee. Such, we believe, to be the true sense of the passage; and by a reference to Paige's "Selections," Sect. xx., such will be seen to have been the opinion of some of the most eminent of the orthodox commentators. The reader is referred to that work.

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XIII. "Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And 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." Matt. xii. 31, 32. In examining this passage, we shall attend to the following particulars :

1st. Did the Saviour intend to say, that the sin against the Holy Ghost could not, on any condition, nor under any circumstances, be forgiven?

2nd. In what did the sin against the Holy Ghost consist?

3d. What is to be understood by the expression, "hath never forgiveness?" Mark iii. 29, or "" shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, neither in the world to come?" Matt. xii. 32.

Our first question is, Did the Saviour intend to say, that the sin against the Holy Ghost, could not, on any conditions, nor under any circumstances, be forgiven? We think not. The spirit of God in Jesus Christ would not have taught any thing contradictory to what the same spirit taught, when speaking through some other person. God said to the rebellious Jews by

Isaiah, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isa. i. 18. It was the evident intention of this language to show, that, however deep their sins, they might be washed away. We read, also, 1 John i. 7, 9, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from ALL SIN; [the sin against the Holy Ghost not excepted ;] and, again, "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness." We think it is the intent and meaning of these quotations, that all sins will be freely forgiven upon repentance. How, then, it will be asked, shall we explain the words of Christ, "all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but, the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men?"

We answer, that we would explain these words on precisely the same principle of interpretation, on which we explain many other passages of Holy writ. Every diligent student of the Bible knows, that the Hebrew writers were in the habit of saying, such a thing shall be, and such a thing shall not be, when they did not mean that the latter thing was impossible, but that it was less probable than the former. The learned Grotius says, "This form of speech is a common Hebraism the Jews often said, this shall be, and that shall not be; not intending, however, to affirm absolutely that the first should be (and, of course, not affirming absolutely that the last should not be), but merely to show that the last was much more unlikely or difficult than the first. The sense, says he, "is this any crime which may be committed, even all calumnies (or blasphemies) which hold the first rank among crimes, may be forgiven more readily than the calumny (or blasphemy) against the Spirit of God." Paige's "Selections," p. 85. The same view precisely is taken by many commentators, and particularly in a note in the Doway [a Catholic] translation, on this passage.

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"Now, this kind of sin is usually accompanied with so much obstinacy, and such wilful opposing the truth of God, and the known truth, that men who are guilty of it, are seldom or never converted; and, therefore, are never forgiven, because they will not repent. Otherwise, there is no sin which God cannot, or will not forgive to such as sincerely repent." Here, it is plainly stated, by a Roman Catholic writer, that there is no sin which cannot be forgiven on repentance; and this remark he makes in especial reference to the conclusion to which many of the very best orthodox writers have come, that all manner of sin and blasphemy is more easily forgiven than the sin against the Holy Ghost; but then even this sin may be forgiven, if duly and sincerely repented of.

2nd. We were to inquire, in the .second place, in what did the sin against the Holy Ghost consist? Here, again, we cannot reply in any better language, than that of the Doway translator. "The sin here spoken of, is that blasphemy, by which the Pharisees attributed the miracles of Christ, wrought by the Spirit of God, to Beelzebub, the prince of devils." The sin against the Holy Ghost is one particular sin; and that sin consisted in attributing the miracles of the Lord Jesus to Beelzebub, the prince of devils, which he wrought by the power of Jehovah.. To this conclusion any one will be led, who will read from the 22d to the 32d verse of Matt. xii. Jesus cast out a demon from a man who I was both blind and dumb, or, in other words, he healed. him of his blindness and dumbness. The people were amazed; and the Pharisees, his enemies, who could not deny that the miracle had been wrought, attributed the working of it to the spirit of Beelzebub. Now this. was a sin against the Holy Spirit, by which the miracle was actually wrought; and, accordingly, the Saviour went on to speak of the difficulty of forgiving and overcoming this sin. The Pharisees rejected the highest evidence, that of an open miracle; and it was, of course, vastly more difficult to overcome and forgive

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this sin and unbelief, than any other. No person can commit the sin against the Holy Ghost now, unless he admits, in the first place, that Christ actually wrought a miracle; and then alleges that he did it by a league with the devil, and through the devil's assistance, for this was the ground taken by the Pharisees.

3d. But, third, we are to inquire, what is meant by the phrase, hath never forgiveness," Mark iii. 29, or "shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." Matt. xii. 32. These phrases are synonymous. The passage in Mark stands thus ; "hath not forgiveness is tov aiara," that is, unto the age. It does not mean, hath never forgiveness, as the translators have rendered it; but literally, "hath not forgiveness unto the age." The expression was an indefinite one among the Jews, and must be understood according to the subject to which it is applied. The language used by Matthew is, "shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, nor the world to come.". But it is very certain, that Matthew was not speaking of the mortal and immortal states of being, when he spoke of this world, and the world to come. No, he had no reference to the immortal state of being in any way. the Bible explain itself. Let one sacred writer elucidate another. Paul says, Heb. ix. 26, "Now, once, IN THE END OF THE WORLD, hath Christ appeared, to put away sin, by the sacrifice of himself." What world was that? Answer, it was the world which came to an end when Christ appeared. Paul was speaking of an event which had already transpired, not of one which was then future. The world of which he was then speaking, had already come to an end. It was the Jewish world, or AGE, at the end of which Jesus introduced his Gospel, and brought "life and immortality to light." We will give another passage. 1 Cor. x.

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'11. "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." What! another world come to an end! Yes, more than that;

come."

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. for the original word here is in the plural form, as follows: " upon whom the ends of the WORLDS are How many of these worlds had then come to an end, we do not know. Under this view of the subject, we ask the candid reader to decide, whether the passage in Matthew furnishes any proof of endless punishment?" Shall not be forgiven, neither in this world," or age, which ended when the Gospel åge be"neither in the world," or age, แ to come, gan; is, the age which succeeded it. Let us not be wise above what is written. Let us be willing to stop where the Bible stops. But there is one matter of revelation not to be forgotten here. It is recorded in Eph. ii. 7. "That in the WORLDS (plural) TO COME, he might. show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus." Now, although the sin against the Holy Ghost was not to be forgiven neither in the then existing age or world, nor in the age or world which succeeded it, yet (mark reader) in the WORLDS ΤΟ COME [for it is the same. Greek word in Ephesians which you find in Matthew] God will show the exceeding riches of his grace. Exceeding, is a word of comparison. Exceeding what? We reply, exceeding every display of his grace which had been before made. In these latter days, or ages, God shows us the exceeding riches of his grace, which outshine' all former exhibitions, as the rising sun outshines the morning stars, that are lost in the flood of light he pours upon the world. The sin against the Holy Ghost may be cancelled by the exceeding riches of God's grace in the AGES to come, although it was not to be forgiven neither in the age when Christ spake, nor in the age which succeeded it.

We refer those who desire to look further into this subject, to Ballou's "Lectures," Ed. of 1832, pp. 117-131; Balfour's "Second Inquiry," pp. 291299. Paige's "Selections;" Sect. XXI., in which the opinions of commentators of the highest note are

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