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we are enemies. Either we are gathering into the same storehouse, or the one is hindering the other's labour and plundering his sheaves.

CLXXXIV.

THE BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST.

St. Matthew xii. 31, 32.

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.

Having proved that it could only be by the Spirit of God that He cast out devils, our Lord proceeds to show how great must be that blasphemy which attributes to the evil one that which can only come from the good Spirit of God. Many of those who spake against Christ, when He appeared in human form and nature,' we know repented and obtained mercy." St. Paul sets himself forth as the chief of these. He spake of himself as a blasphemer.3 Our Lord on the Cross prayed for His murderers. The grant of mercy is denied to none that truly repent. But no repentance, no pardon. And how can he repent who resists the Spirit that strives with

in person; for he cast out devils in Christ's name."-Bp. Wordsworth.

1 Bp. Harold Browne (on Art, xvi.) cites "the statement of St. Athanasius, that blasphemy against Christ, when His manhood only was visible, was blasphemy against the Son of Man; but that, when His Godhead was manifested, it became blasphemy against the Holy Ghost." The former

was "the disbelieving and blaspheming against our Blessed Lord, when as yet only His human nature was manifested." The latter, "continuing to deride and speak evil of Him, when He had given plain and irrefragable proofs of His Godhead and Divine nature."

2 Acts ii. 22, 23, 36–42; iii. 13-19. 3 1 Tim. i. 12-16.

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They But the blasphemy

him in vain? The best Physician is useless to him who rejects his counsel. The surest remedy must fail with him who refuses to take it. There are sins which even when repented of leave their scars on the soul, which men may carry with them to their grave. So long as they are in this world they will feel their dire effects. But through the mercy of God, through the merit of Christ, in the world to come they shall be no more mentioned unto them. shall be as though they had not been. of which the Saviour speaks is unlike these. It is unpardonable only because it is not repented of. He who is tenderhearted and fearful is of all men least likely to be guilty. But while this seems to be confined to the case of these Pharisees who resisted and blasphemed that Spirit who was striving to lead them to repentance, and though no timid. and penitent person need now be troubled with scruples on this behalf, yet it cannot be denied that a man may go perilously near. He who rejects evidence, hardens his heart, is unwilling to believe, seems to be doing his utmost to quench that Spirit by whom only he can be brought to a better mind.

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1 Bp. Wordsworth remarks that "from this passage it is rightly inferred, that the Holy Ghost is a Person, and that He is God.'

2 "We must know that in the style of the Church 'unpardonable' signifies such to which, by the discipline and customs of the Church, pardon may not be ministered. They were called 'unpardonable,' not because God would not pardon them, but because He alone could."-Bp. Jer. Taylor, cited by Bp. Harold Browne. "Our flesh shall no more return as that of a little child, our wounds shall never be perfectly cured; but a scar and pain

shall for ever afflict us; our sins shall be pardoned by parts and degrees

to uncertain purposes. . . and the pardou shall never be consummate till that day in which all things have their consummation."-Id. Life of Christ, Discourse ix.

3 Ezek. xviii. 22.
4 Micah vii. 19.

In St. Mark iii. 30, it seems to be so limited. Bp. Harold Browne however (Art. xvi. Sec. ii.) regards even these as not having yet altogether overstepped the confines. "He still puts forth parables, by which to convince them that they were in error (Matt. xii. 23-30). And He would scarce do this if there were no hope that they might repent, no possibility that they might be forgiven.

CLXXXV

EVIL SPEAKING.

St. Matthew xii. 33-37.

Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

The Lord is still upon the sin of blasphemy and evil speaking, in which that generation, as represented by the Pharisees, was prone to indulge. This fruit of their lips proved from what root of bitterness they proceeded. Only from a good tree can you look for good fruit. If the fruit is evil, so doubtless the tree on which it grew. This corrupt communication which proceeded out of their mouth proved the corruptness of their stock. As the tree, so the fruit.' "The human heart . . . seems to be the tree here spoken of; and the fruit is the fruit of the lips."2 "Out of the heart proceed . . . blasphemies." Our Lord applies to them that proverbial description which the Baptist had used before. After the figurative and energetic language of the place and of the period,3 He tells these who were ever boasting of being Abraham's seed, that they were rather the offspring of vipers; the seed of the serpent; the children of that evil one whose works they took delight in doing; "adders' poison was under their lips." How could such be

1 St. Luke vi. 43-45.

2 A Plain Commentary.

15; xiii. 15.

Heb. xii.

3 St. Matt. xxiii. 33.

St. Matt. iii. 7-10; St. John viii.

33, 37-39, 41, 44.

expected to speak good things? The words of their mouths. testified to the imagination of their hearts. Little as they might think of it, lightly as they might make their wanton charge, they were in danger of being called to account. The Lord here utters one of those startling sayings of His which may well make men pause and weigh their words. He who is both Law-giver and Judge, tells us with that air of authority which He only may assume, that a day is coming when not only for blasphemy such as theirs, but even for every idle word that men shall speak, they will have to give account. If even for their idle words, how much more for their deliberate blasphemies. By idle words seem meant words mischievous rather in their effect than in their intention, random words; yet how much harm is wrought by these! To think of the evils set rolling by idle tongues, gathering force as they go from one to another! Here too the Lord intimates that our words will be witnesses for or against us. It is after all we who have been passing sentence of acquittal or condemnation upon ourselves. "Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee." 4

1 St. James iii. 11.

2 "Evil wrought by want of thought As well as want of heart."

Hood.

3 Ps. cxli. 3. In Bp. Butler's Sermon on The Government of the Tongue there are some valuable remarks on what he calls "giving of characters," or discoursing of the affairs of others. Bp. Jer. Taylor has four characteristic Sermons on The Good and Evil Tongue. In the last part he quaintly says, after one of the ancients, "Men teach us to speak, and God teaches us to hold our tongue."

* In Babbage's Bridgwater Treatise we have a startling theory as to the permanence of our words. His theory is "that the pulsations of the air, once set in motion by the human

voice, cease not to exist with the sounds to which they gave rise . . . Every atom, impressed with good and with ill, retains at once the motions which philosophers and sages have imparted to it, mixed and combined in ten thousand ways, with all that is worthless and base . . . The atmosphere we breathe is the ever-living witness of the sentiments we have uttered. . . and (in another state of being) the offender may hear still vibrating in his ear the very words, uttered perhaps thousands of centuries before, which at once caused and registered his own condemnation." Reed (Introduction to Eng. Lit. p. 71) points out a remarkable parallel in Chaucer's House of Fame.

CLXXXVI.

THE SIGN OF THE PROPHET JONAS.

St. Matthew xii. 38-40.

Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

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Certain of the Scribes and Pharisees, some which came down from Jerusalem with evil intent, hereupon require of Him a sign. As though He had not given them signs enough already. As though He had not just given them that sign from heaven which they blasphemously attributed to hell. Now however in demanding a miracle, they show that they understood His claim to be the Messiah. Unbelief generally has its root in moral depravity. Men are unwilling to believe.3 Here however our Lord may be referring likewise to the conduct of the Jewish nation which, in the language of the Prophets, God had wedded to Himself; received into covenant, as a bride with her husband; and yet they had forsaken Him. The Lord will not yield to the temptation, to the unreasonable request of these men, any more than He did to Satan in the wilderness demanding the same thing. He contents Himself with referring them to that signal foreshadowing of Him in the case of one of their

1 St. Mark iii. 6, 22. Compare St. Matt. xxii. 15, 16.

2 The same request is again made afterwards by the same persons (St. Matt. xvi. 1.) and receives the same answer. Both instances are recorded by the same Evangelist. But had one incident been related by one, and the other by another of the Evangelists, hostile critics would have said, as they

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have said in other instances, that there was a confusion.

3 St. Luke xvi. 31; Heb. iii. 12.

4 "It is natural for unbelievers to imagine, that a miracle wrought on purpose for them would change their heart... What miracle can convert him to whom even the resurrection of Christ is not sufficient ?"-Quesnel. 5 St. Matt. iv. 3, 6.

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