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none of you have seen the miracles performed for the confirmation of our faith; but I will venture to affirm, that there are truths as palpable, as if they had been confirmed by miracles; I will venture to affirm, that if they collect all the proofs we have of our Saviour's mission, there will result a conviction to the mind as clear, as that which resulted to the Pharisees, on seeing the demoniac healed.

To collect the whole in two words, and in a yet shorter way to resolve the question, "Is it possible now to commit the unpardonable sin?" I answer: We cannot commit it with regard to every circumstance; but, in regard to what constitutes its essence and atrocity, it may be committed; and though men seldom fall so deeply, yet it is not impossible. Few complete the crime; but many commit it in part, and in degree. Some imagine themselves to be guilty by an ill-founded fear; but a much greater number are daily going the awful road, and, through an obstinate security, unperceiv

thought of having proceeded to that excess; but, at the same time, to take precaution, that, in the issue, the dreadful period may never come, which is nearer, perhaps, than they imagine.

2. What constituted the atrocity of the crime in the first ages, was attacking this religion, whose evidence they had attested. This may also be found among men of our own time. A man, who is convinced that the Christian relied. They ought, of course, to reject the gion was revealed from heaven;-a man who doubts not, among all the religious connexions in the Christian world, that to which he adheres is among the purest;-a man who abandons this religion; a man who argues, who disputes, who writes volume upon volume, to vindicate his apostacy, and attacks those very truths, whose evidence he cannot but perceive; such a man has not committed the unpardonable sin in its whole extent; but he has so far proceeded to attack the truths, of whose veracity he was convinced.

3. What farther constituted the atrocity of the crime, was falling away; not by the fear of punishment, not by the first charms Satan presents to his proselytes, but by a principle of hatred against truths, so restrictive of human passions. This may also be found among men of our own age. For example, a man who mixes in our congregations, who reads our books, who adheres to our worship, but who, in his ordinary conversation, endeavours to discredit those truths, to establish deism or impiety, and abandons himself to this excess, because he hates a religion which gives him inquietude and pain, and wishes to expunge it from every heart; this man has not committed the unpardonable sin in all its extent, but he has so far proceeded as to hate the truth.

4. What, lastly, rendered the crime atrocious with regard to apostates, was their running to this excess, after having tasted the happiness, which the hope of salvation produces in the soul. This may, likewise, be found among Christians of our own age. For example a temporary professor;-a man (to avail myself of an expression of Jesus Christ) who "receives the word with joy;"-a man, who has long prayed with fervour, who has communicated with transports of delight;-a man of this description, who forgets all these delights, who resists all these attractive charms, and sacrifices them to the advantages offered by a false religion; he has not yet committed the unpardonable sin, but he surely has the characteristic "of falling away, after having been once enlightened, and tasted of the heavenly gift." You now perceive, my brethren, that all these characteristics may be found separately among men of our own age. But should there be a man in whom they all unite; a man who has known and abjured the truth; who has not only abjured, but opposed and persecuted it, not in a moment of surprise, and at the sight of racks and tortures, but from a principle of enmity and hatred; do you not think he would have just cause to fear, that he had committed the "unpardonable sin."

APPLICATION.

What effects shall the truths we have delivered, produce on your minds? Shall they augment your pride, excite vain notions of your virtue, and suggest an apology for vice, because you cannot, in the portrait we have given, recognise your own character? Is your glory derived from the consideration, that your depravity has not attained the highest pitch, and that there yet remains one point of horror, at which you have not arrived? Will you suffer the wounds to corrode your heart, under the notions that they are not desperate, and there is still a remedy? And do you expect to repent, and to ask forgiveness, when repentance is impracticable; and when all access to mercy is cut off?

But who among our hearers can be actuated by so great a frenzy? What deluded conscience can enjoy repose under a pretext, that it has not yet committed the unpardonable sin?— Whence is it, after all, that this crime is so dreadful? All the reasons which may be assigned, terminate here, as in their centre, that it precipitates the soul into hell. But is not hell the end of every sin? There is this difference, it must be observed, between the unpardonable sin, and other sins, that he who commits it is lost without resource; whereas, after other sins, we have a sure remedy in conversion. But, in all cases, a man must repent, reform and become a new creature; for we find in religion, what we find in the human body, some diseases quite incurable, and others which may be removed with application and care: but they have both the similarity of becoming incurable by neglect; and what, at first, was but a slight indisposition, becomes mortal by presumption and delay.

Besides, there are few persons among us,— there are few monsters in nature, capable of carrying wickedness, all at once, to the point we have described. But how many are there who walk the awful road, and who attain to it by degrees? They do not arrive, in a moment, at the summit of impiety. The first essays of the sinner, are not those horrid traits which cause nature to recoil. A man educated in the Christian religion, does not descend, all at once, from the full lustre of truth, to the profoundest darkness. His fault, at first, was mere detraction; thence he proceeded to negli

gence; thence to vice; next he stifles remorse; | overturn these pulpits? Must we exile these and, lastly, proceeds to the commission of enormous crimes: so he who, in the beginning, trembled at the thought of a weakness, becomes insensible of the foulest deeds, and of a conduct the most atrocious.

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pastors? And making that the object of our prayer, which ought to be our justest cause of fear, must we say, Lord, take away thy word; take away thy Spirit; and remove thy candlestick; lest, receiving too large a portion of grace, we should augment the account we have to give, and render our punishment more intolerable.

There is one reflection with which you cannot be too much impressed, in an age in which Jesus Christ approaches us with his light, with his Spirit, and with all the advantages of the But why abandon the soul to so tragical a evangelical economy; that is, concerning the thought? Lord, continue with us these precious awful consequences of not improving these pledges "of thy loving-kindness, which is betprivileges, according to their original design. ter than life," and give us a new heart. It is You rejoice to live in the happy age, which true, my brethren, a thousand objects indicate, 'so many kings and prophets have desired to that you will persist in impiety. But I know see." You have reason so to do. But you re- not what sentiment flatters us, that you are joice in these privileges, while each of you about to renounce it. These were St. Paul's persist in a favourite vice, and a predomi- sentiments concerning the Hebrews: he saw the nant habit; and because you are neither Jews efforts of the world to draw them from the faith, nor heathens, you expect to find, in religion, and the almost certain fall of some; in the mean means to compose a conscience, abandoned time he hoped, and by an argument of charity, to every kind of vice: this is a most extraor- that the equity of God would be interested to dinary, and almost general prejudice among prevent their fall. He hoped farther; he hoped Christians. But this light, in which you re- to see an event of consolation. Hence he joice, this Christianity, by which you are dis-opened to the Hebrews the paths of tribulation tinguished, this faith, which constitutes your glory, will aggravate your condemnation, if your lives continue unreformed. The Pharisees were highly favoured by seeing Jesus Christ in the flesh, by attesting his miracles, and hearing the wisdom which descended from his lips; but these were the privileges which caused their sin to be irremissible. The Hebrews were happy by being enlightened, by tasting of the heavenly gift, and the powers of the evangelical economy; but this happiness, on their falling away, rendered their loss irreparable.

Apply this thought to the various means, which Providence affords for your conversion; and think what effect it must produce on your preachers. It suspends our judgment, and ties our hands, if I may so speak, in the exercise of our ministry. We are animated at the sight of the blessing which the gospel brings; but, when we contemplate the awful consequences on those who resist, we are astonished and appalled. Must we wilfully exclude the light? What effects have the efforts of Providence produced upon you? What account can you give of the numerous privileges with which Heaven has favoured you? Think not that we take pleasure in declamations, and in drawing frightful portraits of your conduct. Would to God that our preaching were so received, and so improved, as to change our censures into applause, and all our strictures into approbation. But charity is never opposed to experience. So many exhortations, so many entreaties, so many affectionate warnings, so many pathetic sermons, so many instructions, so many conflicts to save you from vice, leave the proud in his pride, the implacable in his hatred, the fashionable woman in full conformity to the world, and every other in his predominating sin. What line of conduct shall we consequently adopt? Shall we continue to enforce the truth, to press the duties of morality; and to trace the road of salvation, in which you refuse to walk? We have already said, that these privileges will augment your loss, and redouble the weight of your chains. Must we shut up these churches? Must we

in which they walked with courage. He called to their remembrance so many temptations refuted, so many enemies confounded, so many conflicts sustained, so many victories obtained, so many trophies of glory already prepared; and proposing himself for a model, he animated them by the idea of what they had already achieved, and by what they had yet to do. "Call to remembrance," says he, "the former days, in which ye endured so great a fight of afflictions, partly whilst you were made a gazing-stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward," Heb. x. 32, 33. 35. We address the like exhortation to each of our hearers. We remind you of whatever is most to be admired in your life, though weak and imperfect, the communions you have celebrated, the prayers you have offered to Heaven, the tears of repentance already shed.

And you, my brethren, my dear brethren, and honoured countrymen, I call to your recollection, as St. Paul to the Hebrews, the earth strewed with the bodies of your martyrs, and stained with your blood;-the desert populated with your fugitives; the places of your nativity desolated;-your tenderest ties dissolved;--your prisoners in chains, and confessors in irons;your houses rased to the foundation; and the precious remains of your shipwreck scattered on all the shores of Christendom. Oh! "Let us not cast away our confidence, which hath great recompense of reward." Let not so many conflicts be lost; let us never forsake this Jesus to whom we are devoted; but let us daily augment the ties which attach us to his communion.

If these are your sentiments, fear neither the terrors nor anathemas of the Scriptures. As texts the most consolatory have an awful aspect to them who abuse their privileges, so passages the most terrific, have a pleasing aspect to those who obey the calls of grace. The words we have explained are of this kind; for the apostle speaking of a certain class of sinners, who cannot be renewed again unto repentance,” im

plies thereby, that all other sinners, of whatsoever kind, may be renewed. Let us therefore repent. Let us break these hearts. Let us soften these stones. Let us cause floods of tears to issue from the dry and barren rocks. And after we have passed through the horrors of repentance, let our hearts rejoice in our salvation. Let us banish all discouraging fears. Let us pay the homage of confidence to a merciful God, never confounding repentance with despair. Repentance honours the Deity; despair degrades him. Repentance adores his goodness; despair suppresses one of his brightest beams of glory. Repentance follows the example of saints; despair confounds the human kind with demons. Repentance ascribes to the blood of the Redeemer of the world its real worth; despair accounts it "an unholy thing." Let us enter into these reflections; let this day be equally the triumph of repentance over the horrors of sin, and the triumph of grace over the anguish of repentance. God grant us this grace; to him, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be honour and glory for ever. Amen.

SERMON XC.

ON THE SORROW FOR THE DEATH
OF RELATIVES AND FRIENDS.

1 THESS. iv. 13-18. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one ano

ther with these words.

THE text we have now read, may, perhaps, be contemplated under two very different points of view. The interpreter must here discover his acumen, and the preacher display his pow

ers.

It is a difficult text; it is one of the most difficult in all the epistles of St. Paul. I have strong reasons for believing, that it is one of those St. Peter had in view, when he says, "that there are some things in the writings of St. Paul, hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned wrest-to their own destruction," 2 Pet. iii. 16. In this respect it requires the erudition of the interpreter: It is a text fertile in instructions for our conduct: it illustrates the sentiments with which we should be inspired in all the afflictive circumstances through which Providence may call us to pass in this valley of misery, I would say, when called to part with those who constitute the joy of our life. In this respect it requires the eloquence of the preacher. In attending to both those points, bring the dispositions without which you cannot derive the

advantages we design. Have patience with the interpreter, though he may not be able fully to elucidate every inquiry you may make on a subject obscure, singular, and in some respects impenetrable. Open also the avenues of your heart to the preacher. Learn to support separations; for which you should congratulate yourselves, when they break the ties which united you to persons unworthy of your love; and which shall not be eternal, if those called away by death were the true children of God. May the anguish of the tears shed for their loss, be assuaged by the hope of meeting them in the same glory.

We have said that this text is difficult; and it is really so in four respects. The first arises from the doubtful import of some of the terms in which it is couched. The second arises from its reference to certain notions peculiar to Christians in the apostolic age, and which to us are imperfectly known. The third is, that it revolves on certain mysteries, in regard of which the Scriptures are not very explicit, and of which inspired men had but an imperfect knowledge. The fourth is the dangerous consequences it seems to involve; because by restricting the knowledge of the sacred authors, it seems to level a blow at their inspiration. Here is an epitome of all the difficulties which can contribute to encumber a text with difficulties.

I. The first is the least important, and cannot arrest the attention of any, but those who are less conversant than you, with the Scriptures. You have comprehended, I am confident, that by those who sleep, we understand those who are dead; and by those who sleep in the Lord, we understand those in general who have died in the faith, or in particular those who have sealed it by martyrdom. The sacred authors in adopting, have sanctified the style of paganism. The most ordinary shield the pagans opposed to the fear of death, was to banish the thought, and to avoid pronouncing its name. But as it is not possible to live on earth without being obliged to talk of dying, they accommodated their necessity to their delicacy, and paraphrased what they had so great a reluctance to name by the softer terms of a departure, a submission, destiny, and a sleep.-Fools! as though to change the name of a revolting object would diminish its horror. The sacred authors, as I have said, in adopting this style, have sanctified it. They have called death a sleep, by which they understand a repose: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; for they rest from their labours," Rev. xiv. 13. In adopting the term, they had a special regard to the resurrection which shall follow. If the terms require farther illustration, they shall be incorporated in what we shall say when discussing the subjects.

II. We have said, that this text is difficult, because it refers to certain notions peculiar to Christians in the apostolic age, which to us are imperfectly known. The allusion of ancient authors to the peculiar notions of their time, is a principal cause of the obscurity of their writings; it embarrasses the critics, and often obliges them to confess their inadequacy to the task. It is astonishing that the public should refuse to interpreters of the sacred books, the liberty they so freely grant to those of profane

authors. Why should a species of obscurity, which has never degraded Plato, or Seneca, induce us to degrade St. Paul, and other inspired men? But how extraordinary soever, in this respect, the conduct of the enemies of our sacred books may be, it is not at all astonishing; but there is cause to be astonished at those divines who would be frequently relieved by the solution of which we speak, that they should lose sight of it in their systems, and so often seek for theological mysteries in expressions which simply require the illustration of judicious criticism. On how many allusions of the class in question, have not doctrines of faith been established? "Let him who readeth understand." We will not disturb the controversy.

cerning which St. Paul has the words of the Psalmist, "That their sound went forth to the ends of the earth:" these ideas had persuaded many of the primitive Christians, that the coming of the Messiah, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the end of the world, must follow one another in speedy succession; and, the more so, as the Lord had subjoined to those predictions, that "this generation should not pass away until all these things be fulfilled;" that is, the men then alive. This text is of the same import with that in the xvith of St. Matthew: "Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom," ver. 28.

These are the considerations which induced many of the first Christians to believe that the last day would soon come. And as the Lord, the more strikingly to represent the surprise that the last day would excite in men, had compared it to the approach of a thief at midnight, the primitive Christians really thought that Jesus Christ would come at midnight; hence some of them rose at that hour to await his coming, and St. Jerome relates a custom, founded on apostolic tradition, of never dismissing the people before midnight during the

We have said that there is in the words of the text, probably some allusion to notions peculiar to the apostolic age. St. Paul not only designed to assuage the anguish excited in the breast of persons of fine feelings by. the death of their friends; he seems to have had a peculiar reference to the Thessalonians. The proof we have of this is, that the apostle not merely enforces the general arguments that Christianity affords to all good men in those afflictive situations, such as the happiness which instantly follows the death of saints, and the certainty of a glorious resurrection: he super-vigils of Easter. adds a motive wholly of another kind; this But what should especially be remarked for motive, which we shall now explain, is thus ex-illustration of the difficulty proposed, is, that pressed: "We which are alive and remain at the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep," &c.

What might there be in the opinion, peculiar to the Christians of that age, which could thereby assuage their anguish? Among the conjectures it has excited, this appears to me the most rational;-it was a sentiment generally received in the apostolic age, and from which we cannot say that the apostles themselves were wholly free, that the last day was just at hand. Two considerations might have contributed to establish this opinion.

The ancient Rabbins had affirmed, that the second temple would not long subsist after the advent of the Messiah; and believing that the Levitical worship should be coeval with the world, they believed likewise that the resurrection of the dead, and the consummation of the ages, would speedily follow the coming of Christ. Do not ask how they reconciled those notions with the expectation of the Messiah's temporal kingdom; we know that the Rabbinical systems are but little connected; and inconsistency is not peculiar to them.

But secondly; the manner in which Jesus Christ had foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, might have contributed to persuade the first Christians, that the last day was near. He had represented it in the prophetic style, as a universal dissolution of nature, and of the elements. In that day "the sun shall be darkened; the moon shall be turned to blood; the stars shall fall from heaven; the powers of heaven shall be shaken; and the Son of man himself as coming on the clouds, and sending his angels with the sound of a trumpet to gather together his elect from the four winds," Matt. xxiv. 29. 31. These oriental figures, whereby he painted the extirpation of the Jewish nation, and the preaching of the apostles, con

the idea of the near approach of Christ's advent, was so very far from exciting terror in the minds of the primitive Christians, that it constituted the object of their hope. They regard it as the highest privilege of a Christian to behold his advent. The hope of this happiness had inflamed some with an ardour for martyrdom; and induced to deplore the lot of those who had died before that happy period.

This is the anguish the apostle would assuage when he says, "I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep, that ye sorrow not as others;" that is, as the heathens, who have no hope.

III. But the consolation he gives, to comfort the afflicted, constitutes one of the difficulties in my text, because it is founded on a doctrine concerning which the Scriptures are not very explicit, and of which inspired men had but imperfect knowledge. This is the third point to be illustrated.

The consolation St. Paul gave the Thessalonians, must be explained in a way assortable to their affliction, and drawn from the reasons that induced them to regret the death of the martyrs, as being deprived of the happiness those would have who shall be alive, when Christ should descend from heaven to judge the world. St. Paul replies, that those who should then survive, would not have any prerogative over those that slept, and that both should enjoy the same glory: this, in substance, is the sense of the words which constitute the third difficulty we would wish to remove. "This we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Concerning these words various questions arise, which require illustration.

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3. In what respects does St. Paul prove, that those who die before the advent of the Son of God, shall not thereby retard their happiness; and that those who shall then survive, shall not enjoy earlier than they the happiness with which the Saviour shall invest them?

Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also," chap. iv. 14. But in my text he seems to associate himself in the class of those who shall not be raised, being alive when Christ shall descend from heaven; "we that are alive, and remain at the coming of the Lord." Emphasis, then, should 1. What did St. Paul mean when he affirm- not be laid on the pronoun we, signifies, in ed, that what he said was by the word of the general, those who; and it ought to be explainLord? You will understand it by comparing ed, not by its general import, but by the nature the expression with those of the first epistle to of the things to which it is applied, which do the Corinthians, chap. xv. 51, where, discuss- not suffer us to believe, that the apostle here ing the same subject, he speaks thus: “Behold | meant to designate himself, as I think is proved. I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed." These words, "Behold I show you a mystery," and those of my text, are of the same import. Properly to understand them, let it be observed, that besides the gift of inspiration, by which the sacred authors knew and taught the things essential to salvation, there was one peculiar to some privileged Christians; it was a power to penetrate. certain secrets, without which they might be saved, but which, nevertheless, was a glorious endowment wherever conferred. Probably St. Paul spake of this privilege, when enumerating the gifts communicated to the primitive church, in the xiith chapter of the above epistle. "To one," he says, "is given by the same Spirit, the word of knowledge." This word of knowledge, he distinguishes from another, called just before, "The word of wisdom." The like distinctions occur chap. xiiith and xivth, in the same epistle. Learned men, who think that by the word of wisdom, we must understand inspiration, think also, that by "the word of knowledge," we must understand an acquaintance with the mysteries of which I have spoken. Many mysteries are mentioned in the sacred writings. The mystery of the restoration of the Jews; the mystery of iniquity; and the mystery of the beast. The passages to which I allude are known to you, and time does not allow me to enlarge, nor even a full recital.

2. Why does St. Paul, when speaking of those who shall be found on earth when Christ shall descend from heaven, add, "We which are alive, and remain at the coming of the Lord" Did he flatter himself to be of that number? Some critics have thought so: and when pressed by those words in the second Epistle to Timothy, "The time of my departure is at hand; I am ready to be offered up;" they have replied, that St. Paul had changed his ideas, and divested himself of the illusive hope that he should never die!

The apostle proves it from the supremacy of Christ at the consummation of the age. The instant he shall descend from heaven, he shall awake the dead by his mighty voice. The bodies of the saints shall rise, and the bodies of those that are alive shall be purified from their natural encumbrance, according to the assertion of St. Paul, already adduced; "we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed." And it must also be remarked, that this change, he adds, shall be made "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye;" that is, immediately on the coming of Jesus Christ: and after this change, the saints who shall rise, and those who shall be yet alive, shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and shall be for ever with the Lord. The survivors, therefore, shall have no prerogative over others; so is the sense of the text: "We which are alive and remain at the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout," like that of sailors to excite to unity of labour, as is implied by the Greek term, "with the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet of God;" I would say, with the most vehement shout; for in the sacred style, a thing angelic, angelical, or divine, is a thing which excels in its kind: "The Lord shall descend, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds."

But this is a very extraordinary kind of consolation: St. Paul still left the Thessalonians in their old mistake, that some of them should still live to see the last day; why did he not undeceive them? Why did he not say, to console them in their trouble, that the consummation of the ages was, as yet, a very distant period; and that the living and the dead should rise on the same day! This is the fourth, and most considerable difficulty in the words of my text.

But how many arguments might I not adduce to refute this error, if it required refutation, and did not refute itself? How should St. Paul, who had not only the gift of inspiration, but who declared that what he said was by the word of the Lord, or according to his miracu- IV. The apostles seem to have been ignolous gift, fall into so great a mistake in speak-rant whether the end of the world should haping on this subject? How do they reconcile this presumption with what he says of the resurrection in his epistles, written prior to this, from which we have taken our text? Not to multiply arguments, there are some texts in which St. Paul seems to class himself with those who shall rise, seeing he says we." Let us next attend to that in the second Epistle to the Corinthians: God, "who raised up the

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pen in their time, or whether it should be at the distance of many ages; and it seems that by so closely circumscribing the knowledge of inspired men, we derogate from their claims of inspiration.-A whole dissertation would scarcely suffice to remove this difficulty; I shall content myself with opening the sources of its solution.

1. Ignorance of one truth is unconnected

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