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NEW EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE,

AND

Theological Review.

NOVEMBER, 1817.

ON THE UNPARDONABLE SIN.*

[From Mr. M'Lean's Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews.]

"For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins; but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace? For ye know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompence, saith the Lord.' And again, The Lord shall judge his people.' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." HEB. X. 26-31.

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1. To" sin wilfully," does not | oaths, not wilfully, but through mean every sin which we commit fear. Matt. xxvi. 74. The expreswith the consent of our will; for sion to sin wilfully seems to refer it will be hard to mention any sin to Num. xv. 30, 31. where it is in which the will is not more or described as doing ought preless concerned. We find in scrip- sumptuously, or with an high ture many of the approved chil-hand, and as reproaching the Lord, dren of God falling into such sins and despising or contemning the as necessarily implied a consent of word of the Lord: but the aposthe will for the time; yet they are tle shews that to sin wilfully against not said to sin (exovσws) wilfully. the gospel is a more heinous sin,' Paul was a blasphemer of Christ, and deserves sorer punishment and compelled others to blaspheme than was inflicted on those who despised Moses' law, ver. 29.

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him ; he was a persecutor and injurious, breathing out threatenings This sin cannot be committed and slaughter against the disciples till after we have received the of the Lord, Acts ix. 1. xxvi. 10, knowledge of the truth;" hence 11. 1 Tim. i. 13. Yet it is not Paul could not commit it ignorantly said that he did this wilfully, but in unbelief. The knowledge of ignorantly, in unbelief. Peter the truth here is the same with though he had much to learn, was being once enlightened. ch. vi. 4. a sincere lover of Christ, and re- Peter admits, that some, after they solved to die with him; yet he de- have known the way of righteousnied him with imprecations andness, and escaped the pollutions of

* Our readers will recollect a paper on a subject nearly akin to this, in a former number of our work, namely, "On the sin which is unto death," (See New Evan. Mag. Vol. II. p. 193.) The difficulty attending the subject, however, appears to us to justify the insertion of a more full and able elucidation of it, from the pen of this great master in Israel. EDITOR.

VOL. III.

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the world, through the knowledge judgment and fiery indignation,

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which shall devour the adversaries. 3. When the apostle says "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought wor. thy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God"-he appeals to their own judgment, whether he who sins wilfully against the grace of the covenant, does not, from the higher degree of his guilt, deserve sorer punishment than

of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, may be again entangled therein and overcome; turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them; and so like the dog return to his vomit, and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire, 2 Pet. ii. 19-22. And our Lord in the parable of the sower shews, that men may receive the word with joy, and for a while believe, who in time of temp-he who presumptuously despised tation fall away." Luke viii. 13. These and such passages shew, that men may not only know the truth, but believe and have joy in it, and that it may have a considerable influence on their conduct for a time, and yet, after all, sin wilfully and fall away irrecoverably.

Moses' law. To give them a deep impression of the more heinous nature of this sin, consequently of the justice of its being more se verely punished, he describes its nature and aggravations in the most striking terms. He had said in general that it was to "sin wilfully after having received the knowledge of the truth ;" and indeed without this knowledge it cannot be committed at all; but here he proceeds to shew them directly the nature of it, and represents him who is guilty of it as

2. It should be observed, that the apostle is not here speaking of the unbelieving Jews who had never been enlightened so as to profess the faith of Christ; but of those of them only who had received the knowledge of the truth and once professed to believe it; having, xalaxandas, trodden under who had seen the 'miraculous foot the Son of God." An expres evidence by which it was at first sion which signifies to treat him confirmed as a revelation from with the greatest disdain and conGod, and had themselves, some of tempt, as men do with the most them at least, been partakers of the worthless and vilest of things, such extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, ch. as the filth or mire of the street on vi. 4, 5. and yet, in the face of all which they trample. See Isa. xxvi. that evidence, turned out wilful 6. Mic. vii. 10. Mal. iv. 3. It also apostates, and determined enemies imports their treating him with the to Christ, his cause and people, utmost rage and fury; for when a and so rejected the only effectual man tramples upon another, and sacrifice which God had appointed stamps upon him with his feet, it and accepted; now, for such as is looked upon, as a sign of the thus sin wilfully, we are told, greatest rage; and in this sense "there remaineth no more sacri- the expression is used, Isa. lxiii, fice for sins." The only sacrifice 3, 6. Dan. viii. 10. And this remaining under the gospel is the answers to what he had said before sacrifice of Christ, and as they of such wilful apostates, "They wilfully despise and renounce the crucify to themselves," (or in thembenefit of that sacrifice, they have selves, i. e. in the rage and enmity no sacrifice for sin whatever re- of their hearts and blasphemies,) maining to them; consequently," the Son of God afresh, and put must be destitute of every reason-him to an open shame," ch. vi. 6. able and revealed ground of hope, This is their treatment of him and nothing is left them." But whom they once acknowledged to a certain fearful looking for of be the true Messiah, the beloved

Son of God, and Saviour of the world! Surely the punishment of such must be infinitely more severe than that which was inflicted on the despisers of Moses' law.

4. The "blood of the covenant" is the blood of the Son of God, called "the blood of the everlasting covenant," ch. xiii. 20. It is Christ's "blood of the new covenant, which was shed for many for the remission of sins," Matt. xxvi. 28. and by which he ratified the covenant and sanctified the people, Heb. xiii. 12. This precious blood of Christ which hath procured the new covenant and all its blessings, the apostate esteems no better than common or unclean blood, a thing of no more value, or efficacy, than the blood of a common malefactor; and to aggravate his guilt it is added, "wherewith he was sanctified."Some have a doubt if these words belonged originally to the text; for they are not in the Alexandrian copy, and Chrysostom omits them; but as they are to be found in the greater part of ancient MSS. it would be unsafe to leave them out. Commentators, however, who admit them to be genuine differ as to their meaning. Some understand the words to signify "the blood of the covenant wherewith he," that is, Christ, "was sanctified," which they think agrees with what he says, For their sakes I sanctify myself," John xvii. 19. Christ indeed sanctified himself, that is, he dedicated, devoted, or set himself apart to God as a sacrifice for the sins of his people, and that, on the ground of his oblation once offered, he might officiate as their High priest in heaven. But aya, to sanctify, in this epistle, signifies to cleanse or purify from the guilt of sin by the blood of sacrifice, ch. ii. 11. ix. 13. xiii. 12. And as Christ was without sin, and knew no sin, though he was made a sinoffering for us, 2 Cor. v. 21. Heb. iv. 15. he could not in that sense

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sanctify himself, as he needed not, like the legal high-priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's, ch. vii. 27. I am therefore of opinion, that the person who is here said to have been sanctified is not Christ but the apostate; and that this is stated as a most dreadful aggravation of his guilt and ingratitude, that he should count the blood of the covenant wherewith he himself was sanctified a common or unholy thing.

5. But it will be asked, In what sense can it be said, that one who turns out an apostate was ever sanctified? In answer to this let it be observed, That the scriptures speak of men according to their profession and outward appearance. The apostles, in writing to the churches, address them as saints, elect, faithful, and sanctified, 1 Cor. i. 2. 1 Pet. i. 2. that being their professed and visible character. When individuals of them apostatized from the profession of the faith, it is not attributed to their having never known the gospel, nor experienced any benefit from it; on the contrary, it is admitted that they have, and that thereby their guilt is highly aggravated, 2 Pet. ii. 20, 21. The Lord of the wicked unmerciful servant is represented as having forgiven him all his debt, Matt. xviii. 27, 32. The fruitless blind professor is said to have beek purged from his old sins, 2 Pet. i. 9. and the false teachers to deny the Lord that bought them, 2 Pet. ii. 1. The apostate is supposed to have been once enlightened in the knowledge of the truth, Heb. vi. 4. x. 26. to have received the word with joy, and believed for a while, Luke viii. 13. and to have tasted of the heavenly gift, and of the good word of God, Heb. vi. 4, 5. Though there may be an essential difference between such attainments and those of true Christians, yet we cannot distin

guish them in their abstract nature, but only by their concomitants and effects. The things specified seem to imply, that the apostate had been once sanctified by the blood of Christ, so far as to experience its efficacy in relieving and purging his conscience from the guilt of sin and fear of wrath, and to give him some degree of joy and peace, as well as to produce some partial reformation on his life: But that he now despises the sanctifying blood of the covenant, accounting it a common or unholy thing.

on the despisers of Moses' law, which was only the death of the body by the hands of men ; whereas the punishment of such audacious apostates is to be inflicted by the immediate hand of God himself.

7. The account which the apostle here gives of wilful apostacy, as doing despite to the Spirit of grace, seems to be much the same with what our Lord says of the sin against the Holy Ghost, in his caution to the Pharisees when they ascribed his casting out devils to the agency of the prince of devils; for it is not clear that he is there charging them with having actually committed that sin, or that they were capable of committing it before the full and complete testimony of the Spirit was given to Christ, which was not till after his resurrection and glorification. Compare John vii. 39. xv. 26. xvi. 8-15. with Acts ii. 33, 36. v. 32he on that occasion declares, that

6. To complete the description of this dreadful sin, the apostle adds, "and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace." The Holy Spirit is the author of every gracious disposition of heart, which is called the fruit of the Spirit, Gal. v. 22, 23.; but I apprehend he is here called the Spirit of grace, as being the author of those miraculous powers and spiritual gifts which are termed grace, Rom. xii." the blasphemy against the Holy 6. Eph. iv. 7. and which in the first age were conferred on believers for the spread and confirmation of the gospel; When therefore any apostatized from the faith of Christ to Judaism, after having witnessed those miraculous gifts, and especially after having been possessed of them himself, as is supposed, Matt. vii. 22. Heb. vi. 4, 5. he could not possibly evade the force of such proofs, but by joining issue with the Scribes and Pharisees in absurdly ascribing them to the agency of evil spirits. Matt. xii. 24. than which a greater indignity and more malicious insult could not be offered to the Spirit of God. And this is that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which our Lord declares shall never be forgiven either in this" the blasphemy against the Holy world, or in the world to come, ver. 31, 32. Therefore the punishment of such a sinner must be inexpressibly greater than that death without mercy which was inflicted

Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men," Matt. xii. 31. But some have endeavoured to soften his words, and would have him to mean, that it shall not be forgiven without repentance; which would imply, either that other sins may be forgiven without repentance, or that there is no difference between this and any other sin in respect of repentance or forgiveness; whereas this sin is distinguished from all other sins in both these respects. As to repentance, the apostle says, that "it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance," Heb. vi. 4, 6. And with respect to forgiveness, while our Lord admits that "all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men," he absolutely declares, that

Ghost shall never be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the world to come." Matt. xii. 31, 32. Mark iii. 28, 29. But as some weak Christians, from ignorance of

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