Paragraph 16.1

Note very deadly sin willingly committed after Baptism is the sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore the grant of Repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after Baptism. After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our Lives. And therefore they are to be condemned, which say they can no more sin as long as they live here, or deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly repent.

This Article, as it relates to the Sect of the Novatians of old, so it is probable it was made a part of our Doctrine, upon the Account of some of the Enthusiasts, who at that time, as well as some do in our Days, might boast their Perfection, and join with that part of the Character of a Pharisee, this other of an unreasonable rigour of Censure and Punishment against Offenders. By deadly Sin in the Article, we are not to understand such Sins as in the Church of Rome are called mortal, in opposition to others that are venial: As if some Sins, though Offences against God, and Violations of his Law, could be of their own nature such slight things, that they deserved only Temporal Punishment, and were to be expiated by some piece of Pennance or Devotion, or the Communication of the Merits of others. The Scripture no where teaches us to think so slightly of the Majesty of God or of his Law. There is a curse upon every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them:¹ And the same Curse must have been on us all, if Christ had not redeemed us from it: The wages of Sin is death: And St. James asserts, that there is such a Complication of all the Precepts of the Law of God, both with one another, and with the Authority of the Lawgiver, that he who offends in one point,² is guilty of all. So since God has in his Word given us such dreadful Apprehensions of his Wrath, and of the guilt of Sin, we dare not soften these to a degree below the Majesty of the Eternal God, and the Dignity of his most Holy Laws. But after all, we are far from the Conceit of the Stoicks, who made all Sins alike. We acknowledge that some Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity may consist with a state of Grace; which is either quite destroyed, or at least much eclipsed and clouded by other Sins, that are more heinous in their nature, and more deliberately gone about: It is in this sense that the word deadly Sin is to be understood in the Article: For though in the strictness of Justice every Sin is deadly, yet in the Dispensation of the Gospel, those Sins are only deadly, that do deeply wound the Conscience, and that drive away Grace.

Another Term in the Article needs also to be a little explained; the sin against the Holy Ghost; concerning which, since there is so severe a Sentence pronounced by Christ, it is necessary that it be rightly understood; and that can only be done by considering the Occasion of those Words, as well as the Words themselves. Christ wrought such Miracles in the sight of his Enemies, that when there was no room left for any other Cavil,³ they betook themselves to that, that he did not cast out devils but by Belzebub the Prince of Devils. And this was the occasion that led our Saviour to speak of the Sin or blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. It was their rejecting the clearest Evidence that God could give to prove any thing by: The power by which those Miracles were wrought, and which was afterwards communicated to the Apostles, is called through the whole New Testament, the Holy Ghost. By which is not to be meant here the Third Person of the Trinity, but the wonderful Effusion of those extraordinary Gifts and Powers that were then communicated, the Oeconomy and Dispensation of which is said to be derived from that one Spirit. This was the utmost Proof that could be given of Truth: And when Men set themselves to blaspheme this, and to ascribe the Works of Christ to a collusion with the Devil, they did thereby so wilfully oppose God, and reproach his Power, they did so stifle their own Conviction, and set themselves against the Conviction of others, that nothing could be done further for their Conviction; this being the highest degree of Evidence and Proof: And this was so high an Indignity to God, when he descended so far to satisfy their scruples, that it was not to be pardoned; as their Impenitence and Incredulity was so obstinate as not to be overcome.

Upon this Occasion given, our Saviour makes a difference between their Blaspheming him, and instead of owning him to be the Messias, calling him a deceiver, a glutton, and a wine-bibber; of which, upon hearing his Doctrine, and seeing his Life, they were still guilty. This was indeed a great Sin, but yet there were means left of convincing them of the Truth of his being the great Prophet sent of God: And by these they might be so far prevailed on as to repent and believe, and so to obtain pardon: But when they had those means set before them, when they saw plain and uncontested Miracles done before them; and when instead of yielding to them, that set up such an Opposition to them, which might have been as reasonably said of every Miracle that could have been wrought, then it was not possible to convince them. This is an impious rejecting of the highest Method that God himself uses for proving a thing to us. The scorn put upon it, as it flows from a Nature so depraved, that it cannot be wrought on; so it is a sin not to be pardoned. All things of extream severity in a Doctrine that is so full of Grace and Mercy as the Gospel is, ought to be restrained as much as may be. From thence we infer▪ That those dreadful words of our Saviour’s, ought to be restrained to the subject to which they are applied, and ought not to be carried further. Since Miracles have ceased, no Man is any more capable of this Sin.

These Terms being thus explained, the Question in the Article is now to be explained. There are words in St. John’s Epistle and elsewhere, that seem to import, that men born of God, that is to say, Baptized or Regenerated Christians, sin not: Whosoever abideth in him, sinneth not:⁴ whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him: whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, for he is born of God. This is again repeated in the end of that Epistle, together with these words, He that is begotten of God, keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. As these words seem to import that a true Christian sins not, so in the Epistle to the Hebrews it is said to be Impossible to renew again by Repentance, those who fall away,⁵ after they had been once enlightened and had tasted of the heavenly gift, had been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and had tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come. Upon these Expressions and some others, though not quite of their force, it was, that in the Primitive Church, some that fell after Baptism, were cast out of the Communion of the Church; and though they were not cut off from all hopes of the Mercy of God, yet they were never restored to the Peace of the Church: This was done in Tertullian’s time, if what he says on this Subject, is not to be reckoned as a piece of his Montanism.

But soon after, there were great Contests upon this Head, while the Novatians withdrew from the Communion of the Church, and believed it was defiled by the receiving of Apostates into it: Though that was not done so easily as some proposed, but after a long separation and a severe course of Penance. Upon this followed all those Penitentiary Canons concerning the several Measures and Degrees of Penance, and that not only for Acts of Apostacy from the Christian Religion, but for all other crying Sins. According to what has been already said upon the former Articles, it has appeared that the Sanctification of Regenerated Men is not so perfected in this Life, but that there is still a mixture of Defects and Imperfections left in them: And the state of the New Covenant is a continuance of Repentance and Remission of Sins; for as oft as one sins, if he repents truly of it, and forsakes his Sins, there is a standing Offer of the Pardon of all Sins: And therefore Christ has taught us to pray daily, Forgive us our sins: If there were but one general Pardon offered in Baptism, this would signify little to those who feel their Infirmities, and the Sins that do so easily beset them, so apt to return upon them. It was no wonder if the entertaining this Conceit brought in a Superstitious Error in Practice among the Ancient Christians, of delaying Baptism till Death; as hoping that all Sins were then certainly pardoned: A much more dangerous Error than even the Fatal One of trusting to a Death-bed Repentance. For Baptism might have been more easily compassed; and there was more offered in the way of Argument for building upon it, than has been offered at for a Death-bed Repentance.

St. Peter’s Denial, his Repentance, and his being restored to his Apostolical Dignity seem to be Recorded, partly on this account, to encourage us even after the most heinous Offences, to return to God, and never to reckon our Condition desperate, were our Sins ever so many, but as we find our Hearts hardened in them into an obstinate Impenitency. Our Saviour has made our pardoning the offences that others commit against us, the measure upon which we may expect pardon from God; and he being asked, What limits he set to the number of the faults that we were bound to pardon, by the Day, if Seven was not enough, he carried it up to seventy times seven, a vast number, far beyond the number of offences that any Man will in all probability commit against another in a Day. But if they should grow up to all that vast number of 490, yet if our Brother still turns again and repents,⁶ we are still bound to forgive. Now since this is joined with what he declared, that if we pardoned our Brother his offences, our heavenly Father would also forgive us,⁷ then we may depend upon this, That according to the sincerity of our Repentance, our sins are always forgiven us. And if this is the Nature of the New Covenant, then the Church, which is a Society formed upon it, must proportion the Rules both of her Communion and Censure, to those set in the Gospel: A heinous Sin must give us a deeper sorrow, and higer degrees of Repentance; Scandals must also be taken off and forgiven when the offending Persons have repaired the offence that was given by them, with suitable degrees of sorrow. St. Paul in the beginnings of Christianity, in which it being yet tender and not well known to the World, was more apt to be both blemished and corrupted, did yet order the Corinthians to receive back into their Communion the Incestuous Person,⁸ whom by his own Directions they had delivered to Satan, they had excommunicated him,⁹ and by way of reverse to the Gifts of the Holy Ghost poured out upon all Christians, he was possessed or haunted with an evil Spirit: And yet as St. Paul declares that he forgave him, so he orders them to forgive him likewise; and he gives a reason for this Conduct, from the common principles of pity and humanity, lest he should be swallowed up by overmuch sorrow. What is in that place mentioned only in a particular instance, is extended to a general rule in the Epistle to the Galatians: If any one is overtaken in a fault,¹⁰ ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the Spirit of meekness, considering thy self lest thou also be tempted. Where both the supposition that is made, and the reason that is given, do plainly insinuate that all Men are subject to their several infirmities: So that every Man may be overtaken in faults.¹¹ The charge given to Timothy and Titus to rebuke, and exhort, does suppose that Christians, and even Bishops and Deacons, were subject to faults that might deserve correction.

In that passage cited out of S. John’s Epistle, as mention is made of a sin unto death for which they were not to pray, so mention is made both there and in S. James’s Epistle, of sins for which they were to pray,¹² and which upon their Prayers were to be forgiven. All which places do not only express this to be the tenor of the New Covenant, That the sins of Regenerated Persons were to be pardoned in it, but they are also clear precedents and rules for the Churches to follow them in their Discipline. And therefore those words in S. John, that a man born of God doth not and cannot sin, must be understood in a larger sense, of their not living in the practice of known sins; of their not allowing themselves in that course of Life, nor going on deliberately with it.

By the sin unto death, is meat the same thing with that Apostacy mentioned in the 6th of the Hebrews. Among the Jews some sins were punished by a total excision or cutting off,¹³ and this probably gave the rise to that designation of a sin unto death. The words in the Epistle to the Hebrews do plainly import those who being not only Baptized, but having also received a share of the Extraordinary Effusion of the Holy Ghost, had totally renounced the Christian Religion, and apostatized from the Faith, which was a Crucifying of Christ anew. Such Apostates to Judaism were thereby involved in the crime and guilt of the crucifying of Christ, and the putting him to open shame. Now Persons so Apostatizing could not be renewed again by Repentance, it not being possible to do any thing toward their conviction that had not been already done: and they hardning themselves against all that was offer’d for their conviction, were arrived at such a degree of wickedness, that it was impossible to work upon them; there was nothing left to be tried, that had not been already tried, and proved to be ineffectual. Yet it is to be observed, that it was an unjustifiable piece of rigor, to apply these words to all such as had fallen in a time of trial and persecution: for as they had not those miraculous means of conviction, which must be acknowledged to be the strongest, the sensiblest, and the most easily apprehended of all Arguments; so that they could not sin so heinously as those had done, who after what they had seen and felt, revolted from the Faith.

Great difference is also to be made between a deliberate sin that a Man goes into upon choice, and in which he continues; and a Sin that the fears of death and the infirmities of Human Nature betray him into, and out of which he quickly recovers himself; and for which he mourns bitterly. There was no reason to apply what is said in the New Testament against the wicked Apostates of that time, to those who were overcome in the Persecution. The latter sinned grievously; yet it was not in the same kind, nor are they in any sort to be compar’d to the former. All affectations of excessive severity look like Pharisaical Hypocrisy; whereas the Spirit of Christ which is made up of Humility and Charity, will make us look so severely to our selves, that on that very account we will be gentle even to the failings of others.

Yet on the other hand, the Church ought to endeavour to conform her self so far to her Head, and to his Doctrine, as to note those who obey not the Gospel,¹⁴ and to have no company with them, that they may be ashamed: yet not so as to hate such a one, or count him as an Enemy, but to admonish him as a Brother. Into what neglect or prostitution soever any Church may have fallen in this great point of separating Offenders, of making them ashamed, and of keeping others from being corrupted with their ill Example and bad Influence, that must be confessed to be a very great defect and blemish. The Church of Rome had slackned all the ancient Rules of Discipline, and had perverted this matter in a most scandalous manner; and the World is now sunk into so much corruption, and to such a contempt of holy things, that it is much more easy here to find matter for lamentation, than to see how to remedy or correct it.

Footnotes

1. Gal. 3.10. ↩

2. Jam. 2.10, 11. ↩

3. Matth. 12.24, 31. ↩

4. 1 Joh. 3.6, 9.5.18. ↩

5. Heb. 6.4.5.6. ↩

6. Luk. 17.4. ↩

7. Matt. 18.35. ↩

8. 1 Cor. 5.5. ↩

9. 2 Cor. 2.7. ↩

10. Gal. 6.1. ↩

11. 2 Tim 4.2. Tit. 1.13. 1 Joh. 5.16. ↩

12. Jam. 5.15, 16. ↩

13. Heb. 6.6. ↩

14. 2 Thess. 36.14, 15. ↩