sons resolved not only to blast his reputation, but, if possible, to secure the destruction of his life! Verse 14. Was he not justified therefore in the faithful, though severe expressions, verse 34 — ye perverse, venomous, deceitful creatures! Wherefore I say to you, &c. 31, 32. The latter of these verses seems to explain the former; and, taken in connexion with verse 34, it intimates, that "the blasphemy of the Spirit," is a perverse, malicious "speaking against the Holy Ghost." It does not concern so much the commission of works in opposition and enmity, as the expression of malicious "words;" and by the words, &c. verse 37. Yes, the condemning sin of thousands will be, not the perpetration of actual crimes, but the betrayment of unhallowed tempers, the utterance of revengeful "words!" But, have not the Apostles adverted to this topic; and may we not find, in their writings, some illustrations of its awful import? Does not the historian of the "Acts" present to our notice characters chargeable with this damning crime, while he narrates the tragic scene of the protomartyr's death? Read his narrative, chap. vii. 51. 54. 57, 58. What a precision, and a similarity of character! and, O! what a contrast between the dying martyr, and these selfdestroying sinners! And does not the Apostle Paul speak in accordance with this sentiment, in that well-known part of his Letter to the Hebrews, vi. 4-6? In this, as in the former cases, a professional knowledge is possessed, together with a perverse, malignant opposition a case, by the way, certainly not impossible, or Paul had never mentioned it. John, also, is generally supposed to refer to this identical sin, when, at the close of his first epistle, he says, v. 16. It is indeed, and in distinction, "a sin unto death". - the deadly sin! Death spiritual in this world, and death eternal in the world to come, is the certain, the unavoidable doom. No dispensation of mercy can reverse it — heaven, earth, and hell, unite to confirm it! It may be asked, by what circumstances was it attended, so as to make it known to be the unpardonable sin? But John's language, compared with Paul's, and Luke's, and Christ's, affords the solemn illustration, manifest and true. This blasphemy is certainly direct, manifest, and malignant. The crime and wretched case of those who, instigated by worldly ambition and avarice, slandered what they knew to be the cause of God, and against conviction, reviled the Saviour's work as the operation of evil spirits.-Campbell's Dissert. No. ix. p. 377. 2 It seems to me, that the Apostle here gives up appstates as hopeless in the general, in order to fortify Christians against surrounding dangers--Doddridge's Works, x. p. 118. But it is due to criticism to give the following paraphrase of ver. 16.—“ If any one endowed with spiritual gifts, is sensible that his brother hath committed a sin which is not to be punished with bodily death," &c. — applying it only to the body, and to miraculous healing by the Apostles; which is also confirmed by a long note in Macknight's Apostol. Epistles, iv. p. 301-305. What, then, in reality, is "the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost," but the calumnious, malignant scoffing of apostate professors ?-the language of malicious detraction and abuse 1, employed against the spiritual, sacred character of religion. The persons most subject to this crime are, the professors of godliness, or their children and associates. Look at the Scripture cases already cited; and who were the parties criminated -the ignorant, the profligate, the heathen? Were they not the very characters pretending to piety, but guilty of the passionate ebullitions of an unhumbled heart? "It shall never be forgiven," &c. - for the heart blinded by prejudice, enslaved and ruled by unbridled passions, "forgiveness" will never be asked: and we know who has said, Luke xiv. 11. Besides, it is deathful to all the interests and energies of the soul - it is a quenching2, 1 Thess. v. 19-resisting, Acts vii. 51-grieving, Eph. iv. 30 doing despite to 3, Heb. x. 29, the Holy Spirit. And is not very "sorest punishment" in reserve for such characters! the Is this its awful import then, and are none of us chargeable with approach to the boundaries of this deathful sin? O, let every heart inquire, and every conscience testify! Secondly, Let us be concerned to apply it. Salvation is properly represented as sustaining a two-fold character; the work of the Saviour and the work of the Spirit: on these two hang all the interests of happiness and heaven. There may be an acknowledgment of the former, without an experience of the latter, but not the contrary. They ought to be inseparable; but the former is evidently the subject of preference with multitudes, professor and profane; the latter is too much neglected, for an obvious reason, as it respects so searchingly the character of our principles and practice. It is worthy of remark, that almost all the controversies of the religious world originate here, in reference to the one or the other. O! The import of the word Baaopnia is maledicentia, in the largest acceptation, comprehending all sorts of verbal abuse, imprecation, reviling, and calumny.. But we have departed from its Scripture usage, applying it so particularly to reproachful speeches against God. Hence the epithet is unjustly and odiously used very often in controversial writings, an evil imputable solely to the malignity of temper, which a habit of disputation rarely fails to produce.-Campbell's Prel. Diss. No. ix. p. 364. 2 BETE, extinguish; referring to those "flames of fire" attending the gifts of the Spirit at the Pentecost, Acts ii. 3.—Macknight in Parkhurst's Greek Lex. p. 604. 3 The original word is vußpias, treating with insolent or contumelious injury. The French, "fait outrage" and Ital. " oltraggiato." 4 The habitual profanation of the name and attributes of God, by common swearing, is but too manifest an approach towards it. There is not an entire coincidence. The latter of these vices may be considered as arising solely from the defect of what is good in principle and disposition; the former, from the acquisition of what is evil in the extreme: but there is a close connexion between them, and an insensible gradation from the one to the other. To accustom one's self to treat the Sovereign of the Universe with irreverent familiarity, is the first step: malignity to arraign his attributes, and revile his providence, is the last.--Campbell's Prelim. Dissert. No. ix. p. 367. let us be concerned to know and to believe the Scripture testimony on this important particular. The reason of the Saviour's distinction between blasphemy against himself and the Spirit, is founded on the very nature and necessity of things: forgiveness is impossible to the latter, so much so as Mark xvi. 16, is true. Be this doctrine applied then, 1. For regulating the exercises of the tongue. Blasphemy" 1 is, emphatically, one of the sins of the tongue the sin of hateful slander against the Spirit of God. What humbling, mortifying truths, are declared by James, in his inimitable description of the tongue, Ch. iii. 5-8. 2 O! let this "unruly member" be controlled and ruled by holy principles and sovereign grace, Ps. cxli. "Words" of evil are enough for "damnation !" 3. 2. For guarding against the appearance of this evil. may It is an offence" against the Holy Ghost;" but it may be committed either directly or indirectly. There is an analogy between the Saviour and the Spirit; and as in the former, so in the latter, the transgression be against his members or his ministers, his cause or Scriptures, Matt. x. 40-42. Every sin is against the Spirit - especially the sin of contention and strife; but when the subjects of his grace are calumniated and maliciously abused when the very saints and servants of the Most High are malignantly and perversely traduced, we behold affecting symptoms of unpardonable sin, Matt. vi. 23. Rom. xii. 9. 3. For feeling the importance of spiritual religion. There, doubtless, is still such a thing as "receiving the Holy Ghost." He is come "the life of the world." Birth, vegetation, life, growth, action; are all employed to represent it. Never forget, Rom. viii. 6. Then, Acts xix. 2. 4. For cultivating the practice of genuine piety. Have your fruit, &c. Rom. vi. 22. A chosen generation, &c. 1 Pet. ii. 9. Habitually concerned thus to live, never indulge the fear of unpardonable transgression. The humble, meek, conscientious, exemplary, never perpetrate the crime; but pride, passion, malice, strife, evil-speaking, are its inseparable attendants! Devoutly read, Gal. v. 19-23. February, 1825. גמרי. 1 This term is either from βλαπτειν φημην, hurting the reputation, or βαλλειν φημη, smiting by a report. Therefore literally denotes nothing more than the injuring of any one's character, to what or whomsoever it may be applied. It corresponds with to revile, reproach, Ps. xliv. 17. The Sept. has also thus read in 2 Kings xix. 4; and 7 in Is. lii. 5.-Mintert. Schleusner, i. p. 340. Parkhurst, Greek, p. 118. 2 Chap. iii. 1-12, from Sect. xiv. of Jebb's Sacred Literature, in which the writer has most ably examined the probable origin and progress of the Apostle's train of thought-exhibited his nice observance of Hebrew parallelism and illustrated the sense, especially the poetical images, of the sacred penman, by similar examples from other writers, both poetical and prosaic, both sacred and profane. pp. 273. 308. SONNET. But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? JOB Xxviii. ver. 12. Ye learned in the learning of mankind, Who boast of knowledge, and possess the spell Where wisdom may be found? or, like the wind, And baffle every effort of the mind? Does worldly wisdom, from whose copious rill "The place of understanding?"-Sacred sealed, Characteristic Notices of Biblical Works. H. D. I. THE DIFFICulties of Infidelity. By George Stanley FABER, B.D. Rector of Long-Newton. 8vo. pp. 272. London, Rivingtons, 1824. 7s. boards. [Continued from p. 94.] THE many and strikingly fulfilled prophecies preserved in the writings of the Old and New Testaments, afford one of the strongest evidences for the truth of revealed religion, which can be adduced. A mere man, endowed with no greater facilities, as far as his natural powers are concerned, than his fellow men, for developing the events of futurity, authoritatively declares that, at a given period of time, a particular series of events will transpire, and those, too, of such a nature, that no human sagacity could possibly have foreseen. The time at length arrives when these predictions are strikingly and circumstantially fulfilled, and that, sometimes, by the very persons who were most interested in preventing their fulfilment; what stronger, or more convincing proof, can we wish for or expect in support of the divine inspiration of those Writings, which make such announcements? or what greater proof could be afforded of the irrationality of persons who, notwithstanding the existence of these authenticated facts, deny the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures? This topic forms the subject of discussion in Sect. 4, of Mr. Faber's work, which reviews the Difficulties attendant upon Deistical Infidelity, in regard to actually accomplished Prophecy. - The prophecy selected by Mr. Faber, is that of Moses, respecting the future abject condition of the Jews- a people who, at the time of its delivery, were on the eve of victoriously taking possession of the land of Palestine. "I the rather select this prediction," says Mr. Faber, "both on account of its remote antiquity, for it was uttered fifteen centuries before it began to be accomplished; and, on account of the demonstration, which, by a necessary consequence, it affords to the divine authority of the Levitical dispensation." — p. 78. In his remarks on the fulfilment of this singularly minute prediction, Mr. Faber has made considerable use of Bishop Newton's elaborate work on the Prophecies, where it is shewn that the prophecy, comprising no fewer than seventeen distinct particulars, had been fully accomplished, without a single exception. "So stands the fact the only question, therefore, is, How are we to account for it. The believer, whether Jew or Christian, conceiving himself to have a knot which the Deity alone can untie, finds the solution of the problem in a divine revelation. God only can evolve the roll of futurity; but the roll of futurity has here been evolved, even to a considerable number of very minute particulars: therefore, God, speaking by the mouth of Moses, has evolved that roll."- p. 93. Mr. Faber then proceeds to inquire what is to be done by the infidel: and how he can account for the naked fact of the accomplishment of the prophecy, so as to evade the necessity of calling in the aid of inspiration. The only two possible modes of attempted solution, Mr. Faber conceives to be either That Moses, being endowed with a large share of political sagacity, foresaw, with the keen eye of a profound statesman, who ventures to predict effects from wellknown existing causes, that the Israelites, being a comparatively weak people, would sooner or later be conquered and dispersed by some powerful nation. This theory Mr. Faber shews to be too vague and indefinite to afford any satisfaction to a reasoning mind. Nor is the other conceived solution a whit more satisfactory, viz: That the whole circumstance of the completion of the Prophecy is to be ascribed to a lucky accident. Collins, it will be remembered, in order to disparage the prophetic annunciations of the Scriptures, has compared them with a well-known passage in the writings of Seneca, which passage has accidentally proved to be, in his estimation, a prediction of the discovery of America, by Christopher Columbus. "Give me," says Collins," a prophecy from your Bible, which may be as clearly predictive of any event which you may choose to allege for the accomplishment, as the verses of Seneca have, by mere accident, proved to be, of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. Give me such a prophecy from your Bible, as I have produced to you from a heathen poet, who yet was no prophet, nor claimed the character; and I will turn believer." That this comparison, so triumphantly urged, is by no means warranted, Mr. Faber satisfactorily shews: (1.) From the essential difference between the leading characteristic of the real prophecy of Moses, under consideration, namely, complexity; and the leading characteristic of the pretended prophecy of Seneca, namely, indefinite simplicity. (2.) From the dissimilarity in the grounds and reasons on which each prophecy is supported; and (3.) From the fact, that a tradition of the discovery of America by the Phenicians was in existence, and well known prior to the time of Seneca's writing, which being known to him, reduces his pretended ratiocination to a mere poetical ornament, and deprives it even of the semblance of a prophecy. "The sum, then, of the whole matter may be briefly stated, as follows: "We have now extant a prophecy, indisputably penned many ages before the Christian era: and we have likewise before our very eyes a most full and perfect accomplishment of this prophecy. "Neither of these two points can be controverted by the infidel. Hence he is reduced to the necessity, either of admitting the divine inspiration of the prophecy; an admission, which immediately and necessarily draws after it the additional admission, that the Law of Moses was a revelation from heaven: or of denying the divine inspiration of the prophecy; either on the utterly untenable ground that it was merely the result of sagacious political anticipation, or on the equally untenable ground that a prediction comprehending no less than seventeen distinct particulars was minutely fulfilled in every particular simply and solely by a lucky accident. "Such being the plain state of the case, the naked question to be considered and answered is this: whether, under the circumstances which have been set forth, the man who admits, or the man who denies, the divine inspiration of the prophecy of Moses, evinces the more blind and determined credulity.”—p. 107. Sect. V. Notices the Difficulties attendant upon Deistical Infidelity in regard to the facts and circumstances and character of the Christian dispensation. |