and the jubilee the liberty proclaimed by the Holy Ghost to the redeemed. "And if a man sell a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it. And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city, shall be established for ever to him that bought it, throughout his generation; it shall not go out in the jubilee," Lev. xxv. 29, 30. In a gospel sense, the house holds forth, first the man; the fool built his house on the sand. Secondly, it may hold forth God in covenant, who has been the saints dwelling-place in all generations, and he that sells himself to work spiritual or presumptuous wickedness, has sold his soul, his God, and all; redemption will not reach him; the Holy Ghost will not proclaim liberty to him: Satan holds him fast, and justice forbids his enlargement. Thus God shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening, Job xii. 14.

This great sin is called the sin unto death, 1 John v. 16; because the sinner sins out of the reach of the promise of eternal life; and makes the gospel, which is a dispensation of the grace of God, a savour of death unto death; that is, it convinced him that he was legally dead, and left him spiritually dead under the sentence due to unbelief; inverting by the height of his "crimes the very order of the covenant with respect to himself.

It is likewise called the sin against the Holy

Ghost; because the gospel is a dispensation of the Spirit of God that exceedeth the legal dispensation in glory, as much as the sun in his meridian does the minutest star; and the great transgressor sins wilfully, against the Spirit of God which is revealed and promised in the gospel.

It is called the unpardonable sin, because the guilty wretch tramples under foot the blood of the son of God, through which alone he can, consistent with justice, obtain a pardon.

The deplorable creature who is left to sin this unpardonable sin, is one who like Balaam has had his eyes opened to see the holiness of God in his word. Secondly, to taste the word of God as Balaam did when God put a word in his mouth, and bid him speak thus; or, as the way-side hearers did, when they heard the word, and anon with joy received it. Thirdly, it is sometimes done over the belly of the fullest convictions, as was the case with the Pharisees, who, as Christ tells you, knew him even while they conspired against his life; as appears by the parable of the vineyard, and the husbandmen. After the master of the vineyard had sent several of his servants, and all met with abuse or death; he having one son, sent him, saying, they will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw him, [mark here their knowledge and confession,] but when the husbandmen saw him, they said, "This is the heir, come let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.' Thus they knew him, confessed him and killed

him; and to this agrees Nicodemus, speaking as the mouth of all the rest, "We know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do the miracles thou dost, except God be with him." Thus they knew he was a teacher sent from God, and that God was with him, by the miracles he performed; for none could do them except God were with them; and yet all agreed to put him to death, except Nicodemus. Thus they saw and hated both Christ and his father, and really fulfilled that which was written in their law; "They hated me without a cause."

Thus they sinned against their own confessions; against light and knowledge; against all the strong convictions that his miracles produced; and against his holy and innocent life; which two were sufficient to prove him the true Messiah.

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But to be short; a man that sins against the Holy Ghost, must be enlightened as Balaam was, and taste the good word of God, Heb. vi. 5; or receive the word with joy, as the way-side hearers did, Matt. xiii. 20; and receive some knowledge of the word, which Peter calls knowing the way of righteousness; he must also have his enmity slain by the power of the word as Saul had; and be reformed by it, as Herod was; which the Saviour calls the unclean spirit going out of a man, and leaving him empty, swept, and garnished.

All this may be done on a soul, where the

plough of real connection never drew a furrow ; where real faith and pure love never took root;

Having no root, they withered away," that is, their joy withered away; and all their profession was scorched up in a fiery trial, for the want of moisture, Luke viii. 6.; how could it be otherwise when the whole profession was destitute of a broken and a contrite heart? it is said to fall on stony ground, where it had not much earth, where it only floated on the understanding; slew their enmity, and moved their passions; and, for want of moisture, or of the Spirit, the water of life, to soften the soil, and make way for the root, it was scorched; and when the sun was up, it withered away. Joy withered away for the want of a good root, real love is the root of a stable joy, and they withered away from their profession as well as their joy; or, as Peter says, they turned from the holy commandment delivered unto them, for want of a rooted faith in the mind. Thus their lamp goes out for want of oil, their joy withers for want of a rooted love, and their confession and profession is all scorched in a fiery trial, for want of a rooted faith, and of the soil of a broken heart; and all this is for the want of divine moisture to make it so.

When this is the case, as Peter says, he abandons his profession and reformation; for if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and

overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning; "For it had been better for them not to know the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them."

Our Lord calls this a withering away; Peter terms it a turning away from a knowledge and reformation; and Paul calls it a falling away. When this is the case with a man destitute of all rooted experience, Satan will not let him stay there; but, being given up of God, he is led forth into open wickedness, which Paul calls a crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh; because he acts the same part, and appears in the same spirit of them who crucified him at first. And by his open apostacy and wickedness he puts him in his gospel, and in his cause, to an open shame, as they did, who arrayed him, exposed him, mocked him, and scourged him. Such are said to sin with the full consent of their will, after an enlightened knowledge of the truth being received, Heb. x. 26; insomuch that he exposes to the open contempt of fools the mystery of the cross; and by his profaning the sublime mystery of redemption, he is said to tread under foot the Son of God; and by his open profanity and daring contempt of the Saviour, to count the blood of the covenant, wherewith Christ was sanctified from our sin, [compare John xvii. 19. with Heb. x. 29.] an unholy thing; and by his exposing to ridicule, in profane company, the confessions, the temptations, and expe