and trust in God has no heart. Paul is speaking, therefore, of the Spirit which has a heart, i. e., of the spirit of man, 1. e., the pious mind. And the meaning is: “Man ventures, so zealous for himself is he, sometimes to ask of God things which it is not right for Him to give or for man to receive. Then the pious mind forthwith sweats because of the recklessness of the carnal man (for Paul makes two of every man here), and cries to God with weepings and groanings inexplicable to us, grieving for its persistent folly and praying for forgiveness. And if this happens when he goes wrong in praying, how much more when he fails by sinning! The Spirit flees for refuge to God, laments the disobedience of the flesh, and is filled with shame at the constant recurrence of the weariness with life and the flesh that comes therefrom. But God, who knoweth the hearts, sees plainly what faith, or the pious mind, meditates: namely, that it is anxious for the salvation of the man and never ceases to cry to God in behalf of the saints, i. e., of the faithful, themselves to wit. And a kind God grants that these things work together for good to them on whose behalf the pious mind is troubled.” Man, therefore, is ever dead, as is shown by his works; at the same time he ever lives, as is perceived from the anguish of his soul. EM See now whether they can take in this teaching who have not a lively faith in God.
[11]. The Sin Against the Holy Ghost
Since from what has been said above it can easily be inferred what the sin against the Holy Ghost is, I have thought it seasonable to speak of that in this place.
When, therefore, Christ says, Matt. 12:31: “Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come,” it is clear from the above quoted words of Christ, John 13:10, He that is bathed needeth not save to wash his feet,” that if you have faith, there is no sin at all which is not blotted out. For where faith is, even though you
are always a sinner you yet never cease to deplore the unfortunate propensity to sin and are always trying to fashion yourself anew. On the other hand, where faith is not, there no account is taken of sin or of the fear of God. Let one meantime make whatever pretence one will, murmur prayers, fast, feed the hungry; if one has not faith in God, all these things are shams and the price of vainglory. It is, therefore, the utmost blasphemy against God not to trust in Him. From this then proceed palpable slanders. “For the impious man says in his heart, There is no God” [Ps. 14: 1]; and in saying this he blasphemes also against the work of God, as the hypocrites did in the aforesaid passage in Matthew 12:23-37. They seemed to the simple people most ardent worshippers of God, when they were His fiercest foes; hence they blasphemed against the work of God. For when Christ by divine power had driven the devil out of his human habitation, they slanderously said it was done by the power of the prince of the devils. And this slander could have emanated from nothing but lack of faith. For their not believing that Christ is the Son of God was the reason why they spoke slanderously of His work. And the fact that they were absolutely ἄϑεοι;?. e., without God, was the reason why they did not believe in Christ. For if they had trusted in God they could not have helped recognizing »^ God. It is, therefore, lack of faith alone, which we call infidelity or disbelief, that is never forgiven; for it never lays hold of or worships God, never fears Him, never orders itself according to His will, never avoids sin in order not to offend Him. Piety, on the other hand, does so. It clings constantly to God as its one treasure, cleaves to Him alone, worships Him alone, hangs upon His nod, is on its guard against the things that offend Him, and when from weakness it has been guilty of them bewails its error with troubled tears. Here there is no careless indifference to sin, but watchful and faithful guard to prevent sin from creeping in anywhere. There is no watchman, therefore, so diligent in guarding you against sinning as faith. What John says, I John 5: 16, about a sin unto death refers to nothing else than disbelief, as is easily apparent to one who looks atit closely. “If,” he says, “any man see his brother sinning 8 sin not unto death, he shall entreat, and he shall obtain and
shall give life to him, and, indeed, to all them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: concerning that I do not command that one should pray.” But there is other sin that is not unto death. Concerning this, therefore, you ought to pray. For instance, when anyone wrongs another it is a serious thing; but the more serious it is, the more should we who are members one of another pray God to forgive an offence so great. But, that the sin against the Holy Ghost and the watehfulness of faith may be more clearly understood, he adds [I John 5:18]: We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not.” How is it, disciple beloved of Christ, that he does not sin who is born of God, when you yourself say that no one is clean? Is no one born of God? For we all sin and offend in many things, all of us. Are we born of God, then? And you who have received the first fruits of the Spirit groan [cf. Rom. 8:23]. Is it sin you groan for? How, then, are you born of God? See, therefore, how the divine man answers and explains himself. He says [I John 5:18]: “He that is born of God guardeth himself, and an evil demon toucheth him not.” Behold the watehfulness and care not to sin, and, when you have sinned, the anxiety to wash the sin away with tears and not to sin again! “This anxiety the unbelieving do not share. Many persons may want much more said about the sin against the Holy Ghost, because the men of old involved themselves in so many ambiguities and sinuosities on the subject that they eould hardly see what its character was; but I am content with the above. For not even an angel from heaven by teaching otherwise [cf. Gal. 1:8] could make the faithful mind believe that there is any sin that is not atoned for through Christ. This is what solid faith in Christ means. It remains, therefore, that disbelief is the only thing that is denied pardon.
Now as to those impostors who, not to keep silence when they cannot endure that all sins should be washed away through the grace of Christ (for they would rather, though they cannot make atonement, yet for pay received seem to do so)—who, I say, not to keep silence assert that Christ made atonement for original sin only, or for the sins merely of those who were before Him. Their error might be at once over-
thrown by that single proclamation of the Baptist [John 1:29]: “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world”; for original sin is not the only sin in the world, and Christ takes away all the sins of the world. Yet I would by no means pass over the very clear testimony of I John 2: 1-2, that they may not be able to plead any excuse. “Little children,” he says, “these things write I unto you, that ye may not sin. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
With this testimony, then, I shall here be content, since it has been abundantly proved above that Christ is the means of salvation to all.
The true religion of Christ, then, consists in this: that wretched man despairs of himself and rests all his thought and confidence on God, sure that He can refuse nothing who has given His Son for us; and that the Son, who is equally God with the Father, can refuse nothing, since He is ours. But false religion merely juggles with the name of Christ, having its hope elsewhere. For, to wash away his sins, one man hires drunken singers, another monks to engage in empty psalmody; one thinks to purchase blessedness by building pretentious churches, another by having costly raiment made for some saint; one rests on his own works, another on those of somebody else. In short, there are as many gods as there are cities, for each has some special saint to whom it entrusts its salvation. So also Jeremiah laments, 2: 28: “According to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.”
Almighty God, grant that we may all recognize our blindness, and that we who have thus far clung to creatures may henceforth cleave to the Creator, that He may be our only treasure and our heart abide with Him [ef. Mt. 6: 21].
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