they believed not in Him who was present with and spake to them, and that counting Him
as an enemy because He spake the truth, they put Him besides to death. This sin so great
and terrible it is clear they had not had if He had not come and spoken to them. As then
when we hear the words, “They had not had sin;” we do not understand all, but some, sin;
so when we hear in to-day’s lesson, “Blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven;” we un-
derstand not all, but a certain kind of blasphemy; and when we hear, “Whosoever speaketh
a word against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him;” we ought not to understand
every, but some certain word.
12. For in that He saith also in this very text, “But blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be
forgiven;” surely we must needs understand not blasphemy of every spirit, but the Holy
Spirit. And though He had not expressed this anywhere else more plainly, who could be so
silly as to understand it in any other way? According to the same rule of speech is this ex-
pression also understood, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit.” 2363 For He
doth not say in that place, and of the Holy Spirit; yet this is understood. Nor because He
said of water and of the Spirit, is any one forced to understand it of every spirit. Wherefore
when you hear, “But the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven;” as you must not
understand it of every spirit, so not of every blasphemy against the Spirit.
13. I see that you are now wishing to hear, since it is not every blasphemy of the Spirit,
what that blasphemy is which shall not be forgiven, and what that word is, since it is not
every word which if it shall be spoken against the Holy Ghost, shall not be forgiven neither
in this world, neither in the world to come. And for my part I should be willing to tell you
at once, what you are so very intently waiting to hear; but bear for a while the delay which
a more careful diligence requires, till by the Lord’s assistance I shall unfold the whole
meaning of the passage before us. Now the other two Evangelists, Mark and Luke, when
they spake of the same thing, did not say “blasphemy” or “a word,” that we might understand
it not of every blasphemy, but of some sort of blasphemy; not every word, but some certain
word. What then did they say? In Mark it is thus written, “Verily I say unto you, all sins
shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies, where-withsoever they shall blas-
pheme. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, hath never forgiveness, but
shall be held guilty of an eternal offence.”2364 In Luke it is thus: “And whosoever shall speak
a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but unto him that blasphemeth
against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven.”2365 Is there any departure from the truth
of the same proposition because of some diversity in the expression? For indeed there is no
other reason why the Evangelists do not relate the same things in the same way, but that we
2363 John iii. 5.
2364 Mark iii. 28, 29. Reus æterni peccati, ἁμαρτήματος (for κρίσεως). So also Cyprian, Ep. xvi.
2365 Luke xii. 10.
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On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xii. 32, ‘Whosoever shall speak a word…