Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
Ver. 31. All manner of sin and blasphemy, &c.] All without exception, yea, though it be blasphemy, Isaiah 44:22. God blots out the thick cloud as well as the cloud, enormities as well as infirmities. Man cannot commit more than he can and will remit to the penitent. The sun by his force can scatter the greatest mist, as well as the least vapour; and the sea by its vastness drown mountains as well as mole hills. The grace of our Lord "abounds to flowing over," saith St Paul, υπερεπλεονασε, 1 Timothy 1:14; "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin," saith St John. Joh 1:7 Ego admisi, unde tu damnare potes me, sed non amisisti unde tu salvare potes me, saith Augustine. And yet Novatus, the proud heretic, denied the possibility of pardon to them that had any whit fallen off in times of persecution, though they rose again by repentance. But God's thoughts of mercy are not as man's, Isaiah 55:8; he can and will pardon such sins as no god or man can do besides,Micah 7:18; "Who is a God like unto thee?" For what? "That pardoneth all sorts of sin," &c. This none can believe without supernatural grace. We are ready to measure God by our model.
But the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, &c.] This is nothing else, saith John Diazius, to that butcher his brother, quam agnitam veritatem flagitiose insectari a malicious persecuting of the known truth. A sin it is of malice after strong conviction, expressed in words by a tongue set on fire by hell, and in actions coming from a venomous spirit, and tending to opposition and bitter persecution, if their malice be not greater than their power. This was committed by Saul, Julian, Latomus of Lovain, a Rockwood, a chief persecutor at Calice in Henry VIII's days, who, to his last breath, staring and raging, cried that he was utterly damned, for that he had sought maliciously the deaths of a number of the most honest men in the town, &c. Stephen Gardiner said as much also in effect to himself, when he lay on his deathbed, and so both stinkingly and unrepentantly died, saith Mr Fox.
a Latomus confessus est inter horrendos mugitus, se contra conscientiam adversatum esse veritati. Melancth.