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but yet this alone is not the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost; for many that have stood it out a long time, and have often quenched and grieved the Holy Spirit, yet at last they have been wrought upon into sincere conversion.
2 A man may commit many heinous and crying sins, and yet not be guilty of, the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost. A man may be an idolater, a whoremonger, a fornicator, a murderer, and work witchcraft, and sin with a very high hand; nay, he may live in all manner of filthiness and lewdness, and yet not be under the guilt of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost. Thus we read, 2 Chrn. xxxiii. that Manasseh sinned with a very high hand; he was an idolater, an inchanter, and worked witchcraft and dealt with familiar spirits and wrought much evil, in the sight of the Lord.—And Mary Magdalen had seven devils cast out of her, Luke viii. 2. and yet both were pardoned.
3. A man may sin presumptuously against great light and knowledge, and yet not commit this sin uuto death: For, Peter, when he denied Christ, he did it against great knowledge of Christ; he knew Christ to be his Lord and Saviour, he was one of Christ's beloved disciples; and, for all that, how strongly he denied Christ, and that with an oath: And yet, for all that, Christ looked upon him with a merciful eye and he repented and was forgiven.
4. It is not every malicious sin that is the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost: for