BLASPHEMY against the Holy Ghost. Divines are not agreed with respect to the nature of the crime thus denominated (Mat. chap. xii. ver. 31.), and the grounds of the extreme guilt ascribed to it. Dr Tillotson maintains, that it consisted in maliciously attributing the miraculous operations which Christ performed by the power of the Holy Ghost to the devil. Dr Whitby refers it to the dispensation of the Holy Ghost, which commenced after our Lord's resurrection and ascension; and those were guilty of the crime who persisted in their unbelief and blasphemed the Holy Ghost, representing him as an evil spirit. The crime was unpardonable, because it implied a wilful opposition to the last and most powerful evidence which God would vouchsafe to mankind, and preclude the possibility of a recovery to faith and repentance.