ment and fiery indignation, and fo as to do defpite to the Spirit of Grace, by rejecting him as a lying fpirit, and his gifts and miracles as illufions, and fo were guilty of the fin against the Holy Ghoft, fell totally and finally, is fo exceeding evident, that I know none who ever ventured to deny it.

SECTION IV.Argument 4-4thly. This is ftill farther evident from the following words of the fame chapter, Ver. 38. now the just fhall live by faith, nai lav úwoseíantai, but if he draw back, my foul fhall have no pleafure in him. Where observe,

ift. That the word moshev fignifies to draw back, refuse, and fly from a thing; and fo the object of it being here faith, muft fignify the drawing back of the perfon fpoken of from the faith, or refufing fill to profefs it, and fo,(as it here follows) must be his drawing back unto perdition; and because this is done ufually (as here, Ver. 33, 34) out of fear of persecutions. and want of patience to bear them, Ver. 36. Hence it is joined with fear; as Gal. ii. 12. Peter ὑπέςελλεν ἑαυτὸν, withdrew himself fearing the circumcifion, and often fignifies fear, as Deut. i. 17. un iwoseían, thou shalt not be afraid of the face of man; and because men's cowardly fears make them to hide and conceal their profeffion, to diffemble and play the hypocrite; hence it alfo fignifies, to (o) conceal and hide; and by Hefychius and Suidas, is rendered ὑποκρίνεται, δολιεύε a, he plays the hypocrite, and deals deceitfully; all which, in things which do refpect our God and our religion, are pernicious to the foul; efpecially if we confider that he that draweth back ftands oppofed to him that believeth, Ver. 39. and here to him that liveth by faith, and therefore can have none, or only a dead faith; and laftly, that God here folemnly declares his foul fhall have no pleasure in him, and then he must ftill lie under his fad difpleasure. Note,

2dly. That av seintal, if he draws back, refers plainly to the juft man who lives by his faith; and in the prophet, to him who is with faith and patience to wait for the accomplishment of the vifion; and Ver. 39. osakάuevos, the drawὁ ὑποςειλάμενος, back ftands oppofed to him that believes to the falvation of his foul; the words do therefore plainly fuppofe, that the juft man who liveth by that faith, in which if he perfifted he would fave his foul, may draw back to perdition and this is alfo evident from the enfuing words, my foul fhall have no pleasure in him; for they do plainly intimate that God took pleasure in him before his drawing back; for otherwile this threat would fignify nothing, the Lord taking pleasure only in just men, and fuch as live by faith. Note,

(0) See Suicerus in Verbo,

3dly. That nai lav, may be rendered not hypothetically, and if, but, and when the juft man draweth back; for that this is a very common fenfe of the particle, av, fee note on Heb. iii. 15. But if we read the words hypothetically, the fuppofition cannot be of a thing impoffible, for then God must be fuppofed to fpeak thus; if the juft man do that which I know it is impoffible for him to do, and which I am obliged by: promife to preferve him from doing, my foul fhall have no pleasure in him. Which is to make God feriously to threaten men for fuch a fin of which they are not capable, and of which they are obliged to believe they are not capable, if they be o bliged to believe the doctrine of perfeverance, and fo to make his threatenings of none effect.

SECTION V.-Argument 5-5thly. This may be strongly argued from thefe words of the apostle Peter, (a) they allure through the lufts of the flesh, through much wantonness, (or to lafcivioufnefs) those who were clean escaped from them that live in error; for if after they have efcaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jefus Chrift, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worfe with them than the beginning; for it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it is happened to them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the fow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Where note,

1f. That the apofle fpeaks in the beginning of this chapter of fome who should bring in damnable herefies, i. e. herefies which they who embraced fhould receive damnation; and thefe men, faith he, uopeúdovrai, (b) fhall make merchandize of, or gain over to thefe damnable herefies (c) fome of you, who have received like precious faith with us. And here he proceeds to fhew how they fhould do it, viz. by tempting them to filthy lufts; they therefore who were thus allured, must have once had like precious faith with the apoftles, and therefore must have been good chriftians. Note,

3

2dly. That thefe perfons whom they thus allured to uncleanness, had once, ovres, truly and really escaped from those who lived, ev wavy, in error, not of judgment, but of deceitful lufts; for fo this, wax, error, is expounded in the epiftle by St. Peter, when he faith, (d) beware left being led away, Tỹ tŵv ábécμwv whavn, by the deceit of men, practising thefe unnatural lufts, ye fall from your own ftedfaftnefs; plainly sup

a) 2 Pet. ii. 18, 20, 21, 22. (b) Ver. 3.(c) Chap. i. 1.— (d) Chap. iii. 17.

pofing that even fledfaft chriftians might thus fall. Now they who had thus efcaped, were not any longer in bondage to fin, or overcome by it, Ver. 19. which yet, faith St. Paul, Rom. vii. 19, 23. is the ftate of every unregenerate person. See the note there.

3dly. The apostle adds, (e) That they had efcaped the pollutions which are in the world through luft, everywσEL, by the acknowledgment of our Lord and Savior Jefus Chrift; i. e. by the acknowledgment of (f) that truth which is after godliness, which they who are laden with fins cannot attain to; which

is the confequence of true repentance, and which recovers them (g) from the Inare of Satan, who were led captive by him at his will; and fo by fuch an acknowledgment of Chrift, as only true chriftians have, and which is joined with the faith of the elect Tit. i. 1. Moreover, by virtue of this acknowledgment, they had fo far efcaped the pollutions of the world through luft as to be difentangled from them, not overcome by them; as is plain from thofe words, if after they have thus efcaped, they be again entangled and overcome; they also had turned to, i. e. obeyed the holy commandment delivered to them; for otherwife they could not afterwards have turned from it. Now evident it is, that neither all, nor any of these things can truly be affirmed of hypocritical profeffors, who only are in outward fhew, but never in fincerity of heart, turned from the fervice of fin, or obedient to the holy command

ment.

2dly. That these men after fell away totally and finally, we learn from these words; that they were again allured to wantonnefs; again entangled and overcome by their polluting lufts; and fo again in bondage to them, Ver. 19. That they turned from the holy commandment delivered to them to their former vomit, and wallowing in the mire; and that fo fatally, that it had been better for them not to have known the way of rightcoufnefs.

SECTION VI.-Argument 6. All the forementioned texts feem directly to affert this may be done. I proceed fecondly to thofe fcriptures which feem as plainly to affert it hath been done, and therefore may be done again. Now of this we have an inftance,

ft. In Hymenæus and Alexander, and their affociates; which St. Paul, introduceth with a charge to Timothy to hold (i. e. retain) faith and a good confcience, which fome having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck of whom is Hymenæus and Philetus. Now to put away a good confcience, belongs to them alone who once had and ought to have

(e) Tit. i. 1. -(f) 2 Tim. ii. 7.- -(g) 2 Tim. ii, 25, 26.

retained it, and to made Shipwreck of the faith, fo as to blafpheme that doctrine which they once profeffed, is furely to fall off from the profeffion of it. Lafily. The faith and that good confciene he charges Timothy to retain, is doubtless a fincere faith, and a good confcience, that (h) unfeigned faith, and that good confcience he then had; by faying therefore that others had laid aside both thefe, he, in effect, declares that they were totally fallen away, which is fufficient confutation of all their arguments produced from fcripture for the doctrine of perseverance; which if they prove any thing, they prove that true faints cannot fall totally, nor can it reasonably be thought that when fo many do thus fall away, all of them. fhould return by a fincere repentance.

A fecond inftance is that of Hymenæus and Philetus, who, faith the apostle, (i) have erred from the truth (@epi τùv danθειαν ἐςόχησαν have fallen of from the truth) and overthrown the faith of fome, (k) (so wepi wisi asosiy, 1 Tim. vi. 21. is to fall away from the faith, and is another inftance of this na-. ture;) for feeing chriftians believe to the falvation of their fouls, Heb. x. 39. and the end of their faith, is the falvation of their fouls, 1 Pet. i. 9. they who do overthrow their faith muft overthrow that in them which had it continued, would have ended in their falvation.

3dly. We have juft reafon to fufpect this of many Judaizers in the church of Galatia; for as the apostle declares, that they had (1) received the Spirit through the hearing of faith; that they were all made (m) the fons of God by faith in Chrift Jefus, and by baptism had put on Christ, and that (n) because they were Jons, God had fent the spirit of his fon into their hearts, crying Abba Father; that they once (o) ran well; fo doth he marvel that they were (p) fo foon removed from him that called them in the grace of Chrift to another gofpel, by which Chrift's gospel was perverted. He inquires, (q) Who had bewitched them that they should not obey the truth? And how it was (r) that after they had known, or rather were known of God, they returned again to the beggarly elements of the world to which they defired to be in bondage; declaring that he was (f) afraid of them left he had bestowed upon them labor in vain; and that he (t) travailed in birth with them to renew in them that faith from which they were

(b) 2 Tim. i. 5. -(i) 2 Tim. ii. 18.

(*) So, μὴ ἀτύχει γυναικὸς σοφῆς καὶ ἀγαθῆς, depart not from a wife and good wife, and ἀποχεῖν ἐλπίδων καὶ το προσδεκθένα, is to fall from our hopes and expectations, Oecum. in locum. (1) Chap. iii. 2, 5.(m) Ver. 26, 27. Chap. v. 7.-(p) Chap. i. 6. 7.9.) Ver. 11. -(i) Ver. 19.

-(n) Chap. iv. 6.-(0) -(9) Chap. iii. 1.--- ~(r) Chap. iv.

fallen, and to (u) form Chrift in them; that they now did not obey the truth. And feeing they now defired to be circumcifed, and to be under the law, he plainly tells them that (w) if they were circumcifed Chrift should profit them nothing; that he was become of none effect to as many of them as fought for juftification by the works of the law, they being fallen from grace, and therefore must have been formerly in a state of grace. It is therefore evident that the apostle believed that they who had begun in the fpirit might end in the flesh; that they who were made the fons of God by faith in Chrift Fefus, might be fo changed that Chrift should profit them nothing, and be of none effect to them, and that they who were once known of God, might fall from his grace and favor.

To this head alfo are to be referred the predictions of the feripture concerning perfons who fhould fall away; for being divine predictions they must come to pafs, and being predictions of things which were to happen long before our times they must be allo inftances of what hath come to pafs. Now fuch are,

1ft. Chrift's declaration that by reafon of the extreme affliction of the times, in which Jerufalem was to be deftroyed, many fhould be offended; i. e. fhould fall off from the faith: And that becaufe iniquity fhall abound, the love of many shall wax cold; but he that endures to the end fhall be faved, Mat. xxiv. 12, 13. Where that Chrift fpeaks not of an hypocritical outward profeffion of affection to him, may be gathered from his ftyling it not pretence; but love; his fuppofition that it was fervent love; for what was never hot cannot wax cold; yea fuch love in which had they continued they would certainly have been faved; and yet he doth not only intimate that fome would not continue in that love to the end, but plainly doth foretell that it in many would wax cold.

2dly. As our Lord here foretold that there fhould be then an apoftaly of the believers of the Jewish nation; fo also did St. Paul fpeak of the fame apoftafy, as a thing that was to happen before the coming of the man of fin, 2 Theff. ii. 3. adding, that the Spirit faid exprefsly that in the latter times, (the times then inftant, Ver. 6.) Jome fhould depart from the faith. Now to prevent this apoftafy of the believing Jews, the epiftle to the Hebrews was manifeftly written. And as the excellent Dr. Barrow used to fay, that it was written against the doctrine of perfeverance; fo is it certain that it contain. eth many cogent arguments against that doctrine, befides thofe three produced already from it. As will be evident,

(u) Chap. 5. 7.(w) Ver. 2.