ance out of the hand of the word adórios, yet, by the tenor of the sentence, and manifest scope of the place, are so amused in their design, that in their expressions they fall into the way of the ancient interpretation mentioned. Calvin, having mentioned the exposition of some to this effect, "Lest, when I have well and faithfully taught others, I myself, by an evil course of life, should receive the sentence of damnation from God," doth not at all tax this exposition, but only presents another, which, as he supposeth, doth melius quadrare, better suit with the place. And yet, immediately after, acknowledgeth that the sentence may cohere with the former saying, thus, "Lest I be defrauded," or deprived, "of the Gospel, whereof others, by my means, are made partakers."* Which sense, with that contended for by us, are no more two, but one interpretation. Musculus is right down for the same sense, upon the place. "The first reason," saith he, "is, lest he should become a reprobate, i. e. lest he should be amongst those who do not run," or strive, " lawfully, and so never come to obtain the prize." Mr. John Deodate, as he is Englished upon the place, thus, "A castaway, i. e. found unworthy of being approved and rewarded, as one of God's bold champions. He hath a relation to that there were certain colleges or schools of these exercises of arms, in which those that were entered, if they did not submit themselves to the rigour of the discipline, or did not prove as they should do, were crossed out by the masters." Our English annotators, who plough much of their ground with Mr. Deodate's heifer, incumber their opinion about perseverance, with words of the same import upon the place. So that the best ancient expositors, freely, and with perfect agreement to themselves, and their judgments otherwise, and the best modern interpreters, unwillingly, and without sparing themselves in their opinions otherwise, give testimony to such a sense of the word adókipos, and so of the whole period, which clearly asserteth a possibility of a final fall in true believers.

5, and lastly, The scope of the place, from verse 23, evinceth the legitimacy of such a sense in both, above all contradiction. For the apostle, having asserted this for the reason, motive, or end, why he had made himself a servant unto all men, in bearing with all men's humours and weaknesses in the course of his ministry, viz., that he might be partaker of the Gospel, i. e. of the saving benefit or blessing of the Gospel, with them, verse 23, and again, that what he did, he did it to " obtain an incorruptible crown," verse 25, plainly showeth, that that which he sought to prevent, by running, and fighting at such a high rate as he did, was not the blame or disparagement of some such misbehaviour, under which, not

Nonnulli exponunt, ne cum alios bene ac fideliter docuero, malè vivendo, damnationis judicium à Deo reportem. Potest etiam conjungi cum superiore dicto, in hunc modum; ne Evangelio defrauder, cujus alii meâ operâ fiunt participes.

Ratio est, i. c. ne reprobus fiat. Hoc est, ne inter eos sit, qui non ritè currunt, adeoque nec brabio potiuntur.

withstanding he might retain the saving love of God, but the loss of his part and portion in the Gospel, and of that incorruptible crown, which he sought, by that severe hand, which he still held over himself, to obtain.

Pareus seems not to be very difficult in admitting the sense of the place contended for, but denies that this sense doth any ways imply or suppose any danger or possibility of Paul's becoming a reprobate. To which point he reasoneth thus: "As it followeth not; Christ died lest believers should perish, therefore believers are in danger of perishing, but on the contrary, that believers are out of the danger of perishing because Christ died for them. So," saith he, "it doth not follow; I keep under my body, lest I should be a reprobate, therefore I am in danger of being a reprobate; but on the contrary, therefore there is no danger of my being a reprobate because I keep my body under," &c.*

To this I answer, If this author intends only to assert by this arguing that Paul was in no danger of being a reprobate, whilst he did continue that holy exercise of keeping under his body, which he speaks of, I am not he that shall oppose him. Doubtless Paul was in no danger, no, nor yet in any possibility, which is much less than a danger, of being a reprobate, or of being rejected by God, whilst he used the means specified to prevent it. But,

2. If his intent be to assert, or affirm, either that Paul, whilst he did keep under his body, was in no possibility of giving over his exercise in this kind; or, that in case of giving it over, he was in no possibility of becoming a reprobate hereby; my answer is, that his argument reacheth neither of these, unless it be in a way of confutation. For as there was a precedaneous possibility, that Christ who did die, might not have died; and again, in case he had not died, that the persons who now believe in him, and are saved, should not have been saved; in like manner, there was a possibility, both that Paul, who did now keep under his body, might not have kept it under, or might not continue to keep it under, and that in case he had not continued to keep it under, he might be a reprobate. Nay, as in case Christ had not died, there had not been a possibility only, but even a certainty of their perishing, who now by believing on him are saved: in like manner, in case Paul had deserted his exercise of keeping under his body, there had been more than a possibility, and no whit less than a certainty, of his proving a reprobate; though now, by means of his persevering therein unto the end, as we have cause in abundance to judge concerning him, he be saved. So that the argument recoils, as we see, upon the author himself, and the cause which he seeks to maintain by it.

Sicut igitur non sequitur: Christus est mortuus, ne credentes in eum pereant: ergo periculum est, ne credentes pereant: sed contra: ergo non est periculum, quia Christus est mortuus. Ita non sequitur: contundo corpus, ne reprobus fiam : ergo periculum est, ne reprobus fiam sed contra: ergo non est periculum, quia contundo corpus, &c.-Pareus in viii. Rom. Dub. 15, p. 780.

Our English annotators upon the place are very tender of admitting any such sense of the word acórpos, which should imply any uncertainty in the apostle of his election or of obtaining the prize. But the truth is, that that sense of the word, for which we have contested, doth no ways imply the former; nor yet, if by uncertainty be meant any thing grievous or discouraging to the apostle, the latter. For, 1. He might, notwithstanding a possibility of becoming a reprobate afterwards, know certainly that for the present he was elected, inasmuch as know he might with the greatest certainty, and doubtless did, that he did believe. And that all those who truly believe, are elected, our adversaries themselves will not deny. 2. Notwithstanding such a possibility as we suppose, of his becoming a reprobate, he might have as much certainty of obtaining the prize, as he desired, or was any ways meet or reasonable for him, either to desire or enjoy. This certainty he might have, and questionless had, upon his continuance in well doing: and for any man to be certain of obtaining the prize, though he should apostatise and decline into ways of wickedness, is not a certainty either meet for God to give, or for any man to receive. Somewhat more was said upon this account in the ninth chapter.

The next passage we shall insist upon, to evince the possibility of a final defection in the saints, openeth itself in these words. "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. For the earth, which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them, by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned," Heb. vi. 4--8. Answerable hereunto is another in the same epistle: "For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace?" Heb. x. 26-29. Evident it is, that in these two passages the Holy Ghost, after a most serious manner, and with a very pathetic and moving strain of speech and discourse, scarce the like to be found in all the Scriptures, admonisheth those, who are at present true believers, to take heed of relapsing into the ways of their former ignorance and impiety. This caveat or admonition he vehemently presseth by an argument of this import; that in case they shall thus relapse, there will be very little, or no hope at all,

of their recovery, or return to the estate of faith and grace wherein they now stand. Before the faces of such sayings and passages as these, rightly understood, and duly considered, there is no standing for that doctrine, which denies a possibility either of a total or final defection in the saints. But this light also is darkened in the heavens thereof, by the interposition of the veils of these two exceptions. 1. That the apostle in the said passages affirms nothing positively concerning the falling away of those he speaks of, but only conditionally, and upon supposition. 2. That he doth not speak of true and sound believers, but of hypocrites, and such who had faith only in show, not in substance. The former of these exceptions has been already non-suited, and that by some of the ablest patrons themselves of the cause of perseverance; * where we were taught from a pen of that learning, "That such conditional sayings upon which admonitions, promises, or threatenings are built, do at least suppose something in possibility, however by virtue of their tenor and form they suppose nothing in being." But,

2. As to the places in hand, there is not any hypothetical sign or conditional partiele to be found in either of them, as they come from the Holy Ghost, and are carried in the original. Those two "ifs," appearing in the English translation, the one in the former place, the other in the latter, show, it may be, the translators' inclination to the cause, but not their faithfulness in their engagement; an infirmity whereunto they were very subject, as we shall have occasion to take notice of the second time ere long in another instance of like partiality: but the tenor of both the passages in hand is so ordered by the apostle, that he plainly declares how great and fearful the danger is, or will be, "when" believers do or shall "fall away," not "if," or in case, they shall "fall away."

To the latter exception, which pretends to find only hypocrites, and not true believers, staged in both passages, we likewise answer, that it glosseth no whit better than the former, if not much worse, considering that the persons presented in the said passages are described by such characters and signal excellences which the Scriptures are wont to appropriate unto saints and true believers, and that when they intend to show them in the best and greatest of their glory. What we say herein will, I suppose, be made above all gainsaying by instancing particulars.

φωτισθέντες,

1. The persons spoken of are, in the former of the passages, said to be wriEVTES, i. e. " enlightened," meaning, with the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ in the gospel. How frequently is this grace of illumination or enlightening attributed unto the saints or true believers? The apostle having said that "the god of this world had blinded the eyes of those who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ ..... should shine unto them," he adds soon after, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts,"

Chap. XI. p. 317.

πρὸς φωτισμὸν, "to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God," &c., 2 Cor. iv. 6: so that true believers are here distinguished from unbelievers by this, that they are "enlightened;" the others having their eyes "blinded," by reason whereof they are without any such illumination. So again, where he saith to these Hebrews, "But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were enlightened," provTES, "ye endured a great fight of afflictions," Heb. x. 32, he clearly termeth their conversion itself to the faith, the illumination or enlightening: yea, this illumination is so appropriate unto the saints or sound believers, that our Saviour himself styles the generation of them vioi rov pwrds, "children of light," Luke xvi. 8. So the apostle Paul admonisheth the Ephesians to walk, we riva pwròs," as children of the light," τέκνα φωτὸς, Eph. v. 8; meaning, as saints or true believers: and in the same verse he distinguisheth their present estate in faith from their former in unbelief thus, "For ye were sometimes darkness; but now are ye light in the Lord."

2. In the latter of the said passages, the persons spoken of are said to have "received" πiyvwow tñç ȧ\ŋdeias, i. e. "the acknowledgment of the truth;" which expression doth not signify the bare notion or apprehension of what the gospel teacheth and holdeth forth, of which they are capable who are the most professed enemies thereof, but such a consenting and subjection hereunto which worketh effectually in men to a separating of themselves from sin and sinners. This is the constant acception and import of the phrase in the Scriptures. "Always learning," saith the apostle, 'of silly women, laden with sins,' " and never able to come, eiç ¿æíyvwoiv åλnocías, "to an acknowledgment of the truth," 2 Tim. iii. 7; i. e. to a thorough and cordial assent to it, which is wont to utter itself in a suitable conversation. So when he saith that "God will have all men to be saved and to come," eis iriyvwoi áλŋ@ɛíaç, "to the knowledge," or acknowledgment, rather, "of the truth," 1 Tim. ii. 4, by "coming to the acknowledgment of the truth," he cannot mean any thing ineffectual or unavailable to salvation: such a sense would render the sentence senseless, and exhibit it in this form, "God will have all men to be saved, and come to" that which is not able to save them. Therefore, by "the acknowledgment of the truth," is meant such a cordial and thorough assent to it which consists in a sound and saving faith. So when he saith that "the servant of the Lord must be gentle. . . . in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance,' εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν ἀληθείας, “ to, or for, "the acknowledgment of the truth," he clearly supposeth "the acknowledgment of the truth" to be either the end or special perfection of repentance, i. e. such a thing which demonstrates repentance to be sound and of the saving kind, wherever it is found. There is but one place more where the phrase is used, and here also it bears as high a sense as in the testimonies already opened: "Paul a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus

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