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to be sealed up to the day of redemption, they through this Spirit 'groaning for the redemption of the body, and knowing that f this earthly tabernacle were dissolved, they had a building made without hands, eternal in the heavens.' Whence it is evident that they who had these first-fruits of the Spirit, had thereupon an argument to satisfy them of the future blessings promised to them; and hence they by this Spirit are said to have the earnest of their future inheritance, and to be sealed up to the day of redemption.

VI. OBJECTION SIXTH. Whereas some from these words, 'the foundation of God standeth sure, the Lord knoweth who are his,' argue thus, that "the foundation of God is his election; and that though the faith of some be overthrown, yet the Lord knoweth his elect; and will not suffer their faith to be so:"-I

answer,

ANSWER. That this argument depends upon two suppositions already proved to be false, viz. (1.) That the foundation of God is his "election;" whereas it is indeed the doctrine, and promise of a blessed resurrection, denied by Hymenæus and Philetus. (2.) That God's knowledge of his, is his "knowledge of his elect;" whereas in truth it only signifies that the Lord knoweth and approves of them who are commissionated to preach his doctrine to the world, or that he loves his faithful servants. See this proved in the DISCOURSE of ELECTION in the answer to the FOURTH OBJECTION.

VII. OBJECTION SEVENTH. "They who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation' cannot fall away; but all the faithful are so kept." 1 Peter i, 5.

ANSWER. To this I answer, (1.) that this place only proves that all who are preserved to salvation are so kept by the power of God; but not that all believers are so kept. (2.) It proves only that they are kept through faith, that is, if they continue in the faith rooted and grounded, and are not removed from the hope of the gospel, Col. i, 25, if they hold the beginning of their confidence stedfast to the end.' Heb. iii, 14. For this faith being the stedfast 'expectation of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,' will render us victorious over the world, 1 John v, 4, enable

Romans viii, 23.

P

2 Corinthians v, 1, 5.

q 2 Timothy ii, 18, 19.

us to resist the temptations of the devil, 1 Peter v, 9, to prefer affliction with the people of God before the pleasures of sin for a season, Heb. xi, 25, 26, and even to suffer death, not accepting a deliverance, in expectation of a better resurrection. Verse 35. And, Lastly, this faith engageth the power of God in our preservation, and so causeth us out of weakness to be strong.' Verse 54. But this place proves not that they shall certainly continue in the faith.

VIII. OBJECTION EIGHTH. "If they who fall away were never truly faithful, they who are truly so can never fall away; but the first is proved from these words of St. John, 'they went out from us, but they were not all of us; for had they been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, &c'.” 1 John ii, 19.

ANSWER. To this I answer, that the whole force of this argument depends upon these things; 1. that to be of us is "to be elected, truly justified, and sincere believers." 2. Not to be of us is "never to have been elected, or sincerely christians." 3. That to go out from them is "to renounce the church of Christ, so as only reprobates could do." 4. That to abide with them was "to continue faithful and sincere christians;" all which things are uncertain, if not plainly false. For that these words, they were not of us, cannot signify "they were not of the number of the elect," but only "they were not of the church in general, and of the mind of the apostles and the church that adhered to them," is evident from this,-(1)that from them they went out, and with them they might have remained: whereas they could not go out from the elect only who are not visible; nor could they have remained with them who were never of them. (2.) Their going out from them for a season was no certain argument that they were not of the elect, since it is confessed they may fall totally, though not finally.

ANSWER SECOND. The true sense of the words seems plainly to be this,--These anti-christs or deceivers went out from us of Judea; for some, κατελθόντες ἀπὸ τῆς Ιεδαίας, ‘GOING OUT FROM JUDEA taught the brethren that except they were circumci sed after the manner of Moses, they could not be saved." They went out also from the apostles; for we have heard,' say they, * that τινὲς ἐξ ἡμῶν ἐξελθόντες, SOME GOING OUT FROM US

Acts xv, 1.

have troubled you with words, perverting your soul, saying that ye ought to be circumcised, and keep the law.' The persons who taught these doctrines are styled "false brethren, false apostles, deceitful workers, ministers of satan, dogs, evil workers, the concision." Their doctrine tended to the subversion of souls, to the corrupting and turning men's minds from the simplicity that is in Christ, to hinder the truth of the gospel from continuing with them, to make Christ die in vain, to cause christians to fall from grace, so that "Christ should profit them nothing," so that they were" false prophets, false apostles, and anti-christs," in the worst of senses. And by their going out from the apostles and churches of Judea to preach this destructive doctrine to the Gentiles, which both the church of Judea, and the apostles assembled for that purpose, flatly disowned and censured, it sufficiently appeared that all the preachers of these doctrines were not of them; these therefore must be some of those many anti-christs which the apostle writing to the Jews here speaks of, and they also divided and separated from the church, and became Hereticks under the names of Cerinthians, Nazarenes and Ebionites, and their heresy prevailed in Asia Minor, where St.John's province was. 2 Tim.i, 15.

IX. OBJECTION NINTH. "He that cannot sin, and that for a perpetual reason, cannot fall away and perish by sin; but every one that is born of God sinneth not; for his seed abideth in him, neither can he sin because he is born of God." 1 John iii, 9.

ANSWER FIRST. That these words cannot be intended to signify that "he who is born of the Spirit and the word' can ⚫ never fall from that state," is evident, partly because it hath been proved already that the Holy Spirit may depart, and quit his habitation, and so he who was once born of the Spirit may cease to be so, partly because men may not continue in the word, but may be "removed from the hope of the gospel," as is apparent from the words of this apostle, who having told the converted Jews that "the old commandment was that which they had heard from the beginning," he adds, "let that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you; for if that which you have heard from the beginning abide in you, ye shall abide in the Son and in the

s Verse 24. Philippians iii, 2. Galatians ii, 5, 21. v, 2, 4.

t 2 Corinthians xi, 13, 15. Galatians ii, 4.

Acts xv, 24. 2 Corinthians xi, 3. a 1 John ii, 7.

Father." And again, "little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear you may not be ashamed at his coming;" clearly intimating by these exhortations that they might not abide in him, and his word might not abide in them. In his second epistle, he tells the elect lady and her children, that "many deceivers were gone out into the world who denied that Jesus Christ was come in the flesh;" and therefore bids them "look to themselves that they lose not the things that they had wrought," viz. by embracing the doctrines of such deceivers; and to make them the more cautious, he adds," he that trausgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God," plainly insinuating, that they might so be drawn away by these deceivers as not to abide in the doctrine of Christ, and so might lose their interest in God, and the things which they had wrought. And this he learned from his Great Master, who declared that they only were his true "disciples who continued in his word," and that they who did not "keep his word," did not truly love him.

ANSWER SECOND. As those words of Christ, "a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit," to wit, because it is corrupt; and those of the apostle, "the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be," viz. because it is carnal; and "they that are in the flesh cannot please God" for the same reason, do not prove that a corrupt tree cannot cease to be corrupt, or become good, or that the carnal mind cannot cease to be so, and become spiritual; so neither do these words, "he that is born of God cannot sin, because he is born of God," prove that he who is born of God cannot cease to be so, and then go on in a course of sin to his own destruction.

Again, as these words "how can you that are evil speak good things? the world cannot hate" you that are of it, the Jews "could not believe, the world cannot receive the Spirit," do not signify an impossibility that it should be otherwise, but only their present indisposition to the contrary, and the aversation of their minds from those things which it is said they cannot do: So those words, "he that is born of God cannot sin," do not import any impossibility that they should do so, but only that they have at present that frame of spirit which renders them strongly averse

b Verses 24, 27, 28.

c Verses 7, 8.

d Verse 9.

e Romans vin.

from sin, and indisposed to yield to any temptations to commit it. ANSWER THIRD. The interpretation which many of the ancient Fathers give us of these words is a demonstration that they believed not the doctrine of the Saints' Perseverance, for they expound the words thus, "he that is born of God sinneth not,' neither can sin, quamdiu renatus est, whilst he is born of God,' because he ceaseth to be a child of God when he sins;" and this must necessarily be the import of the words if you interpret them of living in a habit or any course of sin; for it is as certain that whilst a man doth so, he is not born of God, as it is that whilst a tree bringeth forth corrupt fruit, it cannot be a good tree; and it is as certain that when a man falls back into any habit, or course of sin, he ceaseth to be a child of God for the same reason.

CHAP. IV.

Containing an answer to the pretended promises of the Saints' Perseverance to the end.

TO those now considered, some add divers texts from the Old and the New Testament, in which they do pretend God hath engaged himself by promise absolute to preserve true christians to the end. The texts produced from the Old Testament are these,

I. ARGUMENT FIRST. ""The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed. Isaiah liv, 10. My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put into thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor thy seed's seed, from henceforth and for ever. (lix, 21.) They shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for ever. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall (may) not depart from me. Jer. xxxii, 38, 39, 40. I will betroth thee to me for ever, yea I will