those who have tasted the grace of God, that I see nothing but the mighty power of God, which can restrain any one who hears it from closing with it. But still it wants one thing to recommend it, plain, cogent, Scripture-proof.

Arguments from experience alone will never determine this point. They can only prove thus much, on the one hand, that our Lord is exceeding patient, that he is peculiarly unwilling any believer should perish; that he bears long, very long with all their follies, waiting to be gracious, and to heal their backsliding; and that he does actually bring back many lost sheep, who, to man's apprehensions, were irrecoverable: but all this does not amount to a convincing proof, that no believer can or does fall from grace. So that this argument, from experience will weigh little with those who believe the possibility of falling.

And it will weigh full as little with those who do not. For if you produce ever so many examples of those who were once strong in faith, and are now more abandoned than ever, they will evade it by saying, “O, but they will be brought back; they will not die in their sins." And if they do die in their sins, we come no nearer; we have not gained one point still. For it is easy to say, 'They were only hypocrites: they never had true faith." Therefore Scripture alone can determine this question. And Scripture does so fully determine it, that there needs only to set down a very few texts, with some short reflections upon

them.

LXIX. That one who is a true believer, or, in other words, one who is holy or righteous in the judgment of God himself, may nevertheless finally fall from grace, appears, 1. From the word of God by Ezekiel, (ch. xviii. 24.) "When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die."

Do you object, *"This chapter relates wholly and solely

* See a Pamphlet intitled, The Doctrine of the Saints Final Perseverance, Asserted and Vindicated,

to the Jewish church and nation?" I answer, Prove this: till then I shall believe that many parts of it concern all mankind.

If you say, 2. "The righteousness spoken of in this chapter, was merely an outward righteousness, without any inward principle of grace or holiness:" I ask, How is this consistent with the 31st verse, "Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart, and a new spirit?" Is this a “merely outward righteousness, without any inward principle of grace or holiness?”

Will you add, "But admitting the person here spoken of to be a truly righteous man, what is here said is only a supposition." That I flatly deny. Read over the chapter again, and you will see the facts there laid down, to be not barely supposed, but expressly asserted.

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That the death here mentioned is eternal death, appears from the 26th verse. "When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them, (here is temporal death,) for his iniquity that he hath done, he shall die." Here is death eternal.

If you assert, "Both these expressions signify the same thing, and not two different deaths :" you put a palpable force upon the text, in order to make the Holy Ghost speak nonsense. "Dying in his iniquity (you say) is the same thing as dying for his iniquity." Then the text means thus, "When he dieth in them, he shall die in them." A very deep discovery!

But you say, "It cannot be understood of eternal death: because they might be delivered from it by repentance and reformation." And why might they not by such repentance as is mentioned in the 31st verse, be delivered from eternal death?

But the whole chapter, you think "has nothing to do with the spiritual and eternal affairs of men."

I believe every impartial man will think quite the contrary, if he reads calmly either the beginning of it: "All souls are mine, saith the Lord God: the soul that sinneth

it shall die; (where I can by no means allow that by the death of the soul is meant only a temporal affliction :) or the conclusion, "Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart, and a new spirit, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" It remains then, that one who is righteous in the judgment of God himself, may finally fall from grace.

LXX. Secondly, That one who is endued with the faith, which produces a good conscience, may, nevertheless, finally fall, appears from the words of St. Paul to Timothy, (1 Tim. i. 18, 19.) "War a good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away, con, cerning faith have made shipwreck."

Observe, 1. These men had once the faith that produces a good conscience, which they once had, or they could not have put it away.

Observe, 2. They made shipwreck of the faith, which necessarily implies the total and final loss of it.

You object, "Nay, the putting away a good conscience does not suppose they had it, but rather that they had it not."

This is really surprising. But how do you prove it? "Why by Acts xiii. 46, where St. Paul says to the Jews, "It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you. But seeing ye put it from you—lo, we turn to the Gentiles.' Here you see the Jews, who never had the gospel, are said to put it away.”

How! are you sure they "never had, what they are here said to put away ?" Not so; what they put away, it is undeniable they had till they put it away: namely, the word of God spoken by Paul and Barnabas. This instance, therefore, makes full against you. It proves just the reverse of what you cited it for.

But you object further, "Men may have a good con science in some sense, without true faith."

I grant it, in a restrained, limited sense; but not a good

conscience, simply and absolutely speaking. But such is that of which the Apostle here speaks, and which he exhorts Timothy to hold fast. Unless you apprehend, that the holding it fast likewise "rather supposes he never had it." "But the faith here mentioned means only the doctrine of faith." I want better proof of this.

It remains then, that one who has the faith which produces a good conscience, may yet finally fall.

LXXI. Thirdly, Those who are grafted into the good olive-tree, the spiritual, invisible church, may nevertheless finally fall. For thus saith the Apostle, "Some of the branches are broken off, and thou art grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree.". Be not high-minded, but fear: if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he spare not thee. Behold the goodness and severity of God! on them which fell, severity, but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou shalt be cut off, Rom. xi. 17, &c."

We may observe here, 1. The persons spoken to were actually engrafted into the olive-tree:

2. This olive-tree is not barely the outward, visible church, but the invisible, consisting of holy believers. So the text. "If the first-fruit be holy, the lump is holy; and if the root be holy, so are the branches." And, “because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith."

3. Those holy believers were still liable to be cut off from the invisible church, into which they were then grafted.

4. Here is not the least intimation of their being ever grafted in again.

To this you object, 1. "This olive-tree is not the invisible church, but only the outward gospel church state." You affirm this; and I prove the contrary; namely, that it is the invisible church: for it "consists of holy believers, which none but the invisible church does."

You object, 2. "The Jews who were broken off, were never true believers in Christ."

I am not speaking of the Jews, but of those Gentiles who are mentioned in the 22d verse; whom St. Paul exhorts to" continue in his goodness:" otherwise, saith he, "thou shalt be, cut off.". Now, I presume, these were true be lievers in Christ. Yet they were still liable to be cut off. You assert, 3. "This is only a cutting-off from the outward church-state." But how is this proved? So forced and unnatural a construction requires some argument to support it.

You say, 4. "There is a strong intimation that they shall be grafted in again." No. Not that those Gentiles, who "did not continue in his goodness," should be grafted in, after they were once cut off! I cannot find the least intimation of this. "But all Israel shall be saved." I believe they will: but this does not imply the re-ingrafting of these Gentiles.-It remains then, that those who are grafted into the spiritual, invisible church, may nevertheless finally fall.

LXXII. Fourthly, Those who are branches of Christ, the true vine, may yet finally fall from grace. For thus saith our blessed Lord himself, "I am the true Vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. I am the vine, ye are the branches. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned," John xv. 1, &c. Here we may observe, 1. The persons spoken of, were in Christ, branches of the true vine:

2. Some of these branches abide not in Christ, but "the Father taketh them away:" 10

3. The branches which abide not are cast forth, cast out from Christ and his church.

4. They are not only cast forth, but withered, conse quently never grafted in again.

5. They are not only cast forth, and withered, but also cast into the fire: And,

6. They are burned. It is not possible for words more