scripture, and makes the promises of eternal life, and the threats of perdition belong to the same persons; or else they belong only to such as do continue in the faith, and then it is demonstratively evident that perseverance is included in them, and therefore cannot be proved from them without begging the question.

REPLY. If it be said that "the promise of eternal life being made to the believer, argues that they who fall away were never true believers;"

ANSWER. To this I answer, First, that they are as expressly styled true believers as others are. The litttle ones,' who are supposed such as may be offended and perish, are those that "believe in Christ." Matt. xviii, 6, 14. Those represented by the stony ground are such as "for a while believe, and their only fault is, that afterwards they are offended, and fall away” from this faith. So the "weak in faith" who may perish through the scandal of the strong, have a true, though a weak faith; such a one is 'Christ's servant, Rom. xiv, 4, one for whom Christ died,' verse 15, 1 Cor. viii, 11; and his faith is the work of God.' Rom. xiv, 20. Among the Samaritans many believed in Christ;' John iv, 39, 42; and yet they all fell off from him to Simon Magus, Acts viii, 10, and many of those myriads of 'Jews that believed,' Acts xxi, 20, fell away afterwards, as hath been proved already. Now what ground hath any man to say, that "the word believers doth not bear the same sense, when it is used of such persons, as when it is used of those who do not fall away?" That they believe only for a time, that they are not stedfast and rooted in the faith, who are after 'moved away from the hope of the gospel,' is said by the Spirit of God; but that they did not truly believe as well as others, is never said.

Secondly. That this faith, as to its kind, is true, is evident from this consideration, that Christ and his apostles require such persons not to change it, but only to continue in it; not to believe with a faith true and real as to kind, but to be 'stedfast in the faith' they had already. Thus when the Jews believed in Christ, Jesus said to those that believed on him, if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed,' John viii, 30, that is, such disciples on whom I shall confer the life and blessed resurrection promised, chap. vi. And Paul and Barnabas exhort the believers at Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, to continue in the faith."'

Thirdly. This answer thwarts those numerous texts of scripture which suspend the benefits promised to believers on their continuance in the faith, (it being certain that no such benefits can belong to them which continue in a false faith) as, v. g. "ye shall be presented blameless, if ye continue in the faith rooted and grounded, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. They shall be saved, if they continue in faith. Ye are Christ's house, if ye hold your rejoicing of hope firm to the end. Ye are made partakers of Christ, if ye hold the beginning of your confidence stedfast to the end. If that which ye have heard from the beginning, abide in you, ye shall continue in the Son, and in the Father; thou standest by faith, if thou continue in his goodness." And

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Fourthly. It enervates all the exhortations of the Holy Spirit to 'hope to the end, 1 Peter i, 13, to be stedfast in the faith, I Cor. xv, 58, 1 Peter v, 9, and to take heed that we fall not from our stedfastness,' 2 Peter iii, 17; and all the declarations of the scripture, that we must be faithful to the death, that we may inherit eternal life;" we must endure to the end, that we may be saved; and that if the just man who lives by faith draw back, God's soul will have no`pleasure in him.'* For if he that hath true faith and hope must believe and hope to the end, he cannot fall from his stedfastness, and so these exhortations must be needless; the supposition that he may "draw back to perdition" must be false; and he that is once faithful must be so unto the death. In a word, the only distinction betwixt a living and a dead faith is this, that the first is fruitful in good works, the second is "faith without works;" so that as long as faith is attended with the good works required of the faithful, the man lives by faith; and when it ceaseth to do so, his faith is dead. Nor is there any other difference betwixt temporary and saving faith but this, that the temporary believer is "moved and falls away from his faith and hope,' and holds not the beginning of his confidence firm to the end,' as the other doth, as is demonstrable from this, that the only fault of the man that believes only for a time is this, that he "after falls away, and when persecution or temptations do arise, he is offended;" and the only thing that renders the faith of the other saving, is, that he perseveres in it to the death.

III. OBJECTION THIRD. They argue thus, "the Lord hath not cast off his people whom he foreknew.' Rom. xi. 2. Whereas they who persevere not to the end, will be cast off by him; they therefore whom he foreknows will persevere."

ANSWER. That this text cannot relate to any foreknowledge God hath of his elect, from all eternity, but only to his foreknowledge and choice of the Jewish nation before any other nations of the world, and only signifies that God had not entirely cast off his people Israel. Now to confirm this interpretation, observe,

First. That there be two questions handled in this chapter; the first is this,' hath God cast off his people? To which the answer given, to the 10th verse, is this, 'God hath not entirely cast' them off, he having among them a remnant of believers; as in the great apostacy from him to Baal, he had a remnant who bowed not the knee' to him. The second question is this, are the obdurate Jews so fallen as that they shall never rise again? Is that nation so cast off as never to be received again to favour? And to this also he answers in the negative, from the 11th verse to the end of that chapter. Observe,

Secondly. That of the people of Israel, Moses speaks thus, thou art a holy people to the Lord; the Lord thy God, goeiλETO, HATH CHOSEN thee to be a peculiar people to himself,

(michol) BEFORE ALL the people that are on the face of the earth.' Deut. vii. 6. x. 15. Now to be chosen, and to be known of God, are the same thing in scripture, and therefore the phrase is elsewhere varied thus, you have I known (michol) BEFORE ALL the families of the earth.' Amos iii. 2. And those words of Hosea, chap. xi. 12, Judah yet ruleth with the Lord, and is faithful with his saints,' are by the Septuagint thus rendered, καὶ Ἰύδα νῦν ἔγνω αυτὸς ὁ θεὸς καὶ ὁ λαὸς ἅγιος κληθήσεται τῷ Se, as for Judah, now God hath known them, and he shall be θεῷ, called the holy people of God:' So that the people whom he foreknew,' may be here only a periphrasis of the Jewish nation, as will be evident (1.) from this consideration that these words, ἐκ ἀπώσατο ὁ θεὸς τὸν λαὸν αυτᾶ, “the Lord hath not cast of his people,' are plainly cited from Psalm xciv. 14. xcv. 11; in both which places they are spoken of the whole Jewish nation, and

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therefore it is reasonable to conceive that the words added to them by the apostle must relate to the same people, especially if we consider that the whole argument of the apostle here confirms this interpretation; for (1.) he proves that God had not cast off his people' utterly, and without exception, because he was an Israelite. (2.) He confirms this from what the scripture saith in the history of Elias, complaining of a revolt so general, that he only seemed to be left among them who adhered to him; and receiving this answer from God, that they were not all revolted from God, as he supposed, he having reserved 7,000 persons who had not bowed the knee to Baal,' and thence concluding, that So it was now with the same people, there being now a remnant of them that believed according to that election of grace,' which hath chosen them to be members of the church of Christ. And (3.) the election,' saith he, hath obtained, but the rest were blinded,' verse 7. Who sees not now that all this is spoken of God's people Israel, and consequently that the people whom he foreknew must signify that very people?

IV. OBJECTION FOURTH. "Whom God justifies, them he also glorifies.' Rom. viii. 29. And therefore they who are once justified can never fall from grace, because they cannot fail of glory; and because nothing can separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus,"" verse 37.

ANSWER FIRST. To this argument I have returned one satisfactory answer when I discoursed of this text under the head of ELECTION," viz. that all the sufferings of those who loved God, and were called according to his purpose of making them Sons of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, shall work together for their good, öτi ès #gośуvw, FOR WHOM HE thus FOREKNEW, he predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, that is, to be like him in sufferings, verse 17, 2 Tim. ii. 11, who • suffered first, then entered into his glory, leaving them an example that they should follow his steps.' 1 Pet. ii. 21. And whom he thus fore-appointed to sufferings, 1 Thess. iii. 3, he in due time called to suffer; and whom he thus called, upon their faith and patience under their sufferings, for his sake, he justified, that is, he approved of them as faithful servants to their Lord, and afterward gave them a glorious reward of all their sufferings, they

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having through faith and patience, inherited the promises, Heb. vi. 12; or he made them glorious under sufferings by the Spirit of glory and of God resting on them, and rendering them happy sufferers. 1 Pet. iv. 14. This interpretation I have there confirmed; and if it stand good, it affords a double answer to this argument, viz. that to be justified here, doth not import to have their past sins pardoned, but to be approved of God as patient sufferers. (2.) That upon their being 'faithful to the death, he hath given them the crown of life.'

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ANSWER SECOND. The word doase, he hath glorified them,' upon the sense of which the whole strength of this argument depends, is by the Fathers thus interpreted, “he hath made them glorious, by giving them his Holy Spirit, to enable them to work the greatest miracles, and to endow them with spiritual gifts," and all those christian virtues which are the fruits of the Spirit, and to be to them an earnest and confirmation of that future glory he hath promised to them. And according to this sense of the word, it is evident that this argument is of no force, as being wholly built upon a false sense of this word.

Now according to this interpretation the import of these words is this, 'all things shall work together for good to them that love God, to the called according to his purpose' of bringing sons to glory by Christ Jesus, or is пρoέyvw, for whom he hath thus foreknown, that is, hath chosen for his church and people now, as he did the Jews of old, them he predestinated or fore-appointed to be conformed to the image of his Son,' their elder brother, that is, to be 'sons of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. And the method he used to bring them to this adoption was this, (i.) To call them to the faith of Christ; (ii.) To justify them upon their cordial embracing of this faith from their past sins, so that there might be 'no condemnation to them being in Christ Jesus;' Rom. viii. 1; and (iii.) To render them a glorious people by the Holy Spirit given to them, because they are sons, as an earnest of their future glory. To confirm this interpretation let it be noted,

First. That the connective particle, öτ, verse 29, shews that the words following are introduced as a proof of the preceding words, all things shall work together for good to them that love God, that are called according to his purpose; FOR, whom he foreknew, &c. Note,