and hath done defpite to the fpirit of grace. Heb. x. 25, &c. Many [fallen believers] walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the crofs of Chrift: whofe end is DESTRUCTION, whofe God is their belly and who mind earthly things. For all [comparatively Speaking] feek their own, and not the things which are Jefus Chrift's.

18.-ii. 21.

Phil. iii.

The epistle to the Hebrews is a treatise against apo/tacy, and of confequence against Calvinian perseverance. As a proof of it, I refer the reader to a convincing Difcourfe on Heb. ii, 3. which Mr. Olivers defigns for the prefs. The whole Epistle of St. Jude, and the fecond of St. Peter, were particularly written to prevent the falling away of the faints, and to stop the rapid progress of apoftacy. The Ep. of St. Jude, and 2. Pet. ii. agree fo perfectly, that one would think the two apoftles had compared notes, witness the following parallel.

St. PETER's defcription of | St. JUDE's defcription of antinomian apoftates.

1. They have FORSAKEN che right way;-following the way of BALA. AM, who loved the waGES of unrighteoufnefs.

2. Pet. ii. 15.

1. SPOTS are they and blemishes, fporting themfelves with their own deceivings, while they FEAST with you, ver. 13.

1. They WALK after the FLESH in the LUST of UNCLEANNESS. ver. 10.

1. They fpeak GREAT SWELLING WORDS of vanity-they promise them

antinomian backfliders.

2. These be they, who SEPARATE themselves.They ran greedily after the error of BALAAM for REWARD. Jude. ver. 19, 14..

2. These are SPOTS in your feafts of charity, when they FEAST with you; feeding themselves without fear. ver. 12.

2. FILTHY dreamersWALKING after their own LUSTS. ver 8, 16.

2. Their mouth fpeaketh GREAT SWELLING creeping in

WORDS:

[whom they allure] liber- unawares [i. e. infinua

ty, while they themselves | ting themselves_into_richs

are the fervants of corruption. ver. 18. 19.

1. As natural, brute beafts, &c. they SPEAK EVIL of the things that they understand not (especially of the perfect law of liberty) and fhall utterly perish in their oWN CORRUPTION, Ver. 12.

widows houfes] having men's perfons in admiration. ver. 4, 16.

2. Thefe SPEAK EVIL of those things which they know not (especially* of Chriff's law) But what they know naturally, asbrute beasts in those things they CORRUPT THEM

SELVES. ver. 10.

2. Clouds they are without water, CARRIED

1. Wells without water, clouds that are CARRIED with a tempest — beguil- | about of winds, trees ing, UNSTABLE SOULS- whose fruit withereth, &c. to whom the mist of DARK | WANDERING STARS, to NESS IS RESERVED FOR whom IS RESERVED the EVER. ver. 14, 17 [How | blackness of DARKNESS far was St. PETER from FOR EVER. ver. 12, 13. Soothing ANY of those back- [ How far was St. JUDE · Sliders by the smooth doctrine from rocking ANY of thofe of their NECESSARY, IN- apoftates in the cradle of INFALLIBLE return!] FALLIBLE perfeverance!]

1. [St. Peter indirectly compares them to] The ANGELS that SINNED, [whom] God fpared not, but caft down to hell, and delivered into CHAINS OF DARKNESS to be referved unto JUDGMENT. ver. 4..

|

2. [St. Jude compares them to The ANGELS Who KEPT NOT their first estate, but left their own habita- tion, &e. referved in everlafting CHAINS UNDER + DARKNESS, unto 'the JUDGMENT of the great | day. ver. 6. ·

From this remarkable parallel it is evident, that the Apoftates defcribed by St. Peter, and the backfliders painted by St. Jude, were one and the fame kind of people and by the following words it appears, that all thofe backfliders really fell from the GRACE OF 3 GOD, and denied the Lord that BOUGHT THEM.

1- Even

2. Ungodly men, turning THE GRACE OF OUR GOD into lafciviousness, and DENYING [in work at kaft] THE ONLY LORD God, and our LORD JESUS CHRIST, [as Lord, Lawgiver, or Judge.] Jud. 4.

St. Peter more or lefs directly defcribes thefe backfliders in the fame epiftle, as people who have forgotten that they WERE PURGED from their old fins-who do not give all diligence to add to their faith, virtue-who do not make their calling and election fure-who after they have ESCAPED the pollutions of the world THRO' THE KNOWLEDGE of our Lord Jejus Chrift, [i. e. thro' a true and living faith] are again intangled therein, and overcome; whofe latter end is worse than the beginning-who, after they have KNOWN THE WAY of righteousness, TURN from the holy commandment delivered unto them, and verify the Proverb, "The Sow that was WASHED, is turned to her wallowing in the mire."

Here is not the leaft hint about the certain return of any of those backfliders, or about the good that their grievous falls will do either to others or to themselves. On the contrary, he represents them ALL as people, that were in the high road to DESTRUCTION. And far from giving us an antinomian innuendo about the final perfeverance of all blood-bought fouls, i. e. of the whole number of the redeemed, he begins his epiftle by declaring, that thofe felf-destroyed backsliders denied the Lord that BOUGHT them, and concludes it by this feasonable caution: There are in our beloved Brother Paul's epiftles things [it feems, about the election of grace, and about juftification without the works of the law] which they that are unlearned [or rather, auades, un-teachable] and unftable, wreft &c. unto their own deftruction: ye therefore, beloved, feeing ye know these things before, [being thus fairly warned] beware left YE ALSO, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your

own

own fteadfastness: but grow in grace, and in the knowsledge of our Lord Jefus Chrift: which is the best method not to fall from grace-the only way to inherit the bleffing, with which God will crown the faithfulness and genuine perfeverance of the faints.

I read the heart of Zelotes: and seeing the objection he is going to ftart, I oppofe to it this quotation from Baxter. To fay that then their faith [which works by faithful love] DOES MORE than CHRIST 'did, or God's GRACE, is a putid cavil. Their • faith, &c.is no efficient cause at all of their pardon, or juftification: it is but a neceflary, receptive quali• fication; he that shuts the window causeth darkness : but it is fottifh to fay, that he who opens it, DOES • MORE than the sun to cause light, which he caufeth not at all; but removeth the impediment of re'ception; and faith itself is God's gift :'—as all other talents are, whether we improve them or not.

I should lose time, and offer an insult to the reader's understanding, were I to comment upon the preceding feriptures; fo great is their perfpicuity and number. But I hope, I fhall not infult his candor by propofing to him the following queries. (1) Can Zelotes and Honeftus be judicious protestants, I mean confiftent defenders of bible-religion, if the one throws away the weights of the econd fcale, whilft the other overlooks those of the first? — (2) Is it not evident, that, according to the fcriptures, the perfeverance of the faints has two caufes: the first, free-grace and divine faithfulness; and the jecond, free-will and human faithfulnefs produced, excited, affifted, and nourished, but NOT NECESSITATED by free-grace? (3) With respect to the capital doctrine of perfeverance alfo, does not the truth lie exactly between the extremes, into which Zelotes and Honeftus perpetually run? And lastly: is it not clear, that if Candidus will hold the truth as it is in Jefus, he muft ftand upon the line of moderation, call back Zelotes from the east, Honeftus from the west, and make them ordially embrace each other under the fcripture-me

ridian.

ridian. There the kind father falls upon the neck of the returning prodigal, and the heavenly bridegroom meets the wife virgins: There Free-grace mercifully embraces Free-will, while free-will humbly ftoops at the foot-ftool of free-grace: There the fun goes down no more by day, nor the moon by night: that is, the two gofpel-axioms, which are the great doctrinal lights of the church, without eclipfing each other fhine in perpetual conjunction, and yet in continual oppofition: There, their conjugal, myfterious, powerful influence gladdens the new Jerufalem, fertilizes the garden of the Lord, promotes the fpiritual vegetation of all the trees of righteoufnefs which line the river of God, and gives a divine relish to the fruits of the fpirit which they conftantly bear. There, as often as Free-grace fmiles upon Free-will it fays, Be faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life: And as often as Free-will fees that crown glitter at the end of the race, it fhouts, Grace! Free-grace! unto it; a great part of our faithfulness confifting in afcribing to Grace all the honour, that becomes the FIRST CAUSE of all good - the ORIGINAL of all visible and invisible excellence.

Perfeverance muft close our race, if ever we receive the prize; let then the fcriptural account of it close my fcales. But before I lay them by, I must throw in two more grains of fcriptural truth; left the reader fhould think, that I have not made good weight. If I thought that Zelotes is a gross antinomian; and Honeftus an immoral moralift; and that they maliciously tear the oracles of God in pieces; I would make them full weight by the two following scriptures: 1. The wrath of God, 2. I teftify, &c. that is revealed from heaven if any man fhall take against all ungodlinefs, away from the words of and unrighteoufaefs of the book of this prophecy men, who hold the truth [much more if he takes [or a part of it] in unrigh- away from the words of teoufnefs. Rom. 1, 18. every book in the old and new teftament] God fhall take

U