to be feared) do too many reason in their hearts; some I have known myself to have done fo: and by this very conclufion, have encouraged themselves in loofe and profane living. I from hence conclude, it matters not what thefe men teach, but what they should teach, if they will speak confonantly to their own conclufions; which are fuch as thefe: I was created by God, to what end, God knows: if he predeftinated me to deftruction, by an immutable decree, why do I kick against the pricks, and defraud myself of my pleasure? But if I was predeftinated to life eternal, how much foever I fin, I fhall be faved in the conclufion; for God's foreknowledge concerning me, cannot be fruftrated. For what wonder is it, if after having fwallowed it down as an unqueftionable truth, that they are veffels of Unconditional Election, and that they cannot totally, much lefs finally fall from grace, they conclude, that though they commit murder, or adultery, or any other grievous fins, yet they have not loft the Holy Ghoft, nor can poffibly be in a flate of damnation; fo that their fins can do them no great prejudice: they may make them forrowful, but there is a bleffing annexed to that, Mat. v. 4, yet they cannot make them worfe; fomewhat lefs chearful, but not lefs fafe: they can fall no otherwife than David did; "not from a state of falvation, (as one faid) but only from the joy of it." To which I may add, if they can fin merrily, by ftifling the voice of God and Confcience, they fhall not fall (if these tenets be true) even fo much as from the joy of falvation. So, on the other hand, to what purpose, I pray, do men labour to obtain everlafling life, and avoid eternal death, if there be no power in their hands to chufe life or death, but they must take that which is affigned for them, be it life or death? Is it not plain, that by all their labour, they effect juft nothing at all? They may hear, read, and pray, but all this will not procure God's grace; fo that all their piety can do them no good; it may make them religious, but it cannot make them better, for damned they must be notwithstanding:

3 S 2

but

but if they be abfolutely ordained to falvation, their neglect of holy duties, their ignorance, and continuance in a course of ungodlinefs, cannot bring them to damnation; for they must be faved. If fo many fouls in a parish be in this manner decreed to heaven or hell, the Minifter preacheth in vain, and the people hear in vain: for there cannot one foul be faved, by all his or their pains, which is ordained to hell; nor one foul be caft away, by his negligence, which is appointed to heaven.

Eutychus. You feem to infer, that the faints may fall into fuch a ftate, wherein they cannot be faved; whereas God's counfel is immutable to preferve his Elect, even unto the end; and that infallibly and neceffarily; because the counsel of God cannot be made void by any creature; nor can it be revoked (in regard of his immutability) even by God himself; having loved his own, he loveth them unto the end, John xiii. 1.

Epenetus. I grant, that God's counfel is immutable; but God never decreed by his counsel, that wicked men who die in their fins, fhall be faved, or that good men who die in a

ftate of grace, fhall be damned. Now, if good men are liable to fall into damning fins, then the faints may fall into fuch a ftate, in which, if they should die without repentance, they cannot be faved: and this was the case of David and Solomon, who fell from grace, by refifting it, in both acceptations of the word, as it is taken for holy living, and for the favour God.

Eutychus. Though David did refift God's grace, yet he could not fall finally for God had decreed the repentance of David; and therefore he could not die, until he had repented.

Epenetus. Then you allow that had David died without repentance, he had perifhed irrecoverably?

of

Eutychus. I do.

Epenetus. Then you must grant, that he fell from a flate grace, into a state of a damnable nature, though he was a

ye

veffel of Election, from which he could not have fell, had he continued in that state of grace from which, you fay, there is no falling away. But there is a final as well as total refifting of fuch grace, as is fufficient for the attainment of glory. There are thofe that grieve the holy Spirit of God, Eph. iv. 30. There are that quench him, 1 Theff. v. 19. There are that resist the Holy Ghoft; ye fiff-necked and uncircumcifed in heart and ears; do always refift the Holy Ghoft: as your fathers did, fo do ye, Act. vii. 51. And fure the Comforter cannot be grieved, before he comes to comfort. The Spirit is not refifted before he ftrives. The fire is not quenched, before it is kindled. And how can the candle of the wicked be faid to be put out, Job xxi. 17, if it was never lighted? And where lies the chief fault if grace be refifted, the Holy Ghost grieved, the Spirit quenched? Sure, not in the infufficiency of God's grace, nor in God, the donor thereof, but in the wills of the wicked, who love darkness rather than light, John iii. 19. We find, the faithful city may turn harlot, ver. 21. Murder may, and hath dwelt, where righteousness and judgment were wont to lodge. God made Jerufalem a faithful city, and that by the gift of his special grace; but it was her own wicked will that made her a harlot; which it could not have done, if that special grace had been irresistible. Pray, confider what God faid to Mofes, Exod. xxxii. 33. Whofoever hath finned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Now whofoever is blotted out, must have been written therein, and that implies a fpecial grace. Do we not read, Ifaiah v. 4, of men who refifted and finned against all the means that could be used for their amendment? And of others, who would not be gathered,, after all the effays and motives that could be ufed? Mat. xxiii. 37. How many chriftian profeffors are now in hell, who when they were infants were fit and fuitable for heaven? Mat. xix. 14. For, if God's bowels did yearn within him, and that upon the impendence of a temporal punishment only, which he was

about

about to bring on a heathen Nineveh, Jonah iv. 11, when he faid, fhall not I fpare Nineveh that great city, wherein are more than fixfore thousand perfons, that cannot difcern between their right hand and their left? How much more will he extend his compaffion toward infants? Yet how many are there of fuch, who in their harmless non-age were babes of grace, and yet have out-lived their innocence, fo as at laft to be transformed into veffels of wrath? I fhall give you the words of Tertullian, quoted by a judicious divine of our own, upon this occafion; Saulum tam Dei Spiritus vertit in Prophetam, quam & malus Spiritus poftea in Apoftatan. Judam aliquandiu cum Electis deputatum poftea Diabolus intravit: that is, "Saul was turned into a Prophet by the spirit of holiness, as well as into an apoftate by the spirit of uncleannefs. And the devil entered into Judas, who for fometime together had been deputed with the Elect." And the words of St. Auguftin, Si Regeneratus & Juftificatus in malam Vitam fua Voluntate relabitur, certo is non poteft dicere, non accepi, quia acceptam Gratiam Dei fuo in malum arbitrio libero amifit: That is, "If the regenerate and juftified shall fall away into a wicked courfe of living by his own will and pleasure, he cannot fay, I have not received, because he hath wilfully loft that grace of God which he had received, by that will of his which was at liberty to fin." But the poffibility of falling from grace, after the receiving of the Holy Ghoft, nay, falling into damning fins, or a flate of damnation, is fully afferted in the 16th Article of the Church of England, and in the Homilies of our Church, concerning the danger of falling away from God, and in her Office of Adminiftration of Baptifin. The contrary opinion having been rejected by all antiquity, and too much confuted by the

experience of all times; and (as a learned divine observes) brought of late into the Church, by the late diffentions in Calvin's time.

Eutychus. Sir you feem to deny the grace of final perfeverance; which takes away the comfortable assurance, which faints are wont to find in themselves.

Watch and

Epenetus. I wish there are not many, which have finned themselves into hell, upon a belief of the impoffibility of their coming thither: neither dare I prefume upon any other affurance of my falvation, than that which the gospel affords me, and there I am told, that if I am faithful unto death, I Shall receive a crown of life, Rev. ii. 10. That he that endured unto the end, the fame fhall be faved, Mat. xxiv. 13. And as to the figns and marks of my election, it is faid, he that doth righteoufness, is of God; but, he that committeth fin is of the devil, 1 John. iii. 7, 8. And what can be a greater comfort, than this, to know, that our labour fhall not be in vain in the Lord? 1 Cor. xv. 58. But then, we must not be puffed up: Be not high-minded but fear, Rom. xi. 20. Let him that ftandeth, take heed left he fall, 1 Cor. x. 12. pray, left ye enter into temptation, Matt. xxvi. 41. But if no man can fall, then there is no need of prayer for perfeverance. I am fure the Apoftle, Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6, faith, that it is impoffible for those who were once enlightened, and have tofted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghoft, tafted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come; if they fall away, to renew then again unto repentance. Now the graces which the Apoftle here fpeaketh of, are not ordinary, but special graces; fuch as illumination, faith, a relifh of God's word, and a tafle of heaven. And the perfons fpoken of, are apoftates, fuch as fall away for ever: whereas if it were impoffible that good men should fall from grace, it would be abfurd in the Apoftle to warn against it; becaufe no folid exhortation can be built on a danger not poffible to come to pafs. The like expreffion we have, Heb. x. 26.

For