worse spirits, and possess us again. AND ALTHOUGH WE BE ILLUMINATED, AND HAVE TASTED THE HEAVENLY GIFT, AND BE MADE PARTAKERS OF THE HOLY GHOST: -YET MAY WE FALL AND DISPLEASE GOD. Wherefore, as St. Paul saith, "He that standeth, let him take heed that he fall not."*

Dr. Heylin saith, If they fall away, means, "If they apostatize." The Dutch Annotators on the place say," AND FALLING away [or falling;] whereby we are not to understand all kinds of sins whereinto. true believers sometimes fall, as David, Peter, &c. who afterwards camé to repentance; but a TOTAL FALLING, Or APOSTASY from the Christian RE LIGION."

But what kind of falling was it which the apostle apprehended them to be in danger of? I answer, It was TOTAL AND FINAL APOSTASY. The

See the chapter on Justification, in the NECESSARY DOCTRINE AND ERUDITION FOR ANY CHRISTIAN MAN. Heylin on the place. See Dutch Annot.

truth of this proposition will fully appear by considering, first, what the apostle apprehended they were in danger of falling from. And, 1. He supposed them in danger of falling from divine, gospel illumination.2. From tasting the heavenly gift-3. From partaking of the Holy Ghost. 4. From tasting the good word of God. And, 5. From tasting the powers of the world to come. Add to this, secondly, the consideration of the effects and consequences of this falling. And, 1. The apostates are said, avaraupõv, to crucify Christ a second time; and παραενειγματίζει», to infict open punishmeat on him: and, as Dr. Hammond has observed, "That must need include renouncing aud denying of Christ, the looking on him as such as the Jews pretended him to be when they crucified him, that is, an impostor."* Beza saith, "They that crucify him again," make him a mockingstock to all the world, and that to

* See Dr. Hammond on the place, Note (a)

their own destruction, as Julian the apostate did."* And in King Edward the Sixth's Bible it is, "They which are apostates, and sin against the Holy Ghost, hate Christ, crucify and mock him, but to their own destruction, and therefore fall into desperation, and cannot repent." The 2d effect would be, that the apostates would render it, advvatov, impossible for them to repent; of consequence their forgiveness would be rendered as impossible; then, of course, their salvation must be rendered equally impossible, and their damnation equally sure. Hence it is that the apostle compares them to the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, yet beareth thorns and briers; on which account it is, first, rejected; secondly, it is nigh unto cursing; and, thirdly, whose end, (that is, the end of the apostate, who is compared to the earth) is to be burned. The end of such unhappy creatures," says

* Beza on the place. † Note on the passage.

Dr. Doddridge, SHALL BE EVERLASTING BURNING." And Grotius, speaking of this ground observes, "Sentibus et tribulis respondet contemptus religionis Christana; maledicto herili damnatio; incendio pana gehennæ :" the contempt of the Christian Religion answers to the thorns and thistlesdamnation, to the proprietor's curse; and hell-torments to the burning of the field. Once more; The Assembly of Divines say, "As the earth. painfully tilled and plentifully watered is good for nothing but to be burnt, if instead of good fruit it bringeth forth thorns and thistles: so those who have been plentifully watered with many sweet showers of the word of GOD, and enriched with divers excellent graces, are good for nothing but to BURN IN HELL FOR EVERMORE." One Mr. Thomas Moore, in a book entitled, An Explicit Declaration of the Testimony of Christ," &c. saith,

Gro

*Family Expositor, vol. vi. page 47. tius in loc. place.

Assembly's Annotations on the

on this passage, "The briers and thorns here meant, appear in this epistle to be a letting slip the things we have heard, and so a neglect of the great salvation, and a listening to the deceitfulness of sin, and so a hardening our hearts against the teachings of the grace of GoD, and allowing in ourselves any root of bitterness, uncleanness or profaneness, and so turning from him that speaks from heaven, through an unbelieving heart departing from the living God. And then a neglect of the ordinances of Christ, and a forsaking the assemblies of the saints; and then crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh, and putting him to an open shame. And so when fallen from such a faith, by the oracles of God fastened on such a foundation, and affording such principles; they have trodden under foot the Son of God; and have counted the blood of the covenant wherewith they were sanctified, as an unholy thing, and have done despite to the Spirit of grace. These are briers