Part 30
However, I cannot see sufficient reason to set aside our translation, it being equally just to render the words, _if any man draw back_[96]; since the supplying the words _any man_, or _any one_, is allowed of in many other instances, both in the Old and New Testament. Therefore there is not the least incongruity in its being supplied in the text under our present consideration[97]; and, if it be, the sense that we give of it, will appear very agreeable to the context; accordingly the meaning is, ‘The just shall live by faith,’ or they who ‘know in themselves that they have in heaven a better and an enduring substance,’ as in one of the foregoing verses: These shall live by faith, but as for others who do not live by faith, having only a form or shew of religion, ‘whose manner is to forsake the assembling of themselves together,’ as in verse 25. these are inclined to _draw back_; therefore, let them know that _if any one_, or _whosoever draws back_, it will be at their peril; for it will be to their own _perdition_; yet saith the apostle, that true believers may not be discouraged by the apostacy of others, let them take notice of what is said in the following words, ‘We are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe, to the saving of the soul.’ These things being duly considered, it will be sufficiently evident that this text does not militate against the doctrine of the saints’ perseverance.
_Obj._ 4. There is another objection brought against the doctrine we have been endeavouring to maintain, taken from what the apostle says in Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6. ‘It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.’ The force of this objection lies in two things, _viz._ that they are described as total and final apostates; and also, that according to the account we have of their former conversation, they appear then to have been true believers.
_Answ._ This is thought, by some, who defend the doctrine of the saints’ perseverance, to be one of the most difficult objections that we generally meet with against it; especially they who cannot see how it is possible for a person to make such advances towards true godliness, and yet be no other than an hypocrite or formal professor, are obliged to take a method to set aside the force of the objection, which I cannot give into, namely, that when the apostle says, _It is impossible_ that such should be _renewed again to repentance_; the word _impossible_ denotes nothing else, but that the thing is exceeding difficult, not that they shall eventually perish; because they are supposed to be true believers; but their recovery after such a notorious instance of backsliding, shall be attended with difficulties so great that nothing can surmount, but the extraordinary power of God; and though he will recover them, yet they shall feel the smart thereof as long as they live; they shall be saved, yet so as by fire[98].
But notwithstanding the word _impossible_ may be sometimes taken for that which is very difficult, I cannot but conclude that the apostle is here speaking of that which is impossible, with respect to the event, and therefore, that he is giving the character of apostates who shall never be recovered. This appears, not only from the heinousness of the crime, as they are said _to crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame_; but from what is mentioned in the following verses, in which they are compared to _the earth that bringeth forth thorns and briars, which is rejected, and nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned_; and from their being distinguished from those who shall be saved, concerning whom the apostle was _persuaded better things, and things that accompany salvation_; therefore he is speaking here concerning a total and final apostasy.
But that this may not appear to militate against the doctrine we are maintaining, I shall endeavour to shew, that notwithstanding the character the apostle gives of the persons he here speaks of they were destitute of the truth of grace, and therefore nothing is said concerning them, but what a formal professor may attain to: That this may appear let it be considered,
1. That they are described as _once enlightened_; but this a person may be, and yet be destitute of saving faith. If by being _enlightened_ we understand their having been baptized, as some critics take the word, which was afterwards, in some following ages, used in that sense, it might easily be alleged, that a person might be baptized and yet not be a true believer: But since I question whether baptism was expressed by illumination in the apostles age[100], I would rather understand by it, their having been convinced of the truth of the gospel, or yielded an assent to the doctrines contained therein. Now this a person may do, and yet be destitute of saving faith, which is seated not barely in the understanding, but in the will, and therefore supposes him not only to be rightly informed, with respect to those things which are the object of faith, but to be internally and effectually called, from whence saving faith proceeds, as has been before observed.
2. They are said to have _tasted the good word of God_; which agrees with the character before given of those who had a temporary faith[101], who seemed, for a while, pleased with the word, and their affections were raised in hearing it; as Herod is said to have _heard John the Baptist gladly, and to have done many things_; like those whom our Saviour compares to the seed sown in stony ground, which soon sprang up, but afterwards withered away. This a person may do, and yet not have saving faith; for it is one thing to approve of, and be affected with the word, and another thing to mix it with that faith which accompanies salvation. A person may entertain those doctrines contained in the word which relate to a future state of blessedness with pleasure; as all men desire to be happy, and at the same time be far from practising the duties of self-denial, taking up the cross, and following Christ, mortifying indwelling sin, and exercising an intire dependance upon, and resignation to him in all things: This contains much more than what is expressed by _tasting the good word of God_.
3. They are farther described as having _tasted the heavenly gift, and being made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and of the powers of the world to come_; all which expressions, I humbly conceive, carry in them no more than this, that they had been enabled to work miracles, or that they had a faith of miracles, which has been before described[102], and proved to fall very short of saving faith[103]. Therefore these characters given of them do not argue that they were true believers, and consequently the objection, which depends on the supposition that they were, is of no force to prove that saints may totally or finally fall from grace.
_Obj._ 5. The next objection against the doctrine we have been maintaining, is taken from Heb. x. 29. _Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace._ The crime here spoken of is of the heinous nature, and the greatest punishment is said to be inflicted for it: Now, inasmuch as these are described as having been _sanctified by the blood of the covenant_, it follows, that they were true believers, and consequently true believers may apostatize, and fall short of salvation.
_Answ._ The force of the objection lies principally in those words, _the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified_; which expression is taken, by divines, in two different senses.
1. Some take the word _he_ in the same sense as it is taken in the objection, as referring to the apostate; and then the difficulty which occurs, is how such an one could be said to be sanctified by the blood of the covenant, and yet not regenerate, effectually called, or a true believer: To solve this, they suppose, that by _sanctification_ we are only to understand a relative holiness, which such have who are made partakers of the common grace of the gospel: Thus it is said, _Israel was holiness unto the Lord_, Jer. ii. 3. or, as the apostle Peter expresses it, _an holy nation_, 1 Pet. ii. 9. as they were God’s people by an external covenant relation, and by an explicit consent to be governed by those laws which he gave them when they first became a church, Exod. xxiv. 3. and publicly avouched him to be their God, and he avouched them to be his peculiar people, which was done upon some solemn occasions, Deut. xxvi. 17, 18. Nevertheless, many of them were destitute of the special grace of sanctification, as it contains in it a thorough and universal change of heart and life. Moreover, they suppose that this privilege of being God’s people, by an external covenant-relation, together with all these common gifts and graces that attend it, was purchased by, and founded on the blood of Christ, which is called _the blood of the covenant_, inasmuch as he was _given for a covenant of the people_, Isa. xlii. 6. and pursuant hereunto, he shed his blood to procure for them the external as well as the saving blessings of the covenant of grace; the former of these, the persons here described as apostates, are supposed to have been made partakers of, as the apostle says, _To them pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises_, Rom. ix. 4. they worshipped him in all his ordinances, as those whom the prophet speaks of, _who seek him daily, and delight to know his ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God; they ask of him the ordinances of justice, and take delight in approaching to God_; and yet these things were not done by faith, Isa. lviii. 2. In this respect persons may be sanctified, and yet afterwards forfeit, neglect, despise and forsake these ordinances, and lose the external privileges of the covenant of grace, which they once had, and so become apostates. This is the most common method used to solve the difficulty contained in the objection. But I would rather acquiesce in another way, which may be taken to account for the sense of those words, _the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified_. Therefore, let it be considered,
2. That the word _he_ may be understood, not as referring to the apostate, but our Saviour, who is spoken of immediately before: thus the apostate is said to ‘trample under foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the covenant wherewith He, that is, Christ, ‘was sanctified, an unholy thing.’ That this sense may appear just, it may be observed, that Christ was sanctified or set apart by the Father, to perform all the branches of his Mediatorial office, in two respects.
(1.) As he was fore-ordained or appointed, by him, to come into the world to shed his blood for the redemption of his people: thus his undertaking to redeem them is called his sanctifying, or devoting himself to perform this work, as he says, ‘For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth,’ John xvii. 19. this he did in pursuance of the eternal transaction between the Father and him, relating hereunto. But it will be said, that this was antecedent to his dying for them; and therefore, properly speaking, he could not be said, in this respect, to be _sanctified by the blood of the covenant_; therefore, to this we may add,
(2.) That he was also sanctified, or set apart by the Father, to apply the work of redemption after he had purchased it; which sanctification was, in the most proper sense, the result of his shedding his blood, which was the blood of the covenant; so that as he was ‘brought again from the dead,’ as the apostle speaks, ‘through the blood of the everlasting covenant,’ Heb. xiii. 20. all the blessings which he applies to his people as the consequence hereof, are the result of his being sanctified, or set apart to carry on and perfect the work of our salvation, the foundation whereof was laid in his blood.
Moreover, that they who are here described as apostates, had not before this, the grace of faith, is evident from the context, inasmuch as they are distinguished from true believers. The apostle seems to speak of two sorts of persons, to wit, some who had cast off the ordinances of God’s worship, ‘forsaking the assembling of themselves together,’ who are distinguished from those whom he dehorts from this sin, who _had_ the grace of _faith_, whereby they were enabled to ‘draw near to God in full assurance thereof, having their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and their bodies washed with pure water;’ concerning these he says, ‘We are not of them who draw back to perdition, but of them who believe to the saving of the soul,’ chap. x. 39. Therefore we must conclude that others are intended in the text under our present consideration, who were not true believers, and consequently it does not from hence appear that such may totally, or finally, fall from a state of grace.
The apostates spoken of in this and the foregoing objection, were probably some among the Jews, to whom the gospel was preached, who embraced the Christian faith, being convinced by those miracles which were wrought for that purpose, but afterwards revolted from it, and were more inveterately set against Christ and the gospel than they had been before they made this profession; and accordingly as they had formerly approved of the crimes of those who crucified Christ, in which respect they are said to have crucified him; now they do, in the same sense, crucify him afresh. And as they had been made partakers of the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost; afterwards they openly blasphemed him, and this was done with spite and malice. These texts therefore not only contain a sad instance of the apostasy of some, but prove that they were irrecoverably lost; and this comes as near the account we have in the gospels of the unpardonable sin, as any thing mentioned in scripture: nevertheless, what has been said to prove that they never were true believers, is a sufficient answer to this and the foregoing objection.
_Objec._ 6. Another objection against the doctrine of the saints’ perseverance, is taken from 2 Pet. ii. 20-22. _For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome; the latter end is worse with them than the beginning_; and they are said in the following verse, to _turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them_; which is compared to the _dog turning to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire_.
_Answ._ To this it may be replied, That though every one must conclude, that the persons, whom the apostle here speaks of, plainly appear to be apostates; yet there is nothing in their character which argues that they apostatized, or fell from the truth of grace; and it is only such whom we are at present speaking of. It may be observed, that the apostle is so far from including these apostates in the number of those to whom he writes this, with the foregoing epistle, whom he describes _as elect, according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ_, and as having been _begotten again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to an inheritance reserved for them in heaven_, and as such, who should be _kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation_, 1 Pet. i. 2-5. that he plainly distinguishes them from them. For in verse 1, of this chapter, from whence it is taken, it is said, ‘There shall be false teachers among you, and many shall follow their pernicious ways;’ he does not say many, who are now of your number, but many who shall be joined to the church, when these false teachers arise. These persons, indeed, are represented as making a great shew of religion, by which they gained reputation among some professors, whom they seduced which otherwise they could not have done; and therefore it is said, ‘They had escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,’ and that they had ‘known the way of righteousness.’ Such might indeed be joined to the church afterwards; but they did not now belong to it; and what is said concerning them, amounts to no more than an external visible reformation, together with their having attained the knowledge of Christ and divine things; so that they were enlightened in the doctrines of the gospel; though they made it appear, by the methods they used to deceive others, that they had not experienced the grace of the gospel themselves, and therefore they fell away from their profession, and turned aside from the faith, which once they preached. It is one thing for a formal professor, who makes a great show of religion, to turn aside from his profession, to all excess of riot; and another thing to suppose a true believer can do so, and that to such a degree as to continue therein; this the grace of God will keep him from.
_Objec._ 7. Another objection against the doctrine of the saints’ perseverance, is taken from the parable of the debtor and creditor, in Matt, xviii. 26, _&c._ in which it is said, ‘The servant fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt;’ but afterwards, upon his treating one of his fellow-servants, who owed him a very inconsiderable sum, with great severity, his lord exacted the debt of him, which he had before forgiven him, and so _delivered_ him _to the tormentors_, till he should pay all that was due to him: ‘So likewise,’ it is said, ‘shall my heavenly Father do unto you, if ye, from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses;’ from whence it is inferred, that a person may fall from a justified state, or that God may forgive sin at one time, and yet be provoked to alter his resolution, and inflict the punishment that is due to it, at another; which is altogether inconsistent with the doctrine of the saints’ perseverance in grace.
_Answ._ In answer to this we must observe, that our Saviour’s design in his parables, is not that every word or circumstance contained in them, should be applied to signify what it seems to import, but there is some truth in general intended to be illustrated thereby, which is principally to be regarded therein. Thus in the parable of the _judge_, in Luke xviii. 2, &c. ‘which feared not God, neither regarded man,’ who was moved, by a widow’s importunity, to ‘avenge her of her adversary;’ which after a while, he resolved to do, because the widow _troubled him_. This is applied to ‘God’s avenging his elect, who cry day and night unto him;’ where we must observe, that it is only in this circumstance that the parable is to be applied to them without any regard had to the injustice of the judge, or his being uneasy, by reason of the importunity which the widow exprest in pleading her cause with him.
Again, in the parable of the _steward_, in Luke xvi. 1, &c. who being accused for having _wasted his lord’s goods_; and apprehending that he should be soon turned out of the stewardship, he takes an unjust method to gain the favour of his lord’s debtors, by remitting a part of what they owed him, that by this means they might be induced to shew kindness to him when he was turned out of his service. It is said indeed, verse 8. that ‘the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had acted wisely;’ whereas, our Saviour does not design, in the account he gives of his injustice, to give the least countenance to it, as though it were to be imitated by us; nor by his lord’s commending him as acting wisely for himself, does he intend that it is lawful or commendable for wicked men to pursue the like measures to promote their future interest. But the only thing in which this parable is applied, is, that we might learn from hence, that ‘the children of this world are, in their generation wiser than the children of light;’ and that men ought to endeavour, without the least appearance of injustice, to gain the friendship of others, by using what they have in the world, in such a way, as that they may be induced, out of gratitude for those favours, which they conferred upon them, to shew respect to them; but principally, that in performing what was really their duty, they might have ground to hope that they shall be approved of God, and received into everlasting habitations.
Now to apply this rule to the parable from whence the objection is taken, we must consider, that the design hereof is not to signify that God changes his mind, as men do, by forgiving persons at one time, and afterwards condemning them, as though he did not know, when he extended this kindness to them, how they would behave towards others, or whether they would improve or forfeit this privilege; since to suppose this would be contrary to the divine perfections. Therefore the only design of the parable is to shew, that they who now conclude that God has forgiven them, ought to forgive others, or else they will find themselves mistaken at last: and though according to the tenor of the divine dispensations, or the revealed will of God, which is our only rule of judging concerning this matter, they think that they are in a justified state, it will appear, that the debt which they owed was not cancelled, but shall be exacted of them to the utmost, in their own persons; so that all that can be proved from hence is, that a man may fall from, or lose those seeming grounds, which we had to conclude that his sins were forgiven: but we are not to suppose that our Saviour intends hereby that God’s secret purpose, relating to the forgiveness of sin, can be changed; or that he, who is really freed from condemnation, at one time, may fall under it at another: therefore, what is said in this parable, does not in the least give countenance to this objection, or overthrow the doctrine we are maintaining.
_Objec._ 8. There is another objection, taken from what the apostle Paul says concerning himself, in 1 Cor. ix. 27. _I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away._ Now it is certain that the apostle was a true believer; yet he concludes, that if he did not behave himself so as to subdue or keep under his corrupt passions, but should commit those open scandalous crimes, which they would prompt him to, he should, in the end, become a cast-away, that is, apostatize from God, and be rejected by him.