blessed sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ; and Fifthly, they had tasted δυνάμεις μέλλοντος αἰῶνος “the powers of the world to come." They had known what it was to do the works of Christ in the body. They had been used as instruments by God. They had exercised the gifts of the Holy Ghost, which are truly the earnest of the powers of the world to come. There has been much difference of opinion as to what is meant by the phrase δυνάμεις μέλλοντος αἰῶνος. Some have thought those powerful foretastes of glory which are vouchsafed to the Elect even in this present condition. "But," says Dean Alford on this passage, "most commentators, and rightly, take alov μλwv as equivalent to oikovμévn μéλλovoa (ch. ii. 5) and as designating the Christian times agreeably to that name of Christ in ref. Isa., warne τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος. Then the δυνάμεις of this “ world to come will be as in ch. ii. 4, where we have roikiλaι dvváμaç enumerated with σημείοις τε καὶ τέρασιν and πνεύματος ἁγίου μερισμοῖς, as God's testimonies to the Gospel. Thus they would mean the xapioμara, given by the Spirit in measure to all who believed, 'distributing severally to every man as He will.' We need not necessarily limit these to external miraculous powers, or even pоpηreía, and the like; but surely may include in them spiritual powers bestowed in virtue of the indwelling Spirit to arm the Christian for his conflict with sin, the world, and the devil."

It is of persons who have been thus highly blessed, who have been thus made one with the Living Head in the heavens that the Apostle utters those solemn and awful words of warning, "It is impossible for those who fell away, to renew them again to repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame"; in other words, they again declare Him worthy of that punishment they had inflicted on Him, and so to them there "remained no more a sacrifice for sin, but a fearful expectation of judgment." There is nothing for them to turn to nothing can be proposed to their faith, but what they have rejected. Having been suns of the morning, and having shone with lustre and brightness in the firmament of Heaven, they have fallen with Satan like lightning from Heaven." that hath set at nought Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses; 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."

Heb. x. 38.

'He

ὁ δὲ δίκαιός μοῦ ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται· καὶ ἐὰν ὑποστείληται, οὐκ εὐδοκεῖ ἡ ψυχή μου ἐν αὐτῷ.

But My just one shall live by faith; but if he draw back, My soul hath no pleasure in him.

The word TOOTEAMEσa signifies to draw back, refuse, shrink, and fly from a thing, and so the object of it being here faith, must signify the drawing back of the person spoken of from faith, and so must be his drawing back into perdition. It is clear that the jav vπOOTεíλnrat, if he draw back refers to the "just man who lives by faith. The words therefore plainly suppose that the just man who lives by faith may draw back to perdition. The translators of our authorised version have not expressed the true force of the original, for they have substituted "any man" for "the just man."

The meaning is clear that if the just man, or righteous one, who lives and should live always by faith shall draw or shrink back, he will cease to be a pleasure to his Lord. Hence it is evident that a just or a righteous man may draw back and fall from grace. Could we conceive it possible for the Holy Ghost to declare that the Lord would have no pleasure in the just man who lived by faith upon his drawing back, were there no danger or possibility of his doing so, that is, that He should declare what the sentiments of the Lord would be in regard to circumstances which by no possibility could arise?

Heb. xii. 14, 15.

Εἰρήνην διώκετε μετὰ πάντων, καὶ τὸν ἁγιασμὸν οὗ χωρὶς οὐδεὶς ὄψεται τὸν Κύριον· ἐπισκοποῦντες μή τις ὑστερῶν ἀπὸ τῆς χάριτος τοῦ Θεοῦ.

Follow peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest there be any man that faileth of the grace of God.

2 Pet. i. 10.

Διὸ μᾶλλον, ἀδελφοί, σπουδάσατε βεβαίαν ὑμῶν τὴν κλῆσιν καὶ ἐκλογὴν ποιεῖσθαι· ταῦτα γὰρ ποιοῦντες οὐ μὴ πταίσητέ ποτε.

Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things ye shall never fall.

In this passage St. Peter exhorts all the brethren to make their calling and election sure, which certainly implies the possibility of their not doing so, and so falling away. If there had been no possibility of falling, such an admonition would have been useless. The Apostle shows most clearly that our continuance in the grace of God can only be maintained by doing His will.

2 Pet. ii. 20.

Εἰ γὰρ ἀποφυγόντες τὰ μιάσματα τοῦ κόσμου ἐν ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ Κυρίου καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦτοις δὲ πάλιν ἐμπλακέντες ἡττῶνται, γέγονεν αὐτοῖς τὰ ἔσχατα χείρονα τῶν πρώτων.

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 last state is worse with them than the first.

The possibility of a total and final defection of the saints certainly seems here to be pointed to. Those who have escaped the pollutions of the world may again become entangled therewith and may be overcome, so that their last condition shall be worse than the first. It must be remembered that the persons to whom the Apostle is addressing himself in this Epistle are those "partakers of like precious faith" with himself and the rest of the Apostles, and it is not likely he would warn those to whom he writes of what could never befal them, but only those to whom he was not writing. If there were no possibility of his readers making their "last state worse than their first," the warning and exhortation were in vain and meaningless.

2 Pet. iii. 17.

ὑμεῖς οὖν, ἀγαπητοί, προγινώσκοντες φυλάσσεσθε, ἵνα μὴ τῇ τῶν ἀθέσμων πλάνῃ συναπαχθέντες ἐκπέσητε τοῦ ἰδίου στηριγμοῦ.

Ye therefore, beloved, knowing these things before, beware lest ye, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.

Here the Apostle shows that there was a danger lest those "who had obtained like precious faith "2 with himself, those to whom "divine power had given all things that pertain unto life and godliness" might be "led away into the error of the wicked" and might "fall from their own stedfastness."

Rev. iii. 5.

ὁ νικῶν οὕτως περιβαλεῖται ἐν ἱματίοις λευκοῖς· καὶ οὐ μὴ ἐξαλείψω τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῆς βίβλου τῆς Ζωῆς, καὶ ὁμολογήσω το ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐνώπιον τοῦ πατρός μου καὶ ἐνώπιον τῶν ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ,

He that overcometh shall thus be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before His angels.

The promise not to blot out the names of such as have not defiled their garments, implies certainly that the names of those who have defiled their garments, who are unfaithful and disobedient, shall be blotted out.

Rev. iii. 10-11.

ὅτι ἐτήρησας τὸν λόγον τῆς ὑπομονῆς μου, καγώ σε τηρήσω ἐκ τῆς ὥρας τοῦ πειρασμοῦ τῆς μελλούσης ἔρχεσθαι ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκουμένης ὅλης, πειράσαι τοὺς κατοικοῦντας ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς· ἔρχομαι ταχύ· κράτει ὅ ἔχεις, ἵνα μηδεὶς λάβῃ τὸν στέφανόν σου.

1 2 Pet. i. 3.

22 Pet. i. 1.

3 2 Pet. i. 3

Because thou didst keep the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of Temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. I come quickly ; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

Rev. xxii. 19.

ἐάν τις ἀφέλῃ ἀπὸ τῶν λόγων τοῦ βιβλίου τῆς προφητείας ταύτης, ἀφελεῖ ὁ Θεὸς τὸ μέρος αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς, καὶ ἐκ τῆς πόλεως τῆς ἁγίας, τῶν γεγραμμένων ἐν τῷ βίβλίῳ τούτῳ.

If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.

This shows that even though the name be enrolled in the book of life-the register of the Elect, yet the same may be blotted out by the judgment of God.

(d) Testimony of the Early Church.

Vossius, in his Pelagian history, asserts most distinctly that Augustine, Prosper and Pelagius, with his followers, agree in this, that justifying faith and regenerating grace may be lost, and that they are lost by very many. And the same writer adds, "Therefore they understand not the doctrine or judgment of antiquity, who when they read in Augustine and others that the Elect of God either never fall away, or else that they return to God before they die, from hence infer that their opinion was, that true believers either always persevere in faith, or at least never fall away utterly from the grace of God. Whose arguing leans upon this supposition, that true believers and the elect are terms convertible; whereas, according to Augustine's doctrine, not true believers, but true believers persevering and Elect are reciprocable. Yea, the whole dispute which Augustine had with Pelagius and the Massilians about the perseverance of the saints stands upon a contrary hypothesis. For unless it be granted that some true believers and godly ones do depart (from God) and not return, do fall and not rise again, this question, why some of these persevere, others not, is at an end before it begin; and yet this was the question so hotly disputed between Augustine and his adversaries. Yea, the truth is, that all antiquity jointly opposes that indefectibility (of the saints which some defend). Nor is there any among the ancients to be found who, as far as I am able to call to mind, conceives that believers have any absolute certainty of their perseverance. They indeed acknowledge that the minds of the children of God ought not to be tortured with any anxiety of doubting, inasmuch as they have a confidence of hope, which may sustain and keep up with sufficient comfort those that may fall, and relieve those that are already fallen. But yet they deny that any man, because he certainly knows that he

is at present in the number of true believers, can therefore promise unto himself, with any degree of certainty, such and so much favour from God for the remaining part of his life, that he may be as bold as if he had if by revelation from God that he shall never incur the guilt of adultery, murder, idolatry, though David, Solomon, and others, declined so fearfully from the ways of God as they did; or in case he shall fall into such horrible sins with them, that he also shall have the time of his life prolonged as David had, until, upon his serious repentance, he be reconciled unto God. Such an absolute certainty as this they affirm to be inexpedient in this life, being obnoxious to so many temptations, and where the weakness of men is such that unless there be a continual solicitude and care to keep that grace which we have once received, a carnal security will most easily steal upon us, through which, as by a broad gate wide open, whole troops of vices are likely to convey themselves into us.""

1

Though it is true many object to the interpretation of antiquity here given, yet Vossius is not far from the truth. There is some confusion in the Fathers by reason of some of them drawing a distinction between different degrees of faith; and this has been well pointed out by Vossius in the following words, "This nevertheless is to be taken into special consideration that when the Fathers affirm that faith may be lost, and therefore that eternal election cannot rightly be inferred from faith, they do not all speak of any measure or degree of faith whatsoever, since many of them distinguish three several degrees of faith. The first of which gives essence or truth of being unto faith in respect whereof it justifies and is called a lively faith: opposite to this is a dead and putrid, such as that of hypocrites. The next degree adds duration (perseverance) in respect whereof it saves: opposite to this faith is that which we commonly call temporary (attributing that improperly unto men's faith which the Scripture attributes to men themselves), which is the faith of apostates. The third degree superadds solidity: this faith is termed perfect, solid, rooted, which any time of a man's life gives him assurance; i.e., to use the words of Gregory the Great, does so confirm that a man cannot fall afterwards, and knows this most certainly of himself. To this degree of faith a weak faith is opposed, which is the faith of many of the elect. Those passages of the Fathers wherein they say that true faith may be lost but is always recovered again, always speak of the second degree of faith. But those, where they say that such faith cannot be lost, must necessarily be understood of the third and highest degree of faith. Between which expressions and what they generally teach otherwise, viz., that many perish eternally through a falling away from their faith, there is no repugnance. For in such assertion as this, they understand faith of the first

1 Vossius Hist. Pelag. lib. vi. Thes. 12.