CHAP. XV.                            OF THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS.                                                              4 t t

parddn coming to them, was joyfully received as good
news anti glad tidings; or though they were reproached
and perscented for hearing, receiving, and professing
the gospel, they rejoiced at it, and abode by it: but
so did not these stopyground-hearers; for when tribu-
lation or per:ecution arose because of-the word, they
were offended and gone; their joy was the joy of the
hypocrite, which is but for a moment.                   (3.) The
faith they had was but for a while, as it is expressed,
Luke viii. 13. it was a temporary faith, like that of
Simon Magus, who, though he professed to believe,
was in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity;
their faith was not the faith of God's elect; for that
stands sure, upon the same footing as electing grace
itself does, from whence it springs; it was not that
faith which is the gift of God; for his gifts of grace
are witbout repentance, and are never revoked, but
always abide: not that faith which is the operation of
God; for that is maintained and performed with power:
not that faith of which Christ is the author; for of that
he is the finisher; and though it is sometimes low and
languid, he prays for it that it fail not..    .(4.) Those
persons had no root in themselves, and therefore wi-
thered; they had not the root of the matter in them,
as Job calls it, the truth of grace; they were not rooted
in the love of God, nor in Christ, and had trot the
grace of God rooted in them; otherwise they would
have been fruitful and established; for the root of the
righteous yieldeth fruit, and is not moved, Prov. xii. 3,
12.    -(5.) 'Fhose persons are manifestly distinguished
from the good .ground, into which the seed was re-
ceived, v 23. and fi'om an honest and good heart, in
which they that heard the word kept it, Luke viii. 15.
and so were not truly good and gracious persons, on
whom the good work of grace was begun; were not
trees made good, and so they brought forth no good
fruit: wherefore the withering and falling away of
those are no proofs and instances of the saints so falling
as to pei'ish everlastingly.
   3. Another passage of scripture produced to inva-
lidate the doctrine of the saints final perseverance, is
in John xv. 2, 6. Every branch in me that beareth not
fruit he taketh away; ira man abide not in me he is
cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather
them, and cast them into the .fire, and they are burned.
From whence it is inferred, that men may be branches
in Christ, the true vine, and yet so fall as to perish
everlastingly. Now it should be observed, that there
is a two-fold being in Christ, and two sorts of branches
in him.        (1.) There are some who are truly and
really in him through the grace of God; not only se-
cretly by electing ,n'acc, being chosen in him; but by
powerful and efficacious grace in effectual calling;
who are created iu Christ, and are new creatures iu
him, and have a vital union with him, and become
fruitful by him: these are rooted and built up in him,
and are established in the faith of him; and shall never
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be rooted up, but always have an abiding in him; and
these are fruit-bearing branches in him; all their fruit
is from him, and they are filled with it by him; and
continue so even in old age, to the end of life; being
under the constant care and culture of Christ's Father,
the Husbandman, who purges and prunes them by his

word, and by his Spirit, so that they bring forth much
fruit, whereby he is glorified... .(2.) There are others
who are in him only by profession; which must be
supposed of many of the members of external visible
churches, which are said to be 't'n Christ, Gal. i. 21.
I Thess. i. 1. who, in a judgment of charity, are said
to be so; though it cannot be thought that every indi-
vidual member of them were really in Christ, only by
profession; and such as these not being truly engrafted
into him, though they have a place in Iris churches;
being destitute of the true grace of God, are unfi'uit-
ful, and wither in their profession; and fall into im-
moral practices, or unsound principles, and are cast
out of the churches; and at last, like withered branches,
or chaff, are burnt with unquenchable fire. But what
is this to real saints, or true believers in Christ ? or what
proof of their falling and perishing everlastingly ?
4. Another instance of saints falling fi'om grace is
that of the broken branches from the olive-tree; and
the threatening of such who are grafted into it with
being cut off, if they continue not in goodness, Rom.
xi. 17---22. From whence it is observed, that snch
who are grafted in the good olive-tree, the spiritual
and invisible church, may, nevertheless, so fall from
God as to perish everlastingly. But,--( 1. ) By the
good olive tree is not meant the spiritual and invisible
church; that general assembly and church of the first-
born whose names are written in heaveif; which con-
sists only of elect men; and whose number will neither
be increased nor diminished; that church which Christ
gave himself for to sanctify, and does sanctify; and
whom he will present to himself a glorious church, not
one missing; that church of which he is the head, and
that his body and the fulness of him, which it would
not be should any member thereof perish. But,
(e.) This olive-tree is to be understood of the outward
gospel-church state, or the outward visible church,
under the gospel dispensation; the national church of
the Jews, wbieb is compared to an olive-tree, Jer. xi.
16. being abolished, and its branches broken off and
scattered, a gospel-church-state was set up in Judea;
and therefore called their own olive-tree. Now out of
this, the broken branches, or the unbelieving Jews,
were left; not admitted into the church at Jerusalem,
nor elsewhere in .ludea: and when there was a coalition
of believing Jews and Gentiles, which were first made
at Antioch, these were left out. So that,-- (3.) Those;
who are signified by the broken branches were never
true believers in Christ; but because of their unbelief
in him, and reflection of him, were broken off, and were
never engrafted into, but left out of the gospel-church;
these were such who did not belong to the election of
grace among the Jews; but were the rest, that were
blinded; and so no instances of tbe falling away of
true believers.- -..(4.) Thongh those who are grafted
in are threatened to be ent off, in ease they continued
not in goodness; meaning, not the goodness, grace,
and love of God; but the goodness of the good olive,
the gospel-church; not abiding in the ordinances of it,
and walking worthy of them, in which they were, then
they should be cut off; not from the grace and fayour
of God, nor from an interest in Christ; but from the
church, and the privileges of it; and who might bc
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