"1. If the said expressions import nothing but what hypocrites, and that ' in sensu composite,' that is, whilst hypocrites, are ca- pable of, then may those be hypocrites who are separated from men that live in error, and from the pollutions of the world, and that through the knowledge of Jesus Christ ; and, on the other hand, those may be saints and sound believers who wallow in all manner of filthiness, and defile themselves daily with the pollutions of the world. This consequence, according to the principles and known tenets of our adversaries, is legitimate and true, inasmuch as they hold ' That true believers may fall so foul and so far that the church, according to Christ's institution, may be constrained to testify that they cannot bear them in their outward communion, and that they shall have no part in the kingdom of Christ, except they repent,' etc. But whether this be wholesome and sound divinity or no, to teach that they who are separate from sinners, and live holily and blame- lessly in this present world, and this by means of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, may be hypocrites and cliildren of perdition, and they, on the other hand, who are companions of thieves, murderers, adul- terers, etc., saints and sound believers, I leave to men whose judg- ments are not turned upside down with prejudice to determine."
Sundry things might be observed from the text to render this discourse altogether useless as to the end for which it is produced : as, 1. That sundry copies, verse 18, instead of SXug'^ read bXlyov, —
' "OXwi seems to be a misprint for ovtu;, which is the reading of the tcxtus reccptus. This latter reading is now abandoned in tlie critical editions of the New Testament. Estins seems to have adopted ox'iyov Bloomfield has no doubt that it should be hXiy/w Tischendorf, on the authority of some of the most ancient manuscripts, several ancient versions, and several of the Fathers, inserts oxiya; in the text as the proper reading. The meaning in this case would be " almost." In the translation of De Wette, " beinabe,'' "almost," is the word employed. — Ed.
664 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP,
who " almost/' or in a little way or measure, so escaped as is said. 2. That it is not said that those who are so escaped may apostatize. It is said, indeed, that the false prophets and teachers dsXsd'^ovatv, do lay baits for them, as the fisher doth for the fish that he would take, by proposing unto them a liberty as to all manner of impurity and uncleanness; but that in so doing they prevail over them is not affirmed. 3, The conditional expression, verse 20, may be used in reference to the false prophets, and not to them that are said to "escape the pollutions of the world;" and if to them, that nothing can be argued from thence hath plentifully, upon several occasions, been already demonstrated. But, to suffer Mr G. to leap over all these blots in his entrance, and to take the words in his own sense and connection, I say, —
1. In what large and improper sense such persons as we treat of are termed "hypocrites" hath been declared. Those who pretend to be God-ward, what they know themselves not to be, making a pre- tence of religion to colour and countenance themselves in vice and vicious practices or sensual courses, wherein they allow and bless themselves, we intend not; but such as in some sincerity, under the enjoyment and improvement of gifts and privileges, do or may walk conscientiously (as Paul before his conversion), and yet are not united to Christ.
2. Of these we say that they may so "escape," etc. But that sound believers may " wallow in all manner of filthiness, and defile them- selves with all manner of pollutions," we say not; nor will any instance given amount to the height and intendment of these expressions, they being all alleviated by sundry considerations necessary to be taken in with that of their sinning.
3. If we may compare the worst of a saint with the best of a formal professor, and make an estimate of the states and conditions of them both, we may cast the balance on the wrong side.
4. We do say that Simon Peter was a believer when he denied Christ, and Simon Magus a hypocrite and in the "bond of iniquity" when it was said he " believeJ." We do say that a man may be alive notwithstanding many wounds and much filth upon him, and a man may be dead without either the one or the other, in that eminently visible manner. He adds, —
" 2. The persons here spoken of are said to have ovtm;, truly and really, ' escajjed from them who live in error." Doubtless a hypocrite cannot be said truly or really, but in show or appearance at most, to have made such an escape (I mean from men who live in error), considering that, for matter of reality and truth, remaining in hypo- crisy, he lives in one of the greatest and foulest errors tliat is."
The whole force of this second exception lies upon the ambiguity of the term " hypocrite." Though such as pretend religion and the
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