it often happens, that we are called to use these ex- pressions over persons who, there is reason to fear, have died in their sins ; and then the question is, How we can with propriety use them ? I answer, that, even according to the letter of the words, the use of them may be justified ; because we speak not of his, but of the, resurrection to eternal life ; and because, where we do not absolutely knoxv that God has not pardoned a person, we may entertain some measure of hope that he has. But, taking the ex- pressions more according to the spirit of them, they precisely accord with what we continually read in the epistles of St. Paul. In the First Epistle to the Corinthian Church, he says of them, " I thank my God always on your behalf, that in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge ; even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you ; so that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Yet, does he instantly begin to condemn the sane persons, for their divisions and contentions ; and afterwards tells them, " that they were carnal, and walked, not as saints, but as men," that is, as un- converted and ungodly men1. In like manner, in his Epistle to the Philippians, after saying, " I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now ; being confident of this very thing, that he who hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ," he adds, " Even as it is meet for me to think this of you allm." Yet does he afterwards caution these very persons against strife, and vain-glory, and self-love ; and tell them, that he will send Timothy to them shortly, in order to make inquiries into their state, and to give him information respecting them : and he even mentions two by name, Euodias and Syntyche, whose notorious dis- agreements he was desirous to heal.
A multitude of other passages might be cited to the same effect ; to shew that the Apostles, in a
1 1 Cor. i. 4—7. and iii. 3. m Phil. i. 3—7.