"children," may not, and that fome do not, ultimately remain in that ftate of election and grace that, in the language of her Liturgy, we who are God's people and inheritance, may have "his Holy Spirit taken from us :" or, as it is expreffed in her 16th Article, that they who have received the Holy Ghoft,

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may depart from grace given, and fall into "fin," deadly fin, according to the context; with a poffibility indeed, but therefore without a certainty, of repenting and rising again; and therefore with a poffibility also of perishing eternally or, as her fentiments are more largely conveyed in her "Homily of falling "from God," that they "which are the cho "fen vineyard of God, may be no longer of "his kingdom, may be no longer governed "by his Holy Spirit, may be put from the

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grace and benefits that they had, and ever

might have enjoyed through Chrift; may "be deprived of the heavenly light and life, "which they had in Christ, whilst they abode "in him; may be (as they were once) as men "without God in this world, or rather in

worfe taking. And, in fhort, may be given "into the power of the Devil, which beareth "the rule in all them that be caft away from "God, as he did in Saul and Judas: and may "be brought to fo vile a condition, that they

paffed over, rejected, or reprobated by God; who has by an eternal and unalterable decree preordained, predeftinated and doomed them, before they were born, to certain and everlafting death, ruin, perdition and damnation ; for which he himfelf fits and prepares them; to which they are devoted, not because he forefees their unworthinefs, but folely becaufe he wills it; and which, from the very hour of their birth, he hath made it impoffible for them to escape, and hath precluded and repels them from the means of efcaping *. Avoiding

Liquet Deum occulto confilio libere, quos vult, eligere, aliis rejectis. Inft. lib. iii. cap. xxi. fect. 7.

―aliis damnatio æterna præordinatur. Ibid. fect. 5. Quos Deus præterit, reprobat. Ibid. cap. xxiii. fect. t. -dicimus, æterno et immutabili confilio Deum femel conftituiffe, quos olim femel vellet-exitio devovere. Ibid. cap. xxi. fect. 7.

Alioqui dixiffet Paulus, reprobos fe dedere vel projicere in exitium. Nunc vero fignificat, antequam nafcantur, jam fuæ forti addictos effe. Comm. in Rom. ix. 23.

Dubium non eft, quin utraque præparatio ab arcano Dei confilio pendeat. Ibid.

Quia perditum Deus volebat, obftinatio cordis diviua fuit ad ruinam præparatio. Inft. lib. ii. cap. iv. fect. 3.

Falfum eft Deum, prout unumquemque gratia fua-in'dignum prævidet, ita-reprobare. Comm. in Rom. ix. 11. Dei nutu fieri-ut alii ab ejus aditu arceantur. Inft. lib. iii. cap. xxi. fect. 1.

Confilio nutuque fuo ita ordinat, ut inter homines ita nafcantur, ab utero certæ morti devoti, qui fuo exitio ipfius nomen glorificent. Ibid. cap. xxiii. fect. 6.

ticle)

*this most dangerous downfall, whereby" (as our Church expreffes herself in the 17th Ar"the Devil doth thruft curious and car"nal perfons, lacking the fpirit of Chrift, ei"ther into defperation, or into wretchleffness "of most unclean living, no lefs perilous than

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defperation;" our doctrine is, in the language of our Liturgy and Homilies, that " God "willeth not the death of a finner, but that "he fhould rather turn from his fin and be "faved1;" and that, as the condemnation of every man, that shall perish, "will have been heaped upon himself by his own wickedness "and the ftubbornness of his heart; which "defpifed the goodness, patience, and long"fuffering of God, when he called him con"tinually to repentance;" fo there is no man but by the grace of God he may escape and be faved through Chrift, provided he "take "heed betime, while the day of falvation laft"eth; and abuse not the goodness of God, "who calleth us mercifully to amendment, "and of his endless pity promifeth us forgive"nefs of that which is paft, if with a perfect "and true heart we return unto him." And

quos damnationi addicit, his jufto quidem et irreprehenfibili, fed incomprehenfibili, ipfius judicio vitæ aditum præcludi. Inft. lib. iii. cap. xxiii. fect. 7.

See the Commination Service, and the Second Part of the Sermon of Falling from God,

this doctrine we fupport on the general pro mifes of Scripture, and on innumerable individual paffages, which might be cited in fupport of its feveral parts; and more especially on the declaration in the Prophet Ezekiel, where they are all exprefsly afferted. "When the "wicked man turneth away from his wicked"nefs that he hath committed, and doeth "that which is lawful and right, he fhall fave "his foul alive. I will judge you, O house of "Ifrael, every one according to his ways, "faith the Lord God. Repent, and turn your"felves from all your tranfgreffions; fo iniquity shall not be your ruin. Caft Caft away from

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you all your tranfgreffions, whereby ye have "tranfgreffed; and make you a new heart

and a new fpirit: for why will ye die, O "house of Ifrael? For I have no pleasure in "the death of him that dieth, faith the Lord "God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live "yem."

It is not without extreme repugnance, that I can bring myfelf to credit my own statement, that fuch opinions as thofe, which have been juft afcribed to our affailants, could ever have been foberly maintained, as the declarations of the oracles of God.

Yet that fuch opinions in their full extent,

Ezek. xviii. 27, 30, 31, 32.