_Obj._ 5. The next objection against the doctrine we have been maintaining, is taken from Heb. x. 29. _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._ The crime here spoken of is of the heinous nature, and the greatest punishment is said to be inflicted for it: Now, inasmuch as these are described as having been _sanctified by the blood of the covenant_, it follows, that they were true believers, and consequently true believers may apostatize, and fall short of salvation. _Answ._ The force of the objection lies principally in those words, _the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified_; which expression is taken, by divines, in two different senses. 1. Some take the word _he_ in the same sense as it is taken in the objection, as referring to the apostate; and then the difficulty which occurs, is how such an one could be said to be sanctified by the blood of the covenant, and yet not regenerate, effectually called, or a true believer: To solve this, they suppose, that by _sanctification_ we are only to understand a relative holiness, which such have who are made partakers of the common grace of the gospel: Thus it is said, _Israel was holiness unto the Lord_, Jer. ii. 3. or, as the apostle Peter expresses it, _an holy nation_, 1 Pet. ii. 9. as they were God’s people by an external covenant relation, and by an explicit consent to be governed by those laws which he gave them when they first became a church, Exod. xxiv. 3. and publicly avouched him to be their God, and he avouched them to be his peculiar people, which was done upon some solemn occasions, Deut. xxvi. 17, 18. Nevertheless, many of them were destitute of the special grace of sanctification, as it contains in it a thorough and universal change of heart and life. Moreover, they suppose that this privilege of being God’s people, by an external covenant-relation, together with all these common gifts and graces that attend it, was purchased by, and founded on the blood of Christ, which is called _the blood of the covenant_, inasmuch as he was _given for a covenant of the people_, Isa. xlii. 6. and pursuant hereunto, he shed his blood to procure for them the external as well as the saving blessings of the covenant of grace; the former of these, the persons here described as apostates, are supposed to have been made partakers of, as the apostle says, _To them pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises_, Rom. ix. 4. they worshipped him in all his ordinances, as those whom the prophet speaks of, _who seek him daily, and delight to know his ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God; they ask of him the ordinances of justice, and