Moreover, that they who are here described as apostates, had not before this, the grace of faith, is evident from the context, inasmuch as they are distinguished from true believers. The apostle seems to speak of two sorts of persons, to wit, some who had cast off the ordinances of God’s worship, ‘forsaking the assembling of themselves together,’ who are distinguished from those whom he dehorts from this sin, who _had_ the grace of _faith_, whereby they were enabled to ‘draw near to God in full assurance thereof, having their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and their bodies washed with pure water;’ concerning these he says, ‘We are not of them who draw back to perdition, but of them who believe to the saving of the soul,’ chap. x. 39. Therefore we must conclude that others are intended in the text under our present consideration, who were not true believers, and consequently it does not from hence appear that such may totally, or finally, fall from a state of grace. The apostates spoken of in this and the foregoing objection, were probably some among the Jews, to whom the gospel was preached, who embraced the Christian faith, being convinced by those miracles which were wrought for that purpose, but afterwards revolted from it, and were more inveterately set against Christ and the gospel than they had been before they made this profession; and accordingly as they had formerly approved of the crimes of those who crucified Christ, in which respect they are said to have crucified him; now they do, in the same sense, crucify him afresh. And as they had been made partakers of the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost; afterwards they openly blasphemed him, and this was done with spite and malice. These texts therefore not only contain a sad instance of the apostasy of some, but prove that they were irrecoverably lost; and this comes as near the account we have in the gospels of the unpardonable sin, as any thing mentioned in scripture: nevertheless, what has been said to prove that they never were true believers, is a sufficient answer to this and the foregoing objection. _Objec._ 6. Another objection against the doctrine of the saints’ perseverance, is taken from 2 Pet. ii. 20-22. _For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome; the latter end is worse with them than the beginning_; and they are said in the following verse, to _turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them_; which is compared to the _dog turning to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire_.