_Answ._ To this it may be replied, That though every one must conclude, that the persons, whom the apostle here speaks of, plainly appear to be apostates; yet there is nothing in their character which argues that they apostatized, or fell from the truth of grace; and it is only such whom we are at present speaking of. It may be observed, that the apostle is so far from including these apostates in the number of those to whom he writes this, with the foregoing epistle, whom he describes _as elect, according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ_, and as having been _begotten again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to an inheritance reserved for them in heaven_, and as such, who should be _kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation_, 1 Pet. i. 2-5. that he plainly distinguishes them from them. For in verse 1, of this chapter, from whence it is taken, it is said, ‘There shall be false teachers among you, and many shall follow their pernicious ways;’ he does not say many, who are now of your number, but many who shall be joined to the church, when these false teachers arise. These persons, indeed, are represented as making a great shew of religion, by which they gained reputation among some professors, whom they seduced which otherwise they could not have done; and therefore it is said, ‘They had escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,’ and that they had ‘known the way of righteousness.’ Such might indeed be joined to the church afterwards; but they did not now belong to it; and what is said concerning them, amounts to no more than an external visible reformation, together with their having attained the knowledge of Christ and divine things; so that they were enlightened in the doctrines of the gospel; though they made it appear, by the methods they used to deceive others, that they had not experienced the grace of the gospel themselves, and therefore they fell away from their profession, and turned aside from the faith, which once they preached. It is one thing for a formal professor, who makes a great show of religion, to turn aside from his profession, to all excess of riot; and another thing to suppose a true believer can do so, and that to such a degree as to continue therein; this the grace of God will keep him from.