_Heb. 6:4‐6_—“_For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame._” This is to be understood as a hypothetical case,—as is clear from _verse 9_ which follows: “_But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things which accompany salvation, though we thus speak_.” Dr. A. C. Kendrick, Com. _in loco_: “In the phrase ‘_once enlightened_,’ the ‘_once_’ is ἅπαξ = once for all. The text describes a condition subjectively possible, and therefore needing to be held up in earnest warning to the believer, while objectively and in the absolute purpose of God, it never occurs.... If passages like this teach the possibility of falling from grace, they teach also the impossibility of restoration to it. The saint who once apostatizes has apostatized forever.” So _Ez. 18:24_—“_when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity ... in them shall he die_”; _2 Pet. 2:20_—“_For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the last state is become worse with them than the first_.” So, in _Mat. 5:13_—“_if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?_”—if this teaches that the regenerate may lose their religion, it also teaches that they can never recover it. It really shows only that Christians who do not perform their proper functions as Christians become harmful and contemptible (Broadus, _in loco_). (_e_) They show that the perseverance of the truly regenerate may be secured by these very commands and warnings. _1 Cor. 9:27_—“_I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected_”—or, to bring out the meaning more fully: “_I beat my body blue_ [or, ‘strike it under the eye’], _and make it a slave, lest after having been a herald to others, I myself should be rejected_” (“unapproved,” “counted unworthy of the prize”); _10:12_—“_Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall_.” Quarles, Emblems: “The way to be safe is never to be secure.” Wrightnour: “Warning a traveler to keep a certain path, and by this means keeping him in that path, is no evidence that he will ever fall into a pit by the side of the path simply because he is warned of it.” (_f_) They do not show that it is certain, or possible, that any truly regenerate person will fall away.