This aggra never receive him, so as to be saved by him. vation of their offence, by the circumstance of Christ having bought them, is the doctrine of the text, of the force of which the above interpretations are manifest evasions. We come now to the case of the apostates mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews, vi. 4-8, and x. 26-31. With respect to these passages, it is agreed that they speak of the ultimate and eternal condemnation and rejection of the persons mentioned in them. The question then is, whether Christ died for them, as he died for such as persevere? which is to be determined by another question," whether they were ever true believers, and had received saving grace? If this be allowed, the proposition is established, that Christ died for them that perish: but in order to arrest this conclusion, all Calvinistic Divines agree in denying that the persons referred to by the Apostle, and against whom his terrible denunciations are directed, were ever true believers, or capable of becoming such; and here again we have another pregnant instance of the violence done to the obvious meaning of the word of God, through the influence of a preconceived system. For, 1. It will not be denied, that the Hebrews, to whom the Epistle was addressed, were, in the main at least, true believers; and that the passages in question were written to preserve them from apostasy; of which the rejection, and hopeless punishment, described by the Apostle, are represented as the consequences. But if St. Paul had taught them, as he must have done if Calvinism be the doctrine of the New Testament, that they never could so fall away, and so perish, this was no warning at all to them. To suppose that he held out that as a terror, which he knew to be impossible, and had taught them also to be impossible, is the FIRST absurdity which the Calvinistic interpretation involves. 2. It will not be denied, that he speaks of these wretched apostates, as admonitory examples to the true believers amongst the Hebrews; but as such apostates never were believers, and had not even been rendered capable, by the grace of God, of becoming such, they could not be admonitory examples. To assume that the Apostle, for the sake of argument and admonition, supposes believers to be in the same circumstances and case as those who never were, and never could be believers, and when he had instructed them that their cases could never be similar, is the SECOND absurdity. 3. The apostates in question are represented, by the Apostle, "as falling away" from "repentance," and from Christ's" sacrifice for sins." The advocates of the system of partial redemption affirm, that they fell away only from their profession of repentance and doctrinal belief of Christ's sacrifice for sins, in which they never had, and never could have, any interest. Yet the Apostle places the hopelessness of their state on the impossibility of" renewing them again to repentance;" which proves that he considered their first repentance genuine and evangelical; because the absence of such a repentance, as they had at first, is given as the reason of the hopelessness of their condition. He moreover heightens the case, by alleging, that there remained "no more sacrifice for sins;" which as plainly proves, that, before their apostasy, there was a sacrifice for their sins, and that they had only cut themselves off from its benefits by "wilfully" renouncing it; in other words, that Christ died for them, and that they had placed themselves out of the reach of the benefits of his death, by this one act of aggravated apostasy. The contrast lies between a hopeful and a hopeless case. Theirs was once a hopeful case, because they had "repented," and because there was then a sacrifice for sins; afterwards it became hopeless, because it was "impossible to renew them again unto repentance," and the sacrifice for sin no more remained for them: they had not only renounced their profession of it, but had renounced the sacrifice itself, by renouncing Christianity. Now, so to interpret the Apostle, as to make him describe the awful condition of apostates, as a falling "away" inte a state of hopelessness, when, if Calvinism be the doctrine of the New Testament, their case was never really hopeful, 66 but was equally hopeless, as to their eternal salvation, before as after their apostasy, is the THIRD absurdity. 66 4. But it is plain that theirs had been a state of actual salvation, which could only result from their having had an interest in the death of Christ. The proof of this lies in what the Apostle affirms of the previous state of those who had finally apostatized, or might so apostatize. They were 'enlightened;" this, the whole train of Calvinistic commentators tell us, means a mere speculative reception of the doctrine of the Gospel: they had "tasted of the heavenly gift," and of "the good word of God;" that is, say Poole and others, "they tasted, not digested; they had superficial relishes of joy and peace," and are to be compared “to the stony-ground hearers, who received the word with joy." "And were made partakers of the Holy Ghost;" that is, say some commentators of this class, in his operations, "trying how far a natural man may be raised, and not have his nature changed;" (7) others, "by the communication of miraculous powers.' They had "tasted of the powers of the world to come;" that is, they had felt the powerful doctrines of the Gospel, but as all reprobates may feel them, sometimes powerfully convincing their judgment, at others troubling their consciences. "All these things," says Scott, (8) "often take place in the hearts and consciences of men who yet continue unregenerate. interpretations were undoubtedly forced upon these authors by the system they had adopted; but it unfortunately happens for them, that the Apostle uses no term less strong in describing the religious experience of these apostates than he does in speaking of that of true believers. They were "enlightened,” is said of these apostates; The eyes of your understanding being enlightened," is said of the Ephesians; and "being turned from darkness to light," is the characteristic of all believers. The apostates 66 tasted the heavenly gift ;" this, too, is affirmed of true believers: "Much more they which receive abundance of grace, and 66 These of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." (Rom. v. 17.) To be made " partakers of the Holy Ghost," is also the common distinctive character of all true Christians. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his ;""but ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." "To taste the heavenly gift" and "the good word of God," is also made the mark of true Christianity: "If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." Finally: "The powers of the world to come,"—that is, of the Gospel dispensation, or the power of the Gospel,—is a phrase which stands in precisely the same case. This Gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Since, then, the Apostle expresses the prior experience of these apostates, by the same terms and phrases as those by which he designates the work of God in the hearts of those whose Christianity is, by all, acknowledged to be genuine, where is the authority on which these commentators make him describe, not a saving work in the hearts of these apostates, during the time they held fast their profession, but a simulated one? They have clearly no authority for this at all; and their comments arise not out of the argument of St. Paul, nor out of his terms or phrases, nor from the connexion of these passages with the rest of the discourse; but out of their own theological system alone; in other words, out of a mere human opinion which supplies a meaning to the Apostle of which he gives not the most distant intimation. To make the Apostle describe the falling away from a mere profession unaccompanied with a state of grace, by terms which he is constantly using to describe and characterize a state of grace, is the FOURTH absurdity. We urge, also, two other objections. The interpretations above given are below the force of the terms employed ; and they are above the character of reprobates. They are below the force of the terms employed. To "taste the heavenly gift," is not a mere intellectual or sentimental approval of it; for this heavenly gift is distinguished both from the Holy Spirit, and from the word of God, mentioned afterwards; which leaves us no choice but to interpret it of Christ: and then to taste of Christ, is to receive his grace and mercy: "If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." Thus the Greek Fathers, and many later Divines, understand it of the remission of sins; which interpretation is greatly confirmed by Romans v., where "the gift," "the free gift," and "the gift by grace," are used both for the means of our justification, and for justification itself. To "taste the heavenly gift," then, is, in this sense, so to taste that the Lord is gracious as to receive the remission of sins. To be made "partakers of the Holy Ghost" follows this in the usual order of describing the work of God in the heart. The fruit of faith is the Spirit of adoption and sanctification; for the Spirit in his comforting and renewing influences follows our justification. But to restrain this participation of the Holy Ghost to the endowment of miraculous powers requires it to be previously established, either, 1. That all professing Christians, in that age, were thus endowed with miraculous powers, of which there is no proof; or, 2. That only those who were thus endowed with miraculous gifts were capable of this aggravated apostasy; and then the Apostle's warning would not be a general one, even to the Christians of the apostolic age, nor even to all the believing Hebrews, which it manifestly is. On the other hand, since all true believers, in the sense of the Apostle, received the Holy Ghost in his comforting and renovating influences, the meaning of the phrase becomes obvious, and it lays down the proper ground for a general admonition. Again: "to taste the good word of God" is still an advance in the process of a genuine experience. It is tasting the good word, that is, the goodness of the word, in a course of experience and practice; having personal proof of its goodness and adaptation to man's state in the world: for, to argue from the term "taste," as though something superficial and transitory only were meant, is as absurd as to argue from the threat of Christ that those who refused the invitation of his B |