CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

2. We are always to distinguish between those that are in profession and appearance Godly, and such who are indeed so: No doubt but the Scripture giveth sundry and plain Instances of the Apostasy and Fall of many who for a while were eminent and admirable in their profession of Religion, but yet for all this they were not such as were indeed rooted and grounded in Christ; and this proposition will serve to answer many places that are brought to prove the perishing condition sometimes of those that had true grace, as Heb. 6.4, 5. where some are said to be enlightened, and to have tasted the good Word of God, and it's supposed that they may fall away and never be restored again, but howsoever the Arminians think there is an enumeration of the best things the godly may have, and that none can go beyond those qualifications, yet the Apostle plainly speaketh the contrary, for when he had reckoned up these particulars, yet he addeth, I hope better things, and things that accompany or hold salvation; So then there were better things then these, and there are things that hold Salvation, that cannot be separated from them, but such were not these things named in the Text, and further the Apostle chargeth these persons to whom he attributeth these privileges, that they were dull and slow, that they needed to be taught the first principles; By all which ⟨p. 354⟩it appeareth that the godly ought to have better things then those mentioned; Do not therefore gather the Apostasy of those that are truly godly, because sometimes you see men of eminent parts and professions in Religion become degenerate and unsound, for possibly these never had the Truth of grace, and such also were those named by Peter, 2 Pet. 2.20. where some are said to have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Christ, and yet were again entangled in their former lusts; We grant, that the Faith of Christ had so far a powerful operation upon them, that they left off those pollutions they lived in whilst Heathens, but yet that they were never changed at the very root and heart, appeareth in that the Apostle calls them but washed Swine, they had not changed their Swinish nature, they were not made Sheep, though they had an outward Reformation:

2. We are alwaies to distinguish between those that are in profession and appearance Godly, and such who are indeed so: No doubt but the Scripture giveth sundry and plain Instances of the Apostacy and Fall of many who for a while were eminent and admirable in their profession of Religion, but yet for all this they were not such as were indeed rooted and grounded in Christ; and this proposition will serve to answer many places that are brought to prove the perishing condition sometimes of those that had true grace, as