Apoc 2.4. What the Lord vader(landeth by lofing their figft foie. klpoe.3. S. 7220bie6tionstaken from tefziimoniesofScripture,4nfivered. courfes, like the dog to hisvomit,or the fow to the mire. The twentieth place obieeled is Apoc.2.4. Neuerthelef, Ihavefomewhat againg. thee, becaufe thou haft left thyfirli lorie. From which place they thus reafon They who lofe their charitie may lofe their faith alto, and finally fall from grace; but the Angell of the Church of Ephefus loft his charitie: Erzo. I anfwere, the affumptiori is manifeftly falfe, andquite contrarie to the teftimonie aileaged : for in the former part of theEpiftle,as the Lord had highly commended the angeli ofthis Church,for many fingular graces, approoued bydi- uers excellent fruits oftheirfaith, fo efpecially hee praifeth their conilancie and perfeuerance in thefe godly and religi- ous courfes, in the next verfe going before. Whereas there- fore he admonifheth them that they had left their firi loue, and willeth them to remember fromwhence theywere fal- len,his meaning is not that theyhad vtterly Ioft their chari- tie, and were fallen from faith and grace, ofwhich there JIM remained fo excellent fruits and infallible figtes ; but that they had left that high degree. oflouc, and that ardentaffe- ¿tlion,which they had formerly fhewed towards God and his Saints. Neither doth he abfolutely fay that they had loft their charitie altogether, but their Ertl charitie. That is, their zealous heate of loue,. which .they had (hewed . foone after their firft conuerfion, which was very extra- ordinarie and fingular, as appeareth in the florie of the A6is of the Apoftles. And this nothing impugneth that truth which wee maintaine, for wee hold that Gods fan- tlifying graces cannotbee utterly loft, and quite extingui- fhed,yet they may decay,be weakned and diminii}cd in their rneafure and. degree. The 2 z . place obieeled is Apoc.3.5. He that ouercommeth (hall beclothed in white aray, and .1 will not put out his name out ofthebooke oflife, but .1 willconfeffe bicname before my father, andhefore his QAnvis. From which place they thus reafon : If they who ouercome (hall not beblotted out ofthe booke of line ; then contrariwife it follov'eth by like reafon,that thole who doe not ouercome fhall beblottedout; but the lira is true, therefore the fecond likewife. This argument I haue alreadie
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