OfEleE!ion. and adoring of the grace of God towards himfell; and blcffing him for it, ~, muft we needs fuppofe that pemtent Peter, (when now tilled wirh the Chap. 6. Holy Ghoft) did utter thefc Paiiages, He WM 1ium6rtd amo11gft [Us;]~ 0: that I, who deferved to have been uanged on the fame Tree together with him, and then to have hung 10 Hell next to him, lhould !till be here among you the holy Apofiles, the called ones of God , and fiill b!' numbred among the [Vs] among you, who ore the choice11 of his Sa'ints , even his Apoilles. 0 : I W'!S in danger for ever to have been ex· eluded , as we have but now feen JudaJ was. II. There are lnjlances out of tbe Epijlles. That Age that followed, which firft were termed Chrifiian , afforded plenty of fuch parallel Examples of. Apofiatizing Profeffors, ond perfeve– ring Saints , growmg up together 10 one anothcrs vrew ;. fuch as tile Ape– files in their Eptftles abundantly dtd fl1ew. Taut from IllS experience and obfervation fets both together in He6r; 6. from ver( 4· to verj: rhe 11th. as in one Scheme, as alfo fcattered in divers other Paffages of that Epiflle, efpecially Chapter 10, i2, ~ ~· i4, 25, 26, 27. and from Verf. ~2. to rhe end, the connexion whereof in ver[ 39· is this Summary: But we are 11ot of them who draw back u11to perdztio',; but of them that h!irve to the j:z– ving of thr Soul. Alfo in his Epifiles to Timothy, efpecially the latter, he fets Phy'ge/Jus and Hrrmogmes over agar_nfi 011e{iphorw, 2 Ttm. I. r), 16, I7, r8. HymetJem and PhzlrtiU over agamfi thofc whom he had known to be his, Chap1.2. q, r8, 19, 20, 21, In Chapt. ~· he adds the fame al– moft throughout them. In Chapt. the. 4th. he fets the names of 'DemtU, who had forfaken him, and toYed tht< world, verf 10. once his fellow La– bourer with Marcus, Lucll4, Pht!emon, together wtth the very fame Per– fans , 'whom he here iD; Timothy again mentions, a~ continuing and perfe– vering, Verf. r I• ltkewrfe Alexa11der the Copper·fmtth, of whole zeal and fufferings for P cmt, you read Af!s '9· H• but now turned Apofiate; as in fer{; '4· of the fame 4th to Ttmothy; as alfo in 2 Tt·m. 2. 18, 19, 20, 2 I. as hath been lhewn : Jamrs his whole Epifile is but a continued Chara– ller, and difcovery of unfound Profellors. And of the true intermingled fet, John cloth the like in his firfi Epiflle, Chap. 2. 16. And up and down in the refi of the Epifile, from firfi to laft, Peter the like, in his fe– cond Epiflle, Chap. 2. throughout, Graphically defcribes both Profeffors now fain ; and another Company of faithful Ones living with thofe, and with– in one anothers knowledge , to whom (the faithful Ones) he infcribes in that Epiflle, under the title of thofe that had received lzke preciotts faith with M. The Apoftles themfelves, Chapt. I. r. whofe pure minds he fiirs up to look for, and haflen to the Kingdom of Chrift, Chap. ~· 2, :ind fo on : But infiead of all other, I choofe out the Epiflle of Jude, ond in the next Paragraph lhall, to this purpofe, more inlift on it, in which the Ho– ly Ghofl reprefents, as in a Glaf.•, the differing Face and Condition of Profelfors in the laft Scene of the Primitive Times, and holds up to .our view the preferved ill Chrifl, verfe the rjl; aod bears the Tirle of the whole Epil\le oppolitely to thofe multitudes that had withered and fain away : His decipher of them takes up the greater part of that Epiflle; but of this in the next Paragr~ph : So as upon the matter, though I will not fay, That in all and every Epifile, this Argument lhould be infifled on, yet I may juflly fay, That of all the Apoflles that wrote, they have in their Epil\les, one er other, touch't upon, yea enlarged, this very Sub. jed:; and the Records thereof are for on admonition unto all fuccecding Ages, efpecially uoro us, upo11 whom the ends of the world are come; as that which ordinarilv lhould fall out, efpeci•lly in fuch Ages and Pla– ces wherein the Cofpel lhould break forth with a brighter light and warm· er Beams. Pat~/ prophelies of this like different event of Chriflianity in the profellion of it, 2 Tim. ~· from verj: 1, to verj: '4· Thu/a;ow atfo,that tn
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=