made perfect, namely in weakness." He elfewhere fuggefts, that it is impoffible the elect of God fhould be deftroyed by Satan, notwithstanding all the figns and wonders done by him. "God forbid, fays he, that we should believe that the foul of any faint, much less of a prophet, fhould be drawn out by the Devil, who are taught, that Satan may be transfigured into an angel of light; not only into a man of light; yea, that in the end he'll affirm himself to be God, and will do more wondrous figns, ad evertendos fi fieri poffit electos, to destroy the elect, if poffible." Moreover Tertullian af ferts, that the work of God cannot be loft, extinguished, or cease, "For what is of God, fays he, is not fo extinguished, as it is overshadowed; for it may be overshadowed, because it is not God, it cannot be extinguished because it is of God." And if this is true of natural good, which God puts into men, of which he seems to speak, it must be much more fo of fupernatural good infufed into them. And in another place he afks, "How is it, that though Satan is always working, and adding daily to the wicked wits of men, opus Dei aut ceffaverit aut proficere deftiterit, that either the work of God should ceafe or stop going for บ Ib. de anima, c. 57. P. 356. ward?" ward?" Voffius W indeed refers us to two places in this writer, in favour of the faints defectibility from the grace of God. In the first of them are thefe words ", " And is this to be wonder'd at, that any who have been proved for the time past should afterwards fall? Saul, a good man, above the reft, is overthrown by envy; David, a good man, according to the Lord's heart, is afterwards guilty of murder and adultery; Solomon, endued with all grace and wisdom by the Lord, is by women induced to idolatry; for to the Son of God alone was it referved to abide without fin. What if therefore a bishop, a deacon, a widow, a virgin, a doctor, yea, even a martyr, fhould fall from the rule, fhall herefies on that account feem to obtain truth? Do we prove faith by perfons, or perfons by faith? No man is wife but a believer; no man of great name but a Christian; no man a Christian but he who fhall perfevere to the end." All which amounts to no more, than that the best of men may fall into fin; that none are exempt from it but the Son of God; therefore we fhould not think ill of the doctrine of faith, becaufe of the falls of the profeffors of it, no man being a true Chriftian but he that shall perfevere to the laft, for fuch who do w Hift. Pelag. 1. 6. Thef. 12. p. 567. * De praefcript. Haeret. c. 3. p. 230, 231. Bb 3 not . not were never true Chriftians; to all which we heartily fubfcribe. Tertullian, both before and after this paffage, fays such things as are so far from deftroying, that they serve to ftrengthen the doctrine of perseverance. Before it he obferves, that "Herefies prevail through the infirmities of fome which would not prevail at all, fi in bene valentem fidem incurrant, had they attacked one whofe faith was found and well." And after it he has thefe words, which give great light into his fenfe and meaning; "The Lord knows them that are his, and the plant which the Father has not planted he roots up, and of the first shews the last, and carries the fan in his hand to purge his floor. Let the chaff of light faith flie away with every breath of temptation, as much as can flie, eo purior maffa frumenti in horrea Domini reponetur, so that the more pure mass of wheat may be laid up in the Lord's garners. not fome of the learners, being offended, turn away from the Lord? Yet the reft fhould not therefore think of departing from following him; but they that know that he is the word of life, and came from God, perfeveraverunt in comitatu ejus ufque ad finem, have perfevered in his company unto the end, when he mildly offer'd to them to depart if they would. 'Tis a leffer matter if fuch as Phygellus, Hermogenes, Philetus, and Hymenaeus, leave his Apostle. The betrayer Shall of of Christ was of the Apoftles. We wonder at his churches, if they are deferted by fome, when these things fhew us Chriftians, what we fuffer after the example of Christ himfelf; They went out from us, fays he, 1 John. ii. 19. for they were not of us, &c." In the other place referred to ftands this paffage, "Do not many afterwards fall? Is not the gift taken away from many? These are they, namely, who creep in by stealth, who attempting the faith of repentance, place their house about to fall upon the fands." But Tertullian is manifeftly speaking of fuch who never had the true grace of God, or built upon a right foundation, from whom was taken away that which they feemed to have, having fallen, not from true faith, they never had, but from a profeffion of it; fo he fometimes calls Simon Magus a believer, because he profeffed to be one, though he afterwards fays, that he was curfed by the Apoftles, and caft out from the faith, i.e. from the church of God, and a profeffion of faith in it. So when he speaks of fome ready to perifh after baptifin, he is to be underflood of fuch who have not, and never had oil in their lamps. Or when he fpeaks of true believers lofing their faith be does not mean, that they fhall finally and Ꮓ y De pœnitentia, c. 6. p. 144. z De idololatria, c. 9. p. 109. a Scorpiace, c. 6. p. 623. B b 4 totally totally perish; "For, fays he', though fuch an one may be faid to perith, it will be of fuch kind of perdition as to be recovered again; because the fheep perifhes not by dying, but by wandering, and the piece of filver, not by decaying, but by lying hid; fo that may be faid to perifh which is fafe wherefore alfo a believer falling into a fight of the charioteers fury, the fencer's blood, the filthinefs of the ftage, &c. perishes," yet he obferves, that he ought to be fought after and fetch'd back. ; NUMB. VIII. ORIGENES ALEXANDRINUS. A. D. 230. Rigen has many things in his writings which countenance the doctrine of the perpetuity of grace in the faints, and their final perfeverance. "To me, he says, thofe things feem firmer which are by grace, than thofe which are of the law; becaufe thofe are without us, they are within us, and these confift in frail matter, fo as that they may eafily decay, but they are written by the Spirit of God, and being impreffed b De pudicitia, c. 7. p. 722. In Rom. 1. 4. fol. 162. C. in |