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election and determination of him that calls, Rom. ix. 11.

(5.) Why the faithful shall not finally apostatize.

And whereas it may be demanded why a man, who being at his highest degree of holiness, did yet fall back more than half way, may not as well, or rather fall quite away?

I answer, it is not in respect of the nature of inherent holiness in him; for Adam had holiness in perfection, yet fell quite from it, Gen. i. 27, iii. 6. There is nothing in the nature of this grace and holiness, excepting only in the root whence it springs, but that a man may now also fall wholly from it. But it is because grace is now settled in man on better terms. For the little strength we receive in regeneration, is, in point of perseverance, stronger than the great strength which the first Adam received in his creation. Adam was perfectly, but changeably holy; God's children in regeneration are made imperfectly, but unchangeably holy, Jer. xxxii. 40. This stability of grace now consists in this, in that all who, by faith and by the Holy Spirit, are ingrafted and incorporated into Christ, the second Adam, have the spring and root of their grace founded in him, and not in themselves, as the first Adam had, 2 Cor. i. 21, 22. They are established in Christ, Eph. i. 4. Wherefore, all that are actual members of Christ cannot fall from grace altogether; for as Christ died to sin once, and being raised from the dead dies no more, Rom. vi. 5 - 12, so every true member of Christ, having part with him in the first resurrection, dies no more, but lives for ever with Christ. For all that are once begotten again unto a lively faith and hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, are kept, not by their own power, unto salvation, but by the power of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 1 Peter i. 3 - 5.

Now, that a man effectually called, can never fall wholly or for ever from a state of grace, I, in a few words, reason thus. If God's counsel, on which man's salvation is founded, be sure and unchangeable, 2 Tim. ii. 19,