"lost;" content, whatever the road may be, so it but end in Heaven; thankful if, although we cannot have the reward of those who have "followed the Lamb whithersoever He goeth," we may yet be accounted but as the least in the kingdom of Heaven, or as hired servants in our Father's house.
The doctrine, however, does not depend upon this one passage; although had this been so, it had sufficed, and it had been our wisdom to profit by its fearful warning, not to cavil at it, or lay it aside as one of difficulty: for this were but to blind ourselves. But let any one consider, teachably, our Saviour's warnings,—"The last state of that man is worse than the first." (Luke xi. 26.) "Sin no more, lest a worse thing happen unto thee." (John. v. 14.) "Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more." (viii. 11.) "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." (Luke ix. 62.) Or again, "If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." (Heb. x, 26, 7). "If he (the justified) draw back. My soul shall have no pleasure in him; but we are not of them who draw back unto perdition." (ib. 38, 9). "If, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning; for it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them." (2 Pet. ii. 20). "Others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire." (Jude 23.); or again from the old Covenant, "Ye were now turned and had done right in My sight—and ye had made a covenant before Me in the house which is called by My Name; but ye turned and polluted My Name—therefore thus saith the Lord—I will give the men that have transgressed My covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before Me,—I will give them into the hand of their enemies—and their dead bodies shall be meat," &c. (Jer. xxxiv. 15–20); or
