liever: but, on the other hand, we must, if we duly weigh the force of the objection, set the latter part of his life against the former, in which we find him guilty of very great sins; not only in multiplying wives and concubines, beyond what any of his predecessors had done, but in that his heart was turned away after other gods, and, as it is expressly said, was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David, his father, chap. xi. 4. And it is also said, that the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared to him twice, ver. 9. and on this occasion he determined to rend part of the kingdom from his son, ver. 13. which came to pass accordingly; and all this is said to have been done when he was old, ver. 4. And after this we read of several that were stirred up as adversaries to him, ver. 14, 23, 26. And in the remaining part of his history we read of little but trouble and uneasiness that he met with; and this seemed to continue till his death, of which we have an account in 1 Kings xi. chapter throughout, which contains the history of his sin, and troubles; and we read not the least word of his repentance therein; for which reason he is, supposed, in the objection, to have apostatized totally and finally.

The main strength of this objection lies in the supposition, that Solomon did not repent of his idolatry which he committed in his old age, or, as it is supposed, in the latter part of his life, and also from the silence of scripture as to the matter; especially in that part of it which gives an account of his fall and death. But this is not sufficient to support the weight of the objection, and to oblige us to conclude him to be an apostate; for there is nothing that appears from the account we have of him in scripture, but that he might have sufficient time for repentance between his fall and death. It is said indeed, that in his old age his wives turned him aside, but this they might do, and yet he not die an apostate; for sometimes that part of life which is called old age, comprises in it several years; there fore, when he began to be in his declining age, he might sin, and after that be brought to repentance. And as for the scrip ture's speaking first of his fall, and then of his death; it does not follow from thence that one was immediately after the other; since the history of the blemishes and troubles of his life is but short.

On the other hand, there are several things which may give us ground to conclude, that he repented after his fall; particularly,

(1.) We have an intimation hereof in God's promise relating thereunto, in which it is supposed, that God would suffer him to fall, and a provisionary encouragement is given to expect that he should be recovered: thus he says, I will chas

tise him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the chil dren of men; but my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee, 1 Sam. vii. 14, 15. and the same thing is repeated, in which his fall is supposed, and his recovery from it particularly mentioned, in Psal. lxxxix. 30-34. as though God had designed that this should be a supplement to his history, and remove the doubts which might arise from it, with relation to his salvation.

(2.) There are some things in other parts of scripture, which give sufficient ground to conclude, that he was a true penitent, which plainly refer to that part of his life which was between his fall and his death. Thus, if we duly weigh several passages in Ecclesiastes, which none can deny that he was the inspired writer of, inasmuch as it is said, in the title or preface set before it, that they are the wards of the preacher, the son of David, king of ferusalem, we shall find many things in which he expresses the great sense of the vanity of his past life, when he says, I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly, Eccl. i. 17. where, by madness and folly, he doubtless intends that which was so in a moral sense, when he indulged his sinful passions, which respects the worst part of his life. And this he farther insists on; Whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my labour, Eccl. ii. 10. or in all things, which afterwards were inatter of grief and uneasiness to me; in which he observes how he did, as it were, take pains to bring on himself a long train of miseries that troubled him afterwards; and then he plainly expresses his repentance, when he says, All was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun, ver. 11. as though he should say, I turned from God to the creature, to see what happiness A could find therein, but met with nothing but disappointment; he had no profit in those things, whereof he was now ashamed. It is probable, God shewed him the vanity thereof, by his chastening him, or visiting his transgressions with the rod, and his iniquities with stripes, as he had promised to do; and this ended in vexation of spirit, which is a plain intimation of that godly sorrow that proceeded from a sense of sin, which made him, beyond measure, uneasy; and this vexation or uneasiness was so great, that he says, I hated life, that is, I hated my past wicked life, and abhorred myself for it, because the work that is wrought under the sun, is grievous unto me, that is, the work that I have wrought, was such as gave me grief of heart; for all is vanity and vexation of spirit, ver. 17. that is, this is all the consequence thereof; it cannot be supposed that he was weary of his life for the same reasons that many others are, who are deprived of the blessings of common providence, and

reduced to that condition that makes them miserable, as to their outward circumstances in the world; but it was the uneasiness he found in his own spirit, the secret wounds of conscience and bitterness of soul, which arose from a sense of sin, that made him thus complain.

And elsewhere, he seems to be sensible of his sin, in heaping up vast treasures, which he calls loving silver; and adds, that such an one, which seems very applicable to his own case, shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance, with increase; this is also vanity, chap. v. 10. that is, this had been an instance of his former vanity and he adds, The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much; but the -abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep, ver. 12. If by this we understand that the increase of riches sometimes gives disturbance to, and stirs up the corruptions of those that possess them, and this be applied to himself, it is an acknowledgment of his sin. Or, if we understand by it that the abundance of a rich man will not give him rest at night, when his mind is made uneasy with a sense of the guilt of sin, and this be applied to his own case, when fallen by it; then it intimates that his repentance gave him not only uneasiness by day, but took away his rest by night; and it seems not improbable, that what gave him farther occasion to see the vanity of his past life, was the sense of mortality impressed on him; for he says, It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart, chap. vii. 3. that is, he will, or ought to improve the sense of his own frailty, which we may conclude he had done; and therefore adds, Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better,

ver. 3.

But if it be objected, that all these expressions are not applicable to himself, and many others of the like nature, which might have been referred to, which are expressive of his great repentance; though I cannot but think that the contrary to this seems very probable; yet there is something farther added, that he expressly applies to himself, which refers to his unlawful love of women: I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares, and nets, and her hands as bands. Whose pleaseth God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her: behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, ver. 26, 27. If these things be not expressive of repentance, it is hard to say what are.

And to this we may add, that as he expresses a grief of heart for past sins; so he warns others that they may not be guilty of that which he himself found more bitter than death; and accordingly, having described the arts used by the wicked wo

man, to betray the unthinking passenger, he cautions every one to take heed of declining to her ways; inasmuch as the con sequence thereof will be, that a dart will strike through his liver, and he is as a bird that hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life, Prov. vii. 23. compared with the foregoing verses. He also adds, That she hath cast down many wounded; yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death, ver. 26, 27. So that we find in Solomon, two of the greatest evidences that we can have of sincere repentance; namely, a great degree of sorrow for sin, and an earnest desire that others would avoid it, by giving those cautions that are necessary to prevent their falling into the snare in which he had been en tangled.

(3.) There is something spoken in Solomon's commendation, after his death, which may be gathered from what is said, that during the three first years of Rehoboam's reign, which God approved of he walked in the way of David and Solomon, 2 Chron. xi. 17. where we may observe, that Solomon is joined with his father David: so that as there were abatements to be made for the blemishes in David's reign; the reign of Solomon had in it great blemishes: but as one repented, so did the other, and therefore ought not to be reckoned an apostate.

And to all this we may add, that he was a penman of scripture; and it does not appear that God conferred this honour upon any that apostatized from him; but on the other hand, they have this general character given of them by the apostle Peter, that they were all holy men of God, 2 Pet. i. 21. which we must conclude Solomon to have been, till we have greater evidence to the contrary than they can produce who deny it.

3. There are others mentioned in the objection, to wit, Hy-meneus and Alexander, whose apostacy we have no ground to doubt of; but we cannot allow that they fell from, or lost the saving grace of faith. It is one thing to fall from the profession of faith, and another thing to lose the grace of faith; therefore, the only thing to be proved in answer to this branch of the objection, is, that these persons, who are described as apostates, never had the truth of grace; or that they only fell from that visible profession which they made thereof; whereby they were reckoned to be, what in reality they were not, namely, true believers. Now that this may appear, let it be considered,

That the apostle speaks of them as having departed from the faith, viz. the doctrines of the gospel; and that was attended with blasphemy, for which they were delivered unto Satan, which is a phrase used by the apostle here and elsewhere, for persons being cut off from the communion of the -church; upon which occasion he advises Timothy to hold faith

and a good conscience, which some having put away, concerning faith, have made shipwreck, as these have done.

Now the main force of the objection seems to lie in this, that they who have made shipwreck of faith, were once true believers; therefore, such may apostatize, and so fall short of salvation.

To which it may be replied, that by faith here, is meant the doctrines of the gospel, which are often styled faith: thus it is said, that the apostle preached the faith which once he des troyed, Gal. i. 23. and elsewhere, before faith came; that is, before the gospel-dispensation began, and those doctrines were preached that were to be published therein to the world, we were kept under the law, chap. iii. 23. And again, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith, ver. 2. that is, by hearing those doctrines that are contained in the gospel. Therefore, that which he chargeth these apostates with, is making shipwreck of faith, considered objectively; they once, indeed, held the truth, but it was in unrighteousness; they had right notions of the gospel, which they afterwards lost: now the apostle advises Timothy not only to hold faith, that is, to retain the doctrines of the gospel, as one who had right sentiments of divine truths, but to hold it with a good conscience; for I take that expression, hold faith and a good conscience, to contain an hendyadis; and so it is the same as though he should say, Be not content with an assent to the truths of the gospel, but labour after a conscience void of offence towards God, that thou mayst have the testimony thereof, that thy knowledge of divine truth is practical and experimental, and then thou art out of danger of making shipwreck of faith, as these have done, who held it without a good conscience. It is not said they made shipwreck of a good conscience; for that they never have had; but concerning faith, which they once professed, they made shipwreck.

The same thing may be said concerning Judas; he aposta! tized from the faith, which he once made a very great profession of, being not only one of Christ's disciples, but sent forth with the rest of them, to preach the gospel, and work miracles; yet it is evident, that he had not the saving grace of faith. For our Saviour, who knew the hearts of all men, was not deceived in him (though others were) inasmuch as it is said, He knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him, John vi. 64. However, the principal force of the objection lies in this, that Judas must needs have been a believer, because he was given to Christ; and our Saviour says, that those who were given him were kept by him, and none of them was lost but the son of perdition, chap. xvii. 12. His being styled the son of perdition, argues him an VOL. IIE