Chap. vi. 1.

[85] Chap. v. 12.

[86] Acts xv.

[87] =tina= (v. 12).

[88] =stoicheia=.

[89] =aistheteria=.

[90] =gegymnasmena=.

[91] =aphentes= (vi. 1).

[92] =pherometha=.

[93] =teleioteta=.

[94] =themelion=.

[95] Chap. v. 13.

[96] Chap. vi. 7.

[97] Chap. vi. 8.

[98] =di' hous=.

[99] Chap. ii. 3.

[100] =parapesontas= (vi. 6). Cf. =pararyomen= (ii. 1).

[101] =heautois=.

[102] Apart from the exigencies of the illustration, the change from the
aorist participle to the present participles tells in the same way. It
is extremely harsh to consider =anastaurauntas= and =paradeigmatizontas=
to be explanatory of =parapesontas=. The former must be rendered
hypothetically: "They cannot be renewed after falling away if they
persist in crucifying," etc.

[103] The apostates, or deserters, were not identical with the lapsed,
who fell away from fear of martyrdom. Novatian refused to restore either
to Church privileges. The Church restored the latter, but not the
former. Cf. Cyprian, Ep. lv. _ad fin._

[104] Chap. vi. 9.

[105] Dean Merivale, _Romans under the Empire_, chap. lix.

CHAPTER VI.

_THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF FAILURE._

"But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things
that accompany salvation, though we thus speak: for God is not
unrighteous to forget your work and the love which ye showed toward
His name, in that ye ministered unto the saints, and still do
minister. And we desire that each one of you may show the same
diligence unto the fulness of hope even to the end: that ye be not
sluggish, but imitators of them who through faith and patience
inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, since He
could swear by none greater, He sware by Himself, saying, Surely
blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men
swear by the greater: and in every dispute of theirs the oath is
final for confirmation. Wherein God, being minded to show more
abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of His
counsel, interposed with an oath: that by two immutable things, in
which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong
encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set
before us; which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure
and steadfast and enter