'From this acceptation of the word sozomenoi, the saved, for that remnant which should escape of the Jews out of the common destruction and slaughter that fell upon that people, called eklektoi, (elect) sometimes, (and therefore said Theophylact, eklektoi and sozomenoi are all one,) sometimes, Luke xxi. 36, they that have the honor or favor to escape; another acceptation there is of it for those which should believe in Christ, receive and embrace him at his coming, and, having done so, adhere and cleave fast to him. So when Isa. x. 22, it is prophesied, that the remnant of Israel shall return, the apostle, Rom. ix. 27, applies that place, (literally spoken of the return from the Babylonish captivity,) by way of accommodation to their receiving the faith of Christ; a remnant shall escape out of that epidemical unbelief, and receive Christ. Thus Procopius understood that sothesetai peculiarly of believing in Christ, in Is. p. 576, the first fruits of that remnant that escaped was the disciples of our Saviour. So Luke xix. 9, the soteria, (salvation) that was come to Zaccheus at that time, was repentance, conversion, the recovering the sinner, or the publican, to repentance, ver. 10. So 1 Cor. vii. 16, the believing wife's saving her husband, is converting him to the faith; and Rom. xi. 14, provoking and saving the Jews, is by emulation bringing them to repent and receive the faith. And so the sozomenoi, (saved) here shall be those, especially the Jews, that believed in Christ and adhered to him, according to the import of Acts xi. 17, that the remnant of men (that is, of the Jews, opposed to the Gentiles after mentioned,) might seek the Lord. To this purpose it is that Ignatius, in his Epistle to Polycarp, bids him exhort all that they escape, (sozontai) that is, repent and accept the faith, and that Procopius makes two ranks of these escapers, (sozomenon,) the Jews that expected the Messias, and the church of the Gentiles; the latter of which having called the multitude of them that escape of the Gentiles, he straight interprets by the running together of the nations called Christians.

And then the clear meaning of this uncertain man's question will be this,-Whether this doctrine or faith of Christ, so contrary to the humor and passions of the world, should be able to propagate itself, and prove so successful as to be received by many, or whether it should

be contained and enclosed within a narrow pale that so he might either resist Christ with the many, or have the honor of being one of the few singular persons that received him. And accordingly Christ's answer is to put him on that narrow path that leadeth to life, that the few were likely to find, the way of infidelity being so broad and beaten, though it led to absolute destruction. By this explication of this place will appear also what is meant by the same word, Acts ii. 47, where it is said that the Lord added* &c. that is, by the grace and power of God there came daily many new converts, penitent, reformed Christians, into the church. The rise of that interpretation in that place will be best taken from the admonition of St. Peter, in ver 40, of that chapter, in these words, be ye saved from this crooked generation; where the import of the sozesthai, (to be saved,) is clearly, getting out, escaping, flying from that great pertinacy and obduration of that age against all the miracles of Christ and his apostles, crucifying him, and resisting all the powerful methods of his workings; that is, not being saved eternally, (for that would not be matter of exhortation, unless as that is a certain consequent of repentance and belief in Christ,) but retracting the vicious course that they and others went on in, the metanoesate, repent, ver. 8. For when St. Peter had said, repent, it is added that in many other words he admonished them saying, be saved, or escape, &c. which is an affirmation that to repent is the same thing, which, in other and more words, is to be saved, or escape, from that perverse generation; as in Simplicius, having the beginning of being saved, is set to expound a former phrase, they that begin to be instructed, and accordingly in Zeleucus, in his proem to his laws, noun echontes, and sothesomenoi, are put together as phrases of the same import, wise men, and such as meant to be safe; and therefore when it follows that they that willingly received the word, that is, that admonition of his, were baptized, and that there were three thousand that day added to the church, that certainly is an explication of this

*Clarke says 'Our translation-such as should be saved, is improper and insupportable. The original means simply and solely those who were then saved,' &c. Com. in Acts ii. 47.

phrase, he added the saved, or reformed Christians. So that that which was done in such a measure in one day, ver. 41, is said further to be done every day, ver. 47, in some measure, and they that willingly entertain the word there, is but a paraphrase of sozomenois, the saved, here; which being in the present, not the future tense, must needs belong to the present condition of men, that is, such penitent forsakers of the wicked perverse age, sared out of the crooked generation, and in a parallel phrase, they that fled from the pollutions of the world, 2 Pet. ii. 20, by which christians are there expressed.

In this sense we have the word used observably by Procopius, on Isaiah xxvi. When the Gentiles came in to Christ, (not when they were saved or come to heaven, for the Jews could not see that, but) when they forsook their idolatry, and embraced the christian faith, and so escaped out of that perverse generation, the Jews were inflamed with envy, and would rather have endured any punishment than to see the Gentiles thus reform, and reproach to them their infidelity and impenitence. Thus also will the word be explained 1 Cor. i. 18, and 2 Cor. ii. 15, where the saved are believers, they that embrace the gospel, and are opposed to them that perish, as to the contrary, those that believed not, both there, and 2 Cor. iv. 3, where he saith, his gospel is hid to them, that is, to those which heard, but believed it not, unbelievers, ver. 4, unless perhaps, appollumenoi, (the lost,) may be thought a higher degree of the same thing; to wit, those that for their unbelief are deserted by God, and so blinded that they cannot see, and then proportionally to that, sozomenoi, (the saved) may be those penitent believers, endued with a higher degree of grace from heaven. But that the lost signifies no more than the unbelieving Jews, that continued in their unbelief, (and so by proportion, the saved the contrary) may farther appear by an ancient place in Clemens, where praying for those that perish (not for them that are already destroyed) denotes the prayers in the Easter week, which were offered to God by the Christian church for the Jews, as appears by the beginning of chap. xiv. We ought to mourn for them, because they have not believed.

All that I shall add to this is but the opinion of Joh.

Curterius, the translator of Procopius on Isaiah, who meeting oft in that author with the word sozomenoi, those that are saved, hath sometimes been forced to render it quibus salutis cura est, they that have care of salvation; the matter not bearing any interpretation which had nearer reference to salvation, than that expression of his would bear.

Out of all that hath been said on this word, the notion of sozomenoi, (the saved) will sufficiently be cleared in all the places of the New Testament; and for the notion of the verb, sozesthai, (to be saved) we have said enough already to give direction for understanding it, wherever it is to be met with; not always for eternal salvation, but oft for other kinds of escaping, and deliverances out of diseases, every where almost in the gospels; out of other dangers, 1 Cor. iii. 15, as one that escapes out of the fire, losing much in his passage, but himself escaping; 1 Pet. iii. 20, either through, or from the water; and scarcely escape, 1 Pet. iv. 18, and, rescue in fear, or in time of danger, snatching them out of the fire, Jude 23; all which we shall refer to their several places.' Annot. in Luke xiii. 23.

SECTION XIV.

'Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him to a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.'-MATT. vii. 24-27.

THE parallel place is Luke vi. 47-49. This passage has been applied by many to the concerns of another life. They seem to have thought that wherever a metaphor was used, it must necessarily belong to the future world. But this is a mistaken opinion.

The words of Jesus admit an easy application, without going into another world. The disciples were about to be exposed to sharp persecutions. He informed them that nothing could so effectually sustain them under the afflictions they should suffer, as a firm faith in his gospel, and a corresponding practice. Such is the fact, also, in relation to all men, so far as their situation is similar. The following named writers seem to have had this view of the subject:

1. JONES. After noticing a persecution which existed in the apostolic age, and the manner of its discontinuance by an edict of the Emperor, Jones remarks :—

The edict, which secured peace to the innocent, operated in full force against the guilty; the impostors, notorious and abandoned, were the persons who chiefly felt its severity. Suffering is the only test of probity and sincerity, and suffering in the cause of righteousness the impostors had neither principle nor power to support. This our Lord well knew, and foreseeing the storms which were soon to rise, with the effect they would produce on false teachers, he adds with reference to them, 'And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened to a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house and it fell.' Illustrations, &c. Sect. xiv.

2. TOMSON'S BEZA. The following is given as comprehending the doctrine taught in this passage :-' Affliction doth at the length discern true godliness from false and feigned.' Note in Luke vi. 47-49.

3. DIODATI. "The similitude of the two houses shows the difference there is between true godliness and hypocrisy for they are both alike in outward appearance; but when trial comes, true godliness continues firm against all oppositions, whereas hypocrisy vanisheth into nothing.' Annot. in Luke vi. 48, 49.

4. ROSENMULLER, Ver. 25. Whoever shall govern his actions by the precepts of my doctrine, consults his own highest advantage. He shall stand firm amid the storms of calamity, nor shall he ever be truly miserable;