not fight against them, and are without repentance. Such persons lose faith and the Holy Spirit and are condemned to eternal death unless they return to repentance. Thus when David had become an adulterer, he was without faith and the Holy Spirit, and would have been lost if he had not afterward been restored through repentance. Here belongs what is said in this passage: "If you will live according to the flesh," that is, if you will obey the evil desires, "you will die." The same thought is frequently repeated in Scripture. . . . 1 Cor. 6[:9]: "Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, ... will inherit the kingdom of God." Gal. 5[:21]: "Those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Col. 3[:6]: "On account of which the wrath of God is coming on the disobedient . . ." Puritan John Goodwin demonstrated that Melanchthon fully supported the possibility of Christians committing apostasy: "There are two errors . . . of fanatic men, which must briefly be confuted, who conceit that men regenerated cannot lapse” or fall, "and that though they do fall, and this against the light of their conscience, yet they are righteous," or in a state of justification. "This madness is to be condemned, and both instances and sayings from the scriptures of the apostles and prophets are opposed to it. Saul and David pleased God, were righteous, had the Holy Spirit given unto them, yet afterward fell, so that one of them perished utterly; the other returned again to God. There are many sayings" to the same point. And having cited, upon the said account, Matthew 12:43-44; 2 Peter 2:20-21; 1 Corinthians 10:12; Revelation 2:5., he subjoins: "These and the like sayings, being spoken of regenerate men, testify that they may fall, and that in case they fall against their consciences they please not God unless they be converted." Elsewhere thus: "Whereas it hath been said that sins remain in the regenerate, it is necessary that a difference be made; for certain it is that they who rush into sinful practices against conscience do not continue in grace, nor retain faith, righteousness, or the Holy Spirit; neither can faith stand with an evil purpose of heart against conscience." A little after: "But that they fall from grace, and shed faith and the Holy Spirit, and become guilty of the