They are described as not only habitually sinning, or as continuing in a state of apostasy, but as doing this wilfully- i.e., obstinately, determinedly, in opposition to all attempts to reclaim them. The contrast implied in the use of the word -wilfully- does not seem so much between sins committed in ignorance and sins committed knowingly,' as between a temporary abandonment of the faith and profession of the Gospel, under the influence of fear, or some similar motive, and a determined, persevering, final apostasy. The character here described, then, is that of a man who has at one time obtained such a knowledge of the meaning and evidence of the Gospel as to induce him to make an open profession of Christianity, but who has as openly abandoned its profession, and lives in a state of determined apostasy.