APOSTASY FROM THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL. 67
_ was yet with you, I told you these things? and now ye know what _ withholdeth,” 2 Thess. ii. 8, 5, 6. He had both told them of the apostasy, and also acquainted them with one particular about it, _ which he will not now mention. This being the great testimony of the Spirit of God in those days, that the visible church should so fall away from the faith, one of the chief ways whereby Satan brought it _ to pass was by the advancing of a contrary revelation and principle, _ namely, that this or that church, the church of Rome for instance, _ was infallible and indefectible, and could never fall away from the faith. By this means he obliterated out of the minds of men the former warnings given by the Spirit unto the churches, so rendering them secure, defeating the ends of the prediction; for hereby he not only led men insensibly into the greatest apostasy, but taught them to adhere invincibly unto what they had done, and with the highest confidence to justify themselves therein. But all those and many _ other warnings did the Holy Ghost give concerning the defection from the mystery of the gospel which the churches would in succeed- _ ing times fall into; which being neglected by secure professors, whilst _ their faith was weakened and undermined by innumerable artifices, issued in their apostasy. For these things being thus expressly fore- _ told by the Spirit of God himself, we may briefly inquire into the _ event of the predictions mentioned, and whether indeed they came _ to pass or no. _ An account in general of the state of the church after the days of _ the apostles we have given us by Hegesippus, who lived in the next age after them, as his words are recorded by Eusebius, lib. ii. cap, 32. Relating the martyrdom of Simon, the son of Cleopas, he adds: ‘Unto these times the church continued a pure and incorrupted " virgin, those who endeavoured to corrupt the rule of saving truth, where any such were, lying hid in obscurity. But after that the _ holy company of the apostles came to their several ends, and that generation was past who heard the divine Wisdom with their own _ ears, a conspiracy of wicked error, by the seductions of those that _ taught strange doctrines, began to take place; and when none of the _ apostles were remaining, they began to set up their science, falsely so _ called, with open face against the preaching of the truth.” We have already seen that there were many declensions in the days of the _ apostles themselves; but as they were jealous over all the churches _ with godly jealousy,—for having “ espoused them to one husband,” they took care “to present them as a chaste virgin unto Christ” (the words which Hegesippus alludes unto), and thereon watched against all ways and means whereby as “the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, their minds should be corrupted from the sim- 'plicity that is in Christ,” by the teaching of other doctrines than
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68 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF APOSTASY.
what they had received from them, as Paul speaks, 2 Cor. xi. 2-4, —so by their wisdom, diligence, and watchfulness, they were for the most part soon reduced from their wanderings and recovered from their mistakes. Hence this holy man pronounceth the church a pure virgin during the days of the apostles and their inspection, at least comparatively as to what ensued thereon, for immediately after he acknowledgeth that they were much corrupted and defiled,— that is, fallen off from “the simplicity that is in Christ,’—intending, probably, those very things wherein after ages made them their ex- ample; for things quickly came unto that state m the world, and which yet with the most continueth therein, that men desired no greater warranty for their practice in religion than the shadow or appearance of any thing that was in use or prevailed among those churches, though themselves therein went off evidently from the simplicity that is in Christ.
This account and unquestionable testimony we have in general of the accomplishment of the predictions before mentioned, concerning a declension that was to ensue from the power, purity, and simpli- city of the gospel. But whatever is here intended, it must be looked on as the very beginning and entrance of the apostasy that ensued; which can scarce be taken notice of in comparison of that excess which it quickly proceeded unto. In particular, the parts of the sacred predictions mentioned may be reduced unto four heads:— 1. “Men from among themselves speaking perverse things.” 2. “ Grievous wolves entering in, not sparing the flock.” 3. Weariness, — and “not enduring of sound doctrine,” but turning the mind unto fables, and from the truth. 4 A gradual, secret, mysterious work of a general apostasy in the whole visible church. And it might be easily demonstrated by instances how all these had their particular accomplishment, until the whole apostasy foretold was formed and completed. We may give some short remarks upon them all:—
1. It cannot be denied but that many of the principal teachers in the first ages of the church after the apostles, especially among those whose writings remain unto posterity, did, in a neglect of the gospel and its simplicity, embrace and teach sundry things, perverse, curious, and contrary to the form of wholesome words committed unto them; whilst, for any thing that appears, they were not so duly conversant in evangelical mysteries, with reverence and godly fear, as it was their duty to have been. It is known how instances hereof might be multiplied out of the writings of Justin Martyr, Irenzeus, Clemens, Origen, Tatianus, Athenagoras, Tertullian, Lactantius, and others; but I shall not reflect with any severity on their names and memo- ries who continued to adhere unto the fundamental principles of Christian religion, though, what by curious speculations, what. by