APOSTASY FROM THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL. 69
philosophical prejudices and notions, by wrested allegorical exposi- _tions of Scripture, by opinions openly false and contradictory to the _ word of God, they much corrupted and debased the pure and holy doctrine of Jesus and his apostles.
2. The “grievous wolves” foretold of, who were to “spoil the flock,” IT look on as heretics in their various kinds. And on this account it would seem to exceed all belief what multitudes and
shoals of all sorts of persons fell off from the mystery and truth of the gospel, after they had been declared unto them and professed by them, which is a full confirmation of the assertion before laid down. But they may in general be reduced unto two heads:—
(1.) Of those who, in a regardlessness and contempt of the gospel which they had received and professed, fell away unto foolish, extrava- gant, heathenish imaginations, unintelligible endless fancies, for the
_ most part (as is supposed) accompanied with wicked practices, whereby, although they would retain the name of Christians, they completely and absolutely fell off from Christ and his gospel. Such were the _ Gnostics in all their branches and under their several appellations, _Marcionites, Manichees, and others almost innumerable, with whose _ names, rise, opinions, and course of lives, Epiphanius, Austin, and Phi- lastrius, have filled up their catalogues. It may be said, “They were all of them persons of so great abominations that they deserve no _ consideration among such as own Christian religion.” But the greater the abominations were which they fell into, the more wild, senseless, and wicked were their imaginations, considering the multitudes of _ professed Christians which fell into them, the more effectual is the testimony they give unto the truth of our assertion; for were there not an inexpressible proneness in the minds of men to relinquish the mystery of the gospel, were it not promoted by unutterable folly and secret enmity against the truth, would it have been possible that so early in the church, taking date immediately from the decease of the apostles, such multitudes of professed Christians should openly re- -nounce those sacred truths for such noxious, foolish imaginations? These are they who are expressly prophesied of, that they should “bring in damnable heresies, denying the Lord that bought them, -and bringing upon themselves swift destruction, many following their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth was to be evil spoken of,” 2 Pet. ii. 1, 2: for all their impious opinions and practices were by the heathen objected unto, and charged on Chris- tian religion, as is evident in Origen’s reply to Celsus, among others; and so by reason of them “ the way of truth was evil spoken of.” _ (2) There was another sort of heresies, and so of real apostasy from the mystery of the gospel, whose authors and followers yet pre- tended an adherence unto and profession thereof. And these may
Hd
70 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF APOSTASY.
be reduced to two heads:—[1.] Concerning the person; and, [2.] Concerning the grace of Christ. Of the first sort, the principal and most prevalent was that of the Arians in denying his deity; of the latter, that of the Pelagians in opposing his satisfaction, merit, and grace. The first of these was poured out as a flood from the mouth of the old serpent, and bare all before it like a torrent; the latter insinuated itself as poison into the very vitals of the church. The first, as a burning fever, carried present death with it and before it; the latter, as a gangrene or hectical distemper, insensibly consumed the vital spirits of religion. In the first we have a most woful evi-- dence of the instability of professors, and their readiness to forego the saving mysteries of the gospel; for in little more than half an age after its first rise, the generality of Christians in the world, bishops, priests, and people, fell under the power of it, and in their public confessions renounced and denied the true eternal deity of the Son of God: for, having obtained the patronage of some emperors, as Constantius and Valens, and the suffrage of innumerable prelates, who jointly promoted this heresy by force and fraud, almost the whole world, as to outward profession, was for a season led into this apostasy, wherein some whole nations (as the Goths and Vandals) continued for sundry ages afterward. And for the latter, or Pela- gianism, it secretly, subtilely, and gradually, so insinuated itself into the minds of men, that, for the substance of it, it continues to be no small part of that religion which the generality of Christians do at this day profess, and is yet upon a prevalent progress in the world.
This is the second way of the apostasy of professors which was fore- told by the Holy Ghost, which so came to pass as that the wounds which Christianity received thereby are not healed unto this day.
3. Another way was, that men should grow weary of sownd doc- trine, and not being able, for the reasons afterward to be insisted on, to endure it any longer, should hearken after fables, and be turned away from the truth. And this no less eminently came to pass than any of the former. About the third century it was that monkish fables began to be broached in the world. And this sort of men, instead of the doctrines of the grace of God, of justification by the blood of Christ, of faith and repentance, of new obedience and walking before God according to the commands of Christ and rule of the gospel, which men grew weary of and could not well longer endure, filled their minds and satisfied their itching ears with stories of dreams and visions, of angelical perfection in themselves, of self- invented devotions, of uncommanded mortifications, and a thousand other foolish superstitions. By such fables were innumerable souls turned from the truth and simplicity of the gospel, thinking that in these things alone religion consisted, despising the whole doctrine of