*
APOSTASY FROM THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL. 73
of the reformed churches, aiming especially at what is of late years fallen out among ourselves in a sort of men whom the preceding generations were unacquainted withal, which I shall therefore insist on apart and by itself afterward.
Tt is not unknown how ready many, yea, multitudes, are in all
_ places to desert the whole protestant faith and religion, casting them-
selves into the baffled, prostituted remainders of the old apostasy. very slight occasion, every temptation of pleasure, profit, favour, pre- ferment, turns men unto the Papacy; and some run the same course merely to comply with the vanity of their minds in curiosity, novelty, and conformity unto what isin fashion among men. Some flee unto it as a sanctuary from guilt, as that which tendereth more ready ways for the pacification of conscience than that faith and repentance which the gospel doth require. Some having lost the sense of all religion in the pursuit of their lusts, finding themselves uneasy in their atheism, or disadvantaged by the reputation of it, take shelter
in the Roman dress. Some are really entangled and overcome by
the power and subtlety of numerous seducers who lie in wait to de- ceive. By one way and means or another, on motives known to themselves and him who useth them as his engines to subvert the
faith, many in all places fall off daily to the Papacy, and the old
_ Superstition seems to be upon a new advance, ready to receive another _ edition in the world; yea, it is to be feared that there is in many
places such a general inclination unto a defection, or such an indif- ferency to all religion, that multitudes want nothing but a captain to conduct them back into Egypt: for whereas they have lost all
‘sense of the power, use, and excellency of that religion, or profession of truth, wherein they have been educated and instructed, and that _ by giving up themselves unto their lusts and pleasures, which will
not fail to produce that cursed effect, they either embrace the Roman
religion, to supply the place of that no-religion which they had left
unto themselves, or if they pretend to soar to such a pitch of reason as to disown the vanity and folly of that profession, and its incon-
sistency with all the principles of free, generous, and rational minds, they betake themselves for a while unto a kind of sceptical atheism, which, having given them a sorry talkative entertainment for a little space, by debasing and corrupting their minds, gives them up again unto what they did before despise. By such means are the numbers of apostates multiplied amongst us every day. i
But there are yet other instances of the proneness of men in fore- going the faith that the church was retrieved unto at the first refor-
mation. How great an inroad hath been made on our first profession, at least an alteration made therein (whether for better or for worse
the great day will discover), by that system of doctrines which from
74 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF APOSTASY.
its author, and for distinction’s sake, is called Arminianism! I am not bound to believe what Polinburgh affirms in his preface to the second part of Episcopius’ works, namely, “That the most of the prelates and learned men in England are of their way and judg- ment,” which, as stated by Episcopius, hath many Racovian addi- tions made unto what it was at first; nay, I do believe that what he asserts is false and calumnious unto the persons he intends;—but yet I wish withal that too much countenance were not given by many unto his insinuation.
A late writer) in a treatise which he calls “A sober and com- passionate Inquiry,” etc, among other things of the like nature, fancieth that some dislike the church of England on the account of its doctrine; and this they do, as he farther supposeth, because it “doth not so punctually agree with the synod of Dort as they could wish.’ To evidence the unreasonableness hereof, he informs us, “That no one father or writer of the church, whether Greek or Latin, before St Austin’s time, agreed in doctrine with the determimations of that synod; and as for St Austin, he was a devout, good man, but whose piety was far more commendable than his reason ;”—and therefore he rejects it with indignation (as he well may), that “a novel Dutch synod should prescribe doctrines to the church of Eng- land, and outweigh all antiquity ;” and so closeth his discourse with some unworthy calumnies cast on the divines of that assembly, which were esteemed of the best that all the reformed churches of Europe (that of France alone excepted) could afford at that time.
But the interest of the present design which he had in hand was more regarded in these assertions than that of the truth. It is but a pretence, that those whom he reflects upon do dislike the doctrine of the church of England; .for, look upon it as it is contained in the Articles of Religion, the Books of Homilies, and declared in the authenticated writings of all the learned prelates and others for sixty years after the reformation, wherein the doctrine taught, approved, and confirmed in this church was testified unto all the world, and the generality of those reflected on by him do sacredly adhere unto it. It is a defection from this doctrine that is by some complained of, and not the doctrine itself. And how the doctrine of the person before mentioned, or of Curcelleeus,—of whose works Limborch, in his preface unto them, boasts that they were so earnestly desired in England,—can be brought into a consistency with that of this church so confirmed and declared, will require a singular faculty in the reconciliation of open multiplied contradictions, and those in the