104 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF APOSTASY.
the apostle tells us expressly, 2 Cor. iii. 18, “ We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image.” They are cast into the same mould with the doctrine whereunto they are given up, Rom. vi. 17. The mind is united unto the things so discerned, and the image of them is so brought forth therein as that there is an exact conformity between them. But we see by open and palpable experience, that notwithstanding the knowledge which many have of spiritual things, their minds continue carnal and fleshly, filled with corrupt and depraved affec- tions, and are no way changed into the image or likeness of the things themselves. There needs no farther demonstration that men have never had a spiritual view of or insight into the glory of gospel truths, be their doctrinal knowledge of them what it will, than this, that their minds are not renewed thereby, nor transformed into the likeness of them.
Where it is thus with men, they have no stable grounds whereon to abide in the profession of the truth against temptation, opposition, or seduction; for their steadfastness must be an effect of such an assurance in their minds of the truth of the things which they do believe, as will be prevalent against all that force and artifice where- with they may be assaulted, and such as will not suffer their own minds to be indifferent, careless, or negligent about them. But whence should this arise? Assurance from outward natural sense in spiritual things we are not capable of, nor are they evidenced unto our minds by rational demonstration. All the full persuasion or assurance we can have of them, which will be prevalent against temptations and oppositions, ariseth from such a spiritual view of them as gives an experience of their reality, power, and efficacy upon our minds: and this respects both the renovation of the mind itself in light and faith; the adhesion of the will unto the things known and believed, with a holy, heavenly, unconquerable love; and the constant approbation of the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God in all things. Hence this assurance, though it be neither that of sense nor that of reason, yet in the Scripture is compared with them and preferred above them, as that which giveth the mind a more certain satisfaction than they can do, although it be of another kind. And without this it is impossible that men should attain any such evidence or full persuasion of that evangelical truth which they may profess, as to secure them in their profession in such a juncture of circumstances and occasions as they may fall into.
Here, therefore, I place another means and cause of apostasy from the truth of the gospel after it hath been received and professed. Multitudes in all ages have been instructed in the truth, some have been learned and knowing in the doctrines of it; but whereas, by
ee an
IGNORANCE A CAUSE OF APOSTASY. 105
reason of their darkness, as being destitute of spiritual illumination,
_ they did not discern the things themselves which they assented unto,
in their supernatural, heavenly nature and glory, and therefore had no experience of their proper power and efficacy on their own minds, affections, and lives, they could not have any such evidence of their truth as would upon trials confirm their adherence unto them or secure them from apostasy.
Had the minds of men been transformed in their renovation to “prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God,”— had they by beholding of spiritual things “been changed into the same image from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord,’—they would not have abandoned the most important doctrines of the gospel, as we know them to have done, nor have embraced foolish imaginations in their stead, on every plausible courtship and address unto their fancies. How came men under the papal apostasy gradually to de-
-sert the principal truths of the gospel and all the spiritual glory of
its worship? Not discerning the internal glory and beauty of things evangelical and purely divine, not having an experience of the power of them in and upon their own minds, they chose to comply with, and give admission unto, such things whose outward painted beauty they could discern, and whose effects on their natural and carnal affections they had experience of.
We have seen, in all ages, men learned and skilled in the doc- trines of the truth, so as that they might have been looked on as pillars of it, yet to have been as forward as any unto apostasy from it when they have been tried; yea, such have been the leaders of others thereinto. So many of this sort fell into Arianism and Pela- gianism of old, as some have done into Socinianism, and many into Popery in our days. When such fall away, usually they overthrow the faith of some, and shake the confidence of others.
But the apostle gives a double relief against this temptation :—first, The stability of God’s purpose in the preservation of the elect; and,
secondly, The means of preservation in holiness of them that be-
lieve, 2 Tim. ii. 19. And we may be assured concerning them all, that they never had that intuition into nor comprehension of spiritual things which alone could secure their stability. They never saw so much or that in them for which they should be preferred above all other things. No man who forsakes the truth ever saw the glory of it, or had experience of its power. “They went out from us, but they were not of us,” saith the apostle of such persons; “for if they had been of us” (whose fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son