We may apply these things unto our present purpose. The de- sign of the gospel, in all its especial truths and mysteries, is to bring every thought into subjection unto the obedience of faith. Hence is that direction which flesh and blood will never comply withal, “If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him
VOL. VII.
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130 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF APOSTASY.
become a fool, that he may be wise,” 1 Cor. ii. 18. Unless men renounce their carnal wisdom, in all its principles, effects, and opera- tions, they will never become wise with that wisdom which is from above; and he who knoweth not what it is so to become a fool, be he who he will, was never yet wise towards God. Wherefore, when men have taken on them the outward profession of the gospel, they begin to find, upon inquiry, that the mysteries and principles of its doctrine are unsuited unto the natural pride of their minds, and in- consistent with that absolute sovereignty which they would in all things give unto their own reason. Hereon “many inventions are sought out” to cast off the yoke of faith, and to re-enthrone reason in the room thereof;—not that men depart from the faith with this express design, but this is that which secretly influenceth them thereunto. Hence the generality of those who forsake the truth on this ground and occasion are such as, trusting too soon to their own rational abilities, having neither will, nor humility, nor industry to inquire into the principles and reasons of truth in a due manner, do give up themselves unto the conduct and teaching of others, who have invented opinions more suited unto the innate pride of their minds and carnal reasonings; and some, by an over-earnest pur- suit of the workings of their own rational faculties in spiritual things, having subducted their minds from that’ humble frame wherein alone they are capable of divine teaching, are betrayed into the same mis- carriage. All ancient heresies sprung from this root, yea, those of them which are most absurd and foolish, and most diametrically opposite unto right reason, arose from a pretence thereof: for when men will have reason to have an absolute supremacy in religion, it is unavoidable but they must judge that their own is the reason which is intended; and that some may be led hereby into very fool- ish imaginations is easy to be conjectured, unless we shall suppose all men to be equally wise and sober.
I shall briefly exemplify these things in one instance, and that in ‘a prevalent apostasy from the truth, and which at present is visibly progressive in the world; this is that of Socinianism. And J shall give an instance herein, because the poison of it is highly efficacious where it meets with the complexion and constitution of mind before described, and is more diffused than many are aware of: for although the name of it be generally condemned, and there are some opinions comprised under it whose profession is inconsistent with the interest of the most, yet all those deviations from the truth which we have amongst us, under several denominations, are emanations from that corrupt fountain; yea, the whole of it being a system of opinions craftily suited unto the first notions and conceptions of corrupted reason, and the inbred pride of men’s minds, in them who on any
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PRIDE, ETC., CAUSES OF APOSTASY. 131
account own divine revelation, the first proposal of them finds ready
_ entertainment with many of those whose souls are not prepared and
fortified against them by a spiritual experience of the excellency, power, and efficacy, of the mysteries of the gospel. They no sooner hear of them but they know they express what they would have, as gratifyimg all the corrupt desires and carnal reasonings of their minds,
There are, as was observed before, two sorts of things in the doc- trines of the gospel:—1. Such as are above the comprehension and measure of reason in its best condition, as it is in us lémited and
confined; 2. Such as are contrary unto it as corrupted and de-
praved. And unto these two headsis this kind of apostasy reducible,
1. What is above reason, incomprehensible by it, those of this way do absolutely reject. Such are the doctrines of the Trinity and of the incarnation of the Son of God. Because the things taught in these doctrines are not comprehensible by their reason, they con- clude that they are repugnant unto right reason. And by others the same doctrines are refused, as not compliant with the light that is within them; for the existence of the divine nature in three dis- tinct persons, with the hypostatical union of the natures of God and man in the same person, they cannot acknowledge. These things, so fully, so plainly, so frequently revealed and asserted in the Scrip- ture, so attested by the primitive catholic church, are rejected on no other reason but that they are against reason; nor is there any pretence that they are so, but because they are above it. When they have puzzled themselves with Nicodemus’ question, “ How can these things be?” they peremptorily deny their existence, because they cannot comprehend the manner of it.
2. As unto those things which are contrary unto reason as cor- rupted, these they deprave and wrest unto a compliance therewithal. So they deal with the doctrines of the attributes of God, of his eter- nal decrees, of the office and mediation of Christ, of justification by his righteousness, of the power and efficacy of the grace of the Holy Spirit in the conversion of sinners, and of the resurrection of thé dead. Because they cannot bring their reason as corrupted and de- praved unto a compliance with these truths, they will force, hale, torture, and rack the truths themselves, to bring them into slavery unto their own reasons, or carnal, fleshly conceptions of spiritual things; for,.allowing the words, terms, and propositions wherein they are expressed, they put absurd senses upon them, destructive unto the faith and contrary to the whole scope and design of the Scrip- ture. So do they endeavour expressly to bring every divine revelation into captivity unto the bondage of their own perverse reasonings and imaginations. :