I shall not insist on other depraved affections of the minds of men. The truth is, there is no one prevalent lust, no one predominant sin, no spiritual or moral disorder indulged unto, but it disposeth the soul first unto an under-valuation and then to a relinquishment of the truth, as occasions are offered.
VI. The hand of Satan is in this matter. He was the head of the first apostasy from God. Having himself fallen away from that place and order in the obediential part of the creation wherein he was made, the first work he engaged in (and he did it effectually) was, to draw mankind into the guilt of the same crime and rebellion; and ever since the revelation of the means of recovery for man (from which he was justly excluded), he hath pursued the same design to- wards all unto whom that way of recovery is proposed, Thus he quickly carried away the whole old world upon the matter into idolatry. And ever since God hath been pleased to make known the way of life and salvation by Jesus Christ, his two great designs and works in the world have been to keep men off from receiving
140 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF APOSTASY.
the gospel, and to turn them aside who have received it. The first he managed two ways,—first, by stirring up raging, bloody persecu- tions against them that professed it, to deter others from engaging into the like way; and the other, by blinding the eyes of men, and filling them with prejudices against the truth, as the apostle declares, 2 Cor. iv. 4. By what ways and means in particular he carried on this first design, in both parts of it, belongs not unto our present inquiry. Failing herein, his principal design in the world hath been, and continueth yet to be, the corrupting of the minds of men about the truth, and drawing them off from it, in part or in whole. So the apostle intimates, 2 Cor. xi. 8, “I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that isin Christ.” It was the serpent by whom Eve was beguiled, but who is it the apostle is jealous that the Corinthians might have their minds corrupted by, from the simplicity that is in Christ; that is, by false doctrine, or, as it were, “ another gospel,” as he speaks, verse 4? It was the same serpent, by himself and in his agents, as he expresseth it, verses 14, 15. And he com- pareth his attempt to draw off professors from the gospel unto his attempt on Eve, whereby he began the apostasy from God in the state of nature. The tenor of the covenant was proposed unto our first parents in the prohibition of eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the threatening annexed thereunto; and he beguiled Eve by corrupting the threatening by his false interpreta- tion of it, whereby he corrupted her mind. The tenor of the cove- nant of grace is proposed unto us principally in the promises of the gospel, which are the centre of the whole doctrine of it. These, therefore, he endeavours by all means to pervert, in opposition unto the wisdom and grace of God in them. Hereby he hopes to draw off men from the simplicity that is in Christ, or the plain declaration of the will of God in the gospel, unto false and foolish imaginations of his own suggestion. And what a hand he was to have in the great apostasy the apostle foretells, 2 Thess. 1. 9-11. There was to be the working of Satan in it, and strong or effectual delusions, unto the belief of lies; which are all from him, who is the father of them. So men departed from the faith by “ giving heed to seducing spirits,” 1 Tim. iv. 1,—that is, to the devil and his agents. It would be too long a digression, to engage into a particular inquiry how, by what ways and means, Satan prevails with men to turn them off from the truth, and turn them unto fables. How he blinds their minds, how he inflames their lusts, how he presents occasions, how he suggests temptations, with false and corrupt reasonings; what colours and pre- tences he puts upon his designs when he transforms himself into an angel of light; with what power, signs, and lying wonders, he gives
JUDICIAL RESULTS OF APOSTASY. 141
countenance to his delusions; how he works on the minds of seducers, _ how on the minds of them that are to be seduced; how he stirs up persecution against the truth and its profession,—would require a discourse, fully to declare, longer than the whole of this is designed to be. It may suffice to know that he is not weary nor wanting unto any of those manifold advantages which are administered unto him. He is at work in all places at this day; in some, making havoc of the churches; in others, by various wiles and artifices, filling the minds of men with prejudices against the truth, and turning them from it.
Lastly, God doth not look on all these things as an unconcerned spectator. He, indeed, “is not tempted with evil;” he tempteth none, he seduceth none; but he rules them all, and overrules all events unto his own glory. He will not suffer men first to under- value and despise, and then to reject and forsake, the chiefest of his mercies, such as his word and truth are, without reflecting on them with some acts of his severity. Wherefore, when men, from the cor- Tupt principles mentioned, seduced by the lusts of their own hearts and entangled by the deceits of Satan, do relinquish the truth, God, in his holy, righteous judgment, gives them up unto farther delusions, so that they shall complete their apostasy, and grow obstinate therein unto their destruction. When a people, a nation, a church, or pri- _ vate persons, have received the gospel and the profession thereof, not walking answerably thereunto, God may forsake them, and withdraw from them the means of their edification and preservation. The rule of his continuance with any people or church, as to the outward dis- pensation of his providence and the means of grace, is that expressed 2 Chron. xv. 2, “The LorD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.” He judicially forsakes them by whom he is wil- fully forsaken.