“ Amor patriee, laudumque immensa cupido,”
Hence they always esteemed those virtues the most excellent which had the best acceptation and the greatest vogue of praise among men. And it seems to be ingrafted in the nature of man to have some kind of desire to be approved in what men judge themselves to do well and laudably. Neither is this desire so evil in itself but that it may be managed in subordination unto the glory of God; which nothing that is absolutely evil, or in its own nature or any con-
+
APOSTASY FROM THE HOLINESS OF THE GOSPEL. 181
_ siderations or circumstances, can be. But when at any time it swells
into an excess, and the pharisaical leaven of being seen and praised of men puffeth it up, it is the worst poison that the mind can be
infected withal. In what degree soever it be admitted, in the same
it alienates the mind from gospel holiness; and it doth so effectually, —I mean this self-love and love of the praise of others doth so,—for the reason mentioned, namely, that the graces in whose exercise it doth principally consist are of no reputation in the world. Such are meekness, gentleness, self-denial, poverty of spirit, mourning for sin, humgering and thirsting after righteousness, mercy and compassion, purity of heart, openness and simplicity of spirit, readiness to un- dergo and forgive injuries, zeal for God, contempt of the world, fear of sin, dread of God’s judgment for sin, and the like. These are those adornings of the inner man of the heart which with God are of great price. But as unto their reputation in the world, “weakness, softness of nature, superstitious folly, madness, hypocritical precise- ness, is the best measure they meet withal. When men begin to discern that as unto this holiness of the gospel, its principal work lies within doors, in the heart and mind, in the things that no mor- tal eye seeth and few commend so much as in the notion of them, and which in their outward exercise meet with no good entertain- ment in the world, they betake themselves unto and rest in those duties which make a better appearance and meet with better accept- ance; and many of them are such as, in their proper place, are dili- gently to be attended unto, provided they draw not off the mind from an attendance unto those despised graces and their exercise wherein the life of true holiness doth consist. And it is well if we are all sufficiently aware of the deceits of Satan in this matter. In the beginnings of the general apostasy from the power and purity of
Christian religion, to countenance all sorts of persons in a neglect of
the principal graces of the gospel, the necessity of regeneration, and a heavenly principle of spiritual life, they were put wholly on out-
ward splendid works of piety and charity, as they were esteemed.
Let their minds be defiled, their lusts unmartified, their hearts un- humbled, their whole souls unfurnished of spiritual and heavenly graces, yet (as they would have it) these outward works should as- suredly bring them all unto a blessed immortality and glory! But this face of the covering, this veil that was spread over many nations, being now in many places (particularly among us) rent and destroyed, both wisdom and much circumspection are required, that, either under a pretence or under a real endeavour after the inward spiri- tual graces of Christ and their due exercise, we do not countenance ourselves in the neglect of those outward duties which are any way useful unto the glory of God and the good of mankind,
182 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF APOSTASY.
These are some of the causes, and others there are of an alike na- ture, from the powerful influence whereof: upon their minds men have changed gospel holiness for other ways of obedience, which also they give other names unto.
CHAPTER IX.
Apostasy into profaneness and sensuality of life—The causes and occasions of it— Defects in public teachers and guides in religion.
THAT which yet remaineth to be considered under this head of backsliding from the commands of the gospel and the obedience re- quired of them is of a worse kind and of a more pernicious conse- quence; and this is that open apostasy into profaneness and sensu- ality of life which the generality of them who are called Christians are in most places of the world visibly fallen into. If any be otherwise minded, if they suppose and judge that the ways and walkings of the generality of churches and individual Christians, of whole nations that profess themselves to be so, are such as the gos- pel requireth and approveth of, they seem either to be ignorant of the true state of these things in the world, or to be highly injurious unto the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. To suppose that he by his gospel giveth countenance unto or conniveth at that darkness, profaneness, sensuality, those bloody contentions and op- pressions, in a word, all those filthy and noxious lusts, which at this day have overwhelmed the Christian world, is to do what we can to render and represent it not only useless, but extremely pernicious unto mankind; for we do say therein that by him and his doe- trine countenance is given unto that degeneracy in wickedness which heathenism would not allow, whereby the world is filled with confu- sion, and in danger to be precipitated into ruin. I shall therefore at present take it for granted (with the highest readiness to give up that concession when any tolerable evidence shall be given to the contrary) that there is, among and in the churches whereunto the generality of Christians do reckon themselves to belong, a visible apostasy from that piety, holiness, and righteousness, which the gos- pel indispensably requireth in all the disciples of Christ, and which the primitive Christians did earnestly follow and eminently abound in. An inquiry into the means and causes hereof is that which now lies before us. And that especial instance which I shall always regard is the church of Rome; which, as it hath given the most eminent example of apostasy in this kind of any church in the world, so what-