THE

NATURE OF APOSTACY

FROM THE PROFESSION OF THE GOSPEL,

AND

THE PUNISHMENT OF APOSTATES DECLARED,

IN AN

EXPOSITION OF HEB. VI. 4-6.

WITH

AN INQUIRY INTO THE CAUSES AND REASONS OF

THE DECAY OF THE POWER OF RELIGION IN THE WORLD; OR THE PRESENT GENERAL DEFECTION FROM

THE TRUTH, HOLINESS, AND WORSHip of the GOSPEL.

ALSO,

OF THE PRONENESS OF CHURCHES AND PERSONS OF ALL SORTS UNTO APOSTACY;

WITH

REMEDIES AND MEANS OF PREVENTION.

Search the Scriptures.-JOHN v. 39.

SOME brief account of the occasion and design of the ensuing discourse I judge due unto the reader, that upon a prospect of them, he may either proceed in its perusal, or desist, as he shall see cause.

That the state of religion is at this day deplorable in most parts of the Christian world, is acknowledged by all who concern themselves in any thing that is so called. Yea, the enormities of some are come to that excess that others publicly complain of them, who, without the countenance of their more bold provocations, would themselves be judged no small part or cause of the evils to be complained of. However, this on all hands will, as I suppose, be agreed unto, that among the generality of professed Christians, the glory and,power of Christianity are faded and almost utterly lost; though the reasons and causes thereof are not agreed upon. For however some few may please themselves, in supposing nothing to be wanting unto a good state of things in religion, but only security in what they are and enjoy, yet the whole world is so evidently filled with the dreadful effects of the lusts of men, and sad tokens of divine displeasure, that all things from above and here below proclaim the degeneracy of our religion, in its profession, from its pristine beauty and glory. Religion is the same that ever it was, only it suffers by them that make profession of it. Whatever disadvantage it falls under in the world, they must at length answer for, in whose misbelief and practice it is corrupted. And no man can express a greater enmity unto, or malice against, the

gospel, than he that should assert or maintain, that the faith, profession, lives, ways, and walkings of the generality of Christians are a just representation of its truth and holiness. The description which the apostle gives of men in their principles, dispositions, and actings, before there hath been any effectual influences on their minds and lives from the light, power, and grace of the gospel, is much more applicable unto them, than any thing that is spoken of the disciples of Christ in the whole book of God. 'Foolish are they, and disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.' The ways, paths, and footsteps of gospel faith, love, meekness, temperance, self-denial, benignity, humility, zeal, and contempt of the world, in the honours, profits, and pleasures of it, with readiness for the cross, are all overgrown, and almost worn out amongst men, that they can hardly be discerned where they have been. But in their stead the works of the flesh have made a broad and open road that the multitude travel in; which though it may be right for a season in their own eyes, yet is it the way to hell, and goeth down to the chambers of death. For these 'works of the flesh are manifest' in the world, not only in their nature what they are, but in their open perpetration and dismal effects; such are 'adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like,' as they are reckoned up by the apostle. How these things have spread themselves over the face of the Christian world among all sorts of persons, is manifest beyond all contradiction or pretence to the contrary. And that so it should come to pass in the latter times is both expressly and frequently foretold in the Scripture, as in the ensuing discourse will be more fully declared.

Many indeed there are who are not given up in the course of their lives unto the open practice of such abominations; and therefore, in that grand defection from the truth and holiness of the gospel which is so prevalent in the world, the grace of God is greatly to be admired, even in the small remainders of piety, sobriety, and modesty, and common usefulness that are yet left among us. But those openly flagitious courses are not the only way whereby men may fall off from, and even renounce the power, grace, and wisdom of our. Lord Jesus Christ.

For even of those who will not run out into the same excess of riot with other men, the most are so ignorant of the mysteries of the gospel, so negligent or formal in divine worship, so infected with pride, vanity, and love of the world, so regardless of the glory of Christ, and honour of the gospel, that it is no easy thing to find Christian religion in the midst of professed Christians, or the power of godliness among them who openly avow the form thereof.

By this means is Christianity brought into so great neglect in the world, that its great and subtle adversary seems encouraged to attempt the ruining of its very foundations, that the name of it should no more be had in remembrance. For wherever religion is taken off from a solid consistency by its power in the lives and minds of men, when it hath no other tenure but an outward unenlivened profession, and the secular interest of its professors, it will not long abide the shock of that opposition which it is continually exposed unto. And whilst things are in this state, those who seem to have any concernment therein, are so engaged in mutual charging one another with being occasions thereof, mostly on such principles of difference in judgment as have no considerable influence thereinto,