THE BACKSLIDER:

OR

AN ENQUIRY

INTO

THE NATURE, SYMPTOMS, AND EFFECTS, OF RELIG. OUS DECLENSION,

WITH

THE MEANS OF RECOVERY.*

I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding: and lo! it was all grown over with thorns; nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction.

WHETHER the present age be worse than others which have preceded it, I shall not determine; but this is manifest, that it abounds not only in infidelity and profligacy, but with great numbers of loose characters among professing Christians. It is true, there are some eminently zealous and spiritual, perhaps as much so as at almost any former period: the disinterested concern which has appeared for the diffusion of evangelical religion is doubtless a hopeful feature of our times; yet it is no less evident that others

* The following pages were occasioned by the Writer's observing several persons, of whom he had formerly entertained a favourable opinion, and with whom he had walked in Christiau fellowship, having fallen either from the doctrine, or practice of pure religion. A view of their unhappy condition made a deep impression upon his mind. If he has been enabled to describe the case of a backslider to any good purpose, it has been chiefly owing to this circumstance. He hopes that, though it was written with a special eye to a few, it may yet be useful to many.

are in a sad degree conformed to this world, instead of being transformed by the renewing of their minds. Even of those who retain a decency of character, many are sunk into a Laodicean lukewarmness. Professors are continually falling away from Christ; either totally so as to walk no more with him; or partially, so as greatly to dishonour his name. Alas, how many characters of this description are to be found in our congregations ! If we only review the progress of things for twenty or thirty years past, we shall perceive many who once bid fair for the kingdom of heaven now fallen a prey to the temptations of the world. Like the blossoms in the spring, they for a time excited our hopes; but a blight has succeeded: the blossom has gone up as the dust, and the root in many cases appear to be rottenness.

It is one important branch of the work of a faithful pastor to strengthen the deceased, to heal the sick, to bind up the broken, to bring again that which is driven away, and to seek that which is lost.* If these pages might fall into the bands of a few of the above description, and contribute in any degree to their recovery from the snare of the devil, the writer will be amply rewarded. It is a pleasure to recover any sinner from the error of his ways; but much more those of whom we once thought favourably. The place which they formerly occupied in our esteem, our hopes, and our social exercises, now seems to be a kind of chasm, which can only be filled up by the return of the party. If a child depart from his father's house, and plunge into profligacy and ruin, the father may have other children, and may love them but none of them can heal bis wound, nor any thing satisfy him, but the return of him that was lost.

In pursuit of this desirable object, I shall describe the nature and different species of backsliding from God; notice the symptoms of it; trace its injurious and dangerous effects; and point out the means of recovery.

*Ezek. xxxiv. 4.

ON THE

GENERAL NATURE AND DIFFERENT SPECIES

OF

BACKSLIDING,

ALL backsliding from God originates in a departure of heart from him herein consists the essence and the evil of it. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know, therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that THOU HAST FORSAKEN THE LORD THY GOD, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord of hosts. But the degrees of this sin, and the modes in which it operates, are various.

The backsliding of some is total. After having made a profession of the true religion, they apostatize from it. I am aware it is common to consider a backslider as being a good man, though in a bad state of mind: but the scriptures do not confine the term to this application. Those who are addressed in the passage just quoted, had not the fear of God in them, which can never be said of a good man. Backsliding, it is true, always supposes a profession of the true religion; but it does not necessarily suppose the existence of the thing professed. There is a PERPETUAL backsliding, and a drawing back UNTO PERDITION. * Such characters were Saul, and Ahithophel, and Judas. Many persons who have in a great degree declined the practice of religion, yet comfort themselves with an idea that they shall be brought to repentance before they die; but this is presumtuously tempting God. Whoso

Jer. viii. 5. Heb. x. 39.

ever plunges into this gulf, or continues easy in it under an idea of being recovered by repentance, may find himself mistaken. Both Peter and Judas went in; but only one of them came out! There is reason to fear that thousands of professors are now lifting up their eyes in torment, who in this world reckoned themselves good men, who considered their sins as pardonable errors, and laid their accounts with being brought to repentance: but, ere they were aware, the bridegroom came, and they were not ready to meet him!

The nature and deadly tendency of sin is the same in itself, whether in a wicked or in a righteous man: there is an important difference, however, between the backsliding of the one, and that of the other. That of the hypocrite arises from his having no root in himself; therefore it is that in the time of temptation he falleth away; but that of the sincere Christian respects the culture of the branch, and is owing to unwatchfulness, or remissness in duty. The first, in turning back, returns to a course which his heart always preferred: the last, though in what he does he is not absolutely involuntary, for then it were innocent; yet it is not with a full or perfect consent of his will. He does not sin wilfully: that which he does he allows not: it is against the habitual disposition of his soul: he is not himself as we should say while so acting.* Finally, The one, were it not for the remorse of conscience which may continue to haunt him, and disturb his peace, would be in his element in having made a full riddance of religion; but this is not the case with the other. A life of deviation and distance from God is not his element, nor can he enjoy himself in it. This difference is remarkably exemplified in the cases of Saul and David. The religion of the former never appears to have fitted him: he

*It is usual to denominate a character by his habitual, or ruling disposition, and not by occasional deviations from it. Thus when we hear of him who was famed for meekness, speaking unadvisedly with his lips, we say, This was not Moses; or of him who was distinguished by his courageous avowal of his Lord, denying with oaths that he knew him, we say, This was not Peter. Both these great characters, in these instances, acted beside themselves : it was not them, as it were, but sin that dwelt in them. See Heb.x. 26. Rom. vii. 15-26.

was continually acting awkwardly with it and presently threw it aside. If, in addition to this, he could have forgotten it, and lived without being terrified by the apprehension of consequences, he would doubtless have been much the happier for having cast it off. But when the latter had sinned, he was not like the raven which went forth of the ark, and came no more; but like the dove which could find no rest for the sole of her foot till she returned. The thirty-second and thirty-eighth Psalms express the wretchedness of his mind till he confessed his sin, and obtained mercy.

But, whatever difference there be between a partial and a total departure from God, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for the party himself, at the time to perceive it. So long as any man continues in a backsliding state, the reality of his religion must remain uncertain. He may not be without hope, nor ought he to be without fear. The scriptures know nothing of that kind of confidence which renders men easy in their sins. Paul stood in doubt of the Galatians, and they ought to have stood in doubt of themselves.The species of backsliding are various: some respect doctrine, others practice; but all are the operations of a heart departing from the living God.

In some, a backsliding spirit first appears by a relinquishment of evangelical doctrine. Where truth is treated merely as a matter of speculation, or as an opinion of no great moment, it is not held fast; and where this is the case, it is easily surrendered. If a plausible book, in favour of deism, or any of those vain systems which nearly approach it, fall in their way, they are ready to yield; and by reading the performance a second time, or conversing with a person who favours it, they make shipwreck of their faith, and are driven on the rocks of infidelity. Such was the process in the days of the apostles: those who receive not the love of the truth, were given up to believe a lie.*

If these departures from evangelical principles were closely examined, it would be found that they were preceded by a neglect of private prayer, watchfulness, self-diffidence, and walking humbly

*2 Thess. ii. 10, i1.