Uncategorized - By Grace Alone

Heresies propagated by false Teachers in the Apostles’ Days

Oct 8

Sometime around 1790 – 1800 and recorded “In the The Works of John Newton – Volume III by Joseph Kreifels” we see a very clear picture of heresy by John Newton (Author of Amazing Grace) in an article defending the historic dotrines of the faith as well as establishing a history of heresy (that the core body of heretical doctrine which was established and already settled during the Apostles day) in CHAPTER IV Of the Heresies propagated by false Teachers in the Apostles’ Days:

The parables in the thirteenth chapter of St. Matthew are prophetical of the reception and event of the Gospel in succeeding ages. In this view our Lord himself has explained them. Wherever it is preached, the hearers may be classed according to the distribution in the parable of the sower. Some hear without understanding or reflection. In some it excites a hasty emotion in the natural affections, and produces an observable and sudden change in their conduct, resembling the effects of a real conversion to God; but the truth not being rooted in the heart, nor the soul united to Christ by a living faith, these hopeful appearances are, sooner or later, blasted and come to nothing. Others are really convinced in their judgement of the truth and importance of what they hear; but their hearts cleave to the dust, and the love of this world, the care of what they have, the desire of what they have not, the calls of business, or the solicitations of pleasure, choke the word which they seem to receive, so that it brings forth no fruit to perfection. A part, however (usually the smallest part), who are compared to the good ground, are disposed and enabled, by divine grace, to receive it thankfully, as life from the dead, and, though they meet with many difficulties, and like the corn upon the ground, pass through a succession of trying and changing seasons, yet, having the love, promise, and power of God engaged on their behalf, in defiance of frosts, and blasts, and storms, they are brought to maturity, and when fully ripe, are safely gathered into his garner. (Matt. 3:12) This is an epitome of the ecclesiastical history of every nation, and of every parish, to which this word of salvation is sent.

But the parable of the tares (Matt. 13:24-30) teaches us farther to expect, that besides the general influence which Satan, as the god of this world, will exert to blind the eyes of mankind, lest the light of the glorious Gospel should shine upon them, (2 Cor. 4:4) he will take occasion, from the knowledge of the truth, to insinuate a variety of errors. His first attempts in this way are often so specious and unsuspected, that they are compared to a man’s sowing seed by stealth and in the night, but, as the corn grew, a large crop of tares springing up with it, demonstrated that an enemy had been there. This, in fact, has been universally the case, in every country and age where the Gospel has been received; and we may remark, that the sowing the good seed was the occasion of the tares being cast into the same ground. When a people are involved in gross darkness and ignorance, sleeping in a false peace, and buried in the pleasures and pursuits of the world, they have neither leisure nor inclination to invent or attend to novelties in religion. Each one is satisfied with that form (if even the form of godliness is retained) which he has received from his parents, and neither pretends nor desires to be wiser than those who went before him. But when the truth has shone forth, and been received, and seems to bid fair for further success, Satan employs all his power and subtilty either to suppress or counterfeit it, or both. Much has been done in the former way: he has prevailed so far as to enkindle the fiercest animosities against the nearest relatives, and persuaded men that they might do acceptable service to God by punishing his faithful servants with torture, fire, and sword. (John 16:2) And no less industrious and successful has he been in practicing upon the passions and prejudices of mankind to admit and propagate, instead of the Gospel of Christ, and under that name, an endless diversity of opinions, utterly incompatible with it. Of these, some are ingenious and artful, adapted to gratify the pride of those who are wise in their own conceits; others more gross and extravagant, suited to inflame the imaginations, or to gratify the appetites of such persons as have not a turn for speculation and refinement.

As these appearances have always accompanied the Gospel, so they have always been a stumbling-block and offence to the world, and have furnished those who hated the light with a pretext for rejecting it; and the doctrines of truth have been charged as the source and cause of those errors, which have only sprung from their abuse and perversion. When popery, for a series of ages, detained mankind in darkness and bondage, and deprived them of the knowledge of the holy Scriptures, the tide of error ran uniformly in one great channel; when dead works were substituted in the place of living faith, and the worship and trust, which is due only to Jesus the great Mediator, was blasphemously directed to subordinate intercessors, to angels, and to saints, whether real or pretended; when forgiveness of sin was expected, not by the blood of Christ, but by penances, pilgrimages, masses, and human absolutions, by the repetition of many prayers, or the payment of sums of money: while things continued thus, the world was generally in that state of stupidity and blind security which is miscalled religious peace and uniformity; and the controversies of the times were chiefly confined to those points which immediately affected the power, wealth, or pre-eminence of the several religious orders by whom the people were implicitly led.

Some differences of opinion were indeed known; but the charge of heresy and dangerous innovations was seldom so much as pretended against any, but the few who refused to wear the mark of the beast upon their right hands and foreheads, and who, by the mercy of God, retained and professed the main truths of Christianity in some degree of power and purity. But when it pleased God to revive the knowledge of the Gospel, by the ministry of Luther and his associates, and many were turned from darkness to light, the enemy of mankind presently changed his methods, and, by his influence, the sowing of the good seed was followed by tares in abundance. In the course of a few years the glory of the Reformation was darkened, and its progress obstructed, by the enthusiasm and infatuation of men, who, under a pretence of improving upon Luther’s plan, propagated the wildest, most extravagant and blasphemous opinions, and perpetrated, under the mask of religion, such acts of cruelty, villiany, and licentiousness, as have been seldom heard of in the world. The Papists beheld these excesses with pleasure. Many of them could not but know that Luther and the heads of the Reformation did all that could be expected from them, to show the folly and iniquity of such proceedings; but, against the light of truth and fact, they labored to persuade the world that these were the necessary consequences of Luther’s doctrine, and that no better issue could be justly hoped for when men presumed to depart from the authorized standards of popes and councils, and to read and examine the Scripture for themselves. This religious madness was, however, of no long duration. The people who held tenets inconsistent with the peace of society, were deservedly treated as rebels and incendiaries by the governing powers; the ringleaders were punished, and the multitudes dispersed; their most obnoxious errors were gradually abandoned, and are now in a manner forgot. After the peace of Passau, the Reformation acquired an establishment in Germany and other places; and since that time, error has assumed a milder form, and has been supported by softer methods, and more respectable names.

In our own country the same spirit of enthusiasm and disorder has appeared at different times (though it has been restrained, by the providence of God, from proceeding to the same extremities), and has been most notorious, when, or soon after, the power of Gospel truth has been most eminently revived; for, as I have already observed, when religion is upon the decline, and only so much of a profession retained as is consistent with the love of the present world, and a conformity to the maxims and practices of the many, we seldom hear of any errors prevailing, but such as will find a favorable toleration, and may be avowed without exciting very strong and general expressions of contempt and ill-will against those who maintain them. But whenever real religion, as a life of faith in the Son of God, is set forth upon the principles of Scripture, and by the operation of the Holy Spirit witnesses are raised up, who, by their conduct, demonstrate that they are crucified with Christ, to the law, to sin, and to the world, then is the time for Satan to discredit this work, by imposing a variety of false views and appearances upon the minds of the ignorant and unwary; and he is seldom at a loss for fit instruments to promote his designs.

Since the late revival of the Reformation-doctrines amongst us, we have, perhaps, fewer things of this kind to apologize for than have been observable on any similar occasion: and the best apology we can offer for what has been really blamable, is, to show that it was even thus in the apostles’ days; and that if any arguments taken from these blemishes are conclusive against what some choose to call the novel doctrines now, they would with equal reason, conclude against the validity of the New Testament. And, not to confine myself to such things as the world is most prone to except against, I shall endeavor to show that the seeds of all errors and heresies, the fashionable, as well as those which are more generally despised, were sown in the first age, and appeared so early as to give occasion for the apostles’ censures against them. I do not mean by this to parallel every name and every singularity that a subtle head or a warm imagination may have started; but to assign, in general, the principles to which all these delusions may be reduced, the sources to which these inebriating and dangerous streams may be traced; for, indeed, the operations of the human mind seem to be much more simple and limited than we are ordinarily aware. As there can be no new truths, though every truth appears new to us which we have not known before, so it is probable that there can be now no new errors; at least it is certain that a competent knowledge of antiquity, or even a careful perusal of the apostles’ writings, will furnish sufficient evidence, that some modern authors and teachers, are, by no means, the inventors of the ingenious schemes they have presented to the public.

Truth, like the sun, maintains a constant course; every thing would stagnate and die if we were deprived of it for a single day. But errors are like comets, which, though too eccentric to be subject exactly to our computations, yet have their periods of approach and recess; and some of them have appeared and been admired, have been withdrawn and forgot, over and over again, Error, in the simplest form, is a misapprehension of the truth. Some part of the Gospel must be known before any erroneous conceptions of it can take place. Thus we read, (Acts 8:9-22) that Simon Magus was struck with Philip’s preaching, and the effects which attended it. He was so far impressed, that, it is said, he believed, that is, he made a profession of faith; he was convinced there was something extraordinary in the doctrine, but he understood it not: and the event showed he had no part nor lot in the matter. He is thought by the ancients to have been the founder of that capital sect which is known in general by the name of the Gnostics, and which, like a gangrene, spread far and wide in various branches and subdivisions, each successive head refining upon the system of the preceding. In Sir Peter King’s History of the Apostles’ Creed, and Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History, the English reader may see the substance of the figments which these unhappy men, wise in their own conceit, vented under the name of the Christian religion.

The doctrine of Jesus Christ, and of him crucified, which St. Paul preached, and in which he gloried, is the pillar and ground of truth, the rock upon which the church is built, and against which the gates of hell shall never prevail. (1 Cor. 2:2; Gal. 6:14; Matt. 16:18) Mistakes in this point are fundamental, dangerous, and, if persisted in, destructive; for, as such a knowledge of God as is connected with his favor and communion is eternal life, so none can come to the Father but by the Son, (John 17:3; John 14:6) nor can any know him but those to whom the Son will reveal him. (Matt. 11:27) On this account Satan’s great endeavor (and on his success herein the strength of his kingdom depends), is to darken and pervert the minds of men, lest they should acknowledge and understand what the Scripture declares of his person, characters, and offices, as well knowing, that if these are set aside, whatever else is left of religion will be utterly unavailing. Jesus Christ is revealed in the Scripture, and was preached by his first disciples, as God manifest in the flesh, a divine person in the human nature; who, by submitting to ignominy, pain, and death, made a full and proper atonement for sin, and wrought out an everlasting righteousness in favor of all who should believe in his name; and he is set forth in that nature, in which he suffered, as the object of our supreme love, trust, and adoration.

Other important doctrines, largely insisted on in the word of God, such as the demerit of sin, the obnoxiousness of sinners to punishment, and the misery and incapacity of man in his fallen state, are closely connected with this, and cannot be satisfactorily explained without it. The necessary method of our recovery exhibits the most striking view of the ruin in which sill has involved us, and is the only adequate standard whereby to estimate the unspeakable love of God manifested in our redemption. On the other hand, a knowledge of the true state, of mankind, in consequence of the fall, is necessary to obviate the prejudices of our minds against a procedure which, though in itself the triumph of divine wisdom, is, in many respects, contradictory to our natural (and therefore false) notions of the fitness of things. St. Paul declares, (1 Cor. 2:14) “that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he discern them;” and in another place, (1 Cor. 12:3) “that no man can say,” that is sincerely and upon solid conviction, that “Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” To worship him who had been hanged upon a cross, and to expect eternal happiness from his death, was to the Jews a stumbling-block; it offended their notions of the unity of the Godhead, and opposed their high esteem of their own righteousness; and to the Greeks or Heathens it appeared the greatest folly and absurdity imaginable. For these reasons the Gospel was rejected by multitudes as soon as proposed, and those who preached it were accounted babblers and madmen; not because they were at a loss for propriety of expression, or discovered any thing ridiculous in their conduct, but because they enforced tenets which were adjudged inconsistent with the common sense of mankind.

But, notwithstanding these prejudices, the energy of their preaching, and the miraculous powers with which it was accompanied, made an impression upon many persons, so far as to induce them to profess the name of Jesus, though they were not spiritually enlightened into the mysteries of his religion, nor their hearts thoroughly subdued to the obedience of the faith. There are other points, within the compass of the Gospel ministry, more adapted to affect the minds of men in their natural state. Few are so hardened but they have a conscience of sin, some fears with respect to its consequences, and a pre-intimation of immortality.

Such are capable of being greatly affected and moved, by a pathetic declaration of the terrors of the Lord, the solemnities of a future judgement, the joys of heaven, or the torments of hell. We cannot doubt that these topics, when insisted on with that strength of argument, and warmth of spirit of which the apostles were capable, would engage the attention of many who were not partakers of that divine light by which alone the whole scheme of truth, in its harmony and beauty, can be perceived. The seed sown upon the rock sprang up immediately; the quickness of its growth, and the suddenness of its decay, proceeding from the same cause, a want of depth in the soil. Not a few of these hasty believers presently renounced the faith altogether; and others, who went not so far as to disown the name, endeavored to accommodate the doctrine to their prepossessions, and to explain or reject what they could not understand in such a manner as to form a system upon the whole agreeable to their own wills. Men of corrupt and prejudiced minds thus tampered with the truth, and their inventions, when made known, were adopted by others of the same cast of thought.

As they were differently inclined, they directed their inquiries to different points, and each found partisans and adherents in their respective ways. Thus errors, and, in consequence, sects and divisions, were multiplied; for when men depart from the unerring guidance of God’s word, there is no end of their imaginations; one singularity produces another, and every new leader is stimulated to carry his discoveries farther than those who have gone before him. Farther, as human nature is universally the same, we may judge, from what we have seen, that there always have been persons inclined to join in a religious profession, from the unworthy motives of worldly interest, and a desire to stand fair with their fellow-creatures. Temptations to this were not so strong indeed at first, nor so general as they have often been since; yet the force of friendship, relation (and when Christianity had been of some years’ standing), education, custom, and human authority, is very considerable. Nor is even persecution a sufficient bar against hypocrites and intruders. They who suffer for the Gospel, though despised by the world, are highly esteemed and considered by their own side: it procures them an attention which they would not have otherwise obtained: it may give them an importance in their own eyes, furnish them with something to talk of, and make them talked of by others. There are people who, for the sake of these advantages, will, for a season, venture upon many hardships; though, when the trial comes very close, they will not endure to the end. In a word, there is no reason to doubt but that amongst the numbers who professed the Gospel at first, there would be found the same variety of tempers, circumstances, views, and motives, as have ordinarily appeared amongst a great number of people, suddenly formed in any other period of time; and the apostles’ writings prove that it was really so. From these general principles we may easily account for the early introduction and increase of errors and heresies, and that they should be in a manner the same as have sprung with, or followed, succeeding revivals of the truth. Nor is it just cause of surprise, if sincere Christians have been, in some instances, entangled in the prevailing errors of the times. Designing no harm themselves, they suspect none; and are therefore liable to be imposed on by those who lie in wait to deceive. (Ephes. 4:14).

When Christianity first appeared, the Heathen wisdom, known by the name of philosophy, was in the highest repute. It had two principal branches, the Grecian and the Eastern. The former admitted (at least did not condemn) a multiplicity and subordination of deities; amongst whom, as agents and mediators between their supreme Jupiter and mortals, the care and concerns of mankind were subdivided; to each of which homage and sacrifices were due. Their mythology, or the pretended history of their divinities, was puerile and absurd; and many of their religious rites inconsistent with the practice of public decorum and good morals. Some of the philosophers endeavored to guard against the worst abuses, and to form a system of religion and morality, in which they seem to have proceeded as far as could be expected from men who were totally ignorant of the true God, and of their own state. Some truths they were acquainted with; truths in theory, but utterly impracticable upon any principles but those of revelation. Amongst a vast number of opinions concerning the chief good of man, a few held, that man’s honor and happiness must consist in conformity to and communion with God; but how to attain these desirable ends, they were entirely ignorant.The Eastern philosophy was solemn and mysterious; not less fabulous than the other, but the fables were of a graver cast. It seemed to mourn under the sense of moral evil, and labored in vain to account for its entrance. Its precepts were gloomy and severe, and a perfect course of bodily mortification was recommended, as the great expedient to purify the soul from all its defilements, and to re-unite it, by degrees, to its great Author.

St. Paul, in several passages, (Coloss. 2:8;) cautions the Christians against corrupting the simplicity of their faith, by admitting the reasonings and inventions of vain men. In some places (1 Tim. 1:4; Tit. 3:9) he seems to speak more directly of the Gnostics, whose heresies were little more than the fables of the Eastern philosophy in a new dress, with an acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as an extraordinary person, yet so as utterly to exclude and deny all the important truths revealed in Scripture concerning him. They dignified their scheme with the name of Gnosis, or science; but it was falsely so called, and stood in direct opposition to the Gospel. On other occasions (Rom. 1:21-23; 1 Cor. 1:20-23) he appears to have had the Grecian philosophy chiefly in view. But, notwithstanding his admonitions, it was not long before the errors of philosophy had an ill influence upon the professors of the Christian faith; and even several of the fathers darkened the glory of the truth, by endeavouring to accommodate it to the taste and genius of that Heathen wisdom which they had before admired, and still thought might be useful to embellish and recommend the Gospel.

But, to confine myself to the apostles’ times, it is plain, from the epistles of St. Paul, John, Jude, and Peter, (Titus 1:10; 1 John 4:1; 2 Pet. 2:18-19; Jude 4) that many false prophets and teachers had, in their days, crept in, who propagated damnable heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, turning the grace of God into licentiousness, speaking great swelling words of vanity, boasting themselves of freedom while they in were bondage to their own lusts. And, in the epistle to the church of Ephesus, (Rev. 2:6) our Lord himself mentions a sect who bore the name of Nicolaitans, and expresses his disapprobation of them in those awful terms, “Whom I also hate.” The peculiar tenets of the people condemned in these passages of Scripture are not expressly mentioned; but from these sources were, most probably, derived the sects which, in the second century, were known by the names of their several leaders Cerinthus, Saturninus, Cerdo, Marcion, Basilides, Valentinus, and others; who all building upon the common foundation of the Eastern philosophy, or Gnosis, super-added their own peculiarities, and were differently, though equally, remote from the truth. The one thing in which they all agreed was, in perverting and opposing the Scripture-doctrine concerning the person of Christ. On this point their opinions were as discordant as absurd. Some denied that Christ was come in the flesh; they pretended that Christ was sent from heaven by the Supreme God, and united himself to Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, at his baptism; and that, when the Jews apprehended the man Jesus, and nailed him to the cross, Christ returned to heaven, and left him to suffer by himself. Others ascribed a heavenly derivation to his body, affirming that it passed through the Virgin Mary without any participation of her substance; while others asserted that he had no substantial flesh, but that his body was a mere phantom, or apparition, which was neither really born, nor did nor could truly suffer. Again, there were others who held the reality of his human nature, yet maintained that Christ did not suffer at all; but that Simon of Cyrene (the bearer of his cross), being taken by the Jews for him, was crucified in his stead, while he stood by and laughed at their mistake. A brief recital of these extravagances is sufficient for my present purpose.

For a more particular account, I refer the reader to Sir Peter King’s History of the Creed, already mentioned. Many passages in the apostles’ writings are directed against these dangerous errors; for they strike at the root of the faith and hope of the Gospel, and are subversive of the whole tenor both of the Old and New Testament. It was believed by the ancients, that St. John wrote his Gospel with some view to these heresies; and it is certain that in his first Epistle, where (putting the disciples upon their guard against the many false prophets who were gone out into the world) he observes that the common point, in which all their divers opinions agreed, was a denial that Jesus Christ was come in the flesh; (1 John 2:22; 1 John 4:3) he reminds them that, as they had heard antichrist must come, even so now there were many antichrists, and that the name was applicable to all who denied that Jesus is the Christ. He admits that these false teachers went out from amongst themselves, that is, they had borne the Christian name; but he refers to the doctrines they taught, as a sufficient proof that they had never been of the number of true Christians; “for if they had been of us, no doubt they would have continued with us.” (1 John 2:19) If opinions, equally wild and extravagant, were at this time maintained and propagated by persons who, for a season, had been warm for truth and reformation, we are not afraid that they would prejudice our cause with any who will allow due weight to the reasoning of St. John; for if they had been really of us once, they would have still continued with us.

But the truth is, the teachers in our time whose leading tenets most nearly symbolize with these ancient heresies, are not charged, or even suspected, of having had any attachment to the doctrines which I am concerned to vindicate; nor is an apology expected from them, for they give but little offence. Since the fabulous disguise under which the Gnostics of old veiled their opinions has been laid aside, their opposition to the deity and atonement of Christ has been adopted by so many who are applauded for ingenuity, fine reasoning, and great learning, that it bids fair to be the fashionable divinity of the age; and though the sufferings of Jesus are not denied, yet their proper causes and ends are openly exploded, and the attempt has often proved an easy path to acceptance, wealth, and dignity. The attachment of the Jewish converts to the law of Moses was another source of error, which occasioned daily disputes in the churches, and gave rise, in the issue, to dangerous heresies, subversive of the true faith. Even those of them, who had sincerely received the Gospel, could not easily be persuaded that a law, given to Moses by God himself, with so much solemnity, from mount Sinai, was to be entirely abrogated, and that their obligation to it was, ipso facto, vacated the moment they believed in Jesus; who, by his obedience unto death, had accomplished all its types and ceremonies, and wrought out for his people an everlasting righteousness commensurate to its utmost requirements. The apostles, who, after the pattern of their Lord, were gentle and tender to the weak of the flock, bore with their infirmities, (Rom. 14:2-6) and allowed them to retain a distinction of meats and days, and other observances, provided they did not consider these things in such a point of view, as to interfere with God’s appointed method of justification by faith in his Son. But the matter was carried much farther; for no sooner was there a church formed at Antioch, than they were troubled with perverse teachers, who told them “that, except they were circumcised and kept the law of Moses, they could not be saved.” (Rom. 14:2-6) The Galatians were greatly hurt by teachers of this sort; (Gal. 5:4) and, as the Jews were dispersed through all the provinces, the peace of the church was more or less affected by their attempts to enforce the observance of the law, in almost every place, till after the Epistle to the Hebrews was received, and obedience to the Levitical law rendered impracticable by the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. (Col. 2:16; Tit. 1:10; Phil. 3:2; 1 Thess. 1:7) From that period, it is probable, the distinction of Jew and Gentile believers ceased, and both parties were firmly incorporated into one body; but a great number of the zealots for the law separated themselves, and were known in the following age by the name of Ebonite’s, adopting for their rule a mixture of law and Gospel so very different from the Gospel St. Paul preached, that they openly expressed an abhorrence both of his person and writings.

We have an account likewise of some pretended teachers, who opposed the important doctrine of the Resurrection. Some expressly maintained that there was no resurrection; (1 Cor. 15:12) whom St. Paul confutes at large in his first Epistle to the Corinthians. Others affirmed the resurrection is passed already. (2 Thess. 2:18) Perhaps they pretended that a moral change was designed by the metaphorical expression of a resurrection; the philosophers had used the word in this sense; and this would be sufficient to gain it admittance with some, who would willingly reconcile their profession to the wisdom of the world. In either way the very foundations of hope were removed. If this point is denied, the whole system of Christian doctrine falls to the ground, and that dreadful train of consequences must be admitted, which the apostle enumerates: (1 Cor. 15:13) “If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen, then is our preaching vain and your faith also vain, ye are yet in your sins; then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” Since the fertile resurrection of ancient mistakes, which is the sin and scandal of the present age, we have been gravely told, that the word signifies no more than the soul’s awaking from the long sleep into which they suppose the period we call Death will plunge it; and that the body has no share in the revival, but dies without hope. But we may thank God for the Scripture, which brings comfort where philosophy gives up the cause as desperate. Faith in Christ is so closely connected with the doctrine of a resurrection, that it is common with those who oppose the former, to use all their address to explain the latter quite away; and whether they say it is past already, or it will never come, their motives, their design, and their manner of reasoning, are the same.

That there were persons who abused the doctrines of grace, as an encouragement to continue in the practice of sin, may be inferred from the Epistle of St. James, and several passages of the other apostles. Such, in our modern phrase, are styled Antinomians; a name, it must be confessed, of very indeterminate application: it is an epithet which many would fix indiscriminately upon all who preach a free salvation by faith in the blood of Jesus. “If it is all of grace, and we can do nothing of ourselves, if it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy; then we may live as we please, endeavors are useless, and obedience unnecessary.” (Rom. 11:6; 2 Cor. 3:5; Rom. 9:16) These are the inferences which the unenlightened heart charges as unavoidable consequences from the Gospel doctrine; and from hence we obtain a corroborating proof, that we do not mistake St. Paul’s sense, or preach a Gospel different from his, because he foresaw that the same objections would seem to lie against (Rom. 3:7; Rom. 9:19) himself, and he guards and protests against such a perversion, (Rom. 6:1) “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid!” It seems to have been upon this account that he was slandered, and by some affirmed to have taught, “Let us do evil, that good may come,” (Rom. 3:8) –that is, in modern language (and such things are not spoken in corners amongst us), “If any man would be a proper subject of what they call Grace, let him become still more vile, and plunge into the most atrocious wickedness, for the greater the sinner the better qualified for mercy.” We are content to be reproached (as St. Paul was in his time) for the truth’s sake; and we would be chiefly concerned for the unhappy scoffers, who, unless God is pleased to give them repentance unto life, will one day wish they had been idiots or lunatics, rather than have vented their malicious wit against the grace and Gospel of the Lord Christ.

But it must be allowed we have seen Antinomians in the worst sense of the word, men who have pleaded for sin, and, while they have laid claim to faith, have renounced and blasphemed that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. We cannot wonder that even candid and well-meaning persons have been greatly prejudiced, and discouraged in their inquiries after truth, by the presumption and wickedness of such pretended Christians. But no period of the church, in which the Gospel doctrine was known and preached, has been free from offences of this sort. It was so in the apostles’ days. “There were then many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, who subverted whole houses, teaching things which they ought not; (Tit. 1:10-11) who professed that they knew God, but in works denied him, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate;” (Tit. 1:16) “who pretended to faith, but were destitute of those fruits which true faith always produces.” (James 2:14) These are described “as clouds without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever:” (Jude 12-13) “sporting themselves with their own deceiving, and beguiling unstable souls.” (2 Pet. 2:13-14)

In opposition to such deceivers it is written, “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.”(1 John 1:6) “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; (1 John 2:4) for every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” (1 John 3:3) “The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his; and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” (2 Tim. 2:19) St. Paul, writing to the Thessalonians concerning the “man of sin,” (2 Thess 2:3-10) who was to be fully revealed in the following ages, reminds them, that the mystery of iniquity, though at that time restrained from a full manifestation, did already work; teaching us, that the seeds of that grand apostasy, which at length overspread the whole professing church, were sown, and springing up, at the time of his writing. And he mentions several particulars in his Epistle to the Colossians, (Col. 2:18-23) such as a voluntary or self-devised humility, in worshipping angels as mediators or intercessors, a dogmatic inhibition of things which God had left free, and a specious scheme of will-worship and mortification, which, under pretence of self-denial, did really gratify pride, vanity, and self-righteousness. The progress of our history will show what a harvest of dreadful and wide-spreading evils were produced from these principles, until at length the Gospel of Christ was wholly obscured, and the lives and consciences of men were given up to the power of antichrist, who, as god, insolently sat down in the temple of God, and exalted himself above all laws, human and divine. It is sufficient to my purpose, at present, to take notice, that the beginnings of that spiritual infatuation, which so long detained the world in chains, and darkness, and slavery, under the tyranny of the church of Rome, were observable in St. Paul’s time, and therefore deserve a place in the list of those pestilent heresies by which the enemy of souls attempted to defile the faith, and disturb the peace, of the primitive church.

Many other things are alluded to, which, for want of authentic records of the first century, we cannot with certainty explain. Besides the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, already mentioned, we read of the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but of the Synagogue of Satan, (Rev. 3:9) of them who held the doctrine of Balaam, and of the woman Jezebel, who called herself a prophetess. (Rev. 2:14-20) These were certainly heretics, for our Lord severely rebukes the churches for not opposing them to the utmost; and, as he gives them different names, they probably differed from each other, though their ultimate tendency was the same, to pervert the faith of the hearers, and to introduce licentiousness of practice. The Gospel truth is a doctrine according to godliness, and has a sanctifying influence; for the grace of God teaches all who are partakers of it, to forsake all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world. (Tit. 2:11-12) But errors and heresies, in whatever degree they prevail, have a poisonous effect upon those who admit them. Some are calculated to set aside the whole frame of obedience which we owe to our God and Savior, and the most refined and plausible will deliver the soul into the power of some easy, besetting, and beloved sin, and furnish arms and arguments to maintain it. And this explains what would otherwise seem a very strange phenomenon. When the truth is proposed with the greatest clearness and the greatest advantages, its votaries, at all times, and in all places, have been but few; but whoever will stand up on the side of error, however wild and absurd his opinions and conduct may be, will hardly fail of obtaining adherents. It is because error will tolerate those lusts and follies which truth will not endure; and, in the present state of human depravity, more people will be found willing to give up their understandings, than to part with their sins.

We may likewise collect from several texts in the Epistles, that there were those of old who denied what the Scripture teaches concerning the depravity of human nature, the real guilt of sin, (1 John 1:8-10) the influences of the Holy Spirit, (Jude 19) and the terrors of a future judgement: (2 Pet. 3:9) though we cannot be sure that these doctrines were opposed so openly and so strenuously as they are in our own days. But I have enumerated enough to answer my purpose, by way of apology for the evangelical doctrine, the modern opposers of the last-mentioned points not being under any suspicion or charge of what is called enthusiasm; and all who are despised or persecuted for resting the hope of their salvation solely upon the mediation of Jesus and his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, are known to acknowledge them as essential truths; indeed, they stand inseparably connected with what they believe of his person, offices, power, and grace. A conscience impressed with the majesty, holiness, and justice of the great God, and that trembles at the denunciations of his law against every transgression, dares not hope for peace without the discovery of an adequate atonement for sin, nor venture its eternal concerns upon the interposition of a creature.

To such a one, all that is revealed of the love and sufferings of Jesus, would afford no solid ground of consolation, if the infinite dignity of his divine nature, and his voluntary substitution in the place and on the behalf of sinners, were not revealed with equal clearness; and a conviction of that total insufficiency for every good work (2 Cor. 3:5) and the prevalence of indwelling sin, (Rom. 7:18-24) which the Scripture so expressly declares to be the condition of every child of Adam, would plunge an awakened mind into hopeless despair, if it was not relieved by the gracious promise of the infallible Spirit, (John 14:26; John 16:7-13) whose office is to teach, guide, comfort, and seal the children of God unto the day of complete redemption; (Ephes. 4:30) but having such a great high priest, who, by his own blood, has entered into the holy place, to appear in the presence of God for us; (Heb. 8:1; Heb. 9:24; Heb. 10:19) and having, in the promise of the Holy Spirit, (Rom. 8:16; Rom. 8:26-27) a source of succor and comfort answerable to all our ignorance, weakness, necessities, and temptations, we are enabled, in the midst of righting and fears, (2 Cor. 7:5) to maintain an humble confidence that we shall not be ashamed before him at his coming, but have boldness in the day of judgement, the great and terrible day of the Lord. (1 John 2:28; 1 John 4:17) On the other hand, it is no wonder that those who do not acknowledge the Deity of the Savior (not finding any other basis whereon to rest the validity of an atonement for sin) should embrace every shadow of an argument against its necessity, and be willing to think as highly as possible of their own righteousness and abilities; or, that being thus persuaded that they can please God, without the influence of his Spirit themselves, they should treat all claims to this assistance in others as enthusiasm and folly. Nor can we be surprised that many who reject the Scripture testimony concerning Christ and the Holy Spirit, should use all their address to prove that the soul sinks into sleep and inactivity at death, that the resurrection of the flesh is improbable, and that it is injurious to the goodness of God, to suppose he will inflict eternal punishment for sins committed within the compass of a short life. Such reasonings may be expected from men who presume upon the sufficiency of their own wisdom; who neither expect nor desire divine teaching, and who find a little relief in these sentiments against the fears and forebodings which will sometimes force themselves upon their minds.

It appears, however, from the indisputable evidence of the New Testament, that, in the first age of the church, the enemy sowed the tares of error and heresy in great abundance, and that the figments published in that period, by men who professed some regard to the name of Christ, have not been surpassed, either as to absurdity or wickedness, by any attempts of the same kind, in any age or country since. It is true, the vigilance and authority of the apostles restrained these excesses from rising to that height to which they afterwards attained. But if the people who now object to the variety of names, sects, and sentiments, which have gradually prevailed amongst us within these thirty years past, had lived in the primitive church, they would have had, at least, equal cause for making the like objections. If, upon these accounts, they now think themselves at liberty to reject all parties alike, without examination, as empty pretenders to the truth, purity, and power of religion; there is little doubt but they would have done the same then. The apostles were personally present with the first churches; their writings were appointed to be the rule of succeeding times, and, through the mercy of God, are in our hands. Whoever is sincerely desirous to know the will of God, by attending to these lively oracles, will be enabled to discern the path of truth and peace, through the midst of that maze of opinions wherein so many are bewildered and lost; but whoever is too wise, or too indolent, to search the Scripture humbly and diligently for himself, would have paid as little regard to the authority of the apostles if he could have conversed with them; nay, the advantage is on our side; for, as the Scriptures are held in professed veneration, we run no immediate risk of character or interest by consulting’ them, or they may be perused in retirement, unobserved by our nearest friends; whereas the apostles, though highly spoken of amongst us, were accounted, while they lived, the filth and offscouring of all things; they were despised for their poverty and the meanness of their appearance, and detested as bigots and enthusiasts; so that it required some degree of faith and grace not to be ashamed of them.

Let not the reader be offended, if I close this book, as I did the former, with entreating him to reflect on the importance of having right views of the Gospel of Christ, and of the spirit of Christianity. These are topics of universal concern. A believer in Jesus, however obscure, unnoticed, or oppressed in the present life, is happy; he is a child of God, the charge of angels, an heir of glory; (Rom. 8:14-17) he has meat to eat that the world knows not of; and from the knowledge of his union and relation to his Redeemer, he derives a peace which passes understanding, (Phil. 4:7.) and a power suited to every service and circumstance of life. (2 Cor. 12:9) Though weak in himself, he is strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus the Lord, (2 Thess. 2:1) upon whom he relies, as his wisdom, righteousness, sanctification; and expects from him, in due time, a complete redemption from every evil. (1 Cor. 1:30) His faith is not merely speculative, like the cold assent we give to a mathematical truth, nor is it the blind impulse of a warm imagination; but it is the effect of an apprehension of the wisdom, power, and love displayed in the redemption of sinners by Jesus Christ; it is a constraining principle, that works by love, purifies the heart, and overcomes the world; it gives the foretaste and evidence of things invisible to mortal eyes, and, transforming the soul into the resemblance of what it beholds, fills the heart with benevolence, gentleness, and patience, and directs every action to the sublimest ends, the glory of God, and the good of mankind. (Gal. 5:6; Acts 15:9; 1 John 5:4; Heb. 11:1; 2 Cor. 3:18)

But whatever is styled religion that is not thus pure, thus peaceable, thus operative, or, at least, that does not lead the soul to desire the graces of the Spirit, and to seek them in God’s appointed way, by faith in his Son, is unworthy the name. If you have not the Spirit of Christ, you are none of his; (Rom. 8:9) whatever else you may have, you have no interest in the promised blessings of the Gospel; whatever else you can do, you cannot please God. (Heb. 11:6) If you do not count all things loss, and of no value, in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord, (Phil. 3:8.) you certainly do not understand the word Gospel in St. Paul’s sense; if you did, you would be of his mind. And are you not in danger of incurring that anathema, which, under the influence of the Spirit of God, he denounces against all who love not the Lord Jesus? (1 Cor. 16:22) Search the Scriptures, if you really think that in them you have eternal life. (John 5:39) If, indeed, you could prove them to be cunningly devised fables, (2 Pet. 1:16) you might neglect them without danger; but, if the Scriptures are true, there is a day coming when God shall judge the world (2 Pet. 1:16). I need not appeal to Scripture to convince you that, whatever your situation in life is, you must leave it, and experience a moment, when the pleasures or honors of this world will afford you no comfort; but, if the Scriptures are true, you must then appear before the judgement-seat of Christ; you must stand either at the right hand or the left. (2 Cor. 5:10) Important alternative! For to those on the left hand the King will say, “Depart from me ye cursed!” (Matt. 25:41) If hitherto, while you have professed his name, you have had your heart filled with enmity against his doctrine and his people; if you have accounted his wisdom foolishness, and reproached the operations of his Spirit as enthusiasm and madness; it is to be hoped you have done it through ignorance, you knew not what you did; (l Thess. 1:13; Luke 23:34) there is then forgiveness with him; as yet he is upon a throne of grace. May the Spirit of God lead you to him before he takes his seat upon the throne of judgement! otherwise you are lost for ever. My heart’s desire and prayer to God, for my readers, will be, that not one of them may fall under that awful sentence, “Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish; for I work a work in your days, which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.” (Acts 13:41).

John Newton. The Works of John Newton – Volume III. Joseph Kreifels.

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