Three Practical Essays, Essay 2 · Chapter 8
CHAP. VIII. What is to be done after Confirmation. Of Perseverance; and of the danger of Apostacy.
1. AND First, Persuade your self of the necessity of Persevering in the constant Practice of Religion and Virtue, from this Period. The Primitive Christians thought themselves absolutely obliged, to live in the constant Practice of all Holiness and Virtue, from the time of their Baptism to their Death: And if we have taken upon our selves the same Baptismal Vow; if We have entred into the same Profession of Religion; We ought also from that time forward to have the same Apprehensions. Think not that the making a Publick and Solemn Profession of Religion will be of any advantage to you, unless the following part of your Life be suitable to and worthy of that Profession. Think not that your present Zeal and warmth of Devotion will stand you in any stead, unless it work in you such a lasting Disposition of Mind, as will afterwards, when Temptation and Trial shall succeed, preserve you stedfast and unmoveable in the performance of your Duty.
2. The Christian Life is a Spiritual Warfare, wherein we must fight against the Temptations of this World, for the Glories of the other; and the Reward is promised, not to him that shall fight, but to him that shall overcome. We are told, that many should embrace the Doctrine of Christ, and receive his Word even with joy; but because in time of Temptation they would fall away, it should profit them nothing to have once been Believers. This whole Life, is a state of Trial and Probation; and however painfully we have laboured, yet if we leave off before our Work be done, we must lose our Reward. They that run in a race, saith the Apostle, run 1 Cor 9. 24.all; but 'tis not they that rûn, but they that continue to run without fainting to the end, that shall obtain the Crown. Men are exceeding apt to deceive themselves with an imagination, that some warm fits of Devotion, the doing now and then a work of Charity, and the abstaining from Sin for some time, when perhaps the Temptation is less violent than ordinary, will be look'd upon as the running the Christian Race: But let no Man deceive himself with vain Imaginations: This is indeed running, but not so as to obtain; this is indeed fighting, but not so as to conquer, but to be overcome. 'Tis not the struggling with Sin, or the interrupting a wicked Life by some short lived Repentance, that will intitle us to a Crown of Righteousness; but we must overcome, and we must evidence our Victory by a steady course of Piety, or our Labour will prove to be in vain.
3. Many there are, who upon †Quidam ad mganifica… voces excitantur, & tr…nseunt in affectum dicentium, a…acres vultu & animo. Rapit illos instiga…que rerum pulchritudo.—Si…uid acriter contra mortem dictum est, siquid contra fortunam contumaciter, juvat protinus quae audias facere. Afficiunt… i… li, & sunt quales jubentur, si illa animo forma perman…at, si non impetum insignem protinus populus honesti dissuasor excipiat. Pauci illam quan; conceperant mentem domain perferre potuerunt. Seneca Ep. 109.some affecting Discourse, or some remarkable Providence, or some occasional warmth of Devotion, do please themselves with good Resolutions, do admire the Pleasures of Virtue, and with a transporting glimpse of the Joys of Holiness, do imagine themselves almost at the Gates of Heaven; and yet when the Fit is over, the Cares of this World, and the Deceitfulness of Riches, and the Lusts of other Things returning upon them, choke the Word and it becometh unfruitful; and all their Pious Intervals serve to no other purpose, but to make their Misery so much the more lamentable and deplorable, by how much they have come nearer to the Kingdom of God, and have been almost upon the point of making themselves Happy. What pity is it, that they who have had a taste of the good Word of God, and the Powers of the World to come, should for want of being able to withstand the Allurements of some trifling Pleasure, or for want of Resolution to incounter some short and temporal Hardship, forfeit all their glorious Hopes of Happiness, and lose the Crown of Immortality! Yet that they must do so if their Love wax cold, and they be offended at the appearance of any Temptation, the Scripture every where most expresly assures us.
4. He that endureth to the end, saith our blessed Saviour, the same shall be saved, Matth. 24. 13. But if any one draw back, my Soul shall have no pleasure in him, Heb. 10. 38. For no Man having put his hand to the Plough, and looking back, is meet for the Kingdom God, Luke 9. 62. Not every one that saith unto him, Lord, Lord; not every one that embraces his Religion, and makes Profession of it; nay, not every one that receiveth his Word with gladness, and obeys it for a time, even with Sincerity; but he that with an unwearied constancy maintains his Resolutions, and in the midst of all Temptations preserves his Integrity to the end; he only has a certain Title to our Saviour's Promise.
5. And to the same purpose the Apostle St. Paul, Rom. 2. 7. assures the Promise of Eternal Life, not to those who shall begin to do well, or to those who shall by fits, and at certain times, do some works of Righteousness; but to those only, who shall persevere in a steady course of Piety; to them who by patient continuance in welldoing, seek for Glory, and Honour, and Immortality. And again, Heb. 3. 14. he tells us, that we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our Confidence stedfast unto the end. The Hebrews to whom this Epistle was written, were certainly sincere Christians; they had been enlightned by Baptism and the preaching of the Word; they had tasted of the heavenly Gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost; they had tasted the good Word of God, and the Powers of the World to come; and yet the Apostle tells them, that all this would not make them partakers of Christ; i. e. would not intitle them to the Promises which the Gospel makes to Obedience, unless they persevered in this state to the end: Nay, so far would all these glorious Things be from ascertaining them of Happiness, that if they fell away, the having formerly been partakers of so great Privileges would but *Is quidem qui non cognovit Dominum, si nequiter vivit, manet in eo nequitiae suae poe…a; at qui cognovit Dominum, abstinere omnino se debet ab omni nequitia, & magis magisque servire bonitati. Nonne ergo ille qui bonitatem sequi debet, si nequitiae praeferat partes, plus peccare videtur, quam is qui deliquit ignorans Dei virtutem? Ideoque hi quidem morti destinati sunt; at vero ij qui cognoverunt Dominum, atque ejus mirabilia opera viderunt, si nequiter vivunt, duplo amplius punientur, & ipsi morientur in aevum. Hermas 3. 9.increase their Condemnation, and make their State more desperate.
6. Terrible are the Threatnings which the Scripture makes to those, who having known their Duty and begun to obey it, shall again return to a course of Wickedness. If after they have escaped the Pollutions of the World through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they shall be again intangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning: For it had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy Commandment delivered unto them, 2 Pet. 2. 20. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord having saved the People out of the Land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed them that believed not: And the Angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting Chains under darkness, unto the Judgment of the great Day, Jude 5, & 6. Lest there be any Fornicator or profane Person, as Esau, who for one morsel of Meat sold his birth-right; for ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the Blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of Repentance though he sought it carefully with tears, Heb. 12. 16. If we sin wilfully, after we have received the knowledge of the Truth, there remaineth no more Sacrifice for Sins, but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment, and fiery Indignation, which shall devour the Adversary, Heb. 10. 26. It is impossible for those who were once enlightned, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good Word of God, and the Powers of the World to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto Repentance; seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame, Heb. 6. 4. The meaning of all which Places is plainly this, not indeed that 'tis impossible to obtain Forgiveness, but that there is no more Baptism, no more Baptismal Remission; and that therefore if Men after the clear knowledge of their Duty, relapse any more into a state of gross Wickedness, they cannot be forgiven but upon such a great and active Repentance, as 'tis exceeding difficult to renew such Persons unto.
7. For this Reason our Saviour warns us to watch, and to be ready always, to have our Loins girded about and our Lights burning, and to be like Men that wait for their Lord when he shall return from the Wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediately, Luke 12. 35. And again, Take heed to your selves, lest at any time your Hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares; for as a Snare shall it come on all them that dwell upon the face of the whole Earth: Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man, Luke 21. 34. And the Apostles also in their Epistles, are perpetually warning us to watch and to be solicitous, to take great heed (as of a thing of most extreme danger) lest at any time we fail of the grace of God, and left any root of bitterness springing up trouble us, and thereby we be defiled.
8. And indeed the ancient Church thought they could never carry this Point too far. To the Converts who had newly entered into the Profession of Religion, they always urged the necessity of Perseverance with the utmost Rigour: And those Texts of Scripture, which seem the most severely to threaten Apostates, that is, such as after their embracing the Truth of the Gospel, wilfully relapsed into the Practice of any notorious Wickedness, they always interpreted to them in the most *foreign Chrysost. in Heb. 12.strict Sense, that by those Terrors of the Lord they might preserve them (if possible) in their Innocence; though those who had already sinned they treated more mildly, that they might incourage Repentance and prevent Despair.