8.
SOME COUNTERFEITS

If some who were thought to be wrought upon fall away into gross errors, or scandalous practices, it is no argument that the work in general is not the work of the Spirit of God.

That there are some counterfeits is no argument that nothing is true: such things are always expected in a time of reformation. If we look into church history, we shall find no instance of any great revival of religion but what has been attended with many such things. Instances of this nature in the apostles’ days were innumerable; some fell away into gross heresies, others into vile practices, though they seemed to be the subjects of a work of the Spirit – and were accepted for a while amongst those that were truly so as their brethren and companions – and were not suspected till they went out from them. And some of these were teachers and .

Judas

An instance of these was Judas, who was one of the twelve apostles, and had long been constantly united to, and intimately conversant with, a company of disciples of true experience, without being discovered or suspected, till he revealed himself by his scandalous practice. He had been treated by Jesus himself, in all external things, as if he had truly been a disciple, even investing him with the character of apostle, sending him out to preach the gospel, and enduing him with miraculous gifts of the Spirit. For though Christ knew him, yet he did not then clothe himself with the character of omniscient Judge and searcher of hearts, but acted the part of a minister of the visible church (for he was his Father’s minister); and therefore did not reject him till he had revealed himself by his scandalous practice; thereby giving an example to guides and rulers of the visible church, not to take it upon themselves to act the part of searcher of hearts, but to be influenced in their administrations by what is visible and open.

There were some Instances then of such apostates, who were esteemed eminently full of the grace of God’s Spirit. An instance of this nature probably was Nicolas, one of the seven deacons, who was looked upon by the Christians in Jerusalem, in the time of that extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit, as a man full of the Holy Spirit, and was chosen out of the multitude of Christians for that office for that reason (Acts 6:3, 5); yet he afterwards fell away and became the head of a sect of vile heretics, of gross practices, called from his name the sect of the Nicolaitans (Revelation 2:6, 15).

Reformation apostates

So in the time of the reformation, How great was the number of those who for a while seemed to join with the reformers, yet fell away into the grossest and most absurd errors, and abominable practices. And it is particularly observable that in times of great pouring out of the Spirit to revive religion in the world, a number of those who for a while seemed to partake in it, have fallen off into whimsical and extravagant errors, and gross enthusiasm, boasting of high degrees of spirituality and perfection, censuring and condemning others as carnal. Thus it was with the Gnostics in the apostles’ times; and thus it was with several sects at the reformation, as Anthony Burgess observes:

The first worthy reformers, and glorious instruments of God, found a bitter conflict herein, so that they were exercised not only with formalists, and traditionary papists on the one side, but men that pretended themselves to be more enlightened than the reformers were, on the other side: hence they called those that did adhere to the Scripture, and would try revelations by it, Literists and Vowelists, as men acquainted with the words and vowels of Scripture, having nothing of the Spirit of God: and wheresoever in any town, the true doctrine of the gospel brake forth to the displacing of popery, presently such opinions arose, like tares that came up among the good wheat; whereby great divisions were raised, and the reformation made abominable and odious to the world; s if that had been the sun to give heat and warmth to those worms and serpents to crawl out of the ground. Hence they inveighed against Luther, and said he had only promulgated a carnal gospel.

Some of the leaders of those wild enthusiasts had been for a while highly esteemed by the first reformers, and peculiarly dear to them.

Thus also in England, at the time when vital religion much prevailed in the days of King Charles I, the interregnum, and Oliver Cromwell, such things as these abounded. And so in New England in her purest days, when vital piety flourished, such kind of things as these broke out. Therefore the devil’s sowing such tares is no proof that a true work of the Spirit of God is not gloriously carried on.