CHAP. XIV.
Peace. Now, in the second place, what is this self-condemnation?
Truth. The apostle seemeth to make this a ground of the rejecting of such a person—because he is subverted and sinneth, being condemned of himself. It will appear upon due search, that this self-condemning is not here intended to be in heretics (as men say) in fundamentals only; but, as it is meant here, in men obstinate in the lesser questions, &c.
First, he is subverted, or turned crooked, ἐξέστραπται, a word opposite to straightness, or rightness. So that the scope is, as I conceive—upon true and faithful admonition once or twice, the pride of heart, or heat of wrath, draws a veil over the eyes and heart, so that the soul is turned off or loosed from the checks of truth.
Secondly, he sinneth, ἁμαρτάνει; that is, being subverted, or turned aside, he sinneth, or wanders from the path of truth, and is condemned by himself, αὐτοκάτακριτος; that is, by the secret checks and whisperings of his own conscience, which will take God’s part against a man’s self, in smiting, accusing, &c.
Which checks of conscience we find even in God’s own dear people, as is most admirably opened in the fifth of Canticles, in those sad, drowsy, and unkind passages of the spouse, in her answer to the knocks and calls of the Lord Jesus; which God’s people, in all their awakenings, acknowledge how slightly they have listened to the checks of their own consciences. This the answerer pleaseth to call sinning against his conscience, for which he may lawfully be persecuted: to wit, for sinning against his conscience.
Which conclusion—though painted over with the vermilion of mistaken scripture, and that old dream of Jew and Gentile that the crown of Jesus will consist of outward material gold, and his sword be made of iron or steel, executing judgment in his church and kingdom by corporal punishment—I hope, by the assistance of the Lord Jesus, to manifest it to be the overturning and rooting up the very foundations and roots of all true Christianity, and absolutely denying the Lord Jesus, the great anointed, to be yet come in the flesh.