A Blow at the Root: OR, THE CAUSES and CURES OF Mental Errors.
The INTRODUCTION.
FINDING by sad Experience what I before justly feared, that Errors would be apt to spring up with Liberty (though the restraint of just Liberty, being a practical Error in Rulers, can never be the cure of Mental Errors in the Subjects;) I judged it necessary at this Season to give a Succinct account of the Rise, Causes, and Remedies of several [Page 2] Mistakes and Errors, under which even the Reformed Churches among us, as well as others, do groan at this Day.
I will not stay my Reader long upon the Etymology and Derivations of the Word. We all know that Etymologies are no Definitions▪ Yet because they cast some light upon the Nature of the thing we enquire after, it will not be lost labour to observe that this word ERROR derives it self from three Roots in the Hebrew Language.
(1.) The Frst word Primitively signifies to deviate or decline from the true Scope or path, [...] Chatta, a Scopo aberravit. as Unskilful Marks-men, or Ignorant and Inadvertent Travellers use to do. The least variation or turning aside from the true Rule and Line, tho it be but an hairs breadth, presently becomes an Error. We read, Iudg. 20. 16. of 700. Benjamites, who could every one sling stones at an hairs breadth, and not miss, [...] Heb. and not err. This by a Metaphor is applied to the Mind or Judgment of man; and denotes the warpings thereof from the Straight, Perfect, Divine Law or Rule, and is usually Translated by the word Sin.
(2.) It is derived from another word also, which signifies to wander in variable [Page 3] and uncertain motions: You find it in the Title of the 7th. Psalm, Shiggaion of David, a wandring Song, [...] Shaga. or a Song of variable Notes and Tunes, higher and lower, sharper and flatter. In both the former Derivations it seems to note simple Error through meer Weakness and Ignorance. But then
(3.) In its Derivation from a third Root, it signifies not only to Err, but to cause others to Err also; and so signifies a Seducer, or one that is active in leading others into a wrong way; and is applied in that sense to the Prophets in Israel, [...] Tagna. in Hiph. who seduced the People, Ezek. 13. 10. The Greek Verb [...] takes in both these senses, both to go astray, and when put Transitively, to lead or cause others to go astray with us. Hence is the word [...], Planets or wandring Stars; the title given by the Apostle Iude ver. 13. to the false Teachers and Seducers of his time.
An Error then is any departure or deviation in our Opinions or Judgments from the perfect Rule of the Divine Law: And to this all men by nature are not only liable, but inclinable. Indeed man by Nature can do nothing else but Err, Psal. 58. 3. he goeth astray as soon as [Page 4] born; makes not one true step till renewed by Grace, and many false ones after his Renovation. The Life of the Holiest man is a Book with many Errata's; but the whole Edition of a wicked man's Life is but one continued Error; he that thinks he cannot Err, manifestly Errs in so thinking. The Pope's supposed and pretended Infallibility hath made him the great deceiver of the World. A good man may Err, but is willing to know his Error, and will not obstinately maintain it, when he once plainly discerns it.
Error and Heresy among other things differ in this; Heresie is accompanied with pertinacy; and therefore the Heretick is [...], sels-condemned; his own Conscience condemns him, whilst men labour in vain to convince him. He doth not formally and in terms Condemn himself, but he doth so equivalently, whilst he continues to own and maintain Doctrines and Opinions which he finds himself unable to defend against the evidence of Truth. Humane frailty may lead a man into the first, but Devilish Pride fixes him in the last.
The word of God which is our rule, must therefore be the only Test and Touchstone to try and discover Errors; [Page 5] for Regula est index sui & obliqui. 'Tis not enough to convince a man of Error, that his Judgment differs from other mens; you must bring it to the Word, and try how it agrees or disagrees therewith; else he that charges another with Error, may be found in as great or greater an Error himself. None are more disposed easily to receive and tenaciously to defend Errors, than those who are the Antesignani, Heads or Leaders of Erroneous Sects, especially after they have fought in defence of bad Causes, and deeply engaged their Reputation.
The following Discourse justly entitles it self, A BLOW AT THE ROOT: And though you will here find the Roots of many Errors laid bare and open; which comparatively are of far different degrees of Danger and Malignity; which I here mention together, many of them springing from the same Root: Yet I am far from censuring them alike; nor would I have any that are concerned in lesser Errors be exasperated, because their lesser Mistakes are mentioned with greater and more pernicious ones; this Candor I not only intreat, but justly challenge from my Reader.
And because there are many general [Page 6] and very useful Observations about Errors, which will not so conveniently come under the Laws of that Method which governs the main part of this Discourse, viz. the CAVSES and CVRES of Error: I have therefore sorted them by themselves, and premised them to the following Part in Twenty Observations next ensuing.
Twenty general Observations, about the rise and increase of the Errors of the times.
First Observation.
TRuth is the proper Object, the natural and pleasant food of the Understanding, Iob 12. 11. Doth not the ear (that is, the understanding by the ear) try words, as the mouth tasteth meat? Knowledg is the assimilation of the Understanding to the truths received by it. Nothing is more natural to man, than a desire to know: Knowledg never cloys the Mind, as food doth the natural Appetite; but as the one increaseth, the other is proportionably sharpened and provoked. The Minds of all (that are not wholly immers'd in Sensuality) spend their Strength in the laborious search and pursuit of Truth. Sometimes climbing up from the Effects to the Causes, and then descending again from the Causes to the Effects; and all to discover Truth. Fervent Prayer, sedulous Study, fixed Meditations, are the labours of inquisitive Souls after Truth. All the Objections [Page 8] and Counter-arguments the mind meets in its way, are but the pauses and hesitations of a bivious Soul, not able to determine whether Truth lies upon this side, or upon that.
Answerable to the sharpness of the Minds appetite, is the fine edg of Pleasure and Delight it feels in the discovery and acquisition of Truth. When it hath Rack'd and Tortured it self upon knotty Problems, and at last discovered the Truth it sought for; with what joy doth the Soul dilate it self, and run (as it were with open arms) to clasp and welcome it?
The Understanding of man at first was perspicacious and clear, all Truths lay obvious in their comely order and ravishing beauty before it: God made man upright, Eccl. 7. 29. this rectitude of his mind consisted in Light and Knowledg, as appears by the prescribed method of his Recovery, Col. 3. 10. Renewed in knowledg, after the Image of him that created him. Truth in the Mind, or the Minds union with Truth, being part of the Divine Image in man, discovers to us the Sin and Mischief of Error, which is a defacing (so far as it prevails) of the Image of God.
[Page 9] No sooner was man created, but by the exercise of knowledg he soon discovered God's Image in him; a [...]d by his Ambition after more, lost what he had. So that now there is an haziness or cloud spread over Truth by Ignorance and Error, the sad effects of the Fall.
Second Observation.
Of Knowledg there are divers sorts and kinds; some is Humane, and some Divine; some Speculative, and some Practical; some Ingrafted, as the Notions of Morality, and some Acquired by painful search and Study: But of all knowledg none like that Divine and Supernatural knowledg of saving truths revealed by Christ in the Scriptures; from whence ariseth the different degrees both of the Sinfulness and danger of Errors; those Errors being always the worst, which are committed against the most important Truths revealed in the Gospel.
These Truths lye infolded either in the plain words, or evident and necessary consequences from the words of the Holy Scriptures; Scripture-Consequences are of great use for the refutation of Errors; [Page 10] it was by a Scripture-consequence, that Christ successfully proved the Resurrection against the Sadduces, Matth. 22. The Arrians and other Hereticks rejected consequential proofs, and required the express words of Scripture only, hoping that way to defend and secure their Errors, against the arguments and assaults of the Orthodox.
Some think that reason and natural light is abundantly sufficient for the direction of life; but certainly nothing is more necessary to us for that end, than the written Word; for though the remains of natural light have their place and use, in directing us about natural and earthly things; yet they are utterly insufficient to guide us in spiritual and heavenly things, 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of God, &c. Eph. 5. 8. Once were ye darkness, [...], now are ye light in the Lord, i. e. by a beam of heavenly light shining from the Spirit of Christ, through the written Word, into you minds or understandings.
'Tis the written Word which shines upon the path of our Duty, Psal. 119. 105. the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament do jointly make the Solid Foundation of a Christian's Faith. Hence [Page 11] Eph. 2. 20. we are said to be built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets. We are bound therefore to honour Old Testament Scriptures as well as New, they being part of the Divine Canon; and must not scruple to admit them as sufficient and authentick proofs, for the confirmation of Truths, and refutation of Errors. Christ referr'd the people to them, Ioh. 5. 39. and Paul Preached and Disputed from them, Acts 26. 22.
Third Observation.
Vnto the Attainment of Divine Knowledg out of the Scriptures, some things are naturally, yet less principally requisite in the Subject; and something absolutely and principally necessary.
The natural qualifications desirable in the Subject, are clearness of Apprehension, solidity of Judgment, and fidelity of Retention. These are desirable requisites to make the Understanding susceptible of knowledg; but the irradiation of the mind by the Spirit of God, is principally necessary, Joh. 16. 13. He shall guide you into all truth: The clearest and most comfortable light he giveth to men, is in the way of Sanctification, called the teachings of the Anointing, 1 Iohn 2. 27.
[Page 12] When this spiritual sanctifying light shines upon a mind, naturally enriched and qualified with the three forementioned requisites, that Mind excels others in the riches of knowledg. And yet the teachings of the Spirit in the way of Sanctification, do very much supply and recompence the defects and weaknesses of the forementioned qualifications. Whence two things are highly remarkable:
1. That men of great abilities of natute, clear apprehensions in natural things, strong Judgments, and tenacious memories, do not only frequently fall into gross Errors and damnable Heresies themselves; but become Heresiarchs, or Heads of erroneous Factions, drawing multitudes into the same sin and misery with themselves; as Arrius, Socinus, Pelagius, Bellarmin, and multitudes of others have done.
And secondly, It is no less remarkable, that men of weaker parts, but Babes in comparison, through the Sanctification and direction of the Spirit, for which they have humbly waited at his feet in Prayer, have not only been directed and guided by him into the Truth, but so confirm'd and fixed therein, that they have been kept sound in their Judgments in [Page 13] times of abounding Errors, and firm in their adherence to it in days of fiercest Persecution. How men of excellent natural parts have been blinded, and men of weak natural parts illuminated; see 1 Cor. 1. 26, 27. Matth. 11. 25.
Fourth Observation.
Among the manifold impediments to the obtaining of true Knowledg, and setling the mind in the truth and faith of the Gospel, these Three are of special remark and consideration,viz.Ignorance, Curiosity, and Error.
Ignorance slights it, or despairs of attaining it. Truth falls into contempt among the ignorant, from sluggishness and apprehension of the difficulties that lye in the way to it, Prov. 24. 7. Wisdom is too high for a fool. Curiosity runs beside or beyond it. This Pride and Wantonness of the mind puffs it up with a vain conceit, that it is not only able to penetrate the deepest Mysteries revealed in the Scripture, but even unrevealed secrets also, Col. 2. 18. intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. But Error militates directly against it, contradicts and opposeth Truth, [Page 14] especially when an Error is maintained by pride against inward convictions, or means of better information. 'Tis bad to maintain an Error for want of light; but abundantly worse to maintain it against light. This is such an affront to the Spirit of God, as he usually punishes with Penal Ignorance, and gives them up to a spirit of Error.
Fifth Observation.
Error is binding upon the Conscience, as well as Truth; and altogether as much and sometimes more influential upon the Affections and Passions, as Truth is.
For it presents not it self to the Soul in its own name and nature, as Error; but in the name and dress of Truth; and under that notion binds the Conscience, and vigorously influences the passions and affections; and then being more indulgent to lust than Truth is, it is for that so much the more embraced and hugg'd by the deceived soul, Acts 22. 4, 5. The heat that Error puts the soul into, differs from Religious Zeal, as a Feverish doth from a Natural heat, which is not indeed so benign and agreeable, but much more fervent and scorching. A mind under the [Page 15] power of Error, is restless and impatient to propagate its Errors to others, and these heats prey upon, and eat up the vital Spirits and Powers of Religion.
Sixth Observation.
'Tis exceeding difficult to get out Error, when once it is imbib'd, and hath rooted it self by an open profession.
Errors, like some sorts of Weeds, having once seeded in a Field or Garden, 'tis scarce possible to subdue and destroy them, especially if they be hereditary Errors, or have grown up with us from our youth; à teneris assuescere multum est, faith Seneca; 'tis a great advantage to Truth or Error, to have an early and long possession of the mind. The Pharisees held many erroneous opinions about the Law, as appears by their corruptive Commentaries upon it, refuted by Christ, Matth. 5. but did he root them out of their heads and hearts thereby? No, no; they sooner rid him out of the world. The Sadduces held a most dangerous Error about the Resurrection; Christ disputed with them to the admiration of others; and proved it clearly against them; and yet we find the Error remaining [Page 16] long after Christ's Death, 2 Tim. 2. 18. The Apostles themselves had their minds tinctured with this Error, That Christ should be outwardly great and magnificent in the world, and raise his Followers to great Honours and Preferments amongst men: Christ plainly told them it was their Mistake and Error; for the Son of man came not to be ministred unto, but to minister; yet this did not rid their minds of the Error; it stuck fast in them, even till his Ascension to Heaven. Oh how hard is it to clear the heart of a good man once leaven'd with Error! and much more hard to separate it from a wicked manI am persuaded (saith Mr. Gurnal) some men take more pains to furnish themselves with Arguments to defend some Error they have taken up, than they do for the most saving Truths in the Bible. Austin said, when he was a Manichean, Non Tu eras, sed Error meus erat Deus meus; Thou O Lord, wert not, but my Error was my God. Gurnal's Christian Armour, part 2. page 36.
Some have chose rather to die, than to part with their darling Errors, and Souldamning Heresies. I have read (saith Mr. Bridges) of a great Atheist, that was burnt at Paris for blaspheming Christ, held fast his Atheistical Opinions till he came to the very stake; boasted to the Priests and Fryars that followed him, [Page 17] how much more confidently he went to sacrifice his life in the strength of reason, under which he suffered, than Christ himself did; but when he began to feel Torments indeed, then he roared and raged to the purpose. Vidi ego hominem. saith the Author; in hs Life, he was Loose; in his Imprisonments, Sullen; and at his Death, Mad with the Horrors of Conscience.
Some inded have recovered the soundness of their Judgments, after deep corruptions by dangerous Errors. Austin was a Manichee, and fully recovered from it. So have many more; and yet multitudes hold them fast even to death, and nothing but the Fire can reveal their work, and discover what is Gold, and what is Straw and Stubble.
Seventh Observation.
It deserves a Remark,That men are not so circumspect and jealous of the corruption of their minds by Errors, as they are of their bodies in times of Contagion; or of their lives with respect to gross immoralities.
Spiritual dangers affect us less than corporeal; and intellectual evils less than moral. Whether this be the effect of Hypocrisie, [Page 18] the Errors of the mind being more secret and invisible than those of the Conversation, God only knows, man cannot positively determine.
Or whether it be the effect of Ignorance, that men think there is less sin and danger in the one than in the other; not considering that an Apoplexy seizing the Head, is every way as mortal, as a Sword piercing the Body: And that a Vertigo will as much unfit a man for service, as an Ague or Feaver: The Apostle in 2 Pet. 2. 1. calls them [...], damnable Heresies, or Heresies of Destruction. An Error in the mind may be as damning and destructive to the Soul, as an Error of Immorality or Profaneness in the Life.
Or whether it may come to pass from some remains of fear and tenderness in the Conscience, which forbids men to reduce their erroneous Principles into Practice; the relying under many confident Errors in the mind▪ a [...] secret Jealousie, which we call formido oppositi, which will not suffer them to act to the full height of their professed opinions. Austin gives this Character even of Pelagius himself, Retract. lib. 2. cap. 33. Nomen Pelagii non sine laude aliqua posui, quia vita ejus a [Page 19] multis praedicabatur: I have not mentioned (saith he) the name of that man, without some praise, because his life was famed by many. And of Swinkfeldius it is said, Caput regulatum illi defuit, corbonum non defuit: His Heart was much more regular than his Head. Yet this falls out but rarely in the world; for loose Principles naturally run into loose Practises; and the Errors of the Head into the Immoralities of Life.
Eighth Observation.
It is a great Iudgment of God, to be given over to an erroneous mind.
For the Understanding being the leading Faculty, as that guides, the other Powers and Affections of the Soul follow, as Horses in a Teem follow the Fore-horse. Now how sad and dangerous a thing is this, for Satan to ride the Fore-horse, and guide that, that is to guide the life of man? That's a dreadful, spiritual, judicial stroke of God, which we read of Rom. 1. 26. [...]; God by a penal Tradition suffered them to run into the dregs of Immorality, and Pollutions of life; and that because they abused their light, and became [Page 20] came vain in their imaginations, ver. 21.
Wild whimsies and fancies in the head, usually mislead men into the puddle and mire of Prophaneness, and then 'tis commonly observed God sets some visible mark of his Displeasure upon them; especially the Heresiarchs, or Ring-leaders in Error. Nestorius his Tongue was consumed by Worms. Cerinthus his Brains Knock'd out by the Fall of an House. Montanus hang [...]d himself: It were easie to instance in multitudes of others, whom the visible Hand of God hath marked for a warning to others; but usually the spiritual Errors of the Mind are followed with a Consumption and Decay of Religion in the Soul. If Grace be in the Heart, where Error sways its Scepter in the Head, yet usually there it languishes and withers. They may mistake their Dropsie, for growth and flourishing, and think themselves to be more spiritual, because more airy and notional; but if men would judg themselves impartially, they will certainly find that the Seeds of Grace thrive not in the Heart, when shaded and over-dropt by an erroneous Head.
Ninth Observation.
'Tis a pernicious Evil, to advance a meer Opinion into the place and seat of an Article of Faith; and to lay as great a stress upon it, as they ought to do upon the most clear and fundamental Point. To be as much concerned for a Tile upon the Roof, as for the Corner-stone, which unites the Walls, and sustains the Building.
Opinion (as one truly saith) is but Reason's Projector, and the Spy of Truth: It makes in its fullest discovery no more than the dawning and twilight of Knowledg; and yet I know not how it comes to pass, but so it is, that this Idol of the Mind holds such a sway and Empire over all we hold, as if it were all the Day we had. Matters of mere opinion, are every where cried up by some Errorists, for Mathematical Demonstration, and Articles of Faith, written with a Sun-beam; worshipping the Fancies and Creatures of their own minds, more than God; and putting more trust in their ill-founded Opinions, than in the surer word of Prophecy. Much like that Humorist that would not [Page 22] trust day-light, but kept his Candle still burning by him; because (said he) this is not as subject to Eclipses, as the Sun is.
And what more frequent, when Controversies grow fervent, than for those that maintain the Error, to boast every silly Argument to be a Demonstration; to upbraid and pity the blindness and dulness of their Opposers, as men that shut their eyes against Sun-beams; yea, sometimes to draw their presumptuous Censures through the very hearts of their Opposers, and to insinuate that they must needs hold the Truths of God in unrighteousness, sin against their knowledg, and that nothing keeps them from coming over to them, but Pride, Shame, or some Worldly Interest? What a complicated evil is here! Here's a proud exalting of our own opinions, and an immodest imposing on the minds of others more clear and sound than our own, and a dangerous Usurpation of God's Prerogative in judging the hearts and ends of our Brethren.
Tenth Observation.
Error being conscious to it self of its own weakness, and the strong assaults that will [Page 23] be made upon it, evermore labours to defend and seeure it self under the wings of Antiquity, Reason, Scripture, and high pretensions to Reformation and Piety.
Antiquity is a venerable word, but ill used, when made a cloak for Error. Truth must needs be elder than Error, as the Rule must necessarily be, before the ab [...]rration from it. The gray hairs of Opinions are then only Beauty, and a Crown, when found in the way of Righteousness. Copper (saith Learned Dumoulin) will never become Gold by Age. A Lye will be a Lye, let it be never so ancient. We dispute not by Years, but by Reasons drawn from Scripture. That which is now call'd an Ancient Opinion, if it be not a true Opinion, was once but a new Error. When you can tell us how many years are required to turn an Error into Truth, then we will give more heed to Antiquity, when press'd in the service of Error, than we now think due to it.
If Antiquity will not do, Reason shall be press'd to serve Error's turn at a dead lift; and indeed the Pencil of Reason can lay curions Colours upon rotten Timber, [Page 24] and varnish over erroneous Principles with fair and plausible pretences. What expert Artists have the Socinians proved themselves in this matter? But because men are bound to submit human Authority and Reason to Divine Revelation, both must give way and strike sail to the Written Word.
Hence it comes to pass, that the great Patrons and Factors for Error, do above all things labour to gain countenance to their Errors from the Written Word; and to this end they manifestly wrest and rack the Scriptures to make them subservient to their Opinions; not impartially studying the Scriptures first, and forming their notions and opinions according to them; but they bring their Erroneous Opinions to the Scriptures, and then with all imaginable art and sophistry wiredraw and force the Scriptures to countenance and legitimate their OpinionsCum unaquaeque Haeresis sui commenti parentem habeat Diabolum, ac pudore tàm exosi nominis teneatur; pulcherrimum, & quod super omnia est, nomen Salvatoris profitetur, Scripturarumque dictionibus amicitur, Athanas. contra Arian
But because pretences of Piety andTake heed (saith one) that when Zeal for Reformation knocks at the door, some new Errors step nor in with it, which will as much need an after Reformation. Reformation [Page 25] are the strokes that give life to the face of this Idol, and give it the nearest resemblance unto Truth, these therefore never fail to be made use of, and zealously professed in the favour of Error, though there be little of either many times to be found in their Persons, and nothing at all in the Doctrines that lay claim to it.
Eleventh Observation.
God in all ages in his tender care for his Churches and Truths, hath still qualified and excited his Servants for the defence of his precious Truths, against the Errors and Heresies that have successively assaulted them.
As Providence is observed in every Climate and Island of the World to have provided Antidotes against the poisonous Plants and Animals of the Countrey; and the one is never far from the other: So is the care of his Providence much more conspicuous in the case now before us. When, or wheresoever venomous Errors and deadly Heresies do arise, he hath his servants at hand with Antidotes against them.
[Page 26] When Arrius, that cunning and deadly Enemy to the Deity of Christ, struck at the very heart of our Religion, Faith and Comfort; a man of subtil Parts, and Blameless Life, which made his Heresie much the more spreading and taking; the Lord had his well-furnished Athanasius in a readiness to resist and confound him. And as he had his Athanasius to defend the Deity of Christ; so he wanted not his Basil to defend the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit against Macedonius.
so when Pelagius was busily advancing Free-will into the Throne of Free-grace, Providence wanted not its Mallet in Learned and Ingenious Augustin, to break him and his Idol to pieces: And it is highly remarkable (as the Learned Dr. Hill observes) that Augustin was born in Africa the same day that Pelagius was born in Brittain.
When Gotteschalcus published his dangerous Doctrine about Predestination, the Lord drew forth Hincmarus to detect and confute that Error, by evincing clearly, that God's Predestination forces no man to Sin.
So from the beginning and first rise of Popery, that centre and sink of Errors, [Page 27] we have a large Catalogue of the Learned and Famous Witnesses, which in all Ages have faithfully resisted and opposed it; and when notwithstanding all, it had even over-run Europe like a rapid Torrent, or rather Inundation of the Ocean: And Germany was brought to that pass, that if the Pope had but Commanded it, they would have eaten Grass or Hay more pecudum. Then did the Lord bring forth Invincible Luther, and with him a troop of Learned Champions, into the field against him; since which time the Cause of Popery is become desperate.
Thus the care of Providence in all ages hath been as much displayed in protecting the Church against the dangers that arose from false Brethren within it, as from avowed persecuting Enemies without it; and had it not been so, the rank Weeds of Heresies and Errors had long since overtopt and choaked the Corn, and made the Church a barren [...]Field.
Twelfth Observation.
The want of a modest Suspition, and just reflection, gives both confidence and growth to Erroneous Opinions.
[Page 28] If matters of meer Opinion were kept in their proper place, under the careful guard of Suspition; they would not make that bustle and confusion in the Churches, they have done, and do at this day.
'Tis confessed, that all Truths are not matters of meer Opinion; neither are all Opinions of equal weight and value; and therefore not to be left hanging in an equipendious Scepticisme: And yet it is as true, that matrers of Opinion o [...]ght carefully to be sorted from matters of Faith, and to be kept in their own rank and class, as things doubtful, quibus potest subesse falsum; whilst matters of Faith clearly revealed, are to stand upon their own sure and firm Basis. The former, viz. matters of meer Opinion, we are so to hold, as upon clearer light to be ready to part with them, and give them up into the hands of Truth. The other, viz. matters of Faith, we are to hold with resolutions to Live and Dye by them.
What is Opinion, but the wavering of the understanding betwixt probable Arguments, for and against a point of Doctrine? So that it's rather an inclination, than an assertion, as being accompanied [Page 29] with Fear, Floating. and Inconstancy. In such cases there should be a due concession and allowance of other mens Opinions to them, and why not, whilst they offer as fair for the Truth as we? And haply their Parts, Helps, and Industries, arenot inferior to ours, it may be beyond them, and we may discern in them as much tenderness of Conscience, and fear of Sin as in our selves. In this case a little more modest Suspicion in our Opinions, would do the Church a great deal of right; and that which should prevail with all modest persons to exercise it, is the just reflection they may make upon their own former confident mistakes.
Thirteenth Observation.
There is a remarkable involution or concatenation of Errors, one linking in, and drawing another after it.
Amongst all Erroneous Sects, there is still some [...], some Helena, for whose sake the war against Truth is commenced; and the other lesser Errors are press'd for the sake and service of this leading darling Error. As we see [Page 30] the whole [...] R. Ecclesiae subjicienda esse omnia summo judicio & tribunali Ecclesiae, cui praeest Papa, &c. indè conficitur immotas habendas esse traditiones omnes R. Ecclesiae, dogmata omnia, decreta seu Pontificum seu Conciliorum. Fred. Spanhem. Elench. Controv. p. 51. Troop of Indulgences, Bulls, Masses, Pilgrimages, Purgatory, with multitudes more, flow from, and are press'd into the Service of the Pope's Supremacy and Infallibility. So in other Sects, men are forc [...]d to entertain many other Errors, which in themselves considered, they have no great kindness for; but they are necessitated to entertain them in defence of that great, leading darling Opinion they first espoused.
Those that cry up and trumpet abroad the Soveraign power of Free-will, even without the preventing Grace of God, enabling men to supernatural works, as if the Will alone had escaped all damage by the Fall, and Adam had not sinned in that noble Virgin-faculty. To defend this Idol, which is the [...], they are forced to oppugn and deny several other great and weighty Truths, as particular eternal Election, the certainty of the Saints Perseverance, the necessity of preventing Grace in Conversion; which Errors are but the outworks raised in defence of that Idol.
[Page 31] So in the Baptismal Controversie, men would never have adventured to deny God's Covenant with Abraham, to be a Covenant of Grace; or to assert the Ceremonial Law, so full of Christ, to be an Adam's Covenant of works; and Circumcision, expresly called the seal of the Righteousness of Faith, to be the condition of Adam's Covenant. Much less would they place all the elect of God in Israel, at one and the same time, under the severest Curse and Rigor of the Law, and under the pure Convenant of Grace, were they not forced into these Errors and Absurdities by dint of Argument, in defence of their darling Opinion.
Fourteenth Observation.
Errors abound most, and spring fastest in the times of the Churches Peace, Liberty, and outward Prosperity under Indulgent Rulers. Arrius Alexandrinus Haeresin insanam incipit Alexandriae sub annum Domini 324, ut Eusebius Anno Imperii Constantini 15. Arrianism sprang up underConstantine's mild Government.
Christian benevolent Rulers are choice Mercies and Blessings to the Church. Such as rule over men in the fear of God, are to the Church, as well as Civil State, [Page 32] like the light of the morning, when the Sun ariseth, even a morning without Clouds, as the tender Grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain, 2 Sam. 23. 4.
But this as well as other mercies, is liable to abuse; and under the influences of indulgent Governours, Error as well as Truth, springs up, flowers, and seeds. Persecution gives check to the wantonness of mens Opinions, and finds them other and better work to do. Caterpillars and Locusts are swept away by the bitter East-winds, but swarm in Halcyon days, and fall upon every green thing. So that the Church rides in this respect more safely in the stormy Sea, than in the calm Harbour. Peace and Prosperity is apt to cast its Watchmen into a sleep, and whilst they sleep, the envious one soweth Tares, Matth. 13. 25.
'Twas under Constantine's benign Government that Poison was poured out into the Churches. The abuse of such an excellent mercy provokes the Lord to cut it short, and cause the Clouds to gather again after the Rain. We have found it so once and again (alas! that I must say again), in this wanton and foolish Nation. Professors could live quietly together, Converse, Fast, and [Page 33] pray in a Christian manner together under common Calamities and Dangers; differences in Opinion were suspended by consent. But no sooner do we feel a warm Sun-blast of Liberty and Peace, but it revives and heats our dividing Lusts and Corruptions, instead of our Graces. The Sheep of Christ fight with each other, though their furious pushing one at another is known to presage a change of Weather.
Fifteenth Observation.
Errors in the tender bud and first spring of them, are comparatively shy and modest, to what they prove afterwards, when they have spread and rooted themselves into the minds of multitudes, and think it time to set up and justle for themselves in the World Eunomius haeresin suam (communicato Consilio cum Eudoxio) aliquamdiù occultè & intricatè ac perplexè sparsit; tandem animo sumpto, quae haereticè sentiret, in coetibus publicis palam ostendit. Theodoret. lib. 2. cap. 29.
They usually begin in modest Scruples, conscientious Doubts and Queries. But having once gotten many Abetters, and amongst them some that have subtilty and ability to plead and dispute their [Page 34] Cause, they ruffle it out at another rate; glory in their numbers, piety and ability of their Party; boast and glory in the conceited Victories they have atchieved over their Opposers. The Masque drops off its face, and it appears with a brow of Brass, becomes insolent and turbulent both in Church and State. Of which it is easie to give many pregnant instances, in the Arians of old, and more recent Errors, which I shall not at present be concerned with, lest I exasperate, whilst I seek to heal the Wound.
The Donatists in Augustin's time madestly moved, that men might [...]ot be compel [...]'d to live holy. Coacta & in vita pietas, they mention'd it with deslike; but when grown in power, facti insolentes vim Orthodoxis inferebant, insomuch that Dulcitius the Tribune was feign to defend the orthodox against them with an Army. Should a man hear the Sermons, or private Discourses of Errorists, whilst the Design is but forming and projecting, he should meet with little to raise his jealousie. They speak in Generals, and guard their Discourses with politick Reserves. You shall not see, tho you see to see, the tendency of their Discourses. Hence the Apostle saith, 2 per. 2. 1. [...], They shall privily (or covertly) bring in damnable Heresies: As the Boy in Plutarch, being asked by a Stranger, what is that you carry so closely under [Page 35] your Cloak? wittily answered, You may well know that I intend you shall not know it, by my so carrying it.
Sixteenth Observation.
Nothing gives more countenance and increase to Error, than a weak and feeble defence of the Truth against it. Quidam verò non satìs coelestibus literis eruditi, cùm veritatis accusatoribus respondere non possent, objicientibus, vel impossibile, vel incongruens esse, ut Deus in uterum se mulieris includeret, &c. quae omnia cùm neque ingenio, neque doctrinâ defendere ac refutare possent (nec enim vim rationèmque penitùs pervidebant) depravati sunt ab itinere recto, & coelestes literas corrupêrunt, ut novam sibi doctrinam sine ullâ radice ac stabilitate componerent. Lactan. lib. 4. cap. 30. De Haeresibus.
The strength of Error lieth much in the weakness of the Advocates and Defendants of Truth. Every Friend of Truth is not fit to make a Champion for it. Many love it, and pray for it, that cannot defend and dispute for it. I can dye for the Truth (said the Martyr) but I cannot dispute for it. Zuinglius blamed Carolostadius for undertaking the Controversie of that Age, because (said he) non habuit satìs humerorum, his shoulders were too weak for the burthen.
It can be said of few, as Cicero speaks of one, Nullam unquàm in disputationibus rem defendit, quam non probârit; nullum [Page 36] oppugnavit, quem non everterit; He undertook no Cause in disputation, which he could not defend; he opposed no Adversary, but could overthrow him. He is a rare and happy Disputant, who can clear and carry every point of Truth, of which he undertakes the defence. 'Twere happy for the Church, if the abilities and prudence of all her Friends were commensurate and equal to their love and Zeal. Every little foyl, every weak or impertinent Answer of a Friend to Truth, is quickly turned into a weapon to wound in the deeper.
Seventeenth Observation.
Errors of Iudgment are not cured by compulsion and external force, but by rational conviction, and proper spiritual Remedies.
Bodily sufferings rather spread than cure intellectual Errors. I deny not but fundamental Heresies breaking forth into open Blasphemies against God, and Seditions in the Civil State, ought to be restrained. 'Tis no way fit men should be permitted to go up and down the World with Plague-sores running upon them. Nor do I understand why men [Page 37] should be more cautious to preserve their Bodies than their Souls. But I speak here of such Errors as may consist with the foundations of the Christian Faith, and are not destructive to Civil Government. They take the ready way to spread and perpetuate them, that think to root them out of the World by such improper and unwarrantable means as external force and violence. The Wind never causes and Earth-quake, till it be pent in, and restrained from motion.
We neither find, nor can imagine, That those Church or State Exorcists should ever be able to effect their end, who think to confine all the Spirits of Error within the Circle of a severe Uniformity. Fires, Prisons, Pillories, Stigmatizings, &c. are the Popish Topicks to confute Errors. 'Tis highly remarkable, that the World long ago consented for the avoiding of dissenting judgment, to enslave themselves and their Posterity to the most fatal and destructive Heresie that ever it groaned under.
'Tis a rational and proper Observation long since made by Lactantius, Quis mihi imponat necessitatem credendi, quod nolim, vel non credendi, quod velim? Who can [Page 38] force me to believe what I will not, or not to believe what I will? The rational and gentle Spirit of the Gospel is the only proper and effectual method to cure the Diseases of the Mind.
Eighteenth Observation.
Erroneous Doctrines producing Divisions and fierce Contentions amongst Christians, prove a fatal Stumbling-block to the World; fix their Prejudices, and obstruct their conversion to Christ. Many Enemies to Christianity flockt to the Nicene Synod, odio Christianorum, propter abolitam Gentilium superstitionem, ut haberent in quos illuderent. Say the Centurists.
They dissolve the lovely union of the Saints, and thereby scare off the World from coming into the Church. This is evidently implied in that Prayer of Christ, Iohn 17. That all his People might be one, that the World might believe the Father had sent him. There is indeed no just cause for any to take offence at the Christian Reformed Religion, because so many Errors and Heresies spring up among the Professors of it, and divide them into so many Sects and Parties: for in all this we find no more than what was [Page 39] predicted from the beginning, 1 Cor. 11. 18, 19. I hear there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it: for there must be also Heresies among you, &c. And again, Acts 20. 30. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them. Ante omnia, scire nos convenit, & ipsum, & legatos ejus praedixisse, quòd plurimae Sectae, & Haereses deberent existere, quae concordiam sancti corporis rumperent: ac mo [...]isse, ut summâ prudentiâ caveremus, ne quando in laqueos & fraudes illius adversarii nostri cum quo nos Deus Iuctari voluit, incideremus. Lactan. lib. 4. cap. 30.
The very same things strongly confirm the Christian Religion, which wicked men improve to the reproach and prejudice of it. When Celsus objected to the Christians the variety and contrariety of their Opinions; saying, Were we willing to turn Christians, we know not of what Party to be, seeing you all pretend to Christ, and yet differ so much from one another. Tertullian, the Christian Apologist, made him this wise and pertinent Reply, Haereses non dolemus venisse, quia novimus esse praedictas. We are not troubled that Heresies are come, seeing it was predicted that they must come. These things destroy not the credibility of the Christian Religion, but increase and confirm it, [Page 40] by evidencing to the World the truth and certainty of Christ's Predictions (which were quite beyond all human foresight) that as soon as his Doctrine should be propagated, and a Church raised by it, Errors and Heresies should spring up among them for the tryal of their Faith and Constancy.
Nevertheless, this no way excuses the sinfulness of Errors and Divisions in the Church. Christ's Prediction neither infuses, nor excuses the Evil predicted by him: for what he elsewhere speaks of Scandals, is as true in this case of Errors. These things must come to pass, but wo be to that man by whom they come.
Ninteenth Observation.
How specious and taking soever the pretences of Error be, and how long soever they maintain themselves in esteem among men, they are sure to end in the loss and shame of their Authors and Abetters at last. Post foedum Arii obirum, quamplurimos ex iis, qui ab Ario priùs decepti fuerant, ad sanitatem rediisse, scribit Athanasius, ad Serapion [...]m▪
Truth is a Rock, the waves of Error that dash against, evermore return in [Page 41] froth and foam: yea, they foam out their own shame, saith the Apostle, Iud. 13. What Tacitus spake of crafty Counsels, I may as truly apply to crafty Errors, Consilia callida primâ specie laeta, tractatu dura, eventu tristia: They are pleasant in their beginnings, difficult in their management, and sad in their event and issue.
Suppose a man have union with Christ, yet his Errors are but so much Hay, Wood, Straw, Stubble built, or rather endeavoured to be built upon a foundation of Gold: this the fiery tryal burns up; the Author of them suffers loss; and though himself may be saved, yet so as by fire, 1 Cor. 3. 12, 13, 14, 15. the meaning is, he makes a narrow escape. As a man that leaps out of an House on fire, from a Window or Battlement, with great difficulty saves his life; just so Errorists shall be glad to quit their Erroneous Opinions, which they have taken so much pains to build, and draw others into: and then, oh what a shame must it be for a good man to think, how many days and nights have I worse than wasted, to defend and propagate an Error, which might have been employed in a closer study of Christ and mine own heart! Keckerman relates a Story of a vocal [Page 42] Statue, which was thirty years a making by a cunning Artist, [...]eck. Phys. p. 16. Albertus magnus. which by the motion of its Tongue with little Wheels, Wires, &c. could articulate the sound, and pronounce an entire Sentence. This Statue saluting Aquinas, surprized him, and at one stroke he utterly destroyed the curious Machin, which exceedingly troubled the fond Owner of it, and made him say with much concernment, Vno ict [...] opus trigint a annorum destruxisti, thou hast at one stroke destroyed the study and labour of thirty years.
Beside, What shame and trouble must it be to the zealous Promoters of Errors, not only to cast away so vainly and unprofitably their own time and strength, which is bad enough: but also to ensnare and allure the Souls of others into the same, or worse mischief? for though God may save and recover you, those that have been misled by you may perish.
Twentieth Observation.
If ever Errors be cured, and the Peace and Vnity of the Church established, men must be convinced of, and acquainted with the Occasions and Causes both within and without themselves, from whence [Page 43] their Errors do proceed; and must both know and apply the proper Rules and Remedies for the prevention or cure of them.
There is much difference betwixt an Occasion, and a proper Cause; these two are heedfully to be distinguished. Critical and exact Historians, as Polybius and Tacitus, distinguish betwixt the [...], and the [...], the beginning Occasions, and the real Causes of a War; and so we ought in this case of Errors carefully to distinguish them. The most excellent and innocent things in the World, such as the Scriptures of Truth, the Liberty of Christians, the Tranquility and Peace of the Church (as you will hear anon) may, by the Subtilty of Satan working in conjunction with the Corruptions of mens hearts, become the Occasions, but can never be the proper culpable Causes of Errors.
Accordingly having made the twenty Remarks upon the Nature and Growth of Errors (which cannot so well be brought within the following Rules of method) I shall in the next place proceed in the discovery both of the mere Occasion, as also of the proper culpable Causes of Errors, [Page 44] together with the proper Preventives and most effectual Remedies placed together in the following order.
The Occasion.
The holy God, who is a God of Truth,DIVINE PERMISSION. Deut. 32. 4. and hateth Errors, Rev. 2. 6. the God of Order, and hates Confusions and Schisms in his Church, 1 Cor. 14. 33. is yet pleased to permit Errors and Heresies to arise, without whose permission they could never spring. And this he doth for the tryal of his Peoples Faith and Constancy, and for a spiritual punishment upon some men for the abuse of his known Truths; and by the permission of these Evils he advanceth his own Glory, and the good of his Church and People. Augustine answers that Question, Why doth not God, since he hates Errors, sweep them out of the World? Because (saith he) it is an act of greater power to bring good out of evil, than not to suffer Evils to be at all.
Satan's Design in Errors is to cloud and darken God's Name and precious Truths; to destroy the Beauty, Strength, and Order of the Church. But God's ends in permitting and sending Errors, are (1.) to plague and punish men for their abuse of [Page 45] Light, 2 Thess. 2. 11. For this cause God shall send them strong Delusions, &c. (2.) To prove and try the Sincerity and Constancy of our hearts, Deut. 13. 1, 3. I Cor. 11. 19. And lastly, By these things the Saints are awakened to a more diligent search of the Scriptures, which are the more critically read and examined upon the tryal of Spirits and Doctrines by them, 1 Ioh. 4. 1. Believe not every Spirit, but try the Spirits; And Rev. 2. 2. Thou hast tried them, that say they are Apostles, &c.
The Prevention.
Though Heresies and Errors must (for the Reasons assigned) break forth into the World, and God will turn them eventually into his own glory, and the benefit of his Church: yet it is a dreadful judgment to be delivered over to a spirit Error, to eb the Authors and Abetters of them; this is a judicial stroke of God: and as ever we hope to escape, and stand clear out of the way of it, let us carefully shun these three following Causes and Provocations thereof.
(1.) Want of love to the Truth, which God hath made to shine about us in the means, or into us by actual illumination under the means of knowledge. [Page 46] 2 Thess. 2. 10, 11. Because they received not the love of Truth, God gave them up to strong Delusions. They are justly plagued with Error that slight Truth. False Doctrines are fit Plagues for false Hearts.
(2.) Beware of Pride and Wantonness of Mind. 'Tis not so much the Weakness as the Wantonness of the Mind, which provokes God to inflict this Judgment. None likelier to make Seducers than Boasters, Iude 16. Arrius gloried that God had revealed some things to him, which were hidden from the Apostles themselves. Simon Magus boasted himself to be the mighty Power of God. The erroneous Pharisees loved the praises of Men. When the Papist reproached Luther that he affected to have his Disciples called Lutherans, he replyed, Non sic, ô fatue, non sic; oro ut nomen meum taceatur: he disdain'd that the Children of Christ should be called by so vile a name as his.
(3.) Beware you neglect not Prayer, to be kept sound in your Judgments, and guided by the Spirit into all Truth, Psal. 119. 10. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander, or err, from thy Commandments. This do, and [Page 47] you are safe from such a judicial Tradition.
The First Cause.
We shall next speak of the Causes of Error found in the evil Dispositions of the Subjects, which prepare and incline them to receive Erroneous Doctrine and Opinions, and even catch at the Occasions and least Sparkles of Temptation, as dry Tinder: and amongst these is found,
(1.) A perverse wrangling Humour at the pretended OBSCURITY of the Scriptures. The Romish Party snatch at this Occasion, and make it the proper Cause, when indeed it is but a pickt Occasion, of the Errors and Mistakes among men. They tell us the Scriptures are so difficult, obscure, and perplext, that if private men will trust to them as their only Guide, they will inevitably run into Errors, and their only relief is to give up their Souls to the conduct of their Church; whereas indeed the true Cause of Error is not so much in the Obscurity of the Word, as in the corruption of the mind, 1 Tim. 6. 5. 2 Tim. 3. 8.
We do acknowledge there are in the Scriptures, [...], [Page 48] some things hard to be understood▪ 2 Pet. 3. 16. the sublime and mysterious nature of the matter rendering it so: and some things hard to be interpreted from the manner of expression; as indeed all mystical parts of Scripture and Prophetical predictions are, and ought to be delivered. The Spirit of God this way designedly casts a veil over them, till the proper season of their revelation and accomplishment be come. Besides (as the Learned Glassius observes) in Paul's style there are found some peculiar words and forms of speech, which ordinary Rules of Grammar take no notice, nor give any parallel Examples of: as to be buried with Christ; to be baptized into his death; to which I may add, to be circumcised in him, &c. There are also multitude of words found in Scripture of various and vastly different Significations: and accordingly there is a diversity, and sometimes a contrariety of senses given of them by Expositors; which to an Humourist or quarrelsome Wit gives an occasion to vent his Errors with a plausible appearance of Scripture-consent. And indeed Tertullian saith, Non periclitor dicere ipsas Scripturas ità dispositas esse, ut materiam subministrarent Haereticis. The [Page 49] Scriptures are so disposed, that Hereticks may pick Occasions; and those that will not be satisfied, may be hardened. See Mark 4. 11, 12.
But all this notwithstanding, the great and necessary things to our Salvation are so perspicuously and plainly revealed in the Scriptures, that even Babes in Christ do apprehend and understand them, Matth. 11. 25. 1 Cor. 1. 27, 28, 29. And though there be difficulties in other points more remote from the foundation; yet the Spirit of God is not to be accused, but rather his Wisdom to be admired herein. For (1.) this serves to excite our most intense study and diligence, which by this difficulty is made necessary, Prov. 2. 3, 4, 5. the very Prophets, yea the very Angels search into these things, 1 Pet. 1. 11, 12. (2.) Hereby a standing Ministry in the Church is made necessary, Nehem. 8. 8. Eph. 4. 11, 12, 13. So that to pretend Obscurity of Scripture to be the culpable cause of Error, when indeed the fault is in our selves; this is too much like our Father Adam, which would implicitly accuse God, to exc [...]se himself; he laid it upon the Woman which God gave him, and we upon the Scriptures which God hath given us.
The Remedies.
The proper Remedies and Preventives in this case are an heedful attendance to, and practice of these Rules.
Rule I.
Let all obscure and difficult Texts of Scripture be constantly examined and expounded according to the Analogy or proportion of Faith, which is St. Paul's own Rule, Rom. 12. 6. Let him that prophesieth, (i. e. expoundeth the Scripture in the Church) do it according to the proportion of faith. The Analogy or proportion of Faith is what is taught plainly and uniformly in the whole Scriptures of Old and New Testament, as the rule of our Faith and Obedience. Whilst we carefully and sincerely attend hereunto, we are secured from sinful corrupting the word of God. Admit of no sense which interfereth with this proportion of Faith. If men have no regard to this, but take liberty to rend off a single Text from the body of Truth to which it belongs, and put a peculiar interpretation upon it which is absonous and discordant to other Scriptures, what woful work will they quickly make?
[Page 51] Give but a Papist liberty to take that Scripture, Iam. 2. 24. out of the frame of Scripture, A man is justified by works, and not by faith only; and expo [...]d it without regard to the Tenor of the Gospel-doctrine of Iustification in Paul's Epistles to the Romans and Galatians, and a gross Error starts up immediately. Give but a Socinian the like liberty to practise upon Iohn 14. 28. and a gross H [...]resie shall presently look with an Orthodox face.
Rule II.
Never put a new sense upon words of Scripture in favour of your preconceived Notions and Opinions, nor wrest it from its general and common use and sense. This is not to interpret, but to rack the Scriptures, as that word [...] signifies, 2 Pet. 3. 16. Interpretis officium est, non quid ipse velit, sed quid censeat ille, quem interpretatur, exponere, as Hieron. against Ruff. speaks. We are not to make the Scriptures speak what we think, but what the Prophet or Apostle thought, whom we interpret. In 1 Cor. 7. 14. we meet with the word [holy] applied to the Children of Believers; that word is above 500 times used for a [Page 52] state of separation to God: Therefore to make it signify in that place nothing but Legitimacy, is a bold and daring practising upon the Scripture.
Rule III.
Whenever you meet with an obscure place of Scripture, let the Context of that Scripture be diligently and throughly searched; for 'tis usual with God to set up some light there to guide us through the obscurity of a particular Text. And there is much truth in the Observation of the Rabbines, Nulla est objectio in Lege, quae non habet solutionem in l [...]tere. There's no scruple or objection in the Law, but it hath a solution at the side of it.
Rule IV.
Let one Testament freely cast its light upon the other; and let not men undervalue or reject an Old Testament Text, as no way useful to clear and establish a New-Testament Point of Faith or Duty. Each Testament reflects light upon the other. The Iews reject the New-Testament, and many among us sinfully slight the Old: But without the help of both, we can never understand the mind of [Page 53] God [...] in either. 'Tis a good Rule in the Civil-Law, Turpe est de Lege judicare, tota lege nondum inspectâ. We must inspect the whole Law, to know the sense of any particular Law.
Rule V.
Have a due regard to that sense given of obscure places of Scripture, which hath not only the current sense of Learned Expositors, but also naturally agrees with the scope of the place. A careless neglect and disregard to this, is justly blamed by the Apostle, 1 Tim. 1. 7.
Cause II.
A Second evil temper in the Subject, disposing and inclining men to receive and suck in erroneous Doctrines and Opinions,Controversiae Anabaptisticae exortae sunt superiore saeculo variis in Europae locis, puta à Muntzero Saxone cum Sociis Anno MDXXI. occasione scripti Lutheri de libertate Christianâ, Fred. Spanh. Elench. Contr. p. 95. is the ABVSE of that just and due CHRISTIAN LIBERTY allowed by Christ to all his people to read, examine, and judge the sense of Scriptures with a private judgment of discretion.
This is a glorious acquisition, and blessed fruit of Reformation, to vindicate [Page 54] and recover that just Right, and gracious Grant made to us by Christ and the Apostles, out of the injurious hands of our Popish Enemies, who had usurped and invaded it. The exercise of this Liberty, is at once a Duty commanded by Christ, and commended in Scripture. 'Tis commanded by Christ, Iohn 5. 39. Search the Scriptures, saith Christ to the people. 1 Cor. 10. 15. I speak as to wise men; judge you what I say. And the exercise of this private judgment of discretion by the people, is highly commended by St. Paul in the Bereans, Acts 17. 11. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so. This Liberty is not allowed in that latitude in any Religion, as it is in the Christian Religion, nor enjoyed in its full liberty, as it is in the Reformed Religion, whose glory it is that it allows its Principles and Doctrines to be critically examined and tryed of all Men by the Rule of the Word, as well knowing, the more it is sifted and searched by its Professors, the more they will be still confirmed and satisfied in the truth of it.
[Page 55] But yet this gracious and just liberty of Christians, suffers a double abuse: One from the Popish Enemies, who injuriously restrain and deny it to the people. Another, by Protestants themselves, who sinfully stretch and extend it beyond the just degree and measure in which Christ allows it to them.
The Pope injuriously restrains it, discerning the danger that must necessarily follow the concession of such a liberty to the people, to compare his superstitious and erroneous Doctrines with the Rule of the Word.
St. Peter, in 2 Pet. 1. 19. tells the people they have a more sure Word of Prophecy, whereunto they do well that they take heed. Certainly the Pope forgot either that he was Peter's Successour; or that ever St. Peter told the people they did well to make use of that liberty, which he denies them. Mr. Pool tells us of a Spaniard that used this expression to an English Merchant, You people of England (said he) are happy, you have liberty to see with your own eyes, and to examine the Doctrines delivered to you, upon which your everlasting Life depends; but we dare not say our souls are our own, but are commanded to believe whatever our [Page 56] Teachers tell us, be it never so unreasonable or ridiculous. This is a most injurious and sinful restraint upon it on the one side.
And then Secondly, 'Tis too frequently abused, by stretching it beyond Christ's allowance and intendment upon the other side; when every ignorant and confident person shall, under pretence of liberty granted by Christ, rudely break in upon the Sacred Text, distort, violate and abuse the Scriptures at pleasure, by putting such strange and [...]oreign senses upon them, as the Spirit of God never meant or intendedProv. 8. 22. Quod dictum scribit Epiphanius, primam Ario praebuisse occasionem, haeresin contra filium dei fingendi.
How often have I heard that Scripture, Micha 4. 10. They shall be brought even to Babylon; confidently interpreted, for almost, but not full h [...]me to Babylon, against the very Grammar of the Text, and the Truth of the History? And so again, that place, Isa. 58. 8. The glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward, through ignorance of the word, read re-reward, that is, a double reward to his people? But these are small matters compared with those grosser abuses of Scripture by [Page 57] the ignorant and unlearned, which prejudice Truth, and too much countenance Popish Reproaches.
The Remedies.
The proper way to prevent and remedy this mischief, is not by depriving any Man of his just Liberty, either to read, or judge for himself what God speaks in his Word, and think that way to cure Errors; that were the same thing as to cut off the Head to cure an Headach. Leave that sinful policy with the false Religion. Let those only that know they do evil, be afraid of coming to the light. But the proper course of preventing the mischiefs that come this way, is by labouring to bound and contain Christians within those limits Christ himself hath set unto this liberty which he hath granted them. And these are such as follow:
Limitation I.
Tho' Christ have indulged to the meanest and weakest Christian a liberty to read and judge of the Scriptures for himself; yet he hath neither thereby, nor therewith granted him a liberty publickly to Expound and Preach the [Page 58] Word to others: That's quite another thing.
Every Man that can read the Scriptures, and judge of their sense, is not thereby presently made Christ's Commission-Officer, publickly and authoritatively to Preach and Inculcate the same to others: Two things are requisite to such an employment, viz. Proper Qualifications, 1 Tim. 3. And a solemn Call or designation, Rom. 10. 14, 15. The Ministry is a distinct Office, Acts 20. 17, 28. 1 Thes. 5. 12. and none but qualified and ordained persons can Authoritatively Preach the Word, 2 Tim. 1. 6. 1 Tim. 4. 14. 1 Tim. 5. 22.
Christians may privately edify one another by reading the Scriptures, communicating their sense one to another of them, admonishing, counselling, reproving one another in a private fraternal way, at seasons wherein they interfere not with more publick Duties: But for every one that hath confidence enough (and the ignorant usually are best stock'd with it) to assume a liberty without due Qualification or Call, to Expound and give the Sense of Scriptures, and pour forth his crude and unstudied Notions, as the pure sense and meaning [Page 59] of God's Spirit in the Scriptures; this is what Christ never allowed, and through this Flood-gate Errors have broken in, and overflowed the Church of God, to the great scandal of Religion, and confirmation of Popish Enemies.
Limitation II.
Though there be no part of Scripture shut up or restrained from the knowledg or use of any Christian; yet Jesus Christ hath recommended to Christians of different abilities, the study of some parts of Scripture rather than others, as more proper and agreeable to their Age and Stature in Religion.
Christians are by the Apostle rank'd into three Classes, Fathers, Young-men, and Little Children, 1 Iohn 2. 13. and accordingly the Wisdom of Christ hath directed to that sort of food which is proper to either: For there is in the Word all sorts of Food suitable to all Ages in Christ; there's both Milk for Babes, and strong Meat for grown Christians, Heb. 5. 13, 14. Those that are unskilful in the Word of Righteousnes, should feed upon Milk, that is, the easie, plain, but most nutritive and pleasant practical Doctrines of the Gospel. But strong Meat [Page 60] (saith he) that is, the more abstruse, deep, and mysterious truths, belongeth to them that are of full Age, even those who, by reason of use, have their Senses exercised to discern both good and evil; that is, Truth and Error. To the same purpose he speaks, 1 Cor. 3. 2. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it.
Art thou a weak unstudied Christian? a Babe in Christ? Then the easier, and more nutritive Milk of plain Gospel-Doctrine is fitter for thee, and will do thee more good, than the stronger Meat of profound and more mysterious Points; or the Bones of Controversy, which are too hard for thee to deal with.
God hath blessed this Age with great variety of sound and allowed Expositors in our own Language, by the diligent study of which, and prayer for the illumination and guidance of the Spirit, you may not only attain unto the true sense and meaning of the more plain and obvious; but also unto gre [...]ter knowledg, and clearer insight into the more obscure and controverted parts of Scripture.
Cause III.
There is also another evil disposition in the Subject, rendring it easily receptive of Errors, and that is spiritual SLOTHFVLNESS and carelesness in a due and serious search of the whole Scripture, with a sedate and rational consideration of every part and particle therein, which may give us any, though the least light to understand the mind of God in those obscure and difficult points we search after the knowledg of.
Truth lies deep, as the rich Veins of Gold do, Prov. 2. If we will get the treasure, we must not only beg, as he directs, vers. 3. but dig also vers. 4. else as he speaks, Prov. 14. 23. The talk of the lips tends only to poverty. We are not to take up with that which lies uppermost, and next at hand upon the surface of the Text; but to search with the most sedate and considerative mind into all parts of the written Word, examining every Text which hath any respect to the truth we are searching for, heedfully to observe the Scope, Antecedents, and Consequents, and to value every Apex, Tittle, and Iota; for each of these are of [Page 62] Divine Authority, Matt. 5. 18. and sometimes greater weight is laid upon a small word, yea, upon the addition or change of a Letter in a word, as appears in the names of Abram and Sarai.
It will require some strength of mind, and great sedulity, to lay all parts of Scripture before us, and to compare words with words, and things with things, as the Apostle speaks, 1 Cor. 2. 13. comparing spiritual things with spiritual. And though it be true that some important Doctrines, as that of Iustification by Faith, are methodically disposed, and throughly clear'd and setled in one and the same Context; yet it is as true, that very many other points of Faith and Duty are not so digested, but are delivered sparsinì, here a little, and there a little, as he speaks, Isa. 28. 10. You must not think to find all that belongs to one Head or Point of Faith, or Duty, lay'd together in a System, or common place in Scripture; but scattered abroad in several pieces, some in the Old Testament, and some in the New, at a great distance one from another.
Now in our searches and inquiries after the full and satisfying knowledg of the Will of God in such Points, it is necessary [Page 63] that the whole Word of God be throughly searched, and all those parcels brought together to an interview. Ex. Gr.
If a Man would see the entire discovery that was made of Christ, to the Fathers, under the Old-Testament, he shall not find it laid together in any one Prophet; but shall find that one speaks to one part of it, and another to another.
Moses gives the first general hint of it, Gen. 3. 15. The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head. But then if you would know more particularly of whose Seed according to the flesh, he should come, you must turn to Gen. 22. 18. In thy seed (saith God to Abraham) shall all nations of the earth be blessed. And if you yet doubt what Seed God means there, you must go to the Apostle, Gal. 3. 16. To thy seed, which is Christ. If you would further know the place of his Nativity, the Prophet Micha must inform you of that, Mic. 5. 2. it should be Bethlehem-Ephrata. If you inquire of the quality of his Parent, another Prophet gives you that, Isa. 7. 14. Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and call his name Immanuel. If the time of his Birth be [Page 64] inquired after, Moses and Daniel must inform you of that, Gen. 49. 10. Dan. 9. 24.
So under the New-Testament, If a Man inquire about the change of the Sabbath, he must not expect to find a formal repeal of the Seventh day, and an express institution of the first day in its room; but he is to consider,
First, What the Evangelist speaks, Mark 2. 28. That Christ is Lord of the Sabbath, and so had power, not only to dispense with it, but to change it.
Secondly, That on the first day of the Week Christ rose from the dead, Matt. 28. 1, 2. And that this is that great day, foretold to be the day to be solemnized upon that account, Psal. 118. 24.
Thirdly, That accordingly the first day of the Week is emphatically styled the Lord's day, Rev. 1. 10. where you find his own name written upon it.
Fourthly, You shall find this was the day on which the Apostles and Primitive Christians assembled together for the stated and solemn performance of Publick Worship, Iohn 20. 19. and other publick Church-Acts and Duties, 1 Cor. 16. 1, 2. And so by putting together, and considering all these Particulars, we draw a just Conclusion, That it is the [Page 65] Will of God, that since the Resurrection of Christ, the first day of the week should be observed as the Christian-Sabbath.
In like manner as for the Baptizing of Believers Infants; We are not to expect it in the express words of a New-Testament-Institution or Command, that Infants under the Gospel should be Baptized; but God hath left us to gather satisfaction about his Will and our Duty in that point, by comparing and considering the several Scriptures of the Old and New-Testament which relate to that matter; which if we be impartial and considerative, we may do,
First, By considering, that by God's express Command, Gen. 17. 9, 10. the Infant Seed of his People were taken into Covenant with their Parents, and the then Sign of that Covenant commanded to be applied to them.
Secondly, That though the Sign be altered, the Promise and Covenant is still the same, and runs as it did before, to Believers and their Children, Acts 2. 38, 39.
Thirdly, That the foederal holiness of our Children is plainly asserted under the New-Testament, 1 Cor. 7. 14. Rom. 11. 16.
[Page 66] Fourthly, We shall further find, that Baptism succeeds in the room of Circumcision, and that by an Argument drawn from the compleatness of our Privileges under the New-Testament, no way inferiour, but rather more extensive than those of the Iews, Col. 2. 10, 11, 12.
Fifthly, We shall find that upon the Conversion of any Master or Parent, the whole Houshold were Bapized. By puting all these things, with some others, together, we may arrive to the desired satisfaction about the Will of God in this matter.
But some Men want abilities, and others are too sluggish and lazy to gather together, compare and weigh all these and many more hints and discoveries of the Mind of God, which would give much light unto this point; but they take an easier and cheaper way to satisfy themselves with what lies uppermost upon the surface of Scripture, and so, as it were by consent, let go, and lose their own, and their Childrens blessed and invaluable Privileges, for want of a little labour and patience to search the Scriptures; a folly which few would be guilty of, if but a small earthly inheritance were concerned therein.
The Remedies.
To cure this Spiritual sluggishness, and awaken us to the most serious and diligent search after the Will of God in such controversal and doubtful points, that we may not neglect the smallest hint given us about it, the following Considerations will be found of great use and weight.
Consideration I.
The most sedate, impartial, and diligent inquiries after the Will of God revealed in his Word, is a Duty expresly enjoyned by his Soveraign Command, which immediately and indispensibly binds the Conscience of every Christian to the practice of it.
Remarkable is that Text to this purpose, Rom. 12. 2. And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. Here you find this Duty, not only associated with, but made the very end of our Non-conformity to the World, and renovation of our minds, the very things which constitute a Christian.
[Page 68] And to sweeten our pains in this work, that Will of God, for the discovery whereof we search, is presented to us under three illustrious and alluring properties, viz. Good, Acceptable, and Perfect. Good it must needs be, because the Will and Essence of God, the chief Good, are not two things, but one and the same. And Perfect it must needs be, because it is the Beam and Standard, by which the Actions of all reasonable Creatures ought to be weighed and tryed, as to the moral good or evil of them. And being both good and perfect, How can it chuse but, upon both accounts, be highly Acceptable and grateful to an upright Soul, as that Epithete [...] there imports. Search the Scriptures, saith Christ, Ioh. 5. 39. To the Law and to the Testimony, faith the Prophet, Isa. 8. 20. This is not matter of meer Christian Liberty, but Commanded Duty; and at our peril [...] be it if we neglect it.
Consideration II.
No act of ours can be good and acceptable to the Lord, further than it is agreeable to his Will revealed in the Word.
[Page 69] No Man can be a Rule to himself. He can be no more his own Rule than his own End. One Man cannot be a Rule to another. The best of Men, and their Actions, and Examples, are only so far a rule of imitation to us, as they themselves are ruled by the Divine revealed Will, 1 Cor. 11. 1. uncommanded acts of Worship are abominable to God, and highly dangerous to our selves; they kindle the fire of his jealousie to the ruin and destruction of the presumptuous Sinner, L [...]vit. 10. 1, 2. So that if the beauty and excellency of the Will of God be not enough to allure us, the danger of acting without the knowledg of it may justly terrify us.
Consideration III.
In this Duty we tread in the Footsteps of the wisest and holiest Men that ever went to Heaven before us.
It is not only the Characteristical note of a good Man, Psal. 1. 2. but it has been the constant practise of the most eminent believers in all Ages. The greatest Prophets, that had this advantage of us, that they were the Organs or inspired instruments of discovering the Will of God to others, yet were not excused [Page 70] from, neither did they neglect to search it diligently themselves, 1 Pet. 1. 10, 11. Daniel, that great favourite of Heaven, who had the Visions and Revelations of God; yet he himself diligently searched the written Word, in order to the discovery of the Mind of God, Dan. 9. 2.
Consideration IV.
Every discovery of the Will of God by fervent Prayer, diligent and impartial search of the Scriptures, and all other allowed helps, gives the highest pleasure the mind of Man is capable of in this World.
If Archimedes▪ upon the discovery of a Mathematical Truth, was so transported and ravished, that he cried out, [...], I have found it, I have found it; what pleasure then must the investigation and discovery of a Divine Truth give to a sanctified Soul! Thy words were found of me (saith Ieremiah) and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoycing of my heart, Jer. 15. 16. as pleasant food to a Famished Man; for now Conscience is quieted, comforted, and cheered in the way of Duty. A Man walks not at adventure with God, as that word signifies, Levit. 26. 40, 41.
[Page 71] but hath the pleasant directive light of the Word and Will of God, shining sweetly upon the path of his Duty.
Consideration V.
By this means you shall find your Faith greatly confirmed in the truth of the Scriptures.
The sweet consent, and beautiful harmony of all the parts of the written Word, is a great Argument of its Divinity; and this you will clearly discern, when by a due search you shall find things that lye at the remotest distance, to conspire and consent in one, and one part casting light, as well as adding strengh, to another. Thus you shall find Vetus Testamentum in novo revelatum, & novum in vetere velatum. The New Testament veiled in the Old, and the Old revealed in the New: And that such a consent of things, so distant in time and place, can never be the project and invention of Man.
Consideration VI.
The diligent and impartial search and inquiry after the Will of God, out of no other design than to please him in the whole course of our Duties, will turn to [Page 72] us for a testimony of the integrity and sincerity of our hearts.
Thy word (said David) have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee: And God will not hide his Will from those that thus seek to know it. If Men would apply themselves to search the Word by fervent Prayer, and fixed Meditations, upon so pure a design, not bringing their prejudiced or prepossessed minds unto it; the Spirit of the Lord would guide them into all Truth, and keep them out of dangerous and destructive Errors.
Fourth Cause.
Besides the slothfulness of the mind, there is found in many Persons another evil Disposition preparing them easily to receive Erroneous Impressions; namely, the INSTABILITY and Fickleness of the Judgment, and Unsetledness of mind about the Truth of the Gospel.
Of this the Apostle warns us, Eph. 4. 14. That we henceforth be no more Children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of Doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in weight to deceive. None are so constant and steddy in the profession of [Page 73] the Truth, as those that are fully convinced of, and well satisfied with the grounds of it. Every Professor, like every Ship at Sea, should have an [...], a ballast and steddiness of his own, 2 Pet. 3. 17. ready and prepared to render a reason of the hope that is in him, 1 Pet. 3. 15. able upon all occasions to give an account of those inward motives which constrained his assent to the Truth.
He that professeth a Truth ignorantly, cannot be rationally supposed to adhere to it constantly. He that is but half convinced of a truth, when he engages in the profession of it, must needs be [...], a double-minded Man, as the Apostle calls him, Iam. 1. 8. half the mind hangs one way, and half another, and so it is easily moveable this way or that, with the least breath of temptation. And hence it comes to pass they are so often at a loss about their Duty and their Practise; for Animi volutatio pendentem reddit vitam. A doubtful Mind must needs make a staggering and uncertain Practice.
Erroneous Teachers are called wandring Stars, Jude 13. which keep no certain course as the fixed Stars do, but are sometimes nearer and sometimes remoter one from another. Thus Errorists [Page 74] first imbibe unsetling Opinions, and then discover them in their inconstant Practises. Ber [...]ius wrote a Book de Apostatià Sanctorum, and soon after turned Papist. The Socinians and Libertines teach, That a Man of any Perswasion in Religion may be saved, so that he walk not contrary to his own Light: such Doctrine directly tends to Sceptecism in Religion.
And this Instability of the Judgment proceeds either from Hypocrisie, or weakne [...] Sometimes from Hypocris [...]e All Hypocrites are [...], double-minded Men: Iam. 4. 8. The double-minded man (that is the Hypocrite) is unstable in all his ways. One of that number was not ashamed to say, Se duas habere animas in eodem corpore, unam Deo dicatam, alteram unicuique illam vellet: That he had two Souls in one Body, one for God, and another for whosoever would have it.
Sometimes Instability of the mind is the effect only of Weakness in the Judgment, proceeding merely from want of age and growth in Christ, not having as yet attained Senses exercised to discern both good and evil, Heb. 5. 14. they are but Children in Christ, and Children are easie and credulous Creatures, Eph. 4. [Page 75] 14. presently taken with a new Toy▪ and as soon weary of it; such a wavering and instable temper invites temptation, and falls an easie prey into its hands.
I confess some Cases may happen, where the Pretences on both sides may be so fair, as to put a judicious Christian to a stand what to chuse; but then their deliberation will be answerable, and then they will not change their Opinions every month, as Scepticks do. Wherever Error finds such a mutable disposition, its work is half done before it make one assault. How many wavering Professors at this day lie in Temptation's way? and how great a harvest have Errorists and Hereticks had among them? There's not a Mountebank comes upon the Stage, but he shall find ten times more Customers for his Druggs, than the most Learned and Experienced Physician. The giddy-headed Multitude have more regard to Novelty, than Truth.
The Remedies.
How necessary and desirable are some effectual Rules and Remedies in this Case! O what a mercy would it be to the Professors of these days, to have their Minds fixed, and their Judgments setled in the Truths of Christ! Happy is that man [Page 76] whose Judgment is so guarded, that no dangerous Error or Heresie can commit a Rape upon it. To this end I shall here commend the four following Rules to prevent this vertigenous malady in the heads of Christians.
Rule I.
Look warily to it that you get a real inward implantation into Christ, and lay the foundation deep and firm in a due and serious deliberation of Religion whenever you engage in the publick profession of it.
To this sense sound the Apostle's words, Col. 2. 6, 7. As you have therefore received Christ Iesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as you have been taught. Fertility and stability in Christ, a pair of inestimable Blessings, depend upon a good rooting of the Soul in him at first. He that thrusts a dead stick into the ground, may easily pull it up again, but so he cannot do by a well-rooted Tree. A colour raised by violent action, or a great fire, soon dies away; but that which is natural or constitutional will hold. Every thing is as its foundation is. 'Twas want of a good root and due depth of earth which soon turned the [Page 77] green Corn into dry stubble, Matt. 13. 21.
Rule II.
Labour after an inward experimental taste of all those Truths which you profess.
This will preserve your minds from wavering and hesitation about the certainty and reality of them. We will not easily part with those Truths, which have sensibly shed down their sweet influences upon our hearts, Heb. 10. 34. No Sophister can easily perswade a man that hath ta [...]ted the sweetness of Honey, that it is a bitter and unpleasant thing: Non est disputandum de gustu: you cannot easily perswade a man out of his Senses.
Rule III.
Study hard and pray earnestly for satisfaction in the present Truths; 2 Pet. 1. 12. That you may be established [...], in the truth that now is under opposition and controversie. Be not ignorant of the Truths that lie in present hazard.
Antiquated Opinions that are more abstracted from our present Interest, are no tryals of the soundness of our Judgments, and integrity of our Hearts, as the controversies and conflicts of the present [Page 78] Times are. Every Truth hath its time to come upon the stage, and enter the lists; some in one Age, and some in another; but Providence seems to have cast the lot of your Nativity for the honour and defence of those Truths, with which Error is struggling and conflicting in your time.
Rule IV.
Lastly, Be throughly sensible of the benefit and good of establishment, and of the evil and danger of a wavering Mind and Judgment.
Be not carried about with divers and strange Doctrines (saith the Apostle) for it is a good thing that the heart be established, &c. Heb. 13. 9. Established Souls are the honour of Truth. It was the honour of Religion in the primitive days, that when the Heathens would proverbially express an Impossibility, they used to say, You may as soon turn a Christian from Christ, as do it.
The Fickleness of Professors is a stumbling-block to the World. They'l say as Cato of the Civil Wars betwixt Caesar and Pompey, quem fugiam, video, quem sequar, non video: they know whom to avoid, but not whom to follow. And as [Page 79] the honour of Truth, so the flourishing of your own Souls depends on it. A Tree often removed from one Soil to another, can never be expected to be fruitful, 'tis well if it make a shift to live.
Fifth Cause.
Another inward Cause disposing men to receive Erroneous Impressions, is an unreasonable EAGERNESS to snatch at any Doctrine or Opinion that promisesh ease to an anxious Conscience.
Men that are under the frights and terrours of Conscience, are willing to listen to any thing that offers present relief. Of all the Troubles in the World, those of the Mind and Conscience are most intolerable. And those that are in pain are glad of ease, and readily catch at any thing that seems to offer it.
This seems to be the thing which led those poor distressed Wretches, intimated Micah 6. 6. into their gross Mistakes and Errors about the method of the remission of their Sins. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and [...]ow my self before the high God? shall I come before him with Burnt-offerings, with Calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousand of Rams▪ or with ten thousand of Rivers [Page 80] of Oyl? Shall I give my First-born for my Transgression, the Fruit of my Body for the Sin of my Soul? They were ready to purchase inward peace, and buy out their pardon at any rate. Nothing but the twinges of Conscience could have extorted these things from them. Great is the efficacy and torment of a guilty Conscience.
Satan, who feels more of this in himself than any other Creature in the World, and knows how ready poor ignorant, but distressed Sinners, are to catch at any thing that looks like ease or comfort, and being jealous what these troubles of Conscience may issue into, prepares for them such Erroneous Doctrines and Opinions under the names of Anodines and quieting Recipe's, by swallowing of which they feel some present ease; but their Disease is thereby made so much the more incurable.
Mr. Gataker, in his Book against Saltmarsh, p. 27. tells us of one that had taken ill Courses, and being under much trouble of mind, could not be quiet till he turned Papist, and had been shrieved and assailed by a Priest. 'Tis upon this account he hath found such vent in the World for his Penanees, Pilgrimages and Indulgences among the Papists. But seeing this Ware will not go off among the Reformed and more enlightned Professors [Page 81] of Christianity, he changeth his hand, and fitteth other Doses under other names to quiet sick and distressed Souls, before ever their frights of Conscience come to settle into true Repentance and Faith in the Blood of Christ, by dressing up, and presenting to them such Opinions as these, viz.
That they may boldly apply to themselves all the Promises of pardon and peace, without any respect at all to Repentance or Faith in themselves; that it is not at all needful, nay, that it is illegal and sinful to have any respect to these things, forasmuch as their Sins were pardoned, and they justified from Eternity; and that the Covenant of Grace is in all respects absolute, and is made to Sinners as Sinners, without any regard to their Faith or Repentance; and whatever Sins there be in them, God sees them not.Saltmarsh, in the Title-page of his Book called Free-grace, shews you the Sovereign vertue of Antinomian Principles, to quiet Troubles of Conscience of 12 years growth.
To such a Charm of Troubles as this, how earnestly doth the Ear of a distressed Conscience listen? how greedily doth it suck in such pleasing words? Are all [Page 82] Sins that are pardoned, pardoned before they are committed? and does the Covenant of Grace require neither Repentance nor Faith antecedently to the application of the Promises? how groundless then are all my Fears and Troubles? This, like a Dose of Opium, quiets, or rather stupifies the raging Conscience: for even an Error in Judgment, till it be detected and discovered to be so, quiets and comforts the heart, as well as principles of Truth; but whenever the fallacy shall be detected, whether here or hereafter, the anguish of Conscience must be increased, or (which is worse) left desperate.
The Remedies.
To prevent and cure this mistake and error in the Soul, by which it is fitted and prepared to catch any Erroneous Principle (which is but plausible) for its present relief and ease, I shall desire my Reader seriously to ponder and consider the following Queries upon this Case.
Query I.
Whether by the vote of the whole Rational World, a good Trouble be not better [Page 83] than a false Peace? Present ease is desirable, but eternal safety is much more so: and if these two cannot consist under the present Circumstances of the Soul, Whether it be not better to endure for a time these painful pangs, than feel more acute and eternal ones, by quieting Conscience with false Remedies before the time?
'Tis bad to lie tossing a few days under a laborious Fever; but far worse to have that Fever turned into a Lethargy or fatal Apoplexy. Erroneous Principles may rid the Soul of its present pain, and eternal hopes and safety together. Acute pains are better than a senseless stupidity. Though the present rage of Conscience be not a right and kindly conviction, yet it may lead to it, and terminate in faith and union with Christ at last, if Satan do not this way practice upon it, and quench it before its time.
Query II.
Bethink your selves seriously, Whether Troubles so quieted and laid asleep, will not revive and turn again upon thee with a double force, as soon as the vertue of the Drug (I mean the Erroneous Principle) hath spent it self?
[Page 84] The efficacy of Truth is eternal, and will maintain the peace it gives, for ever; but all delusions must vanish, and the Troubles which they damm'd up for a time, break out with a greater force. Satan employs two sorts of Witches. Some to torment the Bodies of Men with grievous pain and anguish: but then he hath his White-Witches at hand to relieve and ease them. And have these poor Wretches any great cause (think you) to boast of the cure, who are eased of their pains at the price of their Souls?
Much like unto this, are the cures of inward Troubles by Erroneous Principles. I lament the Case of blinded Papists, who by Pilgrimages, and Offerings to the Shrines of Titular Saints, attempt the cure of a lesser Sin by committing a greater. Is it because there is not a God in Israel, who is able in due season to pacify Conscience with proper and durable Gospel-Remedies, that we suffer our Troubles thus to precipitate us into the Snares of Satan for the sake of present ease?
Query III.
Read the Scriptures, and inquire whether God's People, who have lain long [Page 85] under sharp inward Terrors, have not at last found settlement and inward peace by those very Methods, which the Principles that quiet you, do utterly exclude?
If you will fetch your Peace from a groundless Notion, that your Sins were pardoned, and your Persons justified from all eternity, and therefore you may apply boldly and confidently to your selves the choicest Promises and Privileges in the Gospel, without any regard to Faith or Repentance wrought by the Spirit in your Souls: I am sure holy David took another Course for the settlement of his Conscience, Psal. 51. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. And it hath been the constant practise of the Saints in all Ages, to clear their Title to the Righteousness of Christ wrought without them, by the Works of his Spirit wrought within them.
Sixth Cause.
The next Evil Temper in the Subject, preparing and disposing it for Error, is an easie CREDVLITY, or sequacious humour in men, rendring them apt to receive things upon trust from others, without due and thorough examination of the grounds and Reasons of them, themselves.
[Page 86] This is a disposition fitted to receive any impression Seducers please to make upon them: they are said to deceive the hearts of the simple, [...], i. e. credulous, but well-meaning People that suspect no harm. 'Tis said, Prov. 14. 15. the simple believeth every word. Through this Sluce or Floodgate, what a multitude of Errors in Popery have overflowed the People! They are told, they are not able to judge for themselves, but must take the matters of their Salvation upon trust from their Spiritual Guides; and so the silly People are easily seduced, and made easily receptive of the grossest Absurdities their ignorant Leaders please to impose upon them.
And it were to be wished, That those two Points, viz. Ministrorum mut a officia, & populi caeca o [...]sequia, the dumb Services of their Ministers, and the blind Obedience of the People had stay'd within the Popish Confines. But alas, alas! how many simple Protestants be there, who may be said to carry their Brains in other mens Heads? and like silly Sheep follow the next in the tract before them; especially if their Leaders have but wit and art enough to hide their Errors under specious and plausible Pretences. How [Page 87] many poisonous Drugs hath Satan put off under the gilded Titles of Antiquity, Zeal for God, higher attainments in godliness, new Lights? &c. How natural is it for men to follow in the Tract, and be tenacious of the Principles and Practises of their Progenitors? Multitudes seem to hold their Opinions Iure Haereditario, by an Hereditary Right, as if their Faith descended to them the same way their Estates do.
The Emperour of Morocco told King Iohn's Ambassadour, That he had lately read St. Paul's Epistles; And truly (said he) were I now to chuse my Religion, I would embrace Christianity before any Religion in the World: but every man ought to dye in that Religion he received from his Ancestors.
Many honest, well-meaning, but weak Christians, are also easily beguiled by specious pretences of new Light, and higher attainments in Reformation. This makes the weaker sorts of Christians pliable to many dangerous Errors cunningly insinuated under such taking Titles. What are most of the Erroneous Opinions now vogued in the World, but old Errors under new Names and Titles?
The Remedies.
The Remedies and Preventions in this Case are such as follow.
Remedy I.
'Tis beneath a man to profess any Opinion to be his own, whilst the grounds and reasons of it are in other mens keeping, and wholly unknown to himself.
If a man may tell Gold after his Father, then sure he may and ought to try and examine Doctrines and Points of Faith after him. We are commanded to be ready to give an account of the hope that is in us, and not to say, this or that is my Judgment or Opinion, but let others give an account of the ground and reason of it.
I confess, if he that leads me into an Error were alone exposed to the hazard, and I quit and free, whatever become of him; it were quite another thing. But when our Saviour tells us, Matth. 15. 14. that both (that is, the Follower as well as the Leader) fall into the ditch; at my peril be it if I follow without eyes of my own. That's but a weak building that is shored up by a prop from a Neighbour's Wall. How many men have ruined their Estates by Suretiship for others? but of all Suretiship none so dangerous [Page 89] as spiritual Suretiship. We neither ought (as a late Worthy speaks) to defy the Iudgment of the weakest, nor yet on the other side to deify the Iudgment of the strongest Christian. He that pins his Faith upon another man's Sleeve, knows not whither he will cary it.
Remedy II.
As you ought not to abuse your Christian Privilege and Liberty to try all things, 1 Thess. 5. 21. so neither on the other side to undervalue, or part with it. See the things that so much concern your eternal peace with your own eyes.
I shewed you before, this Liberty is abused by extending it too far; and under the notion of proving all things, many embolden themselves to innovate and entertain any thing: yet beware of bartering such a precious Privilege for the fairest Promises others can make in lieu of it. I would not slight nor undervalue the Piety and Learning of others, nor yet put out my own eyes to see by theirs.
Remedy III.
Before you adventure to espouse the Opinions of others, diligently observe and mark the fruits and consequences of [Page 90] those Opinions in the Lives of the zealous Abettors and Propagators of them: By their fruits (saith Christ) ye shall know them.
When the Opinion or Doctrine naturally tends to looseness, or when it sucks and draws away all a man's zeal to maintain and diffuse it, and practical Religion thereby visibly languishes in their Conversations, 'tis time for you to make a pause, before you advance one step farther towards it.
Seventh Cause.
The next Evil Disposition that I shall note in the Subject, is a vain CVRIOSITY of mind, or an itching desire to pry into things unrevealed, at least above our ability to search out and discover.
'Tis an Observation as true as ancient, Pruritus aurium scabies Ecclesiae, itching Ears come to a Scab upon the face of the Church. The itch of Novelty produceth the Scab of Error. Of this Disease the Apostle warns us, 2 Tim. 4. 3. For the time will come, when they will not endure sound Doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves Teachers, having itching ears. Nothing will please them but new Notions, and new modes [Page 91] of Language and Method, Tone and Gesture.
Sound Doctrine is the only substantial and solid food that nourishes and strengthens the heart of the new Creature: but vain Scepticks nauseate and despise this as trite, vulgar, cheap and low. Nothing humours them but Novelties and Rarities: their unsetled Brains must be wheel'd about, [...], with divers and strange Doctrines, Heb. 13. 9. Novelty and Variety are the only properties that commend Doctrines to wanton Palates. Hence it is they so boldly intrude into things they have not seen, Col. 2. 18. These Cyril fitly calls [...], the domineerings, or darings of bold Spirits.
The Schoolmen have filled the World with a thousand ungrounded Fancies, as the distinct Offices and Orders of Angels; and higher flights of fancy than these, which seem to be invented for no other end or use, but to please the itching Ears of the Curious.
There is not only a vesana temerit as Genethliacorum, a wild and daring rashness of Astrologers, presuming to foretel Futurities, and the Fates of Kingdoms, as well as particular Persons, from the [Page 92] conjunctions and influences of the Stars; but there is also found as high a presumption and boldness among men in matters of Religion.
Satan is well aware of this humour in men, and how exceeding serviceable it is to his Design; and therefore having the very knack of clawing and pleasing itching Ears with taking-Novelties, he is never wanting to feed their minds with a pleasing variety, and fresh succession of them: new Opinions are still invented and minted, in which the dangerous Hooks of Error are hid. If men were once cured of this spiritual itch, and their minds reduced to that temper and sobriety, as to be pleased with, and bless God for the plain revealed Truths of the Gospel; Satan would drive but a poor Trade, and find but few Customers for his Erroneous Novelties.
The Remedies.
The proper Remedies to cure this itch after Novelty, or dangerous Curiosity of the mind, are
Remedy I.
Due Reflection upon the manifold mischiefs that have entered into the World this way.
[Page 93] It was this Curiosity and desire to know, that overthrew our first Parents, Gen. 3. 6. When the Woman saw that the Tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a Tree to be desired to make one wise; she took of the fruit thereof. The very same way by which he let in the first Error, he hath let thousands into the World since that day. Nothing is more common in the World, than for an old Error to obtain afresh under the name of new Light. Satan hath the very art of turkening stale Errors after the mode of the present times, and make them currant and passable, as new Discoveries and rare Novelties.
Thus he puts off Libertinism, the old Sin of the World, under the Title of Christian Liberty. What a Troop of Pagan Idolatrous Rites were by this means introduced among the Papists? A great part of Popery is but Ethnicismus redivivus, Heathenism revived. The Pagans Pontifex Maximus was revived under the new Title of Pope. The Gentiles Lustrations, in the Popish Holy-water. Their Novendiale sacrum, or Sacrifice nine days after the burial of the Party, in the Popish Masses for the dead. Their Alvarium Fratrum, in Cloisters of Monks and Fryars▪
[Page 94] Their Enchanters, in Popish Exorcists. Their Asyla, in Popish Sanctuaries. With multitudes more of Pagan Rites quite out of date in Christendom, introduced again under new names in Popery; as was intimated R [...]v. 11. 2. and Rev. 13. 15.
Remedy II.
Be satisfied that God hath not left his People to seek their Salvation,Quod nesciatur sine crimine, ne discutiatur cum discrimine. or spiritual subsistence, among curious, abstruse and doubtful Notions; but in the great, solid, and plainly revealed Truths of the Gospel. Iohn 17. 3. This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent. In facili & absoluto stat aeternit as: the great Concerns of our Salvation are plain and easie to be understood.
Remedy III.
Vain Curiosity is a dangerous Snare of Satan. By such trifles as these, he devours our time, eats up our strength, and diverts our minds from the necessary and most important business of Religion. Whilst we immerse our thoughts in these pleasing, but barren Contemplations, Heart-work, Closet-work, Family-work, lie by neglected. Whilst we are employed [Page 95] in garnishing the Dish with Flowers, and curious Figures, the cunning Cheat takes away the meat our Souls should subsist by.
Eighth Cause.
Pride and Arrogancy of HVMANE REASON, is another Evil Disposition, molding and preparing the mind for Errors. When men are once conceited of the strength and perspicacity of their own carnal Reasons and Apprehensions, nothing is more usual than for such men to run mad with Reason into a thousand Mistakes and Errors. To this cause Ecclesiastical Historians ascribe the Errors that infest the Church.Deindé, & humanae rationis sapientia quae religioni plurimùm semper nocuit, seu Philosophia, non paucas ex sese produxit haereses. Námque eo tempore Philosophica studia maximè vigebant; & suis argutiis, seu (ut ipsi putabant) demonstrationibus, in suâ sententiâ ità confirmati erant: ut nihil verum existimarent, quod ab eorum conceptis jamdudum opinionibus discreparet. Magdeb. in Cent. 2. cap. 5. pag. 56.
Reason indeed is the highest natural excellency of man: it exalts him above all Earthly Creatures, and in its primitive perfection almost equalized him with Angels, Heb. 2. 7. The Pleasures which result from its exercises and experiments, [Page 96] transcend all the delights and pleasures of sense. How common is it for men to dote upon their own intellectual beauty, and glory in their victories over weaker Understandings? And tho the reason of fallen Man is greatly wounded and weakened by Sin; yet it conceits it self to be as strong and clear as ever; and with Sampson, when his Locks were shorn, goes forth as before time, being neither sensible of its own weakness, or of the mysterious and unsearchable depths of Scripture.
Reason is our Arbiter and Guide by the institution and Law of Nature, in civil and natural Affairs: 'tis the beam and standard at which we weigh them. It is an home-born Judge and King in the Soul: Faith comes in as a stranger to Nature, and so it is dealt with, even as an Intruder into Reason's Province, just as the Sodomites dealt with Lot. It refuseth to be an Underling to Faith. Out of this Arrogancy of carnal Reason, as from Pandor [...]'s Box, swarms of Errors are flown abroad into the World.
By this means Socinianism first started, and hath since propagated it self. They look upon it as a ridiculous and unaccountable thing to reason, that the Son [Page 97] should be co-equal and co-eternal with the Father: that God should forgive sins freely, and yet forgive none but upon full satisfaction. That Christ should make that satisfaction by his Sufferings, and yet be pars laesa, the Party offended, and so make satisfaction to himself: with many more of the like stamp.
Yea, Atheism, as well as Socinianism, are births from this Womb. 'Tis proud and carnal Reason which quarrels at the Creation of the World, and seems to triumph in its uncontrolable M [...]xim, Ex nihilo nihil fit, out of nothing comes nothing. It looks upon the Doctrine of the Resurrection with a deriding smile, as a thing incredible. It thinks it hard and harsh that God should command men to turn themselves to him, and threaten them with damnation in case of refusal; and yet at the same time man should not have in himself a sufficient power, and a free will to do this, without the supernatural and preventing Grace of God. It thinks it a ridiculous thing for such a great and solemn Ordinance of God as Baptism is, to pass upon such a Subject as an Infant of a week old, which is not capable to understand the Ends and Uses of it. Hence it is some over-heated Zealots [Page 98] lots have not stuck to say,Mr. Samuel Clark's Golden Apples. p. 149. That we have as good warrant and reason to baptize Cats, Dogs and Horses, as we have to babtize Infants. Oh the madness of Carnal Reason!
The Remedies.
To take down the Arrogance, and prevent the mischief of Carnal Reasonings, let us be convinced,
Remedy I.
That it is the will of God, that Reason in all Believers should resign to Faith, and all Ratiocination submit to Revelation.
Reason is no better than an Usurper, when it presumes to arbitrate matters belonging to Faith and Revelation. Man having sinned by pride, the wisdom of God humbles him at the very root of the Tree of Knowledge, and makes him deny his own Understanding, and submit to Faith; or else for ever to lose his desired Felicity. Laud against Fisher, p. 5. Reason's proper place is to sit at the feet of Faith, and instead of searching the secret grounds and reasons, to adore and admire the great and unsearchable Mysteries of the Gospel. None of God's works are unreasonable, but many of them are above Reason. It was as truly, as ingenuously said by one; Never doth Reason shew it [Page 99] self more reasonable, than when it ceaseth to reason about things that are above Reason. Where is the Wise? where is the Scribe? where is the Disputer of this World? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this World? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the World by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, 1 Cor. 1. 20, 21. 'Tis not Reason, but Faith that must save us.
The Wisdom of God in the Gospel, is wisdom in a Mystery, even hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the World unto our glory, 1 Cor. 2. 7. Such wisdom as the most Eagle-eyed Rationalists and famed Philosophers of the World understood not. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them to us by his spirit, ibid. vers. 9, 10.
Remedy II.
Be convinced of the weakness and deep corruption of natural Reason, and this will restrain its Arrogance, and make it modest and wary.
[Page 100] A convinced and renewed Soul is conscious to it self of its own weakness and blindness, and therefore dares not pry audaciously into the Arcana Coeli, nor summon the great God to its bar. It finds it self posed by the Mysteries of Nature, and therefore concludes it self an incompetent Judge of the Mysteries of Faith.
The Arrogancy of Reason is the reigning Sin of the Unregenerate, though it be a Disease with which the Regenerate themselves are infected. When Conviction shall do its work upon the Soul, the Plumes of spiritual pride quickly fall; and it saith with Iob: Once have I spoken, but I will speak no more; yea, twice, but I will proceed no further. q. d. I have done, Father, I have done; I have uttered things that I understood not, Job 42. 3. Spiritual Illumination cures this Ambition.
Remedy III.
Consider the manifold Mischiefs and Evils flowing from the pride of Reason.
It doth not only fill the World with Errors and Distractions; but it also invades the Rights of Heaven, and casts a vile reflection upon the Wisdom, Sovereignty and Veracity of God. It lifts up [Page 101] it self against his Wisdom, not considering that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, 1 Cor. 1. 25. It spurns at his glorious Sovereignty, not considering that he giveth no account of his matters, Job 33. 13. It questions his Veracity, in saying with Nicodemus, How can these things be? Joh. 3. 9.
Cause IX.
The last Evil Disposition I shall here take notice of in the Subject, is rash and ignorant ZEAL; a temper preparing the mind both to propagate furiously, and receive easily Erroneous Doctrines and Opinions.
When there is in the Soul more heat than light; when a fervent Spirit is governed by a weak Head, such a temper of Spirit Satan desires, and singles out as fittest for his purpose, especially when the Heart is graceless, as well as the Understanding weak. A blind Horse of an high mettle will carry the Rider into any Pit, and venture over the most dangerous Precipices.
Such were the Superstitious Iewish Zealots: they had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. This [...] blind zeal, St. Paul charges justly upon [Page 102] the Iewish Bigots, Rom. 10. 2. as the proper cause of their dangerous Errors about the great point of Iustification: and surely no man understood the evil of it more than he, who in his unregenerate state was transported by it to the most furious persecution of the Saints, Acts 26. 11. and even to dotage, and extreme fondness upon the Erroneous Traditions of his Fathers, Gal. 1. 14.
Blind Zeal is a Sword in a Mad-man's hand. No Persecutor to a Conscientious one, whose Erroneous Conscience offers up the blood of the Saints to the glory of God, Iob. 16. 2. The blind, but zealous Pharisees would compass Sea and Land to make one Proselyte, Matth. 23. 15. as our Modern Pharisees, the Iesuits, have since done, who have mingled themselves with the remotest and most barbarous Nations, to draw them to the Romish Error. Of the same temper were the false Teachers taxed by the Apostle, Gal. 4. 17. they zealously affect you, but not well: yea, they would exclude you (viz. from our Society and Ordinances) that you might affect them.
And as it is the great Instrument by which Satan propagates Errors, so it makes a fit temper in the Souls of the [Page 103] People to receive them. For by this means Error gains the possession of the Affections, without passing a previous and due test by the Understanding, and so gains the Soul by the advantage of a Surprize. Every thing, by how much the more weak and ignoble it is, by so much the more it watcheth upon Surprisals and Advantages. Error cares not to endure the due examination and test of Reason; and therefore seeks to gain by surprisal, what it despairs of ever gaining by a plain and fair tryal.
There be few Errorists in the World of Alexander's mind, who would rather lose the day, than steal the Victory. Hence it comes to pass, that the greatest number of those they lead Captives, are silly Women, as the Apostle speaks, who are the most affectionate, but least judicious Sex.
From this blind Zeal it is, that they cunningly wind their Erroneous Opinions into all their Discourses, where they have any hope to prevail. A rational and modest Contradiction puts them into a flame, it breaks the nearest bonds of Friendship and Society.
Rabshekah in 2 King. 18. would not treat with Hezekiah's Counsellors of State, [Page 104] but with the common People upon the Wall: and Error cares not to treat with sound Reason, able to sift it through the Scripture-search, but with the Affections; as well knowing, it is in vain to make war in Reason's Territories, without first gaining a party among the Affections.
The Remedies.
The best Defensatives against Erroneous Contagions in this case, are to be found in the following Particulars.
Defensative I.
Reflect seriously and sadly upon the manifold Mischiefs occasioned everywhere, and in all Ages of the World, by rash Zeal.
Revolve Church-histories, and you shall find, that scarce any cruel Persecution hath flamed in the World, which hath not been kindled by blind Zeal. Turn over all the Records, both of Pagan and Popish Persecutions, and you shall still find these two Observations confirmed and verified.
First, That ignorant Zeal hath kindled the fires of Persecution; and secondly, That the more zealous any have been for [Page 510] the ways of Error and Falshood, still the more implacably fierce and cruel they have been to the sincere Servants of God. None like a Superstitious Devoto to manage the Devil's work of Persecution throughly, and to purpose. They'l rush violently and head-long into the blood of their dearest Relations, or most eminent Saints, to whose sides the Devil sets this sharp Spur. Superstitious Zeal draws all the strength and power of the Soul into that one Design; and wo to him that stands in the way of such a man, if God interpose not betwixt him and the stroke. It was a rational wish of him that said, Liberet me Deus ab homine unius tantùm negotii, God deliver me from a man of one only Design.
Now consider, Reader, if thy judgment be weak, and thy affections warm, how much thou liest exposed, not only to Errors which may ruine thy self, but also to Tongue and Hand-persecution, wherein Satan may manage thy zeal for the injury or ruine of those that are better than thy self: And withal consider, how many dreadful threatnings are found in Scripture against the instruments of Persecution, so employed and managed by Satan.
[Page 106] Certainly, Reader, it were better for thee to stand with thy naked breast before the mouth of a discharging Cannon, than that thy Soul should stand under this guilt, before such a Scripture-threatning as that, Psal. 7. 13. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his Arrows against the persecutors. And none more likely to become such, than those of thine own temper and complexion; especially if grace be wanting in the heart, whilst Zeal for erroneous Principles eats up the Affections.
Second Defensative.
Consider what mischief zeal for an Error will do thine own Soul, as well as others.
It will wholly ingross thy time, thoughts and strength; so that if there be any gracious principle in thee, it shall not be able to thrive and prosper: For look, as a Fever takes off the natural appetite from Food, so will erroneous Zeal take off thy Spiritual Appetite from Meditation, Prayer, Heart-examination, and all other the most necessary and nourishing Duties of Religion, by reason whereof thy grace must languish.
[Page 107] When thy Soul, with David's, should be filled and feasted, as with marrow and fatness, by delightful meditations of God upon thy Bed, thou wilt be rolling in thy mind thy barren and insipid notions, which yield no food or spiritual strength to thy Soul; thou wilt lye musing how to dissolve the Arguments and Objections against thine Errors, when thou shouldst rather be employed in solving the just and weighty Objections that lye against thy sincerity and interest in Christ, which were time far better improved.
Third Defensative.
Consider how baneful this inordinate zeal hath been to Christian Society, lamentably defacing, and almost dissolving it every where, to the unspeakable detriment of the Churches.
We read, Mal. 3. 16. of a blessed time, when they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a Book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared the Lord, and thought upon his Name. Oh happy time! Halcion days! I, my self, remember the time, when the Zeal of the Saints spent it self in provoking one another to [Page 108] Love and Good Works, in joint and fervent Prayer, in inward, experimental, and edifying Communion; my Soul hath them still in remembrance, and is cast down within me: For alas! alas! how do I see every where Christian Communion turned into vain janglings? Churches and Families into meer Cock-pits? Mens Discoursings falling as naturally into contentions about trifles, as they were wont to do into Heavenly and Experimental Subjects, to the unspeakable disgrace and damage of Religion?
Fourth Defensative.
That Opinion is justly to be suspected for erroneous, which comes in at the Postern-door of the Affections; and not openly and fairly ar the right Gate of an enlightned and well-satisfied judgment. 'Tis a Thief that cometh in at the backdoor, at least strongly to be suspected for one. Truth Courts the Mistriss, makes its first and fair Addresses to the Understanding. Error bribes the Handmaid, and labours first to win the Affections, that by their influence it may corrupt the Judgment.
And thus you see, besides the innocent Occasion, viz. God's Permission of [Page 109] Errors in the World, for the tryal of his people, Nine proper Causes of Errors found in the evil dispositions of the minds of Men, which prepare them to receive erroneous Doctrines and Impressions, viz.
- 1. A wrangling humour at the pretended Obscurity of Scripture.
- 2. The Abuse of that Christian Liberty purchased by Christ.
- 3. Slothfulness in searching the whole Word of God.
- 4. Fickleness and Instability of Judgment.
- 5. Eagerness after Anodines to ease a distressed Conscience.
- 6. An easy Credulity in following the Judgments and Examples of others.
- 7. Vain Curiosity, and prying into unrevealed Secrets.
- 8. The Pride and Arrogancy of Human Reason.
- 9. Blind Zeal, which spurs on the Soul, and runs it upon dangerous precipices.
We next come to consider the principal Impulsive Cause, by which Errors are propagated and disseminated in the World.
Cause X.
Come we next in the proper order, to consider the Principal Impulsive Cause of Errors; which is SATAN working upon the predisposed matter he finds in the corrupt Nature of Man.Quae quidem res abundè docet diram esse Diaboli malitiam: qui victus, at (que) prostratus à Christo, nihilominus ausus est ejus verbum ac totam religionis formam, tetris opinionibus ac blasphemiis conspurcare, lacerare, & propemodum evertere. Ut autem portenta hujus maligni spiritùs in conspectu sint & quasi primae scaturigines plurimarum haeresium, quae postea, veluti aliis in se receptis rivis mirum in modum excreverunt, &c. Hist. Magdeb. Cent. 1. Lib. 2. Cap. 5. p. 368. The Centurists speaking of the strange and sudden growth of Errors and Heresies, immediately after the planting of the Gospel by Christ, and the Apostles, ascribe it to Satan.
Satan is a Lyar from the beginning,When Swinkfeld sent his Books to Luther, he told the Messenger, the Devil was the Author of them; and the Lord rebuke thee Satan, was the Answer he returned to them. and abode not in the Truth: He hates it with a deadly hatred, and all the Children and Friends of Truth. And this hatred he manifesteth sometimes by raising furious storms of persecution against the sincere Professors of it, Rev. 3. 10. and sometimes by Clouds of Heresies and Errors, with design to darken it. In the former he acts as a roaring Lyon; in the latter as a subtil Serpent, 2 Cor. 11. [...]. I [Page 111] fear lest as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty; so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
He is exceeding skilful and dexterous in citing and wresting the Scriptures to serve his vile designs and purposes; and as impudently daring, as he is crafty and cunning; as appears in the History of Christ's temptation in the desart, Matt. 4. 6. where he cites one part of that promise, Psal. 91. 11. and suppresseth the rest; shows the encouragement, viz. He shall give his Angels charge over thee; but clips off the limitation of it, viz. to keep thee in all thy ways: In viis, non in praecipitiis, In our lawful ways, not in rash and dangerous precipices; as Bernard well glosseth.
And 'tis worth observation, that he introduceth multitudes of Errors into the World, under the unsuspected notions of admirable Prophylacticks, and approved Preservatives from all mischiefs and dangers from himself. Under this notion, he hath neatly and covertly slided into the World, Holy-water, Crossings, Reliques of Saints, and almost innumerable other superstitious Rites.
Erroneous Teachers are the Ministers of Satan, however they transform themselves [Page 112] into Ministers of Righteousness, 2 Cor. 11. 15. and the subtil dangerous Errors they broach, are fitly stiled by the Spirit of God, [...], the depths of Satan, Rev. 2. 24. The corrupt Teachers, the Gnosticks, &c. called them Depths, i. e. great mysteries, high and marvellous attainments in knowledg; but the Spirit of God fits a very proper Epithete to them, They are Satanical depths, and Mysteries of Iniquity. Now the level and design of Satan herein is double:
First, He aims at the ruin and damnation of those that vent and propagate them; upon which account the Apostle calls them [...], 2 Pet. 2. 1. destructive, or (as we render it) damnable Heresies. And because God will preserve the Souls of his own from this mortal Contagion, therefore,
Secondly, He endeavours by lesser Errors to busy the minds, and check the growth of Grace in the Souls of the Saints, by employing them about things so foreign to true godliness, and the power thereof, Heb. 13. 9.
The Remedies.
The Rules for prevention and recovery, are these that follow:
Rule I.
Pray earnestly for a thorow change of the state and temper of thy Soul, by sound Conversion and Regeneration.
Conversion turns us from darkness to light; and from the power of Satan to God, Acts 26. 18. They are his own slaves and vassals that are taken captive by him at his will, 2 Tim. 2. 16. A Sanctified heart is a Soveraign defensative against Erroneous Doctrines; it furnishes the Soul with spiritual eyes, judicious ears, and a distinguishing taste, by which it may discern both good and evil, truth and error, Heb. 5. 14. yea, it puts the Soul at once under the conduct of the Spirit, and protection of the Promise, Ioh. 16. 13. and though this doth not secure a Man from all lesser mistakes, yet it effectually secures him from greater ones, which are inconsistent with Christ and Salvation.
Rule II.
Acquaint your selves with the wiles and methods of Satan, and be not ignorant of his devices, 2 Cor. 2. 11.
When once you understand the wash and paint with which he sets off the ugly [Page 114] face of Error, you will not easily be enamoured with it. Pretences of Devotion upon one side, and of Purity, Zeal, and Reformation upon the other▪ though they be pleasant sounds to both ears, yet the wary Soul will examine, before it receive and admit Doctrinal Points under these gilded Titles. Those that have made their Observations upon the stratagems of Satan, will heedfully observe both the tendency of Doctrines, and the Lives of their Teachers; and if they find looseness, pride, wantonness in them, it is not a glorious title, or magnificent name that shall charm them. They know Satan can transform himself into an Angel of Light; and no wonder if his Ministers also be transformed into Ministers of Righteousness, 2 Cor. 11. 14, 15.
Rule III.
Resign your Minds and Judgments in fervent Prayer to the Government of Christ, and Conduct of the Spirit; and in all your addresses to God, pray that he would keep them chast and pure, and not suffer Satan to commit a rape upon them. Plead with God that part of Christ's Prayer, Iohn 17. 17. Sanctify [Page 115] them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Rule IV.
Live in the conscientious and constant practice of all those Truths and Duties God hath already manifested to you.
This will bring you under that blessed Promise of Christ, Iohn 7. 17. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God. Satan's greatest successes are amongst idle, notional, and vain Professors; not humble, serious, and practical Christians.
Caus [...] XI.
Having considered and dispatched the several internal Causes of Error, found in the evil dispositions of the seduced, as also the Impulsive Cause, viz. Satan, who fits suitable baits to all these sinful humours and evil tempers of the heart; we come next to consider the Instrumental Cause employed by Satan in this work, viz. the FALSE TEACHER, whom Satan makes use of as his Seedsman, to disseminate and scatter erroneous Doctrines and Principles into the minds of Men, Ploughed up and prepared by those evil tempers forementioned, as a fit Soil to receive them.
[Page 116] The choice of Instruments is a principal part of Satan's policy. Every one is not fit to be employed in such a Service as this. All are not fit to be of the Council of War, who yet take their places of Service in the Field. A Rustick carried out of the Field, on Board a Ship at Sea, though he never learned his Compass, nor saw a Ship before, can by another's direction tug lustily at a Rope; but he had need be an expert Artist, that sits at the Helm, and steers the course. The worst Causes need the smoothest Orators; and bad Ware a cunning Merchant to put it offSubtiles & astutas fuisse Montani fraudes, & quae blandâ specie quibusvis imponere facilè potuerint; indè liquet quòd totam propemodùm Scripturam suscepit; ac de Deo Patre, Filio, & Spiritu sancto, (ut Epiphanius scribit) eadem docuit quae Ecclesia Christi. Magdeb. Cent. 2. Cap. 5. p. 77. De Haeresibus sub Commodo.
Deep-parted Men are coveted by Satan to manage this design. None like an eloquent Tertullus to confront a Paul, Acts 24. 1. A subtil Eccius to enter the List in defence of the Popish Cause, against the Learned and Zealous Reformers. When the Duke of Buckingham undertook to Plead the bad Cause of Richard the third, the Londoners said, They never thought it had been possible for any Man [Page 117] to deliver so much bad Matter, in such good Words, and quaint Phrases.
The first Instrument chosen by Satan to deceive Man, was the Serpent; because that Creature was more subtil than any Beast of the Field. There is not a Man of eminent parts, but Satan courts and sollicites him for this service. St. Austin told an ingenious, but unsanctified Scholar, Cupit abs te ornari Diabolus, The Devil covets thy Parts to adorn his Cause. He surveys the World, and where-ever he finds more than ordinary strength of Reason, pregnancy of Wit, depth of Learning, and elegancy of Language, that is the Man he looks for.
These are the Men that can almost indiscernably sprinkle their Errors among many precious Truths, and wrap up their poisonous Drugs in Leaf-gold or Sugar. Maresius notes of Crellius and his Accomplices, That by the power of their Eloquence, and sophistry of their Arguments, they were able artificially to cloath horrible Blasphemies to allure the simple.Tectorio fucatae eloquentiae, argutiís (que) Sophisticis è Scripturâ perniciosè detortâ, ac fallaci fallenté (que) ratione horrendae blasphemiae artificiosè circumvestiuntur ad inescandos simpliciores. Praefatio ad Hydr. Socin..
[Page 118] And like the Hyaena, they can counterfeit the voices of the Shepherds, to deceive and destroy the Sheep. There is (saith a lateMr. W. Gurnal, Christi [...]n Armour, Part 2. p. 33. Worthy) an erudita nequitia, a Learned kind of wickedness, a subtil art of deceiving the minds of others. Upon which account the Spirit of God sometimes compares them, 2 Pet. 2. 3.Sunt quidam vaniloqui, & mentis seductores, non Christiani, sed Christum mercantes & cauponantes verbum Evangelii, qui venenum Erroris commiscentes dulci blandimento sicut oenomeli ut qui biberit illius potus gustabilem sensum, dulcedine captus, inobservanter morti addic [...]tur. Ignatius Epist. ad Trallianos, p. 68 to cunning and cheating Tradesmen, who have the very art to set a gloss upon their bad Wares with fine words, [...], they buy and sell the people with their ensnaring and feigned words. And sometimes he compares them to cunning Gamesters, that have the art and sleight of hand to Cog the Die, to deceive the unskilful, and win their Game, Eph. 4. 14. [...], &c.
And sometimes the Spirit of God compares them to Witches themselves, Gal. 3. 1. [...]; foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? How many strange feats have been done upon the bodies of Men and Women by Witchcraft? But far more and stranger upon [Page 119] the Souls of Men by the Magick of Error. Iannes and Iambres performed wonderful things in the sight of Pharoah, by which they deceived and hardened him; and unto these, false Teachers are compared.
Such a Man was Elymas the Sorcerer, who laboured to seduce the Deputy, Sergius Paulus, though a prudent Man, Acts 13. 7, 8, 9, 10. Oh full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou Child of the Devil! saith Paul unto him. The Art of seduduction from the ways of truth and holiness, discovers a Man to be both the Child and Scholar of the Devil.
But as the wise and painful Ministers of Christ, who turn many to Righteousness, shall have double Glory in Heaven; so these subtil and most active Agents for the Devil, who turn many from the ways of Righteousness, will have a double portion of misery in Hell.
The Remedies.
The proper Remedies in this Case are principally two.
Remedy I.
Pray fervently, and labour diligently in the use of all God's appointed means, [Page 120] to get more solidity of Judgment, and strength of Grace to establish you in the Truth, and secure your Souls against the cunning craftiness of Men that lye in to deceive.
'Tis the ignorance and weakness of the people, which makes the Factors for Error so successful as they are. Consult the Scriptures, and you shall find these cunning Merchants drive the quickest and gainfullest trade among the weak and injudicious. So speaks the Apostle, With good words and fair speeches, they deceive the hearts of the simple; [...], harmless, weak, easie Souls, who have a desire to do well, but want wisdom to discern the subtilties of them that mean ill; who are void both of fraud in themselves, and suspition of others. Oh! what success have the Deceivers, [...], their fair words and sugared speeches, sweet and taking expressions, among such innocent ones!
And who are they among whom Satan's cunning Gamesters commonly win the Game, and sweep the Stakes, but weak Christians, credulous Souls, whom for that reason the Apostle calls [...], Children. The word properly signifies an [Page 121] an Infant, when 'tis referred to the Age; but unskilful and unlearned, when referred (as it is here) to the Mind. So again, 2 Pet. 2. 14. They (that is, the False Teachers there spoken of) beguile [...], unstable Souls, Souls that are not confirmed and grounded in the Principles of Religion. Whence by the way, take notice of the unspeakable advantage and necessity of being well Catechized in our youth: the more judicious, the more secure.
Remedy II.
Labour to acquaint your selves with the sleights and artifices Satan's Factors and Instruments generally make use of, to seduce and draw Men from the Truth. The knowledg of them is a good defensative against them. Now there are two common Artifices of Seducers, which it is not safe for Christians to be ignorant of
First, They usually seek to disgrace and blast the reputations of those Truths and Ministers set for their defence, which they design afterwards to overthrow and ruin; and to beget credit and reputation to those Errors which they have a mind to introduce. How many precious truths [Page 122] of God are this day, and with this design defamed as legal and carnal Doctrines; and those that defend them, as Men of an Old Testament spirit?
Humiliation for Sin, Contrition of Spirit, &c fall under disgrace with many, and indeed all qualifications and pre-requisites unto coming to Christ, as things not only needless, but pernicious unto the Souls of Men, although they have not the least dependance upon them: Yea, Faith it self, as a pre-requisite unto Justification, as no better than a Condition pertaining to Adam's Covenant.
And so for the persons of Orthodox Ministers; you see into what contempt the false Teachers would have brought both the Person and Preaching of Paul himself, 2 Cor. 10. 10. His bodily presence (say they) is weak, and his speech contemptible.
Secondly, Their other common Artifice is, to insinuate their false Doctrines among many acknowledged and precious Truths, which only serve for a convenient vehicle to them; and besides that, to make their Errors as palatable and gustful as they can to the vitiated Appetite of corrupt Nature.Mr. W. G. The forementioned Worthy hath judiciously observed [Page 123] how artificially Satan hath blended his baneful Doses, to please the Palate of Carnal Reason, Spiritual Pride, and the desire of Fleshly Liberty.
Carnal Reason is that great Idol, which the more intelligent part of the carnal World worships. And are not the Socinian Heresies as pleasant to it, as a wellmixt Iulep to a feverish Stomach.
Spiritual Pride is another Diana, which obtains greatly in the World; and no Doctrine like the Pelagian and Semipelagian Errors, gratify it. A Doctrine that sets fallen Nature upon its Legs again, and persuades it, it can go alone to Christ; at least, with a little external help of Moral suasion, without any preventing or creating work in the Soul. This goes down glib and grateful.
And then for Fleshly Liberty, How do those that are fond of it rejoice in that Doctrine or Opinion, which looses Nature from the yoke of restraint? How does the poor deluded Papist hug himself, to think he hath liberty by his Religion, to let loose the reins of his Lust to all sensualities, and quit himself from all that guilt, by Auricular Confession to the Priest once a year? How doth the Familist smile upon that Principle of his, [Page 124] which tells him, the Gospel allows more Liberty than severe Legal Teachers think fit to tell them of: They press Repentance and Faith; but Christ hath done all this to thy hands.
Cause XII.
Having considered the several Causes of Errors, found in the evil dispositions of the seduced, as also the impulsive and instrumental Causes, namely Satan and false Teachers employed by him; I shall next proceed to discover some special, and most successful Methods frequently used by them, to draw the minds of Men from the Truth. Amongst which, that which comes first to consideration, is the great skill they have in representing the ABVSES of the Ordinances of God, and Duties of Religion, by wicked Men, to scare tender and weak Consciences from the due use of them, and all further attendance upon them.
The abuse of Christ's holy Appointments are so cunningly improved to serve this design, that the minds of many wellmeaning persons receive such deep disgust at them, that they are scarce ever to be reconciled to them again. A strong prejudice is apt to drive Men from one [Page 125] extream upon another, as thinking they can never get far enough off from that which hath been so scaringly represented to them. Thus making good the old Observation, Dum vitant stulti vitia, in contraria currunt; they run from the troublesome smoak of Superstition, into the Fire of an irreligious contempt of God's Ordinances, split themselves upon Charybdis to avoid Scylla. Ex. gra.
The Papists having deeply abused the Ordinance of Baptism, by their corruptive mixtures and additions of the superstitious Cross, Chrism, &c. part whereof is not sufficiently purged to this day by the Reformation; and finding also multitudes of carnal Protestants dangerously resting upon their supposed baptismal Regeneration, to the great hazard of their Salvation; which mistake is but too much countenanced by some of its Administrators: They take from hence such deep offence at the administration of it to any Infants at all (though the Seed of God's Covenanted People) that they think they can never be sharp enough in their invectives against it; nor have they patience to hear the most rational defences of that Practise.
[Page 126] So, for that Scriptural Heavenly Duty of Singing: What more commonly alledged against it, than the abuse and ill effects of that precious Ordinance? How often is the Nonsense and Error of the common Translation, the rudeness and dulness of the Metre of some Psalms, as Psal. 7. 13. as also the cold formality, with which that Ordinance is performed by many who do but Parrotize? I say, How often are these things buz'd into the ears of the people, to alienate their hearts from so sweet and beneficial a Duty?
And very often we find it urged to the same end, how unwarrantable and dangerous a thing it is for carnal and unregenerated persons to appropriate to themselves in Singing, those Praises and Experiences which are peculiar to the Saints; not understanding, or considering that the singing of Psalms is an Ordinance of Christ, appointed for teaching and admonition, as well as praising, Col. 3. 16. Teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns, &c.The Divinity of former ages (saith Mr. Saltmarsh) put but a Grain, or Drachm of Gospel, to a Pound of Law, in their Receipts for distempered Souls. Vide Saltmarsh of Free-grace, p. 40. Thus Antinomianism took, if not its rise, yet its encouragement from the too rigorous pressing of the Law upon convinced sinners.
[Page 127] If Satan can prevail first with wicked Men, to corrupt and abuse God's Ordinances by the superstitious mixtures and additions; and then with good Men, to renounce and slight them for the sake of those abuses; he fully obtains his design, and gives Christ a double wound at once; one by the hand of his avowed Enemies, the other by the hands of his Friends, no less grievous than the first. First, wicked Men corrupt Christ's Ordinances; and then good Men nauseate them.
The Remedies.
The proper Remedies against Errors, insinuated by the abuses of Duties and Ordinances, are such as follow:
Remedy I.
Let Men consider, that there is nothing in Religion so great, so sacred and excellent, but some or other have greatly corrupted or vilely abused them.
What is there in the whole World more precious and excellent than the Free-grace of God? and yet you read, Iude 4. of some that turned the Grace of our Lord into Lasciviousness. What more desirable to Christians, than the glorious Liberty Christ hath purchased [Page 128] for them by his Blood, and setled upon them in the Gospel-Charter? A Liberty from Satan, Sin, and the rigour and Curse of the Law; and yet you read, 1 Pet. 2. 16. of them that used this Liberty for a cloak of maliciousness. 'Tis true, Christ came to be a Sacrifice for Sin, but not a Cloak for Sin; to set us at Liberty from the Bondage of our Lusts, not from the Ties and Duties of our Obedience. Under the pretence of this Liberty it was, that the Gnosticks, Carpocratians, and the Menandrians of old, did not only connive at; but openly taught and practised all manner of leudness and uncleanness.
St. Augustin, Menandriani omnem turpitudinem libentèr amplexi sunt, tanquàm gratiae Dei erga homines fructum. August. Lib. de Haeres. in his Book of Heresy, makes this sad complaint, The Menandrians (saith he) do willingly embrace all uncleanness as the fruit of the Grace of God towards Men. And not only the Liberty purchased by Christ, but the very Person and Gospel of Christ are liable to abuses; and oftentimes through the corruptions of Mens hearts, become Stones of stumbling, and Rocks of offence. What then? Shall we renounce the Grace of God, our Christian Liberty, the very Gospel, yea, and Person of Christ himself, because each of them [Page 129] have been thus vilely abused by wicked wretches? At the peril of our eternal damnation be it, if we do so. Blessed is he (saith our Lord) that is not offended in me. Beware, lest by this means Satan at once wound the Lord Jesus Christ by scandal, and thy Soul by prejudice.
Remedy II.
Consider also, that it is the nature and temper of a gracious Soul, to raise his esteem, and heighten his love to those Ordinances which are most abused and disgraced by Men.
The more they are abused and opposed by others, the higher they should be valued and honoured by us; Psal. 119. 126, 127. It is time for thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void thy Law; therefore I love thy Commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold. q. d. The more they are disgraced and abused by wicked men, the more do I honour and prize them. A like spirit, with David's, was found in Elijah, 1 King. 19. 14. I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts; because the Children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant, thrown down thine Altars, and slain thy Prophets with the Sword.
[Page 130] A good Man will strive to honour and secure those Truths and Duties most, which he finds under most disgrace or danger. He loves the Truth sincerely, who cleaves to it, and stands by it under all opposition. This is a good tryal of the soundness of thy heart, and purity of thine ends in Religion: Such a proof, as the honour and reputation of Religion in the World can never give thee.
In Solomon's time the Iews were very cautious how they admitted and received Proselytes, suspecting that by-ends and worldly respects may draw men to it; but they were not so cautelous in times of disgrace and persecution.
Remedy III.
Before you part with any Ordinance or practice in Religion, bethink your selves whether you never found any spiritual blessings or advantages in that path which you are now tempted to forsake.
Had you never any spiritual meltings of your hearts and affections in that Heavenly Ordinance of Singing? And may there not be now Thousands of Mercies in your possession in consequence to, and as the fruit of your solemn dedication to [Page 131] God in Baptism by your Covenanted Parents? For my own part, I do heartily and solemnly bless God for it upon this account; and so I hope Thousands besides my self have cause to do. However, such a Practice may by no means be deserted by you, because abused by others.
Cause XIII.
Another Method and Artifice, by which false Teachers draw multitudes of Disciples after them, is, by granting to their Ignorant and Ambitious Followers the LIBERTY of PROPHESYING; flattering them into a conceit of their excellent Gifts and Attainments, when God knows they had more need to be Catechised and taught the Principles of Christianity, than undertake to expound and apply those profound Mysteries unto others.
Satan hath filled the Church and World with Errors and Troubles this way.Stultissimiatque impiissimi homines, non intelligentes nihil contrarium in rebus iisdem ab eodem dictum fuisse, verbis tantùm inhaerentes. causas ipsas dictorum reliquêrunt. Et diversa quidem Scripturae dicta videntes, ad impietatem reciderunt, divinorum dictorum incapaces. Hilarius, Lib. 1. de Trinit. When ignorant and unexperienced Persons begin to think it a low and a dull thing to sit from year to year under other mens teachings, and to [Page 132] fancy that they are wiser than their Teachers; their Pride will quickly tempt them to shew their Ignorance, and that mischievous Ignorance will prove dangerous to the Truth, and troublesome to the Church. The Apostle forbids the Ordination of a Novice, lest he be puffed up, and fall into the condemnation of the Devil: and in 1 Tim. 1. 7. he shews us the reason why some swerved and turned aside unto vain jangling; and it was this, That they desired to be Teachers of the Law, neither understanding what they said, nor whereof they affirmed. That is, They affected to be Preachers, though not able to speak congrucusly, with tolerable sense and reason.
I do not here censure and condemn the use and exercise of the Gifts of all private Christians. There are to be found amongst them some Persons of raised parts, and answerable modesty and humility, who may be very useful, when called to service, in extraordinary Cases, by the Voice of Providence; or exercise their Gifts in a probationary way, or in due subordination unto Christ's publick Officers and Ordinances, by, and with the consent of the Pastor, and Congregation.
[Page 133] But when unqualified and uncalled Persons undertake such a work out of the conceit and pride of their own hearts, or are allured to it by the crafty Designs of Erroneous Teachers, partly to overthrow a publick, regular and standing Ministry in the Church, to which end the Scriptures are manifestly abused, such as Ier. 31. 34. Rom. 12. 6. 1 Cor. 14. 1 Pet. 4. 10. with many others; This is the practise I here censure, which like a Trojan Horse, hath sent forth multitudes of Erroneous Persons into the City of God to infest and defile it.
I cannot doubt but many a sincere Christian may be drawn into such employment whichputs him into a capacity of honouring God in a more eminent way, which is a thing desirable to an honest and zealous heart: and that the temptation may be greatly strengthened upon them by the plausible suggestions of cunning Seducers, who tell them, That those Ministers who oppose and condemn this practise, do it as men concerned for their own Interest, as desirous to monopolize the work to themselves, and as envying the Lord's People: and that Christ hath given them a greater liberty in this case, than those men will allow them. By [Page 134] this means they daw many after them, and fix them in their Erroneous ways.
I have no mind at all here to expose the Follies and Mischiefs introduced this way, as neither being willing to grieve the hearts of the Sincere on one side, nor gratify scoffing Atheists, and prophane Enemies to Religion, upon the other side: only this I will, and must say, That by this means the Sacred Scriptures are most injuriously wrested, the Peace and Order of the Church disturbed, and a great many Mistakes and Errors introduced.
The Remedies.
The prevention and cure of Errors this way introduced, or likely to be introduced into the Church, is by pondering and applying the following Considerations.
Consideration I.
Let all that encourage others, or undertake by others encouragement such a Work as this, for which they are not competently qualified, and unto which they are not regularly called, consider seriously with themselves what danger they cast their own, and other mens Souls upon.
[Page 135] The Apostle tells us, 2 Pet. 3. 16. That the unlearned and unstable do wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction. Danger enough, one would think, to scare them from it, did not the same sin of Ignorace, which makes them wrest the Scriptures, cause them also to slight and overlook the danger of so doing.Athanas [...]s indicat Scripturas malitiosè intellectas & detortas, errores parere. Athanasius contra Apollinar.
Certainly, my Friends, it is a great deal safer, and more excusable, to put an ignorant Rustick into an Apothecary's Shop to compound a Medicine of Drugs and Spirits, which he understands not, and considently administer the same to the Bodies of men; than for such Persons as are led by ignorance and confidence, to intermeddle with the Ministerial Employment: the one, perhaps, by mistake, may poison mens Bodies; but the other their Souls. An ignorant Master, or Pilot, that never learned the Compass, are rather to be trusted among Rocks and Quick-sands, than a proud ignorant Person with the conduct of Souls.
Consideration II.
What daring Presumption is it to intrude our selves into so great and weighty an Employment without any Call or Warrant of Christ! Rom. 10. 14. How shall they call upon him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a Preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent?
These Mysteries must be committed to faithful Men, who shall be able to teach others. Those Abilities must be examined, 1 Tim. 3. 10. and the Exercise of them warranted by a due and orderly appointment thereunto, 1 Tim. 4. 14. else (as one well observes) In tàm praeposterâ disciplinae ruinâ tot essent sensus, quot capita; tot dissensus, quot sensus; We shall have as many senses of Scripture, as we have Preachers, &c.
If every Phaeton, that thinks himself able, shall undertake to drive the Chariot of the Sun, no wonder if the World be set on fire. Gifts and Abilities of Mind are not of themselves sufficient to make a Preacher. Some Lawyers at the Bar may be as skilful as the Iudge upon the Bench, but without a Commission they dare not sit there.
Consideration III.
The honour you affect, to vent your unsound Notions with liberty, is in Scripture-account your greatest dishonour.
The Scripture reckons false Teachers among the basest of the People: The Prophet that teacheth lyes, he is the Tayl, i. e. the basest part of the whole body of the People, Isa. 9. 15. And so far is due Gospel-Liberty from countenancing such dangerous Irregularities, that we find in a clear Prophecy of Gospel-times, what shame God will pour upon them, Zech. 13. 4, 5. They shall be brought with shame enough to confess, I am no Prophet, I am an Husband-man; for man taught me to keep Cattel from my youth.
Consideration IV.
How much more safe, regular and advantageous were it for such as you, to fill your own proper Places under able and faithful Gospel-Ministers, and to suck the Breasts of fruitful Ordinances, than to consume and pine away by sucking your own Breasts? I mean, living upon your own weak and insufficient Gifts, in the sinful neglect of Christ's Appointments?
Cause XIV.
False Teachers also propagate their Errors by a Spirit of ENTHVSIASM, the usual concomitant of Erroneous Doctrine; and draw away multitudes after them, by pretending to extraordinary Revelations, Visions, and Voices from Heaven, which seem to give great credit to their Way and Party.Nonnulli autem falsorum Prophetarum vaticinio illecti de quibus & veri Prophetae, & ipse praedixerat, exciderunt à doctrinâ Dei, & traditionem veram reliquerunt. Sed illi omnes daemoniacis fraudibus irretiti, quas prospicere & cavere debuerant, divinum nomen & cultum per imprudentiam perdiderunt. Lact. lib. 4. cap. 30. de Haeresibus.
This was an old trick and practice of Deceivers, Deut. 13. 1. to give Signs and Wonders in confirmation of their Way, which Signs the Lord may permit to fall out to prove his People, vers. 2. 3. tho, for the most part, they are confuted by their unanswerable Events.
In the beginning of our Reformation by Luther, Calvin, &c. there sprung up a Generation of Men, called Swenkfeldians, great Pretenders to Revelations and Visions, who were always speaking of Deifications; and an higher strain of Language they commonly used among themselves, than other serious Christians understood, [Page 139] and therefore scornfully entitled Orthodox and humble Christians, who stuck to the Scripture-phrase, and wholsome form of sound words, Grammatists, Vocabulists, Literalists, &c. These Men (asIrretiti suis quibusdam Enthusiasticis laqueis, unde se extricari summam putant impietatem: dementabant multos magnificis istis verbis, Illuminatio, Revelatio, Deificatio, &c. Scultetus in his Annals, ad annum 1525. Observes of them) were so entangled in certain Enthusiastick Snares, that they thought it the highest impiety to renounce them: and they had befooled multitudes with their magnificent words of Illumination, Revelation, Deification.
Much of the same Spirit was Thomas Muntzer, Iohn of Leyden, David George, Iacob Behmen, &c. whose cloudy Nonsense, aenigmatical Expressions, and wilful Obscurity, drew many into a strange admiration of them: They all pretend to an higher knowledge of Mysteries than what the Gospel is acquainted with; and and yet give us (as Mr. Baxter well observes) neither Reasons with Aristotle, nor Miracles with Christ, and his Apostles, to cause us to believe any of their new Revelations. Vid. Baxter of the Sin against the Holy Ghost, p. 148.
[Page 140] Of the same Bran were our late Familists in England, of whom Henry Nichols was the chief Leader, who decried the written Word as a dead Letter; and set up their own fond Conceits and Fancies under the notion of the Spirit; against whom that heavenly and Learned Man, Mr. Samuel Rutherford, seasonably and succesfully appeared. Hacket, Coppinger and Arthington, were of the same Tribe; who lived a-while wrapt up in Antinomian Fancies, which at last brake forth into the highest and most horrid Blasphemies.
Another Art they make use of to seduce the Credulous, is a pretence unto the Spirit of Prophecy; and great sucsess they promise themselves this way among the weak, but curious Vulgar. And to this end Satan hath inspired and employed some Cunninger Heads to invent very pleasing Predictions and Prophecies, in favour of that Party whom he designs to deceive. And how catching and bewitching these things are, gaining more respect among these vain Spirits, than the divine unquestionable Prophecies of Scripture, this Age hath had full and sad experience.
[Page 141] Now the Design of Satan in these things, is to gain credit to those Sects, as People peculiarly favoured and beloved of God above others; as if they were the particular Favourites of Heaven, as Daniel was; and so to draw the Multitude to admire their Persons, and espouse their Errors.
The Remedies.
Now the Remedies in this Case are such as follow.
Remedy I.
Whatever Doctrine or Practice seeks credit to it self this way, falls justly thereby under suspicion, that it wants a solid Scripture-foundation.
God hath not left his People to seek satisfaction in such uncertain ways as these; but hath given them a surer word of Prophecy, to which they do well to take heed, 2 Pet. 1. 19. He hath tyed us to the standing Rule of the Word, forbidding us to give heed to any other Voice, or Spirit, leading us another way, Isa. 8. 19. 2 Thess. 2. 1, 2. Gal. 1. 8. Scripture-light is a safe and sure Light, a pleasant and sufficient Light.
[Page 142] The Scripture (saith Luther) is so full, that as for Visions and Revelations, nec curo, nec desidero, I neither regard, nor desire them. And when he himself had a Vision of Christ after a day of fasting and prayer, he cried out, Avoid Satan, I know no Image of Christ, but the Scripture. An hankering mind after these things, speaks a sickly and distempered state of Soul, as longing after Trash in young distempered Persons, doth a distempered state, or ill habit of Body.
Mr. William Bridges somewhere tells us of a Religious Lady of the Empresses Bed-chamber, whose name was Gregoria, who being greatly troubled about her Salvation, wrote to Gregory, That she would never cease importuning him, 'till he had sent her word, that he had obtained a Revelation from Heaven that she should be saved: to whom he returned this Answer; Rem difficilem postulas & inutilem, Thou requirest of me that which is difficult to me, and unprofitable for thee.
Remedy II.
Consider how often the World hath been abused by the Tricks and Cheats of that officious Spirit, the Devil, in such ways as these.
[Page 143] What hath propagated Idolatry among Heathens and Christians more than this? Hinc fluxerunt multae peregrinationnes, Monasteria, delubra, dies festi & alia, saith Lavater, in Iob 33. Pilgrimages, Monasteries, Shrines of Saints, Holydays, &c. have been introduced by this Trick. 'Twere endless to give Instances of it in the Histories of former Ages.Of the Prophesies, Visions and pretended Inspirations of Storke, Pfeiffer, Becold, Warendorp, &c. with the efficacy of them on the deluded People, and fatal consequences of them both to the Deceived, and Deceivers: See Mr. Samuel Rutherford's survey of the Spiritual Antichrist, p. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
We have a notable late Account of it among our selves, in a Book, entitled, [A Discovery of the notorious Falsehood and Dissimulation contained in a Book, stiled, The Gospel-way confirmed by Miracles] Licensed and published 1649. wherein is laid open to the World, the free Confession of Ann Wells, Matthe [...] Hall, &c. deluding the People of Whatfield in Suffolk with such pretended Voices, Visions, Prophecies and Revelations, the like have scarcely been heard of in England since the Reformation. Multitudes of People were deluded by them.
[Page 144] At length the Lord extorted from this Woman a full Confession of the notorious falseness of these things, by a terrible Vision of Hell: her Partizans laboured four days to suppress and stifle it, but to no purpose: for the Horrors of Conscience prevailed with her to confess the notorious Dissimulations contained in that Book, before the People of Whatfield, and a Justice of the Peace. And thus the Lord out-shot Satan in his own Bow.
Remedy III.
Consider how difficult, yea, and impossible it is for a man to determine that such a Voice, Vision, or Revelation is of God; and that Satan cannot feign or counterfeit it; seeing he hath left no certain marks by which we may distinguish one Spirit from another: an albus? an ater?
Sure we are, Satan can transform himself into an Angel of Light; and therefore abandoning all those unsafe and uncertain ways, whereby Swarms of Errors have been conveyed into the World, let us cleave inseparably to the sure Word of Prophecy, the Rule and Standard of our Faith and Duty.
Cause XV.
Another way in which False Teachers discover their Subtilty with great success, is, in TIMING their Assaults, and nicking the proper Season, when the minds of men are most apt and easy to be drawn away by their fair and specious Pretences.
Such a Season as this, they find about the time of mens first Conversion, or soon after their Implantation into Christ. Now it is that their Affections are most lively and vigorous, though their Judgments be but weak. They have now such strong and deep apprehensions of the Grace and Love of Christ, and such transcendent zeal for him, that they easily embrace any thing whereby they conceive he may be honoured and exalted. They have also such deep Apprehensions and powerful Aversations as to Sin, that they are in danger to fly even from Truth and Duty it felf, when it shall be artificially represented to them as Sin. For not only that which is malum per se, Sin indeed; but that which is male coloratum, painted with Sin's Colours, is apt to scare and fright them.
[Page 146] Besides, These young Converts or Novices have not had time to confirm and root themselves in the Truth; and Trees newly planted are much more easily drawn up, than those that have spread and fastened their Roots in the Earth. 'Tis observable what a swarm of false Teachers troubled the Churches of Corinth, Galatia and Philippi, at, and newly after their first planting: and what danger those young Christians were in, abundantly appears in the Apostle's frequent Cautions and holy Jealousy over them: he bids them beware of Dogs, beware of Evil Workers, beware of the Concision, Phil. 3. 2. I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his s [...]btilty, so your minds be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ, 2 Cor. 11. 3. he was afraid of the Galatians, lest he had bestowed upon them labour in vain, Gal. 4. 11. he would not give place to false Brethren, no not for an hour, Gal. 2. 5. charges the Romans to receive them that were weak in the faith, but not to doubtful Disputations, Rom. 14. 1. All which, and many more Expressions, discover his grounded jealousy, and their extraordinary danger of seduction at their first plantation. A Novice in Christianity [Page 147] is the Person Satan seeks for: strong Believers are not in such apparent danger as little ones in Christ, 1 Iohn 5. 21. Little Children, keep your selves from Idols.
And the reason is, because keen Affections, match'd with weak Judgments, give a mighty advantage to Seducers. Children are apt to be taken with beautiful Appearances, and fine shews; and Erroneous Teachers have the very knack to set a glo [...]s of extraordinary sanctity upon their dangerous Opinions. Hence those Persons that promoted the Sect of the Nicolaitans, made use of a cunning Woman, who for her skill in painting Errors with the Colours of Truth, got the name of Iezebel, Rev. 2. 20. That Queen was famous for the art of Painting, 1 King. 16. and so was this false Prophetess: indeed there was scarce any eminent Sect of Errorists or Hereticks mentioned in Church-history, but some curious feminine Artist hath been employed to lay the beautiful Colours upon it. So we find Simon Magus had his Helena. Carpocrates his Marcellina. Montanus his Priscilla and Maximilla. And the curious Colours of Holiness, Zeal and Freegrace, artificially laid upon the face of Error, how wrinkled and ugly soever in [Page 148] it self, sets it off temptingly and takingly to weak and injudicious Minds.
Moreover, Erroneous Teachers are great Boasters: they usually give out to the World what extraordinary Comforts they meet with in their way, which proves a strong temptation to young Converts, who have been so lately in the depths of spiritual Trouble, to try at least, if not to embrace it, for the expected Comforts sake.
Ah, how many pious Ministers in England, upon such Grounds and Pretences as these, have had their spiritual Children rent from them as soon as born! they have travailed as in birth for them; and no sooner did they begin to take comfort in the success of their Labours, but to the great grief and discouragement of their hearts, they have been this way bereaved of them. those that have owned them as their spiritual Fathers one month, would scarce vouchsafe to own them, when they have met them in the Streets another month. Many sad Instances I could give of this, and some as remarkable as they are fresh and recent: but I silence particulars. Oh see the advantage Satan and his Instruments gain by nicking such a critical Season as this is.
The Cure, or Remedy.
The Remedies in this case are twofold: the first respects the spiritual Fathers; and the second the spiritual Children: both are concerned in the danger, and the Lord help both to attend to their duty.
Remedy I.
Let all those whose Ministry God blesses with the desirable fruits of Conversion, look carefully after the Souls of young Converts.
No Nurse should be more tender and careful of her Charge, than a Minister should be: and unto the care of a tender Nurse, Paul compareth his care over the young Converts in Thessalonica, 1 Thess. 2. 7. for alas, they lie exposed to all dangers: they are credulous, and Seducers cunning: they want judgment to discern Truth from Error; have not yet attained unto Senses exercised, and Age in Christ to discern Good from Evil: when Errors are made palatable, Children will be hankering after them, and Seducers have the very art to make them so.
[Page 150] Shepherds look to your Flocks; imitate the great Shepherd of the Sheep, who gathereth the Lambs with his Arms, and carries them in his Bosome; visit them frequently, exhort and warn them diligently, and use all means to establish them in the present Truths.
Remedy II.
Let young Converts and weak Christians look carefully to themselves by an heedful attendance unto the following Truths.
First, It is not safe to try, nor upon trial likely that you should find Christ in one way, and comfort in another. God doth not usually bless those ways to mens comfort and edification, into which they turn aside from that good way wherein they first met with Christ and Conversion. The same Ministry and Ordinances which are appointed and blessed for the one, are likewise appointed, and commonly blessed for the other, Eph. 4. 11, 12, 13.
Secondly, 'Tis a manifest Snare of the Devil (and you may easily discern it) to take you off from the great Work you are newly engaged in, by entangling your minds in Notions that are for [...]ign to it. [Page 151] Your hearts are now warm with God, Satan labours this way to cool and quench them: the cunning Cheat labours to steal away the sweet and nutritive Food which is before you, and lay the hard and dry Bones of barren Controversies and insipid Notions in their room. Your business is not to frame Syllogisms, or study Solutions to cunning Arguments about lower and lesser matters, so much as it is by Prayer and Self-examination, to clear your Interest in Christ, and to solve those doubts that lie with weight upon your Spirits, with reference to that great Concern.
Thirdly, 'Tis a sad thing to grieve the hearts of those faithful Ministers that have travelled in pain for us, and rejoyced in our Conversion as the Seal of their Ministry. Oh, serve not your godly Ministers, as the Hen is sometimes served that hath long brooded, brought forth, and with much care and selfdenial nourished up young Partridges, which as soon as fledged, take the wing, and return no more to her.
Cause XVI.
There is yet another Artifice of false Teachers to draw Men into Errors, and [Page 152] that is, by pressing the Consciences of those they have made some impressions upon, unto all HASTE and SPEED, openly to declare their new Opinions, and avow and own them before the World; as knowing that this will rivet and fix them to all intents and purposes.
When they find Men under half Convictions, and strong inclinations to their way, they are sure then to ply them with a thick succession of Motives and Arguments, to joyn themselves by a free and open profession, to that erroneous Party which are headed by themselves.
And the Arguments usually pressed to this purpose are,
- 1. The danger of delay.
- 2. The comfort of declaring themselves.
First, They press them with the danger of the least delay, by telling them, That now they must live every day and hour in known sin, and hold the truth of God in unrighteousness, the evil whereof they skilfully aggravate; and the more tender and sensible the Conscience is, the deeper impressions such discourses make, although the Case, indeed, will not bear the weight they lay upon it, as having not that due allowance God [Page 153] gives of time and means of full information in matters of this nature; yea, possibly driving them into as great a snare by precipitation, and too hasty engagements under a Doubting Conscience.
Secondly, They press them to a quick resolution, with the expectations of abundance of comfort, inward peace and joy, which will result from a full engagement of themselves, and open declaration of their Judgment; proseliting to a Party, being the main design they drive at.
This was the very Art and Method by which Satan prevailed with Eve to swallow the bait, Gen. 3. 5. For God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil. q. d. The sooner thou tastest, the better; for the first taste will give thee a God-like knowledg, and marvellous advancement of thy understanding; Didst thou but know the benefit that would accrue to thee thereby, thou would'st not delay one moment. And thus by setting before her the speedy and immediate benefits of eating, he prevailed, and drew her into the fatal snare.
[Page 154] In this the Ministers of Satan imitate the Ministers of Christ: As these press Men to make haste to Christ, lest by consulting with flesh and blood, and listening to the temptations of Satan, hopeful inclinations should be blasted in the bud; so the others push Men on to hasty resolutions, lest by hearkening to the voice of God's Spirit and their own Consciences, the design they have so far advanced should be lost and disappointed. The Ministers of Christ urge Men to a speedy change of their Company, and to associate themselves with spiritual and profitable Christians, as well knowing of what great use this will be to confirm and strengthen them in the ways of God. So Errorists in like manner vehemently urge them to associate with their Party, as knowing how one wedges in and fixes another in the ways of Error; for such Causes Satan pushes on half-convictions into hasty resolutions, quick dispatch being his great advantage. This the Apostle intimates, Gal. 1. 6. I marvel (saith he) that ye are so soon removed, &c. [...], what so soon! yes, if it had not been so soon, it might never have been at all; for Errors (as one ingeniously observes) like Fish, must [Page 155] be eaten fresh and new, or they'I quickly stink.
The Cure, or Remedy.
The Remedies and Preventatives in this Case, are such as follow:
Remedy I.
Consider, that hasty engagements in weighty and disputable matters, have cost many Souls dear.
As hasty Marriages have produced long and late repentance; so hath the clapping up of an hasty Match betwixt the Mind and Error. By entertaining strange persons, Men sometimes entertain Angels unaware; but by entertaining of strange Doctrines, many have entertained Devils unawares. 'Tis not safe to open the door of the Soul to let in strangers in the night; let them wait till a clear daylight of information shew you what they are.
Remedy II.
Weighty Actions require answerable Deliberations. It was the worthy saying of Augustus Caesar Satis coleritèr fieri, quicquid commodè geritur., That's soon enough, that's well enough. There be many things to be considered, and throughly [Page 156] weighed, before a Man change his judgment, and embrace a new Doctrine or Opinion. Luther, in his Epistle to the Ministers of Norimberg, cites an excellent passage out of Basil Multa anxiè considerare eum oportet, & multas noctes absumere insomnes, & cum multis lachrymis petere à Deo veritatis demonstrationem, qui se à fratribus separari vul [...]., He that is about to separate himself from the society of his Brethren, had need to consider many things even unto anxiety; to beg of God the demonstration of Truth with many tears, and to pass many solitary nights with waking eyes, before he attempt, or put such a matter in execution. By the vote of the whole rational World, Time and Consideration ought to be proportionate to the weight of an Undertakement.
Remedy III.
The only season Men have to weigh things judiciously and impartially, is before their affections be too far engaged, and their credit and reputation too much concerned.
Men are better able to weigh Doctrines and Opinions, whilst they are other mens, than when they have espoused them and made them their own. Before an Opinion be espoused,Perit omne judicium, cum res transit in affectum. the Affections do not blind and pervert the Judgment, as they do afterward. Selflove [Page 157] Love pulls down the balance at that end which is next us. If therefore by hasty resolution, you lose this only proper and advantagious season of deliberation, you are not like to find such another.
Remedy IV.
Trust not to the clearness of your own unassisted eyes, nor to the strength of your single reason; but consult in such cases, with others that are pious and judicious, especially your godly and faithful Ministers; and hearken to the Counsels they give you. Paul justly wondered that the Galatians were so soon removed; and well he might: For had they not a Paul to consult with, before they gave their consent to false Teachers? Or if he was at a distance from them about the work of the Lord in remote places, had they no godly and judicious Friends near them, whose Prayers and assistances they might call in, as Daniel did? Dan. 2. 17. Wo unto him that is alone in a time of temptation, except the Lord be with him by extraordinary assistance and direction.
Remedy V.
Lastly, Suspect that Opinion (as justly you may) for erroneous, that's too importunate and pressing upon you, and will not allow you due time of consideration, and means of information. That which is a truth to day, will be a truth to morrow: But that which looks like a truth to day, may be detected, and look like it self, an odious Error to morrow. And this is the reason of that post-haste that Satan and his Factors make to gain our present consent, lest a speedy detection frustrate the suit, and spoil the design. The Vses follow in Six Consectaries.
Consectary I.
From all that hath been said about Errors, we see in the first place, the great usefulness and plain necessity of an able, faithful, standing Ministry in the Church.
One special end of the Ministry, is the establishment of the peoples Souls against the Errors of the times, Eph. 4. 11, 14. He gave some Apostles, &c. that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, &c. Ministers [Page 159] are Shepherds, and without a Shepherd, how soon will the flock go astray? Moses was absent but a few days from the Israelites, and at his return found them all run into the snares of Idolatry. A Sheep is animal sequax, a creature that follows a Leader. One stragler may mislead a whole flock. A Minister's work is not only to feed, but to defend the flock. I am set (saith Paul) for the defence of the Gospel, Phil. 1. 17. An Orthodox and Faithful Minister, is a double blessing to the people; but wo to that people, whose Ministers, instead of securing them against Errors, do cause them to err, Isa. 9. 16. they are the Dogs of the Flock. Some in Scripture are called dumb dogs, who, instead of barking at the Thief, bite the Children: But faithful Ministers give warning of spiritual dangers. So did the worthy Ministers of London, Worcestershire, Devon, &c. in their Testimonies against Errors.
Consectary II.
This discourse shews us also how little quietness and peace the Church may expect, till a greater degree of light and unity be poured out upon it; what by [Page 160] persecutions from without it, and troubles from within, little tranquility is to be expected. 'Tis a Note of St. Bernards, that the Church hath sometimes had pacem à Paganis, sed rarò aut nunquam à filiis, peace sometimes from Pagan Persecutors, but seldom or never any peace from her own Children.
We read, Zech. 14. 7. the whole state of the Christian Church, from the primitive days, to the end of the World, set forth under the notion of one day, and that a strange day too, the light of it shall neither be clear nor dark, nor day nor night, but at evening time it shall be light; i. e. a day full of interchangeable and alternate providences. Sometimes persecutions, heresies and errors prevail, and these make that part of the day dark and gloomy; and then Truth and Peace break forth again, and clear up the day. Thus it hath been, and thus it will be until the evening of it, and at even-time it shall be light; then light and love shall get the ascendant of error and divisions. Most of our scuffles and contentions are for want of greater measures of both these.
Consectary III.
From the manifold Causes and Mischiefs of Errors before mentioned, we may also see what a choice mercy it is to be kept sound in judgment, stedfast and unmovable in the Truths and Ways of Christ. A sound and stedfast Christian is a blessing in his Generation, and a glory to his Profession. 'Twas an high Encomium of Athanasius, Sedem maluit mutare, quam syllabam: He would rather lose his Seat, than a syllable of God's Truth. Soundness of Judgment must needs be a choice Blessing; because the understanding is the [...], that leading-faculty which directs the Will and Conscience of Man, and they his whole Life and Practice. How often and how earnestly doth Christ pray for his people, that they may be kept in the Truth? 'Tis true, Orthodoxy in its self is not sufficient to any man's Salvation; but the conjunction of an Orthodox head, with an honest sincere heart, does always constitute an excellent Christian, Phil. 1. 10. Happy is the man that hath an head so hearted, and an heart so headed.
Consectary IV.
By this discourse we may further discover one great and special cause and reason of the lamentable decay of the spirit and power of Religion, amongst the Professors of the present Age.
'Tis a complaint more just than common, That we do all fade as a leaf. And what may be the Cause? Nothing more probable than the wasting of our time and spirits in vain janglings and fruitless controversies, which the Apostle tells us, Heb. 13. 9. have not profited, i. e. they have greatly damnified and injured them that have been occupied therein. Many Controversies of these times grow up about Religion, as Suckers from the Root and Limbs of a Fruit-tree, which spend the vital Sap that should make it fruitful.
Anglia 4. annis facta est colluvies, & lerna omnium errorum, & sectarum. Nulla à condito orbe provincia tam parvo spatio tot monstrosas haereses protulit atque haec. Honor. Reg. de Statu Eccles. Brittan. p. 1. 'Tis a great and sad Observation made upon the state of England by some judicious persons, That after the greatest increase of Religion, both intensively in the power of it, and extensively in the number of Converts, what a remarkable [Page 163] decay it suffered both ways, when about the year Forty-four, Controversies and Disputations grew fervent among Professors. Since that time our strength and glory have very much abated.
Consectary V.
From this Discourse we may also gather, the true Grounds and Reasons of those frequent Persecutions which God lets in upon his Churches and People: These rank Weeds call for Snowy and Frosty Weather to subdue and kill them.
I know the enemies of God's People aim at something else: They strike at Profession, yea, at Religion it self; and according to their wicked intention, without timely Repentance, will their reward be. But whatever the intention of the Agents be, the issues of Persecution are upon this account greatly beneficial to the Church; the Wisdom of God makes them excellently useful, both to prevent and cure the mischiefs and dangers of Errors. If Enemies were not, Friends and Brethren would be injurious to each other. Persecution, if it kills not, yet at least it gives check [Page 164] to the rise and growth of Errors: And if it do not perfectly redintigrate and unite the hearts of Christians, yet to be sure it cools and allays their sinful heats; and that two ways: (1.) By cutting out for them far better and more necessary work. Now, instead of racking their Brains about unnecessary Controversies, they find it high time to be searching their hearts, and examining the foundations of their Faith and Hope, with respect to the other World. (2.) Moreover, such times and straights, discover the Sincerity, Zeal and Constancy of them we were jealous of, or prejudiced against before, because they followed not us.
Consectary VI.
Lastly, Let us learn hence, both the Duty and Necessity of Charity and mutual Forbearance; We have all our mistakes and errors one way or other, and therefore must maintain mutual Charity under dissents in judgment.
I do not say, but an erring Brother must be reduced if possible, and that by sharp rebukes too, if gentler essays be ineffectual, Tit. 1. 13. and the wounds of a Friend have more faithful love in [Page 165] them, than the kisses of an Enemy: And if God make us instrumental by that or any other method, to recover a Brother from the error of his way, he will have great cause, both to bless God, and thank the Instrument, who thereby saves a Soul from death, and hides a multitude of sins, Iam. 5. 20. 'Tis our Duty, if we meet an Enemy's Ox or Ass going astray, to bring him back again; Exod. 23. 4. much more the Soul of a Friend. Indeed, we must not make those Errors that are none, nor stretch every innocent expression to that purpose; nor yet be too hasty in medling with contention, till we cannot be both silent and innocent; and then whatever the expence be, Truth will repay it.