First. Satan Labours to corrupt the mind with erroneous principles. He was at work at the very first plantation of the gospel, sowing his darnel as soon almost as Christ his wheat. This
sprung up in pernicious errors even in the apostles’ times, which made
them take the weeding-hook into their hands, and, in all their
epistles, labour to countermine Satan in his design. Now in this his endeavour to corrupt the minds of men, especially professors, with error, Satan hath a threefold design,
First Design. He doth this in despite to God, against whom he cannot vent his malice at a higher rate, than by corrupting his truth, which God hath so highly honoured, ‘For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.’ Ps. 138:2. Every
creature bears the name of God, but in his word and truth therein
contained it is writ at length, and therefore he is more choice of this
than of all his other works; he cares not much what becomes of the
world and all in it, so he keeps his word and saves his truth. Ere
long we shall see the world on a light flame; ‘The heavens and earth
shall pass away, but the word of the Lord endureth for ever.’ When
God will, ha can make more such worlds as this is, but he cannot make
another truth, and therefore he will not lose one iota thereof. Satan,
knowing this, sets all his wits on work to deface this truth, and
disfigure it by unsound doctrine. The word is the glass in which we see
God, and seeing him, are changed into his likeness by his Spirit. If
this glass be cracked, then our conceptions we have of God will
misrepresent him unto us, whereas the word in its native clearness sets
him out in all his glory unto our eye.
Second Design. He endeavours to draw into this spiritual sin of error, as the most subtle and effectual means to weaken, if not destroy, the power of godliness in them. The apostle joins the spirit of power and a sound mind together, II Tim. 1:7. Indeed the power of holiness in practice depends much on the soundness of judgment. Godliness
is the child of truth, and it must be nursed, if we will have it
thrive, with no other milk than of its own mother. Therefore we are
exhorted to ‘desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow,’ I Peter 2:;
if this milk be but a little dashed with error, it is not so nutritive.
All error, how innocent soever it may seem, like the ivy, draws away
the strength of the soul’s love from holiness. Hosea tells us whoredom and wine take away the heart, now error is spiritual adultery. Paul speaks of his espousing them to Christ. When
a person receives an error, he takes a stranger into Christ’s bed, and
it is the nature of adulterous love to take away the wife’s heart from
her true husband, that she delights not in his company so much as [in
that] of her adulterous lover. And do we not see it at this day fulfilled? Do not many show more zeal in contending for one error, than for many truths? How
strangely are the hearts of many taken off from the ways of God, their
love cooled to the ordinances and messengers of Christ!—and all this
occasioned by some corrupt principle got into their bosoms, which
controls Christ and his truth, as Hagar and her son did Sarah and her
child. Indeed Christ will never enjoy true conjugal love from the soul, till, like Abraham, he turns these out of doors. Error
is not so innocent a thing as many think it; it is as unwholesome food
to the body—that poisons the spirits, and surfeits the whole body—which
seldom passeth away without breaking out into sores. As
the knowledge of Christ carries a soul above the pollutions of the
world, so error entangles and betrays it to those lusts, whose hands it
had escaped.
Third Design. Satan in drawing a soul into this spiritual sin hath a design to disturb the peace of the church, which is rent and shattered when this fire-ship comes among them. ‘I hear,’ saith Paul, ‘that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it, for there must also be heresies,’ I Cor. 11:18,19 —implying that divisions are the natural issue of heresy. Error
cannot well agree with error, except it be against the truth; then
indeed, like Pilate and Herod, they are easily made friends; but when
truth seems to be overcome, and the battle is over with that, then they
fall out among themselves, and therefore it is no wonder if it be so
troublesome a neighbour to truth. O sirs, what a sweet silence and peace was there among Christians a dozen years ago. Methinks
the looking back to those blessed days in this respect—though they had
also another way their troubles, yet not so uncomfortable, because that
storm united, this scatters the saints' spirits—is joyous, to remember
in what unity and love Christians walked. The
persecutors of those times might have said, as their predecessors did
of the saints in primitive times, ‘See how they love one another,’ but
now, alas, they may jeer and say, See how they that loved so dearly,
are ready to pluck one another’s throats out.
[Use or Application.]
[A word of exhortation to all.]
The application of this shall be only in a word of exhortation to all;
especially you who bear the name of Christ by a more eminent profession
of him. O beware of this soul-infection, this leprosy of the head. I hope you do not think it needless, for it is the disease of the times. This plague is begun, yea, spreads apace. [There is] not a flock, [not] a congregation hardly, that hath not this scab among them. Paul
was a preacher the best of us all may write after, and he presseth this
home upon the saints, yea, in the constant course of his preaching it made a piece of his sermon. He
sets us preacher also upon this work; ‘Take heed therefore unto
yourselves, and to all the flock;—for I know this, that after my
departure shall grievous wolves enter;—also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things,’ Acts 20:28-30; therefore watch. And
then he presents his own example, that he hardly made a sermon for
several years, but this was part of it, to warn every one night and day
with tears. We need not prophesy what impostors may come upon the stage when we go off. There are too many at present above-board of this gang drawing disciples after them. And
if it be our duty to warn you of them, surely it is yours to watch,
lest you by any of them be led into temptation in this hour thereof,
wherein Satan is let loose in so great a measure to deceive the nation. May you not as easily be soured with this leaven, as the disciples whom Christ bids beware? Are
you privileged above those famous churches of Galatia and Corinth, many
of which were bewitched with false teachers, and in a manner turned to
another gospel? Is Satan grown orthodox, or have his instruments lost their cunning, who hunt for souls? In a word, is there not a sympathy between thy corrupt heart and error? Hast thou not a disposition, which, like the fomes of the earth, makes it natural for these weeds to grow in thy soil? Seest
thou not many prostrated by this enemy, who sat upon the mountain of
their faith, and thought it should never have been removed? Surely
they would have taken it ill to have been told, ‘you are the men and
women that will decry Sabbaths, which now ye count holy; you will turn
Pelagians, who now defy the name; you will despise prophecy itself, who
now seem so much to honour the prophets; you will throw family duties
out of doors, who dare not now go out of doors till you have prayed
there.’ Yet these, and more than these, are come to pass; and doth it not behove thee, Christian, to take heed lest thou fallest also? And that thou mayest not,
1. Exhortation. Make it thy chief care to get a thorough change of thy heart. If
once the root of the matter be in thee, and thou beest bottomed by a
lively faith on Christ, thou art then safe, I do not say wholly free
from all error; but this I am sure, free from engulfing thy soul in
damning error. ‘They went out from us,’
saith St. John, ‘but they were not of us; for if they had been of us,
they would no doubt have continued with us,’ I John 2:19. As
if he had said, They had some outward profession, and common work of
the Spirit with us, which they have either lost or carried over to the
devil’s quarters, but they never had the unction of the sanctifying
Spirit. By this, ver. 20,
he distinguisheth them, and comforts the sincere ones, who possibly
might fear their own fall by their departure: ‘But ye have an unction
from the Holy One, and ye know all things.’ It is one thing to know a truth, and another thing to know it by unction. An
hypocrite may do the former, the saint only the latter. It is this
unction which gives the soul the savour of the knowledge of Christ;
those are the fit prey for impostors, who are enlightened, but not
enlivened. O, it is good to have the heart established with grace!
This, as an anchor, will keep us from being set adrift, and carried
about with divers and strange doctrines, as the apostle teacheth us, Heb. 13:9.
2. Exhortation. Ply the work of mortification. Crucify the flesh daily. Heresy, though a spiritual sin, [is] yet by the apostle reckoned among the deeds of the flesh, Gal. 5:20, because it is occasioned by fleshly motives, and nourished by carnal food and fleshly fuel. Never
[have] any turned heretic, but flesh was at the bottom; either they
served their belly or a lust of pride—it was the way to court, or
secured their estates and saved their lives, as sometimes the reward of
truth is fire and fagot. Some pad or other
is in the straw when least seen; and therefore it is no wonder that
heresies should end in the flesh, which in a manner sprang from it. The
rheum in the head ascends in fumes from the stomach, and returns
thither, or unto the lungs, which at last fret and ulcerate. Carnal
affections first send up their fumes to the understanding, clouding
that, yea, bribing it to receive such and such principles for truths;
which [when] embraced, fall down into the life, corrupting that with
the ulcer of profaneness. So that,
Christian, if once thou canst take off thy engagements to the flesh,
and become a free man, so as not to give thy vote to gratify thy carnal
fears or hopes, thou wilt then be a sure friend to truth.
3. Exhortation. Wait conscionably on the ministry of the word. Satan commonly stops the ear from hearing sound doctrine, before he opens it to embrace corrupt. This
is the method of souls [in] apostatizing from truth: ‘They shall turn
away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables,’ II Tim. 4:3,4. Satan, like a cunning thief, draws the soul out of the road into some lane or corner, and there robs him of the truth. By rejecting of one ordinance, we deprive ourselves of the blessing of all others. Say not that thou prayest to be led into truth; God will not hear thy prayer if thou turnest thine ear from hearing the law. He that loves his child, when he sees him play the truant, will whip him to school. If God loves a soul, he will bring him back to the word with shame and sorrow.
4. Exhortation. When thou hearest any unusual doctrine, though never so pleasing, make not up the match hastily with it. Have some better testimony of it, before you open your heart to it. The apostle indeed bids us entertain strangers, for some have entertained angels unawares Heb. 13:2; but he would not have us carried about with strange doctrine, ver. 9, [though] by this I am sure some have entertained devils. I confess, it is not enough to reject a doctrine, because strange to us, but ground we have, to wait and inquire. Paul
marvelled that the Galatians were so soon removed from him, who had
called them unto the grace of Christ, unto another gospel. They might sure have stayed till they had acquainted Paul with it, and asked his judgement. What, no sooner an impostor come into the country, and open his pack, but buy all his ware at first sight! O
friends, were it not more wisdom to pray such new notions over and over
again, to search the Word, and our hearts by it, yea, not to trust our
own hearts, but [to] call in counsel from others? If your minister have not such credit with you, get the most holy, humble, and established Christians you can find. Error is like fish, which must be eaten new or it will stink. When
those dangerous errors sprung up first in New England, O how unsettled
were the churches! what an outcry was made, as if some mine of gold had
been discovered! But in a while, when those
error came to their complexion, and it was perceived whither they were
bound—to destroy churches, ordinances, and power of godliness—then such
as feared God, who had stepped aside, returned back with shame and
sorrow.