Shepherds feed them to fleece them that so they may the easilyer worry them It is not much that we are called legall Preachers time-servers persecutours inquisitours what not The devill must first asperse God to Eve before he prevaile with her and those popular preachers could not reigne at Corinth but by bringing Paul into dis-esteeme if they could His letters say they are weighty and powerfull but his bodily presence is weake and his speech contemptible 2 Cor. 10. 10. It s easie for men to ingratiate themselves with their party by espying faults in every Ordinance and Administration never so well constituted we see beauty enough and find no want of light in the Sun though they that look upon it through their Galilean glasses discover spots in it as big as all Asia or Africk as themselves say They wrest the Scriptures 2 Pet. 2. 16. making it to speake upon the rack◠that which it never meant partiality and affection to their own opinion is an ill medium to look through Pull the staffe out of the water and it will not be crooked how often doe men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compell the Scriptures to goe two mile when of themselves they will goe but one we should tremble to put words into the mouth of those Oracles which we doe by mis-inferences and misapplications 1. By mis-inference drawing forth that which they will not yeeld as the Sadduces proved no Resurrection because seven brethren had taken one woman to wife Matth. 22. 28. unto whom our Saviour answers that though they cited a place of Scripture yet they erred not knowing the Scripture for not he that repeats the words but takes up the true sence is the man that knowes the Scriptures We must not mangle and cut one joynt from another and expound one sentence against the whole streame I would men would tremble to take Gods hand which he hath set to his owne Word and set it to a lie of their owne it were odious to serve a man so 2. By mis-application of generall rules to particulars For it hath been observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is a great cause of many evils not to be able to adapt common principles and generall rules to particular cases or actions for how often is a generall rule of Scripture brought for the warrant of an unlawfull action as if the Apostle should have eaten with scandall upon the rule of All things are pure to the pure so we know how men first imagined a decency and order in superstitious ceremonies and then warranted them by that Let all things be done decently and in order we feare not to say that no man can prove the calling of our Ministers or the Baptisme of our infants or the Morall Law to be null c. but by the torture of the Scriptures They recommend their doctrine upon some private pretended revelation and light of their owne or by some effects thereof which they seeme to have found in themselves since they became therewith acquainted as that they have found such experiments of it in themselves as they never had before they are more lively cheerefull comfortable c. As for their revelations or light what is it they meane by them Doe they meane that the vaile is taken off the Scripture or rather their eye so that they have a cleerer spirituall discerning into and savour of and affection to the Word or doe they meane by revelation some secret sealings or assurances which are indeed private to their owne soules like the white stone of absolution with their owne names written thereon These are admirable first-fruits of the Spirit and of glory Happy are they to whom God in this wildernesse gives to taste these Clusters of Canaan-Grapes And for the effects of the word which they find in themselves as attestations of the truth power and goodnesse of the word I find the Apostle appealing to the sense of beleevers to attest the doctrine of the Gospel Gal. 3. 2. received ye the Spirit by the preaching of the law or by the hearing of faith but now what is all this to the revelation or effects of new and strange doctrines what impostures have not been obtruded upon pretence of private light and revelation the old Prophet may bring you into the lions mouth by telling you of an angel that spoke to him 1 Kin. 13. 18. 24. God saith that he proves his people by a Prophet or dreamer of dreames to know whether they love the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soule Deut. 13. 3. nor Prophet nor Apostle nor Angel is to be heard if he preach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides or other than that ye have received Gal. 1. 8. and for that they say that they find themselves as it were in a new world since they found this new way I much question their probatum est Is it not some angel of darknesse transformed into an Angel of light doe they not walke in the light of their fire and the sparkes that they have kindled Isai 50. 11. It must needs be an easie way when a man hath cast off all trouble for sin and all care of holy duties but surely the way is too broad to be good These principles I ought not to sorrow for sin least I disparage the sufficiencie of Christs satisfaction I can pay no obedience to the law but I must thereby either infringe my Christian liberty or joyne merit with Christ must needs worke a strange alteration because the doctrine is strange I would speake a word from this point to Ministers and to the people 1. To the Ministers you see these impostours have sleight and subtilty to lie in wait for the people and whom doth it concerne but you to take heed to the flock you cannot by silence liberare sidem aut animam Christ hath given Pastours and Teachers to his Church to this end that the people should not be children tossed to and fro c. convincing of gain-sayers and stopping the mouthes of soul-subverting teachers doth belong to your office Titus 1. 9 10 11. if there were but one Heterodox teacher start up and neglected by the people you would discharge at him with as much freedome as at Papists what if there be moe such teachers and followed by thousands is it ever the more truth for the number or is it a noli me tangere or are we slaves to popularity and dare not snatch the souls of our people out of the streame for feare of displeasing them by saving of them or have we no hope to worke a cure and so like Phisitians we let desperate patients eat and drinke and doe what they will without contradiction Luther did not much consider how usefull the Sectaries of his time might have been against the Pope and his party but confuted them freely knowing that they more blemisht and hindred the Reformation by their tenets than were likely to help it with
THE IMPOSTVRES OF Seducing Teachers Discovered In a SERMON before the Right Honourable the LORD MAJOR and Court of ALDERMEN of the City of London at their Anniversary meeting on Tuesday in Easter weeke April 23 1644. at Christ-Church By RICHARD VINES Minister of Gods Word at Weddington in the County of Warwick and a Member of the Assembly of DIVINES Imprimatur CHARLES HERLE 2 TIM 2. 17. And their word will eate as doth a gangrene LONDON Printed by G. M. for Abel Roper at the signe of the Sunne over against St Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1644. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE THE LORD MAIOR AND Court of ALDERMEN of the famous Citie of LONDON Right Honourable and Right Worshipfull AN Epistle Dedicatory usually bespeakes a Patron and then the Reader is epistled afterward I intreat Readers only and Patrons no further than the Truth may challenge them suo jure Though I should have done my selfe but right in sending this Sermon forth into publike yet your Commands were the stronger tye upon me It was received with ill resentment by some whose Character not I but the Apostle gives in this Text the aspect whereof is I believe no more pleasing than the Sermon Either they should not weare such faces as are afraid of this glasse or wash first and then they will not be angry I should rejoyce to offend any man for his good and be afraid to please him for his hurt I intended it for a stay to the nutant and unstable a stop to that Gangrene which I hope is not crept so neere the Head as to have taken any of you who in other things have beene so farre from being Children tossed to and fro with windes stormy winds that from you posteritie shall learne to be men The very holding up of the Text in open view may be a quo vadis to one or other If not Yet Thou hast delivered thy soule Ezek. 3. 19 21. is some comfort to him who humbly presents this Sermon to your hands and eyes with some enlargements here and there which the time denyed to your eares and whose honour it is to be Your Servant for Christ RICHARD VINES THE IMPOSTVRES OF Seducing Teachers Discovered EPHES. IV. XIV XV. 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 craftinesse whereby they lye in wait to deceive But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the Head even Christ THE Gospell had no sooner ascended the Horizon of the Gentiles and dispel'd that universall shade wherein they had been benighted but the Devill erected his factories in those new discoveries to intercept the trade of truth therefore is our Apostle in many of his Epistles so much in fortifying beleevers against the impressions of seducing teachers and the hystorie of a Fatemur quidem novas quasdam antea non auâ—itas â—ectas Anabaptistas Liberâ—inos Mennonios Zwenkâ—elâ—lâ—anos statim ad exortum Evangelij ex â—irâ—sse Juâ—l Apol. Eccle. Anglicanae Vide Slâ—idanum in commentarijs Luthers time doth witnesse also that it is the lot of reformations while they are greene and recent to be infested with such sects and doctrines as haply were never before heard of and therefore it concernes all to be carefull what money they take when the markets are so full of adulterate coyne and to be armed against the scandall thence arising as if the truth was the mother of such monsters which are none of hers but are laid at her doore to bring her into discredit we must expect no lesse nay haply we have hereby an argument that the truth is at the threshold for it is not ordinary that tares grow any where but in the wheate field The Text too fitly serves our own meridian being purposely chosen to give antidote against the infection of seducing teachers Whether the word Henceforth doe look back to the time past and imply that the Ephesians had been like children tossed to and fro as is generally conceived by the b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Theophilact Oecumenius c. Greeke expositors and others I shall neither enquire nor insist upon it but shall take it as a result from what the Apostle had said in the beginning of the Chapter where having in the 4 5 6 verses named seven ones one body and one spirit one hope of your calling one Lord one faith one baptisme one God and Father of all wherein the Ephesians and all beleevers are concenterated He passeth on and toucheth upon gifts and ministeries given to the Church by Jesus Christ sitting at the right-hand of God in which forme of expression he seemes to allude to the c As he doth elsewhere viz. Luk. 2. 15. and to the Olympick exercisâ—s 1 Cor. 9. 24 25 c. alibi Romans in their tryumphs wherein the Conquerour having the glorious Captaines at his Chariot scattered his munificence in congiaries and donatives to the souldiery and people for so our Saviour ascended up on high and led captivity captive and gave gifts to men and what are those gifts which might become the magnificence of a Conquerour so triumphant are they not ministeries ver 12. He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Paâ—â—ours and Teachers a royall donative given in the day of his triumph but the use and end whereunto these ministeries are subservient and instrumentall addes value to them as it is set forth ver 12 13 14 15. For the perfecting of the Saints c. That we henceforth be no more children In the Text you have A Character and An Antidote The character is of 2. sorts of persons The Seduced The Seducer The Seduced are called children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine The Seducers are said to be sleighty crafty and to have their artifices methods stratagems of deceiving by the sleight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they lye in wait to deceive The Antidote or preservative is two-fold 1. The Ministery which Christ hath given to his Church He gave some Apostles c. That henceforth we be no more children c. for the salt yee are saith Christ the salt of the earth serves to preserve the people from being flye-blowne with every corrupt doctrine unto putrefaction 2. The holding fast of the substance and vitals of practick godlinesse ver 15. Following the truth in love grow up in all things into him which is the Head even Christ The fortifying of the vitalls is a repercussive to all infections from the stinking breath of a currupt teacher I shall open each part of the Text as I come to it And first the character or description of the Seduced or of them that are unstable for there is no doubt but the Apostle intends to descypher instability and fluctuancy by these words Children tossed to and fro and carried about with
every wind of doctrine which is a sentence as every eye may see carried on in metaphors and figurative expressions only some criticks might haply aske what decorum of speech there is in children tossed to and fro and carried about with winds for had it not been more congruity to have said waves tossed to and fro or cloudes carried about than children but we must not teach the Spirit of God to speake the sence is obvious and proper for the better rendering whereof we may consider 1. By what name unstable people are called children 2. How their instability is expressed Tossed to and fro and carried about 3. What cause there is of it Every wind of doctrine 1. For the first They are children d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are synonymiâ—s 1 Cor. 14. â—0 with Heb. 5. 13. alibi so called not in respect of age but of knowledge and understanding 1 Cor. 14. 20. be not children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in understanding but be men Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect and ripe And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in veteri Testamento Isa 3. 4. Prov. 19. â—5 Ecâ—lâ—s 10. â—8 alibi men of knowledge are opposed to children that is ungrounded and unskilfull ones unskilfull in the word of righteousnesse for he is a babe Heb. 5. 13. Such babes the Apostle calls carnall though they be in Christ 1 Cor. 3 1 2 3. and opposeth them to spirirituall that is perfect or ripe of knowledge and judgement and you may see that such men that are shallow and unballast with knowledge are easily carried into envying strife factions one crying up Paul another Apollo ver 4. yea they become the certaine prey of Sectaries and seducers made prize of by them as the e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 2. 8. word signifies Col 2. 8. 2. For the second their instability is expressed in two f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 metaphors tossed to and fro and carried about the former is drawn from a wave of the sea for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a wave and so it denotes an uncertaine man that fluctuates in opinion and is explained to the full Iames 1. 6. a wavering man is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed The latter from a light cloud swimming in the ayre carried about in a circle having no weight in it and may well be expounded by that of Iude ver 12. clouds without water carried about Nor wave nor cloud have any consistence but are alwayes in motion if any wind be stirring you shall in vaine look to find them anon where you see them now 3. For the third The cause of this instability is every wind of doctrine there are winds of persecution that overthrow the house upon the sand and there are winds of doctrine that tosse to and fro these children Scripture mentions chaffe and stubble driven with wind the reed shaken with the wind the wave the cloud tossed and carried by the wind It is because we have no weight in our selves nor solid principles that the wind hath power over us they are light things and moveable that are at the command of every wind when the Apostle saith wind of doctrine he implies that there is no solidity and when he saith every wind he implies that there may be contrariety in those doctrins to one another and yet every one tosses some waves to and fro and carries some cloudes about nay the very same cloud that is now carried one way is anon carried another and what a miserable passe is he at whose Religion consists in some empty opinion and is but thereof tenant at curtesie to the next wind that blowes being carried about with every g Heinsiuâ— exerâ—â—â—â— â—â—uâ—â— doctrina â—â—dâ—es â—â—taâ—ilis change or novelty of doctrine There are others that are unstable not for want of principles and knowledge but rather want of a good by as of sincerity for God being carried about too but it is by their Interests and ends whereby they are off and on up and downe as the sent lies and as the game which they hunt doth lead them with these I have not much to doe at this time Having thus opened the words of the first part I shall now sum them up together into this point Doct. Children that is ungrounded people who have no sound bottome of knowledge are apt to be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine 1. Children is a word denoting relation or imperfection relation and so ye are all the children of God by faith in Iesus Christ Gal. 3. 26. Imperfection so in that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. 11. When I was a child I spake as a child c. There are many of this denomination in the Church for as in a Schoole there are divers formes and commonly the most Schollers are in the lower so is it in the Church of God there are abcedaries babes that are to be taught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their letters Heb. 5. 13 the first elements of the oracles of God and to be fed with the spoone or as the Apostle calls it milke He did not thinke himselfe too high to feed with milke 1 Cor. 3. 2. Therefore let no Minister be he never so learned scorne to be an Usher under Christ to teach his petties their a. b. c. If the people had not pleaded their rotten charters of age and marriage against Catechisme and the Minister had not thought himselfe too good to teach them their letters and first elements we had not seen so many children carried about with winds of doctrine Pride I feare hath made both ashamed of the duty the one to teach the other to be taught and I would that both were now humble enough to acknowledge the fruit of that neglect Now children are so called by reason of the imperfection of their knowledge either in respect of the measure of it or of their ungroundednesse in it and its lying loose in them without rooting 1. In respect of the measure of knowledge which is low and meane though themselves be stedfast in it and unshaken It is not a swimming but an anchoring and centering knowledge and stakes them down from fluctuancy and tossing and this is by having the savour virtue and sweetnesse of that they know He that hath a little knowledge well tryed by the touchstone of the word and tryed in his own experience to be humbling quickning and comforting he loves the truth and love will establish him in it upon that reason which Peter gave to Christ Joh. 6. 68. Whither should we goe Thou hast the words of eternall life The Apostles while under Christs owne ministery and wing were but very raw in knowledge and thereby we learne that no doctrinall teaching or ministery though of Christ himselfe on earth can make way into the heart of man untill the Spirit come yet so much they found in the words of Christ that
proselites to Jesus Christ not to an opinion yea though you may beare the name of a party as Paul might have done at Corinth yet to cry them downe who would cry you up and put over your disciples to Christ as Iohn did telling them that say I am of Paul and I of Apollo that they are carnall 1 Cor. 3. 4. and so you will weane them unto Christ whose they are As for others that teach indeed but yet are no teachers for whatsoever they doe by gifts yet themselves are not the gifts of Christ unto men in the sence of the 11th verse of this Chapter I should desire to know whether every one that hath a gift to be a servant must therefore be a steward or that hath gifts enabling him to deliver a message must therefore be an Embassadour If in truth you be as Amos said of himselfe Herdesmen or gatherers of Sycomore fruit then you must produce Amos 7. 14 15 your extraordinary commission as he did saying And the Lord took me as I followed the flock and said goe prophesie to my people Israel or else you must be taken to be but Herdsmen still and so it will be no wonder that strange teachers should carry credulous people about with strange doctrines as the Apostle cals them Heb. 13. 9. 4. The doctrine by which these children are tossed to and fro and carried about is called wind and that doth not denote the pure Word of God but some illegitimate doctrine which the adulterers and ravishers of the truth doe beget upon it what heresie ever came abroad without verbum Domini in the mouth of it The Arrian pleaded out of that text Iohn 14. 28. The Father is greater than I. The Anabaptist from that Matth. 28. 19. Goe ye therefore and disciple all nations and when he shall be thriven to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or full stature he will undermine Magistracy by that Rom. 12. 19. Avenge not your selves The Antinomian hath for his plea that 1 Tim. 1. 9. The law is not made for a righteous man arguing that he who hath Evangelicall grace for his principle of obedience should not have the law for a rule thereof as if a new principle and an old rule might not stand together but because I intend not a particular confutation of these or the like errours therefore finally you all know that the devill hath a scriptum est ready Matth. 3. 6. the Spider sucks poyson out of the Rose not that I would imply that there is any such thing in the Word it selfe for ex veris nil nisi verum but that a corrupt stomacke concocts wholesome food into disease And why wind of doctrine 1. Because there is no solidity in it but being wind it breeds but wind in the hearer and not good bloud and here I cannot but bewaile our Pulpits of late times filled with hay and stubble in stead of gold and silver as namely invectives against Bishops and Cavaliers newes and novell opinions and in the mean time the staple commodities of Heaven as Christ Faith Love c. are laid aside like breath'd ware which no body cals for I would not be thought to be a patron of any such obnoxious persons against whom the Word of God shoots an arrow but tâ—is I plead for that people who come to looke for soul-nourishing food may not be served with scumme and froth 2. Because of the changeablenesse variety and novelty of it for indeed such teachers doe fit their lettice to the lips of their auditory and doe easily take them by their itching eares nothing more pleasing to an Athenian eare than novelty which affects the hearers while it is fresh and green but when they shall come to chew this wind they find nothing in it and so they hunt about againe untill they start a new notion Christ is the onely everlasting meat who though he be like a great standing dish which by reason of Kickshawes and fine Sallets is now adayes not much fed upon by many yet a truly humble soule is never weary of Christ neither can sit downe to a meale I meane heare a Sermon without him and this sound appetite is a signe of an excellent temperament and healthfull constitution of spirit he that hath his mouth in tast for such doctrine and his stomacke craving such solid food hath cause to blesse God who it may be by inward shakings and temptations cals him to the setling of the main free-holt and state of his soule and so takes him off from running himselfe out of breath after novelties and niceties which will sooner fill his head with dreames than his heart with strength or comfort 3. Because of its prevalencie with and over unstayed men one would wonder that this which the Apostle cals wind of doctrine should so prevaile and spread how suddenly is a whole countrey leaven'd with it whereas the saving knowledge and reception of Christ the power of godlinesse and self-deniall may be preacht an age and not so many fish be taken as are taken at one draught by a corrupt doctrine I will not borrow that comparison which Eusebius made choice of to expresse the quick spreading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Gospell at the first saying that it passed through the world like a Sun-beame but I shall take that of the Apostle 2 Tim. 2. 17. Their word eateth like a gangrene which presently overruns the parts and takes the brain as this wind of doctrine doth and the same Apostle than whom no man did more counter-worke false teachers saith Acts 20. 30. they shall speake perverse things to draw disciples after them whereby it seemes that the way to draw disciples is to speake perverse things hereunto agreeing is that of our Saviour Ioh. 5. 43. I am come in my Fathers Name and ye receive me not If another shall come in his owne name him will ye receive Christ cannot finde entertainment but Bacchochebas is followed and the reason is because Truth when it commeth hath nothing in us but errour hath There is no tinder to catch a sparke of truth but there is oyle for the wild-fire of errour Heresies are workes of the flesh Gal. 5. 19 20. therefore men are soone removed Gal. 1. 6. from truth to errour And now to draw up this point into a summe by way of Application 1. Consider the doctrine you heare and tell it over againe from the hand of the teacher a man will tell money after his father Beware lest any man make prize of you Col. 2. 8. some there are to whom the reputation and worth of the teacher is the proofe of his doctrine receiving all that is stamped with his ipse dixit We should not call any man our father on earth Matth. 23. 9. and some also thinke it enough to say This doctrine makes most against superstition and popery and yet we will not abide that in a Maldonat who shall rather pitch upon such a
immortall or at least if it survive not for that cannot be applied to the resurrection when the rich man will have no brethren on earth to send unto neither can there be any sence in that portion of Scripture but upon supposall of the soule outliving the body I had rather draw a curtaine before this face of things then paint it out unto you How sad a hearing is it to heare I am of Paul I am of Apollo I am of Cephas was not this that which as Ierome observes did at first set up Bishops our divisions are their factours but that is not all more sad it is to heare here is Christ and there is Christ for we are so impotent in our opinions that every man makes his own to be the very Shibboleth of the Church a thing unheard of before our times that men of divers Trades in this famous City can be all of one Company but being of divers opinions they cannot be of one Church nor will be all of one Schoole except they be all of one forme which breakes our communion into fragments Now what may be the cause of this transportation of people are they children ungrounded in knowledge that is too much to be feared or are they proud and wanton and have taken surfet of the great things of the Law or are they ashamed to stand in the levell of sober practicall Christians but must be masters and set up the trade of some new opinion for themselves and build Babel to get a name and to be some body in in the eyes of a party I know not what to say but the Lord stop the gangrene and turne all our eyes to the great things of the Law that so this tithing of mint and cummin may be left to a second place 3. Be not children and oh that this word might stop the fury of your precipitate levity as Coesar did the sedition of his Army by one word Quirites you have had the vitals of Religion a holy and pure doctrine and there is not another Gospell For Ministers that have burn'd and shined themselves out in holding forth essentials and saving truths the whole world since the Apostles time could not overmatch you and for Christians the seale of their Ministery begotten and bred up under their shadow in respect of the power of godlinesse there hath not been another England on earth since that time I doe not ascribe this to the government and discipline no more then I doe ascribe the multiplying of Israel to Pharaoh but under God to the paines and diligence of faithfull pastours whom I would not have any man now to undervalue and debase as brats of Antichrist they were Heroes and Worthies our regeneration and faith are their monuments let no man digge up their ashes and degrade them in esteeme nor belch out poison against the learning livings callings of their godly successors in this Church for wise men will interpret that they doe it upon no other reason then Herod burnt the Registries of the families and genealogies of the Iewes in consciousnesse of his own obscurity And as for this Church certainely she hath had a wombe to beare children and breasts to give them suck which two things doe make a faire proofe for her against all calumnies though alas she had also a generarion of vipers eating through her bowels Finally This Kingdome owes as much to Religion as any in the world we have seene wonders of Gods love and miracles of deliverance and if God shall now bring his Arke to Ierusalem and set it up in greater state then before time let us dance before it but withall let us not despise the house of Obed-Edom which God blessed for the Arke sake we must not put downe the Temple because it s made a den of theeves but rather whip them out of it and for that we fast and pray as also that those seven Ones in the fourth and fifth verses may continue with us for ever One body and one spirit one hope of your calling one Lord one Faith one baptisme one God and Father of all which should be as so many quoines to lock together all parts of the building into one as indeed they would if men were not so opinion-big as to make every extravagant or at least extrinsicall opinion fundamentall and as an Atlas to a new-Church building I come now to the second part of the Text which is the haracter or description of the impostours and seducers that doe unsettle men whereof I shall open the termes or words 1. Sleight of men The originall word for sleight doth properly signifie Dice-playing and by ametaphor taken from players at Dice which sort of men you shall seldome reade of in sober authours without some brand of infamie it sets out the qualitie of false teachers and in this all agree but then in the very point of application of this similitude there is a little difference 1. As the cast of the Die is changeable and variable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alea nihil incertius so are these teachers and such is their doctrine and therefore he calls it sleight of men opposing this doctrine of theirs to that of Gods pure word which is alwayes like it selfe and hath no interests passions crooked ends as men have 2. As dice-players can cogge the Die and make it answer what cast they please so these teachers have an act of mixing and adulterating the word so as to make it answer their own profit or advantage but whether it be so or so or both wayes you see what these teachers make of their hearers meere tablemen which the dice-player carries hither and thither and moves from point to point as he pleases 3. Cunning craftinesse The same word that is used to expresse the subtilty of the serpent tempting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eve 2 Cor. 11. 3. He beguiled Eve through his subtilty and it signifies the deep policie of men 1 Cor. 3. 19. He taketh the wise in their own craftinesse and so it imports that these teachers are veterators beaten fellowes men exercised and skilfull to deceive 4. They lye in wait to deceive And the word in this Text is also used Ephes 6. 11. that ye may be able 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he to stand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the stratagems of the Devill for it signifies properly an ambushment or stratagem of warre whereby the enemy sets upon a man ex insidijs at unawares denoting the specious and faire overtures and pretences of false teachers spreading their net under the chaffe to catch the silly bird for it is plaine that all their sleight and craftinesse is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this very end and purpose that they may entrap and catch men within the ambush of their impostures That which I collect from this part of the Text is Doct. 1. What oddes the Apostle makes between the seducer and the seduced even as much as between
an old fowler and a young bird the one he calls children simple easie credulous people the the other is a shrewd gamester a man of subtilty and stratagems I cannot therefore but upon this observation exhort you to take heed of playing with such stake down nothing especially not your soules come not within their ambush I wonder that petties and novices in knowledge will forsake the Congregations and open assemblies of Gods people to frequent private houses where these teachers lay their ambuscado would not all men condemne the folly of a young man of a great estate that should deale with a crafty gamester for these seducers whose designe is to make merchandise of their hearers 2 Pet. 2. 3. doe most of all aime at them who are good prize they care not much for a sheep that hath not a good fleece I beseech you be wise you may be caught though you meane it not God may give you up captive to error for your vanity in forsaking his assemblies Haply you resolve that you will not be caught no more did Dinah intend to be defiled when she went forth to see the daughters of the Land or Peter to deny Christ when he went to the high Priests hall there is no man but will beleeve a lye when God gives him up to delusion one may be infected with the plague by looking in at the window our nature is apt to receive impressions of error It s observed of sheep that they eate no grasse more greedily then that which rots them wherefore if they shall say unto you behold he is in the desart goe not forth behold he is in the secret chambers beleeve it not Matth. 24. 26. And what may some say would you have us come up to an Idols Temple and communicate in Idolatry No Come not ye to Gilgal nor goe up to Bethaven Hosea 4. 15. Woods and caves and the I le of Pathmos are to be preferred to such assemblies or should Christians abstaine all private meetings and confine their Religion as many doe to a Church and a common-Prayer booke farre be it from us Antichrist and Popery will feele the wounds of such private Assemblies as long as they draw any breath the enemies of God and his Church know what reason they have to hate conventicles as they call them All that I have to say is that you stick fast unto and make use of your pastours and teachers which are the gifts of Jesus Christ unto his Church ver 11. and that you come not into the secret of these who are described ver 14. by their sleight and subtilty to deceive Doct. 2. Seducers are artists and craftes-masters in sleight and subtilty and stratagems of deceit they have artifices and wayes and methods to take men at unawares and to convey their poison privily who privily shall bring in damnable heresies 2 Pet. 2. 1. they will not resist the truth aperto marte but cunningly undermine it as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so doe these also resist the truth 2 Tim. 3. 8. that is by sleight and counterfeiting to doe the same thing so that one shall have much adoe to distinguish between the serpents of Moses and them of the Magicians for they also did the like by their inchantments Exod. 7. 11. It seemes these seducers are men of parts the Apostle describes them in the same words as the old serpent is described by whose subtilty we exchanged Paradise for thistles and bryers which first example should teach us for ever to take heed of them that are of his breede who was more subtill then any beast of the field that which being sanctified or well imployed might be called wisedome being corrupted and abused is called craftinesse therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though usually taken in the worser part for Drusius in Job cap. 5. ver 13. subtilty and cunning yet sometimes it signifies wisedome and lawfull policie there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good and honest craftinesse or policie whereby a Minister being a fisher of men may catch such as by indiscretion will otherwise be hardned scandalized and lost both to himselfe and God we are in great want of this policie of discretion in the management of our Ministery by breaking old bottles with new wine and by exposing Religion to contempt of them whom we might have either convinced or at least disarmed of occasion against the truth but no farther upon this point I must remember that I am upon the subtilty and stratagems of impostours that lie in wait to seduce some of which I shall point out unto you as I find them in the Scriptures that so you may performe that duty which is more than once enjoyned upon you in this case that is beware The common designe of all false teachers is to make merchandise of people 2 Pet. 2. 3. they negotiate their own ends and have an eye to the stake when they cast the die their credit profit lusts are the center to which they draw every line they have eyes full of adultery and their heart is exercised in covetousnesse they follow the way of Balaam who loved the wages of unrighteousnesse 2 Pet. 2. 14 15. and the Apostle beseeches the brethren to marke such which cause divisions and offences because they that are such serve not our Lord Iesus Christ but their own belly Rom. 16. 18. but how doth the Apostle know this for mens ends lie close and how is it that he seemes to charge it upon all of them Are they all covetous have all of them eyes full of adultery doe they all make their belly their God c It s true that ends lie close a man may deny one and seeke another Simon Magus laies by his great repute gotten by sorcery to seeke himselfe in getting power by laying on of hands to give the holy Ghost and this he carried so cunningly as to passe with Philip undiscovered pride may be trampled upon in pride and books written against vaine-glory only to get glory bye ends may be preacht against even out of bye ends as all that bowle at the same marke doe not take the same ground so men in seeking themselves may drive severall trades one is for credit another for his palat another for his purse c. but this in the generall will hold good seducers are self seekers For the service of this maine designe these and such like are their arts or method The Apostle tells us that by good words and faire speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. 16. 18. the word he useth for simple is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that are otherwise not evill or as we vulgarly call them harmelesse innocent men easie to be led aside It should seeme the Corinthian teachers with whom Paul had such bickerings had a faculty of pithanology or perswasive lenociny of words whereby they did suadendo docere not so much convince by evidence of truth as perswade with woing words It
their hands I would not blow the trumpet or proclaime open warre against lesser differences severity and acrimony in such cases breedes schisme and heales it not but pernicious errours and destructive to soules which it is cruelty to spare and not pity must be faced and fought against not with invectives and railing that doth but anger the Gangrene and is not the way to quench wildfire but by solid convictions and evidence of truth for so you shall either gain a brother or not lose a friend But you may aske when should we goe out against a doctrine as pernicious for even that point about the law which denominates an Antinomian and that about Baptisme which denominates an Anabaptist seeme not to be fatall to the soule To this I answer that we must look how a doctrine is attended or consequenced the first circle in the water is the least those that are caused by it are bigger and bigger an opinion may be very ill as it is a bastard mis-begotten by mis-inferences from the Word but it is worse as it is a whore and begets a new off-spring of errours more pernicious but I must remember to whom I speake Brethren if the sheep be infected or worried both God and men will aske Where were the shepherds or what did they in the meane time 2. To the people I say but this Rom. 16. 17. I beseech you brethren marke them which cause divisions and differences contrary to the doctrine which yee have learned and avoid them The avoiding of such teachers is your proper duty as you would avoid an ambuscado or stratagem of deceit our present divisions are scandalous to your selves to your Ministers to the truth for by reason of them The way of truth is evill spoken of 2 Pet. 2. 2. they are the hopes of the common enemy and our own weakenings and because I have named the enemy let no man thinke that the betraying of these differences among our selves doth give handle and occasion to them to traduce us all as Anabaptists Brownists Sectaries we need not feare the calumnies of those to whom godlinesse it selfe as Christianity of old was crime enough we shall doe our selves right in their eyes by disclaiming them The Apostles doe boldly tax the divisions among Christians notwithstanding any upbraidings of the Heathens Let them say that we are about instead of purging the Temple as Christ did to set up a Pantheon as the Romans did or an Altar to the unknown god as they of Athens did This water will not stick upon us long they will be of another mind when we shall shake this viper off our hand In the meane time I beseech you to consider whether beside the sleight and cunning craftinesse of seducing teachers there be not some other stratagems on foot acted from behind the doore and at a greater distance some hand of Ioab is in all this the polititian and the Jesuite blow these coales they would make us as Samaritans and Iewes to one another Let us not gratifie our enemies I le say but this observe the brand or character set upon the seduced Vnstable soules 2 Pet. 2. 14. silly women laden with sins led away with divers lusts 2 Tim. 3. 6 c. and upon the seducers merchants of mens soules 2 Pet. 2. 3. unruly vaine-talkers deceivers aiming at filthy lucre Titus 1. 10 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lawlesse persons 2 Pet. 3. 17. men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith 2 Tim. 3. 8 c. but admit there be a face and presence of holinesse in the person may we not then more securely receive their doctrine To this I answer that both person and doctrine may carry a faire stamp and superscription We doe not weigh gold to try the superscription of it but the weight Guilded pills may convey poison Satan in Peter is not easily discovered The better passe that error brings with it the more dangerous it is So much upon the second part of the text The third is the preservative or antidote against all impressions of such teachers as come with sleight and subtilty c. and that is two-fold 1. The Ministery which Christ hath given to his Church for this ver relates to the 11. He gave some Apostles and some c. that henceforth c. and to them doth the Apostle commit the charge of the flock to watch over them against wolves Acts 20. 28 29. 2. The holding fast and pursuance of the substance and great things of Religion ver 15. but being sincere in love grow up in all things into him which is the head It s an excellent growth to grow up into the head that is into communion with and conformity to Jesus Christ which triviall opinions nothing at all advance observe the antithesis or opposition he makes between being carried about c. and following the truth in love for contraria contrarijs diseases are cured by contraries so the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 3. 17 18. gives the same receipt against unstedfastnesse but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ and to take off teachers from fables and genealogies and questions of no value Paul commends to them the aiming at godly edifying which is by faith and to hold to that which is the end of the commandement charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfained 1 Tim. 1. 4 5. If both Ministers and people would but drive this trade it would take off that wandring and hunting after novell opinions and doctrines and would keep us constant in the wholesome pastures even now that the hedge of setled government is wanting If you have good feeding why should not that keep you from wandering untill the pale be set up wait upon God in the use of his saving ordinances and pray for us If Moses stay long in the mount must the people be setting up golden calves and say we know not what is become of this Moses Aarons rod shall swallow up all the rods of Iannes and Iambres in Exod. 7. 1◠due time The Apostle puts us in hope of a nil ultra to such 2 Tim. 3. 9. They shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all FINIS