6tli. ^\liat great need is there to be set- tled; because there are so many things to unsettle us, and make us fall away from the truth. Seducers are abroad, whose work is to draw away people from the prinr'iples of religion : i John ii. 26.,
" These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you." Se- ducers are the devil's factors ; they are of all others the greatest felons, that would rob you of the truth ; seducers have silver tongues; a fair tongue can put off bad wares ; they have a slight to deceive, Eph. iv. 14. The Greek word there is taken from those that can cog a dye, and cast it for the best advantage ; so seducers are impostors, — they can cog a dye, — they can so dissemble and sophisticate the truth that they can deceive others. Now, the style by which seducers use to deceive, is :
1. By wisdom of words: Rom. xvi. 18., " By good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple." They have fine elegant phrases, flattering lan- guage, whereby they work on the weaker sort, as being christed with Christ, and the light within them.
2. Another slight is a pretence of extra- ordinary piety, that so people may admire them and suck in their doctrine. They seem to be men of zeal and sanctitj^, and to be divinely inspired ; they pretend revela- tions, as Munster, Michael Servetus, and others of the Anabaptists in Germany, though thefy were tainted with pride, lust, and avarice.
3. A third slight or cheat seducers have is a labouring to vilify and nullify sound orthodox teachers ; they would eclipse those that bring the truth, like unto the black vapours that darken the light of heaven ; they would defame others, that themselves may be more admired. Thus the false teach- ers cried down Paul, that they might be re- ceived, Gal. iv. 17.
4. The fourth slight or cheat of seducers is by "preaching doctrine of liberty:" as the Antinomiau preacheth that men are freed from the moral law, — the rule as well as the curse. He preacheth that Christ hath done all for them, and they need to do no- thinjr. So he makes the doctrine of free grace a key to open the door to all licen- tiousness.
5. Another thing to unsettle Christians is persecutors, 2 Tim. ii. 12. The gospel is a rose; it cannot be plucked without prickles. The legacy Christ hath bequeath- ed is the Cuoss. While there is a devil
TO CATECHISING.
and a wicked man in the world, never ex- pect a charter of exemption from trouble ; and how many fall away in an hour of per- secution? Rev. xii. 3,4., " There appeared a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns : and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven :" the red dragon, tlie heathenisli empire, — and his tail, viz. his power and subtlety, drew away stars, viz. eminent professors that seemed to shine as stars in the firmament of the church. There- fore we see what need there is to be settled in the truth, for fear the tail of the di-agon cast us to the earth.
6. To be unsettled in good is the sin of the dcAils, Jude 6. They are called ' morn- ing stars,' Job xxxviii. 7. but ' falling stars ;' they were holy, but mutable. As the ves- sel is overturned with the sail, so their sails, being swelled with pride, were overturned, 1 Tim. iii. 6. By unsettledness, who dost thou imitate but lapsed angels ? Tlie devil was the first apostate. So much for the first proposition, that it is a great duty of Christians to be settled ; the sons of Sion should be like mount Sion, which cannot be removed.
DocT. II. 'Tae second proposition is, that the way for Christians to be settled, is to be well grounded : " if ye continue grounded and settled." The Greek word for grounded, a metaphor ; it alludes to a building that hath the foundation well laid; so Christians should be grounded in the es- sential points of religion, and have their foundation well laid.
Here let me speak to two things : 1. That we should be gioundcd in the knowledge of fundamentals. 2. That this grounding is the best way to settling.
1. That we should be grounded in the knowledge of fundamentals. The apostle speaks of the ' first principles of the oracles of God,' Heb. v. 13. In all arts and scien- ces, logic, physic, mathematics, there are dome ]ira;co{/nita, — some rules and principles that must necessarily be known to the prac- tice of those arts: so, in divinity, there must be the first principles laid down. The knowledge of the grounds and princi- j)les of religion is exceeding useful :
1. Else we cannot serve God aright; we can never worship God acceptably, unless
we worship liirn regularly ; and how can we do that, if we are ignorant of the rules and elements of religion ? We are bid to give God a ' reasonable serAice,' Rom. xii. 1. If we understand not the grounds of religion, how can it be a reasonable ser- vice ?