hath powerful effects in the conversation. The gospel, it is said, came to the Thessalonians in much ' assurance,' 1 Thess. i. 6; i. e. evidence of its truth ; and see how prevalent and operative it was, ver. 6 : ' Ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy in the Holy Ghost.' They were assured that the doctrine was of God; and this carried them merrily through the saddest afflictions which attended the same.
Use 1. First, To reprove those, that instead of endeavouring to establish their judgments in the truth, make it their greatest study how to strengthen themselves in their errors. I am persuaded some men take more pains to fui'- nish themselves with arguments to defend some one error they have taken up, than they do for the most saving truths in the Bible ; yea, they coidd sooner die at a stake to defend one error they hold, than all the truths they profess. Austin saith of himself when he was a Manichsean, Non tu eras, sed error nieits erat Detis mens : ' Thou, O Lord, were not, but my error was my god.' O, it is hard to reduce a person deeply engaged in the defence of an error ; how oft had the Pharisees their mouths stopped by our Saviour, yet few or none reclaimed ! Their spirits were too proud to recant. What, they lay down the bucklers, come down from Moses' chair, and confess what they might have taught the people for an oracle is now false ! They will rather go on, and brave it out as well as they can, than come back with shame, though the shame was not to be ashamed of their error, but ashamed to confess it. The cynic answered smartly, who, coming out of a brothel house, was asked whether he was not ashamed to be seen coming out of such a naughty house, said. No, the shame was to go in, but honesty to come out. O, sirs, it is bad enough to fall into an error, but worse to persist. The first shews thee a weak man, humanum est errai c ; but the other makes thee too like the devil, who is to this day of the same mind he was at his first fall.
Use 2. Secondly, It reproves those who labour to unsettle the judgments of others, to ungird this belt about the Christian's loins. They come with the devil's question in their mouths, 'Yea, hath God said?' Are you siu-e this is a truth? Do not your ministers deceive you? Labouring slily to breed suspicions and jealousies in the hearts of Christians towards the truths they have received ; such were they that troubled the Galatians, whom Paul wished ' cut off ' for their pains. Gal. v. 12. They laboured to puzzle them, by starting scruples in their minds concerning the docti-ine of the gospel. This is a cunning Avay at last to draw them from the faith, and therefore they are called ' subverters of the faith of others,' 2 Tim. ii. 14; Tit. i. IL The house must needs be in danger, when the groundsels are loosened ; can you think he means honestly, that undermines the foundation of your house ? This they do, that would call in question the gi-and truths of the gospel : but this is a small fault in our loose age, or else so many seducers would not be suffered, whom I may call spiritiual rogues and vagrants, to wander like gipsies up and down, bewitching poor simple souls to their perdition. O, it is sad, that he who steals the worth of two or three shillings should hold up his hand at the bar for his life, yea, sometimes hang for it ; and that those who rob poor souls of the treasure of saving truths, and subvert the faith of whole families, should be let to lift up their heads with impudence, glorying in their impunity : that blasphemy against God should not bear an action, where blasphemy against the king is indicted for treason. It is well that God loves his truth better than men, or else these would escape in both worlds ; but God hath declared himself against them. There is a day, when they who rob souls of truth shall be found and con- demned as greater felons than they who rob houses of gold and silver. See how God lays their indictment, Jer. xxiii. 30 : ' Behold, I am against the pro- phets, saith the Lord, that steal my word, every one from his neighbour.' He means the false prophets, that enticed the people from those truths which the faithful servants of God had delivered to them. There will be none on the bench to plead the blasphemer and seducer's cause, when God shall sit judge.
Use 3. Thirdly, This might well chastise the strange fickleness and unset- tledness of judgment which many labour with in this unconstant age. Truths in many professors' minds are not as stars fixed in the heavens, but like meteors, that dance in the air ; they are not as characters engraven in mai'ble, but writ . in the dust, which every wind and idle breath of seducers deface ; many
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