from the guile of their hearts. A stable mind and a double heart seldom meet. That place speaks full to this, 1 Tim. i. 5 : ' The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.' Now mark what follows, ver. 6 : ' From which some having swerved,' or as it is in the original, not aiming at, 'have turned aside to vain jangling.' They never aimed at the power of holiness in receiving truth, that by it they might advance in their love, faith, and other graces ; and taking a wrong end and aim, no wonder they turn out of the right way. A naughty heart can easily bribe the judgment to vote on its side. This shall be truth now and no truth a month hence, if it please. That is truth with many, which serves their interest ; they tie their judgments to their purse-strings, or preferments, &c., and such men are ready, with that weather-cock in Queen Mary's days, to sing a new song upon any change in their carnal concernments. When love receives a truth, it is held fast ; but if lust after any worldly interest be the cause, .then it may be packed away again, when the tiu-n is served. Amnon was soon as sick of Tamar, as ever he was for her. And have we not in our days seen some truths and ordinances kicked away with as much scorn and contempt as he did her, and by those that have been sufficiently fond of them, a few years past, but, to be feared, never truly in love with them ?
Secondly, Attend on the ministry of the word. One great end of its appoint- ment is to establish us in truth, Ephes. iv. 1 1 : 'He gave some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints.' And mark, ver. 14, ' That we hence- forth be no more children^ tossed to and fro,' &c. He that rims from his guide, will be soon out of his way. It is no small testimony that God hath given to his faithful ministers in this present age ; that few leave them but the leprosy of error appears soon on their forehead. And in thy waiting on the ministry of the word, be sure thou attendest to the doctrinal part of the sermon as well as to the applicatory. The former is necessary to make thee a solid Christian, as the other to make thee a warm Christian : indeed, hot affections, without solid knowledge, are but like fire in the pan when the piece is not charged. The Levites, Nehem. viii. 7, 8, we find, ' gave the sentence of the law, and caused the people to understand it.' Planting goes before watering, and so should teaching before exhorting. And the same method people should learn in, that we are to preach in.
Thirdly, Enslave not thy judgment to any person or party. There is a spii-itual suretyship hath undone many in their judgments and principles : be notboimd to, or for, the judgment of any. Weigh truth, and tell gold, thou mayest after thy father : thou must live by thy own faith, not another's. Labour to see truth with thine own eyes. That building stands weak, which is held up by a shore or some neighbour's house it leans on, rather than on any foundation of its own ; v\'hen these go, that will fall to the ground also : let not authority from man, but evidence from the word, conclude thy judgment; that is but a shore, this a foundation. Quote the Scripture rather than men for thy judgment. Not, So saitli such a learned holy man, but. Thus saith the holy Scripture ; yet take heed of bending this direction too far the other way, which is done when we condenni the judgment of such, whose piety and learning might command reverence : there is sure a mean to be found betwixt defying men and deifying them. It is admiring of persons that is the traitor to truth, and makes many cry 'Hosanna' to error, and ' Crucify' to truth. Eusebius, out of Josephus, tells us of Herod (that Herod whom we read. Acts xii., to be eaten up of worms) his coming upon the theatre gorgeously clad, and that while he was making an eloquent oration to the people, his silver robe, which he then wore, did, by the reflex of the sunbeams shining on it, so glister, as dazzled the eyes of the spectators ; and this, saith he, occasioned some flatterers to cry out, ' The voice of God, and not of man.' And truly the glistering varnish which some men's parts and rhetoric put upon their discourses does oft so blind the judgments of their admirers, that they are too prone to think all divine they speak ; especially if they be such, whom God hath used as instrmnents for any good to their souls formerly. O it is hard then, as he said, amare hominem humanller, to love and esteem man as man, to reverence such so as not to be in danger of loving their errors also. Augustine had been a means to convert Alypius from one error, and he confess- et!i this was an occasion, why he was so easily by him led into another error,
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no less than Manicheeism ; Alypius thought he could not pervert liini here, that had converted him : call therefore none father on earth ; despise none, adore none.