subtle band of Satan. We read of Apollos, Acts xviii. 28, that ' he mightily convinced tlie Jews ;' he did, as it were, knock them down with the weight of liis reasoning : and out of what armoury fetched he the sword with which he so prevailed? See the same verse, ' Shewing by the Scriptures, that Jesus was Christ;' and, therefore, is said to be ' mighty in the Scriptures,' ver. 24 : a mighty man of valour, and so expert through his excellent knowledge in them, that the erroneous Jews could no more stand before him, holding this sword in his hand, than a child with a wooden dagger can against a giant formidably armed with killing weapons. When Paul warns Timothy to stand upon his defence carefully against seducers, he devises no better coimsel how he might keep out of their hands, than sending him to the Scriptures, and bidding him shut himself up within these : ' But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned,' 2 Tim. iii. 14. And in the next verse, he shews what lesson he means that he had learned, by telling him, that from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make him wise unto salvation ; and, by consequence, wiser than all his enemies, if he stuck close to them. Other arms we may load ourselves with by tumbling over many authors, but he that hath this sword, and hath been taught of the Spirit the use of this weapon, is provided well to meet the stoutest champion for error which the devil hath on his side. With this, poor women have been able to disarm great doctors of their studied arguments, defeating all their art and logic with one plain place of Scriptvire : as she who killed Abimelech, that great commander, by tumbling a piece of millstone on his head. Out of this armoury came those weapons Paul tells us are so 'mighty through God, casting down imaginations,' or reasonings ; by which an ancient will have the Greek philosophers' syllogisms to be meant. Indeed, he that hath the word on his side, and a holy skill to use it, hath as much advantage of his adversary that comes with other armour (let him be never so good a fencer) as a man with a good sword hath over him that comes forth only with a bulrush in his hand. All eiTor dreads the light of the word, and fears more to be examined by that, than a thief does to be tried before a strict judge. Hereticorum sententias prodid/sse est superesse, saith Hieron. Unfold them, or bring them and the word face to face, and, like Cain, they hang down their head, they are put to shame. This is the only certain ordeal to try suspected opinions at. If they can walk upon this fiery law imhurt, unreproved, they may safely pass for truths, and none else. Paul tells of some ' that will not endure sound doctrine,' 2Tim. iv. 3. Alas I how should they, when their minds are not sound? It is too searching for them. Gouty feet cannot go but on a soft way, which generally yields to them. Such must have a doctrine that Avill comply with their humour, which the word will not, but rather judge them ; and this they think it will do too soon at the great day, therefore, now they shun it, lest it should torment them before their time. Thus, the Quakers have their skulking hole to which they run from the Scripture, at whose bar they know their opinions would be cast, and therefore appeal to another, the light within them ; or, in plain English, their natural conscience, a judge which is known too well to be coiTupt, and easily bi'ibed to speak what the lusts of men will often have him do. Ah, poor creatures, what a sad change have they made, to leave the word, that is an inflexible rule of faith, which can no more deceive them than God himself, to trust the guidance of themselves to themselves; a more ignorant, unfaithful guide, the devil could not have chosen for them. ' He that is his own teacher,' saith Bernard, ' is sure to have a fool for his master.' God himself, by Solomon, saith, ' The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he that hearkeneth imto counsel is wise,' Prov. xii. 15 ; but he most wise, that makes the word of God the man of his coimsel. The Papist hath his thicket and wood at his back also, — antiquity and traditions, to which he flies before the face of the Sci'ipture for sanctuary, as Adam did to a bush when God came to him ; as if any antiquity were so authentic as God's own oracles ; and any traditions of men to be laid in the balance with the Scripture. To name no more, the Socinian folds himself up in his own proud reason, and assumes such state, that the sense of Scripture must be reconciled to his reason, and not his reason bent to the Scripture ; he must have a religion and Scriptiu-e that fits the model which his own reason di'aws, or he will have neither : the root of many prodigious errors and heretics, like those of whom Tertullian .speaks, Qui Platonicum et
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