ral infection. Never fear speeding when the promise bids thee go and prosper. The mercy is granted before thou ask it ; only God will have thee by prayer lay thy claim to it, before thou art possessed of it. And for thy help I have set down some sweet promises, with which, if thou acquaint thyself, thou mayest be furnished both with grounds for thy faith, and arguments for thy prayer in this case ; Matt. xxiv. 24 ; John vii. 12 ; x. 5, 29 ; 1 Cor. xi. 19 ; Phil. iii. 15; 1 John ii. 19, 20.
Section V. — Compare scripture with scripture. False doctrines, like false witnesses, agree not among themselves. Their name may be called Legion, for they are many. But truth is one, and one scripture sweetly harmonises with another. Hence it is, though there were many penmen of sacred writ, and those of several ages, one after another, yet they all are said to have but one mouth : Luke i. 70, ' As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began.' All had one mouth, because they accord so perfectly together. The best way, therefore, to know the mind of God in one text, is to lay it to another. The lapidary useth one diamond to cut another, so should we one place of Scripture to interpret another. Scrip- tures compared, like glasses set one against another, cast a light to each other. Nehem. viii. 8, ' They' (that is, the Levites,) ' read in the book of the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.' They gave them the meaning of what they read by the Scripture itself. Now, in comparing scripture with scripture, be careful thou interpret obscure places by the more plain and clear, and not the clear by the dark. Errors creejD into the most obscure places, and there take sanctuary. Some things are hard to be understood, which they that are imlearned wrest. No wonder they should stumble in those dark and difficult places, when they turn their back on that light which plainer scriptures afford to lead them safely through ; ' He that is born of God, sinneth not, but keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not,' 1 John v. 18. This is a daik place, from which some run away with the notion, and conclude that there is a perfect state, free from all sin, attain- able in this life ; whereas, a multitude of plain sci-iptures testify against such a conclusion, 1 Kings viii. 38 ; Prov. xx. 9 ; Eccles. vii. 20 ; Job ix. 20 ; Phil, iii. 12 ; 1 John i. 8 — ^10, &c. So that it must be in a limited and qualified sense, that he that is boi'n of God sins not : he sins not finally, or compara- tively, not as the carnal wretch doth : and the wicked one toucheth him not ; that is, not so as to transfuse his own nature and disposition into him, as the fire the wood it comes near, assimilating it to its own nature. This rule of using plain scriptures as a key to unlock obscm-e ones, will hold in all other instances. And, blessed be God, though to tame our pride he hath inserted some knotty passages, yet the necessary saving truths are of easy access, even to the weakest understanding. Salitbriter Spiritus Sa7ictus ita, Scripturas Sanctas modificavit, ut locis apertioribus fami occurreret, obscurioribus fastidla detergeret. — Aug. de Doc. Ch. lib. ii. c. 6. There is enough in the plain places of Scripture to keep the weak from starving, and in the obscure to lift them above contempt of the strongest.
Section VL — Consult with thy faithful guides whom God hath set over thee in his church. Though people are not to pin their faith on the minister's sleeve, yet they are ' to seek the law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts,' Mai. ii. 7. Christ directs his kids, for their safety, that they turn not aside into by-paths of error, and fall not into the hands of false teachers ; that they go forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed beside the shepherds' tents, Cant. i. 8. The devil knows well, that if he can send away the shepherd, he may soon catch the sheep ; and these times prove sadly, that he is not mistaken. When were people's aftections more withdrawn from their ministers ? And when were their judgments more poisoned with error ? Of what sort, I pray, are those, that have been trepanned into dangerous errors in our late unhappy times ? Have they not mostly this brand upon them ? Are they not such who would sooner hearken to a stranger — (may be a Jesuit in a buff coat, or with a blue apron before him,) — seek to any mountebank that comes they know not whence, is here to-day and gone to-morrow, than to their own ministers, who from God have the rule over them, and watch for their souls, as they that must give account to God for them ! yea, who, for many
AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. QQg