Observ. 15. Errors, in the tender bud, and first spring of themy are comparativelij shy and modest, to what they prove after- wards, when they have spread and rooted themselves in the minds of multitudes, a7id when their Authors think it time to set up andjustlejhr themselves in the world *.
They usually begin in modest scruples, conscientious doubts and queries. But having once gotten many abetters, and, amongst them, some that have subtihy and ability to plead and dispute their cause, they ruffle it out at another rate ; glory in their numbers, piety and ability of their party ; boast and glory in the conceited victoiies they atchieved over their opposers. The mask drops off its face, and it appears with a brow of brass, becomes insolent and turbulent, both in church and state. Of which it is easy to give many pregnant instances, in the Arians of old, and more recent er- rors, which I shall not at present be concerned with, lest I exaspe- rate, whilst I seek to heal the wound.
-|- Should a man hear the sermons or private discourses of error- ists, whilst the design is but forming and projecting, he should meet with little to raise his jealousy. They speak in generals, and guard their discourses with political reserves. You shall not see, though you seem to see the tendency of their discourses. Hence the apos- tle saith, 2 Pet. ii. 1. ca^g/caj^tf/i', They shall privily [or covertly] hri7ig in damnable heresies : As the boy in Plutarch, being asked by a stranger, What is that you carry so closely under your cloak ? wittily answered, You may well know, that I intend you shall not know it, by my so carrying it.
Observ. 16. Nothing gives more countenance and increase to er- ror than a weak or feeble defence of the truth against it %.
The strength of error lies much in the weakness of the advocates
* Eunomius, by advice of Eudoxus, for some time spread his heresy secretly, intri- cately, and ambiguously ; but at length taking eourage, he openly avowed in public as- semblies what he heretically maintained. Tkeodoret, book 5. c. 29.
f The Donatists, in Augustine's time, modestly moved, That men might not be com- pelled tc live holy. Coacta et i?ivita pietas, they mentioned it with dislike; but when grown in po\ver,yac^z insolentes orLhadoxis inj'erebanty insomuch that Dulcitius the tri- bune was fain to defend the orthodox against them with an army.
\ Some not beii^g sufficiently instructed in heavenly knowledge could not answer the opposers of truth, who objected, that it is a thing either impossible or incongruous that God should inclose himself within the womb of a woman, &c. by all which things, when they had not sufficient capacity or learning to defend truth and refute error, (for they had not thorough insight into the import and reason of such things) they were misled from the right way, corrupted heavenly knowledge, and composed to themselves a new system of doctrine, that had no root or stability. Lactan. book 4, chap. 50. con- cerning Heresies,
THE CAUSES AND CURE OF MENTAL ERRORS. 439
and defendants of truth. Every friend of truth is not fit to ma!<e a champion for it. Many love it, and pray for it, that cannot de- fend and dispute for it. / can die for the truths (saith the martyr) hut I cannot dispute for it. ZuingUus blamed Caroiostadius for undertaking the controversy of that age, because (said he) non ha- buit satis humerorum, — his shoulders were too weak for the burthen. It can be said of i^^.^ as Cicero speaks of one, Nullam unquam in disputationibus rem defendit^ quam non probarit ? nullum oppug- navit, quern non everterit ; i. e. He undertook no cause in disputa- tion, which he could not defend ; he opposed no adversary, whom he could not overthrow. He is a rare and happy disputant, who can clear and carry every point of truth, of which he undertakes the defence. It were happy for the church, if the abilities and prudence of all her friends were commensurate and equal to their love and zeal. Every little foil, every weak or impertinent answer of a friend to truth, is quickly turned into a weapon to wound it the deeper.
Observ. 17. Errors of judgment are not cured by compulsion and external force ^ but by rational conviction, and proper spiritual
Bodily sufferings rather spread than cure intellectual errors. I deny not but fundamental heresies, breaking forth into open blas- phemies against God, and seditions in the civil state, ought to be restrained. It is no way fit men should be permitted to go up and down the world with plague-sores running upon them. Nor do I understand why men should be more cautious to preserve their bo- dies than their souls. But I speak here of such errors as may consist with the foundations of the Christian faith, and are not destructive of civil government. They take the ready way to spread and perpetuate them that think to root them out of the world by such improper and unwarrantable means as external force and violence. The wind never causes an earthquake till it be pent in and restrained from motion.
We neither find, nor can imagine, that those church or state Ex- orcists should ever be able to affect their end, who think to confine all the spirits of error within the circle of a severe - uniformity. Fires, prisons, pillories, stigmati zings, mutilations, whippings, ba- nishments, &c. are the Popish topics to confute errors. It is high- ly remarkable that the world, long ago, consented for the avoiding of dissent in judgment, to enslave themselves and their posterity to the most fatal and destructive heresy that ever it groaned un- der.
It is a rational and proper observation, long since made by Lac-
440 A BLOW AT THE KOOT ; OK,
tantius, Quis mihi imponat necessHatem credendi quod noUm, vet 71071 cj-edendi, quod velim f i. e. Who can force me to believe what I will not, or not to believe what I will ? The rational and gentle spirit of the gospel is the only proper and effectual method to cure the diseases of the mind.
Observ. 18. Erroneous doctrines prodtmng divisions and fierce contentions amongst Christians, prove ajhtal stumhling-block to the world, fix their prejudices, and obstruct their conversion to Chf'ist*.