The occasion. The holy God, who is afGod of truth, Deut. xxxii. 4. and hateth errors. Rev. ii. 6. the God of order, and hates confusions and schisms in his church, 1 Cor. xiv. 33. is yet pleased to permit errors and heresies to arise, without whose per- mission they could never spring. And this he doth for the trial of his people's faith and constancy, and for a spiritual punishment upon some men for the abuse of his known truths ; and by the permission of these evils, he advanceth his own glory, and the good of his church and people. Augustine answers that question. Why doth not God, since he hates errors, sweep them out of the world ? Because (saith he) it is an act of greater power to bring good out of evil, than not to suffer evils to be at all.
Satan's design in errors, is to cloud and darken God's name and
THE CAUSES AXD CURE OF MENTAL ERKORS. 44S
precious truths ; to destroy the beauty, strength, and order of the church. But God's ends in permitting and sending errors, are, (1.) To plague and punish men for their abuse of Hght, 2 Thes. ii. 11. " For this cause shall God send them strong delusions,** &c. (2.) To prove and try the sincerity and constancy of our hearts, Deut. xiii. 1, 3. 1 Cor. xi. 19. and lastly, By these things the saints are awakened to a more diligent search of the Scriptures, which are the more critically read and examined upon the trial of spirits and doctrines by them, 1 John iv. 1. " Beheve not every ^'spirit, but try the spirits." And Rev. ii. 2. *' Thou hast tried " th^m that say tliey are apostles,** &c.
The prevention. Though heresies and errors must (for the rea- sons assigned) break forth into the world, and God will turn them eventually unto his own glory, and the benefit of his church ; yet it is a dreadful judgment to be delivered over to a spirit of error, to be the authors and abettors of them. This is a judicial stroke of God, and as ever we hope to escape, and stand clear out of the way of it, let us carefully shun these three following causes and provocations thereof.
(1.) Want of love to the truth, which God hath made to shine about us in the means, or into us, by actual illumination, under the means of knowledge. 2 Thess. ii. 10, 11. " Because they received ** not the love of the truth, God gave them up to strong delusions.** They are justly plagued with error, that slight truth. False doc- trines are fit plagues for false hearts.
(2.) Beware of pride and wantonness of mind. It is not so much the weakness as the wantonness of the mind, which provokes God to inflict this judgment. None likelier to make seducers than boasters, Jude 16. Arius gloried, that God had revealed some things to him which were hidden from the apostles themselves. Simon Magus boasted himself to be the mighty power of God. The erroneous Pharisees loved the praises of men. When the Papist reproached Luther that he affected to have his disciples called Lutherans, he replied*, "He disdained that the children of Christ " should be called by so vile a name as his.**
(3.) Beware you neglect not prayer, to be kept sound in your judgments, and guided by the Spirit into all truth, Psal. cxix. 10. " With my whole heart have I souglit thee ; O let me not wander, " or err, from thy commandments.*' This do, and you are safe from such a judicial tradition.
The first cause. We shall next speak of the causes of error found in the evil dispositions of the subjects, which prepare and incline them to receive erroneous doctrines and opinions, and even catch
♦ Luther said, Not so, O fool, not so, for I desire that ray name be concealed.
♦^^ A BLOW AT THE ROOT ; OR,
at the occasions, and least sparks of temptation, as dry tinder : and amongst these is found,
(1.) A perverse wrangling humour at the pretended obscurity of the Scriptures. The Romish party snatch at this occasion, and make it the proper cause, when, indeed, it is but a picked occasion of the errors and mistakes among men. They tell us, the Scriptures are so difficult, obscure, and perplexed, that if private men will trust to them as their only guide, they will inevitably run into errors, and their only relief is to give up their souls to the conduct of their church ; whereas, indeed, the true cause of error is not so much in the obscurity of the vvord, as in the corruption of the mind, 1 Tim. vi. 5. 2 Tim. iii. 8.
We do acknowledge there are in the Scriptures, nva buffvoriTcx,, xcLt Tiva. dvtrspfMsviura, some things hard to be understood, 2 Pet. iii. 16. the sublime and mysterious nature of the matter rendering it so ; and some things hard to be interpreted, from the manner of expression : as indeed all mystical parts of Scripture, and prophe- tical predictions are and ought to be delivered. The Spirit of God this way designedly casts a veil over them, till the proper season of their revelation and accomphshment be come. Besides (as the learned Glassius observes) in PauPs style, there are found some peculiar words, and forms of speech, of which ordinary rules of grammar take no notice, nor give any parallel examples of: as to be buried with Christ ; to be baptized into his death ; to which I may add, to be circumcised in him, S^-c. There are also multitudes of words found in Scripture, of various and vastly different sig- nifications : and accordingly there is a diversity, and sometimes a contrariety of senses, given of them by expositors ; which to an humourist, or quarrelsome wit, give an occasion to vent his errors with a plausible appearance of Scripture-consent. And indeed TertuUian saith * " The Scriptures are so disposed that heretics " may pick occasions ;"" and those that will not be satisfied may be hardened. See Mark iv. 11, 12.
But all this notwithstanding, the great and necessary things to our salvation are so perspicuously and plainly revealed in the Scrip- tures, that even baljes in Christ do apprehend and understand them, Matth. xi. 25. 1 Cor. i. 27, 28, 29. And though there be difficulties in other points more remote from the foundation ; yet the Spirit of God is not to be accused, but rather his wisdom to be admired herein. For (1.) this serves to excite our most intense study and diligence, which, by this difficulty is made necessary, Prov. ii. 3, 4, 5. The very prophets, yea, the very an-
* Nim periclilor dicere ipsas scripturas ita dispoiitas esse, ut materiam subministarent kcereticis.
THE CAUSES AND CURES OF MEIJTAL EIIRORS. 445
gels search into these things, 1 Pet. i. 11, 12. (2.) Hereby a stand- ing ministry in the church is made necessary, Neli. viii. 8. Eph. iv. 11, 12, 13. So that to pretend obscurity of Scripture to be the culpable cause of error, (when, indeed, the fault is in ourselves) this is too much like our father Adam, who would implicitly ac- cuse God, to excuse himself; he laid it upon the woman which God gave him, and we upon the Scriptures which God hath given us.