1 It was a good saying of Chrysostom, speaking of hell : Ne quceramus ubi sit, sed quomodo illamfugiamus, let us not seek where it is, but how we shall escape it.
2 Surely one good means to escape hell is to take a turn or two in hell by our dail meditations. 8 A blind eye is worse than a lame foot.
4 The breath of the erroneous is infectious, and, like the dogs of Congo, they bite thougli they bark not.
2 Cor. II. 11.] against satan's devices. 57
It was God's heavy and dreadful plague upon the Gentiles, to be given up to a mind void of judgment, or an injudicious mind, or a mind rejected, disallowed, abhorred of God, or a mind that none have cause to glory in, but rather to be ashamed of, Rom. i. 28. I think that in these days God punisheth many men's former wickednesses by giving them up to soul-ruining errors. Ah, Lord, this mercy I humbly beg, that thou wouldst rather take me into thine own hand, and do anything with me, than give me up to those sad errors to which thou- sands have married their souls, and are in a way of perishing for ever.1
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, To receive the truth affectionately, and let it dwell in your souls 'plenteously.2 When men stand out against the truth, when truth would enter, and men bar the door of their souls against the truth, God in justice gives up such souls to be deluded and deceived by error, to their eternal undoing: 2 Thes. ii. 10-12, 'Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, God shall send them strong delusions (or, as the Greek hath it, "the efficacy of error," evegytiav crXai-Jjs), that they should believe a lie ; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.'' Ah, sirs, as you love your souls, do not tempt God, do not provoke God, by your withstanding truth and out-facing truth, to give you up to believe a lie, that you may be damned. There are no men on earth so fenced against error as those are that receive the truth in the love of it. Such souls are not 'easily tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning crafti- ness, wherein they lie in wait to deceive,' Eph. iv. 14.3 It is not he that receives most of the truth into his head, but he that receives most of the truth affectionately into his heart, that shall enjoy the happiness of having his judgment sound and clear, when others shall be deluded and deceived by them, who make it their business to infect the judgments and to undo the souls of men.
Ah, souls, as you would not have your judgments polluted and de- filed with error, 'Let the word of the Lord,' that is more precious than gold, yea than fine gold, 'dwell plenteously in you,' Col. iii. 16.4 It is not the hearing of truth, nor the knowing of truth, nor the com- mending of truth, nor the talking of truth, but the indwelling of truth in your souls, that will keep your judgments chaste and sound, in the midst of all those glittering errors -that betray many souls into his hands, that can easily 'transform himself into an angel of light,' 2 Cor. xi. 14, that he may draw others to, lie in chains of darkness with him for ever.5 Oh, let not the word be a stranger, but make it your choicest familiar ! Then will you be able to stand in the day wherein
1 Through animosity to persist in error is diabolical ; it were best that we never erred ; next to that, that we amended our error.
2 The greatest sinners are sure to be the greatest sufferers.
3 b T>i xvS'.'ia, Gr., signifies cogging with a die ; such sleights as cheaters and false gamesters use at dice.
« ivoixiru, i. e. indwell in you as an ingrafted word incorporated into your souls, so concocted and digested by you, as that you turn it into a part of yourselves.
5 They must needs err that know not God's ways, yet can they not wander so wide as to miss of hell.
5S PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 COR. II. 11.
many shall fall on your right hand, and on your left, by the subtlety of those that shall say, 'Lo, here is Christ, or lo, there is Christ.'
There was more wit than grace in his speech that counselled his friends, ' Not to come too nigh unto truth, lust his teeth should be beaten out with its heels.' Ah, souls, if truth dwell plenteously in you, you are happy ; if not, you are unhappy under all your greatest felicity.1
'It is with truth,' saith Melancthon, 'as it is with holy water, every- one praised it, and thought it had some rare virtue in it ; but offer to sprinkle them with it, and they will shut their eyes, and turn away their faces from it,'
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is, Bolemnly to consider, That error makes the owner to suffer loss. All the pains and labour that men take to defend and maintain their errors, to spread abroad and infect the world with their errors, shall bring no profit, nor no comfort to them in that day, wherein ' every man's work shall be made manifest, and the fire shall try it of what sort it is,' as the apostle shews in that remarkable scripture, 1 Cor. iii. 11-15. Ah, that all those that rise early and go to bed late, that spend their time, their strength, their spirits, their all, to advance and spread abroad God-dishonouring and soul-undoing opinions, would seriously consider of this, that they shall lose all the pains, cost, and charge that they have been, or shall be at, for the propagating of error ; and if they are ever saved, it shall be by fire, as the apostle there shews. Ah, sirs, Is it nothing to lay out your money for that which is not bread? and your strength for that which will not, which cannot, profit you in the day that you must make up your account, and all 3^our works must be tried by fire ?2 Ah, that such souls would now at last 'buy the truth, and sell it not,' Pro v. xxiii. 23. Remember you can never over-buy it, whatsoever you give for it ; you can never suffi- ciently sell it, if you should have all the world in exchange for it.
It is said of Cgesar, that ' he had greater care of his books than of his royal robes,' for, swimming through the waters to escape his enemies, he carried his books in his hand above the waters, but lost Ins robes.3 Ah, what are Cassar's books to God's books? Well, re- member this, that one day, yea, one hour spent in the study of truth, or spreading abroad of truth, will yield the soul more comfort and pro- fit, than many thousand years spent in the study and spreading abroad of corrupt and vain opinions, that have their rise from hell, and not from heaven, from the god of this world and not from that God that shall at last judge this world, and all the corrupt opinions of men.
Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is, To //<ife, reject, and, abominate all those doctrines and opi/rdons that a/re contrary to godliness, and that open a door to profaneness,* and all