out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned ; from which some having swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law, and understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm.' Mat. xxiii. 2, 3, ' Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith ; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.' False teachers are nice in the lesser things of the law, and as negligent in the greater. 1 Tim. vi. 3-5, ' If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strife of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness : from such withdraw thyself.' If such teachers are not hypocrites in grain, I know nothing, Rom. ii. 22. The earth groans to bear them, and hell is fitted for them, Mat. xxiv. 32.
[5.] The fifth character. False teachers cover and colour their dan- gerous principles and soul-impostures with very fair speeches and plausible pretences, with high notions and golden expressions. Many in these days are bewitched and deceived by the magnificent words, lofty strains, and stately terms of deceivers, viz. illumination, revelation, deification, fiery triplicity, &c. As strumpets paint their faces, and deck and perfume their beds, the better to allure and deceive simple souls,1 so false teachers will put a great deal of paint and garnish upon their most dangerous principles and blasphemies, that they may the better deceive and delude poor ignorant souls. They know sugared poison goes down sweetly ; they wrap up their pernicious, soul-killing pills in gold. Weigh the scriptures in the margin.2
In the days of Hadrian the emperor, there was one Ben-Cosbi gathered a multitude of Jews together, and called himself Ben-cocuba, the son of a star, applying that promise to himself, Num. xxiv. 17; but he proved Bar-chosaba, the son of a lie. And so will all false teachers, for all their flourishes prove at the last the sons of lies.
[6.] The sixth character. False teachers strive more to win over men to their opinions, than to better them in their conversations. Mat. xxiv. ] 7, ' Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye com- pass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.' They busy them- selves most about men's heads. Their work is not to better men's hearts, and mend their lives ; and in this they are very much like their father the devil, who will spare no pains to gain proselytes.3
[7]. The seventh character. False teachers make merchandise of their followers : 2 Peter ii. 1-3, ' But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall
1 Gal. vi. 12 ; 2 Cor. xi. 13-15 ; Rom. xvi. 17, 18 ; Mat. xvi. 6, 11, 12 ; vii. 16.
2 See footnote supra. — G.
8 For shame, says Epictetus to his Stoics ; either live as Stoics, or leave off the name of Stoics. The application is easy.
132 PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 CoR. II. 11.
follow their pernicious ways ; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you : whose judgment now of a longtime lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.' They eye your goods more than your good ; and mind more the serving of themselves, than the saving of your souls. So they may have your substance, they care not though Satan has your souls, Rev. xviii. 11—13. That they may the better pick your purse, they will hold forth such principles as are very indulgent to the flesh. False teachers are the great wor- shippers of the golden calf, Jer. vi. 13.1
Now, by these characters you may know them, and so shun them, and deliver your souls out of their dangerous snares ; which that you may, my prayers shall meet yours at the throne of grace.
And now, to prevent objections, I shall lay down some propositions or conclusions concerning Satan and his devices, and then give you the reasons of the point, and so come to make some use and application of the whole to ourselves.
Propositions concerning Satan and his devices :
Proposition (1). The first proposition is this, That though Satan hath his devices to draw souls to sin, yet we must be careful that we do not lay all our temptations upon Satan, that we do not wrong the devil, and father that upon him that is to be fathered upon our own base hearts. I think that oftentimes men charge that upon the devil that is to be charged upon their own hearts. ' And the Lord said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done % And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat,' Gen. iii. 13. Sin and shifting came into the world together.2 This is no small baseness of our hearts, that they will be naught, ay, very naught, and yet will father that naughtiness upon Satan. Man hath an evil root within him ; that were there no devil to tempt him, nor no wicked men in the world to entice him, yet that root of bitterness, that cursed sinful nature that is in him, would draw him to sin, though he knows beforehand that ' the wages of sin is eternal death,' Rom. vi. 23 ' For out of the heart pro- ceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false wit- nesses, blasphemies/ Mat. xv. 19. The whole frame of man is out of frame. The understanding is dark, the will cross, the memory slippery, the affections crooked, the conscience corrupted, the tongue poisoned, and the heart wholly evil, only evil, and continually evil. Should God chain up Satan, and give him no liberty to tempt or entice the sons of men to vanity or folly, yet they would not, yet they could not but sin against him, by reason of that cursed nature that is in them, that will still be a-provoking them to those sins that will provoke and stir up the anger of God against them, Jude 1 5, 16. Satan hath only a persuading sleight, not an enforcing might. He may tempt us, but without our- selves he cannot conquer us ; he may entice us, but without ourselves
1 Crates threw his money into the sea, resolving to drown it, lest it should drown him. But false teachers care not who thoy diown, so they may have their money. [It may be well to distinguish above among the different persons of the name, as Crates of Thebes, son of Ascondus. Diog. Laertius, vi. 85, 93, 96-98.— G.]
* Cum primtjm nascivivr in omni continito pravitale versamur, We are no sooner born, than buried in a bog of wickedness.— Tully.