3. The opposite to this is levity and inconstancy of mipd, that soon quitteth truth without difficulty, or without much hesitancy and resistance yields to the temptation. The scripture often taketh notice of this sudden embracing of error : Gal. i. G, ' I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto
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another gospel ;' and in the text, ' soon shaken in mind.' Credulity is a lightness in believing, when we are like reeds shaken with every wind, Mat. xi. 7, and have a faulty easiness, ready to be carried away with every doctrine which pretendeth to truth : ' The simple believeth every word,' Pro v. xiv, 1.5. There is a readiness of mind which is good, but it goeth on sufficient evidence ; so ' the wisdom that is from above is gentle, and easy to be entreated,' James iii. 17 ; and the Bereans were TrpoOu/xoi,: Acts xvii. 11, ' They received the word with all readi- ness of mind, and searched the scriptures, whether these things were so or no.' But a readiness of mind differs from a weakness of mind, or a lightness in believing upon slender and insufficient grounds : they never receive the truth with thorough efficacy, and are prone to error.
4. The causes of this levity and inconstancy of mind are these : —
[1 .] Want of solid rooting in the truth ; they receive it hand-over- head, as the stony ground forthwith sprang up: Mat. xiii. 5, 20, ' Anon they receive it with joy ;' they do not so soon receive the word, but they as soon quit it.
[2.] Want of mortification: 2 Tim. iv. 10, 'Demas hath forsaken us, having loved this present world.' Lusts are uncertain ; fear of men, favour of men, carnal hopes will easily prevail.
[3.] A certain readiness of mind which disposeth men to conform and comply with their company, as the looking-glass representeth every face that looketh on it ; so they are very changeable, and unstable as water ; as Zedekiah, Jer. xxxviii. 5, ' The king is not he that can say you nay ;' soon turned this way and that way.
[4.] Want of a thorough inclination to God, so that they are right for a while, or in some things, yet they are not universally true to his interest : 1 Kings ii. 28, ' Joab turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absolom;' Hoseavii. 8, ' Ephraim is a cake not turned.'
[5.] Want of holiness and living up to the truths we know : 1 Tim. iii. 9, ' Holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience.' Choice liquors are best kept in a clean vessel ; men provoke God to desert them and leave them to a vertiginous spirit.
[6.] Libertinism. Men think they may run from one sect of Chris- tians to another, as the wind of interest bloweth. If they were to turn to Ethnicism, Turcism, or Judaism, they would die rather than change their religion ; but they think the differences among Christians are not of such moment as to venture anything upon that account. Every truth is precious, and must be owned in its season, and it is damnable in itself to do anything against conscience, and he that giveth way to a small temptation will entertain a greater ; as a man that hangeth over a precipice, when he lets go his hold, will sink further and further till he come to the bottom; therefore, it is good to be faithful in a little.
Use. Let us take heed of this evil credulity and lightness.
1, Till Christians get a settled and sound judgment they never have peace within themselves, for fears and scruples arise in the dark, and those that live in error are full of perplexities, and have not that tran- quillity of spirit which they have who are fully persuaded in their own mind : Kom. xiv. 5, ' Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind/
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2. If hardened in error, consider your opinions will ordinarily have an influence upon your whole religion, and will pervert your carriage towards God and men; your prayers will smell of your opinions, and be like Balaam's sacrifice, oftered to God to engage him against his own people ; your love will be dispensed according to the interests of your faction : 1 Cor. i. 12, 13, ' Every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided?'
3. The danger of error to others. Vice is like a duel, error a war : 2 Tim. ii. 17, ' Their word will eat as doth a canker ;' ' All in Asia have turned from me,' 2 Tim. i. 15.
4. There is danger to yourselves, though the error be not damnable, 1 Cor. iii. 13. You have not so full communion with God.
Thirdly, The third thing is the means which these impostors used to seduce them from the faith, — spirit, word, letter; by all which the apostle would not have them troubled and shaken in mind ; none of these engines which the seducers used should draw them from the truth. What should poor Christians do thus assaulted? A7is. Stick to the apostolical doctrine. I shall observe : —