Mi/ beloved brethren. — Dealing with them about an error, he dealeth with them very meekly, and therefore is the compellation so loving and sweet.
This verso will afford some points.
Obs. 1. It is not good to brand things with the name of error till we have proved them to be so. After he had disputed the matter with them, he saith, ' Err not.' (1.) Loose slings will do no good. To play about us with terms of heresy and error doth but prejudice men's minds, and exulcerate them against our testimony. None but fools will be afraid of hot words. Discoveries do far better than invectives. Usually that is a peevish zeal that stayeth in genernls. It is observ- able, Mat. xxiii., from vcr. 13 to 33, our Saviour denounceth never a woe but he presently rendereth a reason for it. ' Woe unto you, for ye shut the kingdom of heaven;' and again, ' Woe unto you, for ye devour widows' houses,' &c. You never knew a man gained by loose slings. The business is to make good the charge, to discover what is heresy and what is antichristianism, &c. (2.) This is an easy way to blemish the holy truths of God. How often do the Pa])ists spread that livery upon us, heretics and schismatics. They ' speak evil of things they do not know,' Jude 10. When men are loath to descend to the trial of a way, they blemish it : Acts xxiv. 14, ' After the way which they call heresy we worship the God of our fathers.' Men condemn things suddenly and rashly, and so often truth is miscalled. If matters were dispatched by arguments rather than censures, we should have less differences. The most innocent truths may suffer under an odious imputation. The spouse had her veil taken from her, and represented to the world as a prostitute. Cant. iii. The Christians were called Genus hominum super st it ionis mcdi/icce,^ a wicked sort of men, and Christianity a witchery and superstition.
^ Tacit. Anual., lib. xv. ; Sueton. in Xero, cap. 16.
106 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [JaS. I. 16.
Use. Oh ! then, that in this age we would practise this : Be less in passion and more in argument. That we wouhl condemn things by reasoning rather than miscaUing. That we were less in generals, and would deal more particularly. This is the way to ' stablish men in the present truth.' In morals, the word seldom doth good but when it is brought home to the very case. Thunder at a distance doth not move us so much as a clap in our own zienith ; that maketh us startle. General invectives make but superficial impressions ; show what is an error, and then call it so. Truly that was the way in ancient times. At first, indeed, for peace' sake, some^ have observed that the fathers declaimed generally against errors about the power of nature, not meddling with the persons or particular tenets of Pela- gius and his disciples ; but afterward they saw cause for being more particular. Loose discourses lose their profit. Blunt iron, that toucheth many points at once, doth not enter, but make a bruise ; but a needle, that toucheth but one point, entereth to tlie quick. When we come to deal particularly v/ith every man's work, then the fire trieth it, 1 Cor. iii. 13. I do the rather urge this because usually ungrounded zeal stayeth in generals, and those that know least are most loose and invective in their discourses.
Ohs. 2. We should as carefully avoid errors as vices ; a blind eye is worse than a lame foot, yea, a blind eye will cause it ; he that hath not light is apt to stumble: Eom. i. 26, first they were given up, et<? vovv ahoKifjbov, ' to a vain mind,' and then * to vile affections.' Some opinions seem to be remote, and to lie far enough from practice, and yet they have an influence upon it ; they mcke the heart foolish, and then the life will not be right. There is a link and cognation between truth and truth, as there is between grace and grace ; and therefore speculative errors do but make way for practical. Again, there are some errors that sqem to encourage strictness, as free-will, universal grace, &c. ; but, truly weighed, they are the greatest discouragement ; and therefore it hath been thejust judgment of God that the l)roachers of such opinions have been most loose in life, and (as the apostle Peter maketh it the character of all erroneous persons, 2 Peter ii.) vain and sensual. The apostle Paul presseth strictness, and our work the more earnestly, because God must work all, Pliil. ii. 12, 13. Well, then, beware of erroneous conceits ; your spirit is embased by them. Men think nothing is to be shunned but what is foul in act, and so publicly odious. Consider, there is ' filtliiii(?ss in the spirit' as well as ' in the flesh,' 2 Cor. vii. 1 ; and a vain mind is as bad and as odious to God as a vicious life. Error and idolatry will ])e as dan- gerous as drunkenness and wlioredom ; and therefore you should as carefully avoid them that would entice you to errors, as those that will draw you to sin and profanencss ; for error, being the more plausible of the two, the dekision is tlie more strong: natural conscience will smite for profanencss. Many, I am persuaded, dally with opinions, because they do not know the dangerous result ot them : all false prin- ciples have a secret but pestilent influence on the life and conversation.