Truth is truth, and error, error, and that which is unlawful is unlawful, whether men think so or no. God hath put an eternal difi'ercnce betwixt light and darkness, good and ill, which no creature's conceit can alter; and
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therefore no man's judgment is the measure of things further than it agrees to truth stamped upon things themselves by God, Hereupon, because a wise man's judgment agrees to the truth of things, a wise man may in some sense be said to be the measure of things ; and the judgment of one holy wise man to be preferred before a thousand others. Such men usually are immoveable as the sun in its course, because they think, and speak, and live by rule. ' A Joshua and his house will serve God,' Josh. xxiv. 15, whatsoever others do, and will run a course contrary to the world, because their judgments lead them a contrary way. Hence it is that Satan hath a spite at the eye of the soul, the judgment, to put out that by ignorance and false reason, for he cannot rule in any until either he hath taken away or perverted judgment : he is a prince of darkness, and ruleth in darkness of the understanding. Therefore he must first be cast out of the understand- ing by the prevailing of truth, and planting it in the soul. Those therefore that are enemies of knowledge help Satan and antichrist, whose kingdom, Uke Satan's, is a kingdom of darlmess, to erect their throne. Hence it is promised by Christ, that ' the Holy Ghost shall convince the world of judg- ment,' John xvi. 8; that is, that he is resolved to set up a throne of government, because the great lord of misrule, ' Satan, the prince of the world,' is judged by the gospel, and the Spirit accompanying it, his im- postures are discovered, his enterprises laid open ; therefore when the gospel was spread, the oracles ceased, ' Satan fell from heaven like lightning,' Luke X. 18 ; men were * translated out of his kingdom into Christ's,' Col. i, 13. Where prevailing is by lies, there discovery is victoiy ; ' they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest to all,' 2 Tim. iii. 9. So that manifestation of error giveth a stop to it, for none will willingly be deceived. Let truth have full scope without check or restraint, and let Satan and his instruments do their worst, they shall not prevail ; as Jerome saith of the Pelagians in his time.^:- The discovery of your opinions is the vanquishing of them, 3'our blasphemies appear at the fu-st blush.
Use. Hence we learn the necessity, that the understanding be principled with supernatm-al knowledge, for the well managing of a Christian con- versation.
There must be light to discover a further end than nature, for which we are Christians, and a rule suitable directing to that end, which is the will of God in Christ, discovering his good pleasure toward us, and om- duty to- wards him ; and in virtue of this discovery we do all that we do, that any way may further our reckoning : ' The eye must first be single, and then the whole body and frame of our conversation will be light,' Matt. vi. 22 ; otherwise both we and our course of life are nothing but darkness. The whole conversation of a Christian is nothing else but knowledge digested into will, afi"ection, and practice. If the first concoction in the stomach be not good, that in the liver cannot be good ; so if there be error in the judgment, it mars the whole practice, as an error in the foundation doth the building : God will have ' no blind sacrifices, no unreasonable services,' Mai. i. 13, but will have us to 'love him with all our mind,' Eom. xii. 1, that is, wih our understanding part, as well as ' with all our hearts,' Luke x. 27, that is, the afiecting part of the soul.
This order of Christ's government by judgment is agreeable unto the soul, and God delighteth to preserve the manner of working peculiar unto man, that is, to do what he doth out of judgment : as grace supposeth
* Sententias vestras prodidisse, superasse est. — Hieron. in Epist. ad Ctesiphon : rima fronte apparent blasphcmise.
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nature as founded upon it, so the frame of gi-acc preservetli the frame of nature in man. And, therefore Christ bringeth all that is good in the soul through judgment, and that so sweetly, that many out of a dangerous error think, that that good which is in them and issueth from them is from themselves, and not from the powerful work of grace. As in evil, the devil so subtilly leadeth us according to the stream of our own nature, that men think that Satan had no hand in their sin ; but here a mistake is with little peril, because we are ill of ourselves, and the devil doth but promote what ill he findeth in us. But there are no seeds of supernatural goodness at all in us. God findeth nothing in us but enmity ; only he hath engraven this in our nature to incline in general to that which we judge to be good. Now when he shall clearly discover what is good in particular, we are carried to it ; and when convincingly he shaU discover that which is ill, we abhor it as freely as we embraced it before.