30. Against every sort of this, it behoves us to guard, with the utmost diligence: considering the dreadful effects it has so often produced, and which indeed naturally result from it. Its immediate offspring is pride; it continually increases this source from whence it flows, and hereby it alienates us more and more, from the favour and from the life of God. It dries up the very springs of faith and love; of righteousness and true holiness. Seeing all these flow from grace. But God _resisteth the proud and giveth grace_ only _to the humble_.
31. Together with pride there will naturally arise an unadvisable and unconvincible spirit. So that into whatever error or fault the _Enthusiast_ falls, there is small hope of his recovery. For reason will have little weight with him (as has been justly and frequently observed) who imagines he is led by an higher guide, by the immediate wisdom of God. And as he grows in pride, so he must grow in unadvisableness and in stubbornness also. He must be less and less capable of being convinced, less susceptible of persuasion; more and more attached to his own judgment and his own will, ’till he is altogether fixt and immovable.
32. Being thus fortified both against the grace of God, and against all advice and help from man, he is wholly left to the guidance of his own heart, and of the king of the children of pride. No marvel then that he is daily more rooted and grounded in contempt of all mankind, in furious anger, in every unkind disposition, in every earthly and devilish temper. Neither can we wonder at the terrible outward effects, which have flowed from such dispositions in all ages: even all manner of wickedness, all the works of darkness, committed by those who called themselves Christians, while they wrought with greediness such things, as were hardly named even among the Heathens.
Such is the nature, such the dreadful effects, of that many-headed monster _Enthusiasm_! From the consideration of which, we may now draw some plain inferences, with regard to our own practice.
33. And, first, If _Enthusiasm_ be a term, tho’ so frequently used, yet so rarely understood, take _you_ care, not to talk of you know not what, not to use the word, till you understand it. As in all other points, so likewise in this, learn to think before you speak. First, know the meaning of this hard word; and then use it, if need require.
34. But if so few, even among men of education and learning, much more among the common sort of men, understand this dark, ambiguous word, or have any fixt notion of what it means: then, secondly, Beware of judging or calling any man an _Enthusiast_ upon common report. This is by no means a sufficient ground, for giving any name of reproach to any man: least of all is it a sufficient ground, for so black a term of reproach as this. The more evil it contains, the more cautious you should be, how you apply it to any one: to bring so heavy an accusation without full proof, being neither consistent with justice nor mercy.
35. But if _Enthusiasm_ be so great an evil, beware you are not intangled therewith yourself. Watch and pray that you fall not into the temptation. It easily besets those who fear or love God. O beware you do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Do not imagine you have attained that grace of God, to which you have not attained. You may have much joy: you may have a measure of love, and yet not have living faith. Cry unto God that he would not suffer you, blind as you are, to go out of the way: that you may never fancy yourself a believer in Christ, till Christ is revealed in you, and till his Spirit witnesses with your Spirit, that you are a child of God.
36. Beware you are not a fiery, persecuting _Enthusiast_. Do not imagine that God has called you, (just contrary to the spirit of him you stile your Master) to destroy men’s lives, and not to save them. Never dream of forcing men into the ways of God. Think yourself, and let think. Use no constraint in matters of religion. Even those who are farthest out of the way, never _compel to come in_, by any other means, than reason, truth and love.
37. Beware you do not run with the common herd of _Enthusiasts_, fancying you are a Christian when you are not. Presume not to assume that venerable name, unless you have a clear, scriptural title thereto: unless you have the mind which was in Christ, and walk as he also walked.