Discourse of Mental Errors, Part · Section 11 – Section 18
Fifth Cause.
Another inward Cause disposing men to receive Erroneous Impressions, is an unreasonable EAGERNESS to snatch at any Doctrine or Opinion that promisesh ease to an anxious Conscience.
Men that are under the frights and terrours of Conscience, are willing to listen to any thing that offers present relief. Of all the Troubles in the World, those of the Mind and Conscience are most intolerable. And those that are in pain are glad of ease, and readily catch at any thing that seems to offer it.
This seems to be the thing which led those poor distressed Wretches, intimated Micah 6. 6. into their gross Mistakes and Errors about the method of the remission of their Sins. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and …ow my self before the high God? shall I come before him with Burnt-offerings, with Calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousand of Rams▪ or with ten thousand of Rivers of Oyl? Shall I give my First-born for my Transgression, the Fruit of my Body for the Sin of my Soul? They were ready to purchase inward peace, and buy out their pardon at any rate. Nothing but the twinges of Conscience could have extorted these things from them. Great is the efficacy and torment of a guilty Conscience.
Satan, who feels more of this in himself than any other Creature in the World, and knows how ready poor ignorant, but distressed Sinners, are to catch at any thing that looks like ease or comfort, and being jealous what these troubles of Conscience may issue into, prepares for them such Erroneous Doctrines and Opinions under the names of Anodines and quieting Recipe's, by swallowing of which they feel some present ease; but their Disease is thereby made so much the more incurable.
*Mr. Gataker, in his Book against Saltmarsh, p. 27. tells us of one that had taken ill Courses, and being under much trouble of mind, could not be quiet till he turned Papist, and had been shrieved and assailed by a Priest.'Tis upon this account he hath found such vent in the World for his Penanees, Pilgrimages and Indulgences among the Papists. But seeing this Ware will not go off among the Reformed and more enlightned Professors of Christianity, he changeth his hand, and fitteth other Doses under other names to quiet sick and distressed Souls, before ever their frights of Conscience come to settle into true Repentance and Faith in the Blood of Christ, by dressing up, and presenting to them such Opinions as these, viz.
That they may boldly apply to themselves all the Promises of pardon and peace, without any respect at all to Repentance or Faith in themselves; that it is not at all needful, nay, that it is illegal and sinful to have any respect to these things, forasmuch as their Sins were pardoned, and they justified from Eternity; and that the Covenant of Grace is in all respects absolute, and is made to Sinners as Sinners, without any regard to their Faith or Repentance; and whatever Sins there be in them, God sees them not.†Saltmarsh, in the Title-page of his Book called Free-grace, shews you the Sovereign vertue of Antinomian Principles, to quiet Troubles of Conscience of 12 years growth.
To such a Charm of Troubles as this, how earnestly doth the Ear of a distressed Conscience listen? how greedily doth it suck in such pleasing words? Are all Sins that are pardoned, pardoned before they are committed? and does the Covenant of Grace require neither Repentance nor Faith antecedently to the application of the Promises? how groundless then are all my Fears and Troubles? This, like a Dose of Opium, quiets, or rather stupifies the raging Conscience: for even an Error in Judgment, till it be detected and discovered to be so, quiets and comforts the heart, as well as principles of Truth; but whenever the fallacy shall be detected, whether here or hereafter, the anguish of Conscience must be increased, or (which is worse) left desperate.
The Remedies.
To prevent and cure this mistake and error in the Soul, by which it is fitted and prepared to catch any Erroneous Principle (which is but plausible) for its present relief and ease, I shall desire my Reader seriously to ponder and consider the following Queries upon this Case.
Query I.
Whether by the vote of the whole Rational World, a good Trouble be not better than a false Peace? Present ease is desirable, but eternal safety is much more so: and if these two cannot consist under the present Circumstances of the Soul, Whether it be not better to endure for a time these painful pangs, than feel more acute and eternal ones, by quieting Conscience with false Remedies before the time?
'Tis bad to lie tossing a few days under a laborious Fever; but far worse to have that Fever turned into a Lethargy or fatal Apoplexy. Erroneous Principles may rid the Soul of its present pain, and eternal hopes and safety together. Acute pains are better than a senseless stupidity. Though the present rage of Conscience be not a right and kindly conviction, yet it may lead to it, and terminate in faith and union with Christ at last, if Satan do not this way practice upon it, and quench it before its time.
Query II.
Bethink your selves seriously, Whether Troubles so quieted and laid asleep, will not revive and turn again upon thee with a double force, as soon as the vertue of the Drug (I mean the Erroneous Principle) hath spent it self?
The efficacy of Truth is eternal, and will maintain the peace it gives, for ever; but all delusions must vanish, and the Troubles which they damm'd up for a time, break out with a greater force. Satan employs two sorts of Witches. Some to torment the Bodies of Men with grievous pain and anguish: but then he hath his White-Witches at hand to relieve and ease them. And have these poor Wretches any great cause (think you) to boast of the cure, who are eased of their pains at the price of their Souls?
Much like unto this, are the cures of inward Troubles by Erroneous Principles. I lament the Case of blinded Papists, who by Pilgrimages, and Offerings to the Shrines of Titular Saints, attempt the cure of a lesser Sin by committing a greater. Is it because there is not a God in Israel, who is able in due season to pacify Conscience with proper and durable Gospel-Remedies, that we suffer our Troubles thus to precipitate us into the Snares of Satan for the sake of present ease?
Query III.
Read the Scriptures, and inquire whether God's People, who have lain long under sharp inward Terrors, have not at last found settlement and inward peace by those very Methods, which the Principles that quiet you, do utterly exclude?
If you will fetch your Peace from a groundless Notion, that your Sins were pardoned, and your Persons justified from all eternity, and therefore you may apply boldly and confidently to your selves the choicest Promises and Privileges in the Gospel, without any regard to Faith or Repentance wrought by the Spirit in your Souls: I am sure holy David took another Course for the settlement of his Conscience, Psal. 51. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. And it hath been the constant practise of the Saints in all Ages, to clear their Title to the Righteousness of Christ wrought without them, by the Works of his Spirit wrought within them.
Sixth Cause.
The next Evil Temper in the Subject, preparing and disposing it for Error, is an easie CREDVLITY, or sequacious humour in men, rendring them apt to receive things upon trust from others, without due and thorough examination of the grounds and Reasons of them, themselves.
This is a disposition fitted to receive any impression Seducers please to make upon them: they are said to deceive the hearts of the simple, foreign, i. e. credulous, but well-meaning People that suspect no harm. 'Tis said, Prov. 14. 15. the simple believeth every word. Through this Sluce or Floodgate, what a multitude of Errors in Popery have overflowed the People! They are told, they are not able to judge for themselves, but must take the matters of their Salvation upon trust from their Spiritual Guides; and so the silly People are easily seduced, and made easily receptive of the grossest Absurdities their ignorant Leaders please to impose upon them.
And it were to be wished, That those two Points, viz. Ministrorum mut a officia, & populi caeca o…sequia, the dumb Services of their Ministers, and the blind Obedience of the People had stay'd within the Popish Confines. But alas, alas! how many simple Protestants be there, who may be said to carry their Brains in other mens Heads? and like silly Sheep follow the next in the tract before them; especially if their Leaders have but wit and art enough to hide their Errors under specious and plausible Pretences. How many poisonous Drugs hath Satan put off under the gilded Titles of Antiquity, Zeal for God, higher attainments in godliness, new Lights? &c. How natural is it for men to follow in the Tract, and be tenacious of the Principles and Practises of their Progenitors? Multitudes seem to hold their Opinions Iure Haereditario, by an Hereditary Right, as if their Faith descended to them the same way their Estates do.
The Emperour of Morocco told King Iohn's Ambassadour, That he had lately read St. Paul's Epistles; And truly (said he) were I now to chuse my Religion, I would embrace Christianity before any Religion in the World: but every man ought to dye in that Religion he received from his Ancestors.
Many honest, well-meaning, but weak Christians, are also easily beguiled by specious pretences of new Light, and higher attainments in Reformation. This makes the weaker sorts of Christians pliable to many dangerous Errors cunningly insinuated under such taking Titles. What are most of the Erroneous Opinions now vogued in the World, but old Errors under new Names and Titles?
The Remedies.
The Remedies and Preventions in this Case are such as follow.
Remedy I.
'Tis beneath a man to profess any Opinion to be his own, whilst the grounds and reasons of it are in other mens keeping, and wholly unknown to himself.
If a man may tell Gold after his Father, then sure he may and ought to try and examine Doctrines and Points of Faith after him. We are commanded to be ready to give an account of the hope that is in us, and not to say, this or that is my Judgment or Opinion, but let others give an account of the ground and reason of it.
I confess, if he that leads me into an Error were alone exposed to the hazard, and I quit and free, whatever become of him; it were quite another thing. But when our Saviour tells us, Matth. 15. 14. that both (that is, the Follower as well as the Leader) fall into the ditch; at my peril be it if I follow without eyes of my own. That's but a weak building that is shored up by a prop from a Neighbour's Wall. How many men have ruined their Estates by Suretiship for others? but of all Suretiship none so dangerous as spiritual Suretiship. We neither ought (as a late Worthy speaks) to defy the Iudgment of the weakest, nor yet on the other side to deify the Iudgment of the strongest Christian. He that pins his Faith upon another man's Sleeve, knows not whither he will cary it.
Remedy II.
As you ought not to abuse your Christian Privilege and Liberty to try all things, 1 Thess. 5. 21. so neither on the other side to undervalue, or part with it. See the things that so much concern your eternal peace with your own eyes.
I shewed you before, this Liberty is abused by extending it too far; and under the notion of proving all things, many embolden themselves to innovate and entertain any thing: yet beware of bartering such a precious Privilege for the fairest Promises others can make in lieu of it. I would not slight nor undervalue the Piety and Learning of others, nor yet put out my own eyes to see by theirs.
Remedy III.
Before you adventure to espouse the Opinions of others, diligently observe and mark the fruits and consequences of those Opinions in the Lives of the zealous Abettors and Propagators of them: By their fruits (saith Christ) ye shall know them.
When the Opinion or Doctrine naturally tends to looseness, or when it sucks and draws away all a man's zeal to maintain and diffuse it, and practical Religion thereby visibly languishes in their Conversations, 'tis time for you to make a pause, before you advance one step farther towards it.
Seventh Cause.
The next Evil Disposition that I shall note in the Subject, is a vain CVRIOSITY of mind, or an itching desire to pry into things unrevealed, at least above our ability to search out and discover.
'Tis an Observation as true as ancient, Pruritus aurium scabies Ecclesiae, itching Ears come to a Scab upon the face of the Church. The itch of Novelty produceth the Scab of Error. Of this Disease the Apostle warns us, 2 Tim. 4. 3. For the time will come, when they will not endure sound Doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves Teachers, having itching ears. Nothing will please them but new Notions, and new modes of Language and Method, Tone and Gesture.
Sound Doctrine is the only substantial and solid food that nourishes and strengthens the heart of the new Creature: but vain Scepticks nauseate and despise this as trite, vulgar, cheap and low. Nothing humours them but Novelties and Rarities: their unsetled Brains must be wheel'd about, foreign, with divers and strange Doctrines, Heb. 13. 9. Novelty and Variety are the only properties that commend Doctrines to wanton Palates. Hence it is they so boldly intrude into things they have not seen, Col. 2. 18. These Cyril fitly calls foreign, the domineerings, or darings of bold Spirits.
The Schoolmen have filled the World with a thousand ungrounded Fancies, as the distinct Offices and Orders of Angels; and higher flights of fancy than these, which seem to be invented for no other end or use, but to please the itching Ears of the Curious.
There is not only a vesana temerit as Genethliacorum, a wild and daring rashness of Astrologers, presuming to foretel Futurities, and the Fates of Kingdoms, as well as particular Persons, from the conjunctions and influences of the Stars; but there is also found as high a presumption and boldness among men in matters of Religion.
Satan is well aware of this humour in men, and how exceeding serviceable it is to his Design; and therefore having the very knack of clawing and pleasing itching Ears with taking-Novelties, he is never wanting to feed their minds with a pleasing variety, and fresh succession of them: new Opinions are still invented and minted, in which the dangerous Hooks of Error are hid. If men were once cured of this spiritual itch, and their minds reduced to that temper and sobriety, as to be pleased with, and bless God for the plain revealed Truths of the Gospel; Satan would drive but a poor Trade, and find but few Customers for his Erroneous Novelties.
The Remedies.
The proper Remedies to cure this itch after Novelty, or dangerous Curiosity of the mind, are
Remedy I.
Due Reflection upon the manifold mischiefs that have entered into the World this way.
It was this Curiosity and desire to know, that overthrew our first Parents, Gen. 3. 6. When the Woman saw that the Tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a Tree to be desired to make one wise; she took of the fruit thereof. The very same way by which he let in the first Error, he hath let thousands into the World since that day. Nothing is more common in the World, than for an old Error to obtain afresh under the name of new Light. Satan hath the very art of turkening stale Errors after the mode of the present times, and make them currant and passable, as new Discoveries and rare Novelties.
Thus he puts off Libertinism, the old Sin of the World, under the Title of Christian Liberty. What a Troop of Pagan Idolatrous Rites were by this means introduced among the Papists? A great part of Popery is but Ethnicismus redivivus, Heathenism revived. The Pagans Pontifex Maximus was revived under the new Title of Pope. The Gentiles Lustrations, in the Popish Holy-water. Their Novendiale sacrum, or Sacrifice nine days after the burial of the Party, in the Popish Masses for the dead. Their Alvarium Fratrum, in Cloisters of Monks and Fryars▪
Their Enchanters, in Popish Exorcists. Their Asyla, in Popish Sanctuaries. With multitudes more of Pagan Rites quite out of date in Christendom, introduced again under new names in Popery; as was intimated R…v. 11. 2. and Rev. 13. 15.
Remedy II.
Be satisfied that God hath not left his People to seek their Salvation,Quod nesciatur sine crimine, ne discutiatur cum discrimine. or spiritual subsistence, among curious, abstruse and doubtful Notions; but in the great, solid, and plainly revealed Truths of the Gospel. Iohn 17. 3. This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent. In facili & absoluto stat aeternit as: the great Concerns of our Salvation are plain and easie to be understood.
Remedy III.
Vain Curiosity is a dangerous Snare of Satan. By such trifles as these, he devours our time, eats up our strength, and diverts our minds from the necessary and most important business of Religion. Whilst we immerse our thoughts in these pleasing, but barren Contemplations, Heart-work, Closet-work, Family-work, lie by neglected. Whilst we are employed in garnishing the Dish with Flowers, and curious Figures, the cunning Cheat takes away the meat our Souls should subsist by.
Eighth Cause.
Pride and Arrogancy of HVMANE REASON, is another Evil Disposition, molding and preparing the mind for Errors. When men are once conceited of the strength and perspicacity of their own carnal Reasons and Apprehensions, nothing is more usual than for such men to run mad with Reason into a thousand Mistakes and Errors. To this cause Ecclesiastical Historians ascribe the Errors that infest the Church.*Deindé, & humanae rationis sapientia quae religioni plurimùm semper nocuit, seu Philosophia, non paucas ex sese produxit haereses. Námque eo tempore Philosophica studia maximè vigebant; & suis argutiis, seu (ut ipsi putabant) demonstrationibus, in suâ sententiâ ità confirmati erant: ut nihil verum existimarent, quod ab eorum conceptis jamdudum opinionibus discreparet. Magdeb. in Cent. 2. cap. 5. pag. 56.
Reason indeed is the highest natural excellency of man: it exalts him above all Earthly Creatures, and in its primitive perfection almost equalized him with Angels, Heb. 2. 7. The Pleasures which result from its exercises and experiments, transcend all the delights and pleasures of sense. How common is it for men to dote upon their own intellectual beauty, and glory in their victories over weaker Understandings? And tho the reason of fallen Man is greatly wounded and weakened by Sin; yet it conceits it self to be as strong and clear as ever; and with Sampson, when his Locks were shorn, goes forth as before time, being neither sensible of its own weakness, or of the mysterious and unsearchable depths of Scripture.
Reason is our Arbiter and Guide by the institution and Law of Nature, in civil and natural Affairs: 'tis the beam and standard at which we weigh them. It is an home-born Judge and King in the Soul: Faith comes in as a stranger to Nature, and so it is dealt with, even as an Intruder into Reason's Province, just as the Sodomites dealt with Lot. It refuseth to be an Underling to Faith. Out of this Arrogancy of carnal Reason, as from Pandor…'s Box, swarms of Errors are flown abroad into the World.
By this means Socinianism first started, and hath since propagated it self. They look upon it as a ridiculous and unaccountable thing to reason, that the Son should be co-equal and co-eternal with the Father: that God should forgive sins freely, and yet forgive none but upon full satisfaction. That Christ should make that satisfaction by his Sufferings, and yet be pars laesa, the Party offended, and so make satisfaction to himself: with many more of the like stamp.
Yea, Atheism, as well as Socinianism, are births from this Womb. 'Tis proud and carnal Reason which quarrels at the Creation of the World, and seems to triumph in its uncontrolable M…xim, Ex nihilo nihil fit, out of nothing comes nothing. It looks upon the Doctrine of the Resurrection with a deriding smile, as a thing incredible. It thinks it hard and harsh that God should command men to turn themselves to him, and threaten them with damnation in case of refusal; and yet at the same time man should not have in himself a sufficient power, and a free will to do this, without the supernatural and preventing Grace of God. It thinks it a ridiculous thing for such a great and solemn Ordinance of God as Baptism is, to pass upon such a Subject as an Infant of a week old, which is not capable to understand the Ends and Uses of it. Hence it is some over-heated Zealots lots have not stuck to say,Mr. Samuel Clark's Golden Apples. p. 149. That we have as good warrant and reason to baptize Cats, Dogs and Horses, as we have to babtize Infants. Oh the madness of Carnal Reason!
The Remedies.
To take down the Arrogance, and prevent the mischief of Carnal Reasonings, let us be convinced,
Remedy I.
That it is the will of God, that Reason in all Believers should resign to Faith, and all Ratiocination submit to Revelation.
Reason is no better than an Usurper, when it presumes to arbitrate matters belonging to Faith and Revelation. *Man having sinned by pride, the wisdom of God humbles him at the very root of the Tree of Knowledge, and makes him deny his own Understanding, and submit to Faith; or else for ever to lose his desired Felicity. Laud against Fisher, p. 5.Reason's proper place is to sit at the feet of Faith, and instead of searching the secret grounds and reasons, to adore and admire the great and unsearchable Mysteries of the Gospel. None of God's works are unreasonable, but many of them are above Reason. It was as truly, as ingenuously said by one; Never doth Reason shew it self more reasonable, than when it ceaseth to reason about things that are above Reason. Where is the Wise? where is the Scribe? where is the Disputer of this World? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this World? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the World by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, 1 Cor. 1. 20, 21. 'Tis not Reason, but Faith that must save us.
The Wisdom of God in the Gospel, is wisdom in a Mystery, even hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the World unto our glory, 1 Cor. 2. 7. Such wisdom as the most Eagle-eyed Rationalists and famed Philosophers of the World understood not. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them to us by his spirit, ibid. vers. 9, 10.
Remedy II.
Be convinced of the weakness and deep corruption of natural Reason, and this will restrain its Arrogance, and make it modest and wary.
A convinced and renewed Soul is conscious to it self of its own weakness and blindness, and therefore dares not pry audaciously into the Arcana Coeli, nor summon the great God to its bar. It finds it self posed by the Mysteries of Nature, and therefore concludes it self an incompetent Judge of the Mysteries of Faith.
The Arrogancy of Reason is the reigning Sin of the Unregenerate, though it be a Disease with which the Regenerate themselves are infected. When Conviction shall do its work upon the Soul, the Plumes of spiritual pride quickly fall; and it saith with Iob: Once have I spoken, but I will speak no more; yea, twice, but I will proceed no further. q. d. I have done, Father, I have done; I have uttered things that I understood not, Job 42. 3. Spiritual Illumination cures this Ambition.
Remedy III.
Consider the manifold Mischiefs and Evils flowing from the pride of Reason.
It doth not only fill the World with Errors and Distractions; but it also invades the Rights of Heaven, and casts a vile reflection upon the Wisdom, Sovereignty and Veracity of God. It lifts up it self against his Wisdom, not considering that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, 1 Cor. 1. 25. It spurns at his glorious Sovereignty, not considering that he giveth no account of his matters, Job 33. 13. It questions his Veracity, in saying with Nicodemus, How can these things be? Joh. 3. 9.