Discourse of Mental Errors, Part · Section 23
Caus… XI.
Having considered and dispatched the several internal Causes of Error, found in the evil dispositions of the seduced, as also the Impulsive Cause, viz. Satan, who fits suitable baits to all these sinful humours and evil tempers of the heart; we come next to consider the Instrumental Cause employed by Satan in this work, viz. the FALSE TEACHER, whom Satan makes use of as his Seedsman, to disseminate and scatter erroneous Doctrines and Principles into the minds of Men, Ploughed up and prepared by those evil tempers forementioned, as a fit Soil to receive them.
The choice of Instruments is a principal part of Satan's policy. Every one is not fit to be employed in such a Service as this. All are not fit to be of the Council of War, who yet take their places of Service in the Field. A Rustick carried out of the Field, on Board a Ship at Sea, though he never learned his Compass, nor saw a Ship before, can by another's direction tug lustily at a Rope; but he had need be an expert Artist, that sits at the Helm, and steers the course. The worst Causes need the smoothest Orators; and bad Ware a cunning Merchant to put it off*Subtiles & astutas fuisse Montani fraudes, & quae blandâ specie quibusvis imponere facilè potuerint; indè liquet quòd totam propemodùm Scripturam suscepit; ac de Deo Patre, Filio, & Spiritu sancto, (ut Epiphanius scribit) eadem docuit quae Ecclesia Christi. Magdeb. Cent. 2. Cap. 5. p. 77. De Haeresibus sub Commodo.
Deep-parted Men are coveted by Satan to manage this design. None like an eloquent Tertullus to confront a Paul, Acts 24. 1. A subtil Eccius to enter the List in defence of the Popish Cause, against the Learned and Zealous Reformers. When the Duke of Buckingham undertook to Plead the bad Cause of Richard the third, the Londoners said, They never thought it had been possible for any Man to deliver so much bad Matter, in such good Words, and quaint Phrases.
The first Instrument chosen by Satan to deceive Man, was the Serpent; because that Creature was more subtil than any Beast of the Field. There is not a Man of eminent parts, but Satan courts and sollicites him for this service. St. Austin told an ingenious, but unsanctified Scholar, Cupit abs te ornari Diabolus, The Devil covets thy Parts to adorn his Cause. He surveys the World, and where-ever he finds more than ordinary strength of Reason, pregnancy of Wit, depth of Learning, and elegancy of Language, that is the Man he looks for.
These are the Men that can almost indiscernably sprinkle their Errors among many precious Truths, and wrap up their poisonous Drugs in Leaf-gold or Sugar. Maresius notes of Crellius and his Accomplices, That by the power of their Eloquence, and sophistry of their Arguments, they were able artificially to cloath horrible Blasphemies to allure the simple.*Tectorio fucatae eloquentiae, argutiís que Sophisticis è Scripturâ perniciosè detortâ, ac fallaci fallenté que ratione horrendae blasphemiae artificiosè circumvestiuntur ad inescandos simpliciores. Praefatio ad Hydr. Socin..
And like the Hyaena, they can counterfeit the voices of the Shepherds, to deceive and destroy the Sheep. There is (saith a late*Mr. W. Gurnal, Christi…n Armour, Part 2. p. 33. Worthy) an erudita nequitia, a Learned kind of wickedness, a subtil art of deceiving the minds of others. Upon which account the Spirit of God sometimes compares them, 2 Pet. 2. 3.Sunt quidam vaniloqui, & mentis seductores, non Christiani, sed Christum mercantes & cauponantes verbum Evangelii, qui venenum Erroris commiscentes dulci blandimento sicut oenomeli ut qui biberit illius potus gustabilem sensum, dulcedine captus, inobservanter morti addic…tur. Ignatius Epist. ad Trallianos, p. 68 to cunning and cheating Tradesmen, who have the very art to set a gloss upon their bad Wares with fine words, foreign, they buy and sell the people with their ensnaring and feigned words. And sometimes he compares them to cunning Gamesters, that have the art and sleight of hand to Cog the Die, to deceive the unskilful, and win their Game, Eph. 4. 14. foreign, &c.
And sometimes the Spirit of God compares them to Witches themselves, Gal. 3. 1. foreign; foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? How many strange feats have been done upon the bodies of Men and Women by Witchcraft? But far more and stranger upon the Souls of Men by the Magick of Error. Iannes and Iambres performed wonderful things in the sight of Pharoah, by which they deceived and hardened him; and unto these, false Teachers are compared.
Such a Man was Elymas the Sorcerer, who laboured to seduce the Deputy, Sergius Paulus, though a prudent Man, Acts 13. 7, 8, 9, 10. Oh full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou Child of the Devil! saith Paul unto him. The Art of seduduction from the ways of truth and holiness, discovers a Man to be both the Child and Scholar of the Devil.
But as the wise and painful Ministers of Christ, who turn many to Righteousness, shall have double Glory in Heaven; so these subtil and most active Agents for the Devil, who turn many from the ways of Righteousness, will have a double portion of misery in Hell.