Believers Evidences for Eternal Life, Chapter 2 · Section 4
IV.
Overcoming of Erroneous and Hereticall IV.Spirits, and their seducements; may be a fourth Signe or Evidence of Regeneration. Believe not every Spirit, but try the Spirits, whether they are of God: because many false Prophets are gone out into the world.—Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, then he that is in the world, 1 Joh. 4. 1. 4. In these 4 Verses the Apostles scope is to caution and encourage the faithfull against all the seducements of erroneous and heretcall, spirits then abounding. To this end, (1.) He warnes them of their danger, Many false Prophets being gone out into the world, v. 1. (2.) He directs them how to prevent harm by them; Negatively, Believe not every spirit; Positively, Prove the spirits, &c. v. 1. (3.) He gives them one eminent character of a true, and false spirit, viz. the confessing, or not confessing of Iesus Christ, v. 2, 3. For (as *Specialem notam apponit, quâ melius discernere veros Prophetas a falsis liceat.—in Christum scillicet, si cuti scopus est ad quem recta fides collimat, ita scopulū esse ad quem impingunt omnes haeretici. Calv. Comment. in 1. Epist. Ioan. 4. 2.Calvin hath well noted) Christ is the scope at which faith aims, and also Christ is the rock against which all Heretiques dash; either in respect of his Person, Offices, or Ordinances. (4.) He comforts and encourages them in their victory over these hereticall Seducers and false Prophets; though they have many sharp conflicts with them, yet they have conquered them got the day; Ye have overcome them. This their victory is amplyfied, (1.) By the evidence that it gives them of their owne Regenerate condition; Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them. As if he had said, This is a pregnant token or pledge to you, that you are borne of God, Joh. 1. 13. that you are in a godly, gracious, regenerate condition; that you have overcome these heretiques; these false Prophets; ye have not been corrupted by, nor carried away with their errors (2.) By the true cause or ground of this their victory, it was not from their own skil or strength, In his own strength who can prevail against the depths and subtilties of Satan and his instruments?) but only from the power of God in them; for greater is he that is in you, then he that is in the world. Satan is in the world in the wicked, especially in false Prophet; and hereticall Seducers, (who are therefores called his Ministers, 2 Cor. 11. 15.) blinding and deceiving them, instigating and instructing them to deceive others: But God, Christ, the Spirit, is in the people of God, anointing them to understand all things, 1 Ioh. 2. 27. discovering to them the depths of Satan and his Agents, 2. Cor. 2. 11. and preserving them so in the truth, as they shall not be poysoned with the error of the wicked. Thus GOD in them, is stronger then Satan in the world against them. In Gods strength, not their own they overcome seducements to Error and Heresie; And this their victory discovers they are of God
Obj. But overcoming of Error, Heresie, and seducements thereunto, seems not to be a sure signe of Regeneration; for, 1. Sometimes even Gods own childeren are overcome with erroneous opinions. One whom God had received into favour, and should be holden up, yet might erroneously hold himself bound in conscience to the legall difference of dayes and meats, under the Gospel, Rom. 14. 1, to 7. The Apostles themselves erroneously deemed, Christ should be a worldly King, Mar. 10. 37, 41. And this error was not cured in them, though they were eyewitnesses of his Passion and Resurrection, Act. 1. 6. And the Church of Galatia erred grossely in the point of Iustification, mingling Moses with Christ, the works of the Law with Faith in justification, Gal. c. 3. c. 4. c. 5. Therefore all that are borne of God, do not overcome such errours and hereticall seducements. And 2. sometimes even carnall unregenerate persons may hold, confesse and maintain the truth: doubtlesse Jud as truly preached Christ, yea the Devills themselves believe there is one God, Jam. 2. 19. yea, confessed Christ to be the sonne of God, Mar. 1. 24. Therefore others overcome Errour as well as Gods people; and therefore, overcom…ng erroneous hereticall seducements, is no sure note of Regeneration.
Answ. For resolution in this materiall Objection, consider briefly these following Positions, viz.
1. A grecious Regenerate person may sometimes be overtaken with an Errour of Opinion in lesser matters of Faith. As there are more weighty matters of the Law, Mat. 23 23. and lesse weighty: so there are more or lesse weighty matters of Faith, Fundamentals, and built upon the foundations. Proportionably there may be Errour against fundamentals, not holding the Head, &c. Col. 2. 19. and there may be Errors only against lesser matters. These lesser Errours may possibly befall godly regenerate persons; as the Errour about Legall dayes and meats in the times of the Gospell, incident to a dear child of God, Rom. 14. 1, to 6. And no wonder. For, (1.) God hath no where promised to the dearest of his servants an universall exemption from lesser or greater Errors. (2.) The best, and perfectest of Gods people in this life have remaining in themselves the foundation of Error and Heresie, many reliques of darkenesse, weaknesse, instability, &c, We know but in part.—We see through a glasse darkly, 1 Cor. 13. 9, 12. All men are lyars, Rom. 3. 4. 3. Unity of Faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, or onenesse of Judgements in all points, is to be expected among all the Members of Christs mysticall body, till (as the Apostle intimates) we all come unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ, Ephes 4. 13. And where there is not Unity of Faith and Knowledge, there will be some diversity in Opinions; and diverse Opinions must inevitably some of them be Erroneous, So that lesser Errours (though they are part of the misery and reproach of the Saints in this life, and diseases which they ought to labour against) may attend upon Gods own people.
2. Regenerate persons may perhaps for a time be insnared in some Errours that are more grosse and dangerous, and that against fundamentals of faith. Christ and his Offices are fundamentals, 1. Cor. 3. 11. Eph. 2. 20. yet the Apostles, till the sending of the Holy Ghost upon them, were in an errour about Christs Kingly office, taking it to be temporall rather then spirituall, Mark. 10. 37, 41. compared with Act. 1. 6. Iustification by faith alone, a fundamental, R…m. 3. 28. Gal. 5. 4, 5, 6. yet for a season the Galatians laboured under that grosse Errour of the necessity of Legall works with Faith, to justification. So that to be drawn into some grosse Errours for a season, doth not presently conclude a nullity of grace; As also may appear by the three former Reasons. Though it must needs be confessed, that it is a very sad, uncomfortable and dangerous thing for any of Gods people to fall into such grosse Errours. For, 1. hereby their Minds that should be treasuries of Truth, are darkned, Eph. 4. 18 corrupted, 2 Cor. 11. 3. bewitched, Gal. 3. 1. Now how grievous is it to have a mans mind corrupted! The Leprosie in the head, was the worst of all Leprosi…s, Lev. 13. 44. If the mind, the light be darknesse, how great is that darknesse? Mat. 6. 23. It was Gods heavy plague upon the Gentiles, to be given up [foreign] to a mind void of judgement, Rom. 1. 28. 2. Hereby their soules, which Christ hath bought with his precius blood, shall be endangered: for Heresies are works of the flesh, destructive, damnable, and shutting out of Gods kingdom, if not repented of, Gal. 5. 19, 20, 21. with 2 Pet. 2. 1, 2. 3. Hereby many weak ones are endangered to be carried with them into the same Errours, out of that good opinion they have of their piety. Errour spreads and fret… like a gangrene, 2 Tim. 2. 7. And it is no small sin to be guilty of seducing Gods servants, Actively, Exemplarily, or but permissively. See Rev. 2. 20, 21, 22, 23. 4. Hereby in a word, the Name of God will be blasphemed, and the way of Truth evil spoken of, 2 Pet. 2. 1, 2.
3. Though Gods people may fall into lesser, yea, sometimes into more grosse Errours for a time: yet there is a great deal of difference betwixt the Elect and the children of God, and unregenerate, carnall, or hypocriticall persons, in reference unto Erroneous opinions, and the embracing of them. For,
1. The true children of God are not so facile & apt to be carried aside into Error in opinion, especially against fundamentals, as carnall and hypocrites are apt to be. They are not so unstable, fickle, wavering, mutable, unsetled in matters of Faith and Religion, as carnall men are; not so easily tainted, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, &c. There shall arise false Christs and false Prophets, and shall shew great signes and wonders, insomuch that (if it were possible) they shall deceive the very Elect, Mat. 24. 24. That comfortable Parenthesis, (if it were possible) intimates a possibility of deceiving others, yet an impossibility of deceiving the Elect. It's the property of Christs sheep to follow Christ, for they know his voic…; but a stranger [viz. one that brings strange and false doctrines] will they not follow, but will flee from him, because they know not the voice of strangers, Joh. 10. 4, 5. It is observable that when the Holy Ghost tells us, that All that dwell upon the Earth shall worship the Beast; yet the Elect are exempted. All shall worship,—whose names are not written in the Lambs book of life, Rev. 13. 8. And elsewhere Iohn testifieth clearly, They went out from us (viz. by embracing Antichristian doctrines, v. 18.) but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us, 1 Joh. 2. 19. And Paul testifying to the Corinthians, that there must be (not only divisions, but) also Heresies among them, that they which are approved may be made manifest among them, 1 Cor. 11. 19. implyeth notably, That even in times and places wherein Heresies abound, yet Gods approved ones will withstand and reject Heresies, when others will embrace them; and so the approved, of sound judgments, shall be manifested among all the rest.
Nor need this seem strange, that Gods elect children are not so apt to be carried away with every wind of Error, as carnall hypocriticall persons; for they are better ballasted then these are, they have many protections & preservations from Errour, which carnall men have not. As, 1. Gods election is their sure foundation to keep them from dashing upon the rocks of Errour on which others split themselves. Compare and consider well these two places, Mat. 24. 24. and 1 Tim. 2. 17, 18, 19. 2. Gods power through faith keeps them unto salvation, 1 Pet. 1. 5. not their own, nor any meer created power, but Gods power keeps them as in garrison (…s the Greek imports) and this through faith apprehending & applying that Divine power. Faith imbarks the soule in the armes of God omnipotent, and so makes weaknesse strong. And as Gods power through faith keeps them from other enemies and impediments to salvation, so from pernicious and damnable Heresies. 3. The spirituall anointing of the Holy Ghost given them, teacheth them all things, 1 Joh. 2. 27. The Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God; So that through the Spirit they judge all things, and have the minde of Christ, 1 Cor. 2. 15, 16. So that hereby they are enabled to discerne Truth, to detect and avoid Errours in judgement as well as in practice: which carnal men cannot do, wanting this Anointing and spirituall discerning. 4. Finally, The love of Truth in Gods people is much; they are the children of Truth, 1 Joh. 3. 19. They can do nothing against the Truth, but for the Truth, 2 Cor 13. 8. Their loynes are girt about with Truth, Eph. 6. 14. and therefore they are hereby notably fenced against Errour. Whereas carnall and hypocriticall men are either, (1) Men of corrupt minds, destitute of the tr…th, 1 Tim. 6. 4, 5. resisting the truth, 2 Tim. 3. 8. and turning away their ears from th… truth, 2 Tim. 4. 4. Or, (2.) They hold the truth in unrighteousnesse Rom. 1. 18. Or, (3.) They are not able to come to the knowledge of the truth, 2 Tim. 3. 7, Or, (4) They lo…e not the truth, 2 Thes. 2. 9, 10. And no wonder such persons be unstable, wavering, and apt to embrace lies and fables.
2. The true children of God do not so fully close with Errours in opinion, but rather they are surprized and overtaken with them through infirmity, Rom. 14. 1. The remains of darknesse in their minds sometimes dazling and prevailing against the principle of light. So that as in practice they sin, [non voluntat… plena, sed semi-plena] i. e. not with an whole, but with an half-will: So in judgement they erre not with an whole, but with an half-mind; the light of the minde being against the Errour, which the prevalent darknesse entertains. But carnall persons, whose whole minds are darknesse, Eph. 5. 8 and enmity against God, Rom. 8. 7. having no spark of sanctified illumination in them at all; must needs embrace Errour with more full compliance and approbation.
3. The true children of God do not tenaciously and obstinately persist in Errours, especially not in fundamentall Errours, *Errare possum, Haereticus esse nolo.They may …re through invincible frailty, but they will not wilfully and pertinaciously persevere in their Errour, as is the property of Heretical dispositions. Such have the anointing in them to teach them all things, which consequently will in due time convince and recover them out of Errour, 1 Ioh. 3. 27. A gracious heart is very ingenuous: Convince him but clearly of his Errour, he is ready to …cknowledge it and reform it. Solomon not only miscarried in his practice, but seems also to have erred grosly in his judgement, thinking that happinesse, satisfaction or contentment was to be found in the empty bubble of the creature: But when his own large experience confutes his opinion, how fully doth he publish his Recantation to all Ages, in Ecclesi…stes? David beholding the prosperity of the wicked, while the rod was tyed to his own back, All the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning, Psa. 73. …, 14. began to harbour an erroneous opinion of his own and their state: Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency, v. 13. Thus he was ready even to condemn the generation of Gods children, v. 15. But when he came into Gods sanctuary, and had his eyes there opened, how ingenuously doth he foole himselfe, yea, beast himselfe for it? So foolish was I and ignorant, I was as a beast before thee, Psal. 73. 22. August… deserved highly of the Church of God for many excellent Books which he wrote, but especially for his 2 Books of Retractations, and his 13 Books of Confessions: For as in his Confessions he laments the Errours of his Practice, which he had acted: so in his Retractations he condemns the Errours of his judgment, which he had written; In both discovering a gracious self-denying spirit, farre from obstinacie in Errour. That truth may be honoured, he treads his own honour in the dust, and saith, *Nec enim quisquam nisi imprudens, ideo quia mea errata r… prehendo, me reprehendere audebit: sed si dicit, non ea debuisse à me dici, quae postea mihi etiā displicerent: verum dicit, & mecum facit. Eorum quippe reprehensor est, quorū & ego. Neque enim ea reprehendere debe…em, si dicere debuissem. Sed qui primas non potuit habere sapientiae, secundas habeat partes modestiae: ut qui non voluit omnia impoenitenda dicere, saltē poeniteat quae cognoverit dicenda non fuisse. Aug. in lib. Retract. Prolog. Quicunque ista lecturi sunt, non me imitentur errantem, sed in melius profi…ientem. Aug. ibid. Anima haeretica insanabilis, animosa, &c. Aug. de verb. Apost. ser…. 22. c. 9. Quar…tanta mala & falsa dixistis? Respondere deberent, si Deum timerent, Humanum fuit errare, Diabolicum est per animositatem in errore manere. Melius quidem erat, si nunquam erraremu…; sed vel quod secundum est faciamus, ut erro…em aliquando emendemus. Aug. de ver…. Apost. serm. 22. c. 10.None but an imprudent man will blame me for blaming mine own errours; for if I ought to have said them, I ought not to have blamed them; But he that could not at fi…st be wise, should yet afterwards be modest: that not being able to say only things not to be repented of, may at least repent of what he knowes ought not to have been said. Yea, afterwards be cautions his Reader * not to imitate him in Erring, but in reclaiming his Errour. But contrariwise, a gracelesse heart is wont to be obstinate in Errour, will not yield, though oft admonished, though self condemned, Tit. 3. 10. As Augustine noted in his time, * An hereticall spirit is an incurable spirit: So may we observe in all ages, and specially in this of our own, touching carnal men becoming hereticall, how impenitently; stubbornly, hopel…sly do they persist in their Errours and Heresies; how few, if any reclaimed? This is a wicked disposition. Did …ey fear God (saith * Augustine) they would …y, To erre is humane, but through animosity to persist in Errour is diabolicall. It were best, …f we never erred; It were next that, that we …mended our Errour.
4. Though carnal men, yea, perhaps Devils themselves, may [contrary to some errours] hold and confesse some truths; yet they neither oppose errours, nor hold and confesse truth, as those do that are the childeren of God. And therefore this hinders not, but that the overcoming of erroneous hereticall spirits, is a signe or evidence of such as are born of God. For,
1. Carnal men oppose not Errour, embrace not truth, from any supernatural illumination or spirit of discerning, but meerly from carnal light, Natural or Acquired. For all that is in and from carnal men, is, as themselves, meerly carnal they are in the flesh, Rom. 8. 8. they are nothing but flesh, That which is born of the flesh, is flesh, Joh. 3. 6. They are very darknesse, Eph. 5. 8. Hence therefore the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishnesse unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned, 1 Cor. 2. 14. But the children of God oppose Errour and Heresie, and embrace the contrary Truths, from principles supernaturall, viz. from the Spirit of God revealing the things of God unto them, 1. Cor. 2. 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16. and enabling them to understand them so revealed, 1 Joh. 2. 27.
2. Carnal men hold not, confesse not the truth from sincere love to it; for the carnall mind is enmity against God, Rom. 8. 7. and where the mind it selfe is enmity against God, can there be in the heart any sincere love to Gods truth? Of carnall Heathens it's said, they liked not to retain God in their knowledge, Rom. 1. 28. and of carnal Gospellers it's said, Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, 2 Thess. 2. 10, 11. But the children of God sincerely embrace and professe the truth, in love; they are [foreign] i. e. Truthing… it in love, Eph. 4. 15. yea, they so love the truth, that they have not loved their liberties and lives that they might defend and maintain it, Rev. 2. 13. This difference Augustine *Ecce modo audist…s in Evangelio, quod ait Petrus, Tu es Christu… filius Dei vivi: Legite, & invenietis dixisse daemones, Scimus qui sis, filius Dei Petrus tamē laudatur, Daemon compescitur. Una vox, facta diversa. Unde separantur istae duae confessiones? Laudatur amor, damnatur …mor. Non enim amore diacebant hoc Daemones, Tues filius Dei: timore hoc dicebant, non amore. Denique illi in confessione dicebant, Quid nobis & tibi? Petrus autem, Tecum sum … ad mortem. Aug. de verb. Apost. ser. 31. c. 9.notably observed: Behold, ye have heard in the Gospel what Peter said, Thou art Christ the Son of the living God, Mat. 16. 16. Read, and …e shall find the Devils said, We know thee …ho thou art, the Son of God, Mar. 1. 24. But Peter is commended, the Devils curbed: … same voice, divers deeds. Where are these … confessions differenced? Love is commended, Feare is condemned: for the Devils said …t this out of love, Thou art the Son of God: they said it in fear, not in love.
And the same *Dicit Petrus, Tu es Christus, filius Dei vivi: dicunt & Daemones scimus qui scis, fiius Dei & sanctus Dei. Hoc Petrus, hoc & daemones, eadem verba, non idem animus. Et unde constat? quia hoc Petrus cum dilectione dicebat, quia fides Christiani cum dilectione est, Daemonis au tem sine dilectione. Quomodo sine dilectione? Hoc dicebat Petrus, ut Christum amplecteretur; hoc dicebant Daemones, ut Christus ab iis recederet. Nam antequam dicerent, Scimus qui sis, (Tues) filius Dei; Quid nobis & tibi est, dixerunt, Quid venisti ante tempus per…re nos? Aliud est ergo confiteri Christum, ut teneas Christum; aliud confeteri Christum, ut repellas à te Christum. Aug. expos. in epist. 1 I…annis, Tract. 10 de cap. 5.Author elsewhere saith, This said Peter, this the Devils also: the same words, but not the same minde. But whence was it? because Peter spoke this with love; for the faith of a Christian is with love: But the Devils faith is without love. How without love? Peter said this, that he might embrace Christ: the Devils said it, that Christ might depart from them, &c.
3. Carnal men, though they confesse Go… truth in words, yet they deny it in dee…s; … contrary to the Lord and his truth, …it. … 15, 16. But the children of God not only believe the truth, 2 Thes. 2. 13. and professe or confesse the truth: But they also act for the truth, 2 Cor. 13. 8. and walk in the truth, 2 Joh. 4. 3 Joh. 3, 4.