A Preliminary Discourse to Catechising
Intending the next Lord's Day to enter upon the work of catechising, it will not be amiss to give you this preliminary discourse as preparative to it; showing you how needful it is for Christians to be well instructed in the grounds of religion: If you continue in the faith grounded and settled — Two propositions, First, It is the duty of Christians to be settled in the doctrine of faith. Second, The best way for Christians to be settled, is to be well grounded.
Doctrine 1. That it is the duty of Christians to be settled in the doctrine of faith: It is the Apostle's prayer, (1 Peter 5:10). The God of all grace stablish, strengthen, settle you. That they might not be meteors in the air, but fixed stars. The Apostle Jude speaks of wandering stars, verse 13. They are called wandering stars, because as Aristotle says, they do saltare, leap up and down and wander into several parts of the heaven; and being but dry exhalations, not made of that pure celestial matter as the fixed stars are, they often fall to the earth. Now such as are not settled in religion will at one time or other prove wandering stars, they will lose their former strictness, and wander from one opinion to another. Such as are unsettled are of the tribe of Reuben, Unstable as water (Genesis 49:4). Like a ship without a ballast, overturned with every wind of doctrine. Beza writes of one Bolsectius, whose religion changed as the moon. The Arians had Annuam Fidem, every year a new faith. These are not pillars in the temple of God, but reeds shaken every way. The Apostle calls them damnable heresies (2 Peter 2:1). A man may go to hell as well for heresy as adultery. To be unsettled in religion argues want of judgment: if their heads were not giddy, they would not reel so fast from one opinion to another. It argues lightness; feathers will be blown any way; so will feathery Christians: Triticum non rapit ventus, inanes paleae jactantur, Cyprian. Therefore such are compared to children (Ephesians 4:14). That we be no more children tossed to and fro. Children are fickle, sometimes of one mind, sometimes of another, nothing pleases them long: So unsettled Christians are childish, those truths they embrace at one time, they reject at another; sometimes they like the Protestant religion, and soon after they have a good mind to turn Papists. Now that you may labor to be settled, [in non-Latin alphabet], (as Ignatius) in the faith, in unsettled times of settled judgments.
1. It is the great end of the word preached, to bring us to a settlement in religion: (Ephesians 4:11, 13). And he gave some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the edifying of the body of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children. The word is called a hammer (Jeremiah 23:29). Every blow of the hammer is to fasten the nails of the building; the preacher's words are but to fasten you the more to Christ: they weaken themselves to strengthen and settle you. This is the grand design of preaching, not only for the enlightening but for the establishing of souls; not only to guide them into the right way, but to keep them in it; now if you be not settled, you do not answer God's end in giving you the ministry.
2. To be settled in religion is both a Christian's excellence and honor; it is his excellence, when the milk is settled it turns to cream; now he will be something zealous for truth, walk in close communion with God. And his honor (Proverbs 16:31). The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness. It is one of the best sights to see an old disciple; to see silver hairs adorned with golden virtues.
3. Such as are not settled in the faith, can never suffer for it: skeptics in religion will hardly ever prove martyrs; they that are not settled do hang in aequilibrio, in suspense; when they think of the joys of heaven, then they will espouse the Gospel; but when they think of persecution, then they desert it. Unsettled Christians do not consult what is best, but what is safest: The apostate (says Tertullian) seems to put God and Satan in balance, and having weighed both their services, prefers the Devil's service, and proclaims him to be the best master: and in this sense may be said to put Christ to open shame (Hebrews 6:6). They will never suffer for the truth, but be as a soldier that leaves his colors, and runs over to the enemy's side; he will fight on the Devil's side for pay.
4. Not to be settled in the faith is highly provoking to God: To espouse the truth and then fall away, brings an ill report on the Gospel, which will not go unpunished: (Psalm 78:57, 59). They turned back and dealt unfaithfully: When God heard this he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel. The apostate drops as a windfall into the Devil's mouth.
5. [reconstructed: If] you are not settled in religion, you will never grow: We are commanded to grow up into the head Christ (Ephesians 4:15). But if we are unsettled no growing: Planta quae saepe transfertur non coalescit; The plant which is continually removing never thrives. He can no more grow in godliness, which is unsettled, than a bone can grow in the body that is out of joint.
6. What great need there is to be settled, because indeed there are so many things to unsettle us, and make us fall away gradually from the truth. Seducers are abroad whose work is to draw away people from the principles of religion (1 John 2:26). These things have I written concerning them that seduce you. Seducers are the Devil's factors, they are of all others the greatest felons that would rob you of the truth: Seducers are [in non-Latin alphabet], they have silver tongues, a fair tongue can put off bad wares; they have a sleight to deceive (Ephesians 4:14). The Greek word there [in non-Latin alphabet], taken from those that can cog a die, and cast it for the best advantage. So seducers are impostors, they can cog a die, they can so dissemble and sophisticate the truth, that they can deceive others. Now the style by which seducers use to deceive is,
1. By wisdom of words (Romans 16:18). By good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple. They have fine elegant phrases, flattering language, whereby they work on the weaker sort; as being Christed with Christ, and the light within them.
2. Another sleight is a pretense of extraordinary piety, that so people may admire them, and suck in their doctrine. They seem to be men of zeal and sanctity, and to be divinely inspired: they pretend revelations, as Munster, Michel Servetus, and other of the Anabaptists in Germany; though they were tainted with pride, lust, and avarice.
3. A third slight, or cheat seducers have, is a laboring to vilify and nullify sound orthodox teachers; they would eclipse those that bring the truth; like the black vapors that darken the light of heaven: they would defame others that themselves may be more admired. Thus the false teachers cried down Paul, that they might be received (Galatians 4:17).
4. The fourth slight or cheat of seducers is by preaching doctrines of liberty: as the Antinomian preaches, that men are freed from the Moral Law, the rule as well as the curse. He preaches that Christ has done all for them, and they need do nothing. So he makes the doctrine of free grace a key to open the door to all licentiousness.
5. Another thing to unsettle Christians, is persecutors (2 Timothy 3:12). The Gospel is a rose that cannot be plucked without prickles. The legacy Christ has bequeathed is the CROSS. While there is a Devil and a wicked man in the world, never expect a charter of exemption from trouble; and how many fall away in an hour of persecution? Revelation 12:3-4: There appeared a great red dragon, having seven heads, and ten horns; and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven. The red dragon, the heathen empire, and his tail, namely his power and subtlety, drew away stars, namely eminent professors that seemed to shine as stars in the firmament of the Church. Therefore we see what need there is to be settled in the truth, for fear the tail of the dragon cast us to the earth.
6. To be unsettled in good is the sin of the devils (Jude 6). They are called morning stars (Job 38:7), but falling stars; they were holy but mutable. As the vessel is overturned with the sail, so their sails being swelled with pride, were overturned (1 Timothy 3:6). By unsettledness, who do you imitate but lapsed angels? The Devil was the first apostate. So much for the first proposition, that it is a great duty of Christians to be settled. The sons of Zion should be like Mount Zion which cannot be removed.
Second, the second proposition is, that the way for Christians to be settled, is to be well grounded: if you continue grounded and settled; the Greek word [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], grounded, a metaphor, it alludes to a building that has the foundation well laid; so Christians should be grounded in the essential points of religion, and have their foundation well laid.
Here let me speak to two things: 1. That we should be grounded in the knowledge of fundamentals. 2. That this grounding is the best way to settling.
1. That we should be grounded in the knowledge of fundamentals: the Apostle speaks of the first principles of the oracles of God (Hebrews 5:12). In all arts and sciences, Logic, Physics, Mathematics, there are some Praecognita, some rules and principles that must necessarily be known to the practice of those arts. So in divinity there must be the first principles laid down. The knowledge of the grounds and principles of religion is exceedingly useful:
1. Else we cannot serve God rightly; we can never worship God acceptably unless we worship him regularly: and how can we do that, if we are ignorant of the rules and elements of religion? We are told to give God a reasonable service (Romans 12:1). If we understand not the grounds of religion, how can it be a reasonable service.
2. Knowledge of the grounds of religion much enriches the mind: it is a lamp to our feet, it directs us in the whole course of Christianity, as the eye directs the body. Knowledge of fundamentals is the golden key that opens the chief mysteries of religion; it gives us a whole system and body of divinity exactly drawn in all its lineaments and lively colors, it helps us to understand many of those [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], those difficult things which do occur in the reading of the Word; it helps to untie many scripture-knots.
3. Armor of proof; it does furnish us with weapons to fight against the adversaries of the truth.
4. It is the holy seed of which grace is formed: it is semen fidei, the seed of faith (Psalm 9:10). It is Radix Amoris, the root of love (Ephesians 3:17). Being rooted and grounded in love. The knowledge of principles conduces to the making of a complete Christian.
2. That this grounding is the best way to settling: grounded and settled, a tree that it may be well settled, must be well rooted; so if you would be well settled in religion, you must be rooted in the principles of it. He in Plutarch set up a dead man, and he would not stand, O, says he, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], there must be something within. So that we may stand in shaking times, there must be a principle of knowledge within; first grounded and then settled. That the ship may be kept from overturning, it must have its anchor fastened; knowledge of principles is to the soul as the anchor to the ship, that holds it steady in the midst of all the rolling waves of error, or the violent winds of persecution. First grounded and then settled.
Use 1. See the reason why so many people are unsettled, ready to embrace every novel opinion, and dress themselves in as many religions as they do fashions; it is because they are ungrounded. See how the Apostle joins these two together, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], unlearned and unstable (2 Peter 3:16). Such as are unlearned in the main points of divinity, will be unstable; as the body cannot be strong that has the sinews shrunk, so neither can that Christian be strong in religion who lacks the grounds of knowledge, which are the sinews to strengthen and establish him.
Use 2. See then what great necessity there is of laying down all the main grounds of religion in a way of catechize, that the weakest judgment may be instructed in the knowledge of the truth, and strengthened in the love of it. Catechizing is the best expedient for the grounding and settling of people. I fear one reason why there has been no more good done by preaching, has been because the chief heads and articles in religion have not been explained in a catechetical way: catechizing is the laying the foundation (Hebrews 6:7). To preach and not to catechize, is to build without a foundation; this way of catechizing is not novel, it is apostolical; the primitive church had their forms of catechism. So much those phrases imply, a form of sound words (2 Timothy 1:13). And the first principles of the oracles of God (Hebrews 6:1). And since the church had their Catechumenoi, as Grotius and Erasmus observe. Many of the ancient fathers have written for it, as Fulgentius, [reconstructed: Augustine], Theodoret, Lactantius, and others. God has given great success to it. By this laying down of grounds of religion catechetically, Christians have been clearly instructed and wondrously built up in the Christian faith. Insomuch that Julian the Apostate seeing the great success of catechizing, did put down all schools, and places of public literature and instructing of youth. It is my design therefore (with the blessing of God,) to begin this work of catechizing, the next Sabbath day; and I intend every other Sabbath in the afternoon, to make it my whole work to lay down the grounds and fundamentals of religion in a catechetical way. If I am hindered in this work by men, or taken away by death, I hope God will raise up some other laborer in the vineyard among you, that may perfect this work which I am now beginning.
