the door, and go into error's house, when they seek truth. They call evil good, falsehood truth, and darkness light; they forsake that which is good, deny the truth, and love not the light. This moved St. Paul to say of his brethren the Jews, Rom. x. I bear them record that they have the zeal of God, but not according to knowledge; they have the care and fear of God; they are zealous in their doings; they have devotion; they pretend conscience; they think they do well, and that they please God. When they professed themselves to be wise, they became fools, Rom. i.

They knew not what they did; for if they had knowledge, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. But they know not the truth of God; they know not God; they are carried away in the vanity of their own heart; their prayers are no prayers; the truth they hold is falsehood; their faith is no faith; they are sheep without a shepherd. Thus we have heard what we are, and in what place.

Now let us see what enemies bend their force against us. We fight against the gates of hell, with the devil, the prince of darkness, the father of lies; with the devil, who hath power over the children of disobedience, by whose malice death came into the world. Even that devil bends his force against us, who deceived Adam in paradise, who deceived the learned philosophers, and beguiled the princes, and wise men, and the worthies of the world; who abuses and entices our hands, our eyes, our learning, our understanding, and our own hearts to deceive us.

He rampeth as a lion, and rangeth over the world, seeking whom he may devour. This is his delight and study. He hath been a murderer from the beginning. If this were ever true at any time, our times have found it most true. We are they upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Now is this Scripture fulfilled in our ears. Now see we the days whereof Christ warned his disciples so earnestly, Matt. xxiv. They shall say, Lo! here is Christ, and there is Christ. This is the truth, that is the truth. There shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall deceive many; they shall betray the truth. Many shall be offended by them; if it were possible, the very elect, they whose names are written in the book of life, should be deceived. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.

The sun is the word of God, the moon signifies the church. The powers of heaven shall be moved; all the kindreds of the earth shall mourn; abomination of desolation shall stand in the holy place. Let him that reads, consider it. This is the mystery of iniquity, of which St. Paul speaks to the Thessalonians, which worketh among them that perish, 2 Thess. ii. Thus are we forewarned. God has given us his word to advise us, that we be not cast away unawares.

They that walk in the dark know not whither they go. If the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch. He that is ignorant, shall not be known. Christ shall say unto him, I know you not; depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be put out.

In this case, what shall a godly-disposed simple man do? How shall he settle himself? to which side may he safely join himself? If he make reckoning of learning, there are learned men on both sides. If he make reckoning of virtue and godly life, there are virtuous men and of godly life on both sides. If he make reckoning of zeal, either side is zealous in the religion they hold. If he make reckoning of the name of the church, they take it as well to the one side as to the other. If he make reckoning of the multitude, there are many on either side, but neither side has so many as the Turk.

Whither then may a man turn himself, and to which side may he safely join? In this case we find the comfort and profit of the word of God. In this case, St. Paul tells us, Whatsoever things were written aforetime, are written for our learning, to lighten our eyes, to resolve our doubts, and to guide our feet. This light God hath kindled in his mercy, to lighten them that sit in darkness. Except he had left a spark of this light we had perished, and become like to Sodom and Gomorrah.

David saith, Thy word is a lantern to my paths, and a light to my feet. By it I may see the way which is before me; by it I can escape danger, and by it I can keep the path wherein I ought to walk. When Christ perceived that the Capernaites and the Jews disliked his doctrines, and went back and walked no more with him, he said to the twelve, John vi. Will ye also go away? You are my disciples, whom I have chosen out of this world; will ye also go away? Simon Peter answered him, Master, to whom

shall we go? Thou hast the word of eternal life. If we forsake thee, who shall instruct us? Thy word is the word of eternal life.

With this word Christ confounded the scribes and pharisees, and put them to silence. Ye reject, saith he, Mark vii. the commandment of God, that ye may observe your own tradition. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; whosoever shall curse father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, if a man say to father or mother, Corban, that is, by the gift that is offered by me thou mayest have profit, he shall be free.

With this word he confounded them, for misusing the temple by buying and selling, Matt. xxi. It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. With this word he put them to silence, and confounded their error, in that they thought it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every fault, Matt. xix. From the beginning it was not so. With this word he confounded the devil, and chased him from him, Matt. iv. It is written, Man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And again: It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And again: It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

This word confounded the Arians, and all sects of heretics. What is become of Marcion, of Nestorius, of Valentinus, of Menander, of Sabellius, of Eutyches, and others? They are blown away as smoke before the wind. The word of God hath confounded them, and beat them away. As Dagon fell, and brake his hands and neck, and could not stand in the presence of the ark of the Lord, even so shall all falsehood fall and hide itself in the presence of the truth of God. As the rod of Moses devoured the rods of the charmers; as the beams of the sun drive away and consume darkness, so shall the word of God chase away errors.

When the two disciples walked by the way with Christ, they said between themselves, after their eyes were opened, so that they knew him, Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and opened to us THE SCRIPTURES? Luke xxiv. His words possessed all our senses; his talk was not like common talk; we felt it forcible in us as the word of God.

Israel heard Peter declare unto them at Jerusalem by proof of the Scriptures, that Christ was come. They were

not able to resist the word of God, but were pricked in their hearts, and said unto Peter and the other apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Acts ii. We acknowledge our error: the words which you speak are most true; they are the words of life; teach us and instruct us what we shall do. They felt the force of it, and yielded unto it; they did acknowledge it was the word of God.

Augustine, after he had continued long in error, and had withdrawn himself into a secret place, where he might make his prayer, and bewail his ignorance, heard a voice say unto him, Take up and read, take up and read. And he forthwith took up the epistles of St. Paul, and opened them, and secretly read the chapter which he first lighted on, even these words: Not in gluttony and drunkenness, neither in chambering and wantonness, nor in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and take no thought for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts of the same, Rom. xiii.

"I would read no further," saith he, " for I needed not. For when I had read to the end of this sentence, all the darkness of doubtfulness vanished away, as if some clear light of security were poured into my heart." It was as if it had been said, O man, acknowledge thy misery; thou art naked, cover thy filthiness; put upon thee Jesus Christ. And forthwith I felt a fire within me, my heart was lightened; the scales fell from mine eyes, I was able to see. Thus he was comforted and stayed by this, the word of God.

This profit of the word Cyprian declares: If we return to the head, and the beginning of the Lord's traditions, all error of man must needs give place. Theophylact, writing upon these words in the gospel of St. John, He that entereth not in by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up another way, he is a thief and a robber, saith, He entereth not in by the door, that is, by the Scriptures; for he doth not use the Scriptures nor the prophets as witnesses. For indeed the Scriptures are the door by which we are brought to God, and they suffer not the wolves to come in; they keep off heretics, that we may be in safety; and they teach us the reason of any thing wherein we would be instructed; therefore he is a thief which entereth not into the sheepfold by the Scriptures. And by the Scriptures it appears he is a thief that climbeth up another way, that is, makes himself another way, a way which was not known, nor beaten : such a one shall antichrist be. What greater profit? They bring us to God, teach us the truth, and give us reason of all

things: they keep us in safety, suffer not wolves to devour us, keep off heretics, bewray a thief, and make known who is antichrist.

Therefore, upon the gospel by St. Luke, he expounds these words, Let your lights be burning; that is, have not your being in the darkness, and be ye not void of judgment; but take unto you the light of God's word, which will teach you what things you should do, and what things you ought not to do.

And as the word of God is the light to direct us, and to bewray errors, so is it also the standard and beam to try the weights of truth and falsehood. Chrysostom, writing upon the 24th of Matthew, shows it were impossible for a man to stay himself, and find out which is the true church, but by the word of God. "For it could not be tried by working of miracles; because the gift of working miracles is taken away, and such false miracles as carry some show are rather to be found among false Christians; nor yet by their conversation and life, because Christians live either as ill or worse than heretics.' There can be no trial of true christianity, and Christians which desire to know the truth, whereupon they may build their faith, have no other refuge, but to try and learn this by the Scriptures. For, saith he, heretics have the counterfeit and likeness of those things which are proper to Christ; they have churches, they have the Scriptures of God, they have baptism, they have the Lord's supper, and all other things like the true church; yea, they have Christ himself. He therefore that will know which is the true church of Christ, how may he know it, but by the Scriptures?

Therefore our Lord, knowing that there should be such confusion of things in the latter days, commandeth that Christians, who live in the profession of Christian faith, and are desirous to settle themselves upon a sure ground of faith, should go to no other thing, but to the Scriptures. Otherwise, if they had regard to other things, they should be offended and perish, and not understand which is the true church.

The master of a ship, when he is on the main sea, casts his eye always upon the load-star,* and so directs and guides his ways. Even so must we, who are passengers and strangers in this world, ever settle our eyes to behold the word of God; so shall no tempest overblow us; so shall

* The pole star.