+I. The Church of God on earth, even at the best, hath wicked men and
hypocrites in it.+
+II. They who teach Christ, joining some other thing with Him in the
cause of salvation, are said to creep in,+ because in appearance they
maintain Christ; yet because they add something to Christ, they
neither enter nor continue in the true Church with any good warrant
from God.
+III. No man can set down the precise time when errors had their
beginning,+ for the authors thereof enter in secretly, not observed
of men.
+IV. The false brethren urged circumcision to bring the converts+
+into bondage.+--They that be of a corporation stand for their
liberties. What a shame it is that men should love bondage and
neglect the spiritual liberty which they have by Christ.
+V. The false brethren urged the apostles to use circumcision but
once;+ but they would not yield so much as once, because their act
would have tended to the prejudice of Christian liberty in all
places. Julian, sitting in a chair of state, gave gold to his
soldiers one by one, commanding them to cast frankincense so much as
a grain into the fire that lay upon a heathenish altar. Christian
soldiers refused to do it, and they which had not refused afterwards
recalled their act and willingly suffered death. We are not to yield
the least part of the truth of the Gospel. This truth is more
precious than the whole world beside. There is no halting between two
religions.
+VI. The apostles gave no place by way of subjection.+--They
willingly suffered their doctrine to be tried, yet they were not
bound to subjection. We are to give place by meek and patient bearing
of that which we cannot mend, but we are not to give place by
subjection.
+VII. If circumcision be made a necessary cause of salvation, the
truth of the Gospel does not continue,+ and falsehood comes in the
room.--_Perkins._
Ver. 4. _A Spy._--Captain Turner Ashby was a young officer in the
Confederate army, the idol of the troops for his general bravery, but
especially for his cleverness in gathering information of the enemy.
On one occasion he dressed himself in a farmer's suit of homespun
that he borrowed and hired a plough-horse to personate a rustic
horse-doctor. With his saddlebags full of some remedy for spavin or
ringbone, he went to Chambersburg, and returned in the night with an
immense amount of information. His career was one full of romantic
episode.
Ver. 5. _Fidelity to Truth._--1. Though much may be done for
composing Church differences by using meekness and forbearance
towards those who oppose themselves, yet we are not for peace' sake
to quit the least part of truth. Thus Paul, who for lawful ceding
became all things to all men, would not give place by way of
subjection, so as to yield the cause to the adversaries; neither
would he do anything, in its own nature indifferent, that would be an
evidence of yielding. 2. A minister, when called to confess and avow
truth, hath not only his own peace with God and keeping of a good
conscience to look to, but also the condition of his flock, who will
be shaken or confirmed in the truth by his faint or bold and faithful
confession. 3. It is not enough that people have the name of the
Gospel among them or some truths mixed with errors; but all, and
especially ministers, should endeavour to have the Gospel in purity
and integrity, free from any mixture of contrary errors.--_Fergusson._
_The Truth not to be yielded._--Shortly after James I. came to the
throne of England he set up a claim to all the small estates in
Cumberland and Westmorland, on the plea that the _Statesmen_ were
merely the tenants of the Crown. The Statesmen met, to the number of
two thousand, at Ratten Heath, between Kendal and Staveley, where
they came to the resolution that "they had won their lands by the
sword and were able to hold them by the same." After that meeting no
further claim was made to their estates on the part of the Crown.