6.
SERIOUS MISTAKES

It is no sign that a work is not from the Spirit of God, that many people who seem to be the subjects of it are guilty of great imprudences and irregularities in their conduct.

We are to consider that the end for which God pours out his Spirit is to make men holy, and not to make them politic. It is no wonder that, in a mixed multitude of all sorts – wise and unwise, young and old, of weak and strong natural abilities, under strong impressions of mind – there are many who behave imprudently. There are but few who know how to conduct themselves under strong feelings of any kind, whether of a temporal or spiritual nature; to do so requires a great deal of discretion, strength, and steadiness of mind. A thousand imprudences will not prove a work to be not of the Spirit of God; indeed, if there are not only imprudences but many things prevailing that are irregular, and really contrary to the rule of God’s holy word. That it should be like this may be accounted for by the exceeding weakness of human nature, together with the remaining darkness and corruption of those that are the subjects of the saving influence of God’s Spirit, and have a real zeal for God.

The church at Corinth

We have a remarkable instance, in the New Testament, of a people who partook largely of that great effusion of the Spirit in the apostles’ days, among whom there nevertheless abounded imprudence and great irregularities; namely, the church at Corinth. There is scarcely any church more celebrated in the New Testament for being blessed with large measures of the Spirit of God, both in his ordinary influences, in convincing and converting sinners, and also in his extraordinary and miraculous gifts; yet what manifold imprudences, great and sinful irregularities, and strange confusion did they run into, at the Lord’s supper, and in the exercise of church discipline! To which may be added their indecent manner of attending other parts of public worship, their jarring and contention about their teachers, and even the exercise of their extraordinary gifts of prophecy, speaking with tongues, and the like, in which they spoke and acted by the immediate inspiration of the Spirit of God.

The apostle Peter was guilty of a great and sinful error

And if we see great imprudences, and even sinful irregularities, in some who are great instruments to carry on the work, it will not prove it not to be the work of God. The apostle Peter himself, who was a great, eminently holy, and inspired apostle – and one of the chief instruments of setting up the Christian church in the world – when he was actually engaged in this work was guilty of a great and sinful error in his conduct; of which the apostle Paul speaks in Galatians 2:11–13: “But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed; for before that certain men came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles, but when they were come, he withdrew, and separated himself, fearing them that were of the circumcision; and the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch, that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.” If a great pillar of the Christian church – one of the chief of those who are the very foundation son which, next to Christ, the whole church is said to be built – was guilty of such an irregularity, is it any wonder if other lesser instruments, who have not that extraordinary conduct of the divine Spirit he had, should be guilty of many irregularities?

Censuring others

And in particular, it is no evidence that a work is not of God, if many who are either the subjects or the instruments of it are guilty of too great forwardness to censure others as unconverted. For this may be through mistakes they have embraced concerning the marks by which they are to judge of the hypocrisy and carnality of others; or from not duly apprehending the latitude the Spirit of God uses in the methods of his operations; or, from not making due allowance for that infirmity and corruption that may be left in the hearts of the saints; as well as through lack of a due sense of their own blindness and weakness, and remaining corruption, by which spiritual pride may have a secret vent this way, under some disguise, and not be discovered. If we admit that truly pious men may have a great deal of remaining blindness and corruption, and may be liable to mistakes about the marks of hypocrisy, as undoubtedly all will agree, then it is not unaccountable that they should sometimes run into such errors as these. It is easy, and upon some accounts more easy to be accounted for, why the remaining corruption of good men should sometimes have an unobserved vent like this, than in most other ways; and without doubt (however lamentable) many holy men have erred in this way.

Zeal needs to be strictly watched and searched

Lukewarmness in religion is abominable, and zeal an excellent grace; yet above all other Christian virtues, this needs to be strictly watched and searched; for it is that with which corruption, and particularly pride and human passion, is exceedingly apt to mix unobserved. And it is observable that there never was a time of great reformation, to cause a revival of zeal in the church of God, that has not been attended in some notable instances with irregularity, and undue severity in one way or another. Thus in the apostles’ days, a great deal of zeal was spent about unclean foods, with heat of spirit in Christians against one another, both parties condemning and censuring one another as not true Christians; when the apostle had charity for both, as influenced by a spirit of real piety: “he that eats,” he says, “to the Lord he eats, and giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.” So in the church of Corinth, they had got into a way of extolling some ministers, and censuring others, and were puffed up against one another: but yet these things were no sign that the work then so wonderfully carried on was not the work of God. And after this, when religion was still greatly flourishing in the world, and a spirit of eminent holiness and zeal prevailed in the Christian church, the zeal of Christians ran out into a very improper and undue severity, in the exercise of church discipline towards delinquents. In some cases they would by no means admit them into their charity and communion though they appeared never so humble and penitent. And in the days of Constantine the Great, the zeal of Christians against heathenism overflowed into a degree of persecution. Similarly in that glorious revival of religion, at the reformation, zeal in many instances appeared in a very improper severity, and even a degree of persecution; indeed, in some of the most eminent reformers, such as the great Calvin in particular. And many in those days of the flourishing of vital religion were guilty of severely censuring others who differed from them in opinion in some points of divinity.