Chapter XXII.
Of the fourfold method of discrimination.
This
power of
discriminating will then be necessary for us in the fourfold manner of
which we have spoken; viz., first that the material does not escape our
notice whether it be of true or of painted gold: secondly, that those
thoughts which falsely promise works of religion should be rejected by
us as forged and counterfeit coins, as they are those which are not
rightly stamped, and which bear an untrue image of the king; and that
we may be able in the same way to detect those which in the case of the
precious gold of Scripture, by means of a false and heretical meaning,
show the image not of the true king but of an usurper; and that we
refuse those whose weight and value the rust of vanity has depreciated
and not allowed to pass in the scales of the fathers, as coins that are
too light, and are false and weigh too little; so that we may not incur
that which we are warned by the Lord’s command to avoid with all
our power, and lose the value and reward of all our labour. “Lay
not up for yourselves treasures on the earth, where rust and moth
corrupt and where thieves break through and steal.”
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For whenever we do anything with a view
to human glory we know that we are, as the Lord says, laying up for
ourselves treasure on earth, and that consequently being as it were
hidden in the ground and buried in the earth it must be destroyed by
sundry demons or consumed by the biting rust of vain glory, or devoured
by the moths of pride so as to contribute nothing to the use and
profits of the man who has hidden it. We should then constantly search
all the inner chambers of our hearts, and trace out the footsteps of
whatever enters into them with the closest investigation lest haply
some beast, if I may say so, relating to the understanding, either lion
or dragon, passing through has furtively left the dangerous marks of
his track, which will show to others the way of access into the secret
recesses of the heart, owing to a carelessness about our thoughts. And
so daily and hourly turning up the ground of our heart with the gospel
plough, i.e., the constant recollection of the Lord’s cross, we
shall manage to stamp out or extirpate from our hearts the lairs of
noxious beasts and the lurking places of poisonous
serpents.
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S.
Matt. vi. 19
.