The False Minister
So Christian and Hopeful went on, and Ignorance followed. They went then till they came to a place where they saw a way put itself into their way, and seemed withal to lie as straight as the way which they should go; and here they knew not which of the two to take, for both seemed straight before them; therefore, here they stood still to consider.
And as they wore thinking about the way, behold, a man black of flesh, but covered with a very light robe, came to them, and asked them why they stood there. They answered, that they were going to the celestial city, but knew not which of these ways to take. “Follow me,” said the man; “it is thither that I am going.” So they followed him in the way that but now came into the road, which by degrees turned, and turned them so far from the city that they desired to go to, that in a little time their faces were turned away from it; yet they followed him. But by and by, before they were aware, he led them both within the compass of a net, in which they were both so entangled that they knew not what to do; and with that the white robe fell off from the black man’s back: then they saw where they were. Wherefore, there they lay crying some time, for they could not get themselves out.
Then said Christian to his fellow, “Now do I see myself in an error. Did not the shepherds bid us beware of the flatterer?” Thus they lay bewailing themselves in the net. At last they spied a shining one coming towards them with a whip of small cords in his hand. When he was come to the place where they were, he asked them whence they came, and what they did there. They told him that they were poor pilgrims going to Zion, but were led out of their way by a black man clothed in white, who bid us, said they, follow him, for he was going thither too. Then said he with the whip, “It is Flatterer, a false apostle that hath transformed himself into an angel of light.” So he rent the net, and let the men out.
Then said he to them, “Follow me, that I may set you in your way again.” So he led them back to the way which they had left to follow the flatterer. Then he asked them, saying, “Where did you lie the last night?” They said, “With the shepherds upon the delectable mountains.” He asked them then, if they had not a note of direction for the way. They answered, “Yes.” “But did you not,” said he, “when you were at a stand, pluck out and read your note?” They answered, “No.” He asked them, “Why?” They said they forgot. He asked, moreover, if the shepherds did not bid them beware of the flatterer. They answered, “Yes; but we did not imagine,” said they,” that this fine-spoken man had been he.” Rom. 16:17, 18.
Then I saw in my dream that he commanded them to lie down, Deut. 29:2; which when they did, he chastised them sore, to teach them the good way wherein they should walk, 2 Chron. 6:26, 27; and as he chastised them he said, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore and repent.” This done, he bid them go on their way, and take heed to the other directions of the shepherds. So they thanked him for his kindness, and went softly along the right way, singing.
Another reason why delusions do so easily take place in the hearts of the ignorant, is because those that pretend to be their teachers do behave themselves so basely among them. And indeed I may say of these, as our Lord said of the Pharisees in another case, All the blood of the ignorant, from the beginning of the world, shall be laid to the charge of this generation. They that pretend they are sent of the Lord, and come saying, Thus saith the Lord; we are the servants of the Lord; our commission is from the Lord—I say, those who pretend themselves to be the preachers of truth, but are not, do by their loose conversation render the true doctrine of God and his Son Jesus Christ contemptible, and do give the adversary mighty encouragement to cry out against the truths of our Lord Jesus Christ, because of their wicked walking. Now “shall not his soul be avenged on such a nation as this?” who pretend to be teachers of the people in goodness, when, as for the most part of them, they are the men that at this day do harden their hearers in their sins, by giving them such ill examples that none goeth beyond them for impiety? As for example, Would a parishioner learn to be proud? he or she need look no further than to the priest, his wife, and family; for there is a notable pattern before them. Would the people learn to be wanton? they may also see a pattern among their teachers. Would they learn to be drunkards? they may also have that from some of their ministers; for indeed they are ministers in this, to minister ill examples to their congregations. Again, would the people learn to be covetous? they need but look to their ministers, and they shall have a lively, or rather a deadly, resemblance set before them, in both riding and running after great benefices and parsonages, by night and by day; nay, they among themselves will scramble for the same. I have seen, that so soon as a man hath but departed from his benefice as he calls it, either by death or out of covetousness of a bigger, we have had one priest from this town, and another from that, so run for these tithe-cocks and handfuls of barley, as if it were their proper trade and calling to hunt after the same.
A covetous minister is a base thing; a pillar more symbolizing Lot’s wife, than a holy apostle of Jesus Christ.
The unbelieving world slight the Scriptures because carnal priests tickle the ears of their hearers with vain philosophy and deceit, and thereby harden their hearts against the simplicity of the gospel and word of God; which things the apostle admonished those that have a mind to close in with Christ, to avoid, saying, “Beware lest any man,” be he what he will, “spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men and rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”
And you who muzzle up your people in ignorance, with Aristotle, Plato, and the rest of the heathenish philosophers, and preach little if any thing of Christ rightly—I say unto you, that you will find you have sinned against God and beguiled your hearers, when God shall in the judgment-day lay the cause of the damnation of many thousands of souls to your charge, and say, “I will require their blood at your hands.”