The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Ver. 10. The thief cometh not but for to steal] However so sly heretics seek to insinuate with their pithanology and feigned humility, whereby they circumvent and beguile the simple, it is deadly dealing with them. Shun their society as a serpent in your way, as poison in your food. Spondanus (the same that epitomized Baronius) gives his reader Popish poison to drink so slyly, saith one, as if he were doing somewhat else, and meant no such matter. Perniciosissimum Hildebrandinae doctrinae venenum lectoribus ebibendum, quasi aliud agens, propinat. And learned Billius observes the like of Socrates, the ecclesiastical historian, a cunning Novatian. Swenckfeldius, who held many dangerous heresies, did yet deceive many by his pressing men to a holy life, praying frequently and fervently, &c., by his stately expressions, ever in his mouth, as of illumination, revelation, deification, the inward and spiritual man. (Scultet. Annal.) Some are so cunning in their cogging the dice, as St Paul phraseth it, εν τη κυβεια, Ephesians 4:14; in the conveyance of their collusion, that, like serpents, they can sting without hissing; like cur dogs, suck your blood only with licking; and in the end kill you and cut your throats without biting. Muzzle them therefore, saith St Paul, and give them no audience. επιστομιζε, Titus 1:11; Titus 3:10. Placilla the empress, when Theodosius, senior, desired to confer with Eunomius the heretic, dissuaded her husband very earnestly; lest, being perverted by his speeches, he might fall into heresy. Anastasius II, Bishop of Rome, in the year 497, while he sought to reduce Acacius the heretic, was seduced by him. (Soremen, vii. 1.) A little leaven soon soureth the whole lump. One spoonful of vinegar will quickly tart a great deal of sweet milk, but a great deal of milk will not so soon sweeten one spoonful of vinegar. Error (saith a noble writer) is like the Jerusalem artichoke; plant it where you will, it overruns the ground and chokes the heart.