Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Ver. 20. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them] See Matthew 7:16, where the self-same words are used. Lest any, under pretence of danger in hearing false prophets, should refuse to hear any, though they come with never so much evidence of truth, our Saviour wills and commands here, that examination and discretion go before both rejection of errors and receiving of truths. "Try all things; hold fast that which is good," 1 Thessalonians 5:21. As the mouth tasteth meat, so the ear must try and taste words,Job 12:11; Job 34:3. He is a fool that believeth everything, nay, anything that tends to the cherishing of corruption and carnal liberty, or the advancing of corrupt nature, which is nothing else but a piece of proud flesh, and must be abased to the utmost. a Christians should abound in knowledge, and in every sense; so as readily to discern things that differ, Romans 14:5; and not to be wherried and whirled "about with every wind of doctrine," Ephesians 4:14, as children, nor to be carried away as they are led, as Gentiles,1 Corinthians 12:2. He that will take for true and trusty whatsoever any impostor puts upon him, shall be as foully deceived as Jacob was by Laban. Search and see whereto they tend, and what they drive at. If they would drive us from God, as Moses expresseth it, and draw us from the doctrine of godliness, that is grounded upon the word, to the truth whereof we have found God's Spirit persuading our hearts, and yielding us comfort in it, John 6:45; 1 John 2:27; abstain (or stand off) from all appearance of any such evil. Shun the familiarity of seducers, that discredit the truth; hear them not, their mouths should be stopped, Titus 1:11; Titus 3:10. See how exceeding earnest the apostle is in this argument, 2 Thessalonians 2:1,3; he knew well the danger: so Romans 16:17. The Pharisees and false apostles would only have brought in a Jewish rite or two; yet are said to subvert the gospel, Galatians 1:7, and the apostle wisheth they were even cut off for it. Hymeneus and Philetus denied not the resurrection, but affirmed it only to be past already, and yet they are said to overthrow the faith of some, 2 Timothy 2:18. And although we are wont to wonder at the absurdities of a contrary religion, and think a simple man may easily answer them; yet it is certain, the grossest adversaries of the truth are able to urge such reasons, and use such persuasions, as have in them great probability of truth, and may deceive the simple: "Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness." Which to prevent, "Grow," saith the same apostle there, "in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ," 2 Peter 3:17,18. Exact of yourselves a growth in every grace, in humility, however growing downward at least, if ye cannot find so comfortable a growth upward. Humility is both a grace and a vessel to receive grace; for God will give grace to the humble, and teach the lowly minded, 1 Peter 5:5; Psalms 25:9. Grow also in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; proving by experience in yourselves, what that good, that holy, and acceptable will of God is. Let your knowledge and practice run parallel, and be of equal extent. Study to live rather than to dispute, b to act rather than to contemplate: learn and labour to feel in yourselves the sweetness and goodness, the life and power, of what you know. The devil confessed Christ as well as Peter,Mark 5:7; Matthew 16:16,17, -but the devil with a common knowledge, swimming in the brain, Peter with a saving knowledge, soaking to the heart root, and working upon the affections, those immediate springs of action. This is that knowledge, not apprehensive only, but affective too, that makes the mind good, full of incitations to good, glad of all occasions to do good, free from the stain and reign of former lusts, inclinable to serve God and our brethren by love, fearing the gospel more than the law, and God's goodness more than his justice. Now to grow in these graces and in this knowledge, is the ready way to secure ourselves from seducers, to approve ourselves to have been conscionable hearers of a sound ministry, such as are founded upon a rock, and are therefore unmoveable, such as have gotten a knowledge so clean and certain as no heretic can draw from us. And lastly, to save ourselves from that untoward generation, Acts 2:40, our Saviour speaketh next of, in the subsequent verses, that have no more to show or say for themselves than Lord, Lord, &c.
a Sub laudibus naturae latent inimici gratiae. Aug.
b Nos non eloquimur magna, sed vivimus.