C. Matthew McMahon
Christian Preacher
When it comes to ministers fighting against heresy (which is part of their office cf. Titus 1:9), and that they do not do it as they should to protect the church, Thomas Hodges says,
"...alas, here is the sad root of this misery, that either the ministers are ignorant,[1] and unable to maintain the truth, confute and stop the mouths of gainsayers; or they are wicked and scandalous, like Eli’s sons, whose profane and ungodly courses lose all repute to the truth, making the things of God, (by those who measure truth by the lives and carriages of them that maintain it), to be abandoned and abhorred.[2] If neither of these, yet perhaps they are careless, negligent, and inadvertent, not heeding how truth thrives, or how error spreads,[3] as if to them it were of very small or no concern. In point of benefit they are greedy dogs, zealous enough for their profit,[4] looking after that from every quarter; but in point of duty they lack heart,[5] the fire of zeal for God’s glory is not in them, therefore they love their ease, to sleep, slumber, and take their rest; by which they give not only an opportunity to the evil one to sow his tares, but to those tares to take root and prosper."
[1] Isaiah 56:10.
[2] 1 Samuel 2:13.
[3] Revelation 2:20.
[4] Isaiah 56:11.
[5] Revelation 3:15.
"The Growth and Spreading of Heresy, (54)."
"...alas, here is the sad root of this misery, that either the ministers are ignorant,[1] and unable to maintain the truth, confute and stop the mouths of gainsayers; or they are wicked and scandalous, like Eli’s sons, whose profane and ungodly courses lose all repute to the truth, making the things of God, (by those who measure truth by the lives and carriages of them that maintain it), to be abandoned and abhorred.[2] If neither of these, yet perhaps they are careless, negligent, and inadvertent, not heeding how truth thrives, or how error spreads,[3] as if to them it were of very small or no concern. In point of benefit they are greedy dogs, zealous enough for their profit,[4] looking after that from every quarter; but in point of duty they lack heart,[5] the fire of zeal for God’s glory is not in them, therefore they love their ease, to sleep, slumber, and take their rest; by which they give not only an opportunity to the evil one to sow his tares, but to those tares to take root and prosper."
[1] Isaiah 56:10.
[2] 1 Samuel 2:13.
[3] Revelation 2:20.
[4] Isaiah 56:11.
[5] Revelation 3:15.
"The Growth and Spreading of Heresy, (54)."
