The Scripture directory for church-officers and people, or, A practical commentary upon the whole…

Thus the Apostle, Be not carried away with every wind of Doctrine, Ephes. 4.14 Errors are a sudden gust of wind. Philosophers say, It's a dry exhalation from the earth, and violently beaten back again from Heaven: So is any false Doctrine, it comes from earthly and carnal lusts and desires; and it is beaten back by God from Heaven, he doth not own it; Quid vento levius? and so these winds of Doctrine are uncertain; sometimes they blow in the North, sometimes in the South, even as necessity and carnal advantages drive them, and which is more, not only the Doctrine is thus light and empty; but the builders are such as their Doctrine; the Doctrine is stubble, and they are stubble; therefore he saith, Be not carried away with them, as if the persons were nothing but straw: Even as the Psalmist saith, They that made Idols were wholly like them: Thus it is here. Let men therefore that broach falsehoods, and people that receive them, never so much dote, and be enamoured with their own false opinions, as if they were gold and precious stones, yet the Scripture calls them no less than hay and stubble, such as God will raise a fire to consume and devour. Thus the Prophet Jeremiah, What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord? Jer. 23.28. The Doctrine of the false Prophets, that is the chaff; and of the true, that is the wheat.

Thus the Apostle, Be not carried away with every wind of Doctrine, Ephes. 4.14 Errours are a sudden gust of winde. Philosophers say, It's a dry exhalation from the earth, and violently beaten back again from Heaven: So is any false Doctrine, it comes from earthly and carnal lusts and desires; and it is beaten back by God from Heaven, he doth not own it; Quid vento levius? and so these winds of Doctrine are uncertain; sometimes they blow in the North, sometimes in the South, even as necessity and carnal advantages drive them, and which is more, not only the Doctrine is thus light and empty; but the builders are such as their Doctrine; the Doctrine is stubble, and they are stubble; therefore he saith, Be not carried away with them, as if the persons were nothing but straw: Even as the Psalmist saith, They that made Idols were wholly like them: Thus it is here. Let men therefore that broach falshoods, and people that receive them, never so much dote, and be inamoured with their own false opinions, as if they were gold and precious stones, yet the Scripture cals them no lesse than hay and stubble, such as God will raise a fire to consume and devour. Thus the Prophet Jeremiah, What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord?