loved this present world"1." Who that had beheld the Galatian converts, so full of love to the Apostles, that they would have " plucked out their own eyes, and given them to him," would have expected to find them afterwards so " bewitched" through the influence of false teachers, that they " accounted him their enemy for telling them the truth11?" But St. Paul, in all his epistles, complains, as St. Peter does also, that, as there had been " false prophets in former ages, so were there in their days false teachers, who brought in damnable heresies, and prevailed on many to follow their pernicious ways0." We read of " whole families being subverted and turned from the faith p;" some through the instrumentality of Judaizing teachers, who blended with the Gospel the observance of the Mosaic ritesq; and others, through the delusive statements of self-conceited philosophers, who, by their specious refinements, despoiled Christianity of all its simplicity and glory r. And as then multitudes were " tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine," so it is now ; as, indeed, we have been taught to expect it would be in these latter days. St. Paul says, " The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine ; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears ; and they shall turn away their
ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables s
And what is the effect of this amongst us ? it is precisely the same as in the Apostle's days ; the minds of the simple are distracted ; and instead of hearing, in everyplace, the praises of our adorable Redeemer, we hear of little but a " doting about questions and strifes of words;" and see little, but envy, and strife, and railing, and evil surmisings, and perverse dis- putings of men of corrupt minds*." And this is the price at tvhich our blessed Lord is prized by us ! Any new opinion, or fond conceit, has more attraction for us, than the contempla- tion of his love, and the adoring of his grace ! Dear Brethren, " I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one Husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ: but I fear lest, by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve, through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christu."
m 2 Tim. iv. 10. n Gal. iii. 1. and iv. 15, 16.
0 1 Tim. iv. 11. 2 Pet. ii. 1, 2. p Tit. i. 10, 11. <J Gal. ii. 14. r Col. ii. 8.
s 2 Tim. iv. 3, 4. Mark here, 1. The principle, " after their own lusts." 2. The habit of mind, "itching ears," that love to be scratched. See the Greek. 3. The conduct, " heaping to themselves teachers." 4. The effect, " turning from the truth to fables." What an accurate and awful picture is here !
1 1 Tim. vi. 4, 5. "2 Cor. xi. 2, 3.