But St. John had a further reason for exposing these apostates. It had been foretold by our blessed Lord, that, previous to the destruction of Jerusalem, "there should arise false Christs, and false prophets, who, if it were possible, should deceive the very- elect ;" and that the prevalence of those persons should be " a sign that the destruction of the Jewish Church and polity was near at hand'1." St. John refers to it in that view : " Little children, it is the last time : and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even so now are there many antichrists ; whereby we know it is the last time." Then he adds, " They went out from us ; but they were not of us : for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us : but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."
To elucidate these remarkable words, I will shew,
I. Why the insincere are suffered to become apo- states—
All who are insincere do not become apostates : for we are told, that the tares will grow together with the wheat, even to the harvest6. But God is pleased to leave some of those who join his Church to apostatize from it ;
1. That they may be exposed to merited disgrace —
[Those who are insincere in their profession of religion greatly dishonour God, and do incalculable injury to his Church and people. It is but just, therefore, that they should be left to expose themselves, and to " make it manifest that they never truly belonged to the Church of Christ." They were as branches of the living vine, it is true ; but they were only dead branches, whose end was to be broken off, and burned f. True, they were not distinguished from others by their brethren ; who could see no further than the outward act, and were led from Christian charity to put the most favourable construction on all which they did. Not even Judas, who was a thief from the beginning, was suspected by his fellow Apostles : in fact, Jiey all questioned their own sincerity, rather than hisg.
«» Matt. xxiv. 3—5, 24, 25. e Matt. xiii. 29, 30, 39, 40.
f John xv. 2. s Matt. xxvi. 22.