s1tking the right. way, ":ent astray. It was wrong for him ever to think of going to Barak, who wished him to curne Israel. "Thy way," be was told, "is perverse before me.•: He was swayed from the right way by loving the hire of wrong-doing. "And Gods anger was kindled because be went." He was rebuked for what was not forced upon him, but was his own transgression. It was a telling rebuke to be stayed in his mad journey by the dumb animal speaking with man's voice. Like Balaam, these men were prostituting their powers in the service of gain, and would not fare better in the end. 6. On account of false promises. (1) Oompai·isons. "'l'hese are springs without water, and mists driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of dark- ness hath been reserved." Under strong feeling, Peter seizes on natural imagery to describe the false teachers. To a tra..-ellcr in a desert nothing can be more grateful than the appearance of a well; but, when he comes up to it, and finds it without water, he receives a bitter disappointment. In a protracted drought the farmer keenly scans the face of the sky; a misty cloud is hailed by him, and he watches its changes and course, but it is dri,cn past by the storm-wind, and not a drop of rain descends. So those false teachers held out promises which they did not fulfil ; and in another natural appearance he sees their end foreshadowed-a meteor seen for a little, and then passing into the blackness of darkness. (2) Sensual promises. "For, uttering great swelling words of vanity, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by lasciviousness, those who are just escaping from them that live in error." Their words are regarded as swollen out beyond the ordinary size, while they are filled with emptiness. It is in a sensual con- dition of mind that they use their swollen words. The bait they hold out is sensual gratification. "Their guilt is exhibited as aggravated by the fact that the persons whom they plied with the vile bait of sensual indulgence were those least fit to resist it; not men who were established in the new faith, but men who had but recently broken ofi' from the ranks of heathenis_m, or who had as yet got but a few paces, as it were, in the process of separating themselves from their old pagan life" (Salmond). (3) Pro- mising liberty, while themselves bound. "Promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corrnption; for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he also brought l.nto bondage." In swollen language they promised liberty: but were they themselves free? No; they were the bondservants of destructive lusts. When their lusts were destroying them, and they could not cease gratifying them, what was that but bondage? 7. On account of their apostasy. (1) Last state worse than tlie first. "For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the last state is become worse with them than the first." Peter thinks of them, in conclusion, as punished in their moral degradation. They were once the prey of the miasmata--the defilements-of the world. There supervened a blessed time of ellcape. This was when they had knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (the name being appreciatingly dwelt upon). '£he word is used which means'' appre- ciative knowledge;" and it would seem to be implied that there was reality in their sriritual experience. But the time came when they were again entangled in the 'tniasmata of the world, and overcome by them. In that case they were the worse for the experience through which they had come. We cannot have conviction of sin and appreciation of Christ, and put away from us that eJ:perience, without our bringing evil into our nature far beyond what we were capable of in our former state. Judas was a worse man that be bad come into such nearness to Christ, than he would otherwise have been. Therefore let us be careful bow we treat visitations of the Spirit, solemn experience. (2) Prlferable evil state. "For it were better for them not to have known tbe way of riabteousriess, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command- ment delivered unto them." The false teachers again are represented as having known the new life of Christianity, as having turned to the holy comm:1ndment delivered to them. Better that they had remained in heathenism than, after knowing the new life, to turn back from the holy commandment upon which it depends. Therefore let Ull he careful bow we treat Christian rules of conduct. 'l'here is a sacredness about them which is not to be trifled with. (3) Proverb explanatory of relapse. "It ha~ ba;,peued unto them, according to the true proverb, 'l'he dog turning to his owu vomit again, and the sow that had washed to wallowing in the mire." This double proverb is not ('Xplanatory of the fast state hein; worse th:J.O the first, b·1t simply of orr. m.1-18.J THE SECOND EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER. 6:,
the being ngnin entangled and overcome. Though they knew the Lord nnd Saviom Jesus Christ, they were not beyond temptation to sensuality. Their relapse took place in their giving the old nature the ascendency. '!'he comparisons employed arc not complimentary. The false teachers are compared to the dog and the sow-animals abhorred in the East. 'l'hey have returned to the filth of heatheni8m as the <loo- to its vomit, as the sow that had washed to its wallowing in the mire. Therefore let us be careful not to give in to the old pature.-lt. F,