Observe here, 1. How the apostle foretels the coming of false teachers into the gospel-church, as there had been false prophets in the Jewish church; no age of the church ever was or will be free of them; but the run of the last times is most likely to have most of these sour dregs. THERE SHALL BE F... [ Continue Reading ]
As if the apostle had said, "Notwithstanding heretics bring such fatal destruction upon themselves, yet many that profess Christianity shall be seduced by them, and follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the enemies of religion will speak evil of it, and the professors of it. Observe here,... [ Continue Reading ]
Observe here, 1. What is the root of all heresy; it is COVETOUSNESS, which the apostle calls the root of all evil; they are covetous worldy-minded men generally, who hope some way or other to make an advantage of their opinions, who broach errors and false doctrines. Observe, 2. The miserable condi... [ Continue Reading ]
Our apostle having asserted in the foregoing verse, that the judgment of the wicked in general lingereth not, and that the damnation of seducers in particular slumbereth not; he comes here in these verses to make his assertion good by. three-fold instance, namely, the ANGELS, the OLD WORLD, and the... [ Continue Reading ]
Observe here, 1. As bad as Sodom was, it had. good man in it; God leaves not himself without witness, in the vilest and worst of places God has some that profess his name, and bear witness to his truth. Observe, 2. The character given of him, JUST LOT; the denomination was taken from the habitual f... [ Continue Reading ]
From the particular example of Lot, and his gracious preservation in Sodom's destruction, the apostle draws this general conclusion, "That Almighty God knows how to preserve his own faithful servants from the evil of temptations and trials, which they here meet with, in the world, and from the world... [ Continue Reading ]
As if the apostle had said, "Though God reserves all wicked men to punishment, yet especially heretics and seducers, who second their corrupt doctrine with. wicked conversation, wuch as WALK AFTER THE FLESH IN THE LUST OF UNCLEANNESS." Here note, That heretics are frequently unclean persons, monstr... [ Continue Reading ]
That is, "Whereas the blessed angels, who have more power than men, when they plead against devils themselves, do it not by railing accusation." Note here, That angels are far superior to men in dignity and power. 2. That purity of affection does accompany angelical illumination; as the angels are... [ Continue Reading ]
Observe here, What our apostle compares these heretical seducers to, and sets them forth by, brute beasts. 1. Because their minds run after sensual objects violently and impetuously, and they know no measure in the using of them; like swine, they wallow over head and ears in the mud of their sensua... [ Continue Reading ]
Here we have many sad and dreadful instances given of the height of sensuality and brutishness which these seducers were arrived at, and had attained unto. Lord! how do fleshly lusts, and sensual affections, obscure the light of conscience, and corrupt its judgment? There is such an intimate communi... [ Continue Reading ]
Our apostle, having charged these men with insatiable lust in the former verse, proceeds next to tax them with insatiable covetousness in this verse, declaring that this sin had diverted them from the right way of truth and godliness, and caused them to imitate Balaam of old, whose love of honour an... [ Continue Reading ]
Still our apostle proceeds in characterising and describing these seducers, which were then amongst them. He describing them before by their luxury and licentiousness, by their incontinency and uncleanness, by their insatiableness and covetousness, now he proceeds to discover their vanity and emptin... [ Continue Reading ]
The next sin charged upon these seducers is pride and ostentation, they speak big, GREAT SWELLING WORDS OF VANITY; with. lofty and affected style they propound their false doctrines to amuse the simple. It is the usual practice of seducers to speak in an high-flown strain of words, that, being not u... [ Continue Reading ]
Observe here, 1. How the old pretence for the most unbounded licentiousness has been LIBERTY; THEY PROMISE YOU LIBERTY;. liberty to do any thing without fear: But this is not liberty poperly, but licentiousness, which in reality is the greatest slavery. Accordingly it follows, THEY THEMSELVES ARE TH... [ Continue Reading ]
By escaping the pollutions of the world, understand their renouncing of them in baptism; their conversion from Heathenism to the profession of Christianity, by the knowledge of the gospel. Now, if afterwards they return to it again, and are intangled in their idolatry, and other gross sins, their la... [ Continue Reading ]
As if the apostle had said, The sin and misery of these men had been far less, if they had never known the way of righteousness revealed by the gospel of Christ, than after they have known it, to forsake the practice of holiness, which by their baptismal profession they had obliged themselves unto.... [ Continue Reading ]
Observe here, The odious character given of apostates; the apostle compares them to dogs and swine, who, though washed in the water of baptism externally, yet their natures were never internally renewed by the Holy Ghost, as Christ's sheep are. All the outward reformation of life which is found in u... [ Continue Reading ]