godliness, but denying the power of it?” but at the close of the chapter, he says, “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived,” and then refers to Timothy’s having learnt the truth from himself, and the power and authority of the scriptures as a safeguard.
The tares which the devil sowed in the field were to remain till harvest; the mystery of iniquity already working in the apostle’s days would go on and ripen into the man of sin, and end in judgment; when the message comes from Christ, through John, to the churches, they have no authority, but are judged, and the Christian is called upon to hear what the Spirit says to them; they were not competent to speak or guide, but he that had ears to hear was to listen to the judgment pronounced on them, to what was said. No voice of any universal church was to guide, but the individual to listen to the voice of testimony, as to what was found in the church. The church did not judge, or guide, or teach, but the word revealed Christ’s judgment of this church, and to that he who had ears was to listen.
The Gentiles have not continued in God’s goodness, and are to be cut off. But the origin of all this was, they having begun in the Spirit, ended in the flesh. The clergy replaced the power and gifts of the Spirit, the sacraments His grace, and the clergy being the ministry ; the free distribution of the Holy Ghost, and the exercise of gift, where gift was, was set aside. The apostolic order was set aside, as the christian position before God was lost, both connected with the presence of the Holy Ghost, as the expectation of God’s Son from heaven was soon dropped out; men ceased to watch for Him.
All the principles which constituted Christianity under
