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As if our apostle had said, "Although the mystery of godliness, the doctrine of Christianity, be so clearly revealed, and fully confirmed, yet the spirit of prophecy has very plainly told us, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith once embraced by them, either in whole or in part; turning apostates, by giving heed to impostures and doctrines of men, teaching erors suggested by devils, who cover their lies with hypocritical pretences, and are men of hardened hearts, seared consciences, profligate lives, forbidding some, whom they have seduced, to marry, and commanding them to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving by them which do believe and know the truth."
Observe here, 1. That the apostasy and defection of a considerable part of the Christian church in the latter times was foreseen and foretold very long before it came to pass: by Daniel, say some, Dan_11:28; Dan_11:38 &c. by St. Paul, say others, in his second epistle to the Thessalonians; and in his first epistle to Timothy, the Spirit speaketh expressly, that some shall depart from the faith, that is, from the doctrine of the faith received; which we know the church of Rome has most notoriously done.
Observe, 2. The cause of this apostasy and defection from Christianity, Giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.
Quest. But what is here meant by doctrines of devils?
Ans. These (says our reverend archbishop Tillotson) can be no other doctrines than those tending to idolatry, which the scripture every where doth in a particular manner ascribe to the devil, as the inventor and promoter of; therefore he tells us, that, in some ancient copies, the words run thus: In the latter times some shall apostatize from the faith; for they shall worship the dead, having regard to doctrines of devils:-- so that the particular kind of idolatry into which some part of the Christian church should apostatize, is here pointed out, namely, that they should worship souls departed, or the spirits of dead men, which was part of the heathen idolatry, into which the people of Israel did frequently relapse; these departed souls were called Daemons, and were esteemed a middle sort of divine powers, between the supreme gods and mortal men, whose office it was to be agents and mediators between the gods above and men below; thus is the holy city trodden down by the Gentiles, that is, overwhelmed with the Gentiles' idolatry.
Observe, 3. The persons revolting, who they are foretold to be; not all, but, but some only: In the latter days, some shall depart from the faith; not the whole visible church, but a very great and considerable part of it.
Learn thence, That the true church of Christ was never wholly extinguished, nor the light of the gospel ever quite put out , no, not in the greatest darkness, that ever was, to overwhelm it; some (only) and not all, that shall depart from the faith.
Observe, 4. The persons described who should be the occasion of this apostasy and revolt: namely, such as speak lies in hypocrisy, and have seared consciences, that is, such stupid consciences as have lost the sense of good and evil, and no longer do their office. These lies, which the apostate church of Rome is guilty of, the profound Mr. Mede styles, "Lying miracles, fabulous legends of the acts of saints and sufferings of martyrs, counterfeit writings under the name of the first and best antiquity."
Lord! who could have coined or believed such monstrous stuff as the popish legends are fraught with, but such as are cauterized, past all feeling and tenderness both of conscience and sense itself.
Observe, 5. The doctrines discovered which these apostates would teach, namely, the forbidding marriage to some, and enjoining abstinence from some meats as unlawful and unclean to others, both which are called doctrines of devils, that is, wicked and devilish doctrines.
Learn thence, That the Popish doctrine forbidding marriage, not absolutely to all, but with restrictions and limitation to some, to wit, their clergy, and all such as shall enter into holy orders, is a devilish and wicked doctrine: for it forbids that which the word alloweth, nay, in some cases commandeth, Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled; Heb_13:4 if honourable in all, then surely lawful for all; under the Old Testament, the prophets, priests, and Levites, did marry; under the New, the ministers of God have a power to marry; Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife? 1Co_9:5 And that they made use of their power is evident from the following words, as well as other apostles and Cephas.
The other wicked doctrine concerning meats is also found in the church of Rome, who by a law to oblige some orders of men, as monks, to abstain from certain meats reducing them thereby from Christian liberty to a conformity to the legal rites, which may well by reckoned as an apostasy from the Christian faith; for although St. Paul, Romans 14 doth allow the forbearance of some sorts of meats to avoid scandal, yet he doth no where condemn the eating of them as unclean: the doctrine therefore of the church of Rome, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, is wicked and devilish.