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I. THE CHURCH IN ALL AGES HATH BEEN PESTERED WITH VAIN BABBLERS,

II. UNSOUND OPINIONS ARE OF A SPREADING NATURE. And this is true of all sin, original and actual.

1. For doth not corruption, like a disease, disperse itself, and pollute every power of the soul and member of the body? What part is not infected with that leprous contagion? Hath it not spread also, by natural propagation, to all Adam's posterity?

2. Will not all actual sin spread also? For unbelief, hath it not run into atheism? fear, into despair? anger, into fury? and that, to revenge? Foolish mirth will become madness; temporary faith, high presumption; and speculative lust, actual whoredom. Were not images, in the beginning, for civil use, to put men in mind of deceased friends; and are they not at this day, by the Romanists, religiously adored?

3. Shall we not see one error beget another?

4. Moreover, unsound opinions spread from person to person.

III. SIN WILL DESTROY, IF NOT DESTROYED.

(J. Barlow, D. D.)

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KJV: And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;

WEB: and their word will consume like gangrene, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;