trines are.

Such warnings against false teachers are, besides, very frequent,
here and there, throughout the Scripture. St. Paul, Acts xx., gives
just such an admonition in his preaching, when he blesses those of
Ephesus and gives them his farewell; and he speaks in this manner: "I
know that after my departure there shall come in among you grievous
wolves, who shall not spare the flock; yea, there shall even of your
own selves arise men who shall teach corrupt doctrine, who shall draw
disciples after them." Christ proclaims it also in Matt. xx.: "If
anyone shall say to you (he says), lo! here is Christ, or lo! there,
then are ye not to believe it; for there shall arise false Christs
and false prophets, and great signs and wonders shall they do, that
shall lead into error, if it were possible, even the elect." And
again, Paul, I. Tim., iv.: "The Spirit speaks expressly that in the
last times some shall depart from the faith, and cleave to erring
spirits and doctrines of the devil by which they speak lies in
hypocrisy." As forcefully as such admonition has gone forth, so
careful should we have been; yet it has been of no avail. The
admonition has been kept silent, and thus we have still wandered, and
suffered ourselves to be led astray.

Now let us see who those false teachers may be, of whom Peter here
speaks. I think that God has ordained by special counsel that our
teachers should have been called doctors, that it might be seen whom
Peter means. For he as much as uses the word here; false
doctors,--that is, false teachers, he says,--not false prophets or
false apostles. In this he fairly hits the high schools, where such a
class of men is made, and whence all the preachers have come forth
into the world; so that there is not even a city under the Popedom,
which does not have such teachers made in the high schools. For all
the world thinks that they are the fountain, the streams of which are
to teach the people. This is a desperate error, since no more cruel
thing has ever come upon the earth than has come forth from the high
schools. Therefore Peter says, that such vain, false teachers are to
be; but what shall they do? This follows further:

_Who shall privily introduce damnable heresies._ He calls them
damnable heresies (sects), or states and orders, because whosoever is
persuaded into them is already lost. These shall they secretly bring
in, he says, not that they shall preach that the Gospel and the Holy
Scr