Ordination cannot effect regeneration. The Bishop’s hands may give the pastor’s office, but they cannot give the pastor’s spirit; and thus there will be amongst the clergy the same leaven of corruption that there is amongst the flock. Like priest, like people. Thus you will observe in the prophecy that there is to be no lack of teachers in the latter days. There will be deceivers as well as the deceived, and men will “heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;” iv. iii. Nor will these be mere upstarts rising up without legitimate ordination, for let us turn to the parallel prophecy, Acts, xx. 29 & 30. These words were addressed by St. Paul to the elders of the church of Ephesus, the very men over whom Timothy presided as a bishop. They are therefore closely connected with the epistle, the only difference being that they are addressed to different officers of the same church. It is only consistent therefore to suppose them to relate to the same apostacy. Nor can there be any doubt as to the ecclesiastical position of the persons addressed; they had authority higher even than Apostolic; for the command was given them “Take heed unto yourselves and to the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers.” And now what says the prophecy? It contains the description of a two-fold danger, from without and from within: some shall arise without and break in upon the church’s fold, “I know this, that after my departing, shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock;” _v._ 29. But others shall spring up within, in the very midst of a rightly ordained ministry, corrupting the faith without attacking it. “Also, of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them;” _v._ 30. And this makes the latter days so pre-eminently perilous; seduction within is vastly more dangerous than attack without. How much more when it arises amongst the consecrated guardians of truth! If the defection were limited to the laity, the believer’s path would be comparatively easy; but here lies the danger, that the truth will be resisted by the very men whose sole office it is to teach it; perverted by those who are solemnly entrusted with its maintenance; that there will be traitors in the very heart of the camp of God; that men holding the church’s orders, and thereby winning to themselves the church’s confidence, will draw away disciples after them, and, retaining their ecclesiastical position, will employ its influence as the secret antagonists of the truth. {41} Such being the predicted condition of the visible church in the latter days, it remains only that we draw from the prophecy two or three important practical conclusions. (1.) There is no Scriptural warrant for expecting infallibility in the visible church.