False Teachers Compared to Foxes

    FALSE TEACHERS COMPARED TO FOXES

    "Take us the Foxes, the little Foxes" &c., Song 2:15.

    MOST expositors understand, by these Foxes, these little Foxes, the Holy Ghost means False Teachers who may be compared to Foxes in these respects following.

    PARALLELS.

    I. THE Fox is subtle and crafty, so you have heard, are False Teachers.

    II. The Fox is not only crafty, but cruel to harmless creatures; so are False Teachers to the souls of men.

    III. Foxes invade in the night-time, like wolves, &c. So do deceivers, whilst ministers sleep, or are secure, or neglect their watch.

    IV. Foxes are great spoilers of vineyards: so False Teachers do great hurt to the Church of God.

    V. Foxes never go strait forward, but by crooked windings, &c., so False Teachers never keep to the plain letter, and express meaning of the Word of God, but have their shifts and evasions, and unnatural inferences, whereby they seek to defend their evil doctrine, &c.

    VI. Foxes are often taken by traps that are laid for them, &c. So are False Teachers often found out and discovered by the true ministers of Christ: "But these, as natural brute beasts, were made to be taken and destroyed," '2Pe 2:12.

    [See more of Foxes under the head metaphors concerning Wicked Men, and persecutors.]