), speaking expressly of the means to examine spirits, whether they be of God, or not; after he had told them that there would arise false prophets, saith thus: “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God”; that is, is approved and allowed as a prophet of God: not that he is a godly man, or one of the elect, for this, that he confesseth, professeth, or preacheth Jesus to be the Christ; but for that he is a prophet avowed. For God sometimes speaketh by prophets, whose persons He hath not accepted; as He did by Balaam; and as He foretold Saul of his death, by the Witch of Endor. Again in the next verse, “Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of Christ; and this is the spirit of Antichrist.” So that the rule is perfect on both sides; that he is a true prophet, which preacheth the Messiah already come, in the person of Jesus; and he a false one that denieth Him come, and looketh for Him in some future impostor, that shall take upon him that honour falsely, whom the apostle there properly calleth Antichrist.