For of this sort are they which creep into
houses
Privily and unawares, in a clandestine manner, and insinuate
themselves into families, by fawning and flattering, and under
specious pretences to knowledge and virtue. The Syriac version
uses a word, from whence comes (adlwx) , "Chulda", which signifies "a weasel";
suggesting, that their entrance into houses was like to the way
of that creature, which is sometimes covered, and sometimes open:
there was also a gate of the temple, which was called "Huldah";
whether there is any allusion in the word to that, may be
inquired F11.
And lead captive silly women;
the coming of antichrist is after the working of Satan; as Satan
attacked the woman, and not the man, and beguiled Eve and not
Adam, so these his instruments and emissaries, work themselves
into the affections of the weaker vessel, and into the weaker
sort of women, as the diminutive word here used signifies; and
gain upon them, instil their principles into them, attach them to
their interests, captivate them to them, and lead them as they
please:
laden with sins;
covered with them, full of them, and so ready to receive any set
of principles that would encourage them to continue in them; or
else were pressed down with a sense of them, their consciences
being awakened, and they under some concern on account of them,
and so fit persons for such deceivers to gain upon, by pretending
to great sanctity and religion, and by providing them with
pardons and indulgences, and putting them upon penance though the
former sense seems most agreeable, and is confirmed by what
follows,
led away with divers lusts.
The Alexandrian copy adds, "and pleasures"; that is, sinful ones;
though this may be understood, not of unclean lusts, but of the
itch and desire after new teachers, and new doctrines, and
practices, which prevail in weak women, and by which they are
governed and led away.