If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;
Ver. 3. If any man teach otherwise] ετεροδιδασκαλει, discover himself heterodox out of affectation of singularity, &c., as divers do in this licentious age; broaching things different from the received doctrine, as holding it, with Phocion, a goodly thing to dissent from others.
Consent not to wholesome words] Words that have a healing property in them. The Scripture (as that library of Alexandria) may be properly said to be the soul's medicine, η της ψυχης ιατρεια. By the reading of Livy, Curtius, Aventinus, and other historians, many are said to have been recovered of various desperate diseases. 0 facile et beatum curationis genus, saith John Bodin (de Utilit. Historiae). But the reading of the Holy Scriptures doth a far greater cure than this upon the soul. King Alphonsus, cured of a fever by reading Quintus Curtius, cried out, Valeat Avicenna, vivat Curtius, Farewell medicine, well fare history. May not we better say so of these wholesome words, this doctrine according to godliness, purposely composed for the promoting of piety in the world?