PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Complete Works of Thomas Manton — Volume 20
Thomas Manton · 329,200 words · 330 reading sections
Section 121
6. When you are willing to undergo any trouble, and count it an honour to suffer for Christ's sake. To die for Christ, saith Ignatius, is greater than to be monarch of all the world : Acts v. 41, 'And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his sake,' …
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188 SERMONS UPON PHILlFPrANS I. 21. [SER. IT. truth of God's promise, when they can hazard all in hope of the accomplishment of them ; and it commendeth God's service when we are willing to please him, though with the loss of all. But this cannot be meant, for it is not usual to call anything we do or suffer for God g…
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2. It is distinct in its supports. The body is supported by outward means and the help of the creature, but the soul is supported without means, by the immediate hand and power of God himself. The body is patched up with daily supplies from without ; as it was made out of the earth, so is its food brought out of the ea…
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the body, but actually do so, appeareth from scripture. First take a passage next the text : Phil. i. 23, ' For I am in a strait between two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better." 'Avdkvcrai is to be dissolved ; it giveth us the right notion of death; it is not a destruction of the godly, …
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II. I shall show what that gain is which blessed spirits departed do enjoy. I confess we should rather labour to obtain it than scrupulously to define it. When we get up thither, we shall understand it better. Here I shall show you — (1.) What this blessed state is ; (2.) The comfortable adjuncts of it; (3.) That we l…
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(2d) In happiness ; for there is as much fruition of God as we are capable of : Kom. viii. 18, ' Glory revealed in us.' There God is all, here there is no room to receive him, no faculties to behold his glory, no means to convey it. 2. The comfortable adjuncts of it. [1.] The place, which is very glorious. The paveme…
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III. That we shall lose nothing but what shall be made up. 196 SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS I. 21. [SeR. II. 1. Do we lose friends ? There are better in heaven ; our best friends love us not so dearly as every one doth there. This is the true com- munion of saints ; we have communion not only with one or two, but all ; n…
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SERMONS UPON 2 THESSALONIANS L1 SERMON I. So that ive ourselves glory in you in the churches of God, for your 'patience and faith in all the persecutions and tribulations which ye endure. — 2 Thes. i. 4. We still stick in the preface and introduction into this epistle, where- in the apostle signifieth his singular l…
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This latter branch I shall insist upon ; and observe — [1.] That tribulations and persecutions do often befall God's dearest and choicest servants. [2.] That a constant unconquered patience under persecutions and tribulations is a sign and fruit of a strong faith ; and so it suiteth with what I lately handled concern…
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Use 1. Information. 1. With what thoughts we should take up the stricter profession of Christianity, namely, with expectations of the cross. Many think they may be good christians, yet all their days live a life of ease and peace, without any trouble or molestation. This is all one as if one should list himself a sold…
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-N TEE. 4.] SERMONS UPON 2 THESSALONIANS I. 203 therefore unless we abound in the love and work of the Lord, we are like to be in the dark as to our eternal interests. [2.] We must be more mortified to the world ; for he that liveth a flesh-pleasing, a sense-pleasing life, is but ripening himself for apostasy, James…
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II. What of faith is manifested by it ? All kinds of faith — (1.) Assent ; (2.) Consent ; or (3.) Confidence. 1. Assent ; for we must believe the truth with a divine faith before we can suffer for it ; a probable human faith will not be sufficient. How can we endure all those afflictions and trials for supernatural th…
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[3.] That we may not faint and grow weary of duties, even of life itself, as Jonah iv. 8. Faith keepeth us from fainting, Ps. xxvii. 13, Ps. xlii. 5. 3. In such times faith is manifested. The true and sensible dis- covery of faith is patience under manifold tribulations. [1.] Because then we have nothing to stick unt…
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SERMON II. Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer. — 2 Thes. i. 5. The apostle speaketh from the commendation to the consolation; wherein the apostle declareth the use and fruit of these sufferings — (1.) Generally; (…
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VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON 2 THESSALONIANS I. 209 unpunished ? ye shall not be unpunished.' If God had begun so roughly with his own people, they must look as surely and sorely to suffer at last. Thus it will hold good. (2.) This argument may be formed thus : If good men suffer here, and the ungodly have the upper hand, a…
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6. Since God's justice doth not make a sufficient difference here, there is another life where he will do it ; for otherwise all these absurdities would follow — [1.] God would seem indifferent to good and evil, yea, more partial to the evil ; and would seem to approve and favour the rebellious more than the righteous…
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(2.) As it is upon a part, the soul only. The bodies of the holy and the wicked both are now senseless, and moulder into dust in the grave ; 212 SERMONS UPON 2 THESSALONIANS I. [SER. II. and till they be raised up and joined to their souls, they can neither partake of woe or weal, pleasure or pain. The soul, though i…
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Doct. They shall be accounted worthy to enter into the kingdom of God who diligently and steadily pursue after it. By way of explication — First, What is meant by the kingdom of God ? There is a twofold kingdom of God — the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory. The kingdom of grace is the gospel estate now set af…
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1. There must be diligence in doing good : Mat. vi. 33, ' First seek the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof.' This must be our top care, our first and chiefest business. It is not enough to seek after the kingdom of God, but we must seek after it in the first place ; all must give way to this : Heb. iv. 11, …
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Heee is an amplification of the former argument, wherein he doth more fully declare how their enduring tribulations was evSecjfia, &c, a manifestation of God's righteous judgment. In the words note — 1. The impulsive cause, God's justice, ' Seeing it is a righteous thing with God.' 2. The two effects, or the differen…
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218 SERMONS UPON 2 THESSALONIANS I. [SER. III. (2.) Vindictive, or punishing justice. God punisheth none but sinners, and only for sin, and that according to the measure of the sin : Kom. ii. 7,-9, ' To them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life. But unto …
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(3.) How God will exercise his fatherly justice upon his people, and his patience toward the wicked. (1st.) His corrective justice toward his people, by many penal evils inflicted up them : 1 Sam. vii. 14, ' If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and the stripes of the children of men.' The fau…
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(2.) There is his justice of bounty and free beneficence. God is just by way of bounty when he rewards man capable of reward and accounted worthy, though not in respect of perfect righteousness in himself, yet because he is some way righteous. This capacity of the reward respects either the righteousness of Christ, and…
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First, As here, ' It is just with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you ; ' that the troublers should be troubled. You will say, How can this tribulation which is recompensed imply the ruin of the soul, when they afflicted only the bodies of the saints ? I answer — Two ways — 1. Because they can go n…
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Use 1. Let us take heed how we oppress any, especially that our hearts boil not with rancour and malice against God's children. Injuriousness and cruelty to the faithful will not go unrevenged. It may be you think you do God good service, John xvi. 2. But that doth not excuse you from punishment, for God will not be se…
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[1.] In this rest there is a freedom from all troublesome evils. In this estate there is neither sin nor misery. Sin grieveth the saints most, Bom. vii. 24. If any had cause to complain of afflictions, Paul much more ; he was whipped, imprisoned, stoned ; but lusts troubled him more than scourges, and his captivity to …
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2. It is an holy and religious rest, a perpetual sabbatising, Heb. iv. 9, aa/3l3drLa/j,o<; ; a celebrating of an eternal sabbath to God. A sab- bath is an holy rest, not a time of idleness, but to be religiously spent and employed ; so this rest and sabbatism, which is promised to believers, is not passed over in ease …
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VeR. 6, 7.] SERMONS UPON 2 THESSALONIANS I. 229 be at a distance from God, nor God at a distance from ns ; but we shall still enjoy his company, lauding and praising his name. Here we are learners, there practisers. We shall then have a clearer sight of his excellencies, and a fuller sense of his benefits, and accordi…
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(3.) If when they are with the Lord they are in a better state than now, surely then they are not only in manu Dei, in the hand of God ; but admitted in conspectum Dei, into the presence of God. It were also absurd to long for a dissolution of that estate wherein we feel the love of God and Christ, sometimes with us, u…
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Use 1. To fortify our choice. It is left to us whether we will have our rest and ease here or hereafter. Both we cannot have, for rest is for the weary soul. We cannot reasonably hope to leap from Delilah's lap into Abraham's bosom, if we have never laboured in duties public or secret, withheld not ourselves from any j…
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Note 3. ' Rest with us.' It is a comfortable adjunct to our felicity in heaven that we shall have such company there. Surely the apostle mentions it for their comfort here. So elsewhere it is propounded : Mat. viii. 11, 'Ye shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.' These were mentioned b…
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[3.] Now his spiritual glory is seen but in a glass darkly, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. We apprehend him by faith, but see him not face to face ; though he be revealed to the soul, yet not so revealed as he will be at his second coming. Vision or beholding of his glory is reserved for heaven : John xvii. 24, ' Father, I will that…
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VeR. 7.] SERMONS UPON 2 THESSALONIANS I. 237 the butler forgat Joseph when he was at court, it were another matter. No; though our high priest be passed into the heavens, yet he is touched with a feeling of our infirmities, Heb. iv. 15. He will not always leave us liable to sinning and suffering. He is our life now, a…
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(4.) That he may require an account of things during his absence ; what his servants have done with their talents, Mat. xxv. ; what his church hath done with his ordinances, and how things have been carried in his house : 1 Tim. vi. 14, ' Keep this commandment without rebuke unto the appearing of Jesus Christ.' Whether…
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240 SERMONS UPON 2 THESSALONIANS L [SER- V. but it is another manner of grace then, when our pardon and approba- tion shall be ratified by our judge's own mouth, Acts iii. 19, when he shall not only take us into his family, but into his presence and palace, John xii. 16, not only give us right, but possession ; when w…
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(2.) To execute his sentence on the wicked : Mat. xiii. 41, 42, ' The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnash- ing of teeth.' So ver. 49, ' The angels …
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4. To draw our hearts after Christ, and towards him ; for the angels of God that worship him do know what he is : 'I will worship thee among the gods,' Ps. xcvii. 7 ; and Heb. i. 6, ' Let all the angels of God worship him.' It is argument enough that the angels are witnesses, and take part with the saints : Ps. cxxxvii…
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1. I shall speak of the terrible manner of his coming. 2. I shall speak of the twofold rule of proceeding in the judgment, upon the light of nature and the gospel, and who shall be judged by the one, and who by the other. 3. Examine the force of these expressions, ' know not God,' and ■ obey not the gospel.' I. For …
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But you will say, What is this to us ? I answer — Our doom is indeed to be debated according to another rule, which is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But yet that which is perfect doth not destroy that which is imperfect, but imply it rather, as the reasonable soul doth the sensitive and vegetative. And that whi…
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(2.) Those to whom the object of faith was but more obscurely pro- pounded ; who are of several sorts. (1st.) Those that lived before the flood and after the flood ; as Abel, Enoch, and Noah, are mentioned in the chronicle and history of faith, 248 SERMONS UPON 2 THESSALONIANS I. [SeR. VI. as well as Abraham, Isaac,…
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{5th.) Among christians, the gospel is not alike clearly made known. To some Christ is more plainly and purely preached, without any mixture of errors that have any considerable influence upon the main of religion. Others are in that communion in which those doctrines are yet taught, which are indeed absolutely and ind…
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2. 'That obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.' It is not enough to profess the gospel, but we must obey the gospel if we would be exempted from the terror of the judgment. Now what is it to obey the gospel ? To yield up ourselves to do the will of Christ revealed in the gospel. This obedience is necessary if …
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1. Whom you are to obey ; Jesus Christ, the Lord and sovereign of all. Here in his flesh they said, Mat. viii. 27, ' What manner of man is this, that even the winds and seas obey him ? ' And will not you obey him ? It is Christ whom you call your Saviour, and shall he not be your Lord ? He made a plaster of his blood t…
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(3.) How willing God is to manifest himself to us by his Spirit : ' In thy light we shall see light ; ' and God hath promised, Jer. xxiv. 7, ' I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God ; for they shall return unto me with their whole hearts.' You must …
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But here foolish reason will interpose, and ask how it can stand with the justice of God for a momentary action to cast men into ever- lasting torment ? I answer — 1. God will govern the world by his own reason, and not by our fancies. He hath made a holy law, and that law hath a sanction ; it is established by penalt…
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Well, then, since they break the laws of the eternal God, and the very nature of the sin is a despising eternal blessedness for some tem- poral pleasure and profit, and this they would do everlastingly if they could subsist here so long, and during all the time of God's patience, and their trial, they would never pass …
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(3.) The loss is irreparable. They are banished out of God's sight for evermore. Despair is one ingredient in the sorrow of the damned ; all hopes are cut off of being any more admitted into God's favourable presence. There are many ups and downs in a christian's experience, God hideth his face that he may afterward sh…
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(5.) The pains and torments of the wicked angels come immediately from God. He holdeth them in chains of darkness, 2 Peter ii. 4. These chains of darkness are God's irresistible power and terrible justice, overtaking, tormenting, and restraining them. It will be worse with them at the last day, their torments will be i…
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(3d.) The outward instances of God's wrath on particular men, when they fall into any painful disease, stone, colic, strangury, acute fevers, these come more immediately from God. You cannot think of two or three days' pain in this kind without horror, and how will you dwell with devouring burnings ? That which God put…
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[3.] To cause them to shake off all delays in the business of salvation, to flee from the wrath to come, Mat. iii. 7, to flee for refuge to the hope set before them, Heb. vi. 18. No motion will serve here but flight ; we cannot get soon enough out of this condition ; while a great way off, meet thy enemy and make thy p…
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The comfortable effect of Christ's coming is — (1.) Asserted ; (2.) Applied to the Thessalonians. If we consider it as asserted, there we have — 1. The state itself. 2. The measure and degree of it, that Christ shall be glorified and admired upon that account. 3. The author, Christ. VER. 10.] S1BMONS UPON 2 THESSA…
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2. The glory inherent and internal : Rom. viii. 18, ' The glory which shall be revealed in us.' Now it is revealed to us, our ear hath heard a little thereof, but then it shall be revealed in us, fully accom- plished in our persons ; as here there is a revealing of Christ to us, which implieth the offer, and a revealin…
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268 SERMONS UPON 2 THESSALONIANS I. [SER. VIII. glory which he communicates to his people ; he is glorified in the glory which resulteth to him from their glory. And this expression showeth both — (1.) The certainty of this effect of his coming ; for it is more than if he had said they shall be glorified. Surely Chris…
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2. The wicked are amazed and astonished when they see those so much loved and advanced by Christ, whose lives they counted mad- ness and folly. They shall be spectators of the blessedness of the godly, as the godly shall be of their destruction and punishment ; they shall see them whom they accounted the off-scouring o…
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3. He dispenseth it, and communicateth his glory to the saints. He is our husband, we are his spouse. Uxor fidget radiis mariti; as the husband riseth in honour, so doth the wife. He is the head, we are the members ; when the head is crowned, all the members are clothed with VER. 10.] SERMONS UPON 2 THESSALONTANS T. 2…
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[3.] From this dedication there results a relation to God. So that from that time forth they are not their own, but the Lord's : Ezek. xvi. 8, 'I entered into covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine ;' Rom. xiv. 7, 8, ' None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself : for whether we live, we live unto the…
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2. The persons are not fit. Our souls are not yet purified enough to see God : Mat. v. 8, ' Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God ; ' 1 John iii. 3, ' Every man that hath this hope, purifieth himself as he is pure.' Till sin be wholly done away, which will not be till death, we are not meet for his pres…
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Use 2. To encourage us to seek after this glorious estate, by contin- uance in well-doing with all diligence and patience. The heirs of promise are described, Eom. ii. 7, to be them ' who by patient continu- ance in well-doing do seek for honour, glory, and immortality : ' where mark — (1.) The end; (2.) The way; (3.) …
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(1.) For our entrance into the christian estate, or recovery out of the apostasy of mankind, faith and repentance : Acts xx. 21, ' Testifying to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.' When we are willing to return to God, as our lord and happiness, by the Media…
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[2.] With patience, enduring all the hardships and difficulties that ■we meet with by the way. The good ground is described to be the good and honest heart, ' That bringeth forth fruit with patience,' Luke viii. 15. The other grounds brought forth fruit, but they did not bring forth fruit with patience ; the stony grou…
921 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical edition (1870); OCR text from Internet Archive. OCR may contain scanning/transcription errors. Verify quotations against page images when precision matters.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.