(1.) Judas was not a stranger, but a pretended friend and apostle :
2 ThES. II. 3.] THE THIRD SERMON. 33
Acts i. 17, ' He was numbered with ns, and obtained part of this ministry.* Turks and infidels are enemies to Christ, but Antichrist seeketh to un- dermine him, under a pretence of friendship ; dvTLXpt(rTo<; is one in show _/c>r, and in effect against Christ, and the beast in the Revelation is said to ' push with the horns of the lamb,' Rev. xiii. 11. If he were a professed enemy, what mystery were there in it ? But mystery was written upon the woman's forehead, Rev. xvii. 5 ; and here, ver. 7, ' The mystery of iniquity.' It is wisdom to discern the false prophet, Rev. xiii. 18, but there needeth no great wisdom to discover an open and professed adversary.
(2.) He sold Christ for a small matter. Omnia Bomce^ venalia : par- dons, indulgences, freedom from purgatory, all to be bought with money; and it is a small matter, considering the things put to sale, the pardon of sins, the souls of men redeemed with Christ's precious blood. The antichristian state maketli a market of religion ; truth is made to yield to interest and profit.
(3.) Judas betrayed Christ with a kiss, under a pretence of honour- ing him : Luke xxii. 48, ' Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss ? ' Antichrist is a true adversary of Christ, though he pretend to adore him ; as those that murdered the present prophets would by all means beautify the tombs of the proj)hets deceased, and bear a respect to their memories, Mat. xxiii. 30. He pretendeth to be his servant, yea, a servant of servants, but is really his enemy. The apostle telleth us of some that were ' enemies to the cross of Christ,' Phil. iii. 18. Who to appearance such friends to the cross as the rabble of nominal Christians ? but they are opposers of his spiritual kingdom, the virtue and power of the cross. You have crucifixes every- where, painted, carved, gilded; they are ready to worship the cross with a holy worship ; they set it in their temples, altars, wear it in their bosoms, and wherever they meet it show it reverence, adorn it with gold, silver, and precious stones. Their popes and prelates have it carried before them ; and are not these friends of the cross ? No ; they live a worldly, sensual life, and all their religion tendeth there- unto ; therefore enemies of the cross of Christ, because they mind earthly things. This is right antichrist-like, to betray Christ under a colour of adoration.
(4.) Judas was a guide to them that came to take Christ ; and one main work of Antichrist is to be a ringleader in persecuting for re- ligion. Christ is in heaven, death hath no more power over him ; his natural body is above abuse, but his mystical body still suffereth: Acts ix. G, ' Why persecutest thou me ? ' Antichrist is the head of the persecuting state, others are his emissaries and agents, to take Christ in his members. It is a politic religion, that must be carried on with worldly artifices, with power and cruelty.
(5.) Lastly, The covetousness of Judas is set forth. He was a thief, and one that carried the bag, John xii. 6. England, to its bitter cost, knoweth the polling exactions of the Papacy ; all its dealings with us were to fill the bag out of this puteus inexhaicsfus. Now all these things should open our eyes ; we may behold the man of sin, the son of perdition ; one egg is not more like to another than Judas and Antichrist.
VOL. III. c
34 THE THIRD SERMON. [2 ThES. II. 3.
Use. Is to persuade lis to a detestation of what is anticliristian, and to tliat end let us murk the projjjress of the text. (1 .) The apostasy made was for Antichrist ; (2.) Antichrist, risin<^ upon the apostasy, becometh a man of sin ; and (o.) The man of sin is also the son of })erdition.
1. Let me begin first with the falling away. There is a twofold falling away — either from the power and ])ractice of goldliness, or from a true religion to a false, ])articularly to Popery.
[1.] I begin with the falling away from the power and practice of godliness, though the profession be not changed ; and the rather, partly because this disposeth to the entertainment of error. When a people that are carried w4tli great fervour and vigour of zeal for a while, lose their affections to good, and return to a worldly, sen- sual life, then the bias of their hearts doth easily prevail against the light of their understandings. And so unsanctitied men may the sooner be drawn to apostasy ; they never felt the quickening virtue of faith, and were never wrought by it to the true love of God, or an holy and heavenly mind and life. And partly, also, because if a lively Christianity had been kept up. Antichrist had never risen in the world; and it is the way to keep him out still: 'When the ser- vants slept, the enemy sowed tares,' Mat. xiii. A sleepy religion and corruption of manners made w\ay for corruption of doctrine, worship, and order. It w^as with the church according to the spouse's complaint: 'I sleep, but my heart waketh,' Cant. v. 2. Some care there w^as, but much drowsiness and deadness in religion ; and that produced the great apostasy. Partly too, because there is such a com- pliance between the nature of antichristianism and the temper of a carnal heart; for superstition and profaneness grow both upon the same root. A lotlmess to displease the flesh, the sensual nature of man, is such, that it is loth to be crossed ; and that breedeth profane- ness. For wherefore do men ingulf themselves in all manner of sensualities, but because they are loth to deny their natural appetites and desires, and row against the stream of flesh and blood, but will ' walk in the way of their own heart, and in the sight of their own eyes'? Eccles. xi. 9. Again, if nature be to be crossed, it is only a little ; it shall only be in some external actions, and observances, and dead rudiments, which never kill our lusts, nor promote the divine life. And this pleasing superstition shall make up a religion which is a fit pillow for a carnal heart to sleep upon. Popery is the easiest religion for the flesh that can be found out, for it never biteth nor disturbeth their lusts. The duties of it are like the pharisees* fasting, which our Lord compareth to old wine, Mat. ix. 17, fit for old, dried skin bottles. Well, take heed of falling away from a lively god- liness. No man entereth seriously upon religion but with some tasting or rejoicing, Heb. vi. ; now as this decayeth, we fall olf. The heavenly life is obstructed, if not choked and quite lost. Now, to prevent this, observe two things : — (1.) Your coldness in duties; (2.) Your boldness in sinning.