(1.) Coldness in duties, when the will and affections grow more re- miss, and the worship of God, which keejieth up the remembrance of him, is either omitted or performed perfunctorily, and in a careless and stupid manner : Jer. ii. 32, ' My people have forgotten me days without
2 ThES. II. 3.] THE THIRD SERMON. 35
number ;' Job xxvii. 10, 'Will he ahvaj'S call upon God? will he delight himself in the Almighty ?' God chargcth Israel with growing weary of him ; and it began in not calling upon him, Isa. xliii. 22. Now, when you seldom think or speak of God, and do not keep up a delightful communion with him, there is a falling away.
(2.) Boldness in sinning. When men lose their tenderness and strictness, and the awe of God is lessened in their hearts, and they do not only sin freely in thought, but freely in act, have not that hatred of sin and watchfulness as formerly, but more abandon themselves to a carnal life, they are falling off from God apace : 2 Peter ii. 20, ' For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again en- tangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.' At first the heart checked you for sin, but you did not kindly come off, were not troubled about it, hoped God would pardon it ; and then you are bold to venture again, and so by degrees are en- tangled in the sensual and worldly life. Now consider the causes of it: — 1. Want of faith in God: Heb. iii. 12, 'Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.' You have not a sound belief of his being and presence. 2. Want of love to God : Kev. ii. 4, 5, ' Nevertheless I have (some- what) against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Kemember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do thy first works ; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent.' Your hearts decline from that love you had to him and his ways, and then your work is intermitted. 3. Want of a due sense of the world to come : Heb. x. 39, ' But we are not of them who draw back to perdition, but of them that believe, to the saving of the soul.' 4. The love of the present world : 2 Tim. iv. 10, ' For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.' The more that is valued, the more your hearts are taken off from things to come, and the care about them ; you have too great a liking, either to the profits of the world — 1 Tim. vi. 10, ' The love of money is the root of all evil, which while some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith' — or else the pleasures of the world : 2 Tim. iii. 4, ' Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.' As the inclination of the heart groweth stronger to sensual pleasures, your thoughts of God are less serious and pleasing to you. Now look to these things, lest you grow quite weary of God and the holy life, which once you had an afiection unto.
[2.] From a true religion to a false ; which may be done two ways : — (1.) Out of corruption of mind ; (2.) Out of vile afiection.
(1.) Out of weakness of mind, as those do that were never well grounded in the truth : Eph. iv. 14, ' That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;' 2 Peter iii. 16, 'In which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable, wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.' Therefore we need to be established ; but the forsaking of a truth we were bred in usually cometh from some falseness of heart. Some
36 THE FOURTH SERMON. [2 ThES. II. 4.
errors are so contrary to the new nature, that they discern them by the unction : 1 John ii. 20, ' But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all tliiuf^s.'
(2.) Out of vile affection, when they forsake the truth for the advan- tages of a fleshly, worldly life, some places to be gotten by it, &c., and as the whore of Babylon hath a golden cup, riches, and preferments, wherewith it iuviteth its proselytes. Now these are worse than the former, for they sell the birthright : Heb. xii. 16, ' Lest there be any fornicator, or profime person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.' 0 Christians ! take heed to yourselves. Apostasy brought Antichrist into the church. Let it not jure poslliminio, bring him back again into the land, or into your hearts.
2. The next step is the man of sin. As the first apostasy of Adam and Eve brought sin into the world, so this great apostasy brought in a deluge of sin into the church, and defiled the holy society which Christ had gathered out of the world. Idolatry is often called adultery or fornication ; spiritual uncleanness disposeth to bodily, and bodily to spiritual. Usually a corrupt state of religion and corrupt manners go together ; otherwise the dance and the fiddle would not suit. The world cannot lie quiet in a course of sin, if there be not some libertine, atheistical doctrine, and carnal worship to countenance it: Rev. xi. 10, ' And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another ; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.'