2. It is necessary to fortify and forewarn the people of God against a double temptation. (1.) Against scandal ; (2.) Against perse- cutions.
[1.] Against scandal. It is a dangerous temptation to atheism to see Christianity so corrupted and debauched by a vile submission to serve worldly ends, and turned into the pageantry of empty and ridi- culous ceremonies, which beget scorn and contempt of it in the minds of all considering beholders ; and therefore there are more atheists in Kome and Italy than in other countries. Supernatural things, dis- guised with a vain pomp, lose their reverence, and do not alarm the con- science, but harden the heart in a settled atheism and contempt of Christ. Now it is a mighty stay to tlie heart to see that this degen- eration was foreseen and foretold : John xvi. 1, ' These things have I spoken to you, that you should not be offended ;' Mat. xviii. 7, ' Woe unto the world because of offences ! for it must needs be that offences come ; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh !'
[2.] Against persecutions ; for the man of sin is also a son of per- dition, a destroyer of the saints, and maketh havoc of the people of God. Now it is grievous when Christians suff'er by Christians, and we may have many doubtings and misgivings about our cause ; but when Antichrist is clearly discovered, we submit the more cheerfully to suffer the hardest things under his tyranny ; for suffering under antichristian persecution is martyrdom and suffering for Christ, as much as suffer- ing under Pagan persecution : Eev. xiv. 13, ' And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth,' &c. Not only the primitive martyrs, who were put to death by heathens, but those that are condemned by Christians and burned for heretics, those are martyrs also.
3. That we may the better understand true Christianity ; avrLKeifieva 'n-apaX\.'t]Xeifxeva fxdXtara (fialverac, opposites illustrate each other. The two opposite states are Christianity and Antichristianity ; the one is a ' mystery of godliness,' 1 Tim. iii. 16 ; the other, ' a mystery of iniquity.* The design of the mystery of godliness is to recover men from the devil, the w^orld, and the flesh, "unto God ; the other, to seduce men from God to the devil, the world, and the flesh again ; and that by corrupting the former mystery, or the most excellent institution that ever the world was acquainted with for the ennobling and refining man's
48 THE FIFTH SERMON. [2 TheS. II. 5-7.
nature ; so that Christ's reli<;ion is turned as^ainst himself, to lull men's consciences aslceji, whilst they gratify tlie lusts of the eyes, tlie lusts of the tlesh, or live in pride of life. The devil is j^ratified by all sin, but especially he is €iSco\o-)(api]<;, as Synesius calleth him ; one that de- lighteth in idols, as knowing this is the best way to make men brutish, or to live in an oblivion or neglect of God ; fur an idol is 'a teacher of lies,' Hab. ii. 18, doth imprint upon the mind carnal and false con- ceptions of a deity.
4. To confirm us in the truth of the Christian faith, when we see the prophecies of it expressly fulfilled ; for this is the Lord's direction to know a true prophet. Dent, xviii. 22, if the thing come to pass, and the event dotli punctually answer the prediction ; but when a pro- phet speaketh in the name of the Lord, and tlie thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord liath not spoken. Now, the apostles did not only teach the church the doctrine of Christianity, but by a pro])hetic spirit and divine revelation foretold things to come ; and among these, the great thing which is to happen and come to pass before Christ's second coming is Antichrist, or the appearing of the man of sin. Therefore, that we may not doubt of what is past, nor suspect what is further to come, it is good to study these prophecies, and know they are to be fulfilled in their time, that we may say that God, who hath kept touch with the world hitherto in all the pre- dictions of the word, will not fail at last.
Use 1. To reprove them that think this is a curious point not to be searched into. Why then did God reveal it, and that so often by Hi Paul, by St John, in so many prophetical representations of it ? Surely it is not curiosity to search into things revealed, but to intrude ourselves into things hidden, and which God hath put under a veil of secrecy. It is true men must know their measure, and not attempt to run before they can go, and venture upon obscure points before well ver.sed in plain ; and it is true, in more abstruse points, men must not rashly define, but soberly and modestly inquire, and compare predictions with plain events ; this is no way culpable.
2. To reprove those that are so impatient of giving a little attend- ance to such doctrines for a while, and think at least matter more j)rofitable should be insisted on ; they are i)ersuaded enough already. It is well if it be so ; but those that stand should take heed lest they fall ; and presumptuous confidence soonest givetli out, and forsak- eth Clirist. I would but projiound this argument to them : If it were profitable for them that were to go out of the body long before Antichri.st was revealed to be taught these things again and again, and they be charged to keep these things in remembrance, certainly it is more profitable for others that live at the time when these things are in being, and the temptation is at the next door, ready to break in upon them. Surely it is profitable to discover Antichrist, to reduce those that are gone astray, much more to jirevent a revolt, that we may not return to this bondage after a dehverance from it.