II. ]\Iore particularly the ruin of Antichrist is set forth : —
1. Partly by the manner of his fall. It is represented both as begun and finished: he shall be consumed, he shall be destrot/ed ; tiie one notetli a lingering dehiy, the other an utter perdition, that he •shall be finally rooted out.
First, Conmmed : to consume is to waste and melt away by little and little.
IJoct. Antichrist is not presently to be destroyed, but to waste away by a lingering consumption ; as his rising was by little and little, so is his fall ; he loseth his authority in Christendom by degrees.
Now the reasons may be these : —
1. God hath a ministry and use for him and the abettors of his kingdom, as he hath a use for the devil himself, therefore permitteth him some limited jwwer ; but yet he holdeth him in the chains of his invincible j)rovidence. So hath he a use for the devil's eldest son, lor Antichrist, and antichristian adversaries, which, if their power were wholly gone, could not be performed ; as —
[1.] To scourge his j)eople for their sins, as their contempt of the gosjjcl, and wantonness under the several privileges which they enjoy by it. God will not want a rod to scourge his disobedient children ; as, Isa. x. 5, he calleth the Assyrian ' the rod of his anger,' the instrument that he maketh use of to punish those with whom he is angry. And again, the ' staff of his indignation,' — the .staff is a heavier and sorer instrument of correction than a rod. What the Assyrian was to the Jews, that Antichrist is to professing Chris- tians. God useth him till he have sulHciently chastised his children, and then he will cast this rod into the hre. Heathens and Tuiks are at a distance from us : our miseries will come from antichristianism, who aie nearer at hand to execute the Lord's vengeance when we grow wanton.
[2] To try his people, for he expects a tried obedience ; what Christianity we will accept and choose — that calculated for this world,
2 ThES. II. 8.] THE SIXTH SERMON. Gl
or that which is calculated for the next. Antichristianit^m, in all the branches of it, is a sort of religion suited to worldly interests : 1 John iv. 5, ' They are of the woi-ld ; therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them ; ' hut true Christianity is for the kingdom of heaven : 1 Cor. ii. 12, ' Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God.' Therefore God will try who are the formal and pretended Christians, that serve their own bellies, and the sincere Christians, who look to an unseen Avorld, and are willing to hazard their own interests out of their fidelity to Christ ; therefore, when the saints under the altar groaned : JRev. vi. 10, ' How long, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? ' the answer given was, ver. 11, ' that they should rest for a season until their fellow-servants, and also their brethren that should be killed, as they were, should be fulfilled.' In every age God will have his witnesses, who by their faith and patience, and ^lot loving their lives to the death, should promote the Lamb's kingdom before they receive their crown ; and therefore, though Anti- christ be consumed more and more, yet he hath so many abettors of his kingdom left as may try the faith and patience of the saints.
[3.] To cure our divisions. Nazianzen called the enemies kocvqI BcaXXaKTol, the common reconcilers. The dog is let loose to make the sheep flock together. We are hardened in our strifes against each other till a common danger unite us. It is noted that when there was a strife between the herdsmen of Abraham's cattle and Lot's cattle, the Canaanite and Perizzite were yet in the land. Gen. xiii. 7. God will unite those in common sufterings whose stubborn humours will not suffer them to meet upon other terms.
[4.] To keep up a remembrance of his mercies: Ps. lix. 11, ' Slay them not, lest my people forget ; scatter them by thy power, and bring them dow^n, 0 Lord, our shield.' God maketh us sensible of the care he hath over us, not by the utter destruction of the ene- mies of his people, but by lingering judgments on them, which affect us more than if they were cut off suddenly.
2. Many other reasons may be given, because it serveth the beauty and harmony of his providence to cut them off in their time, and by such means as he hath apjwinted, and in such a way as shall most conduce unto his glory. But I pass them by ; we must tarry his leisure, and not question his truth and care over us, and be content that our faith and patience be exercised. If God should bring a sud- den destruction upon a power and tyranny so supported by the com- bined interests of the world, we were not able to bear it. Thorns serve for a fence to a garden of roses. God would not destroy the Canaanites at once, lest the beasts of the field should increase upon them, Deut. vii. 22 ; nor all abettors of antichristianism, lest his peojile should lie open to such evils as they cannot bear.