3. Be fortified and established : —
[1.] By knowledge. If we have not thiov aTr]pty/Liov, a stedfastness of our own, we shall fall, 2 Peter iii. 17 ; in a time of long peace, arms hang up a-rusting ; and so we are not prepared to resist temptations.
[2.] By grace : ' It is good the heart should be established by grace,' Heb. xiii. 9. The new nature Avill caution men against many popish errors : 1 John ii. 20, ' Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.' A child of God hath something in his bosom that will not permit him to hearken to Popery ; the very life in us is oppo- site to this dead show and mummery of trashy devotions.
Now I come to the author, with the means of consuming : ' The Lord shall consume him with the spirit of his mouth.' The Lord, that is the Lord Christ. But what is meant by the spirit of his mouth, or the breath of his mouth, as some render it ? Two things may be meant hereby — either his providential word, or his gospel, accompanied by his Spirit.
1. His providential w^ord ; that is, when Christ saith, Let it be done, it shall be done : Isa. xi. 4, ' He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.' Those that are called wicked, they are also called the earth, because they are eartlily-minded, and have their portion here, and possess much on earth, and have great power, by the advantage of which they oppress his people. Now, to execute judgment upon them, Christ needeth no more than the rod of his mouth, that powerful word whereby he created all things : Ps. xxxiii. 6, ' By the words of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth ;' iipholdeth all things : Heb. i. 3, ' Upholding all things by the word of his power ;' and brings all things to nothing again : John xviii. 6,
C-i THE SIXTH SERMON. [2 TilES. II. 8.
'As soon as he liad said to thcMn, I am he, tliey went hackwartl and fell to the i^round ;' — one word <.)f his power! nl providence is enough. Or, secondly —
2. It is meant of the efficacy of his ji^ospel, as it is accompanied by his Spirit, called 'The sword of the Spirit,' Eph. vi. 17. And it is said to be ' (jnick and powerful,' Heb. iv. 12 ; and Rev. ii. IG, ' Ilepent, or I will couje against thee quickly, and smite thee with the sword of my mouth.' By this word he sliall confound the falsehood and cunning practices which are carried on under this mystery ofini([uity, and give it such a deadly and incurable wound, that it shall languish before it be utterly destroyed.
Dod. That Antichrist's destruction is by the preaching of the gospel, and the victorious evidence of truth. It must needs be so, for liis kingdom and tyranny is upheld by darkness, which is dis])elled by the light of the truth ; and, therefore, the Pa[)ists, as all other heretics, are hicifurjo: scni^turunim Dei — carmot endure the scriptures, deny them to the people, and seek to make them contemptible by all the means they can. Again, his kingdom is carried on by falsehood ; and his cheats, and impostures, and wickedness, and usurpation, and false interpretations and delusions are discovered by the truth and sim- plicity of the gospel, and so is consumed yet more and more. Lastly, Popery is a dead form of religion, and there is not only truth in the word of God, but life ; we are not only enlightened, but quickened by it. and converted to God, and made i)artakers of his Spirit ; and these will go against their own experience and inclination, if they should sit down with such empty, beggarly rudiments.
But here ariseth a question, Shall Antichrist be consumed no other way but by the spirit of his mouth ? We read in the prophecy of wars, by which the anlichristian state is brought to nought. I answer — The pure and powerful preaching of the gospel is the principal means Avhereby the Spirit of the Lord consumeth Antichrist in the hearts of men ; but this is not exclusive of other means which God, in the ways of his ])rovidence, may use to weaken his worldly interest. But we must distinguish between the means God may use and we must use. Simply to put down a religion by force of arms is not our way ; it is not lawful certainly to invade other nations upon the pure and sole title of religion ; but if they invade us on that account, no doubt a prince and people so invaded may defend themsi^dves. But when a war is commenced on other occasions, it is the most cheerful cause to engage in. When we war against the abettors of Antichrist, we war against an enemy whom God will consume. Conslantine warred against Licinius, his colleague, not because an infidel, but because he persecuted the Christians, contrary to tb.eir capitulations. Lewis XII. caused it to be disputed in a synod at Tours, Num liceret Fapce absque causa prhicipi bdli(m iufcrrc/ when it was answered, A'o?i licet; a second question, Nioa tali jjrincipi sua defcnsione fas sit eurii invadere? Their answers were Licet, which he undertook, and caused money to be stamped with this inscription — P<n'dam Bahylonem.