84 THE EIGHTH SERMON. [2 TheS. II. 10.
gospel is refused, and God sendeth popish seducers as a just judgment ; men only prize tlie light as it may serve tlieir turn. (2.) The neglect and contempt of the truth is so heinous a sin that it deserveth the greatest punishment : Heb. ii. 3, ' How shall wc escape if we neglect so great salvation?' Now it is revenged by these errors as a just judgment on the perverseness and unthankfuhiess of the world. The duties of the gospel being so unquestionable, shows their perverseness. The privileges of the gospel being so excellent, their unthankfulness is more intolerable.
Use 1 is to show us what cause we have to fear a return of Popery. Alas ! where is this love of the truth ? (1.) Some are gospel-glutted, loathe manna : a full-fed people must expect a famine, Amos viii. 2. In differences between God and Baal, Christ and Antichrist, few are valiant for the truth : Jer. ix. 3, ' And they bend their tongue like their bow for lies, but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth ; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the Lord.' Contend earnestly : Jude 3, * It was needful for me to write unto you, and to exhort you, that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivei-ed unto the saints.' Again (2.) There are many sensualists, unclean and carnal gospellers ; to these God oweth a judgment. Usually the gospel is removed and given to a nation that will bring forth the fruits thereof. They that use the truth only or principally for their own turns, hate to be reformed ; God will reckon with them : Ps. 1. 16, 17, ' But unto the wicked God saith. What hast thou to do to declare my statutes ? or that thou shouldst take my covenant into thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruc- tion, and castest my words behind thee ? '
Use 2 shows you indeed that you love the gospel.l Carentia remedii is a grievous misery, or else Christ had not come as a great bless- ing. Neglectus remedii is a grievous sin, to be lazy in a matter of such moment : those that never set their hearts to obey the truth. Crassa nccjligentia dolus est: There should be constant purpose, endeavour, striving, and not cease striving, till we in some measure prevail. liejeciio or contemptio remedii, if we put away the word of God from us : Acts xiii. 4G, ' Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said. It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you ; but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lu, we turn to the Gentiles.' God will be gone, if not from the land, from thy soul. This is the most heinous iniquity of all: Heb. x. 28,29, 'He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses ; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the h^on of God, and hath counted the blood of the cove- nant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?' So Esau's despising his birth- right: Heb. xii. IG, 17, * Lesttherebeany fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright ; for ye know- how that afterwards, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected ; for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.'
^ Apparently the sentences iu this paragraph arc elliptical.— Ed.
2 TlIES. II. 11, 12.1 THE NINTH SERMON. 85
SERMON IX.
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they shoidd believe a lie ; that they all might be damned icho believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. — 2 Thks. II. 11, 12.
We have considered the sin of those seduced by Antichrist ; now the judgment. It is twofold : — (1.) Delusion in this world, ver. 11 ; (2.) Damnation in the next, ver. 12.
1. Delusion in this world ; where take notice of three things : — (1.) The author of it : God shaW send it ; (2.) The degree or nature
of the punishment : strong delusion; (3.) The issue of it : that they shoidd believe a lie.
2. Their punishment in the next world : that tliey all might he damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteous- ness; where take notice : — (1.) Of the terribleness of it, it is no less than everlasting damnation : KpcOcocn for KaraKptOiacn ; (2.) The jus- tice and equity of it : ' They believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.'
1. I begin with their judgment in this world : ' For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie.'
Doct. That by God's just judgment there is an infatuation upon the followers and abettors of Antichrist, that they swallow the grossest errors to their own destruction.
To clear this I shall speak : — (1.) To the author ; (2.) The degree or kind of the punishment ; (3.) The effect and issue.