(3.) There is an active providence which raiseth such instruments and i)ropoundeth such objects as, meeting with a naughty heart, do sore blind it. (1.) For instruments : Job xii. 16, ' The deceived and the deceiver are his.' Take it in worldly, or take it in religious, mat- ters, man's deceiving others, or being deceived by others, is of God ; for it is said, both are his ; nut only as his creatures, but subject to the government and disposal of providence, how and whom they shall de- ceive, and how far they shall deceive. So Ezek. xiv. 1), ' If the pro- jdiet be deceived that hath s})oken a thing, 1 the Lord have deceived him.' This is a great transaction in the world, a sad judgment, not to be cavilled but trembled at. For man's ingratitude, God raiseth up false proi)hets to seduce them that delight in lies rather than in the truths of God. (2.) For objects : wicked instruments varnish and dre.ss up this cause with all the art they can to make it a powerful deceit, and then it is befriended and countenanced by the powers of the world, and so easily prevaileth with them who are moved either with worldly hopes or fears, and have debauched their conscience by woildly re- spects. God saith, Jer. vi. 21, ' I will lay stumbling-blocks before thi.s people.' If we will find the sin, God will find the occasion. If Judas hath a mind to sell his Master, he shall not want chapmen to bargain with him. The priests were consulting to destroy Christ at the same
2 ThES, II. 11, 12.] THE NINTH SERMON. 80
time that the devil put it into his heart, Mat. xxvi. 3, being alarmed by the miracle of raising Lazarus. Birds and fishes are easily de- ceived with such baits as they greedily catch at, so God by his just vengeance ordereth such occurrences and occasions as take with a naughty and carnal heart.
2. The degree or kind of the punishment, ivepyeiav 7f\dvr]<i ; we render it 'strong delusion,' or 'the efficacy of error;' that is, such delusion as shall have a most efficacious force to deceive them. The prevalency and strength of the delusion is seen in two things : — (1.) The absurdity of the errors ; (2.) The obstinacy wherewith they cleave to them.
[1.] The absurdity of the errors. I will instance in three things — • False image worsliip and bread worship, invocation of saints, and supererogation of works.
(1.) Adoration of images. Idolaters are usually represented as sottish ; as Ps. cxv. 8, ' Thqy that make them are like unto them ; so is every one that trusteth in them.' He had described the senselessness of the idols before. They have mouths, but they speak not ; eyes have they, but they see not ; they have ears, but they hear not ; noses have they, but they smell not, &c. Now as idols are senseless, so the idolaters are brutish ; that is, the makers, worshippers, and servers of them, are as void of true wisdom as the images are of sense and motion : Isa, xliv. 18, ' They have not known, nor understood ; for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see, and their hearts, that they cannot under- stand.' There is a fatal obduration upon them all along there. Their senselessness is set forth from ver. 9 to ver. 20 ; they that worship the work of their own hands are themselves but stocks and stones, being blinded by the just judgment of God, If it be said this is meant of the idols of the Gentiles, not of the images of God, and Christ, and the Virgin Mary, and saints ; still God will not be worshipped by an idol, and there is no difference between the images of the papists and the heathens, but only in the name.
(2.) Another thing that I will instance in is the invocation of saints — a sottish error, and respect paid to them that are so far out of the reach of our commerce ; and a thing not only without precept, promise, or precedent in scripture, but also against scripture, which always directeth to God by one Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture saith. Go to God if you lack anything, and they say, Go to the saints ; if they say, not as authors of grace, or any divine blessing, but as intercessors, though that be not true, yet that derogateth from Christ, whose office it is to intercede with the Father. So that this is to put the creature in the place of God. But it is not only contrary to scripture, but the very motion and inclination of the Spirit when he stirreth us or moveth us to pray : Rom. viii. 15, ' Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father ;' Gal. iv. 6, ' And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father ;' he inclineth us to come to God, and yet this they will leave.
(3.) A third error that I shall instance in is, that man may superero- gate, not only merit for himself, but lay in an overplus to increase the treasure of the church ; when the scripture telleth us that our best works