A51839:485
XVIII sermons on the second chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing…
XVIII sermons on the second chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing the description, rise, growth, and fall of Antichrist : with divers cautions and arguments to establish Christians against the apostasy of the Church of Rome : very necessary for these times / by that late reverend and learned divine, Thomas Manton ...XVIII sermons on the second chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing the description, rise, growth, and fall of Antichrist : with divers cautions and arguments to establish Christians against the apostacy of the Church of Rome : very necessary for these times / by that late reverend and learned divine, Thomas Manton ...
London: printed by J.D. for J. Robinson, 1679
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. That the Election of God giveth a People great advantages against Errors, especially against the impostures of Antichrist; for when he speaketh of the sad estate of those who are seduced by the Man of Sin, he presently addeth, but we are bound to give thanks to God for you, for he hath chosen you to Salvation. You will say the Thessalonians received the Gospel before these corruptions were brought into the Church: but though Antichrist was not then in being, and this corrupt Christianity not then set a foot, yet there were some preparations for it. The mystery of iniquity already worketh, and they were preserved from the taint of it, by the Election of God; for either God suffereth not the Elect to be deceived in momentous points, or sooner or later he reduceth them: the purpose of God according to Election must stand, Rom. 9.11. & Rom. 11.7. The Election hath obtained, and the rest ⟨p. 263⟩were blinded. So 2 Tim. 2.18, 19. They have overthrown the faith of some, nevertheless the Foundation of the Lord standeth sure. Still the Elect of God escape the seduction, and especially Antichristian Error. Rev. 13.8. The dwellers upon Earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
3. How careful we should be to support the Hearts of God's People, when we speak of his terrible Judgments on the wicked. This was the practice of the Apostles every where; as when the Author to the Hebrews, had spoken of the dreadful estate of Apostates, whose end is to be burned, Heb. 6.9. But we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany Salvation, though we thus speak; he did not condemn them all as Apostates, nor would not discourage them by that terrible Threatening. So again, after another terrible passage,