18 Sermons on the Antichrist
by Thomas Manton

Description: (1) Eighteen Sermons on the Second Chapter of the Second 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. (2) A Practical Exposition Upon the Forty-third Chapter of Isaiah.

CONTENTS of 18 Sermons on the Antichrist

EIGHTEEN SERMONS ON THE SECOND CHAPTER OF THE SECOND 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.

Sermon 1. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him, that you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, that the day of Christ is at hand.

Sermon 2. That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

Sermon 3. Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.

Sermon 4. Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Sermon 5. Remember ye not, that, while I was with you. I told you these things? and now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time; for the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now letteth will let till he be taken out of the way.

Sermon 6. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming.

Sermon 7. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

Sermon 8. With all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

Sermon 9. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Sermon 10. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Sermon 11. But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because the Lord hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth.

Sermon 12. Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sermon 13. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

Sermon 14. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and given us everlasting consolation, and good hope, through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.

Sermon 15. Which hath loved us, and given us everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace.

Sermon 16. And good hope through grace.

Sermon 17. Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.

Sermon 18. And stablish you in every good word and work.

TO THE READER.

READER,—Dr Thomas Manton was not so unknown to London, nor is he so much forgotten, as that his name or writings should need any of my commendations. But booksellers expecting such an office, I have great reason to be willing to serve thee in serving the memorial of such a friend. What he was I need not tell even strangers, after the character truly given of him by his friend and mine in his funeral sermon. How sound in judgment against extremes in the controversies of these times, a great lamenter of the scandalous and dividing mistakes of some self-conceited men; how earnestly desirous of the healing of our present breaches, and not unacquainted with the proper means and terms, of which the author of his funeral sermon and I had more than ordinary experience; how hard and successful a student he was, and how frequent and laborious a preacher, and how highly and deservedly esteemed;—all this, and more, is commonly here known. The small distaste that some few had of him I took for part of his honour, who would not win reputation with any by flattering them in their mistakes or unwarrantable ways. He used not to serve God with that which cost him nothing, nor was of their mind who cannot expect or extol God’s grace without denying those endeavours of man to which his necessary grace exciteth them. He knew that without Christ we could do nothing, and yet that by Christ’s strengthening us we can do all things which God hath made necessary to be done by us. He was not of their mind that thought it derogatory to the honour of Christ to praise his works in the souls or lives of any of his servants, and that it is the honour of his grace that his justified ones are graceless; and that their Judge should dishonour his own righteousness if he make his disciples more righteous personally than scribes and pharisees, and will say to them, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.’ He knew how to regard the righteousness and intercession of Christ, with pardon of sin and divine acceptance, instead of legal personal perfection, without denying either the necessity or assigned office of our faith, repentance, or evangelical sincerity in obeying him that redeemed and justifieth us. He knew the difference between a man’s being justified from the charge of being liable to damnation as a Christless, impenitent unbeliever and ungodly, and being liable to damnation for mere sin as sin, against the law of innocency, which required of us no less than personal, perfect, perpetual 4obedience. He greatly lamented the wrong which the truth and church underwent from those that neither knew such differences, nor had humility enough to suspect their judgments, nor to forbear reviling those that had not as confused and unsound apprehensions and expressions as themselves.

But he hath finished his course, and is gone before us, and hath left here a dark, self-distracting world, and a church of such as Christ will perfect; but, alas! yet lamentably imperfect, as their errors, divisions, contentions, and scandals have these thirteen hundred years too publicly declared. Children of the light we are, while the world is in darkness; but, alas! yet how dim and clouded! With thousands it does not so much as convince them of their ignorance, nor maketh them humbly suspicious of an erring judgment; so that through the copulation of pride and ignorance, few cry out so loud of error as the erroneous, or of heresy as the heretical, or of schism as the schismatical; and false conceptions are so common among men, that I think with almost all mankind the number of false apprehensions in. comparison of the true ones is far greater than unhumbled understandings will easily believe; and yet, while mankind doth swarm with error, those that least know their own cry down even the toleration of that which, alas! we cannot cure; and if a multitude of errors must not be tolerated, I know not the person that must be tolerated. And who then be they that shall be the avengers of other men’s mistakes? Christ knew that none are so forward to reproach and so backward to bear with the motes in men’s eyes as they that have beams in their own.

Among such, what sort of men on earth hath more cried down, error, heresy, and schism, than the Papal tribe? Away with them, exterminate them, burn them, hath long been their cry, their laws and practice, little thinking how they are polluted with error, heresy, and schism themselves. The revived attempts of this consuming fiery spirit hath made those that dispose of Dr Manton’s papers take these against Popery as now most seasonable; and their plainness, suited to common capacities, may make them to many more useful than more argumentative disputations. They that would have such may see errors that are unanswerable (I should say unrefutable, for I find that men, and women too, can answer anything). I confess myself not thoroughly studied in these prophetical parts of the scriptures, and therefore none of the fittest to commend such writings, any further than they commend themselves. But I am hasting after this my dear departed brother to the world of light, where all divine mysteries are unveiled, and life, and light, and love are perfected; for which, even at the door, I am, though weak, a believing and desiring expectant.

Rich. Baxter.

July 8, 1679.