Thomas Adams, from the year 1633, a commentary on 2 Peter, chapter 3, verse 3, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts. The main scope of the apostle both in the latter part of the former chapter, the beginning of this, and a connection of both, is to caution his converts of relapsing into those sins which they are redeemed by the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The strong bulwark he has fortified against all the battery of the world and assaults of Satan by many arguments. First, by discovering the policies and felonies of seducers, those fatal engines of hell, set to bring back escaped souls to the kingdom of darkness, chapter 2, verse 18. Secondly, by the miserable deceit of those that are perverted by them, who leave in the true liberty which they counted a bondage, verse 19, fall into the true bondage which they vainly count liberty. So of God's servants, they become Satan's slaves and sins, drudges. Thirdly, by the exorable event of this apostasy in which they become besotted men, entangled birds, polluted beasts, incarnate devils, and so on. Fourthly, by redoubling his epistles to inculcate and drive this holy nail of admonition into their minds, chapter three, verse one, that they may never forget the wretched estate from which they are delivered. Fifthly, by way of encouragement, comforting them in the benefit of their happy progress, wherein if they persevere with steady faithfulness, therein shall be everlasting life. Verse 2. Sixthly and lastly, by preventing a scandal and removing a block. which the malicious spirit might lay in their ways, the atheistical impiety of many in the latter times, who both by their mouths and manners, persuasions and examples call Christianity into question and start doubting whether there is a God or not, verse three. Nor do they only dispute this by way of problem, but are impudent and audacious in the negative and labor to destroy all opinion of that deity in the world, which made both the world and them. This then, being the main center, the pole, and cardinal axel tree, whereon this place moves, I will in general say a little of it. First, what man has so steadily tread on God's earth, that he is not stumbled, or stumbled and not fallen, yea, fallen and is not laying some space on the ground. With what a trembling heart may we look upon the miscarriages of some of God's dearest servants. Noah and Lot, by wine, David and Samson, by women, and Solomon worst of all. Who can do other than yearn and fear to see the woeful wreck of so rich and goodly a vessel? Yet even as Solomon fell into a foul defection, which of us can hope to aspire to his graces? Which of us can promise to secure ourselves from his ruin? We fall even to the lowest hell if God do not prevent us, if he does not sustain us. Uphold me according to thy word that I may live. Psalm 119 verse 116. All our weakness is in ourselves, all our strength. in God. Let the Lord be strong in our weakness, that our weak knees may be ever steady in His strength. If we fall from our God, as Mephibosheth from his nurse, we presently grow lame. If these holy ones fell, we have cause to look to our standing. Secondly, sin has a thousand tongues to plead for it. God has lent me a weak one to plead against it. Let us think thus when we are tempted to sin that we are now about to lose our God. To cast away all the hopes and comforts of another world. To rob ourselves of all those sweet mercies we enjoyed. To thrust the spirit out of the doors which cannot abide. To dwell within the noisome stench of our sins. to lock ourselves out of the gates of heaven, to open the gates of hell, and cast ourselves down headlong into that dungeon. But as they that fear the Lord will not from this mercy fetch mantra of presumption, so if any presume, let them hear their correction. The justice of God is inseparable from his love. There are rods for the backs of sinners, though they be the children of his own fatherhood. All their devout penance cannot avoid temporal punishments. No child could be whipped if he might escape for crying. Nothing but love and peace sounded in the name of Solomon. Nothing else was found in his reign while he held in good terms with God. But when once he fell foul with his maker, all things began to be troubled, and he found many enemies. God that put away David's sin, even his adultery, closed with murder upon his penitence, did not yet forbear to strike him. not only in the death of his misbegotten infant, but in the ruin of his children that nearer concerned him. When this great humiliation he sought for pardon, Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lust. Here first we have to observe the contrary dispositions of a number of men. We heard of some of them in the first verse that seek the Lord with a pure heart and follow his word with their best endeavor of sincerity and sincerity of endeavor. Now we are fallen upon those that with a foul and rancorous mind do right all goodness, and load religion with disgraces. Then we camped in Elim, a place of water and palm trees. Now we are come to a wilderness of briars and brambles. Then we lay in a sweet harbor of comfortable meditation. Now we are put into the ocean of rocks and pirates and boisterous waves. Where is a good Christian man laughed at but where the profane finds indulgence? Why does the world seek more to rich men than to wise men? The philosopher could answer, because it is possible for them to be rich, never to be wise. Why are holy men depressed and the irreligious honored? Because men like a liking to be licentious, but to be holy is none of their purpose. Nobody hates an Israelite, but an Egyptian or a Canaanite. Put fire to fire, or water to water, there is no commotion. But put water to fire, and then you have a thundering coil. When riotous men meet, there is a shaking of hands, but the temperate cannot pass by without a scorn. Number two, this is a reason why the good and virtuous be always opposed and exposed to the fury and malice of cruel men. It is indeed a wonderful thing, but not a new thing. It was so from the beginning. As in, he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit. Even so, is it now. Galatians 4, 29. No sinner was God worshipped and served, but hatred and spite fell to the portion and lot of religion. The first man that offered a better sacrifice was slain. The acceptable sacrifice was a seminary of death. Who would think that brethren, and but two brethren, should not love each other? Dispersed love grows weak and paucity of objects uses to unite affections. If but two brothers be left alive of many, they think that the love of all the rest should survive in them. that the beams of their affection should be so much the hotter because they reflect mutually in a right line upon each other. Yet behold, there were but two brothers in a world and one is a butcher of the other. Who can wonder at dissension among thousands of brethren that sees so deadly opposition between two, the first roots of brotherhood? Who can hope to live peaceably, securely among so many canes, when he sees one cane the death of one able? It can be no other wise. Dissimilitude and distance of manners breeds alienation of affections. There is nothing doth so condemn the lives of the wicked as the exemplary conversation of the godly. The fat kind make the lean seem more ill-favored. SCOFFERS The depth of sin is the chair of the scorners, Psalm 1, verse 2. They are set down in the resolute contempt of all goodness. Of these there be two sorts and degrees, first the despisers of them that are good, 2 Timothy 3, 3, then the despisers of goodness itself. For the former, the saints of God have complained of them in all ages. David of his busy mockers, the abjects jeered him. Job was disdained of those children whose fathers he would have scorned to sit with the dogs of his flock. Job 30 verse 1, Joseph was nicknamed a dreamer, Paul, a babbler, Christ himself a Samaritan, and with intent of disgrace, a carpenter. Labanius asked a Christian what his master the carpenter was a doing whom he answered he is making a coffin for your master Julian And this is a higher degree of wickedness to scoff at religion itself I have heard of some desperate patients that have jeered at their physicians. But death is too mild a punishment for them that scoff at all medicine. The wretched gurgisines repelled Christ for fear. They are worse that drive him away with scorn. If Christ will be ashamed of them when he comes to judge that were ashamed of him when he came to suffer, how will he reject those with indignation that rejected him with derision? You have set my counsel at naught, therefore I will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear comes. Proverbs 1 25 and 26 The children of God must be content to receive taunts from their father's enemies. We would hardly endure wounds if we cannot brook words for the cause of our Savior. When he was reviled, he reviled not again, 1 Timothy 2, 23. This is his patience for us. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and so on, Matthew 5, 44. This should be our patience for him. It is enough to quiet us that all the disgrace that's done to us read down to him. He that despises you despises me. Saul, thou persecutest me. He that takes a cause from us to himself will not resign the revenge from himself to us. Let them bellow with their mouths, and gore with their horns, yet neither the roaring of their bulls nor the licking of their calves must intercool the fervor of our sincerity. The blind world in these former times made it a capital crime and loaded it with reproaches for any man to call himself a Christian, yet the faithful did not give over the name. This sect is everywhere spoken again, Acts 28, 22, like marks in the butt at which every fool shot his bolt. Yet, as David said, I will be more vile than thus, and base in my own sight. This very abasement is heroical, and the only way to true glory is not to be ashamed of our lowest humiliation to God. Yea, the honor of such shall break forth in the midst of their contempt, and find a secret reverence even where they have outward indignities. The hearts of men are not their own. He that made them will overrule them to honor those that honor their maker. And if they do not, yet God will honor them to their shame. As David's lowliness blessed his house, while McCall's scorn brought a curse upon herself. When they arise, let them be ashamed, but let thy servants rejoice. Psalm 109, 28. God crown that head with honor, which the boys of Bethel would needs cover with shame and supply the want of hairs with reproaches. The enemies of Christianity scoff at us. God laughs at them. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Psalm 2 verse 4. Laugh? This seems a hard word at the first view. Are the injuries of his saints, the cruelties of their enemies, the derision, the persecution of all that are round about us no more but matter of laughter? According to our capacities, the prophet describes God Ourselves would be in a merry disposition Deriding vain attempts he laughs, but it is in scorn he scorns, but it is with vengeance Pharaoh imagined that by drowning the Israelite males he had found a way to root their name from the earth But when at the same time his own daughter in his own court gave princely education to Moses their deliverer did not God laugh and Julian, rearing up the Jewish ceremonies projected to supplant the new religion by the old, and therefore would be at the cost to build up the temple again. But when from under the foundation, as from the hill of Zuffius, flaming fire break forth and dissolved all his works, did not the Lord smile? The Philistines surprised the Ark of God and carried it away, thus far there suffered to laugh and triumph. But when their idol Dagon fell down to do it reverence, when the Philistines were sore tormented with sickness that they were feigned to restore their pilfer with shame, did not God smile? When superstition and idolatry were re-advanced in England by Queen Mary, how did the Papists mock and scoff at true believers? Yea, when they had only mocked us out of our credits and not out of our lives. But when five years shall determine all that bloody persecution, did not God laugh at all their bonners and butchers? Short is the joy of the wicked. Is Dagon put up to his place again? God's smile shall take off his head and his hands and leave him neither wit to guide nor power to subsist. How did our enemy swallow an invincible hope to swallow us up with their invincible navy? But when the winds and seas, fire and water, fought against them, did not the Lord laugh them to scorn? He sees and laughs. And what are his frowns if his smiles are so terrible? Let us never be too busy in washing false suspicions. Too earnest diligence puts a suspicion of guiltiness into the cause. It is enough to say with David, Lord, thou knowest mine innocency. Here is a character of profane persons. They are called profane first, that are not entered into the church, whose unhappiness is to be without. Secondly, that are entered but conform not themselves to the doctrine of godliness. It is good indeed to be within, for in our Father's house is bread enough. Out of the circle of the church reigns nothing but fire and brimstone. We see the state of the world in these contrary conditions of mankind. Some seek the Lord. Others mock them for their labor. Some are fearful to sin. Others scoff at all goodness. Some are the friends of Christ, and they must look for all the rest to be their enemies. This world is a sea, and they that serve the Lord are in a ship of peace. But if we look up, we shall presently see a man of war, and then we must be for war too. There are two ships under sail, a pirate and a merchant. We must prepare for a skirmish. The galley that has our penance and chase is a piracy of hell, the synagogue of Satan. Her name is persecution, a hot ship and full of wildfire. In which the devil is master, Malice, the master's mate. Hypocrisy, the boatsman, Covetousness, the purser, Lust, the swabber of the deck, Fury, the ship's gunner, And sedition, the ship's trumpeter, Vices are the ship's cells, The wisdom of the flesh, the card, The mystery of iniquity, the ship's compass, Atheists, scoffers, Profane, all the rabble of hell are the mariners. She has too tire of ordinance planted in her. Heresy and irreligion. She is either for a false god or no god. And these spitfire smokes shot and sulfur against all that worship the lamb or fight under the instant of faith. The flag at the top of the ship is infidelity. There is no God, but gain is its motto. We may see her parallel in the prophet Ezekiel 27.5. She has her choice materials out of all kingdoms, especially her ballast from Turkey and her tackling from Rome. Antichrist is her steersman or pilot and steers her course. Thus she goes swiftly, proudly, securely, scorning and scoffing at all oppositions. But her worth is she has no anchor. So when the storms of God's wrath arise, down she sinks to desperation and perishes. walking after their own lusts. All this their scorn of religion is but to maintain their lusts. Did not the gospel cross their sins, it would not cross the gospel. To be carnally minded is death, Romans 8, 6. This troubles them. Death is the end of sin, though not the end of a sinner. A wicked man sins not purposely that he might be damned. but damnation follows his wickedness. Not seldom do we seek for one thing and find another, as Saul sought asses and found a kingdom, as Absalom sought a kingdom and found the gallows. The adulterer in his sin seeks pleasure, the covetous riches, but they find another thing, that is death. The Word of God sets down the wages of sin and ties punishment to it as an inseparable effect to the cause. Because they cannot dissolve this knot, they fly upon the Word itself. through the sides of the law, wound the name of the lawmaker with reproach. As thieves it would put out all the light that in the dark they might more securely ransack the house. The conscience that is guilty of flagigious crimes could wish the heavens blind, as knowing that they look upon unlawful things with sore eyes. Why did the Catholic Church hang padlocks upon the Bible but that they might, uncensored, walk after their own lusts? Why, but that their lusts might be laws, and those laws guide the lusts of the people. So the very sins of teachers become rules to their scholars. If Paul preaches, Demetrius roars. Of all professions, the ministry is in this the unhappiest, because we fight against those sins which men love better than their own souls. The covetous Pharisees derided Christ's sermon against covetousness. Luke 16 14 as a tyrant demolishes all the forts in his dominions That the right ear of the crown may find no refuge of defense So his own will may have the full swing without means of resistance profane libertines could wish that all preachers had caught an everlasting cold and that they might carry away those sins without reproof, which they have perpetrated without shame. Every evil man has lusts of his own, which he is resolute to maintain as a father to keep his own children. It is easy for men to dislike lust, not their own, to condemn another man's sins. But our own lusts are dear to us. What wonder is it if a dumb man be no swearer, a eunuch, no adulterer, a beggar, no broker? Where is no assault, there can be no victory. I am not as other men are, saith the Pharisee, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as a republican. No extortioner, it may be so. What if he were so rich that he need not to be, or so poor that he could not oppress, or so base that no man would trust him? Why does a rich man need to be a thief? Not unjust, it may be so too. His privateness might exempt him. How should he fail in doing justice that never had an act of justice to do? There is a variety of lusts, and that old experienced fisher of souls has more baits than one. For a hypocrite to decline upon randing, rambling, swaggering garments, and revels, it is no wonder. He has another kind of lust, to make the end of his religion the advancement of his own ends, and to cheat them is a saint that would defy him as a devil. This is the desire of his lust. He deals with his conscience as the onward husband did with his wife. He speaks her fair and makes much of her abroad, but he cudgels her in private at home. The dissolute person thinks to justify himself. I am none of those that rel at church government, that will not suffer a spoonful of aqua vitae to be sold on the Sabbath. though it should save a sick man's life, that will run two miles to a sermon, as if there was no other way to hell but hypocrisy. He that never kept the Sabbath himself, why does he care to keep others from breaking it, or to go two miles to a sermon that would rather go twenty another way? Though there are several lusts in several men, and these quarrel and fight one against another, yet they all conspire against goodness. Edom and Ishmael, Moab and the Hagarines, Shebaal and Ammon, Amalek and the Philistines, the men of Tyre and Assur, all had several gods, yet all conspire against the true God. Fleshly lusts fight against the soul, 1 Peter 2.11. One lust fights against another, but both against your soul. They make one soul fight against another, and many souls fight against God. All men have lusts, but all do not walk after them. We may as well find life in a man's body without a soul, as a soul in that body without lust. Nor do I mean only natural lust that was given by creation, but even sinful lust that comes by corruption. For as we were conceived in sin, so we can of ourselves conceive nothing but sin. And this lust sticks a defilement upon our best works. Not that in the regenerate it makes them wholly sinful, but it does make them defective. Indeed, still the old serpent will hiss, often touch us, and frighten us. But blessed be God, our fear is more than our hurt, for it cannot condemn us. The sting is out. Christ has condemned sin in the flesh. Romans 8, 3. All sin, whatsoever had any consideration of sin, original with the fruit of it, which is actual, and both these with the effect, which is condemnation. He did cast lust out of his office. Verse four, and saying, where's the promise of his coming? For since the father fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. Religion has two extremes, both mortal enemies to her, superstition and atheism. The former will worship God her own way. The other will acknowledge no God to worship anyway. It is hard to say which of these is the worse, either to the owners or to their neighbors or to the Lord himself. Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to his reputation, all which are some kind of guides to moral virtue, though religion were not. But superstition dismounts all, and prescribes a law to itself, a form of worship, which if God will not accept, he shall have no obedience at all. So instead of a kingdom, it erects an absolute tyranny in the mind. From hence it comes that no pagans have been worse to Christians than papists, their superstition allowing that villainy which your religion would not admit. We never read among the heathens so horrible and hideous a treason as a powder plot in England, attempted by them that profess a true God, but by a false worship. There is no epicure of old or present atheist, but he would rather be what he is than a Christian. It is a great deal less mischief that the lack of all religion should deface men's understanding. than that any religion should spoil them of piety and charity, when reason shall only be retained as an engine or chariot driver of malice and most bloody cruelty. There is no such atheist as a devout hypocrite, a pious imposter. There would never be a devil left in hell, rather than his bosom should lack guests and supply. Atheism is commonly confined to a man's own breast, and rages within its own world, because it knows its own weakness, to prevail against the universal tenet. But superstition is like a ball of snow. that greatens itself by rolling. Never any nation was, which, given over to atheism, some god they acknowledged, though they could not light on the true. But superstition has been an epidemical plague, leaving none uninfected. Atheism did never disturb a state, but contracted itself with civility and subordinate obedience. But superstition has always made up roars and even the confusion of countries. Atheism has taught men to be wary of themselves. They that expect no life after this will make as much of this as they can, and therefore avoid quarrels that may trouble their peace and enormities that may shorten their lives. Therefore the times inclined to atheism as in the days of Augustus Caesar were civil times. But superstition brings in a new method that ravishes all the spheres of government into disorder. As custom is a master of ceremony, so the master of superstition is the people. Atheism would have no god. Superstition, a mean god. The one would pluck him out of his throne. The other would share with him in his throne. The one does him treachery. the other contumely, but both. Injury. The philosopher could tell there is a God and that he is to be worshipped, but the true nature of God and how to be worshipped he can never demonstrate. Yet it is wonderful that they went not thus far as to consider that if there be only one God and He to be worshipped, they did not examine the rules in which He commands Himself to be worshipped, seeing it is folly to acknowledge the King our Sovereign and contemn His laws. What is this but to reproach the Deity when we know His precepts, yet refuse Him and follow our own fancies? In this verse is, first, a challenge. Where is a promise of His coming? Secondly, a defiance. All things continue as they were. Why are good men hated? Why are they afflicted? Why do they go mourning all the day, eating the bread of sorrow and mingling their drink with tears? Why does not the current of honor and opulency run by their doors? Why are they not the treasure of princes, the jewels of kingdoms, the favorites of all men? What should be denied them, whom God loves? Be it answered, the time is not yet. Pleasure and joy and peace are coming to them, but only with the coming of Christ. Shall man say to God in the midst of his distresses, Lord, is this your justice? He will answer, O man, is this your faith? Thus argue these atheists. If God be so wise and just in governing the world and bear such love to his own, why does he allow them to be triumphed over? Either he would deliver them and cannot, or he can and will not, or he neither will nor can or both. If he would and cannot, then he is impotent and has not the power of a god. If he can and will not, then he is envious and lacks the love of a god. If he neither can nor will, then he is so far from being a god that he comes short of a man. If he both will and can, why is it not done? We answer that he both can and will and does deliver his chosen. He can at all times. He will at some times. He doth at the best and fittest times, most seasonable for his own glory and our blessedness. And then they that have denied and defied God in their bravery shall be cast down to endless calamity. When those despised and distressed souls that humbly acknowledged him on earth shall be acknowledged and glorified by him in heaven. They speak of a promise of his coming, but when does he come? Where is his promise? He said that he would come quickly. Yet it is 1,500 years ago, and he has not come. He spake of clouds and angels and a throne. We see none of all of these things. The clouds fly up and down with the wind, and are, as they were at first, angels. We see none, nor any thrones. But those wherein the monarchs of the earth seat themselves. He promised that the dead shall rise, and we never spake with any body that rose from the dead to confirm us in such an expectation. So why do the wicked here call it a promise? Not in respect of themselves, alas, they cannot apprehend it without terror and shaking in their joints. But they reflect this promise upon the good who look for a deliverance and a reward in that day. For if in this life only we had hope in Christ, we were of all men most miserable, 1 Corinthians 15, 19. To us it is a day of promise. To them, a day of combination. To us, the end of sorrows. To them, the beginning of them. Then we look that God should both wipe away all tears from our eyes and set their eyes a-running with tears forever. The object of our hope And of their fear is a day of universal retribution. All shall come forth, they that have done good, to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation. John 5.29 Woe to them when they desire the day of the Lord. To what end is it for them? The day of the Lord to them is darkness and not light, Amos 5.18. They say, Let him hasten his work, that we may see it. But they shall find it a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of desolation and darkness, Zephaniah 1.15, Joel 2.11. It is a day they will have small joy in, if horror, and amazedness, and pangs of conscience, and despair, and vengeance, and rejection from God, and condemning to hell can bring them any comfort, that shall be their portion. God's first coming to give the law, and his last coming to require the law, have a near similitude. There was lightning darted in their eyes, thunder roaring in their ears, the trumpet drowning the thunderclaps, the voice of God louder than the trumpet, Clouds and wrapping, smoke ascending, fire flaming, the mount trembling, Moses quaking, a terror in the heavens, an uproar in the elements, paleness and death on the face of Israel. How awful, how dreadful was his appearance. He delivers his law in the light of fire from out of the smoke. to teach them that he could find out their closet sins. They see fire above them to represent the fire that should be below them, that they might learn what is due to their sins. That they might know God could waken their security. The thunder and louder voice of God speaks through their ears to their hearts. That they might see what their heart should do that earthquakes under them. To assure them that there is no shifting of their appearance, the angel calls them together. O royal law, O mighty lawgiver, who can offend thee without terror? Now if his first coming was so terrible, what shall be his last? If the law was thus given, how shall it be required? If such were the proclamation of God's statutes, what shall the sessions be? What heart of adamant does not tremble at the resemblance? The trumpet of the angel called to the one. The voice of the archangel, the trumpet of God, shall summon us to the other. In that Mount Sinai only was on a flame, but here all the world shall be burned with fire. In both there are clouds, lightning, thunders, trumpets, fire. Only in this latter the stream of fire shall be more potent, patent, violent, dissolving the heavens and melting away the elements with the noise. Think, atheist, what pleasure you shall find in his coming. If God did on such a manner forbid sin, what is the vengeance he will inflict upon sinners? If he were so terrible a lawgiver, what a judge shall he appear? If the delivery of the law was little less than death, what death shall be the reward of the transgressors of it? It was given in a fire fearful enough, but shall be required in a fire more fearful. The fire in which it was delivered was but terrifying. The fire in which it shall be required is consuming. To us then, if we be true believers, belongs this promise of his coming. Christ's first coming was the expectation of nations. This next is the expectation of Christians. Look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draws nigh." Luke 21-28. Our eyes are still dropping in this valley of tears, but we look for the gracious beams of that sun of mercy that shall dry them up. No Jew did ever more earnestly wish for the Jubilee. No servant so desires the end of his years. No stranger so longs to be at home. No overladen soul so groans for ease. No soldier so heartily contends to have his wars determined with conquest, as the saints expect the promise of this coming of Jesus Christ. It is the strength of their hopes, the sweet object of their faith, in the midst of all sorrows, the comfort of their hearts, the heart of their comforts, the encouragement of their wearied spirits, the life of their encouraged souls, the continual period and shutting up of their prayers. Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. Amen.