Thomas Manton on False Christians
Whole,
pure Christianity is not loved by false Christians; therefore, when
religion crosseth their interests and the bent of their lusts, they seek
to bring religion to their hearts, not their hearts to
religion.
~Thomas Manton
Temptations
from the world should the less prevail with us, because it is the whole
drift of religion to call us off from the world; so that if we be
baptized into the spirit of our religion, we should be quite of another
temper, not apt to be wrought upon by temptations of this kind. Do we
profess to believe in our crucified Lord? and what is the great effect
his death hath upon us? Gal i. 4. 'he
gave himself', that he might deliver us from the present evil world.'
Who have interest in him? 'They that are Christ's, have crucified the
flesh with the affections and lusts thereof,' Gal. v. 24. He doth not
say they are Christ's that believe he was crucified, or that he died for
sinners, but they that feel the power and efficacy of his death in
mortifying their sins. What! a christian, and so worldly? a christian,
and so vain and frothy? It is a contradiction. You that are carried out
after the pomp and vanities of the world, do you believe in Christ,
whose kingdom is not of this world? False christians are branded: 1 John
iv. 5, 'They are of the world, and speak of the world, and the world
heareth them;' they are engulfed in the world, and they would fain draw
others to be as bad as themselves.
~Thomas Manton
We
are bound to a profession, not in word only, but in deed; to a suitable
walking or to glorify Christ. He is not a professor whose life is not a
hymn to God. Actions are the best image of our thoughts. A man may
destroy his profession by his conversation: Titus i. 16, 'They profess
they know God, but in their works they deny him.' Experience teacheth us
that a man may profess a religion which he
doth abhor; though they know God, they do not love him, and live to
him, and they are not really and seriously what they nominally profess
to be. An unclean person is a votary to Priapus; a drunkard to Bacchus;
not a disciple of Christ. An earthly sensual worldling cloth in his life
say that the alcoran is better than the gospel; a merciless man is
worse than an infidel, and hath denied the faith, 1 Tim. v. 8.
Interpretative circumcision is turned into uncircumcision, Rom. ii. 25 ;
and Jer. ix. 25, 26, 'I will punish all them which are circumcised with
the uncircumcised, &c. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and
all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.' Uncircumcised in
heart have a pagan heart. Certainly a man that is obliged to the
profession is obliged to the duties which the profession calleth for.
What! profess yourselves to be christians, and live loosely? This is to
be called christians in opprobrium Christi, to the reproach of Christ. A
christian and a worldling! a christian and a sensualist! it is as great
a contradiction as to say a christian and an infidel. Profession
includeth holy practice as well as verbal acknowledgment. There is a
practical blasphemy: Rev. ii. 9, '-I know the blasphemy of them that say
they are Jews, and are not.' You blaspheme when you worship, and you
make Christ a patron of your sin: Ps. 1. 10, 17, 'But to 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
instruction, and castest my words behind thee?' Every sacrament is an
aggravation of your unfaithfulness, and so doth not profit, but hurt
you. Baptism, though not renounced, is forgotten, when we live as if we
were in league with the devil, the world, and the flesh: 2 Peter i. 9,
'Hath forgotten that he was purged-from his old sins.' Better that
scalding lead and oil had been poured upon them than the water of
baptism. So for the Lord's supper: 1 Cor. xi. 27, 'Whosoever shall eat
this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty
of the body and blood of the Lord;' and Heb. x. 29, 'Of how much sorer
punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the
Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was
sanctified an unholy thing?' Well, then, they are as bad as infidels,
yea, worse than infidels, 1 Tim. v. viii. To be brought up in princes
courts, and yet to be of clownish behaviour, aggravates the
crime.
~Thomas Manton
Though
they profess Christianity, carnal, worldly hypocrites, which never
conquered the fleshly mind and interest, have the spirit of Antichrist;
these obscure the light, and obstruct the life and love of the
gospel—they that wholly affect a life of pomp and ease in the church.
Now, this hath always been in all the ages. The false Christians forget
their hopes are built upon a crucified Christ, and
are to be derived to them from a glorified Christ in the other
world—crucified in this world and glorified in the next,—which indeed
are the two considerations that keep Christianity pure and lively; that
all was purchased by a crucified Christ, and all is dispensed by a
glorified Christ; and I wish you would oftener think of it.
~Thomas
Manton
'The
king's daughter is glorious within,' rich in gifts and graces, Ps. xlv.
13; Ps. xciii. 5, 'Holiness becometh thy house, O Lord, for ever;' but
the false church is known by pomp and external splendour. It is easy to
discern the true ministers of Christ from the false; the true are known
by being much in labours, much in afflictions: 2 Cor. vi. 4-6, 'In all
things approving ourselves the ministers
of God, in much patience, afflictions, necessities, distresses, in
labours and watchings, and fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by
long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,'
&c.; whereas the false ministers are known by the life of pomp and
ease. The rule is plain, because self-denial is one of the great lessons
of Christianity, and self-seeking the bane of it: therefore where men
professedly seek the greatness of the world, they serve not the Lord
Jesus Christ, but their own bellies.
~Thomas Manton
