Dear All,
Reading through 2Thessalonians I came across three sermons by Thomas Manton, a Puritan minister from the time of Cromwell. These are precise and very short, but deep. Most people scan a sermon and don't bother reading the scripture references, thinking that they are getting the point just by reading the bullet points. This is a great disservice to your soul, as scriptures are the work of the Holy Spirit, and it is scripture that leads you into all truth. As you read a Manton sermon, reference the scriptures. You will find a depth there that truly edifies.
As for Manton himself, no greater recommendation could be stated than that of Charles Spurgeon,
'I have come to know him so well that I could choose him out from among a thousand divines if he were again to put on his portly form, and display among modern men that countenance wherein was a 'great mixture of majesty and meekness.' His works occupy twenty-two volumes in the Victorian reprint: a mighty mountain of sound theology. They mostly consist of sermons; but what sermons! They are not so sparkling as those of Henry Smith, nor so profound as those of Owen, nor so rhetorical as those of Howe, or so pithy as those of Watson, nor so fascinating as those of Brooks; and yet they are second to none of these. For solid, sensible instruction forcibly delivered they cannot be surpassed. Manton is not brilliant, but he is always clear; he is not oratorical, but he is powerful; he is not striking, but he is deep. There is not a poor discourse in the whole collection: he is evenly good, constantly excellent. Ministers who do not know Manton need not wonder if they are themselves unknown.' — CHARLES SPURGEON
God Bless,
~Al
Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; 2Th 1:6
I. The justice of God.
1. Justice is God's attribute as Governor. It is twofold.
(1) General—the perfection of the Divine nature. This is the same with His holiness. God loves righteousness and hates iniquity necessarily (Psa 5:4; Zec 3:5).
(2) Particular which respects His office as Judge of the world (Deu 32:4).
2. Of His government there are two acts.
(1) Legislative justice, which determines man's duty, binds him to the performance and defines the rewards and punishments which shall be due upon man's obedience and disobedience (Deu 30:15).
(2) Judiciary or distributive justice, whereby He renders to all men according to their works (Rom 2:6; 1Pe 1:17). This is twofold.
(a) Rewarding (Heb 6:10; 2Ti 4:8).
(b) Vindictive or punishing (Rom 2:7-9; Joh 3:19; Heb 10:29).
3. This distributive justice is exercised.
(1) More darkly here: yet even here the wicked are punished and the righteous rewarded (Rom 1:18; Psa 58:11).
(2) More plainly hereafter (Rom 2:5). The difference between the last time and this is—
(a) That the righteous and the wicked have but the beginnings of their reward and punishment: the wicked inwardly (Heb 2:15; Eph 4:19; Psa 81:12) and even outwardly, as witness the fall of nations, and the sudden and otherwise unaccountable destruction of individuals; so the righteous have inwardly much of his love, peace, etc.; and outwardly the wicked have it not all their own way (Mal 3:17-18).
(b) God's justice now appears more negatively than positively, i.e., God does nothing contrary to justice. As to His rewards His servants have deserved nothing which they enjoy; and as to His restraint of due punishment it is to bring the sinner to repentance.
II. This justice as applied to the different recompenses.
1. "Tribulation to them that trouble you" for a double reason.
(1) Their own disobedience to God's laws (Rom 2:8).
(2) Their opposition to those that would obey God, so consenting with the devil in his apostasy (Mat 23:13; Mat 24:49).
2. "To you who are troubled rest." How is this just? Things may be said to be righteous with God.
(1) In respect of strict justice when what is done deserves reward by its intrinsic value. So no obedience of man or angel can bind God to reward it.
(2) In respect of His bounty God is just. When He rewards man because he is in some way righteous. This capacity of reward respects either the righteousness of Christ (Rom 3:25-26), or the difference between the person recompensed and others. General justice requires that He should put a difference between the godly and the wicked (Psa 11:7).
(3) In respect of His promise (1Jn 1:9).
3. Particularly discuss these two effects.
(1) The troublers are to be troubled (Rom 2:9). The law of retaliation operates often in the course of providence (Jdg 1:7; Oba 1:5). Ahab's blood was lapped up by dogs where Naboth was murdered. Haman was executed on the gallows he had erected for Mordecai. Henry III of France was killed in the chamber where the massacre was contrived; and Charles IX died flowing in his blood in his bed. The rich glutton wanted a drop who gave not a crumb.
(2) The troubled rest—and the rest in proportion to the trouble.
(T. Manton, D. D.)
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