And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
Ver. 12. And because iniquity shall abound] In these last and worst times, as Bernard yoketh them, and as the Scripture often describeth them. There was never but one Noah, that with two faces saw both before and behind him. But, lo, that ancient of days, to whom all times are present, hath told us that the last shall be the loosest, the dregs of time, the sink of sins of all former ages.
The love of many shall wax cold] Conversation with cold ones will cast a dampness, and will make one cold, as our Saviour here intimates; there is no small danger of defection, if not of infection by such; they are notable quench coals. This both David and Isaiah found, and therefore cried out each for himself, "Woe is me," Psalms 120:5; Isaiah 6:5. There is a compulsive power in company to do as they do, Galatians 2:14; "Why compellest thou," &c. It behoveth us therefore to beware upon whom the ends of the world are come, lest we suffer a decay, lest leaving our first love, and led away with the error of the wicked, we fall from our former steadfastness,Revelation 2:5; 2 Peter 3:17. The world, saith Ludolfus (De Vita Christi, ii. 87), hath been once destroyed with water for the heat of lust, and shall be again with fire for the coldness of love. Latimer saw so much lack of love to God and goodness in his time, that he thought verily doomsday was then just at hand. What would he have thought had he lived in our age, wherein it were far easier to write a book of apostates than a book of martyrs?