Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Ver. 22. Many will say to me in that day, &c.] That day of judgment, by an appellative proper called "that day," or at the day of death; for every man's death's day is his doom's day, Hebrews 9:27; Then they shall come bouncing at heaven's gates with "Lord, Lord, open unto us," and make no other reckoning but to enter with the first, which shows that a hypocrite may live and die in self-delusion, and miss heaven in the height of his hopes. He hanged them upon nothing (as God hath hanged the earth, Job 26:7); they prove unto him, therefore, as the giving up of the ghost, which is but cold comfort, and serve him no better than Absalom's mule did her master in his greatest need. "What," saith Job, "is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained much, when God shall take away his soul? will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him?" Job 27:8,9. Will his crying, Lord, Lord, rescue him in the day of wrath? No, no. God will pour upon him, and not spare, "fire and brimstone, storm and tempest; this shall be the portion of his cup." The just execution of that terrible commination,Revelation 3:16, shall certainly crush his heart with everlasting horror, confusion, and woe. Oh that this truth were thoroughly thought on and believed! but men are wondrously apt to deceive themselves in point of salvation. Therefore doth the apostle so often premise, "Be not deceived," When he reckoneth up reprobates, 1 Corinthians 6:9; Ephesians 5:6, &c. Themselves they may deceive, and others, but "God is not mocked." Balaam seems, by his words and wishes, a friend to Israel; yet he is so far from inheriting with them, that he is destroyed by them. This will be the portion of hypocrites from the Lord. If their hearts be not upright with him, he will never give them his hand, no, though they follow him as close as Jehonadab did Jehu, 2 Kings 10:15. Their hopes shall fail them when at highest; as Esau's did, returning from his venison.
Have we not prophesied in thy name?] A man may preach profitably to others, and yet himself be a castaway, 1 Corinthians 9:27. Pendleton confirmed Saunders, and afterwards turned tippet himself. Harding, a little before King Edward VI died, was heard openly in his sermons in London to exhort the people with great vehemence after this sort, That if trouble came, they should never shrink from the true doctrine of the gospel which they had received, but take it rather for a trial sent by God to prove them whether they would abide by it or no. All which to be true, saith Mr Fox, they can testify that heard him, and are yet alive; who also foreseeing the plague to come, were then much confirmed by his words. In Queen Mary's days he turned apostate, and so continued, notwithstanding an excellent letter of the Lady Jane Dudley, written to him while he was prisoner; wherein she stirs him up to "remember the horrible history of Julian of old, and the lamentable case of Spira of late, and so to return to Christ, who now stretcheth out (saith she) his arms to receive you, ready to fall upon your neck and kiss you, and last of all to feast you with the dainties and delicacies of his own precious blood: which undoubtedly, if it might stand with his determinate purpose, he would not let to shed again rather than you should be lost." And so she goes on most sweetly: sed surdo fabulam, she lost her sweet words. As likewise did William Wolsey, the martyr, upon Denton the smith of Wells in Cambridgeshire; and some others, upon Mr West, chaplain to Bishop Ridley, who refusing to die in Christ's cause with his master, said mass against his conscience. Bishop Latimer, in a sermon before King Edward, tells of one who fell away from the known truth, and became a scorner of it, yet was afterward touched in conscience for the same. Beware of this sin, saith he, for I have known no more but this that repented. Joannes Speiserus, Doctor of Divinity, and preacher at Augsburg in Germany, A.D. 1523, began to teach the truth of the gospel, and did it so effectually, that various common harlots were converted, and betook themselves to a better course of life. (Scultet. Annul. p. 118.) But he afterwards revolted again to the Papists, and came to a miserable end. The like is reported of Brisonettus, Bishop of Melda, a town of France, 10 miles from Paris. And who doubts but Judas the traitor was a great preacher, a caster out of devils, and doer of many great works in Christ's name, as well as other of the disciples Nicodemus was nothing to him. He (saith one) was a night professor only, but Judas in the sight of all. He was a slow scholar, Judas a forward preacher. Yet at last, when Judas betrayed Christ in the night, Nicodemus faithfully professed him in the day. Therefore will Christ confess him before God, angels, and men, when Judas shall hear, Avaunt, thou worker of iniquity, I know thee not. Neronis (Quantus artifex pereo?) quadrabit in te peritum et periturum. Secleat in labris suada, sed et fibris gratia; quae sola vere flexanima suada, et medulla suadae penetrantissima. Summopere cavendum divino praeconi, ne dicta, factis deficientibus, erubescant. Let not the preacher give himself the lie, by a life unsuitable to his sermons.
And in thy name have done many wonderful works] By a faith of miracles, whereby a man may remove mountains, and yet miscarry, 1 Corinthians 13:2. And here such as work wonders may deceive themselves in the main point of their own salvation; how much more may they deceive others in this or that particular point of doctrine? The coming of Antichrist is after the "working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish," 2 Thessalonians 2:9,10. Lying wonders they are called in regard not only of the end, which is to deceive, but of the substance; for the devil cannot do a true miracle, which is ever beside and against nature and second causes; such as whereof there can be no natural reason possibly rendered, no, though it be hidden from us. The devil, I say, cannot do a miracle. He may do magic and cast a mist. St Jerome writes, that a certain damsel was brought to Macarius by her father, who complained that his daughter was by witchcraft turned into a mare. Macarius answered, that he could see no such thing in her, nothing but human shape, and that their eyes, that thought and said so, were blinded by Satan, wherefore turning himself to prayer, he obtained, that the mist might be removed from the parents' eyes, and then they saw their mistake. The like is reported of Mr Tyndale the martyr, that being at Antwerp among a company of merchants, he hindered, by his presence and prayers, a certain magician, that he could not play his feats; so that he was compelled openly to confess that there was some man there at supper that disturbed and hindered all his doings. So that a man even in the martyrs of these days (saith Mr Fox) cannot lack the miracles of true faith, if they were to be desired. O ye Papists (said Bainham, in the midst of the flame), behold, you look for miracles: here now you may see a miracle; for in this fire I feel no more pain than if I were in a bed of down; it is to me as a bed of roses. But the devil is ashamed (saith Gretser the Jesuit) to confirm Luther's doctrine with miracles. a We could tell him and his fellows, of Myconius recovered out of a desperate disease by Luther's prayers, which Myconius acknowledged for a miracle to his dying day. And of another young man of Wittenberg that had sold himself to the devil, body and soul, for money, and sealed the obligation with his own blood, but was delivered by Luther's prayers out of the danger of the devil, who was compelled (saith Mr Fox) at last to throw in the obligation at the window, and bade the young man take it unto him again. But he that now requireth miracles for the confirmation of his faith, is himself a great miracle, saith Austin. b Manna ceased when they came into Canaan; as if it would say, Ye need no miracles now you have means. The wonderful preservation of Luther, that man of God, amidst so many potent enemies, the publishing and carrying of his doctrine, in the space of a month, throughout all Germany and some foreign countries, as it were upon angels' wings, c the establishing of the Reformation to be done by so weak and simple means, yea, by casual and cross means, against the force of so puissant and public an adversary, this is that miracle which we are in these times to look for.
a Prudet diabolum Lutheri doctrinam miraculis confirmare. Melch. Adam. in Vita Lutheri.
b Qui adhue prodigia ut credat, inquirit, magnum est ipse prodigium. Aug.
c Evangelium tam celeri volatu ferebatur et quidem spatio menstruo per universam Germaniam, et aliquot regiones exteras, ut ipsi angeli cursores, &c. Melch. Adam. in Vita Myconii.