ment to active exertion in the cause of Christ. The views of the Apostolical writers were remarkably vivid and distinct respecting the coming of Christ. It is perpetually brought forward by them, and we may see that in their lives and labours, it was attended with a most practical and holy influence. None were more devoted in their efforts to spread the gospel. Those therefore must be grievously mistaken who rest in the speculative part of this subject, and on whom it has the effect of hampering and crippling exertions to promote the advancement of his spiritual kingdom. Whatever be our views of the coming of Christ, as it is an infinitely desirable æra for the church, and since there are events previously to take place in the accomplishing of the number of God's elect, well may we labour by [155] means of Religious Societies thus to "hasten the coming of his kingdom." If he be speedily coming, surely we should desire to be found among those labouring to make the day of grace known before it be too late, (2 Cor. vi. 1, 2.) and hastening the coming of the day of God. 2 Peter iii. 12.

CHAPTER XI.

ON ANTICHRIST.

[156] It must always be a painful and distressing subject to a Christian, to have to dwell upon the apostacy of Christians, and the rising up in the Christian church of opposers and enemies to our Divine Redeemer. Phil. iii. 18. It is indeed an unspeakable mercy that God has given to his church such plain and full warning of these enemies, that his people may be effectually guarded, and their faith in his word greatly strengthened by such a clear display of Omniscience; and thence it becomes a duty to set forth this warning; but in doing so, may we have David's feeling, "Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because men keep not thy law." Psalm cxix. 136. May we be among those who sigh and who cry for all the abominations." Ezek. ix. 4.

Antichrist means an opposer of Christ. The name in the scriptures occurs only in the writings of St. John. He says, "It is the last time, and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but

they were not of us. [147] Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ. He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son." And again, "Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God; and this is that spirit of Antichrist whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already it is in the world." 1 John ii. 18, 22; iv. 3. Again, in his second epistle, verse 7, he says, "Many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an Antichrist.

That this is a matter of vast importance will be evident by the strength of the apostle's expressions. It may be gathered, I think, that there is a growing form of Antichrist, from the change of the apostle's expressions: a change which should lead us to tremble at the idea of in any way denying a future coming of our Lord to our world in the flesh. The remarkable variation in the 1st and 2nd epistle of John (not noticed in our translation) respecting Christ's coming in the flesh, seems to mark two stages of Antichrist. In the 1st epistle (iv. 3.) it is, every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus is come Cuore already come) is not of God, and this is that spirit of Antichrist, &c. In the 2nd epistle, verse 7, it is, many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come (PXOMOV is coming) in the flesh; this is the deceiver and the Antichrist. Denying the coming Saviour is one mark of the last Antichrist.

Mede first applies these predictions (fixing the date of the epistle previous to the destruction of Jerusalem) to those who should come in the name of Christ, saying, I am Christ, and the false prophets who rose before the destruction of Jerusalem, (Matt. xxiv. 5, 11.) and says, "John thence gathered that it was [158] the last times of the Jewish polity." He supposes him first to refer to Simon Magus as the first heretic, and then to Menander, Saturnius, Basilides, Carpocrates, Cerinthus,* &c. understanding by the name of Antichrist, not merely a single man, but an heretic faction; and many false prophets. "But," Mede says, "though I have thought that John, in these places, speaks of false prophets who corrupted the doctrine of Christ before the destruction of Jerusalem, yet may also that little sum of the doctrine of Antichrist, by which it is denied that Jesus is the Christ, be accommodated to that great Antichrist, who having substituted his saints as little Christs to be worshipped, by that denies that Jesus is the Christ, as they who worship many gods, deny that Jehovah is God. Even from this epistle (v. 21.) something like this may be collected: for * Sir Isaac Newton takes the same view. See his Observations, p. 256.

when he had said of Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life, he immediately adds, little children keep yourselves from idols, intimating a fatal future afterwards, that Christians should worship idols in the place of Christ, that is, false Christs and saints as mediators."

It will be observed that our Lord, at a later period of his discourse respecting his coming, says, "there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible, they should deceive the very elect. Matthew xxiv. 44.

THE SENTIMENTS OF THE FATHERS on the nature of Antichrist furnish no decisive and conclusive guidance to interpretation. They lived before history [159] could have developed the main principles of Popery or Mahomedanism, and had not therefore historical illustrations to guide them; and we as Protestants receive no traditions as decisive authority for the interpretation of the word of God.* Yet the general testimony of the church in any age should not be disregarded, there is at least a partial truth in it; a few extracts, therefore, containing some of their sentiments are here given.

The early Fathers of the church held generally, that there would be a personal Antichrist, born of a Jew, to be developed shortly before the second coming of Christ, and to be destroyed in Judea. Irenæus, while holding that view, suggests that his name might be Lateinos, because the Latins then bore rule, and that name contained the number 666.

JUSTIN MARTYR, in his Dialogue with Trypho, referring to Micah iv. 1, &c. speaks of those as "destitute of just reason who did not understand that which is clear from all the scriptures, that two comings of Christ are announced. One in which a suffering, inglorious, dishonoured, and crucified Saviour is to be preached; but another in which he shall come with glory from the heavens, when also the man of apostacy, speaking great words in the earth against the highest, will dare to do wicked things against us Christians, who, since we have known the way of worshipping God by the law and the doctrine going forth through the apostles of Jesus, from Jerusalem, fly to the God of Jacob."t

[160] Fulke quotes TERTULLIAN as saying, on 2 Thess. ii. 6. "Who shall be taken away, but the Roman state, whose departing, being dispersed into ten kings, shall bring in Anti

* See Daille's, Whitby's, and Barbeyrac's Works on the Fathers as Interpreters of Scriptures.

+ Bishop Kay speaks of Justin Martyr as viewing the appearance of the Man of Sin as immediately connected with the second coming of Christ in glory, and his appearance as the prelude of severe persecutions against Christians.-See Bp. Kay's Justin Martyr, p. 103.

christ," of which Fulke goes on to say, "By ten, according to the custom of the Scripture, are meant many, and so was there many kingdoms made of the Roman empire, before the Pope openly usurped Antichristian tyranny." IRENEUS (in his 5th book against Heresies, ch. 30. ) says, "When Antichrist, reigning three years and six months, shall have laid waste all things in this world, and have sat in the temple of Jerusalem, then shall the Lord come from heaven in the clouds, in the glory of His Father, casting him, and those that obey him, into the lake of fire; but procuring or bringing with him, unto the just, the times of the kingdom; that is a rest, the seventh day, sanctified; and restoring to Abraham the promise of the inheritance, in which kingdom, says the Lord, "Many shall come from the east and from the west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Matt. viii. 11.

The opinions of JEROME may be gathered from his commentaries. He applies, for instance, such expressions in the Psalms, as Psalm ix. 19, thus, "The voice of the church sounds against antichrist, rise to judgment, let not man prevail, that is the man, antichrist, the sinner." He continues the same application to Psalm x. In a similar manner he applies Daniel xi. to antichrist; and in Daniel vii. he speaks of the little horn of the fourth beast of Daniel thus,-"Therefore let us say what all the ecclesiastical writers have delivered, that at [161] the end of the world, when the kingdom of the Romans is to be destroyed, there will be ten kings, who will divide the Roman world among themselves, and an eleventh will arise, a little king, who will overcome three kings of the ten kings; that is the king of the Egyptians, and of Africa, and of Ethiopia; as we may say, will be more manifest in what follows: Who being slain, the other seven kings will submit their necks to the conqueror. And behold, he says, in this horn were eyes, like the eyes of a man. Let us not suppose him, according to the opinion of some, either to be a devil or a demon, but one of the human race, in whom all Satan shall dwell bodily, and a mouth speaking great things, for he is the man of sin, the son of perdition, so that he dares to sit in the temple of God, making himself to be as God."* Jerome afterwards applies that passage, (Daniel vii. 13.) to the personal coming of Christ, con

* The reader may like to see his statement in his own words: "Ergo dicamus quod omnes Scriptores Ecclesiastici tradiderunt; in consummatione mundi, quando regnum destruendum est Romanorum, decem futuros reges, qui orbem Romanum inter se dividant, et undecimum surrecturum esse, regem parvulum, qui tres reges, de decem regibus superaturus sit: id est Egyptiorum regem, et Aphrica, et Ethiopia: sicut in consequentibus manifestius dicemus. Quibus interfectis etiam septem alii reges, victori colla submittent. Et ecce ait oculi quasi oculi hominis erant in cornu isto. Ne eum putemus,

necting it with Acts i. 11. Jerome's views of the ten kings, and the three kings, are what might have been expected from one living as he did in the 4th century, before the division of the Western, or proper Roman Empire into the European kingdoms. What is called a king in the 17th verse, is called a kingdom in the 23d. There appears, then, sufficient [162] reason for thinking the ten kings to mean ten kingdoms.

The opinions of one or two MODERN WRITERS may be added. Mede applies the prediction of the little horn, Daniel vii. 8, 11, 20, 21, 25, to the Papal antichrist, comparing it with the description of the Beast, Rev. xiii. 5, 6, 7, 14. He thence judges that the horn of Daniel's Beast is altogether the same as the antichrist of John, in the Revelation. And since both were to endure to the perfecting of the kingdom of Christ, he gathers, that the Roman kingdom, of which the last part is antichrist, is the fourth kingdom of Daniel. In his Treatise on 1 Tim. iv. 1, 2, &c. on the apostacy of the latter times, Mede discusses, at length, the application of that prophecy to Papal Rome, as the antichrist of the last times, and shews how completely and exactly it applies to Popery.

It will have been seen how generally the fathers, as indeed almost the whole church of Christ, have identified the Man of Sin, of 2 Thessalonians ii. 2, with antichrist.

The predictions respecting the Assyrian, frequently mentioned in the Old Testament, not having been fully realized in the history of the Assyrian of old, have lead many to think that there is a further reference to the antichrist of the last days, in his history. See Isaiah xiv. 25. Vitringa has a lengthened discussion on this application of the Old Testament prophecies, in his Commentary on this passage. See also Lowth, Bishop Lowth, Horsley, and Fry.

Cocceius, in his Treatise on Antichrist, discusses the following passages as applicable to this subject. [163] 2 Thessa

lonians ii. Matt. xxiv. Daniel xi. Isaiah xiii. xiv. Ezekiel xxiii. xxviii. Rev. xii. xiii. xiv. xvii. Daniel vii. and 1 John i. The Rev. H. M'Neil, in a very valuable sermon just published, entitled "Antichrist," has given much sound instruction to the church on the prophecies and character of Antichrist. He applies these prophecies, (Matthew xxiv. 9-13; 1 Tim. iv. 1-3;* 2 Thess. ii. 3-8; Daniel vii. 24-26,) to Antichrist. He fully establishes its character, as developed in

juxta quorundam opinionem, vel diabolum esse, vel dæmonem, sed unum de hominibus, in quo totus Satanas habitaturus sit Corporaliter. Et os loquens ingentia. Est enim homo peccati," &c. 2 Thess. ii.

* See the author's Sermon, "The True Church and the Apostacy," fully applying this passage to the Roman Antichrist.