This Reformation audio resource is a production of Still Waters Revival Books. There is no copyright on this material and we encourage you to reproduce it and pass it on to your friends. Many free resources as well as our complete meal order catalog containing classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books at great discounts is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at swrb at swrb.com, by phone at area code 780-450-3730, by fax at area code 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6L3T5. If you do not have a web connection, please request a free printed catalog. Lectures upon the Principal Prophecies of the Revelation by Alexander MacLeod, Doctor of Divinity, 1814. Tape number 6. Conclusion. You will allow me now, Christians, before we separate for the day, to suggest the two following ideas to your consideration. First, as you discover by your attention to this course of lectures, a sincere desire to understand the apocalyptic predictions, I respectfully solicit an interest in your prayers, while I am endeavoring to aid your inquiries. To myself, it is highly desirable to be preserved from the influence of any prejudices whatsoever during my researches into this sacred book, and it is not desirable to you who wait on my ministry that I should be subject to any partialities. It would be no advantage to you that I should flatter and deceive you. were I permitted to prostrate so far the dignity of my ministry as to use exertions for insinuating myself in the esteem of worldly politicians, and give myself to the service of a certain party, I might possibly succeed in gaining the attachment of some at the expense of the resentment of others. But in so doing, I would deal treacherously with the word of truth, I would forfeit the esteem of my own conscience, and I would provoke the anger of my God. Let me rather adopt the language of Elihu. Let me not, I pray you, accept any man's person, neither let me give flattering titles unto men. For I know not to give flattering titles. In so doing, my Maker would soon take me away. Job 32 verse 21 and 22 Self-interest, I know, frequently deceives men into opinions which they would not otherwise embrace. The influence of respectable connections, the esteem of the great or the opulent, early prejudices, the love of country, that strong passion of superior and noble minds, each of these may give a bias to our sentiments and render conviction less dependent upon evidence than upon our wishes. But I am not conscious of having any interest inconsistent with fidelity to the Scriptures, of having any connection so dear to me as the Church of the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven, of cherishing for any other human being so high in esteem as that in which I hold the prophets and the martyrs, of any prejudices so strong as my attachment for the system maintained by the Fathers, by the Apostles, and by the ancient Reformers. nor of loving any country upon earth to such a degree as to wish for its sake that any suffering should befall the inhabitants or rulers of any other country, much less to such a degree as to pervert for its sake the code of morality or the system of prophecy. I habitually desire to derive all my morals and all my politics, as well as my hope and my faith, from the oracles of God. and I most earnestly solicit your prayers in my behalf that I may not deceive myself in this matter and that I may not be led to embrace or inculcate sentiments irreconcilable with the word of truth. The inspired writers often ask an interest in the prayers of the saints. We need your prayers, my brethren, at all times. and we take peculiar delight in addressing our ministrations to those who have aided us by their supplications and who are themselves thus prepared in an honest and good heart to receive the word and to bring forth correspondent fruits. Second, be careful yourselves to hear, without political prejudices, a discussion of those prophecies which respect the character and changes of civil and ecclesiastical relations and establishments. By these, we open the door of the temple to you, that you may abound in knowledge more and more. By these, we reveal to your view the commissioners employed by the Almighty Ruler of the universe to conduct to their appointed end the movement of empire. By these, we introduce to you the few faithful pastors who, making a correct estimate of national character, denounce the tyrannical and impious and give over to the angels the vials of the wrath of God, while they raise a voice to the licentious occupants of thrones, saying, Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings! Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish. Enter into the company of those celestial harpers who stand upon the Mount Zion, singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. Forget for a time the place of your birth and the opinions of worldly wisdom. Cast away from you the prejudices of your education. Banish from your recollection the thoughts of inordinate selfishness, of deceitful honors, of aspiring ambition. Act, my brethren, in the high, the holy, the heavenly character of Christians. Taking a live coal from the altar of incense, arise and stand before the God of the sanctuary, and taking the harps of God, while His wrath is tormenting the irreligious world, join in the sweet and solemn melody by which the praise of the Creator is celebrated by the triumphant opponents of anti-Christian usurpation. Look around you upon the companions of your song. Lo, they stand upon the sea of glass, mingled with fire, before the throne of the Lamb. They have gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name. Welcome, blessed companions. We join in your exalted music. We repeat the words of your Eucharistical hymn. We lift up our hearts and our hands, as well as the offering of our lips. to the God of Abraham, to Thee our Father in Heaven. Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints. Amen. Lecture 9 The Anti-Christian System REVELATION 16 And I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. I had occasion, my brethren, to remark to you on the last Sabbath that, in order to understand the prophecies of the third apocalyptical period, it is necessary to have a correct idea of the subject of the punishment inflicted by the outpouring of the seven vials. I also intimated that the necessary information was previously given in this sacred book so that it is taken for granted that we come to the consideration of this chapter prepared with some knowledge of the object of these judgments. It would indeed be labor in vain to attempt an elucidation of the current events from scripture without having previously submitted ourselves to the direction of the sacred oracles. No acuteness of intellect, no diligence of research, no extent of erudition will suffice to understand this subject unless the heart, sanctified by grace, cherished principles of submission to the ruler of the nations to such a degree as to prefer his word to the councils of cabinets and the prosperity of his kingdom to the triumphs of human empires. That piety which, unbiased by views of national policy, rejoices in the moral government of God, is necessary to study with impartiality the great social concerns of the moral world, and of course, to understand the predictions of heaven respecting them. This representation is supported by one of the prophets, Daniel 12 verse 10. Many shall be purified and made white and tried, but the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. In the words of my text you are informed of the authority under which the angels acted, and of the object of the judgments which they poured out from the vials. The authority is that of Jehovah Jesus, the Prince of the kings of the earth. He who upholds the pillows of the world speaks with power, and the angels obey and I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels go your ways footnote this says Mr. Thomas reader in his remarks on the prophetic part of the revelation a work of considerable merit this voice declared the will of God and the united desire of his people from this writer I quote a paragraph to show his view of the character of the angels and the living creature which gave to them the vials. These seven angels, having the seven last plagues, verse 6 and 7, being called to offer a dreadful sacrifice to the justice of God, were clothed in robes of more than bare innocence. That is, with pure and shining linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles, to denote the firmness, dignity and splendor with which they will perform this dreadful work. see chapter 1 verse 13, and that it might appear what power God's ministers have with him over their enemies, and that the work which these angels were going about was the avenging of his persecuted servants, one of the four living creatures, but lest any of them should through unbelief suppose himself incapable of such an honor, the Lord has not informed us whether it was he who resembled the lion, the ox, the man, or the eagle, One of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven vials, that is, censers, cups or bottles, full of the wrath of God who liveth forever and ever, the unchanging enemy of every impenitent immortal who has dared to take up arms against him and his Christ." So David by his prayers gave the angels those vials which they poured upon his enemies. Psalm 35 verse 5 and 6. And Isaiah and Hezekiah gave that vial to the angel which he poured upon the 185,000 Assyrians. Isaiah 37. And when these vials are to be poured out, God will put it into the heart of some gospel minister, or a set of ministers of similar dispositions, firmly to believe, and therefore to desire of God by prayer, the execution of this vengeance, which may properly be called their giving the vials to the angels, though we have no reason to suppose that these angels will visibly appear to him or them when they are going about this work. God bottles the tears of His saints, not only to be witnesses of the sincerity of their love to Him, but also to make them vials of His wrath on the heads of their enemies. Psalm 56, verse 7. For shall not God avenge His own elect who cry day and night unto Him? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Luke 18, verse 7 and 8. As He promised to the souls under the altar. Chapter 6, verse 10 and 11. The object of God's wrath is the anti-Christian system. Pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. earth, it has been shown in the exposition of the second seal, hath in common language a variety of significations, and it may be added in this place that the New Testament employs, Greek word, the word rendered earth in this text in different sentences. There is no difficulty, however, in ascertaining its use when the connection is otherwise easily understood. Parkhurst, in his Greek and English lexicon to the New Testament, gives it six distinct significations exclusively of the symbolical. Ground, whether cultivated or barren, dry land, as distinguished from the waters, a particular tract or country, the land of Canaan, spiritually denoting heaven, the terraqueous globe, as distinguished from the heavens, and ground in general. It is obvious that however numerous the shades of difference may be, there is no effort in ordinary cases necessary to decide in which sense we are to receive this word. Upon the same principle, the shades of difference in the symbolical use of earth must be ascertained from the context. The earth, which is the object of all the vials, comprehends the earth, the sea, the fountains, the sun, the seat of the beast, the Euphrates, and the air, which are the several distinct objects of the seven vials. And although the word earth, in both the first and second verses, is symbolical, the sense of the one must be distinguished from that of the other. In the first instance, it is obviously the symbol of some complete system having an allusion to the system of the world, its land, water, sun, and atmosphere, etc. In the second instance, it is a part of this system, an earth within the earth, and the one clearly distinguished from the other. A man of science can readily distinguish in the same earth through which the plowman digs his furrow, not only earth from other substances, but also earth from earth. And it becomes the intelligent expositor of prophecy to distinguish the several acceptations of symbolical expressions without pretending, with Mr. Faber, that the same symbol always points out the same definite object. I allude to his note of criticism on Mr. Galloway, Volume 1, page 66. This excellent commentator has certainly failed as much as Mr. Galloway, whose five significations of the word Earth he rejects in his attempt to fix, as he himself says, with remarkable precision the invariable meaning of the symbol, the territorial dominions of the Roman Empire. I cannot by any means admit that territory as such provokes or bears the wrath of God. The ground is never cursed but on account of its criminal occupant. The Roman territory is indeed the residence of that upon which the plagues of the viles are inflicted. But the formal object of divine vengeance is that pernicious and criminal system of social order in both church and state which is established among the guilty population of the Roman territories. This great public immorality, practiced under the name of Christianity, and yet diametrically opposed to the spirit and power of the religion of Jesus Christ, is what brings down upon its votaries the wrath of God. It is this system in all its complex ecclesiastical and political machinery embracing the inhabitants of the Western Roman world that is symbolized by the earth and is called from its true character by the strictly appropriate name, the anti-Christian system. Footnote, earth is opposed to heaven. The anti-Christian system is therefore as properly designated by earth as Christianity is by the term heaven. The kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, does not signify the territory occupied by pious men, but the system of the grace of God dispensed to men and separating them from the world by reducing them into a church state. The church of God is the kingdom of heaven. because its origin and its nature are heavenly. The opposite system is the earth, because its nature is earthly, carnal, and perishing." It includes the beasts of the pit, of the sea, and of the earth, the head, the horns, the image of the beast, the mother of harlots, and all who are drunken with the cup of her intoxication. It is not precisely the emperor, the kings, or any of the kings, nor the people, nor the Pope, nor the Roman Church, nor the territorial dominions of the Pope or of the Emperor. But it is all these, combined by a corrupt religion embodied with despotic power in opposition to the public social order which Christianity demands of the nations of the world, and which shall be actually established in the millennium. That which prevents in Europe the establishment of the millennial system is of course to be destroyed by the viles, because the viles introduce the millennium. The millennial state of society is peculiarly the kingdom of Christ, and whatsoever is opposed to the coming of that kingdom, is opposed to himself, and is of course anti-Christian. Therefore is the immoral organization of human society, which resists the principles of true religion in church and state, justly called, by way of evidence, the Antichrist. This consideration justifies the application of the term Antichrist, agreeable to the practice of the Reformers, to the prominent parts of that system of iniquity, which these holy men were in the habits, at the risk of their lives, of opposing. It is the design of this discourse to explain the term Antichrist and accordingly justify this application of it, to explain from other parts of Scripture the nature of the anti-Christian system, and to obviate the great objection made of late to this Protestant use of the expression. First, explain the term Antichrist and justify its application to the Roman tyranny and superstition. Had Mr. Faber succeeded much better than he has done in fastening upon the Prophet Daniel the charge of predicting the rise and progress of his own infidel king, he had no right, even upon this hypothesis, to apply exclusively to France the Antichrist of the Apostle John, and so boldly charge our pious Reformers with the misapplication of this remarkable expression. I readily admit that France, where the Republican or Imperial in her form of civil polity is an anti-Christian power. But this admission does not by any means preclude the propriety of applying the same epithet to other powers hostile to the Kingdom of Messiah. nor does it even require its application by way of eminence to a system which, however vile, cannot endure more than sixty years, and which is confessedly more destructive to the enemies of the Gospel than to true believers. This is the case with modern France, its principal enemies being judges. It is admitted by Mr. Faber himself, although he denounces Bonaparte and revolutionary France as the Antichrist, that they perished before 1866. In doing this, he acts more as an Englishman than as an expositor of prophecy. We give more credit to him for his patriotism than for his orthodoxy. We ought to take it as an indisputable fact that the most formidable opposition which is ever made under the Christian name to true religion is the Antichrist. because this idea is admitted in all its force by the Apostle John himself. 1 John 2. You have heard that Antichrist shall come, whereby we know that it is the last time. From these words, it appears that Antichrist was familiarly expected to appear under the gospel dispensation the last time. It is also apparent that this expectation was general among Christians in the age of the Apostles. Now it is to me altogether incredible that this should be the case if the Antichrist be revolutionary France, as distinguished from the great and prevalent superstitions and tyrannies of the European nations. A thing so remote from that age, of so very short continuance, of so very little interest in itself to the best and purest churches in any age, and which is confessedly a woe to the enemies of true religion, Such a thing, however vile in itself, could not excite such universal expectations, nor be at all so very interesting to the primitive church as to occupy her principal attention. We have the testimony of Jerome, too, in proof of this striking fact that such expectation continued general among Christians down to his own time, and that it was supported by the prophecies of Daniel as well as the writings of the New Testament. footnote Jerome Hieronymus flourished in the fourth century and is universally esteemed as one of the most learned and judicious of the fathers he has these words on the celebrated passage Daniel 11 verse 36 Latin paragraph and a footnote Antichrist signifies an opposite Christ, from Greek word, against, and Greek word, Christ. Greek word, the opposer of Christ, under pretense of being himself appointed or anointed of the Lord. Thus the grand opposition to the Christian system is personified according to the prophetic style of king, horn, beast, etc. for kingdom, power, empire. In this sense, the Antichrist is generally understood by all writers, and while agreeably to the Apostle John's declaration, 1 John 2 verse 18, there are many Antichrists, many opposers of Christ, it is not doubted that prophecy directs to one great system of opposition which should arise under the Christian dispensation as pointed out by this name. Different Opinions of Antichrist Number one, the Jewish nation, Dr. Whitby's opinion. Number two, the Gnostics and their successors, Dr. Hammond's opinion. Third, heathen Rome and other papists, Bousset's opinion. Fourth, individual persons, Nero, Trajan, Louis XIV, Oliver Cromwell, King George III, Napoleon Bonaparte, etc. are in turn said to be Antichrist by their opponents. Fifth, the papacy, the general opinion of Protestants. And sixth, the present French Empire, Faber's opinion. Besides these, 20 different opinions might be collected from those fanciful writers who very improperly amuse themselves by inventing theories at the expense of important and even awful truths. It appears to me that expositors generally have taken Antichrist in a view rather too much insulated. Instead of exhibiting a single adversary or any one branch of the great apostasy, the word is to be taken in a more generic sense, as descriptive of that long-enduring hostility to religion which has hitherto passed among the nations for Christianity itself. This word, Greek word, occurs in four different places in the New Testament. It is used only in the epistolary writings of the Apostle John. Those epistles were written within a few years of the end of the first century, about 60 years after the organization of the Christian Church, and 20 after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. It signifies one who is opposed to Christ, and is, in its general sense, applicable to any enemy of the Redeemer. The passages in which it occurs are 1 John 2, verse 18 and 22, chapter 4, verse 3, and 2 John 7. From these verses it appears that this name was intended as a special designation of some noted opposition to the gospel. The Christian Church, about the time in which these epistles of John were written, certainly understood by the Antichrist, Greek word, some character revealed in prophecy as the principal opponent of Christ's kingdom. 1 John 2.18 Little children, it is the last time, and as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time. In this verse, the word occurs twice, once in the singular and once in the plural number. The Apostle asserts a fact, it is the last time. He appeals in confirmation of this assertion to a prophecy that in the last time such a character should appear, and to the fact that such characters did now appear, whereby we know that it is the last time. If the Church had not previously received undoubted information that a particular kind of hostility designated by this term would have been offered to the Gospel at the last dispensation which the Redeemer should make of His grace, it could not have been inferred from the appearance of opposition that these times were now arrived. We must therefore conclude from this text that the Christian Church had actually received information that a certain species of opposition to the kingdom of Christ would be offered after the gospel dispensation had commenced, and that several instances of a similar kind of opposition had really appeared before the canon of scripture was completed, and before all the apostles had been removed from the earth. There are now many antichrists. Several characters already appear opposed to the true religion of the same description with that character who is known as the Antichrist by way of eminence. Verse 22. He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. The Venerable Apostle declares in the context that every error is opposed to the true religion that no lie is of the truth. And in the beginning of this verse, he asserts that he who denieth Christ is a liar, in the most awful sense of the word. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? Christ, or Messiah, which is the same word, the former Greek and the latter Hebrew, signifies anointed, and is of course expressive of the character and office of the Saviour. An assertion of erroneous sentiments, therefore, respecting the official character and works of the Blessed Redeemer, is the worst species of falsehood. And that character which thus denies the Father and the Son is the Antichrist. This also shows that the Church must have then known that the term Antichrist designated the head of the most formidable opposition which the Gospel had to encounter. Chapter 4, verse 3. 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. A good spirit is of God, and an evil spirit is that which is not of him. Trying the spirits is a necessary duty, verse 1, and the reason is assigned, because there are many false prophets. The criterion is given in the second verse. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. This expression, Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, means something more than that a person by that name appeared in Judea. The expression comprehends the doctrine of his person, of his office, and of his works as our Redeemer. Otherwise it could be no criterion. False prophets as well as the true might acknowledge the fact But there was such a man as Christ Jesus. The evil spirits which he drove out of those who were possessed acknowledged his power when he appeared in the flesh. Matthew 8 verse 29. Jesus, thou son of God, art thou come hither to torment us? This text is to be understood, therefore, as implying more than what the words appear to express. By this rule similar texts are explained. Acts 2 verse 21. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That is, whosoever shall worship him in faith. For he that believeth not shall be damned." Matthew 16, verse 16. Every spirit, therefore, which confesseth not the truth, respecting Christ's person and mission, his whole mediatory character is evil, and that is that spirit of Antichrist. The Apostle John also appeals in this passage to the prophetic revelation which predicted to the church the coming of this enemy, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and also to the information which they had received of his actual appearance, and even now already is it in the world. The conclusion from this passage, of course, is that the Church expected opposition from an enemy designated by the name Antichrist, and that the spirit which Antichrist possesses would be opposed to the truth, respecting both the mediatorial character and the object of his appearing in the flesh, together with the fact that such a spirit began already to appear in the world. This conclusion is confirmed by 2 John, verse 7. For 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. To what system of deception can we with so much propriety apply this designation as to the great Roman apostasy which affected nearly the whole civilized world? We shall afterwards inquire to what prophecy the Apostle John refers the Church in these passages. and so endeavour to ascertain that character to whom the title Antichrist especially belongs. It has already been observed that the word does not occur anywhere in scripture except in the texts already quoted, and that it designates some character, the most conspicuous opposer of the religion of Jesus. From the use the Apostle John makes of this expression, it appears that it was familiar to those whom he addressed. It is not, however, certain by what means it came to become so, whether it was first applied by an inspired teacher to the grand apostasy, which was expected in some future period, or whether the term was at first adopted as applicable of everyone who opposed the Gospel, and according to the common progress of language, became at last by usage appropriate to the most remarkable opposition offered to the Church, we cannot now determine. It is, however, certain that the prophets foretold this remarkable opposition to the Christian Church and that at a very early period this opposition was known by the name Antichrist. In order to answer the question who is the Antichrist, it will be necessary to quote some of the prophecies which predict opposition to the Gospel and compare them with those texts already quoted in which this term is used. This will lead me to number two. to explain from other parts of scripture the nature of the anti-Christian system. I shall confine my selection to the writings of Paul and Daniel and shall begin with the New Testament authority as being more contiguous to the time in which the epistles of John were written. Two passages will suffice. First, I shall lay before you the words of the Apostle, to a church which he himself had planted and watered, in which he appeals to the information which he had previously communicated in his discourses." 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 3-9 That day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not that when I was with you I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, etc., etc. This epistle was written about the year 56, and the epistles of John were written about the year 90. Before the latter writer, therefore, described the Antichrist, he must have been familiar with the man of sin, described in the writings of a fellow laborer in the Christian doctrines of the Gospel. There is no doubt of his having the epistles of Paul in his possession 30 years before he wrote his own epistles. John's Antichrist had already begun to appear, And Paul's mystery of iniquity had already begun to work. Of the coming of John's Antichrist they had heard before. And of Paul's man of sin, he had himself formerly told them many things. John's Antichrist, with a spirit of falsehood and deceit, denied both the Father and the Son. and Paul's man of sin, coming with signs and lying wonders, sitteth in the temple of God, and exalteth himself above all that is called God, and that is worshipped. The character which John described is eminently the opposite Christ, Greek word, and that which Paul describes, sitteth in the temple, showing himself that he is God. Are not then these characters identified? Could the primitive Christians do otherwise than consider them one and the same opposition to Christ and His cause upon earth? It is no objection to this sentiment that John's Antichrist denies that Christ has come in the flesh, for he who is opposed to all that is worshipped and as God sitteth in the temple of God, so far from doing less, does much more than this. And as for infidelity, we shall find to the full as many infidels on the papal chair and on the thrones of Europe as have appeared at the heads of affairs in revolutionary France. I do not propose to you a commentary on this passage from the Epistle to the Thessalonians. It is taken for granted that it applies to the Roman system of superstition. Mr. Faber admits this, and Bishop Newton has an excellent dissertation on the text. a wicked apostasy coming after the working of Satan with deceit and false miracles, usurping power in the Christian Church to so great a degree as to claim titles and honors due only unto God, and making use of that power in opposition to the only object of religious worship and for the corruption of Christianity among the nations, cannot apply in full to any object which excludes the system of Roman iniquity. This system personified is the son of perdition who betrayed the Lord, as did Judas Iscariot. It is the mystery of iniquity which began early to work in the unhallowed ambition of worldly-minded ecclesiastics, in the superstition of ignorant minds, who from other causes than a saving knowledge of the truth, made a profession of Christianity, and in the industrious efforts of public men in office throughout the departments of the Roman Empire, to make religion an instrument of political power. But to the establishment of this mystery of iniquity on the throne of the fourth kingdom of the earth there was an insuperable barrier while paganism remained in full force. This obvious consideration the Apostle Paul had explained to the Thessalonians. Ye know what withholdeth that the man of sin be revealed. It is heathen power that letteth, and will let, till he be taken out of the way. Then, when the empire becomes Christian, this impediment shall be removed. And after this comes the apostasy, that wicked, whom the Lord shall consume. This prophecy both explains the character of the Antichrist of John, and shows the propriety of applying that name to the grand apostasy of the Western Empire. Footnote. see a plain and correct commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 3-9 in Scott's Family Bible. Second, I shall in confirmation of this interpretation of the Antichrist lay before you the words of the Apostle Paul to his son Timothy. in which he contrasts the mystery of iniquity which he had described to the Thessalonians with the mystery of godliness described to Timothy at the close of the third chapter. 1 Timothy 4 verse 1 through 3 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, etc. This epistle was written about the year 60, 4 years after the date of that which was addressed to the Christians in Thessalonica, and about 30 years earlier than the epistles of John the Divine. Here also there is intimation of a great apostasy which shall take place in the latter times. In writing to Timothy, Paul would not forget that the evangelist had been previously acquainted with what the apostle had taught concerning the mystery of iniquity both in his discourses and his writings. in the epistle containing the remarkable passage recently under consideration, Timothy as well as Silvanus had joined with the Apostle Paul and could not, of course, be ignorant of the great apostasy which is described as opposing God and the pure worship of His holy name. Admitting, therefore, that Timothy previously knew of the Roman apostasy, which the Apostle called the man of sin and son of perdition, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, is it possible that he should misunderstand the words of Paul to himself, or ever think of applying them to a different object? In the first verse, the Apostle affirms this fact to be a matter of divine prediction. The Spirit speaketh expressly. He then assures us that this event, the same with that designated as the man of sin, occupies the same period, in the latter times. He describes this event in each place by the same terms, a falling away. Footnote, Greek word, 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 3, same Greek word, 1 Timothy 4 verse 1. End of footnote. He assigns the same cause for the event in both places, the working of Satan or seducing spirits. He gives to it in both cases the same moral character, all deceivableness of unrighteousness and strong delusion, speaking lies in hypocrisy and having the conscience seared. Footnote, the moral and religious character of this period is also described. 2 Timothy 3 verses 1 through 5. End of footnote. And in addition to the extraordinary characteristic of usurping in the very temple itself divine honor, in order more effectually under the mask of Christianity to oppose the worship and the God of the Christians, The Apostle Paul gives another pointed and distinctive feature of the same system of abomination in this passage, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meat. Here we have a prediction of the laws of celibacy, nunneries and monasteries, as well as of the superstitious abstinence of Lent and other holy days. While I refer the reader for a more copious exposition of this text to the commentaries, and particularly to Mr. Mead and Bishop Newton, I proceed to observe that John the Divine, when he drew the character of his Antichrist, had this apostasy before him. We have shown the coincidence of the passage from 1 John with that from 2 Thessalonians, and the coincidence of the latter with that from 1 Timothy. The passage from 1 Timothy must of course coincide with that from the epistles of John. John's Antichrist was the subject of scripture predictions already in the possession of the church, and of this apostasy the Spirit of God had already spoken expressly. Antichrist was to appear in the last times, and so was this. The Antichrist of John, as his name imports, is an opposite religion, denying the doctrine of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, and this apostasy is a departure from the faith with a seared conscience, substituting the doctrines of devils in its stead. Footnote, doctrines of devils, Greek words. The doctrines of the Church of Rome are in this passage denominated doctrines of devils, not because they are from the great adversary of our salvation, but because they introduce the worship of demons instead of the worship of God, doctrines relating to the worship of demons. Greek word is from Greek word, and that from Greek word or Hebrew, to know. A great part of the heathen idolatry consisted in the worship of demons, and their doctrines of religion were, of course, doctrines which respected the objects of their worship. This explains the expression, doctrines of devils. Plato explains the doctrine. Every demon is a middle being between God and man. All the commerce and intercourse between gods and men is performed by the mediation of demons. Demons are reporters and carriers from men to the gods, and again from the gods to men, of the supplications and prayers of the one, and of the injunctions and rewards of devotion from the other. See Park Hurst's lexicon. The doctrine of demons, as explained by so distinguished a philosopher, serves to throw light upon these parts of scripture which represent the heathen as worshipping devils. This is the scriptural account of their sacrifices in every age from Moses to Paul. Deuteronomy 32.17 They sacrifice unto devils, not to God. 1 Corinthians 10.20 But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God. And I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. The question will naturally occur, where did the heathen find these mediators, their demons, whom they worshipped? They answer this question themselves. Plato says, and in this he confirms what Hesiod had said before him, when good men die, they attain great honor and dignity and become demons. They deified or canonized men after death. This abundantly shows the applicability of this prophecy to that system of religion which canonizes the dead that they may be honored by the living as mediators between them and the Most High. Who is a liar but the Antichrist of John? This man of sin also speaketh lies in hypocrisy. I shall quote in connection one passage from the prophecies of Daniel. And I shall previously call your recollection to this fact that the book of Daniel was both well known and well understood by the Apostle Paul when he addressed his epistles to the Church of Thessalonica and to Timothy the Evangelist. In order that the coincidence of expressions may appear more obvious, I shall compare them with one another in parallel columns. Daniel 11 verse 36 through 38. Verse 36. And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every God, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation shall be accomplished. For that that is determined shall be done. compared with Paul's words in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 3-10 and 1 Timothy 4 verses 1-3. That the man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he is God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. The mystery of iniquity doth already work, and then shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth etc Daniel 1137 neither shall he regard the God of his fathers nor the desire of women nor regard any God for he shall magnify himself above all compared with Paul's words whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received. But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces, and a God whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold and silver, and with precious stones and pleasant things, compared with Paul's words giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish." Nothing short of a fondness for preconceived opinions could induce any attentive reader of these quotations to deny their application to one great system of iniquity. The prophecy of Daniel is the first in order and is more definite than those which follow. The Apostles Paul and John proceed upon the supposition that the subject is specifically pointed out already and refer to it only with design to keep alive the attention of the Church to it and to prevent misunderstanding of its character. In the second and seventh chapters of Daniel, we are furnished with a chronological account of the four universal empires and of the dismemberment of the fourth, the Roman, into ten separate kingdoms. After this dismemberment, the Roman Empire is still contemplated as one, being bound as to its several distinct members into one system of cruel opposition to the Kingdom of Christ, and destined to continue in this character until the way is prepared for the coming of the Millennium. In this chapter, that prophet gives such a minute prospective history of the Persian and Macedonian empires, with a comprehensive account of the affairs of the kings of Syria and Egypt, until the establishment of the Roman Empire in the East, that infidel writers, admitting the accuracy of the prophecy, had been compelled, rather than acknowledge the inspiration of the scriptures, to affirm that Daniel's prophecies were composed after the events came to pass. Footnote, the prophecies of Daniel were in many instances so exactly accomplished that those persons who would have otherwise been unable to resist the evidence which they furnished in support of our religion, have not scrupled to affirm that they must have been written subsequent to these occurrences which they so faithfully describe. But this groundless and unsupported assertion of Porphyry, who in the third century wrote against Christianity, serves but to establish the character of Daniel as a great and enlightened prophet. And Porphyry, by confessing and proving from the best historians that all which is included in the eleventh chapter of Daniel, relative to the kings of the north and of the south, of Syria and of Egypt, was truly and in every particular acted and done in the order there related, has undesignedly contributed to the reputation of those prophecies of which he attempted to destroy the authenticity. Quoted from Gray's Key to the Old Testament, page 338, Dublin, 1792. End of footnote. After having introduced to our view the Roman power, commanding Antiochus Epiphanes to retire from Egypt, and at the same time conquering the kingdom of Macedon, the fundamental kingdom of the Greek Empire, Daniel ceases to describe the events of the third beast because his reign is now terminated. He begins, of course, in the 31st verse to predict the actions of the fourth beast and continues that description until the era of his entire overthrow, preparatory to the establishment of the kingdom of Christ in its millennial splendor. Hitherto, said Sir Isaac Newton, Daniel described the actions of the kings of the North and South, but upon the conquest of Macedon by the Romans, he left off describing the actions of the Greeks and began to describe those of the Romans. taken from Observations on Daniel, page 188, Dublin, 1733. Jerome informs us that the Jews themselves understood the predictions of the 31st verse to point out the Roman power after the time of Antiochus and before the coming of Antichrist. Footnote, Latin paragraph quoting Jerome. Also, Much more to the same power may be seen by consulting Meade or Bishop Newton on this part of Daniel. End of footnote. In the following summary, Mr. Faber gives the contents of verses 31 through 35. To state the whole argument more briefly, the events succeed each other in the following order. In the 31st verse of the 11th chapter, Daniel predicts the desolation of Jerusalem by the Romans. In the 32nd and 33rd verses, the persecutions of the primitive Christians. In the 34th verse, the conversion of the empire under Constantine. And in the 35th verse, the papal persecutions of the witnesses. Taken from volume 1, page 392. In the 36th verse, where my quotation from Daniel commences, the prophet begins to describe the character of that power by which these persecutions were authorized. The power which was to appear as the fourth beast after the time of Constantine and which is to exist under some form until he come to his end and none shall help him. Verse 45. By reviewing the comparison of this power with the passages selected from the writings of Paul, It will appear that Daniel's fourth king, in his present state, coincides with Paul's man of sin, under that apostasy which succeeded the overthrow of heathen Rome and the dismemberment of the empire. First, the one exalteth himself and magnifieth himself above every god, and speaketh marvellous things against the god of gods. The other opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called god, or that is worshipped, so that he, as God, sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. As to daring impiety in actual opposition to God and to religion, the two characters are precisely the same. Additional features of irreligion are, however, ascribed to this power in the description of the Apostle. The man of sin opposes each person of the Godhead in his personal properties and offices in the Christian economy. all that is called God, or that is worshipped. And thus the man of sin is identified with John's Antichrist even more clearly than is Daniel's King, denying both the Father and the Son. And all this is done under the profession of Christianity, usurping power over the Church, so that he is God's citizen in the Temple of God, showing that he himself is Antigod, the Antichrist. Daniel's king regarded not the God of his fathers, while professedly claiming from the fathers the apostolic succession and power. Paul, son of perdition, cometh after the working of Satan, with all power and lying wonders, false miracles to deceive men, as if he possessed apostolic authority. Both serve Satan, disregard God, and claim the religion and miraculous powers of the fathers. The description of the prophet represents the enemy, as regarding not the desire of women, nor any god, magnifying himself above all, performing acts and publishing laws which contradict and satisfy the obligation of the divine law. The description of the apostle coincides with this by specifying the particular instances, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meat which God hath created to be received. To be regardless of the desire of women, as also regardless of God, are the characteristics of that law which enjoins celibacy upon a great part of the population of the different countries of Europe, the clergy, monks, and nuns. The nuptial state is the desire of women as well as of men, and if there be more modesty and chaste affection in the female character, it is even more so. The nuptial state is peculiarly the desire of women. God himself has said and ordained that this should be the case. Genesis 3 verse 16, unto the woman he said, thy desire shall be to thy husband. Fourth, the power described by Daniel is an idolatrous power, and the superstitious homage employed is characterized as very splendid and costly. He shall honor the God of forces, and a God whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold and silver and with precious stones. The system described by Apostle Paul is also idolatrous as well as hypocritical, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. The doctrines of demons we have already explained. The honoring of the God of forces unknown to the fathers of the church, under whom the man of sin claims, is precisely this demon worship borrowed from the heathen and actually anti-Christian, being a denial of the only mediator, Jesus Christ, by substituting others in his place. The words which we render in Daniel 11 verse 38, the God of forces, and which this impious power should honor in his estate, are Hebrew words. They are translated by Arius Montanus as Latin words. Matthew Poole, after giving from various authors five different commentaries upon this expression, gives the sixth as that to which he himself exceeds. Mahusam signifies the demons or the God protectors which the Church of Rome worships along with Christ, supposing that the saints and angels are such. This interpretation is illustrated to great extent by the Bishop of Bristol and is much more conformable to fact than the modern turn given to the passage by Mr. Faber representing the Mahousim as French Liberty. Hebrew word is from Hebrew word which signifies strength and may be rendered the hosts or forces. These forces correspond precisely with the demons of Plato and the papal saints. who are appointed to preside over this country, and that, as delusion may direct. Splendent and extravagant have been the expenditures of art and of wealth made for the purpose of maintaining this idolatry, and it requires no argument to convince the intelligent reader of Daniel's prophecy that the latter part of the description is perfectly conformable to the event. and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain. Yea, he shall distribute the earth among his mahusim, so that besides several patrimonies, which in every country he shall allot to them, he shall share whole kingdoms and provinces among them. St. George shall have England, St. Andrew Scotland, St. Dennis France, St. James Spain, St. Mark, Venice, etc. bears rule as presidents and patrons of their several countries. These are the words of Mr. Meade in explaining this text. Bishop Newton applies it, however, not to the supposed saints themselves, but to the bishops and priests and monks, etc., who everywhere promoted this idolatry. Their authority and jurisdiction have extended over the purses and consciences of men. They have been enriched with noble buildings and large endowments and have had the choicest of the lands appropriated for church lands. These are points of such public notoriety that they require no proof as they will admit of no denial. Taken from Newton on the Prophecies, Volume 1, page 372, New York, 1794. I flatter myself, brethren, that I have now furnished you with sufficient scriptural evidence of the identity of Antichrist, with the whole mystery of iniquity, with that great apostasy of the Roman Empire which sits in the temple as an opposite God, and which prohibits by law the nuptial state and the use of meat which God has provided for men. You will have also observed that this description embraces in one complex system the church and civil state together with the tyrannical acts and the superstitious services employed by both the political and ecclesiastical power united over the nations. This will justify me in designating the whole as anti-Christian and in representing it as the symbolical earth upon which all the vials are poured out. I must trespass nevertheless a little longer upon your time and attention, while 3. I obviate the objections made of late to this use of the term Antichrist. These objections, as made by Mr. Faber, require a reply. He is too able and valuable an expositor to be treated with neglect by a subsequent interpreter of the predictions of the Apocalypse. upon the subject of the great apostasy of the European nations, we have no dispute with him. He follows the track marked out by Mr. Meade and pursued by the two Newtons and the whole host of Protestant commentators in designating the leading features of that system of iniquity which unites in the chains of tyranny and superstition the several kingdoms of the Latin Roman Empire, although he labors to prove that the Antichrist of the Epistles of John and Daniel's King apply exclusively to revolutionary France. The magnitude of the evils connected with that event, its threatening aspect toward his native country, the powerful antipathies of the English royalists, and the force of political prejudices, if they do not justify, will easily account for the bias under which he brought his dissertations before the public. Footnote, the recent English expositors have greatly diminished the value of their publications by permitting themselves to indulge so much of the spirit of political partiality. They must err, it seems, upon one side or the other. Since the greater part of these lectures have been delivered from the pulpit, I have been favored by a friend with the perusal of another explanation of the Revelation, by an Englishman of rather more fire and less discretion than Mr. Faber. He is on the opposite side in politics. The Reverend James Brown, Doctor of Divinity of Barnwell, Northampton Shire. This work bears evident marks of having been published in 1811 or 1812. It is a work of genius, and yet it is very unworthy of a rank among the best expositions of the apocalypse. The author accompanied, probably as a chaplain, the British army sent for the reduction of American liberty, and yet he is himself a violent Whig. I quote from his work the following as a specimen. It will not rival anything Faber has written against the rulers of France. Quote, If the beast in form like a lamb, yet spake as a dragon, acted as a demon, and hath his portion assigned him with the devil and the first beast, Who will doubt, notwithstanding their candid show and plausible pretenses, that a North, a Germain, a Sandwich, and other supporters of their councils, who for seven years, at the expense of the lives of many thousands of British subjects, deluged America with the blood of her inhabitants, contending for freedom, and the natural rights of men are in the sight of heaven more guilty and obnoxious to a severer doom than all the private murderers England has produced since it was a nation. Is there one individual in the empire who is not suffering under those corrupt and rapacious principles which have dictated the councils of this country for near a century past? Those vultures only accepted who now fatten on her vittles, or those who already gorged with her blood and loaded with raven, have retired to their nests to devour and enjoy their prey. While the profuse courtier and pampered appendant of office is straining his low fancy to invent new objects of vanity and luxurious indulgence, to exhaust his countless treasures, the poor peasant and his family is pining in want or are beggarly dependent on parochial supply. A state of society so subversive of the essential laws of nature and providence cannot long exist, and however those who have been the means of introducing it may escape punishment from men, and however much they may have glorified themselves and lived deliciously, if we rightly understand this passage of scripture, So much the more torment and sorrow, so much the severer punishment is denounced against them by the righteous judgment of God." Page 141 through 145. See also his remark on Mr. Pitt, page 142. From the politics we have been so perseveringly and so successfully pursuing for half a century past, we may plainly perceive that no ministry who will not support this profusion in the Court and this corruption in the Parliament will ever be permitted to continue in office. Is there any man at this day so blind as to not see, that from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the lowest excised man, the very suspicion of a partiality to the interest of the country and of the people, in preference to the designs of the court, is an absolute disqualification for any office?" The magnitude of the evils connected with that event, its threatening aspect toward his native country, the powerful antipathies of an English royalist, and the force of political prejudices, if they do not justify, will easily account for the bias under which he brought his dissertations before the public, and very probably, if the British administration had not been irreconcilably hostile to the emancipation of the Irish Catholics, so arted a partisan, as Mr. Faber would not, while his countrymen were spending their treasure and their blood in support of what is confessedly the mystery of iniquity among the Spanish Catholics, have so unequivocally condemned the spirit of Popery itself. The three general objections which Mr. Faber offers to the interpretation of Bishop Newton apply only to the manner, the indefiniteness of his interpretation. but do not, in the least degree, affect the propriety of applying this prophecy of Daniel to the anti-Christian system. His objections are that the bishop makes this last prediction little more than a repetition of a former one, that the interpretation is in want of unity, and that it violates the chronological order. Repetitions, however, are often made in the scripture, and are besides frequently necessary. seeing the same object occurs in several different connections and must be viewed in different respects. There is no necessary violation of unity in applying the prophecy to the man of sin. Newton's fault being too complicated may be easily corrected. The chronology of that prophecy is not at all deranged by the description in the succeeding verses of the persecuting power referred to in the 35th. And besides, a key to the chronology is furnished in this very text, compared with verse 40, the time of the end. The persecutions of the men of understanding were to continue, by verse 35, to the time of the end. And by verse 40, it is at this very time that the king is attacked by those powers which are to be, in part, the instruments of his destruction. The intermediate description must, of course, belong to that power which waged the persecuting war upon the saints. The particular objections urged from the text itself against our interpretation have been already in part anticipated. Mr. Faber's remarks upon the desire of women and the Mahuzim are rather ingenious than solid. We have no objections that the words, the desire of women, be understood to signify that which women desire, but we assist upon it that this very expression as strongly indicates the nuptial state as if the words were the desire of men. It is, however, astonishing that a man of Mr. Faber's acquaintance with the history of the Latin apostasy should doubt whether any gain accrued to the papacy or the imperial power of the king from parceling out the country to the Mahusim, the demon saints, or the various orders of clergy. He had his price for this, and an ample price it was. These ecclesiastical orders gave, as the price of their establishments, both to the papacy and the civil power, much of the wealth and liberties of the several countries of Europe. And what greater gain or price could they require? This expositor well knew that the price which a favored priesthood is always expected to give for the royal bounty is the allegiance of their people under all circumstances. Too, too faithfully, alas, has this price, this dear price, been paid to both princes and popes. They have long had at their disposal the purses and the persons of their deluded and oppressed subjects throughout the several kingdoms of Europe. In order to give any plausibility to the system of interpretation which Mr. Faber adopts, he is under the necessity of assuming, as a point from which to set out, a false fact. And we fear it is for the sake merely of giving some excuse for insisting upon this false hypothesis desirable for certain political purposes, that this scheme of exposition has at all been adopted. That false and gratuitous hypothesis is, that imperial France is an infidel power. I call this a false fact, for I insist upon it, that France is still one of the anti-Christian powers of Europe, one of the horns of the beast, one of the kingdoms of the grand apostasy. She has had, it is true, many infidel philosophers among her learned men, but so also have other nations, not accepting her great rival, the British Empire. Hume and Shaftesbury and Bolingbroke and Gibbon and Kames were in no wise inferior in industry and zeal against the Gospel to Voltaire and Rousseau and the French economists. The Illuminati of Germany, the head of the Empire, were no less addicted to infidelity than the French Jacobins. And perhaps the celebrated Frederick of Prussia, a royal tyrant of no mean rank among the nations, was not surpassed in attachment to infidelity by any of the Democrats of revolutionary France. The truth is that infidelity always has been and always will be the companion of gross superstition. This fiction of Jesus Christ, said one of the Popes of Rome, this fiction, how much we make by it. Revolutionary France, however, went further. She made a national profession of atheism. A declaration without opposition in the National Convention extinguished Christianity and made death an eternal sleep. Shortly thereafter, the vote of the famous Robespierre destroyed atheism and established deism as a religion of France. This was followed at no distant period by the mandate of another tyrant, re-establishing all the pageantry of the ancient superstition and restoring France to the communion of the man of sin. Footnote. How easily can a tyrant make a national religion, and of how little value is it in the sight of God or in the estimation of good men when thus made? End of footnote. When France was atheistical, the people had as much true religion as they had on the preceding year, and they have as little, probably today, as they had during the reign of Robespierre. But France is no longer an atheistical nation. If a decree once made her so, the decree is rescinded. If without such a decree, the irreligion of some of her principal scholars and statesmen made her so, The same cause universally prevalent among the nations must make all the nations atheistical in despite of their establishments. England was a Presbyterian kingdom by a decree of Parliament for a few years of the 17th century. During the reign of the protectorship of Oliver Cromwell, England was a Commonwealth or Republic. It would be to the full as correct to call the Presbyterian nation in the present day a Presbyterian republic, although she is in fact governed by a constitution which combines the prelacy and the monarchy, as to call France under her present constitution an atheistical republic or empire. I conclude these marks in the words of the New Edinburgh Encyclopedia reviewing the opinion of Mr. Faber under the article Antichrist. He maintains that revolutionary France is Antichrist, and that this formidable power was revealed in all its terrors in the year 1792, when monarchy was abolished and atheism openly avowed. This opinion, it must be acknowledged, is supported by its author with great learning and ingenuity. But when we recollect that most of the facts on which it is founded are drawn from the fanciful and exaggerated statements of Berul, and that the abolition of monarchy and the avowal of atheistical tenants were but the deed of a comparatively small number, actuated by a temporary frenzy, and that the one was soon succeeded by the return of regular government and the other by the re-establishment of the Christian religion, we cannot feel disposed to attach much credit to the theory of Mr. Faber. Footnote. By regular government and the Christian religion unto which this writer says France returned, we are to understand despotism and potpourri. End of footnote. It seems to derive its chief interest from the extraordinary value of the events which have lately taken place in France, and from the desire that we naturally but illiberally feel to load that country and its ruler with all that we have been accustomed as a religious nation to regard with most abhorrence, and consequently to justify upon system the spirit of eternal warfare. There is, it is said, a large manuscript volume in the Bodleian Library written to prove that Oliver Cromwell was the Antichrist. This may appear very ridiculous to us, but it did not appear so, perhaps, to those who lived in the times of the usurpation. And in a century or two hence, Mr. Faber's book, so greedily swallowed by many of the present times, may be equally a subject of general wonder and pity. Conclusion From the considerations, my brethren, which have now been suggested, we feel authorized in drawing the inference that the several names Antichrist, Man of Sin, The King Doing His Own Will, The Mystery of Iniquity, and The Apostasy of the Latter Days are all different names of the same great system of opposition to true religion. and that they all designate that public prostitution of Christianity, which is connected with the fourth universal empire. I am the more anxious to impress this idea upon your minds, because the adversary of our salvation, in whose service and by whose power the anti-Christians carry on their seductions, is diligently occupied in diverting the attention of the witnesses of Christ from the principal impediment to a general reformation. If he can succeed in begetting infidelity, and in rearing up this, his own creature, to such an alarming height among the nations as to attract the principal notice of the saints, and call forth their principal efforts, he can the more securely promote the anti-Christian delusion upon which he places his chief dependence in prolonging his own reign over the nations, and in preventing the progress of the religion of the Son of God. Be not deceived by these acts, although they may have been already too far successful. From openly avowed infidelity you have little to fear. With shameless effrontery that enemy stalks forth at noonday. But it is from a masked battery the foe does the greatest execution. The scriptural predictions are in this case our safest guide. They foretell, for our instruction, that the spirit of Antichrist is that which we have most to fear, most to detest, most to oppose. Avowed atheism has little to recommend it, even to the fallen mind. It finds in human nature comparatively few principles on which to engraft its own scions. Man is naturally prone to reverence some invisible superior. It is upon the sense of deity in the depraved heart that Satan wrests his baneful superstition. From such superstition we have more to fear as individuals and as members of society than from actual atheism. Where one man has descended into the pit denying the being of God and of a future state, thousands have perished in false hope. have fallen blindfolded by error into the ditch, or, bound in the shackles of a false faith, have been dragged into the prison whence there is no redemption. Infidelity affects society by a temporary frenzy. It speedily produces, by its obvious evils, a cure to its own poison. But superstition, united with despotic power, holds a more successful scepter. It is more than the magic wand of fairy tales, more than the witchcrafts and enchantments of ancient barbarism. It finds ready access to the corrupt heart, it imperceptibly insinuates its soul-ruining heresies, it decorates its temples, it avows respect for the gods, it promises celestial happiness, it introduces the voice of the multitude in its favor, and thus it deceives the unwary to their own destruction. Pretending to be the guardian of the peace, the prosperity and the glory of nations, it employs the sort of civil authority to cut off, as disturbers of the peace, the witnesses of a purer faith and a more holy practice. Pilate was less an enemy to our Savior than were Annas and Caiaphas, And where infidelity has sacrificed upon her altars one true believer, the superstition of despotic princes have offered up to their rapacious demons the blood of a thousand martyrs. Be not deceived, Christians, I repeat it, be not deceived by the cry of French atheism, but mark with more attention than ever Antichrist, in whatever nation he may be found. Treat with equal jealousy and indignation French and German and Spanish and Russian and British anti-Christianism. This is the grand enemy of the Church. It is the enemy now to be destroyed. Attend therefore in the fear of God to the voice which is heard from heaven giving commission to the angels of death. Go your ways and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. Amen. Lecture 10 Biblardion or The Apocalyptic Little Book Revelation 10 verse 9 And I went unto the angel and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it and eat it up, and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. There is a very general reluctance, obvious upon the part of mankind, to have their conduct tried by the precepts of divine revelation. This feature of human character appears most conspicuous in those great social concerns which involve the strongest feelings and the most extensive temporal interests of multitudes of men. I mean those very complicated concerns which usually pass under the general name of politics. There exists, even among professed and perhaps some real Christians, a powerful disinclination to have their political maxims and transactions subjected to the rules of Christianity. This fact, while it is in evidence that religion is opposed to the general plans of worldly-minded men, and also that it has too little influence over its professed friends, is not surprising. Christianity hitherto, except in a few instances, has suffered by its connection with civil polity, and from the very nature of society it must suffer in such connection until both learning and power are transferred into the hands of godly men, and so made subservient to piety. Independently of the impressive lessons of long and painful experience upon this subject, it is quite reasonable to expect that if unsanctified men incorporate revealed religion with civil government, such a form will be certainly given to religion as may suit unsanctified power. The Daughter of Zion is much better without such an alliance, for it is the very essence of anti-Christianism. The Bride The lamb's wife cannot be supposed to escape pollution if taken into the embraces of unholy men and rendered dependent upon a government which they administer. It is safer for the friends of religion to continue like the witnesses prophesying in sackcloth, faithfully struggling in poverty against the frowns of power, than to become the stipendiaries of irreligious statesmen. The truth is inculcated by every line of the little open book. It is the design of this lecture to explain the manner in which this book is brought into view and to unfold its contents. The discussion, although it does not assume the form of a commentary, must be in fact an exposition of Chapter 10 throughout and of Chapter 11 from the first to the thirteenth verse. The succeeding verses of that chapter have already been explained in Lecture 8 of this series of discourses. I am to explain to you the manner in which this book is brought into view. In the preceding lecture I have endeavored to show the meaning of the term Antichrist and have given the reasons which require its application to the great apostasy of the Latin Roman Empire. When expounding the trumpets we found it necessary to pass over the 10th and the principal part of the 11th chapter in order to proceed directly from the 6th to the 7th trumpet. and we then showed the reason for interposing the present subject of discussion between those two trumpets, that is, to exhibit the object of the last mentioned judgment which had in fact risen up during the progress of the preceding trumpets. As the same system of immorality and irreligion, which is the subject of punishment under the seventh trumpet or third woe, is the subject of the judgments poured out from the vials also, it is necessary to describe it more particularly in this place than could be consistently done at the time just mentioned. We have already observed that the narrative of the trumpets proceeds from the close of chapter 9 to chapter 11 verse 14, and that the whole of chapter 10 and 11 verse 1 to 13 should be considered as parathentical. This Reformation audio resource is a production of Stillwaters Revival Books. There is no copyright on this material and we encourage you to reproduce it and pass it on to your friends. Many free resources as well as our complete mail order catalog containing classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books at great discounts is on the web at www.swrb.com. 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