eth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. Here again the Antichrist, or head over the houses of the wicked, is alone mentioned; though the whole of his ungodly household are included. And again we have it plainly asserted, as intimated in verse 10 of Psalm v, that he falls by his own counsels, and is snared in his own toils having sown the wind, he reaps the whirlwind. It is especially worthy of notice, in reference to the present times, that it is his mischief and violent dealing that are recompensed on his own pate. Of this character are the principles of insubordination and agitation, or violence and strife, by which popular objects are now sought to be obtained; and which must ultimately c Hosea VIII. 7. d Ps. LV. 8, 9. recoil on those who promote them. It is the violence and strife which the Lord spies in the city that causes him to bring on his windy storm and tempest ;d and thus "with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down."e 46 Oh! how refreshing, amid the clamour of this strife of tongues," which is already begun, and the "violence" which is already "risen up into a rod of wickedness,"f to know that we have a covenant God who is earnestly mindful of his people, and who is then about to lay bare his arm in their behalf, and take to him his great power. He admonishes us, when we see these things begin to come to pass, to lift up our heads, for our salvation draweth nigh; and presently all those who trust in him will praise the Lord according to his righteousness, and will sing praise to the Name of the Lord Most High.-Verse 17. ABDIEL. e Rev, XVIII. 21. f Ezek. VII. 11. ON ANTICHRIST. Of the many deep and momentous truths which are unfolded to the church by the sure word of prophecy, there are none perhaps of more serious and pressing importance than those which concern the revelation, the operations, and the downfal of Antichrist. It is proposed in this paper to inquire into the testimony of the Scriptures on this subject; taking as the basis and guide of our search the words of the Apostle Paul, 2 Thess. II. 1-12. The intention of the Apostle, in this portion of the epistle, is to warn the church of an apostacy which should arise previous to the coming of the Lord; by which, as by a sign, they would be informed of the nearness of his approach, inasmuch as he would destroy the head and leader of the apostacy "by the Spirit of his mouth and the brightness of his coming." By attending to this prediction they would not be shaken in mind nor troubled" to the neglecting of their proper duties, in the expectation of the immediate appearing of the Lord, which they so eagerly desired. It will be desirable to divide the matter of the prophecy under con sideration into distinct heads; that by comparing the different Scriptures which appear to speak to the same point, the concurring testimony of the whole may be more easily perceived. The first head will contain the announcement of I. The apostacy which should take place before the Lord's coming. The terms in which this announcement is made would lead us to expect something definite and general, affecting the whole professing church. It is called (anooraoia) the apostacy, to distinguish it from the falling away of particular churches or bodies of men, and to mark it as that of which the apostle had already warned the church at Thessalonica. (v. 5.) Now such an apostacy is predicted both expressly and by implication in many places of Scripture. The apostle Paul (in 1 Tim. iv. 1—3) declares the express testimony of the Spirit, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith," (literally apostatize.)* In the 2nd epistle chap. 111. he warns Timothy that "in the last days, perilous times shall come," when the evil passions of men, being freed from the restraints till then imposed on them, shall manifest their perni. cious influence on society, by the general production of those bitter fruits which are now met with under various disguises, and are attended with a measure of disgrace.t In the 4th chapter he again alludes to the dislike of the truth which should be manifested at a time then future, but which appears from the context to have a connexion with the coming and kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. ; The apostles Peter and Jude affirm in the strongest terms the evil character of the men of "the last times."a They are represented as false teachers; corrupt and filthy men; despisers and blasphemers of dignities; covetous, like Balaam murderers, like Cain; gainsayers, like Korah; and in this class are probably to be found those “ scoffers" who shall tauntingly ask the expectants of the Lord, "Where is the promise of his coming?" St. John also gives a mark of the Antichrist which strikingly corresponds with the doctrine of the false teachers spoken of by the two former apostles: compare 1 John 11. 22; IV. 3 with 2 Pet. 11. 1 and Jude v. 4. How remarkably coincident are these testimonies of the apostles with the description given by our Lord of the character of the men who shall be living at the time of his re-appearing. There shall be false Christs and false prophets, who shall shew great signs and wonders; in so much that if possible they shall deceive the very elect." 66 66 And as it was in the days of Noah, and as in the days of Lot, so shall *It has been asserted by some who have seen nothing more than the Papal apostacy in 1 Tim. IV. that the expression vσTEρog Kaupo signifies a different period from that denoted by the expression εoxarais μepaus in 2 Tim. III. (See Morning Watch. vol. I. p. 108.) I think this is an hypercritical distinction, and one which will not serve to disunite these two prophecies, if they are considered with reference to their distinguishing features. The former appears to me to contain an intimation of every remarkable particular of the ultimate apostacy. †A. specimen has been afforded to professing Christendom in the French Revolution at the close of the last century. I would beg to refer the reader to the 14th of Abdiel's Essays, which may perhaps impress him with the idea which it forcibly conveyed to my own mind, that we are witnessing the rapid approach of the period foretold by the Apostle, and that the evil day is nearer than we may be disposed to allow. a 2 Pet. II. and 111.; Jude vv. 15, 18. "Reck it be in the day when the Son of 66 But the grand feature of the apostacy, as is proved by Bp. Newton, is idolatry-the giving to another the worship and honour due to God only. And by this mark the bishop would fasten on the church of Rome the charge of having fulfilled both the Scriptures in 2 Thess. II. and 1 Tim. IV. as well as those in Daniel VII, and XI. Now from verse 4 of the chapter under consideration it appears, (and it will be shewn more fully hereafter,) that the object of worship is the man of sin, who sitteth in the temple of God, as God." In the Apocalypse chap. XIII. a beast is described having seven heads and ten horns, to whom, as well as to the dragon who gives him "his power and his seat and great authority," the whole world, except the elect, give worship and adoration. This worship is given at the command of another beast with two horns, (v. 12) who is elsewhere called the false prophet-who makes an image of the first beast, and causes worship to be paid to that also. (vv. 14, 15.) This is enforced on pain of death, and consequently a great persecution of the saints is carried on by these beasts. (vv.7,15.) Does it not appear that these Scriptures all refer to the same period of time? And does it not ap pear that there is predicted in them a general apostacy, distinguished by a denial of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,-by idolatrous worship,-by persecution of the saints, -and by an universal degeneracy of morals and the prevalence of violence, fraud, blasphemy, and every species of wickedness? And let the marks of similarity between the man of sin and the first beast of Revelations XIII. be carefully observed. The second portion of the prophecy will set forth II. THE HEAD OF THE APOSTACYthe Man of sin-the Wicked one. Concerning him several particulars are mentioned. 1. He is called the Son of Perdition. This expression is applied to no one else save Judas the traitor. Many there are indeed who go into perdition by "the broad road," as it is written in Matt. VII. 13, Phil. III. 19; but the man of sin has the title by preeminence. And perhaps there may be an implied reference to the sudden destruction which will overtake him and consume him at the Lord's coming. Now in Rev. XVII. 8, we find a beast described as coming up from the bottomless pit and going into perdition. (v. 11.) He might therefore, according to the Hebrew idiom, be called a son of perdition. And in Rev. xIx. 19-21, we read that the beast and false prophet, which are evidently the same as are described in chap. XIII. are cast alive into the lake of fire, and are thus distinguished from the remnant who are slain by the sword of the Lord. The beast and his coadjutor go into perdition at once. Their fate is the same as that of the beast in chap. XVII. And the actions of these are the same; both being engaged in a conspiracy against Christ and his b Matt. XXIV. 37-39; Luke xvII. 26-30; 1 Thess. v. 3. saints, and are overcome by him while thus employed; (v. 13, 14)— and their form (each having seven heads and ten horns) is the same also. There can be but little doubt therefore that they are the same, viewed under different aspects. But we observed under the last head a remarkable similarity between the man of sin and the ten horned beast of the 13th Rev. We have in this another feature of resemblance: the former is expressly called the son of perdition, which applies equally to the latter. This consideration will afford a strong proof that they are one and the same. 2. He is distinguished as an opposer of God and a blasphemous usurper of Divine honours. Opposition to God is a characteristic of the men whom St. Peter describes in his 2nd epistle, II. 1,—“They deny the Lord that bought them.' But in Rev. XIII. we have the description of one who not only claims divine honours, but wears upon his seven heads the names of blasphemy, and opens his mouth to blaspheme God his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven. In chap. XVII. a scarlet coloured beast is seen of the same form as that of chap. XIII. 3, full of names of blasphemy. This power is further described as being the eighth after seven kings therein mentioned, and of the seven. (vv. 10, 11.) His blasphemy is another mark of his identity with the beast in chap. XIII. This blasphemous character of the man of sin leads us to notice another place of Scripture; viz. Dan. vii. Here we find four beasts arising one after another; the fourth of which has ten horns, and another little horn comes up amongst them, before whom 3 of the ten are plucked up, and consequently he becomes the eighth instead of the eleventh. (vv. 8, 23, 24.) This horn has eyes like the eyes of man and a mouth speaking great things, which we are informed in v. 25 are words against the Most High; and he wears out the saints of the Most High, and they are given into his hand for a time, times and the dividing of a time. And his great words bring him into swift destruction, (vv. 11, 12,) which would render the title son of perdition very appropriate to him also. The question now arises, is this little horn the same power or person who is represented by the beasts in the XIII. and xvII. chaps. of the Apocalypse? We may notice several corresponding features: his blasphemous words;-his persecution of the saints ;-his coming up after the other horns and becoming the eighth in number, as in xvII. 11 ;— the time of his continuance, viz. 3 times and a half, (which are commonly supposed to be the same as the forty-two months or 1260 days mentioned in the Apocalypse ;)his sudden and fiery destruction ;and the establishment of the kingdom of Christ, and of his saints upon his removal. It is very remarkable also that as the beast in Rev. XIII. 1–8 possesses all the heads and horns of the four beasts of Dan. vII. (except the little horn,) and bears a resemblance to them all, (see v. 2,) which would seem to indicate the possession of the power and dispositions of them all-so the eleventh horn appears to sway the power of the fourth beast who comes into the dominion of the whole earth, (v. 23) in the room of the others who preceded him. If we search farther in the book of Daniel we shall find other prophecies concerning a being who is distinguished by opposition to God and blasphemy. Chapter VIII. furnishes one.-In verse 9 a little horn is seen coming forth from one of the four quarters into which a former kingdom (which is universally admitted to be Alexander's) had been divided. This horn waxes greatsignalizes himself by exploits against the pleasant land and the holy people, (vv. 9, 24) expressions which can signify nothing less than the land of Israel and the Jewish nation. The vision is declared by the interpreting angel (v. 17) to be fulfilled at the time of the end-the last end of the indignation. (v. 19.) And it may be a fair enquiry whether this is not the indignation against the Jews which began at the destruction of Jerusalem. (See Luke xxI. 23; Isaiah x. 25.) He proceeds to explain, (v. 23) "In the latter time of their kingdom,” (i. e. Alexander's successors) when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences shall stand up"-"he shall stand up against the Prince of Princes, but he shall be broken without hand,"-without human agency, but by the immediate visitation of God. 66 Again in Dan. XI. there is "a king who shall do according to his will, (v. 36,) and shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished." He appears to have cast off the profession of his ancestors, (v. 37,)*he nevertheless establishes an idolatrous worship, (vv. 38, 39,)—he enters into the glorious land, (v. 41,) and plants the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain: yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him. (v. 45.) And at that time Michael (who is as God) stands up, the great tri bulation occurs, the Jews are delivered, and the resurrection takes place, which fixes the period of this king to be immediately before the coming of the Lord. He arises, it should seem, from the same quarter as the king in chapter v111.d and begins with a small power, (aptly represented by a little horn,) which he speedily augments by his craftiness. (vv. 21-23.) These two then, from their origin, their actions, (particularly against Israel,) their opposition to God and their preternatural destruction,-are clearly to be regarded as one and the same. But the identity of the man of sin and the wilful king of Dan. xi. seems too plain to admit of a question. Any man may be satisfied" says Bp. Newton," that St. Paul alluded to this description by Daniel, because he hath not only borrowed the ideas but hath even adopted some of the phrases and expressions." It will be further apparent from these particulars: his words against God, his exalting himself above all gods or objects of worship, he is destroyed in the height of his prosperity,-at the time of the redemption of Israel and the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we consider also the idolatry established under his sanction, the description will include another particular which is given of the beast in Rev. XIII. And these chapters of Daniel appear to form a connecting link between St. Paul and St. John. The prophetic Spirit in both seems to have directed them to these visions of Daniel— by exhibiting to the one a similar vision, and by inspiring the other with the words and phrases by which those visions are described. We may therefore consider these Scrip * The expression " the God of his fathers" would seem to imply that this person was of Jewish extraction. |