1. When the canon of fcripture was formed, and now in the hands of the faithful, the prophecies concerning Antichrift were too remarkable not to take their early attention. They accordingly cite these prophecies in their apologies and commentaries, or refer to them, very frequently. But one thing is fingular. Though Antichrist be every where spoken of in the prophecies as a perfecuting power, and though the Christian church then was, and fo continued to be for near three centuries, in a state of persecution under the Roman emperors, yet this opprobrious name was not usually given to their perfecutors. I do not fay, that none of the early Chriftian writers ever applied that character to the Emperors. Some few of them, in a fit of zeal and refentment, did [g]. But the most,

[g] Eufebius mentions, JUDAS, H. E. 1. vi. c. 2 j and DIONYSIUS, E. H. 1. vii. e. 10. Others, feemed to expect that Antichrist would appear as the Meffiah of the Jews; but in the perfon of a Roman Emperor; as will be explained presently. See the next note.

and

and the ableft of the Fathers, were clearly of another opinion.

It may be thought, that they forbore this application of fo odious a term, out of refpect to the government under which they lived, and from prudential confiderations. These motives had, without doubt, their weight with them, and made them more cautious, than they would otherwife have been, in interpreting the prophecies. But, if they had been at liberty to speak out, and declare their full fenfe, on the fubject, it is certain they would not, and could not, confiftently with their avowed principles, apply the prophecies concerning Antichrift to the Roman Emperors. For they had learned from tradition, and from the letter of the prophecies, that Antichrift was to be revealed in fome diftant age; and they even collected from a remarkable paffage in one of St. Paul's Epiftles (which will be confidered hereafter) that the removal of the Roman empire was to make for his appearance. Hence,

way

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they give it as a reafon for their ardent prayers to heaven for the preservation of the empire, that the dreaded power of Antichrift could not commence, fo long as the Imperial fovereignty fubfifted. And it is obfervable that, of those few writers, who were in different fentiments, the greater part conceived the time of his coming to be remote; and were even driven to the ftrange neceffity of fuppofing that Nero, the first perfecuting Emperor, was miraculously kept alive, or would be raised up from the dead, in order to be revealed in a future age, as the Antichrift of the prophets, or at least as the Precurfor of Antichrift [b].

In short, the idea, which the early Chrif tians, in general, formed of Antichrift, was that of a power, to be revealed in diftant times, after the diffolution of the Roman empire; of a power, to arife out of the ruins of that empire. Not to multiply quotations, on a point which admits no doubt,

[b] See many citations to this purpose in Dr. Lard ner's Cred. p. ii. v. p. 210, 11, 12.

Jerom,

Jerom, the ableft of the antient Fathers, and the most efteemed, fhall fpeak for the reft. He fays exprefsly, that fuch was the idea of all the ecclefiaftical writers, down to his time; as is here reprefented [i].

Now this circumftance ye will furely think not a little remarkable, that they, who lived under the emperors, and felt the whole weight of their tyrannous perfecution, fhould not apply the prophetic notes and characters of Antichrift, to them, if indeed the prophecies had been fairly capable of fuch application. This, I fay, is exceedingly remarkable: for men are but too apt even to wrest the scriptures to a fenfe, which favours their own cause, or gratifies their paffions; and to find a completion of prophecy in events, which fall out in their own days and concern themfelves (as we fee from fo many abfurd applications of the Apocalypfe, juftly objected to certain Proteftant writers); though, when fuch events are past, and

[i] Jerom, in Dan. vii.. Mede, p. 657. VOL. II.

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impartially confidered, no fuch accom plishment of prophecy can be difcerned in them.

When the church of Rome, therefore, now pretends, that Antichrift is to be fought in Imperial and Pagan Rome, ye will naturally afk how it came to pass, that the antient fathers, who had the best opportunity of seeing the conformity of the prophecies with the tranfactions of their times, and were fo much interested in those transactions, should yet overlook such conformity, if it had been real, and fairly marked out by the prophecies, when interpreters of these days are fo quick-fighted? And to this question, no just and satisfactory answer can be given, but that, in the opinion of those fathers, the characters of Antichrift were not fufficiently applicable to the Roman emperors; or, if they were, that certain exprefs claufes in the prophecies themselves forbade that application of them. Either way, their conduct forms a ftrong prefumption, that the Antichrift

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