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CHAPTER XII.

ON ST. PAUL'S PREDICTION OF THE MAN OF SIN.

EFORE I pafs on to the confideration of the fixth

and seventh vials, or of any predictions which refpect Political events; I fhall direct the attention of the reader to fome of those prophecies, which have an immediate reference to the exercise and the extinction of Ecclefiaftical tyranny. Of the two-horned Beaft, the emblem of the antichriftian priesthood, fome account has already been given. But there are other prophecies, relating to the fame subject, which, in a work like the present, ought not to be paffed by unnoticed. Such are those by St. John respecting the fymbolic Babylon, Daniel's defcription of the little horn of the Fourth Beaft, and St. Paul's prophecy of the Man of Sin.

I begin with the last of these predictions. St. Paul, speaking of the coming of Chrift, a phrase often applied in fcripture to the commencement of the millennium, says, that day shall not come, except there come a falling away firft, and that man of fin be revealed, the fon of perdition; who oppofeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, fo that he as God fitteth in the temple of God, fhewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that when I was yet with you, I told you thefe 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 fhall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord

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fhall confume with the fpirit of his mouth, and shall deftroy with the brightness of his coming'.

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On this prophecy, which appears to foretell a general apoftacy in the Chriftian church, a number of valuable obfervations occur in Mr. Evanfon's able Letter to Bishop Hurd; and I cannot, without transcribing liberally from it, do juftice to what he has urged. The ' name of the man of fin, which is made ufe of in this prophecy,' fays Mr. Evanson, neither your Lordship, nor any approved commentator, fuppofes to fignify any one particular man, but merely a human power, posfeffed and actually exerted by a fucceffion of different men. And it is not eafy to conceive, how any one should have understood that phrase in a more limited fenfe. As man of God evidently means not any par'ticular man, but every fincere and good Christian in all ages and nations of the world; fo the man of fin undoubtedly fignifies not any one man alone, but every man, or number of men, in all ages, and I must add, in all places too, (though there, perhaps, your Lordship will not agree with me) whofe peculiar station and • circumstances shall be found to correfpond to the prophetic defcription here given us.' Mr. Evanfon has alfo asked his lordship fome embarraffing queftions. When our own eighth Henry, from motives of mere

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II. Theff. ii. 3-8.

Mr. Buan Herport, who was perfecuted and imprisoned at Bern, (as quoted by Mr. Taylor of Portsmouth), in like manner fays, “the man of "Perdition, Antichrift, is to be found in all places. Whoever makes "himself judge over his brother, forcibly obtrudes on him his own imagi"nations, and thus fets up himself in the temple of God; he ufurps Christ's "prerogative, burthens confcience with terrible oaths for the fake of hu"man edicts, and perfecutes the true difciples, the living members of the "church. Whoever does these things, whether Pope or King, Sovereign "or Magiftrate, Clergy or Layman, is ANTICHRIST." See Farther Thoughts on the Grand Apoftacy, p. 31.

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'personal refentment, thought fit to transfer the very fame fupremacy from the perfon of the pope to himfelf, within the limits of his own dominions; when the 'fame fpiritual courts fubfifted, the fame ecclefiaftical 'jurifdiction was continued under him, which had been established under the Roman pontiff; when, in the full 'spirit of papal tyranny, he burnt fome of his fubjects for not renouncing the authority of the pope, and others for renouncing fome of the groffeft errors of 'popery: had not he also every feature of the man of 'fin? Nay, even in the days of reformation, and the reigns of proteftant princes, when, by virtue of the very fame affumed authority and fupreme power in religious affairs; and, by the fame mode of ecclefiaftical * jurisdiction, numbers of conscientious persons were imprifoned, fined, tortured, and even burned to death, for not profeffing, or not conforming to, what they ⚫ were firmly perfuaded was repugnant to the commands ' of God, were none of the diftinguishing marks of this 'predicted, impious power to be difcerned in our own country? Or fhall the fame characters be allowed to • denote the man of God in England, which in Italy serve to point out the man of fin and son of perdition3?'

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The expreffion, the temple of God, is perfectly confiftent with this general application of the prophecy. It muft,' fays bp. Hurd, be interpreted of the Christian church, and could not, in the prophetic language, be interpreted otherwife.' It is certain,' declares bp. 'It Newton, that the temple or house of God is the Chrif⚫tian church in the usual style of the apoftles". When therefore the man of Sin is said to fit in the temple of God, it is, as both thefe dignitaries remark, the fame thing as if it had been faid, he ruleth in the church of Chrift.

s Vol. II. p. 347.

• P. 20-23.

+ Vol. II. p. 159.
N 4

• There

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There was,' fays the bp. of Bristol, fome obstacle ⚫ that hindered his appearance, the apoftle speaketh doubtfully whether thing or person". By this prelate, and by most other writers, the Roman empire is conceived to have been this obftacle. But, in the opinion of Mr. Evanson, it was the paganism of the Roman 'emperors.' This, fays he, fo long as it continued, muft, in the very nature of things, prevent the civil 'power of the empire from being exerted to establish and fupport any nominally Chriftian church.---It is * true, this interpretation makes the civil magiftrate the chief cause and supporter of the general confirmed ' apoftacy from true Christianity. And it appears to me ⚫ impoffible, that it could have been effected by any other means. Even within the precincts of the Holy See, the Romish fuperftition is maintained folely by the power the pope poffeffeth as a civil potentate, not as an ecclefiaftic: and within the dominions of other princes, when the authority and influence of the church of Rome extended fartheft, it never did nor 'could enforce obedience to its decrees and ordinances, but under the protection and by the aid of the civil government in each particular country'.'

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'St. Paul tells the Theffalonians that the COMING of this man of fin would be not only with all power, but with figns and lying wonders. And if it be thought right to understand this circumftance as defcriptive of ⚫ the appearance of the first man, who ufurped a spiritual tyranny over the minds of his fellow-citizens, and im'piously arrogated to himself the power of ordaining articles of faith and religious doctrine, which are not required of Christians in the gospel, it is most remarkably applicable to the perfon of Conftantine; for his

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6 Newton, vol. II. p. 349.

7 P. 25.

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'converfion happened when he was at the head of a 'powerful army, and was pretended to have been occafioned by the miraculous vifion of a crucifix in the clouds, whose celestial inscription promised him victory, upon his adopting the profeffion fignified by that 'fign or emblem. But, from the application which the Proteftants uniformly make of this part of the prophecy to the fabulous legends of the Roman Catholics, I conclude, there is fomething in the turn of expreffion ' of the whole sentence taken together, which is thought 'more adapted to the paftors of the apoftate church, than to the temporal potentate, by whofe power the apoftacy was to be established. And, even in this sense, your Lordship well knows the prophecy will apply as ftrongly to the ecclefiaftics of the fourth century, as to 'thofe of the church of Rome. The pretended miracles of that period are very numerous.'

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The prophecy of the man of fin fitting in the temple ' of God, and fhewing himself there as God, seemed,' fays Dr. Creffener, to be in its first formation by the con'duct of some of the Roman emperors foon after the ⚫ advancement of Christianity upon the throne. The very first-fruits of the imperial authority in the church, in the day's of Conftantine, and even before the full ' end of the Pagan perfecution with Licinius, were the depofitions and banishments of the Arian bishops.

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The Roman councils began alfo at the fame time to be ⚫ accounted the infallible oracles of God. Constantine ⚫fays of the council of Nice, that it was infpired by the will of God himfelf". And that that which feemed

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good to them was to be taken for nothing less than the mind of God.-To pronounce the peremptory curfes

Let. to bp. Hurd, P. 26.

Socrates, lib. I. Ep. Constantini ad Ecclefiam Alexandriæ.

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