TIAN AND ATHEISTICAL FACTION of the

latter times.

"I cannot quit the subject, without declaring

my sentiments on an important point, upon "which much error is abroad. INDIFFERENCE

TO THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES IS CRIMINAL.

"Misconstruction of them may be dangerous. “I confess, I cannot discern any immediate signs "of the fall of ANTICHRIST. I fear, I see too

clearly the rise, instead of the fall, of the Anti"christ of the West. Or rather I fear, I see "him advancing to full stature and ripe age.

His rise, strictly speaking, the beginning of the "monster, was in the Apostolic age. For it

were easy to trace the pedigree of French Phi

losophy, Jacobinism, and Bavarian Illumina"tion, up to the first heresies. But it is now "we see the adolescence of that man of sin, or "rather of lawlessness, who is to throw off all "the restraints of religion, morality and custom, "and undo the bands of civil society. That son "of perdition, who is to rise out of an apos"tacy-not a constructive apostacy; never un

"derstood to be such, by those to whom the guilt has been imputed: but an open, undisguised apostacy. That son of perdition, who "shall be neither a Protestant nor a Papist, "neither Christian, Jew, nor Heathen; who' "shall worship neither God, Angel, nor Saint "who will neither supplicate the invisible Ma'jesty of heaven, nor fall down before an idol. "He will magnify himself against every thing "that is called God, or is worshipped; and "with a bold flight of impiety, soaring far above " his precursors, and types in the times of Pa

66

66

66

66

ganism, the Sennacheribs, the Nebuchad

nezzars, the Antiochuses, and the Heathen

Emperors, will claim divine honours to him"self exclusively, and consecrate an image of "himself. I doubt not, but this monster will "be made an instrument of that pruning, "which the vine must undergo. I am afraid

to say, that the judgment will begin, or fall " with the greatest severity, in that part of the "Church, which most needs purgation. For "when I consider the superstitions, introduced

E

66

"in the rites of worship, in some parts; the " unwarrantable innovations, in the form of "church government, in others; the relaxation " of discipline, the lukewarmness, the neglect "and violation of the ordinary private duties, "the frequent breach of the Ten Command"ments, in those parts where the doctrine, the "form of government, and the rites of publie 66 worship seem to me the most conformable "to the model of the primitive ages; I am "afraid to say, which of the various branches "of the church of Christ it is, in which the "purgation may be the most needed." Page 105-107*.

In a preceding section, the learned Bishop, speaking of Antichrist, declared, "I have an "unfashionable partiality for the opinions of

The republication of this important passage, is the more desirable under existing circumstances, as it is omitted in the new edition of the Bishop's Biblical Criticism, and is to be found only in the quarto edition of ❝ a Letter "to Edward King, Esq." by Samuel Lord Bishop of Rochester. Printed for Robson, 1799.

"antiquity;" and, in his masterly delineation of the character of the last predicted tyrant and enemy of the church, his Lordship seems to have adopted and revived the prevalent opinion of the early ages, as stated by St. Jerome, in his Commentary on the 7th of Daniel. “ Ergo "dicamus quod omnes Scriptores Ecclesiastici "tradiderunt: in consummatione mundi, quando

regnum destruendum est Romanorum, decem "futuros reges qui orbem Romanam inter se "dividant: et undecimum surrecturum esse 66 regem parvulum, &c. Ne eum putemus juxta "quorumdam opinionem, vel diabolum esse, vel "dæmonem; sed unum de hominibus, in quo "totus Satanas habitaturus sit corporalitèr. Et

os loquens ingentia. Est enim HOMO PEC"CATI, filius perditionis, ita ut in Templo Dei "sedere audeat, faciens se quasi Deum."

I am aware, my Lords, that these opinions, or any others concerning Antichrist, are become very unfashionable; and it is not my purpose to detain your Lordships by a disquisition whether Antichrist be the devil incarnate, or

3

the Roman Pontiff. The latter, your Lordships well know, was the opinion of Bishop Newton. What his sentiments would now be, is the question, on Protestant and Catholic conciliation and affinity;-we may collect them from his admirable "Recapitulation of the Prophe"cies relating to Popery." Works, vol. i.

66

66

66

66

66

p.

763.

Since, then, the corruptions of Popery are

so particularly foretold in scripture, and make

so considerable a part of the ancient pro

phecies, we have the less reason to be sur

prised and offended at them. While the "Papists endeavour to corrupt, and adulterate "the doctrines of the prophets and apostles, "they still accomplish their predictions; while

66

66

66

they labour to destroy Christianity in one part, they unwittingly confirm and establish it in another. And since a time is certainly "coming, wherein God will avenge himself on "these idolaters, and require the blood of his "servants at their hands, let us wait with the "faith and the patience of saints, till it be accomplished. We have seen the prophecies

66