002 - Intoductory Remarks

INTRODUCTION THE history of the human race has wonderfully exhibited the craft and malignity of Satan, as contrasted with the power and grace of God. When the destiny of that race was suspended upon the observance of a particular precept, the great enemy, through his subtlety, effected the violation of that precept, and the consequent condemnation of the human species. But good arose out of evil. Divine grace had provided a Deliverer, and the assurance was given, that “the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head.”

Soon after this, the malignity of Satan is seen, in promoting bloodshed and slaughter among mankind. Cain kills his brother, and “the earth is filled with violence.” Here again Jehovah interposes. Noah is commanded to build an ark, in which, not only himself and family were for a time to be deposited; but, in which, through this one family, all future generations were to be preserved. A flood of waters then desolates the earth, the ungodly are destroyed; but the chosen family outride the storm and are safely landed on the sunny top of Ararat. A few centuries after this awful warning, the great deceiver introduces idolatry into the world. Those created things, which God had ordained to minister to the wants of men, are themselves converted into deities. The settlers of new colonies, the inventors of useful arts, venerated ancestors, are all considered as so many gods. Nor did the evil stop here. These distant objects and revered names, must be brought nigh to the worshipper; they must approach his senses. To effect this; pictures, images, and statues were introduced; and even these received divine worship! God interposes again. Abraham is called from Ur of Chaldea, and he and his posterity are made the depositaries of the truth and promises of Jehovah. The enemy, however, pursues this chosen race. He raises up among them false prophets; he leads even Israel into idolatry! For these breaches of his covenant, God punished his people in various ways; and ultimately caused them to endure a long and afflictive captivity in a foreign land.

Rescued from their visible idolatry, the next device of the great apostate was to obscure and corrupt those living oracles of God, by which Israel was to be governed. The synagogue has now taken the place of the grove, and the Rabbi that of the prophet of Baal. The word of God is now the professed object of study. Learned men are raised up, and schools of biblical literature are established. But inquiries are pursued beyond the testimony of God, and tradition is made the interpreter of Scripture. Soon this tradition is exalted into an authority equal, or even superior to that of the written word; while the strange spectacle is exhibited, of a people, with the law of God in their hands, yet following “the doctrines and commandments of men.” It was at this period, the great Deliverer appeared. The doctrines of Jesus were designed to bring men back from human testimony to that which is divine. Tradition, philosophy, human teaching, all he subjected to revelation. By his death too, and priestly intercession in heaven, he abolished the pre-existing priesthood and ritual, and introduced a simple and spiritual mode of worship, adapted to all nations, and designed for universal prevalence. He abolished, in short the slavery of men and introduced the freedom of God. This new system met with special opposition from Satan. He stimulated first the Jews, and afterwards the Romans, to persecute and destroy it.

Favored however by God it ultimately triumphs. Embraced at first by the people, it afterwards enters the palaces of the great, and even ascends the throne of the Caesars. This new aspect of affairs, led Satan to a different mode of attack. Unable to crush the new system, he undertakes its corruption. This was effected chiefly by the Papacy, a scheme more subtle in its conception, more extensive in its operations, and more destructive in its effects, than any ever devised for the overthrow of the truth and church of God.

Already have God’s people been, in a great measure, delivered from this tyrannical power. The yoke of iron has been broken, the walls of brass have fallen down. The light of the Reformation now happily shines upon a large portion of Christendom: and millions there are, who rejoice in the truths which Popery for centuries had eclipsed, and hidden from the world. Nor is this all; we have the promise of Jehovah himself, that the very last fragment of this oppressive system, shall ere long be banished from the earth. “Whom,” says an Apostle, “the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” In applying the term Antichrist ( Anticrivtov ) to the usurping power here alluded to, the writer has not only followed great and ancient names, but the true etymology and meaning of the word. Macknight defines its meaning thus — “One who puts himself in the place of Christ, or who opposeth Christ.” Schleusner says — “In Novi Testamenti libris, semper adversarium Christi ejusque religionis, significat” 1 — “in the books of the New Testament it always signifies an enemy of Christ and of his religion.”

How appropriately the history and character of the Papacy have fulfilled these descriptions, need not here be affirmed. This term, too, has been applied both by the ancient fathers, and by modern writers, by Protestants and Romanists, to some great enemy to the church, not existing so early as the days of the Apostles. Speaking of the Roman empire, Tertullian says — “Cujus abscessio in decem reges dispersa Antichristum superducet” 2 — “Whose separation into ten kingdoms will bring on Antichrist?” Cyril, of Jerusalem, expresses himself thus on the same subject — “Decem simul reges Romanorum excitabuntur in diversis quidera locis, eodem tamen tempore regnantes. Post istos autem undecimus Antichristus, per magicum maleficium Romanorum potestatem rapiens.” 3 “There will arise at the same time ten kings of the Romans in different places indeed, but reigning all of them at the same time. But after them the eleventh will be Antichrist, who, through magical wickedness, will seize the power of the Romans.” Commenting on the passage in Thessalonians, Jerome says — “Nisi, inquit, fuerit Romanum Imperium ante desolatum, et Antichristus praecessit, Christus non veniet.” 4 “Says the apostle, unless the Roman empire shall first be desolated, and Antichrist precede, Christ will not come.” Augustine also employs the word in the same sense. “Nulli dubium est, eum de Antichristo ista dixisse; diemque judicii non esse venturum nisi ille prior venerit.” 5 “It can be doubted by none, but that he (Paul) speaks these things concerning Antichrist, and that the day of judgment will not come, unless he first appear.” Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, also employs the word in the same way. Reprimanding John, bishop of Constantinople, who was seeking to be made head of the whole church, he says — “Ergo fidenter dico, quod quisquis se universalem sacerdotem vocat, vel vocari desiderabit in elatione sua, Antichristum praecurrit.” 6 “I say confidently, therefore, that whosoever calls himself universal bishop, or even desires in his pride to be called such, is the forerunner of Antichrist.” The Reformers generally, and since them, the great body of Protestants, have uniformly employed this term to designate “the man of sin” of the apostle Paul, the “little horn of Daniel and the “beast” predicted by John. The very same use is made of this term by Romanists themselves. “But Antichrist,” says Calmet, “the real Antichrist, who is to come before the universal judgment, will, in himself include all the marks of wickedness, which have been separately extant in different persons, who were his types or forerunners.” 7 The commentator on the Doway Bible, in his remarks upon the “man of sin,” says, “It agrees with the wicked and great Antichrist, who will come before the end of the world.”

There is also exegetical evidence, that the term Antichrist, in the epistles of John, is legitimately used in its application to the head of some great apostasy from the Christian faith. There is strong probability, that these epistles were written after the destruction of Jerusalem. If so, “the last time” of John, cannot refer to a period just preceding the subversion of that city. It seems rather to be synonymous with “the latter times,” spoken of by Paul. Nor is there any objection to this in the fact, that John says, “Even now are there many Antichrists.” The apostle Paul makes the same statement concerning “the man of sin” — “The mystery of iniquity doth already work.” Each of these apostles too, represents the person, or persons of whom they speak, as those who had departed from the Christian faith. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, says Paul, that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith.” John also describes his Antichrist, or Antichrists, as those who “deny the Father and the Son,” and as persons who “went out” from the church. The true interpretation of these passages seems to be the following: The Spirit of God had revealed to the apostles, that at some future period there would be a great corruption of the Christian faith. Even in their own day there were some, who had begun already to depart from that faith and to corrupt it. These the apostles considered as the forerunners of those later apostates, who would more generally and dreadfully pervert the gospel of Christ. In a more general way therefore, they classify them all together, but give a more particular description of the later and more notable apostates. The preceding observations and authorities will justify, it is hoped, the use of the term Antichrist as employed in this volume. As the writer firmly believes that the “little horn” of Daniel, the “man of sin” of Paul, and “the beast” of John, all symbolize the papal power, he has felt no hesitation, in applying the word Antichrist directly to that power. The author has also to state, that the motive which has led him to unite the two subjects, Christ and Antichrist, into one volume, is that the two sets of testimonies may: act with reciprocal force upon each other. The first argument is with the Jew, “beloved for the fathers’ sake;” the second is with the Romanist, pitied for the Savior’s sake. The same mode of proof is employed in both cases. And it is sincerely hoped, that if the Jew shall see any reason from these pages, why the Romanist should be convinced, he may also find something to lead him to his own Messiah; and that if the Romanist shall here find any thing which he supposes ought to satisfy the Israelite, he may also discover reasons to renounce his own system of error.

It is not, however, for either Jews or Romanists that these pages are chiefly written. The specific object is, to convince men in general, that the Papacy is the Antichrist predicted in the word of God. Most who will read these pages, are Christians, at least in name. They have no doubt, but that Jesus is the Christ. The author, therefore, proceeds, upon the same ground on which the Messiahship of Jesus is established, to prove the Antichristian character of the Papal power. To his own mind, the one set of arguments is as strong as the other; so, that if it be admitted, that Jesus is the Christ, he sees not how it can well be denied, that the Papacy is the Antichrist.

There is a strange similarity on this subject, between the infatuations of the child of Abraham and the disciple of the Pope. Both are looking for the proper subjects of these prophecies as yet future. To the Jew, Messiah is yet to come. Jesus to him is an impostor, a malefactor; his death was merited, his name is to be execrated. To the Romanist, Antichrist is yet to come; he is to arise but a little this side the last day. To him the Papal is the only true church, nor is there salvation in any other. Here is agreement, a strange agreement in infatuation and delusion! Surely God hath “blinded their eyes” and given them up to their own understandings.

Possibly some may think, that in a few of the chapters, sufficient regard has not been had to the unity of the argument. These apparent digressions have been indulged in, to exhibit more fully by contrast, the Christians and Antichristian systems. Popery never looks more deformed than when brought into comparison with true Christianity. That God may bless this volume for the promotion of the truth, and the advancement of his own glory, is the sincere desire of the author.