Pe od Re ca CO G de W to 01 be taken, as was obferv'd before, Temple, 2 Theff. 2. 4. or ratherB ward Court of the Temple, Rev. 2 Pt be in the Hands of Antichrift, we a fit as God, to receive Divine What then is the advantage of thi alf liation, if it delivers neither the C Temple? Why it is this, that all the obey and Repent, fhall deliver ther Souls, and be hid in the Day of the Lord ger. Zeph. 2. 3. How God fhall de them, is hard to determine; it may moft probably by giving them noti depart, before the City is Invested, hiding them in the Deferts or Moun where the Enemy can't find them, Prophets were hidden, during Ahab's ftacy, (a Type of thefe Times) I Ki 4. Thus Jeboafh the Heir of the King of Judah was preserved in the Houfe of Lord from the Maffacre of Athaliah, d the whole Six Years (the Number of! th Some Per- fliction) of her Ufurpation. 2 Kings 710 fonal Cha- 19. HERE then we fee Jerufal E racters at- ken by the Antichriftian Army, and tributed to tichrift himself fitting in the Temple Antichrift in Scri- magnifying himself as if he were God, f pture, viz. marvellous things against the God of Gods, His Blaf- ing himself that he is God, according to w phemy ;not was foretold, Dan. 11. 36. 2 The regarding the Defire This is no doubt the ultimate meaning of Women; the Abomination of Defolation standing in the his worship-ly Place.For what can be a greater Abom ing the God tion to the Divine Nature, than Antich Maozzim; his very Oppofite and Reverse? Let us Wonders.: • his doing X pe the Thams departed view him in all thofe Characters and diftinguifhing Marks whereby the Holy Scriptures point him out in his Compleat and Perfect State, which I prefume he muft have attain'd when he is come to this Period. Both the Prophet Daniel Chap. 11. and alfo St. Paul 2 Ep. Theff. 2. 4. and St. John Rev. 13. foretell that he fhall Blafphemoufly exalt himself above every thing that is called God, fitting in the Temple, and commanding himself to be Worshipped as God. Daniel fays that he shall not regard the defire of Women, by which I understand (notwithstanding all that Duft that Expofitors have raised about it) that he fhall not marry himself, and shall difcourage it in others, (and perhaps it was with a peculiar Regard to this that St. Paul, 1 Tim. 4. 1, 3, calls the forbidding to marry a Doctrine of Devils, as the place is commonly understood) thereby giving Encouragement to Fornication, and a Promifcuous ufe of Women.The next+ thing that Daniel fays of him is, that he shall Frene not regard the God of his Fathers, but in his Eftate he shall Worship the God of Maozzim. Dan. 11. Concerning this there are various Conje-38. ctures of Learned Men, fome taking it for o. Mars, others for Hercules, others for Jupiter Olympius the Abomination of Antiochus, others applying it to the Papacy make it to be the Saints and Angels which the Romanifts Worship with Divine Honours, others make it to be the Mafs it felf. The Learn ed Selden, after the moft diligent Enquiry,eam chooses rather to be filent, as finding no-an thing have decreed to oc? the now 1793 fits of the mistry tribute to this? Electricity thing among the Eafter Gods, be s particularly applied to the Prin or Darkness and Wrath, and alienated ers Su the very Elect, much more fhall the Prince and Ruler of them, Antichrift himself. St. Paul,2 Theff. 2. 9, 10.fays, that his coming fhall be after the working of Satan,with all Power, and Signs, and Lying Wonders, &c. St. John, Rev. 13. 13, 14. is fo particular as to tell us what fort of Wonders he fhall perform, viz. that be fhall make Fire come down from Cong Heaven on Earth in the fight of Men; i. e. the Earth-bread Beaft or False Prophet by his Power. Befides his healing the deadly Wound, and making the Image of the Beast speak and deliver Oracles, as we have Electricity 7 mention'd before. These are the moft renarkable Perfonal Qualities attributed to im in Scripture. The laft of these, viz. nis doing Wonderful and Miraculous Works is largely attefted by the Holy Fahers. The Sybilline Oracles, Lib. 3. speak argely to this purpose, that Antichrift fhall emove Mountains, ftop the Courses of the Sun and Moon, raife the Dead, &c. St. Hippolytus, p. 36. Edit. Morell. fays, " He fhall remove Mountains in the fight of Men, he fhall pass thro' the Sea dry-fhod, he fhall call down Fire from Heaven, he fhall change Day into Night and Night The yog T into Day, and alter the Course of the Sun at his Pleasure. (And elfewhere) Heal shall make his attendant dark Spirits ap pear like Glorious Angels of Light; he fhall bring with him innumerable Legions of Spirits, and in the fight of all Men hall ne fie in seem to be taken up into Heaven,with the Sound of Trumpets and Shoutings of his M Fol ton. 1603. p. 228. t Followers, he fhall fly to and fro in th Air, and defcend again upon Earth wit great Glory &c. Ephrem Syrus in Difcourfe de Antichrifto gives a particul *Edit. Co-Defcription of his removing Mountain adding that he fhall feem to remove a Ifland out of the Sea to the dry Land, th he fhall gather together an innumerab f Company of Serpents, and ravenous B that he fhall walk upon the Sea as upon Land, &c. To these might be added f Teftimonies of Lactantius and others, wh I omit as being nothing elfe but Repetit h of the fame Things. One Thing I can f pafs by upon this Head without a partic b Remark, which is that St. John menti f particularly, the Miracle of bringing do Fire from Heaven, which was no do t for fome particular Reafon. It is to be ted then that all forts of Miraculous. O t rations were comprehended under the th two Denominations, viz. Signs inr heights above, and figns in the depths below, I II. Now it was (and no doubt ftill is Opinion of the Jews, that to work S1 in the heights above was a true proof of vine Power and Authority, therefore t defired of our Bleffed Lord to fhew th R a fign from Heaven, or the heights abov Mat. 16. 1. as a Proof of his Divinity. t which Requeft of theirs, St. Mark 8.4 fays, our Lord fighed deeply in Spirit, no de bewailing the hardness of their Hearts( probably confidering within himfeli fatal to them that Perfwafion of the a t 1 |