the true Christ came in judgment to destroy the Jewish Church. In like manner every age presents its own picture of those future events, which alone are the real fulfilment of the prophecy which stands at the head of all of them. Hence St. John says, “Little children, it is the last time ; and as ye have heard that the Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists ; whereby we know that it is the last time.” Antichrist was come, and was not come ; it was, and it was not the last time. In the sense in which the Apostle’s lay was the end of the world, it was also the time of Antichrist. However, a second objection may be made, as follows : St. Paul says, “Now ye know what withholdeth, that he (Antichrist) might be revealed in his time[1].” Here a something is mentioned as keeping back the manifestation of the enemy of truth. The Apostle proceeds : “He that now withholdeth, will, until he be taken out of the way.” Now this restraining power being generally admitted to be the Roman empire, and the Roman empire (it is argued) having long been taken out of the way, therefore Antichrist has long since come. I grant that “he that withholdeth,” or “letteth,” means the power of Rome, for all the ancient writers so speak of it. I grant that as Rome, according to the prophet Daniel’s vision, succeeded Greece, so Antichrist succeeds Rome, and our Saviour Christ succeeds Antichrist[2]. But it does not hence follow that Antichrist is come ; for I do not grant that the Roman empire is gone. Far from it : the Roman empire remains even to this day. It had a very different fate from the other three monsters mentioned by the Prophet ; as will be seen by his description of it. “Behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly ; and it had great iron teeth : it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it : and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns[3].” These ten horns, an Angel informed him, “are ten kings that shall arise out of this kingdom” of Rome. As, then, the ten horns belonged to the beast, and were not separate from it, so are the kingdoms into which the Roman empire has been
- ↑ 1 John. ii. 18
- ↑ Chrysostom in loco.
- ↑ Dan. vii. 7
