guage of prophecy, ten kingdoms. (4.) That she takes rank among and above the kings and princes of the earth. She is " arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls." (5.) That her riches are above estimate. This is dwelt upon at length in the eighteenth chapter. (6.) That she is a persecuting power, " drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." (7.) That the claims of this persecuting power, as appears from Revelation xiii. 13, 14, are to be sustained by lying wonders. " He doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by those miracles which he hath power to do in the sight of the beast." We find, therefore, in this description all the traits which in Daniel and the Epistle to the Thessalonians are ascribed to the Man of Sin, or, 6 avTiKtCfievos, the Antichrist. It matters not what this power may be called. " Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together." Any man; any institution; any organized power which answers to this prophetic description, comes within the prophetic denun- ciations here recorded.1 Neither does it matter what is to happen after this judgment on the mystical Babylon. Should another Antichrist arise, essentially worldly in his character, as so many anticipate, who shall attain universal dominion, and set himself against God and his Christ with more blasphemous assumptions, with a more malignant hatred of the Church, and a more de- moniacal spirit than any of his predecessors, this would not at all disprove the correctness of the interpretation given above of St. John's predictions concerning Babylon. On this point, Maitland says : " The two great powers whose names stand fore- most in prophecy come into historical contact at a single point. Where Babylon ends, Antichrist begins: the same ten kings that destroy the first, give their power to the second. When
l Auberlen, p. 293, quotes with approbation the following passage from John Michael Hahn (Brief* und Lieder iiber die Offenbarung. Works, vol. v. § 6, Tubingen, 1820) : " The harlot is not the city of Rome alone, neither is it only the Roman Catholic Church, to the exclusion of another, but all churches and every church, ours included, namely, all Chris- tendom that is without the Spirit and life of our Lord Jesus, which calls itself Christian, and has neither Christ's mind nor Spirit." While giving the prophecy this wide scope, Auberlen, nevertheless, adds, " The Roman Catholic Church is not only accidentally and • de facto,' but in virtue of its very principle a harlot; she has the lamentable distinction of being the harlot «,t' i£oKvv, the metropolis of whoredom, the mother of harlots (Rev. xvii 5); it is she, who, more than others, boasts of herself; I sit a queen, and am no w7dow and shall see no sorrow (xviii. 7), whereas the evangelical (Protestant) Church is, according to her principle and fundamental creed, a chaste woman; the Reformation was a protest of the woman against the harlot."
830 PART IV. Ch. in. — the second advent.
the ten kings shall have burnt Rome, so complete will be the ruin, that no sign of life or habitation will again be found in her. Here, then, is a decisive landmark ; Rome is still standing, there- fore, Antichrist has not yet come : we are still in the times of Babylon, whether tasting or refusing her golden cup." In this view, that is, in assuming that the Scriptural prophecies respect- ing Antichrist, have not their full accomplishment in any one anti- christian power or personage exclusively, many of the most dis- tinguished eschatologists, as Auberlen and Luthardt, substantially agree. The ancient prediction that Japhet should dwell in the tents of Shem, had its fulfilment every time the descendants of the latter participated in the temporal or spiritual heritage of the children of the former ; and had its final and great accomplish- ment in the sons of Japhet sharing the blessings of redemption, which were to be realized in the line of Shem. In like manner the predictions concerning Antichrist may have had a partial ful- filment in Antiochus Epiphanes, in Nero and Pagan Rome, and in the papacy, and, it may still have a fulfilment in some great anti- christian power which is yet to appear. So much, at least, is clear, in the time of Paul there was in the future a great apos- tasy and an antichristian, arrogant persecuting power, which has been realized, in all its essential characteristics, in the papacy, whatever may happen after Antichrist, in that form, is utterly de- spoiled and trodden under foot.1
1 The Apostles' School of Prophetic Interpretation: with its History down to the Present Time. London, 1849, p. 41. Mr. Maitland, on p. 42, presents the difference be- tween Babylon and Antichrist in the following manner: —
"Babylon is Described. Antichrist is Described.
As a feminine power. As a masculine power.
Seductive and abandoned, prevailing Ferocious and warlike, enforcing his
through her golden cup. claims by the sword.
Is succeeded by ten antichristian kings. A final apostasy provoking Christ's second
coming in vengeance.
Is burnt by the ten kings, who afterwards Destroyed, together with the kings, in the
fight against the Lamb. great battle with the Lamb.
Is bewailed by her accomplices in crime. Leaves none to lament his fall.
Contains some of God's people even to Fatal to salvation of all his followers,
the end.
Established on the seven hills. Reigns in Jerusalem."
The undue size which this volume has already reached forbids a fuller discussion of this subject. The reader is referred to the American edition of Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, under the word "Antichrist," for an elaborate exhibition of the different views which have prevailed in the Church, and for an exhaustive statement of the literature of the subject. Doctor William Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. Revised and edited by Professor H. B. Hackett, D.D., with the cooperation of Ezra Abbot, LL. D., Assistant Li- brarian of Harvard College. New York, 1870.