Lange, is this. u The beast, with reference to the last head, or rather (the commentator himself is not certain) at that time, when the last head, and strictly speaking the beast itself, as the eighth, rages, is an individual person (which however will not be any Pope),” etc.: Epicr. p. 387. I reply : The expression, or rather , does not imply doubt respecting the fact, but it only subjoins to an inadequate ex- pression one which is adequate, the comparison of which two may not be useless to the reader. There is no reason why the last Pope, by far the worst of all, should not have that destruction, which is mentioned, Apoc. xix. 20, and which follows the desolation of Babylon.
Obs. 18. He is the Impious One , the Man of Sin , the Son of Per- dition, who Opposeth and Exaltetli himself — the Wicked One. — Thus the Scripture terms him, and especially Paul, 2 Thess. ii. 3. And I should wish that my Annotations on that passage may be referred to here.
Obs. 19. The same is called by a word very commonly used , Anti- christ.— The term, Antichrist , where the Epistles of John are not in question, and beyond these it does not occur in the Scripture, is most conveniently set aside in this discussion, on account of the Homonymia [Append.]. For it is spoken either with reference to A ntichristianity , which arose about the time of the apostles, in which sense John himself wrote, that even then there had already been not one, but many antichrists, 1 Ep. ii. 18 : or with reference to the Papacy , which had now borne rule for many ages, in which sense most of the Protestants take it : or with reference to the Man of Sin in an individual, as the Divine of Halle especially takes it. I do not employ a word which has become so ambiguous, except when I either treat of the Epistles of John, or when I quote the sentiments of others, who employ the word : and if I should make use of it in discussing the Apocalypse (although that Wicked One will call him- self God , and not Christ ), I should use it in the same sense in which the Divine of Halle does ; and yet he denies, that I have a right idea of Antichrist : Epicr. pp. 375, 389. He would not deny it, if he had leisure for an attentive perusal at least of my Preface.
Obs. 20. The ten horns or kings , together with the beast , receive power as kings for one hour. — That is openly stated, Apoc. xvii. 12. The individual beast is meant : and the one hour is the time of their carrying on the kingdom ; since the ten horns shortly afterwards give it to the beast. The beast was lately said not to be : wherefore he receives power afresh, and with him the kings, who after the in-