doubtless be remembered: but there might be, and I think there clearly was, a very considerable miştake as to what was indeed the substance of it.

The Apostle, I more than suspect, told the Thes salonians, not that the Roman Empire itself was the impediment, but THE COERCING POWER OF THE

ROMAN EMPIRE or THE COERCING LAW OF THE ROMAN

EMPIRE: for he speaks of the impediment, both in the neuter and in the masculine form'. Hence, when he reminds them in his written epistle of what he had told them by word of mouth, he commits to paper only the first member of the phrase which he had orally employed. Now ye know THE COERCING POWER: the Thessalonians, who were in the secret, would readily supply OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. And again: There is THE COERCING, until it be removed from the midst: by those, who had orally conversed with the Apostle, the suppressed member of the phrase, LAW OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, Would readily be supplied.

What St. Paul, then, told the Thessalonians, was this: that a tyrannical and irreligious Power, which he denominates the man of sin and the lawless one, should assuredly be revealed in its own appointed time, AFTER there had been a great Apostasy from the primitive faith, but BEFORE the arrival of the day of Christ which they erroneously deemed close at hand; that THE COERCING POWER OF THE

· Gr. Τὸ κατέχον τῆς ̓Αρχῆς Ῥωμαῖας and Ο κατέχων νόμος τῆς ̓Αρχῆς Ρωμαίας.

ROMAN EMPIRE effectually prevented the revelation of this oppressive tyranny; but that, when THE COERCING LAW OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE should be removed from the midst, then the man of sin, no longer restrained by the strong arm of law, but acquiring his predicted character of the lawless one by setting himself up above all law and by having the laws given into his hand, should be openly revealed.

.

/ Such, partly from the broken hints in the written prophecy and partly from the constant tradition of the Church that the Apostle had mentioned the Roman Empire to the Thessalonians, we may, I think, clearly enough collect to have been the purport of his oral communication : for, in fact, the written prophecy, and the tradition of the Church, jointly, though neither of them singly, furnish the complete expression which he had used in his conversation. The full import and nicety of the expression were probably not understood by the Thessalonians: or, at least, it is easy to see, how that, which in reality is not the substance of the expression, might hastily be mistaken for its substance. St. Paul had said, that THE COERCING POWER OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE must be removed, ere the man of sin is revealed. THE COERCING POWER OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE was incautiously, though naturally enough, deemed synonymous with THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Hence arose the universally prevalent belief in the primitive Church, that THE ROMAN EMPIRE was the impediment which prevented the revelation

of the man of sin; and therefore that, previous to his revelation, THE ROMAN EMPIRE must be removed. Yet St. Paul had made no such assertion: and so far was this from being the substance of what he had really said, that it conveyed to the mind a totally different idea. At the same time, the mistake was so natural and so easy, that, had the Apostle committed to writing his entire expression, there can be little doubt that it would have excited the ferocious jealousy of the imperial government. A prediction, that THE COERCING POWER OF THE RO

MAN EMPIRE or THE COERCING LAW OF THE ROMAN

EMPIRE was destined to be removed, would have been deemed by an imperial procurator fully tantamount to a prediction, that THE ROMAN EMPIRE itself was destined to be removed: and little regard would have been paid to any explanation given by a hated Christian, who was charged with circulating treasonable or at least disaffected expressions.

The impediment, then, to be removed, in order to the revelation of the man of sin, is not THE ROMAN EMPIRE itself, which (as Daniel had already taught the Church) was not to fall until the close of the latter three times and a half; but it was THE COERCING POWER or THE COERCING LAW OF THE RO

MAN EMPIRE. Now this coercing power or coercing law is plainly enough removed, when the times and the laws and the saints are given into the hand of the little Roman horn: and the times and the laws and the saints are given into the hand of the little

Roman horn, when the ten western kings agree to give their power and strength to the beast and his harlot-rider. For, by the removal of the coercing power or the coercing law, and by the giving times and laws and power to the man of sin, he gains his predicted character of THE LAWLESS ONE OF THE POWER SUPERIOR TO ALL LAWS; under which character he appears, accordingly, at the epoch of his revelation.

It is obvious, that the removal of such an impediment as the coercing power of the Roman Empire was not likely to be accomplished in a day: on the contrary, the slow hand of time alone would be able to effect so extraordinary a circumstance. If, then, we would learn the precise year in which the lawless one was revealed, we must trace the gradual removal of the impediment until it was entirely taken out of the way: for, as soon as the impediment is completely withdrawn, the lawless one, we are assured by the Apostle, is immediately revealed. Now the lawless one is revealed at the commencement of the latter three times and a half. Hence, the complete removal of the impediment, and the commencement of the latter three times and a half, must of necessity be synchronical. Such being the case, a tracing of the gradual removal of the impediment must be deferred, until I come to discuss the true date of that celebrated

'Dan. vii. 25. Rev. xvii. 12, 13.

2 Gr. ὁ ἄνομος,

period: for these two matters are closely and inseparably interwoven.

II. St. Paul intimates, not only that the man of sin should be revealed immediately upon the removal of an impediment which we have seen reason to deem the coercing power of the Roman Empire, but likewise that he should be closely connected with an Apostasy of whatsoever description. The specific nature of that Apostasy he does not teach us in the prediction relative to the man of sin: but, in another prediction immediately relative to the Apostasy itself, he gives us a very full and particular account of it.

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that, in the latter times, certain persons shall apostatise from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and to doctrines concerning demons, through the hypocrisy of liars who have their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, with an abstinence from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving by the faithful and by those who have known the truth3.

There cannot, I think, be a shadow of doubt, that the Apostasy, thus graphically set forth in the prediction now before us, is the Apostasy to which

See below, book i. chap. 6. § III. 2.

" Ireneus deems the man of sin an apostate, who would recapitulate or sum up in his own person the whole diabolical Apostasy which should precede him. See Iren. adv. hær, lib. v. c. 20, 21, 23, 24, 25.

3 1 Tim. iv. 1-3.