be a question which the time was figuratively or literally expressed -a question only to be decided by the matter of the Prophecy or the events predicted. But this brings us from the direct Scriptural argument to the consideration of the interpretations of its prophecies, and especially of the Apocalypse, founded on the year-for-day theory; and, as the principal of these have passed in review in these Lectures, the reader must be left to judge whether-with their endless discrepancies and utter uncertainty-they can be received as proofs of it.

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5. And last :-It is admitted by the supporters of that theory that for the first four centuries at least the "days" in Daniel's and the Apocalyptic prophecies respecting Anti-Christ were interpreted literally by the Fathers of the Christian Church :-So Elliott ('Hora Apocalypticæ,' Part iv. ch. ix. § 1, Vol. iii. p. 233, Third Edit.), who accounts for the fact by the suggestion that it was needful that the true solution should be concealed from the Church, 'to answer a moral purpose,' viz., that she might be kept from the earliest age in the attitude of watchful expectation.' Strange assertion, truly :-that a good purpose should be answered by misunderstanding the word of God! But in fact, though some at an earlier period spoke of a probable mystical meaning of the " 1260 days," in addition to the literal, the year-for-day system (it may be shewn) originated as late as the end of the fourteenth century, in the application of the Prophecies of Anti-christ to the Papacy.

(M.) Page 243.

ON THE NUMBER "666."

As an example I subjoin the following from Calmet's Dictionary, by Taylor, Article ANTICHRIST :

'The number 666 has been discovered in the names-Ulpius Tra'janus (a); Dioclesian (b); Julian the Apostate (c); Luther (d); 'Evanthas (e); Latinus (f); Titan (g); Lampetis (h); Niketes, 'Conqueror (i); Kakos Hodegos, that is, Bad guide (k); Arnoumai, 'I renounce (1); Romiit, Roman (m); Abinu Kadescha Papa, Our

'holy Father the Pope (n); and, Elion, Adonai, Jehovah, Kadosch,

'The most High, the Lord, the holy God (0).

10. 80. 10. 80. 1. 1. 300. 6. 4. 100. 5. 6. 50.

་

10. 2. 1.

666

י ה ו ה ק ד ש
י ן א ד נ
ע ל י

(0)

300. 4. 100. 5. 6. 5. 10. 10. 30. 4. 1. 50. 6. 10. 30. 70. 666

'This last example,' says Calmet, 'could have been invented only 'to show the vanity of all the pains taken in this inquiry; since the

' number 666 is found in names the most sacred, the most opposite to 'Anti-Christ. The wisest and the safest way,' he adds, 'is to be silent.

NOTE.-Of the foregoing, the sixth (ƒ) Lateinos has been again adopted and advocated recently by Mr. Elliott, whose notice, however, it has escaped, that it proves nothing, inasmuch as it will equally suit Rome Pagan, or Papal, or Anti-Christian, as may be.

(N.) Page 302.

ON BABYLON AS ROME.

On the subject of Anti-Christ in general, and the revival of the Roman Empire in particular, the reader will find many important remarks in four Sermons, entitled 'Advent Sermons on Anti-Christ,' viz. On the Times-Religion-City-and Persecution of AntiChrist,—Vol. v. No. 83, of 'Tracts for the Times,' chiefly as showing the opinions of the Fathers on this point.

One passage I extract on account of the quotation it gives from one of the Fathers, a contemporary of Irenæus, and who with him lived less than one hundred years after the Apostle John :

'Another expectation of the early Church was that the Roman monster, after remaining torpid for centuries, would wake up at the 'end of the world, and be restored in all its laws and forms; and this 'too, considering those same recent events to which I have alluded, is certainly worth noticing also. One of the Fathers, whom I have 'already quoted, expressly deduces from a passage in the xiiith 'chapter of the Apocalypse, that "the system of Augustus, who was 'founder of the Roman Empire, shall be adopted and established by ‘him (Anti-Christ), in order to his own aggrandizement and glory. This is the fourth monster whose head was wounded and healed; in that the empire was destroyed and came to nought, and was divided into ten. But at this time Anti-Christ, as being a man of resources, will heal and restore it; so that it will be active and

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'vigorous once more through the system which he establishes" :-

... τοῦτο σημαίνει, ὅτι κατὰ τὸν Αὐγούστου νόμον, ἀφ ̓ οὗ καὶ ἡ * βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων συνέστη, οὕτω καὶ αὐτὸς κελεύσει καὶ διατάξει

απαντα ἐπικυρῶν, διὰ τούτου δόξαν ἑαυτοῦ πλείονα περιποιούμενος. · Τοῦτο γὰρ ἐστι τὸ θήριον τὸ τέταρτον, οὗ ἐπλήγη ἡ κεφαλὴ καὶ · πάλιν ἐθεραπεύθη, διὰ τὸ καταλυθῆναι αὐτὴν, ἤ και ἀτιμασθῆναι, · καὶ εἰς δέκα διαδήματα ἀναλυθῆναι. ὃς τότε πανοῦργος ὤν ὥσπερ * θεραπεύσει αὐτὴν καὶ ἀνανεώσει......ἐνεργήσει γὰρ καὶ ἰσχύσει · πάλιν διὰ τὸν ὑπ ̓ αὐτοῦ ὁρίζόμενον νόμον.—Hippol. de Antichristo. $ 49.

I need not say I read this passage with no little satisfaction, as stating in so many words the very same expectation—of the revival of the ancient glory of Rome and the days of the Cæsars-which I ventured (not being aware of this sanction at the time) to state in these Lectures somewhat diffidently on my own responsibility, having deduced it solely from the Prophecy. It is right to mention also that these two Fathers (as the same discourse adds) assigned that meaning to the number of the Beast which has since been most generally adopted, viz.—' Latinus, Aareîvos;' but their view of the Anti-Christ and the revival of the Roman Empire shows, as observed in last Note, that, admitting the correctness of the calculation, the name might belong both to Anti-Christ and Rome without proving Anti-Christ to be Popery, or the Beast of the Apocalypse to be the Papal power.

On another point which I have urged in this Lecture, and before in my Lecture on "The Man of Sin," namely, his connexion with the Jewish nation, I am glad again to let the author of these Sermons speak, as also the Fathers whom he quotes. In the same Discourse on 'The Religion of Anti-Christ,' he says—

'I just now made mention of the Jews: it may be well then to 'state what was held in the early Church concerning Antichrist's connexion with them.

Our Lord foretold that “many should come in His name, saying, I am Christ." It was the judicial punishment of the Jews, as of all unbelievers in one way or another, that, having rejected the true

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'Christ, they should take up with a false one: and Antichrist will 'be the complete and perfect seducer, towards whom all previous

6

ones are approximations, according to the text just quoted, "If ' another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." To the same purport are St. Paul's words after describing Antichrist; "whose coming," he says, "is...with all deceivableness of unrigh'teousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of 'the Truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall 'send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they 'all might be damned who believed not the Truth, but had pleasure ' in unrighteousness."

'Hence, considering that Antichrist would pretend to be the Mes'siah, it was of old the received notion that he was to be of Jewish race, and to observe the Jewish rites.

'Further, St. Paul says that Antichrist should "sit in the Temple ' of God;" that is, according to the earlier Fathers, in the Jewish 'Temple. Our Saviour's own words may be taken to support this 'notion, because He speaks of "the Abomination of Desolation," '(which, whatever other meanings it might have, in its fulness, de' notes Antichrist), "standing in the holy place." Further, the per'secution of Christ's witnesses, which Antichrist will make, is described by St. John as taking place in Jerusalem. "Their dead

เ

bodies shall lie in the street of the great city (which spiritually is 'called Sodom and Egypt), where also our Lord was crucified."

'Now here a remark may be made. At first sight, I suppose, we 'should not consider that there was much evidence from the Sacred 'Text for Antichrist taking part with the Jews, or having to do 'with their temple. It is, then, a very remarkable fact that the 'apostate emperor Julian, who was a type and earnest of the great 'enemy, should, as he did, have taken part with the Jews, and set ' about building their temple. Here the history is a sort of com'ment on the prophecy, and sustains and vindicates the early inter'pretations of it which I am relating. Of course I must be under'stood to mean, and a memorable circumstance it is, that this belief