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the Jews with respect to Christ, so the Papists with respect to Antichrist, maintain that he is yet to come. But the Apostle foretells this very blindness, and its cause: "Because they believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness;" therefore, "God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." (2 Thes. ii. 11.) But to those who believe that both Christ and Antichrist have already come, we may say, "God hath chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle." (2 Thes. ii. 13—15.)

DISSERTATION XXIII.

St. Paul's Prophecy of the "APOSTASY of the latter Times."

ST. PAUL seems to have been deeply affected at the prophetic knowledge which he had of the Apostasy of the latter times, and frequently laments it. He had mentioned it to the Thessalonians, both in his discourses, and afterwards in his Epistle; which was considered in the last Dissertation, as far as it was connected with the subject of the "Man of Sin." In the Epistle to Timothy, he enters into a more full description of it, in the following words :-" Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their consciences seared with a hot

iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them who believe and know the truth." (1 Tim. iv. 1, 3.)

The Spirit speaketh expressly; the holy Spirit of God solemnly and precisely declareth the certainty of what is here predicted to take place "in the latter times," or in the times of Christianity. The phrase, "latter times," (or days,) as hath been already shown, is generally used in this sense in Scripture; e. g. "Christ verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in the last times, for you." (1 Pet. i. 20.) And as this Apostasy has been shown to be connected with the "Revelation of the Man of Sin," who is the same as the "little Horn," or "Antichrist," referred to by Daniel, and whose time was computed in a former Dissertation (XV.), it will be enough to say, that that particular period seems to be intended here. At this period, then, it is predicted that

"Some shall depart from the faith;" or, rather, shall apostatize from it; this is the precise interpretation of the word, which is used in another form, as mentioned in the former Dissertation, when a "falling away from the faith" is predicted. (2 Thes. ii. 3.) Now as the writers of the New Testament frequently derived their ideas and language from the Old, a

statement of what constituted apostasy under the Jewish Dispensation may serve to elucidate the meaning here. The Jews, then, seem never to have utterly renounced the One True God'; but they often revolted, and worshipped Him through the medium of idolatrous images; e. g. the golden calves formed the sin and apostasy of Jeroboam: and when they worshipped other gods besides Him, it was called apostasy; and hence the idolatry of Ahaz (2 Chron. xxix. 19) is called "his apostasy," and it is said that "he apostatized' greatly from the Lord.” (2 Chron. xxviii. 19.) The passage itself is well illustrated by a comparison with one from St. Peter: "There were false prophets also amongst the people, even as there shall be false teachers amongst you, who shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them." (2 Pet. ii. 1.) As there were false prophets who seduced the Israelites to the worship of other gods besides the True One, so shall there be false teachers amongst Christians, who shall "deny the Lord that bought them," by seducing his professing servants to look to "other lords and mediators." Every error or

1 See Part II. GRAVES; Book III. Chap. II.

2 The words which the Greek interpreters here use, añоσтаσia, and AπEOTη EV AñoσTAσεɩ, "apostasy," and "he apostatized in apostasy," our translators render " transgression" and "he transgressed sore." And the very same word is used by St. Paul in this prophecy, αποστήσονται τινες της πιστεως. (1 Tim. iv. 1.)

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heresy is not, properly speaking, an apostasy; but only when our worship is violated in some essential part, as in idolatry, or in substituting "other gods besides the Lord." When, therefore, we worship other beings besides God, and pray unto other Mediators and Intercessors besides the One Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ; then we do deny the true faith in such an essential part, as properly to be called apostasy: it is not "holding the Head," but depending upon other heads; and is, in effect, not regarding God "as God," nor Christ "as Christ.”

When the Apostle says some shall thus apostatize, it is evidently meant of a great number. We have examples of this in various parts of Scripture; e. g. "as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand" (1 Cor. x. 8); where "some” is equivalent to many thousands: or again, "neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed" (1 Cor. x. 10); where the word "some" refers to all the congregation of Israel, except Caleb and Joshua. Indeed, the fact of its being emphatically called "the apostasy," by way of eminence, implies that considerable numbers would be guilty of it. And as it was with the Church of Israel, that an apostasy long infected it, so, the Apostle, alluding to it, warns Christians to beware of the like apostasy, that should befall the Christian Church: "Take heed, brethren,

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