of high priests. In Isaiah lxvi. 7, the Church of God is personified under the character of a woman, who travails in birth and brings forth a man child, which child is in the next verse called a nation, and denotes the nation of the Jews, which is suddenly to be converted to the truth in the last days. The same figure of a woman is used to denote the true church, in Galat. iv. 26. and in Rev. xii. 1-6. The figure of a woman is once more used to denote a corrupt church, in Rev. xvii. Having thus so many Scriptural examples before us, of a single person being used to represent a large body of individuals, in their collective or corporate capacity, we must at once see that Mr. Calderbank reasons most inconclusively, when he takes it for granted, without proof, that St. Paul's man of sin was to be a single individual.

Mr. Calderbank next observes, that from the unanimous testimony of the fathers, it appears that Antichrist "was to come into the world at "some time, not very remote from the period "of its general destruction." It is not denied that such was the sentiment of the fathers. But that opinion was linked with another sentiment, which the event has proved to be erroneous. The fathers generally believed, that the division

of the Roman empire into ten kingdoms mentioned in the prophecies of Daniel, was to take place near the end of the world, and as they conceived rightly, that the man of sin or Antichrist, was to spring up at the period of the above division of the empire, it necessarily followed that they also placed the rise of Antichrist, near the end of the world. They likewise believed all the three events, the division of the empire, the rise of Antichrist, and the consummation of the world, to be near at hand.

History proves, that they were wrong in the first of these opinions, for the empire was divided into ten kingdoms, in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, as is admitted by Machiavel, a Popish historian,t and the world is not yet destroyed. Now the error of the fathers in conceiving that Anti» christ was not to appear, until the end of the world, was a necessary effect of the former mistake, and arose out of it. This opinion of the fathers, being thus shown to be the consequence of a sentiment which history has proved to be erroneous, is entitled to no deference; and the Papist only shows, the weakness of his cause when he rests it upon such a foundation.

* Dan. vii. 7, 8 and 24. + Hist. of Florence, Book I.

That the above is a true representation of the opinions of the fathers, will appear from a passage in St. Jerome's commentary, on the 7th chapter of Daniel. "Let us therefore affirm, that which "all Ecclesiastical writers have delivered, that in "the consummation of the world, when the em"pire of the Romans is to be destroyed, there "shall arise ten kings who shall share the Ro"man world among themselves, and that an elev"enth_diminutive king shall come, who shall "subdue three of those ten kings, and in him "Satan shall dwell entirely and bodily."* The same father, when he heard of the taking of Rome by Alaric, wrote as follows, alluding to the general opinion of the first Christians, that the power which hindered the revelation of Antichrist, was the imperial dignity of Rome. "He who "hindered is taken out of the way, and we con"sider not that Antichrist is at hand.t”

Lactantius, in the seventh Book of his Insti tutes, treats of the coming of Antichrist and the Day of Judgment, and has a passage respecting the near approach of these events, to the following effect:-"If any one ask when these things

Quoted by Mede, Works, Book iii. p. 811. Edit. 1664. + Quoted by Mede, Works, p. 810.

"of which we have spoken are to happen, I have "shown above, that this change is to take place "at the end of the sixth millenary, and that al"ready that great day of the end is at hand. It " is permitted to us to know the signs which have "been predicted by the prophets, for they fore"told the signs from which the end of time is "both to be looked for and feared by us every

day. How soon the whole number of years is to "be completed, may be learned from those who "have written on chronology, collecting from the "sacred books and various histories, the length "of time which has elapsed since the beginning of the world. And though they differ among "themselves somewhat as to the total number of

66

years, yet none seem to expect that more than "two hundred years remain.-The thing itself "also declares that the destruction of the universe "is at hand; were it not that as long as the city of "Rome is preserved, nothing of this kind is to "be feared. But when that head of the world "shall fall, and begin to be a desolation accord

ing to the Sybilline prediction, who can doubt "that at length the end of human affairs and of "the world is come? That city it is which hith"erto sustains all things-and we ought to sup

66

plicate the God of Heaven, if his decrees and

"purposes can be delayed, lest that abominable "tyrant* should come, sooner than we think, "who shall perpetrate so great a wickedness, and "destroy that light with the extinction of which "the world itself is to fall."

From the above passage, it is evident that Lactantius thought, in like manner with Jerome, that the coming of Antichrist was to take place at the overthrow of the Roman empire, which he conceived was to be the immediate forerunner of the end of all things. We know from history, that the empire was overturned, by the Goths and Vandals, in the fifth century, and divided into ten kingdoms. At this time, therefore, in conformity to the sentiments of the fathers, we ought to look for the rise of Antichrist, their opinion that the destruction of the Roman empire, in its ancient form, was immediately to precede the consummation of all things, having been shown by the event to be completely erroneous.

* Meaning Antichrist or the man of sin, whose coming, Lactantius, with the whole of the primitive Church, believed was to be at the destruction of the Roman empire, and its division into ten kingdoms: "Reges decem pariter exsistant, qui orbem terræ non ad regendum sed ad censumendum partiantur.” Lactant. Institut. Lib. vii.