mony of bimself, among many others. . Ego fum Sermo Dei, Ego fum speciosus, Ego Paracletus, Ego Omnipotens, Ego omnia Dei. Besides those blasphemous Affertions of his, which are quoted by Moses Bar-Cepbas, a Syrian Bishop, in the Third Part of his Commentaries up. on Paradise, which you may fee in the End of Dr. Grabe's First Volume of his Spicilegium. As is also that of Nero, in which I'fhalì only observe, that his Apoftatizing (if I

I may so speak) from his happy Beginnings in his Quinquennium, observed by almost all the Historians that speak of him, does most exactly answer to the Opinions of the Fathers concerning Antichrist; as doth also the Apoftacy of 7 ulian. For thus faith Hippolytus concerning him, in his Oration de Consummatione Mundi, published in the Bibliotbeca Patrum, Tom. II. p. 13 e 14. In

his Beginnings he shall be Merciful, Mild, Religious and Peaceable; he shall punish Injustice; he shall not suffer Idolatry; he shall love the Scriptures; he fhall reverence the Priests: After this he shall cleanse the Lepers; he fhall heal the Paralytick; he shall cast out Devils; he shall forerell Things to come; he shall raise the Dead; he shall support the Wi

. dows and Fatherless; -he Mall reconcile Differences. Then all the People, especially the Nation of the Jews, fhall meet together to make him King: At first he shall craftily refuse this Honour; but they persisting in their Intentions, shall make him King: Then shall he lift up his Heart, and change his Manners; he shall

become

ecome fierce, unmerciful, unjust, proud, r. agreeable to what is foretold by the ophet Daniel concerning him, Chap. Ií. 21. that they shall not give him the Honour of

Kingdom, (i. e.) by a usual Hebraisń, le Honour of a Kingdom shall not be ven him; meaning that he shall have no ght nor Title to it before this flattering surpation, or else it contradicts what folws) but he shall come in Peaceably, and obtain

Kingdom by Flatteries; (rippana) by fidious treacherous Dealings. The Story

Mahomet is well known and the Parallel ry easy and Natural; besides whom there ive been many others, who have in some espects or other typified this Mystery of iquity.

S 8. The Man of Sin then whom these of the we represented shall certainly arise in the Birth and tter End of the Kingdoms, i. e. of the Parent age 'urth or Roman Empire, when the Transgres- chrift:

of Antirs shall be come to the full, or ( as the LXXII ad it πληρωμένων των αμαρτιών αυγών) when the Teasure of the Iniquities of the World D or perhaps Christendom) shall be filled p, as we are told Dan. 8. 23. Hippolytus upposes (Pag. 30. Edit. Parif.) that he shall e the Devil himself, who shall take upon im the appearance of Human Flesh, and hall fally appear to be born of a Virgin,

which he expresly asserts) not knowing Otherwise how to reconcile to his Opinion hat place of Moses, Exod. 13 and 2. That vhatsoever openeth the Womb is the Lord's, or as

K

the

Accounts

the Vulgar Latin has it, Sanctum vocabitur Domino. Which Opinion seems to have been transcribed from him by Ephrem Syrus

in his Sermon concerning Antichrist. But Abfurd this is a contrivance to falve an Hypothesis hereof by

which is so far from being necessary, that fome it contradicts the very Letter of the Holy Writers. Scriptures, 2 Thes. 2. 3. (where he is ex

presly called The Man of Sin) &c. as well as the common Sentiments of most other Writers. Others have been of Opinion that he shall be an Incarnate Devil, which St. Hilary asserts in his Comment on the aforecited Place of the Thessalonians. This Opi

nion (notwithstanding what has been said * De Carn. to justifie the Poflibility of the Incarnation Cbrifti,cap. 3.6 Ed.

of Angels by * Tertullian and + Origen) is, as Rigalt. upon many Accounts unreasonable, fo con+ Tom. 2.

tradicted by Damascene, Lib. 4. Cap. 27. Chryin Joh. Sostom and Theophyla&t upon the Second Epi

ftle to the Thessalonians. Others are of Opinion that he shall be born of a very impure unclean Woman, and begotten by an Incubees, or Evil Spirit. Whether such Procreation be possible, and whether the Traditions of the Ancients concerning such Births be true, (as that of Remus and Romulus, and Servius Tullius, recorded by Dionysius Halicarnafsæus, Lib. 1. that of Plato, by Diogenes Laertius; of Alexander the Great, by Plutarch,

dc.) I shall not here determine; but shall The most only fay, that it appears to me probable, Probable. that his Generation shall be according to

the ordinary natural course, between two Persons who shall have filled up the measure

.

of

of their Iniquities, the Devil so magically
co-operating with them, as to take possei-
fion of him in the very Womb, and make
him throughout as compleatly diabolical as
it is possible for a Man to be. This is the
Opinion of Rabanus Maurus (to whom the
later Criticks attribute that little Treatise
de Antichristo, published at the end of the
Ninth Volume of St. Austin's Works *,) he * P.259.
shall be born (says he) like other Men, not Edit.

Paris.
of a Virgin, as fome affirm, in the begin-
ning of his Conception the Devil fhall en-
ter into his Mother's Womb, and there shall
cherish and defend him. So St. Cyril of Je-
rusalem t says, The Devil shall use him as t Cat: 158
an Organ, or Instrument through which Ś 6.
he shall act. For so he understands that
Expression of his coming xo? ¿végy tiar
Ealavã, 2 Thef. 2. 9. His Parents, as most
Writers imagine, shall be Fews; but I ra-
ther believe a few and an Apoftate Christian,
such mixt Births having been observed to
be facal. Such were the Rebel-Giants, be-
gotten between the Sons of God and the
Daughters of Men (whether by the Sons
of God we understand only the Spiritual
Seed of Seth, or the 'Eysiness, as in the Pro-
phecy of Enoch + ) such, was rebellious - Syncelli

t. Absalom, the Son of Maachah; the Daughter

Chronogr:

p. 11. 24• of the King of Geshar ; and such it is com-Edit

. Gear. nonly thought was Adonijah, the Son of Haggith; whose Country indeed the Scripture takes no notice of.

The opinion in this : Pasegarazh. K 2 vi $9. His

ز

mdeed mnou probable.

ز

Tribe of

Cap. 3c.

That he

$9. His Extraction by the Jewish Side Aball come shall be from the Tribe of Dan; this is geoutlet ole nerally afferred by Hippolytus *, by Irenæus t, of the

, Dan.

who in a myftical Sense interprets that * P. 12. Paffage of Jeremiah, Chap. 8. v. 16. The * Lib. 5. norting of his Horses were beard from Dan (or

as the LXXII read it, axxooedd, we shall bear, &c.) of the coming of Antichrist. By these Words (faith he) Jeremiah shows out of what Tribe be shall arise; adding with

all, That this is the Reason why Dan is * omitted amongst the Tribes that are sealed.

Apoc. 7. St. Ambrose also, de Bened. Patriarcb. alferts the same from thefe Words, Gen. 49. '16. Dan shall Fudge bis People (viz. the Fews) as one of the Tribes of Israel (or as the one single Tribe of Israel, to whom the Government is given, i.e. Judab ;) speaking, thus, Chap. 7. Sampson indeed came out of the Tribe of Dan, who judged Israel Twenty Years, but the Prophecy pointed not at him, but at Antichrist, who fhall-arife out

of that Tribe, a severe Judge and cruel + Queft. Tyrant. Theodoret + afferts the same thing;

o in adding withal), That as the Scepter given Genef.

to Judah, did principally point out our Lord, who arose out of that Tribe, so the promising a sort of Rule or Government to Dan, did point out Antichrift, who should usurp, the Government of Christendom in

the later Days. The same is afferted by *De Pro. Profper. Aquitanicus *, in these Words : It is mis. Edit. plain that Antichrist shall arise out of the

Tribe of Dan, which is now in Persia, according to the Prediction of the Patriarch,

Gen.

109.

Duaci.