willingly believed the Deceiver. Beloved, we have need of many Prayers and Tears, that any of us may ftand ftedfaft in the Day of Temptation. For many are the wonderful Works that shall be wrought by this Beaft! For he, being the Enemy of God, will endeavour to accomplish an univerfal Deftruction. For this End he will endeavour to make all Men receive his (1) Mark, when he comes in his C very Looks: And it shall be then clearly difcernible, who have taken the due Precautions, and who have not, in trying the Spirits which go forth in the Name of Chrift, and with the highest Pretences fet up themfelves in the Temple of God; both by the darkness of their Afpect, and by the outward Mark and Chara&er alfo of the Seal of Antichrift diabólically imprinted on their Faces, in the most eminent Part thereof. This Antichriftian Mark, with the gloomy Saturnine Cloud fitting upon their Brow; whereby their exprefs Com pact with Satan, and his Vicegerent Antichrift, is denoted and testify'd to the World; must be undoubtedly fuch an Infallible Mark of Difcrimination in the laft Days, as it fhall not be poffible for the Faithful, elected out of the World, and having the Seal of Faith; to be deceiv'd even with all the deceivableness of Un righteoufnefs in the Appearance of Antichrift and his Apoftles. (i) Concerning this Antichriftian Mark there is no fufficient Reafon alledg'd why it may not be an external and vifible Mark or Character, or why we fhould here recede from the Literal to a Metaphorical Senfe, when there is not the leaft Inconvenience following the former; and this latter is fo ftrain'd, and attended with fo many Difficulties, as will presently appear to every Impartial Confiderer. This external and vifi ble Character of the Antichriftians, as the Sign of the internal O i. e. his apointed Time to deceive the World by his Miracles, till the Number of his +Пa - Days fhall be accomplifhed. That fo they every plea may buy Food, and the Pleafures of † Jant Form Life. And the Rulers of the People do a Image.. complish his Defign. My Brethren, be It is a ware of the * Exaltation of this Beast Pleafure, For his Artifices are Diabolical, Obferve ratherthan how he begins with the Belly, that when Pleasure it Jelf and a Man is pinched for Want of Food, he theRepre may be compelled to receive his Mark fentation Not as it might be upon every Membe ratherthan of his Body, but in his (1) right Hand Shew of of a Thing the Thing it. felf. From whence is 132 and dov, internal and invisible Seal of the Spirit of Antichrif Erafm. in in their Hearts, is to be imprinted not once, but 1 Cor. viii. twice, for the more firm Binding of the Subjects, on 4. Simu- whom the Impreffion thereof is made. The two Im lachrum preffions are upon the Hand and the Forehead, Rev.xi eft vox 16. The Military Mark of Antichrift is the first of Latina a thefe, according to the Ancient Cuftom of ftigmat Simulando; zing Soldiers in the Hand. Hence Aëtius the Phyfi Idolon cian, having occafion to make mention of fuch fort Græca, ab of Marks in the Flefh, hath these Words: Tiya so, καλέσι τὰ ἐπὶ Ἡ προσώπε, ἡ ἄλλο τινὸς μέρες – σώμα Species, τὸς ἐπιγραφόμενα, οἷα 7 ςρατευομένων ἐν ΧΕΡΣΙ quod fpe- And Radulphus Flaviacenfis in his 14th Book upon L ciem & i- viticus, explaining that Precept of the Law, ref maginem not print any MARKS upon you: I am the LORD; Lev inanem, xix. 28. gives hereof this Reason, Stigmata dicebant præ fe fe- quedam Signa, qua in MANIBUS Militum fiebant, ut a rat, quum militia Imperatoris effe cognofcerentur. Prohibet ergo ne kr abfit Ve- jufmodi Characteres facerent fibi, quibus humanam vide ritas. tur profiteri fubjectionem, qui divinam profeffi funt peri fervitutem. And hence was also the Conftitution of Gregory the Great, Ne quis MANU Signatus, ante expl tam Militiam in Monafteriis reciperetur. Whence like * Ilw La Cox 2 Cor. iv. 7. 17. wild and upon his (k) Forehead, fhall he receive this Hellish Mark, that he may not be able with his right Hand to make the (k) Sign of the Crofs, nor im prefs C 2 wife in the Notitia utriufque Imperii, we have the Names of the Honorians, the Theodofians, the Conftanti ans, and others, who were fuch Soldiers as had rea ceiv'd in their Hand, or in their Arm, the Mark of that Emperor under whom they ferv'd. (k) The Servile Mark of Antichrift is that upon the Forehead; which is to be diftinguifh'd from the foregoing, as implying a great deal more than it: The one of thefe Marks is lefs visible, the other is to be feen of all; the one is the Badge of a Warfare that is to have an End at a certain Period, but the other of perpetual Servitude, of a Slavery never to have End; and the one, I think, may hence be call'd a delible, but the other an indelible Character. To which may be well apply'd that of Suidas, fpeaking of the Fa ther of Bion, who had been a Slave, 'Ou eownOY, άλλα συγγραφω ότι ο προσώπε, ο δεσπότε πια κείας συμβόλου Voc. Συμβ. And Petronius fpeaking of Eumolpus, fays agreeably, Implevit FRONTEM utriufque ingentibus Literis. Whence a Slave bearing fuch a Mark in his Forehead, is call'd Literatus by Plautus. in his Cafin. A&t. II. Sc. 6. and FRONTE notatus by the Epigrammatift, Mart. Lib. 3. Alfo FRONTES Li terati by Apuleius, after the fame manner as Literarum nota per fummam ORIS contumeliam inufti, by Valerius Maximus, are thus apply'd to denote the deplorable Eftate of thofe condemn'd Bondflaves who are ftig matiz'd in the Face or Forehead. To which allo Clemens Alexandrinus and Chryfoftom do allude: And Cardinal Cajetan, according to them, thus explains St. Paul; Ad fimilitudinem fervorum geftantium in FACIE impreffam notam Dominorum inuftione ferri factam, defcribit fe Paulus portare manifefte in corpore fuo, non unam, fed multas impreffas notas Domini Fefu. Comm. in Gal. vi. 17. Wherefore the Difference betwixt this twofold prefs on his Forehead the Holy Name of the Lord, or the Glorious and Venerable Crofs of Chrift our Saviour. For the Deceiver knoweth, that the () Sign of the wofold Mark of Antichrift, viz. in the Hand and the Forehead, or Military and Servile, may deferve well to be heeded. For they that receive his Mark but in the Hand only, are not thereby abfolutely out of all poffibility of being recover'd again: But they that fhall be fo unhappy as to receive it in their Forehead alfo, will thereby be fealed to Deftruction together with him, without the leaft poffibility of an Escape remaining for them. What manner of Diabolical Mark this fhall be in the Flesh of these Antichriftians, either in the Hand or in the Face, to diftinguish them from Chrifians at the first fight, we cannot be certain: But moft probable it is, that there fhall be fomewhat of Darkness and Deformity in it not to be diffembled, with fomething fuited to exprefs their highest Contempt of the Crofs of Christ, and Abjuration of his Name and Doctrine. (1) This feems to have been a fort of Social Teffera and Characteriftick among the First Christians, whereAby they could all know one another, without discovering themfelves to the Heathens, in whofe Company they might be; and could alfo undifcovered filence their Demons in their Temples, put a ftop to their Sacrificial Offices, loofe fuch as were Bound by Sa tan, and after feveral manners destroy and fruftrate the Works of the Devil, looking earnestly through Faith at the fame time up to JESUS, as treading upon the Serpent's Head by his Death for Man on the Cross: Who, according to the African Father, Serpentis Spolium, devicto Principe Mundi, See Torellian againft Marcion, and his Apology; with in logies for Chriftianity: As also what Oriommentaries, St. Cyril in his Catechise, is Treatife of the Holy Ghoft, St. Chry t. Matthew, the Ancient Book of the Ecierarchy, under the Name of St. Dionyat the Apologifts of the Church of EngJfe of the Crofs in Baptifm have produc'd this Sacred Sign. eafon which is here twice given for the a Diabolical Mark upon the Right Hand be flighted: But there is also another cident with it, and may be as Old as the at least, and that is, that this Hand is Power, and confequently of Victory alfo, In thereof was anciently used both by ens for a Trophy, or for a Monument of as appears from the Sacred Writer of of Samuel, and from David also in seindoubted Pfalms, with refpe&t to the or the latter Lipfius may be confulted, upon Vegetius, with other Learned Crie written De Re Militari._ Particularly e, that the Monument or Trophy which ted for his Victory over the Amalekites, on this very Suppofition,and took thence mination, as you may fee in 1 Sam. xv. our Verfion it is, He fet him up a Place, algar Latin, Erexiffet fibi fornicem triumn the Original it is Tan Hand, and the accordingly render'd the Place dvésarev And that this alfo was no other than the is pretty plain, upon an Allusion there, upon his Victory over the Edomites, in 6 See likewife for this, Pf. cvi. 26 Ifa. zek. xvi. 27. xxi. 22. and Zach. ii. 9. And f. cix. 6. with Zach. iii. 1. which bear an lation to this Satanical Power. The Mark of |