of men. Though living in the world, he was not conformed to it; and though decided in his religious principles, his whole spirit was eminently catholic. He was a young man of great promise; and of his usefulness in future life, hopes, apparently the most justlygrounded, were cherished; but unerring Wisdom appointed otherwise : and while his friends look back on his brief but honourable career with melancholy satisfaction, they remember with unfeigned thankfulness, that as he "departed hence in the Lord," he is now, through the merit of the Saviour, in whom he trusted, "in joy and felicity" that shall know no end.

DIVINITY.

THE MAN OF SIN:

A DISSERTATION ON 2 THESSALONIANS II. 1—12:

BY GEORGE benson, D. D.

"Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be reveaed, the sonl of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the Spirit of his mouth, and will destroy with the brightness of his coming: even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness 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."

POPERY, however artfully disguised in Protestant countries, and where there is liberty for free inquiry, continues still to be a most corrupt and tyrannical religion in places where it is established and protected by the sword of the Magistrate.

As the Apostles had the prophetic Spirit in the highest degree, and Popery is such a notorious corruption of Christianity,-a corruption which has spread so far and wide, and continued so long in the world,one would naturally expect to find predictions in their writings concerning this grand apostasy, to prevent the true Christians of later ages from being shocked at the appearance of so disagreeable a state

of things: such a prophecy as, I apprehend, is contained in this chapter. (Ver. 1—12.)

St. Paul planted the Christian church at Thessalonica. After he had left that place, the Christians fell into a mistake concerning the coming of the day of the Lord, imagining that St. Paul thought it to be just at hand. To rectify that mistake, (which he suspected had been occasioned either by his discourses, when he was among them, or by a letter which he had wrote since; to rectify that mistake, I say,) he sent this second epistle, in which he acquaints them that that day could not be so near; because a great and remarkable apostasy was first to happen in the Christian church.*

That "the day of Christ" (verse 2) doth not refer to our Lord's coming to destroy Jerusalem and the Jewish nation, will plainly appear, if we look into the rise and progress of this mistake. In the former epistle, (chapter iv. 13, &c.,) the Apostle dissuaded the Thessalonians from excessive sorrow upon the death of their friends, such as the Heathens were commonly guilty of; putting them in mind of the Christian promise of a glorious resurrection to eternal life. When that resurrection and complete happiness will commence he there informs them; namely, at the coming of the Lord, when the Christians who shall be then found alive upon the earth, shall be transformed, as well as the dead be raised, and the righteous all made happy. Having mentioned that coming of the Lord, or of the day of the Lord, he, in the beginning of the fifth chapter, goes on with his discourse about that day, assuring them that it would come suddenly and surprisingly; and that (as the particular time was unknown) men should always be prepared: but he said nothing there, how nigh, or how distant, he apprehended it to be; and (very probably) from that his silence arose the mistake of the Christians at Thessalonica.

As soon as the Apostle understood that they had mistaken his meaning, he wrote to them this second letter, the principal design of which was to set them right about this point. And he seems to have been very solicitous to set them right in this particular, lest they should have been tempted to have thrown off Christianity itself, when they should find that the event did not happen according to their expectations.

When he was among them, he had told them that a grand apostasy was to happen; and therefore the day of the Lord was at some distance. That prophecy he now repeats, and intimates to them that it was a plain proof of the distance of that great day. If therefore the day or coming of the Lord, (1 Thess. iv. 15, &c., and v. 1, &c.,) ought to be understood of the day of judgment, when Christ shall descend, the dead shall be raised, and the generation then living transformed, as it certainly ought to be; I think it evident that it

* See Dr. More's "Mystery of Iniquity," p. 441, &c.

ought to be so understood in this place also.* For of the same day, and the same coming of the Lord, he seems to be speaking in both the epistles. And what may further confirm this is, that by that day, or the coming of the Lord,† is generally meant his coming to judge the world. As therefore this is the usual meaning of the phrase in other' places of the New Testament, and the most evident meaning of it in' these two epistles to the Thessalonians, we have no occasion upon that account to look for the "man of sin," and the grand apostasy, before the destruction of Jerusalem, as they are obliged to do, who understand this coming of our Lord to refer to the destruction of that city.

None of the seven following interpretations of this prophecy appear to me to be well-grounded :

1. Grotius would persuade us that Caius Caligula was the "man of sin" here prophesied of; whereas, according to the account of the latest and best chronologers, this epistle was written about twelve years after the death of that Emperor. It could not, therefore, surely be a prophecy of the wickedness and cruelty of Caligula.‡

2. Dr. Hammond would have Simon Magus and the Gnostics to be here designed. But Simon Magus had already showed himself an enemy to Christianity at Samaria, and therefore was not yet to be revealed. And as to his conflict with St. Peter at Rome, and many of the Doctor's stories about the Gnostics, they seem to be built upon too sandy a foundation to deserve any great regard. Dr. Whitby and Mr. Le Clerc have abundantly confuted that interpretation.

Grotius's introducing Simon Magus, (verses 8, 9,) is as groundless. For the Apostle doth there evidently continue to speak of the same person that he had begun with, verses 3, 4. And if Grotius saw that' the whole prophecy could not agree either to Caligula, or to Simon Magus, and his deluded followers, I think he ought in his interpretation to have referred no part of it to either of them.

3. Others would have. the unbelieving Jews, who persecuted the Christians before the destruction of Jerusalem, and made many of them apostatize to Judaism, to be the "man of sin," &c. But this interpretation appears to me to be not well grounded. For though the unbelieving Jews did, indeed, persecute the Christians; yet they were not united under any eminent head or leader. They were never able to exalt themselves

• Aust. de Civit. Dei, lib. xx., cap. 19.

+ See Matt. xxv. 31; Acts xvii. 31; 1 Cor. i. 8; iii. 13; v. 5; xv. 23; 2 Cor. i. 14; Ephes. iv. 30; compared with Rom. viii. 23; Phil. i. 6, 10; ii. 16; 1 Thess. ii. 19; iii. 13; v. 23; 2 Thess. i. 10; 2 Tim. i. 12, 18; iv. 8; 2 Pet. i. 19; ii. 9; iii. 4-10, 12; 1 John iv. 17; Jude 14; and many other places where phrases of the same import are made use of, as I Pet. i. 7, 13.

See this interpretation of Grotius more largely confuted in Dr. H. More's "Mystery of Iniquity," p. 445, &c.

§ See Mr. La Roche's new Memoirs of Literature for September, 1762.

"above all that is called a god," or an Emperor, that is, above all the Kings and Potentates upon earth. Nor had they, after this time, any one person among them who sat "in the temple of God, showing and manifesting "himself to be a god," or to be possessed of the power of a King, or temporal Monarch.

Nor doth St. Paul appear to me to be, by any means, "he that letteth." (Verses 6, 7.) For the unbelieving Jews persecuted the Christians after his conversion, as well as before it; nor could he prevent the apostasy of the Jewish Christians, by labouring (as he generally did) among the Gentile churches.

Besides, in the prophecy of St. Paul, the apostasy was (in a great degree, at least) to precede the revelation of the "man of sin; whereas the persecuting antichristian spirit of the unbelieving Jews was "revealed," or manifested, before the apostasy of the Jewish Christians.

And, finally, it is a grand objection with me against that interpretation, that, by the man of sin's appearing, and being "revealed," is understood his perishing and destruction: inasmuch as St. Paul hath clearly distinguished his coming and the continuance of his power, from the punishment and perdition which would be, at last, inflicted on him by the Lord.

4. "Others, again, would have the unbelieving Jews who revolted from the Romans, together with the Jewish converts who apostatized from the Christians to the Jewish religion, to be the persons here pro phesied of." Whereas, what the Apostle is here speaking of was an apostasy from the true religion. For so the word anоoтaría signifieth in other places of the New Testament. And what will lead us

to understand it so in this place is, that it was to be carried on by "sham miracles, and all the deceit of unrighteousness; and should prevail only upon vicious persons who had an enmity to truth, and loved lies and wickedness." But the unbelieving Jews could not apostatize from the Christian religion, because they had never embraced it; and the Jewish Christians who did apostatize had no eminent head or leader that deserved the name of the "man of sin," &c.

Dr. Whitby, who is the most considerable advocate for this interpretation, plays between the two, and brings in the unbelieving Jews revolting from the Romans, or the Jewish Christians falling away from Christianity, just as may best help him out in his hypothesis. But the prophecy itself is uniform, and describes one sort of apostasy quite throughout.

5. As Mahomet himself did never profess the Christian religion, he could not be called an apostate. However, as he made many Christians to apostatize, and built his religion partly upon the ruin and corruption of Christianity, some think he might in some sense be said to "sit

Acts xxi. 21; 1 Tim. iv. 1; Heb. iii. 12.

in the temple of God." He likewise (though he pretended to be an extraordinary Prophet) showed himself to be in reality no Prophet, but a temporal Prince; and he arose after the downfal of the Roman empire, which I take to have been the тo xaтexov, that which hindered the appearance of the "man of sin." All this may be said in favour of them who understand this as a prophecy of Mahomet. But then, (1.) Suppose that St. John and St. Paul prophesied of the same thing, (as I think they did,) it is evident that Rome must be the seat of the grand impostor. For (Rev. xvii. 9, 18) the city which stood upon seven hills, and then reigned over the Kings of the earth, was to be the seat of this tyrannical power. (2.) It is a sufficient argument against applying this prophecy to Mahomet, that this "wicked one" was to come "after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders;" that is, with great pretensions to miracles. Whereas Mahomet did not pretend to establish himself and his imposture by miracles. For though several miracles are ascribed to him by the fabulous and legendary writers among the Mahometans; yet their learned men renounce them all. Nor doth Mahomet himself in the Koran lay any claim to them.*

6. Though Rome heathen opposed Christianity very much, and the Emperors exalted themselves above all the Kings and Princes upon the earth, yet this their exaltation was not a thing then to be revealed. Neither did they apostatize from Christianity, nor sit in the temple of God, nor pretend to establish their power by miracles.

7. The Papists, in their annotations on the Rhemish New Testament, interpret this apostasy to be "the falling away of the Protestants from the Church of Rome." And so (by a strange legerdemain) we are to be the "man of sin," or his forerunners at least. Whereas it doth not certainly appear that there was any Christian church at Rome when St. Paul wrote this second Epistle to the Thessalonians. Nor are we united under any one common head upon earth; nor do we pretend to establish our doctrine by miracles. These, and many other things, plainly show, that it is ridiculous to apply this prophecy to the reformation from Popery.

As we have rejected these misinterpretations, the next thing is to point out the Apostle's meaning; and, however difficult it may appear upon a transient reading to fix the sense of so short and general a prophecy as this, I will venture to say, that no prophecy could have been more exactly accomplished than this hath been in the Bishop of Rome and his adherents. And therefore, as it agrees to them, and the whole of it to them only, there is the greatest reason to think that it was designed for them; especially as it is a singular event, the like to which never happened before, and, most probably, never will happen again.

* See Dr. Prideaux's "Life of Mahomet," p. 31; and Mr. Sale's " Translation of Al Koran," pp. 203, 236, 473.