antichrists were men animated by the spirit of the Antichrist or the liar, which we are unequivocally told is a denial of the Son and thence by implication a denial of the Father also. Accordingly St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. Jude, all concur in asserting, that men, possessed by such a spirit as St. John calls the spirit of the Antichrist, even the very spirit which we have seen embodied in these last days, had at that early period insinuated themselves into the Church*. How then, "in the names of truth and common sense" (to adopt one of Mr. Whitaker's phrases), can any thing that St. John here says prove the Pope to be the Antichrist, namely the Antichrist whose spirit was then in the world? Yet does Mr. Whitaker take upon himself to say, that I "convert a well-connected piece of "close reasoning into a string of disjointed propo"sitions; that I wire-draw Scripture in a most "lamentable manner," merely to support a new hypothesis.

But, says Mr. Whitaker, "St. John tells us, that "the last time is that of Antichrist. On the appearance of this character, therefore, must depend the time of the end. Now, if the Papal power be Antichrist (which Mr. Faber has not yet disproved) the time of the end or last time "must be the whole 1260 years". Mr. Whitaker must surely have quoted St. John from memory: at least I can account for this most singular train of

* See the prophecies relative to the last days of Antichrist, collected together in the 3d chapter of my Dissertation.

reasoning in no other way. What St. John says is this: "Little children, it is the last time: and, as 66 ye have heard that the Antichrist shall come, even

now are there many antichrists; whereby we know "that it is the last time." From these words, Mr. Whitaker strangely concludes, that the last time, in the sense in which the Apostle here uses it, denotes that the whole period of the 1260 days; and, since those 1260Days are undoubtedly the permitted hour of the Roman little born or the Papacy, that the Papacy must necessarily be the Antichrist. St. John however assures us, that the last time had already commenced, and that at the moment in which he was then writing he was living under the last time. Hence, if Mr. Whitaker's argument prove any thing, it will prove that the 1260 days must be computed from the age of St. John, and that the venerable apostle and the Roman little born were contemporaries! But, in truth, Mr. Whitaker has totally mistaken the import of the phrase the last time as here used by St. John. As I have elsewhere very fully shewn*, whenever this phrase is used by the evangelical writers declaratively and not prophetically, it denotes the whole period of the christian dispensation to the commencement of the Millennium, or as what Mr. Mede styles the kingdom of the stone as contradistinguished from the kingdom of the mountain. All that the Apostle therefore teaches his disciples is, that, since the delusive spirit of the Antichrist was already working, they might be sure they were living in the last time,

*See my Dissert. Chap. 3.

and

and need not look for any further dispensation*. As yet however, although there were many individual antichrists in the world, the great Antichrist himself, whose special badge should be a denial of the Father and the Son, was not manifested. This spirit indeed was already working in the children of disobedience, but he himself was not as yet revealedt: nor does the Apostle give us the slightest intimation, that his appearance would be connected either with the taking away of that which prevented the developement of the papal man of sin, or with the commencement of the 1260 years.

*I apprehend that he insisted so strongly upon the circum. stance of their living in the last time, in order to convince them that they were not to look for any kingdom of the Messiah answering to the gross notions of the Jews, which the disci.. ples themselves found it so difficult to shake off. "The last

time has already commenced; dream not of any yet further "last time." See Doddridge in loc. who rightly supposes the last time spoken of by St. John to mean the period of the Christian dispensation, not, as Mr. Whitaker fancies, the period of the 1260 years.

+ The Jesuit Cornelius à Lapide seems to me to explain "Et nunc properly enough the latter part of 1 John, iv. 3.

jam in mundo est. Non in persona, sed in spiritu, puta in "suis præcursoribus." (Comment. in loc.) I interpret much in the same manner 2 John, 7. The deceivers, who confessed not that Jesus Christ was come in the flesh, were, considered collectively, the deceiver and the Antichrist in its infancy as it were, before the period of what Bp. Horsley aptly calls his adoles cence. In short, wherever St. John mentions the Antichrist, he studiously and almost anxiously tells us that his badge is a denial of the Messiahship of Jesus Christ.

But

reasoning in no other way. What St. John says is this: “ Little children, it is the last time: and, as 66 ye have heard that the Antichrist shall come, even "now are there many antichrists; whereby we know "that it is the last time." From these words, Mr. Whitaker strangely concludes, that the last time, in the sense in which the Apostle here uses it, denotes that the whole period of the 1260 days; and, since those 1260Days are undoubtedly the permitted hour of the Roman little born or the Papacy, that the Papacy must necessarily be the Antichrist. St. John however assures us, that the last time had already commenced, and that at the moment in which he was then writing he was living under the last time. Hence, if Mr. Whitaker's argument prove any thing, it will prove that the 1260 days must be computed from the age of St. John, and that the venerable apostle and the Roman little born were contemporaries! But, in truth, Mr. Whitaker has totally mistaken the import of the phrase the last time as here used by St. John. As I have elsewhere very fully shewn*, whenever this phrase is used by the evangelical writers declaratively and not prophetically, it denotes the whole period of the christian dispensation to the commencement of the Millennium, or as what Mr. Mede styles the kingdom of the stone as contradistinguished from the kingdom of the mountain. All that the Apostle therefore teaches his disciples is, that, since the delusive spirit of the Antichrist was already working, they might be sure they were living in the last time,

* See my Dissert. Chap. 3.

and