Antichrist had a time to come into the world, and so must he have a
time to go out again. For although he saith that he is a god, yet he
must he subject to the will of God, and must go as well as come
according to that will. Nor can all the fallen angels, with all the
members and limbs of antichrist, cause this, that their brat should
abide so much as one day longer than our God's prefixed time. The
Lord Jesus shall consume him, and cause him to melt away; not all at
once, but now this part and then that, now his soul and after that
his body, even until soul and body are both destroyed.
And that you may be convinced of the truth of this thing, do but
look back and compare antichrist four or five hundred years ago,
with antichrist as he is now, and you shall see what work the Lord
Jesus has begun to make with him, even with the spirit and soul and
life of antichrist, both in confounding and blasting it by the
Spirit of his mouth, as also by forcing it to dishonorable retreats,
and by making it give up to him as the conqueror, not only some of
his superstitious and diabolical rites and ceremonies to be
destroyed, but many a goodly truth which this vile one had taken
from his church, to be renewed to them. Nay, further, he has also
already begun to take from him both kingdoms and countries, though
as to some not so absolutely as he shall do by and by.
And how has this long ago been fulfilled here in England, as also in
Scotland, Holland, Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, and
other places. Nor has this spirit of antichrist, with all his art
and artifices, been able to reduce to antichrist again those people,
nations, or parts of nations, that by the Spirit of Christ's mouth
and the brightness of his coming have been made to forsake him, and
to turn from him to Christ.
The reason is, that the Lord has not retreated, but is still going
on in the Spirit of his mouth and in his brightness to make that
conquest over him that is determined, in the way that is determined;
for the pathway that he goeth is as the shining light which shines
more and more unto noon.
The first and chief proceeding of the Lord with the man of sin is to
slay his soul, that his body may also be consumed; and when the
spirit of antichrist shall be made to leave both the body and
ordinances of antichrist, it will be easy to deal both with the one
and the other.
And first, for the ordinances of antichrist, because the spirit of
error is in them as well as in the body itself. When that spirit has
left them, they will of themselves even moulder away and not be; as
we have seen by experience here in England, and as others also have
seen in other countries.
For as concerning his masses, prayers for the dead, images,
pilgrimages, monkish vows, sinful fasts, and the beastly single life
of their priests, though when the spirit of antichrist was in them
they did bear some sway in the world, yet now of what esteem are
they, or who has reverence for them? They are now blown together
under hedges as the dry leaves, for the mice and frogs to harbor in.
By ordinances of antichrist, I do not intend things that only
respect matters of worship in antichrist's kingdom, but those civil
laws that impose and enforce them also, yea, enforce that worship
with pains and penalties, as in the Spanish inquisition.
These are the very pillars and sinews by which antichristianism
remains; and were these dispirited, the whole building would quickly
become a ruinous heap.
What could the king of Babylon's golden image have done, had it not
been for the burning fiery furnace that stood within view of the
worshippers? Yea, what could that horrible command to pray for
thirty days to neither God nor man but to the king, have done, had
it not been for the dark den and the roaring lions there in
readiness to devour those that disobeyed it?
As therefore the burning fiery furnace and the den of lions were the
support of the horrible religion of the Babylonians of old, so
popish edicts are the support of the religion of antichrist now; and
as long as there is spirit, that is, authority in them, they are
like to those now mentioned. The spirit of such laws it is that
makes them dreadful: for as the furnace would have been next to
nothing if void of fire, and the den as little frightful if
destitute of lions, so these laws will be as insignificant when
Christ has slain the spirit that is in them--that spirit which
causes that as many as will not worship the image of the beast
should be killed.