Antichrist must be destroyed, for that he has usurped the name and
attributes of God upon himself. He hath said, I am God. For that
antichrist has thus taken the place of God, prescribed and imposed a
worship as a God, got the world to worship and wonder after him as
after a God; therefore he shall die the death of the uncircumcised,
both in the soul, spirit, body, or flesh of antichrist. Therefore
will God enlighten and gather and set the kings and nations against
him, that both he and his may be buried, and have their dolesome
withdrawing-rooms from the world in the sides of the pit's mouth.
Antichrist must be destroyed, because he hath set himself against
the Son of God; against the Father, and against the Son. He had a
spite against the Son betimes, even then when he came forth but in
little things, when he attempted to deny that He was come in the
flesh. But seeing he could make no earnings of that, he has changed
his methods, and seeks to run him out and down by other means and
ways. "Because, therefore, he hath set himself against the Son of
God, the King, therefore he must die."
That he hath also set himself against the Son of God, is evident;
for he has his name from thence: he is therefore called Anti-Christ.
That he hath set himself against Him, is yet further evident; for
that he has endeavored to take from him his headship once, and his
offices for and in the church, which is his body; and has called
himself the head of the universal church of God.
Antichrist must he destroyed, because of his exceeding covetousness.
Religion, such as it is, is the thing pretended to; but the great
things of this world are the things really intended by him in all
his seeming self-denials and devotions. And for this covetousness
also it is that this destruction is to fall upon him. Woe to him
that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, (to his church,)
that he may set his nest on high: for he could not do the one before
he had obtained the other. For then indeed they began to be high,
when they had so inveigled Constantine that he bestowed upon them
much riches and honor; and then it was cried, by an angel, and the
cry was heard in the city of Constantinople, Woe! woe! woe! this day
is venom poured into the church of God.
Nor has any generation, since the world began, been so insatiably
greedy of gain, as these POOR people have been. They have got
kingdoms, they have got crowns, they have got--what have they not
got? They have got every thing but grace and pardon. Did I say
before that religion was their pretence? Doth not the whole course
of their way declare it to their face? Every one of them, from the
least even to the greatest, is given to covetousness; from the
prophet even to the priest, every one dealeth falsely. Money, money,
[Footnote: Similar is the testimony of an eminent historian. "In
every misapplication which the popes now (thirteenth century) made
of their power, money was the object. Every new operation which they
performed, was one of extortion; and every new act of oppression was
on their part, a financial speculation." Planck. V. 574.
Says Luther, in his address to the German nobility, speaking of the
pope, "He is a shepherd: yes, so far as you have money, and no
farther." The above passage from Bunyan is altogether in the manner
of Luther when describing the rapacity and avarice of Rome. hath
removed them. And these seeds has antichrist sown where the kingdom
of Christ should stand.] as the pedlar cries, "broken or whole," is
the sinews of their religion; and it is for that they set kingdoms,
crowns, principalities, places, preferments, sacraments, pardons,
prayers, indulgences, liberty, yea, and souls and bodies of men,
women, and children, to sale; yea, it is for this that they have
invented so many places, offices, names, titles, orders, vows, etc.:
it is to get money, to rob countries, that they may make their nests
on high. And indeed they have done it, to the amazement of all the
world. They are clambered up above kings and princes and emperors;
they wear the triple crown; they have made kings bow at their feet,
and emperors stand barefoot at their gates; they have kicked the
crowns of princes from their heads, and set them on again with their
toes. Thus their covetousness hath set them on high, even above the
suns, moons, and stars of this world: but to what end? that they may
be cast down to hell.
Antichrist must be destroyed, because he stands in the way of the
setting up of the kingdom of Christ in the world. Many princes were
in Edom before there was a king in Israel; and Christ has suffered
antichrist to set up before him; and he stands in Christ's way, and
has so overspread the world in all places with that which is
directly contrary to him, that he cannot set up his kingdom until
that which is antichrist's is tumbled down to the ground. Even as a
man whose ground is full of thorns and briars and weeds, cannot sow
in expectation of a crop, until he hath removed them. And these
seeds has antichrist sown where the kingdom of Christ should stand.
When God came from Egypt with his people to set up his kingdom in
Canaan, he cast out the heathen before them, in order thereunto:
"Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the
heathen and planted it." Wherefore antichrist must be removed and
destroyed for this; for antichrist is in flat opposition to Christ,
as Tibni was to Omri; wherefore antichrist must die.
The reason is, because Christ's kingdom shall be peaceable, without
molestation, and glorious without the fumes and fogs of
antichristian darkness. Because also, as the world has seen the
manner of the reign of antichrist, and how tyrannical and outrageous
a kingdom his is; so they shall see the reign of Christ by his word
and Spirit in his people, how peaceable, how fruitful in blessedness
and prosperity his kingdom is. And hence it is, that God purposes to
bury antichrist before he sets glory in the land of the living; as
also you read in the book of Revelation, for there you find the
kingdom of antichrist was destroyed before the new Jerusalem was set
up. When men intend to build a new house, if in the place where the
old one stood, they first pull down the old one and raze the
foundation, and then they begin their new. Now God, as I said, will
have his primitive church-state set up in this world, even where
antichrist has set up; wherefore, in order to this, antichrist must
be pulled down, stick and stone; and then they that live to see it,
will behold the new Jerusalem come down from heaven, as a bride
adorned for her husband.