forth with flaming fire! Every eye beholds him. The crew of the little tempest-tossed bark shout for joy, saying, “this is our Friend : we have longed for him, we have waited for him: now He is come, and he will save us: Hallelujah!' Then shall doleful cries be heard from on board the great, gay vessel; for everlasting destruction shall be her portion, and that of all who belong to her."*

LECTURE THIRD

MOHAMMEDANISM AND POPERY.

2. THESSALONIANS, CHAPTER 11. VERSES 3-4. «« For that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition : who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or is worshipped, 80 that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God."

In our last discourse upon the second Advent of our Lord, we entered upon a consideration of the events which were to precede that great day of his appearing and kingdom. We endeavored to show, from the language which Christ addressed to his disciples in reference to it, that by signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars,—the roaring of the sea, and agitations of the earth,—were intended great commotions in civil and ecclesiastical dominions-revolutions in human governments--apostacies, heresies and persecutions in the church ;-and, in general terms,

we noticed some particulars in which those prophecies had been fulfilled. Here we resume the subject, and proceed to speak of some of the leading events which are represented in the Scriptures as going before the second coming of Christ.

However much this subject may be overlooked and neglected by many Christians of this age, it was contemplated with intense interest by the followers of Christ in primitive times. The solemn warnings and admonitions of their Lord were still sounding in their ears.

The inspired Apostles often presented to their view the last day-with all its joy and triumph to the watchful and faithful servants of Godwith all its terrors and wrath to a slumbering and guilty world. So vivid were their impressions upon the subject, that they were in danger of overlooking or misjudging the signs that were to precede,-and were liable to be misled by any who, for sinister ends, should teach them that the kingdom of the Lord would immediately appear.

So great was this danger, that the Apostle Paul found it necessary to warn the Thessalonians against it. He had, in the first Epistle and in the preceding chapter of this, spoken in the most animated and awakening terms upon this momentous theme.* But then remembering the arts of deceivers who would be ready to pervert his strong language to

a

• 1 Thess. V. 2-8 ; 2 Thess. i. 6-10.

their own purposes, he begins this chapter with the language of caution. “ 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 revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”

These words evidently teach us that, before the second coming of the Lord, there should be a great apostacy on the part of a large body of professing Christians,-and also, the setting up of an influence,

—and nominally religious, which would be in opposition to God, and to the purity and truth of the Gospel. Our Lord also taught that many would come in his name, to delude multitudes,—and accompanied with such plausible pretences and signs, as to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. St. John in his Epistles speaks of Antichrist, and in the highly figurative language of the Apocalypse represents the formidable corrupters of the truth and enemies of righteousness who would successively make war with the Lamb and his followers; and also the signal defeat

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and ruin which shall overwhelm them at the appearance of Him who has 66 on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."

The view given in the Revelations of the destruction of antichristian powers—the enemies of God and the Lamb,—is perfectly in harmony with what St. Paul says in this chapter of the destruction of the man of sin—the son of perdition—that Wicked whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming

The prophecy in the text and context, as it appears to me, relates to the great Papal Apostacy-its delusions and abominations—its blinding and ruinous influence upon multitudes of souls—and its signal destruction at the coming of the Lord. But we shall not, in this course of Lectures, confine our attention exclusively to this view of the subject; but propose to notice all those great antichristian movements and systems which the Scriptures speak of as preceding the solemnities of the second Advent.

I. The first we notice is Mohammedanism. This cannot be strictly called an apostacy in the Church; yet was it a mighty religious movement in which the interests of Christianity were, to a great extent, involved. Its holy book professes great respect for Moses and Christ, as inspired messengers of God;