and bids us come to Him, and He will give us rest. When Mary Mag dalene heard she was forgiven, the past forgotten, she never left our LORD; when the blind man received his sight, he followed JESUS in the way. The declaration of Absolution has from the earliest days of the Church been the liberation from the thrall of sin. With this view is inseparably mixed up the humble and honest recognition of works done to GOD's glory. No man can ever be consciously free who refuses to recognize it; if he do refuse to own its truth, it is equivalent to the declaration that he prays for what he can never get, and grasps through life at what must always be a shadow. It may be objected to all this that such a character will be vain, self-righteous, or proud; far from it! The simplicity of a child, and humility unrivalled, belonged to Nehemiah. No man appears more vain and self-righteous than he who continually boasting of his sinfulness in every particular, either proclaims the grace of GOD a failure, or himself a hypocrite."-Pp. 192-194.

ANTICHRIST.

THERE are probably few things in which we perceive so great a difference of tone between the Patristic writings, and the theology of modern times, as in the whole of the important and awful question-Who or what is Antichrist?

The difference is one rather to be felt and understood by such as are accustomed to compare the two, than capable of any full and adequate expression in words, except perhaps in some one or two main features.

Modern theology would seem in its idea of Antichrist to point chiefly to the development of a system of false religion-occasionally, as for instance, where Antichrist is identified with the Papacy, to a series of persons, no one of whom can, for that very reason, be said to be himself individually "Antichrist," "the Antichrist." Patristic writers on the contrary, who speak when the solemn warnings concerning Antichrist, given by our LORD, and reiterated by the Apostles, were sounding trumpet-tongued in the ears of the early Church, point rather to the development of Antichrist as being the appearance, or the revelation of some one individual person. And they say he will be known and recognized by the elect by means of those indelible marks which prophecy has stamped upon him.

Shadowed forth by types, designated by prophecies-many dark and obscure, a few to be understood even by babes in CHRIST— "that reprobate Person," as S. Gregory the Great calls Antichrist, will thus be able to be discerned and rejected by the Saints of

GOD, when in his time he shall be revealed, just as our LORD in His time was recognized by them with adoring love.

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It is truly wonderful to observe the constant parallelism, and antagonism, so to say, between our LORD and Antichrist, which pervade Holy Scripture in all its parts alike, history and prophecy, the psalms and moral writings, the gospels and the epistlesinterwoven like threads of varied hue and texture, and running all through the mighty web of the revealed purposes of GOD. As though it were that what our LORD was to be for good, Antichrist should be for evil: the One the Incarnation of Uncreated Goodness; the other the embodied Impersonation of the utmost development of the powers of the world, the flesh and the devil: the One endued "without measure with the Gift of the HOLY GHOST; the other possessed in some strange mysterious way by "the Prince of the devils," beyond any former precedent, and really working miracles, and showing signs and wonders such as to "deceive if it were possible even the elect." And it is not a little remarkable, and a point in proof of this parallelism, that the same terms should be, as they are, not unfrequently applied to these two, CHRIST and Antichrist, and to none besides. For instance, not to go more fully into this branch of the subject at present, the terms "Revelation and 66 Revealed "1 are thus applied to both. So again "Mystery," as though the Incarnation of CHRIST, the great "Mystery of Godliness," and of the heavenly world, were only to be paralleled by the rising of Antichrist, the fearful and terrible mystery of hellish wisdom and malice, and of the world of devils.2

It will be the object of the present article to trace out one of these Scriptural parallelisms. In so doing, we shall endeavour to follow as closely as possible the guidance of the Early Church, and the path traced out for us by its great doctors and luminaries.

This point is the connection of Antichrist with one particular tribe of the children of Israel, the tribe of Dan. As it "is evident that our LORD sprang out of Judah," and that thus the prophecies which marked out that tribe for the honour of His Birth were literally fulfilled, so it would seem not altogether unreasonable that the intimations which appeared to the Fathers to foreshadow that Antichrist should arise out of Dan should have a literal fulfilment likewise.

It will not be necessary here to do more than allude to the consternation which was spread through Europe in the Middle Ages, and even later, by the report that Antichrist had actually appeared, and set up his standard in the tribe of Dan. We rather pass on to the consideration of the fact that every mention of Dan in the Scriptures, with scarcely an exception, bears, if we may be allowed the expression, somewhat at least of a sinister character. And 1 2 Thess. i. 7; ii. 3, &c. 2 1 Tim. iii. 16; 2 Thess. ii. 7, &c.

the exceptions are not more difficult to be accounted for than those of an exactly opposite character with regard to Judah. For instance, although generally, in a typical view, Judah and his tribe foreshadow the MESSIAH, yet in Gen. xxxvii. 27 he is clearly a type of Judas the traitor. He is represented both as covetous, and the prime mover in the scheme to sell his brother for twenty pieces of silver.

To return to Dan: we will commence with his birth. He is not only the son of one of the handmaids of Jacob's wives, which was common to him with three others; but he is the first-born of Rachel's handmaid. His birth therefore, closely followed Rachel's passionate speech to her husband, "Give me children, or else I die." The child then who is born, and which she adopts and considers as her own, she names Dan, saying, "God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son." (Gen. xxx. 6.) As though the words addressed to the children of Israel might be here applied to Rachel, "I gave thee a king in Mine anger:" I gave thee a son in Mine anger. We know that there are many similar instances of God's answering prayers like Rachel's in wrath and judgment, granting the thing prayed for, and at the same time making it an instrument of His most righteous vengeance. See two remarkable instances, Numb. xxii. 20, and 1 Sam. viii. 7-9.

The next important notice of Dan is in Gen. xlix. 16, 17. In this chapter is recorded Jacob's blessing of his sons. Or rather he shadows forth in mysterious prophecies the temporal and spiritual destinies of their respective descendants. "Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder by the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward." On these words, S. Greg. Magn. comments as follows: "For some say that Antichrist is coming out of the tribe of Dan, because in this place Dan is asserted to be a serpent, and a biting one. Whence also when the people of Israel were choosing their position in the partition of the camp, Dan most rightly first pitched his camp to the north : signifying him in truth who had said in his heart; I will sit upon the mount of the Testament; in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the height of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.'2 Of whom also it is said by the Prophet, 'The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan.' (Jer. viii. 16.) But he is called not only a serpent, but a horned serpent (cerastes). For xépara in Greek are called cornua in Latin. And this serpent, by whom the coming of Antichrist is fitly set forth, is said to be horned: because together with the bite of pestilent preaching, he is armed also against the life of the faithful with horns of power. But

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therefore becomes a serpent in the way, because he compels those whom he flatters by seeming to spare them, to walk in the broad way of the present life: but he bites them in the way, because he destroys with the poison of his error those upon whom he confers liberty. He becomes a horned serpent in the path, because those whom he finds to be faithful, and to be confining themselves to the narrow path of the heavenly precepts, he not only assails with the wickedness of crafty persuasion, but also oppresses with the terror of his power. And after the kindness of pretended sweetness, he employs the horns of his power in the torture of persecution. In which passage the 'horse' signifies this world, which foams through its pride in the lapse of passing times. And because Antichrist strives to seize the latter end of the world, this horned serpent is said to bite the horses' hoofs. For to bite the horses' hoofs is to reach the ends of the world by striking them: That its rider falleth backwards. The rider of the horse is every one who is exalted in worldly dignities; who is said to fall backward, and not on his face, as Paul is said to have fallen. For to fall on his face, is for each one to confess his own faults, in this life, and to bewail them with penitence. But to fall backwards, where we cannot see, is to depart suddenly out of this life, and to know not to what punishment he is being led. And because Judæa entangled with the snares of its own error, is looking for Antichrist instead of CHRIST, Jacob in the same passage, rightly turned round suddenly, in the language of the elect, saying, 'I have waited for Thy salvation, O LORD;' that is, I do not, as the infidels, believe in Antichrist, but I faithfully believe Him Who is about to come for our redemption, even the true CHRIST." S. Greg. Magn. Moral. III., 457, 458, Oxf. Tr.

We must not omit to notice the form of the expression, "Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel," as though Dan were not really a part of the "true Israel of GOD; but as though Antichrist, who should spring from Dan, should have his people, whom he shall rule and judge, even the whole multitude of the reprobate; just as CHRIST and His twelve shall sit on thrones judging and approving His Own elect.

What S. Gregory says of the words with which Jacob concludes this prophecy, agrees very plainly with the comment of another of the Fathers that Jacob looking forward to the time of Antichrist, and discerning in his spirit something of the horror and misery which should then overflow the earth as an irresistible flood, was overcome with the thought, and only supported himself by the recollection that even then the faithful would be in the Hand of GOD, and that though salvation might tarry long, it would surely come at length to those who waited for it. Therefore he said, “Ĭ have waited for Thy salvation, O GOD."

The fact of Dan being the tribe which gave a name to the hin

dermost camp of Israel in the wilderness, has been already noted by S. Gregory. The hindermost was also the tribe which pitched northward. The north is the quarter which in the mystical language of Scripture is appropriated to the dominion of Satan, just as the south is the region of Heaven and of the Church.

Again, it is not a little significant that the Captain of the host of Dan, the Prince of his tribe in the wilderness, was Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai.1 Ammishaddai signifies in Hebrew, "My people is the ALMIGHTY :" just as though Antichrist were to gain his power by a deification of the popular will. That he should make flattery of the people's omnipotence be the stepping-stone whereby he should be by them in turn lifted up above "all that is called God or worshipped." And surely it is not very difficult to detect many traces of such coming "signs of the times" as this, even now in the world.

Again, with reference to the northernly location of Dan, it is to be observed that when Ezekiel mystically redistributes the whole of Canaan amongst the tribes of Israel in equal and parallelly-conterminous portions, the extreme north of all is assigned to Dan. Possibly, it might be said, because of the geographical position of the city Dan. But then it is not to be forgotten that Dan being originally located within the confines of the portion of Judah, the southernmost of all the tribes, and hard by the Temple and Altar of GOD, afterwards migrated to a spot north of all the other tribes, and almost, if not entirely, without the boundaries of the Holy Land, properly so called. This, therefore, is quite in accordance with the typical character of the tribe. "I saw the wicked... who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done." (Eccles. viii. 10.) And S. John says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." And these words are the more appropriate to the case in point, because S. John is speaking expressly and by name of the times of Antichrist. And they show us that he will in all probability be a recreant and a traitor from the fellowship of the saints and from the communion of the Church, of which he will at first, without doubt, profess himself a member.

2

So completely is the tribe of Dan identified with the northern city, that it became eventually their chief seat. In fact, in the later Israelitish history we lose all trace of southern Dan.

The account of this migration from the south to the north, as related in Judges xviii., shows that it included a system of organised rebellion against the God of Israel: and that the very foundation of their civil polity was based upon a kind of national establishment of idolatry. "And the children of Dan set up the