C A P. 7. touching Antichrií}, 67 t could not be a Prifon and dungeon in his account, feeing he tooke it ill tobe cart down from hence, unleffe perhaps we (hould think that he went out of prifon againf} his will, in the fame,place, ver. io. Neither is Hippolitus to be heard fpeaking, touching this perfecu- tion,who faith that Antichri.ft is not a man, but the Devill himfelf, Who fhould tale falife fell, from a falife virgin; And Cyrils telfimc- ny is to be as little regarded in this point, if he would have the De- vil( himfelf range up and down perfonally, as who holds that Anti- thrift is a true man, but yet one that fhouldbe a devil( alfo, as whom he will have tobe made a man by incarnation. What found thing could thefe men hold or fpeake touching this Point, whole mindes were entangled with filch kind of errours? Wherefore this grie- voufneffe of the Perfecution thou talkef of,hatl, no ftrengthning at all from thefe Scriptures. Antichri(ts perfecution indeed fhould be moll grievous, but of another kinde, then you fpeak of namely (itch as conflts more inkilling of mens Souks, then in flaying of Bodies. For Antichrifl is Balaarn, who thought it bettcr to call a [tumbling block before the children of Ifrael, to make them Bate of things offered unto Idols, and to commit whoredome, then to purlue themwith the fword. He is the 73call on whom Iezabel the Whore rideth, WithWhole Wine of fornication, the inhabitants of the earth, have been madedrink, Revel. 2. 20. and 57. z. He is that .4e el of the bottomlefe Pit, who when he opened the Pit, the Sunand the Aire are darkned with fmoke, Revel. 9. 2. To conclude, he is that manof Sin, Whole comming is by the efficacy of Satan, With allpother, and fig t lyingWonders, and With all dreeiveableneuj'eof unrighte- oufnefe in thofe that perifh, becaufe they have not received the love of the truth, that they might be faved; wherefore God fends upon them the efficacy of; errours that they fhould beleeve a lye, that all they (honldbe condemned, Who have not beleeved the truth, but have de- lighted in unrighteoufneffe, 2. ç. ig. Beho'd here the true perfecu- tion of Antiehrift, that bringeth rather a plague into the foules, then a (laughter to the Bodies of men; and yet he fhould not keepé his fingers clean neither from this wickedneffeof fhedding blood, for he fhould caufe, that Whosoever Would not adore the Image of the Beaftfbouid be killed, Revel. 13. i S. And he is that Scarlet Beall ofa bloody colour,which he fhould get by fpilling and fprinl.- ling the bloodof the Saints. But that Spirituali perfecution is fo much the more inhumane, and-outragions, the more excellent a matter the Soule is then the CZq q q a Body;
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