Thirdly As the true object of the worship of the world, the Container and Manifester of the fulness of the Godhead in a body :--" Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth. And that And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." "Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall serve Him."

It will not be necessary to justify the above classification, by adducing any arguments drawn from the Scriptures in support of its accuracy. The prophetic reader will readily admit its scriptural soundness, and that, under one of these three characters of Christ, all the subordinate actions of the great day of God will find an appropriate place.

An examination of those prophecies, which it is admitted distinctly refer to the last Antichrist, will not allow of any other conclusion than that they can only receive an adequate accomplishment in the person of one man; and, moreover, that the descriptions of him in each prophecy, or taken in all the prophecies as a whole, present him also to our view in three similar aspects, corresponding with those of our Lord himself, in

the effort to attain which he is aided by the combined powers of hell.

It will not be necessary to examine the histories of all the persons who have been supposed to represent typically this last personification of evil; but simply remark that, no doubt, every instance recorded in Scripture of royal blasphemy and rebellion against God, and persecution of His saints, in all ages, more or less foreshadow this personal antagonist of the Lord Jesus Christ. As other writers have, however, treated largely upon these types, we must refer our readers to the works they have produced, in support of the several typical representations it is contended the Scriptures contain of this person, and proceed at once to one or two of the most distinguished prophecies which speak of this mysterious individual of the last days.

Without attempting, however, to draw any information of the acts of this Antichrist from the history of individuals who are supposed to represent him typically, we shall seek, nevertheless, to acquire light upon the nature and charac ́ter of his actions, as the eighth head of the beast, by contemplating his own career as the seventh, which, there is reason to believe, contains in its history a type of that of the eighth; and, in this respect, we would remark, in passing, that he is

the only individual who ever lived, except the Lord Jesus Christ, who passes through any series of actions that could be regarded as typical of others that were to follow, and receive fulfilment in the same person; so that in this respect also, Antichrist may be said to resemble our Lord himself, in whom type and antitype meet in one; for it would not be difficult to show that most of the recorded acts of our Lord, during the period of His tabernacling in flesh, did contain and prefigure in that form, and under the veil of His humility, typical representations of those which He shall perform on the occasion of His second appearance on this earth.

The first portion of Scripture prophecy which presents itself, as distinguished prominently above others for its clear record of the actings of the last Antichrist, is found in the fourteenth chapter of the prophet Isaiah.

It will be sufficient to direct the reader's attention to some of the expressions used by the inspired writer in the description, recommending him, however, if he be not already familiar with this as well as the other prophecies to which we shall have occasion to refer, to study attentively the whole passage with its context, which, there is little doubt, will lead him to adopt, in every respect, the same conclusions at which we have

ourselves arrived.

He will soon discover that not only is the last Antichrist a twofold representation of one and the same person, but that his last appearance on the stage of this world, in contradistinction to his first, is as a spiritual person; inasmuch as, independently of direct terms used in such prophecy, which can only receive explanation upon such a supposition, the actions attributed to him are far too large, and the powers needful to their accomplishment too mighty, to admit of the conclusion that such vast results could be attained by the mere natural powers of man. Indeed, this consideration has constituted the chief difficulty with most commentators, who have written on the personal character of Antichrist, when, contemplating this final exhibition of evil as receiving fulfilment in one person, inasmuch as the actions attributed to him in all the prophecies, and the extraordinary power he is represented as acquiring over the nations of the earth in such a short space of time, has proved to them almost fatal to the conclusion that the prophecies could really point to any one individual; and must, consequently, in each case of the manifestation of Antichrist, refer to a system; and it must be admitted that the objection is well founded and unanswerable without a concession to the very point for which we now contend, viz., that

the eighth head of the beast comes up out of the bottomless pit as a resurrection man, having passed the first death, and therefore clothed with immortality, and in his supernatural condition invested with all the spiritual powers of hell; and directing, in his own person upon earth, the energies of Satan himself. Moreover, we should not infer from the words used in Daniel's prophecy in reference to that day when "SOME" shall awake to everlasting life, and "SOME to shame and everlasting contempt, that Antichrist is the only Rephaim or giant who shall be thus raised; for the text obviously implies that there shall be others also who will attend upon his steps and do his bidding. We should conclude rather that Antichrist will bring up in his train from the bottomless pit many of the warriors of olden time, who have distinguished themselves when on earth by deeds of rapine, cruelty, and wickedness: and this interpretation, which we think is too plain to be denied, assists us materially in meeting the practical difficulty which has so often stumbled the interpreters of prophecy, as to the extraordinary rapidity of Antichrist's conquests; inasmuch as such an interpretation supposes the existence of a race of warriors from Hades, whose persons and whose existence shall thus become stamped with immortality, and who, equally