Bishop Newton, having reviewed the prophecy, says, “Moreover, the woman, like other harlots who give philters and love-potions to inflame their lovers, hath ‘a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations, and filthiness of her fornication,’ to signify the specious and alluring arts wherewith she bewitcheth and inciteth men to idolatry, which is ‘abomination and spiritual fornication.’ It is an image copied from Jeremiah li. 7, ‘Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, that made all the earth drunken.’ And is not this a much more proper emblem of pontifical than of imperial Rome?
“Yet farther to distinguish the woman, she has her name inscribed upon her forehead (verse 5), in allusion to the practice of some notorious prostitutes, who had their names written in a label upon their foreheads. The inscription is so very particular, that we cannot easily mistake the person; ‘Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, or rather, of fornications and abominations of the earth.’ Her name, Mystery, can imply no less than that she dealeth in mysteries; her religion is a mystery, a mystery of iniquity; and she herself is mystically and spiritually ‘Babylon the great.’ But the title of mystery is in no respect proper to ancient Rome, more than any other city; and neither is there any mystery in substituting one heathen, idolatrous, and persecuting city for another; but it is indeed a mystery, that a Christian city, professing and boasting herself to be the city of God, should prove another Babylon in idolatry and cruelty to the people of God. She glories in the name of Roman Catholic, and well, therefore, may she be called ‘Babylon the great.’
“Infamous as the woman is for her idolatry, she is no less detestable for her cruelty, which are the two principal characteristics of the antichristian empire. ‘She is drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus,’ (ver. 6) which may indeed be applied both to pagan and to Christian Rome, for both have in their turns cruelly persecuted ‘the saints and the martyrs of Jesus;’ but the latter is more deserving of the character, as she hath far exceeded the former, both in the degree and duration of her persecutions. It is very true, that if Rome pagan hath slain her thousands of innocent Christians, Rome Christian hath slain her ten thousands; for, not to mention other outrageous slaughters and barbarities, the crusades against the Waldenses and Albigenses; the murders committed by the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands; the massacres in France and Ireland, will probably amount to above ten times the number of all the Christians slain in all the ten persecutions of the Roman emperors put together. St. John’s admiration also plainly evinces that Christian Rome was intended, for it could be no matter of surprise to him that a heathen city should persecute the Christians; but that a city professedly Christian should wanton and riot in the blood of Christians, was a subject of astonishment indeed; and well might he, as it is emphatically expressed, ‘wonder with great wonder.’”
Mr. Scott, in his commentary on 2 Thessalonians ii. 3, 4, remarks, “No apostacy of equal magnitude and duration, no delusions equally pernicious and abominable, have taken place since the apostle’s days, as those of Rome. The imposture of Mohammed alone can be compared with it, and this could not be intended; for that impostor and his successors were not placed in the temple of God, the visible church (Rev. xi. 1, 2), but without it, and in direct opposition to the very name of Christianity; they propagated their delusions mainly by the sword, and not lying miracles; and, indeed, the impieties of Mohammed never equalled the blasphemies here predicted. This ‘man of sin’ would be the ‘son of perdition’ (John xvii. 12); a genuine descendant of Judas, the apostle and traitor, who sold his Lord for money, and destroyed him with a kiss; a peculiar factor and agent of Satan, in destroying the souls of men, and finally sinking into perdition as his inheritance. It is manifest, that no succession of men have yet appeared on earth to whom this description fully accords, except that of the Roman pontiffs. This deceiver would oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God, or is ‘worshipped,’ either by Christians or pagans; thus the Roman pontiffs have opposed the truths, commandments, and disciples of Christ, in every age; the prophetical office of Christ, by teaching human inventions—his priestly office, by the doctrine of human merits and created intercessors—and his kingly office, by changing and dispensing with his laws. They have exalted themselves ‘above all that is called God,’ and is ‘worshipped,’ by claiming authority to forgive sins; by granting indulgences to men to break the commandments of God; by dispensing with his laws, and presuming to give meaning and authority to the Scriptures themselves. Moreover, this ‘man of sin’ ‘sits as God’ in the temple of God; and we must, therefore, look for him within the visible church; there he blasphemously usurps the throne of God, ‘showing himself to be God.’ Many Roman emperors affected divine honours, and demanded adoration; but there was no antecedent apostacy from Christianity or the worship of Jehovah; and they might rather be said to sit in the temple of Jupiter or Mars, than in that of God, whose temple must be considered to be among his professed worshippers, and not among avowed heathen. But the Roman pontiff—claiming to be the universal head of the whole church of God, called by his flatterers ‘Vice-God,’ a ‘God upon earth,’ arrogating the title of ‘His Holiness,’ boasting of ‘infallibility,’ claiming a right to depose kings and bestow kingdoms on whom he pleases—answers exactly to the description here given. While the Roman pontiff opposes the worship of God, by enjoining the worship of images, of saints, and angels, and the authority of his laws, to enforce subjection to his own edicts, he himself may be called the great idol, as well as the great tyrant, of the Romish church!”
Human sagacity could by no means have conjectured such a character rising up among the people of God, and such deeds perpetrated in the name and form of religion. This required the prescience of the Infinite Mind. But we shall see them all in their dreadful enormity, as we pursue the history of the Romish Inquisition.
CHAPTER II.
PROGRESS OF ANTICHRIST.
Spirit of Antichrist—Priests, Clergy, and Laity—Ceremonies—Mosheim—“Pious Frauds”—Splendour of Prelates—Constantine—the Hierarchy—Titles—Creeds—Arianism—Persecution—Rome and Constantinople—Pope John—Pope Gregory—Mohammed—Claims of the Pope—Henry IV.—Corrupt principles.
Divine Wisdom having foreseen, and thus foretold, all the dreadful corruptions of the Christian church, we are interested in marking the steps by which the progress was made. The spirit of popery we behold in the conduct of the judaising teachers of the early Christians, as censured by Paul, and as seen in the proceedings of Diotrephes, who is believed to have been a pastor. John complained of his refusing to “receive the brethren,” the messengers of the apostle, and of his “malicious words,” persecuting some, and casting others out of the church.—(2 John 9, 10.)
This ambitious spirit led the pastors in some of the larger churches, early in the second century, to assume the character and title of priests, as peculiar to their order. They claimed the privilege of being the Lord’s “heritage,” or clergy, which belonged to the faithful, as distinct from their ministers.—(1 Pet. v. 31.) But they persuaded the people that they had succeeded to the rights of the Jewish priesthood, as God’s clergy; and hence the distinction of clergy and laity, which has no foundation in Christianity. This distinction being established, gave immense force to the spirit of popery, which advanced rapidly among the ignorant people. Dr. Mosheim states, “The Christian doctors had the good fortune to persuade the people, that the ministers of the Christian church succeeded to the character, rights, and privileges of the Jewish priesthood; and this persuasion was a new source of honour and profit to the sacerdotal order. This notion was propagated with industry, some time after the second destruction of Jerusalem [A.D. 135] had extinguished all hopes of seeing their government restored to its former lustre, and their country arising from its ruins. And, accordingly, the bishops considered themselves invested with a rank and character similar to those of the high priests among the Jews, while the presbyters represented the priests, and the deacons the Levites.”
Christianity having no splendid ceremonial to recommend the preaching of the Gospel, priests devised various forms to be added to the Lord’s supper, which was administered every Sabbath, and ceremonies were invented, partly derived from the Jews and some from the idolators, to attract the minds of the people, and with a view to gratify the converts from heathenism. The performance of these, especially in the Lord’s supper, served also as the means of employing the priests in their newly created offices; and they were called mysteries, as having a hidden meaning and a peculiar virtue, after the manner of the rites of the Pagan priests. Hence originated the term sacraments, the Latin word for mysteries, applied to various rites, especially baptism and the Lord’s supper.