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fraud and strength; in strength by his power, in fraud by his miracles. He is rightly said therefore, to be both a lion, and lying in wait; lying in wait by the splendour of his miracles, a lion by his secular power. For in order to draw those who are openly wicked, he displays his secular power; but in order to deceive even the just, he pretends sanctity by his miracles. For he persuades the one by the height of his greatness, he deceives the others by a display of sanctity." And again: "what he says in his craft, he supports by working wonders; for whatever his lying tongue pretends, that does the hand of his work set forth as if true." (Moral. Vol. iii. pp. 528, &c. Oxf. Trans.)

Nothing can show more strongly S. Gregory's belief that Antichrist will be permitted to work real miracles of some kind, than the preceding quotations. By the aid of S. Augustine, we shall proceed with our present inquiry of endeavouring to distinguish between what he will have power to perform, and what he will not. S. Augustine says thus-" When indeed fire fell from heaven, and at one impetus consumed the whole family with so many flocks and herds of holy Job, and a whirlwind rushing upon and overthrowing their house, killed his sons, these things were not illusions. They were the very works of Satan, to whom GOD had given such power."

This is in accordance with what we have previously remarked, that Satan with permitted power can destroy life; but God alone, the FATHER, and CHRIST, and the HOLY GHOST, preserve life and living creatures, even as they are their only source and Creators. S. Augustine has another most curious and most valuable passage in the De Civitate, (Lib. xviii. c. 18) in which he altogether denies the possibility of any creative power being ever really exercised by the demons. After quoting the "Asini Aurei" of Apuleius he proceeds-"These things are either false, or so unusual as not to deserve credit. This, however, is firmly to be believed, that Almighty God can do all things whatsoever He pleases, both of right, and by actual performance; and the demons cannot perform anything according to the potency of their own nature, (for they are really angelic by creation, but evil by their own fault) save what is permitted by Him Whose judgments are often secret, never unjust. The demons in truth cannot create any beings, (naturas) even if they can do any of those things which we are at present discussing, but can only change the appearance of things which have been created by the True GOD, so that they should appear to be what they are not. I would never, therefore, by any means believe that either the mind, or even the body of a human being could by any device or power of demons be really changed into the members and lineaments of a brute." He then in a passage too long to quote, proceeds to show that any metamorphosis which may have ever taken place, may possibly have arisen from

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that part of man's mind called the fancy, which is so active in dreams, assuming for a time some visible shape.

We shall find then that the whole instinct of the early Catholic Church was altogether opposed to the idea that Satan, or any evil power or principle could by any possibility, under any circumstances, create, or call any beings really to life. And to maintain this principle, we know that she battled manfully against the more than hundred-headed Hydras of Gnosticism and Manicheism. To enter into any of the tenets of these heresies, which bear largely however upon this very question, would take us too long. We will only quote a passage from S. Jerome about the Marcionites (Comment. in Isa. L. vii. c. 17. Ed. Vallar.) "Marcionista quum enim recipiant Providentiam, accusant Creatorem, et asserunt Eum in plerisque operibus errasse, et non ita fecisse ut facere debuerat. Ad quam enim utilitatem hominum serpentes, scorpios, crocodilos, et pulices, cimices et culices pertinere ?"

And in the acts of certain Persian martyrs under King Sapor, we see that the early Christians were ready to endure any torments, and to suffer death itself, rather than admit that there is anything in the universe which is not created by the only GOD. Among the charges brought against them by the Magians were the following," They abolish our doctrine; they teach men to worship one only GOD; they forbid them to adore the sun or fire; they permit all sorts of animals to be killed; they say that serpents and scorpions were made, not by the devil, but by God Himself."

We are only aware of one or two things in Holy Scripture which seem to require any explanation as appearing opposed to this belief, that Satan, and therefore Antichrist his instrument, will neither of them be ever permitted to give life to any kind of beings, not even the very lowest and meanest in the scale of creation. Indeed we are inclined to doubt if this power has ever been delegated to a creature, either to the highest archangel, or to the holiest prophet. And this perhaps was one reason why our LORD's giving sight to a man who had been born blind, seemed to astonish the Jews more than His raising Lazarus and others from the dead, acts similar to what had been previously performed by Elijah and Elisha. "But since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind." Whence S. Augustine takes occasion to say very beautifully,"Our LORD anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay; as though He Who formed the whole man of clay, had not of it made for him eyes in the womb, so now He made them."

The first instance which we will notice as seeming to be opposed to what we have said is in Exodus vii. 10, 11, 12-" And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD commanded and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and 1 See Butler's Lives of the Saints. March 14.

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before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh called also the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods." About Aaron's rod becoming a serpent, it is only necessary to make this remark. It did not involve any real and abiding act of creation, because the serpent into which it was changed, resumed its original form, becoming a rod again in Moses' hand.

What requires more explanation is what occurred in the plague of frogs. (Ex. viii. 6, 7.) "And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt." Aaron stretched out his hand upon this and some other occasions, says Origen"Ne virgæ vim magicis prestigiis plurimi adscriberent."1

In the first place, it may be suggested that there is no mention here made of any actual creation of frogs, either on the part of Moses and Aaron, or by the magicians. It is said "they brought frogs," which may mean, that frogs which had been already formed by the Only Creator, were really but miraculously summoned to that spot by Moses and Aaron. Of what the magicians performed, there may be two explanations. The first is, that while they really did by God's permission turn water into blood, they only seemed to create frogs. They enchanted the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants. This is an hypothesis which would hold good, even granting, for the sake of argument, that the magicians did anything more than bring frogs already in existence, from some other spot to that in which Pharaoh and his servants were then assembled. What renders this explanation the more probable is, that eminent Hebrew scholars are of opinion that the original word which expresses the act of the magicians, gives by its root and primary signification an intimation of this very kind; there is something of cheating and jugglery expressed, of casting a film upon the eyes of beholders, so as to make them appear to see what they really do not see, and what is really not in existence. It is said that there is a class of men in Egypt who possess a similar power to this very day.

A second explanation is, that it may have been a multitude of demons assuming at the bidding of the magicians the very form and appearance of frogs. As it is said in Psalm lxxviii. 49" He sent evil angels among them.' The account of the frogs proceeding out of the mouth of the dragon, and the beast and the false prophet (Rev. xvi. 13) would seem to be rather in favour of this latter supposition; since in the following verse they are declared to be the spirits of devils. These lying unclean spirits might either

1 Select. in Exod. Ed. De la Rue.

possess or take the form of frogs, just as Satan in the beginning either possessed or took the form of a serpent.

Whatever may have been the power which at the period of the earliest plagues was conceded to the magicians, those lively types of the lying prophets and teachers who shall go before the face of Antichrist, it was very speedily brought to a termination. It is not a little singular, that they failed with their enchantments in even seeming to produce or to summon at their bidding what are perhaps the meanest and vilest of all living creatures. And in this instance we must allow that it is not said of Aaron that he brought lice, but that as GOD commanded, he "stretched forth his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth; and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt." (Ex. viii. 17.) Thus, in whatever way we view the matter, the failure of the magicians was the more signal, their credit the more completely blasted and overthrown.

The second thing, which it is, to say the least, probable Antichrist will not be suffered to perform amongst the multitude of signs and wonders which he will exhibit to deceive the nations, is the raising of the dead.

There are two wonders mentioned in Rev. xiii., which will be more properly fully considered when we enter upon the second branch of our inquiry-the positive miracles of Antichrist. We shall only advert to them at present. One wonder is that the first beast was as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed. The Greek is perhaps a little stronger than our translation. « Καὶ εἶδον μίαν τῶν κεφαλῶν αὐτοῦ ὡς ἐσφαγμένην εἰς θάνατον· καὶ ἡ πληγὴ τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ ἐθεραπεύθη.” By this we may understand that he shall receive some such wound as without miraculous powers of healing must terminate in death; but that he will be healed by miracle. And this will be the nearest approach to raising the dead which Satan will ever be permitted to perform.1

About the second miracle, namely that the second beast will "have power to give life to the statue of the first beast, and that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed ❞—(see verse 15,)—there is something in the very description itself, which is given by blessed John, that serves to strike us with horror and dismay, something which long before the time arrives, exhibits to us the very marks and signs by which the elect, who alone will overcome at that awful time, will discern clearly the tokens of the working of diabolical power. There will be life. The signs of life in this image of the beast will be incontestable and unmistakeable. But it will be devilish and demoniacal life. The whole atmosphere will seem as it were, to breathe of hell, to be reeking 1 See S. Chrysos. quoted by Corn. a Lapide, on 2 Thess. ii. 8.

with the smoke and stench of the bottomless pit. There well might be life, but it will be a kind of vampire life; it will be life, such as if we could conceive it possible, a galvanised corpse moving and acting and speaking might possess. It will be as though a living spirit of the Abyss were controlling and actuating a putrefying human carcass.

The practical conclusions which we deduce from the preceding inquiry are these,-that Antichrist will endeavour by the assistance of Satan to do both these things, to create life and to raise the dead. The more strictly and jealously and exclusively God has reserved these things to Himself as His own prerogative, the more strenuously will Antichrist seek to usurp that prerogative. And in some horrible magical manner, he will contrive to present an appearance of so doing. But the strength of the saints in their contest with him will consist in this, that do what he will in that way, it will all bear evidently, on the face of it, the character of a frightful and horrible diabolical machination, and similitude of the miracles of God and His Prophets and Apostles.

We are now arrived at the third and concluding branch of our inquiry, namely the Positive Miracles of Antichrist, or those which he will actually perform.

The words of S. Augustine-which we quoted from the "De Civitate "-may be not inaptly applied to those two branches into which we have divided this subject.

Some of the Miracles of Antichrist will be "signa et prodigia mendacii," because he will deceive the senses of mankind by seeming to do what he does not do. Other signs and prodigies, though they be real, will yet be "signa et prodigia mendacii," because they will be done by the power of the Father of Lies, utterly to overthrow the Truth of GOD. It is with these that we are now about to deal.

And it becomes us to acknowledge at the outset, that it is our duty to tread warily and discreetly; endeavouring to follow with humility and teachableness the faint indications which Scripture and Antiquity afford us. For though, as we think will be readily allowed by those who have perused our former remarks, we have the most abundant testimony possible to the fact of Antichristian miracles generally, of some kind or other, it is widely different when we come to inquire what they will actually be. We shall, however, proceed to show that we have not been left entirely in darkness.

First, there is reason to believe that Antichrist will be allowed to utter prophecies, which will be fulfilled by subsequently occurring events. There is a passage in the Book of Deuteronomy, (xiii. 1—5,) which proves at least the possibility of such a thing, very conclusively: "If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the

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