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O F By J O H N.B U N Y A N. 1692. First published four years after John Bunyan's death. |
OF THE MANNER OF THE RUIN OF ANTICHRIST.
hat Antichrist is, I have told you; and that as to his soul and
body. I have also told you where, or in what things the spirit and life of Antichrist
lieth, and how he shall reign for a time. I have moreover shewed you that he shall
be destroyed, and by what, and that with reference both to his soul and body. Wherefore,
waving other things, I shall here only present you with a few short hints concerning
the manner of his downfall.
There is the downfall , the time of the downfall, and the manner of the downfall
of Antichrist.
The manner of the downfall of Antichrist, may be considered, either with respect
to the suddenness, unexpectedness, terribleness , or strangeness thereof. It may
also be considered with respect to the way of God's procedure with her, as to the
gradualness thereof. As to the suddenness thereof, 'tis said to be in an hour . It
is also to be, when by her unexpected ; for then she saith, 'I sit a queen' (Rev
18:7,8). For the terribleness of it, The nations shall shake at the sound of her
fall (Eze 31:16,17). And for the strangeness thereof, it shall be to the wonder of
the world (Isa 14:12), it will be as when God overthrew Sodom.
But I shall not enlarge upon this method in my discourse, but shall shew you the
manner of the ruin of Antichrist, with respect to the gradualness thereof (Eze 16:36-43;
Rev 18:8; Isa 47:9).
Antichrist then shall be brought to ruin gradually; that is, by degrees: A part after
a part; here a fenced city, and there a high tower, even until she is made to lie
even with the ground. And yet all shall be within the compass of God's days, hours,
or moments; for within the compass of these limited times Antichrist shall be destroyed.[9]
Now, (as I said) He, she, Sodom, Egypt, Babylon, Antichrist, shall be destroyed,
not all at once, after the way of our counting of time; but by step after step, piece
after piece. And perhaps there may be in the words now following, something that
signifies this: They shall 'shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one
end' (Jer 51:31). This is also shewed by the vessels in which is contained the wrath
of God for her, together with the manner of pouring of it out. The vessels in which
it is contained are called VIALS; Now a vial is that which letteth out what is contained
in it by degrees, and not all at once.
There are also two things to be considered, as to the manner of its being poured
out of them. The first respecteth the nature of the vial. The other, the order of
the angels that poured forth this wrath.
For the First: The vial, as it letteth out what is in it by degrees; so it doth it
with certain gusts , that are mixed with strength and violence, bolting it out with
noise, &c.
As for the order of the angels, or that order that they observe, they plainly shew
that this enemy must come down by degrees; for that these vials are by them poured
out one after another, each one working something of their own effects, before another
is poured forth. The first is poured forth upon the antichristian earth : The second,
upon her sea : The third is poured forth upon her rivers : And the fourth, upon her
sun : The fifth is poured forth upon the seat of the beast : The sixth, upon her
Euphrates : And the seventh, into her air (Rev 16:2-17). And, I say, they are poured
forth not all at one time, but now one, and then another. Now, since by these vials
Antichrist must fall; and since also they are poured forth successively: 'Tis evident
that this man of sin , this son of perdition , is to fall and die by degrees. He
would not die at all, as is manifest by his wrestling with it; but he is a strong
God that judges, and therefore he must come down: His friends also, with what cordials
they can, will labour to lengthen out his tranquility; but God hath set his bounds,
and he cannot go beyond the time appointed.
We must also put a difference betwixt her being fought withal and wounded, and that
of her dying the death. Michael and his angels have been holding of her in play a
long season; but yet she is not dead (Rev 12): But, as I said, she shall descend
in battle and perish, and shall be found no more for ever.
A TENTH PART FALLS FIRST.
To speak then to the manner of the ruin of this Antichrist, with respect to the gradualness
thereof: It must piece after piece be overthrown, until at last every whit thereof
is rolled down from the rocks as a burnt mountain.
And hence we read that this city falls first in a tenth part thereof, even while
nine parts remain yet standing: Nor doth this tenth part, notwithstanding the faith
and faithful testimony of the two witnesses, quite fall, until they are slain, and
also raised again: For 'tis said, The same hour that the witnesses were raised, the
tenth part of the city fell (Rev 11:13): The tenth part of that city that reigneth
over the kings of the earth, which city is Sodom, Egypt, Babylon, or the great whore
(Rev 17:18).
By the city then, I understand the church of Antichrist in its utmost bounds; and
so it reacheth as far as the beast with seven heads and ten horns hath dominion.
Hence this city is also called cities, as one universe is called by the name of several
countries, &c. And them cities also are called 'the cities of the nations' (Rev
16:19): For as when they are put together, they all make but one; so when they are
considered apart, they are found in number ten, and answer to the ten horns upon
the heads of the (seven headed) beast that carries her, and do give her protection.
This then I take to be the meaning: That the antichristian church is divided into
ten parts, and each part is put under one of the horns of the beast for protection:
But that aid and protection shall not help, when God shall come to execute judgment
upon her: For it saith, 'A tenth part of the city fell'; that is, first, and as a
forerunner of the fall of all the rest: Now where this tenth part is , or which of
the ten parts must fall first, or whether indeed a tenth part is already fallen,
that I will leave to those that are wiser than myself to determine.
But since I am speaking of the fall of a tenth part of Antichrist; a word or two
about the means of the fall thereof.
The means of the fall of this tenth part, is an earthquake; yet not such as is universal,
over the face of all, but an earthquake in that tenth part where that city stood
that should fall. Now by earthquakes here, cannot be meant any thing but such a shaking
as unsettleth the foundations of this tenth part: But whether it shall be in this
tenth part as a city, or in it as a state, that I shall not determine; only my thoughts
are, That it shall be an earthquake in that kingdom where this tenth part shall happen
to be: An earthquake not to overthrow further than is appointed; and that is the
city which is called the tenth part of the great Antichrist. So far as that state
is a state, so far then it is shaken for reformation, not for destruction; for in
the earthquake were slain seven thousand (names of) men; and the remnant were affrighted,
and gave glory to the God of heaven. But thus much for the first: Great Babylon falleth
first, in a tenth part of it.
THE NINE PARTS FALL.
Again, The next step that the strong God taketh towards the utter overthrow of Antichrist,
will be more sore upon the whole, though not at first universal neither, yet in conclusion,
it shall throw down the nine parts that are left: For thus it is recorded: 'And the
cities of the nations fell': The cities of the nations , the antichristian churches,
otherwise called the daughters of the mother of harlots, and abominations of the
earth.
Now to shew you the hand of God in this second stroke, wherewith the Lord will smite
this enemy. 1. Here we have a great earthquake.
2. And then, The fall of the cities of the nations.
For the earthquake, it is said to be such as never was, 'so mighty an earthquake,
and so great' (Rev 16:18); for it extended itself as far as the other nine cities
had any ground to stand on; for it shook the foundations of them all.
The fall of the cities, was not immediately upon the shake that was made, but the
earthquake produced an eruption, an eruption in the nine remaining parts of this
city: And such an eruption as is of the worser sort, for it divided them into a three-headed
division: 'And the great city was divided into three parts': the great city, to wit,
the powers by which they were upheld. The meaning then is this; when God shall strike
this man of sin the second time, he will not be so sparing as he was at first, when
he struck but a tenth part to the ground; but now he will so shake, so confound,
so divide, so raise up Antichrist against himself, to wit, in the body and members
of him, that they shall set to fighting, and to tearing one another in pieces, until
they have consumed the whole of these nine parts. It was, saith the text, divided
into three parts, which divisions are the worst of all: It will be therefore such
a division as will bring them all to ruin. Hence it follows, 'And the cities of the
nations fell.'
Wherefore, this three-cornered eruption will be the most dreadful to Antichrist that
ever was: It will be like that that was in Jerusalem when she came to be laid even
with the ground; and like that that came upon the armies of the Gentiles, when they
came up to fight against Jehoshaphat.
'For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir,
utterly to slay and destroy them : And when they had made an end of the inhabitants
of Seir, every one helped to destroy another' (2 Chron 20:23). This, I say, is the
division that this mighty earthquake shall make betwixt the horns that are left to
these nine parts that remained, when the tenth part of the city fell. And this will
come to pass through the increase of the heat of God's anger: For he is angry with
the waters where the woman sitteth, because they have delivered up his beloved to
the bloody whore; wherefore, he now will give them blood to drink in fury.
Hence his beginning to deal with Antichrist, is called, the beginning of revenges:
'I will make [saith God] mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour
flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning
of revenges upon the enemy' (Deu 32:42). And therefore it is said again, that when
God comes to do this work upon this Antichrist, it is because 'it is the day of the
Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion' (Isa 34:8).
'For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come'
(Isa 63:4).
A peace therefore cannot be made among these cities when God has forbidden it: Wherefore
the effect of all, is, The cities of the nations fall . There is therefore like to
be no more good days for Antichrist after this earthquake has begun to shake her:
No, nothing now is to be expected of her, but rumours, tumults, stirs, and uproars:
'One post shall run to meet another,to shew the king of Babylon that his city is
taken at one end': And again, 'A rumour shall both come one year; and after that
in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler,'
&c. (Jer 51:31,46). So that this earthquake has driven away peace, shaken the
foundations, and will cast the nine cities down to the ground.
GREAT BABEL FALLS.
And this is a second stroke that God will give this man of sin, and a third cometh
quickly. Wherefore it follows upon the downfall of these cities of the nations, that
'great Babylon came into remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the
wine of the fierceness of his wrath.' Now then, have at great Babylon. Great Babylon
! What is that? Why, I take it to be the mother , the metropolitan , the great whore
herself: For though sometimes, by the great whore, or great Babylon, we may understand,
the church of Antichrist in general; yet by it is meant more properly, the mother
of the daughters, of whose overthrow we have spoken before. We are now then come
to the threshold of the door of the house of the OLD one; to the door of the mother
of harlots, and abomination of the earth. This then that but now is said to come
into remembrance with God, is that which gave being to the cities destroyed before;
to wit, the mistress, the queen, the mother- church, as she calleth herself.
And this is the wisdom of God concerning her, that she should not be the first that
should die; but that she should live to see the destruction of her daughters, and
pine away under the sight and sense of that, even until judgment also shall overtake
herself.
Thus Pharaoh and his chief ones did live to see the greatest part of Egypt destroyed
before judgment overtook them, but at last it came to their doors also.
Zedekiah lived to see his children slain before his face, before judgment overtook
him to his own personal destruction (Jer 52:8-11).
Babylon also, when God sent the cup of his fury unto her, yet was to live to see
the nations drink before her: 'Take the wine cup of my fury [said God to the prophet,]
and cause all the nations to whom I send thee, to drink it' (Jer 25:15). To wit,
All the kingdoms of the world which are upon the face of the earth. 'And Sheshach
shall drink after them' (verse 26). But what was Sheshach? may some say. I answer,
It was Babylon, the princess of the world, and at that time the head of all those
nations (Dan 4:22), (as this queen is now the mother of harlots). Wherefore, the
same prophet, speaking of the destruction of the same Sheshach, saith, 'How is Sheshach
taken? and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! How is Babylon become
an astonishment among the nations!' (Jer 51:41).
Now, if this was the method of God's proceeding with his enemies in the way of his
judgments of old, why may we not suppose that he will go the same way with his great
enemy now: especially since those judgments mentioned before, were executed upon
those, which, in some things, were figures of the great whore. Besides, we read here
plainly, that when the cities of the nations were fallen, great Babylon came into
remembrance before God, to give her to drink of the cup.
From all which I conclude, as I did before, that the mother, the metropolitan, the
lady of kingdoms, shall live to see her daughters executed before her face: After
which she shall come into consideration herself; for she must assuredly drink of
the cup.[10]
This destruction therefore must be last, for the reasons urged before, and also because
she most deserves the bottom of the cup. The bottom is the dregs, the most bitter
part, and that where the most heat, and fiercest wrath of God doth lie (Psa 75:8):
Wherefore, although you find that by the first earthquake a great slaughter was made,
and that a tenth part of the city fell; yet from that judgment some did escape: 'And
the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven' (Rev 11:13). But
now, this earthquake , by virtue of which the cities of the nations fall, and as
an effect of which great Babylon is come into 'remembrance before God,' neither spares
one of the daughters of this whore, nor any man that is a lover of them; but it so
is seconded by a 'hail-storm,' and that hail-storm worketh so in wrath, that not
one escapes by repentance. Every hail-stone was the weight of a talent, which some
say is six pounds above half an hundred weight:[11]By this therefore God
shews, that now his anger was wrought up to the height. I know not wherewith so to
compare these hail-stones, as with the talent of lead that was laid over the mouth
of the ephah, which was prepared to hold the woman, whose name was wickedness , this
very whore of Babylon: For that talent of lead was to keep down this mistress, that
she might get no more out of the ephah, and these hail- stone are to banish her out
of the world (Zech 5:5-11): Therefore it follows, that she must have the most heavy
judgment, even the bottom of the cup.
'And great Babylon came into remembrance before God.' To remember with God, is to
visit either with grace or wrath, God is said to remember Rachel, when he visited
her with the blessing of a fruitful womb (Gen 30:22). It is said also that God remembered
Noah, when the time came on that he was to be delivered from the flood (Gen 8:1).
Here also he is said to remember Babylon, that is, to visit her with his anger for
the wickedness that she had committed: 'To give unto her the cup of the wine of the
fierceness of his wrath.'
Now then is the time of iniquity, when it will be come to the full; and now also
is the time of God's anger, when it will be come to the full: Now therefore must
the murders (Rev 18:24), and thefts, and blasphemies, and fornications, &c.,
belonging to this mother of harlots, be recompensed to the full, to wit, with the
dregs of this cup: Yet since the hail-stones come by weight , and the wrath comes
by measure , (for so a talent and a cup imports) it follows, that the Almighty God,
even in the midst of the heat of all this anger, will keep to the rules of justice
and judgment while he is dealing with this enemy: He has not passions , to carry
him beyond rules of judgment; nor weakness , to cause him to fall short of doing
justice: Therefore he has (as was said) his judgments for her by weight, and his
indignation by measure: But yet this weight and measure is not suited to her constitution,
not with an intent to purge or refine her; but it is disposed according to the measure
and nature of her iniquity, and comes to sweep her, as with the besom of destruction,
until she is swept off from the face of all the earth.
And thus I have shewed you the manner of the ruin of Antichrist; that is, That it
will be gradual, part after part, until the whole be overthrown. And this truth may
be applied both to the soul, as well as to the body of Antichrist: For the soul,
spirit, or life of Antichrist must also after this manner be destroyed. And hence
it is said to be consumed, that is, by degrees: For to consume, is to destroy by
degrees: Only this caution I would have the reader remember, That much of the soul
of Antichrist may be destroyed, when none of her daughters are; and that the destruction
of her spirit is a certain forerunner of the destruction of her body in the manner
that we have related.
Now since she is dying, let us ring her passing-bell; for when she is dead, we that
live to see it, intend to ring out.
'For thus saith the Lord God; When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities
that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and great waters
shall cover thee; when I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit,
with the people of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in
places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited;
and I shall set glory in the land of the living; I will make thee a terror, and thou
shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again,
saith the Lord God' (Eze 26:19-21).
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