willingly believed the Deceiver. Beloved, we have need of many Prayers and Tears, that any of us may ftand ftedfaft in the Day of Temptation. For many are the wonderful Works that fhall be wrought by this Beaft! For he, being the Enemy of God, will endeavour to accom plish an universal Deftruction. For this End he will endeavour to make all Men receive his () Mark, when he comes in his

C

very Looks: And it fhall be then clearly difcernible, who have taken the due Precautions, and who have not, in trying the Spirits which go forth in the Name of Chrift, and with the higheft Pretences fet up themfelves in the Temple of God; both by the darkness of .their Afpe&t, and by the outward Mark and Character alfo of the Seal of Antichrift diabolically imprinted on their Faces, in the most eminent Part thereof. This Antichriftian Mark, with the gloomy Saturnine Cloud fitting upon their Brow; whereby their exprefs Compact with Satan, and his Vicegerent Antichrift, is denoted and teftify'd to the World; muft be undoubtedly fuch an Infallible Mark of Difcrimination in the laft Days, as it fhall not be poffible for the Faithful, elected out of the World, and having the Seal of Faith, to be deceiv'd even with all the deceivableness of Un righteousness in the Appearance of Antichrift and his Apostles.

(i, Concerning this Antichriftian Mark there is no fufficient Reafon alledg'd why it may not be an exter nal and vifible Mark or Character, or why we fhould here recede from the Literal to a Metaphorical Senfe, when there is not the leaft Inconvenience following the former; and this latter is fo ftrain'd, and attended with fo many Difficulties, as will prefently appear to every Impartial Confiderer. This external and vifi ble Character of the Antichriftians, as the Sign of the

internal

every plea

It is a

his apointed Time to deceive the World by his Miracles, till the Number of his + na Days fhall be accomplished. That fo they NO is e. may buy Food, and the Pleasures of fant Form Life. And the Rulers of the People do acor Image. complish his Defign. My Brethren, beware of the * Exaltation of this Beaft! Shew of Pleafure, For his Artifices are Diabolical. Obferve ratherthan how he begins with the Belly; that when Jelf, and a Man is pinched for Want of Food, he theRepre- may be compelled to receive his Mark: fentation Not as it might be upon every Member ratherthan of his Body, but in his (i) right Hand,

of a Thing

the Thing it felf.

From whence is

and

dav, internal and invifible Seal of the Spirit of Antichrift Erafm in in their Hearts, is to be imprinted not once, but 1 Cor. viii. twice, for the more firm Binding of the Subjects, on 4. Simu- whom the Impreffion thereof is made. The two Imlachrum preffions are upon the Hand and the Forehead, Rev.xiii. et vox 16. The Military Mark of Antichrift is the first of Latina a thefe, according to the Ancient Cuftom of ftigmati Simulando; zing Soldiers in the Hand. Hence Aëtius the PhyfiIdolon cian, having occafion to make mention of fuch fort. Græca, ab of Marks in the Flesh, hath thefe Words: Tiyuara GO, καλᾶσι τὰ ἐπὶ ἢ προσώπε, ἡ ἄλλα τινὸς μέρος ἢ σώμα Species, τὸς ἐπιγραφόμενα, οἷα 7 seαλευομένων ἐ7 ΧΕΡΣΙ, quod fpe- And Radulphus Flaviacenfis in his 14th Book upon Leciem & i- viticus, explaining that Precept of the Law, Te fhall maginem not print any MARKS upon you: I am the LORD; Lev. inanem, xix. 28. gives hereof this Reason, Stigmata dicebantur præ fe fe- quadam Signa, que in MANIBUS Militum fiebant ; ut de rat, quum militia Imperatoris effe cognofcerentur. Prohibet ergo ne huabfit Ve- jufmodi Characteres facerent fibi, quibus humanam videanritas. tar profiteri fubjectionem, qui divinam profeffi funt potius, ще тий fervitutem. And hence was alfo the Conftitution of Coxlu Gregory the Great, Ne quis MANU Signatus, ante exple2 Cor. iv. tam Militiam in Monafteriis reciperetur. Whence like7. 17

wife

and upon his (k) Forehead, fhall he receive this Hellish Mark, that he may not be able with his right Hand to make the (k) Sign of the Crofs, nor im prefs

C 2

wife in the Notitia utriufque Imperii, we have the Names of the Honorians, the Theodofians, the Conftanti uns, and others, who were such Soldiers as had re ceiv'd in their Hand, or in their Arm, the Mark of that Emperor under whom they ferv'd.

(k) The Servile Mark of Antichrift is that upon the Forebead; which is to be diftinguish'd from the foregoing, as implying a great deal more than it: The one of thefe Marks is lefs visible, the other is to be feen of all; the one is the Badge of a Warfare that is to have an End at a certain Period, but the other of perpetual Servitude, of a Slavery never to have End and the one, I think, may hence be call'd a delible, but the other an indelible Character. To which may be well apply'd that of Suidas, fpeaking of the Father of Bion, who had been a Slave, 'Ou eowtov, ἄλλα συγγραφω ἐπὶ ἢ προσώπε, ο δεσπότε πι κείας συμβόλου Voc. Συμβ. And Petronius fpeaking of Eumolpus, fays agreeably, implevit FRONTEM utriufque ingentibus Literis. Whence a Slave bearing fuch a Mark in his Forehead, is call'd Literatus by Plautus, in his Cafin. A& II. Sc. 6. and FRONTE notatus by the Epigrammatift. Mart. Lib. 3. Also FRONTES Li terati by Apuleius, after the fame manner as Literarum nota per fummam ORIS contumeliam inufti, by Valerius Maximus, are thus apply'd to denote the deplorable Eftate of thofe condemn'd Bondflaves who are ftigmatiz'd in the Face or Forehead. To which allo Clemens Alexandrinus and Chryfoftom do allude: And Cardinal Cajetan, according to them, thus explains St. Paul; Ad fimilitudinem fervorum geftantium in FACIE impreffam notam Dominorum inuftione ferri faltam, defcribit fe Paulus portare manifefte in corpore fuo, non unam, fed multas impreffas notas Domini Jefu. Comm. in Gal. vi. 17. Wherefore the Difference betwixt this

twofold

prefs on his Forehead the Holy Name of the Lord, or the Glorious and Venerable Crofs of Chrift our Saviour. Deceiver knoweth, that the (

For the

Sign of the

twofold Mark of Antichrift, viz. in the Hand and the Forehead, or Military and Servile, may deferve well to be heeded. For they that receive his Mark but in the Hand only, are not thereby abfolutely out of all poffibility of being recover'd again: But they that shall be fo unhappy as to receive it in their Forehead alfo, will thereby be fealed to Deftruction together with him, without the leaft poffibility of an Escape remaining for them. What manner of Diabolical Mark this shall be in the Flesh of these Antichriftians, either in the Hand or in the Face, to diftinguish them from Chriftians at the first fight, we cannot be certain: But moft probable it is, that there fhall be fomewhat of Darkness and Deformity in it not to be diffembled, with fomething fuited to exprefs their highest Contempt of the Crofs of Chrift, and Abjuration of his Name and Doctrine.

(1) This feems to have been a fort of Social Teffera and Characteriftick among the First Chriftians, whereby they could all know one another, without difcovering themselves to the Heathens, in whofe Company they might be; and could alfo undifcovered filence their Demons in their Temples, put a stop to their Sacrificial Offices, loofe fuch as were Bound by Satan, and after feveral manners deftroy and frustrate the Works of the Devil, looking earnestly through Faith at the fame time up to JESUS, as treading upon the Serpent's Head by his Death for Man on the Crofs: Who, according to the African Father,

Serpentis Spolium, devicto Principe Mundi,

Affixit Ligno, refugarum immane Tropeum.

See Tertullian against Martion, and his Apology; with what Justin Martyr and Minucius Felix have faid hereof,

in

the Cross, if it be made, deftroyeth all his Power, and therefore he will fet his Mark on the (m) right Hand; for by C 3 that

in their Apologies for Christianity: As alfo what Origen in his Commentaries, St. Cyril in his Catechife, St. Bafil in his Treatife of the Holy Ghoft, St. ChrySeftom upon St. Matthew, the Ancient Book of the Ecclefiaftical Hierarchy, under the Name of St. Dionyfius; and what the Apologifts of the Church of EngLand for the Ufe of the Crofs in Baptifm have produc'd in Honour of this Sacred Sign.

(m) The Reafon which is here twice given for the Impreffion of a Diabolical Mark upon the Right Hand deferves not to be flighted: But there is also another which is coincident with it, and may be as Old as the Days of Samuel at leaft, and that is, that this Hand is the Symbol of Power, and confequently of Victory alfo, whence the Sign thereof was anciently used both by Fews and Heathens for a Trophy, or for a Monument of good Succefs, as appears from the Sacred Writer of the First Book of Samuel, and from David also in feveral of his undoubted Pfalms, with refpect to the former; and for the latter Lipfius may be confulted, and Stewechius upon Vegetius, with other Learned Criticks that have written De Re Militari. Particularly it is obfervable, that the Monument or Trophy which King Saul erected for his Victory over the Amalekites, was fet up upon this very Suppofition,and took thence alfo its Denomination, as you may fee in 1 Sam. xv. 12. where in our Verfion it is, He fet him up a Place, and in the Vulgar Latin, Erexiffet fibi fornicem triumphalem; but in the Original it is Tan Hand, and the LXXII have accordingly render'd the Place avisanev our Xey: And that this alfo was no other than the Right Hand, is pretty plain, upon an Allufion there. to of David, upon his Victory over the Edomites, in Pf. lx. 4, 5,6 See likewife for this, Pf. cvi. 36 Ifa. xlix. 22. Ezek. xvi. 27. xxi. 22. and Zach. ii. 9. And compare P. cix. 6. with Zach. iii. 1. which bear an exprefs Relation to this Satanical Power. The Mark

of