Note 78 — SERMON V. THE CHURCH IN THE LATTER DAYS.

Tertullian, who lived in the second century, says of the letting power, “Who can this be but the Roman state? the division of which into ten kingdoms will bring on Antichrist, and then the wicked one shall be revealed.” De resurrect. carnis, c. 24. And in his Apology, “There is especial necessity that we should pray for the emperors, the empire, and the general prosperity of Rome, for we know that a mighty power threatening the whole world and the end of the world itself, is kept back by the intervention of the Roman empire.”—Apol. c. 32. Cyril says, “This the predicted Antichrist will come when the times of the Roman empire shall be fulfilled, and the consummation of the world shall approach. Ten kings of the Romans shall arise together, in different places indeed, but they shall reign at the same time; among these the eleventh is Antichrist who by magical and wicked artifice shall seize the Roman power.” Catech. 15, c. 5. See Newton on the Prophecies.