Is it not possible that, in correspondence with this, the fifth king also will be the one who will ascend from the abyss? If so, provided the five kings be those whom we have just mentioned, Antichrist would be the re-incarnated spirit of the terrible Nero. Could there be found another instrument so fitted for Satan's purpose?

Should we admit this conclusion, we could certainly find startling corroborations of it in the history of Nero, as well as in the conceptions formed of him, and the rumours circulated by his contemporaries and those who came after them, Pagans and Christians alike.

To begin with his acts, some of them were very suggestive foreshadowings of what Antichrist will hereafter do. For he was the first to wield the imperial power against the Christians, and the bitter cruelties of his persecution-among the victims of which was Paul the apostle of the Gentiles-were imitated too well by succeeding emperors. And again, it was Nero who sent out the expedition, under Vespasian and Titus, which ravaged Judea and ultimately destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple.

Not less remarkable were the ideas prevalent respecting him in the Heathen world; for it was believed that he would be deprived of his power, and afterwards restored to it; nay, according to some soothsayers, Jerusalem was to be the capital city of his second empire. The following is a passage from his biography by Suetonius.

"It had been long ago foretold to Nero by the

astrologers that his fate was to be sometime forsaken

of all. Hence that very famous saying of his :

And for this reason he was wont with greater indulgence to cultivate the art of playing on the lyre, an art which was pleasing to him as the first man of the state, and would be indispensable when he became a private person. Certain astrologers, however, promised him the dominion of the East after he had been forsaken of all; some particularly the kingdom of Jerusalem; a greater number the restoration of all his former good fortune.”

Reports of these predictions spread far and wide, and abundant evidence may be found in the classical writers of the deep and lasting impression produced by them. For instance, Suetonius, after mentioning the general joy at the death of Nero, adds:

"And yet there were not wanting those who for a long time used to deck his tomb with spring and summer flowers; and sometimes they would put forth robed statues of him in the Rostrum, sometimes they would issue edicts, as though he were still living, and would shortly return to the great woe of his enemies..

Moreover, Vologesus, king of the Parthians, when he sent ambassadors to the Senate to renew an alliance, urgently entreated this also, that the memory of Nero might be reverenced. Lastly, some twenty years afterwards, when I was a youth, a man of *Sueton. Nero, xl.

uncertain origin stood forth, and boasted that he was Nero. And so attractive was the name among the Parthians that he was strenuously assisted, and surrendered at last with reluctance." *

Three times, in the reigns of Galba, Titus, and Domitian, the Parthians were on the eve of fighting for impostors who took the name of Nero. There is something striking in this: for although it seems necessary to the fulfilment of Nebuchadnezzar's vision that Persia should ultimately belong to the fourth empire, yet the Parthians, who were then in possession of that kingdom, successfully resisted all the efforts of the Romans to subdue them, and maintained their independence. If, therefore, Nero is to be Antichrist, there seems to be an almost prophetic instinct in the respect which these sturdy warriors paid to his name, and in their willingness to follow him, as though they recognized a destined chieftain.

Tacitus mentions the incident related by Suetonius, and also the subsequent disturbance of Achaia and Asia through a false alarm that Nero was alive, and on his way to the East. Similar accounts may be found in Dion Cassius, Zonaras, and other writers; but we have said enough to indicate the strange ideas respecting this emperor which were floating about in the heathen world.

And if, again, we turn to the Christian com

Sueton. Nero, lvii.

Tac. Hist. i. 2.

Tac. Hist. ii. 8. The appearance of a third spurious hero in the reign of Titus is mentioned by Zonaras (xi. 18).

munities, we shall be no less startled at the rumours which everywhere meet us. For there was a common belief in the early Church that Paul, when speaking of the "Man of sin " and the Lawless One, pointed to Nero the reigning emperor, though he would not mention his name. Hence arose the opinion that Nero was the head of the beast which had been fatally wounded; and that he would, therefore, be raised from the dead, and be the last great persecutor as he had been the first. Lactantius* and Augustine both mention this idea as being prevalent in their respective times, but do not subscribe to it.

It is, however, adopted without hesitation in the earliest apocalyptic commentary which has come down to us, that of Victorinus of Petau, who adds the following remark: "For it is plain that, when the cavalry sent by the Senate was pursuing him, he himself cut his throat. Him, therefore, when raised up, God will send as a worthy king; but worthy in such a way as the Jews merited." Commodianus also, when treating of Antichrist, affirms that he will be Nero raised up from hell, and in describing the last seven years of the age says: "But Elias shall occupy half of the time, and Nero shall occupy half. Then, the whore Babylon being reduced to ashes, its embers shall thence advance

Ι

to Jerusalem; and the Latin conqueror shall say, 'I am Christ Whom ye always adore."" Lastly, Sulpicius Severus mentions the opinion of many in his days

*Lactant., De Mort. Persec., cap. ii.
August., De Civit. Dei, xx. 19.

that Nero is yet to come as Antichrist, and explains thus: "It is uncertain whether he destroyed himself. Whence it is believed that, although he may have pierced himself with a sword, yet he was saved by the cure of his wound in accordance with that which is written, 'And his deadly wound was healed.' At the close of the age he is to be sent again, that he may exercise the mystery of iniquity." Similar statements may be found in the Sibylline prophecies, and in many other ancient writings.

Such, then, are specimens of the ideas prevalent among Heathens and Christians respecting Nero from his own times until the fifth century. That they are very remarkable and interesting, and seem to accord more or less with Scripture, must be admitted; that they may prove true in the main is by no means improbable; but further than this we cannot go.

THE OVERTHROW OF ECCLESIASTICISM BY SECULARISM.

Before the interpreting angel discloses the manner in which the alliance between the woman and the beast will end, he pauses for a moment to explain an obscurity in his description of the woman. He has called her "the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters," and it is necessary to inform the apostle that these waters signify "peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues." Now we must remember that since she herself is the mystic Babylon, the waters upon which she sits must be the mystic Euphrates: therefore this often cited river is no symbol of the Turkish empire, as so many have ex