epoch agrees best with the time when, according to prophecy, he was to be revealed. The rise of Antichrist was to be preceded by the dissolution of the Roman empire, the establishment of a different form of government in Italy, and the division of the empire into ten kingdoms; all these events taking place, make it very probable that the year 606 was the time of his rise. Nor have the events of the last century made it less probable. The power of the pope was never so much shaken as within a few years: "his dominion is, in a great measure, taken from him;" and every thing seems to be going on gradually to terminate his authority; so that, by the time this 1260 years shall be concluded, we may suppose that Antichrist shall be finally destroyed. As to the cruelties of Antichrist, the persecutions that have been carried on, and the miseries to which mankind have been subject, by the power of the beast, the reader may consult the articles INQUISITION and PERSECUTION. In this we have to rejoice, that, however various, the opinions of the learned may be as to the time when Antichrist rose, it is evident to all that he is fast declining and will certainly fall, Rev. xviii. 1, 5 What means the Almighty may farther use, the exact time when, and the manner how, all shall be accomplished, we must leave to him who ordereth all things after the counsel of his own will See Bh. Newton on the Prophecies; Simpson's Key to ditto; Moseley's Ser. on Fall of Babylon; Ward's Three Discourses on Prophecy, and books under that article. Rev. xiii. Besides the time allowed for the continuance of the beast will not apply to heathen Rome; for power was given to the beast for 1260 years, whereas heathen Rome did not last 400 years after this prophecy was delivered. Authors have differed as to the time when Antichrist arose. Some suppose that his reign did not commence till he became a temporal prince, in the year 756, when Pepin wrested the exarchate of Ravenna from the Lombards, and made it over to the pope and his successors. Others think that it was in 727, when Rome and the Roman dukedom came from the Greeks to the Roman pontiff. Mede dates this rise in the year 456; but others, and I think with the greatest reason, place it in the year 606. Now, it is generally agreed that the reign of Antichrist is 1260 years; consequently, if his rise is not to be reckoned till he was possessed of secular authority, then his fall must be when this power is taken away. According to the first opinion, he must have possessed his temporal power till the year 2016; according to the second, he must have possessed it till the year 1987. If this rise began, according to Mede, in 456, then he must have fallen in 1716. Now that these dates were wrong, circumstances have proved; the first and second being too late, and the third too early. As these hypotheses, therefore, must fall to the ground, it remains for us to consider why the last mentioned is the more probable. It was about the year 606 that pope Boniface III. by flattering Phocas, the emperor of Constantinople, one of the worst of tyrants, procured for himself the title of Universal Bishop. The bishops of Rome ANTIDORON, a name given by the and Constantinople had long been strug-Greeks to the consecrated bread; out of gling for this honour; at last, it was de- which the middle part, marked with cided in favour of the bishop of Rome; the cross, wherein the consecration reand from this time he was raised above sides, being taken away by the priest, all others, and his supremacy establish- the remainder is distributed after mass ed by imperial authority: it was now, to the poor. also, that the most profound ignorance, debauchery, and superstition, reigned. From this time the popes exerted all their power in promoting the idolatrous worship of images, saints, reliques, and angels. The church was truly deplorable; all the clergy were given up to the most flagrant and abominable acts of licentiousness. Places of worship resembled the temples of heathens more than the churches of Christians; in fine, nothing could exceed the avarice, pride, and vanity of all the bishops, presbyters, deacons, and even the cloistered monks All this fully answered the description St. Paul gave of Antichrist, 2 Thess. i. It is necessary also to observe, that this ANTINOMIANS, those who maintain that the law is of no use or obligation under the gospel dispensation, or who hold doctrines that clearly supersede the necessity of good works. The Antinomians took their origin from Jolin Agricola, about the year 1538, who taught that the law is no way necessary under the Gospel; that good works do not promote our salvation, nor ill one's hinder it; that repentance is not to be preached from the decalogue, but only from the Gospel. This sect sprang up in England during the protectorate of Cromwell, and extended their system of libertinism much farther than Agricola did. Some of them it is said,,ma D repugnancy: these last liave greater affinity with the animal constitution. The causes of antipathy are less known than those of aversion. Repugnancy is less permanent than either the one or the other. We hate a vicious character, we feel an aversion to its exertions. We are affected with antipathy for certain persons at first sight: there are some affairs which we transact with repugnancy. Hatred calumniates, aversion keeps us at a distance from certain persons. Antipathy makes us detest them; repugnancy hinders us from imitating them. ANTIPEDOBAPTISTS, (from arr. "against," and rais maides, “child," and Barr, "baptize,") is a distinguishing denomination given to those who object to the baptism of infants. See BAPTISM. tained, that if they should commit any kind of sin, it would do them no hurt, nor in the least affect their eternal state; and that it is one of the distinguishing characters of the elect that they cannot do any thing displeasing to God. It is necessary, however, to observe here, and candour obliges us to confess that there have been others, who have been styled Antinomians, who cannot, strictly speaking, be ranked with these men: nevertheless, the unguarded expressions they have advanced, the bold positions they have laid down, and the double construction which might so easily be put upon many of their sentences, have led some to charge them with Antinomian principles. For instance; when they have asserted justification to be eternal, without distinguishing between the secret determination of God in eternity, and the execution of it in time; when ANTIQUITIES, a term implying all they have spoken lightly of good works, testimonies or authentic accounts that or asserted that believers have nothing have come down to us of ancient nations. to do with the law of God, without fully As the study of antiquity may be useful explaining what they mean: when they both to the enquiring Christian, as well assert that God is not angry with his as to those who are employed in, or are people for their sins, nor in any sense candidates for the Gospel ministry, we punishes them for them, without distin- shall here subjoin a list of those which guishing between fatherly corrections are esteemed the most valuable.-Faand vindictive punishment: these things, bricii Bibliographia Antiquaria; Spenwhatever be the private sentiments of cer de Legibus Heb. Ritualibus; Godthose who advance them, have a ten-wyn's Moses and Aaron; Bingham's dency to injure the minds of many. It Antiquities of the Christian Church; has been alleged, that the principal || Brown's Antiquities of the Jews; Potthing they have had in view, was, to ter's and Harwood's Greek, and Kencounteract those legal doctrines which nett's and Adam's Roman Antiquities; have so much abounded among the self- Preface to the Prussian Testament, righteous; but, granting this to be true, published by L'Enfant and Beausobre; there is no occasion to run from one Prideaux and Shuckford's Connections; extreme to another. Had many of those Jones's Asiatic Researches; and Mauwriters proceeded with more caution, rice's Indian Antiquities. been less dogmatical, more explicit in ANTISABBATARIANS, a modern the explanation of their sentiments, and religious sect, who deny the necessity possessed more candour towards those of observing the Sabbath Day. Their who differed from them, they would chief arguments are, 1. That the Jewish have been more serviceable to the cause Sabbath was only of ceremonial, not of of truth and religion. Some of the chief moral obligation; and consequently, is of those who have been charged as fa-abolished by the coming of Christ.-2. vouring the above sentiments are, Crisp, Richardson, Saltmarsh, Hussey, Eatom, Town, &c. These have been answered by Gataker, Sedgwick, Witsius, Bull, Williams, Ridgley, Beart, De Fleury, &c. See also Bellamy's Letters and Dialogues between Theron, Paulinas, and Aspasio; with his Essay on the Nature and Glory of the Gospel; Edwards' Chrispianism, unmasked. ANTIPATHY, hatred, aversion, repugnancy, Hatred is entertained against persons, aversion and antipathy against persons or things, and repugnancy against actions alone. Hatred is more voluntary than aversion, antipathy, or That no other Sabbath was appointed to be observed by Christ or his apostles.3. That there is not a word of Sabbathbreaking in all the New Testament.4. That no command was given to Adam or Noah to keep any Sabbath.-And, 5. That, therefore, although Christians are commanded not to forsake the assembling of themselves together," they ought not to hold one day more holy than another. See article SABBATH. ANTITACTÆ, a branch of Gnostics, who held that God was good and just, but that a creature had created evil; and, consequently, that it is our duty to oppose this author of evil, in or- | ANTITYPE, a Greek word, pro- tranquillity of mind, incapable of being ruffled by either pleasure or pain. In the first ages of the church, the Christians adopted the term apathy to express a contempt of all earthly concerns; a state of mortification such as the Gospel prescribes, Clemens Alexandrinus, in particular, brought it exceedingly in vogue, thinking hereby to draw such philosophers to Christianity who aspired after such a sublime pitch of virtue. APELLEANS, so called from Apelles, in the second century. They affirmed that Christ, when he came down from heaven, received a body not from the substance of his mother, but from the four elements, which at his death he rendered back to the world, and so ascended into heaven without a body. ་ The word antitype occurs twice in the New Testament, viz. in the Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. ix. v. 24. and in the 1 Epistle of St. Peter chap. iii. v. 21. where its genuine import has been much controverted. The former says, that Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are TTT, the figures or antitypes of the true-now to appear in the presence of God. Now Tus signifies the pattern APHTHARTOPOCITES, a deno by which another thing is made; and mination in the sixth century; so called as Moses was obliged to make the ta- from the Greek agros, incorruptible, bernacle, and all things in it, according and ex, to judge; because they held to the pattern shown him in the Mount, that the body of Jesus Christ was incorthe tabernacle so formed was the anti-ruptible, and not subject to death. They type of what was shown to Moses: any were a branch of the Eutychians. thing, therefore, formed according to a model or pattern, is an antitype. In the latter passage, the apostle, speaking of Noah's flood, and the deliverance only of eight persons in the ark from it, says, Ο και ημας αντίτυπον τον σώζει βαπτισμα; Βάλtism being an antitype to that, now saves us; not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God, &c. The meaning is, that righteousness, or the answer of a good conscience towards God, now saves us, by means of the resurrection of Christ, as formerly righteousness saved these eight persons by means of the ark during the flood. The word antitype, therefore, here signifies a general similitude of circumstances; and the particle, whereunto, refers not to the immediate antecedent daros, water, but to all that precedes. ANTOSIANDRIANS, a sect of rigid Lutherans who opposed the doctrine of Osiander relating to justification. These are otherwise denominated Osiandromastiges. The Antosiandrians deny that man is made just, with that justice wherewith God himself is just; that is, they assert that he is not made essentially but only imputatively just; or that he is not really made just, but only pronounced so. APATHY, among the ancient philosophers, implied an utter privation of passion, and an insensibility of pain. The word is compounded of a, friv. and rabos, affection. The Stoics affected an entire apathy; they considered it as the highest wisdom to enjoy a perfect calmness or APOCARITES, a denomination, in the third century, which sprang from the Manicheans. They held that the soul of man was of the substance of God. APOCHRYPHA, books not admitted into the canon of scripture, being either spurious, or at least not acknowledged as divine. The word is Greek, and derived from año, "from," and "guara, “to hide or conceal." They seem most of them to have been composed by Jews. None of the writers of the New Testa ment mention them; neither Philo nor Josephus speak of them. The Christian church was for some ages a stranger to them. Origen, Athanasius, Hilary, Cyril of Jerusalem, and all the orthodox wri ters who have given catalogues of the canonical books of scripture, unanimously concur in rejecting these out of the canon. The Protestants acknowledge such books of scripture only to be canonical as were esteemed to be so in the first ages of the church; such as are cited by the earliest writers among the Christians as of divine authority, and after the most diligent enquiry were received and judged to be so by the coun cil of Laodicea. They were written after the days of Malachi, in whom, according to the universal testimony of the Jews, the spirit of prophecy ceased, Mal. iv. 4-6. Not one of the writers in direct terms advances a claim to inspiration. They contain fables, lies, and contradictions. 1 Macc. vi. 4. 16. 2 Macc. 1. 13. 16. 2 Macc. ix. 28. The apocryphal books are in general believed to be canonical by the church of Rome; and, even by ARCHDEACON, a priest invested with authority or jurisdiction over the clergy and laity, next to the bishop, either through the whole diocese, or only a part of it. There are sixty in England, who visit every two years in three, when they inquire into the reparations and moveables belonging to churches; reform abuses; suspend; excommunicate; in some places prove wills; and induct all clerks into benefices within their respective jurisdictions. oury and York. The first archbishop | The Arians were first condemned and of Canterbury was Austin, appointed by anathematised by a council at Alexanking Ethelbert, on his conversion to dria, in 320, under Alexander, bishop Christianity, about the year 598. His of that city, who accused Arius of imgrace of Canterbury is the first peer of piety, and caused him to be expelled England, and the next to the royal fa- from the communion of the church; and mily, having precedence of all dukes, afterwards by 380 fathers in the general and all great officers of the crown. It council of Nice, assembled by Constanis his privilege, by custom, to crown tine, in 325. His doctrine, however, was the kings and queens of this kingdom. not extinguished; on the contrary, it The archbishop of York has precedence became the reigning religion, especially of all dukes not of the royal blood, and in the East. Arius was recalled from of all officers of state except the lord banishment by Constantine in two or high chancellor. The first archbishop three years after the council of Nice, of York was Paulinus, appointed by and the laws that had been enacted pope Gregory about the year 622. against him were repealed. Notwithstanding this, Athanasius, then bishop of Alexandria, refused to admit him and his followers to communion. This so enraged them, that, by their interest at court, they procured that prelate to be deposed and banished; but the church of Alexandria still refusing to admit Arius into their communion, the emperor sent for him to Constantinople; where upon delivering in a fresh confession of his faith in terms less offensive, the emperor commanded him to be received into their communion; but that very evening, it is said, Arius died as his friends were conducting him in triumph to the great church of Constantinople. Arius, pressed by a natural want, stepped aside, but expired on the spot, his bowels gushing out. The Arian party, however, found a protector in Constantius, who succeeded his fa ther in the East. They underwent various revolutions and persecutions under succeeding emperors; till, at length, Theodosius the Great exerted every effort to suppress them. Their doctrine was carried, in the fifth century, into Africa, under the Vandals; and into Asia under the Goths.-Italy, Gaul, and Spain, were also deeply infected with it; and towards the commencement of the sixth century, it was triumphant in many parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe: but it sunk almost at once, when the Vandals were driven out of Africa, and the Goths out of Italy, by the arms of Justinian. However, it re vived again in Italy, under the protection of the Lombards, in the seventh century, and was not extinguished till about the end of the eighth. Arianism was again revived in the West by Servetus, in 1531, for which he suffered death. After this the doctrine got footing in Geneva, and in Poland; but at length degenerated in a great mea sure into Socinianism. Erasmus, it is thought, aimed at reviving it, in his commentaries on the New Testament: ARCHONTICS, a sect about the year 160 or 203. Among many other extravagant notions, they held that the world was created by archangels; they also denied the resurrection of the body. ARCH-PRESBYTER, or ARCHPRIEST, a priest established in some dioceses with a superiority over the rest. He was anciently chosen out of the college of presbyters, at the pleasure of the bishop. The arch-presbyters were much of the same nature with our deans in cathedral churches. ARRHABONARII, a sect who held that the Eucharist is neither the real flesh or blood of Christ, nor yet the sign of them, but only the pledge or earnest thereof. ARIANS, followers of Arius, a presbyter of the church of Alexandria, about 315, who maintained that the Son of God was totally and essentially distinct from the Father; that he was the first and noblest of those beings whom God had created-the instrument, by whose subordinate operation he formed the universe; and therefore, inferior to the Father both in nature and dignity: also, that the Holy Ghost was not God, but created by the power of the Son. The Arians owned that the Son was the Word; but denied that word to have been eternal. They held that Christ had nothing of man in him but the flesh, to which the eyes, or word, was joined, which was the same as the soul in us. The length of this ark was 300 cubits, which according to Dr. Arbuthnot's calculation, amount to a little more than 547 feet; its breadth, 50 cubits, or 91-2 feet; its height, 30 cubits, or 54-72 feet; and its solid contents 2,730-782 solid feet, sufficient for a carriage for 81,062 ton. It consisted of three stories, each of which, abating the thickness of the floors, might be about 18 feet high, and no doubt was partitioned into a great many rooms or apartments. This vessel was doubtless so contrived, as to admit the air and the light on all, though the particular construction of the windows and the learned Grotius seems to lean that way. Mr. Whiston was one of the first divines who revived this controversy in the eighteenth century. He was followed by Dr. Clarke, who was chiefly opposed by Dr. Waterland. Those who hold the doctrine which is usually called Low Arianism, say that Christ pre-existed; but not as the eternal Logos of the Father, or as the being by whom he made the worlds, and had intercourse with the patriarchs, or as having any certain rank or employment whatever in the divine dispensations. In modern times, the term Arian is indiscriminately applied to those who con-be not mentioned. sider Jesus simply subordinate to the ARK OF THE COVENANT, a Father. Some of them believe Christ small chest or coffer, three feet nine to have been the creator of the world; inches in length, two feet three inches but they all maintain that he existed in breadth, and two feet three inches in previously to his incarnation, though in height, in which were contained the his pre-existent state they assign him golden pot that had manna, Aaron's different degrees of dignity. Hence the rod, and the tables of the covenant. terms High and Low Arian. See PRE- The ark was reposited in the holiest EXISTENCE. Some of the more recent place of the tabernacle. It was taken vindicators of Arianism have been H. by the Philistines, and detained twenty Taylor, in his Apology of Ben Mordecai (some say forty) years at Kirjath-jeato his Friends for embracing Christian-rim; but, the people being afflicted with ity; Dr. Harwood, in his Five Dissertations; Dr. Price, in his Sermons on the Christian Doctrine. See also the 4th. vol. of the Theological Repository, p. 153-163, and Cornish's Tract on the Pre-existence of Christ. On the opposite side, Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of Dissenters, vol. iii. Abbadie, Waterland, Guyse, Hey, Robinson, Eveleigh, Hawker on the Divinity of Christ-Calamy, Taylor, Gill, Jones, Pike, and Simpson, on the Trinity ARISTOTELIANS, the followers of Aristotle. They believed in the eternity of the world, and represented the Deity as somewhat similar to a principle of power giving motion to a machine; and as happy in the contemplation of himself, but regardless of human affairs. They were uncertain as to the immortality of the soul. As this was rather a philosophical than religious sect, we shall not enlarge on it. ARK, or NOAH'S ARK, a floating vessel built by Noah for the preservation of his family, and the several species of animals, during the deluge. The form of the Ark was an oblong, with a flat bottom, and a sloped roof, raised to a cubit in the middle; it had neither sails nor rudder; nor was it sharp at the ends for cutting the water. This form was admirably calculated to make it lie steady on the water, without rolling, which might have endangered the lives of the animals within. emerods on account of it, returned it with divers presents. It was afterwards placed in the temple. The lid or covering of the ark was called the propitiatory or mercy-seat; over which two figures were placed, called cherubims, with expanded wings of a peculiar form. Here the Shechinah rested both in the tabernacle and temple in a visible cloud: hence were issued the Divine oracles by an audible voice; and the high priest appeared before this mercy-seat once every year on the great day of expiation; and the Jews, wherever they worshipped, turned their faces towards the place where the ark stood. In the second temple there was also an ark, made of the same shape and dimensions with the first, and put in the same place, but without any of its contents and peculiar honours. It was used as a representative of the former on the day of expiation, and a repository of the original copy of the holy Scriptures, collected by Ezra and the men of the great synagogue after the captivity; and, in imitation of this, the Jews, to this day, have a kind of ark in their synagogues, wherein their sacred books are kept. ARMENIANS, the inhabitants of Armenia, whose religion is the Christian, of the Eutychian sect; that is, they hold but one nature in Jesus Christ. See EUTYCHIANS. They assert the procession of the Holy Ghost f |