To the reader.  I marvel not that both yourself and others do think my long imprisonment strange—­or rather strangely of me for the sake of that—­for verily I should also have done it myself, had not the Holy Ghost long since forbidden me. 1 Pet. 4:  12; 1 John, 3:  13.  Nay, verily, notwithstanding that, had the adversary but fastened the supposition of guilt upon me, my long trials might by this time have put it beyond dispute; for I have not hitherto been so sordid, as to stand to a doctrine right or wrong; much less, when so weighty an argument as above eleven years’ imprisonment is continually dogging of me to weigh and pause and weigh again the grounds and foundation of those principles for which I thus have suffered.  But having not only at my trial asserted them, but also since—­even all this tedious tract of time, in cool blood, a thousand times—­by the word of God examined them, and found them good, I cannot, I dare not now revolt or deny the same, on pain of eternal damnation.

XXIII.  ANTICHRIST.

Antichrist described.

Antichrist is the adversary of Christ; an adversary really, a friend pretendedly.  So then antichrist is one that is against Christ; one that is for Christ, and one that is contrary to him; and this is that “mystery of iniquity.”

Against him in deed; for him in word, and contrary to him in practice:  antichrist is so proud as to go before Christ, so humble as to pretend to come after him, and so audacious as to say that himself is he.  Antichrist will cry up Christ; antichrist will cry down Christ; antichrist will proclaim that himself is one above Christ.

Antichrist is the “man of sin,” the “son of perdition;” a beast that hath two horns like a lamb, but speaks as a dragon.

Christ is the Son of God; antichrist is the son of hell.

Christ is holy, meek, and forbearing; antichrist is wicked, outrageous, and exacting.

Christ seeketh the good of the soul; antichrist seeks his own avarice and revenge.

Christ is content to rule by his word; antichrist saith the word is not sufficient.

Christ preferreth his Father’s will above heaven and earth; antichrist preferreth himself and his traditions above all that is written, or that is called God or worshipped.

Christ has given us such laws and rules as are helpful and healthful to the soul; antichrist seeketh to abuse those rules to our hurt and destruction.

The spirit or soul or life of antichrist is that spirit of error, “that wicked,” that “mystery of iniquity,” that under color and pretence of verity draws men from truth to falsehood.

The body or flesh of antichrist is that church or synagogue of Satan in which the spirit of antichrist dwells, or unto which the spirit of antichrist is become a soul and life.

But God will destroy both soul and body.