The Accomplishment of the Prophecies, Chapter 2 · Part 1 – Part 4
The vnfolding of this prophecy in manner of a Paraphrase.
3 LET no man by any meanes seduce you, by seeking to perswade you that the day of iudgment is neere at han…. For this day shall not come, till there be a generall backsliding, whereby men shal fal from the true doctrine; & that man of sin, which is markt out to perdition, to wit, the bishop of Rome, be disclosed.
4 Whō ye shall know by these marks He shall oppose himselfe against all that is called God, and which is worshipped; to wit against the true and highest God, and against Emperours, and Kings, and Magistrates, whom the holy scripture calleth Gods. Nay, which is more, he shall exalt himselfe aboue God, and especially aboue that which is called God by Idolators, till he shall hauehave got to be absolute commander over the church, and be called the head thereof, vsurping both the name and authority of God.
5 Remember you not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now yee know what it is that staieth his comming, which shall come to passe, at the time appointed, & foreordained by God.
7 For the foundations of this son of perditions dominion are already laid. And Satan doth evē now draw out the threeds, and spinne the beginnings of his doctrine, which shall be woven togither by an abominable art, and ful of wicked craft. There is nothing but one that hinders the disclosing hereof: that is, the Romane Empire (which doeth nowe oversway the whole world) must remaine yet for a time, and afterwards be abolished.
8 And when this Roman Empire shal be destroyed, then shall this bishop be fully disclosed, and the Papall See shal be exalted by the ruines of the Empire; which bishop, God shall beat down, and weaken by the preaching of his word, but shal not destroy him vtterly til the last day of iudgement, then when Iesus Christ shal come in glorie.
9 Which Pope shall come fortified with the might and efficacie of Satan, with power, and signes, and false miracles, serving to establish lyes.
10 Whereby such as are markt out to perdition, shal be lewdly seduced, because they hauehave not loved the truth of the Gospell, which might hauehave saved them.
11 And therefore God will suffer thē to be seduced, and to be driven into strong delusions, and that they may beleeue lies.
The proofe of this exposition.
He that in the texture of this whole discourse shall not see the Popes image, & his doctrine, and the meanes of his rising, all set out in their true colours, doth willingly erre, and is blind at noone daie. For we bring no bold coniectures; and our explications are not violent or forced, but naturall, and such as do of their owne accord offer themselues to our hands: such as doe not depart from the words of the Apostle, and are taught vsus by experience. Whosoever wil cōtest about some particulars, shal not thereby endammage the whole bodie of this Prophecie. For though hee moue some difficulties vpō certain verses here & there, yet it is enough to stagger the most strongly opinionated, when they shall see that all the peeces of this so long a Prophecie doe agree vponupon one only man, and that there is so good a correspondency betweene all the parts thereof: which shall appeare yet more manifestly by the proofs and by the difficulties which our adversaries moue to the contrary; let vsus therefore once more againe run over this Prophecy from the beginning, and examine every particular thereof.
The first part of this Prophecie.
3 LEt no man deceaue you by any meanes; for that day shall not come except there be a departing first, and that the man of sin… be disclosed, even the sonne of perdition.
The Exposition.
3 LEt no man by any meanes seduce you, by seeking to perswade you that the day of iudgement is neere at hād. For this day shall not come till there bee a generall departing, whereby men shall fall from the true doctrine, and that man of sinne which is markt out to perdition, to wit, the Bishop of Rome, be disclosed.