(29) Now it may be asked, why art thou called the Antichrist? Hearken, thou art the Opposer of Christ, and thou hast built thyself a seeming [holy] hypocritical Kingdom, with a great Show; therein thou exercisest thy Hypocrisy, thou earnest the Law of God upon thy Lips, and thou teachest it, but with thy Deeds thou deniest the Power thereof, thy Heart is only bent upon the Spirit of this World, the Kingdom of thy Hypocrisy tends only to thy own Honour [and Repute] under a pretended Holiness; all Knees must bend before thee, as if thou wast Christ, and thou hast the Heart of a greedy Wolf.

(2) "'1. Why doth the mighty [one] boast himself in his wickedness? "'2. Thy tongue hath studied unrighteousness all the day long; as a sharp razor hast thou practised craft. "'3. Thou lovedst wickedness more than goodness; thou lovedst to speak unrighteousness more than righteousness. "'4. Thou lovedst all words of submerging and a crafty tongue. "'5. Wherefor will God bring thee to naught utterly, and will uproot thee and drag thee out from thy dwelling-place, and will root out thy root and cast it away from the living. (Selah.) "'6. The righteous will see and be afraid, and they will mock at him and say: "'7. Lo, a man who made not God for his helper, but trusted to his great riches and was mighty in his vanity. "'8. But I am as a fruit-bearing olive-tree in the house of God. I have trusted in the grace of God from all eternity. "'9. And I will confess unto thee, for thou hast dealt faithfully with me; and I will wait on thy name, for it is auspicious in the presence of thy holy [ones].' "This then is now, therefore, my Lord, the solution of the eleventh repentance of Pistis Sophia. While thy light-power hath roused me, I have spoken it according to thy desire."

(47) In the mean Time, thou consumest the Sweat and Blood of the Needy, and thou gatherest all his Miseries and Necessities on a Heap in thy Soul; thou takest his Sweat to maintain thy Pride therewith, and yet thy Doings must be accounted holy; thou givest Scandal to the Poor, so that by thy Example and Doings, he comes to be vile [and wicked,] and to do that which is not right in the Presence of God; he curses thee, and therewith causes himself to perish also; and thus one Abomination generates another, but thou art the first Cause thereof. And thou settest forth thyself never so wisely and handsomely, yet the Driver is still before thee, and thou art the Root of all those Sins, [which thou causest in others by thy Hardness or Oppression.]

(4) ¶So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

(60) Behold, thou wicked Antichrist, thou art the same which thou hast always been; thou art an old, and not a new [Antichrist,] thy cunning Policy is born in the Anger of God; the Devil teaches thee to do what thou dost. Among Princes and Kings (who have their Ground and Foundation in Nature) thou stirrest up to Wars and Dissentions, that thou mightest be advanced by them, through thy Deceit, Hypocrisy, and knavish subtle cunning Policy; this thou dost out of Pride; thou pervertest the Scriptures of the i Saints, to promote thy vapouring Haughtiness, and art a Murderer of Souls; thou causest Mockings among the Ignorant, so that they think (when they many Times persecute a holy Soul) that they do God good Service in it; thou teachest them so, or else they would not think any such Thing; thus thou workest Confusion, and art Babel, a Habitation of Whores, and of all Devils; even so says the Spirit.

(21) Beware, lest thou shouldest walk in their ways And tread in their paths, And sin a sin unto death before the Most High God. Else He will [hide His face from thee, And] give thee back into the hands of thy transgression, And root thee out of the land, and thy seed likewise from under heaven, And thy name and . thy seed will perish from the whole earth'.

(16) For thus saith the spirit in its zeal, or in the jealousy of God's wrath in this world: While thy spirit and will qualifieth or cooperateth with and in the four vices or sins of the devil, thou art not one spirit with God; and though thou didst every hour offer [the worship or prayer of] thy lips, and bow the knee before me, yet I will accept none of thy labour: Is not my breath, however, continually before me? What shall thy incense be to me in my fierce wrath? Dost thou think I will receive the devil into myself, or exalt hell into heaven?

(15) And there will be great wrath from the Lord against the children of Israel, because they have forsaken His covenant and turned aside from His word, and pro- voked and blasphemed, inasmuch as they do not observe the ordinance of this law ; for they have treated their members like the Gentiles, so that they may be removed and rooted out of the land. And there will no more be pardon or forgiveness unto them [so that there should be forgiveness and pardon] for all the sin of this eternal error. ' Apparently such apostasy was widely spread when our author wrote. f \

(37) What does thy Knowledge avail thee, thou Opposer of Christ, that thou knowest how to speak of the Kingdom of Or stir up. Heaven, of the Suffering and Death of Christ, and of the New- Birth in Christ, when thou art without it, sticking merely in the History? Shall not thy Knowledge be a Witness against thee, which shall judge thee? or wilt thou say, Thou art not the Antichrist of Babel? Surely thou art the Hypocrite, and thou fattenest thy evil Beast yet more and more, and thou art the Devourer in the Revelation of John. Thou dwellest not only at Rome, but thou hast possessed the Breadth of the Earth. I have seen thee in the Spirit, and therefore it is that I write of thee, thou Wonder of the World, of Heaven, and of Hell.