Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/166

 one can deny that it literally fulfils this portion of the sacred text; for no one can deny (admitting this premise) either its power or its strength on the one hand, or that Satan, not God, was the object in whose behalf all that power and strength were wielded. Besides, no other empire was ever of its own nature so essentially antagonistic to Christ. The paganism of the old heathen empires was antecedent to the coming of the Messiah; and though it naturally came into collision with the progress of His kingdom, still we cannot say of it what we must say of Mahometanism, that it was devised and constituted for the main purpose of opposing the Church of God. The force of this argument has appeared so cogent to learned Protestants, that Bishop Newton, in his celebrated treatise on the Prophecies, uses it as an overwhelming proof that this beast represents papal Rome, the latter power being in his opinion that of the great Antichrist, We agree with him and with the holy fathers in interpreting this symbolical beast of Antichrist; but we differ from him altogether in his estimate as to who Antichrist was; and differing from him im this, and believing as we do that Antichrist is no other than Mahomet, we come to the conclusion that this first beast of the Apocalypse represents the Mahometan