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/189

 following solution was given by so great an authority as the blessed St. Irenæus:—

I confess it is to me far from satisfactory, because the word is not the name of any man recorded in history, but the general name of a nation: now the Apostle says "it is the number of a MAN," not of a nation." How then can it be rightly interpreted of the Latin nation? Protestants very naturally have caught at this interpretation coming from so great a saint, who had seen those who had seen St. John: they are ready enough to make much of the fathers, when they seem to say anything that favours their own theories; but we all know in what utter contempt they hold their testimony on general subjects. On the other hand, I am at a loss to understand how Protestant authors can possibly deduce  from 666. In Greek numerals that word would give us a