Matthew Poole and continuators on 2 Thessalonians 2:3

3 Let no man deceive you by any means : for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first , and that man of sin be revealed , the son of perdition .

Here the Apostle urgeth again his charge against this errour, though in other words, and begins his arguments to refute it. He had adjur'd them not to be shaken, and here he cautions them against being deceived▪ (for the one makes way for the other;) so also not to be troubled, ver. 2. for troubled minds are apt to be made a prey, to seducers. And the caution in the Text proves that their shaking and trouble did arise from some deceivers that were amongst them, rather than any misunderstanding of their own of what he wrote in the former Epistle about Christs coming. To be shaken in mind is bad, but to be deceived, is worse; for it is a going out of the path, as the word signifies; and therefore his caution against it is universal, both as to persons and waies: Let no man deceive you, though he pretend to Revelations, or is of the greatest Reputation in the Church.

Either of Craft, Flattery, pretending Love, or plausible Arguments, or mis-representing our words, or forging of Letters, or misinterpreting our Epistle to you, or any other part of Scripture, or feigned Miracles, &c. Then he enters the Arguments to confute it, which are 1. The General Apostasie. 2. The Revelation of the man of sin, neither of these are yet, nor will be in this Age; and yet that day shall not come, till these both first come.

There is a supplement in our Translation, for in the Greek it is only For, except there come a falling away first, &c. or an Apostacy, a recession, a departing, or a standing oft, as the word imports, so that Apostasie may be either good when it is from evil to good, or evil, when it is from good to evil. It is alwaies used in this latter sence in Scripture. Again it is either Civil or Spiritual: Civil, as when people fall off from the Civil Government they were under, and so some would sence the Text of the defection from the Roman Empire, the East part from the West, and the Ten Kingdoms that arose out of it, which was the Opinion of Hieron, Epist. ad Algasiam; but the Apostle writing to the Church speaks not of Civil Government, and the Affairs of State; and speaks of such an Apostacy which would give rise to the man of sin, and the Revelation of him. And this man of sin riseth up in the Church, not in the Civil State; and the consequence of this Apostacy is giving men up to strong delusions to believe a lye, and then follows their Damnation; and the cause of it is said to be, not receiving the Truth in the Love of it; so that it is not a Civil, but Spiritual Apostacy, as the word in Scripture is alwaies (I suppose so taken.) And it is not of a particular person, or of a particular Church, but a general Apostacy of the Church, though not of every individual. That Church that is afterwards called the Temple of God, where the man of sin sitteth, and is exalted above all that is called God, which cannot be in any particular Church, and would not the Apostle have specified that particular Church? neither is it some lesser Apostacy, which may befal the best Church; but such as would be eminent, call'd [non-Latin text not transcribed], that Apostasie greater than that of some believing Jews to Judaism, or of some Christians to Nicholaitanisme, which some think is meant, much less can it be Caius Caesar, as Grotius interprets, or any one person, for the Apostle saith not Apostate, but Apostacy, else a man of sin could not rise out of it, and exalt himself above all that is called God, and Worshipped. It is an Apostacy from sound Doctrine, instituted Worship, Church-Government, and true Holiness of Life, as may be further considered afterwards; neither is the Apostacy all at once, but gradual; for out of it ariseth a man of sin, who grows up to this manhood by degrees, and sin and wickedness are not compleated at first as well as Holiness; much less is this Apostacy a falling off from the Church of Rome, as some Papists affirm, and make the Reformation to be the Apostacy, which was a return from it, doth the man of sin rise out of the Ref[illegible: 1 letter]rmation? Did any of the first Reformers oppose and exalt themselves above all that is called God, or is Worshipped? Or, as God sat in the Temple of God, &c. was any of their coming with all power, and signs, and lying-wonders? Or, did any of them forbid to Marry, and to abstain from Meats, &c. which is the character our Apostle gives of this Apostasie, 1 Tim. 4.1, 2, 3. neither is the Mahometan Religion this Apostasie, for Mahomet sitteth not in the Temple of God, neither is it the falling of the Converted Jews from the Jewish Church, to the Gospel Church; the Apostle would never call that an Apostacy.

The next Argument is from the revelation of the man of sin: This is also to precede Christs last coming, it is an Hebraism. A Warlike man is stiled a man of War, a bloody man, a man of bloods, a deceitful man, a man of deceit, &c. so a man eminent in sin is here called a man of sin; not only personally so, but who doth promote sin, propagate it, countenance it, command it, Vid. Platina, Sigebert, Blonetas, Beuno Uspregensis, Matt. Paris. In sins of Omission, forbidding what God requireth, in sins of Commission, requiring, or allowing what God hath forbidden. In sins of the first Table, corrupting Gods Worship by Superstition and Idolatry, taking Gods Name in vain by heartless Devotion, dissembling Piety, dispensing with Perjury and false Oaths, taking away the second Commandment, and the morality of the Fourth Commandment, and making mens Faith and Obedience to rest upon an humane Authority, &c. In sins of the second Table, to dispense with Duties belonging to Superiours and Inferiours; with Murder, Adultery, Fornication, Incest, Robbery, Lying, Equivocation, &c. And besides all these; promoting a false Religion, and destroying the true by Fines, Imprisonments, Banishments, Tortures, Poysons, Massacre, Fire, and Fagot. And this man of sin is not a single person, but a company, order, and succession of men, because all are acted by the same Spirit, therefore called a man, as Psal. 10.18. The man of the Earth is all, men of an Earthly Spirit, and a man of the Field is men whose minds and employments are in the Field, Gen. 25.27. or it is a sinful state. As the Civil State of the four Monarchies in Daniel is represented by four single Beasts, and the Antichristian State by a Beast rising out of the Sea, Rev. 13.1. so by man of sin is meant a sinful State, which though it consisteth of many People and Nations, yet being under the influence and Government of one man may be also stiled the Man of Sin upon that account; Impietatis Coryphaeus. Moulin. And because the sin of the whole Community is chiefly centred in him, and springs out from him; A man in whom is the Fountain of all sins, Hierom ad Algasiam: And the sin of this State is called a Mystery of Iniquity, ver. 7. and so differing from the sin in all other political States; and therefore may well be judged to be the same with the Whore sitting on many Waters, that hath Mystery written in her Forehead, Rev. 17.1, 5. and as no Expositor takes the Whore to be meant of a single Woman, and the true Apostolick Church is represented by a Woman in Travel, Rev. 12.1. Why then should we take the Man of Sin to be a single Man, as the Papists do▪ viz. a Jew of the Tribe of Dan, that shall erect his Kingdom and Temple in Ierusalem, seduce the Jews, continue three years and an half, make great havock of the Church to be opposed by Enoch and Elias: and is to come a little before the end of the World. Ridiculous! neither can this man of sin be Simon Magus and his followers▪ for he was revealed in the Apostles time, seeing the Mystery of Iniquity belonging to this man of sin began to work in the Apostles dayes, as ver. 7. and he is the same whom St. Iohn calls Antichrist, 1 Ioh. 2.18. and the Spirit of Antichrist began to be in the World in his time, chap. 4.3. and the Nations are to be made drunk with the Cup of his Fornication, and to serve and obey him, &c. Rev. 13.8. and 17.4. All which requires more time than is allotted by them: But they set him a great way off, that none may suspect him to be among themselves; but he that will compare the Church of Rome in the Apostle Paul's times with what it is now, and the Doctrine of the Council of Trent with that laid down in his Epistle to the Romans, may say, How is the Faithful City become an Harlot? And this man of sin is to be revealed also, which shews that he is not a single person, not yet born: Revealing relates not so much to a person, as a thing; in particular to the mystery of Iniquity, mentioned ver. 7. his revealing is either quoad existentiam, or apparentiam. The former is meant here, and the latter, ver. 8. He grows up into an existence, as the Apostacy grows, as Vermin grows out of putrefaction. As the Churches Purity, Faith, Love, Holiness declined, and as Pride, Ambition, Covetousness, Luxury prevailed, so he grew up: And which was the direct point and time of his full revelation in this first sence is conjectur'd by many, but determin'd by none; it is most generally refer'd to the time of Boniface the 3d. to whom Phocas granted the stile of Oecumenical Bishop and to the Church of Rome to be the Mother Church. But as the Apostasie brings forth this man of sin, so as he riseth, he helps it forward, so that he both causeth it, and is caused by it. As Corruption in Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, and Manners brought him forth, so he was active in corrupting them more and more.

Another Hebraism, where sometimes that which any way proceeds from another, as its cause is called its son, as sparks the sons of the coal, Iob 5.7. and branches sons of the tree, Gen. 49.22. and the Learner the Son of the Teacher, Prov. 3.1. and sometimes that which a man is addicted to, as a wicked man is the son of wickedness, Psal. 89.22. Again that which gives forth what it hath in it self, as the branches of the Olive Trees giving o[illegible: 1 letter]l are called the sons of Oyl, Zech. 4. ult. and in the Text, the man of sin is the Son of perdition, as Iudas is call'd, Ioh. 17.12. and he is so either actively, as he brings others to destruction, and so may be called Apollyon, Rev. 9.11. or rather passively, as devoted to perdition; as Rev. 19.20. The beast and false Prophet are both cast into the lake of fire and brimstone: And the beast that was and is not, is said to go into perdition, Rev. 17.11. The destroyer of others both in Soul and Body will be destroyed himself: First, Morally by the Word and Spirit, as ver. 8. And then Judicially, by Gods revenging Justice in this World, and that to come. The Apostle at the very first mentioning him, declares his destiny; at his first rising and revealing, mentions his fall and ruin.