Daniel_ [17] himself professes that he understood not his own _Prophecies_;
and therefore the Churches were not to expect the interpretation from their
Prophet _John_, but to study the Prophecies themselves. This is the
substance of what _Peter_ says in the first chapter; and then in the second
he proceeds to describe, out of this _sure word of Prophecy_, how there
should arise in the Church _false Prophets_, or _false teachers_, expressed
collectively in the _Apocalypse_ by the name of the false Prophet; who
should _bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought
them_, which is the character of _Antichrist_: _And many_, saith he, _shall
follow their lusts_ [18]; they that dwell on the earth [19] shall be
deceived by the false Prophet, and be made drunk with the wine of the
Whore's fornication, _by reason of whom the way of truth shall be
blasphemed_; for [20] the Beast is full of blasphemy: _and thro'
covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandize of you_; for
these are the Merchants of the Earth, who trade with the great Whore, and
their merchandize [21] is all things of price, with the bodies and souls of
men: _whose judgment--lingreth not, and their damnation [22] slumbreth
not_, but shall surely come upon them at the last day suddenly, as the
flood upon _the old world_, and fire and brimstone upon _Sodom_ and
_Gomorrha_, when the just shall be delivered [23] like _Lot_; for _the Lord
knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the
unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished_, in the lake of fire; _but
chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness_, [24]
being made drunk with the wine of the Whore's fornication; who _despise
dominion, and are not afraid to blaspheme glories_; for the beast opened
his mouth against God [25] to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle, and
them that dwell in heaven.
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