Christ be with you all.” (2 Thess. iii. 17, 18.) He does not here mean, that this is the 378 token,—for it is probable that others also imitated this,—but that I write the salutation with mine own hand, as is the custom also now among us. For by the subscription the writings of those who send letters are made known. But he comforts them, as being excessively pinched1064 by their troubles; both praising them from their present state, and encouraging them from a prospect of the futurity, and from the punishment, and from the recompense of good things prepared for them; and he more clearly enlarges upon the topic, not indeed revealing the time itself, but showing the sign of the time, namely, Antichrist. For a weak soul is then most fully assured, not when it merely hears, but when it learns something more particular. And Christ too bestowed great care upon this point, and being seated on the Mount, He with great particularity discoursed to His disciples upon the Consummation. And wherefore? that there might be no room for those who introduce Antichrists and false Christs. And He Himself also gives many signs, one indeed, and that the most important, saying, when “the Gospel shall be preached to all nations” (from Matt. xxiv. 14.), and another also, that they should not be deceived with respect to His coming. “As the lightning” (ver. 27.), He says, shall He come; not concealed in any corner, but shining everywhere. It requires no one to point it out, so splendid will it be, even as the lightning needs no one to point it out. And He has spoken in a certain place also concerning Antichrist, when He said, “I am come in My Father’s name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in His own name, Him ye will receive.” (John v. 43.) And He said that those unspeakable calamities one after another were a sign of it, and that Elias must come. The Thessalonians indeed were then perplexed, but their perplexity has been profitable to us. For not to them only, but to us also are these things useful, that we may be delivered from childish fables and from old women’s fooleries. And have you not often heard, when you were children, persons talking much even about the name of Antichrist, and about his bending the knee? For the devil scatters these things in our minds, whilst yet tender, that the doctrine may grow up with us, and that he may be able to deceive us. Paul therefore, in speaking of Antichrist, would not have passed over these things if they had been profitable. Let us not therefore enquire into these things. For he will not come so bending his knees, but “exalting himself against all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God.” (2 Thess. ii. 4.) For as the devil fell by pride, so he who is wrought upon by him is anointed unto pride. Wherefore, I beseech you, let us all be earnest to be far removed from this affection, that we may not fall into his condemnation, that we may not subject ourselves to the same punishment, that we may not partake of the vengeance. “Not a novice,” he says, “lest being 1064 τεταριχενμένους, see on Stat. Hom. vi. Tr. p. 388, note 6. 663 Argument.