9.  And what comes to pass after this?  He says next, When therefore ye see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, standing in the Holy Place, let him that readeth understand Ib. v. 15..  And again, Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or, Lo, there; believe it not Ib. v. 23..  Hatred of the brethren makes room next for Antichrist; for the devil prepares beforehand the divisions among the people, that he who is to come may be acceptable to them.  But God forbid that any of Christ’s servants here, or elsewhere, should run over to the enemy!  Writing concerning this matter, the Apostle Paul gave a manifest sign, saying, For that day shall not come, except there came first the falling away, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.  Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you these things?  And now ye know that which restraineth, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season.  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way.  And then shall the lawless one be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that are perishing 2 Thess. ii. 3–10..  Thus wrote Paul, and now is the falling away.  For men have fallen away from the right faith The prediction was supposed by earlier Fathers to refer to a personal Antichrist whom they expected to come speedily.  See Justin M. (Tryph. § 110:  ὁ τῆς ἀποστασίας ἄνθρωπος; ib. § 32:  “He who is to speak blasphemous and daring things against the Most High is already at the doors.”  Iren. Hær. V. 25.  Cyril in this passage regards the heresies of his time as the apostasy in general, but looks also for a personal Antichrist:  (§§ 11, 12).; and some preach the identity of the Son with the Father υἱοπατορία .  On this contemptuous name for Sabellianism, see Cat. iv. 8; xi. 16.  The Third (Eusebian) Confession, or Third of Antioch, a.d. 341, anathematizes any who hold the doctrines of Marcellus of Ancyra or Sabellius, or Paul of Samosata (Athan. de Synodis, § 24 note 10, p. 462, in this Series, and Mr. Robertson’s Prolegomena, p. xliv.).  In the Ecthesis, or Statement of Faith, § 2, Athanasius writes:  “Neither do we hold a Son-Father, as do the Sabellians, calling Him of one but (a sole and?) not the same essence, and thus destroying the existence of the Son.”  As to Marcellus, see Athanasius, Hist. Arian. § 6 (p. 271), and the letter of Julius in the Apologia c. Arian. § 32 (p. 116):  also notes 3, 4 on § 27 below., and others dare to say that Christ was brought into being out of nothing See Athanasius, De Synod. § 15:  “Arius and those with him thought and professed thus:  ‘God made the Son out of nothing, and called Him His Son:’”  and Expos. Fidei, § 2:  “We do not regard as a creature, or thing made, or as made out of nothing, God the Creator of all, the Son of God, the true Being from the true Being, the Alone from the Alone, inasmuch as the like glory and power was eternally and conjointly begotten of the Father.”  The 4th (Eusebian) Confession, or 4th of Antioch, a.d. 342, ends thus:  “Those who say that the Son was from nothing,.…the Catholic Church regards as aliens.”.  And formerly the heretics were manifest; but now the Church is filled with heretics in disguise Athan. Adversus Arianos, Or. i. 1:  “One heresy and that the last which has now risen as forerunner of Antichrist, the Arian as it is called, considering that other heresies, her elder sisters, have been openly proscribed, in her craft and cunning affects to array herself in Scripture language, like her father the devil, and is forcing her way back into the Church’s paradise, &c.”  The supposed date of this Oration is 8 or 10 years later than that of Cyril’s Lectures..  For men have fallen away from the truth, and have itching ears 2 Tim. iv. 3..  Is it a plausible discourse? all listen to it gladly.  Is it a word of correction? all turn away from it.  Most have departed from right words, and rather choose the evil, than desire the good A reading supported by the best mss. and approved by the Benedictine Editor gives a different sense, “and rather choose to seem than resolve to be,” inverting the proverb “esse quam videri.”.  This therefore is the falling away, and the enemy is soon to be looked for:  and meanwhile he has in part begun to send forth his own forerunners In the passage quoted above in note 5 the Arian heresy is called a “forerunner” (πρόδρομος) of Antichrist., that he may then come prepared upon the prey.  Look therefore to thyself, O man, and make safe thy soul.  The Church now charges thee before the Living God; she declares to thee the things concerning Antichrist before they arrive.  Whether they will happen in thy time we know not, or whether they will happen after thee we know not; but it is well that, knowing these things, thou shouldest make thyself secure beforehand.