CHAPTER VI.
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
WE have in the foregoing pages, traversed a considerable range of subjects;
we have endeavoured to elucidate the fundamental principles of progressive
revelation and progressive interpretation, and we have under their guidance
traced the historic fulfilment of two of the main symbolic prophecies
of Scripture. In this fourth part of the work we have directed attention
to a variety of facts, in the realms of physiology and astronomy, and
shown their connection with another series of facts, the facts of Biblical
chronology. We have traced, very imperfectly, but still sufficiently to
demonstrate its existence, a system of times and seasons running through
nature- organic and inorganic,-and through Scripture -historic and prophetic
:-a system which consequently we have ventured to call, a Divine system
of times and seasons. We have shown that this system is characterized
by soli-lunar dominion causal and chronological, and by a marked and peculiar
septiformity; that a law of completion. in weeks can be traced alike in
Scripture, in physiology (normal and abnormal), in history, and in astronomy.
We have endeavoured to avoid mere hypothesis, and to build on the basis
of solid unquestionable facts. It remains in conclusion to show the bearing
of the facts of this Divine system of times and seasons,-
I. On some of the main controverted points of prophetic interpretation
dealt with in the earlier part of this volume; II. On the evidence of
the inspiration of Scripture; and, III. On the profoundly interesting
question of the chronological point now reached in human history, and
the nearness of "the end of the age."
I.The Divine system of times and seasons, which we have traced, strongly
discredits the futurist system of interpreting the symbolic prophecies
of Daniel and St. John, and in the fullest and most remarkable manner
confirms the Protestant historic system. We have shown that if the true
meaning of the chronologic statements connected with these prophecies
can be determined it would of itself and without the aid of further argument,
settle the question at issue between these two schools of interpreters;
inasmuch as the nature of the predicted Antichrist is decided by the duration
of his existence. If the 1260 days of his dominion be (unlike all the
other features of the prediction) literal then the futurists are right
in looking for a future division of the Roman earth into ten kingdoms
with a coincident future rise of an individual Antichrist, whose advent
shall precede by three and a half years that of Christ; and in denying
that these prophecies have already received their fulfilment. But if the
1260 days be (like the predictions in which the period occurs) symbolic,
then the little horn and the ten horns, having a duration of i 260 years
attached to them, and their rise immediately succeeding the break-up of
the undivided Roman Empire, the fulfilment must be looked for in the past;
and can only be found in the history of the Papacy, and its relations
to the kingdoms of Christendom, and to the true Church of Christ, during
the last twelve centuries. In consequence of this, its great importance,
we dwelt at some length on the evidence in favour of the year-day system
of interpretation, and we must now direct special attention to the confirmation
of its truth afforded by the Divine plan of times and seasons, which we
have been investigating.
The period which,-as marking the duration, and therefore the nature of
the great Antichristian Apostasy,-is the disputed period, is seven times
designated by expressions synonymous with half a week of years: "forty
and two months," 1260 days, etc. Now this alone would prove nothing,
because weeks on an almost infinite variety of scale, are found, as we
have shown, in the word and works of God. But this half week leads up
to a certain terminal point, the establishment of the kingdom of the God
of heaven, the overthrow of Antichrist and his armies, the cessation of
the treading down of the holy city. These same events mark the termination
of one of the weeks we have considered, the last of the three great dispensational
weeks, the times of the Gentiles; this also ends in the establishment
of the kingdom of God, the overthrow of Babylon and the beast, and the
Second Advent of Christ. That is, we find a whole week of "seven
times," or 2520 years, leading up to THAT; and we find also a half-week
of "time, times and a half," leading up to THAT. Nor can we
question that the latter is half of the former? that the half-week of
years, is symbolic of a half-week of prophetic times, or years of years?
that the predicted 1260 "days" represent the 1260 years which
are the last half of the Gentile dispensation?
If this be so, if this period be the solemnly momentous and important
last half of the last great dispensation, the twelve centuries which have
rolled over Christendom since the rise of the Papacy, including the dark
ages, the Reformation, and the modern revival of primitive Christian doctrine,
and spread of missionary enterprise, with the coincident rise and spread
of infidelity, then it is easy to understand the prominence assigned to
it in the prophetic word. But if it be literally half a week of years,
it is a brief half without a corresponding half and no reason consistent
with the wisdom and goodness of God can be assigned for the great importance
which is attached to it in Scripture.
And when, further, TURNING TO THE SCROLL OF HISTORY, WE SEE THAT THE GREAT
WEEK OF THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES WAS, AS A MATTER OF FACT, BISECTED BY
THE RISE OF AN ANTICHRISTIAN POWER, accurately fulfilling the conditions
of the prophecy, and whose political existence demonstrably did endure
1260 years, or half a week on the year-day scale, it seems almost impossible
to resist the conviction that this is the scale employed and this the
Power foretold.
It is a further argument in favour of the year-day system., that the periods
of symbolic prophecy, interpreted in accordance with it, form parts of
a great septenary system, the previous links in the chain being found
in other portions of Scripture, and the subsequent ones in the movements
of the universe. In the law, in the prophets, and in the Psalms, we found
the week of days, the week of weeks, the week, of months, the week of
years, the week of weeks of years, the week of decades, and the week of
weeks of decades. Now the dispensational "seven times," and
its half; the 1260 years, are a week and a half-week of prophetic times,
or years of years, the next step in advance and they are followed by the
week of millenaries, and by the higher and vaster weeks marked out by
the revolutions of the solar system. But for the clue afforded by the
prophetic times interpreted according to the year-day system, the true
measures of the dispensational divisions of history, would probably never
have been surmised. Is it likely that a key which has unlocked so much,
should be a wrong key, that the period which has proved a clue to the
entire labyrinth, should itself have been misapprehended?
But further, THE FACT THAT. THESE PERIODS OF DANIEL, INTERPRETED ON THE
YEAR-DAY SCALE, ARE FOUND TO BE NATURAL ASTRONOMIC CYCLES OF SINGULAR
ACCURACY AND BEAUTY, UNKNOWN TO MANKIND UNTIL DISCOVERED BY MEANS OF THESE
VERY PROPHECIES, SEEMS ALONE TO SETTLE THE QUESTION THAT THIS IS THE TRUE
SCALE. Is it not most natural and suitable, that great events, deemed
worthy of prediction by the Spirit of God ages before they occurred, should
have had their fore-ordained duration marked off by the occult movements
and coincidences of those orbs, which together constitute God’s glorious
chronometer? Taken literally, the periods of symbolic prophecy, are astronomically
nothing. Interpreted on the year-day principle, they are natural cycles,
as distinctly marked out as such, as our ordinary months or years. Would
this be so, were the brief symbolic period, everything, and the antitypical,
the year-day period, nothing? Taken literally, 2300 days are astronomically
nothing; while 2300 years form precisely the largest secular soli-lunar
cycle known.
When these dispensational, chronologic, and astronomic harmonies, are
allowed their due weight in determining the true scale of prophetic chronology,
only one conclusion seems possible. The system employed is that of denoting
a year by a day; not brief; but long periods, are therefore predicted,
not passing events occupying only a few years, but stupendous ones, enduring
through centuries, and affecting many generations of men. And these events
are not to be looked for in the future, they are already for the most
part fulfilled. This conclusion overthrows the entire futurist system,
and fixes the application of the main symbolic prophecies of Daniel and
the Apocalypse to the past and present, rather than exclusively to the
future.
We invite futurist expositors of the prophetic word, to consider all the
arguments on this subject which we have adduced, and either to refute
them, or to acknowledge their force. Prophetic discussion and controversy
are often feared and deprecated, because they have in other days degenerated
into strife, and occasioned separation among brethren. These, however,
are happily, not necessary results of searching the Scripture on this
or any other topic, and they are evils from which humility and a real
desire to discover the truth of God, will effectually preserve sincere
inquirers and students.
We are strongly of opinion that the questions at issue between presentist
and futurist interpreters of prophecy, should be both patiently studied,
and fully discussed, both from the platform and by the press, with a view
to their removal..
One system or other must be erroneous; surely it is not hopeless to discover
which! No generation of Christians could ever have attempted the tusk
with such a prospect of success as our own; not only is there a special
promise to the wise in the time of the end, that they shall understand
these things, but the very nature of the case makes it clear, that if
the historic system be the true one, we are in a better position to prove
it, than our predecessors could be, for every fresh fulfilment that can
be indicated, strengthens the proof. That most notable event the downfall
of the Temporal Power of the Papacy exactly 1260 years after the edict
of Phocas, ought to provoke a calm and thorough re-examination of the
subject, on the part of our futurist friends.
"The days are at hand," and the effect of every vision, and
the testimony of the Church on this great subject should be as clear and
as unanimous as possible for if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who
shall prepare for the battle? The world Will never give heed to the warnings
of the prophetic word, while the ministers of that word differ diametrically
among themselves as to its true meaning; nor will Christians be roused
to any such deep and real conviction of the nearness of the end as will
produce practical results, by the exposition of varying and inconsistent
views. At this eleventh hour, if ever, the predictions of the word of
God ought to be clear to wise and humble students, nor should such rest
content without an honest endeavour to compare and resolve their differences.
We humbly hope that our own discoveries as to the epact measures of the
prophetic times, may be helpful in the consideration of the question;
and that, the year-day system 01 interpreting the chronologic statements
of symbolic prophecy,- that main pillar of the Protestant historic view,
may, in the light of the confirmatory evidence of its truth afforded by
this investigation of the Divine system of times and seasons, be generally
received among students of prophecy, as a truth which has been demonstrated.
II. The facts we have adduced have also an important bearing on the fundamental
question of the inspiration of Scripture, and thus indirectly on the subject
of Christian evidences. We have shown that nature is characterized by
a septiform periodicity, and that many of its revolutions are regulated
by a law of weeks; also that Scripture, in a great variety of ways, embodies
the same septiform system. Now it must be borne in mind that the existence
of this system in nature, has only been recognised of late years. Modern
science,-with its careful and all-embracing scrutiny of investigation
into natural phenomena, with its reverential attention to even the minutest
details of physical function, with its rich accumulations of tabulated
records of observed facts, and its unprejudiced candour in submitting
all its theories to the test of experiment, -has come to perceive, and
for the first time, a law of septiform periodicity in nature. Mankind
in all ages must of course have been practically familiar with certain
obvious and universal instances of its prevalence; but the wide extent
of its operation, its exactness, and the variety of the spheres in which
it may be traced, is matter of very recent discovery. The papers contributed
by Dr. Laycock to the Lancet which we have quoted, were written less than
forty years ago; and even now the subject is imperfectly understood.
It is thus abundantly evident that the writers of Scripture, in attributing
to their Mosaic legislation, embodying in their historical narratives,
and in concealing in their symbolic prophecies, this same septiform system,
or law of completion in weeks, were not adopting a principle already acknowledged
in the world at large, or even known to the men of science of their day.
They were entirely ignorant of the recently discovered septiformity of
nature, and the exact harmony of their writings with this widely operative,
but to them utterly unknown principle, must, on their part, have been
perfectly undesigned.
On the other hand, it is equally impossible that this harmony should be
the result of chance: the use of the system in Scripture is too thorough
and all-pervading to admit of such an explanation. It does not consist
in a few minor arrangements enacted by a single legislator; it is the
consistent and complex system underlying the law and ritual, which, for
three thousand five hundred years have been obeyed by an entire nation;
a system running unperceived through the historical records of the Old
Testament, and lying hidden under mystic expressions, in its symbolic
prophecies-prophecies understood at the time neither by those who gave,
nor by those who received them, and whose true scale has only become apparent
in these latter days, in the light of their own fulfilment. Creation,
history, and Mosaic law, agree with the predictions of the prophets and
apostles, and with the words of our Lord Himself, in recognising this
system. It pervades Old and New Testaments, and harmonizes Jewish and
Christian predictions. The actual events of redemption history, are found
to be in chronological harmony with the octave or New Creation and Jubilee
reckoning of the Law; the chronology of the types of Leviticus is the
chronology of Christianity anticipated. Intentionally then, and of set
purpose, and in the most consistent way, the septiform law so prevalent
and controlling in nature, is employed by the writers of Scripture, though
they cannot have derived it from nature. Whence then did they derive it?
How came they thus to employ it? There is only one reply! Holy men of
old spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
Further; we have seen that the septiform divisions of time in the Old
Testament, run on constantly to an octave, and give a glad and glorious
prominence to the eighth day and the fiftieth day, in connection with
observances intimating that a new and better economy was destined to succeed
the Jewish; that in a New Creation, to follow the old, and in that alone,
would full purity and peace, perfect joy and liberty be found. Would Jewish
legislators and prophets have invented or conceived such an idea as this?
Would they, of their own accord, have embodied in their law, in their
history, in their prophecies, a silent testimony that Judaism was destined
to be succeeded and set aside by a better order of things? Would they
who held themselves to be the sole and peculiar people of God, have incorporated
in their sacred books, a chronologic system, which points with no obscurity
to the passing away of Judaism? No! Such a system cannot have originated
in the Jewish mind, and yet the books are, as regards their human source,
unquestionably Jewish. The fact can be explained only by admitting, that
these Jewish minds were inspired, and these Jewish pens guided, by Him
who from the beginning foresaw and planned the end, who intended Christianity
to succeed Judaism, the heavenly to follow the earthly, the substance
to replace the shadow.
It may be urged, that though the law of septiform periodicity in vital
function was unperceived by the ancients, that yet conspicuous celestial
phenomena, such as the lunar quarters, may account for the Bible use of
the week, without supposing inspiration. But the plea has no force, for
the lunar quarter is not so near seven days as to make the observance
of the week compulsory or inevitable, and as a matter of fact, it is not
observed by two-thirds of mankind. China and, till quite recently; Japan,
and all heathen nations, do not recognise the septiform division of time.
Unlike the day, the month, and the year in this respect, the week is not
marked out by an obvious and complete celestial revolution. Its observance
evidently springs from a higher source, even the direct primitive mandate
of the Most High: it has been imposed on man from Eden onwards (as well
as indelibly impressed on his physical constitution), by the Creator Himself
directly, ,and not indirectly, as the day, month, and year.
Again, what but inspiration of God can account for the fact that the prophetic
periods of Daniel and St. John are found to be accurate soli-lunar cycles?
and that their very epacts form a septiform series of periods as we have
shown? Was Daniel acquainted with these facts? Could John have adapted
his writings to the discoveries of modern science? Impossible! Candour
must acknowledge that in the existence of such a system of times and seasons
as we have traced, in the Bible, there is a proof of the Divine inspiration
of the authors of that volume. Man never originated its holy and harmonious
laws, with their wonderful septenary system of typical times and seasons,
fulfilled, and still fulfilling, in the sacred events of Redemption Story.
Man could not have invented its equally wonderful prophecies, unfolding
as they do the whole plan and course of history, alike in its grand outline,
and in its minor detail, and including even, in many cases, the accurate
chronology of the things foretold. Man can never have been the author
of a system of times and seasons which involves the co-ordination of things
celestial and terrestrial; the mutual adaptation of the periodicity of
vital phenomena, the sacred seasons of legal type, the periods of prophecy
and the chronology of history, with the periods of the revolutions and
cycles of sun and moon and planet, or those of the movements of the whole
solar system. Man can neither foretell the future nor control it; man
cannot order on a definite plan, the course of ages, or so direct the
revolutions of the moral world, as that they shall harmonize with those
of the material universe. Such operations can be accomplished only by
Omnipotence, such acts can be attributed to God alone. The sacred volume,-
that unfolds the Divine world-system, including the course and chronology
of the ages of history, of ages future at the time when it was written,
as well as of ages past; foretelling periods since fulfilled, and found,
2000 years after their prediction, to be celestial cycles,-must be from
God, and he who refuses to acknowledge this, is bound to find some other
satisfactory explanation of facts which true science cannot deny, nor
common honesty ignore. And this evidence may be adduced in favour of each
portion of the sacred volume; the Pentateuch and the prophets, the historical
books of the Old Testament and the gospels of the New, the Psalms and
the Epistles and the Apocalypse, all are more or less pervaded by the
same system of times and seasons. A Divine unity pervades the volume in
this as in other respects, and the chronology of the Bible, independently
of any other line of evidence, proves it to be the word of God.
III. And finally, the Divine system of times and seasons, which we have
been investigating, has an evident bearing on the deeply important and
profoundly interesting subject of the nearness of the end of the age,-of
the close of these Times of the Gentiles, and the simultaneous inauguration
of the "Times of restitution of all things, of which God hath spoken
by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began."
It bears on this question mainly by the evidence it affords of the existence
of a definite and predetermined chronological system, in the providential
dealings of God with man; in the proof it gives that this system is a
system of weeks, and that the great week of this third er Gentile dispensation,
has almost run its course. Further, by confirming as we have seen that
it does, in the fullest way, the year-day system of interpreting the chronology
of symbolic prophecy, it brings the celebrated half-week of the great
Antichristian apostasy into perfect harmony with all the other weeks of
Scripture and of nature, determining its character thus by its duration,
and leaving no doubt as to the power intended. The fulfilments which this
system enables us to trace in the past, are so many guides as to the future,
so that by its help chronologic prophecy, instead of being a puzzling
mystery, is felt to become emphatically a light shining in a dark place,-a
light which throws its beams back over the complex mazes of history, and
forwards over the transcendently interesting events of the rapidly approaching
crisis, which is to usher in the sabbath of humanity.
We must therefore briefly review the evidence of the nearness of the end
of the age which is afforded by chronologic prophecy, and confirmed by
non-chronologic predictions, and we must show, that while there is irresistible
evidence to prove that the end is near there are positively no data to
enable us to fix on any exact year, as the probably predestined time of
the consummation. According to the testimony of the sure word of prophecy,
the end is near, but none can say how near, or determine its actual epoch.
First, then, in proof that it is near, let the measures of the three dispensations
be remembered, and the wide and almost universal range of the law of completion
in weeks. "Seven times" and seven times only are appointed as
the period of Jewish degradation and dispersion. He who predicted the
four hundred years affliction of the seed of Abraham at the beginning
of their history, and who when those four hundred years were fulfilled,
delivered Israel from Egypt, and judged the nation which had held them
in bondage, predicted later on, that for a great week of 2520 years, Gentiles
should rule over and afflict the Jewish people, and that at the end of
that time Gentile monarchy should be destroyed, and the kingdom restored
again to Israel, in the person of their Messiah. Independent Jewish monarchy
fell as we know in the Babylonish captivity, since which event the tribes
of Israel have existed only in bondage or dispersion. In about forty-five
years from the present time (1879 A.D.) the great week of the Times of
the Gentiles will have run out, even measured from its latest possible
commencing date, the final conquest of Jehoiachin by Nebuchadnezzar, B.C.
598. The great image of Gentile monarchy has but a few years longer to
exist; the period of Gentile supremacy is all but ended; the great but
hidden dispensational prophecy of the "seven times" clearly
teaches that we are near the end of the age.
And secondly, let the measures of the Antichristian apostasy, which is
predicted under seven different aspects, be remembered. Half a week is
assigned as its duration, half this great dispensational week of seven
times-1260 years. Like, all the other periods we have considered, this
half-week may be dated, as we have seen, from a variety of starting-points;
either from the decree of the Emperor Justinian constituting the bishop
of Rome head of all the Churches, and so delivering the saints into his
hands, (A.D. 533),-when it ends in the French Revolution, A.D. 1793; or
from the decree of the Emperor Phocas, conceding to Boniface the Third,
not only the primacy of the Church of Rome and all the Western Churches,
but that of Constantinople and all the Eastern Churches (A.D. 606), which
makes it run out at the recent complete destruction of the Papal temporal
power and dominion (1866- 70); or the period may be dated from the year
A.D. 663, when Vitalian, the bishop of Rome, enjoined the services of
the Church to be read in Latin throughout all Christendom, when the half-week
would (like the whole week) expire, in A.D. 1923. We have seen the two
first measures of this period expire, and we have seen the events predicted
take place. The prophecy implies a brief succeeding period before the
close, "they shall take away his kingdom, to consume and to destroy
it to the end : and the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the
kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints
of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions
shall serve and obey Him." We have seen the kingdom taken away; we
wait to see the full consumption and destruction, and the establishment
of the kingdom of the Most High. The prophecy of the "time, times
and a half," by its fulfilment, proves, that we are close upon the
end of the age.
And thirdly, the prediction relative to the cleansing of the sanctuary
does the same. The Holy Land, the Holy City, and the site of the Temple
or Sanctuary of God at Jerusalem, are to be finally "cleansed"
2300 years from some starting point which is not exactly defined, but
which appears from the prophecy to be closely connected with the restoration
of Judah from Babylon; that is, Jerusalem is, after that period, to cease
to be trodden down of the Gentiles, the times of the Gentiles having been
fulfilled. Dated from the earliest possible starting point, the commission
given by Artaxerxes to Ezra, B.C. 457, this period expired as we have
seen in 1844, which was a marked epoch in the fall of that Mohammedan
power which has long defiled the sanctuary and trodden down Jerusalem.
But dated 145 years later, from the era of the Seleucid , this period
measured in lunar years expires, seventy five years later, in A.D. 1919.
We have noted various indications in the condition of Palestine and of
Israel, and in the political events of our own day which seem to indicate
that the cleansing of the sanctuary and the restoration of Israel are
not distant. When these shall take place, when the Moslems, now driven
out of Bulgaria, shall be driven also out of Syria, when the nations of
Europe, actuated it may be merely by mutual distrust and political jealousy,
or it may be by higher motives, shall conspire to reinstate the Jews in
the land of their forefathers, then the last warning bell will have rung;
then the last of the unfulfilled predictions of Scripture as to events
prior to the great crisis, will have received its accomplishment, then
the second advent of Israel’s rejected Messiah to reign in conjunction
with his risen and glorified saints as King over all the earth, will be
close at hand, then the mystery of God will be all but finished, and the
manifestation of Christ immediate. How long a time may be required to
bring about this restoration of Israel-who shall say? Never within the
last 1800 years has it seemed so likely as now, for never, since it first
arose, has Moslem power lain so low as it does at the present moment.
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE POWER AND INDEPENDENCE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, LIKE
THE ANNIHILATION OF THE TEMPORAL DOMINION OF THE PAPACY, SHOULD BE AS
A TRUMPET-BLAST TO CHRISTENDOM, PROCLAIMING THAT THE DAY OF CHRIST IS
AT HAND.
The sanctuary cycle of 2300 years, equally with the two previous prophecies,
indicates that the end is near.
Though differing as to many minor details, students of chronological prophecy
with one consent agree in this conclusion. which is in itself a. strong
argument that it rests on a solid basis of revealed truth. The fact that
many premature anticipations of the end, have by the event been proved
mistaken, is sometimes adduced as a proof that all expectations based
on chronologic prophecy, are of the nature of vain and foolish speculations,
deserving only of ridicule and contempt from sober-minded practical Christian
people. But when viewed in the light of the revealed purpose of God, to
make known the future only by degrees, and only as the Church was able
to bear it, the fact alluded to, is merely a proof that the symbolic language
in which these chronological predictions were expressed, has answered
its divinely intended purpose, and disguised, till nearly the time of
its accomplishment, the true meaning of the prophecy. To the early generations
of the Church it was not given to understand these chronologic prophecies
at all; later generations made a good guess at their general drift and
scale; the Reformers obtained approximately true ideas of their scope
and application; to many of the prophetic expositors and commentators
of the last two centuries very clear light was granted, and (in spite
of the obscurity which rash futurist speculations have cast over the subject)
it may safely be said that in our own day the light has become so strong,
clear, and bright, that the historic and doctrinal portions of Scripture
are scarcely more simple and comprehensible than are its main prophetic
outlines, to those who carefully study them.
And further, though foolish speculators have brought ridicule on the study
of prophecy, by carnal, presumptuous, and baseless attempts to fix the
day and the hour of the Second Advent, and though even cautious and learned
students have often erred in their anticipations, yet it must in all fairness
be granted on the other hand, that no sooner was the historic system of
interpreting the Apocalypse received, and the true scale of enlarging
the miniature periods of symbolic prophecy adopted, than some remarkably
correct anticipations of future events were made and published. Since
then, expositors of chronologic prophecy have proved over and over again,
that they are on the right track, even though they may have erred in the
application of certain principles, or in selection of certain data, on
which to base their calculations. And it is evident that even when they
had rightly accepted the year-day system, and when they had correctly
apprehended the meaning of the symbols employed, and duly applied them
to the events intended, they were by no means secure from minor errors.
The very fact that all the prophetic periods have double, and some of
them triple and even fourfold eras of commencement and conclusion,-coincident
with definite stages of development and decay in the Powers symbolised,
leaves room for such errors, and accounts for them, without detracting
from the value of the system employed. And if such false anticipations
are noted, correct ones should in all fairness be remembered also. One
of the earliest and most remarkable of these is that of ROBERT FLEMING,
who in his work on the "Rise and Fall of Rome Papal," published
in the year 1701 (a hundred and seventy-eight years ago), anticipated
the years 1794 and 1848, as critical years in the downfall of the papacy;
he added "yet we are not to imagine that these events will totally
destroy the papacy, although they will exceedingly weaken it, for we find
that it is still in being and alive, when the next vial is poured out."
Is it not a proof that this expositor was working on right lines, and
had seized the true clue, that he should thus have fixed nearly a century
beforehand, on the close of the 18th century, as the commencement of the
era of Divine vengeance on the Papal power, and have pointed out within
a single year, the very central period of that signal judgment? The year
1793 was that of the Reign of Terror, and of the temporary suspension
of the public profession of Christianity in France, the first of Papal
kingdoms; and five years later the Papal government in Italy was overthrown,
and the Pope carried captive to Sienna. There was not a sign in the political
heavens when Fleming wrote, that such events were impending; he foresaw
them solely in the light of chronologic prophecy, and had he weighed a
little more maturely the relative importance of the various Pope-exalting
decrees and acts, which form the starting-points of the prophetic 1260
years, he would have fixed on that of Phocas, as the most important, and
have added to the above two accurate and correct anticipations.
Index
I. 1 2
3 II. 1
2 3
III. 1 2
IV. a. 1 2
b. 1 2
3 c. 1
2 3
4 5
