if+if iv-| r.\St &$ ■ t '“. \"U ' fm ft'ti i ti •r* •.*; LIBRA I T Y 1 OF THE Theological Seminary, PRINCETON, N./j. - - ___ - - - - * ✓w BT 1101 • E44 1859 Elliott, Edward Bishop, 1791 Shelf -1875. Book The destinies and perils of I _ — tha f-hnroh as nradiqted ii » I i I ' ' ' Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/destiniesperilsoOOelli WARBURTONIAN LECTURES 1849—1853, ' - ' 1 • MM H All ■ • 5 THE DESTINIES AND PERILS OF THE CHURCH, AS PREDICTED IN SCRIPTURE. BEING THE WARB U ETONIAN LECTURES From 1849 to 1853. BY / THE REV. E. B. ELLIOTT, M.A., INCUMBENT OF ST. MARK’S, BRIGHTON, PREBENDARY OF HJBYTESBCRY, AND SOMETIME FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. SEELEY, JACKSON, AND HALLIDAY, 54, FLEET STREET. LONDON. MDCCCLIX. - ERRATA, Page 33, note 4 for 15 read 16. „ 111, line 8, for ) read \ „ „ line 9, after faith read ) „ 131, Head the Lecture thus, — further unfolding of the prin¬ ciples OF APOSTACY WITHIN THE CHURCH, IN THE 2nd, 3rd, AND 4TH CENTURIES. „ 144, note 2,for H. A. iv. read H. A. vol. iii. Appendix, No. iv. „ 249, line 3 from bottom, for complete read incomplete. „ 272, line 3 from bottom, for ere read were. „ 319, line 3 from bottom, read made it complete. „ 332, line 1 ,for entertaining read entertain. 471, last line for 7th read 6th. - f _ CONTENTS. FIRST TRIAD. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION ; AS PREDICTED BY ISAIAH, AND AS FULFILLED. PAGE Lect. i. The Christian Church to be constituted IN THE MAIN FROM GENTILES OF THE ISLES, OVERSPREAD TILL THEN WITH THE DARKNESS of Heathenism „ . . . 1 Lect. ii. Its Gentile Constituents to be enlight¬ ened by Christ . 30 Lect hi. Tiieir Enlightenment and Salvation to REDOUND TO THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH ONLY 62 SECOND TRIAD. THE CHURCH’S GRADUAL DECLENSION INTO ANTICHRISTIAN APOSTACY ; AS PREDICTED BY ST. PAUL, AND AS FULFILLED. Lect. i. The first Principles and Germs of the GREAT PREDICTED APOSTACY, AS WORKING in the Apostolic Times . . . .90 Lect. ii. Further Unfolding of the Evil in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries. . 131 Lect. iii. Apostacy Perfected in the 6th and 7th Centuries, by the heading of the Man of Sin, or Antichrist . . . .170 VI CONTENTS. THIRD TRIAD. RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST ; AS APOCALYPTI¬ CALLY FORESHOWN, AND AS FULFILLED. Lect. I. Lect. ii. Lect. iii. PAGE Predicted Preliminary Events in Roman History down to Antichrist’s Manifes¬ tation . . . . . . .198 Rise and Reign of Antichrist . .236 Local Seat and Church of Antichrist . 272 FOURTH TRIAD. THE WITNESSING FOR CHRIST IN SACKCLOTH, DURING ANTI¬ CHRIST’S REIGN ; AS APOCALYPTICALLY FORESHOWN, AND AS FULFILLED. Lect. i. The Sackcloth-witnessing for Christ BEGUN ; THE APOCALYPTIC SYMBOLIC TeM- ple-Court appearing meanwhile Hea¬ thenized . 299 Lect. ii. The Witness for Christ revived, after A CRISIS OF APPARENT EXTINCTION ; AND Apocalyptic Inner Temple -Court De¬ fined and Purified .... 327 Lect. iii. The Apocalyptic Temple of Witness OPENED IN THE SYMBOLIC HEAVEN . . 359 CONCLUDING LECTURE. SUMMARY OF PROPHETIC EVIDENCE FOR THE TRUTH OF REVEALED RELIGION. ..... 386 APPENDIX. No. i. Abstract of previous courses of Warburtonian Lectures . 433 ii. The Pauline Chronology ...... 457 iii. Delusion of the Tractarian Clergy with regard to the Validity of their Orders . . . 472 iv. Present State of the Controversies on Apo¬ calyptic Interpretation . 510 PREFACE. Agreeably with the injunction of the Founder of these Lectures, the course preached by me at Lincoln’s Inn in the winter vacations from 1849 to 1853 is now printed and published. In this there has been a much longer delay than I originally anticipated. It has arisen in part from the necessity of a careful revi¬ sion of the Lectures before printing ; in part from the desirableness which suggested itself to me of adding in an Appendix supplemental Papers, on subjects more or less important connected with the Lectures : — Pa¬ pers which from their nature required time and careful consideration in preparing ; such as, amidst the many and various avocations of a ministerial charge at Brighton, I found it difficult to obtain ; and, when obtained, was (it must be confest) not always resolute enough to improve. Let me add that I the more readily acquiesced in the delay hence arising from the desire to see certain Treatises of which I heard from time to time as newly published, or soon forthcoming ; in which the prophetic subjects treated of in these Lectures were likely to be discussed, and opinions adverse to my own to be propounded. The latest of Vlll PREFACE. such publications, which I have thus had the advantage of seeing before sending these Lectures into the world, is the Oxford Greek Professor Jowett’s Work on some of the Epistles of St. Paul ; including that to the Thes- salonians, which contains in it the famous prophecy of the destined Apostacy and Man of Sin. In regard of order , as well as of subject , it will be seen that I have in these Lectures followed out very exactly the directions of Bishop Warburton ; indeed more exactly than any previous Lecturer on the same foundation.1 The direction in his Will is, that the Lecturers should prove the truth of revealed religion from the fulfilment of Scripture prophecies respecting the Church generally, and more especially respecting the Apostacy of the Church of Rome. Accordingly I have taken for the successive subjects of my four Triads of Lectures, in the four successive years of my Lectureship, the Christian Church' s primary institution , the Church's declension into Apostacy, the heading of the Apostate Church by the Romish Antichrist, and the counter witness- Church's sackcloth-robed prophesying , (alike in its long primary depression, and its subsequent strengthening and advance,) all as predicted and as fulfilled : — -a notice being added (in order to the completer view of God’s purposes respecting the Church) of the final predicted issue of the cause tes¬ tified to by Christ’s witness-Church, in the glories of the Church triumphant. 1 See my abstract of the previous courses of Lectures on this Foun¬ dation, given in the Appendix to the present Volume. PREFACE, IX It is to be observed that a twofold object is included in the directions laid down by Bishop Warburton for his Lecturers : — the one that of demonstrating the fulfilment of Scripture prophecies on the given sub¬ jects ; the other that of convincingly impressing this on the hearers and readers of the Lectures, as evidence of the divine origin of the Christian religion. And it may be well, I think, here to make a few remarks relatively to each of these objects ; and the nature of the chief difficulties which, at the present time more especially, may be expected to stand in the way of the Lecturer’s successfully accomplishing them. 1 . Now, in reference to the former of these objects, it is likely that he may be met by a certain jealousy, reasonable in itself, but carried beyond what is reason¬ able, even to a kind of suspiciousness, lest he should be adjusting the prophecy to the history, or history to the prophecy, in order to make out his case. And hence his primary duty of showing, as clearly as possible, the natural intent of any prophecy under consideration. A point this not always easy of attain¬ ment, where the language is figurative and symbolic : but towards which, even then, important, indeed decisive, help may arise from consideration of the context ; especially where the prediction is one in a continuous series, and moreover circumstantial and peculiar. Then his next duty will be that of care¬ ful accuracy in his historic statements. — All this will, I hope, b£ found to have been borne in mind, so far X PREFACE. as their narrow limits might permit, in the Lectures following. Nor, indeed, as regards the prophecy to which the Lectures of my primary Triad relate, concerning the early Gentile- embracing constitution of the 'predicted Messianic Church , do I anticipate much difference of opinion either as to its intent, or its fulfilment. The prophecy is sufficiently clear in itself ; and the main subject one on which Christians are agreed. It is on my subsequent Lectures respecting the great predicted Apostacy , and its destined head in the Man of Sin , or Antichrist , that I have to expect, and that from various quarters, and on various grounds, strong ad¬ verse prejudices. It has been to myself a source of the greatest satis¬ faction, in here fulfilling my office of Warburtonian Lecturer, (a satisfaction not enjoyed by one or two of my predecessors in the Lectureship,) to have had such entire agreement of opinion with Bishop War- burton in reference to the cogency of the evidence for a Papal application of St. Paul’s and other cognate prophecies about Antichrist, that even his strong lan¬ guage has hardly seemed too strong to me, when affirming such fulfilment of those prophecies to be “ a proof of the truth of the Christian religion as convinc¬ ing as any moral matter is capable of receiving.” 1 It 1 “ St Paul, speaking in the 2nd of Thessalonians of Antichrist, or the Man of Sin, reminded the Church of what it was that, as he told them, then yet let or hindered his coming ; 'Remember ye what, &c.’ . I have ever thought the prophecies relating to Antichrist, interspersed up and down the New and Old Testament, the most PREFACE. Xi is the fashion now-a-days with various theological teachers and writers to decry this view as untrue, and even absurd. And youth, always confiding, and generally too fond of novelties, may be predisposed to imbibe the new doctrines taught ; and to suppose the modern teachers to be herein wiser than their forefathers. I believe I have looked into the various counter- views propounded, and into the various objec¬ tions urged against the old Protestant explanation of the prophecies in question, as much, as carefully, and as candidly as most. But the impression only remains the stronger with me, after every fresh examination of the subject, that the objections are vain : and, as to the several counter- views, — -whether of the Futurist school, or the Praterist , in their many and contrary varieties, that they meet their easy confutation, each and every one, in the stringency of the prophecies themselves. I have felt it right to give specimens of these in my Appendix, from some of the latest publi¬ cations of the kind that have met my eye. This may suffice to furnish an idea of them to the reader. It will show him how, in their own prophetic schemes, these theorists shrink from the testing : whether in the mists and uncertainties of the future ; or in a convincing- proof of the truth of the Christian religion that any moral matter is capable of receiving.” Warburton’s Works, Vol. xi. p. 347. (Ed. 1811.) I have used the qualifying word hardly , because of regarding the fulfilment of the prophecies about Christ, and perhaps too those about the Jews, as even yet more striking. Moreover I feel strongly that the proof from the moral and spiritual excellence of Christianity is never to be dissociated from that which arises out of the fulfilment of prophecy. XII PREFACE. generalizing principle of exposition, which would re¬ duce to nothingness of meaning alike the most striking prophetic symbols and prophetic numbers. They will show too how generally misrepresentation, or else bur¬ lesque which is pretty sure to involve misrepresenta¬ tion, is mixt up with arguments against the old Protestant anti-Papal view of this class of prophecies. — -To the same effect is the more copious notice of similar previous anti-Protestant theorists given in the Appendices to my Horse Apocalypticse. And very sure I am that, had either the one class of prophetic theorists, or the other, lived in the time of the apostles, they might similarly have contested those apostles’ application of Old Testament prophecies in proof of the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth; the all-im¬ portant numeral prophecy of the 70 weeks of Daniel, whereby was fixt the time of Messiah’s first coming, inclusive. As a useful guard and caution against prejudices, prior to examination, on this great prophetic sub¬ ject, let me beg to remind my readers of the mighty minds of past days which have deliberately con¬ cluded on the truth of the old Protestant view that the perfected Apostacy and Antichrist of prophecy had their fulfilment in the Papacy and Popes of Pome. And here I have to mention not only the names of Cranmer, Ridley , and other fathers of the Reforma¬ tion in England, who might be thought warped per¬ haps in their judgment on the matter by the terrors of the Papacy in their days : but those too of Jewel PREFACE. Xlll after them, and the Translators of our authorized version of the Bible ; of Andrewes , Hooker , Usher ; of Dr. S. Clarke , and the profound Bp. Butler ; of War - burton , as before stated ; and, almost in our own days, of Van Mildert and Davison. I must confess that, when I think of the greatness of most of these names, (and many more might be added,) whose opinions to this effect stand on record, I feel amazed at the presumption with which sometimes small critics now- a-days, little acquainted evidently with the subject, think to set aside the deliberate judgment of such men by a few flippant remarks, or a superficial critique. Is it likely, let me ask, that such men would have embraced the Protestant view, were there but small evidence in its favour ? Where are there names as many and weighty on the other side ? — There is in¬ deed the name of one really great man, recently past away from us, that might be so cited ;■ — I mean that of the late Dr. Arnold. And, valuing that noble- minded man as I do, notwithstanding his rashness at times, and too great subserviency moreover to unsound theological views imported from Germany, it has always been a peculiar subject of regret to me that he should have expressed an adverse opinion to that which I feel so strongly on this momentous point. In the Appendix to the 4th volume of my Horse Apocalypticse I have analyzed his Sermons on Prophecy ; and shown, I believe, quite sufficiently that the principle of prophetic interpretation, on which he based his counterviews about Babylon and XIV PREFACE. Antichrist, is altogether untenable.1 And very glad am I to find, on reading over again his Life and Correspondence, that Dr. A. has himself pronounced in favour of our view , as well as against it ; as will be seen by what appears in the Paper at the end of my Appendix. Indeed it is evident, from the citations there given, that he is much more with us than against us. Before passing to my next head I must observe, with reference to the Lectures of the third Triad, in which the Apocalyptic prophecy is my text, that I feel just as strongly now what I felt strongly at the time of preaching, how impossible it is within the narrow limits here given to do any justice to such a subject ; and moreover how little suited a mere run¬ ning prophetic sketch is to a Church Sunday Lec¬ ture. I must here only cast myself on the indulgence of my readers ; and beg them to remember that it a prophecy on which, from the nature of my thesis, I was absolutely forced to enter, however cursorily. In my larger Work of the Horse Apocalypticse they will find the proof of every point cursorily mooted in these Lectures to be given as fully and in detail, I believe, as they could desire. And perhaps in the unity of the subject, as all relating to the Church, there may be found some little counterbalance to the imperfection necessarily arising from my brevity in treating it. 1 His friend Mr. Price, whose beautiful letter on this subject is inserted by the Revd. A. Stanley in Dr. A.’s Life and Correspondence, concurs with me, I have been glad to find, in this opinion of the untenableness of Dr. A.’s principle of interpretation. v PREFACE. XV 2. As to the second object included in Bishop Warburton’s charge to the Lecturers on his Foundation, viz. that of pressing the fulfilment of the Scripture prophecies discussed on the minds and hearts of the hearers, as evidence of the divine origin of the Christian religion , I have always felt that the mere proved fact of prophetic fulfilments in the history of the past is not of itself sufficient to effect the intended object. The heart is the chief seat of conviction ; not the head, or intellect . “ With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” And thus moral evidence, and moral considerations, are abso¬ lutely essential in my opinion to any saving convic¬ tion of the truth of revealed religion.- So feeling I have endeavoured, where I could, to interweave moral evidence with the directly prophetic ; more especially in the three Lectures of my first Triad, and the final Lecture of the whole Course. Which final Lec¬ ture, originally preached in an abbreviated form, as part of my 12th Lecture, I have in the preparation for printing much enlarged, and made a Lecture by itself, agreeably with its great importance. I venture to hope that these parts of my Course may be found really helpful to some young and candid inquirers into the divine origin of the gospel. In the 3rd Lecture the moral evidence for the truth of the Gospel is placed, if I mistake not, in a somewhat new point of view ; and the question of its divine origin tried by a test not usually applied, though of all perhaps the noblest, viz. its consistency with the glory of Jehovah. XVI PREFACE. Here the great topic of the atonement , on which such poor and lowering speculations have been lately pro- mulged, comes prominently on the arena. How could I do any justice to this part of my subject without entering on it ? May God’s blessing rest upon the Lectures, however imperfect ! — Very satisfactory is the thought to me that, as the Lectures were delivered at Lincolns’ Inn, it is likely that they will be read by many of the members of that learned profession, the studies of which specially tend to qualify them for the just appreciation of arguments on questions of evidence. And very earnestly would I press upon them, in the present critical religious state of our church and nation, carefully and candidly to weigh the evidence here urged for the truth and divine origin of the Christian religion : supplying from my larger work whatever may be wanting in the prophetic proof; and with the prophetic evidence never for¬ getting to combine the moral and spiritual , as addrest to man’s conscience and heart. Let me add that, if the proof of these Lectures be deemed satisfactory, their truth will be found, if I mistake not, to have an important bearing on that of many other of the now- a-days disputed doctrines of Christianity, besides those respecting the great predicted Apostacy, and its head¬ ing Antichrist. Brighton , Feb. 5, 1856. FIRST TRIAD OF LECTURES. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION, AS PREDICTED BY ISAIAH, AND AS FULFILLED. LECTURE I. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH TO BE CONSTITUTED IN THE MAIN FROM PREVIOUSLY DARK GENTILES OF THE ISLES. ISAIAH XLII. 5—9. u Thus saith god jehovah, — he that created the heavens, AND STRETCHED THEM OUT, HE THAT SPREAD FORTH THE EARTH, AND THAT WHICH COMETH OUT OF IT, HE THAT G1VETH BREATH UNTO THE PEOPLE UPON IT, AND SPIRIT TO THEM THAT WALK THEREIN, - 1 JEHOVAH HAVE CALLED THEE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS ; AND I WILL HOLD THINE HAND, AND WILL KEEP THEE, AND GIVE THEE FOR A COVENANT OF THE PEOPLE, FOR A LIGHT OF THE GENTILES ; TO OPEN THE BLIND EYES, TO BRING OUT THE PRISONERS FROM THE PRISON, AND THEM THAT SIT IN DARKNESS OUT OF THE PRISON HOUSE. I AM JEHOVAH I THAT IS MY NAME : AND MY GLORY WILL I NOT GIVE TO ANOTHER, NEITHER MY PRAISE TO GRAVEN IMAGES. BEHOLD, THE FORMER THINGS ARE COME TO PASS, AND NEW THINGS DO I DECLARE I BEFORE THEY SPRING FORTH I TELL YOU OF THEM.” The duty enjoined on me as Warburtonian Lec¬ turer, is “ to prove the truth of revealed religion in general, and of the Christian in particular, from the completion of [certain] prophecies in the Old and Neiv Testaments : ” viz. of those “ which relate to the Chris - LECT. 1. B 2 FIRST TRIAD. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. tian Church and those too “which relate to the , apostacy of Papal Rome.” A twofold subject as thus enunciated ; but which, in Bishop Warburton’s view, and I doubt not in reality, is essentially one. For the Church visible , in main part, (though still bearing the Christian name) declined by degrees into anti - Christian apostacy ; and at length, in completion of that apostacy, took for its head, at least in the old Roman world, the Popes or Bishops of Rome ; i. e. Antichrist, in the place of Christ. — It is my pur¬ pose in the ensuing Course of Lectures to adhere very strictly to the thesis thus propounded to me, hoping thus best to promote the Founder’s object: and the rather because of its peculiar suitableness and importance at the present time ; when so much is talked and written about the Church ; and so much depends on a right view of what is really Christ's Church, and of what is told in the Holy Scriptures concerning both it and its counterfeit. — Accordingly, in my 1st Triad of Lee- tures I propose to consider The Christian Church’s Primary Institution ; in my 2nd, The Christian Church apostatizing ; in my 3rd, The com¬ pleted Church Apostacy under the Papal Antichrist; in my 4th, Christ’s broken Wit¬ ness-Churches, antagonistic against the Apostacy, before, at, and after the Reformation : (all as pre¬ dicted in Holy Scripture, and as fulfilled :) — conclud¬ ing with the assured prospect of the final successful issue of this witness-cause in the Church Trium¬ phant of the coming future. So God’s grand scheme PREVIOUS DARKNESS OF ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENCY. f) o respecting the Church will come, as a whole, under our review in these Lectures : and much too, from time ^ to time, of the never-to-be-forgotten moral evidence of divine inspiration, which in Scripture prophecy will continually be found interwoven with that from the fulfilment of prediction in fact. In my present and 1st Triad it is The Chris¬ tian Church’s Primary Institution that I have to consider. — -And for this the prophetic passage just read from Isaiah seems to furnish a very suitable text. In it, taking up the thread of that great primeval promise of a Deliverer made to Adam after his fall, “ The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s headA— a promise never lost sight of afterwards in divinely-inspired Scripture prophecy, and which was the germ of all subsequent promises, — Isaiah predicts, 1st, the population out of which the Church, or cho¬ sen covenant-people, of the great promised Deliverer, would, when he came, be primarily and mainly formed ; viz. not Jews , but Gentiles ; specially (as is exprest in verses 4 and 12) Gentiles of “ the isles ,” or those round the Mediterranean:1 of whom it was 1 “ The sons of Japhet , — Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras : . . . and the sons of Javan — Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands.” So Gen. x. 2, 4, 5. The fact of Japhet having been the father of a large proportion of the ancient Greek population is testified to by the old Greek traditions about Japetus. — As to the four sons of Javan , Vitringa on Is. xxiii. 1 (Yol. i. p. G74) expresses his opinion that Elishah was the father of the Greeks of Elis and the Peloponnesus ; Tharsis of the Spaniards : Dodanim, or" Rhodanim, of the Gauls as distinguished from the Celts ; and Cethiim (or Chittim) of the people of Italy. The writer of the B 2 LECT. I. 4 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. FIRST TRIAD. here further declared that, down to the very time of , their calling-, they would continue involved in re¬ ligious and moral darkness and thraldom, like as of a prison-house : — 2ndly, the agency whereby they would be enlightened and formed into a Church in covenant with God, viz. that of God’s own anointed commissioner for the purpose, called hence the Messiah , or Christ 4 — 3rdly, how, notwithstanding this his agency, the glory of their deliverance, and consequent admission into the covenant, would, nevertheless, from first to last, be that of God Jehovah alone ; — “ I am Jehovah ; and my glory will I not give to another.” Altogether the subject thus sketched out will furnish ample matter for the triad of Lectures to be given this winter season. For the present it is the first point of the three which proposes itself for our consideration ; viz. the predicted fact of its being from Gentiles of the isles that God’s Church would, on Messiah’s coming, be chiefly constituted ; and of their state, down to that moment of God’s own interposition through the Messiah, continuing to be that of mental darkness and bondage. So Isaiah : “ I will give thee (the Mes¬ siah) for a light of the Gentiles : to open the blind eyes ; to bring out the prisoners from the prison ; and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house.” first Book of Maccabees (i. 1.) prefers to understand Chittim of the Greeks ; Jerome, on Dan. xi. 30, of the Italians or Romans. In Hebrew the word d; means alike the Sea and the West : showing that by “ the isles ” was meant specially the maritime countries of the great Western or Mediterranean sea. 1 Is. xlii. 1 (Chald.) ; also Is. lxi. 1, Ps. lxxxix. 20, Dan.ix. 24, &c. PREVIOUS DARKNESS OF ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENCY. 5 And then pointedly, as if there might have been pre- Lect. vious attempts by other persons to do the work, and to . \ contest the glory with him, “ I am Jehovah ; and I will not give my glory to another.” — Such is the pro¬ phecy. Did it then receive fulfilment? Did the spiritual state of the Gentiles around the Mediter¬ ranean, in Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, until Christ's coming, continue to be such as is described ? Were attempts made on any notable scale before Christ’s advent to enlighten and emancipate them ? And were all those attempts in vain ? Thus we enter at once on various questions connected with the Chris¬ tian Church’s origin, and therefore such as the foun¬ der of this Lecture suggested for consideration ; whereon to test by historic fact the truth or falsehood of the Scripture prophecy before us. Ere proceeding further, however, it seems right, Brethren, that I should at once bespeak your indul¬ gence for entering on a course of illustration of my subject unusual in pulpit addresses, and for the most part unbefitting. For I purpose asking you to accompany me in a rapid glance at a series of efforts made in successive generations after Isaiah, by men and sects of the Gentile world the most re¬ nowned in their day for wisdom ; the avowed object of which was the enlightenment and emancipation of the human mind, in the countries we speak of, from its intellectual darkness and thraldom in respect of religious truth : efforts made af a time anticipative of that marked out by the prophet ; and by quite other 6 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. first agency, their own, instead of God’s. My reasons , ril*AD>. for so doing are such as will, I trust, be judged satisfactory: — first, because a Lecture on any branch of the evidences of revealed religion belongs to a class of sermons peculiar, and to which ordinary rules should not be applied in their strictness : secondly, because the audience which I am privileged to address is not a common audience, but one peculiarly qualified by education and intellectual attainments to enter intelligently into the subject I have to speak of : thirdly, because in that clause in my instructions, was the hope of this, he said, that was his grand sup¬ port and cheering in the hour of trial. But what his grounds for believing in it ? He argued thus : — that the soul was indivisible, and therefore incapable of dissolution ; a principle too of motion, and therefore necessarily indestructible : — that in nature there seemed to be a law of vicissitudes, all things ending in their contraries ; as sleeping in waking, waking in sleeping, life in death ; whence by analogy it was presumable that death would have life to succeed it. Moreover in the Phsedo it is argued (but this I can¬ not but suppose to be Plato’s own argument, not that of Socrates, and so thinking shall revert to it again when speaking of Plato s philosophy) that the soul had reminiscences of ideas contemplated in a prior state of existence ; and that its having existed before life in this world was an argument for its existing after life. Such are the chief Socratic arguments for the soul’s immortality, as recorded in the Phaedo. No wonder that Socrates should have confest that he held his hope about it not unmixt with doubt. And so again, with regard to erring man’s obtaining favour with the Deity, and God’s fulfilment of his prayers and desires, he seems to have felt similar doubt and uncertainty. Should Alcibiades sacrifice, on a parti¬ cular occasion, to the gods? was the question put to him by that celebrated man, then young and his dis¬ ciple. And his answer was, — that such uncertainty seemed to exist as to the consequences of the fulfilment PREVIOUS DARKNESS OF ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENCY. 17 of our prayers, if granted us, whether ultimately for lect. good or for evil, and such also to the feelings of the » _ gods about sacrifice, and towards ourselves, (for So¬ crates inculcated belief in inferior gods, or demons,) whether propitious, or hostile, — that he thought the in¬ quirer might do well to postpone the sacrifice and the prayer, until some one commissioned from heaven should come to reveal God’s mind about the matter to us: there being added the extraordinary and almost prophetic af¬ firmation ; “ And I think he will come, and that before long.” 1 His very ignorance (that of which he so often spoke, when saying, “ I know but one thing only, and that is, that I know nothing,”) seemed like the prophetic cry of nature’s distress within him ; a cry, he thought, which He who was the God of nature would not despise. We pass from Socrates to Socrates’ most eminent disciple Plato. And surely if genius and learning, with every such advantage and assistance as the world could furnish, might suffice for the discovery of divine truth, then might we expect that here at length we should find one that would be a light to his Gentile countrymen; and fulfil the office that had been dis¬ tinctively assigned by the Jewish prophet to another and quite different teacher. But oh ! what a disap¬ pointment awaits him who may enter on the study of Plato’s philosophy with any such expectations ! The disciple in early years of Socrates, and a traveller for years after his master’s death in various countries, 1 Alcibiades’ reply ; but accepted by Socrates. See Plato’s Alcibiades. C 18 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. FIRST TRIAD. (more especially in Egypt and Southern Italy?) profess- , edly in search of truth, behold him at length opening his school in the groves of the Athenian Academus : with invitation to his countrymen to attend his teach¬ ing ; and there “ inter sylvas Academi quserere verum,” — in those Academic groves to seek truth. But, instead of advance beyond Socrates, we find, on most points of high interest, a decided retrogradation. The modest consciousness of ignorance that Socrates exprest appears not here. What his master shrunk from expounding, as beyond the range of man’s in¬ tellect, Plato defined and taught. But how? Very much by adopting, combining, or varying the vain speculations of the old Ionic or Pythagorean professors of wisdom. — Again the old physical question of the formation of the universe and man was encountered by him ; and again, for its resolution, he resorted to the two principles. From nothing nothing could originate. This was a fundamental dogma with Plato. And it was applied by him as well to the material as to the efficient cause. There must therefore have been two principles, both alike eternal and indepen¬ dent principles, God and matter : the latter ori¬ ginally unformed, incorporeal, chaotic ; the former all intellectual, all good, all wise.1 It was Plato’s theory that the eternal God had enwrapt in his own divine vov$, or intelligence, ideas or patterns of all things afterwards executed, ideas eternal as the mind that contained them : these being not immaterial, but ovrag 1 See Plato’s Timseus. PREVIOUS DARKNESS OF ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENCY. 19 ovra, realities ; and indeed the only veritable realities, lect. as compared with the shadowy fleeting forms of worldly . Tv‘ , existences. The time having come for the shaping and formation of the universe, God fashioned it out of the primeval matter according to these ideas, or patterns : and infused into it an animating soul of mixt character, in part divine, in part material ; a part thereof being detached from it to inhabit, and be the animating principle of, human bodies. And hence the solution of that mighty enigma, the existence of evil , in the works of a benevolent and all-wise Creator. There was in primeval matter a certain necessarily blind and refractory force, a ^v^fvrog eiriOufAia, or innate propensity to evil : and from its admixture, alike in the soul of the world and the souls of men, there thence proceeded all the imperfection that was apparent in external nature ; and thence all the depravity and the miseries to which man is liable. On this head Pla¬ tonism was but anticipated Manicheism. — And what the means and mode of man’s attaining to a better state ? It was by recognizing the imprisonment of the soul in its bodily dwelling-house, said Plato ; and rising above sensible objects to the world of truth, intelligence, idea, and to the contemplation of the great first cause, God. So the soul would become disposed to virtue ; and prepared after death to return to its celestial source and more proper habitation. — - Of Plato’s arguments for the soul’s immortality I have already spoken, when abstracting his report of those of Socrates. For doubtless Plato adopted, as he related, c 2 20 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. first his master’s. Let me repeat however that the partieu- — lll,AD‘. lar argument from the soul’s pre-existence, as known from reminiscences of things supposed to have been seen or felt before birth into this world, seems rather to have been that of Plato than Socrates. For it formed part and parcel of the Pythagorean system : which sys¬ tem Plato studied and borrowed from ; but with which Socrates’ mind had little affinity. Very beautifully has a venerable living poet 1 exprest the notion : — Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting : The soul that rises with us, our life’s star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar. Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God who is our home. Heaven lies around us in our infancy. Shades of the prison-house begin to close Upon the growing boy. Yet he beholds the light, and whence it flows ; He sees it in his joy. it is beautiful as poetry. But how sad his case who rests on such theories of supposed reminiscences of a pre-existent state in childhood, as a point of evidence too important to be overlooked for the immortality of the soul ! I must just touch on the Peripatetic, Stoic, and Epicurean schools of philosophy, as they were schools so famous in history, ere I pass finally to 1 Wordsworth. His death occurred soon after the delivery of this Lecture. PREVIOUS DARKNESS OF ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENCY. 21 Cicero. But it may be done quite succinctly, and with lect. reference only to their more peculiar tenets. ■ l’ As to the first-mentioned, and its great founder Aristotle , who that knows anything of his cosmogonic and theological doctrines but knows that in them he did but darken counsel, and dishonour the Deity ? It was out of a primeval matter that the universe, a universe spherical and finite, was formed : the earth, itself immoveable, being the centre of motion, round which all the higher spheres revolved ; and the high¬ est sphere, or primum mobile , eternal and immutable, as well as its mover. Then, as to the first mover there resident, it was the simple energy of pure intelligence ; the efficient cause, by mere volition, of all natural mo¬ tion, the Being of Beings, God. So did Aristotle resem¬ ble God to the moving though conscious main-spring of a vast machine ; and he taught moreover that, in so doing, God acted not voluntarily, but necessarily. It was his doctrine further that fixed to that highest sphere, without the attribute of immensity or omni¬ presence, and occupied eternally in the contemplation of his own nature, God neither beheld, nor had care for, what might pass among the inhabitants of this inferior portion of the universe ; and was consequently not a proper object of worship to mankind. So, I say, taught Aristotle, the intellectual Aristotle : — he of whom, when not attendant on the Academy, Plato was wont to say, 44 Intellect is absent.” In Zeno's Stoic school, formed very soon after Aristotle’s, and which assembled for its sittings in the THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. painted portico, or qoa at Athens, there was pro¬ pounded in its physics still the old theory of two co¬ eternal principles, the active and the passive, God and matter : with this difference however from the Academic doctrine that, whereas Plato distinguished the soul infused into the material universe from God’s own soul, the Stoics identified them : the whole con¬ jointly constituting in their view an 8 viol efxxpvyog kou cu~, half a century before the advent of Jesus, — the Mes¬ siah of whom Isaiah wrote, — there appeared on the world’s theatre at Rome that extraordinary man, Marcus Tullius Cicero ; whose capacious mind, besides all its other attainments, became the most perfect pro¬ ficient in, and eloquent expounder of, the collective wisdom of the philosophy of Greece. It was as if to exhibit to the world, just before He that should come to be its light did come, an illustration the most striking of the still enduring religious darkness and thraldom of the Gentile mind, predicted by Isaiah ; as also of the utter impotence of any agency that human intelligence could furnish to deliver man from it. There are many doubtless here present who have mused with deep interest on his philosophic Treatises ; • — the “ De Natura Deorum,” and “ De Finibus,” the “Tusculan” and “Academic Questions,” and some others : these being the records of animated conver¬ sational discussions that he had taken pleasure in hold¬ ing with the chief living masters of each philosophic sect near him, in his delightful villas at Tusculum and Baim. And with no little pleasure will they have read the admirable arguments there so eloquently urged, after the true Socratic model, for the existence of a Deity eternal, almighty, immaterial, all-wise, all¬ good ; (arguments drawn alike from God’s works in nature, and from the general consent of mankind ;) and also those about that other great doctrine of the immortality of the human soul. But was there a word J PREVIOUS DARKNESS OF ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENCY. 25 added by Cicero of real effective information on other LECT. doctrines equally essential to man’s welfare, and on . T‘ , which his predecessors had confest their ignorance by silence : — more especially as to those two questions, how a mind conscious within itself of guilt may gain forgiveness of the Deity ; and how a mind conscious within itself of depraved and vicious propensities may gain the victory over them, and abetter nature ? Not a word. Nay, even as to the great cardinal doctrines above mentioned, in which he protest belief, about God and a future state after death, was there any new argument or authority discovered by him ? Not so. He fully and fairly set forth objections without appending adequate answers, as if unable to give them : confest that belief could not be without some doubt mingling with it ; and, in fact, that he attached himself by preference to that section of Platonism styled the New Academy , because that by it there was most clearly profest that man’s belief in such subjects is grounded not on certainty, but only on probabilities.1 — And very affecting it is to see how, when he most needed consolation from religious faith, doubts most interfered to rob him of it. For Cicero’s earthly course, like that of many others, grew darker towards its close. The Republic in which he had borne so distinguished a part, and with which the honours that had been gained by him, in measure far beyond his contemporaries, were each and every one mixt up, had now passed away, and been superseded by the military 1 De Off’. ii. 2, Tusc. iv. 4, &c. 2 (i FIRST TRIAD. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. dictatorship of Caesar. Then the daughter of his heart’s devoted love, Tullia, in whose charming society and affection he had sought relief from public disap¬ pointment, was snatched from him by premature and sudden death. It was like the case of our own great philosophic orator, on the death of his only son.1 But Burke had Christian topics of consolation, which to Cicero were wanting. His many friends wrote letters of comfort ; but they fell coldly on him. How could they but do so ? Take that one from among them all by S. Sulpicius, which was most celebrated amongst the ancients, and indeed as a master-piece. What were the suggestions in it ? It urged on the bereaved one the comparative insignificance of a daughter’s loss, after the loss of the republic ; and told too of the ruined greatness of Corinth, Athens, and other once celebrated Greek cities which the writer had lately been visiting, to strengthen the impression of its in¬ significance : then, touching a more kindred chord, spoke of the vanity of life to Tullia, had life been prolonged ; and added, “ Besides, if there he any sense in the dead , how concerned must she be to see you thus afflict yourself.” Cicero fled from such mis¬ erable comforters. And in solitary musings he dwelt on the recollection of her virtues ; and then on that cherished doctrine of the Socratic philosophy, that the souls of men were of heavenly extraction, and that the pure and chaste, at their separation from the body, returned to the fountain whence they were 1 See Burke’s Works, Yol. viii. 46 ; Letter to a Noble Lord. PREVIOUS DARKNESS OF ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENCY. 27 derived : in which case the really cheering thought lect. presented itself that his beloved daughter was with the . gods.1' — As it proved, scarce two years more of life after this epoch of his bereavement remained to Cicero himself : and, as they past on, the clouds still gathered more darklv round him. How could this consist with « j the Providential ordering of all things by an all-wise benevolent God? His letters to Atticus speak the doubts that now ever and anon suggested themselves on this head. And other letters tell too how, in look¬ ing forward to death, he was unable assuringly to realize the fact of the soul’s immortality ; and how the hypothesis forced itself upon him that death after all might very possibly be annihilation.2 At any rate, even in the latter case, there would at least be no more pain, or sorrow of mind, such as he was here experiencing. And even this was something. — So, when the soldiers of the bloodthirsty Triumvirs pursued him through the woods of his Caietan Villa, where he had sought a temporary refuge, he bade the bearers of his litter stop : and then stretched his head out from it, bared to the sword of the assassin ; as one weary of life, but all in the dark as to what would await him after death.3 — His crumbling monument still stands on that fatal spot, hard by the Mola di Gaeta ; in mournful contrast to the exquisite beauty of the surrounding scenery. And surely to an intelligent mind it may well seem like a sepulchral monument, 1 See on all this, Middleton’s Life of Cicero, Sect. viii. 2 See the citations in Middleton, Sect. xii. 3 b.c. 43. ✓ 28 FIRST TRIAD. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCh’s PRIMARY INSTITUTION. not alone of the mighty heart which there ceased its beatings, but of Heathen Philosophy too, as imper¬ sonated in its fairest Gentile form, which, with all the vain hopes excited by it, there lay entombed with him. And what the suitable inscription ? Methinks on the one side, considering how hopelessly men still sate in darkness and in the shadow of death, we might suppose this sentence written, “ The world by wisdom knew not God and on the other side this ; “ The creation groaning and travailing, even until now, waiteth with earnest expectation for the manifestation of the Son of God.” 1 So had the first point in the prophecy that we were to consider been fulfilled. So, for above 600 years from the time of Isaiah’s delivering it, had the cha¬ racter continued to attach to the isles of the Gentiles, as he predicted it would, of hopeless blindness in regard of divine truth, even as of men sitting in darkness and the prison-house.2 — But was this all the prophecy ? Thank God! there was also a declaration in it of some¬ thing better to come. The Creator of man, and of the world, could not so leave his creatures, — his own creatures, to despair. Listen to the announcement : — and oh how magnificent does the introductory sen¬ tence sound in our ears, after all the miserable specu¬ lations we have been contemplating about the world’s 1 I have ventured here to accommodate St. Paul’s noble statement to my subject, by changing his “ sons of God” into son , and referring it to Christ’s first ; instead of his second advent. 2 I have generally consulted Enfield’s abstract of Brucker, in my brief sketches of the tenets of the Greek philosophers. PREVIOUS DARKNESS OF ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENCY. 29 formation, and God, and man, and matter! “ Thus Lect. saith God Jehovah, (i. e. God the Self-existent One,) . 1‘ He that created the heavens and stretched them out, he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it, he that giveth breath unto the ’people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein, — I Jehovah have called thee in righteousness ; and I will hold thine hand , and keep thee , and give thee for a covenant of the people , for a light to the Gentiles ; to open the blind eyes , to bring out the prisoners from the prison , and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house. I am Jehovah : that is my name : and my glory will I not give to another.” About forty years after the death of Cicero there was born into this world at Beth¬ lehem One who professed to be the Person foretold by Isaiah, as the divinely-commissioned agent for im¬ parting spiritual light and emancipation to the Gentiles of the isles. Was there then evidence of his being really the person predicted ? And did he really do in this matter what all that long line of philosophers had failed of doing : and moreover constitute a select com¬ munity, or church, in covenant relationship with God, and with himself, from out of the Gentiles thus en¬ lightened and emancipated ; thereby fulfilling the second main point here predicted by Isaiah ? This is the next point for consideration ; and will form the subject of my second Lecture. I LECTURE II. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH^ GENTILE CONSTITUENTS TO BE ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST. ISAIAH XLII. 5—8. FIRST “ THUS SAITH GOD JEHOVAH, — HE THAT CREATED THE HEAVENS, TRIAD. AND STRETCHED THEM OUT, HE THAT SPREAD FORTH THE EARTH, - v - • AND THAT WHICH COMETH OUT OF IT, HE THAT G1VETH BREATH UNTO THE PEOPLE UPON IT, AND SPIRIT TO THEM THAT WALK THEREIN, — -I JEHOVAH HAVE CALLED THEE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS ; AND I WILL HOLD THINE HAND, AND WILL KEEP THEE, AND GIVE THEE FOR A COVENANT OF THE PEOPLE, FOR A LIGHT OF THE GENTILES ; TO OPEN THE BLIND EYES, TO BRING OUT THE PRISONERS FROM THE PRISON, AND THEM THAT SIT IN DARKNESS OUT OF THE PRISON HOUSE. I AM JEHOVAH ; THAT IS MY NAME : AND MY GLORY WILL I NOT GIVE TO ANOTHER.” “ Did any one, answering to the character here given of God’s own intended delegate for the de¬ liverance of fallen man, ever appear upon this mun¬ dane scene, and do for the Gentiles of the Medi¬ terranean (as Isaiah predicted he would) what all their philosophers for 700 years had failed of doing, — viz. to open their blind eyes to divine truth, and from those that were thus brought out of the dark¬ ness of their former prison-house to constitute to himself a peculiar people, or Church ?” — such was the question with which my last Lecture concluded ; and which in the present Lecture I have to answer in the ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENTS ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST. affirmative, by reference of course to the person and history of Jesus of Nazareth, and his apostles. ^ The proof of this it may be well to draw out under two separate heads : — 1st, shewing generally that Jesus was the very delegate and deliverer here predicted, as well as in multitudinous other most circumstantial and distinctive Scripture prophecies ; 2ndly, and specifi¬ cally , that he gave light to the benighted Gentiles of the Mediterranean, and out of them constituted to himself a distinct covenanted people, or Church. — To this I now proceed. And let me endeavour to trace out the evidence on either head so as it might have opened to some earnest Gentile enquirer of the apos¬ tolic period ; after first sketching the manner in which such an individual might have been prepared in spirit for the investigation. The whole subject will thus come before us with somewhat more of freshness and effect, than if treated as a mere subject of inquiry at this present time by one of ourselves. Truly, after all that had past in the seven or eight centuries before him, we may well conceive how such a person, in the age succeeding after Cicero, might on reflection have come to realize to himself the thoughts and feelings so strikingly exprest long after¬ wards by Pascal. “ When I see the blindness and wretchedness of man, and the astonishing contrarieties of his nature ; when I behold the universe silent, and man without light, abandoned to himself, and lost as it were in this corner of the universe, without knowing who has placed him there, or what he is come to do. 32 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. FIRST TRIAD. or what will become of him after death ; I feel panic- j struck, like a man that might have been carried asleep to some desert island, and wake without knowing where he is, and without any means of escaping from it.” In such a state of mind would the general indif¬ ference and thoughtlessness about these great ques¬ tions, which he would be sure to observe in nearly all around him, have sufficed to dissipate our inquirer’s sad and solemn reflections ? Rather surely his mind would still travel on in sympathy with Pascal’s, as he thus proceeded to express his feelings. “ And then I wonder how it is that one does not despair at so wretched a state. I see other persons near me of a nature resembling my own. I ask them if they are better informed than I am ; and they say, No. And then these lost creatures, having looked around them, and seen some pleasant objects, give to them their attention and their hearts. As for me, I cannot re¬ pose in such a state : nor rest secure in the mere society of persons weak, wretched, and ignorant as myself. I see that they will give me no assistance to die rightly. I must die alone. I will act then as if I were alone. I will not embarrass myself with the tumultuary occupations of the world ; or aim, as my great object, at the applause or esteem of my fellow-men. One thing only will I strive for ; and that, the discovery of the truth” 1 But where might a Greek or Roman, at the time we are imagining, some 80 or 90 years after Cicero’s 1 See his “ Thoughts,” Sect. viii. ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENTS ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST. 33 death, have hoped to discover the truth ? Where, L^T when for 600 years, and more, the wisest of those two v — great nations had been seeking, and seeking, and yet never found ? — It pleased God, we know, that already some considerable time before the epoch spoken of, there should have been scattered over those isles of the Gentiles little colonies of Jews, with legal toler¬ ance granted by the Roman emperors to their wor¬ ship d — a race strange and despised in the eyes of Greeks and Romans ; but yet with doctrines about the Deity (as every intelligent and candid heathen must have acknowledged) nobler, far nobler, than ever the wisdom of the philosophers had attained to.2 And we may suppose some casual visit to one of their syna¬ gogues to have brought our inquirer into acquaintance with the selfsame prophecy that I have taken for my text.3 In which case he could scarce but be struck with the assurance (an assurance like that of inspira¬ tion,) with which, in terms the most emphatic, God’s purpose was declared of sending in due time some certain delegate from heaven, ordained for the very purpose of giving light and enfranchisement of mind to the benighted Gentiles of the isles : (just in accord¬ ance, he would remember, with Socrates’ long before hopefully exprest anticipation : 4) “ Thus saith God Jehovah, I have called thee in righteousness; and I will hold thy hand, and will keep thee, and give thee 1 See Mosheim i. 1.2. 18.— At Rome itself the number of Jews had been greatly increased by the captives brought from Judaea by Pompey. 2 Compare Longinus’ testimony to Moses, ouy <3 tvx^v avrip. 3 The reading of Isaiah in the usual course of the synagogue- wor¬ ship is illustrated by Luke iv. 17, 18. 4 See p. 15, supra. D 34 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. tiuad for a °f ^ ie Gentiles ; to open the blind eyes, — v — * to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house.” And though, after considering all the vain efforts after the discovery of the truth that had been made for ages previous by so many of the wisest and greatest in their day and generation, our inquirer’s first feeling might be to hear the prediction with scepticism, as foretelling what was at once too good and too contrary to all Greek and Roman experience ever to prove true, yet it is very supposable that, in spite of all this, the majesty and sublimity of the prophetic language, so utterly unlike and superior to all the dicta of the philosophers, might on reconsideration have suggested a kind of hope within his breast : and led him, like one of the devout Greeks of whom we read from time to time in the history of the Acts of the Apostles,1 to attend yet again the worship of the Jewish synagogue. Whereby, and also by private study of the Septuagint Greek translation of the Old Testament Scriptures, now widely current in the Greek countries round the Mediterranean, he would become familiarized some¬ what more with the sacred books there read and ex¬ pounded : and more especially with the great promise of a Deliverer to man’s benighted family, (one prophe¬ sied of, we saw,2 under the title of the Messiah , i. e. 1 Examples of Gentile visitants at the Jewish temple, or synagogues, occur Acts viii. 27, x. 1,2, xiii. 43, xvi. 14, xvii. 4, xviii. 7, &c. Juvenal xiv. 101 notes the Roman proselytes’ study of Moses’ books. Judaicum ediscunt ; et servant, et metuunt jus, Tradidit arcano quodcumque volumine Moses. 2 See p. 4. ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENTS ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST. 35 the Christ , or Anointed One ,) which from beginning to end he would find to run through those Scriptures v like a silver thread. And thus a range of thought much larger than before as to God’s purposes of mercy, (if those Scrip¬ tures were true,) would open before him ; and views respecting the promised Deliverer, more definite and particular than could have been derived from this single prophecy. — From it indeed sundry points re¬ specting him of great interest ^ere to be inferred : — more especially as to his person ; that he was to be some one of transcendent dignity, on whom God’s Spirit would specially rest, and in whom God would feel perfect complacency, although designated also as God’s servant and messenger : 1— as to his character ; that, unlike the generality of those who aspire at playing a distinguished part in the world, his charac¬ teristic habits would be altogether unostentatious and unworldly ; and such as to sympathize rather with the children of sorrow, than with the rich and great and noble of this world :2 — as to his experience of life ; that there would be much in it of trial and discourage¬ ment, much to need God’s special intervention to help and support him :3 — as to the time of his coming , that it would be long delayed beyond what might have been expected, “ I have long time holden my peace, and refrained myself ;”4 so that the long interval 1 Is. xlii. 1, 6. 2 Is. xlii. 2, 3 ; “ He shall not cry, nor lift up, or cause his voice to he heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench/’ 8 lb. ver. 4,6. 4 Ver. 14. D 2 LECT. II. 36 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. FIRST that had elapsed since Isaiah’s time, without any fulfil- TRIAD. 1 . — v — ' ment of the promise, would seem to our inquirers to be no bar to its fulfilment afterwards : — as to the oc¬ casion of his enlightening the Gentiles , and gathering out of them a people to himself, that it would follow upon the Jews rejecting him, and being consequently for a while abandoned by God, and given up to judg¬ ment : 1 — besides, yet once more, certain mysterious words that were here added by Isaiah, about all this beingdone so as to be a jnanife station of God's righteous¬ ness, , magnifying of his laiv and making it honorable : and done too in the way of a covenant ;2 even as if to be inaugurated, like other covenants among both Jews and Gentiles, with the sanction of solemn sacrifice.— Thus much, I say, was to be inferred from this very chapter of our text, respecting the promised enlight¬ ener and emancipator of the Gentiles. — -But, on com¬ paring and connecting it with the long line of other predictions of the Hebrew Scriptures respecting him, how much fuller and clearer would seem the light of prophecy; how many other and more explicit predicted particulars open on our inquirer as to his nature, 1 See from verse 18 to the end of the Chapter. Verse 18 ; “ Hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind, that ye may see. Who is blind but my servant ; or deaf as my messenger that I sent ?” This is explained by various learned expositors to mean the Jewish priests and rulers ; who “having eyes saw not, and having ears heard not, neither did under¬ stand,” on Jesus Christ’s coming and ministering : one being put for the class. Which being so explained, a reason appears for what is said of God’s rejecting the Jews, at the end of the Chapter ; “ Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers 1 Did not the Lord 1 He against whom we have sinned ? Therefore He hath poured upon him the fury of his anger.” Compare Is. vi. 9—12. 2 Verse 6. ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENTS ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST. 37 lineage, time and place of birth, character, doctrine, rejection by the Jews, sufferings, penal death, ascen¬ sion, and subsequent resurrection, kingdom, glory : — particulars with which, Brethren, you are all doubtless familiar ; and which there is no need now to specify, as I shall have almost immediately to begin a reference to them in detail, when speaking of the history of Him who fulfilled them. In fact it was all but an expan¬ sion, our inquirer would see, of the great primeval promise said to have been given to Adam on his fall : u The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head : ” and repeated, as time went on, with more and more of particulars and detail continually, from Adam to Noah, Noah to Abraham, Abraham to Moses, Moses to David, and David to Isaiah, Daniel, Malachi ; the latter, the last of the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures. And now then we have to carry forward the case of the Gentile Greek inquirer that we are imagining ; and to remember how to any such an one, so prepared in mind by the study of Isaiah’s and other cognate prophecies of the Jewish Scriptures, the news would naturally be brought about the time at which we place him, at first by vaguer rumours, but soon by the re¬ ported testimony of accredited teachers, such as the apostle Paul , to the effect that One professing to he the very person intended by the prophecies , had very shortly before lived, and died, yea, and (it was said) risen up again from the dead, in Isaiah’s own country Judea. Did then the evidence generally agree ? LECT. II. 38 FIRST TRIAD. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHS PRIMARY INSTITUTION. Might he really have been the Christ predicted ? So would open on our inquirer the great question for investigation. It was some 40 years after the death of Cicero, and when Octavian Augustus, one of the Triumvirate who had united with Antony in signing his death- warrant, had been already some time established as sole ruler in the Empire, that the child Jesus was born at Bethlehem, about whom these things were told.1 And, to begin, in regard of his birth itself, its time, occasion, place, family, there appeared doubtless very remarkable prima facie coincidences with various Scripture pro¬ phecies regarding the promised Messiah. According to certain learned Jews’ construction of a famous prediction in Isaiah,2 the promised Saviour was to be born of a virgin, (indeed as much might almost seem to have been intimated also in the primeval pro¬ mise of him as “ the seed of the woman,”3) one of the family of king David : and it was of a virgin of the family of David that this Jesus was said to have been miraculously born. — It was the town Beth¬ lehem that was marked out bv Micah as the Messiah’s * birthplace ; and Bethlehem was the birthplace of Jesus.4 — The very occasion on which his virgin- 1 As Cicero’s death occurred b.c. 43, and St. Paul’s first missionary journey into Greece about a.d. 51, there was the interval of some 90 years between the two events. Thus a Greek or Roman GO years old at the time of St. Paul’s coming into Greece might easily, when a boy of 10, have heard his father talk of Cicero’s death and philo¬ sophic disputations, as what in his youth he had been cognizant of. 2 Is. vii. 14. (Sept. irapQevos.) In Matt. i. 23, we read the Christian Jews’ construction of this memorable prophecy in Isaiah. s So Lowth on Is. vii. 14. 4 Micah v. 2, Matt. ii. 1 — G. ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENTS ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST, 39 mother was led thither marked the fulfilment therein LECT- a. of another old prophecy about Messiah’s coming. For' — v — it was on occasion of Augustus issuing an edict for the census and taxation of the Roman world, and in Judaea requiring that each particular family should go to its own family town to be taxed, that Mary, the mother of Jesus, went to David’s town Bethlehem, as being herself of the house and lineage of David.1 And this treatment of Judaea as a subject province marked to the world that the power of self-government had then passed away from Judah : just as it had been predicted about the state of things there at the time of Messiah’s coming ; — “ The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh (i. e. the Messiah ) come.” 2 — Besides that the term of seventy sevens of years had then very nearly elapsed from one of the later decrees of the Persian kings for the rebuilding of Jerusalem ; a period noted down by the prophet Daniel as what was to elapse from after such a decree to the coming of the Messiah : and which powerfully contributed doubtless to cause an extraordinary expectation among the Jews at that time of their Messiah’s imminent advent.3 — Nor again was the fact to be overlooked of sundry 1 Luke ii. 1 — 7. 2 Gen. xlix. 10. Whether the word Shiloh be derived from a root making it to mean, “ The sent one” just equivalent to Isaiah’s expres¬ sion in this chapter “ My messenger or from another root, which will make its meaning The Peacemaker , agreeably with Isaiah’s statement about the Messiah, liii. 5, “ The chastisement of our peace is upon him,” the agreement holds. See Bishop Newton on Gen. xlix. 10. 3 So Luke iii. 15, John i. 19, &c. Compare the statement in 40 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. i'IRST TRIAD. very remarkable concordant testimonials to his being the great predicted One, which were reported to have been given about the time of Jesus’ birth. An Angel, it was said, had announced to his mother that he would be born of her out of the common course of nature ; and that, as being indeed the promised deli¬ verer of man, the name given him was to be Jesus, or Saviour. It was said too that shepherds that were feeding their flocks on the hill-sides of Bethlehem saw a vision of Angels on the night of his birth ; heard from them an announcement of the good tidings of great joy, “ Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour , which is Christ the Lord and when, under the same angelic direction, they sought out the babe spoken of, that they found it to be Jesus , then lying just born in the manger of an inn for his cradle, pre¬ cisely as the Angel had told them. Soon after which, further, old Simeon, a priest of high repute at Jeru¬ salem for sanctity, was related to have embraced the child, on his mother’s coming to the temple for her purification ; and recognized him as “ the light that 'was to lighten the Gentiles ,” (just agreeably with Isaiah’s prophecy now under consideration,) as well as “ the glory of his people Israel : ” — moreover, as if the more to direct the regard of men to him as the promised enlightener of the Gentile world, that cer¬ tain wise men of the Gentiles from the far East were directed by the guidance of a bright starry meteor all Tacitus v. 18; “ Pluribus persuasio inerat antiquis sacerdotum literis contineri ipso tempore fore ut valesceret oriens, profectique Judaea rerum potirentur.” ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENTS ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST. the way to the very place where the child was ; and recognized and worshipped him as the great promised king and Saviour.1 Such were the statements reported about the glo¬ rious yet humble birth of the child in question : a mixture of lowliness and greatness admirably accord¬ ant, — it would be felt by our inquirer, — with the char¬ acter of the great Deliverer sketched out in Jewish Scripture prophecy. And though for a considerable time afterwards nothing, as it seemed, occurred like what from a birth so wonderful, and wonderfully in¬ augurated, might by many have been anticipated, — the child growing up under the parental roof for the most part in retirement, and the world going on as before with its usual cares, pleasures, and agitations, just as if nothing wonderful had happened, or was to be expected, — yet at length, a year or two before his reaching the mature age of 30, (that which had been fixed by the Mosaic law as the age for entering on the active duties of the Jewish priesthood,2) the atten¬ tion of the Jewish people was related to have been suddenly afresh awakened respecting him. For just then began the public preaching of a most remarkable man called John the Baptist , one counted by the whole Jewish nation as a prophet : of manners of life self-denying almost to austerity ; and who both so, and in various other ways, reminded many of what was written of the old prophet Elijah.3 And when, 1 Matt. i. 20, 21 ; Luke i. 30—35, ii. 7—16, 25—32 ; Matt. ii. 1—11. 2 See Numb. iv. 3, 47 ; and 1 Chron. xxiii. 3. 3 John i. 21, Matt. iii. 4, compared with 2 Kings i. 8. 42 FIRST TRIAD THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. on occasion of his acting out the extraordinary part of ''publicly baptizing proselytes in the river Jordan, as if introductorily to some new religion, the priests and Levites sent messengers to ask in what character, and by what authority, he did so, and whether in that of the promised Christ, his reported answer was to the effect that he was not himself the Christ, but simply the herald to announce Christ’s coming : — the messenger in fact sent before his face, in the spirit of Elijah, who had been predicted by Malachi;1 the voice that Isaiah had prophesied of, crying in the wilder¬ ness, c< Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” 2 Hence it was, he said, that he came baptizing with water ; a bap¬ tism professedly of repentance, for the remission of sins.3 After which to some of his disciples he expressly pointed out Jesus as the Christ ; declaring that he had been supernaturally revealed to him by a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and, moreover, more than once designated him by the extraordinary appellation of the Lamb of God;4 an appellative suggesting how the remission of sins was to be obtained for men by him, and on which the subsequent sufferings and death of Jesus reflected a light as touching as important. Such, it was reported, had been John the Baptist’s mission and testimony to Jesus: and that then, as 1 Mai. iii. 1, and iv. 5, 6, compared with Matt. xi. 10, 14, Luke i. 17. 2 Is. xl. 3, Matt. iii. 3, Luke iii. 4, John i. 23. 3 Mark i. 4, Luke iii. 3. * John i. 29, 32—36. ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENTS ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST. 43 one who had fulfilled the task providentially allotted to him, John past off the scene by a death of martyr- v dom, and Jesus entered on the fulfilment of what he declared to be his mission from heaven. And need I say, brethren, how the most authentic reports of Jesus’ character, life, doctrine, treatment by the Jews, and most extraordinary death, and resurrection after death, must have been felt by our inquirer to have answered to the predictions about the Messiah in the Jewish Scriptures, here and elsewhere? Time of course forbids my more than glancing at them. Yet a hasty glance we must take, in order to our realizing to ourselves how the coincidence with prophecy, as well as concomitant moral evidence, must have struck a devout, candid, and anxious heathen inquirer after the truth, such as I am supposing : — i. e. if satisfied that the reports about Jesus were trustworthy, so as indeed they seemed to be : whether as delivered orally by his accredited apostles and ministers ; or as written in certain gospel narratives respecting him, just recently put into circulation by Jesus’ disciples in the countries of Asia Minor and Greece.1 And 1st , as to his general character and manners , (according to these reports,) surely nothing so lovely 1 It is difficult to fix the dates of the different gospels. But pro¬ bably St. Matthew’s, if the earliest, may have been in circulation in its Greek form as early as A.n. 54 or 55. For St. Luke’s gospel appears from Acts i. 1, to have preceded his Book of the Acts of the Apostles. And the latter, from its stopping at the end of St. Paul’s first imprisonment at Rome, may be dated with great probability about that epoch ; i. e. a.d. 62, very nearly. I must here crave a little chronological license. LECT. II. 44 FIRST TRIAD. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHS PRIMARY INSTITUTION. was ever seen on this our earth ; nothing so suited to ' mark a higher than earthly origin. Could any one gifted with moral sense think for a moment of com¬ paring with it the character of the greatest of the Greek philosophers, as fondly delineated by his dis¬ ciples Plato and Xenophon ; 1 or that of the greatest of the Poman philosophers, Cicero ? The idea was simply absurd. So holy he was, so pure, so hea¬ venly : so unweariedly and self-denyingly benevolent, ever going about doing good : so meek, gentle, and lowly : so content to be without the world’s grandeur, notwithstanding all his high pretensions ; nay, shun¬ ning it when prest upon him, in every case where a Jewish multitude wished to proclaim him king : so loving and affectionate, even as if made for heart- friendship : and, in respect of another point too, specially touched on by Isaiah in his prophetic de¬ scriptions of the Messiah, so devoted in sympathy to the sick, the poor, and the sufferer, whether in mind and body : insomuch that the gospel -writers could not help noticing the coincidence as the fulfilment of one and another of Isaiah’s prophecies about Messiah ; “ That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, He shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the street ; a bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoking flax 1 Let me beg to refer to the parallel between the two characters, drawn up by the great Geneva infidel philosopher, Rousseau ; which ends with that memorable confession, in reference to the close of the two lives, “ If the death of Socrates was that of a sage, the death of Jesus was that of a God.” ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENTS ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST. 45 he shall not quench and again, “ He hath anointed me to bind up the broken-hearted, to comfort all that mourn and yet again, “ He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.” 1 — Then, 2 ndly, as to that pe¬ culiar divine complacency which it was predicted would rest on Messiah, together with some extraordinary outpouring of God’s Spirit, this too seemed to have had fulfilment in the person of Jesus. Besides John the Baptist’s testimony, already noted, as to the Spirit’s visibly descending on him, and the voice of God from heaven audibly expressing his complacency in him, there was reported also by three of the disciples a most extraordinary scene of which they had been eye-wit¬ nesses some time after, when alone with him on the summit of Mount Tabor: how that he their master, who was wont to walk in such lowliness among them, appeared then suddenly transfigured into a form of glory brighter than the sun at mid-day, as if that were indeed his proper guise ; and a voice was heard speaking from out of a cloud of surpassing brightness above them, “ This is my beloved Son, in whom lam well pleased.” The apostle Peter especially, though years had now elapsed, told of it as what he could never forget.2 — Besides that a spirit of wisdom and understanding quite superhuman rested upon Jesus, alike in act and word : a spirit such as to impress the multitudes with an authority before unknown ; to baffle 1 Is. xlii. 1, Matt. xii. 19, 20 ; Is. lxi. 1 — 3, Luke iv. 17 — 22, Is. liii. 4, Matt. viii. 17. 2 2 Pet. i. 16 — 18. The passage seems to me well worthy of all attention by every anxious enquirer into the evidences of Christianity. LECT. ir. 46 FIRST TRIAD. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. gainsayers ; and to force the acknowledgment even ' from enemies, “ Never man spake like this man.”1 — For, 3 rdly, notwithstanding all his loveliness of character, and all his heavenly wisdom, and all his love and benevolence, he had enemies among the Jews the most bitter and malignant ; and, by consequence, trials and difficulties , dangers and discouragements , of no common order. This was another point of coinci¬ dence in his history with what was implied respecting the promised Messiah in the prophecy of Isaiah before us : 2 and yet much more fully and expressly de¬ clared in that wonderful 53rd chapter of his prophetic book ; “ He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and so on. Even in infancy his life was sought by persecutors. And when he had grown up, and begun his public ministry, plot after plot was laid against him by chiefs of the Jewish priesthood and people. But until a certain time foretold and fixt by himself, and of which more presently, in vain. — For 4 thly, a divine power, just like that which it had been predicted would attend the Messiah,3 every where accompanied and upheld Jesus : — in fact such a power that every element in nature, every agency for evil or for good on the earth that we inhabit, seemed subject to him. He walked 1 See Matt. vii. 28, 29, xxii. 15 — 46, John vii. 46. 2 “ He shall not fail, nor be discouraged, till &c.” Is. xlii. 4. 3 Is. xlii. 6 ; “ I the Lord have called thee , and I will hold thine hand, and keep thee.” The enemies of Jesus denied his having been the called one of God. So John vii. 41, 52, ix. 16, 29, x. 83, xix. 7, Matt, xxvii. 40, &c. ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENTS ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST. 47 upon the waters, and they yielded not to his footprint. He rebuked the tempest ; and immediately both winds and waves subsided into a calm. Diseases fled at his touch, or word. Enough that he spoke the command, and the deaf heard, the dumb spake, the lepers were cleansed. Yea, death itself was compelled to own his power. “Young man, I say unto thee, arise!” “ Lazarus, come forth ! ” — words like these were all that wTas needed from him ; and from his bier, or from out of his burial cave, the dead man heard, and rose to life. — 5. And then as to his doctrine , oh ! what sublimity and moral beauty characterized it ; and how truly did it recommend itself to the conscience as the doctrine of light, and truth, and salvation ! It un¬ folded the depths of the nature both of God and man in a manner altogether different from, and above, what had been taught by the philosophers. As regards God , it set him forth as a Being not benevolent only, so as had been previously understood and taught by many of the Gentile sages, by Socrates, Plato, Cicero ; but as one also full of heart-tenderness, sympathy, affection, even like as a loving father : and again not as one great and fair only,1 but holy ; — a word un¬ known to the philosophers in the sense in which Jesus used it, viz., as implying sensitiveness to, and shrink¬ ing from, whatsoever was sinful, (in other words from whatever deviated however slightly from the rule of perfect purity and rectitude,) so as in fact to consti¬ tute a barrier between himself and all and every thing LECT. II. 1 To Ka.\ov. Plato. 48 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. TRIAD. first that was sinful. On the other hand, as regarded man , how did Jesus open to view the corruption of the human heart, and its total estrangement from God’s pure and spiritual law: a law which, unlike and superior to every earthly code of law, applied itself to the thoughts and desires of the heart within, as well as to the actions.1 And so from these two premises combined he set forth the existing relation between God and man, in alight alike new and striking: viz. as that of a father alienated, necessarily alienated, from his own children by their apostacy and guilt ; and yet yearning with more than parental tenderness for their recovery and reconcilia¬ tion. — But how and whence this reconciliation and recovery, under such circumstances, and between par¬ ties so essentially separated ? Here came in that part, that most wonderful part, of the reported doctrine of Jesus, which shed light on certain of Isaiah’s obscurer hints about the Messiah’s work and mission : — alike what was said of God’s calling him to fulfil his des¬ tined work £< in righteousness as if in some way that would mark the development and acting out of the divine attributes of justice and righteousness ; 2 — what was said of his being a covenant to the people,3 connecting this with what both the Jewish law, and the customs of the chief Gentile nations also, (customs handed down from patriarchal times,) laid down as 1 See, for example, Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. 2 Is. xlii. 6, i( I have called thee in righteousness.” Compare too Dan. ix. 24, “ to bring in everlasting righteousness.” 3 Is. xlii. 6, xlix. 8. ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENTS ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST. necessary to the validity of solemn national covenants, viz, the death of some sacrificial victim sanctioning it — and what was further intimated both by Isaiah and by Daniel as to the Messiah being himself the sacrificial victim that was to inaugurate God’s new covenant of reconciliation and peace with guilty man,2 — that lamb of God, as John the Baptist called him, that (like the scapegoat of the ancient Jewish ritual)3 would take away the sins of the world. — Accordingly, as the brief three and a half years of Jesus’ earthly ministry were drawing to a close, he began, it was 1 “ Where a covenant is there must also of necessity be the death of the appointed sacrifice of covenant.” Such I believe is the cor- recter rendering of the clause in Heb. ix. 16, dire diadriKy Bavarov avay/ey (pepeaBai ts dia.Be/j.ev8. So Macknight, &c. — In illustration of the sense of covenant , instead of testament , here given to SiaBy/cy, as elsewhere in the Bible, see the paper by Sir Lancelot Shad well, published in the Appendix to the third volume of my Horae Apocalypticae (4th Edit.) p. 571 ; a paper which he was so good as to draw out for me after hear¬ ing this Lecture, and in confirmation of this point in my statement. For a scriptural illustration of what is said of the death of some intervening sacrifice being required for the sanctioning of solemn covenants, see the remarkable case of Abraham’s division and allot¬ ment of the sacrifices on God’s entering into covenant with him, Gen. xv. 9 — 18 : also those in the covenant at Sinai, Ex. xxiv. 8 ; “Be¬ hold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you.” (Compare Heb. ix. 20.) — For an illustration among Gentile nations, see the case of the covenant between the Greeks and Trojans, de¬ scribed in the third book of Homer’s Iliad. Hence in fact the origin of the expressions opKia re/x-veiv, fcedus ferire. 2 Is. liii. 5 — 7, Dan. ix. 26. 3 Lev. xvi. 21 ; “ And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, put¬ ting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited.” 49 LECT. II. E 50 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHS PRIMARY INSTITUTION. first related, to tell strange things to the disciples about TRIAD. # ^ L — v — ' his fixt purpose of voluntarily yielding himself up to a penal death,1 with a view to the salvation of men, by sentence of both Jews and Gentiles condemning him : and, very singularly, on two different occasions specified (as if an important element in the scheme) the kind of death, viz. that by lifting up on a cross ;2 3 which selfsame death had been typified by the brazen serpent under Moses, and marked too by the old Jewish law as death under a curse? More especially on the solemn occasion of his eating the last passover supper with his disciples, the very evening (as it proved) before his death, Jesus reminded them, it was said, of what he was now purposing to suffer. Breaking a piece of bread before them, and then pouring out a cup of wine, he bade them partake of both the one and other : and then charged on them to repeat a similar ceremonial ever after ; in remembrance of his body that he was about to have broken, and his blood that he was about to shed, for their salvation. “ For this,” he said, “ is my blood of the new covenant , which is shed for you, and for many, for the remission of sins.” An injunction to the truth of which there ap¬ peared the witness, not of Jesus’ disciples only, but also of the remarkable commemorative feast of “ the Lord’s Supper,” which had uniformly since been ob¬ served among the Christians, as part and parcel of 1 Matt. xvi. 21, &c. 2 John iii. 14 ; viii. 28 ; xii. 32, 33 ; Matt. xx. 19, &c. 3 Deut. xxi. 23. 51 ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENTS ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST. their solemn Sunday (or Lord’s day) worship.1 — And L^cr- accordingly condemned he was, and executed as a v — v — malefactor, the very next day, according to the gospel narratives : and, through certain singular coincidences of events, by the self-same kind of death that he had foretold, the death, the accursed death of the cross.2 — And wonderful surely was the light hereby thrown on the meaning of that extraordinary institution of expi¬ atory sacrifices, handed down from primeval times to every nation of the world : and wonderful the light thrown on the whole doctrine of God’s intended mode of reconciling the world to himself, by the voluntary sacrifice of the Messianic substitute, bearing for men the punishment due by men to his offended law ; and, in the same character of man’s substitute and represen¬ tative, presenting to God a perfect righteousness.3- — Well, truly, might this be the thanksgiving song of Christians, “ Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: ” “ He hath made him to be sin for us , who knew no sin ; that we might be made the righteousness of God in 1 1 Cor. xi. 20, &c.— Compare Justin Martyr’s well-known account of the Christian Sunday worship in the second century. 2 The Jewish mode of executing a man for blasphemy was by stoning. So John viii. 59, x. 31, 33, and in the case of Stephen. But through Pilate’s being at Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ death, and the crime charged on him being that of setting himself upas a king- in rivalry against Caesar, the penal death by Roman law adjudged him became that of the cross. (See Paullus, cited by Hug. ii. 411.) This is one of many smaller points of coincidence of which not the fulfilment only, but also the way in which that fulfilment was brought about, should be marked. 3 Compare Isa. xlii. 21 ; “ The Lord is well pleased for his right¬ eousness’ sake : he will magnify the law, and make it honorable/' E 2 52 FIRST TRIAD. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH^ PRIMARY INSTITUTION. Him.” — Nor, sixthly, could the extraordinary circum - ' stances of Jesus' death , as related in the evangelists, be overlooked by our inquirer : — how, on his first capture by the Jewish officers, there was visible and miraculous proof given that his death was alto¬ gether voluntary, and not inflicted on him by any superior power of his enemies:— how Pilate, the Roman governor, ere surrendering him to be crucified, himself publicly declared his belief in his innocence, washing his hands before the Jewish priests and people, and saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just per¬ son : ” 1— how, while hanging on the cross, the very creation itself seemed to give tokens of its horror at the act ; the unclouded sun (fit emblem of Him who had come to be the light of the world) becoming sud¬ denly dark at midday, and earth’s rugged rocks split and rent by earthquake : — how, in the agonies of a lingering death, he at one time, with a godlike for¬ giving spirit, prayed for his murderers, “ Father, for¬ give them, for they know not what they do at another calmly gave assurance to a penitent malefac¬ tor crucified beside him, (who marvellously did homage to Jesus even then as the Messiah,) of entering with him that very day into paradise ; just as if the unseen world of separate spirits of the good was as familiar to him as this world, and as completely subject to his do¬ minion and authority. Was there not here both moral and physical evidence to the truth of his being indeed, as he said he was, the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? — 1 Compare the type Ex. xii. 5, and the prophecy Is. liii. 5, 9. ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENTS ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST. 53 Ic et once more, seventhly , there would come up before our inquirer for consideration the wonderful reports by ^ his disciples of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead ; (an event not unhinted in David’s Messianic prophecies ;) 1 and this on that selfsame third morning after death, on which he had often himself told them he should rise.2 A fact (if fact it was) that was a proof visible and irrefragrable both of God’s recognition of the truth of his claim to be the Messiah ; and of his satisfaction with, and acceptance of, his propitiatory sacrifice of himself for the sins of men.3 For forty days, it was asserted, he appeared again and again at intervals to them ; thereby offering proofs to the eye, ear, touch, and intellect, of his being indeed the risen Jesus : — until at length, having completed his instructions, charged them to preach his gospel in all nations, and promised the disciples some special speedy gift of God’s Spirit for their help and comfort, he led them out (it was said) to Bethany on Mount Olivet ; and thence slowly ascended upward in their sight, his hands outstretched in act of blessing them , until a cloud received him out of their sight. So ended the marvellous earthly career of Jesus : 1 Psalm xvi. 10. 2 See Matt. xvii. 23, Luke xxiv. 7, &c. — The apostles seem to have thought the time of Christ’s resurrection intimated in the prophecy that “ his flesh should not see corruption.” Compare Acts ii. 25 — 32 with John xi. 39. — In Beresheth Rabba, on Gen. xxii. 4, Isaac’s de¬ liverance on the third day from after his setting out as a victim for sacrifice is applied somewhat curiously as a type to the same effect. “ There are many three days mentioned in holy Scripture ; one of which is the resurrection of Messiah .” (See Clarke on Gen. xxii.) 3 Compare Rom. i. 4, 1 Cor. xv. 13, 14, 20. LECT. ii. 54 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. FIRST TRIAD. and such, and so striking, appeared thus far the agree¬ ment in his history and character with the old He¬ brew Scripture prophecies respecting the Messiah. — Nor, as regarded other prophecies which foretold Messiah’s universal and everlasting reign on this our earth , did the facts of Jesus’ death and ascension to heaven preclude the idea of agreement here also, so as on first thought might have been imagined. For Jesus, the Christian teachers aflirmed, was indeed a king, and had founded a kingdom ; though one, in respect alike of its origin, character, constituency, and time of establishment in its glory, unlike the kingdoms of this world : (all precisely as would be found also to have been predicted of that of the Messiah ;) and that his death, just agreeably with those Messianic prophecies, was in fact essential to its formation ; fol¬ lowed, after death, by his ascension for a while to the divine presence in heaven.1 For there, after the type of the Jewish high-priest, he had to plead his atoning self-sacrifice for the sins of his people;2 there to seek and obtain for them during the time of their earthly sojourning, the priceless gift of the divine indwelling Spirit ; 3 and, while overruling and ordering all mun¬ dane events,4 in the Providential government now committed to him by the Father, in preparation for his again coming in his kingdom, there too to pre- 1 So Is. liii. 12 ; “I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong ; because he poured out his soul unto death , and was numbered with transgressors, and bare the sins of many, and made intercession for the trangressors .” 2 Heb. ix. 12,24. 3 Ps. Ixviii. 18, John xiv. 16, xvi. 7. 4 Matt, xxviii. 18, Eph. i. 20 — 28. ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENTS ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST. 55 pare a place for them near Himself; that they who here suffered with him might then reign with him.1 ^ For his coming again was a primary article of faith with Christians : and that then at length, his saints both dead and living having been caught up to join Him in his triumph, he would establish his earthly kingdom up6n the ruins of those of every enemy ; and fulfil all that had been predicted, whether in the law, Psalms, or Prophets, of the glory, blessedness, universality, and everlasting duration of the reign of Messiah. Meanwhile the problem was to be solved of man¬ kind’s reception of this exhibition of God’s goodness on its own account, and when proposed without any present adjunct of worldly empire or splendor. Accordingly it was enjoined on Jesus Christ’s apostles and ministers to act the part of heralds ; proclaiming the gospel, or good news, of his kingdom throughout the world every where, with free offer to all of its blessings, beginning at Jerusalem. And so it was that Christ's Church had its beginning: — being a society , outgathered from the rest of mankind ,2 of all such as in public profession might agree to accept the gracious offer ; with charge, like the lamp of the Jewish temple, to hold up a tes¬ timony for Jesus Christ by doctrine and by life in this world : and which, though constituted imper- fectlv, and with admixture of insincere members, under the present dispensation, was at Christ’s second 1 2 Tim. ii. 12. 2 K vpiatcr] tKKX^cna, the Lord’s outgathered association. The word eKKXrjaia lias been preserved in the modern French, Italian, and Spanish terms, eglise , chiesa, &c ; the word Kvpicucn, or avpiaKov , in the Germanic and Anglo-Saxon Kirche , Kirk , Church. LECT. II. 56 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. FIRST coming to be sifted and purified, the insincere cast TRIAD. ° 1 7 — v — 1 away, and the true and sincere only acknowledged as his own. And so moreover, when the mass of the Jewish people rejected the offered gospel of the king¬ dom, as Isaiah had long before foretold they would, the apostles turned, agreeably with their Lord’s command, to the Gentiles. And then at length the prophecy of our text had its fulfilment, of light and freedom being brought in Christ Jesus’name to the Gentiles of the isles , round the Mediterranean. — More especially the apostle Paul had this Gentile mission devolved on him; and, ac¬ cording to his own report, under very extraordinary cir¬ cumstances. With bitterest prejudices against the first Christian disciples, he had been their inveterate per¬ secutor, and was pursuing them beyond the precincts of Judea with orders for their imprisonment from the chief priests at Jerusalem ; when suddenly a vision of Jesus, brighter than the sun at midday, struck him down near Damascus ; and words were heard from him, — “ I am Jesus whom thou persecutest ! ” “ But rise,” the voice added, “ and stand upon thy feet : for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and witness for me to the Gen¬ tiles, to whom I now send thee ; to open their eyes , and to turn them from darkness to light , and from the power of Satan unto God , (what a counterpart to Isaiah’s prophecy in our text !) that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” 1 And thus 1 Acts xxv. 23 ; xxvi. 16, 18. ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENTS ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST. 57 Paul had come preaching the gospel, or good news of LECT- Jesus Christ’s kingdom, and forming Christian Gen- ' — * — ' tile Churches of believers through Asia Minor and Thrace, to Philippi, Thessalonica, Beroea : and so at length to the very neighbourhood of the inquirer we are imagining ; an Athenian Greek like him we read of in the Acts, Dionysius the Areopagite. And here I bring my imaginary case to a conclu¬ sion. When the Apostle had come forward (as we know he did) even to Athens, need I suggest how unlike would be our enquirer’s conduct to that of the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers who there in cavilling spirit encountered him ? Anxiously, but rejoicingly, we can imagine how be would seek out and listen to the apostle : and then, having had his last doubts resolved by him, and further instructions given on the gospel mysteries, how believing be would be baptized, and openly join himself to Jesus Christ’s church : also how, so believing, he would through Jesus find light, liberty, and holiness ; and thus have experimental evidence now superadded to the prophetic , both of the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy in our text, and of the truth of the Messiahship of Jesus. I say, experimental evidence. And here a topic for reflection opens on us far too important for me silently to pass over. For we should remember the perfect dis¬ tinctiveness and peculiarity of this kind of evidence for the divine origin of the Christian religion, as compared with the simple prophetic evidence which arises out of the historic fulfilment of Scriptural predictions, — - 58 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. FIRST TRIAD. being an evidence to the heart, rather than to the intellect ; and which will by most who possess it be felt to be even more convincing than the other.1 And indeed it must be looked upon as one of the things predicted by Isaiah ; and consequently as one of the testing-points of the truth of Scripture pro¬ phecy. Said Isaiah, “ 1 have given him to be a light to the Gentiles ; to open the blind eyes ; to bring out the prisoners from the prison , and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house .” To see whether this was fulfilled, or not, when the gospel of Jesus went forth to those Gentile countries that I have spoken of, look to the actual result on the minds, feelings, and lives of the converts to Christianity in Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, Bercea, Athens, Corinth, as incidentally intimated by St. Paul in his Epistles to one and another of the Churches there founded. And oh how beautifully does the change shine forth ! How might Dionysius himself have 1 An ingenious and determined Jewish sceptic would easily find occasion for objections in regard of certain of the alleged fulfilments of Old Testament prophecy respecting the Messiah in Jesus of Na¬ zareth : — e. g. in regard of his miraculous birth, as answering to the prediction in Isaiah ix : of his being David’s son, as predicted of Messiah in the Psalms, but with two varying genealogical tables in Matthew and Luke as its vouchers. And so again in regard of certain Messianic prophecies said to have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. — But what of the mass of Messianic prophecies irrefragably fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth ? Very just and wise is Bishop Butler’s caution on the subject of such objections on certain particulars predicted, where there seems a clear consistent fulfilment of multitudinous others. (See his Analogy, Part ii. ch. 7.) But, in every case of difficulty and doubt suggested by the objections of sceptics, the experimental evidence of the true Christian is a re¬ source invaluable, an evidence all-convincing and satisfactory. ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENTS ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST. dwelt upon it ! No more thenceforth with them of barren speculations about the mystery of the visible creation, with its strange admixture of moral and natural evil! No more guessings, as if this might be the result of two co-eternal principles, God and matter , or God and Fate ; the former thwarted by, and in a manner subordinated to, the latter ! No more blas¬ phemous thoughts about God as the soul of the world : — a theory that materializes the Infinite Spirit ; and, in effect, trenches on that quality of personality through which alone God can be a Being with personal susceptibilities towards men of personal in¬ terest and affection. No more despair, as once, of real, inward, moral amelioration ; conscious as they were of an influence holy and sanctifying, shed on them from above.1 No more dark conjecturings about the state after death ! An intimate communion was now opened between them and heaven. They knew and loved God as a reconciled father in Christ Jesus. They saw in Jesus a gracious Saviour ascended as their forerunner into the heavens ; and knew that, even in the state of the separate spirit, they would not be absent from Him. Hence, instead of terror at death, they viewed it as one of their chief friends and trea¬ sures. As it was said by St. Paul, “ All things are yours ; whether life, or death , or things present, or things to come ; for ye are Christ’s, and Christ is 1 Compare 1 Cor. vi. 11 ; “Such were some of you : ” (viz., idola¬ ters, fornicaters, drunkards, thieves, covetous :) “ but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” 60 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH^ PRIMARY INSTITUTION. FIRST TRIAD. - v - God’s.” — Yes, Brethren ; would you wish most clearly ' and strongly to realize to yourselves the fact and per¬ fectness of the accomplishment of Isaiah’s prophecy, in respect of those Gentiles round the Mediterranean who were converted to Christianity by means of the ministry of the apostles of the Lord Jesus, and who so became members of the Christian Church, I have only again to beg you to compare what is intimated by St. Paul of their new views, hopes, character, and life, with what is recorded in the history of the Greek and Roman philosophers, as to the views, hopes, doc¬ trine, and life of those Gentiles who were most deeply versed in their philosophy. The converts to Chris¬ tianity from among them had entered evidently into nothing less than a new world. “ God, who com¬ manded the light to shine out of darkness, had shined into their hearts ; to give them the light of the know¬ ledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” • — Among the evidences of Christianity as a divine re¬ velation, this fact, this great fact, is never to be for¬ gotten. So has the second main point set forth in the pro¬ phecy of our text been shown to have had its fulfil¬ ment. — There remains however yet a third point in it for investigation : — I mean the declaration that all should be so done, in fulfilling the prophecy, as that the glory should redound to Jehovah alone ; not to any earthly teachers as the moral enlighteners and emancipators of the human mind ; nor indeed to any of ITS GENTILE CONSTITUENTS ENLIGHTENED BY CHRIST. 61 what the heathen regarded as inferior gods, interme¬ diate between God and man. “ I am Jehovah ; that 1 is my name ; and my glory will I not give to another, nor my praise to graven images i.e. not to any fancied inferior gods, such as those images represented. — Whereupon a difficulty may not unnaturally suggest itself. Considering the manner in which the en¬ lightenment and moral emancipation of the Gentiles of the Christian Church was brought about, does it not seem that their affections might almost necessarily be so drawn by Jesus Christ’s self-sacrificing love to himself , as to rest on him even more than on the In¬ finite and Eternal Father : who, though indeed con¬ senting to and rejoicing in the redemption so wrought out for man, had yet himself in no wise partaken of the travail of soul and bitter sufferings through which it was accomplished? Was there then a failure of fulfilment in respect of this last point in the pro¬ phecy? or was it also fulfilled ? And, if so, how? This is to be the subject of my third and next Lecture. LECT. II. V LECTURE III. FIRST TRIAD. THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND SALVATION OF THE GENTILES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH TO BE TO THE GLORY OF GOD ONLY. ISAIAH XLXL 5—8. “ THUS SA1TH GOD JEHOVAH, - HE THAT CREATED THE HEAVENS, AND STRETCHED THEM OUT, HE THAT SPREAD FORTH THE EARTH, AND THAT WHICH COMETH OUT OF IT, HE THAT GIVETIl BREATH UNTO THE PEOPLE UPON IT, AND SPIRIT TO THEM THAT WALK THEREIN ; — I JEHOVAH HAVE CALLED THEE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS ; AND I WILL HOLD THINE HAND, AND WILL KEEP THEE, AND GIVE THEE FOR A COVENANT OF THE PEOPLE, FOR A LIGHT OF THE GENTILES ; TO OPEN THE BLIND EYES, TO BRING OUT THE PRISONERS FROM THE PRISON, AND THEM THAT SIT IN DARKNESS OUT OF THE PRISON-HOUSE. I AM JEHOVAH ! THAT IS MY NAME : AND MY GLORY WILL I NOT GIVE TO ANOTHER, NEITHER MY PRAISE TO GRAVEN IMAGES.” Our present concern is with the 8th and last verse of the prophetic passage that has been read, and which I still take for my text ; “lain Jehovah : that is my name : and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.” It may be remembered that, in illustration of the fulfilment of the former part of the prediction, which assigned the prerogative of enlightening and emancipating the Gentiles of the isles from their spiritual darkness and thraldom, distinctively and exclusively, to one particu¬ lar person marked out as God's appointed Delegate, a rapid sketch was traced out in my first Lecture of a series of Greek and Roman philosophers, who in the 63 GLORY OF ITS SALVATION GOd’s ONLY. seven centuries that intervened between Isaiah and LECT- iii. the Christian sera, profest, and endeavoured, to be the k — v — > moral lights and emancipators of the Gentiles of the isles, but all in vain : and how then, in my second Lecture, proof was given that Jesus of Nazareth, claiming to be the very delegate intended by the prophet, and whose birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension all alike testified to the truth of his claim, accomplished that wdiich none else had been able to accomplish ; and first among the Jews, then among the Gentiles of the isles, (more especially through his apostle Paul’s preaching,) brought life and immor¬ tality to light by the gospel . But how might this consist with the prophetic closing declaration which it now remains to consider? We took the imaginary case of some noble-minded Greek or Boman inquirer after truth, to whom the gospel-message might have been brought by a ministry like that of St. Paul ; and sketched the blessed change resulting in all his views and feelings on receiving it into his heart : — a change truly as from darkness to light, to use St. Paul’s ex¬ pression, and from the bondage of corruption to the glorious liberty of the children of God ; or, in Isaiah’s similarly figurative language, like that of blind men whose eyes had been opened, and of prisoners delivered from the darkness and bondage of the prison-house. And well, we observed, might his soul fill with gratitude towards the Infinite God who had planned, predicted, and at length enabled his chosen Delegate to carry out successfully into effect for the children of men, G4 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. FIRST such a marvellous scheme of deliverance. But the TRIAD. ' — v — ' question also suggested itself, Might not a still deeper feeling of gratitude be expected to outflow towards that gracious being Christ Jesus , the delegate of the Deity : — one evidently of higher nature than the mere human ; and perhaps one of those Angelic Spirits whom the Hebrew Scriptures represented as having from time to time in human form visited this our earth, on missions of kindness to one and another of God’s servants ? I say, might not a still deeper feel¬ ing of gratitude be expected to outflow towards that gracious Being, who had not only acquiesced in the scheme of mercy, but actually gone through such hu¬ miliation and anguish of soul, in life and death, to accomplish it ? And this the rather, considering that he was said to be still occupied with the work of man’s salvation, in his characters of mediator and intercessor for each suppliant that might approach him in prayer ? — In which case would not the chief praise and glory of the accomplished deliverance be Jesus Christ's P and so that part of the prophetic declaration be not only not fulfilled, but absolutely contradicted, “ I am Jehovah : that is my name : and my glory will I not give to any other, (whether man or angel,) nor my praise to graven images?” i. e. not to any such intermediate Spirits between the supreme God and man as the Gentile Greeks and Bomans (not without Scripture warrant so far) imagined ; and whom they vainly worshipped in their temples under the visible symbols of statues and images ? 65 GLORY OF ITS SALVATION GOD S ONLY. It is the solution of this difficulty that is to be the LECT- subject of my present Lecture. And I think that I may best set it forth in the spirit of my text, by showing under distinct heads, First, that in the enlight¬ enment and deliverance of the Gentiles of the isles, (of which Gentiles the Christian Church was chiefly con¬ stituted,) the whole glory and praise of it redounded to Jehovah, from the simple but stupendous fact that Christ the Deliverer was in very truth no mere created Spirit or Angel, but Jehovah Himself: Secondly, that this fact of the deliverer being none other than Jehovah resulted necessarily from Jeho¬ vah’s very nature ; “ I am Jehovah ; that is my name ; and my glory will I not give to another.” First, then, the glory of the deliverance and enlight ¬ enment of the Christianized Gentiles, here predicted, was Jehovah’s own, because Messiah , the deliverer foretold by the prophets, and realized in Jesus of Nazareth, was none other than Jehovah Himself . Bearing in mind the tenor of my instructions as Warburtonian Lecturer, “ to prove the truth of re¬ vealed religion in general, and of the Christian in particular, from the fulfilment of Scripture prophecies relative to the Christian Church,” it may be well, I think, while seeking the truth on this important ques¬ tion, to treat it as one whereon to test the truth of Scripture prophecy. I purpose therefore, under the present primary head of my Lecture, 1st, to exhibit this stupendous fact as what was predicted of Messiah F THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. in the Old Testament prophecy ; 2ndly, as what was realized in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, accord¬ ing1 to the historic and other scriptures of the New Testament. — And, in order to obviate in a measure the disadvantage of discussing a topic with which probably the minds of many, if not most, of my pre¬ sent audience are already familiar, I will crave per¬ mission to carry out the investigation of it, (just as the inquiry that was the subject of my last preceding Lecture,) so as we might suppose an intelligent and deeply earnest Greek or Roman convert of the apos¬ tolic times to have conducted it for himself: throwing ourselves as it were into his case ; and remembering how he must have felt it, — as he searched the Scrip¬ tures, now all sacred to him, for its solution, — to be a question of interest absolutely awful, and involving in its right or wrong answer the very issues to his soul of life or death. 1. The Old Testament’s witness to the proper Deity of the predicted Messiah. “ I Jehovah have called thee in righteousness, and I will hold thy hand, and give thee for a covenant to the people, alight to the Gentiles/’ So said the pro¬ phet Isaiah : and in answer to the question thence arising to our inquirer, What might be the real nature of the person here addrest by Jehovah, and so conti¬ nuously spoken of in Old Testament prophecy as the great coming deliverer, it would be evidently most satisfactory to examine into the Scriptural evi¬ dence concerning it from the commencement. — It was GLORY OF ITS SALVATION GOD’S ONLY. obvious then (as intimated in my First Lecture) 1 that the whole divine scheme of mercy for man’s recovery was wrapped up in that never-to-be-forgotten primary promise made to Adam after his fall, “ The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent' s head” — in which pro¬ mise the phraseology used might seem almost to mark out the Deliverer as one who, though very man born of a woman, would yet be so born out of the usual course of nature : but nothing more. This covenant promise, perilled as it must have appeared at the time by the destroying judgment of the flood, would yet be seen to have been carefully continued onward through Noah ; u I will bring a flood to destroy all flesh, but with thee will I establish my covenant : ” 2 and then again explicitly renewed to Abraham and his sons Isaac and Jacob ; with the important added informa¬ tion, that the great promised Deliverer would be, as to the flesh, one of Abraham’s descendants ; “ In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed — yet still with no explicit statement as to any original and higher nature in the predicted Deliverer. At the same time there were two intimations in the Abrahamic history, and that of his grandson Jacob, that might seem by no means unimportant to the object of inquiry. The first (a case to be coupled with the scarce to-be-doubted fact of sacrifice having been instituted by God himself after the fall, as necessary thenceforward to his propitiation and favour,)3 occurred on Abraham’s 1 p. 3 ; also p. 37. 2 Gen. vi. 18. 3 A point referred to previously in my second Lecture. See p. 51. 68 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. first offering up his son Isaac: an offering to be made appa- — y — ^ rently in some mysterious connection with the great primeval promise; and on that self-same mountain-range of Moriah on which Jesus long after suffered. On that occasion, we read, a ram was by divine interposition substituted for Isaac ; and then the promise of the seed in whom all the earth was to he blest was renewed more solemnly than ever before : and, together therewith, (doubtless by divine direction,) Abraham was led to call the place Jehovah-jireh ; whether in the sense, Jeho¬ vah will provide , i. e. a substitute ; or, as Houbigant explains it, Jehovah will be seen : the remarkable traditionary comment being added, “ In this mount Jehovah will appear.”1 Was it not like an intimation that the substitute Jehovah would provide would be Je¬ hovah Himself; albeit mysteriously, as to his human nature, of the seed of Abraham ? In the opinion of Bishop Warburton and others2 it was to this transac¬ tion that our Lord alluded, when He said, Your fa¬ ther Abraham rejoiced to see my day ; and he saw it, and was glad : ” 2 with the added hint of his proper Deity, “ Before Abraham was, I am.” — The second intimation (one fitted specially to strike an inquirer fresh from Isaiah’s prophecy before us, in which the promised Deliverer is spoken of as JehovaKs dele¬ gate or messenger) was this ; — that in Jacob’s his¬ tory a particularpersoft, called the Angel or Messenger of Jehovah , was distinctly identified with Jehovah 1 Gen. xxii. 14. So, it is said, the clause should be translated ; not, “In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.” See Scott or Clarke ad loc. 2 See Warburton’s Divine Legation, and Vindication : also Dodd¬ ridge on John viii. 50. 69 GLORY OF ITS SALVATION GOD S ONLY. himself . “ God , before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long ^ to this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads.” 1 A point this the more important, because of the self-same divine Angel doubtless being again and again spoken of afterwards in the Xsraelitish history, as personally and prominently mixing himself up with the guidance and deliverance of Israel. So especially, passing on to the times of Moses, in Israel’s first exodus from Egypt. For that glorious Being that preceded them in the pillar and the cloud, though more usually called Jehovah,2 was yet elsewhere called The Angel of God. So Exod. xiv. 19 ; “ The Angel of God , which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them ; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them.” And so again in Exod. xxiii. 20, where it was said by God ; “ Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared : beware of him, and obey his voice ; for my name is in Him” It was the same divine Angel doubtless that appeared in human form to Joshua after the passage of Jordan, and when now about to attack Jericho ; announcing himself as the Captain of the Lord’s host, and yet also speaking as Jehovah :3 — the same too that was similarly men¬ tioned in the histories of Gideon, Manoah, and other of the Judges.4 So that on the whole, while Moses’ 1 Gen. xlviii. 15, 36. 2 E. g. Exod. xiv. 24. 3 Compare Josh. v. 14, 15, vi. 2. 4 Judges vi. 12, 14, 21, 22 ; xiii. 8, 15, 17, 18,22, 28 ; ii. 1. 70 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH’S PRIMARY INSTITUTION. FIRST TRIAD. memorable dying prophecy about “ a prophet whom the Lord God would raise up to Israel like unto him¬ self/’ to whom, on pain of excision from God’s cove¬ nant people, it would need that they should hearken,1 — I say, while this might well serve to keep up in Israel’s mind, all through the era of Joshua and the Judges, the fact of the promised Deliverer being des¬ tined to appear in human form, these other intimations might well serve also to keep up the impression that the predicted prophet like Moses, the “ seed of Abra¬ ham,” and “ seed of the woman,” might very possibly be one and the same with the Angel of Jehovah; and so divine also in nature, being; Jehovah himself. And thus our inquirer would come in his Scripture researches to the time of David . And now more direct light might seem to him to break upon the question. Together with the divine announcement to David that the promised Deliverer should (as man) be of his family, and like him too a King, it was intimated also that the kingdom should be of a nature altogether different from, and superior to, the king¬ doms of this world ; yea as superior as a thing of God to a thing of man . Striking, very striking, it was, to trace in David’s Psalms the manner in which, borne out of himself , as it were, by divine influence, (to use St. Peter’s expression,2) he spoke in detail in the first person, ever and anon, of scenes of suffering and humiliation, such as he himself never went through, 1 Deut. xviii. 15. 2 2 . Pet. i. 21 ; vvo ■ni'evixaros ayis not to the navruv ; a reference grammatically admissible, and all but absolutely required by the sense. For the antecedent to a relative is not necessarily the antecedent noun next before preceding. E. g. in Jude 15, -n-epi ttolvtwv tcdv tpyoov avTuv wv rjae^aav, the antecedent to the wv is not the pro¬ noun avTwv, but the epywv. In such clauses as these, the antecedent noun is taken, together with the word or words following and defining its meaning, as conjunctively constituting the antecedent to the relative. On these points I have entered more fully in my Horse Apoc. Vol. iv. pp. 168, 169 (4th Edit.) : and there shown that I have the con¬ currence of most critical expositors with me in these my renderings and explanations. H 98 THE CHURCH’S DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. second think, scarcely be wrong in supposing two reasons for t *. his having so permitted it : — the one (on which I have already dwelt in a preceding Lecture) that of its fur¬ nishing occasion for a manifestation of his own infinite grace and goodness , such as otherwise there never could have been ; the other , (to which I must now briefly invite your attention,) that of its manifestation to all intelligent creatures, more especially after Jesus Christ’s carrying out his work of redemption, in man¬ ner and measure such as otherwise never could have been, of the exceeding evil and malignity of sin . Be¬ fore Jesus Christ’s incarnation and death it was a thing supposable at least, that, though, under tempta¬ tion, the creature left to itself might indeed apostatize from God, so as did Adam, when known only as a God of benevolence in the creation, yet that, after the revelation of his character of matchless self-sacrificing love, so as in redemption, sinful nature itself would yield to such a manifestation of goodness, and bow vanquished at the foot of the cross. But, once ad¬ mitted into the creature’s heart, the evil of sin was to be exhibited as absolutely and essentially illimitable. Temptation only, fit and strong, was needed in the new-formed Christian Church to demonstrate this. Nor was the same great tempter now wanting to the occasion who had before tempted man to apostatize from his God in Paradise. 4. And so, 4ly, as to the prime agent in the coming evil. — It has been well said by Schlegel in his Philo¬ sophy of History, that “ he only who recognizes the FIRST GERMS OF THE EVIL IN APOSTOLIC TIMES. 99 magnitude of the power permitted to the Wicked Prin- LECT ciplef according to the inscrutable decrees of God, , J' from the curse of Cain, and sign of the curse in that evil principle’s unimpeded transmission through all the false religions of heathenism, ... I say, that that man is alone capable of understanding the great phe¬ nomena of universal history, in their often strange and dark complexity.” Might not the same be said, Brethren, of what passes in the inner history of each single individual soul ; conscious as we must most of us at times be of certain strange, strong, sudden, and almost irresistible accesses of temptation to evil ? So does the voice within, as well as that of general history, concur on this point with the clear doctrine of Scrip¬ ture. More especially (as my text and subject call me to observe) the remark applies to the phenomena of Church history ; which have assuredly exhibited not less of strange and dark complexity than those of heathen history, nor less clearly indicated the working of Satan. Infinitely malignant in his nature, we cannot doubt that, as our first parents’ happiness in Paradise had long before stirred up his envy, so now the happi¬ ness of Christ’s gospel Church, in its primitive state of holiness and joy. Yet more, as it is enmity against God which above all else is the master-principle within him, and the brighter the manifestation of the divine ex¬ cellence, the bitterer his jealousy and hatred, we may 1 Lect. xv. Vol. ii. p. 199.— - -It is evident that Schlegel means a person by this expression : for he elsewhere designates him as the Spirit of evil ; making suggestions to man, in opposition to the sug¬ gestions of the Divine Spirit. Ib. p. 197. H 2 100 THE CHURCH’S DECLENSION TOWARDS AFOSTACY. SECOND TRIAD. be sure that its exhibition to the world in the work of redemption must have called forth all his enmity. And when the ascended Redeemer God took seat amidst the angelic hierarchies, with a radiance of moral glory surrounding him absolutely incomparable, and looked down complacently from his heavenly throne upon the earth which he had so lovingly, and at such cost, ransomed from ruin, the thoughts and feelings of Satan may perhaps be not inaptly figured under those words of address to the material sun of our system, ascribed to him by our great poet ; 1 O thou that with surpassing glory crowned Look’st from thy sole dominion like the God Of this fair world, at whose sight all the stars Hide their diminished heads, to thee I call, But with no friendly voice ; and add thy name, O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams. With such feelings his plans of action seem soon to have been formed. The Christian Church, en¬ lightened by the Sun of Righteousness, had been constituted, like the moon, that faithful witness in heaven, for the purpose of reflecting Jesus Christ’s glory before the world. What then his fit counter¬ schemes? Just these: — first, if possible, to overwhelm and utterly extinguish the Church by direct persecution from without : — secondly, and meanwhile, to implant principles of corruption within it, such as, in the event of its surviving, might, when matured change its very character ; and cause that, though still called Chris¬ tian, yet its reflections and its actings, instead of doing homage to the God- man Christ Jesus, should 1 Parad. Lost, Book iv. FIRST GERMS OF THE EVIL IN APOSTOLIC TIMES. 101 rather do homage to the creature man ; yea, and, lect. through him, to Satan himself. — If he had been sue- - _ l'r — » cessful in seducing man into apostacy from his God in Paradise, was there ought to make him despair of success now ? No doubt the Christian Church was bound to its divine Lord and Saviour by ties yet closer and more endearing than those which bound Adam and Eve to him in Paradise ; and ties conse¬ quently harder to be broken. But he had the advan¬ tage now, which he wanted then, of man’s being, even in the Church of Christ, a fallen creature. And the tendencies of that fallen nature to self-righteous¬ ness and self-will, carnality and worldliness, and a leaning on the creature rather than the Creator, — these tendencies could scarce fail of soon furnishing him, in case of both ministers and people, with a ground¬ work on which to ply his temptations with effect. Accordingly not alone was the mass of the Jewish people impelled blindly and fiercely (as by a master¬ spirit of delusion)1 to persist in its rejection of Christ’s gospel message, — not alone were the heathen rulers and populace stirred up from early times to persecute the Christian disciples, — but spirits of delusion and error became soon evidently at work within the pro¬ fessing Christian body itself. Then the truth and sig¬ nificance of our Lord’s own prophetic intimations about the future fortunes and phases of the Christian Church must have begun to break upon the minds of the apostolic teachers among the faithful ; not with- 1 See on this John viii. 44, 2 Cor. iv. 4, Rev. ii. 10, &c. 102 THE CHURCH’S DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. SECOND TRIAD. out recollection probably of others to a similar effect, in one at least of the Old Testament prophets. A future very different from what they had at first so joyously anticipated loomed darkly before them ; (whether, in God’s all- wise Providential purpose, it was to be of longer or shorter duration ;) ere their heart’s longing should have its fulfilment in the establishment of Jesus Christ’s kingdom on earth. And, under inspiration of the Holy Ghost, the apos¬ tles themselves (more especially St. Paul, and then St. John) were directed to take up the previous obscurer prophecies of the Christian’s Church’s future ; and to set them forth with greater distinctness of application, and details fuller and more explicit. 5. And thus, ere proceeding to Paul’s prediction in my text, I am led to invite your attention to one ever memorable prophecy of this kind given by Christ him¬ self, and one given by Daniel . They are prophecies in¬ timately connected together; and intimately connected too with that which constitutes our mail} subject, the prediction in St. Paul’s Epistle to the Thessalonians : indeed so connected that we can scarcely enter on the consideration of that last-mentioned prophecy, with any right appreciation of the previous prophetic light under which St. Paul would utter and the dis¬ ciples ponder it, except by prominently and distinctly bearing them in mind. It was thus then that Jesus Christ , in one of his prophetic parables,1 spoke of the future fortunes of 1 Matt. xiii. 24. FIRST GERMS OF THE EVIL IN APOSTOLIC TIMES. 103 “ the kingdom of heaven : ” i. e. of the associated lect. body of those who should professedly recognize Him ■ J‘ as their King, and aspire to a place in his heavenly kingdom ; in other words the Christian association, or Church. “ The kingdom of heaven is like to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy [mark, his enemy] 1 came and sowed Q^avia 2 among the wheat ; and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the %i%avia also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field ? From whence then hath it %i£avia? He said, An enemy hath done this. The servants said, Wilt thou then that we go, and gather them up ? But he said Nay ; lest while ye gather up the Jigawa, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the har¬ vest. And, at the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the %i'£avia, and bind them in bundles to burn them : but gather my wheat into my barn.”- — And then Christ added the explana¬ tion following. “ Fie that sowed the good seed is the Son of man. The field is the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom ; but the f/gawa are the children of the Wicked One. The enemy that sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the world : the reapers are the Angels. As 1 See my remarks, pp. 99, 100, supra. 2 Not tares ; but a kind of wheat-like weed still called ziwan by the Arabs in Palestine ; probably the same as our darnel , and as the in- felix lolium of Virgil. Kitto. / 104 SECOND TRIAD. THE church’s DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. therefore the Q&via were gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be at the end of the world. The Son of man shall send forth his Angels. And they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity ; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire : there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” In this prophetic parable, we may observe, it was not stated to what extent the %i%avia would intermix with the wheat in the Christian harvest-field ; and whether so as to attain to be a majority, or not a most important question evidently. Yet certain hints given elsewhere by Jesus Christ to the disciples seemed to intimate that they would become the ma¬ jority : — such as wrhen he spoke of many being called, but few chosen ; of the flock being but a little one to which the Father would give the kingdom ; of the way to life being narrow, and few walking therein ; also of many saying to him in the great day of judg¬ ment, “ Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name,” to whom it would be his answer, “ I never knew you.” 1 And, in the event of the ty^avia being thus the majority, the consequence would follow almost neces- 1 The fact of the white-robed redeemed ones being designated as a multitude that no man could number, Apoc. vii. 9, does not gainsay this view . — because the multitude so seen in vision represented the aggregate of the faithful in heart of all generations , as well as nations, subsequent to the development of the great apostacy. What in my pre¬ sent subject I refer to is the comparative number of the faithful living on earth at any given time after the coming in of the apostacy ; 1 mean their number as compared with the false in heart and unfaithful. FIRST GERMS OF THE EVIL IN APOSTOLIC TIMES. 105 sarily that these Q^avia would then claim to be true LECT. wheat in the Christian harvest-field, and excommu- , nicate the true wheat as Q^avia. : that is, supposing the ^avia not to remain individuals detached and separate, but to have combined together in some form of political organization and power. ’ Which that they would sooner or later do, though nowhere stated by Jesus Christ , might yet seem to the more in¬ structed and discerning of the early Christians to be a result not only possible, but one darkly shadowed forth by Daniel in the latter half of the prophecy in his xith chapter. Turn we next, then, to this passage in Daniel. It occurs at the close of a long prophetic sketch of the for¬ tunes of the .ZEgypto and Sy r o - Mac e d o n i an lines of kings ; who, after Alexander the Great’s death, were alternately to have rule in Palestine, until their super¬ cession there by a new power destined to come in ships from Chittim, i. e. the Roman. In sequence to which, though not till after the fact of some abomina¬ tion that would make desolate being set up in the Holy Place, (a desolation which Christ himself explains as the desolation of Jerusalem by the Romans,) and this, it seemed, on the nation’s ignoring and cutting off of its Saviour God, (for Daniel elsewhere notes this act as connected with the abomination making desolate ,2) 1 I beg to refer to a fuller and elaborate exposition given of this pro¬ phecy in the 4tli Volume of my Florae Apoc. pp. 80—95. (4th Ed.) 2 We must here compare Dan. xi. 31 with Dan. ix. 24 — 27, as well as with Jesus Christ’s reference to the two in Matt. xxiv. 15. In Dan. ix. the cutting off of Messiah, and therein the rise of Israel’s transgression to its acme, (so Theodoret explains the completing of the 106 THE CHURCH’S DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. SECOND TRIAD. there was notice added also by the prophet of “ some of understanding” that would know Him, a characteristic applicable surely most exactly to the apostles and other Christian believers of the early apostolic times ; 1 and how these would be strong, and do exploits, and in¬ struct many. Then, after statement about the people’s (the Jewish people’s apparently)2 “ falling by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by spoil, for many days,” just as Jesus Christ himself also prophesied respect¬ ing the Jews,3 it was said further that many would cleave to those of understanding (faithful Christians) with flatteries , i. e. in hypocritical and false profes- transgression in Dan. ix. 24,) is connected with that overspreading of abominations for which the sanctuary and the city of Jerusalem were to he made desolate by the people of the Prince to come , or Romans that came in the ships from Chittim.— As to u the covenant ” spoken of as transgressed against in Dan. xi. 32, ( bi avoyevres Kara rnv 5«x6riK'qv,') it is well illustrated by Gal. iii. 17 ; and seems to be that gospel cove¬ nant promised to Abraham, which the law, given 430 years after, could not disannul. I have in my last Edition of the Hone (iv. 617) stated my view of the abomination in the holy place as meaning the consummated iniquity of the Jews : after the gospel, witnessed to by the Holy Spirit, had been determinately rejected by them ; and when their Christ-rejecting zealots, occupying the holy place itself in the Jewish war, filled it with their murders and blasphemies. For hence the judgment of Je¬ rusalem’s desolation. 1 Compare John i. 10 — 12 ; “ He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not . He came unto his own, and his own received him not. . . . But we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father.” Also Acts xiii. 27 ; “ For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not , nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath-day, fulfilled them in condemning him : ” and 1 Cor. ii. 8 ; “ that wisdom of God which none of the princes of this world knew : for, had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” 2 My persuasion continues of this being the correct view of the clause in Daniel. See Hone Apoc. iv. 84. 3 Luke xxi. 24. FIRST GERMS OF THE EVIL IN APOSTOLIC TIMES. 107 1. "V" sion ; therein answering to the intermixing Lect. with the wheat in the Christian gospel-field. — Such is our starting-point in the connexion of Daniel’s prophecy with Christ’s prophetic parable. — 'Then further there was sketched in Daniel’s prophecy the genera] subsequent destiny of the one class and the other. Respecting those that had understanding , and who really knew their Saviour God , it was stated that some out of their number should fall ; though only as a means of “ trying and purifying and making them white ; ” and this even “ to the end : ” — at which time of the end “ they that were wise would shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turned many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever;” just as was predicated also of the ultimate glory of the wheat, or righteous, in Jesus Christ’s prophetic parable. On the other hand, as regarded the many false adherents to them of understanding, (or false members of the Christian Church apparently,) the prophecy intimated that there would arise a king or chief to them 1 who would do according to his will,1 invest the apostacy with supreme dominant power, 1 To them , because of their being spoken of in the immediate con¬ text. This is the pivot on which the right explanation of “ the king ” spoken of seems to me to turn. 2 I have in my Horae Apoc. (iv. 86) noticed the preposterous¬ ness of the appellation of wilful king given by certain expositors to this potentate. The expression is the same that is applied to the kings spoken of before in verses 8 and 16, whom expositors, alike ancient and modern, concur very generally in explaining to mean Alexander the Great and Antiochus the Great : and simply indicates the measure of the king' s power ; without any reference whatsoever to character and disposition, so as the English word wilful. 108 THE CHURCH’S DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. SECOND TRIAD. and use it to the exaltation of himself above every God. To all which would be added blasphemy also against the God of Gods, Jehovah : this last distinctive iden¬ tifying him apparently (here was another point for consideration) with the little horn of the 4 th of the four wild beasts, (that same beast that symbolized the Roman power,) in the previous prefigurative vision of Dan. vii. Supposing which identification to be correct, his power (as also that of the false professors whose king he was,) would last, like the little horn’s, even to the advent of the Son of man in glory ; and then come to an end by the beast’s being slain, and his body given to the burning fiame. — In which judgment there was another point of correspondence with Christ’s parable of the tares and wheat. For, as the wheat, or righteous of the parable, were there set forth as rewarded at the consummation with shining as the sun in the firmament, so the or false and wicked members of the professing Church, were spoken of as gathered together for burning, and cast into a fur¬ nace of fire. Such were the two chief prophecies already given ere St. Paul’s founding of the Macedonian and Achaian churches, — the one explicit, the other darker and more obscure, — in regard of the foreseen admixture of false with true members from early times in the Christian Church, and the general subsequent destiny of each, even until the time of the end. And though the Thes- salonian Christians, being mostly Gentiles by birth, would themselves probably be unacquainted with FIRST GERMS OF THE EVIL IN APOSTOLIC TIMES*. 109 Daniel’s book at the time of St. Paul’s writing to LECT. them, as well as with the parable of the wheat and . Jifawa, (St. Matthew’s gospel in its Greek form having been either unpublished as yet, or at least not yet brought into circulation at Thessalonica,) yet must Paul himself have been necessarily well acquainted with both the one and other : and have had them in his eye, more especially Daniel’s prophecy, alike when he spoke with the disciples of the newly-formed Thessa- lonian Church on the subject of the apostacy and man of sin,1 and when he wrote about it soon after in his second Epistle to them from Corinth.2 II. And now, my preliminary matter having been all gone through, and being thus better prepared for re¬ alizing to ourselves St. Paul’s stand-point on prophetic, as well as on historic ground, when he wrote his famous prophecy, and for judging how far, while writing it under divine inspiration, he might have brought forth out of his treasury on the subject things old, as well as things new, let us turn to St. Paul's prophecy itself. And here I propose first to sketch briefly the occasion and general purport of the prophecy ; then next to invite your special attention to so much of it as relates to the first germs of the apostacy that it predicted ; and to illustrate historically its fulfilment even in apos¬ tolic times. “ The mystery of iniquity,” said St. Paul, “ doth already work.” 1. As to the occasion of the prophecy, it was asfol- 1 “ Remember ye not that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things ? ” 2 Tliess. ii. 5. no ffHE CHURCH’S DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. second lows. Soon after writing his 1st Epistle to the triad. ^ Thessalonian converts from Corinth (about a.d 51, )1 St. Paul heard that these Thessalonians were much agitated by the idea of the day of Jesus Christ’s se¬ cond coming, and the attendant rapture of his saints to meet Him,2 being close at hand : 3 an impression arising, it would appear, in part from misconstruction of certain expressions in St. Paul’s own 1st Epistle to them,4 in part from certain pretended revelations to 1 See my sketch of the Chronology of the Acts of the Apostles in the Appendix to this Volume. 2 virep T^s irapscrias T8 Kvpis rjpow Itjgs Xpi?8, kcu rj/xcov e it i a v v ay w- y -ns Tvpos avrov. On the word virep, see my Note p. 90. 3 ws 6ti e ves-r) Kev 7] 7]p.epa ts Xpiss. I give much the same ren¬ dering of the word everypcev as that given in our authorized version. Objection has been made of late, especially by some of the Plymouth brethren, that eve^nev, wherever elsewhere used in Scripture, means actually present, not near at hand : and they have built on this the somewhat extraordinary notion that the agitation of the Thessalo- nian Christians arose from the belief of the Lord’s great day of judgment being actually come, and in course of progress. — But pre¬ cisely the same criticism might be applied to the precisely parallel expression napesn. Wherever elsewhere used in Scripture, except in John xi. 28, it means being actually present. Yet in John xi. 28 it cannot mean actual presence ; since it is said a verse or two after, “ Now Jesus was not yet come into the town , but was in the place where Martha met him.” Common sense, in either case alike, en¬ forces a certain latitude to the meaning of the expression ; a latitude common in conversation to all such phrases, in all languages. How could the Thessalonian Christians believe that the day of Christ was actually come, when that coming’s primary result, as told by Paul himself, was to be the rising of the dead saints to meet him in the air ; and then, immediately after, the rapture of the living % 4 “ Then we which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up toge¬ ther with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” So 1 Thess. iv. 17. The Thessalonians construed the we strictly, of the Christians then alive. St. Paul meant simply those of the Christian body, of which body he and the Thessalonian Christians formed part, who should be alive at the time of Christ’s second coming. FIRST GERMS OF THE EVIL IN APOSTOLIC TIMES. 1 1 1 that effect, reported by some profest members of the lect. Christian Church there. But this was not according , to the divine foreknowledge and purpose. And he judged it necessary to write a second Epistle to cor¬ rect the mistake. Before Jesus Christ’s second coming, he told them, there was to be some new and remark¬ able development of sin, in what he calls “ the apostacy : ”) this being an apostacy evidently from the true, that is the Christian faith : while the definite article by which it was designated might indicate reference either to Daniel’s previous prophecy of it ; or to St. Paul’s own previous conversational notice of it to the Thessalonians ; or possibly to its surpassing greatness and evil, as compared with other apostacies from the faith. Moreover he stated that the germ and leaven of the coming mystery of iniquity, to pvcr ypiov TYjg avopiag, (a term similar to that used by Daniel of the Jews’ great transgression in rejecting God’s new covenant and law in Christ Jesus,) 1 was even then at work ; at work (for how else could the result be an apostacy from Christian faith?) within the Christian . professing Church. Such was the first preparatory stage of the evil.— Afterwards at length, he added, 1 61 avo^euns Kara Tr\v SiaOrjurji'. Dan. xi. 32.— Compare Dan. ix. 27, where Messiah is spoken of as “ confirming the covenant (jw Sicdbj/crji/) with many for one week to which previous prophecy, as before stated, (see Note p. 105, 106,) it seems to me that the reference is marked, and most important to he noted. — Compare too Hosea vi. 7 ; though in this case not probably to the same extent, as where the necessity of circumcision was inculcated. “Such were false apostles, deceitful workers, transform¬ ing themselves into apostles of Christ : and no mar¬ vel ; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” 2 “lam jealous over you,” added the apostle : “ lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty,so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” 3 — Besides which, in that Greek city human philosophy had begun also to put forth its pretensions, and exert its powers of cor¬ ruption. This was to be expected ; “ for the Greeks sought after wisdom : ” though surely what had past for so many centuries before might well have impressed on the Corinthian minds its weakness for good ; seeing that “ the world by wisdom knew not God.” 4 Such was the first form of the opposition of human know¬ ledge, falsely so called, (that yvoovig of which we read so much afterwards,) 5 to the divine knowledge taught through Christ Jesus. For it should be observed that such philosophy, vainly boasting of its own supe¬ rior wisdom, and initiation in the mysteries of know¬ ledge,6 struck at the root of the distinctive authority of the gospel as a divine revelation : at the same time that it was ready, as profest by some, openly to explain 1 2 Cor. xi. 20—22. 2 lb. 13; 14. 3 ib. 3. 4 I Cor. i. 21. See my 1st Lecture generally; and particularly its conclusion, p. 25 — 28 supra. 5 1 Tim. vi. 20. 6 1 Cor. ii. 5, 6, 7 ; u We speak wisdom among them that are initiated (t ; yet not the wisdom of this world : but,” &c. FIRST GERMS OF THE EVIL IN APOSTOLIC TIMES. 119 away certain vital gospel doctrines, such as of the re¬ surrection ; 1 perhaps even to cavil at the doctrine of Christ crucified ;2 and, as profest by others, to excuse, if not to admit of, impurity of life.3 In his Epistle to the Colossians, written by St. Paul some few years later, during his first imprisonment at Rome, we see sketched to us the working of similar heretical and false teaching within the Colossean Church ; but with certain new features of error. “ Beware,” says he, 4 “ lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men,5 and rudiments (or childish doctrines) of the world, not after Christ : ” — which “rudiments of the world” 6 he presently after identifies with “a subjection to ordinances, Touch not, taste not, handle not,” such as might in a measure suit alike the Gentile Pytha¬ gorean and Jewish Pharisaic or Essene system : 7 and which, though they might “ have a show of wisdom, in a self-chosen worship, and humiliation, and chastening 1 1 Cor. xv. 12. 2 1 Cor. i. 23. 8 1 Cor. v. 1, 2, 6. In vi. 12, tliere seems hinted a justification of such practices by the antinomian teachers, on the ground that the existence of the bodily appetite proved the lawfulness of its gratifica¬ tion. So Mr. Conybeare ii. 36. 4 Col. ii. 8. 5 tt]v 7r apadomu tuu av6pooirocv' the same phrase that our Lord applies to the religion of the Jewish Rabbis, Mark vii. 8. — “ The word Cab¬ bala means tradition : and Dr. Burton says, that the Cabbala had certainly grown into a system at the time of the destruction of J eru- salem ; and indeed that it had been received by the Jewish Doctors long before.” Conybeare i. 484. 6 s-otyeta ts Koap-a. Compare Gal. iv. 3 ; ‘ Even so, when we were children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world:” where the Greek phrase is the same. Also iv. 9. See p. 116, Note 7 supra. 7 See Whitby’s learned comment on the clause. 120 THE CHURCH S DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. TRIAD. second of the body,” were yet worthless for good. Again ; “ Let no man judge you in respect of meat or drink,1 or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbaths : 2 which are the shadow of things to come ; but the body (or substance) is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your reward through a volun¬ tary humility,3 and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.” — Here we see the added elemental errors of ascetic self -mortification on the one hand, and angel-worship on the other : the rash and heretical teachers in the Colossic Church thus for the first time, so far as we know, making use of spirits of another world, imaged according to their fancies, in the heretical systems that they inculcated. Passing over Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews , in which, though not without solemn warning voice on certain dangerous prevailing temptations and errors,4 the apostle’s chief force was bent on guarding against all Judaizing misapplication of the Mosaic ritual and law, by showing their typical intent and complete fulfilment in Jesus Christ,— proceed we to his still later Pastoral Epistles the 1st to Timothy , written 1 Compare Rom. xiv/2, 3, 14 — 23. Also Acts x. 14. 2 Compare 1 Chron. xxiii. 31 ; “ The Levites’ office was to offer burnt sacrifices to the Lord, on the sabbaths, and the new moons, and the set feasts.” 3 raireivo(ppoawT]. “ This word,” says Mr. Conybeare, “ is joined with acpeLdia aoD^aros in verse 23 : whence it seems to mean an exag¬ gerated self-humiliation, like that which has often been joined with ascetic practices ; and has shown itself by the devotee wearing rags, living by beggary, &c.” 4 See Heb. v. 12, x. 25, xiii. 9, &c. FIRST GERMS OF THE EVIL IN APOSTOLIC TIMES. 121 by Paul (as seems probable) about a.d. 62 or 63, shortly Lect. after his first imprisonment at Rome, and that to . Titus written just after the former : in each and either of which he speaks again of both Judaizing and pseudo- philosophic teachers in the Church. — To Titus he says ; “ There are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake:” and how he was “ to give no heed to Jewish fables, and genealogies, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth ; ” and was, “ after the first and second admonition, to reject such heretics.”1 Here the refer¬ ence is specially to false teachers in Crete. — Similarly and with reference specially to the Church in Ephesus , St. Paul reminds Timothy ,2 how he had commis¬ sioned him to warn certain in the Church “ not to teach other doctrine than Christ’s gospel truth ; and not to give heed to fables and endless genealogies, that ministered matter for disputation, rather than for the fulfilling of the stewardship of Godin faith:”3 (which word, “ genealogies” is rightly judged, I think? to refer to the older Cabbalistic and later Gnostic theory of multitudinous angelic emanations from God, 1 Titus i. 10, 11, 14 ; iii. 9, 10, 11. 2 i Tim. i. 4—9. 8 The word in the Greek manuscripts, as Conybeare observes, is oiKovo/juav, not, as our translators supposed it, ocKodo/mau. Compare 1 Cor. ix. 17 ; oiKovo/xiau rreiris-ev/xai. Hence, Mr. C. adds, “ it would seem that the false teachers in Ephesus were among the number of the Church-presbyters : which would agree with the anticipation ex¬ pressed in Acts xx. 30, ‘ Also from out of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things ; &c.” ’ 122 THE CHURCH’S DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. second concerned in the creation and preservation of man, of tkiad.^ more presently :)x adding, that, whereas “ the end of the commandment and law was love out of a pure heart, and good conscience, and faith unfeigned, some, though professedly teachers of the law, had turned aside unto vain jangling ; not understanding what they said, or what they affirmed.” — The apostle further notes certain who (like others in the Corinthian Church) had spoken of the resurrection as a thing past;2 — past and accomplished on men’s reception of their sublimer philo¬ sophy;^ — against which “ knowledge, falsely so called,” Paul most solemnly warns Timothy : 3 and certain also who taught antinomian doctrine, and freedom from the obligations of the moral law, as if the liberty of the gospel of Christ : all, it is intimated, with a view to gain, from the popularity of such teaching.4 — More¬ over he thus speaks of a development of heresies to come ; the germ of which, however, what has been 1 See p. 124. — So Conybeare, i.482 : “The genealogies were probably those speculations about the emanations of spiritual beings found in the Cabbala. At least such is Dr. Burton’s opinion. And the angel- worship at Colossse belonged to the same class of superstitions. Dr. B. has shown that the later Gnostic theories of aeons and emanations were derived in some measure from Jewish sources.” And p. 484 ; “ According to the Cabbala there were ten Sephiroth, or emanations proceeding from God ; which appear to have suggested the Gnostic aeons.” 2 Viz. Hymenseus and Alexander, 1 Tim. i. 20. Compare 2 Tim. ii. 17, 18 ; “ Ilyrftenseus and Philetus ; who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already.” Compare too 1 Cor. xv. 12. 8 “ 0 Timothy, avoid profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science (or knowledge) falsely so called (7 vwcreus \pevSuuv/j.a) , which some professing have erred concerning the faith.” 1 Tim. vi. 20, 21. 4 1 Tim. vi. 3-6, 9, 10. FIRST GERMS OF THE EVIL IN APOSTOLIC TIMES. 123 already stated will show to have existed already in the Christian professing Church, and been so recognized by Paul himself. “ The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter days some shall apostatize from the faith ; giving heed to seducing spirits and teachings of daemons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their con¬ science seared as with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and enjoining abstinence from meat which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving.” 1 — In his last written Epistle, the 2nd to Timothy , St. Paul gave as it were his dying warning against such heretical teachers, whether already come, or coming; “men having the form of godliness, but denying its power.” 2 For “ evil men and seducers,” says he, “shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.”3 And then, as if with reference, not to the minoritv of profest Christians, as heretofore, but to the so-called Christian body generally he says ; “For the time shall come when they will not endure sound doctrine ; but, after their own lusts, shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears ; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and be turned unto fables.”4 So as regards St. Paul's own testimony. It needs but short notice of the testimonies of St. Peter and St. Jude on the same subject.— $£. Peter , in the future tense, says ; “ As there were false prophets among the Jews, so there shall be false teachers among you, who shall privily bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them : and many shall liECT. 1 1 Tim. iv, 1—4. 2 2 Tim. iii. 5. 3 lb. iii. 13. i iv. 3. 124 THE CHURCH’S DECLENSION TOWARDS ApOSTACY. SECOND TRIAD. follow their pernicious ways ; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.” Then, in the present tense, he specifies particularly “ those that walk after the lusts of uncleanness, and, like Balaam, “ allure through the lusts of the flesh them that were clean escaped from error ; ” promising their disciples liberty, while themselves the servants of corruption so that his reference was chiefly to licentious antino- mian teachers.1 — Similarly St, Jude , in the present tense, speaks of teachers of just the same character. “ There are certain men crept in unawares, ungodly men, turning the grace of our Lord into lasciviousness, denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ ; and running after the error of Balaam for a reward. These are spots in your feasts of charity.” 2 Such was the solemn warning-voice of Christ’s apostles on the heresies and corruptions then already prevalent, as well as those that threatened, in the Christian Church. And then, all but one, they past from off this earthly scene into rest. — Looking back, and summing up, I have to pray you to remember the prominently twofold character of the early heresies : — the Judaizing and ritualistic on the one hand, as if the shadowy types of the old law had not already had their fulfilment ; and, on the other, the rationalis¬ tic and philosophizing , whether attended with practical inculcation of asceticism, or the avowed admission of licentiousness also how, in each and every case, these several forms of error, which like grievous wolves 1 2 Pet. ii. 1, &c. 2 Jude 4, 11, 12. FIRST GERMS OF THE EVIL IN APOSTOLIC TIMFS. 125 threatened the very existence of Christianity, were lect. assaulting it, not from without the pale of the profess- . [' . ing Church, but from within it.1 Above all, mark the manner in which each and every form of heresy already infused, and working within the professing Church, set Jesus Christ aside in his various godlike characters and offices as the Saviour of mankind, and substituted something earthly in his place . Alike as the all-satis¬ fying atonement for man’s sin to the divine justice, as his one Mediator and Intercessor, as Jehovah his Righteousness, as the one and only authoritative teacher from God, as the imparter of light, life, and holiness by his Spirit, — and not the imparter of life only, but its continual sustainer too through the union and communion of believers with him, even as of members with the head, and branches with the sap-giving vine- stem, — finally in his characters of the resurrection to his people, and their forerunner to the heavenly place, in which characters they looked and longed for his appearing as the epoch of their completed everlasting redemption, — in all these his various saving characters, Jesus Christ was by the heresies specified, whether Judaizing and ritualistic, or philosophizing and ration¬ alistic, practically set aside ; and the heretical teacher, (though calling himself Christian,) and his religious system, substituted. For example, just try to realize 1 Compare Acts xx. 29, 30 ; “I know that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock : also from among your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” At that time the Ephe¬ sian Church was only threatened. See Note 3 p. 121 supra. 126 THE CHURCH’S DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. SECOND TRIAD. their effect, when received by any one, in regard of his relationship to Jesus as the life of his people; and you will soon see how utterly he was set aside on that head by the heresies in question. — Accordingly it was as viewed in this way that St. Paul, in all the indignation of holy eloquence, chiefly set forth their evil; ever holding up Jesus Christ in contrast, as the all-in-all to Christians, the alpha and omega of their salvation. “ Of him are ye in Christ Jesus ; who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteous¬ ness, and sanctification, and redemption : according as it is written, He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord.” “ Ye are complete in him." “ He is the head of his body the Church ; from whom all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment minis¬ tered and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.” “ Your life is hid with Christ in God.”1 And, as St. Paul, so afterwards his surviving brother St. John. Jerusalem had indeed now suffered the tremendous judgments predicted against it ; and therewith a shock been given to all direct Judaizing error. So in his Epistles (Epistles written probably some 25 or 30 years later than the latest of those of the other apostles, or somewhere between a. d. 90 and 100,)2 we find allusion made once and again to the 1 I Cor. i. 30 ; Col. ii. 10, 19, iii. 3. 2 It is difficult to fix the chronology of St. John’s Epistles ; and we cannot wonder that very different notions should have been entertained on the point. A late date seems certainly the most pro¬ bable, and is the generally received date ; whether they were written before or after his Gospel. 127 FIRST GERMS OF THE EVIL IN APOSTOLIC TIMES, % Gentile Gnostics; as if now, of all other heretical LECT- teachers, the most prominent and pernicious, at least v — v — in the Churches of Asia Minor. Carrying out that notion of angelic genealogies which we saw noticed be¬ fore by St. Paul in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus, they seem to have spoken of Christ as one of the many aeons or emanations from the Deity who had held con- versancy with man since his creation : and who of late had either in the person of Jesus assumed in phantom what to men seemed a real human body ; 1 or else had united himself and his divine principle temporarily with the man Jesus, on the descent of the Spirit on him at his baptism, and forsaken him before his crucifixion : 2 — whereby, alike in either case, there was a denial of the real incarnation of the promised divine Messiah in Jesus ; and denial too, by necessary inference, of the whole doctrine connected with his death of atonement. Besides which they profest themselves to be divinely appointed teachers to man of the heavenly yvcovig, or knowledge ; and of that rule of life, and ordinances, whether of an ascetic character, or otherwise, whereby man would attain to a deliverance from the evils of his present nature. Thus they substituted them¬ selves in Jesus Christs place , both as the divinely commissioned Teacher and divinely commissioned Saviour of mankind. And this, as the most observ¬ able characteristic of those heresies, St. John was directed to seize on, and hold up to the reprobation of the faithful, by affixing to them the appellative, the So Simon Magus and the Docetae. i 2 So Cerinthus. 128 THE CHURCH’S DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. second new anc[ memorable appellative of antichrists : 1 — at T R1 AD. . 11 — v — ’ the same time that he intimated respecting the great Antichrist , or great predicted usurper of Jesus Christ’s place in the professing Church, St. Paul’s Man of Sin , that he was still to come ; 2 and indeed in his final Apocalyptic book was instructed to expand into much more of particularity both Paul’s and Daniel’s prophetic sketches respecting him, as we shall see hereafter. — Thus, as there had been previously Antigods set up for worship, in place of God the Creator and Preser¬ ver, so now it was marked by St. John as a sign of the times, that there were set up even Antichrists , in place of the Kedeemer God, Christ Jesus. Such was the character of the first seeds and princi¬ ples of antichristian apostacy, already in apostolic times sown in the Church by the great and far-sighted Tempter. Already had the ty^avnx become intermixt everywhere among the wheat ; and with no other prospect for the future but that of their continuous proportional increase in number and in strength. And hence perhaps the thought may arise in the minds of one and of another, Where then was the truth of Christ’s promise, “ On this rock (viz. that true confession of faith made by Peter as the mouth of the apostolic body, Thou art the ^Christ , the Son of the living God,) 3 upon this rock I will build my 1 On this appellative more in my next Lecture. 2 1 John ii. 18. 8 So clause is explained by most of the early fathers. I shall have to speak more on the passage, in my 6th Lecture. FIRST GERMS OF THE EVIL IN APOSTOLIC TIMES. 129 Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against LE°T it ? ” My brethren, St. Paul himself answers that question: — “ Nevertheless the foundation of the Lord standeth sure : having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his; and, Let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” Let me beg you never to forget the distinction which is so prominently set forth in Holy Scripture, between the Church visible and professing, on the one hand, and the true Church of Christ , strictly speaking, on the other : i. e. the Church made up of the faithful in heart only ; those who really hold, and are united to, Christ Jesus the head ; those who thus live in and by him ; and, being known to him as such, constitute together in fact that Church which he will present at length to the Father as his bride, pure and spotless, the Church of the redeemed u whose names are written in hea¬ ven.” There is indeed a further distinction also, and this of no little importance, between a false visible Church, and a true visible Church : the latter being that wherein, according to our scriptural Article, the pure word of God is preached, and the two sacra¬ ments ordained by Christ rightly administered. And in a subsequent Lecture, and with reference to a later sera of the Apostacy, I shall have to call your particu¬ lar attention to it, as itself a matter of scriptural prediction and historical fulfilment.1 With regard however to the primitive sera which we have been 1 “ For lack of diligent observing the difference, first, between the Church of God mystical and visible , then between the visible sound K 130 the church’s declension towards apostacy. second hitherto considering, in which (however much the corruption infused into and at work in it) the Church visible did yet as a body profess the true Christian faith, and unite in a true Christian worship, the dis¬ tinction that we most need to make in our retrospective view is between those of its members who so protest in sincerity of heart, and those who did so in mere profession. A distinction this, often undiscernible by man : but not so by God ; for to Him all hearts are open. — Would we judge ourselves on this point ? Per¬ haps the illustration may be suggested, (and with this I close the present Lecture) of a layer of steel filings intermixt with sand of some similar colour. The human eye may here often fail to discover the differ¬ ence. But pass a powerful loadstone over the layer : and by the virtue inherent in it, it will soon distinguish between that for which it has an attractive influence , and that for which it has none . My Brethren, how can we individually stand this test and touchstone ? Can we adopt Peter’s appeal to the Lord Jesus; “ Thou knowest all things ; thou knowest that I love thee ? ” and the visible corrupted, sometimes more, sometimes less, the over¬ sights are neither few nor light that have been committed.” So Hooker, Pol. iii. 1. There was no point on which the reforming fathers of our Church were more anxious to indoctrinate the people than this. And the importance of right views on the point are as much needed now as even then. LECTURE II THE FIRST PRINCIPLES AND GERMS OF THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY, OR GREAT PREDICTED ANTICHRISTIAN APOSTACY, AS WORKING IN THE APOSTOLIC TIMES. 2 THESS. II. 1—12. “ NOW WE BESEECH YOU, BRETHREN, IN REGARD OF THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND OF OUR GATHERING TOGETHER UNTO HIM, THAT YE BE NOT SOON SHAKEN IN MIND, OR TROUBLED, NEITHER BY SPIRIT, NOR BY WORD, NOR BY LETTER AS FROM US, AS THAT THE DAY OF CHRIST IS AT HAND. LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU BY ANY MEANS. FOR THAT DAY SHALL NOT COME, EXCEPT THERE FIRST COME THE APOSTACY ; AND THAT MAN OF SIN BE REVEALED, THE SON OF PERDITION, WHO OPPOSETII AND EXALT- ETH HIMSELF ABOVE ALL THAT IS CALLED GOD, OR THAT IS WOR¬ SHIPPED : SO THAT HE [AS GOD] SITTETH IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, SHOWING HIMSELF THAT HE IS GOD. REMEMBER YE NOT THAT, WHEN I WAS YET WITH YOU, I TOLD YOU THESE THINGS 1 AND NOW YE KNOW WHAT WITHHOLDETII THAT IIE MIGHT BE REVEALED IN HIS TIME. FOR THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY DOTH ALREADY WORK : ONLY HE WHO NOW LETTETH WILL LET UNTIL HE BE TAKEN OUT OF THE WAY. AND THEN SHALL THAT WICKED ONE BE REVEALED, WHOM THE LORD SHALL CONSUME WITH THE SPIRIT OF HIS MOUTH, AND SHALL DESTROY WITH THE BRIGHT¬ NESS OF HIS COMING. EVEN HIM WHOSE COMING IS AFTER THE WORKING OF SATAN, WITH ALL POWER, AND SIGNS, AND LYING WONDERS ; AND WITH ALL DECE1 VABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS IN THEM THAT PERISH ; BECAUSE THEY RECEIVED NOT THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH THAT THEY MIGHT BE SAVED. AND FOR THIS CAUSE GOD SHALL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION, THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE A LIE THAT THEY ALL MIGHT BE CONDEMNED WHO BELIEVED NOT THE TRUTH, BUT HAD PLEASURE IN UNRIGHT¬ EOUSNESS.” In tracing the fulfilment of this most remarkable pro¬ phecy respecting the future dark phases and fortunes of the Christian professing community, or Church, as K 2 LECT. II. — — v - 132 SECOND TRIAD. THE CHURCH’S DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. foreseen and foreshown to St. Paul by the divine Omniscient Spirit, I proceeded in my last Lecture only so far as to show from the Apostolic Epistles themselves how the mystery of iniquity was even then at work : in other words, that there were prin¬ ciples and germs of error even then operating within the professing Church , and endeavouring to leaven it, some Judaic in origin and character, others Gentile , — which, were they to succeed in indoctrinating the general body, would necessarily involve it (however still retaining to itself the Christian name) in an apostacy, or departure, from the true faith of Christ. And this I intimated would be an antichristian apos¬ tacy, in the sense in which St. John may be proved to have used the word Antichrist ; i. e. as meaning those teachers who, though professedly Christians, usurped to themselves the offices and functions of Jesus Christ ; and by consequence in so far tended effectively to supersede him in man’s mind and heart, as its one living head and Saviour. To the errors of Judaizing character the fall of Jerusalem, as it was further observed, might seem to have given an almost fatal blow ; and thus that event, however terrible in itself, to augur favourably so far for the future ortho¬ doxy of the Christian Church. But, on the other hand, there was the loss to it, the mighty loss, of the divinely- inspired apostles, its earthly founders and guides. So long as they lived, however heresies might seek to insinuate themselves within the professing Church, their voice of inspiration was ready to denounce UNFOLDING OF THE EVIL IN IInd, IIIrd, IVth CENTURIES. 133 them : however the tytyvia sown by the evil one might LECT* rise up in semblance like the wheat, their eye prompt ' — — 1 to detect and expose the imposture. But already, just before the fall of Jerusalem, all the rest of the apostles but John had past to their rest ; and as the first century closed in, St. John himself: not how¬ ever without adding confirmation in a fuller and more circumstantial prophecy to what St. Paul had pre¬ viously foreshown of the impending dark prospects of the Church. How then was it possible for discerning Christians to look forward into the future without a certain awe and fear? How, as they marked the multiplying errors and heresies that still rose up calling themselves by the Christian name, not to think of coming perilous times, when the bad minority in the Church, including presbyters as well as people,1 might attain to be the majority ; the ty^avia to exceed the wheat ; the apostacy to begin ? I purpose in the present Lecture to carry onward my sketch of the historic fulfilment of St. Paul’s pro¬ phecy, by showing the gradual development in the Church, though under a more directly Christianized guise, of errors substantially similar to those denounced by St. Paul, whether of Judaizing or Gentilizing character, in the course of the three or four centuries which extended from the death of St. John fco the fall first of Paganism, then of imperial sovereignty, at 1 Compare Acts xx. 30 ; “ Also from out of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse tilings.” See my notices of the passage, pp. 121, 125 supra. 134 the church’s declension towards apostacy. SECOND Rome and in its empire : whereby the let that was to ilufrAD‘. hinder Antichrist’s own personal manifestation was at length taken away ; and his incoming, according to the Pauline prophecy, marked as imminent, to be the head of the now ready apostacy. Before commencing this sketch, however, it may be desirable to clear the way by proving the correctness of the meanings which I have attached to certain most important terms in the prophecy, viz. the apostacy , the man of sin , and temple of God, in which the man of sin was to sit ; also that which I have attached to St. John’s memor¬ able appellative Antichrist , in his correspondent pro¬ phetic notice. — In the general view propounded by me on these several points I have but followed the opinions exprest in the Plomilies, and by the fathers of our English Church.1 But it has been of late strongly opposed and controverted by sundry writers of our Church,2 with arguments the same mainly as those urged by Roman Catholic controversialists ; and with the similar object of diverting from the Pa¬ pal religion and Popes all application of St. Paul’s prophecy. They contend that the word apostacy used in it must needs mean an avowed public renun¬ ciation of the Christian faith and profession ;• — that the man of sin must signify some single individual, and not any series and succession of men, such as the Roman Popes ; — that the temple of God, spoken of 1 See my Horse Apoc. Yol. iii. App. No. 4. 2 E. g. Drs. Maitland and Todd, Mr. Burgh, Mr. C. Maitland, Mr. Govett, &c. UNFOLDING OF THE EVIL IN IInd, IIIrd, IVth CENTURIES. 135 as the scene of the man of sin’s enthronement, cannot be meant of the Church visible, but must mean God’s temple at Jerusalem, whether the one standing there in St. Paul’s time, or one to be erected on the same site at some subsequent epoch still future ; — finally, that the Antichrist told of in St. John’s correspondent prophecy must be intended to signify some individual avowed enemy of Christianity, openly and professedly denying both the Father and the Son. I proceed to show the fallacy of each and every one of these several objections. 1. As to the word apostacy , when used as here with reference to a religious contradistinctively to a political defection,1 2 the examples following will show that it does not necessarily imply any avowed public renunciation of that religion . In Acts xxi. 21 the Jews are reported to have reprobated St. Paul’s Christian teaching as an apostacy {(moqaoia) from 1 In the political sense we find it used by Plutarch and other classic authors : — ano Nripcavos a-Kotnacna’ ano ‘Fwfxcuocv airocrTaaia, &c. So too airocrTnvai in sundry passages of the Septuagint : e. g. Gen. xiv. 4, 2 Chron. xiii. 6, Ezek. xvii. 15 ; where it refers to the revolts of the king of Sodom from Cherdolaomer, of Jeroboam from Rehoboam, and of Zedekiah from the king of Babylon. And Tertullian and Jerom were inclined to explain the apostacy in this prophecy by St. Paul of political defection also ; viz. the defec¬ tion of the ten kings that the ten horns of Daniel’s 4th wild beast symbolized from the Roman empire. But this was evidently a view forced and unnatural : as it was not a defection of ten kings from the Roman empire that was prefigured by Daniel, but a disruption of the Roman empire into ten kingdoms. There can be no reasonable doubt, I conceive, that Ireneeus, Cyril, Ambrose, Augustine, &c., were correct in explaining the apostacy here meant by St. Paul as a religious apostacy. LECT. ii. 136 SECOND TRIAD. THE CHURCH’S DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. Moses ; though St. Paul and his brother apostles strongly protested that it was no such apostacy, and that he taught “ none other things than those which Moses and the prophets did say should come.”1 — In Eusebius, H. E. vii. 24, the bishop Dionysius is cited declaring that Tai fi ZKKXrjGia KZKpv/xiizvwv alpzTiKuv. Kvtt\ toivvv zgtlv 7] a tv o g t aG i a, /cat fxzAAzi npoGdonaaOcu 6 z^Opos. Catech. XV. 9. 3 The heresy Epiphanius describes thus ; — avn dz0. 184 THE CHURCH’S DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. SECOND not individually alone, and for his own life, but to the TRIAD‘. long line of Romish bishops after him, as his heirs and successors in the Romish See , I need hardly say that neither by Christ himself, nor by any one of the apostles after him, was there any intimation of Peter’s own destined connexion with Rome ; or of Rome as a place that would by consequence in the Christian dispensation have any peculiar privileges, or preroga¬ tive, attached to it. In fact the only prophetic notice of Rome is in symbolic language to an effect directly the contrary ; viz. as the Babylon of the seven hills, that was to be the seat of the Beast, or Antichrist. — Moreover as to the presumed historic fact of Peter having been the apostolic founder of the Romish Church and Bishopric, and so head of the line of the Bishops of Rome, it is not only doubtful, but may be absolutely disproved from the Scripture history itself. For let me pray you to remember the ancient Canon, (a Canon ever afterwards held sacred in the Romish as well as other divisions of the Christian professing Church,)1 that no bishop may intrude with 1 So the loth of the (so called) Apostolic Canons ; emaKoirov /xrt e^etvai KaTa\enf/ai'Ta rrjv iavra irapoiKiav irepa ^irnrriSav, Kau in to ttK^iovwv avayKa^r\ rai. The Council of Nice, a. d. 325, in its 8th Canon provides that any Novatian Bishop, who might conform to the Catholic Church in a place where there was a Catholic Bishop, should only be counted as a chorepiscopus, or presbyter, in order that there might not be two bishops in one city ; iva /at) ev rrj 7ro\et §uo eTuaKoiroi occriv. The 1st Council of Carthage, a. d. 348, in its 10th Canon lays down, “ Inhibendum est ne quis alienos fines usurpet, aut transcendat episcopum collegam suum, aut usurpet alterius fines sine ejus petitu, quia inde csetera mala generantur.” APOSTACY PERFECTED AND HEADED BY MAN OF SIN. exercise of his episcopal authority into another’s dio¬ cese : and then, and with recollection of this on your minds, to consider the clear historic evidence to show that Paul , not Peter , was the first apostolic visitor of the Church at Rome; and consequently he to whom, and whom alone, (if an apostle might be convertible into a mere local bishop,) the headship of the line of bishops of Rome is, as its first bishop, to be ascribed. In order to see this, it needs that we look somewhat fully into the history and chronology of the Acts. And the circumstance of the point having been hitherto scarcely investigated and considered as its importance demands,1 makes our attention to it the more imperative. It is the Romanists’ theory then, (well knowing the Canon that I speak of, and consequent necessity of making Peter to have been the first apostle that visited Rome,) that about the year 44, immediately after de¬ liverance from the prison into which Herod had cast him, and St. Paul’s contemporary visit to the Jeru- And so two other Carthaginian Councils, held a. d. 390 and 897- See Harduin. Concil. i. 1], 326, 687, 953, 9G3. So also Pope Innocent, about the year 400 ; ibid. 1008. And so, in fine, the Council of Trent, Sess. vi. c. 5 ; “ Nulli episcopo liceat, cujusvis privilegii prsetextu, pontificalia in alterius diocsesi exercere.” Hard. x. 45. 1 Romish writers, (e. g. Wiseman) have generally argued the question as if it were merely that of Peter’s ever having been at Rome ; and then triumphantly quoted Protestant divines admitting that that was the scene of his martyrdom. And many Protestants, in their zeal against the Papal claims, have denied the fact of Peter’s having ever been at Rome, in contravention of various patristic testi¬ mony ; as if that had been necessary to their argument. THE CHURCH’S DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. salem Church with alms from Antioch,1 Peter first went to Rome, and there founded the Roman Church : that, on Claudius’ decree for the expulsion of Jews from Rome, he quitted the city, (which, except for such grave cause, its bishop might not do,) as also did Aquila and Priscilla, and arrived at Jerusalem just in time to assist at the famous Jerusalem Council, about the year 49 ; in the proceedings of which both he, and James, and Paul took part : 2 that on Claudius’ death, and Nero’s accession to the empire, a.d. 54, the cause of his otherwise reprehensible absence from his See being removed, he returned to Rome ; and con¬ tinued there, sometimes making missionary circuits in Italy from Rome as his centre, till his martyrdom in that city about the same time as St. Paul’s mar¬ tyrdom, in the year 66, or 67-3 Such, I say, is the Romish theory. But for refu¬ tation of each and every part of it we need but to look carefully info the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles. At the Council at Jerusalem (where the great ques¬ tion was debated, whether the rites of the Jewish law were to be imposed on the converted Gentiles) we read how the assembled Hebrew Christians listened in breathless silence to the relation given by Paul and Barnabas of the wonders done by God among the Gentiles through them, in their late missionary jour¬ ney and labors in Cyprus, Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, Antioch.4 Is it credible then that Peter, who also 1 See Acts xii. 2 Acts xv. 6, &c. 3 See Bellarm. De Sum. Pontif. 4 See the history of the proceedings of the Council, Acts xv. APOSTACY PERFECTED AND HEADED BY MAN OF SIN. spoke on the occasion, and told the well-known story of his appointment by God to begin the preaching of the Gospel to Gentiles, as in the case of Cornelius, and how the Holy Ghost was given to those Gentile Christians after his preaching, just as to Christians of the Jews,3 — is it, I say, credible that on such an oc¬ casion Peter, if just fresh from his mighty missionary success at the Eoman capital, and founding there of a nobler Gentile Church than any at Derbe, Iconium, or Antioch, should have never made the slightest allusion to the matter? — Further, whereas Paul, on his great subsequent missionary tour, by way of Syria, Cilicia, Phrygia., and the Macedonian cities of Phi¬ lippi and Thessalonica, to Athens and Corinth, is stated to have then found Aquila and Priscilla just recently arrived at Corinth in consequence of Clau¬ dius’ edict banishing Jews from Pome,1 is it likely that Peter should, under compulsion of the same edict , have arrived from Italy at Jerusalem, in time for the Council there, a full year , or year and a half ' before Paul's arrival at Corinth , and consequently before that of Aquila and Priscilla ? — Some four or five years after this, as is evident from the chronology of the Acts, and consequently after Nero’s accession, Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans, on occasion of a second visit to Corinth. By this time, on Bellarmine’s and the Romish theory, Peter must have been again at his Roman See, or at least near it, in his Roman Diocese. And, if so, would not Paul have noticed Acts xviii. 2, irpos e\rj\v6oTa. air o ttjs lra\ias. 1 the church’s declension towards apostacy. him, and sent salutations to him, among the many other salutations in the last chapter of his Epistle ? Whereas not a notice is there, as we well know, of Peter in these salutations. Moreover, when he speaks in the first chapter of that same Epistle of the longing desire that he had had to visit the Roman Christians, in order to his imparting to them of some spiritual gift ,l is it possible he should so have written if, not only had some inferior apostle been previously there, with power to impart such spiritual gifts, but Peter himself , the most gifted of all, the prince of the apostles, yea, and very Vicegerent of Christ upon earth? — After this came Paul’s first visit to, and imprisonment at, Rome. We read how the Christians of Rome went out to Appii Forum to meet him.2 But no mention is there of Peter among them. The Jews there then came to meet him ; and exprest their desire to hear what he had to say about Christianity, which was everywhere spoken against ; evidently as those who had never before had any high Christian authority, like Paul’s, to instruct them on the subject.3 Could this have been had Peter, the special apostle of the Jews,4 been at Rome for years previously ? — More¬ over, whereas during the two years that he stayed in his own hired house at Rome on that occasion, Paul wrote no less than four still extant epistles to other Churches, viz. those to the Colossians, Philemon, 1 Rom. i. 11; iva ri fj.eTatiw yap ter jiia *■ ,lULll/ 7r ve v /.i ar t k o v. On the xaP«Tfxa-'Ta, or spiritual gifts, imparted by an apostle, compare 1 Cor. xii. 4, &c. 2 Acts xxviii. 15. 3 lb. 21, 22. 4 Gal. ii. 8, 9. APOSTACY PERFECTED AND HEADED BY MAN OF SIN. 189 Ephesians, Philippians, — each saying something of his own state at Rome, and three containing the *■ names of various Christians at Rome that joined in his salutations to those he was addressing,1 — not one mention does there occur in any one of them of St. Peter as his companion, or of Peter as joining in any of the salutations. — Nay, on occasion of Paul’s second and last imprisonment at Rome, he tells in his 2nd Epistle to Timothy how, when he was called up to trial before Nero, “no one stood by him.” Could Peter then have been with him there ? 2 — My brethren, it is a particular satisfaction to me, while speaking on this subject, to remember that I am addressing an auditory more qualified than perhaps any other audi- tory to judge on questions of fact from written evi¬ dence. And gladly do I leave it with you to consi¬ der the completeness of the evidence thus incidentally given in the Acts and the Epistles ; in proof that up to the end of Paul’s first imprisonment Peter could not have visited Rome, nor probably till Paul’s second imprisonment was already far advanced. It is very possible that Peter may have been martyred at Rome about the time Paul was ; so as is asserted by some of the earlier fathers.3 But we have proved that, if so, he could only have come to Rome just be- 1 Viz. those to the Philippians, Colossians, Philemon. 2 See on all this chronology of the Acts a tabular scheme of the Pauline Chronology printed in the Appendix to this Volume. It will be found, I think, by the reader very useful. 3 Dionysius of Corinth seems to be the earliest of the fathers that notes this. He wrote about a. d. 170. After him Caius and Ter- tullian, about a. d. 200. So Eusebius H. E. ii. 25. LECT. in. 190 THE CHURCH’S DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. SECOND TRIAD. fore, perhaps for, his martyrdom ; even as Ignatius, some fifty or sixty years later, was sent from Antioch to be executed at Rome.1 Consequently Paul (if indeed an apostle might be turned into a local bishop) must be considered distinctively and alone to have been Rome’s first bishop, and consequently head of the long subsequent line of Bishops of Rome. In which case all devolution of Peter s supposed mighty prerogative of the Vicegerency of Christ on Roman Bishops, as his successors in the see , becomes out of the ques¬ tion : seeing that on clear historic evidence Peter himself could not have been Bishop of Rome. Let me add (though indeed I have dwelt almost too long on the point) that all testimony of the early fathers on this question, whether the Romish Bishops had the prerogative of the Vicegerency of Christ on earth, as heirs of Peter’s prerogative, is against, not in favor of the claim. Clement himself, the Bishop of Rome next after the time of St. John, in his Epistle to the Corinthian Church, written probably about the year a.d. 108 or 110, says not one word of his having the authority of Vicegerent of Christ, so derived ; though the subject of the letter, being that of certain divisions of the Corinthian Church, was just one which should have called for its assertion. No ; nor yet other fathers after Clement, for two centuries and more.2— -At length in the year 325, 1 So Origen ; 'Os /cat e7r i reAei ev ‘Pw/xr) yep'ofxevos apeaKoAp- TTiaQr) Kara icecpaAris. Apud Euseb. H. E. iii. 1. 2 Irenceus, about 170, speaks of Rome as the (( principalis eccle- APOSTACY PERFECTED AND HEADED BY MAN OF SIN. 191 after that the great Constantinian politico-religious revolution had brought Christianity into ascendancy in the Roman empire, when the first general Council, that of Nice, had assembled under Constantine’s auspices, and, when met, assigned their respective dignities to the Metropolitan Bishops, or Patriarchs, of Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, — 'they were each noticed by the Council in much the same terms ; each declared entitled to similar dignity in their respective Patri¬ archates : 1 and not one word, or hint, dropped of the Bishop of Rome having the incomparable supe¬ riority, above all others upon earth, of being, by virtue of descent from Peter, Christ's Vicegerent upon earth !— It was not till the epoch I have noticed of Pop es Boniface, Celestine, and Leo, in the 5th century, just when the old Roman Imperial super¬ vising and controlling power was on the point of ex¬ tinction, that the claim to the Vicegerency of Christ on earth was so put forth by Bishops of Rome. And even then the Council of Chalcedon, held a.d. 451, spoke of the privilege of the Bishop of Rome as de¬ rived simply from Rome’s having been the imperial capital ; without a word of reference to Peter.2 LEOT. III. sia,” or primary Church in the West ; but not a word about its bishop being Christ’s vicegerent on earth. Cyprian, some 70 or 80 years later, speaks of Peter as the centre of ecclesiastical unity. But by it he means Peter as the spokesman of the whole apostolic body ; and so the representative of the whole episcopal body in the Church afterwards. 1 Ta a/)%a ta e6r] Kparencc . . . a>re top AAe^apdpeias e ttkjkottov ttixptwp t ovrcap (ep ALyvTTTcf) €Xeiv Trlv e£ ovcriav ' e-ireidr] kcu rrp ep rr) ‘Pui/j-T) eiuaKoircp tovto aopqdes esip. Can. vi. 2 T cp Opopcp rrjs typea^vrepas ‘P ccp.r]s, 5 t a to & a aiA e v e i p tt) p tt o A ip 192 THE CHURCH’S DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. SECOND TRIAD. Thus clearly was the whole claim an usurpation. ; And need I impress on you, brethren, the mon¬ strosity of the usurpation ? Surely it must be evident that it involved in it nothing less than a perversion of the very essence of religion : seeing that it directed the eye, and thought, and heart, of each seeker of salvation Romeward, instead of heavenward ; to the Pope, instead of to Christ. It was not merely as the Gnostics of St. John’s time that the Roman Bishops, in assuming this character, became Antichrists ; viz. as usurping simply, or chiefly, Christ’s office of pro¬ phet and teacher. The Popes became Vice-Christs, or Antichrists, with reference to each one of all the three great offices that Christ had been anointed to for man’s salvation, alike of Prophet, Priest, and King. It was he to whom was committed the keeping of that secret divine tradition which was to be the rule of Christian faith : — he, and his derived priests, to whom alone appertained the offering of the propitia¬ ting sacrifice of the mass, without which there could be no life to the soul ; he, and his law, that was to be obeyed, without respect of private judgment or con¬ science. As to God’s Bible it was sure, on this sys¬ tem, to become more and more a book neglected ; and, sooner or later, one prohibited. — Besides all which we must remember that the several corruptions and errors that I have noted as having arisen in the Christian Church at the opening of the 5th century, — such e k eivrjv, ot Trarepes eiKorus airoSedwKaon ra tt peafitia. Concil. Chalce- don. Can.xxviii. APOSTACY PERFECTED AND HEADED BY MAN OF SIN. especially as that of the worship of saints, and of their relics and images, as if men’s guardian spirits and me- ^ diators with God, the view of sacraments as life-giving charms and mysteries, and of asceticism and celibacy as having religious merit in them, the doctrine too of purgatory after death, — had been all adopted, as essen¬ tial parts of his system, by the Roman Bishop. They included in them a “ deceivableness of unrighteous¬ ness,” well agreeing with what St. Paul had predicted of the Man of Sin. And, as he acquired more and more of secular power to support him, they were one and all of course to be by that power authoritatively enforced. And this leads me to note, what St. Paul’s pro¬ phecy seemed to imply, the Man of Sin’s attaining to great political power ; a point this however which was much more fully and directly prefigured (as we shall hereafter see) in the Apocalypse. Marvellous it was, most marvellous, that such pretensions should by a Bishop of the professing Christian Church have been ever raised. But that they should have been recog¬ nized, and submitted to, by any of the kings of the earth, must seem almost an equal marvel. Yet such we know was the case. In a subsequent Lecture I shall probably have to show, when considering the fuller and more detailed Apocalyptic prophecy, how of the ten new-formed barbaric kingdoms on the plat¬ form of the old Roman Western empire, each and every one, in the course of the 5th and 6th centu¬ ries, gradually submitted itself to the spiritual yoke of Christ’s Vicar at Rome : and how, when these had 193 LECT. IIT. O 1 94 SECOND TRIAD. THE church’s DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. become the willing subjects de facto of the Pope, the reigning emperor at Constantinople, whose paramount dignity and authority were still in a certain manner recognized even by the Western Pomano- Gothic kings, issued an edict about the close of the 6th century, or opening of the 7th, acknowledging the Roman Pope’s universal episcopate, and so giving it a kind of de jure status before the world. — Very singularly, Pope Gregory, just before this, when some such title of Universal Bishop was temporarily claimed by the Patriarch of Constantinople, had declared that he who made such claim was the 'precursor of Anti¬ christ d Yet that self-same title his own successor Boniface asked, and obtained, from the Eastern Em¬ peror Phocas ; 2 a title thenceforth never to be abandoned by the Bishops of Pome. This, we shall see, was in the year 606; a year consequently ever memorable in the history of the rise of the Papacy. Nor was another point in the prophecy before us un¬ fulfilled at the time referred to ; viz. that the rise of the Man of Sin would be with signs and lying wonders . F ull well does the history of the Poman Pope’s estab¬ lishment of his authority in the world agree with this prophetic intimation also. It is said by Gibbon of Pope Gregory, that “ he was always ready to confirm the truths of religion by the evidence of ghosts and miracles : ” and by Mosheim, that “ the clergy then silenced every objection by appeal to two things, the authority of the Church , and miracles .” The false- 1 Cited in H. A. i. 375, 376, iii. 179. 2 See ibid. iii. 147, iv. 609. J APOSTACY PERFECTED AND HEADED BY MAN OF SIN. 195 hood of the Roman Church’s claim to authority , as being Peter’s Church, we have already seen. The '■ falsehood of its miracles I need not here insist on. It needed, one might have thought till of late,1 a dark age indeed to believe them. But let me just suggest to you, on this head, the close connexion of the apostacy with the Pope’s establishment in power. It was in the doc¬ trines of purgatory , and of the deified saints and mar¬ tyrs , that a foundation was laid for belief in those lying miracles, with which the Romish priesthood in¬ culcated superstitious subjection to the Papal Church, and to the Pope. Thenceforth, and so established, the Roman Pope did indeed in the temple of God, or Christian pro¬ fessing Church, show himself, and receive adoration, “ as God,” i.e. in the character of God’s Vicar : a sys¬ tem of adoration which visitors at Rome may still see with their own eyes, as I have myself done, every time that the Pope attends divine worship, even at the present day.2 — On this however it is not now the time to dwell. The reign of the Man of Sin, or Antichrist, after becoming head of the apostatized Church, will be, please God, one main subject of my next series of Lec¬ tures, as fully prophesied of in the Apocalypse. At pre¬ sent suffice it to recal to your minds the ever-memora- ble prophetic details respecting the apostacy, and Man of Sin that was to head it, given in our Text ; and to ask you if each and all of them have not been shown to have had their exact fulfilment in the gradual 1 Said in allusion to Dr. Newman ! 2 See H. A. iii. 166, 167. O 2 LECT. III. 196 THE CHURCH'S DECLENSION TOWARDS APOSTACY. SECOND TRIAD. apostacy of the Christian professing Church in the 3rd, 4th and 5th centuries, and speedily succeeding esta¬ blishment in power of the Roman Bishops as Vic ars of Christ.1 Well surely might Bishop Warburton, and so many other of the most learned Bishops and Doc¬ tors of our Church, urge the fulfilment of the Pauline prophecy as an evidence of inspiration in the Christian prophet, and of the truth of the Christian religion. In concluding my present triad of Lectures, allow me to make reference, Brethren, to the subject of Papal aggression ,2 now so prominent in the mouths 1 2 Thess. ii. 1 — 12. “ Now we beseech you, brethren, respecting the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means : for that day shall not come, except there come the apostacy first ; and that Man of Sin be revealed, the son of perdition ; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped ; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not that I told you these things 1 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that lawless one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit 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 writh all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish ; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie : that they all might be condemned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 This Lecture was preached Jan. 1851, shortly after Cardinal WisemaiVs publication of the Pope’s Bull, and return from Rome to England, in the character of the Pope’s Legate. APOSTACY PERFECTED AND HEADED BY MAN OF SIN. 197 and minds of all loyal Englishmen. And let me urge L3^T on you to consider it not merely, or chiefly, on the • — v- limited scale that most now do, with reference to this present time, and to the insulted rights and honor of our beloved earthly sovereign ; however reasonable and proper such view of it may be. But, yet more, let the aggression of Popery on the honor of our divine and heavenly Master be the object of our indignation. Surely we ought to have imprest on our minds a sense of the greater crime and injury by the smaller. What an aggression was there on each and every one of the Lord Jesus Christ’s royal rights and prerogatives, in the establishment of the Man of Sin, the Papal Anti¬ christ, in the professing Church ! What a setting aside of him in his saving offices ! What an inter¬ ception of the flow of men’s affections towards him ; and so a wounding of Him in the tenderest sensibilities of the heart ! — God grant, dear Brethren, that, as one result of our investigations on the subject of this prophecy of St, Paul, it may henceforth be more than ever our care, alike in respect of the direct apostacy of the Bomish Antichrist, and in respect of every thing antichristian in spirit, even though enforced on us by profest but dishonest members of our own Church, to hold fast the loyalty of the soul to our heavenly Sovereign ; and, whatever others may do, to shew ourselves in heart, and in life, on the side of the Lord Christ, and against Antichrist. THIRD TRIAD OF LECTURES. THIRD TRIAD. RISE; REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST, AS APOCALYPTICALLY PREDICTED, AND AS FULFILLED. LECTURE I. PRELIMINARY EVENTS IN ROMISH HISTORY TO ANTICHRIST’S MANIFESTATION. APOCALYPSE IV. 1. “AFTER THIS I LOOKED, AND, BEHOLD, A DOOR WAS OPENED IN HEAVEN : AND THE VOICE WHICH I HAD FIRST HEARD SAID, COME UP HITHER, AND I WILL SHEW THEE THINGS WHICH MUST BE HEREAFTER.” As a traveller, in advancing on his road, finds the objects which he had before seen collectively, and in the mass, open gradually more and more to his view in detail, so do we find it also in the successive revela¬ tions of prophecy : and in the latter case, as well as former, not without evidence of the consistency of truth in the unfolding. So it was, we saw,1 in regard of the prophecies respecting the Messiah , or Christ : which, from the fundamental primary prediction of the seed of the woman, expanded more and more, as time went on, into particulars respecting the time 1 See Lect. ii. of my first Triad, from p. 38. PRELIMINARIES IN ROMISH HISTORY TO ANTICHRIST. and place of the coming of the promised Redeemer, his country and family, his character and history. And so too we also find it in regard of the prophecies respecting Antichrist , which are now the subject of consideration. Already before the Messiah’s first coming it had been revealed to Daniel , looking for¬ ward to a yet distant futurity, that the 4th great kingdom of this world, antagonistic to God’s king¬ dom, (i. e. we know, the Roman,) after existing un- dividedly in strength so far unequalled, would then at length be divided into ten ; and a new power, like a little horn rising up among the ten larger horns, have supremacy over the rest, and constitute the last of the dominant empires of this world ; the kingdom of Messiah being destined to supervene upon it, and to destroy it. From what source however the little horn was to derive strength, so as to lord it among the larger horns, was not then declared to Daniel : 1 though perhaps afterwards hinted at obscurely as con¬ nected with some apostacy from the true faith, in the revelation subsequently made to him respecting the self-deifying king of the latter times, the coun¬ terpart apparently of the little horn.2 But to St. 1 Unless inferable from its “ having eyes as the eyes of a man.” like an e-maKo-iras, or bishop. 2 The self -deifying king of Dan. xi. 86 seems to be identified with the little horn of Dan. vii. by his apparent connexion with the people from the isles of Chittim, i. e. the Roman people, — his supremacy in power, so as to do according to his will, — his magnifying himself against the God of gods, — and his prospering “ till the indignation be accomplished,” that is, until the consummation. His rise is spoken of as sequent on the event of “ many cleaving by flatteries, and deceitfully, to them that would know their God : RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST. Paul , some 600 years later, and subsequently to Messiah’s first coming, this additional fact was re¬ vealed fully and distinctly. It was then unfolded to the disciples that, out of principles of evil even then darkly working within the Christian body, an apostaey would at length result from the true Christian faith ; and that this, when matured, would be headed by the Man of Sin , a person and power identical evi¬ dently with the self-deifying king and little horn of Daniel : — that his incoming, to take the supremacy, (as might be expected of one raised to power through a religious apostaey,) would be with lying wonders or miracles, and with all deceivableness of unrighteous¬ ness ; and his reign that of one sitting enthroned in God’s temple, or Christ’s professing Church, and there exhibiting himself, and receiving worship, as God. All this it was my object to illustrate in the three Lectures of the last season ; and to show its fulfilment in the history of the Romish apostaey, and its headship at length by the Pope of Rome. As to the time , however, when this great predicted antichristian power was to appear, and the secular events and changes in the Roman empire that were to intervene previously, scarce anything new was revealed to St. i. e. sequent on an apostaey from tlie true faith of God ; or if (as I think) the incarnate God, Christ Jesus, be here meant by God, an apostaey from the faith of Christ. See my comment on Dan. xi. 32 — 39, in the H. A. Vol. iv. pp. 86 — 95. The identity of St. Paul’s man of sin with the self -deifying king of Dan. xi, as well as with the little horn of Dan. vii, is very evident ; and confirms what has been before said of the identity of the little horn and self-deifying king , one with the other. PRELIMINARIES IN ROMISH HISTORY TO ANTICHRIST. 201 Paul, in addition to what had been originally revealed LECT to Daniel : it having been told to Daniel that the V-~Y— Roman empire must be divided by some great revolu¬ tion into ten, prior to the little horns establishment in power ; and to St. Paul this only, that so long as there was a continuance of the undivided empire, attached, when he addrest the Thessalonians, to the Roman emperor, so long it would constitute an effec¬ tive let, or hindrance, to the Man of Sin’s manifesta¬ tion. Nor again was there revealed to St. Paul, any more than to Daniel, particulars as to the instru¬ mentalities that the Antichrist would use, in order to the fuller exercise of his power ; or, in regard of the Church of the apostacy with which he was to have association, what would be its precise seat, form, or character. — To the beloved disciple John , however, some 30 years after St. Paul’s death, details singularly particular were unfolded in the revelations of Patmos, on each of the three above-mentioned subjects. And it seems to me my duty accordingly to call your at¬ tention to them in the Lectures of the present season. — Let me add that there will appear further, as we con¬ sider the Apocalyptic prophecies on these points, cer¬ tain interwoven counter-notices of the deepest interest concerning Christ's witnesses , and Christ's true Church , that will naturally claim our consideration in the season following : the last-mentioned sub¬ ject bringing us down to the final predicted destruc¬ tion of Antichrist and his Antichristian Church ; and final manifestation in glory and triumph of Christ i RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST. and his true Church, the Lamb’s bride, the New Jerusalem. Which done we shall have traced the great revealed purposes of God respecting Christ’s real Church, and its Antichristian counterpart, to their completion. And so the scheme that I have sketched out to myself for these Lectures will be brought to its natural conclusion. My brethren, it is said of the Apocalypse, “ Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear, the words of this prophecy.” May some portion of this blessing attend us in our Apocalyptic meditations ! Doubtless there is in that saying a reference, not to the bare predictions of future events which the book contains, but also to the glorious views intermixt therewith of God, and Christ, and heaven ; to its revelations con¬ cerning the divine Providence as overseeing and overruling all things for the good of his people ; and its many heart-stirring precepts, warnings, and moni¬ tions. But these will not be altogether overlooked in our consideration of the prophecy. And even as re¬ gards its prophetic figurations of the future, such as will chiefly claim our time and attention, some part of the blessing ought not to be wanting to the con¬ sideration of them. If, as I expect, the Apocalyptic predictions on the several points referred to shall be shown to have received a most striking and even minute fulfilment in historic fact, then surely the re¬ sult in each candid mind that considers this must be a confirmed conviction of the divine inspiration of the Book containing them ; and so of the truth of the PRELIMINARIES IN ROMISH HISTORY TO ANTICHRIST. Christian religion, on which it was written to instruct us. And this indeed is the express and declared ob¬ ject of the foundation of our Lecture by Bishop War- burton : — <£ To prove the truth of revealed religion by the fulfilment of prophecies in the Old and New Testaments respecting the Christian Church, and of those too very specially respecting the Church of Borne.” I am of course well aware of the prejudice which may naturally exist in some minds against the pulpit discussion of a prophecy to which so many various interpretations have been, and still are, attached : and the rather, because these differences of interpretation affect not the mere details, but the very substance and essence of the prophecy. For the Prceterist schools affirm that it was all fulfilled in the first, or at any rate in the five first, centuries;1 the Futurists that its fulfilment is even yet wholly future : 2 while those of the continuously historical school (to which class of expositors I unhesitatingly attach myself) re¬ gard it as an orderly and very particular prophecy of the chief events and changes which were to happen 1 The most widely spread German school of Apocalyptic interpre¬ tation explains the prophecy with reference to the times of Nero and Vespasian, and the overthrow of Jerusalem by Titus. — The school of Bossuet explains it with reference to the times of the overthrow of Heathenism in the Roman empire, and its invasion and disruption by the Goths. The Jesuit Alcasar appears to have been the father of the Prseterist schools of Apocalyptic interpretation. 2 So Drs. Maitland and Todd, Mr. Burgh, the Plymouth Brethren, and very lately Mr. Molyneux. — The Jesuit Ribera appears to have been the father of the futurist schools of Apocalyptic interpretation. 204 RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST. THIRD TRIAD. in the world, or in the Church, from St. John’s time down to the consummation. But prejudice, natural as it may seem amidst such fundamental diversity of opinion on the subject, will not, I feel persuaded, be permitted in an audience like this to bar the ear against the attentive consideration of such coinci¬ dences between prediction and fact as, on the last- mentioned principle of interpretation, I may have to adduce. — Nor indeed are there wanting certain ob¬ vious a priori reasons in favour of the general truth of the continuously-historical principle of interpreta¬ tion, and against that of both Praeterism and Futu¬ rism, that need but to be stated, in order to conciliate to the former a yet more favourable hearing. For the very basis of both Praeterist and Futurist schemes rests on the literal application to literal Israelites of the Israelitish appellative and symbols which run through the Apocalyptic prophecy : whether to the Jews living at the time of Titus, or of Hadrian, so as the Praeterists would have it ; or to the Jews of some epoch even yet future, after their supposed regather¬ ing and reerection of a temple at Jerusalem, so as say the Futurists. But is this credible, or even possible, when the temple and altar-court , of Israelitish simili¬ tude, figured in the Apocalyptic prophecy, is there depicted as the scene of public worship to “ all the saints”1 i. e. to all true Christians : and when moreover, in the introductory Epistles of Christ to the seven Churches of Asia, the Philadelphian Gcn- 1 Apoc. viii. 3, 4. PRELIMINARIES IN ROMISH HISTORY TO ANTICHRIST. tile Christians are expressly designated as citizens of the New Jerusalem ; of which city the citizens are defined elsewhere in the Apocalypse as the twelve tribes of Israel ? 1 Surely, if proof can be plain, then we have here plain proof that the appellative Israel , with its adjuncts of temple and altar, is Apo¬ calyptically used, so as often by St. Paul, in a figu¬ rative sense designative of Christians : a use of the terms the more to be expected in a prophecy essen¬ tially symbolic, like that of the Apocalypse. This point once settled does of itself decide the question, as I said, against both Prseterist and Futurist schemes of Apocalyptic interpretation ; against which, I must add, there exists also a superabundance of other ob¬ jections, in my opinion unanswerable.2— On the other hand, may I not ask whether, ideally considered, a prophetic scheme involving continuous prediction of the coming future, seem not to be a scheme more reflective of the glory of God (if it can be established on satisfactory evidence) than the other two, which would make twelve eventful centuries at the least to be a prophetic blank : 3 — and whether too it be not more 1 Compare Apoc. iii. 12, xxi. 12. 2 In my H. A. Vol. iv. Appendix, there will be found full critical examinations of either scheme, in every form to which names of any literary pretension had been attached, up to the time of the publication of the 4th edition of that work. I shall hope in the Appendix to the present Volume to add a notice of certain publications on one or the other scheme that have appeared subsequently. 8 On the Futurist scheme, the prophetic blank extends from St. John all down to the time of the consummation ; at which time the prophecy is supposed to take up the prediction of coming events. On the Neronic or Vespasianic Prceterist scheme the blank is from 206 RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST. THIRD TRIAD. in accordance with the character which God has expressly given of himself, as “ foretelling the end from the beginning, and from distant times the things which must come to pass;” indeed, as “ doing nothing,” (i.e. evidently nothing of importance as affecting the Church,) “ without revealing it to his servants the prophets ? ” 1 Besides which the opening declaration to St. John, when invited to the Apocalyptic visions, u Come up, and I will show thee the things which must come to pass after the things now present 2 would seem language strangely chosen, were the sub¬ ject of the visions nothing but the events of the far far distant futurity of the consummation.— Accord¬ ingly from early times it was the opinion of eminent Christian fathers, such as Augustine, that the Apo¬ calypse was a prophetic revelation of what was to happen from St. John’s time down to the consumma¬ tion.3 And such we know to have been the general after the destruction of Jerusalem for as long a time as the world might last ; on Bossuefs Prceterist scheme from after the disruption of the Roman empire through the Gothic invasion. 1 Isaiah xlvi. 10 ; Amos iii. 7. 2 a Set yeveaOcu /act a ravra. Apoc. iv. 1. The force of tile phrase ravra is scarcely given in the reading of our version, “ things which must he hereafter .” It implies not a distant here¬ after ; but an hereafter commencing from the time of John's own exis¬ tence in Patmos , and the contemporary state of the seven Asiatic Churches, described in those Epistles to them which occupy Chapters ii. and iii of the Apocalypse. 8 “ Totum hoc tempus liber iste (Apocalypsis) complectitur ; a primo scilicet adventu Christi usque in sjeculi finem.” C. D. xx. 8. 1 — Augustine, as might be expected, explained the 144,000 Israelites of Apoc. vii. to mean faithful Christians, as being Christ’s true Israel. On the large effect of which explanation see my remarks p. 204, supra. PRELIMINARIES IN ROMISH HISTORY TO ANTICHRIST. 207 opinion of the fathers of the Reformed Churches both L^CT in Germany and England.1 If of late years there v — r- have been expositors in our country who have strongly objected to the usual Protestant historic anti-papal explanation of the prophecy, and advocated, some the Prseterist, some the Futurist counter-system,2 the ground of their objection seems to have been mainly that false ground of insisting on certain obvious flaws of detail in certain historic explanations given by par¬ ticular expositors, as if proof of the error of the very principle of Protestant historic explanation ; in¬ stead of resting rather on the many extraordinary demonstrated accordances between the antichristian power so prominently depicted in the prophecy, and the antichristian power actually developed in the Roman Popedom, as strong presumptive evidence in favor of the general truth of that historic principle. For, surely, further research, and fuller light, might be all that was needed, in order to a satisfactory expla¬ nation of any so far unexplained details. If I much mistake not, the result of recent investigations has been just to furnish the light, and suggest the corrections, needed ; and thus an important advance been made towards the confirmation, as well as completion, of the Protestant historic system of interpretation. This will appear, I hope, as we proceed. And now to the Apocalypse itself. 1 See the History of Apocalyptic Interpretation in the 4th Vol. of my H. A. 4th Edition. 2 Mentioned above, p. 203, Notes 1 and 2. RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST. Before entering however on any historic explanation of the Apocalyptic predictions, there are two prelimi¬ nary points on which I must needs first detain you for a few moments, as being essential in order to a clear understanding of my exposition. The subjects con¬ nected with the development and history of Anti¬ christ, which I purpose setting before you from the Apocalypse this season, — -viz. the secular changes in the Roman empire prior to the removal of the let , and manifestation of Antichrist , — the establishment and chief instrumentalities of Antichrist's reign , — and the character and history of Antichrist's Church , — appear in three chief successive divisions of the Apocalyptic prophecy. Moreover they were depicted to St. John very mainly in the phenomena of a varying symbolic scenery. Hence the need of premising some explana¬ tory notice alike of the structure and chief divisions of the prophecy, and also of the symbolic scenery through which the prophecy was exprest. — In thus commenc¬ ing a kind of sketch of Apocalyptic exposition, I can¬ not but feel strongly the difficulty which arises from the very confined limits of a few Lectures from this pulpit. I must only do what I can to make it clear ; and throw myself on your indulgence. As regards the Apocalyptic scenery , then, St. John thus describes how it appeared to him, after that the voice had called, “ Come up, and I will shew thee the things which must happen after the time now present,” and when, in obedience to the call, he had been rapt from this our earth in the Spirit. “ Behold PRELIMINARIES IN ROMISH HISTORY TO ANTICHRIST. 209 a throne, and One that sate thereon.” This was the LECT* i. first and chief particular in the prophetic scenery. It — / was the throne of the Eternal, the source of all the Providential movements in this world ; the rainbow of mercy overcircling it ; much like that seen by Old Testament priests and prophets in the Holy of Holies , or inmost sanctuary , of the old Jewish temple. And soon mention was made afterwards of a sanctuary , or holy place , as also existent on the scene, wherein ap¬ peared the golden incense-altar; and of an altar-court also, with its great brazen altar of sacrifice : all con¬ nected with the most Holy Place of God’s revealed presence, just as in the same ancient temple, or taber¬ nacle, of Israel. From perpetual notices of it, re¬ current from time to time through all the subsequent parts of the prophecy, we infer that this Jewish-like temple, with these its triple divisions, remained throughout the whole series of the Apocalyptic figu¬ rations the constant standing-scene before St. John in the foreground of vision. It is quite essential, Brethren, in order to a distinct understanding of the visions, that this should ever be borne in mind by the enquirer. Not seldom their meaning arises altoge¬ ther out of their local connexion with the Apocalyptic temple : and it is this which, as a fixed central scene, binds them all in one, and gives to the whole a dra¬ matic unity. That the temple was symbolic generally of the Christian Church has been already noted ; and evidence of this suggested, I hope, to your satisfac¬ tion. But there is further to be remembered the p 210 RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST. THIRD particular significancy of each of its three divisions TRIAD. r O J y with corresponding divisions in the Christian Church : — what past in the altar-court (the scene of the old Israel’s visible public worship) figuring the Church’s visible public worship : what appeared in the sanctu¬ ary , or holy place, (which was accessible only to the priesthood in the olden time,) figuring the heart-wor¬ ship of Christians, as seen and judged by that High Priest of our profession, who speaks of himself as walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks : while the presence of the 24 presbyters before the throne in the inmost and holiest sanctuary of the Apocalyptic temple, the representatives of that part of the Church of the redeemed which had finished its course and entered into the beatific presence of God, showed that that part of the Apocalyptic temple was meant to depict scenically the Church in Paradise. — So as to the sacred foreground of vision before St. John. At the same time an earthly landscape is alluded to continually, as outstretched beneath and around the temple ; with a firmamental heaven above it, and sun, moon, and stars from time to time appa¬ rent therein : — a provision the fittest surely that can be conceived for facilitating a distinct local foresha¬ dowing to the apostle of what was destined to take place on the Apocalyptic earth ; and among the chief dignities and powers, in the higher regions of its polity. — Nor, as to the precise intent of the Apocalyptic earth was St. John left to conjecture. It was defined, ere the close of the visions, as the earth associated with PRELIMINARIES IN ROMISH HISTORY TO ANTICHRIST. 211 the seven-hilled city of Rome for its metropolis ; in LECT- other words, as the Roman world. v Further, as regards the structure , order , and chief divisions of the prophecy, they were marked to a considerable extent with beautiful distinctness by the very form of the book of futurity which the apostle saw, when rapt from earth by the Spirit, in the hand of the enthroned One. For it was a book written within and without , and sealed with seven seals . So, first, these Seals had to be opened in succession ; and, as each was opened, the events written in the scroll, as thus far unfolded, to be enacted in living drama on the Apocalyptic scene. With this peculiarity how¬ ever, that, on the 7th Seal’s opening, seven Angels from before the throne of God had seven trumpets given them ; whereby, under a second septenary divi¬ sion, to mark the orderly revelation of the eventful subjects of that 7th Seal. Further, on the 7th Trum¬ pet’s sounding, (though not till after a most important digression ,) seven Vial-Angels appeared, to pour out, under a third septenary division, the judgments of the 7th Trumpet judgments reaching to the consummation. — As to the intervening digression its chief subject is a very particular description and history of the Antichrist and his Antichristian empire, explanatory (as the importance of the subject required) of something briefly hinted respecting him under the 6th Trumpet : and with its declared chronology, and succession of events, so correspondent with that figured under the Seals, Trumpets, and Vials, as to p 2 212 RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST. third indicate a designed and complete chronological paral- TRIAD. ° 1 ° . — ¥~/ lelism ; just, in short, as we may suppose the outside writing on the scroll to have been all in correspond¬ ency and parallelism with the vjriting within. It is to the historic fulfilment of the Seals and four first of the Trumpets that I shall have to call your attention in what remains of the present Lecture. It is the Supplement respecting Antichrist that will be our subject in the next Lecture : and a scene connected with the Vials in the Lecture next afterwards. And now, being prepared as I trust for the inves¬ tigation, let us mark how exactly the earlier series of Apocalyptic figurations, just defined, depicted the various fortunes and phases that the Roman empire was destined to pass through, in the interval from the epoch of St. John’s seeing the visions in Patmos, (i. e. as Irenseus tells us, the last year of Domi- tian, a.d. 96,1) to that of the completed removal of 1 I have entered on this subject of the Apocalyptic date very fully in the H. A. Yol. i. pp. 31 — 46, and in Paper No. I. of the Appendix ; and there sufficiently demonstrated, I believe, the untenableness of all counter-theories, whether of a Neronic or Galbaic date, and the overwhelming evidence for the Domitianic. It is well known that many German expositors of the Apocalypse, as Ewald, Henrichs, and their American and English followers, as Dr. Moses Stuart and Dr. Davidson, have strongly insisted on this early date. But even in Germany the Domitianic date has been by the most recent expositors acknowledged to be the true date ; e. g. by Ziillig and Ilengstenberg : and Dr. Davidson himself has at length confessed to a change of opinion in its favor. Of this last-mentioned expositor, and certain statements propounded by him on the subject, I shall have to offer some notice in the Appendix to this Volume of Lectures. PRELIMINARIES IN ROMISH HISTORY TO ANTICHRIST. 213 the imperial let that St. Paul spoke of, and mani- LECT festation of Antichrist. We shall find them classed Apocalyptically, in marked manner, under the same two grand divisions of events and changes that con¬ stituted, as observed by me in a previous Lecture,1 the two great divisions of change in the corresponding period of Roman history : the one, that ending in the overthrow of the old dominant Heathenism of the Roman empire, and establishment of Christianity in its stead ; the other, that of the disruption of the now Christianized Roman empire, and extinction in Italy itself, by barbarian invaders, of the old imperial dy¬ nasty and powder. The one was prefigured to St. John in the visions of the first six Seals ; the other under the first four of the Trumpets in which the contents of the 7th Seal were unfolded. I propose to consider them separately: — the former more at large, and particularly, as furnishing one of the most striking of all examples of the exactness of prophetic detail ; the latter much more in brief. I. The secular changes and fortunes await¬ ing the Roman empire, from St. John’s time down to the overthrow of Heathenism in it, and establishment of Christianity. Behold then, as the first four Seals were opened in succession, there were seen by St. John to ride forth successively on the Apocalyptic, or Roman 1 See p. 150. RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST. earth,1 four horses and horsemen : the horsemen having various powers and influences attached to them respectively, as was declared to John by the heavenly interpreter : the horses appearing in colors evidently corresponding with that influence ; and so betokening, it would seem, the condition of the subject-people under it ; the inhabitants evidently of the Apocalyptic or Roman earth. Let me observe that as the goat in Dan. viii. was used, we know, to symbolize the Macedonian people, and its fitness appeared from Macedonian legends and medals, connecting that animal with the early history of their nation, so simi¬ larly wras the fitness of the war-horse evident to symbolize the Roman people ; the war-horse being sacred to Mars, their reputed father, and stamped as such on their early medals.2 — What then might be the coming destinies of the Roman empire, hereby prefigured to St. John ? First went forth “ a white horse,” we read ; “ and he that sate on it had a bow ; and a crown (the im¬ perial c efpavog) was given him ; and he went forth conquering, and that he should conquer ” Was not this as if, under some new-crowned emperor, or impe¬ rial line, to which a bow might be a fitting badge, instead of the Roman empire’s wretched and disastrous state being continued, so as under the then reigning 1 The inquirer must mark the identification on this point from Apoc. xvii. 18, which has been already noted by me in an earlier part of this Lecture, p. 210, 211. 2 A subject fully discussed by me in the II. A. Vol. I. 114 — 118, and in Paper No. 8 of the Appendix to that Volume. PRELIMINARIES IN ROMISH HISTORY TO ANTICHRIST. Domitian, a period of triumph and of public pros¬ perity was destined to it, and this very near at hand ? — If so, most assuredly, as was the prophecy so was the fulfilment in history. Ere the close of the selfsame year, a.d. 96, in which John saw the visions, Domi¬ tian having been assassinated, the imperial crown was presented by the Senate to Nerva, a man of Cretic ancestry, of which country the well-known badge was a bow : and under him there began a most remark¬ able course of public prosperity, mixed with military triumphs, which for some eighty years continued, and increased, under his four successors Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus, Aurelius ; — princes all engrafted into Nerva’s own line and family by successive adoptions. — In illustration of the Roman triumphs during this sera, I may remind you of Trajan's marvellous victories, when he went forth conquering beyond the Danube, the Euphrates, and the Tigris : and again, after Ha¬ drian’s and Antoninus’ more peaceful but by no means unvictorious reigns, of Marcus Aurelius’ yet more marvellous triumphs than even Trajan’s, because against enemies and difficulties far more formidable : triumphs whereby the Eastern limits of the empire, which Hadrian from motives of policy had voluntarily contracted within Augustus’ old boundary of the Euphrates, were again pushed back beyond the Tigris ; while Trajan’s vast Dacian conquests were retained and secured. — In illustration of the happi¬ ness of the people, let me simply cite Gibbon’s well- known testimony : — “ If a man were called to fix the 216 RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST. THIRD TRIAD. i v ... 1 1 period in our world’s history during which the con¬ dition of the human race was most happy and pros¬ perous, he would without hesitation name that which elapsed from the death ofDomitian to the accession (or, as he more exactly says elsewhere, to the 4th or 5th year) of Commodus.” To adopt what was successively alike Tacitus’, Suetonius’, and Dion Cassius’ figurative language, it was the Roman empire’s golden age. But soon, according to the prophecy, (if we rightly explain it,) this golden age was to give place to one very different. “ When the 2nd Seal was opened, there went forth another horse, red ; and to him that sate thereon it was given to take peace from the earth , and that they should hill one another : and there was given unto him a great sword” The sword-badge was in St. John’s time distinctively military : and thus a military domination seemed to be figured as next ensuing ; whereof the result would be, on some large scale, civil bloodshed and war. And, to show how precisely Roman history answered to this, let Sismondi’s testimony suffice ; just premising that Commodus, by abandoning the government after a while to the chief military commanders of the Roman army, was himself, while yet living, the first author of the evil. chapter. And, in order to crush them, each and every one, he had his own plan before him : — a plan that seemed likely to be more successful, in the new state of things, than that of direct heathen persecution ; and to which (strange as it might seem) the very establishment of the Trinitarian faith would essentially subserve. It was by the instrumentality of Anti - Christianism : — a religious system professedly Chris¬ tian, but in which Christ’s offices and prerogatives would be transferred to a creature usurper ; and which would be espoused and exalted to power by the new and strange empire of the Beast from the abyss, under its heading Antichrist. And so we come to the second main Head of our subject, as prefigured in this part of the Apocalyptic prophecy ; viz : — Illy, The rise and reign of the Beast from the abyss. * 1st, Its rise , and constituency at its rise. Beholcf then out of the sea , as in Daniel’s earlier vision of the four Beasts,1 or perhaps out of that flood from out of the Dragon’s mouth, which, on its absorption by the earth, may be supposed to have subsided into a confined lake on the scene of vision,2 1 Dan. vii. 3 ; “ Four great Beasts came up from out of the sea” Compare ver. 17 ; “ These are four kings which shall arise out of the earth” So the sea must be emblematic. 2 Compare what is said of the Woman allied to the Beast, in Apoc. xvii. 1, “ the Harlot sitting on the many waters.” Which waters are explained, in ver. 15, to signify “peoples, and nations, RISE AND REIGN OF ANTICHRIST. 251 there rose up before St. John a Wild-Beast, seven- LECT- 1 ii. headed and ten-horned, like the Dragon : but with a v— Y — certain marked peculiarity on either point. As re¬ garded its heads , one of them (the 7th evidently) bore marks as if it had been previously wounded to death by a sword, though now the deadly wound was healed : the present 7th head rising out of the cica¬ trice of the old original 7th head, and being thus the 8th in order of succession on the Beast ; whereas the Dragon had had simply seven consecutive heads. Again, as to the horns , they appeared on the Beast diademed ; whereas on the Dragon, as we saw, they lacked the diadem badge. — On these points important- explanatory information was afterwards given to St. John by the revealing Angel in Apoc. xvii ; and it is that explanation which now calls for our most careful attention. As regards the heads then, it was stated by him that a double mystic significancy attached to them : — for that they symbolized alike Rome’s seven hills , which was to be the Beast’s seat or throne of empire, as it had been the Dragon’s before him : 1 and also the various successive kings , or governing authorities , which from first to last would have held the supre¬ macy on that seven-hilled seat.2 — Now, according to Tacitus’s well-known summary statement, (and it is quite superfluous to vindicate its correctness,) the and tongues.” — The identity of this Beast of Apoc. xvii with that of Apoc. xiii. has been fully established, I believe, in the H. A. Vol. iii. pp. 68—78, and Paper No. ii of the Appendix. 1 For, as already noted p. 241, “ The Dragon gave to the Beast his power, and his throne ,” &c. 2 Apoc. xvii. 0, 10. i 254 RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST. third firgt six several ruling heads that had the imperium, TRIAD. 0 or supreme executive authority, legally attached to them at Rome, were kings, consuls , dictators , decem¬ virs , military tribunes , emperors : of which the five first had past away, and the sixth bore rule when Tacitus wrote.1 Whence the inference that these six must have been symbolized by the first six heads of the Beast, or Dragon : an inference confirmed by the Angel’s added statement, with reference to the time when St. John saw the visions in Patmos, (a time synchronous very nearly with that of Tacitus’ writing his Annals,) “ Five heads have (now) fallen : the sixth is”2 — Nor, as regards the intent of the Beast’s next , or primary seventh head, (that same which bore appearance of having been wounded to death, but of which the deadly wound had, by the sprouting up of the new 7 th head, been healed,) does it seem to me that the evidence is less clear or con¬ clusive. The point being one of exceeding import¬ ance towards the right understanding of the mystery of the Beast, there were no less than five several in¬ dications Apocalyptically given whereby to mark it. It was that which was to be next, in order of time, to the imperial head established by Augustus : — it was to last but a short time ; 3 that is, as compared with the other heads before and after it : — it was to be the head in power at the time of the Dragon’s war against the travailing woman ; 4 in other words, at the time 1 See on this my H. A. iii. 103 — 109. 2 Apoc. xvii. 10. 3 Apoc. xvii. 10. 4 For, as the Dragon directly no more appeared in power after RISE AND REIGN OF ANTICHRIST. 253 of the last conflict of Roman Heathenism, in imperial position, against Christianity : — it was to have the v diadem as the imperial badge : 1 — and its end was in some marked manner to answer to the emblem of amputation with the sword,2 and so as altogether to terminate the Dragon s investiture with imperial office and supremacy. — All which indications had their fulfilment in Diocletian's memorable modification of the old Roman imperial government : that modifi¬ cation of which the fundamental principle was the bipartition and quadripartition of the Roman imperial government, territorially, under two chief and two subordinate emperors ; all recognizing the Roman empire however as still one, though divided for pur¬ poses of better defence and government, and Rome as the common capital. For, 1st, this is expressly noted by Gibbon as a new form of government, in lieu of that instituted by Augustus : 3 2ly, he also notes, after Jornandes, that the diadem (the Asiatic diadem of pearls) was, instead of the laurel crown, the new imperial badge associated with it : 4 Sly, it being east down from the high places in the Apocalyptic firmament, as the result of his conflict with the woman, and as he soon after made over his throne and power to the Beast, whose power was alto¬ gether under the last or 8th head, it follows necessarily that the Dragon must, at the time of the conflict, have been under the 7th head. 1 For diadems , as before observed, were on the Dragon’s heads at the opening of the vision. Apoc. xii. 8. 2 Apoc. xiii. 3. 3 Gibb. ii. 165, and Index ad ann. 303. See my H. A. iii. 113 —116. 4 “ Is (Diocletianus) gemmas vestibus calceamentisque inseruit, diademaque in capite.” So Jornandes ; who is followed in the statement by Tillemont and Gibbom — Jornandes’s work is one of LECT. II. 254 RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST. THIRD TRIAD. was under this head that Roman Heathenism made its last war against Christianity; the wars of Maximin and Licinius being but the last paroxysm of that begun by Diocletian and Maximian : 1 4ly, its dura¬ tion from the time of its first establishment by Dio- •e cletian, a.d. 286, to that of its final overthrow by Constantine, a.d. 323, was but 37 years; whereas Augustus’ imperial head, next before it, had lasted some 300 years, and the Beast’s 8th head, next fol¬ lowing it, was to have a duration, as we shall see, of 1260 years : 51y, and finally, it was cut down, toge¬ ther with heathenism itself, by the sword of civil law and authority : insomuch that the current language of the times, adopting the emblem of the Apocalyptic prophecy, spoke of the Christian imperial edicts, from Constantine to Theodosius, as having inflicted a deadly wound on heathenism ; and in fact am- the more authority, from the fact of its being an abridgment of the greater work of the learned Cctssiodorus . On the medallic evidence I have already at p. 244 referred to an elaborate essay illustrating it, in the Appendix to the 3rd Vol. of my H. A. 1 In the history of the wars of Constantine and Licinius there occurs a curious circumstance ; showing, 1st, that the form of govern¬ ment instituted by Diocletian was at that time still considered to he in force ; though a different territorial division of the Roman empire from that originally made between the two Augusti had then been brought about : 21y, as to that new territorial division, that it assigned two-thirds to the Christian Augustus Constantine, one third only to the heathen Licinius ; just as depicted at the commencement of the Apocalyptic vision respecting the Dragon and the Woman. I refer to astipulation, after Constantine had defeated Licinius in the first war between them, that Constantine should make two Caesars, Licinius only one. “ In this double proportion of honours the conqueror asserted the superiority of his arms and power.” Gibbon ii. 249. RISE AND REIGN OF ANTICHRIST. 2f> DO putated the heathen head, while the wounded mem¬ bers of the monster lay quivering in death.1 Never thenceforth was there any more a heathen imperial head to the Homan empire. But what then as to that new 7 th head , apparent on the Beast as he rose upon the scene of vision, or revived head of empire , in lieu of the one which had been wounded to death by the sword ? Does not history here present a difficulty, it may be said ; seeing that the next governing head to the Roman empire was Christian emperors, such as Constantine or Theodo¬ sius? Not so: because the Beast’s heads by their signification of Rome’s seven hills as the seat of gov¬ ernment, as well as of the successive governing heads themselves, indicated those only of the latter who had their seat of empire at Rome . (A point this, as to the Beast’s local seat at Rome , which I shall more fully 1 Of Constantine Crevier says, x. 147 ; “ He gave to the Pagan idolatry some mortal wounds” And Gibbon, v. 105, 116, speaks of “ the violent and repeated strokes given to Paganism by the orthodox princes,” from Constantine to Theodosius ; till “ the last (anti- Pagan) edict of Theodosius inflicted a deadly wound on the super¬ stition of the Pagans.” So too Baronius, iv. 172 ; “ Quo religionis affectu idololatriam saepius, ut percussum multis ictibus anguem , caput rursus extollentem, penitus extinquendam curavit Theodosius.” This was what Julius Maternus, a Christian writer of the middle of the 4th century, had expressed to the reigning Christian empe¬ ror to be the wish of Christians ; u Amputanda sunt haec, sacratis- simi imperatores, penitus, atcjue delenda, severissimis edictorum ves- torum legibus.” And further, as to the effect of those laws ; “ Licet in quibusdam regionibus idololatriae morientia palpitent membra, tamen in eo res est ut e Christianis omnibus terris pestiferum hoc malum funditus amputetur.” See my H. A. iii. 118. — Gladio ster- natur , “ Let it be struck down with the sword,” was the then Ian™ guage of the Roman law concerning heathenism. LECT. ii. 256 RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST. THIRD TRIAD. » - v - * notice in my next Lecture.) And most remarkably Constantine, together with his adoption of the Chris¬ tian faith, removed the seat of empire to Constanti¬ nople : nor, even after the subsequent division of the Empire into Eastern and Western, did the Western emperors ever again enthrone themselves at Home, but at Milan or Ravenna. It was not till the Gothic flood had swept once and again over Italy, and utterly desolated old Home itself, that Lome became again a seat of empire. And then it was not as the seat of any new secular emperors, or kings ; but as the seat of its Bishops , or Popes ; who in their assumed character of successors of Peter, and so Vicegerents of Ch*rist upon earth, claimed universal empire. So Augustin Steuchus : — “ The empire having been overthrown, unless God had raised up the Pontificate , Rome, re¬ suscitated and restored by none, would have become uninhabitable. But in the Pontificate it revived as with a second birth : because all nations venerate the Pope not otherwise than they before obeyed the Emperors ” And Flavio Blondus ; “ The princes of the world now adore and worship as Perpetual Dic¬ tator the successor, not of Ccesar , but of Peter : i. e. the Supreme Pontiff , the substitute of the afore- men¬ tioned Emperor.” And so similarly Gibbon, and other moderns.1 — Thus does history, as with a finger- point, mark out the Roman Popes , subsequently to the Gothic desolations of Rome, and their own usurpa¬ tion of the prerogative and title of Christ’s Vicar, 1 See my H. A. iii. 119, 120. RISE AND REIGN OF ANTICHRIST. (itself, as the Apocalypse reports of the titles written on the Beast’s heads, a name of blasphemy,) to be the 8th or last ruling head of the Apocalyptic Beast. Though professedly Christian, it was really one in character with the previous seven heathen heads.1 Next, as to the ten horns on the Beast’s new ruling head : — horns now diademed ; but which in the pre¬ vious Draconic sera had appeared undiademed. A difference of symbol this to which the Angel’s subse¬ quent statement about them in Apoc. xvii. 12, as de¬ signating peoples which for a certain time would not have attained to the dignity of kingdoms, furnishes the best explanation. Something notable that would have been done by them ere attaining their diadems, or at least before the Beast’s rise upon the mundane scene, is also there stated by the Angel ; 2 and will be observed on by me in my next Lecture. That which here appeared was that from the time of the Beast’s rise, and throughout its reign, they would be united to its new head ; and would give their strength and power to it.3 — The fulfilment of this, and indeed of what was previously figured of the horns also in Apoc. xii, will be found in the history of the Goths , and other kindred barbarians , in the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries. Heathen themselves, and already since Aurelian’s time intermixt and incorporated with the heathen Homans of the old Dacian and other adjoining pro- 1 Such, I think, is the meaning of “ one of the seven,” Apoc. xvii. 11. —Else it must mean one of the seven heads seen on the Beast, though in order of succession the eighth. Compare Judg. xvii. 11, 1 Sam. xvii. 36. Sept. 2 Apoc. xvii. 16. 3 Apoc. xvii. 13, xiii. 1. S RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST. vinces, as well as united in closest alliance with Rome’s subsequent heathen emperors,1 they could not but sympathize with Maximin and Licinius, at the time figured in tke opening vision of Apoc. xii, in their efforts against the advancement of Christianity to poli¬ tical power in the empire. Accordingly in 322, just before Licinius’ last declaration of war against Con¬ stantine, the Goths poured across the Danube into Constantine’s province of Illyricum ; nor was their re¬ pulse effected without calling forth expressions of dissa¬ tisfaction from Licinius.2 Moreover, after his overthrow and capture in 323, he was put to death by his Chris¬ tian conqueror on the charge of plotting with them against him.3 Hence, the rather, a propriety in the attachment of the undiademed horns to the Dragon in 1 Gibbon thus describes the union and alliance between Goths and Romans, resulting from Aurelian’s Treaty of peace with them. “ It was a lasting and beneficial treaty.” The daughters of the Gothic chiefs he “ gave in marriage to some of his principal officers ; ” and thus “ gradually introduced between the two nations the closest and most endearing connexions.” In the Dacian Provinces, abandoned by this Treaty to the Goths, many Romans remained, and helped to civilize them. These, and the various hordes of barbarians that united to occupy the province, “ blended into one great people, which acknowledged the superior authority of the Gothic tribe.” “ An in¬ tercourse of commerce and language was gradually established be¬ tween the opposite banks of the Danube : and, after Dacia had become an independent state, it often proved the firmest barrier of the em¬ pire against the incursions of the savages of the North.” This friend¬ ship and alliance continued unbroken till their attack on Constan¬ tine, just before Licinius’ last war with him, a.d. 322. Gibbon ii. 18—20, 254. 2 “ Licinius found fault with Constantine for having entered his territories with an army, in order to repel the invasion of the Goths.” Crevier, x. 89. 3 Socrates says that a Licinius carried on intrigues withjthe barba¬ rians, in order to recover his throne.” Ib. 99. RISE AND REIGN OF ANTICHRIST. 259 that opening symbolization : — though doubtless this was chiefly by anticipation : 1 first in reference to the Goths’ speedy closer connexion with the Homan Hea¬ then and Arian body ; and, yet more, as a mark of identification of the Dragon with the Beast his suc¬ cessor, whose earthly strength and power was to be de¬ rived from the adhesion to it of the horns and their new kingdoms.- — So the six or seven earlier heads upon the Beast were virtually explained by the Angel to be meant retrospectively ; and as marking the Beast’s iden¬ tification with the Dragon, under whom alone those heads had existence. Now as the 5th century opened, and when the overthrow of Heathenism, and of Arianism too, had been all but completed within the empire, the Gothic hordes, heathen or Arian, burst like a flood, as had been prefigured to St. John, over the Western world: and gradually the chieftains, one after another, incor¬ porating the inhabitants of the several great provinces with his own barbarian hordes, established in them new Bomano-Gothic kingdoms. And then this curious fact occurred, just according to the prophecy. For a while, notwithstanding the success of their arms, they courted investiture in their kingdoms from the Roman emperor of the West ; and, after his extinc¬ tion in 476, from the Roman emperor of the East : and signified their sense of his holding a kind of suze¬ rainty over them by stamping his head diademed on LECT. II. 1 Under the Arian emperor Valens, in 876, the Goths, then become Arian, had been admitted into the Roman cis-Danubian province of Ulyricum, as citizens of the empire. 2 L _ 260 RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST. THIRD TRIAD. ' - v - * their coinage.1 This is marked by medallists as the transition cera towards absolute sovereignty with the Romano- Gothic kings of the West.2 But about a.d, 510, King Clovis the Frank, following the example of the Vandal king, and then next the kings of the Ostrogoths, Visigoths of Spain, Sueves, Burgundians, Anglo-Saxons, Bavarians, Lombards, ere the end of the 6th century cast away that badge of inferiority, and themselves assumed the diadem ; — a fact to which coins of five or six of the number, still extant, most interestingly bear testimony.3 — Meanwhile the Bishops or Popes of Rome, as already in a previous Lec¬ ture set forth in detail,4 had been putting forth a claim to a supremacy higher far than that of the greatest of the old Roman emperors, in the character of Christ’s Vicegerent on earth. And in the course of the century and a half following after the West¬ ern emperors abdication and extinction, a.d. 476, the Romano-Gothic kings of the West one after another, gave in their adhesions to the Pope’s claim. Until, at the end of the 6th century, all having pronounced in its favor, and united to recog¬ nize the Pope as their spiritual head and father, he thus came to be, in his character of Christ’s Vicar , 1 Ov yap 7TOT6 cpovro TaAAias £vv rep aacpaXei KeKrrjcrOai Qpayyoi, pap rov avroKparopos to epyov ematypayLaavTos tovto ye. So Procopius B. G. iii. 83, in a passage more fully cited by me in the H. A. iii. 132. 2 I have given specimens in a plate in my H . A. ibid, of coins of certain Romano-Gothic kings, with the diademed Emperor’s head thus graven on it. 3 See my H. A. ibid, and the specimens of some of the barbaric coins there given in a plate in illustration. 4 See pp. 173—178 supr&. RISE AND REIGN OF ANTICHRIST. 261 what the well-known legend on Papal medals calls L^CT him, “ Christianse Beipublicae Hex ac Pater.”1 Here ' — was the Beast under his 8th Head, with the ten dia¬ demed horns attached to it. — This, I say, was at the end of the 6th century, just the time of the emperor Phocas’ recognition of the Pope’s universal episcopate, noted by me in a preceding Lecture ;2 which date must be regarded therefore as a most important commencing epoch in the history of the Papal Supremacy. The Beast's rise , and constituency at its rise , hav¬ ing been thus considered, which was the 1st point under our Hnd main head, we have next, 2ly, to notice its Apocalyptically sketched cha¬ racter, , after thus rising in power on the scene of the Homan world ; or character rather (according to the Angel’s explanation) of its ruling head.3 And we shall find that, whether ao regards the Beast’s pride and blasphemies , or his cruelty to the saints , it had all its counterpart in the character and acts of the Popes of Borne. First, if the Beast had “ a mouth speaking great things , and blasphemies ,” where was ever potentate of this earth to whom the characteristic might be applied in equal measure as to the Boman Popes ? And this, not as in the case merely of a few of the more arro¬ gant by natural disposition : but as in the case of all ; and as the necessary corollary from their official pre¬ tensions. Invested, as they falsely claimed to be, with plenipotentiary power as Christ’s Vicegerents 1 Bonanni i. 254. 2 See p. 194. 3 Apoc. xvii. 11. 262 RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST. THIRD TRIAD. on earth, where was earthly prince that could pretend ' even in temporal majesty to compete with the Pope ? Plis exaltation above all other royalty he resembled to that of the sun above the moon. Indeed kings did but hold their kingdoms from him. He might give them to, or take them from, whom he would. Was it not fit that kings should kiss his feet, and hold his stirrup, as feudatories: and, if they displeased him, that he should kick their crowns from him as worth¬ less baubles ? — Yet more, as to his spiritual power, who could set bounds to it ? With the power of the keys assigned him by Christ he opened, and who might shut ; shut, and who might open ? By his fulminations of wrath he could cast down the souls of men to hopeless perdition ; by his indulgences, like the Lamb of God, take away the sins of the world, and deliver suffering souls of the departed from pur¬ gatory. Heaven itself, as well as earth and hades, was included within the sphere of his power. He had authority over angels to command them ; and could elevate whom he pleased of the dead to the rank of deities. Yea, above all, he could out of mere bread, at his will, make Christ; and, as Christ was the Supreme God, could thus make the Supreme God himself.1 — My brethren, was there ever blasphemy 1 I doubt not that this is the thing alluded to in the prophecy of Daniel, xi. 37, 38 ; “ A God whom his fathers knew not he shall honour (or glorify) with silver , and gold , and precious stones .” The ostensorium in which the consecrated wafer, .or breaden God, made by the Popish priests is exhibited, and held up for worship, is required to have rays of glory round it, and usually “ of silver, and gold, and precious stones.” So Dr. Rock in his Hierurgia, i. 64 ; “ It is used RISE AND REIGN OF ANTICHRIST. 263 like this ? Talk of the blasphemies of infidels, they seem to me trifling in the comparison. Oh ! let not w our familiarity with the Papal claim deaden our sen¬ sibility to the mostrousness, not of its absurdity alone, but of its blasphemy and guilt.1 A further point Apocalyptically noted of the Beast’s character and acts was this ; — “ It was given him to make war on Christ's saints , and to overcome them .” This was in fact marked as the very object with the Dragon in raising up the Beast in different form from his own;2 (though one still bestial;) and giv¬ ing him “ his power, and throne, and great authority.” —And does it need that I should prove to an audience like this that what the prophecy told of the Beast’s cruelwar against Christ’s saints had fulfilment in the his¬ tory of the Popes ? Surely it is a fact blazoned in the European history of the middle age, and afterwards. Whether in regard of the Waldenses, or Wicliffites, or Hussites, or United Brethren, or other dissentient sectaries within the ten kingdoms, by whatever name called, neither the proved scriptural truth of their doctrine, not the proved innocency of their lives, could save them from the hostility of the Popes. The for showing the blessed sacrament to the people, to receive their wor¬ ship : and it is composed of a stem, which supports a crystal vase, surrounded with rays of glory?' — The noun cognate to the Hebrew verb translated honour , is often used, as Gesenius notes, for So£a K vpiov, the “ glory of the Lord.” This is noticed in my H. A. iv. 94. Now, if the god made be so great, what must be the god-maker ? 1 The reader will find all these points respecting the Pope’s monstrous pride and self-exaltation abundantly illustrated in my H. A. iii. 158 — 169 ; with sketches of Papal medals, &c, in con¬ firmation. 2 Apoc. xii. 17. See p. 249, 250, supriL LECT. II. — v — — 264 RISE, REIGN, AND CHURCH OF ANTICHRIST. THIRD TRIAD. rack, the sword, the flame, crusades so-called of armed warriors, and the yet more terrible inquisition by delegated priestly inquisitors, were all put into opera¬ tion by Papal Bulls against them.1 — How this was carried out, and also the further prediction fulfilled of the Beast’s overcoming them, as the result of the war,2 will be illustrated by me in the Lectures of next sea¬ son, concerning Christ’s two sackcloth-robed witnesses. 3rdly, we have to note the two chief agencies , or instrumentalities , prefigured, as used by the Apoca¬ lyptic Beast to accomplish his ends. Did the Papal history answer also on this head ? Let us see. The first of the two agencies used by the Beast, and which should be very carefully considered, was a smaller Beast , that rose on the scene after the former, “ having horns like a lamb, but which spake as a dragon.” This exercised all the authority of the primary Beast, but as before him, or under his super¬ vision : and it so used its delegated power as to cause the earth’s inhabitants to worship that primary one. — Now, after Christ’s own explanation of similar symbolic language, “ Beware of false prophets , (i. e. of false religious teachers,) which come to you in sheep's clothing , but inwardly they are ravening wolves I do not see how we can well err in the ex¬ planation of the symbol now under consideration. It must surely signify the body of the apostate (though professedly Christian ) priesthood , under the headship of Antichrist. — Such, indeed, has been the explana- 1 See my H. A. iii. 172 et seq. 2 Apoc. xiii. 7, xi. 7. RISE AND REIGN OF ANTICHRIST. 265 tion given by interpreters from early times : not by L^T- certain patristic expositors only, but by sundry of v — v — * the Romish faith, from Gregory, downwards ; though, of course, disagreeing with Protestants on the ques¬ tion of Antichrist.1 Now, in turning from the prophecy to the thing prophesied of, it may be useful and interesting to mark how, (in manner quite different from the Roman heathen priesthood) the ministers of the Christian Church were from early times separated from the laity, and made a distinct class and order : also how from the close of the 4th century, when corruption and apostacy were advancing within it, the clergy were by laws imperial and ecclesiastical more and more subjected to the Bishops, and the Bishops of the West to the Western Patriarch, or Bishop of Rome.2 Towards the close of the 6th century, Pope Gregory sought to make this their subjection more universal and complete ; by requiring that every Archbishop of his Patriarchate should receive the pallium from her in token of investiture,3 ere exer- 1 See my H. A. iii. 176 &c. Irenaeus, who identifies this Beast with the False Prophet of Apoc. xix, calls it the armour-bearer, vTrepa ° . ' — v — ' doctrine ; and of which, after separating itself about the middle of the 7th century from the Greek esta¬ blished Church, professedly as a witness for Christ against that Church’s antichristian idolatries and errors, the subsequent external history was as follows. For above two centuries, notwithstanding the bloody imperial persecutions that from time to time assailed it, it still kept up its testimony, raising its voice, and scattering its branch churches, in the Eastern, North¬ ern, and Southern parts of Asia Minor; until at length, just about the time of the great schism between the Latin and Greek Churches,1 having then become a considerable community, it was in great measure transferred by the Emperor, as a body of colonists, to the Thracian and Bulgarian frontiers of his empire in Europe. Thence, in the xth century, it sent out parties to Italy, Germany, and other countries of Western Christendom, who there and then still every where exhibited the principles of their progenitors ; and whether alone, or commingled with indigenous Western witnesses of the soil, (the spiritual descend¬ ants of Agobard, Claude of Turin, or others of like spirit,) again raised their voice of protest against the abominations of the now rampant Papal apostacy, and sealed their testimony again and again with their blood. We trace the Western witnessing of these Paulikian emigrants by the Councils that condemned 1 The Pope’s bequest to the Eastern or Greek Church, on the final separation between them, may be said to have been its antichristian idolatry, and other gross superstitions. WITNESS begun; apocP temple-court heathenized. 311 them at Turin, Orleans, Arras, Toulouse, Oxford, LECT- T • Lombers, and elsewhere, — alike in Italy, Germany, 1 — * — ' France, England, Flanders, — from the opening of the xith century to the close of the xiith : at which latter epoch these Paulikiani , or Publicani , became identi¬ fied in considerable measure with the Albigenses of the South of France ; and also with those sectaries called Poor Men of Lyons, or (after P. V aides, their first teacher at Lyons) by the more famous appellative Waldenses . How consistently, earnestly, and sufferingly, these Paulikian sectaries carried out their witness against the antichristian doctrines and worship then preva¬ lent, whether earlier in the East, or later in the West, is notorious ; and moreover that they profest to do it in the character of witnesses for Christ against Romish superstition. “ We are Christians, you Romans.” 1 It is also admitted that their only profest rule of faith and life was God’s written word in the New Testa¬ ment ; and, as to their life and morals, that though not seldom calumniated by their enemies as immoral, the charge, even on the evidence of their enemies themselves, is demonstrably unsustainable.— But it has been urged against them, and this not by unscru¬ pulous Romanists alone like Bossuet, but of late years even by learned Protestant writers, alike in England 1 The Paulikians’ vehemence against Peter was one of the charges made against them by Petrus Siculus and Photius. There is but one explanation of this at all consistent with historic fact, viz. that it was against him who sate in Peter’s chair at Rome ; and whose acts and voice were at the time, and afterwards continually, from the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon in the 5th century, down to Dr. Newman in the 19th, called the acts and voice of Peter , See my H. A. ii. 310, 311 ; also p. 174, supra. 312 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. FOURTH TRIAD. and Germany, that in doctrine they were fundament¬ ally unsound, having drunk deeply into the doctrines of Manicheism. So more especially, it has been said, in regard of their doctrine of the two principles, in regard of their rejection of the Old Testament, in regard of their reported denial of Christ’s having come in the flesh, and of their slight, if not rejection, of Christ’s holy sacraments. It is well, Brethren, that these charges have been urged afresh in such and so many quarters ; because it has necessitated a more accurate investigation than ever before into the most authentic extant historical records respecting the Paulikians, in order to determine the truth or false¬ hood of the charges. And I would that a Committee of that learned body which I have the privilege of addressing had it assigned them as a duty to report judicially of the result. If I greatly mistake not, the result would be this ; — that even on the evidence of the Paulikians’ most bitter enemies, P. Siculus and Photius , these charges would be declared, one and all, to break down utterly. — Speaking generally of the imputation of Manicheism against them, it will be found that with regard to all that is most important and most characteristic in any proposed religious system, — viz. 1st, its doctrine as to the origin of man, and causes of the present mixture in his state of good and evil, — 2ndly, its proffered mode of deli¬ verance from the evil, — 3rdly, the future prospects opened in it beyond death, both for such as embrace and such as reject it, — 4thly, the authority on which WITNESS begun; apocc temple-court heathenized. its dogmas are propounded, — I say that in each and all of these several chief points in a religion there is absolutely not a semblance of correspondence between the Manichean system and that which we may infer from Peter Siculus and Photius to have been the religious system of the Paulikians. — Nor will it be less apparent that the specific charges, whether of Manichsean or of other unchristian heterodoxy, bear on them too the stamp of falsehood. Thus 1st, as to the Paulikian so called dualism , or doctrine of the two principles , «/?%«/,) good and evil, the very word apyou reminds us that a dualism so exprest might as well be that of two different and contrary ruling powers in the world, as that of two contrary and independent originating or creating principles ; the latter being a Gnostic and Manichsean dualism indeed, but the former altogether accordant with the teaching of Christ and his apostles : — as we read, “ The prince of this world cometh;” “the god of this world, that ruleth in the children of disobedience.” Now that the Pauli¬ kians did not profess their dualism in any Manichsean or un scriptural sense, appears from the fact of their never broaching any cosmogony of their own, or de¬ fining the separate acts of two similarly eternal and independent creative powers, so as did the Gnostics and the Manichees : besides that Petrus Siculus him¬ self incidentally mentions a Paulikian woman, well skilled in the doctrine, speaking of the heavenly God as “ the one only living and immortal God rov povov twvra kou aOavarov 0 eov. And that they did mean it in 314 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. FOURTH TRIAD. the true and Scriptural sense appears from their re¬ ported application of it to the state of things that they saw around them, even in professing Christendom ; just as St. John says, “ The whole world lieth in the wicked one.”1 — 2ndly, that they did not reject the Old Testament , like the Manichees, appears from this ; that whereas the avowed reason of the Mani¬ chees rejecting it, viz. that of its being (they said) the book of the evil God, involved a rejection of the Old Testament saints also, from their having been the evil God’s favorites, it is on the contrary inci¬ dentally reported by P. Siculus of the same Paulikian woman, that in conversation with a friend she spoke of the Old Testament saints, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not as shut out from, but as admitted by the good God into, his kingdom of heaven. — 3. That the Paulikians did not deny Christ's true incarnation , and birth from the Virgin Mary , appears from the fact that Photius himself, in a very notable passage, quite overlooked till of late,2 thus ascribes that heretical notion to but a fraction of the Paulikian body : “ There is, yes I affirm it, there is a not inconsidera¬ ble portion of Paulikians that madly argues against the incarnate manifestation of the Word.”3 Besides 1 Compare too what Christ says of the Devil sowing tares within the pale of the kingdom, or visible Church. 2 It has never been cited, so far as 1 am aware, by any of the con¬ troversialists on the Paulikian subject, friendly to the sect or hos¬ tile, till it was cited by myself in a paper against the late Rev. T. K. Arnold in the British Magazine, a.d. 1847, and subsequently in the 4th Edition of my Horae. 3 f£rrt 7 ap, 6 an, ns rrjs anoaTaatas Tavrrjs ovn o A <7 77 /to 1 p a Tavrrjv tt)v A vacrav Kara Tips evaapnov rov Aoyov irapovaius it pocpepovaa' i, e. the WITNESS begun; apocc temple-court heathenized, that he notices it as the Paulikians’ belief, that instead of a phantastic crucifixion, or crucifixion in semblance only, (so as the Gnostics and Manicheans taught,) Jesus Christ suffered torture on the cross : which belief could have been only entertained by them on the orthodox hypothesis of his having had a true human body, susceptible of suffering.- — Once more, 4 thly, as regards their asserted rejection of the two divinely-appointed sacraments , the falsehood of the charge appears not only from the recorded fact of the Paulikians’ own solemn disclaimer of its truth, but from the fact too of their being reported by P. Siculus to have sometimes received both baptism and the Lord’s supper from the hands of Greek priests whom they might happen to have had captive among them. In truth it is clear enough that it was the doctrine of the ex opere operate saving effect of the sacraments, then in high vogue among the Greek ecclesiastics, (even as with Romanists, and I fear not a few English ecclesiastics too of the present day,) that the Paulikians contended against ; just as does still, in her noble Articles of Faith, the Protestant Church of England.1 Kvcraa, or mad theory, of Christ having appeared eu axviuan, kcu inroKpicret, not cy a\f)Qeia kcu virap^ei. Contra Manichceos, B. iii. pp. 19, 20. (Ed. Wolf.) 1 On all this very important subject I must beg to refer my Readers to Part iii. ch. vii. § 5 of my II. A. 4th Edition : where (as also in my Paper in the British Magazine referred to above) the question is, I believe, more fully and critically examined than in any other published disquisition on the subject. This Paper has never been replied to. It is the more important, because it includes a critical examination and refutation of an elabo¬ rate but most illogical paper by Dr. Gieseler, in the Berlin Stud, und Krit. making the Paulikians Marcionites ! 316 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. FOURTH TRIAD. Such is in brief my vindication of the Paulikians, with regard to the character of their witnessing in the East . — And with regard to their later witnessing in the West the charges of their enemies against them will be found, on that hostile evidence itself, similarly to break down. Nor so alone : but with this crown- a a ing and decisive confirmation of the Christian charac¬ ter of their testimony at the close of the 12th century, (to which epoch I brought down my brief sketch of their external history and fortunes1) that they were then, or at least many of them, so received into union and connexion with the Waldenses from Lyons , as to be recognized both by sundry Pomish writers of the time, and also by those Waldenses themselves, as in faith and doctrine essentially one. More especially let me call attention to the important retrospective bearing, to this purport, of a remarkable clause in the “Noble Lesson;” — that earliest and most interest- ing document of Yaldensic literature in the 12th cen¬ tury.2 For now at length, thank God, instead of mere hostile records against them, we have a document of the Witnesses’ own to appeal to : — a document so Christian in its character that the modern impugn- ers of the Paulikian and Albigensic orthodoxy con¬ fessedly cannot gainsay its excellence.3 In it then, 1 See p. 310, 311, supra. 2 See on all the Waldensian subject my Chapter on the Waldenses in the 2nd Vol. of the H. A. Where, as on the Paulikians, 1 believe the whole subject concerning them will be found treated with more research and critical care than elsewhere. 3 E. g. Drs. Maitland and Todd. WITNESS begun; apocc temple-court heathenized, instead of the Waldenses speaking of themselves as a sect of witnesses for Christ quite new, after centuries v- of apostacy previously on the part of all Christendom, we find the following retrospective recognition of a witnessing line of like faith with themselves from the apostles’ time downwards even to their own : — “ Now after the apostles were certain teachers who showed the way of Jesus Christ our Saviour. And some such are found even to the present time , who are manifest to very few people. These greatly wish to show the way of Jesus Christ ; but they are so persecuted that they can scarcely do it. So much are false Christians blended with error, most of all those who should be pastors.” — Nor let me forget to notice a further and very interesting confirmation of the view I am pro¬ pounding, derived from a manuscript of the middle age found at Lyons in May 1851 by Dr. Gilly. It is a conjoint Valdensic and Albigensic Servitium , or Church Service , in Provencal Romaunt, appended to a copy of the New Testament in Romaunt ; and of which the handwriting itself is referred by the most competent judges to as early a date as the century from 1250 to 1350. It contains, as Dr. G. informs me, a beautiful Litany, unlike howrever to any other extant ; and a form of admission for candidates to the holy communion. It quotes the Old Testament, as well as the New abundantly ; and “ is a complete vindication of those who used it,” he adds, “ against the charges both of Manicheism and Arianism.” 317 LECT. I. 318 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. FOURTH TRIAD. II. Having thus brought down my notice of these witnesses for Christ’s truth to the union of those of Eastern origin and those of Western in Western Christendom, about the time of the rise of the Wal- denses of Lyons towards the close of the 12th cen¬ tury, I must now proceed to observe that I conceive this epoch of the rise of the Waldenses to be one predictively marked out in the far-seeing Apocalyptic prophecy, as that when the sackcloth-robed witnesses would perfect their testimony, with the consequence resulting of terrible persecution from the Beast. I refer to that clause in Apoc. xi. 7, orav reX eo-cccri tyjv fxGtprvpiav avrcov , rendered in our version, “When they shall have finished their testimony : ” but which ought, I doubt not, to be rendered, “When they shall have perfected their testimony.” For internal evidence (not to notice other objec¬ tions) seems of itself decisively to set aside the sense of finishing , here given by our translators to the verb reXeaooai : seeing that, since the 1260 years is marked in the Apocalypse as alike the period of the Beast’s reign and of the witnesses’ sackcloth-robed witnessing, this rendering would make the epoch of the Beast’s war against them to be the epoch of the ending of his own reign ; which surely is little less than absurd. — But reXeco, besides the sense of finishing , has also in fact the sense of perfecting , just like the cognate verb reXeio a>. So Theodoret explains the word in that passage in the 9th of Daniel, which speaks, according to our English version, of “ 70 weeks being deter- ♦ WITNESS begun; apoc^ temple- court heathenized. mined on Jerusalem to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sin ; ” but in the Greek version, ecog tov TeXecrOvivou a/Aapnav, with the same Greek verb as here. For he explains the clause to mean, “ till they (the Jews) shall have completed, or perfected , their sin, by crucifying Jesus Christ; which act he regarded as the culminating point, and perfecting, of the Jews’ national sin.1 Yet not so as to imply the fact of their sin being then finished, or ended. Quite the contrary : since by their acceptance of their fore¬ fathers’ act, and persistence in a similar rejection of Jesus Christ, they had continued that sin to the time when Theodoret wrote ; and indeed still continue it, even to our own time. Precisely the same seems to me the sense, of the word TeAew in the passage now before us : and, so explained, all becomes easy in it, and con¬ sistent with the context. The prediction is then to the effect which I just before intimated : — how that the Papal Antichrist would not immediately make open war on the sackcloth-robed witnesses for Christ ; but at some notable later epoch of the witnessing : when, whether in respect of its subject-matter , or of the mode of making it, they might be considered to have before the world perfected their testimony, and made complete. Now then it seems to me that at the time of the rise of the Waldenses just such a perfecting of the 1 Theodoret’s comment stands thus : — avn tov, eoos av av^dy avrccv to 8u(r =88 days. days for the 396 years, J An hour* = /2 of a prophetic day, or year, = 30 days. Total 396 years + 118 days. 3 See H. A. i. 494—498. * “Are there not 12 hours in a day.” John xi. 9. WITNESS REVIVED : INNER TEMPLE-COURT CLEANSED. porting his ships across the isthmus of Galata into the inner harbour, and thus and thereby completing the investment of the devoted city. Then follows the statement by the historian ; “ After a siege of forty days the fate of Constantinople could no longer be averted.” What then was this 40th day of the siege ? It was May 1 6 ; that selfsame day on which, as we saw, the Apocalyptic period expired. — The final attack was indeed delayed some ten or twelve days after. But on and from that day, according to the historian, the fate of the city and empire was sealed. As to the predicted religious state following after this catastrophe of the men of that part of Homan Christendom “ which had not been destroyed by these plagues,” i. e. of the men of the Western Homan world, (their state immediately before the Covenant- Angel’s intervention in Apoc. x.) they are described in our prophecy as not repenting of the sins of worship of daemons, and of idols of gold and silver and brass and wood, the work of their own hands; nor of the sins of murder, fornication, theft, sorcery.1 — Now for evi¬ dence of the fact that the three last-named sins, those of fornication , theft, sorcery , (i. e. religious deceits and craft,) characterized the spiritual rulers and priesthood of Western Christendom in the half century following the overthrow of Constantinople, as well as through¬ out the four preceding centuries, during which the Turks had been advancing to its overthrow, I need 1 Apoc. ix. 20, 21. 334 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. FOURTH TRIAD. but refer to what has been elsewhere copiously cited in illustration,1 from ecclesiastical histories and Coun¬ cils of the sera. They are, one or the other, full on the subject. — In proof that murders (murders on system, and as an essential part of the religion estab¬ lished) were chargeable on the men of Western Chris¬ tendom, I may simply remind you of what was de¬ tailed in my last Lecture respecting the persecution and massacres of the witness-bearing Waldenses, and Lollards, and Bohemian United Brethren.2 — Finally, as to the truth of the prophetic charge against them of worshipping demons , and idols , the work of their own hands , I shall cite the remarkable evidence of the Turk¬ ish Sultan himself, when starting in 1469, soon after the capture of Constantinople, on the invasion of Italy: — “I Mahomet, son of Amurath, promise to the only God, Creator of all things, that I will not give sleep to my eyes, nor eat any delicacies, till I overthrow, and trample under the feet of my horses, the gods of the nations ; those gods of wood , and brass , and silver , and gold , and painting , which the disciples of Christ have made with their hands .”3 One might almost have thought, did we not know the impossibility of the fact, that Mahomet had copied from the Apo¬ calyptic passage before us, in this his description of the religious idolatry of Western Christendom in the latter half of the 15th century. Surely a more ex¬ traordinary proof of the exactness of the Apocalyptic 1 See my H. A. ii. Part iii. Ch. i. 2 See pp. 822 — 829 supra. 3 From Sismondi. See H. A. ii. 80. WITNESS REVIVED : INNER TEMPLE-COURT CLEANSED. 335 prophetic sketch on the point could not even have been imagined. Such then was the chronological epoch, and such the heathenized state of Western Christendom, with an all but extinction of the gospel-witness, (as we shall see presently under my 4th Head,) as predicted, and as fulfilled in the history of the close of the xvth century, which preceded and introduced Christ’s won¬ derful intervention to revive it, according to the same Apocalyptic prophecy. Had this latter prediction then its fulfilment also in history? This was the second and next point for our consideration. II. The Intervention, and primary actings of the intervening Angel, as described in the xth Apocalyptic Chapter. And 1st, under this head, consider the Angel's de¬ scent itself. — Now, in the prophecy , there are here to be observed carefully the points following i—the chro¬ nological place of his descent, as in sequence immedi¬ ate and sudden on the dark moral phase, just before noted, of what remained undestroyed of Christendom : — then next the nature of the Angel; he being indicated alike by the mantling-cloud of divinity,1 the covenant- rainbow crowning him, his face like the sun, and feet like pillars of fire, (just as in Christ’s revelation of him¬ self in Dan. x. and Apoc. i.)2 also by his soon after 1 See H. A. ii. 40. I have there observed that I believe there is no single Scriptural instance of a created angel appearing vested in a cloud. It was the ensign of Deity. See Psalm civ. 3, xviii. 11. 2 Sam. xxii. 12, &c. 2 Dan. x. G, Apoc. i. 15. LECT. ii. 336 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. FOURTH TRIAD. calling the two sackcloth-robed witnesses his wit¬ nesses,1 to be the Covenant- Angel Christ Jesus : — further the special character of his present revelation of himself , viz. as the sun of righteousness, and angel of the covenant of grace ; not without a striking concurrent vindication to himself, as if against some grand usurper, of his rightful honors in this character, and rightful lordship over our world ; planting his feet, as he did authoritatively, on sea and land, and crying with a loud voice as when a lion roareth : — finally the little book which he showed opened in his hand, when descending, just as if the instrumental means, as well as accompaniment, of the revelation ; and which what follows at the end of Apoc. x.2 proves (as we shall hereafter see) to have been the book of the Gospels , or perhaps of the whole New Testament . So the prop hecy. And now mark the exact cor¬ respondency of events in the history of the times to which we refer it. — Just at the opening of the 16th century, when Western Christendom, sunk in the superstitions of a religion of penances, purgatory, saints-merits, papal indulgences, and other inventions of priestcraft, was all but in universal and utter dark¬ ness as to God’s own gospel-method of justification for sinful men, through faith in the divine Saviour- substitute Christ Jesus, — just then, all suddenly and gloriously, did the Lord Jesus reveal himself to Lu¬ ther and other ministers of the true apostolic line and spirit, (such as St. John seems all along to have im- 1 Apoc. xi. 3. 2 Verse 10. WITNESS REVIVED : INNER TEMPLE- COURT CLEANSED. 337 personated on the Apocalyptic scene,1) in his true L®cT- character of the sun of righteousness, and angel of v — Y — . God’s covenant of grace ; and all by unveiling to their minds the intent of the long-shut but now opened book of the gospel. It was a view accom¬ panied (as it ever must be) with a sense vivid and clear, on their part, of Jesus Christ’s plenary claim to our earth as his own ransomed possession. And loudly did their voice re-echo the claim : especially as against the claims of all counter usurping authority ; such as Tetzel and others, charged with the sale of Papal Indulgences, were at the time ascribing over half Western Europe to Christ’s supposed Vicegerent on earth, the Pope. — Nor surely ought we to over¬ look, as illustrating this point, the singular fact, that there were exhibited at Pome at this self-same epoch before applauding Europe, on occasion of a new Pope, Leo the xth’s inauguration, magnificent paintings re¬ presenting the Pope in each and every one of the characters, and as invested with each and every one of the prerogatives, here Apocalyptically vindicated to himself before St. John by the Lord Jesus Christ : — the Pope as a rising sun upon a dark world ; the Pope with the rainbow of grace for his accompani¬ ment ; the Pope with one foot on the land, and the other on the sea, as each alike under his authority. And this not in the way of a mere complimentary pa¬ geant ; but as expressive of the view generally taken at the time of the Pope’s real prerogatives and func- 1 See H. A. i. 280—284, ii. 112. Z 338 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. fourth tions, in his character of Christ’s Viceregent ; the TRIAD. . 0 Antichrist in fact superseding the Christ.1 — Could the divine Omniscient Spirit, let me ask, have been igno¬ rant of all this, when, in anticipation of the far dis¬ tant future, he sketched before St. John this counter¬ figuration of Christ in the visions of Patmos ? Next, 2ly, in the Apocalyptic prefiguration we read that “ the seven thunders ” were heard by St. John to “ utter their voices : ” — thunders therefore not of common sound, like those from the throne, but distinct and vocal: and so impressing St. John that he was at first on the point of writing what they said ; (doubtless for the same reason for which he was elsewhere bidden to write the words he heard, viz., because of their being words from God ;)2 but in a very remarkable manner was checked from doing so by a warning voice from heaven, and bidden not to write. — Had this too its counterpart in the progress¬ ing history of the Reformation ? In order to understand its purport we must remem¬ ber that, in St. John’s time, a publicly-sounded voice from Rome’s seven hills was poetically designated as a septenary of voices ; 3 and also that the mandates from the emperor there enthroned were called thun¬ ders, especially if mandates of rebuke, because of his world-known pretensions to divinity.4 Which re- 1 See Part iii. Ch. 3. of the H. A. : where every point is fully and elaborately illustrated. 2 Apoc. xiv. 13, xix. 9, xxi. 5. 3 So Claudian ; — Collesque, canoris Plausibus impulsi, septena voce resultant. 4 See H. A. ii. 100. WITNESS REVIVED : INNER TEMPLE-COURT CLEANSED. 339 membered, and also St. John’s symbolic character on L^T* the scene, already before adverted to, as the represen- ' tative of Church ministers and evangelists of the true apostolic succession,1 we infer that the seven thunders, here heard by St. John, might fitly indicate a rebuke to Luther and his coadjutors for what they had just done in their assertion of Jesus Christ’s prerogatives and honor, from him who then sate enthroned on Home’s seven hills, i. e. the Pope : supposing only (what we know to have been the case) that the Pope, like the emperor of old, claimed to sit there as God ; his voice to issue thence as heaven’s thunder. — Moreover St. John’s predisposition to receive and register what the thunders spoke, as a voice from God, till warned and checked by the heavenly Spirit, might seem to indicate a similar predisposition and check from above, in respect of some Papal thunders of rebuke, in the case of Luther. — Was this the case then ? It was notoriously the case after the affair with Tetzel. The Pope’s thunder of rebuke soon fell on Luther’s ears from Home’s seven hills ; and his well-known answer tells how he was at first dis¬ posed to receive it as the voice of Christ, because the voice of Christ’s Vicar : — “ Most blessed Father, kill me, or make me live, approve or reprove, as it shall please thee : I will acknowledge thy voice as the voice of Christ speaking in thee .” But almost in¬ stantly he felt himself checked, even as by a warning voice from heaven : and a fearful thought suggested 1 See the references in Note 1, p. 387, supu. 340 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. fourth itself, which at first he scarce dared to listen to ; viz. TRIAD. v — that, instead of Christ’s voice, it might in reality be that of Antichrist. Soon, very soon, examination of the Papal canon law and decretals convinced him of the fact. And then he kindled a fire, as we all know, outside the walls of Wittemberg ; and rejected and burnt the bull (to use his own language) as “the infernal voice of Antichrist.” — This discovery was, in effect, the second great step of the Reformation. 3. Next in the prophecy, and as in sequel to the charge from heaven against St. John’s writing the voices of the seven thunders, came a solemn oath from the Angel, (the counterpart to that sworn by the Angel in the xiith of Daniel about the 3f fated times of the duration of Antichrist,) declaring that the term to God’s great mystery (i. e. of such antiehris- tian usurpation and rule being permitted) was not only fixt, but near, being assigned to the days of the next or 7th Trumpet’s sounding. — So too, in the history of Luther and his brother Reformers, we read that when entering now at length on deadly conflict with the Pope, as Antichrist, their attention began earnestly to be directed to what inspired Scripture prophecy had told of Antichrist’s duration ; and how the impression was strongly made upon their minds, either from Daniel’s or the Apocalyptic prophecy, that the destined term to it was not only fixt, but near. In fact, it became soon the conviction of many, that the 6th Apocalyptic Trumpet was already then far advanced in the world’s eventful drama ; and that the WITNESS REVIVED : INNER TEMPLE-COURT CLEANSED. next or 7th Trumpet’s sounding was not far off, which was to usher in the destruction of the Papal Antichrist. The thought was of unspeakable value to the Re¬ formers, amidst their immense trials and difficulties. It gave them patience, courage, hope. Indeed but for it they must have been overwhelmed by their difficul¬ ties. It constituted another marked point of advance in the progress of the Reformation. 4th, in the prefiguration, was the hearing of a voice from heaven, (that same that had previously forbidden St. John’s writing what the seven thunders uttered,) commanding him to take the opened gospel-book from the Angel’s hand ; and, after himself eating and digesting it, to prophesy again, or again preach the gospel contained in it, before peoples, and kings, and nations. For the word 'prophesy means to preach and publish ; and the word again implied that there had been some marked intermission of such prophesying previously. — Just accordant with which was the next step of action taken by Luther and the other Re¬ formers. After translating the New Testament into German, and the other languages of Northern Europe, (and with what zest they digested the Book, while so occupied, their own statements testify,) they pro¬ ceeded to publish and preach the gospel contained in it in Germany, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Swe¬ den, England, and Scotland : and this as men who, though excommunicated by the Pope, held their ministerial commission still ; even as from one higher than any bishop or Pope, from Christ himself. —And THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. observe ; it was the renewal of what had been sup¬ pressed; the Bohemian, Wicliffite, and Waldensic gospel-preaching having shortly before been put down by the Papal power. For, as I shall have to notice more distinctly under my 4th main head, the preaching by the Reformers of the 16 th century was but a re¬ vival and extension of substantially the same gospel- doctrine with that of the witnesses before. So ends the first part of the prefigurations, that con¬ tained in the xth Apocalyptic Chapter. — Next, but in closest connexion with the foregoing, followed the charge to measure the temple . Which point I pro¬ posed to consider under a new and distinct head. Illly, then, consider w~e St. John’s measuring of the Apocalyptic temple. “Rise/* said the Angel to St. John, (there being given concurrently into the Evangelist’s hand, as if for the purpose of fulfilling the charge, a measuring reed like, it is stated, unto a rod or sceptre,) “ and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein : but the court which is with¬ out the temple, cast out, and measure it not, for it hath been given to the heathen : and the holy city shall they tread under foot 42 months.” — Such was the prophetic figuration. And, in order to its pro¬ per understanding, we have only to follow out the indications given in the Apocalyptic book, respecting, 1 st, the temple ; 2ly, the measuring . 1. As regards the temple , then, I must remind you, WITNESS REVIVED I INNER TEMPLE-COURT CLEANSED. 343 though at the risk in some measure of repetition,1 how L^T that from the very first, and all through the acting out y- of the Apocalyptic figurations, there stood before St. John a temple, very much like that of the Jews, in the foreground of vision : and that, agreeably with Christ’s own explanation of the temple-scene pre¬ viously visible in the introductory vision of Apoc. i, respecting the things then present at the time of St. John’s exile in Patmos, (I mean that where the seven candlesticks were exhibited, in symbol of the seven Christian Asiatic Churches, and Christ walking, robed like the Jewish High-priest, among them,) this Apoca¬ lyptic temple, in the visions of the f uture, could only be construed consistently as still continuing to be a symbol of the Christian worshipping Church. A symbol of it, we may observe, in its three various parts : — the altar-court (which was the part open in the old Jewish temple to the view of Jewish wor¬ shippers) exhibiting the scene and character of the professing Church’s public worship ; the holy place, with its seven-branched candlestick and golden incense altar, where the ministering priest was alone to enter, the Church’s worship as seen and judged of by the great High Priest and Searcher of hearts, in respect of its spirituality and truth ; and the holy of holies , where the Divinity appeared enthroned, with the twenty-four elders round him, the happy place of the worship of the Church triumphant in heaven. — Which being so, the various phases of this temple’s altar- 1 See pp. 210, 222, 231, 232, 326, supra. 344 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. ™ com-t and holy place, as depicted from time to time ' — r—' in vision, offered of course to the seer (conjunctively with the added explanations) very significant indica¬ tion of the state of the worshipping Church at the various successive epochs figured ; and each, I must add, well realized in history. — Thus the first described phase of the temple was that under the 5th Seal, when its altar-court appeared desolate, and destitute of all sign or sound of the usual temple-worship ; the only sound issuing thence being that of the souls of martyrs for Christ’s cause, crying from beneath the altar, “ How long, O Lord, dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth : ” — all (as long since observed by me) 1 in symbol of an sera of persecution, during which public Christian worship would be interdicted, and martyrdoms of Christian saints more than ever before rife : just such as at the period of Diocletian’s persecution ; when pillars were erected in commemoration of the extinction of Chris¬ tianity, and which history designates emphatically as “ the sera of martyrs.”— -The second and next de¬ picted phase of the Apocalyptic temple was at the 7th Seal’s opening;2 after that, under the revolution of the 6th Seal immediately preceding, the heaven of the old Homan heathen supremacy had been seen to pass away, and another to succeed, under which the inhabitants of the Apocalyptic or Roman world appeared identified with the twelve tribes of Israel ; (the nationally profest worshippers of course in the 1 See p. 222. 2 See pp. 231, 232. WITNESS REVIVED : INNER TEMPLE-COURT CLEANSED. Apocalyptic temple ; ) in other words, the Roman world and its people to have become in profession Christian. For then the Apocalyptic temple presented to view an incense-offering scene ; wherein, from the hand of the mediating Angel-priest, and with fire duly taken from the great brazen altar of atonement, the smoke of much incense was seen to rise acceptably on the golden altar before the throne : — but this as incense given by “ the saints” distinctively and alone, or sealed election of the 144,000, from out of all the professing Israel of the Apocalyptic world : the rest, under the appellation of inhabitants of the earth, not¬ withstanding their new Israeli tish profession, being indicated as non-participants in that act of worship ; and consequently as objects on which would fall the fire of the divine wrath and judgment. A prefigura¬ tion this strikingly verified in the history of the Christian Roman empire at the close of the 4 th cen¬ tury. For the mass of the people had by that time already forsaken Christ’s mediatorship for the media- torship of departed saints and martyrs ; and the virtue of Christ’s atoning sacrifice, God’s one and only-ap¬ pointed means of reconciliation, for their own self- invented substitute of saints’ merits, with the ac¬ companiment of sundry superadded superstitious rites and observances. —Yet again, after the five first Trumpet-woes had thereupon followed succes¬ sively in judgment on the Roman world, these being the woes of the Goths, Huns, Vandals, and Saracens, there occurred a third scenic act in the Apocalyptic 346 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. ” temple, introductorily to the outpouring of the 6th ^ — ' Trumpet, or Turkish woe. It was that of a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, summoning the agents of the new judgment from the Euphrates. Now since it was at the four horns of the golden altar, according to the Mosaic ritual, that reconcilia¬ tion was ordered to be made for the sins of priest¬ hood and people,1 (the only ritualistic use, I believe, of those horns of the golden altar,) with assurance in that case of pardon and peace, the cry for judgment from the golden altar’s horns could only symbolize that at the epoch intended there would be no such national or sacerdotal repenting, no such reconciliation with God in the Christian Roman Empire. Just agreeable to which is the voice of history. For the sins of saint and image-worship, with their concom¬ itant superstitions, were all continued, indeed aug¬ mented, in spite of the preceding judgments. And so the Turkish woe ran its course. 2. So much as to the Apocalyptic temple , and the illustrations of its intent from the various phases pre¬ viously exhibited in the preceding part of the pro¬ phecy. — Which being so, need we be at a loss in de¬ cyphering the intent of what we were, 2ly, under this head to consider, the temple's measuring by Si. John ? What could his defining it, at the Covenant- Angel’s command, and in that definition including specifically the altar and them that worshipped there, but ex¬ cluding the outer court as that of heathens, albeit 1 Levit. iv. 3—7, 13 — 13, xvi. 1 — 18. See H. A. i. 455. WITNESS REVIVED : INNER TEMPLE-COURT CLEANSED. from their very occupation of that outer-court pro¬ fessedly temple-worshippers, — what, I say, could this mean, but that they whom St. John here symbolized and impersonated, viz. Luther and the other reform¬ ing fathers, would, next after entering as by Christ’s own commission on the evangelists’ work of preaching and publishing the gospel, take the yet further step of publicly re-forming and defining the Christian Church, alike in regard of doctrine and worship : and this not by Christ’s own authoritative command alone, but also (through his kind providence) with magiste¬ rial and princely authority attending them ; the mea¬ suring reed’s resemblance to a rod , or sceptre , this signifying ? Moreover that, in their definition of what might truly be called a Christian Church, they would make what the Jewish altar-worship signified its grand test of character ; in other words its pro¬ fessing a faith, and exhibiting a ritual of worship, wherein Christ’s sacrifice should be recognized as the one medium and means of reconciliation with God : while they who rested on other modes of atonement and propitiation, so as the Homan Papists, were to be excluded and excommunicated, albeit professedly Christians, as not really appertaining to a true visible Christian Church ? — So construed, the Apocalyptic symbolization did in fact receive, in each and every particular, at the time to which we ascribe it, a most exact fulfilment. Up to the time of their translating and publishing the New Testament in the character of evangelists and preachers, the reformers had done no- 348 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. triad11 ^ing *n way °f purifying the public worship, and ' — Y — * defining what might be deemed a true visible Church, even in Saxony. But shortly afterwards, the call to do this was recognized as received from heaven ; and earthly magisterial authority given for it to Luther and his associates, by the Saxon elector and other princes. The Churches were cleared of their idolatrous pictures ; the superstitions of the old ritual put away ; and confessions and articles of a pure evangelic faith (witness those of our own reformed Church) published: while, on the other hand, the adherents of the old Popish faith and worship were excommunicated, as not being of Christ’s true Church, but one rather antichris- tian and heathen. So in Saxony ; so in Denmark, Swe¬ den, Brandenburgh, Switzerland, and also, thank God, in England and Scotland. This was specifically the Re-formation of the Church, its ScripturalReformation . IV. It remains to connect with this, under my 4th main head, what was now heard from the Angel, and what was afterwards figured to St. John, respecting Christ’s two sackcloth-robed witnesses. I have said, what was now heard from the Angel, and what was immediately afterwards seen by him respecting them, because by separating what follows under these two subdivisions (subdivisions plainly marked in the prophecy) we shall, I think, best per¬ ceive the intimate and perfect connexion of this branch of our subject with what has preceded, and its comple¬ tion of the prefiguring of the Reformation. WITNESS REVIVED : INNER TEMPLE-COURT CLEANSED. Now, as regards what the Angel said to St, John respecting his two witnesses, we have to note, 1st, its order of time and sequence in the Apocalyptic pro¬ phecy ; how that it followed next after St. John’s receiving charge from the Angel to prophesy again, and having the reed like unto a rod given him for the measuring of the temple. — Just agreeable with which was the fact (and I must say it seems to me in itself a most remarkable coincidence of fact with pro¬ phecy) that very shortly after the reforming fathers’ re-formation of the Church in various countries, under sanction of the several ruling authorities, their atten- tion was directed very earnestly, in retrospective re¬ gard, to the tracing out of witnesses for Christ’s truth ; such as might have testified for it, like themselves, in the dark ages of apostacy preceding. The inquiry was of course -as natural as it was important : for, even had the enemy’s taunt about the novelty of their doctrine been wanting, how could their own jealousy for Christ’s truth and honour but make them anxious to prove that it was no novelty ? Nor was the in¬ quiry vain. The recent revival of letters supplied them with documentary evidence, and opportunities for research, before hidden and wanting. And, as the result, books of great research on the subject were soon published in Germany and England ; books, of which Mosheim speaks as constituting an sera in eccle¬ siastical history : and with the specific title to one, of (( A Catalogue of Witnesses ,” (so the Magdeburgen- sian book was called ;) and to another, (that by the 350 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. fourth martyrologist Foxe in England,) of “ The Book of — ' Martyrs,” i. e. of witnesses.1 Further, as to the general character and history of the witnesses of past times, presented to them in these their researches, it well agreed with that which the Angel set before St. John in his retrospective narra¬ tive at this point of the Apocalyptic prophecy. — As it was his (the Covenant Angel’s) witnesses that he told about, so it was distinctively church-communities and church teachers of this character (the church- communities answering to the Apocalyptic symbol of the lamps , the teachers to that of the olive trees which dropt oil into the lamps)2 that they sought out, and found presented to them in the records of the past : i. e. such, contrastedly with the then reigning superstition, as in their prophesyings, and their church worship, set forth Christ Jesus, in his various offices as man’s Divine and only Saviour ; or, as in Apoc. xii. 17, that “ kept the commandments of God, and the testimony of Jesus.” — So too as to the number of such witnesses that they could trace out, it was with all their labour of inquiry but small, the series broken and interrupted : only just enough to answer to the prophecy’s symbolic numeral of Christ’s two witnesses, two lamps, and two olive-branches ; the very least number that the Jewish law recognized as a competent and valid testimony. — Once more, 1 I need hardly observe that the same Greek word p-aprvpes means both witnesses and martyrs. 2 See p. 302. WITNESS REVIVED : INNER TEMPLE-COURT CLEANSED. 351 they saw it to have been throughout, and in every case, just as the Apocalyptic Angel described it, a witnessing in sackcloth ; i. e. in sorrow, depression, and suffering. So as regards the general view of his two witnesses, set by the Angel in retrospective narrative before St. John. And in regard of that specific sera in their history when, after the perfecting of their testimony, the Beast from the abyss, or Papal power, should make war on them, there was still, as I had occasion to show up to a certain point in my last Lecture, the same coincidence between prophecy and history.1 For when the Waldenses of the 12th century, taking up the witness-cause, had added to the previous wit¬ nessing for Christ’s truth against the dominant errors and superstitions that culminating point of testimony, that the Pope of Borne, the grand supporter of those superstitions and errors, though calling himself Christ's Vicar on earth , was in real truth the very predicted Man of Sin and Antichrist , then indeed, as the Angel’s words described the thing, the Papal Beast did make war with all his power on them ; and for three centuries unceasingly, the 13th, 14th, 15th, the Papal Bulls and Councils, as we saw, loudly pro¬ claimed it. — On the ending of that crisis of the war, however, including the two witnesses’ death , and pre¬ sently after their wonderful resuscitation , with which the Angel concludes his retrospective narrative, thereby indirectly connecting that last glorious phase 1 See pp. 318 — 326, supra. 352 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. fouth 0f their history with the epoch of his own light- TRIAD. J 1 ° — v — ' bearing descent on the Apocalyptic scene, and charge to St. John to prophesy again, I did not then enter ; because of its belonging rather to the subject of my present Lecture. And to it then I now proceed. Very graphic, and very detailed, as I before inti¬ mated, was the Angel’s description of the crisis. After speaking of the Beast’s war against them as ending in the two witnesses’ death, it represents a gathering of deputies from the various kindreds and people of the Beast’s empire to have taken place about the time, who look on and observe it. The local scene of the gathering is stated to be the or broad place , of the great city, i. e. of Rome ; not Borne in the town’s strictly local limits; but rather (I conceive with Bossuet and others) Borne as the Roman civitas , comprehending all its subject territories : in wdiich case the ^Kareia must signify Borne itself locally, as being then the central place of gathering for law and for religion. Besides which designation of the locality, the Angel very singularly and pointedly designates it as spiritually , or under the Spirit’s teaching , called Sodom and Egypt ; and the place too where (as once in apostate Jerusalem ) the witnesses’ Lord had been crucified. There the gathered deputies are described as gloating over the dead witnesses’ corpses : (literally, corpse, in the singular:1 the corporate and symbolic character of the two witnesses being thus indicated :) 1 TTTw/xa. So the best MSS. It seems almost in itself a refutation of the idea of the two witnesses meaning two men singly and literally. WITNESS REVIVED : INNER TEMPLE-COURT CLEANSED. moreover as insulting them by forbidding their burial in any fxvvjfxeiov, or tomb of memorial ; and rejoicing, and making merry, on the festive occasion. But behold on a sudden, after 3f days, “ the Spirit of life from God entered into them : ” (the Angel here uses the past tense as if of a transaction of past time, in finishing his retrospective narrative :) “ and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell on them that beheld them.” So the Angel in the prophecy : and now see how exactly it was all answered to in the history. — Con¬ sidering the two witnesses as the symbolic number for a small but competent number of witnesses for Christ, their figured death in that character would consist, of course, in the suppression of witnessing for Him, by the extermination of most of the num¬ ber, and the silencing of any feeble remnant that might still exist. Bearing which in mind let us revert to that epoch of the opening of the 16th century, down to which I before, in my last Lecture, traced a line of witnesses for Christ against Papal error and usurpation ; and see how exactly all agreed in the further progress of the crisis with the Angel’s descrip¬ tion. Alike by the Papal historians and Protestant, by P. Paolo and Cardinal Pallavicino, Mosheim and Milner, the witnessing against the Papacy is described as then all but silenced, the witnesses as all but exter¬ minated ; a small and feeble remnant of the purer of the Bohemian Hussites, known chiefly under the name of the “ United Brethren,” seeming to be all worth THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. observation that remained of them. — At this epoch the 5th Lateran Council met at Rome ; including deputies, clerical or lay, from most of the states of Western Christendom. It was against certain schis¬ ms matic cardinals, who had attempted in synod under the French king’s protection to set General Councils above Popes, that this Lateran Council was mainly summoned. Heretics and heresies, like those of the Waldenses and Bohemians of preceding centuries, seemed too nearly extinct to need such a measure. Yet, as usual, the bull of convocation mentioned among the Council’s objects the total extirpation of heresies , as well as schisms ; and reference was made in the early proceedings of the Council to a section of Bohemian heretics, as still recognizable. — The first eight Sessions were devoted mainly, besides matters of routine, to the healing of the French schism. Which having been successfully accomplished, atten¬ tion was directed to the Bohemian remnant ; a Car¬ dinal was sent to reconcile them ; and themselves sum¬ moned to appear and plead either before him, or before the Council itself at its next Session, which was fixed for May 5, 1514. That day came; the Council met again. But no witnessing delegate ap¬ peared before it from the Bohemian United Brethren ; so as Waldensian deputies had once pleaded for Christ at Pamiers and elsewhere, and Huss and Jerome at Constance, or as did Luther afterwards at Worms. Moreover such was the tenor of the Cardinal’s reports as to indicate, as the cause of their non-appearance, WITNESS REVIVED I INNER TEMPLE-COURT CLEANSED. 355 the utter prostration of the heretics.1 So the orator mounted the tribune ; and uttered those memorable words of triumph before the deputies of Papal Chris¬ tendom, which were never heard before, nor have been ever since ; — “ Jam nemo reclamat, nullus obsistit ; ” “ There is an end of resistance to the Papal rule and religion ; opposers are no more : ” and again ; “ The whole body of Christendom is now seen to be sub¬ jected to its head, i. e. to thee the Pope.” 2 — An enactment was past at the same time, that against heretics, living or dead, wherever such might be found, the old legal penalties should be enforced ; among which was the exclusion of the corpses of the dead from burial.3 And soon after the Pope dismissed the Council with congratulations on its having accom¬ plished all the objects of its assembling, including the total extirpation of heresies and schisms ; and the faithful in Christendom were charged to observe on so happy an occasion all customary signs of festivity and joy.4 — But, behold, very shortly after that memo¬ rable May 5, 1514, on which the Papal orator had pronounced his paean of triumph for the extinction of all antagonism to the Papacy, Luther posted up his Theses on the Church at Wittemberg, the well-known commencing act and epoch of the Reformation. And what the precise interval of this from the orator’s paean of triumph ? It was to a day the predicted Apocalyptic 3 1 years’ period between the Witnesses’ 1 See H. A. ii. 431—433. 2 lb. 433. 3 lb. 435, 436. * lb. 438. * LECT. II. 2 A 2 356 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. fourth c|eath and resurrection ; for the act was done on All TRIAD. 7 ' — Saints’ Eve, Oct. 31, 151 7. 1 Is not the coincidence wonderful ? — Moreover both Luther himself, and the Popes also, alike recognized his witness for Christ as a resurrection of the old witnesses. “ The heretics Huss and Jerome seem now to be alive again,” wrote Pope Adrian, “ in the person of Luther.” — And this was further most observable, that whereas the Lateran General Council, ere its separation, had again and again lauded the Pom an Church as the heavenly Jerusalem, that same Luther, who once above others had so rever¬ enced Papal Pome, now being spiritually taught , as the Apocalypse expresses it, had his eyes opened to discern it in its true and most different characteristics. With terrible power he denounced it under each and every one of the Apocalyptic similitudes here given, though apparently quite unconscious in what track he was following: i. e. as not the Jerusalem from heaven, but (to use Luther’s own words) the great city Babylon , and Sodom , and Egypt ; yea and the homicide Jeru¬ salem also, “ by whose decrees and acts the Lord Jesus Christ had been crucified 2 1 From May 5, 1514, to May 5, 1517, is three years. Then from May 5, 1517, to Oct. 81, 1517, the reckoning stands thus in days. May 5 — 81 June July 27 80 August . . 81 September 80 October . . 81 = 180, or half 800 days .* i.e. half an Apocalyptic year. 2 See H. A. ii. 428. I must quote two of the extracts from Luther there given. I. “ Fuit armatus Miltitz septuaginta Brevibus Apos- tolicis ; ut me captum perduceret in homicidam Jerusalem , pur- puratam illam Babylonem .” — 2. “ Icli weiss nicht ob der Papst selbst der Antichrist, oder sein Apostol ist : so elend wird von demselben Christus, das lieisst die Wahrheit, in seinen dekreten verfalscht und gekreuzigtB WITNESS REVIVED : INNER TEMPLE-COURT CLEANSED. So ended the AngeFs narrative to St. John about his two sackcloth-robed Witnesses. He had brought v it down to the epoch of his own descent on the Apo¬ calyptic scene, and charge given to St. John (in his continuous symbolic ministerial character evidently) to “ prophesy again, before kings, and nations, and tongues : ” which prophesying again would seem to have coincided in fact with the two resuscitated wit¬ nesses’ prophesying again ; though now indeed it was to be to a wider extent, with more of publicity in the witnessing-church-worship, and with more too of apos¬ tolic order, than in the times before. — The remainder of the two Witnesses’ history, as in order of time follow¬ ing the Angel’s retrospective notice of them, was not narrated, but acted out on the Apocalyptic scene in vision. The cloud, in which the Angel had descended, rose upward. A voice from heaven at the same time called up the two resuscitated witnesses : and, in the sight of their enemies, they ascended up, though still sackcloth-robed, in the cloud. And then it was fur¬ ther added in the prophecy, “ There was that same hour a great earthquake : and the tenth part of the city fell ; and there were destroyed also in the earth¬ quake seven chiliads.” A very few concluding words will suffice to show the accordance of all this too with the further history of the Reformation. At Smalcald, in the year 1530, the reforming Princes publicly united in league under the name of Protestants , a name from its Latin ety¬ mology tantamount to Witnesses. After a war be- / 357 LECT. II. 358 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. FOURTH TRIAD. tween them and Charles Y, the Papal champion, the final issue having in wonderful manner resulted in their favor, they were summoned up in God’s Providence to take place, even as the Papal princes, in the Im¬ perial Council Chamber : though not so, considering the state of Christ’s witnesses both there, and elsewhere in Europe, as to make them lose their sackcloth-robed character.— About the same time King Henry VIII. cast off the Papal supremacy in England ; and there¬ with a tenth part of the great city, or one of the ten kingdoms of the Papacy, i. e. Papal England, fell. Moreover the seven Dutch United Provinces, — each answering proportionally, not to one of the twelve tribes of the Apocalyptic professing Israel, but rather to a smaller division, such as one of the chiliads of the ancient Israelitish nation,1 — these seven chiliads were destroyed in their character of Papal fiefs. — It was by the Treaty of Munster, or Westphalia, in 1648, that the new Protestant continental States be¬ came finally recognized in the public law of Europe. — Such was the historic completing act of the great Protestant Reformation ; as it was the completing figuration of the Apocalyptic prophecy that foresha¬ dowed it.2 1 So Exocl. xviii. 21, 25, Numb. i. 16, 1 Sam. xxiii. 23, Micah v. 2. & c. See H. A. ii. 458 — 460. 2 For full details and illustrations, on this whole most important and interesting subject, I must beg to refer to my II. A. Part ii., Ch. viii. ix. LECTURE III. TEMPLE OF WITNESS OPENED IN HEAVEN. APOC. XI. 15—19. AND THE SEVENTH ANGEL SOUNDED I AND THERE WERE GREAT VOICES IN HEAVEN, SAYING, 4 THE KINGDOMS OE THIS WORLD ARE BECOME THE KINGDOMS OF OUR LORD AND OF HIS CHRIST.’ AND THE TWENTY-FOUR ELDERS, WHICH SATE BEFORE GOD ON THEIR THRONES, FELL UPON THEIR FACES, AND WORSHIPPED GOD, SAY¬ ING, 4 WE GIVE THEE THANKS, O LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, WHICH ART, AND WAST, [AND ART TO COME] : 1 BECAUSE THOU HAST TAKEN TO THEE THY GREAT POWER, AND HAST REIGNED. (OR, ENTERED ON THY REIGN.) AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY, AND THY WRATH HATH COME, AND THE TIME OF THE DEAD THAT THEY SHOULD BE JUDGED ; AND THAT THOU SIIOULDST GIVE REWARD TO THY SER¬ VANTS THE PROPHETS, AND TO THE SAINTS, AND TO THEM THAT FEAR THY NAME, SMALL AND GREAT, AND SHOULDST DESTROY THEM THAT DESTROY (OR CORRUPT) THE EARTH.’ - AND THE TEMPLE OF GOD WAS OPENED IN HEAVEN : AND THERE WAS SEEN IN HIS TEMPLE THE ARK OF THE COVENANT : AND THERE WERE LIGHTNINGS AND THUNDERINGS AND VOICES.” In the last preceding Lecture it was my object to set 1U before you the first of two very notable predicted acts and epochs of advance in the history of Christ’s sackcloth-robed witnesses during the reign of Anti¬ christ, previous to their final complete and glorious triumph : that first act of advance (prefigured in Apoc. x, xi, as what was to occur under the latter half of the 6th Trumpet) consisting in some public authoritative definition and establishment of true pro¬ fessing Christian churches, distinctively from the 1 Not in tlie best MSS. 360 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. FOURTH TRIAD. false : with an accompanying elevation in power and dignity before men of the before comparatively ob¬ scure witnessing body for Christ ; though still not so (considering the whole European scene of their wit¬ nessing) as to divest them of the sackcloth-garb of mourning. And this we shewed to have had fulfilment, in every point prefigured, at the Reformation. — It is now my purpose to set forth from the latter part of the text their second great prefigured act of advance, in the world-wide opening of Christ's so defined wit - ness- Church in Protestant Christendom, and manifes¬ tation of God’s ark of the covenant within it : a pre¬ figuration depicted in the prophecy as coincident in time with the 7th Trumpet’s sounding; and of which the historic fulfilment may be shown, if I mistake not, to have commenced, and continued onward, from the outbreak of the great French Revolution in 1 7 90 . 1 — As compared with the prophecy of the Protestant Reformation, previously considered, the details of this are indeed simple and few. But the judgments of wrath against the antichristian nations, which the prophecy represents as synchronizing writh this world- wide opened state of the witness-church, must also not be overlooked in my Lecture, Besides which I must also notice briefly, ere concluding, what the heavenly songs in the earlier part of my text set forth antici- patively as the glorious ultimate issue, under this final 1 I take the mean of the four years which seem to include the commencing jera of the French Revolution ; 1789 being the date of the National Assembly, 1793 of the execution of the French king. So I have taken the four years at p. 290 supra. TEMPLE OF WITNESS OPENED IN HEAVEN. 361 Trumpet, of the witness-church’s testimony for Christ; L^CT viz. the fact of the kingdoms of this world becoming ' — v— then at length the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. — As being an event yet future, this latter subject may seem indeed not to enter directly into the thesis of the Warburton Lecturer: seeing that his duty, as defined by it, is to prove the truth of revealed religion from Scripture prophecies already fulfilled about the Church. Yet, indirectly, it has a very close connexion with it. Because, in order to realize the full proof which those prophecies offer of God’s own Spirit having dictated them, we need to consider them, not in respect of their separate and particular fulfilment only, (so far as they may be proved to have been fulfilled.) but also as a consistent scheme, and whole, worthy of God. And, in order to this, the view they present of the destined glorious ending to the true witness for Christ, and Christ’s church, is of course essential. This premised, I proceed to my main subject in the present Lecture : — -viz. the prefiguration of the temple of witness , or Christ’s witness- Church , being opened in heaven , at the sounding, and during the subsequent judgments, of the 7th Trumpet ; Vvdth notice of the judgments themselves inclusive. I. And, in order to a full comprehension of the prophetic intimations on this head in the Apocalypse, it needs that we not only consider what was in a ignore general way anticipatively set forth as the judg- 362 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. P fourth ments and issues of the 7 th Trumpet , so as in the hea- TRIAD. ' — Y— ' venly songs of our text, at its sounding ; but also what was foreshown respecting them afterwards, more in de¬ tail, in the seven Vials . For it seems clear that these constituted the evolution of the 7th Trumpet. The proof of this, which is connected with the structure of the Apocalypse, was passingly noticed long since in my first Lecture on the Apocalypse.1 Now that we have to speak of them, it must be sketched out more fully. It needs then but a glance at the passage with which our text is connected, and then at the Apo¬ calyptic context next following, to see that after the triumphant anticipatory songs at the 7th Trumpet’s sounding, and the concomitantly-figured opening of the temple on the Apocalyptic scene, the course of the prefiguration was suddenly interrupted : and that, instead of any immediate evolution in dramatic act, or vision, of that destruction of the earth’s cor¬ rupters, (including specially doubtless the witness¬ slaying Beast of the seven hills, and his allies,) which was announced as among this Trumpet’s most pro¬ minent results, there was thereupon abruptly begun a digression to a long supplemental explanatory sketch of the Beast's history : — a history of him from his first rise on the throne of the seven-hilled Babylon, as successor to the seven-headed Dragon, or Pagan Homan Empire, through all his long des¬ tined 1260 years’ reign, down to a preliminary an¬ nouncement, first, of the destruction of himself and 1 See p. 211. TEMPLE OF WITNESS OPENED IN HEAVEN. 363 his Babylon as imminent ; and then a figuration of the Son of man’s treading the winepress of God’s wrath, v in that final act of judgment. The digression, which thus runs on to the consummation, occupies the whole of Chapters xii, xiii, and xiv of the Apoca¬ lypse. — Then at length, in Apoc. xv, the prophecy reverts to some earlier epoch of judgment. And to what so naturally and probably as to the point whence it had digressed, i. e. to the 7th Trumpet, and its fateful but as yet unfolded issues : the seven Vial-out¬ pourings constituting in fact their development, just as the 7th Seal’s contents had been developed under the emblem of seven successive Trumpet-soundings? That this is indeed the case, and that the vial -judgments were identical with the judgments of the 7th Trum¬ pet, is evident from these two facts : — 1st, that they are called God’s last judgments, so as were clearly the judgments of the 7th Trumpet: 2ly, that the same scenic temple-phase accompanied both the one and the other ; viz. that of the Apocalyptic temple ap¬ pearing opened in heaven ; the temple-phase already before spoken of, as that to which our special atten¬ tion must in the present Lecture be directed. It may be well to read the whole passage, introduc¬ tory to the Vial outpourings, from Apoc. xv. “ And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous : seven angels having the seven last plagues ; for in them is filled up (or completed) the wrath of God. And I saw as it were a glassy sea, mingled with fire :l 1 6a\ajaar va.\iV7]v [xzixiyixzvriv vupt. LECT. III. 364 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. FOURTH TRIAD. and I saw them that had successfully separated from 1 the Beast, and his image, mark, and number, standing by the glassy sea, having harps of gold ; saying, 4 Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty ; just and true are thy ways, thou King of the nations.2 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name ? for thou only art holy. For all nations shall come and worship before thee ; for thy judgments have been made manifest.’ And after this I looked, and behold the temple of the tabernacle of witness [mark the expression] was opened in heaven : and the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. And one of the four living creatures gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials, full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power. And no man was able to enter into the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.” — Such, and so similar to what had been previously exhibited on the sounding of the 7th Trumpet, was the temple phase now depicted before St.John, introductorily to the outpouring of the vial-judgments, and as continued, I presume, during it. While the song of the triumphant separa¬ tists from the Beast had also thus far the same burthen with that of the loud triumphant voices in heaven 1 So vikwv Tas €/c may best be rendered. See Heinrichs ad loc. 2 <3 fiaat\evs twv c0jw. Such is the reading of the best MSS. TEMPLE OF WITNESS OPENED IN HEAVEN. 365 heard at the 7th Trumpet’s sounding, that, as the L^T- one told anticipatively of the kingdoms of this world 1 — becoming the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ, as the final result of that Trumpet’s judgments, — so the other told anticipatively of all nations coming and wor¬ shipping God, as the final result of the judgments of the seven last vials. So introduced there followed next forthwith the out¬ pouring of the successive vials : — the 1st on the Beast’s adherents, with the effect of a grievous sore breaking out upon them; the 2nd on the sea, turning it to blood; the 3d, with the same result, on the rivers; the 4th on the sun of the Apocalyptic firmament, causing apparently its eclipse ; the 5th, on the Beast’s seven- hilled throne ; the 6th, on the Euphrates, whence, like a flood, the horsemen of the 6th Trumpet had issued : a vial this which resulted in the drying up of its flood ; and which was followed by the issuing forth of three notable spirits of delusion on the Apo¬ calyptic earth, from the mouths respectively of the Dragon, Beast, and False Prophet ; spirits preparative of the great final politico-religious struggle, — Then finally came the outpouring of the 7th and last Vial into the atmosphere : of which the primary result is described to have been thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake of unparalleled magnitude, involving the political tripartition of the Beast’s great city Babylon : and, for its secondary result, the same great city’s everlasting overthrow, in some such volcanic catastrophe as in the case of Sodom ; followed by that of the Beast and his armies, on their last great 366 THE I 260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. fourth war against Christ’s truth and people, and their in- TRIAD. . - ' — «—• gulphing in the same lake of lire. — In which final judgments, let it be observed, Christ is described as treading the winepress of God's wrath; in evident parallelism, alike of time and subject, with his vjinepress-treading of the vine of the earth at the close of the supplemental digression before spoken of in Apoc. xii, xiii, xiv. Thus has the whole prophecy, both as succinctly announced at the 7th Trumpet’s sounding, and as more fully evolved afterwards under the Vials, been set before you. And it only remains that I make a few explanatory remarks on the intent of certain of the chief symbols in it ; ere proceeding to show its apparent fulfilment in part, — more especially as re¬ spects the then manifested phase of the temple of wit¬ ness, or Christian witness Church, — at the sera of the French Revolution, and thence downwards to the present time. And 1st, as to the glassy sea mingled with fire, by which the harpers stood who had triumphantly sepa¬ rated themselves from the Beast, let me suggest that, as the songs of the harpers (like those in heaven heard on the 7th Trumpet’s sounding) spoke by anticipation, even as if already accomplished, of the final judgments and issues of the seven Vials, so this graphic figuring of the scene overlooked by them may probably have been pictured with reference to that same final judgment on the Beast ; whose overthrow, and that of his great city, is to be by a molten sea of volcanic fire , even like that which engulphed Sodom and Gomorrha. — TEMPLE OF WITNESS OPENED IN HEAVEN. 2ly, as regards the harpers singing both the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb , it seems to me very possible that it may be an intimation of Jewish con- verts, as well as Christians of the Gentile Churches, uniting in it : the song itself being evidently adopted from Israel’s song, after triumphantly escaping from the hosts of Egypt, on the Eastern bank of the Red Sea. — 3ly, and more especially, as regards the temple of God depicted as opened during the Yial’s outpour¬ ing, it seems clear that that same temple must be meant which was repeatedly before noticed as standing in the Apocalyptic foreground before St. John : and in that form distinctively in which it was last before dis¬ tinctively defined, under the Covenant Angel’s own direction ; viz. as including the altar-worshippers, but excluding the heathenizing professors of the outer court : thus indicating the reformed evangelic Churches of Christendom, distinctively from that of Rome. — Further, by the symbol of the temple’s appearing opened must be meant a manifestation and opening of these Churches to the world, in invitation and pre¬ paration for the entrance of world-wide worshippers : just as in Isa. xxvi. 2, “ Open me the gates, that the righteous nation may enter in ; ” and in contrast to the state of things under Ahaz, who “ shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and made him altars (it is said) in every corner of Jerusalem.” I say that it was opened as if in invitation and pre¬ paration for them. For the statement that “ none could enter till the seven plagues of the seven Angels 368 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. FOURTH TRIAD. were fulfilled,” shows that the confluence of the con¬ verted nations thither was not to be till then : 1 agree¬ able with which is the fact, that it is not till after the outpouring of the 7th Vial, and judgment on Baby¬ lon, which is its burden, that the nations of the saved are represented in the Apocalypse as uniting in the worship of God, and coming to the light of his glory in the New Jerusalem. — Yet, again, as to the witness temple’s appearing opened in heaven , (so yvoiyy 7 ev to) Bpavo) should be rendered, as well in Apoc. xv. 5 as in Apoc. xi. 19,) there can by this only be meant that firmament al heaven of political power and eleva¬ tion with which so many other Apocalyptic symbols (for instance those of the woman and dragon of Apoc. xii.) were locally connected : seeing that the heaven of God’s manifested throne and presence was at all times a constituent part of the Apocalyptic tem¬ ple; and, consequently, not a local scene in, or within which the Apocalyptic temple could at any one parti¬ cular time be said to be opened. — And let me add, in illustration of the phrase, that, whereas the temple opened in heaven under the 7th Trumpet is called, as was before noted, “ the temple of the tabernacle of witness ,” implying apparently both that the cleansed temple itself, or Reformed Churches of Christendom, constituted thenceforth a prominent part of the wit¬ nessing, and this too in a state of heavenly elevation, so, correspondingly, Christ’s two sackcloth-robed wit¬ nesses, who thenceforward were thus to be associated 1 Yitringa seems to me to have erred on tins point. \ TEMPLE OF WITNESS OPENED IN HEAVEN. with the Apocalyptic temple, had been depicted in the last previous figuration as ascended, still in *■ their witness character, to the Apocalyptic heaven. — As to what is said of the ark of the covenant ap¬ pearing, we may remember how St. Paul reminds us that the Israelitish ark enclosed both the tables of the law, and Aaron’s rod that budded, — significant symbols of the law and the gospel ; and also that its manifested presence was recognized in the Old Testament his¬ tory, (e. g. in that of Eli and the Philistines,) to be a visible pledge of the divine protection to Israel, if not unfaithful to Him.1 — Finally, the symbol of the temple’s appearing filled with the smoke of God's glory is borrowed evidently from similar manifesta¬ tions made in the older Israelitish temple, on various remarkable occasions, in token of God’s presence and protection : e. g. those of the dedication by Moses and Solomon ; and that of the attack on its worship and its ministers by Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Somewhat as it was said in Isaiah of millennial times, “ The Lord will create upon Mount Zion, and on her assemblies, a cloud of smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night : for upon all the glory there shall be a defence.” 1 Hengstenberg on the Apoc. i. 447, thus explains the whole sym¬ bol. “ The temple in heaven is a symbol of the Church ; the ark of the covenant a symbol of the gracious relationship in which the Lord stands to his Church. That it has become visible, imports that this relation is now in a glorious manner maintained, and be¬ comes manifest to view.” — He has overlooked the important fact that in the original it is not “ the temple in heaven ” that is said to be opened, but that u the temple was opened in heaven 2 B 369 LECT. III. 370 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. FOURTH TRIAD. So much as to the prophetic figurations. II. And now we have to ask, secondly, was there that which answered to this prophecy, and its several prefigurations, in the history of the reformed Protestant Churches , and of Roman Christendom, during the c era of the French Revolution ; dating from its first outbreak in 1790, down to the present time? — I think there was ; and, in respect of much that is most marked in the prophecy, that which answered very strikingly. Though, at the same time, I wish distinctly to state, that as the prophecy is much less full and particular than that concerning the Reformation, which was the subject of my last Lecture, so the con¬ viction I would express as to its fulfilment in the times and events of the French Revolution, is one propor¬ tionally less strong and unreserved. To begin ; — the time of the first outbreak of the French Revolution well suits the chronological place of the 7th Trumpet’s sounding in the Apocalyptic pro¬ phecy: supposing my explanation to be correct of the witnesses’ resurrection and ascent, and of the accom¬ panying fall of the tenth part of the great city of Papal Babylon, and other notable seven chiliads of it, as meant of the political consolidation of the Protes¬ tant Reformation, by the successful separation of Eng¬ land, and the seven Dutch United Provinces, from the Popedom. For whereas, in the prophecy, there in¬ tervened only after this a notice of the 2nd Woe hav¬ ing past, and of the 3rd Woe coming quickly, before the 7th Trumpet’s sounding, — so, in European his- TEMPLE OF WITNESS OPENED IN HEAVEN. 37 t tory, there began from soon after Spain’s acknowledg¬ ment of the independence of the Dutch ^Protestant United Provinces in the celebrated Treaty of West¬ phalia, a. Do 1648, a manifest and constantly progress¬ ing decay in the great Turkish power : a decay illus¬ trated by the victories of Sobieski and Prince Eugene over the Turks in the last quarter of the xviith cen¬ tury, and those again of the Eussians and Austrians in the wars from 1769 to 1787 ; almost immediately after which last war, all suddenly and unexpectedly, there sounded forth in the year 1789 the blast of the French Eevolution, in the ears of affrighted Europe. —Further, as regards the Vial-plagues themselves, in which the 7th Trumpet was developed, and which fol¬ lowed each other in brief and rapid succession, we need but a rapid glance to see how well the chief eventful acts and judgments of the French Eevolution, and its historic sequel answered to them. — The noi¬ some sore, or ulcer, which on the 1st Vial’s outpouring broke out on them that worshipped the Beast and its image, was surely no inapt symbol of that eruption of revolutionary fanaticism, vice, and atheism, (the na¬ tural produce of the corrupt principles of morals and religion that Jesuitism had long taught in the coun¬ tries of Papal Christendom,) wThich then broke forth upon, and tortured, the whole social body in France and other Eoman Catholic European countries. Indeed observant men, whether there, in England, or in Ger¬ many, could find no more suitable figure under which to depict it. Said the French Father Lambert of the 2 B 2 LECT. III. 372 THE ] 260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. FOURTH TRIAD. state of Papal Christendom, as he contemplated it from the centre of the outbreak in Paris ; “ It is like a diseased man covered with ulcers.” Said Mr. Burke; It is a disease the effect of which, wherever established, is “ the corruption of all morals, and decomposition of all society ; ” even like “ living ulcers in the car¬ case of the country.” — And, as to the range of the infection, the famous Niebuhr thus defines it, in pre¬ cise accord with the Apocalyptic limitation of the suf¬ ferers from the noisome sore of the 1st Vial; “ The Revolution of 1789 was the breaking out of a local disease peculiar to the Roman Catholic nations of Southern Europe:” for 4< in the rest of Europe it never showed its real malignity; which was exclusively proper to the countries where it was indigenous, viz. France, and the South of Europe.”1 — The 2nd Vial, which turned the sea of the Apocalyptic or Roman world into blood, even as of a dead man, might seem (if the local symbols are to be locally interpreted, so as under the Trumpets, and in other such prophecies,)2 to have had its fulfilment in the destruction of the maritime and colonial power of France and Spain, (the two great maritime powers of Papal Christendom,) a destruction commenced in the naval wars with England : and the 3rd, or Vial of blood on the rivers and fountains of water, in the series of bloody wars between France and Austria on the same river-lines of the Rhine, 1 So Bunsen reports. See Preface to 3rd Vol. of Life and Letters of Niebuhr ; translated by Miss Wink worth (1852), p. xxvi. 2 See p. 232 supr&, and the references there given to the H. A. I TEMPLE OF WITNESS OPENED IN HEAVEN. 373 Danube, and Po, that were notable long before under LECT the 3rd Trumpet, as the fated scene of carnage in the wars of the Hun Attila. — The 4th Vial, poured upon the sun, would seem fitly to symbolize the quenching of the imperial orb of the German or Holy Roman Em¬ pire in 1806 ; with extinction, nearly contemporarily? of all the old ruling dynasties of Papal Christendom, by the conqueror Napoleon : and the 5th, (a very dis¬ tinctive one,) c< upon the throne of the Beast,” to have figured the quickly following suppression of the Pope’s temporal power on Rome’s seven hills by the same Emperor’s Decrees of Schonbrunn and Vienna, after the battle of Wagram, a. d. 1 809, the incorporation of Rome with the French Empire, and captivity and exile of the Pope. — Then next in the prophecy came the 6th Vial on the Euphrates, whereby its overflow of waters was dried up : and in history the drying up, in considerable measure, of the empire of the Turks from the Euphrates : — a drying up alike from internal causes of decay, from the Greek insurrection, and from the external aggressions of France and Russia; by the one of which it was robbed of its Trans- Dan ubian provinces, by the other of Algiers, in the decade of years from 1820 to 1830. — And if, in the Apocalyptic visions, there followed next the very re¬ markable emblem of the going forth of three spirits of delusion, like frogs, from the mouths of the Dragon, Beast, and two-horned lamb-like False Prophet, in order to stir up a last war imperilling Christ’s cause and gospel, I shall have presently to show the acting of 374 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. fourth something very like their counterparts in the last 20 TRIAD. ° J 1 years5 history of European Christendom.— Nor can we forget the later extraordinary commotions of 1348 : which startled the world afresh ; and made many to think whether perchance they might not indicate to us the commencement of what followed next in the Apoc¬ alyptic prophecy, viz. the outpouring of the 7th Vial. I say its commencement. The end is not yet. But what meanwhile of the Apocalyptic symbol of the temple of God appearing all this time opened in heaven , and manifestation therein of the ark of the covenant that symbolization of the 7th Trumpet with which my present subject is most of all con¬ cerned ? In other words was there then, and thence¬ forth, an opening to the world , in influence and power unknown before, of the Protestant reformed Churches , and the evangelic truth confest hy them ? We all know that this was the fact. It was amidst the storms and earthquake of the first French Revolution that those Protestant Bible and Missionary Societies arose which have continued in operation ever since ; and which have been main instruments of the spreading of the Bible, and preaching of the gospel subsequently, al¬ most to the ends of the world. — I say, distinctively, of Protestant Missions. For we must not forget the contrast of the Roman Catholic propagandist mis¬ sions of the 16th and following centuries. It needs but to consult the original reports of their proceed¬ ings, such even as the letters of Fr. Xavier himself, to see that in their case there was anything but the TEMPLE OF WITNESS OPENED IN HEAVEN. 375 preaching of the everlasting gospel, anything but the LECT manifestation of the evangelic truth signified by the ^ ^ ark of the covenant. — Now, during that long period of the 17th and 18th centuries, the Evangelic Protestant Churches did but little for the making known the gospel truth, of which they were the especial depository, to other nations of the world. The neces¬ sary zeal was wanting ; and, in considerable measure, the means and opportunities. Under William of Orange, and Queen Anne, the Societies for the Pro¬ pagation of the Gospel and for Christian Knowledge were indeed formed, and began the holy work of Chris¬ tian missions. But they were but feebly supported. And the failure from the same cause of the noble- minded Bishop Berkeley’s scheme for a mission col¬ lege at Bermuda, with a view to the religious instruc¬ tion of the heathen in the West Indies and North America, is a fact too well known ; and which has lately been set forth in his interesting work on the History of the Colonial Church by your own chaplain, - — But, at the trumpet-blast of the French Revolution, % a new asra opened. Religion revived in England, — in England the chief seat of Protestantism ; and which in God’s providence, was destined to be his chief in¬ strument for extending its knowledge to other lands. With returning religion, the missionary spirit was awakened. The new Protestant Missionary and Bible Societies, just alluded to, were then established ; the old invigorated. And their evangelizing opera¬ tions have been enlarged and multiplied, from year to v 376 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. FOURTH TRIAD. year, daring the half century that has since elapsed; until at length there is scarce a heathen land to which the Bible* has not been brought in its own language, the evangelic temple opened, and that which the ark of the covenant symbolized been made apparent. — - The strength and security furnished to the missions by the maritime supremacy assured to England, through God’s great and undeserved mercy, both during, and subsequent to, the tremendous wars of the French revolution and empire, and by its vast and ever-increasing colonial empire, is a matter ob¬ vious. ££ The temple of God appeared opened in heaven ; ” and upon all the glory there has been a defence, — How dilferent from the weakness of indi¬ vidual effort, with which the testimony for Christ’s truth was carried on in the middle ages ! It has been the Lord’s doing, and may well be marvellous in our eyes. I must not omit to observe that the close of the revolutionary wars, by the Peace of Paris, constituted an epoch specially important in England’s mission¬ ary relations to the Papal States of the European continent. The sending’ forth of the everlasting* gospel, and opening of the temple of God, had been previously almost alone to heathen countries, and to the decayed and corrupted Christian Churches of the East, But now Papal Christendom was to have the Bible and its gospel message brought influentially before its several constituent peoples ; alike in France, Spain, Italy, Southern Germany. And this at a TEMPLE OF WITNESS OPENED IN HEAVEN. 377 time when the severe judgments of the twenty- five years of war preceding might perhaps have been ex~ '■ pected to have their intended effect : the effect of in- ducing repentance for their national apostacy, and inclining them to turn to the purer faith and worship now set before them. But in the prophecy it was stated as the result of the five first Vial-plagues, poured out on those that had worshipped the Beast, that, amidst the darkness and suffering thence arising, there would be no cessation from the blasphemies wherewith they had provoked God, no repenting of their idolatries. And this prophetic statement seems to have had fulfilment in the fact that, after the end¬ ing of the revolutionary war-plagues at the Peace of Paris, in 1815, there was not one of the Papal Eu¬ ropean states that then renounced its old blasphemous and idolatrous apostacy. — Again, after the effusion a little later of the 6th Vial on a different quarter, that of the Euphrates, it was foretold that, instead of repenting and embracing the still offered gospel, there would on the contrary be then at length a direct combination against it : — a combination of the spirit of the old Roman Pagan infidelity with that of di¬ rect Popery, and that of superstitious priestcraft ; “ three spirits like frogs, from the mouth of the Dra¬ gon, and mouth of the Beast, and mouth of the False Prophet.” And have there been no such spirits of late years, as well in England as on the continent : united by the one common principle of hostility to the pure gospel of Jesus Christ ; and which, besides the LECT. III. 378 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. fourth use 0f Speci0US arguments and reasoning’, have already in various instances influenced the ruling secular powers against gospel truth, and may do so yet more powerfully in the quickly coming future? 1 The names of De Maistre, Mdhler, and others nearer home once before referred to,2 exemplify the acting of one of these spirits. Demonstrably as the principles on which it rests are principles of delusion,3 its measure of suc¬ cess, in an age of general enlightenment like that of the 19th century, can only be accounted for by that power among men which Holy Scripture so much re¬ fers to, of the invisible deluding spirits of darkness.4 In truth, however anxious to think and say nothing in violation of the spirit of Christian charity, we yet seem forced to the conclusion that both by Tapal Rome herself, and by the princes in Western Europe that yield her religious allegiance, the manifestation and offer of Christ’s gospel truth has not only been rejected, but been further the occasion of the stirring up of their more direct and bitter enmity against it. — Such seems indeed to be the state of things at the time now present. Witness the reports from Naples, 1 Considering the strong fraternization of the spirit of priestcraft (abstractedly regarded) with the Greek Church, I cannot but suggest as remarkable the manner in which, since this Lecture was preached, a war that threatens to involve all Europe has arisen immediately out of a dispute between the chief heads of the Papal and Greek Churches for power over the holy places at Jerusalem. 2 See p. 296 supiA. 3 See my pp. 178 — 191 supra, on the palpable falsehood of Rome’s fundamental dogma ot the Pope’s supremacy, as being Peter’s successor in the see of Rome : also my letter to Mr. Gresley in the Appendix. 4 See pp. 98, 99 supra. TEMPLE OF WITNESS OPENED IN HEAVEN. Rome, Tuscany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, (including its colony of Madeira,)1 and even France, of the Bible-proscriptions and burnings ; the general inter¬ diction in Papal Europe of Protestant missionaries and Protestant public worship ; the advocacy in in¬ fluential Roman Catholic writings of a renewal of the penalty of death against what they call heresy ; and actual infliction on Bible Christians of imprisonment and exile. — And what then is to be the end ? It is well to be observed in that history of his dealings with men which God himself has given us, that to nations called to be his own, but which have nationally departed from Him, a last day of special grace and opportunity for repentance seems generally to be granted in his Providence, ere (in case of its non-improvement) wrath comes upon them to the ut¬ termost. It was after the book of the law, long hid, had been brought to light under Josiah, and his call of the Jews to repentance and reformation, though at flrst and whilst he lived responded to, been yet after¬ wards, on his wicked son’s accession, despised and rejected, — it was then, I say, that God’s sentence of rejection of that generation of Jews was past, and Nebuchadnezzar sent as his instrument of wrath against them. It was after Christ himself, and then his apostles, had for forty years set the light of life all vainly before a later generation of the same Jewish 1 See the deeply interesting history of the preaching of the gospel in Madeira, some short time since, by Dr. Kalley and Mr. Hewitson, in Hewitson’s Life. 380 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. fourth pe0p]e that the Homans were commissioned against TRIAD. F r 7 © V— — ' Jerusalem as his ministers of judgment, to level her to the ground, and her children within her. “ Be¬ cause I would have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee.”1 Is there not something similar to this, indeed yet more awful, that seems predicted of, and even now applicable to, the seven-hilled Papal Babylon ? - • I conclude, as my purpose was intimated at the beginning of this Lecture, with a brief look into the future , as set forth in the sequel of the Apocalyptic prophecy ; its awful future on the one hand, its bright and glorious on the other. — It is a consummation that we must look to with the deeper interest, if under the impression of its being probably not very far off : so as my historic explanation of the 7th Trumpet, and its evolving Vials, if at all correct, would lead us to sup¬ pose. And I must say that this is corroborated both by the fact of the 1260 years from the Papal Antichrist’s rise to power having apparently well nigh fulfilled their course ; 2 the fact of the Gospel having now apparently been preached for a witness to all people, which fact Christ himself spoke of as a sign of the end approaching;3 and other signs of the times, concerning 1 Ezek. xxiv. 13. 2 See p. 291 supra. 3 Matt. xxiv. 14. Let me beg to refer the reader to a Sermon of Bishop Butler’s, preached before the Society for Propagation of the Gospel, on this text. TEMPLE OF WITNESS OPENED IN HEAVEN. 381 both Jews and Gentiles, which it is not now the time LECT iii. to detail.1 At the same time the point is one on which it would ill become me to dogmatize. The exact day and hour are known to no man. What I now wish to do is simply that which is enjoined on us ; viz. to mark the signs of the times, and consider the probable evidence given by them of the event being near at hand . Next then after the outpouring into the air of the 7th Vial, and a statement (much to be noted at the present time) of the tripartition thereupon occurring of the great city, or Roman Papal empire, as its primary political result, — and then that graphic explanatory picturing of Rome Papal before St. John, of which I spoke in a former Lecture,1 as a Woman seated on a seven-headed ten-horned Beast, herself drunk with the blood of the saints of Jesus, and holding out the cup of her religious fornication or apostacy, (just, we saw, as the Pope’s own last Jubilean medal has in fact depicted Papal Rome,) — next after this, I say, followed that terrible vision of her destruction, to which allusion was also made in the concluding Lec¬ ture of my last Triad. On the descent of the de¬ stroying Angel a loud cry was heard, “ Come out from her my people, that ye be not partakers of her plagues, for her sins have reached to heaven : a warn¬ ing-cry ” like that spoken by the Angel to Lot in Sodom, and that by Moses to the Israelites round the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abirarn ; and which was 1 See the detail in my Vol. iv. of the H. A. pp. 215 — 242. 2 See p. 281. THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. indicative of two things : 1st, that there would be even then some of the holy seed in the mystic Babylon ; 2nd, that their danger of participation in its destruc¬ tion, whether through mistakes of judgment or slug¬ gish lingering, would be extreme and imminent. — Then next came a description of the catastrophe, just as if related to some living saint by one that beheld it : —a description indicating the suddenness and instan¬ taneousness of the catastrophe, as falling on Babylon when least expected, and begun and completed in an hour ; its manner , with violence like as of the shock of a millstone hurled into the waters ; and its instru¬ mentality of fire , eternal fire, whereof the smoke goeth up for ever and for ever. All which so strongly points to Rome’s territorial destruction by volcanic fire, (much like that whereby so many earlier geologi¬ cal catastrophes have been accomplished, of which the memorial still remains visible on our earth’s crust,) that I do not see how we can well be mistaken in expecting it. Moreover it is an expectation in which the most learned of the ancient Jewish Rabbis, judging from sundry parallel prophecies in the Old Testament, and the most learned too of the ancient Christian fathers, have in fact preceded us. — As to the Beast himself, and his confederates, gathered together per¬ haps on some council, or some expedition, in their last great war against Christian truth, outside the region of Babylon’s catastrophe, it would seem as if, besides some terrible judgment of the sword, a second shock of the volcanic earthquake was destined to TEMPLE OF WITNESS OPENED IN HEAVEN. 383 engulph them ; for it is said that they were cast alive LECT III* into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. A con- summation this well according with what had been fore¬ shown to the prophet Daniel; viz. how that the body of the 4th Beast, or Homan Empire, in its last ten-horned form, was to be given to the burning flame. — And then a burst of praise was heard to break from a great multitude in heaven ; saying, “ Alleluia ! The salva¬ tion, and the glory, and the power, be unto our God ! For true and righteous are his judgments : for he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. — And her smoke rose up for ever and for ever.” And then what next ? Blessed, my brethren, is now the change of both scene and subject. “ I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of ✓ many waters, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God Om¬ nipotent reigneth.” Behold Christ’s kingdom is figured as come; and our earth’s long expected jubilee under it as at length begun. — And then it was added, “ Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honor to him ; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his Wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white ; for the white linen is the righteousness of saints.”- — Very beautiful, Brethren, is, the description afterwards given of the Lamb's Wife , under the emblem of the New Jerusalem. And fitly and joyfully I may point your attention to it, as the bright terminating point in the 384 THE 1260 YEARS WITNESSING IN SACKCLOTH. FOURTH TRIAD. perspective of prophecy respecting that which has been so long my subject, the Christian Church . — But oh ! how different her aspect and fortune, at that blessed time of the consummation, from any under which either prophecy had before depicted, or history realized her ! No more does she appear, so as before even in her best previous state, and from the very time of her first formation, with tares intermixt among the wheat, false among the true. She is freed from all the false, and has none but real saints in her visible constituency. — No more, as once, does imperfection attach even to these her true members. They are drest in purest white linen, the symbol of the perfected righteousness of the saints. — Further, the liability no more belongs to her of being broken and divided into different sects, albeit of the faithful : so as when the Woman, the faithful professing Catholic Church, past away from man’s sight into the wilderness, in her character of a united visible impersonatrix of the faithful ; and only left separate broken bodies of her children to be witnesses for Christ, during the long reign of Antichrist. There has now begun the fulfilment of Christ’s petition for the unity of his Church, “ That they all may be one ; as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: ” — a unity of which I pray you to mark the source and centre, “ one in us ! ” — Yet again, no more as so often previously, is she to appear suffering from persecution, temptation, and trial. The time of her children’s witnessing in sackcloth is ended. The evil of sin, and enmity of its author against the blessed TEMPLE OF WITNESS OPENED IN HEAVEN. God, lias been now sufficiently exhibited before men and angels ; 1 as also, through his sustaining grace, the faith and patience of the saints. Her persecutors are destroyed : she is where trial and sorrow come not : God himself has wiped away all tears from the eye. - — Yet again she is no more liable, as once, to any temporary spiritual cloud and darkness. “ There shall be no night there.” Nor has she any more need, as once, of the aid of earthly ordinances, or an earthly temple of worship. Her communion with God, and beatific vision of Him, is now direct, constant, perfect: 6‘ I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Al¬ mighty and the Lamb are the temple of it’7 — The earth itself, moreover, is to sympathize in the change. The curse is removed. The creation, which now groaneth and travaileth as it were in pain, is then itself also to be delivered from the bondage of corrup¬ tion, at this manifestation of the sons of God.2 There is to be a new heaven and new earth ; prepared even from the foundation of the world, through a succession of ages of geological change,3 to be the fit local scene of the kingdom of Christ and his saints. Such, brethren, is the ending foreshown in prophecy as destined for Christ's faithful Church . Is it not a glorious ending ? Oh ! that we may all of us belong in heart to it in its militant state here ; and so not fail of participating in the blessedness and glory as¬ sured to it for ever hereafter ! Amen ! 1 Seep. 98 supra. 2 Rom. viii. 19 — 22. 3 Matt. xxv. 34. — On the geological changes by which this earth has been prepared for man’s present habitation, preliminarily to its fu¬ ture better state, see Plurality of Worlds, chs. vi, x, and xiii. See too P. Smith’s Geology, p. 77. LECTURE XIII. SUMMARY OF PROPHETIC EVIDENCE. APOC. XXI. 5—8. (( CONCLU¬ SION. AND HE THAT SATE UPON THE THRONE SAID, BEHOLD I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW. - AND HE SAID UNTO ME, WRITE ; FOR THESE WORDS ARE TRUE AND FAITHFUL. AND HE SAID UNTO ME, IT IS DONE. I AM ALPHA AND OMEGA, THE BEGINNING AND THE END. I WILL GIVE UNTO HIM THAT IS ATHIRST OF THE FOUN¬ TAIN OF THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY. HE THAT OVERCOMETH SHALL INHERIT ALL THINGS ; AND I WILL BE HIS GOD, AND HE SHALL BE MY SON. BUT THE FEARFUL,1 AND UNBELIEVING, AND THE ABOMINABLE, AND MURDERERS, AND WHOREMONGERS, AND SORCERERS, AND IDOLATERS, AND ALL LIARS, SHALL HAVE THEIR PART IN THE LAKE WHICH BURNETII WITH FIRE ANB BRIM¬ STONE, WHICH IS THE SECOND DEATH u Behold, I make all things new.” Such was the Saviour’s remark, expressive of his divine compla¬ cency in the completed work of redemption : when the Apocalyptic prefigurations of the future had had their ending' in the vision of the New Jeru- salem, (that symbol of the perfected Church of the redeemed,) descending from heaven all beautiful, like a bride adorned for her husband ; and with the re¬ generation of this our lower earth, as its blessed ac¬ companiment. And then, in retrospective view of the great providential scheme of the future, which had been all thus prophetically unfolded to St. John, he added those observations which make up the re- 1 deiAm. The word implies both slothfulness , and improper fear, or cowardice. SUMMARY OF PROPHETIC EVIDENCE. 387 mainder of mv text : — “ Write, for these words are LECT- *' . XIII. true and faithful. It is done. I am Alpha and Omeo'a. I will give to him that is athirst of the o o water of life freely. He that overcometh shall in¬ herit all things. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the second death.” In which observations four points stand forth separately and prominently for notice : — 1st, his view of Scripture prophecy as con¬ stituting altogether one consistent whole, ending in man’s perfected redemption, “ It is done : ” — 2dly, his view, from the anticipated stand-point of the con- summation, of the truth of each and every prophecy shadowed forth to St. John,1 as what would then at length have been verified by its fulfilment : — 3rdly, his representation of the scheme, so predicted and veri¬ fied, as that in which he would himself be glorified, as the Alpha and Omega of redemption, the begin¬ ning and the end -4thly, his declaration of its being that in which, all consistently with his own glory, there would be an answering both to the deepest spi¬ ritual cravings of man’s heart, and deepest convic¬ tions, on the great matter of sin and holiness, of man’s conscience : the water of life being set forth as the meed of each spiritually thirsting soul that might seek it from him ; but exclusion from life, and the penalty of the second death, as the meed of un- 1 I thus apply the expression, “ These words are true and faith¬ ful,” in its largest and most comprehensive sense : which I think may be fairly done. 2 C 2 388 SUMMARY OF PROPHETIC EVIDENCE. conclu- believers, falsehood-lovers, idolaters, slothful, and all SION. 7 7 ^ — v — ' other such as should determinately reject, or neglect, the grace offered them in the gospel. Now it seems to me that these several points may be regarded as alike strikingly and comprehensively marking the divine and quite peculiar character of ' Scripture prophecy. And as, in this concluding Lecture of my course, it is my purpose to glance re¬ trospectively over the prophetic field that we have traversed, with special reference (in accordance with Bishop Warburton’s injunction) to the evidence that Scripture prophecy offers of its own divine origin, and so of the divine origin of Christianity, it seems to me that I can scarcely do this better than by uniting together in one view its structural , historical , and moral evidence, so as set forth in my text. Thus it will be my object, 1st, to impress on your minds the divine evidence of Scripture prophecy from its unity , consistency , and continuity , as unfolding ever one and the same grand connected Providential scheme : 2ndly, looking back from the stand-point of our pre¬ sent position in the world’s eventful drama, (a stand¬ point not indeed at the consummation, but apparently not very far from it,) to argue this from the exact¬ ness of its fulfilment in historic fact, down to the pre¬ sent time; more especially as illustrated in some of the more remarkable prophecies whose fulfilment has been traced out in the foregoing Lectures : 3rdly, to sug¬ gest further the twofold moral evidence of the divine inspiration of Scripture prophecy ; from the fact that EVIDENCE FROM UNITY OF PROPHECY. 389 the scheme which it sets forth is one glorificatory throughout of the God-man Christ Jesus , and one too that answers to the deepest requirements alike of the heart and of the conscience of man. — -May God’s own Spirit guide and bless us in the discussion ! LECT. XIII. I. My primary argument for the divine inspiration of Scripture prophecy is to be drawn from its consis¬ tency and continuity , as the gradual unfolding of one great scheme and whole . — It is the profound remark of Pascal that, as truth is perpetual, the characteristic of perpetuity must attach to the true religion, and to none other.1 The same remark is applicable to the prophecies of that which is really a divinely in¬ stituted religion. It will not suffice to a reasonable mind that there should be offered in proof simply detached, and comparatively unimportant predictions, even though verified by fact ; such as some recorded of the famous Delphic oracle,2 of Poman augurs,3 or that might, perhaps, be extracted from the Koran of Mahomet. The prophetic scheme of a divine religion ought to date surely from man’s creation ; announc¬ ing, even thus early, God’s grand general purpose respecting our world : and then gradually to unfold more and more of that purpose, as time might pro- 1 “ Pour reconnaitre quel est le vrai, il n’y a qu’^t voir quel est celui qui y a toujours ete : car il est certain que le vrai y a toujours ete, et qu’aucun faux n’y a toujours ete.” And again ; “ Nulle autre religion n’a la perpetuite, qui est la principale marque de la verite.” Pensees, cli. ii. 2 E. g. those told in Croesus’ history. 3 E. g. Varro’s, explaining tlie 12 vultures seen by Romulus to signify the 12 destined centuries of Rome’s empire. 390 SUMMARY OF PROPHETIC EVIDENCE. conclu- gress ; with minor predictions branching out from, v— but still connected with, the main grand scheme of divine prophecy.— Now this is precisely the character of Scripture prophecy ; and I may say that there is no other religion in the world that can pretend to pro¬ phetic evidence anything like it. Most strikingly does this appear in regard to its grandest and most promi¬ nent theme, the Redeemer promised ; nor, as I now pro¬ pose to show, shall we fail to discover it in regard even of the subordinate subject, which has so much occu¬ pied us in these Lectures, of the Redeemer's Church. It was at man’s fall in Paradise, we saw long since,1 that Scripture prophecy began ; and that it began with the annunciation of God's purpose (a purpose worthy indeed of Himself, and which the creation, already groaning and travailing in pain, might seem to call for) of remedying the terrible evil, undoing the work of the enemy, and restoring our fallen world. “ The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” And then, in what was added, this was observable : — that the redemption promised was to have its accomplishment not at once, but at some future time, more or less distant, ere which the human family would have multiplied, and the penalty of sin have been in part experienced : 2 and that meanwhile a human element, as well as a divine, was to be involved in the carrying out of the promise ; not only because 1 See p. 87. 2 “ In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children.” “ Thorns also and thistles shall the earth bring forth. In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the ground whence thou wast taken.” EVIDENCE FROM UNITY OF PROPHECY. of the specially predicted seed being the seed of the woman , whatever otherwise his nature, but also be¬ cause, as seemed intimated, the ministration not of angels, but of some of the woman’s seed, would be used to keep up among men the testimony of the pro¬ mised Saviour. Between whom and the Tempter’s seed it seemed too there would be a perpetual enmity ; (“ I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed:”) our earth being thus marked out as the battle-field of the opposing principles. — If in that primeval prediction the fact of human ministration being in¬ tended for the purpose specified might seem but ob¬ scurely hinted, it was made evident immediately after by God’s recognition of Abel, and then afterwards of Enoch and of Noah, as his witnesses in the world, preachers of righteousness, and ministers of a certain ritualistic religion, significant of the great intended author and mode of salvation. Connected with whom were all such as recognized and accepted God’s scheme of redemption, so announced and prefigured : all constituting together, even thus early, distinctively from those who repudiated it, the visible and prof essed ew^o-ia, or church of God. Thus from the beginning, was the treasure of God’s covenant of redemption set forth as to be com¬ mitted, for keeping and promulgation, to the earthen vessels of an earthly ministry and church ; as also the deadly hostility of the Evil One against that church : which yet, by his covenant, God seemedpledged to per¬ petuate. — Bear in mind, brethren, these several points, 392 SUMMARY OF PROPHETIC EVIDENCE. C°sionU~ exPres^ or imP^ed in the primeval prophecy. And it v—' will then be seen by you that every thing that we have had to develope in these Lectures about the Church from Scripture prophecies, is but an expansion of, or ramification from it: with just that consistency and continuity in them, which we have stated to be a characteristic of that religion which is divine. Thus, reverting to the first triad of my Lectures, we marked how the Jewish prophet Isaiah, taking up the thread of prophecy at a time when already much light had been thrown on the primeval promise of the great promised seed, both as to his divine as well as human nature, and also as to his intended birth, ac¬ cording to the flesh, of the Abrahamic, or Jewish race, now nationally organized as God's prof est church and people , conformably with a promise originally made to Abraham, — added this further to previous pro¬ phetic annunciations respecting that people : — that, on Messiah’s at length appearing in human form among them, (born not indeed as other men, but of a pure virgin,) the Jews, because of his appearing in humilia¬ tion and without worldly pomp and splendour, instead of recognizing him as Emmanuel, God with them, or appreciating the surpassing moral glory of such volun¬ tary humiliation in God’s elect one, would yield them¬ selves to the influence of a deceiving spirit,1 and disbe¬ lieve, reject, kill him : though only so indeed as to carry out what was the very essence of God’s purpose for our redemption concerning him ; viz. that he 1 Is. xxix. 10. EVIDENCE FROM UNITY OF PROPHECY. 393 should give his life an offering for sin, then act as intercessor at his right hand in power.1 Hence their predicted rejection from being God’s church and people. But, instead of the Tempter, by this mislead¬ ing of the mass of the Jews, effecting the annihilation of God’s church of witness, it wTa,s further declared by Isaiah that tl^e Lord would choose out to himself, and enlighten, a new people from the Gentiles : (very chiefly from out of the Gentiles of the isles, or Gen¬ tile nations round the Mediterranean:) to take the place of the temporarily unbelieving Jews ; and, in union with the few faithful among the latter, to re¬ constitute, and continue in a new form, his Church of witness on the earth. Just as was said also by Isaiah’s contemporary prophet Hosea, “ I will make them my people that were not my people, and her beloved that was not beloved.” — So was the purpose of the enemy on this head set forth as to be frustrated. God’s Church of witness, instead of being destroyed, was to be enlarged. The vineyard was to be given to others to cultivate, during the parenthesis of Jewish rejection and desolation.2 The stem of the olive-tree of his plant¬ ing was to remain alive; and, though its old branches had been broken off, yet new ones were to be grafted in.3 The continuity of God’s Providential scheme, I say, was thus, according to Isaiah, to be still kept up ; and the hopes of an ending in the new heaven and new LECT. XIII. 1 See pp. 49, 54 supra. So Isa. liii. 12, Dan. ix. 24. 2 Compare Isa. v. 5 — 7 and Matt, xxi, 41, 48. 8 Compare Jer. xi. 16 and Rom. xi. 17 — 24. 394 SUMMARY OF PROPHETIC EVIDENCE. CONCLU SION. *» earth of a restored paradise, according to the primeval promise, nor to" be made void.1 And what the fortunes, as foretold in Scripture pro¬ phecy, of God’s Church of witness after this embracing of the Gentiles ? A similar course of conflict and temptation, originating from the same great enemy of man, was indicated. — Already some two centuries after Isaiah, and five before the birth of that Jesus of Nazareth whom New Testament Scripture designates as the promised seed of the woman, God’s anointed Messiah, the prophet Daniel had seemed to intimate that the Messianic or Christian Church, as then anew constituted, would after a while (though still professedly Christian) in great part lapse into apostacy : and that it would have for its head, in this pseudo-Christian state, a self-deifying chief of mighty power ; 2 the same evidently with the one symbolized by him in another prophecy,3 as a little horn dominating over ten other horns, or princes, of the fourth great empire of the world, i. e. the Homan, in its latter and divided state. In which other prophecy it was also stated that this his antichristian and saint-persecuting king¬ dom would continue till, and only be destroyed by, Messiah’s advent in glory, to establish on its ruins his own promised kingdom of blessedness. — So, I say, the prophet Daniel. And what said those later prophe¬ cies respecting the future phases and fortunes of the Christian Church which were long afterwards delivered 1 See Is. lxv. 17, lxvi. 22. 2 See pp. 105 — 108 supra. 3 Dan. vii. 8, 24, 25. EVIDENCE FROM UNITY OF PROPHECY, 395 by Jesus Christ himself, and by his apostles Paul and LECT* X XII* John ; the same that were the subjects respectively of v — Y — my second and third courses of Lectures ? It was all in accordance with Daniel’s. — Thus Jesus himself spoke of his kingdom, or professing Church, as like a field in which, after the good seed sowing, there would he a sowing of bad also : (“the enemy would do this :”) of tares, the children of the wicked one ; as well as wheat, the children of God : (an intermix¬ ture that would necessarily involve an apostacy of the Church, in case of the tares outnumbering the wheat :) and which Christ represented as continuing even to the consummation, and introduction of his kingdom of glory. — Soon afterwards St. Paul told of the seeds of apostacy as then already sown in the professing Church : and how they would go on working therein with more and more effect ; until, so soon as a certain let, or hindrance, were removed, (a let declaredly understood by the early Christians to he the Poman power, in its then undivided state, under the empe¬ rors,) there would be unfolded a dominant head to the apostacy, well answering in respect of character, con¬ tinuance, and mode of destruction by Messiah’s ad¬ vent in glory, to the little horn of Daniel. — Further, by St. John the subject was treated much more at large : and multitudinous details predicted respecting the same apostate Church, empire, and head, to whom “ the Devil would give his power and great autho¬ rity:”1 details very numerous, very particular, and 1 Apoc. xiii. 2. 396 SUMMARY OF PROPHETIC EVIDENCE. CONCLU SION. many of them quite new. But here too, on examination, it will be found but an expansion of Daniel’s prophecy ; and all in the most perfect consistency with it. The same may be predicated of that which was the subject of my fourth triad of Lectures, viz. the exist¬ ence of a little witness body for Christ, in spite of op¬ position and persecution, all through the time of the apostacy. — By Isaiah, concordantly with the hints of the primeval prophecy, it had been declared that the witness for Messiah should never fail : 1 by Daniel, that even during the reign of the little horn there would continue saints and faithful ones, wdio would only be purified and made white by the fiery trial.2 So, accord¬ ingly, in St. John’s later and fuller Apocalyptic pro¬ phecy, a line of witnesses for Christ was figured as ever continuing during Antichrist’s reign, albeit clothed in sackcloth. — And, whereas Jesus Christ had declared that before the end the gospel of his kingdom must be preached for a witness to all nations, so in the Apocalyptic prophecy, after a figured epoch of all but fatal crisis in the sackcloth-robed witnesses’ history, there were foreshown two notable subsequent steps of advance in their later witnessing ; the latter involving, as it seemed, a world- wide preaching of the everlast¬ ing gospel. And then, and after this, followed in its figurings the promised glory of the consummation. What I have said on this head of evidence applies to other great subjects of Scripture prophecy. So, for example, (not to recur here to that most important of 1 Is. lix. 21. 2 See p. 107 supra. EVIDENCE FROM UNITY OF PROPHECY. 397 all prophetic subjects, the promised seed of the Wo- LECT' man, of which indeed, in another point of view,1 1 shall y— have to speak under my 3d head,) I might specify that of the Jews 9 predicted dispersion , in judgment for their unfaithfulness, and subsequent final restoration : a subject first dwelt on prophetically by Moses ; and after him, more or less particularly, by most of the Old Testament and New Testament prophets. — On these various points, I say, we shall find Scripture pro¬ phecy to exhibit, from its beginning to its ending, one consistent and harmonious whole. And, see¬ ing that these prophecies were written by a long succession of prophets, of quite different natural ta¬ lents and characters, and living under different cir¬ cumstances, at long intervals often one after the other, through the space of some 4000 years, a strong pre¬ sumptive argument of divine inspiration seems hence to arise, altogether prior to enquiry as to the prophe¬ cies’ actual fulfilment. For whence, we may think, but through their inspiration by one and the same Eternal Spirit, foreseeing the end from the beginning, could there have arisen this unity and consistency in them ? So St. Peter states the case. “ No pro¬ phecy is of private (i. e. of detached and isolated) interpretation : for holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” II. But, if an intelligent inquirer after the true re- 1 It is simply the consistency and continuity of the Messianic pro¬ phecies of the Old Testament that I here refer to. \ 398 SUMMARY OF PROPHETIC EVIDENCE. ° sionU" %ion> insufficiently informed as yet on the agreement v-~v~/ of Scripture prophecy and historic fact, might thus reasonably, from the mere internal evidence of the consistency of those prophecies, form a presumptive judgment in their favour, and so in favour of the re¬ ligion interwoven with them, how much stronger would this his favourable judgment become after in¬ vestigations as to their having been proved “ faithful and true ” by their fulfilment ! — This, Brethren, has been ever a most strong evidence for the truth of our revealed religion. It began from the very fall of man ; since the predicted judgments on sin, — toil, care, decay, disease, death, a curse on the ground, and the woman’s bringing forth in sorrow, — began forthwith to have their accomplishment. And, as time, in its passage onward, gradually more and more raised the veil that hid from man’s eyes coming mys¬ teries, it has ever continued to gather in accumulating strength and power. — Accordingly, in each successive age, the advocates of revealed religion have prest it on their contemporaries ; specially the evidence from such fulfilled prophecies as most affected themselves, and were at the time most striking to them. By Moses and Joshua there was urged on the Israelites of their time the fulfilment of all the good things promised them by God ; in regard first of their deliverance from Egypt, and then afterwards of their inheritance of the land of Canaan.1 By the later Jewish pro¬ phets there was urged the fulfilment of the predicted 1 Deut. vi. 21 — 2R, Josh, xxiii. 14, &c. EVIDENCE FROM FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY. 399 Babylonish 70 years’ captivity and return.1 The LECT- XIII, apostles of Jesus dwelt above all on the fulfilment in him of all the Old Testament Messianic types and prophecies : while the Christians of a century or two later 2 added to this the fulfilment, which then strik¬ ingly met their eyes, of the prophecies of the destruc¬ tion of Jerusalem by the Homans, and dispersion of its wretched unbelieving people, a byeword and proverb among all nations.2 Nor did they fail too to mark what had been fulfilled of Daniel’s wonderful pro¬ phecy about the four great successive dominant em¬ pires of the world; and how the prophecy had been real¬ ized as faithful and true through the Babylonian, Per¬ sian, Macedonian, and earlier Homan sera. And so they looked with undoubting confidence to the fulfilment of what then remained unaccomplished of it : viz. the breaking up of the Homan empire into a new decem- regal form ; and rule of the Man of Sin, or Antichrist, as lord among the ten new kings and kingdoms.3 For ourselves, living as we do at a much later epoch, and looking from a stand-point, as I said be¬ fore, apparently not so very far from the consumma¬ tion, it is fit that we take the opportunity offered us of verifying the fulfilment of prophecies that reach further down than patristic times in the world’s his¬ tory ; and very specially whether what the fathers of 1 Zech. i. 5, 6, Ezra i. 1. 2 E. g. Justin Martyr, Jerome, Augustine, &c. 3 On this let me refer to the many citations from the Christian fa¬ thers of the 2nd 3rd and 4th centuries, given in my H. A. i. 215, 220, 363, &c. SUMMARY OF PROPHETIC EVIDENCE. the early Christian Church looked for, as predicted by Daniel, St. Paul, and St. John, respecting the disruption of the old Homan empire into a new de- cem-regal form, and doininancy thenceforward by a head answering to the predicted characteristics of the Man of Sin and Antichrist, had its accomplishment in subsequent history, or not- I say, very specially : — because out of all the prophecies so far unfulfilled there was none in respect of subject so important to the Church ; none involving so many circumstantials of every kind, whereby to test whether the words of Scripture prophecy were indeed faithful and true. Hence I wonder not at Bishop Warburton’s having made the particular predictions concerning it so pro¬ minent, in the thesis that he has propounded to the Lecturers on this foundation, for proving the truth of our Scriptural religion by the fulfilment of the Scriptural prophecies. That profound reasoner Bishop Butler, in the Section on the Prophetic Evidence of Christianity in his Analogy, had himself referred to this same prophetic subject, as one fit for the purpose.1 And several of your Lecturers, entering fully into the spirit of Warburton’s injunction, have urged the par¬ ticular prophetic evidence hence arising with more or less force and ability.2 For my own part I would wish, in the retrospect of my now closing Lectures, to single out, in corro- 1 See my notice of Bishop Butler’s remarks on the subject a little lower, pp. 407, 408. 2 See my List of the Lecturers on the Warburton foundation in the Paper No. 1 of the Appendix. EVIDENCE FROM FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY. 401 boration of the argument from this class of fulfilled pro- LECT- phecies, precisely those two parts of the Apocalypse, v— — connected with its prophetic description of Anti¬ christ’s introduction and reign, which have been till of late the least illustrated ; and so seemed to present more or less of difficulty to the inquirer, in the way of his fully receiving the Protestant explanation. I refer to the Apocalyptic Seals , prefiguring the antecedents in Pom an history, from St. John’s time, to the great Poman politico-religious revolution figured as what would precede Antichrist’s revelation and reign ; and the prophecy of the death and resurrection of Christ's two sackcloth-robed witnesses, during Antichrist’s full height of power, including an essentially connected prophecy of some contemporary church-reformation . Let me then briefly remind you of what appeared in our investigation of each and either of these two particular prophetic sections of the Apocalypse. 1. In regard of the Apocalyptic Seals , the earli¬ est prophecies in that prophetic book, and which, according to the revealing Angel’s own declaration, were to presignify events and changes destined to follow next after the time of St. John’s receiving the revelation in Patmos, it may be remembered that the symbols in the four first were successively four horses , white, red , black, and deadly pale : each bearing a rider with his own peculiar badge, as the crown and bow, sword , balance , or attendant hades ; with certain explanatory statements from the Angel, accompanying each symbolization. And whereas, — assuming the 2 D 402 SUMMARY OF PROPHETIC EVIDENCE. conclu- war-horse in every case to symbolize the Roman SION. J J — ' people, agreeably with the Roman propriety of that symbol, and Daniel’s use of animals similarly appro¬ priate to signify the correspondent people, — it seemed i foreshadowed by these symbolizations that phases of prosperity and triumph, of civil war and bloodshed, of aggravated fiscal oppression, and of terrible mor¬ tality, would successively appear in the fortunes of the Roman empire, as unfolded after the time of St. John, — and this under influences indicated by the respective riders in the four successive figurations, — just such we found the fact in the history associated with the names of Nerva, Trajan, and the Antonines, in the first in¬ stance, and then of Commodus, Caracalla, and Galli- enus respectively.— Under those first mentioned , — a new imperial line, all united by adoptions with Nerva as its head, a man ofCretic bow-hearing origin, and to whom the crown was presented on Domitian’s death by the Senate, within a year after St. John’s seeing the visions in Patmos, — there arose an 80 years’ era of proverbially unparalleled prosperity to the Roman empire ; with triumphs most remarkable in offensive wars under Trajan at its commencement, and triumphs as remarkable in defensive wars under the 2nd Anto- nine near its conclusion. — Under Commodus , (the next following emperor,) the dominant power in the state having been devolved to the sword-bearing military , there began an sera, under its baneful influence, equally unparalleled for long-continued civil bloodshed and war. — Under Caracalla a new and lasting principle EVIDENCE FROM FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY 403 of fiscal extortion and oppression was introduced, LECT- (chiefly with a view to propitiate the dominant sol- — diery,) which was administered by Provincial govern¬ ors, whose badge was the balance : a principle so oppressive in its working as (to use Gibbon’s words) “ to darken the Roman world with its deadly shade.” — And then, in Gallienus time, (the combined evils of the two preceding seras having prepared for it,) an sera followed of such destruction of life from the united agencies of the sword, famine, and pestilence, that Gibbon speaks of the mined empire as then “ seeming to approach the last and fatal moment of its dissolu¬ tion and Niebuhr describes its state as like that of central Europe when desolated by the black death in the middle ages.- — Thus accurately by the symbols of the four first Seals were we brought down in Roman history to Diocletian’s reign in the last quarter of the 3rd century. And whereas in the 5th and next Seal there followed the martyr- scene o f the souls under the altar , so in Roman history, at the close of that cen¬ tury, there followed the last and greatest imperial persecution of Christians, constituting what was ever afterwards called the mra of martyrs . And as in the 6th Seal a scene of mighty earthquake and elemental convulsion was primarily depicted, with flight of kings and generals over the Apocalyptic earth, under terror of the Lamb, so in history there followed the mighty politico-religious revolution in the Roman world asso™ 1 See, for more of detail, my 7th Lecture, pp. 210 — 281 supra : or the much fuller sketch in my II. A. 2 T) 2 404 SUMMARY OF PROPHETIC EVIDENCE. conclu- ciated with the name of Constantine ; which was in- SION. ' — v — ' troduced by the defeat in numerous successive battles of all opposing heathen emperors, before his new standard of the cross. The result prefigured was that the people of the Apocalyptic or Homan world became identified with the Apocalyptic Israel : the actual result that the Roman world became Roman Christendom ; and its people, in the language of the popular theology of the times, God’s Israel. But it was only indeed (just agreeably with the striking in¬ dication in the second figuration of the 6th Apocalyp¬ tic Seal) to be his professing Israel; and with but a very small numeral proportion, like as it were of but 144,000, answering to the character of God’s true Israel of the election of s^race. Such was the verification by fulfilment, of the pro¬ phecies of the six first Apocalyptic Seals. I pray you to consider that there were not less than some thirty telling, specific, and sometimes very singular points in the prophecy ; all which needed realization, in order to the fulfilment of this part of the Apoca¬ lypse. Yet out of them all, I believe, there is not one in which historic fact has not been shown to answer to the prophecy. — Moreover the view of Roman history thus prophetically foreshadowed proves to be just the most philosophic view, and that given by the most philosophic historians. And, I ask, can all this have been by chance ? 2. And so again, 2ly, in regard to the Apocalyp¬ tic prophecy respecting that crisis of the Church EVIDENCE FROM FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY. under the 6th Trumpet, and intervention of Christ for its recovery , including the death and resurrection of the two sackcloth-robed ivitnesses, which is figured as occurring during the height of the power of the Beast from the abyss, or Antichrist. On the com- plete fulfilment in all its parts, of this remarkable prophecy, there seems indeed but little need of re¬ capitulating, even in brief, as we have so lately dis¬ cussed it.1 Let me remind you only that it occupies in the Apocalypse from the closing verses of the ixth Apocalyptic Chapter, next following on its notice of the slaughter of the third part of men by the Eu- phratean horsemen of the 6th Trumpet, to the 14th verse of the xith Chapter, which defines that Trum¬ pet’s ending : — -that it includes two distinct series of predictions, essentially interwoven with each other,2 and each involving circumstantials of detail very many and very peculiar : with the local scene plainly spe¬ cified of one most eventful transaction in the course of the prophecy, I mean that of the death of the two witnesses ;3 and moreover, both at the beginning, and at the end of it, chronological predictions singu¬ larly precise : the one, that of the hour day month and year within which, reckoned from the time of their loosing, the Euphratean horsemen were to slay the third of men ; the other, that of the three and a half 1 See my xith Lecture, pp. 331 — 358 supra. 2 The one that of Christ’s intervention, (following on the ecclesi¬ astical crisis of ix. 20,) the description of which occupies Apoc. x : the other that of the two witnesses’ death and resurrection, described in Apoc. xi. 7 — 14. 8 See pp. 352, 356 supra. 406 SUMMARY OF PROPHETIC EVIDENCE. conclu- clays of the witnesses lying as dead corpses in the ' — broad place of the great city.1 — Such, I say, and so many were the particulars of this comprehensive pro¬ phecy. Yet did we find each and every particular to have had its fulfilment in the history of the Refor¬ mation. And thus again the question recurs, Is it possible that all this series of coincidences between prophecy and fact could have been by chance ? It was stated by me that the two sections of the Apocalyptic prophecy of which the fulfilment has just been recapitulated, and which are more or less closely connected with the great prophecy about An¬ tichrist, constituted till of late the chief unexplained lacunae affecting that prophecy in the Apocalyptic book.2 And as these have been now thus satisfac¬ torily filled up, (and the same might be said, if I mis¬ take not, of certain lesser lacunae in the same pro¬ phecy, e. g. that respecting the image of the Beast,)3 the argument of inspiration from its fulfilment be¬ comes necessarily one of double, treble, cogency. — You are of course aware, brethren, that by various prophetic expositors of late, not elsewhere only, but in England, and in large part members of the English Church, there have been made very great efforts (just as before in the times of Charles 2nd and James 2nd) to turn us aside from the old Protestant application of St. Paul’s, St. John’s, and Daniel’s prophecies about Antichrist to the Roman Popes and Papacy. One 1 See pp. 331 — 333, and 355, 350 supra. 2 See p. 400, 401. 3 See p. 268. EVIDENCE FROM FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY. 407 might have hoped that the recollection of this being ^ct. the view deliberately taken of them both by the foun- v— — ders of the reformed Church of England,and by most of its chief doctors subsequently, — by Tyndale and Cranmer, Latimer and Jewell, by the writers of our Homilies and the Authors of our authorized English version of the Bible, by Hooker and Usher, Whit- gift and Andrews,1 by Barrow (if I mistake not)2 and Dr. S. Clarke3 and Bishop Butler,4 by Warbur- 1 See the citations from all the above-mentioned given in my Paper No. iv. of the Appendix to Yol. iii. of the H. A. — Let me only add to the citation from Hooker there given the passages following : “ The grand question between us and Rome is about the matter of justi¬ fying righteousness. . .We disagree about the nature and essence of the medicine whereby Christ cureth our disease.” And then, after describing the Romish doctrine of justification, he adds : “ This is the mystery of the Man of Sin.'" Disc, on Justif. Chs, 4 and 5. 2 Barrow , on the Supremacy of the Pope, ch. 5, in allusion to the Pope’s money gains, and assertion of false miracles with a view to that object, thus speaks : — “ as also legends, fables of miracles, and all such deceivableness of unrighteousness .” Where, in the margin, a reference is made to 2 Thess. ii. 10. So at p. 310 (Oxford Ed. 1818.) And at p. 477 he says, 'ard’ and Re" N* But no Lectures seem to have been published by them, not published . The substance of the Lectures published in a volume entitled Propria Prophetic*. , without heading texts : of which a 2nd Edition has just issued from the press. 4 The first three only printed as yet. APPENDIX. I. NOTICE OF PREVIOUS COURSES OF WARBU ETONIAN LECTURES. In the Schedule on the other side the reader will see a list of my predecessors in the Warburtonian Lectureship ; with the texts of their several sermons. The subject laid down by Bishop War- burton being the same for all, — viz. “ to prove the truth of re¬ vealed religion in general , and of the Christian in particular , from the completion of the prophecies in the Old and New Testament which relate to the Christian Churchy and especially to the Apostacy of Papal Pomef — it becomes the rather a matter of curious in¬ terest to see how the Lecturers have severally varied in their mode of treating it, and on what points most largely followed out the argument. I have therefore determined on subjoining here¬ with a brief notice of them, in chronological succession. 1. Hurd.1 2 In his 3 first Lectures this author lays down preliminarily the true idea and intent of Scripture prophecy, as declared in Scripture itself; viz, that its spirit is “ the testimony of Jesus f the world’s promised redeemer. Whence an answer to sundry common ob- 1 Then preacher to Lincoln’s Inn ; afterwards Bishop of Lichfield. 2 F 434 NOTICE OF PREVIOUS COURSES jections that have been made against the evidence of Scripture prophecy:1 — to that of its obscurity, 2 from the immensity, con¬ tinuity, and gradual unfolding from the beginning of the prophetic scheme : — to that of its double senses, from the intimate connexion of its several parts ; the prophet rising often from a lesser pre¬ sent topic to the greater one to come : — to that of its confinement to one small people, from the necessity of selecting a peculiar peo¬ ple (that same of which the Redeemer was to be born) to be the vehicle and repository of the sacred oracles : — and to that of the doubtful evidence of fulfilment, in various cases, alike from the na¬ ture of the subject, as being one the evidence of which was to be that of the whole, collectively considered, rather than that of de¬ tached predictions ; and from the genius of the dispensation to which the scheme of prophecy belongs, as a dispensation of pro¬ bation, trial, and moral discipline. In the 4th Lecture the general argument from Scripture pro¬ phecy is enforced (though without exemplification) from the multiplicity, circumstantiality, and convergency to one point and person (viz. Jesus Christ) of the Scripture predictions ; albeit sometimes the application may seem on slight grounds ;3 and this is contrasted with the few detached heathen auguries for which fulfilment might most plausibly be asserted.4 — In the 5th he illus¬ trates this continuity, consistency, and convergency of Scripture 1 Celsus is the ancient objector that Dr. Hurd refers to ; Collins and Dr. Mid¬ dleton the more modern. 2 So Celsus of the Jewish and Christian oracles; ayvwara, kcll Trapoicrrpa, kcu ivavTT] adrjAa, Sov to gev yucofxa ovSeis av excov vow evpeiv duvairo' aacuprj yap, Kai ro p.r)S€v. (lib. vii.) And again that they were applicable to other subjects besides those to which they were referred; ras eis ra irepi tovtov (It jaov) avcupepofievas irpocpTqreias 8vvao9at Kai aAAois ecpapfxofreiv irpayp.aai. (i. 39.) Nay, much more applicable ; p.vpiois aAAois e(papp.oa9r)vai SwaoOai ttoAv 7 n9avo- repov ra Trpo. 190) there existed no tradition at all authoritative about it in the Christian Church. The selection of Dec. 25 for Christmas-day was made however as early as the time of Chrysostom and Augustine. 2 So Tiberius’ friend and attendant Veil. Paterculus, Hist. Rom. ii. 121 : “• Senatus populusque Romanus (postulante patre ejus) ut aequum ei jus in omnibus provinciis exercitibusque, esset quhm erat ipsi decreto amplexus esset.” This was just as Tiberius was returning to Rome to triumph. Which took place a.d. 12. (Clinton, Fasti Rom.) So too Suetonius, in his Life of Tiberius, c. 21. Compare Eckhel on Tiberius, ad ann. u.c. 766. — Luke calls it Tiberius’ fjyenovia, not jSacnAeta. What Tacitus reports, in his Ann. i. 3. of Tiberius having been adopted as col¬ league by Augustus, (“ filius, collega imperii, consors Tribunitiae potestatis ad- sumitur,”) appears from Veil. Paterculus’ statement (ii. 104) to have occurred some 9 or 10 years earlier. See Clinton’s Fasti ; ad Ann. a.d. iv.— There is a good summary of evidence on the chronological question in Elsley on Luke iii. 1. 3 See Sir I. Newton ibid. THE PAULINE CHRONOLOGY. 459 have been the case in the verse in St. Luke : and, so calculated, the 15th year of Tiberius might be considered as beginning from the autumn of a. d. 26. Soon after which time, say in the spring of 27, Jesus Christ would have completed his 30th year. And just then (in agreement with other indications of time mentioned in Luke iii. 1 , 2) Pilate would have entered, according to Josephus, on his ten years government of Judaea ; (a period ending in the spring of 37, just before the death of Tiberius ; ) and have found on arriving there Caiaphas (son in law of Ananus, or Annas) to be High Priest : he having been made successor to Simon by Pi¬ late’s predecessor Valerius Gratus, as almost his last act before leaving Judaea.1 Now it seems clear, from comparison of St. John’s and the other Gospels, that Christ must have attended at least four Pass¬ overs at Jerusalem, subsequently to his baptism.2 And, supposing this to have been the precise and entire number that elapsed during his ministry, the time of his death would fall three years after, to the Passover of a. d. 30. On the other hand, supposing other passovers to have elapsed in the interval which are unre- 1 Joseph. Ant. xviii. 2. 2 ; 4. 2. 2 See on this Sir I. Newton, ibid. (p. 171.) He makes the number ofpassovers to be five; and thus sums up his view of the evidence. “ The 1st passovcr was between the baptism of Christ and imprisonment of John (John ii. Id); — the 2nd within four months after the imprisonment of John, and Christ’s beginning to preach in Galilee (John iv. 35) ; (this being either that feast to which Jesus went up when the scribe desired to follow him (Matt. viii. 19, Luke ix. 51, 57, or the feast before it:) the 3rd the next feast after it, when the corn was eared and ripe (Matt. xii. 1, Luke vi. 1): the 4th that which was nigh at hand when Christ wrought the miracle of the five loaves (Matt. xiv. 15, John vi. 4, 5) : and the 5th that in which Christ suffered (Matt. xx. 17, John xii. 1).” “ Between the 1st and 2nd Passover,” he adds, “ John and Christ baptized together, till the imprisonment of John, which was four months before the 2nd. Then Christ began to preach and call his disciples; and, after he had instructed them a year, sent them to preach in the cities of the Jews: at the same time John, hearing of the fame of Christ, sent to him to know who he was. At the 3rd the chief priests began to consult about the death of Christ. A little before the 4th the twelve, after they had preached a year in all the cities, returned to Christ : and at the same time Herod beheaded John in prison, after he had been in prison 2^ years. The 4th Christ went not up to Jerusalem for fear of the Jews, who had consulted his death, and because his time was not yet come. Thenceforth, till the feast of tabernacles, he walked in Galilee: and after it was sometimes at Jerusalem, sometimes retired beyond the Jordan, or to the city of Ephraim in the wilderness, till the Passover in which he was crucified.” 460 THE PAULINE CHRONOLOGY. corded by the Evangelists, (a supposition not unreasonable to the extent of some 3 or 4) then the epoch of his death might have fallen at the Passover of any of the next four years 31, 32, 33, or 34. — And which then, preferably, of all the five ? 2. At this point of enquiry the investigations of astronomical science become available, as bearing on the following question : — In which of the years from 30 to 34, inclusive, did the day of the Passover, or 14th of the month Nisan, (the first Jewish lunar month at the vernal equinox,) fall on the Thursday, or Friday ; so as must have been the case (the one or the other,) in the year of Christ’s crucifixion ? — -I say the one or the other ; because learned commentators are divided in opinion on the point whether the true passover day (i. e. the 14th day of Nisan) 1 2 was the day of Christ’s eating the passover with his disciples,3 or the next fol¬ lowing day of his crucifixion.3 If the former , then the 14th day of Nisan must in the year of the Crucifixion have fallen on the Thursday : if the latter, then Friday must have been the day of the week corresponding. And here I am thankful to be able to furnish my readers with a tabular scheme of the week-days on which the 14th Nisan 1 Michaelis, in hisNotel97 ontheLaws of Moses, advances the opinion that the 15th of Nisan, not the Nth, was the day appointed by Moses for eating the paschal lamb. But, so far at least as regards the time of hilling the lamb, the passages referred to by him, Lev. xxiii. 5—8, Numb, xxviii. 1G — 27, do not seem to me to bear out the notion. Let me, in corroboration of the usual view taken on this point, mention that the interesting deputy from the Samaritan community at Nablous, or Sychar, Jacob esh Shelaby, now in England, informs me that the Samaritans sacrifice the lamb of the passover upon Mount Gerizim, on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan, just as the lower rim of the setting sun is seen first to touch the western waters of the Mediterranean. (Moses commanded the lamb to be slain on the 14th between the two evenings : i. e. between the sun’s afternoon decline and setting, or between 3 and 6 p.m. at the vernal equinox.) The paschal feast is prolonged into part of the 15th day ; which, agreeably with the old Jewish custom, begins with the completed sunset. Mr. Rogers, the intelligent British consul at Caiffa, was present on Mount Gerizim, he tells me, on one of these very interesting paschal festivals. 2 This is the view of Lightfoot, Whitby, Scott, &c ; grounded on what is said Matt. xxvi. 17 — 19, Mark xiv. 12, Luke xxii. 7, 8. 3 This is the view taken by Sir T. Newton, by my predecessors Messrs. Ap- thorp and Nolan in their Warburtonian Lectures, &c; and grounded on John xviii. 28, xix. 14. 1855, April 6. G. B. 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M 3^ P O P P P a a o o 21 I TIMES OF NEW AND FULL MOON, COMPUTATION OF THE 14tii DAY OF NISAN, On the supposition that the Moon is visible at the first Sunset that occurs more than 18 hours after conjunction. 'Td CD Sh CD *13 o d > 5.. JO »o CO ft* THE PAULINE CHRONOLOGY. 463 must have fallen in each and every one of the five years in ques¬ tion, kindly drawn up for me by our distinguished Astronomer Royal, G. B. Airey, Esq. ; and which must consequently be re¬ garded as of the highest possible authority.1 Now, supposing that the month Nisan, in the Jewish reckonings of the time of Christ, began exactly from the conjunction of the sun and moon, the 1st of the two Tables shows that in the years 29, 31, 32, the 14th of Nisan must have fallen neither on the Thursday or Friday; but on Sunday,2 Tuesday or Wednesday, and Monday respectively. And the same nearly, as appears from the 2nd Table, supposing the Jewish month to have begun, so as may probably have been the case, from the epoch of the first visibility of the new moon .3 Thus 1 “ The Jews still keep a tradition in their books that the Sanhedrim used diligently to define the new moons by sight ; sending witnesses into moun¬ tainous places, and examining them about the moon’s appearing.” So Sir I. N. ubi supra. He adds that, by the rule they called Jah (i“P), of which the letters signify 18, they began their month from the sunset next after the 18th hour from the conjunction. 2 “ I have considered, in the table, the new moon of a.d. 29, March 4 ; but I should think that this is too early in the year.” G. B. A. I therefore take only the later calculation for that year. 3 Compare the Table from Dodwell given at p. 449. Mr. Airey writes me : — “ As a general rule put no trust in astronomical calculations made in the last century.” In explanation of the Tables it is right that I should present the reader with Mr. Airey’s observations on the subject to which they relate. “ If the day of celebration of the passover depended simply on the day of full moon, the calculation would be free from all doubt. But this evidently could not be the criterion of the passover- day. Large bodies of people were then collected, and this could only be done by previous arrangement, or b y prediction of the day. And here arises the question, —How long before the actual time of passover was the day arranged? Was it from the new moon of the same lunation ? Was it by something like almanacs, coming into use as early as the beginning of the year or the preceding year ? And if so, what degree of accuracy was attempted in the predictions ? The inequalities of the moon’s motion will accelerate, or will retard, the new moon, or the full moon, by more than 12 hours. Were these taken into account? Or, was a mean interval of lunations used, so as to give what may be called canonical new and full moons, related to the true ones (though with far wider difference), as our canonical full moon is to the true for computation of Easter ? “ I should conceive that these points can be settled only by reference to Rab¬ binical authorities. Meantime it seems evident that I should be aiding you little by merely computing one set of numbers. I have thought it necessary to ex¬ hibit the times both of new moon and of full moon for the months of March and April, in the years from a.d. 29 to a.d. 34. And not only the true times of these 464 THE PAULINE CHRONOLOGY. the years 30, 33, and 34 seem on that account to be the only years that can be brought into question. And if we conclude phe iomena, but .also the mean times : that is, the times at which they would have occurred had there been no irregularities of motion either of the sun or of the moon ; and therefore the times easiest for a rude people to predict, at least with a common correction to all. If the times were predicted long before, I con¬ ceive that these mean times are most likely to have been used. If the times were arranged from the last observed new moon, then of course the true new moon governs the whole. — In the estimation of the time of true new moon (i. e. of con¬ junction of sun and moon) from the first visibility of the moon, you must remark that the months of March and April are very favourable for early visibility of the moon ; and that in Judea, if the moon was 18 hours old about the time of sunset, she would probably be seen. But you must remember that the new moon can be seen only immediately after sunset. “ The times which I send are computed from Largeteau’s tables, and are accu¬ rate to a fraction of an hour ; assuming, as I have reason to do from the accuracy of the computer, that no blunder has been made. The times are Jerusalem mean solar times. The reckoning civil, and the style Julian.”* * * “ I must again say I should desire Rabbinical authority for the traditions of the method of computing the Jewish calendar : at the same time stating that I have at various times had correspondence with Jewish authorities on astronomical points connected with the modern ceremonial, and that I have found them dis¬ posed to place very little confidence on their own science. Perhaps I may add that, as the best astronomy of the time had been used by Julius Csesar in correct¬ ing the Roman Calendar, it is not impossible that its influence had reached the provincial Jews. “ Suppose then that in the unlearned times the new moon was just visible im¬ mediately after sunset (the only time in the 24 hours when it can possibly be seen) ; or suppose that in more learned times it was predicted that, weather per¬ mitting, the moon would be visible for the first time on a certain evening at sun¬ set. The Jewish day begins at sunset. Therefore the sunset in question would be the beginning both of the day and of the month, or would be the beginning of the first day of the month : and if it was the proper season of the year, it would be the beginning of the first day of the month Nisan.* The principal part of this day would fall into what in the reckoning of western nations is the next day. That next day therefore is properly the first day of Nisan. “ Consider, for example, the }rear a.d. 33. “ Conjunction of sun and moon occurred on March 19 at noon. The mean time (which would probably be used for the calendar) is March 19, Ih. p.m. The moon could not be seen on the evening of the 19th, but would certainly be visible both in truth and in prediction) on the evening of the 20th. “ Therefore March 21 was the 1st day of Nisan. “ Therefore the 14th day of Nisan was April 3, which was a Friday. “ The conditions of the present chronological problem would therefore be satis¬ fied in this year : supposing my understanding of the Jewish calendar to be cor¬ rect ; and that the Jews’ Passover-day , or 14th Nisan, coincided with the day of Chrisfs crucifixion?' * “ If 23 hours of moon’s age were necessary for the moon’s visibility, then in a.d. 30 the first visibility would fall on March 24, and the 14th of Nisan would be April 7, a Friday. But I do not think 23 hours necessary.” THE PAULINE CHRONOLOGY. 465 that the Passover day was that on which Christ had the passover killed,1 then a. d. 30, or 34, might either, on this astronomical evidence, have been the year of the crucifixion. — On the other hand if we judge that our Lord anticipated the day, and that the true Jewish Passover day, or 14th of the month Nisan, was that when Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, then the year would seem fixed to a. d. 33. — My own mind inclines certainly to the former hypothesis ;2 and consequently (in the astronomical view of the question) to the idea of 30, or rather 34, a. d. being the true year of the crucifixion.3 3. As to the prophecy of the 70 hebdomads it is somewhat curious that, owing to the ambiguity of meaning attached to the Hebrew word in Dan. ix. 27, the prophecy would answer on supposition of either year. For it means both the half ’4 and the middle ,5 Measuring 70 hebdomads, or 490 years, from the 7th of 1 In this case Jesus Christ had the lamb killed on the evening of theldth, pro¬ bably a little before sunset ; and then sate down with the disciples to the pas¬ chal feast. But prolonging it into the advancing evening, or night, which began the 1.5th of Nisan in the Jewish reckoning, he did then institute the Lord’s sup¬ per : and so put the Christian paschal feast a day forward, correspondingly with the da3r of the sacrifice of himself, the true paschal Lamb, a few hours later ; just as he put the Christian sabbath also a day forward, by his resurrection on the first day of the week. — Compare the Samaritan practice mentioned Note 1 p. 460. 2 The statements in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, referred to Note 2 p. 460, appear to me almost decisive. — In John xviii. 28 * the feast of unleavened bread, called often the feast of the passover, seems meant ; and the irapaaKevr] ruu tt atr^a in John xix. 14,31, to have been the preparation of the passover sabbath. See Whitby. Mark xv. 42, I think, so explains it. 3 Could we trust the Church tradition (on which point the Constit. Apostol. v. 20 are referred to by Calmet,) that the first great Christian day of Pentecost fell on a Sunday, that fact would seem to be confirmatory of the opinion cxprest above. For 50 days were to be counted from the 2nd day of the feast of unleavened bread, or 16th of Nisan. (Levit. xxiii. 16.) And the seven weeks thence counted, or 49 days, were “ to be complete.” Then the day after these 49 days, i. e. the 50th day, was to be the day of Pentecost. — Now if Thursday in the year of the crucifixion was the week-day on which the paschal lamb was slain, and Friday therefore the 1st day of the feast of unleavened bread, Saturday the 2nd day, — then Saturday 7 weeks afterwards would be the day ending the 7 weeks ; and Sunday the 50th, or Pentecostal day. The Quartadeciman sectaries of the 2nd century curiously substituted Christ’s resurrection day for the passover day, as that the anniversary of which was to be on the 14th of the moon. 4 So Exod. xxiv. 6, 2 Sam. xviii. 3. 5 So Judg. xvi. 3. See Gesenius. * “ The Jews went not into the judgment-hall; but that they might eat the passover.” 2 H 466 THE PAULINE CHRONOLOGY. Artaxerxes, April1 b. c. 457, the full term would end April a. d. 34. And if this be the year of the crucifixion, we must suppose the last half of the last week, or that which comprehended Christ’s own ministry, ending with his death, to have been the time during which, through that ministry and death , the whole efficacy of the Jewish sacrificial system was made, as the prophet says, to cease.2 If the year 30 a. d. be the true year, then we must suppose the Angel to have meant that in the middle of the 70th, or last heb¬ domad, the virtue of the sacrifices and offerings of the Jewish ritual would be made by Christ’s death to cease. As before said, I incline myself to the year 34 ; as offering time, which the date 30 hardly does, for both John Baptist’s and Christ’s ministry.3 The data however of the question having been thus set before the reader, he will form his own judgment on them. II ly, as to the Pauline Chronology. — And here, 1. I would observe that, even supposing the earlier date, a. d. 30, to be chosen as the date of the ascension, the passages of the Acts referred to in the notes to my Pauline Chart will be found to indicate breaks of time sufficient to fill up the chronological interval marked in the Chart between that date and the conver¬ sion of St. Paul, a. d. 3 6. 4 Less than the interval between 34 and 36 it could hardly be. 2. With regard to Aretas' s connexion with Damascus, as its ruling king, and appointer of its governor, so as St. Paul states to have been the case on his return from Arabia to Damascus,5 we have no very accurate information how it arose, or how long it continued. Damascus, we know, had been incorporated as a city of the Roman empire by Pompey a century before. And it is stated by Eckhel, under the head of Damascus , that there are Dama¬ scene imperatorial medals of Augustus, Tiberius, and Nero ; hut none, it would seem, of Caligula or Claudius, between Tiberius’ time and Nero’s. This favours the idea that Damascus came 1 See Ezra vii. 9. 2 So Prideaux. Compare Heb. x. 1 — J4, 18, &c. 3 On the arrangement of events during the last hebdomad, on this hypothesis, see the extracts from Sir I. Newton at p. 459 supra ; also p. 449. 4 See on this an elaborate essay of Mr. Oreswell. 5 2 Cor. xi. 32. THE PAULINE CHRONOLOGY. 467 under the dominion of Aretas, king of Petra, about the time of Tiberius’ death ; near about which time my Chart places the Da¬ mascene governor’s acting against St. Paul. — Some have accounted for this change of rule by reference to a war between Aretas and Herod Antipas, in which Herod was worsted : and to the fact that when Vitellius, then president of Syria, was marching from Antioch to Herod’s assistance, the news of Tiberius’ death reached him, and arrested his proceedings.1 Hence perhaps a temporary falling of the Syrian border town into Aretas’ power. —More probably, however, u Caligula, who in many ways con¬ tradicted the policy of his predecessor, who banished Herod Antipas, and patronized Herod Agrippa, assigned the city of Damascus [soon after his accession] as a free gift to Aretas.” 2 3. I refer to Paul’s primary visit to Jerusalem the very interest¬ ing account given in Acts xxii. 17, of his trance in the temple, and pleading with God that he might act as missionary to the Jews ; because the words, “ Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee, and when thy martyr Stephen’s blood was shed I was standing by,” show evi¬ dently that this was the first visit made by him to Jerusalem after his conversion. — And this touching prayer of his seems to me to illustrate in a manner most interesting the much contested passage in Rom. ix. 3. For I doubt not that Dr. Burton’s interpretation of the word in that passage, is the correct one ; and that the yap aur eyco avaftepa, eivcu cm to (or vko') tov XpHTTov, means, “ For I made it a matter of prayer that I might myself be specially devoted by Christ (as a missionary) on behalf of my brethren, my kindred according to the flesh.” That the Greek word avaSreyta is sometimes used in the sense so given, as well as am£hjy ta, cannot be questioned.3 Moreover cnto, if we 1 So e. g. Prof. Hug. 2 So Wieseler. See Conybeare and Hewson’s St. Paul, i. 89, 109. I have quoted from them in the text above. 3 So Schleusner on the word : — “ Proprie, ut Hebraicum □HH, Lev. xxvii. 28, (“ Every devoted thing that a man shall devote to the Lord is most hoty,” ) omne id quod est humanis usibus exemptum, Deoque sepositum. A tpopicrga Alex, vertunt Ezech. xliv. 29. (“Every dedicated thing shall be theirs.”) Suidas ; to avaTiOtfAtvov rep ©eo).” 2 H 2 468 THE PAULINE CHRONOLOGY. so read, is a preposition sometimes used in reference to a person causing, or effecting : though I prefer vito, which is the preposi¬ tion more generally used in that sense ; and which is here a various reading.1 4. The three years allowed in the Chart for the Home Mission at Tarsus, and in Cilicia, will furnish sufficient time for many of the sufferings mentioned in 2 Cor. xi. 23 — 26, of which no record is given in Luke’s more particular account of the apostle’s subse¬ quent missionary tours and labors. 5. St. Paul’s second visit to Jerusalem, with alms for the poorer Christians on occasion of the predicted famine, appears from com¬ parison of Acts xii. 25 with xii. 1 — 24 to have taken place very shortly after Herod Agrippa’s death. Which event Josephus fixes to early in a. d. 44 ; by stating that at his death he had governed Judsea 3 years, and that its government was given him by Clau¬ dius soon after his accession in January 41. (Ant. xix. 5. 1 ; 8. 2.) What is said in Acts xii. 20, about Tyre being nourished by Herod Agrippa’s country, seems to imply that the famine had not just then begun in Judaea: while Josephus’ notice of the Adiabenian Queen, who had become a Jewish proselyte, giving succour to the poor Jews at Jerusalem, when she found them suffering from famine there very shortly after Cuspius Fadus’ undertaking the procuratorship of Judaea, on Herod’s death, shows that the famine had begun by the next winter of 44 — 45 a. d.2 6. The Jerusalem Council I have placed at a. d. 49, or 50; having no doubt that it is the Jerusalem visit referred to in Gal. ii. 1. And then, measuring the 14 years there spoken of, as well as the three years of Gal. i. 18, from his conversion, which seems quite legitimate,3 the chronology will be seen well to agree with the date a. d. 36, assigned in the Chart to Paul’s conversion. 1 Schleusner on «i ro notes this as its primary sense : “ Significat «, ab, ita ut causam efficientem indicet, et idem sit quod u7ro.” Hence he adds the fact that in MSS. airo and m to are often interchanged. I may exemplify in Rom. xiii. 1 : ov yap e \ years between Paul’s liberation from his first imprisonment at Rome, and his martyrdom. 11. The dates of the Roman emperors in the first column of the Chart are taken from Clinton’s Fasti Romani. The Bracket that will be seen on one side of this column, includes the years 1 Annal. xii. 54. 2 Ad loc. 3 Tacit. Ann. xiv. 51. On the early time of year when this happened compare what is told of as intervening in chs. 52, 53. 4 Fasti Rom. Ad Ann. 52. THE PAULINE CHRONOLOGY. 471 that Bellarmine, Baronius, and other chief Romish writers assign to Peter’s first and second (supposed) sojournings in Rome and its neighbourhood, as his episcopal diocese. The inspection of them will help, I think, to make very familiar to the minds of my rea¬ ders the force of the argument drawn out against the whole Romish Petrine theory in my 7th Lecture. 472 DELUSION OF THE TRACTARIAN CLERGY III. DOUBTS AS TO THE VALIDITY, ON TRACTARIAN PRIN¬ CIPLES, OF THE CLERICAL ORDERS OF THE TRAC¬ TARIAN CLERGY. (Seep. 387.) It seems to me that the argument in the Letter following, though originating from circumstances of a local character, may be of general usefulness ; and I therefore here insert it. It is published for local circulation in a separate form by itself. In explanation of the circumstances that gave it birth, the Preface is printed, as well as the Letter. PREFACE. In the Spring of 1854, as may be remembered, there was a great deal of agitation in the public mind at Brighton, on the subject of certain doctrines inculcated, and practices acted out, in the Church of St. Paul’s, West Street ; more especially that of private confession to the priest, and consequent priestly absolution. Public meetings were held against it ; and remonstrances sent, alike from laity and clergy, to the Bishop of Chichester ; who had himself indeed, previously, exprest in strong terms his disappro¬ bation of the practice. On the other hand it was protested on the part of the officials of St. Paul’s, both ministers and wardens, that all was in accordance with the doctrine and spirit of the Church of England. So, at a public meeting in the Town Hall, argued the Rev. Messrs. Neale and Perry. And so too, in a printed AS TO THE VALIDITY OF THEIR ORDERS. 473 Appeal, the Rev. Mr. Gresley, Prebendary of Lichfield ; who, though not incumbent of St. Paul’s, had for some time taken a very prominent part in its ministrations. A copy of this Appeal was sent by its Author to each of the resident Clergy in Brighton, as well as to other persons. It asserted strongly the duty of the priest, when satisfied of the real penitence of the confessing party, “ to pronounce the solemn words, I absolve thee from all thy sins, by virtue of Christ’s authority committed unto him ; ” spoke of the priest’s absolution as “ God' s pardon ; ” 1 and added how that, “ by means of this confession and absolution, many a deeply bur¬ dened sinner had been brought to Christ, and assured of pardon and peace.” In acknowledging the receipt of this Paper, I took the liberty of stating to Mr. Gresley that, “ while persuaded of the benevolence of his intentions in the matter, it was equally my persuasion that in assuming to himself, and to the clerical brethren in the Church of England who generally agreed with him in sentiment, the power of authoritatively giving absolution to the penitent, he did so without adequate consideration : that, on their own principles, the possession of any such authority by them was more than ques¬ tionable : and that, if so, then the whole system, as inculcated and carried out at St. Paul’s and other such churches, must be of course a delusion ; delusion on a great scale, and to the injury, in¬ stead of the saving, of souls.” — On Mr. Gresley’s calling for proof of this, the Letter following was at once sketched out : but its completion, and publication, deferred on Mr. G.’s suggesting that it would be well first to wait for an expected letter on the subject from the Bishop himself. 1 “ And who would not desire it (sc. the priest’s absolution) who knew the deep comforts of God’s pardon ?” p. 2. G. then thus proceeds. “ Some will doubtless sa}r, as the Pharisees did, ‘ Who can forgive sins but God alone ? ’ Of course no one can, except God give him authority to do so in his name. But has God ever given authority to any hu¬ man being to forgive sins? Yes. In John xx. 21, Jesus said (to the apostles) ‘ Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins 3re retain, they are retained.’ ” — And then he argues from the Bishop’s form of words on ordaining a priest, and from certain words in the service for the Visita¬ tion of the Sick, that the Church of England considers the power still to continue with its ordained ministers. 474 DELUSION OF THE TRACTARIAN CLERGY Since that time, above a year has elapsed. And, as the Bishop’s expected letter has not yet appeared, it seems probable that, on a review of all circumstances of the case, he has judged it better not to publish any. Hence all reason on this account for delaying the publication of my reply to Mr. Gresley’s question may be considered to have come to an end. And as the subject is of great importance, and the view that I take of it one that unquestionably deals with its very essence, but which has not hitherto, so far as I am aware, been urged in other publications that have arisen out of the controversy, I have felt it a duty without further delay to complete my Letter, and to publish it. — There will be this advantage in the delay which has occurred, that the heats of party feeling, which were locally manifested a year ago, may be supposed in some considerable measure to have now past away : and consequently that the minds of those to whom, in the person of Mr. Gresley, this letter is virtually addrest, may be disposed to consider its argument more dispassionately. LETTER TO THE REV. W. GRESLEY. Brighton , July 1, 1855. Rev. Sir ; Reverting to a correspondence that past some time since be¬ tween us, on the subject of confession and absolution as inculcated and practised at St. Paul’s, I feel it my duty, after above a year’s delay for reasons which you yourself suggested, to defer no longer the completion and publication of my reply to your printed Cir¬ cular of appeal on that subject. You may remember that in mv first letter, acknowledging its receipt, I exprest my doubts as to clergymen of the Church of England having on your own prin¬ ciples (the principles generally called Tractarian) any power, like that which you claimed for yourself and your brethren, of au¬ thoritatively confessing and absolving ; such as to warrant to the absolved penitent the comfortable assurance which you hold out, as consequent on it, of God’s forgiveness of their sins.1 I say, on 1 See the Note p. 473. AS TO THE VALIDITY OF THEIR ORDERS. 475 your own principles. For when, in your reply, you overlooked that important clause in my expression of doubt, and spoke of the authority attaching to Clergymen on Church of England principles, as the point in question, I called your attention to it ; and inti¬ mated that I considered our English Church’s view of the grounds of the ministerial commission and authority to be not only differ¬ ent from that of the Tractarian school, but essentially contrary. — This point I propose in my present Letter first to illustrate ; and then, secondly , to show on your own principles the more than questionableness of any such priestly authority really attaching to yourself, and your clerical brethren of the Tractarian school, as you claim and exercise ; whether for absolution of the confest penitent, for the imparting of sacramentarian change,1 and sacra - mentarian virtue, to the elements of bread and wine by consecra¬ tion, or for other such like priestly acts and functions. I. My first main point is the difference of view as to the source, and medium of transmission, of the ministerial commission and authority, as taught by our English Church, and as taught by the self-styled Anglo-Catholic or Tractarian School. On this important question the doctrine of the Church of Eng¬ land is set forth in its 23rd and 36th Articles. While in the latter of the two affirming, against both Popish and other dissentients, the propriety and sufficiency of the Anglican rites of ordination for the three orders of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons,2 (which three orders it truly states in its Preface to the Ordination Ser¬ vices to have been ever, even from Apostolic times, in the Christian Church,) in the former it so defines lawfully ordained ministers in Christ’s Church as not to exclude the unepiscopally ordained 1 Tract xc. 51; “ Our 28th Article denies not every kind of change. ” (! !) — Tr. lxxi. 9, confesses that the difference of the Tractarian doctrine on this point from that of transubstantiation is not very distinguishable by common minds. 2 After stating that the Book of the English Church’s Ordination Services con¬ tains all things that are necessary to the consecration of bishops, and ordaining of priests and deacons, it adds; “ And therefore whosoever have been consecrated or ordered (ordained) according to the rites of that book, since the 2nd year of King of Edward the 6th, ... we decree all such to be rightly, orderty, and law¬ fully consecrated and ordered.” How well does this article steer clear of the dif¬ ficulties of the Tractarian apostolical succession theory ! 476 DELUSION OF THE TRACTARIAN CLERGY ministers of other Protestant reformed Churches : — “ Those per¬ sons we ought to judge lawfully called, and sent, (i. e. “ for public preaching, and ministering the sacraments in the congre¬ gation,”) which be chosen, and called to this work, by men who have public authority given them in the congregation to call and send ministers into the Lord’s vineyard.” Accordant with which was the conduct pursued by the Church of England, for some time after its reformation, towards the reformed Churches on the con¬ tinent; the friendly and intimate intercourse maintained with them ; the recognition, even by act of Parliament, of their non-episco- pally ordained ministers ; 1 and admission of them sometimes to preferment in the English Church, or English universities. It might seem like a memento and reiteration of this, almost in our own day, when Lutheran missionaries like Schwartz and Kolhoff were employed in its missions by the Christian Knowledge Society. How different from this are the views profest by the Tractarian doctors, you well know. The doctrine of what is called apostolical succession , strictly construed, lies at the very foundation of the whole Tractarian theological system. In the Preface to the 1st Volume of the Oxford Tracts the object of the Tracts was de¬ clared to be the practical revival of certain church-doctrines, as applicable to the ministers of the Church of England, of which apostolical succession was the primary one. “ The Lord Jesus gave his spirit to his Apostles ; they in turn laid their hands on those who should succeed them ; and they again on others : and so the 1 “ The prelates of Elizabeth’s reign, like the earlier reformers, considered episcopacy, as retained in the English Church, to have been the apostolic prac¬ tice. They did not however consider any mode of government essential to the constitution of the Church : and hence the validity of ordination, as exercised in those reformed Churches where episcopacy was not retained, was admitted. By an Act passed in the 13th year of this reign the ordination of foreign reformed Churches was declared valid ; and their ministers were capable of enjoying pre¬ ferment, on receiving a license from the Bishop.” It was not till 1662 that this rule was altered. See Lathbury’s English Episcopacy, p. 63. He abstracts on the subject from Strype’s Annals. Compare Hooker’s well-known statement on the subject. “ There may be sometimes very just and sufficient reason to allow ordination made without a bishop. . . . We are not simply, and without exception, to urge a lineal descent of power from the apostles, by continual succession of bishops, in every effectual ordination.” AS TO THE VALIDITY OF THEIR ORDERS. 477 sacred gift has been handed down to our present bishops ; who have appointed us (the Anglican Clergy) as their assistants, and in some sense representatives.” The importance of the preroga¬ tives hence derived to the ministers of the Anglican Church is perpetually dwelt on in the Tracts : — the prerogatives of binding and loosing, (by absolution or otherwise,) of administering the sacraments, and of preaching : specially that of administering the sacraments ; Pe'iri(r,c0 1T0L eicrt pev tis tvttov tuv e/3doprjK0VTa. Hard. i. ‘286. 3 The 13th canon of the Council of Ancyra is thus exprest in the original Greek : Xtoptirianoirois par] t^tivai Trpea^vrtpovs rj Siaicovovs x*lP0T0V*LV' a\\a pride TrpeafivTepois rroXews, x0JPLS rov en it pam}vcu viro rov eiricrKoirov /ncra ypc/p-paruy, tv erepa (qu. tKaarp) irapoinia. Of which Isidore’s Latin version, supplying what is considered a lacuna in the Greek, is as follows : — u Vicariis episcoporum, quos Grasci chorepiscopos vocant, non licere vel presbyteros vel AS TO TIIE VALIDITY OF TIIEIR ORDERS. 483 To which let me add that in the Arabic canons of the Council of Nice, (canons not genuine, but which may be considered probably of the date of the 5th or 6th century, and therefore as expressing the notions then current,) it is laid down that the archdeacon was to take precedence of the cliorepiscopus ; the place of the former, in high church ceremonials, being at the right hand of the bishop, that of the latter at his left.1 Such are the earliest notices of the rank, mode of ordination, and functions of the chorepiscopus ; and such, agreeably with what is laid down in those canons, was his inferiority to the bishop ; — the real bishop, legitimately consecrated, accordantly with the canons of the great Nicene General Council. And what then the practical working of this cliorepiscopal system ? It may be well to trace this downwards briefly in Church history, in order the better to judge of its bearing on the question between us. First then, in 381, soon after his entering on his episcopate, we find a letter addrest by the famous Basil of Ccesarea to the many chorepiscopi of his diocese.2 In this letter he complains that, whereas in other times the chorepiscopi only ordained presbyters diaconos ordinare : sed nec presbyteris civitatis, sine episcopi prsecepto, amplius aliquid imperare, vel sine auctoritate literarum ejus in unaquaque parochia aliquid agere.” Hard. i. 276. As stopped in Harduin the canon absolutely forbids, it will be seen, the ordination of presbyters and deacons by chorepiscopi. The 10th canon of the Council of Antioch however either enlarges their power, or gives a larger meaning to the Ancyran canon. Tots KaAovpevois xwPe'Tri(TK0'n'olst et /cat x6l/3°06crtaz' e/e*7 sivictkotumv €i\r,cpOT€S, e8o£e rrj ayia ovvodcp eiSevat tcs ectVTow perpa, . . . /cafhcrrav Se avayvcocrras, kcu vtrofiiaKorovs, /cat e^opKLcrras, . . . pi 7j 5e Trpea&vrepov prjre Siaicovov xe,P0T0VeLV ToApuv 5tx« tou ev rr\ 7roAet emaKOTruv. So, with the city bishop’s concurrence, such ordination would be allowable according to this Council. 1 Canon 57 : “ Locus episcopi in oratione sit in summo sacelli, intra locum altaris, ut qui sit pastor et gubernator. Post eum sit ctrchidiaconus ad latus dextrum, ut qui sit loco ejus, et praesit omnibus quae ad orationem et ecclesiam pertinent : chorepiscopus autem sit post archidiaconum ad alterum latus, quia ipse etiam est loco episcopi super villas, &c.” In canon 60, where it is laid down that the candidates for holy orders are to be examined by the archidiaconus and the chorepiscopus, the former is named first, as before. 2 According to Nazienzen, says Bingham, ix. 8, there were not less than fifty chorepiscopi in Basil’s or Theodoret’s diocese. 2 12 484 DELUSION OF THE TRACTARIAN CLERGY and deacons after advising with the bishop of the diocese, the habit had subsequently grown up with them of ordaining without even writing to the bishop ; whence the result of so few of the Cappa¬ docian clergy being men fit for their office. With a view to remedy the evil in a measure he rules that such as were inca¬ pable should be considered non-ordained, and mere laics : thus, somewhat arbitrarily, cancelling the ministerial orders of some chorepiscopally ordained clerics ; but admitting them in the case of others. And, for the future, he lavs it down that the orders of all persons ordained by chorepiscopi should be considered invalid, unless ordained with his episcopal sanction ; the persons so or¬ dained to be counted mere laics as before.1 Pass we now two centuries forward, and from Eastern Chris- m tendom to Western, from Asia Minor to Spain. In the 7th canon of the 2nd Council of Seville, held a. d. 619, we find a rebuke ministered to the Bishop of Cordova for having often appointed chorepiscopi, (“ who were in fact, according to the canons, nothing more than presbyters ,”) as his delegates for erecting altars, and consecrating chapels. The Council ascribes this to his ignorance on ecclesiastical matters : and states in its canon how, by the authority of the old law, or by the rules of the Church, sundry sacred prerogatives were reserved distinctively and alone to bishops ; such as the consecration of churches, the ordination of presbyters and deacons ,” &c.2 The chorepiscopal order however still continued ; and continued to exercise, in Western Christendom at least, episcopal functions. Towards the close of the 8th century we find them noticed in the 2nd Council of Nice, (an Eastern Council) as officials still common; 1 Not having a copy of Basil’s works to refer to, I take Dupin’s report, Tom. ii. p. 162, (Paris Editio \ 1693.) I cite two clauses. “ II ordonne . . . que Ton mettra au rang des laiques ceux (des ministres) qui se trouveront incapables.” Enfin il declare que ceux qui seront mis au rang des ministres, sans qu’il les ait approuvds, seront que de simples laiques.” 2 “ Relatum est nobis Agapium, Cordubensis urbis episcopum, frequenter cho- repiscopos vel presbyteros destinasse, (qui tamen juxta canones unum sunt,) qui, absente pontifice, altaria erigerent, basilicas consecrarent. ... Nam quamvis cum episcopis plurima presbyteris rnysteriorum communis sit dispensatio, qusedam ta¬ men auctoritate veteris legis, qusedam novellis et ecclesiasticis regulis, sibi prohibita noverint ; sicut presbyterorum et diaconorun consecratio," &c. Hard. iii. 560. AS TO THE VALIDITY OF THEIR ORDERS. 485 but apparently as restricted in respect of ordaining functions then, and in that part of Christendom, to the ordination of thelower eccle¬ siastical orders, such as readers.1 2 — On the other hand in Western Christendom the \ years elsewhere foretold of Antichrist. — Besides which the dogma, which is so much a favourite with Futurists, that Scripture is to be alone its own interpreter, furnishes a most convenient k priori argument against all historical schemes of pro¬ phetic interpretation. It is of course one which the Futurists themselves, as we have seen,1 can never carry out. II. The PRiETERisT Apocalyptic Scheme ; 2 as most recently expounded in the Commentary by the Rev. P. S. Desprez. 3 On this, I am glad to say, comparatively little need be said. Mr. D.’s exposition is based, altogether based, on the hypothesis of the Neronic date of the Apocalypse, not the Domitianic , being the true one. “ If not,” confesses Mr. D. “ the edifice (viz. of his Book) erected at so much cost and care will fall headlong to the ground.” Does he then advance any new and convincing evidence or argument in favor of the Neronic date ; besides what has been by myself, as well as by others, and more especially Professor Hengstenberg, fully stated, and fully refuted ? None whatsoever. Indeed so superficial and so incorrect, as well as altogether ex parte, is the sketch of evidence, external and in- 1 See the last paragraph in the Note to p. 516. 2 By the Prceterist scheme"of exposition is meant conventionally one according to which the Apocalyptic prophecy has for its subject Christianity’s past triumphs over Judaism and Paganism ; as indicated chiefly in the desolations of Jerusalem and of heathen'Rome. 3 “ Apocalypse fulfilled ” by the Rev. P. S. Desprez, of Wolverhampton. 1854. ON APOCALYPTIC INTERPRETATION. 519 ternal, which he has given on this, to him, fundamental question, that it is the most charitable conclusion that he has never read, or at least never studied, the elaborate arguments of other writers on the other side.1 Even in Germany, after Hengstenberg’ s late de¬ cisive advocacy of the Domitianic date, I conceive that the current of opinion must be now fast setting among the learned towards it. And in England no testimony can be stronger in its favor than that of Dr. Davidson, the well-known and learned writer on Biblical Criticism. For, after twice publicly committing himself to the Neronic date,2 and affirming the Prseterist exposition of Ewald’s Germanic School to he in consequence without doubt the true one, he has subsequently yielded to the strength of counter-argu¬ ment and evidence ; and in the 3rd Volume of his Book on Biblical 1 As regards the external evidence on the question, or testimony of primitive antiquity, he represents it as uncertain and indecisive ; though for the Domitianic date there are the names of Irenoeus , Tertullian , Clement of Alexandria (accord¬ ing to Eusebius,) Hippolytus , Victor inns, Eusebius, Jerome , all eminent writers of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries; and for the Neronic none earlier than the sub¬ scription to a Syriac version of the Apocalypse written about the beginning of the 6th century Well may Hengstenberg re-affirm what Lampe had before said, as “ no paradox but the simple truth,” that “ all antiquity agrees in the opinion of Domitian’s being the author of John’s banishment.” For, adds Hengstenberg, “ the deviations from this are by such only as do not deserve to be heard and considered.” As regards the internal evidence, on which Hengstenberg says that “ it yields this result that the Apocalypse could have been composed at no other time than during the reign of Domitianf Mr. Desprez urges the three following as de¬ cisive proofs of its having been written during Nero's persecution 1st that Christ’s coming quickly is spoken of in the Apocalypse ; and that this must mean his coming to destroy Jerusalem , which was therefore then future, so as under Nero ; 21y that the depicted sealing of the 144,000 of Israel in Apoc. vii, measur¬ ing of the temple and altar in Apoc. xi, and killing of the witnesses in the great city, i. e. he says, Jerusalem, show that Jerusalem, and its temple and people, were all at that time existing, the literal Israel , temple , and city being intended : 31y that of the Beast’s heads in Apoc. xvii the five which had fallen when John had the Apocalyptic vision were the emperors Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Clau¬ dius ; Nero being the 6th, who was then reigning. There is nothing new in all this. It has been again and again examined and refuted. (See my H. A. Vol. i. p. 512, and iv. 537,545.) But the reader will observe that the force of each and all of the arguments depends on the correctness of Mr. D’s own explanations of the pro¬ phetic statements or symbols. Each and every one is a petitio principii. — On his as¬ sumed literality of the Apocalyptic Israel it is a little curious to compare Mr. D’s explanation of the Apocalyptic Babylon as a symbol of Jerusalem. 2 Once in the Eclectic Review, and once in the article on “ Revelation ” in Kitto’s Encyclopaedia. See my notice of his two papers in the JI. A. ibid. 520 PRESENT STATE OF THE CONTROVERSIES Criticism 1 has renounced both the date, and the scheme of ex¬ position founded on it. Hence “ the edifice erected by Mr. Desprez at so much cost and care must,” on his own confession, “ fall headlong to the ground.” — Characterized indeed as the book is by inaccuracy and inconsistency, alike in the structure of its scheme, in its statements of fact, and its reasonings,2 one might suppose carelessness, rather than care, to have presided at its com- 1 Vol. iii. p. 599 — 614. 2 E. g. 1. As to structure. — In Mr. D’s scheme the succession of the Apocalyptic Seals is duly noted ; and the 7th Seal (the Seal of consummation) explained, quite naturally and properly, to be unfolded in the seven Trumpets. Yet, while the 4 first Seals are referred to Vespasian’s reign, and the siege of Jerusalem, the 5th is interpreted of the martyrdoms some years before under Nero : and after ex¬ pounding the 6th Seal, or rather the first half of the 6th Seal, of the destruction of Jerusalem, he makes the 7th Seal’s 6 first subdividing Trumpets go hack to symbolize events, some of more, some of less importance, quite irrespective of any chronological order, preceding that destruction. 2. As to Mr. D’s statements of fact, I will instance some respecting myself. — In his Preface then, and at pp. 171, 183,219, &c. he alludes sneeringly to me as converting the tails of scorpions in the 5th Trumpet into horse-tail standards. I have nowhere done so. — In the Preface, and at pp. 218, 220, &c. he speaks of me as making the mighty angel of Apoc. x. “ at one moment the Lord Jesus ; then the next moment metamorphosing him into Pope Leo X ; ” the Angel’s cry as when a lion roareth being the roaring of Pope Leo X. against Luther. This is similarly a pure invention by Mr. D. — Further, he makes me say (p. 192) that “ the fall of the Turkish empire will be in 1849.” I have said no such thing ; but only noted it as one possible form of Mr. Habershon’s conjecture. — Yet in his Preface Mr. D. speaks as having given “ a careful perusal” to my volumes. 8. Of Mr. D’s expository reasonings the following specimens may suffice. In Apoc. xvii. he makes the woman Babylon mean Jerusalem ; and that she is depict¬ ed (so p. 377) as sitting on the Beast (=Roman Empire), and on Rome’s 7 hills, “ because Jerusalem was carried and supported by Rome, Judaea being a Roman province.” Now the time here referred to was that of Judaea’s invasion, and Je¬ rusalem's destruction, by the Romans ! Elsewhere, p. 169, on the 5th Vial being poured on the seat of the Beast , Jerusalem is said to be the seat meant. So the Beast is the seat of Jerusalem ; and Jerusalem the seat of the Beast. — In the 5th Trumpet the scorpion-locusts, explained as Roman cavalry, are said to have hair as the hair of women, to signify that they were men, and not natural locusts. In the 6th Trumpet the lion-headed horses from Euphrates are made the cavalry of Roman auxiliaries from that quarter ; and the Apocalyptic number of two myriads of myriads, or 200 millions, to answer to the auxiliaries’ number of 4000 : while their power being in their mouths, and in their tails, alludes to the fact of oriental horses “ being trained to attack with their mouths and fore feet, and to repel with the hinder feet,” The last curious explanation, from the horses kicking behind, is (though not so specified) from Moses Stuart. — In the third Seal (p. 53) the words, “ A chcenix of wheat for a denarius,” &c. or bushel for about £2, is ex¬ pounded to signify the terrible famine in Jerusalem, during the time of its siege, when a bushel of wheat sold, not for £2, but for a talent = £375. : and this though what is added in the Apocalyptic figuration about the wine and oil being uninjured ON APOCALYPTIC INTERPRETATION. 521 position. But, however this may be, it adds its evidence to that of abler previous expositions on the Prseteristic system, in proof of the impossibility of making out any consistent Apocalyptic ex¬ position on that principle. And, as it is the only English Prseter- istic exposition, I believe, published in the course of the last four years,1 we may infer that the scheme has less favor than a little earlier in this country ; and may be expected to be abandoned soon altogether, except by ignorant and rash speculatists. I ought to add that it is the peculiarity of Mr. D.’s Prseteristic scheme to suppose only one catastrophe in the Apocalyptic pro¬ phecy, viz. that of the fall of Jerusalem and Judaism ; instead of the two catastrophes of the fall of Jerusalem, and fall of heathen Rome, (symbolized as Babylon,) so as most other Praeterists. For (as before noted) Mr. D. makes the Apocalyptic Babylon to be but a symbol of Jerusalem, though said to be seated on those seven hills of which the symbol, he admits, was the Roman Beast’s seven heads. And Christ’s coming to destroy Jerusalem, thus apocalyptically prefigured, is affirmed by him (affirmed in the most positive tone) to be that selfsame personal second coming at which it was de¬ clared in 1 Cor. xv, and in other New Testament scriptures, that the then departed saints should rise from their graves, and the then living saints be caught up into the air, to meet the Lord Jesus. Their resurrection and ascension was not indeed seen by any one. But why, argues Mr. Desprez, should not this have taken place at that time when Josephus tells us that heavenly ap¬ paritions of chariots and soldiers in armour were seen in the clouds, shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem ? Wherefore, in this ascent of the living saints, St. John was left behind, Mr. D. omits to tell us. — Of course the millennium, or thousand years of Christ’s and abundant, and 3 chcenixes ef barley, =3 days’ sustenance, being at the price of one days’ labor (= a denarius), puts out of the question all idea of a famine being at all figured in this Seal. — Once more, the 1st Vial’s noisome sore, on the wor¬ shippers of the Beast ( = Roman empire,) is expounded to mean some sore on the Jews, who had revolted from Rome. The absurdities of Mr. D’s. views respect¬ ing Christ’s 2nd coming are referred to in the text above. 1 Mr. Maurice indeed seems in his Church History Lectures, though doubt¬ fully, to make the date of the Apocalypse Vitellius’ reign, as observed in the next page. But his brief Lecture on it cannot be called an Exposition. 522 PRESENT STATE OF THE CONTROVERSIES reign with his saints, is supposed by him to be the reign of Chris¬ tianity, dating from the fall of Jerusalem, and advancing ever after towards universal supremacy : the term of 1000 years being a definite for a long indefinite period ; and the predicted regenera¬ tion of all things, with its new heaven and new earth, then and therein having its fulfilment. Ere turning from this class of expositors I ought not perhaps to omit mention of the Rev. F. Maurice: who, in his recently published Lectures on Ecclesiastical History,1 2 has devoted one Lecture to the Apocalypse . and in it generally, or at least pri¬ marily, seems to go on the Prseterist scheme of exposition ; in¬ cluding the fall of Jerusalem as one marked subject of revelation, as well as the fall of imperial Rome.3 But indeed the sketch of the prophecy offered by him is so very brief and slight, — the opinions exprest on cardinal points, (e. g. the date of the Apocalypse, whether before or after the fall of Jerusalem,3 and meaning of the Apocalyptic Beast and Babylon,) are given so entirely, indeed doubtfully, as mere opinions, without any evidence or reasoning to support them, and with the avowed admission at the same time that other opinions altogether different may also have much truth in them,4 — moreover, wherever in the Pneterist view, which he 1 Lectures given, it appears, to the Students of King’s College, London. 2 The fall of Jerusalem, as primarily meant by the earthquake of the 6th Seal ; the fall of imperial Rome, as the subject primarily of Apoc. xviii. 3 The date of the Apocalypse given by Mr. M. in one place is the reign of the emperor Vitellius. For, at p. 156, he speaks of the brute power of the Apocalyp¬ tic Beast as gathered at the time of the vision into some person : i. e. he adds, “a Roman emperor ; I should suppose most probably Vitellius.” FJsewhere, however, (see his p. 148) he speaks of the question “ whether Jeru¬ salem had fallen, or not,” at the time of St.John’s seeing the Apocalyptic visions, as a doubtful point. And so at p. 138; “the temple has either perished, or is about to perish.” Of course, if the visions were seen under Vitellius , Jerusalem had not then fallen. How Vitellius’ one year’s reign could answer to the Apo¬ calyptic Beast’s predicted 3v is not explained. 4 Thus, at p. 159, on the subject of Babylon , while expressing his assurance that “ what has been said by great and learned men on it must have much worth,” he also suggests that if his readers “ let the Divine Teacher himself open the book, and tell its meaning,” they will deem it “ not safe to limit its operation to any time, or place, or church ; ” but better to perceive “ how deeply the evil principle had penetrated in St. John’s own day.” ON APOCALYPTIC INTERPRETATION. 523 favors, any definite or real fulfilment of any one of the prophecies is intimated, he so soon passes into other more vague and shadowy views of the same prefiguration, as if chiefly meant to depict cer¬ tain general truths respecting the world, and the general princi¬ ples of God’s moral government of the world,1— -that it seems alike difficult and unfair to make it the subject of criticism. Like water vague and fugitive, it eludes the hand that would grasp it. — The New Jerusalem, I should add, Mr. Maurice, like Mr. Desprez, makes to be the Christian Church, “ that better and diviner society than the old Jewish ; and with the office assigned it (an office sometimes fulfilled, sometimes failed in) of bearing witness to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”2 How what is said of the New Jerusalem, having the glory of God to fill it, and its exemption 1 The 6th Seal’s convulsion, though primarily signifying Jerusalem’s fall, has yet had many other fulfilments, and will have others still. The prophecy of Ba¬ bylon’s fall, though primarily of imperial Rome, has similarly had sundry other fulfilments, and will have more still. So at pp. 151, 160. The two wi tn esses’ s}^- bolic history (so at p. 154) means “ that there have always been some men, or some forms and institutions, which have asserted the great principles of God’s order and of his fellowship with man.” “ The particular men may have been killed. But the principles could not die.” The attempts to trace out persons in Church history who have answered to the character and offices of the Apocalyptic two witnesses, Mr. M. considers not only unimportant, but “ that which has greatly confused the course of ecclesiastical his¬ tory, and made the records of God’s dealings with men unintelligible.” But how so, if in those attempts there has been faithfulness to historic truth ? How but in Church history will he illustrate the truth of what he himself states, as we have seen, to be the meaning of the symbolization of the two witnesses P At the opening of his Lectures on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Mr. M. says that “ the modern historical student,” when studying Scripture prophecy, “ will not generally care much for coincidences. Those which are presented to him by Scriptural interpreters he is apt to regard as merely fortuitous, or as produced by an ingenious distortion of words and facts. What he seeks is some law which may connect together the different facts he has observed in ecclesiastical history.” But is this right, or reasonable ? Take the case of Jewish or heathen enquirers after truth in the Apostolic times. When Paul prest upon them the great fact of Jesus having been the Messiah of prophecy, would they have done well to set light by his argument from the coincidences with Old Testament prophecies about the Christ, in the life, character, history, and death of Jesus of Nazareth, as if unimportant : a general charge being made against them from the ingenious distortion of words and facts frequent in Jewish arguments from prophecy ? W ould they have done well to turn from these ; and ask him, instead, for “ some law which might connect together the different facts which they had observed in J ewish Church history ? ” Just so surely, also, in the prophetic argument about Anti¬ christ. 2 PP- 148, 161. 524 PRESENT STATE OF THE CONTROVERSIES from curse, and sin, and death, can consist with the character and history, the sins and the sufferings, of the Christian Church visible ever since, we are not told. Illly, I feel called to notice certain late Millennario-Pr^eter- istic schemes of Apocalyptic exposition, contradistinctively to the general Protestant views respecting the Millennium. For, if any such scheme he sustainable, that fact will necessarily militate against my explanation of the Beast as the Roman Pope and Popedom. Dr. Wordsworth, in his late Lectures on the Apocalypse, has indeed combined his explanation of the Apocalyptic Beast as the Popedom with an explanation of the Apocalyptic millennium as a period in great measure already past : its commencement having synchronized, in his opinion, with Christ’s triumph over Satan by his miracles and death ; and been perpetuated ever after to his faithful people by the power over Satan imparted to them on their regeneration by baptism, which (in his view of the Apocalyptic phrase) is their first resurrection. But, waiving here other decisive objections to his scheme, St. John’s declaration, “ I saw (on the thrones) the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and whosoever had not worshipped the Beast, nor his image, and they reigned with Christ a thousand years,” (observe, all of them, olnvet;,1 the whole thousand years,) implies so obviously that the conflict of all of the enthroned that had not worshipped the Beast must have preceded the thousand years’ reign, and Dan. vii. 9 so decisively fixes the time of their enthronization to the time of the destruction of the little horn, which Dr. W. admits to symbolize the Popes, that it seems to me marvellous how a man of his discernment could have allowed himself to fall into such pal¬ pable self-contradiction and error.2 1 Not a representative two, or one, as in the case of the two witnesses and sun- clothed woman of Apoc. xi. and xii. 2 Of course the contradictoriness of the idea of Satan’s having been bound for this thousand years, so as not to deceive the nations, to the idea of the Papal Beast Antichrist, which was Satan’s grand agent for deceiving the nations, having reigned in power during much of the selfsame thousand years, must strike every ON APOCALYPTIC INTERPRETATION. 525 In almost all other Millenaries Prseteristic schemes of Apo¬ calyptic exposition that I have seen, the Prseterist view of the Millennium is accompanied with a non-Papal view of the Beast,1 So in the three lately published Expositions by the Rev. Isaac Williams , the Rev William Henri / Scott, and Professor Hengstenberg respectively. These I proceed briefly to notice ; hoping to show in each and every case the manifest untenableness of their position. 1. Mr. Williams .2 On the millennium Mr. Williams is thus far more consistent than Dr. Wordsworth, in as much as he supposes that it is not till after Satan’s loosing, at the close of the thousand years, that his grand instrument for deceiving the nations, the man of sin , personal Antichrist , or Beast under his last head , rises.3 For this, says he, corresponds with the going forth of the post-millennial Gog and Magog ; (a strange identification, surely ! 4) then raised thoughtful inquirer. Dr. W ordsworth’s answer to the objection is curious, but cer¬ tainly most untenable. It turns upon the force of the Greek preposition W,in the clause eaipgayicreu eiravca avrov tva nrj irXavr] err; ra edvrj ere “ sealed him in order that he should not deceive the nations any more.” Here, argues Dr. W., the intended object of the sealing is declared, but not the actual result. “ The corruptions of Popish times and countries show that men have despised what Christ has done for them ; and have loosed the enemy who was bound by Christ.” (So pp. 50, 51 ) .But, unfortunately for this explanation, the time of Satan’s being loosed is declared expressly not to take place until the end of the thousand years . Apoc. xx. 3, 7. And indeed at p. 75, Dr. W. himself speaks of Satan’s loosing as an event yet future. — See on all this my H. A. iv. 127 — 139. 1 While revising this, I have seen another exceptional case in the recently pub¬ lished Bampton Lectures of Mr. Waldecjrave ; Lectures Millenario-Praeteristic on the Augustinian principle, but thoroughly Christian and Protestant. There needs no further answer however to this than what has been said above, and in my H. A. ubi supra. 2 “ The Apocalypse, with Notes and Reflexions; by the Rev. J. Williams, late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. (London, 1852.) 3 Says Mr. Williams himself, p. 413: “ The saints that reign with Christ during the thousand years have many of them suffered under Antichrist. There¬ fore it cannot be that the reign of Antichrist begins at the end of the thousand years ; though (he adds) it is then most intensely revealed.” 4 A personal Antichrist being Satan’s great instrument in raising up Gog and Magog, and yet not one word said of the person ! The Beast too under his last and deadliest head ; and yet not a word now said about the Beast, though the des¬ cription had been so copious of his previous phases on the theatre of action. — It is indeed abundantly clear that the Beast in his last form is the Beast with the revived head in Apoc. xiii. For the perfect identity may be demonstrated be- 526 PRESENT STATE OF THE CONTROVERSIES up by Satan against Christ’s saints and Church, during “ the little space ” for which he is loosed. But still not without marked in¬ consistency, as compared with his view of the Beast’s previous state, on Mr. W.’s part also ; indeed inconsistency so marked as to strangle his millennarian theory, almost as decisively as Dr. Wordsworth has strangled his. For while expounding the saints’ thousand years’ reign, like Wordsworth, to symbolize the indefinite period of the visible Christian Church’s existence on earth, from Christ’s first founding it, and the Beast to be the body of infidelity in the world, with the constant accompaniment of a second lamb-like Beast, or Christ-professing false priesthood, like Judas,1 (the infidelity under our present dispensation being ever mixt up with the religious hypocrisy of an apostate Church),2 can it con¬ sist that this infidel Beast, with his mock Christianity, the Devil’s chosen substitute for deceiving men, should be coextensive with the Christian Church, and have power over every tribe and tongue and nation, so that all shall worship him, except those whose names are in the Lamb’s book of life, at the selfsame time that the saints are reigning on the earth, and Satan bound, so as not to deceive the nations ? — Moreover, with reference to Mr. W.’s explanation of this deceiving of the nations, as meant only to sig¬ nify that Satan would not deceive them into the old heathenism,3 are we to forget that during the whole period of the existence of Christianity the great bulk of the world have remained open and profest heathens ? — And there is here yet a further marked self- contradiction. Mr. W. thinks that the “ image of the Beast,” tween this Beast and that from the abyss described in Apoc. xvii. See the argu¬ ment drawn out very fully in my Ch. 3. Part iv of the Horse Apocalyptic® : also in the 2nd Paper in the Appendix to Vol. iii ; where every objection is stated, and refuted at large. 1 pp. 243 — 249. 2 Mr. Williams has, in connexion with this idea, a most curious theory. He supposes that the restraining power spoken of in St. Paul’s prophecy, whereby the full development of the Man of Sin was to be prevented, corresponds with the Babylon of Apoc. xvii, riding and restraining the Beast. For even a corrupt and apostate Christian Church prevents the full and open development, he says, of the blasphemies of infidelity. And when the apostolic visible Church perishes, then will be seen a resurrection of all the worst evils of infidel heathenism. See Mr. W.’s Preface p. xi and pp. 349, 355, 409 of his Book. 3 P. 403. ON APOCALYPTIC INTERPRETATION. 527 mentioned in Apoc. xiii, answers to the personal Antichrist ; in other words, to the Beast under his Sth and last, or post -millennial head.1 But the saints that reign with Christ for the previous millennium are declared to be those who had not only not wor¬ shipped the Beast, but not worshipped his image. It is not my purpose, or needful, that I should give any general account of Mr. W.’s exposition. It may be well however just to add a further remark or two respecting it. — 1. Mr. W. profess¬ edly objects alike in his Preface, and other parts of his book, to the historic plan of exposition ; as if leading men into “ the field of conjecture,” and “ entangling them with the web of human imaginings.” 2 Yet much is there in Mr. W.’s own exposition on the historic principle. The six first Seals he explains to signify “ the history of the Church ” during the existence of the temporal Israel : the 6th symbolizing the destruction of Jeru¬ salem ; and the 7th, expanded into the seven Trumpets, the sub¬ sequent progressive history of the Christian Church. Thus the 1st Trumpet depicts (a second time) the fall of Jerusalem; the 2nd “ the Church cast into the sea of nations, amidst the confla¬ grations of Jerusalem ; ” the 3rd Arianism ; the 4th infidelity ; the 5th Mahommedanism and the Saracens. The impropriety of much of this will readily strike an intelligent and well-informed student of the Apocalypse. My present object however in noticing it is simply to show that Mr. W. cannot by possibility avoid taking history into account in his exposition ; 3 even while explaining that the apocalyptic picturings have other and various allegorical mean¬ ings, with reference to the Church. As to which is the severer mode of exposition, and the one most liable to mere human ima¬ ginings, the historic or the allegorical, — the one where you have to test every application by historic fact, historic fact considered in respect of time, place, and sundry other circumstantials, — the other where there is nothing to limit the human fancying of ana¬ logies, — let the reader judge. Alike in Mr. W.’s exposition, and in almost all of the patristic or middle age expositions on the same 1 See his pp. 425, 427, 433. 2 Pref. p. xi. 3 Herein like the Futurists. See the Note p. 516. 528 PRESENT STATE OF THE CONTROVERSIES plan, he will find abundant illustration of the wild and boundless imaginings of the allegorists.1 I must not turn from Mr. W.’s Book without expressing my sense of the amiable and candid spirit in which it has been written : a spirit which many, who more or less may be supposed to agree with him in religious views, would do well indeed to imitate. Moreover, if he does not adopt the old Protestant view of Babylon, the Beast, and Antichrist, as meant distinctively of the Roman Papacy or Popes, he yet approximates to it : admitting (in con¬ tradiction to the Prseterists who would explain all of old Roman heathenism) that an apostate church and priesthood is one essential element in the whole Apocalyptic picturing on the subject. Again, the two witnesses he explains as a symbol of many ; “ the faithful of successive times : ” 2 and the great city, where they are said to he slain, to mean c< the holy city, or Church visible throughout the world.” 3 Once more, as to the famous year-day principle, he admits it. In the prophecies “ it is commonly the case,” he says, “ to use a day for a year.” 4 These are important approxi¬ mations to the more general views of English Protestant ex¬ positors. 1 The explanation of the Apocalyptic numerals by Mr. W. furnish an excellent illustration. Thus at p. 101, on the 5th Seal “ Five speaks of what is imperfect; being half of ten , which is a perfect number. . . The number 5, as the 5 barley- loaves, speaks especially of the law. The 5 porches of Bethesda are taken by St. Augustin to represent the law with the 5 books of Moses. . . The 5 talents are given to be multiplied ; the 5 virgins are but incomplete, being but half of the full number, and in waiting. Thus this 5th Seal is of those under the law, who are in waiting ” But “ the number six is ever of Antichrist ; the 6th Epistle, the 6th Seal, the 6th Trumpet, the 6th Vial, in ever extending cycles, as if 6, and 60, and 600. At the 6th hour on the 6th day is the power of Antichrist, the power of darkness. The number 6 is of man, on the 6th day created ; of Adam in whom all die, with¬ out the 7th of sanctification ; the creature without the rest of God ; ever increasing by ten the aggregate of individuals, multiplying 6, and 60, and 600. . . Thus lite¬ rally the number of the Beast (665) is the number of man.” p.251. Every number almost is similarly allegorized, to mean just what fancy pleases. “In the Apocalypse,” he says at p. 418, “ numbers are a part of the divine sym¬ bolism.” In all this, and in his view of Gog and Magog, Mr. W. seems to follow Hengstenberg. 2 p. 200, 20,3. 3 p> 200. 4 p. 418. He seems there to explain Daniel’s 70th week to mean seven years, on this principle : and so again, at p. 203, assimilates the two witnesses’ 3^ days of death to Elijah’s 3a years’ cessation of witness. ON APOCALYPTIC INTERPRETATION. 529 2. Rev. W. II. Scott. Mr. S,, in the advertisement prefixt to his Book on the Apoca¬ lypse, 1 2gives the following general sketch of the main points which he supposes himself to have established in his Exposition. “ That the principal subject of the Apocalypse is the Roman empire, and Rome the capital of that empire : — that a minute prophecy of events, times, and persons, connected either with the one, or with the other of these, is there given : that, in particu¬ lar, the abolition of the empire is represented ; and that the date of this is assumed to be 476 a. d., when the emperors of Rome ceased : — further that the millennial period, following the fall of Rome, corresponds to those ten centuries of the reign of the Church known as the middle ages : — that an interval of 40 years is represented as separating the fall of the Roman from the be¬ ginning of the Church empire ; and that the latter therefore defi¬ nitely began in the year 51*6, and ended with the year 1516 : — that its overthrow wras, in fact, the immediate result of the Re¬ formation of 1517 : that the imperial power of the Church was taken away at the Reformation, in punishment for the sins of the Church during the 1000 years : — that her position from the year 1517 to the present day is analogous to the captivity of Israel in Babylon during the 70 years : — finally that this captivity is not to be perpetual, but that a complete restoration of the Church to her former supremacy is now to be expected ; and that this is to be brought about in the midst, and by the agency, of judgments on the temporal kingdoms of the modern world, analogous to those which overwhelmed the empire of Rome in the 5th century, and so opened the way for the Church empire of the middle ages.” In order the better to enable the reader to judge of Mr. Scott’s Apocalyptic scheme, and the manner in which he adjusts his fan¬ cied millennium of the middle age to it, I append a tabular sketch of it on the other side. And surely, unless I much deceive myself, it scarce needs more than to look at this scheme in order to be 1 The Interpretation of the Apocalypse, by William Henry Scott, late Fellow of Brazenose College, Oxford. London, 1853. 2 M > REV. W. H. SCOTT’S APOCALYPTIC SCHEME. B.C. 46 25 A.D. 14 37 41 54 69 70 79 to 161 161 to 180 180 to 249 249 to 268 268 to 284 284 to 410 410 to 474 476 516 to 1516 Seals, Trumpets, and Vials. Seal I. Julius II. Augustus V. III. Tiberius IV. Caligula Claudius Nero Galba, Otho, Vitellius VI. Vespasian Titus (under Vesp.) = 11th, or little born {■ 1st horn. 2nd 3rd 4th 5 th 6 th = 7th, 8th, and 9th plucked up. . 10th Apocalyptic Beast. W pq C Q • CN G H r-H Oh G G CJ 0J C/3 G CJ C/3 G C/3 • rH tn rG V-H ffi C/2 4— > • r— 1 a • rH C/3 -f4> C/3 >4 tn H 4-3 B <1 11 ^ t-l P$ VII. Half-hour’s ? = Titus to silence S Antoninus Pius. is! v™rct aad 1 m- Aureiiu8 2nd Trumpet and I Commodus to 2nd Vial j Philip 3rd Trumpet and 1 Decius to 3rd Vial j Valerian and Gallienus Uh v"™pet and } Claudin8 t0 Carinus 5th Trumpet and ) 5th Vial j to Alaric 6th Trumpet and ) Theodosius 2 to 6th Vial j Julius Nepos. 7th Trumpet and { 7th Vial j Odoacer T3 © b O CJ H C/2 pq © c3 bC © t-l tac be o © r=l +3 O a aj t-i tn O B £ © rL cc B-* >> s CS ^ § i s 1 -•u_» * O c3 CJ nd •n CJ nd g G o % : G t-i o rG CJ cj 4-> m cj ■G G G •to Si 3 Co I tH © © t) e e • 8 u cj G G G The two Witnesses B.C. AND SuNCLOTHED Woman. 46 Two Witnesses ( — Jewish and Christian Churches) A.D. 1 prophesy in sackcloth 3^ years = 70 years, till killed at fall of Jerusalem. • • 70 K3 C/3 CJ gq a3 G G G CJ r"fl(N rrt CO ~ .. be CJ r- rG .5 aa CJ C/3 C/3 CJ C O rG CO o !>. Q £ o t-l pi-* t-l G P-< t-i o ■4-3 4-> a3 C/3 CJ s £ o £ 4-> CJ CO QJ o r2 C/3 ^ "3 's B t-l © TJ © rB © o ■o’ CQ B c5 T5 © -B o I B B C/2 516 The Two Witnesses’ Resurrection and Ascension. MILLENNIUM and NEW JERUSALEM o f CHURCH SUPREMACY 476 516 to 1516 1517 to 1855 SATAN loosed at REFORMATION for a little time. 1517 to 1855 ON APOCALYPTIC INTERPRETATION. 531 convinced that grave criticism would be only wasted if applied to its confutation. From beginning to end it seems to set all reason and common sense at defiance in its lucubrations. Assum¬ ing (quite incorrectly, as we have seen)1 that Nero’s reign, not Domitian’s, is the date of the Apocalypse, it makes the subjects of the five first Seals to be the reigns of the five emperors pre¬ ceding Nero ; though the revealing Angel expressly declares that those Seals were from the first, and throughout, to be prefigura¬ tions of what was to happen thereafter.- — The groundwork of his exposition is said by him to be laid “ in the combined number and accuracy of the coincidences” between the prophecy and history.2 Yet not in one single Seal, or one single Trumpet or Vial, as ex¬ plained by him, will there be found any distinctive coincidences between symbol and history whatsoever. E. g. Augustus Cresar would do as well for the 1st Seal as Julius, indeed better ; 3 and Julius for the 2nd, as well as Augustus.4 Mr. Scott’s real ex¬ pository principle seems to be that of making any thing to mean any thing, however incongruous. — -What can we think of the Jewish nation, while rejecting Christ and his apostles, being made one of Christ’s witnesses ; and the death of Christ’s witnesses ex¬ pounded as signifying the destruction of Jerusalem ? — Very spe¬ cially is this seen in Mr. Scott’s explanation of the Apocalyptic numbers. By a singular exception he interprets the thousand years of the Apocalyptic millennium really to mean 1000 years. But the 3§ times of the Woman’s wilderness-sojourn he expounds as the 473 years from Christ to Odoacer ; the 3f years of the Wit¬ nesses prophesying in sackcloth as the 70 years that intervened be¬ tween Christ’s birth and the fall of Jerusalem ; and the 3-§ days of the witnesses lying dead as the 406 years wdiich intervened between Jerusalem’s destruction and that of imperial Rome.5 The 70 weeks of Daniel’s famous Messianic prophecy he explains to be other¬ wise represented as 7 weeks ;6 and the two myriads of myriads 1 See pp. 518, 519 supra. 2 Preliminary Advertisement. 3 The horseman in the 1st Seal goes on conquering and prosperous to the end. But Julius Caesar’s end was by assassination. 4 Civil warshaving raged under one as well as under the other. 5 Pp. 42—45, 73. 1 6 P. 899. 2 M 2 532 present state of the controversies (— 200 millions) of the Euphratean horsemen of the 6th Trumpet to be virtually the same as the 144,000 sealed Israelites in the seal¬ ing vision of the 6th Seal.1 To make Titus' name answer to the numeral force of that of Antichrist, 666, not only is the ; in Ta later part of my Book, it is stated that I had concluded on another and quite different explanation of the passage. My notice of the change in the Preface to that Edition would suffice, I hope, to prevent mistake on the point with candid readers. 1 “Then u>e which are alive, and remain, &c.” 560 PRESENT STATE OF THE CONTROVERSIES 2. With regard to the coming evil, and enemy , though the ima¬ gery is borrowed in considerable measure from Daniel’s prophecy of the King of the South, Dan. xi. 36,1 yet cannot we infer from Daniel’s meaning in it (even if satisfactorily established) that the same was St. Paul’s meaning here. Because it is the habit of the New Testament writers to use the imagery and language of the Old Testament prophets as a mere fit language of expression, in reference to quite other subjects more immediately regarding their own times. Paul’s meaning must be sought in Paul himself. And, so sought, we may conclude that the man of sin was meant by him in the sense of an impersonation of those evil heresies, and those corrupters of the faith, of which he had already seen sad symptoms, alike among members of the professing Christian Church, and among the Jews ; and of which he looked for a yet stronger and more fearful manifestation. 3. The letting power, or hindrance, which prevented its imme¬ diate development must (from the language St. Paul uses) have been something then existing before men’s eyes. The union of the masculine and the neutur is here to be observed; o /care^wy, and to Kccre^ov ; the one as of a person, the other as of a power. And two solutions occur for consideration. — The one is that self¬ same which was believed in by the early fathers ; viz. the Roman power, and Roman emperor. And, had the evil dreaded been the rebellion of the Jewish nation, then this solution would have been satisfactory ; because the Roman power so far kept the Jewish revolutionists in check. But the fact of the evil dreaded being spiritual seems to make this solution improbable. — Another solu¬ tion, and which for the last mentioned reason seems more proba¬ ble, is the Jewish law: since, from its being still in force, it operated as a check on the outbreak of that flood of Jewish heresies which afterwards inundated and corrupted the Christian world. Such is Professor Jowett’s exposition. And on it I have just two remarks to make. As to his primary and fundamental lemma then, it seems to 1 How does Mr. J. make out that the king there spoken of is the King oftha South ? ON APOCALYPTIC INTERPRETATION. 561 me astonishing how any man of sense should build his argu¬ ment on the idea that the Apostle was persuaded, when writing, that Christ's coming would occur before his own death, simply because he had written in his previous epistle, “ Then we which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.” Are we to suppose that Isaiah expected to be alive at Christ’s first coming, because of his saying, “When we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him “ we esteemed him not;” and so on ? But Paul, says Mr. Jowett, is best ex¬ plained from Paul. Well then, in 1 Cor. xv. 51 does he not say, “ Behold I show you a mystery ; we shall not all sleep ; but we shall all be changed : ” using the pronoun we in the sense of the common body of all faithful Christians ; seeing that it is applied alike to all the dead at Christ’s coming, and all the living ? The same surely in 1 Thess. iv. 1 7. — Which being so, the Professor’s whole argument against our extending the reach of the prophecy beyond the Apostle’s own life-time, even to times however remote, becomes a ruin. And then his exprest opinions, 1st, that the evil and apos- tacy meant by the apostle was most probably some departure from the faith on the part of professors in the Christian Church, and 21y, that the letting power might very possibly be the Roman power, will be found, as we have before seen, well to suit, and in¬ deed almost to necessitate, the old Protestant view respecting the Apostacy and the Man of Sin ; as meant of the Papal Apostacy, and Papal Antichrist. I now bring this Paper in the Appendix to a close, having accomplished in it what I proposed. I trust that I have here sufficiently shown, from the latest publications of any name or pre¬ tension, 1 st that the arguments raised against the interpretation which I have advocated in my Warburtonian Lectures, more espe¬ cially as regards the old Protestant view of the Antichrist, and the Man of Sin, are of no real strength; 2ndly, that the grossest failure may be shown to attach to each and every system of prophetic exposition which would run counter to that view. 2 O 5G2 PRESENT STATE OF THE CONTROVERSIES And perhaps I may not unfitly conclude with a few suggestions to younger enquirers after prophetic truth, when finding them¬ selves bewildered by the various antagonistic views now pro¬ pounded on the subject of the predicted Apostacy, and Antichrist : — suggestions drawn mostly from the controversial or expository papers that we have just been passing under review. 1st then let me pray such inquirers, when perusing any books, or reviews, that reject the old Protestant scheme, and offer counter-schemes on this great subject, to mark generally the spirit in which they gainsay it ; and, if written in a spirit of burlesque and ridicule , to remember that this is a pretty sure sign that their arguments are more or less based on misrepresentation. Indeed the spirit of misrepresentation has gone far abroad on this matter.1 — 2ndly, let them beware of arguments raised against a 1 An example has just met my eye in the Clerical Journal for Nov. 8, 1855, p. 508. A Letter is there inserted, inclosing an extract from “ one of our best living divines,” viz. the Rev. R. W. Evans, in proof of the absurdity of making the Popes to answer to the Antichrist and the Apocalyptic Beast. A Papist, says Mr. E. might argue with equal plausibility for England being the Beast. But how so ? Why, her maritime power answers to the figure of the Beast rising out of the sea. Ihe number 7 of the Beast’s heads alludes to the singular prevalence of that number in her government : since there was first the Heptarchy ; and more¬ over, since the conquest, seven royal dynasties; Norma?i , Plantagenet , Lancas- ierian , Yorkist , Tudor , Stuart , Hanoverian. Then the ten horns of the Beast are England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and the colonial possessions in the Mediter¬ ranean, North America, Wrest Indies, South Africa, Australia, East Indies. As to the woman riding the Beast, she is the Church of England ; her dress, and cup, and blasphemies representing her wealth and heresies. So Mr. Evans. And not only does the correspondent of the Journal send it with commendation, as quite to the point ; but the respectable Editor of the Journal inserts it without a word of caution against the absurdity of the profest parallel. — Need I suggest that there are three prominent points in the Angel’s explanation of the Apocalyptic symbol, given to St. John, that fix its meaning to Rome 1 1st, the woman “ is the great city now reigning over the kings of the earth.” 21y, the Beast’s seven heads in one sense signified the seven hills on which the woman sate : and, 31y, in another sense the seven kings (or suprema¬ cies) ruling its empire in succession ; of which five had fallen at the time when John saw the vision. Hence alike Papal and Protestant expositors agree that the woman must mean Rome. The only question is whether Rome Pagan , or Rome Papal. — Was England in St. John’s time the great city that ruled over the kings of the earth ? Did England sit on seven hills ? Had five of England’s ruling kings, or dynasties, fallen at the time of St. John seeing the visions in PatmosP Let me add that if, as is frequent, the Protestant explanations of the more complex Apocalyptic symbolizations, such as those of the 5th and 6th Trumpets, be the subject of burlesque, it will be well for the inquirer to look to the counter¬ views offered in their place. F or illustration of this see what is quoted at p. 520 supra . ON APOCALYPTIC INTERPRETATION. 563 single detached part of a Protestant exposition, with marked avoid¬ ance of reference to the context : seeing that the proof of the view attacked may arise mainly from the context ; and also that this may alone show the groundlessness of the suggested antago¬ nistic explanation. So, for example, in the favourite denouncement by Futurists of the application of the first vision of the Qth Apocalyp¬ tic Seal to the great Constantino-Theodosian revolution, wherein Paganism was overthrown in the 4th century ; and their counter¬ view of its figuring the terrors of the Lord’s second and still future coming to judgment. On the one side the historic argument from the five preceding Seals is a most important, indeed an essential part of the evidence for the old Protestant view of the 6th Seal. On the other the second figuration of the same Seal, i.e. the Sealing vision, at once negatives all idea of Christ’s personal coming to judgment being the subject meant. — 3rdly, as regards objections against our view of the Antichrist of prophecy, let the etymological force of the appellation never be forgotten, the same that has been set forth in these Lectures, (p. 125) and yet more fully in my Horse : and how both this, and St. John’s application of the term to the professedly Christian Gnostics of his time, absolutely sets aside all application of the term to a professedly heathen or infidel power. — 41y, in regard of objections against the year-day principle as “ monstrous ,” and so forth, let the reader remember that almost all who on that ground oppose the Protestant Warburtonian view about Antichrist, (except indeed those Futurists who seek refuge from exposal in the obscurity and indefinite possibilities of the future,) do themselves, as we have seen, shrink from construing the prophetic periods as literal days ; and, instead of this, make them symbolic numerals ; so as to mean any length of time, small or great, just as may suit them. Dr. Davidson is an eminent and somewhat curious example. Though, at pp. 519, 532, of the 3rd vol. of his Introduction to the New Testament, de¬ claring that Dr. S. R. Maitland’s arguments against anv mystical or symbolic interpretation of the prophetic days, instead of the lite¬ ral, appeared to him unanswerable, yet, at the marvellously short interval of scarce more than 100 pages, he thus, when expounding 2 0 2 564 PRESENT STATE OF THE CONTROVERSIES his own views, directly contradicts himself: — ‘c We cannot believe that the (prophetic) times Were meant to be taken definitely and literally. They do not mark just so many days and years. They are symbolic , not chronological periods.” 1 Yet once more let me beg the prophetic inquirer never to forget the mighty authorities in favour of the anti-Papal solution of the prophecies in question. More especially I would refer to the profound Bishop Butler , and urge him to study that great writer’s Chapter on the Prophetic Evidence of Christianity.2- — 1 So p. 628. Let me take this opportunity of noticing one or two charges of misrepresen¬ tation made by Dr. D. in that volume of his Book against me. In three or four different places in my Horse I had spoken of him, it seems, as a copyist, or follower, of Eiclihorn and the American Professor Moses Stuart in his Apocalyptic views, as given in the Article on “ Revelation ” in Kitto’s Encyclo¬ paedia, and a Paper on the same subject in the Eclectic Review. Now, complains Dr. Davidson, at p. viii of the Preface to the 3rd Volume of his Introduction, this is untrue. “ Not till the Article in Kitto had been printed and published did Stuart's Work on the Apocalypse come across the Atlantic. — Nor has Dr. D. yet read Stuart’s Commentary on the Apocalypse . As to Eiclihorn , whom Dr. D. is also represented by Mr. E. as following, his Work on the Apocal}Tpse has never been seen by the present writer. So much for the truth of Mr. E’s statement.” In reply I will beg the reader to turn to the Article by Dr. D. on the Revela¬ tion in Kitto. (To that in the Eclectic I have not access at present.) Atp. 618 he says, in reference to certain German objectors against St. John’s being the writer of the Apocalypse ; “ Even Eiclihorn and Berthold made many good remarks in reply ; though they did not take the position which they were war¬ ranted to assume.” — Atp. 621; “We are aware that Eiclihorn reckons from Augustus.” — At p. 622 ; “ It weighs nothing with us that Eiclihorn , Bleek, and De Wette conjecturally assume that the place mentioned in Apoc. i. 9 ma}” be a poetical fiction.” — At p. 623 ; “ The genius of Eiclihorn wrought out the sug¬ gestion of the Apocalypse being a dramatic poem into a theory pervaded by great symmetry and beauty.” So much as regards Eiclihorn. — As regards Professor Stuart , at p. 627 he thus writes ; “ They who take a day for a year must prove the correctness and scrip¬ tural basis of such a principle. This is quite necessary after the arguments ad¬ vanced by Maitland and Stuart." — Let the reader now judge ; Was I justified, or not, in supposing that Dr. D. had read the writers he thus referred to ? — Hereafter however I will not make a similar mistake about the learned Doctor. Taught by himself I shall remember that, however he may cite, praise, or criticise another writer, it is my duty to doubt whether lie has ever seen that writer ; and is not rather doing it all at second hand. I believe that we are to explain the contradiction of himself about the prophetic numerals of time in this way : —that the former passage is in reality the writing of Dr. S. R ■ Maitland ; the latter that of hispraiser but impugner Dr. Davidson. — The former will do well to take into consideration the citation given by me on the year-day from Theodore i. 2 Part 2 Ch. 7 of the Analogy. ON APOCALYPTIC INTERPRETATION, 565 Very thankful am I to add that one great man lately departed from among us, and whose authority has been cited often¬ times on the other side, I mean the late Dr. Arnold , may be shewn to have been here altogether inconsistent with himself. With regard to the nature of the apostacy, of which the man of sin predicted by St. Paul was to be the head, he in the strongest terms, again and again, declares it to be just that system of priestcraft which was perfected in Popery.1 The diffi¬ culties felt by him in the way of his fully carrying out the Papal application of the prophecy, alike as regards the time of the heading of the apostacy, and the measure of its universality when dominant, as if (in the old Protestant view) embracing all but the Waldensian witnesses, were founded on entire mistake.3 And whereas, in his Sermons on Prophecy, he had argued that in the 1 “ So far as Popery is priestcraft , I do believe it to be the very mystery of iniquity. But then it began in the 1st century; and had no more to do with Rome in the outset than with Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage.” So in November 1836. Life and Correspondence, ii. 61. Again; — “There is no battle in which I so entirely sympathize as in this against the priestcraft- Antichrist.'1' So December 1837, about the troubles from the Archbishop of Cologne. Ibid. p. £9. Again, in January 1838 ; “ This spirit of priestcraft, the root of anarch}', fraud, and idolatry, is the mainspring of all Popery, whether Romish or Oxonian.” Ib. 105. Again, October 1839 ; “ I see the Tractarians labouring to enthrone the very mystery of falsehood and iniquity in that neglected and dishonoured temple, the Church of God.” p. 172. Again, January 1840 ; “In one point I think Antichrist was in the Church from the 1st century : yet God forbid that we call the Church Antichrist. New- manism is the development of that system which in the early Church existed only in the bud ; and which, as being directly opposed to Christ’s religion, [we see that Dr. A. had not attended to the peculiar force of the word ayTixqts-os,] I call Antichrist, p. 183. Again, June 1841. “ That the great enemy should have turned his very defeat into his greatest victory, and converted the spiritual self-sacrifice, in which each was his own priest, into the carnal and lying sacrifice of the mass, is to my mind, more than anything else, the exact fulfilment of the apostolic language concerning Antichrist.” p. 260. 2 “ To talk of Popery as the great Apostacy, and of the Christian Church as the Vaudois, is absurd.” So June 1834. Vol. i. p. 395. And see too the 1st cita¬ tion in the preceding Note ; “But then it began in the 1st century, Ac.” In fact, what St. Paul’s prophecy marks is a clearly gradually self-unfolding evil ; 1st existing in the bud, as Dr. A. says ; then increasing more and more into a gene¬ ral apostacy ; then, when so advanced, to be headed by the man of sin, or Anti- 566 PRESENT STATE OF THE CONTROVERSIES. Romish Church there “ is not such unmixt or intense evil as to answer to the features of the mystic Babylon of the Apocalypse,” yet in his Correspondence we find him declaring that he cannot imagine to himself anything more wicked than the Papal system, at least as exhibited at Rome and in Italy.1 I therefore rejoice to appeal on this point from Dr. Arnold to Dr. A. himself ; from Arnold under misapprehension to Arnold self- corrected : and to regard him as in reality much more a witness for, than against, the great Protestant view advocated in these Lectures, after Bishop Warburton and all the fathers of the English Refor¬ mation ; to the effect that the Pope of Rome is distinctively the Antichrist of prophecy, and Papal Rome the Apocalyptic Babylon ? christ. So that the Roman Bishop had then only, according to the prophecy, to take his part in its fnlfilment. As to God’s Church of the true-hearted it is represented as hidden in the wilder¬ ness, during Antichrist’s reign, known to God, but (collectively) not visible by man. Only certain direct witnesses for God's truth , few in number, were to be visible and active on the scene. The Vaudois we look on as some of those witnesses. 1 “ In Italy it is just the old heathenism ; and, I should think a worse system of deceit.” So October 1825, while in Italy. Life i. 74. “ I saw these two lines painted on the wall in the street to-day, near an image of the Virgin : Chi vuole in morte aver Gesu per padre, Onori in vita la sua santa madre. I declare I do not know what name of abhorrence can be too strong for a reli¬ gion which, holding the very bread of life in its hands, thus feeds the people with poison.” So May, 1827, at Rome. Ibid. 279. Again, at p. 385, we find him applying to a statue of the Virgin in the Tyrol, the tales told about it, as the deliverer of the people from the French, and wor¬ ship paid it, what Herodotus might narrate of a statue of Minerva ctAe| iKauos. Yet once more this is the statement of his final opinion on the subject, and made very shortly before his death ; “ Undoubtedly I think worse of Roman Catholicism, in itself, than I did some years ago.” So October, 1841. Life ii. 287. 2 N. B. I had intended (as stated at p. 275) to have added here a copy of my critique on Arnold’s Sermons on Prophecy, given in the Appendix to the 4th volume of my Ilorae Apocalyptic®, p. 620. But after the above extracts from his Life and Correspondence this seems to me needless. THE END. L. Seeley, Printer. . ■ - ' ,