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of Cornelius; that is, to the date of the door opened to the Gentiles. And hence, if we date from creation to the beginning of the 70 weeks, 3679 years-the 70 weeks making 490 years;-and add to this, from the birth of Christ, 37 years-included in Daniel's 490 years-add 1830, and we come down to the year 1867, making up 6000 years; these constituting the great working week of the world, after which may be expected the dawn at least of rest that remaineth for the people of God; that is, on the hypothesis that these calculations are correct.

Daniel, chapter vii., predicts the appearance of what is called a "little horn"—that is, a reigning power-that "shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and the dividing of time." At the end of this portrait he adds: "But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end."

This "horn," or power, with the mouth speaking great words against the most High, wearing out God's people by persecutions of all sorts, that thinks to change times and laws, is all but universally accepted as the picture of the Papacy, or great Western Apostasy. The prediction is, that it is to endure dominant, powerful, crushing, for a "time, times, and half a time;" that at the end of that period it is not to be struck down at once, but "the judgment shall

sit;" its dominion-that is, its dominant ascendancy and power to persecute-shall be taken away, and it shall be consumed gradually till the end. Now this falls in exactly with what St Paul tells us, of the same apostasy, in Second Thessalonians, "That wicked one whom the Lord shall consume," the very words of Daniel, "with the spirit of his mouth."

In Revelation xiii. 5, it is said: "There was given unto the beast a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty-and-two months." Compare Daniel's "little horn," with the mouth speaking great words against the Most High, who was to endure time, times, half a time, with the apocalyptic wild beast, who was to speak great things against the Most High, and to endure 1260 prophetic days, or 1260 literal years; and we have the evidence of a great apostasy that was to last in a dominant state 1260 years, at the end of which it was to be, as Daniel calls it, consumed, and the judgment to sit on it, but not to be finally destroyed till a period subsequent to that, the period of the second advent. These great periods, then, all resolve themselves into this grand date, 1260 years. The real question for us to settle is, when was the terminus a quo, or the starting period, of the 1260 years? There are assigned two distinct dates. One period assigned as the terminus a quo is, the year when Phocas gave the Pope-formally gave the Pope what he had exercised long before-supreme domination; which event dates at the autumnal equinox of a.d.

607. The Emperor formally gave the then reigning Bishop of Rome supreme power and autocratic domination. If we add 1260 years to 607, it brings us down to the autumnal equinox of 1867. According to this estimate, in 1867 the Papacy will as a temporal power perish from the earth. The authors and upholders of this view understand the 2300 years to begin also at a later period than generally assumed, and to terminate also in 1867. Let us turn to the other accepted by eminent writers on prophecy, who are persuaded that the corporate development of this great apostasy began about the year A.D. 533. It will rest with the reader, exercising the right of private judgment, to decide upon the truth of the premises, and the inferences. In the year 533-about the beginning of it, therefore I might say almost 532—the Emperor Justinian, then reigning, addressed a letter to John the Second, the Bishop of Rome. In this letter, Justinian thus speaks: "We have hastened to bring into subjection, and to unite to the See of your Holiness, all the priests of the whole Eastern Church-your Holiness the head of all the holy Church." When the Emperor thus addressed the Pope, or Bishop of Rome, if he repudiated these rules, the Bishop was so far blameless; but if the Bishop accepted the awful position of head of the Church, and became, and set himself forth, and assumed to be, the autocratic priest that claimed to govern all Churches, then I contend the Emperor formally gave, and the Pope formally accepted, that supremacy which was already in exer

cise. The Pope replied to the Emperor's letter in these words: "You preserve the reverence of the Roman See, and are subjecting all things to it, and bringing them into union with it; to whose founder, Peter, the charge was given from our Lord's lips, 'Feed my sheep,' which See the Rules of the Fathers, and the Statutes of the Princes, and the much to be honoured expressions of your piety, attest truly to be the head of all the Churches. Your edict is conformable to apostolic doctrine; I confirm it with my authority." There was the supreme civil power constituting so far as it could, and the ecclesiastical power acquiescing in, an already accepted brand. These letters were not private; they were placed in the Statute Book, and became governing laws. They are at this moment found under the title, "De summa Trinitate." Then the saints were formally given into his hand. This view dates the commencement of the 1260 years, or the formal development of that apostasy which was to speak great things against the Most High, to open its mouth in blasphemy, to wear out the saints, in A.D. 533. Its principles were in the days of Paul, but its full and authorized corporate development occurred in A.D. 532 or 533. The most eminent Roman Catholic commentators accept 533 as the date of the recognition of Papal supremacy. If this be correct, we add 1260 to 533, or 532, for it was at the close of 532 and the beginning of 533, and it brings us down to 1792 or 1793. If this be the true application of the terminus ad quod, we ought to find in

1793 some proof that the "judgment sat," that this great power began to be consumed, and his dominion, or his tyranny, to abate, and the saints of the Most High to be delivered; for Daniel says: "They shall then, at the close of the 1260 years, take away his dominion, to consume it, and to destroy it unto the end," which end is not yet come. History attests the decay of the Papacy from that date, 1793; her priests were massacred, her monasteries and convents plundered, her shrines rifled, her altars dismantled, and, finally, the Code Napoléon, the most remarkable and splendid code of laws that ever was given, took effect, and produced a change as great as the Novellæ or Pandects of Justinian did 1260 years before. These two facts present a strong presumptive proof that the judgment sat, his dominion began to be taken away; though, in the language of Daniel, his life was prolonged for a season.

The reduction of the power of Romanism throughout Europe from that day to this steadily goes on. There is scarcely a nation in Europe in which Romanism is not dying out; the only deplorable exception is England.

In Paris, in the year 1793, there were 5000 priests. The population of Paris has more than doubled since that period; there ought, therefore, now to be 10,000 priests; but so entire is the consumption, that the number of priests in 1867 is about 900. What a change from him who made the Emperor of Germany penance amid the snows and in the trenches before

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