Chapter V. Revelation of Advanced Chronological Position

…In the Great Prophetic Calendar of Daniel and the Apocalypse.

And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:[1]

But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound,[2] the mystery of God should be finished,[3] as he hath declared[4] to his servants the prophets.[5] (Rev 10:5-7)

In the two preceding and primary acts of this vision of the self-revealing rainbow circled Covenant Angel, and its recorded accompaniments and consequents on the Apocalyptic scene, we traced in our former Chapter a most accurate prefiguration of the two grand religious discoveries, made first to Luther, and then to others in Christendom, which introduced the great Protestant Reformation. Is it the case that the present, but very different and almost equally striking figuration, may be historically explained on the same principle: viz. As signifying a further revelation made, in due chronological order of sequence, to Luther and the other reforming doctors, and therein a further step of advance and progress in the Reformation? Let us, as before, first well consider the figuration: then turn to history to inquire after the fulfillment.

I . The Prophecy.

Now, with regard to the prophetic passage under consideration, it will be observed by the reader that two changes of translation have been made by me in it. The first is of the greek clause (ότι χρονος ουχ ετι εσται) which I render that time shall no further be prolonged; (Ie. to the mystery spoken of in the next clause, a mystery including that of the seven thunders) in place of our authorized version, “that time shall be no longer:” the other of the clause (όταν μελλγ σαλπιζειν) which I render, “at what time he may have, or he destined, to sound instead of the authorized, “when he shall begin to sound.”— In the first of these changes we cannot, I think, be materially mistaken. The authorized version of it, “there shall be time no longer,” is one clearly inadmissible. For χρονος in the abstract sense of time, as opposed to eternity, is never, I believe, used in Scripture.[6] And, moreover, how could it be said that time should at the seventh Trumpet Angel’s sounding be no longer, when the mutations introduced by that Trumpet were to issue, as appears clearly from the Apocalyptic sequel, in the reign of Christ and his saints:— a reign including, as its commencing term, the definite period of 1000 years of tune?— Another proposed translation, “that the time shall not yet be,” which in my earlier Editions I adopted from other preceding interpreters,[7] appears to me on reconsideration to be on grammatical grounds inadmissible: since I cannot find authority for the greek (ετι) meaning yet, in that sense of our English word yet, or as yet.— And so again a third proposed translation, “A time shall not yet be,” in the mystical prophetic sense of the word time, as a year of 360 days, counted on the year-day principle, as 360 years, seems to me objectionable: not with reference to the ετι alone, but because the word used here by the Angel is not χαιρος , but χρονος.[8]— A fourth proposed translation, “There shall be delay no more,’’ though quite suitable to the sense of the passage, yet seems scarcely warrantable;[9] because, though χρονιζω the verb means to delay, and χρονος itself, with verbs like ποιεω in connection, be used sometimes also in the same sense of delay,[10] yet where is there example of χρονος. with the substantive verb having that meaning?— I therefore settle down on aversion very similar to that of our authorized English translation, only with quite a different sense: and that a sense gathered from the clause next succeeding. “There shall be time no longer extended,” viz. To the mysterious dispensation of God which has so far permitted the reign of evil, including the power of Papal Rome mock thunders: the 7^th Trumpet’s era being its fixed determined limit. “For in the days of the seventh angel, when he shall sound, the mystery of God shall be finished. With regard to the latter clause amended, I scarce need suggest to the classical reader that όταν μελλη σαλπιζειν cannot mean, as our authorized version renders it, “when he shall begin to sound.” On the other hand my version, “at what time he may have, or be destined, to sound,” is but according to one of the recognized meanings of the verb.[11] And, for as much as the event spoken of as to take place, viz. The ending or completion of God’s mystery, is referred not to the time just before the seventh angel’s sounding, but to the days subsequently following on the sounding.[12]— I therefore propose to construe the clause in question parenthetically thus: “But in the days of the seventh angel (at what time soever he may have to sound), then the mystery of God shall be finished.” Thus all will harmonize:— by the parenthetic words a certain dubiousness only being made to attach to the time of the seventh Angel’s sounding, and its results: though an event apparently not very distant.

This seems all that is necessary in the way of critical remark on the passage: Bishop Middleton having long since explained, and justified, the authorized rendering (of χαι ετελοσθη).[13] I therefore now pass to the figuration itself. And need I call attention to the exceeding impressiveness of the act and words figured? Who could witness, who hear or read them, and not thrill under the impression?— Consider the announcement! It told of no less an event than the certain approach and nearness, at the distance of but another grand prophetic epoch, of the long promised consummation. And what that consummation? The ending of what is emphatically called God’s mystery: his mystery of Providence, wherein good has so long been overborne by evil, the saints by the world, Christ by Antichrist:[14]— his mystery too, his chiefest mystery, of prophecy:[15] seeing that in darkly expressed figures, and enigmatic chronological periods (of which more presently), it unwrap from of old each prediction of the time when God’s providential mystery should have its ending: and of these, until the eve of the consummation,[16] it seemed that the Church would from age to age in vain seek a complete solution.

Consider too the Person announcing it, the Covenant Angel Jehovah Jesus: that same divine Angel, and with the same glory as his own proper investiture, that communed with Daniel once by the river Hiddekel[17]— and, yet once more, the exceedingly solemn adjuration by which he confirmed it: “He lifted up his hand to heaven, and swear by Him that lives for ever and ever, who created the heaven and the things that therein are, and the earth and the things that therein are, and the sea and the things that are therein.” It was an oath of which the form, by lifting up his hand to heaven, appears from other Scripture to have been that which was adopted as most solemn, not by man only[18] but God:[19] and one in which God himself invoked as witness to its truth. Moreover it is observable that the attributes of Jehovah specially mentioned in the oath, were precisely those that might seem best fitted to assure the disciple of his indubitable fulfillment of it. As the ever living and unchangeable One, it must needs be that He would both foresee the coming future, without possibility of error, and would also carry on His designs without shadow of turning. As Creator of the world, He could not but have formed it with a view to the establishment of his own purposes, reign, and glory: and moreover could not but have power also over all, to accomplish that ever intended and blessed object.— Nor should there be overlooked the circumstance of the appeal from the Divine Covenant Angel to the Divine Creator and Eternal One, as in fact an appeal to Himself. This however was no strange thing. The example cited by St. Paul, and his comment on it to the Hebrews, will suffice to satisfy us both of its accordance with Scripture usage, and of its intent. “Because He could swear by no greater, He swear by Himself: that by two immutable things” (his promise and his oath), “in which it was impossible for God to lie, they might have a strong consolation who have fled to lay hold on the hope set before them.”[20] That they might have a strong consolation who have fled to Jesus! Such was God’s great object in the oath St. Paul speaks of. Was it not that also of the Angel, in the oath here heard by St. John?

Besides all which it is most important (as will soon appear on our entering on the history) that we mark the parallel of the Angel’s act and oath with that other just alluded to in Daniel: a parallel so striking that it seems incredible but that the allusion to it must have been both meant by the revealing Spirit, and impress on the mind of the disciple revealed to, St. John. The passage occurs nearly at the end of his prophecy. “I heard,” says Daniel, “the Man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when He held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven: and He swear by Him that liveth for ever and ever, that it shall be for a time, times, and a half time: and when He shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.”[21] Here, besides the obvious similarity in respect of the terms and manner of the oath, as lifting up his hand to heaven, and swearing by Him that lives forever, it is evident from the context that He who used it was the Angel Jehovah, just as in the Apocalyptic vision under consideration.[22]— Further his position, as standing upon the waters of the Hiddekel or Tigris (that representative and chief river of Persia,[23] the then dominant power of the four great empires of prophecy), corresponds with the Angel’s standing upon land and sea in the Apocalyptic vision: and similarly intimates his being HE to whom belonged the empire of the earth, and who would in due time vindicate it to Himself.— Yet again the consummation referred to in Daniel may be inferred, not otherwise only, but from the Apocalyptic Angel’s express reference to the ancient prophets, to be one and the same with that meant in the Apocalypse.[24]— But amidst all these marked points of correspondence in the two cases, there was one point of marked difference. Whereas to Daniel the vision was declared to be one of many days[25] and the appointed time of the end to be not until after the lapse of an enigmatic period,— a time, times, and half a time,[26] measured from the epoch of some notable but darkly hinted erection of the abomination in the holy place,[27]— it was here on the other hand declared to be approaching, and comparatively nigh at hand. It would not indeed, the Angel intimated, be just at present. But He swore also that there should intervene but one more Trumpet sounding before it. “In the days of the seventh Angel (at what time soever he may have to sound), then the mystery of God shall be finished, according to the glad tidings that He hath declared to his servants the prophets.”— Oh, how heart cheering to St. John, how solemn, this peculiarity in the revelation made to him, as compared with that to Daniel! How joyous this striking, as it were, of the hour on the chronometer of heaven: to tell that the mystery was indeed near its ending: the grand, the long desired consummation, at length drawing nigh!

But this directs us at once to our next Head:

II . The Historical Fulfillment.

For here, as elsewhere, St. John is to be considered not so much in his personal, as in his symbolic representative character. Whence the inference follows, that there ought to have been some impression on the mind of Luther and other Fathers of the Reformation, whom the Apostle now represented, correspondent at the time, in real historical fact, with that figured in the drama, as it was impressed on the ear and mind of the Evangelist. Already examples have occurred of certain solemn chronological notices, declared on the open Apocalyptic scene, having had their fulfillment in history, just as well as other prefiguration. Thus, under the fifth Seal, the intimation heard given to the souls beneath the altar, of there being another set of martyrs to be slain even as they before the consummation, was shown to have had that which exactly answered to it, in the universally received conviction among the sufferers under heathen Rome oppression, of the Antichrist reign, persecution of the saints, and slaying of other martyrs, having alone to intervene before the end.[28]— Again, in the case of the Angel flying through mid-heaven before the fifth Trumpet’s sounding, with the denunciation of, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, by reason of the remaining trumpet voices of the three angels that have yet to sound,” we saw reason to suppose a preintimation of certain strong general portents as to the world’s end being close at hand, woes and trials with it, that prevailed after the ruin of the old Roman Empire.[29]— Hence the rather a conviction, that in this the most emphatic, distinct, and striking of all the Apocalyptic chronological notices, there must have been intended the prefiguration of some proportionally strong and definite expectation of the consummation, impressed in its due order of time on the minds of the Reforming Fathers:— impressed upon them in that view of the coming consummation, and as grounded on that prophetic evidence, and connected with those associations, which struck upon St. John’s ear and mind in the Angel’s oath:— impressed too, not as an evanescent though momentarily strong idea (in which case it would have been no subject for such a symbolization), but abiding: as abiding perhaps from the time of its first communication to the Reformers (an epoch following soon after that last described), and as influentially in its measure, as the other two ideas previously impressed upon their minds, of the grace of Christ and the imposture of Antichrist.— Was this then the case?

I said, in that view of the consummation which the Angel’s oath signified. And before reverting, for an answer to my question, to the history of Luther and the Reformation, I wish to premise a word in illustration of my meaning. And this I may perhaps do best by suggesting, in contrasted view, that expectation and fermenting of the public mind of Christendom, with reference to the coming future which was manifested, it will be remembered, already before the commencement of the Reformation, and when the name of Luther had scarce been heard beyond his own monastery. From the unprecedented burst of literature and intellect which had followed on the invention of printing, from the discovery of a new world, and from the introduction into it of the Christian arms and professedly Christian faith,— from these and other considerations the era had struck the minds of men as one very remarkable and extraordinary: and new and indefinite prospects opened before them in the misty future, to which imagination, according to the genius and character of the contemplatist, gave of course a somewhat various coloring. But alike in other European countries, and above all in Italy, the center of the literature as well as religion of Europe, this was observable: that, excepting a very few like Savonarola, who spoke of the nearness of Christ’s coming to take the kingdom, the expectations prevalent were all of courtly theory, and in harmony with the established anti-christian superstition. The anticipations prevalent were anticipations of the imminent fulfillment of the promised latter day glory in the Pope’s universal extending empire: anticipations not unnaturally resulting, in the progress of time, from that earthly view of the latter day glory, which began to be broached, as was noted by me long since,[30] in the fourth century. It was an idea, we saw, expressed alike vividly by the painters, poets, and orators of the day;[31] as also by the preachers of the great Council General of Western Christendom, assembled at Rome in solemn conclave, just about the time of Leo V’s elevation.[32] And, as if in order that no gloomy counter views might cross and interrupt these glowing anticipations, the subjects of Antichrist and the time of the last judgment were interdicted as forbidden subjects.[33]

But the prophecies of Daniel, and of St. Paul to the Thessalonians (which latter seemed also by implication referred to in the Angel’s oath),[34] exhibited the coming future in altogether a different aspect:— the object there set forth as to be looked and hoped for, being the kingdom of Christ, not that of the Popes of Rome: and its establishment, as what was not to be effected until after the previous destruction, before the brightness of his coming, of that same Papal Antichrist, with his abomination in the Holy Place:[35] that same Man of Sin, and his apostasy,[36] from off the face of the earth.— Can the imagination of man conceive a greater contrast? Now, after the Reformers discovery of the Popes being the Antichrist of prophecy, and the marvelous events consequent thereon, it is easy to see how all this might well have been expected by them to follow quickly as a sequel.

For the same prophecies that foretold Antichrist’s character, and doings, had also spoken of his days as numbered, and his destruction certain: and moreover had specified the manner and the means of his destruction: how it should be, as it were, without hand of man, by the breath of the Lord’s mouth, as well as the brightness of his coming![37] What then more natural than that when, within three or four years, the Bible had been drawn forth from its long concealment, and its prerogative as the sole rule of faith vindicated, when the gospel of the grace of Jesus had been revealed again in its divine beauty, and the shadows of Papal superstition in not a few districts fled before it, when also a public exposure had been made of the papacy, and believed and reiterated by multitudes,— what more natural, I say, than that these circumstances should be regarded as the incipient fulfillment of those prophecies of the fall of Antichrist, and sign of the promised brighter day soon coming?— Accordingly so in fact it occurred. Not only in the mind of Luther, but, as we shall presently see, on that of the whole reforming body, this idea now fixed itself, somewhat like the two earlier heaven revealed ideas spoken of in the preceding Chapter, with all the unction and influence of a voice from the Spirit of Jesus: alike in Germany, in Switzerland, and in England. But with this peculiarity and difference between the Reformers in those three countries respectively;— that, whereas Luther, and his fellow German Reformers, grounded their strong and hopeful impressions chiefly (though not wholly) on Daniels and St. Paul’s prophecies,[38] referred to in the Angel’s oath,— those in Switzerland and England soon passed from the prophecies alluded to, to that of the Apocalyptic Angel himself: seized on this very prophecy for application: and for the first time, upon grounds of evidence sound and tenable, concluded on the fact of progress having been made up to it, in the evolution of the great mundane drama, and on their own chronological place being already far advanced under the sixth Trumpet, and in near expectancy of the seventh Trumpet, of the Apocalyptic prophecy.— I next proceed to give illustrations.

1 . And first I exemplify from Luther and his German coadjutors.— Already then, about the close of 1520, and consequently just after his discovery of the true Antichrist, we find him in his answer to Ambrosius Catharinus thus hinting his hopes and anticipations, with special reference to the prophecy of St. Paul. “Sure that our Lord Jesus yet lives and reigns, I fear not thousands of Popes. Oh that God may at length visit us: and cause to shine forth the glory of Christ’s coming, wherewith to destroy that Man of Sin!”[39]— Not long afterwards, on his being summoned before the Emperor at Worms, when there were some that dissuaded his attending, from recollection of the treachery practiced on a similar occasion against Huss and Jerome, his reply was that their fears for him “could only arise from the suggestion of Satan: who was apprehending the approaching ruin of his kingdom.”[40] Still, on leaving the Diet, and after condemnation had been pronounced against him by the Emperor, he fell back for comfort on the same joyous expectation. “For this once,” he said, “the Jews [as on the crucifixion-day] may sing their Pean: but Easter will come for us: and then we shall sing Hallelujah!”[41] The next year again, writing to Staupitz, he enforced a solemn appeal against his abandonment of the Reformation, by reference to the sure and advancing fulfillment of Daniels prophecy in the events in progress. “My father, the abominations of the Pope, with his whole kingdom, must be destroyed: and the Lord does this without hand, by the word alone. The subject exceeds all human comprehension… I cherish the best hopes,”[42] In 1523 he thus in similar strain expressed his hopes. “The kingdom of Antichrist, according to the Prophet Daniel, must be broken without hand: that is, the Scriptures will be understood by and by: and every one will preach and speak against Papal tyranny, from the word of God, until this Man of Sin” (here his allusion is again to St. Paul’s prophecy) “is deserted by all his adherents, and dies of himself:”[43]— and again to the Duke of Savoy, on hearing of his favorable inclination to the Reformation: “Let there be no compulsion: …only let those who sincerely preach the gospel be protected, and known to be in no danger, this is the way in which Christ will destroy Antichrist by the breath of his mouth: and thus, as it is in Daniel, he shall be broken without hand: he whose coming is with lying wonders.”[44] Once more on hearing, still in the same year, of the condemnation and martyrdom of some of his followers in Flanders,— the first blood shed in that country in the cause of the Reformation,— he thus comforts himself “But the Judge is at the door, and will soon pronounce a very different sentence.”[45]

So in earlier days the Reformer Luther. Nor did the circumstance of the fanatics of the day adopting, and making unsound and unscriptural use of, this expectation of the near advent of Christ,[46] affect his belief in or declaration of it: for it seemed but Satan’s well known artifice, by abuse or by a counterfeit, to bring contempt on what was important and true. Rather, though it made him cautious and jealous afterwards of the unguarded use of prophecy,[47] yet he regarded it as an additional mark of the last day being at hand: Satan perceiving the fact, and putting forth his final fury.”[48]— Nor indeed did the idea ever leave him.[49] Still resting mainly and strongly on that prophecy in Dan. 11 and 12. Respecting the apostate King, the Pope, and his abomination making desolate,[50] as that which Christ himself (the Apocalyptic Covenant Angel of the vision before us) had most solemnly called our attention,[51] and which St. Paul had both copied after and illustrated,[52] he gathered, as life advanced, that still some few things remained to be fulfilled ere the glorious consummation — some further consumption and wasting of the Popedom through the gospel word:[53] or perhaps some temporary apostasy of the Protestant body, and consequent brief revival of the Papal power:[54] perhaps too some confederation of Pope and Turk against Christ’s Protestant faithful ones:[55]— else the world’s wickedness marked it as even then fully ripe.[56] Thus, though God’s mystery of the prophetic numbers, the time, times, and half a time, baffled him by its obscurity, and at one time, in his conjectures about the destined epoch of the consummation, he fancied that it might be less than 20 years off,[57] at another deprecated the extension of the interval to 50 years[58] and at others mentioned 200, or 300, as the furthest limit that entered his imagination,[59] yet the prevalent idea of its being near at hand remained with him even to his dying hour,[60] and was a perpetual topic of consolation, encouragement, and hope.

Very similar were the views of the other great German Reformer, Melancthon. Like Luther he intently fixed his mind on Daniel’s prophecies of Antichrist, and on St. Paul’s subsequent prophecy (the latter almost a comment on Daniel’s), as that which was Christ’s own positive direction and charge.[61] Like Luther he undoubtedly explained the willful or apostate King of Dan. 11, in respect of both his abomination making desolate, his pride, tyranny, and fated end[62] (not to add the little horn of Dan. 8 also),[63] to mean the Popes and Popedom. Like Luther he judged that fated end to be near and imminent. On the mystically expressed periods that fixed the chronology of that ending, he could but indeed conjecture. But, in commenting on the passage that contains the oath involving them of the man that stood clothed in linen upon the waters of the river, after strongly insisting on the predicted fact of there rising up no fifth earthly universal empire, after the Roman in its last form under the little horn, but only the kingdom of Christ and his saints, he thus adverts to that same chronological argument, by way of corroboration, that had been used long before him, as we have seen, by the early Christians: I mean the argument from the seven days of creation.[64] “The words of the prophet Elias should be marked by every one, and inscribed upon our walls, and on the entrances of our houses. Six thousand years shall this world stand, and after that be destroyed: 2000 years without the law: 2000 years under the law of Moses: 2000 years under the Messiah: and, if any of these years are not fulfilled, they will be shortened (a shortening intimated by Christ also)[65] on account of our sins.” Dr. Cox, after quoting the above from Melancthon’s Commentary, gives the following manuscript addition that he had found in Melancthon’s hand, in Luther’s own copy of the German Bible: “Written AD. 1557, and from the Creation of the World 5519: from which number we may be sure that this aged world is not far from its end.”[66]—With this calculation he conceived that Daniel’s numbers 1260 days and 1335 days might, on the year-day system, be made well to coincide.[67] At any rate he felt persuaded, alike from Daniel and St. Paul, that the reformation and protest against the Papal Antichrist, just accomplished through the light of the gospel, was the consumption and conviction of that enemy, predicted as to occur just before his final destruction at Christ’s coming.[68] And upon this prophecy and prospect it became Christians, he thought, much and earnestly to dwell, like for consolation, direction, and warning, till that glorious day should itself burst upon them.[69]

2 . I turn to the Swiss Reformers contemporary with Luther and Melancthon: and first take Leo Judah as a specimen. In his comment on the Apocalypse, an English translation of which bears date 1552, and which must consequently have been written and printed in the original some time previously, I find a very interesting comment on the two concluding verses of Rev. 9: applying the charges therein of idolatry, sorceries, fornication, murders, &c., to Rome’s anti-christian Church of his day, just as I have done: and chapter 10 also generally, as I have done, to the blessed Reformation. And then he thus further applies to his own time the Angel’s oath. “Christ taken an oath, and swear by God his heavenly Father, even with great fervency and holiness, that the time of his glorious last coming to judge all the world, both quick and dead, is now already nigh and at hand: and that when the victory that was prophesied to be fulfilled of Antichrist (which victory the seventh angel must blow forth according to his office), were once past, then should altogether be fulfilled what all prophets did ever prophesy of the kingdom of Messiah the Savior: which is the highest mystery.”

Again, Bullinger (about the year 1556)[70] similarly dwells on this same prophecy: advancing yet a step further in explaining the sixth Trumpet (as Luther’s comment nearly does) of “Mahometrie and wo of the Saracens and Turks:”— then charges the daemonolatry noted in Rev. 9:20 on the Papists of his day:— then explains the Angel’s descent to the Reformation:— and, on Christ’s oath in the passage before us, to the effect that there was but one Trumpet remaining, he adds: “Therefore let us lift up our heads, because our redemption draw nigh.”[71]

3 . Let us now cross the ocean-strait, and mark how in Britain also, that isle of the sea where the Angel was represented as planting his right foot, there was awakened the same joyous persuasion and hope.—My quotations in evidence shall be first from Bishop Latimer. In his third sermon on the Lord’s Prayer he thus expresses himself. “Let us cry to God day and night, Most merciful Father, let thy kingdom come! St. Paul saith, the Lord will not come till the swerving from the faith comes (2 Thess. 2:3); which thing is already done and past. Antichrist is known throughout all the world. Wherefore the day is not far off.”— Then, reverting to the consideration of the age of the world, the same as Melancthon, Osiander, and others: “The world was ordained to endure, as all learned men affirm …6000 years. Now of that number there be past 5552 years, so that there is no more left but 448 years. Furthermore those days shall be shortened for the elect’s sake. Therefore all those excellent and learned men, whom without doubt God hath sent into the world in these latter days to give the world warning,” (mark here Latimer’s testimony to the universality of the impression,) “do gather out of Scripture that the last day cannot be far off.”— Yet again, in a sermon on the second Sunday in Advent, after noticing the expected shortening of the days, he thus strongly expresses the same opinion on the nearness of the Second Advent: “so that peradventure it may come in my days, old as I am, or in my children days.” [72]

For another example I turn to Bale, afterwards Bishop of Ossory in the sister island: and, I find him, in that valuable and interesting work entitled The Image of both Churches, published in 1545, and which includes in it an Apocalyptic commentary, in sundry points applying this part of the Apocalyptic prophecy to his own times. On Rev. 10:7, the verse before us, he explains the time then current as the sixth age of the church, and speaks of the seventh Trumpet only as to come: as also on Rev. 11:15, thus drawing his line between the fulfilled and unfulfilled “Thus have we here what is done already, and what is yet to come under this sixth trumpet blowing, where under we are now: which all belongs to the second two.” Again on Rev. 20:3, after recounting a list of Christian confessors, including Luther, Ecolampadius, Zuingle, Melancthon, Bucer, Bullinger, &c., by whom Antichrist’s tyranny had been disclosed, he says: “I doubt not but within few days the mightie breath of Christ’s mouth, which is his living gospel, shall utterly destroy him.”

Further respecting this “oath that all shall be finished in the seventh age of the Church,” he adds, “Necessary it is that both good and bad know it: the faithful to be ascertained that their final redemption is at hand, to their consolation: the unfaithful to have knowledge that their judgment is not fare off, that they may repent and be saved.”[73]— And again elsewhere: “This (the Beast’s) will be the rule of this present age. No doubt of it. Unto kings hath not God given to subdue these Beast. This is reserved to the victory of his living word. Only shall the breath of his mouth destroy them. Let the faithful believer, considering the mischief of this time, appoint himself to persecution, loss of goods, exile, prison, sorrow, death, for the truth sake: thinking that his portion is in the land of the living. For now are the perilous days under the voice of the sixth trumpet: whereas under the seventh the carnal church shall be rejected, Antichrist overthrown, and the right Israel, tokened with faith, peaceably restored into the possession of God.”

I add but one more example, that of the martyrologist John Foxe. In his Eicasmi in Apocalypsin, published in 1587, he confidently explains the 6^th Trumpet woe to be that of the Turks: adding that, after the Protestant restoration of gospel preaching, figured in Rev. 10, the 7^th Trumpet sounding could not be far off. Then he dwells on this passage on which we are commenting thus: “O what an adjuration! Of the truth and certainty of which we can no more doubt, than we can of the existence of God Himself.”[74] And, after arguing against the skepticism of ungodly men, on the subject of the world’s ending, he urges from the Angel’s oath the certainty of that end coming:[75] and certainty too, as appeared from the Angel’s prophetic caution, (though the exact time was not to be known,) that it could not be very far off from the time then present. “Which being so, let both all pious Christians, and all the multitude of the ungodly, diligently listen to, and observe, what the Angel says and swears. For in the whole of Scripture, I think, there is no passage more clear, none more suited to our times: none more calculated to strengthen the faith, and minister consolation to the pious: and, on the other hand, to alarm the minds, and break the attacks of the ungodly.”[76]

Thus have I shown, as I proposed, that from immediately after the time of Luther and Zuingle’s first heaven made discovery, of the Antichrist of prophecy being none other than the Roman Popes, there was also impressed on them, with all the force and vividness of a heavenly communication, the conviction of the fated time being near at hand, though not indeed yet come, of Antichrist’s final foredoomed destruction, and therewith also of Christ’s kingdom coming, and God’s great prophetic mystery ending: just agreeably in respect of time, as well as of subject matter, with the Angel’s oath heard at this epoch in the Apocalyptic drama, by the representative man St. John:— further, that the impression connected itself, in the case of Luther and his brother German reformers, chiefly, though by no means only, with that prophetic of Daniel that was alluded to so strikingly by the Apocalyptic Angel: with the Angels own oath and prophecy, in the case of the Reformers in Switzerland and England (a view this involving the great prophetic discovery of their being then under the sixth Trumpet in the evolution of the Apocalyptic drama, and the seventh only having to blow in order to the consummation):— finally, that the impression was no mere barren piece of prophetic chronological information imparted to the Reformers, but one most influential and practical: in fact precisely that which was best suited to animate them for the great work that they had before them, both in respect of doing and of suffering, in all their subsequent conflicts as the Lord’s witnesses, with Antichrist, the world, and Satan.— Is it possible that we can help seeing and admiring God’s goodness and wisdom in the matter?

In conclusion, let me not pass from this subject without suggesting to the reader, that as the view thus communicated, considered as a prophetic chronological discovery, was all but unprecedented[77] (it being then more distinctly than ever before revealed to Christians whereabouts they were, in God’s grand prophetic calendar of the world’s history), so the idea, like those two other heaven revealed ideas about Christ and Antichrist that preceded it, established itself permanently in the mind of Protestant Christendom. Pareus, Mede, Vitringa,[78] and almost all the host of other principal expositors that followed on the continent and in England, kept up the idea as certain, throughout the 17^th century, that the Reformation had been accomplished under the sixth Trumpet, and that the seventh only afterwards yet remained to sound. Indeed it is from this, as from a point of light, that the chief subsequent Protestant interpreters have ever since gradually, though painfully and uninterruptedly, made advances towards the solution of other parts of the Apocalyptic prophecy: even up to the end of the last century, and time now present.

But in this I anticipate, and must return back to the history and time of Leo X and of Luther, whence I started. After what has been said in illustration of it, the Apocalyptic passage itself, I think, needs but to be repeated, in order in the best way to bring back our thoughts to that crisis when first it began to have fulfillment in the impression stamped as from heaven upon the minds of the early German Reformers, with respect to the chronology of the Papal Antichrist’s destined time of empire:— an impression about it as being then not at its commencement, not about its middle epoch (the latter especially a view that might have been quite supposable by them), but already far advanced towards its ending:— and so to prepare us for the continuation, as in the next Chapter, of the history of Luther and the Reformation. “And the Angel, which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the land, lifted up his hand to heaven: and swear by him that lives for ever and ever, who created the heaven and the things that therein are, and the earth and the things that therein are, and the sea and the things that are therein, that time shall not further be prolonged: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel (at what time he may be destined to sound), then the mystery of God shall be ended; according to the glad tidings that He hath declared to his servants the prophets.”

[1]ότι χρονος ουκ ετι εσται. no further be prolonged.

[2]όταν μελλη σαλπιζειν what time he may have to sould.

[3]infra.

[4]ώς εμηγγελισε τους έαυτου δουλους τους προφητας. according to the glad tidings that He hath declared.

[5]The chief difference of the critical text from the received is in adding την δεξιαν in verse 5: and reading in verse 6, on ότι χροϝος ουκ ετι εσται, for ουκ εσται ετι, and in verse 7 και ετελεσθη for και τελεσθη.

[6]The word most nearly used in this sense is αιων. So Matt. xiii. 39, 40, 49, εντη συντελεια του αιωνος, and elsewhere: where however it only notes the duration of the present dispensation: the terminating point of the αιων being in Christ’s manifested reign, and the then regeneration of all things.

[7]The absence of the definite article before χρονος  “did not seem to me to be a sufficient objection to this, because of the grammatical rule that where the copula, or verb connecting the subject and the predicate, is the verb substantive, there the article is omitted. See Middleton on the Greek Article i. 3. 3. p. 60. So Acts xxiii. 5, “I knew not ότι εστιν αρχιερευς  ” rightly rendered, he says, ” Ananias is the high priest.” To which might be added two or three other examples, more exactly parallel with the clause under discussion, from their involving nouns of time: e. g. John V. 9, ην δε σαββατον , ” it was the Sabbath: ” whereas usually, with other verbs σαββατον in the same sense has the definite article attached: again John xix. 14:ην δε παρασκευη τοι πασχα” it was the preparation of the Passover:” and Mark xi. 13:ου γαρ ην καιρος συκων “it was not the time of fig- gathering.” Yet once more we read in John v. 1,Μετα ταυτα ην εορτη των Ιουδαιων  which, as Middleton argues, though the article prefix is wanting, may yet be the Jewish Passover, or Feast κατ´ εξοχην , on the same Principal.

[8]This third version is that of Messrs. Birks and Bickersteth. Now, no doubt, the word χρονος is sometimes used for a year. *(So, for example, Thucydides i. 30;Του τε χρονου του πλειστου μετα την ναυμαχιαν απεκρατουν της θαλασσης rendered by Duker, ” maxima ejus aiini parte.” Also Diodorus Sic. `Η ολυμπιας πληρουται κατα τετταρας χρονους. And so Phavorinus in his Lexicon;Χρονος καλειται ή του ήλιου κινησις απυ του αυτου εις το αυτυ και ενιαυτος και ετος So too Lennep, Etymolog. and Suicer on the word) But it is never used to express the prophetic mystical period time, times, and half a time, either in the Septuagint translation of Daniel, (a prophet and prophecy here evidently referred to,) or in the Apocalypse: in these cases the word used being always and distinctively καιρος . Mr. Birks does not appear to me to have advanced a step towards removing the gravity of this objection. (See his Prophetic Elements, pp. 385—388.)

[9]So Vitringa, Heinrichs, Tregelles, Wordsworth.

[10]So Demosthenes,Του τε χρονου του πλειστου μετα την ναυμαχιαν επεκρατουν της θαλασσης, moram negotiis exhibere. Compare Daniel ii. 16:Ηξιωσε τον βασιλεα ότι χρονον δψ αυτψ also Acts XV. 33,ποιησαντες χπονον, and Apoc. ii. 21:Εδωκα αυτγ χρονον.

[11]So Matt. xi. 14, Ηλιας ό μελλων ερχεσθαι “Elias which was for to come;” Acts xxiv. 15, αναστασιν μελλειν εσεσθαι νεκρων , “that there should be a resurrection: ” Apoc. xvii. 8, μελλει αναβαινειν. Vitringa, to much the same effect, translates, ” Quando ille clanget: ” and Dr. Wordsworth too, similarly, “When he shall sound.”

[12]Εν ταις ήμεραις της φωνης του έβδομου αγγελου όταν νελλη σαλπζειν. Compare the Septuagint Version of Jer. xxix. 10; ´Οταν μελλη πληρουσθαι Βαβυλων εβδομηκοντα ετη επισκεψομαι ύμας where it is evident, alike from the Hebrew original, and from the necessary sense of the passage, that the time designated of God’s visitation of captive Judah is that following on, not that just preceding, the completion of the seventy years.

[13]It is to be observed that there is another reading of this clause, και τελεσθη, in the aorist subjunctive. If this be adopted, as it has been by Mill, there will be nothing remarkable in the construction: the όταν governing the τελεσθη, as well as the μελλη: and the point of affirmation,—as inferred from the preceding assertion, “The time shall not yet be,”—being its contrary, ” But the time shall he whensoever the seventh angel may sound, and the mystery of God shall have been finished.” The reading however of the best authority, and which is adopted by Griesbach, Scholz, Heinrichs, Tregelles, is that given above, και ετελεσθη in the aorist indicative. Receiving this, the following is Bishop Middleton’ s satisfactory suggestion for its solution. He explains it as a Hebraism: the Hebrew idiom giving a future signification to a praeterite following on a future, which has the Van conversion to connect them. He illustrates from Judges iv. 8, ” If thou wilt go with me, then will I go: “—literally ” and I went.” So that the construction of this passage will be this: ” In the days of the seventh angel, at what time he may have to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished;” the και ετελεσθη being by Bishop Middleton’s rule tantamount to τελεσθησεται.—-In the Critici Sacri the same explanation is given from Piscator. And so too Vitringa.

[14]“Revelation teaches us that the next state of things, after the present, is appointed  for the execution of God’s [final and perfect] justice: that it shall then be no longer delayed, but the mystery of God, the great mystery of his suffering vice and confusion to prevail, shall then be finished: and he will take to himself his great power, and reign, by rendering τρ every man according to his works,” Butler, Analogy, Part i. ch. 2, Note n.

[15]The same word ηυστηριον is used in Dan. ii. 18 of the mystery of Nebuchadnezzar dream and symbolic image: also ib. 28 of all such prophetic mysteries generally.

[16]Compare Dan. xii. 4, 9.

[17]Dan. xii. 7.

[18]So Gen. xiv. 22: “And Abram said…I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take anything,” &c.

[19]So in the passage from Dan. xii. 7, quoted in my next page: and again in Deut. xxxii. 40: ” For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.”

[20]Hebr. vi. 18.

[21]Rather fulfilled or accomplished.

[22]On his first appearance to Daniel, he is thus described. ” As I was by the side of the great river Hiddekel, I lifted up mine eyes, and looked. And behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Topaz! His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words as the voice of a multitude.” Dan. x. 4—6. Comparing this with the description of Christ in the 1st of the Apocalypse, the correspondence seems such as almost necessarily to involve identity. Of which identity all that follows is confirmatory.

[23]So as the Euphrates was symbolic of Assyria, or Babylon. Is. viii. 7: Jer. xiii. 4.

[24]In Daniel this is described as characterized by the intervention of Michael (whether Christ, or a created Angel) for his people: and the waking up of the saints from the dust of the earth, to take tlie kingdom with Christ, and to shine therein even as the sun in the firmament. With which compare what is said in tlie heavenly song at the blast of the seventh Trumpet, Apoc. xi. 15, 18; “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord….the time is come to give reward to thy servants, &c.”—We shall hereafter (viz. in Part VI.) have to enter fully on this subject.

[25]Dan. X. 14.

[26]Dan. xii. 7

[27]Dan. xii. 11. In the 6th and last Part of my Work this whole concluding Prophecy of Daniel will come under examination. On the verse referred to I shall have to state that the right translation is, “and an abomination, &c.”

[28]See Vol. i. 227—232.

[29]Sec Vol. i. p. 387, &c.

[30]See my Vol. i. p. 266.

[31]See pp. 57, 71, 81 supra.

[32]Not however without a rather curious intimation by one of the Lateran preachers, to the effect of the 1st Apocalyptic woe having fallen on Jerusalem, the 2nd on Constantinople, in its recent overthrow by the Turks: and an alarm having existed, some little time ‘previous, lest the 3rd and last should fall, by the agency of the same Turks under their Sultan Mahomet, on Italy. Hard. ix. 1792.—See my notice of Mahomet’s Proclamation at the time, pp. 31, 32, supra.

[33]See p. 84 supra.

[34]St. Paul’s words (2 Thess. ii. 4), ” Him that oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God, and is worshiped,” are generally, and I think justly, regarded by expositors as adopted from Daniel xi. 36. See my Comment, on Dan. xi. in my Vol. iv.

[35]Dan. xii. 11.

[36]2 Thess. ii. 3.

[37]Dan. ii. 34, 2 Thess. ii.8.

[38]At the time of publishing his first translation of the N. T. Sept. 21, 1522, Luther  had doubts about the genuineness of the Apocalypse: doubts excited in part by the hesitation of certain of the ancients to receive it, (the same that I have spoken of in my Preliminary Essay,) in part by the obscurity of the prophecy, in part perhaps from its abuse by fanatics like Storck and Munzer (Merle iii. 61): and so expressed himself in the Preface to that Book in his first edition of the German Testament. It seems, however, that down to the spring of 1521, or time of his going to Worms, this doubt had not cross his mind: for till then he argued from it, as well as from Daniel and Paul, against the Popes as Antichrist: (Wadd. i. 383, 385:) also that in 1528 he had nearly dismissed it. Hence in the Preface to his second edition of the German Bible, the opinion expressed in his former Preface was greatly modified: and after wards he received and referred to the Apocalypse as an inspired though obscure prophecy. See the sketch of Luther’s prophetic views in my History of Apocalyptic Interpretation, Vol. iv.

[39]Merle D’Aub. ii. 166: “Ostendat iUum diem adventus glorise Filii sui, quo destruatur iniquus iste.” Also Waddington Ref. i. 437; who gives the date Apr. 1. 1521: while Merle seems to date the letter in 1520.

[40]Milner, 750. Luther arrived at Worms Apr. 16, 1521: left it Apr. 26.

[41]Merle D’Aub. ii. 275.—It appears from his Table Talk, chap. ivii, that he had, in later life at least, and consequently perhaps earlier, an impression that Christ’s second coming would be at Easter. ” About the time of Easter, Pharaoh was destroyed in the Red Sea, and Israel led out of Egypt: about the same time the world was created, Christ rose again, and the world is renewed. Even so, I am of opinion, the last day shall come about Easter, when the year is at its finest and fairest.” (ii. 265.)

[42]Milner, 692.

[43]Milner, 796.

[44]lb. 820

[45]lb. 816.

[46]Such was the case in 1522 with the Anabaptist under Munzer.—Again in 1528 the Duke George wrote thus of the state of things in Thuringia: ” that the common people there were expecting their real Lord and Master to appear shortly, in defense of his own word and gospel…and everywhere it was the cry of these enthusiastic visionaries, No tribute! All things in common! No tithes! No Magistrates! Christ’s kingdom is at hand.”—Milner, 939: who observes, however, that probably among this multitude there were not a few sincerely pious, though unlearned and simple, led away by the more artful and fanatic.

[47]Seckendorf mentions (Lib. ii. p. 113) that in 1528 Luther blamed those who (incompetent as they evidently were to the task) expounded the Apocalypse in public lectures. He had said the same about expositions of Zechariah.

[48]“I have a new species of fanatics from Antwerp, who assert that the Holy Spirit is nothing more than man’s natural reason and misunderstanding. How does Satan rage everywhere against the word! This I reckon by no means the slightest mark of the approaching end, viz. that Satan perceives that the day is at hand, and pours forth his final fury.” (Milner, 896.) This was in 1525. Of course his remarks embraced other outbreaks of fanaticism, such as that previously under Munzer.

[49]“This light of the gospel,” said he somewhat later, ” now in our time, is a certain sign of the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour: like the morning redness . . before the everlasting day.” Table Talk i. 297.

[50]On this Papal application of Daniel see my comment on Dan. xi, xii. Vol. iv.

[51]“Daniel was an exceeding high and excelling prophet,…touching whom Christ said ‘Whoso readeth, let him mark!’.. Read Dan. xi. throughout.” Table Talk, chap, xxiii. on Antichrist. And again: ” Truly the Pope’s kingdom is… an abomination of desolation, standing in the holy place: as Christ saith, ‘ Whoso reads let him understand.’ ” Ibid. (Vol. ii. pp. 2, 4.)

[52]“St. Paul read Daniel thoroughly, and use also his words where he saith, ‘ And he will exalt himself above all that is called god, or is worshiped.'” lb. chap. xxii. (Vol. i. p. 421.)

[53]“The Pope is the last blaze in the lamp, which will go out, and ere long he extinguished…he that lightens and thunders with sword and bull. . . But the Spirit of God’s mouth hath seized on him.”—”I hope he hath done his worst; and though he fall not altogether, yet he shall increase no more, but rather decrease.” lb. chap, xxiii. (Vol. ii. pp. 4, 5.)

[54]“Seeing this abomination (of the Papacy) is now showed in God’s word, and found out by experience through our wicked lives, such thoughts do arise in me as willingly I would not have: viz. that this acknowledgment of the Word will fall again, and the bright shining light of the Gospel be extinguished…For, the gospel saith, Christ will come at midnight, when neither day nor light will appear.” lb. ch. xxiii. (ii. 15.)—Again: “I am not so much afraid of the Pope and tyrants, as of our own ungratefulness and contemning of God’s word. The same, I fear, will help the Pope again into the saddle. When that comes to pass, I hope the day of judgment will soon follow.” lb. ch. iv. (Vol. i. p. 140.)—Elsewhere he predicted a defection in the Protestant body from the right faith after the death of himself and Melancthon: somewhat as in Israel, after the death of the elders that over lived Joshua. So in Aurifaber’s Preface, appended to the Table Talk, p. 13.

[55]“It is now time to watch: for we are the mark they shoot at. Our adversaries intend to make a confederacy with the Turk…for Antichrist will war, and get the victory against the saints of God, as Daniel saith.” lb. ch. xv. on Prayer, (i. 361.) Elsewhere he intimates an idea that the Turk might perhaps come to Rome, in this confederation, and there pitch the tabernacles of his palace on the (professedly) Holy Mount, (ii. 339.)

[56]“When people live securely without the fear of God, and. blaspheme Christ, and persecute his word, as now the Papists, &c. do, and with great rage banish and murder godly people, as if heretics, then surely the end is not very far off. As it went with the Jews when they blasphemed Christ, &c.: when the Lord had . . gathered the wheat into his garner, then he set the chaff on fire.” lb. ch. vii. on Christ,  (i. 225.)—Again: “The worlds grown very stubborn and headstrong since the revealing of the word of the gospel. It begins to crack sorely: and I hope will soon break, and fall on a heap, through the coming of the day of judgment: for the appearing of which we wait with yearning and sighs of heart…Let us pray. Thy kingdom come!” lb. ch. iv. (i. 139.) Similarly in 1543 he wrote thus. “The world is, as it ever has been, the world; and desires to know nothing of Christ. Let it go its own way. They continue to rage and grow worse from day to day: which indeed is a solace to the weary soul, as it shows that the glorious day of the Lord is at hand. For the unspeakable contempt of the word, and unutterable lamentations of godly men, show that the world is given up to its own ways: and the day of its destruction, and of our salvation, should be hastened. Amen! so be it!’

[57]After saying, ” I cannot define this prophecy, a the, times, and half a time,” he throws out the idea (a fanciful one), that possible its secondary application to Antichrist (the primary being to Antiochus Epiphanes) might be on the scale of a time equaling the thirty years of our Lord’s life: in which case 3½ times would equal 105 years: and, reckoned from the Turks’ taking of Constantinople, (the Turks being the Eastern Antichrist,) end at A.D. 1558. “God knows.” lb. ch. xxiii. (ii. 3, 343.)—Another idea he threw out was that perhaps the Apocalyptic number of the Beast 666 might mean the number of years of established Papal power: which, measured from the time of Charlemagne, would come nearly down to the Reformation, (ii. 12.)

[58]Near the time of his death he said: “God forbid the world should last 50 years longer. Let him cut matters short with his last judgment.” Table Talk, Michelet ii. 216. This was said in grief at the unfaithfulness of many Protestants.

[59]“The wickedness of mankind is…risen to that height, that I dare presume to say the world cannot continue many hundred years longer.” lb. ch. ix. on Sins. (i. 253.) Again (ii. 35): “In about 200 years (or, i. 90, ” in less than 200 years,”) the power of their damnable religion will be broken.” And (i. 11); “I persuade myself verily that the day of judgment will not be absent full 300 years more . . God will not, cannot suffer this wicked world much longer.”—Elsewhere in the Table Talk, he expresses his impression of their having come down to the vision of Christ proceeding forth on the White Horse (Apoc. xix.) in the Apocalyptic Drama, (ii. 264.)

[60]Seckendorf, Lib. iii. p. 640: ” Deus, Pater coelestis,..postquam mihi, secundum  magnam misericordiam tuam,…apostasiam, eoecitatem, et tenebras Papse, ante diem tuum extremum, qui non proeul abest, sed imminet, et lucem Evangelicam qua? Nun per orbem effulsit secuturus est, revelasti,” &c. These were words in his prayer the evening before his death. They illustrate the subject of the preceding chapter, as well as of this. From Junckner’s Vita Lutheri Kummis Illustrata, I add the following further illustrations. 1. At p. 24 there occurs a medal with Luther’s bust on the obverse, and the legend, Tertius Eiias: on the converse an Angel flying with the everlasting gospel in his hand, and the legend, Cecidit Cecidit Babylon. 2. At p. 234 a German medal of 1546 is given, representing Christ as come down to judgment, and the dead rising, with the legend, ” Watch, for ye know not at what hour the Lord cometh.” It was struck just after Luther’s death: and shows, says Junckner, the then general apprehension among Protestants of the judgment-day being at hand.

[61]In the general Preface to his Comment on Daniel, he quotes the passage, “Let him that reads, &c.understand.

[62]In his comment on Dan. xi. he expounds the verses respecting the abomination of desolation primarily of Antiochus Epiphanes, but secondarily and chiefly of Antichrist.

[63]The little horn in Dan. viii. he judged to be the Papacy, that in Dan. vii. to be ilahomedanism: an order which I conceive should be inverted.

[64]See Vol. i. pp. 231, 396.

[65]“Et dictum Elise, et Christi dicta, significant decurtandiun esse hoc tempus, sicut et curriculum ad diluvium decurtabatur, ut citius abrumpantur flagitia.”

[66]See his Life of Melancthon.

[67]While primarily applicable to the history of Antiochus Epiphanes and the Maccabees, he adds: ” Haud dubie aliquid siguificat etiam de tine hujus mundi:—acfacUis est accommodatio si dies in annos conuHutaveris.” His suggestion is that the 1290 and 1335 years, added together, might mark the interval between Daniel and the consummation: a computation well agreeing with that from Elias’ tradition:—the division of the whole period into two having this meaning, that it would be some 1290 years from Daniel to the early developniuut, and “initia postremi regni impii, Mahometici et hypocritici; ” i. e. of Mahommedisui in the East, and Popery in theWest.

[68]On Dan. ii. he explains the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, which was to smite the image and become a great mountain and fill the whole earth , to mean Christ whose kingdom was to formed not by human counsel; it being a spiritual kingdom , formed through the word. Then he adds how Gods word primum arguet pradication postea evertet, et afficiet hostes aeternis poenis- Again on Dan. Vii ,, and the expression about the little horn being broken without hand he observes: Significant ante extremum judicium venturam renovationem evangelic in qua auctoritas PonTificum labefactabitur sine armis; hoc est docendo reprehendentur errores Pontificii luce evangelii Sicut et Dan xi 33 Docti in populo docebunt multos et ruent in gladio et ad Thessal ii Quem destruet Dominus spiritu oris sui nam quaedam repreheniso errorum Antichrist praecedet exetrmum judicium sieut Aurora solem praecedit. Porro satis perspiceu apparet divinitus patefactam -And so again on Dan xi ad fin. I may observe in passing he too thought, like Luther, that the Turk might fulfill the prophecy of the King of the North pitching his place in the holy mountain between the seas; but this by attacking the Protestant church: and that then Michael would stand up for them; i.e. Christ come to judgment.

[69]See both the preface to his comment on Daniel, and his conclusion of the comment. This comment was written AD 1542 and published at the beginning of 1543. In the Augsburg Confession the expression ‘senescente mundo’which occurs in the article De conjugio shows the impression to have been generally prevalent among the German Reformers. It was drawn up by Melancthon. See the sylloge confessionum p 137. Osiander another of the German Reformers in a work DeUltimis Temporibus et Fine Mundi,; published at Nuremberg in the year 1544 argues like Melancthon from the tradition of Elias; observing that not all the sixth day was employed in creation but it;s evening partly taken into the Sabbath so it might be expected that all the sixth millennium would not pass before the sabbatism; but the Sabbath begin ere it had all run out-He also rather curiously notices Phocas Decre, AD 606 as constituting a notable Papal commencing epoch from which AD 1500 Christ;s doctrine has been hid. The epoch is one that has been noted as remarkable by Luther also; Table Talk ch xxiv on the Turks; Vol ii p 343 and has been subsequently made use of by many eminent Apocalyptic expositors.

[70]The date Jan. 1557 is given in his Preface

[71]I might add Ecolampadius to the list; judging from Joye’s Exposition of Daniel, gathered out of Melancthon, (Ecolampadius, Pellicane, and Draconite: a book published  early in Elizabeth’s reign: and, like the others cited, very interesting.

[72]P. 365.—And as Latimer so his brother Ridley. ” The world without doubt (this I do believe, and therefore say it) draws towards an end.” (Ridley’s Lament, p. 75.) Let me add from King Edward’s Catechism (published AD. 1553) the following allusion, in very similar views and spirit, to the verse before us. ” The end of the world Holy Scripture calls the fulfilling of the kingdom and mystery of Christ, and the renewing of all things. For saith St. Peter, We look for a new heaven and new earth,” S:c. Sop. 510: Parker Ed.—Again at p. 520 the prophecies and world’s position under them are thus alluded to. ” We see not yet all things in subjection to Christ: we see not the stone hewed off from the mountain without work of man, which all-to bruised and brought to ought the image which Daniel describes: that Christ, the only rock, may obtain and possess the dominion of the whole world granted him of his Father. Antichrist is not yet slain. For this cause do we long for, and pray, that it may at length come to pass, and be fulfilled, that Christ may reign with his saints, according to God’s promises: that He may live and be Lord in the world, according to the decrees of the Holy Gospel…God grant his kingdom may come, and that speedily.” Our Anglican Reformers, and’ those too of the continental churches, had no notion of any such spiritual millennium intervening before Christ’s coming as Whitby after wards advocated, and which has since his time been so much received.

[73]He here thus refers to, and gives his view of, the parallel passage in Daniel. “Not unlike is this to the other in Daniel, of time, times, and half a time. Whereof the time was from him (Daniel) to Christ; the times the ages from Christ to the seventh seal opening, or seventh trumpet blowing: the half-time from thenceforth: wherein the days shall be shortened for the chosen’s sake…When that time shall begin we know not, all God shall open it by his seventh Angel. Of the thing we are certain and sure.” p. 147. 1st Ed.

[74]“quale quantumque juramenti sacramentum! Ciijus de fide et fii’mitate inevitabili tarn certo nobis constare possit, quam certum sit et indubitatum Deunivivere” p. 103. (Ed. 1587.)

[75]On Apoc. xi. 16 he notes, as among the results of the seventh Trumpet’s sounding, Antichrist’s being cast into the barathrum of perdition, p. 196.

[76]P. 105. See somewhat more on this subject in 5 of my Sketch of the History of Apocalyptic Interpretation, given in the Appendix to my 4th Volume.

[77]My qualifying words “all but,” have reference to the case of the Christians’ partial understanding on the matter under Pagan Rome’s persecution, alluded to early in this Chapter, and of which I spoke long since as also prefigured, Vol. i. pp. 227 — 233. Alike in this case of the Christians of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, and in that of the Reformers described in my present Chapter, we have to admire both the truth and the practical value of that rule of Christ’s revelations to his people, which had been long before announced to the twelve disciples: “It is not for you to know the times and the seasons, &c.” Had these been revealed to them, they would have known that the establishment of Christ’s kingdom was even yet in their respective times at a distance, comparatively speaking: and so their joyous hopes and encouragements been much lessened.

[78]See the conclusion of § 5, and the earlier part of § 6, in my sketch of the history of Apocalyptic Interpretation, in the Appendix to Vol. iv.