2. That the time, times, and dividing of a time, which is to be the
limit of its power, stands in prophetic figure for 1260 years.
If this be correct it gives some idea as to the duration of the second
division of the last kingdom, for it shows that it must last at least
1260 years. Still more, as the Papacy is to be destroyed at the approach
of the Ancient of Days, if we could only ascertain the date of its
commencement we might calculate the date of the Advent. But here is the
difficulty, for who can say when a horn begins to grow? and who can
determine the date of the first swelling of Papal pride? It is
impossible to make any such calculation, and I believe it would be wrong
to attempt it. But we may still be led by the great outline to hope for
the approach of that most blessed day. The horn has been growing a long
time, and it is impossible to read European history without believing
that the 1260 years cannot be very far from its close. Everything
therefore looks like an approaching end. We have long since reached the
fourth kingdom; long since reached its second, or divided period; and,
though we cannot say when it took place, we have long since seen the
commencement of the 1260 years of the little horn. Surely then it is
high time that we be looking out for the coming of the Lord, high time
that we be watching with our loins girt and our lamps burning, and we
ourselves as those that wait for their Lord.
With these facts before us, I may fairly ask any thinking person, whether
there is not good ground for the hope that the coming of the Lord draweth
nigh? You observe I have not dwelt on minute and isolated points. I
have taken the great outline of the world’s history, and compared it with
the great outline of the word of prophecy. I see that the two exactly
correspond. I thank God from the bottom of my heart for the evidence
given of the inspiration of Scripture, for no such prophecy could have
had its origin with man; and, while I thank God for such a confirmation
of the faith, I cannot resist the conclusion that we have nearly reached
the end of the series, that we are living in the last part of the last
period of the last kingdom, and that the next great event of this
prophecy is nothing else than the sitting of the Ancient of Days, the
glorious kingdom of the Son of Man.
But do we all desire it? Are we all looking out with loving and longing
hearts for the appearance of our beloved Redeemer? I fear that many
would be very far from glad if they thought it would come to-morrow.
Their own consciences tell them they are not ready, and in such a case
how can they desire it? You might say to them, as in the words of the
prophet, ‘To what end is the day of the Lord to you? the day of the Lord
is darkness and not light.’ I believe it to be impossible for any man
really to desire the coming of Christ as his king until in his own soul
he is personally acquainted with Him as his sin-offering or atonement.
Thus I believe that you will find very few really desire the Advent who
have not practically and experimentally drunk in the great doctrine of
justification by faith. If you are reconciled through the precious blood
of Christ; if you are justified in the righteousness of Christ; if you
are preserved and sanctified by the loving Spirit of Christ, then of
course you will be ready to say, ‘Even so, come, Lord Jesus; come
quickly.’ But if you are still living for the world, content with the
world’s gifts and the world’s enjoyments; or even if you are still
toiling, and struggling on to reach Him you know not how, and know not
whether you may trust Him to place you on the right hand of the throne or
not, how is it possible that you should be happy in waiting for Him?
Never rest, therefore, till you stand accepted in Him; till you have good
reason to believe that you are safe, and not safe only, but beloved.
Then you may wait for Him, then you may welcome Him, then He cannot come
too soon to please you; and if His sign is seen even to-night you will be
able to say, ‘This is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save
us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice
in His salvation.’
II.
THE CONSUMPTION.
I endeavoured in the last lecture to bring before you the blessed hope of
our Lord’s return, and to show, from the great outlines of prophecy, that
there is enough to justify the expectations of those who humbly trust
that we shall not have much longer to wait. I purposely avoided any
reference to what are called the ‘signs of the times,’ and confined your
attention exclusively to what may be called the great backbone of
prophecy, _i.e._, to the prophetic history of the four mighty kingdoms
which were foretold as holding the empire of the world. From that
outline I endeavoured to show that these four great kingdoms were to
arise in succession, one after the other, and that they would fill up the
interval between the time of the prophecy and the sitting of the Ancient
of Days. I hope, also, I made it plain from history that three of those
kingdoms have long since fallen, and that, as far as the predicted
periods enable us to judge, we must be drawing near to the close of the
fourth. The great outline, therefore, leads to the hope that the time of
the glorious kingdom of our blessed Lord may be near. But, though we did
not study the signs of the times then, I do not think we should
undervalue them, for our blessed Saviour foretold certain things that
should take place, and added, ‘When ye shall see all these things, know
that it {19} is near, even at the doors.’ If, therefore, any of these
things are now taking place, it is clear that we ought to study them; and
that we should not be really carrying out the teaching of the Lord Jesus
if we were to neglect them. I propose, therefore, in obedience to His
words, to bring before you in this lecture what has long appeared to me
one of the most conclusive signs that the time is not very far distant.
I allude to the present position of the Church of Rome, and I earnestly
hope that God has directed my thoughts in the study of it, and that
whatever in what I may now say is according to His word, may be written
in all our hearts and minds by the teaching of the Holy Ghost.
There are three great historical prophecies, which, in the opinion of the
majority of our best expositors, predict the rise, the progress, and the
fall of the Church of Rome.
The first of these we briefly noticed last Sunday. It is the prophecy of
the little horn rising amidst the ten horns of the beast, or the Papacy
rising in the midst of that cluster of European kingdoms which succeeded
the power of the undivided Roman Empire.
The second is the prophecy of ‘the man of sin’ in 2 Thess. ii. And I
cannot forbear the mention of one illustration of a verse in that
prophecy which I saw myself in Rome. Many people think that the
description in the fourth verse is too strong for Popery: but there is a
curious illustration of it in St. Peter’s. You may there see what they
call the altar in the usual place at the end of the chancel, and above
it, surrounded by an elaborately decorated reredos, is what is called the
chair of St. Peter, or the Pope’s throne, the seat of Papal power. On
the altar below, according to their own teaching, is the living person of
the King of Glory, perfect man and perfect God, and in front of that
altar may be seen men worshipping the wafer because they call it God.
But above it is the Pope’s chair, and if he were to occupy it he would
sit there with that which they call God, and worship as God, beneath his
feet. Can anything be a more exact fulfilment of the words, ‘Exalteth
himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped?’
The third is the prophecy of the woman in Rev. xvii. The application of
this to the Church of Rome is less disputed than that of either of the
other two, for the seat of the woman is decided by the 9th verse to be
the seven-hilled city, which is almost universally admitted to be Rome.
Now it is not my object to study the details of these prophecies, and
there is only one point to which I invite your careful attention—one most
important point common to all three, viz., that the final overthrow will
be preceded by a consuming process. It will not be a sudden destruction
in the height of prosperity, but will be the final act after a period of
wasting and defeat. If these three passages refer to Rome, as I fully
believe they do, then Rome will be first consumed and then destroyed.
In Daniel it says (vii. 26), ‘The judgment shall sit.’ It seems clear
from the context, that this does not mean the great day of judgment, but
the commencement of judgment on her sins here upon earth. ‘And they
shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end.’
There is, therefore, a consuming process before the end. The word here
rendered ‘consume’ conveys the idea of a gradual process, and not a
sudden blow; and teaches us that there will be a wasting before the final
overthrow.
In 2 Thess. ii. 8, exactly the same process is described, and in almost
the same words: ‘Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming.’ He will first
consume him by His word, and ultimately destroy him at His advent.
It is just the same in Rev. xvii. There you meet with the old beast, the
ten-horned beast of Daniel; and ten horns still representing ten kings;
and when we reach the close of the chapter we find these ten kings all
turned against the woman: so that, instead of being ridden and governed
by her, as they were when she was riding on the beast, they are now
turned against her, and agree in consuming her. ‘The ten horns which
thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and make her
desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.’
(Verse 16.)
Without stopping to look into the detail, which it is impossible to do in
a short lecture, it appears clear that all these passages agree in
predicting a period during which the Papacy will be consumed before its
final fall. This will be brought about partly by the power of truth, and
partly by the change of mind in the kings. But whatever be the agency,
the result is the same. ‘They will take away his dominion, to consume,
and to destroy unto the end.’ And this you mark is the last great
process before the coming of our Blessed Saviour, for the final
destruction will be by the brightness of His coming.
And now comes the question, Has this consuming process begun? Is it, or
is it not, in progress? I know that some fainthearted people will say,
‘Oh, no! Rome is making dreadful progress, and must soon triumph.’ But
surely that opinion is contrary to fact. Surely it may be proved, from
the great facts of European history, not merely that the consumption has
begun but that it has been going on during the last few years with
peculiar and unexampled speed.
Let us look at a few great European facts, not at little things that
happen to fall within our own observation, but at great facts that are
conspicuous before the world.
Rome has always claimed, as she does still, dominion over all the
kingdoms of the world, and she used to exercise it over all those of
Western Christendom. Her claim even went so far that, by the common
consent and advice of his barons, the King of England once ‘resigned
England and Ireland to God, to St. Peter and St. Paul, to Pope Innocent,
and his successors in the Apostolic chair: and agreed to hold these
dominions as feudatory of the Church of Rome, by the annual payment of
one thousand marks.’ {26} Imagine any one standing up amongst the barons
of England, and making such a proposal now! That dominion of the Papacy
is taken away, and taken away, as I believe, for ever.
When the dominion was gone he made concordats, or compacts, with the
different states; in which, with varying conditions, it was agreed that
he should uphold them by his spiritual power, and they uphold him by the
secular arm. It is a most remarkable fact, that within the last fifteen
years almost all of these concordats have been brought abruptly to a
violent end: those with Naples, Tuscany, and the Italian Duchies in 1858;
that with Austria, including Venice, in 1866; with Spain in 1868; with
France in 1870; and with Bavaria in 1873. There may be others remaining
in force, but I know of none. According to the best information I can
obtain all are dissolved. The Papacy has lost all its political power.
The ten kings have shaken off his government, and there is not one left
that submits to his authority.
But more than that. The Pope of Rome used to be king over a considerable
portion of Italy. But he is now deposed. The States of the Church are
incorporated with united Italy, and the Pope is king no more. They have
taken away his dominion. His sovereignty is at an end; it has received
its death-blow, and shall we not acknowledge that the consuming process
is begun?
But further still. The Church of Rome used to have vast estates. The
convents which used to swarm through Italy were richly endowed with
landed property. But as soon as the kingdom of Italy was well
established, those convents were broken up and their property
confiscated. And now that the Pope has been dethroned in Rome, a similar
measure has been passed for all those within the city, and on the 20th of
October, 1874, they received notice of their dissolution. It looks very
much as if the kings were eating up the flesh of the woman.
But some will say, ‘Ah, but in religious matters Popery is making
progress, for it is winning so many perverts to its errors.’ I know
there are perverts, and I am deeply grieved at it, but I doubt whether
Rome’s progress is as great as many think. It has been calculated that
in the year 1801 there were in Great Britain and Ireland twenty-seven
Romanists out of every hundred of the population, but that in 1869 there
were only eighteen. The proportion, therefore, had actually diminished
from twenty-seven to eighteen per cent. {28}
But take a wider range, and look at the great facts of European history.
At the Lateran Council in 1513, after all the so-called heretics had been
silenced or burned, it was proclaimed, ‘No one now opposes, no one now
objects,’ and then the orator addressing the Pope said, ‘The whole body
of Christendom is now subjugated to one head, even to thee.’ But it is
calculated that there are now more than 95,000,000 Protestants in Europe,
and 67,000,000 members of the Greek Church, making together 162,000,000
who reject the Pope’s authority, against 157,000,000 who profess to
submit to it. Putting all these facts together, I may ask any reasonable
man, any one who looks at great facts instead of minute details, Is there
not reason to believe that the consumption has begun? What else is it
that has taken away his dominions, broken up his concordats, overturned
his throne, stripped him of his property, and above all has set
95,000,000 in Europe alone free from his yoke? What else is it but the
fulfilment of the prophecy, ‘Whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit
of His mouth,’ preparatory to the time when He shall ‘destroy him with
the brightness of His coming?’
Now there are many lessons that we might learn if we had but time from
this subject; _e.g._, I might well spend all the time that remains in
pressing on you the importance of keeping clear of all alliance with
Rome. If God is consuming her, God’s people must have nothing to do with
her either in politics or religion, for if they do, they will find
themselves drawn into the vortex into which she must infallibly sink.
The message to them is, ‘Come out of her, my people, that ye be not
partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.’
But this is not my point in this lecture. I am anxious rather that we
should look on the whole subject as an encouragement to faith. Surely
some amongst us are too fainthearted about the truth. It really seems as
if they could trust the Lord Jesus for their own souls, but not for His
church, or for His truth: as if they had forgotten the text, ‘Are not
thine eyes upon the truth?’ They value their Bible, and are ready to
contend for it even unto the death; but still, they do not above half
believe it. They are ready to go forth to battle, but they are not ready
to begin, like Jehoshaphat, with the hymn, ‘Praise the Lord!’ They would
rather chant some plaintive lament, and go into the battle with the
doleful expectation of defeat. But this is not faith. This is not trust
in the Lord Jesus. Ah! but one says he cannot rely on government, and
another that he does not trust in bishops. But what has this to do with
it? No one asks you to trust in rulers either in Church or State, for
the Scripture says, ‘Put not your trust in princes.’ What we ask you to
do is to trust the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God. Trust
Him, and all will be right, though all other objects of trust fail you.
Now take this great subject as a help to your trust. See how it exhibits
Him in His own time and His own way, working out His own predicted
purpose. It was utterly impossible for any man by private interpretation
to calculate the course that things would take. But He foresaw all, and
more than two thousand years ago He actually foretold what He would do.
And now, after all these centuries have passed, after great empires have
risen and fallen according to His prophecy, after every species of effort
has been made in vain to silence God’s Word, after every available means
have been employed—political influence, religious influence, priestly
assumption, and fiery persecution—to stamp out God’s truth, we see the
Lord Jesus with a mighty hand fulfilling His word, carrying out His
purpose, and preparing the way for victory. And is that the time to
distrust Him? If we are so fainthearted now what should we have been
before the Reformation? What should we have been after John Huss was
burned, and when the Lord’s own people were like the seven thousand
hidden ones in the days of Elijah? If we cannot trust Him now that we
have experienced that ‘His counsels of old are faithfulness and truth,’
what should we have done if we had lived before any prophecies had been
fulfilled; if we had had to trust to His bare naked word before it was
confirmed by history? But now that we have this great confirmation, and
now that we see the putting forth of His hand, this is not the time for
faintheartedness or misgiving; this is not the time to distrust Him whom
God has made the ‘Head over all things to His Church.’ It is true that
‘God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;’
but it is certain that He is riding on the storm and will perform His own
wonders, so that we may add, as in the next verse of the same hymn,
‘Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The cloud ye so much dread
Is big with mercies, and will break
In blessings on your head.’
And not only so, but we may reverently hope that it will not be long
before we behold His triumph. When the disciples were on the lake the
night was dark, and the winds were contrary, but He came to them in His
own good time, and all was rest. So we may meet with rough weather, but
there will be a great calm when He comes, and I cannot but hope He will
soon be here. We have long since known of Him on the mountain-top, but
now we can almost see Him walking on the waves. It is high time,
therefore, that we act on His own words: ‘When these things begin to come
to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption
draweth nigh.’ He does not say, ‘Wait till they have all come to pass,’
but ‘look up as soon as they begin.’ Now they most undoubtedly have
begun, and for a long time have been in progress. It is high time,
therefore, that we begin to look up in faith and hope, waiting for
Christ, looking for Christ, longing for Christ, and meanwhile trusting in
Christ; so that when He comes we may be found pardoned through His blood,
accepted in His covenant, clothed in His righteousness, and with loving
hearts waiting for His appearing.