The Holy Scripture - english version B.indd - Sabbat

Interpretation in post-Reformation Times.401I must notice one more writer of the last century, the excellent Bishop Newton,whose deservedly popular work on prophecy has gone through so many editions.Newton acted on Lord Bacon’s suggestion, expressed is his “Advancement ofLearning,” that a history of prophecy was wanted, in which every prophecy ofthe Scripture should be compared with the event fulfilling it. The twenty-sixthdissertation of Newton’s work recapitulates his exposition of the propheciesrelating to Romanism. In it he says: “The prophecies relating toPopery are the greatest and most essential, and themost striking part of the revelation. Whatever difficulty andperplexity there may be in other passages, yet here the application is obviousand easy. Popery being the great corruption of Christianity,there are indeed more prophecies relating to that thanto almost any other distant event. It is a great object of Daniel’s,and the principal object of St. Paul’s, as well as of St. John’s prophecies ; andthese considered and compared together will mutually receive and reflect lightfrom, and upon, each other.” Bishop Newton considered that the sounding ofthe seventh trumpet, or pouring out of the third woe, the woe of the vials, uponthe Papacy was still future in his day, and he was evidently correct, as he livedbefore the time of the French Revolution. ... (BISHOP NEWTON: “Dissertation onthe Prophecies,” pp. 682, 696)The time would fail me to speak of the works of the well-known Bickersteth,or to refer in detail to the many able writers in England, Scotland, Switzerland,Germany, Holland, and America, who within the last fifty years have expoundedScripture prophecy on the historic principle. I can do no more than say a fewsentences in closing about three of the greatest of these writers, BishopWordsworth, Rev. E. B. Elliott, and Professor Birks, of Cambridge.The works of the late Bishop Wordsworth, that learned and eloquentcommentator, demonstrate with perfect conclusiveness that Rome Papal isthe Babylon of the Apocalypse. Wordsworth understood the Churchof Rome better than any commentator, Elliott excepted, in recent times ; and hewas familiar also with the entire history and literature of the Christian Church.His testimony on the fulfilment of prophecy in Papal Rome is such as to settle thequestion finally for all intelligent and unbiassed minds.The learned commentator, Dean Alford, who was a semi-futurist, says: “Ido not hesitate . . . to maintain that interpretation whichregards Papal and not Pagan Rome as pointed out by theharlot of this vision (Rev. XVII.). The subject has been amply discussedby many expositors. I would especially mention Vitringa and Dr. Wordsworth.” ...And now in conclusion. We have traced in these last three lectures the antiquity,the practical use, and the systematic development of the historical interpretationof prophecy - the interpretation which regards Papal Romeas the Babylon of the Apocalypse, and the Roman pontiffas “the man of sin.” We have shown that the historical interpretation wasthe earliest adopted in the Christian Church ; that it developed with the course ofhistory ; that it sustained the Church through the long central ages of apostasy ;