Ambrose Lisle Phillipps

“ ON THE USE AND ADVANTAGE OF DIVINE PROPHECY.
Of all the evidences of the truth of revealed religion, there is perhaps not one that holds so important a rank—not even miracles being excepted—as prophecy. That this is so, reason alone must convince us. Who but God can possibly know what is still future? A man well acquainted with history, versed in the experience of the past, or who has studied the hidden depths of human nature, may assuredly form conjectures, more or less probable, of what is likely to happen in the times immediately bordering on his own ”

“ Thus, that the Word of God might be fulfilled, a republic overthrew a republic, lest the wings of the eagle should be severed from the mystic woman, who was to be guarded by them "for a time, and times, and half a time." ”

“ All this came to a culminating point in the great French Revolution, which, on a smaller scale, has been enacted in almost every other country ; and although good men from time to time have been raised up by God to stem the torrent, or, if possible, to infuse a Christian element into it, it has been continually spreading its noxious influence, till at length we behold the universe involved in it, and all men, who look seriously at what is going on, are persuaded that humanity is hurrying on to the most tremendous cataclysm that history has ever witnessed. ”

“ Now did the glowing prophecies of the Old Testament begin to receive their accomplishment; the gold of Ophir, the precious stones of the East, and the frankincense of Arabia, were combined in the offering of the converted earth to its Lord and Saviour; stately churches now began to be erected all over Christendom, so magnificent that they rivalled even the Temple of Solomon, and far surpassed the most splendid temples of Paganism. ”

“ But the four winds of heaven, that strove on the great sea, are termed winds of heaven, because each angel striveth with God for the kingdom that is committed to his guardianship. And we must remark, that by the term beasts is signified the brute force and cruelty of the several kingdoms. But in the vision, the first was like a lioness, and it had the wings of an eagle: this was the kingdom of Babylon, and it was symbolized by a lioness, rather than a lion, on account of its savage cruelties, as well as its luxury and beastly lust. ”

“ He had indeed a kingdom, but it was not a kingdom of flesh and blood, but of holiness, of peace, and of love. But the kingdom of Mahomet was one of earthly power (in all power) : it was a kingdom of luxury and sensuality, in which it was permitted to men to indulge to the full in all the sins of the flesh, and in which he promised the same sensual enjoyments even in the life to come. Then the Man of Sin was to come, "in signs, and lying wonders." And could there be greater signs, than what God had given to His Church of the near coming of this Son of Perdition? ”

“ True religion is from above, descending from the Father of Lights, but it is from the earth that all false religion springs. From the earth came paganism; and when God by His only Son had once more enlightened mankind, and brought many nations to the belief of His Divine truth, Satan raised up in the person of Mahomet, and by his agency, a new system of error to combat God's truth ”

“ Go Daniel, because the words are shut up, and sealed until the time appointed. Many shall be chosen, and made white, and shall be tried as fire : and the wicked shall deal wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the learned shall understand :" that is, they who are enlightened by true learning, by the light of the Holy Ghost, and the teaching of the Catholic Church. ”

“ Peter : "We have also a more sure word of prophecy, to which ye do well to give heed, as unto a light shining in a dark place, until the day shine forth" (2 Peter i. 19–21) ; that is, until the event manifest its fulfilment; while we learn, from the same words, that the great object of prophecy, separate from that still higher one of serving as an evidence of revelation, is "to shine as a light in a dark place;" ”

“ But this is not all; we shall hereafter have occasion to show, from prophecy, what other things this great Antichrist was to do, and how completely all these predictions have been fulfilled in Mahomet, and his religion and empire. But St. John tells us that even in his day "there were many Antichrists," and it is remarkable how all the heresies that sprung up in the early Church tended to that great denial "of the Father and Son," which received its fullest development in the very words of the Mahometan creed, "God is one. God is eternal. He hath neither begotten, nor is begotten." ”

“ The destruction of imperial Rome was therefore not the destruction of any head of any beast, but the destruction of the imperial beast itself; and consequently cannot (on that ground alone) be represented, as Bishop Newton thinks, by the deadly wound of one of the heads of the Apocalyptic beast in question: not to add that the falsehood of this conclusion has already been proved by anticipation, when we showed that this beast could not represent the Roman empire at all. ”

“ No, if the Catholic Church were exterminated from the face of the earth to-morrow, I think the last people, who would mourn over her destruction, would be the kings and the merchants. Neither of these two classes of men have ever been very famous for obeying her laws, or following her maxims : I should be more inclined to expect that they would rejoice over it, and say, as we read in the eleventh chapter, "let us rejoice, for her prophets tormented us, who dwell upon the earth." ”

“ Hence the whole history of the human race may be compared to a sublime epic, in which the contending powers are, in the invisible world, Almighty God with His blessed angels against Satan and the rebel angels; in the visible world, Christ and Antichrist ”

“ Myriads of Christians will shortly abandon our most holy religion; on all sides the barbarians will attack the territory of the faithful; there will be such bloodshed as hath not been seen before, with great destruction and seditions all over the earth. The churches will be abandoned, and the ruin of God's worship and of the empire approacheth. Know, moreover, that the coming of the Adversary is at hand. ”

“ The old Romans bore the eagle as their military standard, and no one can deny that the Roman eagle is another phrase to express "the Roman power." And the flight of the Roman eagle is used even by profane writers to symbolize the conquests of the Roman armies. When, therefore, the Prophet tells us that the wings of a great eagle were given to the Church for the very period of the little horn's dominion, and history tells us that the temporal sovereignty of Rome was at that very time given to the popes, we are surely justified in appealing to this great fact as the fulfilment of the prophecy. ”

“ Now horrible as it may seem, no one can read the eighteenth chapter of the Apocalypse, and not perceive that some such catastrophe is foretold, if at least he believe in the Divine inspiration of that book: and, on the other hand, if he looks around and accurately scans the various elements that are at work in modern society, he will not regard such an issue, awful though it be, as in any degree impossible : on the contrary, unless the destructive influences that are at work are removed, it is clearly inevitable. ”

“ No doubt the past must ever occupy a large portion of human thought; a human faculty has been created to exercise itself upon it the memory: and as we dwell upon it we feel in turn joy or sorrow, remorse or satisfaction, hope or fear. It contains, as Revelation assures us, the catalogue of those acts, which, whether good or bad, are to decide our future and everlasting destiny. The past then in its own nature must exert a stronger influence over the human mind, and excite deeper feelings, than the present ever can. ”

“ In fine, if Mahomet has not fulfilled the Apostle's prediction, both in the spirit and the letter, we know not how it could be fulfilled.
But we now come to a further description of the Man of Sin in this remarkable prophecy of St. Paul (2 Thess. xi. 9, 10) , "whose coming is . . . . in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish: because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Therefore God shall send them the operation of error, to believe a lie." If ever a system was based on the seduction of iniquity, it surely was that of Mahomet. ”

“ I therefore conclude that the territory of that empire had the same analogous relation to the Saracenic empire as the feet of a bear would hold to St. John's symbolical beast. Now in every animal the feet are the main instrument to effect its locomotion; and this is precisely the relation which the provinces of the Medo-Persian bear held to the Saracenic empire. Persia was, as we have already seen, the first kingdom to embrace Mahometanism, and it has been at all times from its Caucasian provinces that the chief strength of Mahometanism has issued forth. ”

“ Can anything be more consoling than these prophecies of sacred Scripture ? What a happy prospect they hold out before us ! If these grand events are to be preceded by woes and tribulations, we know from the same prophecies that these will be of short duration, whereas the glorious period of the Church, during which St. John tells us that Satan will be bound in chains, is to last for the space of a thousand years. ”

“ To satisfy, then, the cravings of mankind to dive into the future, God has given prophecy, and, like every other Divine gift, we ought to receive it with thankfulness and humility. It is no part of our present object to discuss the question of true as distinguished from apocryphal prophecy, or even that of the general test of true prophecies; we assume throughout the truth of the prophecies recorded in the Bible, and accepted by all Christians, whether Catholic or Protestant. ”

“ Affirming the general identity of the red dragon, and the first beast of the thirteenth chapter of the Apocalypse, whereby he violates all just rules of prophetic interpretation, he concludes this beast to be papal Rome. But we have already shown what place papal Rome occupies in prophecy, and especially in St. John's Apocalypse; we have shown that this place is a place of honour, not of dishonour; the place of the chief instrument of God in His spiritual sway over the nations, not one of error or blasphemy. How, then, can this beast be papal Rome? ”

“ They have laboured to show that the Catholic Church of Christ fell at a very early period into a fatal apostacy from her primitive faith, that she defiled the revelation of God with a demonolatrous worship of saints and angels, an idolatrous worship of images and the Eucharist, and with a general practice, that fully warranted both them and their forefathers in quitting her communion, and in denouncing her to mankind as the Babylon of prophecy doomed to destruction, and as the most impious foe both of God and man. ”

“ And as Almighty God, the Supreme Disposer of human events, turns all to the glory of His cause, that is, the good of His Holy Church, consisting as it does of redeemed and regenerate men purchased by the blood of Christ, so that the whole chain of Divine acts is, as it were, riveted to that single Divine purpose, namely, the coming of Christ, and the establishment of His spiritual kingdom ”

“ Look upon the lively example of the holy fathers, in whom shone real perfection and the religious life, and thou wilt see how little it is and almost nothing that we do! Alas! what is our life, if it be compared with theirs! Saints and friends of Christ, they served our Lord in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, labour and weariness, in watchings and fastings, in prayers and holy meditations, in frequent persecutions and reproaches. ”

“ John the Evangelist, he to whom our Lord made his special Revelation of what was to come to pass even to the end of the world, tells us, in his first Epistle and the second chapter and the eighteenth verse, "Little children, it is the last hour,"—that is to say, the last period of the world, or the last dispensation of God to men,—"and as you have heard that Antichrist cometh, even now there are many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last hour." ”

“ It is evident that for the human mind to dwell upon the future is not only a necessary result of the order of God, strictly according to the nature of things, but the highest duty and interest of man, strictly reasonable, inasmuch as it relates to what in its own nature is far more important, than anything that is present, or even the whole assemblage of what is recorded in the history of the past. ”