The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

VII. Sandys Summarizes Signs and Prophecies of End

EDWIN SANDYS (1519-1588), archbishop of York and primate of England, was born in Lancastershire. He was graduated from St. John’s College, Cambridge, when Protestant views were prevalent. He became junior proctor of the university in 1542, and was made master of Catherine Hall in 1547. After receiving his D.D., and becoming prebendary of the Cathedral of Peter borough in 1548 and of Carlisle in 1552, he became vice-chancellor of Cambridge University in 1553, under King Edward VI. PFF2 417.3

Having embraced Protestantism, Sandys was deprived of office upon the accession of Queen Mary (1553) and, along with John Bradford, was confined in the Tower for twenty-nine weeks. However, he escaped to the Continent in 1554. PFF2 418.1

Upon the accession of Elizabeth, Sandys returned to Eng land and was successively created bishop of Worcester (1559), bishop of London (1570), and archbishop of York (1576). A man of learning and influence, he was one of nine Protestant leaders appointed by Queen Elizabeth to hold a disputation with an equal number of Romanists before both houses of Parliament. He was also one of a commission appointed to revise the Liturgy, and assisted in the translation of the Bishops’ Bible. PFF2 418.2

1. ANTICHRIST DISPENSES SALVATION FOR A PRICE

Twenty-two of Sandys’ impressive sermons have been preserved to us. In the “First Sermon,” based on Isaiah 55, “Ho, every one that thirsteth,” stressing coming to the waters without money and without price, he contrasts “the contrary”-salvation sold by the papal Antichrist for money: PFF2 418.3

“He that sitteth in the temple of God, and termeth himself Christ’s vicar, doth in like sort offer unto the people bread, water, wine, milk, pardon of sins, grace, mercy, and eternal life; but not freely: he is a merchant, he giveth nothing, and that is nothing which he selleth. For although he make large promises to the buyer, he selleth that which he hath not to deliver. ‘Eternal life is the gift of God.’ The pope therefore selleth but wind and smoke for fire, shadows for truths: he deceiveth the buyers with false sleights, false measures, false weights. Beware of this merchant, lose not your labour, cast not away your money: it is not meat but poison which he offereth you. His physic cannot heal your diseases; his holy water can not wash away the spots of a sullied and defiled soul, as he untruly would bear you in hand; his blasphemous masses do not appease, but provoke God’s wrath; they cannot benefit the quick, much less the dead, which either need no help, or are past all help; his rotten relics cannot comfort you; his blind, dumb, and worm-eaten idols can do you no good. It is cast away which is spent upon his shameless pardons; they will not prevail—God will not admit them: by his Latin service ye cannot be edified, or made wiser. Yet this trumpery they sell for money, and upon this trash they cause silly men to waste their substance, and to these to commit their souls. Thus you see a manifest difference between Christ and antichrist.” ⁸² PFF2 418.4

2. ROMAN ANTICHRIST DECLARED GUILTY OF TREASON

Of similar vein is the phrasing of the eighteenth sermon, “Then There Shall Be Signs“: PFF2 419.1

“Christ is obscured by that great enemy antichrist, ‘the man of sin,’ who hath set himself in Christ’s peculiar place, and will be ‘exalted above all that is called God.’ To make any other mediator between God and man, saving only Christ Jesus which is not only man, but also God; to seek else where remission of sins, justification, redemption, sanctification, or salvation, that only in this Jesus, and in him crucified, doth darken and make dim both him and his merits. And of this treason the Romish antichristian church, which they term catholic, is found guilty. For the children of this harlot labour by all means to obscure the Son of God, to rob him of the glory of his deserts in our salvation.” ⁸³ PFF2 419.2

3. OUTLINE PROPHECIES AND SIGNS ATTEST IMPENDING JUDGMENT

Most remarkable of all is the twentieth sermon, “The End of All Things is At Hand.” Discussing how “Christ at His second coming shall finish the course of all this sinful world” and of the impending day of judgment, Sandys succinctly gives the signs and the prophecies by which we may know that it is near. This is his summary: PFF2 419.3

“Now, as we know not the day and time, so let us be assured that this coming of the Lord is near. He is not slack, as we do count slackness. That it is at hand, it may be probably gathered out of the scriptures in divers places. The signs mentioned by Christ in the gospel, which should be the foreshewers of this terrible day, are almost already all fulfilled. The prophecies of Daniel of the four monarchies, of the little horn, and of the times, weeks, and days, are manifestly come to pass. The defections or fallings away, which are spoken of in holy scriptures, are also in great part accomplished. The provinces, the ten kingdoms, are fallen from the Roman empire, and that wicked one hath wrought the mystery of iniquity.” ⁸⁴ PFF2 419.4

4. ANTICHRIST’S IDENTITY INDICATED WITH PROPHETIC FINGER

Alluding next to the harassments of Mohammedans, and then to the papal falling away from the faith fulfilling the prophecies of Paul and Peter, Sandys admits and defends Protestantism’s departure from Catholicism, declaring, “We do utterly abandon this usurped and proud authority: we have happily PFF2 419.5

forsaken that synagogue of Satan.” Then comes this scorching denunciation, couched in biting phrases: PFF2 420.1

“This is our apostasy. We have forsaken him that hath forsaken God, and whom God hath forsaken: we have left that man of sin, that rose-coloured harlot with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, that triple-crowned beast, that double-sworded tyrant, that thief and murderer, who hath robbed so many souls of salvation, and sucked so much’ innocent blood of Christian martyrs, that adversary unto Christ, that pre-tensed vicar, who hath displaced the person, not only taking upon him Christ’s room and office, but also boasting himself as if he were a god, and being content of his parasites so to be called. This wicked man of sin is at length revealed by the sincere preaching of the gospel. Daniel in his prophecies, Paul in his epistles, and John in his revelations, have most lively described and pointed him forth even as it were with the finger. Yea, through his pride and ambition, his usurping authority and worldly rule, his tyranny and persecuting of Christ in his members, he hath sufficiently revealed and detected himself, if none had done it for him.” ⁸⁵ PFF2 420.2

5. END OF ANTICHRIST’S REIGN DRAWS NEAR

Asserting that the Lord shall destroy the Papacy with the breath of His mouth, and then shall be the end, Sandys adds that “the blast of God’s trump hath made him already stagger: he hath caught such a cramp, that he beginneth now to halt.” Iniquity is abounding and the gospel sounding. Therefore, he concludes, “The end is near at hand.” ⁸⁶ PFF2 420.3