The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: Approaching End of Papal Period Predated

The English had grown weary of the power exercised first by the Puritans and Presbyterians (1640-1648), and then by the Independents under Cromwell (1648-1658). So the English Revolution of 1688 took place. This marked the cessation of papal power in England. James II, last Catholic king of Eng land, abandoned his throne and fled, and the victories of William of Orange in Ireland and on the Continent followed, terminated in the Treaty of Ryswick, in 1697. Encouraged by the English Revolution, the Vaudois refugees in Switzerland began their “glorious return” in 1689, under the leadership of Henry Arnaud, cutting their way through opposition back to their native Piedmontese valleys. ¹ PFF2 580.1

Among expositors the approaching end of the papal period was stressed increasingly. HANSERD KNOLLYS, in his An Exposition of the Eleventh Chapter of the Revelation (1679), insisting on the year-day principle for all portrayals of the 1260 days, remarks that there is variation among expositors as to their beginning and ending, but says time and fulfillment will demonstrate the certainty of their ending. ² Then will come the advent. And the clear note of the second advent as the hope of the church rings through these various writings, as witness the touchingly significant signature “By a Lover of the Second Coming of our Lord JESUS, and of the Blessed Myllenium” to the work, A Modest Inquiry Into the Meaning of the Revelations, in a Letter to All Such as Wait for the Kingdom of Christ. PFF2 580.2