The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2
X. Jurieu France Considered Tenth Part of Papal City
PIERRE JURIEU (1637-1713), distinguished Huguenot leader and noted controversialist, was born at Mer, and schooled in philosophy at Saumur. He was the nephew of Pierre du Moulin. 59 an of unusual scholastic attainments, he received his M.A. at nineteen. After travel and further study in Holland and England, and upon ordination, he succeeded to his father’s pastorate at Mer, about 1671. In 1674 his reputation for learning won him the professorship of theology and Hebrew in the Huguenot Seminary at Sedan. Here for seven years he zealously guarded the Reformation against attacks particularly from Catholic Bishop Bossuet, 60 h whom he held controversies, as well as with the Jesuit Maimbourg and championed vigorously the rights of his persecuted brethren in France. (Portrait on page 648.) PFF2 636.3
In 1681 the academy at Sedan was “desolated” when Louis XIV deprived Protestants of permission to give public instruction. Upon the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, Jurieu went into exile at Rotterdam, where for twenty-seven years he was a resident—a pastorship and lectureship having been provided for him. Here his ardor drew him into controversy with Preterists Grotius and Hammond over the identity of the Antichrist and the time of his reign. A prolific writer, he was author of sixty works, one of which passed through twenty-two French and twenty-six English editions. Jurieu’s L’Accomplisse ment des propheties ou la delivrance prochaine de I’eglise (Exposition of the Apocalypse or the Coming Deliverance of the Church) was published just after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In prophetic exposition he expressedly took Mede as his guide 61 except in those portions involving later application. PFF2 636.4
1. REFUTES FUTURISTIC AND PRETERISTIC THESES
Writing out of conviction, and in lucid style, Jurieu is very specific. But as he follows Mede so closely—such as in the enunciation of the seven seals, ten horns and seven heads 62 these similarities will not be repeated and the analysis extended. Jurieu definitely refutes with force and in detail the papal Futurist and Preterist theses of Ribera, Bellarmine, et cetera. 63 He also bemoans the lapse of vigor that had come over Protestantism. 64 PFF2 637.1
2. MAKES FRANCE TENTH PART OF CITY
Concerning the trumpets, Jurieu makes the first four the barbarian scourges of the Western Empire, to vex and destroy it, and the fifth and sixth the Saracens and Turks. 65 He believed the last persecutions had begun in 1655 with the Waldenses, spreading into other lands, and in 1685 by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He therefore thought the three and a half year-days of the Witnesses lying dead in the street of the papal city, or empire—which he believed refers to France—might end in three and a half years. But he adds later: PFF2 637.2
“There are as yet in France more than a hundred thousand persons who cither have not signed or have repented after their signing. If all these must fall off, there is yet a long time to tarry. Lastly who knows, whether God will not begin to reckon the three years and a half untill other Princes have wholly extinguisht the Reformation in their dominions? ‘Tis therefore rashness to affirm, that deliverance must exactly come in such a year. 66 PFF2 637.3
“And the spirit of life from God entered into them. These words teach us how the Reformation shall be reestablished in France. 67 PFF2 638.1
” ‘Tis therefore evident that God does here testify, that sometime after these three years and a half of death, the Reformation shall be lifted up to a great glory, but not everywhere; ‘tis only in that place, which is called the street of the great City, and is after called the tenth part of the city: for the whole destruction of the Antichristian Kingdom must not happen until some years afterward. 68 PFF2 638.2
He also judged that the tenth of the city destined to fall, as the Witnesses arose, would be France. 69 His thesis appears on the title page: PFF2 638.3
“Proving, that the Papacy is the Antichristian Kingdom; and that that Kingdom is not far from its Ruin. That the present Persecution may end in Three years and half, after which the Destruction of Antichrist shall be gin; which shall be Finisht in the beginning of the next Age: and then the Kingdom of Christ shall come upon Earth. 70 PFF2 638.4
3. END OF 1260 YEARS BRINGS FALL OF POPEDOM
Com puting the 1260 years from A.D. 450 or 454, the death of Valentinianon the year day principle, and with 360 days to a year-would bring the fall of popedom about 1710 or 1714. 71 The Beasts of Revelation 13 are both the Antichristian Empire. 72 These ten kings, Jurieu held, are the continuation of the Roman Empire under the seven heads and ten horns, the seventh head being that of Antichrist, and the beast from the earth representing a new empire, called the Empire of the Church, or an Ecclesiastic Empire. The vials are interpreted as the means by which the papal empire would be brought to ruin, falling upon it since the tenth century. The second plague, for instance, is the crusades; the fifth, when Rome was forsaken and the popes resided at Avignon; the sixth involving the Turks. 73 Spreading back over centuries, these will soon reach their climax. Babylon is also the Antichristian Empire. 74 PFF2 638.5
4. ROME’S DIVISIONS PRECEDE CHRIST’S KINGDOM
There are frequent allusions to Daniel’s four empires, the divisions of the fourth, and the fifth monarchy, as the kingdom of Christ, appearing after the ten divisions. 75 Daniel 7 repeats the grand outline, with only the Little Horn added as Antichrist. 76 Besides these views he held strongly to the view that during the millennium the Jews will have the prominent share in governing the earth. 77 PFF2 639.1