The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

II. Fleming Forecasts French Revolution as Prelude to Papal Overthrow

ROBERT FLEMING, JR. (c. 1660-1716), descended from a line of Scotch preachers. Born in Scotland, he early set his heart on the ministry. His father ¹ took him to Holland in 1679, where he studied at Leyden and Utrecht. For a time he plodded through the whole round of scholastic literature, until it not only tired him but became “nauseating.” “I resolved, therefore,” he said, “to betake myself for the future to the study of the Sacred Volume alone,” and to use other books only to help in the understanding of the same. Thus he continued to study and investigate. PFF2 642.1

Ordained at Rotterdam, in 1688, by Scotch divines who were refugees in Holland, he became pastor of the English church at Leyden, and in 1695 succeeded his father as pastor of the Scots church at Rotterdam. He was then invited to accept a call to the Presbyterian church in Lothbury, his acceptance being urged by William III. Distinguished for his learning and his piety, and author of nine volumes, he exerted great influence, William III frequently consulting him on the ecclesiastical affairs of Scotland. Fleming was proffered the principal-ship of the University of Glasgow, but he declined, preferring his humble charge as a Dissenter. PFF2 642.2

In 1701 he was lecturer at Sailers’ Hall—the very year in which he produced his small but remarkable discourse on the rise and fall of the Papacy. The unsettled state of public affairs and the danger with which Protestantism was menaced particularly perturbed Fleming’s later years. In the midst of such anxieties he published his work. (Title page of one of the editions and portrait of author appear on page 644.) At this time the power of France was at its height, William III maintaining an unsuccessful and hopeless struggle. Just at that time he wrote his improbable predictions. ² PFF2 642.3

Nearly a century after Fleming’s death the treatise became famous, being reprinted several times in England, Germany, America, and Scotland. ³ In 1793 and 1848 attention was drawn to the apparent historical verification of Fleming’s prediction that the French monarchy would fall by 1794 at least, and that in 1848 the Papacy would receive a severe blow. In a “Post script,” Fleming takes note of the deflection of Grotius and Hammond from the “First Principles of the Apocalyptical Interpretations,” thus: “My principal design in writing this post script was to refute the hypothesis [Preterist] that Grotius and Hammond go upon. ⁴ PFF2 643.1

1. GETS CLUE TO JUSTINIAN BEGINNING FROM CRESSENER

The title page announces it to be “Predictions respecting the Revolutions of France; the Fate of its Monarch, the Decline of Papal Power. ⁵ Writing concerning “the Great Antichrist, or Rome Papal,” and his “era or epoch,” in an endeavor to see when its fall would occur, Fleming offers a “Key” to “unriddle” it. Determining its beginning epoch from evidence offered by Joseph Mede, Henry More, and Drue Cressener, he holds (1) that Babylon is papal Rome, and the Papacy the seventh head of the Beast; and (2) that the 1260 days ⁶ are years, and all references to the 1260-year period are “synchronical and the same,” citing the 70 weeks as proof, along with Ezekiel. ⁷ However, the total destruction of Antichrist would not take place until the “appearance of Christ, upon the pouring out of the 7th Vial. ⁸ PFF2 643.2

Picture 1: Coming French Revolution Predicted Throughout Century Prior
Two compilations published during french revolution as proof of the accuracy of prophetic forecasts naming france as scene of the coming upheaval (upper). Robert fleming (inset) in 1701 wrote of the approaching blow to the papacy, which he looked for about 1794.
Page 645

2. LITTLE HORN SEATED LONG BEFORE 606

Fleming bases his time calculation on the four world powers of Daniel 7 and the period of the Little Horn, which is the “Papal Antichrist,” supplanting the three kingdoms-“the Exarchat, the Lombards, and the Authority of the Emperors in Italy. ⁹ He states that “this great enemy was seated in his Regal Dignity long before the year 606.” PFF2 645.1

3. TURKISH WOE DATED FROM CROSSING EUPHRATES

The seven trumpets, Fleming holds, are the blows upon Western Rome by the barbarians in the first four trumpets. The star fallen from heaven in the fifth trumpet is the bishop of Rome; the dark pitchy smoke is the monks that swarmed about spreading error and idolatry. The locusts are the Saracens. The sixth trumpet brings the Turks from beyond the Euphrates, from which coming they date their rise. ¹⁰ PFF2 645.2

4. FIFTH VIAL TO VISIT BEAST BETWEEN 1794-1848

Fleming begins the outpouring of the seven vials in the time of the Reformation, with the fifth upon the seat of the Beast. PFF2 645.3

“This judgment will probably begin about the year 1794, and expire about A.C. 1848; so that the duration of it upon this supposition, will be for the space of 54 years. For I do suppose, that seeing the Pope received the title of Supreme Bishop no sooner than An. 606, he cannot be supposed to have any Vial poured upon his seat immediately ... until the year 1848. ¹¹ PFF2 645.4

The basis for fixing upon the year 1794 follows: PFF2 645.5

“But as to the Expiration of this [4th] Vial, I do fear it will not be until the Year 1794. The Reason of which conjecture is this; that I find the Pope got a new Foundation of Exaltation, when Justinian, upon his Conquest of Italy, left it in a great measure to the Pope’s Management, being willing to eclipse his own Authority, to advance that of this haughty Prelate. ¹² PFF2 645.6

5. 1848 TO BE EVIL YEAR FOR PAPACY

Anticipating 1848 also to be an evil year for the Papacy, Fleming says: PFF2 646.1

“Therefore, 2, we may conclude that the last head of the Beast, which is the Papal, did arise either immediately upon the extirpation of the Gothish kingdom, or some time after. But it could not rise to its power immediately after, seeing Justinian did by the conquest of Italy revive the Imperial government again there, which by that means was healed after the deadly wound which the Heruli and the Goths had given it. Though I confess Justinian’s conquests of Italy laid a foundation for the Pope’s rise, and paved the way for his advancement: both by the penal and sanguinary laws which he made against all those that dissented from the Romish church, and by the confusions that followed upon Narses his bringing in the Lombards. ¹³ PFF2 646.2

However, instead of extending the 1260 years from 606 to 1866, Fleming unjustifiably uses but 360 days to a year in fulfillment rather than a Julian year-casting away eighteen years in order to bring what he believes to be the exact measurement, which he sets forth as 1848. ¹⁴ PFF2 646.3

6. SECOND ADVENT DESTROYS PAPACY; BRINGS MILLENNIUM

Fleming looks for the end of the Papal Kingdom and its destruction in the year 2000, at the coming of Christ, when the world enters upon that glorious sabbatical millenary, when the saints shall reign on the earth, in a peaceable manner for a thousand years more. After its expiration, Satan will be let loose to play a new game, and men will begin to apostatize from the truth almost universally. But when they have brought the saints to the last extremity, Christ Himself will appear in His glory and destroy His enemies with fire from heaven. (Revelation 20:9.) This denotes the great conflagration (2 Peter 3:10) after which come the resurrection and Christ’s summoning of men before Him unto judgment. Perhaps the time of this judgment, Fleming thinks, would take up the greatest part, or the whole, or another millenary of years. ¹⁵ PFF2 646.4

7. FRENCH UPHEAVAL BRINGS REPRINTS OF FLEMING

The trouble Fleming anticipated for France, he phrases thus: PFF2 646.5

“I cannot but hope that some new Mortification of the chief Supporters of Antichrist will then happen; and perhaps the French Monarchy may begin to be considerably humbled about that time: that whereas the present French King takes the Sun for his Emblem, and this for his Motto, Nec pluribus impar, he may at length, or rather his Successors, and the Monarchy it self (at least before the Year 1794) be forced to acknowledge, that (in respect to neighbouring Potentates) he is even singulis impar. ¹⁶ PFF2 647.1

In 1793, when the horrors of the French Revolution were at their worst, and Louis XVI was about to perish on the scaffold, Fleming’s improbable prediction, written nearly a century before, was recalled. It was brought to public attention by ex tracts in newspapers and by reprints in England, Germany, and America. The impression produced was profound. In London, Terry simply republished, in 1793, the original 1701 edition as the best evidence, which none could gainsay. In the 1809 re print this earnest appeal, based on the ending of the 1260 years, appears: PFF2 647.2

“How blind must they be, who see not the finger of God in all these changes, but still say, Where is the promise of his coming? Where is the fulfilment of the prophecies? O fools, and slow of heart to believe what the prophets have spoken! PFF2 647.3

” ‘Christians! Protestantsl hasten from Babylon, the object of the Di vine vengeance, that ye partake not of her sins, nor receive of her plagues. Beware of enlisting yourselves, directly, or indirectly, in defense of the Man of Sin, that hath so long tyrannized, and uttered his blasphemies, in the temple of God. ¹⁷ PFF2 647.4

8. 1848 WITNESSES ANOTHER CRISIS IN EUROPE

As to Fleming’s second date, when the Papacy would be further weakened but not destroyed, 1848 brought another crisis. The Revolution of 1848 broke out in Paris on February 23, and by March 5 every country between the Atlantic and the Vistula had in greater or less degree felt the revolutionary fever. On March 15, a fortnight after the fall of Louis Philippe, a constitution was proclaimed at Rome, the Pope had fled to Gaeta, and an Italian Republic had been proclaimed. The eyes of Europe became giddy as they beheld the rapid whirl o£ events. The year 1848 was an important one in this era. And Fleming’s point was that the stroke upon the Papacy would probably be gin about the year 1794 and expire about the year 1848 ¹⁸ a period which involves the pouring out of the fifth vial upon the seat of the Beast. PFF2 647.5

Picture 2: FRENCH EXPOSITORS PARALLEL BRITISH AND OTHER CONTINENTALS
Cappel identifies 457 B.C. as beginning year of the seventy weeks of years (upper left and center); Philipot’s Answer to jurieu on the Vvals (upper right); with Jurieu’s portrait (left oval); de mornay’s discussion of the papal mystery of iniquity, with graphic illustration of its precarious position (lower center); and author’s portrait (right oval)
Page 649

9. FLEMING NEVER EMPLOYED VICARIUS FILII DEI

Be it particularly noted that, despite wide quotation to the effect that Fleming himself computed the number of the Beast upon the name Vicarius Filii Dei, it is only a supplemental statement by the reprinter, first appearing in an appended section of the 1793 reprint. It is introduced by the explicit words: “In addition to what Mr. Fleming has said, the Editor begs leave to subjoin the following. ¹⁹ There follows an “Explanation of the Mark of the Name of the Beast” (in the 1809 edition it is called “Front let of the Beast”), giving 666 as the numerical significance of the name Vicarius Filii Dei, which, the editor says, the popes “have assumed to themselves,” and “caused to be inscribed over the door of the Vatican ²⁰—though without any documentation. Nowhere in the 1701 edition and nowhere in the body of the original reprints of 1793 and onward does Vicarius Filii Dei appear—only the Greek title Lateinos, mentioned by Irenaeus, and a Hebrew title or two. ²¹ PFF2 649.1

We now turn to a completely different exposition—an innovation in the matter of the millennium. PFF2 649.2