The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

X. Priestley-French Revolution Is Earthquake in Action

JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, L.L.D., F.R.S. (1733-1804), English clergyman, philosopher, and scientist, was born in Yorkshire. The friend of James Watt and Franklin, he had his preliminary education at the Dissenters’ Academy at Daventry, and through his investigation of gases, and the discovery of oxygen in 1774, he pioneered in lifting chemistry to a science. He ministered to a small congregation at Needham Market, Suffolk, and was ordained in 1762 at Warrington. In 1761 he was tutor at the Academy of Warrington, and in 1767 went to Leeds, where he became a Socinian and where he began to occupy a central position in the first period of the Unitarian Movement. In 1774 Priestley spent three months abroad with his patron, the Earl of Shelbourne, but a few years thereafter he retired from Shelbourne’s service, and in 1780 moved to Birmingham. PFF2 744.4

Priestley opposed the government’s attitude toward the American colonies, a fact which led to his being mobbed in 1791, his house being burned, and his manuscripts and instruments being destroyed. Facile in French, German, and Italian, as well as in Hebrew, Syriac, and Aramaic, he was author of some eighty items, including The History and Present State of Electricity (1767), and History of the Corruption of Christianity (1782). He wrote against Paine and Volney, and upheld the Biblical faith. In 1793 he contemplated removal to America for the sake of his three sons. So he resigned his charge on February 21, 1794, and preached his farewell sermon March 30. The “Fast Sermon” of February 28, hereafter cited, was there fore preached just before leaving for America, where he resided at Northumberland, Pennsylvania, for the remainder of his life. ³³ PFF2 745.1

1. CALAMITOUS TIMES TO AFFLICT PAPAL NATIONS

His famous sermon, titled The Present State of Europe Compared with Ancient Prophecies, preached at the Gravel Pit Meeting in Hackney, was based on Matthew 3:2, “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Priestley contended that “great calamities such as the world has never yet experienced,” were to precede the coming of the kingdom of Christ. In this sermon, preached during the height of the French Revolution, he stated further: PFF2 745.2

“These calamities will chiefly affect those nations which have been the seat of the great antichristian power; or, as all Protestants, and I believe justly, suppose, have been subject to the see of Rome. And it appears to me highly probable, as I hinted in my last discourse on this occasion, that the present disturbances in Europe are the beginning of those very calamitous times.” ³⁴ PFF2 745.3

2. PAPAL LITTLE HORN TO BE DESTROYED BY ADVENT

Bidding his hearers to “look back to the ancient prophecies and compare them with the present state of things,” he showed that the Little Horn of Daniel 7 was “the Papal power,” to be destroyed when the judgment shall sit. After mentioning the awful period of trouble of Daniel 12:1, Priestley averred that the New Testament prophecies on the fall of Antichrist, such as 2 Thessalonians 1:7, corresponded with those of the Old Testament, and were to be accomplished suddenly by the second coming of Christ and not before. ³⁵ PFF2 745.4

3. REVOLUTION IN FRANCE THE PREDICTED EARTHQUAKE

Citing Sir Isaac Newton, Whiston, and Clarke, on the part the “prevalence of infidelity” was to play in putting a stop to the papal tyranny, Priestley said: PFF2 746.1

“This great event of the late revolution in France appears to me, and many others, to be not improbably the accomplishment of the following part of the Revelation, chap 11:3. And the same hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men (or literally, names of men) seven thousand, and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to God. ’ PFF2 746.2

“An earthquake, as I have observed, may signify a great convulsion, and revolution, in states; and as the Papal dominions were divided into ten parts, one of which, and one of the principal of them, was France, it is properly called a tenth part of the city, or of the mystical Babylon.” ³⁶ PFF2 746.3

4. KINGDOMS ELEVATING PAPACY TO OVERTHROW HER

“It is farther remarkable, that the kings of France were those who gave the Popes their temporalities, and the rank they now hold among the princes of the world. And it is foretold, Revelation 17:16, that ‘those kings who gave their power and strength unto the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God has put it in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree to give their kingdoms unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. ’ PFF2 746.4

“May we not hence conclude it to be highly probable, that what has taken place in France will be done in other countries?” ³⁷ PFF2 746.5

The certainty, suddenness, and unexpectedness of the approaching expectancy rested as a burden on Priestley’s heart. PFF2 746.6