The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2
III. Wrangham-Prophetic Demand Is Now Fulfilled
FRANCIS WRANGHAM, M.A. (1769-1842), classical scholar, was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, winning the Sir William Browne medal for the best Greek and Latin epigrams. He secured his B.A. and M.A. degrees in 1790 and 1793. Ordained in 1793, he became a member of the Trinity College staff, four times winning the Seaton prize for academic achievement. While serving as curate and rector for different congregations—he was examining chaplain to Vernon Harcourt, the Arch bishop of York. In 1825 he was prebend at Chester Cathedral, and in 1828, archdeacon of East Riding. He wrote frequently on emancipation from Catholicism. PFF2 773.1
1. EARTHQUAKE ACCOMPLISHED FACT; BABYLON FALLEN
In an impressive sermon Rome Is Fallen! (see page 768) from Revelation 14:8, preached at Scarborough, June 5, 1798, Wrang ham uses these words: PFF2 773.2
“It is done—There has been a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great—and the cities of the nations have fallen: and great BABYLON has come in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.” 25 PFF2 773.3
2. REJOICES OVER PROPHETIC ACCOMPLISHMENT
Back in1795 he had written thus on “The Destruction of Babylon”; PFF2 773.4
“Hear then, proud ROME, and tremble at thy fate! The hour will come, nor distant is its date (If right was caught the Prophet’s mystic strain, Which awe-struck Patmos echoed o’er the main) The hour, which holy arts in vain would stay, That prone on earth thy gorgeous spires shall lay.” 26 PFF2 773.5
And now, in 1798, he declares: PFF2 773.6
“What Protestant does not rejoice—to hear that those thunders at length are silent, which issued during so long a period from the gloomy recesses of the Vatican to convulse EUROPE; shaking the allegiance of subjects, and ‘hurling princes from their thrones!’ What lover of peace does not exult—to learn that those lightnings, which so often blasted the olive of CHRISTENDOM, are quenched for ever! Ought we, who should anxiously wish the Prophecies fulfilled, to weep over their accomplishment?” 27 PFF2 773.7
3. INFLUENCED BY KING’S CLEAR APPLICATION
Wrangham speaks highly of Edward King, whose clear application evidently influenced his own conclusions, and of the still earlier David Hartley, 28 and his Observations on Man, who expatiates on the image of Daniel 2, the beasts of Daniel 7, and the setting up of Christ’s kingdom. PFF2 774.1
Hartley had declared, “How near the dissolution of the present governments, generally or particularly, may be, would be great rashness to affirm. CHRIST will come in this sense also as a thief in the night.” 29 He refers to the critical circumstances into which the world was entering. PFF2 774.2