The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3

IV. Noyes-Prophecies Basis of Election Sermon

NICHOLAS NOYES (1647-1717), poet and pastor at Haddam, Connecticut, for thirteen years, and then pastor at Salem, Massachusetts, was born at Newbury, Massachusetts. He was a Harvard graduate-an M.A. of 1667-and was ordained in 1683. He ultimately adopted the advent view of the Mathers. In 1698 he preached the annual election sermon, in which he maintained that the thousand years were yet future. In 1702 he wrote Last Conflagration Will Not Annihilate but Purify the Earth, Bringing Times of Restitution. With Cotton Mather and others he had promoted the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692, for all of which he afterward publicly confessed his error. In 1703 Cotton Mather discussed the millennial times with Noyes, who was still a bit hazy. Then Mather’s ninety-one-page letter-essay “Concerning the Happy Estate” ⁴⁵ apparently drew him over to a full acceptance. PFF3 156.5

1. PROPHECIES THE BASIS OF OUR FAITH

Noyes preached the election sermon in 1698, published as New-England’s Duty and Interest, to be an Habitation of Justice, and Mountain of Holiness, concerning the reformations promised for the last days. In a supporting introduction John Higginson, pastor at Salem, laid down the principle that “we are not to expect full under standing of the prophecies until they be fulfilled”; nevertheless, the prophecies are the “ground of our Faith, Hope and Prayer, relating to their Accomplishment.” ⁴⁶ PFF3 157.1

2. 1260-YEAR PERIOD OF ANTICHRIST’S REIGN

After referring to the promised “Resurrection of the Witnesses,” from “Romish Idolatry and Tyranny,” Noyes says: PFF3 157.2

“The Lord Jesus held some kind of possession of. the West Empire during the 1260 years of Antichrist’s Reign, by his Witnesses that Prophesied all that time, though in Sackcloth. He hath held possession likewise in the East Empire, notwithstanding the fury and cruelty of the Arabian and Saracen or Mahometan Harpyes.” ⁴⁷ PFF3 157.3

3. ANTICHRIST’S DAY OF RETRIBUTION COMING

He then refers to the known and expected destruction of Antichrist: PFF3 157.4

“What if Antichrist Exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, and sitteth in the Temple of God, and hath done so above a thousand years; is not that Man of Sin, a Son of perdition? Doth not God see; yea and his people too, that his day is coming? 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4, 8.” ⁴⁸ PFF3 157.5

4. METALLIC IMAGE STANDING ON “LAST LEGGS

As the basis of his belief in that imminence, he cites the prophecy of the great image of Daniel 2, as well as the state of the Turk: PFF3 157.6

“Nebuchadnezzars Image standing upon his last Leggs, and it seemeth as if both of them had received a blow from the Stone cut out of the mountain without hands, that maketh them stagger. It is probable, Delay will not be much longer. The Great Turk, the Oppressor of the Jews & Eastern Christians, seemeth to be at his last prayers, and they likelier to reconcile him to Hell, than to Heaven. And considering what is said of the Kings of the East, Revelation 16:12. and of the Western Kings, Revelation 17:16. We ought to expect and pray for the coming of the time, when the Kingdoms of this World shall become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Revelation 11:15.” ⁴⁹ PFF3 158.1

Noyes believed that the American continent would “par take of the goodness of God in the latter days.” ⁵⁰ PFF3 158.2