The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3

VI. Secular Literature Uses Prophetic Idioms

A definitely antipapal strain also runs through the secular works of the eighteenth century, such as the almanacs of the time, Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac being an example. PFF3 194.3

These almanacs were as common as the Bible in the homes of the people, and had extensive circulations-up to 10,000 copies a year for twenty-five years. ⁴³ The information contained within their covers gave them an honored place. In these almanacs there was frequent allusion to popery. The Catholic Sister Mary Augustina (Ray), before cited, has assembled numerous examples. ⁴⁴ The same emphasis was true of many of the broad sides and the religious pamphlets. ⁴⁵ PFF3 195.1

The newspapers of the time likewise carried frequent advertisements of books, and contained articles and letters warning against the influence of popery and applying to it the commonly used prophetic terms “beast” and “whore of Babylon.” ⁴⁶ A letter to the publishers from “A Puritan” in the Boston Gazette warns of the danger lest- PFF3 195.2

“this enlightened continent should become the worshippers of the Beast.... There is a variety of ways in which Popery, the idolatry of Christians, may be introduced into America; which at present I shall not so much as hint at.... Yet, my dear countrymen-suffer me at this time ... to warn you all, as you value your precious civil Liberty, and everything you can call dear to you, to be upon your guard against Popery.... PFF3 195.3

“Bless me! could our ancestors look out of their graves and see so many of their own sons, deck’d with the worst of foreign Superfluities, the ornaments of the whore of Babylon, how it would break their sacred Repose!” ⁴⁷ ‘ PFF3 195.4

Magazines, too—The American Magazine, The American Museum, The Universal Asylum—though often short-lived, frequently contained the same sentiments. Strong, gripping poems also appeared, like The Last Day (1786), by Edward Young. PFF3 195.5