The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: A Feminine Touch on the Prophecies

I. Charlotte Elizabeth-Weaves Prophetic Thread Through Writings

CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH [Tonna] ¹ (1790-1846), gifted miscellaneous writer and editor, was born in Norwich, her father being an English rector. In her youth she was deprived of her sight for months following eyestrain from excessive study. Leaning toward a literary vocation, she resolved to become a novel writer. But her plans were changed when she married Captain George Phelan and later moved to Ireland. While there she wrote a tract for the Dublin Tract Society. Then she began to write in earnest, under her given names. After live years in Ireland she moved to Clifton, where she continued her literary work. PFF3 640.1

Charlotte Elizabeth is listed as the author of thirty works, two and a half columns being required in the British Museum catalogue for her numerous writings, some of which involved much research. In 1834 she founded the Christian Lady’s Magazine, which she continued to edit until her death. In 1837 she published an abridgment of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, in two volumes. She was editor of the Protestant Annual in 1840, and of the Protestant Magazine from 1841 until her death in 1846. PFF3 640.2

She was a “very successful religions writer,” ² and her influence was widely fell. Strongly Evangelical in her views, she wrote a number of anti-Catholic tracts and Orange songs, including “The Maiden City,” which became quite popular. ³ Because of her hostility to the Church of Rome, some of her works were placed on the Index Expurgatorius. ⁴ Her writings were denounced and forbidden by the archbishop of Sienna. Her last work was War With, the Saints-the story of the crusades against the Albigenses and Waldenses. She possessed a rather elegant pen style and was one of the very few women in Britain to write on prophecy in the nineteenth-century Advent Awakening. She suffered from cancer the last eighteen months of her life, at which time she developed a roll-of-paper apparatus for her writing, so that her manuscripts were literally written “by the yard.” ⁵ PFF3 640.3

In her Personal Recollections, in 1841, Charlotte Elizabeth tells first of her opposition to, and then of her wholehearted acceptance of, pre-millennialism. ⁶ Her paths had crossed those of Joseph Wolff, missionary herald of the advent. There was a struggle in England over greater British recognition of the Papacy-the “healing measure” of 1829. ⁷ The wrong of renewing “the ancient alliance with Antichrist,” and of giving “the priests of Baal authority to legislate for the ordering of God’s temple,” ⁸ roused her to action. In her conclusions she was influenced by the protests of Hugh M’Neilc, who “always proceeded on the simple fact that Popery is Antichrist.” ⁹ PFF3 641.1

In 1829 she told how the gospel had been preached in Britain in early days, probably by an apostle, and an independent church established. Opposition developed “to the Romish dele gate, Augustine [in the fifth century], when he was deputed to incorporate this country in the growing mass of papal dependencies.” ¹⁰ Then, she adds, “Rome, not then arrived at the full stature of the Apocalyptic Beast, prevailed.” And, “once subjugated, England lay at the foot of the Popes, from generation to generation, with now and then a movement towards free dom.” ¹¹ After recounting the fluctuating fortunes of the days of Henry VIII, Bloody Mary, Elizabeth, and James I, followed by-Charles I, she expresses her alarm at the prospect of new capitulations. ¹² PFF3 641.2

In London ministers like Howels and Irving had been active in preaching down such heresy. Both men were bold and direct in dealing with the perils of popery, and influenced her thinking. ¹³ Charlotte Elizabeth was also greatly strengthened by her work of abridging into two volumes the large English martyrology by Foxe. ¹⁴ Especially impressed with Irving, she could not at first go along with his teaching on the advent. ¹⁵ She still believed the first resurrection to be mystical-“of the souls of the martyrs, whose spirits were to animate the happy race of believers during a thousand years.” ¹⁶ Finally, the inconsistencies of it all became untenable. PFF3 642.1

Gripped by the truth of the imminent advent, she tells of the “efforts the enemy has made to stifle this doctrine.” For example, the “check” given by the later defections of Irvingism was “very great.” ¹⁷ Accepting the advent truth, and its prophetic setting, she thenceforth weaves this theme, like a golden thread, through her subsequent writing. Thus she says: PFF3 642.2

“We are looking in breathless anxiety for the next movement among the powers of Europe, in reference to the east. Since the great blow was struck at Navarino, the drying up of the Euphrates has been progressive and without a pause. A sudden movement among the mountaineers of Syria has brought all Europe into the Land of Promise as a battlefield; and though only the preliminary alarm has yet sounded, in comparison with what is to follow, still there is a general impression even among those who would scoff at the mention of Armageddon, that in the very spot pointed out by Scripture will the great conflict of warring kingdoms take place. Blessed are they that watch!” ¹⁸ PFF3 642.3

1. “PROTESTANT MAGAZINE” GIVES PROPHETIC SLANT

As its name might suggest, The Protestant, Magazine, edited by Charlotte Elizabeth, carried a monthly article dealing with the prophetic side of the “apostasy of the Church of Rome.” ¹⁹ In one issue the writer states that the face of Rome carries on it “the characteristic lineaments of Antichrist,” ²⁰ and the prophetic symbols are presented in support. In a personal article, “Leaves from an Old Almanac,” the editor writes, “The drunken harlot by whom the apostasy was typified, bore on her forehead the word ‘MYSTERY.’” ²¹ Book reviews of works on prophecy were frequent, ²² and the witness of the reformers on prophecy is recited. ²³ Forthright and fearless, Charlotte Elizabeth declares that when she accepted the editorship of The Protestant Magazine she “threw away the scabbard of that spiritual sword with which a combat was to be waged against the Papal Antichrist.” ²⁴ Such was the witness of a journal outside the prophetic expositor class. PFF3 642.4

2. PROPHETIC DEPICTIONS APPLIED TO PAPACY

In Charlotte Elizabeth’s last work, titled War With the Saints, written while she was fatally ill with cancer, chapter 2 portrays vividly the power, wealth, and grandeur of the Papacy under the ambitious Innocent III. Here are sample sentences: “You see before you the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition, engaged in his fore shown work of opposing and exalting himself.” “Beneath him, and around him, swell the seven hills of ‘that great city which ruleth over the kings of the earth.’” “There, where the river of mystic Babylon, the Tiber, rolls sluggishly along....” ²⁵ And again, in describing the beast of the Apocalypse which is to make war with the saints, and to overcome them, she identifies it as in “every way identical with papal Rome.” ²⁶ She stands in amazement that, with the solemn truths of inspired prophecy before them, “historians of the past, or politicians of the present days, can deal with this subject as with any ordinary matter, where natural causes produce natural effects.” ²⁷ PFF3 643.1

3. WEARS Our SAINTS FOR ALLOTTED PERIOD

The chapter on “The Wearing Out” detail the devisings of Innocent III in turning the machinery of the Inquisition on the Albigenses and Waldenses of Piedmont for their extirpation. The prophetic application is based on the “predicted reign” of Daniel’s Little Horn, which would wear out the saints for “a time, and times, and half a time.” ²⁸ And John, she adds, sees the same power warring against the saints, with “the Great Harlot, seated on thatbeast,” drunken with the blood of saints-the martyrs of Jesus Christ. Then the witness of Christ Himself is cited, as His followers were to be delivered up, afflicted, and killed. “Thus, we observe, first, that for a certain allotted period, the man of sin was to have dominion.” “Such is the infallible portraiture of the condition, and the destiny of the people of God during the reign of Antichrist.” ²⁹ PFF3 644.1

4. UNPRECEDENTED TROUBLE BEFORE THE END

In Principalities and Powers in Heavenly Places, Section IX deals with “Satanic Wrath, as the End Draws Near.” ³⁰ Declaring that through inspired prophecy the history of the future is no less certain than the history of the past, Charlotte Elizabeth refers to the unprecedented trouble predicted for the world just before the end. Of this she writes: PFF3 644.2

“This is mentioned as taking plate at the time of the destruction of what we have every reason to believe is the Turkish empire; and synchronising with the duration of that empire, is the period of 1260 days mentioned in Revelation 12:6.” ³¹ PFF3 644.3

While oppression has marked its past history, yet just before the end “we are led to expect a very great accession of devilish power at that time, when the Lord is approaching to destroy that Deceiver with the brightness of His coming.” ³² PFF3 644.4

5. IN LAST HOUR OF THE NIGHT WATCH

The “general expectation, prevailing more and more throughout the church of our Lord’s promised coining,” gives added assurance:” ³³ But this is being countered by such extremes as the tongues manifestations in Irvingism, and the subversive teachings of the Oxford Movement. ³⁴ PFF3 645.1

Even now popery is “heaping up its stately piles of architecture,” filling in its “secret recesses” with a “vast, machinery” for carrying on her great objectives.” ³⁵ But soon “the mother of harlots is hurled from her proud seat, where she sits a queen, and now boasts that she is no widow.” Not till her “utter burning with fire, all coming upon her in one day, then, and not till then, shall the night watch of the Church give place to the glories of a day that knows no going down of the sun.” PFF3 645.2

“That this time is not now tar off, we have abundant proofs in the signs that thicken around us. The period that remains is but as an hour, and surely we may watch with the Lord that one hour.” ³⁶ PFF3 645.3

Such is the story of a talented laywoman who was won to the advent doctrine and wove its truths into her lifework. PFF3 645.4