The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3

III. Justice Sewall-First Resurrected Ones Not Touched by Fire

SAMUEL SEWALL (1652-1730), colonial jurist and learned layman, is the last witness of the seventeenth century we shall note. He was born at Bishopstoke, England, but was brought to New England when only nine. Educated at Harvard, from which he received his M.A., he tutored for a while and studied divinity, “was Keeper of the College Library,” and preached occasionally. Then Increase Mather and Samuel Willard, both writers on prophecy, offered him the management of the only licensed press at Boston. PFF3 134.6

This press Sewall carried from 1681 to 1684. ⁵⁸ Then he embarked on a political career. From 1692 to 1728 he was judge of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, and also served as one of the judges at the Salem witchcraft trials in 1692. ⁵⁹ Later, convinced of the innocence of the victims, he had the courage to make a public confession before the Old South Church, in Boston, of his error and sorrow. ⁶⁰ He was chief justice for Massachusetts from 1718 to 1728. (Portrait on page 144.) PFF3 135.1

Sewall was one of the first Americans to renounce and denounce the crime of Negro slavery as practiced in New England, and wrote the earliest work against slavery printed in Massachusetts, ⁶¹ The Selling of Joseph-a Memorial (1700). ⁶² In the form of a lawyer’s brief, fortified by Scripture and illuminated by high ethical principles, it was a statement followed by a series of four objections and their answers. PFF3 135.2

In religious faith Sewall was a lifetime student of prophecy ⁶³ and a strong pre-millennialist. In 1649 he became a com missioner of the “Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.” In his Phaenomena quaedam Apocalyptica ... A Description of the New Heaven (1697),” ⁶⁴ he maintains that those who have part in the first resurrection will not be hurt by the lake of fire, ⁶⁵ which is prepared for those raised in the second resurrection. He also wrote Proposals Touching the Accomplishment of Prophesies Humbly Offered (1713). This work shows a remarkable familiarity with Old and New World writers on prophecy, citing them and giving exact documentation, though on some matters Sewall is more hazy than other writers. PFF3 135.3

1. PLAGUES BEING POURED OUT; SIXTH AFFECTS PAPACY

Sewall cites many writers on prophecy and declares the probability that five of the vials had already been poured out, as noted in “Rome’s gradual Decay.” ⁶⁶ He further suggests that the pouring out of the sixth vial will dry up “the Antichristian Interests in the New World” as well. He questions Brightman’s coupling of Revelation 16:16 with Daniel 11:45, and suggests: “For Euphrates must needs be parcel of the waters upon which the Whore sits at the time when this great river comes to be dried up.” ⁶⁷ Sewall’s concept had evidently been derived from Cotton, whose weekly lectures on the Revelation, formerly given at Boston, are approvingly mentioned. ⁶⁸ He had no sympathy with “Alcasar’s dream” of Preterist interpretation, which had been adopted by some Protestants in Europe. ⁶⁹ PFF3 136.1

2. TEN KINGS TO EXECUTE VENGEANCE ON ROME

Alluding to the fifth seal and the “Invasions of Antichrist,” Sewall specifies the “dreadfull Massacres and Murthers of the Waldenses in Piedmont.” ⁷⁰ Of the retribution to come upon Rome, he adds, “When the Seventh Vial’s Turn comes, the Ten Kings will do it perfectly, and with a Vengeance. For Rome will be reserved untill then.” ⁷¹ PFF3 136.2

3. ANTICHRIST’S END AFTER TYRANNIZING NEW WORLD

In his second work Sewall admonishes looking for the second advent as “very seasonable.” ⁷² Holding the Papacy to be the power of the latter part of Daniel 11 to come to its end, he says: PFF3 136.3

“When Antichrist should clamber up to the top of his imperial Tyranny, by extending it over the New World also; then he was to come to his End.” ⁷³ PFF3 137.1

4. WITNESSES SLAIN WITHIN BEAST’S JURISDICTION

Citing Goodwin, Phillipot, and Jurieu, Sewall agrees with them that the “Two Witnesses” are to be slain in the French part of the great Babylonian “City”-in its “street.” ⁷⁴ In any event, it “must be within the compass of the Beast’s Jurisdiction.” ⁷⁵ PFF3 137.2