The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-12-12 00:00:00

DOWNFALL OF THE PAPACY

The arrival of the Pope at Gaeta may be, and no doubt
is, a perfect God-send to the King of Naples ; but the
fact of his being anywhere beyond the shadow of the
" seven hills'ris a staggering blow to Popery. The event
is a most extraordinary verification of the prophecy of
Robert Fleming, to which we have recently alluded. We
have before us a reprint of the first edition of that singular
discourse, published in 1701. It is entitled " The Rise
and Fall of Rome Papal." In a preface to the present
edition, we learn that " the principal object of this dis-
course is to give a new resolution to the grand apocalyii-
tical question concerning the- rise and fall of the great
Anti-Christ or Rome Papal. Mr. Fleming supposes itS
rise to be announced by the sounding of the fifth trumpet,
the consequent fall of the star from heaven being an en
blem of the departure of the Bishop of Rome from the
spiritual heaven of his primitive glory and purity. This
first rise of Anti-Christ he dates in A.D. 606, when the
Pope first received the title of Supreme and Universal
Bishop, from which he computes that his reign of 1260
prophetic years' duration will expire in the present year,
1848. But as he reckons its full rise did not take place
till 758, when the Pope was first invested with indepen-
dent temporal authority, he supposes it will continue to
exist till the year 2000, though in a greatly weakened
state." To borrow the language of Fleming himself.
" I do further suppose that the fifth vial (Rev. xvi. 10, 11)
which is to be poured out on the seat of the beast, or the domi-
nions more immediately belcnging to, and dependent upon, the
Roman see:. I say this judgment will probably begin
about the year 1794, and expire about 1848. So that the dura-
tion of it, upon this supposition, will be the space of fifty-four
years. For Ido suppose, that seeing the- Pope received the
title of supreme bishop no sooner than 606, he cannot be sup-
posed to have any vial poured out upon his seat immediately
so as to ruin his authority so signally as this judgment must
be supposed to do), until the year 1848, which is the date of the
1260 years, in prophetical account, when they are reckoned
from 606. But yet we are not to imagine that this vial will to-
tally destroy the papacy (though it will exceedingly weaken it),
for we find this still in being and alive when the next vial is
poured out."
The next vial is the sixth, and Fleming supposes that it
will be poured out on the Mahometan Anti-Christ,. and
tlll9aoto.thewfailtlhoofuttghievinTgurvkeinst to
Turkish
will
of in
fanati-
cism or superstition, one canrot help but be deeply im-
pressed with the fact of recent events being so remark-
ably answerable to the predictions of the Scotch clergy-
man of the seventeenth century. Well acquainted as
Fleming evidently was with the works of the fathers of the
Christian Church and the Rabbinical writings, he owed
emthpeire suggestions
his inspiration to a higher source—the living truths of the
gospel. After the verification of his prediction of the
fall of the French monarchy at the close of the last cen-
tury, and now again the singular realisation of the pro-
phecy relating to Rome Papal, it is impossible to help
thinking that he has hit upon the true interpretation of
the mysteries and symbolic figures of the Apocalypse.