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The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4 - Contents
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    II. Ogden-Striking Papal Portrait Painted in Revelation

    UZAL OGDEN, D.D., 3UZAL OGDEN (1744-1822), son of a Newark merchant, studied under an Anglican clergyman of Elizabethtown, and went into missionary work in Sussex County, New Jersey. He was assistant rector of Trinity Church in New York before becoming rector in Newark. He had intellectual gifts, a forceful personality, and a capacity for leadership. Later he was elected first bishop of New Jersey, but his ecclesiastical superiors refused to consecrate him to the office, presumably because of his reputation for laxity in doctrine and his disregard for the order of the Episcopal Church. Besides his two-volume reply to Thomas Paine, he published various sermons and pamphlets. rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey, turned effectively to prophecy as the answer to Deism and infidelity. Refuting Paine’s Age of Reason, he contends, in The Deist Unmasked (1795), that, as the Jews fulfilled prophecy in crucifying Jesus, so also was infidel France in the process of fulfilling prophecy concerning the dire fate of the Papacy. 4Uzal Ogden, Antidote to Deism. The Deist Unmasked, pp. 93, 94. Prophecy, he holds, discloses in outline the “remarkable events” to be experienced by the Christian church from John’s day to the end of the world.PFF4 59.1

    The seven letters to the churches of the Apocalypse relate, he holds, to the circumstances of the churches to whom they are addressed. After chapter five the “prophetical part” covers seven periods in history. The seals Ogden restricts to the early centuries under the pagan Roman emperors (A.D. 95-323), as some others had done. The trumpets he extends from the death of Constantine (337) to the end of the Mohammedan conquests in the West (750). And the third period in the prophetic outline he places under the popes for the prophesied “1260 years.” After the Witnesses of Revelation 11, and the appearance of the “monstrous beast” of Revelation 13—the “new Roman and persecuting power”—comes the vengeance of God, in Revelation 14, to be inflicted upon the Papacy. Then follows the pouring out of the vials of “some great judgment upon the papal kingdom.” This is the general outline of Ogden’s first three periods. 5Ibid., pp. 89, 90.PFF4 59.2

    After all this comes the millennium, the fourth period, in which the church is to “enjoy great peace and prosperity.” But in the fifth period there is to be a “renewed invasion” by the enemies of the church, only to end in their “final ruin.” Next, in the sixth period, comes the general resurrection and last judgment, which terminates in the “seventh grand epoch” that puts the saints “in possession of a state of unceasing triumph and happiness in the heavenly world,” and then the church shall “triumph over all her foes.” 6Ibid., pp. 90, 91. This, he says, is the declared truth of inspiration, and in support cites Bishop Thomas Newton on the rule of the pope in the Christian church as depicted by Daniel and Paul, and especially by John in the Apocalypse.PFF4 59.3

    Ogden quotes Newton’s summary of the four world powers of prophecy, with the Roman fourth divided into ten lesser kingdoms, and the power with the “triple crown” that followed, casting down truth to the ground. And then there are the Mohammedan Turks, stretching forth their hands in desolation. But it is the great apostasy in the church, with its darkening worship of saints and angels, forbidding to marry, et cetera, and the seven churches of Asia overrun by Islam, which is depicted by their candlesticks being removed. And the ultimate depiction is that of the “beast and the false prophet, and the whore of Babylon,” in the city on the seven hills. Ogden concludes with Newton’s striking observation: “If the bishop of Rome had sat for his picture, a greater resemblance and likeness could not have been drawn.” 7Ibid., pp. 92, 93.PFF4 60.1

    He further cited Newton on the destruction of “anti-christ, or the papal power,” as clearly foretold in Revelation 18. Ogden adds that, though the beginning of its ruin doubtless was at the time of the Reformation, it will be advanced by the contemporaneous French Revolution, its total destruction impending in the not distant future. In support he cites “Dr. Linn,” 8On Dr. William Linn, see Prophetic Faith, Vol. III, pp. 227, 228. at one time acting president of Queen’s College (later Rutgers). Such is the emphasis of this respected Episcopalian rector in New Jersey.PFF4 60.2

    Picture 1: PRESIDENT JOHN QUINCY ADAMS’ CALL to PRAYER IN 1798
    This Solemn appeal, in broadside form, resulted in the delivery of numerous sermons on prophecy preached on this appointed day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer-May 9, 1798. To the side are two early stalwarts in the prophetic exposition field; (left) Timothy Dwight, president of yale, and (right) Elias boudinot, president of the continental congress in 1782 and director of the mint
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    PFF4 60

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