Chapter 12 Thanksgiving and the Apocalypse: Two Eighteenth-Century Sermons
In: Early Modern Prophecies in Transnational, National and Regional Contexts (3 vols.)Search for other papers by Warren Johnston in
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Abstract
This chapter contains an “Introduction” and annotations to Joseph Jacob’s Desolations Decypher’d and the Kingdom of Christ Discover’d … (London: 1705) and Richard Dobbs’s A Remarkable Accomplishment of a Noted Scripture … (London: 1762). These two works are printed versions of sermons for occasions of British national public thanksgiving in the early and the mid eighteenth century. Each of the sermons contains detailed and extensive application of apocalyptic fulfilment. The existence of this type of prophetic exegesis in association with prominent occasions of public commemoration belies both the commonly-held opinion that such ideas had lost their importance and pertinence in the previous century, and the idea that eighteenth-century preachers and churchmen saw apocalyptic beliefs as “too dangerous” for the pulpit.