“Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”  As before mentioned, God’s people during the reign of Romanism expected her universal supremacy to come to an end, and their patience was greatly exercised in waiting for the appointed time to arrive.  It came with a great spiritual reformation.  Then followed another period of apostasy, during which time God’s people again looked forward to something better in the future.  Many remarkable predictions of this present holiness reformation were uttered by some of the most spiritual saints during the Protestant era, and I can not refrain from mentioning a few of them in this connection.

D’Aubigne:  “The nineteenth century is called to resume the work which the sixteenth century was unable to accomplish.”  History of the Reformation, Book XV, Chap. 1.

Fletcher:  “Only He will come with more mercy, and will increase the light that shall be at eventide, according to his promise in Zech. 14:7.  I should rather think that the visions are not yet plainly disclosed; and that the day and hour in which the Lord will begin to make bare his arm openly are still concealed from us.  Oh, when will the communion of saints be complete?  Lord, hasten the time; and let me have a place among them that love thee, and love one another in sincerity.”  This is an extract from a letter written by John Fletcher to Mr. Wesley, dated London, May 26, 1757, as given in Joseph Benson’s life of Fletcher, pp. 39, 40.

D’Aubigne again:  “In every age it has been seen how great is the strength of an idea to penetrate the masses, to stir nations, and to hurry them, if required, by thousands to the battle-field and to death.  But if so great be the strength of a human idea, what power must not a heaven-descended idea possess, when God opens to it the gates of the heart!  The world has not often seen so much power at work; it was seen, however, in the early days of Christianity, and in the time of the Reformation; and it will be seen in future ages.”  Book VI, Chap. 12.

“It has been said that the three last centuries, the sixteenth, the seventeenth, and the eighteenth, may be conceived as an immense battle of three days’ duration.  We willingly adopt this beautiful comparison....  The first day was the battle of God, the second the battle of the priest, the third the battle of reason.  What will be the fourth?  In our opinion, the confused strife, the deadly contest of all these powers together, to end in the victory of Him to whom triumph belongs.”  Book XI, Chap. 9.

Lorenzo Dow, comment on Rev. 14:6-11; 18:1-5:  “The angel, or extraordinary messenger, with his assistants, proclaiming the fall of Babylon will be known in his time.  Also the one warning the people of God to come out of Babylon literally, spiritually, and practically, will be known also, and such other threatening for the omission of compliance is not to be found in all the Bible.”  Dow’s Works, p. 533.