II.Providences Behind the Translation of Lacunza

The Lacunza or Ben-Ezra, volume-La Venida del Mesias en Gloria y Magestad-printed in Cadiz, Spain, during the brief period of freedom enjoyed under the government of the Cortes, was suppressed as soon as the Inquisition recovered its power. In 1816 a large Spanish edition was printed in England for circulation in South America exclusively, with no copies retained in England. Later Agier’s abridgment could be had in France, where Lewis Way, the English clergyman in Paris, saw it.PFF3 518.1

Meanwhile a Church of England clergyman who was laboring in Spain brought back a copy of an early edition to England. It became the subject of correspondence among the persons afterward assembled and represented at the Albury Park Conference, and plans were laid to translate portions of it into English.PFF3 518.2

While this was going on, Lewis Way, who for some time “standing in his watchtower” in his English pulpit in Paris, had been “crying aloud the Advent truth,” came to England to regain his health. Hearing of the prophetic sermons of Irving, who on Christmas, 1825, had begun to preach regularly on the second advent, he asked a friend to take notes on Irving’s messages and give them to him for study. It so happened that this friend was the very one who had much to do with the revision of the partial translations of Lacunza. So the notes of Irving’s discourses and the pages of Lacunza often met on the same table in London, on their way to their different destinations. Noting the substantial agreement of the two, this friend brought the “Ben-Ezra” volume to Irving, who had been studying Spanish. Irving was gripped by its clear message, and determined that it should be translated in entirety. Recognizing it as a master work, he sought to learn the identity of “Ben-Ezra, a Hebrew Christian.” Then Way came to London and met Irving. Discussing the theme of mutual interest, Way told of the great treatise of the Spanish Jesuit Lacunza, which he had seen only in the French abridgment, while Irving related the plans for translating Ben-Ezra. To the surprise of both, the information arrived that Ben-Ezra was none other than Lacunza. ^{10Edward Irving, “The Translator’s Preliminary Discourse,” in The Coming of Messiah (his English version of Lacunza’s La Venida), vol. 1, pp. xvi-xx.}PFF3 518.3

Then an unexpected opportunity came to Irving. Grieving over the recent death of his child, and being none too well, he was urged by his congregation to take a summer’s rest in the country. The two opportunities joined, and resulted in his undertaking the full translation.PFF3 519.1

He “prevented the dawning of the morning,” and ended his task for the day only when the shades of evening made further work impossible. ^{11Wilks, of. cit., pp. 273-275.} When his eyes and hands failed, his wife became eyes and hands for him. Thus they labored to make it their 1826 Christmas offering for the church. ^{12Edward Irvins, “Preliminary Discourse.”} Just before he finished the translation, he obtained a copy of the more accurate 1826 Ackermann edition, which enabled him to collate it with the 1812 edition. ^{13Ibid., p. xxi.}PFF3 519.2

It was while engaged in the translation of Lacunza’s book that Irving was invited to the Albury Park Prophetic Conference, where the participants decided to be their forces and convert a guerrilla warfare into a more general or regular campaign. ^{14Miller, op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 28, 29.} This “worthy old Jesuit,” as Irving denominates Lacunza, was one of God’s people in the midst of Babylon. ^{15Irving, op. cit., p. xxiii.} And this was the more impressed upon Irving as he had come to sense the “antichristian condition of most, I had almost said all, the Protestant churches abroad.” ^{16Ibid., p. xxiv.}PFF3 519.3

Irving began the dedication of his English translation with the expression of this soul burden:PFF3 519.4

“My soul is greatly afflicted because of the present unawakened and even dead condition of all the churches, with respect to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, which draweth nigh, and which, as I believe, is close at hand.” ^{17Ibid., p. i.}PFF3 519.5

He then told how he felt it his duty to translate this Spanish volume that demonstrated from Scripture “the erroneousness of the opinion, almost universally entertained amongst us.” In his early study and preaching, Irving had paid little attention to the prophecies of the advent. Then his eyes were opened, but he deliberated further for months, to be sure he was not in error. His first book, Babylon and Infidelity Foredoomed of God, in 1826, was the result of his study. ^{18Ibid., pp. iii, iv.} Then having “broken ground,” he felt it necessary to take strong defensive positions. Among these was the belief that “the first droppings” of the latter rain were discerned in the religious revivals of recent years. ^{19Ibid., p. v.}PFF3 519.6

Irving’s translation of Lacunza was published in 1827. By the summer of 1829 he had written a second volume, on Daniel, and had helped to launch The Morning Watch.PFF3 520.1