II. Digby-Champion of Historical Year-Day Principle
WILLIAM DIGBY (1783-1866), Irish archdeacon of Elphin from 1809 to 1823, was educated at the University of Dublin, with an M.A. in 1820. He wrote A Treatise on the 1260 Days of Daniel and Saint John: Being an Attempt to Establish the Conclusion That They Are Years; and also to Fix the Date of Their Commencement and Termination (1831). This was occasioned by S. R. Maitland’s attempt to overthrow the year-day principle and to thrust Antichrist into the future. Later he published Appeal to the Roman Catholic Priesthood of Ireland (1845).PFF3 587.1
1. PAPAL HORN ASCENDANT OVER DIVISIONS
With forceful logic and substantiating facts Digby establishes the partitioning of the Roman fourth world power “into ten separate sovereignties,” followed by “the rise of a new power of a different character-an ecclesiastical character,” that “should soon swallow up the temporalities of some” and afterward “succeed in obtaining an evil ascendant over the whole.” PFF3 587.2
2. ALL PARTIES AGREE ROME WAS PARTITIONED
This power would stand until the Ancient of days would come, and the judgment would sit. The time period of this ecclesiastical phase is not days but years. On the division of Rome into ten kingdoms all opposition parties agree-the papal Machiavelli, the infidel Gibbon, and the Protestants Mede and Isaac Newton. PFF3 588.1
3. PAPAL USURPER’S PERIOD 1260 YEARS
Scouting the Jesuit counterinterpretation of Futurism, now obtruding into Protestantism, Digby affirms that the papal usurper has assumed the place of prophet, priest, and king, and that the beast of Revelation 13, connected with the city of Rome, has long ago made his appearance. The destruction of the empire has “long since been accomplished”; therefore the “days” of the Gothic kings “are not natural days,” but years, and the 1260 days are years.PFF3 588.2
4. 2300 YEARS BEGIN WITH SEVENTY WEEKS; 457 B.C
Similarly, the 2300 days, relating to the pollution and eventual cleansing of the sanctuary, are years, beginning synchronously with the seventy weeks.PFF3 588.3
“Is it not then more reasonable to date its commencement from the commencement of the restoration of that sanctuary in the days of Ezra, which will make it to commence SYNCHRONICALLY with another vision of the same Daniel, respecting the same sanctuary; I mean the vision of the seventy weeks, which I suppose that R.D. will allow to have commenced with the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, and to have terminated (making an allowance for the error of four years which has crept into the common reckoning of the Christian era) Anno Domini 33.” PFF3 588.4
Upon the “understanding the 2300 days to mean years,” he declares:PFF3 588.5
“The time for the cleansing of the sanctuary at Jerusalem has not yet arrived-nor will it for sixteen years yet to come, (making the same allowance again for the error of four years in the chronology.)” PFF3 588.6
5. TERMINUS OF 2300 YEARS ABOUT 1843
In other words. A.D. 1831 + 16 = 1847, and 1847 - 4 -=-= 1813. Digby then contends that the 2300 years should be connected with “that lesser calendar of prophecy,” the 70 weeks, or 490 years. Therefore, “after the expiration of 2300 years from the same memorable period,” of 457 B.C., the Redeemer shall come to Zion, to consume His-enemies with the rod of His mouth, as He comes in the “clouds of heaven, and with all the angels of God as His worshipping attendants.” Thus he concludes:PFF3 589.1
“Then, as Daniel says, shall the sanctuary, after its long continued desolation and treading down beneath the horses hoofs of the robbers of the wilderness, be cleansed-and cleansed, to be polluted no more for ever!” PFF3 589.2
To this Digby joins the “exhaustion of the Ottoman power,” making way for the homeward move of the Jews. When these things are coming to pass, the expiration of the 2300 years is at hand, and is of probable occurrence “within about a dozen years, or a little more, from the present period” -in other words, 1831 + 12-1843, or “a little more.”PFF3 589.3
6. 1260 YEARS DATED FROM 533 TO 1793
Challenging Maitland’s denial of the 1260 year-days to begin “shortly after the ten Gothic horns had sprouted forth” from the fourth beast. Digby refers to the clear understanding of Wyclif, Luther, Jewell, and Mede concerning the papal Antichrist as the “fore doomed Babylon of the New Testament.” He speaks of the witness pouring fortli from “burning lips and burning pens” of true Protestants, in contrast to present “Protestants of a feebler spirit.” He declares that the 1260 days are years, beginning with Justinian’s decree of 533 recognizing the pope as head of all true churches “by sending bishops to him as ambassadors.” This period is not dated from the early inception of the Papacy, or from the beginning of its temporal sovereignty, but from the bestowal of spiritual authority by “Justinian the personator of the dragon”-and Justinian reigned in both East and West, and was promulgator of the laws commonly accepted. A second confirmation of the year-day principle comes from the ending of the 1260 days in 1793 during the French Revolution. And “Babylon the Great is spiritually fallen already.” PFF3 589.4
7. SEVEN TIMES (2520) FROM 723 B.C. TO A.D. 1793
More over, 1260 years is the second half of the times of the Gentiles dated from 723 B.C. Then he submits the following, as he is unwilling to hold a position that is untenable:PFF3 590.1
“I wish to know, what can be advanced against these things, so as to constitute a valid, or even plausible ground of objection to the above scheme of interpretation being admitted.” PFF3 590.2
8. TEN DIVISIONS: THE THREE AND THE SEVEN
Regarding the partitioning of Western Rome, and the diversity in the listing of the ten toes and ten horns of Daniel 2 and 7, some contend that there could be no variation in the names. According to Daniel 7:8, three were to be plucked up before the mysterious eleventh. These Digby lists as the Herulo-Turingi, the Ostrogoths, and the Lombards. PFF3 590.3
This leaves “only seven Gothico-Roman kingdoms to in quire after.” These must be primary kingdoms that have been perpetuated. These Digby lists as the Vandals, Suevi, Alans, Burgundians, Franks, Visigoths, and Anglo-Saxons. These are the ones listed by the “greater majority of the historians, or commentators.” In support he mentions Machiavelli, Mede, Lloyd, Isaac Newton, Bishop Newton, Whiston, and Faber. That is the Irish archdeacon’s concept.PFF3 590.4