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This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Designing the last days : Edward Irving, the Albury Circle, and the theology of The Morning Watch. Patterson, Mark Rayburn The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 10. Oct. 2021 Thesis by Rev. Mark Rayburn Patterson 85O-2.. Designing the Last Days c) Edward Irving, The Albury Circle, and the Theology of The Morning Watch By The Rev. Mark Rayburn Patterson Submitted to King's College, London in fulfillment of the degree of PhD II January2001 Thesis Abstract Ths thesis is an examination of The Morning Watc4 a theological journal pub- lished in London in the early nineteenth century. Arising in the wake of The French Revolution, The Morning Watch was at the center of bourgeoning interest in eschato- logical speculation and scholarly exposition upon the prophetic Scriptures. In 1826 Henry Drummond, MP, invited a coterie of leading prophecy scholars, including Ed- ward Irving, London's most famous preacher, to his Albury Manor to study the biblical prophecies, discern their nonpareil revelation, and correlate this message to the events of their own day. In March of 1829, the Albury Cirde began publishing The Morning Watch for the dissemination of prophetic revelation. This thesis provides an analysis of the journal's content, to determine the a priori and thus determining assumptions of the Albury Circle, their hermeneutical and theological methodology, and the combined ef- fect these bore on shaping doctrine and practice. The contents of the journal reveal that Albury's assumptions and labour were determined wholly by the premise of an imminent Second Advent. Understood as the center and message of the Bible arid the goal of crea- tion—evidenced in the precise progression of historical accidents, the Cirde endeav- oured to correlate the two through a literal-typical hermeneutic. The fusing of this her- meneutic, to a doctrine of historicist revelation, allowed Scripture and history to form a single grand narrative which alone revealed the divine intendment and its temporal mani- festation. The interpretive, dogmatic, and kerygmatic tasks combined, as the Cirde sought to demonstrate the prophetic witness, create a systematic theology around this new center, and proclaim these truths to a faithless age. But instead of reviving church and culture, Albury's assumptions and methodology led to the reinterpretation of Chris- tian doctrine, redefinition of faith, and an assessment their own day and lives entirely shaped by their teleological expectations. 2 For Lthdi Lee WT fl'1T1 r' WT Song of Songs Table oi Contents 'i'liesis A1,stract ....................................................... 2 cicr1ovvledgrnents .................................................. 9 Referencesto Th Morning Watch ....................... 13 Introduction The Vantage of The Morning Watch ..................... 15 1.Headwaters of the Premillennial Stream...............................................................15 2. The Approach of this Study...................................................................................21 Chapter One The Rising Voice of Prophecy and the Founding of the .l'Zc'.rriirzg' T"atcIi .............................................. 25 I. The Contours ofRomantic Apocalypticism...........................................................25 a) Apocalypticism and Milennialism.....................................................................25 b) The Worldview of Premillennial Apocalypticism...............................................27 c)The Epistemology of Romantic Apocalypticism .................................................30 d) Pre-Albuiy Premillennialism..............................................................................34 2. The Rising Voice ofProphecy...............................................................................44 a)Prophecy's Rosetta Stone: The French Revolution .............................................44 b) Prophecy and Professional Exegetes ..................................................................46 3. The Streams Cohere: Irving, Albury, and The Morning Watch............................. 53 a)Edward Irving: The Prophet in a Geneva Gown .................................................53 b) The Albuiy Conferences and the Founding of The Morning Watch...................57 5 Chapter T0 A Paradigm of Certitude: Albury's Hermeneutical Foundation ..................... 63 1. Inspiration. Revelation, and the Word of God......................................................63 a) Inspiration and Revelation................................................................................. 65 b) Inspiration and Scripture's Literal Sense............................................................70 c) Inspiration and the Literal-Typological Henneneutic..........................................76 d) Inspiration and a Unified Narrative Theory........................................................79 e) Inspiration, Prophecy, and the Hermeneutical Task.............................................82 2. The Quest for Certitude: Theology's Pandora 's Box............................................87 a) Shift From Dogmatics to Apologetics ................................................................90 b) Dubious Certitude.............................................................................................92 Chapter Three Prophecy., Revelation, and Revival ........................ 99 1. The Centrality ofProphecy...................................................................................99 a) Prophecy's Grand Narrative.............................................................................100 b) The efficacy of the Prophetic Word..................................................................101 2. Revelation through the Progress of Time............................................................105 a) Hermeneutics and Histoiy................................................................................105 b) Progressive Revelation....................................................................................108 c) Historicist Revelation and the Premillennial System.........................................111 3. Last Days 'Revelation to a Failing Church.........................................................114 a) The Spirit of Antichrist and the Character of the Age......................................114 b) Christendom Seeped in the Spirit of Antichrist................................................120 Chapter Four Doctrine Through the PremillennialForge..................................... 134 1. The Transforming Engine ofHermeneutics........................................................134 a) Last Days Revelation and the Forging of Doctrine............................................136 (1) Dispensations and a Philosophy of History.................................................136 (2) Ecclesiology...............................................................................................139 (3) Christology Through The Premillennial Forge............................................147 (4) The Pretribulation Rapture.........................................................................159 2. The Power ofHermeneutics over Dogma............................................................165 6 Chapter Five The Church With Her Endowment of arid Po'vver .. ......... ................... ............ 168 1. Good News and Controversies................................................................ 168 2. The Shaping Principles ofAlbury's Pneumatology................................. 169 3. The Last Day's Pentecost Begins............................................ 172 a) Expectations of a Last Day's Pentecost ................................ 172 b) The Spirit Comes in Power: Events in Port Glasgow ........... 173 c) Pentecost Comes to London................................................. 179 4. The Church With Her Endowment ofHoliness and Power...... 182 a) Interpreting the Last Days Pentecost..................................... 182 b) The Gifts of the Spirit and a Docetic Christology................. 190 5. Signs of the Times: Miracles before a Faithless Church......... 197 a' The Cirnwini Cricig ........................................................................................197 b) Campbell, Maclean,