The Non-Preterist Historicalism of John Calvin and the Westminster Standards

"It was God…Who delivered into the hands of that [Roman] king the saints…and the institutions of piety — allowing him to pour out promiscuously human blood; to violate every national right; and to ruin as far as possible all religion.” In God’s good time, it is certain that “these calamities should come to an end…. [Yet] 'for a time and times and the division of a time'…license would be given to the tyrants and enemies of the Church — to pervert all things, to despise God, and set aside all justice….

"[However,] he says also, 'judgment shall then sit'; that is, God shall again restore to order…. The world shall feel His Providence ruling over the earth and the human race…. The restoration is here called a 'sitting in judgment' — when the Roman Empire was blotted out….