tury (5) profeffeth his belief of the kingdom promised to the faints upon earth, of their refurrection for a thoufand years, of their living in the new Jerufalem, and therein enjoying all fpiritual delights, and of the deftruction of the world and the general judgment after the thousand years: and his books of Paradife and of the hope of the faithful, if they had not been loft or fuppreffed, might have afforded ampler proofs of all thefe particulars. Lactantius at the beginning of the fourth century (6) is very copious upon this fubject in the feventh book of his Divine Inftitutions. He faith, 'Becaufe all the works of God were finished in fix days, it is neceffary that the world fhould remain in this state fix ages, that is fix thousand years.' And again, 'because having finished the works he refted on the feventh day, and bleffed it; it is neceffary that at the ⚫ end of the fixth thoufandth year all wickednefs fhould be abolished out of the earth, and juftice fhould reign for a thousand years.' He faith, "When the Son of God 'fhall have deftroyed injuftice, and fhall have restored the juft to life, he fhall be converfant among men a thousand years, and fhall rule them with most just government. At the fame time the prince of devils hall be bound with chains, and shall be in cuftody the thousand years of the heavenly kingdom, while juftice fhall reign in the world, left he fhould attempt any evil against the people of God.'. He faith, When

(5) Nam et confitemur in terra nobis regnum repromiffum; &c. Tertull. adverf. Marcion. Lib. 3. Cap. 24. Edit. Rigaltii Paris. 1675.

(6) Quoniam fex diebus cuncta Dei opera, perfecta funt; per fæcula fex, id eft annorum fex millia manere hoc ftatu mundum neceffe eft.-Et rurfus, quoniam perfectis operibus requievit die feptimo, eumque benedixit; neceffe eft, ut in fine fexti millefimi anni malitia omnis oboleatur è terra, et regnet per annos mille juftitia. Cap. 14. Verum ille, cum deleverit injuftitiam,-ac juftos, qui a principio fuerunt, ad vitam reftauraverit, mille annis inter homines ver

fabitur, eofque juftiffimo imperio reget.-Sub idem tempus etiam prin ceps dæmonum catenis vincietur, et erit in cuftodia mille annis cœleftis imperii, quo juftitia in orbe regnabit, ne quod malum adverfus populum Dei moliatur. Cap. 24. Sed idem. cum mille anni regni, hoc eft feptem millia cæperint terminari; folvetur denuo, &c. Cum vero completi fuerint mille anni,-fiet, fecunda illa, et publica omnium refurrectio, in qua excitabuntur injufti ad cruciatus fempiternos.-Hæc eft doctrina fantorum prophetarum, quam Christiani fequimur; hæc noftra fapientia. Cap.

26.

the

the thousand years of the kingdom, that is feven thou→ 'fand years fhall draw towards a conclufion, Satan fhall be loofed again: and when the thousand years fhall be completed, then fhall be that fecond and public re'furrection of all, wherein the unjuft fhall be raised to everlafting torments.' And having inlarged upon these topics he concludes, "This is the doctrin of the holy prophets which we Chriftians follow; this is our wifdom. In fhort, the doctrin of the millennium was generally believed in the three firft and pureft ages; and this belief, as the (7) learned Dodwell hath juftly obferved, was one principal caufe of the fortitude of the primitive Chriftians; they even coveted martyrdom, in hopes of being partakers of the privileges and glories of the martyrs in the first resurrection.

Afterwards the doctrin grew into disrepute for various reafons. Some both Jewish and Chriftian writers haye debased it with a mixture of fables; they have defcribed the kingdom more like a fenfual than a spiritual kingdom, and thereby they have not only expofed themfelves, but (what is infinitely worfe) the doctrin itfelf to contempt and ridicule. It hath fuffered by the mifreprefentations of its enemies, as well as by the indifcretions of its friends; many, like (8) Jerome, have charged the millennarians with abfurd and impious opinions. which they never held; and rather than they would admit the truth of the doctrin, they have not fcrupled to call in queftion the genuinnefs of the book of the Revelation. It hath been abufed eyen to worfe purposes; it hath been made an engine of faction; and turbulent fanatics, under the pretence of faints, have afpired to dominion, and disturbed the peace of civil fociety. Befides wherever the influence and authority of the church of Rome have extended, the hath endevored by all means to difcredit this doctrin; and indeed not without futfi

(7) Jam in millennii regno primam fore refurrectionem corporum crediderunt primævi Chriftiani, Et ut juftorum propriam eam crediderunt refurrectionem, ita martyrum in ea portionem longe effe præcipuam.Hæc cum ita crederentur, dici nequit

A

quantum martyres illius ætatis martyrii ftudio inflammarint. Dodwelli Differt. Cyprian XII, De Martyrum, fortitudina. Sect. 20, 21.

(8) See Mede's Works, B. 5. Chap. 5. D. Hieronymi Pronunciata de Dogmate millennariorum, p. 897. a 3

cient

cient reason, this kingdom of Chrift being founded on the ruins of the kingdom of Antichrift. No wonder therefore that this doctrin lay depreffed for many ages, but it fprang up again at the Reformation, and will florith together with the study of the Revelation. All the danger is, on one fide, of pruning and lopping it too fhort, and on the other, of fuffering it to grow too wild and luxuriant. Great caution, fobernefs, and judgment are required to keep the middle courfe. We fhould neither with fome interpret it into an allegory, nor depart from the litteral fenfe of feripture without abfolute neceffity for fo doing. Neither fhould we with others indulge an extravagant fancy, nor explain too curiously the manner and circumftances of this future ftate. It is fafeft and beft faithfully to adhere to the words of fcripture, or to fair deductions from fcripture; and to reft contented with the general account, till time fhall accomplish and eclaircife all the particulars.

7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan fhall be loofed out of his prifon.

8 And fhall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle; the number of whom is as the fand of the fea.

9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compaffed the camp of the faints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and deyoured them.

10 And the devil that deceived them, was caft into the lake of fire and brimftone, where the beaft and the falfe prophet are, and thall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

At the expiration of the thoufand years (ver. 7--10.) the restraint fhall be taken off from wickednefs, and for a little feafon as was faid before, (ver. 3.) Satan fhall be loofed out of his prison, and make one effort more to re-establish his kingdom. As he deceived our fift parents in the paradifiacal state, fo he fhall have the artifice to deceive the nations in this millennial kingdom,

to

to fhow that no ftate or condition upon earth is exempted and fecured from finning. The nations, whom he fhall deceive, are defcribed as living in the remoteft parts of the world; in the four quarters of the earth, εν ταις τεσσαρσι, γωνίαις της γης, in the four angles or corners of the earth; and they are diftinguished by the name of Gog and Magog, and are faid to be as numerous as the fand of the fea. Gog and Magog feem to have been formerly the general name of the northern nations of Europe and Afia, as the Scythians have been fince, and the Tartars are at prefent. In Ezekiel there is a famous prophecy concerning Gog and Magog, and this prophecy alludes to that in many particulars. Both that of Ezekiel and this of St. John remain yet to be fulfilled; and therefore we cannot be abfolutely certain that they may not both relate to the fame event, but it appears more probable that they relate to different events. The one is expected to take effect before, but the other will not take effect till after, the millennium. Gog and Magog in Ezekiel are faid exprefly (XXXVIII. 6, 15. XXXIX. 2.) to come from the north-quarters and the north-parts, but in St. John they come from the four quarters or corners of the earth. Gog and Magog in Ezekiel bend their forces against the Jews refettled in their own land, but in St. John they march up against the faints and church of God in general, Gog and Magog in Ezekiel are with very good reafon fuppofed to be the Turks, but the Turks are the authors of the fecond woe, and the fecond woe (XI. 14.) is past before the third woe, and the third woe long precedes the time here treated of Ezekiel's propheey apparently coincides with the latter part of the eleventh chapter of Daniel, and prefignifies the deftruction of the Othman empire, which includes Gomer and many European, as well as Ethiopia, Libya, and other nations. If Gog and Magog in St. John are the fame with thofe in Ezekiel, then we muft fuppofe the Othman empire to fubfift throughout the millennium, which can hardly be believed, as it can hardly be reconciled with other prophecies. It may therefore be concluded that Gog and Magog as well as Sodom, and Egypt, and Babylon are myftic names in this

A a 4

book å

book; and the laft enemies of the Christian church are fo denominated, because Gog and Magog appear to be the laft enemies of the Jewith nation. Who they fhall be, we cannot pretend to fay with any the leaft degree of certainty. It is a ftrange whimsical abfurd paradox of (9) Dr. Burnet, but his hypothefis betrayed him into it, that they fhall be "fons of the earth, generated "from the flime of the ground and the heat of the fun,

as brute creatures were at first." Mr. Mede's (1) conjecture is much more rational, that they fhall be the nations of America, the nations of America being in all probability colonies or defcendents from the Scythians, that is from Gog and Magog. Whoever they hall be, they fhall come up from the four corners of the earth on the breadth of the earth, and thall compafs the camp of the faints about, and the beloved city, the new Jerufalem with the faints incamped around it, as the Ifraelites incamped around the tabernacle in the wilderness. But they fhall not fucceed and profper in their attempts; they fhall not be able to hurt the church and city of God, but shall be destroyed, in an extraordinary manner, by fire from heaven: and the devil himself, the promoter and leader of this new apoftafy and rebellion against God and his Chrift, fhall not only be confined as before, but fhall be caft into the lake of fire and brimftone, where he thall be punished together with the beast and the false prophet who were caft in before him, and fhall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

IO.

11 And I fay a great white throne, and him that fat on it, from whofe face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.

12 And I faw the dead, finall and great, ftand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of thofe things which

(9) Burnet's Theory. B. 4. Chap.

(1) De Gogo et Magogo in Apo

calypfi Conjectura, in Mede's Works, B. 3. p. 574. Fulleri Mifcell. Sacra. Lib. 2. Cap. 4. in fine.

were