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usual flowing and eloquent vein of the author. cient and popular doctrine of the Millennium was intimately connected with the second coming of Christ. As the works of the creation had been finished in six days, their duration in their present state, according to a tradition which was attributed to the prophet Elijah, was fixed to six thousand years. By the same analogy it was inferred, that this long period of labor and contention, which was now almost elapsed, would be succeeded by a joyful sabbath of a thousand years; and that Christ, with the triumphant band of the saints and the elect who had escaped death, or who had been miraculously revived, would reign upon the earth till the time appointed for the last and general resurrection. So pleasing was this hope to the mind of believers, that the New Jerusalem, the seat of this blissful kingdom, was quickly adorned with all the gayest colors of the imagination. A felicity consisting only of pure and spiritual pleasure would have appeared too refined for its inhabitants, who were still supposed to possess their human nature and senses. A garden of Eden, with the amusements of the pastoral life, was no longer suited to the advanced state of society which prevailed under the Roman empire. A city was therefore erected of gold and precious stones, and a supernatural plenty of corn and wine was bestowed on the adjacent territory; in the free enjoyment of whose spontaneous productions, the happy and benevolent people was never to be restrained by any jealous laws of exclusive property. The assurance of such a Millennium was carefully inculcated by a succession of fathers from Justin Martyr and Irenæus, who conversed with the immediate disciples of the apostles, down to Lactantius, who was preceptor to the son of Constantine. Though it might not be universally received, it appears to have been the reigning sentiment of the orthodox believers; and it seems so well adapted to the desires

and apprehensions of mankind, that it must have contributed in a very essential degree to the progress of the Christian faith. But when the edifice of the church was almost completed, the temporary support was laid aside. The doctrine of Christ's reign upon earth was at first treated as a profound allegory, was considered by degrees as a doubtful and useless opinion, and was at length rejected as the absurd invention of heresy and fanaticism."* * Decl. and Fall, p. 185, 186.

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CHAPTER II.

MODERN OPINIONS RESPECTING THE APOCALYPTIC
MILLENNIUM.

THE Millennarian hypothesis, as it respects the patronage which it has at different periods received, has been remarkable for a series of waxings and wanings. During the first ages of the church, when the style of Christianity was to believe, to love, and to suffer,' this sentiment seems to have obtained a prevalence so general as to be properly entitled all but absolutely catholic. After the lapse of the three first centuries, a gradual change was wrought in public opinion in regard to this doctrine; a change effected by the combined influence of secular prosperity in the church, and of the controversial opposition of great names against the tenet itself. Origen, Augustine, and Jerome successively arrayed themselves against a Judaizing dogma discountenanced, as they supposed, at once by the spiritual genius of Christianity, and by a fair and rational interpretation of its letter. Their influence, it cannot be doubted, contributed powerfully to weaken the hold which Millennarianism had upon the minds of their contemporaries, and to pave the way for its general abandonment. Add to this that the more favored and felicitous condition of the church under Constantine and his successors for one or two centuries, tended naturally to wean the thoughts of the pious from the anticipation of future to the meditation of present blessedness, in which it is not unlikely that some beheld an actual fulfilment of the promised rest, peace and joy of the world's expected Sabbatism. During the invasions of the northern nations and the deluge of disasters which then

flowed in upon the empire, speculation was overborne, and the minds of Christians were absorbed by the commotions of the times and the evils endured by them or impending over them. Little attention, therefore, was paid to the themes of the Apocalypse, and the conceptions they had formed of prophetic scripture, if they had formed any, became confused and obscure; they waited for light, but darkness continued to surround them.

Through the dreary tract of the ages of darkness scarcely a vestige of Millennarian sentiments is to be traced, but the dormancy of the doctrine was interrupted, by the rousing events, the moral earthquake of the Reformation. The Anabaptists in Germany, and, some time after, the Fifth Monarchy men in England carried their notions to the extreme of infatuation, and created a destructive ferment around them. At length the ebullition of enthusiasm subsided, and the fiery zeal of mistaken men died away. Since that time till within a very few years the Millennarian cause has excited little interest and occasioned little disturbance. The writings of Mede in the seventeenth century revived indeed in a measure the ancient doctrine, and individual writers have at one time and another between that time and the present sent forth their speculations, advocating substantially the same views. Within the period, however, of five or six years, the subject has acquired anew a considerable degree of prominence, and given rise, particularly in England, to an animated controversy, which is yet dividing the ranks of biblists and theologians. The letter-men and the allegorists of the three first centuries are revived in the literalists and the spiritualists of the present day.

The sentiments of those in modern times who may be ranked under these two heads may be gathered with sufficient distinctness from the ensuing series of extracts from their principal writers.

1. Those who hold to the personal reign of Christ on earth during the thousand years.

Of this class the venerable Joseph Mede, one of the profoundest Biblical scholars of the English church, of whom it was said that in the explication of the mysterious passages of scripture, 'he discerned the day before others had opened their eyes,' may be considered in modern times the father. He was distinguished for the diffidence, modesty and caution with which he broached his opinions on these recondite subjects. As to the character of the expected Millennial kingdom of Christ, the following is his unpresuming language :—

"What the quality of this reign should be, which is so singularly differenced from the reign of Christ hitherto, is neither easy nor safe to determine, further than that it should be the reign of our Saviour's victory over his enemies, wherein Satan being bound up from deceiving the nations any more, till the time of his reign be fulfilled, the Church should consequently enjoy a most blissful peace and happy security from the heretical apostacies and calamitous sufferings of former times; but here (if any where) the known shipwrecks of those who have been too venturous should make us most wary and careful, that we admit nothing into our imaginations which may cross or impeach any catholic tenet of the Christian faith, as also to beware of gross and carnal conceits of Epicurean happiness, misbeseeming the spiritual purity of saints. If we conceit any delights, let them be spiritual. The presence of Christ in this kingdom will no doubt be glorious and evident, yet I dare not so much as imagine (which some ancients seem to have thought) that it should be a visible converse on earth. Yet we grant, he will appear and be visibly revealed from heaven; especially for the calling and gathering of his ancient people, for whom in the days of old he did so many wonders."-Mede's Works, Book iii. Rem. ch. xii. p. 603.

The subsequent testimony of the excellent Joseph Caryll, author of a Commentary on Job, is prefixed to a

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