Full text of "A treatise on the millennium; in which the prevailing theories on that subject are carefully examined; and the true scriptural doctrine attempted to be elicited and established"

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TREATISE

ON THE

MILLENNIUM;

LN WHICH

THE PREVAILING THEORIES ON THAT SUBJECT ARE
CAREFULLY EXAMINED;

AND

THE TRUE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE ATTEMPTED
TO BE ELICITED AND ESTABLISHED.

BY GEORGE BUSH, A.M.

AUTHOR
OF ' QUESTIONS AND NOTES UPON GENESIS AND EXODUS.'

^ V. NEW-YORK:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. & J. HARPER,

No. 8 2 C L I F F - S T R E E T.

AND SOLD BY THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT TH«
UNITED STATES.

18 32.

I tntorrd, arcording to Act of Congrcs?, in the year 1832, by J. &■ J. Harper, in
the Office of the Clerk of the Southern District of New-York.]

PREFACE.

It is matter of deep regret that the popular vo-
cabulary of Christian doctrine should contain so
large a proportion of vague and undefined or ill-
defined terms. That a religion based upon a reve-
lation from heaven, designed, not to confound, but to
instruct its votaries, — a religion naturally to be
regarded as the native element of Truth, the appro-
priate sphere of clear knowledge and unambiguous
diction, from wiiich the dimning and darkening mys-
tifications of error were entirely banished, — that such
a religion, in the utterances of its disciples, should
abound in terms and phrases, many of them of
incessant recurrence, to which no precise ideas were
ordinarily affixed, is certainly an infelicity never
enough to be deplored. Hence the angry contro-
versies which have agitated and rent so often the
Christian world. Hence too the ill-starred partition
of the church into various conflicting sects, each
clustering pertinaciously around some chosen form
of words, which its opponent as pertinaciously re-
jects. That this diversity of creed among Christians,
like every other species of evil, is overruled, in the
counsels of God, for good, cannot be questioned for a
moment ; yet as little, we think, is it to be doubted

^ - .' ' *"\ « 'p \

!V PREFACE.

that the tiling in itself is an evil, and one which the
more perfect operation of Christianity will finally
do away.

We are well aware that this ambiguity of lan-
guage, and the consequent indefiniteness of appre-
hension which obtains in regard to the objects of
religious faith, arises in great measure from the
intrinsically mysterious nature of the subject-matter
of revelation, and the limited grasp of the human
intellect, so unequal to the master)' of the grand and
overwhelming themes of the inspired oracles. But
after ever^' abatement on this score, the conviction
still remains, that a less pardonable cause is at the
bottom of much of the evil of which we complain.
It cannot surely be doubled that the sacred volume
was given to man in order to be understood. It
would be at once a gross misnomer as to the book
itself,and a foul retlection upon its Author, to denom-
inate that a revelation which was at the same time
•SO shrouded in triple mystery as to bafile the dis-
cernment of the unlettered, and to mock the prying
researches of the curious and the learned. Not
that we count upon the practicability of all classes
of readers becoming equally well versed in its con-
tents ; for as this revelation is couched in languages
which have ceased to be vernacular to the people
of any nation, a superior insight into its disclosures
will ever accrue to those who make themselves
familiar \\\i\\ the saered original tongues; and as
the facilities for this attainment are constantly in-
creasing, and light is pouring in from numerous
other sources upon the iiitcrpretation of the inspired

PREFACE. V

writings, it is easily conceivable that each successive
generation shall advance far beyond its immediate
predecessor in every department of biblical science.
In seeking, therefore, for the source of that ' blind-
ness in part,' which hath happened to the religionists
of every age, we cannot be mistaken in referring it,
in great measure, to the neglect of the original lan-
guages of Sa^iptui^e. ]\Ien have not been studious
to ascertain with absolute precision the ideas attached
by the Holy Ghost to the words and phrases em-
ployed by the sacred penmen. Neglecting the canons
of philology, heedless of investigating the iisus
loquendi in respect to leading words and phrases,
and paying but slight attention to the sources of
archaeological illustration, they have too often im-
posed a construction upon the language of holy writ
derived from the systems of the schools, the placets
of renowned doctors, or the dictation of ecclesiastical
synods. Alas ! how many venerable theories and
darling dogmas in theology w^ould be demolished, as
by a magician's wand, by the simple touch of the finger
of philological exegesis ! Here then, we repeat it,
in the failure to resort to the original fountain-heads
of truth, we find a large portion of the obscurity of
religious language adequately accounted for ; and
as we here find the bane, here also we come to the
knowledge of the antidote.

Again, it must be admitted that there is, in the
mass of men, an innate aversion to a rigid examina-
tion of the grounds of the opinions they have once
adopted, or to a critical analysis of the terms by
which they are ordinarily expressed. Thev do not

vi nirFACE.

like to have the quiet of their faith disturbed by an
insinuation of the weakness of the grounds upon
which it rests. The ancient and accredited techni-
cahties of rehgion, hallowed as they are by long
usage, and wedded to the thoughts, if not to the
aflections, by early association, are clung to with
the most unyielding tenacity. We shrink from the
rude process of investigation. Inquiry strikes us as
little short of profanation, and we shudder at it as
at the lifting up of axes against the carved work of
the sanctuary. Although we may be in fact unable
to substantiate our belief fully to our own minds,
vet the bare thought of a change, as the result of
canvassing our opinions anew, fills us with alarm,
and binding our established persuasions still closer
to our hearts, we say with Job, ' I will die in my
nest,' admitting no treacherous doubts within the
precincts of our faith for fear of a mental insurrection.
Thus the dreary bird of night

" does to the moon complain

Of such as wantlerinof near her secret bowers.
Molest her ancient solitary reign."

But surely it will be conceded that truth is at all
times to be preferred to error, though it should be
supposed that the error were one of a com|)arativelv
slight and innoxious character. The rigid scrutiny
of our opinions, therefore, is but the homage due to
truth ; and the man who aids us in disabusing our-
selves even of an innocent error, may justly lay
claim to some measure of the cratitude bestowed
upon him who puts us in possession of a new truth.

PREFACE. . Vll

In fact, although in the work of the husbandman
the eradication of tares is not the same with the
production of wheat, yet in mental and moral tillage
the deracination of error is in many cases but an-
other name for the implantation of truth.

The tenor of these remarks applies, if we mistake
not, with peculiar pertinency to the subject of the
prevailing impressions — opinions they can scarcely
be called — respecting the Millennium; aterm denot-
ing, in its popular sense, a future felicitous state of
the church and the world of a thousand years' du-
ration, of which, w^iile every one has some vague
anticipation, almost no one has any clear and well-
defined conception. No phraseology in prayer, in
preaching, in the religious essay, or in the monthly-
concert address is more common than that of millen-
nial state, millennial reign, millennial purity, millen-
nial glory, &:c ; all betokening the expectation of a
coming condition in the affairs of the church infin-
itely transcending, in peace, piety, and bliss, the most
favoured epochs which have yet marked its annals.
Now it may well be made a question. Upon what
is this expectation founded ? Has it unequivocally
the warrant of any express declaration of holy writ ?
Or is it any thing more than a mere traditionary
tenet, which from time immemorial has in some way
obtained currency among the pious, and which,
having received from our forefathers in childhood,
has become with us a matter of mechanical repeti-
tion in after-life, when

" The priest hath finished what the nurse begun."

viii rnEFACE.

How few arc there of the vast multitude of those who
habitually have this kind of expression upon their
lips, who are able 'to give a reason of the (millen-
nial) hope that is in them?' — how few who really and
truly, on this point, * know what they say or whereof
they affirm V Let it be observed, however, that our
interroiratory concerns not so much the belief, that
a brighter and bcnigncr period is yet to dawn upon
our world — that an era of pre-eminent peace, purity,
and prosperity, constituting what is frequently called
*the latter day glory,' is yet destined to bless
the globe, succeeding and compensating ' the years
wherein wc have seen trouble ;' for this is abundantly
Icstirted by the predictions of the former and the
latter prophets, and shadowed forth under many a
significant parable, type, and allegory ; the point
of our inquiry is this: — On what sufficient grounds
has this period come to be limited, in the minds of
Christians, to the precise term of a thousand years,
after which it is supposed that a grand defection is
to ensue, and the followers of Christ to be again
reduced to a diminutive handful ? Judging from
other portions of the jirophetic oracles, our conclu-
sion would certainly be altogether the reverse.
Dan. 7. 18, :>T. "The saints of the Most Iliffh
shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for
ei'e?', even for ever and ever. And the kingdom and
dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under
the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of
the saints of the ^Nlost High, whose kingdom is an
everlastini:: kingdom, and all dominions shall serve
and obey him." Again, Dan. *2. 41. *'And in the

PREFACE. IX

days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up
a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed : and the
kingdom shall not he left to other people, but it shall
break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms,
and it shall stand for ever." These annunciations
would certainly seem to preclude the prospect of
any mere secular empire ever acquiring that ascen-
dancy which it is yet supposed will be acquired by
the post-millennial Gog and Magog of the Apoca-
lypse. To this we are aware it will be replied, that
the 20th chapter of the Revelation, in announcing
that ' the Dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil
and Satan, shall be bound and shut up in the bottom-
less pit a thousand years, and that the souls of them
that were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and
the w^ord of God, should live and reign with Christ
a thousand years, while the rest of the dead should
not live' again till the thousand years were finished/
affords a sufficient warrant for the general expecta-
tion of the Christian world on this subject. This,
however, it wdll be observed, is alleged on the pre-
sumption, that the millennial period spoken of by
John is yet future, the very point which we shall en-
deavour to show is gratuitously assumed. Upon this
presumption the labours of nearly all preceding
expositors have been unhesitatingly based, and the
object which they have mainly set themselves to
accomphsh has been, to fix the period of the com-
mencement of this golden age of Zion. With this
view they have constructed various arrangements
of the chronological eras of the seals, trumpets, and
vials ; of the reign of the beast, and the resurrection

X PREFACE.

of the witnesses ; while, for the leading characters of
the period, they have had recourse to what they con-
ceived to be the parallel announcements of Isaiah
ajid other ancient prophets, not doubting that their
sublime visions of ultimate glory to the church
pointed to precisely the same epoch with the Millen-
nium of the Apocalypse. Now in all this we are
constrained to believe, that the tower has been be-
gun to be erected before the foundation was pro-
perly laid. For with one who takes nothing for
granted in the matter of biblical exposition the first
inquiry would naturally be ; What is to be under-
stood by the Dragon or the Satan (the adversary)
who is to be bound 1 — what by his binding ? — and
what by the Bottomless Pit (Abyss) in which he is
represented as being shut up ? For as the book of
Revelation is couched throughout in a continuous
series of sjmbols or hieroglyphics, the inference a
jyrion is, that the Dragon is as truly a symbolic per-
sonage as the Beast with whom he acts in concert,
or the Woman clothed in scarlet and purple, and
drunk with the blood of the saints, portrayed as
seated upon the beast and swaying his movements.
If the Drngon be taken for the devil literally and
personally, or the prince of fallen spirits, what, we
ask, can possibly be intended by his being described
with seven heads and ten horns ? The truth is, this
portion of the hieroglyphical scenery of the Reve-
lation, on the common interpretation, never has been,
and never can be, satisfactorily explained. The
great point, therefore, which the reader will find
laboured in the ensuing pages is to settle clearly and

PREFACE. XI

demonstratively the symbolical import of the Dra-
gon, for upon this the whole doctrine of the Millen-
nium mainly hinges. In connexion with this, the
writer has endeavoured, at some length, to show the
recondite meaning couched under the emblem of
the Abyss into which the Dragon was cast, and to
fix with as much certainty as the subject will admit
the precise political powers shadowed forth by the
mystic denomination of Gog and Magog.

The plan of the work unavoidably forced upon
the author the necessity of somewhat of an impos-
ing array of learned citations ; for this he bespeaks
the indulgence of his reader. If the inquiry could
have been conducted without them, his pages would
not have been encumbered with a mass of matter
of so repellent a character. As the quotations,
however, are all translated, he hopes the mere Eng-
lish reader will not be deterred, by the formidable
aspect of his pages, from prosecuting a perusal to
which the title-leaf and the table of contents may
perhaps invite him.

Finally, the writer solicits a charitable view of the
causes which have led him to the adoption of a
theory of the Millennium so diverse from that gener-
ally entertained. In his own mind he is conscious
of having embraced it from no motive of broaching
a novel hypothesis, for in truth it is not novel, or
from the prurient promptings of a general dispo-
sition to thrust upon the public a set of crude inter-
pretations of the sacred writings. He has been
forced purely by stress of evidence to adopt the
conclusion announced, and, in some sort, supported,
in the ensuing work ; and as his object has been to

Ill PREFACE.

exhibit in a connected view the chain of proofs
which have determined his own convictions, he feels
free to demand, as matter of common justice, that
the reader should sit in judgment, not, in the first in-
stance, upon the conclusion itself, which must neces-
sarily encounter a host of prejudice, but upon the
sufficiency or insufficiency of the reasons alleged in
its support. Let the premises be refuted before the
conclusion is denied. This conclusion, w^hether
sound or not, involves, indeed, the startling position
that the MiUenniujn, strictly so called, is past ; but
that the writer has not been led to embrace or utter
this opinion merely from a perverse love of para-
dox, and that he has no disposition ruthlessly to
pluck from the bosom of the Christian or the phi-
lanthropist so fond and sacred a hope as that of a
coming age of light and glory to the church, without
offering any thing to compensate the spoliation, will
be evident to every one who shall be sufficiently
interested to follow his speculations to their close.
Instead of robbing the treasury of Christian hope of a
gem so precious, and of abstracting from benevo-
lent effort so mighty a motive, it will be seen that
his view of the futurities of Zion, admitting the
Millennium to be past, opens to the eye of faith a
still more cheering prospect, a lengthened vista of
richer and brighter beatitudes.

" No hope that way, is
Another way so high an hope, that e'en
Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond,
But doubts discovery there."

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

ANCIENT OPINIONS, JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN, ON THE SUB-
JECT OF A MILLENNIUM.

Definition of the word Millennium — The doctrine of the Mil-
lennium founded but upon a single express Passage of Scrip-
ture— Diversity of opinions as to the Time of its Com-
mencement— Jewish Origin of the Millennarian Hypothesis
— Built upon an allegorical Exposition of the history of the
Creation in six days followed by the Rest of the seventh —
Confirmed by Extracts — Estimate of the value of the Rab-
binical Tradition — Early adopted by several of the Christian
Fathers — Rejected by others — Controversy on the subject in
the Primitive Church — Extracts from the writings of the
Fathers — Probable Reasons of the early Prevalence of Mil*
lennarian sentiments — Testimony of Gibbon . . Page IT

CHAPTER n.

MODERN OPINIONS RESPECTING THE APOCALYPTIC
MILLENNIUM.

Historical Sketch of the Decline of the Millennarian theory^
and of its Revival at the Reformation — The modern Advo-
cates of a future Millennium divided into two Classes — The
first hold to the personal Reign of Christ on earth during the
thousand years — Mede, Caryll, Gill, Noel, Irving, Ander-

Xiv CONTENTS.

son, quoted— Claim to found their Expectation upon a pass-
utre in the second Epistle of Peter — Remarks upon this Inter-
prelation— The second Class deny the Personal, but maintain
tlio Spiritual Reign of Christ — Confirmed by Extracts from
Whitby, Bogue, Johnston ^5

CHAPTER III.

EXPLICATION OF THE SYMBOL OF THE DRAGON.

The Binding of Satan or the Dragon the main feature of the
anticipated Millennium— Necessary to determine the Import
of this Symbolical Action — This cannot be done without
first fixing the import of the Dragon himself as a Symbol —
With this view the Vision of the Dragon, Rev. xii., minutely
considered — The sun-clad and star-crowned W^oman ex-
plained—The Dragon shown to be a symbol of Paganism —
The War between Michael and the Dragon explained — The
remaining Circumstances of the Vision explained — Objections
answered — Reflections '^'t

CHAPTER IV.

THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF THE MILLENNIUM STATED AND
CONFIRMED.

The Connection of the twentieth Chapter of the Revelation
with the preceding portions of the Book stated — The Identity
of the Dragon throughout the Apocalypse maintained — The
Binding of the Dragon explained — Its date determined —
Confirmed by History — Particulars of the symbolic Imagery
further elucidated — Symbol of the Bottomless Pit or Abyss
explained — Opinions of Lightfoot, Turretin, Mastricht, and
Marck quoted — Satan's deceiving the Nations explained —
Whether the Millennium to consist of a thousand literal
years — Explication of the Throi.es, and of the Souls of the
Martyrs teen in the Vision, and of their Living and Rci;;ning
with Christ a tliousand years 13U

CONTENTS. XV

CHAPTER V.

EXPLICATION OF THE GOG AND MAGOG OF THE
APOCALYPSE.

Various Opinions of Commentators respecting Gog and Ma-
gog— Reason of this Diversity — The mention of this mystic
Power by John extremely brief and obscure, because more
fully predicted by Ezekiel — The Identity of the Gog and
Magog described by the two Prophets maintained — An ex-
tended Exposition of Ezek. Ch. xxxviii. — Gog and Magog
shown to be a prophetical denomination of the Turks — Con-
sequently the same Power with the Euphratean horsemen of
the sixth Trumpet, and to be referred to the same Period —
As certain, therefore, that the Millennium is past, as that the
events of the sixth Trumpet have transpired — Destruction
of Gog and Magog by Fire from Heaven explained — Objec-
tions answered 205

CHAPTER YI.

CONCLUSION.

Correct Views of the Millennium attainable only from a right
Interpretation of the Prophetic Symbols — Whatever Diffi-
culties attend the Theory broached in the present Treatise,
the common Doctrine embarrassed by equal or greater —
Some of them stated — Hints respecting the predicted Con-
flagration of the Heavens and the Earth — True Character of
the Prophetic Intimations of the future Prospects of the
Church and the World 257

TREATISE

ON THE

M I L L E N N I U M.

CHAPTER I.

ANCIENT OPINIONS, JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN, ON THE SUB-
JECT OF A MILLENNirM.

The etymological import of the word Millennium
denotes, as is well known, the space of a thovsand
years. The term, considered by itself, does not point
to any particular period of that extent, but may be ap-
plied indifferently to any one of the live millenniums
which have elapsed since the creation, to the sixth now

22 TREATISE ON

verging towards its close, or to the seventh, which is
yet to come. But long-established usage has given the
word a restricted application, and where it occurs
without specification it is universally understood to
refer to the period mentioned by the prophet of Patmos,
Rev. 20. 1-7. "And I saw an angel come down from
heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a
great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the
dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan,
and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the
bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon
him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the
thousand years should be fulfilled : and after that he
must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones,
and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto
them : and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded
for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and
which had not worshipped the beast, neither his unage,
neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or
in their hands ; and they lived and reigned with Christ
a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not
again until the thousand years were finished. This is
the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection : on such the second death
hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of
Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall
be loosed out of his prison."

This, it is to be observed, is the only express passage
in the whole compass of the Scriptures, in which men-
tion is made of the period of a thousand years in con-

THE MILLENNIUM. ' 23

nexion with the prospective lot of the church : conse-
quently that which is emphatically styled the doctrine of
the Millennium rests wholly and entirely upon the inter-
pretation given of this portion of the Apocalj'pse.
This period, the reader is aware, is considered by the
mass of modern commentators and divines to be yet
future. The degree of its proximity to our own times
is variously estimated according to the peculiar hy-
potheses of different expositors in regard to the plan
and structure of the book, and their several arrange-
ments of its chronological eras.* Mr. Faber, with a
large class of readers, fixes its commencement to the
year 1866 ; the school of Messrs. Ii-ving, Drummond,
Begg, and others, are in daily expectation of the glo-
rious personal epiphany of our Lord and Saviour com-
ing in the clouds of heaven to put an end, by desolating
judgments, to the present degenerate order of things
within the bounds of Christendom, and to usher in the
full splendour of the Millennial reign. Others again,
forming a very respectable class of expositors, defer
the commencing epoch of the Millennium to the year
2000, or thereabouts, that the period may coincide wuh

* " An Epoch is any fixed period of time from which a series
of years may be regularly and successively computed. An Era
is the series or succession of years actually so computed. Thus,
for example, the period of the Birth of Christ constitutes the
Christian Epocha ; and the present year is the 1812th year of
the Christian Era, or of the series of years computed from the
Christian Epocha. It is the more necessary to observe this dis-
tinction, because we frequently find the terms Era and Epoch
confounded even by some of our most eminent writers." —
Penn's Christian Survey ; Introd. Lond. 1812.

24 TREATISE ON

the seventh thousand years from the creation, consti-
tuting wliat may be termed the Great Sabbatism of the
world. The following extracts from the writings of
two distinguished advocates of this latter opinion may
be considered as representing the sentiments of their
class.

" Without taking upon me to name the precise year
of the commencement of Antichrist's reign, shall I sup-
pose it will have ceased and the Millennium commence
about the two thousandth year of the Christian era ?
Should I say there appears a greater probability that
the longed-for event will take place at that time than at
the second period (1866) which has been mentioned,
and the seventh thousand years of the world's exist-
ence prove a glorious sabbatic day of rest and peace and
joy 1 — perhaps it would disappoint the ardent hope of its
earlier approach which some fondly entertain ; and I
think I can perceive the disappointment expressed in your
sorrowful looks. But if you view the subject with at-
tention, there will be no cause either for disappointment
or for grief, but inlinitely much for gladness and rejoicing.
You have not even the shadow of a reason for ceasing
from your benevolent exertions in despondency, but the
best and most forcible of reasons for proceeding in your
endeavours to hasten on the glory of the latter days. —
Let it be granted that nearly two hundred years must
yet revolve before the Millennium becfin, immense is
the mass of labor which must, during that whole space,
vhhout intermission, be employed to bring it into exist-
ence. Eighteen centuries have already elapsed since

THE MILLENNIUM. 25

the coming of the Savior into the world, but in the two
that are yet to come, more remains to be done than in
all the eighteen which are past. The religion of Jesus
in its purity is not yet even professed by a twentieth
part of the inhabitants of the earth. Judge then what
a Herculean labor it must be, in the space of two hun-
dred years, to convert the other nineteen parts to the
faith of Christ. Were we to be told, that for a long
course of time, four millions of souls were annually
brought to the knowledge of the truth, what a wonderful
as well as what a delightful event we should conceive
it to be ! But on an average for near two centuries to
come, more than this number must be converted every
year, before the whole world can be brought into sub-
jection to the Redeemer." — Bogue's Disc, on the Mill,
p. 608, 8vo. ed.

" The Millennium must commence immediately upon
the final overthrow of Papal Rome. But it was for-
merly shewn in its proper place that Papal Rome shall
be completely overthrown in the end of the year of
Christ 1999. The Millennium therefore, which both in
the order of this prophecy and in the nature of the thing
follows close upon the overthrow of Papal Rome, must
commence in the beginning of the year of Christ 2000.
On account of the prevalence of true religion and the
total rest from wars in it, the Millennium is, as it were,
the great sabbath of the whole earth." — Johnston on the
Rev. vol. ii. p. 319.

These extracts are of great importance, not only as
acquainting us with the views of their authors relative

C 2

26 TREATISE OX

to the commencement of this illustrious era, but as dis-
closing also the probable origin of the prevailing Mil-
lennarian hypothesis. It is founded upon a Jewish tra-
ditiouy according to xchich the six days employed in the
creation of the world were each of them typical of a
thousand years^ and the rest of the seventh a prcfgura-
tion of the great sabbatical Millennary of the xcorld.
Daubuz, by far the ablest of all commentators on the
visions of John, thus speaks of the origin of the Apoca-
lyptic Millennium ; — " It may be observed, that as the
Jewish church had no absolute rest or sabbatism as
the Millennium is, so the Holy Ghost could not derive
the symbol from that economy, but was as it were
obliged to draw it from an higher fountain, or original
of ideal types and events. But, however, even this
original idea was known to the Jews. They had a tra-
dition of it, and the notion was current even before St.
John wrote. He has not then treated of the Millen-
nium as a new thing, but has described it in some mea-
sure by the old notions with improvements : and besides
that, showed us how it is accomplished by Christ, by
giving us a full account of the antecedents and conse-
quents. Now that tradition was grounded upon the al-
legorical exposition of the creation of the world in six
days, and the rest of God in the seventh ; and that a
thousand years are with God as one day. Whence it
is argued, that as God created the w^orld in six days,
and rested on the seventh, so he will redeem mankind
and work out their redemption in six thousand years,
and procure his and their sabbatism in the seventh thou-
sand : this rest being to be proportionable to the dura-

THE MILLENNIUM. 27

tion of the work. By consequence, that term of one
thousand years is to be taken in a literal sense, and
must consist just of a thousand years in the common
acceptation of the word ; and needs no further evolu-
tion, as some of late have pretended, because it is fixed
by that traditional allegory. Now that the Jews had it
must be plain from this, that we find it in St. Barnabas,
who wrote before St. John many years. And indeed
we give very good reasons in our Commentary to think
that the notion is as old as the Deluge, because we find
it pretty plainly to be also the tradition of the Chal-
dean Magi, and perhaps too of the Egyptians." — Dau-
buz, Perpet. Comment, on the Rev. p. 64. 1720.

Before proceeding to adduce evidence of the exist-
ence of this tradition among the Jews, the reader will
permit us to introduce another citation showing still,
more distinctly the use which is made by Christian
writers of the above-mentioned allegory.

" Through the whole Scriptures, both of the Old and
New Testament, there is a striking typical representa-
tion of some great and important Sabbath, as a great
septenary that has not yet taken place, and which evi-
dently appears to be the Millennarian septenary, as the
great Sabbath of the whole earth. Thus, Gen. 2. 3.
* God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.' Ex.
20. 8-11. The appointment of the seventh day as the
weekly sabbath was renewed in a most solemn manner.
Levit. 25. 1-7. Every seventh year was appointed a
sabbatical year; and Levit. 25. 8, 9. the commence-
ment of the year of jubilee, which was every fiftieth

28 TREATISE ON

year, was to be fixed by the ninning of a septenary
of sabbatical years ; * And thou shalt number seven sab-
baths of years unto thee, seven years, and the space of
the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty
and nine years.' The number seven, because used in
Scripture to complete all the sacred divisions of time,
was regarded by the Jews as the symbol of perfection,
and is used in this sense in Scripture. — Is it ever to be
supposed that all these events, which are interwoven
with the Mosaic dispensation, which was symbohcal or
typical itself, and which are introduced into the New
Testament, and abound so much in this book of Revela-
tion, have no antitype to correspond to them, no great
sabbatical septenary to which they all point, and in
which they shall all be accomplished ? Is it not highly
probable that they are all typical of the seventh millen-
uary of the earth, which is the great Sabbath ?" — John-
ston on the Rev. vol. ii. p. 320.

As our object in the present chapter is to trace the
Millennarian theory, as held in modern times, to its
primitive source, and thence, travelling downwards, to
detail the consecutive history of opinion upon the sub-
ject even to the days in which we live, we shall begin
with the allegation of testimonies to the fact of the
existence among tlie Jews of the tradition above men-
tioned ; after which we shall endeavour to show that
this tradition was adopted by the early Christians, and
that upon it all tlie modern notions of the Millennium
have been grafted.

'* h is certain that the Jews interpreted days as sig-
nifying millenniums, and reckoned millenniums by days.

THE MILLENNIUM. 29"

Thus they say ; * In the thne to come, which is in the last
days, — on the sixth day, which is the sixth millennium,
when the Messiah comes, — for the day of the holy
blessed God is a thousand years.' Again, ' The sixth
degree is called the sixth day ; the day of the holy
blessed God is a thousand years.' So they call the
Sabbath or seventh day the seventh millennium, and in-
terpret " the song for the Sabbath-day," Ps. 92. a title
for the seventh millennium, for one day of the blessed
God is a thousand years.' To which agrees the tradi-
tion of Elias, which runs thus : ' 'Tis the tradition of
the house of Elias that the world shall be (endure) six
thousand years, two thousand void (of the law) ; two
thousand years the law ; and two thousand years the
days of the Messiah ;' for they suppose that the six days
of creation were expressive of the six thousand years
which the world will stand, and that the seventh day
prefigures the last millennium, in which will be the day
of judgment and the world to come ; ' for the six days,
say they, is a sign or intimation of these things : on the
sixth day man was created, and on the seventh the work
was finished ; so the kings of the nations of the world
(continue) five millenniums, answering to the five days
in which were created the fowls, and the creeping things
of the water, and other things ; and the enjoyment of
their kingdom is a little in the sixth, answerable to the
creation of the beasts and living creatures created at
this time in the beginning of it ; and the kingdom of the
house of David is in the sixth millennium, answerable
to the creation of man, who knew his Creator and ruled
over them all ; and in the end of that millennium will

30 TREATISE ON

be the clay of judgment, answerable to man, who was
judged in the end ; and the seventh is the Sabbath, and
it is the beginning of the world to come." — Gill on 2
Pet. 3. 8.

" This solemnity (the year of release) as some con-
jecture was a shadow of that everlasting Sabbath ex-
pected in the heavens. And this is supposed to be the
foundation of the opinion of a learned Rabbi, who asserts
that the world should continue for six thousand years ;
but the seventli thousand should be the great sabbatical
year : the six thousand answering to the six working
days of the week, and the seventh to the Sabbath.
His words are, Six thousand years the world shall be,
and again it shall be destroyed ; two thousand shall be
void, two thousand under the law, and two thousand
under the Messiah. The substance of this opinion is
certainly to be rejected as too curious; yet since it was
delivered by a Jew, it may serve to prove against them
that the Messiah is already come, and that the law of
Moses ceased at his coming." — Lewis''s Hcb. Antiq.
vol. ii. p. 611.

" As for the general rea&on on which the law con-
cerning the sabbatical year was grounded, it was no
doubt partly political and civil, lo prevent the land from
being worn out by continual tilling ; partly religious, to
afford the poor and labouring people more leisure one
year in seven to attend to devotional exercises ; and
partly mystical, typifying that spiritual rest which Christ
will give to all who come unto him. Some, both Jews
and Christians, make the sabbatical year to be typical
of the Millennium. For as the law consecrates the

THE MILLENNIUM. 31

seventh day and the seventh year, they conclude the
world will last six thousand years in the state in which
we now see it ; or, as Rab. Elias in the Talmud ex-
presses it, two thousand years without the law, two
thousand under the law, and two thousand under the
Messiah ; after which comes the grand Sabbath of one
thousand years. This notion, though it he perhaps
without any sufficient ground^ might be improved into an
argument ad hominem. to convince the Jews that the
Messiah must be already come, since the world has
gone far more than half-way through the last two thou-
sand years of the six thousand allowed by their tradi-
tion ; for its continuance during which period therefore,
if at all, must be the reign of the Messiah." — Jennings'
Jewish Antiq. vol. ii. p. 293.

" We cannot but reckon it an instance of unwarrant-
able presumption in several Jewish writers, and some
of the fathers after them, to suppose as they do, that
the world shall continue six thousand years from the
creation, and that as it was made in six days, and the
seventh ordamed to be a Sabbath, this had a mystical
signification, and accordingly in its application to this
matter, a day answers to a thousand years ; or, that as
the world was two thousand years without the written
word or law of God, and after that two thousand years
under the law, so the days of the Messiah shall continue
two thousand years, and then follows the eternal Sabba-
tism at Christ's second coming. As for the Jews who
speak of this matter, their unbelief is condemned out
of their own mouths, since they do as it were concede
that the time in which the Messiah was to come, was

3*2 TREATISE O?;

that in which he actually appeared. Notwithstanding
this is a groundless conjecture so far as it respects the
end of the world, and indeed it is an entering into a se-
cret which is altogether hid from mankind." — Ridgley's
Body of Dir. Quest. 56. vol. ii. p. 505.

'' Of the Jewish writers Rabbi Ketina, as cited in the
Gemara, or gloss of their Talmud, said that ' the world
endures six thousand years, and one thousand it shall be
laid waste (that is, the enemies of God shall be des-
troyed) whereof it is said, Is. 2. 11. The Lord alone
shall he exalted in that day. Tradition assents to
Kabbi Ketina : ' As out of seven years ever)' seventh is
the year of remission, so out of the seven thousand
years of the world the seventh millennary shall be the
millennar}' of remission, that God alone may he exalted
in that day.'' — (The tradition of the house of Elias
above cited is then given, after which it is added) — " It
was also the tradition of the house of Elias, that * the
just whom God shall raise up (meaning in the first
resurrection) shall not be turned again into dust. Now
if you inquire how it shall be with the just in these thou-
sand years wherein the holy blessed God shall renew
this world, whereof it is said, And the Lord alone shall
he exalted in that day, you must know that the holy
blessed God will give them the wings as it were of
eagles that they may fly upon the face of the waters ;
whence it is said, Ps. 46. 2. Therefore will we not fear
when the earth shall be changed. But perhaps you will
say, it shall be a pain and affliction to them. Not at
all, for it is said. Is. 40. 31. T/tcy that wait upon the
Lord shall renew their strength^ they shall mount up with

THE MILLENNIUM. 33

wings as eagles,''^ — Newton on the Proph. p. 588, ed. in
one vol.

Upon these quotations, which might be indefinitely
multiplied from the Rabbinical writers, it may be ob-
served ;

(I.) That the tradition recited appears to be rightly
regarded as a tradition, and nothing more. We do not
find that it rests upon any express declaration of the in-
spired scriptures of the Old Testament, the only portion
of the sacred volume to which an appeal would be made
by a Jew. As far, moreover, as we are able to discover
the origin of the tradition, it is to be traced up to one Elias ;
but who he was, when he lived, and what might have
been his claims to the prophetic character, we are left
in utter ignorance. We know, indeed, that some later
advocates of the opinion have maintained, that he was
no other than the Elias or Elijah of the Scriptures, who
lived in the reign of Ahab, but they have never, we be-
lieve, advanced a particle of proof in support of the
afiirmation. It unquestionably comes to us, therefore,
as a mere traditionary legend, which every one is at lib-
erty to adopt or reject as he pleases. It is accompa-
nied by no external credentials which should entitle it
to any higher rank in our estimation, than the thousand
idle conceits and puerile glosses of the Talmudical an-
notators. The propensity of the Jewish writers to
mystic and allegorizing interpretation is well known, and
in the present instance their exposition of the Mosaic
history of the creation savors strongly of the dreams
of the Cabala. At the same time, it is but fair to admit
that, as there is nothing in the Scriptures which directly

34 TREATISE ON

contradicts it, the tradition may be well founded. It has,
perhaps, more of an air of internal probability than
most of the Rabbinic fancies which have laid a tax
upon human credulity. The use of the number seven
in the sacred volume is certainly remarkable, and cannot
but be admitted in many cases to possess a mystical
import. It is by no means impossible that it may be so
in the present instance. At any rate, we are disposed
to treat wiili respect an opinion which has been for ages
in vogue among the pious, though it may lack that de-
gree of evidence, on the score of origin and authority,
which should entitle it to a place among the articles of
our faith. We are not, therefore, prepared to class
among the vagaries and hallucinations of Jewish con-
ceit the interpretation in question. All that w^e affirm
is, that it is not, and cannot be, authoritative. But,

(2.) Even on the supposition that this allegorical ex-
position is founded in truth, it does not follow that the
sabbatical millennary of the Judaic tradition is the same
with the thousand years of the Apocalypse. The iden-
tifying ihcm is certainly a gratuitous assumption. For
ought that appears to the contrary, though it should be
granted that a sevenfold series of chiliads is destined to
measure this world's duration, the Millennium of John
may coincide with some other nf the number than the
seventh. The very point, therefore, which of all others
stood most in need of confirmation is fortified with
the least. So little countenance does the doctrine of a
Christian Millennium yet future receive from the uncer-
tain dogma of a grand concluding Sabbath of the world.

That there was, however, an early transfusion or in-

THE MILLENNIUM. 35

corporation of this feature of Judaism into the Chris-
tianity of the primitive fathers, will be evident from the
following testimonies collected from their writings. Nor
should this be matter of surprise when it is considered
that many of the first Christians were by birth Jews,
who had been trained up in all the distinctive peculiar-
ities of the Mosaic economy, and were, like Paul, ' ex-
ceedingly zealous of the traditions of their fathers.' It
was natural therefore that they should endeavour to har-
monize the prophetic announcements of the New Tes-
tament as far as possible with the views which they had
imbibed from Jewish sources of the later destinies of
the church and the world. Their sentiments, accord-
"igly» were deeply tinctured with the hue of those pre-
conceptions which they brought with them from the
s}Tiagogues and schools of their early education. From
them the opinion would naturally be propagated among
the gentile converts. Of this we shall hope to lay con-
clusive evidence before the minds of our readers.

Of the Christian writers of the first century, who al-
lude to this subject, Barnabas in his epistle speaks thus:

" ' And God made in six days the works of his hands,
and he finished them on the seventh day, and he rested
in it, and sanctified it.' Consider, children, what that
signifies, he finished them in six days. This it signi-
fies, that the Lord God will finish all things in six thou-
sand years. For a day with him is a thousand years ;
as he himself testifieth, saying, * Behold this day shall
be as a thousand years.' Therefore, children, in six
days, that is, in six thousand years, shall all things be
consummated, And he rested the seventh day : this

36 TREATISE ON

sigiiifies, that when his Son shall come, and shall abol-
ish the season of the wicked one (Antichrist), and shall
change the sun and the moon and the stars, then he
shall rest gloriously in that seventh day."*

The genuineness of this epistle is indeed disputed ;
but as far as the present argument is concerned, it is
immaterial who the real author was. There is suffi-
cient testimony that it is the production of a very early
period of the Christian church, and it contains undeni-
able evidence of the origin of those opinions which
were in circulation respecting an expected reign of a
thousand years, or a seventh millennium.

Justin Martyi, in the second century, declares the
Millennium to be the Catholic doctrine of his time.

" I, and as many as are orthodox Christians in all
respects, do acknowledge that there shall be a resurrec-
tion of the flesh, and a residence of a thousand years
in Jerusalem rebuilt, and adorned, and enlarged, as the
prophets Ezekiel, and Isaiah, and others do unanimously

attest."!

But here Justin's proof, if proof it can be called, is
exceedingly deficient ; for the prophets referred to say

* — Knt inoitjatv 6',Oc3i <»• el ifnipaii rd toy a rdv xtipHv uvrov,Kai avrtTtXtatv
iv rji tiftipq TT) c(if6ttr], xai KuriTravacv iv avrp, Kai f/y lactv iivTriv. TlpoaixCTC,
TiKva, ri Xiyu, to wverO^eacv iv il t'futpaii rovro Xf> ii, brt ovvtc^u b Qtii Kvpioi
cv i\aKi<rx.i^i6ii crcm rd rdvra. 'H ydp iiftipa ■rapi' ai'Tif) x^^^*^ ^"7» a»''oi ^C
/jopnip*?, X/} wv, Ifiov afnitnov fmipa carat at; xAia ^V;;. Ovkovv, rma, n ?^ ^-
fitpaii, iv ilaKiaxi^iiii (Tcai, avvTc\cad>'iaerat rd rdvra. Kal Kari-iTavat tJ
4m<P9 fjl cfifiofij]' rovro^fyci,oTav tAOwv 'o 'vidi avrov, Kat Karap) r'lau rdv Kaipov
dv6nov, Kat Kpivci roij aacfitU, kuI aXXd^ti rdv >'/Xjo»', kui riji' irt^rjvnv, km roi'i
Cfrioai, r6ri KoXCif Kiircmiiatrat tv rf) i/^tpa T^]'c^i66^tr}. — S. Bam. Epist. c. 15.

I 'E) <i>^<) Koi ti ruli ctaiv opOoyvJjfiovci Kara vavra Xptiriaroi, Kat auOKds
avilvraaiv yni'ictaOat irrnrdficOa, teat xAm ert) tv 'IcpofaXfifi oiKof'o^rjOciaTi,
Kai KoiitriOctiTji, Kat rXarvvOdwr), Cutt) 'ot ffoo0r;7aj 'l£^tir»»>X, xa 'Hffaiaj. Ka«
0( JXXoi 'oiio\oyoioiv.—Just. Mart. Dial, cum Tryph. p. 313.

THE MILLENNIUM. 37

nothing respecting the period of a thousand years, so
that his expectation, as far as it relates to a limited term
of years, clearly betrays its Jewish original. — He after-
wards subjoins : —

" A certain man among us, whose name was John,
one of the apostles of Christ, in a revelation made to
him, did prophesy that the faithful believers in Christ
should live a thousand years in the New Jerusalem,
and after these should be the general resurrection and
judgment."*

In the order of time Irenaeus is the next authority
who is particularly entitled to attention.

" In whatever number of days the world was created,
in the same number of thousands of years it will come
to an end. And therefore the Scripture says, that the
heavens and the earth were completed and all their em-
bellishments. And God finished on the sixth day the
works which he made. And God ceased on the sev-
enth day from all his works. This is a narration of the
past, and a prophecy relative to the future ; for the day
of the Lord is as a thousand years."!

Cyprian speaks thus ; —

" Thus in the divine arrangement of the world seven

* 'Av>7P TCi, '(oovona 'Iwai'vjyj, us twv dwosroXwi/ rou Xpia'Jov,iv aTroKa\v\l/u
yevdnevij avrio X''^'« £''■'? Troifjauv cv 'lepovaaXfjii rovs tw 'rjfieTepw Xpiarui mo--
Tevaavras iTpoi<f>i^TCvcE, km ixerd ravra rrjv KadoXiKriv Kai, ovveXdv'Ji <pdvai, alu)'
viav biiodonafdv afxa Travrwv avdaraffiv yevrjccddai kui Kpiaiv- — Ibid. p. 315.

t "Oaaiifinipaii iyhcTO 'o Kdafxoi, roaavToig x^^^ovraai crvvTC^eirai' Kai 6ia
rovTo' 4>T]civ 'tj ypa<pfi' KaL avvre^iaOrjaav 'o ovpavoi Kai 't] yrj, Kai irai 'o Kos/jLOi
avriov' kui (rvvcTt^tatv 'o Qedg tt) fifiepq rt} ^ ra tpya airov aeiToiTj<TC, Kai Kari-
TraVQt 'o Oedi ev rrj'riixtpa ttj 5' ano ndvrwv TuJv epyuiv aiiTov. Tovto (5' ecn twv
i:poytyov6TU)v bifiyrjan, Kai rdv eaonivu)v 7rpo^T£ja" 't) yap 'r) fiipa Kvpiov 'a»j
Xiha irri- — Iretusus Adv Hcereses, L. 5. p. 444, 445.

D 2

38 TREATISE ON

days were at first employed, and in them seven thousand
years were included."*

The next testimony is taken from Tertullian.

" After a thousand years, within which period the
resurrection of the saints is included, who will rise
sooner or later according to their services, then we being
changed to angelic natures shall be transferred into a
celestial kingdom. "f

The following is from Lactantius.

*• Since in six days the works of God were all com-
pleted, so through six ages, that is, through six thousand
years, the world must remain in its present state. And
again, since wlien his works were all perfected he
rested on the seventh day and blessed it, so at the end
of six thousand years all wickedness must be banished
from the earth, and righteousness reign for a thousand
years.":):

But although there was a signal agreement among
the ancient fathers as to the period of the world to
which the Apocalyptic millennium was to be assigned,

* Prima dispositione divinn septem dies annorum septeni
millia continentes. — Cypr. Dt Exhort. Mart. c. 11.

t Post millc annos intra quam aetatem includitur sanctorum
re3urrectio pro meritis maturins vol tardius resurgentium ; tunc
dcmutati in atomo in angelicam substantiam transferemur in
coeleste rrgnum. — Tertull. Adv. Marcion, L. 3. c. 24.

X Quoniam sex diebus cuncta Dei opera perfecta sunt ; per
socula sex, id est, annorum sex millia manero in hoc statu
mundum neccsso est. Et rursus quoniam perfectis opcribus
rcquievit die scplimo cumque bencdixit ; necesse est ut in fine
•exti millesimi anni malitia omnis abolatur e terra ct regnct
per annos mille justitia. — Lactantius, L. 7. c. 14.

THE MILLENNIUM. 89

there was a marked diversity of opinion as to the real
character of the period itself. There were in fact in
that age, as there are in modern times, two distinct
classes of chiliasts, the literal and the spiritual, or, as
they have been termed, the gross and the refined. By
the one party, the anticipation was confidently cherished
of the personal reign of Christ on earth, of the literal
resurrection of the martyred saints, of the rebuilding of
the temple and city of Jerusalem, of the reinhabitation
of the land of Israel by its ancient occupants, and of
the investiture of all the risen righteous with a kingly
pre-eminence over the remnant nations of the globe.
They held, moreover, that this halcyon era should be
distinguished by an unprecedented fertility of the earth,
which should teem with the utmost profusion of the
treasures of its bosom, and accumulate without measure
the elements of every sensual and corporeal delight.
' The earth,' says Lactantius, ' shall disclose its exu-
berance, the labour of tillage shall be unnecessary to
secure the most abundant harvests, the rocks of the
mountains shall sweat with honey, wine shall run down
in streams, and the rivers flow with milk.'* In a word,
their anticipated millennium, if we may judge from the
letter of the strong language in which it is described,
was but another name for an Epicurean heaven. Still
it is but fair to admit, that some allowance is perhaps to
be made on the score of the highly figured and luxuri-

* Terra vero aperiet foecunditatem suam, et uberrimas frugcs
sua spirito gencrabit : rupes montium mellc sudabunt, per ri-
vos vina dccurrent, ct flumina lacte inundabunt. — Lactantius^
L. 7. c. 24.

40 TREATISE ON

ating style which they were led to employ in portraying
the felicities of their expected kingdom. They possibly
might have disclaimed the very gross and carnal inter-
pretation which their opponents put upon their language,
although after every abatement on this score, an ample
residuum of wild extravagance remains to characterize
their hypothesis. Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenseus,
TertulUan, and Lactaniius, are ranked among the lead-
ing abetters of this opinion. Bishop Bull, unwilling to
give up tliese venerated names to the opprobrium of
being numbered on the side of so foul a heresy, kindly
endeavours to throw the veil of a lenient and charitable
construction over the most repulsive features of their
system. Speaking of an expression which Justin
Martyr ascribes to Trypho, viz. * That it is given to
him (Jesus Christ) to judge all men without exception,
and that his kingdom is eternal,' he remarks ; *' I think
that this clause, ' Of whose kingdom there shall be no
end,' was directed against the Cerinthians, who taught,
that those magnificent things which are mentioned in
the Scriptures concerning the kingdom of Christ, are
to be understood of an earthly, carnal, and Epicurean
reign, during a thousand years. There were, indeed,
in the first age after the apostles, many even of the
orthodox, among whom was Justin, whom I have a little
before been praising, who expected a kingdom of Christ
on earth for a thousand years. But their opinion,
though perhaps erroneous, was as distant as possible
from the Cerinthian heresy ; for those orthodox Chris-
tians were ver)' far from believing that the felicity of
this kingdom consisted in meats and drinks and mar-

THE MILLENNIUM. 41

riages ; which, as Dionysius of Alexandria informs us,
was the impure and sordid opinion of Cerinthus. But
they expected a kingdom of Christ, in which peace
would flourish, in which truth,' and righteousness, and
piety would prevail, and the sacred name of God be
every where celebrated with deserved praise. Then
the orthodox hoped for a temporary kingdom of Christ,
only as a prelude (if I may so express myself) to his
celestial kingdom, which they believed would endure
through everlasting ages."* Lardner, in like manner,
endeavours to retrieve the credit of Cerinthus himself.f
The Anti-millennarians, on the other hand, though
they looked equally with the others for an ulterior state
of transcendant prosperity and glory to the people of
God, yet they strenuously maintained that the passages
of holy writ which announced it, were to be allegorically
interpreted. Thus says Origen ; " Those who deny
the millennium are 'Oi rpcTroXoyovilsq ru 7rpo(pi)TiKx — those
who interpret the sayings of the prophets by a trope.'''X
Those, on the contrary, who maintained it, are styled
solius liters discipuli, — disciples of the letter only.
The first, says he, assert '•horum vim fgnraliter intelligi
dehere^ — the import of these things ought to he figura-
tively understood;'' the others, he adds, understand
the scripture, ^^Judaico sensu, — after the manner of the
Jews.''^ So Epiphanius, speaking of the notion of the
millennium maintained by Apollinarius, says, " There

♦ Bulli Judicium Eccl. Calk. c. 6. p. 55.

t Lardner' s Works, vol. ii. p. 701. Lond. 1829.

X Tltni aa-xfivf L. 2. c. 12.

» Ibid.

42 TREATISE ON

is indeed a millennium mentioned by John, but the ma-
jority of pious men look upon those words as true in-
deed, but to be taken in a spiritual sense."* The advo-
cates of a spiritual interpretation accordingly received
from the opposite party the appellation of allegorists,
and Nepos, a defender of the millennarian theory, entitled
his work EXiy^o* rm u\X>iyopi(rTm, — a refutation of the
allegorists. Of these tropical expositors Irenaeus says,
'* 1 am not ignorant that some among us who believe,
in divers nations and by various works, and who, believ-
ing, do consent with the just, do yet endeavour,
[iJLiTct/pif)Hi) to turn these things into metaphors. But
if some have attempted to allegorise these things, they
have not been found in all things consistent with them-
selves, and may be confuted from the words them-
selve3."t

We perceive, however, an equal positiveness in the
deniers of what they deemed a voluptuous millennium.
Gennadius says, " In the divine promises we believe
nothing concerning meat and drink, as Irenaus, Tertul-
lian, and Lactantius teach from their author Papias, nor
of the reign of a tiiousand years of Christ on earth
after the resurrection, and the saints reigning deliciously
with him, as Nepos taught. "|

' — a>?7(>>") ^liv Svra, ev Paddrnn ii ca(l>tjvi^6ntva fftrrtffrjWKaffiv.— Epiph.
Ilsr. 77. ^ W,p. 1031.

t Irencrus Adv. H(Tr. L. 5. C. 33.

X Non quod ad cibum vel ad potum pertinet sicut, Papia
auctore, Ircnirus, Tertullianus, et Lactantius acquiescunt,
neque (per) niille annos post resurrectionem regnum Christi in
terra futurum, ct sanctos cum illo in deliciis regnaturos spera-
mu», sicut Nepos odocuit — Gennad. Eccl. Dogmat. c. 55.

THE MILLENNIUM. 43

Augustin also observes of this opinion, " That it
might be tolerable if they mentioned any spiritual de-
hghts which the saints might enjoy by Christ's pres-
ence ; but since they affirm that they who then rise
shall enjoy carnal and immoderate banquets of meat
and drink without modesty, these things can only be
believed by carnal men."*

Origen moreover speaks of this opinion, " As a
wicked doctrine, a reproach to Christianity, the heathens
themselves having better sentiments than these."! And
Eusebius says of it, " That it took its rise from Papias,
a man of slender judgment ; but the antiquity of the
man prevailed with many of the ecclesiastics to be of
that opinion, particularly with Irenaeus, and if there
were any other of the same judgment with him. "J

But of all the ancients the most inveterate oppugner
of the millennarian conceit was Jerome.

" If," says he, " we understand the Revelation liter-
ally, we must judaize ; if spiritually, as it is written,
we shall seem to contradict many of the ancients, par-
ticularly the Latins, Tertullian, Victorinus, Lactantius ;
and the Greeks likewise, especially Irenaeus, bishop of
Lyons, against whom Dionysius, bishop of the church
of Alexandria, a man of uncommon eloquence, wrote a
curious piece deriding the fable of a thousand years,

* Sed cum eos qui tunc resurrexerint dicunt immoderatissi-
mis carnalibus epulis vacaturos, in quibus cibus sit tantus et
potus, ut non solum nullam modestiam teneant, sed modum
quoque ipsius incrcdulitatis exccdant, nullo modo ista possunt
nisi de carnalibus, credi. — August. De Civ. Dec. L. 20. c. 7.

t Prolegomena to the Canticles.

X Eweb. Hist. Eccles. L. 3. c. 39.

ii TREATISE ON

and the terrestrial Jerusalem adorned with gold and
precious stones ; rebuilding the temple, bloody saerilices,
sabbatical rest, circumcision, marriages, lyings-in, nurs-
ing of children, dainty feasts, and servitude of the
nations : and again after this, wars, armies, triumphs,
and slaughters of conquered enemies, and the death of
the sinner a hundred years old. Him Apollinarius an-
swered m two volumes, whom not only men of his own
sect, but most of our own people likewise follow in this
pomt. So it is no hard matter to foresee what a multi-
tude of persons I am like to displease."*

Of the Dionysius here mentioned Lardner says, " In
the time of Dionysius's episcopate there were great
numbers of Christians in the district of Arsino'" lu
Egypt, who were fond of the millennary notion, <:x-
pecting a kingdom of Christ here on earth in which

♦ ^-et qua ratione intelligenda sit Apocalypsis Joht.^ Ti.-
quam si juxla literam accipimus, Judaizandum est ; si sp'^'u-
aliter, ut scripta est, disserimus, multorum veterum opinio ::')u-
contraire, Latinorum, Tertulliani, Victorini, Lactantii ; 'Jrac-
corum, ut cccteros pra;termittam, Irenaii tantum Lugdunonsia
cpiscopi faciam inentioncm ; adversus quern vir eloquentissi-
inus Dionysius, Alexandrinic ecclesiiE pontifex, elegantem • ri-
bit librum, irridens mille annorum fabulam ; et auream :[>f^ae
gemmatam in terris Jerusalem ; instaurationem tcmpli ; llu^ii•
arum sanguincm ; otium Sabbali ; circumcisionis injuriam,
nuptias, partus, liberorum educationem, epularum delicias, et
cunctarum gentium scrvitatem : rursus bella, exercitus, ac tri-
umphos, et superatorum ueces, mortemque centinarii peccato-
ris. Cui duobus vohuninibus respondit Apollinarius, quem
non tiolum sua; secla; homines, sed et nostrorum in hac parte
dunlaxal plurima sequitur mullitudo ; ut prajsaga mcnte jam
cernam, quaniorum in me rabies concitanda sit. — Hierun, in
Es. I. 18. in Froem. p. 477, 478. Ed. Bened.

THE MILLENNIUM, 45

men should enjoy sensual pleasures. These persons
were much confirmed in this opinion by a book of
Nepos, an Egyptian bishop, entitled, A Confutation of
the AUegorists. Dionysius had a disputation or confer-
ence with those Christians, which he gave an account
of in one of his books, written upon that subject. In a
fragment which we have in Eusebius, he writes to this
purpose : ' When,' says he, ' I was in the province of
Arsinoe, where you know this opinion has for some time
so far prevailed as to cause divisions and apostacies of
whole churches, having called together the presbyters
and teachers of the brethren in the villages, admitting
likewise as many of the brethren as pleased to be pres-
ent, I advised that this opinion should publicly be ex-
amined into. And when they produced to me that book
as a shield and impregnable bulwark, I sat with them
three whole days successively, from morning to even-
ing, discussing the contents of it.' He then goes on
highly applauding the good order of the dispute, the
moderation and candour of all present, their willingness
to be convinced, and to retract their former opinions, if
reason so required : ' With a good conscience,' says
he, ' and unfeignedly, and with hearts open to the sight
of God, embracing whatever could be made out by
good arguments from the holy scriptures. In the end,
Coracio, the chief defender of that opinion, engaged
and promised, in the presence of all the brethren, that
he would no longer maintain nor defend, nor teach, nor
make mention of it, as being fully convinced by the
arguments on the contrary side. And all the brethren

46 TREATISE ON

who were present rejoiced for the conference, and their
mutual reconciliation and agreement.' "*

In connexion with this we shall append, as a curious
relic of antiquity, the judgment of this same Dionysius
respecting the book of Revelation. After observing
that many had rejected the book as a forgery of Cerin-
thus, and consequently not entitled to a place in the
sacred canon, he adds : — " For this (they say) was
one of his particular notions, that the kingdom of Christ
should be earthly ; consisting of those things which he
himself, a carnal and sensual man, most admired, the
pleasures of the belly, and of concupiscence ; that is,
eating, and drinking, and marriage ; and for the more
decent procurement of these, fcastings, and sacrifices,
and slaughters of victims. But, for my part, I dare not
reject the book, since many of the brethren have it in
high esteem : but allowing it to be above my understand-
ing, I suppose it to contain throughout some latent and
wonderful meaning ; for though I do not miderstand it,
I suspect there must be some profound sense in the
words ; not measuring and judging these things by my
own reason, but ascribing more to faith. I esteem them
too sublime to be comprehended by me. Nor do I con-
demn what I have not been able to understand : but I
admire the more, because they are above my reach."!

This is probably a very correct account of the light
in which the great mass of the Christian world at the
present day view the disclosures (to them, mysteries) of
this amazing book, notwithstanding that the Holy Ghost,

• Lardner's Works, vol. ii. p. 691.
t Ibid. vol. ii. p. 693.

THE MILLENNIUM. 47

from a foresight of the disesteem into which it would be
likely, in after ages, to fall, has, as a prophylactic guar-
antee against neglect, emblazoned in characters of light ■
upon the very portals of this temple of prophecy the
inscription — 'Blessed is he that readeth,' — a de-
claration equivalent to an asterisk of heaven pointing to
the vast importance and inestimable value of this por-
tion of the sacred oracles.* This importance, as per-

* " If that portion of the Bible which has been denominated
the Revelation of St. John the Divine, and which as such has
been regarded and acknowledged for seventeen hundred years,
can be proved to the satisfaction of the public to be a spurious
composition, let it be separated from the Book of God. Or,
if any person can satisfy himself that the whole production is
an invention of man, let him place it on a level with the Fables
of ^sop, and regard them with similar indifference. But on
the contrary, if the Revelation of St. John has come from the
archives of heaven, if it has been issued from the throne of
God, if our Lord Jesus Christ, out of his tender regard for the
interests of his people, and his concern for their instruction and
encouragement, has condescended to unseal the volume con-
taining the destinies of the Church and the world, — is there
any Christian who can suppose that indifference to the Rovd-
lation of Jesus Christ himself can be unattended with crimin-
ality ? Especially can it be supposed, that the indifference of
a minister of religion can be free from a charge of guilt ? Is
he not constituted a steward of the mysteries of God? And
ought he not to endeavour to explain those mysteries to the
people under his care ? If it be said, that the predictions of
the Revelation are obscure, and that the difficulties and uncer-
tainties which present themselves render every attempt at ex-
planation an unprofitable occupation : the difficulty experi-
enced ought to operate as a reason for paying more attention
to scriptural expressions, revealing divine purposes relative to
the future, and for making a more diligent investigation to as-
certain the import of the words of God. Besides, he that

48 TREATISE ON

taiiiiiify to the Apocalypse in itself considered, good men,
uho venerate the word of God, are generally willing to
concede, but this concession is in effect vacated by the
secret prevaiUng belief that its contents are unintelligi-
ble. Alas !

♦• Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt."

From the copious citations adduced above from the
records of ecclesiastical antiquity, it is clear that the
JMillennarian hypothesis, in its literal and less refined
features, did obtain an early prevalence in the church.
As little, we think, is to be doubted, that the opinion
owes its origin to a Jewish source. To what extent it
actually prevailed among the primitive Christians, it is
not possible, perhaps, from the conflicting testimonies
of opposite schools, to determine with any degree of

reads and those that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep
them, are pronounced blessed ; and sliould not this assurance
be an encouragement and incentive to study that portion of
Scripture which unfolds to us the future fortunes of the Church ?
Have we no ambition, no desire, no inclination to aim at and
attain the promised blessedness:' Need I remind the reader of
the awful denunciation, with which the Redeemer himself
closes the revelation he had made to his servant John? ' If
any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him
tlic plagues that arc written in this book ; and if any man shall
take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God
shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the
holy oily, and from the things whicii are written in this book.' "
Js'tii: llluttrations of Prophecy, by Jf. Fint, p. 273, 274. Lond.
1831.

THE MILLENNIUM. 49

accuracy. The probability is, that during the three
first centuries it was very extensively embraced. We
recollect that Chillingworth prefers it as a very serious
charge against the church of Rome, which lays such
lofty claims to the perpetuation within her own bosom
of the pure unadulterated doctrines of the apostolic and
primitive ages, that in this matter if in no other she has
grossly falsified the creed of antiquity, inasmuch as
there is ample evidence that the doctrine of the chili-
asts was actually the catholic faith of more than one
century. And certainly there are few judges more com-
petent to pronounce upon the fact. At the same time
we do not regard the extent of its prevalence, or the
period of its duration, as any measure of the abstract
truth of the tenet. For ourselves we can easily con-
ceive that, although the doctrine were really unsup-
ported by Scripture, there were circumstances in the
case of the primitive believers which may have contri-
buted powerfully to the spread and influence of Millen-
narianism among them. The early days of the church,
it is well known, were the days of persecution. The
first converts to Christianity were ' compassed about by
a great fight of afflictions.' The espousal of the reli-
gion of the cross, which waged an exterminating war
against the standing superstitions of the empire, exposed
them, as a matter of course, to all the terrors of popu-
lar frenzy and of imperial indignation. Being for the
most part men of uncultivated minds, but of ardent
zeal, unequal to the task of a sublimated conception of
the spiritual mysteries of revelation, but laying firm
hold of its literal and palpable representations, and

E 2

50 TREATISE ON

deeply imbued with its divine spirit, the grosser forms
of prophetic truth were precisely such as they would
naturally be most prone to imbibe, and such too as were
best suited to their exigencies. Even though we sup-
pose their views erroneous, yet the error was in itself
an innocent one, and with the fires of martyrdom kin-
dling around them, and every species of torture devised
to aggravate their sufierings, what could buoy up the
spirits of such a class of men in the hour of mortal
agony, but the promises and prospects of a glorious
reward such as their rude and simple but honest minds
saw disclosed in the letter of their Scriptures ? And is
it any disparagement to the wisdom of the Most High
that he should so have framed the word of truth that
certain portions of it might be susceptible of an inter-
pretation which, though natural, was not necessary,
though fallacious, was yet feasible, and adapted to min-
ister at particular seasons and under peculiar circum-
stances, the most solid support and consolation to its
disciples 1 For ourselves we have no difficulty in sup-
posing that the jVlillennarian error was in a peculiar
manner winked at in the early ages of Christianity, and
that the beUef of it was calculated to produce and did
produce results of a most auspicious character, which
under the circumstances a different and even a more
correct construction of the sacred oracles would have
failed to eflect. On the same principle, in all probabil-
ity, we may account for the general prevalence at that
early period of the sentiment respecting the speedy dis-
solution of the world and the consummation of all
things, " In the primitive church," says Gibbon, " the

THE MILLENNIUM. 51

influence of truth was very powerfully strengthened by
an opinion, which, however it may deserve respect for
its usefulness and antiquity, has not been found agree-
able to experience. It was universally believed that the
end of the world, and the kingdom of heaven, were at
hand. The near approach of this wonderful event had
been predicted by the apostles ; the tradition of it was
preserved by their earliest disciples, and those who un-
derstood in their literal sense the discourses of Christ
himself, were obliged to expect the second and glorious
coming of the Son of man in the clouds, before that
generation was totally extinguished, which had beheld
his humble condition, and which might still be witness
of the calamities of the Jews under Vespasian or Ha-
drian. The revolution of seventeen centuries has in-
structed us not to press too closely the mysterious lan-
guage of prophecy and revelation ; hut as long as, for
wise purposes, this error was permitted to subsist in the
church it was productive of the most salutary effects on
the faith and practice of Christians, who lived in the
awful expectation of that moment when the globe itself,
and all the various race of mankind, should tremble at
the appearance of their divine Judge."* Can it be
doubted that the language of the sacred writers is so
constructed, as that it should, before the event proved
the contrary, tend to countenance and cherish the belief
here stated? When we hear the apostles saying, 'The
end of all things is at hand' — * we which are alive and
remain shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air'

* Decl. and Fall, p. 185. Ed. in one vol.

52 TREATISE ON

' lo, I come quickly' — ' the time is at hand' — * things

which must shortly come to pass' — it is obvious that
such expressions, to say nothing of our Lord's predic-
tion of the destruction of Jerusalem, which might be
thought to include the destruction of the world, are ca-
pable of being construed in a sense to warrant the most
sanguine expectations that were built upon them. And
who shall say that this end might not have been ex-
pressly designed under God to be answered by the pe-
culiar phraseology in which the announcements were
couched ? For aught we know, in fact, the apostles
themselves might have been of the prevailing belief, as
we have met with no reasoning which convinces us that
they always understood the full reach and import of their
own writings.

Here it may be objected, that it is not altogether con-
sistent to attribute to the primitive Christians the belief
in the speedy catastrophe of the world, when at the
same time their millennarian notions required them to
hold that six thousand years must first elapse before
that blissful period would dawn upon the earth. But
the truth is, that, owing to a radical error in their chro-
nological calculus, they conceived themselves as actu-
ally having arrived at the eve of the world's seventh
millennary, or, in other words, as having their lot cast
on the Saturday of the great antypical Week of the
creation. " The primitive church of Antioch," says
the historian above cited, " computed almost 6000 years
from the creation of the world to the birth of Christ.
Africanus, Lactantius, and the Greek church, have re-
duced that number to 5,500, and Eusebius has con-

THE MILLENNIUM. 63

tented himself with 5,200 years. These calculations
were formed on the Septuagint, which was universally
received during the first six centuries."*

Before leaving the subject of ancient testimonies, the
reader will tolerate another extract from the History of
the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, couched
in the usual flowing and eloquent vein of the author.
" The ancient 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, accord-
ing 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 labour
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 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 king-
dom, was quickly adorned with all the gayest colours
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

♦ Decl. and Tall, p. 185.

TREATISE ON

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 terri-
tory ; in the free enjoyment of whose spontaneous pro-
ductions, the happy and benevolent people was never
to be restrained by any jealous laws of exclusive pro-
perty. The assurance of such a millennium was care-
fully inculcated by a succession of fathers from Justin
Martyr and Irenacus, 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 com-
pleted, 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.

THE MILLENNIUM. 55

CHAPTER II.

MODERN OPINIONS RESPECTING THE APOCALYPTIC
MILLENNIUM.

Historical Sketch of the Decline of tho Millennarian theory,
and of its Revival at the Reformation — The modern Advo-
cate8 of a future Millennium divided into two Classes — The
first hold to the personal Reign of Christ on earth during the
thousand years — Made, Caryll, Gill, Noel, Irving, Ander-
son, quoted — Claim to found their Expectation upon a pass-
age in the second Epistle of Peter — Remarks upon this Inter-
pretation— The second Class deny the Personal, but maintain
the Spiritual Reign of Christ — Confirmed by Extracts from
Whitby, Bogue, Johnston.

The Millennarian hypothesis, as it respects the pat-
ronage 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 gen-
eral 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 contro-
versial opposition of great names against the tenet itself.
Origen, Augustine, and Jerome successively arrayed
themselves against a Judaizing dogma discountenanced,

56 TREATISE ON

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, con-
tributed powerfully to weaken the hold which millenna-
rianism 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 medita-
tion 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 Apoca-
lypse, and the conceptions they had formed of prophetic
scripture, if they had formed any, became confused and
obscure ; tliey waited for light, but darkness continued
to surround tliem.

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 inter-
rupted 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 infatua-
tion, and created a destructive ferment around them.

THE MILLENNIUM. 57

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 miilennarian
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 be-
tween that time and the present sent forth their specula-
tions, 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
suflicient 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, born 1586,
died 1638, 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

^ TREATISE ON

kin(^dom of Christ, the following is his unpresuraing
language : —

" What the quality of this reign should be, which is so
singularly diilerencecJ from the reign of Christ hitherto,
is neither easy nor safe to determine, further than that
it should be the reign of our Savior'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 care-
ful, 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." — Medi's Works^ Booh iii. Rem. ch. xii. p. 603.

The subsequent testimony of the excellent Joseph
Caryll, author of a Commentary on Job, is prefixed to
a work published by Nathaniel Holmes, D.D. during
the period of the English Commonwealth : —

"That all the saints shall reiiin with Christ a thousand

THE MILLENNIUM. 59

years on earth, in a wonderful, both spiritual and visible,
glorious manner before the time of the ultimate and
general resurrection, is a position which, though not a
few have hesitated about and some opposed, yet has
gained ground in the hearts and judgments of very many
both brave and godly men, who have left us divers
essays and discourses upon this subject. And having
perused the learned and laborious travails of this author,
I conceive that the church of God hath not hitherto seen
this great point so clearly stated, so largely discussed, so
strongly confirmed, not only by the testimony of ancient
and modern v>^riters of all sorts, but by the Holy Scrip-
tures throughout, as it is presented in this book. Wherein
also divers other considerable points are collaterally han-
dled, all tending to set foith the catastrophe and result
of all the troubles and hopes of such as fear God, as the
preface to their eternal bliss. And whereas some have
been and still are apt to abuse this doctrine by making
it an occasion to the flesh, and of heating themselves in
the expectation of a carnal liberty and a worldly glory,
I find that this author hath cautiously forelaid and pre-
vented all such abuses, by showing the exceeding spir-
itualness and holiness of this state, to which as none but
the truly holy shall attain, or having attained it, they
shall walk in the height of hohness. And therefore I
judge this book very useful for the saints and worthy of
the public view." — Congreg, Magaz. New Series, vol.
V. p. 39.

Approaching nearer to our own times. Dr. Gill stands
forth conspicuously among his contemporaries as a dis-
tinguished advocate of millennarianism.

60 TREATISE ON

*' There will be a personal and glorious appearance
of tlie Son of God, 'the Lord himself shall descend'
(1 Tliess. 4. 16.) not by iiis Spirit or the communication
of his grace, or by his gracious presence as before ; but
in person he will descend from the third heaven, where
he is in our nature, into the air where he will be visible ;
every eye shall see him when he cometh with clouds, or
in the clouds of heaven, which will be his chariot ; he
will descend on earth at the proper time ; and his feet
shall stand upon the Mount of Olives ; on that spot of
ground from whence he ascended to heaven. Job seems
to have this descent of his in view when he says, ' He
shall stand at the latter day upon the earth ;' which
seems to respect not so much his first coming as his
second, since it is connected with the resurrection of the
dead. There will be (nlao) a rcaurrcction o( the bodies
of the saints ; the dead in Christ, who died in union with
him, believers in him, and partakers of his grace shall
rise first : they will have the dominion over the wicked
in the morning of the resurrection, who will not rise
until the end of that day ; there will be a thousand
years distance between the resurrection of the one and
that of the other; hence the resurrection of the just as
that is named in distinction from that of the unjust, is
called the first resurrection, Rev. 20. 5, 6."

After mentioning the change of living saints, their
being caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and the
conflagration of the material heavens and earth, he pro-
ceeds : —

" Then there will succeed new heavens and a new
earth, which God has promised, and which the Apostle

THE MILLENNIUM. 61

Peter says, saints look for according to his promise ;
and of which the Apostle John had a vision. To this
new earth Christ will descend, and he will dwell in it
here ; the tabernacle of God will be with men, and he
shall dwell with them : this shall be the seat of Christ's
personal reign ; here he will reign before his ancients glo-
riously ; here he will have his palace and keep his court,
and display his glory and the greatness of his majesty ;
and here his people will dwell with him, who will now
be all righteous, perfectly so, even righteousness itself;
for in these new heavens and new earth will dwell
righteousness ; nothing shall enter into this glorious New
Jerusalem-state that worketh abomination or maketh a
lie ; it will be a perfectly holy city, consisting wholly of
holy persons ; wherefore blessed and holy is he that
hath part in the first resurrection : nor will there be any
enemy to annoy the saints in this^ state ; the wicked will
be all burnt and destroyed at the general conflagration ;
the beast and the false prophet, before this, will be cast
alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone ; Satan
will be bound by Christ, and cast into the bottomless
pit, where he will remain till the thousand years are
folfiUed : for so long will this state continue ; so long
will Satan be bound ; so long the saints will live and
peign with Christ ; this will be the day of the Lord,
which is a thousand years, and which thousand years
will be as one day. At the close of these years Satan
will be loosed again, and the wicked dead will be raised ;
which, with the whole posse of devils, will make the
Gog and Magog army, who shall be in the four quarters
of the world, and go up on the breadth of the earth ;

03 TREATISE ON

and whose number shall be as the sand of the sea, being
all tlie wicked that have been from the begimiing of the
Avorld ; a large army indeed, such a one as never was
before, consisting of enraged devils, and of men raised
with all that malice and wickedness they died in, with
Satan at the head of them ; by whom they will be ani-
mated to make this last feeble and foolish effort for their
recovery and liberty ; in order to which they will com-
pass the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city ;
who will be in no manner of pain and uneasiness at the
appearance of this seeming formid^ible army ; being
clothed with immortality, secured by the power of God,
and Christ being in person with them ; then fire shall
come down from heaven and devour the wicked ; the
wrath of God shall seize, distress, and terrify them ;
divert them from their purpose, and throw them into the
utmost consternation and confusion ; and then they shall
be dragged to the tribunal of Christ and stand before
him, small and great, and be judged according to their
works, and cast into tlie lake of lire, where they will
be in company with the devil, the beast, and false pro-
phet, and be tormented with them for ever and ever." —
GiWs Sermon on the Glory of the Church of the Latter
Day, preached London, Dec. 27, 1752.

" It will be jj^aihered from the foregoing statements,
that I expect the personal and visible kingdom of Christ
to rise out of the desolation and ruin of the fourth mon-
archy in the last days of its divided state ; that I believe
no fifth dominant sovereignty similar to the four mon-
archies of Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome, will ever
be established upon earlli : but that tlie power of Christ,

THE MILLENNIUMi 63

when it smites to shivers the last of these monarchies
in its divided state, will establish upon their subverted
thrones the everlasting throne of his grace and media-
torial strength ; that I believe this throne will admit the
subordination of other human sovereignties, and corrob-
orate and support the blessings of civil government and
concord through the world : that the glorified saints of
the ' first resurrection' will be associated with Christ in
the direction and consolidation of this peaceful empire ;
and that the world will thus exhibit a gladdening spec-
tacle of a vast population of men still indeed mortal and
subject to occasional ill, but peaceful, generous, disin-
terested, living in concord, and heartfelt union ; a union
social, domestic, and political ; attributing all their bless-
ings to the grace and power of Christ, and recognising
his will and love alike in the exercise of power, and in
the submission of obedience ; and that the higher man-
agement and control of this world will be in the hands
first of Christ himself, and under him in the hands of
men — of men once like the mortal sojourners they gov-
ern, but now glorified like their Lord, and living amidst
their mortal kindred as benefactors, princes, and kings.
It is not needful to suppose their presence to be always
apparent to their happy subjects ; but still their visible
manifestations to be sufl[iciently frequent to sustain the
mutual allegiance and concord of mankind, to cheer the
intercourse of life, and to perpetuate an abiding recogni-
tion of their intense benevolence and their sovereign
authority." — NoeVs Brief Enquiry^ p. 154.

" The events of the history are these v. — The two
forms of Antichrist, the beast and the false prophet,

64 TREATISE ON

being taken alive and cast into the lake of fire, and the
kings of the earth confederate under their banners,
being slain ; the devil, prime mover of the earth's wick-
edness and misery, is restrained in chains within the
bottomless pit, and straightway the first resurrection
ensueth, and Christ with his rising saints takes the reins
of the government of the earth. The earth, thus de-
livered from the headship of Satan and wicked men, re-
joiceth in great blessedness, under the headship of Christ
and righteous men raised from the dead. And thus
things shall stand constituted for the period of the thou-
sand years ; — whether literal years we say net, nor
doth it at all concern us, but certainly a limited time,
however short or long, and certainly not shorter than a
thousand literal years. At the end of which finite time,
the wickedness of men haply increasing, and the grace
of God being accomplished, Satan shall be loosed, and
mea in this bitter condition shall be tried ; and it shall
appear that except the Jewish people who are under a
covenant of their own (Ezek. 16.), all tlie nations, en-
vious haply of that distinction, and disobedient to their
supremacy, shall give way, and come up in proud revolt
to try their might against the people of God's covenant,
and against his holy city, which hath its seat within
these bounds. This last confederacy of evil is written
in the language of Ezekiel's vision of Gog and Magog
(chaps. 38, and 39.), and will find its best illus-
trations from that confederacy of the nations against
Israel settled in their own land, before the millennium
commenceth. Then it is that God shall interfere and
show his mighty power in Christ,, who sludl consume

THE MILLENNIUM. 65

them with fire out of heaven." — Rev. E. Irving's Lect.
on the Rev., vol. i. p. 80, 81. Lond. 1831.

" I believe that the dispersed of Israel, having been
gathered into one, and nationally restored to the land of
their fathers ; that the secular empire of Rome, exhib-
ited at present in its divided form of the various prin-
cipalities of Europe, having been revolutionised and
desolated ; that the Turkish empire having undergone a
similar fate ; that the ecclesiastical dominion of popery-
having been thrown down with a violent hand, as when
the angel plunged the mill-stone into the sea ; that all
earth-born power whatsoever having been abolished
throughout the world ; and that Satan having been ex-
pelled from the government which he has usurped so
extensively — then shall the Lord Jesus Christ, revealed
from heaven in his glorified humanity, himself assume the
power, and reign on earth as universal king: at which time
he shall to a considerable extent restore this globe to its
primitive order, beauty, and fertility; give the saints who
are dead a resurrection from the grave ; transform them
who are alive ; liken them in glory to his glorified self;
and assemble them in the New Jerusalem, where they
shall dwell and reign with Him. — That this reign of
righteousness and peace shall continue for at least one
thousand solar years, after which Satan shall be loosed
again, and prevail to the seduction of many, till the
defection have reached such a height, that the rebels
shall make an attempt on the sanctity of the New Jeru-
salem, when signal vengeance shall miraculously over-
take them. — That then shall the trumpet blow its dread-
ful blast to the Second Resurrection, when all the dead

06 TREATISE ON

wicked shall also be raised, and judged, and consigned
over to the second death. — That this being transacted,
the Son shall deliver up the kingdom to the Father,
having completed his mediatorial work. — What shall
succeed this I know not particularly, further than that I
do not believe that the earth shall be annihilated, but
that rectified and beautified it shall last for ever, as the
happy abode of the saints." — Anderson's Apol. for
Milieu. Doctrine, part i. p. 1, 2. Glasg. 1830.

That the sentiments of modern millennarians are, in
their leading features, but the revival of the ancient
doctrine as held by Justin Martyr, Irenajus, and Lac-
tantius, is rendered indubitable, we think, by the fore-
going extracts. And if, as we have endeavoured to
show, the doctrine of the fathers was merely a trans-
plantation of the Jewish tenet into the Christian church,
it follows that the modern hypothesis can claim for
itself no other origin. We are aware indeed that there
are two passages of scripture which are pressed into
the service of this theory, and upon which great reli-
ance is placed as containing all but a positive demon-
stration of its truth. The first is Ps. 90. 4, ' For a
thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when
it is past, and as a watch in the night.' The second,
■which is supposed to be a quotation of the former,
occurs 2 Pet. 3. 8. " Beloved, be not ignorant of this
one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day." How this
language is understood in connexion with the millenna-
rian notion will appear from the following comment,
although the author does not in other points agree with

THE MILLENNIUM. 67

tiiat school. " He says, ' Be not ignorant of this one
things that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day.' By this ex-
pression, ' this one thing,^ he plainly shows that it is
not used as a general expression ; for in that way it is
as true, and might as well be said, that one day is with
the Lord as a million of years. To show that he used
the expression in a very particular sense, the apostle
repeats it, ' that a thousand years are as one day.' It
is highly probable, that it is in reference to some such
division of time as the ages of the world into seven
millennaries, and the seventh of these a sabbatism, that
six days were spent in the creation of the world, and
that the seventh was sanctified for a sabbath. The
Almighty Creator could have made the world in a mo-
ment, as easily as in six days ; and for any thing which
we know, another day or another proportion of time
might have been as fit for a sabbath as the seventh." —
Johnston on the Revelation, vol. ii. p. 326.

Mede speaks to the same effect. After giving the
following as a correct paraphrase of the words : — " But
whereas I mentioned the day of judgment, lest ye might
mistake it for a short day, or a day of a few hours, I
would not, beloved, have you ignorant, that one day is
with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years
as one day" — he observes ; — " Thus I expound these
words by way of a preoccupation or premunition ; be-
cause they are the formal words of the Jewish doctors
when they speak of the day of judgment or day of Christ,
as St. Peter here doth ; viz. ' Una dies Dei Sancti Bene-
dicti sunt millc anni' — 'A thousand years are one day

$8 TREATISE ON

of the Hohj Blessed God.^ And though they use to
quote that of the ninetieth Psabn, [Mille anni in oculis
tuts sicut dies hestcrnus'' — A thousand years in thy
sight are as yesterday,) for confirmation thereof, yet
are not those words formally in the Psalm. So that St.
Peter in this passage seems rather to have had respect
to tliat common saying of the Jews in this argument, than
to the words of tlie Psalm, where the words, ' One day
with the Lord is as a thousand years,' are not, though
the latter part of the sentence, ' a thousand years as one
day,' may allude thither ; as the Jews also were wont
to bring it for a confirmation of the former. 2. These
words are commonly taken as an argument why God
should not be thouglit ' slack in his promise' (which
follows in the next verse) ; but the first fathers took it
otherwise ; and besides it proves it not. For the ques-
tion is not, whether the time be long or short in respect
of God, but whether it be long or short in respect
of us ; otherwise not only a thousand but an hundred
thousand years are in the eyes of God no more than one
day is to us, and so it would not seem long to God if the
day of judgment should be deferred till then." — Mede's
Worksy Book iii. p. 611.

Of the interpretation of this passage given by the
writers now cited it may be said, that the allusion to the
traditionary liebdomadal division of time, if it do exist
in the words, is so extremely covert that it will ever be
liable to be questioned or denied. The evidence by
which such an interpretation is to be demonstratively
shewn to be the true one is and always must be wanting.
One man may be firm in the belief that such is indeed

THE MILLENNIUM. 69

the very drift of the apostle's words, but as he can bring
no argument but the conviction of his own mind or that
of other men, to affect the credence of another, he
ought not to deem it surprising if he does not succeed
in gainmg his assent to an opinion which cannot be
proved to be true. All that can be said of it is, that
while on the one hand it cannot be shown to be true, on
the other it cannot be proved to be false.

But even admitting the justness of the millennarian
construction of this passage, it still leaves the main point
as unsettled as before ; viz. the identity of the seventh
tnillennary of the world with the millennium of John in
the Apocalypse. This is a point which all the writers
of the millennarian school have uniformly taken for
granted without requiring or advancing the least shadow
of proof. In this respect therefore the whole theory
labors under a radical, and we fear a fatal, defect of
evidence. But we proceed to state the opinions —

II. Of those who deny the personal^ but maintain the
spiritual, reign of Christ on earth, for the period of a
thousand years.

Chiliasts, or Millennarians, is a name which, from an
early period, has been bestowed upon such as have
been looking for a seventh millennium, in which our
Lord Jesus Christ should personally appear and reign
with his people on earth. But others also, not so de-
nominated, have expected, and do expect, a spiritual
reign on earth for a thousand years. This class em-
braces a large majority of the Christian world at the
present day. They agree with the former for the most
part in regard to the time of the millennium, but differ

70 TREATISE ON

essentially in their views of its character. They declare
themselves with equal confidence as to the fact of this
happy period being yet future. " Nothing," says Bishop
Newton, " is more evident than that this prophecy of
the millennium and of the first resurrection hath not yet
been fulfilled, even though the resurrection be taken
in a figurative sense." Dr. Bogue expresses himself
thus : — " Why spend a moment to prove that the mil-
lennium does not now exist, and from the representation
which has been given of the past periods of the church,
has not yet commenced its joyful course ? Prophecy
confirms this reasoning, for it describes the millennium
as reserved for the last days (quere, where 1) to form
the graceful close of the divine dispensations to the
Kingdom of the Redeemer." As far therefore as the
millennarians in fixing upon the seventh chiliad as the
sabbatism of the world, are, as Jerome terms them, the
* heirs of a Jewish tradition,' the advocates of the other
opinion are entitled to a share in the Rabbinical legacy.
For ourselves, we deem them both, in this respect, to be
equally in error ; but before attempting to prove them so,
we shall lay before the reader some fair specimens of
their opinions.

The first is that of Whitby.

" Having thus given you a just account of the millen-
nium of the ancients, and of the true extent of that opin-
ion in the primitive ages of the church ; I proceed now
to sliew in what tilings I agree with the assertors of that
doctrine, and how far 1 find myself constrained, by the
force of truth, to differ from them.

I believe, then, that after the fall of Antichrist tliere

THE MILLENNIUM. 71

shall be such a glorious state of the church, by the con-
version of the Jews to the Christian faith, as shall be to
it life from the dead ; that it shall then flourish in peace
and plenty, in righteousness and holiness, and in a pious
offspring; that then shall begin a glorious and undis-
turbed reign of Christ over both Jew and Gentile, to
continue a thousand years during the time of Satan's
binding; and that as John the Baptist was Elias, because
he came in the spirit and power of Elias ; so shall this
be the church of martyrs, and of those who had not
received the mark of the Beast, because of their entire
freedom from all the doctrines and practices of the anti-
christian church, and because the spirit and purity of
the times of the primitive martyrs shall return. And
therefore,

1. I agree with the patrons of the millennium in this,
That I believe Satan hath not yet been bound a thousand
years, nor will he be so bound till the time of the calling
of the Jews, and the time of St. John's millennium.

2. I agree with them in this. That the true millen-
nium will not begin till the fall of Antichrist ; nor will
the Jews be converted, the idolatry of the Roman church
being one great obstacle of their conversion.

3. I agree both with the modern and the ancient mil-
lennaries. That there shall be great peace and plenty,
and great measures of knowledge and of righteousness
in the whole church of God.

I therefore only differ from the ancient millennaries
in three things ;

1. In denying Christ's personal reign upon earth dur-

72 TREATISE ON

ing this thousand years ; and in this both Dr. Burnet anJ
Mr. Mede expressly have renounced their doctrine.*

2. Though I dare not absolutely deny what they all
positively aflirm, that the city of Jerusalem shall be then
rebuilt, and the converted Jews shall return to it, because
this probably may be collected from those words of
Christ, ' Jerusalem shall be trodden down till the time
of the Gentiles is come,' Luke 21. 24, and all the
prophets seem to declare the Jews shall then return to
their own land, Jer. 31. 38-40, yet do I confidently
deny what Barnabas and others of them do contend for,
viz. that the temple of Jerusalem shall be then built
again ; for this is contrary not only to the plain declara-
tion of St. John, who saith, 'I saw no temple in this
New Jerusalem,' Rev. 21. 22, whence I infer there is
to be no temple in any part of it ; but to the whole de-
sign of the epistle to the Hebrews which is to shew the
dissolution of the temple service, for the weakness and
unprofitableness of it ; (and) that the Jewish tabernacle
was only a figure of the true and ' more perfect taber-
nacle which the Lord pitched, and not man ;' the Jewish
sanctuary only a worldly sanctuary, a pattern and a
figure of the heavenly one into which Christ our high
priest is entered, Ileb. 8. 2, — 9. 2, — H. 23, 24. Now
such a temple, such a sanctuary, and such service, can-
not be suitable to the most glorious and splendid times
of the Christian church ; and therefore the apostle saith,

♦ Tliis miiy be questioned. These writers have modijied the
ereed of the ancients on this subjocl, without renouncing it»

THE MILLENNIUM. 73

* The Lord God omnipotent, and the Lamb, shall be
their temple.'

3. I differ both from the ancient and the modern mil-
lennaries, as far as they assert that this shall be a reign
of such Christians as have suffered under the heathen
persecutors ; or by the rage of Antichrist ; (I) making it
only a reign of the converted Jews and of the Gentiles
then flowing into them, and uniting into one church
with them. This I believe to be indeed the truth of
this mistaken doctrine." — Whithy^s Treatise on the
True Millennium^ p. 9, 10.

Thus speaks Dr. Bogue.

" Having noticed these erroneous views of the doc-
trine, allow me to mention, in a few words, what I con-
ceive to be the Millennium of the Christian Church, —
which God has graciously revealed by his servants the
Prophets. It appears, then,, that there will be far more
eminent measures of divine knowledge ;. of holiness of
heart and life ; and of spiritual consolation and joy,, in.
the souls of the disciples of Christ, than the world has
yet seen : and these will not be the attainments of a few
Christians, but of the general mass. This delightful
internal state of the Church will be accompanied with
such a portion of external prosperity and peace, and
abundance of all temporal blessings, as men never knew
before. The boundaries of the kingdom of Christ will
be extended from the rising to the going down of the
sun ; and Antichristianism, Deism, Mahometanism, Pa-^
ganism, and Judaism, shall all be destroyed and give
place to the Redeemer's throne. By the preaching of
the Gospel, the reading of the Bible,, and the zeaL of

a 2:

74 TREATISE ON

Christians in every station; by the judgments of heaven
on the children of men for their hiiquities ; above all, by
the miglily elficacy of tlie Holy Ghost, will the glory
of tiie latter days be brought about. Keligion will then
be the grand business of mankind. The generality will
be truly pious ; and those who are not- will be incon-
siderable in number, and most probably be anxious to
conceal their real character ; and their sentiments and
practice have no real weight or influence on the public
mind. The earnest desire which every pious soul must
feel for the long continuance of this glory, will be grat-
ified to hear, that the time mentioned in prophetic lan-
guage, as the period of its duration, is a thousand years.
Such I believe to be tlie doctrine of the Millennium." —
Bogiies Disc, on the Millcn. p. 18.

" By tlie millennium, I do not understand such a state
as accords to any of the many superstitious and enthu-
siastic descriptions of the renovation of the earth after
tlie general conllagration, of the first resurrection of the
bodies of the saints to live again for a thousand years
upon that renovated earth, and of the personal reign of
Christ for a thousand years on earth ; wliicii have been
published to the world even by men of considerable note.
These conjectures I reject, because there is no founda-
tion for them in scripture ; and they are highly unrea-
sonable and improbable in themselves, so far as we are
capable of judging on such a subject. But by the mil-
lennium I understand a triumphant state of the kingdom
of God or true religion of Jesus on earth for a thousand
years. This king(k»ni of God is righteousness, truth,.
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. 'J'his kingdom, con--

THE MILLENNIUM. 75

sisting of these four constituent parts, shall be in a
triumphant state during the whole millennium. Then
mankind shall in a very high degree be freed from
ignorance and error ; shall love, study, and know the
truth on every subject in which they have any concern,
and especially on the subject of religion. Universal
righteousness shall prevail. They shall pay that regard
to the perfect and meritorious righteousness of Christ,
which accords to truth, to the perfection of the divine
law, to the infinitude of divine justice, to its own perfec-
tion, to their need of it, and to the gracious purpose of
God in sending Christ into this world to fulfil all right-
eousness. They shall love and practise righteousness
to God, to their brethren of mankind, to all the creatures
of God with whom they have intercourse, and to them-
selves, in all its branches : and they shall make perpetual
progress in truth and righteousness. Universal peace
shall prevail on the earth. Men, as individuals, shall
enjoy peace with God, and peace of conscience ; as con-
nected in society, they shall live in peace with their
neighbors, whether in smaller or larger societies. Pri-
vate quarrels and public wars shall cease to the ends of
the earth. The brute creation, treated with gentleness
by men, shall become much more gentle and harmless
to them and to one another than they are now. Uni-
versal joy shall abound. That joy which is pure and
exalted happiness, that joy which is congenial to a mind
renewed and sanctified by the Holy Ghost. Not only
shall all public affairs be conducted with prosperity and
joy, but individuals also shall be happy. They shall
be blessed with that joy, 'which is inseparable from high

76 TREATISE 01?

attainments in truth, righteousness, and peace. Such,
in a certain degree, shall be the situation of the whole
world during these thousand years ; and in a very high
degree of every part of it, except that styled Gog and
Magog." — Johnston on the Rev. vol. ii. p. 310, 311.

As our views upon the whole subject of the millen-
nium will be given in full in the sequel, it will be unne-
cessary to anticipate here the remarks which we should
otherwise have to offer upon these quotations. Error
is more effectually subverted by the establishment of
truth. The light in which we view them will disclose
itself as we advance. We are now prepared to enter
upon the direct consideration of the subject.

THE MILLENNIUM. W

CHAPTER IIL

EXPLICATION OF THE SYMBOL OF THE DRAGON-

The Binding of Satan or the Dragon the main feature of the
anticipated Miirennium — Necessary to determine the Import
of this Symbolical Action — This cannot be done without
first fixing the import of the Dragon himself as a Symbol —
With this view the Vision of the Dragon, Rev. xii., minutely
considered — The sun-clad and star-crowned Woman ex-
plained— The Dragon shown to be a symbol of Paganism —
The War between Michael and the Dragon explained — The
remaining Circumstances of the Vision explained — Objections
answered — Reflections,

The grand characteristic of the Millennium described
by John is the binding of Satan or the Dragon. " And
I saw an ang^l come down from heaven, having the key
of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
And he laid hold on the Dragon, that old serpent, which
is the Devil, and Satan, and bomid him a thousand
years." Now as the whole book of the Apocalypse is
marked by a sustained unity of character, imparting its
revelations not in literal but in figurative language, this
is to be regarded as a symbolical action, forming a part
of the tissue of visionary scenery running through the
book, every portion of wliich is to be interpreted in con-
sistency with the structure of the whole^ In this sense,
that may be said with peculiar propriety of the Revela-

78 TREATISE ON

tion of John which is elsewhere said of the whole
Scriptures, that no prophecy is of any private interpre-
tation ; i. e. no prophecy is of an isolated interpreta-
tion ; but is to be regarded as a constituent portion of a
general system of prophecy, and therefore unsuscepti-
ble of a just and genuine interpretation when viewed
apart from its peculiar relations and dependencies. If,
then, we would establish the exposition of the scriptural
doctrine of the Millennium upon its legitimate basis, it
is indispensably requisite that the import of this sym-
bolical action, the binding of Satan, should be deter-
mined in the outset. But how can this be ascertained
without fixing in the first instance the hieroglyphical
significancy of Satan or the Dragon himself? Here, if
we mistake not, has lain the prime and radical error of
nearly all commentators upon the Apocalypse, and of
most of the modern advocates of a future Millennium.
They have understood this title in its literal sense, as
the designation of the prince of evil spirits acting ex-
clusively in his appropriate character of spiritual agent,
tempting and inciting the minds of men to sin. But as
Satan in this connexion is indubitably identified with the
Dragon of a former vision, and as the Dragon, from his
being represented with seven heads and ten horns, and
from the other peculiar attributes ascribed to him, must
stand as the hieroglyphical representative of some sub-
tantial persecuting power, it is obvious that the epithet
Satan or Devil, in its prophetic bearings, must point to
something else than a mere disastrous influence putting
itself forth upon the sentient spirits of men.

To tlie task therefore of determining, according to the

THE MILLENNIUM. 79

principles of symbolic interpretation, the legitimate scope
of this emblem, we now address ourselves ; a pur-
pose in the prosecution of which it will be necessary to
enter into a minute and critical analysis of other pas-
sages in the book where the mention of this ill-omened
personage occurs. In this mode of conducting the en-
quiry we shall in fa^t embrace a connected history of
the Dragon in his successive prophetical developments,
tracing him through the three grand stages of his mani-
festation ; in which he appears, (1.) as holding a pre-
eminence in the Apocalyptic heaven ; (2.) as cast down
from thence to the earth ; (3.) as degraded from the
surface of the earth to a place of confinement in its sub-
terranean abysses.

As he is first ushered to view in the twelfth chap-
ter of the Revelation, we shall commence our investi-
gation with a detailed exposition of that part of the
book, the results of which will be subsequently applied
to the elucidation of the twentieth, as it is upon the
right interpretation of the twentieth that the whole doc-
trine of the Millennium hinges. Our enquiry may con-
duct us over a pretty wide field of research, but we
flatter ourselves that the reader will find enough on the
way of curious and rare to reward the toil of travel.

REVELATION, CHAP. XII.

1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven ; a
woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her
feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars : 2.
And she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and

M TREATISE 0?r

pained to be delivered. 3. And there appeared another
wonder in heaven ; and behold a great red dragon, hav-
ing seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon
his heads. 4. And iiis tail drew the third part of the
stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth : and the
dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be
delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
5. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule
all nations with a rod of iron : and her child was caught
up unto God, and to his throne. 6. And the woman
fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place pre-
pared of God, that they should feed her there a thou-
sand two hundred and threescore days. 7. And there
was war in heaven : Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon : and the dragon fought and his an-
gels, 8. And prevailed not ; neither was their place
found any more in heaven. 9. And the great dragon
was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Sa*
tan, which deceiveth the whole world : he was cast out
into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is
come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our
God, and the power of his Christ : for the accuser of
our brethren is cast down, which accused them before
our God day and niglit. 11. And they overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their tes-
timony ; and they loved not their lives unto^ the death.
12. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in
them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the
sea, for the devil is come down unto you, having great
wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short

THE MILLENNIUM. 81

lime. 13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast
unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought
forth th€ man child. 14. And to the woman were given
two wings of a great eagle, that she might ily into the
wilderness into her place, where she is nourished for a
time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the
serpent. 15. And the serpent cast out of his mouth
water as a flood after the woma:n, that he might cause
her to be carried away of the flood. 16. And the earth
lielped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and
swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his
mouth. 17. And the dragon was wroth with the woman,
and went to make war with the remnant of her seed,
which keep the commandments of God, and have the
testimony of Jesus Christ.

The book of Revelation is eminently peculiar and
unique in its structure. The true order of the great
chain of events predicted in it is not to be determined
by the recorded order of the visions in wdiich they are
shadowed forth. On the contrary, it is not unfrequently
the case, that one, two, or three chapters are occupied
with the visionary representation of a train of affairs
extending over a given period of time, and terminating
at a particular epoch, while the chapter immediately
subsequent, taking up another order of occurrences, re-
mounts to a period of antiquity equally remote with the
preceding, and, with a different object in view, conducts
us over the same, or nearly the same, chronological era.
A vision, therefore, at the beginning of the book, may
point to an event occurring in the last ages of time,

83 TREATISE ON

while one at the close of the volume may remand us
back for its fulfilment to the primitive periods of Chris-
tianity. The grand canon of Apocalyptic interpretation,
originally laid down by Mede, and since adopted by all
the best commentators, is this : — That the order of the
visions is to be determined, irrespective of any previous
hypothesis, wholly and solely by the intrinsic charac-
ters of the visions themselves, a careful study of which
will enable one to distinguish with more or less preci-
sion those which synchronize from those which do not.
This has been termed the principle of * abstract syn-
chronization,' and certainly affords a clew of the utmost
importance to those who are prompted to thread the
mazes of the Apocalyptic labyrinth. Governed by this
principle, the eminent expositor above mentioned has oc-
cupied a considerable portion of his Clavis Apocalyp-
tica with the independent harmonical sorting and ar-
ranging of the various predictions of the Revelation
which are chronologically connected with each other.
In this he has performed an invaluable service to the
cause of prophetical interpretation. It may be doubted,
indeed, whether he has been uniformly correct in the
particular applications of his principle, but as to the
soundness of the principle itself there can be no ques-
tion.

On the ground, therefore, of this admuted law of ex-
position, we remark, that the chapter before us intro-
duces u vision entirely distinct from all that has pre-
ceded. Its connexion with the foregoing chapter, which
is at first view by no means obvious, may be stated
thus : — The closing verses of that chapter contain the

THE MILLENNIUM. 83

account of the sounding of the seventh trumpet, the ve-
hicle of the third woe, which, while it announces the
passing over of the regency of the kingdoms of this
world from the hands of their former despotic and secu-
lar rulers into the hands of Jesus Christ, their riglitful,
all-competent, and spiritual sovereign, proclaims also
the coming of a time of wrath upon the angry nations,
who had hitherto obstructed and still continued to resist
the Savior's assumption of his legitimate supremacy.
It was now the time of judgment, when they were to be
destroyed who had themselves destroyed or corrupted
the earth. But as yet no exact specification had been
given of the body of men upon whom the desolating
woe of the seventh trumpet was destined to fall. It is
plain indeed, from a subsequent part of the book, that the
subjects of this woe were to exist in the form of the
community symbolically denominated the Beast. As
the Beast, however, was a power which was to act a
very prominent and conspicuous part in the prophetic
drama, it was peculiarly fitting that the spirit of inspira-
tion should in this matter assume the province of the
historian, and give us a brief but comprehensive sketch
of the origin, rise, progress, career, and catastrophe of
this mystic monster. This accordingly is done in the
series of chapters extending from the thirteenth to the
nineteenth inclusive. But the Beast of the Apocalypse
was the lineal descendant of the Dragon ; it was neces-
sary, therefore, in order to the tracing of the symbolical
pedigree of the Beast, that the narrative should com-
mence with the history of the Dragon, his predecessor,
who * gave him his power, his seat, and great authority.'

84 TREATISE ON

It is for this end, accordingly, that the vision of the
Beast is prefaced with that of the Dragon. The one
would be incomplete without the other. This view of
the subject, which seems not to have occurred to pre-
ceding expositors, will be found, if we mistake not, of
the utmost importance in unravelling the enigmas of the
Revelation. We are persuaded, at least, that in the ex-
plication of the doctrine of the Millennium, no scheme
can be well founded which entirely disregards it.

The prophet, in the course of the supernatural reve-
lations vouclisafed to him in his banishment, beholds a
woman clothed with tlic sun, having the moon under her
feet, and her head adorned with a diadem or coronet of
twelve stars. This symbolical woman is represented to
the entranced eye of the Seer as upon the eve of giving
birth to a man-child, who w^as to enter upon a predes-
tined state of authority, in which he should rule all na-
tions with a rod of iron ; a badge of dominion betoken-
ing not so much the severity^ as the jirmncss and
strength of his universal government. At this perilous
juncture, in immediate juxtaposition with the parturient
woman, the Prophet beholds " a gieat red dragon,' dis-
tinguished by seven heads and ten horns, while each of
the heads was surmounted with a kingly crown. " And
he stood before the woman for to devour her child as
soon as it should be born." The child however escapes
the rapacious jaws of the monster. Instead of becom-
ing tlie victim, he becomes the victor, of the destroyer ;
for being, by divine interposition, caught up to the throne
of God, he there, under llie appellation of * Michael,' be-
gins a war against the Dragon and his angels, which is

THE MILLENNIUM. 85

finally terminated by the utter discomfiture of the latter,
and his dejection, with all his warring legions, from the
ascendancy which he had hitherto possessed. Upon
this a triumphal song is sung on high — lofty paeans of
praise and gratulation resound through the heavenly re-
gions— and the mutual felicitations of the victors are
mingled with devout ascriptions to that Almighty Power
through which their conquest had been achieved.

Such are the outlines of this significant phantasm re-
plete with a fulness of inspired import. We have here
the sacred hieroglyphic, couching under it a meaning in-
finitely more momentous than the mystic chroniclings of
the monuments of Egypt ; and the task now remains of
endeavouring to translate from the pictorial to the verbal
language the burden of the Prophet's symbols.

And first of the Woman. " A woman clothed with
the sun," 6lc. Throughout all antiquity, both sacred
and profane, there is no symbol more frequent or fami-
liar than that by which a female is employed to represent
a community. Cities are often thus depicted upon the
medals, coins, and inscriptions, which have come down
to us from antiquity, and it is not a little remarkable,
that in an ancient coin commemorative of the Baby-
lonish captivity, the nation of Israel is represented by a
female sitting under a palm-tree overwhelmed in tears.
The phraseology, moreover, in which the Jewish church
is denominated ' the virgin daughter of Zion,' ' the
daughter of Jerusalem,' &.c. is familiar to every reader
of the scriptures. The ecclesiastical community of
that people is called by Isaiah and Jeremiah a ' bride ;*
and Ezek. eh. 16. contains an extended allegory, in

H 2

QH TREATISE Olf

which the Jewish church is represented under the figurff
of a female advancing through the periods of childhood
and youth to the age and stature of a woman. So
when the Israelites were guilty of idolatiy, the nation
is spoken of collectively as an adulteress or harlot.
The same kind of diction prevails in those passages
which are prophetical of the Christian church. In Ps.
45. 10—17, she is spoken of as a bride, and the scene
of her nuptials minutely described ; while the entire
book of the Canticles is nothing but a continued alle-
gory shadowing forth the mystical union between Christ
and tlie clmrch, his spiritual spouse. Similar allusions
occur in the New Testament. Paul, in 2 Cor. 11. 2,
says, " I have espoused you to one husband, that I may
present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." And in the
subsequent parts of this book, the Christian church is
exhibited under the same emblem where the marriage
of the Lamb is spoken of. The false church also is
adumbrated by the image of a woman clothed in purple
and scarlet, and drunk with the blood of the saints,
Rev. ch. 17. where the force of the symbol, as pointing
to a body politicals expressly defined by the interpreting
anjrel : — " And tlie woman which thou sawest is that
great city which reigncth over the kings of the earth ;"
*^City' here is to be understood in the sense of commu-
nity. In like manner, other communities or polities
beside those which are sacred are denominated by the
same symbolical term. In Isaiah 47. 1, for instance,
the city or kingdom of Babylon is thus apostrophized :
" Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of
Babylon ;" explained in the Targum by * llegnum eon*

THB^ MILLENNIUM. 87

greg^tionis Babyloniae,' — kingdom of the Bahylonian
congregation ; called 'daughter of Babylon,' in the same
manner as Homer has Tocihi; Ax,uim — vie<i Ap^ccim, chU-
dren of the Greeks — sons of the Greeks^ for Greeks
simply. We may set it down, therefore, as a conceded
point of interpretation, that the Woman in this passage
is the representative of a community, a multitudinous
body of men. This however is advancing but a single
step in our inquiry. The next point is to identify this
mystic personage, or to determine the specif c community
of which she is the type. In doing this we are forced,
after much deliberation, to remount to a period no less
distant than the transaction in Eden, There, it will be
recollected, it was announced, as the proto-promi«e of
evangelic mercy, to our lapsed maternal progenitor, that
a perpetuated enmity should subsist between her (spirit-
ual) seed and the seed of the serpent. The issue,
moreover, of this protracted feud it was declared should
be the bruising of the head of the serpent by the seed
of the woman. Now it is evident, that, although in the
phrase ' seed of the woman,' a special reference is had
to the Messiah, to whom the title emphatically pertains,
yet it is in effect but another name for a line of descend-
ants of peculiar character^ contradistinguished from the
remnant of her natural progeny styled the ' seed of the
serpent.' For in the sense of 'physical derivation it is
plain that the * seed of the serpent' is as truly the seed
of the woman as those who are by way of eminence
expres&ly so called. Suppose now it were the object of
the Holy Ghost to select an appropriate symbol or
hieroglyphic, by which to adumbrate this collective,

88 TREATISE ON

successive, progressive body, as it gradually evolved
itself through a series of ages, should we not say that
that of a *■ woman' was peculiarly suited to the purpose 1
— especially when it is considered, that the Omniscient
Spirit foresaw that the ransomed portion of human kind
were to sustain to their divine Ransomer the conjugal
relation ? If this be conceded, if it be admitted that
the ' woman' of this vision is but a collective designation
of the spiritual seed of Eve, it will obviously follow,
that the predicted line of the woman's seed is to be
traced in the history of the Jewish church. The true
church of God^ therefore^ as existing in the nation of
Israel^ is the sun-clad woman of the Apocalypse. We
do not say that the Jewish nation as such constitutes
the substance of this prophetical shadow, but the true
church, as embodied in that nation, and which by conti-
nuity of being under a change of form passed into the
Christian church under the new economy. For we find
this woman, long after the dissolution of the Jewish
state, represented as flying into the wilderness, and
there subsisting for the space of 1260 years, which is
undoubtedly to be understood not of the Israelitish
nation, but of the church of Christ. The object of the
Holy Spirit, however, in this part of the vision, was to
portray the true church in a form adapted to its ante-
Christian state, and the imagery has therefore mainly a
Jewish aspect. Guided by this clew, the solution of the
symbols is not diflicult. In the possession of the sun-
light of revelation during every period of her ecclesias-
tical existence, we see what is implied in the radiant
investment of solar glory in which she shone forth. In

THK MILLENJflUM. 8»

the twelve patriarchs of the old dispensation, toi which
the twelve apostles of the new corresponded, we see
the crown of twelve stars adorning her reverend brows.
In the subserviency of the moon to the uses of the
Jewish church, in regulating the fasts, feasts, and con-
vocations of that primitive economy, we learn the drift
of the emblem, ' the moon under her feet,' a station in-
dicative not of degradation^ but of ministry ; as a ser-
vant at the feet of his master is not there to be trampled
upon, but to be at his beck and bidding. While of the
circumstance of the woman's being upon the eve of the
maternal relation, we have to look for a solution m«)rely
to the fact, that through a tract of ages the Jevnsk
church was pregnant with the promise of the Messiah.
In the womb of her faith and hope reposed for ages
the unborn ' desire of nations.' And as the destined
mother anticipates with earnest solicitude the natal hour
of her expected offspring, so did the covenant race long
for the ushering into life of their promised Lord and
King.

We have thus, we imagine, paved the way for the
unravelling of the other portions of the scenery of this
remarkable vis-ion. We have seen that the Apocalyptic
AVoman is a designed impersonation of a continuous line
or succession of men, stamped with the seal of a pecu-
liar character, and extending from the primeval epoch of
recovered grace down to the period of Christ's nativity.
And we beg leave to remark, that this idea of continuity,
of progressiveness, of gradual developement, is all-im-
portant ta the right explication of the imagery.

We now proceed to the symbol of the Dragon.

90 TREATISE ON

** Behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and
ten horns," &:c. The fact whicli we may consider as
estabhshed, that the Woman represents the 'seed of
the woman,' will prepare us for the assumption, that the
Dragon or the Serpent, for these words are used inter-
changeably, represents the ' seed of the serpent,' as
progressively evolving itself in the course of natural
generation and characteristic action from age to age.
For the vision does not contemplate any one particular
period of time, but portrays by a stationary symbol
a moving series of events. Here then we have vividly
depicted before us, in their appropriate emblems, the
two great antagonist seeds which have divided the
family of man from the beginning, ranged in direct hos-
tility to each other, and running in parallel lines of an-
tithetic existence through the lapse of many centuries.
But the scope of the vision is undoubtedly designed to
represent the seed of the serpent under a peculiar aspect,
viz. as a persecuting power. It is important therefore
that our conceptions of it should be still more distinct.
In a subsequent verse, after the account of the battle
and its issue which ensued between Michael and the
Dragon, it is said, that *the great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which
deceiveth the whole world.' This affords an item of
information of great moment. The Dragon is here
obviously identified with the Devil or Satan, so that if
the one is, in this book, an allegorical being, the other
is so also. His titles, it will be observed, are recited
with llie utmost particularity. As a magistrate, in mak-
ing out a warrant for tlie apprehension of a villain who

The millennium. 91

had palmed himself upon the public by different names,
would be careful to specify them all by the prefix of an
alias, so the Spirit, in the present instance, studiously
specifies the various designations of this grand adver*
sary, as if to preclude the possibility of mistake. ' The
great dragon, alias the old serpent, alias the Devil,
alias Satan ; — by whatever appellation he may be dis-
tinguished, here he is ; you may know him by his
escutcheon.' Of the two great belligerent parties,
therefore, which figured in this world's history for at
least 4000 years prior to the Saviour's advent, and who
are here shown confronting each other in hostile array,
one we learn upon divine authority is the Devil. The
interesting inquiry at once arises, Upon what grounds is
the being denominated the Devil portrayed in such ter-
rific guise ? What mean his seven heads crowned with
the badges of royalty ? What is implied in the circum-
stance of his standing, with menacing rapacity, intent
to devour the expected birth of the woman? These
characters but ill accord with the idea of a merely spi-
ritual agency put forth upon the minds of men. A
more substantial and palpable power of evil is certainly
represented by the image. In attempting to solve the
mystery we observe, that if the Devil or Satan be iden-
tical with the Dragon of the Apocalypse, and if the
Dragon be but a symbolical personification of the col-
lective body of the serpent's seed, then the Devil also,
far from being a mere abstraction or a purely spiritual
entity, is but the symbolical title of a vast society of
wicked men, pervaded and imbued by the spirit of ran-
corous hate towards the entire corporation of the right-

ffZ TREATISE ON

eous, and in that form waging an incessant war against
them. Consequently we arrive at the conclusion, that
the foul and disastrous machinations of the Devil, so far
as he is to be conceived of abstractly from the system
which he actuates, has been in all ages directed not
merely against the souls, but against the bodies of men ;
that he has come upon them not merely in the character
of an inward tempter moving and enticing their minds
to sin, but that he has employed a system of agencies
with a view to the infliction of various physical evils
bearing with tremendous weight upon their individual
and social state. Consulting the records of the human
race in the pages of history, we learn that it has been
by means of an array of organised instrumentalities in
the form of tyrannical governments, backed by false
religions, that the seed of the serpent have waged their
unhallowed warfare against the seed of the woman, the
sons of sanctity. It has been tlirough the agency of
despotic kings and bigoted priests, — of monarchies and
hierarchies, — that the grievous and untold sufferings of
the mass of men have in all ages been visited upon
them. Tliis assuredly has been the grand character of
the Satanic devices. This has been the master-plot of
this arch-contriver of political and moral mischief to
the human race. From the days of Nimrod, when
that mighty hunter erected, on tlie plains of Shinar, the
ancient Babylon as the metropolis of an intended uni-
versal monarchy, the greatest scourge which has rested
upon the earth, that which has breathed with most
effect its blasting mildews over the harvest-field of the
human mind, has existed in the form of great consoli-

THE MILLENNIUM. 93

dated governments, founded upon despotic principles,
enforced by gloomy superstitions, and upheld by the
terrors of the sword, the rack, the block, and the dun-
geon. The Devil has inspired these governmental
fabrics as their prompting genius, and in the language
of prophecy has given them their denomination. He,
has ensconced himself behind the political outworks.
He has plied the secret machinery of the imperial en-
gines, and has been to them in fact in all ages precisely
that which the soul is to the body. We hesitate not,
therefore, to consider the Dragon of the Revelation as a
standing symbol of Paganism^ including in that term
the twofold idea of despotic government and false reli-
gion. Can a lingering doubt remain of the justness of
this interpretation when we advert to the peculiar cos-
tume of the image ? " And behold a great red dragon
having seven heads and seven crowns upon his heads."
Is not a crown the symbol of sovereignty ? And what
can be understood by the seven crowned heads, but
seven imperial kingdoms which exercised, at different
periods, an oppressive domination over the church ?
We say, * at different periods,' because, as the symbols
here employed are not to be restricted to any one point
of time, but are to be conceived as spreading over a
long period, we are forced to regard these seven heads
as representing seven successive reigning powers, com-
ing one after another into existence by gradual accre-
tion dirougli the course of centuries, till at the date of
the vision the Dragon had received his entire comple-
ment of heads, and in the Pagan Roman Empire stood
forth to the eye of the Prophet in the full maturity of

94 TREATISE ON

his a<ye, and in the highest vigour of his action. The
exact specification of the number seven in regard to
these emblematic heads is indeed a matter of some dif-
ficuhy ; but as this number is repeatedly used in the
sacred volume in an indefinite sense, implying the sum
total, the universality, the perfection of the things
spoken of, so in the present instance it may simply be
intended to denote all the despotic and oppressive civil
powers which, anterior to tlie age of the prophet, had
put their yokes upon the necks of the peculiar people.
In this enumeration we cannot mistake in reckoning
Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. And if
fuller details of ancient history had remained to us, we
should probably be able at least to complete the cata-
logue. From the fact that John saw each of these heads
actually wearing a crown, whereas, at the time of the
vision, only the Roman head was in reality in being, it
is evident that he was favoured with a lengthened survey
of the chronological career of the Dragon, comprising
the wliole terjn of the disastrous dominance of his
heads. In the subsequent vision of the Beast, the
Dragon's successor, the crowns had passed from the
heads to the horns, indicating that that sovereignty
which had formerly pertained to the seven successive
Pagan empires had now became concentrated in the
ten independent governments, symbolised by the horns,
into which the Roman Empire in its latter stages had
become divided.

That this interpretation of ' heads,' as a prophetic
symbol, rests upon something more than mere conjec-
ture will appear from a consideration of the nature of

THE MILLENNIUM. 95

sj-mbolic language. " We must note," says Daubuz,
"that the governing part of the political world appears un-
der symbols of different species ; and that it is variously
represented according to the various kinds of allegories.
If the allegory be derived from the sensible world, then
the luminaries denote the governing part ; if from an
animal, the head or horns ; if from the earth, a moun-
tain or fortress ; and in this case the capital city, or
residence of the governor, is taken for the supreme ; by
which it happens that these mutually illustrate each
other. So a capital city is the head of the political
body ; the head of the animal is the fortress of the ani-
mal ; mountains are the natural fortresses of the earth ;
and therefore a fortress or capital city, though set in a
plain level ground, may be called a mountain. And this
by the rule of analogical metaphors, the terms of wliich
mutually illustrate each other. Thus head, mountain,
hill, city, horn, and king are in a manner synonymous
terms to signify a kingdom, monarchy, or republic
united under one government ; only with this difference,
that it is to be understood in different respects : for the
head represents it in respect of the capital city ; moun-
tain or hill, in respect of the strength of the metropolis,
which gives law, or is above the adjacent territories ;
and the like. Thus in Is. 2. 2. ' And it shall come to
pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's
house shall be established in the tops of the mountains,
and shall be exalted above the hills ; and all nations
shall flow unto it.' This needs not to be proved to sig-^
nify the kingdom of the Messias. So a capital city is
a head, and taken for the whole territory thereof, as in

96 TREATISE ON

Is. 7. 8, 9. ' For the head of Syria is Damascus, and
the head of Damascus is Rezin ; and the head of
Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Rema-
hah's son.' Is. 11. 9. 'They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain^'' that is, in all the kingdom of
the Messias, whicli shall then reach all over the world,
for it follows ; ' The earth shall be full of the knowledge
of the Lord.' INIic. 6. 7, 8. ' Contend thou before the
mountains, and let the hiUs hear thy voice : hear, ye
mountains, the Lord's controversy.' The commentators
here say : ' Montes hie vocat principes et proceres'— .
he here calls princes and potentates mountains^ citing for
it Ps. 72. 3. Is. 2. 14. Habak. 3. 6. So the whole
Assyrian monarchy is called a mountain in Zech. 4. 7.

* Who art thou, O great mountain ? before Zerubbabel
thou shah become a plain ;' and in Jerem. 51. 25, *a
destroying mountain.'* Thus also in Dan. 2. 35. ' The
stone that smote the image became a great mountain,
and filled the whole earth ;' that is, the kingdom of the
Messias having destroyed the four monarchies became
an universal monarchy, as it is plainly made out in v.
44, 45. Again, Is. 41. 15. 'Thou shalt thresh the
mountains, and shalt make the hills as chaff." Targ.

* Decides populos, et consumes regna, quasi stipulam
pones eos' — thou shalt sloy the people, and shalt con-
sume the kingdoms ; thou shalt jnake them as stubble.''^*
Heads and mountains therefore being synonymous sym-
bols, the seven heads of the Dragon are seven monar-
chies. This is strikingly confirmed by a reference to

* Perpet. Comment, p. 50T,

THE MfLLENNIUM. 97,

Rev. 17. 9, 10, where the prophet gives a description of
the Beast which succeeded the Dragon, and whose
power territorially considered was commensurate with
that of the Dragon, so that the heads in each are a
symbol perfectly equivalent, and which is thus explained
by the interpreting angel : " Here is the mind which
hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains,
on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven
kings." The translation here is unhappy.* By the
sentence being closed at the word 'sitteth,' and the next
made to begin thus ; ' And there are seven kings,' the
' seven kings' are separated from their antecedents, and
the verb 'are' from its nominative, and the reader is led
to suppose that the words ' there are seven kings' have
no particular connexion with the seven heads in the pre-
ceding verse. Whereas it is clear from the original,
that the seven heads are the antecedent both to the seven
mountains and to the seven kings, and the nominative to
both the verbs which precede the words ' mountains'
and ' kings.' A literal translation would render the
passage thus : — ' The seven heads are seven mountains
where the woman sitteth upon them, and they are seven
kings ;' i. e. kingdoms, the uniform sense of the term
' kings' in the style of the prophets. The drift of the
hierophantic angel is to inform the wondering seer, that
* heads' and ' mountains' were equivalent symbols, both
denoting ' kingdoms.' By the woman's sitting on seven
mountains, therefore, we are to understand that the Ro-
man Empire, in its eeclesiastical form, embraced within

* Ai 'eirra Kt({>a\ai 'oprj ecTiv 'eirra, 'oirov 'ij ywr} KaOrfJai '£;r' avTutv, Kai
fiociXeii 'cTTTa uaiv.

SB TREATISE ON"

its limits all those ancient sovereignties which had con-
stituted the heads of the Dragon in former ages, and
which had successively yielded to the Roman arms, and
been merged into constituent parts of its imperial in-
tegrity. As, however, the city of Rome itself was
seated upon seven hills, there is in the image a simulta-
neous secondary allusion to that far-famed centre of su-
premacy. At the same time we do not hesitate to af-
firm, that the plenitude of the symbol is far from being
exhausted by its application to the Capitoline, Viminal,
Quirinal, and other hills, which constituted the site of
the * eternal city.' " We must not here forget," says
the writer above cited, " as a secondary event or coin-
cidence of this prophecy, that the capital city of the
Dragon's dominions was placed upon seven heads or
hills. The Roman authors are full of that notion ; and
as if that circumstance were fatal, not only Rome was
so built, but also Constantinople or the New Rome, sis-*
ter to the former, was built on seven hills. This, I con-
fess, is a kind of fatal coincidence ; but yet the first in-
tention of the Holy Ghost was not to express that, but
that the empire of the Dragon should, in its whole ex-
tent and duration, as also the Beast his successor, con-
sist of seven capital cities or monarchies ; which is the
true meaning of the seven heads, mountains, or kings.
We may not imagine that the Holy Ghost would dwell
upon so narrow a conceit as that circumstance of tlie
building of the city, and ncfflect that remarkable one of
the extent of the dominions ; besides, that the exposi-
tion of seven kingdoms destroys so trifling a notion of
the seven nu)unlains. There goes about another accouni

THE MILLENNIUM,. 99

of these seven heads, said to be found out by King James
the First : — that the seven heads were the seven kinds
of government ^vhich have been in Rome from its foun-
dation under the kings to the emperors and popes*
This is mightily applauded by Du Moulin, followed by
Mede, Jurieu, and who not. But we cannot acquiesce
therein, both upon the account of the true signification
of head or mountain^ as we have explained and fully
proved it; and more especially for the following reason:.
— That the Holy Ghost doth not use to call any gov-
ernment by any other name but that of kingdom, and so
takes no notice of what changes might be made in the
lodging of the supreme power in different hands, pro-
vided it remains in the hands of the same nation. It is
still the same head though it should run through many
more sorts of government. A king signifies the pos-
sessor of the supreme power, let it be lodged in one
person, two, ten, or more ;; and a head or capital city is
still the same head, though its power be executed by a
king, consuls, decemvirs, or senate. For we must argue
about the political body as about the animaL The
changes that happen in the animal through the various
nourishment it takes, or the different ages it goes through,
are not wont to make us describe him with different
bodies, heads, or faces, (merely) because the appearance
of these hath sometimes changed ; so it is in the polit-
ical body. Many revolutions may happen therein from
within itself, but as long as the same polity is preserved
in the same city, people, and laws, without making any
thorough or partial change of nation, occasioned by the
force of foreign armies, it is the same political body, and

100 TREATISE ON

the same head too, whilst it is held in the same place,
and the laws of the government are issued from iL.
Thus we see that the changes of the ministry make na
alteration of the head ; and by consequence that every
such change makes not a new and different head."* /
We have proceeded thus far in our explication of the
symbol of the Dragon without appealing, in confirmation
of its justness, to any express passage of holy writ^
It will be proper, therefore, to ascertain how far the
usage of the sacred writers in respect to tliis remarkable
hieroglyphic, goes to authenticate the interpretation now
given. In the seventy-fourth Psalm we meet with a
plaintive lament of the Psalmist over the desolation and
havoc which the enemies of Zion had wrought within
the limits of the holy land, and even within the precincts
of the sanctuary, the dwelling place of the name of the
Lord of hosts. This is followed by an earnest prayer
for the divine interposition, grounded upon the recollec-
tion of what God had wrought in behalf of his people
in former days, of which the suppliant says, v. 12-14,
* For God is my king of old, working salvation in the
midst of the earth. Thou didst divide the sea by thy
strength ; thou brakest the heads of the dragons in
the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in
pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhab-
iting the wilderness.' Tliis is an evident allusion to
the overthrow of the Egyptian power when the Israelites
were brought out and delivered from their hand. In the
highly figured diction of the prophets the Egyptians

* Perpet. Comment, p. 514.

THE MILLENNIUM. 101

are denominated dragons., and Pharaoh himself, their
prince, styled Leviathan, the master-monster of the
deep. Accordingly the Chaldee Targum renders the
passage, * Tu confregisti capita fortium Pharaonis,' —
thou hast broken the heads of the mighty men of Pha-
raoh, The Leviathan is the great Dragon, as we find
by Ps. 104. 26. ' There is that leviathan whom thou
hast made to play therein,' where A^ojjta-v — dragon is
the rendering employed by the Seventy. The term is
in fact applied to any huge monster of the serpent kind,
whether aquatic or terrestrial, as even the original
Hebrew word for * whale' is in some cases rendered by
the Greek term for dragon. As to the expression —
* gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wil-
derness'— this is to be understood symbolically, for in
that character Jlesh is used to denote spoils or riches ;
so that the language points to the circumstance of the
Israelites carrying with them into the wilderness the
treasures of gold and silver of which they had de-
spoiled their oppressors, both at the time of their de-
parture from Egypt, and when their dead bodies lay
scattered upon the shores of the Red Sea. Again, Is.
51. 9. 'Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and
wounded the dragon ? Art thou not it which hath dried
up the sea V Here Rahab is Egypt, as has been
clearly proved by Bochart,* and the Dragon is Pharaoh
King of Egypt ; strikingly parallel to which is Ezek.
29. 3. ' Thus saith the Lord God ; Behold, I am against
thee, Pharaoh King of Egypt, the great dragon that

* Phaleg. L. IV. c. 23.

102 TREATISE ON

lieth in the midst of his rivers.' From his being said
lo be an inhabitant of ' rivers,' and from the mention,
V. 4, of his ' scales,' it is not without reason supposed
that the dragon here alluded to was the Egyptian croco-
dile, and Bochart has remarked that the Arabians call
the crocodile by the name of Pharaoh.* This circum-
stance however does not affect its symbolical import.
In Ezek. 32. 2, the prophet resumes his comparison,
saying, ' Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pha-
raoh King of Egypt, and say unto him. Thou art like
a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale
(Gr. '«>5 ^pccxm — as a dragon) in the seas.' If however
we take the word to signify any large creature what-
ever of the serpent species, it amounts to the same
thing. It still denotes a tyrannical persecuting power*
In Is. 27. 1, it is remarkable that the same symbol is
presented under a striking diversity of titles. ' In that
day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword
shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even levia-
than that crooked serpent ; and he shall slay the dragon
that is in the sea.' Here we have one and the same
thing denominated the Leviathan or Crocodile, the Ser-
pent, and the Dragon. 'These,' says Lowth, 'are used
allegorically, without doubt, for great potentates, ene-
mies and persecutors of the people of God.' The pas-
sage is thus paraphrased by the Targumist : — ' In that
time the Lord will visit with his great and strong and

♦ Scheiiclizer on this passage observes, that arrtong the an-
cients the crocodile was the symbol of Egypt, and appears so
on Roman coins. And to what could a king of Egypt be
more properly compared than to a crocodile?

THE MlLLENNlCiVI. 103

mighty sword upon the king who is magnified, as Pha-
raoh the first king, and upon the kin^ who is elevated,
as Sennacherib the second king, and shall slay the king
who is potent, as the dragon in the sea.' These kings
are called Dragons and Serpents, because enemies to
Israel. Ps. 91. 13. 'Thou shalt tread upon the lion
and adder ; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou
trample under feet ;' i. e. thou shalt bring thy bitterest
enemies into subjection.

From all that has now been adduced in relation to
the subject, we infer, that the symbolical import of the
Dragon throughout the Scriptures is that of a vast sys-
tem of civil and religious oppression, perpetuated through
a long course of ages, and which at the time of this
vision, was embodied in the existing Roman Empire, the
last in that series of despotic and Pagan powers which
went to form the completeness of the draconic domin-
ion. But at the period of the vouchsafement of these
visions to John, the Roman Empire embraced within its
limits nearly the whole of the then known world, as is
evident from the words of the Evangelist, Luke, 2. 1,
* There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that
aU the world should be taxed ;' meaning all the prov-
inces of the Roman Empire. When it is said there-
fore that the Dragon which was cast out of heaven was
the Old Serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which de-
ceiveth the whole worlds we are led at once to conceive
of the ' whole world' as synonymous with the territorial
platform of the Roman Empire, which especially con-
stituted the theatre of the Devil's or the Dragon's juris-
diction, and of which he was as it were the actuating

10 i TREATISE ON

and presiding genius. Accordingly it was the Roman
Empire as a grand governmental dominion which the
Dragon afterward transferred to the Beast, as it is said
Rev. 13. 2, that *The dragon gave him his power, and
his seat, and great authority.' When we read, therefore,
in the history of the Saviour's temptation, that the Devil
showed him all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory
of them, the explanation doubtless is, that he showed
him the splendour and magnificence of the Roman
power, of which he claimed the lordship, and by his
promising to bestow all this upon Christ provided he
would fall down and worship him, it was but promising
in other words that he would make him Caesar, which
he imagined he could safely do, inasmuch as he was
enabled to say, ' For that is mine, and to whomsoever
I will, I give it ;' a claim which would seem to be
countenanced by his having afterward made it over to
the Beast. It was his however merely by divine per-
mission or providential economy, and not by original
right. It was lor wise reasons, afterward to be devel-
oped, that he was permitted to become the ruling spirit
of that huge despotism.

And here we cannot but remark, that our interpreta-
tion of the symbol of the Dragon receives a strong colla-
teral confirmation from tlie manner in which the Serpent
has ever been regarded by heathen nations. Through-
out the mythology of the ancients the Serpent, under
some form or other, occupies a very conspicuous place;
and how far this feature of their system is to be traced,
through broken and distorted traditions, to the scriptural
history of the Fall and the symbolical imagery founded

THE MILLENNIUM. 105

upon it, would constitute one of the most interesting
subjects of antiquarian research. Bryant, than whom
few men have ever Uved better quahfied to prosecute
the inquiry, had he seen fit to embark in it, remarks,
that ' it would be a noble undertaking, and very edifying
in its consequences, if some person of true learning
and deep insight into antiquity would go through with
the history of the Serpent.'* Scarcely a Pagan nation
has existed among whom ophiolatry^ or serpent-worship,
has not been established, as will appear from the
slightest inspection of their religious hieroglyphics.
The fabulous legends of the poets intertwine with the
dogmas of the priest and the speculations of the philo-
sopher in forming the thread which conducts us to the
inspired origin of the heathen notions on this subject.
The idea so prevalent in the early ages of the world
of the existence of two great opposing Principles, the
Spirit of Good and the Spirit of Evil, the last of which
was ordinarily symbolized by a serpent, unquestionably
refers itself directly to this source. The following
passage, from the treatise of Plutarch on the Isis and
Osiris of the Egyptians, is among the most important
relics of antiquity. After speaking of Typhon, the
Egyptian symbol of the Principle of Evil, he observes :
" This very ancient opinion is derived from the divines
and lawgivers to the poets and philosophers, having an
unknown beginning, that the universe is not a principle
without mind and reason, and ungoverned as if left to
itself, but is governed by two contrary and jarring

♦ Bryant's Anc. Myth. vol. i. 473. 4to. ed.
K

106 TREATISE ON

powers, tlic one leading directly forward to the right)
and the other retrograde and wayward. So that this
life is mixed, and the world irregular and various, and
subject to all manner of change. For if there be
nothing without a cause, and good cannot afford the
cause of evil, there must be some peculiar generation
and principle containing the nature of evil as well as of
good. And this opinion was held by the mass of the wisest
of men. For they believe that there are two Gods, like
antagonists, the first, the Creator of Good, the latter of
Evil. The belter of them they call God, the other
Demon, as they are termed by Zoroaster, the magician
(sage), who is reported to have lived five thousand years
before the Trojan war. He called the first Oromazes,
and the other Arimanes ; and added, that the first was
most like Light, and the latter like Darkness and Error.''''*
The name of this evil genius, ApunMyyi^, whom Plutarch
elsewhere denominates Treiepog ^ccif^-av, wicked demorif
and who is styled by Diogenes Laertius 'a<J>;5, hell^ un-
questionably betrays a Hebraic origin. Some derive it
from Din^S Chal. D'"|S astutus, cunning, crafty, the ap-
pellation bestowed upon the Serpent, Gen. 3. 1, to which,
if the Arabic termination be added, it makes it Ariman,
Others deduce it from TTSl, Chal. '3^, »-A«»«», to deceive^
as if it were merely the Greek form of p'n?")n the
deceiver. Still, in either case, the term shows its affinity
with the Hebrew language and with the distinguishing
attributes of the Dragon or Old Serpent, the standing
adversary of God and man. The name of the idol

• FluU de Isid. ct Osirid. p. 407. ed. Aid.

THE MILLENNIUM. 107

Rimmo7i, mentioned 2 Kings 5. 18. is probably to be
referred to the same source. Now this mythologic
divinity Arimanes is the same with the Typho of the
Eg-yptians, who was represented and worshipped under
the form of a serpent. And it is worthy of note that
the title Belial in the Scriptures, another name for the
evil spirit, of which the Greek form is BfA<«^, Beliaff
is defined by Hesychius by ^pxKuv^ dragon. But to
what was it owing that the Serpent, the symbol of all
ill, the grand personification of mischief and sin, instead
of being detested as an enemy, came to be worshipped
as a god, having his altars, and services, and votaries
among all pagan nations on earth ? Perhaps no more
satisfactory solution of this remarkable fact can be
given, than to suppose that that which was at first abomi-
nated as the symbol of the wicked principle, came in
process of time, from a motive of fear, to be regarded as
having the power of doing harm to mankind, which
it was necessary for them to deprecate by sacrifices
and offerings. Hence the Serpent began to be wor-
shipped, and the natural effect would eventually be, that
he should be regarded as a placable deity, having it
equally in his power with other tutelary demons to do
good and to confer blessings when his favour was secured.
"The devil," says Mr. Owen, " who imder the shape
of a serpent tempted our first parents, has, with un-
wearied application, laboured to deify that animal as a
trophy of his first victory over mankind. God having
passed sentence upon the serpent, Satan consecrates
that form in which he deceived the woman, and intro-
duces it into the world as an object of religious venera-

108 TREATISE ON

tion. This he did with a view to enervate the force of
the divine oracle with respect to the seed of the woman.
Scarcely a nation upon earth, but he has tempted to
the grossest idolatry, and in particular got himself to
be worshipped in the hideous form of a serpent."*

"And his tail drew the third part of the stars of
heaven, and did cast them to the earth." A ' tail,' con-
sidered as a prophetic emblem, is used to signify two
things which frequently concur in the same subject, the
one being the cause of the other. (1.) It denotes sub-
jection, or oppression under tyranny. In this sense the
symbol occurs with the explanation of God himself,
Deut. 28. 13. where he promises blessings to the obe-
dient ; ' And the Lord shall make thee the head and
not the tail; and thou shall be above only, and thou
shalt not be beneath.' (2.) It signifies a false prophet^
impostor, or deceiver, one who propagates corrupt and
pernicious doctrines, as the scorpion infuses into his
victims the deadly poison of his tail. Is. 9. 14, 15.
* Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and
iaily branch and rush, in one day. The ancient and
honourable, he is the head ; and the prophet that teacheth
lies^ he is the tail.'' Again, Is. 19. 15. ' Neither shall
there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail,
branch or rush, may do ;' i. e. neither the power of the
princes nor the devices of false prophets and enchanters
shall be at all availing. ' Stars,' on the other hand,
is the well-known symbol of spiritual teachers or
ministers of tlie truth ; so that by the Dragon's drawing

• Owen's Hist, of the Serp- p. 216.

THE MILLENNIUM. 109

down from heaven, by means of his tail, a third, that
is, a large or very considerable part of the stars, is
shadowed forth the exertion of an evil influence through
the agency of idolatrous priests and other abettors of
Paganism, whereby many of the ministering servants
of God, the reputed luminaries of the church, are pre-
vailed upon to apostatize from the true religion, and
embrace the errors and abominations of Paganism.
But such foul defections are usually the result of the
display of the terrors of tyranny. Men are not ordi-
narily seduced from the true faith into idolatry except
from motives of fear. So that the twofold idea of civil
oppression and mental delusion is included under the
symbol before us. That this has been in all ages the
character of the Dragon, history renders indubitable.
For this feature of the symbol, like the foregoing, is
not to be limited to any particular era, but is to be re-
garded as descriptive of the general character of the
monster to whom it pertains. It was, however, most
signally evinced in the history of the persecutions
which took place under the Roman emperors. " In
every persecution there were great numbers of unworthy
Christians, who publicly disowned or renounced the faith
which they had professed ; and who confirmed the sin-
cerity of their abjuratit^n, by the legal acts of burning
iiicense or of offering sacrifices. Some of these apos-
tates had yielded on the first menace or exhortation of
the magistrate ; whiie the patience of others had been
subdued by the length ox repetition af tortures."*

* Gibbon's I>ecl. and FaH, p. 219.
K2

110 TREATISE Olf

" And the dragon stood before the woman which was
ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as
it should be born." Like the other features of the
hieroglyphic scenery upon which we have already re-
marked, this also is to be viewed as an action co-exten-
sive with the entire scope of the vision. It is to be
regarded as characteristic of the Dragon during the
wliole reigning term of his existence. For throughout
every period of the gradual acquisition of his imperial
heads, he maintained the same altitude of deadly hos-
tility against the seed of the woman in their progressive
developement. Accordingly, in seeking an explication
of this part of the visionary action of the Dragon, we
have only to revert to the history of the children of Is-
rael in Egypt, the first probably of his germinating
heads ; and there, in the ruthless order of Pharaoh to
cast all the male cliildren into the Nile, we see his hor-
rid appetite glutting itself with infant blood. At a later
period, after the attainment of his Roman head, we be-
hold in the sanguinary edict of Herod, commanding the
slaughter of the male children of Bethlehem and its
coasts, the same cannibal hankering gorging itself with
its cliosen aliment. But of his intended prey he was,
in this latter instance, disappointed. The child brought
forth by the woman, whicli we consider to have been
literally Jesus Christ himself, was caught up to the
throne of heaven. The true Messiah, having broken
asunder the bars of the grave, was raised to the right
hand of God, and there invested with tliat divine domin-
ion which the Father had decreed for him from eternity.
Then commenced the symbolical war in heaven, tin-

THE MILLENNIUM. Ill

der the sublime appellation of Michael, or, ' Who is
like thee, O God?' he girded his sword on his thigh,
and addressed himself to the glorious work of vanquish-
ing this potent possessor of high places. " And there
was war in heaven : Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his an-
gels, and prevailed not ; neither was their place found
any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast
out." As the book of Revelation is made up of a series
of pictorial or hieroglyphical emblems, it should not be
forgotten that the reality of the things said to be done
in heaven actually transpires on earth. A war in heaven
is but the shadow of a grand contest on earth, as heaven
in the prophetic symbols seems to denote mainly a state
or position of great conspicuity. By the necessity of
the symbol, the conflicting angels are nothing more than
mortal men, who take the opposite sides of a grand liti-
gated question. In truth, the prophet himself furnishes
a key to his own phraseology. For scarcely are the
angels of Michael brought upon the stage, when they
are forthwith styled ' our brethren ;' and it is said, more-
over, that * they overcome him by the blood of the Lamb,
and by the word of their testimony, and that they loved
not their lives to the death.' Nothing therefore can be
more evident than that the angels of Michael are mere
mortal men, and we are bound by analogy to consider
the angels of the Dragon as of the same character. It
is only in the peculiar elevated style of prophecy that
this is represented as a celestial combat. We have
therefore to recur to history to find a series of events
which we may suppose to have been adumbrated by the

1 12 TREATISE ON

ima<yery in question. And such a train of occurrences
meets us in the memorable contest between Christianity
and Paganism during the three hundred and twenty
years subsequent to the first promulgation of the Gos-
pel.* Throughout this extended period, the fierce con-
tention between the religion of the cross and the impe-
rial Paganism of Rome was incessantly kept up.f The
fate of the struggle hung for a long time apparently in
suspense ; for the advantages of the Dragon were to
human view signal and numerous. Every time that a
band of faithful martyrs was led to the stake or the
rack ; every time the infuriated cry, ' Ad leones P was

* *• The vision of the war in heaven in the Apocalypse repre-
sents the vehement struggle between Christianity and the old
idolatry in the first ages of the gospel. The angels of the two
opposing armies represent two opposing parties in the Roman
state, at the time which the vision more particularly regards.
Michael's angels are the party which espoused the side of the
Christian religion, the friends of which had, for many years,
been numerous, and became very po.werful under Constantine
the Great, the first Christian emperor: the Dragon's angels
are the party which endeavoured to support the old idolatry."
— Horsley's Sermons^ p. 373.

t It is probable that the Spirit of inspiration designed to
convey an allusion to this memorable conflict in the words of
Paul, Eph. 6. 12. ' For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of
the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places (if Tua- trou^avicn — in heavenly pltices).* Perhaps also
the vision of the prophet affords the genuine clew to the desig-
nation of the adversary in Eph. 2. 2. * Wherein in time past
ye walked according to the course of this world, according to
the prince of the "power of the air;'' i.e. the leader and coni-
MVindcr of this nvystic aerial or heavenly host.

THE MILLENNIUM. 113

raised over their heads, we see the victory inclining
to the side of the Dragon ; and yet this was the fact
but in appearance, for it was by their meek submission
to tortures, by yielding their lives to seal their testimony,
that they overcame. They were conquerors through
the ' unresistible might of weakness,' for they loved not
their lives to the death.

At length the protracted contest sees an end. The
persecuting power of the Roman Empire, like Saul on
his way to Damascus, is arrested in mid-career, and
made obedient to a heavenly vision. Constantine, the
emperor, becomes a converted Christian. The rage of
persecution ceases. The fires of martyrdom are extin-
guished. The streams of Christian blood are stanched ;
and the laws of the empire, before replete with sangui-
nary enactments against the Christians, are now dis-
armed of their bloody statutes, and henceforward breathe
nothing but peace and protection towards the church.
The idols of heathenism fall down from their niches,
and its oracles, instinct with the promptings of the old
serpent, are struck dumb. The altars of demons sink
into the earth, and Christianity rises in her native majesty
to the vacated throne of Paganism. This then was the
identical result shadowed forth by the casting out of Satan
or the Dragon from his supremacy in the hieroglyphic
empyrean. Then did he fall like lightning from heaven.
Then rose the song of triumph among the ranks of the
victors ; significant of the loud reverberations of praise,
of the din of triumphal ascription, of the hymnings of
joy, exultation, and felicitation in the church on earth.
In confirmation or illustration of this we have only to

114 TREATISE ON

refer to the patristic writings of that period. Sure we
are that no one can attentively scan their tenor without
being struck with the tone of gratulation which pervades
them. He has but to consult the works of Eusebius
and Lactantius to be convinced that some illustrious
theme of joy had kindled their eucharistic strains to the
highest note. The church catholic appears to be vocal
with thanksgiving and the voice of melody. With one
accord they appear to have adopted the language of
restored Israel : " When the Lord turned again the
captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream ; then
was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with
singing."

The following translated extract from a laudatory
letter of Lactantius to Constantine may serve as a spe-
cimen of innumerable passages which might be cited
from his own and the works of his contemporaries.

" Nine times subjected to various tortures, nine times
hast thou conquered the adversary by a glorious confes-
sion. After warring in nine conflicts with the Devil
and his satellites, thou hast in nine victories triumphed
over the world with its terrors. How pleasing a spec-
tacle was it to God when he beheld thee conqueror ! not
subjecting milk-white horses or huge elephants to thy
chariot, but victors themselves. This is a genuine
triumph when conquerors are conquered. For such by
thy virtue are effectually subdued ; inasmuch as having
trampled upon all unhallowed domination thou hast, by
a stable faith and unconquered mind, put to flight the
whole formidable array of despotic power."

Indeed it would seem that in the very age of Con-

THE MILLENNIUM. 115

stantine, and by Constantine himself, this amazing revo-
lution was regarded as a fulfilment of the prediction be-
fore us ; for, as that emperor after his conversion ceased
to be a constituent member and minister of the mystical
Dragon, but vigorously fought against him in the person
of his adherents, it is remarkable that in a letter to Eu-
sebius he says : " But now when liberty is restored,
and that Dragon, by the providence of the great God
and our ministry cast out from the administration of
public affairs, the Divine potency has most manifestly
appeared to all men."* It is related moreover by the
ecclesiastical historian above mentioned, that on a lofty
tablet set up over the gate of his palace, visible to every
eye, Constantine himself was represented with a cross
over his head, and under his feet 'the great enemy cf
mankind, who persecuted the church by means of im-
pious tyrants, in the form of a Dragon,^ transfixed
through the body with a dart, and falling into the depths
of the sea ; * in allusion,' he adds, ' to the fact, that the
divine oracles in the books of the prophets denominate
that evil spirit the Dragon and the Crooked Serpent.''^
The following passage from the Historian of the Decline
and Fall, so often an unwitting and unwilling expositor
of the Apocalypse, may be advantageously cited in this
connection : — " The assurance that the elevation of Con-
stantine was intimately connected with the designs of
Providence, instilled into the minds of the Christians

* Tov SpaKOVTOi iKtivoxi airb rrjf riov koivuv SioiKijaeioi, rov Qeov iityid'

Tov TTOovoiq, fjusTtfXf Se vxcprja'iq, iKSiu>xSfVTos. — Eus. de Vita Const. 1. 2.
e.46.

f rdv Ss txOpov Kai nuXcfitov 9fipa, rbv rfjv CKK^rjaiav t6v Ocbv Sid t?,s

rdv adedv 7roX(op/c»7ja»'ra rvpavvi^oy, — 'sv SpaKdvros (loixpr). — Id. 1. 3. c. 3.

116 TREATISE ON

two opinions, which, by very different means, assisted
the accomplisliment of the prophecy. Their warm and
active loyalty exhausted in his favour every resource of
human industry; and they confidently expected that
their strenuous efforts would be seconded by some dimne
and miraculous aid.^''* — "Nazarius and Eusebius are
the two most celebrated orators, M'ho in studied pane-
gyrics have laboured to exalt the glory of Constantine.
Nine years after the Roman victory, Nazarius describes
an army of divine warriors who seemed to fall from
the sky : he marks their beauty, their spirit, their gigan-
tic forms, the stream of light which beamed from their
celestial armor, their patience in suffering themselves to
be heard, as well as seen, by mortals ; and their decla-
ration that they were sent, that they flew, to the assist-
ance of the great Constantine. For the truth of this
great prodigj% the pagan orator appeals to the whole
Gallic nation, in whose presence he was then speaking;
and seems to hope that the ancient apparitions would
now obtain credit from this recent and public event."!
— " Tlie gratitude of the church has exalted the virtues
and excused the failings of a generous patron, who seated
Christianity on the throne of the Roman world ; and
the Greeks, who celebrate the festival of the imperial
saint, seldom mention the name of Constantine without
adding the title of equal to the apostles. If the parallel
be confined to the extent and number of their evangelic
victories, the success of Constantine might perhaps

• Decl. and Fall, p. 294.
t Id. p. 297.

THE MILLENNIUM. 117

equal that of the apostles themselves. By the edicts of
toleration he removed the temporal disadvantages which
had hitherto retarded the progress of Christianity ; and
its active and numerous ministers received a free per-
mission, a liberal encouragement, to recommend the
salutary truths of revelation by every argument which
could affect the reason or piety of mankind."*

" He was cast out into the earth and his angels were
cast out with him." These words are thus explained
by Tertullian; — "Nam daemonia magistratus sunt sec-
uli hujus" — -for the, demons are the magistrates of this
world. As the Dragon himself has a more special
reference to the person of the Pagan Roman emperors,
the subordinate magistrates are unquestionably denoted
by his angels. " The fall of the empire," says Daubuz,
" out of the hands of the Heathens soon made all the
inferior officers, civil and military, as also the religious
dignities, to fall out of their power. Yet this was not
done on a sudden, but by progress : however, it is
the custom of the Holy Ghost to account any thing
done, for the most part, as soon as it is begun ; the little
time it lasts in doing being accounted as nothing. When
the emperors were no more heathens, the idolatrous
magistrates were in a great measure removed, and the

» Dec!, and Fall, p. 299. The whole of Gibbon's 21st chap-
ter contains a striking undesigned commentary upon this vision
of the Apocalypse. Indeed the Christian church has afforded
few expositors of the Book of Revelation so valuable as Gib-
bon. We shall therefore make great use of his work in our
attempted exposition. Like Balaam he is made to bless, while
his own spirit prompts him to curse.

118 TREATISE ON

priests had no more power to do mischief. It (the mis-
chief) only extended where the Dragon and his angels
were thrown, that is, upon ' the earth,' upon the subjects
of the Roman empire, who are still their votaries : the
* earth' having that signification ; the Christians, unless
corrupted, never bearing that title. The idolatrous
religion only remained in the subjects or common
people.^''* This is what is to be understood by the
Dragon's being * cast out into the earth.' The scene
of his operations was to be sliifted. He had formerly
been the ruling spirit of the pagan governments of the
"world, and of the Roman in particular, but now, being
ejected from his imperial ascendency, the great mass of
the people of the empire, represented by the ' earth,'
became the subjects of his diabolical plots. It is in the
prospective view of this that the heavenly host is rep-
resented as announcing his disastrous advent to the
earth. " Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the
sea, for the devil is come down unto you, having great
wrath, because he knoweth he hath but a short time."
— " The earth and the sea," says the commentator
above quoted, "signify the subjects of the pagan empire
both in peace and war, the common people and the sol-
diery. Many of them were still idolaters ; as appears
sufficiently by their canonizing their emperors, though
Christians. Many of them seemed indeed to turn
Christian, but not sincerely ; either they secretly ob-
served the pagan rites, or else brought thei!r paganism
into the church and corrupted it. However, the Devil

♦ Daubuz' Perpet. Comment, p. 532.

THE MILLENNIUM. 119

played still his pranks among them while they continued
to be votaries. It was but small power and dominion
compared with the imperial power, but still it was some
dominion ; and he had rather play at small game than
not at all. All this denotes that the idolatry would not
be so far expelled suddenly, but that it would still re-
main amongst a great number of the subjects."*

"The accuser of our brethren is cast down." The
Dragon, as we have remarked, is the personified spirit
of civil oppression and idolatrous delusion combined.
As such, his grand aim has ever been to render the peo-
ple of God, the seed of the woman, obnoxious to the
civil power, and upon the pretence of their being ene-
mies to the governments, laws, and institutions under
which they lived, to point the sword of magistracy
against them. The allusion is perhaps primarily to
the history of Job, against whom the foulest accusations
were brought by Satan, prompted by the pure diabolism
of his nature, and to the instance related, Zech. 3. 1.
where the prophet says; — 'And he showed me Joshua
the high-priest standing before the Angel of the Lord,
and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.'f
But the character was made good and the symbol ac-
complished in repeated instances in the events of the
sacred history both under the Old and the New Testa-
ment. How copiously the Dragon, through his Egyp-
tian head, expectorated the venom of his vile detraction
upon the unoffending Israelites, and what grinding op-

* Perpet. Comment, p. 536.

t The literal meaning of the original Greek word rendered
dtvil ((f/a/3o\ef) is slanderer^ traducer, false accuser.

120 TREATISE ON

pression he brought upon them by this means, is obvious-
from the Mosaic narrative. The following passages,
moreover, are strikingly illustrative of the same spirit
of malignant defamation against the innocent. Ezra,
4. 12-16. ' Be it known now unto the king, that the
Jews which came up from tliee to us are come unto
Jerusalem, building the rebellious and the bad city, and
have set up the walls thereof, and joined the founda-
tions.— Now because we have maintenance from the
king's palace, and it was not meet for us to see the
king's dishonour, therefore have we sent and certified
the king; That search maybe made in the book of the
records of thy fathers; so shalt thou find in the book of
the records, and know that this city is a rebellious city,
and hurtful unto kings and provinces, and that they
have moved sedition within the same of old time :■ for
■which cause was this city destroyed.' Again, Est. 3.
8. 'And Ilaman said unto King Ahasuerus, There is a
certain people scattered abroad, and dispersed among
the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom ; and
their laws are diverse from all people, neither keep they
the king's laws : therefore it is not for the king's profit
to suffer them. If it please the king, let it be written
that they be destroyed.' Acts, 16. 20>, 21. * And
brought them to the magistrates, saying. These mei>
being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city, and teach
customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither
to observe, being Romans.' Acts, 17. 6, 7. 'These
that have turned the world upside down are come hither
also ; Whom Jason hath received : and these all do
contrary to the decrees of Ca;sar, saying that there i»

THE MILLENNIUM. 121

another king, one Jesus.' How plainly do we hear
the hissings of the Old Serpent in these accusations !

But it was at a later period of the church that the
Dragon more signally evinced himself to be entitled to
this character. Ecclesiastical history makes it evident
that the vilest calumnies were cast upon the prifnitive
Christians, upon which their persecutors professed to
ground the justice of the punishments so mercilessly
inflicted upon them. They were accused of cannibal-
ism, incest, adultery, murder, conspiracy, and of being
the procuring causes of all the plagues, famines, and
fires which desolated any part of the empire. " The
surprise of the Pagans," says Gibbon, " was soon suc-
ceeded by resentment ; and the most pious of men
were exposed to the unjust but dangerous imputation
of impiety. Malice and prejudice concurred in repre-
senting the Christians as a society of atheists, who, by
the most daring attack upon the religious constitution of
the empire, had merited the severest animadversion of the
civil magistrate. Their mistaken prudence afforded an
opportunity for malice to invent, and for suspicious cre-
dulity to believe, the horrid tales which described the
Christians as the most wicked of human kind, who
practised in their dark recesses every abomination that
a depraved fancy could suggest, and who solicited the
favour of their unknown God by the sacrifice of every
moral virtue. Tliere were many who pretended to
confess or to relate the ceremonies of this abhorred
society. It was asserted, that a new-born infant, en-
tirely covered over with flour, was presented, like some
mystic symbol of initiation, to the knife of the proselyte,

}22 TREATISE ON

who unknowingly inflicted many a secret and mortal
wound on the innocent victim of his error ; that as soon
as the cruel deed was perpetrated, the sectaries drank
up the blood, greedily tore asunder the quivering mem-
bers, and pledged themselves to eternal secrecy, by a
mutual consciousness of guilt. It was as confidently
aiBrmed that this inhuman sacrifice was succeeded by a
suitable entertainment, in which intemperance served as
a provocative to brutal lust, till, at the appointed mo-
ment, the lights were suddenly extinguished, shame was
banished, nature was forgotten, and, as accident might
direct, the darkness of the night was polluted by the
incestuous commerce of sisters and brothers, of sons
and mothers."* The conversion of Constantine and
the downfall of Paganism, was the signal for the silen-
cing of these shameless slanders, and accordingly Lac-
tantius, in an epistle to the emperor^ says :. — *' Whence
they form the most execrable opinions respecting the
chaste and the innocent, and give an easy belief to the
fictions which they fabricate. But all these false
charges, most sacred emperor, are laid to rest since the
high God raised thee up to restore the habitation of
righteousness, and to the guardianship of the human
race ; under whose government of the Roman state we
are no longer accounted as impious and abominable, but
as the worshippers of God."t

* Decl. and Fall, p. 200.

t Unde etiaiii quasdam cxecrabiles opinionos de pudicis, et
innocenlibus fingunt, et libcntur his, quae fin.xcerunt, credunt.
Sed omnia jam, sanctissimc imperator, figmenta sopita sunt,
ex quo to Dcus Suiii;iius ad re^lituendum justititB domiciliuiiH

THE MILLENNIUM. 123

" And to the woman were given two wings of a great
eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness," <fec.

* Wings,' the instruments of motion, answer in prophecy
the superadded purpose of standing as symbols of pro-
tection. This is plain from the following, among nume-
rous other passages. Ruth, 2. 12, 'The Lord recom-
pense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the
Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come
to trust.'* Ps. 17. 8. ' Keep me as the apple of the
eye, hide me uiider the shadow of thy wings.'' Ps. 57» 1.

* In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge^
until the secalamities be overpast.' Ps. 63. 7. ' Because
thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy
wings will I rejoice.' The imagery is manifestly
derived from the history in Exodus where the sojourn
of the Israelites in the wilderness from the face of the
Egyptians is described very much after the same manner
as the withdrawment of the woman into the spiritual
wilderness from the face of the serpent. Ex. 19. 4.
' Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how
I bare you on eagles' wings and brought you unto my-
self.' This is enlarged upon, Deut. 32. 11, 12. * As
an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young,
spreadeth abroad her wings, takeih them, beareth them
on her wings ; so the Lord alone did lead him, and
there was no strange God with him.' As the ' eagle'
is a symbol frequently used in the Scriptures to
denote a monarchy or a king, and as the eagle, the bird

et ad tutetam generis humani excitavit. Quo gubernante Ro-
mance Reipublicae statum, jam cultores Dei pro secleratis a©
nefariis non habemur. — Lact. Inst, L. VII. c. 2C.

124 TREATISE ON

of Jove, formed the Roman standard, we seem to be
directed, by the necessity of the symbol, to understand
it of the Roman Empire subsisting in its two grand
divisions, the Eastern and Western, and in this form
spreading the wings of its imperial patronage over the
church, guarding it from visible persecution, during the
interval between the fall of Paganism and the rise of
Antichristianism in the sixth or seventh century. But
the drift of the emblem undoubtedly involves the idea of
transition as well as of tutelage^ and leads us to seek
for some kind of recess or withdrawment on the part of
the true church from the more central, prominent, and
conspicuous station which she had hitherto occupied.
The explication of this part of the mystical scenery
given by Vitringa,* is entitled to a high degree of con-
sideration. He is of opinion that the emblem was de-
signed to shadow forth a literal migration of a large
portion of the church, or a transfer of the seat of its
primitive triumphs, from the eastern quarters of the
empire, where it hitherto principally flourished, to the
then barbarous and uncultivated climes of western and
northwestern Europe, especially France, Spain, Ger-
many, England, Holland, Bohemia, Hungary and Den-
mark, where it was destined to find a permanent though
afflicted establishment during the period of the grand
apostacy under the reign of the Beast. Accordingly
we learn from the ecclesiastical annals of that and the
subsequent ages, that by the peculiar providence of God,
a line of faithful witnesses for the truth was preserved,

* Anacrisis Apoc&lypseos, p. 556.

THE MILLENNIUM. 125

especially in the retired and peaceful valleys of Pied-
mont and Dauphiny, where the far-famed churches of
the Waldenses and Albigenses continued for more than
twelve centuries the conservators of the unadulterated
faith of the Apostles.* The protection indicated by
the eagle's wings is to be considered as having been
afforded more especially at the commencement of this
long period, while the woman was in the act of flying
into the wilderness ; for after she had become firmly
established in her desert abode, she became the object
of the persecuting rage both of the civil and ecclesias-
tical power of the apostate church. It was therefore
by the peculiar interposition of heaven that this mystic
woman of the wilderness was protected and ' nourished'
in her lonely dwelling place. A succession of faithful
pastors was raised up to minister the spiritual aliment
of the gospel to these eremite churches, embosomed in
their Alpine glens, during the whole prophetical period
of the * time, times, and half a time,' or 1260 years,
when the occurrence of the Reformation gave them a
door of egress from their obscurity, and they became
merged in the great body of Protestant believers.

" And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a
flood after the woman," &;c. Of the import of seas,
rivers, and water-floods as a prophetic symbol we have

♦ " The Vaudois are in fact descended from those refugees
from Italy, who, after St. Paul had there preached the Gospel,
abandoned their beautiful country, and fled, like the woman
mentioned in the Apocalypse, to these wild mountains, where
they have to this day handed down the Gospel from father to
son in the same purity and simplicity as it was preached by St.
Paul." — Pref. to Arnaud's Glorious Recovery, p. 13, 14.

126 TREATISE ON

an inspired exposition in the words of the hierophantic
angel, Rev. 17. 15. * And he saith unto me, The
waters wliich thou sawest where the whore sitteth, are
peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.*
This is confirmed by the usage of the ancient prophets.
Is. 8. 7. ' Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up
upon them the waters of the river, strong and m^ny,
even the King of Assyria and all his glory.' This is
plainly the annunciation of a warlike expedition which
under the conduct of the King of Assyria should over-
flow the land. Is. 28. 2. * Behold the Lord hath a
mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and
a destroying storm, as a jiood of mighty waters over'
flowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand ;'
thus explained by the Targum, which is of great value
in the explication of prophetic symbols : — ' Sicut im-
petus aquarum fortium inundantium, sic venient contra
eos populi, et transferent eos de terra sua' — Like the
violence of mighty overflowing floods shall peoples
come against them and remove them from their own land.
To the same effect Jeremiah ch. 46. 7, 8. says, * Who
is this that cometh up as a flood, whose waters are
moved as the river? Egypt riseth up like a flood, and
his waters are moved like the river?; and he saith, I
will go up and will cover the earth ; I will destroy the
city and the inhabitants thereof.' Again, in Dan. 9. 26.
*a flood' is expressly interpreted as equivalent to 'war.'
*And the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto
the end of the war desolations are determined.' The
river-flood therefore, sent forth from the mouih of the
Dragon to drown the woman, signifies beyond question

THE MILLENNIUM. 127

the invasion of the territories of Christendom or the
Roman empire by numerous armies of foreign nations,
whose assault was in some manner instigated by the
maUce of the Pagan party, the ministers of the Dragon.
The figurative prediction was accomphshed when the
hordes of barbarous nations from the north of Europe,
the Goths, Alans, Suevi, and Vandals, by the secret
treachery of Stilicho, prime minister to the emperor
Honorius, were invited to pour themselves down in
desolating torrents upon the southern provinces of the
empire. But what was the result of the incursions
made by these rude and ruthless barbarians 1 * The
earth,' says the prophet, ' helped the woman, and the
earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood
which the dragon cast out of his mouth.' That is,
these barbarian and pagan nations were absorbed into
the original population of the Roman provinces. They
not only embraced their rehgion, but affected the laws,
manners, customs, language, and even name of Romans,
so that they were in effect completely merged in the
vanquished nation. Instead of sweeping away the
Christian church, they eventually fell into the ranks of
her nominal supporters, and thus contributed to prolong
and perpetuate her existence. " The progress of
Christianity," says Gibbon, " has been marked by two
glorious and decisive victories: over the learned and
luxurious citizens of the Roman empire ; and over the
warlike barbarians of Scythia and Germany, who sub-
verted the empire, and embraced the religion, of the
Romans. The formidable Visigoths universally adopted
the religion of the Romans, with whom they maintained

128 TREATISE ON

a perpetual intercourse of war, of friendship, or of
conquest. During the same period, Christianity was
embraced by almost all the barbarians who established
their kinj^doms on the ruins of the western empire ; the
Burgundians in Gaul, the Suevi in Spain, the Vandals
in Africa, the Ostrogoths in Pannonia, and the various
bands of mercenaries that raised Odoacer to the throne
of Italy."* " In the course of a very few years," says
Mr. Faber, " the religion of Christ had more or less
per\'aded the whole Roman empire. Succeeding events
seemed to threaten if not its absolute extinction, yet, at
least, its contraction withm its original narrow limits.
But the result was very opposite of what, by political
sagacity, might reasonably have been anticipated. The.
religion of the conquering Goths was^ in every instancCf
nationally abandoned ; the religion of the conquered
Romans was^ in every instance^ nationally adopted.
Some of the northern warriors might be earlier, and
some might be later proselytes : hut the ultimate uni-
versal concomitant of Gothic national invasion was
Gothic national conversion.'*''

" And tlie dragon was wroth with the woman, and
went to make war with the remnant of her seed," <kc.
The course of our preceding exposition has conducted
us in tracing the history of despotic and idolatrous op-
pression from its earliest origin down to the time of the
public and incipient suppression of Paganism, A. D.
320, and for the space of one or two centuries beyond.
The Dragon or the Devil was now ejected from his

♦ D«cl. and Fall, p. 609, 610.

THE MILLENNIUM. 129

strongTiolds ; he was cast from heaven to earth ; but
his draconic nature still remained. He was urged on
by the same desperate and fiendish malignity as ever
against the true sons of freedom, the inheritors of that
legacy of civil and evangelic liberty which the Savior
bequeathed to his followers. He was still wroth with
the woman, and intent upon warring with the remnant
of her seed. But it had now become necessary for him
to change the mode of his warfare. The entire Roman
empire, forming the principal part of the civilized
world, having now assumed a Christian phasis, he felt
himself compelled to modify his persecuting tactics so
as to adapt them to the new circumstances in which he
was placed. Accordingly, finding the Roman world be-
come Christian, he determines to become Christian too,
and under the name and semblance of Christianity to
uproot the very life and being of that divine religion
from the earth. He lays, therefore, one of his deepest,
and foulest, and most devilish plots ; a stratagem redo-
lent of the Serpent, and instinct with the profoundest
policies of hell. This is represented as consisting in a
kind of symbolical metempsychosis or transmigration,
in which the Dragon becomes the actuating spirit of
another scarcely less baneful power. Conscious of
being forced to withdraw in his own proper person from
the scene in which he had so long reigned ' lord of the
ascendant,' he resolves upon protruding upon the va-
cated stage another agent who should act as his vice-
gerent, and into whom he determines to transfuse the
full measure of his own Satanic spirit and genius.
This was no other than the seven-headed and ten-horned

130 TREATISE ON

Beast that arose out of the sea. It is through him as
an instrument that he resolves to prosecute his war
against the woman's seed. We may imagine therefore
the Dragon of Paganism, when balHed in his previous
designs, walking, like the hero of the Iliad, silent and
thoughtful on the shore of the loud-sounding deep, or
rather, perhaps, since the ' sea' in the Apocalypse is
the symbol of multitudes of men in a state of commo-
tion, as plunging into its abysses, and there secretly
busying himself in getting up and sending forth this his
portentous substitute, destined to supply his lack of dis-
astrous service in working woe to the nations. " And I
stood upon the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rise
up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns,
and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the
names of blasphemy. And the dragon gave him his
power, and his seat {Gpovov — throne), and great author-
ity." Here is the act of abdication on the Dragon's
part, and of investiture on that of the Beast. The
Beast therefore acts by a delegated power. He comes
forth as the commissioned organ and agent of the prime
originator of moral and political ill to the nations of
Christendom. This is no other than the same Roman
empire metamorphosed into a nominally Christian
dominion, and subsisting in its decem-regal form, when
divided and split up into ten independent sovereignties,
though still preserving an ecclesiastical unity, out of
which arose the present dominant kingdoms of Europe,
who are said to have agreed, at an early period, to give
their power to the Beast.*

* Thus Horace, speaking of the Roman people, says ;
• BcUua inultorum es capitura.*

THE MILLENNIUM. 131

It would be altogether beside our present purpose to
enter upon a detailed exposition of the allegorical
Beast, the symbol of the collective body of the present
leading European dynasties. We advert to the emblem
only so far as may be necessary to illustrate the char-
acter, actions, or fortunes of his predecessor, the
Dragon. It may be proper, however, to observe, that
a prophetic limitation of the reign of the Beast is un-
doubtedly contained in the compass of the Revelation.
Those upon whom his brutal and bestial violence, his
grinding and wasting oppression was specially to fall,
were to be given into his hand 'until a time, times, and
half a time,' or for the space of 1260 years;* and

* " The original word which we translate a time^ properly
signifies any stated, fixed, or appointed time or season. It is
therefore made use of, Lev. 23. 4. to denote those annual feasts
which were every year fixed to one stated periodical revolu-
tion. And therefore may be understood in that place to sig-
nify the time of the periodical revolutions of the annual festi-
vals, or a year ; and accordingly the prophet Daniel, ch. 4. 16.
23. 25. makes use of the expression of seven times to denote
seven years. And therefore in ch. 11. 13. Daniel in order to
explain it, says the king of the north shall certainly return, and
shall come at the end of times^ even years ; as it is in the origi-
nal, though we translate it, after certain years. And Justin
Martyr, in his dialogue with Trypho the Jew, remarks, that
the Rabbins understood the word time to denote a year^ accord-
ing to the language of the prophets. So that, according to ihis
interpretation, a time, times, and half a time, or one year added
to two years and a half, will be three years and a half. And as
a Jewish year is supposed to consist of twelve months; and
each month of thirty days, then a time, timesy and half a time^
or three times and a half, will be equivalent to 1260 days ; as
wo shall find it exactly computed to be, when we come to

132 TREATISr. ON

ihougli the precise epoch of the commencement of that
period may be difficult to be determined, yet we cannot
err very widely in fixing it between the years 450 and
600 ; and in a matter of this nature to come within a
century of the truth may be considered a sufficient ap-
proximation for all important purposes. Consequently,
that we are now actually arrived at the very borders of
that period which is to be signalized by the winding up
of the grand despotic drama that has been for ages
enacting in transatlantic Christendom, there cannot be
the shadow of a reasonable doubt. It is only in this
fact that we find an adequate solution of the phenomena
which are now displaying themselves on so broad a
scale in the political heavens and earth of the eastern
continent. These commotions are to be regarded in
no other light than as an incipient fulfilment of the in-
spired oracles, predicting the utter downfall of every
system of government and religion which wars upon
the liberties of mankind. We have in the disclosures
of this book a genuine clew to the recent agitations of
all the monarchical states ; agitations arising solely
from the efforts of the mass of the people to struggle
into the assertion of their native rights, as the ancients
fabled the earthquakes to be occasioned by the attempts
of the imprisoned giants to throw off the superincumbent
mountains heaped upon them.

The peculiar manner in which the foregoing interpre-

inquire into the Revelation of St. John, where a time^ times^
and hot/ a time is njentioned as a space of time equivalent to
forty-two ininiths, or one thousand two hundred and sixty day S\*
— Ciayton^ Bish. of Cloghefs Dissert, on Proph. p. 79*

THE MILLENNIUM. 133

tation is made to bear upon the subject of the Millen-
nium will be more fully disclosed in the sequel. A*
present we advert for a moment to the only plausible
objection which, as far as we are able to perceive, can
be urged against the construction put in the preceding
pages upon the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse.

As the charge given to John in the outset of the
mystical visions of this book is thus worded, — "Write
the things which thou hast seen, and the things which
are, and the things which shall be hereafter," — it may
be said, That this division of the contents of the Reve-
lation into the two great branches of things present and
things future, necessarily forbids the application of any
of the symbols to events that were long since past at
the time of the writing of the book, and consequently
that our interpretation of the symbol of the Dragon,
which we have carried up to the remotest ages of an-
tiquity, must necessarily be at variance with the acknow-
ledged structure of the apostle's prophecy. In reply
to this objection, we readily admit that as a ge?ieral
character of the Apocalypse this division is plainly ob-
served ; the three first chapters, containing the epistles
to the seven churches, having a primary reference to
the things which then were, while the subsequent por-
tions of the book are occupied mainly with the pros-
pective developement of the leading fates of the church
and the world. But we are not prepared to admit the
assumption, that nothing but prophetic matter can be
introduced into a prophetic vision. For what was the
case with Daniel ? Did he behold the rise of the
Roman empire prospectively when he beheld the emer-

134 TREATISE ON

gence of its symbol in the fourth beast from the troubled
sea? Far from it. He beheld it retrospectively^ as
his vision of the four ffreat beasts was vouchsafed to
him about the year before Christ 555 ; but Rome was
founded according to Varro in the year before Christ
753 ; so that the prophet, if 'we reckon from the time
when he saw this vision, must have beheld the rise of
the Roman beast retrospectively^ though he viewed his
exploits through the period of 1260 years prospectively.
In like manner, we consider the vision in the chapter
before us as having at once a retrospective and a pros-
pective bearing, in which respect it forms an exception
to tlie general tissue of the res prophetica of the book,
and, we believe, the only exception. But as the main
scope of the Holy Spirit in this part of the visions was
to acquaint us with the origin, the reign, and the over-
throw of the Beast, nothing could be more natural than
to trace the symbolical extraction of the Beast from the
Dragon his predecessor, and if the Dragon were intro-
duced at all, it was equally natural that the symbol
should be so constructed as to embrace the whole term
of his hieroglyphic existence, however far back into
former ages it might reach. The truth is, if the view
which we have given of the intended mutual relation
of the Dragon and the Beast of the Apocalypse be well
founded, and admitted by the reader, the objection
above stated can occasion no real difficulty. The fact
wliich it contemplates is precisely such as migiit be
expected. Nor will a single exception militate with
the general uniformity of character by which the oracles
of the Apocalypse are marked — One or two reflectiona

- THE MILLENNIUM. 135

may not unsuitably conclude the present division of our
work.

1. The train of remark submitted to the reader in the
foregoing exposition may have the effect, it is presumed,
of deepening the conviction, that the religion of the
Bible is no foe to civil freedom ; that it can never be
made, without the most flagrant perversion, the pander
to oppression in any sense or in any degree. That
Christianity has been made, by abuse, an engine of the
most dire and diabolical persecution is unhappily put
beyond the possibility of being questioned. The his-
tory of the ages of darkness furnishes a dreary and
soul-sickening record of the fact. But that this circum-
stance affords the least argument of the legitimate ten-
dencies of the gospel of Jesus cannot be maintained for
a moment. The true and essential genius of Christian-
ity repudiates with mortal abhorrence every alliance
with civil power which would convert her into an en-
gine of disastrous domination. Can the mystical wo-
man of the vision fall in love with the terrific Dragon
by whom she is assaulted ? Are they not set in the
most direct antagonism with each other 1 And under
this significant imagery is not the brandmark of eternal
reprobation set upon the entire apparatus of despotism?
Is not its final overthrow, its utter extinction, clearly
predicted in the oracles of the prophets ? — and that too
as an indispensable prerequisite to the final prevalence
of the Gospel ? How then can Christianity be friendly
to or compatible with a system upon the ruins of which
it is destined to rise, and the annihilation of which is the
signal of its own success 1 The truth is, the spirit o>f

136 TREATISE ON

Christianity is not more opposed to rice than it is to
vassalage ; to moral corruption than to political degra-
dation.

2. Shall not a more favorable impression be begotten
in behalf of Christianity from the fact, that it contem-
plates man not merely in his individual^ hut in his social
capacities and interests ? — that in the amplitude of its
beneficence it takes cognizance of those great and mas-
sive calamities which weigh upon the welfare of so-
ciety ; which have encumbered and retarded the march
of the human mind ; which have hung their ponderous
weights upon the wheels of its progress ; — in a word,
that it abounds with predictions and promises, not only
of the removal of those evils wliich encompass and an-
noy the individual believer, but of those also which have
been the most signal curses to the communities of the
earth ? We repeat it then, that we are authorized to
regard in the light of the accomplishment of the divine
counsels the existing commotions which are causing the
dynasties of Europe to totter on their rotten bases, and
which are prompting the monarchs to clap their hands
to their heads to hold on their crowns. Potentates are
perplexed by the signs in heaven and the signs on earth.
But why? Simply because God has illustriously
arisen, and begun to show to the world that the Gospel
is the Genius of Universal Emancipation. The human
race is awakening to the conviction, that there is not a
throne on earth but is built upon the prostrate liberties
of mankind ; and kings have cause to tremble at the
results of the discovery. It is for this reason that they
dread to refer themselves to ' the coming on of time.*

THE MILLENNIUM. 137

" Coming events cast their shadows before," and they
are filled with secret apprehensions of an impending
stroke which shall fall with resistless weight upon the
coronets of despots, and scatter their diamonds in the
dust. It is then to the pages of this precious revelation
that we are,to look for a key to the signs of the times ;
for a solution of all the marvels connected with that
magnus ordo rerum, that stupendous moral and political
revolution, which is so rapidly changing the face of hu-
man affairs, and introducing the indestructible empire of
righteousness. It is on this account only that we deem
the explication of the hieroglyphics of the Apocalypse
as at all important. Viewed in any other light than as
affording an index to the true character of the period in
which we live, and its connected duties, we might as
well bestow our labour in laying before our readers, for
the purpose of comment, the imagery of the Shield of
Achilles, or of the Zodiac of Dendera, or the architec-
tural details of Solomon's Temple. But when rightly
construed, the mystic shadows of the Seer of Patmos
resolve themselves, like the hand-writing on the walls
of Belshazzar's palace, into the death-doom of despot-
ism, and the Magna Charta of the liberties of the
world.

138 TREATISE ON

CHAPTER IV.

THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF THE MILLENNIUM STATED AND
CONFIRMED.

The Connection of the twentieth Chapter of the Revelation
with the preceding portions of the Book stated — The Identity
of the Dragon throughout the Apocal)'pse maintained — The
Binding of the Dragon explained — Its date determined —
Confirmed by History — Particulars of the symbolic Imagery
further elucidated — Symbol of the Bottomless Pit or Abyss
explained — Opinions of Lightfoot, Turretin, Mastricht, and
Marck quoted — Satan's deceiving the Nations explained —
"Whether the Millennium to consist of a thousand literal
years — Explication of the Thrones, and of the Souls of the
Martyrs seen in the Vision, and of their Living and Reigning
with Christ a thousand years.

REVELATION CH. XX.

1. And I saw an angel come down from heaveir,
having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain
in his hand. 2. And he laid hold on the dragon, that
old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound
him a thousand years, 3. And cast him into tlie bot-
tomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him,
that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thou-
sand years should be fulfilled : and after that he must
be loosed a little season. 4. And I saw thrones, and

THE MILLENNIUM. 139

they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them :
and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the
witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which
had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither
had received his mark in their foreheads, or in their
hands ; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thou-
sand years. 5. But the rest of the dead lived not again
until the thousand years were finished. This is the first
resurrection. 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part
in the first resurrection : on such the second death hath
no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ,
and shall reign with him a thousand years. 7. And
when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be
loosed out of his prison, 8. And shall 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 sand of the sea. 9. And they
went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the
camp of the saints about, and the beloved city : and fire
came down from God out of heaven, and devoured
them. 10. And the Devil that deceived them was cast
into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and
the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and
night for ever and ever.

A fresh vision of the Dragon here opens upon us.
We are now called to contemplate him in an ulterior
stage of degradation. In the allegorical narrative
already considered we have seen him discomfited in the
contest with the celestial legions of Michael, and vio-
lently precipitated from heaven to earth. But, as if de-

140 TREATISE ON

termined to avenge the ignominy of his defeat, we left
him still plotting against the mystical Woman, aiming
to compass her destruction by disemboguing a flood of
waters from his mouth ; and, when bafiled in this at-
tempt, instituting a stupendous scheme of persecution
against her seed through the instrumentality of the
Beast, to whom he delivered up his seat and his power.
From that time, it \vill be observed by the careful
reader of the Apocalypse, the Dragon himself retires
from the stage ; the scope of the prophetical visions
being henceforth occupied mainly with the pernicious
doings and tlie retributive destiny of his septem-
cephalous successor through the space of the seven
ensuing chapters. In the close of the nineteenth, im-
mediately preceding the portion which we have quoted,
the final catastrophe of the secular imperial Beast and
of the ecclesiastical False Prophet is expressly detailed.
" And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth (rather,
* even the kings of the earth'), and their armies, gathered
together to make war against him that sat on the horse,
and against his army. And the beast was taken, and
with him the false prophet tliat wrought miracles before
him, with which he deceived them that had received the
mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image.
These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burn-
ing with brimstone." Having thus portrayed by these
significant emblems the remediless doom of the Beast,
and having consequently no more to say of him, the
order of the visions is now reversed, and the prophet is
carried back in the train of supernatural disclosure to
the point where the history of the Dragon had been in-

THE MILLENNIUM. 141

terrupted to make way for that of his vicegerent the
Beast. In accordance with a feature of the sacred
writings of incessant occurrence, in which events, whe-
ther historically or symbolically related, are transposed
out of their just chronological order, the thread of the
story is resumed and continued in the twentieth chapter.*
The Dragon had acted a part too prominent and mo-
mentous to be so summarily dismissed from among the
actors of the mystical drama. Nor did his machina-
tions by any means cease with his personal withdraw-
ment from the scene of his former exploits. Very im-
portant events, the effect of his procurement, were yet
to be brought about ; and in order that a connected and
imbroken view of his operations and his fates might be
recorded for the benefit of the church, the symbolical
history remounts to the period of his sending forth upon
the territories of Christendom his bestial substitute, and
embraces in the present vision all the chronological

* " It is a well-known and well-grounded maxim among the
Jews, that " non est prius et posterius in Scriptura." Their
meaning in it is this, — that the order and place of a text as it
stands in the Bible doth not always infer or enforce the very
time of the story, which the text relateth ; but that sometimes,
— nay it occurreth very oft, — stories are laid out of their natural
and chronical place, and things are very frequently related
before, which, in order of time, occurred after : and so * e con-
tra.' Nor is this transposition and dislocation of times and
texts proper to the evangelists only, — but the same Spirit that
dictated both the Testaments, hath observed this course in both
the Testaments alike : laying texts, chapters, and histories out
of the proper place in which, according to natural chronical
order, they would have lain." — LighifooCs Works, vol. ii. p. 61.

142 TREATISE OX

space between that and the lime of his ultimate perdi-
tion, when he too is cast into the lake of fire and brim-
stone, to which the Beast and the False Prophet had
been already adjudged. So that, in fact, the vision of
the twentieth chapter of the Revelation is to be con-
sidered, as far as the events shadowed forth are con-
cerned, as connecting itself immediately with that of the
twelfth ; and a more important clew to the genuine
structure of this wonderful book cannot, we believe, be
laid before the student of prophecy.

In attempting, therefore, to fix the legitimate sense of
the symbols here employed, the first position which we
assume, and which, if we mistake not, will inevitably
draw after it the whole interpretation that follows, is,
the identity of the Dragon which is hound with the Dragon
which was cast out of heaven. Unless this point be con-
ceded in the outset, it will be in vain to hope ever to
attain to a satisfactory solution of the prophetic enigmas
of this book. If the Dragon or the Devil is to be re-
garded as a hieroglyphic in one portion of the Apoca-
lypse, we afTirm that he is to be so viewed in every other
portion ; otherwise we arc left in the mazes of inextri-
cable confusion in every attempt to unravel the myste-
ries which it contains.* But that this assumption, in-

r ♦ " There is another thing which particularly deserves atten-
tion, and which, as it appears to me, must materially contribute
to settle the question relative to the time of the vision : the
power which is here described as chained, is denominated the
Dragon ; but this is no new character ; and may we not from
preceding scenes learn some of the circumstances of his history ?
In the 12th chapter ho is introduced and styled the Old Scr-

THE MILLENNIUM. 143

Stead of resting on mere conjecture, is in fact based upon
the unequivocal declarations of the sacred text, will be

pent, the Devil, and Satan ; and in the 20th he makes his ap-
pearance again, when precisely the same terms are employed
to characterize this symbolical personage ; the Dragon is The
Old Serpent, the Devil, and Satan. Must it not then be
the same Dragon in both places ? Do we not find the same
names, the same titles, and the same attributes ? And can it
be supposed that the Spirit of prophecy would give the same
description where the symbolical existence was not the same ?
The term Dragon cannot have a literal signification, and when
symbolically employed it must on deliberate reflection seem
surprising that it should have two different senses in the same
book, composed by the same author. Nothing but the supposed
necessity of supporting a preconceived opinion could have been
the origin of such an expedient. But the Dragon of the Apoca-
lyptic Writer is the same symbolical personage wherever he ap-
pears. In the twelfth chapter he is represented as having seven
heads and ten horns, with crowns on his heads. This, in the
language of hieroglyphics, plainly expresses the Paganism of the
Roman empire. In another place, an interpreting angel in-
forms us, that the ' seven heads are seven mountains,' on
which mountains Rome was built ; and in the chapter to which
reference has just been made, a conflict is described between
Michael and his angels, and the Dragon and his angels, the
issue of which was that the Dragon was cast unto the earth.
Now I am not aware that there is any difference of opinion
among the interpreters of prophecy relative to this conflict. It
is admitted, that in this contest, Paganism was overcome, was
hurled from the seat of empire, was excluded from having any
part in the management of public aff'airs, and finally the rabble
of the Pantheon were exiled from the Roman territory. But
according to commentators and the expositors of prophecy it
would seem, that the Dragon, on his defeat, exile, and im-
prisonment, underwent an astonishing metamorphosis. The
Dragon, acknowledged to be Paganism at his first appear-
ance in the prophetic scenery, becomes the Devil personally,

144 TREATISE ON

obvious from the bare inspection of the two following
passages ranged in juxtaposition : —

Rkv. XII. 9. R«v. XX. 2, 3.

"And the great dragon was cast "And he laid hold on the dragon,
out, that old serpent, called the Devil that old serpent, which is lh« Devil
and Satan, which deceiveth the whole and Satan, and bound him a ihoiuand
world." J ears— that he should decme the na-

tions no more."

Tliis must of necessity remove all doubt as to the per-
fect equivalency of the symbols in the two visions. If
then, as we have endeavoured to show, the term Dragon,
Devil, or Satan, as used by John in the Revelation, must
be understood, not as the literal appellation of the per-
son of the Tempter, or the prince of fallen spirits, but
as the mystic emblem of despotism and idolatry united,
the true idea of Paganism, the inference is irresistible,
that the binding of the Dragon or of Satan for the space
of a thousand years must imply something more than
the mere restraining of what is usually denominated
* Satanic influences.' It is in fact but 3. fguraiive mode
of announcing the suppression of Paganism for a defi-
nite term of years ; not indeed its wwiuer^a/ suppression,
but its banishment from the bounds of Christendom
during the period specified, as will be more fully evinced

the Devil himself, the Prince of the power of the air. This
certainly exhibits a strange liitltude of interpretation : but
by what authority or on what grounds is this liberty taken?
Are there any canons or principles of interpretation which will
sanction such a transformation ^ Can the symbols of prophecy
be made to signify first one thing, and then another, according
to the fancy of those who undertake to explain them ? At Ibis
rate, symbolical language would be a mass of uncertainties,
more vague in its import than the oracles of hcatheuisra."—
VinC$ Ntw Illustr. of Proph. p. 249, 250.

THE MILLENNIUM. 145

in the sequel. That'this language should have been
interpreted by the great mass of expositors in its most
literal import, as implying that Satan should be confined
in hell a thousand years, and his temptations during that
period held in abeyance, and that they should have con-
structed upon this circumstance a theory of the Millen-
nium distinguished by a state of the church and of the
world all but absolutely sinless, can be accounted for
only from the fact, that they have conducted their in-
vestigations upon principles which disregarded the most
obvious laws of symbolical exegesis, and which were
equally abhorrent to the dictates of sound reason. For
freedom from temptation detracts from the value of obe-
dience just so far as it exists. The strength and the
worth of the pious principle in men is to be estimated
by the counter-solicitations which it overcomes, and
we know not that any state of the Christian church is
predicted, in which men shall be delivered from the
operation of those incentives to sin which are inseparable
from the constitution of their nature as moral agents.
Indeed, it may be affirmed, that the most pure and per-
fect, the most prosperous and glorious, state of the
church in this world would be that in which the greatest
strength of temptation to evil should co-exist with the
most vigorous resistance to it ; and this would be a
state in which Satan, instead of being bound and hin-
dered from putting forth his ordinary influences, would
be most free and rampant, and would ply his hellish
arts with most untiring activity. Into such mcorigrui-
ties are we led by giving a literal interpretation to sym-
bolical terms. But suppose, on the other hand, the lan-

MO TREATISE OX

guage in the passage before us to be interpreted in
consistency with the ascertained import of the same
symbols in other places, and an easy and natural sense
at once discloses itself under the figured diction of the
prophet. If the Dragon be Paganism personijietl, then
his being seized, bound, and incarcerated for a thousand
years, must necessarily signify some powerful restraint
laid in the providence of God upon this baneful system
of error, by wliich its prevalence, through the above-
mentioned period, is vastly weakened, obstructed,
and confined to narrow limits, though not utterly de-
stroyed.

The question, therefore, whether this period be
already past or yet future, resolves itself into another
question purely historical. Has there already occurred
in the annals of the Christian world — for the book of
Revelation has mainly to do with the territories of
Christendom — an extended tract of time during which
the system of Pagan delusions was suppressed, and the
fabric of civil and ecclesiastical oppression represented
by the Beast and the False Prophet prevailed in its
stead ? But this is a question which the veriest novice
in the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Em-
pire, and of those nations which branched out of its
dismembered fragments, is at once prepared to answer.
No facts in the chronicles of the past are more notorious,
than that Paganism under Constantino and his succes-
sors did, after a desperate struggle, succumb to Chris-
tianity in its triumphant progress ; and that the religion
of the Gospel, after subsisting for one or two centuries
posterior to the age of Constantine in a state of com-

THE MILLENNIUM. 147

parative purity, did gradually become corrupt in doctrine,
carnal and secular in spirit, and arrogant in its claims,
till finally it allied itself to the civil power in a union
which gave birth to the ecclesiastico-politico dominion
of the Roman pontificate, for so many centuries the para-
mount scourge of Europe. As it is unquestionable,
therefore, that the ascendency of Paganism in the Ro-
man empire was succeeded by that of Antichristianism,
symbolically denoted by the Beast's succeeding the
Dragon, so we are led to consider the binding of the
Dragon, i. e. the suppression of Paganism, as com-
mencing about the time of the rise of the Beast, and
nearly coinciding with the first thousand years of his
reign.

This may strike the reader as a very revolting con-
clusion. To represent the Apocalyptic Millennium,
which he has always conceived as but another name for
the golden age of the church, as actually synchronizing
with the most calamitous period of her annals, will no
doubt do violence to his most cherished sentiments re-
specting that distinguished era. But this conclusion
we know not how to avoid, nor do we see how any one
can avoid it who admits the premises on which it rests.
For certainly the millennial ligation of the Dragon must
either coincide with a thousand years of the reign of
the Beast, as we maintain, or it must succeed it. But
if the latter, then we have a break in the prophetical
history of the Dragon or Paganism, of between one
and two thousand years, in relation to the events of
which we are left in utter ignorance. By the former
interpretation, the chain is preserved unbroken from its

148 TREATISE ON

earliest origin to its final annihilation. Besides, by in-
terpreting the period of Satan's binding as yet future,
we encounter a textual difficulty of no trifling character.
In Rev. 12. 12. after the close of the contest in heaven,
it is said ; — ' Wo to the inhabiters of the earth and the
sea ! for the devil is come down unto you, having great
wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short timef
i. e. he knoweth that after his fall from heaven, but a
short time will intervene anterior to his binding and
confinement in the bottomless pit, as represented in the
vision under consideration. But if he came down to
the inhabitants of the earth and the sea in his dejection
from the symbolical heaven in the days of Constantine,
and yet his binding was not to take place till near two
thousand years after that event, with what propriety
could it be said that he knew his time was short ? The
time would in truth be long, very long, when compared
with the whole period embraced in the visions of the
Apocalypse. Now by our mode of interpretation we
allow from one to two centuries for the term of the
Devil's execution of his designs against the subjects of
the Roman empire subsequent to his expulsion from the
seat of supremacy in the government, and previous to
his bindin g; and this strikingly corresponds with the
statement of Gibbon. Speaking of the reign of Con-
stantine, he says ; " Every motive of authority and
fashion, of interest and reason, now militated on the
side of Christianity ; hut two or three generations
elapsed l>cfore their victorious infuence was vniversally
felt.''* The same writer elsewhere remarks, that " the

• Decl. and Fall, p. 332.

THE MILLENNIUM. 149

generation which arose in the world after the promul-
gation of the imperial laws, was attracted within the
pale of the catholic church : and so rapid, yet so gentle^
was the fall of Paganism, that only twenty-eight years
after the death of Theodosius, the faint and minute
vestiges were no longer visible to the eye of the legis-
lator.''''*^ The death of Theodosius occurred A. D.
395, and we suppose the binding of Satan to have
commenced somewhere between this and A. D. 450,
but the precise year we pretend not to determine. The
rise of the Beast is to be fixed at a somewhat later
period ; the exact date of that epoch also we leave to
be settled by those who feel themselves competent to
do it. The expiration of the thousand years, accord-
ing to this computation, will nearly coincide with the
establishment of the Turkish power in Western Asia in
consequence of the capture of Constantinople, A. D.
1453 ; and how entirely the history of that period and
that people answers the import of the prophetic sym-
bols will be shown in the sequel, in our explication of
the mystic post-millennial Gog and Magog. — We shall
now enter upon a more minute consideration of the
language of this remarkable vision.

'* And I saw an angel come down from heaven, hav-
ing the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in
his hand." An angel, in the language of symbols, is
used to denote any agent or agency, terrestrial or celes-
tial, by which the purposes of the Almighty are accom-
plished. In the passage before us, the angel is but an-

* Decl. and Fall, p. 469.

150 TREATISE ON

Other name for the power of the Gospel, putting itself
forth through the commissioned ministers of the Roman
government^ which had now become Christian. As we
are taught by our Lord himself, that no ono can ' enter
into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except
he first bind the strong man^ so it was nothing but the
divine potency of the religion of the cross, which could
avail to dislodge the system of Paganism from its
strongholds, and annul the pernicious influence which it
had for ages exerted upon the human mind. This
hitherto unprecedented revolution, which had long been
gradually working its way to a crisis, received, as we
have already intimated, its final consummation in or
shortly after the reign of Theodosius. " The ruin of
Paganism, in the age of Theodosius, is perhaps the only
example of the total extirpation of any ancient and
popular superstition ; and may therefore be considered
as a singular event in the history of the human mind."*
The reader of Gibbon will find in the concluding part
of the twenty-eighth chapter of the Decline and Fall a
more valuable commentary on this part of the twentieth
chapter of the Apocalypse than is furnished by all the
professed expositors who have ' taken in hand to set
forth in order a declaration of the things' contained in
it. " The gods of antiquity," says he, *' were dragged
in triumph at the chariot-wheels of Theodosius. In a
full meeting of the senate, the emperor proposed, accord-
ing to the forms of the republic, the important question,
whether the worship of Jupiter or that of Christ should

♦ Dtcl. and Fall, p. 462.

THE MILLENNIUM. 151

be the religion of the Romans. On a regular division
of the senate, Jupiter was condemned and degraded by
the sense of a very large majority." — " The pious labor
which had been suspended near twenty years since the
death of Constantine, was vigorously resumed, and
finally accomplished, by the zeal of Theodosius. Whilst
that warlike prince yet struggled with the Goths, not
for the glory but the safety of the republic, he ventured
to offend a considerable party of his subjects, by some
acts which might perhaps secure the protection of
heaven, but which must seem rash and unreasonable in
the eye of human prudence. The success of his first
experiments against the Pagans encouraged the pious
emperor to reiterate and enforce his edicts of proscrip-
tion ; and every victory of the orthodox Theodosius
contributed to the triumph of the Christian and Catho-
lic faith."* — A ' key' being an instrument used for the
double purpose of opening or shutting, is in itself a sym-
bol of equivocal import. It signifies, however, either
the power to prevent or to perform the action to which
it is applied, according to the circumstances of the case.
Thus the *keys of the kingdom of heaven,' Mat. 16.
19. represented as given to Peter in the name of all
the other apostles, denotes the ministerial or decla-
rative power conferred upon them of proclaiming the
terms on which men were to be admitted into the gospel
kingdom, and invested with a share in its spiritual bless-
ings. So in Luke 11. 5. the taking away of 'the key
of knowledge' implies the assumption on the part of

• Decl. and Fall, p. 464, 465.

152 TREATISE ON

those who are charged with it of a magisterial right
either to grant or to withhold from the mass of the
people the means or the power of attaining knowledge ;
so that the term still conveys the idea of official prero-
gative. A passage still more pertinent to our purpose
occurs Is. 22. 22. * And the key of the house of David
will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none
shall shut ; and he shall shut, and none shall open ;'
rendered in the Chaldee Targum, — " And I will de-
liver the key of the house of the sanctuar}', and the
government of the house of David into his hand."
Upon this passage Lowth remarks ; — " That as the
robe and the baldric (girdle) mentioned in the preceding
verse were the ensigns of power and authority, so like-
wise was the key the mark of office, either sacred or
civil." The import of the expression doubtless is, that
Eliakim should act by an authoritative commission, as
the prime minister, or rather perhaps the high steward,
of the house of David, having all the subordinate offi-
cials of the royal palace so entirely under his control,
and so obedient to his nod, that his will was to be to
them an absolute law. The laying of the key therefore
upon his shoulder was merely the symbol of the transfer
of this delegated authority ; which still farther illus-
trates the import of the key as a hieroglyphic* Again

• In like manner, in the classic writers, the priestess of Jun*
is called xxtfcTcyyoc 'H^oi, kcy-beartr of Juno. Alsch. Suppl. 299.
A female high in ofl&ce under a great queen has the same title :
KatxxiSi)* jaiiJ'iZ^ji Ox^/urriaiTof ^<iTixtln(, CaUithce the kcy-bearcr of
tJie fjncen Oh/mj)i(is. Anc. Phorion. ap. Clem. Alex. p. 418.
This mark of olHce was likewise among the Greeks, as here in

THB MILLENNIUM. 153

it is said, Rev. 9. 1. » And I saw a star fall from heaven
unto the earth : and to him was given the key of the
bottomless pit.' The office of the key in this instance
was to open instead of shut, but it still throws light
upon the general symbol. It denotes in the present
connexion a providential license given to some apostate
agent, represented by the falling star, to be the means
of releasing from confinement some destructive power
which was to issue forth and to desolate a considerable
portion of the Apocalyptic earth. The key is men-
tioned m order to indicate that the work executed by
the prophetic agents was performed in consequence of
an official designation emanating from a higher power.
This is clearly implied also in the force of the word
e^oiv — was given. The grand event depicted by the
symbol was undoubtedly the irruption of the Saracens
under Mohammed and his successors against the Roman
empire. " This," says Daubuz, " expresses well a
hidden multitude of confused men arising on a sudden,
and breaking out to make incursions, as a subterraneous
flood when broken out ; and that according to the ana-
logy that the Deep or the Sea signifies a multitude in
war and tumult, and the Pit the most vile, lowest, and
contemptible sort of men, like the slaves that are in
the pit. I think then that the Holy Ghost did design
to show by the key of the bottomless gulf which was
given to this star fallen from heaven upon the earth,
that this rebellious prince or upstart would set the slaves

Isaiah, borne on the shoulder, wherefore it is said of the
priestess of Ceres, xaTceudJ^ictv \^t xxtUa^ she had a key upon her
shoulder. — Callim. Ceres, v. 45.

154 TREATISE OX

at liberty, and all sucli sorts of despicable men ; and
by setting himself at the head of them, lead on that
mixed multitude to prosecute the purposes mentioned
liercafier : carrying on their designs by a continual and
prodigious war, and incursions upon odiers. The Sara-
cens were as hell broke loose. Mahomet was sent to
punish corrupted Christendom with the vilest sort of
men, the most despicable nation."* It will be seen in
the sequel that we differ from this commentator, for
whom we have greater respect than for any other, in
our explication of the symbol of the ' bottomless pit,'
but the citation is important for our main purpose.
From what has now been said, we are better prepared
to understand the drift of the emblematic scenery under
consideration. The circumstance of the angel's coming
down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit
in his hand, denotes that the action to which his coming
has reference, viz. the apprehension, binding, and im-
prisonment of the Dragon, was to be performed by a
delegated power ^ an authorized and official ministry j
or in other words, in consequence of an imperial edict.
The evident scope of this part of the vision is to point
out to us the fact, that the power symbolized by the
Dragon was forcibly expelled from the territories in
which it had hitherto subsisted, and that through the
instrumentaUty of some commissioned organ acting in
the name of the supreme authority. Now as a matter
of historical verity. Paganism did not go out of the
Roman empire, but it was driven out. The majesty of

♦ Perpet. Comment, p. 398.

THE MILLENNIUM. 155

the law commanded its expulsion, and the reader who
may have access to the Theodosian Code containing
the enactments against Paganism, is in possession of
the genuine ' key' of the passage and to the passage
before us. The historian so often cited, speaking of
the attempts of the idolaters by subtle distinctions to
elude the laws enacted against the heathen sacrifices,
says, — " These vain pretences were swept away by the
last edict of Theodosius, which inflicted a deadly wound
upon the superstition of the Pagans. This prohibitory
law is expressed in the most absolute and comprehen-
sive terms. * It is our will and pleasure,' says the em-
peror, * that none of our subjects, Avhether magistrates
or private citizens, however exalted or however humble
may be their rank and condition, shall presume, in any
city or in any place, to worship an inanimate idol by
the sacrifice of a guiltless victim.' "* — " As the tem-
ples had been erected for the purpose of sacrifice, it
was the duty of a benevolent prince to remove from his
subjects the dangerous temptation of offending against
the laws which he had enacted. A special commission
was granted to Cynegius, the praetorian praefect of the
east, and afterward to the Counts Jovius and Gaudentius,
two oflficers of distinguished rank in the west, by which
they icere directed to shut the temples, to seize or destroy
tJie instruments of idolatry, to abolish the privileges of
the priests, and to confiscate the consecrated property
for the benefit of the emperor, of the church, or of the
army."t This then was the binding of the Dragon,

♦ Decl. and Fall, p. 468.

t Ibid. p. 465. Among the monuments of idolatry which

156 TREATISE OW

another name for the authoritative suppression of Pagan-
ism, an event which from its very nature cannot be tied
down to the space of a month or a year, though we
may siill approacli near enough to a definite epoch lo
answer all the grand purposes of exposition. So con-
clusive is the proof that if the Dragon be Paganism,
the millennium, which was to be mainly distinguished
by his binding, is long since past.

" And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent,
which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand
years ; and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut
him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive
the nations no more, till the thousand years should be
fulfilled ; and after that he must be loosed a little sea-
son." The Greek term a/3y<r<r«5, translated in our version
* bottomless pit,' is derived from the privative a and
/3wtf95, which in the Ionic dialect is changed into ^vrra.
It is originally an adjective, signifying deep^ profound,
unfathomable^ immense^ inaccessible. As a substantive
with x^°*i 'fcglon, understood, it denotes a place of in-
definite, indescribable depth or extent, a place incapable
of being explored. It occurs in the Soptuagint version
of the Old Testament ihirly-nine times, in thirty-six of
which the original Hebrew term to which it answers is
Oinn usually rendered the deep, the great deep, <fcc.
In the New Testament it occurs nine times ; seven of
the passages in which it is met with being in the Reve-

wero destroyed on this occasion, the histor an mentions parti-
cularly an emblematic monster, hiving the head and body of a
serpenty branching into tlirce tails, w hich were again terminated
by the triple heads of a dog, a Uon, a,Dd a wdjA

THE MILLENNIUM. 157

lation. In a majority of the cases above specrfied it
cannot be doubted that it contains an allusion to waters ;
in others it is equally evident that it refers to cavernous
recesses in the earth, in which there is no implication
of the presence of waters. Thus Rom. 10. 7. "Who
shall descend into the deep (Gr. f/5 tjjv a/St^e-e-ov), that is,
to bring up Christ again from the dead ?" where the allu-
sion is plainly to the sepulchral vaults in which the dead
were entombed. So in Rev. 9. 2. where it is said, " he
opened the bottomless pit(Gr. ro (p^eu^ T-,35 cc^vo-tov — the
well, pitf or shaft of the abyss), ^^ as it is not said that
water issued forth, but first smoke and then locusts^
which we know are not of aquatic origin, it is doubtful
w^hether the ' abyss' in this connexion, literally under-
stood, denotes any thing more than a vast subterranean
recess with which the pit or well had a secret or direct
communication, as some of the wells in Egypt commu-
nicate with the excavated chambers of the Pyramids.
In like manner it may be justly questioned whether the
* abyss,' in the passage before us, in which the Dragon
was to be shut up, will admit of being understood in any
other sense than as an immense cavern in the earth,
such as were employed among the nations of the east
for the double purpose of places of interment for the
dead, and confinement for state criminals. As to the
sense popularly aflUxed to the phrase, in which it is con-
sidered as an appellation of the place of torment for the
wicked after death, or as synonymous with * the infernal
regions,' we find not a single passage either in the Old
or the New Testament by which that import is sustained
It is saidj indeed, Luke 8. 30, 3K that the devils

158 TREATISE ON

(demons), which had entered into the demoniac who
called himself Legion, " besought him that he would not
command them, m rtii tt^vrvoi ecTnXieti — to go away into
the abyss.'''' But it may be questioned, in regard to this
passage, whether the allusion be not to the very abyss
spoken of in this vision of the Revelation, in which the
Dragon, as the mystical denomination of the whole sys-
tem of ancient demonology, was to be cast ; or whether,
in other words, this request was not prompted by the
anticipation of that dreaded doom which had been plainly
preintimaicd for ages before in the oracular shadowings
of the Old Testament prophets ; as the visions of the
Apocalypse are but a developement of the darker mys-
teries of prior revelations. But whether this be so or
not, the abyss into which the unclean spirits deprecated
being cast cannot well be considered a body of water,
as otherwise they would hardly have petitioned to be
permitted to enter into the herd of swine which rushed
at once into the lake.

But if such be the literal import of the ' abyss' which
was to constitute the Dragon's prison-house, the ques-
on arises, What is its symbolical significancy ? — for it
can no more be doubted that the Abyss is a symbol,
than that the Dragon himself is. Analogical consistency
imperiously requires this view of the subject. In an-
swer then to the question we observe, that as the Roman
empire was to the apostle John and his contemporaries
the known civilized world, and the stage on which were
exhibited the diflcrent scenes of prophetic vision ; so the
Abyss, the place of the Dragon's confinement, was, if
we mistake not, intended by the Spirit of prophecy to

THE MILLENNIUM. 159

signify the unknown worlds comprising the immense, un-
explored^ undefined, boundless regions which stretched
away beyond the limits of the Roman empire, particu-
larly to the north and east, where Satan had long estab-
lished his throne, where he ruled with undivided sway^
and where idolatry in its most frightful and horrid
forms has ever held a disastrous dominion. This af-
fords a natural, easy, and consistent solution of the
imagery of the vision. The binding and confinement
of the Dragon in the Abyss is the expulsion of Paganism
from the bounds of Christendom, and its restriction
within the limits of certain regions which lay without
the territorial platform of the Roman empire. Augustin
seems to have had an inkling of the true sense of the
symbol; — " Gentes igitur sunt, in quibus diabolum velut
in abysso superius intellegebamus, inclusum"* — There
are nations, therefore, in which, as before explained, the
devil was shut up as in an abyss. But the pen of
Gibbon, in describing the fact which we suppose to have
constituted the accomplishment of this prophecy, would
seem to have been guided by the Spirit of inspiration.
" Before the age of Charlemagne, the Christian nations
of Europe might exult in the possession of the temperate
climates, of the fertile fields which produced corn, wine,
and oil ; while the savage idolaters and their helpless
idols were confined to the extremities of the earth, the
dark and frozen regions of the north.''^]

Such then, if we rightly interpret the prophetic signs,
is the scope of this vision. The Millennium of the

* August. De Civit. Dei, 1. 20. c 11.
t Decl. and Fall, p. 609.

160 TREATISE ON

Apocalypse is but another name for that long interreg-
num which broke the extended tenn of the dominion of
Paganism subsequent to the establishment of Chris-
tianity in the Roman world. It was in fact a millennial
syncope of the vital vigour of that power which had be-
fore animated the governments of all nations coming
within the limits of the empire of the Caesars. How
gross then the anachronism of placing this period near
the end of the world !

But that the reader may have some guaranty that the
adoption of this opinion will not of course throw him
out of the range of all fellowship of sentiment with the
Christian world, we shall here adduce the sanction of
some eminent names who have advocated in effect the
very theory we are now maintaining. Not that their
authority is adequate to decide the question of its truth ;
but it is gratifying to find, when a particular conclusion
has been arrived at by a process of reasoning conducted
independently of all human authority, that other minds,
for whose decisions we have great respect, have been
led to form substantially the same judgment upon the
points at issue.

Lightfoot, Brightman, and Usher are, we believe, the
only English authors of eminence who have maintained
that the Millennium of John is past. The former, in a
sermon preached at Hertford Assizes, March, 1660,
the text of which is Rev. 20. 4. holds the following
language : —

" This portion of Scripture out of which I have taken
my text is as much misconstrued and as dangerously
misconstrued as any one portion of Scripture in all tlie

THE MILLENNIUM. 161

Bible. What work the millennary and fifth monarchists
make upon this place I need not tell you. They look
forward and make account that the things that are here
spoken of their accomplishment and fulfilling are yet to
come. I look backward and fear not to aver, that the
things here spoken of have received their accomplish-
ment long ago. They look forward and expect that
the thousand years that are here mentioned are yet
to begin ; I look backward, and make no doubt that
those thousand years ended and expired above half a
thousand years since.

" The Apocalyptic writer speaks up that great and
noble theme that all the prophets so divinely and com-
fortably harp upon — namely, the calling of the Gentiles,
that they should come in out of their dark and deluded
state, to the light and embracing of the gospel, and to
become the church and people of the living God ; that
Christ, the great angel of the covenant, should by the
power of the gospel chain up the devil, that he should
deceive them no more as he had done. The mistakers
I mention do either ignorantly or wilfully err about the
subject handled here, and construe it to this sense — that
the devil should be bound by Christ, that he should not
persecute, disturb, and disquiet the church as he had
done ; but that all along these thousand years there
should be only a time of peace and tranquillity, and not
one cloud of disquietude or disturbance by the devil or
his instruments eclipse it. A sense as far from the
Holy Ghost's meaning as the east is from the west.

" There is not one word here of the devil's binding
that he should not disturb the church, but of the devil's

162 TREATISE ON

binding that lie should not deceive the nations. The
devil had deceived and kept the poor heathen in deluded-
ness by idols, oracles, fahse miracles, horrid mysteries of
irreligiousness, and a thousand cozenages, for above
two thousand years ; namely, from their first casting off
at the confusion of Babel, till the gospel was brought in
among them by the apostles. By the gospel, Christ
dissolves those charms of delusion, brings down idola-
try, silences the devil's oracles and miracles, and chains
up the devil from that power and liberty of deceiving all
nations as he had done.

" He says the devil was chained up in this sense a
thousand years, using a known expression of the Jews,
and alluding to an opinion of theirs, partly that he might
speak the more to be understood when he useth an ex-
pression so well known — and partly that he might face
the mistake of the Jews in that opinion. It was their
conceit and fancy that Messias, when he should come,
should reign among the Jewish nation a thousand years,
but as for the heathen he should destroy them. No,
sailh our Apocalyptic writer, his reigning a thousand |
years shall be among the nations or the Gentiles; and
he shall not come to destroy the Gentiles, but to deliver
them : to deliver them from the power and delusions of
Satan — to chain up Satan that he shall deceive them
no more as he had done ; but that, whereas before for so
long a time together they had been only taught of the
devil, now they should all be taught of God. And if
you begin to count tlie thousand years from the time
that the gospel was first brought in among the Gentiles
by Paul and Barnabas, and other of the apostles, yo»

THE MILLENNIUM. 163

will find that the end and expiring of them will fall to
be in the very depth and thickness of popery ; and then
was the devil got loose again, and deceived the nations
by as gross and wretched delusions as ever he had done
before."*

We dissent from this learned w-riter in respect to the
date which he assigns to the binding of Satan ; for it is
sufficiently clear from our preceding expositions that
this event did not take place till after the war in heaven,
and the casting down of the Dragon from thence, or in
other words, till after the grand conflict of Christianity
with Paganism, and the overthrow of the latter, which
we have shown to have occurred in the reign of Con-
stantine. This view of the subject is evidently required
by the decorum of the symbols, for the prophet says, —
*' I saw an angel come down from heaven ;" which
certainly implies that the Dragon himself was not at
this time in heaven, but had been cast down. His bind-
ing occurred at least a century after his dejection.

Among the continental writers who have treated this
subject, the elder Turretin holds a conspicuous place,
and his sentiments are thus expressed : —

"As the binding of Satan for a thousand years coin-
cides with the thousand years in which the martyrs
were to reign with Christ, if it should appear that the
Millennium of Satan's binding is already past, from this
very circumstance it will be clear that the reign of a
thousand years has already elapsed, and is to be no
more expected. But wherever this binding of Satan

* Lightfoot's Works, vol. vi. p. 255.

164 TREATISE ON

begin, whether from the incarnation of our Saviour, as
some think, at which time the strong one was bound by
a stronger, and his vessels taken from him and trans-
ferred out of darkness into the kingdom of light ; or—
from his passion and death, as appears best unto others,
on which Satan was bound by Christ, the handwriting
taken from him which was contrary to us, his head
bruised and a triumph gained over him; or — at the
destruction of Jerusalem, as others say, lest a reverence
remaining for legal ceremonies should in any way im-
pede the progress of the gospel ; or — finally, at the
accession of Constantine as emperor, which opinion is
the most common, at which period the free exercise of
religion was granted to Christians ; and the consequence
was, that Satan was no longer openly permitted to
seduce the nations or persecute them throue^h the furious
cruelty of heathen emperors : wherever, I say, this bind*
ing begin, it is clear that the time is long since past,
and is no more to be expected in future. But though
in some intervals Satan was not so bound, but that he
still brought various evils on the church ; yet that pr&i
diction does not fail of its accomplishment, because the
binding was not to be absolute, but limited."*

♦ " Ut ligalio Sataruz per mille annos coincidit annis, quibu*
Martyri cum Christo regnaturi sunt ; si constet millennarium
ligationis Satana; jam lapsum esse, eo patebit regnum mille
annorum jam prajteribse, nee amplius esse expectandum. Un-
dcquaquo autem ista ligalio Satanae inchoetur ; vol a Serva-
toris incarnationc, ut quibusdam placet, quo tempore fortis a
fortiori ligatus est, ct ei erepta sunt vasa, et e tcnebris in reg-
num lucis translata, Mat. l!2. 29 ; vel ab ejus passione et morte,
ut aliis visum, in qua ligalus est Satan per Christum, erepto ei

THE MILLENNIUM. 165

P. Mastricht, an eminent Professor of Theology at
Utrecht, has expressed himself in similar language.
" The thousand years," says he, " may be understood
to have elapsed some time since, whether they be reck-
oned from the incarnation or death of our Savior, or
from the destruction of Jerusalem, or from the death of
Constaniine the Great. If from the incarnation, the
thousand years would cease under Sylvester II. ; if
from the crucifixion, under Benedict IX. ; if from the
commencement of Constantine's reign, under Boniface
VIII., at the rise of the Ottoman power, and when the
dreadful persecutions of the Waldenses were raging
about the thirteenth century. So that the sense of the
whole passage may be thus given : Satan, either from
the incarnation of Christ, or rather from the reign of
Constantine, was bound so far that he should not any
more seduce whole nations to idolatry, or cause such
bloody persecutions of Christians, until the time of

chirographo quod nobis contrarium erat, et cdntrito ejua capite,
et triumpho de illo acto, Col. 2. 14, 15 ; Heb. 2. 14 ; vel in ex-
cidio Hierosolymitano, cum aliis, ne legalium obsoleta rev-
crentia evangelii cursum quovis mode impediret ; vel denique
in Constantini M. imperio, ut pluribus probatur, quo tempori
^Uberum Christianis concessum est religionis exercitium, effect-
umque, ut Satanae non amplius liceret aperte et impune genteu
seducere, et per grassantem imperatorum gentilium saevitiam
persequi. Undecunque, inquarn, ista ligatio inchoatur, liquet
tempus hoc jamdudum practeriisse, nee in posterum esse am-
plius expectandum. Licet autem in istis intervallis non ita
ligatus fuerit Satan, quin varia ad hue mala ecclesioe intulerit ;
non desinit tamen oraculum istud complementum suum sortiri ;
quia ligatio ista non debuit esse absoluta sed limitata. —
F. Turretini Jnttitut. Theol. p. 650. 1701.

1G6 TREATISE ON

Bonif.icc VIII. in the year 1300 ; then for a short time,
that is, till the period of the Reformation, lie was let
loose to seduce whole nations, partly by Antichrist,
then prevailing greatly in the West, and partly by the
Mohammedan power then extending its conquests."*

J. Marck, a distinguished divine of Leyden, thus
states his opinion : " We believe that a space perhaps
about a thousand years is intended : which began with
the birth of Christ, or with his personal ministr^^ or at
his resurrection, or even with the reign of Constantino,
or at every one of these in succession, and flowed on
till it broke forth into Antichristian and Mohammedan
impiety, spreading more and still more. Satan was
then bound by Christ more closely than before, by
being impeded in seducing the nations ; martyrs and
other believers, as it respects their souls, living and

* Mille illi anni, dudum prictcrlapsi intelligi possunt, sive
siipputentur ab incarnatione, aut passione Servatoris ; sive ab
excitlio Plierosolymitano ; sive ab imperio Constanlini Magni.
Si ab incarnatione, desinent mille anni in Sylvestro secundo ;
si a passione, in Benedicto nono ; si ab excidio Hicrosolymi- |
tano, in Grcgorio septimo ; si ab initio Constantini M. in
abortu Bonifacii octavi, et in ortu familisB Ottomanicaj, et
Waldcnsiura funestis persecutionibus, circa seculum decimum|
tcrtium. Ut sensus loci univcrsi emcrgat, Satanam, sui ab
incarnatione Clirisli, sou potius ab imperio Constantini M.
ligatum fuisse, eatenus, ut non amplius scduceret intcgras
gcntes ad idololatriam, aut persecutiones Christianorum tarn
cruentas, usque ad Bonifacium octavum, anno MCCC turn ad
breve tcmpus, scil. usque ad reformationis tnmpus, solutura
fuisse, ut seduccret intcgras nationes, partim per Antichristura,
maxime turn invalescentem in Occidenti ; partim per Mahum-
mcdanurn, turn exoriens.— J»fa*/nf/i/, Tktol. vol. i. p. 483. 1698.

THE MILLENNIUM. 167

reigning with Christ on his celestial throne, and forward
to all eternity; while the other dead lived not again in
a similar way at death, nor before it in a saving conver-
sion on this earth."*

These extracts will, it is presumed, take off the
odium of novelty from the interpretation now proposed,
although they may fail to establish its justness to the
mind of the reader. Indeed they are not adduced for
that purpose. For this we rely exclusively upon the
foregoing train of annotation upon the chapters which
have come under review, and in which we now
proceed.

"And set a seal upon him." The abyss, as we have
before remarked, is represented by the prophet under
the image of a great pit or den^ such as slaves and
prisoners were anciently confined in, as the prisons of
the oriental nations are usually, like their graves, under
groimd, m which respect they differ from similar recep-
tacles among the Europeans. Thus Is. 24. 22. * And
they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are

* Credimus innui circiter forte mille annorum spatium, quod
vel a nativitate, vel a prajdicatione, vel a resurrectione Christi,
Tel a Spiritus effusione, vei a vastatione Jerosolyma?a, vel
etiam a Constantini imperio, vel ab his omnibus per gradus
Buccessivos, Antichristianara et Mahummedicam impietatem,
ligato turn a Christo Satana magis quam antea, per impeditam
gentium scductionem ; viventibus et regnantibus martyribus ac
reliquis fidelibus respectu animarum cum Christo in coelesti
tlirono,et in omnem porro aiternitatem, dum non reviviscebant
similiter in ipsa morte, nee salutari conversione ante cum his
in terris, reliqui mortui. — Comp. Thiol, p. 651. lert. ed, Ara-
Btelod. 1722.

168 TREATISE Olf ^^

gathered in the pity and shall be shut up in the prison.'
It is owing to this fact that graves are frequently com-
pared to prisons, and prisons to graves, the latter being
nothing else than subterranean excavations, vaulted and
walled ^vilh stone, or cut out of the solid rock, and
having a large alone to cover the aperture.* From
this circumstance arose the application of the terms
' shutting' and ' sealing' to cells or caverns of this kind,
of which the following instances afford a pertinent
illustration, Dan. 6. 17. 'And a stone was brought, and
laid upon the mouth of the dew ; and the king sealed it
with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords ;
that the purpose might not be changed concerning
Daniel.' Mat. 27. 59, 60, 66. » And when Joseph had
taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn
out in the rock : and he rolled a great stone to the door
of the sepulchre^ and departed. — So they went and made
the sepulchre sure, scaling the stone^ and setting a
watch.' As therefore in these two passages it is said
that a seal was added for greater security, so the angel
is here said not only to have * shut up' the Dragon, but
also to have ' set a seal' upon him. It is observable
also that wells were anciently closed in like manner, as
is evident from the incident related Gen. 29. 2, 3. 'And

♦ This was the cuatom of the ancient Egyptians, and, as we
leam from Homer, of the Phrygians too.

Al^a i' ap' a KoWtjf Kdircrov diaaV airap vttsoOs
TlvKoiatv \accai Karcrropaiav /leyaAoifft. — Iliad, w. v. 797.

Last o'or the urn the sacred earth they spread,
And raised the tomb, n\omorial of th« dead. — Pope.

THE MILLENNIUM. 169

a great atone was upon the welVs mouth. And thither
were all the flocks gathered : and they rolled the stone
from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put
the stone again upon the well's mouth, in his place.'
Thus Cant. 4. 12. the Bride is compared to a 'well
shut up' to preserve its water pure from defilement, and
to a ' fountain sealed' — ?rj)7« s<r<pp(nyi(rf^evi}. The Hebrew
DJyn signifies both to ' shut' and to ' seal ;' and Hesy-
chius defines <Ppx^ttf*£voi, having sealed^ by KXeto-xif hav-
ing shut. So the poet Aristophanes, whose plays
abound with allegories, introduces Peace as having been
before thrown into a dungeon, the entrance of which
was blocked up with stones, to denote the difiiculty of
securing its presence among men. Indeed any thing
that is said to be ' sealed' is supposed to be out of use
and unknown till it is re-opened. Accordingly the
effectual restraint laid upon Paganism during the period
in question, answers, with great exactness, to the drift
of the symbols employed, where the gradations in the
process of the Dragon's seizure and confinement are very
clearly marked: he is taken — bound — cast into the abyss
— shut up — and sealed, and thus fully secured in what
is afterward, v. 7. expressly termed his ' prison.'

" That he should deceive the nations no more."
The ftfvjj, nations, here spoken of are the nations occu-
pying the territories of the Roman empire or the people
of Christendom, in contradistinction from the nations of
the ' abyss,' or the idolatrous tribes lying without the
limits of the imperial jurisdiction. These converted
* nations,' during the period specified, although they
were to be subjected to the Beast, and brought under

170 TREATISE ON

the baleful influence of a corrupt Christianity^ yet ihey
were to be exempted from that peculiar form of * decep-
tion,' or delusion, which consisted in the open embracing
of the abominations of Paganism. There was much
indeed of the spirit of Paganism in the corrupt doc-
trines and practices of the Romish church, for the
ecclesiastical Beast is said to have * spoke as the
Dragon,' but still it is not called in the prophecy by
that name. The same body of men are nowhere said
to be, at the same time, nnder the governance both of
the Dragon and the Beast. They are the symbolical
representatives of two distinct communities, the one
nominally Christian, the oiher positively Pagan. They
embrace therefore in reality the two grand divisions of
mankind, the Christian and the Heathen, and in the re-
spective fates of each we are instructed in the final
destiny of those portions of these two great bodies which
persist in rejecting the everlasting gospel preached by
the angel flying through the midst of heaven, and in
pertinaciously adhering to their fatal delusions.

But in what sense was the Dragon to be restrained
from ' deceiving' the nations ? Tlie character of the
power by which the ' deceit' is to be practised, will
doubtless go far to determine the nature of the ' deceit'
itself, and this we have already settled in our preceding
explanations. The Dragon is Paganism ; his ' deceiv-
ing' the nations, therefore, is his seducing them into idol-
atry ; and the consequence of his being bound is a
happy inmuinity from his diaboHcal arts enjoyed by
those who were formerly his victims. This interpreta-
tion, however, of the original term 7rA*v»)(r>j, should de-

THE MILLENNIUM. 171

ceive, iiwiW be proper to confirm by adducing the usage
of the sacred writers, and showing that it has unequiv-
ocally the sense of doctrinal imposture, or of enticing
men to the adoption of a false reh.gion. As the style of
the Apocalypse is essentially Hebraic in its character,
its only adequate illustration is to be drawn from the
language of the O. T. Scriptures as rendered in the
Septuagint version. The pertinency of the following
citations will be too obvious to escape the most casual
eye. Deut. 4. 19. 'And lest thou lift up thine eyes
unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun and the moon
and the stars, even all the host of heaven 7rXa\r,6et(;
7r§oo-Kvvi)<!^';etvToig — being deceived shouldst worship them.^
Here is obviously enticement to idolatry. Again, Deut.
30. 17. 'But if thine heart turn away, so that thou
wilt not hear, but TrXxnGeU 7rpoa-Kuvti(Tyit isotq £Tt§6ii — being
deceived shah worship other gods.'' Deut. 11. 28. 'And
a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the
Lord your God, but TrXuvrMfi utfo tm^ l^oZ — are deceived^
or err, out of the way, which I command you this day,
to go after other gods which ye have not known.' Deut.
13. 5. 'And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams,
shall be put to death, because he hath spoken ^rAavHff-a/
c-e cfTTo KvpUv roZ hou a-ov — to deceive thee from (^following)
the Lord thy God' 2 Kings 21. 9. 'And Manasseh
«7rA^v>j(r£v otvrov^, scduced them to do more evil than did
the nations whom the Lord destroyed.' The nature of
this ' seduction' is fully explained in the preceding
verses, where Manasseh is said to have ' reared altars
for Baal' — ' made a grove' — ' worshipped all the host
of heaven' — ' made his sons pass through the fire' —

172 TREATISE ON

* set up a graven image in the house of the Lord,' &c.
implying the complete institution of idolatrous worship.
Jer. 23. 13. * And I have seen folly in the prophets of
Samaria ; they prophesied in Baal, »«i iTehkn^ctt rVr
Atfo* fMv — ami caused mi/ people to err ;' i. e. by teaching
them false doctrines. Thus also in the New Testa-
ment, Mat. 24. 11. 'And many false prophets shall rise,
and 7rXx*yj<rov(ri 7roX>^v^ — shall deceive many ;' i. e. by
misleading them from the truth. Mat. 24. 24. 'Inso-
much, that if it were possible they should 'KXcc^Tai, —
deceive the very elect.' John 7. 12. ' Some said, He
is a good man : others said. Nay, -xXA^ai rov ex,Xov — he
deceiveth the people ;' i. e. he instils error into their
minds. The word occurs in the same sense of per-
verse religious teaching in several instances in the com-
pass of the Revelation. Thus Rev. 2. 20. ' Thou suf-
ferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth lierself a
prophetess, to teach and TrXxvovcr^xi sfMvq ^ovXevi — to
seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat
things sacrificed unto idols.' Rev. 13. 14. 'And ttXmS,
deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by means of those
miracles which he had power to do,' i. e. inveigles into
idolatrous worship.

Daubuz, after adverting to the opinion of Lactantius
and Augustin that there would still be idolaters remain-
ing on earth during the entire lapse of the millennial
age, intimates that in his own judgment, "These nations
shall be, during the imprisonment of Satan, in so small
a number, and so remote from the Holy City, and sub-
ject to the converted nations — being perhaps such as lie
now in the utmost boundaries of the inhabitable world

- THE MILLENNIUM. ^ 173

— and so barbarous and inaccessible to the rest of
mankind, and at the same time so feeble in comparison
of the true Christians, that they shall neither dare nor
be able to disturb the peace of Christ's kingdom during
all the time of the millennium."* But if such were to
be the state of things during the long period of Satan's
restraint, it may be thought that a melancholy contrast
is presented in the fact, that after its termination he was
again to be let loose from his prison, to go forth in all
the potency of his infernal machinations, to re-establish
his dominion over the infatuated minds of men, and
to act over again the same sad scenes of despotic
cruelty and idolatrous delusion which marked his ancient
ascendancy. But the prophetic oracles afford no
ground for such a sombre vein of anticipation. It is
obvious that it was but to a very limited extent that
Satan, subsequent to his liberation from the Abyss,
should be permitted to renew his diabolical arts. It is
said, indeed, that he should be ' loosed,' yet it was to
be only ' for a little season,' nor are we any where
given to understand, that the church of Christ should
be again effectually overcome by her old enemy.
She doubtless was to continue triumphant to the end of
the world. The event announced points rather to an
enlargement of territory than to an increase of subjects
on the part of Paganism. Numerous hordes of barba-
rians might indeed issue forth from the regions of the
' Abyss,' and plant their heathen ensigns all around the
precincts of Christendom, overrunning perhaps her

* Perpet. Comment, p. 924.

174 TREATISE ON

fairest provinces, but it would be an invasion, not a
mission, a project for making captives, rather than pro-
selytes ; and though the people of God might in conse-
quence be compelled within narrower limits, yet there
is no intimation that they were to prove apostate. If
they fell under the jurisdiction of the liberated Dragon,
it was to be as the sheep fall under the power of the
prowling wolf. All the advantages which Paganism
should gain over Christianity, were to be attained by
conquest and not by conversion, — But this is anticipating
our ensuing expositions.

*' Till the thousand years should be fulfilled." The
question has been often agitated among commentators
whether this period was to be understood in its most
literal acceptation, as designating the term of precisely
one thousand solar or civil years, or whether it denoted
a period of one thousand prophetic years, a lapse of time
equivalent to 360,000 civil years. It has been deemed
repugnant to our conceptions of the wisdom and goodness
of the Most High to suppose that he would allow so
much longer a term for the reign of sin on earth than
for the reign of righteousness ; and conceiving the Mil-
lennium to point to a period yet future, they have been
anxious to find some warrant for prolonging the term to
a far greater extent than is implied in its literal desig-
nation. And since a less period of time is in several
instances in the Apocalypse employed as the symbol of
a greater, as a * day' for a ' year,' a * month' or 30 days
for 30 ' years,' &;c. so the term * years' is here inter-
preted on the same principle, and evolved into the long
duration mentioned above. But the idiom of symbolic

THE MILLENNIUM. 175

language, if we mistake not, forbids this construction,
and ties down the expression to the sense of a thousand
literal or civil years. In the prophetic style a ' day,'
which is the complete revolution of the earth round its
own axis, is the symbol for a year, which is the com-
plete revolution of the earth in its orbit round the sun.
The lesser revolution in this case is the symbol of
the greater revolution of the same kind. But in those
early ages of society in which the symbolical lan-
guage was first adopted, the state of astronomical
knowledge did not lead men to perceive any greater
revolutions of the earth by which time is measured ;
and for which a year, as the lesser revolution, might have
been the proper symbolical character. Accordingly, in
fact, the original word (ert,^-, which expresses the civil
year, and is the word exclusively used in this pas-
sage, does not appear to be employed as a symbol by
any of the prophets, either in the Old or New Testa-
ment.* If they predicted a very long period of time,
for which a year might be a more convenient symbol
than a day, they always take another word than a year
to signify 360 prophetic days, as many civil years.
Thus Daniel, ch. 7. 25. employs the expression ' a time,
times, and the dividing of time ;' and John, Rev. 12. 14.
* a time, times, and half a time.'

It may be observed, moreover, that even on the
ground of the common theory of the Millennium, which
considers it as answering antitypically to the seventh

* The word occurring Rev. 9. 15. is not iroi, but iviavrov^
signifying indefinitely a revolution^ or that which returns into
itself.

176 TREATISE ON

day of the Creation, it entirely destroys the analogy to
assign to the seventh raillennary a longer term of years
than to either of the six preceding. If the six thousand
years destined to elapse prior to the seventh, the great
sabbatism of the world, are to be understood literally,
why not the seventh thousand also ? Is not the Sab-
bath composed of the same number of hours as the rest
of the days of the week 1

But our interpretation of this whole subject encounters
no dithculty whatever from this source. As we con-
sider the Millennium as long since past — taking the
term of course in its literal acceptation — we know of no-
thing to straiten us in the assignation of the chronologi-
cal futurities of the kingdom of Christ on earth. We
feel ourselves at full liberty to give their utmost latitude
to the expressions of the prophet ; — " The God of
heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be
destroyed : and the kingdom shall not be left to other
people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all
these kingdoms, and it shall stand for every* *' But the
saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and
possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ct;«r."t
The prosperous and glorious state which we are taught
to anticipate for the church on earth is not, that we can
learn, limited or defined by any boundaries of time what-
ever. An immeasurable lapse of ages stretches before
us, oflering * ample room and verge enough' for the phy-
sical, intellectual, and moral improvement of the human
race. A new and brighter career is yet to be run by

• Daa. 2. 44. t Dan. 7. 18.

THE MILLENNIUM. 177

the regenerated family of man ; nor is the prospect, as
we read the revelations of heaven, clouded by those
portentous Magellanic shadows which to the mass of
the Christian world gather round the closing period of
their Millennium. But this is a point to be proved, and
not barely asserted. The idea will be expanded in the
sequel.

"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and
judgment was given unto them : and I saw the souls of
them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and
for the word of God, and which had not worshipped
the beast, neither his image, neither had received his
mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands ; and they
lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." We
are fully aware that upon the sense ordinarily attributed
to this passage will be founded the most formidable ob-
jection which cafi be urged against the views of the
Millennium advocated in this treatise. It has been so
common to regard the millennial period, announced in
the Apocalypse, as but another name for every species
of temporal and spiritual prosperity to be enjoyed on
earth during that extended term of years, that the at-
tempt to shake this *■ throned opinion' will doubtless
have very much the air, and perhaps the effect, of un-
dertaking to controvert a self-evident proposition. If the
language of the prophet — it will be said — in the vision
before us, does not point to a positively and pre-
eminently blissful state of the church and the world,
when wars, and discord, and bloodshed shall cease,
when truth shall have supplanted error, and righteous-
ness sin, and the whole human race shall have been

178 TREATISE ON

moulded into one grand fraternity of love, where, in the
entire compass of revelation, is the promise of any such
blessedness contained ? And as to the hypothesis of
the Millennium being already past^ where, in the annals
of history, has any such period occurred ? "What are
the events which, by any stretch of ingenuity, can be
made to answer to the grand and glorious predictions
of this chapter? When and where in the ages past
have the thrones been set, and the souls of the be-
headed martyrs lived and reigned with Christ in the
triumphs of the first resurrection ? These, we readily
admit, are imposing questions, presenting difficulties in
the way of our interpretation of a very plausible charac-
ter. Still we do not despair of meeting them all with a
satisfactory reply. But in doing so, we must discard
every arbitrary construction, and adhere rigidly to the
laws of symbolical interpretation, the neglect of which,
if we mistake not, will be found to have given all its
force to the objection now stated. Bringing then the
common theory of the Millennium to this standard for
trial, what is there, we ask, in the nature of the symbols
employed, which imperatively requires us to regard
them as shadowing forth a slate of things peculiarly and
transcendantly prosperous ? We have already seen that
the act of ' the binding of Satan,' as far as the interests
of the church are concerned, is merely a negative act,
denoting simply the withdrawment of his influences, ex-
■erted in a peculiar form, from the precincts of Christen-
•dom ; but as to the actual state of the Christian world in
the mean time, we derive no information from this cir-
cumstance. Whether it were in reality prosperous or

THE MILLENNIUM. 179

adverse we are to learn from other sources. This how-
ever is a matter on which it was obviously very important
that the prophet, as the representative of the church,
should be particularly instructed. While Paganism was
banished from its primitive seats, and shut up among
the idolatrous tribes of northern and eastern Asia, what,
in the mean time, was the condition of Europe, the theatre
of the fortunes of Christianity ? The banishment of the
Dragon had cleared the stage for the transaction of a
new series of events, which were to run parallel with
the term of his imprisonment, and the scope of the Holy
Spirit in the passage before us is unquestionably to
portray, under appropriate imagery, the most remarkable
occurrences of that period. He accordingly in this
verse makes a transition from the realms of Paganism
to those of Christendom, and gives us the leading fea-
tures of the state of the Christianized world during the
thousand years that elapsed from the binding of Satan,
and while the Beast held his baneful ascendancy over
that portion of the globe. But the times of the Beast
were pre-eminently disastrous times, and consequently
we look in vain for a season of general prosperity and hap-
piness during the true era of the Apocalyptic Millennium.
We speak confidently on this point, for it follows as an
irresistible conclusion from what we have already deter-
mined respecting the period of Satan's binding. So
surely as we have rightly fixed the chronology of that
event, so surely does it coincide with a thousand years
of the reign of the Beast, and consequently cannot desig-
nate that halcyon Millennium which is usually anticipated.
There is no possible way that we can conceive of ovef'.

180 TREATISE ON

• throwing this conclusion, but by first disproving our hi-
lerpretation of the main symbol, the Dragon. For if the
Dragon be Paganism, the binding of the Dragon is the
suppression of Paganism within the limits of the Roman
world, and as history makes it evident that that event
has long since transpired, the prevailing expectation on
that subject as of something yet future is altogether
fallacious.

But what were the objects presented to the prophetic
ken of the apostle in this part of the vision ? They
were such, indubitably, though clothed in a mystic
dress, as to correspond with the actual state of things
as described by the pen of history. Upon recurrence
then to the records of the times we find, that during the
greater portion of that period the several independent
kingdoms, from which the modern despotic states of
Europe are descended, denoted by the ten horns of the
Beast, were subsisting and continually acquiring more
vigor, and exercising a wider sway. We term them ' in-
dependent ;' for although they submitted to the spiritual
jurisdiction of the Pope, yet, politically considered, they
were governed by laws and constitutions of their own
framing, and were wholly independent of any foreign
power. Tliey are said indeed to have agreed to give
tlieir power and strength to the Beast ; or, in other
words, to have devoted their service and support to the
upholding of the interests of that vast fabric of secular
dominion adumbrated by the Beast, and they are else-
where termed ' the kings (ivingdoms) of the earth' over
which ' tl»e great city,' represented by the mystic Woman,

THB MILLENNIUM. 181

bare rule ; yet they were nevertheless, as viewed in rela-
tion to each other, and to every other mere civil power,
strictly independent. It is accordingly, we suppose, to
these several independent sovereignties, as the most
prominent objects of prophetic vision on the European
platform, that the words of John distinctly refer. " I saw
thrones, and they sat upon them (a Hebraism for * they
were sat upon'), and judgment was given to them (i. e.
to their occupants)." The meaning we apprehend to
be, that he saw thrones erected and occupied in Eng-
land, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Germany,
where there had been but one throne before ; and those
who sat upon them were, in the counsels of Providence,
invested with royal authority to order at their pleasure
the affairs of the nations which they governed. As this
however is an interpretation of the phrase 'judgment
was given to them,' upon which much depends in our
general expose of the meaning of the passage, it behoves
us to endeavour to confirm it from the usage of the
sacred writers. The original Heb. word DSB^Di of which
the Greek K^t/icu, judgment, is a translation, is a deriva-
tive from the verb DBK', signifying to judge, discern^
determine, order, regulate, directt and is in several in-
stances equivalent to reigning, or exercising authority
as a ruler and a prince. Thus Judg. 16. 31. * And he
D3*^, judged Israel twenty years ;' i. e. governed.
1 Sam. 8. 20. ' That we also may be like all the na-
tions ; and that our king "ijc^aiy , may judge us ;' i. e.
may rule over us. As to the substantive tD2pri, to
which the Greek «f//t*« or koitk; answers, Lowth re-

1S2 TREATISE OPf

marks, that ' it is taken in a great latitude of significa-
tion. It means rule, form, order, model, plan, rule of
ritrht, or of religion ; an ordinance, institution ; judicial
process, cause, trial, sentence, condemnation, acquittal,
deliverance, mercy,* <fec.* Thus Ps. 72. 1. * Give the
king ihy judgments, O God ;' Gr. rh K^if^ut a-ov rai Qxc-iXel
<3'o$, i. e. grant to the king commission to execute thy
judgments, in punishing offenders, and discerning be-
tween the faithful and the false among thy people.
Ps. 119.84. 'When wilt thou execute judgment (Gr.
x^icriv) on them that persecute me V i. e. inflict punish-
ment. Numerous passages to the same effect might
be readily adduced, from which the inference can
scarcely fail to be drawn, that by judgment's being given
to those that sat on the thrones, is meant, that they re-
ceived authority to reign and govern, or the right of ex'
ercising judgment, Ticcord'mg to the Hebrew sense of the
M'ord 'judge,' which is equivalent to that of ' reigning,'
or putting forth the judicial and executive acts of the
governing power. The drift of the language is to in-
form us, that the providence of God for wise reasons had
permitted these sovereign powers to attain to a suprem-
acy, wliich enabled them by their unrighteous statutes
and exactions to exert an oppressive influence on the
true church. In consequence, therefore, of this provi-
dential license, they passed their cruel and condemna-
tory sentences against the faithful followers of the Lamb,
adjudging to tortures and to death those who persisted

• Lowlh ofi la. 42. 1.

THE MILLENNIUM. 183

in a steadfast witnessing to the truth as it is in Jesus, and
in an unshaken refusal to worship the Beast, whose
power these kings had pledged themselves to uphold,
or to receive his insignia on their foreheads or in their
hands.

We are aware that Mede and many other interpreters
have, from the similarity of language of the two
prophets, applied the vision of Daniel, ch. 7. 9-27, to
this part of the Revelation. Daniel does, indeed, speak
of ' thrones,' v. 9. but it is of thrones which were ' cast
down,' or violently subverted. He speaks also of the
'judgment sitting,' and of 'judgment being given to the
saints of the Most High,' but by this latter expression
is evidently implied that judgment or sentence was given
in favour of the saints^ instead of against them, as was
the case in John's vision, and undoubtedly points to a
time subsequent to that spoken of in the Apocalypse, a
time when the saints and martyrs should be rewarded
by a 'judgment' of approbation and blessedness in view
of their fidelity and constancy in suffering the effects of
the 'judgments' which these despotic ' thrones' had pre-
viously inflicted upon them. The vision of Daniel, in
fact, and the 'judgment' to which he alludes, has a
prospective reference to the vindicatory judgment of the
seventh Trumpet; Rev. 11. 18. 'And thy wrath is
come, and the time of the dead, that they should be
judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy
servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that
fear thy name, small and great ; and shouldst destroy
them which destroy the earth.' The visions of the two
prophets, therefore, though couched in analogous Ian-

184 TREATISE OS

guagc, refer to entirely distinct events, and to periods of
time separated by an interval of several hundred years.

But there were other objects embraced in the scenic
representation made to the intellectual eye of the seer.
" I saw the souls {"^'^x'*^) of them that were beheaded
for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God," &ic.
That is, he saw those who worshipped not the beast,
and were suffering under the unrighteous edicts of these
* thrones,' the organs of papal persecution, as confessors
and martyrs in defence of the pure unadulterated reli-
gion of Jesus ; the Waldenses and Albigenses in France,
the Lollards in Germany and England, and others in
other quarters of Europe, who held to kindred views
of the truth ; as such there were dispersed throughout
Christendom during the darkest days of the church, a
holy and blessed band of recusants against the preten-
sions and claims of the Man of Sin, while the mighty
fabric of his power was towering up towards heaven.

But can this interpretation be established from a fair
and unforced exegesis of the text ? Of this let the reader
judge. We proceed to lay before him the evidence
on which it is founded. It is all along to be borne in
mind that John, in witnessing the visionary scenes de-
scribed in the Revelation, is under llie influence of a
prophetic ecstasy, or supernatural illapse of tlie Holy
Spirit. In this state the functions of the external senses
are in abeyance, and the objects seen are exhibited ex-
clusively to the mental perception of the beholder. The
prophet's imagination is made, by tlie special operation of
divine power, a canvass on which the various objects
and agents of the vi^n are depicted ; or rather it be-

THE MILLENNIUM. 185

comes, if we may so say, the screen on which the
shadowy forms of the mystic diorama are thrown, and
made to pass in review, like the scenery produced by the
art of the optician. If, therefore, either living men or
lifeless corpses are introduced into the train of the
visionary objects, it is obvious that they would appear
to him as the phantasms of a dream, mere images, forms,
shadows, like the umhrcB or ghosts, seen byuEneas in the
Elysian fields. So Ezekiel, in the description of the
vision of the cherubic throne, ch. 1. 26. says; 'And
upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the
appearance of a man above upon it.' Now we think it
may be shown that the most appropriate term in biblical
Greek for the expression of this idea is -^y;^??, answering
to the Latin anima, soul, the word here employed. A
very slight inspection of the original scriptures will
evince that the sense ordinarily affixed to the English
word soul, implying a disembodied immaterial spirit, by
no means answers to the predominant import of either
the Hebrew wpl, or the Greek ■'^vxyi^ In the usage of
the sacred writers its leading sense is that of persons.
Thus Gen. 17. ' That sowZ (Gr. ■^vx*}', person) ^\\z\\ he
cut off.' Ex. 1. 5. 'All the souls (Gr. id.) that came
out of the loins of Jacob.' Lev. 4. 2. ' If a soul (Gr.
id.) shall sin througli ignorance.' v. 27. ^ If any one
(Gr. id.) of the common people sin through ignorance.'
Lev. 7. 20. ' But the soul (Gr. id.) that eateth of the
flesh of the sacrifice.' Lev. 22. 11. ' If the priest buy
any soul (Gr. id.) with his money.' Deut. 24. 7. ' If
a man be found stealing any (Gr. id.) of his brethren.'
2 Sam. 14. 14. ' Neither doth God respect any person.

186 TREATISE ON

(Gr. id.)' Ezek. 27. 13. ' They traded the persons (Gr.
id.) of men.' Acts 2. 43. ' Fear came upon every soul
(Gr. id.).' 2 Pet. 2. 14. 'Beguiling unstable souls (Gr.
id.).' Rev. 18. 13. ' The merchandize of gold and
silver, — and slaves and souls (Gr. id.) of men.' It is
obvious that in all these instances the acceptation of the
term has no relation to the soul in contradistinction from
the body ; and the biblical student who has never made
the scriptural nsus loquendi in respect to this word a
matter of critical examination will be surprised, upon
reference to a concordance, to find how very few are the
cases in which it can possibly be understood as equiva-
lent to our English term ' soul' in its metaphysical sense.
Indeed he will perhaps cease to wonder that some able
Christian writers have seriously doubted whether it ever
really bears that sense at all, or, in other words, whether
the doctrine of the intermediate separate state of human
spirits can be solidly supported merely upon the scrip-
tural usage of this and its kindred terms.* But that it
cannot have this sense in the passage before us is evi-
dent from another consideration. How could the pro-
pliet see an immaterial soul ? The soul is not, in its
own nature, a substance capable of coming under the
cognizance of the senses ; and even in the sliadowings
of a prophetic vision, a soul, in order to be exhibited to
the percipient, must assume more or less of the proper-
ties of a corporeal being. But the moment it becomes

♦ See this question treated fully and learnedly in Bishop
Law's ' Essay concerning the use of the words Soul, or Spirit,*
in the Appendix to his ' Considerations on the Theory of Rq-

ligion,'

TH£ MILLENNIUM. 187

invested with the attributes of corporeity, as it must
in order to be an object of visionary representation, it is
at once transformed to precisely such an entity, shade,
ghost, or phantasm, as we affirm to have constituted, to
the prophet's mind, the visible image of a man, as com-
posed of body and soul united. And such we contend
to have been the real objects seen in the entranced per*
ception of the prophet. He beheld the persons of the
martyrs who were beheaded, or otherwise put to death,
for the testimony of Jesus ; and he beheld them in such
an aspect, or under such a form, as was appropriate and
congruous to the general character of the imagery which
he was called to contemplate.

The term ' souls' then, employed in the language of
this vision, far from denoting the immaterial part of the
martyrs in distinction from their bodies, and far also
from implying the revival of the spirit of the martyrs in
a subsequent generation, is in fact but another name for
the ' persons' of the martyrs themselves living in the
times of the Beast, and signalizing their fidelity by with-
standing his usurpations. Whether, however, it were
the design of the Holy Spirit to intimate by the use of
this term that the ' persons' spoken of had actually been
■slain at the time to which the vision refers, is a matter
somewhat doubtful. That they were in a state of active
existence of some kind at the time they were seen, there
can be no doubt, as they are represented as reigning with
Christ, but whether it were an existence enjoyed prior or
subsequent to their being beheaded is not of so easy so-
lution. We incline on the whole to the latter opinion,
^s in Rev. 6. 9. we find the term manifestly employed

188 TREATISE ON

in this sense. " And when he had opened the fifth sealj
I saw under the altar the souls of them that were
slain for the word of God, and for the testimony wliich
they held : And they cried with a loud voice, saying,
How long, O Lord," «fcc. Here again we are forbidden
by the nature of the symbolic imagery to affix to 'souls'
the sense of departed spuits. For with what propriety
could a disembodied immaterial spirit be represented as
' crying with a loud voice,' or as being clothed ' with
white robes' ? These are circumstances which must
necessarily be predicated of beings possessed of an or-
ganized corporeal existence of some kind, and doubtless
the true idea intended to be conveyed by the word ' souls*
in this connexion is very simUar to that of the poets
Homer, Virgil, and Ossian in speaking of the shades
of departed heroes.* But there is a peculiar fitness
from scriptural usage in employing this term in reference
to those who had lost their lives by martyrdom. For
we find that the sacred writers denominated the blood
of any creature its life or soul. Thus Gen. 9. 4. Tlxisf
ic^tui «» dif^ccri 4'f^X^'i ou ^dycgfii — hut jicsh with the blood
of its life shall ye not cat. Deut. 12. 23. 'Ori ui/^e$
avTou -^v^Y) — -for the blood of it is th^ / j/e, or soul. Ac-
cordingly Clu-ist is said. Is. 53. 12. to have* poured out
his souV because he shed his blood unto death. And
again in v. 10. of the same chapter, it is said, ' When
thou shall make his soul an oifering for sin ;' i. e. shall
make his blood, or his life, an olfermg. This is strikingly

* Thus Homer, in the opening of the lUad ;

'Hp4i>u)v.— And prematurely seat many brave souls to Orcus.

THE MILLENNIUM. 189

paralleled by the usage of the classic writers. Thus
Virgil has, * Purpureara vomit ille animam' — vomited
forth his purple life, or sovl ; and Horace, * Non vanse
redeat sanguis imagini' — the blood may not return to the
lifeless form ; where the commentator remarks, ' San-
guis est vita' — the blood is the life. Now the blood or
soul of the victims which were sacrificed under the Jew-
ish economy was poured out upon or about the altar in
such a way, that it all flowed at last to the bottom, and
there remained. Lev. 4. 18. ' And the priest shall pour
out all the blood at the bottom of the altar of the burnt
offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation.' As martyrdom, therefore, was a kind of
sacrifice performed by the martyrs in shedding or pour-
ing out their blood, and offering their bodies to God, as
appears from the language of Paul, Phil. 2. 17. * Yea,
and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your
faith, I joy and rejoice with you all ;' and again, 2 Tim.
4. 6. ' For I am now ready to be offered^ and the time
of my departure is at hand ;' the souls^ accordingly, of
those who had been thus slain and offered, are very ap-
propriately represented as being ' under the altar,' i. e.
round about the base of the altar, where the vital blood
of the victims flowed. Guided by this train of re-
mark we shall not probably err in assigning to -^vxec^i
souls^ an analogous import in the vision under considera-
tion, especially as 4'^)c>> i'^ several instances in the
Septuagint version occurs in the sense of a dead body.
Thus Lev. 19. 28. ' Ye shall not make any cuttings in
your flesh /or the dead (Gr. (^t ^y;t;>)).' Num.6. 11.
* For that he sinned (contracted defilement) by the dead

190 TREATISE ON

((Jr. TTs^i TKi "^vx^y i« e. by touching a (lead body. Lev,
21. 1. ' Speak unto tlie priests, the sons of Aaron, and
say unto ihcm, There shall none be defiled /or the dead
(Gr. £v Ttft/51^ vp^xi^) among his people.' Ezek. 44. 25.
' And they shall come at no dead person (Gr. tTi '^'vy^K*)
to detile themselves.'

But these souls thus shed or dead, are at the same
time portrayed as actually living and reigning with
Christ during the thousand years. The death therefore
which they suffered could not have been such as mate-
rially to affect their existence. In some sense they
still continued to live ; for it does not seem possible to
understand the language of any other class of men than
the very identical martyrs spoken of, and who are une-
quivocally determined by the expressions ' for the wit-
ness of Jesus,' and ' for the word of God.' It cannot
imply, therefore, the restoration to life of those who had
died in former ages by the hands of Jewish or Heathen
persecutors, but a class of men are designated of whom
it may be said without detriment to the truth, that
though they were dead, yet still they lived. This of
course brings us to the necesshy of a more close and
accurate analysis of certain terms occurring in this con-
nexion, the true explication of which is indispensable
to a riglit view of the passage. Is it, then, accordmg
to the style either of Christ or the apostles, or of the
Holy Spirit in any other part of the sacred volume, to
speak of life or of living in a sense which the mere
fact of physical death destroys not, aflects not ? Is
there a spiritual in contradistinction from animal life,
w hich may properly be said to survive the dissolution

THE MILLENNIUM. 191

of soul and body, and triumph over the potency of the
grave ? In attempting a reply to this question, the fol-
lowing passages bear too directly upon the point to he
overlooked. Ps. 22. 26. ' The meek shall eat and be
satisfied : they shall praise the Lord that seek him :
your heart shall live for ever.'' Upon which Ainsworth
remarks, — " The living of the heart importeth also the
cheering^ comfort, and solace of the same ; as in Gen.
45. 27. ' And when he saw the wagons which Joseph
had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father
revived (Heb. lived).'* " In like manner, Ps. 69. 32.
* The humble shall see this and be glad : and your
heart shall live that seek God.' Still more apposite
are the following ; John 11. 25. ' Jesus said unto her,
I am the resurrection and the life : he that helieveth on
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live : and whoso-
ever liveth and helieveth in me shall never die.'' Luke,
20. 37, 38. * Now that the dead are raised, even Moses
showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God
of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, hut of the
living : for all live unto him.^ John, 6. 50, 51. ' This
is the bread that cometh down from heaven, that a man
may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread
which came down from heaven : if any man eat of this
bread, he shall live for ever.'' A similar phraseology is
applied in its most emphatic sense to Christ. Rev. 1.
17, 18. 'And he laid his right hand upon me, saying
unto me, I am the first and the last ; I am he that liv-
eth, and was dead ; and, behold, I am alive for evermore.'
Rom. 6. 10. 'For in that he died, he died unto sin once ;

192 TREATISE OPC (

but in that he livcthj he liveth unto God.' In this spir-
itual and eternal life of Christ, including in it the ful-
ness of holy joy, blessedness, and peace, the true disci-
ples of the Savior are frequently represented as partici-
pating. Jolin 14. 19. ' Because / live, ye shall live
also.' 2 Cor. 13. 4. ' For though he was crucified
through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God.
For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him
by the power of God toward you.' Again, that the
word ' live' is^ used in a figurative sense akin to that
which we attribute to it in the passage before us will
appear from 1 Thess. 3. 8. ' For now we live, if ye stand
fast in the Lord.'

Is it not possible, then, from this array of quotations,
to educe the true signification of the term ' live,' as
applied to the martyrs whose ' souls' the prophet beheld
in vision? Is not its genuine import that of spiritual
life ? Is it not the designed implication of the Holy
Spirit that in the midst of surrounding apostasy these
faithful ' souls,' with unwavering persistency, stood to
their testimony, and from the vigor and vitality of their
faith, might be said in the highest and best sense to
live, while moral corruption, open defection, and spirit-
ual death were spreading their ravages on every side?
Was not the steadfast cleaving to the truth, the resolute
maintenance of tlie life of godliness in their souls, and
the unshrinking resistance even unto blood to the claims
and usurpations of an Antichristian power, a conduct
fitly characterized as at once a 'living' and 'reigning'
with Christ ? True, they might be put to death ; they
might encoimter persecution, torture, and martyrdom in

THE MILLENNIUM. 193

their most appalling forms ; the fiercest malignity of the
Beast and the unsparing ire of ' thrones' and potentates
might wreak itself upon their heads, still they were
i more than conquerors ;' the martyr's crown was the
badge of their blessed kingship ; and in them was illus-
triously fulfilled the truth of the inspired saying ; " If
we suffer we shall also reign with him." They reigned
in fact in their sufferings.

Now when it is considered that the Holy Spirit had
a prospective design in framing the imagery and the
phraseology of this remarkable vision ; that it was de-
vised and put on record in great measure for the behoof
of those who should actually he called to suffer-, that
their spirits might be armed beforehand for the terrible
conflict, we can see an adequate reason for painting the
scene in very vivid colors. It was fitting, in the nature
of the case, that it should be so exhibited as to operate
as a powerful motive in reconciling the minds of the
faithful to the prospect of suffering. They would evi-
dently need, in looking forward to a fiery trial of their
faith, to have the circumstances of their fate and the
prospect of its issues so depicted, that they could read
their reward in close connexion with their endurance.,
and accordingly the vision is so described, is couched
in such a peculiar style, as was admirably calculated to
produce this effect. But is there any absolute necessity
which prescribes that the same construction should be put
upon the words by those who lived before and those who
live after the event \ Is no allowance to be made for the
progress of scriptural illumination in subsequent ages ?
Suppose that the simple-minded martyrs of a former

194 TREATISE Off

day, in a period of a great moral and intellectual dark-
ness, should have adopted a more gross interpretation
of the myslic imagery of the Apocalypse, and should
have imagined tliat the ' thrones,' here spoken of, were
destined for them to sit and reign upon as co-assessors
with Christ in a predicted millennial regency, yet who
was harmed by it? In what respect did the interests
of truth suffer ? We are certain that their final remu-
neration was no less glorious than they were thus led
to anticipate, and if their expecting it under this peculiar
form tended to animate and cheer them in their excru-
ciating sufferings, if it gave additional strength to their
resolution and lustre to their patience, if, in a word,
their interpretation was the best adapted of any other
to their peculiar circumstances and exigencies, why
should we object to the idea of their having rested upon
a construction which was not perhaps intrinsically the
most correct 1 And why should we, whose lot is cast in
an age far more propitious to the explication of the mys-
teries of revelation, from so many of them having been
accomplished, feel bound to abide by the views of a less
enlightened period? May not the very same portion of
holy writ afford milk to babes, and strong meat to grown
men?

But in order to redeem our present interpretation from
the possible charge of novelty, paradox, and extrava-
gance, we are happy to be able to adduce the suffrage
of no less a master of exegetical theology than the cele-
brated Wits i us.

" These sentiments," says he (namely, that there
will be a resurrection of all — righteous and wicked — at

THE MILLENNIUM. li)6

one and the same time), " are clearly deducible from
the constant and unvarying doctrine of the Scriptures,
and from sound reason. They who think differently,
however, have something to produce as the ground of
their opinion. They found it in particular on Rev. 20.
4-6. where John gives an account of a certain period of
the church, in which the Devil and Satan is to be bound
a thousand years. 'And I saw thrones,' he adds, ' and
they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them :
and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded,' &:c.

" But even in this passage, if we only examine, we
shall find that it contains no such thing as that which
these men suppose they discover in it ; John does not
affirm that he saw the souls of them that were beheaded,
much less that he saw the martyrs themselves that were
beheaded, sitting upon thrones. He' says only that he
saw thrones, and those who sat upon them, not deter-
mining who they were : or rather making it sufficiently
plain that this is not to be understood of souls. For
the words employed do not admit of this interpretation.
In the Greek they are ku) k^I/^sc i^odt} uvroig. But if the
reference had been to souls {tcc<; "^v^eti) eivruig would
have been used. — Further, he does not say, that he saw
that the men who w^ere beheaded lived again ; far less
that the bodies of the beheaded lived again on the earth.
He asserts merely, that he saw the souls of them that
were beheaded, not living again, but living ; that is,
filled with unceasing joy, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
live to God ; and reigning with Christ, namely, in the
kingdom of glory, where they reap the fruit of their

196 TREATISE ON

labours and death, whilst they behold the enlargement
of the church during these thousand years.

" Besides the souls of those which had been beheaded
which he saw in heaven, John saw on earth those (ob-
serve, it is not the souls of those, but the persons them-
selves) who did not worship the beast nor his image, &;c.
that is, those who, adhering steadfastly to Christ, de-
termined to have no fellowship with Antichrist. These
also lived, enjoying a blessed peace of conscience and
a rich abundance of spiritual consolation — and reigned
with Christ a thousand years. Not that their lives as
individuals extended to a thousand years, for this never
was and never will be the lot of any mortal, but men of
that description reigned during many successive ages,
till the appointed period. And if you strongly urge their
living asain, this may be affirmed of these also, for they
lived again, inasmuch as under the tyranny of the beast
that description of men had lately been harassed, op-
pressed, reduced to a small number, and involved in
such difficulties and privations, that ihey scarcely lived,
or discovered any principle of vitality at all ; but now
the face of affairs being changed, their numbers are in-
creased, and breathing a freer air, they move all their
limbs with ease and spirit." — H. Witsii Exer. Sac.
p. 513-516. Amstel. 1607.

It will be observed, that the above extract does not
present, in every point, an exact accordancy with our
foregoing exposition, but the agreement in the main par-
ticulars is sufficiently marked for the purposes of illus-
tration.— Leaving then the preceding interpretation to be

THE MILLENNIUM. 197

judged of by its own merit, we proceed to the consider-
ation of the further particulars of the vision.

" But the rest of the dead lived not again, until the
thousand years were fulfilled." The 'oi Xot-^e) ray nK^St
— the rest of the dead, here spoken of, are evidently
mentioned by way of antithesis to the ' living' and
' reigning' martyrs alluded to in the preceding verse ;
and if we have succeeded in showing that by the one
class are to be understood the spiritually livings it will
follow that by the other are to be understood the
spiritually dead, as otherwise the point of the opposition
is altogether lost. The prophet, it will be recollected,
or the Holy Spirit by the prophet, is describing a dark
and disastrous period of the church, a time when the
Beast was rising to the zenith of his power, and when
the great mass of the nominally Christian world had
acknowledged his dominion, and taken upon them his
mark. This vast multitude constituted ' the rest of the
dead,' an expression which Parens affirms to be equiva-
lent to \i XoiTTo) HK^o] — the rest, (even) the dead; as in
Rev. 9. 20. the phrase 'ot XoiTroi rSv uvS^aTrav — the rest
of the men which were not killed by these plagues, is
plainly equivalent to 'oi Xocttoi 'oi uvG^uTrot — the rest,
{even) the men, which were not killed, since otherwise
the expression would involve a contradiction in terms,
the object of the writer being to make a distinction be-
tween those who were killed and those who were not.
During this calamitous era, therefore, the body of pro-
fessed Christians throughout the dominions of the ten
Kings who occupied the ' thrones' of the vision, was
divided into two great classes, those who were spiritu-

198 TREATISE ON

ally living and those who were spiritually dead, tlie
latter constituting the vast majority in point of num-
bers, and being elsewhere described as * all the world
that wondered after the beast,' and again alhided to
Rev. 1 3. 8. where it is said that ' power was given him
(the Beast) over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations ;
and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him,
whose names are not written in the book of life (the roll
or catalogue of the living) of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world.' They were those in fact who
constituted the members of that grand Apostasy, headed
by the character so clearly predicted and so largely de-
scribed by the Apostle under the denomination of ' the
Man of Sin.' These then were the spiritually and
mystically dead, ' for he that liveth in sin is dead while
he liveth.' No ray of the light of life beamed on the
darkness of their millennial night. They were in a
state of moral dormancy and deliquium, from which it is
the scope of this passage to assure us that they should
not be awakened so as to live through the lapse of that
protracted period. But does the language, rightly inter-
preted, imply that they should live after the expiration
of that term ? By no means. The drift of the Spirit
of inspiration is merely to intimate that the latter class
were distinguished from the former by the fact, that those
who composed it did not live through the memorable
period of the thousand years, without at all necessitat-
ing the inference that they did live after the period had
expired. It is a well established canon of interpretation,
that adverbs, denoting a termination of time, are, not-
withstanding, often intended, not to intmiate an actual

THE MILLENNIUM. 199

termination, but, on the contrary, to signify perpetuity.
Thus Ps. 110. 1. 'Sit thou at my right-hand until I
make thine enemies thy footstool.' Is it at all implied
by this that Christ should cease to sit at his Father's
right-hand when his enemies were brought into subjec-
tion ? So also Is. 22. 14. ' This iniquity shall not be
purged till ye die.' But are we to infer that it should
be purged then? Certainly not. It is equivalent to
saying it should never be purged. In like manner
1 Sam. 15. 35. ' Samuel came no more until the day of
his death ;' i. e. never came any more. 2 Sam. 6. 23.
* Michal had no children until the day of her death ;'
i. e. never had any. Rom. 5. 13. ' For until the law,
sin was in the world.' But did sin cease after the en-
trance of the law ? Obviously the writer's aim is to
state a particular fact in respect to a particular period
of time, without in the least intimating that that fact
ceased when the period ceased. So in the present in-
stance. Nothing farther is intended to be affirmed
respecting ' the rest of the dead' than that they did not,
like those to whom they are opposed, live during the
memorable Millennium. As to what happened to them
after that period, nothing is expressly said ; but in con-
formity to the usage just illustrated, the inference is that
they never lived in the sense in which living is predi-
cated of the ' souls' of the martyrs. We are aware, in-
deed, that the phrase ' lived not again' may be thought
to militate with this construction ; but although it cannot
be doubted that our translators read in their copies
«v£^:>jo-«v, lived again, yet it is remarkable that some of
the most approved editions of the New Testament, as

200 TREATISE ON

that of Knapp for instance, reject this as a corrupt read-
ing, and insert i^jjc-av, lived. There is little doubt that
xvf^^trxf has crept into the text from the construction
put upon f^>}<rxt in the preceding verse. As in the pre-
vailing views of the Millennium that word was under-
stood to signify a literal resurrection, or living again,
the inference would not be unnatural that when the
same thing was denied of a certain class of men, the
term employed would of course be one having the same
signification, only preceded by a negative. This affords
a specimen of the manner in which men's preconceived
hypotheses have been suffered to warp, not their inter-
pretation only, but the very reading of the sacred text.

" This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is
he that hatli part in the first resurrection : on such the
second death hath no power ; but they shall be priests
of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thou-
sand years." The original uvua-Tua-ii, resurrection, we
apprehend to be here used as the abstract for the con-
crete, strictly denoting the persons who composed the
resurrection. Thus Rom. 3. 30. ' Seeing it is one God
which shall justify the circumcision (i. e. those who are
circumcised) by faith, and the uncircumcision (i. e. those
who are not circumcised) through faith.' So also
Rom. 4. 9. ♦ Cometh this blessedness then upon the
circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also V
Gal. 2. 9. ' That we should go unto the heathen, and
they unto the circumcision (the Jews).' Phil. 3. 3.
* We are the circumcision (the circumcised ones).'
Phil. 3. 2. ' Beware of the concision (the concisionists),'
Rom. 11. 7. 'The election (the elect ones) hath ob-

THE MiLLENNItJM. 201

trained it.^ In like maner, the expression, *This is the
first resurrection,' we understand as equivalent to ' This
is the first body of resurrectionists.* Not that we sup-
pose a literal corporeal resurrection to be intended, for
it does not appear that there is to be a first and second
literal resurrection, but a mystical and spiritual one ; a
resurrection which shall answer to the explanation
given above of the ' living' of the saints and martyrs of
the millennial era. Repentance and abandonment of
sin, conversion to truth and holiness, devout obedience
to the divine commandments, a determined but humble
perseverance in maintaining ' the testimony of Jesus
and the word of God,' a resolute purpose to withstand
ut all hazards the aggressive usurpations of antichris-
tianism, may justly be deemed a conduct worthy to be
characterized as a resurrection to spiritual life, and
therefore properly attributed to the noble band of con-
fessors and witnesses whose bright example of courage,
constancy, zeal, faith, and patience, relieved the dark-
ness of that gloomy period. In reference, therefore, to
a more general and powerful and glorious triumph of the
gospel, a revivescence of righteousness still more illus-
trious, to be enjoyed in subsequent ages of the church,
this is termed by way of distinction * the first resurrec-
tion.' And of this resurrection the subjects are pro-
nounced to be ' holy and blessed,' inasmuch as they are
favoured with a happy immunity from Xhe peril of being
involved in ' the second death,' though they might be
called to endure the pains of the first. This expression,
which occurs in no other part of the Scriptures but in
the Apocalypse, viz. ch. 2. 11. *He that overcometh

202 TREATISE ON

shall not be hurt of the second death ,-' and, ch. 20. 14.

* And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second dcath^^ is not perhaps susceptible of
an explication so clear and satisfactory as could be de-
sired. It is a phrase of Rabbinic rather than of scrip-
tural origin, and is evidently used to denote some fear-
ful kind of punishment to be inflicted upon transgressors,
whose guilt was of a deep die, in some anticipated state
called by them ' the world to come.' But until we are
enabled to learn with more precision than has yet been
practicable, the real sense affixed by Jewish writers to
the phrase ' world to come,' we must remain in a great
measure ignorant of the exact import of the expression

* second death.' In the mean time, the only clew which
we possess to guide us to its meaning is afforded by the
following passages, collected from the Chaldee Para-
phrasts, Deut. 33. 6. ' Let Reuben live and not die/
Jerus. Targ. * Vivat Reuben in seculo hoc, neque mori-
atur morte secunda' — let Reuben live in this world,, and
let him not die the second death. TheTargum of Jona-
than, however, has, ' Nee moriatur morte qua moriuntur
improbi in futuro seculo' — nor let him die the death which
the wicked die in the world to come.^ Is. 22. 14. ' Surely
this iniquity shall not be purged from you, till ye die.'
Targ. ' Donee moriamini morte secunda' — till ye die the
SECOND DEATH. Is. 65. 6. ' But will recompense, even
recompense into their bosom.' Targ. ' Et tradam
morti secundee corpora eorum' — and I will deliver their
bodies to the second death. Is. 6. 15. ' The Lord shall
slay thee.' Targ. ' Interficiet vos Dominus morte se-
cunda'— the Lord shall slay you with the second

THE MILLENNIUM. 203

DEATH. Jer. 51. 39. * That they may sleep a perpetual
sleep, and not wake, saith the Lord. Targ. ' Sed mori-
antur morte secunda, et non vivant in seculo futuro* —
but let them die the second death, and not live in the
world to come. Ps. 49. 10. 'For he seeth that wise
men die.' Targ. ' Quoniam videbit sapientes improbos,
qui moriuntur morte secunda, at adjudicantur Gehennae'
— since he shall see the wicked wise men who die the
SECOND DEATH, and adjudged to hell. Although, there-
fore, Coceeius understands by the ' second death' in
this passage merely ^nal apostacy, or hopeless obdura-
tion of heart ;* yet it is probable that it points to the
ultimate irrevocable doom of the lost after death. If
so, the drift of the prophet is to convey the assurance,
that the blessed participants of the first resurrection
should not only enjoy all the present happiness and
triumph, included in their ' living' and ' reigning' state
on earth, but in addition to this, should be crowned with
the prerogative of exemption from the fearful lot of
those who might finally sink beyond redemption into
the woes and horrors of the ' second death.'

The Holy Spirit having thus completed all that it was
necessary to say respecting the state of things within
the limits of Christendom during the period of Satan's
restraint, having fully acquainted us with the sufferings

* Qui autem rovixerunt, ii htali sunt, quia jusli-sanctiy quia
a Spiritu Sancto sanctificati ad amorem veritatis. Propter earn
causam secunda mors, avofxia, airovraaia, induratio, in cos potesta-
tem non habet. Regeniti non deficerent ; quia heati et sancti
sunt ; h. e. quia a Deo justificati sunt et arrhabonem Spiiitiis
8^ Deo ajcceperunt, et eo signa,ti sunt. — -Coc. in Rev. 21. 6.

204 TREATISE ON

and trials of the victinas of papal persecution, another
transition now occurs in the thread of the visionary nar-
rative, and he proceeds to the memorable finale of the
Dragon's machinations against the church, eventuating
in his own defeat and destruction^* The consideration
of this part of our subject will form the matter of the en-
suing chapter.

* " Because Satan was still to play a last game before ho
was condemned to his final judgment, by which he shall be
quite driven from having any thing to do with mankind ; the
Holy Ghost goes on now to show us how ho comes to his end
in seeking, when loosed out of prison, to regain his dominion
over men by assaulting even Christ and his saints, all over his
kingdom ; even to the very attacking of the blessed and holjf
city. The prison therefore is the abyss wherein he was chained.
We have no hints at all to make us determine what, and where,
this prison shall be ; whether Satan indeed shall, during the
Millennium be quite without visible votaries, or whether he
shall have some such, but in so low a condition,. and so much
penned up, that he shall be as in a prison among them, without
capacity to make excursions to disturb the peace of the world.
If this last be true, it is likely that it uill be among some of those
nations ivhich are called Gog and Magog in the next verse, an^
which he xcill then seduce to disturb ChrisCs kingdom^ — Dau-
buz Perpet. Comment, p. 943.

THE MILLENNIUM. 205

' CHAPTER V.

EXPLICATION OF THE GOG AND MAGOG OF THE
APOCALYPSE.

"And when a thousand years are expired, Satan shall
be loosed out of his prison, and shall 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 sand of the sea." No part
of the Revelation has given rise to a greater diversity of
opinion, or to wilder or more extravagant conjectures,
than this announcement of the future appearance and
exploits, defeat and destruction, of the mystic Gog and
Magog. On the one hand, the tremendous power
shadowed forth by this denomination has been summoned

206 TREATISE OK

up from the then barbarous and pagan hemisphere of
America and the Terra Australis Incognita. On the
other, they have been generated, hke the classical Py-
thon, by the productive heat of the sun, from the teem-
ing slime of the renovated earth. And again, the bars
of the grave have been burst in quest of them, and they
have been resolved into countless armies of the risen
dead, to whom a resurrection to life has been but a res-
urrection to their former fiendish malignity against the
people of the saints, by which they are now urged on to
a new assault against the holy and happy portion of the
universe. Mede, Burnet, and Gill, are the distinguished
names by whicli these strange hypotheses are severally
endorsed, and their credit has given them currency, to a
greater or less extent, among others of inferior note.
Another class of writers, giving a purely mystical import
to the appellation, suppose it to be intended merely as
a figurative term denotinor the enemies of the church in
general, whether Pagan, Mohammedan, or pseudo-Chris-
tian.*

As, however, the views of expositors respecting the

* The objection to this mode of interpretation is well stated
by Calovius : — " Sed nimis manifestum est, describi certum reg-
num, ac certos populos, quorum nomina, provincias, ct silum
expressifSpiritus Sanctus, nequc in tarn operosa populorum a
noininibus gentilibus, et patronymicis descriptione, ilia omnia
allcgoricc cxponi possunt, nisi vim texlui insignem facere ve-
limus" — ' Bill it is too obviouSy that a particnlar ki7igdom is de-
acribedy and cfrtain people^ tchose name, provincasy and situation
are exprtssly dfsignated by the Holy Spirit ; nor in such a la-
bored description of people by their gentile and patronymic denom-
ination can all these things be understood alvkookacxllv unless
rce would do positive violence to the text.'' — Calovius in loc.

THB MILLENNIUM. 207

Gog and Magog of the Apocalypse have been governed
entirely by their theories of the Millennium, it is not sur-
prising that they should have broached the most fanci-
ful constructions of the sacred text. For as long as
they regarded the Millennium itself as yet future, they
were obliged of course to consider the entrance of these
hostile powers upon the prophetic arena at the end of the
thousand years, as also future. They would as soon
have sought for the living among the dead, as to have
recurred to history for the identification of those mystic
personages. But as tlie future is the field of conjecture,
imagination has been suffered to run riot in the attempt
to conjure up from among the shadows of coming ages
the mysterious characters here described. That we
look upon all such anticipations as groundless and chi-
merical, the reader will have inferred from the foregoing
train of remark. Regarding the Millennium as long
since past, we of course recur for the fulfilment of the
prediction concerning Gog and Magog to the pages of
history, instead of the auguries of prophecy ; and as the
establishment of our main theory respecting the chro-
nology of the Millennium afix)rds a strong prima facie
evidence that the event in question has at least entered
upon a course of accomplishment, so the positive proof
of the latter position will be found to reflect back a pow-
erful confirmation of the former.

And here it may be remarked in the outset, that it
can scarcely have escaped the notice of the reader of
the Apocalypse, that the mention of this hostile power,
whatever it may be, is extremely brief and obscure, and
accompanied with no clew which might serve to aid the

208 TREATISE ON

enquirer in his attempts to identify it. In other parts of
the book involving mysterious revelations, hints and in-
timations are thrown out formally or incidentally "with
the express design of enabling us to apply the symboli-
cal shadows to their appropriate substances. But no-
thing of the kind occurs in regard to Gog and Magog.
They are, like Melchizedek in the history of Moses, sud-
denly introduced upon the stage, and after acting a part
of great moment, as suddenly dismissed, and nothing-
more is heard of them. But what is the inference to be
drawn from this feature of the prophetic narrative?
Does it not indicate unequivocally that the Spirit of in-
spiration presumes upon a certain amount of informa-
tion in the reader's mind derived or derivable from other
portions of the sacred volume 1 As the whole system
of inspired prophecy, both in the Old Testament and
the New, is intimately connected together, the visions of
John being in most cases merely an expansion of the
more dense and involved revelations of Isaiah, Ezekiel,
or Daniel, so where any particular series of events is
more fully developed by one prophet, we should of
course expect it to be more succinctly given by another.
Here then, we are persuaded, we have the true grounds
of the brevity of the Holy Spirit in the passage before
us satisfactorily laid open. For it so happens that in the
book of Ezekiel, ch. 38 and 39, we have a strikingly
parallel prophecy detailing at great length and with the
utmost minuteness every particular respecting the Apo-
calyptic Gog and Magog which can be necessary for a
complete explication of this part of the vision. The
two prophets unquestionably allude to precisely the same

THB MILLENNIUM. 209

power, the same period, and the same events, and the
reader will probably be surprised at the extent to which
the one is capable of being made to illustrate the other.*
The necessity, therefore, is forced upon us of enter-
ing into a minute consideration of the Old Testament
prophecy in order to do full justice to our exposition of
the language of John. Still we do not hesitate to assure
the reader that he will experience no diminution of in-
terest in passing from the one to the other. We are still
engaged in the pleasing task of exploring the ' chambers
of imagery' in the august temple of prophecy, all of
them replete with treasures of more value than the cata-
combs of Egypt.

EZEKIEL, CH. XXXVIII XXXIX.

*' And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2.
Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Ma-
gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and pro-
phesy against him, 3. And say, Thus saith the Lord
God ; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince
of Meshech and Tubal : 4. And I will turn thee back,
and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and

* " Convenit autem haec Ezechielis prophetia cum ilia, quae
est Apoc. 20. 8, seqq. ceu ex coltatione cuivis patebit. Neque
enim per nudam allusionem ibi altegatur haec predictio sed in-
dicatur a Sp. S. earn nunc fine seculi implendam" — But this,
prophecy of Ezekiel coincides with that of Rev. 20. 8, etc. as will
be apparent to any one on inspection. JVor is this prediction
there adverted to merely by way of allusion^ but the design of the
Holy Spirit is to intimate that it now, towards the end of the
U'orldtreccivet its accomplishment. — Calovius ad Ezech. cap. 38. 2^

210 TREATISE ON

all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed
with all sorts of armor, even a great company with
bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords :
5. Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them ; all of them
with shield and helmet : 6. Gomer, and all his bands ;
the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all
his bands : and many people with thee. 7. Be thou
prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy com-
pany that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard
unto them. 8. After many days thou shalt be visited :
in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is
brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of
many people, against the mountains of Israel, which
have been always waste : but it is brought forth out of
the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. 9.
Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt
be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands,
and many people with thee. 10. Thus sahh the Lord
God ; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time
shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think
an evil thought: 11. And thou shalt say, I will go.
up to the land of unwalled villages : I will go up to them
that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling
without walls, and having neither bars nor gates ; 12.
To take a spoil, and to take a prey, to turn thine hand
upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and
upon the people that are gathered out of the nations,
which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the
midst of the land. 13. Sheba and Dedan, and the
merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof,
shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil ? hast

THE MILLENNIUM. 211

thou gathered thy company to take a prey 1 to carry
away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to
take a great spoil ? 14. Therefore, son of man, pro-
phesy, and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord God ; In
that day, when my people of Israel dwelleth safely,
shalt thou not know it ? 15. And thou shalt come from
thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people
with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great com-
pany and a mighty army : 16. And thou shalt come up
against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the
land ; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee
against my land, that the heathen may know me, when
I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, beJore their eyes.
1 7. Thus saith the Lord God ; Art thou he of whom I
have spoken in old time, by my servants the prophets of
Israel, which prophesied in those days many years, that
I would bring thee against them ? 18. And it shall
come to pass at the same time, when Gog shall come
against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my
fury sliall come up in my face. 19. For in my jealousy,
and in the fire of my wrath, have I spoken, Surely in that
day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel :
20. So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the
heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping
things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that
are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my pres-
ence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the
steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the
ground. 21. And I will call for a sword against him
throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God : every
man's sword shall be against his brother. 22. And I

sit TREATISE ON

will plead against him with pestilence and with blood ]
and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon
the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain,
and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. 23. Thus
will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will
be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall
know that I am the Lord.

Ch. XXXIX. 1. Therefore thou son of man, pro-
phesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord God \
Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of
Meshech and Tubal ; 2. And I will turn thee back, and
leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to
come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon
the mountains of Israel : 3. And I will smite thy bow
out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall
out of thy right hand. 4. Thou shalt fall upon the
mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the
people that is with thee : I will give thee unto the rav-
enous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field
to be devoured. 6. Thou shalt fall upon the open
field : for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God. 6.
And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that
dwell carelessly in the isles : and they shall know that
I am the Lord. 7. So will I make my holy name known
in the midst of my people Israel ; and I will not let them
pollute my holy name any more : and the heathen shall
know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.

The remark has been made by former commentators
that the concluding chapters of the prophecy of Ezekiel
and the Apocalypse of John bear a striking resemblance

THS MILLENNIUM. 213

to each ether. A resurrection is mentioned by each —
the inva&ion, with its disastrous consequences, of Gog
and Magog, is predicted by each — and in each we meet
with the description of a remarkable city, with its va-
rious appurtenances. The grand burden of the two
oracles in their closing parts is obviously the same, so
that the citation of the one is absolutely indispensable
to the correct exposition of the other. But although the
kindred character of these predictions has been long
since noted, we are not aware that the attempt has ever
been made to identify them in the manner or to the extent
which we now propose to do.

The scope of the prophecy contained in the chapters
quoted above has been variously understood by commen-
tators. By some it is regarded as the prediction of a
formidable invasion against the land of Israel subsequent
to their return from the Babylonish captivity, and Gog is
considered but another name for Antiochus Epiphanes,
and Magog the mystic denomination of the mingled bar-
barian hordes which fought under his banner. But the
history of the Jewish nation discloses no events in any
period of its annals which answer to the lofty figurative
representations here given,* and the mass of commen-
tators at the present day seem inclined to rest in the con-
clusion briefly stated by the judicious Editor of the Com-
prehensive Bible : — " Though it is not generally agreed

* " Interpretes tamen sanioris judicii libenter concedunt, in-
tegrum complementum in historia nondurn demonstrari posse,
>ed in futurum tempus esse conjiciendum" — Interpreters of
sourtd judgment freely admits that the entire fulfilment cannot as
yet he demonstrated from history^ but is to be referred to the
ftttiire. — Michaelis.

214 TREATISE ON

what people or transactions are here predicted, yet it
seems evident that the prophecy is not yet accomplished.
Nothing occurred in the wars of Cambyses or Anliochus
Epiphanes with the Jews that answers to it ; and the
expression here used — ' in the latter days' — plainly im-
plies that there should be a succession of many ages
between the publication of the prediction and its accom-
plishment. It is therefore supposed, with much proba-
bility, that its fulfilment will be posterior to the conver-
sion of the Jews and their restoration to their own land,
and that the Turks, Tartars, or Scythians, from the
northern parts of Asia, perhaps uniting with the inhabit-
ants of some more southern regions, will make war upon
the Jews, and be cut off in the manner here predicted."* -
It will doubtless be admitted, then, that this prediction oi"
Ezekiel did not receive its fulfilment prior to the Chris-
tian era, and if we seek for it subsequent to that date,
we presume it will not be referred to an earlier period
than that of the Turkish invasion of the eastern pro-
vinces of the Roman empire between A, D. 1000 and
A. D. 1452, when the city of Constantinople yielded to
the Moslem arms. It is to this period, in fact, in our
opinion, that the prophecy is to be referred. We have
no doubt that the hostile power adumbrated by Gog and
Magog, is identically the same M'ith the Euphratean
horsemen of the sixth trumpet, universally allowed to
symbolize the rise and progress of the Ottoman em-
pire, and of this, if we mistake not, the evidence will
accumulate with every step of our ensuing exposition.

* Gr«ienfield*8 Notes in loc.

THE MILLENNIUM. 215

" Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land
of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and
prophesy against him," &:c. The names occurring in
the commencement of this prophecy refer us directly to
the tenth chapter of Genesis, where Moses has given a
detailed account of the peopling of the earth by the sev-
eral sons of Noah and their descendants. " Now these
are the generations of the sons of Noah : Shem, Hara,
and Japheth ; and unto them were sons born after the
flood. The sons of Japheth, Gomer, and Magogs and
Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Teras.
And the sons of Gomer, Ashkenah, and Riphath, and
Togarmah." Now from the fact of these names being
retained by Ezekiel so long after their original posses-
sors had ceased to exist, it is evident that they are to be
considered as the names of nations, and not of persons.
Indeed there are few idioms more frequent in the Scrip-
tures than that by which a people, even to the latest
generation, are called by the name of their primitive
founder. Thus the nation of the Jews is, in innumera-
ble instances, called Israel, from Israel or Jacob, the
father of their tribes ; the Edomites are repeatedly
called Edom, after the name given to Esau, their
founder ; in like manner, Moab and Ammon are national
denominations flowing from the names of their respective
founders. So also in the passage of the prophet before
us, Gog and Magog, as well as Meshech and Tubal, are
doubtless to be construed as the distinctive appellations
of certain people inhabiting those tracts and territories
of the globe which originally fell to the lot of the indi-
viduals whose names they bore. ' Gog,' indeed, in strict

216 TREATISE ON

propriety, appears to be used as a personification of the
general power which held dominion over those regions,
just as we say of ' the Turk,' in modern times, that he
holds possession of some of the fairest portions of the
earth, though the Turkish empire includes in reality a
great number of difl'erent nations. The expression,
therefore, ' against Gog, the land of Magog,* is equiva-
lent to, ' against Gog, living in, or ruling over, the land
of Magog.' In consistency with this figurative phrase-
ology the same allegorical personage is called the
''prince of Meshecli and Tubal.' Now it is universally
conceded that * Magog' is but another name for the pop-
ulous hordes of the north of Asia inhabiting the ancient
Scythia. " Nothing," says Vitriiiga, " is more certain
and indubitable than that by ' Gog and Magog,' in Eze-
kiel, are denoted the posterity of Japheth, or those
northern nations which peopled the country lying be-
tween the Euxine and Caspian seas, and the region
still farther north, extending from tli:e Tanais on the
west to the Mount Imans on the east."* Rosenmuller
also observes, that " after what Bochart and Michaelis
have written on the subject, it is no longer susceptible of
doubt, that by * Magog' here is intended the Scythia of
the orientals."! In Gen. 10. 2. Magog is placed be-
tween Gomer and Madai, that is, the Cimmerians and
the Medes, to the north of each of whom were the
Scythians. In fact there were no nations known to the
Hebrews situated farther to the north than those which
are liere associated with Gog; and in answer to the

* Vitring. in Apoc. p. 871.

•f Rosenmul. Comment, in Ezek. ch. 38- %,

THE MIHENNIUM. 217

question whether the Magog of the Scriptures is to be
taken in the same latitude with the Scythia of the
Greeks and Latins, or whether the title is to be restricted
to some particular region of Scythia with its inhabitants,
Michaelis holds decidedly to the former. ' Neither the
geographical allusions,' says he, 'of Moses or Ezekiel, or
the knowledge of the Hebrew race, extended beyond
Magog, and the prophet here assigns to the power pre-
dicted, too immense an army to consist with a territory
of moderate dimensions.' As therefore the remote
regions of the north and the north-east were so little
known to the inhabitants of central Asia, there is every
probability that those numerous tribes of barbarians,
comprised by the ancients under the general name of
Scythians, and by the moderns under that of Tartars,
are here included in the denomination of Magog. Je-.
rome expressly affirms, ' that the Jews of his age un-
derstood by Magog the vast and innumerable nations of
Scythia, about Mount Caucasus, and the Palus Meeo-
tis, and stretching on from thence along the Caspian to-
wards India.' This is confirmed by the language of
Josephus, who says, ' that Magog founded those nations
which from him were named Magogitis, but which by
the Greeks are called Scythians.'* The Syriac and

* " Now this Gog, who brings with him the confederacy of
all the nations, is not by us to be mistaken, who can add to the
light of ancient geography which our fathers have left us, the
observation of God's providence, which is showing forth
Gog's great ascendant power in the sight of the whole world.
The land of Magog is generally, and indeed beyond doubt,
fixed to be the land beyond Mount Caucasus ; all whicii, with-
out exception, is now posseased by tho Emperor of the North.

218 TREATISE OW

Arabic writers, in like manner, frequently introduce the
names of Gog and Magog as a familiar designation of
the Tartar nations bordering upon India, and the Mo-
hammedan tradition respecting the appearance of Gog
and Magog among the precursors of the resurrection is
very remarkable. Among the portentous signs of that
grand event, Sale enumerates ' the eruption of Gog and
Magog, or as they are called in the east, Yajuj and
Miijuj ; of whom many things are related in the Koran,
and the traditions of Mohammed. These barbarians,
they tell us, having passed the lake of Tiberias, which
the vanguard of their vast army will drink dry, will
come to Jerusalem and greatly distress Jesus and his
companions ; till at his request God will destroy them,

And from Gog, it is beli(;ved by the learned, that the very name
of Caucasus (^Gogasus)^ as also the name of Georgia, or Gor-
dia, in that district, is derived. Also from Magog they reckon
that the Ma^otic lake, or Sea of Asoph, hath its rrame. Gog
is called the prince of Rosa, Meshech, and Tubal. The Mus>
covites are believed, by common consent, to be the people af
Meshech, and with them the people of Tubal are constantly
joined. They arc thoufjht to have settled at the heads of the
Euphrates and Tigris, between the Euxine and the Caspian
seas ; and from thence to liave sent up colonies to people the
north ; of which it is believed that the Toboltki are one. Nowr
the river Araxes, which runs through thai region, was anciently,
and is still by the Arabians, called Ross : so that Ross, Me-
shech, and Tubal, which compose the princedom of Gog, doth
take in the region from the mouth of the Volga to the mouth
of the Don ; from which rejjion there can be no doubt that the
people called the Rossi or Russian!^, the Mosci or Muscovites,
and the Tobolsk!, have proceeded, and all these northern coun-
tries have been peopled."— /rr/r/^-'j Discourses on DaniePs
f'ision of the four Beasts^ p. 476.

, THE MILLENNIUM. 219

and fill the earth with thehr carcasses, which after some
time God will send birds to carry away, at the prayers
of Jesus and his followers. Their bows, arrows, and
quivers the Moslems will burn for seven years together ;
and at last God will send a rain to cleanse the earth,
and make it fertile.'* This tradition is evidently a dis-
torted reflection of the scriptural prophecy, like many
other things contained in the Koran, which appear, com-
pared with the truth, like an object seen at the bottom of
a river or lake when the surface is roughened by the
wind.f Again, it is remarked by Bochart that the land
of Gog and Magog is the region about Mount Cauca-
sus, which the neighbouring Colchi and Armenians in
their semi-Chaldaic dialect termed |Dn JU, Gog-hasan,
i. e. jhrtress of Gog^ which the Greeks softened to YJtv
xecc-ev, Caucasus^ in the same manner as they changed the
Heb. ^r^iygamal, camel, into Kx/^r,>,o<i, camelus. The name
is also detected in ' Gogarene,' a part of Iberia, men-
tioned by Strabo ; and Wells maintains that the Maeotic
Lake took its name from the descendants of Magog
settled about it ; for from Magog is regularly formed
MagogitiSy or Magotis, which last the Greeks might
easily mould into Maiotis, rendered by the Latins
M(Botis4

* Sale's Koran, Prelim. Dis. p. 111.

t " The legend of the Koran teaches moreover tliat Gog and
Magog were to be restrained within the limits of their appropri-
ate region, by an immense wall of iron and brass, till the expira-
tion of a certain predicted period, when the wall was to be re-
duced to dust, and they were again to go forth as a desolating
scourge upon the earth." — Sale''s Koran, vol. ii. p. 140. Lond.
1825.

± " What particular nations those shall be is not fully agreed

220 TREATISE ON

Now it is unquestionable that there is no point in re-
spect to the origin of nations more certain than that the
Turks are the descendants of the ancient Scythians.
" In the midst of these obscure calamities," says Gib-
bon, " Europe felt the shock of a revolution, which first
revealed to the world the name and nation of the Turks.
Like Romulus, the founder of that martial people was
suckled by a she-wolf, who afterward made him the
father of a numerous progeny ; and the representation
of that animal in the banners of the Turks preserved
the memory, or rather suggested the idea, of a fable,
which was invented, without any mutual intercourse, by
the shepherds of Latium and those of Scytlda. The
sides of the hills were productive of minerals, and the
iron forges, for the purposes of war, were exercised by
the Turks, the most despised portion of the great Khan
of Geovgcn (query — a derivative from Gog ?)."*

by learned men, who have turned their attention to tliis subject.
But the best founded opinion is, that the Scythians are de-
scended from Magog. It is also said, that the Mogul Tarlara,
a people of the Scythian race, are tstill called J\lagog hy the
Arabian writers, who, beyond the writers of every other coun-
try, have preserved ancient names and customs. That they
Ehall be a northern nation Ezekiel plainly declares in ch. 28. 15.
' And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts,
thou and many people with thee.' This he predicts of Gog in
the latter days. Hence it is highly probable that Gog and Ma-
gog signify the Mogul Tartars, and certain that they signify
these nations, be they who they will, who shall in fact be the
hneal descendants of Magog, Tubal, Meshech, and Togarmah,
at the end of the Millennium." — Johnston on Rev. vol. ii. p.
356.

•Decline and Fall, p. 717.

fHE MILLENNIUM. 221

Their first appearance, however, upon the European
stage, was at a period too early to answer to the fulfil-
ment of this prophecy ; but their incursions were check-
ed, and in the language of symbols they were bound
in, or rather at or about, the river Euphrates, till released
by the blast of the sixth trumpet, when they were
again let loose, and poured themselves down upon the
Apocalyptic * earth.* It was this second irruption of
the northern nations (called by Dan. 11. 40. ' the king
of the north*), in reference to which Gibbon remarks,
that " When the black swarm Jirst hung over Europe,
they were mistaJcen (rather, rightly taken) by fear and
superstition for the Gog and Magog of the Scriptures,
the signs and forerunners of the end of the world.''''*
Our main position, therefore, viz. that the Turks and
Tartars of modern times, inhabiting the very countries
of the Gog and Magog, and genealogically descended
from them, are prophetically pointed at in the scope of
this oracle, may be considered as fully established.
We proceed then in our explication, the progress of
which will throw slill clearer light upon the position
above mentioned.

" The chief prince of Meshech and Tubal." The

original, b^ini ^K^n 15>N*1 X'ti'J, Gr. up^^^ovru. Vaq, Moa-))^,

xoti ©o/SeA, may be rendered as it is by Bochart and
others — prince of Ross, Meshech, and Tubal, as the
Heb. term U'X">, Rosh, for head or chief, is supposed by
many to be a proper name, the genuine radix of RuS'
sia, as Meshech, Gr. Mosoch, betrays its affinity with
Muscovy. " The learned Bochart," says Wells,t " has
» Decl. and Fall, p. 1021. t Sac. Geog. p. 23. 4to ed^

222 TREATISE ON

observed from the Nubian geographe.", that the river in
Armenia called by the Greeks Araxes, is by the Ara-
bians called Rosh ; and he not only probably infers,
that the people that lived in the country about that river,
were denominated Rosh ; but also proves from Jose-
phus Ben Gorion, that there was a people in these
parts named Rhossi. Now the Moschi and Rhossi
being thus neighbours in Asia, their colonies kept to-
gether in Europe : those of the Moschi in the province
of Muscovy, i. e. about Moscow ; those of the Rhossi
in the parts adjoining on the south. On the whole,
therefore, it may be very properly believed, that the
Muscovites and Russians in Europe were colonies of
Meshech, or of Meshech and Tubal jointly." We are
still, therefore, conversant with the northern nations
of the eastern continent, the very nations whose de-
scendants afterward fell under the dominion of the
Turks, and have remained so to the present day.

" And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy
jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army,
horses and horsemen," &c. The original for * I will
turn thee back' is considered by Grotius, following
some of the ancient versions, as equivalent to the Greek
jTff <TTf /•v//A», and the Latin circumagam, I will turn thee
hither and thither ; implying that his movements should
be so entirely under providential control, that while
aiming to accomplish his own infatuated counsels, he
should be led, drawn, or driven, as a horse is reined
and guided at the will of his rider, or as the fish, which
has taken the hook into its mouth, is drawn in the water
one way or the other according to the pleasure of the

THE MILLENNIUM. 223

angler.* As it is the prerogative of the Most High to
make the wrath of man to praise him, while the re-
mainder of wrath he restrains, so m the present instance
he announces his intention of so overruling the mad
and headstrong projects of the invaders, that in their
wildest career they should still be bringing to pass the
secret purposes of the infinite mind. The present ren-
dering, * turn thee back,' is evidently incorrect, as it is
said immediately after, ' I will bring thee forth.' With
what conceivable propriety could he be said to be
' turned back' before he had ' gone forth V The true

import is doubtless that which we have given above

' In bringing thee forth I will lead and turn thee this
way and that, as it seemeth good unto me.'

A striking note of identification is afforded us in the
allusion to the horses and horsemen, which were to
constitute the strength of this tremendous armament.
It brings the prediction into direct parallelism with that
of John in the Revelation, in announcing under the
sixth trumpet the fearful expedition of the Euphratean
horsemen, or the myriads of the Turkish cavalry. Rev.
9. 16. * And the number of the army of the horsemen
were two hundred thousand thousand : and I heard the
number of them.' The historian of the Decline and
Fall, who seems, in the construction of his great work,
to have been ' led by the nose' very much in the man-
ner of the people whose annals he relates, thus yields
his constrained attestation to the truth of the inspired
word. "As the subject nations marched under the

* " Rather, 'I will mislead thee ;' or, more paraphrastically,
* I will infatuate thy counsels.' " — Horsley.

224 TREATISE OS

Standard of the Turks, their cavalry^ with men and
horses, were proudly computed by millions.''^* " The
sultan had inquired what supply of men he could fur-
nish for military service. ' If you send,' replied Ish-
mael, ' one of these arrows into our camp, fifty thou-
sand of your servants will mount on horseback.^ ' And
if that number,' continued Mehmud, * should not be suf-
ficient, send this arrow to the horde of Bulik, and you
will find fifty thousand more. ' But,' said Gaznevide,
dissembHnff his anxiety, ' if I should stand in need of
the whole force of your kindred tribes?' * Despatch
my bow,' was the last reply of Ishmael, ' and as it is
circulated around, the summons will be obeyed by two
hundred thousand horse.'' "f " The Roman emperors
were suddenly assaulted by an unknown race of barba-
rians, who united the Scythian valour with the fanaticism
of new proselytes, and the art and riches of a powerful
monarchy. The myriads of Turkish horse overspread
a frontier of six hundred miles from Tauris to Arze-
Toum ; and the blood of one hundred and thirty thou-
sand Christians was a grateful sacrifice to the Arabian
prophet."! The Prophet Daniel, in a parallel predic-
tion, Dan. 11. 40, thus announces the desolating irrup-
tion of the Turkish power ; " And the king of the
north shall come against hira like a whirlwind, with
chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships ; and
he shall enter the countries, and shall overflow, and
shall pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious
land (the land of Palestine), and many countries shall
be overthrown." The Turkish forces were in fact com-
♦ Decl. and Fall, p, 717. t lb. 1055. X lb. 1058.

THE MILLENNI-UM. 225

^ased of a vast colluvies of barbarous nations, which,
disdaining infantry as unsuited to the rapidity of their
movements, poured themselves down in immense bodies
of cavalry from the mountains and fastnesses of the
north, sweeping like a torrent, a tempest, or a whirl-
wind over the Asiatic provinces of Rome.

" Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them ; all of them
with shield and helmet : Gomer and all his bands ; the
house of Togarmah of the north quarter," &c. This is
a farther specification of the various tribes and people
who were to range themselves under the Turkish ban-
ner, forming a constituent part- of the grand confederacy
of Gog and Magog. We here see them flocking from
the north, the east, and the south, thus fulfilling the
terms of the Apocalyptic prediction, that after the
expiration of the thousand years, ' the nations which
were in the four quarters of the eartW should be gath-
ered together in that fatal enterprise.

" Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou,
and all thy company," &c. We have before remarked
that the prophecy of Ezekiel now under consideration
contemplates precisely the same series of events with
that of the sixth trumpet of the Apocalypse, and that
both refer to the period and the power of the post-
millennial Gog and Magog. We have therefore a
triple announcement of the same momentous issue by
which a particular period of the world was to be dis-
tinguished ; and if to these we add certain predictions
in Daniel touching upon the same occurrences, it may
be said that they are set forth in a fourfold diversity of

representation.

226 TREATISE ON

Now it is worthy of especial note, that in the vision
of the sixth trumpet, when the four Euphrat^an angels,
that is, the four Turkish sultanies, were to be loosed
from their previous restraint, it is said. Rev. 9. 15. that
' tlie four angels were loosed, which were prepared [ai
eToiiicct<Tf<.evoi) for an hour, and a day, and a month, and
a year,' by which we are inclined to believe is simply
intended, that they should all of them be ready precisely
at one and the same time, even on the very same year,
month, day, and hour, to perform their appointed work.
The accumulation of these four terms seems designed
merely to make the language more emphatical, and to
represent it as a wonderful occurrence, that these differ-
ent principalities should be prepared in the providence
of God, simultaneously to break the bonds by which
they had hitherto been impeded, and to do it also at that
precise point of time which had been predetermined in
the divine counsels. We conceive, therefore, that the
expression ' prepared' carries in it a direct allusion to
the same pliraseology in the Old Testament prophet ;
* Be thou prepared (iToifMTSrjTi) ;' i. e. be thou ready at
the appointed time. It is in this sense of being ready
that the original term occurs in the following passages :
Ex. 19. 11. 15. 'And be ready (eroif^ot) against the
third day." Josh. 8. 4. * Go not very far from the
city, but be ye all ready (fVfc-^f Trccvre^ troifAjotY And so
elsewhere. The import, then, of the words may be
supposed to be, that whatever might be the purposes or
attempts of these northern invaders, their menacing
might was to be held in abeyance up to the comple-
tion of a certain definite period, when the providential

THE MILLENNIUM. 227

restraints which had hitherto curbed their operations
should be removed, and that then, being fully ready,.
every barrier should be burst, and nothing farther should
oppose them in the accomplishment at once of their
own designs and those of heaven. Accordingly, as if
to explain this intimation, it is immediately added : —

" After many days thou shalt be visited ; in the latter
years thou shalt come into the land that is brought
back from the sword, <fcc. Thou shalt ascend and come
like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the
land," &c. This must certainly be considered as
throwing forward the date of the fulfilment of this pro-
phecy to a period very far removed from the age of the
prophet by whom the oracle was uttered. The phrase
— ' in the latter years,' literally, * in the posteriority of
years' — when occurring in the Old Testament, almost
invariably refers to the period of the Gospel dispensa-
tion, and generally to the concluding part of that period,
so that it is evident we are to look for the completion of
the prophecy to a date considerably subsequent to the
Christian era. The inspired assurance is, that after
this long tract of time has been passed over, Gog and
Magog shall, in some sense, ' be visited.' The question
is, in what sense 1 The term taken by itself is am-
biguous ; for in the scripture idiom God is said to ' visit*^
both when he executes his purposes of judgment and
of mercy. Thus it is said of the fulfilment of the
promise made to Sarah respecting the birth of a son,
Gen. 21. 1. that * the hord visited Sarah as he had said,
and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken.' On
the other hand, in speaking of the punishment of Korah»

22S TREATISE OX

Dathan, and Abiram, it is said, Num. 16. 29. ' If these
men die the common death of all men, or if they be
visited after tlie visitation of all men, then the Lord
hath not sent me.' So also Is. 26. 14. ' Therefore
hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their
memory to perish.' In the present instance, however,
this latter acceptation of the term seems less pertinent,
as the object in these verses is mainly to describe the
warlike apparatus and the annihilating purpose of Gog,
while the intimation of his punishment is deferred to the
18th verse; 'And it shall come to pass at the same
time when Go2f shall come against the land of Israel,
saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my
face.' A more appropriate signification then must be
sought for the word in this connexion. By recurrence
to scriptural usage we find a number of instances where
the Hebrew lp3, to visit, is used in the sense of ap-
pointing as an overseer^ giving in charge^ entrusting
with a commission, and in the passive, of being thus
appointed, designated, or empowered. Thus Gen. 34. 4.
* And he made him (Joseph) overseer over his house, and
all that he had he put into his hand.' Here the original
is literally 'he made him to vish.' So Num. 3. 10.
'And thou shalt appoint Aaron and his sons, and they
shall wait on their priests' oflice.' 2 Cliron. 36. 23.
' Thus saiih Cyrus, King of Persia, All the kingdoms
of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me, and
he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem.*
Job 34. 13. 'Who hath given him a charge over the
earth V Job 36. 23. ' AVho hath enjoined him his way V
Neh. 7. 1. 'And when the porters, and the singers, aa(^

THE 51ILLENNIUM. S29

the Levites were appointed^ (Heb. ' were visited'*). Neh.
12. 44. *And at that time were some appointed (Heb.
* visited') over the chambers for the treasures,' &c.
Guided by this clew we apprehend the genuine import
of the term before us to be, that ' after many days,' or
when the destined era had elapsed, Gog and Magog
should, in the deep counsels of heaven, be appointed^
commissioned, and receive it in charge^ to execute, as
the organs of the divine will, a great and momentous
work ; and this work the prophet immediately goes on
to describe. The degenerate nations of Christendom.
had, by their sins, rendered themselves obnoxious to the
judgments of God, and these rude but powerful tribes
were to be the instruments by which they should be
inflicted. They are accordingly apostrophized to this
effect, as were Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus when em-
ployed for a similar purpose. " O Assyrian, the rod of
mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indigna-
tion. I will send him against an hypocritical natic-n,
and against the people of my wrath will I give him a
charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, &c.
Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think
so ; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations
not a few," In either case the agents employed were in-
tent upon the accomplishment of private ends of tlieir
own, and never dreamt that they were bringing to pass
the pre-determined and pre-announccd counsels of Him
who sways the hearts of kings and the movements of
armies at his pleasure. This view of the passage is
confirmed by the renderings of some of the ancient ver-

230 TREAtlSfi OJf

sions. The Chal. Targum has it ; ' After many day*
ihou shall prepare thy forces ;' and the Syriac, ' Thoa
shah receive charge, or commandment.' The Septua*
gint employs iToif^acrS-^Ty}, thou shalt he in readiness ;
i. e. in readiness to act in subserviency to the will of
the Most High.

In this connexion we cannot but advert to a remark-
able but obscure passage in the prophecy of Isaiah, of
which we imagine the true key is to be found in the
burden of Ezekiel now under consideration, and in the
parallel prediction of the Apocalypse. Is. 24. 21, 22.
* And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord
shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high,
and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they
shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in
the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after
many days shall they be visited.' We regard these two
verses as an epitome of the twelfth and twentieth chap-
ters of the Revelation ; the first containing the war in
heaven and the overthrow of the Dragon and his angels ;
and the second, the binding of Satan as a prisoner in
the pit of the abyss, and his release in the person of Gog
and Magog at the close of the thousand years. It
would subject us to too wide a digression to enter fully
into the consideration of the time, occasion, scope, con-
nexion, &.C. of the prediction of which these verses form
a part, but that the language quoted is singularly ger-
man to that of Ezekiel in the chapter under review, is
obvious to every eye ; and it has never, moreover, been
appropriated by commentators in such a way as to for-

THE MILLENNrUM. SfSfl

bid our present application of it.* In each of the
prophets the power predicted is represented as held for
a certain time in some kind of durance or restraint, and
in each it is said that this power ' after many days shall
be visited' — visited, that is, in the sense of having ob-
structions removed, and of being designated to the per-
formance of certain signal exploits, the pre-ordainment
of Heaven. Thus we perceive how the rays of scrip-
tural light converge from every quarter to illustrate the
history of the symbolical Dragon in his doings and his
destiny. Considered as the prompting genius of the
Pagan dominion, he is first struck down from the alle-
gorical heavens (' the Lord shall punish the host of the
high ones that are on high'), and then immured in the

* Aben-Ezra upon this passage remarks; — " Omnes inter-
pretes consentiunt, ex pericopa hujus capitis id quod in loco
hoc (sc. V. 14 et seqq.) dicitur, intelligendum esse de bello Gogi
etMago gitempore future." — ^11 the inter prefers agree that that
which is said from this section of the chapter (v. 14.) and onward^
is to be understood of the war of Gog and Magog in some future
time,

Vitringa also, in the introduction to his Commentary on the
24tli ch. of Isaiah, thus expresses his conviction of the identity
of scope between this and the prophecy of Ezekiel ; — " Nee alio
tendit prophetia Ezehielis de Gogo ct Magogo, in ipsa terra
Canaanae tandem prosternendis ; qua; prophetia censeri debet
huic noslrse esse parallela ; unde napaWo^ia (ppaatut Is. 24. 22.
Post plures dies tisiiabuniur cum Ezech. 38. 8. ubi eadem phra-
sis." — Kor does the prophecy of Ezekiel, respecting the futurede-
struction of Gog and Magog in the land of Canaan look any other
way ; which prophecy ought to he considered parallel to this of
ours ; whence the paralltlism of phrase in Is. 24. 22. ' Jlfter many
days thou shalt be visited^^ and Ezek. 38. 8. u-here the same ex-
pression occurs.

232 TREATISE ON

prison-house of the mystic abyss (' as prisoners ar&
gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison')
for the space of a thousand years, when the word of
prophecy proclaims the opening again of his prison-
doors, and the divine ' visitation,' for wise and holy ends,
sends him once more abroad in pernicious freedom to
wreak his ire upon the nations.

But who are to be more especially the victims of his
machinations on this his second sally into the territories
of which he had been dispossessed ? * Thou shalt come
into the land that is brought back from the sword, and
is gathered out of many people, against the mountains
of Israel which have been always (i. e. a long time)
waste.' Upon these words a commentator remarks,
that by * the mountains of Israel' is to be understood the
dwelling places of the churchy and by the * Israelites,'
Christians.* It is unquestionable that the subjects of
the Gospel dispensation are usually spoken of by the
Old Testament prophets under the denomination of
* Israel ;' for as the Apostle assures us, ' he is not a
Jew (Israelite) which is one outwardly ; neither is that
circumcision which is outward in tlie flesh ; but he is a
Jew which is one inwardly ; and circumcision is that of
the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter.' Christians,
therefore, constitute the spiritual Israel,! and a predicted
hostile aggression against the church, against a people
professmg Christianity, would naturally be couched in

♦ Per monte$ Israel hospitia ecclesiffi ; per Israelitas Christian
intelliguntur. — Michael is.

t ' And as many as walk according to this rule, peace bo on
them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.'' Gal. 6. 16.

THE MILLENNIUM. 233

)anguage like that before us. As we have seen, how-
ever, that '■ mountains,Mn the idiom of the prophets, is
a term denoting governments, kingdoms, or principali-
ties, the phrase ' mountains of Israel' more strictly im-
plies the states, peoples, or bodies politic inhabiting the
regions of Christendom. These Christian nations,
therefore, spread over the territories of the church,
were to be the objects of this formidable northern inva-
sion. But it is said to be a land ' brought back from
the sword, and gathered out of many people ;' that is,
rescued, redeemed, delivered from actual or threatened
subjugation. This we suppose to have been effected
by the Crusades, by which the first torrent of this Turkish
invasion was checked and turned back. " No sooner,"
says a late writer, " had the Turks entered the Holy
Land, and taken possession of Jerusalem, than Europe
was in motion and in arms ; and nations marched to the
field of the world's debate. Crusade followed after
crusade. Europeans became the assailants ; and in-
stead of extending their territories, the Turks could no I
retain the conquests they had won. On the subdivision
of their empire into four sultanies, their victorious ca-
reer was not long unchallenged, but speedily retarded
and restrained. The Lesser Asia and Syria again be-
came fields of battle, but with foreign foes. From these
countries, formerly overflowed by them, the Turks were
repelled. The Crusaders from the west and the Fatim-
ites on the south won back the countries which the
Turks had conquered [a land brought back from the
sword), and the original region of their conquest on the
banks ajid borders of the Euphrates became the disputed.

234 TREATISE ON

seats of their dominion, and was partly reft from them
by the Franks. — The Turks for a long period were
thus restrained and bound. Though they came hke a
whirlwind so soon as their time of preparation began,
yet their triumph was broken ; the first of their dynasties
was dissolved — they seemed to .be fitted for slaughter,
rather than prepared to slay. — The Crusaders from the
farthest west, with incredible loss of treasure and of
blood, forced back the Turks to the regions where their
conquests began: and the Moguls from the farthest
east took up the task of repressing tliem."* The identity
of this terrific expedition with that of the Gog and Ma-
gog of the Apocalypse is still farther confirmed by the
parallel phraseology in which both of them are an-
nounced. Thus in the one it is said, ' Thou shalt ascend
(*y«/3;}(r»)), and come like a storm,' <fcc. and in the other,
' And they went up [xnQy,Tctv) on the breadth of the earth
(land), and compassed the camp of the saints about,*
&c. The word av£(ii}<ritv, ascended, is peculiar to mili-
tary expeditions, from the fact that as citadels, towns,
and fortresses are usually situated upon mountains and
high places, they could only be attacked by the besiegers
first ascending to or towards them. Thus we find the
word employed 1 Kings 20. 1. *And Ben-hadad the
king of Syria gathered all his host together, and he
went up (<!ev£/3ijcr£») and besieged Samaria.' Judg. 1. 1.
' The children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, Who
shall go up [aiu^r.TtTxi) for us against the Canaanites
to fight against them?' 2 lungs 18. 25. *Am I now

♦ Keith'* Signs of the Timc», vol. i. p. 307. 309.

THE MILLENNIUM. 235

come up {xve^?)f4,[v) without the Lord against this place
to destroy it ? The Lord said to me, Go up {etm^nit)
against this land and destroy it.' So in numerous other
instances. Indeed, in the most classic authors of Greece,
the proper rendering of Ava/Sac-/? is expedition, and no
scholar is ignorant of the fact, that this is the very title
which Xenophon has given to the expedition of the
younger Cyrus against his brother.* We are led, there-
fore, to the conclusion, that the predicted assault of Gog
and Magog, whether by Ezekiel or by John, was to be
strictly a military invasion, and consequently that the
power thus denominated was to be a political, and not a
spiritual power, as some have maintained. — Passing
over several intermediate verses we come to the
following : —

V. 17. "Thus saith the Lord God; Art thou he of
whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the
prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days
many years, that I would bring thee against them ?"
The language here is very remarkable. It may be said
to afford a striking instance of the sovereignty of the

* The same remark applies to the original word iKVK\aaav,
rendered ' compassed about.' This also is a military phrase oc-
curring in relation to warlike invasions, as may be seen in the
following passages; Luke 21. 20. * And when ye shall see
Jerusalem compassed (KVKXoviitvrjv) with armies.' Heb, 11. 39.

♦ By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were com-
passed about (KVKXoiOfVTa) seven days.' Thus also Eccl. 9. 14.

* And there came a great king against it, and besieged it {KVK^daf
avTTjv).^ Is. 29. 3. 'And I will camp against thee round about
(icunXuorw), and will lay siege against thee.'

236 TREATISE ON

spirit of prophecy. By a bold and beautiful stroke of
the license of inspiration, the entire lapse of the inter-
vening centuries between the utterance of the predic-
tion and the period of its accomplishment, is represented
as having been passed over, and the Most High is in-
troduced just at the crisis of the fulfilment, while the
hostile legions are mustering their dread array, while
the blast of the martial trumpet is congregating the
countless hosts from the four corners of the earth ; and
is made to apostrophise and interrogate them in the
manner here described. As though the divine mind it-
self were impressed with a momentary emotion of
wonder at the perfect accomplishment of his own pre-
diction, he asks, as the darkening cloud of nations
moves onward, whether indeed he now beheld the very
power advancing to the very work, which he had ages
before, by his prophets Ezekiel, and Daniel, and others,
so clearly and unequivocally foretold? The highest
flight of the genius of classic poesy may be challenged
to exhibit a strain of grandeur and sublimity like this.
But mere rhetorical effect is never the ultimate scope of
the spirit of inspiration. Its revelations are made to
minister to the understanding rather than to the taste,
though the word of truth may occasionally flash forth a
demonstration that it is rich even where it is confessedly
poor. This striking apostrophe to Gog and JNIagog is
but as the questioning of the criminal before his doom
is pronounced. The verses immediately ensuing are
big with the burden of destiny. " I will call for a
sword against him throughout all my mountains (chris-

THE iMILLENNITJM. 237

tian kingdoms), saith the Lord God : every man's sword
shall be against his brother." But in order to display
more clearly the remarkable accordance between the
main features of the two prophecies, we shall present
them, side by side, in a tabelated view, to the eye of the
reader.

Rev. eh. xx, Ezek. ch. xxxviii. ix.

Son of man, set thy face against
Gog, the land of Magog.

I will bring thee forth, and all thine

army, horses and horsemen,— even a

And when the thousand years are f ^^^ ^'^""'P^^y ^i^h bucklers, all of

expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his T ""^ '"'°'''' '

prison. ^ firsm, Ethiopia, and Libya, with

And shall go out to deceive the na- '^^"' ^"^"'"^^ ^"d all his bands ; the
tions which are in the four quarters of ^"""'^ °^ Togarmah of the north quar-
the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather ^*''^' ^""^ ^'^ ^'^ ^^"*^^ ' ^"'^ '"^"^
them to battle ; the number of whom ^^T)^ '""^ '''"'•
is as the sand of the sea. ^^'^'^ "^^"^ *^^>'^ ^^^^ ^^^^' ^^ vis-

ited: in the latter years thou shall

come into the land.

Thou Shalt ascend and come like a
storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to
cover the land, thou, and all thy bands,
and many people with thee.

And thou shalt come from thy place

out of the north parts, thou, and many

people with thee, all of them sitting

upon horses, a great company, and a

mighty army :

And they went up on the breadth of And thou shalt come up against my

the earth, and compassed the camp of people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the

the saints about, and the beloved city : land; it shall be in the latter days,

and I will bring thee against my land
that the people may know me, when I
shall be satisfied in thee, O Gog, before
their eyes.

2i& TREATISE ON

And I will plead against him with
pestilence and with blood ; and I will
rain upon hinn, and upon bis bands,
arnl upon the many people that are
with him, an overflowing rain, and
great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

And I will send a fire on Magog, and
among them that dwell carelessly in
And fire came down from God out of j,,p jgi^^. . gp^ ^^^y shall know that 1
heaven and devoured them. gj^j d^g Lord.

These shall fall upon the mountains
of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and
the peojile that is with thee : I will
give thee unto the ravenous birds of
every sort, and to the beasts of the field
to be devoured.

The doom of the invading power is expressed in
strong and highly wrought, but figurative language, im-
plying that divine judgments should be superadded to
human reverses in effecting its utier overthrow. The
devouring ' fire,' mentioned by the latter prophet, which
was to ' come down from God out of heaven,' and do
the work of his wrath, is but another name for the di-
versified judgments of blood, pestilence, hail, fire, and
brimstone, described by Ezekiel. Where the one writer
is full, the other is brief; according to the uniform analogy
of the scriptures. That the prediction should be in a
great measure /tfera//y fulfilled, we have no hesitation in
admitting; but that 'fire' is the symbolic term for divine in-
flictions in general is clear from the usage of the prophets
and psalmists in instances innumerable : thus, Ps. 50. 3.
* Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence : a
fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempes-
tuous round about him,' i. e. he shall manifest his pre-
sence by tremendous judgments. To the same effect,
Vs. 97. 3. * A fire goeth before him and burneth up his

; 1

THE MILLENNIUM. 23^

enemies round about.' Ps. 78. 21. ' Therefore the Lord
heard this and was wroth : so 2ifire was kindled against
Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel.' Is. 9. 19.
* Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is
darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the
fire ; no man shall spare his brother.' Here the ' fire'
was the destruction of every one by the hand of his
brother. Is. 66. 15. * For behold, the Lord will come
with^re, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to ren-
der his anger with fury, and his rebukes with flames of
fire.'' Ezek. 21. 31, 32. 'And I will pour out mine in-
dignation upon thee, I will blow against thee in the^re
of my wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of brutish
men, and skilful to destroy. Thou shalt be fuel for the
fireJ' Lam. 4. 11. ' The Lord hath kindled cifire in
Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.'
Hos. 8. 14, ' For Israel hath forgotten his Maker and
buildeth temples; but I will send 2ifire upon his cities,
and it shall devour the palaces thereof.' The prevailing
import of the term ' fire' in all these instances is that of
calamities and judgments inflicted providentially by the
avenging hand of God. And such we doubt not is its
genuine sense in the passage before, us. The burden
of the oracle is, that Gog and Magog, notwithstanding
the strength and terror of their forces, their high purpose
of conquest and spoil, and their unwavering confidence
of success, should be confronted, discomfited, and de-
stroyed by the direct visitation of the Almighty arm.

But here it is to be remarked, that there is no neces-
sity of understanding the language as implying a sud^
den destruction, " They compassed the camp of the

240 TREATISE ON

saints about and the beloved city : and fire came down
from God out of heaven, and devoured them." The
import of this declaration is, that the besieging power
should be gradually wasted away in the progress of
lime by a succession of calamitous events, so marked in
their character, and so desolating in their effects, as to
refer themselves unequivocally to their true source in the
judicial counsels of Heaven. " The stars in their
courses fought against Sisera." The elements were to
be commissioned as the ministers of wrath to execute
the penal will of Jehovah. Plagues and pestilences
were to poison the atmosphere, ponderous hailstones
were to be engendered in the regions of the clouds, ruin-
ous conflagrations were to turn villages and cities to
ashes, and scenes of civil discord and blood were to
complete the work of extirpation. But in the nature of
things, without the intervention of a continuous series of
miracles, such a result could not be brought about in a
day or a year. Sufficient time must be allowed for the
operation of those second causes which were to be en-
listed in its production. By the very structure of the
prophetic style, future events, which are gradual and
successive in their occurrence, must be represented by
symbols derived from objects that are visible at one
view, or embraced in a smgle glance of the eye, so that
the accident of time is always to be a matter of mental
allowance on the part of the reader. What particular
period of time, or whether any definite portion at all, is
to enter into the account, is to be determined by other
circumstances. But nothing is more certain than that
a train of events covering an extended tract of ages i*

THE MILLENNIUM. 241

often represented by a set of symbolical actions which
may occupy in visionary display but the space of an in-
stant. As in an historical painting, though a scene may
be portrayed, the incidents of which, in actual occur-
rence, were separated by some little intervals of time,
yet from the nature of pictorial representation, they are
exhibited simultaneously, being all concentrated into one
single moment of time, or a crisis which has no respect
to duration. The necessary attribute of time has to be
supplied by the mind of the spectator. So in a pro-
phetical vision. Pharaoh, for instance, beheld in his
dream the seven fat kine emerging from the river, and
then the seven lean kine by whom the former were de-»
voured, and all this within the brief space of time in
which the literal action might be supposed to have been
accomplished, and yet we learn from Joseph's interpre-
tation that the period actually denoted by the imagery
was a period of no less than fourteen years. In like
manner, when it is said in a former vision of the Apoca-^
lypse, that ' to the woman were given two wings of a
great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness,' an
event is denoted which occupied a great many years in
the accomplishment. So again. Rev. 17. 16. * And the
ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall
hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked,,
and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.' By this i»
implied a gradual impoverishment, wasting, and destruc-
tion. The power symbolized by the profligate woman
was in process of time to become an object of detesta-
tion to its former adherents and auxiliaries, its treasures
and resources despoiled, and every species of indignity

242 TREATISE OIC

and contempt, violence and aggression, to be exercised
towards it. But the lapse of several centuries might
scarcely sufTice for the complete fulfilment of the pre-
diction. It is in fact the announcement of a mighty moral
revolution, involving an entire change of public opinion,
and a consequent reverse of conduct, in reference to a
certain system of ecclesiastical despotism which had
maintained a pernicious ascendancy over the minds of
men for a long course of ages. Like all other revolu-
tions, therefore, originating in principle^ it would require
time, and a long time, to bring it about.

But to return to the vision of John. We have stated
that the Old and New Testament prophecies under con-
sideration are not only similar, but identical, in their
scope ; that the Gog and Magog of Ezekiel is the Gog
and Magog of the Apocalypse ; that the denomination,
whether occurring in the one or the other, points to no
other than the Turkish power, that colossal scourge of
Christendom, which, though fast waning to its close, is
not yet destroyed ; from which it follows, by necessary
consequence, that the threatened destruction of this for-
midable host by fire from heaven is but the intimation
of the doom of the Moslem dominion ; a doom to be
executed not by a sudden blow, but by a gradual pro-
cess, like the drying up of the mystical Euphrates, a
symbol denoting in less forcible terms precisely the same
result with that shadowed forth by the fiery destruction
of Gog and Magog. As the Turkish invasion is denoted
by the loosing of the four angels that were bound in the
river Euphrates, so the gradual weakening, wasting, and

THE MILLENNIUM. 243

final extinction of that despotism is represented by the
drying up of the same river.

To what an extent this prediction respecting the grad-
ual demolition of the Turkish power has hitherto received
an accomplishment accordant with the explanation now
given of its terms, will appear from the following re-
marks of an enlightened traveller, made in 1821. ''■ The
circumstance," says the Rev. Mr. Walsh, chaplain to
the British ambassador at Constantinople, " most strik-
ing to a traveller passing through Turkey, is its depopu-
lation. Ruins where villages had been built, and fal-
lows where land had been cultivated, are frequently
seen with no living thing near them. This effect is not
so visible in larger towns, though the cause is known to
operate there in a still greater degree. Within the last
twenty years, Constantinople has lost more than half its
population. Two conjiagrations happened while I was
in Constantinople, and destroyed fifteen thousand houses.
The Russian and Greek wars were a constant drain on
the janisaries of the capital ; the silent operation of the
plague is continually active, though not always alarm-
ing ; — it will be no exaggeration to say, that within the
period mentioned, from three to four hundred thousand
persons have been prematurely swept away in one city
in Europe by causes which were not operating in any
other — conflagration^ pestilence, and civil commotion.
The Turks, though naturally of a robust and vigorous
constitution, addict themselves to such habits as are
very unfavourable to population — the births do little
more than exceed the ordinary deaths, and cannot sup-
ply the waste of casualties. The surrounding country

244 TREATISE ON

is therefore constantly drained to supply this waste in
the capital, which nevertheless exhibits districts nearly
depopulated. If we suppose these causes operate more
or less in every part of the Turkish empire, it will not
be too much to say, that there is more of human life
wasted., and less supplied, than in any other country.
We see every day life going out in the fairest portion of
Europe ; and the human race threatened with extinction
in a soil and climate capable of supporting the most
abundant population."*

* Walsh's Narrative, pp. 22-24.

The following is extracted from the London Record news-
paper of Nov. 14, 1831 :—

" Constantinople., Oct. 10. — On the 5th inst. a natural plie-
nomenon, such as few persons remeaiber, and the effects of
which have been most destructive, filled with terror the inhab-
itants of this country ; who are at the same time sufferinjj
under all kinds of evils. After an uncommonly sultry night,
threatening clouds arose, about six in the morning, in the hori-
zon to the south-west, and a noise between thunder and tem-
pest, and yet not to be compared with either, increased every
moment ; and the inhabitants of the capital, roused from their
sleep, awaited with anxious expectation the issue of this threat-
ening phenomenon. Their uncertainty was not of long dura-
tion : lumps of ice., as large as a man's foot, falling, first singly
and then like a thick shower of stones, which destroyed every
thing that they came in contact with. The oldest persons do
not remember ever to have seen suck hails/ones. Some were
picked up, half an hour afterwards, which weighed above a
pound. This dreadful storm passed over Constantinople, and
along the Bosphorus, over Therapis, Bujukden, and Belgrade :
and the fairest, nay, the only hope of this beautiful and fertile
tract, the vintage, just commenced, was destroyed in a day.
Animals of all kinds, and even some persons, are said to have

THE MILLENNIUM. 245

This general explanation will afford an adequate key-
to all the minor particulars of the emblematic scenery.
They are said to have ' compassed the camp of the
saints about and the beloved city/ The parallel ex-
pression in Ezekiel is, ' And thou shalt come up against
ray people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land.' The
phraseology of the one prophet is a clew to that of the
other. The ' camp of the saints' beleaguered by the
multitudinous armies of Gog and Magog is equivalent
to the ' people of Israel' surrounded by the myriads of
horsemen in the former prophet. But we have already
seen that ' Israel' is the prophetic designation of Chris-
tians. The land of Israel is the territories of Chris-
tendom. And the body of Christian nations against
"whom the Turkish tribes were to array themselves are
probably described as an ' encampment' in reference to
the military attitude which in self-defence they have

been killed ; an incalculable number are wounded ; and the
damage done to the houses is incalculable. Besides that,
scarcely a window has escaped in all the country. The force
of the fallen masses of ice was so great, that they broke to atoms
all the tiles on the roofs, and scattered, like musket balls, planks
half an inch thick. Since that day, the rain has not ceased to
pour down in torrents, and, from the slight way in which the
houses are built, almost wholly consisting of windows, and with
very flat roofs, that have nothing to keep off wet besides tiles,
innumerable families are not much more comfortable than a
bivouac. If, in addition to this, we consider that, in conse-
quence of Pera, and the greal fires of Constantinople itself,
many have no shelter whatever ; and recollect, besides, the
plague which continues to spread, and the cases of cholera^
which still occur ; the whole together makes a most gloomy
picture."

246 TREATISE ON

been for ages compelled to assume and maintain. The
appellation ' saints,' «>/«/, is bestowed on the ground not
so much of personal as of relative character, pointing to
a body of men professing the true religion, and thus con-
tradistinguished from the mass of the infidel followers
of the False Prophet. The ' beloved city,' if not equiv-
alent to, and exegetical of the foregoing phrase, ' camp
of the saints,' may be supposed to refer to some pre-
eminently favored, chosen, and precious region com-
prised within those limits which were environed or over-
run by the desolating squadrons of the northern Gog. If
so, to what memorable spot does the finger of inspira-
tion more probably point than to the land of Palestine,
and the city of Jerusalem, of which the Psalmist says,
Ps. 87. 2. ' The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more
than all the dwellings of Jacob.' " But the most in-
teresting conquest," says the historian, " of the Selju-
kian Turks, was that of Jerusalem, which soon became
the theatre of nations."* In the parallel prophecy of
Daniel, ch. 11. 41. it is said, 'He shall enter also into
the glorious land, and many countries shall be over-
thrown.' Again, v. 45. ' A.nd he shall plant the taber-
nacles of his palaces between the seas in the glorious
holy mountain;'' unequivocal allusions to the land of
Palestine. To say, therefore, that the ' beloved city,'
the * beauty of all lands,' ' the joy of the whole earth,'
has been for ages in the condition here described, in a
state of perpetual siege, hemmed in and ruled over by
the ruthless Turk, is but affirming the most obvious fact
of history, and reciting the accomplishment of the

♦ Decline and Fall, p. 1064.

THE MILLENNIUM. 247

Savior's own" words, Luke 21. 24. that 'Jerusalem
should be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times
of the Gentiles be fulfilled.'

Such then is the substance of our exposition of the
Gog and Magog of the Apocalypse. We regard the
terms as simply the prophetical designation of the Turk-
ish power, constituting the woe of the sixth trumpet, the
period of which coincides with the closing epoch of the
Millennium. And we have endeavoured to show that
the unquestionable facts of history go to confirm, in a
striking manner, the truth of this position. We have
also adduced evidence to prove that the Spirit of inspira-
tion, speaking through Ezekiel, predicted, more than a
thousand years before, the rise, irruption, and over-
throw of the same invading power. And we now ob-
serve that it is in this latter fact that we find a clew to
the phraseology of John, Kev. 20. 3. ' And after that he
must [hi) be loosed a little season.' The necessity here
predicated of the temporary enlargement of Satan is
founded upon the circumstance that such an event is
plainly foretold in the Old Testament oracles. The
punctual fulfilment of these ancient predictions required
that precisely such an event should take place. This
interpretation is supported by the following instances of a
parallel diction in the Evangelists and Apostles. Mat. 24.
6. ' And when ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars,
see that ye be not troubled : for all these things must
{ih() come to pass, but the end is not yet.' They must
come to pass because they were predicted. Mat. 26. 54.
* But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus
it must (hi) be.' Mark 8. 31. * And he began to teach

248 TREATISE ON

them, that the Son of man must (ht) suffer many things,
and be rejected of the elders,' &;c. i. e. in order to the
verifying of the predictions of Moses and the prophets.
Luke 23. 37. * For I say unto you that this that is
written must [h() yet be accompUshed in me, A.nd he
was reckoned among the transgressors ;' i. e. it must be
accomplished because it was written. John 20. 9. * For
as yet they knew not the Scriptures, that he viust (S^ti)
rise again from the dead.' Acts 17. 2. 3. * And rea-
soned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and al-
leging that Christ must needs {e^et) have suffered, and
risen again from the dead.' Luke 24. 46. *And said
unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved {e^tt)
Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day.'
Accordingly it will be found to hold good as a general
remark, that wherever the New Testament writers speak
of any event as necessary to be accomplished, this ne-
cessity is based not upon the secret, but upon the revealed
will of the Most High, as disclosed by his ancient ser-
vants the prophets. On the ground therefore of long
previous annunciation, it was necessary that Satan should
be ' loosed out of his prison, and should go out to deceive
the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth,
Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle.'

But here it may be asked, how the expression ' de-
ceive' (^Xo(¥^<rxi)y if it bear the sense already ascribed \o
it of seducing by means of religious imposture, can
properly be applied to these heathen nations, seeing
that they were already deceived from the very fact of
their being under the jurisdiction of the Dragon prior to
their issuing forth upon this fatal expedition ? We an-

Tttt MILLENNIUM. 249

swer, that the specific end of his ' deception' on this OC"
casion is expressly defined by the words of the prophet.

E^eXeuTCTeti TrXxvrjrui — irvvccyxyelv u,uroh<; il<; •froXefjuav — -
He shall go forth to deceive them — to gather them to-
gether to battle. This then was the drifi of his delud-
ing subtleties, to infatuate their minds with the project of
a grand and glorious conquest to be achieved over
Christendom, in consequence of which they should mus-
ter an immense armament, and go forth buoyant with
hope, and blustering M'ith bravado, to the momentous
conflict. " The enemy said, I will pursue, I will over^
take, I will divide the spoil ; my lust shall be satisfied
upon them ; I will draw the sword, ray hand shall destroy
them." This was the precise nature of the 'deception'
to be practised upon the belligerent legions of Gog and
Magog. They were to be urged on by the delusive pros-
pect of success in their undertaking, while ultimate,
remediless ruin awaited them. The term ' deceive,'
therefore, in this connexion must, by the exigentia loci,
be interpreted in a sense somewhat different from that
assigned to it above. ^- •»

The only point which now remains to be considered is
that of dates; and this is a point requiring a very close
examination. If the Dragon were not to be released
from his confinement in the mystic abyss till the full
expiration of the thousand years, and if this tliousand
years be dated from the reign of Theodosius or shortly
after, that is, from some point between A. D. 395 and
A. D. 450, it may be objected, that this determination
of periods will by no means tally with the grand epochs
of the Turkish history. For nothing is more certain

260 TREATISE ON

than that their first inroads upon the territories of Chris-
tendom were at least two or three centuries prior to the
dale to which this calculation would assign them.
"The lords of a great part of Asia, which lies between the
Indus and the Bosphorus, proceeded originally from the
nation wliieh dwells in the Khozzer or Khozzez plains,
at the north-east of the Caspian sea. They were called
Turks or Turkmans : and their first important emi-
gration took place in the tenth century. These Tar-
tars, like most others of their nation in their emigrations
to the south, embraced the Mohammedan religion."*
This expedition was headed by Seljuk, grandfather of
Togrol-Bcc, who between the years 1038 and 1063 de-
feated the Gaznevides, subjugated Persia, and was
solemnly recognised by the Caliph of Bagdad as the
master of all the Mohammedan states, and as the
vicegerent of the Moslem world. His nephew Alp
Arslan succeeded him in the year 1063 : and at the
close of a prosperous reign, " the fairest parts of Asia
were subject to his laws, twelve hundred kings or chiefs
stood before his throne, and two hundred thousand sol-
diers marched under his banners." He was succeeded
by his son Malek-Shah, who reigned from 1072 to the
year 1092, and who was the greatest prince of his age.
" Persia was his ; the emirs of Syria paid their sub-
mission of tribute and respect ; and daily prayers were
ofiered for his health in Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Bag-
dad, Rhei, Ispahan, Samarcand, Bokhara, and Kashgar.
But the greatness and unity of the Turkish empire ex-
pired in the person of Malck-Shah. On liis death in

* Mills' Hist, of Mohamm. p. 233.

THE MILLENNIUM. 251

the year 1092, the vast fabric fell to the ground; and,
after a series of civil wars, four dynasties, contemporary
and not successive, were formed : namely, that of Per-
sia at large ; that of Kerman, a province of Persia ;
that of a large portion of Syria, including Aleppo and
Damascus ; and that of Rhoum, or Asia Minor."

In the year 1240, the Ottoman Turks, who dwelt
originally at the north of the Caspian sea on the plains
of Kipjack or Cumania, made their appearance in Ar-
menia, Syria, and Asia Minor. " Some of them engaged
in the service of Aladdin, the Seljuk sultan of Iconium
or Rhoum: and it was not beneath the dignity of their
leader Ortugrul to become the subject and soldier of
that prince. The Seljuks of Iconium and the Koras-«
mian Tartars became one people : in history they were
known by the common name of Ottoman Turks : and
the sword and sceptre of power were transferred from
the sluggard Seljukian princes to their ambitious and
enterprising generals."*

The narrative thus briefly recited stands almost self-
applied to the events announced under the sixth trumpet,
which, according to our interpretation, brings the Gog
and Magog power upon the prophetic platform. The
four angels described as bound in the regions bordering
on the river Euphrates, are the four contemporary sul-
tanies, or dynasties, into which the empire of the Sel-«
jukian Turks was divided towards the close of the
eleventh century : Persia, Kerman, Syria, and Rhoum.
" These were long restrained from extending their con-
quests beyond what may be geographically termed the

* Mills' Hist, of Mohani.m. p. 133-^61.

2!52 TREATISE ON

Eiiphraitan regions, partly by the quadruple division of
their once united empire, partly by the revolutions of
Asia, and partly by the instrumentality of the Crusades.
But towards the close of the thirteenth century, the four
angels on the river Euphrates were forthwith loosed
in the persons of their existing representatives, the
united Ottoman and Seljukian Turks."*

Now as the thousand years of the Apocalypse were
not completed at the close of the thirteenth century, the
question arises, With what propriety, consistently with
the sacred text, can Satan, in the person of the Ottoman
or Seljukian Turks, be said to have been loosed at that
time ? This question deserves a well-considered reply.
In offering a solution of the problem, let us weigh the
genuine import of the original : — Kx) orrcv reMe-Gfj ru
Xi^fot- £7'»J- Of these words the common translation is,
* And when the thousand years are expired ;' understand-
ing the term of years to be fidly completed. But a
more correct rendering we apprehend to be, ' And
when the thousand years are expiring, or drawing to-
wards a close.'' The grammatical structure of the pas-
sage does not, as we conceive, imperiously require us to
understand the period as having fully elapsed. The
subjunctive mode in Greek having no future tense, but
being obliged for that purpose to employ the aorists, or
indefinite tenses, is often used in connexion with the ad-
verb oTxv, 10 denote time current instead of time complete.
The following cases of a strictly parallel phraseology
will redeem our proposed version from the charge of
being arbitrarily adopted, merely to serve a turn. A re~

♦ FabcEs' Sac. Calend. of Proph, vol. iL p. 415.

THE MILLENNIUM. 253

markably apposite instance is afforded in a former part
of the Revelation, ch. 1 1. 7., where the war or prolonged
hostility of the Beast against the Witnesses is mentioned.
»And when they shall have finished their testimony
(Gr. oTetv reXec-6/ai r-/i9 f^coc^rv^iuv xvrm),, the Beast, that
ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, shall make war
against them, and overcome them.' Grotius, Mede,
Whiston, More, Daubuz, Lowman, and Newton unani-
mously agree that the true rendering in this place is.
When they shall be finishings or about to finish, their
testimony. The reason of it is plain ; for the Beast
was not to defer his persecution till after they had com-
pleted their testimony, but was to make war against
them during the time that they were actually engaged in
it. The sense therefore is plainly, While they shall be
finishings or executing their testimony* Again, Mat. 5.
11. ' Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and per-
secute you,* &;c. (Gr. otxv om^iaaaDi v/Jioit; kxi hia^aci^ ;
i. e. not when men shall have reviled and persecuted

* Daubuz, after rendering the original, — ' And whilst they shalt
perform their testimony,^ — remarks : " This is the right meaning
of these words, as Grotius, More, and others, even Mede him-
self, own. For the word rtXtw may signify the doing any thing
in order to its perfection, as well as the actual finishing of it»
So fTTtrfXfw, in Heb. 9. 6., signifies simply to accomplish^ without
any respect to the end, any more than to the whole service : and
the particle S av, whilst, suits exactly with this sense, Matt. 5. 11 ;
10. 19. Now the sense of the whole requires it absolutely ; for
the power of the Beast is to make war against them during all the
time of their testimony, and that power in Ch. 13. 5., is said to
be 42 months, which are equal to the 1260 days of thef?e witnesses*
prophesying. Therefore the Beast makes war upon them all the
time whilst they perform their testimony.'''' — Daubuz Pcrpet.. Con^
fuent. p. 514.

254 TREATISE 0:^"

you, but even while they are doing it. Mat. 10. 1^
* But when they deliver you up (GTr. <jt«v 7rx^ct$'i^aatv iifMc^)
take no thought,' Sic. ; i. e. wlien they are delivering you
up. So also 1 Thess. 5. 3. ' For when they shall say
(oTitv yec^ Afy«c-/v), peace and safety ; then sudden de-
struction cometh upon ihem ;' i. e. while they shall be
saying. Instances of the same usage might be accumu-
lated in great abundance, from profane as well as sacred
writers, but the cases adduced will be sufficient, if we
mistake not, to sustain our construction of the passage.
We rest therefore in the conclusion that the Holy
Spirit intended by the phraseology of the text to signifyno
more than that while the thousand years ' were finishing,'
or verging to their termination, Satan, in the person of
the pagan hordes of the north, should be released from
that providential restraint to which he had been so
long subjected, and should renew his machinations
and cruelties against the christianized portions of the
globe. It might, perhaps, be one, two, or three cen-
turies before the complete consummation of the millennial
period that he began to set his projects on foot. But in
so large and far-reaching a prophecy as that before us,
these minor fractions of time are not regarded by the
spirit of inspiration. The predominant scope of the
oracle is merely to announce in general terms the future
irruptioii and hostile assault of the Turkish power, fol-
lowed by its final discomfiture and destruction. The
minute specification of dates, therefore, is not a matter
of prime importance in the unravelling of the mysteries
of the vision. It may be supposed that the Turkish
power, although it commenced its career, and made its

THE MILLENNIUM. 255

incipient conquests one or two centuries prior to the full
expiration of the Millennium, yet it attained its acme
about the time of its close, and this construction will
perhaps answer all the demands of the text. The cap-
ture of Constantinople, A. D. 1453, levelled the last
bulwark that protected the Greek empire from the arms
of the Ottomans, and the probable epoch of the expiration
of the thousand years of the Apocalypse, was signalized
by the effectual establishment of these descendants of
the ancient Gog and Magog, in the once flourishing
provinces of Europe and the church.*

From that time forward the spirit of prophecy has
seen fit to give no other particular intimations of the
fate and fortunes of the Turkish power than what is
contained in the brief but pregnant declaration, that
" fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured
tliem," denoting, as we have already hinted, the gradual
wasting away, in consequence of a series of judicial
visitations of heaven, of that once formidable dominion,
reared by the prowess of the scimitar, and cemented
and upheld by the delusions of the Koran. The same
result is shadowed out with equal significancy by the
symbol of the drying up of the waters of the Euphrates
under the effusion of the sixth vial, indicating the decay
and exhausture of the resources, strength, population,

* While Constantinople was besieged by the Turks, some of
the priests, on being reproached for their compliances with some
of the superstitions of the Latin church, repUed : — " Have pa-
tience, till God shall have delivered the city from the great dragon
who seeks to devour us. You shall then perceive whether we are
truly reconciled with the Azymites." — GihborCs Decl. and Fall, p.
1229.

256 TREATISE ON

and territory of the empire of the Moslems. The
process in our own day is still going on with signal and
uninterrupted rapidity. Scarcely an arrival from an
European port but brings the intelligence of another
and a farther stage in her irretrievably downward career.
Whether it be by the ravages of the cholera or the
plague, of fire or tornadoes, of foreign invasion or in-
ternal revolt, the work of ruin is still advancing. Hosts
of evil angels seem leagued together for its overthrow.
Every succeeding report is a report of disasters, pro-
claiming the waning glories of the Crescent, and tolling
afresh the knell of the dynasty of the Ottomans.
" The spider has wove his web in the imperial palace,
and the owl hath sung her watch-song in the towers of
Afrasiab."

THE MILLENNIUM. 25:7

CHAPTER VI.

CONCLUSION.

Correct Views of the Millennium attainable only from a right
Interpretation of the Prophetic Symbols — Whatever Ditfi-
culties attend the Theory broached in the present Treatise,
the common Doctrine embarrassed by equal or greater —
Some of them stated — Hints respecting the predicted Con-
flagration of the Heavens and the Earth — True Character of
the Prophetic Intimations of the future Prospects of the
Church and the World.

The foregoing pages have been devoted to the state-
ment and confirmation of that view^ of the Apocalyptic
Millennium which, and which only, we deem to be
supported by a fair and unforced exegesis of the sacred
text. This view, we are well aware, is widely at va-
riance with the prevailing sentiments of the Christian
world in relation to the grand period thus denominated.
We have arrayed ourselves in opposition to the popular
theory, which regards the Millennium as yet future, and
in so doino- are conscious of havincr incurred all that
responsibility, not to say odium, which attaches to the
attempt to assail and undermine a long-established and
seldom-questioned opinion. But that we have not en-
listed unadvisedly in the defence of the position which
the reader will find advocated, however feebly, in the
preceding chapters, we trust will be evident from the
careful, candid, and plausible, if not conclusive, train

258 TREATISE ON

of investigaiion into which we have entered. It is
hoped that the show of sound reasoning, sustained by
philological and historical induction, will redeem the
theory from the charge of wild extravagance, though it
should fail to win an unwavering assent.

Of one thing, at least, we may venture to assure our-
selves without hesitation ; that is, that the genuine doc-
trine of the Millennium, if we have not succeeded in
establishing it, must be determined, whenever it shall
be done, by a method similar to that adopted in the
present work. The import of the prophetic symbols
must be definitively settled before a single step can be
taken towards a satisfactory solution of the great prob-
lem. The notion of a future era of blessedness ap-
pointed in the benignity of the Divine counsels to dawn
upon our world in the latter ages of its duration, is
indeed one peculiarly congenial to the human mind, and
in support of which many plausible reasons may be
adduced from the general hints and intimations dispersed
through the oracles of the prophets. And we doubt
not that such an expectation receives the decided coun-
tenance of an enlightened reason, apart from the ex-
press assurances of Scripture. But as to the anticipa-
tion of a period so strictly defined and so characteris-
tically marked as the Millennium of the Apocalypse, an
intelligent anticipation needs to be based upon grounds
less vague and equivocal. The precise meaning of
the inspired annunciations must be understood. Faith,
hope, and charity may combine to excite the sanguine
expectation of a blissful state of the world, and an ar-
dent fancy may be invoked to throw the hues of the

THE MILLENNIUM. 259

primitive paradise over the scene ; when at the same time,
if brought to the test of rigid exegesis, it may be no-
thing more than a brilliant illusion, destined to be ruth-
lessly dispelled by the onward course of time and Pro-
vidence.

The present belongs to man, the future to God. As
coming events are in themselves utterly veiled from
human foresight, the prospects of the church and the
world are matters of pure revelation. They can enter no
farther into the scope of our limited vision than as the
curtain of concealment is lifted from before them by
the hand of inspiration. Now, although the predictions
of holy writ are designed to acquaint us in great meas-
ure with the arcana of futurity, yet these predictions
are delivered in a style dark and enigmatical, without
the proper key to which they still remain enveloped in
impenetrable obscurity. The language of symbols is
the vehicle of prophecy. If we Avould explore the
labyrinth, we must guide our footsteps by the only clew
which will conduct us through its recesses. As it re-
spects, then, the popular doctrine of a future Millen-
nium, if we would not embrace a shadow for a sub-
stance, the very first question to be resolved is, What is
the genuine import of the figurative and symbolical
terms in which this period is announced, and by which
it is described ? Nothing that can properly be called
knowledge is attainable on the subject without settling
this matter in the outset. It is accordingly in this de-
partment of our inquiry that we have laid out ' the
beginning of our strength ;' and unless the truth and
justice of our symbolical interpretations be first disproved,

260 TREATISE Ofi

we hcive little fear that our main position can be ovef*
thrown. Here then we intrench ourselves ; behind this
munition we take refuge from the missiles of prejudice,
and the shafts of imputed heresy.

Now if it may be fairly assumed that we have^ in our
foregoing discussions, established the grand position,
that the Millennium^ strictly so called^ is past, we beg
leave to request, that no inferential or hypothetical diffi-
culties arising from the apprehended relation of this to
other doctrines of the Scriptures may be allowed to
invalidate or vacate the above conclusion. It may per-
haps be said that, as the resurrection of the dead, the
day of judgment, the second coming of Christ, and the
end of the world, are, at least, in the prevailing con-
sent of Christians, intimately associated with the close
of the Millennium, if that period be already past, inex-
tricable confusion rests upon all the cognate doctrines
now mentioned. The mass of the Christian world is,
on this supposition, utterly thrown out of its reckon-
ings, and is reduced to the condition of a vessel in mid-
ocean which has lost its charts, journals, and instru-
ments, and which a clouded sky in addition prevents
from taking any kind of celestial observation. Its
course and bearings, therefore, its distances and dangers,
are all matters of vague conjecture and fearful anxiety.

In answer to this, we have only to say, that we can-
not see the justice of being held responsible for conse-
quences having relation to other truths, provided our
main point, the proof of which is conducted independ-
ently of all correlate tenets, is solidly and conclusively
made out. It must be obvious to the reader that we

THE MILLENNIUM. 261

have proposed to ourselves a single object of inquiry
and proof, viz. that the Millennium of John is past.
This position we have treated as capable of being es-
tablished upon independent grounds, by a train of argu-
ment having no respect to any kindred dogmas what-
ever. If we have succeeded in our attempt, if the de^
monstration be in itself sound, the conclusion must stand,
however it may be impugned on the ground of being at
variance with other commonly-received articles of faith.
For any such discrepancy the conclusion cannot be
deemed responsible, nor does it fairly devolve upon us
to show how the result we have reached is to be har-
monized with those points of revelation with which it is
supposed to be in conflict. Leaving this task, there-
fore, to those who think it needful to be accomplished,
we challenge a rigid scrutiny to our grand position,
and to the chain of proofs upon which it rests. Let it
stand or fall upon its own merits. And let him who
shall take up the gage, be reminded, that if he denies
the signification which we have assigned to the pro-
phetic symbols, it devolves upon him to state the rea-
sons of his dissent, and to show what they do mean.

But on the score of difficulties, whatever may be
urged against the dominant theory of the present trea-
tise, it may be suggested, that the common hypothesis
of the Millennium is by no means exempt from them.
It is not a very unusual occurrence, when any new
view of a theological or scriptural subject is broached,
to array against it a host of objections, and to insist upon
the formidable difficulties with which it is encumbered,
as if the old view were free from all exceptions, and

262 TREATISE ON

Stood forth in self-evident truth, while in fart it was the
difriculties attendant upon the popular belief which
gave rise to the innovation. Thus a warm advocate
for slavery is fully alive to the difficulties and dangers
of any new scheme of emancipation, and is fertile of
arguments against them, while he entirely loses sight
of the perils growing out of the continuance of the
evil. It is certain that there are points in the popular
theory of the Millennium which do not readily accord
with the descriptions of the same period as contained
in other portions of the Scriptures. According to the
prevalent opinion, the duration of what is termed ' the
latter day glory' is to be limited to a definite term of
years, at the expiration of which a general and stu-
pendous apostasy is to ensue, to be arrested only by
the sudden appearance of the Son of God throned in
the clouds of heaven, and coming to judge the quick
and the dead. Upon this supposition, a dark and por-
tentous cloud, visible from the commencement of the
contemplated period, will approach nearer and nearer,
and gathering blackness in its progress, will eventually
surround the camp of the saints. Not an eye but must
behold the inmunerable forces of an unknown enemy,
rising up as from a temporary slumber, like giants re-
freshed, marshalling their appalling array, and falling
into their countless ranks. Now we cannot but regard
this construction as at variance with the general drift of
the predictions announcing the final prosperity and
glory of tlie Redeemer's kingdom. Turning to the
sublime strains of Isaiali, while his closing chapters
abound with the most chcenng intimations of a state of

THE MILLENNIUM. 263

unprecedented blessedness, to be enjoyed by earth's
later g'enerations, we find no specification of time by
which this golden era is to be circumscribed. So also
in the more precise and chronological prophecy of
Daniel, where, if anywhere, we are to look for an
exact determination of times and seasons, the final es-
tablishment and triumphs of the kingdom of the Mes-
siah are expressly foretold without being limited to any
special term of years. In the inspired interpretation
of that part of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in which a
stone was seen to be cut out without hands, and after
smiting, and prostrating, and dashing to pieces the co-
lossal image of the vision, to swell to mountain magni-
tude, and finally to fill the whole earth, the monarch
was informed that " in the days of these kings the
God of heaven should set up a kingdom, which should
never be destroyed : and the kingdom shall not be left
to other people, but it shall break in pieces, and con-
sume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever,
(And) forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut
out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in
pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the
gold ; the great God hath made known to the king
what shall come to pass hereafter."* This magnificent
result is more explicitly detailed in a subsequent vision
with its corresponding explanation. " I saw in the
mighty visions, and behold one like the Son of man
came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the An-
cient of days, and they brought him near before him,

* Dan. 2. 35-45.

264 TREATISE ON

And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a
kingdom, that all people and nations and languages
should serve him : his dominion is an everlasting do-^
minion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom
that which shall not be destroyed. I, Daniel, was
grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the
visions of my head troubled me. I came near unto
one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth
(meaning) of all this. So he told me, and made me
know the interpretation of the things. These great
beasts, which are four, are four kings (kingdoms),
which shall arise out of ihe earth. But the saints of
the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the
kingdom for ever, and for ever and ever. And the king-
dom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom
under the whole heaven shall be given to the people
of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and
obey him."*

Now if this, according to the prevailing impression,
be indeed prophetic of that period familiarly denomi-
nated the Millennium, how comes it to be announced
in such unqualified terms, on the score of duration ?
Here is nothing indicating in the slightest degree that
after the lapse of a thousand years so tremendous a
reverse was to ensue as usually enters into the antici-
pations of the Christian world ; nothing which would
intimate that the sun of that beatific day, after a bright
Millennial circuit, was to set in the dreary night of a

♦ Pan. T. 15-27.

THE MILLENNIUM. 265

grand and almost universal apostasy. On the contrary,
the language plainly bespeaks an era of unlimited dura-
tion. The saints are to possess the kingdom for ever
and ever, implying a period, not of eternal, but of in-
definite extent. We are, therefore, compelled to regard
this and the kindred predictions of Daniel and other
Old Testament prophets, as pointing to an age of the
world entirely distinct from the Millennium of John,
though nothing is more common than to confound them.
This conviction is strengthened by the fact, that the
event announced in the following vision of the chrono-
logical Prophet of the Old Testament is to take place
anterior to the establishment of that kingdom of the
saints to which allusion has just been made. Dan. 7.
9-11. 'I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and
the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white
as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool : his
throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burn-
ing fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from
before him : thousand thousands ministered unto him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him :
the judgment was set and the books were opened. I
beheld then because of the voice of the great words
which the horn spake : I beheld even till the beast was
slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning
flame.'* Now we would ask, whether upon the com-

* " The machinery here employed is so obviously borrowed
from the great day of final retribution, that probably most
readers are led to imagine the subject of the prediction to ba
the literal day of judgment : yet, as we proceed, it is abundantly
clear, that the events described in this high strain of poetry

Z 2

266 tREAtlSfi 05P

mon theory of the Millenniiiin, any event answering to
this august representation has yet taken place, or is at
all provided for among the antecedents of that period?
Is it not, on the other hand, uniformly regarded as the
pre-intimation of the general judgment, although the
reason of its introduction in this connexion, as few
have examined, so few can explain? But the general
judgment is understood to follow, not precede the popu-
lar Millennium. Yet this judgment is most unquestion-
ably to occur prior to the very period which the mass
of the Christian world regard as the period of the Mil-
lennium. How can these things be? On the hypo-
thesis which we advocate, all difficulty is removed ; on
any other, it is insuperable.

all take place upon earth, long before the dissolution of our
present mundane system, and long before the /<7er«i judgment
both of the quick and the dead. The thrones are placed, in-
deed, and the Ancient of days takes his seat upon the tribunal ;
but the wliole of this is done for the sole purpose of temporally
judging and destroying the corrupt Roman Empire ; w hich by
the macliinations of llie little horn, liad been seduced into doc-
trinal apostasy and into active persecution. Accordingly, as
the Roman Empire neither is, nor could be, judged anywhere
save in this present world ; so, even when the judgment in
question is closed, Messiah and his saints have a kingdom allot-
ted to them under the whole heaven. But if this allotted
kingdom be under the whole heaven, then, indisputably, it
must be upon this present eartli. Hence we clearly learn, that
the judgment, described by Daniel, occurs iu the world which
wo now inhabit : and hence also, because circumstances are
said to follow it which plainly cannot follow the literal day of
judgment, we no less clearly learn, that it long precedes the
literal judgtnc?it-day at the universal consummation." — Faber^s
Sac. Calend. of Proph. vol. i. p. 2-22.

THE MILLENNIUM. 267

The beast here mentioned, as the object of this wast-
ing judgment, is expressly affirmed to be identical with
the fourth or Roman kingdom of the vision, of which
it is said, that it was to be " diverse from all king-
doms, and should devour the whole earth, and should
tread it down, and break it in pieces." It is upon
this bestial sovereignty, another name for the col-
lective body of the modern European kingdoms which
sprung from the old Roman Empire, and which are re-
garded in prophecy as a prolongation of its being, that
the fiery judgment is to sit, " to take away its dominion,
to consume and to destroy it to the end ;" after which
it is, that the kingdom under the whole heaven js to be
given to the people of the saints of the Most High.
Now the fourth Beast of Daniel is confessedly the
seven-headed and ten-horned Beast of the Revelation,
which succeeded the Dragon, and whose reigning ca-
reer is to be wound up with the expiration of the period
of 1260 years from its commencement, an epoch to the
borders of which we have now, in the revolution of
centuries, and the eventuations of Providence, very
closely approximated. The downfall of these despotic
governments, in consequence of the spread and influence
of liberal principles among the great mass of the popu-
lation of Europe, is the appointed precursor in the
counsels of Heaven to the ushering in of the ecumenical
empire of Christ and his saints. The event we sup-
pose to be alluded to in the expression — " I beheld till
the thrones were cast down;'''' i. e. the thrones of the
existing monarchies of Christendom, every one of which
is a nuisance to the earth, that must be swept away be-
fore the advances of the kingdom of righteousness.

268 TREATISE ON

For " where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is hberty."
But true liberty cannot consist with hereditary sover-
eignty in any portion of the globe. Putting a crown
on the head of a king is putting an extinguisher on the
lamp of freedom. And accordingly, in the sublime an-
nunciation of the period in question, which we affirm to
be a period of unlimited continuance, and which is in-
troduced by the sounding of the seventh trumpet, it is
said, Rev. 11. 15. 'And the seventh angel sounded;
and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The king-
doms of this world are become the kingdoms of our
Lord, and his Christ ; and he shall reign for ever and
ever.' By this is intended, that the pernicious, but tol-
erated, domination which had hitherto been exercised
by the sceptre-bearing powers of this world was to
come to an end by being merged in the high and holy,
the benign and welcome, lordship of the King of saints,
who w^as to be crowned with many crowns, and to re-
ceive the willing homage of a regenerated world.*

* " Here again the machinery is borrowed from llie great
day of final retribution : yet it is perfectly clear, that the day of
judgment thus described cannot be the literal day of judgment.
At the literal day of judgment, this world is brought to a close ;
and nothing terminated succeeds it. But the day of judgment
described by St. John, like that described by Daniel, is follotved
by various important transactions iipori the identical earth which
we now inhabit. Christ and his saints reign a thousand years,
Satan deceives the nations which are in the four quarters of tl>e
earth,and therefore obviously vpoyi the earth : these nations hav-
ing formed themselves into a great anli-christian confederacy,
go up on the breadth of the earth ; and therefore still t/pon the
earth, for the purpose of attacking tho saints and the beloved
city : fire from heaven destroys them : and at length the literal

THE MILLENNIUM. 269

But as a change like this in the existing state of things
could not be effected without violent revolutions, involv-
ing the downfall of governments, the ostracism of privi-
leged orders, the cessation of long-established usages,
the proscription of inveterate opinions ; in a word, the
upheaving of the ancient foundations of society ; it is not
unfitly represented by the imagery of a sitting 'judg-
ment,' especially as the whole is to be accomplished
under the immediate overruling^ providence of God. It
is obvious, moreover, that no short period of time is
necessary for the production of a result so stupendous.
Being a change which is to be effected by the opera-
tion of morale and not by miraculous agency, it must be
gradual in its accomplishment ; and although in our own
day the elements are beginning to work, and the incipient
developments to display themselves, yet the present gen-
eration may be permitted to see but a very few pages
unrolled of the great volume of destiny. Death, the
ruthless interrupter, will doubtless throw his impene-
trable films before our eyes, and hide from us all but
the early dawn of that day Avhich is even now spreading
its light upon the mountains. But ' instead of the

day of judgment arrives, wlien the dead, both small and great,
(stand before God. Hence it is evident that the day of judg-
ment, which the apostle describes as commencing with the
seventh Apocalyptic trumpet, cannot be the lileralda.y of judg-
ment at the end of the world. In fact, it not only precedes
the literal day of judgment by more than a thousand years ;
but, like the parallel judgment described by Daniel, it com-
mences upon earthy and has for its object the temporal destruc-
tion of the self-same apostatic Roman Empire." — Faber*t
Sac. Calend, of Proph. vol. i. p. 224.

270 TREATISE ON

fathers shall be the children.' The men of another
generation shall arise to push forward the fortunes of
the world. They shall behold the morning-tide waxing
brighter and brighter to the perfect day, and finally
rejoice in the effulgence of its high meridian.

" So God hath greatly purposed. —
Haste then, and wheel away a shattered world,
Ye slow-revolving seasons I we would seo
(A sight to which our eyes are strangers yet)
A world that does not hate and dread His laws,
And suffer for its crime ; would learn how fair
The creature is that God pronounces good."

COWPER.

We have remarked that according to the prevailing
sentiments of Christians, that felicitous and glorious
state of the church which forms the burden of the closing
predictions of Isaiah, when the valleys shall be exalted,
and the mountains and hills made low ; and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain —
"when the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see
it together — when the gentiles shall come to the light
of Zion, and kings to the brightness of her rising — when
instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and in-
stead of the brier shall come up the mjTtle-tree — when
for brass shall be brought gold, for iron silver, and for
wood brass, and for stones iron — when Jerusalem shall
be created a rejoicing, and her people a joy — when the
voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the
voice crying — when the wolf and the lamb shall feed
together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock,
and they shall not hurt nor destroy in all the Lord's

THE MILLENNIUM. 271

holy moiintain,-;-this surpassingly blissful state, we say,
is usually considered as corresponding chronologically
with the Millennium of John. But this predicted state,
it will be found on examination, is identical with the
' newheavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous-
ness,' and which, according to the Apostle Peter, is to
he preceded by what is generally deemed to be the final
conflagration of the earth. We would ask, then, what
collocation, in point of time, is to be assigned to this
great event ? ' The day of the Lord,' says the Apostle,
' will come as a thief in the night ; in the which the
heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the ele-
ments shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and
the works that are therein shall be burned up. Never-
theless we, according to his promise^ look for a new
heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous-
ness.' Here, then, allusion is made to a special promz>e
contained in some other part of the scriptures, by which
we are taught to expect a superlatively happy period to
ensue, notwithstanding so great an event as the prece-
dent passing away of the heavens and the earth. But
the promise here referred to is no other than a part of
the prophetic intimations of Isaiah in that very series of
predictions which we have already cited as pointing to
the period of the popular Millennium. For it is after
the assurance — ' behold, I create new heavens and a
new earth' — that the strain of prophecy goes on to depict
the felicities of that self-same state which is supposed
to be identical with the Apocalyptic Millennium. The
inference is inevitable, that if Isaiah and John have
respect in their predictions to the same period, the con-

272 TREATISE ON

flagration is to precede the Millennium. This claims
a very attentive consideration from those who may not
be prepared to admit the views advocated in the fore-
going pages.

For ourselves, we are well persuaded that the above-
mentioned class of O. T. prophecies has no relation
whatever, but that of centurial posteriority, to the Mil-
lennium announced in tlie Revelation. The only por-
tions of this latter book referring to the same period are
those contained in the two last chapters, giving a de-
scription of ' the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming
down from God out of heaven, adorned as a bride for her
husband,' and sliadowing forth a triumphant and blessed
state of the church on earth — a state not bounded by
any special limitation of years. As to the conflagra-
tion of Peter, we are compelled, with Mede and others,
to regard it as denoting not a literal, but a figurative, con-
flagration, adumbrating the dose of a dispensation^ the
violent abrogation of a previous order of things, the dis-
solution and prostration of the entire fabric of govern-
ments, and policies, and systems formerly subsisting and
essentially at variance with the genius of that new and
happier economy which was to be introduced. In de-
scribing this great and momentous change as a destruc-
tion of the heavens and the earth by fire, the Apostle is
merely adopting the lofty and grandiloquent style of
the former prophets, who frequently represent great rev-
olutions, whether secular or ecclesiastical, under the
imagery of fires, earthquakes, the removal of moun-
tains and islands, the falling of stars, the departing of
the heavens as a scroll, and the wreck as it were of the

THE MILLKNxMUM. 273

whole terraqueous and planetary system.* Thus Isaiah,
Ch. 24, speaking of an event of this kind, says ; " Be*
hold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it
waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad
the inhabitants thereof. — The earth mourneth and lan-
guisheth, tlie world languisheth and fadeth away. — The
curse hath devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein
are desolate : Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are
burned, and few men left. — The windows from on high
are opened, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dis-
solved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall
reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed
like a cottage ; and the transgression thereof shall be
heavy upon it ; and it shall fall and not rise again." So
also Ch. 34. 2-4. where the Most High declares his in-
dignation to be upon all nations, and his fury upon all
their armies, he moreover affirms, that " all the host of
heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled
together as a scroll : and all their host shall fall down,
as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig
from the fig-tree." Thus also Nah. 1. 5. where the ju-
dicial vengeance of God against his enemies is intimated,
it is said, " The mountains quake at him, and the hills
melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the
world and all that dwell therein."

* " Great earthquakes, and the sliaking of heaven and earth,
so as to distract and overthrow them ; the creating a new
heaven and earth, and the passing away of an old one, or the
beginning and end of a world, (are put) for the rise and ruin of
a body politic, signified thereby." — Sir I. JVewloii's Obsero. on
tlic Proph. part i. ch. 2.

274 TREATISE ON

These passages afford, we apprehend, a clew to tKe
parallel language of Peter. And if the destruction of
Jerusalem be described by terms borrowed from the final
consummation of all things, we see not why such a stu-
pendous moral revolution as that which is to precede the
new heavens and the new earth may not properly be
shadowed out by the elevated diction of the Apostle.
The words, therefore, like most other of the propheti-
cal phrases which we have had occasion to consider, de-
note not a sudden, but a gradual and progressive aboli-
tion of the things previously existing.* The destruction
of the mundane sphere by fire denotes the wasting visita-

* " The Holy Ghost, therefore, shows us aflSrmatively and
explicitly, that the old heaven and earth are removed to make
way for a new heaven and new earth, that is, a new govern-
ment and a new people, as we have before shown these symbols
signify. Now I say that the removal of the old heaven and
earth, and the introduction of the new heaven and earth, are
symbols of a prophecy which has not its accomplishment in a
sudden revolution or moment, but in progress of time; that is,
the new heaven and earth begin to be constituted, and have the
beginning of their existence, as the constitution of the old
heaven and earth wears away, which is done by steps. And
whereas some people are apt to fancy a thorough change in the
visible constitution of the universe as to the heavenly bodies,
this is not only inconsistent with the nature of the prophetical
■tyle, which assumes these objects merely for symbols of the
political world, but also contrary to the constant opinion of the
primitive fathers, who, as I have shown elsewhere, understood
this renovation as we have explained it. And if there be any
alteration in the visible frame of nature, it is only as a conge-
quonce or necessary condition, to make this earth and heaven a
proper receptacle of the glorified saints." — Daubuz^ Perpet.
Comment, p. 904,

THE MII^LENNIUM. 275

tions of the wrath of heaven upon the entire fabric of
those ancient policies, oppressions, and delusions, under
which the earth had so long groaned. It is the passing
away of the old constitution of the world. The * ele-
ments' of error were to be dissolved and ' melted' by the
purifying fire of truth ; while the new heavens and the
new earth are but another name for that renovated order
of things, moral, mental, and political, which is the nat-
ural result of the universal and genuine influence of the
Gospel of Christ. Let the religion of the Bible have
but its legitimate operation, let it do its ' perfect work'
among men, and it would inevitably effect a complete
transformation in the state of the world — one fitly rep-
resented by the new heavens and new earth, an expres-
sion pointing to 3. moral instead of <i physical renovation.
And this we apprehend to be in fact the state which is
now to be anticipated by the Christian world. Discard-
ing as a fond, but fallacious dream, the idea of any par-
ticular period of a thousand years to be distinguished by
unprecedented prosperity, peace, and triumph to the
church, and to be followed by a proportion ably calami-
tous reverse, we are to look upon the page of prophecy
as disclosing far other and brighter prospects to the eye
of faith. Fully and adequately to unfold these prospects
would be to enter into a minute exposition of the two
concluding ch?.pters of the Apocalypse in which they
are so fully-, though mystically, shadowed forth. But
as the specific design of the present work does not em-
brace such an investigation, we shall wave an entrance
'jpon it, especially as a volume of no mean dimension*
would be requisite for a thorough canvassing of the-

276 TREATISE ON

points which it would necessarily involve. We barely
remark that the canons of exegesis by which the inter-
pretation of the book of Revelation is to be governed,
particularly in what relates to the future, are not yet in-
vested with that demonstrative certainty in the estima-
tion of Christians, which would warrant the extended
developemcnt of our private views upon the subject.
We have no doubt, however, that a process of inquiry
instituted with reference to that point, would result
in the conviction, that many of the Scriptural repre-
sentations which are now generally understood of the
heavenly state^ or of the scene of eternal blessedness
in another worlds do in reality describe a state of things
which is yet to ensue on earth, and of which mortal
men, inhabiting houses of clay, are to be the happy wit-
nesses, objects, agents, and chroniclers. " And I heard
a great voice out of heaven, saying. Behold the taber-
nacle of God is with men, and he will dicell with them,
and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be
with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe all
tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any
more pain : for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all
things new."

"O scenes surpassing fable, and yet true,
Scenes of accomplished bliss 1 which who can see,
Though but in distant prospect, and not feel
His soul rcfrcs-hed with foretaste of tlic joy ?

*******
One song employs all nations. —
The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks

THE MILLENNIUM. 277

Shout to each other, and the mountain-tops
From distant mountains catch the flying joy,
Till, nation after nation taught the strain,
Earth rolls the rapturous hosanna round."

COWPEB.

THE END.

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Full text of "A treatise on the millennium; in which the prevailing theories on that subject are carefully examined; and the true scriptural doctrine attempted to be elicited and established"

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