// /c« 
 
 O PRINCETON, N. J. -^^ 
 
 Presented by Mr. Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Division s^p^-.,^ >*«^ 
 
 Number 
 
 % 
 
# 
 
TREATISE 
 
 ON THE 
 
 MILLENNIUM; 
 
 IN WHICH 
 
 THE PREVAILING THEORIES ON THAT SUBJECT ARE 
 CAREFULLY EXAMINED: 
 
 THE TRUE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE ATTEMPTED 
 TO BE ELICITED AND ESTABLISHED. 
 
 BY GEORGE '^USH, A.M. 
 
 AUTHOR 
 OF ' QUESTIONS AND NOTES UPON GENESIS AND EXODUS.' 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. & J. HARPER, 
 
 No. '82 CLIFF-S T R E E T. 
 
 AND SOLD BY THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT THE 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 18 32. 
 
[Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1832, by J. if 3. Harper, in 
 the Office of the Clerk of the Southern District of New-York. 1 
 
'^^^j: X 
 
 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 knov^ledge and unambiguous 
 diction, from which 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 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 that the thing 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 mastery of the grand and 
 overwhelming themes of the inspired oracles. But 
 after every 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 doubted that the sacred volume 
 was given to man in order to he understood. It 
 would be at once a gross misnomer as to the book 
 itself, and a foul reflection upon its Author, to denom- 
 inate that a revelation which was at the same time 
 so shrouded in triple mystery as to baffle 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 
 w hich 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 with the sacred original tongues; and as 
 the facilities for this attainment are constantly in- 
 creasing, and light is pouring in from numerous 
 other sources upon the interpretation 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 Scripture. Men have not been studious 
 to ascertain with absolute precision the ideas attached 
 by the Holy Ghost to the words and phj-ases em- 
 ployed by the sacred penmen. Neglecting the canons 
 of philology, heedless of investigating the usus 
 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 would 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 
 A2 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 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 
 affections, 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, 
 yet 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 wandering 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 comparatively 
 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 gratitude bestowed 
 upon him who puts us in possession of a new truth. 
 
PREFACE. VU 
 
 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, while 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 monthty- 
 concert address is niore common than that of millen- 
 nial state, millennial reign, millennial purity, millen- 
 nial glory, <fcc'; 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." 
 
VIU PREFACE. 
 
 How few are 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 V — 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 
 interrogatory concerns not so much the belief, that 
 a brighter and benigner 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 we have seen trouble ;' for this is abundantly 
 testified 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 1 Judging from 
 other portions of the prophetic oracles, our conclu- 
 sion would certainly be altogether the reverse. 
 Dan. 7. 18, 27. " The saints of the Most High 
 shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom fm^ 
 ever, 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 Most High, whose kingdom is an 
 everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve 
 and obey him." Again, Dan. 2. 44 " 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 word 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 will 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 
 accomplish 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 
 
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 
 and 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 
 w^hat 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 symbols or hieroglyphics, the inference a 
 priori 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 Dragon 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 
 
XU 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, whether 
 sound or not, involves, indeed, the startling position 
 that the Millennium, 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 Traditi<?n — 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 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MODERN OPINIONS RESPECTING THE APOCALYPTIC 
 MILLENNIUM. 
 
 Historical Sketch of the Decline of the Millennarian theoiy, 
 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- 
 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 ^ 55 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EXPLICATION OF THE SYMBOL OF THE DRAGON. 
 
 The Binding of Satan or the Dragon the main feature of the 
 anticipated Millennium — Necessai-y 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 77 
 
 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 thfe 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 ........ 138 
 
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 VI. 
 
 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 
 
3 0LiOGl 
 TKEATISE 
 
 MILLENNIUM. 
 
 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. 
 
 The etymological import of the word Millennium 
 denotes, as is well known, the space of a thousand 
 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 five millenniums 
 which have elapsed since the creation, to the sixth now 
 C 
 
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 image, 
 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 Apocalypse. 
 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. Irving, 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 with 
 
 * " 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 
 ike 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." — 
 P gnu's Christian Survey ; Introd. Lond. 1812. 
 
24 TREATISE ON 
 
 the seventh thousand years from the creation, consti- 
 tuting what 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 
 thmk 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 infinitely 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 begin, immense is 
 the mass of labor which must, during that whole space, 
 without 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 
 C2 
 
26 TREATISE Off 
 
 to the commencement of this illustrious era, but as dis- 
 closing also the probable origin of the prevailing Mil- 
 lennarian hypothesis. It is founded upofi a Jewish tra- 
 dition, according to which 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 prefigura- 
 tion of the great sabbatical Millennary of the world. 
 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 world 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 
 
 lion 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." — Bau- 
 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 4;he 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 running 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 symbolical 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- 
 nary 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 the 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 the modern notions of the Millennium 
 have been grafted. 
 
 " It is certain that the Jews interpreted days as sig- 
 nifying millenniums, and reckoned millenniums by days. 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 29 
 
 Thus they say ; ' In the time 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, M^ho knew his Creator and ruled 
 over them all ; and in the end of that millennium will 
 
30 TREATISE ON 
 
 be the day 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 seventh 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 Heb. Antiq, 
 vol. ii. p. 611. 
 
 " As for the general reason on which the law con- 
 cerning the sabbatical year was grounded, it was no 
 doubt partly political and civil, to 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 ordained 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 
 
32 TREATISE ON 
 
 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 Div. 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 
 Rabbi Ketina : ' As out of seven years every seventh is 
 the year of remission, so out of the seven thousand 
 years of the world the seventh millennary shall be the 
 millennary of remission, that God alone may be 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 he changed. But perhaps you will 
 say, it shall be a pain and aflliction to them. Not at 
 all, for it is said. Is. 40. 31. They that wait upon the 
 Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 35 
 
 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 ; 
 
 (1.) 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 
 affirmation. 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 
 D 
 
34 TREATISE OX 
 
 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 with 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 we 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 them 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 of 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- 
 ingly, were deeply tinctured with the hue of those pre- 
 conceptions which they brought with them from the 
 synagogues 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 
 
OO TREATISE ON 
 
 signifies, 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 Martyr, in the second century, declares the 
 Millennium to be the CathoHc 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 
 
 * —Kal hoiricev o,e£os tv elfifxipaig to. ipya twj/ %££pc5v avTov,Kai ffiu'cr/Afiriv 
 ^v Tji riixsQa Trj e(i^6nr), kuI Kariiravatv tv avTTJ, Kal ^yiaaev avriiv. Ilpoaixere, 
 TtKva, Ti \sya, to cvvereXeaev iv e^ rjnepais tovto Xf'y^'i ori avvTsXet 6 Qebi Kvpiog 
 iv €laKi(Txi><i6is ETtai to. -navTa. 'H yap ijixipa Trap' avro) x/Aia errjy avTog 6s 
 Haprvpel, Xty(i)v, iSov arjixepov ^fxipa 'iarai wj xAta krri. Ovkovv, riKva, iv €l ^• 
 fiepaig, h flaKiax^Xidig etcui, awTtXeaBrjatrai, Tti navra. Kal Kariiravaz rf/ 
 ^ix8p(f Trj EfiSoiiT]- TOVTo'^iyei^brav eAOwv 'o 'viog avTov,Kai Karapyftczi rov Katpov 
 dv6nov, Kai KpivEi rovg acTe(3as, Kai aWditi rov ri\iov, Kai ttjv uEKrjvfiv, Ka\ rovg 
 agripag, TdTCKoXSii KaTtiraiatTai tv rfj ht^tpa rr] 'e/J^d/ijj.— S. Bam. Epist. c. 15. 
 
 t 'Eyw (5f, Koi d Tivis dciv dpdoyvwixovtg Kurd irdvra Xpisnavoi, Kai crapKog 
 avddTaaiv yevtjaeadai tmsrd/xeOa, Kai xAja hv £v 'Uposa^nfi olKo6onvdd(Tri, 
 Kai KOSfitjOeiar], Kai irXarvvdeiar], Cug) 'oi npo<f>ii'Jai ^1£(,£kitiX, ku 'Hffotaj, <ca» 
 01 aXXoi ' ojioXoyovaiv.—Just. Mart. DiuU 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, hi 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 
 
 * 'Avtjp rtf , '(() Svofxa 'Iwdvvrjg, ici tw;/ airosTo^uv tov Xpiajov, iv airoKaXv^j, $t 
 Y£v6ixcvi] dvria X'^t« '^'''V i^oifjctiv £V 'IcpovaaKfm roiis rw 'rjfxcrepijj) Xptorw Trtff- 
 TtvaavTai ■!rpos<ptiT£v<T£, Kai ixzToi ravra rfiv KadoXiKrjv Kai, (TvveXdv'Ji (pdvai, alui- 
 viav bjxoQoiia^bv ana irdvrwv avdtTTaaiv yevijaeadai kul xptVti'.— Ibid. p. 315, 
 
 t "Ocraiifiixipais iyivero 'o K6crfiOi, roaavroig x^^^ovtugi cvvTeXeiTai' Kai 6ia 
 rovTo' (Ptjcxiv 't] ypa^i]' Kai crvvTcXiadrjaav 'o ohpavos Kai 'rj yrj, Kai vrdj 'o KOSiJLog 
 avrSJv- Kai avveriXeaev 'o Qtbg tj] vfispqi tt) ? ra 'ipya avrov a CKOirjae, Kai kuti- 
 navoc 'o Qeoi zv tt) 'rjtxtpq. tj] ^' dno Trdvrwv roiv epydv avrov. ToSto (5' tcri tZv 
 -poytyovdTwv Si^nyrjais, Kai riov -eaonivoiv irpoifieTeia' 'rj yap 'r] f^ipo, Kvpiov 'uti 
 XiXia sTTj.—Irencexis Adv. Hoereses, 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."! 
 
 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 when 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. "J 
 
 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 divina septem dies annorum septem 
 rnillia continentes. — Cypr. De Exhort. Mart. c. 11. 
 
 t Post mille annos intra quam aetatem includitur sanctorum 
 resurrectio pro meritis maturins vel tardius resurgentium ; tunc 
 demutati in atomo in angelicam substantiam transferemur in 
 cosleste regnum. — Tertull. Adv. Marcion^ L. 3. c. 24. 
 
 :|: Quoniam sex diebus cuncta Dei opera perfecta sunt ; per 
 secula sex, id est, annorum sex millia manero in hoc statu 
 mundum necesso est. Et rursus quoniam perfectis operibus 
 requievit die septimo eumque benedixit ; necesse est ut in fine 
 sexti millesimi anni malitia omnis abolatur e terra ot regnot 
 per annos mille justitia. — Lactantius^ L. 7. c. 14. 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 3^ 
 
 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 
 tlie 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 fcecunditatem suam, et uberrimas frugcs 
 sua spirito gencrabit : rupes montium melle sudabunt, per ri- 
 vos vina dccurrent, et flumina lacte inundabunt. — LactantiuSt 
 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, 
 Tertullian, and Lactantius, are ranked among the lead- 
 ing abetters of this opinion. Bishop Bull, unwilling to 
 give up these 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 very 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 arfe 'oi rpoTroXoyovvJe^ ret ^po<pi]T(Kx — those 
 who interpret the sayings of the prophets by a trope.^^^ 
 Those, on the contrary, who maintained it, are styled 
 solius literae discipuli, — disciples of the letter only. 
 The first, says he, assert ^horum vim fguraliter intelligi 
 debere, — the import of these things ought to be figura- 
 tively understood;' the others, he adds, understand 
 the scripture, ^^ Judaico sensu, — after the manner of the 
 JewsJ"^ So Epiphanius, speaking of the notion of the 
 millennium maintained by Apollinarius, says, " There 
 
 * Bulli Judicium Eccl. Cath. c. 6. p. 55. 
 
 t Lardner's Works, vol. ii. p. 701. Lond. 1829. 
 
 t Uepi apx^v, 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 EAey;^iev rm uXXKyopurrm, — a refutation of the 
 allegorists. Of these tropical expositors Irenaeus says, 
 " I 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, 
 (i^sTx<p£pi(v) 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- 
 selves."! 
 
 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 Irenseus, Tertul- 
 lian, and Lactantius teach from their author Papias, nor 
 of the reign of a thousand years of Christ on earth 
 after the resurrection, and the saints reigning deliciously 
 with him, as Nepos taught."J 
 
 * — aXriGrj fiiv ovra, tv (SaOdrriri 6e o-a(^»?vt^(5/x£va ireiTKTTevKaaiv. — Epiph. 
 Haer. 77. §26,p. 1031. 
 
 t IrencBUs Adv. Hcer. L. 5. c. 33. 
 
 if Non quod ad cibum vel ad potum pertinet sicut, Papia 
 auctore, Irenseus, Tertullianus, et Lactantius acquiescunt, 
 neque (per) mille annos post resurrectionem regnum Christi in 
 terra futurum, et sanctos cum illo in deliciis regnaturos spera- 
 mus, sicut Nepos edocuit.— Gennaf?. Ecd. Dogmat. c. 55. 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 43 
 
 Augustin also observes of this opinion, " That it 
 might be tolerable if they mentioned any spiritual de- 
 lights 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 thmgs 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."| 
 
 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, TertuUian, 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 incredulitatis excedant, nullo modo ista possunt 
 nisi de carnalibus, credi. — August. De Civ. Dec. L, 20. c. 7. 
 
 t Prolegomena to the Canticles. 
 
 t Euseb. Hist. Eccles. L. 3. c. 39. 
 
44 TREATISE ON 
 
 and the terrestrial Jerusalem adorned with gold and 
 precious stones ; rebuilding the temple, bloody sacrifices, 
 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 in two volumes, whom not only men of his own 
 sect, but most of our own people likewise follow in this 
 point. 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 Arsinoe in 
 Egypt, who were fond of the millennary notion, ex- 
 pecting a kingdom of Christ here on earth in which 
 
 * — et qua ratione intelligenda sit Apocalypsis Johannis, 
 quam si juxta literam accipimus, Judaizandum est ; si spiritu- 
 aliter, ut scripta est, disserimus, multorum veterum opinionibus 
 contraire, Latinorum, Tertulliani, Victorini, Lactantii ; Grac- 
 corum, ut caeteros praetermittam, Irensei tantum Lugdunensis 
 episcopi faciam mentionem ; adversus quern vir eloquentissi- 
 mus Dionysius, Alexandrinse ecclesiaa pontifex, elegantem scri- 
 bit librum, irridens mille annorum fabulam ; et auream atque 
 gemmatam in terris Jerusalem ; instaurationem templi ; hosti- 
 arum sanguinem ; otium Sabbati ; circumcisionis injuriam, 
 nuptias, partus, liberorum educatibnem, epularum delicias, et 
 cunctarum gentium servitatem : rursus bella, exercitus, ac tri- 
 umphos, et superatorum neces, mortemque centinarii peccato- 
 ris. Cui duobus voluminibus respondit Apollinarius, quem 
 non solum suas sectae homines, sed et nostrorum in hac parte 
 duntaxat plurima sequitur multitudo ; ut prsesaga mente jam 
 cernam, quantorum in me rabies concitanda sit. — Hitron, in 
 Es. l. 18. in Proem, 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 
 E 
 
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, feastings, 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 understand 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 dis'esteem 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. Ojr, 
 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 iEsop, 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 Reve- 
 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 
 
 taining to the Apocalypse in itself considered, good men, 
 -who venerate the word of God, are generally willing to 
 concede, but this concession is in effect vacated by the 
 secret prevailing 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 
 Millennarian hypothesis, hi 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 should not this assurance 
 be an encouragement and incentive to study that portion of 
 Scripture which unfolds to us the future fortunes of the Church f 
 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 tb his servant John ? ' If 
 any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him 
 the plagues that are written in this book ; and if any man shali 
 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 city, and from the things which are written in this book.' '* 
 New Illustrations of Prophecy^ by W, Fint, p. 273, 274. Lond. 
 183i< 
 
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 tliie 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 sufferings, 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 1 And is 
 it 2i\\y 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 Millennarian error was in a peculiai 
 manner winked at in the early ages of Christianity, and 
 that the belief 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 effect. 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 ini- 
 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 testinionies, 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 wh6 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 Neiv 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 refinecf 
 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 Fall, p. 185. 
 
54 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 Irenaeus, 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. 56 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 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- 
 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. 
 
 t 
 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 ; they waited for light, but darkness continued 
 to surround them. 
 
 Through the dreary tract of the ages of darkness 
 scarcely a vestige of millennarian sentiments is to be 
 traced, but the dormancy of the doctrine was 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, 67 
 
 At length the ebullition of enthusiasm subsided, and 
 the fiery zeal of mistaken men died away. Since 
 that time till within a very few years the millennarian 
 cause has excited little interest and occasioned little 
 disturbance. The writings of Mede in the seventeenth 
 century revived indeed in a measure the ancient doctrine, 
 and individual writers have at one time and another 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 tliese two heads may be gathered with 
 sufficient distinctness from the ensuing series of extracts 
 from their principal writers. 
 
 1 . Those who hold to the personal reign of Christ on 
 earth during the thousand years. 
 
 Of this class the venerable Joseph Mede, 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 
 Bubjects. As to the character of the expected millennial 
 F 
 
68 TREATISE ON 
 
 kingdom of Christ, the following is his unpresuming 
 language : — 
 
 " What the quality of this reign should be, which is so 
 singularly differenced from ihe 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 
 fahh, 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 m.any 
 wonders." — Mede's Works, Book iii. Rem. ch. xii. p. 603. 
 
 The subsequent testimony of the excellent Joseph 
 Caryll, author of a Commentary on Job, is prefixed to 
 a work published by Nathaniel Holmes, D.D. during 
 the period of the English Commonwealth : — 
 
 "That all the saints shall reign 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 writers 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 holiness. 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 the Son of God, 'the Lord himself shall descend'' 
 (1 Thess. 4. 16.) not by his 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 (also) a resurrection of 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 tlie 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 \vill 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 
 He ; 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 
 fulfilled : for so long will this state continue ; so long 
 will Satan be bound ; so long the saints will live and 
 reign 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 ; 
 F2 
 
62 TREATISE ON 
 
 and whose number shall be as the sand of the sea, being 
 all the wicked that have been from the beginning of the 
 world ; 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 formidable 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 the lake of fire, where they will 
 be in company with the devil, the beast, and false pro- 
 phet, and be tormented with them for ever and ever." — 
 GilVs Sermon on the Glory of the Church of the Latter 
 Day ^ preached London, Dec. 27, 1752. 
 
 " It will be gathered 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 ill 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 earth ; but that the power of Christ, 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 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 contj'ol 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 sufficiently 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: — 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 vt^ithin 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 not, 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 
 men 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 the 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 
 eommenceth. Then it is that God shall interfere and 
 show his mighty power in Christ, who shall consume 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 65 
 
 them with fire out of heaven." — Rev. E. Irving's LecU 
 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-bom power whatsoever ha^dng been abolished 
 throughout the world ; and that Satan having been ex- 
 pelled from the government which he has usurped so 
 extensively — then shall the TiOrd 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 
 
66 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." — Andersan's ApoL for 
 Milhn. Doctrine, parti, 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, Ireneeus, and liac- 
 tantius, is rendered indubitable, wc 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 
 
 that 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 is 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 mille ann€ — *jt thousand years are one day 
 
68 TREATISE ON 
 
 of the Holy Blessed God.'' And though they use to 
 quote that of the ninetieth Psahn, {Mille anni in oculis 
 tuis sicut dies hesternus' — 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 that common saying of the Jews in this argument, than 
 to the words of the 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 vfhy God 
 should not be thought ' 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 
 Works, 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 hebdomadal 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 vety 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 gaining 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 
 millennary 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 w'e proceed to state the opinions 
 
 II. Of those who deny the personal, hut maintain the 
 spiritual, reign of Christ on earthy for the period of a 
 thousand years. 
 
 Chihasts, 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 
 G 
 
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 shew in what things I agree with the assertors of that 
 doctrine, and how far 1 find myself constrained, by the 
 force of truth, to diflfer from them. 
 , I believe, then, that after the fall of Antichrist there 
 
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 an^ 
 Mr. Mede expressly have renounced their doctrine.* 
 
 2. Though I dare not absolutely deny what they all 
 positively affirm, 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 
 w^s 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, Heb. 8. 2,-9. 2, — 11. 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, 
 
 * This may be questioned. These writers have modified thft 
 ereed of the ancients on this subject, 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." — Whitby'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 
 G3 
 
74 TREATISE or* 
 
 Christians in every station ; by the judgments of heaven 
 on the children of men for their iniquities ; above all, by 
 the mighty efficacy of the Holy Ghost, will the glory 
 of the latter days be brought about. Religion 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 the doctrine of the Millennium." — 
 Bogues J}isc. on the Millen. p. 18. 
 
 " By the 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 
 the general conflagration, 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 ; which 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 kingdom of God is righteousness, truth, 
 peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. This kingdom, corsr 
 
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 ON 
 
 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. 
 
 77 
 
 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 Woman ex- 
 plained — The Dragon shown to be a symbol of Pagaaiism — 
 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 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." 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 which 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 the task therefore of determining, according to the 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 79 
 
 principles of symbolic interpretation, the legitimate scope 
 of this emblem, we now address om-selves ; 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.ct 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 invest!-, 
 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 
 
80 tREATISE 01^ 
 
 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 his 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 night. 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 
 
 time. 13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast 
 unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought 
 forth the man child. 14. And to the woman were given 
 two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly 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 woman, that he might cause 
 her to be carried away of the flood. 16. And the earth 
 helped 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 which 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 aflTairs 
 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, 
 H 
 
82 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 characr 
 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 admitted law of ex- 
 position, we remark, that the chapter before us intro- 
 duces a 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 predecessorj 
 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 vouchsafed to him in his banishment, beholds a 
 woman clothed with the 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 was 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 firmness and 
 strength of his universal government. At this perilous 
 juncture, in immediate juxtaposition with the parturient 
 woman, the Prophet beholds ' a great 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 the victim, he becomes the victor, of the destroyer ; 
 for being, by divine interposition, caught up to the throne 
 of God, he there, under the appellation of ' Michael,' be- 
 gins a war against the Dragon and his angels, which is 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. &5 
 
 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," <fec. Throughout all antiquity, both sacred 
 and profane, ther^ 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. i« familiar to every reader 
 of the scriptures. The ecclesiastical community of 
 that people is called by Isaiah and Jeremiah a ' bride ;' 
 and Ezek.. ch. 16. contains an extended allegory, in 
 H2 
 
86 TREATISE ON 
 
 which the Jewish church is represented under the figure 
 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 idolatry, 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 the church, his spiritual spouse. fBimilar 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 politic, is expressly defined by the interpreting 
 angel ; — " And the woman which thou sawest is that 
 great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth V^ 
 ' 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 * Regnum con- 
 
THE MILLENNIU3I. 87 
 
 gregationis Bshylonix,^— -kingdom of the Babylonian 
 congregation ; called 'daughter of Babylon,' in the same 
 manner as Homer has Trccihi A;^ia/<yy — vie^ Ajcof-K^'^i chil- 
 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 specific 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-promise 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 
 expressly 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,r 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 (f 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 tha 
 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 fortlu ti 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 89 
 
 the twelve patriarchs of the old dispensation, to 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 merely 
 to the fact, that through a tract of ages the Jevnsh 
 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 vision. We have seen that the Apocalyptic 
 Woman 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 to the right explication of the imagery. 
 
 We now proceed to the symbol of the Dragon. 
 
90 TREATISE OPT 
 
 " Behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and 
 ten horns," &;c. The fact which we may consider as 
 established, 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 east 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 the utmost particularity. As a magistrate, in mak- 
 ing out a warrant for the 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- 
 
^2 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 through 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. This 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 the 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-lield 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 1 "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 through 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 
 I 
 
94 TREATISE ON 
 
 his age, 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- 
 ficulty ; 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 the 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 whole term 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 
 
 symbolic 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 cily, 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, arfd 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 
 Ephiaim is Samaria, and the head of Siamaria is Rema- 
 liah'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, which shall then reach all over the world, 
 for it follows ; ' The earth shall be full of the knowledge 
 of the Lord,' Mic. 6. 7, 8. ' Contend thou before the 
 mountains, and let the hills 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 shalt 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 Vi 
 44, 45. Again, Is. 41. 15. 'Thou shalt thresh the 
 mountains, and shalt make the hills as chaff." Targi 
 ' Occides populos, et consumes regna, quasi stipulam 
 pones eos' — thou shalt slay the people, and shalt con- 
 sume the kingdoms ; thou shalt make 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. SOT. 
 
THE MILLENNIUar^ 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 ecclesiastical form, embraced within 
 
 * A{ 'e-irra Ke<paXai 'opt] ecnv 'eirra, 'oirov 'ij yvv^ KaQrfjai 'en avrwv, icai 
 (iociXeis 't-rrra eiaiv. 
 
 12 
 
98 TREATISE OK 
 
 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 wa& 
 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 o^ 
 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 the 
 building of the city, and neglect that remarkable one of 
 the extent of the. dominions ; besides, that the exposi- 
 - lion of seven kingdoms destroys so trifling a notion of 
 the seven mountains. There goes about another account 
 
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 which have been in Rome from its foun- 
 dation under the kings to the emperors and popes. 
 This is mightily applauded by Du Mouhn, 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 it. 
 Thus we see that the changes of the ministry make no 
 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 this 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 m 
 pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhab- 
 iting the wilderness.' This^ 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. 1 01 
 
 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 Af>oi>ca>^ — 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 fiesh 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 whieh hath dried 
 np the sea?' Here Rahab is Egiypt^ 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 
 to be an inhabitant of ' rivers,* and from the mention, 
 V. 4, of his ' scales,' it is not without reason supposed 
 that the dragon liere 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. 'tfs ^f)ccx.m — 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 
 
 * Scheiichzer on this passage observes, that among 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 MILLENNIUM. 103 
 
 mighty sword upon the king who is magnified, as Pha- 
 raoh the first king, and upon the king 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. ], 
 * There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that 
 all 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 
 
104 TTREATISE ON 
 
 and presiding genius. Accordingly it was the Romail 
 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 i&, 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 for 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 the 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 lived better qualified 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, havnig 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, the 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 better of them they call God, the other 
 Demo?i, 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, Apetf^dVTjg, whom Plutarch 
 elsewhere denominates Trovspog ^ui/^uv, inicked demons 
 and who is styled by Diogenes Laertius 'a<Jjj5, hell, un- 
 questionably betrays a Hebraic origin. Some derive it 
 from D-n;^, Chal. Dni< 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 n?3% Chal. ^S^, jrAavav, to deceive, 
 as if it were merely the Greek form of p'riD'^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 
 
 * Plut. de Isid. et 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 
 Egyptians, 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 BeXtxp, Beliar, 
 is defined by Hesychius by ^pxKeov^ 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, fuom 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 efifect 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 under the shape 
 of a serpent tempted our first parents, has, with un» 
 wearied application, laboured to deify that animal as a 
 troi)hy 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 enei*vate 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 wdth the explanation of God himself, 
 Deut. 38. 13. where he promises blessings to the obe- 
 dient ; ' And the Lord shall make thee the head and 
 not the tail ; and thou shalt 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 
 tail^ 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 the truth; so that by the Dragon's drawing 
 
 * Owen> Hist„, of the Seup.. p. ^16^, 
 
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 abjuration, by the legal acts of burning 
 incense or of oflfering sacrifices. Some of these apos- 
 tates had yielded on the first r^ienace or exhortation of 
 the magistrate ; while the patience of others had been 
 subdued by the length or repetition of tortures."* 
 
 * Gibbon's Decl. and FaVl, p. 21 ( 
 K2 
 
110 TREATISE ON" 
 
 " And the dragon stood before the woman which wa& 
 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 
 whole reigning term of his existence. For throughout 
 every period of the gradual acquisition of his imperial 
 heads, he maintained the same attitude 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 children 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 chosen aliment. But of his intended prey he was, 
 in this latter instance, disappointed. The child brought 
 forth by the woman, which 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 that divine domin- 
 ion which the Father had decreed for him from eternity. 
 Then commenced the symboUcal war in heaven. Un- 
 
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 
 
112 TREATISE ON 
 
 imagery 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 /' 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 arniies 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 powerful under Constantino 
 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 (sv to/ct iTrougaviotc — in heavenly places)^ 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 com- 
 mander of this mystic 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 of 
 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 SpaKovTos tKcivov aiTo Trji rdv Koivdv iioiKrjaeoJi, rov Qeov neyia- 
 
 Tov irpovotq, fjixsTipqi 6c vKeprjalq, iK6iu)xdivT0f. — Eus. de Vita Const. 1. 2. 
 &46. 
 
 {• rdv 6e txOpiv KM TToXeiilov dfipa, TOV r^v CKkXriatav rbv Qeiv Sid t^S 
 
 rwv aOsSiv noXiopK/jiavra rvpavvtdosy — 'cv SpaKdvros i^-op(pr]. — Id. 1. 3. c. 3, 
 
116 TREATISE ON 
 
 two opinions, which, by very different means, assisted 
 the accomplishment 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 icould he seconded by some divine 
 and miraculous aid.^^* — "Nazarius and Eusebius are 
 the two most celebrated orators, who 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 prodigy, 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."! 
 — " The 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 dasmonia 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. 2«9. 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. 
 L 
 
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 
 peopled* 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 shifted. 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 ; ehher they secretly ob- 
 served the pagan rites, or else brought theii* 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, jigainst 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.'j 
 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 
 devil (Sia/ioxot) is slanderer^ traducer, false accuser. 
 
i20 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 thee 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 may be 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 r for 
 which cause Avas this city destroyed.* Again, Est. d. 
 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 men 
 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 Cajsar, saying that tliere m 
 
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 primitive 
 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 atlack 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. There 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, 
 L2 
 
122 TREATISE ON 
 
 who unknowingly inflicted many a secret and mortal 
 wound on the innocent victim of his error ; that as soom 
 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 
 affirmed 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, biit 
 as the worshippers of God.^f 
 
 * Decl. and Fall, p. 208. 
 
 t Unde etiam quasdam execrabiles opinionos de pudicis, et 
 innocenlibus fingunt, et libentur his, quae finxcerunt, credunt. 
 Sed omnia jam, sanctissiine imperator, figmenta sopita suni, 
 ex quo te Deus Sunimus ad restituendum justitiae domiciliuro,, 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 123 
 
 ** And to the woman were given two wings of a great 
 eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness," &c. 
 
 * Wings,' the instruments of motion, answer in prophecy 
 the superadded purpose of standing as symbols of pro- 
 tection. This is plam from the folJowing, 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 under 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, taketh 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- 
 manae Reipublicas statum, jam cultores Dei pro secleratis ae 
 nefariis non habemur. — Lact. Inst. L. VII. c. 2G. 
 
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 Apocalypseos, 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 t^ese 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 seasj 
 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 which 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 many, 
 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 flood 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 forthim inundantium, sic venient contra 
 COS 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 rivers ; 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 mouth 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 
 malice of the Pagan party, the ministers of the Dragon. 
 The figurative prediction was accomplished 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 religion, but aflfected 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 kingdoms 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 
 pervaded the whole Roman empire. Succeeding events 
 seemed to threaten if not its absolute extinction, yet, at 
 least, its contraction within 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 instance, 
 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 : but the ultimate uni- 
 versal concomitant of Gothic national invasion was 
 Gothic national conversion,'''' 
 
 " And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and 
 went to make war with the remnant of her seed," &;c. 
 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 
 
 * Decl. and Fall, p. 609, 610. 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 12'9 
 
 strongholds ; 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 .Jhe 
 full measure of his own Satanic spirit and genius. 
 This was no other than the seven-headed and ten-horned 
 M 
 
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 baffled 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 (Opovov — 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 ; 
 • Bellua multorum es capitum.' 
 
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 1 260 years ;* and 
 
 * " The original word which we translate a time, properly 
 rsignifies 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 ye»r 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 this 
 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, times^ and half a time^ 
 or three times and a half, will be equivalent to 1260 days ; as 
 we shall find it exactly computed to be, when we come to 
 
132 TREATISE on' 
 
 though 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 half a time is mentioned as a space of time equivalent to 
 forty-two months, or one thousand two hundred and sixty daysJ* 
 — day ton, Bish. of Clogher's 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 neces'sarily be at variance with the acknow- 
 ledged structure of the apostle's prophecy. Tn reply 
 to this objection, we readily admit that as a general 
 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- 
 M 2 
 
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 great 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 the 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 trs^e 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 na real difficulty. The fact 
 which it contemplates is precisely such as might 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 reftectioniS 
 
- 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? 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 ? The truth is, the spirit cf 
 
136 TREATISE ON 
 
 Christianity is not more opposed to vice 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, but in his social 
 capacities and interests ? — that in the amplitude of its 
 beneficence it takes cognizance of those great and mas- 
 sive calamities which vi^eigh 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 which 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 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 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 clown from heaven, 
 having the key of tl\e 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 the 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 Hved and reigned with Christ a thou- 
 sand years. 5. But the rest of the dead Uved 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 baffled 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 will 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 the 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 that 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 
 
 terriipted 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 withdraAv- 
 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 
 unbroken 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." — LightfooCs TVorks^ vol. ii. p. Gl. 
 N 
 
142 TREATISE OK 
 
 space between that and the thne 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 bound 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 affirm that he is to be so viewed in every other 
 portion ; otherwise we are left in the mazes of inextri- 
 cable confusion in every attempt to unravel the myste- 
 ries which it contains.* But that this assumption, in- 
 
 f~ * " 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 he is introduced and Btyled the Old Ser- 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 143 
 
 8tead of resting on mere conjecture, is in fact based upon 
 the unequivocal declarations of the sacred text, will be 
 
 pent, Iho 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 diff'erent 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 affairs, 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 r — 
 
 Rkv. XII. 9. Rev. xx, 2, 3. 
 
 " And the great dragon was cast " And he laid hold an the dragon, 
 out, that old serpent, called the Devil that old serpent, which is the Devil 
 and Satan, which deceiveth the whole and Satan, and bound him a thousand 
 world." years— that he should deceive the na- 
 
 tions no more." 
 
 This 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 di, figurative mode 
 of announcing the suppression of Paganism for a defi- 
 nite term of years ; not indeed its universal 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 latitude 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 this 
 rate, symbolical language would be a mass of uncertainties, 
 more vague in its import than the oracles of heathenism."-— 
 VinCs New Illustr, of Proph. p. 249, 25Q. 
 
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 incongrui- 
 ties are we led by giving a literal interpretation to sym-- 
 holical terms. But suppose, on the other hand, the lan- 
 N2 
 
14G TREATISE OJC 
 
 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 personified^ 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 which 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 parity, 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 time;'' 
 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 1 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 before their victorious influence ivas universally 
 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 
 estabhshment 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- 
 
 * Deck 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^ tvhich had now become Christian. As vfe 
 are taught by our Lord himself, that no one 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 
 
 * Decl, 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 * k9y' 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 sanctuary, 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 anthoritative 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 Juno 
 is called x^s/cTou^o? 'H/iaf, key-hearer of Juno. iEsch. Suppl. 299. 
 A female high in office under a great queen has the same title : 
 KtKKiboii KKti^oZ%Qi OwixirlaS'oi ^acrixehc, CallUhce the key-bearer of 
 the queen Olympias. Anc. Phorion. ap. Clem. Alex. p. 418. 
 This mark of office was likewise among the Greeks, as here in 
 
THE 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 in 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 
 th6n — was given. The grand event depicted by the 
 symbol was undoubtedly the irruption of the Saracens 
 under Mohammed and his successors against the Romau 
 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, KaraudJ'fav i^^t xxeJcTa, she had a key upon her 
 shoulder. — Callim. Ceres, v. 45. 
 
 o 
 
154 TREATISE ON 
 
 at liberty, and all such sorts of despicable men ; and 
 by setting himself at the head of them, lead on that 
 mixed multitude to prosecute the purposes mentioned 
 hereafter : carrying on their designs by a continual and 
 prodigious war, and incursions upon others. 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 poroer^ an authorized and official ministry, 
 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 
 instrumentality 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 agahist the heathen sacrifices, 
 says, — " These vain pretences were swept away by tho 
 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, whether 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 officers of distinguished rank in the west, by lohich 
 they were directed to shut the temples, to seize or destroy 
 the instruments of idolatry, to abolish tlie 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, 
 
 * Deck and Fall, p. 468. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 465. Among the monuments of idolatry which 
 
156 TREATISE ON 
 
 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 still approach near enough to a definite epoch to 
 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/St/s-c-o?, translated in our version 
 * bottomless pit,' is derived from the privative « and 
 /3f ^s?, which in the lojiic dialect is changed into /Swo-c-o^ . 
 It is originally an adjective, signifying deep, profound, 
 unfathomable^ immense, inaccessible. As a substantive 
 with %«yf«s, region^ understood, it denotes a place of in- 
 definite, indescribable depth or extent, a place incapable 
 of being explored. It occurs in the Septuagint version 
 of the Old Testament thirty-nine times, in thirty-six of 
 which the original Hebrew term to which it answers is 
 ai'nn usually rendered the deep, the great deep, &;c. 
 In the New Testament it occurs nine times ; seven of 
 the passages in which it is met with being in the Reve-. 
 
 were destroyed on this occasion, the histor'an mentions parti- 
 cularly an emblematic monster, hiving the head and body of a 
 serpent, branching into three tails, which were again tei:minated 
 by the triple heads of a dog, a lion, and ^ wo\A 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 167 
 
 lation. In a majority of the cases above specified 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. ei% rtiv ec(ivcrG-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. to ^^eu^ t>;5 oc^vttov — the 
 well, pit, 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 
 whether 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 affixed 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 w^hich that import is sustained. 
 It is said, indeed, Luke 8. 30, 31. that the devils 
 02 
 
158 THEATISE OK 
 
 (demons), which had entered into the demoniac wh& 
 called himself Legion, " besought him that he would not 
 command them, f /§ rjjv cc(ivT(rov ctTceXhty — 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 
 preintimated 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- 
 tion 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 different 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. 15^ 
 
 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, jvhere 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 earthy 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. 
 i Decl. and Fall, p. 609. 
 
160 TREATISE ON 
 
 Apocalypse is but another name for that long interreg- 
 num which broke the extended term 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 Ca3sars. 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 tlie 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 the 
 
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 
 
168 TREATISE ON 
 
 •3 
 
 binding that he should not deceive the nations. The 
 devil had deceived and kept the poor heathen in deluded- 
 ness by idols, oracles, false miracles, horrid mysteries of 
 irreligiousness, and a thousand cozenages, for above 
 two thousand years ; namely, from their first casting oif 
 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, 
 saith 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 the thousand years from the time 
 that the gospel was first brought in among the Gentiles 
 by Paul and Barnabas, and other of the apostles, you 
 
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 writer 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 
 w^e 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 w-herever 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 through 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 pre- 
 diction does not fail of its accomplishment, because the 
 binding was not to be absolute, but limited."* 
 
 ♦ " Ut ligatio Sata^ per mille annos coincidit annis, quibus 
 Martyri cum Christo regnaturi sunt ; si constet millennarium 
 ligationis Satanae jam lapsum esse, eo patebit regnum mille 
 annorum jam prsBterisse, neo amplius esse expectandum. Un- 
 dequaque autem ista ligatio Satanae inchoetur ; vel a Serva- 
 toris incarnatione, ut quibusdam placet, quo tempore fortis a 
 fortiori ligatus est, et ei erepta sunt vasa, et e tenebris in reg- 
 num lucis translata, Mat. 12. 29 ; vel ab ejus passione et morte, 
 ut aliis visum, in qua ligatus 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 Constantino'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 
 Constantino, 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 contrito ejus capite, 
 «t triumpho de illo acto, Col. 2. 14, 15 ; Heb. 2. 14 ; vel in ex- 
 cidio Hierosolymitano, cum aliis, ne legalium obsoleta rev- 
 erentia evangelii cursum quovis modo impediret ; vel denique 
 in Constantini M. imperio, ut pluribus probatur, quo tempori 
 liberum Christianis concessura est religionis exercitium, efFect- 
 umque, ut Satanae non amplius liceret aperte et impune gentes 
 seducere, et per grassantera imperatorum gentilium ssevitiam 
 persequi. Undecunque, inquam, 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 Institut. TheoL p. 650. 1701. 
 P 
 
166 TREATISE ON 
 
 Boniface VIII. in the year 1300 ; then for a short time, 
 that is, till the period of the Reformation, he 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 Ley den, 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 ministry, or at 
 his resurrection, or even with the reign of Constantine, 
 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 prjeterlapsi intelligi possunt, sive 
 supputentur ab incarnatione, aut passione Servatoris ; sive ab 
 excidio Hierosolymitano ; sive ab imperio Constanlini Magni. 
 Si ab incarnatione, desinent mille anni in Sylvestro secundo ; 
 si a passione, in Benedicto nono ; si ab excidio Hierosolymi- 
 tano, in Gregorio septimo ; si ab initio Constantini M. in 
 abortu Bonifacii octavi, et in ortu familise Ottomanicae, et 
 Waldensium funestis persecutionibus, circa seculum decimum 
 tertium. Ut sensus loci universi emergat, Satanam, sui ab 
 incarnatione Christi, sou potius ab imperio Constantini M. 
 ligatum fuisse, catenas, ut non amplius seduceret integras 
 gentes ad idololatriam, aut persecutiones Christianorum tarn 
 cruentas, usque ad Bonifacium octavum, anno MCCC turn ad 
 breve tempus, scil. usque ad reformationis tempus, solutum 
 fuisse, ut seduceret integras nationes, partim per Antichristura, 
 maxime turn invalescentem in Occidenti ; partim per Mahum- 
 medanum, turn exoriens. — Mattricht^ Theol. 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 Lave 
 before remarked, is represented by the prophet under 
 the image of a great pit or de7i, such as slaves and 
 prisoners were anciently confined in, as the prisons of 
 the oriental nations are usually, like their graves, under 
 ground, in 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 prcedicatione, vel a resurrectione Christi, 
 yel a Spiritus efFusione, vei a vastationo Jerosolymsea, vel 
 etiam a Constantini imperio, vel ab his omnibus per gradus 
 successivos, Antichristianam et Mahummedicam impietatem, 
 ligato turn a Christo Satana magis quam antea, per impeditam 
 gentium seductionem ; viventibus et regnantibus martyribus ac 
 reliquis fidelibus respectu animarum. cum Christo in coslesti 
 throno, et in omnem porro aeternitatem, dum non reviviscebant 
 similiter in ipsa morte, nee salutari conversione ante cum his 
 in terris, reliqui mortui. — Comp. Theol. p. 651. lert. ed, Ara- 
 stelod, 1722. 
 
168 TREATISE OK 
 
 gathered in the pit^ 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 with stone, or cut out of the solid rock, and 
 having a large stone 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 den ; 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, QQ. * 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, sealing 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 w© 
 learn from Homer, of the Phrygians too. 
 
 At^a ^' ap £f KoWrfv kuitetov OiaaV avrap virtpOe 
 TivKo'lffiv \aeaai Karerropaiav jMcyaXotffu— Iliad, w. v. 797. 
 
 Last o'er the urn the sacred earth they spread, 
 And raised the tomb, memoiial of the dead. — JPo^€. 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 169 
 
 a great stone was upon the welVs mouth. And thither 
 were all the flocks gathered : and they rolled the stone 
 from the welPs 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* — Tr^jyj) iTcppotyitry^m. The Hebrew 
 Dnn signifies both to * shut' and to ' seal ;' and Hesy- 
 chius defines (ppu^ccf^evoi, having sealed^ by tcXeiTugf 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 difficulty 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 restrainttl^id 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 — hound — 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 e6v)}, 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 
 wexe to be subjected to the Beast, and brought uadey 
 P2 
 
170 TREATISE OW 
 
 the baleful influence of a corrupt Christianity^ yet they 
 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, under the governance both of 
 the Dragon and the Beast. They are the symbolical 
 representatives of two distinct communities, the one 
 nominally Christian, the other 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 1 The 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 immunity from his diabolical arts enjoyed by 
 those who were formerly his victims. This interpreta- 
 tion, however, of the original term 2rA«v};o-J7, should de- 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 171 
 
 ceive, it will 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 religion. 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 0. 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 jrAav^j^f/j 
 v^orKvvyi(n^(iotvTQii — 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 7rXxvi}6ug '^poa-KuV7i<7Vii Seok; ere^oti — being 
 deceived shah wqrship other gods.'' Deut. 11. 28. 'And 
 a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the 
 Lord your God, but ^rAotvjj^JiTe «7ro t«5 o<5ow — 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 TrXctnToti 
 ere ttTio KvpUv reZ 6eou <rcv — to deceive thee from (following) 
 the Lord thy God: 2 Kings 21. 9. 'And Manasseh 
 c9rAfltyj3«y ctvrov<i^ seduced 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 Manas&eh 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,' &e. 
 implying the complete institution of idolatrous worship. 
 Jer. 23. 13. 'And I have seen folly in the prophets of 
 Samaria ; they prophesied in Baal, xai £7rXuvi}<rxv rov 
 Afltov i^ov — and caused my 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 ^Xxvijtrova-i TcoXKovti — shall deceive many ;' i. e. by 
 misleading them from the truth. Mat.^ 24. 24. ' Inso- 
 much, that if it were possible they should 7rXxvti<rctt — 
 deceive the very elect.' John 7. 12. ' Some said, Pie 
 is a good man : others said. Nay, ttXuvZ rov o^Xov — lie 
 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 herself a 
 prophetess, to teach and TrXecvovo-Sai s/Lcovis ^ovXovi — to 
 seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat 
 things sacrificed unto idols.' Rev. 13. 14. ' And TrXenv^ 
 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 kmgdom 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 uifernal 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 goodnesst 
 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 (erj?), 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 hog^ but iviavTov^ 
 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 millennary 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 difficulty 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 ever."* " But the 
 saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and 
 possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.^j 
 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, offering ' 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 
 
 * Dan. 2. 44. t Dan. 7. 18. 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 177 
 
 the regenerated family of man ; nor is the prospect, as 
 W€ 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 can^ 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 
 
 Q 
 
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 1 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 1 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 1 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 Bea&t 
 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 over- 
 
180 TREATISE ON 
 
 throwing this conclusion, but by first disproving our in- 
 terpretation 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. They are said indeed to have agreed to give 
 their 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 (kingdoms) of the earth' over 
 which * the great city,' represented hy the mystic Woman^ 
 
THE 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 therii,' 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 £33 ti'Di of which 
 the Greek K^if^cet^ judgment, is a translation, is a deriva- 
 tive from the verb DSB', signifying to judge, discern^ 
 deterrrdne, order, regulate, direct, and is in several in- 
 stances equivalent to reigning, or exercising authority 
 as a ruler and a prince. Thus Judg. 16. 31. * And he 
 £DD'^, 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 IJ^^'ky, may judge us;' i. e. 
 may rule over us. As to the substantive tpspD, to 
 which the Greek K^if^x or k^iti^ answers, Lowth re-. 
 Q2 
 
182 TREATISE Off 
 
 marks, that ' it is taken in a great latitnde of significa- 
 tion. It means rule, form, order, model, plan, rule of 
 right, or of religion ; an ordinance, institution ; judicial 
 process, cause, trial, sentence, condemnation, acquittal 
 deliverance, mercy,' &c.* Thus Ps. 72. 1. * Give the 
 king ihy judgments, God ;' Gr. r\ K^ifjut rov r^ &xTtx&! 
 ^J?, i. e. grant to the king commission to execute thy 
 judgments, in punishing oifendersy and discerning be- 
 tween the faithful and the false among thy people. 
 Ps. 119.84. 'When wilt thou execute judgment (Gr, 
 K^itrtv) 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, according to the Hebrew sense of the 
 word ' 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, which 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 
 
 * Lowth on Is. 4?, 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, eh. 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 ON 
 
 guage, 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," &;c. 
 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 the influence of a 
 prophetic ecstasy, or supernatural illapse of the 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 the special operation of 
 divine power, a canvass on which the various objects 
 and agents of the vision are depicted ; or rather it be- 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 186 
 
 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, Uke the umhrm or ghosts,seen byiEneas in the 
 Elysian fields. So Ezekiel, m 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 -^vp^rj, answering 
 to the Latin anima^ soul, the word here employed. A 
 very slight inspection of the original scriptures will 
 evince that the serise ordinarily affixed to the English 
 word soul, implying a disembodied immaterial spirit, by 
 no means answers to the predominant import of either 
 the Hebrew 2/33, or the Greek •^^x'*^' ^^ ^^ usage of 
 the sacred writers its leading sense is that of persons. 
 Thus Gen. 17. ' That soul (Gr. ^vx^, person) shall be 
 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 through ignorance.' v. 27. ''li 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.' Dent. 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 ^^cr^on* (Gr. 
 id.) of men.' Acts 2. 43. ' Fear came upon every soul 
 (Gr. id.).' 2 Pet. 2. 14. 'Beguihng 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 usus 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- 
 phet see an immaterial soul 1 The soul is not, in its 
 own nature, a substance capable of coming under the 
 cognizance of the senses ; and even in the shadowings 
 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 
 L.aw's ' Essay concerning the use of the words Soul, or Spirit,' 
 in the Appendix to his * Considerations on the Theory of Re- 
 ligion,' 
 
THtl MILLiENi^iUM. 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 I'evival 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 Avere 
 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, 
 as in Rev. 6. 9. we find the term manifestly employed 
 
188 TREATISE ON 
 
 in this sense. " And when he had opened the fifth sealf 
 I saw under the altar the souls of them that were 
 slam for the word of God, and for the testimony which 
 they held : And they cried with a loud voice, saying, 
 How long, O Lord," &c. Here again we are forbidden 
 by the nature of the symbolic imagery to affix to 'souls* 
 the sense of departed spirits. For with what propriety 
 could a disembodied immaterial spirit be represented as 
 * crying with a loud voice,' or as being clothed ' with 
 white robes' 1 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 similar 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. IlA^jy 
 ic^iu,(; ev uif^ccri "^v^^^ ou <pciyes6e — butjlesh with the blood 
 of its life shall ye not eat. Deut. 12. 23. 'Ot< ktiJM 
 uvTov i^vx,*i — for the blood of it is the life, or soul. Ac- 
 cordingly Christ 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 offering for sin ;' i. e. shall 
 make his hlood, or his life, an offering. This is strikingly 
 
 * Thus Homer, in the opening of the Iliad ; 
 
 IloXXaj 5' i(p6inovs4^vx^S a'iSi npo'ia^pcv 
 
 'Hpwwv.— And prematurely sent many brave souls to Orcus. 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 189 
 
 paralleled by the usage of the classic writers. Thus 
 Virgil has, * Purpuream vomit ille animam' — vomited 
 forth his purple life, or soul ; and Horace, * Non vanae 
 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 "^v^ui, 
 souls, an analogous import in the vision under considera- 
 tion, especially as -^v^k in 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. eyrt ^vx.fi).^ Num.6. 11. 
 * For that he sinned (contracted defilement) by the dead 
 R 
 
190 TREATlSfi ON 
 
 (Gr. cTff i Tr,i 'i'^X'^if i- e. by touching a dead body. LeV^ 
 21. 1. * Speak unto the priests, the sons of Aaron, and 
 say unto them, There shall none be defiled /or the dead 
 (Gr. fv rai^-^ vp^xii) among his people.' Ezek. 44. 25* 
 ' And they shall come at no dead person (Gr. f5r< ^^^v^iiy) 
 to defile 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 oiher 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 necessity of a more close and 
 accurate analysis of certain terms occurring in this con- 
 nexion, the true explication of which is indispensable 
 to a right view of the passage. Is it, then, according 
 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, affects not ? Is 
 there a spiritual in contradistinction from animal life, 
 which may properly be said to survive the dissolution 
 
THE MILLENNIUM, 191 
 
 of soul and body, and triumph over the potency of the 
 grave? In attempthig a reply to this question, the fol- 
 lowing passages bear too directly upon the point to be 
 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. 33. 
 * 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 htlieveth on 
 me, though he were dead, yet shall he live : and whoso- 
 ever liveth and believeth 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, but 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.' 
 Kom. 6. 10. 'For in that he died, he died unto sin once ; 
 
193 TREATISE ON 
 
 but in that he livcth, 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. John 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 the 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 encounter 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 
 miglit wreak itself upon their heads, still they were 
 < 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 be 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 th^ir fate and i\\e 
 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 I Is ho allowance to be made for th« 
 progress of scriptural illumination in subsequent ages ? 
 Suppose that the simple-minded martyrs of a former 
 R2 
 
194 TREATISE ON 
 
 day, in a period of a great moral and intellectual dark- 
 ness, should have adopted a more gross interpretation 
 of the mystic imagery of the Apocalypse, and should 
 have imagined that 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 ? 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 1 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 Witsius. 
 
 " These sentiments," says he (namely, that there 
 will be a resurrection of all — righteous and wicked — at 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 105 
 
 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 Ifhose who sat upon them, not deter- 
 mining who they were : or rather making it sufiiciently 
 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^if^c t^o^n uvtoi<;. But if the 
 reference had been to souls (ra^ "^f^^s) uvrai^ would 
 have been used. — Further, he does not say, that he saw 
 that the men who were 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, &e. 
 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 again, 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 they 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. 1697. 
 
 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 Mitto) rav uk^uv 
 — 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 living, 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 ?Mi7ro) HK^ei — the rest, (even) the dead; as in 
 Rev. 9. 20. the phrase 'ot Xti-jcoi rav ccvS^uTrav — the rest 
 of the men which were not killed by these plagues, is 
 plainly equivalent to 'oi Xoiyrot 'ot uvG^uttoi — the rest, 
 {even) the men, which were not hilled, 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, the 
 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 alluded 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 hook 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 intimate an actual 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 199 
 
 tiermination, but, on the contrary, to signify perpetuity. 
 Thus Ps. 110. 1. 'Sit thou at my right-hand vntil I 
 make thine enemies thy footstool.' Is it at a-11 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 laWj 
 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 
 xn<^ti<ruv, 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 e^tjirxvi lived. There is Uttle doubt that 
 uv£^i3<rxv has crept into the text from the construction 
 put upon f^jjo-av in the preceding verse. As in the pre- 
 vaiUng 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 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 thou- 
 sand years." The original uvcca-rua-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 MILLENNIUM. 201 
 
 tained 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 
 at 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 arc 
 favoured with a happy immunity from the peril of being 
 involved in ' the second death,' though they might be ' 
 called to endure the painsof the first. This expression, 
 which occurs in no other part of the Scriptures but in 
 the Apocalypse, viz. ch. 2. 11. 'He that overcometh 
 S 
 
203 TREATISE ON 
 
 shall not be hurt oi the second death f and, ch. 20. 14. 
 
 * And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. 
 This is the second death^ 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 aflbrded 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 worlds, 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 corned 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 secundae 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' — 
 hut 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 Gehennas' 
 — since he shall see the wicked wise men who die the 
 SECOND DEATH, and adjudged to hell. Although, there- 
 fore, Cocceius understands by the * second death* in 
 this passage merely ^naZ 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, include4 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 revixerunt, ii beali sunt, (inio. justi-sanctU quia 
 a Spiritu Sancto sanctificati ad amorem veritatis. Propter earn 
 causam secunda mors, avo/xto, a-iroaTaaia, induratio, in eos potesta- 
 tem non habet. Regeniti non deficerent ; quia beati et sancti 
 sunt ; h. e. quia a Deo justificati sunt ct arrhabonem Spiritiis 
 a Deo acceperunt, et eo signati sunt.— Coc. in Rev. 21. 6. 
 
204 TREATISE ON 
 
 and trials of the victims 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 he 
 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 he 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 holy 
 city. The prison therefore is the abyss wherein he was chained. 
 Wo 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 will be among some of those 
 nations which are called Gog and Magog in the next verse, and 
 which he will then seduce to disturb Christ^s kingdom^ — Daur 
 imz Perpet. Comment, p. 943. 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 205 
 
 ' 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- 
 fiequently 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 — CM)jec-» 
 tions answered. 
 
 "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 deno^iination has been summoned 
 S2 
 
206 TREATISE on 
 
 up from the then barbarous and pagan hemisphere of 
 America and the Terra AustraUs 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 which 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 denoting the enemies of the church hi 
 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 
 bv Calovius :— " Sad nimis manifestum est, describi certum rog- 
 num, ac certos populos, quorum nomina, provincias, ct situm 
 expressit^Spiritus Sanctus, neque in tam operosa populorum a 
 nominibus gentilibus, et patronymicis descriptione, ilia omnia 
 allegorice exponi possunt, nisi vim textui insignem facere ve- 
 limus" — ^ But it is too obvious, that a particular kingdom is de- 
 scribed^ and certairi people, whose name, provinces, and situation 
 are expressly designated 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 AhhKGORiCALhy unless 
 we would do positive violence to the text.'' — Calovius in loc. 
 
THE 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 the 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 affords 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 Avhich 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 
 
THE 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 fif the Lord came unto me, saymg, 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 autera hsee Ezechielis prophetia cum ilia, quse 
 est Apoc. 20. 8, seqq, ceu ex collatione cuivis patebit. Neque 
 enim per nudam allusionem ibi allegatur hsec 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 
 world,receives 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 saith 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 1 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 inan, pre- 
 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, Gog, before 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 
 thmgs 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 
 
218 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 1 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. 5. 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 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 2l3 
 
 lo each other. A resurrection is mentioned by each — 
 ihe invasion, 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 fronl 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 nondura demonstrari posse, 
 sed in futurum tempus esse conjiciendum" — Interjjreters of 
 sound judgment freely admits that thU entire fuljilment cannot as 
 yet be demonstrated from history^ but is to be referred to the 
 future. — Michaelis. 
 
 T 
 
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 Antiochus 
 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, whh 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 of 
 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 with 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. 
 
 * Greenfield's 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, Ham, 
 and Japheth ; and unto them were sons born after the 
 flood. The sons of Japheth, Gomer, and Magog, 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,' mdeed, 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 different 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 Meshech 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 Vitringa, " 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 the Tanais on the 
 west to the Mount Imaus 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 here associated with Gog ; and in answer to the 
 
 * Vitring. in Apoc. p. 871. 
 
 t RosenmuL Commsnt. in Es^ek. ch. 30. 2. 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 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 qffirms, ' that the Jews of his age un- 
 derstood by Magog the vast and innumerable nations of 
 Scythia, about Mount Caucasus, and the Palus Mseo- 
 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 povyer 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 which, with- 
 out exception, is now possessed by the Emperor of the JVorth. 
 
 T 2 
 
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 
 M4j(ij ; 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 believed 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 Mseotic lake, or Sea of Asoph, hath its mime. Gog 
 is called the prince of Ross, Meshech, and Tubal. The Mus- 
 covites are believed, by common consent, to be the people of 
 Meshech, and with them the people of Tubal are constantly 
 joined. They are thought to have settled at the heads of the 
 Euphrates and Tigris, between the Euxine and the Caspian 
 seas ; and from thence to have sent up colonies to people the 
 north ; of which it is believed that the Tobolski are one. Now 
 the river Araxes, which runs through that 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 region there can be no doubt that the 
 people called the Rossi or Russians, the Mosci or Muscovites, 
 and the Tobolski, have proceeded, and all these northern coun- 
 tries have been peopled."— /rfm"-'^ Discourses on DanieVs 
 Vision of the four Beasts^ p. 476. 
 
, THE MILLENNIUM. 219 
 
 and fill the earth with their carcasses, which after some 
 time <jrod 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. fortress of Gog, which the Greeks softened to Kecv 
 xutrov, Caucasus, in the same manner as they changed the 
 Heb. ^uiigamal, cQmel, into >c«^»;A<»$, 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 
 Magogitis, or Magotis, which last the Greeks might 
 easily mould into Maiotis, rendered by the Latins 
 McBotis.X 
 
 * Sale's Koran, Prelim. Dis. p. 111. 
 
 t " The legend of the Koran teaches moreover that 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. 
 
 X " What particular nations these 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 Scythia. 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 Geougen (query — a derivative from Gog ?)."* 
 
 by learned men, who have turned their attention to this subject. 
 But the best founded opinion is, that the Scjthians are de- 
 scended from Magog. It is also said, that the Mogul Tartars, 
 a people of the Scythian race, are still called Magog by the 
 Arabian writers, who, beyond the writers of every other coun- 
 try, have preserved ancient names and customs. That they 
 shall be a northern nation Ezekiel plainly declares in ch. 58. 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 
 lineal 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. 
 
THE 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 weYe check- 
 ed, and in the language of symbols they were bound 
 irij 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 first hung over Europe, 
 they were mistaken (rather, rightly taken) hy 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, h2^n\ ^jB'p K'NI J^'K'J, Gr. d^^ovru Pw?, Moo-'o^, 
 xui 0o/3fA, may be rendered as it is by Bochart and 
 others — prince of Ross, Meshech, and Tubal, as the 
 Heb. term tm, 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 
 
 ♦ Dec!, and Fall, p. 1021. t Sac. Geog. p, 23. 4to ed. 
 
222 TREATISE ON 
 
 observed from the Nubian geographer, 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 provmce 
 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 
 Tre^iTT^i-^ci^ 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 in 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 stre;pgth 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 paraphrasticalljr, 
 * I will infatuate thy counsels.' " — Horsley. 
 
224 TREATISE ON 
 
 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 ivill 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, 
 dissembling his anxiety, ' if I should stand in need of 
 the whole force of your kindred tribes V * 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- 
 roum ; 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 him 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. andFall, p.717. t lb. 1055. t lb. 1058. 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 225 
 
 posed of a vast coUuvies 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 eartJC 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. 
 
 U 
 
226 TREATISE Olf 
 
 Now it is worthy of especial note, that in the vision 
 of the sixth trumpet, when the four Euphratfean angels, 
 that is, the four Turkish sultanies, were to be loosed 
 from their previous restraint, it is said, Rev. 9. 15. that 
 ' the four angels were loosed, which were prepared (o/ 
 tTotiA.it<r[A,£voi) 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 phraseology in the Old Testament prophet ; 
 ' Be thou prepared (sToi/^MTStin) ;' 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 he ready {troif^oi) against the 
 third day." Josh. 8. 4. ' Go not very far from the 
 city, but he ye all ready (fVfe-^e jravres sroif^ot).^ 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, <fec. 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 ? 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 Lord t;2577e^ Sarah as he had said, 
 and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken.' On 
 Uie other hand, in speaking of the punishment of Korah, 
 
228 TREATISE ON 
 
 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 the visitatio?i 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 Gog 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 np3, to visits 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 visit.' So Num. 3. 10. 
 'And thou shalt appoint Aaron and his sons, and they 
 shall wait on their priests' office.' 2 Chron. 36. 23. 
 ' Thus saith 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. ' Who hath enjoined him his way V 
 Neb. 7. 1. 'And wheri the porters, and the singers, anc^ 
 
TTHE MILLENNIUM. 229 
 
 tlie Levites were appoi7Ued' (Heb. * were visited*). Neh. 
 i2. 44. 'And at that time were some appointed (Heb. 
 * visited') over the chambers for the treasures,' <fcc. 
 Guided by this clew we apprehend the genuine import 
 of the term before us to be, that ' after many days,' or 
 M'hen 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 nation, 
 and against the people of my wrath will I give him a 
 charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, <fc;c. 
 Howbeithe 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 their 
 own, and never dreamt that they were bringing to pass 
 the pre-determined and pre-announced 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 o^ the ancient ver- 
 U 2 
 
230 TilEATlSE OW 
 
 sions. The Chal. Targum has it ; ' After many days 
 thou shalt prepare thy forces ;' and the Syriae, * Thou 
 shall receive charge, or commandment.' The Septua- 
 gint employs eroif^cuc-^^s-}!, thou shalt be 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 w^e 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 MILLENNIUM. 231 
 
 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 giterapore future." — All the inter prefers agree that that 
 which is said from this section of the chapter (v. 14.) and onwards, 
 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 
 24th ch. of Isaiah, thus expresses his conviction of the identity 
 of scope between this and the prophecy of Ezekiel ; — " Nee alio 
 tendit propbetia Ezehielis de Gogo ct Magogo, in ipsa terra 
 Canaanaj tandem prosternendis ; quae prophetia censeri debet 
 huic noslrse esse parallela ; unde TrapaXA^Xm (ppaatws Is. 24. 22. 
 Post plicres dies visitahuntur cum Ezeoh. 38. 8. ubi eadem phra- 
 ais." — Nor does the prophecy of Ezekiel, respecting the futurede- 
 struciion of Gog and Magog in the land of Canaan look any other 
 way ; which prophecy ought to be considered parallel to this of 
 ours ; whence the parallelism of phrase in Is. 24. 22. ' After many 
 days thou shalt be visited^' and Ezek. 38. 8. uhere the same ex* 
 pression occurs. 
 
232 TREATISE ON 
 
 prison-house of the mystic abyss (' as prisoners are 
 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 church, 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 the 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,t and a predicted 
 hostile aggression against the church, against a people 
 professing Christianity^ would naturally be couched in 
 
 * Per monies Israel hospitia ecclesise ; per Israelitas Christian 
 intelligunlur. — Michaelis. 
 
 t ' And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on 
 thejii, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. ^ Gal. 6. 16. 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 233 
 
 language like that before us. As we have seen, how- 
 ever, that * mountains,' in 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 arjd 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 not 
 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 and 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 hound. 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 them."* 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 
 {u¥u^):o-vi), and come like a storm,' <fec. and in the other, 
 
 * And they went up («ve/3;}c-«v) on the breadth of the earth 
 (land), and compassed the camp of the saints about,' 
 <fec. The word uve^tjo-eiv, 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 (^un^nTif) and besieged Samaria.' Judg. 1. 1. 
 
 * The children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, Who 
 shall go up [ecvoi^tiirsrxi) for US against the Canaanites 
 to fight against them?' 2 Kings 18. 25. 'Am I now 
 
 * Keith's Signs of the Times, vol. i. p. 207. 309, 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 233 
 
 •come up {an^tii^it) without the Lord against this place 
 to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up {ctvx(iii6t) 
 against this land and destroy it.' So in numerous other 
 instances. Indeed, in the most classic authors of Greece, 
 the proper rendering of AvotjixTi^ 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 denommated was to be a political, and not a 
 spiritual power, as some have maintained. — Passing 
 over several intermediate verses we come to the 
 following r — 
 
 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 appHes to the original word UiKloiaav, 
 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 {kvk\ovh(v7}v) with armies.' Heb. 11. 39. 
 * By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were com- 
 passed about (KVK\o}divra) seven days.' Thus also Eccl. 9. 14. 
 ' And there came a great king against it, and besieged it {xvKXddf 
 avTT/v).' Is. 29. 3. 'And I will camp against thee rou?id about 
 (wKXuffu)), and will lay siege against thee.' 
 
230 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 Magog 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 MILLENNIUM. 237 
 
 Uan 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. ch. xx. Ezek. ch. xxxviii. ix. 
 
 Soil of man, set thy face againsl 
 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 ff '' ^"3^"^ "^'^^ '"''^'''^' "'^ "' 
 expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his ^^;"» handhng swords : 
 pjjg^jj, Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya, with 
 
 And shall go out to deceive the na- '^'"™ •~^°'"'' ^"^ ^" ^'^ ^^"^^ ' '^^ 
 lions which are in the four quarters of ,^^"'' ''^Tr^''. ""^'^^ "'? '^"''^■ 
 the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather ''''\ ^"'^ ^'\ ^'' ^'"'^' ' ^"*^ ""^"^ 
 
 them to battle ; the numbpr of whom 
 
 people with thee. 
 
 is as the sand of the sea. ^^^^ ""^"^ ^^^'^ ^^''^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^'»- 
 
 ited : in the latter years thou shalt 
 
 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. 
 
2i8 TREATISE ai« 
 
 And I 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. 
 
 And I will send a fire on Magog, and 
 among them that dwell carelessly in 
 And fire came down from God out of ^^^^ jgi^g . ^^^ ^^ey shall know that I 
 heaven and devoured them. ^^ t^g Lord. 
 
 These shall fall upon the mountains 
 of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and 
 the people 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 utter 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 Zi^cra% 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 
 Jire 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, 
 Ps. 97. 3. * AJire goeth before him and burneth up his 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 239 
 
 enemies round about.' Ps. 78. 21. ' Therefore the Lord 
 heard this and was wroth : so a^re 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 
 wiih^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 
 fire.^ Lam. 4. 11. * The Lord hath kindled 2, fire 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 ^fire 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 tlie 
 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 
 time 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 
 he 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 single 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 ''9 
 
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 is 
 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 
 X2 
 
242 TREATISE orr 
 
 and contempt, violence and aggression, to be exercised 
 towards it. But the lapse of several centuries might 
 scarcely suffice 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 longtime, 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, 
 v/hether 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. Ttbo conflagrations 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 rn 
 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 thei London Record news- 
 paper of Nov. 14, 1831 :— 
 
 " Constantinople^ Oct. 10. — On the 5th inst. a natural phe- 
 nomenon, such as few persons remember, and the effects of 
 which have been most destructive, filled with terror the inhab- 
 itants of this country ; who are at the same time suffering 
 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 such hailstones. 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 Uave 
 
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 
 my 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 attittide which in self-defence they have 
 
 been killed ; an incalculable number are wounded ; and the 
 damage don© 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 Jives 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/ uyM^ is bestowed on the ground not 
 so much of personal as of relative ciiaracter, 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, eh. 11. 41. it is said, 'He shall entei 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 
 
THB 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, Rev. 20. 3. ' And after that he 
 must {^ei) 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 
 (tht) 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 
 
24s8 TREATISE ON 
 
 them, that the Son of man must (^e/) 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 [hi) yet be accompHshed in me, A.nd he 
 was reckoned among the transgressors ;' i. e. it must be 
 accomplished iecaw^e it was written. John 20. 9. 'For 
 as yet they knew not the Scriptures, that he must [hi) 
 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 (shi) have suffered, and 
 risen again from the dead.' Luke 24. 46. 'And said 
 unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved {eht) 
 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' (?rA«tfyHc-<»/), if it bear the sense already ascribed to 
 it of seducing hy 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- 
 
THE MILLENNIUM^ 249 
 
 swer, that the specific end of his * deception' on this oc- 
 casion is expressly defined by the words of the prophet. 
 E^eXeva-trxt ^Xccv^rxi — c-vvayetye7v etvrov^ ek TroXsfA^v — 
 He shall go forth to deceive them — to gather them to- 
 gether to battle. This then was the drift 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 with 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, my 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 thousand 
 years be dated from the reign of Theodosius or shortly 
 afterj- 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 
 Y 
 
250 TREATISE ON 
 
 than that their first inroads upon the territories of Chris* 
 tendom were at least two or three centuries prior to the 
 date 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 which 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-Bec, 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 1093, 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 
 offered 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 Malek-Shah. On his death in 
 
 * Mills' Hist, of Mohamm. p. 233. 
 
 J 
 
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 reg-ions borderinor 
 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 Mohamm. p. 133-26L 
 
252 TREATISE OK 
 
 Euphratean 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 : — Keti orm reXeirSjj r» 
 XiMsi hi]. Of these words the common translation is, 
 ' And when the thousand years are expired ;' understand- 
 ing the term of years to be fully completed. But a 
 more correct rendering we apprehend to be, ' And 
 when the thousand years are expiring^ or draiving 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 orotv, to 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- 
 
 * Fabeta* S?wj. Calend. of Proph. vol it p. 415,. 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 253 
 
 markably apposite instance is afforded in a former part 
 of the Revelation, eh. 11. 7., where the war or prolonged 
 hostility of the Beast against the Witnesses is mentioned. 
 'And when they shall have finished their testimony 
 (Gr. oTxv reXeo-tuat tjjv /noi^Tv^iuv avrm), the Beast, thaJ 
 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 Jinishing, or about to Jinish, 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, JVhile they shall be 
 Jinishing^ or executing their testimony* Again, Mat. 5. 
 11.' Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and per- 
 secute you,' (fee. (Gr. 'drxv ovsi^iaaffiv vf^tui; kxi ^let/^aa^i) ; 
 i. e. not when men shall have reviled and persecuted 
 
 * Daubuz, after rendering the original, — ' And whilst they shall 
 perform their testimony,^ — remarks r " This, is the right meaning 
 of these words, as Grotius, More, and others, even Mede him-^ 
 self, own. For the word rfXtw may signify the doing any thing 
 in order to its perfection, as well as the actual finishing of it. 
 So fTTtrfXfo), in Heb. 9. 6., signifies simply to accomplish, without 
 any respect to the end, any more than to the whole service : and 
 the particle d^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 ta 
 be 42 months, which are equal to the 1260 days of these witnesses* 
 prophesying. Therefore the Beast makes war upon them all ths- 
 time whilst they perform their testimony.'''' — Dauhuz Perpet. Ccm,^ 
 v.ent. p. 514. 
 
 Y2 
 
254 TREATISE Oi<r 
 
 you, but even while they are doing it. Mat. 10. 19. 
 ' But when they deliver you up (Gr. oTav Tra^xh^actv uf^ti) 
 take no thought,' &lc. ; i. e. when they are delivering you 
 up. So also 1 Thess. 5. 3. * For when they shall say 
 (oTttv yct^ Xeyao-tv), peace and safety ; then sudden de- 
 struction Cometh upon them ;' 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 signify no 
 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 
 irruption 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 
 them," denoting, /is 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 efiusion 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, replied : — " Have pa- 
 tience, till God shall have delivered the city /rom the great dragon 
 who seeks to devour us. You shall then perceive whether we are 
 truly reconciled with the Azymites.'* — Gibbon's 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. 397 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Correct ViewB 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 Earih — 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 whith, 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 doing are conscious of having 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 investigation into which we have entered. It h 
 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- 
 clent 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 obscftrity. The language of symbols is 
 the vehicle of prophecy. If we would 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 ON 
 
 we have 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 hypothesifi 
 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 
 Z 
 
262 TREATISE ON 
 
 Stood forth in self-evident truth, while in fact it was the 
 difficulties 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 innumerable 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 the Redeemer's kingdom. Turning to the 
 sublime strains of Isaiah, while his closing chapters 
 abound with the most cheering intimations of a state of 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 263 
 
 unprecedented blessedness, to be enjoyed by earth's 
 later generations, we find no specification of lime 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, ant^ 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. 3S-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 the 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 ni 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 o£ o, 
 
 * Pan. 7. 13-^7. 
 
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 fiair 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 be 
 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 TREATISE Olf 
 
 mon theory of the Millennium, any event answering to 
 this august representation has yet taken place, or is at 
 all provided for among the antecedents of that period 1 
 Is it not, on tlie 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 1 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 iz/erai 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 whole of ihis is done for the sole purpose of temporally 
 judging and destroying the corrupt Roman Empire ; which by 
 the machinations of the little horn, had 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 earth. Hence we clearly learn, that 
 the judgment, described by Daniel, occurs in the world which 
 we 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 judgment-day at the universal consummation." — Faber\ 
 Sac. Calend. of Proph. vol. i. p. 222. 
 
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 is 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 was to be crowned with many crowns, and to re- 
 ceive the willing homage of a regenerated world.* 
 
 * " Here again the machinery is borrowed from the 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 dost ; 
 and nothing terminated succeeds it. But the day of judgment 
 described by St. John, like that described by Daniel, is folloived 
 by various important transactions upon 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 the 
 earth,and therefore obviously upon the earth : these nations hav- 
 ing formed themselves into a great anti-christian confederacy, 
 go up on the breadth of the earth ; and therefore still upon the 
 earth, for the purpose of attacking the 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 moral., 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 which is even now spreading 
 its light upon the mountains. But ' instead of the 
 
 day of judgment arrives, when 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 literal da.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 earth., and has for its object the temporal destruc- 
 tion of the self-same apostatic Roman Empire." — Faher^a 
 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 ! we would see 
 (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 myrtle-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 mountain, — 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 
 ' new heavens 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 promise 
 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 TilEATlSE ON 
 
 flagralion 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 the 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 shadowing 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 close 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 MILLENNIUM, 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, the 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 
 Iheir 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 shaking of heaven and earth, 
 so as to distract and overthrow them ; the creating a new 
 heaven and earth, and the passinjj away of an old one, or th* 
 beginning and end of a world, (are put) for the rise and ruin of 
 a body politic, signified thereby." — Sir I. JVewtoii's Observ. on 
 the Proph. part i. ch. 2. 
 
 Aa 
 
274 TREATISE ON 
 
 These passages afford, we apprehend, a clew to the 
 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, shovs^s us affirmatively 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 
 style, 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 conse- 
 quence or necessary condition, to make this earth and heaven a 
 proper receptacle of the glorified saints." — Dauhuz'' Perpet. 
 Comtnent. p. 9G4. 
 
THE MII,LENNH7M. ^75 
 
 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 21. moral instead of a phiysical renovation. 
 And this we apprehend to be in fact the state which is 
 now to be anticipated by the Christian world. Discard- 
 hig 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 proportionably 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 chapters of the Apocalypse in which they 
 are so fiilly, 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 
 upon it, especially as a volume of no mean dimensions 
 would be requisite for a thorough canvassing of the 
 
2'76 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 
 developement 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 world, 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 dwell 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 ail 
 things new." 
 
 " O scenes surpassing fable, and yot true, 
 Scenes of accomplished bliss ! which who can see, 
 Though but in distant prospect, and not feel 
 His soul refreshed with foretaste of the 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." 
 
 COWPER. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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