millenium, in which the church will be in a most prosperous state, A. D. 2,000 to 3,000; so that the seventh chiliad is to be a kind of sabbath—the fifth is the renewed invasion of the enemies of the church for a short time not defined, but which is to end in their final extirpation and ruin, (chap. xx. 7—10.)—the sixth is the general resurrection and final judgment, (chap.xx.11--15.) which terminate in the seventh grand period, in which the saints are represented as fixed in a state of everlasting triumph and happiness in the heavenly world. ch.xxi.1-5. vens, who will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but be equal to the angels, will be sent down from time to time to the new earth, to be teachers and rulers, and have power over nations; and the will of God will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This dispensation will continue at least for a thousand years. There will be a translation from the new earth to the new heavens, either successively during the thousand years, or all at once after the termination of that period. Dr. Bellamy supposed that the millenium will be a glorious scene of Christ's spiritual reign on earth, when universal peace shall prevail; wars, famines, and all desolating judgments, be at an end; industry shall flourish, and all luxury, intemperance, and extravagance, be banished. Then this globe will be able to sustain with food and raiment a number of inhabitants immensely greater than ever dwelt upon it at one time: and if all those shall, as the scripture asserts, know the Lord, from the least to the greatest, and the knowledge of the Lord fill the earth, as the waters do the sea, for a thousand years together, it will naturally come to pass that there will be more saved in Dr. Cotton Mather supposed that the conflagration would take place at Christ's second personal coming; that after this great event God will create new heavens, and a new earth. The raised saints will inhabit the new heavens, attending on our Saviour there, and receiving inconceivable rewards for their services and sufferings for his sake. The new earth will be a paradise, and inhabited by those who shall be caught up to meet the Lord, and be with him in safety, while they see the earth flaming under them. They shall return to the new earth, possess it, and people it with an offspring who shall be sinless and deathless. The raised saints in the new hea- those thousand years, than ever before dwelt upon the face of the earth, from the foundation of the world. Some understand the thousand years in the Revelation, agreeable to other prophetical numbers in that book, a day for a year. By that rule, as the scripture year contains 360 days, the thousand years will amount to 360,000; in which there might be millions saved to one which has been lost. But if this glorious period should last only a thousand years literally, there may be many more saved than lost. The ancient millenarian doctrine of the personal reign of Christ upon earth, and the literal resurrection of the saints, has, under different forms, been revived and advocated in a number of publications, which the brevity of this work will not admit of noticing. Mr. Keitt, a clergyman of the church of England, in a late publication, entitled, History of the Interpreter of Prophecy, has advanced a new plan, of which the following is an imperfect sketch. He supposes that the antichrist, or the many antichrists, spoken of in the new testament, means a power, a person, or a succession of persons, who were to arise in the world, and either deceitfully arrogate to themselves the place and office of Christ, or exercise a direct enmity to him and his religion that there appear to be three great forms of antichrist; viz. Popery, Mahometanism, and Infidelity, which were to prevail a certain time for the trial and punishment of the corrupted church of Christ-that at the present period the Infidel form of antichrist is begun, and will continue to prevail while the Papal and Mahometan decline-that the rise, progress, and establishment, of the Infidel power, is predicted by the little horn of the beast in the visions of Daniel, and the second beast and his image in the Revelation of St. John.Mr. Keitt supposes, that when the Infidel power shall have reached its summit of dominion; when the jews are collected into their own land when the church, purified by tribulation, shall be made ready to receive her Lord, Christ shall personally appear, and finish the reign of antichrist in all its various forms: the just shall be raised from the dead, and a new kingdom of peace and everlasting happiness be established under the immediate government of the Redeemer, agreeably to the description in Dan. ii. 35, Rev. xiv. 2, and other passages. When this glorious period of the millenium shall commence, the New Jerusalem foretold in Ezek. xxxix. 25, will be separated from the world as the garden of Eden, but the gates of entrance shall stand open: the world will continue a state of probation to all but those who arose from the dead; it will, however, be enlightened by the communication of those blessed instructors. At the expiration of the thousand years, Satan will be loosed, to deceive the nations without the city but as soon as he shall have attempted to disturb the peace of the saints, fire will descend out of heaven, and devour the incorrigible sinners. The final judgment, the resurrection of the wicked, the destruction of the world, the everlasting punishment of Satan and his followers, and the admission of the saints into eternal felicity in the heavens, will immediately succeed. As the above systems respecting the millenium include in them the eternity of future punishment, the plan of the late Mr. Winchester is briefly delineated, because it is distinguished from the others in that respect. This author supposes that, as an introduction to the millenium, the power and empire of the Turks shall be weakened, to make way for the return of the jews to their own land, which event is expressly 28, and many other passages of scripture-that after their return, their enemies shall come against them in vast numbers, which are described by the Gog and Magog mentioned in Ezek. xxxvii. 1–7 that they shall take and plunder the city of Jerusalem, and bring the jews to the brink of destruction—that at the height of their triumph, Christ, the manifested Jehovah, shall appear in the clouds of heaven, according to Zech. xiv. 4-that his appearance shall effect the conversion of the jews, who shall receive him as the true Messiah, their Lord and King. John xix: They shall look on him whom they have pierced. See also Rev. i. 7. The dead saints shall then be raised, the living saints changed; both caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and descend with him to reign on earth: the glorious millenium shall then commence, and continue a thousand years. In that period the jews shall be again acknowledged as the peculiar people of God; the twelve tribes settled in their own land, under the immediate government of the Saviour, and be a holy and happy people; Jerusalem shall be rebuilt in greater glory and splendour than ever; all nations shall yearly repair to this city to worship the Lord. (Zech. xiv. 16-20) There shall be a glorious temple erected, into which the Lord Jesus shall enter: there he shall hold his court: from thence he shall send his saints through the whole earth, to instruct and bless mankind. This temple is particularly described in Ezek. xl. 41, 42. At this blessed period Satan shall be bound; the curse shall be removed from the earth; the obstructions which hinder the success of the gospel removed; all be united in one religion; wars, famines, earthquakes, tempests, and pestilence, shall cease; the inhabitants of the world be more numerous than ever, and all kinds of spiritual and temporal blessings be the portion of mankind. At the end of the millenium Satan shall be loosed to deceive the nations of the earth: a mighty army, with this great apostate at their head, shall march in a hostile manner against the camp of the saints; but fire shall immediately descend from heaven to devour them. ** This army is described by the Gog and Magog of St. John, which our author supposes different from the Gog and Magog mentioned by Ezekiel.* This destruction will be immediately followed by the resurrection of all the dead, the day of judgment, and the conflagration of the world. After the judgment, the Lord, with all the redeemed, shall ascend to heaven; and the conflagration shall take place, by which the earth shall be reduced to a globe of fire, and be the final stage of punishment; where the wicked shall endure the pangs of the second death, and be tormented for ages of ages after the day of judg ment. At length the renovation of the heavens and earth shall take place, according to various prophetic passages, particularly Isaiah lxv. 17, 2 Pet. iii. 13, Rev. xxi. 1, 2. After the new heavens and earth are prepared, as a new stage for the wonders of God's redeeming love, the Holy City, or New Jerusalem,+ shall descend as the residence of the saints during those ages in Among a variety of arguments to prove that the Gog and Magog of St. John and Ezekiel are different, Mr. Winchester observes that the first army shall prevail for a time, and bring Israel into mighty distress; the second shall only make the attempt, and be immediately destroyed. ↑ Mr. Winchester brings a variety of arguments to prove that the new heavens and new earth are different from the millenium. "The millenium (says he) is limited to a thousand years; but in the new earth Christ and his saints are to reign for ages of ages. The Millenium-Jerusalem is designed to be a type and miniature picture of the New Jerusalem." which the great work of redeeming lost sinners is carried on. The saints shall reign with Christ, and be kings and priests, till all intelligences are restored, sin and misery cease to exist, and holiness and happiness be absolutely universal and complete, as is expressed in Rev. xxi. 1: And he that sat upon the throne said, behold I make all things new! Christ shall reign till he has put all things under his feet, and a more glorious dispensation shall take place; when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God the Father, that God may be all in all. Mr. Winchester supports his plan by a variety of prophecies in the sacred scriptures, which he takes in the most literal and obvious sense. His manner of arguing is too diffuse to be abridged in the narrow limits of this work. Those who desire to see his system at large, and his manner of defending it, are referred to his Lectures on Prophecy, in two volumes, Jesuit, professor of divinity in the university of Ebora, in Portugal. In the year 1598 he published a book, shewing that the operations of divine grace were entirely consistent with the freedom of the human will; and introduced an hypothesis to remove the difficulties attending the doctrines of predestination and liberty. He asserted that the decree of predestination to eternal glory was founded on a previous knowledge and consideration of the merits of the elect; that the grace from whose operations these merits are derived is not efficacious by its own intrinsic power only, but also by the consent of our own will, and because it is administered in those circumstances in which the Deity, by that branch of his knowledge which is called scientia media, foresees that it will be efficacious. This kind of prescience, denominated in the schools scientia media, is that fore-knowledge of future contingents which arises from an acquaintance with the nature and faculties of rational beings, of the circumstances *Broughton's Hist. Lib. vol. ii. pp. 93, 94. Doddridge's Lectures, pp. 581-590. Burnet's Theory, p. 209. Whiston's Theory, p. 288. Fleming's Christology, pp. 29-38. Ray's Discourses, pp. 407-415. Whitby's Annotations, vol. ii. p. 740. Worthington on the Extent of Redemption, Lowman on Revelations, p. 243. Mather's Life, pp. 141, 143. Bellamy on the Milenium, pp. 65-68. Encyclopædia, vol. i. pp. 290-309. vol. ii. pp. 299-306,"vol, xii, p. 29, Keitt's History of Prophecy, |