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 uncertain dogma of a grand concluding Sabbath of the world. That there was, however, an early transfusion or incorporation of this feature of Judaism into the Christianity 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 peculiarities of the Mosaic economy, and were, like Paul, 'exceedingly zealous of the traditions of their fathers.' It was natural, therefore, that they should endeavor to harmonize the prophetic announcements of the New Testament 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, accordingly, were deeply tinctured with the hue of those preconceptions 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 conclusive evidence before the minds of our readers. Of the Christian writers of the first century, who allude to this subject, Barnabas in his epistle speaks thus: 666 "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 signifies, that the Lord God will finish all things in six thousand years. For a day with him is a thousand years; as he himself testifieth, saying, 'Behold this day shall be as a thousand years.' There fore, children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, shall all things be consummated. And he rested the seventh day: this signifies, that when his Son shall come, and shall abolish 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 sufficient testimony that it is the production of a very early period of the Christian church, and it contains undeniable 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 Catholic doctrine of his time. “ I, and as many as are orthodox Christians in all respects, do acknowledge that there shall be a resurrection 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."+ · Καὶ ἐτοίησεν ὁ θεὸς ἐν ἓξ ἡμέραις τὰ ἔργα τῶν χειρῶν αὑτοῦ, καὶ συνετέλεσεν ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ εβδόμῃ, καὶ κατέπαυσεν ἐν αὐτῇ, καὶ ἡγίασεν αυτήν. Προσέχετε, τέκνα τί λέγει, τὸ συ νετέλεσεν ἐν ἓξ ἡμέραις· τοῦτο λέγει, ὅτι συντελεῖ ὁ θεὸς κύριος ἐν ἑξακισχίλιος ἔτεσι τὰ πάντα. Ἡ γὰρ ἡμέρα παρ' αὐτῷ χί λια ἔτη, αὐτὸς δὲ μαρτυρεῖ, λέγων, ἰδοὺ σήμερον ἡμέρα ἔσται ὡς χίλια ἔτη. Οὐκοῦν, τέκνα, ἐν ἓξ ἡμέραις, ἐν ἐξακισχίλιοις ἔτεσι, συντελεσθήσεται τὰ πάντα. Καὶ κατέπαυσε τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδό μῃ τοῦτο λέγει, ὅταν ἐλθὼν ὁ ὑιὸς αὐτοῦ, καὶ καταργήσει τὸν καιρὸν ἀνόμου, καὶ κρινεῖ τοὺς ασεβεῖς, καὶ αλλάξει τὸν ἥλιον, καὶ τὴν σεληνὴν, καὶ τοὺς ἀστέρας, τότε καλῶς κατεπαύσεται ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμη.-S. Barn. Epist. c. 15. † Εγὼ δὲ, καὶ εἴ τινὲς εἰσιν ὀρθογνώμονες κατὰ πάντα Χρι στιανοὶ, καὶ σαρκὸς ανάστασιν γενήσεσθαι ἐπιστάμεθα, καὶ χίλια ἔτη ἐν Ἱερουσαλὴμ οἰκοδομηθείσῃ, καὶ κοσμηθείσῃ καὶ πλατυνθείσῃ (ὡς) δι προθῆται Ιεζεκιήλ, καὶ ̔Ησαΐας, καὶ δι ἄλλοι ὁμολογοῦσιν.—Just. Mart. Dial. cum Tryph. p. 313. But here Justin's proof, if proof it can be called, is exceedingly deficient; for the prophets referred to, say 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 afterwards subjoins: 66 'A certain man among us, whose name was John, one of the apostles of Christ, in a revelation made to him, did prophesy that the faithful believers in Christ should live a thousand years in the New Jerusalem, and after these should be the general resurrection and Judgment.' In the order of time Irenæus 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 embellishments. And God finished on the sixth day the works which he made. And God ceased on the seventh 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 days * Ανήρ τις ᾧ ὄνομα Ιωάννες, εις τῶν ἀποστόλων τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἐν ἀποκαλύψει γενόμενῃ αὐτῷ χίλια ἔτη ποιήσειν ἐν Ἱερουσαλὴμ τοὺς τῷ ἡμετέρῳ Χριστῷ πιστεύσαντας προεφήτευσε, καὶ μετα ταῦτα τὴν καθολικὴν καὶ, σενελόντι φάναι, αἰωνίαν ὁμοθομαδὸν ἅμα πάντων ἀνάστασιν γενήσεσθαι καὶ κρίσιν.—Ibid. p. 315. † ́Οσαισ ἡμέραις ἐγένετο ὁ κόσμος, τοσαύτοις χιλιόντασι συντε λεῖται· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο φησὶν ἡ γραφὴ· καὶ συντελέσθησαν ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ ἡ γῆ, καὶ πᾶς ὁ κόσμος αυτῶν· καὶ συνετέλεσεν ὁ Θεὸς τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῆς τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ & εποίησε, καὶ κατέπαυσε ὁ Θεὸς ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ζ' ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν εργῶν αὐτοῦ. δ ̓ ἐστὶ τῶν προγεγονότων διήγησις, καὶ τῶν εσομένων προφετεία ἡ γὰρ ἡμέρα Κυρίου ὡς χίλια ἔτη.—Irenaus Adv. Hæreses, L. 5. p. 444, 445. Τοῦτο 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 completed, 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." 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, 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 * Prima dispositione divina septem dies annorum septem millia continentes.-Cypr. De Exhort. Mart. c. 11. f Post mille annos intra quam aetatem includitur sanctorum resurrectio pro meritis maturius vel tardius resurgentium; tunc demutati in atomo in angelicam substantiam transferemur in cœleste regnum.-Tertul. Adv. Marcion, L. 3. c. 24. Quoniam sex diebus cuncta Dei opera perfecta sunt; per secula sex, id est, annorum sex millia manere 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 et regnet per annos mille justitia.—Lactantius, L. 7. c. 14. and the refined. By the one party, the anticipation was confidently cherished of the personal reign of Christ on earth, of the literal resurrection of the martyred saints, of the rebuilding of the temple and city of Jerusalem, of the reinhabitation of the land of Israel by its ancient occupants, and of the investiture of all the risen righteous with a kingly preeminence over the remnant nations of the globe. They held, moreover, that this halcyon era would 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 exuberance, the labor 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 luxuriating 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 interpretation 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, Irenæus, Tertullian, and Lactantius, are ranked among the leading abettors 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 endeavors to throw the veil * Terra vero aperiet fœcunditatem suam, et uberrimas fruges sua spirito generabit rupes montium melle sudabunt, per rivos vina decurrent, et flumina lacte inundabunt.-Lactantius, L, 7. c. c. 24. |