MILLENARIANS, or CHILIASTS, a name given to those in the primitive ages who believe that the saints will reign on earth with Christ a thousand years after the first resurrection, before the final completion of beatitude. The former appellation is of latin original, the latter of greek, and both are of the same import. The ancient Millenarians held that, after the coming of Antichrist, and the destruction of all nations, which shall follow, there shall be a first resurrection of the just alone -that all who shall be found upon earth, both good and bad, shall continue alive; the good to obey the just who are risen, as their princes; the bad to be conquered by the just, and to be subject to them-that Jesus Christ will then descend from heaven in his glory-that the city of Jerusalem will be rebuilt, enlarged, embellished, and its gates stand open night and day. They applied to this New Jerusalem what is said in the Apoc. chap. xxi.; and to the temple all that is written in Ezek. xxxvi. Here, they pretended, Jesus Christ will fix the seat of his empire, and reign a thousand years with the saints, patriarchs, and prophets, who will enjoy perfect and uninterrupted feli city. These opinions were founded on several passages of scripture, which the ancient Millenarians took in a literal sense, particularly Revelations xx. 1-6. The ancient Millenarians were divided in opinion: some pretended that the saints should pass their time in corporeal delights, others that they should only exercise themselves in spiritual pleasures. The opinions of some modern authors concerning the millenium, are as follow : Dr. Thomas Burnet and Mr. Whiston concur in asserting that the earth will not be entirely consumed; but that the matter of which it consists will be fixed, purified, and refined, which the action of fire, upon it will naturally effect. They suppose that, from these materials, thus refined, as from a second chaos, there will, by the will of God, arise a new creation; and that the face of the earth, and likewise the atmosphere, will then be so restored as to resemble what it originally was in the paradisaical state; and consequently to render it a more delightful abode for human creatures than it is at present. They urge for this purpose the following texts:2 Pet. iii. 13: Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. See also Matt. xiii. 29, 30. Luke xvii. 29, 30. Acts iii. 21, &c.-They both suppose that the earth, thus beautified and improved, shall be inhabited by those who shall inherit the first resurrection, and shall here enjoy a very considerable degree of happiness, though not equal to that which is to succeed the general judgment; which judgment shall, according to them, open when the thousand years mentioned in Rev. xx. 4, are expired. Though Mr. Fleming does not entirely agree with the above mentioned scheme, he interprets Rev. xx. 6, as referring to a proper resurrection, of which, he supposes, the event recorded in Matt. xxvii. 32, was a pledge. He conjectures that the most celebrated saints of the oldtestament times then arose, and ascended with Christ to heaven. Agreeable to this, he apprehends that the saints who are to be subjects of the first resurrection, will appear to some of the inhabitants of this earth, which may be the mean of reviving religion among them : yet they will not have their abode here; but during the thousand years, in which the kingdom of Christ will have the highest triumph on earth, they shall be rejoicing with him in heaven, in a state of happiness far superior to that which they enjoyed in a separate state; yet not equal to that which is to be expected after the general judgment. To this peculiar privilege of the martyrs, atid some other eminent saints, he supposed St. Paul to have referred, Phil. iii. 9, 11. This author argues, that as there has been already a special resurrection of the more eminent saints of the old testament, it is rational to conclude from the ideas we form of Christ as a just and impartial judge, that the eminent saints of the new testament, who lived and died under sufferings, shall be rewarded by a special resurrection to glory when Christ shall give universal peace and prosperity to the church. Mr. Ray agrees that there will be a renovation of the earth; and though he does not grant, as some have sup posed, that the same animals which once lived shall be raised again, yet he supposes that other like animals will be created anew, as well as similar vegetables, to adorn the earth, and to support the animals, only in higher degrees of beauty and perfection than they ever before possessed. But he pretends not to deter mine whether this new earth, thus beautified and adorned, after the general resurrection, shall be the seat of a new race of men, or only remain as the object of contemplation to some happy spirits, who may behold it, though without any rational animals to inhabit it, as a curious plan of the most exquisite mechanism. The apostle, speaking of the heavens and the earth, says, As a vesture thou shalt fold them up, and they shall be changed. (Heb. i. 12.) Hence he argues, that to be changed is different from being annihilated and destroyed. The earth shall be transfigured, or its outward form changed not its matter or substance destroyed. argues, that it would be a great detriment to the glorified saints to be brought down to dwell upon earth, in the most pleasing form which it can be supposed to put on that it is contrary to the genius of the christian religion to suppose it built on temporal promises; for the christian is represented as one who is entirely dead to the world, and whose conversation is in heaven. See Phil. iii. 19. Mr. Worthington's scheme is, that the gospel, being intended to restore the ruins of the fall, will gradually meliorate the world, till, by a train of natural consequences, under the influence of divine providence and grace, it is restored to a paradisaical state. He supposes that this plan is already advanced through some important stages, of which he thinks the amendment of the earth's natural state at the deluge, which, with Dr. Sherlock, he maintains to have been a very considerable one. He considers all improvements in learning and arts, as well as the propagation of the gospel among the heathen nations, as the process of this scheme: but he apprehends much greater advances are to be made about the year of Christ 2,000, when the millenium will cominence, He which shall be, according to Dr. Whitby supposes the millenium to refer entirely to the prosperous state of the christian church after the fall of antichrist and the conversion of the jews-that then shall begin a glorious and undisturbed reign of Christ over both jew and gentile, to continue a thousand years-and 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 have not received the mark of the beast, because the spirit and purity of the times of the primitive martyrs shall return. D d him, such a glorious state as Dr. Whitby supposes; but with this additional circumstance, that, after some interruption from the last effects of wickedness by Gog and Magog, this shall terminate in the still nobler state of the new heaven and the new earth spoken of in Rev. xxi. xxii., which he supposes will be absolutely paradise restored; and that all natural and moral evil shall be banished from the earth, and death itself shall have no further place: but good men shall continue in the highest rectitude of state, and in the greatest imaginable degree of terrestrial felicity, till the coming of Christ and universal judgment close this beautiful and delightful scene, perhaps several thousand years hence. Indeed he seems to intimate some apprehension that the consummation of all things will happen about the year of the world 25,920, the end of the great year, as the Platonics called it, when the equinoxes shall have revolved. The reasonings by which those conjectures are supported are too diffuse to be represented. Mr. Lowman agrees with Dr. Whitby in supposing the scripture description of the millenium to be figurative, representing the happy state of the church on its deliver- *He considers the fourth and fifth chapters as only introductory 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. 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 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 those thousand years, than |