THE AMER. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE

The most authentic form and official shape in which I have met with the doctrine of the millenists, or spiritualists, is in the Encycloped. of Religious Knowledge, article Millennium, of which the following is an extract.HDM 43.1

“1. The church will arrive at a state of prosperity, which it never has yet enjoyed.HDM 43.2

“2. That this will continue at least a thousand years. In this time, in which the world will soon be filled with real Christians, and continue full by early regeneration, to supply the place of those who leave the world, there will be many thousands born and live on the earth to each one that has been born and lived in the preceding six thousand years; so that if they who shall be born in that one thousand years shall be all, or most of them, saved, (as they will be,) there will, on the whole, be many thousands of mankind saved to one that shall be lost.HDM 43.3

“3. This will be a state of great happiness and glory. The Jews shall be converted, genuine Christianity diffused through all nations, and Christ shall reign by his spiritual presence in a glorious manner.HDM 43.4

“4. The time when the millennium will commence cannot be fully ascertained, but the common idea is, that it will be in the seven thousandth year of the world. It will, most probably, come on by degrees, and be in a manner introduced years before that time.HDM 43.5

“How delightful then the prospect! Christianity prevails universally. Our race assumes the appearance of one vast, virtuous, peaceful family. Our world becomes the seat of one grand, triumphant, adoring assembly. At length, after a brief space of severe trial, the scene mingles with the heavens, and, rising in brightness, is blended with the glories on high;” etc. etc. Reference is made to Hopkins, Whitby Scott, and twenty more, all younger than Whitby, viz., How’s Register, A. D. 1816, Bishop Newton, Bellamy, Lardner, Mosheim, Taylor, Bogue, Emerson, Potter, Wardlaw, Fuller, Jones, Jones’ Bib. Cyclop., Cunninghame, Hall, Keith, Watson, Hend. Buck, and Jones, in this order.HDM 43.6

This is the living, breathing form of the millenist doctrine, as it now exists in Christendom, and with it I close this history, after a brief summary of the facts.HDM 44.1

From Adam down, a hope has been cherished among his offspring, that recovery shall be hereafter made of the immortality and paradise which he betrayed and lost: and the promise was from the first, that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the robber, and should triumph over death by the resurrection, loosing his captives from the prison-house of the grave, and setting them forever free, in the liberty of the sons of God.HDM 44.2

Abraham and his seed were a type of the true seed; to them the promise was renewed; to them the prophecies and the gospel were given; which promise, prophecies, and gospel, one and all, have respect to the same triumph over death, victory over the grave, and recovery of the holy land and blessed immortality, which the holy God gave to our father Adam, and of which Satan despoiled him. Judea, Jerusalem, and the Jews, with all their ceremonial law and temple worship, are but types of “the heavenly country,” “the New Jerusalem,” and “the chosen seed,” in the resurrection of the dead, and in the kingdom of heaven. So Abraham and Moses, David and Daniel, understood them. So the Holy Spirit by Peter and Paul freely explains them. So the primitive and martyr ages of the church have plainly understood and proclaimed them. The promises, the prophecies, and the gospel, all centre, and are to be fulfilled, in “Jesus and the resurrection.”HDM 44.3

The carnal seed of Abraham have ever received the promise and the prophecies in a carnal sense: and flattered themselves that the Holy One has respect of persons, and truly intends to make them heirs of this world, and lords of the nations. In like manner, some of the ancient church, in the latter part of the second century, began to judaize, and to allow a certain pre-eminence of place in the promises to the carnal seed of Abraham, for a thousand years; but they covered the error still, by a constant view to the coming and kingdom of Christ himself and of the resurrection in that millennium: and no conceivable form of error can be supposed to exist under his personal administration. Therefore, the first error of the millenaries in regard to the carnal seed of Abraham was important chiefly in that it led after a century to the expectation, that a carnal seed will survive the coming of the Lord in the end of this world, and with him will enter into the world to come, and have a full store of carnal joys. This at once degrades the hope of our faith to the level of a heathen fable, and of a Mohammedan paradise, according with the prophecies of the Sibyls, but “contrary to the Holy Scriptures.” Accordingly, the ancient church condemned the millenary doctrine, as a Jewish notion, suited to the carnal heart, and calculated to withdraw believers from the faith of Jesus and the resurrection: A. D. 373. Henceforward it came no more into view, until the days of the Reformation; when certain of the baser sort of Lutherans, who took counsel of the flesh, while they affected to be perfect in the Holy Spirit, began to despise civil government, and to claim the administration of this world’s affairs, in the right of the Lord Jesus, precisely in the spirit of the idolatrous bishop of Christendom; and in the same spirit which some professing Christians now do. They seem to think this world belongs to our Lord, and they must take possession of it, for him; always for him: but if once they come into possession, they use it for “whom it may concern,” which is commonly our humble selves.HDM 44.4

This homely picture will not be admired, unless we can find one to sit for it, not of our family; and with suitable deference, we may invite the gracious pope. He is enthroned in Christendom, not for himself, neither for his family, nor for his country; but for the unity of the church, for the peace of the world, for the promotion of holy manners, and, in a word, for the glory of the Lord our God. I am free and happy to say, that both himself and his followers conscientiously believe this; and it gives me pain to add, that, in the administration of his high trust, the pope often mistakes his own will and pleasure for the divine will and the heavenly, as humbler recipients of power and riches are wont to do, even in republican and protestant Christendom. But to return.HDM 45.1

The wise and extraordinary men, whom the Lord raised up for the great work of the Reformation, saw and rebuked the carnal doctrine of a kingdom of the church in the flesh and blood. They publicly trampled it under foot; they branded it, and unqualifiedly condemned those who circulate it, both on the continent and in England. They rested not in any hope of this world, now or hereafter; but pointed by faith to the coming of the Lord in his kingdom of the resurrection. Joseph Mede, of illustrious memory, revived the distinction of a thousand years’ reign, and has distinguished followers to this day. But Daniel Whitby, among men of renown, first denied the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead to that reign, and limited it wholly to the flesh and blood. The eminent Christians who promulgated it after him, were careful to hedge the carnal doctrine around with such thorns to the flesh as no man would desire to encounter. But the more perfect lights of this age, seeing clearer than Hopkins, Edwards, and others of their school, and turning their back to Luther and Cranmer, and setting at naught the faith of the church in the primitive ages, have removed the hedge, and opened a highway on every side, for all nations to enter, and have a feast of fat things of wines on the lees a thousand years or more, with none to molest, or to make them afraid. A doctrine verily absurd, and for Christendom no less ridiculous, than the cats and dogs and ox, for gods of polite and learned Egypt, as I shall now proceed to show.HDM 45.2