some" from wrath to come,-yea, almost come.

"I have a strong anticipation," wrote the pious Fox, "that the time is not far distant." So Pre-millennialists labor. And their faith and hope is acknowledged to impart to their preaching greater earnestness and power. And why should it not? May God speed every effort to win souls from remediless woe, for oh! how solemn, how terrible to be found among the eternally lost.

Commending our volume, with all its imperfections, to the candid and careful perusal of every Christian, we send it forth with many a prayer and tear that it may be blessed to the everlasting good of all who read its pages. It is the congregated cry of a great multitude, saying, with a loud voice, The King cometh. The kingdom is at hand! Are we ready? Oh, that reader and writer may so live and act that the stern disclosures of the day of Eternity shall not give the lie to all the fond anticipations of Time. Blessed is he that watcheth!

ROUSE'S POINT, N. Y., 1855.

DANIEL T. TAYLOR.

CHAPTER I.

DEFINITION OF TERMS-THE GREAT QUESTION WHEN IS THE MILLENNIUM TO OCCUR ?--PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION.

MILLE

annus,

ILLENNIUM (Latin) Mille, a thousand, and year. A thousand years; a word used to denote the thousand years mentioned in Rev. 20; during which period Satan will be bound, and holiness become triumphant throughout the world. During this period, as some believe, Christ will reign on earth in person with his saints.* "MILLENNIUM. Thousand years; generally taken for the thousand years in which some Christian sects expected, and some still expect the Messiah to found a kingdom on earth full of splendor and happiness."+

"MILLENNIUM, thousand years: generally employed to denote the thousand years during which, according to an ancient tradition in the church, our blessed Saviour will reign upon earth, after the first resurrection, before the final completion of beatitude. 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."+ "The seventh chiliad (or 1000 years) from the creation. All sober commentators take this literally."§

"MILLENNIARIANS OF CHILIASTS. A name given to those who believe that the saints will reign on earth with Christ a thousand years."||

*Webster's Dictionary.

† Encyclopedia Americana.

Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. || Buck's Theological Dictionary.

¿ Cottage Bible.

It is generally conceded by the Christian world at the present time, that the Apocalyptic millennium is yet to occur in the future, and to commence immediately upon the expiration of six thousand years from the creation of the world, it seeming to be more decidedly proper and Scriptural thus to chronologically locate it: but as there have been and still are some who deny this, and as those who maintain its futurity are divided both in regard to the manner of the events and the events themselves, which are to introduce and occupy the millennial era, manifestly composing at least three classes of millennial believers; to avoid a multiplicity of terms and introduce simplicity, it has been thought proper in the following pages to classify under three heads, all who have at any time written concerning the millennium of the Apocalypse; denominating them severally as follows:

ANTI-MILLENNARIANS, or Anti-M., all those who deny that the Apocalyptic millennium is in the future, or those who locate it in the past, though not denying the future personal reign of Christ on earth.

POST-MILLENNIALISTS, or Post-M., all those who hold that the Apocalyptic millenninm is in the future, and who postpone the personal advent of the Redeemer, and literal resurrection of the holy dead till its close, thus denying the personal millennial reign.

PRE-MILLENNIALISTS, or Pre-M., all those who hold that the Apocalyptic millennium is future, the seventh thousand years, and that it is to commence with, and be introduced by, the personal advent of Christ, and literal resurrection of the just: thus affirming the personal reign of Christ on earth.

These terms are frequently varied throughout these pages, and others in common use are substituted, as Temporal Millennialists, Post-millennialists, Whitbyans, etc., to denote the second class; and Literalists, Pre-millennialists, Chiliasts, etc., to signify the third class, whose view or

THE GREAT QUESTION.

15

doctrine, of the personal reign of Christ on earth, is advocated in the present volume.

Says Professor Bush: "The etymological import of the word millennium is, 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 applied indifferently to any one of the five millenniums which have elapsed since the creation, to the sixth, now verging to 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"*

THE GREAT QUESTION.

Says Bishop Henshaw: "In our day much is said of the millennium. It is a common theme in the pulpit and on the platform. It animates the conceptions of the poet, and the glowing periods of the orator. It is held forth as the great incentive to missionary effort; the glorious reward of selfdenial, liberality and prayer in the good work of propagating the Gospel."†

"And here," remarks Dr. Elliott, "the famous question opens: In what way are we to understand this vision and prophecy of the millennium? What the first resurrection spoken of, literal or figurative? Who the persons who partake of it? What the nature of the devil's synchronous binding and incarceration? What the state of things on earth corresponding? What the chronological position and duration of the millennium? What the sequel of events on the devil's being loosed again at its termination? Finally, what the relation of the millennary period and its blessedness to the New Jerusalem afterwards exhibited in the * Bush on the Millennium, p. 1.

† "The Second Advent."

Apocalypse, and what also to the paradisiacal state predicted in the Old Testament prophecies ?"*

Says Dr. Duffield: "Whether that long predicted and expected coming of Jesus Christ and of the kingdom of heaven are matters of literal verity according to the grammatical import of the expressions, or anagogically to be understood, and therefore to be interpreted altogether figuratively or spiritually, is a question of deep and wonderful bearing: nor is it to be slighted and sneered at by any one professing to love and reverence the sacred oracles of God. It is vital to all our hopes, and forms the very warp and woof of all the Scriptural revelations on the subject. It must be met; and will be candidly examined by every man who loves the truth, and is unwilling to be swayed by the dogmas of others. The decision, we contend, must be had from the word of God itself."t

Charles Beecher thus earnestly inquires: "Is the second coming of the Son of Man now nigh at hand? Is it in other words the commencement and the cause, or the climax and the product of the millennium? This is the simple question now in the providence of God first claiming the solemn attention of the churches. That he shall return in majesty to judge the earth, we all believe. The simple question where we differ is,

WHEN?

To the answer of this question, I believe, the church is solemnly called."

PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION.

Says Bishop Jeremy Taylor: "In all the interpretations of Scripture, the literal sense is to be presumed and chosen unless there be evident cause to the contrary."

* Hora Apocalypticæ, Vol. iv. p. 177.

+ Duffield on the Prophecies, p. 7.