MENNO-COCCEIUS-DAVENANT.

MENNO, A. D. 1550.

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Simon Menno, the founder of a sect called Mennonites, taught at the Reformation, the true principles of primitive Millennarianism. Menno's followers are said by Mosheim to have maintained "the ancient hypothesis of a visible and glorious church of Christ upon earth."*

COCCEIUS, A. D. 1650.

John Cocceius, who died in 1669, and who was Professor of Theology at Bremen, and who became the founder of a sect bearing his name, strenuously maintained the principles of a literal interpretation of the prophecies, and taught Millennarianism to his followers, maintaining, says the English Encyclopedia," among other singular opinions, that of a visible reign of Christ in this world." The same opinion prevailed generally among the Pietists in Germany, and the Mystics of England and the Continent. Vitringa, Grotius, Horne, and others, highly commend the piety and learning of Cocceius.

DAVENANT, A. D. 1630.

John Davenant, Bishop of Salisbury, England, who died in 1641, writes, that "the glory of Christians is to be expected at the second coming of Christ, whose day will arrive both quickly and suddenly." Very many works on Millennarianism were written and published in this century. In 1641 a tract of thirty-nine pages was circulated through Europe, advocating the doctrine, observing, "Let every saint search into this doctrine; it is our harvest of joy and gladness, and may Christ pardon our hitherto so much neglect of it."‡

*Mosheim's Hist., vol. v., p. 497. + Brooks on Proph., p. 97. In the Antiquarian Library, Worcester, Mass.

ALSTEAD, A. D. 1627.

John H. Alstead, a divine of great erudition and a Professor of divinity and philosophy, at Nassau, and afterward at Julia Alba, in Transylvania. His "Prophetical Work," published 1640, affirmed that a majority of the divines of his day held that "the last judgment was even at the doors," such being the general belief. "In defending the doctrine. of the Millennium, he fixed the beginning of Christ's reign on earth in 1694. He died in 1638."*

NAPIER, A. D. 1600.

John Napier, Lord Baron of Marchestoun, a Scottish nobleman, born 1550, and celebrated as the inventor of logarithms, was, in the opening of this century, the author of a work on the Revelations of St. John, in which he made the seven trumpets and seven vials synchronal in their fulfillment and symbolical of so many equal ages, supposing the last age would end in 1786, adding, in explanation, "Not that I mean that that age or yet the world shall continue so long, because it is said that for the elect's sake the time shall be shortened ;" and the result of his calculations was, that he confidently expected, from the fulfilment of the numbers and woe trumpets, that the awful day of judgment would take place at some time between 1688 and 1700. Dr. Adam Clarke commends his piety and erudition, and says, "So very plausible were the reasonings and calculations of Lord Napier, that there was scarcely a Protestant in Europe who read his works who was not of the same opinion."†

We, of course admit, with Dr. Clarke, the error of these calculations concerning the time of the Lord's advent, but on the strength of these statements would candidly ask,

* Becket's Biog. Dictionary.

† Clarke's Commentary, vol i., p. 22. Preface.

Where, in all the seventeenth century, among the entire Christian church, was cherished the faith of an intervening temporal Millennium, such as many Protestants at the present time vainly expect? Assuredly the thought is worthy of our solemn and candid consideration, that from the days of the apostles up to this period, Post-millennialism had nowhere an existence ! And can it then be the truth? Is it possible that that is the doctrine of Christ and his apostles, which was never heard of in the church till sixteen hundred years from the time of their preaching? Can it be that that which was condemned and accounted as a heresy for the first sixteen centuries of the Christian era, is really the truth? Can it be that that of which the immediate successors of the apostles were ignorant, and upon which they were silent, has now come to be the doctrine of the prophets and apostles?

Church of Christ in the nineteenth century, ponder these questions! Watchman on Zion's walls, ponder these questions! and take heed lest while dreaming of a golden age of mercy, you see the gleaming of the sword of justice. Watch! lest in the midst of Peace and Safety sudden destruction overtake a sinful world, and their blood be required at the hand of the slumbering watchman.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

"To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." -Rev. 3: 21.

THIS century is distinguished for the rise of a new Millen

nial theory-viz., the Whitbyan; a theory that we are of opinion, were there no other argument, finds its own successful refutation in the admitted fact that Pre-millennialism, its opposite, was believed and taught by the early Church and all "the best of Christians for 250 years as a tradition apostolical." The admission is Whitby's, and is fatal to his scheme. By the rule of Faber, given in another place, Postmillennialism is a 66 mere human invention," and, to use the language of this venerable divine, "with whatever plausibility it may be fetched out of a particular interpretation of Scripture, and with whatever practical piety on the part of its advocates, it may be attended, we cannot evidentially admit it to be part and parcel of the divine revelation of Christianity." But the doctrine of a personal reign still had its advocates, and the great names of the age were on its side. We invite special attention to the evidence given in this, as also in preceding centuries, that the early founders and creed-makers of the present existing evangelical denominations were mostly Pre-millennialists. Such were the Baptists of King Charles' time-the noble assembly of West

* Doctrine of Election, p. 159.

THE TRUTH YET LIVES-GREAT NAMES.

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minster divines, and later among the Methodists, Toplady, Fletcher, Charles Wesley, &c.; and the concessions of John Wesley, Dr. A. Clarke, and also Whitefield, are not a few; Dr. Clarke affirming that "probably no such time shall ever appear in which evil shall be wholly banished from the earth, till after the day of judgment, when the earth having been burned up, a new heavens and a new earth shall be produced out of the ruins of the old by the mighty power of God"* —Whitefield declaring that the Church will suffer persecution in Henry's language "till the end of time," and the others admitting a cardinal doctrine of our faithnamely, the earth's renovation, and eternal possession by the meek.

Not only did Pre-millennialism find advocates among "the great lights of the Church," but it also enlisted astronomers, philosophers, nobles, and poets in its defense. The names of Sir Isaac Newton, Tycho Brahe, Lord Napier, Cowper, Heber, and Watts, as well as those of Bishops Horsely, Newton, Clayton, Newcome, &c., are not to be despised by the divines of the nineteenth century. "But time would fail to speak" of all—even Rome contributing her single testimony to the truth.

And who can resist the arguments of a Fletcher, a Gill, and a Spaulding, or the pious longings of a Doddridge, a Mather, or the holy impatience of the "seraphic Rutherford," who would fain "shovel time and days out of the way," and bring "that day, for which all other days were made ?" O Christian! love your Lord's appearing! With Gill, we urge you to "be hastening in your warm affections and earnest desires after those glorious times, and in the darkest season look for the morning," and harmonious with the prayer, "Thy kingdom come," let your cry be with Milton, "Come forth out of thy royal chambers, O Prince of all the Kings of the earth!"

* Comments on Rev. 20th and 21st.