Dr. B. Gale was a resident of Killingworth, Conn., in the eighteenth century. On his monument at Killingworth is the following inscription: "In memory of Dr. Benjamin Gale, who, after a life of usefulness in his profession, and a laborious study of the prophecies, fell asleep May 6th, A. D. 1790, Æ. 75, fully expecting to rise again under the Messiah, and to reign with him on earth..... I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and mine eyes shall behold him." John W. Barber, who published this epitaph in his Historical Collections of Connecticut, thus comments upon it: "It appears," he says, "by this inscription, that Dr. Gale was a believer in the ancient doctrine of Millennarians, a name given to those who believe that the second coming of Christ will precede the Millennium, and that there will be a literal resurrection of the saints, who will reign with Christ on earth a thousand years. This appears to have been the belief of pious persons at the time of the first settlement of New England, even as late as the great earthquake, 1755, many Christians were looking for and expecting the second coming of Christ."* Joshua Spalding also testifies to the Millennarian belief of the early Christians of New England, and affirms that the Whitbyan view did not gain much ground till after the middle of the eighteenth century. CLARKE, A. D. 1800. Dr. Adam Clarke was born in England, 1762. His name, labors, and learning, are too widely known to require any comment. With regard to the prevalence of Pre-millennial ism in his day, he thus writes in his Commentary: “It 19 Barber's Hist. Coll., p. 531. generally supposed from these passages, i. e. Rev. 20, that all who have been martyred for the truth of God, shall be raised a thousand years before the other dead, and reign on earth with Christ during that time; after which, the dead in general shall be raised"-" but," he adds, "this also is very doubtful." Though a decided Post-millennialist, yet, like Dr. Burnet, of an opposite faith, he looked for the earth's renovation, observing on 2 Peter, 3d chapter, that “The present earth, though destined to be burned up, will not be destroyed but be renewed, and refined, purged from all moral and natural imperfections, and made the endless abode of blessed spirits. But this state is certainly to be expected after the day of judgment," &c.* On Daniel 12, he writes: "The world has now lasted nearly six thousand years, and a very ancient tradition has predicted its termination at the close of that period." Referring to the oft repeated words of Elias, he proceeds to terminate the 6000 years at the expiration of 2000 years from the Christian era, and then commenting, thus solemnly observes: "Are we indeed so near that time when the elements of all things shall be dissolved by fervent heat; when the heavens shall be shrivelled up like a scroll, and the earth and all it contains burned up? Are all vision and prophecy about to be sealed up, and the whole earth to be illuminated with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteous ness? Are the finally incorrigible and impenitent about to be swept off the face of the earth by the besom of destruc tion, while the righteous shall be able to lift up their heads with ineffable joy, knowing their final redemption is at hand? Are we so near the eve of that period when they who turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever? What sort of person should we be then in all holy conversation and godliness? Where is the sounding of our * Comments on Peter. CLARKE-MASSILLON-GILL. 291 bowels over the perishing nations who have not yet come under the yoke of the gospel? Let us beware lest the stone that struck the motley image, and dashed it to pieces, fall on us, and grind us to powder." Dr. Clarke, as some others already quoted, seems at times, from the obviously natural construction of the text, to advocate Pre-millennial sentiments nolens volens, for, on Math. 13: 25, in presenting his third sense, he explains the end of the world, verse 36, to be the consummation of all things, observing, that Christ seems to refer also to the state in which the world will be found when He comes to judge it: The righteous and the wicked shall be permitted to grow together till God comes to make a full and final separation."* We present such extracts from Clarke and Scott as we might also from Hopkins, Edwards, Bellamy, and others of the Whitbyan school, to show how difficult it is to explain certain Scriptures consistent with the theory of a Post-millennial advent and previous entire conversion of the world. JOHN B. MASSILLON, a talented French divine and consummate master of eloquence, who died in 1742, admits, that "In the first ages it would have been deemed a kind of apostacy not to have sighed after the day of the Lord," but says it was very difficult in his day, on account of the worldly minded and luke warm state of the church, "to call up the minds of the people to attend to the subject of the Lord's advent." DR. GILL, too, testifies that the churches, in this century, had a name to live and were dead: "a sleepy frame of spirit,' he says, "having seized upon us, both ministers and churches are asleep." Bengel also called it "a poor, frigid, slumbering age, that needed an Awakener." Such was the com plaint, both in England and on the Continent. And there *Vide Clarke's Com. † Sermons, p. 1. was a cause for this coldness. Whitby had lived and wrote, and his "New Hypothesis," by which the advent is necessa rily postponed a thousand years, had stifled the warning note of, Behold I come quickly. That "belief in the speedy advent of the Saviour and habitual contemplation of the last things, which adds weight and impressiveness to the ordinary preaching of the gospel, giving it earnestness, fervor and solemnity not often attained,"* was now getting unpopular, and, as in the fourth century, truth measurably dimmed before wide-spread error, and with the decay of Pre-millennialism, spiritual life, too, died away. Still the early divines of New England did not endorse the Whitbyan view of Christ's reign on earth. "The sentiments we oppose," observes Spalding, "did not generally prevail, especially among the common people, till the present century;† even as late as the great earthquake, 1755, many Christians were looking, not for the modern Millennium, but for the second coming of Christ. I have the testimony of elderly Christian people, in several parts of New England, that within their remembrance, this doctrine was first advanced in the places where they lived, and have heard them name the ministers who first preached it in their churches. No doctrine can be more indisputably proved to have been the doctrines of the primitive church, than those we call Millennarian; and, beyond all dispute, the same were favorite doctrines with the Fathers of New England, with the words of one of whom, writing upon this subject, we shall conclude our observations, "They are not new, but old; they may be new to some men, but I cannot say it is their honor."‡ *N Y. Independent, 1850. CHAPTER IX. THE DOOM OF ANTICHRIST. "That day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the Son of Perdition.... And then shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming."-PAUL. IN N the present chapter we exhibit the Voice of the Church on what is styled the great Pre-millennial argument. It is the one which the venerable Mr. Faber has admitted to contain apparent evidence for the Pre-millennial advent:" and which the Rev. D. Brown, of Scotland, affirms "to have more force, than all other arguments put together," and which is "the strongest of all;" and which all Pre-millennarians, with the Hon. B. Storer, pronounce to be "the unanswerable argument;" and of which they may well declare in the decisive words of Bishop M'Illvaine, "It is wholly unanswerable." Nearly all Protestants accord with the martyred Latimer in saying, "Antichrist is now fully known throughout all the world," and with Fleming, in testifying that, "The man of sin hath come to his full height and stature," for his power is seen every where, and his millions cover the earth. But the great question at issue is, how shall the Papal power be abolished, to make way for the Millennium? With Paul we answer, by the Lord's coming." So said Luther and Melanethon, and giving our principles of interpretation, we pro |