Babylon and all things which are here spoken of Babylon are cited as agreeing with its (Rome's) ruin." So also in his Epistles (ad Marcellam, &c.) he applies the threats in the Apocalypse to Rome. But when, instead of the persecutor, Rome became the protector of the church, and Christianity was made by Constantine the religion of the empire, they began to apply the denunciations against Babylon only to Pagan Rome. They flattered themselves with the hope that the universal reception of the Gospel was about to follow, now that the rulers of the world undertook its patronage; and they not only ceased to regard the destruction of Rome as necessary to the deliverance of the church, but considered the deliverance as already attained. But a difficulty stood in their way: for the destruction of Babylon foretold in Scripture is so tremendous and complete that no one could for a moment maintain that it had been fulfilled in Rome; and the context of the passages made it impossible, by any simple and fair interpretation, to transfer the judgments to old Babylon: they therefore adopted the two notable expedients; first, of shifting the application, even in the same verse, making part apply to Babylon, part to Rome; and secondly, when the prophecy, even after this shifting, still hits too hard upon Rome, they spiritualized its meaning and lightened its ominous forebodings to that degree as to make it a very bearable burden of woe. By these delusions they brought themselves to understand the judgments figuratively, and with great limitations: the blessings promised after the judgments were also made figurative, and to be limited in the same manner: and with these qualifications they thought Babylon might be understood as already destroyed, and the Millennium might be understood as already begun!!! We may tolerate such fond fancies in those who, like Eusebius, lived in the time of Constantine; but the course of a few years ought to have dissipated the dream. That was not the reign of righteousness in which Julian the Apostate or the later emperors bore sway; nor were swords beat into plough-shares and spears into pruning-hooks, when Justinian, whom Procopius, compared to a demon from hell, laid waste the fairest portions of the empire, or when the Goths and Vandals sacked and re-sacked all its capital cities. Yet, strange to say, this absurd notion of a Millennium beginning with Constantine has been adopted by Grotius, and after him by Hammond; and such men are quoted as of authority in the interpretation of Scripture! If these causes operated to discountenance the true understanding of the Apocalypse when Christianity was only taken under the protection of the state, they would produce much greater effect in the Papal times, when the church usurped lordship over the civil powers, and when in the full tide of prosperity she exclaimed, "I sit a queen, I am no widow."

The

eternal city" is the name they have given to Rome, and the pope and his adherents have ever discountenanced those interpretations which imply any change in the future condition of their church, especially those which infer judgments to come. And we of the Protestant church seem too much lulled into the security incident to an old establishment, and can scarcely bear to be told of judgments on Babylon, lest in their course they should involve ourselves. Nay, more, as a nation we have even identified ourselves with Babylon, as if to record in the most public manner our disbelief of the threatened vengeance of God. But the judgments will come, and every month evinces their accelerated approach; and it is this conviction, which the study of prophecy has forced home upon our minds, that prompts us to urge with all possible earnestness the imminent peril which now impends over our church; and presses upon our spirits to entreat her to employ diligently the short breathing-time which is allowed her, to examine these things, to profit by them, and thus escape the wrath to come.

It is not easy to collect wholly, or to ascertain exactly, what were the opinions of the early orthodox Millenarians. The opinions of the heretical Chiliasts are known from the refutations of their opponents, and, as being notorious, have been often imputed indiscriminately to all the Millenarians. But of the orthodox believers in this doctrine we have only a few fragments handed down to us; yet from these remains we may infer, that in the general interpretation of prophecy, and in all the main points of its application, they agreed precisely with us: we only fill up with more minute details the general outline which they had drawn. They knew that "the mystery of iniquity," which was then at work (2 Thess. ii. 7), and was then restrained both "by him that did let," or hinder, and by the faithfulness of the early church, should at length be revealed as "the man of sin, the wicked one," by the "falling away" (ver. 3) of the church, and "the taking out of the way of him who now letteth" (ver. 7); and that then the "Lord should consume him with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of his coming' (ver. 8). In their commentaries on the different passages in which this mystery of iniquity, wicked one, or Antichrist, is mentioned, they maintain, That the Antichristian principle then at work would at length gather head, and concentrate all its power and malignity in one individual, who should lead the final Antichristian confederacy, and fulfil all that is predicted of the "wicked one" (2 Thess. ii. 8); of the "lawless king" (Dan. xi. 36); of the "beast" (Rev. xvii. 13); and of the "Assyrian" (Isa. xiv. 25). And they considered Antiochus and the other persecutors to have been but types of this last and greatest oppressor of the church. The sufferings inflicted by this im

personation of all evil, they held to be that "time of great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of this world to this time, no nor ever shall be" (Matt. xxiv. 21; Mark xiii. 19; Dan. xii. 1; Rev. xvi. 18; Isa. xxiv. 5-19):-That this tribulation will be so great, that, "except the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days" (Mark xiii. 20):—That in this time of her greatest extremity Christ himself will interpose for the deliverance of his church: "Behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven"....." But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing on his wings" (Mal. iv. 1, 2):-That the first effect of this interposition of our Lord shall be, the raising of the dead saints, and the attendant change of the bodies of the living saints, who shall be thus prepared to meet him on his descent: "The dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thess. iv. 17):-That his coming shall be with the same glorious body, and in the same manner, as at his ascension: This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts i. 11; Matt. xxiv. 30); and probably to the same place, His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives" (Zech. xiv. 4):-That he alone shall execute the vengeance of God

on the assembled hosts of his enemies: "I have trodden the wine-press alone" (Isa. lxiii. 3; Rev.xix. 15):-That all his people shall be with him, to witness this vengeance on his foes: "The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee" (Zech. xiv. 5); "At the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints" (1 Thess. iii. 13); "They that are Christ's at his coming: "-That there shall thenceforth be no more separation between the Lord and his people: "I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you...... Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me" (John xvi. 22; xvii. 24); "So shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. iv. 17):-That the restoration of the Jews and people of Israel shall then be completed, and their government administered by Christ and his saints: "In the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt. xix. 28); "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father on his throne" (Rev. iii. 21):—And that the whole creation, which was subjected to vanity and the bondage of corruption by Adam's fall (Rom. viii. 19, &c.), shall, in this manifestation of the sons of God, have that glorious

liberty which with out-stretched neck it so earnestly longs for; and the ground itself, cursed for Adam's sin, and condemned to bring forth thorns and thistles (Gen. iii. 17), shall partake in the general restitution: "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock..... They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord" (Isa. lxv. 25; xi. 4, 6, 10); "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign, that shall not be cut off" (Isa. lv. 13).-Most of these positions are stated explicitly in the different writings of the Fathers which still remain; as, the Commentary on Daniel by Hippolytus, and his Treatises on Antichrist, and the Consummation of the World. They are also to be found in the works of Irenæus, Tertullian, and Lactantius; and many of them are approved by Jerome, in his replies to Porphyry, and in his commentaries on the several texts quoted, especially on Dan. xi., where he says that Antiochus is to be considered as a type of the last Antichrist, who shall be destroyed by our Lord descending on the Mount of Olives, in the same form and manner as he from thence ascended (Dan. xi. 45; Acts i. 11).

These are the principal events which are mentioned in Scripture as preceding and accompanying the Millennium: many more might be enumerated, and still more inferred, for at that time shall be realized every definite idea of happiness which the mind of a Christian can conceive or desire. It is the glorious "dispensation of the fulness of times, when all things shall be gathered together (recapitulated) in one in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him," who is "the Head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all" (Eph. i. 10, 22). It is "the restitution of all things" (Acts iii. 21):-the glorification of the saints (Phil. iii. 21);—" the adoption," which those who have the first fruits of the Spirit still expect (Rom. viii. 23);— the "manifestation of the sons of God, for which the whole creation waiteth" (Rom. viii. 19);-the "new heavens and the new earth" (Isa. lxv; Rev. xxi);-the "new covenant" (Jer. xxxi. 31);—the “new Jerusalem," and the "marriage of the Lamb" (Rev. xix. 7);—the restoration of the Jews to their Jerusalem; their Hephzi-bah, and the Beulah of the land (Isa. lxii. 4); the binding of Satan, and the reign of righteousness and peace (Rev. xx). "And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me My Husband;' and shalt call me no more My Lord'.....And in that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth; and I will

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make them to lie down safely. And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God" (Hosea ii. 16-23). "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb...... These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" (Rev. vii. 9-17). "And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever" (Rev. v. 13).

EDIT.

Many other testimonials might have been adduced, but they are generally well known; such as

Irenæus says that 666 was in all the ancient and approved copies, and that he had it also confirmed to him by those who had seen John face to face. Dr. Cressener, speaking of this testimony of Irenæus, says, "There can hardly be given a more unquestionable or more particular testimony concerning the true author of any book, at any distance from the time it was wrote in, than this is. Here is a particular search after all the copies of it, soon after the writing of it, with the concurrent testimony of those who knew the author himself." (Introd.)

Mede says, "The Apocalypse hath more human (not to speak of Divine) authority, than any other book of the New Testament besides, even from the time it was delivered" (ii. 747).

Sir I. Newton says: "I do not find any other book of the New Testament so strongly attested, or commented upon so early, as this" (p. 247).