CHAPTER XVII.

THE MILLENNIUM AND FIRST RESURRECTION.

[273] The millennium, means a thousand years. It is the period predicted under that name by St. John in the 20th chapter of Revelation. The first resurrection is the event there predicted, "I saw thrones and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their forehead, or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years but the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection," (verses 3-5.)

On this prediction there are various opinions; some think it past, though they differ in their exposition of its meaning. But the most general opinion of modern divines has been that it is designed to point out a spiritual resurrection of men [274] animated by the spirit of the martyrs and a happy spiritual state of the church yet to come.

On a subject yet, as the author is persuaded, unfulfilled, and which from the early ages of the church, has occasioned so many differences of opinion, modesty of sentiment especially becomes us. It may be well here rather to let others, and especially to let the holy scriptures speak, than to enter into any lengthened detail of reasons which lead the author to think that the first resurrection (Rev. xx.) is a literal, rather than a spiritual one. Some of those indeed who have pleaded most earnestly for its being a spiritual resurrection, (as Bishop Hall, the celebrated Baxter, and the late Mr. Gipps) consider it as already past. * So that Bishop Hall said nearly 200 years ago, in his Revelation Unrevealed, one of the strongest works

* The fullest modern statements of the view that the millennium is past are given by Mr. Vint, in his New Illustrations of Prophecy, and Mr. Bush in his Treatise on the Millennium. Both contain manifestations of a forced construction and strained application of expressions, which fail-the author speaks for himself to carry any conviction along with them, and are painfully instructive, as shewing how the mind may be led astray by its endeavours to establish a particular system, and the ingenuity it may put forth to make it complete. But both contain also useful incidental discussions and illustra

against Millenarians, "For my part, I am persuaded in my soul, that the coming of our Saviour is near at hand." It seems as if God would lead his church to prepare for the coming Saviour, whatever views they may take of that which follows his coming.

Those who look upon Millennial views affirmatory of the restoration of the Jews, and the previous resurrection of the saints, as dangerous innovations, and opening the way to other errors, would do well [275] to listen to the following testimony of the late Bishop Van Mildert, who, by the extent of his learning, and the general sobriety of his judgment, is at the farthest remove from all suspicions of wildness and extravagance.

"Nothing is more certain than that the scriptures clearly foretell the conversion and restoration of the Jews, and that a most satisfactory pledge of the fulfilment of the predictions is already given by what has actually been brought to pass in their dispersion and preservation.

"Respecting the Millennium, or reign of the saints on earth for 1000 years after the events shall have taken place, there is room for a great variety of conjecture. Whether with the earlier fathers of the Christian church, and some eminent expositors of modern times, we are to expect, that a resurrection and triumph of the saints shall precede the general and final resurrection; or whether we hold with others that it is not to be a reign of persons raised from the dead, but a renovated state of the church, flourishing gloriously for 1000 years, after the conversion of the Jews, and the flowing in of all the nations to the Christian faith; it is not necessary to determine. The former interpretation seems to offer the least violence to the language of scripture, and is supported by great authority. But our trust in the promises of God depends not on the determination of this question; since, whichsoever interpretation we adopt, the splendid predictions of the inspired writers, both in the Old and New Testament, will doubtless be verified either in a literal or a figurative acceptation, to their fullest extent. In the mean time, the condition of the church, antecedently to that its [276] triumphant state, may reasonably be expected to exhibit a diversified scene of trial and victory, of peril and deliverance, of depression and recovery, similar to what it has hitherto undergone."*

The sentiments also of the learned, humble and pious Mede may well weigh with those who really know his writings. He remarks, "I incline on the whole to the opinion founded on the sentence of St. Paul, 1 Thess. iv. that all the righteous will * See Van Mildert's Boyle Lectures, pp. 456-458.

rise again during the course of the millennial kingdom: but in a certain order, according to that of the apostle, (1 Cor. xv. 23,) first in the very commencement of the Millennium, the Martyrs, then the rest according to the decree of God the Arbiter, and that this is called the first resurrection, or the resurrection of the Just. Luke xiv. 14. Afterwards, the Millennium being completed, the wicked will rise; the last and universal judgment be completed; these to be thrust down to the fire, and the saints to be carried up to the heavenly mansions, where they will live forever with Christ. I do not indeed think we are to expect two advents of Christ: but one, namely, that in which he will judge the quick and the dead at his appearing; but that both his advent and his judgment will be protracted through the period of a thousand years."*

Some, who believe that our Lord will personally appear for the conversion of the Jews, doubt whether there will be then a resurrection of his saints. We must ever speak with reserve and humility of events yet to take place, but the author after weighing the [277] arguments on each side, though he differs from friends whom he highly esteems and loves, is inclined to think that such a previous resurrection is revealed, not only in the seat of the doctrine, Rev. xx. 1—6, but also, in the general statements that occur respecting the resurrection. At the restoration of Israel, before the Millennium, many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. Daniel xii. 2. This, the Jewish Rabbi, Saadias Gaon, thus interprets,-"This is the resurrection of the dead of Israel, whose lot is to eternal life; but those who do not awake, they are the destroyed of the Lord, who go down to the habitation beneath, that is Gehenna, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh."

The gradual light thrown by scripture prophecy on more remote events is very full of wisdom and importance. It is like the view of a rich and extended landscape in nature; the more distant scenes are thrown together, and though they may be widely separated, appear as one group. Thus in the prophecies the more distant events are grouped as it were together, and unfolded as the time draws near. The impressive lessons taught by the future events are thus left with more unbroken power on our minds. When we come to the last chapters of Isaiah, Zechariah and Revelation, we have a separation and distinct view of these distant events. Some have wondered that any can think Daniel xii. 2, contains a period of a thousand years; but the next verse describes eternity. We want the largeness of the eye of God in interpreting his word!

* See the extract in the Christian Observer for 1828, p. 451.

-as

Some instances of this may make it plainer. Joel iii. 13, groups together events in one verse which, in Rev. xiv. 14. 20, are expanded and viewed in distinct [278] features,the harvest of the church, and the vintage of the wicked. Daniel xii. 2, groups together, in one verse, events which are developed distinctly in the twentieth Revelation. Genesis iii. 15, groups, in one verse, the whole history which the subsequent Bible developes.

It is curious and interesting to know what sentiments the Jews, with only Old Testament light, held on this subject. Though they differed materially in their views of the resurrection in other respects, yet they generally identified the coming of the Messiah, and a resurrection.* It is fully shewn in Mr. Humphrey's account of the ideas of the Jews on this subject, that they held that there were three states or conditions after this life; (1) a state of incomplete happiness or misery after death, till the general resurrection; (2) the reign of the Messiah, always joined (through a great mistake Mr. H. adds) to the resurrection; and (3) the world of souls; or a state which succeeds the resurrection of the dead and the reign of the Messiah. The Jewish writers generally mention together the coming of the Messiah and the resurrection of the dead, and frequently consider them as branches of the same proposition; and from the first Psalm verse 4, assert that the resurrection was peculiar to the just; and on the second Psalm, Kimchi quotes an ancient apothegm, "The benefit of the rain is common to the just and unjust, but the resurrection from the dead is the peculiar privilege of those who have lived righteously:" but Abarbanel [279] and Manasseh Ben Israel shew that the wicked are said to have no part in the world to come, as having no advantage or happiness in it, but are, on the contrary, consigned over to punishment for their iniquities."

Leaving, however, Jewish twilight, let us come to the clear day of the New Testament. The whole statement of the apostle, 1 Thess. iv. 14-18, clearly respects the resurrection of the righteous, at the coming of the Lord, and their being brought with him; and when this is connected with the statements in the second epistle (ch. i. 7—9; ii. 1—8,) respecting (as the Author is persuaded) the same coming, and the destruction of the Man of Sin at that coming, it is conclusive, in his view, that the saints rise before the Millennium,-it being generally agreed, (at least by those who hold a future Millen

There is a long dissertation concerning the notions of the Jews about the resurrection of the dead in Humphrey's Athenagoras. See Manasseh Ben Israel de Resurrectione Mortuorum, 1636, 8vo. See also the 2d vol. of Schoettgenius, and especially p. 566-594.

nium,) that the Man of Sin will be destroyed before that blessed æra. According with this, is the statement in the 15th Corinthians, and in particular the expressions, "Christ the first fruits; afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming; and then cometh the end," verse 23, 24. The Author cannot see why there should not be a lengthened interval between each of these three events; as there have manifestly been above 1800 years between Christ's resurrection and his second coming. The statement in the 52d verse, which, as the expressions, and the connection, equally manifest, relates to the resurrection of the righteous; the strength of the apostle's desire to attain this resurrection, Phil. iii. 11; and the emphatic distinctions of a special resurrection promised to the righteous (Luke xiv. 14; xx. 35, 36. Heb. xi. 35. John' vi. 39, 40, 44, 54,) add farther weight and strength to [280] these observations. Nor is there any thing inconsistent with them in the expressions, John v. 28, "the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation:" when the term hour (p) is translated time, Romans xiii. 11, season, 2 Cor. vii. 8, and in such a passage as 1 John ii. 18, as well as in the one preceding the text quoted (John v. 25.) manifestly applied to the whole period of the Christian Dispensation.* It appears to

*See Rose's Parkhurst, under apa. Those who hold a personal advent before the millennium suppose the word apa, hour, or season, in verse 25, to be a season of near two thousand years, or the days of grace and salvation, (2 Cor. vi. 2.) and in verse 28 a single thousand years, or the hour of judgment, Rev. xiv. 7; the day of vengeance, (Isaiah lxiii. 4.) and the day of the Lord. 2 Peter iii. 8, 10. Those who reject a personal advent before the millennium suppose the hour of verse 25 to be a season of three thousand years, reaching to the close of the millennium, and the hour of verse 28 to be a natural day, or perhaps the moment, the twinkling of an eye, 1 Cor. xv. 52. in which the resurrection of believers, and as they conceive, of unbelievers also, is stated to occur. It appears to the author that the first view is more natural, harmonious and consistent. In the one case we have an entire correspondence in the meaning of our Lord's double declaration, but in the other a great disproportion. His words on this occasion could not, it is true, teach the long extent of either season which is to be drawn from other scriptures. But now that experience has joined with unsealed prophecy to prove the extent of the first season, why should we shrink from God's express revelation as to the other. The length of the day of grace, being a season of the church's suffering and patience, was revealed, for her comfort, only under sealed numbers, Daniel xii. to be unfolded when verging to its close at the time of the end; but the length of the season of judgment being a time of the church's triumph, was openly given to confirm her hope (2 Pet. iii. 8; Rev. xx.) in the express words of God. It is only the popular use of the term hour which could leave doubt on the mind. The word apa has no such limitation, but is commonly used for a continued period of time, especially in prophecy. Thus we have the hour of awakening, Rom. xiv. 11, reaching from the apostle's time until now, and the last hour, 1 John ii. 18, of similar extent: the hour of temptation, Rev. iii. 10, the hour of judgment, Rev. xiv. 7, which is clearly there placed at the beginning