44

of the Septuagint, the epoch of the Nativity from A. D. 5500, the coming of Antichrist and the end of the world, were referred to the year 500 from the birth of Christ; under a conviction that, after the lapse of 6000 years, the Millennium would commence with the year 6001 of the world.

From the preceding induction of authorities, I shall now venture to conclude, that the Millennium was not merely acknowledged by the uniform consent and uninterrupted tradition of the Jewish and Christian Church; but that it was recognised as a period of repose, which would be strictly sabbatical. Nor can it be solidly objected, in diminution of the proof on which the doctrine rests, that it is merely elicited, as a learned writer insinuates, by interpretation and inference; and 'that it must be acknowledged that there is an ' essential weakness in all typical and allegorical argumentations, in comparison of literal. It is a common objection to which all language is exposed, that it consists of merely arbitrary signs; between words, and the things which they represent, there is no necessary connexion, whether they are used with a literal or figurative meaning. But if we atall admit what I conceive to have been already proved, that the doctrine is maintained by the inspired authors of scripture; we must allow,

44 Scalig. Emend. Temp. Lib. VII. p. 758. c. 45 Hippol. ubi supra.

46 Burnet Theor. ut supr. p. 51.

that they have established the connexion between the symbol and represented thing, or must admit their fallibility and error. I am, however, of opinion, that the subject is placed in a truer light, when it is assumed that they have given us, in place of the figure, its true interpretation, and have thus reduced us to the alternative either of admitting their exposition, or of rejecting the authority by which it is delivered. But it may be even doubted, whether it can be said, in strictness and propriety, that the doctrine of the Millennium, as associated with the institution of the sabbath, depends on an allegorical inference or deduction. From the analogy which may be traced between the greater and lesser festivals, I believe we should rather infer the harmony which subsists in the schemes of Providence; and merely conclude that the Deity, in the institution of his sabbaths, whether of days years or ages, has acted on an uniform plan, and with a stated purpose.

The strongest and most unequivocal test to which a prophetical disclosure can be submitted, is that which time effects, in bringing the occurrence to pass which has been predicted: we are accordingly directed in scripture" to this criterion, as the proper touchstone of their pretensions who lay claim to a prophetical foresight. It is this quality which imparts to a chronological proof the conclusive force

47 Deut. xviii. 22. 1 John iv. 1. Rev. ii. 2.

which has been already intimated; as it is effected by a measured scale, which evinces the exact correspondence between the event which occurs, and that which has been predicted. To this method of establishing matters of fact, the character of demonstration rigidly applies; as the determination of the precise time of an event, or in effect. the fixing of its date, involves not merely a proof of its occurrence, but at a specific period.

In the prediction derived from the school of Elias, the entire prophetical scheme is comprised, including the destiny of the world, from its commencement to its close, and extending to a period of six millenniums. The chronology of the successive events of which it has been the theatre, according to the best digested systems of the science, likewise embraces a period of nearly so many thousand years. As both schemes relate to the revolutions which have been effected in the religious opinions of mankind, by the revelation of different dispensations, the truth of the prophetical may be at once put to the proof, by contrasting it with the chronological. It is, however, almost impossible to conceive a harmony more beautiful and accurate than that which arises from the comparison. Nothing can, indeed, more happily accord with the prediction, respecting the distribution of the course of time by the different dispensations,

48 Locke on Underst. B. IV. ch. ii. § 2. xv. § 1. Vol. II. p. 225.

than the testimony which chronology bears to the religious changes that have occurred in the period of which we retain positive records. In strict accordance with the Jewish prediction, we absolutely find the term of the world's existence divided into periods of two thousand years, by the birth of Abram and of Christ; under whom the divine dispensations were introduced, according to which the prophecy is distributed into millennary portions.

49

As the spiritual law was fully established by Christ, the carnal was virtually introduced under Abraham;50 the foundation of the Hebrew dispensation having been laid above 400 years before the institution of the burdensome ceremonial of Moses. By the patriarch, those rites which were fundamentals of the Mosaic Law were not merely observed, but by the divine appointment: he was not only enjoined circumcision, by which the Israelites were admitted into covenant, but sacrifice likewise, by which they maintained communion with the Almighty.51 And consistently with these views, on the delivery of the Patriarch's fleshly seed from the Egyptian bondage, God not only appeared in the character of the God of Abraham,52 but with the specific purpose of establishing them in the earthly Canaan.53 The direct object of Moses'

49 Heb. ix. 15.

50 Rom. iv. 13. conf. infr. n.

54 et 58.

51 Gen. xv. 9., xvii. 7. 10. 52 Exod. iii. 6. 15.

53 Ibid. 7. 17., vi. 8.

legation was consequently that of bringing the Hebrews, his descendants, three days' journey into the wilderness, that having received the rite of circumcision they might offer sacrifice to the Lord :54 for the subsequent institution of the ceremonial was merely accidental, and in consequence of the transgressions of the people; and the covenant which was mediated by Moses consequently intended to last but for a limited period.56 It can therefore excite little surprise, that the legal expositors should have contrasted the state of the Israelites under Abraham and the Messiah; and that it was a tenet of the traditionists, that the plantation from below was by the one, and the plantation from above by the other." The opposition in which they are placed is, indeed, so far acknowledged by the evangelical writers, that they have equally opposed the covenants which were respectively mediated by Abraham and Christ, under the titles of the carnal and spiritual circumcision.58

The eras of the world's duration, as divided by the contrasted dispensations, are, however, to be regarded not so much with a view to their moral

54 Ibid. 12., vii. 16., viii. 8, 25.

55 Gal. iii. 19.

56 Heb. x. 9. Eph. ii. 15. Col. ii. 14. 16. 22.

57 Mos. Haddersh. in Bereshith Rabba.

.אברהם נטיעח מלמעלה זה משיח

58 Comp. Rom. xv. 8. Col. ii. 11. with Act. vii. 8. Gen.