Testimonies Concerning the Advent.
Thomas Newton, D. D., Bishop of Bristol, England, was born in 1703, and is distinguished for his piety, and extensive research, as exhibited in his valuable writings on the prophecies. On the millennium he speaks as follows: “Nothing is more evident than that this prophecy of the millennium, and of the first resurrection hath not been yet fulfilled, even though the resurrection be taken in a figurative sense. For reckon the thousand years with Usher, from the time of Christ, or reckon them with Grotius from the time of Constantine, yet neither of these periods, nor indeed any other, will answer the description and character of the millennium, the purity and peace, the holiness and happiness of that blessed state.” Then referring to the persecutions of Christians, by the church of Rome, he asks, “If Satan was then bound, when can he be said to be loosed? Or could the saints and the Beast, Christ and Antichrist, reign at the same period? This prophecy therefore remains yet to be fulfilled, even though the resurrection be taken for an allegory, which yet the text cannot admit, without the greatest torture and violence. For with what propriety can it be said that some of the dead who were beheaded, lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years, but the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years are finished, unless the dying and living again be the same in both places, a proper death and resurrection? Indeed the death and resurrection of the ‘witnesses,’ before mentioned, chapter 11, appears from the concurrent circumstances of the vision, to be figurative; but the death and resurrection here mentioned, must for the very same reasons, be concluded to be real. If the martyrs rise only in a spiritual sense, then the rest of the dead rise only in a spiritual sense, but if the rest of the dead really rise, the martyrs rise in the same manner. There is no difference between them, and we should be cautious and tender of making the first resurrection an allegory, lest others should reduce the second into an allegory too, like Hymeneus and Philetus. In the general, that there shall be such a happy period as the millennium; that the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, Dan. 7:27; that Christ shall have the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession, Ps. 2:8; that the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea, Isa. 11:9; that the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in, and all Israel be saved, Rom. 11:25,—in a word, that the kingdom of Heaven shall be established upon earth,—is the plain and express doctrine of Daniel and all the prophets, as well as of John; and we daily pray for the accomplishment of it in praying, ‘Thy kingdom come.’ But of all the prophets, John is the only one who hath declared particularly, and in express terms, that the martyrs shall rise to partake of the felicities of this kingdom, and that it shall continue upon earth a thousand years; and the Jewish Church before him, and the Christian Church after him, have farther believed and taught that these thousand years will be the seventh millennary of the world.” Bishop Newton referred the prophetic periods of Daniel 12, to the downfall of Antichrist, and the ushering in of the millennial period, and also the trumpet of Rev. 11:15. Rev. John Fletcher was born in Switzerland, 1729; became vicar of Madeley, and was associated with Wesley; was not only one of the most pious men that ever lived, but also was a close student of prophecy, and, like Toplady, was a premillenialist. In his “Letter on the Prophecies,” dated 1775, he refers to a certain “great and learned divine,” who, with Sir Isaac Newton, held that “we are come to the last times,” and that Christ was coming to destroy the wicked, and raise the righteous dead a thousand years before the final judgment, whose opinions he indorses, quoting him as saying, on Daniel 8, that “the end,” in verse 19, was the “end of God’s universal scheme” at the “revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and that though “chronologists may mistake in a few years, but cannot err upon the whole; and as God is true and faithful, so it is manifest that the prophecy of 2300 years must be fully accomplished in our days, or those of the next generation. Having fully stated his friend’s views, Fletcher adopts him as his master, and says:— “Give me leave to conclude with some reflections, that naturally flow from what has been said on that system. 1. Many people, I know, look on meditations on the prophecies, so expressly enjoined by St. Peter, as one of the greatest instances of presumption and enthusiasm, because they believe there is no sure ground to build upon, and that it is a land of darkness, in which the most enlightened Christians will never fail to stumble and fall shamefully. But is it probable that God, who foretold to a year, and very clearly, the deliverance of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon, and the building of the second temple, and the birth and death of the Messiah,—is it probable, I say, that he should have been silent, or not have spoken as clearly concerning his coming to destroy the destroyers, and to set up that kingdom which we pray for, when we daily say, according to our Lord’s appointment, Thy kingdom come? If God has exactly foretold, for the comfort of believers, the various revolutions that have happened to his church in past ages, is it possible that he should have left himself without a witness concerning the most important of all—I mean the last? If he showed the prophets the first acts of his drama, is it not highly probable he has not forgot the last, without which his wisdom, justice, and mercy, would always remain hid under a thick cloud?” Discarding all knowledge of the hour, day, or even the year of the second advent, yet he says, “The day is fixed, it is foretold; and though the vision was to be after many days, as an angel said to Daniel, yet it may be fulfilled in a few days for us, who live in the last times.” He then adds, that “it is lawful to meditate on the prophecies,” observing, “let but those objectors ponder the word Apocalypse, and they will be ashamed to say that we must not look into those things, because they were never revealed to us,” and that “if Jesus told his disciples that it was not theirs to know the times when those things shall be accomplished, it does not follow that it must be hid from us who are far nearer concerned in them than they were,” presenting as authority that Daniel’s vision was to be closed up and sealed, till the time of the end, and consequently could not be perfectly known till near its fulfillment. “It is remarkable,” he continues, “that more books have been written upon the prophecies these last hundred years, than were ever known before, and all—those, at least, which I have read—agree that these things will, in all probability, soon come upon the earth. I know many have been grossly mistaken as to the years; but because they were rash, shall we be stupid? Because they said ‘to-day’ shall we say ‘never,’ and cry ‘peace, peace,’ when we should look about us with eyes full of expectation? Let us not judge rashly nor utter vain predictions in the name of the Lord; but yet let us look about us with watchful eyes, lest the enemy take advantage of us, and we lose the opportunity of rousing people out of their sleep, of confirming the weak, and building up in our most holy faith those who know him in whom they have believed. If we are mistaken in forming conjectures, if the phenomena we hear of everywhere are but common providences, if these things happen not to us, but to our children (as they most certainly will before the third generation is swept away), is it not our business to prepare ourselves for them, to meditate on them, and to warn as many people as we can prudently, lest their blood should be required at our hands were they to fall because of a surprise? Let us pray to God more frequently, that for the elect’s sake he will still more shorten the days of the tribulation, and add daily to the true church such as will be saved. But let us not forget to rejoice with Abraham, in seeing by faith the glorious day of our Lord; and to hasten by our fervent prayers that glorious kingdom, those happy days, when narrow shall be the way to destruction, when saints raised from the dead shall converse with living saints, and the world of spirits be manifested in a great measure to the material world,—in a word, when Jesus shall be all in all. What a glorious prospect is this! Let us then often think of these words of our Lord, ‘Behold, I come quickly.’ ‘Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of this prophecy.’ Let us join ‘the Spirit and the bride’ who say, ‘come.’ O, ‘let him that heareth, say, come; and let him that is athirst, come; for he that testifieth these things saith, surely I come quickly. Amen; even so, come, Lord Jesus!’” Increase Mather, D. D., born at Dorchester, Mass., 1639, became minister at the North Church in Boston, in 1664, continuing till 1723, and for fifteen years President of Harvard College, was a man much honored, and of great influence, whose learning and piety are well known. During a period of fifty-three years, he wrote one hundred and ten books. Becoming a student of prophecy, and made aware that the early church, till the fourth century, taught the premillennial advent of Christ, “he found himself,” writes his biographer, “under the necessity of becoming a sober chiliast.” The following is his lucid scriptural argument:— “When he considered that, immediately after the long tribulation under which the Jewish nation is now languishing, then the Son of man comes in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and that at the arrival of the kingdom under the whole heaven, given to the people of the saints of the Most High, at the expiration of the fourth monarchy, then the thrones are pitched, and the Appointer of times appears on his throne, and a fiery stream issues from it, and the Judgment is set, and the body of the Romish beast is given to the burning flame; and that our Saviour is to destroy antichrist with the brightness of his coming, and that there will be a resurrection of the dead, when the time and the times and the half time allowed to the reign of antichrist is expired, or at the end of the four monarchies; and that when the seventh trumpet sounds, which next follows on the ceasing of the Turkish hostilities upon Europe, then comes the time of the dead, when they shall be judged, and a reward shall be given to them—and this is the time when the kingdoms of this world shall be the Lord’s; and that the first resurrection foretold in the holy oracles can be no other than (what every one owns the second is) a literal and corporeal resurrection; he saw himself shut up to the faith of it, and compelled unto the persuasion that the second coming of our Saviour will be at the beginning of the happy state which is to be expected for the church upon the earth in the latter days.” Writing of his experience in the study and reception of the premillennial view, he says:— “I was exceedingly backward to entertain such a notion, and did long oppose it, as conceiving it might be, at best, an innocent error of some who wished well to the kingdom of Christ. But blessed be the Lord God, who gave me a heart at that very time to search the Scriptures and other books which might be helpful in this case, both such as argued for, and such as argued against, the chiliad; and to look up to Him that is in Heaven, and that hereath on earth, that I might see and embrace the truth, and only the truth. And methinks I would desire no more, if I could but persuade all serious and gracious men to go that way to work in this matter. But alas! it is the great infirmity of many good men, that if anything be voiced for an error, they fall upon it in great zeal, without ever looking up to Heaven, that if what they oppose be truth, they might be convinced of it, as well as, if it be otherwise, they might be strengthened in bearing witness against error, and hence the Lord never lets them see their mistakes.” We copy this from the preface of Mather’s work, “The Mystery of Israel’s Salvation,” which appeared in 1668; a remarkable volume, in which he defends chiliastic doctrines, as held in A. D. 100–300, by a vast number of Scripture citations, and by a reference to, and quotation of, no less than 258 learned authors! It was his first premillennial work, and the preface is dated the same year that Hutchinson’s work appeared. The work was greatly admired by John Caryl, of England, and was circulated and read extensively in Europe. In it he repudiates the renewing of Jewish sacrifices in the millennium, and vindicates the early church from the charge, sharply remarking, “A most loathsome work do399they perform, both to God and man, that dig up the ceremonies out of that grave where Jesus Christ buried them above sixteen hundred years ago.” In a sermon on Titus 2:13, he writes: “If believers should enjoy their hoped-for blessedness at the day of Christ’s appearing, then they have great reason to long for the day of Judgment—to long for that day of the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, as the saints of old did long for the first coming of Christ. Abraham, by faith, saw that day, and was glad; and many prophets and righteous men desired to see it; so believers should long for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3:12), looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God; you must not only look for, not only believe that such a day will come, but you must hasten to it—that is, by earnest desires, by longing wishes. We should pray for the coming of that day. Thus Christ has taught us to pray, ‘Thy kingdom come.’ We must, therefore, pray for the day of Judgment; for the kingdom of Christ will not come in all the glory of it before that blessed day. And when we pray, ‘Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven,’ we pray for the day of Judgment; for then, and not till then, will the will of God be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Then will the saints that shall come down from Heaven in the new Jerusalem, do the will of God with as much perfection on earth as now it is done in Heaven; so, then, we are to pray for this coming of the Lord; and great reason believers have to do so, because of their perfect salvation, which they shall then be made partakers of. By hope we are saved. We hope for a perfect salvation in that day; therefore should we long for that day. When he shall be revealed from Heaven, we shall be immortal then. Suppose we die and go to the grave before this glorious appearing of the Lord, yet he will raise us up in that day to a blessed immortality. Or suppose Christ shall come quickly, as he will,—but suppose so quickly as to be here while we are yet alive,—we shall in one moment be made immortal. All believers shall not die that shall be found alive at the appearing of Christ, but all shall be changed; therefore they have cause to long for that blessed day.” Some other volumes written by Dr. Mather, deal more or less with this question, the doctrines of the last things appearing to delight his heart. “He mightily looked up to Heaven for direction and assistance in all his inquiries into the character and approaches of the holy kingdom; and by studying the prophecies, and meditating upon the paradisiacal state, which then will be at the restitution of all things, he sailed so near to the land of promise, that he felt the balsamic breezes of the heavenly country upon his mind.”—Voice of the Church.