Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/104

 86 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. tion. In the primitive church, the influence of truth ' ' was very powerfully strengthened by an opinion, Approach- which, howcvcr it may deserve respect for its useful- ing end of j^ ^^^ | antiquity, has not been found agreeable to the world. i j ' o experience. It was universally believed, that the end of the world and the kingdom of heaven were at hand. The near approach of this wonderful event had been predicted by the apostles ; the tradition of it was pre- served by their earliest disciples; and those who under- stood in their literal sense the discourses of Christ himself, were obliged to expect the second and glori- ous coming of the Son of man in the clouds, before that generation was totally extinguished, which had beheld his huml)le condition upon earth, and which might still be witness to the calamities of the jews under Vespasian or Hadrian. The revolution of se- venteen centuries has instructed us not to press too closely the mysterious language of prophecy and reve- lation ; but as long as, for wise purposes, this error was permitted to subsist in the church, it was productive of the most salutary effects on the faith and practice of christians, who lived in the awful expectation of that moment, when the globe itself, and all the various race of mankind, should tremble at the appearance of their divine judge". Doctrine of The ancient and popular doctrine of the millennium was intimately connected with the second coming of Christ. As the works of the creation had been fin- ished in six days, their duration in their present state, according to a tradition which was attributed to the prophet Elijah, was fixed to six thousand years''. By the same analogy it was inferred, that this long period of labour and contention, which was now almost elaps- " This expectation was counteuanced by the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew, and by the first epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians. Eras- mus removes the difficulty by the help of allegory and metaphor ; and the learned Grotius ventures to insinuate, that, for wise purposes, the pious de- ception was permitted to take place. P See Burnet's Sacred Theory, part iii. c. 5. This tradition may be traced as high as the author of the Epistle of Barnabas, wiio wrote in the first century, and who seems to have been half a jew. the millen- nium