“In six thousand years, the Lord will bring all things to an end, ... when iniquity shall be no more, all things being renewed by the Lord.”—_Epst. of Barnabas, sec. 14, 15._ “Let philosophers know, who number thousands of years, ages since the beginning of the world, that the 6000th year is not yet concluded or ended. But that number being fulfilled, of necessity there must be an end, and the state of human things must be transformed into that which is better.”—_Lactantius, B. of Divine Inst., A. D. 310._ Thomas Burnet (Theory of Earth, Lon. 1697) states “that it was the received opinion of the primitive church from the days of the apostles to the council of Nice, that this earth would continue 6000 years, when the resurrection of the just, and conflagration of the earth, would usher in the millennium and reign of Christ on earth.” “God’s blessing the Sabbath day, and resting on it from all his works, was a type of that glorious rest that the saints shall have when the six days of this world are fully ended.... He will finish the toil and travail of his saints, with the burden of the beasts and the curse of the ground, and bring all into rest for a thousand years.... None ever saw this world as it was in its first creation but Adam and his wife, neither will any see it until the manifestation of the children of God; _i.e._, until the redemption or resurrection of the saints.”—_John Bunyan’s Works, vol. 6, pp. 301, 329._ “I expect with Paul a reparation of _all_ the evils caused by sin, for which he represents the creatures as groaning and travailing.”—_John Calvin, in his __“__Institutes.__”_ The reformation of the earth “never was, nor yet shall be, till the righteous King and Judge appear for the restoration of all things.”—_John Knox._ “The groans of nature in this nether world, Which heaven has heard for ages, have an end. Foretold by prophets, and by poets sung, Whose fire was kindled at the prophet’s lamp, The time of rest, the promised Sabbath, comes: Six thousand years of sorrow have well nigh Fulfilled their tardy and disastrous course Over a sinful world; and what remains Of this tempestuous state of human things, Is merely as the working of a sea Before a calm, that rocks itself to rest; For HE, whose car the winds are, and the clouds The dust that waits upon his sultry march, When sin hath moved him, and his wrath is hot, Shall visit earth in mercy; shall descend, Propitious, in his chariot paved with love; And what his storms have blasted and defaced For man’s _revolt_, shall with a smile _repair_.” _Cowper’s Task._ The above are only a few of many extracts which might be made, showing the faith of the church in past ages; but which are of no weight, only as they are in accordance with the harmony of scriptural testimony.