The Life of John Milton Volume 3 1643-1649: Narrated in Connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of His TimeMasson, David
Religion
The Life of John Milton Volume 3 1643-1649: Narrated in Connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of His Time
Masson, David
Milton, John, 1608-1674; Poets, English -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- Biography
99-104]
MILLENARIES OR CHILIASTS:--"An Heresy," says old Father Ephraim,
"frequent at this time. This sect look for a temporary [temporal] kingdom
of Christ, that must begin presently and last 1,000 years. Of this
opinion are many of our Apocalyptical men, that study more future events
than their present only." This is substantially all we have from Paget.
In fact, however, the Chiliasts or Millenarians were hardly a mere sect.
The expectation of a Millennium near at hand was very prevalent, or was
becoming very prevalent, among the English Divines of the Assembly
itself. "Many of the Divines here," wrote Baillie, September 5, 1645,
"not only Independents, but others, such as Twisse, Marshall, Palmer, and
many more, are express Chiliasts." In his _Dissuasive_, however,
where he devotes an entire chapter to this heresy of Chiliasm, he
attributes the grosser form of the heresy chiefly to the Independents. A
kind of Chiliasm or Millenarianism, he says, had been held by some former
English Divines, including Joseph Meade; but it had been reserved for two
Independents--"Mr. Archer and his colleague at Arnheim, T. G."
(_i.e._ Thomas Goodwin)--to invent new dreams on the subject; and
these had recently been adopted by Mr. Burroughs. The purport of their
doctrine was that in the year 1650, or, at the furthest, 1695, Christ was
to reappear in human form at Jerusalem, destroy the existing fabric of
things in a conflagration, collect the scattered Jews, raise martyrs and
saints from their graves, and begin his glorious reign of a thousand
years. [Footnote: Paget, 136, 137; Baillie's Letters, II. 313, and
_Dissuasive_, 224-252.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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