THE

CALCUTTA CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.

No. 75.-August, 1838.

1.-Millenarianism Examined; two Sermons preached at the Mission Chapel, Chinsura. By G. MUNDY, Missionary of the London Missionary Society, &c. Serampore Press, pp. 104. To be had of Mr. G. C. Hay, 99, Dhurrumtollah, price 1-8. The subject of which these sermons treat is admitted to be a highly interesting and important one, not only in itself but specially in its bearing on the progress of evangelization by the labours of Christian Missionaries.

Mr. Mundy, an active and zealous member of the Indian missionary body, has taken it up in a calm and Christian_manner; he speaks the honest convictions of his mind and adduces his arguments from scripture without heat or party spirit, (as we are persuaded the serious reader will be entirely satisfied;) whilst yet it is equally manifest that he is in earnest, in pressing what he believes to be the truth of God in the matter. He is no trimmer, nor yet a bigot; as those well know who have observed his course and conduct for many years. Before we proceed to analyse his work, it may be well to define what the Millenarianism is, which he opposes; for the term is employed to designate notions very various and distinct in themselves, having no necessary or even natural connection; some of which are, we doubt not, entertained by Mr. Mundy himself; but others of which he combats with earnestness, as deeming them both theoretically unfounded and practically injurious. It is from this latter tendency that he derives his own justification, as he drew his motive, for coming forward both from the pulpit and the press against them.

I. Millenarianism expresses the belief of a large proportion of the Protestant Christians of Europe and America, a belief drawn professedly from the language of many parts of both the Old and New Testament Scriptures, of what is usually termed the latter day glory;" by which is meant that a period shall come, probably the seventh millenary of the world or seventh VII.

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thousand years from the era of the Mosaic creation, in which idolatry shall universally cease, Christianity with the knowledge and worship of the one true God prevail over the whole earth, and righteousness, charity and piety characterise the entire family of man, or the vast majority of our race at least; when, in short, the evils both physical and moral of every kind that now desolate the world shall have, in a great measure if not entirely, ceased, and a second golden age commence its happy course. This, which may be called the orthodox notion of the Millennium is conceived, by those who entertain it, to be supported by many direct prophetical intimations of scripture; such as that "the earth shall be filled, i. e. overspread, with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea," Habak. ii. 14; that "all shall know Him, from the least even to the greatest," Jer. xxxi. 34; "And it shall come to pass, in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the tops of the mountains, &c. and all nations shall flow unto it; and He shall judge among the nations; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; and the idols He shall utterly abolish ;" Isai. ii. 2, 3, 4, 18: that Christ shall, according to the promise of God, have "the heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession," Ps. ii. 8, &c. &c. Whatever may be the precise interpretation of these and similar passages, the whole tenor of scripture is decidedly and largely confirmatory of the belief that a state of intelligence, purity, and happiness such as the world has never yet seen is reserved for it, in the vast and benignant designs of Providence. This persuasion is confirmed by the supe rior, intellectual and moral, character of the Christian system; its specific and benevolent tendency; the progress it has made and is making; the natural perfectibility of man; the gradual opening of the designs of God for the recovery of the race of Adam from their lapsed condition; the necessary impulse to improve ment implanted in our very constitution, and the stupendousness of the sacrifice of Christ for our redemption: by all our own moral conclusions from the character of our Creator, Preserver and moral Ruler; by the inherent strength of truth, goodness and piety, and the equally inherent weakness of error and superstition; by the accelerating progress of society, and by many other considerations of the most conclusive character. With out therefore supporting this or that particular notion of the details of this grand period and of the events that shall precede or follow it, we, with nearly all who have investigated the subject in every period of the church, hold it incontestible that a vast improvement shall assuredly take place in the mental, moral, and civil and to a large extent, by necessary consequence, even

in the physical condition of our race. Whether, as some have conjectured, it shall distinguish "the seventh chiliad or 1000 years from the creation of the world, as a kind of millenary sabbath," (see Doddridge,) or whether the thousand years be, in prophetic language, only a definite for a large and indefinite period, is what we do not undertake to investigate at present. II. To this general and sober, scriptural and rationally inferrible, notion of the millennium, have been added, of late years especially, a singular mass of crude, ill supported, heterogeneous, and, as we deem them, visionary notions; such as that Christ shall descend from Heaven and reign personally and visibly at Jerusalem as the capital of his earthly kingdom; that the deceased saints, martyrs especially, shall rise to a second earthly life, and so continue without dying through the whole of these 1000 years; that the conversion of the world shall be effected by a general outpouring of miraculous influence on actual believers as at the first promulgation of Christianity; that these influences, technically termed "the power," are necessary to give effect to the preaching of the gospel; consequently that till they be possessed all missionary effort is not only useless but condemnable; that they ceased in the primitive Church only in consequence of its declension in faith, love and zeal, and are still withheld because of the sins and lukewarm state of Christians in the present day; that any true believer may possess them at any time, if he only have zeal and faith sufficient to desire, pray for, and resolve to exercise them. These and similar have, from a late celebrated propagator of many of them, Mr. Irving, been technically called Irvingism, which is in truth a more fitting designation than Millenarianism; because this last, as we have seen, is employed to convey notions of a very different nature indeed, entertained by even the most sober interpreters of scripture.

The views Mr. Mundy combats are those of the Irvingites, which a few individuals well known have laboured, with great zeal and perseverance, to propagate in this country. In no part of the world could they prove more injurious, if extensively prevalent, than in India, where so many other obstacles to the success of missionary effort already exist and operate so largely; and consequently, to bring them to the touch-stone of sound argument and the test of scripture can be no unneces sary, no uncommendable service done to truth and to the missionary cause.

We shall now present our readers with an analysis of Mr. Mundy's tract, together with such extracts as may put them in possession of the vital points of the whole argument, as far as he treats it.

Mr. Mundy proposes to notice,

I. "The peculiar sentiments entertained by Millenarians respecting the Millennial reign of Christ.

II.

"The unscriptual character of these sentiments, and the erroneous views of divine truth from which they proceed.

III. "The injurious influence which they exert upon the general interests of the Christian Church."

On the first head he remarks,

"It must not be supposed that I am about to discuss all the points involved in the Millenarian controversy-it would be foreign to my purpose to attempt this, and by so doing I should levy too heavy a tax upon your patience. I only purpose to glance at its main features. In attempting this I expect to meet with some difficulty, chiefly because Millenarian sentiments are in some instances so extremely vague that they are hardly tangible, whilst their advocates are divided amongst themselves on several of the minor details of their theory."

Under this first head we refer our readers to his notice in page 12, of the sentiments held by Millenarians respecting the personal reign of our blessed Redeemer; which, he shows, cannot be taken literally, 1st from the physical impossibility that all his saints should find room in the city of Jerusalem however extended :

From the fact that other terms equally specific are evidently not literally intended, as when the nations are spoken of as going up to keep the feast of tabernacles," A Jewish not a Christian festival; and by other cogent arguments.

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Under the second head he shows,

1. "That the error of Millenarians is founded upon mistaken views of the character of Christ's kingdom, and the doctrines of scripture respecting it."

"It is lamentable that many of these good men should be extensively acquainted, as they are, with the letter of Scripture, and yet so palpably mistake its spirit on this important theme. The purely spiritual charac ter of our Lord's kingdom is a subject which they apparently cannot comprehend. They seem to have a vague indefinite idea of some exterior splendour, and pomp which is to be associated with it, which renders his personal reign necessary, and by which its glory in their judgment will be augmented.

"But such ideas as these are surely erroneous, and founded upon mistaken views of the nature of the Gospel kingdom. The Christian dispensation is extremely diverse from the Mosaic. The former was of a mixed character, embraced civil as well as sacred matters, and had therefore a (considerable) degree of external grandeur, with various imposing ceremonies associated with it; it was chiefly a typical dispensation; the Apostle calls its institutes, carnal ordinances; and it appears to us that the views of our Millenarian friends respecting the kingdom of Christ are of the same order; they are carnal views. The Christian dispensation, however, instead of being of the same mixed character as the Mosaic, is purely spiritual, and requires no imposing exterior to elevate or beantify it.'

"The Millenarians seem to be led away by an error not very dissimilar to that of the Jews. The Gospel kingdom being, as it is, exclusively

spiritual, does not appear to them sufficiently dignified; wishing, therefore, to invest it with something externally adventitious, they picture to their imagination our Lord as reigning in person with power and glory at Jerusalem."

2 That the error of the Millenarians arises from adopting a false principle of interpreting the sacred Scriptures."

"Some of the books of Scripture are historical, as for instance the books of Kings and Chronicles; others are preceptive, as Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes; some are symbolical, as Canticles and Revelations; and others of a mixed character: now it acquires very little discernment to perceive, that it would be quite incorrect to apply one common principle of interpretation to all these different kinds of writings. We should deem it a great mistake and highly improper to interpret an historical or preceptive book on the principles of symbol and metaphor, and it would be quite as improper to interpret a symbolical or figurative book on the principles of simple history; what is historical and preceptive ought of course to be interpreted literally, but what is figurative and parabolic on the principles of symbolical interpretation. The Millenarians do not, we conceive, sufficiently regard this distinction; they blend the figurative and literal parts of Scripture, and are led into error by following the latter principle of interpretation where they ought only to apply the former. The Revelation of St. John is the book from whence many of their chief arguments are drawn. Now this book is prophetical and constructed almost entirely on the principles of figure and symbol; but instead of interpreting it as they ought to do on these principles, they wrest certain passages which are evidently figurative, and interpret them just as they would the book of Proverbs or Kings, or any of those parts of Scripture in which the language is plain and free from metaphor. The argument that their interpretation must be right because it accords with the plain and literal sense of the text, we cannot admit; we rather view it, when applied to this book, as an evidence that they are wrong; because it is constructed on principles which will not admit in general of this mode of interpretation, and the application of it would in many instances lead to consequences which our friends themselves are not prepared to admit."

• "I do not mean that the Millenarians invariably follow this mode of interpretation; it is only adopted by them so far as it harmonises with their system; and as the literal mode of interpretation is in general more favourable to it than the symbolical, they chiefly follow that. Some of them, however, when the system requires it, go quite to the other extreme; they tell us that, literal and symbolical language are frequently interwoven in the same paragraph, and the judicious expositor will easily perceive what expressions are to be understood in the former sense, and what in the latter.' It appears to me, that when the sacred writers commence a subject in symbolical language, this mode of writing is pursued (by them) throughout, until they come to the application of the subject, when they sometimes drop the metaphor and employ (as Nathan in his parable to David) the plain and literal mode of address; but the two are never alternately interwoven in those parts which are descriptive, until the description is ended and the application introduced. This mode of interpretation, however, suits the purpose (of Millenarians) admirably; by this means they can make the Scriptures speak any language they please. If one verse taken in the literal sense seems to suit their theory best, that we are told is to be so understood; if the figurative suits the following verse better, then that is to be figuratively understood; then we have literal again and then figurative, and thus they go on from verse to verse, bending and twisting the whole to make it tally with that system which many of them have determined at all hazards to maintain."