ng extracts are from MR. LORD:

"The pretences of the Anabaptists to inspiration were in like manner
denounced by Melancthon. 'The Anabaptists, infatuated by the devil, have
boasted a new species of sanctity, as though they had left the earth, and
ascended to the skies; and given out, moreover, that they enjoy
extraordinary inspiration. But as the pretence was hypocritical, and
designed merely to subserve appetite and ambition, they soon plunged into
debauchery, and then excited seditions, and undertook to establish a New
Jerusalem, as other enthusiasts have often attempted. A like tragedy was
formerly acted at Pepuza in Phrygia, which fanatical prophets denominated
the new Jerusalem.'

"He also refuted by the Scriptures, the expectation of the Anabaptists of
the immediate establishment of Christ's millennial kingdom. He regarded
the term Antichrist as denoting both the Mohammedan empire and the Papacy,
and held that they were not to be overthrown till the time of the
resurrection of the dead, and that a considerable period was to pass
before that event. 'God showed to Daniel a series of monarchies and
kingdoms, which it is certain has already run to the end. Four monarchies
have passed away. The cruel kingdom of the Turks, which arose out of the
fourth, still remains, and as it is not to equal the Roman in power, and
has certainly, therefore, already nearly reached its height, must soon
decline, and then will dawn the day in which the dead shall be recalled to
life.' He then repeats the saying ascribed to Elias, that six thousand
years were to pass before the advent of Christ; two thousand before the
law, two under the law, and two under the gospel; and proceeds to show
that four hundred and fifty-eight years were, therefore, to intervene
before the advent of the Redeemer, the destruction of Antichrist, and the
establishment of the kingdom of the saints. 'It is known that Christ was
born about the end of the fourth millenary,(1) and one thousand five
hundred and forty-two years have since revolved. We are not, therefore [in
1542], far from the end.'

"These views corresponding so conspicuously with the symbol, continued to
be repeated by a crowd of writers, till at the distance of sixty-seven
years from the death of Melancthon, the celebrated Joseph Mede published
his 'Clavis Apocalyptica,' in which he showed from the coincidence of the
periods of the wild beast and the witnesses, that the advent of the
Redeemer, and