that generation was totally
extinguished_ which had beheld his humble condition upon earth, and
which might still witness the calamities of the Jews under Vespasian or
Hadrian. The revolution of seventeen centuries has instructed us not to
press too closely the _mysterious_ language of prophecy and revelation;
but as long as 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 races of mankind, _should tremble at
the appearance of their divine judge_. This expectation was
countenanced--as we have seen--by the twenty-fourth chapter of St.
Matthew, and by the first epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians. Erasmus
(one of the most vigorous promoters of the Reformation) removes the
difficulty by the help of _allegory_ and _metaphor_; and the learned
Grotius (a learned theologian of the 16th century) ventures to
insinuate, that, for wise purposes, _the pious deception was permitted
to take place_.

_The ancient and popular doctrine of the millennium_ was intimately
connected with the second coming of Christ Jesus. As the works of the
creation had been fixed in _six days_, their duration in the present
state, according to a tradition which was attributed to the prophet
Elijah, was fixed to _six thousand years_.[240:2] By the same analogy it
was inferred, that this long period of labor and contention, which had
now almost elapsed, would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a
_thousand years_, and that Christ Jesus, with the triumphant band of the
saints and the elect who had escaped death, or who had been miraculously
revived, would reign upon earth until the time appointed for the last
and general resurrection. So pleasing was this hope to the mind of the
believers, that the "New Jerusalem," the seat of this blissful kingdom,
was quickly adorned with all the gayest colors of the imagination. A
felicity consisting only of pure and spiritual pleasure would have been
too refined for its inhabitants, who were still supposed to possess
their human nature and senses. A "Garden of Eden," with the amusements
of the pastoral life, was no longer suited to the advanced state of
society which prevailed under the Roman empire. A city was therefore
erected of gold and precious stones, and a supernatural plenty of corn
and wine was bestowed on the adjacent territory; i