which the people of Israel, as we learn from the Scriptures, long
continued: afterward they pounded it in a mortar, to which Solomon thus
alludes: Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with
a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him,” Prov. xxvii,
22. This was succeeded by mills, similar to the hand mills formerly used
in this country, of which there were two sorts: the first were large,
and turned by the strength of horses or asses; the second were smaller,
and wrought by men, commonly by slaves condemned to this hard labour, as
a punishment for their crimes. Chardin remarks, in his manuscript, that
the persons employed are generally female slaves, who are least
regarded, or are least fitted for any thing else; for the work is
extremely laborious, and esteemed the lowest employment about the house.
Most of their corn is ground by these little mills, although they
sometimes make use of large mills, wrought by oxen or camels. Near
Ispahan, and some of the other great cities of Persia, he saw water
mills; but he did not meet with a single wind mill in the east. Almost
every family grind their wheat and barley at home, having two portable
mill stones for that purpose; of which the uppermost is turned round by
a small handle of wood or iron that is placed in the rim. When this
stone is large, or expedition is required, a second person is called in
to assist; and as it is usual for the women only to be concerned in this
employment, who seat themselves over against each other, with the mill
stone between them, we may see the propriety of the expression in the
declaration of Moses: And all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall
die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne even
unto the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill,” Exod.
xi, 5. The manner in which the hand mills are worked is well described
by Dr. E. D. Clarke, in his Travels: “Scarcely had we reached the
apartment prepared for our reception, when, looking from the window into
the court yard belonging to the house, we beheld two women grinding at
the mill, in a manner most forcibly illustrating the saying of our
Saviour: ‘Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be
taken and the other left.’ They were preparing flour to make our bread,
as it is always customary in the country when strangers arrive. The two
women, seated upon the ground opposite to each other, held between them
two round flat stones, such as are seen in Lapland, and such as in
Scotland are called querns. In the centre of the upper stone was a
cavity for pouring in the corn, and by the side of this an upright
wooden handle for moving the stone. As this operation began, one of the
women opposite received it from her companion, who pushed it toward her,
who again sent it to her companion; thus communicating a rotatory motion
to the upper stone, their left hands being all the while employed in
supplying fresh corn, as fast as the bran and flour escaped from the
sides of the machine.” When they are not impelled, as in this instance,
to premature exertions by the arrival of strangers, they grind their
corn in the morning at break of day: the noise of the mill is then to be
heard every where, and is often so great as to rouse the inhabitants of
the cities from their slumbers; for it is well known they bake their
bread every day, and commonly grind their corn as it is wanted. The
noise of the mill stone is therefore, with great propriety, selected by
the prophet as one of the tokens of a populous and thriving country:
Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of
gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the
sound of mill stones and the light of a candle, and their whole land
shall be a desolation,” Jer. xxv, 10. The morning shall no more be
cheered with the joyful sound of the mill, nor the shadows of evening by
the light of a candle; the morning shall be silent, and the evening dark
and melancholy, where desolation reigns. At the earliest dawn of the
morning,” says Mr. Forbes, in all the Hindoo towns and villages, the
hand mills are at work, when the menials and widows grind meal for the
daily consumption of the family: this work is always performed by women,
who resume their task every morning, especially the forlorn Hindoo
widows, divested of every ornament, and with their heads shaved,
degraded to almost a state of servitude.” How affecting, then, is the
call to the daughter of Babylon!--“Come down, and sit in the dust, O
daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter
of the Chaldeans; for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.
Take the mill stones, and grind meal; uncover thy locks, make bare the
leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers,” Isaiah xlvii, 1, 2.
The custom of daily grinding their corn for the family, shows the
propriety of the law: “No man shall take the nether or the upper mill
stone to pledge, for he taketh a man’s life to pledge;” because if he
take either the upper or the nether mill stone, he deprives him of his
daily provision, which cannot be prepared without them. That complete
and perpetual desolation which, by the just allotment of Heaven, is ere
long to overtake the mystical Babylon, is clearly signified by the same
precept: The sound of the mill stone shall be heard no more at all in
thee,” Rev. xviii, 22. The means of subsistence being entirely
destroyed, no human creature shall ever occupy the ruined habitations
more. In the book of Judges, the sacred historian alludes, with
characteristic accuracy, to several circumstances implied in that
custom, where he describes the fall of Abimelech. A woman of Thebez,
driven to desperation by his furious attack on the tower, started up
from the mill at which she was grinding, seized the upper mill stone,
פלח רכב, and, rushing to the top of the gate, cast it on his head, and
fractured his skull. This was the feat of a woman, for the mill is
worked only by females; it was not a piece of a mill stone, but the
rider, the distinguishing name of the upper mill stone, which literally
rides upon the other, and is a piece or division of the mill: it was a
stone of two feet broad, and therefore fully sufficient, when thrown
from such a height, to produce the effect mentioned in the narrative. It
displays, also, the vindictive contempt which suggested the punishment
of Samson, the captive ruler of Israel, that the Philistines, with
barbarous contumely, compelled him to perform the meanest service of a
female slave; they sent him to grind in the prison, Judges xvi, 21, but
not for himself alone; this, although extremely mortifying to the hero,
had been more tolerable; they made him grinder for the prison, perhaps
while the vilest malefactor was permitted to look on, and join in the
mockery. Samson, the ruler and avenger of Israel, labours, as Isaiah
foretold the virgin daughter of Babylon should labour: Come down, and
sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon: there is no throne,” no
seat for thee, O daughter of the Chaldeans. Take the mill stones and
grind meal,” but not with the wonted song; Sit thou silent, and get thee
into darkness,” there to conceal thy vexation and disgrace, Isaiah
xlvii, 1, 2, 5. The females engaged in this operation, endeavoured to
beguile the lingering hours of toilsome exertion with a song. We learn
from an expression of Aristophanes, preserved by Athenæus, that the
Grecian maidens accompanied the sound of the mill stones with their
voices. This circumstance imparts force to the description of the
prophet, the light of a candle was no more to be seen in the evening;
the sound of the mill stones, the indication of plenty, and the song of
the grinders, the natural expression of joy and happiness, were no more
to be heard at the dawn. The grinding of corn at so early an hour throws
light on a passage of considerable obscurity: And the sons of Rimmon the
Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went, and came about the heat of the day
to the house of Ishbosheth, who lay on a bed at noon; and they came
thither into the midst of the house, as though they would have fetched
wheat, and they smote him under the fifth rib; and Rechab and Baanah his
brother escaped,” 2 Sam. iv, 5–7. It is still a custom in the east,
according to Dr. Perry, to allow their soldiers a certain quantity of
corn, with other articles of provisions, together with some pay; and as
it was the custom, also, to carry their corn to the mill at break of
day, these two captains very naturally went to the palace the day before
to fetch wheat, in order to distribute it to the soldiers, that it might
be sent to the mill at the accustomed hour in the morning. The princes
of the east in those days, as the history of David shows, lounged in
their divan, or reposed on their couch, till the cool of the evening
began to advance. Rechab and Baanah, therefore, came in the heat of the
day, when they knew that Ishbosheth, their master, would be resting on
his bed; and as it was necessary, for the reason just given, to have the
corn the day before it was needed, their coming at that time, though it
might be a little earlier than usual, created no suspicion, and
attracted no notice.
MILLENARIANS are those who believe, according to an ancient tradition in
the church, grounded on some doubtful texts in the book of Revelation
and other scriptures, that our Saviour shall reign a thousand years with
the faithful upon earth after the first resurrection, before the full
completion of final happiness; and their name, taken from the Latin word
_mille_, a thousand,” has a direct allusion to the duration of this
spiritual empire, which is styled the millennium. A millennium, or a
future paradisaical state of the earth, is viewed by some as a doctrine
not of Christian, but of Jewish, origin. The tradition which fixes the
duration of the world, in its present imperfect state, to six thousand
years, and announces the approach of a Sabbath of one thousand years of
universal peace and plenty, to be ushered in by the glorious advent of
the Messiah, has been traced up to Elias, a rabbinical writer, who
flourished about two centuries before the birth of Christ. It certainly
obtained among the Chaldeans from the earliest times; and it is
countenanced by Barnabas, Irenæus, and other primitive writers, and also
by the Jews at the present day. But though the theory may not be very
improbable, yet, as it has not the sanction of Scripture to support it,
we are not bound to respect it any farther than as a doubtful tradition.
The Jews understood several passages of the prophets, as Zechariah xiv,
16, &c, of the millennium; in which, according to their carnal
apprehensions, the Messiah is to reign on earth, and to bring all
nations within the pale, and under subjection to the ordinances, of the
Jewish church.
Justin Martyr, the most ancient of the fathers, was a great supporter of
the doctrine of the millennium, or that our Saviour shall reign with the
faithful upon earth, after the resurrection, for a thousand years; which
he declares was the belief of all orthodox Christians. But this opinion
is not generally followed; for, though there has been, perhaps, no age
of the church in which this doctrine was not admitted by one or more
divines of the first eminence, it yet appears, from the writings of
Eusebius, Irenæus, and others among the ancients, as well as from the
histories of Dupin, Mosheim, and other moderns, that it was never
adopted by the whole church, nor formed an article of the established
creed in any nation. Origen, the most learned of the fathers, and
Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, usually, for his immense erudition,
surnamed the Great, both opposed the doctrine that prevailed on the
subject in their day; and Dr. Whitby, in his learned treatise on the
subject, proves, first, that the millennium was never generally received
in the church of Christ; and, secondly, that there is no just ground to
think it was derived from the Apostles.
On the other hand, Dr. T. Burnet and others maintain that it was very
generally admitted till the Nicene council, in 325, or till the fourth
century. The doctor supposes Dionysius of Alexandria, who wrote against
Nepos, an Egyptian bishop, before the middle of the third century, to
have been the first that attacked this doctrine; but Origen had
previously assailed it in many of his fictitious additions. The truth
seems to be, as one well remarks, that a spiritual reign of Christ was
believed by all who carefully examined the Scriptures, though the
popular notions of the millennium were often rejected; and ancient as
well as modern writers assailed the extravagant superstructure, not the
Scriptural foundation of the doctrine.” During the interregnum in
England, in the time of Cromwell, there arose a set of enthusiasts
sometimes called Millenarians, but more frequently Fifth Monarchy Men,
who expected the sudden appearance of Christ, to establish on earth a
new monarchy or kingdom. In consequence of this, some of them aimed at
the subversion of all human government. In ancient history we read of
four great monarchies; the Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, and the Roman;
and these men, believing that this new spiritual kingdom of Christ was
to be the fifth, obtained the name by which they were called. They
claimed to be the saints of God, and to have the dominion of saints,
Dan. vii, 27; expecting that, when Christ was come into this kingdom, to
begin his reign on earth, they, as his deputies, were to govern all
things under him. They went so far as to give up their own Christian
names, and assume others from Scripture, like the Manicheans of old.
The opinions of the moderns on this subject may be reduced to two: 1.
Some believe that Christ will reign personally on the earth, and that
the prophecies of the millennium point to a resurrection of martyrs and
other just men, to reign with him a thousand years in a visible kingdom.
2. Others are inclined to believe that, by the reign of Christ and the
saints for a thousand years on earth, nothing more is meant than that,
before the general judgment, the Jews shall be converted, genuine
Christianity be diffused through all nations, and mankind enjoy that
peace and happiness which the faith and precepts of the Gospel are
calculated to confer on all by whom they are sincerely embraced.” The
state of the Christian church, say they, will be, for a thousand years
before the general judgment, so pure and so widely extended, that, when
compared with the state of the world in the ages preceding, it may, in
the language of Scripture, be called a resurrection from the dead. In
support of this interpretation, they quote two passages from St. Paul,
in which a conversion from Paganism to Christianity, and a reformation
of life is called a resurrection from the dead,” Rom. vi, 13; Ephesians
v, 14. There is, indeed, an order in the resurrection, 1 Cor. xv, 24;
but we no where observe mention made of a first and second resurrection
at the distance of a thousand years from each other: yet, were the
millenarian hypothesis well founded, the words should rather have run
thus: Christ, the first-fruits, then the martyrs at his coming, and a
thousand years afterward the residue of mankind,--then cometh the end,”
&c.
Mr. Joseph Mede, Dr. Gill, Bishop Newton, Mr. Winchester, Mr. Eyre, Mr.
Kett, and a host of writers recently, are advocates for the first of
these opinions, and contend for the personal reign of Christ on earth.
When these great events shall come to pass,” says Bishop Newton, “of
which we collect from the prophecies this to be the proper order,--the
Protestant witnesses shall be greatly exalted, and the twelve hundred
and sixty years of their prophesying in sackcloth, and of the tyranny of
the beast, shall end together; the conversion and restoration of the
Jews succeed; then follows the ruin of the Ottoman empire; and then the
total destruction of Rome and of antichrist. When these great events, I
say, shall come to pass, then shall the kingdom of Christ commence, or
the reign of saints upon earth. So Daniel expressly informs us that the
kingdom of Christ and the saints will be raised upon the ruins of the
kingdom of antichrist, Daniel vii, 26, 27. So likewise St. John saith,
that, upon the final destruction of the beast and of the false prophet,
‘Satan is bound,’ &c, Rev. xx, 2–6. It is, I conceive, to these great
events, the fall of antichrist, the reëstablishment of the Jews, and the
beginning of the glorious millennium, that the three different dates in
Daniel, of twelve hundred and sixty years, twelve hundred and ninety
years, and thirteen hundred and thirty-five years, are to be referred.
And, as Daniel saith, ‘Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the
thirteen hundred and thirty-five years,’ Daniel xii, 12: so St. John
saith, ‘Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection,’ Rev. xx, 6. Blessed and happy, indeed, will be this
period; and it is very observable, that the martyrs and confessors of
Jesus, in papist as well as Pagan times, will be raised to partake of
this felicity. Then shall all those gracious promises in the Old
Testament be fulfilled, of the amplitude and extent of the peace and
prosperity, of the glory and happiness, of the church in the latter
days. Then, in the full sense of the words, ‘shall the kingdoms of this
world become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall
reign for ever and ever,’ Rev. xi, 15. According to tradition, these
thousand years of the reign of Christ and the saints will be the seventh
millenary of the world; for, as God created the world in six days, and
rested on the seventh, so the world, it is argued, will continue six
thousand years, and the seventh thousand will be the great sabbatism, or
holy rest of the people of God; ‘one day being with the Lord as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,’ 2 Pet. iii, 8.
According to tradition, too, these thousand years of the reign of Christ
and the saints are the great day of judgment, in the morning or
beginning whereof shall be the coming of Christ in flaming fire, and the
particular judgment of antichrist, and the first resurrection; and in
the evening or conclusion whereof shall be the general resurrection of
the dead, small and great; ‘and they shall be judged every man according
to his works.’”
Such is the representation of the millennium, as given by those who
embrace the opinion of Christ’s reigning personally on earth during the
period of one thousand years. But Dr. Whitby, Mr. Lowman, &c, contend
against the literal interpretation of the millennium, both as to its
nature and duration. Mr. Faber observes that, “respecting the yet future
and mysterious millennium, the less that is said upon the subject the
better. Unable myself to form the slightest conception of its specific
nature, I shall weary neither my own nor my reader’s patience with
premature remarks upon it. That it will be a season of great
blessedness, is certain; farther than this we know nothing definitely.”
The millenarians do not form a sect distinct from others; but their
distinguishing tenet, in one view or other, prevails, in a greater or
less degree, among most denominations into which the Christian world is
divided.
The following observations from Jones’s Biblical Cyclopædia are worthy
great attention for their sobriety:--Some have supposed that the
passage, Rev. xx, 4, is to be taken literally, as importing that at that
time Jesus Christ will come, in his human nature, from heaven to earth,
and set his kingdom up here, reigning visibly and personally, with
distinguished glory on earth; that the bodies of the martyrs, and of
other eminent Christians will then be raised from the dead, in which
they shall live and reign with Christ here on earth a thousand years.
And some suppose, that all the saints, the true friends to God and
Christ, who have lived before that time, will then be raised from the
dead, and live on earth perfectly holy, during this thousand years. And
this they suppose is meant by the first resurrection. Those who agree in
general in this notion of the millennium differ with respect to many
circumstances, which it is needless to mention here. Others have
understood this paragraph of Scripture in a figurative sense: that by
this reign of Christ on earth, is not meant his coming from heaven to
earth in his human visible nature; but his taking to himself his power,
and utterly overthrowing the kingdom of Satan, and setting up his own
kingdom throughout the world which, before this, had been confined to
very narrow bounds; subduing all hearts to a willing subjection, and
thus reigning generally over the men who shall then be in the world, and
live in that thousand years. And by the souls of them which were
beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which
had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received
his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands,” living again and
reigning with Christ a thousand years; they suppose, is not meant a
literal resurrection, or the resurrection of their bodies, which is not
asserted here, as there is nothing said of their bodies, or of their
being raised to life; but that they shall live again, and reign with
Christ, in the revival, prosperity, reign, and triumph of that cause and
interest in which they lived, and for the promotion of which they died;
and in whose death the cause seemed to languish and become extinct. Thus
they shall live again in their successors, who shall arise and stand up
with the same spirit, and in the same cause, in which they lived and
died, agreeable to ancient prophecies. The meek shall inherit the
earth.” And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom
under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of
the Most High; whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all
dominions shall serve him.” And they suppose that this revival of the
cause of Christ, by the numerous inhabitants of the earth rising up to a
new and holy life, is that which is here called the first resurrection,
in distinction from the second, which will consist in the resurrection
of the body; whereas this is a spiritual resurrection; a resurrection of
the cause of Christ, which had been, in a great degree, dead and lost; a
resurrection of the souls of men, by the renovation of the Holy Spirit.
That this important passage of Scripture is to be understood in the
figurative sense, last mentioned, is probable, and the following
considerations are thought sufficient to support it:--
1. Most if not all the prophecies in this book are delivered in
figurative language, referring to types and events recorded in the Old
Testament; and in imitation of the language of the ancient prophets. And
this was proper, and even necessary, in the best manner to answer the
ends of prophecy, as might easily be shown were it necessary. The first
part of this passage, all must allow, is figurative. Satan cannot be
bound with a literal, material chain. The key, the great chain, and the
seal, cannot be understood literally. The whole is a figure, and can
mean no more than, that, when the time of the millennium arrives, or
rather previous to it, Jesus Christ will lay effectual restraints on
Satan, so that his powerful and prevailing influence, by which he had
before deceived and destroyed a great part of mankind, shall be wholly
taken from him for a thousand years. And it is most natural to
understand the other part of the description of this remarkable event to
be represented in the same figurative language, as the whole is a
representation of one scene; especially, since no reason can be given
why it should not be so understood.