st7 j, without the article, is used in ver. 6,1 as though in a separate enunciation. The omission of the article conveys a less restricted meaning than its insertion. Many admit, that the millennium in which Satan is bound, is different from the millennium in which the saints reign, as Pareus testifies on the Ap. col. 1093, where he seems to hint at Brightman and Cotter. Jungman altogether agrees with them in his Observ. Germ, against Beverley, p. 71. To this are added all those who take the second millennium only for eter- nity itself, as Viegas on the Ap. p. 793, Nic. Collado, Corn, a Lapide, and Nic. Muler.
This distinction between the two periods of a thousand years affords a great advantage , and that too of such necessity, as to prove this very distinctness of the millennial periods. In the judgment of an illustrious man, a serious difficulty is raised by the hope of better times, or even by the reconciling of the millennial kingdom itself with the final perverseness and damnable security of mem of the last times. The keeping the times distinct alone remedies this dif- ficulty. During the course of the former millennium, the promises which describe most flourishing times of the Church will be ful- filled : ch. x. 7 ; afterwards, while the saints who belong to the first resurrection shall reign with Christ, men on earth will be remiss and careless, Matt. xxiv. 37, etc. ; according to which explanation that remarkable passage, Luke xviii. 8, retains the natural meaning of the words. Respecting this [false] security, which will seize men, when the enemies are now removed, there is a valuable suggestion subjoined to the commentary of Patrick Forbes on the Apocalypse. The confounding of the two millennial periods has long ago pro- duced many errors, and has made the name of Chiliasm hateful and suspected ; the distinction between the two resolves the difficulties to which Chiliasm is justly liable, and aids in the sound interpreta- tion of prophecy. Let the treatise, JSrklarte Offenb ., I beg, be con- sulted, p. 942, etc. As to what remains, what can orthodoxy itself blame ? Let them pronounce sentence, on whose authority others depend. Add, that they who neither extend the remaining times of the world beyond the truth of Scripture, nor curtail them, they alone are well able to meet and contend with scoffers.
This is the last period in the age of the w^orld ; wherefore in this place we will comprehensively repeat an analysis of the times, which we have already abundantly spoken of, with sobriety and modesty.
1 B and Syr., however, read in ver. 6 tc«. But weightier authorities omit it, viz. A and others. — E.