The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1879-04-23
FoR THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN.
PRE-MILLENNIAL ESSAYS OF THE PRO-
PHETIC CONFERENCE. F. q. ReVell
Chicago, 1879.

We have received at last this handsom
, volume, which has been some time announced
! and looked for with keen interest by student
. of prophecy. The pamphlet edition of thes
essays issued by the New York Tribune a
the close of the Conference last November
has now reached the number, as We learn, o
$4,000 copies, but was very unsatisfactor.
from the smallness of the type, inaccuracie
in the printing, and the omission of portion
of the essays. In this volume We have al
the essays read, thirteen in number, anc
three of the addresses carefully edited BY
Rev. Nathaniel West, =. d., of Cincinnati
making book of $40 pages. To the essays
and addresses DR.. West. has added Critica
Appendix of over forty pages, giving pre-
nillennial views from some thirty or more oi
the ablest commentasecf the present and
former generations - est thus
speaks: Up. 4790 "fSsiy fame is universal.
If any intelligent scholarship, more compe-
tent in learning or piety, to pronounce upon
q theme 80 great, resides anywhere in Chris.
tendon, I am unconscious of its locality"
The Critical Appendix is followed by a
Textical Index which gives carefully ar
ranged list of over 200 passages of Scripture
quoted or treated in the volume.
This book so carefully and ably edited,
aud the only authorized publication of the
teachings of the Prophetic Conference in
New York, will without doubt mark an epoch
in the history of Pre- Millenarianism in this
country. The essays and addresses are
marked by singular drectness, clearness, and
ability. Among them none is more marked
by power and originality than the eleventh
one, by DR.. West himself, on The History
of the Pre.Millennial Doctrine. We can do
no more in the limits of a newspaper notice
than give for the benefit of your readers a
few points from this mastery essay.
His definition is worthy of careful atten-
ton. "Christian Chiliasm, or Pre- Millena-
rianism, is the doctrine of the personal reign
of Christ, on earth, 1000 years after the
Beast, False Prophet, and Apostate Chris
tendon have been Judged, and have per-
iShed in common doom. (Rev. v: 10; XII:
Is; xix: 20, 81; Xxx; 1-6)"
AS to the attitude of the Reformers DR..
West says, Up. 1861 "We have, therefore,
to dismiss the erroneous impression made in
various Histories of Doctrine which seem to
teach when using the vague word 'millenna-
rianism, that the Reformed Symbols con.
demned the doctrine Of the Pre- Millennisl
Advent of Christ" "What we
do find is the condemnation of false Caili-
asm, everywhere, not syllable against the
true" Peter Martyr taught It at Oxford,
and it was "the common faith of the Argli-
can Church, the 1000 years having been
thrown into the future, by the application of
the Apocalyptic symbols to the Papacy whose
final judgment should come with the Second
Advent" $50 spoke Ridley and Bradford.
So thought the Anglican Church"
But DR.. West being Presbyterian, and
confessedly one of the ableat in the Northern
Church, has devoted special attention to the
relation of the Westminster Confession of
Faith to this doctrine. He says, (p. 367,
differing in several respects, but united on
the two main points, viz: the pre-millennial
advent and literal First Resurrection q
large number of the Westminster divines,
among whom was the majority of the more
prominent and chief, publicly confessed and
preached the Chiliastic doctrine. The ven
erable Prolocutor, DR.. Twisse, Of signal
learning x was an ardent disciple of
Mede. Marshall, Palmer, and" long list of
others, "men of the first learning and worth,
preached it and wrote it,
principal Baillie, an opposer of the doc
trne, writes from the Assembly to Scotland,
bemoaning the predominant Chlissm of it's
greatest members. Most of the
chief divines here, he murmured, mot only
Independents, but others, as Twisae, Mar
shall, Palmer, and many more, are express
Chiliasts "
Principal Cunningham, of Scotland, has
affirmed that they who entertained it (the
pre.millennial doctrine we're of the soundest
among the Westminster divines.
Authoritative for all who accept them,
these Standards (the WestminSter) compel
the conclusion of pre-millennial advent by
irresistible necessity"
"And because the 1;d years come after,
and not before, the Judgment on Anti.christ,
and in view of the fact that the hour of
Christ's coming is unknown to men, they de-
clared it to be the duty of oil men, now to
shake off all carnal security, and be alsVays
watchful, because they know not at What
hour the Lord will come; aud be ever pre-.
pared to say: Come, Lord Jesus, come
quickly Pre- millennarians could ask no
more Confession of Faith, chap, XIII,
sec. 4, etc."
"They (the Westminster Standarda) are
pre- millenrial to the core The pre,millen.
nial advent is no merely allowable interpre.
tatiOn, to be graciously tolerated among her.
etics,' by ostensibly orthodox men, who cut
the Standards down while protesting to de-
fend them, but it is On imposed corollary,
implicate in the very warp and woof of the
symbol itself, an immediate conclusion with
out middle term, the rejection of which is
an open abandonment of the Reformed