It is a good remark of Dr. Jortin in his Ecclesiastical History,— and it is frequently suggested to every attentive reader of the Evangelists, that our Saviour, "while he was a most assiduous teacher of useful religious knowledge, invariably discouraged and disappointed questions of mere curiosity." Accordingly, when after his resurrection, amidst their reviving hopes of temporal distinctions, his disciples asked him, whether he would at that time restore the kingdom to Israel? and when Peter inquired, how long his fellow-disciple should live? or when on yet another occasion he was asked, are there few that be saved? his answers were," it is not for you to know the times and seasons ;"-" what is that to thee?" And he invariably directed the inquirer to his own personal duty;" Follow thou me;" "strive ye to enter in at the strait gate." But when the lawyer inquired," what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" when indeed any subject was proposed pertaining to man's virtue or the world's salvation, then with the wisdom and kindness worthy of him who came that the world through him might be saved, he gave the most explicit and satisfactory answers. At the same time knowing, as he did, what was in man-the strong propensity in his nature to anticipate the future, and as if effectually to repress an idle curiosity upon an event, to prepare for which is every man's duty, but the time of which is hidden with God, he uttered those remarkable words,-" Of that day and of that hour knoweth no man; no, not the angels that are in

heaven, neither the Son, but the Father;" a declaration the more memorable, when we consider the clearness and distinctness with which he foretold many other events, as the denial of Peter, the treachery of Judas, and above all, the destruction of Jerusalem.

It may be observed of the event in question, that while in common with the whole Christian doctrine of the future and immortal life, of which it is a part, it is clearly revealed, the period, manner, circumstance are left in absolute uncertainty. As no man can tell the day of his death, so the world is not to be told the time of its termination; and all attempts to ascertain it serve but to expose the delusion and presumption of their authors.

Yet the history of the Church, and even that of our own times, abounds with such examples. Notwithstanding the uncertainty in which it has pleased God to leave the precise period of this event, there have never been wanting from the first those who have undertaken to declare it. Partly from the obscurity inseparable from prophecy, subjecting it therefore to various and uncertain interpretation; partly from that tendency in our nature, to which we have just adverted, of speculating concerning the future; from the passion in some for the marvellous or the astounding, and the vanity of others to proclaim it; to which we must add a love of power, combined with baser motives, prompting men to assume the office of the prophet, scarce any age of the church has been without its prediction, that the end of the world is at hand.

The Apostles themselves and first followers of Jesus seem to have misapprehended their Master's instructions upon this subject. The Epistles of Paul contain expressions, that cannot easily be interpreted without supposing his near expectation of that day. Nor was it till his misapprehension was corrected, and he had learned the injurious effect it had produced upon the minds of some of his friends, that he wrote to guard them against it.* "We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed." He then proceeds to predict events, which have already required centuries for the fulfil

* 2 Thessalonians ii. 1-4.

ment of a part, and other parts of which remain to be accomplished in generations yet to come. So fallacious and groundless was the expectation of their accomplishment within the century in which they were uttered.

As delusions of the same nature are at intervals revived,* and even at the present and among ourselves some curiosity, not without alarm, has been awakened, it may not be wholly useless or uninteresting to advert to a few among the many predictions, that in successive periods have been made, and totally failed, of the time of the end of the world.

One of the controversies, which most divided the church in the third century, was precisely that which has been recently revivedthat of the Millenium. We learn, that much before this period the opinion prevailed, that Christ was to come and reign a thousand years among men before the final dissolution of the world. It required the genius and authority of Origen to resist the infatuation that possessed multitudes through the belief that it was near at hand, and the progress of which was not finally arrested until Dionysius of Alexandria, a disciple of Origen, wrote for the purpose two learned and judicious dissertations on the divine promises.

Augustin, Bishop of Hippo, who flourished about the middle of the fourth century, whose genius and learning were far in advance of his judgement, declared in his celebrated work, "De Civitate Dei," that the year 395, (though he afterwards found reason to postpone it for more than an hundred years after,) was the time of the end of the world. Both these periods however have passed, with nearly fourteen centuries besides,—and all things remain.

Other predictions to the same purpose were uttered in the sixth, and yet more distinctly in the ninth century. But it appears, that in A. D. 1105 so general was the expectation of the consummation of all things, that even two Councils, with all the weight of their learning and Decrees, were unable to tranquillize the fears of the people. In 1335 an Italian priest alarmed all Italy by proclaiming, that the end of the world was to come in that year. One Arnold, a Spanish monk, wrought like effects by a like fanaticism only ten years after. And still again, in 1403, when that former generation with their credulity and their fears had but just passed away, and the succeeding might

See Mosheim, Vol. I., and Jortin's Remarks.

have learned wisdom, (if mankind would but learn wisdom from the past,) an absurd personage, by the name of Vincent Farrier,* a hermit, revived the same delusion; and though it issued like all the former, it was yet again renewed and found converts within ten years after.

Passing some intermediate absurdities, which sported their hour and were forgotten, we learn from the author of a late excellent work on astronomy, that the appearance of a comet in 1456 spread a wider terror than was ever known before. The belief was very general throughout Italy, that this comet would destroy the earth; and that the judgement of the great day was nigh. "At that time," says the author, "the Romish Church held unbounded sway over the con sciences and fortunes, and even lives of men. The churches and convents were crowded with all classes for the confession of sins; and wealth in profusion, the offerings of a terrified people, was poured into the ecclesiastical treasury. The Pope (Calixtus III.) ordered the church bells to be rung daily at noon, which was the origin of that practice, so common to this day in Catholic churches. After some months, the comet disappeared from those eyes in which it had found but little favour; joy and tranquillity were restored to the faithful subjects of the Pope; but not so the money or the lands, they had bestowed in the paroxysm of their fears."

Even to this day there are monasteries in Sicily, and those parts of Italy where the effects of the eruptions of Mount Etna and Vesuvius are most apparent, which hold in quiet possession valuable lands, bequeathed some three, and some four hundred years ago, under the excitements and fears of the people. In several instances the preamble to the deed expresses the motives for the grant, (" Forasmuch as the great day of judgement," or in others, " as the end of the world is nigh ;") and these deeds remain to this day, the monuments of the public delusion.

* Dr. Jortin, whose playful wit adorned his various learning, in adverting to a later period, celebrates for the same merits a "certain ridiculous blockhead, by the name of Ben-Gorion."-See his Charge on the Use of Ecclesiastical History.

+ See Geography of the Heavens, p. 246.

"Appropinquante magno judicii die," or "appropinquante mundi termino." -See Lyell's Geology, Vol. I. p. 243,

In Germany, one of the earliest of the Reformers, a friend and fellow-labourer of Luther, Michael Stiefel, "eminent for his genius and learning, particularly in the mathematics, which he applied to the interpretation of prophecy, kindled a flame among his people of Holzendorf and its vicinity, by announcing that the day of judgement was at hand. Partly by a calculation of the squares of some num. bers, which he imagined he had found in the Scriptures; partly by the easy method of translating certain important words of the New Testament numerically, in which he has been followed with singular success by many more recent theologians, and partly by twenty other arguments, which an unbelieving age has suffered to be forgotten, he at last discovered a short time only before the decisive moment, that the final end of all things would happen on Monday, the third of October, 1533, at 8 o'clock, A. M."* He hastened to communicate his discovery to Luther, from whom he anticipated a hearty concur

But the sturdy Reformer, who never suffered his imagination to lead astray his judgement, was not satisfied with his friend's interpretation of the Revelation, and took pains to persuade him, that he was not the prophet he imagined. But Stiefel, like other enthusiasts, was not to be dissuaded from what his heart believed. Though he was arrested at Wittemberg as a disturber of the peace, and was released only on the promise of preaching no more such distempered doctrines, he had no sooner returned to Holzendorf than he renewed his predictions, and exhorted his people to prepare for the judgementday. Great multitudes were assembled at his summons in the church on the morning designated, to whom he administered the sacrament, and announced with a prophetic confidence, that the hour had come. But it passed, and his prophecy was unfulfilled. The people, who had waited in hunger and fear, were both mortified and enraged at finding themselves deceived. They seized their pastor, compelled him publicly to confess his errors; and it required the powerful interposition of Luther to persuade them to leave him in peace, till he could be otherwise provided for.

We will only add that a similar scene, though with a result more favourable to the chief actor, occurred in the west of Scotland in the year 1811. The minister had, like Stiefel, predicted the day and the

* See an interesting Memoir of Michael Stiefel in North American Review, Vol. IV. 1817.