MIL 
MIL 
390 
vania: twenty miles weft of Hermanftadt, and ten fouth- 
eaft of WeifenbuFg. Lat.46. 6.N. Ion. 23.14. E. 
MILLENQA'Y, a town of France, in the department 
of the Loir and Cher: fix miles north-eaft of Romorantin. 
MIL'LENER, or Mii/liner,/ [Of this word different 
etymologies have been given. It is not derived from the 
French ; for the French cannot exprefs the notion of mil- 
lener, otherwife than by the circumlocution marchand or 
tAarchande dcs modes. Neither is it derived from the Low 
Dutch, the great but neglebted magazine of the Anglo- 
Saxon ; for Sewell, in his Dictionary Englifh and Dutch, 
j 708, deferibes millener to be “ a pedlar who fells ribbands 
and other trimmings or ornaments; a French pedlar.” 
Littleton, in his Englifh and Latin Dictionary, publifhed 
1677, defines millener, “ a jack of all trades ; q. d. mille- 
narius, or ndlle mercivm venditor; that is, one who fells 
athoufand different forts of things.” If he rightly un¬ 
derflood the vulgar meaning of the word millener in his 
time, v'e muft hold that it then implied what is now 
termed “ a haberdalher of fmall wares,” one who dealt in 
various articles of petty merchandife, but who did not 
make up the goods which he fold, as our milleners now 
do, and by which they are diftinguifhed from halerdajhers. 
Laftly, Dr. Johnfqn derives the word from milaner, an in¬ 
habitant of Milan; or maliniere, from Malims, as the 
French call Mechlin ; from whence people of this pro- 
feflion might firft have come ; as the word Lombard has 
been ufed for a banker.] One who fells ribbons and drefles, 
particularly liead-drefies for women, and who makes thole 
drefles.—The millener muft be thoroughly verfed in phy- 
iiognomy : in the choice of ribbons fhe muft have a parti¬ 
cular regard to the complexion. Guardian, No. 149. 
He was perfumed like a milliner; 
And, ’twixt his finger and his thumb, he held 
A pouncet box, which ever and anon 
lie gave his nole. Shakefpe are's Henry IV. 
. MIL'LENERY, f. The wares fold by milleners and ha- 
berdafhers ; as ribbons, laces, gauzes, caps, bonnets, See. 
MIL'LENIST, J'. One that holds the millennium. 
MILLEN'NIAL, adj. Pertaining to the millennium.— 
To be kings and prielts unto God, is the charafteriftick 
of thofe that are to enjoy the millennial happinel’s. Burnet. 
MILLEN'NIUM, J\ [Lat. athoufand years.] Generally 
taken for the thoufand years during which, according to 
an ancient tradition in the church, grounded on a doubt¬ 
ful text in the Apocalypfe, our blelted Saviour fhall reign 
with the faithful upon earth after the refurreClion, before 
the final completion of beatitude.—We muft give a full 
account of that ftate called the millennium. Burnet. 
. Though there has been no age of the church in which 
the millennium was not admitted by individual divines 
of the firft eminence, it is yet evident from the writings 
of Eulebius, Irenseus, Origen, and others among the an¬ 
cients, as well as from the hiftories of Dupin, Mofheim, 
and all the moderns, that it was never adopted by the 
whole church, or made an article of the eftabliihed creed 
in any nation. 
About the middle of the fourth century the Millen- 
nians held the following tenets : 1. That the city of Je- 
rulalem Ihould be rebuilt, and that the land of Judea 
ihould be the habition of thofe who were to reign on 
earth 1000 years. 2. That the firft refurreflion was not 
to be confined to the martyrs ; but that after the fall of 
Anticlirift all the juft were to rife, and all that were on the 
earth were to continue for that lpace of time. 3. That 
Chrift lhall then come down from heaven, and be leen on 
earth, and reign there with his fervants. 4. That the 
faints during this period lhall enjoy all the delights of a 
terreftrial paradife. 
Thefe opinions were founded upon feveral paflages of 
Scripture, which the millcnarians among the fathers un- 
derltood in no other than a literal fenfe, but which the 
moderns, who hold that opinion, coniider as partly literal 
and partly metaphorical. Of thefe paflages, that upon 
which the greateft ftrefs has been laid, we believe to be 
the following : “ And I faw an angel come down from 
heaven, having the key of the bottomlefs pit, and a great 
chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the "dragon, that 
old ferpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him 
a thoufand years, and call: him into the bottomlefs pit, and 
fiiut him up, and let a feal upon him, that he fhould de¬ 
ceive the nations no more till the thoufand years Ihould be 
fulfilled ; and after that he muft be loofed a little feafon. 
And I faw thrones, and they fat upon them, and judg¬ 
ment was given unto them ; and I law the fouls of them 
that were beheaded for the witnefs of Jefus, and for the 
word of God, and which had not worlhipped the beaft, 
neither his image, neither had received his mark upon 
their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and 
reigned with Chrift a thoufand years. But the reft of the 
dead lived not again till the thoufand years were JiniJhed. 
This is the firft refurreefion.” Rev. xx, 1—5. This padfage 
all the ancient millenarians took in a fenfe grofsly literal; 
and taught, that during the millennium the faints on 
earth were to enjoy every bodily delight. The moderns, 
on the other hand, confider the power and pleafure of 
this kingdom as wholly fpiritual; and they reprefent 
them as not to commence till after the conflagration of 
the prefent earth. But that this laft fuppofition is a mil- 
take, the very next verfe except one allures us ; for we 
are there told, that, “ when the thoufand years are ex¬ 
pired, Satan lhall be loofed out of his prifon, and lhall go 
out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters 
of the earth;" (ver. 7, 8.) and we have no reafon to be¬ 
lieve that he will have fuch power or fuch liberty in “ the 
new heavens and the new earth wherein dweileth righte- 
oufnefs.” 
For this and other reafons, which our limits will not 
permit us to enumerate, the moll judicious critics con¬ 
tend, that the prophecies of the millennium point, not to 
a relurredlion of martyrs and other juft men to reign with 
Chrift a thoufand years in a vifible kingdom upon earth, 
but to that ftate of the Chriftian church, which, for a 
thoufand years before the general judgment, will be fo 
pure and fo v'idely extended, that, w'hen compared with 
the ftate of the w'orld in the ages preceding, it may, in 
the language of Scripture, be called a ref irreilion from the 
dead. In lupport of this interpretation they quote two 
palfages from St. Paul, in which a converfion from Pagan- 
ifirn to Chriftianity, and a reformation of life, is called a 
refiurreCtion from the dead : “ Neither yield ye your 
members as inftruments of unrighteoufnefs unto fin; but 
yield yourfelves unto God, as thofe that are alive from the 
dead." Rom. vi. 13. And again, “ Wherefore he laitli. 
Awake thou that lleepeft, and arife from the dead, and 
Chrift lhall give thee light.” Eph. v. 14. It is likewife to 
be oblerved, that, in all the deferiptions of the refurrec- 
tion and future judgment which are given us at fuch 
length in the Gofpels and Epiftles, there is no mention 
made of a firft and lecond refurre&ion at the diftance of a 
thoufand years from each other. There is indeed an order 
in the relurreftion ; for w’e are told, that every man jhall 
rife in his oivn order ; Chrift the firft fruits, afterwards they 
that are Chrift's at his coming, fyc. 1 Cor. xv. 23. But, 
w'ere the millennarian hypothelis well founded, the words 
Ihould rather have run thus: “ Chrift the firft fruits, then 
the martyrs at his coining, and a thoufand years after¬ 
wards the refidue of mankind. Then cometh the end. 
See." 
Thefe arguments ftrongly incline us to believe, that, by 
the reign of Chrift and the faints for a thoufand years 
upon earth, nothing more is meant, than that before the 
general judgment the Jews Ihould be converted, genuine 
Chriftianity be diffufed through all nations, and mankind 
enjoy that peace and happinefs which the faith and pre¬ 
cepts of the Gofpel are calculated to confer on all by 
whom they are fincerely embraced. Our Saviour’s own 
account of his religion is, that from a fmall beginning it 
will increafe to the full harveft. The millennium there- 
1 lore 
