# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1857_S301
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Chiliasm of Certain Distinguished Church Fathers in the First Centuries.   301

Lactantius († about 330; he was the tutor of Crispus, the unfortunate son of Constantine the Great, and was called Cicero christianus on account of the beauty of his language) says institt. VII, 24: When the Son of God has destroyed unrighteousness, has held the greatest judgment, and has renewed to life the righteous who have existed from the beginning, he will remain among men for a thousand years and rule them with a righteous dominion. This the Sibyl announces, prophesying and inspired: "Hear me, ye speaking men, the eternal King reigns!" Those who are then in bodies will not die, but during those same thousand years will beget an endless multitude, and their posterity will be holy and pleasing to God; but those who are raised from the underworld will preside over the living as judges. The heathen, however, will not be utterly destroyed, but some will be left over for the victory of God, so that the righteous may triumph over them and subject them to eternal servitude. At that same time also the prince of the evil spirits, who is the instigator of all evil, will be bound with chains and be in prison during the thousand years of the heavenly kingdom. Then righteousness will reign on the earth, so that nothing evil is undertaken against the people of God. After his coming all the righteous will be gathered from all regions of the earth, and after the judgment has been held a holy city will be erected in the midst of the earth. Therein God, the founder, will himself dwell with the reigning righteous. This city the Sibyl means when she says: "And the city that God has made, he made it glorious, more shining than the stars, and the sun, and the moon too." Then that darkness with which heaven is overspread and obscured will be taken away, and the moon will receive the brightness of the sun and will wane no more; the sun will become seven times brighter than it now is. But the earth will open its fruitfulness and of itself bring forth the most abundant fruits. The rocks of the mountains will sweat honey, wine will flow in the streams, and the rivers will overflow with milk. The world itself, finally, will be joyful, and all nature will rejoice, since it is rescued and freed from the dominion of evil and of godlessness and of crime and of error. During this time the beasts will not feed on blood, nor the birds on prey, but everything will be quiet and peaceable. Lions and calves will stand together at the manger, vultures and eagles will do no harm, children will play with serpents. Finally all that will then come to pass which, according to the poets, is said to have already happened in the golden age under the reign of Saturn. Their error arose from this, that the prophets for the most part set forth and utter what is to come as though it were already past. For visions were presented to their eyes by the Holy Spirit, and they saw these, as it were, come into being and be fulfilled before their face. After the