or Chiliasts, a name given to those, in the primitive ages, who believed that the saints will reign on earth with Christ 1000 years.

The Millenarians held, that after the coming of Antichrist, and the destruction of all nations which shall follow, there shall be a first resurrection of the just alone: that all who shall be found upon earth, both good and bad, shall continue alive; the good, to obey the just who are risen, as their princes; the bad, to be conquered by the just, and to be subject to them: that Jesus Christ will then descend from heaven in his glory: that the city of Jerusalem will be rebuilt, enlarged, embellished, and its gates stand open night and day. They applied to this new Jerusalem what is said in the Apocalypse, chap. xxi. and to the temple all that is written in Ezekiel xxxvi. Here, they pretended, Jesus Christ will fix the seat of his empire, and reign 1000 years with the saints, patriarchs, and prophets, who will enjoy perfect and uninterrupted felicity.

This reign of our Saviour on earth is usually styled the millennium, or reign of 1000 years.