sixteenth century. The various nations were converted one after another to the faith. The Popes of Rome, as successors of the Apostles and Primates of the Church, grew in moral power. Freedom of speech was guaranteed to them by the possession of an independent principality. Money flowed through their hands for the conversion of the heathen. The religious orders were founded. In the designing and building of stately fanes to the greater honour of God, architecture reached its highest development. Music, sculpture, and painting lent their aids to worship, and reached, many of them, their highest achievements. The Bible was copied, illuminated, and adorned with loving skill in thousands of monasteries. The ritual of the Church was developed in accordance with its high office. The universities were founded. The poor were treated with kindness and care, and their wants supplied. The whole of Europe acknowledged one faith, one altar, and one Church until the sixteenth century.

Another aspect of this Church, however, is disclosed in the letter to Thyatira, viz., its human frailty (R. ii. 18-29). Aeì, signifying "must be," as Dr. Swete points out, indicates a necessity founded on the Divine Will, as at Matt. xxiv. 6, Jhn. xii. 34, xx. 19. This necessity may be connected with the reformation of Thyatira.

"A little time "is contrasted with a thousand years.

4. Καὶ εἶδον θρόνους καὶ ἐκάθισαν ἐπ ̓ αὐτοὺς, καὶ κρίμα ἐδόθη αὐτοῖς, καὶ τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν πεπελεκισμένων διὰ τὴν μαρτυρίαν Ιησου καὶ διὰ τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ οἵτινες οὐ προσεκύνησαν τὸ θηρίον οὐδὲ τὴν εἰκόνα αὐτοῦ καὶ οὐκ ἔλαβον τὸ χάραγμα ἐπὶ τὸ μέτωπον καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν χεῖρα αὐτῶν, καὶ ἔζησαν καὶ ἐβασίλευσαν μετὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ χίλια ἔτη.

4. And I saw seats and they that sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and the souls of them that were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not adored the beast, nor his image, nor received his mark on their foreheads or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

"And I saw seats" reintroduces the vision of the throne (R. iv. 4). Judgment was given to them "-" For God hath judged your judgment on her " (R. xviii. 20). "And the souls of them that were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus"-the souls of the martyrs standing before the throne, with palms in their hands (R. vii. 9). If we go back to the opening of the fifth seal, we read: The souls of them that were slain for the

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word of God, and for the testimony which they held . . . cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord?" (R. vi. 9, 10). "The souls of them that were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus" in R. xx. 4, and those who were "slain for the testimony" in R. vi. 9, are the same. These are the souls whose bitter cry, "How long, O Lord (holy and true) dost thou not judge and revenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ?" pervades the Apocalypse.

"And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." This is the celebrated millennial passage, which Cerinthus, the Montanists, and others, transferred from heaven to earth, making it a reign of earthly pleasure for a thousand years.

The dramatic form of the Book requires a final glimpse of the souls under the altar, the moving spirits, as it were, of the whole drama; they again appear in evidence, not complaining or rejoicing, as heretofore, but tranquilly reigning, seated in the judgment seats of heaven. We are told: "To him that shall overcome I will grant to sit with me in my throne" (R. iii. 21). Exábioav is the Greek expression used with reference to Pilot, who "sat down on the judgment seat" (Jhn. xix. 13); and with regard to Festus, who "sat in the judgment seat" (Acts xxv. 6). It is the word used at R. iii. 21 and at R. iv. 4, and in the corresponding prediction in S. Matthew, "you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (xix. 28). We are shown the fulfilment of prophecies.

There is question of the communion of saints here. It is a received doctrine of the Church that the saints in heaven both see us, hear our prayers, intercede for us, and rejoice at our conversion to God. Bossuet draws this lesson from the pages of the Apocalypse.

Our Lord says: "I say to you that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just, who need not penance" (Luke xv. 7). If the saints can experience sorrow as well as joy-sorrow at bloody persecution resulting in the apostasy and sin of those dear to them on earth; if the cry of the martyrs, How long, O Lord? connotes grief-then the millennium is explained, for when the devil was chained up for 1,000 years martyrdom for the faith of Jesus ceased for that period.

The Book of Revelation in many places indicates that the souls in heaven take a lively interest in the sorrows and joys of the Church Militant. We have the martyr's prayer at R. vi. 10, the silence in heaven at R. viii. 1, the thanksgiving of the four-and-twenty ancients at R. xi. 17, and the command to the heavens to rejoice at R. xii. 12, and xviii. 20. One of the seven angels who had the seven vials, an executive angel engaged in

the punishment of Rome, told S. John, "I am thy fellow-servant and of thy brethren" (R. xix. 10). See also the Alleluias of heaven on the judgment of Rome (R. xix. 1 ff.).

The millennium of the saints who were "beheaded for the testimony of Jesus" need not be a theological question at all for us. We, as exegetes, pure and simple, must look upon this as a dramatic matter, and give it a dramatic construction. S. John having in the first part of the Apocalypse disclosed the saints in heaven as crying out in distress "How long, O Lord?" now shows them as reigning with Christ for 1,000 years in unalloyed bliss. He gives the reason-the devil, who through the bloodshed of the martyrs was the cause of that agonizing cry "How long, O Lord?" which pervades the whole Book, is now chained up for 1,000 years. The Church is triumphant, Christianity spreads over the earth, and the saints in heaven. look down on the scene with joy. For a thousand years they have no occasion to cry out again, How long, O Lord?

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Οἵτινες, “ whosoever -"had not adored the Beast, nor his image, nor received his mark on their foreheads or in their hands," refers to the martyrs. See R. xiv. 9, 11.

5. Οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν νεκρῶν οὐκ ἔζησαν ἄχρι τελεσθῇ τὰ χίλια ἔτη. αὕτη ἡ ἀνάστασις ἡ πρώτη.

5. The rest of the dead lived not till the thousand years were finished;

this is the first resurrection.

The Seer, having described the martyrs as living and reigning with Christ for a thousand years, says that "the rest of the dead lived not till the thousand years were finished." Where ἔζησαν corresponds with ἔζησαν—“ lived,” in verse 4. We must consider the effect of this Revelation on the minds of men in the first century. We have seen the martyrs previously in a vision of heaven, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, crying with a loud voice, "Salvation to our God," and serving Him day and night in His Temple (R. vii. 9 ff.). There is an anthropomorphic look about this passage taken with verse 4 above. Many early Christians took verse 4 literally, and thought that Christ would reign upon the earth for a thousand years. But the Seer explains that this is the first resurrection, i.e., it is not corporeal, and that "the rest of the dead lived not" in visible presence with Christ "till the thousand years were finished." In the Book of Revelation there is no appreciable interval of time between the end of the thousand years and the day of judgment. On the contrary one single sentence describes the onslaught of the world upon the

Church and the destruction of the world, followed by the day of judgment (R. xx. 7 ff.). Hence early Christians thought that the millennium would be followed by a cataclysm involving the Church and the world in ruin. They expected, "At the end of the (millennial) kingdom, the universal resurrection with the final judgment" (J. Kirsch, S.T.D., Encyc. Cath. Millennium). S. John apparently meant to convey to them that the rest of the dead in Christ will not be seen, like the martyrs moving in heaven, until after the general judgment which is seen to follow the end of the thousand years. That seems to be a reasonable exegesis, bearing in mind that things in this Book are accommodated to the ideas prevailing in the minds of Hebrew Christians in S. John's day.

Oi Xoimol," the rest," here stands for unknown millions.

6. Μακάριος καὶ ἅγιος ὁ ἔχων μέρος ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει τῇ πρώτῃ. ἐπὶ τούτων ὁ δεύτερος θάνατος οὐκ ἔχει ἐξου σίαν, ἀλλ ̓ ἔσονται ἱερεῖς τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ βασιλεύσουσιν μετ' αὐτοῦ χίλια ἔτη.

6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; in these the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

The Seer has the martyrs still in view, "who lived and reigned with Christ" (R. xx. 4). He goes on, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection," and later, "Blessed are they who wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb" (R. xxi. 14). “In these the second death hath no power." That is the promise made to the second age of the Church-the age of martyrs. "He that shall overcome shall not be hurt by the second death" (R. ii. 11). "But they shall be priests of God and of Christ." "Because thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God in thy blood . . . and hast made us to our God a kingdom and priests, and we shall reign over the earth" (R. v. 9, 10).

If we give due weight to the fact that the Apocalypse was written during a period of intense religious persecution, and that one of its special objects was to encourage Christians to suffer death rather than yield to Cæsar worship, we can understand that the above lines have this object in view. The martyrs shall reign with God in unalloyed bliss, whilst Satan is chained up; viz., for a period of a thousand years. The meaning of the second death is explained at R. xx. 14, and xxi. 8. It is eternal punishment.

tà

7. Καὶ ὅταν τελεσθῇ τὰ χίλια ἔτη, λυθήσεται ὁ σατανᾶς ἐκ τῆς φυλακῆς αὐτοῦ.

7. And when the thousand years shall be finished, satan shall be loosed out of his prison.

The Vulgate combines this verse with the next, verse 8, and makes one sentence of it all. It is better than stopping at prison." The abyss, into which Satan was cast and chained and sealed, is now called a "prison."

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8. Καὶ εξελεύσεται πλανῆσαι τὰ ἔθνη τὰ ἐν ταῖς τέσσαρ σιν γωνίαις τῆς γῆς, τὸν Γὼγ καὶ τὸν Μαγώγ, συναγαγεῖν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸν πόλεμον ὧν ὁ ἀριθμὸς αὐτῶν ὡς ἡ ἄμμος τῆς θαλάσσης.

8. And shall go forth and seduce the nations which are over the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, and shall gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.

At the end of the thousand years, that is in the sixteenth century, Satan shall be loosed out of prison. He was loose all the time, in every sense except in that of a bloody persecutor of the Church. In that sense he was chained up. In that sense also he was loosed-" And he shall go forth and seduce the nations ❞—λaνñσαι тà ë0νn-" seduce the Gentiles." The Gentiles are put, as usual in this book, for those opposed to the Church. We are reminded of the beast from the earth, who "seduced them that dwell on the earth" (R. xiii. 14); another formula for the enemies of the Church. "Which are

in the four quarters of the earth," gives the seduction of Satan a very widespread character. In these passages the Seer adopts the future tense. Once more, as at R. xii. 18, Satan stood unbound "on the sand of the sea" and gathered against "the woman " her enemies, "whose numbers is as the sand of the sea." This is a prediction.

The question arises, Was Satan loosed in the sixteenth century and was there a revival of Cæsar worship and persecution? The great and widespread revolt against the Church in the sixteenth century, known as the Reformation, answers that question. In its essence it was Cæsar worship and its propaganda was by bloody persecution..

To confine ourselves to Great Britain. In the reign of Henry VIII., in the year 1534, it was enacted that the King and his heirs should be the supreme heads of the Church of England in spirituals as well as in temporals. It was enacted that refusal to accept the King as spiritual head of the