and set a seal upon him, that he

frequently speak of a pit metaphorically. David says: "He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings;" Psa. xl. 2; i. e., he delivered me from difficulty and danger, and set me in safety and prosperity. What can be more plain than the meaning in this case? "The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit;" Prov. xxii. 14; xxiii. 27. The haughty king of Babylon, who had exalted himself to heaven, and set his throne above the stars of God, was brought down to the ground, "to the sides of the pit ;" Isa. xiv. 12-15. It is certain, then, that the prophets were accustomed to speak of the pit as a mere metaphor for degradation and restraint; and this is precisely the sense the word is to bear in the case before us. The dragon had hitherto maintained dominion; but a power had now come by which he was to be overthrown. He was to be cast down and restrained; and this is all that is meant by his being cast into the bottomless pit and bound. When earthly powers have enjoyed a season of prosperity and triumph, they are said to have been "exalted unto heaven;" so, when a reverse takes place, they are said to be "thrust down to hell;" Matt. xi. 23; Luke x. 15. And what is meant by Capernaum being cast down to hell, but the reverse of being exalted to heaven? The exaltation was temporal prosperity, and the casting down was temporal degradation. So the casting of the dragon into the bottomless pit was throwing him down from power, and bringing him into the reverse state from that which he had previously maintained. TShut him up, and set a seal upon him. -Thus we see that the power of the dragon was effectually restrained by Christianity for a time. The door of a pit, den, prison, or sepulchre, was sometimes sealed to prevent deception. When once it was guarded in

should deceive the nations no

this manner, it could not be opened without its being known to the officer, who had marked it with his own seal. Thus we read, Dan. vi. 17: "And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel." The Jews said to Pilate, "Command, therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch;" Matt. xxvii. 64-66. ¶ That he should deceive the nations no more.

This seems to have been his principal employment. Heathenism was a deceit. The heathen teachers beguiled the people "through philosophy and vain deceit ;" Col. ii. S. In Paul's description of anti-Christ, he speaks of his coming as "after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders; and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;" 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10. It is not a matter of wonder, then, that because of the dragon's confinement it is said, "he should deceive the nations no more." Stuart, the Professor at Andover, Mass., says, when treating on this subject, that the pit, or abyss, is not a place of endless punishment. "From the whole representation, here and elsewhere, it is plain that the abyss is not the place of final punishment, but only of temporary restraint or chastisement." (Com. on the place.) T The thousand years. There is some difficulty in determining what particular time is intended by the thousand years. The only aid furnished by the other sacred books in

should be fulfilled; and after

coming to a right understanding of this matter is, they seem to show that the number, a thousand, was used proverbially for many. Hence we read of a thousand generations for many generations, and one chasing a thousand for chasing many. Again, God says, "The cattle on a thousand hills are mine," where no one will pretend that the exact number of a thousand is intended. We read also, "A day in thy courts is better than a thousand," to which the same remark will apply. It will be remembered, that in determining what time was intended by the twelve hundred and sixty days, (Rev. xi. 3; xii. 6,) we maintained that all we could learn about it was, that it was the time of the church's depression and of the triumph of the Roman power. The thousand years, on the contrary, is the time of the church's prosperity, and of the dragon's restraint. It is not probable that the exact number, a thousand, was intended. The season described was what would appear to men to be a long time, although in the eye of God it might be a very short time, for a thousand years in his sight are but as yesterday; Psa. xc. 4. The two events which particularly distinguish the thousand years are the restraining of the dragon, and the spiritual reign of the Christians (of whom the martyrs were made the representatives) with Christ upon the earth; though it is not certain that the reign of the Christians was to close when the thousand years closed. Sir Isaac Newton supposed that what St. Peter said, about the thousand years, 2 Ep. ii. 4, he was led to say from what he had read in the Apocalypse; and he believed for this, and many other reasons, that the Apocalypse was written before that epistle.- (p. 243.) We apprehend that the revelator borrowed his idea of the thousand years from the Rabbins. Lightfoot says:

season.

"The Jews counted the days of the Messias a thousand years. The Babylon Talmud doth show their full opinion about the days of the Messias; and amongst other things they say thus, as Aruch speaks their words: It is a tradition of the house of Elijah, that the righteous ones whom the blessed God shall raise from the dead, they shall no more return to the dust; but those thousand years that the holy blessed God is to renew the world, he will give them wings as eagles, and they shall flee upon the waters.' The place in the Talmud is in Sanhedrim, fol. 92, where the text indeed hath not the word thousand, but the marginal gloss hath it, and shows how to understand the thousand years.' And Aruch speaks it as a thing of undeniable knowledge and entertainment. And so speaks R. Eliezer, 'The days of the Messias are a thousand years.'

Are

(Lightfoot's Works, Pitman's ed., London, 1825, vol. iii., p. 361.) Observe the particulars of this tradition. During the thousand years, the righteous were to revive and fall no more; they were to mount up with wings as eagles and flee over the waters. not these the facts which the revelator incorporates into that section of the Apocalypse which we are now considering? Hence Lightfoot says: "John all along this book doth intimate new stories by remembering old ones; and useth not only the Old Testament phrase to express them by, but much allusion to custom, languages, and opinion of the Jews, that he might speak, as it were, closer to them and nearer their apprehensions, -so doth he here and forward.". -(Idem, 361.) John uses the traditions of the Jews, in regard to the prosperity of the kingdom of the Messias, to describe the coming prosperity of the church during the dragon's restraint. He speaks of it as a thousand years, not at all for the

4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judg

purpose of describing the length of it, but because such had been the Rabbinical expression. After that he must be loosed a little. The dragon, or pagan power, was in the first place to be restrained; after that it would be slightly revived; but it would be finally overthrown throughout the empire; ver. 10. 4. I saw. Here the revelator begins a new subject. The previous verses refer to the restraint of the dragon; - this verse refers to the martyrs as representatives of the faithful Christians, living and reigning with Christ. And here let it be observed, once for all, that this chapter is not to be regarded as a continuous narration in point of time. The revelator relates parallel occurrences, and not consecutive ones. From verses 1-3, he describes a certain series of events. At verse 4, he goes back to first events, and traces another series, which is continued to the end of the 10th verse. At verse 11, he goes back again to first events At the first verse he says: "I saw an angel," &c. At verse 4, he goes back again to the same time, and commences in the same manner: "I saw thrones," &c. And at verse 11, we find him adopting anew the same form of speech, "I saw a great white throne." These are not consecutive but simultaneous occurrences. ¶ Thrones. What thrones were these the revelator saw? A throne is a place of power. The "great white throne," mentioned verse 11, was the mediatorial throne. The faithful Christians (especially the martyrs, who surrendered up their lives for the truth, and who are therefore used as representatives of the faithful, who were ready o die for Christ) were to be honored by living and reigning with him upon the earth. This applies, let it be remembered, not only to the actual martyrs, but to all who loved the truth more than their

ment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that

lives, all the faithful and persevering, who had the spirits of the martyrs, and who had been redeemed by the blood of Christ, these all lived and reigned with him on the earth. The thrones, therefore, were the symbols of the Christians reigning with Christ, coöperating with him, by their example and influence; and this they did whether they had been slain or not; for if they had been slain, they still lived among men by their examples. Paul so lives, and reigns with Christ, on the earth, even to this day; and so do all the early Christians, and the faithful everywhere, the knowledge of whom has reached us. The revelator drew his metaphor from Daniel vii. 9, 10, and especially 22, 27. But more on this subject below. Let us proceed. See Rev. v. .9, 10: "For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." St. Paul said: "It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with him;" 2 Tim. ii. 11, 12. The revelator, of course, as was his custom, puts these things into a much more metaphorical form. He says: "I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment [or the power of judging, or reigning] was given unto them." This agrees precisely with what Jesus told his disciples before his death: "Verily, I say unto you, That ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel," i. e., spiritual Israel; Matt. xix. 28. It was in this way that the "saints" were to "judge the world;" 1 Cor. vi. 2. Hence Jesus said to the church at Thyatira: “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my

works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father;" Rev. ii. 26, 27. And again, to the church at Laodicea: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne;" iii. 21. The New Testament is full of these figures. The thrones which John saw were metaphorical, and so was the "great white throne," mentioned verse 11. The kingdom of Christ itself was not real and outward, but metaphorical and sp ritual. And I saw the souls of them, &c. We do not suppose that the revelator actually saw the souls, or spirits, of those who had been beheaded; for a spirit cannot be seen. His meaning was, he saw that those who had been faithful amidst all the persecutions, and had suffered death for the cause of Christ, were still, in an important sense, here on the earth. He saw their spirits here, invigorating their successors; he saw the influences of their lives; he saw that these men, although absent in body, like their Master, (for he also had suffered martyrdom,) still remained on the earth, in precisely the same sense in which Jesus remained on the earth, although they were not so eminent as he; and thus Jesus, (though absent,) and the martyrs who had been beheaded, lived and reigned on the earth. Christ lives and reigns on the earth now, and so do the martyrs, and every faithful Christian the knowledge of whom has reached us. How little is there of the good that can really die. Abel "being dead, yet speaketh;" Heb. xi. 4. The poet has forcibly expressed this idea on a slightly different subject:

"They never fail, who die In a great cause; the block may soak their

gore;

Their heads may sodden in the sun; their limbs
Be strung to city gates, and castle walls;
But still their spirit walks abroad. Though

years

Elapse, and others share as dark a doom, They but augment the deep and swelling thoughts Which overpower all others, and conduct The world, at last, to Freedom." Why should we be surprised, then, to hear John say, "I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the witness of Jesus?" This was his style. It was poetical. It is not wise to find fault with the style, but to endeavor to appreciate and to understand it. When it was thought by some, that the murderous spirit of the Jews, in destroying the early Christians, remained too long unpunished, the revelator referred to the complaint in the following manner: "And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled;" vi. 9-11. Such was the revelator's style. It was a bold prosopopeia, as when we read of the blood of Abel crying unto God from the ground; Gen. iv. 10. ¶ They lived and reigned with Christ. — And where does he reign? We read, Rev. v. 10,- "Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." Does Jesus reign on the earth? Evidently. "For judgment I am come into this world;" John ix. 39. With a few additional hints we think the reader will be fully able to understand this verse. Observe, 1st. There were two classes spoken of as living and reigning with Christ, to wit, the Christians who had not