"and fhall reign with him a thousand years." This is a defcription of the purity of their worship, and of the height of their triumph and profperity during the millennium ftate, which was repeatedly. given in the fame words in reference to that ftate, in chap. i. 6. and chap. v. 1c.

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These words contain a plain and ftrong declaration of the divinity of Christ. The particle xx, which is tranflated and, fignifies also even; and the context fhews, that it ought to have been rendered even in this place. Thus," they fhall be priefts of God, even of Chrift, and fhall reign with him a "thousand years." That it ought to have been rendered thus, is evident from the following claufe, "and fhall reign with him." If God and Christ were not one, it would have been faid, "and "fhall reign with them," (not with him). If the particle is rendered even, as the following claufe fhews it ought to be, then this is a plain declaration that God and Chrift are one. Indeed the fame conclufion will follow, whatever way the particle xa is rendered. If they are priests of Chrift, as well as of God, Chrift must be true God, because religious worship is due to God only. If, after mentioning God and Chrift, it is faid "they "fhall reign with him," it is evident that God and Chrift are confidered as one. The approach of every Christian to God in religious worship, in that ftate, fhall be fo near, fo pure, and fo conftant,

και

that

that they are compared to the priests who approached nearer to God in the temple than the people could do, who were ftrictly holy, and who waited conftantly on the miniftrations of the temple. And their prosperity and triumph is beautifully expreffed, by reigning with Chrift,

Verfes 7th-10th.-And when the thoufand years are expired, Satan fhall be loofed out of his prifon. And fhall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them to battle: the number of whom is as the fand of the fea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compaffed the camp of the faints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them, was caft into the lake of fire and brimftone, where the beaft and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

At the end of the thousand years, the divine reftraint being taken off the devil, he shall be let loose from the prifon of hell, for a little feafon, and permitted to tempt men as he formerly did. No

fconer

fooner fhall he have it in his power to tempt men, that he shall haften to this earth to deceive certain nations upon it, who during the millennium had lived in fome remote corners of the world, probably ignorant of the knowledge, purity, and joy of all the other inhabitants of the world: but peaceable, because there was no devil on earth to tempt them to war, plunder, and bloodshed.

con

These nations, who fhall be deceived by the devil to attack the church of Christ, and to rekindle the flame of war on earth after it had been extinguished for a thousand years, are called Gog and Magog. But, what nations are we to understand by the names of Gog and Magog? The whole xxxviii. and xxxix. chapters of Ezekiel tain at great length this prophecy concerning Gog and Magog. From them we may learn with a high degree of probability what nations these are. The paffage is too long to be inferted here. The reader is therefore defired, before he fhall proceed farther than this part, to read with attention chapters xxxvi. xxxvii. xxxviii. and xxxix. of Ezekiel.

From these chapters it is evident, that the wars which shall be raised against the church of Christ by Gog and Magog, fhall be at a great distance from the time of Ezekiel, and in the period of the gospel dispensation. In chap. xxxviii. 8. they they shall be after many days, and in the latter

years,

years. This laft expreffion is one of those which the Old Teftament prophets always ufed to fignify the time of the gofpel difpenfation. It is alio evident that they fhall be after the millennium ftate, fince that fate is predicted in chapters xxxvi. and xxxvii. and Gog and Magog are reprefented in chapters xxxvii. and xxxix. as attacking the church of God after it had been brought to the millennium ftate; and therefore, that in point of time they coincide with the prophecy concerning Gog and Magog in this place.

In chap. xxxviii. 2. Gog and Magog are thus defcribed: "Son of man fet thy face against Gog, "the land of Magog, the chief prince of Mefhech "and Tubal, and prophefy against him." After the deluge, the whole world was peopled by the defcendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The ifles of the Gentiles were peopled by the defcendants of Japheth. Magog was the fecond, Tubal the fifth, Mefhech the fixth fon of Japheth, and Togarmah was his grandfon by Gomer his eldest fon. The whole tenth chapter of Genefis contains a very particular account of the peopling of the the earth at the time of the building of the tower of Babel. But it is only the firft five verfes of that chapter which relate to the subject now under our -view. "Now thefe are the generations of the "fons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and " unto them were fons born after the flood. The "fons

"fons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Ma

dai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and "Teras. And the fons of Gomer, Afkenah, and Riphath, and Togarmah. And the fons of Ja

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van, Elifhah, and Tarshish, Hittim, and Doda"nim. By these were the ifles of the Gentiles di"vided in their lands; every one after his tongue, "after their families, in their nations." Ezekiel prophecied about fourteen hundred years after the difperfion of the decendants of Japeth to the ifles of the Gentiles, at the building of Babel; and John wrote this book about fix hundered and feventy years after the time of Ezekiel; therefore neither of them could mean Magog, Tubal, or Mefhech perfonally, who were all dead long before they prophefied, but by Magog, Tubal, and Mefhech they both meant the defcendants of these fons of Japheth. It is very common in the fcriptures of the Old Testament, and it feems to be the idiom of the fymbolical language, to call a nation even to the latest generations, by the name of their founder. Thus, for inftance, the nation of the Jews are frequently called Ifrael, after the name of Ifrael, which was given to Jacob the father of their tribes; and the Edomites, are called Edom, after the name which was given to Efau, their founder. Gog and Magog, therefore as explained by Ezekiel fignify the defcendants of Japheth. But not all his defcendants, only the Vol. II. X X nations