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which he does not limit. church is certain; and so chap. xix. represents it. The great and leading event, however, which the writer had particularly in view, viz. the end of Nero's life and persecution, was to take place speedily, in accordance with the declarations of the prologue and epilogue, as exhibited on p. 111 seq. above. Such a view of the subject shows us, that an indication of the protracted contest of the church with the beast, is not inconsistent with the language which John has employed in the proem of his book.

Yet the ultimate triumph of the

On looking back and reviewing the series of facts which have now been brought into view, it is certainly remarkable, that so many important occurrences, in the history of the Jewish and Christian church, should be limited to 3 years or forty-two months. The wasting of Jerusalem and Palestine by Antiochus Epiphanes, and also by the Romans, continued just about the same length of time; the bitter persecution of the two witnesses, and the retreat of the woman (the church) to the wilderness, were of the same extent of time; and finally the persecution by Nero parallelizes altogether with these events, as to continuance. No wonder then, that 3 years (i. e. half of the perfect number seven) should have become a very common limitation of events which took place, or were supposed to take place, within a moderate period of time. Thus in James 5: 17 and Luke 4: 25, it is said, that in the time of Elijah "it did not rain for the space of three years and six months;" although in 1 Kings 17; 1 seq. no limitation is assigned to the time. So the Rabbins: "He [the king of Babylon] sent Nebuzaradan, that he might lay waste Jerusalem three years and six months;" Eccha IV. 12. "Three years and a half Vespasian besieged Jerusalem;" Eccha I. 5. "Adrian besieged Bither three years and a

half;" Ecc. II. 2. "The punishment of the antediluvians, of the Egyptians, and of the impious Gog and Magog, in Gehenna, will be twelve months; that of Nebuchadnezzar and Vespasian will be 3 years;" Ecc. I. 12. All these examples, and more which might be produced, serve to show how extensively the limitation of time now in question was employed in ancient times. It accorded with the great and well known periods of devastation, in earlier times. And such being the fact, a statistical exactness cannot be reasonably supposed to be aimed at, in cases of this nature. Any near approximation to the measure of time in question, would of course be regarded as a sufficient reason for setting it down under the general rubric.

We have now gone through with all the designations of time in the Apocalypse, which are the subjects of particular interest, excepting one. This is the famous thousand years, from which the Millennium takes its name, and which is predicted in Rev. 20: 4-7. Is this to be literally understood? Or is a day here to be counted for a year?

If it were allowable for an interpreter to give that meaning to words which would best accord with his own wishes, I should be altogether disposed to join here with those, who make every day to stand for a year. Three hundred and sixty thousand years, (for the year of prophetic diction is, beyond all reasonable doubt, 12 months of 30 days each), of uninterrupted prosperity to the church-of the church as extended over a great portion of the human race- -is a most delightful idea. And inasmuch as the promise has been made, that "the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head," why may we not suppose that the universal diffusion and triumph of Christianity will endure, for a period as long as this? Most gladly would I

find reason, if I could, to acquiesce in such a delightful view of prophecy. But the laws of interpretation forbid me; and how can I repeal them?

No intimation is given by John, in Rev. 20: 4-6, that days stand for years. The analogy of the book, if we may trust the results to which we have already come, is against such an interpretation. Designations of time are, in their very nature, the least susceptible of all parts of language, of bearing a secondary or arbitrary meaning. In their own nature they are capable of but one tropical sense; and this is where a few particular numbers are taken, by customary usage, as the symbols of some generic and abstract idea; e. g. when seven is taken as the symbol of completeness or fulness, or a thousand for the idea of much, great multitude, large quantity, etc. Even this use is exceedingly limited extending to only three, seven, and perhaps ten, forty, one thousand, and ten thousand. In all other cases, number is simply number, literally number and nothing else. From the nature of the case, those instances only can be excepted, where the writer or speaker tells us expressly, that he makes a less time (e. g. one day) the representative of a greater period (e. g. one year).

A thousand years, then, in Rev. 20: 4—6, must mean simply what it says, or it must be interpreted as being symbolically employed in order to designate the generic idea of a very long period. That the Scriptures afford some ground for interpreting it in this latter manner, may be seen by considering for a moment the nature of the following expressions: "The Lord make you a thousand times as many as you are! God who keepeth covenant to a thousand generations. How should one chase a thousand! If there be an interpreter, one of a thousand. The cattle on a thousand hills are mine. A day in thy courts is better than a thousand. A thousand shall fall at

thy side. Though he live a thousand years twice told. One man among a thousand have I found. A little one shall become a thousand. The city that went out by a thousand. And they sacrificed . . . a thousand bullocks, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs; [literal, in one sense, but having a tropical significance]. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

Thus there evidently runs, through the whole Bible, an idiom which employs a thousand as an indefinite expression to designate a great number, a large quantity; and we act consistently as critics, if we so interpret it in Rev. 20:4-6. But we stand on ground still more safe and certain, if we interpret it simply in accordance with its literal and obvious meaning.

That the final proportion of men who will be redeemed, must be greater, yea much greater than that which will be lost, seems to be made certain by the ancient promise, that "the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head." Gen. 3: 15. But how can this promise be true, if, after all, Satan shall destroy the larger portion of the human race? We may reasonably conclude, then, that during the millennial period, when many of the present causes of abridging and destroying human life shall cease, and the means of subsistence be greatly increased, that the world will support some twenty or more times as many people as it now does, (which it is clearly capable of doing), and that the predominant portion of these, during all that period, will be Christians. I say the predominant portion; for this is all that Rev. xx. allows me to say. Immediately after the expiration of the thousand years, Gog and Magog come up "from the four corners of the earth," i. e. its distant extremities-come up "in numbers as the sand of the sea," in order "to make war against the

saints," Rev. 20 : 8. Now there is not the least intimation here, on the part of the writer, that Gog and Magog are apostates or deserters from the Christian camp. On the contrary, their abode is not among Christians in the civilized and christianized parts of the world, but only in the four corners or most distant extremities of the

world. That the number of them is said to be "like the sands of the sea," is enough to show, that Christianity had not yet, during the thousand years, extended to the whole of the human race. That apostates from Christianity, and from true Christianity, (for surely such is the religion of the Millennium), could at once be made of numbers so great as are here named, is out of all reasonable question. The thing is impossible on the ground of divine promise, and improbable as it respects the habits and the nature of sanctified men.

It would be foreign to my present purpose to dwell on the question: Who are Gog and Magog? The reader may find them, and the history of the war which they will wage, in Ezek. xxxviii. xxxix. When Ezekiel and John wrote, Gog and Magog, in the common language of the day, were names which imported in Palestine and in the East, what the word Scythian did of old to the Greeks and the Romans. They were the hordes of the northern Caucasus region, who were regarded as barbarians and (if I may make use of a phrase familiar to us) as living out of the world. By people such as these, John predicts that. the third and last great assault will be made upon the church. It will be violent, but short. And the sequel will be the universal reign of Christianity; for Satan will now be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20: 10), and there will of course be nothing to hurt or offend in all God's holy mountain."*

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* In Ezek. 38: 2, Gog and Magog are associated with Meshech and Tubal; which circumstance gives us a clue to the locality of

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