be shut up and confined in hell, which is called the bottomless pit, because it is eternal in its duration, also informs us that after the thousand years is fulfilled, " he must be loosed a little season." The purpose, then, for which he is loosed is, that he shall become the instrument of trial to those who have not had a trial during the Millennium. But let none dare to think that he is loosed for the express purpose that any of them shall be inevitably and necessarily seduced; for such a thought will spoil the very idea of trial or probationfor their act of sin will be properly their own voluntary act, as was the case of Adam when he sinned; for they shall all have power to resist the tempter as Adam had, and if they will be wise, and use that power which is free-will, they cannot be seduced by Satan when he shall make the attempt upon them, for that power is the gift of God for their defence, not for their ruin.But, alas! the sequel of the story is, that of these very ones he will deceive many, who are compared with the sand of the sea for numbers; and by St. John are styled Gog and Magog, who will be gathered together from the four quarters of the earth, and shall go uрон. the breadth of it, in order every where to destroy the saints, who are spoken of as one great family-hence are called the camp of the saints.

I will here attempt to show the reason why this host of persecutors are by St. John, the Revelator, called Gog and Magog.

The ancient Jews were chosen from among the na tions by the God of sacred revelation, for the purpose of committing to them that matchless oracle of, truth

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and wisdom, the Bible. This nation, it appears, were in their fulness, embodied under twelve patriarchs, and were styled the camp of Israel. The title or name of Israel arose from the circumstance of Jacob's being so named by the angel at the break of day, when he had strove with him all the night which name signifies to prevail. From the circumstance, therefore, of this people's being styled the camp of Israel, who were then the only visible church on earth, St. John has spoken of the saints in the Millennium under the same idea, and has styled them the camp of the saints. Now when the Jews, after their return from the Babylonish captivity, in which Daniel was a captive, and had enjoyed the blessings of their country many years, there came against them in those days, (B. C. 300 years) an immense army, with the intention of destroying them, root and branch, from the earth, which army is called by the prophet Ezekiel, Gog and Magog.

There is not a doubt but St. John has borrowed the circumstance of that great armament against the Jews, as typical, not only of the papal apostacy, in defiling the Christian sanctuary, but also of that last and great apostacy at or near the end of time. And as the former was literally Gog, from the land of Magog, so the latter are titled after their very name, because of the unparalleled opposition which, by the spirit of prophecy, the latter Gog and Magog were foreseen to make against God and his saints.

That army which came against the Jews, of whom Ezekiel the prophet has given so grand and animated account, was the great king Antiochus Epiphanes, who with an assemblage of nations, took and pillaged tlreir

city and temple of their immense riches. The reason why this king was called Gog, say commentators, is because the word Gog signifies, in the Syrian language, that which is covered or hidden, and applies to the well. known character of Antiochus, whom historians describe as an artful, cunning, and dissembling man.And Magog appears to be the country where he had the seat of his dominion, which, in other words, was called Syria, but by the Syrians Magog. See Pliny, Hist. Nat. v. ch. 23. (Clark.)

So great and terrible was the overthrow of these nations, who came against the Jews, at the instigation of Antiochus, that the prophet Ezekiel has described their ruin before hand, as being effected by the sword, by pestilence, by great rains mingled with hail stones, and by fire and brimstone. These are his words: And it shall come to pass, at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face. And I will call for a sword against him, throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God. And I will plead against him with pestilence, and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire and brimstone. Eze. 38, 18, 21, 22. Thunder and lightnings were probably meant here; such as aided in the destruction of the Egyptians in the days of Moses, when the fire ran along on the ground. Exo. 9, 23.

The vileness, therefore, of the intentions of Antiochus, and his auxiliaries, against God's camp, the Jews,

is the reason why St. John has used them to prefigure that last onset of wicked men against the camp of the saints in the very end of time, and has called them after the name of the former Gog and Magog. And as in the case of Gog and Magog, who came against the Jews, who were destroyed in a great measure by the superintending agencies of supernatural beings under the direction of God-so shall the latter Gog and Magog be destroyed by fire from out of heaven. This I believe to be the true interpretation of Gog and Magog in both cases, as set forth in Ezekiel's prophecy, and in St. John's view of the state of men after the Millennium. But in what way the devil will present his temptation to those who shall then be tried, is not reyealed.

Here, then, commences that great and last apostacy, which, gathering head, becomes popular, and flies for acceptance upon the wings of devils through all the earth, whereby many are seduced by the destroyer.No doubt but infidelity, in its rankest form, shall be recieved as orthodox; and the whole story of God's book, with all the accounts of the first resurrection, of which they had heard so much during the Millennium, from those who were living when it happened, will be denied; and forgetting their former feelings of peace and happiness, will scorn and deride the whole as foolishness and imposition-which impious feelings begin to be accompanied with the strange and horrid desire of shedding the blood of the righteous.

Such was the spirit that frowned on the fates of men, when once in the days of Lewis Capet, the French

king, there was formed a community of atheists, who, to the cunning of the serpent, added his venom, with the fury of tigers; and when they had destroyed those they hated for their sentiment's sake, fell with equal fury upon themselves, for Satan's house is not a house of peace.

Such were the effects which arose from the impious fancies of a Voltaire-out of whose cogitations came hosts of murderers, who soon opened the blood sluices of the French nation; giving to the world an awful proof, that a community of atheists would not regard the sacred rights of men. Such will be the spirit of those apostates at that day, when Satan shall be loosed a little season, a desire to exterminate the righteous from the earth, because they testify of sinners that their deeds are evil.

The manner, therefore, that this apostate host will adopt to destroy the camp of the saints, will undoubtedly be as usual, where Satan reigns, with fire and sword. Such will be the infatuation of this great and last sedition, that they will think the lives of the saints an easy prey, and their goods for spoil and plunder.

Let it be observed, that now the temptation being commenced, that the Millennium is passed by. Seven thousand years from the creation is consummated; and Satan, therefore, loosed for a little season, a year or two possibly, in which time they again revive the mu nitions of war.

At the commencement of the Millennium the saints had beaten swords and spears into instruments of husbandry; but now these apostates revive again the instruments

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