Reflections on the righteousness of God's judgments. 491 xxii. tain assurance, that in due time he will plead his own cause, and sECT. rescue and exalt his people, let all his servants and people praise him, even all that fear him, both small and great, and labour to verse live that Divine life of gratitude, and joyful thanksgiving on 5,6 earth, which may anticipate the pleasures and employments of the heavenly world. The time will at length come, when all of such a character shall celebrate the marriage supper of the Lumb; yea, when the whole society shall appear in his presence as one chaste virgin, whom he has espoused to himself; and whom, with unutterable delight, he places in his more immediate view, not only as arrayed in robes of pure and shining linen, which is 7,8 the righteousness of the saints, but as perfectly free from spot, or blemish, or any such thing. He will admit them all to feast in his own presence; yea, to dwell for ever with him; so shall we ever be with the Lord. These are the true sayings of God. And though a consciousness of our own utter unworthiness of such honours, might be ready to detract from the credibility of 9 these Divine assurances, or at least prevent us from giving so clear an assent to them, as we might otherwise do, yet let God. be true, and every man a liar. And, in the mean time, in the mingled scenes of adversity and prosperity, which attend the Israel of God, let us direct our believing eyes to him, who is faithful and true; to him, who both 11 administers justice, and wages war in righteousness. Let us reverence his penetrating eyes, which are like a flame of fire. Let us rejoice in the diadems placed upon his head, to signify the extent 12 of his dominion; and read with awe the inscription upon his vesture, and his thigh, The Word of God, the King of kings, and the 13, 16 Lord of lords. As such let us pay our homage to him; and let the favour of lords, and kings, be as nothing to us, where his favour or his honour is concerned. The proudest of earthly potentates oppose his dominion in vain; in vain do they marshal their captains, and their mighty men; vain is the strength of horses, and of them that sit thereon, and the combinations of bond and free, though satan himself abet their rebellion, and inspire them with 17, 21 subtilty, and arm them with rage: their subtilty shall be defeated, their rage shall be repelled. The sword of the Lord shall devour them. The birds of prey shall at his pleasure be feasted with their carcasses; and the sad catastrophe of their bodies shall be only an imperfect emblem of the anguish and misery of their spirits, when plunged with the evil spirit that deceived them, they sink deep into the lake that burns for ever, and feel the terrors of the second death. Be wise now therefore, Oye kings, and be instructed, ye judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear; and, sensible of his uncontrolable dominion, and your own weakness and imperfection, even while ye rejoice before him, rejoice with trembling. (Psal. ii. 10, 11.) 492 SECT. xxiii. Rev. An angel shuts up the dragon for a thousand years: SECT. XXIII. The binding of satan for a thousand years, during which the gospel is greatly to prevail; with a view of the destruction of the enemies of Christ, upon their making their last attempt against his church; and of the universal judgment. Rev. XX. throughout. REVELATION XX. 1. HUS the beast was conquered and taken; Tbut the dragon yet remained at liberty. REV. XX. 1. AN his hand. thousand angel come down from heaven, And that I might also be informed as to his having the key of xx. 1 doom, I saw an angel descending from heaven, the bottomless pit, who had the key of the bottomless pit, and he had and a great chain in 2 also a great chain in his hand : And he advanc- 2 And he laid ed with the intrepidity of one who feared no hold on the dragon. resistance; and laid hold on the dragon, dread- that old serpent, ful as he was; even that old serpent who is call- which is the devil and satan, and bound ed the devil, from being the great false accuser; him and satan, as being the great adversary both of years. God and man; and he bound him for the space 3 of a thousand years. And, having opened the 3 And cast him door with the key that he bore, he cast him into into the bottomless the abyss, and shut him down, and set a seal upon and set a seal upon pit, and shut him up, him, to signify, that none should break open the him, that he should door; that he might not deceive the nations any deceive the nations more, for the time above mentioned, that is, till no more,till the thou sand years should be a thousand years were accomplished, and then he fulfilled: and after must be loosed again for a little time, and make that he must be looshis last effort against the cause of God, and the ed a little season. A thousand years.] I think we must despair of being able to interpret any passage of scripture upon the plainest principle of reason, if this does not signify, that there shall be such a period as this, in which satan shall be remarkably restrained, and the Christian interest shall prevail. But whether the thousand years are here to be taken literally, as is most probable, or whether here, or elsewhere, each day is put for a year, and consequently, the whole period be 365,000 years, I will not pretend to determine. This thought has been very lately started by an ingenious and worthy person, who hath, I doubt not, intended the service of Christianity; though I am very apprehensive, he has failed in some of the mediums by which he has endeav oured to prove this point. See Dr. Whitby's Treatise on the Millennium, where he shews at large, that this whole passage is figurative, agreeable to the prophetic style, especially in this book. And verse 4, may only intimate, that the spirits of the martyrs seemed to live again, in those whom God should then raise up. Compare Ezek. xxxvii. 1, 14; Rev. xì. 11, 12; Rom. xi. 15. This interpretation is illustrated and confirmed also by Mr. Lowman. So that the seventh chiliad, or 1000 years, from the creation of the world, is to be a kind of sabbath. Compare Ainsworth on Gen. i. 31, and Worthington on Redemption, p. 211, 213. During which the Christian cause should revive. for the witness of shipped the beast, 493 And after SECT. 4 And I saw kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ. thrones, and they this, I saw thrones placed, and they sate upon sat upon them, and judgment was given them, and a power of judgment was given to unto them and I them; and the souls of them who had been besaw the souls of them headed for the testimony of Jesus, and for the that were beheaded word of God, and who had not worshipped the Jesus, and for the beast nor his image, when his cause was so triword of God, and umphant, and who bravely opposed the torrent which had not wor- of prevailing degeneracy, so that they had not neither his image, received his mark in their foreheads, and upon neither had received their hands, when it was so furiously urged his mark upon their foreheads, or in their upon all; these appeared to rise in triumph, hands; and they liv. and they lived and reigned with Christ, whose ed and reigned with cause, during this time, was prosperous and Christ, a thousand flourishing, even for a whole thousand years: But this was peculiar to this holy remnant: 5 the dead lived not for, as to the rest of the dead, they revived not again, until the till the thousand years were accomplished; so Emi- 6 thousand years were that this [was] the first resurrection. finished. This is the nently happy and holy [is] he, who has a part in 6 Blessed and holy the first resurrection I have been describing; is he that hath part it is a singular felicity and high token of the tion: on such the degree, in which God, the supreme Standard second death hath and Judge of moral rectitude and holiness, ap years. 5 But the rest of first resurrection in the first resurrec proves his character: on such the second death, The souls of them who had been beheaded.] Dr. Whitby, not unjustly, thinks this a strange expression, to signify the resurrection of their bodies. (See his Treatise on the Millennium, chap. iii.) Mr. Fleming observes, it is said elsewhere, that their souls were actually living before; and living, he thinks, must be put for rising from the dead, because it is said, the rest of the dead lived not till a thousand years. Flem. Christol. Vol. II. p. 57. They lived and reigned with Christ.] This is the chief text on which Mr. Fleming builds his doctrine of the first resurrection; when, he supposes, those who have died for the testimony of Jesus, and other most excellent saints, shall be raised from the dead; not, (he imagines,) to live upon earth, but to live a thousand years with Christ in heaven; enjoying a blessedness nearly approaching, if not altogether equal, to that which good men are to enjoy after the general resurrection; xxiii. Rev. XX. 4 while the rest have only the common blessing of the separate state, during this period; and, even after the resurrection, shall have only inferior degrees of glory, to what these first fruits of the resurrection shall for ever possess. Flem. Christol. Vol. II. p. 42. The rest of the dead, &c.] This has been urged to prove, that a proper resurrection is here spoken of; but I much doubt the justness of the conclusion. Such expressions may, sometimes, be thrown in to promote that obscurity, which seem. ed, upon the whole, convenient in such a series of prophecy. Compare chap. xxi. 17. On such the second death shall have no power.] Mr. Fleming considers this as an intimation, that the second death will have some power to terrify, though only for a little while, those good men, who shall not have their share in the first resurrection. See his Christol. Vol. II. p. 45. But the no tion appears to me very absurd, and ill te 494 The thousand years being expired, satan shall be loosed: SECT. its terrible forerunners, in the execution of Di- no power, but they xxiii. vine wrath upon his enemies; but they shall be shall be priests of Rev. the priests of God, and of Christ; and they shall God, and of Christ, and shall reign with xx. 6 not only be afterwards admitted to a kingdom him a thousand of eternal glory, but shall reign with him a thou- years. sand years, partaking in the triumph of his to deceive the na 7 kingdom upon earth. And when the thousand 7 And when the years, before described, shall be accomplished, thousand years are expired, satan shall then satan shall, for a certain time, be loosed be loosed out of his from his confinement, to give the last proof of prison. 8 his malice against Christ and his saints. And 8 And shall go out he shall go forth to deceive the nations, who are tions, which are in in the four distant corners of the earth, and the four quarters of shall prevail against them, so that they shall the earth, Gog and engage in a vain and fatal enterprise, for the Magog, to gather them together to overthrow of what God has determined for battle: the number ever to establish even Gog and Magog, as the of whom is as the prophecy of Ezekiel, (chapters xxxviii, xxxix,) sand of the sea. styles the enemies of God's people: and satan shall succeed in his attempts to gather them together in war; even an army, whose number 9 [is] like the sand of the sea. Accordingly I beheld them in vision, as drawn forth in or der of battle, and saw, that they went up over passed the camp of the breadth of the earth; so that they seemed to the saints about, and cover the face of it from north to south, and the beloved city: and fire came down from then surrounded the camp of the saints, and God out of heaven, Jerusalem, the beloved city, in which they and devoured them. dwelt; and it seemed at first in imminent dan 9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and com ger, but it was not long before it was remarkably delivered; for fire came down from God out of heaven, at once, and devoured them; so that there were no more remainders of them to be seen; but they, and all their dreadful artillery, perished and disappeared, as if they had never 10 existed. (Compare Ezek. xxxviii. 22.) And 10 And the devil then the devil, who had deceived them, came in that deceived them, agree with the representation which scripture gives of the universal judgment, as a day of unmingled joy and triumph to all the righteous The four corners of the earth.] As it is most certainly known, from the most convincing arguments, and from repeated experience, that the earth is of a spherical form, it is certain, that by the four corners of the earth, we are to understand the nations which lay at the greatest distance from the city of the saints; which, I sup pose, does here especially signify Jerusalem And we may suppose, that those who live in that situation, shall be last instructed in the gospel, and so capable of being most easily engaged to rise up against it. Compare chap. vii. 1, and paraphrase. By Gog and Magog, many understand the Scythians, and other northern nations, whom the devil will stir up to assault the people of God. But he shall at length be cast into the lake of fire. stone, where the 495 Rev. xx. 10 was cast into the for his share of that punishment, which had sECT. lake of fire and brim- long before been inflicted upon many of his ac- xxiii. beast and the false complices, and was cast into the lake of fire and prophet are, and shall brimstone, where, as I before said, the beast and be tormented day the false prophet [were ;] and there they shall be and night for ever tormented together day and night, for ages of ages, for ever and ever,s without any hope of release or respite. and ever. 11 And I saw a great white throne, and there was found stand before God; and be And, after this, I saw a great white and re- 11 and him that sat on splendent throne, which shone with a glory it, from whose face scarce to be supported; and yet, mine eye the earth and the ing divinely strengthened for that purpose, I heaven fled away; beheld him who sate thereon, from whose majestic no place for them. face, when he came on this solemn and tremendous occasion, earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them, in which 12 And I saw the they might continue.* And I saw the dead, 12 dead,small and great, of all ranks and orders, small and great, rich and the books were poor, princes and people, in one grand asopened; and another sembly, which knew no more of those distincbook was opened, tions, once so much regarded, standing before which is the book of God, to receive their final doom from him; to intimate, that the last judgment should quickly follow the wonderful events which had been represented to me before. And the books were opened, which contained the records of the Divine omniscience on the one hand, and, on the other, the law and the gospel, which were the rule whereby those who stood before him were to be judged. And another book was opened, distinct from these, which is [the book] of life, For ages of ages: his Tus alcovas Tay superiority, though its plainness renders vy] This is the most literal render- the majesty less observable to common ing of these words: but it is certain that readers. "It is so plain, says he, that it no argument can be drawn from hence does not need, so majestic and grand, that against the eternity of future punishment, it exceeds, commentary and paraphrase.” for no phrase can more strongly express a See his Sacred Class. Vol. I. p. 329. proper eternity than this. A great white throne.] It has been observed, that this judgment seat has been represented by a throne, to show that there can be no appeal from it; a white throne, to signify the bright glory, the unspotted purity, and inflexible justice of him who sits upon it. From whose face earth and heaven fled away, &c.] Mr. Blackwall compares this description with a celebrated passage in Homer, in which Jupiter is described as sitting on his throne, and asserts its great There was found no place for them.] Hence Mr. Whiston infers, that at the consummation of all things, and the final judgment, the earth will desert its present station, and be no more found among the planetary chorus. Whist. Theor. p. 282. But I cannot think this description intend. ed to teach us any astronomical niceties; it seems only to intimate, that all nature was thrown into strong commotion, as if it were incapable of sustaining the majestic presence that appeared. |