the prophet regarded them as having, champion-like, each proffered a contest with the "King of kings," and that thus they were apprehended. The beast and false prophet had been united in deceiving the nations and persecuting the church. Their doom is therefore the same. Both are cast alive into the lake of fire, i. e. Gehenna;—a touch of the pencil with a design to make the colouring intense. The aggravated and dreadful suffering which would result from being cast into the fiery pool in such a state, i. e. alive, is too intense for description. The burning of dead bodies, inflicts no pain; the burning of living ones implies pain indescribable. The idea of the writer moreover is, that they are to remain in the condition to which they are doomed, i. e. they are still to remain living-a fearful doom indeed; comp. Num. 16: 32-54. Is. 5: 14. The substantial meaning is, that the leaders in the persecution of Christians will be subjected to a speedy and dreadful punishment. As to the expression xatouérny iv to eig, see on 14: 10.

(21) And the rest were slain by the sword of him who sat upon the horse, which issued from his mouth; and all the fowls were satiated with their flesh.

The army at large then is distinguished from their leaders, in respect to punishment. They are not cast alive into the pit. They are slain by the sword; not by the literal sword, however, for it is that which issues from the mouth of the great Leader, viz. his simple word of excision. This suffices to destroy the whole army in an instant. A magnificent description, indeed, of his power! No other effort or contest is needed.―The corpses fallen upon the field of battle are left to be devoured. There is none to bury them.-Exoorάo0oar literally means to feed on herbs; but this specific meaning not unfrequently goes into a generic one, as in our text, and then it designates the idea of being fully fed, of being satiated. The implication here of course is, that the army also go down to Hades; but not alive, like the beast and false prophet. The substantial meaning is, that condign punishment overtakes them, but not so dreadful as that of their leaders.

'Ex, by, with, common in such a sense, and used for the sake of pointing out with distinctness the sources from which the action denoted in the verb springs.

Thus ends the second part of this great drama; unless, indeed, we include what pertains to the punishment of the dragon, 20: 1-3. But we may regard this paragraph, perhaps, as constituting a kind of transition to a view of the subsequent condition of the church, which follows the second great overthrow of her enemies. In this case, we may consider chap. xx-xxii. 5, as comprising the third part of the subordinate trichotomy which is evidently made in the body of the work, or the main topic of the book.

Remarks on the application of Chap. xiii-xix.

It is proper now to look back, and inquire whether the author designed that chap. xiii-xix, should be regarded as applicable only to Nero, and its fulfilment as entirely accomplished by the death of Nero?

That Nero is mainly characterized in xiii. xvi. xvii, we cannot well doubt. But in chap. xiii, when the beast out of the sea is first presented, he has seven heads, and each of these is itself a king or emperor, 17: 10. Of course, the beast, generically considered, represents many kings, not merely one. Yet as the reigning emperor, for the time being, is the actual manifestation of the beast, or the actual development of it, so the word beast is applied, in the chapters named, mainly to Nero then persecuting the church. Insensibly almost, at least so it is to the reader, this specific meaning appears to be dropped, and the more generic one to be employed again in chap. xviii. seq. Chap. xvi. seems plainly to indicate the first great overthrow of the power of persecution. The great city and the cities of the nations are cloven by an earthquake and reduced to a ruinous state. Indeed such is the catastrophe here, that were nothing else said in the sequel, we should be ready to conclude, that this overthrow ends the dominion and sway of the beast. That Nero's fall was in the eye of the Apocalyptist here, I can hardly doubt. But this was not the end of the church's persecutions; although a respite of some twenty years or more was now given. Further persecutions were to arise; and so, a continued war with the beast, and a still further destruction of great Babylon, are brought in the sequel to our view.

If this, or something of this nature, be not the writer's design, why should he have made the second catastrophe to differ so much from the first? There, the earthquake, hail, thunder, etc., designate the finale of the overthrow. Not so here, but only the commencement of it.

That all the future historical facts respecting the persecution of the church lay open in detail before the mind of the seer, I find no satisfactory evidence. Nor does it seem to me probable. When we look back to the visions of Isaiah and other Hebrew prophets, we find them nearly always, when concerned with distant future events, to assume a generic, and not a specific form. So here. As soon as the writer dismisses the case of Nero from his consideration, he deals no longer with anything but generic representations. Persecutions will revive. The war will be still waged. At last the great Captain of Salvation will come forth, in all his power, and make an end of the long protracted war. Then, and not till then, will the millennial day of glory dawn upon the church.

To look now for specific individual facts in the history of the church, which are to correspond with the respective traits of this symbolical picture, would be the same thing, as to look for the specific events in the life of David, which correspond with Ps. 18: 7-16; or to busy one's self with searching for such events to correspond with the pictures drawn in Is. xiii. xiv. xxi. xl—lxvi; or by Zachariah in chap i-vi. Or, to present the matter in a somewhat different attitude, the same as to look for them in the phrases: "The Lord turneth the earth upside down-The moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed-The stars of heaven fell unto the earth," and the

like. Common sense is ever wont to give the true meaning to such language, when particular favourite theories are out of the question; why not apply the same rule of interpretation to the Apocalypse?

In order to designate the final and certain overthrow of heathenism, as opposed to Christianity, the writer has chosen to represent the whole matter by the symbol of a great contest between the two parties. On the one side are arranged Satan, the civil power, and the heathen priesthood, with all their confederates; on the other is the great Head of the church, the angels, and the people of God. During the contest, the capitals of all heathen kings, i. e. of the beast and his confederates, are assaulted and reduced to a falling state; in its further progress, they sink to final ruin; and last of all comes the great battle between the main body of the assembled forces on both sides, which ends in the total destruction of the enemy. Nothing is more natural, now, than such a picture. But why should we be led to suppose, that a picture of this kind is designed to be a history in detail of great events predicted? Where else is this so, if we except, perhaps, the eleventh chapter of Daniel ?—a specimen of prophecy by the way, which, as all must admit, is entirely sui generis. But there symbol is not employed. It belongs to the nature of the symbolic representation before us, that it should have a progress and a final completion. And so it must be true of persecutions, that they will have their progress and their completion. But that they will terminate in a literal battle, for which all the heathen nations are assembled in one place, it is, in my apprehension, no part of the writer's design to signify. The great battle is an indispensable condition of the aesthetical perfection of the writer's composition and plan; and this belongs specially to his aesthetics. Let me not be misunderstood. I do not mean to say, that nothing historical is signified by this. I doubt not that the great truth taught is, that final, complete, and certain victory over heathenism will be achieved. But the manner of this battle and victory is, as I apprehend, no part of the writer's object. Whatever of this there seems to be, belongs merely to the finish of his composition and of his plan of symbolizing. To look for a specific and literal battle, as a fulfilment of chap. xix, would be like looking for individual facts in history as the fulfilment of the symbols indicated in chap. xiv, or in 18: 21-24, and in 19: 1—10. When will a matter so plain as this, become well understood and be fully believed? Then, I would answer, and only then, when men will cease from forming theories about prophecy a priori; from guessing, instead of philologizing; and from wandering into the regions of symbol and metaphor, without any pole-star or compass to guide their steps. The Apocalypse may be and will be well understood, when men have ceased to treat it as a syllabus of civil and ecclesiastical history.

As to the time when all will be accomplished which is symbolized in chap. xiii—xix, I must refer the reader to Exc. V. which treats of the subject of time, as designated in this book. The fall of the beast at the end of a time mentioned in 13: 5, I cannot doubt, is to be referred to Nero and his persecution; and it harmonizes almost to a week with the actual time during which Nero persecuted the church. Other limitation than this I do not see anywhere, in this second catastrophe. "The times and the seasons the Father has kept within his own power." Why should we believe, then, that John has been so prodigal in designating them in the Apocalypse, as many suppose?

Whenever the church volunteer as a body to serve in the army of their glorious Leader, then will the day of antemillennial victory be near at hand. There are signs that such a day is approaching. The Lord hasten it in his time!

THIRD CATASTROPHE AND SEQUEL: CHAP. XX. 1-XXII. 5.

[Having arrived at the end of the second catastrophe, we come now to the contemplation of the third and last. During this period the prosperity of the church is not only to be great, but for a long time without any considerable check or opposition. The era commences with the dethronement of Satan, the binding of him, and the casting of him into the great Abyss, the abode of demons or evil spirits when imprisoned; see Exc. I. II. 5. a. There he remains during one thousand years of the church's prosperity, which are to follow; 20: 1-3. All active opposition being thus removed, the era of the church's triumph of course is ushered in. Christ and the glorified martyrs reign undisturbed a thousand years; 20: 4-7. Then follows, upon the liberation of Satan, a new attempt to overthrow the church. Gog and Magog-the old enemies of the people of God (Ezek. xxxviii. xxxix.), roused up by Satan, advance to the holy land and city, in order to destroy it. They come in numbers like to the sand of the sea. It is not said of them, nor intimated, that they are apostates from the profession of the Christian faith. Evidently the writer introduces them and speaks of them as never having professed to be the friends of Christ. The glorious day of the church, then, had not yet dispelled all the darkness of the earth. Some distant, obscure, savage nations remain, as the enemies of the gospel. The very names which are given to them import thus much. But their efforts are all vain. Fire comes down from heaven and devours them. The contest is not as in former cases a protracted one. All the events of it, and its exitus, are related in only two verses. Their leader, Satan, is now taken and cast into the lake of fire, from which there is no escape, for it is no mere temporary prison like the abyss. And thus ends the third and last great contest; 20: 8-10.

In connection with this event the writer has disclosed the final consummation of the happiness of the church in a state of glory. The general judgment takes place. The righteous and the wicked are assigned to their final abodes. The awful condition of the wicked is portrayed in glowing colours; 20: 11-15. On the other hand, the final abode of the righteous is copiously described, and in a most vivid manner; 21: 1-22: 5. Then follows the epilogue; which concludes the book. In respect to the connection which has often been supposed to exist between the overthrow of Gog and Magog and the end of the world with the general judgment, some remarks seem to be necessary. To argue that the end of the world will be immediately after this overthrow, would be quite unsafe. Whoever is conversant with the Hebrew prophets, must know that nothing is more common with them than to overlook all time that intervenes between events, and merely to describe the events themselves. Thus in cases too numerous to be particularized, the coming of the Messiah is connected (so far as continuity of discourse is concerned) immediately with the taking place of events, which happened centuries before his death. Thus Is. iii. threatens severe punishment to the oppressive and luxurious Jews of that day; while the sequel says: "In that day," (viz. when VOL. II. 45

this punishment shall be inflicted), "shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, etc.," and then spreads out into a striking Messianic prediction. With the punishment of ancient Judah and Israel (chap. vii. viii.), is immediately united one of the most graphic prophecies concerning the Messiah in all the O. Testament; Is. ix. 1-7. With a prediction of the invasion of the king of Assyria (chap. x.), and its termination, is united another most notable Messianic prophecy, chap. xi. With the overthrow of Idumaea (chap. xxxiv.), is united a prophecy of Messianic time, xxxv. In the last part of the book, chap. xl-lxvi, the transition from the return out of the Babylonish exile, to the time of the Messiah, is to be found almost everywhere, and often in such a shape as if the one event stood immediately connected with the other. Ezekiel (ch. xxxvii.) unites the return from Babylon with the Messianic day. In the book of Daniel, the four great monarchies, viz. the Babylonish, the Persian, that of Alexander, and that of his successors in the vicinity of Palestine, are connected immediately with the coming of the Messiah, even by the expression: "In the days of these kings, shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, etc." Dan. ii. The same thing is repeated in chap. vii. and again in chap. ix. The same is the case in other prophets; but these examples are sufficient.

As no one now can justly argue, that the Messianic period was immediately to follow the happening of events, with the description of which a Messianic prediction stands intimately connected, so no one can justly conclude, that the end of the world is in point of time immediately connected with the destruction of Gog and Magog. It would be contrary to the general plan of the book and to the nature of things. The writer's plan is most evidently climactic. This is natural to the human mind, and finds its correspondencies deeply rooted in the human breast. The Millennium is a peaceful and an almost universal reign of Christianity. Yet Gog and Magog are out of its domains, being " in the ends of the earth." After the final victory over them, what is there any more to oppose the church? Satan is thrust into the lake of fire, whence there is no return. The hostile nations are no more. Why then should not the triumph of the church be universal? It seems to follow of course; and it is consonant with the climactic nature of the composition as a whole, or rather, it is demanded by this.

But why has not the writer dwelt on this last period? The answer to this question may be found in the peculiar brevity which he prescribes to himself in this last part of the great drama. The events of a thousand years; the invasion by Gog and Magog, with their defeat; the ultimate confinement and punishment of Satan; and lastly the general judgment; are all crowded into the space of twelve verses. This shows that the very distant future is designed to be merely glanced at by the writer. So it is with the Hebrew prophets. But here, there is a special reason for brevity. The main object of writing the book is already accomplished, for substance. Christians have been consoled by assurances, that all the enemies with whom the church was then conflicting, would surely be overthrown. To complete an epic plan, which involves a climactic progression of events, and to gratify the taste and feelings, the last part of the book is added. It seems to be added mainly for this purpose. Mere touches and glances are all which it exhibits, or which were intended to be exhibited. The eye of hope is directed forward and sees the thousand years of uninterrupted prosperity; then the sudden destruction of a new and final enemy; and all the rest is left to joyful anticipation. When all clouds are swept from the face of the sky, why should not the sun shine forth in all his glory?

I cannot therefore doubt, that the setting sun of the church on earth, is to be in