and priests; as in Rev. i. 6. and v. 10. like Christ their head, who is a Priest on his throne; and as his type, Melchizedek, who was king of Salem, and priest of the most high God: nor has it been unusual, in the nations of the earth, for men to be both kings and priests; and certain it is, that those in the millennium are priests, that shall reign as kings; and the same word, in the Hebrew language, signifies both priests and princes.

Fourthly, Upon the whole, it is no wonder that they are pronounced blessed and holy they must needs be blessed, since they will be always before the throne, and serve the Lord day and night, and hunger and thirst no more; shall be free from evils of every kind, and from death in every shape, and of every sort; and shall be in the perfect enjoyment of the presence of Christ. And they will be holy in body, being raised in purity, in incorruption, and in glory, like the glorious body of Christ; and in soul, being perfectly sanctified, and entirely free from sin, from the being of it, and all defilement by it.

IV. The continuance and duration of the reign of Christ and the saints together, which will be a thousand years. The things to be enquired into are, whether these years are to be understood definitively, or indefinitively? and whether they are past, or yet to come?

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First, Whether they are to be taken indefinitely, for an uncertain number; or definitely, for an exact, precise, determinate time literally. 1. One ancient writer, understands the words indefinitely, for a long time, even from the first coming of Christ to the end of the world; a long time indeed? longer than the thousand years themselves; for more than seven hundred years above a thousand, have run out already. Another, indeed, interprets them of the ages of eternity, for which Psal. cv. 8. is quoted; but whatever may be the sense of that text, it cannot be the sense of the millennium-reign, for that will have an end; it is expressly said, The rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished, Rev. xx. 5. and of Christ's reign and kingdom in them, there will be an end, when he will deliver up the kingdom to the Father, 1 Cor. xv. 24. or else, as the same ancient writer thinks, the latter part of the last thousandth year of the world may be meant, a part being put for the whole. But however indefinitely this phrase may be sometimes so understood, as in 1 Sam. xviii. 7. Psal. xci. 7. it cannot be so taken in the passages relating to the binding of Satan, and the reign of Christ and his saints: but must, 2. Be interpreted definitely and literally, of a precise, determinate space of time; better reasons for which cannot be weil given, than are by a writer in the last century, though not in the scheme of the personal reign of Christ a thousand years; which are as follow, -1. Because when there is no necessity to take a scripture in a figurative sense, we are to receive it in the letter; but neither the scope of the place, nor the analogy of faith, nor other scripture, lay any such necessity upon us, so to take it. — Ambros. in Apocalyps, c. 20. col. 473. Aug. de Civ. Dei. L. 20. c. 7.

of Theopolis, p. 43, 44.

The Author

sand

2. Because this same space is so often repeated by the Spirit, to which we should take the more earnest heed, or matter of instruction and information (and to fix it on the mind the more strongly) for thrice is said, Satan was bound a thousand years, and afterwards loosed, verses 2, 3. 7. twice it is said, the saints shall reign a thousand years, verses 4, 6. once, that the rest of the dead lived not again till the thouwere finished, verse 5. in all six times. years 3. The emphasis put upon the phrase. Pareus well observes, that in verses 2, 6. the thousand years are without an article, xa en, a thousand years; but in the other places, four times, with an article, ta xa ɛn, these thousand years; these emphatically, these precise thousand years. As if he should say, Satan's imprisonment shall continue a thousand years; the martyrs shall live and reign with Christ during these thousand years, and afterwards he shall be loosed. 4. The parts to which this number is applied, are so cemented together, as cause and effect, distinction and opposition, that they very much strengthen and prove that just account of a thousand years; namely, Satan is bound a thousand years, that he should not deceive the nations till the same thousand years he fulfilled; then the saints lived and reigned a thousand years with Carist, that same thousand years: but the rest of the dead lived not again until these thousand years were finished; whilst the holy ones, as their happiness, made priests of God and of Christ, reign with Christ a thousand years: to which may be added, that these thousand years are bounded both at the beginning and end; they are hounded by the binding of Satan at the beginning of them, and by loosing of him at the end of them, verse 27. and they are bounded by two resurrections; by the first resurrection of the saints, and the reign of them with Christ upon it; and by the second resurrection, or the resurrection of the wicked, at the close thereof. The next enquiry is,

Seconidy, Whether these thousand years are past or to come? To the solu tion of which, this observation is necessary, that the binding of Satan, and the reign of Christ, are cotemporary: that the same thousand years Satan is bound, Christ and his saints reign together; the thousand years of the one, and the thousand years of the other, run parallel with each other: and it is further to be observed, and what will contribute greatly to the settling of this point, and even to the decision of it, by the binding of Satan is meant, an entire and absolute confinement of him, and of all his angels in the bottomless pit; so that he and they, will not be able to deceive the nations any more, till the thousand years are ended; that is, not be able to draw them into idolatry, to fill them with bad principles, and lead them into bad practices, and to stir them up to make war with the saints, and persecute them; and so by any, and all of these ways, deceive; during which time, the church and people of God must be in a state of purity and peace. Now if any such time can be shewn, in which the nations of the world, not any of them, were not so far under the influence and deception of Satan, as not to be drawn into idolatry; nor to embrace false

doctrine, and go into evil practices; nor to be excited to persecute the saints, for the space of a thousand years; and that the church of Christ, during such a time, has been in a state of perfect purity and peace; free from being disturbed and distressed by idolaters, heritics, and persecutors; then may these thousand years be said to be past; but if this cannot be made to appear, then most certainly they are vet to come. Let us put this to the trial; which will be best done by considering the several epochas, or periods, from whence these thou sand years have been dated.

1. From the birth of Christ, who came to destroy the works of the devil, and before whom Satan fell as lightening from heaven; yet this falls short of the binding and casting him into the bottomless pit: whoever considers the state of the Gentle world when Christ came, being under the power of the god of this world, the nations thereof being left to walk in their own ways; nay, Christ forbad his disciples going into any of the cities of the Gentiles; nor had they a commission to preach the gospel to all nations, till after his resurrection from the dead; who, I say, that considers these things, can ever imagine that Satan was now bound? And if we lock into the state of the Jewish nation and church, how sadly corrupted in their morals, being a wicked and an adulterous generation, and depraved in their religious sentiments; neglected the word of God, and preferring the traditions of the elders to it; rejecting Christ, when he came to them with all the marks and characters of the true Messiah, and treating him with the utmost indignation and contempt; and were, as our Lord says, of their father the devil, and his lusts they would do; there can be no reason to believe that Satan was now bound. His many attacks on the person and life of Christ, shew the contrary; as his putting Herod on seeking the young child's life to destroy it, in his infancy; and to make that carnage of the infants in and about Bethlehem, he did; his tempting hun in the wilderness, in the manner he did, which was bold, daring, and insolent; instigating the scribes and Pharisees to lay hands on him, and kill him; marching towards him as the prince of the world, and combating with him in the garden; and putting it into the heart of Judas to betray him; and stirring up the people of all sorts to be pressing to the Roman governo, for the crucifixion of him, and by which means he was brought to the dust of death. And though, indeed, Satan was dispossessed of the bodies of men, which possession shews he was not bound, yet when dispossessed he was not bound, and cast into the bottomless pit, but was suffered to go and rove about were he pleased; and though Christ, by his death, destroyed Satan, who had the power of death, and spoiled his principalities and powers, and ruined his works; yet all this did not amount to a binding and confinement of his person in prison.

II. Others date these thousand years of Satan's binding, from the resurrection of Christ; when it is true, Christ ascended on high, and led captivity captive, and poured down his Spirit upon his apostles, on the day of Pentecost, whereby they were wonderfully fitted to preach his gospel; and accordingly preached it

with great success, both in Judea and in the Gentile world; but still Satan was not bound. Not in Judea; for in the first and purest christian church, he filled the hearts of Ananias and Sapphira to lie against the Holy Ghost. He stirred up the Jews to lay hold on the apostles, and put them in prison; and to stone Stephen, the proto-martyr; he raised a violent persecution against the church at Jerusalem, and havock was made of it, and men and women hauled to prison; he put Herod upon killing James the brother of John, and committing leter to prison. And whereas the ministers of the word went into other countries, preaching the gospel, the Jews, under the instigation of Satan stirred up the people against them wherever they came; as at Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Thiessalonica, and at other places; and what the christian Hebrews suffered from them, may be seen in Heb. x. 32, 33. Nor was Satan bound in the Gentile world; for though the gospel made its way into divers countries and cities, to the conversion of many souls, and the forming of many churches; yet heathenism, under the influence of the god of this world, was the prevailing religion every where; and the sect of the christians was every where spoken against; and the apostles and ministers of the word, were every where persecuted, bonds and imprisonment waited for them in all places; and all the apostles suffered death for the sake of the gospel.

III. Others begin these thousand years of Satan's binding at the destruction of Jerusalem, which was very dreadful; in the siege of it eleven hundred thousand men perished'; and when such insurrections, intestine quariels, seditions, murders, and scenes of iniquity were among the Jews themselves, Satan could never be thought to be bound then; and after it, though things took a different turn with the Jews, and in favour of the christians, in Judea and elsewhere; the Jews, though they had the same ill will to them, had not the same power against them; yet they themselves manifestly appeared to be under the deception of Satan, by their giving heed to false prophets, and false christs, which our Loid foretold would arise; witness Bar Cochab, a false messiah, who rose up in the times of Trajan, whom the Jews embracing, rebelled against the empire, which brought a war upon them in which fifty eight thousand were slain*; and under the same deception by false messiahs, and under the same blindness and hardness of heart, and malice against Christ and his gospel, have continued to this day. And as for the Gentile world, though the gospel got ground every where, and multitudes of souls were converted, and the Gentile oracles were struck dumb'; the temples almost desolate, and worship in them was intermitted; yet Gentilism continued to be the prevailing religion throughout the Roman empire, till the times of Constantine, at the beginning of the fourth century; as appears by the persecutions of the christians by the Roman emperors: the first persecution was under Nero; this was indeed a little before the destruci Joseph. de Bello Jud. 1. 6. c. g. s. 3. * Lampe Synops. Hist. Sacr. & Ecclesiast. 1. 2. Plin. Epist. 1. 10. C. 3. p. 110. -Delphis Oracula cessant, Juvenal. Satyr. 6. v. 554.

cp. 9.

tion of Jerusalem; the occasion of it was this, he himself set fire to the city of Rome, and then, under the instigation of Satan, charged it upon the christians, whom he most inhumanly racked and tortured, and put to the most cruel deaths that could be invented. The tenth and last persecution was under Dioclesian, a little before the times of Constantine; his era was called by the Egyptians the era of the martyrs; the whole world was inbrued with their blood; and the world was more exhausted of men thereby than by any war, as the historian says"; it was the longest and most severe, it lasted ten years; and perhaps, in allusion to the ten persecutions, or to the ten years of the last persecution, it is said in Rev. ii. 10. The devil shall cast some of you into prison, and ye shall have tribulation ten days; and if the devil cast the saints into prison, he himself could not be bound and cast into prison; nor could this be their reigning time; nay, Dioclesian thought he had got an entire victory over the christians, and therefore set up pillars in some parts of the empire, signifying that the christian name was blotted out, and the superstition of Christ every where destroyed, as he called it; and the worship of the gods propagated; so far was Satan from being bound, that he triumphed over Christ and his cause: and that he could not be bound in this period of time, appears by the multitude of heathen deities worshipped; the number not only of heathen philosophers among the Greeks and Romans, but of the Magi in the east, and of the Druids in the west, and of the Brahmins among the Indians; also from the vile and false charges brought by the heathens under the influence of Satan against the christians, of idolatries, murders, incests, impurities, and unheard of crimes; which obliged their writers, as Justin Martyr, Tertullian, &c. to write apologies in the defence of them; to which may be added, the scoffs and flouts, the malice and blasphemy of the heathen writers against Christ and the christian religion, as Crescens, Lucian, Celsus, and Porphyry: and if we look into the christian church in the three first centuries, how it was harrassed and distressed with heretics and heresies, we shall soon be convinced that Satan was not bound, nor Christ's reign began; to reckon up only the names of them from Simon Magus to Sabellius, would fill up a page; some denying the doctrine of the Trinity; some the distinct personality in the Deity; some the person of Christ, either his real humanity or his proper Deity, or divine Sonship; as vile a set of men now were, for corruption in doctrine and practice, as perhaps ever was, and may truly be called a synagogue of Satan, as they seem to be in Rev ii. 9. in the times of these men therefore the devil could never be said to be bound, synagogue of them.

when he had a

IV. Others begin the date of Satan's binding, and Christ's reigning, from the times of Constantine; and reckoning the thousand years from hence they will reach to the beginning of the fourteenth century. Those who go this way suppose the vision in Rev. xii. and that in chap. xx. to be the same, which cannot Sulpicius, ut supra, p. 99, 100. Gruter. Inscript. p. 280. apud Fabricii Salutar. Lux"

Evangel, p. 157.