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 1 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 Antio chus, and his auxiliaries, against God's camp, the Jews;

1

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 revealed.

*

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 * See Appendix (D.)

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'

Ee*

of death.

Although they are well acquainted with what Isaiah had wrote near four thousand years before, that there should come a time when the nations should learn war no more, yet, in perfect accordance with their infidelity about the truth of the Scriptures, attempt the sanguinary preparations, in open defiance of every better feeling, against all mercy, and the interdictions of heaven, and that, too, against the innocent saints.

But the words of the Lord are sure words, which are that the nations should learn war no more. For while they shall be gathering together their forces, with the view of attacking the saints in all places at once (as Haman devised to destroy the Jews at Babylon) but before they shall come nigh to the camp, ere they have felt the horrid pleasure of shedding human blood, or have learned the art of war, by experience, a blast of fire from God out of heaven shall descend with devouring fury, and destroy them. See Rev. 20, 9. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and firs came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

Thus having passed through the Twelfth Division, and having endeavoured to show the probable multiplication of mankind in the Millennium, and their great privileges and happiness, and why Satan is to be loosed a little season, and who they are that will compose the army of Gog and Magog, and why they are called so, and in what manner they will probably attempt their attack upon the saints, and of the overthrow of his army, we now pass to give an account of the resurrection of the wicked dead.

THIRTEENTH DIVISION,

Embraces a view of the resurrection of the wicked dead after the Millennium, and endeavours a description of the phenomenon of the earth's dissolution by fire, and in what way the elements will probably act upon each other, when the great decomposition of the solar system shall be compelled to take place at the command of God,

But, O my soul, how great the dread display,
Of world's dissolving on that fiery day;
Of angels flying-and the great white throne,
To judge the wicked dead, comes hastening down;
And on the amazing pile of dazzling light,
Will sit the glorious Three in holy might ⚫
But more apparent, Christ, in human form,
Shall in its centre rule the fiery storm;

And from the dreadful height, like ocean's roar,
His voice will sound,-I live for ever more!

Now has arrived that day and hour, of which it is said, No man knoweth, no not the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Mark 13, 32. true meaning of which is, the Son, separate from the

The