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As the charge given to John in the outset of the mystical visions of this book is thus worded,-" Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter,”—it may be said, that this division of the contents of the Revelation into the two great branches of things present and things future, necessarily forbids the application of any of the symbols to events that were long since passed at the time of the writing of the book, and consequently that our interpretation of the symbol of the Dragon, which we have carried up to the remotest ages of antiquity, must necessarily be at variance with the acknowledged structure of the apostle's prophecy. In reply to this objection, we readily admit that as a general character of the Apocalypse this division is plainly observed; the first three chapters, containing the epistles to the seven churches, having a primary reference to the things which then were, while the subsequent portions of the book are occupied mainly with the prospective development of the leading fates of the church and the world. But we are not prepared to admit the assumption, that nothing but prophetic matter can be introduced into a prophetic vision. For what was the case with Daniel? Did he behold the rise of the Roman empire prospectively when he beheld the emergence of its symbol in the fourth beast from the troubled sea? Far from it. He beheld it retrospectively, as his vision of the four great beasts was vouchsafed to him about the year before Christ 555; but Rome was founded, according to Varro, in the year before Christ 753; so that the prophet, if we reckon from the time when he saw this vision, must have beheld the rise of the Roman beast retrospectively, though he viewed his exploits through the period of 1260 years prospectively. In like manner, we consider the vision in the chapter before us as having at once a retrospective and a prospective bearing, in which respect it forms an exception to the

general tissue of the res prophetica of the book; and, we believe, the only exception. But as the main scope of the Holy Spirit in this part of the visions was to acquaint us with the origin, the reign, and the overthrow of the Beast, nothing could be more natural than to trace the symbolical extraction of the Beast from the Dragon his predecessor, and if the Dragon were introduced at all, it was equally natural that the symbol should be so constructed as to embrace the whole term of his hieroglyphic existence, however far back into former ages it might reach. The truth is, if the view which we have given of the intended mutual relation of the Dragon and the Beast of the Apocalypse be well founded, and admitted by the reader, the objection above stated can occasion no real difficulty. The fact which it

contemplates is precisely such as might be expected. Nor will a single exception militate with the general uniformity of character by which the oracles of the Apocalypse are marked. One or two reflections may not unsuitably conclude the present division of our work.

1. The train of remark submitted to the reader in the foregoing exposition may have the effect, it is presumed, of deepening the conviction, that the religion of the Bible is no foe to civil freedom; that it can never be made, without the most flagrant perversion, the pandor to oppression in any sense or in any degree. That Christianity has been made, by abuse, an engine of the most dire and diabolical persecution is unhappily put beyond the possibility of being questioned. The history of the ages of darkness furnishes a dreary and soul-sickening record of the fact. But that this circumstance affords the least argument of the legitimate tendencies of the gospel of Jesus cannot be maintained for a moment. The true and essential genius of Christianity repudiates with mortal abhorrence every alliance with civil power which would convert her into an engine of disastrous domination. Can the mys

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tical woman of the vision fall in love with the terrific Dragon by whom she is assaulted? Are they not set in the most direct antagonism with each other? And under this significant imagery is not the brandmark of eternal reprobation set upon the entire apparatus of despotism? Is not its final overthrow, its utter extinction, clearly predicted. in the oracles of the prophets?—and that too as an indispensable prerequisite to the final prevalence of the Gospel? How then can Christianity be friendly to or compatible with a system upon the ruins of which it is destined to rise, and the annihilation of which is the signal of its own success? The truth is, the spirit of Christianity is not more opposed to vice than it is to vassalage; to moral corruption than to political degradation.

2. Shall not a more favorable impression be begotten in behalf of Christianity from the fact, that it contemplates man not merely in his individual, but in his social capacities and interests ?—that in the amplitude of its beneficence it takes cognizance of those great and massive calamities which weigh upon the welfare of society; which have encumbered and retarded the march of the human mind; which have hung their ponderous weights upon the wheels of its progress ;-—in a word, that it abounds with predictions and promises, not only of the removal of those evils which encompass and annoy the individual believer, but of those also which have been the most signal curses to the communities of the earth? We repeat it then, that we are authorized to regard in the light of the accomplishment of the divine counsels the existing commotions which are causing the dynasties of Europe to totter on their rotten bases, and which are prompting the monarchs to clap their hands to their heads to hold on their crowns. Potentates are perplexed by the signs in heaven and the signs on earth. But why? Simply because God has illustriously arisen, and begun to show to the world that the

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Gospel is the Genius of Universal Emancipation. The human race is awakening to the conviction, that there is not a throne on earth but is built upon the prostrate liberties of mankind; and kings have cause to tremble at the results of the discovery. It is for this reason that they dread to refer themselves to 'the coming on of time.' Coming events cast their shadows before," and they are filled with secret apprehensions of an impending stroke which shall fall with resistless weight upon the coronets of despots, and scatter their diamonds in the dust. It is then to the pages of this precious revelation that we are to look for a key to the signs of the times; for a solution of all the marvels connected with that magnus ordo rerum, that stupendous moral and political revolution, which is so rapidly changing the face of human affairs, and introducing the indestructible empire of righteousness. It is on this account only that we deem the explication of the hieroglyphics of the Apocalypse as at all important. Viewed in any other light than as affording an index to the true character of the period in which we live, and its connected duties, we might as well bestow our labor in laying before our readers, for the purpose of comment, the imagery of the Shield of Achilles, or of the Zodiac of Dendera, or the architectural details of Solomon's Temple. But when rightly construed, the mystic shadows of the Seer of Patmos resolve themselves, like the hand-writing on the walls of Belshazzar's palace, into the death-doom of despotism, and the Magna Charta of the liberties of the world.

CHAPTER IV.

THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF THE MILLENNIUM STATED AND CONFIRMED.

REVELATION, CHAP. XX,

1. AND I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. 3. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled and after that he must be loosed a little season. 4. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark in their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. 7. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. 8. And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 9. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. 10. And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

A fresh vision of the Dragon here opens upon us. We are now called to contemplate him in an ulterior stage of

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