claration of St. Peter, concerning the true place, and time, and nature of the rewards of the righteous, all the New Testament writers agree; and whenever the subject occurs, be the opportunity of declaring themselves ever so inviting, or if it be even necessary for the clearing of the sense they intend to convey, (if a double resurrection be that sense,) yet not a syllable is dropped from which it can be clearly inferred that they knew any thing at all of such a doctrine, as a first resurrection of the martyrs, to reign 1000 years on earth, prior to that which is spoken of by them as "the resurrection of the dead," at the end of the world.

expo

VII. Another argument for the literal sense, is founded upon Rev. vi. 9, the vision of the souls under the altar. But this, in all its circumstances, is so manifestly figurative, that it seems impossible by any ingenuity of sitorial violence, to fix upon it a literal construction; without extending an evil remembrance of wrongs into the land where all things are forgotten, and imputing to righteous souls under the peculiar care of heaven, a

ferocious thirst of revenge.

Whereas the

meaning intended to be conveyed by that striking figure, appears to be totally different from any idea of a first resurrection. That vision has its proper place in that situation, and serves as an index to the time of the prophecy. It relates to the great changes about to take place in the church and government, favorable to christianity, which had previously endured long and grievous persecutions. It indicates the extensive, and almost general prevalence of a change of sentiments, from that bittter and cruel spirit of persecution, with which the pagan empire had pursued the christians, to an opposite disposition of devotion to the church, and a liberality unbounded, in heaping upon it accumulated honors and riches; or, in other words, it denotes the approaching rest of the church, by the conversion of the empire.

This vision, introduced as it were in the mid-way, between the two contending powers of christianity and paganism, at that time more equally balanced, (the pagan interest having rapidly declined, as the christian faith

advanced,) cannot well be supposed to have any meaning more appropriate. And this exposition of it is confirmed by the application of means very similar, at other remarkable periods of the Apocalypse also, to express a great, extensive, and permanent change of popular sentiment, beginning to spread, and to produce corresponding effects upon the Roman world, (or the earth,) the general object of this prophecy. Thus by way of an introduction to the reformation from the errors of popery, and as a sort of index there also to the time of the prophecy, a proclamation is made from heaven (or the church, then about to reform itself,) by a voice (the prophetic emblem of popular opinion,) to this effect"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, FROM HENCEFORTH: yea, saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labors, and their works do follow them."-Rev. xiv. 13.

This proclamation follows after the three angels, at distant periods of preceding time, and with increasing force and effect, have warned the world against the antichristianism of popery, which then universally prevailed;

and thereby have occasioned a severe persecution against the reformers, but at the same time awakened a spirit of inquiry, and effected a great alteration of popular sentiment, unfavorable to Rome and her doctrines.-This vision is therefore founded upon one very remarkable feature of the reformation, and a fact which struck the first stroke at the root of popery; the preaching of Luther against the sale of indulgences, and his detecting the gross imposition of the venal fires of purgatory, occasioning the dissolution of "the covenant with death," and breaking down "the refuge of lies." This fictitious repository of papal terrors was now so palpably unmasked, that the evangelical believer might henceforth depart in peace, fearless of purgatorial tormentors, and rest in hope, and a full assurance from the Spirit of truth, that his faith and repentance, and other good works, should find a favorable acceptance at the hands of the Father of mercies. (309)

MATION.

(309) Heb. vi. 10 ;-xiii. 16;-1 Cor. iii. 8. In Rev. xiv. we have several very significant intimations of the REFOR But Burton imagines that if his arithmetical calculation be not admitted as such, we have no prophetic designation of that great event in the whole scripture, yet I trust that be VOL. III.

I

Both these instances therefore, of visions taken from the realms of the dead, have a like situation in the prophecy, and a similar tendency and purport. They both stand like signal posts, in the mid-way between the subsisting corruptions of the age preceding, and the reformation which in both cases en

sides the present one, I have pointed out several that are much less ambiguous than Mr Burton's. See vol. i. p, 287 and 415. -vol. ii. p. 36, 43, 51, &c. Mr Burton assumes Daniel's seventy weeks (or 490 years) for the measure of a time in Daniel, contrary to the general idea, which takes it equally with St. John's, at 360 years. Sir I. Newton considers the apocalypse as making only a part of one continued prophecy with Daniel's, and of course a time in both must be measured alike.

According to Mr Burton the three times and half make 1715 years, and he begins them A. D. 49, with the call of the Gentiles; and ends A. D. 1764, the time fixed to accomplish to scatter the power of the holy people. But this is very objectionable. The opening of the call to the Gentiles seems to have been eight years earlier than this. (See Acts x.) The events in A. D. 1764 have not corresponded, and the papacy subsisted near 50 years after that grand consummation, or time of the end. Mr Burton signalizes the ending of his time-two times-and half time, each with events, but which are mostly beneath the dignity of prophetic notice particularly by prophetical periods, which seem reserved (as miracles have been) only for occasions of the utmost importance. The coincidences found out in arithmetical numbers applied to prophecies are often curious, but not