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 pander 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 mystical 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 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 labour 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.

The Connection of the twentieth Chapter of the Revelation with the preceding portions of the Book stated-The Identity of the Dragon throughout the Apocalypse maintained-The Binding of the Dragon explained-Its date determined— Confirmed by History-Particulars of the symbolic Imagery further elucidated-Symbol of the Bottomless Pit or Abyss -explained-Opinions of Lightfoot, Turretin, Mastricht, and Marck quoted-Satan's deceiving the Nations explained— Whether the Millennium to consist of a thousand literal years-Explication of the Thrones, and of the Souls of the Martyrs seen in the Vision, and of their Living and Reigning with Christ a thousand years.

REVELATION CH. 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 degradation. In the allegorical narrative already considered we have seen him discomfited in the contest with the celestial legions of Michael, and violently precipitated from heaven to earth. But, as if de