But did ever any one suppose that the iv'icked \vould rise to live on earth again ? Yet, if the pioits dead, who have been slain by the sword of martyrdom, are Uteralhj to rise and reign on earth a thousand years, the ungodly dead, who have been slain by the avenging sword of the Almighty, must lite- rally, and in their own persons, rise at the expiration of that time ^.
Bvit shall any, whether the risen martyrs, or others resem- bling them, live, and reign " a thousand years ?" No : there is no reason to think that their lives shall be protracted to any such length : but there shall be a succession of saints during that period : and as that succession will be uninterrupted through that w^hole time, they are said to live through that time ; because, though they do not personaUij live, their piety does live, and is transmitted unimpaired through all the suc- cessive generations that shall arise. It is in this sense that the two witnesses who i)rophesy in sackcloth, are said to *' prophesy TitiO prophetic days, or years 5." It relates not to their persons, but to others rising in continued succession in their spirit, to bear the same testimony. Indeed of them als<3 is it said, that " they were overcome by their enemies and killed; and that their death caused exceeding great joy; but that, after three years and an half, to the utter dismay of their enemies, they rose and lived again''." But no one ever imagined, that this was fulfilled literally: every one vmder- stands this of a succession of prophets who arose to bear the same testimony as they had borne who had suffered martyr- dom for their fidelity: and in the same manner must the re- surrection of the saints also, and their reigning for a thousand years, be understood of a continued succession of eminently pious persons reigning with Christ over all the enemies of their salvation ; whilst the ungodly shall have no successors till the expiration of that time.
In any other sense than this, it would be extremely difficult to make this passage agree with w hat is spoken of the resur- rection in other parts of Scripture ; for the resurrection is always represented as taking place all at once, excejjt that the godly will rise first, before those, who shall then be alive upon the earth, shall be changed ' : but in the sense we have an- nexed to it, it accords exactly with the language of St. Paul, when he says, " If the casting away of the Jews be the re- conciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the Jcad^ P" If it be thought, that this simila- rity of metaphor will occasion confusion in the sense, let it be
remembered,
' Compare Rev. xix. 21. & ver. 5. with ver. 4. ' Rev. xi. 3.
''Rev. xi. 7, 10, 11. ' I Cor. XV. 51— 53. 1 Tliess. iv. 15 — 17.
'' Rom xi. 15.