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How with impunity? On account of this one thing, that THEY REMOVE FROM THEIR MOUTH THE THOUSAND YEARS WHICH HAVE
proceeded from the mouth of God. It is of no advantage thus to alarm good men. But these thousand years do not run on even a step simultaneously with the times of the beast, nor do they altogether precede those times, but totally follow them. This is proved by — I. The arrangement of the whole book, representing one continuous and connected series of events. II. The relation of the trumpet of the seventh angel, inasmuch as these [thousand] years also fall under it : ch. x. 1, note. III. This is particularly proved by the events which 'precede . The delivery of the woman, before spoken of, was followed by the casting out of the dragon from heaven to the earth ; and with this casting out is connected the third woe, in which the dragon , through the instrumentality of the beast and with the aid of the beast (ch. xvi. 13), has most unbridled power: at the close of the third woe the beast will make war, and being overcome, will be cast into the lake of fire ; and at the same time, namely, after his destruc- tion, the chief enemy who remains will be shut up in the bottomless pit. IV. Before the close of the number of the beast, the times in the Apocalypse are enigmatical ; afterwards, they are expressed in their literal signification. They violate this excellent system of pro- phecy who blend together the times of the beast and the thousand years. Y. The millennium itself is distinguished by a new, great, pure, and long-continued exemption from internal and external evils, since the authors of these evils are removed, and by an abundance of varied happiness, such as the Church hitherto has not beheld : Rom. xi. 12, 15, 25 : for the nations have never ceased to be deceived , for instance, by Mahometanism. VI. This is proved by the events which follow. Now there follow the last times of the world, and in them the loosing of the devil, who deceives Gog and Magog, and who is doomed to be cast into the lake of fire in addition to the beast and the false prophet (xx. 10). In short, the accusation of Satan in heaven, his rage on earth , through a space shorter than the millennium; his captivity in the bottomless pit , during a thousand years ; and after the deceiving of GogandMagog,his torment in the lake of fire for ever; they succeed one another in such a manner that none of them can be joined with another, the order of none can be transposed. He must deny the perspicuity of Scripture altogether who persists in denying this , and endeavours to refute it. To these arguments there is added, VII. The tenor of the language in ver. 1, which continues the events im- mediately preceding, and does not return to a thread which has been