Revelation 20

Revelation 20:1

The binding of satan for a thousand years, during which the gospel is greatly to prevail; with a view of the destruction of the enemies of Christ, upon their making their last attempt against his church; and of the universal judgment. Rev. XX. throughout.

REVELATION XX. 1.

THUS the beast was conquered and taken; but the dragon yet remained at liberty. And that I might also be informed as to his doom, I saw an angel descending from heaven, who had the key of the bottomless pit, and he had

also a great chain in his hand: And he advanced with the intrepidity of one who feared no resistance; and laid hold on the dragon, dreadful as he was; even that old serpent who is called the devil, from being the great false accuser; and satan, as being the great adversary both of God and man; and he bound him for the space

of a thousand years. And, having opened the door with the key that he bore, he cast him into the abyss, and shut him down, and set a seal upon him, to signify, that none should break open the door; that he might not deceive the nations any more, for the time above mentioned, that is, till a thousand years were accomplished, and then he must be loosed again for a little time, and make his last effort against the cause of God, and the

REV. 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.

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and satan, and bound him a thousand years.

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.

A thousand years] I think we must despair of being able to interpret any passage of scripture upon the plainest principle of reason, if this does not signify, that there shall be such a period as this, in which satan shall be remarkably restrained, and the Christian interest shall prevail. But whether the thousand years are here to be taken literally, as is most probable, or whether here, or elsewhere, each day is put for a year, and consequently, the whole period be 365,000 years, I will not pretend to determine. This thought has been very lately started by an ingenious and worthy person, who hath, I doubt not, intended the service of Christianity; though I am very apprehensive, he has failed in some

of the mediums by which he has endeavoured to prove this point. See Dr. Whitby’s Treatise on the Millennium, where he shews at large, that this whole passage is figurative, agreeable to the prophetic style, especially in this book. And verse 4, may only intimate, that the spirits of the martyrs seemed to live again, in those whom God should then raise up. Compare Ezek. xxxvii. 1, 14; Rev. xi. 11, 12; Rom. xi 15. This interpretation is illustrated and confirmed also by Mr. Lowman. So that the seventh chitl, or 1000 years, from the creation of the world, is to be a kind of sabbath. Compare Ainsworth on Gen. i. 31, and Worthington on Redemption, p. 211, 213.

During which the Christian cause should revive.

kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ. And after this, I saw thrones placed, and they sate upon them, and a power of judgment was given to them; and the souls of them who had been beheadedᵇ for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and who had not worshipped the beast nor his image, when his cause was so triumphant, and who bravely opposed the torrent of prevailing degeneracy, so that they had not received his mark in their foreheads, and upon their hands, when it was so furiously urged upon all; these appeared to rise in triumph, and they lived and reigned with Christ,ᶜ whose cause, during this time, was prosperous and flourishing, even for a whole thousand years: But this was peculiar to this holy remnant: for, as to the rest of the dead, they revived not till the thousand years were accomplished;ᵈ so that this [was] the first resurrection. Eminently happy and holy [is] he, who has a part in the first resurrection I have been describing; it is a singular felicity and high token of the degree, in which God, the supreme Standard and Judge of moral rectitude and holiness, approves his character: on such the second death, we before described with so many dreadful circumstances, as the portion of the wicked, shall have no degree of power,ᵉ nor shall any of

ᵇ The souls of them who had been beheaded.] Dr. Whitby, not unjustly, thinks this a strange expression, to signify the resurrection of their bodies. (See his Treatise on the Millennium, chap. iii.) Mr. Fleming observes, it is said elsewhere, that their souls were actually living before; and living, he thinks, must be put for rising from the dead, because it is said, the rest of the dead lived not till a thousand years. Flem. Christol. Vol. II. p. 57.

ᶜ They lived and reigned with Christ.] This is the chief text on which Mr. Fleming builds his doctrine of the first resurrection; when, he supposes, those who have died for the testimony of Jesus, and other most excellent saints, shall be raised from the dead; not, (he imagines,) to live upon earth, but to live a thousand years with Christ in heaven; enjoying a blessedness nearly approaching, if not altogether equal, to that which good men are to enjoy after the general resurrection;

while the rest have only the common blessing of the separate state, during this period; and, even after the resurrection, shall have only inferior degrees of glory, to what these first fruits of the resurrection shall for ever possess. Flem. Christol. Vol. II. p. 42.

ᵈ The rest of the dead, &c.] This has been urged to prove, that a proper resurrection is here spoken of; but I much doubt the justness of the conclusion. Such expressions may, sometimes, be thrown in to promote that obscurity, which seemed, upon the whole, convenient in such a series of prophecy. Compare chap. xxi 17.

ᵉ On such the second death shall have no power.] Mr. Fleming considers this as an intimation, that the second death will have some power to terrify, though only for a little while, those good men, who shall not have their share in the first resurrection. See his Christol. Vol. II. p. 45. But the notion appears to me very absurd, and ill to

The thousand years being expired, satan sha

its terrible forerunners, in the execution of Divine wrath upon his enemies; but they shall be the priests of God, and of Christ; and they shall not only be afterwards admitted to a kingdom of eternal glory, but shall reign with him a thousand years, partaking in the triumph of his kingdom upon earth. And when the thousand years, before described, shall be accomplished, then satan shall, for a certain time, be loosed from his confinement, to give the last proof of his malice against Christ and his saints. And he shall go forth to deceive the nations, who are in the four distant corners of the earth, and shall prevail against them, so that they shall engage in a vain and fatal enterprise, for the overthrow of what God has determined for ever to establish: even Gog and Magog, as the prophecy of Ezekiel, (chapters xxxviii, xxxix.) styles the enemies of God’s people: and satan shall succeed in his attempts to gather them together in war; even an army, whose number [is] like the sand of the sea. Accordingly I beheld them in vision, as drawn forth in order of battle, and saw, that they went up over the breadth of the earth; so that they seemed to cover the face of it from north to south, and then surrounded the camp of the saints, and Jerusalem, the beloved city, in which they dwelt; and it seemed at first in imminent danger, but it was not long before it was remarkably delivered; for fire came down from God out of heaven, at once, and devoured them; so that there were no more remainders of them to be seen; but they, and all their dreadful artillery, perished and disappeared, as if they had never existed. (Compare Ezek. xxxviii. 22.) And then the devil, who had deceived them, came in

agree with the representation which scripture gives of the universal judgment, as a day of unmixed joy and triumph to all the righteous.

[The four corners of the earth.] As it is most certainly known, from the most convincing arguments, and from repeated experience, that the earth is of a spherical form, it is certain, that by the four corners of the earth, we are to understand the nations which lay at the greatest distance

from the city of the saints; which, I suppose, does here especially signify Jerusalem. And we may suppose, that those who live in that situation, shall be las instructed in the gospel, and so capable of being most easily engaged to rise up against it. Compare chap. vii 1, and paraphrase. By Gog and Magog, many understand the Scythians, and other northern nations, whom the devil will stir up to assault the people of God.

shall at length be cast into the lake of fire.

for his share of that punishment, which had long before been inflicted upon many of his accomplices, and was cast into the lake of fire and brunstone, where, as I before said, the beast and the false prophet [were;] and there they shall be tormented together day and night, for ages of ages, for ever and ever, without any hope of release or respite.

And, after this, I saw a great white and resplendent throne, which shone with a glory scarce to be supported; and yet, mine eye being divinely strengthened for that purpose, I beheld him who sate thereon, from whose majestic face, when he came on this solemn and tremendous occasion, earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them, in which they might continue. And I saw the dead, of all ranks and orders, small and great, rich and poor, princes and people, in one grand assembly, which knew no more of those distinctions, once so much regarded, standing before God, to receive their final doom from him; to intimate, that the last judgment should quickly follow the wonderful events which had been represented to me before. And the books were opened, which contained the records of the Divine omniscience on the one hand, and, on the other, the law and the gospel, which were the rule whereby those who stood before him were to be judged. And another book was opened, distinct from these, which is [the book] of life,

For ages of ages: ut tu; auct; tu auct. ] This is the most literal rendering of these words: but it is certain that no argument can be drawn from hence against the eternity of future punishment, for no phrase can more strongly express a proper eternity than this.

h A great white throne.] It has been observed, that this judgment seat has been represented by a throne, to show that there can be no appeal from it; a white throne, to signify the bright glory, the unspotted purity, and inflexible justice of him who sits upon it.

i From whose face earth and heaven fled away, &c.] Mr. Blackwall compares this description with a celebrated passage in Homer, in which Jupiter is described as sitting on his throne, and asserts its great

superiority, though its plainness renders the majesty less observable to common readers “It is so plain, says he, that it does not need, so majestic and grand, that it exceeds, commentary and paraphrase.” See his Sacred Class. Vol. I. p. 329

There was found no place for them.] Hence Mr. Whiston infers, that at the consummation of all things, and the final judgment, the earth will desert its present station, and be no more found among the planetary chorus Whist Theor. p. 282. But I cannot think this description intend to teach us any astronomical niceties; it seems only to intimate, that all nature was thrown into strong commotion, as if it were incapable of sustaining the majestic presence that appeared.

All mankind shall be judged according to their works.

in which were registered the names of all those happy persons, who, according to the tenor of the Divine declarations to men, should be the inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem, and live with God for ever, in the enjoyment of felicity and glory. And the dead were all impartially judged out of the things written in the books, and in a manner agreeable to the tenor of them, according to their works, as they had been agreeable or disagreeable to the discoveries which God had made to them of his will for the rule of their actions. And, that none might be exempt from coming into judgment, I perceived that the resurrection extended also to the sea, which gave up the dead that were in it; and death, and the unseen world, and separate state, in all their extensive domains, gave up the dead that were in them, all that death had swallowed up, and Hades received; and they were judged, as I said before, every one according to their works. And I saw, in the vision, emblematical persons, who seemed to preside over the regions of death and Hades, or the separate state; and, to signify that human souls should be no more separated from the bodies, to which they were now united, these persons, as it appeared, were cast into the lake of fire, which I have before described, and of which I said, that this is the second death.¹ And as the register, which God, in pursuance of his counsels of everlasting love, had kept of those, whom it was his gracious purpose, agreeable to the tenor of his gospel, to save, was complete, I saw, that if any one were not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire: so that this was the awful end of the whole human race, to be plunged into that flaming and

¹ Death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. It is no wonder a man of Mr. Hobbes’s disposition and principles should be ready to catch at any argument, to prove the annihilation of the wicked. But, that which he insinuates from the passage, (see his Leviathan, p. 355,) seems to be very precarious. For, as Archbishop Dawes observes, (see his Serm. No. 7, p. 100,) to talk of hell being cast into a part of itself, is downright nonsense. The plain meaning is, there shall be no more separate state. And this, I think clearly overthrows that hypothesis, which supposes this last fire will kill those that are thrown into it, and that their separate spirits will for ever remain in that misery, which must be the consequence of having lost happiness and hope, while they retain their thinking powers; a doctrine, which Dr. Whitsby has strangely taught in his Appendix, to 2 Thess. chap. i.

Reflections on the future judgment.

eternal ruin, or to be received into those abodes of glory, which I am next to describe, under the figure of a new heaven, and a new earth. (Compare Rev. xxi. 1, note³.)

IMPROVEMENT.

We have here a most affecting view before us, of that importvent event, in which we are all so intimately concerned. Whatever the first resurrection may import, or that glorious reign of a thousand years, (which probably intimates a signal revival of the Christian cause in the world, and a display of its influence beyond what hath yet been known,) I say, whatever these events may particularly intend, the illustrious day, in which heaven and earth is to pass away, demands the attention of all mankind. For the dead, both small and great, whether buried in the earth or the sea, must then stand before God: Therefore let all the living, both small and great, seriously weigh the solemnity and importance of that appearance. Let them often look forward to the awful period when the glorious throne shall be set, the important volumes opened, which contain the record of our lives and actions, and of God’s gracious and merciful transactions with us. We must be judged according to our works; that God, before whom all our ways are, and who searches all our hearts, will bring every work into judgment, and every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Let us judge ourselves impartially, that we be not condemned of the Lord; and conscious how unable we should be to stand in that judgment, if God were rigorous to lay justice to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, let us humbly apply to the throne of mercy, to the blood of his Son, to the grace of his gospel covenant. So shall we find mercy of the Lord in that day, and be the priests of God, and of Christ, and reign with him, not a thousand years alone, but for everlasting ages.

In the mean time, let those who have no reverence for his majesty, who have no esteem for his gospel, who have never taken this awful alarm, who have never fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them, tremble at these awakening views. Let them all, of every condition, both small and great, say in their hearts, Who shall dwell with devouring flames, and lie down in everlasting burnings, even in this lake of fire, into which every one who is not found written in the book of life, shall be cast, and where the wretched victims of Divine justice shall be tormented for ever and ever?

How melancholy does the face of our earth appear, when we reflect on the reign of satan on it, on the influence of the

The vision of a new heaven and a new earth ;

dragon, and the beast, and the false prophet ! O Lord, cut short xxiii their power ; send down the angel that has the key of the bottomverse less pit, to bind this destroyer ; yea, when he shall be loosed for a season, moderate his rage ; support thy saints under the ter- 1, 2, 3 ror of every assault, till thou appear to the last confusion of their 7, 8 enemies, till thou appear to close this perplexing scene, by the wise and glorious catastrophe of all things ; when it shall be 4, 5 seen, that the souls of them who were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, were not lost, and that it was wisdom strenuously to refuse the mark of the beast, and the homage so generally paid to his image, though men might neither buy nor sell, nor enjoy their liberty, nor their lives, without making an entire submission to it.