the word is used in the same passage in the two different senses: the meaning of the word, in such cases, must be fixed by the tenour of the passage; for example, if actions are attributed to the "dead," I conceive that would denote spiritual death to be intended; thus, in the passage in hand, the seer beheld "the dead standing." He does not say, "I saw the souls of the dead, small and great, and they were raised to life;" but he saw the dead standing as "the dead." Again, they "were judged," not rewarded, "out of the things written in the books, according to their works." Our Lord says, "He that heareth my word, and believeth John, v. 24. on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and cometh not into judgment, but is passed from death unto life." The dead in this passage are clearly the spiritually dead: and we learn that it is the privilege of those who have passed from death to life not to come "into judgment." And he continues, that those who have produced good shall come

* Take, for example, Gal. ii. 20; Rom. vii. 9, 10, viii. 10, 11; 1 Tim. v. 6.

Ver. 29.

forth unto the resurrection of life, and they alone "who have practised evil” shall come forth to the resurrection of judgment."

66

Hence, in this passage, we have a double proof for what I contend it must be- the spiritually dead alone who come forth to judgment; and they who are described to be standing as the dead, can be dead only in the spiritual sense. This is farther confirmed by the passage in the Apocalypse, Rev. xi. 18. which we have already shewn to be parallel, where the judging of the dead is put in direct opposition to the rewarding of the

servants.

Another difficulty is supposed to arise from what is mentioned in the verses which I have thrown into a parenthesis. It may be stated as follows: "The Son will not surrender the kingdom until all his enemies shall be subjected." This cannot be while Satan is still loosed and deceiving the nations: the kingdom, therefore, cannot be surrendered until the close of t1

ne thousand years. The question, properly, is not, whether Satan will then be in subjection, but whether

he shall have been in subjection. When Satan shall be bound and shut up in prison, will he then be in subjection to Christ, or not? His being subsequently loosed, to perform a work in the mysterious economy of God, cannot set aside the fact that he will be in subjection for a thousand years. The Lord sold the Israelites into the hand Judges, iv. of Jabin, and they were mightily oppressed: it cannot be said, that they were not then in subjection, because Barak afterwards delivered them. Zedekiah's rebellion against the king of Babylon does not prove that he was not previously in subjection, but exactly the reverse: and to take an example, which perhaps approaches more nearly to a type, Solomon's reign commenced with all his enemies being "under the soles of his Kings, v. feet;" but, at the close, there were wars 1 Kings, xi. and rebellions. So Satan, not even breaking out by his own power, but being loosed at the end of the thousand years, to perform a work, as God's instrument, this only proves that he shall be Christ's footstool for the thousand previous years. In like

3.

14 to end.

manner, we must distinguish between the subjection of Christ's enemies and the execution of judgment upon them: the former will be prior to Christ's leaving the Father's 2 Tim. iv. 1. throne, but the judgment of the quick will be at the appearing of Jesus Christ; he will 2 Thess. i. be revealed in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God.

8.

One more objection has been advanced, which is as follows: There will be death during the millennium, Isa. lxv. 20; but Rev. xxi. 4, relates to a time when there will be no more death; therefore it refers to the period after the millennium. I answer, that we must distinguish between the different states and conditions of men that there will be during the first thousand years of Messiah's reign.

There will be the risen saints reigning with Christ; the national conversion of Israel and the nations.

Respecting those who attain the world to come by the resurrection, among them there will be no death; death shall have no more dominion over them. To this Rev. xxi. 4,

refers, there will be no death in the holy city, new Jerusalem : "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." But Isa. lxv. 20, refers to the national conversion of Israel: "There shall be no more thence," or 66 from thence," i. e. Jerusalem, ver. 19, "an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days." I have not seen any very satisfactory interpretation of the following words: it is acknowledged, in the general, that they denote great longevity; I understand them to imply, that should a person die at the age of a hundred, as to his years he would be but a child, but as to his condition he would be accursed; for "in those days," when Israel shall be under the new covenant, "they shall say no more, the fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge; but every one shall die for his own iniquity." Jer. xxxi. 29, 30. This makes the verse in Isaiah consistent with the following context: "for as the days of the tree," which, according to the LXX., is "the tree of life," [are] "the days of My people;" so that those who are God's