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first resurrection may have received its fulfilment in the rising up of that body of sincere followers of the Lamb who were designated by the various titles of Waldenses, Albigenses, Paterines, &c. (1) They arose in the kingdom of the beast, in which real Christianity had once lived, but which death seems to have pervaded at the time when they arose in it. (2) They were characterised by refusing to worship the beast and his image. (3) Upon their thus arising, and refusing submission to the authority of the Church of Rome, persecution of the most violent kind commenced against them in the Roman empire, under its nominally Christian form; and tens of thousands of them were put to death for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God. I shall not enlarge upon the history of this body of kings and priests unto God; but content myself with referring the reader for particulars either to Jones's History of the Christian Church, or to a little work called "A History of the Waldenses, from the earliest Period to the present Time." I do this, not merely because I am unwilling to swell the size of this already too large treatise, but because my chief object in this chapter is to adduce the scriptural ground upon which my view is formed. They appear to have arisen about the middle of the ninth century; about, or soon after, the time that Claude, bishop of Turin, had finished his labours; and a succession of such persons has been continued in the kingdom of the beast-including, as I conceive, the Lollards, and the followers of Wickliffe, and of the reformers Luther, Zuinglius, &c.—who have refused to worship the beast and his image, ever since that time. expression, they lived and reigned with Christ the thousand years, does not appear to me to imply any thing more than a continued succession of persons so characterised during that period; as the two witnesses prophesying in sackcloth during the 1260 years (ch. xi.) does not signify any two individuals, but a succession of witnesses to "the truth as it is in Jesus," rising up and bearing their testimony during that period. See Mede, Newton, and Gill, on the passage.

The

The second resurrection, or the living again of the rest of the dead (ver. 5), will, I conceive, take place by the conversion of the Jews, and, with them, of a vast number of

Gentiles, into the church of Christ, after the millennial period is ended.

The considerations which lead me to expect this are as follows.

I

First consideration. The Scriptures appear to foretell in express terms the conversion and ingathering of the Jews into the church of Christ, and that under the very figure of a resurrection. I might, in proof of the first of these points, refer the reader to a great number of passages, which contain clear indications of the future conversion of the ancient people of God. shall, however, confine myself to Ezek. xxxvii. 1-14: The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley, which was full of bones, 2 and caused me to pass by them round about; and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. 3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. 4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord: 5 Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones : Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live; 6 and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and, behold, a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. 8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. 9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. 11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel : Behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. 12 Therefore prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold,

O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, 14 and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord."

The reader will observe the following, among many other points which are set forth in this passage. First, the whole house of Israel represented, under the figure of dry bones, as being spiritually dead (vers. 2, 11). Secondly, the prophesying upon them, which indicates, I conceive, that the outward means to be used for their living will be the preaching of the Gospel (ver. 4). Thirdly, the outpouring of the Spirit upon them (ver. 9-14), by which spiritual life is communicated. Fourthly, their resurrection and living, as indicated vers. 10, 12, 13, 14. The consideration of this remarkable prophecy concerning the resurrection of the whole house of Israel, leads me to conceive that this is the event foretold in Rev. xx. 5, as the living again of the rest of the dead.

Second consideration. Connected with the above resurrection of the whole house of Israel, I find a great ingathering of the Gentiles also foretold under the same figure of a resurrection, Rom. xi. 15: For if the casting away of them (the Jews) be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead ?" The casting away of the Jews as a nation, for their rejection and crucifixion of Christ, was the reconciling of the world, that is, of the Gentiles (ver. 12), who were then called in, and admitted to partake of the benefits of the redemption which Jesus had wrought out. The Jews are, however, hereafter to be received as a nation into the church of Christ; and this will be to the Gentile world as life from the dead. In this passage, therefore, a great ingathering of the Gentiles, which will take place in connexion with, and perhaps in consequence of, the receiving of the Jews as a nation into the fold of Christ, is foretold under the figure of life from the dead, which is the same as that of the living again of the rest of the dead in Rev. xx. 5. This is intimated in ver. 12 also, as being connected with the future fulness of Israel, that is, with Israel being brought

into the fold of Christ: Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, (that is, if the fall of the Jews was the time and way of the first admission of the Gentile world to partake of the unsearchable riches of Christ) how much more their fulness? This evidently contains a prediction, that at the time of the fulness of the Jews, which appears evidently to be the same as their resurrection foretold in Ezekiel, a far greater number of the Gentiles will be brought to believe in Jesus, than had been at the time of the fall of the Jews, when the Gentiles were first called in. And the expression in ver. 25, blindness in part is happened unto Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, appears to me to imply, 1. That the blindness will then be removed entirely from the house of Israel, in agreement with the declaration concerning them, 2 Cor. iii. 16, 17: "Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away: Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty:" and, 2. That the cotemporary ingathering of the Gentiles will be so great that it is styled their fulness on this as well as other accounts. I would, however, venture to observe, that as the idea of a resurrection implies that there had once been life; and as, upon this view, the first resurrection appears to me to take place in the kingdom of the beast, where there had once been the life of real vital Christianity; so, I conceive, the same idea and analogy would lead me to expect that the great scene of the second resurrection, as regards the Gentiles, will extend to countries where vital Christianity once flourished but is now extinct; such as Greece, Turkey in Europe, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, and the northern parts of Africa, which are under the dominion of the Eastern Antichrist, and would be more immediately affected by the conversion of the Jews and their return to the land of Canaan.

Third consideration. The events foretold in Rev. xx. 7-11, and which are to follow the second resurrection, or the living again of the rest of the dead, appear to me to be the same as those which are foretold in Ezek. xxxviii. and xxxix., &c. and which are to follow the resurrection of the whole house of Israel, as predicted in the xxxviith chapter; which appears to me to furnish another strong presumption that the second resurrection,

or the living again of the rest of the dead, will coincide with the resurrection of the whole house of Israel. First, After the resurrection of the house of Israel, nations designated by the title of Gog and Magog gather themselves together (Ezek. xxxviii. 2-7). So after the second resurrection, or living again of the rest of the dead, which is to take place at the end of the thousand years (Rev. xx. 5), and at the commencement of the period described ver. 7-10, the nations, expressly designated by the same title of Gog and Magog, are gathered together to battle (ver. 8); and the reader will observe, that these titles occur in no other passage of Scripture. Secondly, The nations in Ezek. xxxviii. who come up against the mountains of Israel (ver. 8), are described as coming from the various quarters of the earth (ver. 5, 6). So in Rev.xx.8, the nations are described as coming from the four corners of the earth. Thirdly, Their great multitude is set forth in Ezek. xxxviii. by their being described as many people (ver.6: Hebrew, peoples), a great company (ver.4), a mighty army (ver. 15), and as a cloud to cover the land (ver. 16). So in Rev. xx. 8, the number of the nations who are gathered together is said to be as the sand of the sea; and the Septuagint uses the same verb (avaßaivw) in Ezek. xxxviii. 9, thou shalt ascend, &c. as occurs in Rev. xx. 9, went up (aveẞnoav). Fourthly, Gog and Magog are described as going up against the mountains of Israel, which have been brought out of the nations, Ezek. xxxviii. 8. So they are described as compassing about the camp of the saints, and the beloved city, Rev. xx. 8. This expression, the beloved city, is, I believe, introduced for the first time in the Book of Revelations in this passage; and may, I conceive, have some reference both to the gathering together of the Jews, who, as touching the election, still continue to be beloved for the fathers' sake, and will then be gloriously manifested to be so (Rom. xi. 28); and also to Jerusalem, which, when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, will no longer be trodden under foot by them, as it now is (Luke xxi. 24, and compare Rom. xi. 25). Fifthly, The judgment which is to overtake and destroy them is described in Ezekiel : I will rain upon him, and

upon his band, and upon the many peoples which are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone (xxxviii. 22): and again, I will send a fire upon

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