throne." Independently, moreover, of these
distinct texts, the whole book is pervaded with the thought that,
at the speedy second advent of the Messiah, all his enemies shall
be fearfully punished, his servants eminently compensated and
glorified.41

Thirdly, the writer of the Apocalypse expected in accordance with
that Jewish anticipation of an earthly Messianic kingdom which was
adopted with some modifications by the earliest Christians that
Jesus, on his return, having subdued his foes, would reign for a
season, in great glory, on the earth, surrounded by the saints. "A
door was opened in heaven," and the seer looked in, and saw a
vision of the redeemed around the throne, and heard them "singing
a new song unto the Lamb that was slain," in the course of which,
particularizing the favors obtained for them by him, they say, "We
shall reign upon the earth." Again, the writer says that "the
worshippers of the beast and of his image shall be tormented with
fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the
presence of the Lamb." Now, the lake of sulphurous fire into which
the reprobate were to be thrust was located, not in the sky, but
under the surface of the earth. The foregoing statement,
therefore, implies that Christ and his angels would be tarrying on
the earth when the final woe of the condemned was inflicted. But
we need not rely on indirect arguments. The writer explicitly
declares

40 Martineau, Sermon, "The God of Revelation his own Interpreter."

41 It seems to have been a Jewish expectation that when the
Messiah should appear he would thrust his enemies into Hades. In a
passage of the Talmud Satan is represented as seeing the Messiah
under the Throne of Glory: he falls on his face at the sight,
exclaiming, "This is the Messiah, who will precipitate me and all
the Gentiles into the under world." Bertholdt, Christologia, sect.
36.

that, in his vision of what was to take place, the Christian
martyrs, "those who were slain for the witness of Jesus, lived and
reigned with Christ a thousand years, while the rest of the dead
lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is
the first resurrection. Then Satan was loosed out of his prison,
and gathered the hosts of Gog and Magog to battle, and went up on
the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints
about, and fire came down out of heaven and devoured them." It
seems impossible to avoid seeing in this passage a p