with the reign of
Antichrist,--twelve hundred and sixty years. These "lived and reigned
with Christ a thousand years; that is, in their successive generations:
for otherwise they would over-live the age of Methuselah!--Souls are
here evidently persons, and not souls as distinct from bodies, as some
needlessly argue against Millenarians: for "foreheads" and "hands" are
attributed to them: but foreheads cannot be literally ascribed to those
who had been "beheaded." Their living is to be understood of their
succeeding to the same scriptural position occupied by their
predecessors, as well as succeeding them in the order of natural
generation. The Holy Spirit says, "Levi, who receiveth tithes, paid
tithes in Abraham." (Heb. vii. 9, 10.) Elijah reappeared in the person
of John the Baptist. (Matt. xi. 14.) Jezebel and Balaam were recognised
in their wicked successors, (ch. ii. 14, 20.) But this is the very
structure of the Apocalypse, being composed of hieroglyphics, that the
free agency of the wicked might be left untrammelled, and the diligence
of God's people might be tested in "searching the Scriptures."

5. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years
were finished. This is the first resurrection.

V. 5.--"The rest of the dead" supposes two classes of the dead. These
are the witnesses, who died a violent and cruel death, and the wicked,
who died a natural death,--there "were no bands in their death." As
there are _two kinds_ of death, so are there two kinds of
resurrection,--a _first_ and _second_ of each. Those who had been
"beheaded for the witness of Jesus," etc., lived in their
successors,--sat on thrones, reigned with Christ a thousand years. Of
course those who were slain by Christ and his army at the battle of
Armageddon, and whose flesh was given to the fowls of heaven, "lived not
again" in their successors, "until the thousand years were finished."
Consequently, "this is the first resurrection," with which the true
disciples of Christ shall be honoured. They must, however, die as all
others, and await the _second_ resurrection: but "on them the second
death shall have no power."

6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on
such the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God
and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

V. 6.--"Blessed and holy,"--and blessed, because _holy_; for sin is the
procuring cause of misery. This is a