REVELATION XIV.

13. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

"Esop has said that death is most unfortunate in the time of prosperity; but this is not true; on the contrary, it is then most happy, since it secures to good men the glory of their virtuous actions, and puts them above the power of fortune."

PLUT. Pelop. c. 34.

REVELATION XVII.

9. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come.

If the seven mountains indicate Rome the seven kings probably express seven different forms of government, five of which had passed away, and the sixth was then in existence under the emperors.

"I have exhibited a view of the affairs of the Romans from the building of the city of Rome until its capture; under the government of-first kings, then consuls, then dictators, then decemvirs, and then consular tribunes."-Liv. 1. vi. c. 1.

"Kings were the original magistrates of Rome: Lucius Brutus founded liberty and the consulship. Dictators were chosen only in pressing exigencies. The supreme power of the decemvirate prevailed little more than two years; and the consular jurisdiction of the military tribunes but a few."-TAC. Ann. 1. 1. c. 1.

REVELATION XX.

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

Theodorus, in Photius, calls the Persian Arimanius by the name Satanas.

"There will come a time decreed by fate when Arimanius who brings plague and famine into the world, shall of necessity be destroyed and brought to nought; the earth too shall become level and even; and there shall be but one life and one common citizenship of men, and all speaking the same language. Theopompus also says that according to the magi these two gods (Oromazes and Arimanius) must for 3,000 years conquer, one after the other; and for 3,000 years be conquered again by turns; and then for another 3,000 years wage war and fight each against the other; but in the end Hades shall vanish away and men shall be happy, neither requiring food, nor casting any shadow."-PLUT. de Isid, et Osirid. c. 47.

4. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

"Free from the law, beneath whose mortal sway
Matter is changed, and varying forms decay,
Elysium shall be thine: the blissful plains
Of utmost earth, where Rhadamanthus reigns.
Joys ever young, unmix'd with pain or fear,
Fill the wide circle of th' eternal year:
Stern winter smiles on that auspicious clime;
The fields are florid with unfading prime;
From the bleak pole no winds inclement blow,
Mould the round hail, or flake the fleecy snow;
But from the breezy deep, the blest inhale
The fragrant murmurs of the western gale."

HOм. Odyss. 1. iv. v. 561.

Around their hands and hair the woven garlands twine."

"On the death of an Egyptian, if there be none to accuse, or lay to his charge any crime, all his kindred leave off mourning and begin to set forth his praises; they declare his piety towards the gods, and his justice towards men, his chastity, and other virtues ; and pray the deities to receive him into the society of the just. The common people take the cry and proclaim that he is to live for ever with the just in the kingdom of Jove." DIOD. SIC. 1. I. c. 92.

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PIND. Olymp. II. v. 123.

"The Brachmans believe that death is to philosophers the beginning of a real and happy life."-STRAB. 1. XV. c. 1.

"That place under the earth into which the Egyptians imagine the souls of the dead descend, is called in their language Amenthe."-PLUT. de Isid, et Osirid. c. 29.

See notes on 2 Tim. i. 10.

"Unspotted spirits you consign

To blissful seats and joys divine.”—HOR. 1. 1. carm. 10.

REVELATION XXI.

14. This is the second death.

"After their death in the world the good lead a life of rest and peace; yet not altogether a blessed and divine life, until they die a second death, of which I will tell you more hereafter."-PLUT. de fac. in orb. lun. c. 27.

19. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 20. The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolyte; the

eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.

In the mythologic earth of Plato it is said :-

"The mountains are smooth and transparent and glowing with beautiful colours; of which the well-known stones that are here so highly prized are but fragments, such as sardin stones, jaspers, and emeralds, and all others of the kind."-PLAT. Phædo, c. 59. "The whole city is of native gold, and its surrounding ramparts of emeralds. Each of its seven gates is cut out of one trunk of the cinamon tree; the entire ground of the city, and the pavement of all the streets and squares is of ivory; the temples of the gods are built of cubic blocks of beryl, and the high altars on which the hecatombs are sacrificed, of one sole amethyst. The inhabitants have properly no body (for they are impalpable, and without flesh and bone) but have only the figure and idea of it; notwithstanding this they walk, and sit, and have all their senses, and converse like other men. In short their soul appears to walk about quite naked, having merely the semblance of a body wrapped about them.

"No one here grows old, but remains always of the same age as when he first arrived. Neither is there anything of what we term night, nor what we properly call day; but it is never brighter nor darker than our twilight before sunrise. They know only one season; for with them it is perpetual spring, and zephyr is the only wind that blows there."-LUCIAN. Ver. Hist. 1. 11. c. 11.

24. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. 25. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day for there shall be no night there.

"The regions mild of peace,
Full joy and calm eternity of ease.

There no rude winds presume to shake the skies,
No rain descends, no snowy vapours rise;
But on immortal thrones the blest repose;
The firmament with living splendour glows."

HOм. Odyss. 1. vi. v. 42.

"If I had carried off the whole of the fire from heaven, what damage should 1 have done; since the inhabitants of heaven do not suffer cold, neither do they need artificial light."-LUCIAN. Prom. c. 18.

"When the body perishes, the soul surveys the etherial regions and is filled with splendid light."-MAX. TYR. diss. 41.

"Meditate upon that blessed day when the mysteries of nature shall be revealed to you, this darkness be dispersed and the light shall break in on you on every side. Imagine with yourself how great that brightness is, where so many stars mingle their glorious beams; a light so serene and clear, that not the least shadow of darkness shall rest upon it all heaven shines out with equal splendour: day and night have their turns only on this earthly globe and the regions round about it."-SENEC. Epist. 102.

27. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

"Thither no wicked and impure person shall ever be able to come; but the good, after their death in the world, being carried thither, lead an easy life in peace and repose. PLUT. de fac. in orb. lun. c. 27.

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THE END.