2. The time, termed by the prophet, _the great and the terrible day_, is usually in scripture stiled _the day of the Lord_. The space from the creation of man upon the earth to the end of all things, is _the day of the sons of men_: the time that is now passing over us, is properly _our day_. When this is ended, _the day of the Lord_ will begin. But who can say, how long it will continue? _With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day._[46] And from this very expression some of the ancient fathers drew that inference, that, what is commonly called, _the day of judgment_, would be indeed a thousand years. And it seems they did not go beyond the truth: nay, probably they did not come up to it. For if we consider the number of persons who are to be judged, and of actions which are to be enquired into, it does not appear, that a thousand years will suffice for the transactions of that day. So that it may not improbably comprise several thousand years. But God shall reveal this also in its season. 3. With regard to the place where mankind will be judged, we have no explicit account in scripture. An eminent writer (but not he alone; many have been of the same opinion) supposes it will be on earth, where the works were done, according to which they shall be judged, and that God will in order thereto employ the angels of his strength, “To smooth and lengthen out the boundless space, And spread an area for all human race.” But perhaps it is more agreeable to our Lord’s own account, of his _coming in the clouds_, to suppose it will be above the earth, if not “twice a planetary height.” And this supposition is not a little favoured, by what St. _Paul_ writes to the _Thessalonians_. _The dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who remain alive, shall be caught up together with them, in the clouds_,[47] to meet the Lord in the air. So that it seems most probable, the _great white throne_, will be high exalted above the earth. 4. The persons to be judged, who can count any more than the drops of rain, or the sands of the sea? I beheld, saith St. _John_, _a great multitude which no man can number_, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. How immense then must be the total multitude, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues? Of all that have sprung from the loins of _Adam_, since the world began, till time shall be no more? If we admit the common supposition, which seems no ways absurd, that the earth bears at any one time, no less than four hundred millions, of living souls, men women and children: what a congregation must all those generations make, who have succeeded each other for seven thousand years? “Great Xerxes world in arms, proud _Cannæ’s_ host, They all are here: and here they all are lost. Their numbers swell to be discerned in vain; Lost as a drop in the unbounded main.”