3. Attention ought to be particularly directed to the condition of the saints during the thousand years spoken of. It is described in general terms as a _first resurrection_. Certain words of our Lord in the Gospel of St. John throw important light upon the meaning of this expression: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that have heard shall live,"[530] and, again, a little later in the same discourse, "Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth."[531] Let us compare these two verses with one another, and the presence of the clause "and now is" in the first, taken along with its omission in the second, leaves no doubt as to the principle on which they are to be interpreted. The first refers to a spiritual, the second to a bodily, resurrection. Here then in the words of our Lord Himself we have the source whence the idea of the "first resurrection" of the Apocalypse is derived. It is not an actual resurrection from the grave, although that resurrection is potentially involved in it. It is a spiritual resurrection in an hour "that now is;" and the fact that this is St. John's meaning is brought out still more clearly by the intimation that what he saw was _souls_, whose resurrection bodies had not yet been given them.[532] The condition of the saints thought of in this vision is described, however, not only generally, but in various particulars, all of which, it will be seen, correspond with the apocalyptic idea of it even in a present world. _And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them._ But we have been already told that "they reign over the earth."[533] _Judgment was given unto them_, words which seem best understood in the sense, so peculiar to St. John, that for believers there is in the ordinary sense of the term no judgment. As they have passed through death, so also they have passed through judgment.[534] _They lived with Christ._ But Christ Himself had said in the Gospel, "Because I live, and ye shall live."[535] _They reigned with Christ._ But that is only another method of saying that they sat on thrones, with the added conception, so often associated with the word in the Apocalypse, that their enemies were bruised beneath their feet. _Over these the second death hath no authority._ But we have before been told of "him that overcometh" that "he shall not be hurt of the second death."[536] Finally, _they shall be priests of God and of Christ_. But it is needless to dwell upon the fact that from the opening of this book such has always been spoken of as the position of believers.