Works
But since we have heard of no stirring at Rome of all this time to such a tune, nor any mention of any imprisoning but only of Paul, how comes the matter to wax so hot now, since Nero 's heat against any Christianity seemeth to have been some years, or at least a good while ago? Here we cannot but remember that passage in the Epistle to the Philippians so lately written: Philip. 1. 15, 16. Some preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of good will. The one preach Christ of contention not sincerity, supposing to add affliction to my bonds. By which it may be conjectured, that some enemies of Paul's and his companies, taking opportunity of Nero 's declaration against Christianity did bussle and make ado in preaching the Gospel, aiming at nothing more then this, that hereby the ringleaders in the Gospel Paul and his company [as no doubt they were noted so to be] might be the more narrowly looked after: and this might well be some occasion of the imprisonment of Epaphras and Timothy at this time, and of Aristarchus, if so be he were not a prisoner before.
[CHRIST. LXI] [NERO. VII] THIS year is Timothy a prisoner, and Paul himself at liberty, for his two years imprisonment expired the later end of the last year or the beginning of this. You have intimation of this, Heb. 13. 23. where he saith, Know ye, that our brother Timothy is set at liberty: with whom if he come shortly I will see you: For I cannot interpret the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 otherwise then in reference to restraint; and then we may out of this passage observe that Timothy had been a prisoner, and that the Hebrews had known of his imprisonment, but now he was at liberty, and Paul too, ready to come away with him when he should come. He had written to the Philippians that he hoped shortly to send Timothy to them, Philip. 2. 19. and to Philemon to provide a lodging for him, for he hoped ere long to come into those parts, Philem. ver. 22. By which we may conclude, that upon his enlargement he intended not to have staid long at Rome, or that Timothy at the least should not have been long from them, but that his imprisonment, as it proved, hindered them both. Therefore we may not cast his commitment beyond this year; but how long he lay under restraint we cannot tell, only we may conceive him at liberty the next, for in that year we suppose the writing of the Epistle to the Hebrews which speaks of his enlargement.
In our thoughts about Nero 's suppressing Christianity, and these men's bonds thereabout, we may also look with admiration at the wondrous workings of God: observe, that even at these times there was Christianity in Nero 's household, Phil. 4. 22.
This year some occurrences befalling in this our own Country of England, though they are besides the argument that we are upon, yet may they not unfitly be taken into mention for Countries sake. Suetonius Paulinus was now General for the Romans here. He assails to take the Isle of Man, Incolis validam & receptaculum perfugarum, saith Tacitus: Strong in the inhabitants and a refuge for fugitives. He bringing on his men near the shore, finds an Army guarding and ready to forbid his landing. Among the men, there were women running up and down; In modum furiarum, vest ferali, crinibus dejectis faces praeferebant. Like furies in a dreery garb, with their hair about their ears, and they carried torches. The Roman soldiers for a while stood amazed at such a sight, but at last falling on they enter and destroy them, and possess and Garrison the Island. Excisi{que} luci saevis superstitionibus sacri; Nam cruore captivo adolere aras, & fibris hominum consulere Deo fas habebant. And they cut down the groves that were devoted to bloody superstition: For they used to sacrifice captives at their Altars, and to look into their inwards by way of auguration.
It is a remarkable and true saying of Pliny concerning Italy or Rome, That it was a Country Quae sparsa congregaret imperia, ritusque molliret, & tot populorum discordes ferasque linguas sermonis commercio contraheret ad colloquia, & humanitatem homini daret. Nat. Hist. lib. 3. cap. 5. which in short is this, that it civilized the world, and taught barbarous Nations humanity. A strange assertion, if we consider the barbarous bloodiness and superstitions of the Romans themselves; yet if we look upon the thing itself, it is very true, they being a people of Learning, Discipline and Education, and planting these wheresoever they got footing. And this was one means in the Lord's providence, whose ways are past finding out, to harrow the worlds ruggedness, and to fit it the better for the sowing of the Gospel. In what temper our Land of Britain was, as to civility, before they came in, may be guessed by this garb of the Isle of Man, so near relating to it, if we had no more evidence.
Whilest Suetonius was thus busied here, he hears of a revolt and rebellion in Britain, caused partly by the cruel exaction of Decimus Catus the Governor, who revived some impositions that Claudius the Emperor had remitted, partly by the grinding usury and exactions of Seneca, who having put them, even unwilling, to take vast sums of money of his, to most unsufferable usury, he now called it and the use in, with all extremity and mercilesness: And partly by an unhappy obsequiousness of Prasuiagus King of the Iceni, or at least by an unhappy abusing of his obsequiousness: For he dying, and leaving Nero and his own two daughters his heirs by Will, the Roman Centurions as in claim to Nero 's Legacy; ransack and catch all they can, and pull his Kingdom all to pieces, and abuse his wife and two daughters barbarously and inhumanely: and spare not either his friends, kindred or Nobles. This stirs all to commotion, which is eagerly prosecuted by Bondicea or Bunduica the widow of the King deceased, in so much that they destroy the Colony at Camalodunum, the Roman Garrison and associates at London, and the like at Verulam: in all to the number of 70000 persons: Suetonius at last comes in, and fights them, they being near upon 230000 in arms under Bunduica, he routeth them, slays about 80000 of them: Bunduica for vexation poisons herself: and the Roman destroys with sire and sword all the Towns before him that were of the adverse party, or adhered to it: Divers prodigies are mentioned by the Historians, that relate these bloody occurrences as presages of it: as the Sea bloody, strange voices and howlings heard, sights seen in the Thames, of houses under water, a Colony overturned, &c.
[CHRIST. LXII] [NERO. VIII] PAUL in the Epistle to the Colossians, Chap. 4. 10. intimateth that Mark, who was then with him at Rome, was likely ere long to come to them into the East, and he willeth them to receive him as from him, though there had once been disagreement betwixt Mark and him. Whether Timothy 's imprisonment delayed Mark 's journey, may be some question: for Paul having sent for them two to come to him together, 2 Tim. 4. 11. it is like he could ill part with the one, when the other was made useless to him by restraint: and so we have some cause to suppose, that while Timothy was in prison, Mark remained with Paul. However, whensoever it was that he went for the East, we have this reason to think that Paul wrote and sent by him THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS: And that he having delivered it where Paul had appointed him, went away to Peter to Babylon in Chaldea, because Peter there, mentioneth Mark now with him, 1 Pet. 3. 15. And this Epistle, 2 Pet. 3. 15.
It is observable that these two great Apostles Peter and Paul the several Ministers of the Circumcision and Uncircumcision, had their interchanged agents: Sylvanus or Silas, Paul's Minister, resident with Peter, and employed by him to carry his first Epistle: 1 Pet. 5. 12. And Mark, Peters Minister, resident with Paul, 2 Tim. 4. 11. Col. 4. 10. and, very probably, employed by him to carry this Epistle to the Hebrews. And thus in the interchanged agencies of their Ministers, the parties with whom they had to deal, might own the joint agreement of both the Apostles.
Although we dare not punctually assert either the bearer of this Epistle, or the exact time of its writing, yet that it was written and sent about these times that we are upon, may be observed by these two boundaries that shut it up within some reasonable compass of the time hereabout. First, A parte ante, or that it could not be written much sooner then this, may be concluded by this, that Timothy had gone through his imprisonment and was now enlarged before its writing, Heb. 13. 23. And secondly, A parte post, or that it could not be written much after this time, may be observed from that passage Chap. 12. 4. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood. For presently after this bloody times came on.
That it was written by Paul, hath not only the concurrent consent of all Copies and Translations, but even this proof for it, That none can be named A prisoner, Chap. 10. 34. and in Italy, Chap. 13. 24. and in so near converse with Timothy, Chap. 13. 25. [as the Author of this Epistle was] so likely as Paul.
His not affixing his name to this, as he had done to his other Epistles, doth no more deny it to be his, then the first Epistle of Johns is denied to be Johns upon the same account: especially considering that the name of the Apostle of the uncircumcision, would not sound so well before an Epistle to the Circumcised: and yet the more still, because he sent it by Mark [for so we cannot but suppose] who was a Minister of the Minister of the Circumcision, and who could easily inform them of the Writer.
Unto what part of the Jewish Nation he sendeth the Epistle under the indorsement To the Hebrews, and why that indorsement To the Hebrews rather then To the Jews, may be a useful and a needful Quaere. It cannot be imagined but that he sendeth it to be delivered at a certain place within some reasonable compass, because it was impossible for the bearer, whosoever he was, to deliver it to all the Jews dispersion, and because in Chap. 13. 23. he saith that when Timothy came, he would come with him, and see them. Therefore the title The Hebrews must determine the place, since there is nothing else to determine it. A double reason may be given why he so styleth them rather then Jews; namely, either because the name Jew was now beginning to become odious; or rather because he would point out the Jews that dwelt in Judea, or the Land of Israel. And this sense doth the Holy Ghost put upon the title the Hebrews, Act. 6. 1. where it is said, There was a murmuring of the Hellenists against the Hebrews: By The Hellenists meaning the Jews that dwelt in foreign Countries among the Greeks, and by The Hebrews those that dwelt in Judea. And so it is most proper to understand the inscription of this Epistle, namely that Paul directs, and sends it to the believing Jews of Judea: a people that had been much engaged to him for his care of their poor, getting collections for them all along his travels, and Mark [whom we suppose the bearer of this Epistle] had come in to his attendance, and to the attendance of his Uncle Barnabas, when they had been in Judea to bring alms unto those Churches, Act. 11. & 12.
It is not to be doubted indeed that he intendeth the discourse and matter of this Epistle to the Jews throughout all their dispersion [and therefore Peter writing to the Jews of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia and Asia, applies it as written to them, 2 Pet. 3. 15.] yet doth he indorse it, and send it chiefly to The Hebrews or the Jews of Judea, the principal seat of the Circumcision, as the properest center whither to direct it, and from whence it might best diffuse in time to the whole circumference of their dispersion.
He hath to deal in it mainly with those things that the Jewish writers commonly call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Ordinances affixed to the Land, or such Ceremonious part of their Religion, as while it stood, was confined to the Land, as Temple, Sacrifice, Priesthood, &c. Therefore it was most proper to direct his speech in its first bent, to those that dwelt in the Land, and were most near to those things, and who in those Apostatizing times that then were, had the nearest occasion and temptation to draw them back from the purity of the Gospel to those rites again.
Unto that doubtfulness that some have taken up about the Original Tongue of this Epistle, as thinking it very improper that he should write in the Greek Tongue to the Hebrews, especially to the Hebrews in Judea, we need no better satisfaction then what the Hebrews themselves, yea the Hebrews of Judea may give to us, I mean the Jerusalem Gemarists, from several passages that they have about the Greek language.
In Megillah, fol. 71. col. 2. they say thus, There is a tradition from ben Kaphra, God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Sem: For they shall speak the language of Japheth in the tents of Sem. The Babylon Gemara on the same Treatise fol. 9. col. 2. resolves us, what Tongue of Japheth is meant; for having spoken all along before, of the excellency and dignity of the Greek Tongue it concludes 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The very beauty of Japheth shall be in the tents of Sem.
Our men first named, say further thus: Rabbi Jonathan of Beth Gubrin saith, There are four Languages brave for the world to use, and they are these: The Vulgar, the Roman, the Syrian, and the Hebrew, and some also add the Assyrian: Now the question is, What Tongue he means by the Vulgar? Reason will name the Greek as soon as any; and Midras Tillin, makes it plain that this is meant; for fol. 25. col. 4. speaking of this very passage [but alleging it in somewhat different terms] he nameth the Greek which is not here named. Observe then that the Hebrews call the Greek the Vulgar Tongue.
They proceed, ibid. col. 3. It is a tradition. Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel saith, In books they permitted not, that they should write, but only in Greek. They searched, and found, that the Law cannot be interpreted completely but only in the Greek. One once expounded to them, in the Syriac, out of the Greek. R. Jeremiah in the name of R. Chaijah ben Basaith, Aquila the proselyte interpreted the Law, before R. Eliezer and before R. Joshua. And they extolled him and said, Thou art fairer then the children of men.
And the same Talmud in Sotah fol. 21. col. 2. hath this record. Rabbi Levi went to Cesarea, and heard them 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 rehearsing their Phylacteries Hellenistice, or, in the Greek Tongue. A passage very well worth observing: For if in Cesarea were as learned Schools as any were in the Nation; And if their Phylacteries [picked sentences out of the Law] might above all things have challenged their rehearsal in the Hebrew Tongue, as their own writers show, yet they say them over in Greek, Paul might very well write to the Hebrews in Judea in the Greek Tongue, when that Tongue was in so common a use even in an University of Judea itself.
To these testimonies for the Greek Tongue, might be added, that which is spoken in the Treatise Shekalin, per. 3. halac. 2. Upon the three Treasure Chests of the Temple were written Aleph, Beth, Gimel. But Rabbi Ishmael saith, It was written upon them in Greek, Alpha, Beta, Gamma: They that hold that this Epistle, and the Gospel of Matthew were written in Hebrew, should consider how that Tongue was now a stranger to all but Scholars, and how God in his providence had dispersed and planted the Greek Tongue throughout all the world, by the conquest of Alexander, and the Grecian Monarchy; and had brought the Old Testament into Greek by the Septuagint.
As this Apostle in all his Epistles useth exceeding much of the Jews Dialect, Language, Learning, allusion and reference to their opinions, traditions and customs; so doth he more singularly in this, and he doth moreover in a more peculiar manner apply himself, to their manner of argumentation and discourse. For his intent is, if he can, to argue them into establishment, against that grievous Apostasy that was now afoot: so many revolting from the purity of the Gospel, either to a total betaking themselves to Moses again, or at least mixing the Ceremonious rites of the Law with the profession of the Gospel. Comparing his style here, with the style of discourse and arguing in the Talmuds, Zohar and Rabboth, and such like older writings of the Jews, you might easily tell with whom he is dealing though the Epistle were not inscribed in syllables, To the Hebrews: and the very style of it may argue a Scholar of Gamaliel, but now better taught and better improving his learning then that Master could teach him.
He first begins to prove the Messiah to be God, and Jesus to be he: about the former of which, the Jews mistook, and about the latter they blasphemed. In proving the former, he among other places of Scripture, produceth that of Psal. 102. 25. Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, &c. To which a Jew would be ready to answer, I but this is to be understood of God the Father; and how could this objection be answered? Tes, even by their own concessions, upon which he argueth in this place. For they understood that in Gen. 1. 2. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, of the Spirit of Christ, and so do they interpret it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 This is the Spirit of Messias: as their mind is spoken in that point by Zohar, Berishith Rabba, and divers others. If the Spirit of Christ then, was the great agent in the Creation, by their own grant, they could not but grant this allegation to be proper.
He showeth Christ therefore greater then Angels, as in other regards, so into whose hands was put the world to come, Chap. 2. 5. and here the phrase is used in the Jews dialect, for the Kingdom of Messias, as we mentioned before.
He proveth him a greater Lawgiver then Moses, a greater Priest then Aaron, and a greater King and Priest then Melchizedek: He showeth all the Levitical Economy but a shadow, and Christ the substance, and the old Covenant to be abolished, by the coming in of a better: By the old or first Covenant meaning the Covenant of peculiarity, or the administration of the Covenant of Grace so, as whereby Israel was made a peculiar and distinct people. This Covenant of peculiarity they brake as soon almost as they had obtained it, by making the golden Calf, and thereupon follows the breaking of the two Tables in sign of it: for though the Law written in the two Tables was Moral, and so concerned all the world, yet their writing in Tables of stone for Israel, and committing them to their keeping, referreth to their peculiarity. To his handling of the fabric and utensils of the Tabernacle and contents of the Ark, Chap. 9. Talm. Jerus. in Shekalim. fol. 49. col. 3, 4. and Sotah fol. 22. col. 3. may be usefully applied, for illustration. He hinteth the Apostasy now afoot, which was no small induction to him of the writing of this Epistle, and showeth the desperate danger of it, Chap. 6. 4, 5, &c. and Chap. 10. 26, 27, &c. In which his touching of it, we may see how far some had gone in the Gospel, and yet so miserably far fallen from it, as that some of them had had the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, and yet now sinned willingly and willfully against it. In describing their guilt, one of his passages that he useth, is but harshly applied by some, Chap. 10. 29. [ Hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing: ] when they say that this horrid Apostate wretch, that treads Christ underfoot, was once sanctified by the blood of Christ: whereas the words mean, Christ's being sanctified by the blood of the Covenant, according to the same sense that Christ is said to be brought again from the dead, by the blood of the Covenant, in this same Epistle, Chap. 13. 20. And the Apostle doth set forth the horrid impiety of accounting the blood of the Covenant a common thing, by this, because even the Son of God himself was sanctified by it or set apart as Mediator: And so should I understand the words, He hath trodden under-foot that Son of God, and counted the blood of the Covenant by which he the Son of God was sanctified, an unholy thing. He magnifieth faith, against those works that they stood upon and sought to be justified by, and showeth that this was the all in all with all the holy men both before the Law and under it. When he gives them caution, Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, &c. Chap. 12. 16. he doth not only speak according to the common tenet of the Nation, that Esau was a fornicator, as see Targ. Jerus. in Gen. 25. but he seemeth to have his eye upon the Nicolaitan doctrine that was now rise, that taught fornication: to which he seemeth also to refer, in those words, Chap. 13. 4. Marriage is honorable, &c.
And now henceforward you have no more story of this Apostle: what became of him after the writing of this Epistle it is impossible to find out, by any light that the Scripture holdeth out in this matter. The two last verses but one of this Epistle, trace him as far forward as we can any way else see him, and that is but a little way neither. Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty, with whom if he come shortly I will see you. By which words these things may be conjectured. 1. That after his enlargement out of bonds, he left Rome, and preached in Italy. He mentioneth in his Epistle to the Romans, his desire and intent to go preach in Spain, Rom. 15. 24. but that was so long ago, that he had now found some just cause [so much time intervening] to steer his course another way. For 2. It appears that when he wrote this Epistle to the Hebrews, he intended very shortly to set for Judea, if so be he sent the Epistle to the Jews of Judea as hath been shown most probable he did. So that trace him in his intentions and hopes, and you find him purposing to go to Philippi, Phil. 2. 23, 24. Nay yet further, to Colossae, Philem. ver. 22. Nay yet further into Judea. It is like that the Apostasy and wavering that he heard of in the Eastern Churches, shown him more need to hasten thither then to go westward. 3. He waited a little to see whether Timothy now enlarged would come to him in that place of Italy where he now was: which if he did, he intended to bring him along with him: but whether they met and travelled together, or what further became of either of them, we shall not go about to trace, lest seeking after them we lose ourselves.
[CHRIST. LXIII] [NERO. IX] IT hath been observed before, how probable it is that Albinus came into the Government of Judea in Festus room, in this ninth year of Nero. And if so, then was James the Apostle who was called James the less martyred this year; Josephus gives the story of this, Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 8.
THE EPISTLE OF JAMES.
Although therefore, the certain time of his writing this Epistle cannot be discovered, yet since he died in the year that we are upon, we may, not improperly, look upon it as written not very long before his death. And that the rather, because by an expression or two he intimates the vengeance of Jerusalem drawing very near. Chap. 5. 8, 9. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh; and, Behold the Judge standeth before the door. He being the Apostle residentiary of the Circumcision in Judea, could not but of all others be chiefly in the eyes of those that maliced the Gospel there, and the Ministers of it. So it could not but be in his eye, to observe those tokens growing on apace that his Master had spoken of, as the forerunners and forewarners of that destruction coming: False Prophets, Iniquity abounding, Love waxing cold, betraying and undoing one another, that he could not but very surely conclude, that the Judge and judgment was not far from the door.
Among other things that our Savior foretelleth should precede that destruction, this was one. Matth. 24. 14. This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all Nations, and then shall the end come. And so did the Gospel reach all the twelve Tribes, as well as other Nations, even the ten Tribes, as well as the other two. Therefore James a Minister of the Circumcision, doth properly direct this Epistle to all the twelve Tribes scattered abroad.
The whole Nation was at this time, some at the very height of unbelief and crossness against the Gospel, and others at the very depth of suffering for it: therefore he comforts the one, Chap. 1. and denounceth their just doom against the other, Chap. 4. & 5. He striveth to beat down four things especially, which were not only unbecoming the Christian profession, but even enemies against it. The first was, estimating men according to their gorgeous outside, and so the poor preachers and professors of the Gospel were contemned. Secondly, Their having many Masters or Teachers, whereby errors and schisms were easily scattered and planted among them, and much mischief done by unbridled tongues. Thirdly, Their reliance upon their historical faith, they thinking that enough, and neglecting to bring forth the fruits of a faith saving and lively. And lastly, Their common and vain oaths, to which the Jewish Nation, and that by the lenity, and toleration of their own Canons, was exceeding loose.
In the close of the Epistle, he speaketh of the Elders anointing the sick with oil, Chap. 5. 14. which may receive some explication from these things observed in their own writings.
1. That anointing with oil was an ordinary medicinal application to the sick. Talm. Jerus. in Beracoth. fol. 3. col. 1. R. Simeon the son of Eleazar permitted R. Meir to mingle wine and oil, and to anoint the sick on the Sabbath. And he was once sick, and we sought to do so to him, but he suffered us not.
Id. in Maasar Sheni. fol. 53. col. 3. A tradition. Anointing on the Sabbath is permitted. If his head ache, or if a scall come upon it, he anoints with oil.
Talm. Bab. in Joma fol. 77. 2. If he be sick, or scall be upon his head, he anoints according to his manner, &c.
Now if we take the Apostles counsel as referring to this medicinal practice, we may construe it, that he would have this Physical administration to be improved to the best advantage, namely that whereas Anointing with oil was ordinarily used to the sick, by way of Physic, he adviseth that they should send for the Elders of the Church to do it; not that the anointing was anymore in their hand then in another's, as to the thing itself, for it was still but a Physical application, but that they with the applying of this corporal Physic, might also pray with and for the patient, and apply the spiritual Physic of good admonition and comforts to him. Which is much the same, as if in our Nation, where this physical anointing is not so in use, a sick person should send for the Minister at taking of any Physic, that he might pray with him and counsel and comfort him: Or
2. It was very common among the Jews to use charming and anointing together, of persons that were sick of certain maladies: of this the Jerus. Talm. speaketh in Schab. fol. 14. col. 3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A man that one charmeth, he putteth oil upon his head and charmeth. And a little after, is related what they charmed for, as for an evil eye, serpents, scorpions, &c. And in col. 4. is mentioned how one charmed over a sick person in the name of Jesu Pandira. Now this being a common wretched custom to anoint some that were sick and to use charming with the anointing, this Apostle [seeing anointing was an ordinary and good Physic, and the good use of it not to be extinguished for that abuse] directs them better, namely to get the Elders or Ministers of the Church to come to the sick, and to add to the medicinal anointing of him, their godly and fervent prayers for him, far more available and comfortable then all charming and enchanting, as well as far more warrantable and Christian.
[CHRIST. XLIV] [NERO. X] THIS year [ C. Lecanius and M. Licinius being Consuls] befell that sore fire in Rome, [of which some touch was given before] the sorest that ever had befallen the City, and which made such desolation, That whereas the City was divided into fourteen great Wards [they are the words of Tacitus ] only four of the fourteen stood sound: For three were clean burnt down to the ground: and as for the other seven they were all tattered and half consumed, and but a few relics of houses remained.
It was commonly thought and talked, that Nero himself had the chief hand in kindling and carrying on of this mischief; instigated thereunto either by his own inhumane and barbarous temper, which delighted in nothing more, then in destroying; or by a tickling humor he had, to build the City a new, that it might bear his name. He to stop the mouth of the clamor, and to salve his credit, brought the Christians that were in the City, to examination and execution, as if they had been the only, and the all, in the breeding of this mishap. Igitur primo correpti qui fatebantur, deinde indicio eorum, haut perinde in crimine incendii, quam odio humani generis, convicti sunt, &c. Therefore they were first laid hold on, that confessed themselves Christians: and then by their discovery a vast multitude was convicted, not so much for real guilt of kindling that fire, as because of the general hate of men against them. And moreover there were scorns added to their deaths, for they were cast, wrapped in beasts skins to be devoured of dogs, or they were crucified, or burnt, and served for lights by night, when the day was gone. Whereupon they were pitied seeing that they were thus destroyed, not for the public benefit, but only for one man's cruelty. Thus Tacitus.
What havoc may we think this doleful persecution made? As among other Christians at Rome, so particularly among those eminent ones, that Paul in his Epistle thither, saluteth by name, Rom. 16. of whom many, no doubt, were alive till now, and now dispatched. He himself, and Timothy and Luke, with other of his retinue, may well be supposed to have been got away before this storm came, because in several places of his Epistles written a good while ago, as we have observed, he speaketh of his setting away with what speed possible and convenient. How escaped Peter if he now sat Bishop at Rome, as Rome asserteth?
Whether this persecution were circumscribed within the bounds of Rome or Italy, or whether it was carried by the command of the Tyrant through all other Countries [as Vid. Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 2. c. 24. Oros. lib. 7. &c. ] we need not to be much solicitous to go about to decide: certainly, though it were not enforced by any Edict or command, yet such a copy would be taken for a warrant, especially by those that without either command or copy, had been forward enough to do mischief to the professors of the Gospel already, and had taken, nay had made any occasion to undo, or destroy them. The Jews at this mastery were the busiest men of any, and that mystery of iniquity was ever working, but could not strike their full stroke, because something hindered, 2 Thess. 2. 6, 7. If he that hindered were Claudius, who by his expulsion of the Jews out of Rome, shown a frown upon the whole Nation, and suffered them not to rage as they would have done, he was taken away about ten years ago; and they felt their chain much slackened at the coming in of Nero: who in his best years, though he broke not out to destroy all before him, as he did afterward, yet was he destructive enough to Christianity, as we have observed, and loose and careless of the administration of affairs, and regarded not how things went, so that he might have his ease, luxury and pleasure, which his Tutors Seneca and Burrhus made but unworthy advantage of. But now that he himself hath given so visible, bloody and cursed an example, the Jews that stood barking at their chain-end all this while, finding themselves so far let loose as such an example might loose them, which was too far, would fall on without mercy. They had been mischievous enough always against the professors of the Gospel, but from hence forward they exceeded, and the more they grew toward their desolation, the more did the Devil make them bestir themselves, knowing the shortness of his time there.
This tenth of Nero there was a blazing star, horrid lightnings and thunders, and divers monstrous births.
[CHRIST. LXV] [NERO. XI] THIS year [the eleventh of Nero, Silius Nerva and Atticus Vestinus, being Consuls] very many eminent and gallant men of Rome were cut off by the Tyrant, as the last year he had cut off many eminent and worthy Christians. The Christians he destroyed, by a plot laid against them by himself; the Romans for a plot laid by them against him. The names of those that perished, now best known among us, were Seneca the Philosopher, Nero 's Tutor, and his nephew the Poet Lucan. Both of them very renowned for their Writings, but both of them very ignominious for a several miscarriage. Seneca for unparalleled covetousness, usury and oppression mentioned before: and Lucan for betraying his own mother. Let him bear Tacitus his brand: Lucanus, Quinctianus, & Senecio diu abnuere. Post, promissa impunitate corrupti, quo tarditatem excusarent, Lucanus Atillam matrem suam, [observe that] Quinctianus Glicium Gallum, Senecio Annium Pollionem amicorum praecipuos nominavere. Lucan, Quinctianus & Senecio, were long before they would confess anything: But at last, being corrupted by the promise of impunity, that they might make amends for their slowness, Lucan accused his mother Atilla, &c. Hereupon Atilla was wracked one day; and would confess nothing: and the next day being carried to the wrack again [for she was so disjointed that she could not go] she made a shift as she sat in the cart to strangle herself: choosing so to die rather then either to endure the wrack again, or to impeach any. An indelible blot to her son Lucan forever. Nor did his base shift serve his turn, for he suffered death too, by having his veins cut and so bleeding to death; which was the end of his Uncle Seneca also.
The Wars of the Jews are now drawing on apace [for they began the next year] and the horrid Civil Wars of the Romans are not far off. So that here we may properly take notice of that prediction ready now to take place. Matth. 24. 7, 8, 9. Nation shall rise against Nation, and Kingdom against Kingdom, &c. All these are the beginnings of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and then shall they kill you: which Luke hath expressed, But before all these, shall they lay their hands upon you, and persecute you, Luk. 21. 12. which seemeth to carry some difference, as if the one Evangelist shown, that the persecution of the Disciples to death, should be before these troubles; and the other, as if they should not be till these troubles were begun: But they may be well reconciled by observing that in the words that Christ is there speaking in both Evangelists, there is the intertexture of two stories, namely what miseries should befall the Jewish Nation before their ruin, and what miseries should befall the Disciples in the midst of those miseries: and so the word Then in Matthew, and Before in Luke, are but as a transition from the one history to the other: and yet they are not unsignificant neither, as to the pointing out of the time, the one speaking the beginning of that persecution foretold, and the other the continuance.
A fitter period of time whence to begin the punctual taking place of that prediction, we can hardly point out, then this very year that we are upon, a center between two critical years: the year before beginning the persecution of Christians at Rome, and the year following beginning the Wars of the Jews in Judea.
Although therefore we cannot positively assert the very time of the writing of THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER: yet observing the Chronical hint of some passages in it, this year may as fairly lay claim thereunto, as any other year that can be asserted. For, to omit that clause Chap. 4. 7. The end of all things is at hand [referring to the desolating of the Jewish Commonwealth and Nation] the mention of the fiery trial, ver. 12. and the time now come when Judgment must begin at the house of God, ver. 17. is but as a comment and accomplishment of that prediction before alleged, Then shall they deliver up to be afflicted, &c. It is true indeed, that the Church had never wanted persecution since the Gospel arose, and some for its sake had suffered death, as Steven and some at the time, the two Jameses; and some at the time of both their deaths; but in the Countries out of Judea, where the stroke of their Sanhedrin could not reach so well, nor light so heavy, there was tumultuousness indeed enough, and beating and bitterness against it, but rare effusion of blood, till the cursed example set last year by the Tyrant at Rome, and now forward in the confusions of the Jewish Nation; when a madness was come upon them among themselves, and a desperate fury against all that would not be as they were. And that not only in Judea the seat of the War, but even through the whole world as far as they durst, and were able to stir. Those words of Dion are very remarkable when speaking of the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, he saith, That the Jews that were in foreign Countries, not only within the Roman Empire, but also without, did send help to their brethren in Judea, lib. 66.
When Cyrus gave leave to the Jews after the seventy years captivity to return to their own Country, multitudes of them found themselves so pleasingly seated, and by continuance of time rooted in Babylonia, that they would not remove their habitation, but fixed there. There, in time they grew to so great a Nation, and distinct a people, that they had 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A Prince of the Captivity of their own blood over them, and three famous Universities, Nehardea, Pombeditha and Soria, which yielded very many eminent Scholars in the Judaic learning.
In the division of the employment of the three Ministers of the Circumcision, Peter, James and John, Peter 's lot fell here, and from Babylon itself the very Center of those parts he sends this Epistle. He directs it to the dispersed Jews in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, in which parts the Apostasy from the faith had been exceeding prevalent, and accordingly the trouble of those that stuck to the faith, the most bitter. And in his inscribing it to the Elect, he seemeth to have his eye upon those words of his Master about this Apostasy, Matth. 24. 24. They shall deceive, if it were possible, the very Elect.
Among the many divine lessons that he reads to them, he teaches them and us who is the Rock upon which the Church is built, Chap. 2. 4, &c. and how accordingly to understand super hanc Petram, Matt. 16. He exhorts them with all earnestness to yield obedience to superior powers, Chap. 2. 13, 14. and that the rather because of that spirit of the Zelotae, that walking among the Nation in all parts, urged them not to submit to any Heathen power.
He magnifieth Baptism as a badge and pledge of preservation of those that had received it, and stuck to it, from that vengeance that was coming upon that wicked Nation, Chap. 3. 21. It is something a strange recoiling that he makes, leaping back from mention of the death of Christ, ver. 18. over all the story of the Old Testament, and lighteth on the generation that was swept away by the flood: and showeth how Christ's spirit preached unto them. Why? had not the same Spirit preached in all the times between? Why are not those times named then as well as these? Because the Apostle doth purposely intend to compare that old world then destroyed, with the destruction of the Jewish Nation shortly coming: and to show that as Noah and his family were then saved by water, ver. 20. so, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , they that had received Baptism were the Antitype to that, and Baptism was a pledge and means of their deliverance now, they sticking closely to it. And this very thing John the Baptist taught in that question, Who hath forwarned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore when he calls 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . An asking of a good Conscience towards or after God, he makes not this its definition, as if none but those so qualified were to be baptized, but he characters its difference from Circumcision, which put away the filth of the flesh in one sense; and Legal and Pharisaical washings which did it in another. His whole comparison runs to this tenor: The old world was disobedient to the spirit of Christ preaching in the mouth of Noah, and therefore they perished. The Jews [whose state the Scripture also calleth an old world ] were disobedient to Christ preaching by his Spirit in the mouth of his Apostles, and even visibly and audibly in his own person, therefore, they must needs perish: But Noah and his family that hearkeneth after God [whilst others said to the Lord Depart from us, Job 22. 16, 17.] were preserved by water: Even so doth Baptism now preserve us, the Antitype of that figure. For Baptism was not barely a washing of the body from filth, as the common Legal washings were, but it was an owning and asking after God, conscientiously, out from a perverse and wicked generation: and therefore not to be started or revolted from. This then being one end of Baptism, and that end taught to them that assumed it, viz. to badge and mark to safety from the approaching vengeance, it may very well raise an argument for Infants Baptism [whereas this text is commonly produced against it:] for if these parents that came in to be baptized, sought hereby to flee from the wrath to come, they would be careful to bring their children under the same badge of security.
When he judgeth 〈◊〉 that perished in the waters of Noah to be now in prison, ver. 19. he knew he had the consent of his Nation in it: for thus they say in Sanhedr. per. 10. halac. 3. The generation of the flood have no portion in the world to come: neither shall they stand up in Judgment; for it is said, My spirit shall no more judge with man, Gen. 6. 3. Peter teacheth us that the Spirit that strove with the old world, was the Spirit of Messias.
He sends this Epistle by Sylvanus, Paul's old attendant, but now with Peter: He stiles him, A faithful brother to you, as I suppose: not as doubting but assured. He was to bring this Epistle to the Circumcision, who himself had been a Minister of the uncircumcision: therefore this attestation is the more needful and material, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I repute him a faithful brother to you of the Circumcision, and do you also so repute him.
His naming of Mark with him, calls our thoughts back to what hath been mentioned of Mark heretofore: his being with Paul at Rome, and his coming from him into the East. To suppose two Marks, one with Peter and another with Paul, is to breed confusion where there needeth not, and to conceive that for which the Scripture hath not only no ground, but is plain enough to the contrary: It is easily seen how John Mark came into familiarity both with Paul and Peter, and other Mark we can find none in the New Testament, unless of our own invention: His being in these later times with Peter and Paul, may turn our thoughts to consider how his Uncle Barnabas and he parted, since Paul and Barnabas parted about him. He it was that wrote the Gospel, it may be being with Peter, as Luke did the like being with Paul. In his Gospel he is most exact of all the four in observing the proper time and series of the stories recorded.
[CHRIST. LXVI] [NERO. XII] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . The Wars of the Jews began in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero, in the month of May. Joseph. de Bell. lib. 2 cap. 25.
If we take a view of the Nation, as it was at the present, and as it had been for thirty or forty years backward, we shall find that besides the ordinary and common wickedness that was among them, they had these four additions of iniquity monstrous and unparalleled, and in which they did, as it were, exceed themselves. 1. In regard that the appearance of the Messias was expected to be about the time that Christ appeared indeed, very many taking advantage of the time and of that expectation, took upon them, some to be Christ, others to be Prophets attending, and relating to his coming, Matth. 24. 24. Upon which Josephus and other Writers of that Nation will give us a very full commentary of experiences. 2. There were multitudes of the Zelotae, and of the sect of Judas the Galilean, which would not yield any homage or subjection to be due to the Roman power which was now over them: and neither would they now themselves, nor would they suffer others, as far as they could hinder, to submit unto them. 3. The unbelieving Jews were generally sworn enemies and prosecutors of those that believed. And 4. which we have observed before, multitudes of those that had believed and embraced the Gospel fell away, and became either seduced or the greatest seducers, and brought in horrid heresies and pollutitions. So that in these various and malignant distempers of men, there had been continual confusions, tumults, firings, murderings and plunderings among them for many years, and they had been the unquietest and most tumultuous Nation that had been under Heaven, and they had often provoked the Roman power against themselves, yet till this year had they never so visibly and professedly taken up Arms and open War against that power.
The first spark kindled in Cesarea upon the sea, about an inchroachment that a Gentile there made upon the way that went to the Jews Synagogue; and from thence it grew into a flame so fast through the whole Country [ Florus the Governor helping it on] that by the sixteenth of May, his Soldiers by his Commission have plundered Jerusalem, slain 3600. persons: and even Berenice sister to King Agrippa escaped very narrowly with her life.
The Jews and Romans have divers skirmishes: Massada Castle taken and the Roman Garison put to the sword. The Temple and several parts of the Cities made Garrisons for several parties, and suffer much by fire and battery. Twenty thousand Jewsslain in Cesarea on a Sabbath: whereupon all the Nation rise about to avenge this slaughter, and in Syria, Phaenicea, Samaria, Peraea and all round about, destroy Towns, Cities and persons all before them. Cestius the Governor of Syria rises with his forces, and destroys the Jews again, and their Towns all before him, and on the thirtieth of October enters Jerusalem and fires a good part of the City.
Yet do the Jews give him a brush upon his march away, and cut off above 4000 of his men: with which success they are so fleshed, that they resolve to fight it out, and accordingly platform themselves into the model and posture of a long War: and the Country is only full of Fire, Sword, War and destruction.
The abomination of desolation had now begun to stand in the holy place, Matth. 24. 15. when the Temple is made a Garrison, and filled with slaughter; Antonia, the Castle of the Temple, besieged, taken, and the Roman Garrison put to the sword. The 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Tabernae, or part of the buildings at the East wall of the mountain of the House [the place where the Sanhedrin had once sitten,] fired and burnt down. Jerus. in Peah. fol. 16. col. 3. And in a word, the Temple from this time forwards, never but a Garrison, and full of slaughter and confusion till it be raked up in ashes.
Now it was time for those that were in Judea, who believed Christ's prediction, to get into the Mountains, and to shift for themselves, for now begins the tribulation beyond parallel, such as was not since the beginning of the world, nor ever must again, Matth. 24. 21. It is commonly asserted that the Christians fled to Pella a City beyond Jordan: Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 3. cap. 5. which how to reconcile with Josephus, who saith Pella was one of the Cities that the Jews destroyed in avengement of the slaughter of the 20000 in Cesarea, De Bell. lib. 2. cap. 33. let the Learned find.
About these times therefore we may well conceive to have been the writing of THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. And that the rather from what he speaks in Chap. 1. ver. 14. I know that I must shortly put off this tabernacle, as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shown me. In which words, his thoughts reflect upon what Christ had spoken to John and him about their ends, John 21. where he not only gave intimation to Peter that he should be Martyred, ver. 18. but that he should be so, before his coming in Judgment against Jerusalem, which John must live to see, but he must not, ver. 22. He therefore in Babylon, understanding how affairs went in Judea and with the Jewish Nation all thereabout, and reading therein, from the words of his Master, Matth. 24. that the desolation was drawing on apace, concludes that his time was not long: and therefore improves the time he hath remaining the best he can, not only in teaching those amongst whom he was, but by writing this Epistle instructeth those that were remote and at distance from him; in which he doth more especially give them caution against false teachers: and characters the terror of the judgment coming, and exhorts to vigilancy and holiness.
The first character that he gives of the false teachers is, that they bring in damnable Heresies, denying the Lord that bought them, Chap. 2. 1. which he speaketh from Deut. 32. from whence also he useth other expressions, ver. 6. Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee? not meaning that these wretches were redeemed by Christ, yet became such wretches, as some would interpret it; but by buying is meant his buying out of Egypt this people for a peculiar people: which these wretches boasted and stood upon, yet by their introducing and practicing the profane principles they did, of fornication and communicating with Idols, they denied the true God which bought that people for his peculiar. He calls them spots, ver. 13. from Deut. 32. 5. and parallels them with the old world, Sodom, Balaam, nay the very fallen Angels.
He sets forth the destruction of that cursed Nation and their City in those terms that Christ had done, Matt. 24. and that the Scripture doth elsewhere, Deut. 32. 22, 23. 24. Jer. 4. 23. namely as the destruction of the whole world, The heavens passing away, the elements melting, and the earth burnt up, &c. And accordingly he speaks of a new heaven and a new earth, from Isa. 65. 17. a new state of the Church under the Gospel among the Gentiles, when this old world of the Jews state should be dissolved.
He citeth Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, and giveth an honorable testimony to that, and to the rest of his Epistles: but acknowledgeth that in some places they are hard to be understood, and were misconstrued by some unlearned and unstable ones to their own ruin; yet neither doth he, nor Paul who was yet alive, and well knew of this wresting of his Epistles, clear or amend those difficulties, but let them alone as they were: for the holy Ghost hath so penned Scripture as to set men to study.
And here is the last that we hear in Scripture of this great Apostle Peter. His Martyrdom he apprehends to be near, and it was to be before Jerusalem was destroyed, which was not now full four years to come. We may well conceive him to have been put to death by the Jews in Babylonia where he now was: a madness having come upon that Nation in all parts: and a singular raging against the Gospel, the devil bestirring himself in them, now he knew their time was so short.
THE EPISTLE OF JUDE.
As the second Epistle of Peter and this of Jude are very near akin, in style, matter and subject, so it is fairly conjecturable in them that they were not far removed in time, speaking both of wicked ones and wickedness at the same height and ripeness. They are one to another as the Prophesy of Obadiah, and Jerem. 49. 14, &c. speaking the same thing, using the same manner of arguing, and oftentimes almost the same words. It may be Jude stands up in his brother James his charge among the Circumcision of Judea, and directs his Epistle to all those that were sanctified and preserved in those Apostatizing times, as his brother had done to all the twelve Tribes in general.
In citing the story of Michael the Archangel contending with the devil about the body of Moses, ver. 9. he doth but the same that Paul doth in naming Jannes and Jambres, namely allege a story which was current and owned among the Nation, though there were no such thing in Scripture; and so he argueth with them from their own Authors and concessions. It is harsh to strain Zech. 3. 1, 2. to speak such a story; when neither the name Michael is mentioned, nor anything like the body of Moses or akin to it. But among the Talmudicks there seems to be something like the relics of such a matter, viz. of Michael and the Angel of death disputing or discoursing about fetching away the soul of Moses.
His alleging the Prophesy of Enoch, is an arguing of the very like nature, as citing and referring to some known and common tradition that they had among them to this purpose. [The Book Sepher Jesher an Hebrew Writer speaketh of Enoch after such a tenor.] And in both these he useth their own testimonies against themselves: as if he should thus have spoken at large: These men speak evil of dignities, whereas they have and own a story for current, that even Michael the Archangel did not speak evil of the devil, when he was striving with him about the body of Moses, &c. And whereas they show and own a Prophesy of Enoch, of God coming in Judgment, &c. why these are the very men to whom such a matter is to be applied, &c. It is no strange thing in the New Testament, for Christ and the Apostles to deal and argue with the Jews upon their own concessions.
THE THREE EPISTLES OF JOHN.
Among all the Apostolic Epistles there is none about whose time of writing we are so far to seek as we are about these. And it is neither satisfactory to remove their place, nor is it satisfactory to take their time according to their place; or to conceive them to be written after the Epistles of Peter, because they are placed after them. Any conjecture that is to be had of them may best be taken from the third Epistle.
Gaius, to whom that Epistle is directed, by that encomiastick character that John giveth of him, seemeth to be Gaius the Corinthian, the host of the whole Church, Rom. 16. 23. for since he is commended for entertainment and charity both to the Church and strangers, particularly to those who had preached among the Gentiles, taking nothing of them, we know not where to find any other Gaius to whom to affix this character but only this, and we have no reason to look after any other. And upon this probability we may observe these other.
I. That that third Epistle was written when those that preached to the Gentiles and took nothing of them, were still abroad upon that employment, for he urgeth him to bring them forward on their journey, ver. 6. Now under that expression, of taking nothing of the Gentiles, we can understand none but Paul and Barnabas and those that were of their several companies, for the Scripture hath named none other. And if it refer to Paul and his company [for we find not that Barnabas had anything to do with Gaius ] then we must conclude that it was written a good while before this time that we are upon: unless we will suppose Paul after his freedom from imprisonment at Rome, was got travelling and preaching in those parts again. But I should rather suppose that John sent this third Epistle to Gaius to Corinth, by Timothy from Ephesus, who was setting away thence for Rome, upon Paul's sending for him to come to him thither, 2 Tim. 4. 9, 11, 21. In which journey as we have shown before, he was to call at Corinth, and to take Mark along with him, who was there. And of them may Johns advice to Gaius be well understood, Whom if thou bring forward on their journey thou shalt do well: For for his sake they went out taking nothing of the Gentiles; Mark with Barnabas, and Timothy with Paul.
II. Before John wrote this Epistle to Gaius, he had written another Epistle, to some Church, it may be that of Corinth, of which Gaius was. I wrote, saith he, unto the Church, but Diotrephes who loveth to have the preeminence, receiveth us not. This must needs be understood of The first Epistle of John: unless we will conceive, unwarrantably [that I may say no worse,] that any of Johns writings are lost.
III. Upon and with the forementioned supposal that John sent his Epistle to Gaius by Timothy from Ephesus; we cannot but also suppose that John spent some time in the Asian Churches, to which afterward from Patmos he writes his Epistles: And if any one be not satisfied with that interpretation that was given before, about the Epistle from Laodicea, Colos. 4. 16. let him rather understand it of The first Epistle of John as written by him from Laodicea, then think it was an Epistle written by Paul from Laodicea, and that that Epistle is lost: In both his later Epistles he intimateth his hopes and purpose shortly to come to them: from which we may construe that his intention was to travel from Asia the less where he now was, and from whence he wrote all his three Epistles westward into Greece, and in this journey you have him got into Patmos, Rev. 1. from whence he writes back to Asia again.
In all his Epistles he exhorteth to love, and constancy in the truth, a lesson most needful in those divided and Apostatizing times. He giveth notice of many Antichrists now abroad, and these he showeth to have been such as had once professed the truth, but were apostatized from it: They went out from us, but they were not of us, &c. And this Apostasy he calleth The sin unto death. To such he adviseth they should not so much as say God speed: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in their vulgar language. Jerus. Taamith fol. 64. col. 2. The Rabbins saw a holy man of Caphar Immi, and went to him and said 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 God speed, But he answered them nothing. Id. in Sheviith fol. 35. 2. & 36. 1. R. Chinna bar Papa & R. Samuel bar Nachman, went by a man that was plowing on the seventh year [the year of release,] R. Samuel saith to him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 God speed. R. Chinna saith, Our master did not teach us thus: for it is forbidden to say God speed, to one that is plowing on the seventh year.
John styleth himself an Elder, and so doth Peter, 1 Pet. 5. 1. not as laying aside their Apostolical power, but as dealing with those to whom they write in a Ministerial way: and by this very title that they assume to themselves, they closely intimate that thenceforward the extraordinary Function and gifts Apostolic must not be expected, but the Ministerial, in the ordinary way of Elders or Ministers, as the title had been long and vulgarly known. And yet when he speaks of Diotrephes and his abusiveness, he then threatens to show his Apostolic power, and himself A Son of thunder against him.
THE REVELATION OF JOHN.
AS it will be easily admitted to place this Book last of all the New Testament, because it stands so in all Bibles, so on the other hand it will be cavilled at, that I have brought in the writing of it so soon, as before the fall of Jerusalem, since it hath been of old and commonly held, that it was penned in the reign of Domitian, far after these times that we are upon: But the reasons by which I have been induced thereunto, will appear out of some passages in the Book itself as we go through it.
As God revealed to Daniel the man greatly beloved, the state of his people, and the Monarchies that afflicted them, from his own time, till the coming of Christ; so doth Christ to John the beloved Disciple, the state of the Church, and story in brief of her chief afflictors, from thence to the end of the world. So that where Daniel ends the Revelation begins, and John hath nothing to do with any of the four Monarchies that he speaketh of, but deals with a fifth [the Roman ] that rose as it were out of the ashes of those four, and swallowed them all up.
The composure of the Book is much like Daniel's in this, that it repeats one story over and over again, in varied and enlarged expressions: and exceeding like Ezekiel 's in method and things spoken. The style is very Prophetical, as to the things spoken; and very Hebraizing, as to the speaking of them. Exceeding much of the old Prophets language, and matter adduced to intimate new stories: and exceeding much of the Jews language, and allusion to their customs and opinions, thereby to speak the things more familiarly to be understood. And as Ezekiel wrote concerning the ruin of Jerusalem, when the ruining of it was now begun, so I suppose doth John of the final destruction of it, when the Wars and miseries were now begun, which bred its destructions.
REVEL. Chap. I, II, III.
THE three first Chapters refer to that present time when John wrote: and they contain the story of his obtaining this Revelation, and of the condition of the seven Churches of Asia at that time: declared in the Epistles directed to them.
John travelling in the Ministry of the Gospel up and down from Asia Westward, cometh into the Isle Patmos, in the Icarian Sea [ Vid. Strab. lib. 10.] an Island about thirty miles compass [ Plin. lib. 4. cap. 12.] and there on the Lord's day he hath these visions, and an Angel interprets to him all he saw.
He seeth Christ clothed like a Priest, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ver. 13. [See the LXX in Exod. 28. 4.] and girded over the paps, as the Priests used to be, with the curious girdle. His appearance full of Majesty and gloriousness, described in the terms of Daniel, Chap. 7. 9. & 10. 5, 6. Amongst other his Divine titles he is called Alpha and Omega, terms ordinarily used by the Jews [only uttered in their Hebrew Tongue] to signify the beginning and the end, or the first and the last. Midr. Tillin. fol. 47. 2. Abraham and Sarah performed all the Law from Aleph to Tau. Marg. tripl. targ. in Deut. 18. 13. He that walks in integrity is as if he performed all the Law from Aleph to Tau.
He directs Epistles to be sent to the seven Churches of Asia: who are golden Candlesticks though very full of corruptions [it is not a small thing that unchurches a Church] and inscribed to the Angels of the Churches: This phrase translates 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Sheliahh Tsibbur, the title of the Minister in every Synagogue, who took care for the public reading and expounding of the Law and Prophets: And these Epistles are sent accordingly to the Ministers of the several Churches, that they might be read openly in their Congregations.
There are seven several Epistles to the several Churches, dictated immediately and sent by Christ, and another general one from John to them all, in which he shows the warrant and way of writing those seven.
He terms the Holy Ghost, the seven Spirits, according to the Jews common speech, who from Isa. 11. 2. speak much of the seven Spirits of Messias: and speaking of Christ's coming with clouds, Chap. 1. 7. from Dan. 7. 13. and from the words of Christ himself, Matth. 24. 30. He at once teacheth that he takes at Daniel, and speaks of Christ's coming and reigning, when the four Monarchies were destroyed, and especially referreth to the first most visible evidence of his power and dominion, in coming to destroy his enemies the Jewish Nation, and their City. And here is one reason that induceth me to suppose this Book written, before that City was destroyed.
Coming to read the present condition of these Asian Churches in the Epistles written to them, we may pertinently think of that saying of Paul, 2 Tim. 1. 15. This thou knowest that all they that are in Asia are turned from me: A great Apostasy: of which there is too much evidence in these Churches, as also mention of some sad fruits of it, and means and instruments inducing to it. As 1. unbelieving Jews which the Holy Ghost all along calls A Synagogue of Satan: with these the Church of Smyrna was pestered, and more especially Pergamos, where their mischievousness is styled the very throne or seat of Satan: and where they had murdered Antipas a faithful Martyr already. 2. False Apostles and seducers: some that pretended Apostolic power and commission, and it may be coloured their pretences with Magical wonders, that they might act more Apostle like. These the Church of Ephesus was troubled with, but had discovered their delusions and found them liars. 3. Other seducers that, it may be, came not in the demonstration of such devilish power, but answered that by their horrid devilish doctrines, the doctrines of the Nicolaitans, which taught to eat things sacrificed to Idols, and to commit fornication. In Thyatire a woman seducer, cried up this doctrine, a whore and witch, a Jezebel: wherefore she and her children, that is, her Disciples, are threatened to be destroyed by the plague: the vengeance upon the fornicators with Baal Peor.
REVEL CHAP. IV, V.
NOW cometh a second vision. That before was of things then being, see Chap. 1. 19. but this and forward of things to come, Chap. 4. 1. A door open in Heaven, and the voice of a trumpet talking with John out of it.
The scene of Johns visions said to be in Heaven, is according to the scheme of the Temple and the Divine glory there. And hence you have mention of the Altar, Candlesticks, Sea of Glass [the brazen laver made of the Womens looking Glasses] the Ark of the Covenant, and the like. And as at the opening of the Temple doors, a Trumpet sounded, so is the allusion here. The door in Heaven opened, and a Trumpet calls John to come in and see what there. And immediately he was in the Spirit, ver. 2. Why? Was he not in the Spirit before? Chap. 1. 10. and was he not in the Spirit, in seeing the door in Heaven opened? &c. But we may observe a double degree in rapture: as inspired men may be considered under a double notion: viz. Those that were inspired with Prophesy or to be Prophets and to preach, and those that were inspired to be Penmen of Divine Writ, which was higher. John hath both inspirations or revelations to both ends, both in the Vision before, and this: then he was in the Spirit and saw the vision, and was in the Spirit and inspired to pen what he saw, and what to be sent to the Churches. And in the first verse of this Chapter he is in the Spirit or hath a revelation, and in ver. 2. he is in the Spirit, he is inspired so as to take impression and remembrance of these things to write them also.
He seeth Christ inthroned in the middle of his Church, in the same Prophetick and visionary Emblem that Ezekiel had seen, Ezek. 1. & 10. and this is a commentary and fulfilling of that scene that Daniel speaketh of, Dan. 7. 9, 10, 22. In Ezekiel, the Lord, when Jerusalem was now to be destroyed, and the glory of the Lord that used to be there, and the people were to flit into another Land, appeareth so inthroned, as sitting in Judgment and flitting away by degrees to another place: as compare Ezek. 1. & 10. well together. So Christ here; when the destruction of Jerusalem was now near at hand, and his glory and presence to remove from that Nation, now given up to unbelief and obduration, to reside among the Gentiles, he is seated upon his throne as Judge and King with glorious attendance, to judge that Nation for their sins and unbelief, and stating the affairs of his Church whither his glory was now removing.
The scheme is platformed according to the model of Israel's Camp. 1. The Tabernacle was in the middle there, so is the throne here. 2. There the four squadrons of the Camp of Levi next the Tabernacle, so here the four living creatures. 3. Then the whole Camp of Israel, so here twenty four Elders Representatives of the whole Church, built from twelve Tribes and twelve Apostles.
In the hand of him that sat on the Throne was a Book sealed which no creature could open. This justly calls us back to Dan. 12. ver. 4. Where words are shut up and a Book sealed unto the time of the end: and now that that is near drawing on, the Book is here opened.
REVEL. CHAP. VI.
THE opening of the six Seals in this Chapter, speaks the ruin and rejection of the Jewish Nation, and the desolation of their City; which is now very near at hand.
The first Seal opened, ver. 2. shows Christ setting forth in Battle array and avengement against them, as Psal. 45. 4, 5. And this the New Testament speaketh very much and very highly of, one while calling it his coming in clouds, another while his coming in his Kingdom, and sometime his coming in Power and great Glory, and the like. Because his plagueing and destroying of the Nation that crucified him, that so much opposed and wrought mischief against the Gospel, was the first evidence that he gave in sight of all the world of his being Christ: for till then, he and his Gospel had been in humility, as I may say, as to the eyes of men, he persecuted whilst he was on Earth, and they persecuted after him, and no course taken with them that so used both, but now he awakes, shows himself, and makes himself known by the Judgment that he executeth.
The three next Seals opening, show the means by which he did destroy, namely those three sad plagues that had been threatened so oft and so sore by the Prophets, Sword, Famine and Pestilence. For
The second Seal opened sends out one upon a red Horse to take Peace from the Earth, and that men should destroy one another; he carried a great Sword, ver. 4.
The third Seals opening speaks of Famine, when Corn for scarcity should be weighed like spicery in a pair of balances, ver. 5, 6.
The fourth Seal sends out one on a pale Horse whose name was Death [the Chaldee very often expresseth the Plague or Pestilence by that word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : and so it is to be taken Revel. 2. 22.] and Hell or Hades comes after him, ver. 8.
The opening of the fifth Seal reveals a main cause of the vengeance, namely the blood of the Saints which had been shed, crying, and which was to be required of that generation, Matth. 23. 35, 36. These souls are said to cry from under the Altar, either in allusion to the blood of creatures sacrificed, poured at the foot of the Altar, or according to the Jews tenet, That all just souls departed are under the Throne of Glory. Answer to their cry is given, that the number of their Brethren that were to be slain was not yet fulfilled, and they must rest till that should be, and then avengement in their behalf should come. This speaks suitable to that which we observed lately, that now times were begun of bitter persecution, an hour of temptation, Rev. 2. 10. & 3. 10. the Jews and Devil raging, till the Lord should something cool that fury by the ruin of that people.
The opening of the sixth Seal, ver. 12, 13. shows the destruction itself in those borrowed terms that the Scripture useth to express it by, namely as if it were the destruction of the whole world: as Matth. 24. 29, 30. The Sun darkened, the Stars falling, the Heaven departing and the Earth dissolved, and that conclusion ver. 16. They shall say to the rocks fall on us, &c. doth not only warrant, but even enforce us to understand and construe these things in the sense that we do: for Christ applies these very words to the very same thing, Luke 23. 30. And here is another, and, to me, a very satisfactory reason, why to place the showing of these visions to John, and his writing of this Book before the desolation of Jerusalem.
REVEL. CHAP. VII.
IN the end of the former Chapter was contained the intimation of the desolation of Jerusalem, and in the beginning of this, the ceasing of Prophesy, under the similitude of the four winds restrained from blowing upon the Earth. Compare Cant. 4. 16. Ezek. 37. 9. only a remnant of Israel are sealed unto salvation, and not to perish by that restraint, and with them innumerable Gentiles. Ezekiel helpeth here to confirm the explication that we have given of the Chapter before: for he hath the very like passage, upon the first destruction of the City, Ezek. 9. & 10. 11. Compare the marking in the foreheads here, with Exod. 28. 38. Dan not mentioned among the Tribes in this place: Idolatry first began in that Tribe, Judge. 18. 1 King. 12.
REVEL. CHAP. VIII.
THE opening of the seventh Seal lands us upon a new scene: as a new world began when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews cast off. The six Seals in the two former Chapters, have shown their ruin, and the appearing of the Church of the Gentiles, and now the seven Trumpets under the seventh Seal give us a prospect in general of the times thence forward to the end of all things. I say in general, for from the beginning of the twelfth Chapter and forward to the end of the nineteenth they are handled more particularly.
Silence in Heaven for a while, and seven Angels with seven Trumpets may call our thoughts to Joshua 6. 4, 10. and intimate that the Prophetick story is now entered upon a new Canaan, or a new stage of the Church, as that business at Jericho was at Israel's first entering on the old: Or it may very properly be looked upon as referring and alluding to the carriage of things at the Temple, since this Book doth represent things so much according to the scheme and scene of the Temple all along.
And in this very place there is mention of the Altar and Incense and Trumpets, which were all Temple appurtenances. It was therefore the custom at the Temple that when the Priest went in to the Holy place, the people drew downward from the Porch of the Temple, and there was a silence whilst he was there, [yea though the people were then praying] incomparably beyond what there was at other times of the service, for the Priests were blowing with Trumpets or the Levites singing: The allusion then here is plain. When the sacrifice was laid on the Altar, a Priest took coals from the Altar, went in to the Holy place, and offered incense upon the Golden Altar that stood before the veil, that was before the Ark, and this being done, the Trumpets sounded over the sacrifice. Here then is first intimation of Christ's being offered upon the Altar; then his going into the Holy place as Mediator for his people: and then the Trumpets sounding and declaring his disposals in the world. His taking fire off the Altar and casting it upon the Earth, ver. 5. is a thing not used at the Temple, but spoken from Ezek. 10. 2. which betokeneth the sending of judgment, which the Trumpets speak out.
These seven Trumpets, and the seven Vials in Chap. 16. in many things run very parallel, how far they Synchronize, will be best considered when we come there.
The first Trumpet sounding, brings hail and fire and blood upon the Earth, and destroys grass and trees a third part of them. Fire and hail was the plague of Egypt, Exod. 9. 23. but fire and blood, with hail, is a new plague. By these seemeth to be intimated what plagues should be brought upon the world, by fire, sword, dreadful tempest, unnatural seasons and the like.
The second Trumpet sounds, and a great burning mountain is cast into the Sea, and the third part of it becomes blood. The Sea in the Prophetick language, doth signify multitudes of people: as Jerem. 51. 36. 42. And Babylon that was Monarch was a burning mountain in the same Chapter, ver. 35. So that the Imperial power seemeth to be the mountain here; which made bloody and mischievous work, not only by the persecution of Christians, but even among their own people. As Nero at present, Vitellius instantly after, Domitian, Commodus, and indeed generally all of them either bloodily destroy their own people, or at least for their covetousness, ambition, revenge or humor, bring disquietness, oppression, misery, Wars and Blood, upon all the World, in one place or other.
The third Trumpet, brings the Star Wormwood upon the Rivers and Fountains of waters, which seemeth to denote the grievous Heresies that should be in the Church, which should corrupt and embitter the pure springs of the Scripture and fountains of Truth. A Star in the language of this Book is a Church-man, Chap. 1. 20. [ Ben Cochab was such a Wormwood Star among the Jews, called most properly Ben cozba the liar. ] And the phrase, A Star falling from Heaven, alludes to Isa. 14. 12. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer! &c.
The fourth Trumpet shows the darkening of the Sun and Moon and Stars for a third part.
By which seems to be understood the wane and decay, both in the glory of the Church, by superstition, and of the Empire, by its divisions within, and enemies from without, and this before the rising of the Papacy, which appears under the next Trumpet: and these things were great advantages to its rising. The darkening of the heavenly luminaries in the Prophets language signifieth the eclipsing of the glory and prosperity of a Kingdom or People, Isa. 13. 9, 10. Joel 2. 10. How it was with the Church and Empire in these respects, before that time that the Papacy appeared, he is a stranger to History, both Ecclesiastical and Civil, that remembereth not upon this very hint.
The three Trumpets coming are the Trumpets of Woe, woe, woe: though these things past were very woeful; but those much more that are to come.
REVEL. CHAP. IX.
A Description of the Papacy under the fifth Trumpet. Another Star falling from Heaven, and that a notable one indeed, the He that hath the Key of the bottomless pit committed to him. A vast difference from the Keys given Peter, The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: The setting of these in their just distance and opposition will illustrate the matter before us. When the world is to come out of darkness and Heathenism to the knowledge of the Gospel, Christ gives Peter the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, to open the door and let light come in among them: for he first preached to the Gentiles, Act. 10. & 15. 7. The World under the Papacy returns, as it were, to Heathenism again [and not undeservedly for its contempt of the Gospel and unproficiency under it] which is very fitly described by Hell opened, by the Keys of the bottomless pit, and darkness coming and clouding all. The Claviger or Turnkey is The child of perdition, Abaddon and Apollyon, a destroyer and one that is surely and sorely to be destroyed. Chittim [ Italy or Rome ] afflicting and perishing forever, Num. 24. 24. Antichrist of the second edition, much augmented and enlarged. The Jews the first, as we observed at the second Epistle to the Thessalontans, and this the second, Antichrist at his full stature. It is true indeed that Rome Heathen is one part of him, but observe how little a part reputed in comparison of Rome Papish, the Star fallen from Heaven. So that though that did woeful things, yet you see the first woe is fixed here.
The way of his bringing woe upon the Earth, is by filling the World with smoke and darkness of ignorance and human traditions and inventions: and out of this smoke come his locusts, of his votary orders. The locusts described much like those in Joel 1. for their terror and destroying: only their having the faces of men speaks them men-caterpillars: and their Nazarite -like hair long as the hair of women, speaks them votaries; or such as take on them vowed Religion. Their trading is not with grass or the green things of the Earth as other Locusts do, but with Men, and they are Locusts in name, but Scorpions in action, wounding with the sting of their tails [the teacher of lies is the tail, Isa. 9. 15.] but not killing: leaving men indeed in a Religion and a profession of Christ, but no better then a venomed and dying one. The time of their tormenting is five months, the time of Locusts ravening ordinarily, from the spring well shot forth, to harvest.
This is the first woe.
These Locusts stings, mind me of a story or two in the Roman History: which let me mention here, though I cannot apply them hither. Dion, in his story of the life of Domitian saith thus, About that time divers began to prick many whom they pleased, with poisoned needles, whereof many died, hardly feeling what was done to them. And this was practiced not only at Rome, but almost through all the world.
And again in the life of Commodus. About that time, saith he, there was so great a mortality, that oft times there died two thousand in Rome in one day. And many, not only in the City, but also through the whole Roman Empire, were killed by mischievous men, who poisoning needles pricked others with them: as also it had been in Domitians time, and so innumerable people died by this means. But there was no greater plague then Commodus himself, &c.
The sounding of the sixth Trumpet begins another woe. Four Angels loosed, which were bound in Euphrates, and come with a terrible Army, and horses breathing fire and smoke and brimstone, and having stings in their tails, &c. The Turks and Mohammedans coming as a plague upon the Eastern part of the World, as the Papacy on the Western. These hurt with their tails [false doctrine] as well as the other did in the former Trumpet: but these have also heads in their tails which the other had not, for these hold out another Head and Savior, Mahomet.
REVEL. CHAP. X.
A Little Book in the hand of Christ, speaketh the restoring of Religion, and Truth, after all the darkness and confusions mentioned before. The words in ver. 6, 7. do help to state the intent of this Vision. He sware by him that liveth forever, that there should be delay of time no longer, but in the days of the seventh Trumpet the mystery of God should be fulfilled. The mystery of God is his gathering in of his Elect, more especially of the Gentiles, Rom. 16. 25, 26. Ephes. 3. 5, 6. and hitherto there had been great hindrance by Rome Heathen, by Heresies, Papacy, Turcism, but at last Christ swears, that there should be no more delay: the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 must be taken so here: and not unconsonant to the signification of the word, and very consonant to the context, and to the place from whence this verse is taken: That is Dan. 12. 7. where the Angel is brought in swearing, as here, that the trouble of Antiochus and his persecution and hindrance should be so long, and there should be no delay further, but there should be a restoring. That place laid to this, and Antiochus looked upon as a figure of Antichrist, the construction of this place is easy. Only the great Angel would have the speech of the seven thunders, which refer to these times, to be concealed. The Prophesy in general intimates the restoring of the Gospel in these later times, which is handled in the next Chapter, but very generally, and very briefly. Johns eating of the little Book, as Ezek. 2. 8. and the words to him, Thou must Prophesy again before many People and Nations and Tongues and Kings, do not so much infer Johns going abroad after this to preach to many Nations himself, as it doth the progress of the truth that he preached, through Nations and People, which had been suppressed so long: aiming at these times when the Gospel last broke out from under Popery. The passage is parallel to the last words in the Book of Daniel, Go thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest, and stand in the lot, at the end of days. Not that Daniel should live till the end of those miseries by Antiochus, but that his doctrine, and the truth should stand up and be restored in those times. The phrase is such another as when Christ telleth his Disciples that they should sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel, which is not meant of their personal sitting to judge, but that their doctrine should judge and condemn that unbelieving Nation.
REVEL. CHAP. XI.
THE Vision of this Chapter is in order to the accomplishing of the mystery of God, which was spoken of Chap. 10. 7. As Ezekiel's measuring of a new Temple, shown the restoring of Religion and of the Lord's people, and foretold of the new Jerusalem and calling of the Gentiles: To the same purpose is the measuring of the Temple here. The Church was under the mystical Babylon, Chap. 9. as the Jews were under the Eastern, when Ezekiel wrote those things; now as that description of the measures of the Temple, was a prediction and pledge of their coming forth, so this speaketh to the same tenor. John is commanded to leave the Court which is without the Temple, forth, and not to measure it, Because it was given to the Gentiles, and they should tread the holy City forty and two months. Not in an hostile way, but as the flock of the Lord tread his Courts, there worshipping him: as see the phrase, Isa. 1. 12. Psal. 122. 2. and the meaning seemeth to be this; Measure not the Court of the Gentiles, for their multitudes that come to attend upon the Lord shall be boundless and numberless.
The two and forty months: and a thousand two hundred and sixty days, ver. 3. and Chap. 12. 6. and a time and times and half a time, Chap. 12. 14. are but borrowed phrases from Daniel: who so expresseth the 3 years and an half of Antiochus his persecution, and treading down Religion, Dan. 7. 25. & 12. 7, 11. and they mean times of trouble, and are used to express that, but not any fixed time. The Jews themselves have learned to make the same construction of it, when they say Adrianus besieged Bitter three years and an half, Jerus. Taanith fol. 68. col. 4. And this also [that comfort might stand up against misery] was the time of our Savior's Ministry, when he restored decayed and ruined Religion, in so happy a manner, Dan. 9. 27. And this the Jews also have observed in that saying we have mentioned before, The divine glory shall stand upon mount Olivet three years and an half, and shall preach, &c. So that according to this interpretation of the numbers, the things they are applied unto are facile. The Gentiles shall tread the Lord's Courts forty two months, and the two Witnesses shall Prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days clothed in sackcloth: Meaning that the Gentiles shall worship God and attend upon him in a Gospel Ministry [and for that, allusion is made to the space of time that Christ administered the Gospel] but this ministering and attending shall not be without persecution and trouble [and for intimation of that, allusion is made to the bitter times of Antiochus. ]
Two witnesses, is a phrase taken from the Law. [ In the mouth of two or of three witnesses every word shall stand ] and it means all that should bear witness to the truth in the times spoken of. But more especially the Ministry, which is charactered by the picture of Moses and Elias, the two great Reformers in their several times: the former, the first Minister of the Jews, the later of the Gentiles. These are two Olive trees [See Zech. 4. 3. Rom. 11. 17, 24.] and two Candlesticks [See Chap. 1. 20.] gracious in themselves, and having light, and holding it out to others. They must finish and accomplish their work that they had to do, and then be overcome by Antichrist and slain.
Their case is clearly paralleled with Christ their Masters; by comparing it with which, it is best understood: He preached three years and six months in trouble and sorrow, so they in sackcloth: He having finished his Ministry was slain, so they. He revived and ascended, so they likewise. Now this that especially states the case, and the counting of the progress of proceedings intended here, is this: That as Christ laid the foundation of the Gospel, and when he having finished his Ministry was slain, risen and ascended, the Gospel was not extinct with him, but increased more and more by the Ministry that followed after: So seems this that alludes thereunto to be understood: As, that the two Witnesses should mean the first Ministry, and bearing witness to the truth at the first breaking of it out of Popery, which was followed with horrid persecutions and multitudes of Martyrdoms: but these first Witnesses having so done their Testimony, and vast numbers of them having sealed it with their blood, and being gone to Heaven, yet the Gospel increased and shook down a part of Rome even at these first beginnings.
Their dead bodies must be cast in the streets of the great City where our Lord was crucified. The term The great City resolves that Rome is meant, if there were no other evidence: which see explained, Chap. 17. 18. And by her power and sentence our Lord was crucified, and for a quarrel of hers, being accused and condemned by Pilate as a Traitor to the Roman power, for saying he was a King. This is the rather mentioned, now there is speech of Rome's last bloodiness against Christ's Witnesses: that it might be shown that it persevered the same, to his, that it had been to him, and that to the last, and that these Witnesses drunk but of the same cup that their Master had drunk before them.
She is called spiritually [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 as the Jews speak] Sodom and Egypt: Sodom for filthiness: and Egypt for Idolatry and mercilesness. Never did place under Heaven wallow in fleshly filthiness, and particularly in the Sodomitick bestiality, as Rome did about those times that John wrote: and how little it hath been mended under the Papacy there are Records plain enough that speak to her shame. He that reads Mar • ial and Juvenal [to name no more] may stand and wonder that men should become such beasts: and it had been better that those Books had been forever smothered in obscurity then that they should have come to light, were it not only for this, that they and others of the like stamp, do give that place her due character, and help us the better to understand her description. It is observable what Paul saith, Rom. • 1. 21, 22, 23, 24. that because the Heathen had brutish conceptions concerning God, abasing him, he gave them over to brutish abasing their own bodies by bestiality, or indeed by what was above bestial. And so he shows plainly, that God's giving up men to such filthiness, especially Sodomy, was a direct plague for their Idolatrous conceptions of God, and their Idolatry. And to this purpose it may be observed that when the Holy Ghost hath given the story of the worlds becoming Heathenish at Babel for and by Idolatry, Gen. 11. he is not long before he brings in mention of this sin among the Heathen, and fearful vengeance upon it, Gen. 19. Apply this matter to the case of Rome and it may be of good information.
The casting their dead bodies in the streets, speaks the higher spite and detestation against them: and in this particular they are described different from their Master. And as they had prophesied three years and an half, so they lay unburied three days and an half: till there was no apparent possibility of their recovery. But they revive and go to Heaven: and a tenth part of the City falls by an Earthquake, and seven thousand perish: but the rest of that part of the City that fell, who perished not, gave glory to God. Nine parts of the City left standing still: whose ruin is working still from henceforward, by the Gospel that these Witnesses had set on foot: which brings in the Kingdoms to become the Kingdoms of Christ, &c.
REVEL CHAP. XII.
AS Daniel, Chap. 2. giveth a general view of the times, from his own days, to the coming of Christ, in the mention of the four Monarchies [in the four parts of Nebuchadnezzers Visionary Image] which should run their date and decay, and come to nothing, before his coming: and then in Chap. 7. handles the very same thing again in another kind of scheme, and something plainer: And then in Chap. 8. & 10. & 11. & 12. doth explain at large, and more particularly, some of the most material things that he had touched in those generals: So doth our Apocalyptic here, and forward. He hath hitherto given a general survey of the times from his own days to the end: and now he goes over some of the chief heads again with explanation.
And first he begins with the birth of Christ, and the Christian Church: and the machination of the Devil to destroy both. The Church of the Jews bringeth forth her chief child, and the Devil seeketh to destroy him. He is pictured 1. A great red Dragon. Old Pharaoh who sought to devour new born Israel is much of the like character, Isa. 27. 7. Psal 74. 13, &c. 2. With seven heads: So many had the persecuting Monarchies, Dan. 7. the Lion one, the Bear one, the Leopard four, and the fourth beast one. 3. And ten horns, Parallel to the Syrogrecian persecutors, Dan. 7. 7, &c. 4. With his tail he drew and cast down the third part of the Stars: As the Tyrant Antiochus had done, Dan. 8. 10. So that by these allusive descriptions, phrases of old stories fetched to express new, is shown the acting of the Devil now, by his mischievous and tyrannical instruments, with as much bitterness and bloody-mindedness as he had done in those. The woman's fleeing into the Wilderness, alludes to Israel's getting away into the Wilderness from the Dragon Pharaoh, Exod. 14. &c. And her nourishing there a thousand two hundred and sixty days, speaks Christ's preservation of that Church in the bitterest danger and days, like the days of Antiochus. This Vision aims at the great opposition and oppression the Church and Gospel underwent from the first rising of it, to the ruin of Jerusalem: and their preservation in all that extremity.
The battle betwixt Michael and the Dragon, is of the same aim and time with the former; but it speaks thus much further, that the Church is not only preserved, but the Dragon conquered and cast to the Earth. Heaven all along in this Book is the Church, the Earth therefore may be properly understood of the World, and here more especially of that part of worldly ones, the unbelieving Jews; and that the rather, because the Gentiles here are called the Wilderness, as they be also in several other places in Scripture. The Devil therefore is cast out of the Church by the power of Michael, the Lord Christ, that he cannot nestle there, and he goes into the rest of the Nation that did not believe: much like the tenor of that parable, Matth. 12. 43, 44, 45. The Woman hath Eagles wings [alluding to Exod. 19. 4.] and gets into the Wilderness, the persecuted Church and Gospel gets among the Gentiles: The Devil casts venom as a flood after the Woman-Church, and the Earth swallows it up: the unbelieving Jews do as it were drink up all the poison of the Devil, and together with raging against the Church they grow enraged one against another, and against the Romans, till they become their own destroyers. And indeed though it were a most bitter time with the Church while she was among the combustions that that Nation had within itself, yet their raging one against another the more it increased in their particular quarrels, the more it avenged her quarrel, and turned their edge from off her, upon themselves. The Devil seeing this, betakes himself to fight against the Woman's seed, the Church of the Gentiles: and the Treatise of that begins in the next Chapter.
REVEL. CHAP. XIII.
WHEN Rome hath slain Christ, and destroyed Jerusalem, Satan gives up his Power and Throne to it; and that deservedly, as to one most like to be his chief and most able agent to act his fury. She is described here, a Beast bearing the shape of all the four bloody Monarchies, Dan. 7. in power and cruelty matching, nay incomparably exceeding them all. There is but little reason to take Rome for the fourth Monarchy in Daniel; and the so taking it, bringeth much disjointing and confusion, into the interpreting of that Book and this, and into the stating of affairs and times spoken of in them. The Jews like such a gloss well, as whereby they do conclude, that the Messias is not yet come, because the fourth Monarchy the Roman, say they, is not yet utterly destroyed. And truly I see not how they can conclude less, upon such a concession. For it is plain in Daniel, that the four Kingdoms there spoken of, must come to nothing before the first appearing of Messias; and that the Roman is not, is most plain, since this Book makes Rome Heathen and Papal but as one.
The Holy Ghost by Daniel shows the four Monarchies, the afflictors of the Church of the Jews till Messias his first coming, The Babylonian, The Mede-Persian, The Grecian, and The Syrogrecian: and John now takes at him, and shows a fifth Monarchy the afflicter of the Church of Jews and Gentiles till his second coming. Daniel indeed gives a hint of the Roman, but he clearly distinguisheth him from the other four, when he calls him the Prince that was to come, Dan. 9. 26. beyond and after those four that he had spoken of before. Him John describes here, as carrying the character of all those four. A Beast with ten horns, such a one had been the Syrogrecian, Dan. 7. 7 like a Leopard, as the Grecian was, verse. 6. his feet as a Bears, such the Persian, verse. 5. his mouth like a Lion, such the Babylonian, verse. 4. This therefore could not be any of those, when it was all: and by this description of it by characters of them all, it shows the vast power and incomparable cruelty and oppression of it equalling them all: nay it infinitely went beyond them put all together, in extent of Dominions, Power, Continuance and Cruelty, both to the Church and to the World: Balaam long before Rome was in being doth set it out for the great afflicter, Numb. 24. 24. Ships shall come from the coasts of Chittim, and shall afflict Assur, and shall afflict Eber: That Chittim means Italy or Rome, is granted even by some Romanists themselves, it is asserted by the Jews, and confirmed by other places of Scripture, and even proved by the very sense and truth of that place. It afflicts both the afflicted and the afflicter Eber and Assur: and that hath been the garb of it since its first being. How may this be read in her own stories? In her bloody Conquests over all the world: in the titles of honor [but which speak oppression] Britannicus, Germanicus, Africanus, and the like? And to take up all in Epitome, and that you may conjecture ex ungue Leonem, what whole Rome hath done in all her time for slaughter, oppression and destroying; take but the brief of one of her Commanders Pompey the Great; of whom Pliny speaks to this purpose, Nat. Hist. lib. 7. cap. 26. He recovered Sicily, subdued Africa: subjected eight hundred and seventy six Towns about the Alps and coasts of Spain: routed and slew 2183000 men. Sunk and took eight hundred and forty six Ships: took in one thousand five hundred and thirty eight fortified places; and triumphed from his Conquest of Asia, Pontus, Armenia, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, Silicia, Syria, Judea, Albania, Iberia, Crete and Basterna. What hath Rome done by all her agents in all her time? And she is this year 1654, two thousand four hundred and eight years old.
She is described here, with seven heads and ten horns, as the Dragon, whose deputed she is, is pictured Chap. 12. 3. the horns crowned with power, and the heads with blasphemies.
One of his heads had been wounded to death, but his deadly wound was healed: This seemeth to mean her Monarchical or Kingly power, which was extinguished with the Tarquins, but revived in the Caesar's: and hereby is given intimation from whence to account the beginning of this fifth Monarchy: namely from Rome's beginning again to be Monarchical: and we may well take a hint of this from Luke 2. where at the birth of Christ all the world is taxed by Caesar Augustus. Not that Monarchical Government is therefore the worse because thus abused by Rome Heathen, no more then Religion is the worse for being abused by Rome Papal.
Another Beast ariseth, like this for power and cruelty, but far beyond him in cozenage and delusion. Rome Heathen dealt always openly and in down right terms of bloodiness: professedly setting itself to destroy Religion: But Rome Papal is a mystery of iniquity: it goes to work by deceiving, and carrying fair pretences: therefore it is said that it spake as a Dragon, but had horns like a Lamb. It revives the Tyranny of Rome Heathen and Imperial, and none must thrive before it that will not bear its badge: either some mark, or its name, or the number of its name: which number was the number of a man, and his number is six hundred and sixty six. In Hebrew numerals, Sethur the name of a man in Numb. 13. 13. comes just to this number: and which being interpreted signifies Hidden or Mystery: the very inscription of Rome itself, Chap. 17. 5. In Greek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 fits it, which is the old name of the Roman. And in Gencalogical Arithmetic the number of Adonikams family suits with it, Ezra 5. 13. which man's name signifies, A Lord rising up.
REVEL. CHAP. XIV.
THE warring 'twixt Michael and his Angels, and the Dragon and his Angels, and the Dragons making war with seed of the Woman, Chap. 12. receiveth illustration in the thirteenth Chapter, and in the beginning of this. For in Chap. 13. he resigns his Power and Throne to the Beast Rome, and makes him chief leader in his Wars; and his Angels are men that receive his mark. Here the Lamb upon mount Zion is Michael, and his Angels and followers are marked with his Fathers Name in their foreheads as Chap. 7.
And now as in the eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh Chapters the relation is concerning those things that should be against the Church, from henceforth the Prophesy is more especially of things that make for the Church, and against her enemies. As 1. The preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles, ver. 6, 7. 2. The proclaiming of the ruin of the mystical Babylon: proclaimed even from its first rising up a persecutor: as Isaiah did Prophesy against the Eastern; even before its tyrannical being. 3. The Ministry of the Word giving caution, against joining with the Beast and his Image, and the danger and damnation that should follow upon joining with him, and the torments described, ver. 9, 10, 11. Here the patience of the Saints tried, ver. 12. and John by a voice from Heaven commanded to write them blessed that die in the Lord from thenceforth, ver. 13. at once showing the bitterness of the persecution caused by the Beast, that even death should be desirable to deliver the Saints from the trouble; and encouraging to stand out against the Beast and his Image even to the death.
These bitter dealings against the Church, ripen the sins of the world ready for cutting down: and thereupon Christ is described coming as against Egypt, Isa. 19. 1. riding upon a cloud, and with a sickle in his hand to reap the Earth. As Joel 3. 13. betokening his vengeance against his enemies: So the Earth is reaped Harvest and Vintage and all: This is a general intimation of God's judgment and vengeance, which is more particularly handled in the pouring out of the Vials, Chap. 16.
It is observable that the word for reaping of the Earth comes out from the Temple; yea though Christ have the sickle in his hand, yet an Angel out of the Temple calls to him to reap: and another Angel comes out of the Temple with a sickle, and a third out of the Temple calls to him to reap: As this may be understood to Doctrinal information, that the cries and urgencies of the Church to Christ stir him up to avenge them on their enemies, Luke 18. 7. so the expressions may be explained by allusive application. The putting in of the first sickle, to reap the first corn in Judea, was by the word and warrant of the Priests and Rulers sitting in the Temple, and they that were to reap, when they were come to the corn, put not in the sickle, till the word was given, Reap. The manner and managing of this business, viz. the reaping of the first sheaf is recorded and related by the Talmud: Menachoth per. 10. and in Tosaphta. ibid. These three men, say they, that were appointed by the Sanhedrin to reap, went out into the valley of Kidron, with a great company following them on the first day of the Passover week when now it grew towards evening, with three sickles and three baskets. One when they came to the place said to them, On this Sabbath, on this Sabbath, on this Sabbath, In this basket, in this basket, in this basket, With this sickle, with this sickle, with this sickle, Reap: to whom the three answer, Well, well, well, I will reap. The other says, Reap then. Then they reap, &c. Thus phrases taken from known customs, do speak the plainer.
And so is the expression taken from common speech and opinion, when it is said in ver. 30. The wine-press was trodden without the City, and blood came out of the wine-press even to the horse bridles. Here is treading a wine-press of blood, as Christ treadeth in Edom, Isa. 63. 1, 3. [ Edom is the common name by which the Hebrew Writers call the Romans. ] The wine-press was without the City: alluding to the wine and oil presses which were without Jerusalem at the foot of mount Olivet. Blood came up to the horse bridles: An hyperbole by which they expressed great slaughter and effusion of blood. So Talm. Jerus. in Taanith fol. 69. col. 1. describing the woeful slaughter that Hadrian made of the Jews at the destruction of the City Bitter saith 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The horses waded in blood up to the nostrils, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. Of that space and extent doth R. Menahem. on gen. fol. 60. reckon the largeness of the Land of Israel.
REVEL CHAP. XV.
WHAT was spoken in general, in the conclusion of the preceding Chapter, concerning the treading of the Wine press of God's wrath, is here more particularly prosecuted in the story of the seven Vials. At the beginning of which John again calls us to reflect upon the scheme of the Temple in Heaven: which all along speaks according to the platform of the Temple at Jerusalem. Here is a Sea of Glass mingled with Fire, and Harpers harping by it, &c. singing the song of Moses: which as it calls to mind Moses and the people's singing upon the read Sea shore upon their delivery from Egypt, Exod. 15. so doth it plainly allude to the music at the Temple, by the laver or Sea, and which standing near the Altar was as a Sea of Glass mingled with Fire.
Moses and Israel sing after the destruction of Egypt; for their deliverance was by her destruction, but those here that have got victory over the Beast, sing before he is destroyed, for they are delivered from him and prevail against him though he stand in his strength, and his destruction be not yet come. The Gospel grew, and Sanguis Martyrum was semen Ecclesiae, do Satan and Antichrist what they can.
After this song The Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony in Heaven was opened, ver. 5. All the whole building upon Mount Moriah was called the Temple, the Courts and Cloisters and Chambers, &c. but the very house itself, The Holy and Holy of Holies was only and properly The Temple of the Tabernacle of Testimony: And the song mentioned before, ver. 2. is represented as being in the Court, near the Altar and laver, but now the very House itself is opened: Parallel to what is spoken Chap. 11. 19. The Temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in his Temple, the Ark of his Covenant: The Lord in pouring out vengeance upon Antichrist, will manifest his judgments, as ver. 4. and open his Counsels and Covenant: for while the enemy raged, and raved, and destroyed those that would not worship him, and when even all the world in a manner did worship him, the Lord's judgme • ts were hid, and his Covenant with his people, as it were out of sight, or as if no such thing had been, but when this vengeance shall come, then all will be plain.
The seven Angels that pour out the seven Vials are charactered in the garb of Priests, coming out of the Temple, in white linen, and girded over the breasts, as the Priests were. One of the living creatures gives the Vials into their hands: the very same sense and carriage with that Ezek. 10. 7.
REVEL. CHAP. XVI.
WERE the Stage where the things of this Book were to be acted, and the time of their acting of as little compass as was that of the things of Daniel, one might with more probability allot the several things mentioned, to their several times, as the things in him may be done: But since the scene here is as large as all the World where the Gospel was to come, and the time as long as time shall be; [1600 years past already, and how much behind none knoweth] to undertake to apply everything in this Book to its particular time, place and occasion, is to run a hazardous undertaking. In some places indeed the things are so plain, that they speak themselves, but in many so obscure that he that will venture to bring them to particular application, doth it more upon his own venture, then upon any good textual warrant: And amongst those obscurities, these Vials are not the least. Take them in a general interpretation [as I believe they are intended] and their meaning is easy to be understood, but to come to allot them severally to this or that time or place, is but to do that, that when ye have done all you can, will come to no surer bottom to rest upon, then your own conceit and supposal.
The matter of them is expressed as to the most part, by allusion to the plagues of Egypt, as boils, blood, darkness, and so it clears the thing intended, namely in general to show how the mystical Egypt, Chap. 11. 8. after all her oppression and persecution of the Israel of God, should at last come to receive her just reward, as old Egypt had done: and that God would follow her with plagues till he had destroyed her. They are somewhat like the plagues of the seven Trumpets, some of which, as we observed, did in general speak the state of the World till the rising of Antichrist: and these Vials may be understood as the general description of his plagues and ruin. We observed in Chap. 6. and that upon good Scripture ground, that the six Seals did all but speak one effect, namely the destruction of the Jewish Nation, but brought to pass by several judgments; and the like interpretation may be made here.
The first Vial brings a noisome Boyl upon the worshippers of the Beast: this was the sixth plague of Egypt, but here the first: for that plague in Egypt came home to Jannes and Jambers the Magicians, that they could not stand before Moses, Exod. 9. 11. And that both this and all the rest might be shown to reach home, even to the veriest deceivers and ringleaders of mischief in Antichristian Egypt, this is justly set in the first rank.
The second and third here, refer to the one plague of Blood in Egypt, and these exceed that: For there all the Rivers and Ponds were indeed turned into Blood, but the Egyptians digged for Water about the River to drink, Exod. 7. 24. and found it and it was not turned into Blood: The question and answer of Ibn Ezra is pertinent. It is said, there was blood throughout all the Land of Egypt: And the Magicians did so with their enchantments. Now how could the Magicians turn water into blood, when there was no water left, but all was blood? And he answers, Aaron only turned the waters that were above ground into blood, not those that were under ground: but here Sea and Rivers and Fountains, and all are become Blood: still to show how thoroughly the plagues should come home.
At these plagues there is mention of the Angel of the waters, ver. 5. which, since all the Angels here are charactered in the garb of Priests, as hath been said, may also be understood as alluding to that Priest whose office it was to have care of the Waters, and to look that there should be Water enough and fitting for the people to drink, that came up to the three Festivals: Among the offices of the Priests at the Temple this was one. Maym. in Kele Mikdash per. 7. and Nicodemus whom the Talmud speaks of was of this office, Aboth R. Nathan per. 6.
The fourth Vial poured into the Sun brings scorching heat; this seems to allude to Joshua 's or Deborah 's day, when the Stars from Heaven fought: the Sun standing still so long did not only give light to Israel, but probably heat and faintness to the Canaanites, and Psal. 121. 6. seems to refer thither, The Sun shall not smite thee by day.
As in the fourth they are plagued by the Sun, so in the fifth, by want of it. The seat of the Beast darkened as Pharaohs Throne and Kingdom was: and this darkness bringing horror and pains; as Egypt's did through dreadful apparitions in the dark.
The drying up of Euphrates for the Kings of the East, under the sixth Vial, seems to speak much to the tenor of the sixth Trumpet, the loosing of the four Angels which were bound at Euphrates. Those we conceived the Turks to plague Christendom; these we may conceive enemies to plague Antichrist. The allusion in the former seems to be to the four Kings from beyond Euphrates, that came to scourge Canaan, Gen. 14. this to the draining of Euphrates for Cyrus and Darius to take Babylon. For having to treat here of a Babylon, as ver. 19. the scene is best represented, as being laid at the old Babylon. Now the Historians that mention the taking of Babylon by Cyrus, tell us it was by draining the great stream of Euphrates, by cutting it into many little channels.
The Egyptian plague of Frogs is here translated into another tenor, and that more dangerous; three unclean Spirits like Frogs come out of the mouth of the Dragon, Beast, and false Prophet: Spirits of Devils working miracles, &c. This is named betwixt the sixth and seventh Vial [though the acting of the delusions by miracles were all the time of the Beast and false Prophet] because of the judgment now coming: for though all deluders and deluded received their judgments in their several ages, yet being here speaking of the last judgments of Antichrist, they are all summed together. He is here called the false Prophet, as being the great deluder of all. The fruit of all these delusions is to set men to fight against God: whose end is set forth by allusion to the Army of Jabin King of Canaan, Judge. 5. 19. broken at the waters of Megiddo. The word Armageddon signifies a mountain of men cut in pieces. Here that solemn caution is inserted, Behold I come as a thief: Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments: The Priest that walked the round of the Temple guards by night, had torches born before him, and if he found any asleep upon the guard he burnt his clothes with the torches, Middoth per. 1. halac. 2.
The seventh Vial concludes the Beasts destruction. The great City is said to be divided into three parts: either as Jerusalem was, Ezek. 5. 11, 12. a third part to pestilence, a third part to the sword, and a third part to dispersion, and destruction in it: or because there is mention of an Earthquake, this speaks its ruining in general, as Zech. 14. 4, 5. A tenth part of it fell before, Chap. 11. 13. and now the nine parts remaining fall in a tripartite ruin.
REVEL. CHAP. XVII.
MYSTICAL Babylon pictured with the colors of the old Babylon, Rome so called, as being the mother of Idolatry, as Babel was the beginning of Heathenism, and the mother of persecution: Babylon destroyed Jerusalem, so did Rome, and made havoc of the Church continually.
She is resembled to a woman decked with gold, &c. as Isa. 14. 4. sitting upon a sevenheaded and ten-horned Beast; as Chap. 13. 1. Which Beast was and is not and yet is, it shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and shall go to perdition. Rome under the Papacy was not the same Rome it had been, and yet it was: Not Rome Heathen and Imperial as it had been before, and yet for all evil, Idolatry, persecution, &c. the same Rome to all purposes. It is plainly described as sitting upon seven hills, upon which there is hardly a Roman Poet or Historian, but makes a clear comment. The seven heads denoted also seven Kings or kinds of Government that had passed in that City: Five are fallen, verse. 10. Kings, Consuls, Tribunes, Dictators, Triumvirs: and one then was when John wrote, namely Emperors: And one not yet come, Christian Emperors, which continued but a short space before the Beast came which was and is not. He is the eight and he of the seven: They that hold Rome to be the fourth Monarchy in Daniel, cannot but also hold from this place, that that Monarchy is not yet extinct. The ten horns upon the Beast in Dan. 7. 24. are ten Kings arising and succeeding one another in the same Kingdom: but here at ver. 12. they are ten several Kingdoms, all subject to the Beasts both Imperial and Papal, but at last shall rise up against the mystical Whore and destroy her. It is like there must yet be conversion of some Kingdoms from the Papacy, before it fall.
REVEL. CHAP. XVIII. XIX. to Vers. 11.
AN Elegy and a Triumph upon the fall of Babylon: The former Chap. 18. almost verbatim from Isa. 13. & 14. & 21. & 34. & Jer. 51. & Ezek. 27. The later also, Chap. 19. the phrase taken from the Old Testament almost every word. The triumphant Song begins with Halleluja several times over. The word is first used at the later end of Psal. 104. where destruction of the wicked being first prayed for, Let the sinners be consumed out of the Earth, and let the wicked be no more, he concludes with, Bless thou the Lord O my soul. Hallelujah.
The observation of the people's saying over the great Hallel at the Temple [or their great Song of praise] doth illustrate this. The Hallel consisted of several Psalms, viz. from the one hundred and thirteenth to the end of the one hundred and eighteenth, and at very many passages in that Song, as the Priests said the verses of the Psalms, all the people still answered Hallelujah: Only here is one thing of some difference from their course there, for here is Amen Hallelujah, ver. 4. whereas It is a tradition That they answered not Amen in the Temple at all: What said they then? Blessed be the Name of the glory of his Kingdom forever and ever. Jerus. in Beracoth fol. 13. col. 3. But the promises of God which are Yea and Amen, being now performed, this is justly inserted; as Christ for the same cause in this Book is called Amen, Chap. 3. 14.
The marriage of the Lamb is now come, and his Wife is ready, ver. 7. the Church now completed.
REVEL. CHAP. XIX. from Ver. 11. to the end of the Chapter.
HERE begins a new Vision, as it appeareth by the first words, And I saw Heaven opened: and here John begins upon his whole subject again, to sum up in brief what he had been upon before. Observe what is said in verse. 19. I saw the Beast, and the Kings of the Earth, and their Armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the Horse, and against his Army: and observe withal, that there is the story of the destruction of the Beast before Chap. 18. and of the marriage, and marriage Supper of the Lamb before, Chap. 19. 7, 8, 9. therefore the things mentioned here cannot be thought to occur after those: this therefore is a brief rehearsal of what he had spoken from the twelfth Chapter hither, about the battle of Michael and his Angels with the Dragon and his Angels.
REVEL. CHAP. XX.
THE preceding Section spake what Christ did with the Beast and those that carried his mark: he fought against them always, and when he saw his time, destroyed them: here the Holy Ghost tells us what he did with the Devil that set them on: You heard of Christ fighting with the Dragon, Chap. 12. and the Dragon foiled and cast out, sets to prosecute the Woman's seed: but what course takes he for that? He resigns his Throne, and Power, and Authority, to the Beast Rome, and it must do, and it did his business for him, Chap. 13. 3. and how thoroughly it did its masters work, is shown all along from that place forward. But what becomes of the old Dragon the master of mischief? He sits by, as it were, and looks on while his game is played, and hisses on his Deputy Rome, first Imperial, then Papal. They at the last receive their due wages for their work, Imperial and Papal go to perdition. But what must become of the Dragon that set them on? It would be very improper to tell so largely of the fearful vengeance and destruction upon the agents, and to say nothing of the principal and chief mover. That therefore is done here, and this Chapter takes at Chap. 13. 3. and tells you what became of the old Dragon after the resigning of his Throne to the Beast: namely that he sat not at his own quiet as if Michael had nothing to do with him, or let him alone, having so much to do with his instruments, but that he curbed and destroyed both principal and agent, and cast them both together into the bottomless pit.
The Devil had two ways of undoing men; the Church by persecution, the world by delusion of Oracles, Idolatry, false Miracles, and the like. His managing of the former by his Deputies the former Chapters have related, and how they sped in his service: and this comes to tell how he speeds about the other. The great Angel Michael, the Lord Christ, who hath the key of the bottomless pit in his hand, as Chap. 1. 18. chains him by the power of the Gospel, that he should no more deceive the Nations for a thousand years: Weigh the phrase, Not deceive the Nations: it is not not persecute, but not deceive; nor is it the Church, but the Nations. His persecuting of the Church hath been storied before: and here is told how he is curbed for deceiving the Nations, and indeed when he deputed Rome, and let that loose for the former, he was chained up as for the later. It is easily construed how Satan deceived the Nations, by Idols which are called a lie, Isa. 44. 20. Rom. 1. 25. by his Oracles in which was no light, Isa. 8. 20. and by magical miracles, which were mere delusion. Hence the world for the time of Heathenism, is said to be in his Kingdom of darkness, Act. 26. 18. Colos. 1. 13, &c. Now the spreading of the Gospel through the world ruined all these before it, and dissolved those cursed spells and charms of delusion, and did as it were chain up Satan that he could no more Deceive the Nations 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Heathen as he had done, by these deceits: so that the words speak the ending of Satan's power in Heathenism, and the bringing in of the Gentiles to the knowledge of the truth, out of darkness and delusion.
The date of this his chaining up was a thousand years: Now the Jews counted the days of the Messias, a thousand years, as we touched before. The Babylon Talmud in Sanhedrin in the Chapter. Helek doth show their full opinion about the days of Messias, and amongst other things they say thus: as Aruch speaks their words in voice 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 It is a tradition of the house of Elijah, that the righteous ones that the blessed God shall raise from the dead, they shall no more return to their dust, but those thousand years that the holy blessed God is to renew the world, he will give them wings as Eagles, and they shall flee upon the waters. The place in the Talmud is in Sanhedrin fol. 92. where the Text indeed hath not the word thousand, but the marginal gloss hath it, and shows how to understand the thousand years. And Aruch speaks it as a thing of undeniable knowledge and entertainment. And so speaks R. Eliezer in Midras Tillin fol. 4. col. 2. The days of the Messias are a thousand Years.
As John all along this Book doth intimate new stories by remembering old ones, and useth not only the Old Testament phrase to express them by, but much allusion to customs, language and opinion of the Jews, that he might speak, as it were, closer to them and nearer their apprehensions, so doth he here and forward. This later end of his Book remembers the later end of the Book of Ezekiel. There is a resurrection Ezek. 37. Gog and Magog, Ezek. 38. & 39. and a new Jerusalem, Ezek. 40. and forward. So here a resurrection, ver. 5. Gog and Magog, ver. 8. and a new Jerusalem, Chap. 21. & 22.
There a resurrection, not of bodies out of the grave, but of Israel out of a low captived condition in Babel. There a Gog and Magog, the Syrogrecian persecutors, Antiochus and his house: and then the description of the new Jerusalem, which as to the place and situation was a promise of their restoring to their own Land, and to have Jerusalem built again, as it was indeed in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah: but by the glory and largeness of it [as it is described, more in compass then all the Land of Canaan, ] they were taught to look further, namely at the heavenly or spiritual Jerusalem, the Church through all the World.
Now the Jews according to their allegorical vein, applied these things to the days of Christ thus: that first there should be a resurrection caused by Messias of righteous ones▪ then he to conquer Gog and Magog, and then there must come 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The brave World to come that they dreamed of: Besides what they speak to this tenor in the Talmudic Treatise last cited, there is this passage in Jerus. Megillah fol. 73. col. 1. They are applying particular parts of the great Hallel to particular times [what the great Hallel was, we shown a little before.] And that part, say they, I love the Lord because he hath heard me, refers to the days of Messias: that part, Tye the sacrifice with cords: to the day of Gog and Magog. And that, Thou art my God and I will praise thee: refers to the world to come.
Our Divine Apocalyptic follows Ezekiel with an Allegory too, and in some of his expressions alludes to some of theirs, not as approving them, but as speaking the plainer to them by them: Here is a resurrection too, but not of bodies neither, for not a word of mention of them, but of souls. The souls of those that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, lived and reigned, ver. 4. and yet this is called The first resurrection, ver. 5.
The meaning of the whole let us take up in parts. There are two main things here intended. First, To show the ruin of the Kingdom of Satan; and secondly, The nature of the Kingdom of Christ. The Scripture speaks much of Christ's Kingdom, and his conquering Satan, and his Saints reigning with him; that common place is briefly handled here: That Kingdom was to be especially among the Gentiles, they called in unto the Gospel. Now among the Gentiles had been Satan's Kingdom most settled and potent, but here Christ binds him and casts him into the bottomless pit that he should deceive no more [as a great cheater and seducer cast into prison] and this done by the coming in of the Gospel among them. Then as for Christ's Kingdom I saw Thrones, saith John, and they sat upon them, &c. ver. 4. here is Christ and his inthroned and reigning. But how do they reign with him? Here John faceth the foolish opinion of the Jews of their reigning with the Messias in an earthly pomp; and shows that the matter is of a far different tenor: that they that suffer with him shall reign with him, they that stick to him, witness for him, die for him, these shall sit inthroned with him. And he nameth beheading only of all kinds of deaths, as being the most common: used both by Jews and Romans alike, as we have observed before at Acts 12. out of Sanhedr. per. 7. halac. 3. And the first witness for Christ, John the Baptist, died this death. He saith that such live and reign with Christ the thousand years, not as if they were all raised from the dead at the beginning of the 1000 years, and so reign all together with him those years out, as is the conceit of some [as absolute Judaism as any is, for matter of Opinion] but that this must be expected to be the garb of Christ's Kingdom all along, suffering and standing out against sin, and the mark of the Beast and the like: whereas they held it to be a thousand years of earthly bravery and pompousness.
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished: This is the first resurrection: Not that they lived again when the thousand years were finished, but it means that they lived not in this time which was the time of living, when Satan was bound, and truth and life came into the world: The Gentiles, before the Gospel came among them, were dead, in Scripture phrase, very copiously: Ephes. 2. 1, 2. & 4. 18. &c. but that revived them, Joh. 5. 25. This is the first resurrection, in and to Christ's Kingdom: the second is spoken of at the twelfth verse of this Chapter that we are upon. Paul useth the same expression to signify the same thing, namely a raising from darkness and sin by the power of the Gospel, Rom. 11. 15. Now when this quickening came among the Gentiles, Satan going down, and Christ's Kingdom advanced, and the Gospel bringing in life and light, as Joh. 1. 4. those that did not come and stick close to Christ and bear witness to him, but closed with the mark of the Beast, sin and sinful men, these were dead still and lived not again till the thousand years were finished, that is, while they lasted, though that were a time of receiving life.
Blessed therefore and holy are they that have part in this first resurrection, for on them the second death hath no power, ver. 6. The second death is a phrase used by the Jews. Onkelos renders Deut. 33. 6. thus, Let Reuben live and not die the second death. And Jonathan, Isa. 65. 6. thus, Behold it is written before me, I will not grant them long life, but I will pay them vengeance for their sins, and deliver their carcases to the second death. And ver. 15. The Lord will slay them with the second death.
Observe in the Prophet that these verses speak of the ruin and rejection of the Jews, now a cursed people, and given up to the second death: and in Chapter 66. verse. 29, 30, 31. is told how the Lord would send and gather the Gentiles to be his people, and would make them his Priests and Levites: And then see how fitly this verse answers those. Instead of these cursed people, these are blessed and holy, and might not see the second death, and Christ makes them Priests to himself and his Father.
In this passage of John scorn is put again upon the Jews wild interpret •••• n of the resurrection in Ezekiel. They take it literally, think some dead were really raised out of their graves, came into the Land of Israel, begat children, and died a second time: Nay they stick not to tell who these men were, and who were their children. Talm. Babyl. in Sanhedr. ubi supra.
After the thousand years are expired, Satan is let loose again, and falls to his old trade of the deceiving the Nations again, ver. 8. Zohar. fol. 72. col. 286. hath this saying: It is a tradition, that in the day when judgment is upon the world, and the holy blessed God sits upon the Throne of judgment, then it is found that Satan that deceives high and low, he is found destroying the world, and taking away souls. When the Papacy began, then Heathenism came over the world again, and Satan as loose and deceiving as ever: then Idolatry, blindness, deluding oracularities and miracles as fresh and plenteous as before: from the rising of the Gospel among the Gentiles these had been beating down, and Satan fettered and imprisoned deeper and deeper every day: and though his agent Rome bestird itself hard to hold up his Kingdom, by the horrid persecutions it raised, yet still the Gospel prevailed and laid all flat. But when the Papacy came, then he was loose again, and his cheatings prevailed and the world became again no better then Heathen. And if you should take the thousand years fixedly and literally, and begin to count either from the beginning of the Gospel in the preaching of John, or of Peter to Cornelius the first inlet to the Gentiles, or of Paul and Barnabas their being sent among them, the expiring of them will be in the very depth of Popery; especially begin them from the fall of Jerusalem, where the date of the Gentiles more peculiarly begins, and they will end upon the times of Pope Hildebrand, when if the Devil were not let loose, when was he?
He calls the enemies of the Church, especially Antichrist, Gog and Magog: the title of the Syrogrecian Monarchy, the great persecutor, Ezek. 38. & 39. [ Pliny mentions a place in Caelosyria that retained the name Magog, lib. 5. cap. 23.] So that John from old stories and copies of great troubles transcribeth new, using known terms from Scripture, and from the Jews language and notions, that he might the better be understood: So that this Chapter containeth a brief of all the times from the rising of the Gospel among the Gentiles to the end of the world, under these two sums, first the beating down of Idolatry and Heathenism in the Earth till the World was become Christian, and then the Papacy arising doth Heathenize it again. The destruction of which is set down, verse. 9. by fire from Heaven, in allusion to Sodom, or 2 King. 1. 10, 12. and it is set close to the end of the World: the Devil and the Beast [ Rome imperial] and the false Prophet [ Rome Papal] are cast into fire and brimstone, verse. 10. where John speaks so, as to show his method, which we have spoken of. The Devil was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the Beast and the false Prophet are: He had given the story of the beast and false Prophet, the Devils agents, and what became of them, Chap. 19. verse. 20. And now the story of the Devil himself: for it was not possible to handle these two stories but apart: and now he brings the confusion of all the three together, and the confusion of all with them that bare their mark, and whose names were not written in the Book of life.
REVEL. CHAP. XXI.
THE Jerusalem from above described. The phrase is used by Paul, Gal. 4. 26. and it is used often by the Jews: Zohar fol. 120. col. 478. Rabbi Aba saith, Luz is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Jerusalem which is above, which the holy blessed God gives for a possession, where blessings are given by his hand in a pure Land: but to an impure Land no blessings to be at all. Compare Revel. 21. 27, & 22. 15. Midras. Till. in Psal. 122. Jerusalem is built as a City that is compact together. R. Jochanan saith, The holy blessed God said, I will not go into Jerusalem that is above, until I have gone into Jerusalem that is below, &c.
Ezekiel's Jerusalem, as we observed, was of a double signification, namely as promising the rebuilding of the City after the Captivity, and foretelling of the spiritual Jerusalem, the Church under the Gospel, and that most especially: At that John taketh at here, and that is the Jerusalem that he describeth. And from Isa. 65. 17, 18. joineth the creating new Heavens and a new Earth; and so stateth the time of building this new Jerusalem, namely at the coming in of the Gospel, when all things are made new, 2 Cor. 5. 17. A new People, new Ordinances, new Economy, and the old World of Israel dissolved. Though the description of this new City be placed last in the Book, yet the building of it was contemporary with the first things mentioned in it about the calling of the Gentiles. When God pitched his Tabernacle amongst the •• as he had done in the midst of Israel, Levite. 26. 11, 12. That Tabernacle is pitched in the fourth and fifth Chapters of this Book: And now all tears wiped away and no more sorrow, death nor pain, verse. 4. which if taken literally could refer to nothing but the happy estate in Heaven [of which the glory of this Jerusalem may indeed be a figure] but here, as the other things are, it is to be taken mystically or spiritually, to mean the taking away the curse of the Law, and the sting of death and sin, &c. No condemnation to be to those that are in Christ Jesus.
The passages in describing the City are all in the Prophets phrase, Ezekiel and Isaiah: as compare these, The Bride the Lambs wife, verse. 9. Sing O barren [Heathen] that didst not bear, &c. Thy Maker is thine Husband, thy Redeemer, &c. Isa. 54. 1, 5.
Vers. 10. He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain. Compare Ezek. 40. 2.
That great City holy Jerusalem, &c. This refers to great dimensions of Ezekiel's Jerusalem; as also to the squareness, the three gates of a side, &c. The glory of it described from thence, and from Isa. 58. 8. & 60. 2, 3. & 54. 11, 12, &c. The wall of it twelve thousand furlongs square, or fifteen hundred miles upon every quarter, East, West, North and South three thousand miles about: and fifteen hundred miles high. Wall of salvation, Isa 26. 1. & 60. 14.
The foundations of the walls garnished with twelve precious stones [see Isa. 54. 11.] as the stones in the Ephod or holy Breastplate: three upon every side, as these were three and three in a row: The first foundation stone here is the Jaspar, the stone of Benjamin, for Paul's sake the great agent about this building of the Church of the Gentiles: The Jerus. Talmud. in Peah, fol. 15. col. 3. saith expressly that the Jaspar was Benjamins stone, for it saith, Benjamins Jaspar was once lost [out of the Ephod] and they said Who is there that hath another as good as it? Some said, Damah the son of Nethina hath one, &c.
And I saw no Temple therein, &c. verse. 22. here this Jerusalem differs from Ezekiel's: that had a Temple, this none: and it is observable there, that the platform of the Temple is much of the measures and fashion that the second Temple was of, but the City of a compass larger then all the Land: which helpeth to clear what was said before of the double significancy of those things, they promised them an earthly Temple, which was built by Zerobabel, but foretold a heavenly Jerusalem which is described here.
REVEL CHAP. XXII.
FROM Ezekiel Chap. 47. and from several passages of Scripture besides, John doth still magnify the glory, happiness and holiness of the new Jerusalem: Lively waters of clear Doctrine teaching Christ and life by him flowing through it continually, Ezek. 7. 1, 9. Cant. 4. 15. The Tree of Life lost to Adam, and Paradise shut up against him, to keep him from it, here restored. Then a curse, here There shall be curse no more, verse. 3. See Zech. 14. 11. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Anathema non erit amplius, &c. He concludeth, These sayings are faithful and true, so he had said before at the marriage of the Lamb, Chap. 19. 9. and again at his beginning of the story of the new Jerusalem, Chap. 21. 5. referring to the several Prophesies that had been of these things, and now all those sayings and Prophesies were come home in truth and faithfulness. He is commanded not to seal his Book, as Daniel was, Dan. 12. 4. because the time of these things was instantly beginning, and Christ's coming to reveal his glory in avengement upon the Jewish Nation and casting them off, and to take in the Gentiles in their stead was now at the door, within three and an half or thereabout to come, if we have conjectured the writing of this Book to its proper year. There are two years more of Nero, and one of confusion in the Roman Empire in the Wars of Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian, and the next year after Jerusalem falls.
And thus if this Book of the Revelation were written last of the Books of the New Testament, as by the consent of all it was, then may we say, Now was the whole will of God revealed and committed to writing, and from henceforth must Vision and Prophesy and Inspiration cease forever. These had been used and imparted all along for the drawing up of the mind of God into writing, as also the appearing of Angels had been used, for the further and further still revealing of his will, and when the full revelation of that was completed, their appearing, and revelations to men must be no more. So that this Revelation to John was the topping up and finishing of all revelations. The Lord had promised that in the last days [of Jerusalem ] he would pour down of his Spirit upon all flesh, Act. 2. 17. And Christ promised to his Apostles, that he would lead them into all truth, John 16. 12, 13. To look for therefore the giving of those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit beyond the fall of Jerusalem there is no warrant; and there is no need, since when the inspired penmen had written all that the Holy Ghost directed to write, All truth was written.
It is not to be denied indeed, that those that had these extraordinary gifts before the fall of Jerusalem, if they lived after, had them after, for the promoting of these ends for which they were given, but there is neither ground nor reason whereupon to believe, that they were restored to the next generation, or were or are to be imparted to any generation forever. For as it was in Israel at the first settling of their Church, so was it in this case in the first settling of the Gospel. The first fathers of the Sanhedrin in the wilderness, were endued with Divine gifts, such as we are speaking of, Numb. 11. 25. but when that generation was expired, those that were to succeed in that Function and Employment, were such as were qualified for it by education, study and parts acquired. So was it with this first age of the Gospel and the ages succeeding. At the first dispersing of the Gospel, it was absolutely needful that the first planters should be furnished with such extraordinary gifts, or else it was not possible it should be planted. As this may appear by a plain instance. Paul comes to a place where the Gospel had never come, he stays a month or two and begets a Church, and then he is to go his way and to leave them: Who now in this Church is fit to be their Minister? They being all alike but very children in the Gospel: but Paul is directed by the Holy Ghost to lay his hands upon such and such of them, and that bestows upon them the gift of Tongues and Prophesying, and now they are able to be Ministers and to teach the Congregation. But after that generation, when the Gospel was settled in all the world, and committed to writing, and written to be read and studied: then was studdy of the Scriptures the way to enable men to unfold the Scriptures and fit them to be Ministers to instruct others: and Revelations and Inspirations neither needful nor safe to be looked after, nor hopeful to be attained unto. And this was the reason why Paul coming but newly out of Ephesus and Crete, when he could have ordained and qualified Ministers with abilities by the imposition of his hands, would not do it, but left Timothy and Titus to Ordain, though they could not bestow those gifts: because he knew the way that the Lord had appointed Ministers thenceforward to be enabled for the Ministry, not by extraordinary infusions of the Spirit, but by serious study of the Scriptures, not by a miraculous, but by an ordinary Ordination. And accordingly he gives Timothy himself counsel to study, 1 Tim. 4. 13. though he were plentifully endued with these extraordinary endowments, 1 Tim. 4. 14. And Paul himself had his Books for study, or he had them to no purpose, 2 Tim. 4. 13.
And indeed it had been the way of God, he hath instructed his people by a studious and learned Ministry, ever since he gave a written word to instruct them in. 1. Who were the standing Ministry of Israel all the time from the giving of the Law to the Captivity into Babel? Not Prophets, or those inspired men [for they were but occasional Teachers, and there were often long spaces of time wherein no Prophet appeared] but the Priests and Levites that became Learned in the Law by study, Deut. 33. 10. Hos. 46. Mal. 2. 7. And for this end as hath been touched, they were disposed into forty eight Cities of their own, as so many Universities, where they studied the Law together, and from thence were sent out into the several Synagogues to teach the people: and had the Tithes paid them for their maintenance whilst they studied in the Universities, and for their preaching in the Synagogues. And it may be observed that even they that had the prophetic spirit did not only study the Scriptures themselves, Josh. 1. 8. Dan. 9. 1. but sent the people for instruction to the Priests who were students and the standing Ministry, Hag. 2. 11. Mal. 2. 7. 2. If you consider the times under the second Temple, then it was utterly impossible that the people should be taught but by a studious and learned Ministry; for the spirit of Prophesy was departed, and the Scriptures were then in an unknown Tongue, to all but Students. And hence they had an interpreter in every Synagogue to render into the Vulgar, what was read in the Law and the Prophets in the Original. So that the Spirit of God inspired certain persons whom he pleased to be the revealers of his will till he had imparted and committed to writing what he thought fit to reveal under the Old Testament, and when he had completed that, the Holy Ghost departed, and such inspirations ceased. And when the Gospel was to come in, then the Spirit was restored again, and bestowed upon several persons for the revealing further of the mind of God, and completing the work he had to do, for the settling of the Gospel, and penning of the New Testament, and that being done, these gifts and inspirations cease, and may no more be expected then we may expect some other Gospel yet to come.
REVEL. Chap. I, II, III.
THE three first Chapters refer to that present time when John wrote: and they contain the story of his obtaining this Revelation, and of the condition of the seven Churches of Asia at that time: declared in the Epistles directed to them.
John travelling in the Ministry of the Gospel up and down from Asia Westward, cometh into the Isle Patmos, in the Icarian Sea [ Vid. Strab. lib. 10.] an Island about thirty miles compass [ Plin. lib. 4. cap. 12.] and there on the Lord's day he hath these visions, and an Angel interprets to him all he saw.
He seeth Christ clothed like a Priest, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ver. 13. [See the LXX in Exod. 28. 4.] and girded over the paps, as the Priests used to be, with the curious girdle. His appearance full of Majesty and gloriousness, described in the terms of Daniel, Chap. 7. 9. & 10. 5, 6. Amongst other his Divine titles he is called Alpha and Omega, terms ordinarily used by the Jews [only uttered in their Hebrew Tongue] to signify the beginning and the end, or the first and the last. Midr. Tillin. fol. 47. 2. Abraham and Sarah performed all the Law from Aleph to Tau. Marg. tripl. targ. in Deut. 18. 13. He that walks in integrity is as if he performed all the Law from Aleph to Tau.
He directs Epistles to be sent to the seven Churches of Asia: who are golden Candlesticks though very full of corruptions [it is not a small thing that unchurches a Church] and inscribed to the Angels of the Churches: This phrase translates 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Sheliahh Tsibbur, the title of the Minister in every Synagogue, who took care for the public reading and expounding of the Law and Prophets: And these Epistles are sent accordingly to the Ministers of the several Churches, that they might be read openly in their Congregations.
There are seven several Epistles to the several Churches, dictated immediately and sent by Christ, and another general one from John to them all, in which he shows the warrant and way of writing those seven.
He terms the Holy Ghost, the seven Spirits, according to the Jews common speech, who from Isa. 11. 2. speak much of the seven Spirits of Messias: and speaking of Christ's coming with clouds, Chap. 1. 7. from Dan. 7. 13. and from the words of Christ himself, Matth. 24. 30. He at once teacheth that he takes at Daniel, and speaks of Christ's coming and reigning, when the four Monarchies were destroyed, and especially referreth to the first most visible evidence of his power and dominion, in coming to destroy his enemies the Jewish Nation, and their City. And here is one reason that induceth me to suppose this Book written, before that City was destroyed.
Coming to read the present condition of these Asian Churches in the Epistles written to them, we may pertinently think of that saying of Paul, 2 Tim. 1. 15. This thou knowest that all they that are in Asia are turned from me: A great Apostasy: of which there is too much evidence in these Churches, as also mention of some sad fruits of it, and means and instruments inducing to it. As 1. unbelieving Jews which the Holy Ghost all along calls A Synagogue of Satan: with these the Church of Smyrna was pestered, and more especially Pergamos, where their mischievousness is styled the very throne or seat of Satan: and where they had murdered Antipas a faithful Martyr already. 2. False Apostles and seducers: some that pretended Apostolic power and commission, and it may be coloured their pretences with Magical wonders, that they might act more Apostle like. These the Church of Ephesus was troubled with, but had discovered their delusions and found them liars. 3. Other seducers that, it may be, came not in the demonstration of such devilish power, but answered that by their horrid devilish doctrines, the doctrines of the Nicolaitans, which taught to eat things sacrificed to Idols, and to commit fornication. In Thyatire a woman seducer, cried up this doctrine, a whore and witch, a Jezebel: wherefore she and her children, that is, her Disciples, are threatened to be destroyed by the plague: the vengeance upon the fornicators with Baal Peor.
REVEL CHAP. IV, V.
NOW cometh a second vision. That before was of things then being, see Chap. 1. 19. but this and forward of things to come, Chap. 4. 1. A door open in Heaven, and the voice of a trumpet talking with John out of it.
The scene of Johns visions said to be in Heaven, is according to the scheme of the Temple and the Divine glory there. And hence you have mention of the Altar, Candlesticks, Sea of Glass [the brazen laver made of the Womens looking Glasses] the Ark of the Covenant, and the like. And as at the opening of the Temple doors, a Trumpet sounded, so is the allusion here. The door in Heaven opened, and a Trumpet calls John to come in and see what there. And immediately he was in the Spirit, ver. 2. Why? Was he not in the Spirit before? Chap. 1. 10. and was he not in the Spirit, in seeing the door in Heaven opened? &c. But we may observe a double degree in rapture: as inspired men may be considered under a double notion: viz. Those that were inspired with Prophesy or to be Prophets and to preach, and those that were inspired to be Penmen of Divine Writ, which was higher. John hath both inspirations or revelations to both ends, both in the Vision before, and this: then he was in the Spirit and saw the vision, and was in the Spirit and inspired to pen what he saw, and what to be sent to the Churches. And in the first verse of this Chapter he is in the Spirit or hath a revelation, and in ver. 2. he is in the Spirit, he is inspired so as to take impression and remembrance of these things to write them also.
He seeth Christ inthroned in the middle of his Church, in the same Prophetick and visionary Emblem that Ezekiel had seen, Ezek. 1. & 10. and this is a commentary and fulfilling of that scene that Daniel speaketh of, Dan. 7. 9, 10, 22. In Ezekiel, the Lord, when Jerusalem was now to be destroyed, and the glory of the Lord that used to be there, and the people were to flit into another Land, appeareth so inthroned, as sitting in Judgment and flitting away by degrees to another place: as compare Ezek. 1. & 10. well together. So Christ here; when the destruction of Jerusalem was now near at hand, and his glory and presence to remove from that Nation, now given up to unbelief and obduration, to reside among the Gentiles, he is seated upon his throne as Judge and King with glorious attendance, to judge that Nation for their sins and unbelief, and stating the affairs of his Church whither his glory was now removing.
The scheme is platformed according to the model of Israel's Camp. 1. The Tabernacle was in the middle there, so is the throne here. 2. There the four squadrons of the Camp of Levi next the Tabernacle, so here the four living creatures. 3. Then the whole Camp of Israel, so here twenty four Elders Representatives of the whole Church, built from twelve Tribes and twelve Apostles.
In the hand of him that sat on the Throne was a Book sealed which no creature could open. This justly calls us back to Dan. 12. ver. 4. Where words are shut up and a Book sealed unto the time of the end: and now that that is near drawing on, the Book is here opened.
REVEL. CHAP. VI.
THE opening of the six Seals in this Chapter, speaks the ruin and rejection of the Jewish Nation, and the desolation of their City; which is now very near at hand.
The first Seal opened, ver. 2. shows Christ setting forth in Battle array and avengement against them, as Psal. 45. 4, 5. And this the New Testament speaketh very much and very highly of, one while calling it his coming in clouds, another while his coming in his Kingdom, and sometime his coming in Power and great Glory, and the like. Because his plagueing and destroying of the Nation that crucified him, that so much opposed and wrought mischief against the Gospel, was the first evidence that he gave in sight of all the world of his being Christ: for till then, he and his Gospel had been in humility, as I may say, as to the eyes of men, he persecuted whilst he was on Earth, and they persecuted after him, and no course taken with them that so used both, but now he awakes, shows himself, and makes himself known by the Judgment that he executeth.
The three next Seals opening, show the means by which he did destroy, namely those three sad plagues that had been threatened so oft and so sore by the Prophets, Sword, Famine and Pestilence. For
The second Seal opened sends out one upon a red Horse to take Peace from the Earth, and that men should destroy one another; he carried a great Sword, ver. 4.
The third Seals opening speaks of Famine, when Corn for scarcity should be weighed like spicery in a pair of balances, ver. 5, 6.
The fourth Seal sends out one on a pale Horse whose name was Death [the Chaldee very often expresseth the Plague or Pestilence by that word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : and so it is to be taken Revel. 2. 22.] and Hell or Hades comes after him, ver. 8.
The opening of the fifth Seal reveals a main cause of the vengeance, namely the blood of the Saints which had been shed, crying, and which was to be required of that generation, Matth. 23. 35, 36. These souls are said to cry from under the Altar, either in allusion to the blood of creatures sacrificed, poured at the foot of the Altar, or according to the Jews tenet, That all just souls departed are under the Throne of Glory. Answer to their cry is given, that the number of their Brethren that were to be slain was not yet fulfilled, and they must rest till that should be, and then avengement in their behalf should come. This speaks suitable to that which we observed lately, that now times were begun of bitter persecution, an hour of temptation, Rev. 2. 10. & 3. 10. the Jews and Devil raging, till the Lord should something cool that fury by the ruin of that people.
The opening of the sixth Seal, ver. 12, 13. shows the destruction itself in those borrowed terms that the Scripture useth to express it by, namely as if it were the destruction of the whole world: as Matth. 24. 29, 30. The Sun darkened, the Stars falling, the Heaven departing and the Earth dissolved, and that conclusion ver. 16. They shall say to the rocks fall on us, &c. doth not only warrant, but even enforce us to understand and construe these things in the sense that we do: for Christ applies these very words to the very same thing, Luke 23. 30. And here is another, and, to me, a very satisfactory reason, why to place the showing of these visions to John, and his writing of this Book before the desolation of Jerusalem.
REVEL. CHAP. VII.
IN the end of the former Chapter was contained the intimation of the desolation of Jerusalem, and in the beginning of this, the ceasing of Prophesy, under the similitude of the four winds restrained from blowing upon the Earth. Compare Cant. 4. 16. Ezek. 37. 9. only a remnant of Israel are sealed unto salvation, and not to perish by that restraint, and with them innumerable Gentiles. Ezekiel helpeth here to confirm the explication that we have given of the Chapter before: for he hath the very like passage, upon the first destruction of the City, Ezek. 9. & 10. 11. Compare the marking in the foreheads here, with Exod. 28. 38. Dan not mentioned among the Tribes in this place: Idolatry first began in that Tribe, Judge. 18. 1 King. 12.
REVEL. CHAP. VIII.
THE opening of the seventh Seal lands us upon a new scene: as a new world began when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews cast off. The six Seals in the two former Chapters, have shown their ruin, and the appearing of the Church of the Gentiles, and now the seven Trumpets under the seventh Seal give us a prospect in general of the times thence forward to the end of all things. I say in general, for from the beginning of the twelfth Chapter and forward to the end of the nineteenth they are handled more particularly.
Silence in Heaven for a while, and seven Angels with seven Trumpets may call our thoughts to Joshua 6. 4, 10. and intimate that the Prophetick story is now entered upon a new Canaan, or a new stage of the Church, as that business at Jericho was at Israel's first entering on the old: Or it may very properly be looked upon as referring and alluding to the carriage of things at the Temple, since this Book doth represent things so much according to the scheme and scene of the Temple all along.
And in this very place there is mention of the Altar and Incense and Trumpets, which were all Temple appurtenances. It was therefore the custom at the Temple that when the Priest went in to the Holy place, the people drew downward from the Porch of the Temple, and there was a silence whilst he was there, [yea though the people were then praying] incomparably beyond what there was at other times of the service, for the Priests were blowing with Trumpets or the Levites singing: The allusion then here is plain. When the sacrifice was laid on the Altar, a Priest took coals from the Altar, went in to the Holy place, and offered incense upon the Golden Altar that stood before the veil, that was before the Ark, and this being done, the Trumpets sounded over the sacrifice. Here then is first intimation of Christ's being offered upon the Altar; then his going into the Holy place as Mediator for his people: and then the Trumpets sounding and declaring his disposals in the world. His taking fire off the Altar and casting it upon the Earth, ver. 5. is a thing not used at the Temple, but spoken from Ezek. 10. 2. which betokeneth the sending of judgment, which the Trumpets speak out.
These seven Trumpets, and the seven Vials in Chap. 16. in many things run very parallel, how far they Synchronize, will be best considered when we come there.
The first Trumpet sounding, brings hail and fire and blood upon the Earth, and destroys grass and trees a third part of them. Fire and hail was the plague of Egypt, Exod. 9. 23. but fire and blood, with hail, is a new plague. By these seemeth to be intimated what plagues should be brought upon the world, by fire, sword, dreadful tempest, unnatural seasons and the like.
The second Trumpet sounds, and a great burning mountain is cast into the Sea, and the third part of it becomes blood. The Sea in the Prophetick language, doth signify multitudes of people: as Jerem. 51. 36. 42. And Babylon that was Monarch was a burning mountain in the same Chapter, ver. 35. So that the Imperial power seemeth to be the mountain here; which made bloody and mischievous work, not only by the persecution of Christians, but even among their own people. As Nero at present, Vitellius instantly after, Domitian, Commodus, and indeed generally all of them either bloodily destroy their own people, or at least for their covetousness, ambition, revenge or humor, bring disquietness, oppression, misery, Wars and Blood, upon all the World, in one place or other.
The third Trumpet, brings the Star Wormwood upon the Rivers and Fountains of waters, which seemeth to denote the grievous Heresies that should be in the Church, which should corrupt and embitter the pure springs of the Scripture and fountains of Truth. A Star in the language of this Book is a Church-man, Chap. 1. 20. [ Ben Cochab was such a Wormwood Star among the Jews, called most properly Ben cozba the liar. ] And the phrase, A Star falling from Heaven, alludes to Isa. 14. 12. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer! &c.
The fourth Trumpet shows the darkening of the Sun and Moon and Stars for a third part.
By which seems to be understood the wane and decay, both in the glory of the Church, by superstition, and of the Empire, by its divisions within, and enemies from without, and this before the rising of the Papacy, which appears under the next Trumpet: and these things were great advantages to its rising. The darkening of the heavenly luminaries in the Prophets language signifieth the eclipsing of the glory and prosperity of a Kingdom or People, Isa. 13. 9, 10. Joel 2. 10. How it was with the Church and Empire in these respects, before that time that the Papacy appeared, he is a stranger to History, both Ecclesiastical and Civil, that remembereth not upon this very hint.
The three Trumpets coming are the Trumpets of Woe, woe, woe: though these things past were very woeful; but those much more that are to come.
REVEL. CHAP. IX.
A Description of the Papacy under the fifth Trumpet. Another Star falling from Heaven, and that a notable one indeed, the He that hath the Key of the bottomless pit committed to him. A vast difference from the Keys given Peter, The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: The setting of these in their just distance and opposition will illustrate the matter before us. When the world is to come out of darkness and Heathenism to the knowledge of the Gospel, Christ gives Peter the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, to open the door and let light come in among them: for he first preached to the Gentiles, Act. 10. & 15. 7. The World under the Papacy returns, as it were, to Heathenism again [and not undeservedly for its contempt of the Gospel and unproficiency under it] which is very fitly described by Hell opened, by the Keys of the bottomless pit, and darkness coming and clouding all. The Claviger or Turnkey is The child of perdition, Abaddon and Apollyon, a destroyer and one that is surely and sorely to be destroyed. Chittim [ Italy or Rome ] afflicting and perishing forever, Num. 24. 24. Antichrist of the second edition, much augmented and enlarged. The Jews the first, as we observed at the second Epistle to the Thessalontans, and this the second, Antichrist at his full stature. It is true indeed that Rome Heathen is one part of him, but observe how little a part reputed in comparison of Rome Papish, the Star fallen from Heaven. So that though that did woeful things, yet you see the first woe is fixed here.
The way of his bringing woe upon the Earth, is by filling the World with smoke and darkness of ignorance and human traditions and inventions: and out of this smoke come his locusts, of his votary orders. The locusts described much like those in Joel 1. for their terror and destroying: only their having the faces of men speaks them men-caterpillars: and their Nazarite -like hair long as the hair of women, speaks them votaries; or such as take on them vowed Religion. Their trading is not with grass or the green things of the Earth as other Locusts do, but with Men, and they are Locusts in name, but Scorpions in action, wounding with the sting of their tails [the teacher of lies is the tail, Isa. 9. 15.] but not killing: leaving men indeed in a Religion and a profession of Christ, but no better then a venomed and dying one. The time of their tormenting is five months, the time of Locusts ravening ordinarily, from the spring well shot forth, to harvest.
This is the first woe.
These Locusts stings, mind me of a story or two in the Roman History: which let me mention here, though I cannot apply them hither. Dion, in his story of the life of Domitian saith thus, About that time divers began to prick many whom they pleased, with poisoned needles, whereof many died, hardly feeling what was done to them. And this was practiced not only at Rome, but almost through all the world.
And again in the life of Commodus. About that time, saith he, there was so great a mortality, that oft times there died two thousand in Rome in one day. And many, not only in the City, but also through the whole Roman Empire, were killed by mischievous men, who poisoning needles pricked others with them: as also it had been in Domitians time, and so innumerable people died by this means. But there was no greater plague then Commodus himself, &c.
The sounding of the sixth Trumpet begins another woe. Four Angels loosed, which were bound in Euphrates, and come with a terrible Army, and horses breathing fire and smoke and brimstone, and having stings in their tails, &c. The Turks and Mohammedans coming as a plague upon the Eastern part of the World, as the Papacy on the Western. These hurt with their tails [false doctrine] as well as the other did in the former Trumpet: but these have also heads in their tails which the other had not, for these hold out another Head and Savior, Mahomet.
REVEL. CHAP. X.
A Little Book in the hand of Christ, speaketh the restoring of Religion, and Truth, after all the darkness and confusions mentioned before. The words in ver. 6, 7. do help to state the intent of this Vision. He sware by him that liveth forever, that there should be delay of time no longer, but in the days of the seventh Trumpet the mystery of God should be fulfilled. The mystery of God is his gathering in of his Elect, more especially of the Gentiles, Rom. 16. 25, 26. Ephes. 3. 5, 6. and hitherto there had been great hindrance by Rome Heathen, by Heresies, Papacy, Turcism, but at last Christ swears, that there should be no more delay: the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 must be taken so here: and not unconsonant to the signification of the word, and very consonant to the context, and to the place from whence this verse is taken: That is Dan. 12. 7. where the Angel is brought in swearing, as here, that the trouble of Antiochus and his persecution and hindrance should be so long, and there should be no delay further, but there should be a restoring. That place laid to this, and Antiochus looked upon as a figure of Antichrist, the construction of this place is easy. Only the great Angel would have the speech of the seven thunders, which refer to these times, to be concealed. The Prophesy in general intimates the restoring of the Gospel in these later times, which is handled in the next Chapter, but very generally, and very briefly. Johns eating of the little Book, as Ezek. 2. 8. and the words to him, Thou must Prophesy again before many People and Nations and Tongues and Kings, do not so much infer Johns going abroad after this to preach to many Nations himself, as it doth the progress of the truth that he preached, through Nations and People, which had been suppressed so long: aiming at these times when the Gospel last broke out from under Popery. The passage is parallel to the last words in the Book of Daniel, Go thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest, and stand in the lot, at the end of days. Not that Daniel should live till the end of those miseries by Antiochus, but that his doctrine, and the truth should stand up and be restored in those times. The phrase is such another as when Christ telleth his Disciples that they should sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel, which is not meant of their personal sitting to judge, but that their doctrine should judge and condemn that unbelieving Nation.
REVEL. CHAP. XI.
THE Vision of this Chapter is in order to the accomplishing of the mystery of God, which was spoken of Chap. 10. 7. As Ezekiel's measuring of a new Temple, shown the restoring of Religion and of the Lord's people, and foretold of the new Jerusalem and calling of the Gentiles: To the same purpose is the measuring of the Temple here. The Church was under the mystical Babylon, Chap. 9. as the Jews were under the Eastern, when Ezekiel wrote those things; now as that description of the measures of the Temple, was a prediction and pledge of their coming forth, so this speaketh to the same tenor.