saith over a prayer and yet doest thou say that washing is arbitrary It is said he should go four miles to the washing of his hands and yet doest thou say it is arbitrary How they prized this and other traditions of the Elders above the Word of God and so by and for them made that of no weight may be read too numerously in them in such like blasphemous passages as these The words of the Scribes are more lovely then the words of the Law and more weighty then the words of the Prophets And He that saith there are no Phylacteries and in so saying transgresseth against the words of the Law he is not guilty but he that saith there is five Phylacteries and in so saying addeth to the words of the Scribes he is guilty Jeâ—us Baracoth fol. 3. col 2. The written Law is narrow but the traditionall is longer then the earth and broader then the sea Tanchum fol. 4. col 4. Our Saviour damning these cursed Traditions doth instance only in that unnaturall tenet of theirs that extinguisheth all filiall assistance to needy Parents as if a son said to his father or mother It is Corban c. Their Canons set down the duty of a son to his father as to give him meat and drink if he stood in need and to cloath him to wash his hands feet and face and if he needed to lead him in and out Tosapht in Kiddushin per. 1. And yet with this superinduced Tradition they destroyed all such duty About the word Corban in the sense in which it is used here the Talmudich Treatises Nedarim and Nazir and the Tosaphtoth upon them are good explications where it is often used His resolving the case about meats not defiling the man overthrew a great part of Pharisaism for this washing before meat was meerly out of their Traditions and it was a great part of their sanctimony Moses indeed had forbidden divers things as unclean to be touched and by the touching of which the person was legally defiled but that with this reference that he was unclean as to Gods service or to the Congregation but this pretenced uncleannesse of theirs for which they appointed washing before meat had respect simply neither to the one nor the other Christ to a Heathen woman that begged the dispossessing of her daughter cals the Heathens Dogs and she readily understands his meaning as that being a common title that the Jews put upon them Midr. Titt fol. 6. col 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Nations of the world are compared to Dogs No sign given to the Pharisees when they demand one but the sign of Ionah the Prophet whereby Christ doth not only intimate his own buriall and resurrection but he chiefly intendeth to hint the calling of the Gentiles after his resurrection as the Ninivites were after Ionahs which was a thing the Jews could not endure to hear of SECTION LI. MARK Chap. VIII Ver. 22 23 24 25 26. A blinde man restored to sight at Bethsaida MARKS authority warrants the connexion here especially it being considered that in the preceding Section Christ and his Disciples are crossing over the Sea and here they are arrived at Bethsaida A journey by Sea thither they had when Iesus fed the five thousand in Sect. 47. and now being come up to that place where that miracle was wrought it was a strange construction the Disciples made of the words of their master Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees when they thought he blamed them for not bringing bread the very place where they were might have confuted that misprision Christ openeth the eyes of a blinde man but will not do it in Bethsaida but leads the man out of the Town nor will he suffer him to go into the Town when he is cured nor to tell it there He had a good while ago as hath been said denounced wo against Bethsaida Matth. 11.21 and for her perversnesse he will no more strive with her for her good He had gathered out of her those that belonged to himself SECTION LII MATTH Chap. XVI from Ver. 13. to the end of the Chapter MARK Chap. VIII from Ver. 27. to the end of the Chapter And Chap. IX Ver. 1. LUKE Chap. IX from Ver. 18. to Ve. 28. The Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven given to Peter c. MATTHEW and Mark establish the order Upon Peters confession that Iesus was The Christ the Sonne of the living God 1. He promiseth to build his Church upon the Rock of that Truth and the Rock confessed in it from Isa. 28.16 Psal. 118.22 c. 2. He promiseth the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven to Peter only of all the Apostles meaning thereby that he should be the man that should first unlock the door of faith and of the Gospel unto the Gentiles which was accomplished in Act. 10. And 3. he giveth him power of binding and loosing and this power the other Disciples had common with him Matth. 18.18 Binding and loosing in the language and stile most familiarly known to the Jewish Nation and it can little be doubted that Christ speaketh according to common and most familiar sense of the language did referre more properly to things then to persons Therefore he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in Matth. 18.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To binde and to loose in their vulgar speech meant to prohibit and to permit or to teach what is prohibited or permitted what lawfull what unlawfull as may appear by these instances a few produced whereas thousands might be alledged out of their Writings Talm. in Pesachim per. 4. halac 5. Our wise men say that in Iudah they did wâ—rk on the Passeover eve till noon but in Galilee not at all And as for the night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The School of Shammai bound it that is forbad to work on it or taught that it was unlawfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the School of Hillel loosed it till sun rising or taught that it was lawfull to work till sun-rise Ierus in Shabb. fol. 6. col 1. They are speaking about washing in the Bathes of Tiberias on the Sabbath And they determine how farre this was lawfull in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They bound washing to them but they loosed sweating meaning they taught that it was lawfull to go into the Bath to sweat but not to bathe for pleasure Ibid. fol. 4. col 1. They send not letters by the hand of a Gentile on the eve of the Sabbath nor on the fifth day of the week Nay on the fourth day of the week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The School of Shammai bound it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the School of Hillel loosed it Ibid. fol. 7. col 4. Women may not look in a Looking glasse on the Sabbath But if it were fastned upon a wall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rabbi loosed
the seven Vials in Chap. 16. in many things runne very parallel how farre 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 grasse 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 dreadfull tempest unnaturall 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 signifie multitudes of people as Ierem. 51.36.42 And Babylon that was Monarch was a burning mountain in the same Chapter ver 35. So that the Imperiall 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 covetousnesse ambition revenge or humour bring disquietnesse oppression misery Warres and blood upon all the world in one place or other The third Trumpet brings the starre 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 imbitter the pure springs of the Scripture and fountains of Truth A starre in the language of this Book is a Church-man Chap. 1.20 Ben Cochab was such a Wormwood starre among the Jews called most properly Ben cozba the lier And the phrase A starre falling from heaven alludes to Isa. 14.12 How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer c. The fourth Trumpet shews the darkning of the Sunne and Moon and Starres 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 darkning 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. Ioel 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 Ecclesiasticall and Civil that remembreth not upon this very hint The three Trumpets coming are the Trumpets of Wo wo wo though these things past were very wofull but those much more that are to come REVEL CHAP. IX A Description of the Papacy under the fifth Trumpet Another starre falling from heaven and that a notable one indeed the He that hath the Key of the bottomlesse 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 darknesse and Heathenism to the knowledge of the Gospel Christ gives Peter the Keyes 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 bottomlesse pit and darknesse coming and clouding all The Claviger or Turnkey is The childe of perdition Abaddon and Apollyon a destroyer and one that is surely and sorely to be destroyed Chittim Italy or Rome afflicting and perishing for ever Num. 24.24 Antichrist of the second edition much augmented and inlarged The Jews the first as we observed at the second Epistle to the Thessalonians 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 starre fallen from heaven So that though that did wofull things yet you see the first wo is fixed here The way of his bringing wo upon the earth is by filling the world with smoke and darknesse of ignorance and humane traditions and inventions and out of this smoke come his locusts of his votary orders The locusts described much like those in Ioel 1. for their terrour and destroying only their having the faces of men speaks them men-caterpillers 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 grasse 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 tailes 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 moneths the time of locusts ravening ordinarily from the spring well shot forth to harvest This is the first wo. These locusts stings minde 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 poysoned needles whereof many died hardly feeling what was done to them And this was practised 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 poysoning 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 wo. 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 tailes c. The Turks and Mahumetans coming as a plague upon the Eastern part of the world as the Papacy on the Western These hurt with their tailes false doctrine as well as the other did in the former Trumpet but these have also heads in their tailes which the other had not for these hold out another Head and Saviour Mahomet REVEL CHAP. X. A Little Book in the hand of Christ speaketh the restoring of Religion and Truth after all the darknesse and confusions mentioned before The words in ver 6 7. do help to state the intent of this
Chagra R. Eleazer saith Yea he that brings one from Caphar Lodim to Lod. Rabbi Nissim upon the place saith thus Caphar Lodim was out of the Land near to Lod which was within the Land and it was so called because Lyddans were alwaies found there Jerus in Beracoth fol. 3.1 They brought a chest full of bones from Caphar Tobi and set it openly at the entring in to Lod. Tudrus the Physician came and all the Physicians with him c. Besides observing that Tobi is the name of a man Rabban Gamaliels servant Beracoth per. 2. hal 7. as Tabitha is the name of a woman in the story before us the word Saron being of the masculine gender it plainly tels us that it is not the name of a Town but of the plain or flat where divers Towns stood and among others it may be these mentioned ACTS CHAP. X. all the Chapter LIttle inferiour to these places for Learned men was Caesarea upon the Sea and beyond them for other eminencies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Doctors of Caesarea are of exceeding frequent and exceeding renowned mention in both Talmuds and by name R. Heshaiah the great R. Achavah R. Zeira R. Ada R. Prigori R. Vlla R. Tachalipha and severall others It was anciently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stratons tower but sumptuously built and beautified by Herod the great in honour of Caesar it was called Caesarea· It was mixedly inhabited by Jews and Gentiles and much of an equal number and most commonly well fraught with Romane souldiers because the Governours residence was ordinarily here Of some of these Bands was Cornelius a Captain a man come to an admirable pitch of piety and it is hard to imagine how he came by it For that he was not so much as a Proselyte is apparent in that they at Ierusalem cavill at Peter for going to him as to a Heathen And whether he were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A sojourning sâ—ranger as they called some is not much materiall since by their own judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A sojourning stranger was as a Gentile to all purposes Jerus Jebamoth fol. 8. col 4. Whencesoever he learned faith in Christ his full knowledge of Christ he learned from Peter he having a warrant by vision to send for Peter and he a warrant by vision to go to him Here the Keyes of the Kingdom of heaven committed to Peter so long ago Mat. 16. do their work opening the door of faith first to the Gentiles which never was shut since nor ever will be whilest there is a Church to be upon the earth Ionah at Ioppa and Simon bar Iona there both sent to the Gentiles compare together Upon Peters preaching the Holy Ghost fals upon those Gentiles that were present to the amazement of those of the Circumcision that had come with Peter for they had not only not seen the like before but had been trained up while in their Judaism under a maxime of a clean contrary tenour which taught them That the Holy Ghost would dwell neither upon any Heathen nor upon any Iew in a Heathen Country Caesarea was as the Jews reputed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 between the borders that is a place disputable whether to account within the Land or without or indeed both Iuchas fol. 74. And so were also other places upon this Western border of the Land the great sea shore as Aâ—on or Ptolemais Ierus 〈◊〉 â—ol 60. col 2. Ascalon Idem Sheviith fol. 36.3 and divers others but all things computed no fitter place in the Land could have been chosen for the beginning of this great work of bringing Jews and Gentiles together into one bound then this not only because this City was both Jew and Gentile within the Land and without but also because here was the Roman Court the chief of the Gentiles and the mentioning of Cornelius his being of the Italian Band hinteth such an observation The Holy Ghost at this its first bestowing upon the Gentiles is given in the like manner as it was at its first bestowing upon the Jewish Nation Act. 2. namely by immediate infusion at all other times you finde mention of it you finde mention of Imposition of hands used for it But here it may be observed withall that whereas the fruit of this gift of the Holy Ghost was that they spake with tongues ver 46. it confirmeth that which we spake at Chap. 2. viz. that the first fruit of this gift of tongues was that they that had it were inabled to speak and understand the Originals of the Scripâ—ure And here it appeareth more plainly then there And more plainly still in those twelve at Ephesus Acts 19.6 And those that spake with Tongues in the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 14. For to what purpose was it for them to speak there with Tongues where they all understood the same Language It was not to gibber and talk in strange Language that men might admire but not understand but it was for edification of others yea and for edifying of himself that so spake 1 Cor. 14.4 He that speaketh a tongue edifieth himself How what could he speak in any strange Language to his own edification which he might not as much edifie himself by had he spoken it in his own native tongue But only that this is meant his ability by the gift of tongues to understand and speak the Originall language of the Scripture was both for his own edification and the edification of others Suppose one in the Church of Corinth could speak Persick Arabick Ethiopick c. and did chatter these Languages among them he could not possibly speak any thing in those Tongues though interpreted that could edifie the people any more then if he spake it in his mother tongue But if he spake and understood and uttered the Originall language of Scripture that if interpreted would edifie and he could not speak in his mother tongue unlesse taken from thence what he might speak thence Peter returning to Ierusalem is taken to task by some of the Circumcision for going in to the Gentiles and eating with them a thing of unspeakable detestation to the Jews Hence those allusions Let him be to thee as a Heathen Matth. 18. With such a one no not to eâ—t 1 Cor. 5. We finde not any such quarrell at Peter and Iohn for going down to Samaria though the Samaritans were as odious to the Jewish Nation as people could be but they were neither uncircumcised nor Idolaters both which especially the later bred their detestation of the Heathen ACTS CHAP. XI from Ver. 19. to the end of the Chapter CHRIST XLI AS Caesarea the seat of the Roman Governour of Iudea first seeth the door of faith opened to the Gentiles so Antioch the feat of the Roman Governour of Syria first heareth the name Christian. These of the hundred and twenty Ministers mentioned Acts 1. â—5 that had sled upon the persecution raised against Steven went preaching up and down first as
other evidence which see explained Chap. 17.18 And by her power and sentence our Lord was crucified and for a quarrell of hers being accused and condemned by Pilate as a traytour to the Roman power for saying he was a King This is the rather mentioned now there is speech of Romes last bloodinesse against Christs Witnesses that it might be shewed 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Jews speak Sodom and Egypt Sodom for filthinesse and Egypt for Idolatry and mercilesnesse Never did place under heaven wallow in fleshly filthinesse and particularly in the Sodomitick bestiality as Rome did about those times that Iohn wrote and how little it hath been mended under the Papacy there are Records plain enough that speak to her shame He that reades Martiall and Iuvenal to name no more may stand and wonder that men should become such beasts and it had been better that those Books had been for ever 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 bestiall And so he shews plainly that Gods giving up men to such filthinesse 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 fearfull 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 daies 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 fals 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 ruine is working still from henceforward by the Gospel that these Witnesses had set on foot which brings in the Kingdomes to become the Kingdomes of Christ c. REVEL CHAP. XII AS Daniel Chap. 2. giveth a generall view of the times from his own daies to the coming of Christ in the mention of the four Monarchies in the four parts of Nebuchadnezzers Visionary Image which should runne their date and decay and come to nothing before his coming and then in Chap. 7. handles the very same thing again in another kinde of scheme and something plainer And then in Chap. 8. 10. 11. 12. doth explain at large and more particularly some of the most materiall things that he had touched in those generals So doth our Apocalyptick here and forward He hath hitherto given a generall survey of the times from his own daies 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 childe 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 tayl he drew and cast down the third part of the starres As the Tyrant Antiochus had done Dan. 8.10 So that by these allusive descriptions phrases of old stories fetched to expresse new is shewed the acting of the devil now by his mischievous and tyrannicall instruments with as much bitternesse and bloody-mindednesse as he had done in those The womans fleeing into the wildernesse alludes to Israels getting away into the wildernesse from the Dragon Pharaoh Exod. 14. c. And her nourishing there a thousand two hundred and sixty daies speaks Christs preservation of that Church in the bitterest danger and daies like the daies of Antiochus This Vision aims at the great opposition and oppression the Church and Gospel underwent from the first rising of it to the ruine of Ierusalem and their preservation in all that extremity The battel 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 unbeleeving Jews and that the rather because the Gentiles here are called the wildernesse as they be also in severall 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 beleeve much like the tenour of that parable Matth. 12.43 44 45. The Woman hath Eagles wings alluding to Exod. 19.4 and gets into the wildernesse 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 unbeleeving Jews do as it were drink up all the poyson of the devil and together with raging against the Church they grow inraged 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 it self yet their raging one against another the more is increased in their particular quarrels the more it avenged her quarrell and turned their edge from off her upon themselves The devil seeing this betakes himself to fight against the Womans 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 Ierusalem Satan gives up his Power and Throne to it and that deservedly as to one
It is plainly described as sitting upon seven hils upon which there is hardly a Roman Poet or Historian but makes a clear comment The seven heads denoted also seven Kings or kindes of Government that had passed in that City Five are fallen ver 10. Kings Consuls Tribunes Dictators Triumvirs and one then was when Iohn wrote namely Emperours And one not yet come Christian Emperours 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 severall Kingdoms all subject to the Beasts both Imperiall and Papall but at last shall rise up against the mysticall 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 Ver. 11. AN Elegy and a Triumph upon the fall of Babylon The former Chap. 18. almost verbatim from Isa. 13. 14. 21. 34. Ier. 51. Ezek. 27. The later also Chap. 19. the phrase taken from the old Testament almost every word The triumphant Song begins with Halleluja severall 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 Blesse thou the Lord O my soul. Hallelujah The observation of the peoples saying over the great Hallel at the Temple or their great Song of praise doth illustrate this The Hallel consisted of severall Psalms viz. from the 113th to the end of the 118th 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 for ever 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 compleated 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 Iohn begins upon his whole subject again to summe up in brief what he had been upon before Observe what is said in ver 19. I saw the Beast and the Kings of the earth and their Armies gathered together to make war against him that sate on the horse and against his Army and observe withall 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 occurre after those this therefore is a brief rehearsall of what he had spoken from the twelfth Chapter hither about the battell 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 alwaies and when he saw his time destroyed them here the holy Ghost tels 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 Womans seed but what course takes he for that He resignes his Throne and Power and Authority to the Beast Rome and it must do and it did his businesse for him Chap. 13.3 and how throughly it did its masters work is shewed 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 Imperiall then Papall They at the last receive their due wages for their work Imperiall and Papall 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 fearfull vengeance and destruction upon the agents and to say nothing of the principall and chief mover That therefore is done here and this Chapter takes at Chap. 13.3 and tels you what became of the old Dragon after the resigning of his Throne to the Beast namely that he sate 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 bottomlesse pit The Devil had two waies 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 bottomlesse 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 magicall miracles which were meer delusion Hence the world for the time of Heathenism is said to be in his Kingdom of darknesse 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 spels and charms of delusion and did as it were chain up Satan that he could no more Deceive the Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Heathen as he had done by these deceits so that the words speak the ending of Satans power in Heathenism and the bringing in of the Gentiles to the knowledge of the truth out of darknesse and delusion The date of this his chaining up was a thousand years Now the Jews counted the daies of the Messias a thousand years as
phrase used by the Jews Onkelos renders Deut. 33.6 thus Let Reuben live and not die the second death And Ionathan 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 ruine and rejection of the Jews now a cursed people and given up to the second death and in Chapter 66. ver 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 In stead 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 Iohn scorn is put again upon the Jews wild interpretation of the resurrection in Ezekiel They take it litterally 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 fals 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 judgement is upon the world and the holy blessed God sits upon the Throne of judgement 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 blindnesse 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 it self hard to hold up his Kingdom by the horrid persecutions it raised yet still â—he 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 Iohn 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 Ierusalem 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 cals 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 Iohn 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 summes 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 ver 9. by fire from heaven in allusion to Sodom or to 2 King 1.10 12. and it is set close to the end of the world the Devil and the Beast Rome imperiall and the false Prophet Rome Papall are cast into fire and brimstone ver 10. where Iohn speaks so as to shew his method which we have spoken of The devill 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. v. 20. And now the story of the devill 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 Ierusalem 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ierusalem 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 Rev. 21.27 22.15 Midras Till in Psal. 122. Ierusalem is built as a City that is compact together R. Iochanan saith The holy blessed God said I will not go into Ierusalem that is above untill I have gone into Ierusalem that is below c. Ezekiels Ierusalem as we observed was of a double signification namely as promising the rebuilding of the City after the Captivity and foretelling of the spirituall Ierusalem the Church under the Gospel and that most especially At that Iohn taketh at here and that is the Ierusalem that he describeth And from Isa. 65.17 18. joyneth the creating new heavens and a new earth and so stateth the time of building this new Ierusalem namely at the coming in of the Gospel when all things are made new 2 Cor. 5.17 A new people new Ordinances new Oeconomy 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 them as he had done in the midst of Israel Levit. 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 ver 4. which if taken litterally could referre to nothing but the happy estate in heaven of which the glory of this Ierusalem 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 sinne c. No condemnation to be to those that are in Christ Iesus The passages in describing the City are all in the Prophets phrase Ezekiel and Isaiah as compare these The Bride the Lambs wife ver 9. Sing O barren Heathen that didst not bear c. Thy Maker is thine Husband thy Redeemer c. Isa. 54.1 5. Ver. 10. He carried me away in the