The Exposition of Thomas Goodwin on the Book of Revelation : with Life of the author

THE

EXPOSITION

OF THAT FAMOUS DIVINE

THOMAS GOODWIN, D.D.

ON THE

BOOK OF REVELATION.

CONDENSED FROM THE ORIGINAL
BY A CLERICAL MEMBER OF THE CONVOCATION AT OXFORD.

LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO.

SOLD *LSO BY BENNETT, IVY LANE;
AND ALL OTHER BOOKSELLERS IX TOWN AND COUNTRY.

MDCCCXUI.

") K

if- j

PLYMOC7'H :
JENKIN THOMAS, PRINTER, CORNVr.ALL-STREET

PREMONITION

TO THE READER,

(AS IN THE OCTAVO EDITION OF GOODWIN'S EXPOSITIONS.)

Li laying before the Church of Christ, (to whom I hereby dedicate
this volume,) an octavo edition of the Expositions of that peerless divine
and star of the first magnitude, that shone through two-thirds of the
seventeenth century, Dr. Thomas Goodwin ; the only apology I have to
make is for the labor of reducing more than a thousand folio pages to
the present cheap form and portable size, by condensing the same
without sacrificing scarce an idea of the original. The diminution of
the type, margin, and paragraphs, might account for the work being of
an equal number of pages : and it has been further compressed by
relieving the Exposition on the Ephesians of a multitude of repetitions,
chiefly used at the commencement of the sixty sermons into which the
original divides it ; the more convenient form of a division by verses,
and the more perspicuous mode of sub-dividing verses under prominent
heads, (an index for which is found at the top of each page,) being
substituted : I have also used in general a less circuitous phraseology ;
preserving withal so carefully every important expression, and the force
of every phrase, that in some pages I have not ventured to omit, or add,
or alter, a word of several sentences together ; whilst I trust I have
succeeded, without affecting the originality of the style, not only in
condensing, but in removing from several passages that obscurity which
still surrounds some others. Although the truth of most of the state
ments is set forth in an irresistible light, there are a few in which no
one reader will perhaps fully concur : still as an editor, I oive it to the
Church as well as to him, " who being dead yet speaketh," to give a
faithful transcript of all the author's ideas, from the animalcula to the
hugest behomoth, from the hedge-star to the brightest luminary in the
heavens : and while the babe ivillfind here its milk, the robust its strong
meat, and every one his portion ; there are some astounding notions,
with which only minds of peculiar dimensions can grapple, but which
once grasped afford a reward indeed. In studying such a divine
class-book with the bible before him, the strongest intellect will find
exercise enough, and the weakest understanding, (enlightened by the
Spirit of God,) may wade easily through this river of Ufa and
pleasure.

Of the works of this gigantic theologist, the Comment on the Epistle
to the Ephesians takes up eight hundred pages of the first of five very
scarce and expensive folio volumes; and though it was never prosecuted
beyond the commencement of the second chapter, it contains a complete
body of divinity, and is remarkable for its undesigned testimony against
the spirit of Popery, and all those " damnable heresies," which have.
no alarmingly threatened the vitality of the Protestant Church ; while
his Exposition of the Book of Revelation, (taken from two hundred
pages of the second folio,) most fully anatomizing and detecting

Antichrist and (he mystery of iniquity, peculiary interests these our
days; and as if contains withal the name rich vein of ideas and practi
cal observations as that of the Ephcsians, I scruple not to say, " Blessed
is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this volume, and
keep these things which are written therein." The life of the Author
is prefixed to the Jifth folio, and it is hoped the perusal of his experience,
as well as of the present portion of his writings, ivill be acknowledged
by the Holy Ghost, in comforting and strengthening the hearts of God's
" own elect," in these perilous times : for as he lived to see the beginning,
and as we are now in the last of " the latter days," he wrote under the
tame impressions with which we still read ; so that he seems, as if by a
prophetic spirit, to have " written for our admonition, upon u-hom the
ends of the world are come :" and I feel assured, that except our pulpits
are made to ring again with the trumpet-sound of the glorious scriptu
ral doctrines here set forth, no other barrier can be efficient against
the universal domination of the Papacy.

Jin objection may arise among some members of our Church, tending
to invalidate the testimony of this pre-eminent minister of Christ, and to
reflect on his present editor; "but he was a seceder," (as the alary
of Naaman was marred by a single syllable ; "but he ivas a leper: )
This but / would re-but, by observing, That Dr. Goodwin lived in
communion ivith our Church upwards of thirty years, and for some time
was under the patronage of Charles I. during which period several of
his works were written ; and as they all contain ttie same spirit and
doctrine, who could discern, from what is before him, whether it was
under Charles or James, or in the days of Cromwell, that he rvas rice-
chancellor of Oxford P it is only evident, that in whatsoever firmament
he appeared, "he tvas a burning and a shining light." Let any bishop,
or priest, or lay-divine, dying in our own communion, be pointed out
as having ivritten so deeply, so fully, so convincingly, so blessedly, on
the whole of all the mysteries of grace •, and I will confess my error in
re-editing such an author, as another such I do not believe has been
given to the world since the age of apostles : and should the Church
of Christ require it, I shall, by God's grace and strength, prepare
another corresponding volume, containing some of his treatises and dis
courses, which are the most perfect master-pieces of theology on the
most important subjects I ever perused.

The reader should be ailmonisfad, that I have chosen to express the
Greek words in Roman, and the Hebrew in Italic capitals, the Latin
being in small Italics with capital initials : and as I was now tempted to
write my manuscript with one hand, and correct the press with the other,
1 hope I shall not again have to deplore so many errata of all sorts as
the reader will discover ; of whom I thus take leave, praying the Holy
Ghost to be ivith him in the patient perusal of these pages, that therein
he may sec " the glory of Gad in the face of Jesus Christ."

THE EDITOB.

Plymouth, July, IK 12.

T H E L 1 F E O I '

DR. THOMAS GOODWIN,

AS COMPOSED OUT OF HIS OWN PAPERS AND MEMOIRS

THOMAS, the eldest son of Richard and Catharine Goodwin, of the
family of Collingwood, was born Oct. 5lh, A.D. 1600, at Rolseby, a
little village in Norfolk. His parents devoting him to the ministry, gave
him a learned as well as a religious education, and placed him in Christ's
College, Cambridge, A.D. 1613; where he continued about six years ;
and from this College, which flourished in learning, (the number of its
students also being then about two hundred,) he removed to Catharine
Hall ; of which he was chosen a fellow, and a lecturer, A.D. 1 620. Though
so young, his unwearied industry and improvement of talents gained him
great esteem in the University : yet all this time he " walked in the
vanity of his mind," under the entire influence of ambitious hopes and
designs, aiming at applause and reputation, so as to rise, and in any
manner to advance himself, by preferment. But God had destined him
to higher ends, and was graciously pleased to turn the thoughts of his
heart and the course of his life to his own service and glory. Being
" born out of due time," he Was naturally of a weak constitution ; and
though not likely to live, be was preserved, "when he yet hung upon his
mother's breasts," as one in whom God meant to manifest his grace in the
miraculous conversion of his soul to himself. Sparks of conscience kept
his childish years from gross sins, and set him upon the performance of
common duties. He had some workings of the Spirit of God at six years
of age, weeping for his sins, when he set himself to think of them, and
having flashes of joy at the thoughts of divine things ; he was also aflected
with good motions of love to God and Christ for their love to man, and
with grief for sin as displeasing them : but all this goodness of assisted
nature reached not to true sanctifying grace ; yet he concluded it was
grace ; for he reasoned with himself, That it was not of nature. At
fourteen years of age he received the sacrament, preparing himself as he
was able, by examining whether he had grace ; all the signs of which,
according to Ursin's catechism, he thought he found in himself: the
love of God to such a sinner, and Christ dying for him, affected him
greatly ; and he had much inward joy and comfort at this his first sacrament,
while the usual Ps. ciii. was sung during the administration : his heart

was wonderfully cheered, thinking himself sure of heaven, and judging all
these workings as infallible tokens of God's love to him, and of his grace
in him ; not considering it as mere stronger fits of nature's working. But
hereby God made way for the greater advancement of the power of his
grace in him, by shewing him how far he may go, yet deceive himself;
grace being a thing surpassing the power of nature ; and therefore God
suffered him to fall away, not from these good motions, which he could
raise at pleasure, but from the practice of them ; till his heart began to
suspect them as counterfeit. For the next sacrament at Whitsuntide he
made great preparations, attending Dr. Sibb's lectures at Trinity Church,
and reading Calvin's Institutes ; some parts of which were very sweet to
him, and the solid delivery of truth therein very pleasing : He now was
greatly affected at the thoughts of his going to heaven with the holy men
in Christ's College, looking with special joy on Mr. Bentley, (a dear child
of God, and fellow of the College,) as one with whom he should live for
ever : When ready to receive the sacrament, (being then and for several
years after the least in stature of the whole University,) his tutor, Mr. Power,
obliged him to desist, and to go out before the whole College ; which damp
ed him much, and made him greatly pity himself, that his soul was disap
pointed of its expectations of being so confirmed, from that sacrament,
as never to fall away again : Hereupon he left off praying, not knowing
how to go to God, through discouragement ; he also left off going to
hear Dr. Sibbs ; and no longer studied sound divinity, but gave himself
up to such studies as should enable him to preach after the flattering
manner of Dr. Senhouse.

It now fell out that Arminianism was set on foot in Holland, and the
rest of those provinces ; and it continued hottest at the very time our author
was wrought upon as above. Being inquisitive, he perceived that their
doctrine acknowledged a work of the Spirit, moving and stirring at first ;
but the freedom of the will, assisted by such aids and helps, was to carry
it : This they called grace, sufficient at first in exciting the will to turn to
God, and helping it with power to turn when a man would thus set
himself to work ; affirming withal, that such converts by the freedom of
the same will may, and often do, either fall away totally, or repent again :
he observed, however, that several holy youths in his College,(whohad made
known to him the workings of God on them in humiliation, faith, and
change of heart,) continued their profession stedfast without falling off
again. Now though the Arminian doctrines suited his own experience,
in those natural workings of conscience off and on in religion, yet the
example of these godly youths in their constant perseverance, made so
strong an impression on him, that in his very heart and judgment he

Ill

thought those doctrines untrue ; and he was fixed under a conviction that
his state was neither right nor sound; but yet he could not imagine
wherein it failed and was defective. Notwithstanding his thus falling
away, he still set himself upon every sacrament, to examine himself anew,
to repent, and to turn to God ; after that, returning to neglect of prayer,
and to his former ways of unregenerate principles and practices, and living
in hardness of heart and profaneness. Thus given over to the strength
of his lusts, and further than ever from all goodness ; despairing of God's
grace to convert him, he resolved to follow the world, and its glory and
honor, by all possible means. In his way to a merriment at his former Col
lege, on hearing a funeral-bell, one of his companions pressed him to go to
the sermon ; and though he loathed that kind of preaching that good men
used, yet seeing many scholars go in, he thought it was some eminent
man, or he would come out again ; but his loathing was diminished on
finding the preacher to be Dr. Bambridge, a witty man, the first words of
whose sermon on Luke xix. 41, 42, (which he had heard once before,)
pleased him so well, as to make him very attentive all the "while : The
danger of deferring repentance, That every man had his day of grace
offered to him, called by our Lord " this thy day," which being neglected
God justly hides from a man's eyes the bestowing of his peace, (as every
man may be made for ever in this world by minding his opportunity,)
That the neglect of this time of salvation was followed by impenitency,
blindness, obduracy, from which we should ever pray to be kept — all this
was vehemently urged, without deferring longer to turn immediately to
God, lest that day's opportunity should be let slip, and lest the day of grace
and salvation should be past, and the door of mercy shut for ever. To
his companion who pressed him to turn in to hear that sermon, he
expressed his hope to be the better for it as long as he lived, and refused
to go with the rest to the place of engagement, (being on monday, Oct.
2nd, A.D. 1620,) for he was at once struck down by a mighty power :
his grosser sins came in upon him ; which he then wondered at, as being
unseasonable ; and so the working began, and was prosecuted still more
and more, higher and higher : in his endeavouring not to think the least
thought of his sins, he was passively held under the remembrance of them,
asd affected ; so as he was rather passive all the while in it, than
active ; his thoughts being held under, while this work went on.

About two years after, preaching at Ely minster for Dr. Hill, a prebend
ary, master of his College ; he told the auditory, (meaning himself in the
person of another,) " That for a man to be converted, who is ordinarily
ignorant of what conversion should be, and of what particular passages it
consists ; and yet to be guided through all its dark comers and windings,

IV

would be a wonder to think of; as if one were to go to tlie top of that
hint horn, to bring him into all the passages of the minster, in-doors and
out, without knowing a jot of the way, and in danger every step of treading
awry and falling down :" So it was with him : he knew no more of the
work of conversion, than these two general heads ; that a man is first
troubled for sin, and then comforted by the manifestation of God's favor to
him. Thus the reviewal of his having been so strangely guided in the dark,
became an evidence of the truth of the work of grace upon him. In this
and everv following intercourse, ho was acted by the Spirit of God upon
him, and his thoughts passively held fixed, until each head and sort of
thoughts were finished ; and then a new thought begun and continued ;
so that he looked at these as so many conferences God had with him, by
way of reproof and conviction. His thoughts were kept fixed and intent
on tho consideration of the next immediate causes of those past gross
acts of sinning ; and abundant discovery was made to him of his inward
lusts, and how all sorts of concupiscences had wrought in him ; so that he
was amazed to see how greedily he had sought the gratification of every
lust. Natural conscience is ready to discover gross acts of sin against
knowledge ; (as in the dark we more readily see the furniture in a room,
than flies and motes,) but the new sort of illumination now vouchsafed
him, discovered his heart, in all his sinnings, and carried him down to see
his inwards, as by the searching of candles, bringing to light the violent
eagerness and insatiableness of his lusts. He found, under the dispensa
tion of this new light, the apparent difference of his former experience,
wherein he had indeed enlightcnings, and great strivings of the Holy
Ghost, both unto and in the performance of holy duties, prayers, hearings,
&c. without discovering the sinful inordinacy of his lusts, as the root and
ground of all his other sinnings : and those devotions differed also from the
present sight of his inward corruption ; for this secret thought ran along
with them, That God could not but accept such real services as he thought
lie performed ; so that the opinion of merit prevailed over the commonly
received doctrine which taught him otherwise ; but the clear sight of his
heart-lusts made that notion vanish, for his former thoughts of which
he now detested himself: the sinfulness of these lusts he perceived to
be chiefly in ungodliness, as their spring ; and that having been "a lover
of pleasure more than a lover of God," (according to Jer. ii. 13, " My
people have committed two evils ; they have forsaken me the fountain of
living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold
no water,") he had acted them in things that were most lawful, but where
in even " the plowing of the wicked is sin," Prov. xxi. 4. Thus the
sinfulness of his sins was exceedingly enlarged, through the light accom-

panying every action which he could cast his remembrance on, or go over
in his view ; and thus a new horrid vein and course of sin, lying at the
bottom of his heart, in the rising and working of all his lusts, was also
revealed to him ; so that his heart was kept in a continual course of un
godliness, wholly obstructed from acting towards God in any way, or from
having any holy or good movings at all. God, "with whom (only and
immediately) he had to do," and not with his own bare single thoughts,
having proceeded thus far in " humbling him under his mighty hand,"
continued orderly to possess his thoughts with a further progress herein,
holding him intent to consider and pierce into the first causes of so much
actual sinfulness, and presenting to him, as in answer, (for this was trans
acted as a conference by God with him,) the original corruption of his
nature, and the inward evil constitution and depravation of all his facul
ties, and the inclinations and dispositions of his heart unto all evil, and
his averseness from all spiritual good and acceptableness to God : he was
convinced that in these respects he was flesh ; as if this was the definition
of man, " that which is born of the flesh is flesh :" And here he stood
astonished at the sight and workings of his heart, as if in the heat of
summer, by a clear light and piercing eye, he had discerned millions of
crawling things in a sink of liquid corruption. When holy Mr. Price
heard Mr. Chatterton preach, it was as the shining of the sun of righteous
ness on a dunghill ; but our authors apprehensions of his own heart were,
That it was utterly without Christ. He was deeply impressed that all the
sins that were ever committed, proceeded from the same root of the cor
ruption of men's nature ; and that if tempted thereto he should himself have
committed the same. But what affected him yet more, was a sight and
sense that his heart was empty of all good ; as the apostle saith, " I
know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing,"
whereas in the righteous, " there is some good thing towards the Lord
God of Israel :" Thus all his boasted ingenuity and goodness was naught
before the goodness of God. He was next led to inquire into, and consider,
the original cause at the bottom of all this said sinfulness of heart and
life ; and from Rom. v. 12, (" By one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin ; and so death passed upon all men, in that all have
sinned,") he debated thus with himself : That it was in Adam all
sinned ; for infants sin not " after the similitude of Adam's transgression,"
(which is cautiously added to shew that they are simply involved in his
act of sinning, without actually sinning themselves ;) whence we become
guilty " by the disobedience of one, whereby we are all made sinners ;"
for disobedience notes an act of sinning, not a sinful nature or habit.
Thus was his spirit so strongly convicted of this great truth, That Ihe guilt

b

VI

of demerit of one mans disobedience had corrupted our nature, that
once at midnight he rose, and fell on his knees before God, formally as
suming and taking on him, the guilt of Adam's sin, as truly as any of his
own actual sins.

While thus engaged in heart-conclusions about his own sinfulness and
the utter corruption of all his actions, and that he was nothing but flesh,
as born of flesh ; it came in full upon his mind that he should wrong
himself to end in such a conclusion, for he thought he had abundance of
experience of the workings of true grace, enlightenings, and ravishments
of spirit, and of faith in Christ, especially on sacramental occasions.
He recollected the course of his spirit until he was thirteen years of
age ; and how when he was seven years old, a servant of his grandfather,
(with whom he lived,) reproved him very vehemently for some sin as
leading him to hell-torments ; from which time he began to be affected
with thoughts of God and religion, though in a childish way ; for he
began to weep and mourn on fresh convictions of fresh sins ; but though
for a while abstaining from them, he found himself weak and overcome
again : still as he could weep for his sins in secret, when he could weep
for nothing else, he concluded it was not hypocrisy ; for God noticed
Hezekiah's turning to the wall with tears : and having known the Scrip
tures from a child, like Timothy, he waxed confident, from the promise of
obtaining whatever he asked of the Father in Christ's name ; which he
would be sure to do for all he would have of God. Thus renewing his
repentance for relapses into sins, he "thought as a child," That what
ever was more than nature must be grace ; and that his religious fits and
affections, of which he was once destitute, must be the work of God, (who
came to him, only as a way-faring man tarries for a night and departs :)
but as the Holy Ghost moved on the waters, and sustained the chaos that
was created, so he excites good motions in carnal hearts ; as in a frost,
the ice-drops and snow melt, and the earth becomes slabby, only where the
sun shines ; yet there is no general thaw : so these lighter impressions,
and slighter workings, made him so presumptuous as to think he had
more grace, though but a school-boy, than his relations or any of the
town-folks he knew. Having been admitted a junior-sophister of his
College a year before the usual time of standing, he obtruded himself
among the rest of his form, as a communicant, being ashamed to go out
of the chapel alone : he had exercised himself on this occasion in self-
examinations, and meditations on the sufferings of Christ, which
he presumed to apply to himself with much thankfulnes to God. His
devotions were the more kindled by the residence of six fellows, who
were chief tutors of his College, and called Puritans, because of

their strict godliness ; (and besides, Cambridge was still lull of talk of
the j>o\vcr of Mr. Perkin's ministry ; and also, Dr. Ames, professor of
divinity at Franeker, who wrote "Puritanismus Anglicanus," had by the
urgency of the master, not long before our author's time, been driven
from his fellowship of Christ's Church and from the University itself;
but the worth and holiness of that man was sufficiently known by what he
afterwards did in the Low Countries:) These fellows had several godly
pupils, whose ways he observed ; and he took the opportunity of acquaint
ing himself with Ursin's renowned summary of the orthodox religion,
which was explained to them at their saturday-night's chamber-prayers.
The powerful and steady examples of these, and especially of one of their
tutors, Mr. Bentley, (whose innocent, meek, and humble spirit, was proved
amidst dangerous fits of apoplexy to which he was subject J had decided
him in respect to the Anninian controversy : still the stirring affections he
felt at the prayers, and the ravishing elevations of his animal spirits, were
but as the morning dew ; and at the end of a week he left off private
prayer, and all his other godly exercises ; till the return of another
sacrament, when he fell to loving the godly tutors and pupils again, so as
to continue more constant in duties for a longer time together. The
University church of St. Mary vied in all the florid sermons and strains
of wit, from which he was withdrawn for eight weeks, accompanying the
godly of his College to hear the plain and wholesome preaching of
Dr. Sibbs, keeping to private prayer, and getting more acquainted with
those holy students ; so that he longed for the next sacrament to confirm
him by the body and blood of Christ in his new way, and to keep him
from falling again in love with scholastic divinity : But on occasion of
his tutor's restraining him from the Lord's table, (as before mentioned,)
he suddenly left off his begun courses, and again constantly attended at
St. Mary's, and returned to his lusts and pleasures, (though kept from
gross sinsj and to the ambition of vain-glory and applause ; and with a
lower kind of enmity against good men and things, he resolved to preach
against those at Lynn Regis and their ways, (where the eminent Mr.
Price was afterwards minister,) and to take part with the whole town against
them, which his wicked spirit, through the studies he had pursued, was
too eager and fitted to do : till it came to this, That if God would
give him the pleasure he desired, and the preferment he sought, and not
damn him at last, he might keep heaven to himself; and as for the
powerful preaching of Mr. Rogers, of Dedham, and such others, he deiied
their troubling his conscience.

When God by a true work of grace effectually converted him to himself,
the vanity of his former religion, and the deficiency of the root of all his de
ft 2

Vlll

votions, was abundantly manifested ; and as he reflected on certain passages
of scripture, God vouchsafed him a new and further light into the bottom
of his heart, to discern, That self-love and self-flattery, acted to the utmost
by wordly motives, were but the roots of all these gaudy tulips he counted
for grace : thus the flowers of all his former devotions withered to nothing,
as in the parable of the stony ground, where the heart wanted moisture to
nourish it. He was surrounded by the prospect he lay under of all these
heads of sinning, and so shut up as to see no way of escape ; and together
with the sight of this sinfulness, hell opened its mouth upon him,
threatening to destroy and devour him for ever and ever. Though
subjugated and bound over to these apprehensions, he was kept however
from the soreness of God's wrath piercing him through and through ; and
though he had a solid and strong and just conviction of sin abiding on him,
as in his unbelief, yet he suffered not the terrors of the Almighty, bound
as he was hand and foot, and subacted under the pressure of the guilt of
wrath and subjection to the just judgment of the Lord. It was not many
hours before God, faithful to his word of promise in not suffering the
regenerate to be tempted above what they are able, in his pity made
a way for him to escape, that he might be able to bear it ; and loving him
with the same love as his own dear elect children, suffered not a destroying
apprehension to continue long upon him previous to his believing. In
Ezek.xvi. the election of grace are compared to a still-born child, covered
over with the blood of its birth, its navel uncut, itself unwashed, but cast
out as a carcase in the open field, till the compassion of God bid it, with
earnest vehemence, " Live, yea live :" So God in an instant was pleased to
alter the whole course of his former dispensation towards him, after all
that heap amassed from the continual ebullitions of original sin : no eye
pitied him or could help him ; till he who created the world and the
matter of all things by a word, put a new life and spirit into his soul by
the whisper of his promise. As is the still yet certain sound of a distant
voice ; or as the gospel, whispered out of Zion, sounded over the whole
earth ; so this speaking of God to his soul, though so gentle a sound, made
a noise over his whole heart, and filled and possessed all his soul, while
God took him aside, and as it were privately said to him, " Do you turn
to me, and I will pardon all your sins, though never so many, as I
forgave and pardoned my servant Paul ; and I will convert you unto my
self, as I did Mr. Price," (a notable convert in Cambridge, and a most
striking example of a singular conversion, and the holiest man without
exception, and then preacher at King's Lynn, whither our author's
parents had removed from Rolseby :) These secret whispers and speeches
of God to him he related a year-and-half after to Mr. Price, and since

IX

then frequently to others, in declaring this his conversion ; for they ever
stuck in his mind : examples set before us by God, being written and
propounded to us for our hope, (Rom. xv. 4,) and alleged not only to
illustrate and explain rules, but to prove and confirm them : That God
pardoned such a man in such a condition, is often brought home as
implying a secret promise to another man in the same condition.
Preaching at Ely two years after, he urged Paul's instance as an example
to win others, (in allusion to his own experience,) and that such exam
ples were flags of mercy to win a company of rebels : that of Paul was
full and pertinent to the purpose for which God held it out to him ; he
considering with himself the amplitude of his pardon, that it involved all
sorts of sins of the highest nature, in which Paul had so walked, that he
was even upon the narrow brink of sinning against the Holy Ghost : and
God had suggested to him, that he would pardon him for all his sins,
though never so great, (for boldness, hardness of heart, and heinousness
of sinning,) as he had done Paul, and would change his heart, as he had
Mr. Price's. The confirmations whereby he judged the said instructions
and suggestions to come immediately from God, were, First, The posture
and condition of his spirit when they took him, his heart being at the
time hnmoveably fixed in the contrary persuasions of his being in a
damned state, without hope of a remedy for the guilt of those sins in
which he had continued : and it was when God had set a guard upon him
as the prisoner of hell, that the contrary apprehensions and impressions
came in so instaneously, and so deeply rooted in his heart, that he remem
bered them ever since. Secondly, It was a word in season, (which Christ
himself was taught to speak to distressed souls, Isa. 1. 4,) like that to
Abraham the father of the faithful, which became a Jewish proverb, " In
the mount the Lord will (provide or) be seen ;" which "Jehovah-jireh" the
Jews apply to the immediate remedy God out of pity affords a man in
such distress and straits as none but himself can remedy ; and it is a
word fitted and proper to such an occasion, and peculiar to the case in
hand ; a word quick and sudden, and interrupting all contrary expecta
tions and fears, as when God spake in haste, calling, " Abraham, Abraham."
Thirdly, What was suggested to him was not an ungrounded fancy, but the
pure word of God, the ground ol faith and hope ; it was the promise and
performance of God's forgiving Paul the most heinous sins that ever any
committed who was saved ; Paul confessing himself the chiefest of sinners ;
and his example being the most pertinent that could be found in the
book of God. Fourthly, He was powerfully persuaded that the said
suggestions were of God, from the fulfilment of God's words to him ;
for, 1st, He felt all the powers of his soul in an instant clean altered, and

changed in the disposition of them ; as the discourses of our English
divines set forth the manner of conversion in the effects of it. 2ndly, He
found the works of the devil dissolved in his heart, from that time, in an
eminent manner ; his understanding enlightened ; his will melted and
softened ; the stone made flesh, disposed to receive and to turn to God :
and, 3dly, He found his spirit cloathed with a new nature, inclining him
to good instead of evil. It was not merely such good motions from the
Spirit of God, as formerly incited him to flushings and streamings of
transitory affections, exciting joy in his animal spirits, when he applied
himself to a holy duty ; but he found a new in-dwelling or habitual princi
ple of opposition to in-dwelling sin, and a hatred of it; so that he
concluded with himself, That this new workmanship wrought in him, was
of the same kind, as to matter of holiness, with that image of God,
expressed in Eph. iv. 24, and Col. iii. 10. Thus he was at first
comforted in seeing and finding two contrary principles ; the Spirit as truly
lusting against the flesh, as the flesh against the Spirit ; and ha found
apparent the difference of the opposition of conscience only against a
lust, and that of the Spirit or new work of grace in the heart ; (the Spirit
not contradicting and checking, but making a real natural opposition as
of fire to water ;) and this difference he found not by reading or hearing-
it spoken of; but like Augustin, he perceived it of himself, and wondered
at it : his was a combat proper and peculiar to the regenerate ; not found in
God or Christ who are fulness of holiness, or in devils who are all sin, or
in angels who are entirely holy, or in sinners who have no grace in them to
fight with their corruptions in such a manner. 4thly, The consequence
of what took place in his heart was, an actual turning from all known
sins, and an entertaining the truth of all the principles of godliness, as
far as he received them from the word of God, and the best examples of
godly men with whom he lived. Assisted by God's direction, he looked
back on his sinful state, and took a summary survey of his chief sins and
lusts ; which he found to be, love of pleasure more than of God, corrupt
ends, and especially such vain -glorious academic praise as he sought with
his whole soul : and God was pleased to direct him to take up, as his
rule of turning to him, a sincere aim at his glory, as the scope of all his
inward thoughts, words, actions, designs, and ends whatsoever ; assisting
him to consider severally all the sorts of actions he had gone through in
his life, and to take them asunder, especially the most principal, in particu
lars, every one in order. And here in the first place he compared the aim
and drift of his studies, (upon svhich he had spent his whole time,) with
what served most to the glory of God in the work of the ministry : this
overturned all the dearest hopes and piojects and designs of his heart; for

XI

the interests of these were more than life to him. The University was
addicted to a vain-glorious eloquence, wherein the wits strove to exceed
one another ; and that which he most of all affected in his foolish fancy,
was to have preached like Dr. Senhouse, of St. John's, (afterwards made
bishop,) a few of whose sermons were in print, being the greatest farrago
of all sorts of flowers, similitudes, or elegancies of art, found in any of ihe
fathers, poets, or historians : not that he expected to attain all the
accomplishments wherein this man abounded, but he studied his collections
so as to imitate him all he could, when he should come to preach. But
this way of his soon received a fatal wound from Dr. Preston's opposition
to it, as vain and nnedifying ; whose catechetical sermons in the chapel
of that College he happened while unregenerate to hear, though unmoved
thereby to alter his studies ; nor could all the world, or angels, or men,
have moved him ; but on this turning to God, and setting up God's glory
as the resolved end of all his actions and ways, he soon discovered the
unprofitableness of such a design, and resolved to leave all, and to
preach nothing but sound wholesome words ; in which principle and
practice he continued for three-score years, without once attempting to
introduce any of his own withered flowers, that he had gathered, and had
valued more than diamonds ; nor did these even tempt him or offer them
selves to his memory; but he preached what was most edifying, either
for conversion of souls, or for bringing them up to eternal life. Thus his
master-lust was mortified. There was nothing of constraint or force in
this work of God on his soul, but he was carried on with the most willing
and ready mind ; and what he did was what he chose to do. He parted
with his sins, (once so dear to him as the apple of his eye, yea as his life,)
with the greatest freedom, resolving never to return to them any more,
and deliberately counting the cost of so great a change. Though he consid
ered the opinion the world had of the true convert, and sincere to God,
who walked in such ways of purity and holiness, yet it hindered him not at
all : he swam and broke through the weeds that entangled him in these
waters, with as much ease as Samson did his withs ; for he was made a
vassal and perfect captive to another binding, (as when Paul went bound
in the Spirit up to Jerusalem,) and he said within himself of all his old
companions, " What do ye breaking my heart ? for I am ready not to be
bound only, but to give up my life, so as I may serve God with jov in
those ways." He looked not back, (as Lot's wife,) but with his whole
soul's desire to return no more to the enjoyment of any lust, all his
childish imaginations of preferment were cast down, and fell like bubbles
vanishing into air : rvrvv strong hold and high thing, (such as scholars
makr the card of thciv li!> to sail by.) was rjiptivatrd to thr

XII

obedience of Christ, 2 Cor. x. 5. He was brought to be content with
the meanest condition all his days, so he might fulfil ever so mean a
course of life with uprightness and sincerity towards God. He took his
leave for ever of all ecclesiastical preferments ; and though afterwards
president of Magdalen College in Oxford, the motive of his heart was the
fair opportunity of his ministry doing good in the University, and that
he might bring in godly young men, fellows and students, to serve God
in the ministry in after-times ; and he accordingly inquired and sought
after such jewels, and was grieved when he failed of his aim : and this
principle he brought with him from his first sttreon in Catharine Hall,
Cambridge, (where he was instrumental in Dr. Sibb's election to the
mastership of that College, and in Dr. Arrowsmith, Mr. Pen of Northamp
tonshire, &c. becoming fellows ;) and he was confirmed therein, in
that after seven years absence from Cambridge, on his return
from Holland he received, almost monthly, for some years, serious
and hearty acknowldgments from several young men, who had the
light of their conversion by his ministry at Cambridge. This encouraged
him to return again to a University ; and his success at Oxford is left to
Christ till the latter day. But the most eminent property of his said
conversion was, That the glory of the great GOD was set up in his heart,
as the square and rule of each and every particular practice both of faith
and godliness ; and of all signs of sincerity, there neither is nor can be any
clearer than this witness, " He that seeketh his glory that sent him, the
same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him," (John vii. 18;) Christ
speaks this of himself, out of his own experience of what He did, who is the
truth itself ; as the glory of God is God Himself, who doth all things for
Himself: and therefore he that thus acteth for God predominantly above
all other ends, must necessarily be judged truly righteous. None can
extract out of man's heart what is not in it ; and there is not the least
spark of regard for the glory of God, as the chief end, in the heart of the
unregenerate : sparks will come from a flint struck against iron or steel;
but not from a piece of ice, for there are none in it, nor the least disposition
towards any. True conversion is, when upon the change of a man's last
end, there is a change made upon the whole man and all the powers of
his soul; if a man changes but to one particular end, the effect is answer-
ably limited and partial ; as when a prodigal thus becomes sparing and
covetous, the only effect is, a care to keep his money and not spend it
lavishly : but godliness, respecting the glory of God above all, hath a
general and universal end, extending its influence upon all things.
Hence our author's task was to survey, and go over, every particular kind
of act, both as to what he must forbear, and for what end, and with

Xlll

what heart ; as also to observe each particular practice of godliness, which
he had for a long time wretchedly neglected : so that he fixed on this
summary of his whole life, That he had made lusts and pleasures his only
end, and done nothing with aims at God's glory ; and therefore he would
begin his turning to God by making God's glory the measure of all for
the time to come.

The above account of the work of the Holy Ghost on our author's
soul, in his own conversion to God, was designed to give, from his own
experience, (as himself said,) a testimony of the difference between the
common grace by some thought sufficient, and special saving grace, which
is alone sufficient, and which always invincibly and effectually prevails, as it
did in him, enduring through a long life and course of various temptations
and trials unto the end. In the first enlightenings and workings of
conscience, he experienced how far common grace might go, and yet fail
at last so as utterly to wither and decay : in the other lasting work on
his soul, which was victorious to eternity, he felt an extraordinary divine
power changing it, and entirely subduing it to God. In reading the acts
of the Synod of Dort, and reviewing the first workings of common grace
in him, he found them consistent with the Arminian opinions ; but on
comparing his own experiences of efficacious grace with the doctrines of
the orthodox protestant divines, he found the one perfectly to agree with
the other. A man cannot be disputed out of such an inward sense of
things as established him in the truths of the gospel and possessed him
with a due tempered warmth and zeal to assert and vindicate them with
such arguments and reasons, as the truth is never destitute of, to resist
gainsayers. It was however many years before he came to have a clear know
ledge of the gospel, and a full view of Christ by faith, with joy and peace
in believing. "A blessed age this, said he in his latter years; now the time
of faith is come ; and faith is principally insisted on unto salvation : in my
younger years we heard little more of Christ, than as merely mentioned in
the ministry, and in printed books : I was diverted from Christ for several
years, to search only into the signs of grace in me : it was almost seven years
ere I was taken off to live by faith on Christ, and on God's free love,
which are alike the objects of faith." For so long a time were his thoughts
intent on the conviction God had wrought in him of the heinousness of
sin, of his own sinful and miserable state by nature, of the difference
between the workings of natural conscience though enlightened, and the
motions of a holy soul changed and acted by the Spirit in an effectual
work of peculiar saving grace : accordingly he kept a constant diary of
observations of the case and posture of his mind and heart towards God,
with suitable pious and pathetic meditations : His sermons being the result

XIV

of these, had a great deal of spiritual heat in them, and were blessed by
God to the conviction and conversion of many young scholars who flocked
to his ministry. He maintained great intimacy of Christian friendship
with Mr. Price, of Lynn, as the greatest man for experimental acquaint
ance with Christ he ever met with ; and as he poured into his bosom his
spiritual complaints, so his conference with him, by letter and discourse,
was blessed by God to lead him into the spirit of the gospel, to live by
faith in Christ, deriving from him life and strength, for sanctification and all
comfort and joy through believing. In answer to Mr. Price, (who had poured
the balm of the gospel into his wounded soul, to its healing and comfort,)
he thus wrote, " I am come to this pass now, that signs will do me no
good alone ; I have trusted too much to habitual grace for assurance of
justification: I tell you Christ is worth all, to whom coming my weary soul
finds that rest, which in all its unquiet motions it could not find elsewhere."
And his own account of this work of faith is thus : " It fell out that soon
after my being humbled for sin, the doctrine of justification through Christ
by faith came into my thoughts ; but my spirit was turned off from it by
this prejudice, That it had been the deceit of carnal men for continuing
in their sins, and so 1 might be deceived in that way and course, remembering
how I had been deceived in believing on Christ crucified with joy and
ravishment in my carnal state : which from time to time was a hinderance
to me from going to Christ : and I was pitched on this great principle,
That if I found myself sanctified, (as I certainly did,) I then was
justified; the one being only the evidence of the other : and thus my
mind was set on examining the inherent work wrought in me by the Spirit ;
and I pursued after mortification of lusts, and inward holiness, thinking
thus to have ihe comfort of my justification, yet being thus kept from
going to Christ actually, though dealing with God and his mercy in Christ,
as having done all on his part to be done in redeeming and reconciling
us : so that I dealt immediately with God and his pure mercv and free
grace. But it fell strongly into my mind, that there was a necessity of
Christ's righteousness to justify me, as well as of his grace which had
sanctified me ; and God took this course to convince me of it, and to set
me a work about it : He used the very conviction I had of original sin
from Adam, in its two branches, in the guilt of Adam's actual transgres
sion imputed to me, and the corruption of my nature thence derived : I
had had a mighty and large conviction and deep sense of these ; and that
all lusts were sins ; which greatly helped me clearly to take in the abso
lute necessity of justification by Christ's righteousness, and to glory in it,
discerning the perfect difference of it from sanctification : I began to
reflect, That Christ, was the head for salvation, as Adam had been for sin

XV

and condemnation ; and that therefore as there were two brandies of sin
and condemnation derived to me from Adam ; (the one an imputation
of his fact to me, the other a violent and universal corruption of nature
inherent in me ;) just so it must be in Christ's salvation of me : and hence
I must have an imputation of his righteousness for justiiication, as well
as a holy nature derived from him for sanctih'cation ; the former being
perfect, the latter not : The notion of this did mightily and experiment
ally enlighten me." This experience of the refreshing comforts of the
knowledge of Christ and free justification by his righteousness alone,
made him now zealous of preaching for the consolation of afflicted con
sciences, and not for conviction and terror as heretofore : so Dr. Sibbs
once told him, That if ever he would do good, he must preach the gospel
and the free grace of God in Christ Jesus. The only copy of his sermons
on the glory of the gospel, called his Primitiee Evanylica, or Evangelical
First-fruits, was thus remarkably preserved : The portmanteau in which
they were, was cut off from his horse by a thief in the evening, just against
St. Andrew's church-yard in Holborn ; the clerk or sexton, coining on
the Lord's day morning to ring the bell, found a bundle of papers tied up
with a string, at the foot of a great tree, in which were some acquittances
of a Cambridge bookseller, who accompanied him to London ; which led
to the discovery.

He was chosen A. D. 1628, to preach the lecture to the town of
Cambridge, at Trinity Church. Dr. Buckridge, Bishop of Ely, made some
difficulty at first about admitting him to it, unless he would solemnly pro
mise, in pursuance of the King's proclamation, not to preach about any
controverted points in divinity : but as the most essential articles of the
Christian faith were controverted by one or other, and as such a promise
would scarce leave him any subject to preach on, he alleged, That it was
not his Majesty's intention to inhibit him or any other from preaching
against the gross errors of Popery. He continued lecturer till A. D.
1634, when dissatisfied in his conscience with the laws of conformity, he
left the University and his preferments. Asheacted herein with all sincerity,
according to the light given him, and the full persuasion of his own mind,
apart from all worldly motives which would have swayed him contrariwise ;
so he expressed himself with great joy of faith and thankfulness and praise
lor the faithful love of Jesus Christ to him, in the performance of the
promise in Luke xviii. 29, 30. Having cheerfully parted with all for
Christ, he was abundantly compensated not only in the comforts and joy
of his love, (which are incomparably above all other things,) but in that
love and esteem of good men which God gave him, who alone also made
his ministry acceptable and successful to the conversion and comfort of

XVI

many souls. He married Elizabeth, daughter of alderman Prescott,
A.D. 1638; of so sweet a temper, lively wit, and sincere piety, as endear
ed her to all who knew her : her two sisters were married, one to Sir
William Leman, and the other to Sir Nicholas Crisp : He had by her an
only daughter, Elizabeth, (married to Mr. John Mason, acitizen of London,)
who was a living image of her parents, in natural endowment of mind, as
well as in grace and piety ; she lost her mother when about ten years of
age, and died two years before her father. The persecution growing hot
in England, our author resolved on removing into some foreign country,
where he might exercise his ministry and enjoy Christ's ordinances,
agreeably to his conscience. Accordingly he went over into Holland,
A. D. 1639, and settling at last at Arnheim, was pastor of the English
Church in that city : while there some differences arising in the English
Church at Rotterdam, he and the elders of the Church of Arnheim went
thither; and God was pleased by their brotherly advice and counsel to
compose the difference, and to re-establish the disturbed peace of that
Church. On returning to England and becoming pastor of a Church
in London, he was appointed, by an ordinance of Parliament, A. D. 1643,
a member of the venerable Assembly of divines at Westminster. He took
a brief account of every day's debates about church-government and disci
pline which arose in that Synod ; of which his son possessed about fourteen
volumes of his manuscripts : his way of arguing was with such modesty
and Christian meekness, as procured the esteem of them who differed from
him and the other dissenting brethren in his judgment. He had an invi
tation, A. D. 1647, from the Rev. John Cotton, (in whom grace and
learning were so happily conjoined,) and others in new England, to come
over to them ; to which he was so much inclined, that he had put a great
part of his library on ship-board ; but he was over-persuaded by some, to
whose counsel and advice he paid a great deference. He was married
again, A. D. 1649, to Mary, a descendant of the ancient family of the
Hammonds, in Shropshire ; whose ancestor was an officer in the army of
William, Duke of Normandy, when he invaded England, A. D. 1066.
Though not seventeen years of age, she had the gravity and prudence of
a matron : her conjugal affection, her tender care, her wise administration
of the affairs of her family, the goodness of her disposition, and above
all her grace and piety, left an honorable remembrance of her. By
her he had two sons, (Thomas, who compiled this memoir of his father;
and Richard, who died in a voyage to the East Indies, where he was sent
as one of the Company's factors a year after his father's death,) and also
two daughters who died in their infancy. In the same yrar of his second
marriage he was admitted President of Magdalen College in Oxford,

XV11

where his zeal to promote piety and learning, his candour, his ingenuity,
his catholic charity for all good men of every persuasion, won the
hearts of those who were most averse to him. In disposing of any place
of preferment, he was not biassed by party-affection but by goodness
and merit. Messrs. Brown and Byfield, and Dr. Fairfax, who continued
fellows many years after he left the College, retained an affection and
esteem for him, ever speaking of him with most honourable mention.
Several persons of piety and learning belonged to the church of which he
was pastor; as Messrs. Thankful Owen, President of St. John's; Francis
Hovel, Master of Jesus College; Theophilus Gale; Stephen Charnock ;
Blower, Barron, Terry, Lowman ; and others. On the revolution, A. D.
1660, he resigned his Presidentship to Dr. Oliver, and removed to London,
where he was pastor of the same church which he had gathered in Oxford,
a great part of the members of it following him to that city. In the faithful
discharge of this office and labour in the Lord Jesus Christ he continued
till his death.

It was at this time he lived a retired life spent in prayer, reading, and
meditation. He read much ; and the authors he valued and studied, were
Augustin, Calvin, Musculus, Zanchius, Paroeus, Waloous, Gomarus,
Attingius, and Amesius; among the school-men, Suarez and Esthius; but
the scriptures were his chiefest study, (in which he was assisted
by the best collection of commentators;) and as they are an inexhaustible
treasury of divine knowledge, so by an eager search into and comparing
of them, he discovered those truths which are not to be found in other
authors. His mind soared with greatest delight, (not of merely speculative
pleasure,) in the love and free-grace of God, and the excellencies and
glories of Christ; which were the life and food of his soul ; and as his heart
was affected with them, he wrote them with a spiritual warmth better felt
than expressed. Though he read much,yethe was more intense in thinking ;
whereby he made himself master of the subject of his discourse. In that
deplorable calamity of the dreadful fire of London, A.D. 1666, reducing
a considerable part of the city to ashes, he lost about half his library, to
the value of five hundred pounds : that part of it however which was lodged
very near where the fire began, which he accounted irrecoverably lost, was
by the diligence of his friend, Mr. Moses Lowman, preserved from the
flame with extreme hazard ; while the other part, which he thought
might have been timely secured, being lodged at a distance in Bread-street,
was all burnt through the negligence of the persons sent to take care of
them : God thus struck him in a very sensible part ; for he loved his library
too well : yet he blessed God that the rebuke of his affliction fell not on his
divinity -books, but on those of human learning. As the exercise of faith,

XV111

and of its fruits, relieved him ; he hereupon meditated and wrote a discourse
of " Patience and its perfect work," printed soon after. A fever seized him
in Feb. 1679, putting an end to his life in a few davs ; in all the violence
of which he discoursed with that strength of faith, that assurance of
Christ's love, that holy admiration of free-grace, that joy in believing, and
with such thanksgivings and praises, as extremely moved and affected all
that heard him. Mr. Collins, (then pastor of the same church of which
he had formerly been pastor, and with the reluctant consent of which he
removed to Oxford, A.D. 1649,) praying earnestly for him, "That God
would return into his bosom all those comforts which he had by his
ministry of free-grace poured into so many distressed souls, " he felt
the prayer answered in the abundant comforts and joys with which he was
filled. " I am going said he, to the Three Persons which whom I have
had communion ; they have taken me, I did not take them : I shall be
changed in the twinkling of an eye : I shall be rid of all my lusts and
corruptions, which I could not be here ; these croaking toads will fall
off in a moment." On mentioning those great examples of faith in Heb.
xi. he said, " All these died in faith : I could not have imagined I
should ever have had such a measure of faith in this hour ; no, I could
never have imagined it : My bow abides in strength : Is Christ divided?
no : I have the whole of his righteousness ; I am found in him, not in
my own righteousness, which is of the law, but in the righteousness which is
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave himself
for me : Christ cannot love me more than he doth ; I think I cannot love
him more than I do : I am swallowed up in God." He thus exhorted
his two sons to value the privilege of the Covenant : " It hath taken hold
of me : my mother was a holy woman, she spake nothing diminishing of
it : it is a privilege which cannot be valued enough, nor be purchased
with a great sum of money, (Acts xxii. 28 :) Be careful of provoking
God to reject you : Now I shall be ever with the Lord." With such
assurance of faith, and such fulnesss of joy, his soul left this world, and
went to see and enjoy the reality of that blessed state of glory, which in
a discourse on that subject he had so well demonstrated. He died in
the eightieth year of his age.

The following is an abstract taken from the testimony of Messrs.
Thankful Owen and James Barren, to this great person's eminent fitness
for, and happy performance of such an undertaking as was his Exposition
on the Epistle to the Ephesians, which he was chosen to interpret after
his return to England : " The special light God so clearly gave him
in the mysteries of corrupt nature and of the gospel, shone through all
his works, and particulary this Comment; which could be best understood

XIX

by one, who had the Apostle's sense, (that Guslua Spirit ualis Judicii,)
temptations, and experience ; for our author was a man of inward conflicts
and of outward sufferings. Cheery of the light he attained, he lived over
the truths he knew, even to the hazard of what was most dear to him ;
and thus he abounded as he knew, according to John vii. 17, Matt. xiii. 12.
His genius dived into the bottom, and waded through the depths of the
points treated of; which he 'studied down,' as lie used to say; consulting
all the weightiest authors on these subjects, and valuing every rav of
light, in aid of the fresh lustre added thereto by his own experience ;
besides the advantages he had from the converse of most eminent
Christians, those living and walking bibles: he thus became peculiarly
qualified to treat also of cases of conscience, and practical points.
Being a man mighty in prayer to that God, with whom he had high and
intimate communion ; and addicted to retirement and deep contemplation,
he filled his head and heart with spiritual notions, as the sand of the sea.
He delighted in searching into points neglected by others, and in open
ing difficult texts; and he discovered 'the depths of Satan,' by anatomizing
' the old man ' in himself and others. He was much exercised in the
controversies of his day ; and having an insight into the covenant of grace,
he was a witness to the Greek Fathers' ignorance of that grace, and the
consequent rise of Pelagian and other errors in the church, as Jansenius
obseives : But before undertaking such a province, he had gone over the
grand points of religion before intelligent auditories, who helped to draw
out his gifts. Touching his Expositions, we know no man so happy in
pitching on the true, genuine, and full scope of a text; and he delighted
to exhibit the most comprehensive sense of the Holy Ghost, in the various
references and aspects one passage had upon others. By ' comparing
spiritual things with spiritual,' he was enabled to open dark scriptures by
means of such as were less obscure ; fetching light, as in optics, by various
positions of the glass ; bringing gospel-truths from types and prophecies,
and reflecting back light again on these shadows from gospel-truths : thus
small rays concentrated by him, emitted a glorious light, while he left
no difficulty unassailed and unvanquished : He valued the least iota,
and showed what momentous things depended on the least of God's
words. His observations being clear, genuine, and natural, as well as
scriptural, the highest controverted points and sublimest gospel myste
ries, were brought down by him in a plain and familiar way, without the
affectation of hard and scholastic terms ; for what had first been stated in
his own heart, he made easy to the sense and experience of others.
While he brings not scripture to his learning, there is a variety of learning
included under what he brings to bear upon scripture ; and a vein of

XX

strong spiritual reason, carrying its own light and evidence with it, runs
through all his discourses. In breaking open the mines of the glorious
grace of God and the unsearchable riches of Christ, according to the divine
decrees, (into which the further we search the greater treasures we find,
Pleiiius Responsura Fodienti,) none could more clearly resolve the
plot of salvation into pure grace. His discourses, being so
evangelical, cany the soul on to a higher holiness from a higher and
nobler spring of action than was found in man before the fall : and
when he steps out of the beaten track, and beyond the elevation
of writers in general, he doth it with regard to ' the analogy of
faith,' and to a just veneration for the reformed religion ; wondering
greatly at the daring attempts of persons unskilful in the word of right
eousness, against those great and momentous points of our religion, which
are the glory of our reformation, and which will prove ' gold, silver, pre
cious stones,' when their * wood, hay, and stubble ' will be burnt up.
On the whole, we consider him as a person raised up by God for such
eminent service in his age, as Augustin and others were in their times :
and therefore we are not a little astonished at the unworthiness of some
in this age, who use all their arts and interest to suppress the light of
this and other great luminaries of the Church, and to eclipse stars of the
first magnitude, for such little niceties and nothings as the best and
purest times were unacquainted with. We need add no more, than that
the writings of such an author cannot but carry with them his own sig
nature, he having drawn to the life the picture of his own heart by his
own hand."

AN

EXPOSITION

OF THE

BOOK OF REVELATION,

THE FIRST PART.

THE THREE FIRST CHAPTERS

CONTAIN seven epistles to seven particular churches ; but from
the fourth chapter to the close of the Revelation is laid down
a more general prophecy, reaching from John's time to the end
of the world. This former portion of the book concerns things
past, present, and to come, (c. i. 19 ;) but the latter only "things
which must be hereafter," c. iv. 1. In the vision of the general
prophecy is the story of all times, acted and represented by
angels, for whom the stage of Christ's church is erected ; a scene
is supposed where the things were done, and a chorus of specta
tors, (or church-members,) judging and approving, and giving their
plaudit of glory to God by the mouth of the four beasts and the
four and twenty elders ; (see c. iv.) : and as in such scenic exhibi
tions there is wont to be a prologue, so there is as artificial a one
acted in c. v. as any in any poem ; from whence, in c. vi. the repre
sentation of the story begins.

THE FOURTH CHAPTER.

VERSE I. — John is called up from the earth into the air, or
" heaven" the place of his vision, where a door seemed to open ;
on entering which he sees as follows :

VERSE n. — " And immediately I was in the Spirit ;" denot
ing such a repletion or filling with the Spirit as possessed all the
powers of his soul to attend to the vision ; (the phrase is as when
we say a man is in love or in liquor ; or as a mill is in the
wind: ) it filled all ; it carried all in him to the thing in hand,
and wholly acted his faculties by a supernatural motion of the
Spirit on his understanding and sense ; for it was to an extraordi
nary purpose, even to see and write these visions of the Holy
Ghost : yet to us it should be ordinary so far as to our being,

2 o

554 THE VISION of [REV. iv. 2, 3.

au J vvalkiug, in the Spirit ; giving up ourselves, our powers and
faculties to the Spirit's rule and guidance, to move all wheels in
us. N,B. From this " immediately " we observe, That a be
lieving soul may presently be in the Spirit, who soon and sud
denly comes upon a man.

The following is a vision of the church, which is made the
scene of all things prophesied of in this book ; for all things are
done either ybr or concerning it ; the judgments on the world are
recorded for the church's sake, as executed by God out from the
church. Now this vision of the throne, beasts, and elders, is a
representation of the church, wherein God hath his throne.
i. — It is a church, for 1, There only is God worshipped, (v. 8 — 10,)
and known and glorified, Ps. Ixxvi. 1 ; xxix. 9. 2, The throne
here is evidently God's seat in his temple, the church ; as in
c. xvi. 17. 3, The allusion here is to the tabernacle and to the
temple, with their ornaments and utensils, as types of the New
Testament church ; where the mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies is
"the throne," and the candlestick is "the seven golden lamps," and
the sea of brass is " the sea of glass." n. — It is a church of men,
not of angels ; For, 1, The elders and beasts sing their redemp
tion by Christ's blood ; from whom, 2, The angels are distinguish
ed as being " round about" them ; see c. v. 9, 11. in. — It is a
Church on earth ; For, 1, It alludes to the marshalling of the
Jews about the tabernacle. 2, Here are " seven spirits," or that
variety of the gifts of the Holy Ghost which ceases in heaven. 3,
Here is " a sea of glass " for the priests and worshippers to wash
in, so that their feet at least still contract defilement, as in John
xiii. 10. 4, The distinction of beasts and elders, (i. e. officers
and brethren,) also ceaseth in heaven, iv. — It is a church uni
versal ; For, 1, Being in all ayes, it is placed in the beginning
here, and after introduced as spectators. 2, It is in all places,
c. v. 9. v. — It is the true pattern of a church, according to the
rules of the squaring-measure of the word, the mould into which
all churches are cast; though in c. xi. 1, John is bid to measure
the temple of that age, as having swerved from the original form
in Antichrist's apostacy. So that here is the church, consisting
of three states, (Christ the head ; the four beasts its officers ; and
the twenty-four elders are the brethren J with its appurtenances
of lamps, laver, &c. or the Spirit and blood of Christ, &c. " /
saw a throne " alludes to the mercy-seat, as in Isa. vi. 1 ; Ezek.
xliii. 4, 5, 7, Jer. xvii. 12. N.B. To set up a church is to set
up God and Christ a throne; the church being their only visible
throne on earth, till the kingdoms of the world become theirs
visibly. " He who sittetli on the throne " is God in Christ, in
whom God is reconciled to his church, and by whom he rules it,
c. iii. 21 ; xii. v ; vii. 10 : Isa. vi. 1 ; Ezek. i. 26.

VKRSE in. — " There was a rainbow roundabout the throne ;"
as the memorial of the covenant of grace, being a sign of the

REV. IV. 4—6.] THE THRONE, BEASTS, AND ELDERS. 555

covenant of nature, Isa. liv. 9 ; and it is " round about the throne,"
that iw whatever way God goes forth in his dispensations towards
his church, he may be still reminded of mercy ; and that his
church also, in all her intercourse with him, may remember to
trust in the covenant of grace ; her prayers passing to the throne
through the same rainbow.

VERSE iv. — The situation of the church, whose elders and
beasts are "about the throne,''1 (see v. 5,6,) is after the quartering of
Israel about the tabernacle, Num. ii. where the Levites were next
the tabernacle, and the tribes about the Levites ; as here the offi
cers' station is between the throne and those elders, which Beza in
terprets in the midst, so Gen. xxiii. 6. " The beasts," though their
place is nearest the throne, are mentioned after the elders, as being
but servants of the church and elders, in whom is the radical
power. "The elders," 1st, Arc so called because the New Testa
ment church is adult, and no longer under age, (Gal. iv. 1, &c.)
and as being grave in all her assemblies, proceedings, and adminis
tration. 2dly, They are " twenty-four," in allusion to the heads
of those orders of Levites who were porters and singers, 1 Chron.
xxiv. xxv. ; and are double the heads of the twelve tribes, to
shew the increase of the church. 3dly, They are " cloathed
in white raiment" as priests; and 4thly, "On their heads
were crowns of gold," to shew their rule in judicial matters
concerning the church, as in 1 Cor. v. 12. 5thly, They are
" round about the throne," (like the round table, in Cant. i. 12,)
the meanest soul being as near and dear to God as the greatest,
and all equal, where Christ is " the tree in the midst of the para
dise of God," c. ii. 7.

VERSE v. — " And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and
thunderings and voices" meaning God's judgments, (Ps. xviii.
13, 14 ; xxix. 3,) as he sits in his church, and as these are exer
cised for his church's sake, Ps. Ixviii. 35 : Amos i. 2. " Voices "
also extends more generally to promises and answers to prayer.
By " The seven lamps which are the seven spirits of God" the
Holy Ghost, and his various gifts and operations and manifesta
tions of himself in the church, is noted out, (c. i. 4 ; 1 Cor. xii.
11,) who gives both light and heat, as did the candlestick in the
temple.

VERSE vi. — " There was a sea of glass like tinto crystal;" in
allusion to Solomon's sea, and purer than that of brass, in Ex.
xxx. 17 — 20, typical of Christ's blood to wash in, for justification
of person and sanctification of life, (Heb. x. 22 : 1 Cor. xi. 11 :
Titus iii. 5 ;) especially that we may wash before we worship.
" And there were four beasts full of eyes before and behind;"
meaning church-officers, who being between the throne and the
elders, are as leaders of the praise, being the mouth of the con-
, v. 0, 10. Tliosr are called ZOOA, or living ones, having

2 o 2

556 THE FOUR BEASTS. [REV. IV. 7 — 11.

in them life, and being means of quickening others : being four
also, and the throne four-square, they are in the midst between each
angle, as complete for number, and looking every way to all the
necessities of the church, both for soul and body ; and " they are
full of eyes" as overseers; " within.''' to see to their own hearts,
as well as " without" to see to others.

VERSK vn. — " And the first beast was like a lion" being the
ruling elder, who needs courage to deal with men's spirits in
case 'of sins calling for the church's notice and admonition.
" The second beast was like a calf" or ox ; being the laborious
pastor, who takes pains in " treading out the corn," 1 Tim. v. 18.
" The third beast had a face like a man;" or the deacons, whose
humane hearts disposed and inclined them to mercifulness and
pitifnlness. " And the fourth beast was like a flying eagle :"
or the teacher, whose eyes quickly spy out all errors, and who
soars aloft into all mysteries.

VERSES vm — xi. " They had each of them six wings a-
piece ;" to shew the aptness and readiness of the four beasts to
fly and act all manner of ways ; and " They rest not day nor
night, (but labour continually,) crying Holy, Holy, Holy" wor
shipping God in Trinity ; (see Isa. vi. 2, 3,) and as the mouth
of the congregation ; for, " When those beasts give glory and
honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for
ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him
that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and
ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art
worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power ; for
thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and
were created."

THE FIFTH CHAPTER.

The stage being built in the fourth chapter, and the chorus con
sisting of the church, being set; here begins the prologue, such as
for elegance and statelincss was never heretofore invented : 1, Here
is a book sealed, presented in his hand who sits on the throne,
containing God's decrees to be executed until the day of judg
ment ; and, 2, Here is a proclamation, made to all creatures, to
find out one worthy to open it; but, 3, None such were found in
heaven or earth ; (v. 3 :) Wherefore, 4, John weeps, thinking
there would be an end of his visions, and that he must put up his
pen, v. 4 : In this strait, 5, Christ comes and undertakes to open
this book, and to fulfil all its decrees : at this, 6, The chorus
fall down and worship ; v. 8.

VERSE i. — This " book, written within and. on the backside,
and sealed with seven seals" is not the scriptures generally, but
a volume of the a flairs of the world and church, and of God's

REV. V. 1, 2.] THE SEALED BOOK. 557

decrees about them : for on opening each seal is seen a vision,
containing the matter of the ensuing vi. vii. viii. and ix. chapters;
and when the seals are all taken oft", (c. x. 8,) John is bid to eat
the book, that he might prophesy again the other part of this pro
phecy : It is therefore this Revelation, and the government of the
world and of the church, therein set forth, which Christ by taking
the book, undertakes to man age, perform, and execute; see c. i. 1.
Whereupon,

VERSE u. — "A strong angel proclaims, Who is worthy lo loose
the seals of this book" &c. The use of the seals is not here
simply to shew, that the matter cannot, be known, (as in Dan. xii.
4 ;) but to set out the glory of Him who only was "able to take the
book and loose the seals" &c. God causes a general proclama
tion to be made to all creatures, (as Saul did, promising rewards
for some noble service, 1 Sam. xvii. 25 — "27,) by "a strong angel,'''
whose voice might reach to all ; in order, 1st, To stir up strong-
desires in John and all who read this prophecy, to search into
its meaning, to which there was an exhortation, and also an
exciting promise, c. i. 3. 2ndly, To set out the weakness of the
creature, that the honor of Christ might the more appear, in that
he only can do this : God thus endears mercies to us, as he did a
wife to Adam, by first bringing all creatures to him, that so he
might see that there was not a meet help for him among them
all : So in the work of salvation, God lets the soul try all means,
duties, helps, &c. and then brings it to Christ, that his power
may appear: he first lets the world try what their wisdom could
do, and then sends the foolishness of preaching to save them
that believe, 1 Cor. i. 21, 25. Now that no creature can satisfy
for sin, is proved to the glory of Christ, in that none but he can
even open this book, much less redeem us, v. 9. N.B. We must
learn to renounce all kings, priests, and prophets, except CHRIST ;
and to say to all creatures " I will be saved by none of you :"
Were the work of redemption yet to be done, and should God
make this proclamation, " Call a council, and find me out a party
able and suitable for the purpose of redemption ;" how should
we howl and weep as undone, none being found : and after
trying what we could do for ourselves, suppose God should sot
out Christ at last, as able to save to the utmost ? but he would
not thus put us to the non-plus, and therefore took another
course, commending his love the more by finding out Christ, and
speaking to him to die for us, so doing the work of redemption to
our hands. " Who is worthy '""' it is not simply an act of power,
but of authority by worth, to break open the seals: so it was the
worth of Christ's person that put the value on his satisfaction.
else in the act of "opening (he book," a mere creature might
have had as much habitual grace, and performed as much duty ;
but personal worth carries it, as in Heb. vii. 2fi.

558 THE BOOK OPENED ONLY BY [REV. V. 3 — 6.

VERSE in. — " None were found wortliy" (neither angel, man,
devil, nor spirit, were able,) " to open the book, neither to look
thereon" so as to understand it, for John saw it, v. 1. Now to
loose the seals and to open the book, is not simply to know God's
mind in his decrees, but to make the vision of them to John, and
to execute and fulfil them in their times ; (as men take a commis
sion, not only to look on it, but to fulfil it :) which being sealed,
the purport of the proclamation is, Who is able to be God's
commissioner herein ? so c. vi. 1 : and still as the Lamb opens
every seal, John is shewn what shall be done by him that hath
eyes of providence, and horns of power ; and who is a lion's
whelp and an old lion, and a sceptre and a law-giver, (Gen. xlix.
9, 10,) to take God's laws from him, and to see them kept by an
executive, and not merely a legislative power.

VERSE iv. — " And I ivept much ;" in despair of seeing the
visions for which John was called up to heaven : this check was
to set off' the mercy, to try his heart, and to render his joy greater.
N.B. The greatest mercies may have the greatest stops, even to
hopelessness ; as often in the first work of conversion, and in
other great works.

VERSE v. — Here John is gradually comforted ; first, by a by
stander endeavouring to uphold his heart; and v. 6, by the sight
of the Lamb ; as Job, (xlii. ),) first " heard of God by the hearing
of the ear, and then his eye saw him." So God first lets fall
something giving the soul hopes of Christ, (thus to draw it patiently
to wait,) and then shews it Christ himself, who is here diversely ex
pressed, First, As " T7ie root of David" (Isa.xi. 10, 14,30,) as well
as " the branch" (Mai. iv. i,) being David's Son and Lord also, the
root being the first-bora, as Rom. viii. 29 ; Ps. Ixxxix. 27; Col. i.
15 ; Eph. iii. 15. Secondly, As " The lion of the tribe of Judah"
(Gen. xlix. 9,) so called because, 1st, out of Judah came all the
worthies and lion-like men, (2 Sam. xvii, 10.) 2dly, Judah had
the kingdom under the emblem of " the lion among beasts ;" and
therefore also he was both sceptre-bearer and legislator. 3dly,
Judah took the prey, as Joshua, Caleb, &c. took the land, and then
couched, (Num. xxiii. 24; 1 Kings iv. 20, 21 ;) so Christ having led
captivity captive, sits down quietly in heaven, couching and lying
in wait, till he sees opportunity to avenge the enemies of his
church ; when he shall appear as an old lion roused, suddenly
leaping on his prey ; especially in the latter days, " when the
gathering of the people shall be to him:" Gen. xlix. 10 : and so
in Mich. v. 2,8, the kingdom and conquest of Christ is set forth
in the calling of the Jews, as also in Christ's birth. Now that
kingdom is the scope of this book.

VERSE vi. — " And in the midst of the ciders stood a lamb as
it had been slain," &c. John had heard of Christ as a lion, but

REV. V. 6.] THK SLAIN LAMB. 559

he sees him as a lamb : so many a poor soul is afraid of him, till
it comes to see him and be acquainted with him : but in the end
he will be found to be a lamb with seven eyes, to run to and fro
through the earth for the good of his saints ; and with seven horns,
to defend them, and to butt his and their enemies. Well may we
wonder at and praise this mixture in him of kingly courage and
strength as a lion, and also of priestly meekness as a lamb slain,
who stood " in the midst of the throne" nearer than the four
beasts who stood between the throne and elders ; he being mediator
between the church and God. " As it had been slain ,-" as if but
yesterday newly slain, his blood perpetually remaining fresh ; yet
only as slain, because not remaining dead but alive, as c. i. 18.
" Stood a lamb" ready to help ; as Stephen saw him ready to
receive his spirit : it shews also his readiness to intercede :
" Having seven horns" of power, to push therewith, (as in c. xvii,
12;) and thereby to open the seven seals, and also to fulfil the
sound of the seven trumpets, and to empty the contents of the
seven vials. Antichrist hath but two horns ; and though his
kings have ten, yet Christ is king of kings, and stronger than
that roaring lion, whom they fear together. " And seven eyes,
which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth :"
These are not the Holy Ghost's gifts of grace, but eyes of provi
dence, (as in Zech. iv. 10,) and imply the perfection of Christ's
knowledge to order all affairs on earth, and to discern and guide all
for his church's good ; as in 2 Chron. xvi. 9 : his human nature
is the instrument of all God's power ; all must pass through his
hands ; all works of providence go through his view : he knows
whatever is done in the whole world. Now Christ is specially
in this chapter represented as a lion and a lamb ; 1st, To keep
up the Old Testament language ; 2dly, In reference to the work
of redemption by the price of his blood, and by the power of his
conquest, v. 9 ; 3dly, As the opener of this book and the executor
of it's contents; for 1, He must die for it, seeing each revelation
to us cost him the same price as our salvation ; for our sins else
would have hindered the opening of God's counsels to us, which
as a slain lamb he is worthy to reveal, v. 9. 2, As a lion he
needed courage to encounter God's wrrath, and by breaking
through a consuming fire to approach his throne and take the
book : " Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto
me ?" (Jer. xxx. 21 ;) no angel durst presume to come so near to
God. 3, As a lion he needed to overcome death, rising again to
execute what is written in this book. A lion is said to sleep the
first three days from his birth, after which being roused by the
roaring of the old lion he sleeps the least of any creature : so
Christ rose by the power of the Father, to sleep no more. 4thly,
Being risen, this lion of the tribe of Judah, who is the law-giver,
(Ps. Ix. 7,) as God's commissioner to execute his decrees, is
also a lamb with seven horns and eyes, to fulfil what he pro-

560 UNIVERSAL UOXOLOGY [llKV. V. 7, 8.

phesies, and to open the seals, and to blow the trumpets, and to
pour out the vials. God gave Christ the platform of occurrences
to come, and power and wisdom to order their accomplishment.
As both lion and lamb, he is both king and priest, and makes us
so too ; yet he governs with lamb-like quietness, as well as with
lion-like force ; and all by a promised succession from Judah
and David, here therefore mentioned : In a word ; " The root of

price

Judah" shews the power whereby he conquers, obtains, and
possesses it.

VERSE vn. — This heavenly chorus or company here, when
they once see Christ " Come and take the book out of the hand of
him that sat upon the throne" so undertaking the accomplish
ment of this prophecy, (the conclusion of which is his instalment
into his kingdom,) shout out beforehand, saying, " We shall
reign on earth," (v. 10,) looking on all that was to precede his
kingdom, and come between it and his vision, as already done; and
having chiefly in their eye this kingdom to come.

VERSE vm. — Hence to the end of the chapter is a doxology or
praise for the Lamb's taking the book ; which song consisteth of
four parts, as sung by four companies : 1st, The elders and beasts,
representing the church upon earth, begin to raise the song, v. 8.
•2dly, The angels join their voices, v. 11. 3dly, The creatures
come in also, v. 13. 4thly, The beasts close all, saying, "Amen,"
v. 14. N.B. 1, The sons of men are the most eminent praisers of
God, being leaders in the choir and concluding the heavenly
song ; for redemption is the highest of God's works, and concerns
men ; though angels follow also and join in praising him for it too,
and all creation besides : Therefore we should bless God for his
mercy and goodness to others, as do angels for us, whose highest
grace it is to praise God for that redemption in which they are not
personally interested ; how much more then should we bless God
in a sense of our own iutereset, to raise our hearts a degree
higher still, as in v. 9, 1 0. The praisers are described as having harps
and golden vials, in allusion to the Levitical service, where they
had musical instruments and incense in bowls and vials, called
"the bowls of the altar," Zech. ix. 15 ; xiv. 20 : By these are
signified prayers and praises, Ps. cxli. 2. and songs of spiritual
melody in the heart, Eph. v. 19 : Indeed the odour here is inter
preted as " the prayers of the saints" whose hearts are " the
golden vials" having faith more precious than gold, (1 Pet. i. 7,)
which is the spring of all their prayers : and also their harps are
their hearts, Sursum Corda Sursum Chorda : Moreover " every
one" is said to have harps; for in public worship all should
join ; the little strings go to make up a concert, as well as the

RKV. V. 9, 10.] TO THE LAMB SLAIN. 561

great ; though we have but little grace, yet would not God's
worship be complete without us : The Papists hence argue from
these odours, that the saints in heaven offer up the prayers of
the saints on earth ; but this company here are the church of men
on earth ; and besides, they offer not the prayers of others, but
their own ; for themselves make the new song, and the benefit
they praise God for therein, is their own, " Thou hast redeemed
us to God by thy blood :" therefore " the prayers of the saints,"
are only John's interpretation, that these were saints, and that
their odours were prayers.

VERSE ix. — " And they sing a new song." 1st, When David
had a new occasion in a further degree to praise God, he saith,
" I will sing a new song," Ps. cxliv. 9 ; so here there was a new
occasion given. 2dly, It is called a new song, in opposition to
that of the Old Testament ; as Christ's " new commandment,"
(John xiii. 3, 4,) of the gospel, is opposed to that of the law. In
c. iv. 11, these elders had sung the creation-song, but here they
sing the redemption-song. 3dly, The " new song" is here sung;
for their eye was on the " new Jerusalem," where is Christ's and
the church's kingdom, ("for we shall reign on earth," v. 10;)
" all things are made new," (c. xxi. 5 ;) and for the instalment of the
new king, there should be " a new song," Ps. xcvi. 1, 10, 13:
even as we should frame new matter of praise, and have fresh
affections, upon every new occasion ; and should bless God both
for our creation and for our redemption ; taking in the mention
of old blessings when we give thanks for new, like the good
scribe, " bringing out of his treasures things new and old,"
Matt. xiii. 52. The matter of this song is praise to the Lamb,
for " Thou art worthy" (in answer to v. 2, " Who is worthy ?")
even thou only, " by whom and for whom are all things," Col. i.
16 ; and " Worthy is the Lamb" to be praised, for his dying to
redeem us and make us priests, and for his rising as one who
was slain, to make us kings, v. 10 ; (see Rom. xiv. 9 ;) " For thou
wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of
every kindred and people and nation :" Whence, N.B. 1, That
Christ's blood was paid as a price to God for the purposes of
our redemption, see 1 Cor. vi. 20 ; 1 Tim. ii. 6 : yet, 2, Christ
hath not redeemed all men, but some out of every nation, &c.
3, Christ's worthiness to receive the book, because he was slain,
should make the Revelation the more prized by us, as a special
fruit of his death ; before which, we have his own word for it, that
he knew not the day of judgment, Mark xiii. 32.

VERSE x. — " And hast made us unto our God kings and priests,
and we shall reign on the earth:" because Christ is the Lion-lamb
we shall reign on earth as king-priests ; the consideration of
which latter-day glory of the church, comforted the saints of old ;
and how peremptory are they, " We shall reign !" in the faith of
which they are confirmed by Christ's undertaking to accomplish

2 P

DOXOLOGY OF THE ANGELS AND ALL. [REV. V. 11 — 14.

all ; whereof this is the issue, being the end and scope of the
Revelation, and the conclusion of this book, when the seals are
off, and the contents fulfilled.

VEP.SE xi. — Introduces the other company of angels and their
song ; who, 1, For their number, are "tenlhousand times ten thousand
and thousands of thousands" as in Dan. vii. 10. (N.B. God hath
another world of rational creatures, which we see not ; what a
story then will the latter day produce ! and what need we fear,
where there are so many for us, and all our guardians too ?
2 Kings vi. 16, 17, Heb. i. 14.) '2, For their station, they are behind
the elders, yet " round about the throne" having all in a ring,
and being as the queen's guard, Ps. xxxiv. 7.

VERSE xu. — Is the song itself, wherein Christ is hymned,
1, As worthy, by purchase as well as by inheritance, for " worthy
is the Lamb that was slain" 2, As he hath seven horns and
eyes, so he hath a seven-fold praise. 3, To express their strong
desires to give him due praises enough, they heap up many good
things, of which they pronounce him worthy. 4, None is worthy
to be universal king but Christ the Lion-king ; angels were top-
heavy of their glory and reeled out of heaven, but Christ hath
the God-head to poise him. The seven excellent things attribu
ted to him are : " Power" or authority over all, John xvii. 2 :
" Riches" or possession of all the creatures, 2 Cor. viii. 9 :
" Strength" joined to his authority ; whereas other beings are
personally no stronger than other men, but Christ hath seven
horns, and can work anything : " Wisdom" as large as his power
and dominion ; whereby he knows all God means to do, and sees
all with his own, and not like earthly kings, with others' eyes :
" Honour" respects what all creatures bring in to him, Phil. ii. 10 :
li Glory" is his own personal excellencies, as " the brightness
of the Father's glory," (Heb. i. 3,) and all that his Father gives
him, as sitting at his right hand and governing with him, till he
come again in glory to judge the world : " Blessing" respects
the glory given him by his saints, for his special goodness to
them : devils honour him ; but they only bless him whom he bles-
seth first.

VERSE xm. — " And every creature" in its kind, is here intro
duced so worshipping Christ, (Phil. ii. 10, 11,) because when
his kingdom is set up, they shall be renewed and delivered into
a glorious liberty. A'./?. The church of men began the song,
and the same continue it as containing their mercy, and the
instauration of their king ; and the more should they be stirred
up, seeing all creatures, with so much concord, therein united.

VERSE xiv. — " And the Jour beasts said, Amen. The officers
beginning and ending, and with them the elders joining. The
Amen seems an ordinance for closing the worship, as in 1 Cor.
xiv. 16. I now come to

REV.] FIRST PROPOSITION. 563

THE SCHEME AND DIVISION OF THE WHOLE PROPHECY.

The stage being set, c. iv. and the prologue acted, c. v. the
prophecy itself in several scenes and visions, begins c. vi. : but
before I can proceed with the first six seals of the same, (or in
deed with any of the visions,) I must needs give the arguments
and parts of the whole book ; which will afford a more delectable
prospect, than that view of the glory of all the kingdoms of this
world that was once made in the twinkling of an eye, Luke iv. 5 ;
for what can be more pleasant than to have even a general in
sight into God's design and project upon the world in which the
church is seated, and into the church's condition in the world
since Christ's ascension ? Here it is as artificially, and in as many
scenes, in this book presented, as ever was story in any poem.
Now for a general insight into this prophecy, serving both as
compass and chart in our sailing over this sea, that we may know
still where we are ; I premise these general propositions or asser
tions concerning the whole prophecy.

PROP. i. — The ensuing prophecy, running to the end of the
Revelation, contains two distinct prophecies ; to represent the
giving of which to the church, and its execution by the Lamb-lion
of Judah, the book in c. v. is introduced. Two things are distinctly
to be considered as given with that book, the seals on its back
side, and its contents. Now, 1st, As the look contains matter of
pophecy, so do the very seals also, the visions of which take up
c. vi. — ix. both are mysteries, and contain matter of prophecy ; its
very backside and cover are prophetical ; and the seals not only
designate its difficulties, (as in Isa. xxix. 11,1 2,) but serve to contain
a matter of vision to be delivered. Therefore, 2dly, In revealing
and delivering this prophecy, two difficulties are distinctly men
tioned, in c. v. 2, The loosing of the seals, and, The opening of
the book. Now if the seals imported only the difficulty of this book,
the opening of the book would not have been made a new difficulty
in delivering another prophecy. Hence, 3dly, In c. vi. when
the Lamb opens the first seal, a vision is seen, and therein a pro
phecy is delivered ; so in the second, &c. to the seventh, which
produces seven angels with seven trumpets, six recounted
c. viii. — x. and the seventh in the end of c. xi. Again, when
these seals are taken off one after another, and their prophecies
and visions seen and ended, an angel comes with a little book
open, as containing a new prophecy for John, who was bid eat
the seal-prophecy that was past, to be enabled for the new one,
to " prophesy again before many peoples and nations and tongues
and kings ;" whence it is said that " the same voice he had heard
before spake from heaven again," (see c. x. 2,8 — 11 :) Now he had
heard it but twice before, and that at the giving of a new pro
phecy ; once at the delivery of the epistles to the seven churches,
(c. i. 10,) and then at this general prophecy, c. iv. 1 : and now a-

2 P 2

564 SECOND PROPOSITION. [REV.

again c. x. 8, as beginning another new and third prophecy.
N.S. In that the seals themselves contain a prophecy, there is
nothing in God's book without a meaning ; " not a tittle shall
pass," Matt. v. 18 : the very cover of the book here is prophetical ;
inuch more does every word in it contain matter of instruction :
let not a jot of the scriptures then escape us, but let us search
them narrowly, though we understand not many a tittle of them ;
there is enough in what we understand to admire, and in the rest
to adore : every syllable of the word of the great God hath its
weight and value.

PROP ii. — Both the seal and book -prophecy run over the same
whole course of times from ChrisCs ascension to his kingdom;
containing in them several events and occurrences successively
to the end of this book : viz. The s<?a/-prophecy, c. vi. — xii. acts
over one story of all times to the end of time ; and then, The
6ooA>prophecy from c. xii. (beginning at the same time again,)
acts over another story of all the same times unto the end : so
that the whole race of time is run over in both, but with several
and distinct occurrences ; even as the books of Kings and
Chronicles contain the stories of the same course of time, from
David to the captivity ; but the former handles most of the affairs
of the kings of Israel, and the latter of Judah. To demonstrate
this apart, First: For the seal-prophecy, I lay these three things
together, (whereof the two first were never denied by any,) 1st,
In c. vi. the six seals begin, in the first of which Christ goes
forth in preaching the gospel, so to lay the first foundation of his
kingdom ; which going-forth refers to those primitive times : and
in the fifth seal is the first mention of the bloody persecution of
the saints professing the gospel, in the same times ; for they are
told that when the rest of their brethren, by the succeeding per
secutions, should be killed, they then should have vengeance on
their enemies for their blood spilt ; shewing c. vi. to contain those
first persecutions : besides, the former chapters were but a pro
logue or preparation to the prophecy, here beginning at least with
John's time, c. i. 1. 2dlv, These seals and trumpets, in succes
sive order, contain continued prophecy of events following one
another in a succession of ages downward ; for, "In the days of the
voice of the seventh trumpet, when it shall begin to sound," (c. x.)
imports, That these several trumpets, as scenes in a comedy,
share among them the several successive ages and times ; and
with the seals, do have their days proper peculiary given to
them : and the ages precede or succeed, as these are placed,j€r*£,
second, &c. for the first age, &c. 3dly, The seventh trumpet,
(c. xi-) ending all time, becomes a period to one distinct prophecy
of all time; which appears from c. x. 6, 7, after the seals were
passed over, and seen with their effects, and the six trumpets had
sounded in c. viii. and ix. the angel swears " that time shall be
no longer ; but in the clays of the seventh trumpet," all shall be

HEV.] SECOND PROPOSITION. 565

finished : therefore c. xi. 15, 18, (where the seven tli trumpet is
introduced, sounding in the order of its day and turn,) must
needs be esteemed the end of that prophecy ; for it brings us to
the end of all times allotted to this world and God's enemies
therein to rule and reign : when this world's hour-glass is run
out, that of the other world is turned up to run : so that from
the first seal to the seventh trumpet, is run over all the time
that the monarchies and kingdoms of this world, as in the
enemies' hands, should continue and last; being the "time" which
towards the end, under thesixth trumpet, " should be no longer,"
according to the oath ; " He sware by him that liveth for ever
and ever, who created heaven, earth, and seas, and all in them,
that there should be time no longer ', but in the days of the seventh
angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should
be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets :"
which words import, That much of the whole time having thus
been past and run out already in the former visions of the seals
and trumpets, now the time allotted by God was brought well
nigh its very last sands : And that the church might have some
warning, and be able to make some guess, and computation, when
the world's monarchy should end, and the Gentiles' time be fulfil
led, and no longer be ; this angel gives us in c. xi. towards the
expiration of the whole time, the true computation of the continu
ance of the last of the four monarchies, as serving to compute the
period of the whole unto the beginning of Christ's visible kingdom,
even the days of the beast, or Pope, who is the last part with his ten
kingdoms of Europe, treading down the church, or the holy city :
which beast, and his kingdoms supporting him as their head,
(whose time from his first beginning, even to the near approach
of that seventh trumpet, commencing to sound about his very
end, is forty-two months, or twelve hundred and sixty days, i. e.
years,) shall end, and with him all rule and dominion on earth; and
Christ shall take the kingdom when he shall have destroyed
Antichrist through the "brightness of his coming," (2 Thes. ii. 8,)
which will grow brighter as his coming is nearer. This angel
gives also to the church a signal of occurences immediately
fore-running the period of this time of the beast'sruin,by represen
ting (c. xi.) what shall be her face before the downfall of that king
dom, and her last persecution by the beast, fore-going her ruin ;
that so she might both have warning, (not thinking it strange for
the fiery trial at last to come upon them,) and also be comforted
in its being the last trial, introducing the end of time and the
world's kingdom. Secondly, For the book-prophecy there is a new
prophecy, running over the whole race of time unto Christ's
kingdom, from the beginning to the end of the world's monarchies
from c. xii. to the end of the book ; with other occurrences than
the seal-prophecy of the same period, ending c. xi. : First, c. xii.
begins a new prophecy, for the other made an end of ah1 time;

566 SECOND PROPOSITION-; [REV.

and the vision of the woman and the dragon in c. xii. must needs
be of things fore-going the rise of the Antichrist-beast, (c. xiii.)
and therefore concerns the primitive times. The dragon in c.
xii. endeavouring to devour the woman, is cast down from
heaven ; after which his striving to drown her in a flood is
prevented : and then John standing on the sand of the sea,
spies this new beast arising, to whom the dragon gives his throne
and power, (c. xiii.) all therefore in c. xii. must needs con
tain a story of events of primitive times before the rise of
Antichrist. Secondly, From the first rise of this beast (c. xiii.)
there is allowed him to continue twelve hundred and sixty years,
at the expiration of which the seventh trumpet begins, which had
ended all time before c. xi. 15; and then c. xiv. contains the
state of the church during the time of the beast, in her separa
tion from him and opposition to him ; and then c. xv. and xvi.
contain seven vials to ruin this beast, whereof the last ends all
time again, as the seventh trumpet had done; for 1st, The
angel swears " That time shall be no more ;" and the voice says,
" It is done," c. x. 6 ; xvi. 17. 2dly, It is said, (c. xv. 1,) that
these vials contain the last plagues, in which the wrath of God is
fulfilled ; and therefore they must necessarily make an end of all
Christ's enemies, and of their rule and time. 3dly, The same
things are said to be done in the pouring out of the seventh
plague-vial, that are presented to be done at the sounding of the
seventh, or last woe-trumpet: for in c. xi. 19, were " lightnings,
voices, thunderings. earthquakes, and a great hail ;" and in c.
xvi. 18, were " voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an
earthquake," such as never were before on earth ; and so great
a hail that every stone weighed a talent. But if Christ's kingdom,
in c. xx. — xxii. ends all, what is the time of c. xvii. — xix. ?
These in general contain a larger explication or vision of some
eminent things under some of the vials ; and therefore c. xvii.
begins thus, " One of the seven angels which had the seven vials,
talked with me, and shewed me," &c. as implying that what
follows belonged to their times : more particularly, c. xvii. con
tains an interpretation of what was spoken of the beast, c. xiii.
shewing who it is : and as the Holy Ghost interprets the visions in
Daniel, so here : Thus the whore carried by the beast, " is that
great city that reigneth over the kings of the earth," (c. xvii. 18,)
•which is Rome : and the Spirit must needs interpret some things
in this book, (leaving the church to search into the rest,) and this
especially as giving light to all the rest ; which therefore fitly
comes in after all. Again, c. xviii. contains a more poetical
description of the ruining of that city, the seat of this last
monarchy, and therefore is but a copious explication of the
fifth vial poured out on the seat of the beast, (c. xvi. 10,) toge
ther with the church's triumphing song for the times sung at
the whore's funeral, and for the approaching marriage of the

REV.] THIRD PROPOSITION. 567

Lamb, c. xix. 1 — 10, whence to c. xx. is a more full description
of that last war of the beast and all the kings of the earth, and
their overthrow by Christ ; being all one with the last vial and
the preparation thereunto, as is evident from c. xvi. 13 — 21, com
pared with c. xix. 11 — 21 ; the Spirit towards the end of this
prophecy giving a more full explanation of the two more eminent
vials, and the times of them ; after first briefly setting them
together with the rest, in their order : as after compendiously
setting together in c. xx. the reign of Christ during a thousand
years, and the universal judgment that follows, he yet spends
c. xxi. in a more copious and magnificent description of the
state of the New Jerusalem, and that millenial period. But
again, Whereunto is c. xi. 1 — 14, to be referred, which is placed,
as it were, between both prophecies ? All that discourse deli
vered by word of Christ's mouth, between the seal and book-
prophecy, belongs to both, as containing an exact chronology of
that last period of the time of the world's monarchies ; whereby
we may easily compute the whole time of both prophecies ; and
there is withal a signal given of such eminent occurrences
befalling the church, as should be most proper and suitable signs
of the dawning of Christ's kingdom and ending of these prophe
cies ; that as Jerusalem had signs of its impending destruction,
so hath New Jerusalem of the approach of its reaiung. Now that
these passages in c. xi. belong to both prophecies, appears ; In
that, The Holy Ghost speaks of matters contained and after
wards mentioned in the book-prophecy, c. xiii. and xvi. as
likewise of matters mentioned in the seal-prophecy ; viz. of
the ending of the sound of the sixth trumpet; which is declared
in c. xi. 14, " The passing away of the second woe :" And also,
The angel therein mentions how and when the expirations of the
times of both prophecies meet in the sixth trumpet of the seal-
prophecy, ending about the time of date of the beast in the book-
prophecy: and thus to insert, as it were, a chronological table
between both prophecies, serving them both, and knitting togethei
the times of both in one period, in c. xi. is agreeable to the way
of historians affixing a table of times to their history, when they
run over much time and several matters.

PROP. in. — What is the matter or argument prophesied of
in this whole book ? and more particularly what are the differ
ing subjects of the seal and of the book-prophecy. I shall
unfold and clear this by several steps and degrees in these heads
following: First, The subject of both prophecies are the fates
and destinies of the kingdoms of the world, after the ascension
until Christ takes the kingdom to himself: therefore at the end
of the seal or trumpet-prophecy, there is an acclamation that the
kingdoms of the world were become Christ's, (c. xi. 15.) after
being in other monarchs' hands, (as shewn throughout the former
part of the prophecy,) till " time shall be no longer" for the

568 THIRD PROPOSITION. [REV.

wordly kingdoms : therefore the book-prophecy also beginning
c. xii. when first given c. x. 11, hath this prologue or preface,
" Thou must prophesy again before (EPI, about] kings;" having
prophesied about them previously in the seal-prophecy ; and
now again to do so, together with new occurrences relating to
the church. Secondly, The whole prophecy concerns only such
kingdoms or monarchies of the Gentiles, as had to do with the
church; for, 1st, At the beginning of both prophecies the church
is made the stage or scene upon which all is acted, and so the
prophecies extend to no other kingdoms than where the church
hath been : as in the fifth seal, (c. vi. 10,) we have blessed martyrs
there calling for vengeance of their blood ; and under the trump
ets, (which are miseries upon kingdoms,) there are the sealed
servants of God, scattered and mingled among those nations
upon whom these trumpets blow : so in c. vii. Thus, The Indies,
Tartary, China, &c. are not here mentioned ; as in the Old
Testament also, only those kingdoms are named with which the
interests of the Jewish church were interwoven. 2dly, This
book being written for the comfort of the church ; and all the
judgments therein proceeding from the throne of that temple,
upon the prayers of the church; it contains therefore the fates of
such kingdoms as the church should have to do with. Thirdly,
The Roman monarchy or empire, with the territories under its
jurisdiction both in the east and west sea, then in its height
and nourish, (with which the church had most to do, and in
the almost alone jurisdiction of which it had always been seated,)
must needs be, in its several revolutions and changes, the main
subject of this book, together with the state of the church under
it. Now the circuit of this empire and its dominions, was
extended nearly as far as the dominions under the Turk in the
cast, and the ten European kingdoms in the west; all in John's
time under the emperor of Rome : and here God placed his
church and gospel, and here is the seat of Christendom to this
day ; and it is therefore called the world, and the whole world,
or all the world, (Matt. xxiv. 14 ; Luke ii. 1 ; Acts xi. 28,) for
its greatness, and as set up for God to act his great works upon :
and beyond this line the apostles' preaching never stretched
to any considerable purpose, see 2 Cor. x. 16 ; Rom. x. 18 ;
Ps. xix. 4. The reasons why this empire, with the church in it,
should be the main subject of this book, are; 1st, It is the seat
and circuit of the church, and by the several successions of its
power the church hath been mainly oppressed in all ages : and
if judgments, set out tinder seals, trumpets, and vials, come on
her enemies for her sake, they must eminently light upon this
grand enemy : and so this prophecy must note out the judgment
and wars that ruined the Roman empire for persecuting the saints
who cry for vengeance ; and the trumpets are the answers to their
prayers, c. viii. 3. 2dly, The Roman empire, and its eastern and

REV.] FOURTH PROPOSITION. 5C9

western successions, was the fourth and only great monarchy
left to oppress the earth, when Christ ascended ; as the prophets
of old spake each of the reigning monarchy and its successions;
so Daniel spake of Greece, and of Rome as most terrible of all.
3dly, The scope of this book is the instalment of Christ into his
kingdom, and his putting down all opposing powers in his way
to it : Christ's empire is to succeed the Roman, under which he
therefore upholds his church till his kingdom comes and forms a
fifth monarchy : the same is the scope of Dan. vii. 7 — 11, only
here more largely and particularly set forth. 4thly, That such
should be the subject of this prophecy suits also with the chief
prophecies of the other apostles ; which were reduced to three
heads, and were ordinarily preached by them and more expressly
written by John : As 1, The foretelling the ruin of the Roman
empire, called " a taking out of the way him that lets," 2 Thes.
ii. 2 — 9, with c. vi. — ix. 2, The discovery of the Pope, the man
of sin, and the last head of the fourth monarchy ; and his ruin,
c. xiii. — xix. 3, Christ's coming and kingdom, c. xx. and xxi.

PROP. iv. — What is the difference of the subject of the seal
and book-prophecy? for in the story of the several successions and
revolutions in the Roman empire, we are to consider the state of
the political body itself, and also of the church under it ; whence
some write the ecclesiastical history apart by itself, and others
the story of the several revolutions of the Roman empire ; as the
Book of martyrs relates chiefly the church's conflict with Anti-
Christ, but Speed's Chronicle gives several invasions, wars,
conquests, and intestine broils of the kingdom. The difference
of the subjects' of these two prophecies appears in the several
characters, and also in the very place and situation of the visions
themselves. 1st, For the differing shews or faces of these repres
entations : In the first prophecy are seven seals and four horses,
(c. vi.;) and then the seven trumpets, (c. viii. and ix,) noting sealed
judgments and devastations on the empire, by plagues, famines,
and wars, (trumpets being the signal and symbols of war in all
nations, and put for it in scripture:) But the chief actors in the
book-prophecy are women, fit emblems of the churches ; viz. a
travailing woman, c. xii. a virgin, c. xvi. a whore, c. xvii. xviii.
and a bride, c. xix. Thus artificial is the Holy Ghost in
handling things of differing nature apart. 2ndly, The difference
of the subjects of these two prophecies is shewn also from their
differing situation and place. The seals were on the back-side,
as containing state-matters without the church, (c. xxii. 15,) but
the book itself contains things within, (1 Cor. v. 12;) and so the
prophecy thereof is cast to be, as it were, without the book, even
upon the seals thereof, touching the outward temporal state of
the church; whereas the book-prophecy treats of spiritual things
within the church : and this appears in the interpretation of all
particulars throughout the books, as well as in the general division ;

570 A SYNOPSIS [REV.

for John, like the best historians, puts things of a sort together :
yet not so as that nothing at all of church-affairs is found in the
seal-prophecy, or of the affairs of the empire in the book-pro
phecy : as the matters of Judah are intermingled in the book of
Kings, and those of Israel in that of Chronicles. I have now
therefore to present

A SYNOPSIS OF THE WHOLE PROPHECY.

This book is a tragi-comic vision of the occurrences of the
world, and of the church in the world, through all times and
ages ; and we may entitle it, " The story of ChrisCs kingdom, and
the removal of the several difficulties of his coming to it." 1st,
The stage is set up in c. iv. where is represented the universal
church in all ages, set forth according to the exact pattern of a
church visible and instituted, into which all saints on earth
should be cast : then enters, 2dly, The prologue (c. v.) in which
is set forth, in Christ's taking the sealed book, his taking on him
the kingdom and government, as God's commissioner, to execute
the decrees contained in this book, and to give the vision of all to
John : at which instalment there is a doxology to the Lamb by
the chorus of elders and beasts, with a triumphing assurance of
our reign on earth in the issue. 3dly, The scene or place where
the efiect of these visions was to be acted, is the Roman Empire
and its several eastern and western dominions, called OICOUMENEE,
the whole world. 4thly, The story itself, begun at c. vi. the
general argument of which is, That whereas Christ's government
was to be executed and seen, not only in putting down all oppo
sing rule and power, (as in 1 Cor. xv. 24, 25,) but also in a visi
ble taking the kingdom to himself and his saints, under the fifth
monarchy ; so here the story of this book first shews how Christ
puts down the Roman power by successive revolutions, till all
are worn out who were ordained to stand up in it, (and these op
positions and persecutions render the story of Christ's kingdom
more glorious :) and then it ends in a glorious visible kingdom
set up on earth, and peaceably possessed by Christ and his saints,
as the catastrophe of all. More particularly the story is this,
according to the several contents of each chapter : 1, When
Christ ascended to heaven, he found the Roman monarchy, (whose
room he was to possess,) stretched east and west over all those
parts of the world where he was to seat his church and kingdom ;
the subjects of the Roman emperor being heathenish and idola
trous, and wholly under the power of Satan the god of this world ;
whereupon ; 2, Christ first sets upon the conquest of Satan's do
minion and worship therein, and by the preaching of the gospel
overturns its Heathenism, dethrones Satan from the height of his
glory, and subjects it to himself, turning its emperors to Christian
ity within three hundred years: This is the sum and mind of the
seal and book-prophecies in c. vi. and xii. But, 3, This empire,

REV.J OF THE WHOLE PROPHECY. 571

(though no\v professedly Christian, yet whilst idolatrous having
persecuted Christ's church, and after also when Arian,) advances
to its ruin by the trumpets in c. viii. and ix. at the prayers of
the martyrs, and in vengeance of their blood, c. vi. 10, 11, and
viii. 4. 4, The empire thus becoming divided into two parts,
the imperial Western state in Europe is first ruined by the four
first trumpets, (the wars of the Goths by four several steps,) in c.
viii. and the imperial Eastern state afterwards, first by the Sara
cens, and then by the Turks, under the fifth and sixth trumpets,
and these possess the eastern parts : These are the contents of
c. ix. : only before the trumpets bring those evils on the empire,
a hundred and forty-four thousand Christians in the east are
sealed up, (c. vii. 2, 8,) to be preserved and continued in the true
profession of Christ's name under these two severest and longest
it-oe woe trumpets to fall on the earth, where were these sealed
servants, see c. ix. 4 ; and this sealing is the sum of c. vii. 5,
The old Roman empire being in both parts removed ; as the
east is possessed by Turks, (c. ix.) so the west is broken into ten
kingdoms by the Goths, all whose kings consented to give their
power to the beast, (the Pope,) who thus becomes a successor to
the western emperors, and possesses their seat and power, (though
under another title,) and so heals that wound given to the Roman
monarchy, thus restored in and by him : c. xiii. describes this
beast, and gives the vision of his rise, power, and time of reign
ing, which c. xvii. expounds and interprets. 6, Under this Anti-
christian tyranny, (as great as that of the Turks themselves,)
Christ yet preserves another like company of one hundred and
forty-four thousand virgins, or sealed Christians in the west,
(c. xiv. 1 — 4,) &c. and so he keeps possession still by preserving
his church, under both these parts of the empire, as being his
inheritance. But now, 7, These two enemies to Christ, (Pope
and Turk,) thus succeeding in the empire, and sharing the two
parts of it between them, Christ is still kept out of his allotted
dominion in these territories; for Mahometanism tyranniseth in
the one, and Popish idolatry overspreads the other, as Heathen
ism had at first done over the whole empire : and so Christ hath
a new business of it yet, and as difficult as ever, to come unto
his kingdom: Therefore, 8, He hath seven vials containing the
last plagues, (for he means to make this the last act of this long
tragi-comedy,) to despatch the Pope and the Turk, and wholly
root them out; even as the seals had done to the Heathenism, and
the trumpets to the civil power of the empire : the plagues of these
Tials are in c. xv. and xvi. the first five of which dissolve and
gradually ruin the Pope's power in the west : then the sixth
breaks the power of the Turk in the east ; so making way for
the Jews, (whom he means to bring into the fellowship of his king
dom, in their own land,) therefore called "The kings of the
east," c. xvi. 12. But, 9, Their power and kingdom being not

572 THE SIXTH CHAPTER. [REV. VI.

wholly ruined by these six vials, both the Turkish and Popish
party join their utmost forces, (and together with them all oppo
site kings of the whole world,) against the Christians both of the
east and west, (who, when the Jews are come in and converted,
make up a mighty party in the world ;) unto the help of whom
against these and all opposite power whatsoever, Christ himself
comes and makes but one work of it, with his own hand fi'om
heaven destroying them : and so, (c. xvi. 17,) " It is done." 10,
In c. xvii. is an interpretation concerning the beast, who he is,
and where is his seat. 11, In c. xviii. is a funeral-song of
triumph for the whore's ruin, (which is the fifth vial,) before the
preparations for the new Jerusalem kingdom consisting both of east
ern Christians, (who enduring the bondage of the two woe trump
ets, under the Saracens and Turks, yet continued to profess Christ's
name ; and therefore to those hundred and forty-four thousand
in c. vii. is said to succeed an innumerable company with palms
in their hands, having the same promises of the new Jerusalem
mentioned in c. xxi. which shews their interest therein ;) and
also of western Christians, (whose hundred and forty-four thous
and in c. xiv. arise also to an innumerable company, and after the
rejection of the whole world, are brought in c. xix. 1 — 9, singing in
like triumphant manner, decking themselves for the marriage in
fine linen ;) besides Jews especially all over the world, (from
whom this kingdom hath the name of the new Jerusalem,} with
whom come in also other Gentiles, as attendants of their joy,
who never had received Christ before. Thus, J2, Both east and
west, and the fulness both of Jews and Gentiles, become one fold
under one shepherd for a thousand years, and one kingdom
under this root of David their conqueror-king ; even as it first was
one under one Heathen idolatrous emperor, when Christ had
first set to conquer it : And so that in Isa. lix. 18, 19, is fulfil
led ; where after the final destruction of all Christ's enemies,
" They shall fear his name from the east to the west ; and the
Redeemer shall come to Zion," at the final call of the Jews, and
at the restoration of the world with them, Rom. xi. 26.

THE SIXTH CHAPTER.

Having given a scheme and division of the whole prophecy,
and a general argument of the story of it, briefly set together in
one view; I will now run over each chapter apart, insisting
largely on this only, and glancing more slightly on the rest; for
I aim especially at the second part of my Exposition : and though
this Commentary rise not to a full and copious interpretation,
yet it will serve to shew the true portrait of the Holy Ghost's
mind in this story, to be what I have made it in the preceding
general argument. The seal-prophecy concerns the state of the
empire from John's time downward; considered, Either, As Hea-

REV. \ I.] THE FIRST SIX SEALS. 573

thenish, (when Jupiter, Mars, &c. were worshipped, and Christians
were persecuted and massacred ; the empire standing whole and
undivided under the entire government of one emperor of the
east and west, for three hundred years after Christ;) Or, As
Christian under Constantine; when it was subjected to Christianity,
though afterwards broken into two parts; which rent was establish
ed by Theodosius ; the east being allotted to one emperor, (now
possessed by the Turks, whereof Constantino made Byzantium
his seat, from him called Constantinople^ and the west to
another, (having Rome for its seat,) which the Pope for many
hundred years hath had entirely under him. Now, according to
the division of the eastern and western empire, the seal-prophecy
divides itself into " The first six seals" in this chapter, and " The
first six trumpets," which the seventh seal brings forth in c. viii.
and ix. from the woe of which trumpets the servants of God are
sealed, in c. vii. In this chapter the first prophecy begins with
the primitive times ; for in the first seal is the " going forth" in the
preaching of the gospel, " conquering and to conquer ;" (which is
the foundation of all God's after-proceedings, the corner-stone of
Christ's obtaining and setting up his kingdom ;) and the fifth seal
mentioning the first martyrdom of saints crying out for vengeance,
must refer to those great persecutions under Heathenish Rome,
which were soon followed by the Arian, as in v. 11.

THE FIRST SIX SEALS

Are several steps or degrees, setting forth the moving causes
and means of God's plaguing and naming the empire of Rome
Pagan. Christ being to put down all adverse power, finds not
only this empire to stand in the way, but the worship of idols
and devils : first, therefore, he encounters Heathenism, backed by
all the power of the empire ; and then, in the trumpets, he
encounters the empire itself, " going forth conquering and to
conquer? (v. 2,) by degrees. The first judgment on that empire
left it standing ; therefore the martyrs, after the punishment of
the second, third, and fourth seal, cry yet in the fifth seal, for
vengeance on the empire itself. The seals are so called, First,
In a general relation to this whole prophecy ; as, 1st, A book of
decrees to be executed by Christ having these seals : 2ndly, This
book is not to be opened "till the time of the end" (Dan.
xii. 4, 9,) being sealed till then, when the same angel of Daniel
comes in c. x. with an open book in his hand, both to give a new-
prophecy, and also to shew that when all the seals were off, (all
the judgments now being executed in the world,) then the book
of Revelation should be understood. Secondly, The seals are, 1st,
Judgments decreed by God certainly to befall that empire ; (so
the salvation of the elect is sealed, 2 Tim. ii. 19; so judgments,
Deut. xxxii. 34; and sins, Job xiv. 17:) 2ndly, They are
judgments hidden, (and so seals do hide,) stealing in upon the

574 THE FIRST SIX SEALS. [REV. VI.

world unawares, and not understood : accordingly we find by the
apologies of Terlullian, Cyprian, Arnobius, &c. That the Pagan
Romans observing such strange, unheard-of famines, civil wars,
and pestilences, (typified here by horses, red, black, and pale,)
exceedingly wondered at the reason of them, imputing it to the
auger of their Gods against the new sect of Christians : but Christ
here opens the cause of these sealed judgments, viz. contempt of
the gospel : 3rdly, They are sealed for pledges and assurances
of all that follows ; (as the seal of the Spirit is to assure,) which
should certainly come to pass in their time, God first sending
them judgments as seals ; so that from the history of what has
already been fulfilled, we may assure ourselves of the accomplish
ment of all the rest. N. B. Here is a ground of confirming our
faith about all those things prophesied of by God, in that the
fulfilling of one is a seal assuring that the other shall be fulfilled.
That Heathenism is ruined, which was more firmly rooted for
four thousand years than ever Popery was, is a seal to us that
Popery shall be destroyed. The beast of Rome, though not
risen in John's day, is now up in our days ; which may confirm
our faith that he shall as certainly be ruined, the same prophecy
foretelling his fall, (c. xviii.) as his rise, c. xiii. and that after this
there is a glorious kingdom to come, of which all these are seals.
We find in c. xi. the temple measured anew, and the outward
court of carnal worshippers and worship cast out ; and we see it
now in our days fulfilled ; yea, ourselves fulfil it : we may therefore
as certainly expect and prepare for what follows in the same
chapter : Thus Zechariah begins his prophesy, so to assure the
people of the truth of it, as if saying, " Did you ever know pro
phecy fail ? ' My words did they not take hold of your fathers ?
(whom the threatened judgments arrested ;) and like us the Lord
thought to do unto us, so hath he dealt with us :' therefore believe
the rest."

THE FIRST FOUR SEALS are represented to us under the vision
of four horses. The allusion is to Zech. i. 8, 10 ; vi. 5 ; where Christ
is represented riding on a red horse, and behind him stood other
horses, red, speckled, and white, who are angels " that walk to and
fro through the earth," and are "four spirits (or winds) that go forth
from standing before the Lord of the earth ;" (see Heb. i. 14, with
Ps. civ. 3, 4 ;) so evil angels are sent forth to do mischief, as in
1 King xxii. 21 ; Job. i. 7 : the angels are the executioners of
all God's great designs ; and therefore whatever is done in this
book by men, is still said to be done by angels. Here the vision
of horses thus commissioned from God, and the allusion, shews
either, That those executions under these seals were conducted by
Christ on the first horse, accompanied by other horses, his angel-
followers ; or, That as the angels on horses in Zechariah went
their circuit over the eavth, so here were commissions sealed
to these executioners, to traverse and compass the earth, as angels

IJEV. VI.] THE FIRST SEAL. 575

are used to do. God begins here to war with the world, and sends
out four horsemen to give the first onset. That this vision is
presented under that of horses is but for variety's sake. The
Revelation makes use of all the eminent visions of the Old
Testament; and the elegancies of all the types in the Prophets,
serve but to set forth and adorn the visions of this book, like a
picture composed of all beauties. The vision of the throne is from
Isaiah and Ezekiel ; from Daniel is the sealed book ; the horses, and
also the olive trees, and the candlesticks, are fromZechariah ; and
so on. N.B. 1, How perfect is this book ! what a posy of all
flowers ! what a vision from all visions ! (as Solomon's was a song
of songs ;) all the types and stories of Moses and the prophets, are
borrowed to adorn it. 2, The occurrences in the New Testament,
with its story of the church, have all the perfections appearing
under the Old, which is more eminently acted over in all passages
of providence. Here is a more glorious temple, and a far worse
Egypt, Sodom, and Babylon ; Here is a restoration of the temple,
and that also at twice, and by degrees ; Here is a new Jerusalem :
Did the bond-man of old persecute the free ? even so it is now,
Gal. iv. 24, 29 : What befel them, befalls us much more : Had
they persecutors? we more and worse : Had they Pharisees that
sinned against the Holy Ghost and crucified Christ ? so have we
such as shall, after great convictions wrought by the gospel, prove
like a generation of Pharisees, scorched with the heat of hell-fire,
(as in the fourth vial,) who shall kill the witnesses, c. xi. " Now
all these things happened unto them for types, (so also did their
visions,) being written for our admonition, upon whom the ends
(or perfection) of the wrorld are come," 1 Cor. x. 11. We have
the perfection of every thing under the Old Testament, good
or bad.

FIRST SEAL, and its " white horse,''1 (v. 1,2.) whose crowned
Archman-rider is Christ himself, " yoiny forth, (in the preaching
of the gospel,) conquering and to conquer ;" alluding to Ps. xlv.
4 — 6 ; for Christ must win the crown and sceptre before he wears
it. Christ goes forth as the general of these horses ; and his
being a white one, betokens a triumph, and also is a sign of
meekness and candour; he offering at first conditions of peace in
the gospel, to the empire of Rome and to all nations, on their
submission to him as their king, who goes forth peaceably to
challenge the nations God had given him for his inheritance : all
must hold their crown of him, and do him homage : Thus
Tamerlane, before denouncing war, suspended a white flag in
token of peace offered. The progress of the gospel is here
compared to the free course of a horse and his rider, 2 Thes.
iii. 1. The weapons here are but arrows in the hearts of the
yielding ; in c. xix. they are a sword to finish the conquest : in
Ps. xlv. they are both : the threatening of the gospel are arrows
striking secretly, and darting and wounding mortally ; " Hceret

576 THE SECOND SEAL. [REV. VI.

Lethal if! Arundo" This horseman is " crowned ;" (for God made
Christ king when he lirst ascended, Heb. ii. 8, 9 ;) and " he went
forth conquering" whether men obey or not ; (Paul speaks like a
conqueror, in 2 Cor. ii. 14 ;) for if men turn, There is a triumph of
grace pardoning, and so subduing, traitors ; and if not, The gospel
is a savour of death, like a box of veneraous ointments, poisoning
by the smell; it is a step of ruin and a sealed judgment; and
though a blessing in itself, it was a curse to Gentilism, (as the first
vial, by converting men from Popery is called a vial on the earth,)
causing Satan to fall " like lightning do-.vn from heaven," (Luke
x. 18,) as the sixth and last seal shews ; for the devil was struck
dumb in his oracles, when Christ only began to publish his.
N. B. 1, Christ is so meek and merciful that he goes not forth
first on a red war-horse, but on a ivltite ; but if men turn
not, he hath other horses to do that work of destroying them.
Who would stand out against such a Saviour who loves un
bloody conquests ? 2, Christ's course to get his kingdom by no
other means at first than the gospel, is strange: his weapons are the
bow of the tongues of men, to dart their words, and " to shoot out
bitter arrows " into the hearts of them that resist: Twelve fisher
men conquer the whole world of the Roman empire ! what should
we think of a dozen poor men sent into Turkey to overthrow the
grand Turk and Mahometanism ? see Zech. iv. 6'. 3, When
Christ begins, he goes on to conquer. Let us not fear the cause
of God in England : there is a battle to be fought ; Christ and his
angels growing more and more holy and full of light ; and Satan
and his, growing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived :
Christ coming up with fresh supplies of new light, with his bow
and arrows bears up as hard as they, and will not be foiled' Though
the light of the primitive churches grew dimmer and dimmer,
yet they conquered Heathenism, much more must these now
conquer.

SECOND SEAL, and its " red horse" of icar, v. 3, 4. After the
going forth of the white horse there follow three other light-
horsemen, attending this their general ; as in Zech. i. 8, where
Christ was on the red horse, as about to revenge himself on his
church's enemies, but here on the white gospel-peace horse,
followed by war-horses, whose colour is suitable to the plagues
successively brought on the empire : This second horse's colour
is the redness of blood, (Isa. Ixiii. 1, 2,) and is therefore a war-
horse " to take peace from the earth" by civil war, (not by
persecution, but) in the empire, wherein " men should kill one
another :" for, if men take peace from the saints, it is a suitable
plague, that God should take peace from the earth ; and if men
embrace not the Gospel of peace, their peace shall be taken
away ; but if men will kill the saints, is it not a proportioned
judgment that their swords should be turned into their own
bowels? Now this "power was given to him ;" it proceeded

RFV. VI. 5, 6.] THE THIRD SEAL. 577

from a commission to this horseman ; and so " there was given
to him a great sword:" God commissions the sword he puts into
the enemy's hand: and as magistrates bear God's sword, so soldiers,
whom the prophets often call God's sword. History shews what
wars and most dreadful broils were in ihe eastern empire. John
wrote his Revelation just before Trajan's time, in Domitian's
reign, A.D. 94 ; and he died ten years after, in the sixth year of
Trajan, in whose time these wars began. When the apostles
had preached the Gospel to the world, and were all dead ; the
Jews rise, and with armies rage through all parts of the empire ;
and so devastate and depopulate Lybia of her inhabitants, that
Adrian was forced to send thither new colonies : about Cyrene
they destroyed twenty-two hundred ; in Egypt also and in Cyrus
twenty-four hundred; and a great number in Mesopotamia : but
Adrian destroyed fifty-eight hundred of the Jews in turn. After
Trajan, in whose time the empire had its largest extent, the
Parthians revolted, and it was lessened. Under Antonius, A.D. 140,
all the northern nations came down upon the east and upon all
Illyricum, yet were dried up, as a land-flood ; so that the empire
stood entire : and that these wars might be the more eminently
noticed as following upon the apostles' deaths, (before which,
and for forty-four years after, there were none ;) there was uni
versal peace.

THIRD SEAL, and its " black horse" of famine, v. 5, 6 ; as in
Lam. iv. 7 — 9, where the Nazarites' visage is blacker than a coal,
from famine. The rider " that sat on him, had a pair of balances
in his hand" to sell corn by weight and not by measure, as in
Lev. xxvi. 26 ; and then a chcenix, or day's allowance only, was
sold for a penny, (about our seven-pence half-penny, or eighth of
a crown,) which was a day's wages : there was however a commis
sion " not to hurt the oil and the wine" Now historians being
silent about any notable universal famine in the empire, after
these, Mr. Mede interprets it of the balances of justice, for
which Severus and others were eminent, especially for their
theft-laws and corn-laws : but it would be heterogeneal to the
other steps for mining or plaguing the heathen empire, for the
Holy Ghost to notice and insert a moral virtue in the midst of
judgments : but this scarcity of corn only, might be slipt over by
historians, while Tertullian and other Christians mention such a
famine of bread, as a judgment for the empire's contempt of Christ
and persecution of the saints. I have searched diligently for
suchfootsteps in dearths of that age, two hundred years after Christ,
and upwards, as might confirm the truth of this ; And first, I find
in Commodus' time, A.D. 190, there was a commotion made for
bread within the city of Rome by the poorer sort ; (Fames
RomanosAfflixit, says Herodian,) when the store-keeper Cleander,
his great favorite, detained the corn from the people ; whereupon
they mutiny and demand his death, in their rage throwing down

2 Q

578 THE FOURTH SEAL. [REV. VI. 7, 8.

houses, opposing the soldiers, stoning the captains; so that
Commodus was forced to cut off his favorite's head and set it on
a pole, and to kill his children also, to pacify the people : even
Mr. Mede's quotation about Severus' justice, and his care about
oil, &c. intimates an exhausture of corn from the stores ; as also
his care, A.D. 118, through Heliogobalus' having overthrown
the public stock of corn: And then, secondly, For the Christian
writers of these times ; Tertullian, A.D. 203, in his apology for
the Christians, speaks of the calumny of the heathen laying the
cause of all their misery upon the Christians ; " If it rained not,
if the Nile overflowed not, (Egypt being the granary of the
the empire,) if there was pestilence ; at once they exclaimed,
" Christianas Ad Leones, Away with these Christians to the
lions ;" who were then punished most as a cause of famines, and
therefore used to fast in times of such judgment, especially when
their Annona, or annual stock of corn, was in danger of being
spent; whilst other Romans poured out themselves to all licen
tiousness : Also in his apology to Scapula, the African presi
dent, shewing that no persecuting city went unpunished, he
instanceth how lately, under Hillarian his predecessor's president
ship, the Christians begging a floor of corn, a voice was heard
underground, "Area Non Stint;" and they had no corn to thresh
in their floors the next year, a great wet having spoiled the har
vest : This vexation, following a condemnation of the Christians
to the beasts, Baronious there understands to be the lack of
corn. Origen about A.D. 226, writing on Matt. xxiv. and taking
occasion to answer the same general calumny against the Christ
ians, as causes of their wars, famines, and pestilences, instanceth
in famines especially, as the eminent punishment of that age.

FOURTH SEAL, and its " pale horse," v. 7, 8, with " Death his
name that sat on him" whose horse brings death " on the fourth
part of the earth " or empire ; and his work was " to kill with
sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of
the earth" even all God's plagues let loose at once, for their
impenitence ; (not as before, civil wars alone, or famine coming
alone, but now) all four judgments mentioned in Ezek. xiv. 21,
all the treasures of his wrath. Pestilence is here called death, as
it is by the Chaldean paraphrase, and the Greek ; by the Fathers
it is called the mortality, and by us the sickness. It is wonder
ful to read what a stage of misery and blood the empire became,
from A.D. 240, through all these plagues raging at once. In the
space of thirty-three years, ten emperors were killed in the civil
wars. Under Callus and Volusianus, A.D. 250, the barbarous
nations came down upon the empire, and harrowed it ; and the
Scythians amongst them, whose rage exempted no part of the
Roman jurisdiction, depopulating almost every town ; which was
followed by extreme famine : " When we had a breathing from
these, (says Dionysius Alexandrinus,) there came the greatest and

REV. VI. 1 — 8.] OBSERVATIONS ON THE FIRST FOUR SEALS. 579

worst plague of pestilence, that ever was read of in any age" — " of
fifteen years continuance, says Lypsius : and to add the last
hand for completing the misery of these times, God let loose
these tyrants at once, as so many wild beasts, to prey upon and
make havoc of the empire.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE ABOVE SEALS. — 1st, During the first
four seals, bringing us to A.D. 260, the officers of churches remain
ed according to institution in the purer churches ; but afterwards
we hear not of them, (corruptions coming in upon the churches,
and preventing their right end,) till the vials begin, (c. xv.) in the
first separation from Popery ; and then we read only of one of
the beasts giving these vials : but after a second measuring the
temple, (c. xi.) before Rome's ruin, we read of four beasts,
(c. xix.) in their right order again, praising God. 2dly, After
the white horse of the gospel, go forth the other three of terrible
judgments on the world, for contempt of it : "Judgment must
begin at the house of God," (1 Pet. iv. 17,) but not rest there:
Soon after the first preaching of the gospel, wrath fell most
heavily also upon the empire and its idolaters : as we look for
storms in autumn, and frost in winter, so we expect judgments
where the gospel has been preached : "the quarrel of the cove
nant," (Lev. xxvi. 25,) must be avenged and vindicated : if men
despise it, God cannot hold his hands. The churches in Ger
many, Bohemia, &c. had the gospel first, and so the cup of tri
bulation first; but God will visit them in their order; and those
perhaps last, that have had the gospel but a little while. 3dly,
God is wont to rise higher and higher in his judgments : He
began in the empire with civil wars ; and they not working, he
sent famine which is worse ; and then war, as in Lam. iv. 9 ;
and then he came upon them with pestilence and all the other
three at once; which agrees with Lev. xxvi. 21 : so the three
last are the woe-trumpets ; and so in the vials, God will also rise
higher and higher. 4thly, All plagues have their commission
from God, and go forth only when Christ opens a vial : Ot the
second, it is said, " Power was given him and a sword :" A com
mission of restraint was given to the third, " not to hurt the oil and
wine ;" and to the fourth, " only to kill the fourth part:" as horses
guided by their riders. Providence chalks out the way for them ;
as a path was made for God's anger, into what houses of the
Egyptians it should enter, Ps. Ixxviii. 50 : so in Jer. xv. 2,
" Those that are for the sword, to the sword," &c. Now in all
these circuits in the way of God's judgment, let us wait for him
to turn towards us in mercy, Isa. xxvi. 8. 5thly, Though plagues
were ever common in the world, yet these were more eminently
to be set down ; for being as eminent in the Roman empire in
those first ages, as in any other afterwards, yet these were all the
plagues it had whilst Heathenish, and so were properly punish
ments of Gentilism, and of contempt of the message of the white

•2 Q 2

580 THE FIFTH SEAL. [REV. VI. 9 — 11.

horse, without at all ruining the empire, as the after-plagues did.
But the Holy Ghost more especially names these plagues here
as visitations consequent upon the gospel ; whence the Heathen
observed and objected, "That since Christianity began, wars,
&c. raged more than ever, through the indignation of their affront
ed gods :" This calumny stirred up Cyprian to write his apology ;
which he did in the very language of the fourth seal, under which
he lived. But though the eyes of the Heathen were sealed from
seeing the up-lifted hand of God against them in these sealed
plagues, yet the four beasts instructed John, (who personates the
church,) concerning the true cause of them ; and therefore every
seal hath a voice of one or other of the beasts, saying " Come
and see :" for the officers or ministers of the churches instructed
the people, how that all these plagues were for despising the
gospel, and for persecuting its professors.

THE FIFTH SEAL, v. 9 — 11, Is that bloody persecution which
followed after all these plagues in the time of Dioclesian,
about A.D. 300, which being the greatest of the ten persecutions,
(for under it suffered a hundred and forty four thousand in one
province only of the empire,) is put for all the rest; for those
other plagues, for the contempt of the gospel, did but enrage the
Heathen the more, who imputed these to the anger of then-
gods, for suffering the Christians to live : and this being the last
and greatest, calls for vengeance in the name of all the foregoing
martyrs. This vision is, First, Of souls severed from their bodies,
even of men slain, or of martyrs ; who, Secondly, Are presented
as newly sacrificed, and with their throats cut, lying bleeding at
the foot of the altar of burnt-offering, (see in 2 Tim. iv. 6 ; and
Phil. ii. 17,) as in c. viii. these " prayers of all saints" are offered
up upon the altar of incense. Some understand this altar to be
heaven ; but that comes in after, when " White robes were given
1o every one of them.'1'' Thirdly, " The souls of these that were
slain for the word of God. ivere under the altar crying aloud,
How long, O Lord, dost thou not avenge our blood ?" It is not
simply the blood that cries, (as Abel's did,) but the souls do cry
for vengeance and ruin upon the empire ; and this their cry is
doubly satisfied; For, A reason is given why vengeance is delayed;
because the empire having to stand yet in power for a season,
they were " to rest a little while, until their fellow-servants also,
and their brethren that should be killed as they were, should be
fulfilled :" so that here it refers not to the persecutions of the
Popish Antichrist, (which were a thousand years after,) but the
Arian; when under these emperors, about thirty years after this,
there were raised as cruel persecutions for the time, as ever were
before ; and then the trumpets sound, and the empire itself is
ruined through their prayers, as c. viii. And also, They are
meanwhile received to glory, expressed by their white robes,
1st, As a sign or badge of heavenly glory ; c. hi. 4, and Matt.

REV. VI. 9 — 11.] OBSERVATIONS ON THE FIFTH SEAL. 581

xvii. 2 ; 2dly, To denote joy ; such robes being worn in triumphs,
Eccl. ix. 8 : 3dly, Robes were worn only by noble personages.
Now this giving them white robes, is an allusion to the first
bringing of the priests into the temple, when their thirty years
were expired.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE FIFTH SEAL. 1st, It is God's manner
to bring severest trials just before deliverance; as the above was
the last and greatest of all persecutions : so it was with David at
Ziklag a few hours before he was proclaimed king : so in c. xi.
is a persecution and war of Antichrist yet to come, for the space
of three years and a half; after which, the witnesses shall cast off
their sackcloth for ever : I fear it, for it is the last. 2dly, Though
great punishments had befallen the empire by the three preceding
horses ; yet for martyrs' blood, this is not vengeance enough,
which nothing will satisfy but the ruin of that bloody state ; as
nothing pacified Manasseh's blood-shed but the captivity of
Judah. 3dly, In matters wherein many ages have an interest,
the saints in each preceding age put up their prayers in the
strength of all prayers and cries of blood preceding : so the souls
here in the name of all preceding martyrs, cry, " How long" &c. !
As in a generation of wicked men, the last of them inherit the
sins and punishments of all their forefathers ; so do a generation
of godly men go forth in the strength of all their fore-fathers'
prayers and blood-shed. How comfortably, therefore, may we
pray against Rome, and all the bishops, her abettors, who have
even wallowed in the blood of saints, and against whom we
have the prayers of all ages, to join their forces to ours for their
more sure prevailing ; while we pull together in our cry, " How
long" &c. ! like the linking of many cords with such artifice, that
by a pully even a child might draw up a mighty weight, for he
pulls in the strength of all the cords. It is but a little resting,
till our brethien, (it may be ourselves,) the witnesses, are killed ;
and then down goes Rome, and the hierarchy with it : in which
respect it is good living in these last ages of the world, for we
drive a trade with all our fore-fathers' stock. 4thly, The power
of persecutors stands no longer than till they have finished the
great work of persecuting the saints ; which is the reason here
given for the empire's standing so long : " Thou hast ordained
them for judgment, (on themselves,) and established them for
correction," (of thine,) Hab. i. 12. 5thly, The soul is here said
to cry for vengeance, and not (as when the wicked are murdered,)
the Hood only; God will, therefore, speedily avenge his own
elect, whose cry enters his ears with so much clamour. And
again, If Abel's blood hath such force in its cry, and his living
soul a still greater force ; how much more Christ's blood, and
still more Christ himself, who lives to intercede for us ! Cthly,
The souls in heaven, following their interests on earth, prosecute
the revenging of their blood ; and why not also the interests of

582 THE SIXTH SEAL. [REV. VI. 12 — 17.

their friends, children, businesses and the like ; for which they
prayed on earth ? 7thly, The spirits made perfect know, and are
satisfied with the reason of God's dispensations and councils :
(as here God opens his utmost reason why the empire was as yet
to stand, viz. for the slaughter of a few more martyrs :) for being
prophets, as well as priests, they are guided by a spirit of
prophecy, as Christ is. Sthly, If we knew the reason of all
dispensations, we should rest, as these souls do in this standing
yet of the empire. Let our faith apprehend that God hath a
reason for all our persecutions. 9thly, Saints yet unborn are here
called " their brethren," as in God's election ; (for this persecution
came not till forty years after ;) as Christ calls all his people, whom
God gave him before the world was ; and Jesus knows the names
and the number of his own in all ages, and chose not qualifications
but persons ; as he saith, " I have sheep which are not of this
fold :" Let us then love the Jews, as those who arc to be called ;
and the saints departed, as those who are our brethren. lOthly,
Martyrdom is a perfection, as Christ calls his sufferings, Luke xiii.
32 ; so here," till they are fulfilled" PLEEROOSONTAI: if we have all
holiness, without this coronis, we are not so perfect as martyrs,
llthly, Saints departed presently enter into bliss ; they sleep not,
but have " while robes given them? as the priests had at their
introduction into the temple ; and their robes of glory are new,
as given them afresh ; their souls are clothed with glory, till they
meet their bodies again, as rich robes reaching from head to
foot ; they are all over happy and glorious. 12thly, Those in
bliss reckon us fellow-servants and brethren, though we be sinful ;
and they hold a communion with us : let us do the like towards
our weakest brethren, between whom and ourselves, there is far
less distance for holiness, &c. 13thly, The saints are reckoned
martyrs, "for the word of God, and for the testimony which
they hold;" and therefore for the least truth of that word. 14thly,
God may defer his answer to prayer ; for he puts even those in
heaven upon staying a while ; yet he will recompense this demur
some other way, satisfying us by other blessings ; as he gave
those saints white robes of glory.

THE SIXTH SEAL, v. 12 — 17, Expresseth the final accomplish
ment of " the wrath of the Lamb? in throwing down the
Heathenism of the empire, and in confounding its idol-worship,
(as the former seals contained several punishments on the empire
itself,) "for the great day of his wrath is come ;" which some
interpret of the day of judgment, certain phrases also being used
concerning it, as in Matt. xxiv. 19 : but John was now come
only to the tenth and last persecution, about A.D. 300 ; and also
after this, the seventh seal is to be opened, producing seven
trumpets of new punishments in succession upon the empire :
and as for the phrases here used, they frequently express great
mutations and overturnings in kingdoms, and calamities therein ;

REV. VI. 12 — 17.] THE SIXTH SEAL. 583

as in Joel ii. 10, 11 ; Isa. xxxiv. 4; ii. 19 ; Hosea x. 8: These
passages speaking of the overthrow of kingdoms by wars, therefore
Mr. Forbes would have this seal to be the utter overturning of
the western empire itself by the Goths and Vandals, about
A.D. 400, and not of its Paganism : But, 1st, The first seal,
v. 2, 3, beginning only with the conquest of Paganism, (for the
gospel at first attacked nothing else,) this sixth seal accomplishes
the victory ; and so Christ's first step or degree of conquest in
order to the kingdom, is fully presented in this chapter, with his
first full victory over the first enemy he encountered in the world,
even Satan and his false worship ; and so this book still goes on
to shew, That when he begins, he makes an end of despatching
such enemies first, as he first encounters : thus Heathenism was
first met by the gospel ; then by plagues ; and finally as one
growing angry, Christ completes the victory by power and might,
md by a violent concussion and shaking of the state. Thus
.laving despatched this enemy, and made clear work of it, (as
conquerors do,) he falls on the empire itself in the trumpets :
therefore tiie last act of this tragedy is represented under metaphors
suited to the judgment-day, when he shall triumph for ever over
all enemies. 2dly, The trumpets that come after, are reserved
for the ruin of the empire itself; and the vials, for the overthrow
of Popeiy and Mahometanism : thus, 3dly} The parts of this
prophecy run on similarly, and things alike are put together in
distinct visions ; for here are three sorts of enemies, and three
sorts of plagues to ruin them : The six seals are the beginning of
sorrows to the world, and they fall on Satan's false worship,
which stood in Christ's way : The six trumpets fall on the empire
itself, for its persecutions of the church : The six vials, (called the
last plagues, chap, xvi.) fall on the Popish and Mahometan
factions. 4thly, Chap. xii. which hath the story of the primi
tive church, as this hath of Rome Pagan, doth wonderfully agree
with this chapter, describing the same space of time, and the
same conquests over Satan in the imperial heaven ; only here,
(as belonging to the seal-prophecy,) are set forth the calamities and
confusion of the kings or emperors, and chieftains of Heathen
worshippers, who sought to uphold idolatry still ; and then, (as
belonging to the book-prophecy,) is described only the dragon's
confusion, in being thrown down ; that being the story of the
church, and this of the empire, more eminently. Under these
phrases and metaphors, two things are distinctly set out :
First, By the sun, moon, and stars, being darkened, (according
to the analogy of the prophets,) is expressed the deposing of those
Heathenish emperors and governors in the lioman state, as striving
to keep up Heathenism ; and with these fell also Satan and his
worshippers: for though the state stood still, yet its Paganism, and
those governors, were removed, and destroyed, and thrown down
from their ftcarcn, (the superior government of that stale,) by

584 THE SIXTH SEAL. [REV. VI. 12 — 17.

Christ's inflicting madness and diseases on its emperors, Dioclesian
and Maximinian, who resigned their government in the meridian
of their glory, (to the wonderment of the world,) from a sense
of " the wrath of the Lamb :" and afterwards the emperors
Maxentius and Maximinus were overcome by Licinus, who
favoured the Christians, and was colleague with Constantino;
but on Licinus' revolt again to the idolatries of Rome, Constan-
tine subdued him and his chieftains, (for Heathenism went not
down without blows,) and after deposing all the persecutors, he
turned the whole state to Christian : Such a subversion of state-
goveraors and their armies, (as well as of the state itself,) the
prophets express by " darkening the sun, moon, and stars: " so
Isa. xiii. 10 ; xiv. 12, 13, signifies the king, queen, and nobles
of Babylon, all deposed from their high stations ; the monarch
himself being the sun and the lucifer-star ; whose heaven was
cast down, and it "fell to the earth" Now v. 15, may express
the same thing, expounding it literally of " the kings of the
earth" or Roman emperors ; those suns of this firmament, who
were stepped off from their glory ; the stars of their nobility,
those " great men and rich men" being also deposed ; and their
mountains, (Isa. ii. 14,) or " chief captains and mighty men"
removed. Now the rest of the trumpet and vial-prophecy
proceeds also with plagues on the sun, moon, and stars ; the earth
and trees ; and therefore one literal explanation to serve for all,
is here first mentioned, that we may learn to interpret by the
Holy Ghost's own analogy : Every state or kingdom being a world,
the superior part of the same is its heavens, with the sun above all,
then its moon, stars, &c. the inferior parts being the earth,
with its sea, rivers, trees, &c. Judgments on this "world" are
therefore pronounced like as in Hag. ii. 21, 22, wrhich there
expresses the change of the state itself and all places of rank
therein ; but sometimes, only the deposing of their proprietors is
meant thereby, the places and dignities standing still. Thus
under the trumpets, the casting down of the sun, stars, &c. means
abstractly, an altering the very state, power, and dignity of
the empire, together with a deposing of the persons ; but here
concretely, the persons only in power are meant, their places re
maining for others to fill. Secondly, These expressions hold
forth, not simply an overthrow of stations or station-holders by
political mutations, but changes of religion in a state : for as
bodies politic, so religious bodies are compared to a world ; thus
Christ in Ps. viii. 3, hath his world, whose heavens have their
moon and stars, &c. (where the. sun is not mentioned, because it
is Christ himself,) as interpreted in Heb. ii. 5, 6 : so Rom. x. 18,
interprets Ps. xix. 1,4: and in chap. xii. J, the apostles' minis
try is compared to twelve stars with which the primitive church
was crowned : and so in Heb. xii. 27, " the heavens" partly
mean gospel ordinances, that frame of worship which Christ

REV. VI. 12 — 17.] THE SIXTH SEAL. 585

hath erected ; (as the legal worship is there " the earth ;") though
in Dan. viii. 10, 11, the temple-worship, with its priests and
elders, is so called ; which Antiochus caused to cease, so as to
magnify himself even against the Sun of righteousness, who is
" the prince of the heavenly host :" So Antichrist hath his Po
pish world too : so Satan hath his Pagan world, where devil wor
ship and idolatry are practised ; whence the Heathen gods are
called " the host of heaven," in Deut. xvii. 3 ; not only because
the sun, moon, and stars, were immediately worshipped, but
because Greece and Rome called the stars by the names of their
gods and goddesses ; of their heroes, heroines, and demi-gods :
hence Apollo and the sun, Phoebe and the moon, (or " the great
goddess Diana,") being worshipped together, and under them
Satan himself and his devil-angels, as in 1 Cor. x. 20 ; from this
his heaven Christ saw Satan fall like lightning, (Luke x. 18 ;) which
overthrow began by the apostles' casting out devils, and was ful
filled in c. xii. by the subversion of idolatry in the empire, that
" shaking of the heavens and earth," here set forth by " the
great earthquake" (the only proper word we have to express
such a convulsion of nature ;) as Hag. ii. 7, expresses the change
from Jewish to gospel-worship ; and as there will be another
shaking, " not of the earth only but of the heaven also," even
of the present variegated outward gospel-worship to be yet suc
ceeded by that apostolic simplicity, which shall again be revived
and continue for a thousand years ; after all false religions shall
be trodden down, (in which Satan is the prince of this host of
heaven,) by the sun of this firmament, whose stars, (or devils of
demi-gods,) fall therefore, as he is put out. Again, as the moon
is Christ's church and the queen of heaven ; so the college of
Pagan priests then in Rome, (as the Pope and cardinals are
now,) were the moon in his heaven, as instruments of devil-wor
ship ; and so his consecrated places, his "islands and mountains"
were displaced, and diverted from the use they were once put to
under Paganism. Thus this change of the Heathen religion,
(the extirpation of which took about a century from Constanine's
time,) is here set forth by two things distinctly and apart laid
down: 1st, The subversion of the religion of Rome Pagan, signi
fied, 1, By an eclipse of " the sun, which became black as sack
cloth of hair ;" and of " the moon, which became as blood:" the
glory of their gods, and the priests of the same being darkened.
2, By " the stars of heaven which fell unto the earth, even as a
Jig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty
wind :" shewing that Pagan men's hearts were not loosened of
themselves at first, but forcibly shaken to a dislike of that reli
gion. 3, By the vanishing of the whole " heaven " of his wor
ship, " as a scroll when it is rolled together :" (for the Jews
wrote on rolls of parchment, or vellum, which being folded up
they call Folumen, or volume :) importing that as thus every letter

586 THE SIXTH SEAL. [REV. VI. 12—17.

is hid, so the names of these gods and their worship have dis
appeared for more than a thousand years, being as a book un
opened and not in use. 2dly, This change is represented, by the
confusion of such upholders of that ethnic worship as were the
Atlases that supported these heavens, opposing Constantine and
other emperors in their introduction of the Christian religion :
for the devil leaves not the hearts possessed by him, without the
blows of one stronger than he : so he left not his station in the
empire without resistance, egging on imperial kings and generals,
and the populace, to unite in support of the old religion : but the
Lamb encounters these and confounds them in his wrath. The
very names given to the Romans in their several ranks, are here
used of " The kings of the earth" (for the Greek has no other
word than BASILEIS, which is the word for Roman emperors in
1 Pet. ii. 13, and 1 Tim. ii. 2,) who were the monarchy ; " The
great men " (called " their great ones," and connected with
kings and rulers, in Mark x. 42, Luke xxii. 25,) were the aris
tocracy ; " The chief captains" over legions of seven thousand
men each, (called CHILIARCHOI ; as centurions, or HECATONTAR-
CHOI, were captains of hundreds,} were the military ; " The rich
men and the mighty men " may be the gentry ; while " Every
bondman and every freeman" may designate the commonalty, or
plebeian community, the populace in general and lower rank.
Now, the confusion of these is expressed, 1, By their overthrow ;
they fled for shame and disappointment, and " hid themselves in
dens, and in the rocks of the mountains" as in Isa. ii. 10. 2, By
their despair of help, intimated in their saying " to the mountains
and rocks, Fall on us and hide us:" The language is taken from
the Jews, (whose country abounds with rocks,) as in Luke xxiii.
30, Hos. x. 8; the Jews,, when Rome destroyed Judah and Jeru
salem, wishing to be crushed to death by the falling in of the
rocks, into whose caves they fled for hiding, rather than to live
and see the miseries that were come upon them ; which other
people express by wishing the earth to swallow them up. 3, The
phrases import, that all this is done with a sense and conviction
in these enemies' hearts, of Christ's power whom they had derided
and anathematized, though now their conqueror and the world's
king ; and therefore they cry for a hiding-place "from the face of
him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of
the Lamb, for (add they) the great day of his wrath is come, and
who shall be able to stand?" or abide it, as Joel ii. 11. Now
the story of the times of the empire's conversion from Ethnicism
to Christianity, presented such a face of things as doth this seal ;
for Dioclesian and Maximinian, (the greatest persecutors the
church ever had,) in the height and ruff of their imperial glory
and rage, abdicated so unreasonably, that Historians could im
pute only to insanity, what they did " to hide themselves from
the face of the Lamb." Gallerius, Miximinus, and Constantius,

REV. VI. 12 — 17.] OBSERVATIONS ON THE SIXTH SEAL. 587

(father of Constantine,) succeeded. Maximinus, persecuting the
Christians, was smitten with a strange disease ; and under con
viction of Christ's being king, recalled his edicts of persecution,
afterwards putting them forth again, like Pharaoh, till at least he
died miserably, acknowledging " the wrath of the Lamb." Max-
entius was then set up to defend the Heathen cause ; but being
overcome by Licinius, he threw away his imperial robes, and
fled, and lay hid for the safeguard of his life, and acknowledged
Christ by a decree : his flesh was eaten of worms. Then Licin
ius opposing his co-regnant, Constantine, was overcome by him ;
and being condemned with his accomplices, at the place of exe
cution, he acknowledged Christ to be God. Afterwards the
apostate Julian attempting to re-establish Heathenism, being
shot in his wars against Persia, flung his own blood and bowels
into the air, saying, Thou has conquered, O Galilean !

OBSERVATIONS ON THE SIXTH SEAL. — 1st, When we see any
notable overthrow of Christ's enemies, let our hearts be raised up
to think of the day of judgment, which is described by similar
language, as in Ps. xviii. and elsewhere: particular judgments
strengthen our faith in that of the great day ; and the general
judgment to come assures us that Christ will now avenge his own
elect, and be here avenged on his own enemies. Christ hath
many great days before that great day ; and wicked men and
wicked causes have days of judgment here. 2ndly, How easy it
is for the Lamb of God to alter the religion of a kingdom, and to
make his new one prevail ! In a few years the whole Roman
empire was turned Christian, even when Gentilism was rooted in
all men's minds, and Satan's throne apparently fixed for con
tinuance ; but Christ got possession of the emperor's heart, and
" turned the kingdom about," (1 Kings ii. 15,) and that, when
men of themselves were not turned, but were as figs not fully ripe,
yet shaken off by the wind ; and he folded up the heavens as a
scroll, not a constellation of all these false deities having shined
in the world these many hundred years : so will he do to Popery,
which being the image of the heathen empire and religion, shall
bear the like punishment. As there was a mighty change wrought
in the hearts of kings and princes, upon the first reformation ; so
before Rome is destroyed, God will put it into their hearts a second
time to ruin her utterly. 3rdly, Christ will not only confound his
proud enemies, but make them acknowledge his truth, as he did
Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus, &c. and as the false church and syna
gogue of Satan come and acknowledge, that God hath loved the
Philadelphian church, Rev. iii. 9 : " They shall know that I am the
Lord," is the fruit of men's punishments ; for not only " every knee
shall bow," but " every tongue shall confess to his name." It is
ill standing out with Christ in any thing, or against convictions
of any kind ; for men shall render his victory in their punishments
more complete by their own confessions ; in dispensing which

588 OBSERVATIONS ON THE SIXTH SEAL. [REV. VI. 12 — 17.

punishments, 4thly, He meets persecutors in their kind ; they
caused the primitive Christians to flee into caves and dens and
to worship the Lamb in corners ; and he with open face drives
them into corners to hide their heads. Sthly, What a long and
glorious time the god of this world had, when devils were spe
cially esteemed and worshipped as true gods, for three hundred
years,andmore generally for some thousands of years; and, though
reserved in chains for hell, as the immortal possessors of heaven,
having their seat above the stars, and all the world for their
devotees ! What is it then to have a great name ; or even the best
of names, the name of saint; if only for awhile here ? 6thly, No
wonder the wicked prosper so long, seeing the devil encountered
no stop in his way for so many thousand years, wherein he had
all nations for his inheritance ; and God was worshipped but in one
poor corner of the earth, while Satan possessed the heavens, as the
sun in the firmament ; and his priests, as the perpetual ordinances
of the moon and stars. Let us not think much of the continuance
of Popery for twelve hundred years ; Heathenism stood for longer;
and Christ will make quicker work in the last days than in the
past days. 7thly, Men have all such sweet thoughts of Christ, as
if he had no anger in him : but the meek lamb is also a furious
lion ; and " when his wrath is kindled but a little, blessed are all
they that put their trust in him," Ps. ii. 12. Sthly, God punisheth
idolaters and idols together, as he removed Rome's emperor and
her religion and gods together, (see Tsa. ii. 17 — 19 ; Num. xxxiii.
4; Jer. xliii. 11 — 13; 1. 2;) so God punished monks, pulling
down their monasteries and idols together ; and so superstitious
ceremonies and will-worshippers will down together. 9thly, How
fearful and terrible will be the day of judgment, when Christ shall
come as the Lion of Judah; if now reigning in the meekness and
patience of the Lamb, he brings forth such confounding judg
ments! all terrors men suffer here are but " the wrath of the lamb,"
compared to the roaring of the lion at that great day. " Now
consider this, O ye that foi'get God, lest I tear you in pieces and
there be none to deliver." Ps. 1. 22.

THE SEVENTH CHAPTER.

GOD, to shew his care of his people, in this chapter seals twelve
thousand out of each of the twelve tribes, before the trumpets
blow, in the several ages, and on the several parts of the world,
(named in the two following chapters, to which I refer the reader,)
whence the sealed were chosen ; who are called in v. 3, " the
servants of God" being true believers, and who in the language
and types of the Old Testament are called Jews, as all Christians
are " the Israel of God," Gal. vi. 16 ; even as false idolatrous
Christians are called Gentiles in c. xi. 2, " who say they are
Jews, (profess themselves Christians,) and are not, but do lie,"

REV. VIT.] THE SEVENTH CHAPTER. 589

c. iii. 9. These who are numbered by thousands, (in allusion to
the " thousands of Israel," and to the sealing of the mourners in
Ezek. ix.) are preserved by a miracle, in the midst of all the
Mahometan tyranny under Turks and Saracens in the eastern
part of the world ; (so seven thousand were preserved under Ahab's
tyranny, who bended not before Baal ;) as the hundred and forty-
four thousand were preserved under the like Antichristian tyranny
in the west, as will appear in the book-prophecy in c. xiv. only
here they are numbered by twelve times twelve thousand, to shew
their more scattered and divided condition, happily alluding
either to James i. 1 , or to the twelve tribes as living apart in several
quarters of the land of Judah, and not assembled at Jerusalem in
the temple : so likewise these, dwelling scattered in the several
nations to be overcome by the trumpets, and not assembled in
public worship or churches, but remaining single, are mentionedby
a set number, to shew that they who shall thus be acceptable to
God shall be few, in comparison of that innumerable company to
grow out of them in v. 9 ; and their number being multiplied by
twelve, (as their root,) and by a thousand, (as a long number
extending much further than in breadth,) shews that John speaks
not of Christians amounting to such a number in one age, but
through many ages continuing : and their being multiplied by
twelve shews their breed and kind to be from the apostles, and of
the apostolic faith, (which in c. xxi. 14, is made the mystery of
this number, "And the wall of the city had twelve foundations,
and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb ;") and
they are presented in one uniform state during all that time, even
unto the new Jerusalem, of which because these and their succes
sors are to be made partakers, those promises of the new Jerusa
lem, and the representation of it, comes in from v. 9, to the end.
But those in c. xiv. do not remain till the new Jerusalem, in that
dark and loose condition, upon mount Zion ; but do break forth
long before into a separation from Antichrist, and set up glorious
temples, filled visibly with the presence of God, as with smoke, out of
which come the vials ; whereas these continue in one uniform state
until the very approach of the new Jerusalem, when they come
out afresh from under a sore and long bondage of " great tribula
tion" having been more scattered and divided, and spread here
and there, as in several tribes : but those in c. xiv. are summed up
together, (yet both alike in number and fewness, and in ages of
darkness and desolation,) and grow up long before to a glorious
light, and then outgrow that number. Now John enquires, Who
are these hundred and forty-four thousand predecessors of the
" innumerable company," that shall together with the Jews, possess
the new Jerusalem ? and one of the twenty-four elders would
have him specially note it, as one of the wonders of this book,
strange beyond all thought, that the names of such scattered my
riads should be found among the denizens of the new Jerusalem :

590 THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR THOUSAND [REV. VII.

" What are these and whence came they ? even a company of
poor elect believers, called the Grecian churches, dispersed over
the now Turkish dominion of the once eastern empire : And that
the Holy Ghost designates these, appears in that, First, Their
sealing here is for their preservation from hurt, (as in v. 3, " Hurt
not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed
the servants of our God in their foreheads") by the four winds let
loose, (as in v. 1, " After these things I saw four angels standing
on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the
earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the
sea, nor on any tree,n) meaning the desolations of wars, (as in Jer.
xlix. 36 ;) which winds are the blasts of the trumpets, (c. viii. ix.)
to prevent the hurt of which the servants of God are sealed afore-
hand ; which sealing has chief respect to the times of the chief
plagues, and therefore to the fifth and sixth woe-trumpets mentioned
c. viii. 13, in respect of which the four first were gentle : but these
two being the over-runnings of the Saracen and Mahometan
nations, were the greatest plague of war and bondage that ever
befel the Christian world, being more than five times the two
hundred years' duration of the other four. The wars of the Goths
indeed rather relieved the church against the flood of Arian per
secutors, (as in c. xii. 16,) however it brake and harrowed the
empire ; and after ruining all the cities of Thrace, Macedon,
Thessaly, and Greece, (except Athens and Thebes,) for five years,
they fell on the west ; even as some of the winds of the four first
trumpets devastated also some of the eastern parts: wherefore the
sealing hath a respect ten-fold to the eastern Christians. Secondly,
Besides the above reason for this, the Holy Ghost hath declared
that the preservation from the hurt of these Mahometan invasions,
was the aim of this previous sealing ; and therefore the souls of the
sealed ones of the east were alone in danger of apostacy, through
the tyranny of the trumpets. In c. ix. 4, when these Saracen-
locusts, under their ring-leader Mahomet, were first set loose, and
had their commission, then comes in this clause of exception,
" That they should hurt only those men that were not sealed,"
which privilege of sealing, then and there only mentioned, argues
the chief intent and accomplishment of their sealing to have
taken place under the blasts of these locusts, though in the vision
it comes in here beforehand ; yet the Holy Ghost, as by a margi
nal hand, points at the real execution of it in c. ix. under the
fifth and sixth woe-trumpets. Now though the western church
was preserved from all pest by these incursions, the Mahometans
being restrained from breaking in on the ten kingdoms, yet they
are not here meant ; For, Not only doth the mystery of sealing
note the singling out and marking of some here and there from
the crowd ; as the door-posts of the Israelites were marked ; and
as a man marks his sheep, put among other droves ; and as the
mourners in Ezek. ix. 4, were thus distinguished from other cap-

REV. VII. J SEALED. 591

lives : else all the kingdoms of the west should have been said to
be sealed; whereas the souls here, were preserved faithful to Christ
in spite of all Mahometan seducements and bondage : But also
being partakers of the new Jerusalem, these are said "to come out
of great tribulation" endured through the Mahometan incur
sions ; from the hurt of which dangerous locusts they were pre
served, though not exclusively of the western Antichrist: Besides,
the character in the text carries it to these eastern Christians ; for
the sealing-angel, (v. 2,) ascends from the east; and also the
sealed are represented as but a few to be numbered in many ages,
even to the new Jerusalem times, and as the dispersion of the
twelve tribes, and as under the darkness of tribulation from the
primitive times : but those in c. xiv. have light and victory in
the midst, while the eastern churches have remained forlorn, and
corrupt, and superstitious, with but few holy among them, and
under the Mahometan yoke, one half of them for more than a
thousand years, and the other half for more than two hundred
years ; and they are still under the Turk, with but little ease from
misery, or restoration to light and beauty ; yet Christ hath had
among them his sects of Grecian and Armenian Christians, &c.
preserving the knowledge and profession of his name, and of
more truth than is found in the dark times of the Romish church :
Now this tyranny being to continue till the new Jerusalem, (for
the Turk is to be overthrown to make way for the Jews, under
the sixth seal,) accords with the paucity and tribulation of the
eastern saints, until such their first and fresh coming out of so
great tribulations : And the wonder excited at this gracious deal
ing with a people so forgotten of all Christians, further confirms
it : for the western churches, that have borne the heat of Antichris-
tian persecution, and have overcome Antichrist, (and they shall in
the end perfect their victory,) and have set up temples increasing in
light and glory, may well attain to the new Jerusalem ; for which
marriage of the Lamb we find them preparing, (c. xix.) after the
ruin of the whore : but who would have thought that these Greek
Christians should be God's Ephraims, his pleasant children,
Jer. xxxi. 20 ;! " O the depth," &c. -Rom. xi. 33. Therefore one
of the elders draws John's attention to this above all, " These are
they who come out of great tribulation" such as was none ever
like it: Again, God is wont to choose out of such low estate, that he
may therefore (v. 15) exalt them, and set all the world a wonder
ing at his acts of grace and mercy : and they, as well as ourselves,
having borne the heat of the dav, are entitled to their penny also :
and being seated in where the Turk's seat is, (whose overthrow
opens a way to the Jews' restoration to their own land, as "kings of
the east," c. xvi. 12, in the midst of those eastern nations,) is it not
probable they shall be thus delivered, on the ruin of the Turk ?
and if Gentiles partake of their privileges, those Christians who
have been oppressed by this their common enemy, and who dwell

592 THE FIRST SIX TRUMPETS. [REV. VIII.

in countries hear, and about the land of the Jews, (especially if
their land should be made the chief seat of this fifth monarchy,)
are likely to partake most of its benefit to walk in the light of
it, as the prophets have foretold. Thirdly , Where are the Grecian
churches named if not here ? The book-prophecy is taken up with,
the state of the western churches, opposing Antichrist, c.xiv. — xix.
they being to ruin him, and retaining the knowledge of Christ,
and the shew of themselves in the greatest power and purity ; and
therefore the Revelation speaks most of them : and are not the
Armenian and Grecian churches, amounting to as many as do the
professors of Europe^ notwithstanding the Mahometan incursion,
most fitly here represented under the seal-prophecy ? hence we
read in all stories of these eastern parts, and hear also to this
day, of the continuance of true believers among them ; whose con
fession of faith, printed in English A.D. 1629, is set forth by
Cyril, (then patriarch of Constantinople,) and contains all the
fundamentals of our own confession : Let us read also Field " Of
the Church," book iii, chap* 1, 2, 3, and 5.

THE EIGHTH CHAPTER.

THE FIRST SIX TRUMPETS,

Out of the seven given to " the seven angels which stood before
God" (v. 2,) contain the several steps and degrees of ruining the
imperial government of the Roman empire, when turned Christian,
by several wars and incursions of barbarous nations, whereof
trumpets are suitably made the denouncers ; the Christian blood
spilt by the empire, when Pagan, being thus avenged ; as the
Babylonish captivity did break the Jewish state for the blood
shed by Manasseh in its idolatry ; though he and all Judah did
turn to the true worship of God again. Now according to the
division of the empire, east and west ; the Goths and Vandals
utterly shattered the government of the occidental emperors,
breaking it into ten kingdoms ; over which the Pope succeeded :
and next the oriental parts were overturned, first by the Saracens,
(Mahomet their head wresting out of the emperor's hands one
great part of the eastern empire, in Arabia, Egypt, and Assyria,
and subjecting it to Mahometanism ;) then by the Turks, propa
gating Mahometanism also, who subdued not only what the
Saracens before them had done, but also that other part of the
eastern empire, (remaining still Christian,,) in Natolia, and in
Greece ; over which the Greek emperors, successors of the
Roman,) continued ; till now wholly subjected, (together with
Constantinople the seat of their empire,) unto the Turks, the
sole possessors of the eastern empire : These trumpets are thus,
answerably, divided by the Holy Ghost: the first four, (containing
lesser evils and miseries,) are the wars of the Goths and Vandals

REV. VIII. 7 — 11.] THE FIRST THREE TRUMPETS. 593

in four several incursions, in this chapter : but the fifth and sixth
are among the three last woe-trumpets, (v. 13; c. ix. 12; xi. 14 ;)
and contain all those infinite calamities and embondagements,
brought on the east by the Saracen wars and conquest under the
fifth trumpet, and by the Turks under the sixth ; both longer and
greater than the four first. The promise therefore to the martyrs
under the fifth seal, (c. vi. 1 1,) is fulfilled in answer to their prayers
here (v. 3—5,) offered up by Christ ; the trumpet sounding for the
time of avenging their blood.

THE FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS, are chiefly on the western empire,
extended all over Europe ; which was performed by four steps or
degrees, falling severally on the earth, the sea, the rivers ; the sun,
moon, and stars, v. 7, 8, 10, 12 : 1st, The earth, with the grass and
trees therein, signifying the people in common, both richer and
poorer, as in Zech. xi. 2. 2dly, The sea, is the extent of the
jurisdiction of such an imperial world, (as in Jer. iv. 23,) over
several dominions; whence Rome is said to " sit on many
waters;" and "to arise out of the sea," or collection of many
waters or nations : so speak Jer. li. 36, 44, and Exek. xxxi. 4,
concerning the Babylonish and Assyrian monarchies. 3dly, The
rivers, are the several cities and provinces, with the lesser juris
dictions of their magistrates. 4thly, The sun, moon, and stars,
shew the glory of supreme magistrates, as in Isa. xiii. 10, Jer.
xv. 9. Now of these four trumpets, bringing their four degrees
of calamities on Rome and its empire, by the incursions from
the north, from A.D. 400, to A.D. 540,

THE FIRST TRUMPET, harrowed the earth ; wars first lighting
most heavily on the people ; but it proceeded to no further havoc
than " the burning of the trees and grass" v. 7 ; " The first
angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with
Hood, and they were cast upon the earth : and the third part
of trees were burnt up."

THE SECOND TRUMPET, fell on the sea ; the Goths by break
ing the imperial yoke from off the nations subject to it, affording
them opportunity to set up the European ten kingdoms, which
remain to this day ; beginning in France, A.D. 413; and by A.D.
450, they were all up. This rending of the kingdoms from the
empire, with the sacking of Rome itself by Allaricus, king of the
Goths, A.D. 410, is called, (v. 8,) " The burning of a great moun
tain," (as Babylon is called "a destroying and burning mountain,"
as overshadowing all cities, till sacked itself by Cyrus, Jer. li. 25 ;)
" And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great moun
tain burning with fire, was cast into the sea ; and the third part
of the sea became blood"

THE THIRD TRUMPET, produces the fall of a bright blazing
comet, or "great burning star;" or the extinction of emperors, A.D.
476, in Augustulus, (like that of the king of Babel, in Isa. xiv. 12,
" How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning !")

2 R

594 THE FOURTH TRUMPET. REV. IX. 1 — 3.

who, as a prince^ of bitterness and sorrows, is truly named " Worm
wood;" together with whom many provincial, cities and magistrates,
(called rivers anA fountains,) had their dignity removed: "And
the third angel souiided, and there fell a star from heaven,
burning as it were a lamp ; and it fell upon the third part of
the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters : and the name of
the star is called Wormwood ; and the third part of the waters
became wormwood, and many men died of the waters, because
they were made bitter? v. 10, 1].

THE FOURTH TRUMPET, totally deprives Rome, (now in the
hands of the Goths, and the seat of those kings, who though they
won it, still preserved the splendor of its senators, consuls, and
supreme magistrates ;) of all its ancient form of government, with
the glory and majesty of which it had shined for many centuries
ere the imperial power was placed over it ; which ancient
monarchy, (here called The sun, &c.) still continuing under the
emperors, was quite subverted in the last war, A.D. 542. Thus
the glory of the western empire and Rome had been utterly and
for ever extinguished, but for the Pope, (c. xni. under the book-
prophecy concerning the church,) who obtains a power, on a
different title, over the ten kingdoms ; and by building up a new
Rome, possesses the seat of the former beast, which is the
empire.

All the above four trumpets falling on, and making such alter
ations in the west, are but lesser evils compared with those other
two here which are. to fall on the eastern parts, yet standing
whole and entire under a profession of the Christian faith ; and
as standing longest, God reserved the same unto the severest
punishments, which are therefore thus prefaced, v. 13," Woe, woe,
woe, to the inhabitcrs of the earth, by reason of the voices of the
other trumpets which have yet to sound"

THE NINTH CHAPTER.

THE FIFTH TRUMPET, produces the falling of a star from
heaven, which opens the bottomless pit, and emits smoke as
from a furnace, darkening the sun and air, and letting out an innu
merable company of locusts, (v. 1 — 3,) which are thus described ;
" And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared
unto battle : and on their heads were as it were crowns like
gold ; and their faces were as the faces of men ; and they had
hair as the hair of women; and their teeth were as the teeth of
lions; and they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of
iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots
of many horses running to battle : and they had tails like unto
scorpions, and there were stings in their tails ; and their power
was to hurt men five months" v. 7 — 10 : These torment men so
that they " shall seek death (because of the calamity of those

IX. 14 — 16.] THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 595

times,) and shall not find it," (v. 4,£ ;) figuring out the introduction
of Mahometanism, that greatest imposture the world ever knew,
which darkens the sun and air, by quenching the light of Chris
tian profession, through the apostacy of that star, who opened
hell to bring forth that damned religion of his ; to whom num
berless of his country men- Arabians, (who were as locusts, Judg.
vii. 12,) did cleave, and set him up as king, for " They had a king
over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name
in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek hath his
name Apollyon" v. 11. These wrenched off from the eastern
empire, Arabia, Egypt, Assyria, Armenia, and much of Asia
Minor ; and extending their dominions further over Persia,
East India, and a great part of Africa and Spain, they almost
vied with the former western empire ; Mahomet extending his
dominions another way, besides possessing half of the eastern
empire : But these are bidden by God, " to hurt only those men
which have not the seal of God in their foreheads" (v. 4, see
c. vii. 3 ;) for there were some who remained Christians in that
part of the eastern empire. This kingdom began to be set up
A.D. 630, and continued many hundred years.

THE SIXTH TRUMPET is ordained to bring calamities on the
other part of the eastern empire, still standing under the succes
sors of the Roman monarchy, and professing Christianity in Asia
Minor, and Greece, (commonly called the empire of Greece ;) to
ruin which four angels were ready prepared with four several
armies of horsemen, amounting to two hundred millions, as in
v. 14 — 16, " Saying to the sixth angel which had the trum
pet, Loose the four angels, which are bound in the great river
Euphrates ; and the four angels were loosed, which were pre
pared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to
slay the third part of men : And the number of the army of the
horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand : and I heard
the number of them" These armies, with the angels their lead
ers, hovered for a long time under restraint about the borders of
Euphrates, whom the angel of this second woe-trumpet let loose
by God's command, like so many furies, to fall on the last remain
ing part of the eastern empire, and also to conquer those other
dominions, which the Saracens under the fifth trumpet had before
over-run. Now according to all the characters and foot-prints
in Turkish history, no prophecy can more exactly describe any
nation or event, than this of the Turks' irruption on the eastern
empire ; at whose first coming out of their native country, about
A.D. 1040, they seated themselves by the river Euphrates, and
were divided into the four several governments or kingdoms of
Iconium, Aleppo, Damascus, and Bagdat or Babylon : after two
centuries, about A.U. 1300, they over-run all Nalotia, (or Asia
Minor,) and uniting all into one kingdom under Ottoman, (the
fore-father of the present great Turk,) ceased not till they had

2 R "2

596 THE ANGEL WITH THE OPEN BOOK. [REV. X — XII.

won Constantinople itself, an^ all Greece ; which last relics of
the Roman empire they put down A.D. 1453 ; and thus they
possess the whole eastern empire unto this day : for the number
of the Turk being one year, one month, one day, and one hour,
(prophetically three hundred and ninety six years,) would not
thus be fulfilled, according to the latter date, until A.D. 1849. I
shall now proceed to a short view of

THE TENTH AND ELEVENTH CHAPTERS.

The seal-prophecy under the visions of these seals and trum
pets, having run over the stories all times, concerning the ruin of the
Roman empire, down even to us; (for the miseries of the sixth woe-
trumpet will last till near the time of the seventh's bringing in the
kingdom of Christ, c. xi. 14, 15; whose sounding makes an end of
this first seal-prophecy, and of all kingdoms and times;) The
mighty angel of the covenant descends from heaven, 1st, To give
the world and the church warning by an oath, that now time
should be no longer than the expiration of the Turk's dominion,
under the second woe : see c. x. 1, 6, 7, with xi. 14, 15. 2dly,
To give withal a new entire prophecy under a book open in his
hand, (the seals on it in c. v. being now removed, and the visions
of them past :) this book, containing another distinct prophecy,
John is bid to eat, (as in Ezek. ii. 8, 9,) that he might receive
and write the new prophecy, (as in c. x. 9, 11 1) beginning at
c. xii. after Christ had discoursed a while of the state and face
of his purest western churches in these last days, to which the
seal-prophecy had brought John, not many years before the in
troduction of his kingdom by the blast of the seventh trumpet;
and after he had also forewarned these churches of a great and
sore conflict they were to have with Antichrist, towards the end
of all ; out of which they should rise again : and then comes the
end of both the eastern and western Antichrist, the Turk and the
Pope, c. xi. 1, 2, 7 — 14. Then begins the new book-prophecy
c. xii. in new visions, containing the fates of the church in all
ages from Christ's time, as the seal-prophecy had done those of
the empire.

THE TWELFTH CHAPTER.

The state of the church hath two periods, The primitive times
including the first four centuries, and The times of Antichrist :
the former may be divided thus, The state of the church until
Constantino, the first Christian emperor ; and thence under the
Avian and other emperors : the latter thus, The state of the false
church, under the Pope its head; and that of the true church,
during the time of that Antichrist, under Christ its head. Now
as c. xiii. xiv. shew the state of the church since the rise of the

REV. XII. XIII.] THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON. 597

Pope, so this chapter shews its state since, (and that under the two
said eminent conditions,) 1st, Under Rome Pagan, until the con
version of the empire by Constantine, (v. 1 — 12,) represented by
a woman bringing forth a male child, (that is a Christian em
peror,) to rule all nations; wherein she is opposed by a dragon,
(the devil in the power of an Heathen emperor,) endeavouring to
devour her child. The vision and appearance of this woman
is such as to fit only the pure primitive state of the church ; for
though so weak a vessel, yet is she gloriously clothed with
the Sun of righteousness ; and being honored at her first rise
with the preaching of the twelve apostles, and holding forth the
light of their doctrine, she binds them on her head as a
crown of twelve stars ; and being above the world, and the rage
of Heathenish persecutions, and all things sublunary, (for " they
loved not their lives unto death," v. 1 1,) the moon is therefore
said to be under her feet. Amidst the pangs and throes of ten
sore persecutions, she labours with God night and day to bring
forth a succession of Christian emperors, who setting Christ to
rule in their throne, shall throw down Heathenism from the imper
ial state, so long subject to the rule of Satan's throne, and
therefore represented throughout the Revelation as a seven-head
ed and ten-horned dragon. But while the devil is visibly and
openly acting the empire, the church at length prevails to obtain,
through the help of Michael and his angels, (i. e. Christ and the
apostles, and preachers of their gospel,) his precipitating from the
throne, his heaven where he was worshipped as God. 2dly,
Is the state of the true church, (v. 13 — 17,) when the Roman world
was turned - Christian for the first century, after Constantine ;
which church was persecuted as much also by the heretical, as
she had been by the Heathen emperors ; besides being nearly
ruined by the multitude of carnal professors ; and from these she
hastes to flee into the wilderness of a hidden retired condition ;
and in her flight she hath a flood of Arian persecution sent after
her to drown her ; but the earth, (i. e. the Goths and Vandals,
under the first trumpet,) came in accidentally, and through
God's providence, helped her by breaking the Arian faction, and
thus swallowing up thejlood.

THE THIRTEENTH CHAPTER.

The state of the church, and her conflicts with Satan for the
first four hundred years, having been described in the preceding
chapter ; henceforward is set forth its state during the times of
Antichrist, wherein both his false church, and the tine church
under him, run along together. Now the description of this
western Antichrist, (the Pope and his Antichristian church,) in his
rise, power, greatness, and extensive dominions and adherents,
as set forth in the visions of tliis chapter, is afterwards inter-

598 ANTICHRIST, [REV. XIII.

preted and commented on by the Holy Ghost himself in the
seventeenth chapter : the opposite company, or adherents of the
true church, who have the La~mb for their head, being described
in the fourteenth chapter, in all those several states and conditions
they should run under, from the rise of the Papacy until those
very times wherein we live ; wherewith 1 take it, the visions of
that fourteenth chapter do end. Now Antichrist and his church,
is here exhibited under the vision of a two-fold beast, pointing
at the Pope, according to his double pretensions of power and
headship in the church ; viz. 1st, Temporal, which he claims
over all kings and kingdoms, to depose and excommunicate them
and their subjects at his pleasure ; and whereunto the ten kings
and kingdoms of Europe, (to which the western empire was
now by the Goths reduced,) with one consent, tacitly submitted
and resigned their power, as is interpreted in c. xvii. 12 — 17.
Thus the Pope, together with the body of these ten kingdoms,
joining into one under him as their head, is that first beast with
ten horns, described v. 1 — 8 ; which new beast is a true image
of the former Roman monarchy in the twelfth chapter, which
being wounded and slain in the deposition of the emperors, is
healed and restored to life again in this beast: and thus the
Roman monarchy comes still to continue, though under another
head, the Pope ; who, 2dly, Besides this temporal power received
from these ten kings, (thus together with him making up one
beast,) claims also a spiritual power, (and his clergy with him,) of
binding and loosing so as to pardon sins, and also to curse men
to hell ; which is peculiar to Christ alone : in this respect he and
the body of his false clergy with him, do make up another beast,
having two horns like a lamb, as exercising that spiritual
power of Christ ; for which they and he are properly called
Antichrist, whose description follows in v. 11 — 18; for being
head of two bodies, ecclesiastical and temporal, he is set forth
under the figure of two beasts. Now this spiritual beast, (the
Pope and his clergy,) is he who, by his lying doctrines, persuaded
the ten kings and their subjects to submit themselves in one body
under him as their head ; and he is said to make the image of
the first beast, or dragon, (mentioned in the twelfth chapter, viz.
the former Heathenish empire and its idolatrous religion,) which
is therefore said to live again ; for, Not only do these kingdoms
become one under the Pope, as their head ; being in their very
form of government, the image of the former empire, under one
emperor, (the Roman monarchy continuing, in this way, still ;) But
besides, this new beast is called " the image of the first beast,"
having like form of government and tyranny ; and also in that the
Pope and his clergy do mould the Christian religion, and its
worship, into a true likeness and conformity to the Heathenish
religion, whereunto the empire was before framed : for all the
Popish worship is but the translating of those ceremonies

REV. XIII.] THE TWO-FOLD BEAST. 599

wherewith the false gods were worshipped, (Jupiter, Apollo, &c.
who were cast down under the sixth seal,) into those religious
ceremonies in their worship, wherewith they so worship Christ
and his saints, that could any of the ancient Heathen Romans
come now into their assemblies, and behold their priests in white,
their processions, their sprinklings with holy water, their altars,
tapers, images of saints departed, and their worship of them, their
Pontifex Maximus, or great bishop and high-priest, &c. &c.
they would cry out and say, "This is just our old Roman
Paganism ; only Jupiter is turned into Christ, and the Priests
of the gods of old into Popish Bishops ; and our ancient deities,
Mars, Janus, ^Esculapius, &c. who were men departed, are
changed for saints departed : the life of our old religion remains
still, though there be a change of the gods worshipped." Thus
as Babel of old made an image, and put to death all that would
not fall down before it, (for hereunto is the allusion ;) so hath this
mystical Babylon set up an image of the old Heathenish religion
and worship ; and upon the like penalty she enjoins the adoration
of his image, and a conformity in worship to all the subjects of
these ten kingdoms.

Now the company who cleave to this beast, and who may
more or less be esteemed his followers, are distinguished into
three ranks of men in several degrees, (as Mr. Brightman hath
well observed on v. 16, 17,) more or less acknowledging him, or
cleaving to him, and to this his image and worship ; some
receiving his mark or character; others his name only; and
others again, the number of his name : but so, that those who
will not receive or submit to one of these, more or less, during
the allotted time of his reign, may not buy nor sell, that is,
cannot subsist or abide in these his allotted dominions. This
receiving of a mark, &c. is a similitude drawn from the old
Roman custom of printing on the forehead of servants, the names
of their masters ; and on the hands of soldiers, the names of their
emperors or generals : so all those, who belong unto this great
lord and his faction, do accordingly more or less receive that
whereby they may be known to be his : 1st, Some receive his
character; as all priests and religious persons do, whether Jesuits
or others, who are this Grand Seignieur's Janisaries, his sworn
soldiers and praetorian band : their doctrine is, That a man
entered into holy orders, doth by his ordination receive an
indelible character, a secret, invisible, stamp or impress, which
can never be rased out. 2dly, Others receive his name ; and
though not in orders under him, yet so cleave to him in his
worship, as openly to profess themselves his by appropriation of
his name : thus as he is called Papa and Pontifex, they name
themselves Papists and Ponlificii. But, 3dly, What is meant
by " The number of his name ?" this Mr. Brightman carries
rightly to a company, taking part witfc him by a more remote

600 THE NUMBER OF THE NAME [REV. XIII.

kind of subjection ; but not knowing well on whom to fasten it,
he brings in the poor Grecians, that are strangers to the Pope, and
out of the dominion of any of his ten kingdoms ; who, though
renouncing all acknowledgment of the Pope as their head, for many
hundred years, yet were at last,(through sleights, and the baseness
of one of their emperors, together with the conquest that the
Europeans made at Constantinople for a while,) so far subjected,
as to acknowledge him for their head, and to be called Latins,
(or of the profession of the Latin Church, by which name some
Popish Christians among the Greeks are still distinguished ;) so
receiving the number of his name, LATEINOS, ( Latinus,} the
numeral letters whereof make six hundred and sixty-six, the
number named in v. 18 : But though this forced subjection of the
Grecians, so remote, might be intended for those more ancient
times, yet I think that it is not only or principally meant : first,
Because these Grecian Christians are not inhabitants within the
jurisdiction of those ten kingdoms of Europe, the subjects
whereof are mainly intended by the inhabitants of the earth,
(v. 8, 14,) that should be the worshippers of, and cleavers to this
beast ; of and among whom must be found this " number of his
name," as well as those that receive " his name :" And, secondly,
Because some of the Christians in the west, (who assist the
pouring forth the vials,) are as well said to overcome the number
of his name, as others of them do his image, or his idolatrous
worship, or his character of lying priests, or the beast himself,
as in c. xv. 2. I take it therefore that this " number of his
name" must be found in Europe, in some of those ten kingdoms
where that company are that pour out the vials.

Now take the times of Popery before the Reformation, (when
Protestant kingdoms first began to cast off the Pope;) and none
were suffered to have any lax or inferior way of owning the
beast ; but all received his mark, or his name, as professed
Papists, going to mass, acknowledging the Pope, and worshipping
the image ; or they could not buy or sell, and live quietly as
others did. These therefore who receive " the number of his
name," must be some generation of men risen up since, within
some of those kingdoms that have renounced the Pope : for
within the Popish dominions, not only hath the Inquisition
suffered none to profess less ; but the most moderate Papists have
professed, at least, " the name of the beast," and therefore more
than " the number of the name." This " number of his name''
then seems to be a company, not proceeding so far as to receive
either his character or his name, by professing themselves either
priests of Rome, or Papists ; and yet arc they of " the number
of his name," holding and bringing in such doctrines and opin
ions, and such rites in worship, as shall make all men reckon, ac
count, or number them among Papists in heart and affection ;
and behaving themselves so as they are, and justly deserve to be

REV. XIII.] OF THE BEAST. 601

accounted and esteemed Papists, and to aim at Popery in the
judgment of all orthodox and reformed Protestant* : for though
their profession deny it ; yet when their actions, and their corrup
ting of doctrine and worship, shall speak it to all men's conscien
ces, men cannot but judge that the Pope, and the fear of him is
before their eyes, Ps. xxxvi. 1 : and as those in Titus i. 16,
" profess that they know God, but in works they deny him ;" so
these that shall profess the reformed religion, yet in all their
practices and under-hand policies depress it, and advance the
Popish party, are justly to be accounted Papists and to have re
ceived " the number of the name " of the beast. Now the
" number " of a name is not only taken arithmetically for a
name consisting of numeral letters, but it is in many languages
put for the account, reckoning or esteem that is commonly had
of men ; as in Latin we speak of " a man Nullius Numeri" of
no number, or account ; and so EN POLEMOOI ENARITHMIOS is
used by Homer for one of great account in war, being numbered
or esteemed a soldier indeed : so " the number of the name "
of the beast, is the common repute or esteem to be a Papist,
procured though under-hand advancing of the Popish cause.
This "number" being therefore spoken in a distinct and lower
degree from that " name," (or open profession,) doth yet neces
sarily import so much inclining and cleaving to the beast,
(though secretly,) as shall deserve the account and repute to
be numbered, truly in heart, (though but tacitly,) of his com
pany, equally with those that receive his name. Now if in
opening the meaning of the Holy Ghost in that phrase, this de
scription shall seem to the life to picture out a generation of such
kind of Popish persons as these, in any even of the most famous
reformed churches, there will not want good ground for it : for
though with an impudent forehead, they renounce the Pope's
character, and the name of Papists, and will by no means be cal
led " Baal's priests," (though priests they affect to be called,) but
boast themselves to be of the Reformation, and opposites to the
Popish faction ; yet with as much impudence do they bring in
an image of Popish worship and ceremonies, adding to some old
limbs never cast out, other substantial parts of altars, crucifixes,
second service, &c. so to make up in the public worship a full
likeness to that of the Popish church ; bringing in the carcase
first, which may be afterwards inspired with the same opinions :
and all this, not as Popery, or with the annexing of Popish
idolatrous opinions, but on such grounds only whereupon Pro
testants themselves have continued some other ceremonies.
Furthermore, As in worship, so in doctrines these men seek to
introduce a presence in the sacrament of the Lord's supper,
beyond what is spiritual to faith, wMcb yet is not Popish tran-
substantiation ; and power in priests to forgive sins, beyond what
is declarative) yet not that which mass-priests arrogate ; justifica-

602 THE NUMBER OF THE NAME [REV. XIII.

tion by works, as a condition of the gospel as well as faith, but not
so grossly as in a way of Popish merit : by many such methods
they truly set up an image of old Popery in a Protestant reform
ed way, even as Popery is an image of Pagan worship in a
Christian way. Say these men what they will, that they hold
not of the Pope, nor any way intend him, or the introducing
of his religion into their churches, yet their actions number them
as such, and gain them such esteem every where at home and
abroad ; as the Holy Ghost prophesied of them, fitting them
with so characteristic a description of the " number of the name "
of the beast. Such sort of apostates from the profession and
religion wherein they were trained, being in a church so full of
spiritual light and faithful witnesses, the Holy Ghost hath
thought worthy of the character given them in this prophecy, to
discover to whom they belong, especially seeing they would pro
fessedly deny their intention and conspiracy to make way in the
end for the beast ; this their duplicity going before, as the twi
light serves to usher in darkness. And though haply these men
will arise but in one of the ten kingdoms, (the Lutherans else
where looking also very like this description,) yet growing to so
potent a faction as to have power to hinder others buying and
selling and quiet living among them, and being the Pope's last
champions before his fall, whom the true saints are to encounter
and overcome ; (for the greatest number of witnesses in that last
age will belong to that one kingdom;) therefore the Holy Ghost
thought not fit to leave such a company of new refined Papists
out of the beast's number and followers, although they were to
continue but a short time ; for the doom, as well as description
of such a generation to arise " in the last days," (of those " lat
ter times" of the Papists rising, 1 Tim. iv. 1,) we have in another
prophecy, 2 Tim. iii. 1 — 9 : These shall set themselves chiefly
against the power and spirit of true worship, setting up " a form "
or image instead of it : but they are doomed to "proceed no fur
ther ; they shall have a stop ; and their "folly? madness, and hy
pocrisy, (to attempt to bring in Popery with denying it; and when
it is going down to build such a Babel again,) " shall be mani
fest unto all men ;" and being discovered will be overthrown : yet
must they proceed further than hitherto, even to the " killing of
the witnesses " in that kingdom, or tenth part of the city ; as will
be shewn under c. xi. And because these last champions of the
beast, and healers of the wound given him, should come in the
last days of all, they are therefore lasi. named and overcome by
the witnesses and vial-pourers, as in c. xv. 2. Lastly, The Holy
Ghost by a wise transition passing from the mention of one thing
to another, agreeing in /sound but differing in sense, distinguishes
the number of the beast himself from the number of his namey
(v. 17, 18,) the former only being six hundred and sixty-six : such
a turn is frequent in scripture, and we have it also in c. xx. 17,

REV. XIII.] OF THE BEAST 603

" The Spirit and the bride say, Come, (as speaking to Christ to
come speedily to judgment, as in v. 20,) and let him that is a
thirst, come, (as spoken of the believing soul coming to Christ,)
unto the water of life." As for " the number of the beast," (to
calculate which the Holy Ghost encourages and excites us by
" Here is wisdom ;" see also in c. xvii. 9,) while most interpret it
of the numerals of which LATEINOS, Latin or Roman, is com
posed, others refer it to the number of the year, A.D. 1666,
according to " the number of a man," or as men reckon dates,
leaving out the thousands ; and so c. xxi. 17, is " according to
the measure of a man." Thus they date the rise of Antichrist to
about A.D. 406 — 410, (others two centuries later, making his fall
about A.D. 1866,) when "the tenth part of the city fell ;" France
being broken off' from the empire, and possessed by the Goths,
who restored Rome, (which they had sacked,) on these conditions.
In A.D. 412, Honorius granted the same to the Huns, and in
A.D. 415, to the Goths in Spain ; and by A.D. 456, all the ten
kingdoms were up, who " gave their power to the beast," and
" received power as kings one hour with the beast," c. xvii. 12.
Jerome, who lived in the times of that incursion of the barbarous
nations, when he saw Rome taken, and the Goths obtaining pieces
of the western empire, said in his epistle to Gerontius, " He that
held is taken away, (alluding to 2 Thes. ii. 6,) and we understand
not that Antichrist is near." By adding therefore twelve hundred
and sixty years to any of the above supposed periods of the rise
of the beast, we get the supposed date of his fall.

THE SECOND PAET.

CONTAINING THE STORY OF THE CHURCH, SINCE HER
FIRST SEPARATION FROM THE POPISH ANTICHRIST-BEAST,
UNTO THE GLORIOUS KINGDOM OF CHRIST ; AS IT IS LAID
DOWN FROM THE FOURTEENTH TO THE NINETEENTH CHAP
TER } AND IN THE SUPPLEMENTARY ELEVENTH CHAPTER.

INTRODUCTION.

My chief aim in this Exposition being to search into such
passages of the Revelation as concern the last days, and to find
out under which of these constellations the present times of the
church do fall, and what is certainly yet to come ; I have
therefore been less inquisitive in expounding I he First Part,
as containing events long since past, and have now selected all
I find in the seal and Joo^-prophecy, (enlarging on this happy

604 SCHEME AND DIVISION [REV.

notion of Mede for understanding the Revelation,) which may
refer to present or future times concerning ourselves. Now that
I might begin at the right joint, without mangling the whole, I
have chosen the state and period of the church's reformation, and
of the separation from Popery, where the book-prophecy begins ;
my Exposition of c. vi. — ix. only making way for the understand
ing of what is now to follow. To ascertain therefore what be
longs to these latter times in this prophecy : 1st, The seal-prophe
cy, (c. vi. — xi.) running over all time from John's days to the
kingdom of Christ, (and the passages in c. x. and xi. being the
last under the first prophecy,) belongs therefore to the last times,
(as shewn in the General Scheme, p. 563 — 9 ;) and indeed
c. xi. belongs chiefly to the times of the vials in c. xvi. as will
hereafter be shewn. 2dly, From c. xiv. 6, of the ioo^-prophecy,
begins the great restauration of the gospel from under Popery,
until Christ's visible and universal kingdom commencing at c.
xx. Thus all these passages in the chapters mentioned out of both
prophecies, connected in their due place and order, do fitly fall
in together, to make the story of the church complete : and as I
have given the more general Scheme and Division of this whole
book, I shall now give, as the chief key of interpretation,

A PARTICULAR SCHEME AND DIVISION PRESENTING, IN THEIR
DUE ORDER AND SUCCESSION, ALL THE CONTENTS OF THESE CHAP
TERS CONCERNING OUR OWN TIMES.

I shall begin with setting together the materials contained in
the said chapters, either as they succeed one after the other, or
as they synchronize, and fall in at the same time, one with the
other ; reserving in part the full proof of my method to the after
Exposition : and for the better clearing of this, let us take the two
following representations of the church, from the time of her
separation unto that of the new Jerusalem ; wherein she is
presented, Either, In the various conditions she should in herself
run through, in her several ages until then, both in respect of the
progress of her separation further and further off from Rome, (and
so of the increase of her light, purity, and reformation,) and of the
persecutions and judgments upon her, and her restitution and de
liverance again from under them : Or, In her one uniform, entire,
and general condition suiting with all those times of the church,
first and last, as partaking within herself of like privileges during
the same ; and also in special reference to the execution of plagues
and punishments, (poured out of the seven vials,) on the enemy.
The Holy Ghost hath been pleased to represent the story of the
church both these ways. First, The church's uniform state is set
forth in c. xv. and xvi. thus : 1st, In c. xv. 2 — 5, as within herself;
2dly, In v. 6 — 8, of c. xv. in the common and like description of
the angels, or out-pourers of the vials proceeding from those
churches : which representation of the church, and of these

REV.] OF THE CHAPTERS. 605

angels all that whole time, becomes the immediate sign or fore
runner, (great and wonderful,) of the new Jerusalem, (v. 1, 2,) or
that more glorious state of the church to succeed those vials,
called in v. 5, " The opening of the temple of the tabernacle"
(in distinction from the present state of the church, which is the
temple of the seven angels, v. 6,) wherein " there was seen the
ark of the testament" (Christ himself,) which stands vailed like
the Holy of holies, till all the vials are poured out, c. xi. 19. In
comparison therefore with the other church or temple to come
" after that" (as v. 5, speaks,) this present is but what the in
ward court of the priests was in comparison of The most holy
place. The erection therefore of the one is the immediate fore
running sign of the other, as proved by v. 1, 5. 3dly, In c. xvi.
is the execution and effusion of the seven vials, by the angels, out
of this church or inner temple, erected since the first separation
from Antichrist, all along those times unto the new Jerusalem,
here exhibited in one view in their several orders and successions.
Secondly, The church's chequered state, is scatteredly represented
in three parts ; the Holy Ghost being pleased thus variously, and
in several places to set it forth, (as best suiting to a special end
and occasion,) with such descriptive and infallible characters
of their times, of the vials they belong unto, and also unto what
times of each vial they belong, as cannot deceive us. The first
part of the story of the various conditions of the church, during
the four first vials, is set forth in c. xiv. 6 — 20 ; the first erection
of the temple of true churches beginning at v. 6, when Waldus
and his company first fell off from Rome. Now this preceded
the vision of the vials, to shew how the temple was first built and
reared, ere the angels, and their vials, proceeding therefrom,
should be mentioned : and therefore c. xiv. shews that first part
of the church's story, in all her first comings forth from Antichrist
and laying the foundation of churches ; but then it breaks off at
the time of the fourth vial ; for that so far precedes the reforma
tion of the true church, as is respected a separation from Anti
christ, and so runs along with such vials as should by degrees
first prepare for his ruin, as the first three or four vials do. The
second part of the church's story is her next state, from the
time of the fourth to the fifth vial, supplied from c. xi. 1 — 14,
where this story comes in most fitly, rather than in c. xiv. because
it was to be an immediate signal of Antichrist's downfal, and is
an exact chronology of the time of the beast's reign, and the ex
piration of his forty-two months ; to warn and comfort the church
against a fatal prevailing of Antichrist over her, just afore the
time of his ending : so c. xi. begins with a new reformation of
the reformed churches among themselves, and what should befall
them thereupon, viz. the killing of the witnessses, between the
fourth and fifth, or at most before the fifth seal. The third part
of the church's story from after the fifth seal until the new Jeru-

606 SCYNCHRONISM [REV. XIII.

salem, beginning c. xx. of the book -prophecy, and c. xi. 15, of
the seal-prophecy,) is presented c. xix. in its due place : For
c. xvii. being but an explanation who the beast is, and where his
seat, that the church may discern this Antichrist ; and c xviii.
being a funeral^song for the pouring out of the fifth vial, when
the seat of the beast, (that whore, the city described c. xvii.) is
ruined, and Antichrist's kingdom is probably over ; Therefore the
church's state from the fifth vial's ruining Rome to the new Jeru
salem, fitly and orderly comes in after both these digressions ;
and therefore c. xix. thus begins, " And after these things, (after
the desciiption of the city and whore, c. xvii. and her ruin,) I
heard the voice of an innumerable company," &c. thus going on
to describe the state of that church then and until the new
Jerusalem. Lastly, As the story in c. xiv. contains the first
reformation and separation of the church from Antichrist, in
several degrees ; and c. 1 1 a second, from profane mixture within
itself; so c. xix. a third, or personal reformation of the saints
themselves in the church, as then with might and main preparing
and adorning themselves for the marriage of the Lamb, so evi
dently near, now that the whore is cast off and burned : and here
you may see them getting all they can of " the fine linen " of
holiness and growth in grace, which is " the righteousnesses
(DICAIOOMATA,) of saints ;" that so their Lord and husband might
greatly delight in their beauty, as in c. xix. 7, 8. Such is the
true general coherence and order of what yet remains to be in
terpreted : from which my Introduction will proceed to

THE PARTICULAR SYNCHRONISM OF THE SEVERAL VISIONS
AND CONTENTS OF THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER, AND FROM THE
FOURTEENTH TO THE NINETEENTH CHAPTER.

According to the above Scheme and Division, the rial-visions
of c. xv. and xvi. running along the whole course of time,
through divers ages, as the visions of c. xiv. 6 — 20, and c. xi.
1 — 15, and c. xix. (the one uniformly and continuously, the
other in a scattered successive representation of the church's
condition all along the same tract of time through many ages : )
it will therefore be expedient to shew, which of these several
parts of those two representations synchronize, and which are
successive ; by setting together a little more particularly the
stories of the seven vials (in c. xv. and xvi.) with those other
several pieces and scattered passages of c. xi. xiv. xvii. xviii.
and xix. and, FIRST, With c. xiv. 1st, That same " temple filled
with smoke," (out of which came " the seven angels,") began to be
set up in the times of the first separation from Antichrist, (see
v. 6, with c. xv. 6, 8 ;) when also " the everlasting gospel " was
begun distinctly to be preached by Waldus and his followers, who
erected true churches unto Christ, (as the history of the Waldenses
shews ;) when these " harpers on the glassy sea," began more
distinctly to " sing the song of Moses and the Lamb ;" or that

REV.] OF THE CHAPTERS. 607

doctrine both of the law and the gospel, which the hundred and
forty-four thousand in the darker times of Popery had but mut
tered so confusedly that none could learn it ; (see v. 3, 6, 7, with
c. xv. 2 — 4 ;) so that the doctrine of the gospel, and the erection
of the vial-temple, and the separation from popery, all begin
together. 2dly, Preparation being thus made by thejirst angel's
erecting the temple, The first vial therefore began with the voice
of the second angel, crying "Babylon is fallen, Babylon is fallen,"
i. e. the first foundation of her ruin is laid in the beginning of
those desolating vials ; as will be shewn in opening them ;
v. 6. 8, with c. xvi. 1, 2. The second vial follows with the
voice or cry of the third angel's preaching, when the sea of
Antichrist's doctrine was both proved and pronounced damna
ble by Luther's doctrine ; and " the waters whereon the whore
sat," (i.e. those kingdoms and commonwealths which had sub
jected themselves to Rome,) fell from her; see v. 9 — 11 with c.
xvi. 3. T7ie third vial hath been a pouring out (as will be shewn)
since that " harvest" began, with its summer-weather, and that
settled peace of the reformed churches, meant by " rivers and
fountains," see v. 14, with c. xvi. 4. The fourth vial began about
*he time of " the vintage" for it was excited by an angel " who
Lad power over fire :" and also the fourth vial-angel is said to
have power given him to scorch men with fire ; so that these two
fall in the same times ; and thus the times of c. xiv. reach only
to the fourth vial ; see v. 18, with c. xvi. 8. SECONDLY, With
c. xi. synchronizes the age between the third and fourth vial.
1st, This chapter, under the seal - prophecy, (now about the
times of the fourth vial,) begins the expiration of the world's
monarchy, Antichrist's times, and the church's oppression ;
and before the blast of the seventh trumpet, v. 15. It opens
with representing the same temple of the Reformation as the
Reformers erected in c. xiv. 15, who having erred in laying
an outward court to it, are bidden in the name of John, (who
bears the persons of the godly of this age,) to measure that tem
ple anew, as not being fully conformed to the pattern, and to cast
out the outward court ; for its further reformation. And as in the
vintage, (c. xiv. 18,) the Popish Gentiles had " trod down" the
grapes in Germany; so here v. 1, the like "outward court" in
other churches elsewhere, is given to the same Gentiles elsewhere
to tread down, and therewith to end their date of treading down
the holy city for forty-two months, (or one thousand two hundred
and sixty years,) with this their last re-entry upon the churches
of the Reformation. Thus c. xi, begins where c. xiv. ends. 2dly,
In v. 5, 6, we expressly have the first four vials, (and no more,)
briefly summed up in the description of the witnesses, who are
thus shewn, in the latter times of their prophecy, to be the same
with the vial-pouring angels, c. xvi. 2 — 9. Now the angels there
describe them to John only in a parenthesis, merely that he

608 SYNCHRONISM OF THE CHAPTERS. [REV.

might recognize them again in this new book-prophecy, to shew
what should befall them after these four vials, (or from the
time of the fourth, and before the fifth,) in the expiring of the
twelve hundred and three-score years, allotted them to pro
phesy in the sackcloth of a mourning condition ; now to end with
the beast's reign also ending with the fifth vial. Thus v. 7,
" When they shall be about to finish their testimony," and to
end their prophecy, they that had the power to execute four
such vials on the beast's company, before they fatally darken
and overcome his kingdom by the fifth vial, must be themselves
once more overcome by the beast : which being thus mentioned
after the summing up of four of the vials in v. 5, 6, and at the end
of their prophecy, and on the expiration of their time of mourning,
must therefore be from after, or upon the time of, the fourth vial,
or before the fifth, or at furthest with the sixth : and then, v. 13,
" the witnesses rise," and "the tenth of the city falls;" which some
make the fifth vial of Rome's ruin. 3rdly, " The second woe
passeth way," v. 14, (removing the Turkish power and tyranny,
c. ix. 12, 13,) which is all one with the sixth vial, (c. xvi. 12, &c.)
" drying up Euphrates," or preparing for it. 4thly, v. 15 — 19,
The seventh trumpet that follows begins the seventh vial ; v. 1 9,
with c. xvi. 18, 21, and c. x. 6, 7, with c. xvi. 17. 5thly, As
under the seventh trumpet comes in " the Holy of holies," or
" The opening of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven in
which the ark is seen," v. 19; so in c. xv. 5, after the vials,
(META TAUTA, after these things,) " the temple of the tabernacle
of the testimony in heaven" is said to be opened ; that temple out
of which the vials come, being but as the inward temple begun to
be erected from the first separation, (for else they had had no true
churches,) but polluted with the adjoining of the outward court
by the Reformers ; but under the times of the fourth vial it is
measured and purged, and " its court cast out," v. 1. THIRDLY,
Chap. xix. supplies what should befall the church from the rising
of the witnesses, (about the fifth vial,) and also her condition from
that space between the fifth vial, and the seventh trumpet, and the
Holy of holies; (for c. xi. doth setly describe only what befell
the church just before the dethronement of Antichrist, as a war
ning signal :) Now it begins with an innumerable company in
heaven praising God for the downfal of the whore, (at large set
forth in c. xvii. and xviii. which are but a larger explication of the
fifth vial ruining Rome;) and therefore it must set forth the state
of the church after the fifth vial until the seventh : And then
for the agreement of that great battle, at the Lamb's marriage-
supper, with the seventh vial, see v. 11 — 21, with c. xvi. 14 — 21 ;
after which come in " the thousand years," and " new Jerusalem,"
(which is all one with the Holy of holies,) c. xx. — xxii. Having
thus introduced the second part of my Exposition, I shall now
proceed with

RKV. xiv. 1 — 5.] THE CHURCH'S STATE UNDER ANTICHRIST. 609

THE FOURTEENTH CHAPTER.

As c. xiii. described the false Antichrist-church, whose head is
the Pope, so here begins the description of the true church con
temporary, (made up of" the seed of the woman," c. xii. 17, per
secuted by Satan through Antichrist's power, during her hiding
in the wilderness,) whose head is the Lamb, and whose condition
from Antichrist's time until this day, may be reduced to three
heads. 1st, Her state in those darker times of Popery, when she
was mingled with Papists, though preserved from much of their
idolatrous worship and opinions, for seven centuries from the
Pope's first rising, until the gospel-light bursting forth more clear
ly, made an open separation between this confused company,
v. 1 — 5. 2dly, Her state in three several degrees, rising higher
and higher, presented under three several angels ; when believers
first separated from Rome, and created churches and assemblies
by themselves, and preached the gospel, from A.D. 1 100, v. 6 — 13.
3rdly, Her state under the Reformation, since the times of Luther
and Calvin, for the last three hundred years, v. 14 — 20.

First, The state of believers mixed up with Antichrist's com
pany, without any distinct worship, though opposed to his gross
idolatries, is set forth characteristically, (v. 1,) as a scattered
company of " a hundred forty and four thousand" united to the
Lamb, having his Father's name written on their foreheads, (i.e.
professing sincere obedience and worship to the true God,) whilst
a world of the rest went " a wondering after the beast," having
received his mark, c. xiii. 3, 17. These, and the Christians in
the east under the Mahometan darkness and bondage of the fifth
and sixth trumpets, arc set forth by the same number, both being
companies of persons singly to be numbered, and scattered up
and down, here and there, in the midst of the growing supersti
tions and corruptions of their two several eastern and western
churches, until A.D. 1100. These "stand upon mount Zion"
called David's city, as not yet having a temple, or instituted
churches distinct from Antichrist : and though, (v. 3,) " they suny
as it were a new song" (the truth of the gospel they believed,)
yut so confusedly and indistinctly as that " no man. could learn
tlnil sonij" or understand that they differed from them ; the other
Papists still going on in their old way, while the voices of these
were heard secretly " before the throne, and before the four beasts,
and the elders" (the representative chorus, as a standing com
pany viewing all the visions of this book,) but themselves were
not cast into such order of worship as to have churches and offi
cers to begin the song, (as the four beasts elsewhere do, the four
and twenty elders following,) their voices being sometimes " as
the voice of many waters" confusedly murmuring against super
stitions daily arising in those times ; and " UK the voice, of a great

2's

610 STATE OF THE CHURCH ON HER FIRST [REV. XIV. 6, 7.

thunder? thundering aloud against setting up of images, A.D.
707, both in France and Germany, and against transubstantiation;
and sometimes as " harpers harping with their harps? in sweet
melodious strains of true devotion, (which believers, and some
writers in those times, were full of:) These kept themselves from
the gross idolatries of the whore, being " not defiled with (the rest
of those) women? living in the daughter-cities and kingdoms of
Home, and allured to her and their spiritual fornication ; v. 2, 4.
Secondly, Having moulded this and the following chapters,
according to the Introduction, the Second Part of my Exposi
tion properly begins here with the story of the church's first se
paration from Popery, before the Reformation, v. 6 — 13; the
scope of the Holy Ghost to the end of the chapter being only to
shew, by what degrees the gospel should break forth, and how
churches should at first be erected, and a glorious reformation
made ; therefore v. 6 — 20, reaches only to the times of that pre
vailing again of the beast over those churches after this reforma
tion, ('more fully shewn forth, c. xi.) about the times of the fourth
vial executed by " the angel that hath power over fire," v. 18.
Now when the Holy Ghost had here given the story of this first
separation and reformation, as sufficient to shew the foundation
and progress of this new temple and true church, erected in op
position to the false one; he breaks off, and presents the general
and common condition and station of believers in this newly-
erected temple-church, separated from the doctrine and worship
of the beast; and also shews the judgments to be executed on
the false church all that while, until the kingdom of Christ ; and
this entirely together in one view in c. xv. and xvi. The church's
breaking forth therefore from under Antichrist, and so coming
out of Babylon and Egypt, unto Antichrist's second prevailing in c.
xi. hath three degrees orderly set forth, as light increased, from the
olden times before Luther. The voice and cry of three angels,
(all the great things done in the church and world throughout
this book, are still said to be effected by the ministry of angels,)
rise higher and higher, and louder and louder, against Antichrist
and his company. The FIRST angel,wlao lays the foundation of all,
is said to have " the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that
dwell on the earth, and to every nation and tongue and people?
his voice reaching to all, as he is seen "flying in the midst of
heaven? and calling on men to worship and "fear God, (and him
only,) who made heaven and earth? v. 6, 7: So that the matter
of his preaching is the gospel, which brings to light ihe free-
grace of God in Christ for a sinner's justification, and also the
true worship of this God alone, (withdrawing men from idolatry,
and false worship of saints and angels, then overwhelming the
world;) and because this was then called " The new gospel,"
the Holy Ghost in opposition to the calumny, calls it " The
everlasting gospel," which was now restored and brought to

REV. XIV 8. — 12.] SEPARATION FROM ANTICHRIST. 611

light : By the preaching of these two tilings, the foundation of
the whole separation from the Pope that followed, was first laid.
Now this first angel's ministry is a lively description of the first
proceedings of Waldus and his followers, who first began to
separate from Popish doctrine and worship. He was an alder
man of Lyons, in France, and about A.D. 1100, being converted
on occasion of the sudden death of a friend, as they were walk
ing together, (which mightily terrifying and amazing him, was a
means of humbling him and bringing him to Christ,) he fell a
preaching in that city, and converted many others to the saving
knowledge of Christ. Being also a learned man he opened the
scriptures, and turned them into vulgar French ; and thinking
it his duty, with his followers, like the apostles to preach the
gospel to others also, some of their company went preaching
abroad, but were prohibited by the Pope as being lay-men : but
they, affirming " That it is better to obey God than men," and
that it was also an article of their faith, " That it is lawful for any
man to preach the gospel," went on their begun course amidst
persecutions. Now as it was an occasion of further spreading
the gospel to other nations, when persecution arose on the death
of Stephen, and after the dispersion of the church of Jerusalem ;
thus Waldus, being excommunicated, came into Picardy, and so
into the low countries, where he made many disciples, and then
went into Germany, and last of all into Bohemia ; and his fol
lowers were dispersed into Savoy, Lombardy, and the countries
on this side of the Alps ; and Arnoldus his companion went into
Spain. " These Waldenses, (says Poplinerius, the historian,)
maugre the power of all Christian princes, about A.D. 1100, did
broach a doctrine little differing from what the Protestants now
hold ; and not only dispersed it through France, but over all the
parts of Europe : " Thus they professedly " preached to all
nations" the only gospel-doctrine which can draw men from,
idolatry to worship God aright, as in v. 7 : see the English history
of the Waldenses, and Bishop Usher's book " De Successione
Ecclesia." In an age or two following, their number increasing
in all kingdoms, and their light growing clearer, there follows out
of this company, (v. 8,) The SECOND angel, with open mouth
proclaiming, That Rome was Babylon, and the Pope that beast and
Antichrist described in the Revelation, and ordained to ruin : but
Waldus at first merely muttered, That the Pope was only equal
to all other bishops ; his followers in the next ages asserting, That
the church of Rome was the whore of Babylon, and making this au
eminent article of their confession. But Wickliffe and his follow
ers, about A.D. 1371, in England, and John Huss and Jerome
of Prague, A.D. 1400, more fully exposed Rome and the Pope :
whereupon appears The THIRD angel, (v. 9 — 12,) vehementer still :
for Luther and his followers avowed, That all who cleave to the
doctrine and superstition of Rome, " shall drink of the icraUi of

2 s 2

612 STATE OF THE CHURCH [REV. XIV. 13. — 16.

God for ever" and be certainly damned and go to hell ; for that
her worship being " the image of the beast,'' was so manifestly a
lie, that under the clear light of the gospel in that age held forth,
it could never stand with salvation to live therein : and thus he
urged a separation from Rome under pain of damnation. In v.
12, 13, an intimation hereupon follows, (and that once for all,)
concerning those martyrdoms and bloody persecutions of all the
three angels and their followers, as the effect of their preaching,
and as a trial of the truth of their doctrine, and of their own sin
cerity : "Here is (matter for the trial of) the patience of the
saints" who are comforted by this encouraging acclamation,
" Blessed are those that die in the Lord." The book of Martyrs
informs us what persecutions were raised upon the preaching of
all these angels, (the church in the dark times of Popery, for
eight centuries before, back to the times of the Pagan and Arian
persecutions, having been unmolested ;) whence followed the
martyrdoms of the followers of Waldus, Wickliffe, Huss, and
Luther, and of those that embraced their doctrine, especially upon
and after this third angel's preaching.

Thirdly, The state of the church at the time of the Reformation,
since Luther, Calvin, &c. is presented under the double vision of
a harvest, and of a vintage used to come after harvesting. The
harvest betokens that glorious peace and sunshine of the gospel,
following the persecutions in Germany, England, &c. for more than
sixty years, v. 14 — 16. The conversion and gathering in of the elect
by preaching, is called a harvesting of souls; as in Isa.xxvii. 12. 13,
(compare John iv. 35 — 39,) where God threshes the corn growing
by the shores, so clean as to be gatherered singly, not leaving one
grain of the election, nor one car unreaped : and what glorious
harvest-summers of grace has Great Britain had since the third
angel's gospel-voice, under the authority of kings and magistrates!
Here the sickle-bearing reaper is represented " with a golden
crown ;" Christ " the Son of man" being visibly set in the
throne, ruling Christian magistrates who use their influences for
him : the like expressions are found when the emperors turned
Christians; see c. vi. 2, with xii. 5. The Vintage, (v. 17 — 20,)
after the harvest of the Reformation, at the end of summer, shuts
up the story of the two visions; wherein after the gathering in of the
corn, God falls upon the wild grapes and cuts them down with
the sharp sickle of vengeance, casting them into " the wine-press
of God's wrath: " These arc carnal Protestants who have
enjoyed the heat of this fair long summer, and hung like grapes
in the sun ; but retaining their sourness, have been ripened only
for wrath and vengeance. This sharp sickle hath gone up and
down in Germany for well nigh twenty years, from A.D. 1620,
followed by such a wine-press of pure wrath, and such a treading
down to such an overflow of blood and misery, as hath scarce been
parallelled in any age; for it is "the vengeance of the temple" de-

REV. 14. 17 — 20.] UNDER THE REFORMATION. 613

filed by a profane mixture, vvhereunto her executioner is provoked
by the cries of " an angel that came from the altar," zealous for the
ordinances of God's worship ; and as indignant that his temple
and altar should be pestered and defiled with such as call them
selves the church, (saying, " The temple of the Lord," &c. and
so causing God's name to be blasphemed,) as that idol-Papists
(called Gentiles, c. xi. 1,) should tread down his holy city and
sanctuary ; for all are as bad as Gentiles " who say they are Jews
and are not, but do lie," c. iii. 9. Now that the vengeance here
should be meant of this execution of it upon the Protestant
party, (or enemies within the church,) seems evident from its
wine-press being trodden " without the city," or jurisdiction of
Rome ; and from its being mentioned apart from the vials on the
Turkish and Popish party, that follow : and although, so far as
there hath befallen, (through the German wars,) a plague on the
Popish party, (the emperor and these Popish princes under him,)
this wrath is to be reduced to one of the vials containing all the last
plagues on the Papacy, specially the fourth ; yet so far as these
wars have brought miseries and desolation on the Protestant party,
it is represented by this vintage : and therefore it is the angel
" who had power overjire" (as the angel of the waters hath the
third vial,) because he hath power " to scorch men with fire,"
(c. xvi. 5 — 8,) it is he incites this angel here to cut down these
grapes with his sharp sickle, and tread them : So that this vintage
though contemporaneous, is a distinct execution from that of the
fourth vial : these wars so far as they hurt the Popish party, being
the fourth vial, and so far as they hurt the Protestant party, they
are the famous vintage here meant, (as in Isa. Ixiii. 1 ,) trodden by
the famous German war-horses : and the " thousand six. hundred
furlongs " may agree with the dimensions of the chief seat of these
wars in the Protestant part of Germany : But God may bring this
wine-press into other vineyards, as England, Scotland,&c. treading
down our grapes, or theirs, by bloody wars, keeping still to the same
proportion of furlongs, (as Brightman reckons the length of
England,) and fulfilling it over and over in other several Protes
tant kingdoms and dominions : only this may be more confidently
affirmed, That the rest of those carnal Protestants in England,
and other places, shall yet, before the expiration of the beast's
kingdom and " number," be more or less given up to the Papists,
and to the jurisdiction of Rome ; being trodden down and made to
vail to them, if not all of them by bloody wars and conquests,
yet by some base and unworthy yielding to them, as a just
punishment of their carnal profession of the gospel : This we see
they begin to do in England, as foretold, c. xi. 1 ; which chapter
being a fore-running signal of the beast's ruin, and the now
approaching expiration of his twelve hundred and sixty years'
reign, presents the state of the church just before ; and the setting
down what should befall it, c. xi. 7 — 13, must belong to these

614 THE SEVEN ANGELS [REV. XV. 1.

times, as to be subjoined to this fourteenth chapter, (though
coming in there as a common signal of the ending of both pro
phecies, and therefore standing between both,) to make the story
of the church complete : and this I shall handle after opening the
meaning of the first four vials especially, which though for order
put by the Holy Ghost with the rest, (as in this book things of a
sort use to be,) after this chapter; yet they have been a pouring
forth upon the beast and his company, from that first preaching
of the gospel until now : and these vials I would open before c. xi.
as synchronizing with this chapter, and because four vials are
poured out, (c. xi.) before the slaying of the witnesses ; which
cannot be understood till these be first explained.

THE FIFTEENTH CHAPTER.

The Holy Ghost having thus first of all shewed how the Re
formation from Popery was to be brought about, and churches
erected, here begins to lay before us the uniform state of believ
ers, in this temple, and the several degrees of their ruining the
false church by several vials : and this, as set together in one
continued view throughout all these times, since the first separa
tion from Popery until Christ's kingdom. Concerning which in
general, I shall premise three things : First, The difference of
their condition here, and of the churches under the dark times of
Popery, as is uniformly described c. xiv. 1 — 5. 1st, Those in
c. xiv. were virgins, but not separate ; but these stand here alone
in a temple by themselves, washing themselves from the defile
ments of Popery, as separated therefrom. 2dly, Those sung a
new song confusedly, but these sing " the song of Moses and the
Lamb," (law and gospel,) distinctly. 3dly, Those there stood
naked on the hill of Zion ere a temple was reared thereon ; but
these here are gathered into a temple, and roofed over their
heads. 4thly, Those sung their song in Egypt ; but these are
come out of Egypt, and so sing Moses' song. Secondly, These
seven angels and their vials, and this company here, are called
in the preface to their general description, v. 1, " Another sign
great and marvellous." 1st, It is a sign, which always fore-runs
something to come, as here v. 5, " After (these vials) the temple
of the tabernacle of the testimony was opened in heaven ;" these
vials then are the sign of that glorious Holy of holies to come
after, or of the new Jerusalem and of Christ's coming ; as " the
sign of the Son of man," spoken of in Matt. xxiv. 30 ; the pro
phets also describing his progress with plagues and pestilence
preceding ; and therefore at the approach of the last vial, c. xvi.
J5, warning is given, " Behold, I come as a thief." 2dly, It is
another sign ; that in c. xii. 3, being the devil's expulsion from
Heathenism, this from Popery at Christ's coming to set up his
kingdom : so that we of this ago stand in the midst of the times

REV. XV. 2.] WITH THE SEVEN VIALS. 615

of those vials, and so may see how much of Christ's train is gone
before, and what is to come after, himself being to come in the
rear of all. Thirdly, They are all called " The last plagues :"
Christ had three sorts of enemies to subdue by three several
sorts of plagues ; 1st, Satan and his false worship, together with
the Heathenish empire ; despatched by the six seals, c. vi.
2dly, The Roman empire, ruined by the six trumpets. 3dly,
The Pope in the west, and the Turk in the east, who succeed in
the place of the eastern and western empires : for whom he hath
prepared seven vials, or last plagues on these last enemies.

To descend more particularly to the several contents of this
chapter, There are two things here eminently presented to our
view : The church, or company of believers standing in the
temple, described v. 2, 3, 4, 8 ; and The angels, who are execu
tioners of the vials out of that temple, described v. 6, 7. First,
For the company from among whom the angels come : 1st, They
have a temple over their heads, continually "filled with smoke,"
as in 1 Kings viii. 10, 1 1 ; Ex. xl. 34, 35 ; to shew that during the
vials there should be new editions and erections and reformations
of this temple ; unto all which God still gives the testimony of
his presence : as 1, In the first separation from Popery, when true
churches were set up by the Waldenses ; and smoke rilled their
temples. 2, In the Reformation under Luther and Calvin, when
there was a further edition of the temple ; and smoke filled it
afresh. 3, In that after Reformation and casting away the out
ward court, in c. xi. 1, when smoke will afresh fill these new
measured temples also ; God still giving new testimonies of his
presence, as there come forth new editions of purer churches. 2dly,
They are stationed in the temple " upon a sea of glass," (v. 2,
with c. iv. 6,) in allusion to Solomon's brazen sea for the priests ;
shewing, That this company of believers whence the vials issue,
should more and more purify themselves in their several ages
from Antichristian defilements of doctrine and worship : and as
they discover many and further defilements in their several suc
cessions, they are still presented as coming forth out of the sea of
glass from the washing, afresh and anew, purer and purer, until
they become a bride fully prepared for their Lord and King.
3dly, They become victors through pouring forth these vials,
and in the end shall fully prevail " over the beast, and his image,
and his mark, and over the number of his name" (v. 2,) these
being the more gross or refined degrees of Popery and Autichris-
tianism ; all which also they gradually and successively go on to
discover and to overcome, until they have got a full and perfect
conquest over all by the time these vials are all poured out.
Mr. Brightman understands it not of this company getting a
complete victory over all those before the vials began, but only
successively and conjunctively, as generally descriptive of what
they should effect by the expiration of their whole time, being

616 THE SONG OF THE REDEEMED. [REV. XV. 3—7.

victorious after the efl'usion of their vials : so in v. 1, " In them
is Jilted up, (fulfilled) the wrath of God," meaning, that when
they are all emptied, God's wrath will be thoroughly exercised
and fulfilled through them and by them : so here is not a full
victory previously, but in and through the pourings out of these
vials obtained ere their expiration ; themselves being the means
of their conquest ; for each degree of which victory they sing a
triumphant song : for, 4thly, " They sing the song of Moses,"
(Ex. xv.) after drowning the Egyptians, (Papists,) in the Red
Sea, when the fifth vial comes ; the former vials being in allusion
to the plagues of Egypt : but after that they will sing the marriage-
song of the Lamb, (c. xix. 6, 7,) coming in after Rome's funeral-
song under the fifth vial, c. xviii. Or, Moses' song, (Deut. xxxii.)
being doctrinal, it may refer to the doctrine of the gospel now
beginning to be more clearly taught ; which is here therefore
still called a song ; and though in the dark ages of Popery, God's
elect " sung as it were a new song, differing from Popish doc
trine : yet was it so confusedly " that none could learn that song:
but now that they have " the everlasting gospel to preach,"
(see c. xiv. 3, 6,) they sing Moses' song and the Lamb's, distinct
ly, preaching the law and the gospel clearly and rightly ; "for
thy judgments, (or justifications, DICAIOOMATA, as Rom. viii. 4,)
are made manifest" \. 4; (justification by Christ, and the work of
redemption, being eminently revealed and made known in
the time of these vials :) These do besides set up Christ both
in himself and in relation to his church, as " The Lord Al
mighty," and thus her only ruler ; " The King of Saints," and
thus her only law-giver ; " The only Holy One," and thus the
fountain of all her grace, at once to be believed in and worship
ped: They magnify, nor saints, nor temples, nor the Pope, nor
any else ; but say, (as Jer. x. 7, in opposition also to false gods,
" Who will not fear thee," ? worshipping after God's own ways in
his own word, and not after men's inventions and superstitions ;
for "just and true are thy ways" see v. 3, 4. Secondly, For
the description of these angels and their preparation to pour out
the vials, v. 6, 7, (see c. xvi.) They are " cloathed in white" as
priests, and " girt with golden girdles " of alacrity, strength, sin
cerity, and truth : and " one of the four beasts," (church-officers,)
is said to give to the angels these vials, filled up, in their several
successions, by theirs and the church's prayers, (c. v. 8 ;) the
plagues executed being in the vials ; (as in Ps. Ixxv. 8, " there
is a cup in the hand of the Lord," as Rome's sin is " a cup of
abominations," c. xvii. 4 ;) and the vials being "full of the wrath
of God that liveth for ever and ever;" for that these plagues being
spiritual as well as corporal, (as I shall shew,) are but the be
ginnings of an everlasting wrath, as Sodom's is called by Jude,
" an everlasting fire." Again, These vials " come out of the
temple, " or Christian churches, which some have mistaken for

KEV. XV. 8.] THE TEMPLE FILLED WITH GLORY. 617

" the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony," (v. 5,) which is
the Holy of holies, and the opening of which relates only to the
discovery of the ark therein, the vials having been previously
poured out, as in c. xi. 5, 6, 19; the fifth being after the rising
of the witnesses ; and the sixth is the passing away of the second
woe ; the seventh also being the same as the seventh trumpet ;
and then, The most holy place is unvailecl : So here this taberna
cle is opened " after these things" (or vials ;) META TAUTA in this
book always shewing successive performances and different
visions, as in c. iv. 1 ; vii. 9 ; and the mention of it comes in here
only to shew the event of these vials. This temple of the priests
whence the angels issue, being "filled with smoke from the glory
of God and from his power" betokens God's special, glorious,
and powerful presence in and wyith the church during the times of
the vials : and this smoke, (of which that at the dedication of the
temple was a sign,) signifies 1st, The divine presence in Christian
assemblies, (as foreshown in Isa. iv. 5,) and God's glory, as in Isa.
vi. 1 ; making together "his glorious presence." 2dly, The divine
defence and protection "from the power of the Lord" as in Isa.
iv. 5, 6. 3dly,The divine offence, as in Ps. xviii. 8 : and so one pro
bable meaning of " No man was able to enter into the temple" is,
That whereas God poured forth and rained abroad upon the enemies
of his church plague-vials of wrath, (against which this temple
and the horns of its altar, were the only refuge and covert,) he so
hardens his Popish enemies, (as we read in the vials,) that they
are kept from joining his temple, and so perish by the plagues,
not entering in " till the seven plagues were fulfilled" \. e.
never ; for so "until " signifies also in Gen. viii. 7 ; 1 Sam. xv. 35 ;
Ps. cxii. 8 ; Matt. i. 25 ; Acts iii. 21.

THE SIXTEENTH CHAPTER.

THE LAST TWO VIALS, following the execution of the five first
in v. 1 — 11, do fall on the beast, (the Pope and his adherents,)
whom God plagues by degrees, as he did the Egyptians, until
the fifth vial falling eminently on Rome, the seat of the beast,
so darkens his kingdom and despoils it of its glory and power,
(although it may remain for Christ himself at his coming, under
the seventh vial, to have the last blow at him, and the full glory
of the conquest,) as that the period of his power to do, [POIEIN
c. xiii. 5,] for forty-two months, is there set, and the date of his
lease expired: these therefore being further off to come, (the seventh
vial and the preparation unto it, from v. 13, belonging to, and im
mediately making way for the kingdom of Christ,) I shall but
briefly touch upon and despatch them first: the others, (especially
the fourth and fifth,) concerning these times, and chiefly serving
for the opening of the eleventh chapter, 1 shall treat more large
ly upon.

618 THE FIRST FIVE VIALS. [REV. XVI. 1 — 11.

THE SIXTH VIAL, v. 12, is " upon the great river Euphrates"
(i. e. the first seat of the Turk, [c. ix. 14, Is. viii. 7,] which the
sixth trumpet left standing in the east,) which is to be " dried
up, that the way of the kings of the east might be pre
pared^ and so the Jews go to re-possess their own land, as in
Isa. xii. 13 — 16.

THE SEVENTH VIAL, v. 17, is general, upon " the air" or
whole power of Satan, (Eph. n. 2,) all the world over : The relics
both of Turk and Pope, and of all the church's enemies everywhere,
(as in v. 14,) mustering all their forces against the Christians in
the west and the Jews in the east, and being overcome by Christ
himself and his armies, (as in c. xix. 11 — 21,) explain this last
vial on the world ; the fifth vial, (the most eminent on the beast,)
being explained in v. 18. Now for the true understanding of

THE FIRST FIVE VIALS, upon the beast Antichrist and his
adherents, I shall premise these seven things : 1st, Their times
began with the first separation from Rome in c. xiv. 6, and thus
contain all those steps and degrees of ruining Antichrist, first
and last, from the church's onset to come out and separate from
this Egypt ; to whose plagues the first three vials allude, as in
the next premise : Besides, All these discoveries of the whore's
nakedness, and the falling off of these kingdoms from her,
(although they for a time should begin to court her again,) must
surely be reckoned among the vials, being almost as great plagues
as will yet befall her, except that of her last ruin : Again, In the
vintage of c. xiv. the angel of the fourth vial is mentioned, the
times after which must belong to the three preceding vials ; and
the Holy Ghost hath not left us without some character to dis
cern the time of their beginning, whether at the harvest, or at the
voices of these angels that made the separation ; the song of the
church, in the story of that chapter, when the vials begin, being
(as in c. xv. 4,) " Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify
thy name ? for all nations shall come and worship before thee,
for thy judgments are made manifest," &c. this being one of the
two meanings, That the plagues of these vials now beginning,
God's judgment are being made manifest. Now the voice and mes
sage of the first angel, (who began the separation from Antichrist,
and the preaching everywhere,) unto all nations (c. xiv. 6, 7,) is,
" Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment
Is come ; and worship him who hath made heaven and earth :"
.his was but the beginning to warn Antichrist and his company
of the vials' approaching ; but by the second angel's voice we
find that the first vial began as the effect of these two angels'
preaching ; for that voice not only calls Rome Babylon, and dis
covers the Pope to be Antichrist, but says " Babylon is fallen,
is fallen :" i. e. the foundation of her ruin is laid ; the superstitious
world not before suspecting this " man of sin," 2 Thes. ii. 3 — 10 :
so the western empire is reckoned as taken away at the beginning

REV. XVI. 1 — 11.] THE FIRST FIVE VIALS. 619

of the wars of the Goths, and when the first of the ten kingdoms
was broken off from the empire, A.D. 410, (as in p. 603 ;) and the
Pope may from that time be reckoned to rise with his ten horns,
though his ten kingdoms were not fully erected for forty years
after, and the power of the western empire not wholly extinct till
seventy years after : So Isa. xxi. 9, speaks in the same words of
old Babylon, when the Medes tfirst revolted, and began to set up
a kingdom of their own, which was afterwards thereby to destroy
her : Thus the first open and professed revolts from Rome made
by our predecessors, laid the foundation of her fall in this begin
ning of the first of the vials ordained to ruin her. 2dly, These
vials are expressed in allusion to the plagues of Egypt, which at
first not so great, ended in the Egyptians' being drowned in the
red sea, as these terminate in the subversion of Antichrist's seat :
The first is upon the earth, effecting a very noisome and grie
vous sore on those with the beast's mark, in allusion to the
dust thrown in the air, causing a botch on man and beast in
Egypt: The second is on the sea, and " on the waters thereof;"
and as the Egyptian rivers were turned by Moses into blood, so
The third doth also turn to blood " the rivers and fountains ;" both
being bloody vials : The fourth is upon the sun, and " tormen-
teth men with fire, like Sodom, (as the Antichrist-state is called,
c. xi. 5, 6 ;) or in allusion to Num. xvi. 35. 3dly, As in the
trumpets the Holy Ghost compared the empire to a world, so
the several parts of the beast's kingdom to be plagued are here
compared to several parts of the world : and as the first four
trumpets, (on the earth, sea, rivers, and sun,} were so many
degrees of ruining the western empire, so are these vials of
ruining the beast's world or empire : and as it was there shewed,
that kingdoms or bodies of men are in scripture usually compared
to a world, with its heaven and earth and sun and stars, &c. so
in the Pagan and Papal empire, and its parts and divisions.
4thly, The Pope and his company in c. xiii. were resembled by a
double beast, one representing the political state of the ten king
doms, making it one body under that head ; the other, the
spiritual state of his church and clergy, making up a distinct
body under one high-priest and spiritual head : so this his earth
and rivers and sun, (the parts of these his kingdoms,) according
to the analogy of this representation, may be interpreted either
politically or spiritually. 5thly, The beast's kingdom being
called "spiritually, Sodom and Egypt ,"in c. xi. 8, in referrence to
those very plagues of the vials there enumerated, v. 5, 6 ; as it
is a state claiming spiritual jurisdiction in spiritual things, and
over " the souls of men," (c. xviii. 13,) and in things outward
and political in order to things spiritual, In Ordine Ad Spiri-
tualia ; these plagues- vials on this Egyptian and Sodomitish city
must therefore be spiritual on the souls of Antichrist's adherents,
as well as outward ; " the righteous Lord," (v. 5,) proportioning

620 THE FIRST VIAL. [REV. XVI. 2.

their plagues to their sins, and so " doubling unto her double
according to her works," c. xviii. 6. It is not enough that this
monarchy be ruined only outwardly ; for this beast hath sinned in
assuming spiritual power, pomp, and glory, as well as external
dominion, in Christ's name ; she traded in spirituals, as well as
" in gold and precious stones," &c. and therefore the highest
judgment in both shall befall her; as "hardness of heart" was
called " a sending all God's plagues on the Egyptians' hearts." I
mention the first four vials especially, as enumerated in c. xi. 5, 6,
where they are spiritual, as here they are outward plagues ; and
so both are included. 6thly, Though the vials are successive,
and have a precise time for their eminent effusion and execution,
yet sprinklings of the one may continue under the following ; as the
sores under the first vial are mentioned under the fifth, v. 11 ; so
the blasphemy of the fourth vial is heightened under the fifth :
again, some droppings of a succeeding vial may begin in the pre
ceding, as before the strength and fulness of a storm : though
the fulness of each vial hath a special time in its due order of
succession. 7thly, All the plagues on the Popish party, first and
last, are reducible to one of these vials ; for they are " the last
plagues (c. xv. 1,) in which the wrath of God is fulfilled" upon
that party : and so every drop and sprinkling of wrath and vex
ation poured out, goes to fill up some vial or other, as a part of it.

THE FIRST VIAL, v. 2, is principally on the beast's earth, the
lowest part of his spiritual and political kingdom, and was the
effect of the first two angels' preaching, and specially the second,
in c. xiv. for the preaching of the gospel and the discovery of the
Pope to be that Antichrist, drew away many inferior subjects
in all the ten kingdoms of his political earth ; so that his autho
rity and interest throughout Europe wras weakened, and the
number of his worshippers lessened ; all the world not now going
after the beast without contradiction, as they were wont : This
vial affected also his spiritual earth, or clergy; for by the preaching
of the Waldenses, the uncleanness, idleness, and hypocrisy, of
the priests, monks, and nuns, (the beast's enchanters,) were dis
covered ; and these cast dust in their faces, as Moses did, so that
" there jell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men that had
the mark of the beast" viz. his clergy, who being exempted from
the civil power, are his special subjects and sworn vassals,
receiving from him an indelible character by ordination, (see p.
599,) and who " tvorshiped his image? as upholders of his idola
trous doctrine : Now all those first gospellers, before Luther, made
it the chief subject and end of all their writings and disputes, to
render odious and vile the Pharisaical Popish clergy : Nor was
this judgment merely outward, in a discovery of the shame of
their hateful and abominable iniquities, thus making way in all
men's hearts for their ruin ; but the light of these preachers proved
a curse in order to their breaking forth in filthiness and botches;

KEY. XVI. 3 — 7.] THE SECOND AND THIRD VIALS. 621

God giving them up, in judgment for shutting their eyes against
the gospel, to the curse of all uncleanuess, Sodomy &c. so as to
commit all sin, and that with more greediness than ever, as did
the Gentiles, in Rom. i. 24, &c.

THE SECOND VIAL, v. 3, is upon the sea, on the third angel's
preaching, &c. Luther and his followers ; who being raised up
to a still greater light, became a further plague both upon the
political and spiritual sea of the beast, or his jurisdiction over
many people, (as in p. 593,) those " peoples, and multitudes,
and nations, and tongues," in c. xvii. 15. Now after Luther's
preaching and his followers, not only particular persons (as before)
were divided from the Pope, but whole nations were rent from
him, (as England, Germany, Sweden, Scotland, &c.) and his sea
lessened by a third part and more ; some of the ten horns of the
beast being wrung off, as when members are divided from the
body, and " as the blood of a dead man :" and because the Popish
faction could no longer, through the alteration of religion by
law, live quietly, soberly, and peaceably in their idolatrous wor
ship, " every living -soul died in the sea" thus divided from him ;
there was no free living or breathing for them in those seceding
kingdoms : His spiritual sea also had a vial poured upon it,
even his abominable doctrine and worship, purgatory, indulgen
ces, merit, fyc. in which sea his merchants (the priests) had
brought in gain both to themselves and to the Pope's custom-house,
c. xviii. 15. this sea is turned into putrifying blood of a corpse,
so that those who, after such a clear light of the gospel, will still
continue in that damnable doctrine, die and perish eternally, as
again in v. 3, and as in c. xiv. 9 — 11, where the third angel prea-
cheth, not only with the former angel, That Rome is Babylon, but
That " if any worshipped the beast or his image, the same should
drink of the wine of God's wrath" in hell, where "the smoke of
their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever;" for they shall be
sure to be all damned who know the truth but embrace it not :
and this was a further spiritual judgment on them, beyond what
their doctrine was unto them in former times, wherein men
remaining through ignorance, many more of them were then saved
than now there arc.

THE THIRD VIAL, v. 4 — 7, is upon " the rivers and fountains,"
serving to enlarge, or anywise recover or sweeten his sea again by
their influx. 1st. These "fountains" are the lesser springs,
Kither, spiritual ones ; (for when the Egyptians' waters were
turned into blood, they dug fountains and wells, which were
turned by Moses into blood : and so when the Papists' sea is be
come bloody, they dig fountains of their writings to live in ; their
writers since the Reformation, labouring with their learning and
eloquence to sweeten and make good some of their sea-waters
again ; [but in vain ;] our writers again confuting them and turning
all into blood, as it was before ; so that those among them that

022 THE FOURTH VIAL. [REV. XVI. 8, 9.

shall read both, must be convinced that they will be damned,
[2 Thes. ii. 12,] if they persist still in their doctrine :) Or, temporal
and political also, such as the Jesuits and others, who have at
tempted in all those seceded kingdoms, to restore his lost power
and jurisdiction: and many of the lesser springs, (individuals
among them,) have been turned into blood, by the enactment of
laws, (in England, A.D. 1581 and 1605 ; in Holland, A.D. 1586 ;
in France, A.D. 1584;) cutting off' many of them, and "giving
them the blood of martyrdom to drink ;" so that they have a
martyrology as well as we; and are justly rewarded, as cries, " the
angel from the altar" (v. 7,) viz. the true worshippers and
priests of the altar, whose prayers having procured these edicts,
they now return praise to God's justice in retaliating to them
and on them : for " the altar'1'' here and c. xiv. 18, may signify
worship, as it doth martyrdom in c. vi. 9. 2dly, These "rivers"
and greater streams, are those armadoes and navies from out of
the sea of these kingdoms that continue still to uphold the beast,
endeavouring to lay all kingdoms into this one sea again ; as
the Spaniards, sent out to regain Rome's jurisdiction against
England, A.D. 1588, and against Holland often since, but still
defeated ; as was also that navy, A.D. 1639, being a sprinkling
of this vial still going on in those times of

THE FOURTH VIAL, " upon the sun," v. 8, 9; and to the angel-
executer " power wets given to scorch men with fire? effecting
their blasphemy. Here is, The effusion of this vial on the sun,
and, The scorching with Jire the beast's adherents ; which I still
interpret of plagues, the one outward, the other spiritual, on the
Popish party : 1st, " He poured out his vial on the sun? meaning
the more illustrious light, or prince, adhering to the Popish party,
and shining in his political heaven, whereof he is the great god,
or Jupiter ; being either the emperor, or the king of Spain ; or
both, as of the same house of Austria ; those German wars, (then
about A.D. 1639,) issuing in ruin, when the Popish party should
once have had blood enough given them to drink ; for the Ger
man empire was for eight centuries the most eminent principality
in Europe, and in general the most staunch supporter of the
Pope, whose creation it was, as set up in Charlernain, that stm in
his firmament : the ruin of the emperor, his first-born, must there
fore be a special plague on the the Papal seat. Mr. Mede
thought this vial to have been in execution in that great prevailing
of the king of Sweden against the emperor, whose glorious
victories may well be a vial, if not to throw down from his heavens,
yet to darken this sun, as that he should never recover his glory
and splendour, though perhaps unextirpated. Others interpret
this vial of the Pope's own power and authority, temporal and
spiritual, setting in obscurity, (as in Is. Ix. 20, Jer. xv. 9,) for the
decretals of princes style the Pope and the emperor, the two great
luminaries in heaven : but how hath this glory been waning

REV. XVI. 8, 9.] THE FOURTH VIAL. 623

inore and move in the consciences of his own vassals, and in the
eyes of princes once subject ? France denies the Pope that
absolute power he once challenged ; and the Pope hath been
but the moon to the king of Spain, (borrowing light from him,
and flattering other princes who once flattered him, and were
excommunicated at his pleasure,) and as his chaplain made of use
for his own acquiring universal monarchy. 2dly, " And power
was given him (the angel, not the sun,) to scorch men with fire ;"
referring to a greater height of spiritual plagues inflicted on
all who continued to adhere to the Pope in these his declining
times, especially on those of the learned among them, who
took pains to write for him, or re-introduce his authority with
those European kingdoms again, where the light of the gospel
shone so as to have convinced them of it long since; "their sea
being turned into blood" and discovered to be corrupt; "their
springs, (their writings so clearly confuted,) turned into blood "
also ; so that they who labour to bring in Popery again, living in
those kingdoms, must resist their own light and knowledge : and
to permit so presumptuous and despiteful a " rebellion against
the light," thus age after age increasing, this vial-angel hath
power " to scorch men with fire" proceeding out of the mouth
of the witnesses by prophesying, so that men are killed with a
witness, for their wilfulness ; as in c. xi. 5, will be more fully
expounded. In both places the allusion is either unto the fire
of Sodom, or unto that in Lev. x. 1, 2, or in Num. xvi. to which
Heb x. 26 — 28 refers, as in the Supplement will be more fully
expounded. That such wilful or other presumptuous sinning
against knowledge, accompanied with terror, is here meant,
appears also by men's " blaspheming the name of God who hath
power over these plagues :" Now blaspheming the Holy Ghost,
or his workings in others, (knowing they are his works, as these here
know they are his plagues,) is the very spirit of this sin ; and
then final impenitency is also added, as here, " they repented not :"
And this plague goes on in the fifth vial, under which sinning
against knowledge grows to a further height ; for they are so scorch
ed," that they gnaw their tongues," as men in hell. That under this
vial the sin against the Holy Ghost grows very rife and common
by reason of the abundance of light and conviction shining in the
churches, hath long been the observation of godly men who have
had senses exercised to discern spirits growing in rage and mad
ness, beyond the supposal of any other principle that should act
them in their warped and eccentric motion, and violent proceed
ings : and it is easy to conceive how many learned Jesuits should
come to commit this sin ; for bred up in their younger years in
ways of devotion, they have truth and light enough to give them
" a taste of the powers of the world to come," (Heb. vi. 5,) yet
after studying and discerning the truth of our writings, for worldly
ends, they wilfully go against it, and despise it, being justly

624 THE FOURTH VIAL. [llEV. XVI. 8, 9.

abandoned to malicious wickednesss, and growing worse and
worse under increasing light : and as the feeble light of the first
vial being resisted, God gave them up to gross sins ; their doc
trine under the clearer shining of the second and third vial
becoming more damnable, God also rose higher in his plagues,
and by striking hell-fire into their consciences, sealed up reproba
tion unto them : and thus it became him not to leave these
murderers and opposers of the saints and holy witnesses of God
in all ages, till many of them were given up to this highest sinning
and fullest measure of iniquity, before the final ruin of the .Popish
kingdom and state ; like as the Pharisees in their last age, on
whom were brought the punishments of all their forefathers' killing
his prophets in Jerusalem, for the despite done by them to
Christ's ministry. But above all, it is as hard not to think, as it
is hard to be thought, that such apostates are guilty of " the
great transgression," who having lived and been brought up "in
the land of uprightness," (Isa. xxvi. 10,) yet becoming of the
Popish party, "will not behold the majesty of the Lord" shining
round about them, but relinquish the truth they were educated
in, and would bring in the worship and doctrine of the beast and
whore, after so clear a light and powerful preaching so long
enjoyed, and growing brighter then ever towards the latter end
of the harvest and summer ; yet, " speaking lies in hypocrisy,"
(1 Tim. iv. 2,) they deny this to be their aim, though their deeds
do manifest it, so that all the world accounts them Popish, and
of the Popish faction, (thus meriting the title of " The number
of his name,") being spirits such as Rome hath not worse, in
malice and enmity against God's witnesses ; for their venom,
rage, subtility, and under-hand opposing the saints, do cause
the godly to suspect them of that " sin unto death ;" and indeed
what other principle could act men so ? for the Pharisees were
brought up in darkness and ignorance of the righteousness of
God and of the Messiah, when the ministry of John and Christ
came upon them, and called upon them to acknowledge and
embrace the Son, whom they never acknowledged ; yet they
sinned against the Holy Ghost by smothering that new light,
which set up Christ alone, and put all men out of credit : But
these men, (compare p. 599, &c. ) in this our age, have been
brought up in the contrary truth and light ; and they have
both professed it, subscribed to it, and preached it ; and yet they
love this darkness of Popery, and embrace this cursed harlot,
and would bring her into their tents "in the face of Moses and of
the whole congregation," (as in Num. xxv. 6,) and they loathe the
truth of the gospel and of the faith they once received, and that in
the face of the clearest sun-shine and light round about them.
One would think God should destroy them visibly ; but they
must do a great exploit for him first ; their further destiny is, to
kill the witnesses for this their scorching them through the

REV. XVI. 10, 11. j THE FIFTH VIAL. 620

powerful testimony of their lives and prophecies, and so be eveii
with them, and overcome them yet before the fifth vial comes :
and though as yet they have not got a full victory, yet they are
now a making vvar,and shall prevail, and banish and disperse them
among tongues and nations throughout Europe. But under the
fifth vial, these witnesses in the end shall again have overcome
this last of all the beast's company and champions to be over
come, " the number of his name," and " the names of men"
(ONOMATA ANTHROOPOON, c. xL 13, with xv. 2,) who shall be killed
instead of the witnesses at their resurrection, as the first degree
and preparation to

THE FIFTH VIAL " upon the (throne or) seat of the beast"
v. 10, 1 1, which is Rome, the old seat of the dragon, the Heathen
ish idolatrous empire, as openly governed by Satan, and afterwards
resigned to the Pope at his first rising, c. xiii. 2. The Sybils
prophesied of Rome's again becoming a sheep-cote ; and the Holy
Ghost, (c. xviii. 2, 21,) of her being "thrown down as a mill-stone,
and no more found at all, but become the habitation of devils
only, and the dwelling of every foul spirit for ever." Of this vial
we may say, " Now it speaketh plainly and not in parables," as
before, (John xvi. 29 ;) only as the other vials are to be taken in
the largest sense, (though not spiritually or figuratively,) so I
think this is : and as the second beast, (c. xiii.) is not the Pope
only, but the body of the clergy under their head ; so the seat
of the beast may be other sees, besides the see of Rome in Italy
and elsewhere, cleaving to the number and company of the
beast, who are here under the fifth vial tumbled down from their
usurped seats, thrones, and dignities, together with this their
head, whose whole kingdom is now become "full of darkness"
and obscurity : and although the Popcdom remains to be de
stroyed by the seventh vial, yet its glory is here reckoned as gone
and taken from him ; and he is now reserved alive only for a fur
ther and more glorious execution : his seven-headed kingdom is
no longer accounted of, and his period is at an end with this fall
of Rome.

THE SEVENTEENTH, EIGHTEENTH, AND
NINETEENTH CHAPTERS.

To present Rome in all her bravery, before her ruin, c. xvii. is
added ; and c. xviii. sings a solemn, stately, and triumphant song
for her destruction. Now that the Holy Ghost should make the
ruin of this long-reigning city such a triumph above all things
else in this book, imports, That the last fatal period of the fourth
monarchy, (with Rome fouits seat, and the beast for its last head,)
is here reckoned as good as at an end ; though he may yet make
troublesome resistance after the sixth vial, but not reign any more ;

2 T

626 SEVENTEENTH EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CHAPTERS [REV.

else the Holy Ghost would have reserved himself till after the
seventh vial, and not have raised the shout of triumph before an
assured victory. But another manner of triumph is to come,
more high and glorious, for the marriage of the Lamb; when Rome
and the beast will be forgotten ; and therefore God ordained it to
be performed at the funeral of the great whore : and two chapters
being spent in setting forth the pageants of the church's triumph
over Rome, surely here ends her great kingdom, and here begins
the church's preparation for the Lamb's marriage in c. xix. Now
c. xvii. 18, shews the whore to be Rome, for Rome is "that great
city which reigned over the kings of the earth ;" and thus c. xvii.
and xviii. are but a more full setting forth of the fifth, that most
eminent and fatal of the vials upon the beast : instead therefore of
spending time in explicating those chapters, I shall hasten to the
exposition of the supplemental c. xi. mainly intended by me as
con aining the state of the church in these and the approaching
times ; and I join it next to the vials, because these vials serve
directly to expound it ; and mentioning the first four vials, it goes
on to shew what shall befal the churches of the Reformation under
the fourth vial, and before the fifth, ending its appointed months
and years. And as c. xiv. shewed the condition of the church
within itself, to the times of the fourth vial ; so c. xi. begins where
c. xiv. ends : hence the supplement of the story of the church's
various and chequered condition is to be fetched, as will appear
in the opening of it.

THE SUPPLEMENT

CONTAINING A MORE ENLARGED EXPOSITION OF

THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER.

I.— FIVE INTRODUCTORY PREMISES

i. — For the better understanding of this chapter, I shall shew,
who is the angel here spoken of; what is his purpose ; and ivhen
he comes down here in this vision. The angel who delivers the
contents of this chapter, (v. 1 — 14,) immediately by word of mouth
to John, is CHRIST HIMSELF, for he gives power to his two wit
nesses, (v. 3;) nor does he speak anywhere but on this occasion, and
in c. i. and he is the same who came to Daniel at the end of his
prophesy, where he useth the same gesture and ceremony, and the
same oath, and that about the same thing and to the same purpose;
see c. x. 6 with Dan. xii. 7. The prophecy of Daniel contains the
very same matter, more obscurely, as doth that of the Revelation,

REV. XI.] FIRST INTRODUCTORY PREMISE. 627

more clearly, viz. the tyranny of the fourth Roman monarchy, and
the oppression of the church thereby, first under the Heathenish
empire, and then under the Pope its last head, of whom Dan. vii.
and xi. 36 — 45, prophesied; after whose time expired, a fifth mo
narchy of the saints should come in : and in both prophecies the
time of Antichrist's reign is defined to be the same; at the end of
which, (in this first seal-prophecy, according to the course of time
run out,)this angel here descends in vision. Now first of all he
renews the oath then taken, and here swears again, (c. x. 6, 7,)
" That there should be time no longer ; but in the days of the
seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God
should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the pro
phets;" see Acts iii. 21, speaking of the same reign of the church :
These words of the angel's oath imply, that the visions of all times
past in the former seal-prophecy, from the primitive times, having
brought things to the last scene of the world's time, now " time
(or delay) shall be no longer:" it is but a little, and the last sand
drops ; the blast of the seventh trumpet will end all. Accordingly
the angel here explains distinctly what was the Pope's time men
tioned in his former oath to Daniel, and what was the "accomplish
ing to scatter the power of the holy people," there made the imme
diate fore-runner of the fulfilling of all things ; and as "willing to
shew the immutability of his promise, he confirms it with an oath,
that we might have a strong consolation," (Heb.vi. 17, 18,) speaking
thus in effect: " I come now, beloved, after so long a while worn
out, to bid you lift up your heads ; for time, now in the days of
the sixth trumpet, is expiring, and my kingdom is at the doors :
the times of the beast, ('prophesied of by Daniel,} of whom you
shall hear more in this little book-prophecy brought with me open
in my hand to give you, do now shortly end and determine ; the
" time, times, and half a time," allotted the beast, (the Pope, the
last head and king to reign in the fourth Roman monarchy,) is
shortly to expire; and with him the times of this present oppres
sing world : and that you, my church, may know and have
infallible warning, when it shall be, I will both explain to you,
How long, in DanieFs prophecy, the beast is allotted 'to scatter
the power of the holy people] my witnesses; and also, Wliat shall
be the manner of that eminent last scattering, the immediate sign
andprecusor ofAntichrisCs ruin, and of the fulfilment of all these
other things ; and I will shew you also, The face of the church in
that age immediately preceding : Thus you may have together
a true computation of the time, and also of such events (and face
of the sky) as may be an eminent sign to you ; that when you
see these things, then know, that the time is expiring and deter
mining. And of this I myself do thus immediately inform you,
because that last scattering will be so great a one, as all the faith
you have will be put to it : and therefore also I have now in
these times sworn to itt that you may eye my oath, and remember

2 T 2

628 SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH [REV. XI.

•// ; for even now 'your redemption draweth nighj nigher than
you are aware of"

ii. — The angel here enters on the stage, and acts his part in a
fit scene or place in this comedy, or vision of all times succes
sively, hitherto acted before John to be by him penned for us.
The seals and trumpets, c. vi. — ix. (containing one prophecy,)
run over all times from John unto the end ; as doth " the little
book" in c.x. containing another prophecy of the church. Just now,
as in the last age, and towards the expiring of the sixth trumpet's
first revolution of all time, this angel steps in with his new or
second prophecy in his hand ready to be delivered ; and as some
sands of time under the first prophecy were not yet run out, he
conveniently and admirably fills up the little interim with an
additional discourse of his own, to inform the church what special
occurrences were to fall out therein before the final consummation
of all under the seventh trumpet, and thus to give warning when
the end of both prophecies should be. The Turkish empire is still
standing, and the sixth trumpet must be still blowing. Now the
sixth seal had set forth an utter end of the Roman empire all it
could ; being however to continue yet some hundreds of years
before the blast of the seventh trumpet ; which space the angel
here fills up with relating what special occurrences, most inti
mately concerning his people, should fall out in the western
church, (over which the Pope had the dominion,) now towards
the end of both Turkish and Popish empires ; and so, in this last
age before the ending of these times : And though such occur
rences properly fall under the cognizance of church-matters in
the book-prophecy, yet they are fitly introduced here between
both prophecies, as the signal of the ending of the full course of
both stages of times. The angel's discourse thus filling up that
remaining time in this interlude, with what was indeed yet to fall
out together with it, before the sixth trumpet ends ; he concludes
with " The second woe is past," q. d. " The sixth trumpet ends
also hereabouts ;" and then in order he blows the seventh.

in. — The manner of the angel's delivering all this to John, is as
the narration of a chorus, or as the speech of an interlocutor in a
comedy ; explaining by word of mouth what could not have been
well understood by vision ; so the angel in c. xvii. also doth,
interpreting who the whore is, as this angel interprets the times
of her and the beast, and the tokens immediately fore-running
the ending of them. The narration here is indeed first occasioned
by a vision of the church's face and state in the last age of these
•iccomplishings, viz. a temple, with its surrounding outward
•ourt, and its altar within, and two witnesses standing and
ministering before the Lord : else John could not have been bid,

1, &c. to " rise and measure tlie temple ;" for to such supposed
vision alone is the angel's discourse adapted: and this is made
;.?;e first occurrence belonging to the age wherein time is to expire,

JREV. XI.] INTRODUCTORY PREMISES. 629

and the ground of his discourse ; which, after explaining how
much time the beast was to have, and how and when it should
end, closeth again with the relation of another after-occurrence,
and last signal of that age, (v. 7,) just as one of the vial-angels
being to describe the beast and the whore, in all the times allot
ted her, yet takes his rise from a vision of her, as then in her
last old age, under the vials, " drunk with the blood of the saints,"
just before her ruin : So here this angel first enters on the stage
as an actor, in the very declension of the sixth trumpet, under
which he swears ; and then, (after presenting the vision of a
measured temple, and its courts falling again unmeasured into
the hands of the Gentiles, to tread it down, and thus " to scatter
the power of the holy people,") he plays the part of an interlocutor,
narrating the whole times of Popery, to expire after this their
last revival ; and introducing also the opposition of the witnesses
during the same, (v. 3 — 6 ;) till he returns back to the last catas
trophe of the age of the commencement of his speech, (towards
the end of the sixth trumpet;) with which he determines his
speech about the witnesses, (v. 7, &c.) now thus made clear by
his previous statements concerning them.

iv. — The oath in Daniel fitly accords with all here, v. 1 — 14 ;
wherein there is both an interpretation of the period of time, and
eminent events signalizing its close : for in the angel's oath, 1st,
The beast's reign there lasts for three times and a half, and here
for forty-two months, (of thirty days i. e. years each,) not one of
which shall pass over, without his reigning ; and of the one
thousand two hundred and sixty days, i. e. years, not one shall
pass over without the sack-cloathed and oppressed saints' oppo
sing him. 2dly, The holy people in Daniel, are the two witnesses
in Revelations, who yet, 3dly, Towards the end should obtain
some "power of the holy people" against him : so here, v. 3, &c.
they had power to erect a temple, (backed with a mighty party of
an outward court;) whence they had already poured out four
vials, so as to scorch their injurers vfiihjire, &c. v. 5, and at their
weakest, to prevent rain, v. 6, &c. 4thly, This their power, as
well as the people themselves, the beast should in the ending
of that time, eminently scatter ; as the accomplishment, or last
act of his so doing, before his ruin and their sorrows cease together :
so here when ready to cast off' their sackcloth, and " about to
finish" (TELESOOSI) their testimony against this beast, then their
" outward courts shall be trodden down,1' and themselves exposed
to the beast's fury and outrage, to be by him scattered among
the nations and killed, where " their dead bodies shall be seen
lying in the streets," &c. which oppression is described, v. 7 — 10,
with their gathering together again, to be scattered no more
for ever, v. 11 — 13.

v. — The times and events are here mentioned together, to
shew that the whole series of ihe one should end with the other ;

630 FIFTH [REV. xi.

so that it is not only making a computation, but defining the peri
od of months or days ; the angel hitting hereby the very aim of his
former oath to Daniel, viz. the expiration of the three and half
times, and the accomplishment of the scattering, &c. the whole
term being fulfilled in the particular exploits this beast shall play,
to the very eve of taking away his kingdom. In c. xiii. 5 — 7, The
beast had "power to do, (POIEIN,) forty-two months," and therein
" to make war with the saints and overcome them ; and power
was given him over all tongues and nations and kindreds," of the
ten European kingdoms. Now the Gentiles here, and that
idolatrous company in c. xiii. 3, 4, that set up this power of the
beast to be worshipped, are the same, and have the same lease of
months ; only here is shewn how the whole term should be fulfil
led, through all those times, and by all those wars and slaughters
of Antichrist : For, First, The treading down of the holy city
for twelve hundred and sixty years, comes in here upon the
court of the temple being given up anew to the Gentiles ; as if the
angel had said, " Cast out the court of this age, (which though it
hath helped against the Papists to keep them off, hath yet defiled
the churches,) and leave it out of thy measure, for it is given to
the Gentiles in this last age to re-enter thereupon, and to get
power over :" which last treading it down and overcoming it,
(having before both possessed it, and then lost it from their domi
nions,) will carry them on to the destined period of the beast's
reign in Europe, that holy city, which is the seat of this church:
So that, notwithsandinding intermissions and occasional losses of
parts of their dominions, yet the last recovery of all will justify their
claim to possesession for the whole forty-two months, first and
last ; as in the last payment, the whole sum is mentioned as
paid. Interpreters therefore do mistake this temple-measuring
and its court-delivering, for the Papists' possessing throughout all
ages the face, (which they call the outward court,) of the temple,
because "the forty-two months' treading down the holy city,"
follows thereupon : as if they were to reign many years after its
being delivered up : If so, it could not be meant of some special
event or act relative to the church and its outward court in this
last age of these latter times: For, 1st, Not the court, but the
city is to be trodden down ; for the Papists were lords over the
greater part of Europe, even when the outward court was sepa
rated from them ; the one stands indeed in the other, as the
temple stood in Jerusalem. 2dly, The scope of here naming
when the term of years ceaseth, is to shew, That in this latter age
the beast should re-enter into full power and jurisdiction
over the holy city, by the court of the temple being again laid
common with the rest of the city ; as a king is said to reign fifty
years, though obliged to leave his throne for an interim of revolt:
and so Antichrist hath his whole number of months of reigning
from time to time ; he reigns not by days, for the Goths at first

REV. XI.] INTRODUCTORY PREMISE. 631

much interrupted the exercise of his power. 3dly, " And they
shall tread down," &c. comes in as a reason for the court's being
in these last times given to those Gentiles, and therefore Anti
christ hopes by repossessing it to recover all Europe again : CAI
also, (" and they shall," &c.) is often a causal particle, noting out
the reason of a thing : So then the term of the Papists' commission
over all the nations and tongues of Europe, (only those exempted
in c. xiii. 1, 8,) being leased out to them ; though the outward
court of carnal Protestants and unregenerate hath made a separa
tion together with the true worshippers, yet being inwardly
Gentiles, and their names not written in the book of life, they are
given to these Gentiles again as their allotted inheritance to be
re-entered, the lease not being yet expired : as in a law-suit, a man
pleads at the end of eighteen years for restoration to a part of an
estate withheld from him under a lease of twenty-one years : so
the court here being land within the bounds of the city, and
belonging to the Pope by gift for so long, and his forty-two
months lease not being expired ; therefore, he must accomplish
to scatter the court and to tread down the city, according to the
angel's interpretation here of his own words in Dan. xii. 7.
Secondly, The computation by days is introduced to shew how
this long description of the witnesses, and this numbering of
their days, is but in order to their last accomplishment ; as v. 7,
calls it the " when " of finishing their testimony : and as more
than half of this discourse sets forth this their last scattering
hereupon, it shews the scope of the former part to have been
the same. And though the Antichrist-beast hath already had
some famous overcomings and killing of these witnesses, yet this
one is here singled out, (about which the whole book-prophecy is
silent,) not perhaps for the eminency of the prevailing, but as the
last struggle ; which also herein is eminent, that after taking away
so much ground from the beast, and winning from him a temple
and court set up on his own ground, he should prevail again,
though for a short time : and such a remarkable prognostic is
here therefore mentioned. Thirdly, The series of coherence and
connexion of one thing with another in these first verses, is briefly
this : The period of months for the Pope and his company to
reign, and of days for the witnesses to prophesy in sackcloth,
is the same ; and both refer unto the two of these last occurren
ces in the reign of the one and the oppressed state of the other :
1st, The whole time of treading down the holy city shall end with
a recovery and treading down of the outward court of the temple
of the reformed churches ; and the date is therefore added to show
how it ends : and accordingly the vision of the temple-measuring
is but an introduction to this last occurence. 2dly, In the date
of days, the order is inverted ; and the whole time of the witnesses'
prophesying, is first mentioned in continuation with the whole
time of the adversaries, (the juxtaposition of the days serving to

632 THE B EAST*S TIMES OR YEARS, [REV. XI. 1, *2.

elucidate the months ;) after which their last scattering comes in
as the accomplishment of the time : and the dates go together
also, because the witnesses are the continual opponents of these
Gentiles, and the chief objects of their malice: CAT also, in v. 3,
is often used adversative!}7, " But, 1 will give power," &c. q. d.
" Whereas the Papists have their forty -two months for treading
down the holy city, (Europe the chief seat of Christian profes
sion,) from whom the Protestants have, meanwhile, won a tem
ple and outward court ; yet to make good the period of their
reign, they shall regain that court of the new tabernacle separa
ted from them ; But they shall not carry it thus, unopposed by
my two witnesses, whom I will empower to testify, though in
sackcloth, all those days; and even in this their last treading
down to avenge themseles with fire fyc. of these Gentiles, who
shall yet go on, and in the end of their days prevail even over
these Tiiy two witnesses also, so as to kill and destroy them when
about to finish their testimony''' Thus though their appointed
time comes in a good way off before, it is in order to this
their last slaughter ; to shew, (as in Daniel,) how it should be
accomplished.

II.— THE TEMPLE MEASURED.

AND THERE WAS GIVEN ME A REED LIKE UNTO A ROD : AND
THE ANGEL STOOD, SAYING, RlSE, AND MEASURE THE TEMPLE
OF GOD, AND THE ALTAR, AND THEM THAT WORSHIP THEREIN;
BOT THE COURT WHICH IS WITHOUT THE TEMPLE LEAVE OUT,
AND MEASURE IT NOT ; FOR IT IS GIVEN TO THE GENTILES :
AND THE HOLY CITY SHALL THEY TREAD UNDER FOOT FORTY
AND TWO MONTHS, V. 1, 2.

i. — The double computation by days and months explained,
and why they are here set together.

The contents of this chapter, to the fourteenth verse, are redu
cible to three heads. I. The above double computation of times ;
ii. The occurrences in these times of Antichrist ; in the age
(wherein we live) just before their fatal period ; unto the accom
plishment of which those occurrences conduce, in. The de
scription of the two witnesses interwoven in the angel's discourse,
in order to the explanation of what should at last befall them.
Now for the times here mentioned : First, They are both the same
as Daniel's "time, times, and half-a-time;" which, Secondly, Are
shewn, by the forty-two months, to be three years and six months ;
meaning twelve hundred and sixty years; (reckoning thirty days to
the month, which prophetically are so many years ; as a week is
seven years, a month thirty, a twelvemonth three hundred and sixty,
&c.) Thus the "three days and a half" v. 11, must be so many
years, wherein the witnesses are to lie in the view of all nations,

KEV. XI. 1, 2.] RECKONED BY MONTHS AND DAYS. 633

(as perhaps banished among them,) their enemies meanwhile send
ing gifts to one another. Thirdly, By thus linking the two modes of
dating the times, they are shewn to be the same when mentioned
also apart in c. xii. and xiii. Fourthly, Though here and in Daniel,
only the times of the Pope's reign, (the last head of the Roman
monarchy,) are mentioned ; (not bearing date from John's days;) yet
the whole period of the Revelation may hereby be calculated, and
the contemporaneousness of things in both prophecies ; the princi
pal aim being to shew the time and end of the beast's reign, as
c. xvii. 8, shews who he is, and what he should be at last. Now
to demonstrate all these; 1st, This explication of the times is a
date whence to compute the whole period of the Revelation, if we
know either the beginning or ending of the Pope's reign : but
c. xvii. 12, shews his rise to be one hour with the ten kings ;
which being after A. D. 400, he must continue till after A.D. 1660,
(see p. 603) ; and the Turk's ruin is yet to follow under " the second
woe"ofv. 14; and then comes the new Jerusalem state of thechurch;
whence we may conjecture the space from the incarnation to that
fifth monarchy. 2dly, This computation shew the synchronism
of the seal and book-prophecy; and here most fitly between them
both; for the sixth trumpet of the seal-prophecy, (v. 14, with
c. viii. 13,) ends with the Pope's reign, whose story belongs to
the book-prophecy ; and the passing away of that woe is the
sixth vial in the book-prophecy, affecting the Turk's ruin, or a
preparation thereto by the calling of the Jews : and then the
seventh trumpet begins with the seventh vial ; and so the beast's
times, and the rising of the witnesses, end with the fifth vial; after
which the sixth shall not stay long. 3dly, The division of things
into the double series of six seals and six trumpets, is suited to
the angel's division of all times ; the primitive being those before
the beast's rise and reign : so that ascertaining how the two pro-
pheciesmeet towards theirclose downward, we conjecture howthey
run along upwards. For the seal-prophecy being branched into two
such equal divisions of six seals, c. vi. and the six trumpets, c. viii.
ix. the seals containing the story of the empire through all that tract
of the primitive times before the beast, the trumpets do likely con
tain the story of the empire during the beast's times ; and as they
end, so they no doubt begin, not far off from each other. 4thly,
The Holy Ghost specifies only the times of the beast, as a rule
and measure whereby to sum and cast up the account of all the
times of this book ; For, The beast's was to be the longest monarchy
after Christ, and the Pope the most long-lived of all the heads of the
Roman monarchy fore-going him ; indeed as long as from the rise
of Rome itself, to the rise of Antichrist. 2, The matters of this
book being not so fully to be opened " till about the time of the
end," (as in Dan. xii. 4 ;) if the beast's times should then come to
be known, the whole time from John downward would be known
also by them that live in these latter days, for whose benefit and

634 GENERAL VIEW AND DIVISION [REV. XI. 1, 2.

comfort this computation was given. 3, This last head of the
Romish monarchy, (which but for him had failed, but was in him
healed and restored again,) is inkling enough of the approach of
Christ's kingdom. 4, This beast being the most eminent oppres
sor of the church in the times after Christ ; the computation of
this time, (beginning and ending,) and the oppression of the wit
nesses by him, being most acceptable to be known, would be
most enquired after by the church.

ii. — The several occurrences of measuring the temple, altar, Sfc.
leaving out the outward court ; and of treading down the holy
city ; towards the expiration of the above times.

First, For a general view and division of these occurrences :
As Christ was careful to give us the above computation of times,
so for our comfort he relates such events to fall out towards the
end of these times ; which is the second head to be explained, and
it is also twofold ; The re-delivery of the outward court to the
Gentiles, with the treading down of which ends their reign of the
time of the city's treading down ; and, The killing of the witnesses,
which terminates in particular the days of sackcloth -prophesy ing,
as the former terminated the months of the beast's reign in general,
each of which occurrences have two others with them as congenial
appendices to them, or occasions of them : The giving up again
the outward court is accompanied by, The measurement of the
temple, and The killing of the witnesses is much occasioned, and
specially provoked by, The hurt done by the^re of these witnes
ses just before, in revenge of which they are encouraged to kill
them : Or thus : John and the angel standing here in the very ex
tremities of the times of the fourth vial, (the present age,) wherein
Antichrist's reign is drawing near to the end ; John hath repre
sented to him, (as an introduction to all that follows,) the face of
the church in this age, and is himself bidden to represent the work
of the godly towards her : and, First, She is represented to him
as the inward temple standing in the holy city Jerusalem, (as in
Ezek. xl. 1, &c.) into which the priest only was to come, and
wherein stands the altar, with a company of true worshippers ; but
a vast outward court lies around it, into which all sorts of profes
sors of true worship come, as used the crowds of Jewish professors.
This temple-church is also represented as adorned within with
golden candlesticks and two stately olive trees, (v. 4,) being two
eminent witnesses and prophets that minister before God therein.
Now the Gentiles have for a long time possessed the city, and are
still to possess it, till the expiration of their months ; but the tem
ple, and its court of late erected in this city, they have been kept
out of, and so could not come at these witnesses who are within
the temple, nor overcome and kill them as formerly ; yet are they
mad again with vexation and eagerness for vengeance, because of
their being tormented by them with fire and other plagues out of

REV. XI. 1, 2.] OF OCCURRENCES. 635

this temple : But now, before the termination of their months, The
angel, (being angry both with the carnal worshippers in the out
ward court so profanely mixing themselves with his worshippers,
and laying themselves to his building and temple; and also with
the carnal gospelling of the two witnesses among them ; and with
the imperfections of this temple-building, not yet answering the
pattern,) intending to erect a purer temple, Secondly, Bids John,
(the representative of the godly of this age,) to measure the temple
anew; and so begins to make a new reformation therein more an
swerable to the pattern in the mount; for he is not pleased with
the old one that hath stood so long, and whose outward court
John is to leave out, as to be given up to those Gentiles, (after
that his purer churches shall thus, as it were, have excommuni
cated them ;) who having already taken possession of the city, and
kept it a long time, shall now again enter on and over-run this
outward court, as within their lease and demise ; thus accom
plishing their reign over the whole city ; and then they are to be
driven out of all for ever; which makes them so angry, v. 18.
Thirdly, Having thus won the outward court, which fenced and
kept safe the witnesses from Popish persecutions, the beast, (vexed
and plagued by their shooting wild-fire out of the temple, and in
turn shooting back what had hurt him,) can now come to them to
overcome them and kill them quite, and scatter their power ;
ending withal the period of his oppression, and the last war
wherein he shall any way prevail ; for though he shall again make
head, (what of him is left,) before the seventh vial, it shall not
come to another victory.

Secondly, For the holy city, temple, and outward court. It is
wonderful to me to see how exactly this vision, in the whole series
of it, represents the present face, the affairs, stirrings, and altera
tions, now a working in the churches of Europe ; the type and
antitype so fully answering and suiting each other; Ycn,Jirst, This
holy city, (wherein these Gentiles have a lease of forty-two months'
reign,) are those kingdoms of Europe which for more than a
thousand years have been the metropolis and chief seat of
Christian profession, as Jerusalem of old was of the worship of the
true God ; which therefore in the following part of the book-pro
phecy are made, (from the rise of the beast,) the only stage of all,
until the new Jerusalem and holy city from heaven succeeds this :
Yet, secondly, God permits this city, (for the punishment of the
world,) to be trodden down of the Gen tiles, (Luke xxi. 24,) for forty
two months : But, thirdly, towards the end of the times of this
idolatrous crew of the beast, who have set up such an image of
Gentilism, a great part of this city falls from them ; and an inclo-
sure and separation is made, wherein a temple is built of churches
separate from Antichrist, (c. xv.) as in the northern parts of
Europe, see Ps. xlviii. 2, with Isa. xlix. 12 ; Dan. xi. 44 : Unto
this temple, fourthly, An outward court of carnal and unregener-

636 THE HOLY CITY, [REV. XI. 1, 2.

ate persons hath been laid, who have made the greatest shew in
this building; and who take up so much of the room, that although
true churches and temples have been set up by reason of the true
worshippers among them, yet they have been defiled with the
addition of an outward court, into which all sorts come : so that
indeed these Reformed churches have become outward courts
more than inward temples ; through which mixture great corrup
tions and defects in the form of the temple, (or church-fellowship,)
have been continued among them, and impurities in the worship
and about the altar. Now to the temple there went, first, The most
holy place inclosed at one end, and separated as our cathedral-
choirs ; and next, The body of the temple, for the priests only,
(where stood the altar of incense,) surrounded by the inner
court; and then, The large outer court, (1 Kings vii. 12;
2 Chron. iv. 9 ; Ezek. xl. 17, 27,) admitting people of all sorts,
and encircling the whole buildingbesides, (like our church-yards,)
and here said to be " without" the compass of the temple : Herod
indeed built a fourth court for strangers. Thus then the true
church with its true worshippers, is the true temple with its
priests, (see 1 Cor. iii. 16; Eph. ii. 21; 1 Pet. ii. 5 ; Heb. x. 22 ;)
and the uncircumcised in heart, not being, by regeneration, Jews
and the Israel of God, and having no right to approach this altar,
are " the court of the Gentiles:" And whether temple or church
be taken mystically for the elect and sincere worshippers, or
for churches instituted and congregations of true public worship
pers, (as Eph. ii. 22; Heb. x. 22, 25 ;) in both cases others are
without in comparison of them, see 1 Cor. xv. 12, 17 ; Rom. ii.
28, 29 : so that in what sense soever the Papists may be called
" The outward court," these also may ; as alike arrogating the
name of" the church," and in some places, underthat name,casting
out the true worshippers ; for so great is their number, that in
view they are only or chiefly the church ; the best congregations
of the first Reformation, having numberless more bad than good
among them ; and many being made up of unregenerate persons ;
whilst the true visible worshippers, comparatively, are a company
of hidden ones : Indeed these unregenerate Protestants are much
rather to be accounted " the outwrard court," and so are mainly
here intended : For, 1st, " The outward court," is here opposed
to all else enumerated for measuring, as temple, altar, and wor
shippers ; and therefore it means not merely an outward face and
place of worship, but carnal outward worshippers also : and as
heaven and earth are put for their inhabitants, so here the Holy
Ghost speaks not of the material court, as neither, elsewhere, of
churches as material buildings : so that take the persons wor
shipping away, and the face of the outward court ceaseth, and its
place is lost. Cornelius a Lapide saith, " In that part of the
temple where the priests worship, the faithful are symbolically
represented; who in Antichrist's time will be the best, most devout.

REV. XI. 1,2.] TEMPLE, AND OUTER COURT. C37

most close to God, and most stedfast in his worship." By " the
court without," are meant, the more unstable and less strict livers,
(therefore those further from God,) who are to be cast out
without the church ; as if the angel had said, "Reject them among
the unfaithful and apostate, as unworthy to be numbered with
the faithful, because they give way to the Gentiles and those who
cleave to Antichrist." 2dly, These outer-court worshippers are
distinct from the Gentiles, to whom they are given : and there
fore not being either Papists or true worshippers, must be
carnal Protestants filling our churches. 3dly, The Papists, as
possessing the outward face of the church, could not so fill this
court, as to be the sole contra-distinct and opposite party to the
true worshippers ; unless all Protestants were of this inner temple,
whereas not one of a hundred are so, according to these rules of
this reed-measurement: the mere nominal Protestants must there
fore be the third party distinct from both, as cast out by the one,
and siezed on by the other; and according to apostolic institu
tions, such ought to be left out of the building, for true churches
to be measured anew without them : and therefore if this
measuring the temple fall under the sixth trumpet, I cannot but
imagine that a new reformation, begun again, is intended ; and
that the re-entry these Papists are now making upon the outward
court of our churches, and our yielding to them, is this giving of
the same to the Gentiles. 4thly, The Papists are no court at all
to this temple, being by name " Satan's synagogue," and
" worshippers of the beast and of his image," and also " Sodom
and Egypt," &c. whereas these, being neither such Gentiles, nor
such Israel of God, must be " Jews outwardly," who have the
same worship as the true Israelites, and therefore are discovered
to be " the court without," by the reed and light of God's word ;
and those treaders of that court, (Isa. i. 12,) of which the others
are treaders down; God bringing on such outward Protestant des-
pisers of the gospel and of true worshippers, the worst of the Hea
then, to tread them down by violence, either of conquest over their
bodies, (as in Germany,) or over their consciences, in making
such again submit to their superstitions and idolatries, as they
still go on to do in other places. Now all this must be ascribed
to the glorious wisdom of God, who means to have a church
most holy to himself under the seventh trumpet, in which " the
ark shall be seen in the Holy of holies ;" and as he perfects her
by degrees, therefore about mid-way between the first Reformation
long since made, and the seventh trumpet, he sets his builders
on work, (here represented by John,) to endeavour to erect a
new frame and reformation of that Reformation, and to take the
reed, and measure over anew both temple, altar, and worshippers;
and to cast out that outward court of worshippers, with these
corruptions of theirs which hindered that thorough Reformation ;
and so to contract his temple into the narrower compass of the

G38 THE MEASU11EMENT OF THE [REV. XI. 1, 2.

inner temple, yet purer and more refined ; he delighting more in
truth of worship, than in magnitude or multitude of sacrifices and
worshippers : thus he makes to himself a church of priests, into
which the faithful are called up from that court before common to
both. Here then is the inner temple of the first Reformation, more
imperfect, unfurnished, and besides, defiled by having a court
attached : Here is also a second Reformation more pure, repre
sented by that temple remeasured for finishing and cleansing from
similar mixture ; for the Holy of holies is opened, (v. 19,) " into
which no unclean thing shall enter," (c.xxi. 27,) for though the reed
of the second Reformation keeps out those whom the godly, (here
represented by John,) judge civil and profane, yet many a hypo
crite " that loveth and maketh a lie," (c. xxii. 15,) may escape and
crowd into this inward temple still : but there shall be " a golden,
reed" (c.xxi. 15,) to measure the new-Jerusalem temple: At present
however we must proceed

Thirdly, For the measurement of the temple, altar, and wor
shippers therein. As a reed is put into the hands of a builder,
so Christ puts into the hearts of the rulers of his people the light
of his word, as the only sufficient rule whereby to square the
worship and worshippers of churches ; and by no frame of other
reeds unwarranted in scripture: This principle was never yet fully
taken up and practised by our Reformers, though long contended
for as the ground-work of this building. 1st, The temple here is
not only the church of the elect, (for there is a distinct consider
ation made of the worshippers therein,) but congregation sin church-
fellowship, as in Eph. ii. 20 — 22, where the saints are not only
part of the temple of the elect, but as an assembly, are an habi
tation apart, and a little sanctuary unto God, every particular
church bearing the name of the whole ; and in such a temple
alone the ordinances of church-communion and worship, (the
sacraments, excommunications, &c.) are to be administered ; as at
Jerusalem alone sacrifices were to be offered : Therefore, 2dly,
The altar being the main and only ordinance of temple-worship
serving for sacrifice here, means the church-ordinances of public
worship and sacrifice. 3dly, The worshippers, as the priests of
old, are those alone to be of this temple and to approach this altar,
as iu 1 Pet. ii. 5 ; being persons with qualifications meet for saints,
and requisite for the true temple-worship ; and thus they become
themselves a temple, as gathered up in a church-assembly, ac
cording to Christ's institution. 4thly, The measurement of
temple, altar, and worshippers by a reed, is, 1, The drawing a true
platform according to the rules of the word, by shewing, What a
true church or temple is, and how to be built ; next, What is the
way of duly administering all church-worship and ordinances, as
excommunications, sacraments, ordaining officers of holy things
who partake of and serve at thea/tar,and in short whatRom. xii. 1,
called LOGICEE LATREIA, word-service, (speaking of a church-

REV. XI. 1, 2.] TEMPLE, ALTAR, AND WORSHIPPERS. 639

body, as the next chapter speaks to the same persons as members
of a common-wealth ;) and then, What is true saintship, and who
are meet worshippers in this temple, being admitted or rejected
according to the rule and reed of God's word, whereby we judge
them that are within, 1 Cor. v. 12,13. That measuring is " draw
ing a platform of all these things," appears by Ezekiel's shewing
Israel the pattern, form, and fashion of the house, its goings out
and comings in for administration, &c. all the ordinances with
their forms, and laws thereof: and as the prophet saw, distinctly
and apart measured, the temple and the altar ; and then heard the
laws given concerning the worshippers, blaming the admission of
strangers uncircumcised in flesh and heart, and shewing who
should be priests and Levites, and what their duties ; so here the
outer court of strangers to God, and unclean, who use strange
forms of worship, is to be cast out ; see Ezek. xli. xlii. xliii.
10 — 13 ; xliv. 7 — 9. 2, It means also that such temple, altar,
and worship, should now in this age begin to be built and erect
ed, and men set on work to do it ; that so the people seeing the
true pattern, might be ashamed of their former aberrations, and in
future keep to that pattern, anc^ do after it, and square all by it.
Nor does the angel speak of the temple hitherto standing, but, of
a new building, or finishing of a church, as in Zech. ii. 5 ; iv. 10.
3, It imports also protection, as when God is " a wall of fire
round about his people, and the glory in the midst of them."
So here the worshippers are called up from the unmeasured
court, given to the Gentiles ; and by getting into this temple,
they are preserved from the re-entry of these Gentiles upon them,
and from such power over them, as they had over the outer-court
worshippers ; the saints being thus preserved from the overgrow
ing corruptions and defilements of these Gentiles ; and God being
to them " a little sanctuary," (Ezek. xi. 16,) they will be at least
preserved for that resurrection to come after, v. 11, 12.

Fourthly, For the leaving out of the outward court unmeasur
ed. 1st, This is " to take the precious from the vile," (Jer. xv. 19,)
and " to discern between the righteous and the wicked, and
him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not," (Mai. iii. 18,)
by such marks and signs and spots of God's people, (Deut. xxxii.
5,) as the word of God sets forth. By this exclusive work, way is
made for the right constitution of purer churches ; and by these
excommunicating gifts, (where the ordinance of excommunication
is wanting,) men's natural or regenerate states are set forth, where
by carnal men are convinced and discovered to themselves and
others: a spirit being set up in the hearts of the godly by this light,
to discern between the clean and the unclean, and so to hew and
to set apart the material for this temple, as were the stones for
Solomon's. 2dly, This implies a rejecting them from church-
fellowship and not admitting them into this new-reared temple,
as unfit matter for the building ; which is a kind of excommu-

640 REASONS FOR LEAVING OUT [REV. XI. 1, 2.

nication of them. 3dly, It may further imply a rejecting such
forms of administration in worship, and corruptions therein, as
are not found agreeable to the word ; though left in the first
Reformation, (as the filth which the sea leaves behind it at an
ebb ;) for "the temple, altar, and worshippers," and " the outward
court," are in full opposition to each other.

Fifthly, For the reason of the leaving out the outward court.
Those forms of worship that came from Popery, (the worshippers
themselves being inwardly Gentiles,) are ordained, for glorious
ends, more or less to be subjected to it again : and therefore
God puts it into the hearts of his builders thus strangely and
suddenly to reject them, as the time of his decree draws near ;
only ere these Gentiles seize on them as their prey, the true
church-templers leave them out, and they forthwith become as
Heathens, cast out and withered, (John xv. 6 ;) Popish opinions
and practices take them again : And how by degrees do these
Gentiles win ground upon the outward court in England ! and
how does their winning ground drive the true worshippers into
the inner temple, and cause them to abandon their mixture with
the outward court ! thus as the new Reformation makes way for
ruining the outward court, so the Gentiles' winning more upon the
outward court furthers the new Reformation; God carrying on these
two works at once. Now this word "given" shews an easy kind of
conquest obtained by the Popish party, to whom the fort is yielded
and given up without much or long holding out: and in such a dis
pensation towards carnal Protestants, thus to give them up again
to the Gentiles, God may have many and glorious ends before he
brings in that glorious church to come; as 1st, To have a purer
church, according to the primitive institution, these treaders of
his courts becoming loathsome to him with their oblations : and
though the first Reformation was outwardly in shew more specious
and glorious for the multitude of the reformed, and this is to be
a much smaller and narrower building ; yet this second building
of a temple without a court, consisting of purer worship and wor
shippers, squared by the word, shall in true glory excel the other.
2dly, To let many taste of the fruit of their own ways, who though
church-zealots, and defenders of religion against the Papists, yet
cast out God's true worshippers and their ministers* saying, " Let
God be glorified," (Isa. Ixvi. 5,) whilst they beat their fellow-ser
vants, (Matt. xxiv. 49:) yet herein they are retaliated, being cast
out in turn ; and their protection and defence ceasing, they are
given up to the Gentiles. 3dly, God let Popery come into the
world, because men " received not the love of the truth," (2 Thes.
ii. 10,) and therefore it will overflow again after so clear a shining
of the prophecy of the witnesses. 4thly, To throw out the rub
bish that would hinder the glory of the temple to be built; for such
Protestants, like the Samaritans in Ezraiv. 1, 2, offering to assist
the building, yet not called of God unto it, would only be a hin-

REV. XI. 1,2.] THE OUTWARD COURT. 641

iterance. 5thly, That true worshippers only, and faithful witnesses
who stood the trial against the invasions of Popery, might have
the honour and praise of that glorious restauration and resurrection
of the church and witnesses, yet to come, v. 12, 13. This trial
upon all the churches burns up and consumes the dross, and dis
covers the unsoundness of these carnal Protestants, (that have
spoken as big words, and talked as hotly as any against Popery,
making it the evidence of their sincerity,) by their base yielding
to the Popish Gentiles ; that when Christ revives his church again,
(v. 12, 13,) he may appear to his people's glory and to their shame.
6thly, That the Gentiles might thus accomplish their time and
period of forty two months, with an investment of the Pope into
his old territories, towards the expiring of his lease, when he will
himself expire almost in full possession ; that so the confusion of
Antichrist, (the greatest work to be done for the church since the
apostles' days,) may be the more glorious unto God. Thus Dan.
xi. 44, 45, seemed to foretell, That after these " tidings out of the
north should trouble him, (the seceding of the northern king
doms,) as also " out of the east," (through the Turk's prevailing so
near his territories ;) enraged hereby, he would " go forth in great
fury, and plant his tabernacle again, (his power and jurisdiction,)
upon the glorious holy mountain, (where the temple stands,) between
the seas ;" yet after all this recovery of his power over the Reform
ed churches, " he shall come to his end, and none shall help him."
So when the whore of Rome begins to sing her sister Babel's song,
just afore he fall, and " saith in her heart, I sit as a queen, and
am no widow, (as having her ancient paramours again,) and shall
see no sorrow ; therefore shall her plagues come in one day, for
strong is the LORD that judgeth her," and omnipotently confounds
her, c. xviii. 7, 8 : and inc. xvii. 13, 17, the ten kings or states of
Europe are twice mentioned; first, as giving their power to the
beast, and then as agreeing to do so through some special hand
of God " to fulfil his will," even till the words of God (in Daniel)
be fulfilled.

In conclusion, From the above interpretation I exclude not the
idea of a measuring the temple, &c. at the first Reformation, when
churches were erected by our worthies, in separation from
Popery, they casting out that Catholic Romish church as not
agreeing with the rule. And so that Reformation and separation
falling out when the Turks possessed the eastern empire, (being
the sixth trumpet, c. ix. 13, &c.) this chapter beginning with that
Reformation, should thereby orderly continue the story of the
sixth trumpet, without any chasm between c. ix. and xi. whereas
to draw it down to our time leaves an interim or vacuity of near
three centuries ; yet the one being a true measuring, as the other
is the finishing of that building whereof the Reformers' hands laid
the foundation, (like Zerubbabel, whose hands were also to finish
the temple, Zech. iv. {),) therefore I verily think that the Holy

-2 u

642 DIVISION, ORDER, AND TIME [REV. XI. 3, 4.

Ghost bad an aim to both, as two several gradual accomplishments
of it, as in other prophecies, (when the last of several in his eye
is yet mainly intended :) and this double aspect here, I shall shew
when I come to the killing of the witnesses.

III.— THE WITNESSES DESCRIBED.

" AND I WILL GIVE POWER TO MY TWO WITNESSES, AND THEY
SHALL PROPHESY A THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND THREESCORE
DAYS, CLOTHED IN SACKCLOTH : THESE ARE THE TWO OLIVE-TREES,
AND THE TWO CANDLESTICKS STANDING BEFORE THE GOD OF THE
EARTH : AND IF ANY MAN WILL HURT THEM, FIRE PROCEEDETH
OUT OF HIS MOUTH AND DEVOURETH THEIR ENEMIES; AND IF
ANY MAN V.'ILL HURT THEM, HE MUST IN THIS MANNER BE KILLED!
THESE HAVE POWER TO SHUT HEAVEN, THAT IT RAIN NOT IN

THE DAYS OF THEIR PROPHESY : AND HAVE POWER OVER WATERS
TO TURN THEM TO BLOOD, AND TO SMITE THE EARTH WITH ALL
PLAGUES AS OFTEN AS THEY WILL," V. 3 — 6.

I. — The division, order, and times of the particular acts ascri
bed to the witnesses.

First, For their description, I come now to the angel's dis
course concerning the two witnesses, who are " the holy people,
whose power is at last to be scattered ;" to make way for the re
lation of which scattering, their condition is set forth, v. 3 — 6:
and yet that John might know of whom he spake, as at last to
be thus killed, they are described to him as opposing Antichrist
in every age, because the angel needs to mention their whole time ;
but they are specially set forth by what in their latter times, im
mediately before their killing, they should have power to oppose
the beast in, who yet should prevail against them after they had
set up a temple, and poured out four vials, and that highest
fourth-vial plague of devouring fire. Now they are described,
first, By their office, as witnesses, (Testes,} to protest against Anti
christ, especially now at last ; and as prophets, to feed the church
in the wilderness for twelve hundred and sixty years, c. xii. 6.
Secondly, By their condition, as in sackcloth and mourning,
whilst the Pope and his clergy are triumphing in their silk. Third
ly, By their number, being two ; 1st, " By the mouth of two (or
three) witnesses shall every word be established," (2 Cor. xiii. 1.)
2dly, In allusion to these famous pairs or couples who lived in like
times, figurative of the various progress of the state of the church
through the ages of Antichrist's reign : these were, Moses and
Aaron, prophets to the church in Egypt, in the wilderness ; Elias
and Elishc.^ prophets to Israel in Ahab's idolatrous day, when no
face of a church was seen, and there were hid in corners seven
thousand of the Lord's secret opes ; Zerubbabel and Joshua,
prophets in the days of finishing the temple, after the people were

REV. XI. 5.] OF THE WITNESSES5 ACTS. 043

come forth from the captivity of Babylon. That the Holy Ghost
here alludes to these appears, From the plagues of Egypt execu
ted in v. 6 ; From the fire of Moses twice consuming his gain-
sayers, v. 5 ; By Elijah and Elisha's preventing rain, v. 6 ; By
Joshua and Zerubbabel being the two olive-trees and candle
sticks, that began arid finished the temple. Now all these were
eminent ministers and magistrates ; and as such also the wit
nesses are two : and thus we have their quality, office, condition,
and number.

Secondly, They are set forth by their several exploits during
their prophecy, as particularly related in each verse following,
the recital of which is so ordered as to draw our eyes to two of
these facts, as more eminent and nearest the times of this last
age of measuring the temple, viz. Their devouring their enemies
with fire, v. 5, and Their being two olive-trees, &c. v. 4 : these
two things are first mentioned as setting forth these witnesses at
first view, according to what they should be in this latter age :
For, First, The words in v. 5, " If any man hurt them, fire comes
out of their mouths? &c. refer directly to v. 3 ; as if the angel
had said, " I will give to my two witnesses power — that if any
man hurt them, fire shall come out of their mouths," &c. Now
the CAI of v. 3, notes out that special opposition these vyitnesses
should have power to make against those Gentiles entering on
their outward court ; " But I will give my witnesses power, that
if any hurt them," &c. " And I will give'1'' referring to this, as
well as to " And they shall prophesy :" for whereas he had said
three things, in v. 1,2: That the temple was to be measured and
finished in this latter age by the godly, (represented by John : )
That the outward court, fencing the temple and witnesses, was
to be regained by the Papists, and trodden down : That the
Gentiles' whole time of reigning, (on this occasion mentioned,)
was to expire. Answerably, and oppositely, with a " but? (as CAI
is taken,) three things are said of these witnesses : 1st, That the
same space of time wherein those Gentiles reign, the same the
witnesses have to prophesy in, and to oppose them ; the twelve
hundred and sixty days of the one being the forty-two months of
the other. 2dly, Whereas this temple was in this latter age to be
begun to be measured, but interrupted in the progress by the
assualt of these Gentiles on the court and temple ; yet these wit
nesses shall be as those " two olive-trees, (v. 4,) that minister
before the Lord of the whole earth," (whose power is engaged in
that work ;) Joshua and Zerubbabel being so called in Zech. iv.
in respect of their performing the like work of finishing the tem
ple against all opposition. 3dly, Although those Gentiles, in their
subduing the outward court, do much hurt to the witnesses, who op
pose them in this their assault on it, and on the temple ; yet they
again shall be able to avenge all the hurt done to themselves, byjire
returned upon their enemies, and spit out of their mouths against

2 u 2

644 THE WITNESSES IN THE DARKEST AGES. [REV. XI. 6.

them, in their attempt to regain the outward court. Secondly,
This power of hurting their enemies is spoken of as a matter of
fact, done at the present time, and in the age wherein John, in the
vision, stands in the name of the godly meters : and to encourage
them, " If any man will hurt them,y?re comes out of their mouth."
Thirdly, Whatever is said of their power, in v. 6, (besides the
two things, in v. 4, 5,) is added only to illustrate the power besides
what they have in their days formerly exercised. " These have
power in the clays of their prophesy," &c. v. 6. But the main
thing, first mentioned, is their " devouring their enemies with
fire? which is plainly the fourth vial, following as an adjunct to
the measuring of the temple. Fourthly, This their exploit hath
also an emphasis on it, v. 5, " In this manner he must be
killed" (who hurts them ;) as noting the greatest plague these
witnesses could execute, which so vexeth and tormenteth their
enemies, (v. 10,) and so scorcheth them, (c. xvi. 8, 9,) that they
are irritated to kill them for it, and so to rejoice over them chief
ly in this very respect. Fifthly, These four plagues being plainly
the four first vials, they are here mentioned in an inverted order
from c. xvi. for the /Ere-vial there is last, and here first in exe
cution ; so that on the earth, there first, is here last ; to shew that
the fire-vial belonged to the present times of this chapter and its
visions, (when the temple was measured,) and as mainly intended ;
and the other to come in only for illustration's sake, to prove the
witnesses to be these vial-pourers.

ii. — The witnesses' acts in the darkest ages, and also in the
separation from Popery.

The serviceable acts of the witnesses for the name of God all
this long time of their prophecy, respect their enemies and the
temple-church of God ; What in this last age they were to do
before their killing, and now when the temple is measured and
the outward court to be trodden down, (v. 4, 5 ;) and, What in
the former ages'of their prophecy they had also done, (v. 6 ;) ac
cording to the division of the vials, and in c. xiv. 1st, What they did
against their enemies in the days fore-going this latter age,
wherein John is supposed to stand, as in v. 6 ; Either, in the
first darkest times of Popery, when the hundred and forty-four
thousand stood on mount Zion without a temple, and when idola
try overspread the world, (c. xiv. 1 — 5,) " They shut heaven,
that it rained not ;" as Elijah did in Ahab's time, when he
thought himself left alone ; and Ahab and his priests of Baal, (as
the Pope and his mass-priests,) ruled the world : This signifies
their privilege of exclusive grace, and of the dews and influence
of heaven, so as to have a truth of doctrine among them to save
them ; which fell not into the knowledge and hearts of these
priests of Baal ; see c. xiv. 3. These gracious dews of saving
doctrine, restrained from those apostates, were a just curse on their

REV. XI. 6.] THE WITNESSES IN THIS LAST AGE. 645

apostacy. Or, 2dly, From and after the times of their separation
from Popery, and on their coming out of that Egypt, they exe
cute the like plagues to those of Moses and Aaron in Egypt,
even the three first vials, which are therefore in v.6, (see c. xvi.)
and these are the days of separation from Antichrist, and first
Reformation in c. xiv.

in. — The witnesses' acts in this their last age of prophecy.

First, The devouring of men with fire. Towards the time of the
new Reformation of the temple, and afore this their killing, they
pour out the fourth vial in scorching and devouring their enemies
with fire, (v. 5,) whether Papists or other injurious persons.
And as Moses had brought the people out of Egypt, and long
since set up the tabernacle and other ordinances of worship,
when Nadab and Abihu were devoured with fire, and the princes
in the rebellion of Korah, (Lev. x. 1, 2: Num. xvi. 35:) so after
the church comes out of that spiritual Egypt, where these former
plagues were executed ; and after the public worship is erected
and set up by the Reformation, according to God's appointment
in many things ; this rebellion breaks out against the witnesses1
endeavouring to keep to the word of God in his temple's frame
and fabric, and against their calling for this at the builders' hands.
The quarrels of both those companies then, and of these now are
parallelled thus : The first quarrel then was about introducing
human inventions in God's worship j and the second was not only
a renewing and continuing that quarrel, but a taking away all dis
tinction of persons in worshipping; for Nadab and Abihu " offer
ed strange (or culinary)y?re before the Lord," instead of the altar-
fire from heaven ; therefore fire consumed them for justifying such
unwarrantable inventions : and as for Korah and his company
they offered incense, though no priests, and also quarrelled with
Moses and Aaron, for excluding some of the Levitcs from the
priesthood. Now in England and other churches since the
Reformation, (of the latter days of which time this is especially
here understood, for it is the fourth vial,) the quarrel has been
about the strange fire of human inventions, continued and justi
fied against the few witnesses for the commands of God to be
the only rule of worship : And as for the putting such a differ
ence between man and man, between the holy and profane, this
hath been a still greater grievance of hot and violent opposition
against these witnesses, who insist that those who have such or
such a work of grace on their hearts, and endeavour to walk thus
and thus holy, are alone saints : the stream of their ministry in
England, hath still run in this channel of distinguishing men
from men, " the precious from the vile ;" their work and bent
hath been to mark out from that promiscuous mixture, who it is
God hath chosen, and who only are true priests and worshippers
of God in spirit and truth ; and for this, their opponents, quarrel

646 THE WITNESSES IN THE LAST AGE. [REV. XI. 6.

with them, and silence them, saying as Korah's company, "Are not
all the people holy ? (have they not all been baptized ? ) ye take too
much upon you, (out of the pride of your spirits, ye precise ones,)
to lift up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord." Or
again, The quarrel hath been about God's own election of a few
to be priests unto him, (as Levi was chosen from Israel, and
Aaron from the house of Levi,) " Who are his, and whom he
hath chosen :" so these now plead the cause of all mankind in
universal grace and redemption. Accordingly, all the quarrels
between the Popish party and the witnesses are reducible to two
heads : True purity of worship, and, True holiness and peculiar
election of worshippers. The light in both these things hath in
our days grown up so high and so clear, that many opponents
of these sin out of rebellion and presumption, against their own
convictions of the truth ; and so their punishment like that of
those conspirators against Moses and Aaron, is the fire of the
fourth vial, a spiritual judgment on their souls, effected by the
powerful conviction of the word out of the mouth of the witnss-
ses, who spit fire into their consciences, and begin hell-fire afore-
hand : and this very allusion is thus interpreted, Heb. x. 26, 27 :
For, 1st, The sin of both is rebellion. After Moses' conviction
of Korah's company, he was dcspitefully scorned and reproached
by them for bringing them out of Egypt; and so these "sin
ivilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth ;" as here " if
any man will hurt them," which is repeated v. 5. 2dly, As they
were struck dead by God " for despising Moses' law," under
conviction of it " by two or three witnesses," (as Moses and
Aaron :) so here the angel adjudgeth them to this notorious
death for despising the testimony of these two witnesses, and the
light of the gospel. 3dly, Their punishment was of all then the
sorest, even " a dying without mercy ;" but " of how much sorer
punishment shall he be thought worthy," &c. ? for " in this
manner he must be killed," not with elementary fire, nor so
much by killing their bodies as their souls : as the Hebrew
doctors say of Korah, &c. (who were rather blasted than burnt,)
that their souls were scorched ; and thus they were most lively
types for sinners under the gospel, to whom God becomes a con
suming fire. 4thly, That which is here called fire is called by
Paul iiery indignation : and " a fearful expectation of judgment ;"
God sealing up by flashes of his wrath the eternal damnation of
such sinners : aud this " fiery indignation " sparkles forth upon
all occasions from the writings and lives, and from the preaching
and testimonies of those witnesses' mouths. 5thly, Here is the
phrase of " devouring their enemies," as the apostle speaks of
devouring the under-hand adversaries, (HUPENANTIOUS, Sttbcon-
Irarios ;) shewing that such sinners, (like the Pharisees,) renounce
not always all profession of God ; for so they should not have
place and opportunity of hurting the witnesses by their under-

REV. XI. 6.] THE TEMPLE- WORK OF THE WITNESSES. 647

hand pretensions and opposition. Gthly, Such was the effect of
the powerful, burning, and shining light of the ministry of John
and of Christ, (whose crucifying is also alluded to v. 7 — 13 ;) the
Pharisees being tormented with it; (as in v. 10, with c. xvi. 9 ;) and
in Mai. iv. 1, the gospel-day became to the Pharisees " a terrible
day, burning their consciences as an oven," so that in the heat of
their wrath they crucified Christ, knowing him to be the Son of
God, even as the witnesses were known to be his prophets.

Secondly, The temple-work of the witnesses, for Christ and
the church, also sets forth their power in these latter days, especi
ally that in v. 1, represented most lively by the olive-trees and
candlesticks, in Zech. iv. where Joshua and Zerubbabel having
begun to sacrifice after the people's first coming out of Babylon,
and to set up public worship, within two years laid the founda
tion of the temple, and set up the altar, (Ezra iii.) but left the
work imperfect, without the roof covered, or the temple beautified
with all those holy utensils and ornaments, appointed as ordi
nances to the complement and perfection of God's worship ;
and all this, through the opposition of a Samaritan faction, of amon-
grel religion, (2 Kings xvii. 41,) pretending " to seek their God as
they did," (Ezra iv. 2 — 5, 23, 24 ;) but not being taken into this
work of building, nor owned by the true Jews, they forced the
same to cease, instigating the Persian monarch to frustrate their
purpose ; until Haggai and Zechariah were sent to stir up Joshua
and Zerubbabel to finish the work, which was yet a true temple,
and place of woi'ship, all the years it remained imperfect. Among
other visions exciting them, was that of two-olive trees, (called
"sons of oil" as laying out their grace, gifts, and estates, and spen
ding their fatness, in hearty endeavours for repairing and finishing
the temple ;) and a candlestick, whereinto they emptied their oil ;
for this being the most necessary utensil to complete and shew
the glory of the temple, (into which it was brought last of all,) is
put for all the rest: Hence Zerubbabel is represented with a plum
met in his hand, and a measuring-line, (as John used the reed,}
for measuring the temple to be now fully finished ; for the hands
that laid the foundation, were to finish it, in spite of the Samaritan
" great mountain" of opposition: Now the meaning of this hierogly
phic is given in the angel's answer to his own question, "Knowest
thou what these be? this is the word of the Lord," &c. Thus the
church having long since come out of mystical Babylon, hath
set up public worship, and by the authority of princes hath begun
the foundation of the temple, but hath been hindered from going
on to full perfection of discipline intended and endeavoured
through the mixture of a Samaritan party, interrupting the
attainment of the perfection contended for : But in the end God
stirs up many of the English spirits, (like unto Joshua and
Zerubbabel,) to finish what was before left incomplete, and to
begin to make a further and purer edition of churches according

648 THE TEMPLE-WORK OF THE WITNESSES. [REV. XI. 6,

to the pattern : and so they stand in this age with a line or reed,
and do empty oil out of themselves unto this work ; endeavouring
to add to this temple ordinances instituted of God, and tending
to the perfection, beauty, complement, and glory of the temple,
though not absolutely necessary to the being of a church : And
though the allusion includes the foundation of this temple-church
laid in the first Reformation, yet it principally falls upon the
finishing of it ; which is the proper and peculiar aim of the vision.
From c. i. 20, it is evident that churches eminent for purity, as
well as persons, are witnesses against the false church ; though
these witnesses may be oil-bearers for the candlesticks, which
being here two, shew that these are sister-churches now, and not
only one mother-church as then ; and the proportion is doubled in
other respects also, to shew the increase of gospel-blessings, as
observed in c. iv. Now this new Reformation of the church in
attempts to finish the temple, through now as " a day of small
things despised," shall go on and spread till it be perfected, for
it is " not by power, nor by might, but by my Spirit, saith the
God of the whole earth" (v. 4,) whose power backs it, and
causes the hearts of the godly to fall to it ; and the Romish
" great mountain," so standing in its way, " shall yet become a
plain before it." And as the vials are to come out of this temple,
it shews that the true church is to be the plague and ruin of the
false : But however small are the beginnings of such a work, so
interesting the divine glory, it will progress, and its progress is
in this book noticed, as observed in c. xiv. yet I fear these olive-
trees and candlesticks will, (like the rest of the churches in
Europe,) have their power scattered, ere the building be finished,
and they revive again, and " grow up into an holy temple in the
Lord," Eph. ii. 21, with c. xix.. Finally, As the witnesses are here
in sackcloth, so Joshua (Zech. iii. 4,) was in filthy apparel ; and
as there he had change of raiment given him, so after a few years
will these witnesses also have " the garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness," (Isa. Ixi. 3 ;) and their testimony being ended,
they shall put off their sackcloth, and put on " fine linen," the
wedding-dress of the Lamb's wife, as in c. xix. 8 ; and so in the
end, the glory of this temple, set up after Antichrist's demolish-
ment, will yet be more glorious, (as Zerubbabel's also was, Hag.
ii. 9,) by Christ's coming into it ; when a Holy of holies shall be
added to it, (or rather swallow it up,) in which " the ark shall be
seen ;" but not till after

IV.— THE KILLING OF THE WITNESSES.

" AND WHEN THEY SHALL HAVE FINISHED THEIR TESTIMONY,
THE BEAST THAT ASCENDETH OUT OF THE BOTTOMLESS PIT, SHALL
MAKE WAR AGAINST THEM, AND SHALL OVERCOME THEM, AND
KILL THEM : AND THEIR DEAD BODIES SHALL LIE IN THE STREET

REV. XI. 7 — 10.] THE TIME OF KILLING THE WITNESSES. 649

OF THE GREAT CITY, WHICH SPIRITUALLY IS CALLED SODOM
AND EGYPT, WHERE ALSO OUR LORD WAS CRUCIFIED. AND
THEY OF THE PEOPLE, AND KINDRDES, AND TONGUES, AND
NATIONS, SHALL SEE THEIR DEAD BODIES THREE DAYS AND AN
HALF, AND SHALL NOT SUFFER THEIR DEAD BODIES TO BE PUT
IN GRAVES. AND THEY THAT DWELL UPON THE EARTH SHALL
REJOICE OVER THEM, AND MAKE MERRY, AND SHALL SEND
GIFTS ONE TO ANOTHER ; BECAUSE THESE TWO PROPHETS TOR
MENTED THEM THAT DWELT ON THE EARTH." V. 7 — 10.

i. — Tlie time of the witnesses' killing not yet come.

The angel's scope here being to shew, according to his oath
in Daniel, how Antichrist should " accomplish to scatter the
power of the holy people," towards the end of his three and a
half times' reign ; what is here said of the beast's war and victory,
refers not to the conquests and slaughters which Antichrist,
during his reign, should make of the holy people or witnesses,
(spoken of in c. xiii.) but specifies an eminent prevailing over
them, on the eve of finishing their sackcloth-prophesying. We
have seen their power to erect a temple to themselves, whence
to pour forth four vials upon their enemies : and the better to
fence themselves against the beast, thus possessed of the greatest
part of Europe, (or the holy city,) they environed the temple with
a court, or mighty party of carnal Protestant fellow-separatists
from the beast. The treading down this court by the Gentiles,
who are again to subdue it to themselves, is a part of this final
scattering of the saints' power, or rather a preparation thereunto ;
for before the beast can get at the witnesses to kill them, the
court must be more fully won, (which is now a doing,) and then
both themselves and their inner temple will be exposed to the
irruptions of these Gentiles, and easily subdued by them, these
out-works being taken and recovered. The great question here,
is about the time of this killing, whether it be past or to come.
Mr. Brightman makes the whole fulfilled in the overthrow of the
Protestants in Germany by Charles the Fifth, (A.D. 1547,) and
that condemning of the scriptures, (these two witnesses, or the
Old and New Testaments,) by the council of Trent, about three
centuries ago : but Graserus, Hoe, Mede, Wood, &c. think it yet
to come ; and if the series of interpretation I have given hold
good, it must needs be so ; and both what precedes and what
follows this great event, confirms the same ; nothing of what
must follow being yet fulfilled, though several centuries have
past since Mr. Brightman's date. 1st, This is to fall out at the
close of their mournful state of prophesying, after which they
shall cast off their sackcloth, as after Joshua's captivity-garments
were taken from him, he had a mitre set on his head ; so these
on their rising again arc to be cloathcd in fine linen : but the
church is still bewailing her condition under Antichrist, and those

650 THE TIME OF KILLING THE WITNESSES [REV. XI. 7 — 10.

other enemies even in the Reformed churches who tire triumphing
in silk and liberty. 2dly, This " killing " is towards the close of
Antichrist's reign in respect of his "power to do" for this is that
last scattering of Daniel, wherewith he is to accomplish his
times : but his kingdom yet stands, and it is three hundred years
since that German havoc, and we are still under the fifth vial ;
for when Rome itself, the seat and throne of the beast, shall come
to be ruined, then his kingdom shall be full of darkness, and his
glory so put out, that his reign will be accounted at an end.
3dly, Antichrist is still but in his first march towards this war, to
win and recover the court of the temple, that he may come at
the witnesses to kill them : and though he hath trodden down
Germany, yet he is but setting up and advancing his engines of
assault and battery on other such places where God hath most
of his powerful witnesses in these last times, in whose siege he
is set down by his agents and the receivers of " the number of his
name," who are to be his last champions. 4thly, Four of the
seven vials are to be poured out by the witnesses before their
killing, for in the days of their prophecy, they smite the earth
with plagues, (which is the first vial,) and turn the sea and rivers
into blood, (which is the second and third vials,) and then devour
men with fire, (which is the fourth vial :) after all which exploits
comes their killing. But that slaughter three hundred years ago
was but in the beginning of the second vial, and we see not yet
the full effect of the fourth, which is still pouring out its contents.
5thly, After the witnesses' rising, the second woe of the sixth
trumpet is to pass away, (v. 14,) its times being expired, or the
foundation of its ruin laid; and this is the great power and
tyranny of the Turk, whose kingdom yet stands in its vigour and
flourish, no fundamental blow of weakening being given it ;
much less, Gthly, Is the seventh trumpet begun to be blown,
which yet is to come quickly after the sixth ; for although Jesus
Christ, in the northern kingdoms, hath been assisted in that his
harvest of his elect since the Reformation, by supreme and
princely authority, (and therefore that peaceable harvest was
reaped by a crowned angel,) yet 1, The kingdoms of the world
becoming Christ's for him to reign for ever, (and that, at the begin
ning of the seventh trumpet,) will be different from what he hath
yet had, being the fifth monarchy, to begin when the beast's days
end, (Dan. vii. 14,) and to be carried on, not so much by deputies
and delagated power, as under the immediate rule and govern
ment of Christ himself, v. 17; And, 2, When the seventh
trumpet shall begin to sound, " then shall the mystery be fulfilled
spoken of by the prophets," (c. x. 7, with Acts iii. 21,) even the
new Jerusalem and kingdom of the saints, and first resurrection,
(v. 15 — 17, with c. xx. 1, &c.) but since what Mr. Brightman
calls the "resurrection of the witnesses," none of these things are
begun, or as yet to begin. 3, The seventh trumpet and last vial

REV. XI. 7 — 10.] NOT YET COME. 651

fall out together, or rather the last vial begins the seventh trumpet,
(as v. 19, with c. xvi. 18, shews ;) there being the same thunderings,
hail, &c. in both : now we are yet but under the fourth vial, and
so very far oft' from the last.

I will however add this, which may reconcile also Mr. Bright-
man's opinion, and haply serve, in the closure of all, to hint
further about the expiring of limes at the last vial's fulfilling. In
the measurement of the temple, the angel might aim both at that
first laying the foundation of true churches, and also at this second
Reformation now in hand, as degrees of the same work, though
the latter is specially intended, (the other yet being a far greater
work;) so might he take in two killings of these witnesses,
following and accompanying both these measurings, the one near
the foundation, and the other near the finishing ; and so ordered,
that the first should be a foregoing resemblance of the succeeding.
Many prophecies have had several gradual accomplishments ; the
former becoming types of the latter mainly intended : and there
are many passages spoken of as fulfilled in the New Testament,
which yet had a gradual accomplishment in the times after the
Babylonish captivity : thus Isa. i. 9, is applied in Rom. ix. 27,
to gospel-times, the Holy Ghost aiming at both. And even
in the Old Testament the same prophecy is sometimes fulfilled
over and over : Thus as there were two eminent leadings into
captivity, the one of Jeconiah, the other of Zedekiah ; so there
is a double reckoning of the seventy years, and of the building
again of the temple ; (and this instance I pitch on as a type
of this measuring of the temple ;) for Ezek. i. 2, 3, begins the
captivity from the carrying away of Jeconiah, in the fifth year
of Nebuchadnezzar ; and Jer. xxix. 10, comforts the captives
with the promise of being visited after seventy years, when Cyrus
gave leave to lay the foundation of the temple : and yet after
this, when the temple was to be again measured and completed,
another seventy years is said to be ended, (commencing from
the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar ;) as in Zech, i. 12, 16.
And why may not the Holy Ghost have an eye here also to a
double work, and a double accomplishment of the beast's reign,
and of the church's coming out of Babylon, and of the killing of
the witnesses, and of the measuring of the temple ; though this
last be mainly intended ? Again, In Dan. xii. 4, 11, (referring to
the New Testament, " when knowledge should be increased,"
&c.) the angel shews, that from the time of removing the Jews'
daily sacrifices, and of setting up the desolating abomination,
were to be twelve hundred and ninety days, i. c. years. Now
there hath been a double removal of that sacrifice, and also a
double setting up of " the abomination of desolation," or
Heathenish idolatry : for from the sacking of Jerusalem by Ves
pasian and his son Titus, to about A.D. 1360, was just so many
years ; and then began that first great increase of knowledge and

652 ALLUSION TO CHRIST'S PASSION. [REV. XI. 7 — 10.

discovery of Antichrist, under Wickliflfe, Thaulerus, &c. But
there was another, "ceasing of the daily sacrifice (of the Chris
tian religion,) and setting up of the abomination" of Heathenism
by Julian, the apostate emperor, about A.D. 363 : indeed he set up
the Jewish sacrifice again, that had ceased, but has never since
been restored ; God's special hand binding all the Jews from
setting up their daily sacifices at Jerusalem again ; for the Turk
suffers them not to live there, and tolerates all exercises of all
religions except that of the sacrifices : and Christians themselves
possess the sepulchre of the Lord. Now Mr. Brightman
reckons the beginning of Antichrist's reign, and of the witnesses'
prophesying in sackcloth, from the time of the Roman emperor's
removing to Constantinople, leaving Rome to the Pope for the
seat of his power, in fulfilment of 2 Thes. ii. 7 ; when " the man
of sin " was at least conceived : the end of those years would
thus be A.D. 1550, when the revival of the Protestant cause in
Germany began : so the term of Antichrist's power to do, might
have had one period in the falling off of England, Scotland, &c.
before A.D. 1560, (which he interprets of the seventh trumpet,
when the kingdoms of this world became Christ's, c. xi. 15,) and
so, before that settled peace of the gospel, and Antichrist's
ejection ; the witnesses having first had their several times of
being overcome and killed, in each of their kingdoms, for three
years and a half ; as in that victory over the Protestants in
Germany, about A.D. 1547, just three years and a half before
that revival and enjoyment of the peace they have since had :
Also in England the martyrdoms under Mary lasted but three
years and a half; for the former two years and a half of her reign
were spent in making preparations for that war against the
witnesses, by statutes made for their burning, &c. Again, in
France, A.D. 1572, (about twelve hundred and sixty years after
Constantine) the massacre of the Protestants began ; but the de
ceased religion had a resurrection in A.D. 1576. There is also
another computation from the birth of Antichrist, about a
hundred years after Constantine, (the two centuries later still,
in p. 603, may be his naming, or his being of age,) when the
western empire itself began first to break into ten kingdoms : ac
cordingly since A.D. 1660, there was begun a second measuring
of the temple ; and before the finishing of it there will follow
another great and eminent slaughter of the witnesses by the
beast's again prevailing over them.

ii. — The allusion to ChrisCs passion in this killing of the
witnesses.

In all other passages of this book, the allusions are still to
stories of the Old Testament ; but this, as standing alone, is in
exact conformity to the circumstances of that great centre-story
of Christ's death and resurrection, which being typed of old, are

REV. XI. 7—10.] IN THIS KILLING OF THE WITNESSES. 653

now made transcendent patterns beyond all sufferings, (as in
Phil. iii. 20, Col. i. 24,) in any former age ; whereby we are both
provoked to prepare for it, as Christ did ; and also comforted
against it, as being thereby to be made specially conformable to
Christ in his glory also. Thus Christ, after three years and a
halfs ministry, (when he had almost earned it in the people's
hearts, the world going after him,) was at length prevailed over
by his enemies, and put to death by the sovereign power of Rome,
which then had jurisdiction in Jerusalem,) and for three days
and a half lay in their power: So when these witnesses are about
to finish their testimony, their Pharisean enemies, (afraid of losing
their own credit and authority, through their prevailing in the
people's hearts,) will acknowledge the foreign power of Rome, so far
as by and under the authority, and for the sake of the beast, to kill
them and have them in their power, for three years and a half;
whereupon they feast, and " send gifts for joy," as the Pharisees,
ridding themselves of the torment of Christ's ministry, made the
passion-passover the most joyful feast they ever kept. But
Christ and his witnesses, both rise again, and with an earthquake
too, and also amidst the consternation of their enemies ; after
which, both ascend to heaven : and to confirm the allusion, the
Holy Ghost puts in a parenthesis, (v. 8,) " Wliere also our Lord
was crucified ;" meaning either " Sodom and Egypt" and Jeru
salem also, " Where also" &c. or, referring to " crucified ;"
q. d. " where also the witnesses are in like manner to be killed"

in. — The killing of the witnesses executed by the power of
the beast, and not by any previous persecutions in the Reformed
churches among themselves.

To explain somewhat about this great occurrence yet to come
in the church : The power authorizing this slaughter is to be
that of the beast, or Pope of Rome, who having regained more or
less influence in the places where these witnesses are, is to kill
them, (v. 7,) though they are hated also of all their enemies who
are of the Reformed religion among them : and besides, the place
where their dead bodies lie, (and consequently where the
slaughter is to be executed,) is " the city where our Lord was
crucified," (c. xvii. 18,) the jurisdiction of the Roman empre
being so called in John's time ; as Popedom is the church of
Rome, and all its kingdoms make up " that great city" Now
Rome was as the royal palace of the Roman world, whence issued
edicts and commands over all ; and therefore the sentence of
Christ's death was pronounced by Pilate the Roman governor
residing in the holy city : thus the beast of Rome shall again
recover so much owning and acknowledging, (by secret com
bination, or by professed avouchment,) in the places of the Re
formation where the witnesses are to be killed, as that for his
sake, and at his instigation, those Pharisees, (either as joining

THE BEAST TRIUMPHANT [REV. XI. 7 — 10.

with him, or else using the help of his party,) shall kill them, the
beaht having so much hand in it as to be said to do it, and that
for the further advancement of his power in these places : Now
their dead bodies are to lie "in the street (or extent of the juris
diction ) of the great city," (v. 8.) which is the outward court of
the temple. Whatever enemies the witnesses have had from
among themselves, of the same nation and religion, (as the Phari
sees were to Christ,) who have persecuted them from the times of
the first Reformation, and made them continue to prophesy in
sackcloth, notwithstanding the separation from Antichrist ; yet
none of all those wars and prevailing^ are this eminent killing by
the beast, with whom these enemies combine, using the help of
the Papists against the witnesses ; or perhaps beginning again
more openly and avowedly to submit to the beast, (as the Phari
sees did to Caesar,) to advance whose power they shall kill these
witnesses, his greatest and heartiest withstanders : Or, if in doing
this, they do not so openly avow the beast's power, it may yet
be said to be done by him, if done through such agents ; and we
may be suspicious of this, for there is a generation of men, (as
shewed out of c. xiii.) set forth as the beast's last champions,
who not at first avowing his name or character, yet receive " the
number of his name," and are reckoned truly his, as interdicting
commerce to his opponents, in order to advance him : and I fear
they shall proceed yet further, if not to confess the Pope as
"infallible head of the church," yet as "universal patriarch of
the west," so endeavouring to effect union and reconciliation with
him ; for these men are at first to bring in but an image of Popery,
(as Popery was an image of Heathenism,) with intent to introduce
more, as was said ; whereunto accords this angel's oath in Dan.
xii. 7, concerning the beast's scattering the saints, &c. And as
the Gentiles are to obtain the outward court to tread it down,
with the the rest of the holy city, it argues their prevailing so far
as to gain a subjection from carnal Protestants, through whom the
beast's power may be said to kill the witnesses, as Pilate crucified
Christ in the name of Rome ; so Rome through her legates will
depose and put to death, in those places, these witnesses : that
as Jerusalem was to be the slaughter-house of all the prophets,
(Luke xiii. 33,) so Rome is to have a hand in the deaths of all the
witnesses, (though others may persecute them too,) and to exe
cute this last great martyrdom : for in her downfall she is to be
reckoned with, (c. xviii. 24,) as having the blood of the prophets,
and saints, and all the slain found in her : until therefore the
Romish flag be advanced on the walls of the court of the temple,
we must not reckon the time of the witnesses' three years and a
half to be come ; but when we see that " abomination of desola
tion " begun to be set up, then let us " flee to the mountain."

iv. — The time of the leasfs enjoying his full victory over the

REV. XI. 7 — 10.] ONLY FOR THREE YEARS AND HALF. 655

witnesses is but three years and a half, though he may be longer
a killing them, and obtaining it.

The Popish Gentiles have already been long a besieging the
temple, and making war against it, without prevailing yet, even
so far as to overcome fully enough the court, and gain the out
work ; but how far so ever this war may be lengthened out, when
it once comes to a complete victory, we are comforted that the
witnesses shall begin to rise again from their killing within three
years and a half: and as the time of the greatest obscuration is
specially noted as the time of the eclipse, so in this great and
last hour of the church's darkness, the time of its eclipse alone
is reckoned. The Pharisees plotted long against Christ, con
sulting his ruin, but prevailed only for three days and a half, " or
the midst (or half) of the week," (Dan. ix. 27,) which days of the
witnesses must be prophetically years, (as are the twelve hundred
and sixty,) not only so as to exhibittheir deadbodies before nations
and tongues, in reports of this beast's victorious putting them
down, but for the Papists to rejoice therein and send their gifts
and congratulations: Now just such a three years and half had
Jerusalem under Antiochus, when the temple was polluted, and
" the daily sacrifice taken away, and the abomination (of idolatry}'
set up ;" see Dan. xi. 81, &c. with the history of the Maccabee?
And therefore after Daniel had set forth and ended this his tyrann'
he begins to set out the tyranny of that "wilful king" the Popv/
his antitype ; as Christ passes from the storjr of Jerusalem's
destruction to its fulfilment in the end of the world : so there
is a transition there describing Antichrist, whose ruin and end
comes after " ill tidings out of the north," (the northern Refor
mations,) had enraged him to " go forth in fury," utterly to root
out the Protestants ; in which expedition he is so far to prevail,
as " to plant his tabernacles in the glorious holy mountain," and
thus to over-run the church; as Antiochus prevailed over the Jews,
and the Pharisees over Christ, in their hour of darkness ; so this
will be " an hour of temptation coming on the whole Christian
world," c. iii. 10 : the enemies think to get the day, but they
shall have only their hour in this fearful eclipse ; and then will
be the revival, as in Hosea vi. 2 : For three years and a half
also Julian again set up idolatry, after forty years reign of Christ
ianity ; and so long shall Popery be again set up on every
throne where Protestantism hath reigned, till it be utterly and for
ever extirpated.

v. — The nature of the beast's victory over the witnesses.

Some interpret the killing the witnesses only of a civil death,
as witnesses, not as men ; taking away all power from them, by
a general silencing of ministers, and deposing of magistrates, and
men of worth, that profess and uphold religion, putting men from
their high places, shutting their shops, burning their books, &c.

656 NATURE OF THE BEAST'S VICTORY. [REV. XI. 7 — 10.

for that as their resurrection is not from a natural death, so their
bodies could not be supposed to lie above-ground for three days
and a half, before a spirit of life came into them; who being dead
must be the same as were killed. Thus also the not suffering
them to be put in graves, would signify only what hindered their
enemies from killing them outright, the Protestant party in the
nations about them preserving them above ground for a reviving,
as we leave unburied any of whose death we are not sure : and
" the nations, tongues, and kindreds," seeming a distinct com
pany from the witnesses' enemies, (who " rejoice over them," &c.)
favours this notion ; the angel thus describing the differing
spirits of the two sorts of men towards the witnesses, " they of the
nations" kindly keeping their bodies out of the grave, and " those
that dwell on earth" rejoicing over them. Again, as it was com
monly reported that Christ should rise on the third day, (Matt,
xxvii. 63,) so this general notion of the Popish party's prevailing
for three years and a half, will influence the witnesses' friends to
interfere against their utter extinction and burial underground,
hoping, (like the disciples as long as Christ lay buried in the grave,)
that they will rise again from their lying unburied above-ground.
Tn answer also to the supposition of this last being the worst and
\arpest of all struggles, they say, That "killing" here is alone
3cified thus, as being the signal of the Pope's ruin. But,
hough I think it cannot be denied, First, That this lying dead
+o, metaphorically, a suppressing by civil death, the now desperate
cause of the saints, as witnesses, so putting them down that they
remain as men laid forth by the walls for dead, of whose testi
mony there is no likelihood of a revival ; whereat their enemies
rejoice; (as the Pharisees thought they had Christ sure enough
in the grave, after his condemnation and crucifixion :) So the
last war of the beast scatters the power of all the saints, as wit
nesses, but kills them not all, as men, however the natural lives
of many of them may be sacrificed : Yet, Secondly, I fear that so
great a victory over and suppressing of the witnesses, will be fol
lowed with great effusion of martyrs' blood ; and that such a
warring, and overcoming, and killing, import further proceedings
by which they get this complete victory : I fear all these
metaphors, lest this same killing after overcoming be not really
and properly some further cruelty of malicious enemies ; for
" overcoming " would sufficiently express the mere suppression
of them : and in c. xiii. (which is a prophecy of the rage and
utmost cruelty the beast should exercise against the saints
throughout his whole reign,) all those bloody executions and
butcherings of the saints are expressed also by "warring" and
" overcoming ,-" the " killing" there omitted, being afterwards
expressed so as to shew the cause and manner of the beast's
bloody fall and ruin in the end, and what provokes God and man
unto it; for " He that killeth with the sword must be killed with

UEV. XI. 7 — 10,] OVER THE WITNESSES. G57

the sword," c. xiii. 7, 10 : And though Antichrist's power is
there set out generally, in its height and ruff, during his whole
reign over all, and here only his last special war against the wit
nesses is described, immediately fore-going his ruin ; yet the
expressions here as there, maybe of the same nature, and import
the same mode of prevailing : for though his last war is to issue
in the beast's ruin, yet may he first recover again the like power,
and exercise the like cruelty over these witnesses, though for a
small space: yea, it may be feared, by that dirge of her own funeral-
song which she makes in c. xviii. 6 — 8, that Babylon shall recover
her ancient power again, or fully expect it, through her prevailing
over some of her lost kingdoms ; for only the day before she is to be
burnt for a witch and whore, " she saith in her heart, I sitas a queen,
and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow ;" and then follows
God's omnipotent power in her sudden destruction by plagues
at once in the midst of her rejoicing. There is a like intimation
of the beast's recovering his power, (Dan. xi. 45 ;) for "yet he
shall come to his end," unlikely as it is that he should again be put
out of such power as he seems so settledly to have regained; even
as it appeared impossible that the cause of Christ should again
prevail, after the Gentiles and Pharisees had so glutted themselves
with his blood, and so triumphed over him in the grave, "Yet
(saith Ps. ii. 6,) I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion."
The cruelties Rome may revive, together with the revival of her
influence, may revive also the memory of all her former slaughters,
and so provoke God and men, as for this her last blood-shed to
bring upon her the blood of all the prophets and martyrs before
shed; as the blood of Christ brought upon the Jews the blood of
all the righteous down from Abel : and as the ten tribes were en
raged against the Benjamif.es with eagerness to root them out,
because of their first great victory over themselves; so may the
Protestant party be whetted on by fresh killings of the saints to
do execution upon such enemies without all mercy, " rewarding
her as she had rewarded them," and •" killing with the sword her
that killed with the sword." But why should this one particular
war alone be mentioned by the angel at last, if it were not differ
ent from such as Antichrist was wont to make upon the saints,
as in c. xiii ? I answer, 1st, This war is thus specified as being
the last, because it is a signal of the time of Antichrist's ending, and
a manifestation of God's wonderful dealing, both with the church
and with his enemies; that after so great a victory obtained by her
against the beast, he should yet have power to do again for a little
space, that he might be overthrown when thinking himself as
secure as ever. 2dly, It is the last eminent suffering of the
European churches, and probably the worst; for sharpest afflic
tions fore-run the greatest happiness ; and here the witnesses die
to rise again, and rise again to die no more, as it was with Christ
himself. The king of terrors is the porter lo let saints into heaven ;

•2 \

658 THE NATURE OF THE BEAST'S VICTORY [REV. XI. 7 — 10.

and, says Paul in 1 Cor. iv. 9, " God hath set forth us the apostles
last, as it were appointed unto death ;" alluding to the gladiators
or fencers in the Roman games, the last of which three sorts,
(being usually slaves or malefactors,) wont to come upon the stage,
were appointed not to go off, but to fight it out till they were
killed. The greatest persecution of the church under Pagan
Rome was that of Dioclesian and the fifth seal, and therefore all
Rome's former martyrings under the former seals do not raise a
general cry of their blood, until the arrival of that most cruel per
secution ; and yet these saints are bid to wait till another martyr
dom : but here the witnesses dying as Christ died, shall also rise
likewise to die no more. 3dly, This last conquest is mentioned
as an epitome of all the witnesses' sufferings during the whole time
of their prophecy, and thus the crisis of their three days and a half
is interpreted by, and is a compendium of, their whole time of pro-
prophecy for three years and a half; even as this period reduced
to days of twelve hundred and sixty, become again so many pro
phetical years. Now as Christ's sufferings, here alluded to, were
all summed up in his death ; and he was heard and delivered as
soon as they came to this," Why hast thou forsaken me ?" so when
the church, in her last brunt, shall utter the like voice, know we
that delivery is near. 4thly, The beast having been so chased by
these witnesses' prophesying, and having had so many vials emp
tied upon him and his company, will wreak such vengeance, when
once he gets the power again, that " his anger will be fierce, and
his wrath cruel," (as in Gen. xlix. 7 ;) and the northern Reforma
tion causing such opposition to him, will stir him up to this his
last invasion of the churches " to go forth with great fury to
destroy and utterly to make away many," Dan. xi. 44 : Thus having
nothing but blood and cruelty in their hearts, where would it end
if God "restrain not the spirits of these princes," or cut them short
by an almighty work of his power. 5thly, In c. xvii. 6, the whore
of Rome, just before her ruin, " adds drunkeness (Deut. xxix. 19,)
to her thirst for the blood of saints, thus increased by her scorch
ing withjtfre from the witnesses : and that this refers not to her
former bloody martyrings, appears from John's telling us that "one
of the seven vial-angels, (probably ihejifth, who poured on the
seat of the beast,) shewed him the judgment of the great whore,
with whom the kings of the earth had committed fornication," &c.
in so many ages fore-past : for that now in these her old and last
days she appears so drunk, it makes me fear her new coming out
of her cups of blood, (the draught of some fresh cup making her
tipsy again ;) but so, that she may be surprised however, Somno
Vinoque Sepulta, buried in sleep and drunkenness, (like Babylon)
to her greater judgment and confusion. Yet, 6thly, God may
perhaps " restrain the remainder of that wrath, and make it praise
him, cutting short their spirits," (Ps. Ixxvi. 10, 12 :) yea, maugre
all their rage, malice, and spirit of revenge; their own wisdom and

REV. XI. 7 — 10.] OVER THE WITNESSES. 659

policy may move them to forbear the full execution of what they
could do, so as to moderate the use of their victory, especially in
a respect to that Protestant party continuing firm in heart and
conscience to the cause of these witnesses, though outwardly
overcome. The light of the gospel deeply impressing men's
spirits is not to be extinguished, so as men shall suddenly em
brace Popery for truth : and as the Pharisees " for fear of the
people," forbore many attempts against Christ, so may these for
fear of those tongues, and kingdoms, and nations in heart favoring
Protestants, forbear the extremity of rage in their power ; pro
mising themselves perhaps some future more perfect recovery and
settlement of their power, and more mischievous ends, when men's
consciences shall be more quieted in Popish ways, and the ad
verse party more lowered and diminished ; till the short date of
their full power suddenly expiring, they awake from their dream
too late to " destroy and utterly make away many," see Ps.lxxiii. 20,
Isa. xxix. 7, 8. We have experience of the wisdom of this
generation of men loving easy and gradual conquests, who find,
that by butchering the saints the cause of Protestantism is ad
vanced, and their own religion branded with the bloody mark of
the false and whorish church : such was the policy of the apostate
Julian, who yet sinned against the Holy Ghost : but he knew that
martyrdom increased the church here, and brightened the martyrs'
crown of glory hereafter ; and therefore out of envy and a witty
malice, he forbore edicts for killing the Christians, and used sub-
tilty to ensnare and tempt men from the truth to the shipwreck of
their consciences ; and thus he paddled with profane hands in the
blood of souls, a sweeter victory to him than that of their bodies :
and to mischief and diminish them still more, they were denied
schools of learning, and the use of books, and all offices either in
war or peace. 6thly, Though these Gentiles are so furious " to
root out many," yet the issue being expressed by the beast's
" planting his tabernacle, (soon to be pulled down again,) on the
glorious holy mountain," may imply no more done in the execu
tion of his destructive design, than taking possession again of the
church as his throne ; Dan. xi. 44, 45. But, 7thly, Let us fear
and prepare for the worst, seeing the sins of the witnesses in
yielding so far to the superstitions of Rome as to leave some of them
in their churches, like so much filth on the shore from the over
flowing of the ocean, (the Romish sea,) and their other sins, as
carnal-gospelling, worldly-mindedness, &c. also their base yiel
ding up the outward court and deserting their cause ; for many
among them " shall do wickedly," Dan. xii. 10. Lastly, The
utmost to be hoped is such a time with the church as that under
Julian, whose persecution might be a figure of this to come ; that
the last of Paganism, this ofPopery : Julian abstained from violence
of blood at first, but used deceit ; he smote with the tongue rather
than with the sword ; he studied to ensnare consciences by placing

2x2

660 EXTENT OF THE SLAUGHTER. [REV. XI. 7 — 10.

his own image among idols in the forum, that in refusing to do
homage to these false gods, the saints might be accused of denying
reverence to him ; which course ended in much bloodshed, though
without the public edicts of former emperors ; the people perse
cuting Christians to death in various parts of the empire to gratify
his hatred of them. Now though this prevailing to come, may
prove worse than death by martyrdom, through manifold tempta
tions and snares and cruelties, yet may it be rather an hour of
temptation and trial to believers in general, (accompanied per
haps with the Gentiles' killing of many witnesses,) and difficult
times, (CHALEPOI, 2 Tim. iii. 1,) of these last days of Popery,
than the bloody times of the latter days in 1 Tim. iv. 1 ; and
though the last days may be stained with much blood also ; yet
many shall certainly survive this war, after being " made white
and tried," (Dan. xii. 10:) for so sudden a resurrection of so great
a multitude as shall possess that glorious state of a church de
scribed in c. xix. 1 — 10, at three and half years' end, would hardly
arise from a succession of new converts, but from the same
persons surviving and out-riding that great storm.

V.— THE EXTENT OF THE KILLING
OF THE WITNESSES.

It is a question how far the generality or universality of this
slaughter may reach; and, First, Whether to all sorts of professors
of religion, or only to eminent persons in the church ? as wit
nesses, probably the most excellent saints will be singled out to
a duel, or single combat as it were. The Gentiles before this
had the outward court of carnal professors more easily yielded ;
but among these truly godly ones, they find serious and stiff op-
posers that will never be brought to yield to them : and the
Popish party themselves see and find, that the godly of the Pro
testants are their only real enemies, who put the great bars and
impeachments to their plots, and are the great stakes in the hedge
of the church, standing in the gap against their irruptions : and
these alone tormenting the ungodly by their lives and profession,
(v. 14,) are triumphed over by the beast : This therefore may not
be a massacre of all sorts of professors at large, like that in Paris,
A.D. 1572, but a set battle against sincere witnesses alone, whom
their enemies have been taught to know and distinguish from
others by the fire they have shot into their consciences, (v. 5:)
so Antiochus' three and half years' persecution fell especially on
the teachers and instructors, Dan. xi. 35. But these witnesses
being " the golden candlesticks," (v. 4,) a scattering of the purer
churches will be joined with this killing : and if their olive-trees
be felled and removed, if their prophets and rulers be scattered,
" the sheep will be scattered, the shepherd being smitten ;" which

REV. XI. 7 — 10.] OF THE WITNESSES. 661

Matt. xxvi. 31, is here alluded to. Secondly, Whether this kill
ing of the witnesses shall be over all the Reformed churches, and
of all Protestant states and kingdoms ? 1st, Graserus, a judicious
Lutheran divine, thinks it will be universal, and that the angel's
scope is thus to difference this last from all former partial eclipses
of true churches ; that whereas persecutions have never ceased in
one place or other, at one time or other, now they will prevail at
the same time in all places ; and such universality the treading
down of the outward court, and the great and general sins of all
churches, do at least threaten ; and thus " the dead bodies seen
in the street, (or jurisdiction,) of the great city" might import,
that wherever witnesses are to be found, they shall be killed,
and so exposed to view. This I deny not, but think it may be
the event more or less ; yet I believe that some one kingdom or
state, will more eminently be made the seat of this war, the field
of this battle, the shambles of this slaughter ; for where the wit
nesses rise from their dead conditions, there an earthquake shakes
the tenth part of the city, or one of those ten European states
that have given up their kingdoms to the beast, but shall now
in this slaughter begin to fall from, and cease to be a part of
the city, no longer belonging to the jurisdiction of Rome, under
which it had again been for the space of three years and a half ;
and there this earthquake is for the special help and furtherance
of the witnesses' rising in this kingdom, and ascending into
heaven, whose slaughter it will avenge by killing seven thousand
names of men, their enemies, v. 13. Now if this resurrec
tion and ascension be in some one part of the ten kingdoms
made more eminently glorious, as the special privilege of the
witnesses therein, the death also therein should also be more
conspicuous ; for the glory to follow is in proportion to our suffer
ing here with Christ : and though the main shock of the storm
may fall there, yet the whole heavens may be covered with black,
and all churches feel some drops and sprinklings of it. 2dly,
The witnesses lie dead in the street, not in all the streets or
states of Rome's jurisdiction ; the Protestant party (the peoples,
and kindreds, &cj in the other streets (or nations) noticing
the slaughter, as by-standcrs aloof, will perhaps prohibit them a
sanctuary, or grave to hide their heads in, when they flee
thither for help. 3dly, If in this last combat the witnesses
be singled out as the one party, and if by witnesses be meant
only such faithful Christians and professors as hold forth an emi-
ment testimony, (not men of learning, but of holiness and zeal,
being the real tormentors of these their enemies;) surely where
such witnesses are chiefly found following the steps of their fore
fathers slain before them for the same cause, there especially will
be the seat of this war. Now, 4thly, In all the Reformed
churches how few such witnesses are there ! the fire and heat of
the first Reformers, (which scorched the Popish Gentiles,) have

662 EXTENT OF THE WITNESSES' KILLING. [REV. XI. 7 — 10.

left only a light remaining, and so faint and cold and dull a testi
mony as the enemy despises : only in the witnesses of great
Britain, both the light and heat of religion have been in times
past preserved and increased ; and more true witnesses will pro
bably be found in it, in the last day, (wherein this slaughter is to
fall out,) than in all other of the Reformed churches ; and that
according to the testimony of those who, in times past of begun
scattering, have come hither. Sthly, The place of killing the wit
nesses will surely be where most witnesses are, in which kingdom
also are more eminently found those last sort of champions for
the beast, who receive only the number of his name, and yet
shall be chief executioners of this last slaughter, and are to be
overcome last of all the beast's company before the fifth vial o.i
his seat, as in c. xv. Add we hereto, 6thly, This conjecture upon
Dan. xi. 44, 45, (which chapter, from v. 36, hath Graserus excel
lently, [and Mr. Mede on 1 Tim. iv. 1, 2,] applied to the Pope,
that wilful king typified by Antiochus :) where the angel's scope
is, to shew the issue of the beast's last expedition against the
Reformed churches before his end, in the last war of Antichrist's
" accomplishing to scatter the power of the holy people ;" where
in " going forth in such fury utterly to destroy, he shall plant
the tabernacle of his palace between the seas, in the glorious holy
mountain : yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help
him." Now this Holy Mount is the Zion of Christendom, where
stands the temple of the true church, which is " the mountain of
the Lord's house," (Isa. ii. 2,) erected in Europe by the northern
Reformation, against which the beast shall prevail so as to tread
it down, and place again the tents of his throne upon it, or at least
some part of it, as Alstedius and others confirm, and as accords
with the delivering up of the outward court : and this Zion being
situated among the seas, designates its distinction from every
other church. Luther makes it point to Rome, the seat of the
beast, between the Adriatic and Tuscan seas : but how could
the beast " go forth to plant" if some new-gained settlement
were not meant, or if the ordinary place of his residence was
meant ? Graserus hints at Germany, between the Baltic and
German oceans; but even so, it could only be its northern parts.
I fear for our own isles, our British Zion, which God hath made
pre-eminently the seat of the church in these latter-days, and
which so stand between the seas as to be wholly among seas,
(" Penitus Toto Divisos Orbe Britannos") and which " God
hath loved above all the habitations of Jacob," Ps. Ixxxvii. 2.
And as the angel also calls this mountain by this high and trans
cendent phrase, " the mountain of delights of holiness" or as
Junius turns it, " of holy comeliness ;" it seems to note out some
" place of uprightness," where God's majesty and glory should
shine, so as to render it his delight, and comely in his eyes,
though, for the trial of the witnesses therein, to be again ceded

REV. XI. 8, 9.] THE WITNESSES 663

to Antichrist, " to plant there the tabernacle of his palaces," or
throne, (or clergy, as Graserus reads it;) even as Nebuchad
nezzar planted his throne at Tahapanes, as a sign of his conquest
of Egypt : So that he shall be so rooted in his pristine sovereign
ty, that in hope of recovering all, the whore of Babylon shall
sing just before her fall, " No widow 7." But this sudden victory
is only a pitching tent in a field ; and not being a tabernacle of
God's planting, it will come to nothing ; for" Every plant which
the Father plants not, shall be rooted up," Matt. xv. 13 : there
fore " He shall come to his end, and none shall help him"

VI,— THE NON-INTERMENT
OF THE WITNESSES.

Though the witnesses' lying dead seems a metaphorial allusion,
yet I fear this " not suffering them to be put in graves" rather
expressive of inhumanity, whether " these of the nations," &c. be
friends or foes ; so that the whole is added to shew further the
extreme misery and desperate calamity brought on the witnesses
in this time of their trial. First, If these nations, &c. be enemies,
their seeing the dead, and not suffering any interment to take
place, implies a feasting their eyes as with a spectacle of delight,
a gazing-stock to these seers, as in Ps. xxii. 7 ; cix. 25 ; lii. 6 ;
Isa. Ixvi. 24 : and in Ps. Ixxix. 2, 3, the like miserable desola
tion of the temple, and slaughter of the saints, whether under
Antiochus, or at the Babylonish captivity, is aggravated by this,
" that there was none to bury them ;" the witnesses herein par
taking of the humiliation of Christ's lying in the grave, by lying
at the mouth of it ; though his obtaining a burial and such an
honorable burying-place, was an act of humanity in Pilate the
Roman governor, which the Roman pontiff makes " the nations"
&c. deny the witnesses. Secondly, If these " nations" &c. be
friends in heart, and of the same religion with the witnesses, is
their not suffering them to be buried a friendly office ? Now " they
of the nations," &c. seems to be a company (EK) out of these nations,
a contradistinct Protestant party, not in all nations, nor all Pro
testants in gospel nations ; but some witnesses in Protestant
nations are here mentioned, to shew what part they should play
in this tragedy : For this killing the witnesses falling out in an
age when so many among the nations continue Protestants in
heart, will they endure it, and not put a helping hand in this ex
tremity ? says the angel, " They shall sec their dead bodies, and
not suffer them to be put in graves :" 1st, They shall see their
dead boxlies lie in the street, or market-place, for a public scorn,
without heart to help them, or however to relieve them ; shy of
intermeddling in their killing one way or other, they stand aloof as
friends and well-willers do from malefactors executed, or as men

664 NOT TUT IN GRAVES. [REV. XI. 8, 9.

pass the other side of a corpse : even as when Rome's turn shall
come, the kings of the earth, who still cleave to her in heart,
shall stand aloof at the sight of her burning, (as when Abraham
looked at the smoke of Sodom,) c. xviii. 9, 10, 18. Or, 2dly,
In that the witnesses should be driven out among the nations, so
that " those of the nations," £c. to which they should fly for
refuge, should see them ; what follows may come in as a further
degree of inhumanit}-, added to the indignities put on them by
their enemies, so to complete their affliction : these false friends
being prevailed on by the power and dread of the Papists, to re
fuse harbouring and befriending them : The grave is a resting-
place for the vanquished, and a shelter from the shame, contempt,
and indignities of insulting foes; but no such resting-place can
the witnesses find. Thirdly, The allusion here may be, 1 st, To the
sufferings of Christ ; for after a great part of the people had
shouted their " Hosannah to the Son of David," rejoicing in
his ministry, they were prevailed on by the Pharisees to cry
out " Crucify him, crucify him," and to run in troops to see him
executed, and " to look on him whom they had pierced :" so it
is to be feared that the Protestant party will be over-awed by the
power and tyranny of Rome, (lest she tread them down also,)
and shall comply with her forbidding to protect the witnesses.
Fourthly, It may allude to putting a corpse into a grave, which
is all that we can do for the dead : so when these witnesses are
deposed from their station, and perhaps banished from their nation,
(a sort of death to them,) and, being cast out to the contempt
and malice of their enemies, shall come to those of other nations,
&c. for rest and harbouring as in a grave ; (they now being laid
by the walls speechless, and as dead in respect of their former
active life of witnessing by prophecy;) but such shelter not being
afforded them, thus " their dead bodies are not suffered to be
laid in graves :" Yet the witnesses flying out of England were
so far sheltered by the Low-countries ; and so were the Protes
tants flying out of Germany by the English : and in queen
Mary's days, the English Protestants found graves at last, some
in Germany, some in Geneva, and others elsewhere; enjoying
liberty of conscience, though not of preaching as in king Ed
ward's days : but the surpassing misery of the three and half
last years will stop every hole of refuge, and every grave where
they may hide their heads and be buried there. Fifthly, This
non-interment shall be by edicts, prohibiting the banished wit
nesses' being harboured, and not suffering them to lie in their
grave, (Ezek. xxxvii. 12, 13;) and though tl being put into a grave"
is a passive phrase, and notes what is done by others, and seems
improper to express men's fleeing for shelter and seeking a grave ;
yet we must remember that the Holy Ghost speaks also meta
phorically of a civil death, wherein those who are dead, as wit
nesses, may seek a hiding-place, as men : for people are some=

REV. XI. 11 — 13.] OBSERVATIONS ON THE WITNESSES' RISING. 665

times said, actively, to "bury themselves," being naturally alive;
So these here are passively, "put into graves," being figuratively
dead. Therefore, Lastly, This non-interment notes out the ful
ness and finishing of the afflictions of the church, aggravated
thus by the inhumanity and cowardice of her half-hearted friends. ;
seeing all Europe cannot offer them a bed in its graves, and no
sanctuary in any of its streets ; for they will not now be able,
" when persecuted in one city, to flee into another." Now the
unfaithful carriage of many Protestant states towards their neigh
bours and brethren, when this war began its commencement, may
give us cause to fear and suspect, that even the Protestant party
may turn thus inhuman towards the witnesses. How have the
Lutherans in Germany complied to take part with the Papists
for the ruin of the Cah -mists ? and it were happy for other states
professing the Calvin religion, if they could wash their hands of
the blood of the churches not only not assisted, but even be
trayed by them.

VII.— THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION
OF THE WITNESSES.

"AND AFTER THREE DAYS AND AN HALF, THE SPIRIT OF LIFE
FROM GOD ENTERED INTO THEM, AND THEY STOOD UPON THEIR
FEET; AND GREAT FEAR FELL UPON THEM WHICH SAW THEM.
AND THEY HEARD A GREAT VOICE FROM HEAVEN SAYING UNTO
THEM, COME UP HITHER : AND THEY ASCENDED UP TO HEAVEN
IN A CLOUD ; AND THEIR ENEMIES BEHELD THEM : AND THE
SAME HOUR WAS THERE A GREAT EARTHQUAKE, AND THE TENTH
PART OF THE CITY FELL, AND IN THE EARTHQUAKE WERE SLAIN
OF MEN SEVEN THOUSAND : AND THE REMNANT WERE AFFRIGHT
ED, AND GAVE GLORY TO THE GOD OF HEAVEN," V. 11 — 13.

I. — Four general observations concerning this resurrection.

First, The circumstance of it correspond with ChrisCs resur
rection and ascension ; Christ mystical, in these last days when
his visible kingdom draws near, being more eminently conform
able to Christ personal, both in his death and resurrection, (those
last of his acts done on earth before his kingdom then :) and
though there are some evident characters of likeness between his
passion and their killing, yet there are still more striking ones
between his and their rising again. Secondly, The peculiar cir
cumstances of his resurrection correspond with those of the
k illing, as a well-proportioned reward ; for, 1st, A spirit of life
enters into these slain. 2dly> Instead of any longer lying dead
in the street, they stand upon their feet. 3dly, Their enemies, or
false hearted friends, who with pleasure see them (BLEPSOUSI,) or
who help them not, now (THEOOROUNTAS) with terror behold them,

666 STEPS AND DEGREES OF THE WITNESSES* RISING. [REV. XI.

4thly, Great fear falls on their enemies, who before with joy
looked on. 5thly, Their dead bodies suffered the contempt of
remaining above ground, unburied and exposed ; but now they
more than live, being called up to heaven thither to ascend.
6thly, Thousands of their enemies are now killed in turn, as
sacrificed unto them. By all this, Thirdly, The parallel of
Christ's resurrection and ascension is made ; the lower was the
one, the higher is the other, as in Eph. iv. 9, 10 : where he rose,
who died : he went up to heaven, who wrent down to hell ; he
sitteth at God's right hand, who lay in the chambers of the grave.
Fourthly, In this ressurrection there is a fore-running shadow of
that last great victory, which brings in the dawn of the kingdom
of Christ and the saints for a thousand years, beginning under
the seventh trumpet, v. 15. I shall notice these particulars after
despatching the following interpretation of

ii. — The steps and degrees of this resurrection and ascension.

First, "The spirit of life from God enters into them? as Christ's
soul coming again into his body was the principle of his future
life. This notes a full restoration of their former state of life and
power ; and it is a reviving, not of their bodies but of their persons,
(as surviving this short storm,) or of successors standing up in their
cause : that whereas they were like dead men for three and a half
years, in respect of their life of prophesying, (and perhaps through
their own discouragements and fears, they lay too still and quiet,
suffering their enemies to carry it, by their not opposing them as
they ought,) yet now a bold and steeled resolution comes upon
them, and they stand on their feet, and make head against their
enemies, being thus alive again from the dead ; while those who
were actually slain by the Gentiles may be said to rise in their
successors ; for the saints are a holy nation and community ; and
what the next succession doth, through the prayers or sufferings
of a former, that the former is said to do ; as in Isa. v. 8, 12, and
as John Baptist rose up in the spirit of Elijah, and as in Christ's
ministry John was thought to be risen again from the dead. Now
this "spirit of life" enters into the witnesses'/row God, as a special
demonstration of the power of his hand, such as he put forth in
the resurrection of Christ, Eph. i. 19, 20; Rom. i. 4. Secondly,
" They stand upon their feet" 1st, As in their former state or
station. 2dly, As men erect, and taking heart; their cause being
just, though they were before condemned. 3dly, As ready to
defend themselves, and able and resolved to confront their ene
mies, into whose guilty consciences it strikes a mighty dread ;
" great fear falling on the spectators," whose hearts begin to sink,
(as the hearts of Haman's friends misgave at his beginning to fall
before Mordecai,) at the witnesses' first beginning to live ; for they
see this prophecy fulfilled, beyond all expectation, as Christ fore
told his resurrection after three days : and now the church will

EEV.XI. 13.] ACCOMPANIMENTS OF THE WITNESSES' RISING. 667

sing, " Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy," &c. Mic. vii. 8, 10.
Or, " Those that saw them" may be the by-standers of " the
nations," &c. who not having relieved these their friends, are taken
with fear and reverence of God and his truth, so as now to take
part with them, contemplating their wonderful zeal and courage,
and awed at the power and majesty ofGod's finger herein, as in Jer.
xxxiii. 9. Thirdly, " They are called up to heaven in a cloud"
(as Christ ascended ;) where " heaven" means not " the church,"
(as it often doth in this book,) but a moro honourable and glorious
condition than they had before, so that they shall die no more
(Rom. vi. 9) the death of tcitnesses, whom it became " thus to
suffer and to enter into their glory," Luke xxiv. 26 : their former
state was as a church on earth, this is as a church in heaven.
This " ascending up to heaven" is used to express new power,
freedom, and glory, (as Isa. xiv. 12, 13,) such as is the dawning of
the glory of" the new heaven and earth" to the enjoyment of
which the church shall henceforward be raised up, as in c. xix.

VIII.— ACCOMPANIMENTS OF THE RISING
OF THE WITNESSES.

As there were certain events which accompanied Christ's resur
rection, so here there was an earthquake, affrighting the watchers :
Now, 1st, The timeof itwas" the same hour" of the witnesses' rising,
as one of the means facilitating it by the removal of impediments,
(like the rolling away the stone from Christ's sepulchre;) the power
of their enemies being thus scattered and dissolved : and though
their resurrection and ascension are mentioned together, and then
this earthquake is mentioned, after both, yet it follows not that
all three were together ; for the two distinct degrees of exaltation
need not follow one another immediately, though put together as
things of a sort ; so this earthquake may refer only to the period
of the witnesses' first rising, as falling out the same hour when this
great turn began. 2dly, The place and effects of this earthquake
are expressed thus : " The tenth part of the city fell, and of the
names of men were slain seven thousand" in the overthrow of
the buildings thereof.

I. — What is the fall of the tenth part of the city ?

First, Mr. Mede thinks it is the ruin of Rome itself, at the same
hour with the witnesses' rising and ascending, and all one with the
fifth vial ; for that, (it being an overthrow of the Popish enemy,) it
must be reduced to one of the vials, four of which are mentioned
before in v. 5, 6, 7, and the sixth seems to be that of v. 14, and
then the seventh is all one with the seventh trumpet : for modern
Rome is but a tenth part of the ancient imperial city, thus re
duced by the trumpets in c. viii. and ix. ; and " the names of men

668 THE FALL, EARTHQUAKE, AND SLAUGHTER, [REV. XL 13.

slain," are ecclesiastics and other dignitaries, as cardinals, arch
bishops, bishops, &c. those Italian merchants who have enjoyed
so much traffic by reason of this whore's merchandise, are to be
deposed and suffer a civil death, (as the witnesses had done,) at
this seat of the beast's now falling into Protestant hands. But,
Secondly, Though this may be ultimately intended, my thoughts
have been carried to some other distinct event, by observing the
different effect which this earthquake hath on the hearts of the
remnant of these slain in the fall of the city, from that which the
full and fatal ruin of the seat of the beast, (under the effect of the
fifth vial,) hath on the remnant of the beast's company there; see
v. 13, with c. xvi. 10, 11 : The one having been drawn in through
fear, to be of the Popish party, do afterwards repent ; while the
other cease not to blaspheme : so that it seems some special event
connected with and making way for the witnesses' rising and as
cending where their chief slaughter was, through a mighty commo
tion of the state of things, and in men's hearts ; that as the Pope's
power had again been entertained by that tenth part of the city,
through a forced consent and yielding to their slaughter, there is
now a great insurrection against that power, and a proceeding to
ruin the opposite party, of whom the unslaiu remnant in their
fright " give glory to God," and return to embrace the truth, and
the cause of these witnesses. The scope of the Holy Ghost here
is, to shew what properly concerns the rising of the witnesses as
the means unto it, the earthquake and fall of the tenth part of
the city being still reducible to the fifth vial, as a degree unto it,
and as the final scope of it; for there are sprinklings of the same
vial both before and after its acme, yet reducible to the vial of
their own kind, to which they are either preparations or appen
dices. Thirdly, " City" being taken in this book, either for Rome
or its jurisdiction, " the tenth part" may be either or both ; the
fall of one being a step towards the fall of the other ; and this
double interpretation is frequent in scripture. But, Fourthly,
I rather understand hereby some tenth part of Europe, (probably
the same as " the street of the city" v. 8,) that one of the beast's
ten kingdoms, (by charter allotted to him, c. 17,) where are found
most faithful witnesses lying dead for the three years and a half,
and where they shall first begin to rise at the convulsion of the
earthquake.

ii. — What is the great earthquake anddownfal in this tenth
part of the city ?

Under the sixth seal, the mighty change wrought in the Roman
empire turned Christian, through Constantino's deposing all
heathen emperors and rulers and worshippers, is called an earth
quake, c. vi. 12 ; and so is this last shaking of states politically or
ecclesiastically, whereby this one of the ten states of Popedom
falls off from the rest who belong to the beast, and becomes

REV. XI. 13.] IN THE TENTH PART OF THE CITY. 669

Protestant again, after having again been so enthralled to the
Pope as to be guilty of the last blood of martyrs : and as earth
quakes are from inward motions in the bowels of the earth, so this
glorious revolution may arise from within that kingdom, either
through the supreme magistrate's beginning to " hate the whore"
(c. xvii. 16,) or through the people's hearts turning against the
beast's cruelty, after their consciences are enlightened, while
their outward court lies trodden dgwn by the Gentiles, the wit
nesses also having the spirit of life re-enter, so that with one heart
they join together to break their yoke asunder. Mr. Mede con
jectures this voice to the witnesses out of heaven, to be that of
supreme authority, with which the people also shall join, an
earthquake being a commotion in the people and nations.

in. — What is the seven thousand names of men, and their
slaying ?

There is not such another phrase in the Bible as " names of
men" which are certainly such enemies of the witnesses as had
the chief hand in their killing, and in subjecting " the nations,"
&c. to the beast's power. First, Mr. Meide takes it for " men of
name" (as "riches of glory" for " glorious riches," &c.) meaning
men of office, title, and dignity; (as they are also called in Num.
xvi. 2 ;) who here are ecclesiastical dignitaries under the Papacy ;
as they do themselves speak of all the several ranks and orders
of the hierarchical ministry, from the highest to the lowest, (which
being so many are here numbered by sevens and by thousands,)
thus, "By what names or titles soever dignified or distinguished;'''
and these are " names of men" being of human invention, and
not what the Holy Ghost teacheth : and this phrase is aptly con
nected with the ruin of the Pope's creatures, brought about by
such evil and error of theirs : But it is proper to civil offices and
titles to be of men, as human ordinances or creations, (see p. 5,
for ANTHROOPiNEEi CTISEI, 1 Pet. ii. 13 :) but the foundation of
the calling and office of ecclesiastical names is of another building,
"not of men," (Gal. i. 1,) though "by man" the persons may be
set apart to fill such offices of which Christ is Lord, of whom
they hold, as truly as gifts hold of the Spirit, and as operations do
of the Father ; and it is God that hath set (ETHETO,) teachers
as well as apostles, 1 Cor. xii. 4 — 6, 28. Therefore Popish
names, not being " plants of the Father's planting, must be rooted
out" of this kingdom, where they had caused us much mischief
even to cruelty against the witnesses ; and where the efficacy of
working to uphold these names had brought it again under the
measure of the tenth part of the city, ere the earthquake causes
it again to fall from the jurisdiction thereof.

iv. — What is the tenth part of the city that fell by the earth
quake and resurrection ?

670 WHAT IS THE TENTH PART OF THE CITY [REV. XI. 13.

Though it is rash to determine, it is not hard to conjecture,
which of the ten European kingdoms or states shall first be
privileged with so blessed a handsel of the general revival of
the churches : for God makes new choice of nations and churches
beyond our thoughts ; for " his ways are past finding out," by any
designment traced on the face of previous dealings with any of
the churches. I will therefore only prognosticate, from the face
of the sky in the churches of tbis present age, where this heaven
(into which the witnesses shall ascend,) is likely first to clear up
from under these clouds, and from out of this hour of darkness
to come upon the world. First, The saints and churches belon
ging to the kingdom of France, God hath made a wonder to me
in all his proceedings towards them, first and last; and there
would seem some special honour in reserve for them. The light
of the gospel by the first and second angel's preaching, (c. xiv.)
which laid the foundation of Antichrist's ruin, began from Lyons
and other places, which have endured the heat of that morning of
persecution, greater perhaps than any since, wherein the French
churches have also had perhaps the largest share ; and though
they have continued a glorious church for so many centuries
since their separation from Antichrist, (see p. 611,) yet they have
not had that great honor and privilege of a supreme magistrate's
professing their religion, (with which other churches have been so
blest ;) for such have been either their bloody persecutors and
oppressors, or else have apostatized from them: we may therefore
yet expect their kings to be wrought upon " to hate the whore
and to burn her with fire," c. xvii. 16 ; and the voice which calls
these witnesses up to heaven, may yet proceed from the throne
of France, where the witnesses have ever prophesied in sackcloth;
so that that kingdom may have the first stroke in the ruin of Rome.
But, Secondly, Viewing the face of the present condition of the
saints and churches in Europe, as it presents itself in this last
age, (wherein these things are in all likelihood to be fulfilled,)
together with a retrospect into the times past also ; and putting
all together, Great Britain and the islands belonging to it, seem
to have stronger claims than any other of the Reformed churches
to the glory of being the prominent stage both of this great
slaughter, and also of the rising and ascending of these witnesses.
For without being swayed through affection only, (which might
betray the judgment,) I have seriously and impartially considered
and weighed things : for since the fourteenth century, there has
been as glorious a succession of godly witnesses and martyrs,
(as you may collect among Mr. Fox's martyrology,) as any other
nation can produce ; and since the Reformation, the descriptive
marks of these witnesses designed to this slaughter and glory, ap
pear the liveliest upon those of Great Britain. For 1st, Here
God hath continued the most faithful, and called, and chosen,
(c. xvii. 14,) who are of the Lamb's side, and are to overcome,

REV. XI. 13.] THAT FELL IN THIS EARTHQUAKE? 671

with him, the kings that shall hate and burn the whore ; there
being more that hold forth the power of religion here than in all
the nine kingdoms besides : and surely where the most eminent
witnesses are, there will be the most eminent slaughter, and con
sequently also, their most glorious resurrection and ascension ;
magnitude of sufferings, multitude of witnesses, and greatness
of glory, being thus commensurate. 2dly, In this " street of the
city," (more than in all other churches,) God hath eminently
stirred up men's hearts to breathe after, and contend for, a further
and purer Reformation and measuring of the temple; and this more
or less ev'er since the first erection of the English church of
Frankfort, in queen Mary's days. Now the bitter persecutions
brought on through such contentions against all false worship,
have caused our witnesses to prophesy in sackcloth, more appa
rently than others in other Reformed churches ; whence hath
followed a greater increase in spiritual light and holiness, and in
practical knowledge in the ways and works of sanctification, (by
which the worshippers are to be measured,) and also a clearer
insight into the institution and true government of a church, (by
which the temple and altar are to be measured ;) others in the
quiet enjoyment of this sort of purity having run out into little
better than an outward-court formal profession, with but few priests
of the inner temple, those worshippers who worship God in power,
in spirit, and in truth. By consulting the Exposition of the first
six verses, and by impartially applying the interpretation given
to the Protestant professors this day in Europe, how pre-emi
nently will the state of British saints, and their constant conflict
with the beast and his abettors, fit the measure thereof, and
approach nearer the life of that face of things presented in the
British, rather than in any other European Zion ? 3rdly, The
description of the eminent opponents of the witnesses in these
last days, as authors of their slaughter, also fits those open and
professed enemies in these kingdoms, where are found those that
receive the number of the beast's name, who yet have rather
denied, and may still for awhile deny his character, and disclaim
his name: to whom else shall we liken this generation ? or where
else shall we find similitudes for them, if the said description in
these chapters suits them not ? And these number-names being
the beast's last-named last champions, (as in c. xiii. 17 ; xv. 2;)
are to hold up the last great quarrel of the beast's cause, and to
fight the last combat with the witnesses ; and so in this last age
to be overcome in open field by them, as their predecessors, that
had the mark and image of the beast, have been overcome by
the former generation of witnesses in elder times. 4thly, In
which of the Reformed churches, except in these kingdoms, are
those names of men continued, (according to the otherwise
unused phrase, "By what names or titles soever distinguished")
who are to be the killers of the witnesses, and therefore to be slain

672 FALL OF THE TENTH PART OF THE CITY. [REV. XI. 13.

by this earthquake, in their revenge ? which several names and
titles and dignities, from the highest to the lowest, may haply
amount to just seven thousand, (or a great number,) even besides
such ministers of parishes and assemblies, as for the substance
of their office have a warrant from God, though their usual names
be of man's devising. Yea, is not this very thing made the
quarrel now, Whether these same ranks of ministry be names of
God or of man, about which the witnesses have contended from
the beginning ? And is it not the suspicion and general opinion,
that to continue and secure these their names, men would again
introduce Popery ? for this the witnesses have been silenced,
fined, deprived, and deposed from their ministerial charge, lest (as
the Pharisees said of Christ,) the people's running after their doc
trine should endanger their names, credit, and dignity ; and so
" take away their kingdom." This hath been the secret cause of
the continuation of the quarrel, though under other outward
pretences; yea, this will be the provocation for the ensnaring
slaughter of these witnesses, which now approacheth ; they say
within their hearts, " Let us kill these witnesses, and the vineyard
will be ours." 5thly, On all the above grounds, how plainly
probable does it seem, that these accompaniments of the witnes
ses' resurrection, are to fall out in this tenth part of Europe, and
in one, or both, of these our kingdoms? and how just were it with
God to give up these "names of men" (who havebeen the enemies
of his witnesses in all times since the Reformation,) to receive at
least " the number of the beast's name" and under his name and
power, as his trained band and leaders in this his last war, to
become in the end the killers of these witnesses ? And how
wonderful and wise a dispensation of God will it be towards his
own in these kingdoms, to have reserved the utter extripation of
these long contended for " names of men" unto such a time and
occasion as this ? and that after they shall first have done this
feat and exploit for the beast, in killing the witnesses, they
should then be sacrificed, (as Baal's priests were by Elias ;)
when these witnesses, whom they so persecuted, shall rise to die
no more ? thus the ruin of those their enemies is made their
triumph, and the removing them out of the way by this earthquake
is the foundation of their ascension into heaven : after which the
work of measuring the temple, by these Samaritans interrupted,
shall go forward in the hands of Joshua and Zerubbabel ; and
the people, before afraid, shall begin to cry " Grace, grace, unto
it :" so the rearing of these purer churches shall be upon the
rubbish of this Samaritan mountain of the false church. 6thly,
If the fifth vial be also aimed at in this earthquake, and the fall
of Rome, the seat of the beast; how comely will it be, and suitable
with the long expectation of God's witnesses and holy ones, that
the ruin of these sees and seats of those that shall do Antichrist
such service, shall fall out with, or be preparative unto the fall of

REV. XI. 11 — 13.] THE RESTITUTION PREFIGURED. 073

that great bishop's see, (as expounded in the fifth vial ;) when both
shall go down together, as alike pertaining to the same building of
man, not of God ! Lastly, If this prove the issue of God's deal
ings with these kingdoms, how gloriously shall God thereby ac
quit himself in the conclusion of all his dispensations towards
them ? For to see two such contrary streams running so strong
ly one against another in the same channel, hath indeed caused
a wonderment in the godly- wise of this last age, what God means
to do, and what end he means to make with England : how
equally God means to proceed here both towards them that fear
him, and towards the opposite party, that arc and have been
here, is the great expectation of the churches ; for it is miracu
lously strange to see how God upholds in the same state two such
contrary factions and parties, one of his own people, rising higher
and higher in spiritual light, against superstition, and breathing
after further purity of holiness and perfection of public worship ;
and herewith at the same time another strong party, looking
towards Rome, and increasing in superstition, darkness, and an
impudent outfacing the light of truth, even when shining clearest
and brightest on them. Now for the all-wise God, whose art and
skill " knoweth how to preserve the righteous, and to reserve the
wicked unto punishment," (2 Pet. ii. 9,) to come off at last so
gloriously ; what more equal and likely dispensation, than the
course chalked out in this chapter, towards both parties in our
kingdom ? which course, according to God's dealing throughout
the scriptures, the godly-wise might have hoped he intended to
run, even though this prophecy had not been left us in this chapter
concerning these very times.

v. — This resurrection and ascension, is a shadotv of "the res
titution of all things"

To make appear yet more glorious all that hath been said
about the great privilege and honor to befall one tenth part of
Europe, let me add, That this resurrection of the witnesses seems
the commencement of the first great turn of things in the church
hastening to the new Jerusalem, and the dawn of the fulnes of
Christ's kingdom, and the final restitution of the church's libe
ration from under the yoke of Antichrist. " Wilt thou at this
time restore the kingdom to Israel ? " was the disciples' question
after Jesus' resurrection, (Acts i. 6, 7 :) Jesus denies not the
fact, but denies them only the knowledge of " the times or sea
sons, which the Father hath put in his own power." But now
these times and seasons drawing near, tho rising of these witnes
ses, (which being figured out by his resurrection, and the fulfil
ment of it, is called in c. xx. 5, C, " the Jirst resurrection" ) is
here mentioned as the signal of that restitution : and so the ancients
generally spake of that day, That this killing and rising again of
the two witnesses, (though interpreted by them of Enoch and
Elijah,) are the harbinger-signs of that joyful day of Christ's

2 Y

674 THE TIME OF THE WITNESSES' [REV. XI. 11 — 13.

kingdom, which they called the day of judgment : And this
particular occurrence in but a tenth part of Europe, is here men
tioned, rather than others likely to fall out with it or after it, (as
the ruin of Rome, in itself a greater one,) that this one pas
sage might more properly become a sign, (to give which is the
Holy Ghost's scope in this chapter,) of the approaching of the
new Jerusalem, under the seventh trumpet : For it is not only
the first step of the restauration of the church after Antichrist's
last scattering of it, for ever to go on increasing till the full resti
tution of all things ; being the first turn of the stream after that
last low ebb, whose waters still rise to full sea never to ebb again ;
(these witnesses now rising, as Christ did, never to die again,
but to cast off their sackcloth for ever ;) But further also, being in
many particulars the liveliest picture and model of that great re
volution to come, this passage is singled out as the fore-running
type and resemblance of what is to begin with the seventh vial,
(which is all one with the seventh trumpet,) when " old things
are to be done away, and all things made new," (2 Cor. v. 17 ;
c. xxi. 5 :) and as here, so there, there is said to be a great earth
quake ; one " dividing the remainder of Babylon into three parts,"
and precipitating " the cities of the nations," (c. xvi. 18, 19 ;) the
other precipitating the tenth part of the city, and slaying those
" names of men :" and as the one is ushered in with the first
resurrection, so the other with a revival of dead witnesses to a
better life than they had before : for this wonderful work and
change shall be, (like the conversion of the Jews,) as "life from
the dead," Rom. xi. 15.

vi. — Conjectures about the time of the witnesses' killing and
rising.

Two periods have been especially pitched on, by writers of the
seventeenth century, for great changes in the churches of Christ;
one about A.D. 1650-6, the other A.D. 1666, (see p. 603,) con
cerning which, and also any other conjectures out of these pro
phecies, this general caution must be taken in : That in such
computations a mistake of a few years may occur, from the years
since the incarnation being uncertainly kept ; as Arnobius saith,
" It is about three centuries, more or less, since we began to be
churches ;" and therefore Helvicus, (one of the best chronologers,)
makes A.D. 1650, to be A.D. 1652 ; and others allow four years
difference : And an unknown English writer, in a little book de
dicated to the church of Rome, A.D. 1539, first gave this obscure
hintof the year A.D. 1666: "Yet two months, two weeks, two days
and ahalf; and thy number six hundred three-score and six shall be
fulfilled ;" reckoning from Pope Innocent's time, A.D. 406. Simp
son, the Scotch abb re viator of the church's story, and Mr. Wood
in his manuscript on the Revelation, incline also to A.D. 1666.
The other period, A.D. 1650-6, some make the time of the Jews'
first calling, and others the expiring of Antichrist, and the fall of

REV. XI. 11 — 13.] KILLING AND RISING. 675

the city ; so that holy man Hiltenius, (the great forerunner of
Luther, in Germany,) who foretold the very year of Luther's
rising after him to teach his doctrine ; which Melancthoii saw writ
ten under his own hand ; this being one of his last sayings, (re
corded among the lives of the German divines, by Melchior Adam ;)
"That A.D. 1651, shall be the time of the change of this, and the
beginning of the new world. Since him Finch, in his book of " The
Jews' calling," (and many others also,) makes that the time "when
God will leave off' to scatter his holy people, for then shall the
Turk's first declining come," &c. and the most learned Rabbi in
the world communicated this period to Mr. Forbes, as the utmost
time of the advent of their Messiah. Mr. Mede also makes An
tichrist's commencement, A.D. 395 ; so that thus there would be
as many years from Christ to the beginning of the new world, as
from the creation to Noah, to which age Christ compares his coming.
In Dan. xii. 11, this same angel says, " That from the time that
the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that
maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and
ninety days " or years" added to Julian's time ; for from Vespa
sian and Titus' time, they would have been out near five hundred
years ago. Hiltenius, (who was a great studier of Daniel's pro
phecies,) first made this conjecture ; and Wood, Finch, and others
followed him, as did most of the Jews. Now these two compu
tations of A.D. 1656, and A.D. 1666, may be reconciled by the
two gradual accomplishments of the fifth vial ; whereof the one
is the preparation to the other, some portions being poured out
at the top, and others at the dregs of God's wrath ; the first degree
of it beginning at the rising of the witnesses, with the fall of the
tenth part of the city, (or Romish jurisdiction;} the other com
pleting the ruin of Rome itself, (c. xvi.) which is but a tenth part
of the original Rome. Now this angel here, declared in Dan. xii.
1, 7, That about the same time the children of his people, (the
Jews,) should be called by Michael their prince, (Christ,) and be
also delivered out of the greatest distress from the Turkish empire,
(the second woe to pass away, v. 14,) ever nation was in ; after
which restoration of the Jews, and resurrection of the witnesses,
the church's reign on earth will begin to be established on the ruins
of Antichrist, at the blast of the seventh trumpet. But the other
period of" the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days,"
(or years,) being about forty-five years anterior, would have brought
it down to A.D. 1690-9 ; and these two periods are set as two
posts, the one at the beginning, and the other at the ending of the
whole style of time allotted for the fulfilment of events before
Christ's kingdom. Again in Dan. xii. 7, the angel seems to men
tion Antichrist's " three and a half times," distinct from the " ac
complishing to scatter the power of the holy people " by killing
the witnesses ; and then " all these things, (about the ruin of the
Pope and Turk,) shall be finished," or a finishing ; for they would
scarcely all end together at one time. So that the twelve hun-

2 Y 2

676 THE TIME OF THE WITNESSES9 [REV. XI. 11 — 13.

dred and ninety years designs not so much Antichrist's time, as
the first turn of things at the saints' scattering, preparatory to
Christ's kingdom ; this expiring of his time being somewhere
within these forty-five years : For, 1st, The angel's fixing a latter
period for the final end of all, leaving so many years between,
augur the former to be the punctum beginning the time for the
accomplishment of these great things, whereof Antichrist's ruin is
one, and that of the Turk is a great one also. 2dly, Having re
peated this scattering, &c. as a preface to his answer about the
time of its being finished ; " Many, (says the angel,) shall be
made white, and tried, and purified " by this scattering ; and then
is subjoined, " And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken
away, (under Julian, as some interpret,) shall be twelve hundred
and ninety days," to the killing of the witnesses : Now these
three years and a half were prefigured by those of Antiochus,
and accompanied with the same trial, Dan. xi. 35 ; " Many shall
fall, to try them, to purge them, and to make them white ;" the
scattering in the apostate Emperor's time being a strong resem
blance with that to come under apostate Rome : But the Pope's
" three times and a half" would have been reckoned from some
more eminent and suitable mark than tliis heterogeneal passage
of Julian's persecution, as hornogeneal with this killing of the
witnesses. 3dly, As the latter period emphatically blesses him
that cometh thereto, it intimates a blessedness also on the dawn
of it, forty-five years before, in comparison of the scattering
times previous thereto ; though thrice blessed are the timesof which
the angel saith to Daniel, " Thou shall stand up in thy lot," &c.
as he saith in c. xx. 6, " Blessed is he that hath part in the first
resurrection." It is in explanation of Daniel, that the angel here
insists so largely on this last killing of the witnesses, and their first
resurrection ; the forty-five years ending also with another resur
rection still more glorious, the Pope and Turk being destroyed ut
terly in the interim : and in further confirmation of this harmony,
the twelve hundred and ninety days are pitched on by some for
the conversion of the Jews, and the fall of Turcism ; the taking
away the Jews' sacrifice being pitched on as the eminent mark
and post, whence to reckon the account : for the Jews' last at
tempt to erect their temple-worship in Julian's time was over
thrown by an earthquake ; thus fulfilling the prophecy of Christ
then again, "not to leave one stone upon another" even under
ground : The time therefore of their turning to the Messiah is
reckoned from temple-matters of which he is the substance ; and
if the resurrection of the European witnesses, and the conver
sion of the Jews, should fall out together, how famous would Dan
iel's days be made by two so glorious resurrections, accompanying
the foundations of the new Jerusalem ; the enemies of Jews and
Protestants, hitherto letting, being now " taken out of the way,"
that the Son of man might be revealed ; as the Roman empire did
let the revelation of " the man of sin " and his kingdom. Thus

REV. XI. 14.] KILLING AND RISING. 677

both these typical resurrections will become pledges of " the re
surrection of the just," and that of the witnesses will prepare
the effusion of the fifth vial on the ruined Romanist, as that ot the
Jews will prepare the effusion of the sixth vial on the ruined Turk.
And it may be observed, that these forty-five years correspond
with the period of the Exodus of Israel, adding the five years of
battling for the promised land to the forty years in the wilderness,
as in Joshua xiv. 10.

IX.—" THE SECOND WOE IS PAST."

The three last trumpets being called three woes, and one woe
being past when the fifth trumpet had done sounding, (c. viii. 13 ;
ix. 12 ;) as soon as the time of the sixth trumpet is being finished,
it is said " The second woe is past, and behold the third cometh
quickly," v. 14. Now the sixth trumpet being the empire and ty
ranny of the Turk, and the sixth vial being that great and deadly
blow that shall be given to that empire, to make way for the kingdom
of " the kings of the east," (the Jews,) mentioned in that vial,
Mr. Mede interprets this passing away of the second woe, to be
the very sixth vial, and the fifth to be the fall of the tenth of the
city. But the last blast of the sixth trumpet seems here to
synchronize with the earthquake, and the resurrection and ascen
sion of the witnesses, and the fall of the tenth of the city ; all end
ing in one period : for as soon as the Holy Ghost had narrated all
these, he concludes w ith, " The second woe is past." If then the
fifth vial be the period of the Pope's reign, and if the witnesses'
putting off their sackloth be at their rising, and at the fall of the
tenth part of the city ; how can the passing away of the second
woe, (if it be the sixth vial,) fall out and synchronize with these ;
seeing the vials, seals, and trumpets, fall out successively, each
after other, if not in equal distances of time ? To reconcile this
difficulty, 1st, Either the fifth and sixth vials shall fall out about
the same time ; and so the conversion of the Jews, and the rising
of the European witnesses, fall out together as preparations to both :
(and so Dan. xi. 45, with xii. 1, seems to connect the fall of Anti
christ with the rising again of the Jewish nation from that paroxysm
of Turkish trouble, accompanying their first conversion ;) Or,
2dly, As the witnesses not only rise with an earthquake, but
afterwards ascend also into heaven ; there may be a space of years
between, (as there was of days from Christ's resurrection to his
ascension,) wherein all their enemies and other obstacles are
removed : so though their rising be preparatory to the sixth
vial, their ascension may not be until the sixth. But 3dly, The
angel's scope in introducing this clause, " The second woe is past"
may not be to denote the exact period of all these occurrences,
or to shew the synchronism of the sixth vial and the end of the
sixth trumpet, with this earthquake, &c. but rather, (as the Turkish
tyranny was one part of the second woe 011 the eastern Christians,

678 " THE SECOND WOE IS PAST." [REV. XI. 14.

[c. ix.] and another part the treading down the outward court of
carnal Protestants by the Papists, and killing their witnesses,)
having related and put them both together, he comes in with
" TJie second woe is past" q. d. " I have now fully declared what
a woe God will bring on the eastern and western Christians, per
fecting together the second woe, and making up the story of the
sixth trumpet ; and having done with these two parts, I pass
therefore to speak of the third woe, which now cometh quickly"
&c. So that this passage seems to shew materially what pertains
to the sixth trumpet, rather than chronologically to shew the expir
ing of it : and this great punishment from the Popish Gentiles
on the Protestant party in the west for their sins, is fitly cast un
der the trumpets, and joined to that great plague on the eastern
Christians by the Turk, as a part of the sixth trumpet ; and severed
from the vials, as no part of them ; they being to fall only on the
enemies themselves of both these Christian companions, viz. on
the Pope and the Turk. Thus the Holy Ghost homogeneally
puts together the punishment of carnal Christians, eastern and
western, under the woe of the trumpets ; and in like manner
involves these other two grand enemies to Christ's profession and
religion, wholly under the plagues of the seven vials : and this
may be why the " treading down the outward court" and the
" killing of the witnesses," come in here ; and why the "treading
of the winepress," (c. xiv. 20, which is part of the treading of the
outward court,) is reckoned no part of the vials, it being to fall on
the Protestant party : yet so as that, what with the trumpets and
what with the vials, God will be sure to meet all sorts for their
sins, and by a like just and impartial rule proceed both towards
friends and enemies, without any respect of persons. 4thly, As
the calling of the Jews is but tacitly intimited in this book,
which is chiefly written for the Gentiles; may not this passage
intimate the foundation of the Turk's ruin by the Jews' conversion
happening together with the resurrection of the witnesses ? for
the height and bitterness of the Turkish tyranny is past, (though
the empire may stand for a while,) when the Jews are called ; the
•woe of it lying in its hinderance of the Christian religion, now to
revive among the Jews in his territories. When the foundation
of the ruin of any state is laid, and its dominion is past the
meridian, and begins to decline, it is prophetically past ; as things
are said to be finished, when begun to be accomplished : as
Babylon is said to be fallen, (c. xiv. 8,) when but the first vial
was began to be poured out, and the open discovery of Antichrist
made ; and again her fall is finally pronounced, when she is
unseated for ever, c. xviii. 2. Old Babylon is said to be fallen,
(Isa. xxi. 9,) at the first revolt of the Medes : so the second woe,
or sixth trumpet, (or Turkish empire,) is said to be past, when the
Jews first begin to revolt in their conversion to Christ ; therefore
the angel proceeds to warn us, that " Behold the third woe com
eth quickly," at the blast of the seventh trumpet, introducing the

REV. XI. 1 — 14.] OBSERVATIO>s7S ON 670

new Jerusalem of Christ's kingdom. Thus this chapter is a
complete comment on the twelfth chapter of Daniel, and makes
mention of all these things therein mentioned.

X.— CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS.

On the fulfilment of prophecy relative to this chapter.

1 have already observed, that God is wont to fulfil prophecies,
and the computations of them, over and over, in several degrees
of accomplishment, as in Daniel's twelve hundred and ninety days,
and John's twelve hundred and sixty ; and also in the witnesses
three days and a half, whereof some gradual accomplishments have
transpired several times in Europe ; yet I have proved a far greater
slaughter of them yet to come. Now the observation of the revo
lution of time in the centuries past, wherein the killings of the
witnesses fell out, may indigitate the time when the great and
last slaughter, in the centuries running on since, may fall out ;
that is, as the partial and smaller killings of the witnesses fell
out in A.D. 1547 — 9 in Germany, and in A.D. 1556, in England,
(under Mary ;) so about the time of the revolution of the same term
of a hundred years, in the middle of a following century, the time
of this last killing of the witnesses may also be. Thus John Huss
who suffered martyrdom at a stake about A.D. 1417, said, " After
a hundred years you Papists shall be called to account;" which
remarkable speech the Bohemians had stamped upon their coins :
accordingly in A.D. 1517, Luther arose, and with him the gospel
in Germany ; and again after another century, about A.D. 1618,
began those notable alterations in Germany, which still go on to
this time, the Deformation of the gospel proceeding with as strange
a hand against the church as, through God, the Reformation did
for it : so that I confess myself suspicious of the revolution of every
century, since those former killings of the witnesses, fore-running
the final one : and if England, Scotland, &c. as the tenth part of
the city, is to be the eminent stage of this slaughter, then will it
fall upon some centenary after the former trial of England ; and as
upon the rising of England and Scotland began that glorious
harvest of blessed times, which lasted till the German wars began ;
so in the revolution of other hundred years, far more blessed
times are likely to arise at the beginning of the forty -five years,
(before spoken of,) allotted for the accomplishment of all. But
I leave these conjectures to further light, lest I presume too far in
fixing the times and seasons for God's great works of wonder : for if
chronologers even now are not agreed whence to date the seventy
years' captivity, how much more difficult must it be to fix the
period before the accomplishment of any prophecy ? Yet let an
indefinite warning that these things are approaching, and our
selves within reach of them, suffice to move us to prepare for them ;
(which is the only use of knowing them;) as it is said of death, The
day is hid, that every day may be watched : And though we may

c

680 THE FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY. [REV. XI.

think this dismal and black hour of temptation not likely to come
soon, as the clouds rise not fast enough so suddenly to overcast
the face of the sky with darkness ; yet living in the extremity of
times, when motions and alterations, being so near the centre,
become quickest and speediest, we are at the verge and within
the whirl of that great mystery of Christ's kingdom, which as a
gulf will swallow up all time in its haste to make a full end of
all. And for the Jews' call, which is conjunct with this killing
and rising of the witnesses ; as it depends not on ordinary means,
there are like to be no preparations at all unto it, until it comes
with this extraordinary voice, (t Shall the earth be made to bring
forth in one day, or shall a nation be born at once ?" Isa. Ixvi. 8 :
so that in the year before there will be no more outward appear
ances or probabilities of it, than there are now, or have been
for centuries past : therefore our faith need not be put off from
this, by our not seeing any stirring or motion towards it ; the truth
is, Both the killing of the witnesses and the calling of the Jews,
may fall out sooner than we are aware.

The Reader will perceive, 1st, That he is left to make his own table of errata,
except that in p. 577, is Gyrene for Cyprus ; 2dly, That the Iota subscript is
expressed by I after Eta and Omega, (or double E and 0 ;) 3dly, That some few
passages of Scripture are not quoted verbatim ; and 4thly, That he is relieved
from the necessity of any reference to the date of the Author's writing, except in
p. 603, where the Editor has inserted a short parenthesis, suggesting the year A.D.
606, as that of the rise of the beast, (when Boniface III. by flattering the traitorous
murderer Phocas, emperor of Constantinople, procured himself the title of Universal
Bishop ;) to shew how nearly the fall of Turk and Pope would synchronize,
according to one of the dates in p. 596. If however our Author looked not beyond
his own century, how shall we look beyond the eventful middle of ours, as the
centre of all woes, and " the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world
to try them that dwell upon the earth?'' and if the outlines of these our days, which
were so strongly depicted by his hand, are being filled up so strikingly by us, '•' how
sha/jj £is generation pass away till all these things be fulfilled ?" For while our State
(win -y two Acts of the Legislature, tolerates blasphemy against the holy Trinity,
an. I iuu.<.>ves the disabilities of idolatry,) holds out her right hand and left to Turk
and Pope ; our Church, by a long-standing apostacy of her members, and by a more
recent "falling away" among her ministers, is being robbed of the crown of her ekclion
of God, and of that brightest jewel on its front, her justification by CHRIST ALONE
through faith only : but if this Jachin and Boaz of our temple be shaken, what can
bar our re-union with Rome, between whom and ourselves there will soon appear
no more difference in sense or sound, than between Aholah and Aholibah ? Such rapid
retrogading into Laudean days must soon precipitate us backwards into the Bonnerian
age : and what true Protestant hath not " great heaviness and continual sorrow in
heart," anticipating " such a time of trouble as never was, since England was a
nation, even to that same time ?'' yet let us " rejoice with trembling," knowing that,
although "all shall war ship the beast, whose names are not written in the Lamb's book
of life ;" " At that time her people shall be delivered, every one that shall be
found written in this book;" see Dan. xii. 1. Rev. xiii. 8.

Preserve us, Lord, by thy dear word ;
From Turk and Pope defend us, Lord :

Both these would thrust out of his throne
Our Lord Christ Jesus thy dear Son.

Old Ver.
END OF THIS VOLUME.
ENTERED AT STATIONER'S HALL.

JENK1N THOMAS, PR1NTKR, PLYMOUTH.