A09339:4225
A Golden Chain
A golden chain: or The description of theology containing the order of the causes of salvation and damnation, according to Gods word. A view whereof is to be seen in the table annexed. Hereunto is adjoined the order which M. Theodore Beza used in comforting afflicted consciences.A golden chaine: or The description of theologie containing the order of the causes of saluation and damnation, according to Gods word. A view whereof is to be seene in the table annexed. Hereunto is adioyned the order which M. Theodore Beza vsed in comforting afflicted consciences.
Cambridge: printed by John Legat, 1600Cambridge: printed by Iohn Legat, 1600
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
REVELAT. 18. 4. And I heard another voice from heaven say, Go out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and receive not of her plagues.
REVELAT. 18. 4. And I heard another voice from heauen say, Goe out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sinnes, and receiue not of her plagues.
IN the former chapter S. John sets down a description of the whore of Babylon, & that at large as he saw her in a vision described unto him. In the sixteenth verse of the same chapter, he foretells her destruction: and in the three first verses of this 18. chapter, he goeth on to propound the said destruction yet more directly and plainly: withal alleging arguments to prove the same, in all the verses following. Now in this fourth verse is set down a caveat serving to forewarn all the people of God, that they may escape the judgement which shall befall the whore: and the words contain two parts: a commandment, and a reason. The commandment, Come out of her my people, that is, from Babylon. The reason, taken from the event, least ye be partakers, &c. Touching the commandment, first I will search the right meaning of it, and then set down the use thereof and doctrine flowing thence. In history therefore are three Babylons mentioned: one is, Babylon of Assyria standing on the river Euphrates, where was the confusion of Languages, and where the Jews were in captivity: which Babylon is in Scripture reproached for Idolatry and other iniquities. The second Babylon is in Egypt standing on the river Nylus, and it is now called Cairo; of that mention is made, 1. Pet. 5.13. (as some think) though indeed it is as likely and more commonly thought, that there is meant Babylon of Assyria. The third Babylon is mystical, whereof Babylon of Assyria was a type and figure; and that is Rome, which is without question here to be understood. And the whore of Babylon, as by all circumstances may be gathered, is the state or regiment of a people that are the inhabitants of Rome and appertain thereto. This may be proved by the interpretation of the holy ghost: for in the last verse of the 17. chapter the woman that is the whore of Babylon is said to be a city which reigneth over the kings of the earth: now in the days when S. John penned this book of Revelation, there was no city in the world that ruled over the kings of the earth but Rome; it then being the seat where the Emperor put in execution his Imperial authority. Again in the seventh verse she is said to sit on a beast having seven heads & ten horns: which 7. heads be seven hills, v. 9. whereon the woman sitteth, & also they be seven kings.