A34679:404
An exposition upon the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation by that reverend and eminent…
An exposition upon the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation by that reverend and eminent servant of the Lord, Mr. John Cotton ... ; taken from his mouth in short-writing, and some part of it corrected by himself soon after the preaching thereof ; and all of it since viewed over by a friend to him ... wherein some mistakes were amended, but nothing of the sense altered.
London: printed for Tim. Smart, 1656
Title page typeset from the transcription.
AN EXPOSITION Upon the thirteenth Chapter of the REVELATION. › Part
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.
2. It is described by the subject, It is the Lambs Book of life; either he is the possessor of it, God giving it to him that he might take notice of all the names therein, and keep them safe to salvation: or else he is the subject of it, as being the first and principal person who is written in it; for he of old hath been observed to be the head and chief of the elect of God, in Ephes. 1. 4. He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, therefore he chose him first, and us in him, as he is well pleased, first with Christ, and in Christ with us, Mat. 3. 17. whether you speak of Gods everlasting complacency, or of the manifestation of it in effectual vocation, it is in Christ that he is well pleased; first with Christ, and in his name with us, so he is said to be fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, 1 Pet. 1. 20. So therefore it is said to be the book of the Lamb, the Lambs book of life, because that the book is given to him, and because also that he is the principal person, that is first, and primarily, and fundamentally written in this book. I say it is first given to him, as if all the persons that God intends life unto, he did give them as it were in a scroll or book to the Lord Jesus, (but of that I shall speak a little more by and by.) In the mean time I speak now to the Analysis of the Text; but if you shall not tras•••e it, whose names are not written in the Lambs Book of life (but as it is here and indeed so it holds in the Original) the Book of life of the Lamb; Though it be the like sense, then it may hold out a further notion and meditation, and that is this.
2. It is described by the subject, It is the Lambs Book of life; either he is the possessor of it, God giving it to him that he might take notice of all the names therein, and keep them safe to salvation: or else he is the subject of it, as being the first and principall person who is written in it; for he of old hath been observed to be the head and cheif of the elect of God, in Ephes. 1. 4. He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, therefore he chose him first, and us in him, as he is well pleased, first with Christ, and in Christ with us,