A34679:418
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.
It is a phrase borrowed from men, that when they would remember such a man, or such a friend, they set them down in a book; God stands not in need of books, but his clear, and everlasting love to them is such, that they are engraven as on the palms of his hands, as the Show-bread was present before the Lord continually, which represented the 12. Tribes, that his eye might be upon them from one end of the week to another, and the word which the Septuagints use for Show-bread, it is translated as the word which the Apostle useth, Rom. 8. 28. and the Greek Translators and Hebrew express it, it is the bread of Gods purpose, or of Gods face, and what is his purpose? it is not with him as it is with us, that whiles we speak of one man, we forget another; but his purpose is always the same; and these being the bread of Gods purpose, they are ever before him from one end of the week to another, and from one end of the year to another, now that is the meaning of the Question, what is the Book of life? It is the book of Gods eternal election, that is, it is the register or record of the names of all whom God hath chosen to life and salvation in Christ.
It is a phrase borrowed from men, that when they would remember such a man, or such a freind, they set them down in a booke; God stands not in need of books, but his clear, and everlasting love to them is such, that they are engraven as on the palmes of his hands, as the Shew-bread was present before the Lord continually, which represented the 12. Tribes, that his eye might be upon them from one end of the week to another, and the word which the Septuagints use for Shew-bread, it is translated as the word which the Apostle useth, Rom. 8. 28. and the Greeke Translators and Hebrew expresse it, it is the bread of Gods purpose, or of Gods face, and what is his purpose? it is not with him as it is with us, that whiles we speak of one man, we forget another; but his purpose is alwayes the same; and these being the bread of Gods purpose, they are ever before him from one end of the week to another, and from one end of the year to another, now that is the meaning of the Question, what is the Booke of life? It is the booke of Gods eternall election, that is, it is the register or record of the names of all whom God hath chosen to life and salvation in Christ.