A34679:419
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.
Quest. 2. If you shall ask why it is called the Lambs Book of life?
Quest. 2. If you shall aske why it is called the Lambes Booke of life?
Answ. First, because the Lord hath given this book to Christ, and all the names of his elect by name to be brought to salvation, and kept in a state of salvation to immortality, and therefore you shall read in Scripture, when God puts forth an eternal love to his people, wrought eternal salvation for us, I mean when he did eternally elect us to grace and glory in this eternal election of his, there was accompanying an eternal donation in giving them to Christ, Christ knew his fathers counsel from eternity, and the Lord gave them to Christ by him to be brought, and he undertaking that they shall be brought to salvation, the Lord requiring that he should keep them to immortality; he shall work the means and apply the same effectually to the end of the world: This is evident from those Scriptures that speak of the grant, and of the gift of them to Christ before their effectual calling, though donation go before that; for from that love of God by which he gives us to Christ in our effectual calling, he gives us Christ, and faith to receive Christ; but before this, there is a giving, a donation of us to Christ, as John 6. 37. All that the Father giveth me, shall come unto me; So this coming to Christ is believing on Christ, and it is so expressed in ver. 35. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst: To come to Christ, is to believe on his name; thus much doth he express himself; that all that the Father give him in his eternal counsel, they shall come unto him, to wit, in effectual calling him: the Father will draw none but whom in his eternal counsel he hath given to Christ; and whom he draws, I will not cast out, in ver. 37. to 44. So then when this act of Gods eternal election passed on those whose persons are designed to grace and glory, he gave all by name to the Lord Jesus, as if they were particularly registered in a book: And he promised, that in fullness of time, he would draw them to him, and required that the Lord Jesus should keep them under his wing to immortality; it is called therefore the Lambs book of life, because he is the subject receptive of it.