A34679:422
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.
Answ. 3. And it is called also the book of the life of the Lamb; if you have respect of referring to Christ this life, then you take Christ as he is the subject of this life, in John 14. 19. Because I live, you shall live also; I live, and then you live: and he is the author, the efficient, the procreant, and conservant cause of life in us to eternity; the Lord hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his son; He that hath the son hath life, 1 John 5. 12. So you see the meaning of these words, these persons that are thus given to Christ, elect vessels to grace and glory that are given to Christ, they are preserved from the worship of the Beast, and none but they, they only; for this purpose you read that false Christs (whereof Antichrist is chief) Mat. 24. 24. They shall deceive many, yea if it were possible the very elect: It implies thus much, that none of them shall be deceived by all false Christs, but all others shall be deceived; earthly minded men, and such whose names are not written in the Lambs book of life, they shall be deceived, the ⟨p. 138⟩Beast shall go into perdition, and they with him, Rev. 17. 8. Not but that for a time they that are Gods elect may be taken with a fond admiration and adoration of the Beast, to believe as the Church of Rome believes, and may look for peace of conscience from the dispensations of the Church of Rome; it may be so as Bilney and Latimer, that were marvellous devout to that Church; though it pleased God that Bilney, you may read it in his Epistle to Bishop Tonstall, that being troubled in conscience, he had taken all the courses that their Religion enjoined him; had made confession to the Priests, and they enjoined him penance and whipping of himself, but for all these his wound bled as fresh as before; till in the end he took an English Testament, as it was translated by Erasmus, not with any intent to find any thing in it that might ease his trouble, but because he was a perfect Latinist; but reading that place in 1 Tim. 1. 15. these words did so affect him, that immediately the Lord letting him see his love in Christ Jesus: The Lord (saith he) let me see that I had taken a wrong course all this while;