A37035:1497
A commentary upon the book of the Revelation Wherein the text is explained, the…A commentarie upon the book of the Revelation Wherein the text is explained, the…
A commentary upon the book of the Revelation Wherein the text is explained, the series of the several prophecies contained in that book, deduced according to their order and dependence on each other; the periods and succession of times, at, or about which, these prophecies, that are already fulfilled, began to be, and were more fully accomplished, fixed and applied according to history; and those that are yet to be fulfilled, modestly, and so far as is warrantable, enquired into. Together with some practical observations, and several digressions, necessary for vindicating, clearing, and confirming many weighty and important truths. Delivered in several lectures, by that learned, laborious, and faithful servant of Jesus Christ, James Durham, late Minister of the Gospel in Glasgow. To which is affixed a brief summary of the whole book, with a twofold index, one of the several digressions, another of the chief and principal purposes and words contained in this treatise.A commentarie upon the book of the Revelation Wherein the text is explained, the series of the several prophecies contained in that book, deduced according to their order and dependance on each other; the periods and succession of times, at, or about which, these prophecies, that are already fulfilled, began to be, and were more fully accomplished, fixed and applied according to history; and those that are yet to be fulfilled, modestly, and so far as is warrantable, enquired into. Together with some practical observations, and several digressions, necessary for vindicating, clearing, and confirming many weighty and important truths. Delivered in several lectures, by that learned, laborious, and faithfull servant of Jesus Christ, James Durham, late Minister of the Gospel in Glasgow. To which is affixed a brief summary of the whole book, with a twofold index, one of the several digressions, another of the chief and principall purposes and words contained in this treatise.
Edinburgh: printed by Christopher Higgins, 1658
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.
9. Add to these, the many reproaches, and slanderous calumnies, that upon these occasions were cast upon the Church, both by Heretics and Heathens who charged all the evils, which any bearing the name of Christianity committed, upon the Church, as witness Celsus his bitter writings answered by Origen, the vindication of Christians by Justin Martyr, Tertullian and others in their Apologies, who reject these slanders as belonging to the Gnostics, Saturninians, and others of that stamp.
9. Adde to these, the many reproaches, and slanderous calumnies, that upon these occasions were cast upon the Church, both by Hereticks and Heathens who charged all the evils, which any bearing the name of Christianity committed, upon the Church, as witnesse Celsus his bitter writings answered by Origen, the vindication of Christians by Iustin Martyr, Tertullian and others in their Apologies, who reject these slanders as belonging to the Gnosticks, Saturninians, and others of that stamp.
10. If we consider several circumstances of the Churches outward persecution, we will find it not unfitly resembled by this type, as especially in the actors and way followed by them. The actors were not Comm•dus and Heliogabalus, profane wretches, (the Church had peace under them) but men for civil Justice and excellency of parts, such as the world never had better, a•, Tr•janus, whose stile was, Princeps optimus, So that the salutation to the new Emperors after him became this, I wish you may be felicior Augusto & •elior Tr•jano. Hadria••s had this encomium, Restaurator orbis. The two Antonini, the first was styled Pius, the other Philosophus. Severus, was a most severely just man. Again, their way of persecuting, was not tumultuary, by raging violence joined with outward dissoluteness and tyranny in their other carriages (as was in Nero and Domitian) but (by making good Laws for the Commonwealth, and en-acting Laws against Christians) they pursued them in a legal way as an act of justice, under pretext of Christians opposition to the worship of the gods, or as a being guilty of the many slanders imputed to them: in which respect, it may be said, that these actors (in comparison of the former) weighed the iniquity of their hands in a balance,