A37035:1559
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.
In the opening of the words we have hinted at several Doctrines, which now we shall not resume, but shall shortly point at these observations further,
In the opening of the words we have hinted at severall Doctrines, which now we shall not resume, but shall shortly point at these observations further,
1. That there is no sin that more effectually pleadeth for vengeance from God, or more certainly and severely shall be punished by Him, than the sin of persecuting and wronging of the Saints. Wrongs done to any innocent men in the world have their cry before God, and God is the avenger of these; but wrongs done to His Saints, cry louder than the wrongs of any, even though Kings. God cannot (as it were) but hear and avenge, as is clear from the parable, Luke 18.7. And from experience this hath been found, that persecutors (even often in this life) have been remarkably plagued of God, as Cain, Pharaoh, Babylon, Antiochus, Herod the great, who was horribly plagued of God before his death; ⟨p. 368⟩Pontius Pilate, who was degraded and banished; Herod the Tetrarch, miserably perished, Acts 12. Nero, Domitian, and many others, brought death upon themselves, as is clear from Scripture, History of Josephus, and the Ecclesiastic story, especially Cent. Magd. De paenis persecutorum. It is true, Gods way in this, is sovereign and unsearchable in respect of the manner and time of this reckoning: sometimes He will suffer great persecutors to die in worldly credit and peace, as Nebuchadnezzar did, and in later times the Duke of Alva, the great persecutor in the low Countries: sometimes He will pardon the persecutor, as He did Manasseh; yet ordinarily doth He manifest His displeasure, even before the world, by temporal plagues of infamy and judgements upon them, or others, as may make the world know that He abhorreth that sin: Such was Gods thrusting Nebuchadnezzar for a time to the beasts of the field; such was Gods plaguing of Manasseh for his blood in his own imprisonment, and in denuding his children of the Kingdom. This proceedeth partly from the greatness of the sin of persecution, partly from the nature of it; God is more eminently and singularly engaged against it (He being in some manner persecuted in His people) So that we may say, that the blood of Martyrs soundeth alway with that word before God, which Zachariah the son of Jehojada expressed at his death,