A37035:392
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.
The words now being opened, we may enquire, 1. How this threatening of un-Churching a Church useth to be executed?
The words now being opened, we may enquire, 1. How this threatning of un-Churching a Church useth to be executed?
Answer, We conceive it doth not necessarily imply the overrunning, wasting and destroying of such a City or Land, that it should be no City, but that it should be no Church. Sometimes indeed God will even by such a mean bring about this thing threatened; But here we take it to hold out some other thing, than if He had threatened Sword or Pestilence upon them: It is the same upon the matter with that, Math. 21.43. The kingdom of God shall be taken from them, &c. which was Christs word to the Jews, and is especially these ways brought to pass. The first, is sinful, that is, when a Church fell themselves to false Doctrine, which overturneth the foundation: in which sense, Hos. 2. the Lord denies Ephraim to be His Wife, because of her spiritual whoredoms whereby she had broken her tie: thus a people may be said to un-Church themselves by their unbelief, confusions and errors (unconsistent with the foundation) according to that, Isa•. 50.1. And Rom. 11. the Jews are said to have broken themselves off by their unbelief. The second way is penal, that is, when the Gospel hath not fruits among a people, the Lord removeth the Light, and His Ordinances from them, taketh down His hedge from about them, and (as it were) sendeth them a bill of divorce, refusing to own them afterwards as a Church: not by giving them up to outward enemies oppression (which for a time they may be free of) but by ratifying their own sentence of rejecting of the Gospel, as it is, Act. 13.46. and thus the Kingdom of God was translated from the Jews; and they became no Church, when the Gospel was taken from them and sent unto the Gentiles. A third way may be mixed, partly sinful, partly penal, a people upon the one side not receiving the love of the Truth; and therefore upon the other side, God gives them up to strong delusion, whereupon they proceed from evil to worse in the believing of lies, as it is,