A37035:982
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 which words it is indeed asserted, that a Bishop was more than a Presbyter, at that time, yet the rise of that is shown to be from the use or custom which had now obtained in the Church. Neither can that exception of Bellarmin and some others be of force, to wit, that Augustine doth compare, not the use of the Christian Church in that time with what was formerly, but the use of these words in the Christian Church with what was before Christ: and so the use of the Church, and Divine institution, according to this meaning, will be one: This (I say) doth most grossly contradict that Fathers intent: for, 1. His scope is to show that though he was called a Bishop, and Jerome but a Presbyter, that yet indeed there was no difference, but only such as use and custom had brought in into the Church, whereas if we expound custom or use otherwayes, Augustine would seem rather to assert and aggrege the distance that was between him and Jerome, than any way to diminish the same. When yet his scope is clear to lessen that distance of superiority that seemed to be between him and him because of these titles. 2. The very expression will bear the same, quae jam Ecclesiae usus obtinuit, &c. which necessarily importeth, that sometimes such difference was not in custom in the Church: and where will it be found in Augustine that he compareth any custom of the Church after Christ with what was before, as different customs of different times of the same Church? for to him, and almost all the Fathers, usus, or consuetudo Ecclesiae, is ever taken, when given, as a ground of any practice, as contradistinguished from Divine institution, as in the last cited words of Jerome is clear. Also, it may have its own weight, that he is now writing to Jerome whose judgement in these things was not unknown to him: he must therefore be supposed to use the same, as it was understood by him.
In which words it is indeed asserted, that a Bishop was more than a Presbyter, at that time, yet the rise of that is shown to be from the use or custome which had now obtained in the Church. Neither can that exception of Bellarmin and some others be of force, to wit, that Augustine doth compare, not the use of the Christian Church in that time with what was formerly, but the use of these words in the Christian Church with what was before Christ: and so the use of the Church, and Divine institution, according to this meaning, will be one: This (I say) doth most grossely contradict that Fathers intent: for, 1. His scope is to shew that though he was called a Bishop, and Ierom but a Presbyter, that yet indeed there was no difference, but only such as use and custome had brought in into the Church, whereas if we expound custome or use otherwayes, Augustine would seem rather to assert and aggrege the distance that was between him and Ierom, than any way to diminish the same. When yet his scope is clear to lessen that distance of superiority that seemed to be between him and him because of these titles. 2. The very expression will bear the same, quae jam Ecclesiae usus obtinuit, &c. which necessarily importeth, that sometimes such difference was not in custome in the Church: and where will it be found in Augustine that he compareth any custome of the Church after Christ with what was before, as different customes of different times of the same Church? for to him, and almost all the Fathers, usus, or consuetudo Ecclesiae, is ever taken, when given, as a ground of any practice, as contradistinguished from Divine institution, as in the last cited words of Ierom is clear. Also, it may have its own weight, that he is now writing to Ierom whose judgement in these things was not unknown to him: he must therefore be supposed to use the same, as it was understood by him.