A37035:990
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.
yea, and of Deacons with their qualifications, &c. should be so clear and express in the Word, and that yet this Superior Officer should be so darkly pointed at, and there be no qualifications, directions or rules given concerning him, but what are to be borrowed from the inferior Pastor. 5. It would also, upon this supposition, be difficult to find out who these particular Bishops could be: For, 1. some make Timothy to be dead, and John now to be Bishop of Ephesus: and can John himself, write to himself, being at that time not in Ephesus? 2. If we take Timothy to be the Angel mentioned, will it be charitable to account him to have fallen so from his first love? yea, supposing it to be Onesimus, it will be hard to construct so of him: And so we might go through the rest. Beside, there is in all these Epistles a special sibnesse and sympathy between the condition of the Angel and Church: therefore what is directed to the Angel at the entry, is applied to the Churches in the close of every Epistle: yea, these Angels are supposed to have much immediate influence upon the conditions good or ill of these Churches. Now, it may be conceived how the Churches and their particular Ministers may come to be of the same temper; but it cannot be conceived how it can be so ordinarily between a Diocesan Bishop and many Congregations under him: for, experience hath proven that oftentimes there may be a cold dead Bishop, and yet where the Ministers are lively, the people may be in good condition: but usually when Ministers are lifeless, although the Bishop were lively, yet are the people for the generality of them but in a dead condition. Lastly, If what is spoken to Angels here, be to be appropriated to one Bishop, then it behoved to be said, that it were only the Bishop that had the door opened to him in Preaching, as in Philadelphia; that he only were commended for his labour and patience, as in Ephesus; that he only did convert souls, and in that peculiar sense, were said to have few unspotted persons under him, as in the Epistle to Sardis, &c. And if these things cannot be astricted to Bishops, so understood, but must agree to all Ministers in such cases, Then must the title Angel be so applied in these Epistles.
yea, and of Deacons with their qualifications, &c. should be so clear and expresse in the Word, and that yet this Superiour Officer should be so darkly pointed at, and there be no qualifications, directions or rules given concerning him, but what are to be borrowed from the inferiour Pastor. 5. It would also, upon this suppofition, be difficult to find out who these particular Bishops could be: For, 1. some make Timothie to be dead, and Iohn now to be Bishop of Ephesus: and can Iohn himself, write to himself, being at that time not in Ephesus? 2. If we take Timothie to be the Angel mentioned, will it be charitable to account him to have fillen so from his first love? yea, supposing it to be Onesimus, it will be hard to construct so of him: And so we might go through the rest. Beside, there is in all these Epistles a special sibnesse and sympathie between the condition of the Angel and Church: therefore what is directed to the Angel at the entry, is applied to the Churches in the close of every Epistle: yea, these Angels are supposed to have much immediat influence upon the conditions good or ill of these Churches. Now, it may be conceived how the Churches and their particular Ministers may come to be of the same temper; but it cannot be conceived how it can be so ordinarily between a Diocesian Bishop and many Congregations under him: for, experience hath proven that oftentimes there may be a cold dead Bishop, and yet where the Ministers are lively, the people may be in good condition: but usually when Ministers are lifelesse, although the Bishop were lively, yet are the people for the generality of them but in a dead condition. Lastly, If what is spoken to Angels here, be to be appropriated to one Bishop, then it behoved to be said, that it were only the Bishop that had the door opened to him in Preaching, as in Philadelphia; that he only were commended for his labour and patience, as in Ephesus; that he only did convert souls, and in that peculiar sense, were said to have few unspotted persons under him, as in the Epistle to Sardis, &c. And if these things cannot be astricted to Bishops, so understood, but must agree to all Ministers in such cases, Then must the title Angel be so applyed in these Epistles.