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merchandise is all things of price, with the bodies and souls of men : whose judgement-lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not, s but shall surely come upon 242 them at the last day suddenly, as the flood upon the old world, and fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah, when the just shall be delivered, like Lot; t CC for the Lord 'knoweth how to deliver the godly ' out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judge‹ ment to be punished," (in the lake of fire;) but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, being made drunk with the wine of the whore's fornication: u who despise dominion, and are not afraid to blaspheme glories; for the beast opened his mouth against God to blaspheme his Name and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. v These, as natural brute beasts, (the ten horned beast and and two horned beast, or false prophet,) made to be taken and de'stroyed, (in the lake of fire,) blas ́ pheme the things they understand not-they count it pleasure to riot in the day-time-sporting themselves with their Own deceiving, while they feast with you, w having eyes full of an adultress : x for the kingdoms of the beast live deliciously with the great whore, and the nations are made drunk with the wine of her fornication. They are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, the false prophet, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,y and who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel. These 243 are not fountains of living water, but wells without water;" not such clouds of saints as the two witnesses ascend in, but "clouds

that are carried with a tempest, &c." Thus does the author of this Epistle spend all the second chapter in describing the qualities of the Apocalyptic beasts and false prophet: and then in the third he goes on to describe their destruction more fully, and the future kingdom. He saith, that because the coming of Christ should be long deferred, they should scoff, saying, Where is the promise of his coming? Then he describes the sudden coming of the day of the Lord upon them, as a thief in the night," which is the Apocalyptic phrase; and the millennium, thousand years, which are with God but as a day; the passing away of the old heavens and earth, by a conflagration in the lake of fire, and our looking for new heavens and a new new earth, wherein dwelleth right

eousness.

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Seeing, therefore, Peter and John were apostles of the circumcision, it seems to me, that they staid with their churches in Judea and Syria, till the Romans made war upon their nation,—that is, till the twelfth year of Nero; that they then followed the main body of their flying churches into Asia, and that Peter went thence by Corinth to Rome; that the Roman empire looked upon those churches as enemies, because they were composed of those who were Jews by birth; and therefore, 244 to prevent insurrections, secured their leaders, and banished John into Patmos. It seems also probable to me, that the Apocalypse was there composed, and that soon after the Epistle to the Hebrews and those of Peter were written to the churches, with reference to this prophecy, as being what they were particularly concerned in. For it appears by these epistles, that they

v xiii, 6.

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were written in times of general affliction and tribulation under the heathen, and by consequence, when the empire made war upon the Jews; for, till then, the heathen were at peace with the christian Jews, as well as with the rest. The Epistle to the Hebrews, since it mentions Timothy as related to those Hebrews, must be written to them after their flight into Asia, where Timothy was bishop; and by consequence after the war began, the Hebrews in Judea being strangers to Timothy. Peter seems also to call Rome Babylon, as well with respect to the war made upon Judea, and the approaching captivity, like that under old Babylon, as with respect to that name in the Apocalypse: and in writing to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bythinia, he seems to intimate, that they were the strangers newly scattered by the Roman wars; for those were the only strangers there belonging to his care.

This account agrees best with history when duly rectified. For Justin and Irenæus say, that Simon Magus came to Rome in the reign of Člaudius, and exercised juggling tricks there. Pseudo-Clemens adds, that he endeavoured there to fly, but broke his neck through the prayers of Peter; whence Eusebius, or rather his interpolator Jerome, has recorded, that Peter came to Rome in the second year of Claudius :a but Cyril bishop of Jerusalem, Philastrius, Sulpitius, Prosper, Maximus Taurinensis, and Hegesippus junior, place this victory of Peter in the time of Nero. b Indeed the more ancient tradition was, that Peter

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came to Rome in the days of this emperor, as may be seen in Lactantius.c Chrysostom tells us, that the apostles continued long in Judea, and that then, being driven out by the Jews, they went to the Gentiles. d This dispersion was in the first year of the Jewish war, when bethe Jews, as Josephus tells us, gan to be tumultuous and violent in all places. For all agree, that the apostles were dispersed into several regions at once; and Origen has set down the time: telling us, that in the beginning of the Judaic war, the apostles and disciples of our Lord were scattered into all nations: Thom s into Parthia, Andrew into Scythia, John into Asia, and Peter first into Asia, where he preached to the dispersion, and thence into Italy. e 246 Dionysius Corinthius saith, that Peter went from Asia by Corinth to Rome and all antiquity agrees, that Peter and Paul were martyred there in the end of Nero's reign. Mark went with Timothy to Rome,g and Sylvanus was Paul's assistant; and by the companions of Peter, mentioned in his first Epistle, we may know that he wrote from Rome; and the ancients generally agree, that, in this Epistle, by Babylon he meant Rome. His second Epistle was written to the same dispersed strangers with the first; and therein he saith, that Paul had written of the same things to them, and also in his other epistles. h Now as there is no other epistle of Paul to these strangers, besides that to the Hebrews, so in this Epistle, we find at large all those things which Peter had been speaking of, and here refers to; particularly the passing away of

the old heavens and earth, and establishing an inheritance immoveable ; with an exhortation to grace, because God to the wicked is a consuming fire, i

Having determined the time of writing the Apocalypse, I need not say much about the truth of it, since it was in such request with the first ages, that many endeavoured to imitate it, by feigning Apocalypses under the apostles' names; and the 247 apostles themselves, as I have just now shown, studied it and used its phrases; by which means the style of the Epistle to the Hebrews became more mystical than that of Paul's other Epistles, and the style of John's Gospel more figurative and majestical than that of the other Gospels. I do not apprehend that Christ was called THE WORD OF GOD in any book of the New Testament written before the Apocalypse; and therefore am of opinion, that the language was taken from this prophecy; as also many other phrases in John's Gospel,-such as Christ's being "the light which enlightens the world," the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world,”—“the Bridegroom,"-"He that testifieth,". "He that came down from heaven, the Son of God," &c. Justin Martyr, who within thirty years after John's death became a christian, writes expressly, that a certain man among the christians, whose name was John, one of the twelve apostles of Christ, in the Revelation which was shewed him prophesied, that those who believed in Christ should live a thousand years at Jerusalem. And

i Heb. x, 11, 12; Hist. lib. iv, c. 26.

shall be a resurrection of the flesh,

and a thousand years life at Jerusalem, built, adorned, and enlarged.” Which is as much as to say, that all 248 true christians in that early age received this prophecy; since in all ages, as many as believed the thousand years, received the Apocalypse as the foundation of their opinion: nor do I know one instance to the contrary. Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, a man of the apostolic age, and one of John's own disciples, did not only teach the doctrine of the thousand years, but also asserted that the Apocalypse was written by divine inspiration. k Melito, who flourished next to Justin, wrote a commentary upon this prophecy;1 and he, being bishop of Sardis, one of the Seven Churches, could neither be ignorant of their tradition about it, nor impose upon them. Irenæus, who was contemporary with Melito, wrote much upon it; and said, that the number 666 was in all the ancient and approved copies; and that he had it also confirmed to him by those who had seen John face to face,-meaning no doubt his master Polycarp for one. At the same time Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, asserted it; and so did Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Origen soon after; m and their contemporary, Hippolytus the martyr, metropolitan of the Arabians, wrote a commentary upon it.n All these were ancient men, flourishing within a hundred and twenty years after John's death, and of greatest note in the churches of those times. Soon after Victorinus Pictaviensis wrote another commentary upon it; 249 and he lived in the time of Dioclesian. This may surely suffice to shew how the Apocalypse was received and studied in the first ages:

and I do not indeed find any book of the New Testament so strongly attested, or commented upon so early, as this. The prophecy said, " Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep the things that are writ'ten therein." This animated the first christians to study it so much; till the difficulty made them remit, and comment more upon the books of the New Testament. This was the state of the Apocalypse until the thousand years came to be misunderstood, and brought a prejudice against it and Dionysius of Alexandria, noting how it abounded with barbarisms, (that is, with Hebraisms,) promoted that prejudice so far, as to cause many Greeks in the fourth century to doubt the Book. But whilst the Latins, and a great part of the Greeks, always retained the Apocalypse, and the rest doubted only out of prejudice, it makes nothing against its authority.

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This prophecy is called the Revelation, with respect to the Scripture of truth, which Daniel was commanded to shut up and seal, till the time of the end. o Daniel sealed it until the time of the end, and until that 250 time comes, the Lamb is opening the seals and afterwards the two witnesses prophesy out of it a long time in sack-cloth, before they ascend up to heaven in a cloud. All which is as much as to say, that these prophecies of Daniel and of John should not be understood till the time of the end; but that then some should prophesy out of them in an afflicted and mournful state for a long time, and that but darkly, so as to convert but few. But in the very end, the prophecy should be so far interpreted as to convince many; for "then (saith Daniel) many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall

o Dan. x, 21; xii, 4, 9.

be increased:" for the Gospel must be preached in all nations before the great tribulation and end of the world. The palm-bearing multitude which come out of this great tribulation, cannot be innumerable out of all nations, unless they be made so by the preaching of the Gospel before it comes. There must be a stone cut out of the mountain without hands, before it can fall upon the toes of the image, and become a great mountain and fill the earth. An angel must fly through the midst of heaven with the everlasting Gospel to preach to all nations, before Babylon falls, and the Son of Man reaps his harvest. The two prophets must ascend up to heaven in a cloud, before the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of Christ. It is therefore a part of this prophecy, that it should not be 251 understood before the last age of the world; and therefore it makes for the credit of the prophecy, that it is not yet understood. But if the last age, the age of opening these things, be now approaching, (as by the great success of late interpreters it seems to be.) we have more encouragement than ever to look into these things. into these things. If the general preaching of the Gospel be approaching, it is to us and our posterity that those words mainly belong:

In the time of the end the wise 'shall understand, but none of the wicked shall understand." "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein." p

The folly of interpreters has been, to foretel times and things by this prophecy, as if God designed to make them prophets. By this rashness they have not only exposed themselves, but brought the pro

phecy also into contempt. The The design of God was much otherwise. He gave this and the prophecies of the Old Testament, not to gratify men's curiosity by enabling them to foreknow things; but that, after they were fulfilled, they might be interpreted by the event; and the providence of God, not the interpreter's, be manifested thereby to the world. For the event of things predicted many ages before, will then be a convincing argument that the world 252 is governed by providence. For as the few and obscure prophecies concerning Christ's first coming were for setting up the christian religion, which all nations have since corrupted; so the many and clear prophecies, concerning the things to be done at Christ's second coming, are not only for predicting, but also for effecting a recovery and re-establishment of the long lost truth, and setting up a kingdom wherein dwelleth rightThe event will prove the Apocalypse; and this prophecy, thus proved and understood, will open the old prophets; and all together will make known the true religion, and establish it. For he that will understand the old prophets must begin with this; but the time is not yet come for understanding them perfectly, because the main revolution predicted in them is not yet come to pass. In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets (and then) the kingdoms of this world shall 'become the kingdoms of our Lord, and his Christ, and he shall reign ' for ever." q There is already so much of the prophecy fulfilled, that as many as will take pains in this study may see sufficient instances of

eousness.

God's providence: but then the signal revolutions, predicted by all the holy prophets, will at once both turn men's eyes upon considering 253 the predictions, and plainly interpret them. Till then we must content ourselves with interpreting what hath been already fulfilled.

Amongst the interpreters of the last age, there is scarce one of note who hath not made some discovery worth knowing; and thence I seem to gather, that God is about opening these mysteries. The success of others put me upon considering it; and if I have done anything which may be useful to following writers, I have my design.

CHAPTER II.

Of the relation which the Apocalypse of John hath to the Book of the Law of Moses, and to the worship of God in the temple.

The Apocalypse of John is written in the same style as the prophecies of Daniel, and hath the same relation to them which they have one to another; so that all of them together make but one complete prophecy, and an interpretation thereof.

The prophecy is distinguished into seven successive parts, by the opening of the seven seals of the book which Daniel was commanded to seal up; and hence it is called the Apocalypse, or Revelation of Jesus Christ. The time of the seventh seal is subdivided into eight successive parts by the silence in heaven for half an hour, and the sounding of the seven trumpets successively; and the seventh trumpet sounds to the battle of the great day of God Almighty, whereby the kingdoms of this world

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