Chapter IV (continued, part 2)

And, fourthly, the Papists cannot so well be meant here by the outward

court, as some would have them. For I see not that the angel would vouch

safe them, in this his mention of them here through this type, so much as the bare name of the outward court unto his temple. That Komish church

is not worthy in his esteem to be so accounted of in the proportions of this

allusion. But he rather calls them Gentiles, as being idolatrous worshippers ; and elsewhere, the synagogue of Satan, worshippers of the beast and his

image, Sodom, Egypt, &c., as being in a further distance and degree of

comparison remote from the true temple here, and the worshippers therein. And so between the true worshippers in the inner temple, and these Gentiles, he placeth a third sort of worshippers, who are not Gentiles in their worship, but separate from them in it as well as the true Israelites ; and who worship the true God after the manner of the worship of the temple outwardly ; and

yet are but outwardly Jews, as Rom. ii. 28, and remain uncircumcised in heart and life. And these in this allusion doth God allow the place and name of the outward court ; which till the reed, the light of the word, came,

distinguishing true worshippers from them, were accounted as of the inner

temple, but are now discovered to be without, as the word in the original is.

So that the outward court doth typify out a company who in these times have a greater nearness to the true worshippers than the Gentiles have, and

yet are but without. And though this outward court is here said to be

given to the Gentiles, yet, mark it, not to them as those who are reckoned the worshippers therein, not as the treaders of the outward court, as in

Isa. i. the phrase is of God s house, God reckoneth not them such ; but as the treaders down of this outward court, as they are said to do by the holy

city in the next words, God bringing in upon these carnal professors, for

their contempt of the gospel and of the true worshippers, the worst of the heathen upon them, to tread them down by violence, either of conquest over

128 AN EXPOSITION OF THE EEVELATION, [PART II.

their bodies, as in Germany, or over their consciences, in making them again to submit to their superstitions and idolatries, as they shall go on to do in other places.

And observe the glorious wisdom that is in God s proceeding herein, as the reason of it. For God intending to have a church most holy unto himself, under the seventh trumpet, in which

l the ark shall be seen, which notes out the holy of holies, as it is ver. 19 of this llth chapter, and his manner being to carry on his church unto perfection by degrees, he doth therefore, about the midst of that time, between the first reformation long since made and that seventh trumpet, in an age or so foregoing it, set his builders on work (whom John here represents) to endeavour to erect a new frame, and a reformation of that reformation ; and to take the reed, and measure over anew both temple, altar, and worshippers, and to cast out that outward court of worshippers, with those corruptions of theirs which hindered that thorough reformation; and so to contract his temple into a narrower com

pass, as the proportion of the inner temple to the outward was, yet purer and more refined; he delighting more in truth, and purity of worship, than in magnitude or multitude of sacrifices and worshippers

: and so to make to liimself a church that shall consist of priests, and an inward temple sepa rated from that outward court, into which the true worshippers are called up from the other, which before lay common to both. And how elegant is this allusion here, whereby he sets forth the several states and conditions of his church, growing up unto perfection

! The first reformation he sets out by an inner temple, more imperfect, unfurnished, and, besides, defiled by the adjoining of an outward court unto it.

The second reformation, more pure, he represents by the inner temple measured again, to be finished and cleansed from that mixture.

And then, in the last verse, he opens the holy of holies, into which no unclean thing shall enter, as it is chap. xxi. 27. For though their second

reformation, and the reed thereof, keeps out men civil and profane, whom godly men, whom John here represents, may judge visibly so to be ; yet many a hypocrite, that maketh a lie, may scape and crowd into this inward temple still, whilst the judgment of men, who often err, applies this reed. But into the other temple to come, under the New Jerusalem, shall none of these enter. There shall be a golden reed then, as chap. xxi. 15; whereas now there is but an ordinary cane, reed, or staff, which, though in itself it be straight, yet being to be applied by men, they may be deceived.

Now, having given this more general view what is meant by the temple and outward court, I will more particularly explain what it is to measure the temple, altar, and worshippers therein ; and w

That it is to leave out this outward court.

1. To this end Christ puts a reed into John s hands/ who represents the builders of this age ; that is, puts into their hearts and hands the word, and the light thereof, as alone a sufficient rule to square churches, both worship pers and worship, by. Other reeds men would have, but God hath given us rules in his word to square the whole frame and model of this temple by. And this is to be laid as a principle, that we admit of nothing in mat ters of the church which the word does not warrant. Which principle was never yet so fully taken up and practised by our reformers hitherto ; though it hath long been contended for, as the fundamental groundwork of this

building.

2. By temple here I understand not only the church of the elect, for they

CHAP. IV.] AN EXPOSITION OF THE EEVELATION. 129

are all one and the same with them that worship God in spirit and truth whereas here, in this enumeration, temple and worshippers therein seem to import distinct considerations at least; but I rather understand churches or congregations of public worshippers considered as such ; church-fellow ship, as you call it ; which, as well as the company of the elect was typified out, and called the temple, as Eph. ii. 20-22. For the Apostle there having first said of the Ephesians, that as they were saints in common with others, so they were built up with all the elect into a temple unto God, and this ver. 20, 21, and so made part of templum electorum ; he after that, says again of the same Ephesians, as they were a company knit in church-fellow-

^ship, that they were built together for a habitation to God, ver. 22. And so the particular church at Ephesus made a temple and a habitation apart, and, as it were, a little sanctuary. Now every such particular church bears the name of the whole, and may also justly be called the temple ; because in a church so gathered, the ordinances of church-communion and worship, as the sacraments, excommunication, &c., are to be administered, and not out of such a church-state, or such assemblings ; as at the temple of Jeru salem only sacrifices were to be offered. And therefore 3. By altar here, which was that main ordinance of temple-worship serv ing for sacrifice, which was nowhere out of it to be used, I understand church-ordinances of public worship and sacrifice. And 4. By worshippers, I understand the persons who only are to be of this temple, and to approach to this altar ; as only the priests then did into the inward temple, and unto the altar : even such only who are lively stones, built up in a spiritual house, and a holy priesthood, to offer up acceptable sacrifice unto God; as it is in 1 Pet. ii. 5. So that, although temple here doth connotate and import worshippers, for now, under the New Testament, temple and worshippers are materially the same, as by that place of Peter appears, though formally they may be considered as distinct, as here they seem to be, and so worshippers importeth these persons considered in such meet qualifications as belong to them as saints, and are required in them to make them meet worshippers in this temple, which this reed lays forth; yet formally temple notes out these persons as to be gathered up in a churchassembly, according unto Christ s institution. Now then 5. To measure all these with this reed implies a drawing of a true plat form by the rules of the word ; by shewing both

(1.) What a true church or temple is, and how to be built ; and what the power, the frame and constitution of it, &c. This is rightly and truly measuring the temple. And

(2.) Laying out the right way of the administration of all church-worship and ordinances, as excommunication, sacraments, ordaining officers of holy things, who partake and serve at the altar, and all this by the word. This is to measure the altar. In a word, all that which, Kom. xii. 1, the apostle calls \O^IK% Xargs/a, word-service or worship ; he speaking to the Komans in that chapter as they were a body of a church, as in the 13th chapter he speaks to them as members of a commonwealth.

(3.) Measuring the worshippers is, with the reed, laying forth who are true

saints, and so are meet matter for and to be worshippers therein ; and so judging of men by the rules of the word, and accordingly admitting into, or

rejecting from this fellowship, and judging them when within, as the apostle speaks.

1. And thus measuring is taken for drawing a platform of all these things. As appears by that measuring the temple by Ezekiel, unto which the angel VOL. III. T

130 AN EXPOSITION OF THE REVELATION. [PART II.

here alludes, Ezek. xliii. 10, 11, where it is called a shewing them the pat

tern, the form of the house, and fashion of it ; together with the goings out and comings in for administration, &c. ; all the ordinances thereof, and all

the forms of those ordinances, and all the laws thereof. And as there Eze-

kiel sees distinctly, and apart measured the temple, chap, xli., xlii ; then the altar, chap, xliii. 13 ; and then concerning the worshippers the angel

gives laws, chap, xliv., blaming them that they permitted strangers, men uncircumcised in flesh and heart (speaking in the language of the type) to be in his sanctuary, ver. 7 ; giving a law, ver. 9, that none such should enter

in ; shewing whom he would have to be priests and Levites, and who not, and their duties, in the rest of that chapter

: even so here John is bid to cast out the outward court, as being strangers unto God, and unclean, and

using strange forms of worship. And

2. Measuring is here also put to signify that such a temple, altar, and

worshippers should now, in this age, begin to be built and erected, and men

set on work to do it. So in Ezek. xliii. 10, 11, the measure is taken to that

end, that Israel, seeing the true pattern, might be ashamed of their former

aberrations, and for the time to come might keep to, and do according to, that pattern, and square all by it. Measuring here respects not the old

temple so much, as if the temple that had hitherto stood were to be mea

sured, but it respects a new building, or finishing of a church. So also Zech.

ii., the measuring the city, ver. 2, was to signify not the taking the platform of Jerusalem as then it stood built, but as further anew to be built and in

habited, ver. 4, 5. So also the temple, as then being yet unfinished by the Jews after the captivity; the plummet, or measuring-line, chap. iv. 10, which answers to the reed here, signified that the temple should be finished ; which

appears, if you compare the above-named place with ver. 9 of the same

chapter. And

3. Measuring imports protection also. So, Zech. ii., the measuring the

f God would be a wall of fire round about them, and their glory in the midst of them. And so here so much may be intimated, and so hoped for. For the outward court is therefore not measured, because it is given to the Gentiles. But, on the contrary, the worshippers are measured, and called up, as it were, out from the outward court, that they may be preserved from the re-entry of those Gentiles upon them, or power over them ; at least, from such power as

city there is in the interpretation given, ver. o, explained, that

they had over the outward court. To get into this temple is the greatest preservative to keep the saints from the over-growing corruptions and defile ments of these Gentiles ; and it may unto many prove a protection and

sanctuary from their power, as to those churches in New England it may be hoped it shall. God will create a defence upon his glory. And, however, they shall hereby be reserved for that resurrection which afterward is to

come, ver. 11, 12, &c.

Now, in the second place, on the contrary, the not measuring and the

leaving out the outward court, and yet measuring the other, is

1. By the word exactly putting a difference between them that fear God and them that fear him not ; measuring out who fear him by marks, signs, and spots upon his people, (as in Deuteronomy God speaks,) which the word

gives. And this distinguishing and putting a difference between men and men, the word calls excluding or leaving them out. Which, accordingly, to make way for the right constitution of churches, in discerning the true mat ter of them, hath been the chief work of the godly ministers in England in

this last age; who, though they wanted the ordinance of excommunication in

CHAP. IV.] AN EXPOSITION OF THE REVELATION. 131

their churches, yet in lieu of it they had excommunicating gifts, and were

forced, because of that profane mixture in churches, to spend most of their

ministry in distinguishing men, by giving signs and marks of men s natural and regenerate estates, and convincing and discovering carnal men to them

selves and others : which God in providence ordained, to make way for the

erection of more pure churches. For by this light was set up in godly men s

hearts a spirit to discern between the clean and the unclean ; and so to hew and set apart the materials for this temple, as the stones for Solomon s were.

2. This implies a rejecting them from church-fellowship, and not admitting them into the new-reared temple, as being not fit matter for this building ; which is a kind of excommunication of them.

3. This leaving out the outward court may also imply a rejecting such forms of administration in worship, (liturgies, &c.,) and corruptions therein, which are not found agreeable to the word. For I take the phrase of outward court to import a full opposition to those particulars mentioned in the former words ; which, as you have heard, are these temple, altar, worshippers. And therefore oppositely, all carnal and corrupt worshippers, or forms of

worshipping, cleaving to ordinances, as left in the first reformation, as the

filth which the sea leaves behind it at an ebb, these are all comprehended under that expression of outward court.

JSTow, in the last place, consider the reason given why God stirs up his

people, now in this age, to do thus by this outward court. Which is, be

cause, as their forms of worship came from Popery, and themselves are

inwardly and in heart Gentiles ; so he hath, for many glorious ends of his, ordained them unto Popery again, more or less to be subjected to it. And

therefore he declares this as the reason why he would now, and not before, put it into the hearts of his builders thus strangely and suddenly to reject them : because that the time is now come when, by his decree, they must return to the Gentiles again. Only ere the Gentiles should thus again seize on them, they must first be left out by the templers, the true church ; which, being once done, they forthwith become as heathens, as Christ says ; and

* they wither, and become a prey to men, as it is John xv.

being cast out

6. Popish opinions and practices take them again. And how, by degrees, do these Gentiles win ground upon the outward court in England 1 And how does their winning ground drive the true worshippers into the inner

temple, and cause them to abandon their mixture with the outward court ? So that as this new reformation made way for their ruining the outward

court, so the Gentiles winning more upon the outward court doth further

this new reformation; God carrying on these two works at once.

Now the word given it is given to the Gentiles imports an easy kind of conquest which the Popish party obtains over them ; they yield, and give up the fort as it were, and suffer the Papists to come in upon them, without much or long holding out. Now in such a dispensation of God towards the

carnal Protestants, thus to give them up again unto the Gentiles, there

are many and glorious ends which God may have in it, that may make it

the more probable that so indeed he intends to do, ere he means to bring in

that glorious church to come. As

1. That he might have a purer church, according to the primitive institu

tion; these treaders of his courts becoming loathsome to him, with their

oblations. And though the first reformation was, outwardly in show, more

specious and glorious, for the multitude of those that reformed, and this is to be by much a smaller and narrower building, even as in proportion the outward court did far exceed the inner temple, yet this consisting of purer

132 AN EXPOSITION OF THE REVELATION. [PART II.

worshippers and worship, squared by the word, this second building shall

in true glory excel that other.

2. God may do this to let many of these worshippers taste of the fruit of

their own ways. They took upon them to be the true church-zealots and

defenders of religion against the Papists, and yet cast out God s true wor

shippers and their ministers, saying, Let God be glorified; whilst they beat

their fellow-servants, as the parable hath it. But here they are met with

being cast out by them again. And upon their being rejected from their

fellowship, the protection and defence of these from the Gentiles cease, and

they are given up to them.

3. For the same cause that God let Popery come in upon the world at

first, for the same he suffers it thus again to overflow ; even because men

received not the truth so clearly shining in the prophecy of the witnesses

amongst them in the love of it.

4. To throw out this rubbish that would hinder that temple, which after

all he intends to build and make most glorious. For these, like those

Samaritans, Ezra iv. 1, 2, offer indeed to build with them; but being, ac

cording to God s appointment, not to have a hand in it, they would be a

hindrance to it ; as indeed they have been.

5. That of that glorious restauration, and resurrection of the church and

witnesses, which is yet to come, and is foretold in the 12th and 13th verses

of this chapter, only true worshippers, who in this time of trial stood out as

faithful witnesses against Popery, and the invasion of it, might have the

honour and praise. Therefore God brings this trial upon all the churches,

so to burn up and consume this dross, and to discover those carnal Protes

tants that have spoken as big words and talked as hotly against Popery as

any, and made that the evidence of their sincerity to be such, and unsound, by a base yielding unto the Gentiles the Papists

: that so, when Christ seems

to revive his church again after this, ver. 13, then, as you have it in Isa.

Ixvi., Christ may appear to his people s glory, but to their shame who yet before cast them out, and said, Let God be glorified.

6. That the Gentiles and the Pope might thus accomplish their time and

period of forty-two months, with an investment of the Pope into his old

territories, now towards the expiring of that his time. Which reason the

* And so they shall tread down the holy city for fortytwo months, and be found domineering in it, in a manner, as fully as before, towards the end of their forty-two months ; that so their lease may well-nigh

next words do give,

: and that so the confusion of Antichrist the

expire in a full possession

greatest work to be done for the church from the apostles days may be the more glorious unto God. Thus Daniel seemed to foretell, that after those

tidings out of the north should trouble him, which was this separation of

these northern kingdoms from him; as also out of the east, through the

prevailing of the Turk, when he came so near .unto his territories; that,

enraged with this, he shall go forth in great fury, chap. xi. 44, and plant his tabernacle* (his power and jurisdiction) again upon the glorious holy

mountain, (where the temple stands,) between the seas. And what follows? Even that after all this his recovery of power over these churches of the

Reformation towards his end, yet he shall come to his end, and none shall

help him. And after Home s recovery of her power thus, and when the

whore begins to sing her sister Babel s song, just before her fall, as Rev.

xvii. 7, 8, and saith in her heart, I sit as a queen, and am no widow, as

having her ancient paramours again, and so thinks she shall now see no

sorrow; therefore shall her plagues come in one day; for strong is the Lord

CHAP. IV.] AN EXPOSITION OF THE BEVEIATION. 133

that judgeth her. And thereby will be seen God s omnipotent power in her confusion. There is nothing also in it, that, chap, xvii., the ten kings or

states of Europe are twice mentioned as giving their power unto the beast ; and, ver. 17, are the second time said to agree to do it, through some special hand of God to fulfil his will: even till those words of God, uttered by Daniel in the fore-cited place, shall be fulfilled; for unto some word of the Old Testament do these words here refer.

4. An appendix to the 1st and 2d verses of the llth chapter, refuting other interpretations given of the measuring of the temple and outward

court, (tvhich you may read, or not read, as you please). This interpretation of John s measuring the temple, as in this latter age to be performed, being thus made forth to hold in all things, as you have seen, I shall not need to spend much time, and yet some, in refuting other inter

pretations. Mr Mede would have the new book-prophecy to begin here at this llth

chapter, and the sixth trumpet under the seal-prophecy, fully ended before, at. the conclusion of the 9th chapter; and the oath of the angel, chap, x., to

supply the seventh trumpet. And so makes the angel here, in chap, xi., to

begin again anew, aloft from John s time; and so this llth chapter to be a

short, compendious representation of the story of the church in all ages, be

ginning here anew from John s time, and, as it were, the contents and brief sum of that larger story which begins at chap. xii. And so would have all the several states of the church in all ages more briefly here represented through all -times. As

1. That of the primitive times, until Antichrist s rising, under the type of the temple measured; till when, says he, the church remained pure, accord

ing to the pattern: and therefore John is bidden to measure it, as a pattern of the truth unto after-ages. And then

2. The face of the church during Antichrist s time, for 1260 years, under the type of the Gentiles treading down the outward court and holy city

thereby, says he, representing how the Papists should arrogate and possess the name and face of the church so long time; which yet, because it will not bear the measure of the reed, John is therefore bidden to leave out, as neither in doctrine nor discipline keeping to the word, nor unto the primitive pattern, but utterly swerving from it, as the church of Eome hath done. And in this state the church continues for 1260 years; the Gentiles having that time allowed them to tread down the holy city. And the state of the true church all that while is but as of these witnesses in sackcloth. This

interpretation the reverence had to the integrity of the church for the first 400 years did beget; together with that appearance, at first view, that the outward court should here be said to be given to the Gentiles, to be by them trodden down, as the holy city is, for forty-two months. Which mistake I have abundantly removed in the first section, and in the fifth general pre mise to this my interpretation.

But further to remove the supposition on which this interpretation of his

is founded : L. The sixth trumpet, and the times of it in this vision, are not yet ended here in this angel s intention. For the angel, after his long discourse of the occurrences that are to fall under the times of the sixth trumpet, doth then (when the time of it, according to the series of this vision, did indeed come to end) say, ver. 14 of this* chapter,

* The second woe is past, and the third cometh quickly, And you may observe, that after the expiration of the

134 AN EXPOSITION OF THE REVELATION. [PART II.

time of these woe-woe-trumpets, which are the fifth, sixth, and seventh, such a closure comes in after each of them, One woe is past, another comes, &c. And thus, after that the times of the fifth trumpet were out, according to

the series of the vision, this closure is added, chap. ix. 12, One woe is past, and behold there come two other woes more.

Now at the end of the 9th chapter, there is no such close annexed. But

here, chap. xi. 14, when the angel had related the occurrences which are to

fall out in the latter days of the sixth trumpet, that is, whilst the Turkish

kingdom yet stands, and which shall fall out not long before his fall, then, and not before, he brings in that close of the times of that trumpet, The second woe is past, and behold the third cometh quickly. Which shews, that either part of the matter and of the woe that goes to make up that

sixth trumpet complete, remained to be uttered by this angel, chap. xi.,.

* The second woe is past, ) or that,

(which when he had declared, he says,

according to the course of the vision, the time of it was now expired. And then

2. The angel takes his oath, chap, x., as yet standing under the times of

the sixth trumpet, and afore* the times of the seventh; and that seventh

trumpet s time yet not come to blow, according to the order of time pre sented in this vision. And therefore it is not a mere suspension of the vision

itself until he had begun with or run over all times again, as Mr Mede would have it ; but its time to blow was in this vision not yet come. This

the very words and phrase of the angel s oath, chap, x., do imply ; when he

says, In the days of the seventh trumpet, when he shall begin to sound. Mark that phrase, the days of the seventh trumpet. It implies that he

speaks according to the compute of vision-time, as I may so call it ; for

vision being a representation of events, even as a comedy is of stories, ac

cordingly these visions that succeed each other have a supposed artificial time that runs along with the representation of those events in these visions, In their due order, even as the several seasons of the year are in a prog nostication laid forth according to artificial names, (as in an almanac you read

of dog-days and the like,) or even as in a map all countries are represented, with their several climates or situations, by lines of longitude and latitude, which have artificial names by geographers given unto them. So from the 6th chapter of this book, hath been represented a map or vision of all times, and these as successively governed by angels, from whence they have their

names, as seasons have from their planets that govern them, (as the dog-days in summer, from the dog-star s reign at that time.) So the days of Christ s

kingdom to come are called the days of the seventh angel; and so the times before it are called the days of the sixth angel, or the sixth trumpet, under which the Turk reigns. Now then, in that the angel swears, time

shall be no longer but till the days of the seventh angel ; when he begins to sound, all shall be finished ; it implies, that according to the course of time in this vision begun, this time was not yet ended.

To demonstrate this, consider

1. That those words, Time shall be no longer but till the days of the

seventh angel, do imply a long series of time already past in the visions of

the former angels, and time hitherto brought down ; and so he must needs

speak this in a respect to vision or representative time, as I may so call it, which he, as an actor coming in his due place and order, stood under. And

accordingly, likewise he must be supposed to speak unto John as a spectator brought to the last stadium or scene of time. And therefore he speaks as * In the original edition it is after, which I have ventured to alter to afcre* ED.

CHAP. IV.] AN EXPOSITION OF THE REVELATION. 135

taking it for granted that there was some time yet left, according to the

series of this vision ; and yet no more but until the days of the seventh

trumpet, which was next to come upon the stage. And so the angel must be supposed to speak those words as yet standing under the days of the

sixth trumpet, as yet not ended, but as having some time still to come. For should he be supposed to begin again aloft at the top of time, and so to

bring John thither, as having ended the former prophecy ; and then, with a new vision, to begin to run over all time again ; he should, in the same

speech, take in two several accounts of time at once. For whilst he says, time

(or delay) shall be no longer, (which imports that whole space of time under the former trumpets, from the age wherein John lived, to be past and

off the stage already,) in respect thereto he must be supposed then to stand under the sixth trumpet, as viewing all that time gone over. But in the

following words, when he says, but in the days of the seventh trumpet, when he shall begin to blow, he should speak as taking all time afore him

anew, and as beginning all time again,, according to this opinion. And it were strange if in the same sentence two speeches should bear such differ

ing dates.

2. Those words, But in the days of the seventh angel, when he shall

begin to sound, do also argue this. For

(1.) He says not to John, The vision of that angel, and his sounding, I will not give thee now, John, which yet should now in order follow; but he

says, The days of his sounding (as speaking of vision-time) are yet to begin. 1 When the angel/ says he, shall begin to sound ; as manifestly noting the time of sounding, according to the order of representative time in the vision, not yet to be actually come to be presented ; and not the vision only sus

pended unto John. And

(2.) When he said, chap. xi. 14, that the second woe is past, he adds,

* Behold, the third woe cometh quickly; as noting yet some space of time between this and the seventh trumpet to come, as between the sixth vial and the seventh there is to be. So that the vision is not suspended only; but really, according to the series of this prophecy, it still went on, and this seventh was to follow. And

(3.) Accordingly, when in the llth chapter the seventh trumpet doth indeed sound, there is a voice heard in answer, as it were, unto what the

angel had said, chap, x., that delay should be no longer that now that time is come, &c. He had said it should be no longer than till then ; and

now, when it sounds, the voice says, that time is come. So that then, and not till then, according to the series of this vision, was the time of the sound

ing of it. And all this argues the vision of this llth chapter, and the occur

rences of it, to be a supplement or addition to come in towards the end of the sixth trumpet, and not to begin again at the top of time. So that rather, I take it, he still speaks all in this llth chapter, as standing in the last days of the sixth trumpet, the times whereof are not ended ; and so mentions such occurrences as shall fall out in the latter times of it, in which John and he do stand, as hath been shewn. And

Secondly, for that other thing supposed, namely, Mr Mede s making the first four hundred years until Antichrist s rising to be the temple mea

sured, as so long agreeing with the reed, and so continuing as an exact

pattern for churches, and so intended in this measuring, I say two things

1. If the meaning should be that these primitive churches are therefore

measured, that they might be held forth as a pattern to churches afterwards, as is intimated in his quoting Ezek. xliii. 10, 11, and applying it to this

136 AN EXPOSITION OF THE REVELATION. [PART II.

measuring in such a sense only, I cannot imagine, that although a just and

a due reverence is to be given to those times, that yet Christ would ever

impart such an honour to any church not purely apostolical, as to make

them the pattern for worship and doctrine, which is honour due only to the

word, and unto those churches extant in the very times of the apostles, only

so far as they kept those ordinances in which the apostles settled them ; so

1 Cor. xi. 2, 22. Otherwise the apostle pulls down the pride of that Corin

thian, and of all other churches, for arrogating this unto themselves, saying, What! came the word of God out from you, or to you only? chap. xiv. of

that epistle, ver. 36. It is therefore too much to give to those primitive

times, especially for the first 400 years. For

2. Although the doctrine and discipline of the first age in which John

lived, and in which churches were then settled by the apostles, might then

be thus measured to be held forth, and so to serve for a pattern, as we have

the story of it in the word, which on purpose relates the state of those

churches, yet to make such an integrity to extend to those other following ages,

until the very times wherein Antichrist rose, which in many matters both

of worship and government did so much swerve one age after another still

more and more from the rule, this were unsafe. For the corruptions which

still did steal in upon the doctrine and worship, in the first 300 years after

the apostles deaths, were indeed the occasion of the rise of Antichrist, the

mystery of whose iniquity began to work in the apostles times, and in every

age more than other so prevailed, as that Antichrist arose in the view of the

best churches and fathers, though then undiscerned by them ; which, had

they kept that primitive integrity, had been utterly impossible. And there

fore to reduce our worship, &c., now unto the pattern of the first four or five

hundred years, which is the plausible pretence of our new deformers, is to

bring Popery again in by the same degrees now as it at first crept in by. And

this the devil, who knew the way of introducing it then, to that end crieth

it up now.

For my part, I rest assured that the light which hath broken forth in

many of our reformed churches since Calvin s time, and which still increas-

etli, and shall until Antichrist be consumed, is both in matter of doctrine,

interpretation of Scriptures, worship, church government, &c., much purer,

and might be taken for a truer measure, than what shines in the story and

writings of those three latter primitive ages. But yet it were too much to

attribute that to it which this opinion puts upon the light of those primitive

times. But all that I have said in my foregone exposition is, that now in

this age, light coming in, and discovering how far the constitution of

churches in their outward government, &c., hath swerved from the true

pattern, therefore John is set at work afresh to measure it. Which use of

the phrase is very proper, as implying only a reformation and restitution of

the church attempted, after a swerving from the rule. In which sense Beza

and other interpreters understand it, without any arrogation to these times. And

3. For his making the outward court to represent the church s state as in

order of time succeeding this temple of the primitive times, I only say this,

that it seems to me that these two, the temple and the outward court, are

represented as rather existing together and contemporaneous, the one being bid to be measured, and the other to be cast out, at one and the same time,

as being not capable of the true measure. And the contrary opinion would make no churches erected according to the pattern in this Reformation, since

Luther and Calvin, but still to remain, as it were, hidden under Popery as

CHAP. IV.] AN EXPOSITION OF THE EEV ELATION. 137

an outward court until Antichrist s times are fully out. Whereas churches

are, and have been, long since erected, and that as exactly according to the

pattern as any we read of, the apostles age only excepted. And then

4. For that other supposition, that the llth chapter should be a com

pendium of all times from John s age unto the seventh trumpet, so to shew

the synchronising of two prophecies, I say

(1.) It were strange that in a compendium one particular passage (of the

killing of the witnesses) should be insisted upon more largely than all the

rest, and take up the half of that discourse, as from ver. 7 to 14 this does; and that such a passage or occurrence as this, that is not mentioned in the

large prophecy that follows, whereof this should be the compendium and

argument, should yet come in here by itself; would it not rather argue that the angel here did chiefly intend to give some special occurrence, which should go before the seventh trumpet in the church of the age that preceded

it, as a sign of its approach ?

(2.) It is true, indeed, that one end of this angel s coming down was to shew what was the time and period of the fourth monarchy, under that last head the Pope, whose time and continuance Daniel had mentioned but in

definitely. But yet his purpose was to make mention, and but a mention, of no more times than simply those 1260 years of the last head, which were

enough to interpret Daniel, which was his scope, and not explicitly to ascend

to the whole time of the Revelation. And then his annexing to that com

putation such occurrences belonging to the book-prophecy as should fall out

at the ending of that time, and his subjoining the expiring of the sixth

trumpet, which belongs to the seal-prophecy, it being the passing away of

the second woe, ver. 14, presently upon the ending of these occurrences; this serveth sufficiently enough to shew the connexion of all times in both

prophecies, and more clearly than that other way of Mr Mede s.

There is but one objection, both against this way of mine, and that makes most for that opinion of his, that I know of; and that is, that, chap, x., John

eating a little book which contains a new prophecy, and therefore, ver. 12, he says he must prophecy again; hence, therefore, it follows that the seal-

prophecy must be supposed ended, and so this llth chapter to contain a new prophecy from the beginning.

To which I answer, that the angel s coming down now towards the end

of the old prophecy had a double scope ; the one to give a new prophecy, the other to give an exact computation of the times of both prophecies, him

self as yet standing in the end of those times of the one prophecy, and being

shortly to enter into the other; and so withal intending to give a signal of

the ending of those times for the church s warning. Which occurrences that were to be the signs, because they were passages belonging to the book-pro

phecy, as being the fates of the reformed churches in the days before the

Pope s ruin, which are matters belonging to the book-prophecy; hence it is

necessary that John should now first eat that little book, the story of which was entirely to begin at the 12th chapter, that so thereby he might be, as

it were, enabled to conceive of these passages related, chap, xi., they being such as belonged to that book-prophecy. For John had not yet seen the beast

ascending out of the bottomless pit, who is mentioned, ver. 7, nor heard of

the witnesses and their vials ; but by eating that little book now was signi fied to him that therein w

ras contained the vision of these things which these

passages here related did concern. And besides this, there was likewise

signified unto him thereby, that now in the last days of the sixth trumpet the book was open, as Daniel says.

138 AN EXPOSITION OP THE REVELATION. [PART II.

But for a more full answer to be added to these, take in that fifth pre-

cognition, or premised consideration, which in the beginning of this exposi tion of chap. xi. I laid down beforehand, tending to the opening of it.

I might do the like by the interpretations of Mr Brightman and Mr

Forbes; who, though they make the measuring to signify and represent the

godly s discerning the difference between the temple, the true church, and the outward court, the Popish and false church, in these latter days of the

first Reformation; yet so as they make the outward court here to be the outward face of the Popish church, the seat and name of which they pos

sessed, and the temple to be the church of God in all ages hid under Popery, as the temple was, within the outward court, and for many ages not discerned ; whilst the Popish church, possessing the outward court, stood only outward

to the eye, and held the name and face of the church, but became now to be

discerned or measured by the reed of the word; which is, say they, the

measuring here. So that they make the church, in these anterior times under Popery, to be the temple, and the outward face of the church all that while to be the outward court. And having placed this temple and out ward court in the first days of Antichrist, and this measuring of the temple thus high, even from the dawning of the gospel so long since, they accord

ingly go on to make the following occurrences of this chapter to be all

already fulfilled.

The 1260 days of the witnesses, which they would have to be the two

( prophecy in sackcloth, they make to be expired, and

testaments, their

their slaughter past, in that council of Trent, coincident with the Smalkaldic war in 1547, or thereabouts. After which there was in Germany a restora

tion of the gospel, after three years and a-half ; where the tenth part of the city fell off again from Popery. After which the seventh trumpet sounded, say they, when these northern kingdoms settledly embraced the

gospel, and became the kingdoms of Jesus Christ; where, that he may for ever reign, without any recovery again by the beast, I say Amen, as Jere miah did.

But this interpretation I cannot assent to; for, as we shall see afterward, this killing the witnesses, and the passing away of the second woe, or the Turkish dominion, together with the sounding of the seventh trumpet, are

all yet to come.

And for their making the temple measured to be the company of elect

past through all the ages until then, but now in the beginning of the gospel discovered, these things are against it :

1. The visions of this book are still of things present or to come, and not of things past. And therefore this seems much rather to note out the pre sent state of the temple, existing as then unto John, under some of the times of the sixth trumpet, than a discerning what was past and gone before that

time.

2. The condition of the true worshippers, whilst hidden in those anterior times of Popery until the Reformation, are rather represented in chap xiv. which chapter summarily contains the several faces and conditions of the church through Antichrist s reign, as the 13th chapter doth the state of Antichrist during that time to be as a company of a hundred and fortyfour thousand upon Mount Zion, whereon as yet a temple was not built : and so distinguished from them under the times of the Reformation, when only we come to have the first mention of the temple, ver. 15, 17, and of the

altar, ver. 18; therein alluding, as it seems to me, unto the state of the holy

city, wherein, until Solomon s time, there was not a temple built, though in

CHAP. IV.] AN EXPOSITION OF THE REVELATION. 130

David s time that mount was by the Jews inhabited. So nor was this virgin company as yet formed tip into a distinct temple and altar of worship dis

tinct from the Popish, in any eminent manner, but rather lay scattered in

the Popish churches, and were hidden among them, although they were not

of them. But now, in the Reformation, they began to be built up into a

temple apart, and to set up an altar distinct from that of these Samaritans, And then

3. To make the measuring this temple to be an after-sight, or discerning of them, does not enough fill up the meaning of that phrase, though that be

connotated and implied in it; which we find elsewhere used, as Ezek. xliii.

11, for drawing a platform of God s house, and the ordinances thereof, to

keep them, and put them in practice; or else for building and finishing an

edifice, as Zech. ii. 2, 4, compared, and Zech. iv. 9, 10. Which must there

fore rather respect a temple as in these times existing and in being, or to

be built and finished, than a temple in ages past, and but now discovered. And

4. These opposite negative words, Measure not, but leave out the out ward court, do import a real act of rejection put in execution, and, in fact, done towards that outward court as then existing, and not merely a disco

very or judging them only to have been but an outward court in ages past. They do imply an act of leaving them out in that building that was now

erecting, as being such whose form and frame was not for this building, nor

capa-ble of that measure which was now to be applied.

All these things argue to me, that this vision and work appointed John

here respected not anterior times, but the face of that church the times whereof he then stood in, and the work of that age about it. Whereas,

according to their interpretation, the outward court must have existed at the

beginning of the times of Antichrist ; for they suppose the outward court

that is, the face of the church possessed by Antichrist forty-two months, even from the beginning.

There is a third interpretation, which to me seems more probable than

either of these, and which I exclude not in this of mine ; and that is, that this

measuring the temple, &c., should be that first reformation and erecting of

churches, with that separation made from Popery by our worthies, they cast

ing out that catholic Romish church as not agreeing with the rule. And so

that reformation and separation falling out together with, or not long after, the Turks possessing the eastern empire, which is the sixth trumpet, chap, ix., this llth chapter, beginning with that reformation of the church, should

thereby orderly continue the story of the sixth trumpet, without any chasma

or void space of time between the 9th and llth chapters. Whereas, to draw

it down to our time, leaves an interim or vacuity of a hundred years, But

1. I conceive the scope of the angel here not to be so much to make up a

complete story continued to the other, chap. ix. For the former story of the

trumpets having contained only the fates of the empire, it therefore suited not his scope to annex this reformation of the church thereunto, as any ho-

mogeneal part of one continued story, although in time immediately succeed

ing it. For that more properly belonged to the book-prophecy that follows, and is at large set forth, chap, xiv.-xvi. But his scope seems rather to be

to give a computation of the times of Antichrist, and a signal of their end

ing, by the occurrences of the age just before, singling out to that end such

particular passages, that otherwise belonged to the book-prophecy, about the church in that last age as should be most eminent, and likewise designator^

140 AN EXPOSITION OF THE EEVELATION. [PART II.

of the ending of those times, being such also as should fall out before the

expiring of the sixth trumpet or second woe.

And if these occurrences have any affinity with the sixth trumpet, it rather

lies in this, that whereas the fifth and sixth trumpets had. contained two woes on the Christian world in the east, for their idolatry, from the Turks and

Saracens, this contains a like woe on the churches of the reformation in the

west, by the Papists overrunning their outward court, as a punishment of

their carnal gospelling. Which, added to those woes brought upon those

Grecian churches by the Turks, should make the woe of the sixth trumpet

complete. And so the treading the wine-press without the city, (in Ger

many,) chap, xiv., should be reduced to the sixth trumpet, as a part of it, rather than to any of the vials. The vials being upon the Turk and Pope

only, but these other woes upon those other professors of Christ and his

name, after a fleshly way, both Grecians and Protestants ; the one by the

Turk, chap, ix., the other by the Papists here in this llth chapter. And

then

2. The main eminent business of the first reformers from Popery being

chiefly about matters of doctrine corrupted by the Papists, and about the

idolatries of Home, therefore both in chap, xiv., in the voices of those three

angels, and in chap, xv., in their song there, matters of doctrine only are

mentioned. And though they laid the foundation of the building of all

churches, yet that was not TO wybv, that very work unto which they did so

specially attend. It was not so much the right measuring and constitution

of churches, and of the materials of them ; as here that is made the main

thing intended, even to measure the temple, altar, &c., and indeed is, and

hath been eminently and peculiarly the work in hand now in this last age.

3. Let it be considered that the Popish party in this allusion cannot so

properly be called the outward court, but they are rather intended by Gen

tiles here ; and so the outward court must note out that third sort of wor

shippers between these Gentiles and the templers, as I before shewed. And

4. This being that exceeding great error and defect laid in the founda

tion of the churches of the first Reformation, especially in our British

churches, namely, the adjoining this outward court of carnal and unregene-

rate Protestants, and receiving them from the first into the temple, worship, and communion of all ordinances; so that the bounds of the church were

extended as far as the bounds of the commonwealth ; which was done out

of human prudence, suddenly to greaten the party against the Gentiles in

: that as the earth helps the woman, chap, xii, so this, as an out

the city

ward court, might round about shield the true temple and worshippers in it

against the beast. And then, on the other side, this being, in this new-begun and second reformation of these churches, the main fundamental principle which is here mentioned, of receiving none into churches but only such

worshippers as the reed, or light of the word, so far as it gives rules to judge

others by, applied by the judgment of men, who yet may err, shall discover

to be truly saints, (which belongs to another dispute;) and this vision falling out in, and as belonging to, the times of this latter age, and being purposely

intended, as it were, to amend and correct that very error : hence it seems

most properly to belong to this work of a second reformation.

^ Yet, because that was a true measuring, and this but the finishing of that

building whereof their hands had laid the foundation, and like Zerubbabel s

finishing the temple; therefore I verily think the Holy Ghost had an aim at

both, as unto two several gradual accomplishments of it. For this I per-