St. Augustine, Of the citie of God vvith the learned comments of Io. Lod. Viues. Englished by I.H.

Of Gog and Magog, whom the Deuill (at the worlds end) shall stirre vp against the Church of God. CHAP. 11.

ANd when the thousand yeares (saith hee) are expired, Sathan shall be loosed out * 1.1

of his prison and shall goe out to deceiue the people which are in the foure quarters of the earth, euen God and Magog, to gather them together into Battell whose number is as the sand of the sea. So then the ayme of his decept shalbe this warre, for he vsed diuers waies to seduce before, and all tended to euill. He shall leaue the dennes of his hate, and burst out into open persecution; This shalbe the last persecuti∣on, hard before the last iudgement, and the Church shall suffer it, all the earth ouer: the whole citty of the Diuell shall afflict the Citty of God at these times in all places.

This Gog and this Magog are not to bee taken for (a) any particu∣lar Barbarous nations, nor for the Getes and Messagetes, because of their litterall affinity, nor for any other Countryes beyond the Romaines iuris∣diction: hee meaneth all the earth when hee saith, The people which are in the foure quarters of the Earth, and then addeth that they are Gog and Ma∣gog. (b) Gog, is, an house: and Magog, of an house: as if hee had sayd, the house and hee that commeth of the house. So that they are the nations wherein the Deuill was bound before and now that he is loosed, cometh from thence, they being as the house, and hee as comming out of the house. But wee re∣ferre both these names vnto the nations, and neither vnto him, they are both the house, because the old enemy is hid and housed in them: and they are of the house, when out of secret hate they burst into open violence. Now where as hee sayth: They went vp into the plaine of the Earth, and compassed the tents of the Saints about, and the beloued City, wee must not thinke they came to any one set place, as if the Saints tents were in any one certaine nation, or the beloued Citty either: no, this Citty is nothing but Gods Church, dispersed throughout the whole earth, and being resident in all places, and amongst all nations, as them words, the plaine of the Earth, do insinuate: there shall the tents of the Saints stand, there shall the beloued Ctty stand: There shall the fury of the presecuting enemy guirt them in with multitudes of all nations vnited in one rage of persecution: there shall the Church bee hedged in with tri∣bulations, and shut vp on euery side: yet shall she not forsake her warfare, which is signified by the word, Tents.

L. VIVES.

ANy (a) particular Barbarous.] The Iewes (saith Hierome) and some of our Christians also following them herein, thinke that Gog is meant of the Huge nation of the Scythi∣ans, beyond Caucasus and the fens of Maeotis, reaching as farre as India and the Caspian Sea, and that these (after the Kingdome hath lasted a thousand yeares at Hierusalem) shal•…•… be stirred vp by the Deuill to war against Israell and the Saints, bringing an innumerable multitude with them, first out of Mossoch, which Iosephus calls Cappadocia, and then out of Thubal, which the Hebrewes affirme to be Italy, and he holdeth to bee Spaine. They shall bring also the Persians, Ethiopians and Lybians, with them of Gomer and Theogorma, to wit, the Galatians and Phrigians, Saba also and Dedan, the Carthaginians, and Tharsians. Thus farre Hierome. In Ezch. lib. 11. (b) Gog is an house.] So saith Hierome. So that these two words imply all proud and false knowledge that exalteth it selfe against the truth.

Notes

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