The harmony, chronicle and order of the New Testament the text of the four evangelists methodized, story of the acts of the apostles analyzed, order of the epistles manifested, times of the revelation observed : all illustrated, with variety of observations upon the chiefest difficulties textuall & talmudicall, for clearing of their sense and language : with an additional discourse concerning the fall of Jerusalem and the condition of the Jews in that land afterward / John Lightfoot ...

REVEL. CHAP. XX.

THe preceding Section spake what Christ did with the Beast and those that car∣ried his mark: he fought against them alwaies, and when he saw his time, destroyed them: here the holy Ghost tels us what he did with the devil that set them on: You heard of Christ fighting with the Dragon, Chap. 12. and the Dra∣gon foiled and cast out, sets to prosecute the Womans seed: but what course takes he for that? He resignes his Throne, and Power, and Authority, to the Beast Rome, and it must do, and it did his businesse for him, Chap. 13.3. and how through∣ly it did its masters work, is shewed all along from that place forward. But what becomes of the old Dragon the master of mischief? He sits by, as it were, and looks on while his game is played, and hisses on his Deputy Rome, first Imperiall, then Papall. They at the last receive their due wages for their work, Imperiall and Papall go to perdition. But what must become of the Dragon that set them on? It would be very improper to tell so largely of the fearfull vengeance and de∣struction upon the agents, and to say nothing of the principall and chief mover. That therefore is done here, and this Chapter takes at Chap. 13.3. and tels you what became of the old Dragon after the resigning of his Throne to the Beast: namely that he sate not at his own quiet as if Michael had nothing to do with him, or let him alone, having so much to do with his instruments, but that he curbed and destroyed both principal and agent, and cast them both together into the bot∣tomlesse pit.

The Devil had two waies of undoing men; the Church by persecution, the world by delusion of Oracles, Idolatry, false miracles, and the like. His mana∣ging of the former by his Deputies the former Chapters have related, and how

they sped in his service: and this comes to tell how he speeds about the other. The great Angel Michael, the Lord Christ, who hath the key of the bottomlesse pit in his hand, as Chap. 1.18. chains him by the power of the Gospel, that he should no more deceive the Nations for a thousand years: Weigh the phrase, Not deceive the Nations: it is not not persecute, but not deceive; nor is it the Church, but the Nations. His persecuting of the Church hath been storied before: and here is told how he is curbed for deceiving the Nations, and indeed when he deputed Rome, and let that loose for the former, he was chained up as for the later. It is easily construed how Satan deceived the Nations, by Idols which are called a lie, Isa. 44.20. Rom. 1.25. by his Oracles in which was no light, Isa. 8.20. and by ma∣gicall miracles, which were meer delusion. Hence the world for the time of Hea∣thenism, is said to be in his Kingdom of darknesse, Act. 26.18. Colos. 1.13, &c. Now the spreading of the Gospel through the world ruined all these before it, and dissolved those cursed spels and charms of delusion, and did as it were chain up Satan that he could no more Deceive the Nations 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Heathen as he had done, by these deceits: so that the words speak the ending of Satans power in Heathen∣ism, and the bringing in of the Gentiles to the knowledge of the truth, out of dark∣nesse and delusion.

The date of this his chaining up was a thousand years: Now the Jews counted the daies of the Messias, a thousand years, as we touched before. The Babylon Talmud in Sanhedrin in the Chapter Helek doth shew their full opinion about the daies of Messias, and amongst other things they say thus: as Aruch speaks their words in voce 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 It is a tradition of the house of Elijah, that the righteous ones that the blessed God shall raise from the dead, they shall no more return to their dust, but those thousand years that the holy blessed God is to renew the world, he will give them wings as Eagles, and they shall flee upon the waters. The place in the Talmud is in Sanhe∣drin fol. 92. where the text indeed hath not the word thousand, but the marginall glosse hath it, and shews how to understand the thousand years. And Aruch speaks it as a thing of undeniable knowledge and intertainment. And so speaks R. Eliez••r in Midras Tillin fol. 4. col. 2. The daies of the Messias are a thousand years.

As Iohn all along this Book doth intimate new stories by remembring old ones, and useth not only the Old Testament phrase to expresse them by, but much allu∣sion to customs, language and opinions of the Jews, that he might speak, as it were, closer to them and nearer their apprehensions, so doth he here and for∣ward. This later end of his Book remembers the later end of the Book of Ezekiel. There is a resurrection Ezek. 37. Gog and Magog, Ezek. 38. & 39. and a new Ieru∣salem, Ezek. 40. and forward. So here a resurrection, ver. 5. Gog and Magog, ver. 8. and a new Ierusalem, Chap. 21. & 22.

There a resurrection, not of bodies out of the grave, but of Israel out of a low captived condition in Babel. There a Gog and Magog, the Syrogrecian per∣secutors, Antiochus and his house: and then the description of the new Ierusalem, which as to the place and situation was a promise of their restoring to their own Land, and to have Ierusalem built again, as it was indeed in the daies of Ezra and Nehemiah: but by the glory and ••••rgenesse of it [as it is described, more in compasse then all the Land of Canaan,] they were taught to look fur∣ther, namely at the heavenly or spiritual Ierusalem, the Church through all the world.

Now the Jews according to their allegoricall vein, applied these things to the daies of Christ thus: that first there should be a resurrection caused by Messias of righteous ones, then he to conquer Gog and Magog, and then there must come 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The brave world to come that they dreamed of: Beside what they speak to this tenour in the Talmudick Treatise last cited, there is this passage in Ierus. Megillah fol. 73. col. 1. They are applying particular parts of the great Hallel to particular times [what the great Hallel was, we shewed a little before.] And that part, say they, I love the Lord because he hath heard me, refers to the daies of Messias: that part, Tye the sacrifice with cords; to the daies of Gog and Magog. And that, Thou art my God and I will praise thee: refers to the world to come.

Our Divine Apocalyptick follows Ezekiel with an Allegory too, and in some of his expressions alludes to some of theirs, not as approving them, but as speak∣ing the plainer to them by them: Here is a resurrection too, but not of bodies neither, for not a word of mention of them, but of souls. The souls of those that were beheaded for the witnesse of Iesus, lived and reigned, ver. 4. and yet this is called The first resurrection, ver. 5.

The meaning of the whole let us take up in parts. There are two main things here intended. First, to shew the ruine of the Kingdom of Satan, and secondly, the nature of the Kingdom of Christ. The Scripture speaks much of Christs King∣dom, and his conquering Satan, and his Saints reigning with him; that common place is briefly handled here: That Kingdom was to be especially among the Gen∣tiles, they called in unto the Gospel. Now among the Gentiles had been Satans Kingdom most setled and potent, but here Christ binds him and casts him into the bottomlesse pit that he should deceive no more [as a great cheater and seducer cast into prison] and this done by the coming in of the Gospel among them. Then as for Christs Kingdom I saw Thrones, saith Iohn, and they sate upon them, &c. ver. 4. here is Christ and his inthroned and reigning. But how do they reign with him? Here Iohn faceth the foolish opinion of the Jews of their reigning with the Messias in an earthly pomp; and shews that the matter is of a farre different te∣nour: that they that suffer with him shall reign with him, they that stick to him, wit∣nesse for him, dye for him, these shall sit inthroned with him. And he nameth be∣heading only of all kindes of deaths, as being the most common: used both by Jews and Romans alike, as we have observed before at Acts 12. out of Sanhedr. per. 7. halac. 3. And the first witnesse for Christ, Iohn the Baptist, died this death. He saith that such live and reign with Christ the thousand years, not as if they were all raised from the dead at the beginning of the 1000 years, and so reign all toge∣ther with him those years out, as is the conceit of some [as absolute Judaism as any is, for matter of opinion] but that this must be expected to be the garb of Christs Kingdom all along, suffering and standing out against sinne, and the mark of the Beast and the like: whereas they held it to be a thousand years of earthly bravery and pompousnesse.

But the rest of the dead lived not again untill the thousand years were finished: This is the first resurrection: Not that they lived again when the thousand years were finished, but it means that they lived not in this time which was the time of living, when Satan was bound, and truth and life came into the world: The Gentiles, before the Gospel came among them, were dead, in Scripture phrase, very copi∣ously: Ephes. 2.1, 2. & 4.18, &c. but that revived them, Ioh 5.25. This is the first resurrection, in and to Christs Kingdom: the second is spoken of at the 12^th verse of this Chapter that we are upon. Paul useth the same expression to signifie the same thing, namely a raising from darknesse and sin by the power of the Gospel, Rom. 11.15. Now when this quickning came among the Gentiles, Satan going down, and Christs Kingdom advanced, and the Gospel bringing in life and light, as Ioh. 1.4. those that did not come and stick close to Christ and bear witnesse to him, but closed with the mark of the Beast, sin and sinfull men, these were dead still and lived not again till the thousand years were finished, that is, while they lasted, though that were a time of receiving life.

Blessed therefore and holy are they that have part in this first resurrection, for on them the second death hath no power, ver. 6. The second death is a phrase used by the Jews. Onkelos renders Deut. 33.6. thus, Let Reuben live and not die the second death. And Ionathan, Isa. 65.6. thus, Behold it is written before me, I will not grant them long life, but I will pay them vengeance for their sins, and deliver their carcases to the se∣cond death. And ver. 15. The Lord will slay them with the second death.

Observe in the Prophet that these verses speak of the ruine and rejection of the Jews, now a cursed people, and given up to the second death: and in Chapter 66. ver. 29, 30, 31. is told how the Lord would send and gather the Gentiles to be his people, and would make them his Priests and Levites: And then see how fitly this verse answers those. In stead of these cursed people, these are blessed and holy, and might not see the second death, and Christ makes them Priests to himself and his Fa∣ther.

In this passage of Iohn scorn is put again upon the Jews wild interpretation of the resurrection in Ezekiel. They take it litterally, think some dead were really raised out of their graves, came into the Land of Israel, begat children, and died a second time: Nay they stick not to tell who these men were, and who were their children. Talm. Babyl. in Sanhedr. ubi supra.

After the thousand years are expired, Satan is let loose again, and fals to his old trade of the deceiving the Nations again, ver. 8. Zohar. fol. 72. col. 286. hath this saying: It is a tradition, that in the day when judgement is upon the world, and the holy blessed God sits upon the Throne of judgement, then it is found that Satan that deceives high and low, he is found destroying the world, and taking away souls. When the Papacy began, then Heathenism came over the world again, and Satan as loose and deceiving as ever: then Idolatry, blindnesse, deluding oracularities and miracles as fresh and plenteous as before: from the rising of the Gospel a∣mong the Gentiles these had been beating down, and Satan fettered and imprison∣ed deeper and deeper every day: and though his agent Rome bestird it self hard to hold up his Kingdom, by the horrid persecutions it raised, yet still ••he Gospel prevailed and laid all flat. But when the Papacy came, then he was loose again, and his cheatings prevailed and the world became again no better then Heathen. And if you should take the thousand years fixedly and literally, and begin to count either from the beginning of the Gospel in the preaching of Iohn, or of Peter to Cornelius the first inlet to the Gentiles, or of Paul and Barnabas their being sent among them, the expiring of them will be in the very depth of Popery; especially begin them from the fall of Ierusalem, where the date of the Gentiles more pe∣culiarly begins, and they will end upon the times of Pope Hildebrand, when if the devil were not let loose, when was he?

He cals the enemies of the Church, especially Antichrist, Gog and Magog: the title of the Syrogrecian Monarchy, the great persecutor, Ezek. 38. & 39. [Pliny mentions a place in Caelosyria that retained the name Magog, lib. 5. cap. 23.] So that Iohn from old stories and copies of great troubles transcribeth new, using known terms from Scripture, and from the Jews language and notions, that he might the better be understood: So that this Chapter containeth a brief of all the times from the rising of the Gospel among the Gentiles to the end of the world, under these two summes, first the beating down of Idolatry and Heathenism in the earth till the world was become Christian, and then the Papacy arising doth Heathenize it again. The destruction of which is set down, ver. 9. by fire from heaven, in allusion to Sodom, or to 2 King. 1.10, 12. and it is set close to the end of the world: the Devil and the Beast [Rome imperiall] and the false Prophet [Rome Papall] are cast into fire and brimstone, ver. 10. where Iohn speaks so, as to shew his method, which we have spoken of. The devill was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the Beast and the false Prophet are: He had given the story of the beast and false Prophet, the devils agents, and what became of them, Chap. 19. v. 20. And now the story of the devill himself: for it was not possible to handle these two stories but apart: and now he brings the confusion of all the three to∣gether, and the confusion of all with them that bare their mark, and whose names were not written in the Book of life.