099. Chapter IV (Revelation 11)
CHAPTER IV The exposition of the 11th chapter, which was but briefly touched upon in the First Part, the larger explication being reserved here, as its proper place.
Section I Prolegomena.—Five generals premised for the understanding of it. The first is to shew who this angel here spoken of is, and what is his purpose, and when the time of his coming down here in this vision. And for this, know that the angel who comes down here, and delivers all the contents of this 11th chapter unto Revelation 11:15, unto John, and that immediately by word of mouth, is Christ himself; as appears by his words, Revelation 11:3, ‘I will give power to my two witnesses,’ which no created angel could speak. And observe withal, that Christ himself doth speak nowhere in this book, but only in this and in the first chapter. And, above all, observe that this is the very same angel that came to Daniel in the end of his prophecy, to confirm it with an oath, Daniel 12 of that his prophecy. This, his alike gesture here and there doth argue: there, ‘lifting up his right hand to heaven, and swearing by him who liveth for ever,’ Daniel 12:7; and so here, taking the very same oath, with the same ceremony also, Revelation 10:6. And then you may take notice that his oath is taken about the very same thing and to the same purpose. You shall find that that prophecy of Daniel containeth, though more confusedly, the very same things that this prophecy of the Revelation does more clearly. As, namely, the tyranny of the fourth Roman monarchy, and the oppression of the church thereby, first by the heathenish empire, then under the last head of it, the Pope, of whom Daniel had prophesied, Daniel 11 of his prophecy, from the 36th verse to the end; after whose time expired, as Daniel had shewn, should come in a fifth monarchy of the saints, Daniel 7. All which things you have in this book, and the visions of them more distinctly presented. As, namely, how under the seventh trumpet, after the time of the beast expired, that same glorious kingdom was to come in. Thus, in the subject-matter of both they do agree; and so also in setting down the time determined by God, how long this last head, the Pope and his tyranny, should continue, do these two prophecies and these two angels both agree. For concerning this time, and the ending of the tyranny of this last head (the Pope) over the church, after which should come in the kingdom of Christ, it is that the angel there in Daniel doth take that his oath, and discourseth of that his time, and the manner of the ending of his tyranny, in that 12th chapter of Daniel, and at the end of that whole prophecy. And, answerably, concerning the ending of that very time, and the manner of the ending of the beast’s tyranny, and the succeeding of Christ’s kingdom when that is ended, that is the very thing that the angel here sweareth about, and in like manner discourseth of just at the end of this first seal-prophecy. So that his oath and speech, both there and here, are about the very same thing. And observe the accord in both: for there, Daniel 12:7, he swears that ‘it’—namely, the Pope’s reign—‘should be for a time, times, and half a time,’ so mentioning it there confusedly, and more indefinitely; ‘and when he’—that is, that last king, the Pope, the head of that monarchy, whom Daniel had last prophesied of in the foregoing chapter, from the 36th verse to the end—‘shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, then all these things shall be fulfilled;’ that is, then is the time when these things, which he had spoken of to be done just before Christ’s kingdom, shall begin to take end and accomplishment.
Now in a direct correspondency and answerableness unto the angel in Daniel doth this angel here come down in this vision now, at the very end of that time, according to that course of time run out in this first seal-prophecy, which that angel in Daniel had sworn about; even now when this fatal period of the fourth monarchy, according to the series of this vision, was near approaching. And first he renews the oath then taken, and swears again here, Revelation 10:7, that ‘time shall be no longer;’ but that ‘in the days of the seventh trumpet, the mystery shall be fulfilled which is spoken of by all the prophets;’ that is, the fifth monarchy, or the kingdom of Christ, which was to succeed the other, of which all the prophets speak, as you have it Acts 3:21. These words of the angel’s oath do imply that, now that the visions of all times past in the former seal-prophecy, from the primitive times, had brought things to the last scene of the world’s time; Now, says he, as standing in the extremity, and towards the approaching end of all, ‘time shall be no longer;’ or, as Mr. Brightman well interprets the word, ‘Delay shall be no longer.’ Stay now but a little, says Christ; here you are at the last sands; tarry but till the seventh trumpet blows, it will end all. And accordingly, the angel here in this 11th chapter explains distinctly, by word of mouth, what and how much that time of the Pope, mentioned in the oath in Daniel, was; and what that ‘accomplishing to scatter the holy people’—which in the oath in Daniel was made the immediate forerunner of the fulfilling of all things—also was. So that indeed this 11th chapter here is, as concerning the point of time, but an explication of that 12th chapter of Daniel, at least of that part thereof, and by this angel’s oath and speech there. And it is the same angel cometh here to express distinctly, as became the Revelation, what was there delivered darkly and indefinitely. And it is as if the angel here had spoken thus, or to this effect, in more plain words, for the comfort of the church:—
‘Now, beloved, I come now, after so long a while worn out, to bid you to lift up your heads; for time now in these days of the sixth trumpet is expiring, and my kingdom is at the door: for the times of the beast, prophesied of by Daniel,—of which beast yon shall hear more in this little book-prophecy, which is open in my hand, and which I here bring with me, and give you,—do now shortly end and determine. Daniel’s period of a time, times, and half a time, allotted the beast, the Pope, the last head and king, to reign in the fourth Roman monarchy, is now in these times very shortly to expire, and with him the times of this present oppressing world. And that you, my church, may know, and have infallible warning, when the expiring of this beast’s time to scatter the holy people shall be, I will both explain to you how long this time in Daniel, where it is but confusedly mentioned, is allotted him to scatter the holy people, my witnesses; and I will also tell you how or in what manner it shall be that he shall accomplish, as Daniel’s phrase is, to scatter the power of the holy people; that is, for your comfort I will reveal to you and describe the very manner of that eminent and last scattering, which in the oath in Daniel is made the immediate sign when Antichrist’s ruin and all those other things should begin to be fulfilled. And further, I will present to you what the face of the church shall be in that age immediately before the scattering the holy people, that so you may have together at once both a true compute of the time, as also of such occurrences, and such a face of the sky presented, as may be an eminent signal unto you: that when you see these things done, then know that the time is expiring and determining. And this I myself do thus immediately inform you of, because that last scattering will be so great a one as all the faith you have will be put to it: and therefore it is that I have took that oath, as it were, now, in these times; for that your faith had need of it to confirm it. Which oath, therefore, do you remember and have in your eye, for even now your redemption draws nigher than you are aware of.’ This is the first thing I premise.
2d Prolegomenon
Now, in the second place, observe in how fit a scene or place in this comedy, or vision of all times successively, hitherto acted before John, and by him penned for us, doth this angel Christ here take to enter upon the stage, and act this part in. You before heard at large how that the seals and trumpets, Revelation 6-9, contained one prophecy, that ran over all the times from John until the end; and then, that the little book that is open in the hand of this angel here, Revelation 10, doth contain another prophecy of the church, which in like manner begins at the times of John, and so again runs over all times unto the end.
Now this angel steps in now, just now, as in the last age, and towards the expiring of the sixth trumpet, and so of that first revolution of all time, with his new or second prophecy in his hand ready to be delivered. And yet because that some sands or space of time remained under the first prophecy not yet completed, he therefore in this, as a convenient season between both, fills up that little space of time that this first prophecy had yet left to continue, with an additional discourse of his own, to inform the church what special occurrences were now, before the final consummation of all under the seventh trumpet, to fall out in this small interim, as a warning to them when the end of all, even of both prophecies, (viz. of this seal-prophecy and also of that other book-prophecy,) should be.
Now the sixth trumpet, which is the Turkish empire, we yet see standing. An utter end of the Roman empire had been as completely set forth in the sixth seal as it could be; and only now the ending of it remained, and so there was no other matter of that kind, or belonging thereunto, to be added. And yet that being to continue some hundreds of years before its ending should be, and the seventh trumpet should blow, he therefore fills up that space of time until the seventh trumpet should blow, and entertains John with relating what special occurrences, that most nearly concerned his people, should fall out in the western church, over which the Pope had the dominion, now towards the end of both Turkish and Popish empire, and so in this last age, before the ending of these times. Which occurrences, though they properly belonged to the book-prophecy,—which, as was said, properly takes cognisance of matters of the church,—yet they fitly come in here between both prophecies, as the signal of the ending of the full course of both stages of times. And when he had thus, in this discourse, filled up that remaining time in this interlude with such occurrences as were indeed yet to fall out together with it, in the times before the sixth trumpet’s ending; then, I say, he concludes his discourse with this, ‘The second woe is past;’ that is, the time of the sixth trumpet ends also hereabouts: and so then, as in its orderly time, blows the seventh.
3d Prolegomenon
Observe the manner of his delivering all this to John: namely, that he utters this his narration as a chorus, or as an interlocutor in a comedy useth to do his speech, and not by vision only; wherein he opens and explains what could not by vision well have been understood, and therefore gives it by word of mouth. And as thus this angel doth here, so the like doth that angel in the 17th chapter. And I the rather put together the parallel speeches of these two angels, Revelation 17, and here, Revelation 11, because that, as the scope of him there was to give an interpretation and explication who the whore was, so his scope here is to give a clear interpretation of the times of this beast and whore, and the immediate tokens or signals that shall forerun the ending of them. And look, as in that 17th chapter, when one of the angels of the vials, and, as it is thought, the fifth, gives the interpretation who the beast and whore is, he doth it by a speech, merely as an interlocutor, to inform John; so here, in like manner doth this angel. Yet so, as you may also observe, that his narration here in this 11th chapter is first occasioned by a vision presented of the face and state of the church as it should be in that last age wherein these things are to be accomplished: namely, of a temple presented standing, with an outward court surrounding it, and an altar in it, and two witnesses standing before the Lord, and ministering in it. Which vision first to have been made unto John is tacitly implied, in that the first entrance of his speech begins with bidding John to arise, and to do a real act towards the temple, even to measure it. And therefore such a temple, &c., must needs have been presented to his view. And thereupon observe, how that this vision of a temple, and of an outward court adjoined, is made the ground or occasion of the angel’s following speech; as from which the angel takes the rise of his following discourse. So that this vision of the temple’s measuring, and giving its outward court to the Gentiles, is the first occurrence that is here presented as belonging to that age wherein time is to expire, as from whence he takes the ground of that his discourse, wherein he explains how much time the beast was to have, and how and when it should end. Which discourse, after that explained, closeth again with the relation of another occurrence, Revelation 11:7, that shall fall out after this, in that age, as the last signal of all. And this is done just in the like manner as, Revelation 17, one of the angels of the seven vials, who therefore must be supposed to stand in the times of the vials, being to make a description of the beast, and of the whore,—namely, Rome, the seat of the fourth monarchy,—in all the times allotted her; yet takes his rise from a vision of that whore, as then in her last old age, and in the times of the vials, she should appear, ‘drunk with the blood of the saints,’ just before her ruin. And yet there, in that his speech about her, he speaks of her as in her whole time of reigning she should be. Just so here, this angel (Christ) first enters upon the stage but as an actor, under the times of the sixth trumpet, and in the very declension of it, and takes his oath as under those times; and then presents to John a vision of the face of the church, in that present age, under the latter times of the sixth trumpet, as of a temple which in these present times he will have measured by John, as representing the persons of the saints of that age, and leaving out the outward court of it, as to be given again unto the Gentiles. And then, from that occasion,—it being part of that scattering the power of the holy people which Daniel aimed at,—he plays the part of an interlocutor, and makes a narration of the whole times of Popery, which, after this their treading down this outward court of the temple, were to expire. And he takes occasion also to relate and discourse of that opposition which the witnesses should make against the beast, or these Gentiles, all the time of his whole reign; and so describes them, Revelation 11:3-6. And all this as an interlocutor, or a chorus in a comedy, useth to do. Till at last he comes again to that last occurrence which belonged to that age wherein he stood when he began his speech,—namely, now towards the end of the sixth trumpet,—as that which should then befall these witnesses. With which he determines his speech about them, from Revelation 11:7 to the end of the chapter. Unto the better and clearer understanding of which, all his former description of them, and what else he related concerning them, had only made the way; namely, to shew, both what that time was, which in Daniel had been so darkly delivered, and how it should end; and how, to use the phrase in Daniel, the ‘scattering of the holy people’ should be accomplished. So then—
4th Prolegomenon
Observe how fitly the words of the oath in Daniel do agree with all the things delivered in this 11th chapter, from Revelation 11:1 unto the seventh trumpet, Revelation 11:15, where the angel’s speech ends.
Now those things are reducible unto two heads:—
1. This angel’s computation and interpretation of that time mentioned in Daniel; which when it ends, the fourth monarchy shall begin to end also, and shortly after it the kingdom of Christ begins.
2. Such eminent occurrences as shall fall out at the ending of it, as signals thereof. Or rather, thus:— In the angel’s oath in Daniel, four things were intimated:—
1. The time that the beast, the last head of the Roman monarchy, should have to reign; which was ‘a time, times, and half a time.’
2. A holy people, who all that time should yet continue to oppose him, and whom he should oppress.
3. Who yet, towards the end, should get some power against him; so it is there called, ‘the power of the holy people.’ And—
4. Which power of theirs he should, in the ending of that time, scatter, and themselves also, and that with an eminent scattering, which yet is the accomplishment or last act of his so doing; that is, he should never scatter them any more, but after that his reign was to end, and their mourning and oppression to cease.
Now answerable to this, you here have—
1. That time, confusedly mentioned in Daniel, but here exactly computed by a double account, (not to fail,) both of months and also of days: the one, as expressing Antichrist’s whole time of reigning, even forty-two months; and the other, the holy people’s time to oppose him in, even twelve hundred and sixty days, though yet in sackcloth and oppression. But so as both have one and the same period; and as they begun, so they end together.
2. You have the holy people in Daniel here interpreted by Christ to be his two witnesses.
3. You have the power of this holy people all that while set forth, especially that power they obtained in their last days; ‘I will give to my witnesses,’ &c., Revelation 11:3. They had power given them to erect a temple, backed with a mighty party of an outward court. And out of that temple they have had power given them to pour out four vials already; so as that ‘if any man hurt them, they will scorch him with fire,’ &c., Revelation 11:5. And in the weakest days of their prophecy, they have had power to ‘shut heaven, that it rained not,’ Revelation 11:6, &c.
4. This angel here shews, how in the end of this time, when they are even about to cast off their sackcloth, and to finish their testimony against this beast, Revelation 11:7,—so the word in the Greek is, are about to finish, &c.,—that then this their power shall be scattered, their outward court trodden down, and so they left exposed to the beast’s fury and outrage, to be by him ‘scattered among the nations and killed;’ which nations shall ‘see their dead bodies lying in the streets,’ &c. And then he gives a particular description of this their oppressing, unto Revelation 11:14; telling us withal, for our comfort, that thus they shall accomplish to scatter them, being never to scatter them again any more, after they are once risen again, so Revelation 11:11-13. And thus you see how this 11th chapter is but a comment on the oath in Daniel.
5th Prolegomenon
Lastly, observe this in general concerning the joint mention or bringing in both these occurrences, and this computation of times together. They are mentioned thus together principally and chiefly in this respect, to shew how this whole series of time should end and expire; namely, with those occurrences here mentioned. So that the angel’s scope is not simply to mention this period of the twelve hundred and sixty days, &c., only to compute it, though so also he makes mention of it; but withal to shew how that with these exploits and occurrences, or when these things here mentioned should fall out, this time was near its end and expiration. Whereby this angel here doth directly hit the very aim and scope of that his former oath taken before Daniel; which was, that with the very expiring of that his allotted time, he should accomplish to scatter the power of the holy people. And therefore he so mentions this whole term of time here, as withal to shew how it shall at last be accomplished and fulfilled; and to that end he mentions such particular exploits as this beast to his very last shall play, even till his kingdom be taken from him.
Now to explain this further:—In the 13th chapter, the beast had ‘power given him to do,’ as the word is, ‘forty-two months;’ and during that time to ‘make war with the saints, and overcome them.’ And power was given him ‘over all tongues, and nations, and kindreds;’ that is, over the ten kingdoms of Europe, Revelation 13:5-7. Now the Gentiles here, and that idolatrous company that worship this beast, Revelation 13:3-4 of that 13th chapter, and that set up this power of his, are all one and the same; and their lease here, of treading down the holy city, runs, and is made, as you see, for the very same term of years here that it is there. Only mark the different scope of the mentioning of them in that 13th chapter and here: namely, that here it comes in to shew how this whole time should end, and fully be accomplished; and also with a narration of that very particular last war and victory, which this idolatrous company should obtain against the holy people, even their last scattering them before the ending of this their time. But it comes in there, as it was considered wholly and entirely, as yet through all times to be fulfilled; with all those wars and slaughters which in that whole time Antichrist should make against the saints. So in Revelation 13.
Now that the mention of these two computations of that whole time does thus come in here in relation to these last exploits and war of Antichrist, at and towards the ending of that time, is many ways evident. Of both which I shall demonstrate this severally and apart. And—
1. For the mention of their ‘treading down the holy city for forty-two months;’ this comes in but, as you may observe it, upon that one particular occurrence of giving up the outward court anew to the Gentiles, to this or the like purpose; as if the angel had said, ‘Cast out that same outward court of the temple of this present age, which hath indeed helped against the Papists, and kept them off, but yet hath defiled the churches; leave them out, for this court is given to the Gentiles now in this last age, for them to re-enter upon and to get power over. And so with this last treading down and overcoming that outward court, which once they had possessed, but lost from their dominions, it is that they shall have accomplished that whole term of forty-two months allotted them for treading down of the holy city, namely Europe, the destined seat of this church and of their reign.’ And thus their full dominion over the whole for forty-two months’ space or length of time shall be made good by this, that however they had lost for a while part of their dominion over it, yet they regaining this outward court now towards the end, they will be found to have possessed the whole forty-two months, first and last. That look, as upon the giving in of the last payment, we use to make mention of the whole sum as paid; so here, upon that last eminent regaining their lost power over some of the European kingdoms, the whole term of the time of their reigning comes to be mentioned. This I here premise, to prevent that great mistake which hath diverted interpreters from taking the measuring this temple here, and giving up the outward court, to be meant of some special occurrence to fall out, or some act to be done to the churches of these latter times; but they rather take it of the Papists themselves, their possessing throughout all ages the face of the church, which they interpret the outward court, because of this that is added, and that followeth upon it, ‘and they shall tread down the holy city for forty-two months.’ As if it imported, that after the outward court is given up to them, they should have so many years of reigning over it. Which if it were so, it could not be meant so particularly of the temple or church in this last age, and the outward court thereof. But this, according to the former coherence given, need not divert any man’s thoughts from the present age to former times; as it hath done some men’s, to think the churches of the primitive times to be the temple measured, and the outward court to be the outward face of the church, which the Pope hath possessed these 1200 years. The coherence may easily be found to be this: as if the angel had said, ‘Measure anew the temple you now see standing in these last times of the sixth trumpet, and of Antichrist before his fall, and cast out the outward court thereof; for it is again given to the Gentiles: and so—namely, with this last treading down of it, and regaining, as it were, the whole anew—they shall fully accomplish their allotted time of treading down the holy city, namely, their forty-two months.’ But the removal of this mistake more fully I refer to the Appendix that follows. Only for the present, for a confirmation that this is, and may well be, the meaning of the coherence of these words, observe—
(1.) It is not said that they shall tread down the outward court for forty-two months; but the holy city, which is much vaster than the outward court: the greater part of which city, namely of Europe, they kept the lordship over, even when the outward court was separated from them and not yet recovered. So that to me the outward court here is one thing, and the holy city another, though this court indeed stands in the city; even as the outward court and the temple were distinct things from the holy city of Jerusalem, though standing therein, as I shall afterwards in the particular exposition more fully shew. And—
(2.) The purpose and scope of the mention of their whole time of forty-two months here, is to shew how in this latter age it should be fulfilled and ended; even in a full power and jurisdiction over the holy city, in a re-entry on that part of it, the outward court also; which is again laid common with and unto the rest of the city. And so now it may be said of them, as of a king who reigns and hath jurisdiction over a country (suppose) for fifty years; it may be said he hath reigned over it fifty years, although some few years before the end of his reign, some of his subjects haply revolted from him, if so be he were their king before the revolt, and in the end again recovered his royalty over them; the account being taken from the beginning to the end, first and last. And one reason why Antichrist’s time of ‘doing’ is reckoned by months, and not by days, may be to shew, that though he hath not the whole time of his reign the same continued jurisdiction, yet by months he hath, from such a time to such a time, though not the like power all that time. For so at first the Goths interrupted him much in the exercise of his power. And then—
(3.) These words, ‘and they shall tread down the holy city for forty-two months,’ do fitly come in, as a just reason why this outward court is now in these last times given to these Gentiles; and so do insinuate a reason why Antichrist is thus permitted again to take possession of the most and chief part, if not all, of this outward court, so as to have fair hopes of recovering all Europe again. ‘And they shall,’ &c. The word
2. And in the second place, for the mention of that other computation of 1260 days; it is yet more plain that this is brought in here principally to shew how this time should end and determine now at the last. And so that both this long description of the witnesses, and the declaring their whole time, is indeed but in order to this their last accomplishment. This is apparent by the 7th verse, which is the close of all the former narration. The words there are, ‘and when they shall have finished their testimony;’ that is, held out to testify, during that whole time of 1260 years. Or they may, and ought rather to be rendered, ‘and when they are about to finish’—
Here is the same period of time twice mentioned, under a several computation: the one of forty-two months, the other of 1260 days, both which come all to one. But the one is mentioned as the time that the Pope and his company shall reign; and the other, as the time for the witnesses to prophesy in sackcloth. And they both come in, in order and reference, unto the two of those last occurrences, which shall accomplish the reign of the one and the oppression and mournful condition of the other.
1. Their whole time of treading down the holy city shall end with a recovery and treading down the outward court of the temple, the reformed churches. And so the mention of that their time comes in only in that respect, to shew how it ends. And accordingly the vision of the temple, and the angel’s bidding John to measure it, comes in but as an introduction to the mention of this last occurrence. And then—
2. Being in like manner to mention the same time of 1260 days, as the time of the holy witnesses’ prophecy, in order to their last scattering and oppression, he inverts the order, and first mentions the time of their prophecy, by way of a continued narration with what went before; and then after that, mentions their last scattering as the accomplishment of that their time. And it was fit that this mention of their whole time should first be immediately connected to the foresaid mention of their enemies’ whole time, and the times both of the one and the other first set together, for that this latter serves to explain the former, which else were ambiguous and dark, as I shall shew hereafter; and especially, because these witnesses are mentioned of the continual opposites set up against these Gentiles, and as the main butt and object of their malice. That same
Section II The measuring the temple, and casting out the outward court,Revelation 11:1-2.
§ 1.—An explication of this double computation of 1260 days, or forty-two months; and why they are together here mentioned.
These things thus premised, I come to interpret the contents of this chapter, from Revelation 11:1 to Revelation 11:15, which are reducible to three heads:—
1. This double computation of the times above-mentioned.
2. The occurrences that were to fall out in those times of Antichrist, in the age just before their fatal period, unto the accomplishment whereof those occurrences do conduce; which age, as I take it, is that that we live now in.
3. What is withal said of the two witnesses, as woven in by the angel in his discourse of them, by way of describing them, in order to the explanation of what should at last befall them.
1. For these computations of the times, both of the beast’s reign, and the witnesses’ oppression here mentioned; these things are to be explicated about them:—
(1.) That they are both the same term of time that in the oath in Daniel the angel intended. This appears by Revelation 12:6 compared with Revelation 12:14, for what in Revelation 12:6 is called 1260 days, is in the 14th verse of the aforesaid chapter expressed by this, ‘a time, times, and half a time.’
(2.) He makes this double computation of that time, first by months, then by days; so without ambiguity to explain how much time was meant in Daniel by that indefinite number, ‘time, times, and a half.’ Which, as it is laid down in Daniel, is altogether ambiguous; for who could tell what is meant by a time and times? or who could tell but that a hundred or a thousand years might be the time, and ten thousand the times here meant, they being only expressed in the plural number and indefinitely, as well as two of those times? Therefore, clearly to free it of all ambiguity, he explains this first time here by forty-two months. Now, reckoning twelve months to a year, these forty-two months make three years and a half. So then, by time is meant a year; by times, two years; and by half a time, half a year more. And yet because there was some ambiguity in that also, in that some nations reckon but twenty-eight days in a month, whereas others reckon more,—so the Jews reckon twenty-eight, but the Egyptians thirty days,—therefore no reckons the same time by days also, even 1260 days; which forty-two months do make up, reckoning thirty days to a month.
Now all these are not solary days, that is, natural days, consisting of day and night, but the prophetical days; as in Daniel a day is put for a year, and a week for seven years, and so thirty days for thirty years, and 1260 days for 1260 years. And that thus they are to be taken appears by this, that the witnesses, Revelation 11:9, are said to lie in the view of all nations, as being haply banished out among them, for three days and a half; and their enemies are said to send gifts one to another in the meantime. Which if they were but three natural days and a half, all this in three natural days and a half could not be done.
(3.) By joining together these two computations here, and so shewing them to be the same, he thereby clears the mention of them, as they are apart named, Revelation 12 and Revelation 13, of which otherwise there might have been a doubt, whether the forty-two months, Revelation 13, had been 1260 days of years. But by thus linking them together in this 11th chapter, it is made certain that those numbers are the same.
(4.) Though both Daniel there, and the angel here, do mention only the times of the Pope’s reign, who is the last head of the Roman monarchy; and not the whole time from John’s days, but only the latter part of it for the last 1260 years under the Pope; yet so as this was sufficient enough for the computation of the whole time that the visions of the Revelation do run through, and served fully enough to shew the contemporariousness of things in both prophecies, and to shew when the fourth monarchy should end, and so when the fifth should be towards its beginning. Which was his principal aim; and therefore, as in Revelation 17:8, he explains who this beast was, and what he should be at last, so in this chapter he shews what the time of this beast’s reigning is, and when it should end.
Now to demonstrate all these:—
1. This explication of this time may serve as a sufficient measure of the computation of the whole time spoken of in the Revelation. For if you know but either when this time of the Pope’s reign begins or when it ends, you, who live in these latter days, may know how much time the prophecy of this whole book runs over. We know by story when John began to write this prophecy, even ninety-four years after Christ, or thereabouts. So that it is about 1550 years since John. Now 1260 years are to be allowed the beast, the Pope, from his beginning to his end. And to know when and in what age he began, the Holy Ghost hath given us a hint and character, chap. 17; telling us that he riseth one hour with the ten kings, which was not long after the year of Christ 400. So that 300 years are all that before that, even from John’s time, do belong to the primitive times, before the Pope’s reign. And then, after the end of this Pope’s or beast’s time, there is but the Turks’ ruin to come, (which is the second woe mentioned here, Revelation 11:14,) and then comes in the New Jerusalem. And if we who live in these last days could but know when he either begins his time or ends it, we might easily tell, at least with a conjectural knowledge, how long it will be from the incarnation of Christ unto his kingdom here on earth, which is the fifth monarchy.
2. I might also at large shew how this computation, coming in here in this chapter, shews the true synchronising and contemporaneousness of things both in the seal and book-prophecy, which was necessary somewhere to be done, and is here in this chapter most fitly done between both these prophecies. For the sixth trumpet of the seal-prophecy is, Revelation 11:14, made to end upon, or not long after, the ending of the Pope’s reign, whose story belongs to the book-prophecy. For, says the angel there, after the rising of the witnesses, ‘The second woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly.’ Now that second woe is the sixth trumpet of the seal-prophecy, (so Revelation 8:13,) and the passing of it away is the sixth vial in the book-prophecy, the effect of which is the ruin of the Turk, or at least a preparation thereunto by the calling of the Jews. And then the seventh trumpet begins with the seventh vial. And so, as it is probably thought, these 1260 years of the beast and the rising of the witnesses do end with the fifth vial, after which the sixth vial shall not stay long. And it is probable that the angel’s division of things into this double series, of six seals and six trumpets, is suited to his division of all times: which, from John’s time to the kingdom of Christ, he branches either into the time of the beast’s reign, which he defines to be 1260 years; or the time before his rising, which he defines not. For the beginning and ending of the beast’s time being once known, thereby the other times foregoing, or the primitive times, might easily be computed. So as, when we know, through the help of this angel’s speech in this chapter, that the book-prophecy and the seal-prophecy do meet towards their ending and closure downwards, then, how they run along upwards is not uneasy to conjecture. For the seal-prophecy being branched into two so equal divisions of six seals, Revelation 6, and then six trumpets, Revelation 7-9; the six seals containing the story of the empire till the beast’s rising, and so taking up all that tract of the primitive times before the beast’s 1260 years do begin; it is therefore likely that the six trumpets do contain the story of the empire during those 1260 years in which the Pope is to reign. And then, as they end not far off from each other, as was even now shewed, so also the times of these six trumpets, and the beast’s reign of 1260 years, should begin not far off of each other. Thus the mention of this one term or period of time here serves, as you see, for the measure of the computation of the whole times of this book, and both prophecies of it; and so comes fitly in between both for such a purpose.
And, lastly, the reasons why the Holy Ghost singleth out only the times of this last head, the Pope, thus to be the rule and measure whereby to sum and cast up the account of all the times of this book, are—
(1.) For that the beast’s reign was to have the longest time allotted it of any monarchy after Christ, and the longest of all the heads of the Roman monarchy foregoing him; yea, it was to contain as much time as had passed from Rome’s first building until his rising, and so would afford a computation of the greatest part of that time, and indeed three parts of the whole time from John until the kingdom of Christ.
(2.) The matters of this book being not so fully to be opened till about the time of the end, as it is in Daniel 12:4; if the times of the beast, whose reign was to continue till towards the end, should then come to be known, then the whole time from John downward would be known also by them that live in these latter days, for whose benefit and comfort, as most concerning them to know it, this computation was made and here given.
(3.) This beast, the Pope, being the last head of the fourth or Roman monarchy, which but for him had failed, but was in him healed again and restored; to know when he should end, and with him that monarchy, this would be inkling enough of the approach of Christ’s kingdom, which is immediately to succeed it. To give the inkling of which, for the church’s comfort in these latter days, was the thing herein principally aimed at. And—
(4.) This beast being to be the most eminent oppressor of the church in the times after Christ; therefore the computation of his time, beginning and ending, and the oppression of the witnesses by him, would be most I acceptable to be known, and so be most inquired after by the church.—And I thus much for the computation of the times here mentioned.
§ 2.—The occurrences that fall out towards the expiring of these times here computed: and, first, a general view and division of them. As Christ was thus careful, as you have seen, to give us this computation of times; so further, for our comfort, he makes a relation of such occurrences also as should fall out towards the ending and expiration of these times: which is the second head we are to explain. And as the computation of Antichrist’s times was twofold, so answerably the chief occurrences of things appertaining to the accomplishment of those times are two:—
1. The re-giving up the outward court to the Gentiles, with the treading down whereof they are to end their whole reign and time of the treading down the holy city.
2. Their killing the witnesses, with which their 1260 days of prophesying in sackcloth do end also. The one is annexed as the signal of the period of their reign, and the ending of their forty-two months; the other as the signal of the accomplishment of these witnesses’ oppression for 1260 days, with this most eminent victory of the Gentiles over them. And then again observe how each of these occurrences have two others here mentioned with them, as conjunct appendixes to them, or occasions of them:—
1. The giving up the outward court to the Gentiles is accompanied with a measuring the temple by John, representing the godly of that age, who leaves out the outward court, as being ordained by God to be given up to the Gentiles.
2. This last killing the witnesses is much occasioned, and, in a more especial manner, enemies are provoked unto it, by the hurt these witnesses did them by fire in the times just before, as we shall see anon; in revenge of which they are encouraged to kill them.
Or, for the better conceiving all these, I cast them into this mould:—
John and the angel standing here in the very extremities of time, even the times of the fourth vial, (this age, as I take it,) wherein Antichrist’s reign is drawing near to its end; John hath represented to him, as an introduction unto all that follows, the face of the church in that age, and is himself bidden to represent the work of the godly of that age towards that church. And—
1. The church in this age is represented to him as the temple standing in the holy city Jerusalem,—as it was represented to Ezekiel, Ezekiel 40, which he also measured with a reed, as John is bidden to do here,—namely, the temple inward, in which the priest only was to come, and in which stands the altar, with a company of true worshippers; but round about it, as enclosing the temple without, lies a vast outward court, into which (as of old, the multitudes and crowd of the people of the Jews professing the true God, so here) all sorts of professors of true worship do come. This temple, the church of this age, is moreover represented as adorned within with golden candlesticks, and two stately olive-trees, Revelation 11:4, being two eminent witnesses and prophets that minister before God in his church. And the Gentiles, they possess the city already, and have done a long time, and are still to possess it, till their forty-two months be expired. But the temple, and the outward court about it, of late days erected in this city, they have been kept out of; and so could not come at these witnesses, who are within the temple, nor have been able to overcome and kill them, as in former times; against whom, notwithstanding, in that they have so tormented them with fire and other plagues out of this temple, they are even mad again with vexation, and an eager desire to be avenged on them. But now, before the expiring of their forty-two months, God being angry, both with the carnal gospellers in the outward court, so profanely mixing themselves with his worshippers, and laying themselves to his building and temple, and also with the carnal gospelling of the two witnesses among them, and with the imperfection of his temple building, not yet answering the pattern, and therefore intending to erect a purer temple; he—
2. Bids John, representing the godly of that age, measure the temple anew, and so begins to make a new reformation therein, more answerable to the and pattern in the mount; for he is not pleased with the old one that now hath stood so long. And therefore, in this new reformation, he commands John to leave out that outward court, as intending, after his purer churches shall thus first have, as it were, excommunicated them, to give up that outward court to these Gentiles, who have already took possession of the city, and kept it a long time, but shall now again enter upon this outward court, it being within their lease and demise. And so with this overrunning the outward court of the church, shall they accomplish their reign over the whole city, being then to be driven out of all for ever, which makes them so angry, as you have it Revelation 11:18. And thus they having gained the outward court, which fenced and kept safe the witnesses, as from persecution by the Papists, who yet had vexed and plagued them, by shooting of wild-fire out of the temple, though they had also shot back again that which had hurt the witnesses all that while; but now the beast can come to them to overcome them and kill them quite, for their outward court was won, and so utterly scatter the power of the holy people; but yet so as with this the days of their oppression shall cease, this being the accomplishment of their years of scattering, and the last war wherein Antichrist shall any way prevail. He (the relics of him left) shall indeed make head again before the seventh vial, but it shall not come to a victory as this doth.
§ 3.—The occurrences,Revelation 11:1-2, (the measuring the temple, altar, &c., and the leaving out the outward court, and treading down the holy city,) more particularly and fully explained So then, here are two things to be explained:—
1. What this temple and outward court are, and what the measuring of the temple, &c., and the leaving out and treading down the outward court and city. And—
2. Who these witnesses are, what their description, and what this their last killing. For the first; I will make good and establish what I think to be the true interpretation, and then consult those other false interpretations given of it.
It is wonderful to me to see how exactly this vision, in the whole series of it, represents the present face, the affairs, stirrings, and alterations now a-working in the churches of Europe; the type and antitype so fully answering and suiting each the other.
1. For the first; the holy city here, wherein these Gentiles have a lease of forty-two months’ reign, are these kingdoms of Europe, which for these thousand years and upwards have been the metropolis and chief seat of Christian profession, as Jerusalem of old was of the worship of the true God; which, therefore, in the following part of this book-prophecy, is made, from the rise of the beast, the only stage of all, until that New Jerusalem and holy city, which comes from heaven and succeeds this; this being in the meantime the Old Jerusalem, as that the New. Yet—
2. This city, for the punishment of the world, God permits the Gentiles to tread down for forty-two months, alluding to that expression which Christ used of the sacking of that Jerusalem in Judea, by the Romans, Luke 21:24. Now the beast, the Pope of Rome, with his idolatrous crew, they are these Gentiles; and so called because they set up the image of that worship which was practised under heathenish Rome and Gentilism; so Revelation 13:15. And as the hundred and forty-four thousand, the company of true worshippers, are called the Israel of God, so are these called the Gentiles; their religion and worship being, as was said, the image of the first heathenish religion, under the heathen empire, the first beast. And this city they were to have power and jurisdiction in till forty-two months were fulfilled, as in Revelation 13 appears. But—
3. Towards the end of their time, there begins a great part of this city to fall from them, though they still kept possession of the greatest part; and they lost much ground, and enclosure and separation being made from them, and within it a temple built, namely, churches separated from Antichrist, which you heard of in Revelation 15. And further, as that in Jerusalem was built on the north side of that city, Psalms 48:2, so is this temple built in the northern parts of Europe,—the city here meant, as was foretold in Isaiah 49:12, and Daniel 11:44,—for in these northern kingdoms hath been the reformation of religion.
4. Unto which temple there hath been an outward court laid of carnal and unregenerate professors, who have made the greatest show in this building, and took up so much of the room, that although true churches and temples, by reason of the true worshippers among them, have been set up, yet they have been defiled with the addition of an outward court, into which all sorts came. So that indeed these reformed churches are outward courts more than inward temples. And by reason of this their mixture, great corruptions and defects, both in the form of the temple, or church-fellowship, and impurities in the worship and about the altar, have been continued among them.
Now for the understanding of these allusions, we must know that there were belonging to the temple in Jerusalem—
1. The holy of holies, which was at one end enclosed and separated from the rest of the temple, after the manner of our cathedral quires.
2. The body of the temple, whereinto came the priests only; and in which stood the altar of incense, which was answerable to the body of our cathedral churches, compassed by the inner court: wherein—
3. There was a larger outward court encircling the whole temple, into which the people of all sorts, both men and women, did come. And this was answerable to the churchyards which go round about our churches.
Now this third and last court is that which is here said to be without; that is, without the compass of the temple. And it is called the ‘great court’ going round about the other, namely, encompassing the inward court of the priests, and the holy of holies; thus, 1 Kings 7:12, it is expressly called. And it is by Ezekiel called the ‘outward court’ very often, in distinction from the inward court or temple where the altar was; which, in distinction from this, is also called the ‘court of priests.’ So 2 Chronicles 4:9, where it is said, Solomon ‘made the court of the priests, and the great court,’ namely, that into which the people came.
There was indeed a fourth court for strangers to come into, built by Herod. But that is not here alluded to, for the Scripture mentioneth it not. But the outward court here is that which Ezekiel, as I said before, does so often call by that name, in distinction from the court of priests: for to his measuring there, is the allusion of this measuring here; of which you may read, Ezekiel 40:17; Ezekiel 40:27. And the inner court is put for the temple, and the temple for it, as being all one.
Bring this then to the New Testament. The Scriptures and prophets, by the notion of a temple, do still express the true church, as 1 Corinthians 3:17, Ephesians 2:21, and many other places. And by priests, who only are to enter into the inner temple, they express true worshippers. You have both these expressions put together in 1 Peter 2:5, ‘You, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.’ And whereas the people entered not into the temple then, now all that are holy are bidden ‘to draw near, having their bodies,’ or whole man, ‘washed with water,’ as the priests were wont to be; even water of regeneration and sanctification, as Hebrews 10:22.
Now, in distinction from these true worshippers, the carnal professors of religion, and crowd of unregenerate men, that join themselves to the church by professing the same religion and faith, though yet continuing in the natural uncircumcision of their hearts, are called the ‘outward court’ here, they having no right to approach this altar. And, by the law of distinction and opposition, if the true worshippers now under the gospel be typified out by the priests, who were in a peculiar manner holy unto God, and whose holiness typified forth inward holiness under the gospel, then carnal professors now, who are Jews outwardly only, are left typified out by that common crowd of Jews who came then into the outward court. And these may most truly be termed an outward court, in a comparison with this temple and true worshippers, be the notion of temple taken in what sense it may. For whether temple or church be taken for the mystical temple or church of the elect and sincere worshippers, these are without, (as the Apostle’s phrase is, 1 Corinthians 5,) in comparison to them, and are carnal worshippers, worshipping God in the letter, not in the spirit, with ‘outward bodily exercise,’ not ‘in spirit and truth,’ as 1 Timothy 4:8; and they are such as to a stander-by, who hath skill to judge, are, for the generality, apparently such; even Jews outwardly only, not within, as Romans 2:28-29. Or if temple be taken for churches instituted, or congregations of true public worshippers, (as Ephesians 2:22, it is taken; as also Hebrews 10:22, compared with Hebrews 10:25, where the assembling together to worship is called a ‘drawing near,’ &c.,) in that respect also these carnal men joined with them are but as the outward court laid to the temple, who join in the same service, but do ‘draw near with their lips’ only, and, as Isaiah speaks, Isaiah 1, ‘tread his courts with sacrifices abominable to God;’ whilst the other, as a holy priesthood, are only within the temple, and do ‘draw near with assurance of faith, having their hearts sprinkled, and their bodies washed with water,’ as the allusion to the priests’ entering into the inner temple where the altar stood is, in Hebrews 10:22. So that, in what sense soever the Papists, whom some would have to be the outward court here meant, might be called the outward court, these also may. As whether because they arrogate to themselves the name of the church, and say, ‘they are Jews, and are not, but do lie.’ In this respect may these also be called the outward court, who with impudence do arrogate to themselves the name of the church, and under that name do in some places cast out the true worshippers; and who, by reason of their multitude and number,—the best congregations of the first Reformation consisting of many more apparently bad than good, and many of those churches having none but men unregenerate,—are in view only or chiefly the church; whilst the true visible worshippers are a company of hidden ones in comparison: and therefore the outward court, in the type, was called the great court.
Yea, these unregenerate Protestants are much rather to be accounted the outward court, and so are mainly here intended; which will appear, if you put but two things together:—
First, Outward court here is oppositely put unto all these other particulars enumerated that were to be measured; both unto temple, altar, and worshippers therein; and so oppositely doth import, not merely an outward face and place of worship, but as withal including persons worshipping also, and so carnal worshippers, in full opposition to the other. For otherwise this expression answers not the type, namely, the outward court in the Jewish temple, in which were the multitude, as in the inner temple the priests, So that the outward court imports and includes a company or sort of worshippers, as well as it imports the outward visible face of the church; and that by a metonymy, the continens being put for the contentum, the thing containing for the thing contained: even as these phrases, heaven and earth, do often import, and are put for, all things therein contained. And so outward court here implies a sort of worshippers therein; and in that respect is opposed to, and distinguished from the temple, and the true worshippers therein. And indeed, churches, and the face thereof, in the notion of the New Testament, consisting not of material buildings, as Cameron well shews, it is the persons worshipping who have the name of churches: and so here, persons worshipping, distinct from the temple and true worshippers, must needs be meant, as those that do constitute and make up this outward court. So that, take persons away, and the face of an outward court ceaseth to be. Thus Cornelius à Lapide upon the place:—In hac parte templi, says he, et in adorantibus sacerdotibus symbolicè significantur fideles, qui Antichristi tempore erunt optimi, religiosissimi, Deo conjunctissimi, et in cultu ejus solidissimi. Per atrium exterius intelligit christianos infirmiores, et vitæ laxioris, ideoque a Deo remotiores. Hos (ait) ejice foras, id est, extra ecclesiam. Quasi dixisset, Rejice eos inter infideles et apostatas; quia hi cedunt gentibus et Antichristo affectis, et ideo indigni sunt qui inter fideles numerentur.
Now then, secondly, add to this, that this outward court, thus consisting of a multitude of false worshippers, is here made distinct from the Gentiles: for this outward court, and the worshippers thereof, are ‘given to the Gentiles;’ and therefore are to be left out in the new measure taken.
Now a company of worshippers, who are distinct, both from the true worshippers of the temple, and from the Gentiles or Papists, must needs be the multitude of carnal Protestants that fill our churches, and make an outward court, together with the temple. For if the Gentiles be this outward court themselves, then who are these Gentiles that are to tread it down?
Neither, thirdly, can it be thought that the Gentiles, possessing the outward face of the church, should so fill up this outward court here meant, as to be made, as they are here, the other sole contradistinct and opposite party to the temple and true worshippers. Unless we would say, that all Protestants are the inner temple, as well as the priests and true worshippers therein, and both to be here measured; and so the Papists and they share these two alone between them. But we assuredly knowing that of Protestants not one of a hundred are true worshippers, according to outward judgment, by those rules the reed warrants us to judge of others by, may as assuredly also conclude that this multitude of carnal professors are not here intended by the angel, as at all included in the temple, and among the true worshippers; especially seeing he puts the reed into John’s hand, to measure none but such as are visibly true worshippers. And therefore they must necessarily make up that third party, distinct both from the temple-worshippers and from the Gentiles; and are they who are to be cast out by the one, and seized on by the other, as the outward court is here said to be. And more sure I am that, according to apostolical institution, such as they ought to be left out by those that build true churches, and churches to be measured anew without them. And therefore, if this measuring the temple fall under the times of this sixth trumpet, I cannot but imagine this new reformation begun, to be intended; and that re-entry the Gentiles are now a-making upon the outward court of our churches, and their yielding to them, to be the giving thereof unto these Gentiles here.
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 vouchsafe 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 Romish 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 Romans 2:28, 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 Isaiah 1 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 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 ‘the ark shall be seen,’ which notes out the holy of holies, as it is Revelation 11:19 of this 11th 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 a new 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 compass, 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 himself a church that shall consist of priests, and an inward temple separated 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 Revelation 21:27. 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 Revelation 21:15; 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 what 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 worshippers 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 matters 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 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-fellowship, as you call it; which, as well as the company of the elect, was typified out, and called the temple, as Ephesians 2:20-22. 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 Ephesians 2:20-21, and so made part of templum electorum; he after that, says again of the same Ephesians, as they were a company knit in church-fellowship, that they were ‘built together for a habitation to God,’ Ephesians 2:22. 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 Jerusalem only sacrifices were to be offered. And therefore—
3. By altar here, which was that main ordinance of temple-worship serving 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 Peter 2:5. 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 church-assembly, according unto Christ’s institution. Now then—
5. To measure all these with this reed implies a drawing of a true platform 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, Romans 12:1, the apostle calls
(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 here alludes, Ezekiel 43:10-11, where it is called a ‘shewing them the pattern, 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 Ezekiel sees distinctly, and apart measured the temple, Ezekiel 41, 42; then the altar, Ezekiel 43:13; and then concerning the worshippers the angel gives laws, Ezekiel 44, blaming them that they permitted ‘strangers, men uncircumcised’ in flesh and heart (speaking in the language of the type) to be in his sanctuary, Ezekiel 44:7; giving a law, Ezekiel 44:9, 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 Ezekiel 43:10-11, 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 measured, but it respects a new building, or finishing of a church. So also Zechariah 2, the measuring the city, Zechariah 2:2, was to signify not the taking the platform of Jerusalem as then it stood built, but as further anew to be built and inhabited, Zechariah 2:4-5. So also the temple, as then being yet unfinished by the Jews after the captivity; tile plummet, or measuring-line, Zechariah 4:10, which answers to the reed here, signified that the temple should be finished; which appears, if you compare the above-named place with Zechariah 4:9 of the same chapter. And—
3. Measuring imports protection also. So, Zechariah 2, the measuring the city there is in the interpretation given, Zechariah 2:5, explained, that ‘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 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 defilements 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, Zechariah 2:11-12, &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 calk excluding or leaving them out. Which, accordingly, to make way for the right constitution of churches, in discerning the true matter 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 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 themselves 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.
Now, 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, because, 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 being ‘cast out’ they ‘wither,’ and become a prey to men, as it is John 15:6. Popish opinions and practices take them again. And how, by degrees, do these Gentiles win ground upon the outward court in England? 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 institution; 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 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 worshippers 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 moat glorious. For these, like those I Samaritans, Ezra 4:1-2, offer indeed to build with them; but being, according 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 Protestants—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, Isaiah 66:13, then, as you have it in Isaiah 66, 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 next words do give, ‘And so they shall tread down the holy city for forty-two 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 expire in a full possession: and that so the confusion of Antichrist—the 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,’ Daniel 11:44, ‘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 Rome’s recovery of her power thus, and when the whore begins to sing her sister Babel’s song, just before her fall,—as Revelation 17:7-8,—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 that judgeth her.’ And thereby will be seen God’s omnipotent power in her confusion. There is nothing also in it, that, Revelation 17, the ten Kings or states of Europe are twice mentioned as giving their power unto the beast; and, Revelation 17:17, 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 the1st, 2d verses of the 11th chapter (Revelation 11:1-2), refuting other interpretations given of the measuring of the temple and outward court, (which 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 interpretations.
Mr. Mede would have the new book-prophecy to begin here at this 11th 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, Revelation 10, to supply the seventh trumpet. And so makes the angel here, in chap. 11, to begin again anew, aloft from John’s time; and so this 11th chapter to be a short, compendious representation of the story of the church in all ages, beginning here anew from John’s time, and, as it were, the contents and brief sum of that larger story which begins at Revelation 12. 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, according 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 Rome 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 premise to this my interpretation. But further to remove the supposition on which this interpretation of his is founded:—
1. The sixth trumpet, and the times of it in this vision, are not yet ended here in the 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, Revelation 11:14 of this chapter, ‘The second woe is past, and the third cometh quickly.’ And you may observe, that after the expiration of the 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, Revelation 9:12, ‘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, Revelation 11:14, 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, Revelation 11, (which when he had declared, he says, ‘The second woe is past,’) or that, according to the course of the vision, the time of it was now expired. And then—
2. The angel takes his oath, Revelation 10, as yet standing under the times of the sixth trumpet, and afore[13] the times of the seventh; and that seventh trumpet’s time yet not come to blow, according to the order of time presented 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, Revelation 10, 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, accordingly 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 prognostication 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.
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 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 differing 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. ‘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 suspended unto John. And—
(2.) When he said, Revelation 11:14, 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 11th chapter the seventh trumpet doth indeed sound, there is a voice heard—in answer, as it were, unto what the angel had said, Revelation 10, 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 sounding of it. And all this argues the vision of this 11th chapter, and the occurrences 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 11th 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 measured, 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 Ezekiel 43:10-11, and applying it to this 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 Corinthians 11:2; 1 Corinthians 11:22. Otherwise the apostle pulls down the pride of that Corinthian, and of all other churches, for arrogating this unto themselves, saying, ‘What! came the word of God out from you, or to you only?’ 1 Corinthians 14 of that epistle, 1 Corinthians 14:36. 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 undiscorned by them; which, had they kept that primitive integrity, had been utterly impossible. And therefore 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 increaseth, 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 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 11th chapter should be a compendium 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 Revelation 11:7 to Revelation 11:14 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 indefinitely. 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 computation 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, Revelation 11:14, 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, Revelation 10, John eating a little book which contains a new prophecy, and therefore, Revelation 10:11, he says he must prophecy again; hence, therefore, it follows that the seal-prophecy must be supposed ended, and so this 11th 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, himself 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-prophecy, 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, Revelation 11, 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, Revelation 11:7, nor heard of the witnesses and their vials; but by eating that little book now was signified to him that therein was 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. But for a more full answer to be added to these, take in that fifth precognition, or premised consideration, which in the beginning of this exposition of Revelation 11. 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 possessed, 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 outward 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 accordingly 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 testaments,—their ‘prophecy in sackcloth,’ they make to be expired, and their slaughter past, in that council of Trent, coincident with the Smalkaldie war in 1547, or thereabouts. After which there was in Germany a restoration 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 Jeremiah 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 present 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 Revelation 14—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 forty-four 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, Revelation 14:15; Revelation 14:17, and of the altar, Revelation 14:18; 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 David’s time that mount was by the Jews inhabited. So nor was this virgin company as yet formed up into a distinct temple and altar of worship distinct from the Popish, in any eminent manner, but rather lay scattered in the Popish churches, and were bidden 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 Ezekiel 43:11, 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 Zechariah 2:2; Zechariah 2:4, compared, and Zechariah 4:9-10. Which must therefore 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 outward court,’ do import a real act of rejection put in execution, and, in fact, done toward that outward court as then existing, and not merely a discovery 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 capable 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 casting 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, Revelation 9, this 11th 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 11th 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, Revelation 9. 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 homogeneal part of one continued story, although in time immediately succeeding it. For that more properly belonged to the book-prophecy that follows, and is at large set forth, Revelation 14-16. But his scope seems rather to be to give a computation of the times of Antichrist, and a signal of their ending, 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 designatory 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 Germany,) Revelation 14, 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, Revelation 9, the other by the Papists here in this 11th 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 Rome, therefore both in Revelation 14, in the voices of those three angels, and in Revelation 15, 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
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 Gentiles here; and so the outward court must note out that third sort of worshippers between these Gentiles and the templers, as I before shewed. And—
4. This being that exceeding great error and defect laid in the foundation of the churches of the first Reformation, especially in our British churches,—namely, the adjoining this outward court of carnal and unregenerate 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 the city: that as the earth helps the woman, Revelation 12, so this, as an outward 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 perceive in almost all prophecies: that there are several accomplishments which the Holy Ghost hath in his eye, yet so as he fixeth upon one, and usually the last of them, as the main intended. For which I could bring many instances; of which one I shall hereafter give. And that he might have such a double aspect in this, I shall shew when I come to the killing of the witnesses.