and tendernefs; nor the aged man through any reverence of his gray hairs, or on account of the infirmities of old age, but all would be deftroyed; and never was fuch a carnage made at the fiege of any one city in the world before or fince 5 no lefs than 1,100,000 perfons perifhed in it, as Yo/epbus relates *.
¥. 26. I faid, &c.] Or could have faid, or might have faid; that is, determined and refolved, as it was in his power, and in right and juftice might have done what follows: [would fcatter them into corners; which does not fitly exprefs the fenfe of the word ufed, and befides this was what was done; it is notorious that the ‘ews were and are fcattered into the feveral corners of the world, and there is no corner where they are not; whereas the phrafe is expreffive of fomething that could and might
pro Flacco, X Atque utinam nunquam Judea fubata faiffes, "Rutilus, wae ae a
they might be a -check unto all falfe teachers, ard leave them inexcufable who embrace the fame errors that have been condemned in them, and God has n his difpleafure at; and which they ftill retain; fuch as the doétrine’ of free-will, of jutti- Pine by a man’s own righteoufnefs, of falvaot being wholly by the Meffah, and of his bee non-}ehovah, or only a mere creature; for the words may be rendered, Non-Febovah hath done all this"; or he that is not ‘fébovad hath done all that is done for the people of the Fews; and fay, all that the Meffiah hath done with refpect to falvation, is done by him thatis not Fehovahb, or God, but a creature. Thefe were the doctrines of the Fews in Chrif’s time; the Pharifees, the prevailing fect among them, were free-willers, as Zo/ephus relates‘; and the whole nation were felf-jufticiaries, as the apoftle Paul affures us, and fought for righteoufnefs not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, Rom. ix. 31, 32. and x. 3. and fuch they are to this day, as well as Dpitarians to a man; now Arians, Socinians, Pelagians, and Arminians, may look upon thefe people, who are continued, as having imbibed the fame errors; and may read theirs in them, and God’s difpleafure at them.
v.28. For they are a nation void of counfel, &c.] This is faid not*of the Fews, whofe character is given, ¥. 6. and inftances of their ingratitude, folly, and want of counfel and underftanding, have been already mentioned, and punifhment for the fame inflicted on them, according to this prophetic fong; fo that the prophecy refpecting them is iffued, and another people are taken notice of, even. their enemies, of whom the Fewi/h writers in general interpret thefe words, and what follows; and was true of the Gentiles, both of the Pagan fort of them, who took too much to themfelves, and afcribed the deftruction of the Fews, and their conqueft of them, to themfelves, and their idols; and of falfe Chrifians among them, when the Roman empire became Chriftian, fuch as expreffed themfelves in the language of the latter part of the preceding verfe, our hand is high, &c. which plainly fhewed them to be a people devoid of the true knowledge of the fcriptures, they fliould have made the men of their counfel, and have confulted; and of the gofpel of Chriff, which is the counfel of God, as the Arians, Pelagians, &c. muft be, or they would never imbibe and advance tenets fo diametrically oppofite thereunto: neither is there any underftanding in them; of divine and {piritual things, of the fcriptures, and the doétrines of them; of the perfon of Chri/t, and his divine perfections, or they would never deny his deity; of the righteoufnefs of God, of that which is required in the law, and revealed in the gofpel, or they would never fet up a righteoufnefs of their own for juftification; and of themfelves, their unrighteoufnefs, impurity, and impotence to _ that which is good; or they would never fo ftrongly affert the purity of human nature, and the power of man’s free-will: God forefeeing all the folly, and want of counfel and underftanding in the Gentile world, under different characters, preferved a remnant of the Zews as a ftanding admonition to yt. 29. O that they were wife, &c] Thefe are ‘not the words of God, and fo no inftances of mere velleities, and unfuccefsful wifltes in him, and as arguing a power in man to make himfelf wife if he would; but of Mo/és, under a fpirit of prophecy; forefeeing the ignorance and ftupidity of the above perfons; or as pétfonating a true believer in Cériff, it the times in which fuch men fhould live; for the perfon fpeaking is one that had faith in Chrift, the rock of falvation, and built upon him alone for it; and who had enemies on that account, as appears from the following verfes: and thefé words are fpoken not of the Fews, with whom this fong has no more concern, unlefs it be in what refpeéts their converfion in thé latter day; but of falfe Chriftians, Pelagians, Arians, &c: whofe language and charatter are expreffed in the preceding verfes; and contain a pathetic wifh that they might have wifdom to fee theit follies, errors, and miftakes, and renounce them: or, if they were wife*; as they are not, and their tenets fhew it: they would underftand this; namely, what follows: they would confider their latter end; either the latter end of the Fews; had they wifdom, they would underftand and obferve that the difpleafure of God againft them, and his deftruétion of them, was for their lightly efteeming the rock of falvation, as Arians do, and for fetting up their own righteoufnefs, in oppofition to the righteoufnefs of Chrif, as do Pelagians and Arminians, and were they wife, they would be hereby cautioned againft fuch notions; and though imbibed by them, would relinquifh them; as they may juftly fear fome fuch like end will be theirs: for if God does not give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, their end muft be miferable; fince the errors they embrace and profefs are what the apoftle calls damnable herefies; who, denying the Lord that bought them, bring on themfelves {wift deftruction; and whofe judgment, he fays, lingers not, and theit damnation flumbers not, 2 Pet. ii. 1, 3. ¥. 30. How fhould one chafe a thoufand, and twé put ten thoufand to flight, &c:| This is faid for the conviction of the Pagan Romans of their folly in behaving ftrangely, alienating to their gods what belonged to the true God; for fince the Hews were more numerous than they, both in Fudea, in the times of Titus Ve/pafian, when the country was fubdued by him; and in other parts of the world, in the times of Adrian, when the Fews rofe up in vaft numbers, greatly fuperior to the Romans, and yet were conquered; which, allowing the phrafe to be hyperbolical, was like one toa thoufand, and two to ten thoufand: now fince this was what was promifed to the Fews in cafe of obedience, that they fhould in this manner chafe their enemies, Lev. xxvi. 8. it can’t be accounted for that they fhould in like manner be chafed by their enemies, as threa-
‘tened If, xxx. 17. except their rock had fold them, and the Lord had fhut them up that is, unlefs the Lord, who was their rock and fortrefs, and in whom they fhould have trufted as fuch, had forfaken them, and given them up into their enemies hands, fhut up as they were in the city of Feru/alem in the times of Zitus, and afterwards in Bther in the times of Adrian; it is a plain cafe thae this was of God, and not owing to the idols of the Gentiles; fee Pf. xliv. 9,10, 11,122 Cocceius and Van Till interpret this of Conftantine overcoming Maxentius, Licinius; and Maximinius, whereby the whole Roman empire on a fudden became Cériftian nominally, when but a little before Diocletian had
DEUTERONOMY. Ch. xxxi.y.31—33.
the many outward works of piety in ie Rea im Chrifian name blotted out;”
tween the Chriffians and Pagans were as one to a thonfand, and two to ten thoufand, and the victory therefore muft be afcribed to God 5 this could never have been unlefs Satan, the great red dragon, had given his kingdom to the beaft, which was done by the permiffion and fovereign will of God; fee Rev. vi. 14. and xii. 7, 8. and xiii.2, and xvii. 17. fo thofe interpreters, but the former fenfe feems fo that the odds be- jchurch they pretend to perform, but when examined are lies in hypocrify, 1 Tim, iv. 2. their grapes are. grapes of gall, their clufters are bitter 5 which may denote the large number of the members of this | church cluftered together; and the many religic orders in it; which make a fair fhew in th but are in the gall of bitternefs, and bond ¢ quity s and the variety of ordinances and in Hit tions of man’s devifing: fo as the ordinances of beft. —s the true church of Chrift are compared to clufters —¥. 34. For their rock is wot as our rock, 8cc.] That is, the gods of the heathens, the rock in which they trufted, are not like the God of J/rae the rock of falvation; in which all true whether ‘fees or Gentiles, place their confidence; and. indeed let that be what it will that is fhort of Cbrift the rock, men lay the ftrefs of their falvation on, ‘it is no rock but fand, and will ftand them in no ftead; fee Matt. vii. 24—27. even our enemies themfelves being judges; as has been confeffed of the God of J/rael by the heathens; fee Exod. xiv. 25. Numb. xxiii, 8, 1 Sam. iv. 8. and was by Titus. with refpect to the deftruction of. Feru fee the note on ¥..27. and by the Roman emperors when, conquered by the Chriftians, who afked pardon. of the God, of the Chriftians, and. owned that the God of. Cou/tantine was the true God; fee the note on Rev. vi. 16.
¥. 32. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah, &c.} This refpects, the falfe Ghriftians in the Roman empire, who fhould have taken warning by the Yews, and not have embraced fuch fentiments of theirs, which had been refented by the Lord, and condemned in them; fuch as the doctrines of man’s free-will, of juftification and falvation not alone by Chri/?, but by their. own works of-righteoufnels, faying, our band is high, and the Lord hath not done all this, ¥.27. Now. out of the-errors and herefies which arofe in the primitive, Chrifian church fprung the man of grapes, Cant, vii. 7. the ordinances of the falfe church are like clufters of bitter grapes, both for their,| quantity and quality; and may mean alfo their many believers,jevil works and actions, efpecially their oppreffion and cruelty in perfecuting the faints, and fhedding their blood; juft as the wild grapes of the vine of 7udab are interpreted of oppreffion and acry, J/- y. 33. Their wine is the poifon of dragons, &c.} Of thefe creatures, both land and fea dragons, fee the notes on Mic. i. 8. Mal. i. 3. Pliny fays! the dragon has no poifon in it; yet, as Dalechamp in alem; |his notes on that writer obferves, he in many places — prefcribes remedies againft the bite of the dragon; but Heliodorus ™ expretsly fpeaks of fome archers whofe arrows were. infected with the poifon of dra+ gons.; and Leo Africanus” fays, the Atlantic dragons are exceeding poifonous: and yet other writers® befides Pliny have afferted, that they are free from poifon, It feems the dragons of Greece are without, but not thofe of Africa and Arabia; and to thefe Mo/es has refpect, as being well known to him. The Targum.ot Ferufalemis, * the poi-, - fon of this people is like the poifon of dragons as, they drink wine.;” and the Targum of Fonathan, ‘* as the poifon of dragons, when they are at or. from their wine;” that is, after and as foon as they haye drank it; for according to natural hifto-» rians, ferpents, though they need and ufe but little. ofjdrink, yet are very fond of wine: and it feems.
erected a trophy with this infcription. on it, ‘* the fin, the fon of perdition, Axtiebrifi, or the antichriftian-and apoftate church of Rome, the degenerate plant of a ftrange vine; and is here defcribed as of the vine of Sodom, a flip from that, tran planted from fudea, and from the worfe part of it Sodom, bearing a refemblance to.the.old Fewzb church in its more degenerate, late, reviving many of its antiquated.rites and ceremonies, and embracing its unfound doétrines; efpecially which relate to juttification, and falvation by the works of men; and having fuch a likenefs.to Sodomin its abominable practices, that. it is even called Sodom itfelf, Rev. xi. 3. particularly for pride, luxury, idlenefs,. idolatry, prophanenefs, contempt of, ferious religion, and for bodily uncleannefs; even, for that. fin which has its name from,Sedom, which has not only been frequently committed by the popes and other great perfonages among them,, and) connived at; but, praifed and commended in printed books, publifhed and fheltered under. public. authority; fee the note on Rev, xi. 8. and with this compare Ezek. xvi.
4g. and of the fields of Gomorrah another city of [4 verGonsof this claufe itis incurable; and fo Ari— that thereby their poifon becomes more {harp and, intenfe, as Bochart® obferves; wherefore the al— lufion is very proper and pertinent, and denotes the wine of fornication of the apoftate church of Rome,, frequently fpoken of Rev. xiv. 8. and xvii. 2. and Xvili. 3. which is no other than her corrupt doctrines, intoxicating, enticing, and leading to idolatry and fuperftition; and as the true gofpel of Chryt is fometimes compared to wine, fo the falfe doctrines of this church; but then ’tis fuch that is. not only loathfome and abominable, but poifonous. and pernicious to the fouls of men, damnable and. ruinous, and brings upon them fwift deftruétion, 2 Pet. i. 1, 2, 3. Rev. xiv. 9, 10, 11. and may. well be compared to the poifon of dragons for fuch. teafons; as alfo becaufe they are doétrines of devils, and come from the great dragon, that old ferpent called the devil and fatan, 2 Tim. iv. 1. Rev. Xli. 3, 9. and the cruel venom of afps; which of all. Kind of ferpents Pliny 4 fays is the leaft curable; nay, according to the Septuagint, and Vulgate La.
the plain, deftroyed for, the fame fins that Sodom was; the phrafe fignifies the fame.as before; who has.not heard of the apples and fruits of Gomorrab, which. are faid to look very fair and beautiful without, but when touched fall into afhes? blem of the fair fhew of religion and devotion, /ftotle fays * there is no remedy-for it; and fo fays, #iianus +, who alfo. obferves «, that the mark it. makes is fo fmiall, that it is fcarcely difcerned by che. fharpeft eye.
a fit em- vengeful creature; when its mate is killed by any, _ and ‘it will purfue the flayer flee where he will, anda
Pliny” reprefents it as amoft re- mt:
far and as faft as he.can: it breaks through all difficulties, and is not to be ftopped by rivers, or any obftacles, and will attack the perfon; whom it prefently knows, let him be in ever fuch a crowd: and therefore it and its poifon miay well be called _andas the poifon of this creature lies under its take vengeance on Antichrift, whom he will de- {troy with the breath of his mouth, and fend that fon of perdition into the perdition appointed for him; and pour out the vials of his wrath on all the anti: cruel;)chriftian ftates, the time of which is next pointed at: their foot /ball flide in due time, there is a time tongue, thisis a fit fimile to exprefs the poifonous and pernicious doétrines of the apoftate church, ¥. 34. Is not this laid up in ftore with me, 8c.)
fixed for the reign of Ahtichrift, when it will end, 42 months, or 1260 days; that is, fo many years; tee Rev. xi, 2. and xiii. 5. and a little before the
The fruit of the degenerate vine, its bitter cluiters expiration of them, his foot will begin to flide, as of grapes, and poifonous wine; meaning the evil principles and practices of the apoftate church, well known to God, taken notice of by him, and laidup ii his mind and memory; for both fhe and her fins will come in remembrance before God, and will be brought to open view, and appear to have been laid up by him, in order to be expofed ata proper time; fee Rev. xvi. 19. and xviii, 5. and fo the Targums interpret it of evil works: or this may be underftood of the punifhment ofthe evil doétrines and practices of the antichriftian church, the fentericé of which God had fecretly pafied in his eternal mind, and which he had in referve, and in due time Would éxecute; it was drawn and figned by him, and as he fays, fealed up among my treafures, his treafures of wrath, denoting the fe- the flipping of the foot is juft before a fall; and then will the foot of Antichrif# Nip and flide, when the witneffes flain by him fhall revive and ftand upon their feet, and caufe fear to fall on them that are on the earth; and when they fhall afcend up into heaven, or rife to fuperior power and authority, greatnefs and fplendor, than they formerly had, and this in the fight of their enemies; and when there will be earthquakes and revolutions in the feveral antichriftian ftates; and the tenth part ofthe great city fhall fall, and many perfons of renown be flain, and others frighted, and will give glory to'the God of heaven; whenan angel, or a fet of gofpel minifters, fhall fly in the midft of heaven, with the everlafting gofpel, to preach to all nations; which will be immediately followed by an- crecy of it, andthe {ure and certain performance of other, faying, Badylon is fallen, is fallen; when the it, and the authority of Chri? to execute it; to whom this fealed diploma is given, and all judgment committed’; and particularly this to judge kings of the earth will diflike and refent various things done by the pope of Rome, and fhall hate him, and meditate his ruin, and then may his foot the whore of Rowe; and who is able to open'the be faid to flide; fee Rev. xi. 11, 13. and xiv. 6, fealed book of God’s purpofes and decrees, and to accomplifh them; arid among the reft thote which relate to the utter ruin of Aztichriff, and the antichriftian flates: fo the Targum of Ferufalem interpréts it of the vengeance of the Lord, laid up for the wicked;- “* is not the cup of the judgment of
7,8. and xvii. 16. for the day of their calamity ié at hand; acloudy day, as the word fignifies, when the kingdom of the beaft will be full of darknefs and confufion, Rev. xvi. 10. and when all thofe calamities fhall come upon Babylon, expreffed in Rev. xiii. 8—19. and the things that fhall come upon them vengeance mixed and prepared for the ungodly fealed up among my treafures, to the day of the great jtidement?” itis true of the cup of the wine of the fiercenefS of the wrath of God, or of the wine make baffe,; even all thofe evil things God has determined in his counfels and purpofes, and which are foretold in prophecy, thefe fhall come upon Anéichr7? in hafte; for though hisjudement and dam- of the wrath of God poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, which he will make great Babylon, and all the worfhippers of the beatt, drink of; Rev. xiv. 9,.10. and Xvi. 19.
¥. 35+ To me belongeth vengeance and recompence, &c.} Or, 1 will repay, or recompenfe, as it is quoted in Rom. xii. 39. Heb. x. 30. and fo all the three Targums, the Septuagint, and Vulgate Latin verfions* here, ahd fo ‘farchi interprets it. belongs only to a divine perfon, not to an heathen nation may feem to linger and flumber, it fhall not; God will haften it in his due time, and all his judgments will come on Babylon in one day, Rev.
¥. 36. For the Lord fhall judge bis people, &c.] The true'church and members of it, in oppofition to the falfé and apoftate church; his chofen and covenant-people, whom he gave to Chri/?, and
Vengeance|who are redeemed by his blood, and effectually called by hisgrace; the people he fhall call out of deity called Dice, or vengeance, As xxviii, 4. nor to Satan and his fpiteful angels, nor to any of Babylon, or preferve from the corruptions of it before its fall; and who are the objects of his love the fons of men in a private capacity; though magiftratés, being in public office; and reprefenting God, are revengers to execute wrath on them that and delight; a diftinét, peculiar, and fpecial people, near unto him, and all righteous: thefe he will judge ‘at this time, diftinguifh between them do evil, Rom. xiii. 4. otherwife it is peculiar to God; and there is a'great deal of reafon to believe and the followers of Antichrift; he will take their caufe in hand, and plead it, and do juftice to them;
he will recompenfe it, as it may be concluded from his hatred of fin, his ftri€t juftice, and his faithfulnefs tohis’ threatenings as well as his promifes; from: the inftances of his vengeance on the old world, on Sodom and Gomorrah, and others; and from his taking vengeance on the inventions even he will right their wrongs and injuries, and take vengeance on their enemies; he will protect and defend them, reign and rule over them. Now will be the time when the witneffes flain are raifed, that he will take to himfelf his great power and reign, and the time of the dead when they will be of god men, whofe fins he pardons and efpecially judged, and a reward given to his fervants and from his not {paring his own Son, when ftanding in the law-place and ftead of finners: and this is._ applicable to CArif#, who not only in the days of his flefh took vengeance on Satan, and his princilities and powers; and when he’ came in his angdorn and power, took vengeance on the ews
; {ies, who would not have him to rule over Det tat alfo at his fpiritual coming, he will prophefy in fackcloth, and who will be flain prophets, to his faints, and all that fear his name; and when he will deftroy them that have deftroyed the earth, Rev. xv. 17, 18. fo the Targum of ‘Fonathan interprets this of the Word of the Lord that fhall judge his’ people in mercy: and repent himfelf for bis fervants; by whom are meant not only the minifters of the gofpel, his witneffés tha when they they have finifhed their teftimony; but all that are effectually called by grace, who though they have been the fervants of fin, and the vaflals of yet by. the grace of God become the fervants of God and of righteoufnels; diflike and caft off their old mafters;_ readily, willingly, and chearfully, take upon them the yoke of Chriff, and freely obey him, conitrained by his love, and influenced views of intereft in him; andsfo ferve him without any felfifh views, owning, that when they have done all they can, they are but unprofitable fervants: now for or on account of thefe he will repent himfelf, becaufe of the evils he has come upon them, being moved with pity and compaffion to them in their miferable circumftances, as they will be in when the witnefies his fervants will be flain; not that, properly fpeaking, repentance is in God; he never changes his mind, countel, and purpofes; he never alters his love, his choice, nor his covenant; or repents of his gifts, and ling of {pecial grace; though he is fometimes to repent of outward good things he has beftowed, 6r promifed to beftow conditionally; and of evils he has threatened or inflicted; yet this is only to be underftood of a change of his outward dealings and difpenfations with men, according to his changeable will; and this will be the cafe now with refpect to his fervants, whom he will have fuffered to be flain, and lie unburied; but repenting or changing his manner of conduct to them, revive them, and caufe them to afcend to heaven; fee Rev. xi. 11, 12. when he feeth that their power is gone; not the hand and power of thelin enemy, going and prevailing over them, and ftrong upon them, as the Zargum of Jonathan and Farchi; but rather the hand and power of the righteous, as the Targum of Ferufalem;, and refpects not their internal power and ftrength, which they have not in themfelves, but in Chri, though the exertion of that power, and the exercife of their graces, as faith, and hope, and love, will be greatly declined; but their external power, and protection which they had from proteftant princes; they being removed, and others not like them fucceeding, or apoftatizing to the church of Kome:
court, or national eftablifhments, are a fence and protection to the iriward court-worfhippers, or fervantsof God; when that fhall be given to the Geztiles, the Papifts, as it will, Rev. xi. 2. the power ot hand, the prote¢ting fheltering hand of the God in thefe their diftreffes: and wlien the Lord — fhall fee all this, he’ll look upon them with an eye Satan,)of pity and compafiion; he will repent for his fervants, according to the multitude of his tender mercies; and will plead their caufe; and jud them, and will put on the garments of vengeance, and repay fury and recompence to his and their ~ byjenemies, J/: lix. 16, 17; 18. who will infultin fay as follows.
y.37. And he fhall fay, where are their gods? 8c.} Not the Lord fhall fay to [/rael, upbraiding /them with their idols and their idolatries; bur, as fuffered tothe Iargum of Fonathan, ‘* the enemy thall fay, where is the God of J/rae/?” and to the fame purpofe is the Ferufalem Targum, and which is the fenfe of other Fewi/h writers”; andthe words may be rendered imperfonally, and in the fingular number, and it fhall be faid, where is their God? asit follows, their rock in whom they trujted? that is, cal- it fhall be faid to the people of God, when in the aid} low eftate before defcribed, and which will make it ftill more diftrefling; it fhall be faid to them by their enemies in a fneering way, where is the Lord their God they boafted of, and the rock of falva-!tion in whom they trufted? which agrees with un-jother paflages of fcripture, Pf. xlii. 3, 10. and Ixxix. 10. Mic. vii. 9g. The perfons infulted and — upbraided are the Prote/tant witneffes at the time of their being flain; when they that dwell upon the willlearth, the Papifts, jhall rejoice over them, Rev. xi. 10. they are fuch who are true believers in the God and father of Cérift, as their God and father Chriff, who of his own free grace has blefled them with all fpiritual bleffings in him; and who truft in Chri/t the rock alone for juftification before |God, for acceptance with him, and for their whole falvation; rejecting the Papi notion of juftification by works, the doétrines of merit, and of works of fupererogation, and the like; who now will be taunted at, and triumphed over, faying, where is the God of the Prote/tants they gloried in, as being on their fide? and where is their rock on which they fay the church is built, and not on Peter 2 the outward) y. 38. Which did eat the fat of their facrifices,!and drank the wine of their drink-offerings, &c.]} Alluding to the fat of the facrifices under the law, which was claimed by the Lord as his, and reprefented as his food, Zev. iii. 11, 16. and to the drink-offerings of wine, which were of a fweet faints will be gone, and they will become a prey to their adverfaries: and there is none fut up or left, a phrafe ufed to exprefs the miferable ftate and condition of a people, when none are left, but all are carried off, or cut off, and deftroyed, and there is none to help them; fee 1 Kings xiv. 10. and xxi, 21. 2 Kings ix. 8. and xiv. 26. when there are none fhut upin garrifons, and left there to defend a people; or there are none fhut up in prifon, or any left to till the ground; which is fometimes the cafe when a nation is conquered, and the greater part are carried captives; but it denotes fucha general déftruétion, that there are none remaining any where, and thus it will be at the flaying of the witheffes. This paflage has refpect to their dead bodies, which will not be fhut up in graves; nor any left to bury them, Kev; xi.g. There will fcarcely be a profeffor of religion, or any that will appear to favour the witnefits flain in any refpect; there will be “* none to fupport and uphold,” as favour to God, and with refpeé&t to which wine is faid to chear him, Numé. xv. 7. Fudg. ix. 13. Now new-teftament worfhip and fervices are here expreffed in old-teftament language, which is not unufual; fee J/ lvi. 7. and lxvi. 2o——23, and fignify the beft of the facrifices and fervices of true believers in Chri?, prefenting their fouls and bodies unto him as a holy, living, acceptable facrifice, which is but their reafonable fervice; offering their facrifices of prayer and praife ynto him through Chrift; doing all good works in his name and {trength, and all acts of beneficence in love to him — and his people, with which facrifices he is well pleafed; yea, chearfully laying down their lives — as victims in his caufe, when called unto it. Now thefe words are a taunt at the Protefant doétrine of the acceptance of the fervice and facrifices of believers in Chri, through him, and for his fake, and not for any merit or worthinefs in them: Jet them rife up and belp you, their God and their reck, + the Targum of Ferufalem; not to fupport and uphold the true religion, or to help the people of Fehovah the father, their covenant-God, and his’ Son the rock of their falyation, in whom they |
Ch.xxxity.39—4r. DEUTERONOMY.
truft; and fo they wil] arife and help them in this time of extreme diitrefs; though they may feem as afleep, and to take no notice of the fad eftate of faints, they will arife in wrath and indignation at their enemies, and deliver them out of their hands; the Spirit of life from God fhall be fent to bring to life the flain witneffes, and Chrift will rife up in the exertion of his kingly power; he will take to himfelf his great power, and reign, and deftroy them that deftroyed the earth, Rev. xi. 17, 18. and be your protettion; or let him be your hiding place*, that is, the rock in whom they trufted, and fo he is, and will ‘be a” hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the ftorm, I 2. not only from the wrath and juftice of God, but from the rage and fury of men; Chrift will protect and defend his people againft all their enemies, and in his own time will deliver them from them; who in anfwer to thefe taunts and derifions, rifes up, and thus he fays, as follows. efcape;
¥. 39. See now that I, even Iam he, &c.}jor men Which words are directed to the people of God in their low eftate, to look to Chrift, and expect deliverance and falvation from him; or to their enemies that infult them, to the defpifers to look, wonder, and perifh, as they will, when the witneffes flain by them fhall arife, and go up to heaven in their fight, Rev. Xi, 11, 12, 13. they are fpoken by the Word and Son of God, to whom the Father has committed all judgment, and who will iw rife up and execute it; fo the Targum of “Fonathan, ** when the Word of the Lord fhall re- «« veal himfelf to redeem his people, he will fay to ** all people, fee now, Sc.” and who will declare himfelf to be the great Jehovah, the felf-exiftent Being, the eternal and immutable Iam; for this phrafe is expreffive of his exiftence, eternity, immutability, and fovereignty; and which the above Targum paraphrafes thus, ‘* fee now that] am « that have been, and am, and I am he that fhall| “¢ be,” which as it is a decyphering the word Jehovah, is what is applied to Chrift, Rev. i. 8. The repeating: the word J, as it may denote the vehement affection of the fpeaker, and the certainty of what he would do, fo it may have refpect to|f both forts of perfons, the words are directed to, and to the feveral forts of things to be done hereafter related;' fignifying that it is the fame I that does the one,does alfo the other, kills and alive, &@c. and there is no god with me, this the redeemer and faviour fays elfewhere, J/ xliv. 6. and xlv. 21. fee y. 12. there is but one God, and Chrift the Word, with the Father and the Spirit are that one God, 1 Fohnv.7. and there is no other with him; he is the true God, in oppofition to all factitious and fictitious gods; he is,nota made god, nor a god by office, nor by.name and title only, but by nature the one, true, only. and living God; and fo it may be moft truly believed of him, that he is able,to do, and will do, what he next fays: J kill and I make alive, I wound.and I heal; Chrift is the fovereign difpofer of life.and death, of ficknefs and health, in a temporal fenfe; and.in a fpiritual fenfe he wounds and kills, _by the law in. the hand of his Spirit; and he heals and makes alive by his gofpel, as it is accompanied by -his/Spirit and. grace. alfo: this is by fome referred tosthe refurrection from, the dead, which ' will be by:Chrift the refurrection. earneit,, exemplar, and efficient caufe of it; Targum of Ferufalem, ‘ I am he that kills the liv- ** ing in this world, and quickens the dead in the ‘* world to come:” but it refers to another refurreCtion previous to that, namely, the reviving of the witnefles after they have been flain three days 3 who as they will be killed in a civil fenfe, in the {ame fenfe they will be quickened by the {pirit of life from Chrift; that is, they will be raifed from that very low eftate into which they will be brought, 11,into a glorious one, fignified by their afcending up into heaven; which will be done by Chrift when he takes to himfelf his great power, and reigns; then as he fuffered his witnefles and people to be. xxxii.| wounded and killed, he will make them alive, and heal them, and reftore comforts and happinefs to them, fee Rev. xi. 11, 12: neither is there any that can deliver out of my band; for at the fame time that he faves his people, he will take their enemies into his hands, out of which there will be no at this time feven thoufand names of men, of name, will be flain, Rev. xi. 13.. fee the note there.
_ y¥. 40. For Lift up my hand to heaven, &c. | Which is a gefture ufed in {wearing, Gen. xiv. 22. andjand is afcribed to a divine perfon, Ezek. xx. 5. and particularly to Chrift the angel, that is fo wonderfully defcribed, Rev. x. 1—5. though fometimes it is ufed, as ben Ezra obferves, to excite the attention of hearers, but here it fignifies fwearing; and fo the Zargums of Jonathan and Ferufalem: paraphrafe it, ‘I have lift up my hands with an oath to heaven;” and to the fame fenfe is the Septuagint verfion: and fay, I live for ever; which is the form of an oath; when men fwear, they are to {wear the Lord liveth, or to fwear by the living God, and him only, Jer. iv. 2. and when the Lord {wears in this manner, he fwears by his life,. by himfelf, becaufe he can fwear by no greater; hejand his form of {wearing is, as truly as I live, aith the Lord, Numb. xiv. 21, 28. fo the above angel is faid to {wear by him that liveth for ever and ever, Rev. x. 6. and fince Chrift is the living God, without beginning of days, and end of life, and lives for’ evermore, he may be thought to wear by himfelf, by his own life, which is for ever; and as the oath of the Lord is ufed in condefcenfion by him, to confirm the faith of his peo- » ple in the immutability of his counfel and pro-, makes) mifes, and to afcertain unto them the fure performance of them; fo it is alfo ufed to affure wicked men of the certain performance of his threatenings; and it is as if Chrift here faid, as fure. as I am the living God, and do, and fhall live for ever, I will moft certainly do the things which next follow.
.¥. 41. If J whet my glittering fword, &c.| That is, Iwill do it as fure as 1 live, if I do not, be it fo and fo; what that is, is not faid, but left to be concluded. A glittering fword, is a fword drawn, the blade of it drawn out of the fcabbard, cleaned and _polifhed, whetted and made fharp, that it may more, eafily penetrate and pierce; and this being brandifhed, glitters like lightening, as the word ufed fignifies. Whetting the fword is a preparation for doing execution with it; and is a warning, a giving notice of it, as girding the. fword on the thigh alfo is afcribed to Chrift, P/- xlv. 3. This fword intends a fword of juftice, the and the,life, the | tharp {word {aid to proceed out of the mouth of fo the ‘ania the judiciary. fentence which he will pro- nounce and execute on Antichrift, and all his followers, Rev. xix. 15, 21. and my hand take hold on judgment; in order to execute its the allufion is to the laying hold on the inftruments of juftice and death, as the glittering fword before mentioned, and arrows afterwards; and may have refpect to the four fore judginents, or at leaft to fome of them, which the Lord will execute on myitical Babylon, Ezek. xiv. 21. Rev. xviii. 8. and particularly to the feven vials of God’s wrath, which will be poured out on the antichriftian ftates, Rev. xvi. 1 will render vengeance to mine enemies, and 1 will reward them that hate me; his enemies that hate him, and will not have him to rule over them, are the followers of Antichrift, who has his name from his oppofition’ to Chrift, his hatred of him, and enmity againft him; oppofing him in his kingly office, taking upon him to exercife dominion and tyranny over the confciences of men, making new laws, and impofing them on them, and difpenfing with the laws of Chrift; and fetting afide his prieftly office by the facrifice of the mafs, granting pardons: and indulgences, and advancing the works and merits of men, in oppofition to the righteoufnefs of Chrift, and pretending even to works of fupererogation; making of none effect, _as much as in him lies, his prophetic office, by fetting up unwritten traditions before the word of God, and making them the rule of faith and practice, and affuming to himfelf an infallible interpretation of the fenfe of fcripture. The vengeance Chrift will render as a righteous reward to thofe his enemies, is exprefléd by deftroying Antichrift with the breath of his mouth; by the beaft going into perdition; by leading them captive, who have led others; by killing them with the fword, who have killed others with it; by pouring out the vials of his wrath on them; by giving them the cup of the wine of the fiercenefs of his wrath; by {miting them with the fword that comes out of his mouth, and by bringing upon them death, mourning, and famine, and burning them with fire; all which he will moft furely render unto them, 2 Theff. ii. 8. Rev. xiii. ro. and xv. 1. and xvii. 8. and xviii. 8. and xix. 15, 20, 21.
¥. 42. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, &c.] Signifying, that by various judgments he would bring upof them, which, like arrows, would come fuddenly, fly fwiftly, and pierce deeply, there would be a prodigious effirfion of blood like that in Rev, xiv. 20. fo that thefe arrows, which caufe it, being plunged, and foaked, and covered in it, may be faid to be inebriated with it, juft as the fword is faid to be bathed and filled with blood, J
XXXIV. 5. which prophecy refpects the fame vengeance of Chrift on the felf-fame enemies of his as here; and as the whore of Rome is faid to be drunken with the blood of the faints and martyrs of Jefus, the arrows of her deftruction are ‘réeprefented in juft retaliation as drunk with her blood, Rev, xvii. 6. (and my fword fhall devour flefh;) the flefh of kings, of captains, of mighty men, of horfes, and of them that fit on them, the flefh of all men, ‘bond and free, {mall and great, Rev. xix. 18. that is, fhall deftroy great multitudes of men: and that with the blood of the lain, and of the captives; that is, his arrows fhould be drunk not only with the blood of thofé that were wounded and killed, burt of the captives; who commonly ate fpa! red, but in this cafe fhould not, their blood fhould be fhed: it may be rendered, decaufe of the blood of the flain, &c. ” becaufe of the blood of the faints whom they have killed, and carried captive, and who have died in prifons: from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy, or of the enemy; that is, from the time the enemy began to opprefs the faints, and take revenge on them, and fhed their blood; all that blood fhall be found in them, that has been from the beginning fhed, and charged to their account, and revenged on them; juft as the blood of all the righteous, from the beginning of the world, was brought upon the ews, Matt. xxiii. 35. Rev. Xviil. 24. The Targum of Ferufalem is, ** from: “« the heads of their mighty men, the generals of “« their armies;'? to which agrees the Septuagint verfion, “* from the head of the princes of the *< enemies;” and fo may refer to the head or heads of the antichriftian people, the pope of Rome, and his princes, the cardinals, and all the antichriftian kings and ftates, the captains and generals of their armies, which will be brought to 4rmageddon, and there deftroyed, fee P/- Ixviii. 21. Rev. xvi. 14,. 16. and xvii. 14. and xix. 18, 19, 21. ¥. 43. Rejoice, Oye nations, with bis people, me" Or rejoice ye nations, who are his people; fo Kimchs and Ben Melech interpret it; the Gentiles, who are the Lord’s chofen and covenant-people, redeemed and called, and the fulnefs of them now brought in, and fo matter of great rejoicing; or rather, as the Septuagint, which is approved and confirmed by the apoftle Paul, rejoice ye Gentiles with bis people, Rom. xv. 10. and as it is there applied to the then ftate of the chriftian church, when Jews and Gentiles were incorporated and united together; fo here it refpects future time, when as the fulnefS of the Gentiles will be brought in, fo the Fews will be converted, and the /o-ammi will be taken off from them, and they will be reckoned among the people of God; and Yews and Gentiles will be join-. ed together in the fame gofpel-church-ftate, and fo are called upon to’ rejoice in their common falvation, and in their common bleffings and privileges, and particularly for what follows: for be will avenge the blood of his fervants, and will render ven= geance to bis adversaries, by bis fervants are meant the martyrs of Jefus, whofe blood has’ been fhed by Antichrift, and the antichriftian powers, his adverfaries; as the blood of the Waldenjes in the valleys of Piedmont, the Albigenfes in Spain, and the Petrobruffians in France, the Bohemians in Germany, the Wickliffites, Lollards, and the martyrs in queen Mary’s days in England, with many others; and when inquifition is made for blood, the blood of thofe’ will be found out, and’ vengeance rendered for it + and will be merciful unto bis land, and to bis people; or will atone for*, expiate, cleanfé and purge both land and people; clear the whole earth, which is the Lerd’s, from Mahometanifm, Paganifm and Popery, and cover it with the knowledge of the Lord by the everlafting ‘gofpel, which will be preached to all nations; and particularly the land of Canaan, laid under an anathema or curfe, as. threatened, Mal. iv. 6. under which it has Jain ever fince the deftruétion of it by the Romans, and has ever fince been inhabited by Pagans, Mahometans and Papifts; and though once a land flowing’ with milk and honey, has been turned into a barren wildernefs, and will thus remain, and Ferufalem, its metropolis, trodden down by the Gentiles, until their times are fulfilled; which now will Montanus 5 t