Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_000_p.lzh/5_015.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-02 | 7KB | 128 lines

old; namely, fuller of idols than formerly; so the
Targum paraphrases it, \*"because your land is full of
"idols, as of old;"\* and so Rome Papal is as full of
idols, or fuller, than Rome Pagan was. Some, as Aben
Ezra, understand this of their being filled with the
wisdom of the children of the east, \\#1Ki 4:30\\ and
others of the riches of the east: \*\\and [are] soothsayers like
the Philistines\\: who were a people given to divination
and soothsaying, \\#1Sa 6:2\\ and some of the popes of
Rome have studied the black art, and by such wicked
means have got into the Papal chair; for under this
may be included all evil arts and fallacious methods,
by which they have deceived themselves and others:
\*\\and they please themselves in the children of strangers\\;
being brought into their convents, monasteries, and
nunneries; the priests and nuns vowing celibacy and
virginity, and contenting themselves with the children
of others: or they love strange flesh, delight in sodo-
mitical practices, and unnatural lusts with boys and
men; wherefore Rome is called Sodom and Egypt,
\\#Re 11:8\\ or they content and delight themselves in
the laws, customs, rites, ceremonies, and doctrines of
other nations; many of the Gentile notions and prac-
tices being introduced into the faith and worship of
the church of Rome; wherefore the Papists go by the
name of Gentiles, \\#Re 11:2-18\\. The Targum is,
\*"and they walk in the laws of the people,"\* or study
strange sciences, and not the statutes and laws of God;
so some interpret it, as Ben Melech observes, and who
also mentions another sense some give, that they please
themselves in images they renew daily.
\*Ver. 7. \\Their land also is full of silver and gold\\, &c.]
Procured by pardons, indulgences, masses, praying
souls out of purgatory, tithes, annates, Peter's pence, &c.
\*\\neither [is there any] end of their treasures\\; laid up in
the pope's coffers, in their churches, monasteries, and
convents: \*\\their land is also full of horses, neither [is
there any] end of their chariots\\; for the cardinals, arch-
bishops, bishops, &c. to ride on and in. Horses and
chariots are mentioned among the wares and mer-
chandise of Rome, in \\#Re 18:13\\.
\*Ver. 8. \\Their land also is full of idols\\, &c.] Of the
Virgin Mary, and of saints departed, whose images are
set up to be worshipped in all their churches, and had in
private houses: \*\\and they worship the work of their own
hands, that which their own fingers have made\\; namely,
idols of gold, silver, brass, wood, and stone, \\#Re 9:20\\.
\*Ver. 9. \\And the mean man boweth down, and the
great man humbleth himself\\, &c.] Both high and low,
rich and poor, bow down unto, humble themselves
before, and worship idols made by the hands of men:
the words for the %mean man% and %the great man% are
\^Mda\^ and \^vya\^, %Adam% and %Ish%; and which are also in-
terpreted by Jarchi of little or mean men, and of
princes and mighty ones: \*\\therefore forgive them not\\;
their sins of soothsaying, covetousness, and idolatry;
and such that worship the beast and his image shall
not be forgiven, but drink of the wine of divine wrath,
and be tormented with fire for ever and ever, \\#Re 14:9-11\\.
These are either the words of the prophet
to the Lord personating the church, and imprecating
evils on antichristian worshippers; or of the angel to
the Christian powers, exhorting them not to spare
Babylon, \\#Re 18:6,7\\ some refer these words to
the mean and great men bowing down and humbling
themselves, and read them in connection with them
thus, %and lifts not up unto them%; that is, the head or
soul; so Aben Ezra, who also observes, that the word
%earth% may be wanting, and supplied thus, %and the
earth shall not bear them%; they shall be destroyed from
off it, both the idols and the worshippers of them.
See \\#Ps 10:16 104:35\\.
\*Ver. 10. \\Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the
dust\\, &c.] As it was when Rome Pagan was destroyed,
the kings, princes, and freemen called to the rocks to
fall on them and hide them, \\#Re 6:15,16\\ so it will
be at the downfall of Rome Papal, when the kings and
merchants of the earth, who have been concerned
therewith, will stand afar off, as for fear of her torment,
\\#Re 18:10,15\\ \*\\so for fear of the Lord, and for the
glory of his majesty\\; lest he should pour out his wrath
and vengeance upon them, and be a consuming fire to
them, before whose glory and majesty they'll not be
able to stand; for this is to be understood not of a filial
reverence of God, but of a servile fear of punishment;
and these words are sarcastically said, suggesting that
rocks and mountains will be no protection or security
for them.
\*Ver. 11. \\The lofty looks of man shall be humbled\\, &c.]
Particularly of the man of sin, the son of perdition,
who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is
called God, assuming that to himself which belongs
to God; looking down with contempt upon, and be-
having haughtily and insolently to all below him;
blaspheming the name of God, his tabernacle, and
them that dwell in heaven; he shall be humbled,
consumed, and destroyed with the breath of Christ's
mouth, and the brightness of his coming, \\#2Th 2:4,8\\
\*\\and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down\\;
of the followers of antichrist, who have boasted of
their wisdom and knowledge, of their number, power,
greatness, and authority, of their wealth and riches,
aud of their merits and works of supererogation; their
pride will now be stained, and all their glory laid in
the dust: \*\\and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day\\:
in his divine Person, and in all his offices, and espe-
cially in his kingly office; he shall be King over all
the earth, the kingdoms of this world will become his,
he shall be the one Lord, and his name one,
\\#Zec 14:9 Re 11:15\\ this will be in the spiritual reign
of Christ, in the latter day, or last day of the Gospel
dispensation, when the church will be exalted, as in
\\#Isa 2:2\\ and in the personal reign of Christ it will still
more appear, that he, and he alone, will be exalted by
and among his people, among whom his tabernacle will
be, for then he will have no rivals; not only all rule,
power, and authority among men, will be putdown, and
the beast and false prophet will have been cast alive into
the lake of fire; but Satan, the god of this world, will be
taken and bound, and cast into the bottomless pit, and
so remain during the time of Christ's thousand years'
reign with his saints on earth: this passage is referred
by the Jews {u} to the end of the six thousand years the
world according to them shall stand.

{u} T. Bab. Roshhashana, fol. 31. 1. & Sanhedrin, fol. 92. 2.
    & 97.1.