Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_000_p.lzh/5_087.TXT

Text File | 1995-02-09 | 7KB | 127 lines

\*\\how art thou cut down to the ground\\; like a tall tree that
is cut down, and laid along the ground, and can
never rise and flourish more, to which sometimes
great monarchs and monarchies are compared; see
\\#Isa 10:18,19 Eze 31:3 Da 4:10,22\\ and this
denotes that the king of Babylon should die, not a
natural, but a violent death, as Belshazzar did, with
whom the Babylonish monarchy fell, and never rose more;
and this is a representation of the sudden, violent, and
irrecoverable ruin of the Romish antichrist, \\#Re 18:21\\:
\*\\which didst weaken the nations\\! by subduing them,
taking cities and towns, plundering the inhabitants of
their substance, carrying them captive, or obliging
them to a yearly tribute, by which means he weak-
ened them, and kept them under. So the Romish
antichrist has got the power over many nations of the
earth, and has reigned over the kings of it, and by various
methods has drained them of their wealth and riches,
and so greatly enfeebled them.; nay, they have of them-
selves given their power and strength unto the beast,
\\#Re 17:12,13,15,17,18\\. Several of the Jewish
writers observe, that the word here used signifies to
cast lots; and so it is used in the Misna {d}, and ex-
plained in the Talmud {e}; and is applied to the king
of Babylon casting lots upon the nations and kingdoms
whom he should go to war with, and subdue first;
see \\#Eze 21"19-23\\. The Targum is, \*"thou art
"cast down to the earth, who killedst the people:"\*
a fit description of antichrist, \\#Re 11:7 13:7,10,15\\.
\*Ver. 13. \\For thou hast said in thine heart\\, &c.]
Which shews the pride and haughtiness that were in
his heart; and were the cause and reason of his fall, for
pride goes before a fall; it was the cause of the fall of
angels, and of Adam, and of many kings and king-
doms; see \\#Pr 16:18\\ with this compare \\#Re 18:7,8\\:
\*\\I will ascend into heaven\\; be above all men, rule
over the whole world; and so the Targum. \*"I will
"ascend on high;"\* unless by it is meant the temple
at Jerusalem, where Jehovah dwelt, an emblem of
heaven, to which sense the following clauses incline;
and so the Romish antichrist sits in the temple of God,
and on his throne as if he was God, \\#2Th 2:4\\.
\*\\I will exalt my throne above the stars of God\\; which
he has made and set in the heavens, and preserves;
meaning either the angels, \\#Job 38:7\\ or rather
the kings and princes of the earth, over whom he
placed himself, having subdued them under him. It
may be applied to ecclesiastical persons, pastors, and
bishops of churches, compared to stars, \\#Re 1:20\\
the third part of which the dragon drew with his tail,
\\#Re 12:4\\ and over whom the bishop of Rome has
usurped an universal dominion. The Targum is,
\*"over the people of God I will put the throne of my
"kingdom;"\* notoriously true of the man of sin: \*\\I will
sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides
of the north\\: that is, as some think, in the temple
where the tribes of Israd gathered togther for wor-
ship, which was built upon Mount Zion; which,
as Kimchi says, lay north of Jerusalem; see \\#Ps 48:2\\
so the tabernacle is often called the tabernacle
of the congregation; but, as Cocceius and Vitringa
observe, Mount Zion was not to the north, but to the
south of Jerusalem; wherefore not that mount, but
Mount Moriah, which was to the north of Mount Zion,
is designed; however, not Babylon is here meant, as
R. Joseph Kimchi thought; called, as he supposes, %the
mount of the congregation%, because all the world were
gathered thither to the king of Babylon; and a %mount%,
because a strong city; and said to be %in the sides of
the north%, because it lay north east to the continent;
but, as one observes, he had no need to boast of sitting
there, where he was already. Jarchi thinks the last
clause refers to the north side of the altar, in the
court, where the sacrifice was killed, \\#Le 1:11\\ and
may point at the seat of the Romish antichrist, and the
sacerdotal power usurped by him, to offer sacrifice
for the sins of men, particularly the unbloody sacri-
fice of the Mass.
\*Ver. 14. \\I will ascend above the heights of the clouds\\,
&c.] Which are the chariots of God, and in which he
rides, and so this proud monarch affected to be as he;
perhaps some reference is had to the cloud in which
Jehovah dwelt in the temple. The Targum is, \*"I
"will ascend above all people,"\* compared to clouds
for their multitude. In the mystical sense, the
true ministers of the word may be meant, so called
for their height, motion, swiftness, and fulness of
Gospel doctrine, compared to rain; see \\#Isa 5:5 Re 11:6,7\\.
\*\\I will be like the most High\\; so Satan affected
to be, and this was the bait he laid for our first parents,
and with which they were taken; and nothing less
than deity could satisfy some ambitious princes, as
Caligula, and others; and this was what the Baby-
lonish monarch aspired to, and ordered to be ascribed
to him, and be regarded as such, either whilst living,
or at least after death, which was what had been done
to many Heathen princes. So antichrist is represented
as shewing himself to be God, \\#2Th 2:4\\ by call-
ing and suffering himself to be called God; by as-
suming all power in heaven and in earth; taking upon
him to depose kings and dispose of kingdoms at plea-
sure; dispensing with the laws of God, and making
new ones; absolving men from their oaths, pardoning
their sins, setting up himself as infallible, as the sole
interpreter of Scripture, and judge of controversies.
The Targum is. \*"I will he higher than them all;"\*
than the kings of the earth, and all other bishops.
\*Ver. 15. \\Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell\\, &c.]
Into a very low and miserable condition; see \\#Mt 11:23\\
instead of ascending to heaven: or %to the
grave%; though, inasmuch as afterwads a burial is de-
nied him, the word may be taken for the infernal pit,
and so is, as much as can be, opposed to heaven; and
this will be true of antichrist, when the beast and
false prophet will be cast alive into the lake of fire,
\\#Re 19:20\\: \*\\to tht sides of the pit\\; instead of being
on the mount of the congregation in the sides of the
north; another word for hell, the pit of corruption,
and the bottomless pit. The Targum is, \*"to the
"ends of the lake of the house of perdition;"\* the
place of everlasting destruction.
\*Ver. 16. \\They that see thee\\, &c.] These are the
words of the dead, speaking of the living, who when

{d} Misn. Sabbat, c. 23. 2. & Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.
{e} T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 149. 2.