Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_300.lzh/6_365.TXT

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*' explain thi.s or' future time, arid say that tiffs sane-
" tuary is Mecca, where the Ishmaelites or Turks keep
"a feast; the daily sacrifice, to be removed. their
" live prayers; and the abomination set up is their
"idolatrous worship. SirIsaac Newton understands
all this of the Romans, and their building a temple to
Jupiter Capito1inus, where the temple in Jerusalem
had stood.
Vet. 3e. And such as do wickedly against the cove-
nant shall be corrupted by flatteries, &c.] That for-
sook the law of God, the book of the covenant, and
did things contrary to it; and particularly violated the
covenant of circumcision, drawing on the foreskin,
.nd becoming uncircumcised; as well as rejected other
ordinances. of relig. ious worship the Jews by covenant
were obliged to observe: these apostates Antiochus
corrupted by good words and fair speeches, by gifts
and presents; and they became his tools. to do his
pleasure, and were his instruments to seduce the Jews
to renounce their religion, and give in to his idolatry;
.uch as Jason. Menelaus. and others; see I Maccab.
i. 16. 2 Maccab. iv. 13. and v. 15.. and vi. 21: but the
people that do Icnow their God shall be strong. and do
exploits; such who knew the I.ord God of Israel to
be the true God, and owned and acknowledged him
as such; and not only professed him, but served aud
warshipped him, having a spiritual knowledge of him,
and com,nunion with him; and therefore could not be
drown off from him and his worship by fiatteries or
frowns, by promises or menaces: these were strong
in the Lord, and in the power of his might; they held
fast their religion, and the profession of it, and were
pdroof against all allurements or threatenlags, and en-
ured racks and tortures, all sorts of punishment, and
death in every shape, with the greatest constancy and
courage; such as Eleazar, the mother and her seven
.ons, and others; as well as others did many valiant
actions in the defence of themselves and country. as
Mattathias, Judas Maccabaeus, and his brethren; to
which heroic actions the apostle refers in Heb. xi.
34--37. so Josephus i says," that many of the Jews
"' indeed, some willingly, and others through fear of
" punishment, obeyed the king's commands; but the
" more approved, and those of generous minds, had
"a g-reater regard to the customs of their country
" than to the punishment threatened to the disabe-
" dient; and for this being continually harassed, and
" enduring grievous punist,ments, died; some were
"scourged, and their bodies mutilated, and being yet
"alive and breathing, were crucified; women and
" their children, whom they crucified, were by the
" king's orders strangled, and hanged about the necks
" of their parents that were crucified ;" see 1 Maccab.
i. 63, 64, 65, 66.
Ver. 33. And they that understand among the people
shall instruct many, &c.] Such as had a better under-
.tanding of divine things than others, had more light
and knowledge in the sacred Scriptures, in the law of
God, and in his mind and will, and were capable of
teaching others; and such as these the Lord raises up
among his people in the worst of times, in the times
of the greatest apostacy and declension; and these are
enables to pertbrm their duty, to instruct the people
in theirs. teach them what they should do, and
how they should behave; exhort 'them to retain the
doctrines and ordinances of their holy religion, and
not embrace the doctrines and inventions of men, will-
worship, superstition, and idolatry; and so they
instructed the ignorant, strengthened the weak, and
established the wavering; such were Mattathias the
priest of Modin, and Eleazar, one of the chief scribes.
t Maccab. ii. 1. 2 Maccab. vi. 1S. Cocceius applies
this to the times of the apostles, who he thinks are
here meant; so Sir Isaac Newton: yet they shall fall
by the sword; by the sword of Antiochus and his sol-
diers; as multitudes of the Jews did, even both the
instructors and the instrncted, who would not comply
with his orders: and by.[lame; some were burnt alive
in caves, where they fled for shelter; and others.
as the mother and her seven sons, were cast into
heated caldrons of brass; see o. Maccab. vi. 11. and
vii. 3, 5: by captivity; so it is expressly said of An-
tiochus, that he carried captive women and children
and at another time ordered the women and children
to be said for slaves, t Maccab. i. 38. 2 Maccab. v. o_4:
and by spoil many days; being plundered of their sub-
stance.. their houses rifled, and their goods carried
away; and this distress lasted days, a short time only;
Josephus {k} reckons it at thr, ee years and a half. All
this Coeceius interprets of the persecutions of the
Christians by the Romans; and likewise Sir Isaac
New.ton.
Ver., 34. Now widen they shall .fall, they shall be
halpen with a little help, &.c.] When the Jews shall
be thus harassed and distressed by Antiochus and his
armies, to the ruin of many, by the several sorts of
punishments inflicted on them; they should be helped
and eased a little by Mattathias, a priest of Madin.
and his five sons, commonly called the Macesbees;
Porphyry himself interprets this of Mattathias:
the help and assistance which he and his sons gave to
the Jews was but little; if we consider they were per-
sons of a small figure, began with a handful of men.
and could do but little, especially at first; and though
great. exploits were done by them, considering their
number and strength, yet they were not able to restore
the land to its tbrmer glory and liberty; nor did this
help of theirs last long, but the enemy returned with
great fierceness and cruelty, and sadly afflicted the
people of the Jews. Cocceius understands this of the
help the Christians had under Constantius Chlorus.
and Constantine the great; and so does Sir Isaac New-
ton, who agrees with him in interpreting this and the
preceding verse: he interprets arms, in ver. 81, of the
Romans, and so Jacchiades; and makes this to he
the beginning of the fourth kingdom that should stand.
\^wnmm\^, after him; that is, after Antiochus; so the par-
ticle, he observes, is used in vet. 8. and it must be
owned this is the sense in which it is sometimes used.
of which Noldius {} has given instances: and this seems
to a,.,ree with the thread of history, and introduces
the Romans, who must have a place in this prophecy,

{i} Antiqu. I. 12. c. 5. sect. 4.
{k} De Bello Jud, 1. 1. c. 1. sect. 7.
{l} Concord. Part. Ebr. p. 557.