And when the thousand years are expired
Which are not yet expired; not in the year 1000, or 1033 or 4,
reckoning from the birth or death of Christ, when Paganism, which
had been destroyed in the Gentile world, was introduced into the
church, which bore the Christian name, through the man of sin;
for this had been bringing in by degrees more or less from the
times of Constantine; whence it appears, that Satan in this
respect was loose before, and therefore this was not the time of
his loosing; nor in 1073, reckoning from the destruction of
Jerusalem, and the carrying and spread of the Gospel among the
Gentiles, in which year Hildebrand came to the popedom, who may
be truly called the brand of hell; Damianus, a brother cardinal,
who lived at the same time with him when he was archdeacon of
Rome, calls him the holy devil; he was an impostor, sorcerer, and
necromancer, and by wicked arts got into the Papal chair; this
pope raised the Papal power over princes to a very great height,
and made the see of Rome absolutely independent, and all bishops
dependent on it; he forbid bishops receiving their investiture
from the emperor, or any lay person, under pain of
excommunication: this is the pope that made the emperor, with his
empress and child, wait three days barefoot at his gates, in the
depth of winter, before they could be admitted to him; that
doctrine of devils, forbidding priests to marry, was established
by him; and in his days that monstrous and absurd notion of
transubstantiation began to prevail, though he himself used his
breaden god but very roughly; for taking it to be really God, he
required an answer from it against the emperor; but it not
speaking, he threw it into the fire, and burnt it. Now it will be
allowed, that the devil was loose at this time, but then so he
was before: there had been popes before this who were conjurers,
necromancers, and had familiarity and confederacy with the devil;
and near five hundred years before this time, the pope was
declared universal bishop by Phocas; and the forbidding priests
marriage was started in the council of Nice, and was approved of
by Pope Siricius, long before this time, though it was now more
firmly established; add to this, that if the expiration of the
1000 years and the loosing of Satan were at this time, he must
have been loosed near 700 years, which can never be called a
little season, as in ( Revelation
20:3 ) especially in comparison of the 1000 years, the time
of his binding; when it is two thirds of that time: nor did these
years expire in or about 1300, reckoning from Constantine, about
which time Pope Boniface the Eighth lived, of whom it is said,
that he came in like a fox, railed like a lion, and died like a
dog; upon his accession to the popedom, he instituted a jubilee,
and on the first day he appeared in his pontifical habit, and
gave the benediction to the people, and on the next day he
clothed himself with an imperial habit, and put on a rich diadem,
and sat on a throne, with a naked sword bore before him, when he
uttered these words, "Ecce hic duo gladii", "Behold here are two
swords", referring to ( Luke 22:38 ) which the
Papists would have understood of the temporal and spiritual power
which Peter and his successors are possessed of; at the same time
Ottoman was crowned emperor of the Mahometan nations, who founded
the Turkish empire, and spread the Mahometan religion in Asia and
Greece; and by both these, great disturbances and wars were
occasioned, both in the east and west: but still this does not
make it appear that now was the time of Satan's loosing; since
before this time the Papal power was at its utmost height, and
the Mahometan religion had been hundreds of years in the world,
and had greatly prevailed; and therefore Satan must be loosed
before; and indeed it is in vain to seek after the expiration of
these years, and the loosing of Satan, when as yet the years are
not begun, nor has Satan been bound, as has been shown on (
Revelation 20:2 ) but
however, when they will be ended,
Satan shall be loosed out of his prison;
during the thousand years he will be in a state of confinement,
being bound, shut, and sealed up in the bottomless pit, which is
therefore here called a prison, as is the place of damned
spirits, in ( 1 Peter 3:19
) but when these will be at an end; his chain will be taken off,
at least will be lengthened; the seal upon him will be broken
off, the bottomless pit will be opened, and he let loose; which
will be done not by himself, but by him that bound him, or by
divine permission.
