And their dead bodies [shall lie] in the street of the
great
city
Not Jerusalem, which was destroyed when John had this vision, and
which will; not be rebuilt at the time it refers to; nor is it
ever called the great city, though the city of the great King;
however, not in this book, though the new Jerusalem is so called,
( Revelation 21:10 ) ;
but that can never be designed here; but the city of Rome, or the
Roman jurisdiction, the whole empire of the Romish antichrist,
which is often called the great city in this book; see ( Revelation
16:19 ) ( 17:18 ) (
Revelation 18:10
Revelation 18:16
Revelation 18:18
Revelation 18:21 ) .
The city of Rome itself was very large, and the Roman empire
still larger, so as to be called the whole world and the
antichristian see of Rome has been of great extent. Now as the
street of a city denotes a public open place in it, a place of
concourse and resort, ( Proverbs
1:20 Proverbs
1:21 ) , the dead bodies of those witnesses being said to lie
here, may design the publicness of their silence, disgrace, and
contempt; and that the silencing and degrading them, and
depriving them of all privileges, will be known all over the
antichristian empire; and that they will be exposed to public
ignominy and shame, their persons, their characters, their
testimony, their doctrines, their writings, their churches, and
families, and all that belong to them: or else this "street" may
design some part of the Romish jurisdiction, and it may be Great
Britain may be particularly designed; for where should the dead
bodies of the witnesses lie, but where they are slain? and where
can they be slain, but where they are? and where are they, at
least where are there so many as in these islands? It may be
objected, that Great Britain is not a part of the see of Rome,
does not belong to the jurisdiction of it; to this it may be
replied, that in this last war of the beast, the outer court will
be given to the Gentiles, the bulk of the reformed churches will
fall off to Popery, and their countries again fall into the hands
of the pope, and, among the rest, Great Britain. The fears of Dr.
Goodwin seem to be too just, and well grounded, that the prophecy
in ( Daniel
11:45 ) respects our island, which speaks of antichrist
planting "the tabernacles of his palace between the seas, in the
glorious holy mountain", or "the mountain of delight, of
holiness". Now where has God such a mountain of delight, or a
people that are the darling of his soul, as here? where in all
the globe is there such a spot where God has so many saints, so
many Holy Ones, as in this island? it may have been truly called
a glorious holy mountain, or a mountain of delight; and what
place between the seas is there to which these characters can
agree, but Great Britain? Here then antichrist will plant the
tabernacles of his palace; but it will be but a tabernacle, or
tent; it will be but for a short time, as it follows, "yet he
shall come to his end, and none shall help him", ( Daniel 11:45
) . Now this great city, in the street of which the bodies of the
witnesses will lie exposed, is that
which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt;
that is, it is called so in a mystic and allegoric sense, in
distinction from the literal sense; see ( 1
Corinthians 10:3 1
Corinthians 10:4 ) ; it is called Sodom because of the
fulness of bread, plenty and abundance of all outward good things
in it; as well as for the pride and idleness of the priests,
monks, and friars which swarm in it; and also for the open
profaneness and contempt of true and serious religion in it; and
particularly for the sin of sodomy, so frequently committed here,
with impunity, yea with allowance, and even with commendation.
This sin was extolled with praises, as Brightman observes, by
John a Casa, archbishop of Beneventum; and was defended in a
book, published for that purpose, by one Mutius; and which was
allowed by the bulls and letters patent of Pope Julius the Third;
and it is called Egypt, because of its tyranny and oppression; as
the Egyptians kept the Israelites in bondage, and made them to
serve with rigour, and embittered their lives, so the pope, and
his Gentiles, or Egyptians, have in a most oppressive and
rigorous manner tyrannised over the souls, bodies, and estates of
men; and also because of its great idolatry, Egypt being very
remarkable for the number of its deities, and the meanness of
them; by which the idols and idolatries of the church of Rome may
be fitly expressed:
where also our Lord was crucified;
that is, in the great city, which is fitly compared to Sodom and
Egypt; for Christ was crucified actually in Judea, which was then
become a Roman province, and under Pontius Pilate, a Roman
governor, and by his order, and suffered a Roman kind of death,
crucifixion, and for a crime he was charged with, though a false
one, against Caesar the Roman emperor; and Christ has been
crucified at Rome itself in his members, who have suffered
persecution and death, and even the death of the cross there; and
he has been crucified afresh, both by the sins and immoralities
of those who have bore the Christian name there, and by the
frequent sacrifices of him in the Mass. Moreover, by this
periphrasis may be meant Jerusalem; and the sense be, that as the
great city, or jurisdiction of Rome, may be spiritually or
mystically called Sodom and Egypt, so likewise the place where
our Lord was crucified, that is, Jerusalem; and that for this
reason, because that as Jerusalem stoned and killed the prophets
of the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of it were found all the
righteous blood shed upon the earth, so in Rome, in mystical
Babylon, will be found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and
of all that were slain upon earth, ( Matthew
23:35 Matthew
23:37 ) ( Revelation
18:24 ) . The Alexandrian copy, the Complutensian edition,
the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, read, "where
also their Lord was crucified"; and the Arabic version more
expressly, "the Lord of these two", i.e. the two witnesses.