And if any man shall take away from the prophecy of
this
book
As he may be said to do, who denies the authority of this book,
which has been done by some, and which the Holy Ghost foresaw; or
takes it away from, or denies the reading of it to the people, as
the Papists do with respect to the whole Scripture; and who
wilfully pervert the sense of it, and will not have the things in
it, relating to antichrist, to belong to him. God shall
take away his part out of the book of life;
by which is meant eternal election, which is the meaning of the
phrase throughout this book, in which whoever are written shall
certainly be saved. The worshippers of the beast, or the
antichristian party, who are chiefly regarded here, are not
written in it, ( Revelation
13:8 ) ( 17:8 )
wherefore taking away the part of such, is only taking away that
which they seemed to have; see ( Luke 8:18 ) and the sense
is, that such shall be cast into the lake of fire, which is the
second death, and will be the portion of all that are not written
in the book of life, ( Revelation
20:15 ) . The Alexandrian copy, one of Stephens's, and the
Complutensian edition, read, "the tree of life"; and so do the
Syriac and Ethiopic versions; the sense is the same; see (
John 15:2 ) and
out of the holy city; the new Jerusalem, before described, a part
in which is a right to enter into it through the gates, and
possess the glories of it: what is mentioned here is only a
seeming one, which wicked men may flatter themselves with; and
the meaning is, that such shall never enter into it, and enjoy
the happiness of it, but shall ever be without, ( Revelation
21:27 ) ( 22:15 )
and from the things which are written in this
book;
the blessings promised to the overcomers in ( Revelation
2:7 Revelation
2:11 Revelation
2:17 Revelation
2:26 ) ( Revelation
3:5 Revelation
3:12 Revelation
3:21 ) which such as detract from this book shall have no
share in. The Alexandrian copy, with some others, and the Syriac
version, leave out the copulative "and", and read "which are
written" connecting them with the book of life, and holy city,
which are written, and spoken of, in this book. The Ethiopic
version connects the words with the holy city, only reading them,
"which is written" The Jews say of their Talmud, that nothing is
to be added to it, or diminished from it F15.