(Serpent's Deception) Genesis 3:1, 4, 5, 14, 15. Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Genesis 3:4, 14. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

(David Serves Saul) 1 Samuel 16:14. But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

2 Samuel 23:6, 7. But [the sons] of Belial [shall be] all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands:

1 Kings 22:22. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade [him], and prevail also: go forth, and do so.

(David's Military Census) 1 Chronicles 21:1. And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

(Satan's First Attack) Job 1:6, 7, 9-12. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.

Job 2:3-7. And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that [there is] none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.

Job 9:24. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked: he covereth the faces of the judges thereof; if not, where, [and] who [is] he?

Psalm 109:6. Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.

(Vision of Joshua the High Priest) Zechariah 3:1, 2. And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.

(Temptation of Jesus) Matthew 4:1-11. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

(Not Bread but the Word) Matthew 4:3. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

Matthew 9:34. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.

Matthew 12:24. But when the Pharisees heard [it], they said, This [fellow] doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.

Matthew 12:29. Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.

(An Unclean Spirit Returns) Matthew 12:43. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.

Matthew 13:19, 38. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth [it] not, then cometh the wicked [one], and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

Matthew 13:19, 38, 39. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth [it] not, then cometh the wicked [one], and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

Matthew 13:30. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Matthew 13:39. The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

Matthew 16:18. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Matthew 25:41. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Mark 1:13. And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

Mark 3:22-26. And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.

Mark 4:15. And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

(Temptation of Jesus) Luke 4:1-13. And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

Luke 4:2, 6. Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

Luke 8:12. Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

Luke 10:18. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

Luke 11:15, 18. But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils.

Luke 11:21, 22. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:

Luke 13:16. And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?

(Jesus Predicts Peter's Denial) Luke 22:31, 53. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired [to have] you, that he may sift [you] as wheat:

John 8:38, 41, 44. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.

John 8:44. Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

John 12:31. Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.

John 13:2, 27. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s [son], to betray him;

John 13:27. And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.

John 14:30. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

John 16:11. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

Acts 5:3. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back [part] of the price of the land?

Acts 13:10. And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, [thou] child of the devil, [thou] enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?

Acts 26:18. To open their eyes, [and] to turn [them] from darkness to light, and [from] the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

Romans 16:20. And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with you. Amen.

1 Corinthians 7:5. Defraud ye not one the other, except [it be] with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.

2 Corinthians 2:11. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

2 Corinthians 4:4. In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

2 Corinthians 6:15. And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

2 Corinthians 11:3, 14, 15. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

2 Corinthians 12:7. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

Ephesians 2:2. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Ephesians 4:27. Neither give place to the devil.

Ephesians 6:11-16. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Ephesians 6:12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].

Colossians 1:13. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated [us] into the kingdom of his dear Son:

Colossians 2:15. [And] having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

1 Thessalonians 2:18. Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.

1 Thessalonians 3:5. For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.

2 Thessalonians 2:9. [Even him], whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

1 Timothy 1:20. Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

1 Timothy 3:6, 7. Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

1 Timothy 5:15. For some are already turned aside after Satan.

2 Timothy 2:26. And [that] they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

Hebrews 2:14. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

(Drawing Near to God) James 4:7. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

1 Peter 5:8, 9. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

2 Peter 2:4. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast [them] down to hell, and delivered [them] into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

1 John 2:13. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him [that is] from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.

1 John 3:8, 10, 12. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

(True God) 1 John 5:18. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.

Jude 1:6-9. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

(Warning about Fake Judeans, Synagogue of Satan) Revelation 2:9, 10, 13, 24. I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and [I know] the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but [are] the synagogue of Satan.

(Warning about Fake Judeans, Synagogue of Satan) Revelation 3:9. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

Revelation 9:11. And they had a king over them, [which is] the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue [is] Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath [his] name Apollyon.

Revelation 12:3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

Revelation 12:9-12. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Revelation 12:10. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

(Satan Bound) Revelation 20:1-3, 7, 8, 10. And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

Revelation 20:2. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

Ver. 1. Why hath God? Hebrew, "Indeed hath God, &c." as if the serpent had overheard Eve arguing with herself, about God's prohibition, with a sort of displeasure and presumption. St. Augustine thinks, she had given some entrance to these passions, and the love of her own power, and hence gave credit to the words of the serpent, de Gen. ad lit. xi. 30. She might not know or reflect that the serpent could not reason thus, naturally; and she had as yet, no idea or dread of the devil. (Lombard, 2 Dist. 21.) This old serpent entered into the most subtle of creatures, and either by very expressive signs, or by the motion of the serpent's tongue, held this delusive dialogue with Eve. Moses relates what happened exteriorily; but from many expressions, and from the curse, ver. 15, he sufficiently indicates, that an evil spirit was the latent actor. (Haydock) --- Of every tree. Satan perverts the word of God, giving it an ambiguous turn: in doing which, he has set heretics a pattern, which they follow. (Menochius)

Ver. 3. Not touch it. She exaggerates, through dislike of restraint, St. Ambrose. Or through reverence, she thought it unlawful to touch what she must not eat, lest perhaps, as if there could be any doubt. "God asserts, the woman doubts, Satan denies." (St. Bernard) Thus placed, like Eve, between God and the devil, to whom shall we yield our assent? (Haydock) --- Perhaps we die, Hebrew, "lest ye die."

Ver. 2. The sons of God. The descendants of Seth and Enos are here called Sons of God, from their religion and piety: whereas the ungodly race of Cain, who by their carnal affections lay grovelling upon the earth, are called the children of men. The unhappy consequence of the former marrying with the latter, ought to be a warning to Christians to be very circumspect in their marriages; and not to suffer themselves to be determined in choice by their carnal passion, to the prejudice of virtue or religion. (Challoner) --- See St. Chrysostom, hom. 22, &c. Some copies of the Septuagint having the angels of God, induced some of the ancients to suppose, that these spiritual beings (to whom, by another mistake, they attributed a sort of aerial bodies) had commerce with women, as the pagans derived their heroes from a mortal and a god. But this notion, which is borrowed from the book of Henoch, is quite exploded. (Calmet) --- The distinction of the true Church from the synagogue of satan, here established, has been ever since retained, as heretics are still distinguished from Catholics. (Worthington) (St. Augustine)

Ver. 8. Pray ye to the Lord, &c. By this it appears, that though the magicians, by the help of the devil, could bring frogs, yet they could not take these away: God being pleased to abridge in this the power of Satan. So we see they could not afterwards produce the lesser insects; and in this restraint of the power of the devil, were forced to acknowledge the finger of God.

Ver. 31. Sea-shore. The Hebrews would thus again be enriched by their spoils. (Calmet) --- Servant. Those who believe God, submit to the directions of his ambassadors. (St. Jerome in Philemon 5.) In this merited catastrophe of the Egyptians, which fixed the last seal to the mission of Moses, the fathers contemplate how God's servants are rescued by baptism, and by the merits of Jesus Christ, from Satan and from all sin. (1 Corinthians x. 1, 4; Origen, hom. 5.) (Haydock)

Ver. 22. Angry. Either because he had not granted him permission to go, or he saw that Balaam was disposed to curse the Israelites, ver. 32. Septuagint, "the angel (Michael) rose up on the road to oppose him, " diaballein. Literally, "to calumniate, accuse, resist, or to be a satan." Hence diabolus means an accuser, opponent, calumniator, &c. (St. Augustine) (Haydock)

Ver. 17. Israel. Some hence very erroneously infer, that before this prohibition the thing was not criminal. (Selden, Jur. v. 4.) Notwithstanding the law, such lewd practices continued to be very common. The original expresses that both the women and the men were consecrated, "kadash," in all probability to some idol, whom they intended to honour by abominable prostitutions, a thing very common in all the East, as we learn both from profane and sacred authors. (Aten. xiii. 5.) (4 Kings xxiii. 7.) The men were called the effeminate, 3 Kings xiv. 24. (Calmet) --- Some copies of the Septuagint have a double translation of this verse, and add, "None of the daughters of Israel shall bear the mysteries, nor shall any of the sons of Israel be initiated (in these mysteries of idols) to make every vow." Telesphoros denotes a strumpet for hire, ver. 18; or, according to Vossius, one who is initiated or performs the pagan mysteries, as fornication and idolatry, commonly go together in the sacred writers. Hesychius seems to understand, that it refers to "the house where a person has been delivered of a child." But Tertullian (pudic. ix.) explains it thus, "No one....shall pay tribute;" as telos means tribute, (Haydock) and the Jews are supposed to have refused to pay any to the Romans on the authority of this verse. See Casaub. in Baruch ii. 19. (Grotius) (Calmet) --- But it seems far more probable, that it is a farther elucidation of the text, and prohibits that scandalous impiety by which may were not ashamed publicly, like dogs, to commit the most obscene actions, and to present the hire of their bodies to the idols, Micheas i. 7. (Clement of Alexandria, Exhort.; Villalpand in Ezechiel xliii.) We could hardly give credit to those who have attested such things, did not God here find it necessary to caution his people not to fall into such blindness and delusion. That the poor ignorant idolater should think by these means to appease those gods who, while here on earth, had been infamous for the like excesses, needs not so much to excite our surprise. But that the Gnostics, Manichees, and other heretics, almost of all ages since the light of the gospel shone forth, should have thought that they could honour the true God by abusing the flesh, is truly astonishing. Yet they gave into this delusion, by first persuading themselves that the flesh was the creature of an evil principle, fighting against the author of the spirit and of all good, with whom they intended to take part. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes. Yea, there is a way that seemeth to a man right, and the ends thereof lead to death, Proverbs xii. 15., and xvi. 25. These wretches grounded their opinion on the authority of their gods, or of the Scripture. Will this excuse be admitted by the Sovereign Judge? But these delusions are perhaps now at an end. --- A principle, however, is still maintained of a far more pernicious tendency, inasmuch as it strikes at the root of every law, divine and human. This horrible doctrine was inculcated by J. Wesley for above thirty years, as we have already observed, chap. xvi. 22. "O natural man," says he, (Serm. on Orig. Sin,) "thou canst do [no] good. Thy natural actions are sin; thy civil actions are sin; thy religious actions are sin. As many thoughts, words, and actions, so many sins; for nothing but sin comes from thee. Thy duties are sins. Can an evil tree bring forth good fruit?" Thus Scripture teaches him that to work for one's family, to pay taxes, to pray, read the Scriptures, or even to believe, will be a sin! "Knowest thou not that thou canst do nothing but sin, till thou art reconciled to God?" (Sermon on the Righteousness of Faith.) Hence arose the Still-Methodists, Jour. iv. p. 92.. Even after this celebrated reformer had begun, when almost 70 years of age, to discover "the subtle poison, which he says, (Jour. viii. p. 90,) has infected, more or less, almost all, from the highest to the lowest among us," it is astonishing that he still acknowledges those who were infected with it, as the "real children of God by faith." Many of these, he says, (serm. on the law) lay it down as an unquestionable truth, that when we are come to Christ, we have done with the law; and that in this sense, Christ is the end of the law to every one that believeth. We need, therefore, no longer wonder that the pagans should think they honoured their idols by prostitution, (which on other occasions they condemned as "a great disgrace," oneidos mega, as Musonias calls it,) since in this enlightened age, a man of no mean abilities, and far advanced in years, a man who requires that all the preachers in his connexion shall conform to his Sermons and Notes on the New Testament, or be superceded, (Jour. xx. p. 34,) could decide that those who maintain this principle, and make it a branch of their religion to break the law of God on purpose, are the "real children of God by faith;" people, "whom God has taken out of the world." As well might he say that a man may live on subtle poison, and please God, by following a doctrine than which "nothing can be more false," as he styles this very principle of Antinomianism, to which he and his preachers had "leaned" for such a length of time. "If, says a great admirer of his, Mr. Fletcher, (1 Check, 4th letter,) the three first propositions of the minutes are scriptural, Mr. Wesley may well begin the remaining part, by desiring the preachers in his connexion to emerge along with him from under the noisy billows of prejudice, and to struggle quite out of the muddy streams of Antinomian delusions, which have so long gone over our heads, and carried so many souls down the channels of vice into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone." This is then to be the abode of those whom "God has taken out of the world, and who are real children of God by faith!" This is the heaven, of which they may boast in dying that they are infallibly sure of! At least, the man whom they have so eagerly followed as their judge, has passed this woful sentence upon them, as if he had a mind to laugh at their credulity. If he join us also in the same condemnation, and say, "I have the same assurance that Jesus is the Christ, and that no Romanist can expect to be saved, according to the terms of his covenant;" (Jour. iii. p. 94.) we are not solicitous about his good opinion; we have not chosen him for our judge, nor have his writings given us reason to think that he knew the nature of our covenant. If he did, so much the more dreadful must have been his reckoning with that unerring Judge, before whom he has appeared 20 years ago. It is the glory and happiness of the Catholic Church, that no one attempts to assail her, but he presently betrays the spirit by which he is inspired, the spirit of calumny, and of the perverse application of Scripture. It was thus that our divine head was treated by the father of lies, who alleged Scripture to encourage suicide, or presumption, Matthew iv. 6. So in the various points of faith which Mr. Wesley attacks, he shamefully misrepresents our doctrine, that he may have something to oppose. We have seen how unjustly he accuses us of idolatry, chap. xvi. 22. But in order, perhaps, to comfort us with the reflection, that we have many partners in guilt, he represents the Protestants as equally criminal. "They set up their idols in their churches; you set up yours in your heart....O how little is the difference before God! How small pre-eminence has the money worshipper at London over the image worshipper at Rome; or the idolizer of a living sinner over him that prays to a dead saint." (Word to a Protestant.) How much soever the Protestants may be entangled in this species of idolatry, they do not at least pretend to authorize it by the principles of religion, as some of the Methodists have done. Witness the man with whom J. Wesley conversed at Birmingham. "Do you believe that you have nothing to do with the law of God? He answered, I have not, I am not under the law....Have you also a right to all the women in the world? Yes, if they consent. And is not this a sin? Yes, to him who thinks it is a sin; but not to those whose hearts are free. The same thing that wretch, Roger Ball, affirmed in Dublin. Surely these are the first-born children of Satan." (Journal vi. p. 133.) Witness Mr. Fletcher, a celebrated clergyman in the Methodist connexion, who has informed us that Antinomian principles and practices had spread like wild fire among the Methodists. "Nor need I go far, says he, for a proof of this sad assertion. In one of his (Wesley's) societies, not many miles from my parish, a married man, who professed being in a state of justification and sanctification, growing wise above what is written, despised his brethren as legalists, and his preachers as persons not clear in the gospel. He instilled his principles into a serious young woman; and what was the consequence? Why, they talked about finished salvation in Christ, and the absurdity of perfection in the flesh, till a perfect child was conceived and born; and, to save appearances, the mother swore it to a travelling man that cannot be heard of. Thus, to avoid legality, they plunged into hypocrisy, fornication, adultery, perjury, and the depth of ranterism, &c." (Check i. Let. 2.) But enough of such absurdity. We may now easily believe to what length the dissolute examples and maxims of the heathenish mythology, would lead their unhappy votaries, when we behold the purest lessons of the gospel so strangely perverted. (Haydock) --- Whoremonger. It is very probable, that the Scripture here means such as were guilty of unnatural impurities, "consecrated," as it were, to some idol of lust, as these crimes were common under several faithless kings of Israel and of Juda, 3 Kings xv. 12., and xxii. 47. Simple prostitutes are styled zona. (Calmet) --- God will not allow these to be publicly tolerated, though they contrived but too often in private to ensnare the hearts of God's people, 3 Kings iii. 16. (Tirinus) --- Onkelos translates, "No Israelite shall give his daughter in marriage to a slave, nor take one for his son's wife," as the contract would be null, according to the Rabbins, for want of liberty. (Calmet) --- He may, perhaps, have given this singular turn to this verse, because the preceding one speaks of fugitive slaves.

Ver. 6. He buried him, viz., by the ministry of angels, and would have the place of his burial to be unknown, lest the Israelites, who were so prone to idolatry, might worship him with divine honours. (Challoner) --- St. Michael therefore contended with satan about his body, Jude 9. Some have maintained that Josue and Eleazar performed these last rites to their deceased lawgiver. (Calmet) --- But then some men would have known where he was buried. (Haydock) --- Day. It is pretended that Jeremias discovered the place, 2 Machabees ii. 4, 5. He found indeed a hollow cave....and so stopped the door. Yet this does not prove that he found the sepulchre of Moses, (Calmet) who was buried in some valley over-against Phogor, but it is not said in a cave. (Haydock) --- Cajetan infers from the body of Moses not being buried in the mountain, that it was conveyed by angels to some vale, where his attendants could not see him.

Ver. 4. Adversary. Hebrew Satan, "a calumniator, enemy," &c. (Calmet) --- Tacitus (Hist. iv.) speaking of the Batavian corps, says, "which, being bribed, pretended to be faithful, that it might flee, and become more acceptable after it had betrayed the Romans in the heat of the engagement."

Ver. 22. Sons. He refers to the preceding opposition of Joab, whom Abisai was beginning to imitate. (Haydock) --- Satan; adversary, Matthew xvi. 23. --- This day. Formerly, no one was to be put to death on days of rejoicing, and the prisoners were liberated when the king ascended the throne. A malefactor continued for a long time to be set free on the day of the passover, Matthew xxvii. 15. (Calmet) --- The Romans would never punish any one with death, on the days "whenever (Augustus) entered the city." (Suetonius lvii.) --- David considers this memorable day as a new epoch of his sovereignty, and will not suffer it to be rendered sorrowful. See 1 Kings xi. 13. (Haydock) --- The punishment of Semei might have had the most pernicious consequences, as the rest of Israel would have feared a similar treatment. (Menochius) --- (Salien, the year of the world 3010.)

Ver. 1. Stirred up, &c. This stirring up, was not the doing of God, but of satan; as it is expressly declared, 1 Chronicles xxi. 1. (Challoner) --- David was moved by vanity, &c., thus to displease God. --- Among. Hebrew, "against;" as the king could have done nothing more prejudicial to his people, 70,000 of whom perished on this occasion, ver. 15. (Haydock) --- We might also translate, "The anger of the Lord continued against Israel: for David, for their misfortune, was moved to say, Go," &c., as this would obviate the harshness of the expression. (Calmet) --- However, as it is the same in the Septuagint, &c., and as similar words do not prove that God is the author of sin, we may explain this in the same sense, allowing that he suffered the evil to take place, knowing how to draw good out of it. (St. Augustine, &c.) (Haydock) --- Some take this Satan to be an evil counsellor. (Calmet) --- The devil may be styled "the fury of God?" as he is his creature, though rebellious. (Worthington)

Ver. 4. Adversary. Literally, "Satan." Adad of Idumea, and another of Syria, and Jeroboam, began to molest Solomon, only towards the end of his reign, chap. xi. 25.

Ver. 14. Adversary. Hebrew Satan. Nothing of this kind could molest him, while he continued faithful, chap. v. 4. But now he sees the arm of God stretched out, pressing him to repent. --- Adad. Septuagint Ader. Josephus says that this prince solicited Pharao to let him return into his own country, after the death of Joab: but was prevailed upon to desist from the attempt, till the affairs of Solomon began to decline. He then endeavoured to get possession of the country; but, being repelled by the strong garrisons of the Hebrews, he went and joined Razar, (Hebrew Razon) who had revolted against Aderezer; and made inroads into the dominions of Solomon consented, at the entreaty of Pharao, that Adad should reign over Idumea, on his paying tribute; and that the latter attempted to throw off the yoke. (Salien) --- But these particulars are uncertain, and Idumea was subject to the kings of Juda till the days of Joram, 2 Paralipomenon xxi. 8. (Calmet)

Ver. 19. He, Micheas, added, (Menochius) not fearing the king's displeasure, who seemed to regard his former denunciation as an effect of his ill-will. Hence he explains his vision more at large. God often conforms to our ideas, and even prejudices. The people were then accustomed to look upon him as a king, environed with his army of good and evil spirits; the one at his right-hand, to execute his designs of mercy, and the other at his left, to execute his judgments. Job (i. 6, 12.) speaks in the like manner. We know that God stands in need of no counsellors; (Romans xi. 34.) and that the angels of satan have no place in heaven, Isaias xiv. 12., Apocalypse xii. 9., and Jude 6.

Ver. 1. Satan. This shews that the Lord only (Haydock) permitted David's sin, (2 Kings xxiv.; Worthington) and in this sense only he is said to have instigated him; (Du Hamel) though we read this was done by the fury of the Lord, or by an evil spirit. (Haydock)

Ver. 20. Said. See 3 Kings xxii. The Rabbins pretend that the spirit of Naboth came forth. But it was satan, or an evil spirit. (Tirinus)

Ver. 6. The sons of God. The angels, (Challoner) as the Septuagint express it. (Calmet) --- Satan also, &c. This passage represents to us in a figure, accommodated to the ways and understandings of men, 1. The restless endeavours of satan against the servants of God. 2. That he can do nothing without God's permission. 3. That God doth not permit him to tempt them above their strength: but assists them by his divine grace in such manner, that the vain efforts of the enemy only serve to illustrate their virtue and increase their merit. (Challoner) --- A similar prosopopeia occurs, 3 Kings xxii. 19., and Zacharias i. 10. (Calmet) --- Devils appear not in God's sight, but sometimes in presence of angels, who represent God. (St. Athanasius, q. 8. ad Antioc, (Worthington) or some ancient author.) --- The good angels can make known their orders to them, Zacharias iii. 1., and Jude 9. Both good and bad spirits may be considered as the ministers of God. (Calmet) --- They appear in judgment; though the latter could not see the Lord.

Ver. 22. By his lips, is not in Hebrew but occurs [in] chap. ii. 10. --- God. Much less did he blaspheme, as satan had said, ver. 11. He did not consider all as the effect of chance, or like a mere philosopher. His thoughts were regulated by religion and the fear of God. (Calmet) --- The virtue of Job was so much the more wonderful, as he lived among the wicked. (St. Gregory) He bore patiently with the loss of all things: and English Catholics have often imitated him. (Worthington) --- He might well record his own good actions, the gifts of God, being moved by divine inspiration, like Moses, &c. (St. Gregory)

Ver. 4. Skin: a proverbial expression, denoting that a man will part with any thing sooner than his life, (Calmet) or health. (Haydock) --- Satan hints, that if those inestimable blessings should be endangered, (Calmet) Job would shew his real sentiments. (Haydock) --- Skin was formerly used instead of money, at Sparta. (Senec. Ben. v. 14., &c.) Yet perhaps not in the time of Job.

Ver. 8. Day. The nations of Ethiopia, under the line, curse the sun as their greatest enemy. (Strabo xvii.) (Pliny, [Natural History?] v. 8.) --- They also brave the fury of the leviathan or crocodile, chap. xl. 27., and xli. 1., and Psalm lxxiii. 14. The natives of Tentyra, upon the Nile, were supposed to be a terror to that monster, or they were very courageous in entangling and pursuing it. (Seneca, q. 4. 2.) (Pliny viii. 25.) --- Leviathan. Protestants, "their mourning." De Dieu rejects this interpretation, substituting "and thou, leviathan, rouse up," &c. The fathers generally understand the devil to be thus designated. Septuagint, "he who is about to seize the great whale," (Haydock) or fish, which they also explain of the conflict of Satan with Jesus Christ. (Origen, &c.)

Ver. 34. Spoken inconsiderately. If we discuss all Job's words, (saith St. Gregory) we shall find nothing impious spoken; as may be gathered from the words of the Lord himself; (chap. xlii. ver. 7, 8.) but what was reprehensible in him was the manner of expressing himself at times, speaking too much of his own affliction, and too little of God's goodness towards him, which here he acknowledges as inconsiderate, (Challoner) or rather as the effect of inculpable ignorance; (Haydock) as the present order of things being then novel, confounded the sagacity both of Job and of his friends. The wicked had formerly been the victims of justice, but henceforth, says Job, (Hebrew) "if it shall not be so, who can convince me of lying?" (Chap. xxiv. 25.) Yet he did not perfectly discern the intention of God, in abandoning his servants to the power of satan, till the Lord himself had explained it in the parables of behemoth and leviathan. Then Job testified his conviction and entire submission, chap. xlii. 5. Houbigant observes that the Vulgate is perhaps less accurate here, and [in] chap. xlii. 3., as God exculpates Job, ver. 8. Yet the latter might entertain fear at least, of having exceeded in words, after such pungent questions. We may translate, (Haydock) Hebrew, "Behold I am vile, (Calmet) what shall I answer thee?" (Protestant) or Septuagint, "Why am I still judged, being admonished and rebuke by the Lord, hearing such things?" (Grabe, after Origen, marks with an obel what follows, as not found in Hebrew) "I, who am nothing, what answer shall I then give to these things?" (Haydock) --- If we discuss all Job's speeches, we find nothing spoken wickedly, but only a species of pride, in talking too much of his sufferings, and too little of God's goodness and justice, which he ought to have confessed. (St. Gregory xxxii. 3.) (Worthington)

Ver. 10. Penance. Hebrew, "return." He resolved to restore him to his former prosperous condition, while he prayed for those who had so cruelly exercised his patience. (Calmet) --- Protestants and Vatable, "the Lord turned the captivity of Job:" so any great distress may be styled, though Job was in a manner abandoned to the power and bondage of satan. Septuagint, "But the Lord gave an increase to Job, and while he was praying for his friends, He forgave them their sin. And," &c. (Haydock) --- Twice, excepting children, who were living (Worthington) with God. (Rabbins) (St. Gregory, &c.) --- Some also include the years of Job's life, but that is not clear, (see Spanheim, c. 7.; Calmet) though not improbable; as he might very well live twice as long as he had done, if we suppose that he was about (Haydock) 50 when he was so much distressed (Petau); and thus arrived at the age of 140, ver. 16. (Haydock)

Ver. 16. Years, in all, as Judith is said to have dwelt in the house of her husband 105 years; though it is agreed that she only lived that space of time. (Haydock) --- Authors are much divided about the length of Job's life. Some suppose that he was afflicted with the leprosy at the age of 70, for several months, (Tirinus) or for a whole year, (Calmet) or for seven, (Salien) and that he lived twice as long after his re-establishment, in all 210. (Calmet) (Tirinus) Septuagint, "Job lived after his chastisement 170," (Grabe substitutes 140 years. Then he marks with an obel as redundant) "but all the years which he lived were 248;" and adds from Theodition, "And Job saw his sons and their children, even the fourth generation." (Haydock) --- The old Vulgate had also 248 years; while some Greek copies read 740. But Grotius thinks the life of Job was not extended beyond 200. Petau and Spanheim say 189, (Calmet) and Pindea 210, or rather 280, years. Yet the life of man, in the days of Moses, his contemporary, was not often longer than 120; so that if we allow Job 140, he would be an old man, and might see the fourth generation, ver. 10. (Haydock) --- The Greeks celebrate his festival on the 6th, the Latins on the 10th of May. (Pineda) --- Days. Here a long addition is found in the Greek, Arabic, and old Vulgate; and Theodotion has also inserted it in his version, as it seems to contain a true and ancient tradition, (see Eusebius, praep. ix. 25.) though the Fathers have properly distinguished it from the inspired text. It stands thus in the Alexandrian Septuagint with an obel prefixed: "But it is written, that he shall be raised again, with those whom the Lord will restore to life." He, this man, as it is translated from the Syriac book, lived in the land of Ausites, (Hus.) on the borders of Idumea, and of Arabia, and was before called Jobab. But marrying an Arabian woman, he begot a son by name Ennon. But his father was Zareth, a descendant of the sons of Esau, and his mother was Bossora; (Arabic, a native of Bosra) so that he was the 5th (Arabic, the 6th) from Abraham. Now these were the kings who reigned in Edom; over which country he also ruled. First, Balac, son of Semphor; (others have Beor) and the name of his city was Dennaba. After Balak, Jobab, who is called Job. After him, Assom, a leader from the country of Theman. After this man, Adad, son of Barad, who slew Madian in the plain of Moab; and the name of his city was Gethaim. But the friends who came to him were, Eliphaz, [son of Sophan] of the sons of Esau, king of the Themanites; Baldad, [son of Amnon, of Chobar] of the Auchite tyrant; (Grabe substitutes the tyrant of the Saucheans, as they call our Suhites) Sophar, king of the Mineans." What is marked with crotchets, (Haydock) has been probably taken from Theodotion. See the Greek Catena. What follows occurs in the Alexandrian manuscript. (Calmet) --- "[Theman, son of Eliphaz, he, as the Syriac book is rendered, lived in the land of Ausites, on the borders of the Euphrates. His former name was Jobab, but Zareth was his father, from the sun rising."] or eastern country. (Haydock) --- Job might very well be the 5th or 6th from Abraham, if he were a contemporary with Moses, as Levi and Amram would live at the same time with Rahuel and Zare; (See 1 Paralipomenon i. 35, 44.) so that this tradition agrees with history. But what is said of the Syriac version is not so certain. (Calmet) --- Some think the Syriac or Arabic was the original text, as the Greek seems to indicate, outos ermeneuetai ek tes Suriakes Biblou, en men ge katoikon, &c. The passage at the end, where this is repeated, may be an interpolation, as the latter part seems rather to belong to Job. For how could Theman have both Eliphaz and Zareth for his father? Grabe therefore, marks it as such. It would be too long for us to transcribe (Haydock) the praises which the Fathers have given to Job, and the resemblance which they have discovered between him and Jesus Christ. See Hebrews iv. 15 and xiii. 12.; Tertullian, patient.; St. Chrysostom, hom. xxxiv. in Matt. St. Ambrose, in Psalm xxxvii. 21., observes, that his behaviour on the dunghill was the greatest condemnation of satan, who fell by pride, though so highly favoured. (Calmet) --- Besides the literal sense of this book, which displays the trials and victories of Job, we may consider him as a lively figure of Christ; who was perfectly innocent, and yet a man of sorrows: we may raise our minds to the contemplation of the greater glory which will attend the bodies of the just, after the resurrection; and, above all, we may discover lessons of morality, enforcing the observance of every virtue, and particularly of patience and resignation. (St. Gregory, &c.) (Worthington) --- The books of Machabees, which are the only remaining pieces of sacred history, might have been here inserted, as they are in Calmet's edition, that so all the historical part might come together. But it is more common to place those books after the prophets. They only relate a few of the transactions which took place during the 400 or 500 years preceding the Christian era. The rest must be borrowed from Josephus, or from profane authors. It would, however, be proper to read those books, and to have an idea of that period, before we attempt to explain the prophecies. (Haydock)

Ver. 12. Discipline. Chaldean, "doctrine." St. Jerome, "adore purely." Protestants, "kiss the Son, lest he be angry," &c. (Haydock) --- Houbigant, "adore the son, lest he be angry, and you perish. For he comes forward, and shortly his wrath will be enkindled." This version seems to be judicious: that of the Vulgate is less energetic, but comes to the same end, as those who adore the Messias, must follow his doctrine. (Berthier) --- Lord and just is not in [the] Hebrew. (Haydock) --- The way or projects of sinners will perish; (Psalm i. 6.) they will be hurried before the tribunal, as soon as they are dead; (St. Hilary) and when they least expect it, 1 Thessalonians v. 2. (Calmet) --- Some fall from salvation, and God will bring them to judgment at the end of this short life. (Worthington) --- Hebrew, "Kiss purely." Kissing is often used in Scripture to express submission, love, and adoration. (St. Jerome, contra Ruf. i.) (Genesis xli. 40.) (Calmet) --- We testify our respect for God, by kissing the Bible, &c. (Haydock) --- But it cannot be shewn that bar means "a son," in Hebrew. (Calmet) --- Amama blames the Vulgate for withdrawing a text in favour of Christ's divinity. We must, however, submit to the law and faith of Christ with confidence and love, if we desire to escape his indignation and enter heaven, Acts iv. 12. Mr. Nightingale (Portrait of Cath. 1812. p. 117 and 332) may represent this doctrine as uncharitable and groundless, though he allows it has been maintained by most (p. 473) who have professed to be the true disciples of Christ, whether Catholics or Protestants. The principle is good, though some apply it wrong. If he and Lord Milton, (speech. 1812. to whom we must express our manifest obligations) had contented themselves with saying that they believed our doctrine was "unscriptural," &c., (p. 18) we should not have much wondered; as they could not consistently have said less, and remained out of the Catholic Church. But for any man who has read the Bible, to persuade himself that it is not necessary to profess the one only true religion, wherever it may be, after Christ has so plainly declared, He that believeth not is already judged, and shall be condemned; (John iii. 18., and Mark xvi. 16.) and after the apostle has delivered over to satan those who only asserted that the resurrection was past, (2 Timothy ii. 17.) this fills us with astonishment. Not a single text can be produced in favour of the contrary system leading to indifference about religion; which, if true, would shew the preaching of the prophets and apostles as nugatory, and their blood shed in vain. All the "Scriptures" proclaim the necessity of faith and good works. We may observe, that the doctrine of the blessed Trinity seems to be no less objectionable to Mr. N. than the rest of our faith, p. 117, &c. Yet (Haydock) we must not refuse him the praise of liberality. (Catholic Review, &c., Jan. 1813.) (Haydock)

Ver. 19. Led captivity captive. Carrying away with thee to heaven those who before had been the captives of Satan; and receiving from God the Father gifts to be distributed to men; even to those who were before unbelievers. (Challoner) --- Yea, even these were the spoils which Christ presented to his Father. (Haydock) --- St. Paul quotes this text rather in a different manner, ascending on high, he led captivity captive; he gave gifts to men; as the Hebrew lakach means, "to give and to receive." Abenezra, Chaldean, Syriac, &c., give it the former sense, with the apostle; St. Justin Martyr (Dialogue), St. Hilary, and the ancient psalters of Rome and Chartres. St. Augustine approves both readings. (Calmet) --- So Samson said, "take this woman for a wife for me," Judges xiv. 3. The true God is here undoubtedly meant, and as St. Paul explains it of Christ, the Socinians, who admit the authority of the epistle to the Ephesians, ought to confess his divinity. (Berthier) --- Those. Protestants, "gifts for men, (Marginal note, "in the man,") yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them." Yet the construction of the Hebrew and Vulgate would insinuate as well, that these faithless people were now become true subjects, and were the gifts here presented to the Almighty. Christ came to save sinners. He gratuitously sought after them, and filled them with graces, that they might become a suitable present for God. (Haydock) --- He received gifts to be distributed among his servants, and merited grace for the conversion of innumerable souls. At his ascension, he was accompanied by angels, and by the patriarchs, who had been retained in captivity. (Worthington) --- The rebellious nations were forced to pay tribute, (Judges iii. 15.; Calmet) or to submit to Josue, David, &c. (Haydock) --- God in the flesh, or in his holy mountain, the Christian Church. (Menochius)

Ver. 13. Detract. Hebrew, "are satans," or "adversaries," during my trial. The Fathers say these are predictions, Psalm xxxiv. 4. (Calmet) --- David certainly wished to spare the chief of the rebels, and he most probably speaks of his spiritual enemies. (Berthier)

Ver. 1. When the house was built, &c. Alluding to that time, and then ordered to be sung; but principally relating to the building of the Church of Christ, after our redemption from the captivity of satan. (Challoner) --- Captivity. The greater canticle of David, (1 Paralipomenon xvi.) was probably divided, on that occasion, (Calmet) into three. This forms the second part, from ver. 23; as the psalm civ., to ver. 16., does the first. The three last verses of David's canticle, (ver. 34.) occur [in] Psalm cv. 1, 47. But in reality, there are so many variations, that it seems most probable, (Haydock) that he revised that work, and left us the three psalms in their present form. This perhaps relates to the establishment of the Church, though it might be also sung at the return from Babylon. (Berthier) --- Modern Jews understand it of their future re-union under the Messias. (Kimchi) (Calmet) --- The rebuilding of the temple is foretold, as a figure of man's redemption. (Worthington) --- New canticle. As the blessed do, (Apocalypse v. 9., and xv. 4.) and those who receive the Messias, Isaias xlii. 10. (Berthier) --- Love sings the new canticle. (St. Augustine) --- Earth. And not Judea alone, ver. 7. (Berthier)

Ver. 6. Set thou the sinner over him, &c. Give to the devil, that arch-sinner, power over him: let him enter into him, and possess him. The imprecations, contained in the thirty verses of this psalm, are opposed to the thirty pieces of silver for which Judas betrayed our Lord: and are to be taken as prophetic denunciations of the evils that should befall the traitor, and his accomplices, the Jews; and not properly as curses. (Challoner) --- The devil entered into Judas, (John xiii. 2.; Calmet) who hung himself in despair. (Worthington) --- The Jews were abandoned over to cruel masters, as Doeg and Achitophel presently perished, Psalm li. 5. It was customary at trials, for a satan, or "adversary," to be stationed at the right hand of the accused, Zacharias iii. 1. (Calmet)

Ver. 11. Angel. Messenger of death, (Menochius) which is sometimes inflicted by good, at others by bad, angels of death, or satan, 2 Corinthians xii. 7., and Psalm lxxvii. 49.

Ver. 25. Go to the side, &c. Fly from the side of satan and sin, and join with the holy ones that follow God and godliness. (Challoner) --- Christ is styled the father of the age to come, Isaias ix. (Menochius)

Ver. 20. Them. The Jews were miraculously rescued from the hands of Philopater, (Josephus, contra Apion ii.) or rather Christians are delivered from sin and Satan.

Ver. 20. Bring. Septuagint, "do good to you." (Haydock) --- Praise. All shall speak well of you who have been lately dishonoured, when I shall take both Gentiles and Jews for my spouse after the captivity, which seems present, (Calmet) it is so certain. (Haydock) --- Captivity, under satan and sin. (Menochius)

Ver. 1. Jesus, or Josue, the son of Josedec, the high priest of that time. (Challoner) --- To him this literally refers. (Worthington) --- As high priest, he represented the nation, whom several calumniated to Darius, 1 Esdras iv., &c. God represses the adversary and adorns his people. It seems something has been done amiss, ver. 4. (Calmet) --- The high priest, (St. Jerome) or rather his sons, have married strangers. (Chaldean) (1 Esdras x. 18.) Many Fathers take Jesus for a figure of the Messias, covered with the sins of mankind. (Calmet) --- But the Orient (ver. 8) would not thus be promised unto him, (St. Jerome) unless we consider him also as high priest. --- Satan. Septuagint, "the devil;" the accuser and calumniator, Apocalypse xii. 10.

Ver. 1. Jesus Christ was led by the Holy Ghost, immediately after his baptism, into the desert,[1] to prepare, by fasting and prayer, for his public ministry, and to merit for us by his victory over the enemy of our salvation, force to conquer him also ourselves. By this conduct, he teaches all that were to be in future times called to his ministry, how they are to retire into solitude, in order to converse with God in prayer, and draw down the blessing of heaven upon themselves and their undertaking. What treasures of grace might we expect, if, as often as we receive any of the sacraments, we were to retire within ourselves, and shut out, for a time, the world and its cares. Then should we come prepared to withstand temptation, and should experience the divine assistance in every difficulty through life. The life of man is a warfare on earth. It was not given us, says St. Hilary, to spend it in indolence, but to wage a continual war against our spiritual enemies. In the greatest sanctity there are often the greatest and most incessant trials; for Satan wishes nothing so much as the fall of the saints. (Haydock) --- By these trials, we learn the strength we have received from above, we are preserved from self-complacency and pride in the gifts of heaven; we confirm the renunciation we made in baptism of the devil, and all his works and pomps; we become stronger, and better prepared for future attacks, and are feelingly convinced of the dignity to which we have been raised, and of which the enemy of souls endeavours all he can to deprive us. St. Chrysostom hom. xiii. Both St. John the Baptist and our divine Master, by retiring into the wilderness for contemplation, prayer, fasting and suffering, have given a sanction and an example to those holy men called hermits, who have taken shelter in their sanctified retreats against the dangers of the world. (Bristow)

Ver. 24. In the Greek text, "I will compare him;" an apposite comparison, to shew the necessity of good works. It is the duty of each individual to erect this spiritual edifice of good works in the interior of his soul, which may be able to resist all the attacks of our spiritual enemy: whilst those men who have true faith and no works are compared to a fool, and are sure to perish. (Menochius) ---Here again our Saviour dispenses his rewards to such as order their lives according to his instructions; but as before he promised the kingdom of heaven, divine consolations, and other rewards, so here he promises them the numberless blessings attendant on virtue in this life. The just alone are surrounded with virtue as with a strong guard, and amidst the high swelling waves of worldly troubles, enjoy a calm and unchangeable tranquillity. Thus was Job strengthened by his virtue against the attacks both of men and satan. (St. Chrysostom, hom. xxv.)

Ver. 29. How can any one enter; how can I drive Satan from his possession? i.e. cast him out from the bodies of men, unless I am stronger than he, and first unarm him. (Maldonatus)

Ver. 30. He that is not with me. This sentence is not to be understood as directly spoken of heretics and schismatics, although at first sight it may appear so, but of the devil, who wishes to lead the souls of men captive, whilst Christ wishes to free them. He entices men to wickedness, Jesus Christ draws them to virtue: how therefore can the works of Christ be compared with those of Satan! (St. Jerome) --- There is no medium. We must either be with Christ, or against Christ: if we are not of Christ, whose then must we be, when nothing but sin can separate us from Christ and God? Oh, where will the generality of Christians, who shew themselves so indifferent with regard to salvation, find themselves at the last day? Can they say they are with Christ?

Ver. 18. Kago. And I say to thee, and tell thee why I before declared, (John i. 42.) that thou shouldst be called Peter, for thou art constituted the rock upon which, as a foundation, I will build my Church, and that so firmly, as not to suffer the gates (i.e. the powers) of hell to prevail against its foundation; because if they overturn its foundation, (i.e. thee and thy successors) they will overturn also the Church that rests upon it. Christ therefore here promises to Peter, that he and his successors should be to the end, as long as the Church should last, its supreme pastors and princes. (Tirinus) --- In the Syriac tongue, which is that which Jesus Christ spoke, there is no difference of genders, as there is in Latin, between petra, a rock, and Petrus, Peter; hence, in the original language, the allusion was both more natural and more simple. (Bible de Vence) --- Thou art Peter;[2] and upon this (i.e. upon thee, according to the literal and general exposition of the ancient Fathers) I will build my church. It is true St. Augustine, in one or two places, thus expounds these words, and upon this rock, (i.e. upon myself:) or upon this rock, which Peter hath confessed: yet he owns that he had also given the other interpretation, by which Peter himself was the rock. Some Fathers have also expounded it, upon the faith, which Peter confessed; but then they take not faith, as separated from the person of Peter, but on Peter, as holding the true faith. No one questions but that Christ himself is the great foundation-stone, the chief corner-stone, as St. Paul tells the Ephesians; (Chap. ii, ver. 20.) but it is also certain, that all the apostles may be called foundation-stones of the Church, as represented Apocalypse xxi. 14. In the mean time, St. Peter (called therefore Cephas, a rock) was the first and chief foundation-stone among the apostles, on whom Christ promised to build his Church. (Witham) --- Thou art Peter, &c. As St. Peter, by divine revelation, here made a solemn profession of his faith of the divinity of Christ, so in recompense of this faith and profession, our Lord here declares to him the dignity to which he is pleased to raise him: viz. that he, to whom he had already given the name of Peter, signifying a rock, (John i. 42.) should be a rock indeed, of invincible strength, for the support of the building of the church; in which building he should be next to Christ himself, the chief foundation-stone, in quality of chief pastor, ruler, and governor; and should have accordingly all fulness of ecclesiastical power, signified by the keys of the kingdom of heaven. --- Upon this rock, &c. The words of Christ to Peter, spoken in the vulgar language of the Jews, which our Lord made use of, were the same as if he had said in English, Thou art a rock, and upon this rock I will build my church. So that, by the plain course of the words, Peter is here declared to be the rock, upon which the church was to be built; Christ himself being both the principal foundation and founder of the same. Where also note, that Christ by building his house, that is, his Church, upon a rock, has thereby secured it against all storms and floods, like the wise builder. (Matthew vii. 24, 25.) --- The gates of hell, &c. That is, the powers of darkness, and whatever Satan can do, either by himself or his agents. For as the Church is here likened to a house, or fortress, built on a rock; so the adverse powers are likened to a contrary house or fortress, the gates of which, i.e. the whole strength, and all the efforts it can make, will never be able to prevail over the city or Church of Christ. By this promise we are fully assured, that neither idolatry, heresy, nor any pernicious error whatsoever shall at any time prevail over the Church of Christ. (Challoner) --- The gates, in the Oriental style, signify the powers; thus, to this day, we designate the Ottoman or Turkish empire by the Ottoman port. The princes were wont to hold their courts at the gates of the city. (Bible de Vence)

Ver. 23. Go after me, Satan.[4] The words may signify, begone from me; but out of respect due to the expositions of the ancient fathers, who would have these words to signify come after me, or follow me, I have put, with the Rheims translation, go after me. Satan is the same as an adversary: (Witham) and is here applied to Peter, because he opposed, out of mistaken zeal, Christ's passion, without which the great work of man's redemption could not be effected. Peter, however, unknowingly or innocently, raised an opposition against the will of God, against the glory of Jesus, against the redemption of mankind, and against the destruction of the devil's kingdom. He did not understand that there was nothing more glorious than to make of one's life a sacrifice to God. (Bible de Vence) --- Thou dost not, i.e. thy judgment in this particular is not conformable with that of God. Hence our separated brethren conclude that Christ did not, in calling him the rock in the preceding verses, appoint him the solid and permanent foundation of his Church. This conclusion, however, is not true, because, as St. Augustine and theologians affirm, Peter could fall into error in points regarding morals and facts, though not in defining or deciding on points of faith. Moreover, St. Peter was not, as St. Jerome says, appointed the pillar of the Church till after Christ's resurrection. (Tirinus) --- And it was not till the night before Christ suffered that he said to Peter: Behold, Satan hath desired to have thee; but I have prayed for thee, that "thy faith fail not," and thou being once converted confirm thy brethren. (Luke xxii. 31.) (Haydock)

Ver. 3. Then Judas, ... repenting himself. A fruitless repentance, accompanied with a new sin of despair, says St. Leo. (Witham) --- Perceiving that Jesus was delivered up, and remembering what our divine Saviour had said concerning his resurrection, he repented of his atrocious wickedness. Perhaps Satan, who assisted and urged him on to betray his Master, deserted him, not that he had prevailed upon the unhappy miscreant to perpetrate what he had so passionately desired. But how could Judas see that Jesus was condemned? He certainly did not see it, but foreboded in his despairing mind what would be the event. But some are of opinion that this passage is referred to Judas himself, who then became sensible of his crime, and saw his condemnation impending over his head. (Origen) --- For the devil does not blind his agents in such a manner, as to leave them insensible of the crime they are about to commit, till it is perpetrated. (St. Chrysostom) --- Although Judas conceived a horror at his crime, and confessed it, and made satisfaction to a certain degree by restoring the money, still many essential conditions were wanting to his repentance: 1. faith in Christ, as God, as a redeemer, as the sole justifier from sin; 2. besides this, there was also wanting hopes of pardon, as in Cain, and a love of a much injured and much offended God. Hence his grief was unavailing, like that of the damned. If Judas, says an ancient Father, had had recourse to sincere repentance, and not to the halter, there was mercy in store even for the traitor. (Haydock)

Ver. 40. If thou be the Son of God. Behold these children of Satan, how they imitate the language of their father. That wicked fiend, tempting our divine Saviour, exclaimed, "if thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down:" and these his children say, "if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross:" but, on the other hand, Jesus will not descend from the hard wood of the cross, because he is the Son of God; for, being God, he descended on earth, took upon himself human nature, to die thus for those who crucified him. (St. John Chrysostom)

Ver. 18. I saw Satan as lightning, &c. Many expound it in this manner: I, who am from eternity, saw Satan with all the rebellious angels, as glorious as they were, fall from heaven; fear then, and tremble, though you have received such favours from God. Others take it in this sense, that Christ, by his incarnation, hath seen the power of the devils lessened and confounded, according to what he also said, (John xii. 31.) Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. (Witham) --- What connexion have these words with what goes before? Some understand them thus: the reign of the devil is near at an end; this prince of darkness is going to be overturned; he will fall from the air, where he reigns, with the same precipitation as lightning, which cuts the clouds and presently disappears. It is almost the same thing he says in other places. "The prince of this world is already judged; behold now is the judgment of this world; behold now the prince of this world shall be cast forth! When I sent you to preach the gospel to the poor, I saw Satan fall; I saw his empire overturned. The last effort which this empire of darkness shall make is the death of our Saviour, as he himself says: This is your hour, and the power of darkness. Since his resurrection he has bound the dragon in the abyss for a thousand years; he has shut up the entrance, and sealed it with his seal." (Apocalypse xii. 9. and xx. 2.) Others think that Jesus speaks here of the fall of Lucifer, at the beginning of the creation. Wishing to give his disciples a lesson in humility, on account of the vain complacency which he saw they took in the miracles they wrought, he says to them: Beware of pride, that precipitated the first angel from heaven: I have seen him in the glory with which he was surrounded, and I have seen him hurried into the abyss. Fear, lest the same should happen to you. The former explanation appears to us more simple and literal. (Calmet)

Ver. 49. I am come to send fire on the earth. By this fire, some understand the light of the gospel, and the fire of charity and divine love. Others, the fire of trials and persecutions. (Witham) --- What is the fire, which Christ comes to send upon the earth? Some understand it of the Holy Ghost, of the doctrine of the gospel, and the preaching of the apostles, which has filled the world with fervour and light, and which was signified by the flames of fire which appeared at the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles. My words, says the Lord, in Jeremias, (Chap. xxiii. 29.) are as a fire, and as a hammer, that breaketh the rock in pieces. Others understand it of the fire of charity, which Christ came to enkindle upon the earth, and which the apostles carried throughout the whole world. But the most simple and literal opinion seems to be, the fire of persecution and war. Fire is often used in Scripture for war: and our Saviour declares in St. Matthew that he is come to bring the sword, and not peace; that is, the doctrine of the gospel shall cause divisions, and bring persecutions, and almost an infinity of other evils, upon those who shall embrace and maintain it. But it is by these means that heaven must be acquired, it is thus that Jesus Christ destroys the reign of Satan, and overturns idolatry, superstition, and error, in the world. So great a change could not be made without noise, tumult, fire, and war. (Calmet)

Ver. 3. And Satan entered into Judas. The meaning only seems to be, that the devil tempted and overcame him. (Witham) --- Satan entered into Judas not all at once, but by degrees. He first gained possession by avarice, next by theft, and lastly he impelled him to the blackest treachery and cruel parricide. The Scripture only says that Satan had entered into him when he was entirely abandoned to iniquity, had hardened his heart against all grace, and shut his ears against every instruction of Jesus. In like manner the Scripture says of a good man, who is strengthened in grace, that the Holy Spirit dwells in him. (Calmet)

Ver. 31. Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. In these words is expressed both what Satan desired, and what God permitted. Satan desired leave to tempt them, that he might make them fall from their faith in Christ. Almighty God permitted this temptation, this trial, to convince them how weak they were of themselves: he permitted their frailty to be partly overcome, yet so that rising again by his grace, they should be cleansed and purified as wheat when it is sifted: and that shortly after, being strengthened and confirmed by the coming of the Holy Ghost, they might become new men, enabled to stand firm against all the attacks of their greatest adversaries. (Witham)

Ver. 27. Satan entered into him, who presently went out with great anger and indignation. It was then night, likely about nine o'clock. (Witham) --- That which thou dost, do quickly. It is not a license, much less a command, to go about his treason: but a signification to him, that Christ would not hinder or resist what he was about, do it as soon as he pleased: but was both ready, and desirous to suffer for our redemption. (Challoner) --- Christ does not by these words exhort the traitor, much less command him, to perform his wicked deed; but he means to reprobate it, and at the same time testify that he would not hinder his being betrayed. (St. Chrysostom, hom. lxxi. in Joan.) --- It is the voice not of command, but of permission, not of a person in fear, but of one prepared for death. (St. Leo)

Ver. 8. He will convince[2], or convict the world. Others translate, he will reprove the world of sin, &c. These words have occasioned a great many expositions. I here follow St. Cyril, that the Holy Ghost will condemn the Jews, and all obstinate unbelievers, of their sin, in not believing, after so many miracles, and so many pregnant motives, that ought to induce them to submit to the Christian faith. 2ndly, Of justice, by shewing the justice and innocence of Christ, and also, that true justice and sanctification cannot be obtained, but by his grace. 3rdly, Of judgment, by shewing that the world, and the prince of this wicked world, the devil, is justly condemned, his empire in a great measure destroyed, and that all the wicked will be justly condemned, and punished with him. (Witham) --- The Holy Ghost, by his coming, brought over many thousands, 1st, To a sense of their sin, in not believing in Christ. 2ndly, To a conviction of the justice of Christ, now sitting at the right hand of his Father. And 3rdly, To a right apprehension of the judgment prepared for them that choose to follow Satan, who is already judged and condemned. (Challoner) --- The Greek text, in addition, has oti ou pisteuousin eis eme. Because they have not believed in me. This accusation and conviction of sin, cannot naturally fall on any, but the incredulous Jews. St. Augustine, Ven. Bede, St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, and many others, are of opinion, that this sin was their unbelief in Jesus, after all the miracles he had done in their presence, after so many prophecies so clearly accomplished in his person, after so many prodigies and wonders, which happened at his death, at his resurrection, and after his resurrection. They are accused, and convinced of sin, particularly by sensible effects of the Holy Spirit, in the apostles, by the gift of miracles and tongues, and that supernatural knowledge, which was communicated, not only to the apostles, but also to all the first Christians. These are the means, which the Paraclete, the consoling and assisting Spirit, makes us of, to condemn, and convince the world of sin; that is, of incredulity, which is the source and foundation of all other sins. The world had calumniated and despised its Saviour. It had condemned him, as a liar, as a seducer, magician, a man possessed by the devil, a destroyer of the law of God. To which the Son of God made no resistance; he only replied, that he did not wish to take the execution of justice upon himself, and that he was not come into the world to judge the world. Therefore, he committed all to the Holy Spirit, who, in the persons of the apostles, did justice to the Son, by shewing to the whole world, his doctrines, his life, his miracles, and the accomplishment of all the ancient prophecies in his person. All that the apostles preached, they confirmed by most stupendous miracles, gained the hearts of pagans to believe Jesus as their Redeemer, and called down imprecations upon the heads of the incredulous Jews, who had rejected a prophet, visibly sent by God, a Saviour and Redeemer of his people, who, in his person, bore all the characters of the divinity. (Calmet)

Ver. 3. Why hath Satan tempted thy heart?[2] The present Greek copies, filled thy heart. (Witham)

Ver. 18. That they may be converted from the darkness of error to the light of the gospel, and from the power of Satan to the liberty of the children of God.

Ver. 3. &c. Have already judged, decreed, and do decree, being present in spirit with you, and with your congregation. --- In the name....with the power of our Lord Jesus, to deliver such a one to Satan by a sentence of excommunication, depriving him of the sacraments, the prayers, and communion, and even of the conversation of the rest of the faithful. It is likely in those times, such excommunicated persons were delivered over to Satan, so as to be corporally tormented by the devil. But most divines are of opinion that this man was delivered over to the devil, to strike a terror into others. See St. Chrysostom, hom. xv. and this is said to be done for the destruction, or punishment of the flesh, that the spirit, or soul, may be saved. (Witham) --- It is the opinion of most of the Greek fathers, that this man was either really possessed by the devil, or at least struck with such a complaint as a mortification, and humiliation to his body, whilst it served to purify his soul. We have seen from many instances in holy Scripture, that it was not unusual, in the origin of Christianity, for persons who had fallen into crimes of this nature, to be punished with death, some grievous sickness, or by being possessed by the devil. But most divines are of opinion that this man was delivered over to the devil, so as to be separated from the communion of the Church. (St. Ambrose; Estius; Just.[St. Justin Martyr?]; Menochius)

Ver. 13. &c. Meat for the belly. That is, meat is necessary for the support of nature, though this or that kind of meat be indifferent: and we ought to reflect, that God in a short time will destroy both the meats, and the appetite of eating, and the body shall shortly die, but it shall rise again. --- Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ....and the temple of the Holy Ghost. Man consists of soul and body; by baptism he is made a member of that same mystical body, the Church, of which Christ is the head: In baptism both the soul and body are consecrated to God: they are made the temple of the Holy Ghost, inasmuch as the spirit and grace of God inhabits in men, who are sanctified. Christ redeemed both our souls and bodies, both which he designs to sanctify, and to glorify hereafter in heaven; so that we must look upon both body and soul as belonging to Christ, and not as our own. --- Shall I, then, taking the members of Christ, make them the members of an harlot, by a shameful and unlawful commerce? --- Fly fornication. Such sins are chiefly to be avoided by flight, and by avoiding the occasions and temptations. Other sins are not committed by such an injury done to the body, but by an abuse of something else, that is different from the body, but by fornication and sins of uncleanness, the body itself is defiled and dishonoured, whereas the body ought to be considered as if it were not our own, being redeemed by our Saviour Christ, consecrated to him, with an expectation of a happy resurrection, and of being glorified in heaven. Endeavour, therefore, to glorify God in your body, by employing it in his service, and bear him in your body by being obedient to his will. (Witham) --- We know and we believe that we carry about Jesus Christ in our bodies, but it is the shame and condemnation of a Christian to live as if he neither knew or believed it. If fornication is a great crime in a pagan, in a Christian it is a species of sacrilege, accompanied with injustice and ingratitude. Whoever yields to impurity, converts his body into the temple of Satan, glorifies and carries him about, tearing away the members of Jesus Christ, to make them the members of a harlot.

Ver. 6. This rebuke already given him, may suffice, and I would have you pardon and comfort him, lest he be overwhelmed, and as it were swallowed up[1] and devoured by and excess of grief, so that by the artifices of Satan, which we are acquainted with, it turn to his greater prejudice. I wrote, and proceeded in that manner, to know by experience, how far you are obedient to me, and to the ministers of Christ. (Witham)

Ver. 11. In the name and in the person of Christ, I ordered him to be excommunicated; in the same, I order him now to be re-admitted into your communion, and this for your sake. We ought to take care that the remedies we employ, do not give occasion to the triumphs of Satan, by throwing the patient into despair, on account of our too great severity. (St. Ambrose) --- The Greek may be translated: that we may not fall into the power of Satan, on account of our too great severity. (Calmet)

Ver. 7-10. A sting of my flesh,[1] an angel, or a messenger of Satan, to buffet me. The Latin word signifies any thing that pricks or stings, the Greek word a sharp stick or pale: he speaks by a metaphor, as also when he says to buffet me; that is, by causing great trouble or pain. Some understand by it a violent headache or pain, or distemper in the body. St. Augustine mentions this opinion, and does not reject it, in Psalm xcviii. tom. 4. p. 1069.; in Psalm cxxx. p. 1465. St. Jerome also speaks of it in chap. iv. ad Galatas, tom. 4. p. 274, Ed. Ben. But St. Chrysostom, by the sting, and the angel of Satan, understands that opposition which St. Paul met with from his enemies, and those of the gospel; as Satan signifies an adversary. Others understand troublesome temptations of the flesh, immodest thoughts, and representations, suggested by the devil, and permitted by Almighty God for his greater good. --- Thrice I besought the Lord. That is, many times, to be freed from it, but received only this answer from God, that his grace was sufficient to preserve me from consenting to sin. And that power and strength in virtue should increase, and be perfected in weakness, and by temptations, when they are resisted. St. Augustine seems to favour this exposition, in Psalm lviii. Conc. 2. p. 573. St. Jerome, in his letters to Eustochium, to Demetrias, and to Rusticus, the monk. And it is the opinion of St. Gregory, lib. 23. moral. tom. 1. p. 747. and of many others. (Witham) --- If there were any danger of pride from his revelations, the base and filthy suggestions of the enemy of souls must cause humiliations, and make him blush. But these are to be borne with submission to the will of God, for his power is more evident in supporting man under the greatest trials, than in freeing him from the attacks. --- Power is made perfect. The strength and power of God more perfectly shines forth in our weakness and infirmity; as the more weak we are of ourselves, the more illustrious is his grace in supporting us, and giving us the victory under all trials and conflicts. (Challoner) --- When I am weak. The more I suffer for Christ, the more I perceive the effects of his all-powerful grace, which sustains, enlightens, and strengthens me: the more also the glory and power of God appeareth in me. The pagans themselves were not ignorant that calamity was the soil in which virtue usually grows to perfection. Calamitas virtutis occasio est. (Seneca) --- Optimos nos esse dum infirmi sumus. (Pliny vii. ep. 26.)

Ver. 12. Flesh and blood, which may either signify temptations of the flesh, or raised by mortal men. --- Principalities and powers; i.e. devils, or apostate angels, who before their fall were in such ranks of spirits, and who are permitted to rule over the wicked in this world of darkness. (Witham) --- By which we are to understand the fallen angels. For as by nature, and from their creation, they were the governors of this corporeal world, and were deprived of this their power on account of their pride, they received it (though limited by certain restrictions) in order to tempt man. (Estius) --- Rulers of the world of this darkness. By these are meant the devils who exercise their power and authority in our inferior and dark atmosphere, by raising winds, storms, tempests, &c. By darkness may be understood the wicked, in whom Satan reigns as in a citadel. (Menochius) --- Our inferior world is called dark and misty in comparison of the world above, which is always bright, serene, and clear. Our atmosphere is called the cloudy and dark heavenly. Cicero, in his Tuscul Quaest. Prudentius likewise, in Hamartigenia, writes thus:

Ver. 18. Satan hindered us. That is, has raised such an aversion to me among the pagans and Jews of Thessalonica, that my friends do not think it safe I should come among you. I am now detained from you by violence; but when this life is past, you shall form my joy and my crown. I will present you at the tribunal of my Saviour, and say: Behold me and my children; behold the fruits of my labours, the proofs of my fidelity, and my claims for a recompense. (Calmet) --- If the apostle here calls his disciples his hope, joy, glory, why may we not call the blessed Virgin Mary, or other saints, their joy and hope, for the special confidence they have in their prayers?

Ver. 20. I have delivered to Satan; whom I have excommunicated, that they may learn not to blaspheme, or speak against the truth of the faith. (Theophylactus) --- The devil frequently, at that time, took possession of, or afflicted the excommunicated with diseases and other temporal evils. (St. Chrysostom)

Ver. 15. For some are already turned aside after Satan, by breaking the vows they had made. "Yet it does not follow, (says St. Augustine in the same place [de Bono viduitatis, chap. viii.]) that they who abstain not from such sins may marry after their vows. They might indeed marry before they vowed; but this being done, unless they keep them they justly incur damnation." "Why is it, (says he again, on Psalm lxxv.) they made void their first faith? but that they made vows, and kept them not. But let not this (says he) make you abstain from such vows, for you are not to comply with them by your own strength; you will fall, if you presume on yourselves; but if you confide in him to whom you made these vows, you will securely comply with them." How different was the doctrine and practice of the first and chief of the late pretended reformers, who were many of them apostates after such vows? (Witham)

Ver. 21. Baptism, &c. That is, the ark was a figure of baptism, which saveth you from the death of the soul; and as no one was saved from the waters of the deluge but those few eight persons who were in the ark, so no one can enter into heaven if he hath not been baptized, or hath had a desire of it when come to the use of reason. And such persons as are capable of knowing what they receive, must come with the dispositions of faith and a true repentance, which is here called the examination (literally, the interrogation[3]) of a good conscience, who therefore are examined whether they believe in one God and three Persons, &c. (Witham) --- Baptism is said to be the like form with the water by which Noe[Noah] was saved, because the one was a figure of the other. --- Not the putting away, &c. As much as to say, that baptism has not its efficacy, in order to salvation, from its washing away any bodily filth or dirt; but from its purging the conscience from sin: when accompanied with suitable dispositions in the party, to answer the interrogations made at that time, with relation to faith, the renouncing of Satan with all his works, and the obedience to God's commands. (Challoner)

Ver. 8-11. To the Angel of the church of Smyrna. To St. Polycarp, or some bishop there before him. No reprehension is given to this bishop, or to his church, but a commendation for suffering in poverty and tribulation, when they were rich in grace. (Witham) --- Poverty. He was poor in temporal things, but rich in grace and merits. --- Thou art blasphemed by those false teachers, who call themselves Jews and Israelites, and the chosen people of God, waiting for the coming of the Messias, but are not to be looked upon as such; having refused to own their true Messias, Jesus Christ, they are the Synagogue of Satan, the greatest enemies of the true faith. --- You shall have tribulation ten days, which several here understand for a long time, others for a short time, ten times being used in both senses. (Witham) --- The first death is that of the body, the second of the soul. (Ven. Bede)

Ver. 12-17. To the Angel of the Church of Pergamus. This Church is exhorted to do penance, and reprehended, as the seat or throne of Satan. It is only said, that the bishop lives where this satanical seat is, that he had not denied the faith, even under the persecution, when St. Antipas suffered martyrdom, of whom see Tillemont in the persecution under Domitian, tom. ii, p. 119, and note 523; and Bollandus, April 11th; though the acts themselves be not of great authority. --- Thou hast them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaites, which is compared to that of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a scandal before the children of Israel, by which they were seduced by the women of the Moabites, and fell into the sin of fornication and idolatry. (Numbers xxiv. and xxxi. 16.) --- To him that overcometh, I will give the hidden manna; a happiness in heaven, which the eye hath not seen, &c. --- And a white[1] stone, with a new name written, as a mark of the happiness promised to all those who shall conquer. An allusion to the custom of giving a white stone to those that were tried and acquitted, and also to persons promoted to a dignity; and a black stone to such as were found guilty. See Acts xxvi. 10. (Witham) --- This new name is the eternal recompense, unknown and despised by worldlings, but esteemed by the faithful, who know the excellence of the rewards promised by God. (Calmet)

Ver. 18-29. To the Angel of the church of Thyatira. Here is first a commendation of their constancy in the faith, in good works, charity, patience, and ministry, which chiefly regards their bishop, whoever he was at that time. The heretics, called Alogians, who rejected the Apocalypse, (chiefly because of the clear proofs of the divinity of the Word, or Son of God) pretended that there was not church at Thyatira, when St. John is supposed to have written his Apocalypse. They have no proof of this. This same church was afterwards perverted by the Montanists. See St. Epiphanius, haer. li. p. 455. Here follows a reprehension that they permitted the woman, (here called by the name of Jezabel,[2] as was called the wife of Achaz, who persecuted the true prophets, and protected the false ones, 3 Kings xviii.) to seduce the servants of God, to commit fornication, and eat of things offered to idols. There is no probability that this Jezabel was wife to the bishop of that church. Had this been true, the bishop would have deserved a reprehension much more severe than is here given him. Alcazar thinks that by this woman was meant some heretical sect, or the corrupt synagogue of the Jews; but interpreters commonly understand some powerful woman thereabout among the infamous Nicolaites, who by her authority and artifices, brought many to embrace that sect. --- I give her time to do penance; and she will not, or would not repent. It is Christ who speaks as God, for who but God gives sinners time to repent? --- Behold, I will cast her into a bed, &c. Some understand a bed of sickness, others of corporal death, others eternal torments in hell, where she, and they that sin with her, shall be in very great tribulation, unless first they do penance. --- All the churches shall know that I am he, who searcheth the reins and hearts, which God alone can do. See Psalm vii. 10.; Jeremias xvii. 10.; &c. It is God also who will give to every one....according to his works. See Psalm lxi. 13.; Proverbs xxiv. 12.; Romans ii. 6. and in divers other places. --- I will not put upon you any other weight, &c. That is, not the insupportable burden of the Jewish ceremonies, to which teachers of false doctrines would have you subject. (Witham) --- Whoever does not give in to this new doctrine of the Nicolaites and Gnostics, and does not approve the deep and abstruse doctrines of Satan, which they teach, shall have no new weight or punishment. Let them keep the doctrine once delivered. (Calmet) --- Yet in the faith which you have already learnt, remain steadfast, till I come. --- To them who shall overcome, &c. I will give power over or above all nations. This shews that the saints, who are with Christ our Lord in heaven, receive power from him to preside over nations, and provinces, as patrons; and shall come with him at the end of the world to execute his will against those who have not kept his commandments. (Challoner) --- End. This alludes to the day of judgment, when the faithful shall sit on thrones with Christ. And he shall inherit the morning star of perpetual bliss, that shall never set. --- They shall triumph over all the wicked world, and under me shall rule them, as it were, with a rod of iron, being so much exalted above them. --- As the vessel of a potter, shall all their present greatness be broken. To every such faithful servant, I will give the morning star, another expression to signify eternal light, or eternal happiness. (Witham)

Ver. 15. And the four angels were loosed. This seems to indicate the moment in which Satan himself is loosed from the abyss or hell, where, as we shall see in Apocalypse xx. 2. he was chained up for a thousand years. This is the time of antichrist, whose coming, as St. Paul says, is according to the working of Satan. (2 Thessalonians ii. 9.) The antichristian period is described by the ancient Fathers as the most dreadful of all; and the Apocalypse plainly shews it to be so, as we shall see. But we have this comfort, that his time will be short. He must be loosed a little time. (Apocalypse xx. 3.)

Ver. 7. The beast, &c. God, for the greater good and glory of his servants, permits the devil by antichrist, and such like instruments, to torment them, and put them to death; and yet by dying they conquer, to the eternal confusion of their persecutors, who shall behold them going up to heaven, to be there happy with God in his kingdom for ever. (Witham) --- Antichrist, impelled by Satan, shall kill them. (Pastorini)

Ver. 1. A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet. By this woman, interpreters commonly understand the Church of Christ, shining with the light of faith, under the protection of the sun of justice, Jesus Christ. The moon, the Church, hath all changeable things of this world under her feet, the affections of the faithful being raised above them all. --- A woman: the Church of God. It may also, by allusion, be applied to our blessed Lady[the Virgin Mary]. The Church is clothed with the sun, that is, with Christ: she hath the moon, that is, the changeable things of the world, under her feet; and the twelve stars with which she is crowned, are the twelve apostles: she is in labour and pain, whilst she brings forth her children, and Christ in them, in the midst of afflictions and persecutions. (Challoner) --- Under the figure of a woman and of a dragon, are represented the various attempts of Satan to undermine the Church. --- On her head....twelve stars, her doctrine being delivered by the twelve apostles and their successors. (Witham)

Ver. 2. And bound him for a thousand years. I shall give the reader an abridgment of what St. Augustine has left us on this chapter, in his 20th book de Civ. Dei[City of God]. From the 5th to the 16th chap., (t. vii. p. 578 et seq.) he treats upon these difficulties: What is meant by the first and second resurrection; by the binding and chaining up of the devil; by the thousand years that the saints reign with Christ; by the first and second death; by Gog and Magog, &c. As to the first resurrection, chap. vi., he takes notice on the 5th verse, that resurrection[1] in the Gospels, and in St. Paul, is applied not only to the body but also to the soul; and the second resurrection, which is to come, is that of the bodies: that there is also a death of the soul, which is by sin; and that the second death is that of soul and body by eternal damnation: that both bad and good shall rise again in their bodies. On those words, (ver. 6) Blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection; in these the second death hath no power. Such, saith he, (chap. ix.) as have risen from sin, and have remained in that resurrection of the soul, shall never be liable to the second death, which is damnation. Cap. vii. p. 580, he says that some Catholics not understanding rightly the first resurrection, have been led into ridiculous fables,[2] and this by the interpretation which they put on the thousand years; as if the first resurrection implied a resurrection of the bodies of the martyrs and saints, who should live on the earth with Christ for a thousand years before the general resurrection, in all manner of delights. This was the opinion of those called Millenarians: this, saith he, might seem tolerable in some measure,[3] if taken for spiritual delights, (for we ourselves were once in these sentiments) but if for carnal pleasures, it can only be believed by carnal men. He then expounds what may be understood by the binding and chaining of the devil for a thousand years; (Cap. vii. & viii, p. 581) that the thousand years, meaning a long time, may signify all the time from Christ's first coming[4] to his second at the end of the world, and to the last short persecution under antichrist. The devil is said to be bound, that is, his power much lessened and restrained, in comparison of the great and extensive power he had over all nations before Christ's incarnation; not but that he still tempts many,[5] and raiseth persecutions, which always turn to their greater good; and that towards the end of the world he shall be let loose, as it were, for a short time, and permitted with his infernal spirits to exercise his malice against mankind, to try the patience of the elect, and to shew the power of God's grace, by which his faithful servants shall triumph over the devil. (N. B.[Nota Bene, Note Well?]) What St. Augustine adds divers times in these chapters: "Let no one," says he, "imagine[6] that even during that short time, there shall be no Church of Christ on the earth: God forbid: even when the devil shall be let loose, he shall not be able to seduce the Church." Cap. ix, p. 586, he expounds those words, (ver. 4-5) I saw the souls of them that were beheaded....and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years....This is the first resurrection: i.e. the first resurrection is while the devil is chained up for the space of a thousand years. He takes notice that the present state of the Church is many times called the kingdom of God, and that the Church of Christ reigns now with Christ, both in the living saints and in those who are dead, in the souls of the martyrs, and of others, who having lived and died piously, now reign with Christ, not yet in their bodies,[7] but their souls reign with him. On those words of the 4th verse: who had not adored the beast, nor his image, nor received his mark, he only gives this exposition, as agreeable to the Christian faith, that by the beast may be understood the multitude of wicked sinners in general, and the image of the beast[8] those who are of the Church in outward appearance and profession only, and not by their works. When it is said (ver. 5) that the rest of the dead lived not till the thousand years were finished: they lived not, says he, as to their souls, when they should have lived; and therefore not being happy in heaven, when their bodies shall rise, it shall not be to life, but to judgment and damnation, which is the second death. Cap. xi, he expounds the 7th and 8th verses, where it is said that Satan shall be loosed....and seduce the nations which are over the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog,[9] and shall gather them together to battle. This, says St. Augustine, will be the last persecution at the approach of the day of judgment, which the whole city, or the whole Church of Christ dispersed through the universe, will suffer from the whole city of the devil. Neither need Gog and Magog be taken for a particular[10] barbarous people, but such as are dispersed in a manner in every nation, and who shall then break out by the instigation of Satan into an open hatred and persecution against the faithful servants of God; as it is said, (ver. 8.) they ascended upon the breadth of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints, where we cannot literally understand one camp, one city, or one place, but the Church every where dispersed. Cap. xii, he expounds the 9th verse, where he takes fire to signify, metaphorically, the firm resistance and constancy of the good, and the fire[11] of their zeal, which devoured as it were the wicked; or we may understand with others, the temporal fire of God's judgments in this world against the wicked, but not the last eternal fire; because the eternal fire comes not down from heaven but the wicked are cast into it below. Cap. xiii, he teacheth that the last persecution[12] of antichrist, here mentioned, shall last but three years and six months; i.e. a little while. Cap. xiv and xv, he expounds the 10th and following verse, of the devil being cast into the lake of fire, after the last persecution of antichrist. By the beast he understands, as before, the city or multitude of all the wicked; and by the false prophet, either antichrist or the outward appearance of faith in them that have none. Then follows the last judgment, where it is said that the books are opened, and also that another book was opened. By the first book, may be understood men and their consciences; and by the other book, the book of life, that[13] of eternal predestination. Thus far S. Augustine, where we see that he delivers the common Catholic doctrine, that by the thousand years, so often mentioned in this chapter, he understands all that time in which the souls of the martyrs, and of all other saints, reign happy with Christ in heaven, till after the general resurrection they receive a full and complete happiness, both as to soul and body. A false exposition of these thousand years gave occasion to the mistake, the error, and heresy of those called the Millenarians, which Mede and Dr. W. have followed. Papias, who lived soon after, or perhaps with St. John, was the chief promoter of this mistake; a man, says Eusebius, of "little judgment and capacity,"[14] who misconstrued the discourses which he heard. He was followed by divers writers in the second, third, and fourth century, who did not hold with Cerinthus and his followers, that the saints should rise before the general resurrection, and reign with Christ on earth for a thousand years in all manner of sensual pleasures; but in spiritual delights, in the city of Jerusalem, built anew after that glorious manner described in the next chapter. Now though this opinion had several considerable abettors, of which I find these seven: Papias, St. Justin[St. Justin Martyr], St. Irenaeus, Tertullian, Nepos, (a bishop, in Egypt; in Eusebius, lib. vii. chap. xxiv.) Victorinus Petabionensis, Lactantius, and Severus Sulpitius: yet were there always other learned Catholic writers who rejected it as a fable. Of this number was Caius, a priest, at Rome, about the end of the second age[century]; Origen, in his prologue on the Canticles; St. Denys, of Alexandria, who in the third age[century] wrote to confute Nepos; (see Eusebius, lib. vii. History of the Church, chap. xxiv., who treats it as a fable ) St. Basil,[15] who calls it an old wife's tale, and a Jewish fiction, Epist. 293; St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Orat. 52; St. Epiphanius, St. Jerome, Philastrius, Theodoret, who place this opinion among the heresies and heretical fables: so that this could never be looked upon as the constant doctrine and tradition of the Church. The bishop of Meaux[Bossuet] takes notice, that Mede either mistook or falsified the text of St. Justin,[16] who, in his Dialogue with Tryphon, holds that opinion of a thousand years reign; but adds, "I also told you, that many who are Christians of pious and sound sentiments, do not own this to be true." Thus we read in the Greek, as well as in the Latin translation: but Mr. Mede quite changes the sense, by adding a negative in this manner; but many who are not of this pure and holy doctrine, &c. We may observe that St. Justin says in the next page, that they who own not the resurrection of the body, and say that souls go to heaven without any future resurrection, are not to be accounted Christians, but are to be looked upon as Sadducees and unbelievers. Which is very true. And he adds, that he, and others who think right with him, know that there will be a resurrection of the flesh, and a rebuilding of Jerusalem for a thousand years, which St. Justin himself judged grounded on the prophets, Isaias, Ezechiel, &c. So that not to make St. Justin contradict himself, he mentions three opinions: the first is the heresy of those who absolutely denied the future resurrection of the dead: these were not Christians, but unbelievers, Sadducees, &c. The second was of those who held that the martyrs and saints should rise, and reign for a thousand years in their bodies on the earth; this, which was his own opinion, he calls the right and true doctrine. But thirdly, he does not condemn those pious Christians who, as he had said before, disowned this thousand years reign, for this would be to contradict himself. (Witham) --- In the above chapter, what man can reflect without trembling, that the devil has the rage of a dragon, the cunning of an old serpent, the malice of a calumniator, and that he is a most implacable enemy? On the other hand, what man is there that does not feel consolation in the reflection, that Jesus Christ has vanquished this savage fiend, and bound him in fetters, by limiting the exercise of his rage and malice? Some understand this chaining of the dragon of the reign of Constantine, and particularly after the defeat of Licinius; (see above, [Apocalypse] chap. xii. 18.) and the thousand years of the intermediate period between Constantine and antichrist, when the devil will again be let loose, but for a short time, only three years and a half. (Bible de Vence) --- Bound him, &c. The power of Satan has been very much abridged by the passion of Christ; for a thousand years; that is for the whole time of the new testament, but especially from the time of the destruction of Babylon or pagan Rome, till the new efforts of Gog and Magog against the Church, towards the end of the world. During which time the souls of the martyrs and saints live and reign with Christ in heaven, in the first resurrection, which is that of the soul to the life of glory, as the second resurrection will be that of the body, at the day of general judgment. (Challoner)