And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,
Ver. 2. A little book open] The Bible translated and explained. It is called a great roll, written with the pen of a man, that is, clearly, that the simplest of men may conceive it, Isaiah 8:1; Deuteronomy 30:11. But it is little in comparison to the volumes of school doctors and popish decretals, a wherewith the world was pestered, when the Bible lay locked up and obscured. We may well say of it as St Bartholomew (quoted by Dionysius) said of divinity, και πολλην και ελαχιστην, that in sundry respects it is both a little and a great book. This book Christ held open to his; though Antichrist hid it and shut it up in an unknown tongue for a long while. He was to them as a little sanctuary, Ezekiel 11:16 .
He set his right foot upon the sea] As Lord of sea and land, defy all heretics and Antichrists that sought to throw him out of possession. Neither the beast that ariseth out of the sea nor the other that ariseth out of the earth shall be able to do it.
a A papal decree or decretal epistle; a document issued by a Pope, containing a decree or authoritative decision on some point of doctrine or ecclesiastical law. ŒD