Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

years were only to be confidered as a part of it. They muft, therefore, moft obviously, relate to the beginning of thofe events, which was to be almost directly after the Prophecy was given. And the primary meaning of this verfe, most apparent to common fenfe, feems to be:

Bleffed is he that readeth, (or rightly apprehendeth,) and they that hear the words of the Prophecy, and that (mark and) obferve the things written in it. For the time is at hand: the time of the beginning of the events defcribed is at hand, now immediately. And the Prophecy is not to be confidered as relating merely to future ages; but, in every fucceffive age and period, the time is at hand to every attentive and intelligent reader: becaufe ftill fome one of the fucceffive events herein defcribed is coming immediately to pass, and that continually, till the final end of all things. And, even the great confummation of all, confidering the juft comparison of the du ration of this world with the ages of eternity, is at band alfo.

SEC

SECTION X.

CONCERNING

THE SARACEN,

AND

TURKISH POWERS;

As understood to have been Emblematically Prophefied of,

BY

THE PROPHET DANIEL.

VOL. II.

458. καὶ ἐγένον]ο φωναὶ μεγάλαι ἐν τῷ ἐρανῷ, λέγοντες· Ἐγένειο ἡ βασιλεία τε κόσμε, τῇ Κυρίς ἡμῶν, καὶ τᾶ Χριςᾶ αὐτῶ, καὶ βασιλεύσει εἰς τὰς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων.

16. Καὶ οἱ ἔκοσι [καὶ] τέσσαρες πρεσβύτεροι οἱ ἐνώπιον τ8 Θεᾶ κάθηναι ἐπὶ τὲς θρόνες αὑτῶν, ἔπεσαν ἐπὶ τὰ πρόσωπα αὐτῶν, καὶ προσεκύνησαν τῷ Θεῷ,

17. λέγοντες· Εὐχαρις μέν σοι, Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς ὁ παντοκράτωρ, ὁ ὢν, καὶ ὁ ἦν, [καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος·] ὅτι ἔληφας τὴν δύναμίν σε τὴν μεγάλην, καὶ ἐβασίλευσας.

18. Καὶ τὰ ἔθνη ὠργίσθησαν, καὶ ἦλθεν ἡ ὀργή σα· καὶ ὁ καιρὸς τῶν νεκρῶν, κριθῆν ναι, καὶ δῆναι τὸν μισθὸν τοῖς δέλοις σε τοῖς προφήταις, καὶ τοῖς ἁγίοις καὶ τοῖς φοβεμένοις τὸ ὄνομά σε, τοῖς μικροῖς καὶ τοῖς μεγάλοις· καὶ διαφθείραι τὲς διαφθεί βονας τὴν γῆν.

19. Καὶ ἠνοίγη ὁ ναὸς τῇ Θεᾶ ἐν τῷ ἐρανῷ, καὶ ὤφθη ἡ κιβω]ὸς τῆς διαθήκης αὐτῷ ἐν τῷ ναῷ αὐτῷ· καὶ ἐγένοντο ἀσραπαὶ

και

καὶ φωναὶ καὶ βρονταὶ καὶ σεισμὸς, καὶ χάλαζα μεγάλη.

15. And the feventh Angel founded, and there were great voices in the heaven, faying, The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Anointed; and He fball reign THROUGH THE AIONS OF AIONS.

16. And the four-and-twenty elders (or nobles, and first born), who were fitting be

fore

*It is very ftrange indeed, and a most astonishing instance of human perverseness, that the words elders, first born, and elect, (ufed in Holy Scripture,) fhould have become words of contempt, in the apprehenfion of several modern writers; and a ground for blafphemous reproaches against the word of God, and against the fervants of God: when, in fact, those words (expreffing degrees of dignity in heaven, and in a future ftate,) are manifeftly most confiftent with, as well as used in perfect conformity to, the ideas to which we are most accustomed in this world. For elders means plainly those who are of the first and most ancient origin, and who can trace and fhew a descent before and beyond others; which is exactly agreeable to our idea on earth, of being of the firft families. First born as plainly denotes the being first produced, or being the eldest branch of any rank or eftate; which is also confonant to the idea of being the head of any family. And elect means, as clearly, the having an advantage given to any one, and a certain dignity bestowed upon any one, for wife and good reafons, and from fufficient motives, by

the

« ForrigeFortsett »