229
reality not short, they who affirm that it is short, cause an arousing which is not lasting. The best consolation is in the truth itself, which, in the meantime, by the form of speech in which it is veiled, softens down the more unfavourable points which are from time to time mingled with those more joyful, as the long-continued delay in this passage. As to criticism , I have nothing here to add to the Apparatus, except the explanation of Apringius , which is as follows : But because the everlasting recompense of the saints and the damna- tion of the wicked is about to come at the last time , it was said to them that they should wait , and for the comfort of the body , etc. He makes no remark respecting the shortness of the time. Xpovov is used abso- lutely, as Iff} XP°V0V> without an epithet, Luke xviii. 4 ; on which passage E. Schmid remarks, that xpovov is frequently used absolutely also by Homer. But it is used also, Acts xix. 22, and Isa. xxvii. 11 in the Septuagint. Xpovov is the reading which is supported by the most ancient, the most numerous, and best authorities, short, natural, without any adulteration, and, as the interpretation now demonstrates from the structure of the whole book, necessarily true. D. Lange places a short time from the crying of the souls to the time of judgment and vengeance, Comm. Apoc. f. 81, and every- where. This is one of those passages, in which the labour spent by this illustrious man upon the Apocalypse would have produced greater fruits, if he had more thoroughly weighed the arguments for the true reading. The prophecy refuses shortness as applied to this time. Its subject extends itself from the time of John through the ages of the world which still remain, and which are not much fewer than those which have passed, by a continuous thread to the end of the world : and yet it shuts up many things into periods of times of considerable length , which are definitely expressed in their proper places : all other things are done lv rayt', quickly. Therefore the Lamb immediately, and in rapid succession, opens the seven seals, the fifth of which contains the souls crying out. This cry, this complaint , long afterwards, IN the same words, is transposed into a song , ch. xix. 2 ; then at length, namely, when the judgment of the saints and apostles shall be passed upon Babylon or Rome, ch. xviii. 20. Therefore two classes of martyrs are pointed out : the one under heathen Rome; the other under papal Rome. The former are ordered to take their rest until the latter are added to them : the age of John already had the former ; the thirteenth century bore the first-fruits of the latter. To the former, therefore, while they were expecting the latter, there was not (tnip'og xpovog, but
230