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of Non-chronus, the Saracens were not only in possession of Jerusa- lem, but even appeared to threaten destruction to the whole of the Christian Church, as the second woe came to its height. But yet the angel affirms that these and the following evils shall be overcome within a chronus. Eudes conquered the Saracens, A. 726 ; and Charles Martel destroyed a great multitude of them, A. 731, in the battle of Tours. See Vitringci on Ap. xii. 16. Charlemagne, the grandson of Martel, A. 800, commenced a new line of emperors in the West, or, in other words, of “ many kings,” ver. 11. And this Non-chronus comprises, beside other things, a small portion of the third woe, the 3^ times of the woman in the wilderness, and the duration of the beast variously divided. There is indeed great doubt respecting these periods, and many say that nothing can be known be- fore the end ; by which very assertion the martyrs and witnesses of the truth, at the Reformation, and before and after it, who relied on the Apocalypse, and especially on ch. xiii. and xvii., are de- serted, and the principal advantage of prophecy, which fore- warns and forearms us against the evils which threaten, is made void. The truth is, that for the opening of prophecy, either the whole event is necessary, or a considerable part is sufficient. If the whole event is necessary, the Apocalypse will never be understood before the end of the world ; for the event extends itself up to that goal, nay, even to eternity itself. If a considerable part is sufficient, why do we not make use of that part, so as to measure future things by the past, and not to run into events without preparation ? The rash man is he who sleeps in danger, not he who foresees it. We ought not to be so confident in determining future things, but that the things, which the text has not defined, or at any rate the inter- preter does not as yet distinctly see, should be determined by the result. Die Erkl, Offenb. pp. 725, 874, 1064, etc., has many ex- amples. But they who avoid all particulars, do not even know what they ought to look for in the event. Docility in spiritual things, and sobriety, are in entire consonance with each other.
7. K ai ere’ksoOyi) %ai has a consecutive force, and then , as John iv. 35, in rerpdfATivog sffriy 6 6s piof/sbg spysrai. — ro /xvarijpjov — roTc <7Tpo(pr,raigj the mystery — to the prophets) D. Joach. Lange, in his Glory of Christ , has illustrated this mystery in a striking manner, by most copiously comparing the Apocalypse with the prophets of the Old Testament. But we have shown the time of the completion of this mystery, lately at ver. 6, and in other places repeatedly. It wras not only announced by prophets, but also to the prophets themselves : Dan. x. 12.
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