298 AK oelatton ofthe Apocalypfe. C A P. 9. dily flaughter, though it make farre leflè then that which was to bé after. But that they Jhouldhe tormented, that i;, the men that Want the f cne.. Here is a defedofthe Relative the). The word here ufed for tormenting,properly fignifieth to be fearched,and examined; here it fignifieth to be afflitled, or any wayes vexed, as it is commonly in the Scriptures, and elfewhere. Montanus and ?lantinesedition'reade it adively,that they may torment, which, it feemeth, they had rather reade, that the fentence mightnot run roughly ; but Arera; and the vulgar read it paflïvely, as alfo doth Theod. Beta. And it is not to no end, that there is fuch a ftidden paffage made from the azflive to the pallive, but that we might know, that this lamentable time is not to be meafuredby the fury ofthe raging enemies, but by thecalami- ty of thofe that endure their cruelty, which giveth much light for the utíderfianding of the continuanceofthis torment, ofwhich we (hall heare its the words that follow. Fivemoneths, Primafies readethfix moneths; but the Greek co- pits do withone content readfive, and fo doth the vulgar Latine. It is indeed a very obfcureplace,. and that that bath alwayes troubled the Interpreters very much : For how can fo little a fpaceof time agree to thefe Kingdomes of the Saracen; and Pa if s ? Let each day benumbred for fòmany yeeres,that five moneths fhould be equi- valent at !call to anhundred and fifty yeeres, after the manner of Scriptures in other places, as in Etechiel; Forty days;, I give thee every dayfor a yeere ; and according to the confiant cuflome of this Booke,as we fhall fhewafterwards, Godwilling; yet what is this fo fmall and narrow a place to thefe fo long and lafting tyrannies ? WhereforeBellinger, and others ofour Writers, do thinke that this number is here fet downe, as being the time ofthe hotter moneths, wherein chiefly the Locufs are wont to be in their fIrength,' in head of the whole fpace that is granted them to rage in, how great foever it be ; which opinion feemeth tome, to be likely, if the exceeding great accurateneffeof the computations which is ufed in other places 'of this Booke, did not require fome certaine and definite matter in this place allo. TheJefaits doe of fet purpofe, as I thinke, like the Fifties called Cutils,caff hikeafter them,that fo they might lurke the more fafely, whenall matters are confufed acid troubled : thefe fellowes will have fo many moneths, ordinarymoneths underflood as are fet downe, as if that denouncing of woe had been in vaine, which the Angel that fleta
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