The Dark Day of May 19th, 1780 (3)

  The time of this extraordinary darkness, was May 19, 1780. It came on between hours of ten and eleven, A. M. and continued until the middle of the next night; but with different appearances at different places. [...] The degree to which the darkness arose, was different in different places. In most parts of the country it was so great, that people were unable to read common print—determine the time of day by their clocks or watches—dine—or manage their domestic business, without the light of candles. In some places, the darkness was so great, that persons could not see to read common print in the open air, for several hours together: but I believe this was not generally the case. The extent of this darkness was very remarkable. Our intelligence, in this respect, is not so particular as I could wish: but from the accounts that have been received, it seems to have extended all over the New-England states. It was observed as far east as Falmouth [Portland, Maine].—To the westward, we hear of its reaching to the furthest parts of Connecticut, and Albany —To the southward, it was observed all along the sea-coasts:—and to the north, as far as our settlements extend. It is probable it extended much beyond these limits, in some directions: but the exact boundaries cannot be ascertained by any observations that I have been able to collect. With regard to its duration, it continued in this place at least fourteen hours: but it is probable this was not exactly the same in different parts of the country. The appearance and effects were such as tended to make the prospect extremely dull and gloomy. Candles were lighted up in the houses;—the birds having sung their evening songs, disappeared, and became silent;—the fowls retired to roost;—the cocks were crowing all around, as at break of day;—objects could not be distinguished but at a very little distance; and every thing bore the appearance and gloom of night.

Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. 1, 1785, pp. 234-235.

The Meteor Shower of November 12-13, 1833

  [...] the most sublime phenomenon of shooting stars, of which the world has furnished any record, was witnessed throughout the United States on the morning of the 13th of November, 1833. The entire extent of this astonishing exhibition has not been precisely ascertained, but it covered no inconsiderable portion of the earth's surface. [...]

  [...] the first appearance was that of fireworks of the most imposing grandeur, covering the entire vault of heaven with myriads of fire-balls, resembling sky-rockets. Their coruscations were bright, gleaming and incessant, and they fell thick as the flakes in the early snows of December.

  To the splendors of this celestial exhibition, the most brilliant sky-rockets and fireworks of art bear less relation than the twinkling of the most tiny star to the broad glare of the sun. The whole heavens seemed in motion, and suggested to some the awful grandeur of the image employed in the apocalypse, upon the opening of the sixth seal, when "the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind."

Burritt, Elijah Hinsdale, The Geography of the Heavens, grt. enl., rev., and ill. by Hiram Mattison, New York: Mason Brothers; Cincinnati: Rickey, Mallory & Co., 1860, p. 157.

The Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 (2)

The great earthquake of 1755 extended over a tract of at least four millions of square miles. Its effects were even extended to the waters, in many places where the shocks were not perceptible. It pervaded the greater portions of the continents of Europe, Africa, and America; but its extreme violence was exercised on the southwestern part of the former.

Sears, Robert, The Wonders of the World, in Nature, Art, and Mind, New York: published by Robert Sears, 1843, p. 50.

In Africa this earthquake was felt almost as severely as it had been in Europe. A great part of the city of Algiers was destroyed. Many houses were thrown down at Fez and Mequinez, and multitudes were buried beneath their ruins. Similar eflfects were realized in Morocco. Its eflfects were likewise felt at Tangier, at Tetuan, at Funchal in the island of Madeira; [...] it is probable [...] that all Africa was shaken by this tremendous convulsion. At the north it extended to Norway and Sweden; Germany, Holland, France, Great Britain, and Ireland were all more or less agitated by the same great and terrible commotion of the elements.

Sears, Robert, The Wonders of the World, in Nature, Art, and Mind, New York: published by Robert Sears, 1843, p. 58.

The city of Lisbon [...] Previous to that calamity [...] contained about [...] 150,000 inhabitants [...]. [...] Mr. Barretti says, "that 90,000 persons are supposed to have been lost on that fatal day. [...]"

Sears, Robert, The Wonders of the World, in Nature, Art, and Mind, New York: published by Robert Sears, 1843, p. 381.

The Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 (1)

In no part of the volcanic region of Southern Europe has so tremendous an earthquake occurred in modern times as that which began on the 1st of November, 1755, at Lisbon. A sound of thunder was heard underground, and immediately afterwards a violent shock threw down the greater part of that city. In the course of about six minutes, sixty thousand persons perished. The sea first retired and laid the bar dry; it then rolled in, rising fifty feet above its ordinary level. The mountains of Arrabida, Estrella, Julio, Marvan, and Cintra, being some of the largest in Portugal, were impetuously shaken, as it were, from their very foundations; and some of them opened at their summits, which were split and rent in a wonderful manner, huge masses of them being thrown down into the subjacent valleys. Flames are related to have issued from these mountains, which are supposed to have been electric; they are also said to have smoked; but vast clouds of dust may have given rise to this appearance.
[...]
The great area over which this Lisbon earthquake extended is very remarkable. The movement was most violent in Spain, Portugal, and the north of Africa; but nearly the whole of Europe, and even the West Indies, felt the shock on the same day. A seaport called St. Ubes, about twenty miles south of Lisbon, was engulfed. At Algiers and Fez, in Africa, the agitation of the earth was equally violent; and at the distance of eight leagues from Morocco, a village with the inhabitants, to the number of about eight or ten thousand persons, together with all their cattle, were swallowed up. Soon after, the earth closed again over them.
The shock was felt at sea, on the deck of a ship to the west of Lisbon, and produced very much the same sensation as on dry land. Off St. Lucar, the captain of the ship Nancy felt his vessel so violently shaken, that he thought she had struck the ground, but, on heaving the lead, found a great depth of water. Captain Clark, from Denia, in latitude 36° 24' N., between nine and ten in the morning, had his ship shaken and strained as if she had struck upon a rock. Another ship, forty leagues west of St Vincent, experienced so violent a concussion, that the men were thrown a foot and a half perpendicularly up from the deck. In Antigua and Barbadoes, as also in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Holland, Corsica, Switzerland, and Italy, tremors and slight oscillations of the ground were felt.
The agitation of lakes, rivers and springs in Great Britain was remarkable. At Loch Lomond, in Scotland, for example, the water, without the least apparent cause, rose against its banks, and then subsided below its usual level. The greatest perpendicular height of this swell was two feet four inches. It is said that the movement of this earthquake was undulatory, and that it travelled at the rate of twenty miles a minute. A great wave swept over the coast of Spain, and is said to have been sixty feet high at Cadiz. At Tangier, in Africa, it rose and fell eighteen times on the coast; at Funchal, in Madeira, it rose full fifteen feet perpendicular above high-water mark, although the tide, which ebbs and flows there seven feet, was then at half-ebb. Besides entering the city and committing great havoc, it overflowed other seaports in the island. At Kinsale, in Ireland, a body of water rushed into the harbour, whirled round several vessels, and poured into the marketplace.

Spofford, Ainsworth Rand and Charles Gibbon, The Library of Choice Literature, Philadelphia: Gebbie & Co.,  1882, vol. 7, pp. 162-163.

The Ottoman Turks Make Their First Attack on the Eastern Roman Empire

It was on the twenty-seventh of July, in the year twelve hundred and ninety-nine of the Christian aera, that Othman first invaded the territory of Nicomedia; and the singular accuracy of the date seems to disclose some foresight of the rapid and destructive growth of the monster.

Gibbon, Edward, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 6 vols., London: A. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1788, v. 6, p. 311.

The Extent of the Meteor Shower of November 12-13, 1833

The shower [of meteors on Nov. 12-13, 1833] pervaded nearly the whole of North America, having appeared in nearly equal splendor from the British possessions on the north to the West-India Islands and Mexico on the south, and from sixty-one degrees of longitude east of the American coast, quite to the Pacific Ocean on the west. Throughout this immense region, the duration was nearly the same. [...]

Soon after this remarkable occurrence, it was ascertained that a similar meteoric shower had appeared in 1799, [...] on the morning of the twelfth of November; and [...] on the morning of the same thirteenth of November, in 1830, 1831, and 1832.

Olmsted, Denison, Letters on Astronomy Addressed to a Lady, Boston: Marsh, Capen, Lyon, and Webb, 1841, pp. 348-349.

The Dark Day of May 19th, 1780 (2)

You will readily recollect that, previously to the commencement of the darkness, the sky was overcast with the common kind of clouds, from which there was, in some places, a light sprinkling of rain. Between these and the earth there intervened another stratum, to appearance, of very great thickness. As this stratum advanced, the darkness commenced, and increased with its progress till it came to its height; which did not take place till the hemisphere was a second time overspread. [...]

[...]

[...] The rays, that fortunately effected their passage through the first, were [...] turned out of their direct course, so that they must have struck upon the second very obliquely. [...] The Wonder is much greater, that any of them were able to penetrate. [...]

The darkness of the following evening was probably as gross as ever has been observed since the Almighty fiat gave birth to light. It wanted only palpability to render it as extraordinary, as that which over spread the land of AEgypt in the days of Moses. [...] I could not help conceiving at the time, that if every luminous body in the universe had been shrouded in impenetrable shades, or struck out of existence,  the darkness could not have been more complete. A sheet of white paper held within a few inches of the eyes was equally invisible with the blackest velvet. Considering the small quantity of light that was transmitted by the clouds, by day, it is not surprising that, by night, a sufficient quantity of rays should not be able to penetrate the same strata, brought back by the shifting of the winds, to afford the most obscure prospect even of the best reflecting bodies.

Letter of Samuel Tenney (an eye-witness at Rowley [Mass.?]), dated Exeter [N.H.?], Dec., 1785, in

Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, For the Year 1792, vol. 1, Boston: Munroe & Francis, printers to the Historical Society, 1806, pp. 95, 97, 98.

The Dark Day of May 19th, 1780 (1)

The 19th of May, 1780, was a remarkable dark day. Candles were lighted in many houses; the birds were silent and disappeared, and the fowls retired to roost. The legislature of Connecticut was then in session at Hartford. A very general opinion prevailed, that the day of judgment was at hand. The House of Representatives, being unable to transact their business, adjourned. A proposal to adjourn the Council was under consideration. When the opinion of Colonel Davenport was asked, be answered, 'I am against an adjournment. The day of judgment is either approaching, or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for an adjournment: if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be brought.'

Barber, John Warner, Connecticut Historical Collections, 2 ed., New Haven, Connecticut: Durrie & Peck and J. W. Barber, 1837, p. 403.

The French Revolution Predicted One Hundred Years in Advance (2)

'Tis to be observed, that in the Text, 'tis not in the streets, in the plural, as the French translation reads; 'tis in the street, in the singular. And I cannot hinder my self from believing, that this hath a particular regard to France, which at this day is certainly the most eminent Countrey, which belongs to the popish Kingdom. Her King is called the eldest Son of the Church, the most Christian King, i. e. the most popish, according to the dialect of Rome. The Kings of France have by their liberalities made the Popes great at this day; it is the most flourishing State of Europe. It is in the middle of the popish Empire, betwixt Italy, Spain, Germany, England, exactly as a street or place of concourse is in the middle of a City. [...] In a word, 'tis the place or street of the great City. And I believe, that 'tis particularly in France, that the witnesses must remain dead; i.e. that the profession of the true Religion must be utterly abolisht.

Jurieu, Peter, The Accomplishment of the Scripture Prophecies, 2 vols., London: printed in the year 1687, vol. 2, ch. 13, pp. 247-248.

The Meaning of the Name 'Jezebel'

Jezebel, chaste.

'Jezebel,' An Interpreting Dictionary of Scripture Proper Names found in

Roswell D. Hitchcock, Hitchcock's New and Complete Analysis of the Holy Bible, New York: A. J. Johnson, 1871, p. 1109.

The Meaning of the Name 'Cozbi'

Cozbi, a liar; [...]

'Cozbi,' An Interpreting Dictionary of Scripture Proper Names found in

Roswell D. Hitchcock, Hitchcock's New and Complete Analysis of the Holy Bible, New York: A. J. Johnson, 1871, p. 1106.

The French Revolution Predicted One Hundred Years in Advance

Now what is this tenth part of this City, which shall fall? In my opinion, we cannot doubt that 'tis France. This Kingdom is the most considerable part, or piece of the ten horns, or States, which once made up the great Babylonian City [...] This tenth part of the City shall fall, with respect to the Papacy; it shall break with Rome, and the Roman Religion.

Jurieu, Peter, The Accomplishment of the Scripture Prophecies, 2 vols., London: printed in the year 1687, vol. 2, ch. 13, p. 265.

Occurrence of "bottomless pit" (αβυσσος) in the Book of Revelation

αβυσσος, abussos
Rev. 9:1 ...
           2 ...
           11 ...
       11:7 ...
       17:8 ...
       20:1 ...
            3 ...

The Englishman's Greek Concordance of the New Testament, 6th ed., London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1870, p. 1.

Occurrence of "army" (στράτευμα) in the Book of Revelation

στράτευμα, stratūma
Rev. 9:16 ...
       19:14 ...
            19 ...

The Englishman's Greek Concordance of the New Testament, 6th ed., London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1870, page 700.

The Roman Catholic Church and the Roman Empire

And if a man consider the original of this great ecclesiastical dominion, he will easily perceive that the Papacy is no other than the “ghost” of the deceased “Roman empire,” sitting crowned upon the grave thereof. For so did the Papacy start up on a sudden out of the ruins of that heathen power.

Hobbes, Thomas, Leviathan or The Matter, Form and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil, 2nd Ed, London: George Routledge and Sons, 1886, p. 313.

The United States and the Catholic Church: Archbishop Quigley, 1903

“When the United States rules the world the Catholic Church will rule the world.”

Archbishop Quigley, The Chicago Tribune, May 5, 1903.

quoted in Jeremiah J. Crowley, Romanism: A Menace to the Nation, Aurora, Missouri: The Menace Publishing, 1912, p. 573.

Christ, our High Priest, in Revelation: Matthew Henry

1. He was clothed with a garment down to the foot, a princely and priestly robe, denoting righteousness and honour. 2. He was girt about with a golden girdle, the breast-plate of the high-priest, on which the names of his people are engraven; he was ready girt to do all the work of a Redeemer.

Matthew Henry's commentary on Revelation 1:9-20

(Henry, Matthew, An Exposition, 5 Vols., London: for W. Baynes by W. Lochhead, 1804-1806, vol. 5, p. 664.) 

Christ, our High Priest, in Revelation: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown

down to the foot -- ... The garment and girdle seem to be emblems of His priesthood. Cf. Exodus28. 2, 4, 31; LXX. ... His being in the midst of the candlesticks (only seen in the temple), shows that it is as a king-priest He is so attired.

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's commentary on Revelation 1:13, "down to the foot"

(Jamieson, Robert, Fausset, A. R., & Brown, David, A Commentary, 4 Vols, Toledo, Ohio: Jerome B. Names, 1883-1884, New Testament, vol. 2, p. 515.)

John's Vision of Christ

10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, 11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. 12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; 13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. 16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. 17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. ...

Revelation 1:10-17

Magic Square of the Sun: Cornelius Aggrippa (1550)

The fourth table is of the Sun, and is made of a square of six, and contains thirty six numbers, whereof six in every side, and Diameter, produce 111, and the sum of all is 666. ... This being engraven on a Golden plate... [See table on page 246.]

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, London: Gregory Moule, 1651, pp. 240, 241, 243, 246.

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, De Occulta Philosophia,1550.