Nor need we wonder at the _lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and the earthquake, and the great hail_ that followed. For God had "promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which are not shaken may remain."[284] FOOTNOTES: [242] Zech. ii. 1, 2. [243] Ezek. xl. 2-5. [244] Zech. ii. 5. [245] Chap. xxi. 15, 17. [246] John vii. 4. [247] Ver. 2. [248] Isa. i. 13, 14. [249] John ix. 34. [250] John ix. 35. [251] Chaps. ii. 24; iii. 1, 4. [252] Comp. Matt. xxii. 14. [253] Dan. vii. 25. [254] Dan. ix. 27. [255] John xvi. 33. [256] Zech. iv. [257] John viii. 12. Comp. Matt. v. 14. [258] 2 Kings i. 10, 12. [259] Dan. iii. 22. [260] Chap. i. 16. [261] 1 Kings xvii. 1; James v. 17. [262] 1 Cor. x. 11. [263] Ver. 7. [264] John xvii. 4; xix. 30. [265] See margin of R.V. [266] Ps. cxxxii. 13, 14. [267] Isa. i. 10, 21. [268] Luke xxiii. 12. [269] Neh. viii. 10. [270] Esther ix. 22. [271] Comp. chap. v. 6. [272] Chap. iii. 21. [273] Rom. viii. 19, 21. [274] Chap. ix. 20. [275] Chaps. viii. 13; ix. 12. [276] 1 Cor. xv. 28. [277] 2 Pet. iii. 13. [278] Chap. iv. 8. [279] Comp. p. 102. [280] Isa. xlv. 15. [281] Matt. v. 8. [282] 2 Cor. vi. 16. [283] Chap. xxi. 3. [284] Heb. xii. 26, 27. CHAPTER IX. _THE FIRST GREAT ENEMY OF THE CHURCH._ REV. xii. The twelfth chapter of the Revelation of St. John has been felt by every commentator to be one more than usually difficult to interpret, and that whether we look at it in relation to its special purpose, or to its position in the structure of the book. If we can satisfy ourselves as to the first of these two points, we shall be better able to form correct notions as to the second.