Do the preceding passages furnish a clue to the events in Rev. xi, 7, relative to the slaying of the two witnesses? The striking coincidence between the former and the latter has forced a conviction on my mind, which I cannot relate without sensible concern. Alas! I had long hoped, that the slaying of the witnesses was a past event. I well knew that some good men are of opinion that it is still future. But others have in this differed from them; and have indulged the pleasing hope, that the most fiery trials of the Church are past; and that she is henceforth to enjoy greater and greater degrees of prosperity, till she reaches her millennial glory. I had fondly embraced this opinion; and was pleased when I found arguments adduced in favor of it. May the King of Zion mercifully grant, if it accord with his holy plan, that this may yet prove to be the case! But attention to the subject has constrained me to doubt of the correctness of the sentiment, that the slaying of the witnesses is a past event. I have turned to the arguments of those, who view it thus; and I cannot on the whole feel satisfied with them, or deem them conclusive. May the friends of Zion examine the subject with devout attention!

And when they (the two witnesses) shall have finished their testimony, the beast, that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies, three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.* And they, that dwell upon the earth, shall rejoice over

*The witnesses lie dead three days and an half, probably meaning three years and an half. Was not this event prefigured by the abominable desolation made upon the Jewish church, by the typical Antiochus? Bp. Newton observes, that "the desolation of the temple and the taking away of the daily sacrifice by Appollonius (the commissioner of Antiochus) continued three years and an half." Vol. i, p. 310.

them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to anoth-er; because these two prophets tormented them, that dwell on the earth. And after three days and an half, the spirit of life from God entered into them; and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them, who saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven, saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

Upon the question, Who are the witnesses? much has been said. Some have supposed them to be the two Testaments. This appears irrational. We find no other instance, in which one of the Testaments is personified, or represented as God's witness. Bp. Newton thought the two witnesses to represent the few faithful followers of Christ through the 1260 years. Mr. Faber thinks them to mean the twofold Church of the Old and New Testaments. Some have supposed them to mean a Christian magistracy and ministry. Pool's continuators understood by them the faithful Gospel ministry. They observe that Christ first sent out his ministers two and two; and note, that the embassadors of Christ are called witnesses, in many sacred passages. And ye are witnesses of these things.* And ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.† These were the last words spoken by Christ on earth. Addressing his ministers, after having told them before, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, he now, the moment he ascended, tells them, they shall be his witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Accordingly we abundantly find them afterward so denominated. One must be ordained to be a witness with us of the resurrection. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses.§ Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us. Does not the clause, I will give power

+Acts i, 8.

*Luke xxiv, 48. Acts i, 22. §Acts ii, 32. Acts x, 41. See also Acts iii, 15, and iv, 33, and v, 32, and x, 39, and xxii, 15, and xxvi, 16, 1 Peter V, 1.

unto my two witnesses, imply, that they are persons known by this appellation? But who are so well known by this appellation, as the true ministers of Christ? The prophesying of the witnesses, Dr. Lowman observes, "signifies persons full of the Spirit of God; preaching God's word, and bearing witness to the truth."* The witnesses are called, the two prophets, who tormented them, that dwell on the earth. But who else answer so well to this description, as do the faithful preachers of the Gospel? "These (says the Revelator) are the two olive trees."-This relates to Zech. iv, 3, 11, 14. The two olive trees there (one on each side of the candlestick) are supposed to have been Joshua and Zerubbabel, who unitedly prefigured Christ; and who, Pool supposes, prefigured also the embassadors of Christ. These (said the angel to Zechariah) are the two anointed ones, (sons of oil, Heb.) that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. The gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, are represented by an anointing with oil. And the ascension-gifts of Christ to his embassadors, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ, render it fit for them to be called olive trees, or sons of oil. Thus reference appears to be had, in the witnesses, more immediately to the ministers of Christ.

But the witnesses are also the two candlesticks. A candlestick is a noted emblem of the church. The seven candlesticks which thou sawest, are the seven churches. Doubtless the true members of Christ are not to be excluded from constituting the witnesses. They are cordially united in the same cause with their pastors. And though special reference is had to the latter, in the description of the witnesses, yet all the true Church are to be viewed as included.

But why are the witnesses said to be two? Reply. Two witnesses constitute a complete testimony. At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. Two were essential to the scriptural validity of testimony. And God never left himself without Rev. i, 20.

*On Rev. p. 109. +Rev. xi, 10.

a competent testimony from his followers among men. In the darkest times, his number of witnesses was indeed small; but always competent. And no doubt it is a fact, as Mr. Faber observes, that in this small number of the true followers of Christ, was in a sense contained the essence of the Church of the Old and New TestaWhether some reference be not had to this circumstance, in the dual number of the witnesses, I would not decide.

ments.

If the slaying of the witnesses be future, whether any circumstance may be found to exist at that time, of the Church being found in two general local divisions, which may afford an additional illustration relative to the number two, events will determine.

Concerning the slaying of the witnesses, authors have been much divided. It would be tedious, and needless to hint their different schemes, and the proper objections to them. I will mention the scheme of a late celebrated author upon the point, and my objections to it.

His scheme is this; that the witnesses were slain in Germany, in 1547; when the two German princes, the Elector of Saxony, and the Landgrave of Hesse, sometime after the commencement of the reformation, were overcome at Muhlberg, in a battle with the Emperor of Germany, and were forced to submit at discretion. Several years before this event, these German princes, and some others, espoused the cause of the reformation. They by an association, called the league of Smalkalde, gave a kind of political life to the Protestants in Germany; which, at the defeat above noted, was taken from them; and the cause of the reformation in Germany, seemed to be lost. But the reformers again stood upon their feet in 1550, by defeating the duke of Mecklenburg; and in 1552 a peace was ratified at Passau, and confirmed at Augsburg in 1555, by which the Protestants in Germany were allowed the free exercise of their religion. And the Church, according to this author, then ascended to her political heaven.

Against this scheme, the following objections appear to me of weight;

1. Those events were inadequate to a fulfilment of the prediction; and in some things contrary to it.

One would think so much importance could not be attached to the political privileges obtained, and for some years enjoyed by the Protestants in Germany, as that the interruption of those privileges, for several years, should be represented, in ancient prophecy, as the slaying of God's witnesses? The witnesses had lived, and prophesied, without those privileges, through all the preceding ages of their testimony, till within a few years of their defeat at Mulhberg. And if they were alive before those privileges were obtained, why not equally alive, after they were taken from them? Indeed if the throwing of the Protestant churches now, in the vast Christian world, into a similar situation with that of the reformers in Germany, after the battle of Mulhberg, might amply amount to what was designed in ancient prophecy by the slaying of the witnesses; it does not hence follow, that the above event in Germany was adequate to a fulfilment of that prophecy.

It is evident that the slaying, the lying dead, and the resurrection, of the witnesses, are represented in the prophecy as events of extensive and great moment. And they of the people, and kindred, and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they, that dwell upon the earth, shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them, that dwell on the earth. What kindreds, and tongues, and nations took so great delight in the defeat of the German Protestant at Mulhberg? Wherein did they rejoice, and make merry, and send gifts one to another? How long had the people, who dwelt on the earth, the kindred, and nations, and tongues, been tormented by the German Protestants? What were the emotions in fact excited among the catholic nations on that occasion? They were the very reverse of the joy and triumph indicated in the prophecy, upon the slaying of the witnesses.* Upon the dis

*See vol. iii, p. 368, of Robertson's Hist. Charles V.