prophesying therefore of the two witnesses is nothing more than their zealous avowal of the principles of the Gospel; their shutting of heaven, so that it rain not in the days of their prophecy, is the shutting up the temple or spiritual Church, so that the dew of God's word and spirit should not descend upon the apostate inhabitants of the Roman earth *; and their power of smiting the earth with diverse plagues means, that all the various plagues denounced in the Apocalypse, blood, slaughter, and desolation, should, in the course of God's just judgments, be the consequence of men's slighting the warning voice of his two mystical prophets. Not that it was their wish to shut up heaven, or to call down the vengeance of the Almighty upon earth; their desire was to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins: the fire of God's wrath would never have proceeded out of their mouth; they never would have had occasion to denounce his righteous indignation against sin; if they of the Apostasy would have reformed them

Rain," says Sir Isaac Newton, "if not immoderate, and "dew, and living water, are put for the graces and doctrines of the "Spirit; and the defect of rain, for spiritual barrenness.” (Observ, on Dan. and Rev. p. 19.) Heaven, or the temple, or the spiritual Church, is shut at the commencement of the 1260 days when the witnesses begin to prophesy in sackcloth and it is afterwards opened again at the sounding of the seventh trumpet and immediately before the commencement of the seven vials (Rev. xi. 15, 19. xv. 5-8.). The 1260 days however not having then expired, we are told, that, open as it was, no man could enter into it until the plagues of the vials were accomplished, or, in other words, until the expiration of the 1260 days.

selves, instead of hurting or persecuting the two witnesses. When it is said therefore, that they have. power to shut heaven, to turn the waters into blood, to smite the earth with plagues, and to dart from their mouth consuming fire; these expressions must all be understood, not in a causal, but in a conse quential, sense: for the commission, given to the two figurative prophets, is, in point of its proper mode of interpretation, exactly analogous to the charge which God delivered to Isaiah: "Make the "heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, " and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, "and hear with their ears, and understand with "their heart, and convert, and be healed *." In perfect strictness of speech, Isaiah was no more able to inflict the plague of spiritual stupidity; than the two prophets of the Apocalypse were, that of spiritual barrenness and natural calamities. Both the passages must be explained exactly upon the same principle: the judgments, which these prophets were severally impowered to inflict, were not caused by them as active agents, but were the consequence of their ministry being slighted. In this sense we are authorised by inspired authority to interpret the charge given to Isaiah †: consequently, by a parity of reasoning, we are at liberty to explain the powers committed to the two apocalyptic prophets, in a similar manner.

Isaiah vi. 10.

+ See Matt. xiii. 15. and Acts xxviii. 27.

3. It

It is very justly remarked by Bp. Newton, when comment.

3. It is not unworthy of remark, that the two witnesses are described as having only one mouth*. This circumstance at once shews that they are mystical, not literal, characters; and serves to demonstrate the propriety of the foregoing explanation. The pre-Christian and the post-Christian Church, forming jointly the Church-general, have but one mouth, testifying and declaring the same simple road to salvation through the alone sacrifice of Christ. In the strictly scriptural words of the Anglican church already cited," although the an"cient patriarchs were not named Christian men, yet was it a Christian faith that they had; for they looked for all benefits of God the Father, "through the merits of his Son Jesu Christ, as we ❝ do now. This difference is between them and us, "that they looked when Christ should come, and 66 we be in the time when he is come t."

III." And, when they shall draw near to the "close of their testimony ‡, the beast, that ascend

eth

ing upon this very passage, that "in Scripture language the "prophets are often said to do those things, which they declare " and foretell."

* Rev. xi. 5.

The same sound doctrine is set forth in the article; "The "Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the "Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind

by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man, being both God and man.' ." Thus have the two witnesses only one mouth, with which they unanimously protest against the host of mediators venerated by them of the Apostasy,

Such is certainly the proper translation of the Aorist

τελέσωσι

"eth out of the abyss shall make war against them, And

and shall overcome them, and kill them. "their dead bodies shall lie in the broad 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 a 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; be"cause these two prophets tormented them that "dwelt 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 which 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."

Tiowo. The subjunctive mood of the first Aorist generally bears a kind of future signification: and the context amply shews, that such must be its meaning in the present instance. The witnesses were to prophesy during the whole 1260 years, which are commensurate with the two first woe-trumpets and the greatest part of the third. At the time of this event, they were only under the second woe-trumpet (See Rev. xi. 7—12. and 14, 15.): consequently they could not have finished their testimony, as our translation erroneously represents them to have done; because they were to continue prophesying to the very end of the 1260 "Cum finituri sint testimonium suum (sic enim las Two vertendum, non de præterito, cum finierint). Mede's Comment. Apoc. in loc. 1. Prophecy,

years.

1. Prophecy, as it might be naturally expected, dwells only upon great and prominent circumstances; were it otherwise constructed, the whole world could not contain the volumes, which it would occupy. We must inquire therefore, what circumstance in the history of the two witnesses is of a sufficiently definite nature, that is to say, differs sufficiently from all other persecutions which they underwent, to occasion it to be described under the allegory of their being put to death.

(1.) In prosecuting this inquiry, the first point necessary to be considered is the nature of the death, which the two witnesses are represented as undergoing. In the language of prophecy, to die signifies to cease to be whatever a person was before such death*. The death of the witnesses therefore denotes their ceasing to be witnesses: and, since this death is manifestly a violent one, since they are said to have been slain by the beast; the import of the prediction is, that the power symbolized by the beast

* "Mori ea notione dicitur, qui in quocunque statu constitutus, sive Politico sive Ecclesiastico, seu quovis alio, desinit cc esse quod fuit; unde et occîdit qui tali morte quemquam "afficit" (Mede's Comment. Apoc, in myst. duor. test.). This excellent definition of Mr. Mede's shews the propriety of the distinction which I have made between the death of the third part of men or the eastern Roman empire, and the death of the Roman beast. Death in both cases signifies the causing them to cease to be what they were before. Hence the death of a community is the causing a community to cease from existing as a community; and the death of a beast is the causing a beast or idolatrous empire to cease from existing as a beast or idolatrous empire.

should