. satisfactory expositor of Scripture: and such I apprehend to be the case in the present instance, Throughout the whole Apocalypse the idea of the twofold Church of Christ is accurately preserved: the Church before the advent of our Lord, and the Church after his advent; the Church founded upon the Prophets, and the Church founded upon the Apostles; Jesus Christ himself being equally the corner-stone of both. Accordingly we find, in the very beginning of the Revelation, mention made of twenty-four elders, who are represented as being in heaven, the symbol of the universal Church. Twelve of these, in allusion to the twelve Jewish patriarchs, are representatives of the pre-Christian Church: and the other twelve, in allusion to the twelve Apostles, are representatives of the post-Christian Church. Whence the mystical number of God's chosen is said to be 144,000; or twelve multiplied into twelve, and afterwards again multiplied into a thousand, to shew that the pious constitute an exceeding great multitude. Whence also the symbolical city of the Lamb, or the universal Church triumphant, is described as a perfect cube of 12,000 furlongs; having twelve gates upon which are written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and twelve foundations in which are the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. And whence lastly the faithful are represented as singing the song not only of the Lamb, but likewise of Moses the servant of God. Now, when we recollect, that the prophet begins 1 the the chapter, wherein he treats of the two witnesses, with an account of his measuring the spiritual temple: when we further consider, that St. John's imagery of the two candlesticks, and the two olive trees, is evidently taken from Zechariah's vision of the second temple*; and that he himself describes the twenty-four elders as being in the figurative heaven, or the Church general, in the same manner as the candlesticks and the olive trees were placed in the temple, which is another symbol of the spiritual Church general as contradistinguished from the outer court of mere nominal Christians: when the whole of this is duly weighed, and when the undoubted fact that St. John borrows this set of hieroglyphics from the Jewish temple and its furniture is taken into the account; I think we cannot but come to the conclusion, that the twenty. four elders, the twelve gates, and the twelve foundations of the new Jerusalem, the two olive trees, the two candlesticks, and the two witnesses, all equally signify the spiritual members of the catholic Church, considered as one great whole, though Zech, iv. 2, 3, 9, 11-14. It is evident, that the two olive trees are the same as the two candlesticks, and that they are not designed to symbolize four different particulars; because the witnesses, who are only two in number, are said to be typified not merely by the two olive trees, but likewise additionally by the two candlesticks. Whence it will follow, that the one olive tree is the same in point of sig nification as the one candlestick, and the other as the other: I have said more on this subject in my answer to Mr. Bi made up of two component parts. Not that any of the members of the pre-Christian Church literally prophesied during the 1260 years of the great Apostasy the prophet speaks only of men of a like spirit with themselves, the mystical children of the Church general now for ever united under its illustrious head, those who are Israelites indeed. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises "made. He saith not, and unto seeds, as of many; "but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ"But, before faith came, we were kept under the "law, shut up unto the faith which should after"wards be revealed-Ye are all the children of "God by faith in Christ Jesus-There is neither "Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one "in Christ Jesus. And, if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to "the promise *." 2. Mr. Galloway objects, that the two witnesses cannot be those who protested against the corruptions of Popery during the 1260 years, because they were to prophesy in sackcloth; whereas none of the reformers ever pretended to the gift of prophesy, but contented themselves with being merely preachers of God's word. In making this objection, Mr. Galloway seems to have forgotten, that in the New Testament prophesying is not unfrequently used as a mere synonym of Gal. iii. 16, 23, 26, 28, 29. preaching preaching or expounding. The 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 qoice of his two mystical prophets. Not that it was their wish to shut up heaven, or to call down * See the whole of 1 Corinth. xiv. upon which Mr. Cruden very justly remarks, "This term (prophesying) is used by St. "Paul for explaining Scripture, preaching, or speaking to the "Church in public." See also 1 Corinth. xi. 4, 5-1 Thess. v. 20 (which the margin of the Bible refers to 1 Corinth. xiv.), and Rom. xii. 6. The use of the word in this sense probably originated from the frequent appeals made by the primitive teachers to the prophets who had prophesied of Christ. See Acts ii. 14-87. iii. 18. iv. 10-13, 25-28. vii. 2–54. xxiv. 14. xxvi. 6—27. and xxviii. 23. See also the grounds of our Lord's own discourse with the two disciples at Emmaus. Luke xxiv. 25, 26, 27. and his subsequent address to the eleven and those that were with them. Ver. 44, 45, 46. "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. the 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 themselves, 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 consequential, 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 Isaiah vi. 10. caused |