I have it happily in my power, to illustrate the foregoing application of the prophecy, by a very remarkable passage from Fra Paolo Sarpi, the catholic historian of the council of Trent. After narrating the events of the contest, which ended at the peace of Passau, that writer uses the following language, with respect to the restoration of the Protestant pastors. "But the war still continued "for a whole year, between different princes and "cities of the empire. It did not however prevent "the cities, from recalling every where the doctors "of the confession of Augsburg, and from restoring "to them their churches and schools, and the free "exercise of their religion. And although it might have been thought, that there remained very few "of these doctors and preachers, (who had taken

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refuge under the protection of princes,) and that "banishments and persecutions had almost ex"terminated them; yet as if they had been again "raised from the dead, a sufficient number were "found to supply all the places.

This war of the witnesses, and their death, was to take place in the broad street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. The great city is, as all writers are agreed, the Roman empire. This empire bears the name of Sodom and Egypt, on account of the wickedness of its inhabitants. Within the precincts of the empire our Lord was crucified,

* Fra Paolo Sarpi, Histoire du Concile de Trente, tom. i. P. 612.. The words of the French translation are," cependant comme s'ils "etoient resuscitez de nouveau.'

+ See the authorities produced by Mr. Faber on this point, Diss. on the 1260 years, vol. ii. p. 80, 81. 4th Ed.

since at the time of his passion Judea was a Roman province. Here also he is still crucified again every day, by the sins of those who profess themselves his disciples. The broad street of the great city mu must signify its principal kingdom, Now at the period when the events above mentioned took place, Germany was the principal kingdom, and therefore the broad street of the great city; being immediately subject to the secular head of the empire, and emphatically styled "the empire."

The agent who slew the witnesses was the beast which ascendeth out of the bottomless pit; and he is the same as Daniel's fourth beast, and represents the Roman empire.* This also confirms the above ideas respecting the death of the witnesses, as the league of Smalcalde was dissolved, and its most powerful members defeated and made prisoners, and the protestant ministers silenced, all by Charles the Fifth, at that time the secular head of the Roman empire.

We have thus seen that the events, which happened in Germany after the dissolution of the Smalcaldic league, answer in every respect to the prophetical account of the death of the witnesses, their resurrection, and ascension. First, In their chronology; they happened during the second woe, and before the arrival of the third woe. Secondly, In their geography; they happened in the chief kingdom of the Roman empire, i. e. the broad street of the great city. Thirdly, In their character and circumstances the witnesses were then politically slain, forced to desist from their testimony, and to receive * Faber's Dissertation, vol. ii. p. 65, 6

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the interim. They stood on their feet at the end of little more than three years and a half. They next ascended into the political heaven, by virtue of a solemn treaty of peace, confirmed afterwards by the Diet of the empire. The agent of their death was the beast, i. e. the secular head of the Roman empire.

It is said, however, that the witnesses ascended up to heaven in a cloud. This may signify, that though they triumphed, yet there were many circumstances which contributed to dim the lustre of their victory, and to obscure their prospects. There was much worldly policy and wisdom mingled with the religious zeal of the protestants. Many dark clouds also still hung over the protestant cause, and threatened it with new troubles.

"And the same hour," (or "the same day," as Griesbach reads), "was there a great earthquake, "and the tenth part of the city fell; and in the "earthquake were slain names of men seven thou"sand; and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second "woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh " quickly.”

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At the same period as the war of the beast with the witnesses, and their death, resurrection, and ascent into the symbolical heaven, there was a great earthquake or revolution. The reformation, and the political events which accompanied and followed it, were this great revolution, which shook the edifice of the papal power and the church of Rome to their foundations, and produced a mighty and wonderful change in the opinions of mankind, and the

state of the western empire.* During a period of more than a century and a half, Europe continued to be agitated by these events; so that, even by infidel writers, whose testimony in this respect seems worthy of particular attention, the reformation has been deemed of such vast importance as to be considered one of the greatest events in history.† In this revolution it is said, that a tenth part of the city (i. e. the papal city or anti-christian empire) fell. A tenth part of the city must signify one of the ten kingdoms into which the Roman empire was divided, after its overthrow by the Goths and Vandals. Now of these ten original kingdoms, the one in which the papal power was completely subverted by the reformation, and which thenceforth ceased to be a part of the Romish church, was England. Germany, it is true, was partially reformed, and so was France for a time; but neither of these kingdoms fell away from the Romish jurisdiction and communion. Holland also, and Scotland; as well as Denmark and Sweden, entirely shook off the papal yoke; but then they were not properly parts of the Roman empire. England, then, ap

* With regard to the political effects of the Reformation, the able French author above quoted writes as follows: "Le systême des états "modernes en fût ébranlé jusques dans ses fondemens. Durant la longue et doloreuse lutte qui s'ensuivit, tout prit une forme et une “assiette différente. Un nouvel ordre politique sortit de la fermen“tation et de la confusion générale; les divers élémens qui le composent, longtemps agités en sens divers, obéïssant enfin à la loi de gravitation du monde moral, y prìrent la place assignée par leur "poids respectifs, mais qui n'etait plus, pour la plupart, l'ancienne "place qu'ils avaient occupée."--Essai, &c. par C. Villers, p. 3. + Hume's History of England, chap. xxix.

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On more mature consideration, it strikes me as probable, that

pears to be the tenth part of the city, which fell from the Romish jurisdiction in this earthquake. The reformation in England was completed at the same period as the war between Charles the Fifth and the league of Smalcalde. The papal power and jurisdiction were indeed abolished by act of parliament in the year 1534, sometime before the above war in Germany, and the reformation in that kingdom continued to advance with gradual steps during the whole of the reign of Henry the Eighth; but it was not completed till the accession of Edward the Sixth, in 1547, the very year when Charles defeated the remnant of the Smalcaldic league at the battle of Muhlburg.

In the earthquake, or revolution, seven thousand names of men were slain. This has been generally understood by eminent expositors, as denoting the abolition either of civil or ecclesiastical, titles of distinction, or orders and offices of men: seven thousand of these are slain or destroyed, which is a mystical number, both signifying a great multitude, and also the utter and final abolition of the titles in question. And the prophecy seems to have received its accomplishment in the abolition of the monastic orders in the kingdom of England, which fell from the Romish jurisdiction in the earthquake; and likewise in such parts of Germany as embraced the reformation. Indeed, in another sense, the swarms

the whole of Great Britain, including both England and Scotland, may be intended by the tenth part of the city. The crowns of these two kingdoms were united before the earthquake of the reformation was over. The kingdoms were destined to be united at no remote period; and, thus united, to form the great bulwark of true religion and liberty in the world.