The fire proceeding out of their mouth is their word, by which they call for fire to come and devour their enemies, as Elijah did. I Kings i. 10. They will be invested with miraculous powers more than any of their predecessors, so that they have not only power to shut heaven that it rain not in the days of their prophecy, but "have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with ALL PLAGUES as often as they will." ver. 6. Had ever any two persecuted men or oppressed churches power to do these things? Let history decide.

But "when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, shall make war against them, and kill them.' ver. 7. The beast above mentioned, is the last form of civil despotism, under its eighth head, to whom the ten kings shall give their power and strength. It is said he shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition. xvii. 8—11. 13. 17. He and his agents will make war against the witnesses, and overcome them and kill them: yet they will not bury them, but leave them in some public place as trophies of their victory. "And their dead bodies shall lie in the streets of the great city, which on account of her wickedness is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, but literally Jerusalem; and lest we should not recognise it under these new

names, it is added, "where also our Lord was crucified," and who does not know that was Jerusalem? The peoples, and nations, and kindreds, and tongues, who would not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves, I consider to be all the nations composing the Gog and Magog army of Ezekiel; (chap. xxxviii. 8. 15—17.) the nations described by Joel, chap. iii. 2. 9-11. and Zech. ii. 3. and the kings of the earth, even of the whole world collected at Armageddon, and about Jerusalem, as foretold by the Apostle John. Rev. xvi. 14-16. The kings and generals of this army assembled in Palestine, under the direction of the beast that came out of the bottomless pit, esteeming the death of these two witnesses the earnest of their future triumphs, will begin to make merry, and send gifts one to another, on account of the death of the two prophets, who had tormented them. But the triumphing of the wicked is short, "After three days and an half the spirit of 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. the same voice which arrested Saul of Tarsus in his mad career of persecution, and directed him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, and which will from the throne of judgment say to his people, come ye blessed of my Father.

It was

This voice will call these two witnesses, saying "Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them." Woe to the confederate armies, they have not time to adopt new measures, nor to escape the impending judgments denounced upon them by the two witnesses, for in the "same hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake there were slain about 7,000 men;" and though the former plagues had not humbled them, and brought them to repent of their deeds, it was not so now, "for the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven."

These appear to me to be the events predicted in the little open book, which is considered by the figurative commentators as the most mysterious part of the Revelation, and it really is so with their views of the subject. They cast a mystic vail over the two witnesses, so that nobody can tell who they are. Some say they are Enoch and Elijah; others, John Huss and Jerome of Prague; some say they are priests and magistrates, others the Waldenses and Albigenses; while other as positively assert they are the Old and New Testaments. Some say they are the Jewish and Christian churches; others think that the number two does not intend that exact number.* But while they are.

* 8ee Poole on the place.

contemplated through the mystic vail, no man can tell who they are, whether they are dead or alive, in earth or in heaven.

From a review of the whole prophecy of the witnesses, I believe they will be two individual persons; I feel persuaded they have not began to prophesy, and am confident they have not been slain. And I think it may be proved from the account given of them, that these things will take place near the close of the sixth Trumpet, which concludes with "a great earthquake." When these events have transpired, it may be said with great propriety, "The second woe is past, behold the third woe cometh quickly." ver. 14.

THE SEVENTH TRUMPET.

"And the seventh angel sounded and there were great voices in heaven, saying the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever." This trumpet ushers in the most interesting and important events recorded on the prophetic page, even the second Advent of Christ to possess the kingdoms of this world as his own property, and to take to himself his great power, as King of kings and Lord of lords; and at the same time to judge the angry nations who are assembled against Jerusalem, in the valley of Decision and that of Megiddo, and

in other parts of the world, and to "destroy them that destroy the earth." It is evident from many passages of sacred scripture that the resurrection of the pious dead will be at the second Advent. So it is here asserted, that the time when the anger of the nations is roused against the Lord, is the time of judgment for the pious dead, "when he shall give reward unto his servants the prophets, and to the saints and to those that fear his name, both

small and great. Here is no mention of the judgment of the wicked dead, nor of the righteous living, but only of the dead saints, and the angry nations who are to be judged and destroyed, amidst "lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake and great hail." The same judgment is more fully described under the sixth seal, chap. vi. 12--17. and under the seventh vial, xvi. 15--21. and in immediate connexion with the coming of Christ, "Behold I come quickly;" and also at large by the Old Testament prophets. Isa. xxviii. 21. 22. Ezek. xxxviii. Dan. vii. 22-28. Joel iii. Zeph. iii. 8. Zech. xiv. 1-6. The seventh angel gives a very brief though striking epitome of these wonderful judgments which are stated more at large in the effusion of the vials. chap. xvi.

CHAPTER XII.

The twelfth and thirteenth chapters seem as hard to be understood as any portion of