ters run parallel to each other, relating severally, though with some variety of circumstances, to the same period and the same events; so as to form jointly a complete history of the western Apostacy, and of all the principal

actors in it.

1. The first chapter of the little book* gives an account of the treading of the holy city under foot during forty two months; of the desolate prophesying of the witnesses during the same period of 1260 days; of the victory of the beast of the bottomless pit over them during three days and an half; of their triumphant ascent into the symbolical heaven; and of the earthquake which was to overthrow the tenth part of the city, and to be the last event under the second woe: and it finally announces the sounding of the seventh trumpet, which brings us down to the end of the 1260 days; but announces it without descending minutely to particularise its effects.† In this chapter, (it is to be observed) the beast of the bottomless pit is barely mentioned and no intimation. whatsoever is given, either what this beast is, by whose. instigation he acts, or whose minister he is; the prophet reserving these particulars for his two succeeding chap

ters.

2. The second chapter of the little book+ lets us into the whole mystery of iniquity, so far as its original mover is concerned. We there learn, that the 1260 years persecution of the true Church of Christ is the contrivance of that old serpent, the devil; who is represented under the image of a dragon with seven heads and ten horns, in order to shew us by the instrumentality of what minister he was about to slay the witnesses, and to drive the woman into the wilderness.

3. The third chapter of the little book,§ passes from the master to the servant; and shews us who is that minister of the dragon, that beast of the bottomless pit, which had already been represented as the murderer of the two witnesses. It describes him as having seven heads

* Rev. xi.

Its effects are afterwards detailed very circumstantially under the seven vials, and in the chapters subsequent to that which relates to the pouring out of the vials.

und ten horns; the very heads and horns, which the dragon induces him to use against the woman, mentioned in the preceding chapter.

The third chapter further teaches us, by whose instigation as a second cause, the minister of the dragon, or the beast of the bottomless pit, is induced to take up arms against the woman and the two witnesses. His instigator is another beast, quite distinct from himself, though very intimately connected with him a beast, which comes up out of the earth, or Roman empire; which has two horns like a lamb; which speaks as a dragon; and which exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, not in a hostile but in a friendly manner, for he causeth the whole earth to worship his colleague and supporter the first beast.

4. The fourth chapter of the little book* describes the state of the true Church during the prevalence of the western Apostacy; predicts the Reformation; and divides some of the most prominent events of the seventh trumpet, which are detailed at large hereafter under the seven vials, into two grand classes, the harvest and the vintage of God's wrath, teaching us that the winepress shall be trodden in a certain country the space of which extends 1600 furlongs.

We learn then from the four chapters of the little book, both what the beast of the bottomless pit is, namely a certain beast with seven heads and ten horns; by whose instigation he acts, namely by that of a second beast with two horns; and whose minister and tool he is, namely that of the great red dragon. We moreover learn, that, making himself a tool of the dragon, and acting by the instigation of the second beast, the seven-headed and ten-horned beast of the sea and the bottomless pit (for the beast of the sea and the beast of the bottomless pit are one and the same power,† the sea describing his natural and the bottomless pit his spiritual origin) should wage a war of 1260 years against the woman and the two witnesses who have the name of God written in their foreheads; but that nevertheless the Apostacy † Compare Rev. xiii 1. with Rev. xvii. 3, 8.

* Rev. xiv.

should receive a great check by the preaching of the Gospel, and afterwards should be totally overthrown in the time of God's vintage.†

The way being thus cleared by this general statement, I shall proceed to consider the contents of the little book at large in five different sections, according as it naturally divides itself. 1. The prophesying of the witnesses; 2. The war of the dragon with the woman; 3. The tenhorned beast of the sea; 4. The two-horned beast of the earth; 5. The collateral history of the true Church, and the harvest and vintage of God's wrath.

SECTION I.

Concerning the prophesying of the two witnesses.

In the present section I shall attempt to explain the first chapter of the little book, which contains the history of the persecution of the two witnesses by the beast of the bottomless pit.

"And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court, which is without the temple, leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles; and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months."

This prophecy commences with the year 606; which is the first year of the great Apostacy, and which synchronizes with the earliest blast of the first woe-trumpet in the East. The temple, the altar, and they that worship therein, are those few Christians, who in the midst

* Rev. xiv, 6.

+ Rev. xiv 18, 19, 20.

I may here add to the arguments, by which I have already shewn that the year 606 is most probably the true date of the 1260 years, the following one, Unless this year be pitched upon, we shall find it impossible to make the beginning of the first woe-trumpet in the East synchronize with the beginning of the same woe-trumpet in the West. But we know that the first woe-trumpet begins to sound in the East in the year 606: whence I see not how we are to avoid concluding, that it begins likewise to sound in the West in the same year. Accordingly we find this same year to afford us the most probable date of the rise of the western apostacy and the commencement of the 1260 years; for in this year the Roman beast delivered the saints into the hand of his little born. I can scarcely believe, that so many coincidences, all leading us to the year 606, are purely accidental.

of a crooked and perverse generation stood fast in the faith of Jesus Christ and the court without the temple symbolizes those, who retained indeed the name of Christians, but had grossly apostatized from the truth. The holy city, which is given to them to tread under foot and pollute with superstitious abominations during the period of forty two prophetic months, a period equivalent to the 1260 years of the Apostacy, is the visible Church of Christ.* St. John therefore is ordered to measure, or take an account of, the faithful servants of God, who never ceased, in a greater or less number, to exist throughout the whole duration of the Apostacy: while he is commanded to leave out, and not to measure, the outer court, as containing only those nominal Christians, who in practice were Gentiles, and who were unworthy the notice of a Being of infinite purity.†

"And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three score days clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

The holy city here mentioned cannot mean the literal Jerusalem, because the treading of it under foot is to continue only 1260 years, and during the reign of the Papal born; whereas the treading under foot of the literal Jerusalem has already continued upwards of 1700 years, and commenced long before the reign of the Papal barn. The prophecy therefore of our Lord in Luke xxi. 24. which relates to the literal Jerusalem, cannot have any connection with the prophecy of St. John in Rev. xi. 2, which relates to the period of the 1260 years. See the preceding 2d Chapter of this Work.

† Measuring the servants of God is equivalent to scaling them. (See Rev. vii, 3.) Hence the commission of the Saracenic locusts extended only to those, who had not the seal of God in their foreheads; they were not able to approach to Piedmont and Savoy, the country of those that were sealed. The unmeasured tenants of the outer court, and the unsealed men throughout the Roman empire, are alike the votaries of the Apostacy while they that were measured, and they that were sealed, are the saints rubo refused to be partakers of its abominations. Mr. Mede is perfectly right in his idea of the outer court; but I cannot think with him that the inner court means the primitive Church previous to the revelation of the man of sin, because the whole allegory is included within the 1260 years, and consequently those symbolized by the inner court and those symbolized by the outer court must necessarily be contemporary. They of the outer court indeed are the very men who persecute the witnesses of the inner court. (See Comment. Apoc. in loc.) The sealing of the servants of God takes place under the sixth seal and during the reign of Constantine, because the Apostacy, considered individually, commenced about that time. It separated the wheat from the tares, and was preparatory to the subsequent grand division of the witnesses from the gentiles of the outer court. A new race of gentiles began to insinuate themselves into the holy city at the time when the servants of God were sealed, or when the Apostacy commenced individu ally but the outer court was not formally given unto them by the secular power, till the saints were given into the hand of the little papal born in the year 606, and till the Apostacy became dominant.

:

.....

And, if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies and, if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will."

It is evident, that these two witnesses are to be contemporary with the great Apostacy, because they are to continue throughout its whole duration of 1260 years; and it is equally evident, that they are to be hostile to it, because they are represented as prophesying in sackcloth, and as being the peculiar objects of the beast's fury. They are moreover not to exist at this time, or at that time, but from the very beginning to the very end of the Apostacy consequently it is manifest, that they cannot be any two mere individuals. The question then is, what they are? Mr. Galloway endeavours to prove them to be the Old and New Testament. In this conjecture he follows Colter, More, and Napier:‡ but he is nevertheless certainly mistaken for such an opinion runs directly counter to a very wholesome rule, which every commentator upon hieroglyphical prophecy ought particularly to attend to: Having once established the definite meaning of a symbol, never afterwards think yourself at liberty to depart from that meaning.§ The two witnesses are expressly said by St. John to be the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks, standing before the God of the earth. But both an olive tree, and a candlestick, are equally symbols of a church. Consequently the two witnesses must be two churches; and therefore cannot be the two Testaments. Bp. Newton thinks, that no two particular men, or particular churches, are meant by

* I speak of the Apostacy in its dominant state.

+ Brief Comment. p. 45 et infra. Mr. Burton fancies the two witnesses to be Daniel and St. John; but, as he does not even attempt to shew in what particulars they answer to the character of the witnesses, he leaves no room for a regular confutation. Essay on the numbers of Daniel and St. John, p. 241, 242, 246.

See Pol. Synop. in loc. Brightman thinks, that they are the Scriptures, and the congregation of the faithful. Apoc. Apoc. Fol. 169.

§ See the beginning of the Preface to this Work.

See the preceding chapter upon symbols.