turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will."

The observations of Mede appear so judicious on this important and comprehensive chapter, that I cannot but adopt them generally. He observes that a reference is here made to the plagues of Egypt, and the power which was exercised by Moses and Aaron when they were employed to conduct Israel out of Egyptian slavery. He conceives that the power of the witnesses here alluded to, does not refer to all the days of the prophecy in sack-cloth, but rather to the end of them, or the time of the phials; when, under the auspices of the two witnesses, the reformed Christian people are led forth, as the Israelites were of old, by Moses and Aaron, and with plagues described under the image of those of Egypt, out of the tyranny and slavery of the beast.

"And when they shall have finished, (örav Tελéowσi, when they shall be about to finish) their testimony, the beast which ascendeth out of the abyss, (or bottomless pit,) shall make war upon them, and shall overcome them, and shall kill them."

It is to be remarked, in the first place, on this text, as Mede observes, that the death and subsequent resurrection and ascension of the witnesses, are assimilated to the history of the last scenes of our Saviour's ministry. For the

Lord Jesus likewise, when he was finishing his testimony, which lasted about as many literal days as the figurative days of the prophetic witnesses, was killed by the Roman president, a legate of that beast which shall make war with the witnesses, though under his sixth head. The third day after, when there was a great earthquake also, he rose from the dead, and at the end of forty days ascended into heaven. All which transactions were represented in this account of the sufferings and slaughter of the witnesses, in their resurrection after three days and a half, and their subsequent reinstatement in power and glory. But these circumstances evidently prove that the witnesses are metaphorical, and not real personages; that their death is allegorical, as being deprived for a time of vital energy and action; that their resurrection likewise is allegorical, and is explained by their restoration to activity and power; and that their ascension upon a summons from heaven implies their attainment of a higher degree of eminence and authority than they had previously possessed.

Mede paraphrases the text in the following manner. "And when they shall be finishing their testimony, the beast who ascends out of the bottomless pit shall make war upon and shall kill them."-That is, when a part of the Holy City,

or of the Christian world, shall have acknowledged the impurity of Gentilism, repenting and cleansing the temple of God among them; when the witnesses shall begin to put off their sackcloth, and to be discharged from their daily lamentation, though not yet fully discharged from it, the seven-headed Roman beast in his last state, indignant at the success of the preaching of these hitherto mourning testifiers to the truth will make war upon them, conquer, and put them to death.

The first symptom of the termination of the mourning of the witnesses took place, as Mede conceives, at the success of the Reformation, and has advanced even up to the present time; but what relates to the war, and their defeat and slaughter, he supposes to be future. In this supposition I must entirely concur with him. It is undoubtedly a lamentable reflection, that the true Church is to undergo another persecution before it is finally established on the earth, and many of our prophetic interpreters, in the hope that her trials are over, wish to consider the contest with the beast, the overthrow and resurrection of the witnesses, as already past. Some would explain the text by the events which took place at the conquest of the Protestant party of the league of Smalcald, by Charles the Fifth, when the Mass was restored for about three years and a half,

and the Papists rejoiced and made merry; but after that space the Protestants were raised again into power, and the Emperor was obliged to allow them by the treaty of Passau the free exercise of their religion. Here they say there was a great earthquake, in which thousands were slain, "and the tenth part of the city fell," i. e. a great part of the German empire renounced the authority of the Church of Rome. Others think the prophecy applicable to the horrid massacre of the Protestants at Paris, on the eve of St. Bartholomew, 1572, when their dead bodies lay long unburied in the streets of a great city, and there were great rejoicings in the courts of France, Spain, and Rome; but in little more than three years and a half Henry III. entered into a treaty with the Huguenots, and the free exercise of their religion was restored. Others again, and our Bishop Lloyd among the number, applied this prophecy to the persecution of the poor Protestants (the Vaudois) in the valleys of Piedmont, in 1686, who returned in three years and a half with swords in their hands, took possession again of their native country, and had a free pardon granted them by the Duke of Savoy.

It may be allowed that these circumstances of the degradation and restitution of faithful witnesses to the truth, are types of that last conflict which is to take place between them and the

beast. But it has been too much the case with all commentators to apply the predictions of this grand scheme of prophecy to some passing events, which make a great impression at the time; and it has been justly remarked, that our interpretation is not to be governed by our wishes, while the expectation of future calamity is more conducive to piety, than a credulous persuasion that the trial is past.

Mede, therefore, looked to the words of Scripture, as explained by the synchronisms which he has so satisfactorily established, He found that the Holy City is to be trodden under foot fortytwo months (of years); that the two witnesses are to prophesy in sackcloth for 1260 days (or years), and that the great apostasy should prevail for the same period. He therefore infers that this final contest with the witnesses cannot take place till about the close of this synchronic period. He also observes, that the conquest of the witnesses, and their subsequent triumph, immediately precede or accompany the great earthquake, and the overthrow of the tenth part of the city; which, from the series of the phials, cannot take place before the fifth, and probably will not occur till the seventh. He thinks likewise that the slaughter of the witnesses may be considered as the forerunner of that event, especially as he says that it is usual with our General, Christ, to con