Daniel *, and he is fully described hereafter in the Apocalypse +. And this is the manner of the Author of the Apocalypse. He has the whole subject before him, and sees it all at a glance. He, therefore, says The Beast. He goes back, and appropriates the prophecies of the Old Testament, and thus he shows that all the predictions of Scripture are from one and the same Spirit; and he goes forward, and touches rapidly, and passes on, knowing that he will return, and display the same subject more fully in the sequel.

He sees the past, present, and future at once. That is, he is inspired.

Here, then, the Beast is described as the Enemy of Scripture. He makes war upon the Two Witnesses while they are executing their office ‡, and kills them; and their dead body lies in the street of THE GREAT CITY in which their Lord § was crucified. And they remain unburied, it is said, three days and a half ||.

Observe this expression,-their dead body. He

* Dan. vii. 11.

† Rev. xiii. 1. xvii. 3—12.

† Rev. xi. 7, ὅταν τελέσωσι τὴν μαρτυρίαν αὐτῶν, not (as in the Authorized Version) "when they shall have completed their testimony." "Non in sensu completo, sed in incompleto sumendum est." Grotius, ad loc. See also Mede and Dr. Henry More's note here.

Ο Κύριος αὐτῶν (not Κύριος ἡμῶν) is the reading of the best MSS. it intimates that their lot is like Christ's, and that the Two Testaments are His Word.

Rev. xi. 9. 11.

does not here say bodies*, but body. How is this? The Two Witnesses have but one body. They Twain are one flesh. The reason is clear. The Two Testaments are onet. They are written by the same Hand; they are the words of the same Spirit.

Next remark, here is another anticipation,-The great City. What great City? you may ask. It will, we reply, be fully described hereafter.

Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great City ‡. That great City is divided into three parts §. Woe, Woe to that great City, Babylon, the strong city! in one hour is her judgment come . Woe, Woe, that great City, clothed in fine linen, and purple and scarlet**!

*Not Trúμara, (bodies) as in Author. Vers. but ŵμа (body) is the reading of the best MSS. in xi. 8. It is observable that πμara does occur once, xi. 9, as well as Truμa twice, xi. 8, 9. This seeming anomaly was intentional, and reminds us that the Witnesses are two and yet one. The two Testaments make One Book. But it cannot be explained on any theory which supposes the Witnesses to be Enoch and Elias, or some two other persons. In fact, the apparent incompatibility was intended to suggest to the reader, that the interpretation must be, not literal, but spiritual. These impossibilities (if I may so speak) are very frequent in the Apocalypse; and such is their design. See above, Lect. VII.

† S. Jerome in Esa. xxx. Omnis Scriptura sancta unus liber appellatur. Cp. XXXIX Articles, Art. VII. "The Old Testament is not contrary to the New," &c. against the Manichæans and Marcionites.

Rev. xiv. 8. Haymo in loc. Civitas magna, quæ Babylon vocatur, in qua diabolus regnat; ubi Dominus eorum crucifixus est. Quod enim Dominus extrà portas est passus significabat, quia Christus in suis membris in toto mundo erat passurus. Rev. xviii. 10.

§ Rev. xvi. 19.

**Rev. xviii. 16. See also 19. 21.

in one hour her wealth is spoiled. And again, The Woman that thou sawest seated on the Beast with seven heads and ten horns is that great City which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth. The words, "THAT GREAT CITY," occur nine times in the Apocalypse, and are applied to Babylon, and to no other cityt. This great City (as will be shown in subsequent Discourses) is no other than ROME in her secular and spiritual character: and the Beast is the Power, Civil and Ecclesiastical, which she has abused for savage and unholy purposes; and by which she has crucified the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame §.

With the bitterest sorrow we say it, but it must be said,-She has waged war against the Two Witnesses. She has placed her own Traditions on a par with them. She has made them her slaves. She has added her human Codicils, as of equal value, to the Divine Testaments. She has spoken contemptuously of them. She has stifled their voice. She has refused to let them speak in their own language. She has forbidden the Nations to hear them in vernacular tongues ||. She has not allowed

* Rev. xi. 8. xiv. 8. xvi. 19. 19. 21.

xvii. 18. xviii. 10. 16. 18,

See Note

In chap. xxi. 10, they are applied, in the Authorized Version, to the New Jerusalem. But this is incorrect. on the passage in the Harmony, in vol. ii. of the present Work. Lectures X. XI. XII. § Heb. vi. 6.

Full proof of these assertions has been given elsewhere. See Letter IV. of the "Sequel" of "Letters on the Church of Rome," and Letters III. IV. V. VI.

*

their bodies to be put into Monuments. The original word of the Apocalypse here is uvuara, not Tápovc, and is to be rendered, not graves †, but Monuments; that is, she has laboured that the Two Witnesses may not be committed to the immortal Monuments of Editions, Translations, and Expositions; and so the words of the Witnesses be engraven on the memory of Man, and on the heart of the World. And wonderful it is, that not a single Edition of the Original Scriptures has ever been printed ‡ at Rome, that great City which calls herself the Mother and Mistress of Churches!

nesses.

But a great triumph is promised to the Two WitTheir bodies remain unburied in the street of the great City for three days and a half. Their Lord had said to His Apostles, Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the World shall rejoice. But your sorrow shall be turned into joy §. And we read || that the World will rejoice over the Two Witnesses as dead, because they tormented it as Elijah did Ahab, who said to the Prophet **,-O mine Enemy!

* Rev. xi. 9, MNHMA or MNHMATA, not TAÞOYE. Aquinas says well," Ne eorum memoria habeatur, quia monumenta sunt ad memoriam.' "Monumentum," says Haymo, "quod moneat."

As in the Authorized Version, Rev. xi. 9.

This is observed by the learned author of the "Life of Pope Pius V.," p. 171,-the Rev. Joseph Mendham.

§ John xvi. 20.

** 1 Kings xxi. 20.

|| Rev. xi. 10.

The World will say it now says, Let us lie in wait for the righteous, he upbraideth us with our offending the law: he professeth to have the knowledge of God, he calleth himself the child of God. He was made to reprove our thoughts. He is grievous unto us ever to behold. Let us examine him with torture; let us condemn him with a shameful death. . . Such things they did imagine, and were deceived*.

But now a memorable change ensues. After three days and a half, we read, the Spirit of life from God enters into the Two Witnesses, and they stand on their feet, aud great fear falls on them who see them. And they ascend to heaven on the cloud of God's glory; and there is a great Earthquake, and a tenth of the great City falls, and many are slain ;-which is the SECOND WOE t.

As it was with Christ, so with His Word. It is despised and rejected by many; by prophets, princes, priests, and people. Christ was crucified on the Sixth Day of the week; and the Sixth seal, and the Sixth trumpet, that is, the last age, the eve of the everlasting Sabbath,—is marked in the Apocalypse, as a time of rebuke and blasphemy against His Holy + Rev. xi. 11-14.

* Wisdom ii. 12-21.

Joachim, p. 133. Quod Evangelista narrant, Christum traditum in manus peccatorum in fine quinti diei, die vero sexto crucifixum, sic erit in fine Vti temporis Ecclesiæ, et in sexto, quia tunc solvendi sunt filii tenebrarum, scilicet infideles. So, p. 175.

Ut Christus passus est die sexto, et Sabbato requievit, ita in sexto tempore Ecclesiæ complebitur passio Corporis Christi mystici, et erit, post hoc, Sabbatum gloriosum.