stasy, Zorobabel and Jeshua under the Babylonian captivity. From their number, condition, power and actions, these Apocalyptical witnesses seem to be manifestly described, as likewise the state of the church in which they prophesied, agreeably with that of Israel, under the images of Babylon, the Wilderness and Gentilism, or Baalism. Let the reader examine with his own eyes what I have said of the description of the witnesses in the following table:

Moses and Aaron.

Having power

Elias and Elisha. | Zorobabel & Jeshua.

Having power "These are the over the waters, to shut heaven, that two olive-trees, and to turn them into it should not rain."two candlesticks,

give power, (says he,) to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy 1260 days, clothed in sackcloth." Where it is first to be remarked, that the whole prophecy which follows, from this comma to the sounding of the seventh trumpet, as the nature of the subject demands, was not exhibited to sight in a vision, but dictated to John

by the angel sustaining the person of Christ, the observation of which renders the genius of the allegory or type much more easy to be perceived. "To my two witnesses." He calls them two with reference to the type, which is, as I have observed, of pairs; as if he had said I will give to my Zorobabel, and Jeshua, to my Elijah and Elisha, to my Moses and Aaron :-To which is to be added, that he calls them witnesses: Now witnesses by the law ought to be two, to establish every word. Add that they may be called two on account of the number of the tables of God, which the witnesses of the Old and New Testament, as of two Testaments, might apply in their prophecy *.

"That they should prophesy clothed in sackcloth," that is, by woefully lamenting the trampling down of the Holy City, in consequence of the introduction of Gentile worship, by affording testimony to the truth of God, and by exhorting to repentance, "For 1260 days"which indeed are contained in forty-two months, and these it is plain are not days of hours; both from those three days and a half, part of those

* Why should not the two witnesses be considered as the Old and New Testament, which during the apostasy of 1260 years were to be neglected and vilified as we see they are in Popish countries; but in the hands of sincere believers, properly applied, would produce the effects described?-R. B. C.

days a little after, assigned to the death of the witnesses, and which the things predicted to be done in them, prove, cannot be taken for days of hours; and because the beast (whose duration is the same), is contemporary with the company of 144,000 sealed: the company of the sealed is contemporary with the six first trumpets, and the affairs of the trumpets cannot possibly be run through in so very short a time as 1260 horary days, or three years and a half. But why, you will say, should the profanation of the Gentiles be measured by months, and the prophecy of the witnesses asserting the pure worship of God in days? Namely, because the worship of idols and every sin and error is under the power of darkness and night, over which the moon presides; on the other hand, true religion may be compared to the light and the day, the presidency over which belongs to the sun. Therefore (Acts c. xxvi. v. 18.) the mission of Paul to convert the Gentiles from idols, is said to be, "to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." With the same meaning also it is said "what fellowship has light with darkness?" Now months are directed by the motion of the moon the queen of darkness, but days and years by that of the sun who presides over light. For the same cause, as we shall see hereafter, the blasphemy of the beast will be reckoned in like

manner according to the motion of the moon, by months, but the residence of the woman in the wilderness by days and years with reference to the motion of the sun. "These are the two olive-trees and the two candlesticks, standing before the Lord of the earth." That is, they are like Zorobabel and Jeshua* whom the Lord anciently anointed over the Jewish church, ruined under the Babylonian captivity, at length to be restored and superintended by these witnesses in a similar manner, under the bondage of the Gentiles. For the allusion is to "those two olive-trees," which Zacharias saw growing on each side of the golden candlestick, and supplying oil to its lamps, (Zach. c. iv.) of which the angel being asked what they meant, "these, said he, are the two sons of oil, or the anointed ones, which stand before the Lord of the whole earth, pointing out the two heads of the church, then in subjection to the Gentiles.-Zorobabel, the general, and Jeshua, the high priest, of whom he had prophesied a little before. For the candle then with its seven lights, designated the temple,

* As these witnesses prophecy for 1260 years, (the whole time of the apostasy) to whom can the allusion be made, but to two testimonies, which might be constantly produced by the faithful against the corruption of the times; and I know not where we are to look for them, but in the books of the Old and New Testament, combined in the Bible?--R. B. C.

and by its type the church of that time, whose instauration and conservation, the two holy ones were to take charge of, not by force, not by strength, not by any human aid, but by the power of God alone, operating in a certain invisible and wonderful manner, as those olivetrees, standing on each side of the candlestick, supplied oil to its lights in a very extraordinary and imperceptible way. But why, you will say, is mention here made by John, not of one as in Zacharias, but of two candlesticks, to which likewise and not to the anointed ones, the two prophets seem to be compared? I confess that I am here at a stand, nor have I yet found a sufficiently prompt and clear reason for this difference. In the mean time I think there lurks a Hebraism in the words, and it is as if he had said: These are the two olive-trees, at or near the two candlesticks, standing before the Lord of the earth; so that the comparison of the witnesses may be only with the olive-trees, but the addition of the candlesticks may be judged only to pertain to the description of those olive-trees. For the copulative in the Hebrew has sometimes the force of the preposition by, that is, with, near by; as (1 Sam. c. xiv. v. 18.) "Because the ark of God was at that time, and the children of Israel;" i. e. with the children of Israel. Vide Lex. Schindleri. But there will still re

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