a place in the prophecy of Daniel and the Apocalypse, if the two predictions had not been "double one of another." Added to previous points of coincidence, it assures us that the Apocalyptic vision is the very voice and echo of the predictions of Daniel,-that these prophecies do not relate to separate events but to one continuous subject, and that the time with which both are concerned is one and the same.

But who are these two witnesses? I offer some opinions respecting them they are supposed to be Moses and Elijah,the Old and New Testament,-Christ and John the Baptist, Pope Sylvester and Mena, -Francis and Dominic, -John Huss and Luther, the Waldenses and the Albigenses.

Dr. Cumming says, they are two distinct lines of witnesses, -the Eastern and Western witnesses. The duration of their

prophecy for 1260 days, is-1260 years. The Beast making war upon them, the persecutions of the Church of Rome. The death of the witnesses, the extinction of their testimony. Their dead bodies lying in the street of the great city "where our Lord was crucified," and they of the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations not suffering their bodies to be put into their graves, the Bohemians, Waldenses, and Wickliffites, summoned to appear at the Lateran council at Rome, A.D. 1513, and none appearing!!! The resurrection of the witnesses, -Martin Luther posting his ninety-five theses on the great church of Wittemburg (credat Judæus), in which he asserted Protestant truth, and protested against Romish error.

"This

was the first sound of the Reformation: the resuscitated witnesses now rose from the tomb, ascended to the sky, were prosperous, dominant, and great, in the presence of all the nations of the earth."1

I cannot stop to answer this. Ninety-five theses, asserting common sense, and protesting against palpable absurdity, would not be too many vindications of sober reason, to show that a greater mass of incomprehensible hypothesis never entered into the brain of man. The broad street, Tλareía, of the city, "where our Lord was crucified," must mean the Lateran council on much the same ground that the "voice as when a lion roareth," was made to mean the voice of Pope Leo X. I

t..

1 Apocalyptic Sketches, p. 518.

can see no other possibility of coincidence, except that, latus, broad, has somewhat of the same signification as λareía, the broad street. Neither is it an easy matter to trace the connection between the non-interment of the bodies of the witnesses, and the refusal of the Bohemians, Waldenses, and Wickliffites to appear at the Lateran council of 1513; although, on the supposition that the ninety-five theses were the posthumous works of Luther, it is just possible to devise a coincidence between the resurrection of the two witnesses, and the resuscitated placards posted on the door of the great church of Wittemburg. As it is, I find some difficulty in tracing the coincidence between the symbol and the proposed interpretation, and I expect the same difficulty existed in the minds of those to whom this prophecy is supposed to refer. I very much doubt whether Luther was aware that the posting of his ninety-five theses was prefigured by the resurrection of the Two Witnesses or whether the Bohemians, Waldenses and Wickliffites understood that their refusal to appear at the Lateran council was indicated by this denial of the rites of sepulture.

But there is one point of this exposition with which we dare not find any fault. It is that of the Beast making war upon the Witnesses, east and west, right and left, for 1260 years. The Beast must be the Papacy: no safe and orthodox system of theology can allow of any other interpretation. other interpretation. Only let us not push the inquiry too far, lest, whilst demanding proofs that the Two Witnesses are eastern and western witnesses, or that the duration of their prophecy for 1260 days, is 1260 years, during the whole of which time this Beast never ceased in his outrageous persecutions, we might be left in the position of the Lateran council with regard to the Bohemian recusants, and might find that there are "none appearing."

To sum it all up, in the words of our opponents some. what paraphrased, "This was the first sound of the Reformation" (vox et præterea nihil).

"The resuscitated witnesses rose from the tomb" (where, but for their outcry against the Beast, they might have lain till doomsday), "ascended to the sky" (of soft patronage, and gentle favour), "were prosperous, dominant, and great in the presence of all the nations

Let us proceed to analyse the Apocalyptic statement, and to see if persons and events can be found at the date and age of the Apocalypse, to which the whole may be referred : —

It would seem, from an examination of the symbol, that the witnesses must answer to the following particulars. They must be Christian witnesses; they must be two in number; they must deliver their predictions under circumstances of great affliction during the period of the Jewish war; they must be anointed rulers of the Jewish people, like Joshua and Zerubabel; they must deliver their testimony fearlessly and faithfully, like Moses and Elijah; when they have finished their testimony they must be slain; their dead bodies must lie in the broad street of Jerusalem, to be gazed upon by "the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations," i. e. by nations who are not Jews; these strangers are to cast out their dead bodies without burial, and “ they that dwell on the earth," the Jews,-equally with these foreign nations, are to rejoice at their destruction; at the same hour there is to be a great earthquake, accompanied with terror and calamity, upon Jerusalem.

It will now remain to be seen if witnesses can be found at that time answering to all these minute particulars.

In a former edition the two witnesses were explained, not of any particular witnesses, but of Christian witnesses generally. Two witnesses being deemed a sufficient number in a Jewish court of law. There always appeared in this exposition a certain degree of indefiniteness, incompatible with the distinctness with which individuals are pointed out in the rest of the prophecy. I may instance the king who leads the locust armies of Rome,-Vespasian or Titus, whose name is Abaddon and Apollyon; the four kings of the East, Antiochus, Agrippa, Sohemus, and Malchus, loosed from the Euphrates; the Beast who makes war upon the saints,-Nero. In all these there is a definite allusion to distinct individuals, and it would only be in accordance with previous analogy if we could carry out this principle with regard to the two witnesses, as it seems difficult to understand why only two should be specified, if it was intended to

1 Matt. xviii. 16., John, xviii. 17., Heb. x. 28.

symbolize a greater number. It will be seen that in the view we now propose to take of the two witnesses, there is a deviation, although not a material one, from the interpretation before given, for we cannot say with our learned adversary that "we have never read anything to make us dissatisfied with the correctness of our interpretations; " daily study and examination of this wonderful book serving to show that we are only touching the elements of truth, which may hereafter, under God's blessing, be expanded into a satisfactory exposition of the whole. Be it remembered, then, that we still desire to explain this symbol of Christian witnesses, only it is suggested that particular witnesses may be intended, and not Christian witnesses generally. Now two such witnesses, corresponding in many minute particulars to the Apocalyptic prediction, do appear at this time in the persons of Ananus and Jesus, the high priests, possibly the last high priests, of the Jewish nation. But before we endeavour to show in what respect these two witnesses fulfil the prophetical description, it will be necessary to meet two principal objections raised against them.

It is said that Ananus could not have been intended, as it was before him that James, the brother of our Lord, was tried, and unjustly condemned to death. 1

The Ananus, who put James to death, is described as of the sect of the Sadducees, "a bold man in his temper, and very insolent." Eusebius says of him that being "rash and daring in his disposition, and being also of the sect of the Sadducees, which are the most unmerciful of all the Jews in the execution of judgment, supposing that he had a suitable opportunity in consequence of the death of Festus, he called an assembly of the judges, and bringing thither the brother of Jesus, who is called Christ, whose name was James, with some others, he presented an accusation against them as if they had violated the law, and committed them to be stoned as criminals."2

Agrippa for this act "took the high priesthood from him, when he had ruled but three months, and made Jesus, the son of Damneus, high priest." It must then be evident that this Ananus, who was high priest only three months, and who was

then deposed, could not be the same with the Ananus who was slain during the execution of his office as high priest.

Again, our Ananus-who is sometimes called Ananias, and sometimes Ananus-was contemporary with Jesus, the son of Gamaliel: we find him associated in his office with Jesus, the son of Gamala, or Gamaliel, in the life of Josephus, in his Book of Antiquities, and in the Wars of the Jews.1

This Ananus could not have been the same Ananus who put James to death, for Jesus, the son of Damneus, was made high priest after that Ananus, and this Ananus was contemporary with Jesus, the son of Gamaliel, who succeeded Jesus, the son of Damneus.

It is again objected that Ananus and Jesus could not be the two witnesses, because our Lord calls them "my witnesses," meaning that they should be Christians, whereas these were zealous Jews.

It is not at all improbable but that Ananus and Jesus were followers of Christ. More than thirty years before this time "a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith ;"2 at this time it is particularly mentioned by Eusebius that there were many of the rulers (apxóvTwv) that believed." It is no objection to say that they could not be Christians because they were high-priests and zealous Jews; in St. Paul's time there were "many thousands of Jews which believed, and they were all zealous of the law."4 Our Lord himself always followed the temple-worship, his apostles went daily into the temple at the hour of prayer. It is recorded of James the Just, who was martyred at the period immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem, that he "alone was allowed to enter the sanctuary," that "he was in the habit of entering

38.

Ananus, and Jesus the son of Gamala, the high priests.”— Life of Jos. "Ananias the high priest cultivated the friendship of Albinus, and of the high priest Jesus." Antiq. xx. 9. "The best esteemed of the high priests, Jesus the son of Gamala and Ananus the son of Ananus." - Bell. Jud. lib. iv. cap. 3. It is no wonder if there should be some confusion with regard to the name of Ananus, for there was a high priest of this name who had seven sons of the same name who were all high priests.

2 Acts, vi. 7.

3 Ananus and Jesus are called "The rulers of the people." - Bell. Jud. lib. iv. cap. 4.

4 Acts, xxi. 20.