racked to devise new modes of the most aggravated torture. And if ever the malignity of demons had full scope on earth, it was practised in vain against the anointed ones of the Lord. The shedding of their blood, that would not for ever be unavenged, served to exemplify and perfect the faith and patience of the saints. The law of the members overmastering the law of the mind, needs not a witness wherever faith is wanting. But, throughout ages, the opposite proof was given to the world, that the power which man has of killing the body, under whatever form of death, was unable to resist the faith which overcomes the world, or to extinguish in the mind the light of the gospel, or the hopes of the Christian. Manifold are the instances in which, rather than deny their Lord, the victims of papal barbarity threw themselves into the flames, and their last word was that of witnesses.

The persecution of the Albigenses and the Vaudois disseminated the doctrines which they preached, wherever they fled from the fiery inquisition. And notwithstanding the zeal of a corrupt priesthood in suppressing them, the seeds of the glorious Reformation were sown extensively throughout Europe, especially in Germany and Britain. The light of the gospel penetrated the gloom, and survived all the fires of the inquisition, though they were kindled in many countries. "The seed of the church," as at the first, sprung forth the most vigorously around the stake where the ashes of the martyrs were mingled with their blood. Even a war of extermination, which, as in France, did there extinguish the light, spread it the more rapidly into other regions, and prepared them for an easier riddance of the papal yoke than the fearful revolution which finally became the portion of that kingdom, whose territories were

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deluged with the blood of the saints, and which lent its power to extirpate them in other lands.

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 like manner, be killed, &c. verse 5. The saints of the Most High were to be given into the hands of the papacy, for a time, times and a half; but, it is added, the judgment shall sit, and they shall take his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. The cause of the martyrs shall finally prevail over that of the murderers. Vengeance belongs unto their Lord. They denounced against papal Rome, as Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth, all the judgments written in the word of God against an idolatrous church. And as the Lord said unto Jeremiah, "I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them;" so it is said, that fire proceeded out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies. God would avenge their cause by bringing not only spiritual, but temporal judgments on their enemies. But the time of their prophecying in sackcloth had first to cease.

In the

charge, or threatening, to the papal church (as symbolized by the rider on the black horse, with the yoke in his hand,) it is said, "And see thou hurt not the wine and the oil." And, in the same vision, under the representation of the saints calling from beneath the altar, (which is here measured,) they are heard exclaiming, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" But this appeal for the souls of them that are slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held, (the witnesses) was not made till after the rise of infidelity, or till the pale form of spiritual death had stalked up

on the earth, to do his work of slaughter; and the appearance of a new enemy called forth, at last, the expostulation of the saints, and made their spirits speak. Even then it was said, (chap. vii. 11,) that they should rest YET for a little season, until their fellow servants and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. If" the analogy of faith" warrant such an appropriation, or sanction so seemingly plain a comparison of things spiritual with spiritual, instead of turning to past history for an interpretation of the sequel of the vision, the church of Christ should not be unprepared for the fact, that though the time of the testifying of the witnesses may be completed, their death may be yet to

come.

On the death and resurrection of the witnesses it is said, “And the same hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men (or names of men,) seven thousand; and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven." The illus tration is not palpable (like that of all fulfilled prophecy,) in the retrospect of modern history, even since the first decline of the Turkish power, what revolution has yet been followed by giving glory to the God of heaven. And in the verse following it is also added, "The second woe is PAST, and behold, the third woe cometh quickly." The Turkish empire is not yet dissolved. Greece was reconquered by the Turks after the battle of Zenta, in 1697; and the massacre of Scio, with many other barbarities that preceded or accompanied it, go far to invalidate the assumption, that, even at a late date, the second woe was past. That woe is designated by the four angels of the Euphrates, and comparing scripture with scripture, it seems to be the more warranted opinion, if not the direct inference, that the second woe can only be said

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to be past, when the waters of the Euphrates, as under the sixth vial, are dried up.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE WOMAN CLOTHED WITH THE SUN.

In the revelation of the things that were to be, and that now have come to pass, after the days of Daniel and of John, the rise and revolution of earthly kingdoms, together with the great apostacy of Christendom, and the imposture of Mahomet scarcely less influential on the fate of the world, occupy page after page, and form the subject of vision after vision, as if the Lord of the whole earth had resigned his dominion over it, and had given it into the hands of those who take the glory to themselves, and who reject his authority or corrupt his word. But such is not the conclusion of the matter. The only language of faith here is, How long, O Lord? The first of the prophecies of scripture, while yet the human race were but a single pair, speaks of the bruising of the SERPENT's head. The great image which stood before Nebuchadnezzar, was indeed of a brightness that was excellent, and of a form that was terrible, but he saw till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces ;-and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. And as Daniel told the interpretation, and described the four successive kingdoms that should arise upon the earth, and made known unto the king

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what should come to pass thereafter, he ceased not whenever the glory of all earthly kingdoms was told, but also added, " And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and shall consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever," Dan. ii. 44. In the corresponding vision of the four beasts, or four kingdoms that shall arise out of the earth, the fourth, or the Roman kingdom, is described as devouring the whole earth, treading it down and breaking it in pieces; and among the ten kingdoms which arise out of it, another arises, which speaks great words against the Most High, and wears out the saints of the Most High; and they are given unto his hand for a time, times, and the dividing of time. Yet the judgment sits to take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him, Dan. vii.

The history of earthly empires is prophetically announced, their course is marked, but all their dominions finally merge into an everlasting kingdom. The kingdom of the Most High was to be set up in the days of these kingdoms, to encounter opposition for ages, to be threatened with extinction, and yet finally to be established over all the earth. These visions of Daniel represent how different is the final prospect of the cause of Christ, from what the retrospect has been; and however different any emblem of it must be from that designative of the kingdoms of the earth, yet the reader will not fail to recognise strong points of resemblance between these antecedent predictions, and a vision of the Apocalypse, which, in some re