succession of two persons, because, though reformers have frequently appeared in pairs, such an arrangement is by no means to be considered as a constant concomitant of the progress of Gospel truth in its contest with idolatry and superstition.

Who then can these chosen witnesses be whom the angel of God, representing the person of Christ, calls "my Two Witnesses"-who were to be permanent, and endued with spiritual power, though for a short time before their final triumph they were to be subdued by the antichristian beast? Are they not the books of the Old and New Testament, the testimony to the word of God? With this supposition all the characters and powers ascribed to them appear to agree.

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They are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth."

A reference is here made to the prophecy of Zechariah (iii. and iv.) who in his description of Joshua, the high-priest, and Zerubbabel, the general, points out the two metaphorical persons anointed by the Lord to preside over the Jewish Church during the Babylonian captivity. Their places were now to be supplied by two witnesses, who should have power over the Christian Church in like manner, during its subjection to the mystic Babylon and the Gentile domination.

The allusion therefore is most apposite; and though the heads of the ancient Church are thus personified, yet they are described as the two olive trees growing on each side of the golden candlestick, and supplying its lamps with oil in a wonderful manner, and they are explained to be "the two anointed ones which stand by the Lord of the whole earth." Now the candlestick is the Church of God, and the two olive trees, or two anointed ones, must be the communicators of the word and Spirit of God to that Church, and these, under the Jewish dispensation, may be ultimately resolved into the law and the prophets. Zechariah, however, mentions only one candlestick; but the angel in the Revelation speaks not only of the two olive trees, but of two candlesticks, and this duplication in the text Mede finds it difficult to explain. He supposes it may allude to the Christian Church being composed of two people, Jews and Gentiles, or being divided between the two parts of the Roman empire, the east and west, during the 1260 years. But will it not allow of the following explanation, which I have hazarded as a note in my translation of the Apocalyptical Key?

There have been two revelations of light from God, or two candlesticks, under two dispensations, and preserved by two Churches, or holy societies; the Jewish and the Christian. In the

time of Zechariah there was only one revelation, one Church, one candlestick; and, if we may be allowed to apply the two olive trees to two figurative infusers, rather than to two persons, we may suppose them, in the first instance, to have represented the law and the prophets. But in the time of St. John there were two revelations, two Churches, two candlesticks; the one illuminated by means of the Old Testament, now combining the law and the prophets, the other by the New, comprising the doctrines of Christ and his apostles. Reference is made to Zechariah because he described the one and prefigured

the other.

May not then the Two Witnesses described in this chapter be summarily intended for the law and the Gospel, or the Old and New Testament?

"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 this manner be killed."

These two interpreters of the Divine will are not represented as employing the sword, nor any weapon of carnal warfare for the destruction of those enemies who attempt to injure them, but out of their mouth proceedeth the vengeance. It is by the shafts of the Word that they transfix their foes. They denounce the wrath of God as impending over those who violate His laws, and

persecute His ministers; or their prayers and supplications draw down the punishment of the Almighty on their adversaries. It is under the same metaphor that the effects of the Divine vengeance are described by God himself, in his declaration to the prophet Jeremiah, v. 15. "Behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.”

Moses indeed, and Aaron, and afterwards Elijah, did literally call down fire from heaven, but the fire of God's witnesses is to be interpreted figuratively, since the Holy Spirit instructs us in this very chapter, that the Egypt alluded to, and consequently the wilderness, are to be understood spiritually.

It is likewise to be observed, that what the prophets denounce in the name of God, or by reference to His word, they are said to execute, as the Lord declares to Jeremiah, i. 10. "I have set thee over the nations to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, to build and to plant." When fire, therefore, is said to proceed out of the mouth of the witnesses for the destruction of their enemies, it is to be understood that Divine punishment, or the vengeance of eternal fire, is denounced against the enemies of God, and of the faithful interpreters of his word.

"These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy."

This is to be understood of mystical rain, or the dew of Divine grace which the witnesses, having the power of the keys, can prevent from falling, by shutting heaven on those new idolaters who contaminate the worship of Christ, and are the causes of the mournful prophecy of the witnesses. Mede says plainly, "They expel those idolaters from the hope of eternal life, promised only to the pure worshippers of God, until mindful of their baptismal vows, and having rejected the service of Satan, they shall have returned to the worship of the one true God, through the one Mediator Jesus Christ. Elijah (from whom the type is taken,) did not bring rain upon the earth, though perishing with drought, till the worship of Baal and his prophets had been exterminated. This power of the witnesses is exemplified in the fourteenth chapter, ver. 9. where one of the angels or messengers says, If any one worship the beast, and his image, and receive the mark in his forehead or his hand, he shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth for ever and ever."

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Lastly, "They have power over the waters, to