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testantism, it must be confessed, has not always been maintained with the Christian spirit of forbearance and love. And many a ponderous volume might supply the painful proof, that, even between protestants, in their schisms and contentions, the breaking and tearing of the bond of peace was enough to disgust and grieve the man who chose Christian love for the theme on which he dwelt so fondly, as soon as he saw and understood how Jesus, on whose bosom he had leaned, was thus wounded again in the house of his friends. Too often, it may be feared, have wrangling polemics illustrated its significancy, without understanding the sign.-It was in my mouth sweet as honey; and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.

And he said unto me, thou must prophecy AGAIN before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. Hitherto the prophecy was continuous, from the opening of the seventh seal, to the close of the seventh thunder; and the line of history was unbroken from the rise of the Goths, preparatory to the downfall of the Roman empire, to the last great event that preceded the grand revolution of modern times. But it is announced to the apostle that he must prophecy again,-intimating a new order, or course of predictions.

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It is not the of the writer to attempt a full exposition of the Book of Revelation, on many parts of which, he thinks, that history will yet throw a much fuller light. But in allusion to what appears to be already past, he deems it in some degree essential to touch briefly on the intermediate visions, recorded previously to the pouring out of the last seven vials. The thunders were not written: nor, in the previous prediction, was their duration, or the period of their ceasing, marked. And, as dates abound in the succeeding visions, we must look to what John

prophesied again, if thereby the connexion may be established between events and their times, without which accordance the interpretation given to the seven thunders, would want the confirmation it may possibly receive from a comparison with other predictions. And thus, more than by any explanatory words, it may perhaps be ascertained, by the farther development which still later histories may give to other visions of the prophet, how, or in what sense, after the seven thunders, which were manifestly to be succeeded by other events, had uttered their voices, it might be clear, as by the oath of an angel, what time would be no longer, or how there would be no longer delay.

CHAPTER XXI.

AFTER the religious and political state of the world had separately or respectively been traced down for many ages, it was given unto John to prophecy again. But in commencing the immediately subsequent prophecies, or intermediate visions, the subject of them is, in the very first instance, so clearly defined that they needed not to be written in another book, but in that alone of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months, chap. xi. 1, 2. The subject of the predic

tion is thus limited to the Christian church, whether nominally, or the temple of God (in which, as the Spirit speaketh expressly, he who exalteth and opposeth himself above all that is called God, was to sit) or the altar, the more sacred part of the temple, and those that worship therein, would seem to comprehend and include all that pertains to the professedly Christian church. But the court which was without the temple was left out and not measured. It was given to the Gentiles, to the nations of the earth; and they were to tread down the holy city forty and two months. The holy city seems here manifestly to be comprehended in the portion that was not measured; even as the glorious land is described by Daniel as included among the countries that were given unto the Turks, who were Gentiles. The very expressions are also used in which Christ foretold that Jerusalem was to be trodden down of the Gentiles. And while the Christian church formed the very subject of the prediction, that portion of the earth, on the other hand, which was given unto the heathen, or had permanently fallen under the dominion of the Saracens, and subsequently and more especially of the Turks, whose career had already been so fully detailed, was excluded from the present or renewed prophesying.

The first object that is presented to the view of the prophet within the church, or temple, is the prophesying of the two witnesses. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and fourteen days, clothed in sackcloth, ver. 3.-The saints of the most High were to be given into the hands of the papal power, for a time, times, and the dividing of time; and as he who was to speak great words against the most High, was to wear out the saints, so also were the witnesses to prophesy in sackcloth.

These are the two olive trees, and the two candle

sticks, standing before the Lord of the whole earth, ver. 4. Of Israel, as a church, it is said, "The Lord called thy name a green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit." Jer. xi. 16. The same term is applied by Zechariah to the faithful witnesses of the Christian church.—“ Behold I will bring forth my servant the branch ; and he said unto me, what seest thou? and I said, Behold a candlestick all of gold, and two olive trees by it. Then answered I and said unto him, what are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? And I answered again and said unto him, what be these two olive branches which, through the two golden pipes, empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered and said, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth," c. i. 8, c. ii. 2, 3, 11, 14. The two candlesticks are two Christian churches, even as the Lord Jesus Christ did say unto John, "The seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches." Rev. i. 20.

There never have been wanting faithful witnesses of Jesus, who, in the spirit of faith, and in the strength of the Lord, have maintained the character and preserved the pureness and unity of the churches of Christ. In the long night of darkness, the Vaudois, or the Waldenses,* and the Albigenses-the former deriving their name from the valleys of Piedmont, and the latter from Albi, a town in the province of Toulouse-who were jointly known by the name of Leonists, and were also called Catherins, from the purity of their lives, and Paterins, from the severity of their sufferings, were, as churches, stedfast in the faith, the candlesticks of Christendom, and

The ancient official seal of the Waldensian Church represents a lamp or candle diffusing rays of light over a surrounding field of darkness. See Sims. Leger, &c. History of the Church of Christ, vol. 3, p. 375.

lighted up the wilderness, while gross darkness rested on the world.

In proof of the purity of the doctrine of the Vaudois, and the integrity of their lives, we need not appeal even to Roman Catholic authorities, seeing that direct reference may at once be made to the testimony of an inquisitor-general, whose confession assimilates to that of Judas, though without his compunction. Such was the greatness of the mystery of iniquity and deceivableness of unrighteousness, that the hand which shed their blood wrote down their innocence, without adding that the act was murder.

66 Among all the sects which still are or have been, there is not any more pernicious to the church than that of Leonists. And this for three reasons. The first is, because it is older; for some say that it hath endured from the time of Pope Sylvester, (fourth century) others, from the time of the apostles. The second, because it is more general, for there is scarce any country wherein the sect is not. The third, because when all other sects beget horror in the hearers by the outrageousness of their blasphemies against God, this of the Leonists hath a great shew of piety; because they live justly before men, and believe all things rightly concerning God, and all the articles which are contained in the creed; only they blaspheme the church of Rome and the clergy; whom the multitude of the laity is easy to believe.*

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"The causes of their estrangement from his church are thus singularly stated: "It is because the men aud women, young and old, the labourer and the learned man, do not cease to instruct themselves; because they have translated the Old and New Testament into the vulgar tongue, and learn these books by heart and teach them; because if scandal be committed by any one, it inspires them with horror, so that when they see any one leading an irregular life, they say to him, the apostles did not live so, nor should we who would imitate the apostles: in short, they look upon all that a teacher advances, unsupported by the New Testament, as fabulous."+

* Reinorius con. Heret. cap. 4. quoted by Usher, Cave, Bishop Newton, &c.

+H. D. Acland's Hist. of the Vaudois, p. 6.

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