upside down." If they proclaimed Jesus who was crucified, to be the Lord of life, the rulers complained, "Ye intend to bring this man's blood upon us."

When the witnesses shall be slain, John says, "The inhabitants of the earth shall rejoice over them, and send gifts one to another." There will be great public rejoicings, at the supposed overthrow of the gospel, as if some happy and glorious change had been effected. Thus it has been in times past. When the protestants were defeated in a general battle, and multitudes of them slain, and the rest dispersed by the army of Charles V, there were general rejoicings among the papists. After the dreadful massacre of the protestants in France, called the massacre of St. Bartholomews, in which many thousands were destroyed, there were public processions and formal thanksgivings, not only in France, but in other popish countries. So it is on the victory over the witnesses here foretold. Every advantage, which the enemies of religion gain over its friends by excluding the latter from, and raising themselves to places of power, is announced by public festivities.

And when this advantage appears complete, the rejoicings become general. If the event here foretold, is still future, as many interpreters suppose, a most gloomy scene awaits the Christian church.

But for our comfort, we are assured, the time will be short. "After three days and an half, the spirit of life entered into them," into the witnesses who had been slain, "and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.— And they heard a voice from heaven, saying to them, Come up hither; and they ascended up into heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them."

The church, by the remarkable power of God, shall be raised from her depressed condition, and the witnesses, animated with new strength and courage, shall proclaim the doctrines of Christ with greater

boldness and success, than before, to the joy of their friends, and the terror of their enemies, who will be as much surprized, as if they had seen them raised from the dead. They will now appear to be under God's special protection, and as secure from the malice of persecution, as if they were taken up into heaven. To be exalted to heaven, in the figurative language of prophecy, is to be raised to distinguished privileges. The phrase here intends, that the Christian church shall enjoy great freedom security and happiness.

This restoration of the church will be accompanied with great commotions in the political world; especially in that part of it, which has been subject to the papal jurisdiction. There will be signal calamities inflicted on the enemies of Christ, vast multitudes will be slain, and the destruction will fall with remarkable severity on persons of eminence and distinction. And so obvious will be the hand of God, that it will be acknowledged in a general repentance by those who survive the catastrophe.— Thus John describes the scene: "The same hour there was a great earthquake and a tenth part of the city fell, and there were slain of men seven thousands, and the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven."

John, having given a general description of the state of the church, from the sounding of the sixth trumpet, to the time when the happy state of the church will begin, resumes the subject where, he had left it. He says, "The seventh angel sounded his trumpet." This trumpet introduces the angels with their seven vials, which were to be poured out within the time, thus generally described under the figure of the witnesses. Upon this he says, "There were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.

We give thee thanks, that thou hast taken to thyself thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, and shouldst destroy them, who corrupt the earth."— This is a description of the happy state of the church, which shall follow on the resurrection and exaltation of the witnesses of the gospel of Christ.

In the contemplation of the gloomy scenes, through which the church of Christ has passed already, and still may pass our minds are refreshed by the anticipation of their glorious result. The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. It is happy for us, that the great events, which concern the church, have been described in prophecy, though in a figurative, yet in so intelligible a manner that the certain fulfilment of the predictions may be seen. By this means there is, to all attentive and discerning men, a standing evidence of the divinity of the gospel. ད་ I have now, according to the best light, which I could collect, opened to you this important prophecy concerning the witnesses-a prophecy, which contains a period of 1260 years, and which is now drawing toward its final accomplishment. vision is for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come."

"The

The practical instructions which this prophecy. affords us, will be the subject of another discourse.

SERMON IX.

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The Prophecy concerning the two Witnesses im

proved.

REVELATION xi. 3—13.

And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophecy a thousand two hundred and threescore days clothed in sackcloth, &c.

I HAVE endeavored, in a preceding discourse, to open to you the scheme of prophecy contained in the words, which have been read, and to shew its purport and intention. I shall now make some remarks and observations upon it.

1. The prophecy under consideration gives us an undeniable evidence of the divinity and truth of the gospel.

A little after the gospel was introduced by its Author, and preached by his Apostles, this book was written. And though it is, in some respects, a dark book, as prophecy in the nature of it will be dark, until it is enlightened by its correspondent events; yet so much we easily learn from it, that the church of Christ should meet with great opposition and violent persecution from the powers of the world, and still should be maintained and preserved. Both .

these predictions we see verified, and yet both of them to human reason were utterly improbable.

ance.

In the first place, who would have imagined, that the gospel should meet with such terrible opposition? What is there in it to provoke the malice and rage of mankind?-It never meddles with forms of government, or with affairs of state, farther than to inculcate justice and fidelity on rulers, and obedience and peaceableness on subjects, and to recommend those virtues which make society happy. It breathes benevolence in all its precepts. It urges its precepts by doctrines of the most serious importIt confirms men's natural apprehensions of a future state. It removes their doubts concerning the resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul. It relieves the anxious fears of conscious guilt; points out a way, in which sinners may obtain a gracious pardon, and escape the merited punishment of all their sins. It marks the path, in which mortals may arrive to eternal glory. What harm then has it done? If there may be such stupidity in men as to treat this gospel with indifference, yet who could have foreseen, that there would be in them such malignity as to oppose it with violence? But this, in fact, has been the case. And it was early foretold, that this would be the case. prophet, who foretold this, must have been instructed by him, who knew what was in man, better than man knew what was in himself.

The

Or, secondly, if it had been foreknown, what powerful opposition awaited the gospel, who would have thought, that it could live through it? Its first preachers were few in number; they were aided by no civil authority, and defended by no military power; they had nothing to recommend them, but the purity of their doctrines, the virtue of their lives, the energy of their reasoning, and the evidence of VOL. IV.

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