In the darkest times under Papal tyranny, and in after days, there appears something remarkable in the duality of signal instruments of salvation. We find Luther and Calvin; Cranmer and Ridley; John Huse and Jerome of Prague; yea, and the Waldenses and Albigenses. No doubt it is a fact, as Mr. Faber observes, that in this small number of the true followers of Christ, was in a sense contained the essence of the Church of the Old and New Testaments. Whether some reference be not had to this circumstance, in the dual number of the witnesses, I would not decide.

Concerning the slaying of the witnesses, authors have been much divided. It would be tedious, and needless to hint their different schemes, and the proper objections to them. See the schemes given in Bishop Newton, vol. ii, p. 226, 7, 8, 9. But after all, the good Bishop deemed the event still future. He says;"The greater part of this prophecy, relating to the witnesses, remains yet to be fulfilled."

I will mention the scheme of a late celebrated author upon the point, and my objections to it. His scheme is this; that the witnesses were slain in Germany, in 1547; when the two German princes, the Elector of Saxony, and the Landgrave of Hesse, sometime after the commencement of the reformation, were overcome at Mulhberg, in a battle with the emperor of Germany, and were forced to submit at discretion. Several years before this event, these German princes, and some others, espoused the cause of the reformation. They by an association, called the league of Smalkalde, gave a kind of political life to the Protestants in Germany; which at the defeat above noted, was taken from them; and the cause of the reformation in Germany, seemed to be lost. But the reformers again stood upon their feet in 1550, by defeating the duke of Mecklenburg; and in 1552 a peace was ratified at Passau, and confirmed at Augsburg, in 1555, by which the Protestants in Germany were allowed the free exercise of their religion. And the Church, according to this author, then ascended to her political heayen.

Against this scheme, the following objections appear to me of weight;

1. Those events were inadequate to a fulfilment of the prediction; and in some things contrary to it.

One would think so much importance could not be attached to the political privileges obtained, and for some years enjoyed by the Protestants in Germany, as that the interruption of those privileges, for several years should be represented, in ancient prophecy, as the slaying of God's witnesses? The witnesses had

lived and prophesied, without those privileges, through all the preceding ages of their testimony, till within a few years of their defeat at Mulhberg. And if they were alive before those privileges were obtained, why not equally alive, after they were taken from them? Indeed if the throwing of the Protestant Churches now, in the vast Christian world, into a similar situation with that of the reformers in Germany, after the battle of Mulhberg, might amply amount to what was designed in ancient prophecy by the slaying of the witnesses; it does not hence follow, that the above event in Germany was adequate to a fulfilment of that prophecy.

It is evident that the slaying, the lying dead, and the resurrection, of the witnesses, are represented in the prophecy as events of extensive and great moment. And they of the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations, shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they, that dwell upon the earth, shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them, that dwell on the earth. What kindreds, and tongues, and nations took so great delight in the defeat of the German Protestants at Mulhberg? Wherein did they rejoice, and make merry, and send gifts one to another? How long had the people, who dwelt on the earth, the kindreds, and nations and tongues, been tormented by the German Protestants? What were the emotions in fact excited among the catholic nations on that occasion? They were the very reverse of the joy and triumph indicated in the prophe

cy, upon the slaying of the witnesses. Upon the dispersion of the army of the Protestants, combined under the Smalkalde league,and the submission of all to the Emperor, except the Elector of Saxony, and the Landgrave of Hesse; and when the prospect appeared certain, that these two princes would be overcome, as they afterward were; a general spirit of jealousy arose among the Catholic powers, in fear of the unrestrained dominion about to be obtained by Charles. He had professed, this his war against the confederate princes was not undertaken on account of their religion; (though this was evidently the Pope's motive in aiding this war) bu to vanquish a political combination. The real motive of the Emperor no doubt was, the extension of his own power, at the expense of the liberties of Germany; and the eventual re-establishment of the Catholic religion through Germany, as being more favorable to his ambitious views. But in the terms of the submission of those Protestant states to Charles, not a word was said concerning any abridgment of their religious rights, nor even concerning religion. But as the Smalkalde league had been viewed, even by other Papal powers, as a salutary check to the thirst of the Emperor for uni versal power, and as the Catholic nations dreaded his ambition; so upon the dispersion of the Protestant army, and the prospect that the Elector and the Landgrave would soon be subdued, the Papal powers became alarmed. The Pope himself trembled for the fate of the Italian states. And he immediately sent and recalled his troops from the Imperial army. This greatly perplexed the Emperor. For he had depended on the aid of these troops, for the reduction of the two princes yet in arms. Charles entreated, and threatened; but all in vain. The Pope was inflexible; and his armies were recalled to Italy.

The Pope also at the same time revoked the license, which he had given to Charles, of taking to himself certain Church lands in Spain, as an inducement to suppress those, whom he called heretics. Francis also,

* See vol. iii, p. 368, of Robertson's Hist. of Charles V.

the French monarch, was distressed at the thought of the reduction of the Protestant German princes. Not that he favored the reformation; but rejoiced in the check of his rival. He sent his embassadors, and labored to revive the Smalkalde league; and to prevent the submission of the Elector and the Landgrave to Charles. And he sent them large sums of money, to enable them to withstand the Emperor. The Pope expressed great joy upon hearing of the total defeat of Albert, marquis of Brandenburg, whom Charles had sent forward with a detachment, to aid Maurice against the Elector, but whom the Elector had intercepted, and cut off. And great exertions were made to form a coalition, to consist of the Pope, the Italian states, France, England, and Denmark,against the Emperor on this occasion. The Emperor, after he had subdued the two princes, published his system called the Interim, a kind of bungling attempt to reconcile the Catholics and Protestants. This was disgusting to all parties. The Pope and the Catholics execrated it. And the Protestants despised it. In short, the feeling and conduct of all, on that occasion, formed a striking contrast with the events in the prophecy, of all nations, tongues and languages rejoicing, and sending gifts one to anoth

er.

The compact obtained by the Protestants, in the peace of Augsburg, respected only the Protestants in Germany; and those only, who adhered to the confession of Augsburg, The others, who thought this confession was too lenient to the catholics, the followers of Calvin and Zuinglius, and all the Protestants in other countries, were left by this peace unprotected.

2. A difficulty attends the scheme of this author, in point of chronology. The slaying of the witnesses is said to be when they shall have finished their testimony. I am sensible that some critics are of opinion, that the verb Tɛɛowa, being found in the first aorist, subjunctive, may admit the rendering, When they shall be about to finish. If the word may bear this construction, it is not the most natural one. Had that been the meaning of the writer, he might have adopted words

to have expressed it precisely. But the literal rendering of the words otay teλeowσl, is when they shall finish, or have finished. It is the same verb, mode and time, found in the following verse, Matt. x, 23, which is rendered thus, "Ye shall not have finished the cities of Israel." But admitting the rendering in the criticism referred to; with what propriety could the witnesses be said to have been even about to finish their testimony, at the time of the defeat at Mulhberg? That defeat was in 1547; 319 years before they will actually have finished their testimony, according to the above author's calculations; making the 1260 years terminate in 1866. Should they terminate at a later period, the difficulty would be proportionably increased. There was then, according to this scheme, at the time of the slaying of the witnesses, more than one quarter of the whole long time of their prophesying still before them. Surely they were not, at that time, even about to finish their testimony. They were to prophecy 1260 years; Rev. xi, 3. But according to the above scheme, they prophesied but 941 years.

Recol

3. We should conceive, from reading the account of the resurrection of the witnesses, and of their ascension to heaven, that their days of sore trial were chiefly over. I cannot but think this idea, upon perusing that prediction, would at first be impressed without a doubt But some of the most upon every impartial reader. dismal persecutions ever experienced by the Church, under Papal tyranny, have taken place, in various Cath olic countries, since the peace of Augsburg. lect the massacre of the Protestants in France, on the evening of St Bartholomew, in 1572 under Charles IX, when 30,000 were destroyed; the slaughter of them in Ireland, in the reign of Charles I; and in Poland, in after days. Recollect the persecutions under Louis XIV, who repealed the edict of Nantz, in 1685, and murdered and banished nearly two millions of his Protestant subjects in one year; the persecutions of the Piedmontese by the duke of Savoy, toward the close of the seventeenth century; when one million in France were murdered; and many other bloody scenes, expc