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النشر الإلكتروني

Witnesses. We are still living under the Sixth Trumpet; and the empire of the Othmans is still subsisting; "the Beast" is still reigning, the witnesses are still in various places testifying in sackcloth. It will not be till toward the end of their testimony, that the triumph of the Beast, and the suppression and subsequent resurrection and exaltation of the witnesses shall take place'. Then the sixth Trumpet shall end; the" Second woe will be past;" (v. 14.) the Othman Empire shall be broken, as Ezekiel (xxxviii. and xxxix.) and Daniel (xi. xliv. xlv.) have predicted; the witnesses shall be exalted above their enemies; and the "Third Woe," or the total destruction of the Beast, "shall come quickly."

With respect to "the Witnesses," it may be clearly shown by reference to History, that such "faithful ones," have existed in every age of the Church, even in the darkest and most corrupt periods thereof. From the end of the seventh century,-when the power of the POPE, as a "Horn," or temporal Prince,

1 The Witnesses may be considered as the representatives of Protestants in general; and it seems, from the general tenor of this prophecy, that Popery, immediately previous to its final downfall, shall be permitted to have a signal but temporary triumph; during which the true religion shall lie, as it were, trodden down. But there speedily shall come a glorious re-action; the "Spirit of life from God," shall cause it to revive again; and to rise to great power and extended influence and the Beast shall utterly perish.

began to be established, and when, therefore, "the Beast" began to reign, and the witnesses thereupon "to prophesy in sackcloth," down to the REFORMATION in the sixteenth century;-there have always been true servants of Jesus Christ, who have maintained and publicly avowed doctrines, contrary to those maintained by the Pope and the Church of Rome.

In the eighth century, the council of 334 Bishops at Constantinople, and again at Frankfort, another of upwards of 300, solemnly declared against Transubstantiation and Image worship. Even through the darkest season, viz. in the tenth century, there were some stars appearing in the horizon; and in the twelfth, the dawn of Reformation began to show itself, chiefly amongst the Waldenses and Albigenses ; it shone more brightly in the fourteenth, through the zeal and learning of Wicliffe; it spread its rays still more widely in the fifteenth, under the Martyrs John Huss and Jerome of Prague; and attained meridian lustre, as it were, in the sixteenth (1517), when LUTHER, by publicly and manfully proclaiming against the corruptions of Popery, gave a shock to the power and dominion of "the Beast," from which it has never yet recovered. So that, when it is presumptuously asked, "Where was your religion before Luther?" we may confidently reply that "it was in the hearts

and lives of many faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ, in every age of His Church:" and above all, "it was always in the Bible, which is the only religion of Protestants."

[Here the contents of the "little book " terminate, and the general subject, which was interrupted at the end of the ninth chapter, is now resumed.]

"The Seventh Angel sounded." (vs. 15 to 19.) The seventh trumpet is the last or third woe-trumpet ; the fifth trumpet (ch. 9. v. 1.) being the first woe; the sixth (v. 13.), the second woe; and the BißXiapıdıov, or “little book," being a sort of appendix

thereto.

This "third woe brought on the inhabitants of the earth," is the ruin and downfall of the Anti-Christian kingdom; and then, and not till then, "the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever." St. John seems hurried away by his enraptured feelings, and by a prolepsis describes the happy Millennium'," omitting for a moment the intervening steps to it.

This brings us then to the consummation of all things; through a series of prophecies extending from

1 On this subject of the Millennium, see Dissertation 25, chap

ter 20.

the Apostle's days to the end of the world; and all together forming a chain, whereof one link depends upon and supports another; and each helping to clear up and illustrate the other.

DISSERTATION XXV.

Revelation of ST. JOHN the Divine.

SECTION II.

TWELFTH CHAPTER.

[19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were light nings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.] And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. 3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. 4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. 5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. 6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hun

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