sion from it was not the same on one and all. At Rome Pope Leo, in his golden palace, incredulous as to the possibility of any thing occurring, especially from so mean an origin, to effect his supremacy and power, treated it as a mere passing ebullition of feeling and genius in the monk of Wittemberg.' But not so they that were on the spot, and beheld, when, like an electric shock, the voice of the revived gospel-witness thrilled through Germany. Not so, I say, Tetzel, Cardinal Cajetan, Eck, Miltitz. Of these each one, as they entered on the scene, and looked on, trembled in consternation. For they saw that the very foundation of the whole Papal system was assailed; and that there was a power in the voice and the movement, even as if from heaven, that they could not withstand. It needs not that I here retrace what has been said before so fully of the subsequent successive steps taken towards the consolidation of the Reformation:the recognition by Luther in their true character, and his consequent rejection, of the Pope and his seven Thunders; his intrepid standing up in defence of the Gospel before the Emperor and Cardinals at Worms; the general revival of gospel-preaching; the ecclesiastical constitution of a pure and reformed Church, and excommunication of the Roman Church as apostate, with the rod of the civil power assisting, throughout electoral Saxony, Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, and other countries. It is sufficient here to state that at each step of advance, as the revival was confirmed, and the Witnesses stood more firmly on their feet, the fear of those that beheld continued, and increased in anxiety. Not least were their fears excited when, after ten years of vain schemes and agitation to put them down, the Lutheran Reformers proclaimed as it were before the world,-though all unconsciously and unintentionally, that they were but the Witnesses of Christ resuscitated and risen up again :-I mean when in 1530, just after the memorable Augsburg Council, at which they had presented their Confession of Faith, and been repudiated by the Emperor, they united them 1 "Brother Martin," he said, " is a man of fine genius." Milner. selves collectively at Smalcald,' under the glorious adopted name of PROTESTANTS; an appellation the very same that, according to its Latin etymology, signifies WITNESSES. And here the Angel seems to have ceased speaking. (I shall presently have to state the evidence of it.) His sketch of the two Witnesses' history had been brought down to that very chronological point in the vision prefigurative of the Reformation, at which He first interposed with his retrospective explanatory narrative. What remained of their history would most fitly be given, not retrospectively, or in explanatory narrative, but in the resumption and progress of the Apocalyptic scenic figurations. To these we now proceed. They will form the subject of our next Chapter. CHAPTER IX. ASCENT OF THE WITNESSES, AND POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REFORMATION. 2 "And I heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither! And they ascended up to heaven in the cloud: 3 and their enemies beheld them. And at the same time there was a great earthquake. And the tenth part of the city fell. And in the earthquake were slain seven chiliads,5 names of men.-And the remnant were affrighted.-And they gave glory to the God of heaven." Apoc. xi. 12, 13. It will be observed that I adopt the reading era, I heard, instead of neoa, they heard, the reading in the "The Papists in Germany are filled with fear. As we returned from the assembly at Smalcalden, the priests at Erfurt inquired what was there concluded, whether for their ruin or safety." Luther's Table Talk, ii. 29. 2 The reading ŋksσa is taken, for reasons given presently. 3 εν τη νεφελῃ. 4 εν εκείνη τη ώρα. Griesbach has ήμερα. 5 χιλιάδες έπτα. authorized translation, at the heading of this passage. My reason is this. The external evidence of Manuscripts and versions in so far favours it, that Griesbach places it in his margin as of perhaps equal authority' with the received ήκεσαν, Then we have this analogical evidence in its favor, that whereas there are above 20 examples of σ elsewhere in the Apocalyptic prophecy, there is not one of ŋkay. The prefigurative characters shadowed out before the apostle's eye in vision are no where described as hearing what passed on the Apocalyptic scene. They often spoke words indeed; and at times had words addressed to them.2 But it was all, as well as the distinctive guise they wore, for the apostle's seeing, the apostle's hearing. Thus, I think, the Reader will agree with me that there is reasonable ground for preferring the former, as the true reading. The value of the observation consists in this, that it determines a point, otherwise indistinctly defined, of much importance; viz. where it is that the descended Angel of the Covenant ends his elucidatory retrospective narrative, and that the Apocalyptic figurations recommence before St. John, in their usual form and course. For supposing the reading Hera, And I heard, to be the correct one, it marks of itself their recommencement. Other sounds now fell upon his ear that were to be recorded, other objects called for his regard on the Apocalyptic scene, in place of the voice and address of the CovenantAngel.3-At any rate the transition cannot be fixed earlier than the clause next before preceding, "And after 1 So Scholz also. In Mr. Tregelles' late Critical Edition of the Apocalypse, twenty-four manuscript codices are mentioned as exhibiting the reading ŋкsσα, and also the Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, and Arabic versions;-versions probably of the 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th centuries. 2 For example, they spoke in the songs of thanksgiving: again words were addressed to them under the third Seal, "I heard a voice saying, See that thou defraud not in the wine and the oil;" and under the fifth Trumpet, "It was said to them that they should not injure the grass." Apoc. vi. 6, ix. 4. 3" And after the three days and a half, the spirit of life from God entered into them; and they stood upon their feet and great fear fell on them which saw them." "Huc usque," says Tichonius, after notice of the three and a half days of the Witnesses lying dead, "Angelus futurum narravit, et inducit factum quod factum audit." the three and a half days the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell on those that beheld them;" for the characteristic future tense of the Angel's discourse occurs immediately before it: nor later than the clause next after following; for there and then the cloud that mantled the discoursing Angel, (so we shall see presently,) and of course the Angel with it, is said to have ascended upward from the Evangelist's presence. And hence a new and twofold historical testing of the correctness of our historical exposition of this part of the prophecy. For 1st the Angel's retrospective sketch of the Witnesses in the figuration, and the Protestant Reformers' retrospective view of them in the reality, may be supposed to have been brought up to near about the time when the view was taken: i. e. as we saw some long time since, to the epoch of the researches of Flacius Illyricus, Foxe, Bale, &c.; researches begun soon after the ecclesiastical constitution of the Reformed Church with the delegated paßics of ecclesiastical authority, about 1542 or 1543:3 2ndly the prefigurations next exhibited ought to answer to the events of importance next after that date ensuing in Protestant Christendom.-Now how well our exposition stands the first criterion will already have struck the reader. For the last point noted in the Angel's retrospective narrative, viz. the two Witnesses' firm standing upon their feet, to the dismay of their 1 Sapa weμyson. The future is in all the manuscripts. The ecclesiastical constitution of the Reformed Church was begun and carried on, we saw, from A.D. 1525 to 1529, on the mandate of the governing authorities, in Saxony and other adjoining countries; and completed, we may perhaps say, by the solemn promulgation of its principles in the Confessions of faith of those reformed Churches presented to the Emperor and Diet, A.D. 1530, at Augsburg. 3 Foxe's researches into ecclesiastical history, which expanded at length into his Martyrology, began as early as 1543. See his Biography in the English Reformers, p. 1.-Bale published his "Image of both Churches," or Apocalyptic Exposition, about A.D. 1550. In his list of Witnesses so far martyred, in illustration of the Apocalyptic passage on the death of the Witnesses, the latest named by him is by Dr. Barnes, martyred A.D. 1541. The force of this expression is illustrated by Ezek. xxxvii. 10, "They lived and stood upon their feet;" said of the Jews' future restoration in national strength and vigour. |