of April 1547; when the two great champions of the proteftants, John Frederic, elector of Saxony, was taken prifoner, and the Landgrave of Heffe was forced to furrender himself, and to beg pardon of the emperor. Proteftantifm was then in a manner fuppreffed, and the mafs reftored. The witneffes were dead, but not buried; and the papifts rejoiced over them, and made merry, and fent gifts one to another. But this joy and triumph of theirs were of no very long continuance; for in the fpace of about three years and a half, the proteftants were raised again at Magdeburg, and defeated and took the duke of Mecklenburg prifoner in December 1550. From that time their affairs changed for the better almost every day; fuccefs attended their arms and counfels; and the emperor was obliged by the treaty of Paffan to allow them the free exercife of their religion, and to re-admit them into the imperial chamber, from which they had ever fince the victory of Mulburg been excluded. Here was indeed a great earthquake, a great commotion, in which many thousands were flain; and the tenth part of the city fell, a great part of the German empire renounced the authority, and abandoned the communion of the church of Rome.

Some again may think this prophecy very applicable to (1) the horrid maffacre of the proteftants at Paris, and in other cities of France, begun on the memorable eve of St. Bartholomew's day 1572. According to the beft authors, there were flain thirty or forty thoufand hugonots in a few days; and among them without doubt many true witneffes and faithful martyrs of Jefus Chrift. Their dead bodies lay in the fireet of the great city, one of the greatest cities of Europe; for they were not fuffered to be buried, being the bodies of heretics; but were dragged thro' the ftreet, or thrown into the river, or hung upon gibbets, and exposed to public infamy. Great rejoicings too were made in the courts of France, Rome, and Spain; they went in proceffion to the churches, they returned public thanks to God, they fung

(1) Vitring. p. 496, &c. Thuani Hilt. Lib. 52, 53, et 62. Davila's

Hift. B. 5 et 6. Mezeray, Charles IX. and Henry III.

Te

Te Deums, they celebrated jubilees, they ftruck medals; and it was enacted that St. Bartholomew's day fhould ever afterwards be kept with double pomp and, folemnity. But neither was this joy of long continuance; for in little more than three years and a half, Henry III. who fucceeded his brother Charles IX, entered into a treaty with the hugonots, which was concluded and published on the 14th of May 1576, whereby all the former fentences against them were reverfed, and the free and open exercife of their religion was granted to them; they were to be admitted to all honors, dignities, and offices, as well as the papifts; and the judges were to be half of the one religion, and half of the other; with other articles greatly to their advantage, which were in a manner the refurrection of the witneffes, and their afcenfon into heaven. The great earthquake, and the falling of the tenth part of the city, and the flaying of thousands of men, according to this hypothefis, must be referred to the great commotions and civil wars, which for feveral years afterwards cruelly disturbed, and almoft deftroyed the kingdom of France.

Others again have recourfe to later events, and the later indeed the better and fitter for the purpose... Peter Jurieu, a famous divine of the French church at Rotterdam, (2) imagined that the perfecution then carried on by Lewis XIV. against the proteftants of France, after the revocation of the edict of Nantes in October 1685, would be the laft perfecution of the church; that during this time the witneffes would lie dead, but fhould recover and revive within a few years, and the Reformation fhould be eftablished in that kingdom by royal authority; the whole country fhould renounce popery, and embrace the proteftant religion. Bishop Lloyd and after him Mr. Whifton (3) apply this prophecy to the poor proteftants in the valleys of Piedmont, who by a cruel edict of their fovran the Duke of Savoy, inftigated by the French king, were imprifoned and murdered, or banished and totally diffipated at the latter end

(2) Jurieu's Accomplishment of (3) Whifton's Effay on the Rev the Prophecies. Part 2. Chap. 12 Part 3. Vision 2.

and 13.

of

of the year 1686. They were kindly received and fuc coured by the proteftant ftates; and after a while fecretly entering Savoy with their fwords in their hands, they regained their ancient poffeffions with great flaughter of their enemies; and the Duke himself, having then left the French intereft, granted them a full pardon; and re-established them, by another edict figned June 4, 1690, juft three years and a half after their total diffipation. Bishop Lloyd not only understood the prophecy in this manner, but what is very remarkable, made the application even before the event took place, as Mr. Whifton relates, and upon this ground encouraged a refugee minister of the Vaudois, whofe name was Jordan, to return home, and returning he heard the joyful news of the deliverance and reftitution of his country. Thefe were indeed moft barbarous perfecutions of the proteftants both in France and Savoy; and at the fame time popery here in England was advanced to the throne, and threatened an utter fubverfion of our religion and liberties, but in little more than three years and a half a happy deliverance was wrought by the glorious Revolution.

In all these cafes there may be fome resemblance to the prophecy before us, of the death and refurrection of the witneffes; and it may pleafe an overruling provi dence fo to difpofe and order events, that the calamities and afflictions of the church may in fome meafure run parallel one to another, and all the former efforts of that tyrannical and perfecuting power called the beaft, may be the types and figures as it were of this his laft and greateft effort against the witneffes. But tho' these inftances fufficiently anfwer in fome refpects, yet they are deficient in others, and particularly in this, that they are none of them the laft perfecution; others have been fince, and in all probability will be again. Befides as the two witneffes are defigned to be the reprefentatives of the proteftants in general, fo the perfecution must be general too, and not confined to this or that particular church or nation. We are now living under the fixth trumpet: and the empire of the Euphratean horfemen or Othmans is ftill fubfifting, and perhaps in as large extent as ever:

the beaft is still reigning; and the witnesses are ftill, in fome times and places more, in fome lefs, prophefying in fackcloth. It will not be till toward the end of their teftimony, and that end feemeth to be yet at fome distance, that the great victory and triumph of the beat, and the fuppreffion, and refurrection, and exaltation of the witneffes will take effect. When all these things, fhall be accomplished, then the firth trumpet will end, then the fecond woe fhall be past, (ver. 14.) the Othman empire thall be broken in the fame manner that Ezekiel (XXXVIII, XXXIX.) and Daniel (XI. 44, 45.) have predicted; the fufferings of the witnesses fhall ceafe, and they thall be raised and exalted above their enemies: and when the second woe fhall be thus paft, behold the third woe, or the total destruction of the beaft, cometh quickly. Some time intervened between the first and the fecond woes; but upon the ceafing of the fecond, the third fhall commence immediately.

It appears then that the greater part of this prophecy relating to the witnefes remains yet to be fulfilled: but poffibly fome may queftion, whether any part of it hath been fulfilled; whether there have been any fuch perfous as the witnesses, any true and faithful fervants of Jefus Chrift, who have in every age profeffed doctrins contrary to thofe maintained by the pope and church of Rome. The truth of the fact will beft appear by an hiftorical deduction; and if it can be proved, that there have constantly been fuch witnesses from the seventh century down to the Reformation, during the most florishing period of popery, I prefume there can be little doubt about the times preceding or following. As there hath been occafion to obferve before, the feeds of popery were fown even in the apostles time, but they were not grown up to maturity, the power of the pope as a hornor temporal prince was not established till the eighth century; and from thence therefore it will be proper to begin our deduction, when the beast began to reign, and the witneffes to prophefy in fackcloth.

Great as the power of the Latin church was grown in the eighth century, the Greek church ftill diffented from

it,

it, and oppofed it. The emperors (4) Leo Ifauricus and his fon Conftantine Copronymus not only vigorously oppofed the worthip of images, but alfo denied the. interceffion of faints, and burnt and destroyed their relics. In the year 754 Conftantine Copronymus held. a general council at Conftantinople of 338 bishops, who prohibited unanimoufly the worship of faints as well as of images; and (5) declared that only one image was conftituted by Chrift himself, namely the bread and wine in the eucharift, which reprefent the body and blood of Chrift: than which there cannot be a ftronger declaration against the doctrin of tranfubftantiation as well as against the worship of images. It is true that the fecond council of Nice in the year 787 reftored and established the worship of images, and the pope ratified and confirmed it; but nevertheless great oppofition was made to it by feveral churches in the weft. Charlemain (6) held a council at Francfort in the year 794, confifting of 300 bishops of various nations, who condemned equally the fecond council of Nice and the worship of images. The Carolin books were alfo fet forth under the name and authority of that great monarch; and the doctrins therein contained, of the futficiency of the fcriptures, of the worthip of God alone, of prayers in the vulgar tongue, of the eucharift, of juftification, of repentance, of pretended vifions and miracles, and various other points, are fuch as a papist would abhor, and a proteftant would fubfcribe. Not to feek for farther inftances, the (7) British churches lamented and execrated the fecond council of Nice; and the famous Albin or Alcuin wrote a letter against it, difproving and refuting it by exprefs authorities of holy

(4) Theoph. Cedren. Zonar. &c. &c. Fred. Spanhemii Hift. Chriftian. Sæc. VIII. Cap. 6, 7, &c.

(5) Aliis explofis imaginibus, [verba funt Bellarmini Tom. I. p. 535.] unicam definiverunt effe imaginem ab ipfo Chrifto inftitutam, nimirum panem et vinum in Euchariftia, que repræfentant Chrifti corpus et fanguinem. Ex Concil. Conftantinop. Tom. 3. p. 359. Edit. Binnii. Ufle

rius de Chriftian. Ecclef. fucceffione et ftatu. Cap. 2. Sect. 4. p. 19.

(6) Spanhem. ibid. Cap. 6. et 9. Uffer. ibid. p. 20. Allix's Remarks upon the ancient churches of the Albigenfes. Chap. 8.

(7) Hoveden, Annal. pars prior. p. 232. Simeon Dunelm. Hift. P. 111. Matt. Weftm. Flores. Hift. Ann. 793. Uffer. ibid. p. 19, 20. Collier's Ecclef, Hift. B. 2. p. 139.

fcripture;