SECT. I.

Concerning the prophesying of the two witnesses.

I. THE little book commences with the year 606, or with the beginning of the first woe-trumpet. What is meant by measuring the temple, and not measuring the outer court of the Gentiles. p. 50.

II. Prophetic character of the two witnesses. p. 52. 1. They cannot be any two individuals. Neither are they the Old and New Testaments. Bp. Newton is perfectly right in the spirit, though not quite accurate in the letter, of his interpretation of their character. They are certainly two churches. Throughout the whole Apocalypse, the idea of a twofold Church of Christ is constantly preserved the Church before, and the Church after, the advent of our Lord. The two witnesses literally represent these two Churches, forming. jointly the faithful Church general: but spiritually they incan the mystical children of the universal Church, those that are Israelites indeed. p. 52.

2. The circumstance of their being said to prophesy is no objection to the supposition, that they symbolize all God's faithful witnesses during the prevalence of the Apostasy. In what sense they shut up heaven, and amite the earth with plagues, during the time of their prophesying. p. 57.

3. Fir what sense they are said to have only one mouth. p. 60.

III. Nature of the death, revival, and ascension, of the two witnesses. p. 60.

3. Their death. p. 62.

(1.) Their death denotes their ceasing to be witnesses. p. 62. (2.) The time of their death is, when they are drawing near to the close of their prophesying, but before the sounding of the seventh trumpet. p. 63.

(8.) The

(3.) The foe, by whom they are slain, is the first beast of the Apocalypse under his last head. p. 63.

2. Explanation of their death from history. p. 64.

(1.) History of the Smalcaldic league, and of the constrained reception of the Interim by the German protestants in the reign of the Emperor Charles V. p. 65.

(2.) The witnesses were slain by their constrained reception of the Interim. p. 74.

3. Their revival, after they had lain unburied during three prophetic days and a half. p. 76.

(1.) The place, where they were thus to lie, is the broad street or forum of the mystical great city. The great city is the Roman empire, within the limits of which our Lord was literally crucified. Its forum is that part of the great city, which is specially subject to the last head of the beast. p. 76.

(2.) The witnesses revived three years and a half after their figurative death, by rejecting the Interim. History of this event. p. 80.

4. Their ascension into heaven by being formerly recognized as an ecclesiastical body. p. 86.

5. Untenableness of other interpretations of this part of the

prophecy. p. 89.

6. It does not necessarily follow, that the war of the beast against the witnesses should be the last persecution of the Church. p. 95.

7. Three objections to the application of the prophecy to the Smalcaldic league. p. 97..

(1.) Why this persecution should be more noticed than many others. p. 97.

(2.) The German protestants were compelled to receive the Interim near three centuries ago. p. 98.

(3.) Some of the German states did not receive the Interim during the whole period of the three years and a half. p. 99.

8. Untenableness of Mr. Galloway's interpretation of the death and revival of the witnesses. p. 102.

IV. The great earthquake: the fall of the tenth part of the city: the coming of the third woe. p. 104.

1. The great earthquake, which is declared to synchronize with the war of the witnesses, is the ecclesiastical earthquake of the reformation. This first acquired the character of an earthquake, when the protestant princes of Germany leagued together for the subversion of Fopery within their dominious. p. 104.

2. The fall of the tenth part of the city is the fall of Popery within one of the ten kingdoms which arose out of the western empire. That kingdom is England. The earthquake began to throw down Popery there in the year 1534; but the edifice was not completely subverted, until the last shock took place in the year 1688. p. 107. 3. The slaughter of the seven thousand names of men denotes the entire abolition of the monastic orders in England. p. 109.

4. Soon after the last shock of the earthquake, the woe of the Turkish horsemen passes away in the year 1698: and, at the close of an intervening period, short compared with the five centuries which elapsed between the first and second woes, the third woe-trumpet begins to sound at the epoch of the French revolution in the year 1789. p. 110.

V. The sounding of the seventh trumpet or the third woetrumpet. p. 112.

1. Its effects traced in the progress of the French revolution. p. 113.

2. The preceding arguments drawn to a point. p. 121.

3. Objection answered; and the proper arrangement of the contents of the third woe-trumpet established. p. 124,

SECT. II.

Concerning the war of the dragon with the woman.

I. CHARACTERS of the dragon, the woman, and the man

child. p. 128.

1. Interpretation of the prophecy as given by Bp. Newton. p. 129.

2. Various objections, to which this interpretation is liable. p. 132.

3. The chapter of the little book, which contains this prophecy, relates solely and exclusively, with the excep tion of a short introductory preface, to the events of the 1260 years. p. 138.

4. A discussion of the particulars contained in it. p. 142. (1.) Heaven is the Church general. p. 142.

(2.) The woman is the spiritual Church of true believers, as contradistinguished from the nominal believers of the outer court. p. 142.

(3.) The dragon is the devil acting through the instrumentality of the seven-headed and ten-horned beast. p. 143. (4.) The birth of the man-child denotes the full establishment of Christianity in the Roman empire. p. 146.

II. The war in heaven between the dragon and Michael: the expulsion of the dragon from heaven: the conse

quences of his being cast down to the earth. p. 152. 1. What is meant by the fall of the dragon from heaven to the earth. p. 153.

2. The war between Michael and the dragon is the spiritual

contest between the witnesses and their enemies during the whole period of the 1260 years: but the particular victory of Michael, here mentioned, was achieved at the era of the Reformation. In what sense the devil hath but a short time upon earth. p. 155.

3. An attempt to trace the steps of the dragon, after he was cast out of the symbolical heaven by the Reformation. p. 58.

4. The meaning of the flood which he vomited out of his mouth against the woman. p. 168.

5. In what manner the earth swallowed it up. p. 169. III. How the dragon will go to war with the woman and the remnant of her seed at the close of the 1260 years. p. 170.

SECT.

SECT. III.

Concerning the ten-horned beast of the sea.

1. OPINIONS respecting the ten-horned beast. p. 176. 1. Mr. Kett supposes him to be the same as the little horn of Daniel's fourth beast, and to symbolize the Papacy. p. 177.

2. Mr. Galloway supposes him to be the Papacy, but denies that he is the same as the little horn of Daniel's fourth beast. p. 177.

3. Bp. Newton conceives him to represent the secular Roman empire and yet very inconsistently esteems him the same as the little horn of Daniel's fourth beast or the Papacy. p. 177.

(1.) If the beast be a secular empire, his last head, which is identified with himself, cannot be the spiritual power of the Papacy. p. 179.

(2.) The Pope, although the acknowledged head of the Church, was never allowed to be the head of the secular empire, or (what Bp. Newton styles) a king of kings. p. 180.

(3.) The ten-horned apocalyptic beast is plainly the same as Daniel's ten-horned beast: but Daniel's ten-horned beast is the Roman empire, and the little horn of that beast is as plainly the Papacy: therefore the apocalyptic ten-horned beast is the Roman empire, and consequently cannot be the Papacy: in other words, the ten-horned beast cannot be the same as his own little horn. p. 187.

II. The seven-headed and ten-horned apocalyptic beast then, being the same as the fourth and ten-horned beast of Daniel, must symbolize the secular Roman empire. p. 190.