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think that God hath fet forth us the Apostles, &c. fays, Thus Enoch and Elias, that fhall be. the Apostles of the last times, muft fuffer many Perfecutions and Afflictions, for they must be fent before to prepare the People of God, and to ftrengthen the Churches. St. Jerom ; We fhall fay no- +Ep. 148. thing in this Place concerning Enoch and ad MarElias, of whom St. John in his Revelation witneffeth, that they fhall come again upon Earth and die. The fame (in fhort) is affirmed by St. Augustin, Lib. 9. de Gen. Cap. 6. by Profper, de dimid. Temp. Cap. 13. by St. Gregory, in Job, Lib. 9. Cap. 4. by Damafcen, de fide Orthodoxa, Lib. 4. Cap.27. Aretas Cæfarienfis, in 11 Apoc. &c. And as for the Coming of Elias, the Holy Scriptures themselves feem plainly to affert it. For thus faith God by the Prophet Malachy, Chap. 4.5. Behold I will fend you Elias the Prophet before the great and terrible Day of the Lord come, he shall turn the Heart of the Fathers to the Children, and the Heart of the Children to the Fathers, left I come and fmite the Earth with a Curfe. In which Place the Expreffions of the great and terri ble Day of the Lord, and of fmiting the Earth with a Curfe,do I think, chiefly (if not only) relate to his Second Coming; for that his First Appearance, in the Form of a Servant, cannot with any tolerable Congruity be called Great or Terrible; and he came not then to perform any Judicial Acts, but - what were purely Spiritual, the Judging of the Earth being the grand Design of his Second Coming. To this it is objected,

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that our Bleffed Lord exprefly afferted, that Elias there meant was already come, Mat. 17. 12. To which I Anfwer, That our Lord meant no more than that John the Baptift, the Power and Spirit of Elias, or Elias in the Spirit was come, but not in the Body; in which that he was yet to appear before his Second Coming, our Saviour himself doth not deny, but rather plainly affert. For when the Disciples taking our Saviour's Words in too large a Senfe, asked him, How then Say the Scribes that Elias must first come? Our Lord anfwers, that Elias fhall come, and shall restore all Things; which Words being spoken in the future Tenfe, cannot be apply'd to John the Baptift who was already come, but had not restored all Things, which is ftill referved to the Coming of Elias in Perfon at the End of the World, or the times of Reftitution of all Things, which God has Spoken by the Mouth of all his Prophets fince the World began, Acts 3. 21. And the Author of the Book of Eccluf. 48. 10. feems plainly to understand the Prophecy of Malachy, concerning the Perfon of Elias, of whom he had been fpeaking, faying, that be was ordained for Reproofs in their times, to pacifie the Wrath of the Lord's Judgment, before it break forth into Fury; and to turn the Heart of the Father to the Son, and to restore the Tribes of Ifrael.---Thefe then are the two Olive-Trees, and the two Candlesticks, standing before the God of the Earth, Rev. 11. 4. Zech. 4. 3. called Olive-Trees from the Divine Unction, as

being anointed Kings and Priests in Chrift's Kingdom; and Candlesticks, as bearing in them the burning and fhining Light of the Spirit of Truth, who is the Light of the World; in which Senfe the Seven Churches, Rev. 1. 20. are alfo called Candlesticks. And whereas Grotius upon the Place, has brought it as an Argument to prove, that hereby are not meant Two Perfons, but Two Churches, because they are called Candlesticks, which the Angel interprets to be Churches, Rev. 1. 20. we have, I think, as good a Reafon to conclude they are Perfons, because they are called Olive-Trees, which Zech. 4. 14. are interpreted of Two Perfons, Jofbuah and Zerubbabel. Many Scripture-Characters of particular Persons being applicable to Churches (as may be fhewn at large) and vice verfa. But to proceed, in St. John's Account of these Two Witneffes, If any Man will hurt these (Rev. 11. 5.) .e. make any Attempt upon their Perfons, either by natural or magical Violence, Fire proceedeth out of their Mouth (a plain Allufion to what Elijah did, 2 Kings 1.) and devoureth their Enemies; and if any Man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. V. 6. Thefe have Power to Shut Heaven that it rain not in the Days of their Prophecy; (plainly alluding to what Elijah did, 1 Kings 17.1. 18. 1, 41. as in the following Words to Mofes's turning the Waters into Blood, Exod. 7.17.) and have Power over Waters to turn them into Blood, and to fmite the Earth with all Plagues as often us they will. Which Words N

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may, I think, fairly be understood in a literal Senfe, without any Violence to the Text of the Nature of Things. V.7. And when they shall have finished their Testimony, the Beast that afcends out of the bottomless Pit (i. e. Antichrift) fhall make War against them (with more Violence than before) and shall overcome them and kill them. V. 8. And their dead Bodies fhall lie in the Streets (i. e. in one of the Streets, by an ufual Hebraifm) of the great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where alfo our Lord was crucified. This Great City is unquestionably Jerufalem, called Sodom, Ifa. 1. 10. and may poffibly be meant by Egypt in many Places of Prophetical Scripture. But that which puts it beyond all doubt is, that diftinguishing Character of being the Place where our Lord was crucified, which has been moft violently wrefted by our Modern Expofitors to fignifie

of the People and Kindreds, and Tongues and Nations, fhall fee their dead Bodies three Days and half, and fhall not fuffer their dead Bodies to be put in Graves. God in this refpect making their Madnefs fubfervient to his Glory. For by being thus expofed in the open Street, their Refurrection and Afcenfion fhall be the more vifible and confpicuous to all that behold them. V. 10. And they that dwell upon the Earth (i. e. The Antichriftian Company) fhall rejoyce, over them, and shall make merry and Send Gifts to one another Cas in time of Publick Joy, Hefter 9. 19, 22. Neb. 8. 10-12.) because these two Prophets

of the Rome, or Christendom. V.9. And they

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tormented them that dwell on the Earth; (as the Prophets, and particularly Elijah, were faid to trouble wicked Kings and People, 1 Kings 18. 17, 18. 21. 20.) V. II. And af ter three Days and half, the Spirit of Life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their Feet, and great Fear fell upon all them that Saw them. V. 12. And they heard a Voice from Heaven, Saying unto them, Come up hither; and they afcended up to Heaven in a Cloud, and their Enemies beheld them. V. 13. And the fame Hour was there a great Earthquake, and the tenth part of the City fell; and in the Earthquake were flain of Men Seven Thousand, and the Remnant were afrighted, and gave Glory to God. By Seven Thousand Names, as it in the Original, may be meant Seven Thousand, or perhaps an indefinite great Number, of the *Chief or Principal Members of the Anti-That is chriftian Kingdom, Gen. 6. 4. Job 30. 8. Name, or The Second Woe is past, the third cometh quickly, Renown; Rev. 11. 14. But here it may be objected, oppos'd to If the Witneffes Prophecy 1260 Days, and Menofno the Times of the Beaft are 42 Months, ing fuch as which are the fame fpace of time diffe- are not rently expreffed, for that in 42 Months, known in or three Years and half, 1260 Days are the World comprehended; then the Deftruction of by their Antichrift muft fynchronize with the Death of the Witneffes, which cannot be, because the Death of the Witneffes is the End of the second Woe, and then what time shall we allot to the third Woe, or the pouring out of the Seven Vials, which is all tranf acted within the times of Antichrift, fince N 2

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