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may, I think, fairly be understood in a literal Senfe, without any Violence to the Text or the Nature of Things. V.7. And when they fall bare finished their Teftimony, the Beaft that afcends out of the bottomless Pit (i. e. Antichrift) fhall make War against them (with more Violence than before) and fhall 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 unqueftionably 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 Rome, or Chriftendom. V.9. And they of the People and Kindreds, and Tongues and Nations, fhall fee their dead Bodies three Days and half, and shall not fuffer their dead Bodies to be put in Graves. God in this refpect making their Madness fubfervient to his Glory. For by being thus expofed in the open Street, their Resurrection 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) shall rejoyce over them, and shall make merry and Send Gifts to one another (as in time of Publick Joy, Hefter 9. 19, 22. Neb. 8. 10-----12.) because these two Prophets tormented

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. 11. And after 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 Thoufand, 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

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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 Name, bewhich 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 fecond Woe, and then what time shall we allot to the third Woe, or the pouring out of the Seven Vials, which is all tranfacted within the times of Antichrift, fince N 2

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he is to live till the pouring out of the a Vial, when Rome or Babylon fhall be 1 ftroyed by the Earthquake, and the Be and falfe Prophet being taken at the Batt of Armageddon, fhall be caft into thelake f burning with Fire and Brimftone, R. C 14. 19. 20. To this feveral Anfwers fe been given. Some fuppofe that by the a Months, whereby the Times of the Be are measured, are meant Lunar Month (the Moon being the Regent and Gove nefs of the Night or Darkness, a prop Emblem of Antichriftianifm, I Thea Prov. 4. 19. Eph. 5. 11, &c.) which do no amount to three Solar Years and a half, by ha the space of about twenty Days, which they a allot to the third Woe; and befides that, ed the fhortness of the Time allotted for its ad Completion is hinted at by the Exprefion of coming quickly, or fpeedily, Rev. II. G Others,with greater probability,would eve truly fuppofe, that the Witneffes fhall th gin their Teftimony before the Beas Reign, and fhall by their Preaching pr pare the World against his Coming; and th that, though they fhould both be the famen fpace, yet the one commencing before the other, muft by confequence end before i and fo the void fpace of the latter Period may be allotted to the third Woe, or la C Vials. And better Accounts may probably be given by those who are more exercile in the Knowledge of adjufting Times and Seafons, which I am not much concern about, &

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t, as being not effential to the Truths contending for. 23. THE Death of the Witneffes feems The Death - the laft Inftance or Act of Antichri-of the Witneffes and

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Cruelty, and feems to determine a the End of in Period in which the Church is per- the Beasts d, and fixed in a State of Triumph Reign. Security, reprefented by a Sea of Glafs led with Fire, whereupon were standing thofe Sad gotten the Victory over the Beast, and over mage, and over his Mark, and over the aber of his Name, having the Harps of God, finging the Song of Mofes the Servant of God, he Song of the Lamb *: As on the other Rev. 15. d thofe that had worshipped the Beast received his Mark, feem to be perfectin the Mystery of Iniquity, and are. ordingly reprefented as ripe for Vennce,and the full Measure of the Wrath of 1 poured out of the Seven Vials, Rev. 1. 16. 1. And I cannot but think that ferious Contemplation of this notable iod will afford us a more effectual SoluI of the above-mention'd Difficulty (viz. Times of the Third Woe) than any Difquifitions in Chronology. I. Then Forty Two Months of the Beaft 1. 13. 5. do not feem to limit his Duratior Continuance under the Notion and. aracter of a Temporal Prince or Goverir, but as he is more Emphatically Anift, an Oppofer of God and Perfecutor his Church; and this feems to be the e Import of the Word hoe in the Orial; .e.) he fhall act in his Antichriftian

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Spirit and Power, oppofing and perfecuting the Church. And fo the Marginal Readings of the English Bible render it, he shall make War. So then when the Church fhall be delivered and his Perfecution fhall be at an end, as it is Rev. 15. 2, 3. He may then be properly faid, and his Forty Two Months be expired; and fo the shortning of the Time obferved by the Evange lifts, is with a peculiar regard to the Violence of the Perfecution, Mat. 24. 21, 22. Mark, 13. 19, 20. which Perfecution muft end, and the Church be in Peace before the pouring out of the Vials, though he himself muft continue till the Effufion of the laft, as was before obferved. II. The Prophecying of the Witneffes 1260 Days, and the Church's being fed in the Wildernefs for a Time, Times, and half a Time, i. e. Three Years and an half, as it is generally interpreted, Rev. 12. 14. may be fairly fuppofed to fynchronize and run parallel to the Forty Two Months as before interpreted. And III. There is no Neceffity that the Effufion of the Vials fhould belong to any part of the Forty Two Months, but to begin upon their Expirati on, as being the gradual Steps whereby God (by the Hands of fome of his Servants that had ftood out their Time of Tryal un der him, and were now in a State of Tri umph, and reprefented as Angels coming out of the Temple, probably the inward Court in which the Righteous were fhu

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