;

he will come out of his place, “clad with zeal as a cloak,"* to the prompt execution of it while the blood of the martyrs shall successfully cry to heaven,t and the insulted earth no more cover her slain.‡

If this interpretation of the prophecy of the two witnesses be (for reasons which do not appear to me,) deemed inadmissible, perhaps the other, insinuated above, that the two witnesses here meant are the two Testaments, may be more satisfactory: though it seems. highly probable that both may be intended. The Old Testament, which so loudly proclaims the unity of God, and his abomination of idolatry, disseminated the knowledge of God in a great degree all over the world, by means of the dispersion of the ten tribes, and

*Isaiah lix. 17.

Rev. vi. 11. The blood of the martyrs slain by the first persecutors and by pagan Rome, cried to heaven for vengeance upon the bloody city. But Rome christian (or rather papal,} was to exceed even the pagans in the effusion of christian blood, before the ripe barvest should be reaped, and the vintage be gathered. Rev. xiv. 19, 20.

Isaiah xxvi. 21.

by the Babylonian captivity; and it brought the reigning idolatry of the heathens first into question, and afterwards into contempt: and thus it was a witness to the world before Christ appeared. To this is the allusion of God's setting a sign among the gentiles, in Isaiah: (lxvi. 19.) "I will set a sign among them, and will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory and they shall declare my glory among the gentiles."

The septuagint or greek translation of the Old Testament, made about 250 years before Christ, and in general and high esteem amongst the jews in their dispersion, (the greek being at that time a language generally known,) is alone sufficient to entitle the Old Testament and the jews, who communicated the knowledge of it to the learned gentiles, to be called God's witnesses to the times before Christ. And the many and clear prophecies of the

* Ses note *, section iv. p. 98. 1

E E

christian times, of the corruption of religion, and of the sufferings of the faithful in its cause, (which are contained in the Old Testament,) entitle it equally, in the times after Christ, to the same rank of honor, as a witness and prophet, together with the New Testament. They both of them, with a strong, unanimous, and often repeated testimony against the apostacy of popery, lift up the warning voice, "come out of her my people;" "depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing, go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord."* They both continue, from first to last, to prophecy in sackcloth; in a state of discouragement, disgrace, and persecution, more or less, in all parts of the Romish communion; by being silenced, interdicted, corrupted, interpolated, and forced (by suitable translations) to become (as they call it) a nose of wax, between the fingers of his Holiness. And yet after all, from the dread of the evidence these two prophets are

Rev. xviii. 4. Jer. 1, 8: li. 6, 45. Isa. xlviii. 20 : lii. 11,

still capable of giving, against their masters, they are blasphemed, and outraged with every species of contempt; and put below the vile legends and fabricated traditions of lying monks.*

to

* The doctrine of the church of Rome, with respect to tradition, is "that the scriptures contain not all things necessary be believed and practised:" but that many things besides scripture-over and above scripture,-and which cannot be proved by any testimony of holy writ, but only derived from unwritten tra, ditions, are to be believed and practised.

This notion of the insufficiency of the scriptures, and the necessity of traditions, it appears from church history and the testimonies of the ancients, (as Irenæus, Epiphanius, Tertullian, &c.) was first brought into the church by the Carpocratians and other heretics; and is directly contrary to the warnings of our Saviour (Matt. xv. 2) and his apostles, (2 Thes. ii. Col. ii. 8.) The council of Trent, Sess. 4, Decr, 1, declares "that the unwritten traditions belonging as well to faith as manners, must be received with like and equal affection of godliness and reverence, as the holy scripture itself." Andradius tells us, "that of necessity those traditions" also must be be lieved, which can be proved by no testimony of scripture. “Whatsoever things the church of Rome believeth, holdeth, and keepeth, (says Petrus a Soto,) and are not delivered in the scriptures, the same came by TRADITION FROM THE APOSTLES." Also, "all such observations or ceremonies, whose beginning, author, and origin are not known, or cannot be found, beyond all doubt they were delivered BY THE APOSTLES." He then

*

The holy scriptures, being as opposite to popery as light is to darkness, are not without reason, in these realms of delusion, beheld with an eye of suspicion, and every way treated as enemies. But they are metaphorically said, in this prophecy, to have the power of avenging themselves; and inflicting the plagues therein written, upon their persecutors, as often as they will." And in truth the scriptures have not been wholly without their revenge, in this very way. For the scriptural cat-o-nine-tails was laid on upon the back of his Holiness, and his compeers, by the lusty arm of Martin Luther, with a hearty good will; nor was there any failure in the like performance of this salutary exercise, on the

sets to work and reckons all the following as such :-" The oblation of the sacrifice of the altar-extreme unction with holy chrism-invocation of saints-the merits of works-supremacy of the pope-holy water making-prayers for the dead-auricu lar confession-and the necessity of satisfaction. But it is evident that other traditional doctrines are held as high in their church as any of these; as, the cœlibacy of the clergy—distinction of meats-purgatory-sale of pardons-worshipping of images-superstitious use of the cross, &c. &c.

* 2 Thess. ii. 11.

Hist. of Popery, vol, ii. p. 234.