ally believed; since it is quite certain that their rise is yet future.

What is to be understood by "the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit" (v. 7), at the first view is not apparent, inasmuch as the same origin is assigned to Mohammedanism and the Roman beast of Rev., xvii., 8. The former, it is true, when first mentioned (Rev., ix., 1–3), is not denominated a beast; but as this is a wellknown prophetical symbol, used to express a kingdom or dominion, the term is as applicable to Mohammedanism as to papacy. Moreover, it is believed that a review of the evidence in the case will establish the point, that the beasts mentioned in the thirteenth chapter are symbolical representatives of the Mohammedan government and religion. This question we shall hereafter briefly examine. The connexion appears to favour the idea that the Mohammedan beast is here intended; and, if so, we may naturally suppose that the death of the witnesses denotes their political subjugation, with its attendant evils, and perhaps sore persecution. Considering the care which God has taken to preserve their liberty, this would be a remarkable event. That this persecuting beast will make a final struggle against the Church in the East, it is not unreasonable to expect. Besides, such a conflict appears to be plainly intimated in the closing chapter of the book of Daniel, first

and seventh verses, where a time of great trouble is mentioned in immediate connexion with the downfall of the Eastern Antichrist, described in the preceding chapter:* "And it shall be for a time, and times, and a half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished."-Dan., xii., 7. "It shall be even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it."

That the papal beast should gain the ascendency, and reduce them to the idolatry of her imageworship, appears inconsistent with the terms of their espousal (Hos., iii.), in which they are brought under a solemn covenant to live free from spiritual adultery, and no more to defile themselves with idols. But these are points upon which it would be presumptuous to speak with much confidence till "the mystery of God shall be finished."

The Romanists are at the present moment making great efforts to bring about such a result, and they have in my hearing spoken with confidence of ultimate success. The pope is sending out his emissaries, and numbers are now in the field or on its borders, preparing for a new and vigorous onset, with the avowed object of bringing over the whole Nestorian Church to the papal faith. But the great body of the Nestorians have for

* For evidence that this relates to Mohammed, I must refer to such writers as Newton, Bush, and Keith.

centuries manfully resisted their attacks, and are still standing firm at their post, supported by the strong intrenchments of the Bible. And it would seem that they only need more of the armour of God to enable them to "withstand all the fiery darts of the wicked.”

On the other hand, the independent Nestorians were perhaps never in greater danger than they now are of being brought under subjection to the Moslem powers, who have pushed their conquests among the Koords to the very borders of their mountain fastnesses; and into these, I have good reason to believe, they intend to penetrate. With the aid of their new subjects, the Koords, trained among the contiguous mountains, they will have advantages for the enterprise which they never before possessed. And if God withdraw his special protection, in order to let them pass again through the furnace, they will lose their distinctive national existence, and their dead bodies will remain exposed in the great city, which is a Sodom for her sins and pollutions, and an Egypt for her bondage and oppression. Their remaining exposed to public view (v. 9) is a strong figure of speech, to denote the indignity that will be heaped upon them by their enemies; exposure of the dead being regarded to the present day as the climax of odium and insult.

But their afflictions, however trying, will soon

be over, and they will be raised to seats of holy influence and heavenly serenity, where their enemies shall behold them, while scenes of terror and dismay shall overwhelm themselves, v. 11-13.

A brighter day now dawns upon the Church; the trump of jubilee, and the loud acclaim of the ransomed above, break upon our enraptured ears: "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever!"

THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS.-REV., xii.

This chapter appears to represent the circumstances or the situation of the witnesses, the Hebrew-Christian Church, during the period in which they were to prophesy in sackcloth; and the two following chapters are also to be regarded as a farther illustration of the same subject. "The reasons," says Fuller,* " for considering these four chapters, not as one continued prophecy, but as a general representation of events of the same period, are the following: First. The events foretold by the slaughter and resurrection of the witnesses in ch. xi., by the flight of the woman into the wilderness in ch. xii., with the ravages of the beasts and the triumphs of the Lamb's company in chapters

Complete Works of Rev. Andrew Fuller, v. ii., p. 41.

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xiii. and xiv., are the same. Secondly. These representations are not confined to one or two trumpets, but comprehend the greater part of them. Compare ch. xi., 19, with ch. xví., 18. Thirdly. In each of these descriptions there is a reference to the twelve hundred and sixty years (the period which, in prophecy, marks the duration of the antichristian power). So long were the witnesses to prophesy in sackcloth, so long the woman to be in the wilderness, and so long the beast to make war with the saints."

In the first five verses of the twelfth chapter we have a retrospective view of the birth of the Messiah, preceded by the intense desire of the Jewish Church (expressed by the anguish of "a woman in travail") for his long-promised advent. That the "man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron" (v. 5), represents our Saviour, will appear evident by a reference to Ps. ii., 9, and Rev., xix., 15, where it is expressly said of Christ, "He shall smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron." "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron," &c. His being " caught up to God and to his throne" is a farther confirmation that he was the Son of God. If so, the "woman" must denote the Hebrew Church, or, at least, the pious part of it. Her attire appears to represent the resplendent panoply of the Gospel, with the apostolic wreath encircling her brow (see Rev., i., 20),