their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three
hundred and ninety days.... And when thou hast accomplished them, lie
again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of
Judah forty days: I have appointed thee _each day for a year_," Ezek.
4:3-6.

This period of one thousand two hundred and sixty years, is not the whole
time in which the witnesses prophesy, but marks the duration of their
prophesying in sackcloth. It commenced when the light of the Bible began
to be obscured by the secondary place which was accorded to it in the
estimation of the Papal church, and the living witnesses were no longer
permitted to preach the gospel in its purity.

In A. D. 533, the Emperor Justinian, wrote a letter to the Pope declaring
him to be "the head of all the holy churches," and subjecting to his
control "all the priests of the whole East." By the edicts and mandates of
Justinian, who was master of the Roman world, the supremacy of the Pope
received the fullest sanction; and the highest authorities among the
civilians and annalists of Rome, refer to these as evidence of the right
of the Pope to the title of "Universal Bishop," and date it from A. D.
533. p. 200.

With this supremacy, the power of the Papacy commenced. The Bible was
permitted only in a dead language, and the faithful Christian was obliged
to seek refuge in the wilderness. False doctrines obscuring the Bible, and
persecuting enactments oppressing the church, clothed the witnesses in
sackcloth; and thus only did they testify, till the power of the papacy
was broken.

Fire proceeded out of their mouth, when they made known the fiery
judgments predicted in the Scriptures against all their enemies. And they
shut heaven, smite with plagues, turn water to blood, &c., when, in
accordance with the inspired record, are fulfilled the predictions which,
in various places, are thus symbolized.--See Rev. 15:6; 16:4, &c.

The finishing of their testimony, refers to the termination of the
sackcloth period,--twelve hundred and sixty years from A. D. 533; _i.e._ in
1793,--if the former date is correct.

The beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, is that on which, in a
subsequent vision, the woman is seated, 17:7, 8. John saw this beast arise
out of the sea, (13:1); and the subsequent exposition given of it, will
show that it symbolized the civil power of the Roman empire in its divided
form.--See p. 169. As the ten kingdoms constitute