pply the lamps with oil, by maintaining teachers. They
are also called _the two candlesticks_; which in this Prophecy signify
Churches, the seven Churches of _Asia_ being represented by seven
candlesticks. Five of these Churches were found faulty, and threatned if
they did not repent; the other two were without fault, and so their
candlesticks were fit to be placed in the second Temple. These were the
Churches in _Smyrna_ and _Philadelphia_. They were in a state of
tribulation and persecution, and the only two of the seven in such a state:
and so their candlesticks were fit to represent the Churches in affliction
in the times of the second Temple, and the only two of the seven that were
fit. The _two Witnesses_ are not new Churches: they are the posterity of
the primitive Church, the posterity of the two wings of the woman, and so
are fitly represented by two of the primitive candlesticks. We may conceive
therefore, that when the first Temple was destroyed, and a new one built
for them who worship in the inward court, two of the seven candlesticks
were placed in this new Temple.

The affairs of the Church are not considered during the opening of the
first four seals. They begin to be consider'd at the opening of the fifth
seal, as was said above; and are further considered at the opening of the
sixth seal; and the seventh seal contains the times of the great Apostacy.
And therefore I refer the Epistles to the seven Churches unto the times of
the fifth and sixth seals: for they relate to the Church when she began to
decline, and contain admonitions against the great Apostacy then
approaching.

When _Eusebius_ had brought down his _Ecclesiatical History_ to the reign
of _Dioclesian_, he thus describes the state of the Church: _Qualem
quantamque gloriam simul ac libertatem doctrina verae erga supremum Deum
pietatis a Christo primum hominibus annunciata, apud omnes Graecos pariter &
barbaros ante persecutionem nostra memoria excitatam, consecuta sit, nos
certe pro merito explicare non possumus. Argumento esse possit Imperatorum
benignitas erga nostros: quibus regendas etiam provincias committebant,
omni sacrificandi metu eos liberantes ob singularem, qua in religionem
nostram affecti erant, benevolentiam._ And a little after: _Jam vero quis
innumerabilem hominum quotidie ad fidem Christi confugientium turbam, quis
numerum ecclesiarum in singulis urbibus, quis illustres populorum concursus
in aedibus sacris, cumulate possit