he court that is without the
temple_, that is, the peoples court, to _leave out and measure it not,
because it is given to the_ Gentiles, those who receive the mark of the
Beast; _and the holy city they shall tread under foot forty and two
months_, that is, all the time that the Beast acts under the woman
_Babylon_: and _the two witnesses prophesy 1260 days_, that is, all the
same time, _clothed in sackcloth. These have power_, like _Elijah, to shut
heaven that it rain not_, at the sounding of the first trumpet; and, like
_Moses, to turn the waters into blood_ at the sounding of the second; _and
to smite the earth with all plagues_, those of the trumpets, _as often as
they will_. These prophesy at the building of the second temple, like
_Haggai_ and _Zechary_. These are _the two Olive-trees_, or Churches, which
_supplied the lamps with oil_, _Zech._ iv. These are _the two
candlesticks_, or Churches, _standing before the God of the earth_. Five of
the seven Churches of _Asia_, those in prosperity, are found fault with,
and exhorted to repent, and threatned to be _removed out of their places_,
or _spewed out of _Christ's_ mouth_, or _punished with the sword of
_Christ's_ mouth, except they repent_: the other two, the Churches of
_Smyrna_ and _Philadelphia_, which were under persecution, remain in a
state of persecution, to illuminate the second temple. When the primitive
Church catholick, represented by _the woman in heaven_, apostatized, and
became divided into two corrupt Churches, represented by the _whore of
_Babylon__ and the _two-horned Beast_, the 144000 _who were sealed out of
all the twelve tribes_, became the _two Witnesses_, in opposition to those
two false Churches: and the name of _two Witnesses_ once imposed, remains
to the true Church of God in all times and places to the end of the
Prophecy.

In the interpretation of this Prophecy, _the woman in heaven clothed with
the sun_, before she flies into the wilderness, represents the primitive
Church catholick, illuminated with the _seven lamps_ in the _seven golden
candlesticks_, which are the _seven Churches_ of _Asia_. The Dragon
signifies the same Empire with _Daniel_'s He-goat in the reign of his last
horn, that is, the whole _Roman_ Empire, until it became divided into the
_Greek_ and _Latin_ Empires; and all the time of that division it signifies
the _Greek_ Empire alone: and the Beast is _Daniel_'s fourth Beast, that
is, the Empire of the _Latins_. Before