ir very enemies have reluctantly attested? The testimony of an enemy
has ever been deemed weighty. The following is appropriate and decisive
from the polished pen of the historian of the "Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire:" "The visible assemblies of the Paulicians, or Albigeois,
were extirpated by fire and sword; and the bleeding remnant escaped by
flight, concealment, or catholic conformity. But the invincible spirit
which they had kindled still lived and breathed in the western
world.--In the state, in the church, and even in the cloister, a latent
succession was preserved of the disciples of St. Paul, who protested
against the tyranny of Rome, embraced the Bible as the rule of faith,
and purified their creed from all the visions of the Gnostic theology.
The struggles of Wickliff in England, and of Huss in Bohemia, were
premature and ineffectual: but the names of Zuinglius, Luther and
Calvin, are pronounced with gratitude as the deliverers of nations."[2]

Ever since the time of those eminent witnesses, the same testimony has
been maintained. It is not yet finished, the witnesses are yet alive,
and the term of 1260 years is not expired.

7. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that
ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, shall make war against them, and
shall overcome them, and kill them.

8. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city,
which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was
crucified.

9. And they of the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations, shall
see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their
dead bodies to be put in graves.

10. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make
merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets
tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

Vs. 7-10.--In these verses we have described the death of the witnesses,
as also the agent mentioned, by whom the fatal stroke is given. As
future occasion will occur for identifying this bloody tyrant,
ascertaining with precision his diabolical origin, here only hinted, his
crimes and his awful doom, it is premature to amplify in this place.

If the witnesses cannot be identified, neither can the time of their
death be ascertained. We find indeed among expositors as many vague
notions relative to the _time_ and the _nature_ of their death as in
relation to their identity. These notions are unwor