nces, contending for a _scriptural magistracy_
and a _gospel ministry_,--the "Two Sons of Oil;" and testifying against
their _Counterfeits_? Such appears to be the import of those mystical
characters of whom we read, Zech. iv. 14; Rev. xi. 4.

In tracing the witnesses through their eventful history for 1260 years
as portrayed in the Apocalypse, and in fixing with precision their
_continuous identity_, I am constrained reluctantly to dissent from the
Doctor and agree with Faber. Adopting the language of "Frazer's Key,"
Dr. M'Leod says, "These witnesses differ as much from their
cotemporaries, the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed ones,
(Rev. vii. 4,) as Elijah differed from the seven thousand in Israel in
his time." The attempt is made to prove this assertion by the following
plausible argument:--"God is never for a moment without a people upon
earth." This is true,--"And the visible church is an indestructible
society." Is this assertion true? It is partly true, and partly
untrue:--"true of her _existence_ and moral identity, but not of her
_visibility_ as an organized body." For example, where was the visible
church while Elijah "dwelt by the brook Cherith?" (1 Kings xvii. 3, xix.
10;) or while the "woman was in the wilderness?" (Rev. xii. 6.) Is it
consistent with propriety to contemplate the woman as _literally
visible_, when she is symbolically "in the wilderness?" This seems to be
impossible. I am therefore prepared to give my decided preference to the
sentiment of Mr. Faber contained in the following words of his
"Dissertation:" "The one hundred and forty-four thousand here mentioned,
(Rev. xiv. 1,) are the immediate successors of the one hundred and forty
four thousand sealed servants of God; (ch. vii. 4.) They are the same in
short, as _the two witnesses_.... They constitute the _persecuted church
in the wilderness_."--I cannot but think the evidence of identity here
irresistible; and in the pithy language of the Doctor on another point,
I say,--"A man must shut his eyes not to see" the correctness of Mr.
Faber's interpretation of this identity. The Doctor's censure of English
expositors in one of his notes will too often justly apply to other
divines in expounding prophecy:--"They have greatly diminished the value
of their publications, by permitting themselves to indulge so much of
the spirit of political partiality." Doctor M'Leod and Mr. Faber I
consider among the best expositors of the prophecies on