Now that the times of the beast, and of the witnesses of God prophesying in sackcloth* finish at the end of the sixth trumpet, is clear from v. 14. c. xi., where not only both the ascent of the witnesses into heaven (which is the termination of this mourning prophecy), but the great earthquake (by which the royal city is thrown down, and the kingdom of the beast destroyed), is marked out by the point of time at which the second woe (or sixth trumpet) is past, and the third woe (or seventh trumpet) is immediately about to commence. For in that moment of time, the witnesses, whom the beast risen out of the abyss had killed, as they were just about to finish their testimony (for that is the meaning of όταν τελεσωσι), being divinely revived, ascended into heaven. And in the same hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and then it came to pass, at the sound of the seventh trumpet, that the kingdoms of this world became the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ.

Of the Witnesses and Court (or Holy City) occupied by the Gentiles.

It is plain that the times of the witnesses and of the court (or Holy City) occupied by the Gen

* Sacco et cilicio, in sackcloth and haircloth,

tiles, are contemporary, from the meaning of the text, c. xi. v. 2, 3. as from the wrath of the Gentiles, who are thrust out at the beginning of the seventh trumpet; that is, at the end of the sixth, when the days of the witnesses likewise expire, as has just been shown. For the nations or Gentiles, who at v. 18. are said to be inflamed with anger at the sound of the seventh trumpet, are no other than those, who for the whole fortytwo months had trodden down the outer court of the temple; that is, the Holy City, and who are now, on that account, about to be destroyed by the wrath of God.

This synchronism is not wont to be called in question by any one that I know or recollect.

Of the Witnesses, Court, Beast, and Woman.

If the treading down of the court and Holy City be contemporary with the prophecy of the witnesses, it will be contemporary likewise with the beast with whom the witnesses contemporize, and therefore with the woman in the wilderness also, with whom the beast contemporizes. So that the woman in the wilderness, the dominion of the beast, the conculcation of the Holy City, and the prophecy of the witnesses, all synchronize with one another.

SYNCHRONISM II.

Of the Two-Horned Beast (who is also the False Prophet), with the Ten-Horned Beast (who is likewise called the Image of the Beast).

The two-horned beast is the founder, or reestablisher of the seven-headed beast, crowned with a diadem of ten horns, which, in fact, after his deadly wound, he restored to the image of his former state, to the great detriment of the saints, and who became possessed of power for forty-two months. Having done which, he exercises all his power before him, and shows forth, or performs, great wonders in his sight. But at length, this same two-horned beast (which John otherwise calls the false prophet), together with the other beast, in whose sight he wrought miracles, are taken as inseparable companions, and are both cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. Since, therefore, the tenhorned beast (for so I may be permitted to call the seven-headed beast when reinstated, for the sake of perspicuity), and the two-horned false prophet are not separated from each other either in their origin or destruction; but the one administers the power of the other, ενωπιον αυτού ; that is, in his presence; who does not perceive that they are necessarily contemporary through

their whole period of time? But that the whole matter may be rightly understood, we ought to be aware that no other state of the seven-headed beast is described in the 13th chapter, than that of his restoration, or last head, in which he became ten-horned, as the whole series of the description evinces. For whatever mischief the beast is said to have perpetrated, whatever worship and adoration was paid to him by the inhabitants of the earth, is all reported as having been done after his re-establishment, or the cure of his wound. Moreover, it is manifest from the interpretation of the angel, c. xvii., that the ten horns belong to the last head or state of the beast, which is the state of his restoration; since at that time, after five heads had fallen, that is, had fulfilled their parts, the sixth was even then performing his in the age of John, and yet "the time of the horns" is said to be “not yet come." Therefore they must necessarily belong to the seventh or last head.

APPENDIX.

On the alternate Use of the Names of the Beast and False Prophet; as also of the Beast and Image of the Beast.

The title of the synchronism reminds us of both. And first, Iraneus has observed, that,

from the most ancient writers on the Apocalypse, the bicorned beast and the false prophet are the same; which, from the comparison of v. 13, 14, 15, 16, of c. xiii. with v. 20 of c. xix., is so clear and manifest, that it requires no farther confirmation. But what the title sets forth in addition, that the ten-horned beast is otherwise accustomed to be denoted by the name of the image of the beast, is less apparent, and would not perhaps be suspected by a reader who was not very attentive: Yet, that it is so, I am persuaded I have not rashly remarked; and therefore, wherever the beast occurs with the false prophet, (which I find it does three times,) then by the name of the beast, the ten-horned beast is alone to be understood; since, by the false prophet, it is sufficiently clear that the twohorned beast is designated. On the other hand, when you find the beast compared with the image of the beast there, by the beast the false prophet is to be understood; but by his image, the ten-horned beast, or the seven-horned beast restored for, since the latter acknowledges the false prophet as his restorer, and suffers himself to be wholly guided by his will, as by that of a supreme lord, he is not improperly called his image; not, indeed, the image of one whose similitude he bears, as if the genitive were used passively, (for, in that respect, he is the image