Section 2

The Apostle John, standing upon the Sand of the Sea, beholds a Beast ascending out of the sea, even that beast he alluded to in Ch. 11:7, as the destroyer of the Witnesses. Like the Dragon, it had Seven Heads and Ten Horns; and its power, throne, and great authority, it acquired from the Dragon. Thus it divided the Habitable with the Dragon; so that the inhabitants thereof worship the Dragon and the Beast.

The Seventh Seal, Seven Trumpets, and the Six Vials to the appear­ing of Christ “as a thief;” exhibiting the development of the Ten Horns of Daniel’s Fourth Beast in the wounding of the Sixth Head and the est­ablishment of the Seventh; (Apoc. 8) the subversion of the Greek Catholic Dynasty of Constantinople, (Apoc. 9) the rising of Daniel’s eleventh Episcopal Horn, or Eighth Head, that speaks blasphemies, and “as a Dragon;” (Apoc.

Before this Deity of the earth, while in the plenitude of his power, the Spirit’s witnessing prophets had to stand in all the breadth of his dominion.

Thus, in this eleventh chapter, two Deities are presented to view; the one living and true Deity, styled in the C.V., “the God of Heaven,” and his counterfeit and rival, called “the God of the Earth.” This is the Antichrist — ho antichristos. The preposition anti in composition has the force of instead, equal to, like, corresponding to, counter, against, &c.

Now, it is expressly said, that these “two witnesses,” “two olive trees,” “two lightstands,” and “two prophets,” “have stood before the god of the earth. ” This was to be their position. This god is not to be mis­taken for the Eternal Creator. Though he made the earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein; and claims them all as his, He is not styled in this prophecy “the God of the earth.” His title in this chapter is “the God of heaven,” to whom glory is ascribed at the concluding act of the second woe (ch.

Thus, the history of the ages and the generations of the unmeasured Court is in strict harmony with this prophecy of the witnesses.

The third verse of this chapter testifies as follows: “And I will give to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, having been clothed with sackcloths.” Here is a proposi­tion plainly stated. There can be no mistake, one would think, as to the personage who makes the statement. The “I” is, doubtless, the Spirit who speaks to the ecclesias, and who said to John.

ACT II. — THE SIXTH TRUMPET
or

SECOND WOE

WESTERN PART
Apoc. 11:1-13

SUMMARY

Amurath II was succeeded, A.D. 1451, by his son Mohammed II., styled by Gibbon, “the Great Destroyer.” His passions were at once furious and inexorable. In the palace, as in the field, a torrent of blood was spilt on the slightest provocation. Constantinople has sealed his glory, and placed him among “the basest of men” whom the Eternal Spirit “sets up” to fufil his will.

“By these three, ” says John, “was the third of the men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the sulphur, which burst forth out of the