While the Gentiles tread the holy city under foot, God gives power to his two Witnesses, and they prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days clothed in sackcloth. They are called the two Olive-trees, with relation to the two Olive-trees, which in Zechary’s vision, chap. iv; stand on either side of the golden candlestick to supply the lamps with oil: and Olive-trees, according to the Apostle Paul, represent Churches, Romans 11:They supply the lamps with oil, by maintaining teachers. They are also called the two candlesticks; which in this Prophecy signify Churches, the seven Churches of Asia being represented by seven candlesticks. Five of these Churches were found faulty, and threatened if they did not repent; the other two were without fault, and so their candlesticks were fit to be placed in the second Temple. These were the Churches in Smyrna and Philadelphia. They were in a state of tribulation and persecution, and the only two of the seven in such a state: and so their candlesticks were fit to represent the Churches in affliction in the times of the second Temple, and the only two of the seven that were fit. The two Witnesses are not new Churches: they are the posterity of the primitive Church, the posterity of the two wings of the woman, and so are fitly represented by two of the primitive candlesticks. We may conceive therefore, that when the first Temple was destroyed, and a new one built for them who worship in the inward court, two of the seven candlesticks were placed in this new Temple.
The affairs of the Church are not considered during the opening of the first four seals. They begin to be considered at the opening of the fifth seal, as was said above; and are further considered at the opening of the sixth seal; and the seventh seal contains the times of the great Apostasy. And therefore I refer the Epistles to the seven Churches unto the times of the fifth and sixth seals: for they relate to the Church when she began to decline, and contain admonitions against the great Apostasy then approaching.
When Eusebius had brought down his Ecclesiastical History to the reign of Dioclesian, he thus describes the state of the Church: Qualem quantamque gloriam simul ac libertatem doctrina verae erga supremum Deum pietatis a Christo primum hominibus annunciata, apud omnes Graecos pariter & barbaros ante persecutionem nostra memoria excitatem, consecuta sit, nos certe pro merito explicare non possumus. Argumento esse possit Imperatorum benignitas erga nostros: quibus regendas etiam provincias committebant, omni sacrificandi metu eos liberantes ob singularem, qua in religionem nostram affecti erant, benevolentiam. And a little after: Jam vero quis innumerabilem hominum quotidie ad fidem Christi confugientium turbam, quis numerum ecclesiarum in singulis urbibus, quis illustres populorum concursus in aedibus sacris, cumulate possit describere? Quo factum est, ut priscis aedificiis jam non contenti, in singulis urbibus spatiosas ab ipsis fundamentis extruerent ecclesias. Atque haec progressu temporis increscentia, & quotidie in majus & melius proficiscentia, nec livor ullus atterere, nec malignitas daemonis fascinare, nec hominum insidiae prohibere unquam potuerunt, quamdiu omnipotentis Dei dextra populum suum, utpote tali dignum praesidio, texit atque custodiit. Sed cum ex nimia libertate in negligentiam ac desidiam prolapsi essemus; cum alter alteri invidere atque obtrectare caepisset; cum inter nos quasi bella intestina gereremus, verbis, tanquam armis quibusdam hastisque, nos mutuo vulnerantes; cum Antistites adversus Antistites, populi in populos collisi, jurgia ac tumultus agitarent; denique cum fraus & simulatio ad summum malitiae culmen adolevisset: tum divina ultio, levi brachio ut solet, integro adhuc ecclesiae statu, & fidelium turbis libere convenientibus, sensim ac moderate in nos caepit animadvertere; orsa primum persecutione ab iis qui militabant. Cum vero sensu omni destituti de placando Dei numine ne cogitaremus quidem; quin potius instar impiorum quorundam res humanas nulla providentia gubernari rati, alia quotidie crimina aliis adjiceremus: cum Pastores nostri spreta religionis regula, mutuis inter se contentionibus decertarent, nihil aliud quam jurgia, minas, aemulationem, odia, ac mutuas inimicitias amplificare studentes; principatum quasi tyrannidem quandam contentissime sibi vindicantes: tunc demum juxta dictum Hieremiae, obscuravit Dominus in ira sua filiam Sion, & dejecit de caelo gloriam Israel, — per Ecclesiarum scilicet subversionem, &c. This was the state of the Church just before the subversion of the Churches in the beginning of Dioclesian’s persecution: and to this state of the Church agrees the first of the seven Epistles to the Angel of the seven Churches, that to the Church in Ephesus. I have something against thee, saith Christ to the Angel of that Church, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. The Nicolaitans are the Continentes above described, who placed religion in abstinence from marriages, abandoning their wives if they had any. They are here called Nicolaitans, from Nicolas one of the seven deacons of the primitive Church of Jerusalem; who having a beautiful wife, and being taxed with uxoriousness, abandoned her, and permitted her to marry whom she pleased, saying that we must disuse the flesh; and thenceforward lived a single life in continency, as his children also. The Continentes afterwards embraced the doctrine of Aeons and Ghosts male and female, and were avoid by the Churches till the fourth century; and the Church of Ephesus is here commended for hating their deeds.
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