ist shall rise first," does he
mean,--before "the rest of the dead?" No, but before those of their
_redeemed brethren_ who shall then be "alive and remain;" for these
"shall not prevent (_anticipate_) them which are asleep," (_in the
grave_.) That is, the bodies of the saints who have died shall be raised
in glory, _before_ those then alive shall undergo a change equivalent to
that of the resurrection. Such is manifestly the meaning of the
apostle's plain language which has no reference whatever to the
millennium, not even the remotest allusion. Nothing but a groundless
preconception of the nature of the millennium will account for the sound
of words taking the place of their sense in the reader's mind, and no
degree of mere scholarship can obviate this propensity of the human mind
in "the things of the Spirit of God."

Not only does the learned prelate misapprehend and misapply the texts
above quoted to support his theory, but he makes a gratuitous
concession, which is at once fatal to his scheme and inconsistent with
himself. He says,--"Indeed, the _death_ and _resurrection_ of the
witnesses before mentioned, (Rev. xi. 7, 11,) appears from the
concurrent circumstances of the vision to be _figurative_." The Bishop
evidently viewed the witnesses of the eleventh chapter as a company
altogether different from those of whom John speaks in the twentieth
chapter, (vs. 4, 5.) This is another of his surprising mistakes; for
that the _identical party_ as a moral person appears in both parts of
the symbolic and allegorical representation will readily appear to any
unbiassed mind by an induction of the following particulars.

These witnesses are to continue "prophesying 1260 days (_years_,) (Rev.
xi. 3.) Then they are killed, (v. 7.) But we learn that _in death_ they
are _victorious_, (ch. xii. 11) They triumph "with the Lamb on Mount
Zion," (ch. xiv. 1) In a similar attitude of triumph they again appear
"standing on the sea of glass, (ch. xv. 2.) They are with their
victorious King, (ch. xvii. 14.) They are exhorted to retaliate upon
mystic Babylon, (xviii. 6.) They are also engaged in the last campaign
with the Captain of their salvation, (ch. xix. 14, 19, 20.) And at
length they are advanced to thrones of civil power to "rule the
nations," (ch. xx. 4,) in fulfilment of Daniel's prophecy and their
Saviour's promise, (Dan. vii. 27; Rev. ii. 26, 27.) The death and
resurrection of the witnesses is compendiously stated in the form