Revelation 11:7 Revelation 11:7 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. In this verse and the following verses to the end of the 14th verse of \ this chapter, Christ revealed to his servant, John, 1. That his two prophetical witnesses shall be killed. 2. That their dead bodies shall lie unburied in the open street of the great city, three days and an half. 3. That their adversaries shall rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts one to another. 4. That after three days and an half, the two slain witnesses shall live again; and shall ascend up to heaven. 5. That at the same time of the witnesses ascension, the tenth part of the great city shall fall, and seven thousand names of men shall be slain. 6. That the remnant will be affrighted, and give glory to God. 7. That then the second woe will be past; and the third woe will come quickly. \ But of these seven particulars in order. First, touching the killing of Christ’ s two prophetical witnesses \ we are to observe these particulars, viz. 1. The time when the witnesses shall be killed; when they shall have finished their testimony. 2. Who shall kill them; the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit. and 3. The means by which he shall kill the witnesses; he shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. In the exposition of this verse, and of those things, we are to observe, 1. What is the finishing testimony of the witnesses of Jesus Christ? 2. Who is the Beast that shall kill them? and 3. What this war is whereby the witnesses shall be overcome and killed? The finishing testimony of Christ’ s two prophetical witnesses is the gospel of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ; which must be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations \ and then shall the end be. Therefore, that is their finishing testimony. Let it be considered, That the prophetical witnesses of Jesus Christ (namely his faithful ministers) during the thousand two hundred and threescore years of their testimony, have had a three fold testimony to bear for Christ against Antichrist, viz. First for the prophetical office of Christ against the Beast and the false Prophet; which testimony of the faithful ministers of Christ have in the days of their prophesying in sackcloth, born by their sound doctrine of free grace against the false doctrine of free-will, merit, and condignity; also by their sound doctrine of justification by faith in Christ, against the false doctrine of justification by our own works, or by our own righteousness: and by their sound doctrine of evangelical repentance, against the false doctrine of Popish penance and purgatory. etc. Then for the priestly office of Christ against Antichrist, mystical Babylon, the Beast, the great Whore, and the false Prophet, which testimony the faithful ministers of Christ have born likewise in the days of their prophesying in sackcloth, touching the true and pure worship of God in the administration of his holy ordinances: against the superstitious and false worship of the Beast, the Church of Rome, her priests and Jesuits in their idolatrous worship of God by images, crucifixes, Ave Maria’ s, masses, etc. especially of their breaden-God, by their superstitions and blasphemous inventions of transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the very true and real body and blood of Christ, by virtue of the priest’ s consecration. Lastly, for the kingly office of Christ as King of Saints \ King of Zion \ and King of Nations \ King of kings, and Lord of lords \ whose kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom \ and he shall reign for ever and ever. \ Now the faithful ministers of Christ have born their testimony for Christ, that he is King of Saints, and King of Zion in these thousand two hundred and threescore prophetical days, of their sackcloth-condition, their finishing testimony, viz. that the Lord Jesus Christ is King of Nations, King of kings, and all the kingdoms of this world shall be the Kingdom of Christ. \ And he shall be the only potentate. \ This finishing testimony of the kingdom of Christ, is properly called the testimony of Jesus \ which is the Spirit of Prophecy. Many of Christ’ s witnesses have been slain for the word of God, which they preached, and for the testimony which they held. \ But those witnesses of Christ, who bear their testimony for the Davidical kingdom of Christ (to wit, that all the kingdoms of this world, shall become the kingdom of Christ) were to be slain; of which kingdom we shall treat more fully in the exposition of the 15th verse of this chapter. See KNOLLYS: Revelation 11:15 The Beast that shall kill the witnesses of Christ, is here said to ascend out of the bottomless pit, XXX etc. (Revelation 9:1-2; Revelation 20:1; Revelation 20:3. and so Revelation 17:8). That is out of the sea \ called the Deep (Lu 8:31; Romans 10:7 mentioned, Revelation 9:1-11; Revelation 20:1-3; and Revelation 13:1). I saw the Beast rise out of the sea, with ten crowned Horns, etc. The mystery of this beast Christ showed to St. John \ where he is described, first, by his three-fold state. \ Behold the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is. Secondly, by his two-fold number. \ Even he is the eighth, and is of the seven heads. Thirdly, by his rise \ his continuance \ and his ruin \ and shall go into Perdition: And goeth into Perdition \ and shall be found no more at all. To which description of the beast, we shall (according to that measure of wisdom and understanding which God shall give) speak more largely in our exposition of the 17th chapter. See KNOLLYS: Revelation 17:1[ff] In the mean time, those that will read my Apocalyptical Mysteries, published Anno Dom. 1669, and my Treatise of Mystical Babylon unveiled, Anno Dom. 1679, may understand more fully my opinion, who this beast is; and that I may not leave the reader altogether unsatisfied in this matter, I shall at present assert, that this beast (with respect of his whole complex body) is mystical Babylon; viz. the Beast of the Eighth Head \ with two horns like a Lamb \ that angel of the bottomless pit, whose name is Abaddon and Apollyon \ to wit, the Pope of Rome, that star which fell from heaven unto the earth. \ The great Scarlet Whore, and Mother of Harlots, etc. \ to wit, the Church of Rome, and all false churches, and the false Prophet \ to wit, the Roman Priests, those deceivers, and all false ministers, called the Ministers of Satan. \ The war which the beast shall make against Christ’ s prophetical witnesses, whereby he shall overcome them and kill them, is an open, visible, and public opposition, which the enemies of Christ, His churches, ministers, and saints do make against them, either by open hostility, as the Popes, and Emperors Forces did against the Protestants in Germany; or else by public edicts and laws, as the Papists did against the Protestants in England in Queen Mary’ s days, by a violent and bloody persecution, which hath ever been the practice of the Popes and Papists; Pope Alexander the III about the year, 1159, and the Popish powers persecuted the Waldenses, with a great and bloody persecution. Afterwards, about 1464, the Waldenses, the Wicklevists, the Hussites, and their followers, were violently persecuted, even to death, under the name of Lollards. And shall overcome them, and kill them. Some ministers and some members of churches will be overcome by fear, others by flatteries; the mouths of some will be stopped by preferment; others will be silenced by threatening, by excommunication, and by persecution; and so far overcome, as they will cease for a time to bear their testimony against the beast, so publicly and vigorously, as they did before. But that will not appease the rage and great wrath of the beast; for he will proceed further, and will kill them that still go on boldly and constantly to bear their testimony publicly against him, his worship, and his kingdom. \ The killing of the two witnesses, doth not signify a corporal death only, nor principally; for such a death doth not fully agree to their lying unburied in the streets of the city, nor to their resurrection \ but it is rather a metaphorical expression, by which Jesus Christ meant and intended, both a civil and ecclesiastical death, or deprivation of livelihood, and deprivation of life: Some of them shall be deprived of all their civil rights, privileges, and liberties; their estates will be confiscated, proscribed, or decimated, etc., their persons confined, imprisoned or banished, etc., and in fine, all their livings and livelihood taken from them by the beast, and his instruments of cruelty. And others of them shall be deprived of all their ecclesiastical rights, privileges, and liberties: Yea, their love to Christ will decay, their zeal for the glory of God will cool, and their spiritual vigour against Antichrist, and his false doctrines, superstitious worship, and tyrannical government, will faint, and be ready to die. The darkness and blackness of the day of the death of the two witnesses will be very great, for they will be deprived of that spirit of life, which they formerly had, and manifested for Christ against the Man of Sin, and Son of Perdition that fits in the temple of God. Some of the witnesses (not all of them) will fall from their first love, lose their former zeal and become luke-warm; some of them will fall in with the grand apostasy of these latter days; and thereby be deprived of that vigour and spirit of life which they had. And this spiritual kind of death, is called here the killing of the witnesses; for as their resurrection shall be by the spirit of life from God entering into them \ so their death will be by being deprived of the spirit of life, by resisting, quenching, and grieving the Holy Spirit.