The Eleventh Chapter: The Non-Interment of the Witnesses

Though the witnesses’ lying dead seems a metaphorial allusion, yet I fear this “not suffering them to be put in graves” rather expressive of inhumanity, whether “these of the nations,” &c. be friends or foes; so that the whole is added to shew further the extreme misery and desperate calamity brought on the witnesses in this time of their trial. First, If these nations, &c. be enemies, their seeing the dead, and not suffering any interment to take place, implies a feasting their eyes as with a spectacle of delight, a gazing-stock to these seers, as in Ps. xxii. 7; cix. 25; lii. 6; Isa. lxvi. 24: and in Ps. lxxix. 2, 3, the like miserable desolation of the temple, and slaughter of the saints, whether under Antiochus, or at the Babylonish captivity, is aggravated by this, “that there was none to bury them;” the witnesses herein partaking of the humiliation of Christ’s lying in the grave, by lying at the mouth of it; though his obtaining a burial and such an honorable burying-place, was an act of humanity in Pilate the Roman governor, which the Roman pontiff makes “the nations” &c. deny the witnesses. Secondly, If these “nations” &c. be friends in heart, and of the same religion with the witnesses, is their not suffering them to be buried a friendly office? Now “they of the nations,” &c. seems to be a company (EK) out of these nations, a contradistinct Protestant party, not in all nations, nor all Protestants in gospel nations; but some witnesses in Protestant nations are here mentioned, to shew what part they should play in this tragedy: For this killing the witnesses falling out in an age when so many among the nations continue Protestants in heart, will they endure it, and not put a helping hand in this extremity? says the angel, “They shall sec their dead bodies, and not suffer them to be put in graves:” 1st, They shall see their dead boxlies lie in the street, or market-place, for a public scorn, without heart to help them, or however to relieve them; shy of intermeddling in their killing one way or other, they stand aloof as friends and well-willers do from malefactors executed, or as men

pass the other side of a corpse: even as when Rome’s turn shall come, the kings of the earth, who still cleave to her in heart, shall stand aloof at the sight of her burning, (as when Abraham looked at the smoke of Sodom,) c. xviii. 9, 10, 18. Or, 2dly, In that the witnesses should be driven out among the nations, so that “those of the nations,” £c. to which they should fly for refuge, should see them; what follows may come in as a further degree of inhumanity-, added to the indignities put on them by their enemies, so to complete their affliction: these false friends being prevailed on by the power and dread of the Papists, to refuse harbouring and befriending them: The grave is a resting-place for the vanquished, and a shelter from the shame, contempt, and indignities of insulting foes; but no such resting-place can the witnesses find. Thirdly, The allusion here may be, 1 st, To the sufferings of Christ; for after a great part of the people had shouted their “Hosannah to the Son of David,” rejoicing in his ministry, they were prevailed on by the Pharisees to cry out “Crucify him, crucify him,” and to run in troops to see him executed, and “to look on him whom they had pierced:” so it is to be feared that the Protestant party will be over-awed by the power and tyranny of Rome, (lest she tread them down also,) and shall comply with her forbidding to protect the witnesses. Fourthly, It may allude to putting a corpse into a grave, which is all that we can do for the dead: so when these witnesses are deposed from their station, and perhaps banished from their nation, (a sort of death to them,) and, being cast out to the contempt and malice of their enemies, shall come to those of other nations, &c. for rest and harbouring as in a grave; (they now being laid by the walls speechless, and as dead in respect of their former active life of witnessing by prophecy;) but such shelter not being afforded them, thus “their dead bodies are not suffered to be laid in graves:” Yet the witnesses flying out of England were so far sheltered by the Low-countries; and so were the Protestants flying out of Germany by the English: and in queen Mary’s days, the English Protestants found graves at last, some in Germany, some in Geneva, and others elsewhere; enjoying liberty of conscience, though not of preaching as in king Edward’s days: but the surpassing misery of the three and half last years will stop every hole of refuge, and every grave where they may hide their heads and be buried there. Fifthly, This non-interment shall be by edicts, prohibiting the banished wit nesses’ being harboured, and not suffering them to lie in their grave, (Ezek. xxxvii. 12, 13;) and though tl being put into a grave” is a passive phrase, and notes what is done by others, and seems improper to express men’s fleeing for shelter and seeking a grave; yet we must remember that the Holy Ghost speaks also metaphorically of a civil death, wherein those who are dead, as witnesses, may seek a hiding-place, as men: for people are some=

REV. XI. 11 — 13.] OBSERVATIONS ON THE WITNESSES’ RISING. 665

times said, actively, to “bury themselves,” being naturally alive; So these here are passively, “put into graves,” being figuratively dead. Therefore, Lastly, This non-interment notes out the fulness and finishing of the afflictions of the church, aggravated thus by the inhumanity and cowardice of her half-hearted friends.; seeing all Europe cannot offer them a bed in its graves, and no sanctuary in any of its streets; for they will not now be able, “when persecuted in one city, to flee into another.” Now the unfaithful carriage of many Protestant states towards their neighbours and brethren, when this war began its commencement, may give us cause to fear and suspect, that even the Protestant party may turn thus inhuman towards the witnesses. How have the Lutherans in Germany complied to take part with the Papists for the ruin of the Cah -mists? and it were happy for other states professing the Calvin religion, if they could wash their hands of the blood of the churches not only not assisted, but even betrayed by them.