(says Bishop Horsley, in some manuscript letters just published in the British Magazine) "both typify a church, in different capacities. A candlestick is the church considered as the instrument which gives the light of Revelation to the world an olive-tree represents the church enriched with that never-failing supply of the oil of grace which feeds the light" (See Rev. i. 20).

The fifth and sixth verses shew, in strong symbolical language, the deep interest which the Lord takes in all that concerns these his two witnesses, and the signal vengeance he inflicts on those who injure them. They likewise shew, that for their sakes the elements of nature, in bringing on the world plague, pestilence, and famine, are in subservience.

With great beauty of idea, and strict regard to matter of fact, the elect or "measured" people of God-those who derive their spiritual life and sustenance from the gracious anointing of the Holy Spirit, and who adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour by a holy walk and conversation are represented as TWO CHURCHES. And we find from ecclesiastical history, that, since the days of Constantine, up to the present time, two such churches have existed; and that with a line of demarcation drawn between them as deep as it is well possible to imagine: indeed, oftentimes scarcely knowing of each other's

existence, and always looking, even when best acquainted, with a great degree of jealousy at each other's actions and operations.

These two churches have been, and still are -one, WITHOUT the visible professing church, or, in other words, totally unconnected with the religion of the state; and the other, WITHIN such visible professing church, but free from its corruptions and abuses, or otherwise sighing over them.

FIRST. It is a matter of fact, that ever since the time when the religion of Jesus Christ became united with the powers of secular government, but more particularly since the establishment of Popery, a church has existed altogether separate and distinct from such connection. That of the Albigenses and Waldenses will immediately occur to the mind of every intelligent and Christian reader as forming such a church; and Mr. Faber has very conclusively and satisfactorily proved, that the origin of this church is to be dated from a very remote period of Christian history. He says, that "when the Emperor Constantine, in the days of Pope Sylvester, corrupted the church by the magnitude of his donations, one of the companions of that prelate, anticipating the apostasy of which he then beheld the commencement, withdrew himself from the communion of the Roman Pontiff. He was joined by several persons, who held the same primitive sentiments as himself, and who

wished to preserve unspotted the purity of the early church. These pious men henceforward formed a separate society, out of which sprang the two churches, of the Vallences in Piedmont, and of the Albigenses in France. In a state of voluntary poverty and depression, their object was to preserve the simplicity of the Apostolic faith; and the constant doctrine, both of themselves and of their successors, was-that the true church of Christ no longer existed in the persons of Pope Sylvester and his adherents; but from his time, or from the earlier part of the fourth century, the genuine succession of the sincere church (against which Christ had promised that the gates of hell should never prevail) had been preserved only among themselves." (Sacred Calendar, vol. iii. p. 34.)

SECOND. It is likewise a matter of fact, that while a true church has thus existed unconnected with the State, and which worshipped Christ in primitive simplicity, another such church has at the same time existed, of a totally different external complexion; enriched in an equal degree with vitality, and equally shedding its bright and heavenly light on the surrounding darkness. This spiritual church was contained within the pale of the Popish apostasy itself, composed of members of its communion -men who were raised up from time to time to make a stand against and expose its corruptions,

and who have left good evidence of having held the faith in uprightness. Of such a church was the celebrated Bernard; Claude, Bishop of Turin; Bradwardine and Grosseteste, Bishops in England; and many others, who are named by Bishop Newton, Milner, and other writers. It is impossible to say to what extent the ministry and example of such men may have been a blessing to the Paganizing Christians around them; or how great the numbers of the believers of such a church may have been. Amidst the universal apostasy that prevailed, they are as difficult to discover-and particularly in the imperfect records of the history of the middle ages-as were the seven thousand in Israel in the time of Elijah, who had not bowed the knee to Baal. The Waldenses themselves confessed that there were some "INDIVIDUAL SOULS IN BABYLON" who loved the Lord, and served him with all their spirit, under all the disadvantages by which they were surrounded. In the meridian of Popery "there were some few," says Bishop Newton, "like lights in a dark place, who remonstrated against the degeneracy and superstition of the times "-" some superior spirits to bear testimony against it, and stem the torrents of superstition." And Gibbon, so often the unconscious and unintentional witness to the fulfilment of prophecy, speaks to the same purpose. After naming the persecutions of

the Albigenses-or, as he terms them, Albigeois -he says: "In the state, in the church, and even in THE CLOISTER, a latent succession was preserved of the disciples of St. Paul, who protested against the tyranny of Rome, embraced the Bible as the rule of faith, and purified their creed from all the visions of the Gnostic theology. The struggles of Wickliffe in England, of Huss in Bohemia, were premature and ineffectual; but the names of Zuinglius, Luther, and Calvin, are pronounced with gratitude as the deliverers of nations." (ch. liv.)

Here, then, we see, during the whole reign of the Papacy up to the time of the Reformation, the existence of two distinct churches of Christ, both of them his faithful witnesses! "These are the two anointed ones, that stood by the Lord of the whole earth" (Zech. iv. 14) when the world was otherwise wrapt in the thickest darkness. One was a candlestick and an olive-tree placed within the Popish church, in the very midst of it; the other was a candlestick and an olive-tree placed without the verge of its abominations, altogether unconnected with it.

Since the time of the Reformation, both in the reformed and unreformed churches, the same two distinctive witnesses have continued to exist, up to the present moment :-viz., one connected with the state, and the other separate