Matthew Poole and continuators on Revelation 11:3

3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses , and they shall prophesie a thousand two hundred and threescore days clothed in sackcloth .

There hath been a great Dispute amongst godly and learned Men, who these two Witnesses should be: Some have thought them to be Enoch and Elias, who, tho long since glorified, they have thought (with no great probability, as I suppose any indifferent Person will judge) shall come again, and be killed on the Earth; yet this is the general Notion of the Popish Writers. Others would have them the two sorts of Gospel-Churches, one of which was made up of native Gentiles, the other of Iews pro[illegible: 1 letter]elyted to the Christian Faith. Others have interpreted it of the Old-Testament and the New: Others, of some two eminent Divines; and as to them there have been various Guesses: Others, of the Ministers whom God imployed upon the Reformation: Others, of a Christian Magistracy and Ministry. For my own part, the name of Witnesses is so often applied to the first Ministers of the Gospel, Acts 1.19, 22. & 4.33. & 22.15. & 26.16. 1 Pet. [illegible: 1 letter].1. Act. 2.32. & 3.15. & 5.32. & 10.41. that I cannot but understand it of that faithful part of the Ministry, who preach the Gospel faithfully during the whole Reign of Antichrist. Neither do I think that the Number two at all relates to their Number, but to their Witness-bearing: Two being the Number which God ordained as sufficient to e[illegible: 1 letter]tablish all civil Things, Deut. 17.6. & 19.15. Matt. 18.16. Heb. 10.28. u[illegible: 1 letter]less there be a regard had to those pairs, which all along the Old-Testament bare Testimony for God; Moses and Aaron, Cal[illegible: 2 letters] and Ioshua, Elijah and Elisha; and after the Captivity Zorobbabel and Ioshua, and the two Olive-trees mentioned Zech. 4.11, 14. to which plainly this Text hath Relatio[illegible: 1 letter], v. 4. To which some also add Abraham and Lot, Ezra and Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah, Paul and Barnabas, Peter and Iohn: And note, that when Christ first sent out his Apostles, Matth. 10. he sent them out two by two.

We read before, that the holy City, that is, the true Church, should be trodden under foot by the Gentiles forty and two Months; we read here, that the Witnesses should prophesy in Sackcloth 1260 days; it is apparent, that in the prophetical stile a Day signifies a Year, Num. 14.34. forty Days, each Day for a Year shall ye bear your Iniquities, even forty Years. So Ezek. 4.6. I have appointed that each Day for a Year; so Dan. 9.24. the 70 Weeks must signifie 450 years, (for in 70 Weeks there are 490 days) or else the Promise as to the Coming of the Messiah, failed. So the Prophetical Year contains 360 Years, and the Prophetical Month 30 Years (for they did count 30 Days to each Month) so 42 Months are just 1260 Days, that is, 1260 years We shall find, ch. 12.6. that the Woman (that is, the Church) was in the Wilderness just this time, 1260 Days, and in chap. 13.5. This was also the time of the Beast that rose up out of the Sea, having seven Heads, and ten Horns, and upon his Horns ten Crowns: By which it appeareth, that these four things ran all parallel at the same time; the Beast arising, and exercising his Power, the New Gentiles trampling upon the Church, the holy City; the Woman's abiding in the Wilderness, and the Witnesses prophesying in Sackcloth. If we could find out where any one of these began, we should find out the time of all the rest. Those who fix the rise of the Beast in or about 400, must add to this 1260. Then in 1660, Antichrist's Reign should have determined, and also the time of the Churches Persecution, and the time when faithful Ministers should prophesy in Sackcloth: but if the Rise of the Beast were in the Year 500, the Expiration must be in 1760; if it be fixed in 600, all these things will determine 1860; for the same Number of Days being assigned to all the four, it is manifest that all four began together, and shall end together, and that at the end of twelve hundred and sixty Years after the beginning of them. For my own part, I look upon it as very hard to determine: but the Difficulty lies in finding out the time when the Beast first arose; for that being once found out, it is easie to conclude from Scripture, when both the Popedome shall have an end, and the calamitous time for the Church, especially the Ministry of it, shall cease. That which God sheweth Iohn in this Verse, is only, That his faithful Ministers that should truly reveal his Will, (which is here called Prophesying) should have a mournful time for twelve hundred and threescore Years.

Marginal references: Or, I will give unto my two witnesses, that they may prophesy.