Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/254

 much more. I believe with Abbot Joachim that he intends by the two witnesses "the priests and monks of the Catholic Church," or, in other words, "the clergy regular and the clergy secular."

Whatever ground there may be for interpreting the 1260 days to signify 1260 years, there would be the same ground for interpreting the two witnesses to be not two literal personages, but the whole body of the Catholic clergy, who may be accurately termed "the witnesses of God and of His truth," and His two witnesses, because it is an historical fact, that ever since the time of Mahomet up to the present day they have been divided into two general classes, the regulars and the seculars; the former representing the contemplative state, the latter the active; the former symbolized by Elias, who has ever been regarded as the type and pattern of the monastic state; while Enoch, who was a patriarch and a prophet, that is, a preacher of truth, might not inaptly represent the general body of the pastors whom we commonly call the secular clergy. Now, although there is solid ground for believing that Enoch and Elias will appear on earth "before the great and terrible day of the Lord," it does not by any means seem clear that they are intended in this passage of the Apocalypse;