power," that had been in hostility to their Lord. (1 Cor. xv. 24, 25.
See Ezek. xxxvii. 11-14.) "This is the first resurrection," to be
explained by the inspired penman more fully hereafter, (ch. xx. 5.)--As
Saul feared David, and Herod John Baptist, because they were "just men
and holy;" so were the wicked afraid when these witnesses arose; and,
like Shimei, they justly dread the "due reward of their deeds." At the
time referred to, "the haters of the Lord will feign submission."--The
"great voice from heaven" inviting the witnesses to ascend, and their
actual ascent, is another allusion to Christ's exaltation. As when "he
was taken up, a cloud received him;" so here, "they ascended up to
heaven in a cloud."

It has often been the cry of the antichristian multitude,--"The voice of
the people is the voice of God." This cry has been iterated and
reiterated, in centuries past, like that of the Ephesian worshippers of
Diana; that thereby the testimony of the witnesses might be counteracted
and silenced. It has been only too often successful. But where did
flattering demagogues and haughty despots find the sentiment? They found
it engraved on the moral constitution of man by our beneficent Creator.
They found it also transcribed on the pages of objective
revelation,--the Bible. But, like other moral and scriptural principles,
it has been perverted and misapplied by the perverse ingenuity of wicked
men.--This "voice from heaven" is indeed the _people's_ voice: and it is
legitimate, as coming from the people, because it is first the voice of
God. The "heaven" here mentioned is the seat of civil power,--"the
ordinance of man." (1 Pet. ii. 13.) In the times here
contemplated,--millennial times,--the rights of men will be respected,
predicated upon the rights of God, and flowing from them as inseparable.
In settling the point of title to civil sovereignty, or the eligibility
of any candidate for civil office, the principle enunciated by Hushai