like the Pharisees, (John vii. 52,)—­“Search and look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.”  So reason these men.  They haughtily and confidently object thus:—­“Christ is the son of the Jewish church, but this child is the son of the Christian church.”  This argument destroys the unity of the church of God, which is one under all changes of dispensation of his gracious covenant. (Rom. xi. 16-24; Eph. ii. 20.) The Messiah is here represented as in the beginning of the war with the same enemy;—­the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.  Still may the church of God joyfully declare,—­“Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.” (Is. ix. 6.) This masculine son, however, is not to be understood of Christ personal, but of Christ mystical,—­of those who are with him “called, and chosen, and faithful;” whom “he is not ashamed to call his brethren.” (ch. xvii. 14; Heb. ii. 11.) The “sealed” company, (ch. vii. 4,) the “two witnesses;” (xi. 3), the “144 thousand,” (xiv. 1,) are the “manchild.”  As many rulers constitute but one “angel,” (chs. ii. and iii.,) so the two witnesses are one manly Son.  The Lord Jesus was alone in the work of redemption; but he allows his faithful disciples to share in the honor of his victories, (ch. ii. 26, 27; Ps. cxlix. 9.) From the devouring jaws of the dragon, as it were, the “child is caught up unto God, and to his throne.”  The leaders in church and state supposed that they had “made sure” of the Saviour, when they had “sealed the stone and set a watch.”  So thought the enemies of the witnesses while their dead bodies lay unburied.—­“He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh:  the Lord shall have them in derision.”  The Anointed of the Father, the Head of the church, and Prince of the kings of the earth, as the representative of his people, in defiance of the serpent, is caught up to the throne of God, (Eph. ii. 6;) while the church flies to her appointed place in the wilderness during the 1260 years.  At the beginning of that gloomy period the woman fled.  This flight is not mentioned “by anticipation,” as some suppose; for the wilderness condition of the woman, and the sackcloth of the witnesses, are emblematical of the same depressed state of the church, and during the same time.  The witnesses prophesy during the whole period of the 1260 years; and the woman is fed in the wilderness during the same time.  Her flight, sojourn in the wilderness, and feeding there, are allusions to the history of Elijah as before, (ch. xi. 6.) when he fled for his life from the wrath of Jezebel. (1 Kings xix. 1-4.) Jezebel has been already introduced as an enemy to the church, (ch. ii. 20.) There may be allusion also to the miraculous subsistence of the church in the wilderness, till the “cup of the Amorites should be full.”  During the time of the conflict, to be described in the rest of this chapter, the woman is in a place of safety.  In the worst of times there are places of safety provided for God’s children. (Isa. xxvi. 20.)