Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

cable towards thieves; and the latter was so fond of the Christian maxim of" doing to others as you would they should do unto you," that he commanded it to be engraven in golden letters on the walls of his palace, and in other parts of the city. There is another wise saying of his recorded-" That every buyer of a place will be a seller of justice." Alexander also was equally attentive to the provisions of the Roman people', particularly to the restoration of the proper quantity of oil, which had been wasted by Heliogabalus.

This period, or the reign of the Septimian family, continued about forty-two years.

"And when he had opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creature" (which was the eagle from the north) say"Come and see." "And I looked, and behold a pale horse." I should translate it dun. The Greek word is xλwpòs, which is appropriate to the grass or herbs in hot countries, and as those are generally dry, and withered, they assume that colour, which when given to a horse properly implies dun, I should therefore adopt that term, particularly as the other horses are of those

1

Qu.? Whether this care respecting provisions was not superintended by Providence for the support of the poor Christians.

colours, which are well known to be appropriate to that animal.

"And I looked-and behold a dun horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him; and power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."

The rider on this dun horse was Maximin, a Thracian by birth, sprung of barbarian parents, and one of the most cruel wretches, or animals, as he is called, that was ever let loose to infest the earth. He was of great stature and magnitude, and his barbarity was equal to his size. He was called by the historians of those times by the names of Cyclops, Busiris, Phalaris, Sciro, Typho, and Gyges. Every species of cruelty which can be imagined he practised. All that were acquainted with the secret of his birth he put to death, and slew those who out of pity had supplied him with money when he was in a meaner condition. The senate of Rome were so afraid of him that they offered up prayers in the temples that he might never see that city. He is very properly personified under the name of Death, as being the cause of death to so many, and therefore in the Hebrew idiom, which de

lights in abstracts, he being deadly or death bear

.

[ocr errors]

ing is properly denominated Death. So likewise it is justly said that Hell, that is, Hades or the grave, followed him, for in fact, wherever he moved, the grave yawned for all who offended him. The extent of this slaughter is perhaps unprecedented, for, independent of the havock made by the Scythians, who now began to invade the empire, during the reigns of Gallus and Volusianus, rapines and slaughters prevailed on every side. There were no less than ten legitimate Cæsars at one time, who were all cut off by the sword. Under the reign of Gallienus arose those thirty tyrants in different parts of the Roman world, who were either put to death by each other or were butchered by legitimate emperors; so that this age was remarkable, not so much for the destruction of the common people as for the wounds and deaths of princes. In Maximin's time Ingenius having been slain, who was called emperor, he was bitterly enraged against the soldiers, nor did he leave one without a mark of his cruelty. So fierce and bloodthirsty was he that he left most of the cities devoid of males. Gallienus also was so cruel that he slew three or four thousand every day. The city of Byzantium, in his time celebrated for its naval battles, and the key of the Pontic Sea, having been laid waste by his soldiers, Gallienus took vengeance on them by slaughtering all the sol

diers when crowned and unarmed, having broken the amicable engagement which he had previously made with them.

We come now to the pestilence, or death, as it is called; and so it is generally denominated in the oriental language, since the Chaldee paraphrase for the Hebrew word pestilence generally substitutes death, and the Hellenists usually translate it @ávaros. In a similar meaning it is called mortality among us, as the cause of numerous and rapid deaths. It is stated as matter of history by Zonaras, that in the times of Gallus and Volusianus, a pestilence arising from Ethiopia pervaded all the Roman provinces, and for fifteen successive years exhausted them in an incredible manner. It has been remarked too by a later writer, that he never read of a more grievous plague. Orosius observes that the pestilence did not extend itself farther than the edicts of Decius went for the destruction of the Churches. Among the four sore evils which were suffered at this time to pervade a part of the Roman empire, and the catalogue of which is taken from Ezekiel, namely, sword, famine, pestilence, and wild beasts, famine remains to be enumerated. And it would be obvious to human reason, without historical statement, that at a time when the Scythians were laying waste the empire; when almost all the cities without walls

were taken, it was impossible that the fields should not be left without culture, and that the usual stores of food should not be destroyed. And Dionysius of Alexandria bears testimony to the prevalence of famine at this period. "After the persecution of Decius," says he, (he means that which preceded the pestilence,) "war and famine followed, which we sustained as well as the Heathen."

The last in this tetrarchy of calamities is the irruption of wild beasts; and this likewise, when the country had been deprived of inhabitants, might naturally be expected. Testimony is borne to this too by contemporary writers, who state that five hundred wolves entered a city which was despoiled of its inhabitants, and in which the younger Maximin chanced to be.

I cannot conclude this portion of the Revelation without remarking, with Bishop Newton, how appropriate the circumstances related are to the living beings (or beasts, as they are called in our translation,) who preside over the first four seals. The lion denoting power and victory; the ox slaughter; the man a care for provisions which are intended for the sustenance of man; and the eagle those carcases which must have been left when a fourth part of the earth was destroyed by the sword, and with famine, and pestilence, and the beasts of the earth.

« FöregåendeFortsätt »