These miseries, it is said, prevailed over a fourth part of the earth. By the fourth part is to be understood the greater part of the Roman empire; for, as the extent of its dominion is elsewhere called the third part of the earth, it follows that these calamities prevailed over the greater portion of the Roman empire. Supposing the earth to be equal to twelve, a third part of it of which the Roman world consisted, would be four, and a fourth part of it consequently would be three.

This period is supposed to have been continued from Maximin to Dioclesian, about fifty years.

"And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw," says St. John, "the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given to every one of them, and it was said unto them, that they should rest for a little season, until their fellow servants also, and their brethren that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled."

The fifth seal is not ushered in by any reference to the animated beings, but it is sufficiently marked by its internal characters. It points out

a dreadful persecution of the Christians; which began with Diocletian, and was continued by other emperors. "It was longer and more cruel," says Orosius, "than all that went before it. For it was incessantly carried on for ten years, by the burning of Churches, the proscription of the innocent, and the slaughter of martyrs. Within thirty days after its commencement 17,000 men are reported to have been slain; nor did the fury of the persecutors diminish with the progress of time. In Egypt alone 140,000 men were sacrificed, and 700,000 driven into exile, so that this era was denominated the Diocletian era, or the era of martyrs." All the world at the same time, says Sulpitius Severus, was stained with the sacred blood of martyrs. Nor did the Church ever prevail with a greater triumph than when it disdained to be overcome by a slaughter of ten years' continuance. This butchery is represented in the sacred text by the vision of souls lying under the altar, that is, at the foot of the altar, like victims recently slaughtered. For that martyrdom is a species of sacrifice appears from the declaration of St. Paul to Timothy, "I am now about to be offered, and the time of my dissolution is at hand." As he says also to the Philippians, "If I am offered for the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all." They are said to have cried with a loud

voice, as the voice of innocent blood is asserted elsewhere to cry for vengeance from the earth. They were presented with white robes, or were adopted into the number of the blest, by acceptance and justification. They were moreover desired to rest for a short time, till their fellowservants and brethren should be killed likewise, as was done after the establishment of Christianity, under Licinius, Julian the Apostate, and the Arian emperors, and then, on the sounding of the trumpets, a remarkable vengeance should be exercised on the empire for the guilt of so much innocent blood.

At the opening of the sixth seal St. John "beholds, and lo! there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood. And the stars of heaven fell upon the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken by a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were removed out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us! and hide us from the face of

Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?" This is that great revolution which changed the face of the world, and ushered in the triumph of Christ, the Lamb of God.

σεισμὸς,

This seal, in fact, displays the overthrow of the heathen religion, and the establishment of Christianity in its stead. This was begun by Constantine, a Briton born, and completed by his successors. The text declares, that there was a great earthquake. The word is ooμòs, which signifies a commotion or concussion, and what in fact could be greater? When mighty armies, under the standard of the cross, first assumed by Constantine, not only conquered emperors, kings and rulers, but triumphed over all the gods of the Gentiles, whom they degraded from their heaven of power, and overthrew, expelled, ruined, and destroyed them all, with their pontiffs, priests, and followers, temples, and idols. Such a change is well depicted in the figurative language of Scripture, as an earthquake or commotion. The images displayed are the accustomed representations in the prophets of violent subversions in states and empires; as Jeremiah says ' of the fall of Judea: "I beheld

1

1 Jer. iv. 23.

These were darkened and hurled from their places, when the Roman emperors, having at their baptism abjured Satan and his angels, and pomps and worship, dedicated themselves to Christ the Sun of Righteousness. The office of Pontifex Maximus was rejected by Constantine, Constantius, Valentinian and Valens. The name, however, was retained for a time, and inscribed among their titles, and Gratian was the first who refused it. But it was not effectually abandoned till Theodosius the First, that destroyer of heathenism, took away the pontifical college, with the whole remaining crowd of priests, and confiscated all their revenues to the treasury. With reference to this fall of the stars, the Holy Spirit says in Isaiah', speaking of the ruin of the kingdom of Edom, likewise a kingdom of idols; "The heavens shall be rolled up as a book, and the whole host of them (that is the stars,) shall fall as a leaf from the vine, and a deciduous fruitling from the fig-tree; so that Scripture, compared with itself, gives a clear interpretation of the meaning of these prophetical images. The gods of the heathen are also generally spoken of in sacred writ as the host of heaven. The mountains and islands next mentioned, as removed out of their places, probably allude to

Isai. xxxiv. 4.