it is also said, that he took such care in providing for the Roman people, that the corn which Heliogabalus had wasted, he replaced out of his own money: the oil also, which Septimius Severus had given to the people, and which Heliogabalus had lessened, he restored whole as before. The colour of the black horse befits the severity of their nature and their name, and the balances are the well-known emblem of justice, as well as an intimation of scarcity; and the proclamation for justice and judgment, and for the procuration of corn and oil and wine, is fitly made by a creature like a man. This period continued during the reigns of the Septimian family about forty-two years. (7) "And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come, and see. (8) And I looked, and behold, a pale 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 sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” The fourth seal or period (ver. 7, 8,) is distinguished by a concurrence of evils, war, and famine, and pestilence, and wild beasts; and was proclaimed by the fourth living creature, who was like an eagle, and had his station in the north. "And I looked, and behold, a pale 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 sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth." These are the same "four sore judgments," with which Ezekiel (xiv. 21) threatened Jerusalem, "the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence;" for in the oriental languages the pestilence is emphatically styled death. These four were to destroy the fourth part of mankind; and the image is very poetical, of death riding on a pale horse, and hell or the grave following with him, ready to swallow up the dead corpses. This period commenceth with Maximin, who was an emperor from the north, being born of barbarous parents in a village of Thrace. He was indeed a barbarian in all respects. Commeatum populi Romani sic adjuvit, ut quum frumenta Heliogabalus evertisset, vicem de propria pecunia loco suo reponeret.-Oleum quod Severus populo dederat, quodque Heliogabalus imminuerat, integrum restituit.' Lamprid. ibid. p. 121. s 7 Voce θανάτου intelligendus est λοιμός ex Hebraismo: Nam ita no sumitur apub Jer. ix. 21, et xviii. 21. Sic apud Sirachidem legimus xxxix. 29. Λοιμὸς καὶ θάνατος, ubi itidem Jávaros haud dubie pestilentiam significat. Syrus quoque tum hic tum apud Lucam λotpods vertit Nimp i. e. Javárovs; et 6 LXX. Hebræorum i. e. pestem vertunt Jávarov, ut et Chaldæus et Latinus Lev. xxvi. 25. Horum exemplo Severus Sulpitius, Hist. i. mortem pro pestilentia posuit.' Grot. in Matt. xxiv. 7. Hic de vico Thracia vicino, barbaro etiam patre et matre genitus.' Julius Capitolinus Hist. August. Vide etiam notas Salmas. et Casauboni. Μαξιμῖνος, τὸ μὲν γένος τῶν ἐνδοτάτων Θρᾳκῶν καὶ μιξοβαρβάρων. Maximinus, qui quod ad genus attinet, ex intimis Thracibus, et semibarbaris erat. Herodian. 1. 6, c. 17. There was not, as an historian affirms, a more cruel animal upon the earth; he was so cruel that he was deservedly called by the name of Cyclops, Busiris, Phalaris, and the worst of tyrants. The history of his and several succeeding reigns is full of wars and murders, mutinies of soldiers, and invasions of foreign armies, rebellions of subjects, and deaths of princes. There were more than twenty emperors in the space of fifty years, and all or most of them died in war, or were murdered by their own soldiers and subjects. Besides lawful emperors, there were in the reign of Gallienus thirty tyrants or usurpers, who set up in different parts of the empire, and came all to violent and miserable ends. Here was sufficient employment for the sword; and such wars and devastations must necessarily produce a famine, and the famine is another distinguishing calamity of this period. In the reign of Gallus, the Scythians made such incursions, that not one nation subject to the Romans was left unwasted by them, and every unwalled town, and most of the walled cities were taken by them. In the reign of Probus also there was a great famine throughout the world; and for want of victuals the army mutinied, and slew him. A usual consequence of famine is the pestilence, and the pestilence is the third distinguishing calamity of this period. This pestilence, according to Zonaras, arising from Ethiopia, while Gallus and Volusian were emperors, pervaded all the Roman provinces, and for fifteen years together incredibly exhausted them; and so learned a man as Lipsius declares, that he never read of any greater plague, for the space of time that it lasted, or of land that it overspread. Zosimus, speaking of the devastations of the Scythians in the reign of Gallus before mentioned, 1 T Neque enim fuit crudelius animal in terris-tam crudelis fuit, ut illum alii Cyclopem, alii Busiridem, alii Scironem, nonnulli Phalarim, multi Typhonem, vel Gygem vocarent.'' Jul. Capitol. Hist. August. P. 141 Vid. Trebell. Pollio Hist. August. p. 184, &c. 9 "Ωστε μηδὲ ἓν ἔθνος Ῥωμαίοις ὑπήκοον ἀπόρθητον ὑπὸ τούτων καταλειφθῆναι, πᾶσαν δὲ, ὡς εἰπεῖν, ἀτείχιστον πόλιν, καὶ τῶν ὠχυρωμένων τείχεσι τὰς πλείους, ἁλῶναι. Adeo quidem, ut nulla gens Romanæ ditionis ab eis non vastata manserit, sed omnia, prope dixerim, oppida destituta manibus, et üsdem munitorum magna pars, capta fuerint. Zosim. in Gall. l. 1, c. 26. 1 Εγένετο λιμὸς κοσμικὸς μέγας, καὶ μὴ εὑρεθέντων ἀναλωμάτων, ἐστασίασεν ὁ στρατὸς, καὶ ἐπελθόντες ἔσφαξαν αὐτόν. Fames ingens per totum orbem grassata est: annona autem deficiente, seditione in exercitu excitata, a militibus interfectus est. Joan. Malala Chro 3 7 5 8 farther addeth, that the pestilence, not less pernicious than the war, destroyed whatever was left of human kind, and made such havoc as it had never done in former times. He saith also, that in the reign of Gallienus, such a grievous pestilence as never happened at any time before, rendered the calamities inflicted by the barbarians more moderate. He saith afterwards too in the reign of Claudius, that the pestilence seizing on the Romans as well as the barbarians, many of the army died, and also Claudius the emperor. Dionysius in Eusebius treating of the same time, mentions the war, and the famine, and the pestilence, as succeeding one another in their natural order. St. Cyprian too mentions all the three together, as troubling the world more at that time than at any other. He wrote also a treatise upon this very pestilence, which he entitled 'De Mortalitate,' as if he had taken the name from the prophecy which had predicted it. In short, without alleging more testimonies, Eutropius affirms of Gallus and Volusian, that their reign was remarkable only for the pestilence, and diseases, and sickness. Orosius' asserts much the same thing: and Trebellius Pollio likewise informs us, that in the reign of Gallienus the pestilence was so great that five thousand men died in one day. When the countries lie thus uncultivated, uninhabited, unfrequented, the wild beasts multiply, and come into the towns to devour men; which is the fourth distinguishing calamity of this period. This would appear a probable consequence of the former calamities, if history had recorded nothing of it: but we read in history that five hundred wolves together entered into a city, which was deserted by its inhabitants, and where the young Maximin chanced to be. It is well known, that the heathens maliciously ascribed all public calamities to the Christians, and among them we find objected the wars which they were Λοιμὸς ἐπιβρίσας παῖς πόλεσιν, οἷος οὕτω πρότερον ἐν παντὶ τῷ χρόνῳ συνέβη, τὰς μὲν ὑπὸ τῶν βαρβάρων συμφορὰς μετριωτέρας απέ φηνε. Tanta pestis in civitatibus exorta, quanta nunquam prius ullo tempore exstite rat, calamitates a barbaris illatas leviores reddidit. Zosim. l. 1, c. 37. 5 Αψαμένου δὲ τοῦ λοιμοῦ καὶ Ῥωμαίων, ἀπέθανον μὲν πολλοὶ τοῦ στρατεύματος, τε λευτᾳ δὲ καὶ Κλαύδιος. Sed quod in Rom manos quoque pestis sævire cæpisset, cum alii complures in exercitu mortui sunt, tum etiam Claudius vivendi finem fecit. Zosim. ibid. c. 46. Euseb. Eccles. Hist. 1. 7, c. 22. 'Sed enim cum dicas, plurimos conqueri quod bella crebrius surgant, quod lues, quod fames sæviant, &c.' Ad Demetrianum, c. 1. Quod autem crebrius bella continuant, quod sterilitas et fames soli 4 citudinem cumulant, quod sævientibus mor- 'Sola pestilentia, et morbis, atque ægritudinibus notus eorum principatus fuit.' Eutrop. 1. 9, c. 5. 1'Hac sola pernicie insignes Gallus et Volusianus.' Oros. Hist. c. 21. 2 'Pestilentia tanta exstiterat, ut uno die quinque millia hominum perirent.' Trebell. Pollio Hist. August. p. 177. 3'Lupi urbem quingenti simul ingressi sunt, in quam se. Maximinus contulerat -quæ deserta a civibus venienti Maximino patuit.' Julius Capitolin. ibid. p. 150. 4 Quando cum feris bella, et prælia cum leonibus gesta sunt? Non ante nos?" Arnob. advers. Gentes, 1. 1, p. 5. obliged to wage with lions and wild beasts; as we may collect from Arnobius, who wrote soon after this time. The colour of the pale horse is very suitable to the mortality of this period; and the proclamation for death and destruction is fitly made by a creature like an eagle that watches for carcasses. This period continued from Maximin to Diocletian about fifty years. (9)" And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. (10) 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? (11) And white robes were given unto every one of them, and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” The following seals have nothing extrinsical, like the proclamation of the living creatures, to determine from what quarter we must expect their completion; but they are sufficiently distinguished by their internal marks and characters. The fifth seal or period is remarkable for a dreadful persecution of the Christians, who are represented (ver. 9) lying under the altar, (for the scene is still in the tabernacle or temple,) as sacrifices newly slain and offered to God. They cry aloud (ver. 10) for the Lord to judge and avenge their cause; that is, the cruelties exercised upon them were of so barbarous and atrocious a nature, as to deserve and provoke the vengeance of the Lord. "White robes are given unto every one of them," (ver. 11,) as a token of their justification and acceptance with God; and they are exhorted to "rest for a season," till the number of the martyrs be completed, when they shall receive their full reward, as we shall see hereafter. Where Mr. Lowman observes very well, that this representation seems much to favour the immediate happiness of departed saints, and hardly to consist with that uncomfortable opinion, the insensible state of departed souls, till after the resurrection.' There were other persecutions before, but this was by far the most considerable, the tenth and last general persecution which was begun by Diocletian, and continued by others, and lasted longer, and extended farther, and was sharper and more bloody than any or all preceding; and therefore this was particularly predicted. Eusebius and Lactantius, who were two eye-witnesses, have written large accounts of it. Orosius' asserts that this persecution was longer See Lowman on the Rev. P. 51. Euseb. Eccles. Hist. 1. 8, cum supplemento. Lactantius de Mortibus Persecut. c. 7, &c. Quæ persecutio omnibus fere ante 5 6 actis diuturnior atque immanior fuit. Nam per decem annos incendiis ecclesiarum, proscriptionibus innocentum, cædibus martyrum, incessabiliter acta est.' Oros. Hist. 1. 7, c. 25 and more cruel than all the past; for it raged incessantly for ten years by burning the churches, proscribing the innocent, and slaying the martyrs. Sulpicius Severus too describes it as the most bitter persecution, which for ten years together depopulated the people of God; at which time all the world almost was stained with the sacred blood of the martyrs, and was never more exhausted by any wars. So that this became a memorable era to the Christians, under the name of the era of Diocletian, or as it is otherwise called the era of martyrs. (12) "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood. (13) And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind: (14) And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together: and every mountain and island were moved out of their places: (15) And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond-man, and every free-man hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains; (16) 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: (17) For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" The sixth seal or period produceth mighty changes and revolutions, which, according to the prophetic style, are expressed by great commotions in the earth and in the heavens. The very same images, the very same expressions are employed by other prophets concerning the mutations and alterations of religions and governments: and why may they not therefore with equal fitness and propriety be applied to one of the greatest and most memorable revolutions which ever were in the world, the subversion of the Heathen religion, and establishment of the Christian, which was begun by Constantine the Great, and was completed by his successors? The series of the prophecy requires this application, and all the phrases and expressions will easily admit of such a construction. "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, (ver. 12,) and lo, there was (Gouds péyas) a great earthquake," or rather a great concussion; for the word in the original comprehends the shaking of heaven as well as of earth. The same phrase is used by the prophet Haggai, (ii. 6, 21,) concerning the first coming of Christ, "I will shake the heavens and the earth :" and this shaking, as the apostle saith, (Heb. xii. 27,) "signifieth the removing of Acerbissima persecutio, quæ per decem continuos annos plebem Dei depopulata est; qua tempestate omnis fere sacro martyrum cruore orbis infectus est:-Nullis unquam magis bellis mundus exhaustus est.' Sulp. Sever. Hist. Sacr. L 2, p. 99. |