lifhed by Dioclefian, at the inftigation of Ga"lerius, and the other inveterate enemies of the "Chriftian name. By it the magiftrates were or"dered and commiffioned to force all Chriftians,

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without diftinction of rank or fex, to facrifice to "the gods, and were authorised to employ all forts "of torments in order to drive them to this act of apoftacy. The diligence and zeal of the Roman magiftrates, in the execution of this inhuman e"dict, had like to have proved fatal to the Chriftian "cause. This revolution reftored peace to the

'Chriftians, who lived in the western provinces, "under the administration of Conftantius; whilft "thofe of the eaft, under the tyranny of Galerius, "had their fufferings and calamities dreadfully augmented."

Verses 9th 10th, 11th-And whenhe had opened the fifth feal I faw under the altar, the fouls of them that were flain for the word of God, and for the teftimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, faying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, doft thou not judge and avenge cur blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them, and it was faid unto them, that they should rest yet for a little feafon, until their fellow fervants alfo, and Bb

VOL. I.

their

their brethren, that fhould be killed as they were, fhould be fulfilled.

The hieroglyphics under the three preceding feals predicted the many, long, and fevere persecutions, which Chriftians were to fuffer under the heathen emperors in the fecond and third centuries, and in a part of the fourth, and which they have accordingly fuffered in the times and manner foretold. The laft of these hieroglyphics reprefented these perfecutions brought to the height, and Chriftians almost totally killed and extirpated from the earth by them. Under fuch a vifion, John might have been ready to have defpaired for ever of the Chrif tian church. And thofe few Chriftians, who furvived these perfecutions, might have been apt to conclude, from the profperity of the Roman empire, notwithstanding all its cruelties to the Chrif tians, that certainly Chriftianity was not from God; elfe he would have avenged upon their perfecutors the injuftice done to his religion and worshippers. At this very crifis, and when it was natural to fuppofe that fuch was the ftate of their minds, Christ opens the fifth feal. And that part of the book, which was contained between the fifth and fixth feal was rolled off.

On looking into this part of the book, John faw the picture of an altar, fuch as that, on which fa

crifices

crifices were offered under the Mofaic difpenfation. Under this altar he saw the picture of fome refined creatures; whom, by certain explanatory notes, he knew to be the fouls of them that were flain for the word of God, and for the teftimony which they held; and who, he understood, were crying with a loud voice, "How long, O Lord, ho"ly and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our "blood on them that dwell on the earth." He faw alfo the picture of white robes given unto them, and understood that it was faid unto them, that they should reft yet for a little season.

Nothing can be more clear, than that these verfes refer to thofe, who had fuffered as martyrs for Chrift under the Heathen emperors, as predicted under the three preceding feals. After death and the grave had killed their bodies, John was informed, by Chrift, that their souls were still alive in a separate state. Their perfecutors had killed their bodies, but after that, they had no more that they could do. The fword, hunger, mortality, wild beafts, death and the grave, have no power over their immortal fouls, these furvive the body, and are happy with the Lord in the heavenly paradise. Their perfecutors, that they might apologise to the world; and perhaps, to their own hearts, for murdering them, have reprefented them as feditious and turbulent perfons, who turn the world upfide down, and who were juftly punished with B b 2 death

death, as pefts to civil fociety, But John was informed, by him who knew beft, that the real caufe for which they flew them, was their steady attachment to the word of God, inspired scripture as the only infallible standard of their faith, worship, and obedience, in every part of religion, and not only for profeffing their faith in God, their faith in Jefus as the Chrift and the Son of God, their faith in facred fcripture, as the word of God, and the only infallible standard of faith, worship, and obedience; but also for holding faft that profeffion and teftimony, when forbidden to do fo by the Roman emperors. And hence, instead of having been put to death as evil doers, that God, who perfectly knows the hearts of them, and of their perfecutors, confiders them as victims to him. This is intimated by their being under the altar.

The blood of the facrifice, the blood of every beaft is ftiled its life, in fcripture. The blood of the calf or bullock offered, under the law, for a fin-offering or a burnt-offering was poured at the foot of the altar, Lev. viii. 15. and ix. 9. and ix. 9. Hence the blood poured at the bottom of the altar, is the fymbol, which fignifies that the foul of the true worfhipper is purified and devoted to God.

These martyrs are victims to their attachment to the will and worship of the true God. Had they given up their bibles, profeffed to believe the polytheim of Rome, denied Jefus to be the Chrift and the Son of God, and facrificed to the gods,

their blood would not have been fhed by their inhuman, tyrannical, and impious perfecutors. It seems to be an effential part in the conftitution of God's moral government of the world, that the vengeance of heaven fhall follow thofe men; who, with malevolent hearts, imbrue their hands in the blood of their fellow men. The voice of Abel's blood cried to God, from the ground, for vengeance on the guilty head of Cain. This is the express declaration of God, Gen. ix. 5, 6. "And furely your blood "of your lives will I require: at the hand of eve"ry beast will I require it; and at the hand of

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man, at the hand of every require the life of man.

man's brother will I

Whofo fheddeth man's

blood, by man fhall his blood be fhed: for in "the image of God made he man."

When innocent blood is shed not by individuals merely, but by communities of men; it seems to be peculiarly fit that vengeance fhould be taken on these communities in this world in the courfe of divine providence, independent of that account, which every guilty individual muft give for himself at the bar of God. As it is only in this world, that communities exist in their collective capacity, it is in this world only that they can be punished in their public character. When Pilate, after he had condemned Jefus, took water, washed his hands, and declared that he was innocent of the blood of that just person; the whole multitude of the people of

the