Its commencement is to be dated from our Savi. our's Ascension, when he gave his final commission to the disciples, to go forth with his doctrines to the world. The time of its duration cannot be so precisely ascertained; because the change in the church from original purity to corrupt morals, worship, and doctrine, was gradual. But it may be affirmed, at least as a general position, that the Christians of the three first centuries, exclusive of the heretics, were of this character, although too many exceptions may be found in their history to this general description. PART II. SECTION IV. The opening of the second Seal. 3 Καὶ ὅτε ἤνοιξε την δευτέραν σφραγίδα, ἤκεσα τα δευτέρε ζώα λέοντος "Ερχε 4 Καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἄλλω ἵππα πυρός κ τῷ καθημένῳ ἐπ ̓ αὐτὸν ἐδόθη αὐτῷ λαβεῖν τὴν εἰρήνην [áñò] tñs yñs, n ἵνα ἀλλήλες σφά ξωσι καὶ εδόθη αὐτῷ μάχαιρα μεγάλη. CHAP. VI. VER. 3-4. 3 And when he opened the 13 And when he had second seal, I heard another horse, fire- opened the second seal, I heard the seLond beast say, Come, 4 and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon, to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another and there was given unto him a great sword. Ver. Ver. 4. Another horse.] The second seal being broken, another sheet, or roll, unfolds, and another representation of a horse and rider appears; but the colour, and consequently the character, is changed. Ib. Fire-coloured.] In the Greek, uggos, from wug, fire. This colour is said to be compounded of the yellow-red, avtos, mixed with the dusky, aos *. It is applied to horses by the classical writers: Αδιςα Γοργοῖ τὶ γενοιμεθα; τοι πτολεμιςαι Ἱπποι τὸ βασιληος ανες φίλε, μη με παλησῃς Όρθος ανετα ὁ πυρρος 7. The angel who leads the host to war among the nations, is mounted on a horse of the same colour This is also the colour of the dragon, the ancient serpent, the devil, who comes wrathfully to war against the saints §. Ib. To take the peace of the earth, and that they should slay one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.] Our Lord established his religion in peacefulness, and commissioned it to conquer, or prosper in the world, by peace. And yet he foretold, very remarkably, that peace should not altogether ensue. "Think not," says he, "that I am come to * Plato, Timæus, ad finem. Theocriti Idyll. 15. 1. 51.-This kind of colour in horses, if that which we now denominate bright or golden-bay, would be properly expressed by the term flame-coloured: but, as aug signifies fire itself, rather than the flame of fire, the word wuggos may be thought to denote a deeper tinge, somewhat like our bright chesnut. Aud I prefer the word fire-coloured, as agreeing best with the vengeful character which pervades this seal, and which is commonly expressed in prophetical language under the image of fire. Пuggos, Zech. i. 8. Luke ix. 55. Rev. xii. 3.9.17. "send "send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace, “but a sword *;" which Saint Luke, in the parallel passage †, calls "division." In which sense also he declares that he is "come to send fire on the earth." Not that it was his wish or intention, as the commentators have observed, that such direful and antichristian consequences should arise; but he foreknew such effects necessarily arising from the corrupt passions and prejudices of sinful men. Such a scene waṣ to follow the first age of Christianity distinguished by the pure practice of the Christian virtues, when a fiery zeal, without knowledge, or at least without charity, should instigate the professors of this peaceful religion to destroy peace; and Christiaus, divided among themselves, should persecute and slay each other. Such a scene, it is well known, did follow. And the prophecy of the second seal, under this firecoloured horse, according with that of our Lord, in the use of the same figures, (fire, sword, take peace from the earth, men divided so as to kill each other,) seems plainly to point to the same period of time; a time, when the heavenly religion, which, under the first seal, had proceeded εv λɛunos, in white AEUXOS, array, became so degenerate, as no longer to appear white. She assumed the angry, intolerant, persecuting hue of the fire-coloured dragon. Neglecting charity, which is the bond of peace," from dissentions and controversies she was hurried into tumults and wars, in which (horrid to relate!) Christians were known to murder each other. But whence are we to date this disgraceful change? May we fix its commencement from the end of the second century; when the western rulers of the church, and the wise and moderate Ire* Matt. x. 34. + Luke xii. 51... + Luke xii. 49. næus, næus, were seen to interpose, and exhort the furious Bishop of Rome to cultivate Christian peace? The fiery and intolerant character which marks this seal, was indeed somewhat visible in these partial transac tions but the hue from white to fire-colour, changed gradually. The persecuting hand of the common enemy for some time restrained this factious and uncharitable spirit within decent bounds; and although, previous to the Dioclesian persécution in 302, there were shameful divisions among the Christians, which Eusebius mentions with a becoming mixture of indignation and tenderness †, yet the change cannot be represented as complete (so as to produce the general and mutual slaughter, which characterises this seal,) till a later period. But, when the Roman empire became Christian; when a Christian Emperor bore the sword; (with which in the imagery of this seal the Christian power seems invested;) when, relieved from the terTors of pagan persecution, the Christians became possessed of civil power; their animosity increased, Worldly prosperity is corruptive; and instead of those halcyon days of peace and happiness, which the Church promised to itself from the acquisition of power; history is seen to date from this period its degeneracy and corruption. This degeneracy was first manifested in the mutual enmities and feuds of the Christians; which were so notorious in the fourth century, that a contemporary author reports of them, (with some hyperbole perhaps, for, he was a pagan,) that their hatred to each other exceeded the fury 66 * Ta ens signums govev. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. v. c. 24. + Eecl. Hist. viii. c. 1. The reader may see this proved by authorities at length at the end of the notes to ch. vii. This was a great "of wild beasts against men*." change from the times of Tertullian, in the second century, when the pagans made a very different report of Christian community: "See," said they, how these Christians love each other t." It is a change well expressed by fire-colour succeeding to white. The feuds of the Christian bishops and rulers contending for power and promotion, make a principal part of the ecclesiastical history of the fourth century. The election of a bishop was frequently accompanied by every corrupt art of intrigue and cabal; and the factions proceeded to determine the contest by arms. Of this kind was the election of a Bishop of Rome, which, after much mutual slaughter of the Christian electors, ended with the victory of Da masus §. In the schism of the Donatists, which had its origin also in faction, and in a contest for worldly power, thousands of Christians perished by the hands of each other. The Donatists are not accused, even by their adversaries, of corrupt doctrine, nor of peculiar degeneracy in morals. If worldly ambition and party-hatred, and violence, so unchristian, had not prevailed on all sides, this disgraceful history would have been wanting, to illustrate the prophecy of the second seal . The Arian controversy produced similar fruits, and of much longer duration ¶. With process of time the • Amm. Marcell. lib. xxii. c. 5. Mosheim, cent. iv. + Tertull. Apol. c. 39. Bower's Lives of the Popes, vol. i. 180. and Mosheim, i. 286. ¶ See Mosheim, i. 340. and the note of his learned and judicious translator. evil |