The persecuting emperors were, Dioclesian, Galerius, Maximian, Maxentius, and Maximinus Daia, some of whom reigned at the same time in different parts of the empire. Dioclesian and Galerius, began the persecution in the eastern part of the empire in 303. It was continued for three years and a half; while Maximian carried on the same bloody work in the west. At this time the whole earth was harassed and tormented,"

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says Lactantius, "and three most cruel beasts" (namely, Dioclesian, Galerius, and Maximian) "raged every where from east to west, except in Gaul," where Constantius Chlorus governed and checked very much the violence of the persecution. The Christians were diligently sought for; some were discovered and dragged from their lurking places; and the cruelties and barbarities exercised in this persecution exceeded all description. If I had a hundred tongues," says again Lactantius, "and a hundred mouths, I should not be able to recount all the different torments that were employed against the Christians." De mort. Pers. c. 16. After some respite, the persecution was renewed in Italy by Maxentius in 308; and it raged most violently in the east under the orders of the Emperor Maximinus Daia, the most sanguinary tyrant, as St. Jerome styles him, that ever persecuted the Church. His inhumanity and barbarity in torturing the martyrs surpassed every thing that had been practised before. bloody scene lasted also about three years and a half; and after a short interval of rest, the same implacable tyrant revived it in 312, but the next year he himself miserably perished.

This

This was a long and severe trial, which it pleased Almighty God in his wisdom to subject his people to; but he had fixed the bounds of it, and now he sends an unexpected relief.

V. 16. "And the earth helped the woman, says St. John, and the earth opened her mouth; and swallowed up the river, which the dragon cast out of his mouth."

The woman was helped by the earth, that is, by a prince of the earth, Constantine the Great, who came to her succour, and became the first Christian Emperor of Rome. Upon the demise of his father Constantius Chlorus, who died in Great Britain, Constantine was there proclaimed emperor in 306. His first care was, though not yet a Christian, to prohibit all persecution in the western provinces which were under his dominion. He even wrote to his colleagues, the other emperors, advising the same, upon which they suspended their

persecution but soon renewed it. Constantine marched against the tyrant Maxentius, who had declared war against him: but before the encounter, by a special revelation he erected the standard of the Cross at the head of his army, making it his chief ensign. For he saw in the sky a cross of light with this inscription: "In this shalt thou conquer.” And effectually under its auspices he defeated the tyrant in the neighbourhood of Rome in the year 312. Maxentius in his flight being drowned in the Tyber, Constantine entered Rome in triumph, and was declared by the senate the first of the emperors. The consequence of this victory was the restoration of peace to the Christians throughout the whole western Roman empire. Maximinus in the east, after being vanquished by Licinius, having put an end to his own life in 313, there remained but two emperors, Constantine who governed in the west, and Licinius in the east. They both concurred, though Licinius was a pagan, to publish an edict, that suppressed all persecution in the eastern empire, and granted full liberty to the Christian religion. Thus at last, by human help, under the divine concurrence and direction, the sunshine of peace was restored to the Church throughout the whole extent of the Roman dominions. And thus it appears how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the river, which the dragon cast out of his mouth."

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V. 17. 66 And the dragon was angry against the woman: and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."

No wonder the dragon, or devil, was angry against the woman, seeing that, instead of his destroying her, she had defeated him; and that she was now entirely rescued from nis power, and under the protection of a prince, upon whom he could have no influence. He was further enraged, to see his own power crushed, his reign of idolatry expiring, his agents, the heathen Roman princes exterminated, and now Christianity established through the whole empire, that is, through the greater part of the then known world. He had with infinite regret seen himself driven by Constantine from the western boundaries of the empire to its utmost limits in the east. Satan thus overcome, but still swelling with rage and malice against the woman, leaves the Roman dominions, and flies into the kingdom of Persia, there to continue his hellish work in making war with the rest of the woman's seed, the servants of God, who keep his commandments, and

There he finds new instru

bear testimony to Jesus Christ. ments fit for his purpose, the barbarous heathen kings of that country, whom he soon excites with fury against the woman's seed.

A most horrible persecution was set on foot by the cruel tyrant, Sapor II., which raged during forty years without intermission, from the year 340 to his death in 380. 'St. Maruthas, bishop of Tagrit in Mesopotamia, near the borders of Persia, compiled the acts of many of the martyrs who suffered in this persecution; and the historian Sozomen, speaking of them, says: It would be difficult to give an exact account of them, to specify their names, their countries, their torments, and the new invented cruelties exercised upon them. I shall only say, it is assured that sixteen thousand men and women suffered, whose names were known, and so many others, that their number could not be ascertained." Lib. ii. 14. Forty years after, viz. in 420, the persecution was recommenced by king Isdegerdes, and continued under his successors for thirty years. The brutal inhumanity used in torturing the martyrs at this time, is thus described by the historian Theodoret: " Some had the skin torn off their hands, others off their backs, and others from their forehead down to the chin. Some had split reeds tied round them very fast, which being plucked away with violence brought the skin along with them, and occasioned exquisite torment. Sometimes the persecutors dug holes in the earth, which they stored with rats and mice, then shut up the Christians in them after tying their hands and feet, and left them to be devoured by the vermin. The ene

my of God and man suggested to them several other more barbarous kinds of torture which they employed upon the holy men, but none could shake their constancy." Lib. v.

c. 39.

Chosroes II. king of Persia, was also a bitter enemy to Christianity. When his army took and plundered Jerusalem in the year 614, many thousands of clerks, monks, nuns, and virgins, were cruelly massacred, ninety thousands Christians were sold for slaves to the Jews, and afterwards many of them were tortured and slain. In the beginning of the year 628, the king ordered sixty-nine Christians to be strangled in one day. But this idolatrous king and tyrant was defeated in several battles by Heraclius, emperor of Constantinople, to whom he had before refused peace, unless the emperor would renounce Jesus Christ, and adore the sun. Chosroes was afterwards put to death in 628 by his own son Siroes,

in heaven, or the upper region, because Satan draws his origin from above, having been formerly a bright angel. This great dragon has seven heads, and upon each a diadem or crown, the types of seven emperors of pagan Rome, whom Satan actuates and employs as his chief agents to oppose the rise of the Christian religion, and to maintain his own idolatrous worship. That such is the meaning of the heads, we learn from the explication given by the angel, chap. xvii. 9, of the Apocalypse: "The seven heads," says the angel, "are seven mountains-And they are seven kings." Ancient Rome being here clearly indicated as it was built on seven mountains. The seven kings or emperors here pointed at seem to be, Nero, Domitian, Severus, Decius, Valerian, Dioclesian, and Antichrist, as being the principal and distinguished persecutors of the Christian Church. The dragon had also ten horns denoting ten provinces, into which the whole Roman empire is here divided. The horns therefore being animated by the dragon as well as the heads, the governors of the Roman provinces, and the people, will be also instigated by the devil to persecute the Church of Christ.

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It was said that the dragon with his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, that is, the apostate angels whom he had seduced, and he cast them to the earth, to be there employed in seducing mankind. But the greatest part of them were precipitated down into the infernal dungeons, according to that of St. Jude: The angels who kept not their principality, but forsook their own habitation, he hath reserved under darkness in everlasting chains unto the judgment of the great day." Ep. v. 6. The dragon himself stood before the woman who was ready to be delierved: that when sheshould be delivered, he might devour her son. Satan seeing his empire of idolatry in danger of being dissolved by the publication of the Christian religion, resolves to crush this in its origin, by stirring up the whole Roman power against it, and thus to devour the woman's offspring in its birth.

V. 5. "And she, the woman, brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with an iron rod: and her son was taken up to God, and to his throne." The woman brings forth a man-child, that is, a masculine race of Christians, a progeny of holy champions, who in conjunction with Christ their head, are to rule all nations with an iron rod by a participation of his power, which he has promised them after the victory in their conflicts with the dragon. 'He that shall overcome, says Christ, and keep my works unto the end, I

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will give him power over the nations, and shall rule them with a rod of iron." Apoc. ii. 26, 27. For such is the power he himself exercises over the impious part of mankind, as St. John tells us. He shall rule the nations with a rod of iron." Apoc. xix. 15. which had been attributed to him even long before. "Thou shalt rule them, (the nations) with a rod of iron, and shalt break them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Psal. ii. 9. The Almighty Son of God breaks down empires, dissolves states, strikes princes, destroys people that presume to contend with him. And "her son was taken up to God, and to his throne;" part of the woman's offspring, or a considerable number of the Christians, when put to the trial in the persecutions, generously laid down their lives for Christ their Lord and master, and thus triumphing over the dragon, instead of falling a prey to him, are carried up to heaven to God and to his throne, where they are associated with him in power and judgment, according to what we have just above seen, and according to this other promise. "To him that shall overcome," says Christ, "I will give to sit with me in my throne; as I also have overcome, and am set down with my Father in his throne." Apoc. iii. 21.

V. 6. "And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, that there they should feed her a thousand two hundred and sixty days."

During the cruel persecutions, which the devil stirred up against the woman, or the Christian Church, by his instruments the heathen Roman emperors and magistrates, many of the Christians fled for shelter into the deserts, to inaccessible mountains, and other lurking places, as we learn from the holy fathers and historians of those times. Great multitudes in particular sought for refuge in the catacombs, at Rome, and in many other places. These subterraneous caverns, termed catacombs, are so prodigiously extensive, branching out into innumerable streets which stretch to a great distance, especially at Rome, that they may be properly called a city under ground. The Christians lay concealed in these dark and dismal retreats, which though originally made for other purposes, were a place prepared by God, were designed by him for a place of reception to his persecuted servants. In these various desolate abodes the Christians, though in appearance destitute of all human succour, were nevertheless fed and supported by a special divine providence for the space of a thousand two hundred and sixty days, or three years and a half, which was the utmost duration of any of the Ro