The Sixth Chapter

Having given a scheme and division of the whole prophecy, and a general argument of the story of it, briefly set together in one view; I will now run over each chapter apart, insisting largely on this only, and glancing more slightly on the rest; for I aim especially at the second part of my Exposition: and though this Commentary rise not to a full and copious interpretation, yet it will serve to shew the true portrait of the Holy Ghost’s mind in this story, to be what I have made it in the preceding general argument. The seal-prophecy concerns the state of the empire from John’s time downward; considered, Either, As Hea-REV. THE FIRST SIX SEALS. 573

thenish, (when Jupiter, Mars, &c. were worshipped, and Christians were persecuted and massacred; the empire standing whole and undivided under the entire government of one emperor of the east and west, for three hundred years after Christ;) Or, As Christian under Constantine; when it was subjected to Christianity, though afterwards broken into two parts; which rent was established by Theodosius; the east being allotted to one emperor, (now possessed by the Turks, whereof Constantino made Byzantium his seat, from him called Constantinople and the west to another, (having Rome for its seat,) which the Pope for many hundred years hath had entirely under him. Now, according to the division of the eastern and western empire, the seal-prophecy divides itself into “The first six seals” in this chapter, and “The first six trumpets,” which the seventh seal brings forth in c. viii. and ix. from the woe of which trumpets the servants of God are sealed, in c. vii. In this chapter the first prophecy begins with the primitive times; for in the first seal is the “going forth” in the preaching of the gospel, “conquering and to conquer;” (which is the foundation of all God’s after-proceedings, the corner-stone of Christ’s obtaining and setting up his kingdom;) and the fifth seal mentioning the first martyrdom of saints crying out for vengeance, must refer to those great persecutions under Heathenish Rome, which were soon followed by the Arian, as in v. 11.

THE FIRST SIX SEALS

Are several steps or degrees, setting forth the moving causes and means of God’s plaguing and naming the empire of Rome Pagan. Christ being to put down all adverse power, finds not only this empire to stand in the way, but the worship of idols and devils: first, therefore, he encounters Heathenism, backed by all the power of the empire; and then, in the trumpets, he encounters the empire itself, “going forth conquering and to conquer? (v. 2,) by degrees. The first judgment on that empire left it standing; therefore the martyrs, after the punishment of the second, third, and fourth seal, cry yet in the fifth seal, for vengeance on the empire itself. The seals are so called, First, In a general relation to this whole prophecy; as, 1st, A book of decrees to be executed by Christ having these seals: 2ndly, This book is not to be opened “till the time of the end” (Dan. xii. 4, 9,) being sealed till then, when the same angel of Daniel comes in c. x. with an open book in his hand, both to give a newprophecy, and also to shew that when all the seals were off, (all the judgments now being executed in the world,) then the book of Revelation should be understood. Secondly, The seals are, 1st, Judgments decreed by God certainly to befall that empire; (so the salvation of the elect is sealed, 2 Tim. ii. 19; so judgments, Deut. xxxii. 34; and sins, Job xiv. 17:) 2ndly, They are judgments hidden, (and so seals do hide,) stealing in upon the

574 THE FIRST SIX SEALS. [REV. VI.

world unawares, and not understood: accordingly we find by the apologies of Terlullian, Cyprian, Arnobius, &c. That the Pagan Romans observing such strange, unheard-of famines, civil wars, and pestilences, (typified here by horses, red, black, and pale,) exceedingly wondered at the reason of them, imputing it to the anger of their Gods against the new sect of Christians: but Christ here opens the cause of these sealed judgments, viz. contempt of the gospel: 3rdly, They are sealed for pledges and assurances of all that follows; (as the seal of the Spirit is to assure,) which should certainly come to pass in their time, God first sending them judgments as seals; so that from the history of what has already been fulfilled, we may assure ourselves of the accomplishment of all the rest. N. B. Here is a ground of confirming our faith about all those things prophesied of by God, in that the fulfilling of one is a seal assuring that the other shall be fulfilled. That Heathenism is ruined, which was more firmly rooted for four thousand years than ever Popery was, is a seal to us that Popery shall be destroyed. The beast of Rome, though not risen in John’s day, is now up in our days; which may confirm our faith that he shall as certainly be ruined, the same prophecy foretelling his fall, (c. xviii.) as his rise, c. xiii. and that after this there is a glorious kingdom to come, of which all these are seals. We find in c. xi. the temple measured anew, and the outward court of carnal worshippers and worship cast out; and we see it now in our days fulfilled; yea, ourselves fulfil it: we may therefore as certainly expect and prepare for what follows in the same chapter: Thus Zechariah begins his prophesy, so to assure the people of the truth of it, as if saying, “Did you ever know prophecy fail? ‘My words did they not take hold of your fathers? (whom the threatened judgments arrested;) and like us the Lord thought to do unto us, so hath he dealt with us:’ therefore believe the rest.”

THE FIRST FOUR SEALS are represented to us under the vision of four horses. The allusion is to Zech. i. 8, 10; vi. 5; where Christ is represented riding on a red horse, and behind him stood other horses, red, speckled, and white, who are angels “that walk to and fro through the earth,” and are “four spirits (or winds) that go forth from standing before the Lord of the earth;” (see Heb. i. 14, with Ps. civ. 3, 4;) so evil angels are sent forth to do mischief, as in 1 King xxii. 21; Job. i. 7: the angels are the executioners of all God’s great designs; and therefore whatever is done in this book by men, is still said to be done by angels. Here the vision of horses thus commissioned from God, and the allusion, shews either, That those executions under these seals were conducted by Christ on the first horse, accompanied by other horses, his angelfollowers; or, That as the angels on horses in Zechariah went their circuit over the eavth, so here were commissions sealed to these executioners, to traverse and compass the earth, as angels

IJEV. VI.] THE FIRST SEAL. 575

are used to do. God begins here to war with the world, and sends out four horsemen to give the first onset. That this vision is presented under that of horses is but for variety’s sake. The Revelation makes use of all the eminent visions of the Old Testament; and the elegancies of all the types in the Prophets, serve but to set forth and adorn the visions of this book, like a picture composed of all beauties. The vision of the throne is from Isaiah and Ezekiel; from Daniel is the sealed book; the horses, and also the olive trees, and the candlesticks, are fromZechariah; and so on. N.B. 1, How perfect is this book! what a posy of all flowers! what a vision from all visions! (as Solomon’s was a song of songs;) all the types and stories of Moses and the prophets, are borrowed to adorn it. 2, The occurrences in the New Testament, with its story of the church, have all the perfections appearing under the Old, which is more eminently acted over in all passages of providence. Here is a more glorious temple, and a far worse Egypt, Sodom, and Babylon; Here is a restoration of the temple, and that also at twice, and by degrees; Here is a new Jerusalem: Did the bond-man of old persecute the free? even so it is now, Gal. iv. 24, 29: What befel them, befalls us much more: Had they persecutors? we more and worse: Had they Pharisees that sinned against the Holy Ghost and crucified Christ? so have we such as shall, after great convictions wrought by the gospel, prove like a generation of Pharisees, scorched with the heat of hell-fire, (as in the fourth vial,) who shall kill the witnesses, c. xi. “Now all these things happened unto them for types, (so also did their visions,) being written for our admonition, upon whom the ends (or perfection) of the wrorld are come,” 1 Cor. x. 11. We have the perfection of every thing under the Old Testament, good or bad.

FIRST SEAL, and its “white horse,’’1 (v. 1,2.) whose crowned Archman-rider is Christ himself,” yoiny forth, (in the preaching of the gospel,) conquering and to conquer;” alluding to Ps. xlv. 4 — 6; for Christ must win the crown and sceptre before he wears it. Christ goes forth as the general of these horses; and his being a white one, betokens a triumph, and also is a sign of meekness and candour; he offering at first conditions of peace in the gospel, to the empire of Rome and to all nations, on their submission to him as their king, who goes forth peaceably to challenge the nations God had given him for his inheritance: all must hold their crown of him, and do him homage: Thus Tamerlane, before denouncing war, suspended a white flag in token of peace offered. The progress of the gospel is here compared to the free course of a horse and his rider, 2 Thes. iii. 1. The weapons here are but arrows in the hearts of the yielding; in c. xix. they are a sword to finish the conquest: in Ps. xlv. they are both: the threatening of the gospel are arrows striking secretly, and darting and wounding mortally;” Hceret

576 THE SECOND SEAL. [REV. VI.

Lethal if! Arundo” This horseman is “crowned;” (for God made Christ king when he lirst ascended, Heb. ii. 8, 9;) and “he went forth conquering” whether men obey or not; (Paul speaks like a conqueror, in 2 Cor. ii. 14;) for if men turn, There is a triumph of grace pardoning, and so subduing, traitors; and if not, The gospel is a savour of death, like a box of veneraous ointments, poisoning by the smell; it is a step of ruin and a sealed judgment; and though a blessing in itself, it was a curse to Gentilism, (as the first vial, by converting men from Popery is called a vial on the earth,) causing Satan to fall “like lightning do-.vn from heaven,” (Luke x. 18,) as the sixth and last seal shews; for the devil was struck dumb in his oracles, when Christ only began to publish his. N. B. 1, Christ is so meek and merciful that he goes not forth first on a red war-horse, but on a ivltite; but if men turn not, he hath other horses to do that work of destroying them. Who would stand out against such a Saviour who loves un bloody conquests? 2, Christ’s course to get his kingdom by no other means at first than the gospel, is strange: his weapons are the bow of the tongues of men, to dart their words, and “to shoot out bitter arrows” into the hearts of them that resist: Twelve fishermen conquer the whole world of the Roman empire! what should we think of a dozen poor men sent into Turkey to overthrow the grand Turk and Mahometanism? see Zech. iv. 6’. 3, When Christ begins, he goes on to conquer. Let us not fear the cause of God in England: there is a battle to be fought; Christ and his angels growing more and more holy and full of light; and Satan and his, growing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived: Christ coming up with fresh supplies of new light, with his bow and arrows bears up as hard as they, and will not be foiled’ Though the light of the primitive churches grew dimmer and dimmer, yet they conquered Heathenism, much more must these now conquer.

SECOND SEAL, and its “red horse” of icar, v. 3, 4. After the going forth of the white horse there follow three other lighthorsemen, attending this their general; as in Zech. i. 8, where Christ was on the red horse, as about to revenge himself on his church’s enemies, but here on the white gospel-peace horse, followed by war-horses, whose colour is suitable to the plagues successively brought on the empire: This second horse’s colour is the redness of blood, (Isa. lxiii. 1, 2,) and is therefore a war-horse “to take peace from the earth” by civil war, (not by persecution, but) in the empire, wherein “men should kill one another:” for, if men take peace from the saints, it is a suitable plague, that God should take peace from the earth; and if men embrace not the Gospel of peace, their peace shall be taken away; but if men will kill the saints, is it not a proportioned judgment that their swords should be turned into their own bowels? Now this “power was given to him;” it proceeded

RFV. VI. 5, 6.] THE THIRD SEAL. 577

from a commission to this horseman; and so “there was given to him a great sword:” God commissions the sword he puts into the enemy’s hand: and as magistrates bear God’s sword, so soldiers, whom the prophets often call God’s sword. History shews what wars and most dreadful broils were in the eastern empire. John wrote his Revelation just before Trajan’s time, in Domitian’s reign, A.D. 94; and he died ten years after, in the sixth year of Trajan, in whose time these wars began. When the apostles had preached the Gospel to the world, and were all dead; the Jews rise, and with armies rage through all parts of the empire; and so devastate and depopulate Lybia of her inhabitants, that Adrian was forced to send thither new colonies: about Cyrene they destroyed twenty-two hundred; in Egypt also and in Cyrus twenty-four hundred; and a great number in Mesopotamia: but Adrian destroyed fifty-eight hundred of the Jews in turn. After Trajan, in whose time the empire had its largest extent, the Parthians revolted, and it was lessened. Under Antonius, A.D. 140, all the northern nations came down upon the east and upon all Illyricum, yet were dried up, as a land-flood; so that the empire stood entire: and that these wars might be the more eminently noticed as following upon the apostles’ deaths, (before which, and for forty-four years after, there were none;) there was universal peace.

THIRD SEAL, and its “black horse” of famine, v. 5, 6; as in Lam. iv. 7 — 9, where the Nazarites’ visage is blacker than a coal, from famine. The rider “that sat on him, had a pair of balances in his hand” to sell corn by weight and not by measure, as in Lev. xxvi. 26; and then a chcenix, or day’s allowance only, was sold for a penny, (about our seven-pence half-penny, or eighth of a crown,) which was a day’s wages: there was however a commission “not to hurt the oil and the wine” Now historians being silent about any notable universal famine in the empire, after these, Mr. Mede interprets it of the balances of justice, for which Severus and others were eminent, especially for their theft-laws and corn-laws: but it would be heterogeneal to the other steps for mining or plaguing the heathen empire, for the Holy Ghost to notice and insert a moral virtue in the midst of judgments: but this scarcity of corn only, might be slipt over by historians, while Tertullian and other Christians mention such a famine of bread, as a judgment for the empire’s contempt of Christ and persecution of the saints. I have searched diligently for suchfootsteps in dearths of that age, two hundred years after Christ, and upwards, as might confirm the truth of this; And first, I find in Commodus’ time, A.D. 190, there was a commotion made for bread within the city of Rome by the poorer sort; (Fames RomanosAfflixit, says Herodian,) when the store-keeper Cleander, his great favorite, detained the corn from the people; whereupon they mutiny and demand his death, in their rage throwing down

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578 THE FOURTH SEAL. [REV. VI. 7, 8.

houses, opposing the soldiers, stoning the captains; so that Commodus was forced to cut off his favorite’s head and set it on a pole, and to kill his children also, to pacify the people: even Mr. Mede’s quotation about Severus’ justice, and his care about oil, &c. intimates an exhausture of corn from the stores; as also his care, A.D. 118, through Heliogobalus’ having overthrown the public stock of corn: And then, secondly, For the Christian writers of these times; Tertullian, A.D. 203, in his apology for the Christians, speaks of the calumny of the heathen laying the cause of all their misery upon the Christians; “If it rained not, if the Nile overflowed not, (Egypt being the granary of the the empire,) if there was pestilence; at once they exclaimed, “Christianas Ad Leones, Away with these Christians to the lions;” who were then punished most as a cause of famines, and therefore used to fast in times of such judgment, especially when their Annona, or annual stock of corn, was in danger of being spent; whilst other Romans poured out themselves to all licentiousness: Also in his apology to Scapula, the African president, shewing that no persecuting city went unpunished, he instanceth how lately, under Hillarian his predecessor’s presidentship, the Christians begging a floor of corn, a voice was heard underground, “Area Non Stint;” and they had no corn to thresh in their floors the next year, a great wet having spoiled the harvest: This vexation, following a condemnation of the Christians to the beasts, Baronious there understands to be the lack of corn. Origen about A.D. 226, writing on Matt. xxiv. and taking occasion to answer the same general calumny against the Christians, as causes of their wars, famines, and pestilences, instanceth in famines especially, as the eminent punishment of that age.

FOURTH SEAL, and its “pale horse,” v. 7, 8, with “Death his name that sat on him” whose horse brings death “on the fourth part of the earth “or empire; and his work was” to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth” even all God’s plagues let loose at once, for their impenitence; (not as before, civil wars alone, or famine coming alone, but now) all four judgments mentioned in Ezek. xiv. 21, all the treasures of his wrath. Pestilence is here called death, as it is by the Chaldean paraphrase, and the Greek; by the Fathers it is called the mortality, and by us the sickness. It is wonder ful to read what a stage of misery and blood the empire became, from A.D. 240, through all these plagues raging at once. In the space of thirty-three years, ten emperors were killed in the civil wars. Under Call us and Volusianus, A.D. 250, the barbarous nations came down upon the empire, and harrowed it; and the Scythians amongst them, whose rage exempted no part of the Roman jurisdiction, depopulating almost every town; which was followed by extreme famine:” When we had a breathing from these, (says Dionysius Alexandrinus,) there came the greatest and

REV. VI. 1 — 8.] OBSERVATIONS ON THE FIRST FOUR SEALS. 579

worst plague of pestilence, that ever was read of in any age” —” of fifteen years continuance, says Lypsius: and to add the last hand for completing the misery of these times, God let loose these tyrants at once, as so many wild beasts, to prey upon and make havoc of the empire.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE ABOVE SEALS. — 1st, During the first four seals, bringing us to A.D. 260, the officers of churches remained according to institution in the purer churches; but afterwards we hear not of them, (corruptions coming in upon the churches, and preventing their right end,) till the vials begin, (c. xv.) in the first separation from Popery; and then we read only of one of the beasts giving these vials: but after a second measuring the temple, (c. xi.) before Rome’s ruin, we read of four beasts, (c. xix.) in their right order again, praising God. 2dly, After the white horse of the gospel, go forth the other three of terrible judgments on the world, for contempt of it: “Judgment must begin at the house of God,” (1 Pet. iv. 17,) but not rest there: Soon after the first preaching of the gospel, wrath fell most heavily also upon the empire and its idolaters: as we look for storms in autumn, and frost in winter, so we expect judgments where the gospel has been preached: “the quarrel of the covenant,” (Lev. xxvi. 25,) must be avenged and vindicated: if men despise it, God cannot hold his hands. The churches in Germany, Bohemia, &c. had the gospel first, and so the cup of tribulation first; but God will visit them in their order; and those perhaps last, that have had the gospel but a little while. 3dly, God is wont to rise higher and higher in his judgments: He began in the empire with civil wars; and they not working, he sent famine which is worse; and then war, as in Lam. iv. 9; and then he came upon them with pestilence and all the other three at once; which agrees with Lev. xxvi. 21: so the three last are the woe-trumpets; and so in the vials, God will also rise higher and higher. 4thly, All plagues have their commission from God, and go forth only when Christ opens a vial: Ot the second, it is said, “Power was given him and a sword:” A commission of restraint was given to the third, “not to hurt the oil and wine;” and to the fourth, “only to kill the fourth part:” as horses guided by their riders. Providence chalks out the way for them; as a path was made for God’s anger, into what houses of the Egyptians it should enter, Ps. lxxviii. 50: so in Jer. xv. 2, “Those that are for the sword, to the sword,” &c. Now in all these circuits in the way of God’s judgment, let us wait for him to turn towards us in mercy, Isa. xxvi. 8. 5thly, Though plagues were ever common in the world, yet these were more eminently to be set down; for being as eminent in the Roman empire in those first ages, as in any other afterwards, yet these were all the plagues it had whilst Heathenish, and so were properly punishments of Gentilism, and of contempt of the message of the white

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580 THE FIFTH SEAL. [REV. VI. 9 — 11.

horse, without at all ruining the empire, as the after-plagues did. But the Holy Ghost more especially names these plagues here as visitations consequent upon the gospel; whence the Heathen observed and objected, “That since Christianity began, wars, &c. raged more than ever, through the indignation of their affronted gods:” This calumny stirred up Cyprian to write his apology; which he did in the very language of the fourth seal, under which he lived. But though the eyes of the Heathen were sealed from seeing the up-lifted hand of God against them in these sealed plagues, yet the four beasts instructed John, (who personates the church,) concerning the true cause of them; and therefore every seal hath a voice of one or other of the beasts, saying “Come and see:” for the officers or ministers of the churches instructed the people, how that all these plagues were for despising the gospel, and for persecuting its professors.

THE FIFTH SEAL, v. 9 — 11, Is that bloody persecution which followed after all these plagues in the time of Dioclesian, about A.D. 300, which being the greatest of the ten persecutions, (for under it suffered a hundred and forty four thousand in one province only of the empire,) is put for all the rest; for those other plagues, for the contempt of the gospel, did but enrage the Heathen the more, who imputed these to the anger of thengods, for suffering the Christians to live: and this being the last and greatest, calls for vengeance in the name of all the foregoing martyrs. This vision is, First, Of souls severed from their bodies, even of men slain, or of martyrs; who, Secondly, Are presented as newly sacrificed, and with their throats cut, lying bleeding at the foot of the altar of burnt-offering, (see in 2 Tim. iv. 6; and Phil. ii. 17,) as in c. viii. these “prayers of all saints” are offered up upon the altar of incense. Some understand this altar to be heaven; but that comes in after, when “White robes were given 1o every one of them.’1’’ Thirdly, “The souls of these that were slain for the word of God. were under the altar crying aloud, How long, O Lord, dost thou not avenge our blood?” It is not simply the blood that cries, (as Abel’s did,) but the souls do cry for vengeance and ruin upon the empire; and this their cry is doubly satisfied; For, A reason is given why vengeance is delayed; because the empire having to stand yet in power for a season, they were “to rest a little while, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled:” so that here it refers not to the persecutions of the Popish Antichrist, (which were a thousand years after,) but the Arian; when under these emperors, about thirty years after this, there were raised as cruel persecutions for the time, as ever were before; and then the trumpets sound, and the empire itself is ruined through their prayers, as c. viii. And also, They are meanwhile received to glory, expressed by their white robes, 1st, As a sign or badge of heavenly glory; c. hi. 4, and Matt.

REV. VI. 9 — 11.] OBSERVATIONS ON THE FIFTH SEAL. 581

xvii. 2; 2dly, To denote joy; such robes being worn in triumphs, Eccl. ix. 8: 3dly, Robes were worn only by noble personages. Now this giving them white robes, is an allusion to the first bringing of the priests into the temple, when their thirty years were expired.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE FIFTH SEAL. 1st, It is God’s manner to bring severest trials just before deliverance; as the above was the last and greatest of all persecutions: so it was with David at Ziklag a few hours before he was proclaimed king: so in c. xi. is a persecution and war of Antichrist yet to come, for the space of three years and a half; after which, the witnesses shall cast off their sackcloth for ever: I fear it, for it is the last. 2dly, Though great punishments had befallen the empire by the three preceding horses; yet for martyrs’ blood, this is not vengeance enough, which nothing will satisfy but the ruin of that bloody state; as nothing pacified Manasseh’s blood-shed but the captivity of Judah. 3dly, In matters wherein many ages have an interest, the saints in each preceding age put up their prayers in the strength of all prayers and cries of blood preceding: so the souls here in the name of all preceding martyrs, cry, “How long” &c.! As in a generation of wicked men, the last of them inherit the sins and punishments of all their forefathers; so do a generation of godly men go forth in the strength of all their fore-fathers’ prayers and blood-shed. How comfortably, therefore, may we pray against Rome, and all the bishops, her abettors, who have even wallowed in the blood of saints, and against whom we have the prayers of all ages, to join their forces to ours for their more sure prevailing; while we pull together in our cry, “How long” &c.! like the linking of many cords with such artifice, that by a pully even a child might draw up a mighty weight, for he pulls in the strength of all the cords. It is but a little resting, till our brethien, (it may be ourselves,) the witnesses, are killed; and then down goes Rome, and the hierarchy with it: in which respect it is good living in these last ages of the world, for we drive a trade with all our fore-fathers’ stock. 4thly, The power of persecutors stands no longer than till they have finished the great work of persecuting the saints; which is the reason here given for the empire’s standing so long: “Thou hast ordained them for judgment, (on themselves,) and established them for correction,” (of thine,) Hab. i. 12. 5thly, The soul is here said to cry for vengeance, and not (as when the wicked are murdered,) the Hood only; God will, therefore, speedily avenge his own elect, whose cry enters his ears with so much clamour. And again, If Abel’s blood hath such force in its cry, and his living soul a still greater force; how much more Christ’s blood, and still more Christ himself, who lives to intercede for us! Cthly, The souls in heaven, following their interests on earth, prosecute the revenging of their blood; and why not also the interests of their friends, children, businesses and the like; for which they prayed on earth? 7thly, The spirits made perfect know, and are satisfied with the reason of God’s dispensations and councils: (as here God opens his utmost reason why the empire was as yet to stand, viz. for the slaughter of a few more martyrs:) for being prophets, as well as priests, they are guided by a spirit of prophecy, as Christ is. Sthly, If we knew the reason of all dispensations, we should rest, as these souls do in this standing yet of the empire. Let our faith apprehend that God hath a reason for all our persecutions. 9thly, Saints yet unborn are here called “their brethren,” as in God’s election; (for this persecution came not till forty years after;) as Christ calls all his people, whom God gave him before the world was; and Jesus knows the names and the number of his own in all ages, and chose not qualifications but persons; as he saith, “I have sheep which are not of this fold:” Let us then love the Jews, as those who arc to

be called; and the saints departed, as those who are our brethren. lOthly, Martyrdom is a perfection, as Christ calls his sufferings, Luke xiii. 32; so here,” till they are fulfilled” PLEEROOSONTAI: if we have all holiness, without this coronis, we are not so perfect as martyrs, llthly, Saints departed presently enter into bliss; they sleep not, but have “while robes given them? as the priests had at their introduction into the temple; and their robes of glory are new, as given them afresh; their souls are clothed with glory, till they meet their bodies again, as rich robes reaching from head to foot; they are all over happy and glorious. 12thly, Those in bliss reckon us fellow-servants and brethren, though we be sinful; and they hold a communion with us: let us do the like towards our weakest brethren, between whom and ourselves, there is far less distance for holiness, &c. 13thly, The saints are reckoned martyrs, “for the word of God, and for the testimony which they hold;” and therefore for the least truth of that word. 14thly, God may defer his answer to prayer; for he puts even those in heaven upon staying a while; yet he will recompense this demur some other way, satisfying us by other blessings; as he gave those saints white robes of glory.

THE SIXTH SEAL, v. 12 — 17, Expresseth the final accomplishment of “the wrath of the Lamb? in throwing down the Heathenism of the empire, and in confounding its idol-worship, (as the former seals contained several punishments on the empire itself,) “for the great day of his wrath is come;” which some interpret of the day of judgment, certain phrases also being used concerning it, as in Matt. xxiv. 19: but John was now come only to the tenth and last persecution, about A.D. 300; and also after this, the seventh seal is to be opened, producing seven trumpets of new punishments in succession upon the empire: and as for the phrases here used, they frequently express great mutations and overturnings in kingdoms, and calamities therein; as in Joel ii. 10, 11; Isa. xxxiv. 4; ii. 19; Hosea x. 8: These passages speaking of the overthrow of kingdoms by wars, therefore Mr. Forbes would have this seal to be the utter overturning of the western empire itself by the Goths and Vandals, about A.D. 400, and not of its Paganism: But, 1st, The first seal, v. 2, 3, beginning only with the conquest of Paganism, (for the gospel at first attacked nothing else,) this sixth seal accomplishes the victory; and so Christ’s first step or degree of conquest in order to the kingdom, is fully presented in this chapter, with his first full victory over the first enemy he encountered in the world, even Satan and his false worship; and so this book still goes on to shew, That when he begins, he makes an end of despatching such enemies first, as he first encounters: thus Heathenism was first met by the gospel; then by plagues; and finally as one growing angry, Christ completes the victory by power and might, md by a violent concussion and shaking of the state. Thus .laving despatched this enemy, and made clear work of it, (as conquerors do,) he falls on the empire itself in the trumpets: therefore the last act of this tragedy is represented under metaphors suited to the judgment-day, when he shall triumph for ever over all enemies. 2dly, The trumpets that come after, are reserved for the ruin of the empire itself; and the vials, for the overthrow of Popeiy and Mahometanism: thus, 3dlyy The parts of this prophecy run on similarly, and things alike are put together in distinct visions; for here are three sorts of enemies, and three sorts of plagues to ruin them: The six seals are the beginning of sorrows to the world, and they fall on Satan’s false worship, which stood in Christ’s way: The six trumpets fall on the empire itself, for its persecutions of the church: The six vials, (called the last plagues, chap, xvi.) fall on the Popish and Mahometan factions. 4thly, Chap. xii. which hath the story of the primitive church, as this hath of Rome Pagan, doth wonderfully agree with this chapter, describing the same space of time, and the same conquests over Satan in the imperial heaven; only here, (as belonging to the seal-prophecy,) are set forth the calamities and confusion of the kings or emperors, and chieftains of Heathen worshippers, who sought to uphold idolatry still; and then, (as belonging to the book-prophecy,) is described only the dragon’s confusion, in being thrown down; that being the story of the church, and this of the empire, more eminently. Under these phrases and metaphors, two things are distinctly set out: First, By the sun, moon, and stars, being darkened, (according to the analogy of the prophets,) is expressed the deposing of those Heathenish emperors and governors in the lioman state, as striving to keep up Heathenism; and with these fell also Satan and his worshippers: for though the state stood still, yet its Paganism, and those governors, were removed, and destroyed, and thrown down from their ftcarcn, (the superior government of that stale,) by

Christ’s inflicting madness and diseases on its emperors, Dioclesian and Maximinian, who resigned their government in the meridian of their glory, (to the wonderment of the world,) from a sense of “the wrath of the Lamb:” and afterwards the emperors Maxentius and Maximinus were overcome by Licinus, who favoured the Christians, and was colleague with Constantino; but on Licinus’ revolt again to the idolatries of Rome, Constantine subdued him and his chieftains, (for Heathenism went not down without blows,) and after deposing all the persecutors, he turned the whole state to Christian: Such a subversion of stategoveraors and their armies, (as well as of the state itself,) the prophets express by “darkening the sun, moon, and stars: “so Isa. xiii. 10; xiv. 12, 13, signifies the king, queen, and nobles of Babylon, all deposed from their high stations; the monarch himself being the sun and the lucifer-star; whose heaven was cast down, and it “fell to the earth” Now v. 15, may express the same thing, expounding it literally of “the kings of the earth” or Roman emperors; those suns of this firmament, who were stepped off from their glory; the stars of their nobility, those “great men and rich men” being also deposed; and their mountains, (Isa. ii. 14,) or “chief captains and mighty men” removed. Now the rest of the trumpet and vial-prophecy proceeds also with plagues on the sun, moon, and stars; the earth and trees; and therefore one literal explanation to serve for all, is here first mentioned, that we may learn to interpret by the Holy Ghost’s own analogy: Every state or kingdom being a world, the superior part of the same is its heavens, with the sun above all, then its moon, stars, &c. the inferior parts being the earth, with its sea, rivers, trees, &c. Judgments on this “world” are therefore pronounced like as in Hag. ii. 21, 22, wrhich there expresses the change of the state itself and all places of rank therein; but sometimes, only the deposing of their proprietors is meant thereby, the places and dignities standing still. Thus under the trumpets, the casting down of the sun, stars, &c. means abstractly, an altering the very state, power, and dignity of the empire, together with a deposing of the persons; but here concretely, the persons only in power are meant, their places remaining for others to fill. Secondly, These expressions hold forth, not simply an overthrow of stations or station-holders by political mutations, but changes of religion in a state: for as bodies politic, so religious bodies are compared to a world; thus Christ in Ps. viii. 3, hath his world, whose heavens have their moon and stars, &c. (where the. sun is not mentioned, because it is Christ himself,) as interpreted in Heb. ii. 5, 6: so Rom. x. 18, interprets Ps. xix. 1,4: and in chap. xii. J, the apostles’ ministry is compared to twelve stars with which the primitive church was crowned: and so in Heb. xii. 27, “the heavens” partly mean gospel ordinances, that frame of worship which Christ hath erected; (as the legal worship is there “the earth;”) though in Dan. viii. 10, 11, the temple-worship, with its priests and elders, is so called; which Antiochus caused to cease, so as to magnify himself even against the Sun of righteousness, who is “the prince of the heavenly host:” So Antichrist hath his Popish world too: so Satan hath his Pagan world, where devil wor ship and idolatry are practised; whence the Heathen gods are called “the host of heaven,” in Deut. xvii. 3; not only because the sun, moon, and stars, were immediately worshipped, but because Greece and Rome called the stars by the names of their gods and goddesses; of their heroes, heroines, and demi-gods: hence Apollo and the sun, Phoebe and the moon, (or” the

great goddess Diana,”) being worshipped together, and under them Satan himself and his devil-angels, as in 1 Cor. x. 20; from this his heaven Christ saw Satan fall like lightning, (Luke x. 18;) which overthrow began by the apostles’ casting out devils, and was fulfilled in c. xii. by the subversion of idolatry in the empire, that “shaking of the heavens and earth,” here set forth by “the great earthquake” (the only proper word we have to express such a convulsion of nature;) as Hag. ii. 7, expresses the change from Jewish to gospel-worship; and as there will be another shaking, “not of the earth only but of the heaven also,” even of the present variegated outward gospel-worship to be yet succeeded by that apostolic simplicity, which shall again be revived and continue for a thousand years; after all false religions shall be trodden down, (in which Satan is the prince of this host of heaven,) by the sun of this firmament, whose stars, (or devils of demi-gods,) fall therefore, as he is put out. Again, as the moon is Christ’s church and the queen of heaven; so the college of Pagan priests then in Rome, (as the Pope and cardinals are now,) were the moon in his heaven, as instruments of devil-wor ship; and so his consecrated places, his “islands and mountains” were displaced, and diverted from the use they were once put to under Paganism. Thus this change of the Heathen religion, (the extirpation of which took about a century from Constanine’s time,) is here set forth by two things distinctly and apart laid down: 1st, The subversion of the religion of Rome Pagan, signified, 1, By an eclipse of “the sun, which became black as sackcloth of hair;” and of “the moon, which became as blood:” the glory of their gods, and the priests of the same being darkened. 2, By “the stars of heaven which fell unto the earth, even as a Jig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind:” shewing that Pagan men’s hearts were not loosened of themselves at first, but forcibly shaken to a dislike of that religion. 3, By the vanishing of the whole “heaven” of his wor ship, “as a scroll when it is rolled together:” (for the Jews wrote on rolls of parchment, or vellum, which being folded up they call Folumen, or volume:) importing that as thus every letter is hid, so the names of these gods and their worship have disappeared for more than a thousand years, being as a book unopened and not in use. 2dly, This change is represented, by the confusion of such upholders of that ethnic worship as were the Atlases that supported these heavens, opposing Constantine and other emperors in their introduction of the Christian religion: for the devil leaves not the hearts possessed by him, without the blows of one stronger than he: so he left not his station in the empire without resistance, egging on imperial kings and generals, and the populace, to unite in support of the old religion: but the Lamb encounters these and confounds them in his wrath. The very names given to the Romans in their several ranks, are here used of “The kings of the earth” (for the Greek has no other word than BASILEIS, which is the word for Roman emperors in 1 Pet. ii. 13, and 1 Tim. ii. 2,) who were the monarchy; “The great men” (called “their great ones,” and connected with kings and rulers, in Mark x. 42, Luke xxii. 25,) were the aristocracy; “The chief captains” over legions of seven thousand men each, (called CHILIARCHOI; as centurions, or HECATONTAR-CHOI, were captains of hundreds,y were the military; “The rich men and the mighty men” may be the gentry; while “Every bondman and every freeman” may designate the commonalty, or plebeian community, the populace in general and lower rank. Now, the confusion of these is expressed, 1, By their

overthrow; they fled for shame and disappointment, and “hid themselves in dens, and in the rocks of the mountains” as in Isa. ii. 10. 2, By their despair of help, intimated in their saying “to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us:” The language is taken from the Jews, (whose country abounds with rocks,) as in Luke xxiii. 30, Hos. x. 8; the Jews,, when Rome destroyed Judah and Jerusalem, wishing to be crushed to death by the falling in of the rocks, into whose caves they fled for hiding, rather than to live and see the miseries that were come upon them; which other people express by wishing the earth to swallow them up. 3, The phrases import, that all this is done with a sense and conviction in these enemies’ hearts, of Christ’s power whom they had derided and anathematized, though now their conqueror and the world’s king; and therefore they cry for a hiding-place “from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for (add they) the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?” or abide it, as Joel ii. 11. Now the story of the times of the empire’s conversion from Ethnicism to Christianity, presented such a face of things as doth this seal; for Dioclesian and Maximinian, (the greatest persecutors the church ever had,) in the height and ruff of their imperial glory and rage, abdicated so unreasonably, that Historians could impute only to insanity, what they did “to hide themselves from the face of the Lamb.” Gallerius, Miximinus, and Constantius,

REV. VI. 12 — 17.] OBSERVATIONS ON THE SIXTH SEAL. 587

(father of Constantine,) succeeded. Maximinus, persecuting the Christians, was smitten with a strange disease; and under con viction of Christ’s being king, recalled his edicts of persecution, afterwards putting them forth again, like Pharaoh, till at least he died miserably, acknowledging “the wrath of the Lamb.” Maxentius was then set up to defend the Heathen cause; but being overcome by Licinius, he threw away his imperial robes, and fled, and lay hid for the safeguard of his life, and acknowledged Christ by a decree: his flesh was eaten of worms. Then Licinius opposing his co-regnant, Constantine, was overcome by him; and being condemned with his accomplices, at the place of execution, he acknowledged Christ to be God. Afterwards the apostate Julian attempting to re-establish Heathenism, being shot in his wars against Persia, flung his own blood and bowels into the air, saying, Thou has conquered, O Galilean!

OBSERVATIONS ON THE SIXTH SEAL. — 1st, When we see any notable overthrow of Christ’s enemies, let our hearts be raised up to think of the day of judgment, which is described by similar language, as in Ps. xviii. and elsewhere: particular judgments strengthen our faith in that of the great day; and the general judgment to come assures us that Christ will now avenge his own elect, and be here avenged on his own enemies. Christ hath many great days before that great day; and wicked men and wicked causes have days of judgment here. 2ndly, How easy it is for the Lamb of God to alter the religion of a kingdom, and to make his new one prevail! In a few years the whole Roman empire was turned Christian, even when Gentilism was rooted in all men’s minds, and Satan’s throne apparently fixed for continuance; but Christ got possession of the emperor’s heart, and “turned the kingdom about,” (1 Kings ii. 15,) and that, when men of themselves were not turned, but were as figs not fully ripe, yet shaken off by the wind; and he folded up the heavens as a scroll, not a constellation of all these false deities having shined in the world these many hundred years: so will he do to Popery, which being the image of the heathen empire and religion, shall bear the like punishment. As there was a mighty change wrought in the hearts of kings and princes, upon the first reformation; so before Rome is destroyed, God will put it into their hearts a second time to ruin her utterly. 3rdly, Christ will not only confound his proud enemies, but make them acknowledge his truth, as he did Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus, &c. and as the false church and synagogue of Satan come and acknowledge, that God hath loved the Philadelphian church, Rev. iii. 9: “They shall know that I am the Lord,” is the fruit of men’s punishments; for not only “every knee shall bow,” but “every tongue shall confess to his name.” It is ill standing out with Christ in any thing, or against convictions of any kind; for men shall render his victory in their punishments more complete by their own confessions; in dispensing which

588 OBSERVATIONS ON THE SIXTH SEAL. [REV. VI. 12 — 17.

punishments, 4thly, He meets persecutors in their kind; they caused the primitive Christians to flee into caves and dens and to worship the Lamb in corners; and he with open face drives them into corners to hide their heads. Sthly, What a long and glorious time the god of this world had, when devils were specially esteemed and worshipped as true gods, for three hundred years,andmore generally for some thousands of years; and, though reserved in chains for hell, as the immortal possessors of heaven, having their seat above the stars, and all the world for their devotees! What is it then to have a great name; or even the best of names, the name of saint; if only for awhile here? 6thly, No wonder the wicked prosper so long, seeing the devil encountered no stop in his way for so many thousand years, wherein he had all nations for his inheritance; and God was worshipped but in one poor corner of the earth, while Satan possessed the heavens, as the sun in the firmament; and his priests, as the perpetual ordinances of the moon and stars. Let us not think much of the continuance of Popery for twelve hundred years; Heathenism stood for longer; and Christ will make quicker work in the last days than in the past days. 7thly, Men have all such sweet thoughts of Christ, as if he had no anger in him: but the meek lamb is also a furious lion; and “when his wrath is kindled but a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in him,” Ps. ii. 12. Sthly, God punisheth idolaters and idols together, as he removed Rome’s emperor and her religion and gods together, (see Tsa. ii. 17 — 19; Num. xxxiii. 4; Jer. xliii. 11 — 13; 1. 2;) so God punished monks, pulling down their monasteries and idols together; and so superstitious ceremonies and will-worshippers will down together. 9thly, How fearful and terrible will be the day of judgment, when Christ shall come as the Lion of Judah; if now reigning in the meekness and patience of the Lamb, he brings forth such confounding judgments! all terrors men suffer here are but “the wrath of the lamb,” compared to the roaring of the lion at that great day. “Now consider this, O ye that foi’get God, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver.” Ps. 1. 22.