mitian and Trajan, and the conquests of this laft prince. So that as this begins with An. 66, it ends with Hadrian's wars, An. 134, or with his life, An. 138.

The third feal, chap. vi. 5, 6, begins therefore with An. 138; where, under the hieroglyphick of a rider on a black horse, with a pair of balances in his hand, to weigh and measure all things exactly, is fet forth the excellent reigns of the admirable Antonines, Pius, and Philofophus. And therefore this feal runs out in the year 180.

The fourth feal, chap. vi. 7, 8, represents the Roman horfe turned pale, and the rider changed from a grave and awful judge to a murderer, fo as to be called Death, by reason of his throwing fo many into hades, or the future ftate, by immature death. Where we have a very remarkable account of the state of the Roman empire after the decease of the brave Antoninus Philofophus, under the barbarities of Commodus, the fhort-lived reigns of Pertinax and Didius Julianus, but especially under the fevere and bloody Septimius Severus, in his wars against Perfcennius Nigerius, Albinus, and others, and under his fon Caracalla; and afterwards under Macrinus, Heliogabulus, (the reign of the excellent Alexander Severus

being but a fhort breathing to the empire and the Christians) Maximinus and his fon Pupienus, Balbinus, and Gordianus, and Philippus and his fon: with whofe death I think this feal runs out in the year 250, and with the death of these Philippi, who favoured Christianity, the four evangelical living creatures (which our tranflation renders beafts most unaccountably) cease to speak openly.

The fifth feal therefore discovers the state of the Christian church to be exceedingly languishing and melancholy, as if the faints were all flain, praying and crying for vengeance against their perfecutors, while they are reprefented as lying under the altar, chap. vi. 9, IO, II. So that this period begins with Decius, the firft univerfal perfecutor of Chriftians (for all the former perfecutions under Nero, Domitian, Trajan, and the Antonines, were but provincial ones, and that of Maximinus against the minifters only), who began his reign and perfecution together in the year 250, and was feconded in it by Valerian (for the short reigns of Trebonianus Gallus and Æmilianus hardly deserve to be taken notice of in this case). Now the fouls of the martyrs are defired to reft patiently, until the confused reign of Galienus

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lienus thould run out, and the 30 tyrants that rofe in his time should be cut off, together with the short-lived Claudius Gothicus; feeing after that little interval, their brethren were alfo to fuffer ftill further under Rome pagan, viz. under Aurelian, and afterwards (when the fhort reigns of Tacitus, Probus, Carus, and Carinus fhould be over) under the cruel perfecution raised against them by Dioclefian and Maximinianus elder and younger, together with Severus and Maximinus. So that this feal ends with the conclufion of this last perfecution begun by Dioclefian, and fo expires, A. C. 306.

The fixth feal, chap. vi. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, gives us an account of God's gracious answer at length to the prayer of the flain witneffes, in the deftruction of Rome Pagan, after their cup was made full by the laft cruel perfecution. And this is defcribed as if heaven and earth were come to an end. For fo the prophets ufe to reprefent the ruin of kingdoms and monarchies, as we fee, among other places, in fer. iv. 24. Ifa. xiii. 10, and xxiv. 21, 23, and foel ii. 10. So that this feal contains the great and terrible wars of Conftantine the Great against all those laft tyrants, from the year

306, to the death of the last pagan emperor Licinius, Ann. 324.

The feventh Seal therefore, chap. viii. 1, represents the short breathing of the church and peace of the Chriftians under Conftantine, from the year 313, when he first published an edict in their favour, and particularly from the death of Licinius, Ann. 324, to his own decease in the year 337, immediately upon which the fcene alters. And then begins

The fecond feptenary of trumpets, which gives us an account of the state of the church in relation to the gradual growth and increase of her Anti-Christian enemies, though in a way alfo of judgment upon them. Which I represent to you in the following feries and order.

The first trumpet, chap. viii, 7, began a little after Conftantine's death, in the wars between his eldest and youngest fons, or at the death of the first in battle, and of the last by the ufurpation of Magnentius, which was a kind of mixed form of hail, fire, and blood. The continuance of it was in the perfecutions against the orthodox by Conftantius and Valens, with the intervention of that against all Christians by Julian the apoftate. And the conclufion of it feems to be the ufurpation of Maximus

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Maximus upon the death of Gratianus, and afterwards the death of Valentinian the second, and finally the wars and death of Theodofius. So that it began with the year 339, and ended An. 395.

The fecond trumpet, chap. viii. 8, 9, represents a great kingdom, under the emblem of a mountain (fee Jer. li. 23.) burning with fire, (i. e. in a cruel and fierce manner) and thrown into the midst of the body politic or empire of Rome, reprefented by the fea; (fee chap. xviii. 15.) by which the third part of it became blood. By which we are unquestionably to understand the irruption of the barbarous nations of the Vandals and Goths into the Roman dominions. This began about the death of Theodofius, and made a formidable progress An. 405, in the days of Arcadius and Honorius, by Radagifus, and afterwards Alaricus, who took Rome, Ann. 410. And it was continued during the inroads of Athaulphus the Goth (who pillaged the great city, Ann. 414), and of Genfericus the Vandal, and of Attila the Hun, into Italy and other Roman provinces, which they and others about that time wafted miferably to the year 455, and afterwards to the year 476.

The