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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

62 ELLIOTT (Rev. E. B.). Hoe^e Apocalyptic^ ; or a Commen
tary on the Apocalypse, Critical and Historical ; including also an
Examination of the chief Prophecies of Daniel, etc. Illustrated by
an Apocalyptic Chart, and Engravings from Medals and other extant
Monuments of Antiquity . Fourth Edition. 4 vols. 8vo, half calf.
_. T,nn,^r, 1R51_ . $18 00

HORiE APOCALYPTIC jE.

HOR^ APOCALYPTIC^; OR,
A COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE,
CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL ;
INCLUDING ALSO AN EXAMINATION OF
THE CHIEF PROPHECIES OF DANIEL.
ILLUSTRATED BY AN APOCALYPTIC CHART, AND ENGRAVINGS
FROM MEDALS AND OTHER EXTANT MONUMENTS
OF ANTIQUITY.
WITH APPENDICES ;
CONTAINING, BESIDES OTHER MATTER,
A SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF APOCALYPTIC INTERPRETATION, CRITICAL REVIEWS
OF THE CHIEF APOCALYPTIC COUNTER-SCHEMES, AND INDICES.

BY THE REV. E. B. ELLIOTT, A. M.
I.ATE VICAR OF TUXFORD, AND FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

FOUKTH EDITION,
CAREFULLY REVISED, CURr.E^T^D, ENLARGED, AND IMPROVED THROUGHOUT;
AND WITH MANY ADDITIONAL PLATES.

VOL. I.

%wkp.

FLEET STREET, and HANOVER STREET,
LONDON. MDCCCLI.

Mb ntirif»ty LTbrsry
... . n. Conn.

" Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those
things which are written therein : for the time is at hand." Apoc. i. 3.
" The word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth
in a dark place, until the day dawn." 2 Peter i. 19

uirO Sevley,
Timing /;;//,.

PREFACE TO THE EOURTH EDITION.

The Work of which the 4th Edition is now presented to
the Public was begun in the autumn of the year 1837.
Its 1st Edition was published in January 1844 ; the 2nd
in May 1846 ; the 3rd in April or May 1847. In the
present Preface I retain whatever it seems to me useful
or desirable to retain from the several Prefaces to those
three several Editions.
Of the origin, progress, and general character of the
Work an account was given in the 1 st Preface, as follows.
At the time when the Author's thoughts were first
seriously directed to the study of Prophecy, the Rev. S.
R. Maitland's publications had begun to make an evident
impression on English theological students, more espe
cially such as were investigators of prophecy ; and had
caused doubt in the minds of many, not only as to the
correctness of the old Protestant anti- Romish views of
the Apocalypse, and of the prophetic year-day theory
therewith essentially connected, but doubt whether the
Apocalypse had as yet received any fulfilment in the past
history of the Church and Christendom. The circum
stance of a Periodical on prophetic subjects, called The
jv Investigator, having been started about this time by a
55- near neighbour and intimate and valued friend, the Rev.
^ J. W. Brooks, then Vicar of Clarborough, near Retford,
now Vicar of St. Mary's Nottingham, and of his wishing
the Author to contribute Papers to it, rendered it neces
sary that he should acquaint himself with the contro-

VI PREFACE.
versy, and form some decision of judgment as to the
correctness or incorrectness of Mr. now Dr. S. R. Mait
land's theory. And the result of his inquiries was of a
twofold character. On the one hand the untenableness
of many statements and opinions of Apocalyptic Inter
preters of the Protestant School, such as Dr. M. had
exposed, appeared palpable. On the other hand the
general truth of their view of the Apocalyptic prophe
cies concerning Babylon and the seven-headed Beast, as
having fulfilment in Papal Rome and the Popedom, ap
peared to him equally indubitable ; and consequently
that any theory of the prophecy which repudiated all
idea of such fulfilment could not be true. His convic
tion to this effect was confirmed by consideration of the
obvious and very striking chronological intimation given
to St. John at the outset of the visions, (Apoc. iv. 1,)
" Come up, and I will shew thee what must happen after
these things;'' i. e. after the state of things previously
depicted as then existing, in the Epistles to the Seven
Churches of Asia. For it seemed to him that it would
have been almost a direct violation of this intimation,
(as well as a departure from all the precedents in Daniel,)
had the prefigurations thereupon given represented no
events of earlier occurrence than such as were to happen
in a distant, futurity of at least 1800 years after St. John ;
indeed none earlier (according to Dr. Maitland) than the
very eve of Christ's second Advent.
Under this impression he could not but feel persuaded
that there must have taken place in reality, although
apparently up to that time undiscovered, some more
exact fulfilment, in accordance with the year-day prin
ciple, of those several Apocalyptic prophecies against the
Protestant interpretations of which, previously offered,
exception had justly been made: more especially of those
of the Seals, of the Vision of the rainbow-crowned Angel
of Apoc. x, of the Witnesses' Death and Resurrection, of
the seventh Head of the seven-headed Beast, of the Beast's
Image, and in fine of the structure of the Apocalypse itself.
— It so happened that after a while he had occasion to
direct his careful attention to one of those prophecies,

PREFACE. VII
viz. that of the Witnesses' Death and Resurrection, which
both by reason of its own varied details, and from its inti
mate and necessary connexion alike with the figurations
that precede and that follow it, appeared almost more
than any other to involve in its solution the true prin
ciples of Apocalyptic interpretation ; and that he found
in history what seemed to him to be precisely the expla
nation that had been wanted : — an explanation which he
thereupon published in the Investigator, and which
was afterwards substantially adopted by Mr. Birks and
Mr. Bickersteth. By this discovery, as he supposed it,
and another that some time afterwards followed, of what
appeared to him the true meaning of the [mage of the
Beast, he was confirmed in his belief and hope, that
through careful investigation the right solution of other
more obscure points might be discovered also. But it
was evident that for such investigation prolonged and
careful researches were necessary ; researches such as he
had neither time nor facilities for in a village retirement,
and amidst the avocations of a parochial ministry.
Soon after this however, in the year 1837, he was pro
videntially called, in consequence of the dangerous illness
of one most nearly allied to him in domestic life, to quit
his Living in Nottinghamshire for a warmer climate.
Thus the leisure and opportunity for research that he
had needed were brought unexpectedly within his reach :
and the strongly-urged request of his excellent friend
Mr. Bickersteth concurred with the previous inclina
tion of his own mind, in deciding him to apply himself
seriously to the work.
In prosecuting this, the difficulty of the Seals met him
at the outset. For the most careful re-consideration of
the subject only confirmed him in his conviction of the
utter untenableness of the several solutions of them
offered by the best-known Protestant Expositors : alike
that by Mr. Faber on one theory of Apocalyptic struc
ture, that by Messrs. Woodhouse Cuninghame and
Bickersteth on another, and (in so far as regarded the
three earlier Seals) that by Mede and Bishop Newton
also, on yet a third. Thus he felt himself positively

Vlll PREFACE.
compelled, on this introductory part of the prophecy, to
seek a truer solution. And in commencing his researches
after it, there were two preliminary presumptions on
which he judged that he might safely proceed. The one
presumption was that, supposing the fortunes of the
Roman World and Christendom, from St. John's time
down to the consummation, to have been the subjects
of Apocalyptic figuration, the seras successively chosen
by the Divine Spirit for delineation must have been the
most important and eventful in the history of Christen
dom : — the other, that the emblems introduced into and
constituting each successive prefigurative picture, must
have been emblems in every case suitable to the sera and
subject, and in considerable measure characteristic and
distinctive. Were the problem proposed to any student
or artist of competent attainments to depict a nation's
history in a series of pictures, what should we think of
him were he to select other than its most important seras
for delineation ? What if, in the delineations themselves,
he were to introduce emblems or costumes inappropriate
to the sera ; or so to generalize in them that the pictures
might equally well refer to twenty other seras and sub
jects, as to those intended ? And if, with reference to
any superior human artist, such a handling of the subject
would be deemed discreditable, insomuch as a priori
scarce to be believed of him, — how much rather should
the idea be rejected as incredible, of the Divine Spirit
having so handled the subjects of the Apocalyptic pro
phecy ! — Proceeding on these principles and persuasions,
light soon began to dawn on the Author's mind, as he
prosecuted his researches into the pictures of the earlier
Apocalyptic Seals : and, as he still went on somewhat
laboriously, to complete what seemed wanting in order
to a more perfect understanding on the subject, the twi
light gradually brightened into day.
Thus far the investigation had been almost purely
literary in its character. And it was the Author's
original intention to have confined himself to these
and other such-like literary subjects of investigation ;
omitting others that might be rather of a theological

PREFACE. IX
nature : especially if involving controverted questions ;
those only excepted which concern the grand differences
between Protestantism and Popery. On this plan the
Work would have been a series of Essays, in illustration
of such of the obscurer parts of the Apocalypse as the
Author, by critical historical or antiquarian research,
might deem that he had been enabled to unravel ; and
in extent one within the limits of a single Volume. But,
as he proceeded, he found that the several parts of the
sacred Book were so intimately connected together, that
however successfully he might have explained certain
detached passages of importance, he would almost cer
tainly fail of working any thorough conviction of the
truth of his explanations, in the minds of his more accu
rate and cautious readers ; because of the conclusions
thereon involving conclusions also on other closely con
nected passages, the correctness of which, prior to proof,
they might by no means be prepared to admit. More
over, as he seemed to himself to have perceived in some
of those self-same more directly theological parts of the
prophecy a meaning quite different from any that had
before been supposed to attach to them, — and this in
matters of no slight importance, — it became a serious
question with him whether he would be justified in
shrinking back, through fear of controversy, from de
claring what he believed, on apparently clear evidence,
to be the revealed truth of God. Nor was this voice
of conscience one which he dared resist.
Thus the Work became not only materially different
from what he had first intended, and very much extended
beyond the limits originally proposed, but one also to
which, from the circumstance of its involving questions of
theology as well as literature, he could not but feel that a
vastly increased amount of responsibility attached. And
certainly he may say that he carried this sense of respon
sibility into the execution of the Work : not grudging
time or trouble in seeking out the true meaning of each
part of the prophecy ; and carefully watching lest any
wrong prejudice or pre-possession should warp his judg
ment concerning it. It was his habit always in the first

PREFACE.

instance to consider the simple grammatical meaning of
the prophetic passage, comparing Scripture with Scrip
ture ; then to consult the most authentic histories to
which he might have access of the period supposed to
be alluded to, and, where necessary, works of anti
quarian illustration. This done, and his own independent
judgment formed thereon, his next step generally was to
refer to the most approved and elaborate Commentators
on the subject, more especially those of different views
from his own ; and to weigh their arguments, ere coming
to any final conclusion. One thing, he may say with
Pascal, was in the execution of the Work ever and above
all things his object ; — that was, the discovery of the
TRUTH. Conscious of the worthlessness of any unsubstantiated
dictum or opinion of his own, it was his conclusion, in
order to the Reader's better satisfaction, to submit the evi
dence with somewhat more than usual fulness, on which in
each case that opinion might have been grounded. Hence
the Notes, which in large part contain it, swelled at times
to an extent for the most part undesirable. But the
Apocalyptic subject is one altogether peculiar; — being
at once so important, so difficult, and so controverted.
Consequently he has no fear of this being made a matter
of complaint by any of the more judicious and intelligent
of his readers ; but the contrary. — And there is yet
another point in which he thought it right to enlarge,
beyond what may by some persons be deemed the proper
limits of prophetic exposition ; viz. in the political and
historic sketches which he has here and there introduced :
sketches drawn up however as briefly as might consist
with their proper distinctness and comprehensiveness ;
and only introduced in order to fill up the historical
lacunas, which in certain cases might seem to exist
between consecutive Apocalyptic figurations; so as,
conjointly with them, to make up altogether a general
connected view of the history of European Christendom,
alike political and ecclesiastical. No doubt, in the case
of a reader thoroughly conversant with history, this may
have been superfluous. But a conversancv like this can

PREFACE. XI
scarcely be expected in the majority of readers. And of
those who possess it not, it is but few, he is persuaded,
that would have either time or inclination to turn to his
torians or other writers, simply named in Notes of refer
ence, for the requisite information or authority. In
which case they would necessarily be at a disadvantage
in judging of the whole subject. For, as the Spirit of
Omniscience made choice of each particular aera of his
tory for prefiguration, and planned the fittest mode of
figuring them severally, while contemplating in its com
prehensive glance the then whole future as one great
present, — so they alone can be expected at all adequately
to appreciate the justness of this its selection of seras,
or the truth of its prophetic pictures, who may in a
general way have become tolerably well informed on the
main history.
The Engravings given from medals of the age supposed
in any case to be prefigured, or from other coeval mo
numents, will, the Author doubts not, be universally
valued and approved as alike interesting and illustra
tive. It is indeed a kind of evidence unimpeachable,
supposing the medals authentic ; and as hard to be for
gotten as it is convincing. An Apocalyptic Chart too
has been appended, which will bring the whole scheme
of his Exposition under review at a glance. And he
ventures to hope that the plan of Apocalyptic structure
thus exhibited to the eye will, from its obvious simplicity
and completeness, as well as from its perfect agreement
with St. John's primary description of the Scroll that it
develops, as " written within and without," presumptively
commend itself for truth to the mind of the Reader : — the
rather if compared with other Apocalyptic schemes of
structure, that have been similarly drawn out on a Chart ;
as for example Mede s, Vitringa's, Cuninghame's. With
regard to the various mundane systems that have from
time to time been imagined, the simplicity of the Coper-
nican, as compared with the complexity of others, has
been justly deemed of itself a presumptive argument of
no small force in its favour. The same rule of judgment
may apply, the Author thinks, in the present instance.

Xll PREFACE.
Simplicity and completeness are ever characteristics of
the works of God.
The work was thus set forth, it will be seen, as through
out one that might be deemed original ; more especially
on the points already specified, as those which seemed
to the Author most to need further light.1 At the same
time his obligations were exprest, as was due, to pre
vious writers on prophecy, even such as he might most
differ from : alike for the collateral information furnished
by them ; the hints for thought ; and warnings too of
the rocks and shallows on which, unless careful, he might
be stranded, like others before him. — There was added a
statement of his own personal conviction that the proof
would on main points be found satisfactory : his appeal
being made to common sense and sound learning ; with
both which his conviction was exprest that God's word
would here, as elsewhere, be ever found accordant. And
there was also exprest his opinion that, if the work should
stand their scrutinizings, its importance could scarcely be
overrated : — seeing that, in such case, it would not only
furnish new and striking evidence to the world of the
truth of Scripture prophecy, and consequently of the
divine inspiration of Scripture, a point in itself of no
little moment ; but moreover, by unfolding the history
of the Church Visible and of Christendom, from St.
John's time to the present, as prefigured to the Evange
list in Patmos, would exhibit that history to the reader
as it were with God's own continuous comment on it,
his moral lessons intermixed, his philosophy of the his
tory : insomuch that, connected with past history as the
present needs must be, there would be few of the stirring
topics of religious controversy of the present day but
would here be found to have the Divine judgment pro
nounced respecting them. Besides that, if it should prove
to be a correcter exposition than any previous prophetic
1 Viz. tlie three first Seals, the sealing and palm -bearing visions, the vision of
the rainbow -crowned Angel, with its included notification on the death and resur
rection of the two Witnesses, in Apoc. x, ri, the Beast's seventh Head, the Image
of the Beast, and finally the Apocalyptic structure i itself, and St. John's representative
part, as acted out on the scene of vision.

PREFACE. Xlll
commentaries on the past, the Book might reasonably be
expected to reflect some measure of fresh light on the
mysteries of the coming future : considering that, in
order to any rational conjecturing as to the intent of
unfulfilled prophecy, a previous correct understanding of
that which has been already fulfilled must needs be an im
portant help, if not an almost indispensable preliminary.

Such was the account given in its primary Preface of
the origin, execution, and general character of the Work
now before the Reader. It was received by the Public
generally with much favour. The 1st Edition was sold
off in the course of a few months ; the 2nd and 3rd still
more rapidly. Various testimonies of approbation, and
of an impression moreover of the general truth of its
Apocalyptic exposition, were given in Reviews and other
notices publicly ; many more in private communications
to the Author : and this not by members of his own
Church only, but by members of other bodies of ortho
dox Protestant Christians ; nor from England, Scotland,
and Ireland only, but, in course of time, from Switzer
land too, and India, and Australia, and the United States
of America. Perhaps he may be permitted to specify a
few to whose warm and kindly approbation he feels
specially indebted. Of these some are already num
bered with the dead : (how is he reminded by it that
the fashion of this world passeth away : ) among them
Dr. Chalmers,1 and the late Vice- Chancellor of Eng
land Sir Lancelot Shadwell. Of those who, thank
God, are still living, he has the gratification to mention
the Bishop of Winchester, the early and kind friend of
his work ; the venerable Bishop of Calcutta ; and him
whom, in token surely of favour in these critical times
to our Church and Country, God's providence has within
the last four years raised to the Primacy, the present
beloved and revered Archbishop of Canterbury. Nor can
he pass over without grateful acknowledgment the testi-
1 In a Letter written not very long before his death Dr. C exprest to me in very
strong terms his interest in, and general approbation of, the Horse.

XIV PREFACE.
mony as influentially as generously given in favour of
his work by Sir James Stephen, the present eminent and
eloquent Professor of Modern History in the University
of Cambridge.
From encouragements like these he was soon called to
enter on a series of battlings with adversaries more or
less decided against his Apocalyptic views. This was to
be expected, in case of his work in any measure making
impression on the public mind : and indeed to be desired,
as well as expected ; for how else was the truth of what
was new in his Book to be properly tested ? — First
appeared the name of the Rev. T. Kirchever Arnold, in a
Pamphlet against the Horae : (this was shortly before
the publication of my 2nd Edition :) then, soon after its
publication, the Rev. W. G. Barker of Matlock : then, in
a spirit of no little virulence, the Treatise of Dr. Keith :
besides other less large and elaborate criticisms in Peri
odicals. Replies duly followed : — to Mr. Arnold in a
Pamphlet like his own ; and then, as he transferred the
arena of combat to the British Magazine, in a series of
some 10 or 12 Letters of reply in that Periodical: to
Mr. Barker, less fully, in Letters in the Churchman's
Monthly Review : to Dr. Keith (after the Author's return
to England in 1848 from a prolonged absence abroad)
very fully and elaborately in a Book entitled " Vindicise
Horarise" — He had further meanwhile been called to en
gage also in a friendly controversy with Dr. Candlish. But
this had more to do with questions of Church rule than
of Apocalyptic interpretation. And a discussion was
also just opened on the Millennial question with Mr.
Brown of Glasgow. But it was only opened, not con
tinued. An allusion will again be made to this ere the
close of my Preface.
It was immediately after the publication of his Reply
to Dr. Keith, near the close of the year 1848, that the
Author received an invitation from his respectable Pub
lishers to prepare a 4th Edition of the HorEe. It was
a matter of thankfulness to him to receive this invitation :
imprest as he was more strongly than ever with a sense
of the importance and interest of its subject ; and feeling

PREFACE. XV

of course, after all his controversies, so much better able
to do justice to it than before. He at once determined
that the new Edition should be no mere reprint of the
3rd Edition, with the insertion in an Appendix of such
addenda and corrigenda as had suggested themselves
during his various controversies : but that he would sub
ject the whole work to an elaborate revision, with the
advantage of whatever fresh light he might have derived
from the criticisms of his opponents, or his own latest
researches : verifying anew all the authorities cited,
except in the comparatively few cases where the books
of reference might not be accessible to him ; correcting
what might seem really to need correction ; and in other
cases, as should be required, amending, enlarging, con
firming : there being incorporated into the new text and
body of the work whatever might improve it ; and nothing
placed in the Appendix but that for which a detached
position seemed most suitable. This determination he has
now, thank God, carried into effect. It has necessarily
cost him much time, as well as much labor. He has
been occupied above two years in it. But he has the
satisfaction of thinking that it has not been time mispent.
In now re-offering his work to the Public, he presents it
in what may be considered its final form. And he trusts
it will be found as readable as the former Editions, though
enlarged to the extent of some 300 pages : with correc
tions wherever a candid and intelligent reader might
fairly before have deemed corrections required ; and with
fresh and satisfactory evidence, wherever such a reader
might fairly have deemed it wanting.
Let him specify, before proceeding further, the few
chief changes in points of interpretation made in the
successive revisions of my work, from what was origin
ally given in the 1st Edition of the Horas. — 1st, then, in
the 2nd Seal there is the explanation of the rider of the
red horse as figuring the military rulers of the Roman
empire generally, instead of the Prcetorian military Pre
fects restrictedly : an alteration this wrhich he early saw
to be required, alike by the nature of the symbol and by
the facts of the history to which it was referred, as was

XVI PREFACE.
stated in the Preface to my 2nd Edition. — 2ndly, and in
the 3rd Seal, there is the explanation of the chcenix spoken
of as the usual Attic chcenix, instead of the larger and
more uncommon chcenix noticed by Galen and Priscian.
This alteration was made in the 3rd Edition, and it arose
out of a discovery that was to the Author's own mind of
peculiar interest. For, being from the first strongly
persuaded that the price of the chcenix of wheat, i. e. a
denarius, specified by the voice from the throne, was the
fair average price of wheat in the Roman empire some
where about the time of Alexander Severus, he had early
and carefully sought to make out the accordance of the
one with the other on the hypothesis of the Attic chce
nix being meant in the Apocalyptic vision ; but failed,
the Apocalyptic price specified seeming too'high. Where
upon, the grounds of his reference of the Seal to that
sera of Alexander Severus still appearing unimpeachable,
he fell back on the hypothesis of the larger and more un
usual chcenix being meant ; and so explained the clause
in his two first Editions. The circumstance however of its
being unusual, and therefore reference to it unlikely in
the Apocalyptic Book, was not unfairly urged against
the solution once and again by Mr. Arnold. And when
engaged in replying to him on the subject in the British
Magazine, a fact opened on the Author's view which had
before altogether escaped him, and which did away with
all need of resorting to an uncommon chcenix. He
found that there had been a depreciation in the value of the
denarius in the sera referred to, from the adulteration of
the imperial silver coinage ; — a depreciation definite, and
well known to medallists. And, taking this depreciation
into account, it appeared that the denarius would express,
as near as might be, about the average price of an Attic
chcenix of wheat under Alexander Severus. — 3. In the
4th Seal he has in the present Edition, after much con
sideration, and for reasons fully given in the Exposition,
adopted Jerom's reading of" the four parts of the earth,"
instead of " the fourth ; " with which reading the prophecy
becomes consistent with itself; and the accordance of the
prophecy and history is found to be striking. — 4. The

PREFACE. XV11
reference of " the half -hour s silence in heaven," after the
opening of the 7th Seal, to the holding of the winds pre
vious to that opening is abandoned, as clearly inadmissi
ble. — 5. Under the Trumpets there is, I believe, no change
of interpretation : save only that in the vision of the
rainbow-crowned Angel's descent in Apoc. x, a vision
which constitutes an interlude in the 6th Trumpet, the
translation of on yjiovog ovk en earou, after some of my pre
decessors, as " time shall not yet be," is given up as not
warranted by the original. In its literal rendering the
phrase will be found easily referable to the sera and sub
ject to which I apply it ; i. e. as pointed and limited in
its sense by the context. — 6. In the vision of the woman-
ridden Beast what is said in Apoc. xvii. 16 of the ten
horns tearing and desolating her is now explained, with
reference to the distant past, of what the ten Gothic
powers did to imperial Rome in the 5th and 6th centu
ries ; not, as in the three former Editions, with reference
to modern and in part yet future times, of a desolation of
Papal Rome begun by the powers of Western Christen
dom at the great French Revolution, and hereafter by
the same powers to be completed. A change of view this
which will be found fully warranted bythe large chronolo
gical scope of the Angel's explanation ; and which simply
and consistently expounds what before seemed hardly con
sistent with certain other statements in the prophecy,
about the Papal Beast and its assistant kings, just before
the consummation. — 7. On the prophecy of Dan. xi there
is proposed, not without considerable confidence, a new
explanation of " the god which his fathers knew not,"
whom the king of the great predicted apostacy, it was
said, would "glorify with gold and silver and precious
stones : " ' one which, if I mistake not, will be found
well to answer to all the prophetic conditions ; and well
to confirm the usual reference made of the passage by
Protestant expositors to the Papacy. — 8. The alternative
solution formerly hinted on the difficult subject of the
1 See the illustrative Plate at p. 167 of my 3rd Volume ; also Vol. iv. 94. If
my readers wish a further illustration of what I refer to, they may see a striking one
on visiting Spain in the great Exhibition.
VOL. I. h

XV111 PREFACE.
glassy sea, by which the harpers stood, in Apoc. xv is now
preferred. — 9. Yet once more, on the great millennary
subject it is given as the Author's present impression
that the vision of the great white throne in Apoc. xx. 1 1 is
meant to synchronize with, not to follow after, that of
the thrones of the martyrs in Apoc. xx. 4.
So, as regards the chief changes and corrections of in
terpretation, from what appeared in the 1st Edition of the
Horse. With regard to the chief additions made in the
subsequent Editions, he may specify, 1st, the very im
portant addenda in the 2nd Edition of a Sketch of the
History of Apocalyptic Interpretation, and of certain cri
tiques on the chief Apocalyptic counter-schemes : 2ndly,
and as regards the present or 4th Edition, that of the
fuller historical illustrations in the body of his work, and
fuller arguments, on the two great subjects of the four pri
mary Seals and the Witnesses ; also, in the Appendices,
that of an enlargement of the Sketch of Apocalyptic In
terpretation, and introduction of several fresh critical
Papers, whether on other counter-schemes, on objections
made against his own scheme, or on the important sub
ject of his medallic illustrations. — Perhaps, with reference
to what has been added of critical and historical matter
about the Witnesses, it may be permitted him to direct
particular attention to his Papers, as now finally drawn
out, on the Paulikians and the Waldenses. If he mis
takes not, it will be found that his sketches both of the
one and the other of those most interesting bodies of
Christians are in the present Edition more exactly and
critically drawn out and argued than by previous writers.
On the Paulikians his reply to Gieseler's theory will
claim special notice.1 As regards the Waldenses it was
his privilege, ere leaving Italy in the summer of 1848, to
pay a passing visit to their vallies in Piedmont ; — vallies
so intimately associated in the mind with the history of
the middle-age witness for Christ. And while he had
the high gratification thus given him of seeing with
his own eyes the local scene of the sackcloth-robed wit
nessing for Christ, which there once had been, and local
1 The rather as not Mr. K. Arnold only, but even Neander, has been misled by it.

PREFACE. XIX
scene too of the modern evangelic revival of the Valdensic
witness-Church, very much through the Christian benevo
lence and exertions of its devoted friends Dr. Gilly and
General Beckwith, he had also the opportunity of inspect
ing and copying a document in the neighbouring Chateau
of the Counts of Lucerna, hitherto unnoticed in the Wal-
densic controversy,1 which will be found, he believes,
to reflect some fresh light on that controverted subject.2
— Among smaller addenda, which appear to himself of no
little interest and importance, he may specify in particu
lar the curious illustration from Turkish history of the
intended continuous sense of the hour day month and year
of the 6th Trumpet: — the Turkish Sultan's own contem
porary evidence on the fit application of what is said in
Apoc. ix. 20 about " worshipping dcemons, and idols of
gold and silver and brass and wood, the works of their own
hands," to the men of Papal Christendom at the close of
the xvth century, just between the fall of Constantinople
and the Reformation : — the fresh illustrative evidence
in proof of the reference of the Apocalyptic seven thun
ders to Papal Rome ; and fresh illustrations also of the
reason of the great Papal city's pointed designation, with
reference to times just before the Reformation, as that
" which was spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, and
scene too where Christ, the witnesses' Lord, had been cruci
fied : " — further the new and striking evidence from Am
brose as to the meaning of the sun-clothed Woman's man-
child in Apoc. xii, that was caught up after birth to God's
throne ; 3 and fresh illustrations, finally, about either
Beast in Apoc. xiii. — Many fresh Plates are added.
1 I do not think it is alluded to even by Muratori.
2 My argument has also profited in this Edition from the deeply interesting publi
cation of the early Valdensic translation of St. John, lately edited by Dr. Gilly.
3 Let me take this opportunity of expressing my best thanks to the Rev. Mr.
Biley, British Chaplain at Tours, for his interesting and valuable Work on the Vision
of the 12th Apocalyptic Chapter. The passage I refer to as in Ambrose prevents
me from adopting Mr. B.'s view of the man-child, which otherwise could not but
have seemed to have much of plausibility in its favour. However, I have felt it right
to state it as aD alternative. I have moreover on various points in my Chapters
on Apoc. xii enriched my pages from his Book ; and the same too in that on the ten
horns. His suggestions on other points, privately communicated to me, also claim
my acknowledgments : and the permission to make use of his Plate of the diademed
horns, given in my 3rd Volume, p. 132. Mr. Biley's Book has more in it of research
and original thought than any other book that has originated out of the reading of
the Horse ; and will well repay perusal. b 2

XX PREFACE.
Thus much premised, and my Work in its present
improved and final form having been thus introduced
to the reader's notice, it is now the time for me to pro
ceed to such remarks as may seem useful in this Pre
face : — remarks originating for the most part out of the
criticisms and controversies connected with the Horae ;
and having reference indirectly, if not directly, to them.
They may be fitly ranged perhaps under three heads :—
1 st on the nature and strength of the evidence of truth
in this Apocalyptic exposition ; 2ndly on the doctrine ex
prest in it on one or two grand controverted topics with
which the prophecy is essentially connected ; 3rdly on
our present state and future prospects, as set forth, accord
ing to it, in the Apocalyptic prophecy.
I. The Question of Evidence.
And here, before reference to the direct evidence of
truth that attaches to the " Horee," let it be permitted
me to suggest (albeit anticipatorily of its more proper
place in the body of my Book) how the two chief coun
ter-schemes to a continuously historical exposition, viz. that
of the Prasterists and that of the Futurists, are alike by a
priori and a posteriori proof excluded. — I seem called to do
this by the fact of a charge of the petitio principii having
been made against me, grounded on my omission of it at
my Book's commencement in the previous Editions.
Presuming then, what few doubtless of my readers will
hesitate to admit, that the Apocalypse is a divinely in
spired book, (and let it be observed that the rationalistic
German School has here, however unintentionally, done
good service,)1 what, even a priori, might we reasonably
1 When in the latter half of the 18th century sundry German neologists, as Oeder,
Semler, Corrodi, had virulently attacked the book as a work wild, extravagant, and
destitute of all literary merit, then Herder rose up, among others, to vindicate it, on
purely literary and sesthetic grounds; and with such success that few are now found
in the German schools to dispute its claims, as a composition of surpassing beauty
and genius. Which admitted, the question arises whence can that fire have been
lighted, so equal and similar to that of the sublimest of the ancient Hebrew pro
phets ? Surely from none but the same heavenly source.
A recognition of this, and a consequent " standing in awe " of the book, as of that
which is God's own inspired word, will, if the Author of the Horse mistake not, be
found an admirable preparative for a right understanding of it ; as also for a right
judgment on the evidence of any Commentary which professes to explain it.
The evidence external and internal to the apostle John's authorship of the Apo
calypse, and consequently its inspiration, is somewhat fully given in my Introduction.

PREFACE. XXI
expect to find in it ; professing as it does to be a pro
phecy of things to come, and in its last and closing
sketches reaching evidently to the consummation ? Can
we, with the German Preeterists, even were there to be
granted them a Neronic date before Jerusalem's destruc
tion for the writing of the Apocalypse, (which with the
evidence extant there cannot,1) believe that, with all its
pretensions as a prophecy, it was for the first half little
more than a poetic expansion of Christ's famous original
prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, and for the
second half a poetic representation of the fall of Nero :
the prophecy after that passing, without aught of other
prediction intervening, into the concluding sketch of
millennial times and the consummation ? Surely such a
mighty unrepresented vacuum as this supposes, in a
divine prophecy of the future not only full and orderly,
but also apparently continuous without gap to the end,
seems even a priori most unlikely. And the same of the
other great counter- Apocalyptic Scheme, that of the Fu
turists ; which agrees thus far with the Prseterists, in
making the 1800 years from St. John to the consumma
tion to be a prophetically unrepresented gap and vacuum.
— I cannot but think that, as reason itself might a priori
lead us to expect some prophetic revelation from that
Infinite One in whom we live and move and have our
being, alike as evidence of his own glorious attribute of
omniscience, and as called for by the deep yearnings of
man after a knowledge of the destinies of this our world
and of the Church,2 so, in the case of a revelation like
this of the future being given from God, to suppose that
it overleaps the 1700 or 1800 eventful years that have
past since then, and rushes over them to the consum
mation, must seem to reason, even prior to looking fur
ther, strange and hard to believe. — Much more does the
thing seem incredible when confronted with God's de-
1 The evidence on this important point will also be found fully drawn out in my
Introduction, and in a supplemental Paper in the Appendix to this Volume. I am
glad to see that one of the latest German writers on the Apocalypse, a writer justly
respected, I mean Hengstenberg, admits the Domitianic date, as Eichhorn before him.
2 On this subject of the h priori probability of prophetic revelation from God
there will be found some valuable observations in Mr. Davison's Book on Prophecy.

XX11 PREFACE.

clared purpose of "doing nothing [i.e. nothing of im
portance as affecting the Church] without revealing it to
his servants the prophets ;" '—with the precedents of the
two most similarly framed orderly prophecies of the Old
Testament, those in Dan. ii and vii ; — and with that
perpetually illustrated general law of Old Testament
prophetic revelation, of giving at each successive epoch
fuller details continually of the progress of things in
God's grand and gradually self-unfolding scheme of Pro
vidence ; somewhat as, by a law of optics, what appears
before the traveller in his onward path is presented to
his eye in fuller landscape-details continually, and more
distinct vision, as he advances from one stage to another
in his journey.
Besides which a priori improbabilities these counter-
schemes are each and either alike markedly rejected by the
statements and figures of the Apocalypse itself. For,
reserving my fuller argument on the subject for the
Commentary itself,2 let me here exemplify, in but two
things. First, whereas it is all but essential to them
to construe the four first Seals as figuring the gospel-
preaching, wars, famines, and pestilences that were pre
dicted in Christ's prophecy on Mount Olivet, (whether
to come before the destruction of Jerusalem, as say the
Prseterists, or before Christ's personal coming, as say
the Futurists,) the 3rd Seal rises up against them with
its three chwnixes (51b) of barley for a denarius, (=7|d,
or a man's daily wage in the time of St. John,) and its
abundance of wine and oil: a representation of things
which might rather be supposed to figure moderate
plenty, than famine ; and which, together with the 3rd
Seal, strikes their other Seals also to the ground. —
Secondly, whereas it is essential both to the one and to
the other to construe what is said about the Israelitish
tribes, and the holy city, and the temple, distinctively of
1 Amos iii. 7.
2 See Vol. iv. App. P. ii. § 3 ; also (specially on the 6th Seal) Vol. i. App. No. vi.
— Their exclusion by the pure force of the Apocalyptic symbols and statements is the
more remarkable, because of both one and the other of these schemes shunning all
testing as much as possible : the one by resolving what seems prefiguration of fact in
great degree into the mere drapery of poetry ; the other by reference to any ima
ginable possibilities of an untried future.

PREFACE. XX111
the literal Jews, literal Jerusalem, and literal Jewish tem
ple, whether with reference to times past, before Jerusa
lem's destruction by Titus, so as the Prseterists would
have it, or to times yet future, so as the Futurists suppose,
when Jerusalem and its temple, having been restored,
may again be standing, — there rises against them, in the
forefront of the Apocalypse, the fact of the Philadelphian
Gentile Christians being noted as citizens of the New
Jerusalem which descendeth from God out of heaven ;
while yet that city's citizens are at the close of the
Apocalypse expressly designated under the figure of the
twelve several tribes of Israel: (so identifying the true
Apocalyptic tribes of Israel with all true Christians of the
present Gentile dispensation :) besides that the incense-
offerers in the temple of Apoc. viii. 3 are defined as all
the saints ; meaning, inclusively at least, as both Prseter
ists and Futurists admit, Gentile Christians : 1 whence the
induction that the Apocalyptic temple, in respect of its
court where the altar was, and where the incense was
given, was meant to figure the worshipping place of Gen
tile Christians ,- not the literal temple at Jerusalem.2
Thus in fine, and from these concurrent very obvious
prehminary considerations, I submit to the reader
whether, in expounding the Apocalypse, we are not all
but shut in to some continuous historical interpretation of
it. And surely I might well add the suggestion also,
whether this general notion of the nature and object of
the prophecy be not far grander than that imagined in
either of the counter-schemes alluded to, and more
worthy of its divine Author. To my own mind it seems
so, quite beyond comparison.3
1 The incense is the prayers of persecuted Christians, says the Prceterist M. Stuart.
And Dr. Todd, the Futurist, expounds it of the prayers of the universal Christian
Church. — There is one Futurist expositor who would carry the Jewish scheme
thoroughly out : making all the saints to be mere Jews ; and even the Philadelphian
and other Asiatic Churches, to whom St. John addrest his Apocalypse to be Jews yet
to come ! ! But his brother Futurists are very shy of the Scheme, and call it extreme.
2 The same of course as regards the temple that was to be measured in Apoc. xi. 1. —
An attempt has been made indeed by some expositors of either school to suppose two
Apocalyptic temples ; the one Jewish-like, above, and which is to be construed in a
figurative or Christian sense ; the other really Jewish, below, and which is to be
construed literally of the literal temple at Jerusalem. But this is all pure fancy ; and
without a particle of support from the Apocalypse itself, which throughout speaks
of the temple and the altar, as all along one and the same. See my Vol. ii. p. 550.
3 I make this remark because, among the many strange things said about pro-

XXIV PREFACE.
As to the particular historical exposition in the
" Horse," and the evidence of truth attaching to it, let me
beg my readers to consider the multitude of testing-points
opened in it, preparatorily to considering the actual re
sult of the testing.
It is of course necessarily the character of any continu
ously historical exposition to subject itself to more of
testing than the two chief counter-schemes that have
been alluded to. But I believe that in the Horse this
will be found done to an extent much greater than in any
previous exposition of the historical school. — First, as re
gards each great chapter of prefigured history, it supposes
all the chief and most characteristic (Eras to be selected
for the picturing : e. g. in the Seals (to which I shall
confine myself in exemplifying) all those chief successive
epochs and seras of Roman imperial history, commencing
from immediately after the visions in Patmos, whether of
prosperity at the first, or of successive stages of decline
afterwards, which the best and most philosophic historians
mark out as most important, and which indeed no philo
sophic history could overpass without distinct notice.1 —
Next, in the Horse there is supposed a greater exactitude
in the choice of symbols, to depict these great historic sub
jects, than in previous Apocalyptic Commentaries. For ex
ample here first, I believe, the crown is expounded in the
opening Seals distinctively from the diadem, and diadem
distinctively from the crown, as each characteristic of a
certain sera in the Roman imperial history ; also the bow of
the 1st Seal, sword-bearing of the 2nd, and balance-bearing,
and notice from the throne about the corn and its price,
and the wine and oil, as characteristic severally of certain
distinct Roman family connexions or offices.2 — Besides
phecy in these modern days, alike in Germany and England, with not a little of the
air and affectation of superior wisdom, there has been a kind of contemptuous de
crying of the historical principle of interpretation, long recognized and followed out
by our Protestant forefathers alike in England and Germany, as if unworthy of a
divine authorship. Does not common sense repudiate such a notion ?
1 For another example I might refer to that part of the prophecy in Apoc. x. and
xi which is supposed to be a prefiguration of the great Reformation ; it being ex
plained as embracing all the chief and most characteristic epochs of progress of that
Reformation of the Church ; from its first commencement with Luther, to its com
pletion in the separation of England and the seven United Dutch Provinces from
Papal Rome.
2 Similarly, as any careful reader of the Horse will remember, the symbols are

PREFACE. XXV
which, the idea, as one that is to be carried out through
all the Commentary, of St. John having been in what he
saw, and in what he did, at each sera throughout the pro
gress of the divine drama, a representative of the apostolic
line of really Christian ministers then living, furnishes other
testing-ground : — and so, again, the not infrequently
mooted idea of allusive contrast in the Apocalyptic figur-
ings : — and so, yet once more, the construction of the
Apocalyptic scenery as in great degree Jixt and standing
scenery. — I am not here saying whether my explanation
be in any case correct or not : but only that in the sup
positions thus proceeded on there has been a throwing
out of testing points beyond what any previous expositor
has hazarded ; and consequently an opening of this Com
mentary to a more searching trial of its evidence, than in
the case of any Commentary before it.
But has it stood the testing ? Assuredly, after all the
controversies and battlings that have past on the subject,
I venture to think myself in a position to say that the
answer may be in the affirmative.
For, in regard to the- several testing-points specified, I
observe, on reviewing the many past controversies, that
scarce any serious attempt has been made by critics
against my more particular historical applications of the
old patristic view of St. John's representative character on
the Apocalyptic scene ; scarce any against my view of
the historic application of that scenery, as in great part
Jixt and standing ; scarce any (except by misrepresenta
tion)1 against the two or three very striking allusive
contrasts historically set forth in the Horse. Again, as
regards such of the symbols as were of ancient use, there
has been scarce any dispute against my explanation of
them : — save only that the Roman origin and reference of
my medals of the Roman horse has been contested by one
and another critic :2 (how vainly my Paper in the Appen-

explained by me much more pointedly and in detail, than by previous expositors, of
the Witnesses' death and resurrection ; also those of the first Beast, second Beast, and
Beast's Image, in Apoc. xiii. So too elsewhere continually.
1 Partly noticed in my Vol. iv. p. 603 Note -.
2 First by Mr. Lewis ; then by Mr. Arnold, and Mr. Barker.

XXVI PREFACE.

dix to this Volume will show : L) and that Mr. T. K. Ar
nold once hinted a further objection about the sword-
bearing, as if it were a Roman badge of purely civil office,
not military, so as stated in the Horse ; but which was not
prest, after seeing the authorities given by me in reply.
On my bow, crown, diadem, balance, &c. judgment has been
given, by default of impugners, in their favour.2 — In fine,
omitting one or two objections on critical grounds,
which to the present Edition do not apply,3 I see that
the chief battles fought against my Book have been on
the ground of the history to which I apply it, in re
gard of one and another of its various parts, not suiting
the prophecy. A ground of objection this simple for the
most part, and which will be easily judged of by intelli
gent and candid readers : the objections being stated, as
will be found, wherever they are of any consequence, in
their place in the Commentary ; and with my authorities,
as well as arguments, in reply. It seems desirable how
ever that I should take advantage of my Preface to sug
gest a word of premonitory caution against certain un
fairnesses of criticism, which (perhaps without intending
unfairness) have been sometimes used against my expo
sition : — unfairnesses in stating the requirements of the

1 It was a particular satisfaction to me, when drawing up that Paper at Rome, to
find that the Roman antiquarians there, to whom the question was quite familiar,
seemed to have no doubt as to the Roman character of the medals. Nor do 1 ex
pect, after my Paper on the medals of the Roman horse has become generally
known, that there will be further questionings on the point. — As to the pro
priety of giving to the horse in the Seals where it occurs a Roman construction, it
is anything but dependent upon the medals. They only furnish a very interesting
illustration. It may be right here to mention, as accuracy on all that concerns the subject of
the ancient symbols is obviously most important, that my eloqutnt friend Dr. Cum-
ming, to whom I am indebted for his warm and widely-circulated recommendation
of the Hora, has inadvertently fallen into partial inaccuracies on these and also
some other subjects, on which he has made reference to my Work for authority : —
also that on the early Seals some of these inaccuracies have been copied from Dr. C.
into the new Edition of Matthew Henry's Commentary, lately published by Partridge
and Oakey.
2 I speak here of ancient recognised symbols. As regards others more complex,
or of less clearly defined use, there have been disputes, as might have been expected :
e. g. on the horses from the Euphrates ; and on the reed like a rod in Apoc. xi. 1 ;
and a few others. On these there will be found distinct notices in my Work.
" More especially on the ^ hour's silence of the 7th Seal, and the xpwos ouk
carat eitti of Apoc. x. 6. As to the 3rd Seal, and the criticism about its to e\aiov
ov nn aSiicijinjs, I do not expect, after the arguments and authorities have been
drawn out as fully as they are in the present Edition, to hear any more of it.

PREFACE. XXV11
prophecy ; unfairnesses in respect of requirements from
the exposition.
Let me exemplify the former from the two Jirst Seals.
A representation then has been made by more than one
objector, as if in the 1st Seal a perpetual course of victo
ries was predicted of the rider. And then there has been
paraded from Gibbon the fact that, though Trajan indeed
ran a remarkable course of conquest at the opening of
the sera to which I refer it, and Marcus Antoninus gained
a succession of hard-fought victories at its close, yet
during the 40 or 50 years between the two there was
pretty much a continuation of peace : and moreover that
Hadrian relinquished some of Trajan's conquests ; and so
the Roman god Terminus retired from the far boundary
to which it had been carried by Trajan. Such, I say, has
been the argument against my 1st Seal.1 But the true
representation of the prediction is that all through the
period of the 1st Seal the horse (whatever it might sig
nify) would continue white, or prosperous, under the
guidance and regimen of a rider whom the bow might
suit as a badge, and to whom a crown should be given :
moreover that he would early in the 1st Seal's sera go
forth conquering, and with the assured destiny even to
the end of the sera, whenever and however tried, still to
conquer. Which rectification being made as to the pro
phecy's intent, it is found to correspond quite marvel
lously with the history to which I refer it.2— Again, in
regard of the 2nd Seal, the same objectors construe those
words about the rider, " it was given him to take
peace from the earth, and that they should kill one
another," as predicting a perpetual unceasing course of
civil wars : and then, all consideration of other killing of
each other being set aside, the few years of direct civil
wars are enumerated, previous to my next Seal's com
mencing date, within which period they altogether limit
this second Seal's operation ; and so its fulfilment is
pronounced to be inadequate. But was there not the
1 So Arnold and Keith especially.
2 Especially considering that what Hadrian voluntarily relinquished of Trajan's
conquests was all, or nearly all, reconquered and reunited to the Roman empire, as
the result of those terrible wars of Marcus Antoninus, at the close of the sera.

XXV111 PREFACE.
continuance through all this period of the oppressive
domination of the military power, signified by the rider
to whom a great sword, the badge of such authority, was
given ? Was there not under this domination repeated
civil blood-shedding, especially of emperors, even when
civil war was not absolutely raging ? Was it not the
fact that during that part of the period of the Seal, as
explained by me, which is held up by objectors as the
most free from the evils of civil war and bloodshed, viz.
the last 1 2 or 13 years of the 1 st Severus, there was a
strengthening by that emperor, yet more than before, of
the iron domination of the sword of the soldiery? More
over is it not Gibbon's express testimony, that during
Severus' reign, " though the wounds of civil war seemed
healed, the poison still lurked in the vitals of the
constitution?" Once more, as regards the time of the
figured evil continuing, wherefore, when the next Seal
does but represent the horse coloured with a darker hue
of distress, under the influence of some new evil agency
indicated by the rider with the balance, — wherefore, I
say, suppose the evil of the 2nd Seal to have then
stopped ? Such is not the usual course of things in a
declining empire. One evil having given rise to, does
usually then accompany, that other. So, I presume, we may
regard the 2nd Seal's evil as running into the 3rd Seal's
sera ; and then, together with the 3rd Seal's new evil,
running still onward into the sera of the 4th Seal, joined
then with yet other aggravations of evil. Which under
stood, all is found to correspond with the 2nd Seal's pre
figuration : and the objection vanishes.
The other principle of unfair critical (or rather uncriti
cal) judgment alluded to, as followed out by Mr. Ar
nold in his Strictures on the Horse, is this : — that if,
in a prophecy involving multitudinous details, he should
be able to prove one point of failure, that one proved
failure might be considered sufficient to overthrow the
whole interpretation of the vision connected with it.1
1 " If the Apocalypse contains a series of chronologically arranged events, de
scribed with that minute accuracy which Mr. E. claims for them, . . then the proof
that any part of an Apocalyptic description does not agree with the event which an
interpreter says that it describes, proves that the event so assigned is not the event

PREFACE. XXIX
Thus, for example, with reference to the 2nd Woe, or
5th Trumpet, he professedly declined entering on any
examination of the many and remarkable resemblances
on which my Saracenic exposition of its scorpion-locusts
was very mainly grounded ; and affirmed that the un-
satisfactoriness (in his judgment) of the application of
the locusts' predicated five months' duration to the Sara
cens sufficed to set the whole solution aside.1 Mr. Ar
nold seems little to have reflected on the extent of scep
ticism to which such a principle of criticism, if elsewhere
followed out, would lead him. Taking the mere chro
nological class of objections, might he not, on his prin
ciple, dispute the fact of the true Messiah's coming and
death having already taken place ; because of certain
difficulties as to the exact adaptation of Daniel's 70 heb
domads to the time intervening between any of the Per
sian kings' decrees for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and
the coming and death of Jesus Christ ? It is in fact
very much the same principle that has been applied by
Strauss in his infidel and most uncritical (though pro
fessedly critical) " Life of Jesus :" — the principle, I
mean, of picking out and exaggerating, if not misrepre
senting, in the consideration of a great Scriptural sub
ject, whatever might with any plausibility be made a
difficulty of; and taking into no account, or but little
account, the direct evidence of truth, however varied,
large, and strong. Most justly has the authority of
Bishop Butler been urged on this point against Strauss.2
really contemplated by prophecy. A proof of failure in a single point is a proof of
absolute failure." So Mr. A. in the British Magazine of March 1846, p. 331.
On which it was observed by me in reply (No. for April p. 442) : — " Is this cor
rect? In case of Mr. Arnold's having expounded our Lord's prophecy in Luke xxi.
20, &c of the destruction of Jerusalem, or that in Isa. vii. 14 of Christ's miraculous
birth of the Virgin Mary, were an infidel or Jewish assailant to press him with some
particular difficulty in the text or context, unsolved in his explanation, would the
proof [even the established proof) of failure in this single point be a proof of absolute
failure in his whole interpretation of the prophecies in question ? Rather might he
not justly still adhere to his main view of them : persuaded from the various and
striking coincidences of prediction and fact that this must needs be correct; and
concluding that, with better and fuller understanding of the passage, his solution on
the point of detail objected to might be probably amended, so as to be as satisfac
tory and consistent as the rest ? "
1 Brit. Mag. for Feb. 1847 p. 185.
2 " Says Butler ; ' They may say that the conformity between the prophecies
and the event is by accident; but there are many instances in which such confor
mity itself cannot be denied.' His whole remarks on the subject, and especially

XXX PREFACE.
And let my readers well mark how exactly it applies to
Mr. Arnold also, according to his own exprest rule of
judging of the Horse. To weigh in the balances, and look
to and compare the weights in either scale, is on such
subjects as much needed, in order to a just judgment,
by the critic as by the judge.
In my primary Reply to Mr. A. I took the liberty of con
trasting with his principle " the fair and comprehensive
though searching summing up of evidence by an English
Judge." And I could not but feel an earnest wish for
some actual examination of the evidence adduced in
the Horse, and exprest judgment upon it by one of
our Judges ; above all by one whose attention might
have been specially directed to the rules of equity,
as well as letter of the law, on documentary evi
dence. What I wished, but scarcely anticipated, (for
it seemed unlikely, considering all the demands upon
his attention, that any one in such a position would
be able, even if willing, to give the time and thought
necessary in order to a fair judgment on so voluminous
and elaborate a work,) was however unexpectedly granted
me. The late lamented Vice-Chancellor of England, Sir
Lancelot Shadwell, was led to give the Horse a full and
careful perusal during the long vacation of 1848; and
he considered and formed his opinion upon the evidence
advanced in it, as much as might be from the nature of
the case, judicially. And as regards the Book in general,
inclusive specifically of those selfsame very important
parts of it which have been mentioned as the special
subjects of both Mr. Arnold's and others' adverse criti
cism, (I mean the Seals, the Trumpets, and the two Wit
nesses,) his judgment was formed, and has been declared,
clearly and strongly in its favour.1 And this very much,
those on the impression to be derived from the multitude of apparent coincidences,
in a long series of prophecies, some vast, some minute, and the improbability of
their all being accidental, are worthy of his comprehensive genius. It is on the
effect of the whole, not on single coincidences, that the argument depends." So Mr.
Rogers, in reference to the Straussian infidel school, in his Essay on Reason and
Faith first published in the Edinburgh Review for October 1849.
1 In a letter to me dated Jan. 1, 1849, after some strong expressions of the in
terest he had felt in the perusal of the Horse, he thus proceeded. " Every word of
it, down to p. 524 of the 4th Volume (3rd Ed.), I have read with deliberate atten
tion ; many parts twice, some thrice. And 1 beg leave to express my entire appro-

PREFACE. XXXI
it will be seen, from that combined particular and com
prehensive view of its evidence, as at once exact in
multitudinous details, and a consistent whole, which Mr.
Arnold would eschew ; and which many, I doubt not,
overlooking like him, fail of a just and fair view of the
very rule by which evidence should be judged.
Notwithstanding, after all the sittings of my evidence,
on each and either of the two chief subjects of contro
versy, I mean the Seals and the Witnesses, if I affirm that
the views given in the Horse remain on all main points
unshaken, I may, I think, claim some of my chief op
ponents as by deed, though not by word, assenting.
Of the two most determined perhaps of my antagonists,
Mr. Arnold and Dr. Keith, the former, though pretty
much engaged to sum up the results of the renewed
attack and defence in the British Magazine on the Seals
and the Paulikians, failed of doing it. And as regards
Dr. Keith, whose subjects of attack were my expositions
of the Seals and of the Witnesses' death resurrection and
ascension, — though, after the publication of my Vindicise
Horarise in reply to him, a " Refutation of the Vindicise"
was advertised 2i years ago as preparing for publication,
yet hitherto no such " Refutation " has made its appear-
bation of the principle of construction upon which you have proceeded : viz. that of
giving one uniform continuous meaning to the whole of the Apocalypse, while
making each word bear its own appropriate sense; and thereby producing one con
sistent symbolic picture, consisting it is true of many parts, but all held in agree
ment together. You have in effect adopted the only rule that can safely be applied
either in courts of law, or elsewhere, to the interpretation of written instruments :
a rule which I am myself in the constant habit of adopting, and have learnt by expe
rience to be most satisfactory." He then notices his satisfaction at the manner in
which out of " so prodigious a mass of materials, collected, sifted, and arranged for
the purpose," there had been shown the fulfilment of this symbolic prophecy, " alike
in vast general circumstances and in minute particulars : " states that " my view
of the Seals and of the Trumpets carried conviction to his mind ; " and especially ex
presses his delight in my exposition of " the Si days' death of the Witnesses and
their revival," that of " the seven chiliads," (another subject of Mr. A.'s criticism,)
included. I feel it due to the cause of truth to cite thus much from the Vice- Chancellor's
Letter ; the rather as it was his own exprest wish that I should make any use of it
that might seem desirable. The expressions of kindly feeling towards the Author of
the Horse with which it was accompanied are ascribable, I am of course aware, to
his own generous and kindly nature : to which character of the late Vice-Chancellor
it has been a gratification to me to cite elsewhere the public testimony of the present
Vice-Chancellor Sir J. K. Bruce. See my Vol. iii. p. 571 : where will be found a
Paper drawn up and given me not very long before his death by Sir L. Shadwell ;
which will well serve to illustrate the attention to minute points with which he had
perused and considered my Commentary.

XXX11 PREFACE.
ance. Considering the keenness of their antagonism, the
inference seems warranted that their task was found less
easy than had been anticipated.1
A word or two, ere concluding this part of my Pre
face, on the philosophic character and connexion of the
Apocalyptic figurations of each great historic subject
embraced by them : for in fact this is a part of my evi
dence.2 I will exemplify in the Apocalyptic Seals.
Premising then that, after the rectification of a clearly
wrong construction of a passage in Lampridius,3 all fair
objections against my 3rd Seal vanish, and that, with
Jerom's reading of four parts of the earth in the 4th
Seal, instead of the fourth part, of the correctness of
which I am now well persuaded, the agreement of fact and
prophecy, in my Apocalyptic Scheme, becomes equally,
or if possible even more remarkable, than that in the pre
ceding Seals, — this first grand division of the prophecy,
considered as a whole, will be found thus to present its
subject, in perfect philosophic connexion, the one Seal
with the next following, as explained in the Horse. After
a primary sera of remarkable prosperity and triumph, in
troduced quickly after the vision in Patmos, under some
new imperial rulers to whom the bow-badge might
attach, a second and evil cera is seen succeeding, — one
of military domination. Then, after this military domi
nation, there follows a picturing of oppression by tax
ation ; as if from the need to sustain and satisfy the sol
diery. Then, both together inducing neglect of agricul-
1 I may perhaps be admitted further to observe, with reference to a vehement
American antagonist, Mr. Lord of New York, that although applying the symbols
of the opening Seals, in very curious manner, to things religious and ecclesiastical,
yet he has affirmed, as what is not to be doubted, that the symbols themselves of
the riders in the 1st 2nd and 3rd Seals are precisely those Roman emperors, Roman
military usurpers, and Roman civil oppressors, of whom I expound them.
Another dissentient (1 will not call him opponent), of a very different and gentler
spirit, though himself of the futurist school, did yet in a Paper in the Dublin Chris
tian Examiner express his sense of the value of the Horse, as a " memoria technica "
of Roman imperial history. — But how could that be a faithful memoria technica of
Roman imperial history for some two or three centuries, which has been drawn
simply from the symbols of the Seals, without a fitting of those symbols to the facts ?
And could such coincidence of symbol and fact be the result of chance ?
2 Compare Schlegel's remark on the objects and arrangement of philosophic his
tory ; — " To mark the critical points in the progress of human society." ii. 1 94.
3 An objection urged by Dr. Keith. See my Paper on this subject in the Appen
dix at the end of this Volume.

PREFACE. XXX111
ture, (it might be supposed,) famine pestilence and death
next stalk'upon the scene ; and also, as if invited by the
weakening both of internal order and of national strength,
an invasion of the sword from without ; whereby yet more
depopulation spreads, and the wild beasts of the land
multiply. Then, after all these combined evils, (perhaps
on clamor from the heathen populace against the Chris
tians, as if the impious cause of their sufferings,) a fresh
and terrible persecution of the Christians follows. But the
cry of the martyrs rises against their heathen persecutors.
A sudden and mighty revolution succeeds. Before the
banner of the crucified Lamb of God all heathen military
power flees panic-struck; and all the heathen dignities and
powers in the Roman empire fall from their elevation, even
like falling stars from the firmament of heaven. — Such
seems the natural connexion, in regard of the relationship
as cause and effect, of the prefigurations of chief coming
changes in the Roman empire, given to St. John in the
Apocalyptic Seals. And such proved to be the actual suc
cession and connection of facts in the history of the Roman
empire, so as the most philosophic historians represent
it, from the time of St. John's visions in Patmos to the
revolution in which Paganism was overthrown, and Chris
tianity established, under Constantine and Theodosius.
II. I proceed to remark on two important doctrinal
subjects that stand out prominently in the Exposition of
the Horse, and which have been made, on the part of
certain critics, subjects of objection and dispute ; — I mean
those of the Church and the Antichrist.
1 . The Church.
An eminent Prelate of our Church, who was so good
as to allow me a conversation with him on the subject
of the evidence which I have been in the preceding head
remarking on, and on which he had intimated, I knew,
a different view from my own, made to me this admission :
— that the evidence in the introductory Seals was undoubt
edly strong, nor was he prepared to show a flaw ; but that
he could not receive it, because of its involving certain
views of the Church which seemed to him inadmissible.
VOL. I. c

XXXIV PREFACE.

It was not then the fit time for entering further on
this subject of the Church : and consequently I know not
what may have been the precise objections on his part to
the view of it presented in the Horse. But the fact of a
person so eminent for ability, as well as station, thus hint
ing an objection, (and others indeed had before hinted
it), induced a careful re-consideration of what might be
deemed most characteristic in the views on that subject
propounded in the Horse. — Now there can be no doubt
that the admission of the truth of my Seals does involve,
and involve necessarily, a certain conclusion as to what
that Church is, and what it is not, to which attach the
distinctive characteristics and privileges of the Lord's own
proper Church : viz. that it is not the Church corporate
and visible ; but the Church of the really true-hearted and
loyal ones, known individually to God, though often not
known to man, and by himself marked and sealed with
the Spirit from out of the Church visible. For, for rea
sons already alluded to,1 the twelve tribes of Israel, first
introduced in Apoc. vii. 4, must of necessity be con
strued, agreeably with St. Paul's use of the figure, to de
signate the then visible professing Christian Church . And
after the 6th Seal's revolution, wherein the whole firma
ment or system of opposing political power past away
before the power of the Lamb, leaving the inhabitants
of the Apocalyptic world thenceforward professedly the
Israel or Church of God, there next follows the distinct
unmistakeable recognition and sealing by God of but an
election (a small election apparently) from out of that Is
rael or Church, as constituting of themselves distinctively
and alone his true Israel or Church, — " 144,000 from
out of all the tribes of the children of Israel :"  a dis
tinction this of the true Church from the professing,
in St. John's own view, or of those he represented, imme
diately consequent, according to the Horse, on the Con
stant no-Theodosian revolution, fall of Paganism, and
establishment of Christianity, in the 4th century. From
which epoch the 144,000 are traced out continuously,
like as a silver thread, to the end of the Apocalyptic
1 See p. xxiii. supra.

PREFACE. XXXV
drama, as the special subjects of the Lord's protection
and regard ; the holy and true and faithful ; the followers
of the Lamb Christ, contradistinctively to those of the
Beast Antichrist; and at length in fine (in all the col
lective number of their successive generations) as the
twelve tribes of God's Israel, constituted by Him the
citizens of the New Jerusalem.
Now if any, from high estimate of the privileges of the
Church visible, be predisposed to object to this view, let
me, with a view to remove the prejudice, be permitted to
suggest whether it be not in clear accordance with what
we read in other Scriptures, alike of the Old Testament
and of the New : and, moreover, whether the counter-
view they incline to do not involve consequences, which
some of them at least would equally with myself deprecate.
For, on turning to the Old Testament Scripture, do we
read of the Church of the ancient Israel or Judah as always
God's faithful visible Church, or ahvays the witness to his
truth, whether through the mouth of its priesthood, or
by its worship and public profession of faith ? Was it
so in the reign of Ahaz, or in the long reign of Manasseh ?
If so, what the need of the reformations under Heze-
kiah and Josiah : and what again the need from time to
time of prophets of extraordinary mission, from out of
other tribes, (not the priestly tribe,) to warn priest as well
as people of their errors, and hold forth the lamp of di
vine truth ? All, says St. Paul, were not Israel that were
of Israel ; but only an election of grace. Nay, did not
the Jewish Church, speaking by its priesthood, solemnly
reject the Lord Jesus ? — Nor, as regards the Christian
visible Church, had it any promise of exemption from a
similar apostacy in the New Testament Scriptures. For
was it not the tendency of many most striking prophetic
declarations by Christ and his apostles, that the visible
professing Christian Church would in time become cor
rupted, and teach and uphold error ? Take, for example,
Christ's own prophecy of the tares and wheat : connectedly
with other intimations from him which seemed to imply
that times would come when the tares would outnumber
the wheat in the professing Church;1 and consequently the
1 Such as Matt. vii. 22, 23, Luke xiii. 23, 24, &c.

XXXVI PREFACE.

voice of " the Church," i. e. of the visible professing
Church, be a voice antagonistic to the truth. Take, to
the same effect, St. Paul's yet clearer prophecy to the
Thessalonian Christians : which told of the principle of
evil as even then working in the Christian body ; and
that it would go on, like bad leaven, working within it,
until it issued in some great apostacy; the head of
which, the man of sin, would have his seat in God's tem
ple, i. e. m. the professing Church.1 — Yet once more in the
Apocalypse itself, let there be considered the figuration
of the woman that brought forth the man-child (Apoc. xii.
6, 14) fleeing into the wilderness, and there continuing
throughout the mystical 1260 days : a figuration most re
markable ; and to which my readers cannot give too
particular attention, when considering this question.
For it will, I believe, appear that the woman almost
necessarily signifies that faithful visible catholic Church,
which fought successfully the last battle with the Dragon-
inspired Roman Paganism ; a crisis the same with what
is figured in the revolutionary scene just noticed of the
6th Seal. And as after that revolution, in the 6th Seal's
second figuration, St. John saw depicted before him the
true Church of the election of grace, sealed, in marked
distinction from the visible catholic professing Church,
— as if the visible prof essing catholic Churc h would thence
forth no more have the character of true and faithful
attached to it, — so, in the vision of the 1 2th Chapter, the
once faithful catholic visible or professing Church, was
seen passing more and more into a state of invisibility ;
leaving certain of its children only on the field of conflict,
who still kept the commandments of God and the testi
mony of Jesus. Such was the vision : and has it not ever
since had marked fulfilment ? — There has indeed been
much talk among us, of late years, about Christ's true
catholic visible Church, as if a thing ever perpetuated and
perpetual. But I should be curious to know where it
may have been for the last 12 centuries. In order to a
1 The idea of the " temple of God " here meaning some literal Jewish temple, or
anything but the professing Christian Church, is I believe becoming more and more
exploded. Even Hengstenberg, with all his inclination to exempt the Papacy from
the prediction, admits this.

PREFACE. XXXVU
Church being rightly designated as Christ's true visible
Church, its profest common doctrine and worship ought
to be really Christian. Can then the idolatrous Greek
and Roman Churches (idolatrous alike according to our
Homilies, to notorious fact, and to common sense) claim
a share in such a title ? In order to its being catholic,
and impersonated (like as by the Woman) as one, it ought
to embrace all true Churches in its communion. Can
this be said of our own, or of any other truth-professing
Church ? Where then, and what, I repeat, is Christ's one
true visible catholic Church so often talked of? It exists
no where, I will be bold to say, but in the imaginations of
the talkers or writers. During the whole time of conflict
indeed with Roman Paganism the visible Christian Church
was catholic, for it was all united in communion ; and was
faithful, for its doctrine and worship was essentially right
and Christian. But after the triumph over Paganism,
the body corporate, so impersonated, vanished out of
sight ; agreeably with that most graphic and instructive
vision of Apoc. xii. There was a divorce of the catholic
and the faithful. What made best pretence after this to
the title of catholic and visible was afalse apostate Church.1
What might appear from time to time visible and faithful
Churches were but fragmentary, not catholic. Such were
the Waldensic and other cognate Churches of the middle
age. Such are now our English and other orthodox re
formed Protestant Churches : such, we may hope, some
of the Nestorian Churches of the East. But there is no
common visible unity connecting them. The only true
catholic Church now on earth is the invisible one ; i. e. the
Church of the 144,000, or militant part of the Church of
the first-born, whose names are written in heaven.2 When
1 There has been urged of late in praise of the Romish Church, at the age referred
to, following next after the Gothic irruptions, its civilizing effect, repression of sundry
evils, and development of sundry virtues. But might not something like the same
be said of the influence of the old Roman heathen empire over the barbarous nations
it conquered? — M. Guizot, however, in his History of the Civilization of Europe,
though dwelling on this favourable view of the then Romish Church, called " the
Church," does yet well distinguish between Christianity and the Church.
2 Thus, it will be seen, there is a quadruple Apocalyptic distinction: — 1. the
faithful (though not unmixt) visible catholic Church, which once was, but never has
been since the the 5th century : 2. the fragments of the old faithful visible catholic
Church, formed here and there out of more or fewer of her surviving children, such

XXXVU1 PREFACE.
the good time comes, there will be not merely the com
pletion of that Church of the first-born in the heavenly
state, but a true visible catholic Christian Church yet once
again on this earth, purer than even with primitive apos
tolic purity. For then, as the sure word of prophecy
informs us, "there shall be one Lord, and his name
one." But till then the Woman remains invisible, in
the wilderness.
I cannot forbear expressing my deep sense of the injury
done to the cause of truth, of religion, of our Protestant
Church, and of Christ himself, by the inconsistent and
unscriptural notions and sayings prevalent on this sub
ject of the Church visible. From forgetting the Apoca
lyptic1 and other cognate prophecies, it has been unscrip-
turally assumed to be the assured privilege, as well as
enjoined duty, of some imaginary corporation sole called
the Church visible, and then (by a further illogical process)
of each particular branch of it that any particular set of
men may think proper to call " the Church," to be the pillar
and ground of the truth: whence the said " Church's"
asserted claim to expound the truth authoritatively by
its hierarchy and its priesthood, as if with the voice of
the Spirit ; and claim too, coincidently, in all the exclu
sive pretensions of priestcraft, to a life-giving ex-opere
operato administration of the sacraments of life. So
" the Church " is made to interpose itself between mens'
souls and Christ ; instead of reflecting Christ to them,
and directing them to Christ : and so, like as in the case
of the moon, (the Church's beautiful Apocalyptic figure,)
when interposed between our earth and the glorious sun,
it loses all its own radiance, and becomes itself darkness.
— Further, with such notions about the indefeasible pri
vilege of the Church corporate and visible, how can the
as professedly adhere to the commandments of God and witness of Jesus : — 3. the
apostate visible Churches, more or less in pretension catholic ; especially and above
all that of Rome, with a doctrine and worship not of Christ but Antichrist :— 4. the
faithful Church of the truehearted ; a Church invisible in its collective and distinctive
character, except to God only ; the 144,000 being the at any time living part of
this Church of the first-born, militant here on earth.
1 That the Woman or Church's prefigured wilderness state is one of invisibility is
admitted by sundry of the most eminent Romanist expositors, as well as Protestant ;
e. g. Bossuet. See my Vol. iii. 40. It is on the length of the 1260 days, whether
days or years, that the difference lies between us. Of which point more presently.

PREFACE. XXXIX
largest visible Church, that of Rome, but be reverenced,
and our own Reformation be deemed an act of schism
from it all but unjustifiable. The view, as held by mem
bers of the English Church, is little less than suicidal.1
2. Next as to the predicted Antichrist, and my reference
of the prophecies distinctively to the Popes of Rome.
The reader will be aware probably that this view,
though held and acted on by the Reformers and chief
Fathers of our Church in the 16th century,2 (a fact which
ought to have induced more modest denial on the part
of such Churchmen as impugn it,) has by more than one
party in the Church, and by many too without it, been
made for the last 20 years the subject not of denial only,
but even of something almost like scorn.3 If I much
mistake not, however, the result of the full discussion of
the subject, which very much in consequence has arisen,
has been to prove that the Reformers were wholly right
in their view, and they who have sate in the seat of the
scornful against them wholly wrong. — It is not to be
wondered at that, at a time of much general neglect and
ignorance in our country of all patristic lore, when it
was authoritatively declared by Dr. S. R. Maitland, 1st,
that " the spiritual common sense of the Church of God
in every age, from the days of Daniel to those of Wicliff,
knew nothing, and looked for nothing, in the character of
Antichrist, but an individual infidel persecutor," i. e. one
of " downright barefaced infidelity, more like what was
exhibited in France during the Revolution, than like any
thing ever seen in the Church of Rome," — 2ndly that
1 As regards our own Church it will be interesting to mark how it recognizes the
Church of the promises, in other words the Church of the firstborn, the Church
the bride, distinctively from those earthly visible Churches out of whom the former
is the election of grace ; viz. as " the blessed company of all (really) faithful
people," " the members incorporate in the mystical body of Christ : " and how it
describes the history of their induction into that blessed relationship to Christ, alike
Scripturally and beautifully, in the 17th Article of its own authoritative and admir
able code of doctrine.
2 The views of our Reformers on the subject are given at some length in my Paper
iv. in the Appendix to my 3rd Volume.
3 " The wild notion that the chief Bishop of the Western Church is Antichrist."
So a Reviewer in the British Magazine for July 1844, p. 59, of my dear and now
sainted friend Bickersteth's " Promised Glory of the Church of Christ." Similarly
scornful notices of this view might be multiplied from the Magazine-

xl PREFACE.
the year-day interpretation of the 1260 days' assigned
prophetic period of Antichrist's duration in power, (such
an interpretation as the Papal application of the prophecy
requires,) and indeed " the year-day interpretation of any
other period," was for above 1200 years, from St. John
to Wicliff, altogether unknown and unthought of, — I say
when statements were made thus broadly by a man of
Dr. Maitland's ability and learning, and for a considera
ble time left uncontradicted, it is not to be wondered
at that they should have had their effect; especially
when plausibly backed by the insulated citation from St.
John about Antichrist's " denying the Father and the
Son."1 Already at that time a marked indisposition had
arisen, alike from the liberalism and the incipient eccle-
siasticizing tendencies of the age, against so regarding
the religion of the majority in Christendom : and it was
natural that Dr. Maitland's declaration should in such a
state of the public mind be readily received, and that it
should strengthen the growing indisposition. — The result
however of more careful examination into the matter,
so as my readers will find in the Horse, is to show that
the idea of an avowed infidel Antichrist, such as Dr. M.
spoke of, seems scarcely to have entered into the imagi
nation of the Fathers of the three or four first centuries
after St. John : 2 and, as to the year-day principle, that,
although not applied by them to the particular period of
the 1260 predicted days of Antichrist, (an application of
it which they could not have made without supposing,
so as they might not do, Christ's coming to be at a vast
distance,) yet to other prophetic periods several of them
applied it freely, and without the slightest questioning
of its correctness. So, it will appear, Cyprian, Ticho-
nius, Theodoret, Prosper, Primasius ;3 and after them, a
1 I mean insulated from the context.
2 See on this the Paper No. v, in the Appendix to my 4th Volume, Part ii.
3 The other authors here specified will be all found cited in my Vol. iii. Chap, ix,
on the year-day. With Theodorel's statement I became acquainted not till after
that Chapter, and most of the remainder of my work, was printed • and it is con
sequently only given in the Addenda prefixt to the 3rd Volume. Being a testimony
of much value to the year-day principle, and one never noticed before in the con
troversy, I will here, lest it should be overlooked in the list of Addenda, cite it a<*ain
On nan. ix, speaking of the 70 hebdomads, he thus expresses his presumption that
they are hebdomads of days, but intended to be applied, on the year-day principle
to signify the 70 hebdomads of years that « ere to elapse before Christ's cornin- and

PREFACE. xii
complete catena of middle-age expositors, down to the
Reformation : besides that not a single reclamation
against the principle, though thus continuously applied,
seems discoverable in any patristic or middle-age eccle
siastical writer ; 1 or indeed in any before Bellarmine,
some 50 or 60 years after the Reformation. Which
being so, and when it further appears that the profess
edly infidel and atheistic theory of Antichrist, instead of
being inculcated by St. John himself, is in effect excluded
by him, — alike by his own hinted explanation of Anti
christ's denial of the Father, as made only through
denial of the Son,2 by the etymological force of that his
own chosen and very remarkable appellative for the
enemy, Antichrist, (whether taken in the sense of a Vice-
Christ or an opposition-Christ, which are its two mean
ings,3) and by his application of the appellative to Christ-
professing Gnostics, — when moreover St. Paul's cognate
prophecy of the Man of Sin seems to concur in the same
exclusion of the atheistic futurist theory of Antichrist,4
and the difficulty too is seen, indeed the impossibility, of
fitting such a theory to Daniel's symbolic image of the
four empires,5 — it results as the fair inference from the
whole discussion, that, instead of any a priori probability
existing against our Reforming Fathers' view, the a priori
probability seems to be strongly in favour of their view of
the great Antichrist, as in truth none other than the self-
appointed usurping Vice-Christ in professing Christendom,
the Bishop of Rome ; a view completely confirmed, it
is believed, in the ensuing Commentary. — The attempts
of certain expositors of the German Schools to generalize
what in Scripture is defined most specifically, (specifi-
crucifixion : — Mercs Se ttjv rrji 'Iepou<ra\7j|U oiKobouiav StapKeaovaif tin TeTpaKoaia
«at evvev7}K0VTa errj Kara vop.ov iro\iTeuop.ei'of Toaovrovyap at ef3SofiT}KOVTa e/35o,ua5ts
irotovvi xoovov, ijfiepas e ttaar r\ s € is e v tavr o v Aaju $a v o fie vn s.
1 Mr. C Maitland has made an attempt to fix such a reclamation on Albertus
Magnus. But quite vainly. See my Vol. iv. p. 412, Note J.
2 1 Johnii.23. What the denial of the Son may be inferred from 2 Pet. ii. 1, Jude 4.
' See p. 62 infra. — In my Addenda, prefixt to this Volume, Mr. Greswell will be
found cited, giving a very similar statement as to the meaning of Antichrist, though
not so full or distinct as my own. And, what is further observable. Dr. Todd, one
of the chiefs of the Futurist school, admits the truth of his etymological criticism
on the word, when citing Greswell. Indeed Bellarmine and Malvenda allow it in a
considerable measure. The subject, as one of paramount importance, is of course
fully discussed in my work. See especially my Part iv, Chapters iii, iv, v.
4 See p. xxxvi, Note ', supra. 6 See my Vol. iii. 273, and Vol. iv. pp. 595, 610.

xlii PREFACE.
cally in regard of place, time, character, &c,) and so, and
in that way, to set aside the Papal application of the pro
phecies of Antichrist, are also examined in this Com
mentary ; and will be found proved, it is believed, equally
futile with the above-mentioned Futurist view of the
Antichrist.1 — In truth, the more fully and carefully that
the Author has looked into all the counter-schemes on
the subject, the more deep has become his conviction,
that to set aside the Papal application of the prophecies
in Daniel, St. Paul and St. John on this great subject, is
nothing less than an impossibility.2 And perfectly pre
pared is he to make good his assertion against any and
every assailant.
But indeed he must add that it is not his wish to have
controversy with his brother Protestants on this all-
important question. Cardinal Wiseman has a little
while since thrown out a challenge to the Clergy of the
English Church, to meet him " with theological and fair
arguments." 3 I here take up the gauntlet he has thrown
down ; and declare my readiness to meet and fight the
battle with him, on the basis of the book here presented
to the Reader, in the arena of fair literary controversy.
It is a ground of satisfaction that, as the spirit ahke of
Romanism, and of its real though covert ally of the
Oxford Tractarianism, has by force of circumstances
within the last few years been more and more developed,
and the mists of the mist-loving Tractarian theology have
gradually rolled away, it has become more and more
1 See my Vol. iii, Appendix, No. v, on the theories of Lucke and Hengstenberg.
2 Let the author request his reader's attention when on this subject, not only to
the arguments in the main body of his work, and Papers directly on the controversy
in the Appendices, but also to the Paper No. 2 in the Appendix to his 3rd Volume,
showing the absolute and entire identity of the Beast from the sea and Beast from
the abyss ; and consequent exclusion of any yet future infidel Antichrist, such as
certain even of our Protestant expositors have profest to expect. The important
illustrative Plates on the Papal subject will also not be overlooked.
3 " Let it be a fair contention with theological weapons and fair arguments. If
you prevail, and Catholicity be extinguished in the island, it will be a victory with
out remorse. It will have been achieved by the power of the Spirit, not by the arm
of flesh ; and will prove your cause to be divine." Letter of Cardinal Wiseman.
Evening Mail, Nov. 20, 1850.
As to "the extinction of Catholicity in the island" being the result of any
theological Protestant victory by fair argument, I altogether differ from the Romish
Cardinal in expecting it. The seven-hilled Babylon is depicted as boasting, " I sit
a queen, and shall see no sorrow," even till her destruction by the brightness of
Christ's coming ; and never more than at the crisis immediately before it.

PREFACE. Xliii
clearly seen by all right-minded lovers of truth in this
country, what and where are the essential points of con
flict between them and the Churches of the Reformation : '
— that it is a question between God's word and man's
word, the Church built upon the one and the Church
built upon the other, the god-man Christ, and the man-
god Antichrist : — the man-god Antichrist, whether as dis
tributed in the system of priestcraft over a whole human
hierarchy and priesthood, as if the sole depositories and
communicators of spiritual life ;2 or as headed, so as the
logic of the antichristian system must surely require it
to be, by an individual pretended earthly Vice-gerent of
Christ, such as the Roman Pope. The consideration of
all ^vhich points is interwoven with the very texture of
the " Horse ; " and this book consequently a fair battle
ground on the great question. If my main points can
be set aside, Dr. Wiseman surely, with all his well-
known antiquarian and literary acquirements, and his
mind trained from boyhood to the controversy, is the
man to do it. If they cannot be set aside by him, then
not only is the conclusion inevitable, that the Pope of
Rome is the predicted Antichrist, and Papal Rome the
Babylon and Harlot of the Apocalypse, but the whole
history of the primary principles, development, comple
tion, and working of its Antichristian system, from St.
Paul's time to the present, will prove to have been
traced beforehand, distinctly and circumstantially, by
God's own pen in this wonderful prophecy. — Dr.
Wiseman says, " Let it be a fair contention," and " with
fair arguments:" and Mr. (now Father) Newman
(whom I invite to support his Cardinal in the conflict)
has declared all that was wished by the Romanists to
1 Surely it must be as much a matter of regret, as of surprise, that any of the
dignitaries of our English Church should, on the late Papal aggression, have put the
question between the Romish and the English Church as a question of schism. It
seems language little less than suicidal. For, if this be the whole ground of differ
ence, how is the secession of our reforming forefathers from Rome to be justified ?
We are then the great and primary actors out of schism : not the Pope, or the Pope-
appointed Bishops to English sees.
2 The late lamented Dr. Arnold has again and again characterized the spirit of
the Oxford Tractarianism as the spirit of Antichrist. Strange, and much to be re
gretted, is his inconsistency, in exhibiting tenderness to the Antichristian system,
as perfected in Rome, while thus uncompromisingly hostile to it as imperfectly
developed in Oxford Tractarianism.

xliv PREFACE.
be "an open field, and no favor." * Most cordially do
I respond to these exprest wishes. Surely the Apoca
lypse, as before said, offers an open and fair field for the
conflict. Dr. Wiseman, equally with myself, professes
to regard it as a divine prophecy. Let him then take
his stand on whatever view of it he prefers, whether
Bossuet's2 or any other, as I take mine on this :3 and, in
the discussion, let there be no misrepresentation on either
side, no shirking of fair argument, no exaggeration of
comparative trivialties.* The controversy is one in which
none can now but take interest. Whatever else may result
from the late Papal aggression, there has at least resulted
this conviction with all thinking minds, that the question
of the Papal pretensions, whether well grounded, or an
unscriptural usurpation, is one that cannot be any longer
overlooked ; indeed, that it is the question of the day.
A word or two, in conclusion,
Illly, On the view of the coming future presented
in the Horse, and how affected by subsequent criticisms.
1. And here I have 1st to state that Mr. Fynes Clin
ton, whose well known "Fasti "are so highly appre
ciated by the literary world, and whose Hebrew chrono
logy is followed in the Horse, has in reply to my in
quiries obligingly informed me that, after careful consi
deration of the various arguments which have been urged
against it, he is of opinion that that chronology remains
unshaken, and is correct. Thus, in his judgment, nothing
has been adduced to contravene the view there propounded
of our world's age being approximately within 1 5 or 1 6
years of its 6000th year, dated from the creation of man.
A fact this which cannot but be deeply interesting to the
1 1st Lent Lecture of 1850, p. 27: — a challenge indeed addrest not to evangelic
Protestants, but to Tractarians shorn, as he well knew, of their strength ; himself
having been the Dalilah. 2 It is to this, I am told, that Dr. W has profest adhesion.
8 In the 5th and last published volume of his Fasti, Mr. Clinton tells me, there
is a vindication of his Chronology against the arguments of Professor Wallace;
which latter writer had adopted the Chronology of the late Mr. Cuninghame. It
is the only Volume of Mr. Clinton's Fasti with which, from the press of other occu
pation, I have not been so fortunate as to make acquaintance.
4 This 4th Edition, which presents my views in its completed and more correct
form, will of course be the one made use of in the controversy ¦. and on all the con
troverted subjects the Papers in the Appendices will have to be referred to, as well
as the notices of them in the body of my Book.

preface. xlv
prophetic student : though Mr. Clinton's calculations of
course had no reference to, and were in no respect influ
enced by, Scripture prophecy. — 2. I have to state, with
reference to the commencing dates to the 1260 years given
by me, as by many others before me,1 — viz., the incipient
and imperfect one of Justinian's Pope-favoring Decrees in
529 — 5332 and the completing one of Phocas' Edict a.d.
606, — that, like most other important points in the Horse,
they have in the course of the late controversies been
made the subjects of examination, and, in my opinion,
have successfully stood the testing,3 In Justinian's Decree
of the year 533 the Pope-favoring clause has, I believe,
been shown to be not only consistent with the context,
(as also, I might add, with Justinian's objects and feel
ings at the time,) but so connected with it that the De
cretal Letter would read incoherently and inconsistently,
if that part which contains the clause in question were
withdrawn, so as Daille and other critics have proposed.4
— Again, as regards Phocas' Decree, besides the chroni
clers' original authority for it, there is the corroborative
evidence of the inscription on Phocas' Pillar, brought to
light within the last 30 years : wherein his pious acts of
kindness to Italy and the Romans are commemorated,
as the cause of the inscription of the pillar to him ; with
reference apparently, says the late learned Dr. Burton,
to his concessions to the Pope.5 — Now, supposing the
attempts at setting aside these Decrees as not genuine to
have failed, it can scarce be questioned but that they
may properly be regarded as fair epochs of commence
ment to the 1260 predicted years of Papal supremacy ;
the latter more especially, because of the synchronical
completion of the ten horns' spiritual subjection to Rome.
And it will also not be disputed that the circumstance
of just 1260 years measuring the interval from Justi
nian's Decrees to the French Revolution, and just 1260
years measuring the interval from Phocas' Decree to the
end of the world's 6000 years, according to the approx-
1 From the Reformation downwards.
2 I take the mean of the dates of Justinian's Codex, and Letter in 533 to Pope John.
3 See Vol. iv.p. 609.
4 See ibid, and Vol. iii. 146, 152, 185. 5 Noticed in my Vol. iii. 278.

xlvi preface.
imate chronology of the most eminent English chronolo-
gist of the day, are great facts : and these the more
observable from the further fact of 75 years, as near as
may be, being the interval between the expiring date of
the one and expiring date of the other ; the selfsame in
terval that exists between Daniel's 1260 years and 1335
years, or fated commencing date and completed date of
the consummation. — No doubt other possible later com
mencing epochs to the 1260 years might, not without
plausibility, be mentioned. And the obvious common
place remark which has been so often made may be made
again, that the failure of the terminating date measured
from Phocas' Decree is to be expected, when the time
arrives; just as there has been failure of certain earlier
terminating dates, assigned with more or less confidence by
previous writers on prophecy. But by all such objectors let
the precedent of Daniel's 70 hebdomads be remembered ;
and how, though mistakes were doubtless made at first
in calculating them, yet the calculation proved true in
fine. By Ezra's company that went forth from Babylon
the hebdomads may very possibly have been supposed
primarily, so as by Theodoret afterwards, hebdomads of
days ; and as days to be taken literally, not mystically :
and so they may have been cheered in their going forth
to Jerusalem by the hope of Messiah's speedy coming.
Then when the time past, and He came not, they may
have fancied hebdomads of months to be meant, and then
at length hebdomads of years. Which point settled those
Jews that looked for the consolation of Israel may have
counted the years from Cyrus' decree for rebuilding Jeru
salem, and been disappointed : then counted them from
Darius' decree ; again suffered disappointment, and per
haps been taunted with the failure. Yet, at length, when
counted from Artaxerxes decree the calculation proved
true ; and Messiah then, having come, was cut off, though
not for himself. — 3. Which being so, and the 1260th
year from Phocas' Decree, i. e. the year 1866, now almost
at the doors, thus remaining on chronological grounds
unimpeached, as a probable expiring date to the 1260
years, we have the more reason surely with deep interest

preface. xlvii
to consider the signs of the times, (an evidence, according
to Christ's own monition, never to be overlooked,) and to
reflect whether, within the seven years that have past
since my 1st Edition was published in 1844, the signs
which then seemed in a measure ominous and significant
have become now more or less so. To which question
there can be, I conceive, but one answer, and that an
emphatic one. Whether we consider the heaving of the
European nations, and awe and uncertainty about the
future, more especially since those earthquake-like con
vulsions of 1848 which are viewed by so many as
indicating the 7th Vial's first outpouring, or whether
the continued and markedly increased and increasing
agitation of the three spirits of Popery Priestcraft and
Infidelity, which were to go forth like frogs over the
earth, and stir up the powers of the world to the
last great war against Christ's gospel-truth, — whether
we consider the recent extraordinary outburst of the
Papal Babylon's vaunting, as of one that sits a Queen,
and shall know no sorrow, or whether the everlasting
gospel's extended counter-preaching for a witness to all
nations, and witness too over the world, like as by the
voices of the two other flying Angels, against Babylon
and Antichrist, — whether we consider the increasing en
quiry in the Jewish mind about Christianity, or whether the
continued and increasing weakness of the Mahommedan
powers, — and, yet once more, the increased and increas
ing convergency of the eyes of all the most distant nations
to that scene of the Lord's grand controversy, European
Christendom, — every sign must, I think, be admitted to
have augmented in significancy and force, that tells of
the grand crisis of the consummation being nigh at hand.
And what the nature of that crisis ? — Since my 3rd
Edition was published I have had opportunity of reading
with all the care and attention that they deserve, the
several late Treatises written by Mr. Brown of Glasgow,
by Clemens, and by others, against the premillennial view
of Christ's second advent, wrhich was advocated in my
Book. And, while sensible of the value of all of them,
and specially grateful to Clemens for the warm kindli
ness of his tone towards myself in the controversy, it is

xlviii preface.
my duty to express my acknowledgments to Mr. Brown
more particularly for the ability with which he has con
ducted his side of the discussion : and to confess that for
a time, while fresh under the influence of a perusal of
his Book, my mind felt startled and shaken ; and the
question came up, whether, after all, the premillennial
view, in which I had felt confidence before, might not have
been espoused rashly and wrongly. However, on my
reconsidering the question more carefully, with all the
advantage of his advocacy on the other side to help
me to the truth, and analyzing his arguments, and
comparing them with Scripture prophecy, — the result
arrived at was a more full conviction than I had even felt
before, that the premillennial view was correct, and not
to be shaken. Mr. Brown will, I think, see in my Mil
lennial Chapter that his arguments have not been over
looked, though my limits have only allowed a more
cursory notice of them than I might otherwise have
given : and he will I think also see that, besides a
strengthening here and there of the general reasoning,
there is added to my argument from Daniel one point at
least of very considerable force on the premillennial side ;
which by myself, and so far as I know by others, had
been before pretty much overlooked.
However this may be [ believe that Mr. Brown, and
most who think with him, have the impression pretty
much as strongly as myself of the probable nearness of
that coming of Christ of which the destruction of the apos
tate seven-hilled Babylon is the fated accompaniment, and
which is to constitute the crisis and consummation of our
world's present dispensation. Even so regarded, how so
lemn the thought ! May both the readers and the writer
of this Book be enabled to realize it ! Surely if at all
times St. Peter's injunction has been in force, it must be
so now more especially, that we should " take heed to
inspired prophecy, as to a light shining in a dark place,
until the day dawn." If always, now more especially, St.
John's declaration about his own Apocalypse must be
true; " Blessed is he that heareth, and they that read
the words of this prophecy ; for the time is at hand."
Bath, June, 1851.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TO VOL. I.

PRELIMINARY ESSAY.
CHAP. PAGE
I. Genuineness of the Apocalypse ... 1
II. Date of the Apocalypse . . . .31
INTRODUCTION.
I. St. John in Patmos . . 49
II. The primary Apocalyptic Vision, on " the things
that are," ...... 67
III. The opening Vision of the heavenly throne and com
pany, preparatory to the revelation of the future 77
IV. The mode and manner, plan and order, of the Reve
lation . . . . . .91
V. On the ensuing historical exposition of the Reve
lation ...... 104

PART I.
Four first Seals, General View of, . . . Ill
I. First Seal ...... 120
II. Second Seal ...... 13S
III. Third Seal . . . . . .151
IV. Fourth Seal . . . . . .179
V. Fifth Seal ...... 191
VI. Sixth Seal's Primary Vision .... 221
VII. Sixth Seal's Sealing and Palmbearing Visions . 237
§ 1. The four Tempest-Angels . . . 238
§ 2. Intimations of general unfaithfulness in the
newly proselytized Roman Israel . 243
§ 3. Intimation of incipient Anti-christianism in the
unsealed and unfaithful Roman Israel . 253
§ 4. Contra-distinctive revelation of God's Israel,
or true church of the sealed ones . . 277
VOL. I. d

CONTENTS.

PART II.

CHAP. I.

The half-hour's Silence in Heaven, Incense-offer-
ings, and Trumpet-soundings
II. The four first Trumpets
§ 1 . On the principles of Interpretation applicable
to the four first Trumpet-Visions
§ 2. Historical Exposition of the four first Trum
pet-Visions ...
iii. forewarnings of coming woe
IV. The Fifth Trumpet, or First Woe-Trumpet .
§ 1. Local appropriateness of Scripture Symbols
§ 2. The Symbols of the Fifth Trumpet analyzed to
show the origin of the flrst woe
§ 3. Progress of the First Woe as predicted and
fulfilled ....
V. Pause between the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets
VI. The Sixth or Second Woe Trumpet .
§ 1. Occasion, Local Origin of, and Nation commis
sioned in, the Second Woe
§ 2. Further characteristics of the Nation com
missioned in the Second Woe .

299
326328
341360
389392
404422442
453 453
477

APPENDIX.

I. Notice of the Arguments of Professors Lucke and
M. Stuart for theNeronic Date of the Apocalypse 503
II. Notice on the Roman Coinage, with special refer
ence to the Roman Coins engraved in the Hor.e . 519
III. On the Horse with the Mars' head, and Roma or
Romano, used as a Roman Coin . . . 532
IV. Medallic illustration of Nerva's Cretensic origin 538
V. On the continued pressure of Caracalla's aggra
vated Taxation on the Provincials of the Roman
Empire under Alexander Severus, and after him. 544
VI. On the Constantino-Theodosian Revolution, and
overthrow of Paganism, as the subject of the
primary Vision of the Sixth Seal . . 550
VII. Examination of the Church-Scheme of the Seals 555
VIII. On "the third part" in the Apocalyptic Trumpets 572
IX. On the Apocalyptic Symbols, and chief objections
made to the view of the symbolic purport of cer
tain of them given in the HorjE . . 584

PLATES TO VOL. I. PAGE
The Apocalyptic Chart 111
plate I. " Juvmx Capta " Medal, and the Jewish Candlestick, from the
Arch of Titus - 55
II. The Roman Horse 118
III. The Imperial Crown and Royal Diadem 127
IV. The going forth of a Roman Imperator to Victory 129
V. The Cretan Bow - 131
VI. The Roman Proprietors' and Qu^stors' Emblems of a Balance,
Ear of Wheat, and Corn Measure - 174
VII. The Emperor Valerian kneeling before Sapor, from the sculp
tured rock of Nakshi Roostam 183
VIII. The Diocletianic Martyr's Epitaph, and Vase of Blood, from
the Catacombs at Rome 211
IX. The Constantinian Labarum 226
X. The Constantinian Phcenix - 240
XI. Map of the Tri-partition of the Roman World - 342
XII. The Apocalyptic Scorpion-Locust 406
XIII. Key of Mahomet, on an Arch in the Alhambra - 422
XIV. Mariolatrous Coins of the Greek Byzantine Empire of the
Middle Age 459
XV. Turkman Standard of the Horse-tail 485
XVI. Nerva's Cretensic Coin of the Huntress Diana - 538

ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA.*
VOL. I.
PAGE
Pref. p. xv 1. 8 from bottom, and p. xvi, 1. 1, for my read his.
6 Note, add to the coincidences of expression, ex0"™11 tt]V naprvpiav Apoc. xii. 17,
compared with e^ei Tip/ fiaprupiac, 1 John v. 10.
12 1. 10 read, 107, or perhaps 115.
30 1. 2 add the name of Hilary to the Latin Fathers specified.
In his De Trinit. vi. 43, after citing 1 John v. 20, he writes ; " Anne secreto
tibi hoc . . recumbenti in pectus suum Dominus ostendit ? . . . vel intra consessus
angelorum, et signatorum Iibrorum insolubiles nexus, . . et novarum atque in-
comprehensibilium cantionum hymnos sempiternos, tam pia tibi hsec per Agnum
ducem revelata doctrina est ? "
*35 Note 2 1. 19 for sir read ev.
*44 on the subject of Colossce add, that, after consideration of his strictures on the sub
ject, I agree with Mr. Greswell in dating St. Paul's Epistle to the ColosBians
a.d. 61, shortly before the earthquake: the earthquake being " in the last half
of the 6th of Nero." See Greswell iv. 217.
46 Note 4 should be Note 5, and vice versa.
„ add the name of Hengstenberg after Gieseler, and of Gresswelt after Clinton, as
adopting the Domitianic date.
62 Greswell, on the Parab. i. 372, gives a very similar view of the etymological force of
the appellative curixpiros. " The result of these examples is to show that the
word Antichrist signifies neither more nor less than another Christ, a pro-Christ, a
Vice- Christ, an alter Christus, a pretender to the name of Christ, who in every cir
cumstance or character of personal distinction, that can contribute to determine
the individuality of the real Christ, appears to be, and sets himself up as, the coun
terpart of the true." A statement which Dr. Todd citing (on Antichrist p. 92)
admits to be correct.
65 1. 8 read, that on Sodom, and of the
73 Mr. Cotterill has exprest the same general view of the prophetic character of the
seven Epistles as Mr. Girdleston and Vitringa, and with a more carefully consi
dered chronological arrangement. I regret not to have had his Book by me while
writing the chapter. My own views however remain unaltered by the Treatise.
97, 99, Heading, read, The Apocalyptic Book.
99 On the seven Trumpets'1 place in the Apocalyptic Scheme Professor M. Stuart, him
self an expositor of the German Prseterist School, thus writes : — " The seven
Trumpets were most palpably mere subdivisions of the 1th Seal, and growing out
of it." So too Mr. Burgh the Futurist.
*122 1. 3 for 30 read 80.
„ Notes 1. 2 for intimations read intimation.
*124 Add to Note 4. In proof of M. Aurelius' subjugation of the Parthian territory I
may add to the authority of Rufus Festus, and that of Dion lxxv. 1, the state
ment extracted in Photius' Codex p. 75, from the Dramaticum Jamblichi.
Aeyei 5e d (rvyypa<pevs . . . bWi Bo\vyataos juev inrep top EvQpaTTjv Kai Ttypiv
ttpuyw 7] 8 c TlapB uaiwv yt\ 'P o> fia to ts vtttikoos tear ear to.
* The reader is particularly requested *to transcribe those Corrections and Additions,
at least, which have an asterisk preiixed to them ; as being on points affecting the sense,
or otherwise important.

liv addenda and corrigenda.

Cited in Greswell's Harmony, iv. ii. 586. The writer, it seems, was a contem
porary of M. Aurelius, and by birth and residence a Babylonian. Hence the
greater value to his testimony on the point for which I cite it. Alike Tillemont,
Gibbon (ch. 8), and Vaillant (pp. 265, 266), so represent the historic fact.
*125 Note 4 dele who.
128 Note for 41 read 11.
136 Bonanni (i. 207) gives the following inscription, as on the base of M. Aurelius'
equestrian statue in the Capitol :— Imp. Csesari D. Antonini D. Hadriani Nepoti,
D. Trajani Parthici Pronepoti, D. Nervse Abnepoti, M. Aurelio Antonino Pio
Aug. Germ. Sarm. Pont. Max. Trib. Pot. xxvii. Imp. vi. Cos. M. P. P. S. P. Q. R.
137 end of Note 2 for 2 read 4.
144 Notes 1. 5 for Sulp. read Sept.
150 Note 6 read irpoyevofievov.
*152 Note 1 for reading substitute rendering.
156 Note ' 1. 5 Some copies of the Chronicon read Spaxp-w
165 last 1. of page, prefix "
171 Add to Note ; 2 Compare Gibbon vi. 340 ; stating that the Frank Kings, about
A.D. 500, imitated the coinage of the Roman Emperors, and made 72 solidi of
one pound of gold : also, that as the proportionate value of gold and silver was as
1 to 10, the value of the soliduswas probably 10 shillings; and that "it contained
40 denarii, or silver threepences."
173 Note 1 add ; The minuteness of imperial legislation on these subjects in the third
century is illustrated by the Stratonicean inscription, extracted from in my Note
p. 171. Note 4, add : The AiAen-goc weighs 602 grammi, having lost a little
weight by friction : the mean weight of the Roman pound being about 325 grammi.
N.B. A French gram = 15J English grains nearly.
176 1. 24 for financial reai fiscal.
194 Note * read <pu>vri.
205 Note ' add : — I observe that Mr. Greswell (Harmony iv. 594) takes the same view
that I do, as to M. Aurelius' not having himself given authorization to any per
secution of the Christians. Whatever imperial authority may have been given
to it he ascribes to L. Verus ; and remarks that shortly after Verus' death M.
Aurelius issued an Edict forbidding such persecution.
205 1. 2 for Sulpitius read Septimius.
*210 1. 22 for To read The.
225 Note 1 line 3 for 319 read 312.
240 Add, with reference to the coins with the phomuic, that the device is frequent on
the coins both of Constans and Constantius : — that the presence of the labarum
indicates that the omen of happy times was derived not from imperial victories
so much, as from the Christian religion now established in the empire, " Christi
Domini fides (as Banduri remarks ii. 357) qua Princeps ipse rnaxime gloriaba-
tur : " — and further that the type and inscriptions, as given on coins of the sons
of Constantine, was meant to imply, not any failure of happy times in the latter
part of the reign of their father Constantine, but only that their father's happy
times would be continued under (hem. So Banduri ib. 779.
258 1. 10 after influences add :
•265 1. 3 Add : — Besides which it appears to have been a common custom with baptized
Christians in the 4th century to have the sign of (lie cross actually painted on their
foreheads.3— For Note 3 add :— This very illustrative fact, and which renders the
allusive contrast of the Apocalyptic vision the more marked and striking, is noti
fied both by enemies and friends. Says Julian reproachingly ; tucovas avrov
(too aravpov) o-KiaypaQovvrts tv rip vpooamai . Says Jerome on Ezek. ix, ap
provingly ; " Qua3 (crux) in C'liristianornm frontibu* pmgitnr, et frequenti mantis
inscriptione signatur."

addenda and corrigenda. Jv
page
275 Add, respecting the altar; Athanasius speaks of wooden altars. In the Concil.
Epaonense, A. D. 517, it was ordered that none but stone altars should be con
secrated. Hard. ii. 1050.
276 Note t, near the end, add; Gieseler, i. 52, explains Clement as I do.
278, Note 3, for my ith read this Volume.
*231, last 1. of text but 2, read, prophets in such.
*312 1. 20 for picked up read pickled. (" condita et salita ")
313 end of Note 5 read operta. 315 Note ' for first read third.
319 Note 6 for 318 read 320 334 1. 11 for into read unto.
*338 1. 21 read, Maximin, and after him Licinius.
340 1. 17 read, that the Avar. 350 last 1. for x read v.
371 Note ' 1. 1 read reprobatione peecati and 1. 13 barbarians*
407 Notes 1. 6 add ; Hug on Apoc. ix, gives it from the Persian Miscellanies, Vol. ii.
p. 658. Daubuz too cites the tradition, p. 403.
*408 Notes, dele second paragraph, which is given a second time by mistake at p. 40S
410 Notes 2 1. 3 read Hinc.
426, Add to Note 4 ; In the Nimrod sculptures, where the king with his bent bow goes
forth to battle, a winged spirit, the feruah, is also depicted in the air with his bent
bow, as going forth with him.
*433 Note 6 read not till.
446 Note 3 last 1. for or read &c.
468 Note 1, 1. 5, read quaternions, and 7, 8 for divinus read diversus. 1. 14 read As to.
492 tr. the numeral 2 to the end of the paragraph, after axpt.
*493 dele last two lines, repeated by mistake, before Note*
512 1. 20 for i. read ii.
"517 See above my addendum from Greswell, on p. 44, adopting A.D. 61 as the probable
date of St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians ; consistently with Tacitus'' date of
the Laodicean earthquake.
536, 1. 16, read, class distinct, and generally earlier,
537, 1. 22, read, inscription or type.+ *537 Note, 1. 1 read negativing.
574 1. 26 read ordinally,) another partitive third. 594 Note 2 1. 4 dele2nd Edition)
f On the subject of the Roman horse and Mars, to the ancient medals bearing which
devices the Essay in this Appendix to which the Addendum belongs has reference, I have
since writing it read the remarks of Sign. Riccio, in his Book on the " Monete delle Antiche
Famiglie di Roma," pp. 264 — 268, 2nd Ed. Naples 1843 ; i. e. the same year as Genna-
relli's publication, though after it. And I see nothing in them to alter the conclusions
exprest about the medals in my Essay.
Riccio unites with Eckhel, Millingen, and other numismatists, in judging the district
of their coinage to have been Campania ; but Campania after its suJtjugation by the Romans
(p. 264), and when consequently the coinage there was in the hands of Roman authorities.
Further he considers the type of the horse to have been originally Campanian ; doubting
the Jesuit fathers' correctness (265) in ascribing the asses with similar type to Rome. But
Riccio offers no case of Campanian medals with the united types of Mars on one side, and
the horse, or horsed bust, on the other. Nor does he state any objection to Eckhel's explana
tion of the Roman coiners' reference, in this new combination of the types, to the Roman
horse-games and horse-sacrifices at Rome to Mars : which is all that my illustrative
use of the coins requires. — In Riccio's Tables, as in those of other numismatists, the
type of Rome helmeted on one side, and Mars driving his horse-biga or quadriga on the
other, are very common.
The judgments of Signors Visconti and Capranesi as to the Roman character of the
coins, noticed at p. 563, were exprest to me in 1848 in perfect cognizance of Sig. Riccio's
Book.

PRELIMINARY ESSAY

ON the genuineness and the date

OF THE APOCALYPSE OF ST, JOHN.

When a Book of any interest or importance is set before
us, there are two questions on which we may reasonably
wish and expect information, preliminarily to its perusal ;
— the 1st, Who is the writer ? the 2nd, When written ?
More especially this is the feeling, if the Work be one
that claims to be of divine inspiration ; so as in the case of
the Apocalypse. I purpose, therefore, in the present
preliminary Essay, to answer these two questions concern
ing it. The first is one that has obviously a most impor
tant bearing on the Book's inspiration, and consequently
on its claim to any true prophetic character ; the second,
as will hereafter appear, on its right interpretation.

Chap. I. — The writer of the Apocalypse.
Now on this point a ready answer seems at once to meet
the eye in the very text of the prophetic Book itself. For
the writer more than once enunciates his own name in it,
" John." 1 And the authority which the several contexts
imply to have attached to this John, — in one place from
1 So i. 4 ; " John to the seven churches " And / John saw the holy city, the new
which are in Asia, &c : " i. 9 ; " / John, Jerusalem," &c : xxii. 8 ; " And J John
who also am your brother and com- saw these things, and heard them."
panion in tribulation," &c : xxi. 2 ;
VOL. I. B

2 GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
the asserted fact of his being Christ's chosen medium for
receiving the revelation, and communicating it to the angels
or presiding bishops of the seven Asiatic Churches, — in
another from that of his pronouncing a blessing on those
several presiding bishops,1 — in another from the prophets
being spoken pointedly of as his brethren,2 — is such as
could scarcely belong to any one named John of less than
apostolic dignity : insomuch that the very genuineness of
the Book seems almost involved in the fact of its writer
being John the apostle. Nor will the corroborative evi
dence that the Apocalypse itself offers fail to strike the in
quirer, (an evidence acknowledged even by the superficial
and the prejudiced,) in the holiness and super-human sub
limity of the composition.3 — Should further evidence more
over be sought for, as desirable, the well-known corroborative
testimony of Irenceus will be found ready at hand to the
inquirer ; a testimony express and various times repeated,
as will presently appear, to the effect that the author of the
Apocalypse was indeed that beloved disciple, the Apostle
and Evangelist St. John.1 And considering Irenseus' own
very early era, relation to St. John, and character, —
that he was an Asiatic Greek, born nearly about the time
of St. John's death,5 that he was a disciple of Polycarp,
which latter was a disciple of St. John,6 — and that he was
1 Apoc. i. 4; "Grace be unto you than the original." I quote from Marsh's
and peace," &c. Now " without all Edition of Michaelis, (Cambridge Ed.
contradiction the less is blessed of the 1801) Vol. iv. pp. 533, 534. — The in-
better." stant and exceeding inferiority of the
2 Apoc. xxii. 9. Christian Fathers that followed on the
* In the word prejudiced I allude to apostolic age, considered in a literary
Michaelis more especially. His judg- point of view, will be presently noted
ment is given, as will be presently seen, and illustrated, as greatly enhancing the
against the genuineness of the Apoca- force of this argument.
lypse. Yet in the xth and concluding 4 The testimony of Irenajus will be
Section of his Critique, the subject of given afterwards, See p. 22.
which is the style of the Apocalypse, he 6 In Grabe's Prolegom. ad Irensum,
thus expresses himself : " The language the birth of this Father is placed about
of the Apocalypse is both beautiful and the year A. D. 108. Dodwell has placed
sublime, affecting and animating ; and it eleven years earlier, or at almost the
this not only in the original, but in precise date of the Apocalypse. See
every even the worst translation of it — Lardner, vol. ii. p. 166. (Ed. 1838.)
The Apocalypse has something in it 6 Let me illustrate this by the follow-
which enchants and insensibly inspires ing well known beautiful extract from a
the reader with the sublime spirit of the letter of IrenaBus himself, preserved by
author.— A great part of the imagery is Eusebius, and given in his E.H , 20
borrowed from the ancient prophets: " 1 saw you [Florinus], when I was
but the imitation is for the most part very young, in the lower Asia with Poly-
more beautiful and more magnificent carp.— For I better remember the affairs

CHAP. I.J GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. 3
moreover one of the most learned, as well as most devoted
of the Christian bishops of that age, — his testimony will
justly have been considered not only as of high authority,
but as almost in itself conclusive on the point in question :
indeed as altogether sufficient and conclusive, except in
case of the existence of some strong countervailing evi
dence. The fact is, however, that countervailing evidence of
this nature has been asserted to exist. The genuineness
of the Apocalypse has been questioned by ancient writers
of eminence in the Christian Church, as early at least as
the third century : more especially I may name Dionysius
of Alexandria. And it has been questioned too by mo
dern biblical critics of high reputation for learning and
candour; among whom Michaelis stands pre-eminent.
This renders it necessary that the point in question should
be more carefully looked into ; and the evidence, as well
against as for, examined in detail. At least it must be
done by him who would wish thoroughly to satisfy himself
on the grounds of our belief in the genuineness and divine
inspiration of the Apocalypse of St. John. — I purpose
therefore drawing out the evidence somewhat fully ; and
shall first, and with a view to the fairer conducting of the
inquiry, set before the reader the strength and substance
of the objections of these two writers, the most eminent
perhaps respectively of ancient and modern objectors.
With regard then to Dionysius, who was Bishop of Alex
andria about the middle of the third century,1 and the ear
liest impugner (at least earliest of any note) 2 of the apos-
ofthat time than those which have lately Polycarp related, agreeably to the Scrip-
happened ; the things which we learn in tures. These things I then, through the
our childhood growing up with the soul, mercy of God toward me, diligently
and uniting themselves to it. Insomuch heard and attended to ; recording them,
that I can tell the place in which the not on paper, but upon my heart. And
blessed Polycarp sate and taught ; and through the grace of God I continually
his going out and coming in ; and the renew the remembrance of them." —
manner of his life, and the form of his I copy Lardner's translation; Vol. ii.
person; and the discourses he made to p. 96.
the people ; and how he related his con- ' He died A. D. 264 or 265, according
versation with John, and others who had to Lardner. See his Vol. ii, p. 643.
seen the Lord ; and how he related their 2 Dionysius speaks of certain before
sayings, and what he had heard from him that had impugned it, but without
them concerning the Lord, both con- naming them. Tives p.ev aw rmv irpo
cerning his miracles and his doctrine, as i)\jluv ifivryaav ... to $i$hiov, &c. lb.
he had received them from the eye- p. 693. I shall presently speak of these
witnesses of the Word of Life. All which persons. B 2

4 GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
tolic authorship of the Apocalypse, this is most observable,
that he did not impugn its ascription to the Apostle John
on historical grounds. He did not allege the testimony
of any more ancient writer against it. He did not thus
argue (I borrow the language of Michaelis 1) : " It is not
preserved in the archives of the seven Asiatic Churches :
the oldest persons in those cities have no knowledge of its
having been sent thither : no one ever saw it during the
life of St. John : it was introduced in such and such a year,
and contradicted as soon as it appeared." It was simply
on critical grounds, and internal evidence, that he rested
his objection ; reasoning from certain marked differences
of style and diction between the Apostle John's Gospel
and Epistles on the one hand, and the Apocalypse of John
on the other. — Now the circumstance of an objector so
learned as Dionysius having thus failed to appeal to histo
rical evidence, and of certain previous but evidently rash
and intemperate objectors, to whom he alludes, having
equally failed to do so,2 (nor, led me add, is the case different
with any other patristic questioners of the apostolic author
ship of the Apocalypse in the two next centuries,3) consti
tutes, as Michaelis allows, a considerable,4 — I should say an
exceedingly strong argument, in favour of the high origin
in question. For had such counter-evidence existed at the
1 Chap, xxxiii. § 2. I cite, as before, title of the Book involved a falsehood; it
from Marsh's Translation, Vol. iv, p. 484. being called The Apocalypse or Revela-
2 His statement about them (H. E. tion, though most obscure. And they
vii. 25) is, that they set aside the Apoca- ascribed it to Cerinthus, simply because
lypse as the work of the heretic Cerin- that sectary advocated the doctrine of
thus. Tivis p.tv ovv rwtrpo npMV ifiernaav Christ's millennary reign on earth. —
Kai aveanevacrav iravry to BifiKiov Ka9' Yet, as Lardoer justly observes, (Vol- ii,
'eKarov KetpaKawv SicvBuvovtes, ayva)?ov p. 700) the Apocalypse directly contra-
T6 Kai arrv\Aoyts-ov mroipaivovTes' i^eu- diets Cerinthus' opinions on the most
Seo-flcu T6 tt)v emypacprii', \wavvov yap ova essential points. E. g. Cerinthus (as
eivai Aeyowrw a\\' ou5' airoKa\v\]nv eirai, Irenaeus tells us) denied that God made
ti\v oipoSpcp Kai trax^i icetcaAvup.wriPTcpTTis the world . the Apocalypse teaches the
ayvoias irapaireTao'p.ari' nai ovx dirais tuv direct contrary, chap. iv. 11, x. 6, &c.
airos-oXiov Ttva, BAA.' ou8' (Saws toiv kyiav, Again Cerinthus taught that Christ did
i\tw utto tjjs ekkatjctios, tovtov ytyoveva. not suffer, but only the man Jesus:
¦noi-nrnv too ypo.pp.aros, KripivQov S<=, . . . whereas the Apocalypse calls Jesus by
afroinrov sin<pt)tuo-ai Qt\i)o-avTa. r<p eciutoi the name Christ, speaks of him as the
ir\ao-p.a,Ti ovop.ee tovto yap nvai ttjs Si- first begotten of the dead, and adds that
oao-KaKtas avtou to Soy pa, eirtytiov eo-e- he washed us from our sins in his own
irBai rnv too Xpirov f3aari\eiai>. Thus the blood. — Dionysius' case was certainly
sum of their objections was, 1st, that not helped by such reasoners.
the Book was, generally speaking, unin 3 Especially Eusebius. Seep. 28 infra.
telligible and irrational ; 2ndly, that the 4 Ibid. p. 484.

CHAP. I.J GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE.

time, I cannot but believe that he would have alleged it.
— As to Dionysius' grand critical argument,1 just before
stated, he who has marked the difference of style in the
case of other sacred writers, when simply writing history,
and when rapt by the Spirit into the enunciation of pro
phecy, (I might exemplify this in the cases of Moses,
Isaiah, and St. Peter,2) will easily perceive the danger of
deciding a question of identity of authorship simply on
such grounds, and without the corroboration of external
evidence: — not to add that there are observable certain
remarkable points of similarity 3 (as well as of dissimilarity)

1 His objections are thus summed up
by Lardner, Vol. ii, p. 719 : —
1. The Evangelist John has not named
himself, either in his Gospel, or in his
Catholic Epistles : but the writer of the
Apocalypse names himself more than
once. 2. The writer of the Apocalypse,
though calling himself John, has not
shown us that he was the apostle of that
name. 3. The Apocalypse does not mention
the Catholic Epistle, nor that Epistle the
Apocalypse. 4. There is a great agreement in sen
timent, expression, and manner between
St. John's Gospel and his Epistle; but the
Apocalypse is quite different in all these
respects, and without any similitude.
5. The Greek of the Gospel and Epis
tle is pure and correct ; that of the
Apocalypse has barbarisms and solecisms.
It is evident that the whole strength of
Dionysius' case consists in the two last
objections. As to the others it will
suffice to test and refute them by parallel
cases. Because St. Paul names himself
in other Epistles, not in that to the

Hebrews, is he therefore not the author
of the last-named Epistle ? Because St.
James in his Epistle styles himself simply
" a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus
Christ" (James i. 1), not an apostle, is
he therefore not the apostle James ?
Because St. John does not in his second
and third Epistles name the first, is he
therefore not the writer of the first ?
And the same of St. Paul's silence in
each one of his Epistles about all the rest
of the Epistles written by him.
2 Compare the diction of looses' song
(Deut. xxxii) with the simply written
history which constitutes almost the
whole of Moses's compositions ; Isaiah's
historical chapters, xxxvi and xxxvii,
with the more poetical and impassioned
of his poetic prophecies ; and the second
chapter of St. Peter's 2nd Epistle, with
all his first Epistle. In fact the difference
of style and diction in this last case ap
peared such to Grotius, that he has
argued from it (though vainly) a different
authorship to the one Epistle and the
other. See Macknight's Preface to St.
Peter's 2nd Epistle.

3 These have been drawn out by Mr. Twells and others.
from Mr. Twells by Lardner, ii. 710 — 714.

I subjoin a few, cited

1. In the Apocalypse (xix. 13) Christ
is called, " The Word of God."

2. In the Apocalypse Christ is called
" The Lamb," (v. 6, 12, vii. 17, xiv. 1,
&c. &c.) apviav.

1. In St. John's Gospel (i. 1, 14,)
Christ is styled " The Word," and in his
first Epistle (i. 1 ) " The Word of Life ;"*
and there only in the Bible.
2. In John's Gospel Christ is called
" The Lamb of God," (i. 29, 36), 6 upvos
too 06ou. (To which I may add the ap
plication of the type of the paschal lamb
to him, John xix. 36; "A bone of it

* 1 John v. 7, " The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost," might be added, but
that the genuineness of the passage is suspected, and indeed more than doubtful.

6 GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
between the writings thus brought into comparison ; indeed
such as to make Michaelis suggest in explanation the idea
of the Apocalyptic phraseology being in these points a
forged imitation of that of St. John's Gospel.1 — In similar
manner the Evangelist's Apocalyptic Hebraisms may be
accounted for by reference to his very natural adoption of
much of the language and style, as well as figures, of the
old Hebrew prophets, when under the prophetic afflatus :
besides that the hypothesis is at least possible, in the ab
sence of direct contradicting testimony, of his domicilia-

3. In the Apocalypse Christ is called
" He that is true," " He that is faithful
and true." (iii. 7, xix. 11).
4. In Apoc. ii. 17 Christ says, " To
him that overcometh will 1 give to eat of
the hidden manna."
5. In Apoc. i. 7, Zechariah's prophecy
(xii. 10) is referred to ; " Every eye
shall see Him, and they also who pierced
Him."

* Sept. E7ri/3AeipocToi irpos p.e avB' liv
KaTapxyaavTo. With which compare, —
John xix. 37 ; Oifroprai eis iv e£eKev-
Trtaav and,
Apoc. i. 7 ; Oi^erat avrov iras oip6a\-
p.os, Kai olrives avrov e^eKevTijtrav.
As an example of similar construction
and phrase, also urged by Mr- Twells, I
may select the expression " to keep the
words," or "word" rnpeiv \oyovs, or
\oyov, occurring in Apoc. iii. 8, 10, xxii.
7, 9 ; but which occurs no where else in
the New Testament, except in St. John's
Gospel, viii. 51, 52, 55, xiv. 23, 24, xv.
20, xvii. 6, and his Epistle, 1 John ii. 5.
— Michaelis (ibid.) adds that the similar
but antithetical phrases iroitw a\n9eiav
and iroieu' <J/6i>8os are used, the one 1 Ep.
John i. 6, the other Apoc. xxii. 15. — Let
me suggest further the correspondence
of the OKnvwo-ei eir' avruvs and o-Knv&o-et
ptr' avTwv of Apoc. vii. 15, xxi. 3 with
the eo-K-nvaioev ev 1/p.iv of John i. 14 ; a
figurative verb not found in any other
books of the New Testament : also that

shall not be broken.") The only other
passages in the New Testament where
Christ is called the Lamb, are Acts viii.
32, 1 Peter i. 19.
3. In St. John's Gospel and Epistle,
Christ is called " He that is true,"
" Pull of truth," " The truth;" i. 14,
xiv. 6, 1 John v. 20.
4. In John vi. 31, 49, 58 the spiritual
food that Christ gives his disciples to
eat is spoken of with reference to the
type of manna.
5. In John's Gospel (xix. 37) the
same prophecy of Zechariah is referred
to (and in it alone of all the Gospels) ;
" Again another scripture saith, They
shall look on him whom they pierced."
Michaelis (p. 535), in quoting the
above, observes justly that Mr. Twells
has not given to this example of parallel
ism all the force he might : because in
the Apocalypse the quotation from Ze
chariah is made not according to the text
of the Septuagint ; * but with a certain
different Greek rendering, the very same
that occurs in St. John's Gospel citation.
in Apoc. xviii. 24 the true reading,
according to Griesbach and Scholz, is
a'lpara in the plural (ec outjj aipara
¦npo$i)Taiv eupefljj) ; which somewhat re
markable use of the word, though not
very infrequent in the Septuagint, is
found, I believe, no where else in the
New Testament except in St. John's
Gospel, i. 13, Of ovk ej aipuvrwr, &c.
1 " These instances will not prove that
the Apocalypse was written by St. John
the apostle : for the author of it may in
some instances have imitated St. John's
manner, in order to make his work pass
the more easily for the composition of
St. John." Ibid.— Strange that Michaelis
could imagine the possibility of such a
forgery ; and this too at such a time as
he supposes, viz. A. D. 120.

CHAP. I.J GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. 7
tion in Greek Asia having occurred late in life ; and his
publication of the Apocalypse been made first, of the Epis
tles and Gospel afterwards.1 — Nor let me here omit to ob
serve that Dionysius himself, though incredulous as to the
Apostle John being the author of the Apocalypse, had yet
the conviction, — in part derived from the holy character of
the book itself, in part from its general reception in the
Christian Church, • — that it was the writing of a holy man
of that name, indeed of one inspired by God.2
It is Michaelis' judgment, however, that there exists,
over and above the internal evidence alleged by Dionysius,
direct historic evidence also against the fact of the beloved
disciple having been the writer of the Apocalypse ; and
indeed against its divine inspiration. Referring to the two
earliest of the fathers, Ignatius and Papias, — authors co-
temporary with St. John in his old age, and whose writ
ings must be dated very soon after his death, — he alleges,
that the former in his Epistles still extant, though address
ing in them three out of the seven Apocalyptic Churches,
viz. those of Smyrna, Ephesus, and Philadelphia, does yet
take no notice of anything written to those Churches in
the Apocalypse ; and that the latter, notwithstanding his
well-known and strong advocacy of the doctrine of a Mil
lennium, does yet, according to Eusebius, ground it only
on unwritten tradition from the Apostles, and (as if he
were either ignorant of, or disbelieved that book's divine
authority) not on the Apocalypse of St. John.3 — Thus, on
the whole, Michaelis inclines to conclude that this book is
a spurious production ; introduced into the world after St.

1 Of the Apocalypse, as most allow, fiaoiws av avvBoipnv tovtov eivai rov
(see my next chapter) A. D. 96 ; of the cra-os-oAoc, tov hop ZegeSoiou, top aSt\<pov
Gospel, as Mill and others, A. D. 97 ; of laKiofiov ou to evayyehiov to Kara Icoav-
the Epistles, as Basnage, A.D. 98. — St. vnv eiriytypappevov, Kai r) eiriTOKi) i)
John is supposed, not without reason, to KaBoXiKn. Apud Euseb. H. E. viii. 25.
have remained in Judaea, till near the Eusebius further quotes Dionysius a
formation of the siege of Jerusalem : and, little after as admitting the writer's pro-
after this, may he not have long sojourned phetic character, <=i\-n<pevai irpo<pi)Ttiav
among the Syrian or Parthian converted owe avnpw and he also tells us, ibid. 10,
Jews, before settling in Proconsular that Dionysius, in a then extant letter
Asia ; though that is generally dated of his, referred to the prophecy of the
earlier? See Macknight's Pref. to the Beast in Apoc. xiii, as fulfilled in Vale-
Epistles of St. John, § i. 5. rian's persecution of the Church.
2 ' Ay iov p.iv yap eivai rivos Kai Beo- 3 Chap, xxxiii § 2, pp. 462 — 466, and
irvcvroe ovvaivur it being added, On p.r\v again p. 486.

8 GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
John's death, about the year 120, and between the times
of Papias' and Justin Martyr's writings.1
Such is the substance of the chief objections of these
two objectors. And I cannot but at once remark with re
ference to them, that it is plain that both Dionysius (with
his followers) in his time, and also Michaelis in his, con
ducted their inquiries not without a very considerable
though perhaps unconscious bias a priori against the point
at issue, — I mean the genuineness and apostolical origin
of the Apocalypse.2 Its millennary doctrine could not but
prejudice the Alexandrian Bishop against it : considering
that he was not only himself a strong anti-millennarian in
sentiment, but that it was in the act of writing against
Millennarians that he pronounced judgment against the
genuineness of the Apocalypse.3 Again, the failure of
expositors, in Michaelis' judgment, to show any thing like
a clear fulfilment of the Apocalyptic prophecies, — which
yet, if the book were genuine and therefore inspired, ought,
he was persuaded, to have been long ere this in great part
fulfilled,4 — operated, it seems evident, quite as powerfully
to prejudice the German critic.5 — Now the ungrounded-
ness of these presumptions will, I hope, be made soon ap
parent. I trust in the ensuing historical Exposition of the
Apocalypse to prove, on such evidence as may satisfy
even the cautious and severe examiner, that its predictions
have indeed been fulfilled, and that with exactitude very
remarkable. Moreover I may perhaps, ere its conclusion,
be enabled to show that much of the objection felt by Dio
nysius and others, alike in ancient and modern times,
against the millennary doctrine, has been founded in mis-
1 Ibid. pp. 466, 484, 487, 528. must have made him partial." Must
2 For its apostolicity, as all will allow, not then the anti-millennarian views of
involves its divine inspiration. Dionysius, by parity of reason, have made
3 See the account in Eusebius, H. E. him prejudiced against it?
vii. 25 ad init. 4 " If these prophecies are not yet
In illustration of what a bias such a fulfilled, it is wholly impossible that the
man must be expected to have felt, let Apocalypse should be a divine work ;
me cite a passage from Michaelis (p, since the author expressly declares that
466) about the Millennarian Papias. it contains things which must shortly
" If Papias really knew and received the come to pass." ii. 503.
Apocalypse," argues the German critic, 6 See Michaelis' recurrence to the fact
"he is by no means an important wit- of this universal failure of Expositors,
ness in its favour ; because it is a book (according to his judgment) in Sections
to which his millennarian principles i, v, vii of the same Chapter xxxiii.

CHAP. I.J GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. 9
conception. For the present it may suffice to repeat that
what has been stated shows the importance, as was before
said, of our looking more accurately and particularly into
the actual historical evidence, — whether against or for, —
on the point in question: especially into such evidence as
those three half centuries may furnish that elapsed next
after the publication of the Apocalypse : that is, in the in
terval from near the end of the first century, (such will be
proved our commencing date in the second Chapter of this
Essay,) to the time of Dionysius, about the middle of the
third. The which division of the interval into three half-centu
ries offers, I think, a very convenient chronological classi
fication of the Christian fathers and authors, whose testi
monies to the Apocalypse of John we have to' investigate.
Nor will any but the first cause the least difficulty, or detain
us long.
I. As to the primary half-century, ranging from A.D.
96 to about A.D. 150, it comprehends the last of those
apostolic men who conversed, or might probably have con
versed, with the apostles, viz. Ignatius, Polycarp, Papias ;
as well as one of very different and inferior authority, whom
it may be well at once to examine and despatch, I mean
Hermas.
1. I speak of the work of Hermas in this manner, under
a full conviction of the correctness of Dr. Burton's judg
ment 1 both to its age and character : — its age as not long
before the middle of the second century ; its character as
most probably that of a spurious publication, palmed on the
Christian Church, agreeably with a custom already at that
time too prevalent, under the name of Hermas, a compa
nion of St. Paul.2 Hence, even though the evidence of
1 History of the Christian Church, apostles." So too Mosheim ii. 2. 3. 15.
chap. x. p- 203. (Ed. 1840.) The passage in which a certain Her-
2 Dr. Burton says that it cannot in- mas is mentioned, as one of St. Paul's
deed now be ascertained that such was friends and companions, occurs in his
the case in the Book of Hermas. But, Epistle to the Romans, xvi. 14; " Sa-
he adds, " It is certain that many spu- lute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas," &c.
rious publications were circulated at this — The earliest extant quotation of the
period, which professed to have been Book of the Pseudo-Hermas is by /re
written by apostles, or companions of the osus, Adv. Haereses, Lib. iv.

10 GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
the writer's acquaintance with the Apocalypse of St. John
be, as I think it is, conclusive, and indeed of his borrowing
from, it just in the same manner that he does from the older
and undoubted canonical scriptures of the New Testament,1

1 So Lardner, Vol. ii. Chap. iv. p. 70,
&c. Indeed the evidence seems to me
even stronger than Lardner has repre
sented it. And as Dean Woodhouse,
under the singular impression that Her
mas' work was published before the
Apocalypse of St. John, perhaps as early
as A. D. 75, (albeit, as Lardner observes,
p. 59, there is a sentence in the book
itself which speaks of the apostles as
being all then dead,*) has in his Pre
liminary Essay expressed an opinion that
no such evidence is apparent, it may be
useful if I subjoin a notice of two no
table points of parallelism to that effect.
1st, there are repeated references to a
certain well-known great tribulation, as
at hand, indeed the great tribulation.
So Vis. ii. 2 (Wake, p. 343) ; t " Happy
ye, as many as shall endure the great
trial that is at hand;" Lat. pressuram
supervenientem magnam : and again ibid
344 ; " Thou wilt say, Behold there is a
great trial coming ; " Lat. Ecce magna
tribulatio venit. Now this cannot be the
great tribulation noted in Christ's pro
phecy of the destruction of Jerusalem,
Matt. xxiv. 21; because that was to
happen to the Jews ; this, which Hermas
speaks of, to Christians. Moreover that
it was to be one great kot' e£oxnv, ap
pears from Hermas' referring to former
persecutions in which Christians had
suffered unto death. And what then
this expected great tribulation, and where
predicted ? It can hardly, I think, be
any other than the one predicted in Rev.
vii. 14, " These are they that are to come
out of the great tribulation;" en tjjs
BMtyews ttjs p.tya\iis. This view of it
seems confirmed by what is said in the
vision next following, Vis. iv. 1 ; " I saw
an emblem of the tribulation now at
hand ; " figuram tribulationis superven-
turee ; the emblem being one of " a
great Beast," huge as a whale, with four

colours, black, red, golden, and white,
on his head, and " fiery locusts coming
out of his mouth." " This Beast (361)
is the figure of the trial that is about to
come : and again, 362, " Here ye have
the figure of the great tribulation that is
about to come." Now, in the Apoca
lypse, in similar manner, after mention
of the great coming tribulation, there
appears a great red dragon seeking to
swallow up the woman, the true Church ;
and again a vast ten-horned wild beast,
the enemy of the saints. And the very
colours of the head of Hermas' beast
may not improbably have been borrowed
in chief part from the colours of the four
Apocalyptic horses (white, fiery-coloured,
black, pale) ; and the fiery locusts coming
out of his mouth, from the imagery of
the fifth and sixth Trumpets, — the lo
custs from the abyss in the one, and the
fire from the mouths of the horses in the
other. (This parallelism has not been
noted by Lardner.)
2ndly, as Lardner observes, there is the
parallelism between Hermas' tower and
the Apocalyptic city, the New Jerusalem.
— In either case the seer was carried into
a high mountain to see it (Wake 428,
Apoc. xxi. 10); — either is square
(Wake, 429, Apoc. xxi. 16) : — the stones
alike of the one and the other are re
splendent, and the tower and the city
each shining as the sun (Wake, 438,
448, Apoc. xxi. 11, 23) :— the founda
tions in either case (at least Hermas' in
part) are the apostles (Wake 350, 446,
Apoc xxi. 14) : — the tower of Hermas
is the woman the Church, (Wake, 349,)
as the New Jerusalem is the Church, the
Bride, Apoc. xxi. 9, 10: — they who were
to enter the tower had crowns of palms,
and white garments, and the seal or
name of the Son of God (Wake, 418, 423,
447) ; just as they that were the saved
in the Apocalypse (and who were to

* Simil. ix. 16: "These apostles and teachers, who preached the name of the
Son of God, dying after they had received his faith and power, preached to them
who were dead before." So Archbishop Wake's Translation. The Latin is ; " Hi
apostoli, &c. co.m defuncti essent, prsedicaverunt illis qui ante obierunl," &c. Bibl.
Patr. Max. ii. 43. f Ed, 1817.

CHAP. I.J GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. 11
yet this will little help us in our present inquiry; Michaelis'
theory, which we have to refute, being that the Apocalypse
was a forgery published after St. John's death, somewhere
between the time of Papias and that of Justin Martyr,
(perhaps about A.D. 120,1) and consequently early enough
for the soi-disant Hermas to have become acquainted with
it : while the mere judgment of this writer, as to what was
truly inspired scripture, and what was not, is of very little
weight. — But in another point of view I deem the work
eminently to our purpose, and on that account indeed have
made this mention of it : viz. as showing us what kind of
forgery of a sacred Book of Visions and Revelations the
Christian writers of that age were capable of, almost at
their best ; this being one very highly esteemed by the
early Church. To a candid and sensible man, wanting
time or opportunity for examining into the direct historic
evidence of the genuineness and divine inspiration of John's
Apocalypse, I scarce could advise anything, I think, more
calculated to produce presumptive belief in its favor, than
simply that he should read one after the other, even if it
were but for the space of one brief half-hour, the Revelations
of Hermas and the Revelation of St. John.
2. 1 proceed to Ignatius, the venerable Bishop of Antioch,
ordained, it has been thought, to that See by the hands
of apostles, somewhere about A.D. 70, or a little before
the destruction of Jerusalem ;2 and who, after some thirty
or forty years' faithful labour in the Church, suffered mar
tyrdom, A.D. 107, or rather 1 15 or 1 16, under Trajan.3 —
walk in the light of the New Jerusalem) 2 Lardner, Vol. ii. pp. 73, 74. For
had the seal or name of God on their example, Chrysostom (as cited in Lard-
foreheads, were clothed in white robes, ner) says that Ignatius conversed fami-
and had crowns of gold, and palms in liarly with the apostles, was perfectly
their hands. — Apoc. vii. 3, 9, 10, xxi. 24. acquainted with their doctrine, and had
It is to be observed that Hermas (as the hands of the apostles laid upon him.
Lardner has remarked) makes no express 3 Eusebius places the death of Ignatius
citations from any of the Books of the in the tenth year of Trajan, i. e. A.D.
New Testament, or indeed of the Old 1 07 ; in which Dupin, Tillemont, Cave,
Testament. " It was not," says Lard- and Lardner follow him. Others, as
ner, p. 59, " suitable to the nature of Bishop Pearson, Pagi, and Le Clerc, date
his writing to quote books." His use of it a little later, about A.D. 116. Seethe
the Apocalyptic visions is just similar to argument on this point in Lardner, pp.
his use of, and reference to, some of the 74, 77. — If we are to believe the Acts or
parables in St. Matthew, and other Martyrdom of Ignatius, relating that Ig-
scriptures. natius was condemned by Trajan himself
1 See supra, p. 8. at Antioch, then we have numismatic

12 GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
It was in the course of a forced and hurried journey from
Antioch to Rome, the scene of his martyrdom by wild
beasts, that he wrote Epistles, and, as it has been generally
supposed, the same substantially that are still extant, to
the Ephesian Christians, the Magnesians, Trallians, Ro
mans, Philadelphians, Smyrneans, and Polycarp.1 And Mi
chaelis makes this, as we have seen, one of the two strong
grounds of his disbelief of the genuineness of the Apoca
lypse, that Ignatius, in these Epistles of the probable date
of A.D. 107, makes ho mention of the book ; and conse
quently seems either not to have known it, or at least not
to have recognized it as holy Scripture : his non-reference
to it being the more remarkable, forasmuch as it had been
published, according to ecclesiastical tradition, in the very
locality of those churches which he was addressing ; and
this only some ten years, or a little more, according to the
same tradition, before the time when he wrote.2
Now it is not without reason that Dean Woodhouse3
calls attention to the circumstances under which Ignatius
wrote these Epistles, " a prisoner, guarded by soldiers,
whom from their ferocity he compares to leopards, and by
them hurried forward in his passage to Rome." In such
circumstances it is to be expected, the Dean adds, that he
would write with perpetual interruptions, and his quotations
depend for the most part on memory. Besides which we
have to bear in mind Lardner's remark4 on Ignatius' usual
mode of reference to the Books of the New Testament ; as
made almost always by allusion only, or unacknowledged
adoption of their language : St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephe-
sians being the one and only Book expressly named by him.
— This premised, the Dean suggests the following two
passages5 from Ignatius, as passages in which he judges the
evidence, as Eckhel shews in his Vol. vi. xlvi : which last writer has abridged from
p. 452, that this must have been in the Bishop Pearson.
year 1 14 A.D. 2 See my next Chapter on the date of
the Apocalypse.
1 See the evidence drawn out in the 3 Woodhouse, p. 13, 2nd Edition.
Preliminary Dissertations prefixed to the 4 Lardner, p. 78.
Epistles of Ignatius, in Pearson's or 6 He gives a third also; which, how-
Smith's Editions of them in the original, ever, as grounded on a needless and en-
m Wake's Apostolic Fathers, p. 31, &c. tirely unauthorized correction of caU1
or Chevalier's Translation of the Epistles into Anoi, it is not worth the while to
of Clement, Polycarp, and Ignatius, p. quote.

CHAP. I.J GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE.

13

language to have been borrowed from the Apocalyptic ex
tracts that I have placed in the parallel column ; and so
borrowed as from one of the sacred Books.

Ignat. ad Rom. ad fin.
Ep vnoiiovr) Inoov Xptarov.
Ignat. ad Ephes. § 9.
AiQoi vaov Uarpos ijToip.a<rpevoi eis
oiKooopiijv ®eov, .... Kara irai/Ta KtKoa-
p-npevot epToAois lVCOV XpiOTOV.

Apoc. i. 9.
Ev biropiovn lijfrov Xpiarov.
Apoc. xxi. 2, 19.
Tijv iro\iv tt\v ayiav , . . KaTa&atvovoav
airo TOO 06OU, . . . TjToipacpieviiv &S VVpKpljV
KeKOffpiijpevnv rep avSpi avrijs.
Kai ii Bepe\ioi too reixovs tijs iro\ews
iravri KiBtp Ttpup KeKoop.ijp.svoi.

Besides these, Mr. J. C. Knight, in a late little Publi
cation,1 has suggested a third case of parallelism.

Ignat. ad Philadelph. § 6.
" If they do not speak concerning
Jesus Christ, Svroi spot oTijKai eiaiv (Kai
ratpoi) 2 vcKpav, e<p" ols yeypairrat povov
ovopiara avBpcQirwv.

Apoc. iii. 12 ; Ep. to the Philadel
phian Church.
*0 vikwv iroiiprto avrov arv\ov ev rip
vaoj too Qeov p.ov' Kai ypayj/u e7r' avrov
to ovopa rov ®sov piov.

Of which examples it seems to me that the first may
certainly be regarded as a case of language probably bor
rowed from the Apocalypse. For the parallelism is exact ;
and this in respect of a phrase not usual, and which does
not occur in that precise form any where else in the New
Testament.3 — The other two seem to me more doubtful.
In the second the reference suggests itself more readily to
1 Peter ii. 5, "Ye also, as living stones, (\1801 gWre?) are
built up a spiritual house ;" or to a similar passage in Paul's
Epistle to the Ephesians.4 Dean Woodhouse urges however
that Ignatius' two specified particulars about the persons
figured as temple-stones, viz. — of being prepared for God's

1 Entitled, " Two New Arguments in
Vindication of the Genuineness and Au
thenticity of the Revelation of St. John."
2 Omitted in Mr. K.'s citation as par
enthetical. 3 The peculiar use of the genitive must
be observed. It does not designate the
persons exercising this patience, so as in
Luke xxi. 19, Ev rn viropovri vpiov, " In
your patience possess your souls ; " and
as also in 2 Thess. i. 4, Apoc. ii. 2, xiv.
12, &c : — nor is it a genitive expressive
of the sufferings which their patience
had to endure ; as in 2 Cor. i. 6, ev imo-
piovji rav avrav iraBitparuv <iv Kai iipets
iraoxonev. But it is the genitive of an

object patiently waited for. Of which use
of the genitive with viropovn there is only
one other example, viz. in 2 Thess. iii.
5 ; " The Lord direct your hearts into
the love of God, and eis imopovnv lijaov
Xpiarov, into the patient waiting for
Christ : " where, however, the case is
different, being the accusative, not ab
lative. 4 Ephes. ii. 20, 21 ; "Being built on
the foundation of the apostles and pro
phets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief corner-stone; in whom all the
building (oiKoSopif), fitly framed toge
ther, groweth unto a holy temple in the
Lord."

14 GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. [pRELIM. ESSAY
building, and adorned with Christ's commands, — cannot be
referred to either of these two passages. But neither is it
the case in the Apocalyptic passage that the temple-stones
are spoken of as so prepared or so adorned. — As to the
third, Mr. Knight urges it as a case of antithetical paral
lelism ; and one the more observable, because occurring in
Ignatius' Epistle to the same Philadelphian Church to
which the Apocalyptic passage had been addressed. It had
been a promise in the Apocalyptic Epistle, " Him that
overcometh I will make a pillar in the temple of God ; and
upon him, (or it, arvXov,) shall be written the name of my
God, and the name of the city of my God :" — a promise
partially indicative of even the present state and character
of them that might rightfully appropriate it among the
Philadelphian Christians ; their reward being its glorious
and everlasting completeness and perfection. But what of
false professors and teachers in the Church, such as Igna
tius was referring to ? They were not, nor would be living
pillars in the living temple of God : and on them there
was not, and would not be, written the name of God- Ra
ther they were the very antithesis and contrast of the
Apocalyptic figure ; which consequently may be supposed
to have been in the writer's mind. They were but " sepul
chral pillars, and upon them were written only the names
of men." — Such is Mr. Knight's argument ; and but for
existence of the words xat roupoi, which he omits, it might
perhaps have been sustainable. For then the word " only,"
prefixed to " the names of men" might not unnaturally
have been deemed an antithetic allusion in Ignatius' mind
to the Apocalyptic figure of pillars written with the name
of God. But, as it is, the intended force of the word seems
to be, that Ignatius regarded the heretical teachers spoken
of, though professedly Christians, as having only the name
to live, not the reality of life.1
Let me add two other passages, that have struck me in
my own perusal of the generally received Epistles of Igna
tius, as containing in them that which looks more like a
reference to the Apocalypse.— The first is from his Epistle
1 Vossius compares the Roman knight Laberius' saying about himself; " Sepulchri
simuis nihil nisi nomen retineo."

CHAP. I.J GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. 15
to the Trallians, § 3 ; where he charges them to reverence
the Bishops like Jesus Christ the Son of the Father, (so
I read the clause with Bishop Pearson,)1 and the presbyters
as the sanhedrim of God, Trpea^vrepovg »? avve^ptov Qeov :
an expression certainly remarkable, and which we may not
unnaturally conceive to have had allusion to the Apoca
lyptic imagery of the twenty-four presbyters, that appeared
in vision seated ev aweSpiw, round the throne of God and of
the Lamb 2 — Secondly, in the same Epistle to the Trallians,
he speaks of a true member of the Church of Christ under
the figure of being one " within the altar," evroc -rov dvaia-
a-rrjptov ; and of him that did not really belong to it as
" without the altar," ex-™?.3 Now this is the characteristic
figure of the true Christian Church (as we shall see strik
ingly illustrated in the course of the ensuing Commentary)
in the Book of the Apocalypse. So especially Apoc. xi.
2 ; " Rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar,
and them that worship in it : but the court that is without
the temple, cast out ; for it is given to the Gentiles." In
either passage, — both that of Ignatius and that of the Apo
calypse, — the word altar seems used to include the altar-
court ; 4 in either the figure of worshipping within the
1 'Ojuoimr iravres evrpiTccrBatrav .... Apoc. iv. 4." This will confirm my ar-
rov eiriffKoirov us Inflow Xparrov, ovra gument.
vtov rov Tlarpos, tovs 8e irpe<rl3vTepovs cos 3 'O svtos tou Bvcrtacmipiov wv KaBapos
avvedpiov &eov. So too, if I recollect *gti . . . . 6 8e cktos wv ov KaBapos eoriv,
rightly, Cotelerius. In the last clause, &c, § 7. — With which compare the simi-
about the presbyters, there is no differ- lar figurative expression in Ignatius*
ence of reading. Epist. ad Ephes. § 5 ; Eco* pn tis ii svtos
Somewhat similar expressions occur tou Bvoiaorijpiov uorepeiTai too aprov too
elsewhere in Ignatius' Epistles. So e. g. ®€ov. Where the apros seems to be the
in his Ad Magnes. 6 ; TlpoKaBijpevov too shew-bread of the Jewish temple, figura-
emovcoirou eis roirov ®eov, Kai ruv irpea- tively applied to signify the Christian's
f3vrepa>v eis roirov re cvveopiov ruv airoa- bread of life.
to\uv. Also ib. 13, Too aj-ioirptireoTaTov 4 Ignatius' meaning to this effect is
cirioKotrov, Kai irvevpiariKov arecpavov too illustrated by the following from his
irpeaflvrepiov where orecpavov is, 1 sup- Epist. ad Magnes. § 7 ; Tlavres ovvjis eis
pose, in the sense of kvkAov. vaov avvTpextre &eov, us eni hv Bvaiaarn-
2 Apoc. iv. 4. — On Cyprian's expres- piov, us mi eva 1-ncrovv Xpiorov and a
sion, Epist. i, " Presbyteri qui nobis as- passage in Clem. Alex. Strom, vii ; Eon
sidebant," the commentator (Oxford Ed. to Trap' iip.iv Bvaiaar-npiov tvravBa, to
1682) quotes the passage from Ignatius' eiriyeiov, to aBpoitrpa tuv tois eux?n
Ep. ad Magnes. § 13, given in the note avaKeipevav, p.iav damp ex0" <puvijv rnv
preceding, and then thus remarks : koivt\v, Kai ptav yvup,i\v.
" Theodor. \. 3, docet quod 6 p.eaos It is to be observed that in Ignatius'
Bukos ad Episcopum pertineat ; imo viri time, and for some time afterwards, the
eruditi ad hunc episcopi in cleri medio word BvaiaaTnpiov, or altar, was only used
sedendi morem trahunt quae habentur as a. figure from the Jewish ritual. It

16 GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
altar-court to signify true church-membership. The figure
here too is certainly remarkable ; nor do I think of any
other passage in the New Testament that could so well
have suggested it to Ignatius.1
Such are the parallelisms that suggest themselves, (and
others might perhaps be added,2) as fit to be taken into
consideration, on the supposition long and generally enter
tained of the genuineness of the seven above-mentioned
Epistles of Ignatius. And I think them at least sufficient
to weaken the force, and throw doubt on the validity, of
the Ignatian argument urged by Michaelis against the apos-
tolicity of the Apocalypse ; as if a book unknown to, or
unacknowledged by, the venerable writer of the epistles. —
Since the publication however of my first Edition of the
Horse, Mr. Cureton has given to the world a translation of
an ancient and trustworthy Syriac version of Ignatius'
Epistles : which edition, out of all the seven, only recog
nizes the three epistles to the Romans, the Ephesians, and
Polycarp as genuine ; and from out even of them re
jects considerable portions. — Now, if this Syriac version
really give us all the genuine Epistles of Ignatius, then
our Apocalyptic argument is thus affected. 1st, the fewer
and shorter his epistles, by so much is the argument weaker,
that is derivable from their silence (if silent they be) about
it, for Ignatius' non-recognition of the Apocalypse. 2ndly,
was not till some time after, and as Me ayany xapaxriipa ®eov Harpos [exov<"l>
apostacy was developed, that the term may be compared with what is said of
was adopted and applied to the commu- persons having the mark of the Beast,
nion tables of the Christian Churches, and others having God the Father's mark,
That they were not in the primitive in Apoc. xiii. 16, xiv. 1.
Church, says Suicer on ®v<riaoTi\piov, is I have in the above only referred to
" meridiand luce clarius." And so Lard- the seven Epistles that have , been
ner, iv. 212, from Basnage. hitherto almost universally acknowledged
1 1 Cor. ix. 13, "They that wait at the to be genuine Epistles of Ignatius. In
altar are partakers with the altar," said another more doubtful, that to the
of Christian ministers' right to a suste- Christians of Tarsus, (which, however,
nance, and Heb. xiii. 10, " We have an Bellarmine and other Roman Doctors
altar whereof they have no right to eat receive as genuine,) there occurs a direct
which serve the tabernacle," said of recognition of the John that wrote the
Christians generally, — are little com- Apocalypse as the Apostle John, in the
paratively to the purpose. passage following : " Quid unquam? Pe-
2 E. g. the following passage from trus crucifixus est ; Paulus et Jacobus
Ignatius' Epistle to the Magnesians, § 5, gladio caesi sunt; Johannes vera relega-
'ncrirep coti vopurpara Svo, to pev ®eov, tus est in Pathmo." I cite from the
to Se KOapov, Kai eKaarov avruv loiov Latin Translation in the Bibl. Patr. Max.
XapaKT-npa ewtKfipevov exEI, [ovrus] 6i Vol. ii. p. 102 ; not having access to the
airioToi tov icocrpov tovtov, Si Se wiotoi ev original Greek.

CHAP. I.J GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. 17
the Apocalyptic parallelism cited from Ignatius' Epistle to
the Romans is found in the Syriac, as well as the Greek.
3dly, the other suggested Apocalyptic parallelisms, if such
they be, though not Ignatian, must yet be referred to some
pseudo-Ignatius of perhaps no very much later date ; and
are therefore so far valid.
3. I now pass on to Polycarp. And though in his own
very brief Epistle to the Philippians, — the only writing of
his now extant, — we cannot trace allusion to St. John's
Apocalypse, any more than to St. John's Gospel, or sundry
other acknowledged books of the New Testament, yet in
the Narrative of his Martyrdom, written by the Smyrnean
Church over which he presided immediately after that event,
we can trace it ; and, as Lardner justly observes,1 the tes
timony of his Church then given, may be considered as
Polycarp's own testimony. And first Woodhouse cites the
following case of borrowing from the Apocalypse.

In Polycarp's Martyrdom,
the body of the suffering martyr is re
presented,
ovk cos aap£ Kaiopmvn, a\\' us xpwos Kat
apyvpos cv Kapivu irvpu/ievoi.

In Rev. i. ] 5,
the feet of the Son of Man are described
as ipuiot xa^-X.o^l^avw ws ev Kapivu ire-
irvpupevoi. And in Rev. iii. 18 we read,
Xpvatov ireirvpwpevov e/c irvpos.

Now the writer may very possibly have had in view in the
first instance, observes Woodhouse, that passage in 1 Peter
i. 7, where the Apostle compares the suffering Christians
to " gold tried by the fire." But, why, instead of Peter's
&a irvpog <*>oKi[jux%ofjLevov, in the sequel of that passage, the
phrase ev xapi/oo wvpcofj^voi ? There seems to be no passage
in Holy Scripture that could at all probably have suggested
the change of phrase, except these of the Apocalypse.2
Moreover Woodhouse cites from the same beautiful Nar
rative those commencing words of Polycarp's sublime
prayer, at the moment when the fire was about to be lighted
under him, Kvpie 6 0eo? o wavToxpaTup, as being the identical
words used in Apoc. xi. 17, Kvpie b ®eoc 6 •jnxvTOKpa.Tup.
4. There remains Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis near
Colosse : a man that belongs also to the apostolic age, and
1 Lardner, ii. 110. the end of the world, not of a purifying
2 The only two passages in the other furnace : — the only other passages where
books of the New Testament where itvpoopai is used, are 1 Cor. vii. 9, 2 Cor.
Kapivos occurs, are Matt. xiii. 42 and 50 ; xi. 29, Eph. vi. 16, 2 Peter iii. 12; in
where however it is used of the furnace not one of which is it used in Poly-
offire into which the wicked are cast at carp's sense of refining.
VOL. I. C

18 GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
one said by Irenseus to have been a hearer of John, and
companion of Polycarp.1 Now of his writings, which were
in five books, entitled Aoywv Kvptaxtov E^yjyrjatc, " An Expo
sition of the sayings of our Lord," there remain to us only
a few short fragments, preserved by Eusebius : which treat
ing, however, not of the Apocalypse, but of other sub
jects, (chiefly two of the Gospels,) furnish no data from
which an enquirer may form his own independent judgment
on the point, whether Papias knew and received the Apo
calypse, as the genuine writing of the Evangelist John, and
as inspired scripture, or not. And we are thus thrown
back on ancient testimonies about him, to resolve the ques
tion. — But so it is, that on looking into them, we find, as
Michaelis observes, contrary testimonies in two writers,
each of eminence in their day ; viz. Eusebius the celebrated
Bishop and Historian of the 4th century, and Andreas
Bishop of Caesarea, about the middle, probably, of the 6 th.2
The former, says Michaelis, implies that Papias had no ac
quaintance with the Apocalypse, by thus writing : " This
writer has mentioned several things, which he says he learnt
by oral tradition ; such as parables and doctrines of our
Saviour, not contained in the Gospels, and also some things
which are fabulous : among which may be reckoned the
assertion, that after the resurrection of the dead Christ
will reign in person a thousand years on earth. I suppose
1 Irenseus adv. Haer. v. 33. The pas- being mentioned in the present tense,
sage is as follows : " Haec autem," (viz. " What they say," as if cotemporaries ;
the millennary doctrine of which he had the apostles in the past, " What they
been speaking) " Papias, Johannis audi- viere wont to say." Eusebius inferred
tor, Polycarpi autem contubernalis, vetus that the John, whose hearer Irenaeus says
homo, per scripturam testimonium per- Papias was, was probably this John the
hibet, (Greek, tyy patpos emp.aprvpei, presbyter, not John the evangelist. —
Euseb. II. E iii. 39,) in quarto librorum Jerome however (Ep. 29, ad Theodor.)
suorum : sunt enim illi quinque libri viewed the matter otherwise ; for he
conscripti." speaks of him as " Papise, auditoris Jo-
Eusebius, who had these books before hannis Evangelistm." Perhaps in his
him, says, that it does not appear from boyhood he might have heard the Evan-
the Preface that Papias himself heard or gelist John himself; in the researches of
saw any of the apostles, but only that his manhood only heard of him from
he had received the things concerning others, St. John having died in the in-
the faith from others who were well ac- terval.
quainted with them : adding that he 2 He is placed by Cave and Lardner
mentioned the names of " the disciples " about the year 500 A.D. ; but I think
Aristion and John the presbyter, as well 550 may be probably more nearly the
as of the apostles Andrew and Peter, date of his Apocalyptic Treatise, for rea-
John and Matthew, Thomas and James, sons that will be given in my notice of
as those into whose sayings he had made Andreas in the Appendix to my 4th
inquiry : Aristion and John the presbyter vol.

CHAP. I.J GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. 19
that he acquired this notion from his inquiring into the say
ings of the apostles, and his not understanding what they
had delivered figuratively." J Such, says Michaelis, is Eu
sebius' testimony : and, if correct, as it implies that Papias
made no mention of John's Apocalypse in support of his
millennary views, the inference seems warranted that Papias
did not know the book ; for surely, says Michaelis, he
would have referred to had he known it. — On the other
hand Andreas, who himself wrote a Comment on the Apo
calypse still extant, of some repute for its learning,2 and who
professes to have both consulted and largely used the ear
lier patristic works noticed by him, declares expressly that
Papias, for one, testified to its inspiration : saying, " Of
the divine inspiration of this Book I need not treat at large ;
since so many holy men, Gregory the Divine, Cyril of
Alexandria, and before them Papias, Irenseus, Methodius,
and Hippolytus, have given their testimony to it." 3
Thus the representation of Eusebius is met by that of
Andreas ; and the correctness of the former appears doubt
ful, even as Michaelis puts the case. Nor, I think, will
reasons fail to appear for believing Andreas right in his
statement, not Eusebius. If Eusebius was two centuries
older than Andreas, and moreover the more learned man
of the two, on the other hand Andreas assures us that he
had studied Papias', as well as the other writers' works, to
which he refers :4 while we have no assurance that Euse
bius did so : and, considering the contempt he expresses
for Papias' understanding,5 it seems hardly likely that he
would. Again, Eusebius was a man strongly prejudiced
against Papias' millennary doctrine ; and therefore biassed
1 Ibid. p. 465. translation of Andreas in the B. P. M.
2 See the Jesuit Peltan's testimony to v. 590. — On what Andreas here says of
him in the Biblioth. Patr. Max. v. 589, Gregory Nazienzen, and the very equi-
prefixed to Andreas' Commentary. vocal soundness of Michaelis' argument
3 " Constat namque beatos illos viros from it against Andreas' accuracy, see
patresque nostras Gregorium Theologum, Note 5, p. 28, infra.
Cyrillum Alexandrinum, multoque hisce 4 See the Extract in the Note pre-
vetustiores Papiam, Irenaeum, Metho- ceeding.
dium, et Hippolytum, divinum fideque '" otyoo'pa yap rot apmpos uv rov vow,
dignum esse non uno loco tradere : e &c. See the quotation from Eusebius in
quorum monumentis occasione accepts Note 3, p. 20. A eulogistic reference to
nos ad hoc consilium venimus : sicuti Papias found in another passage of Euse-
multas quoque sententias ex eorundem bius seems to be spurious. So Lardner
scriptis mutuavimus, hisceque nostris ii. 119.
commentariis inseruimus." So the Latin C 2

20 GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
against connecting either him or his doctrine with the
apostle John i1 whereas Andreas could have had no preju
dice on this account in Papias' favour, he not being him
self a pre-millennarian.2 — Moreover, in point of fact, both
Michaelis will be found, if I mistake not, to have given a
rather unfair version of Eusebius' testimony ; and Eusebius
to have shown, by a decidedly unfair and incorrect state
ment respecting another millennarian in the very passage
cited, how incorrect he may probably have been in the tes
timony really given by him about the millennarian Papias.
First, I say, it will be seen from the original3 that Eusebius
does not make Papias say, so as Michaelis' translation
does, that he learnt these doctrines by oral tradition ; but
only that Papias so set them forth as if they had come to
him through it : (a statement explicable perhaps on the
supposition of his having in his E^^c-*? mixed up tra
ditionary collectanea on the subject, with the Apostle
St. John's simpler doctrine of the millennium :) and again,
moreover, that Eusebius does not attribute Papias' adop
tion of millennary views to his inquiring into the say
ings of the apostles, but to his misapprehension 4 of their
Siyy/jo-eic, or narratives : a word used by St. Luke5 of writ
ten histories ; and which we may here also not improbably
explain of the canonical written Gospels and Acts of the
Apostles.6 — Further, Eusebius' own un trustworthiness and
1 See Note 3, p. 8, supra, giving Mi- eipnpeva p.i> ovveapaKora- atpoopa yap toi
chaelis' sentiments on the effect of this apixpos uv toi» vow, us av eK tuv avrov
prejudice. \oyuv TtKp.iipapi.evov enretv tpaiverai. IJ\i)v-
2 See his Comment on Apoc. xx ; Kai tois h*t' avrov irAeiorois iaois ekkAji-
B. P. M. v. 626. The following sentence oiairriKwv Tns ipotas avru 5of i)s irapamos
will suffice to show his anti-millennarian 7670W, rnv apxatornra t' avSpos Trpofle-
views. " Mille igitur anni, ut credibile k\np.evois, wotted ow Eiprivattp, Kai ei tis
est, complectuntur totum illud tempus aWos ra ip.oia cppovuv avaire<pi)vev.
quod interfluit inter Christi incarnati- H. E. iii. 39. 4 irapeKoe(ap.evov.
onem et Antichristi adventum." 5 EireiSijirep iroAAoi enexeipnaav ava-
3 Kai a\\a Se 6 avros avyypa<pevs Tajaoffai Siirynaiv, &c. ; " to set in order
(IlaTrias), as ex irapaSoo eus ay- a history." Luke i. 1.
pa'fov ets avrov i) k ovra, irapareBet. 6 Lardner's translation is, I see, sub-
Tai, frvas re Tivas irapa$o\as rov Sojttj- stantially the same as that which I have
poi, kui SiSa<rKa\ias outou, koi two. aAAa given : viz. " which opinion, I suppose,
p-vBiKiorepa- ev 01s Kai x'^iaSa riva <pi\oiv he was led into by misunderstanding the
eruv eoeoBai pera ti)v ek veKpuv avacrra- apostolic narratives." — How this might
o-iv, trupariKus tiis tou Xparrov Ba<ri\eias be will well appear from comparing Mr
eirt touttjo-i ttjs yqs virotrrnaopevw a kui Greswell's case ; who confesses his ina-
vyovpai ras airoorokiKas iraptK- bility to explain the Parables in the
SeCapevov oinynaeis viro\afrew, written Gospels, except on the millennary
ra ev vwooeiypatTt irpos avruv pvariKots principle.

CHAP. I.J GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE 21
tendencies to inaccuracy on any millennary subject, appear
sufficiently from the very sentence just cited. For in its
ending clause he attributes the millennary opinions of both
Irenseus, and each other ancient father that adopted that
view, to the weight which Papias3 opinion (that silly old
man, as he calls him) had with them. Whereas, possess
ing (as we do) the works of both Irenseus and of other
early millennarists, we know from them, (as will be seen
almost immediately,) that these later fathers did not rest
their opinions on Papias' authority, but on written scrip
ture, alike of the Old and New Testaments ; including
specially the Apocalypse of St. John.1
My conclusion is, that Papias did precisely the same ;
that Eusebius' insinuation about him was groundless ; that
Andreas is correct in mentioning Papias among the wit
nesses to the genuineness and inspiration of the Apoca
lypse, just as we know him to have been correct in respect
of the other four ancients whom he quotes as authorities ;2
and that Papias' millennary doctrine was founded in part
on the Apocalyptic Book, as well as on the many other
scriptures well agreeing therewith, both of the Old and
New Testament.
II. So we come to the writers of the second half- century
subsequent to the publication of the Apocalypse ; a period
extending from A.D. 150 to 200, and which includes the
honoured names of Justin Martyr, the Narrator of the
Lyonnese martyrdoms, Irentsus, Melito, Theophilus, Apol-
lonius, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian. And in regard
of all these our task is indeed brief and easy. Their testi
mony to the apostolic authorship, and divine authority of
the Apocalypse, is uncontroverted and notorious.
1. First, Justin Martyr, — a Christian philosopher, born
at Sichem,3 it is supposed, A.D. 103, converted to Chris
tianity about 133, and who suffered martyrdom about 165,
1 See especially in the last chapters of 2 Viz. Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Gregory
Irenseus' 5th Book on Heresies, his re- Theologus, and Cyril of Alexandria.
ference to, and argument from various Gregory is the only one about whose
Books of Scripture. I believe the little testimony on the point, in dispute there
sentence quoted in Note ', p. 18, above, can be no doubt. And see on it p. 28,
is all that he says of Papias. Note 5, infra. 3 Lardner ii. 125.

22 GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
— this man, to whose learning and piety testimony has been
borne by nearly all the succeeding fathers, in his Dialogue
with Try pho,1 written probably about the year 150, thus
expresses himself: " A man from among us, by name John,
one of the apostles of Christ, in the Revelation made to
him, has prophesied that the believers in our Christ shall
live a thousand years in Jerusalem ; &c."
2. Some twelve or fifteen years after this, the Narrative
of the Lyonnese martyrs was written by one of the surviv
ing Christians of that city; that is about A.D. 177. It
was addressed by the Gallic Churches, as a letter to the
Churches of Asia, (Proconsular Asia,) and Phrygia, includ
ing of course the seven Apocalyptic Churches among
them ; and by Eusebius has been preserved to us entire.
And in this letter there appears (as Lardner has remarked)2
the remarkable expression, in description of a true disciple,
" Following the Lamb whithersoever he goeth," axo\ov8aiv
tcd Apwifi hnov av wcarftf — the very words (thus adopted as
from Scripture) of the Apocalypse.3
3. It was very soon after these martyrdoms that Ireeneus,
previously a presbyter of the Lyonnese Church, became its
bishop.4 He wrote his Book on Heresies probably between
A.D. 180 and 190. And in it he testifies many times
most clearly on the point in question : speaking of the
Apocalypse as the work of John the disciple of the Lord,
that same John that leaned on his breast at the last supper;5
declaring (as will be seen in the second chapter of this
Preliminary Essay) the time when it was written ; and
speaking of various approved and ancient copies of that
Book of Scripture as then existing, confirmed by the agree
ing testimony of those who had seen John himself.6 — In
1 Cited ibid. Vol. ii. p. 137. s De Haer. iv. 37, 50, pp. 335, 353
2 Ibid. p. 164. (Ed. Grabe) ; also, v. 26, 30.
3 Viz. Apoc. xiv. 4 : Ovroi eiaiv ii 6 This occurs in his disquisition on
aKo\ovBowres tu \pvup iirov av virayn. the name and number of Antichrist :
It also refers to Christ as to viotu Kai " in omnibus antiquis et probatissimis
ahifBivu paprvpi, Kai upanoToKu tuv veK- et veteribus Scripturis numero hoc po-
puv, so as in Apoc. i. 5, iii. 14. sito, et testimonium perhibentibus his
4 So Eusebius, H. E. v. 5 ; " When qui facie ad faciem Joannem viderunt."
Pothinus had been put to death with B. v.— On which passage the thought
the martyrs in Gaul, Irenseus succeeded suggests itself, were not both Papias and
him in the bishopric of the Church of Polycarp among the persons referred to
Lyons." by him in the plural, as having seen St.
John ?

CHAP. I.J GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. 23
short a more clear and decisive testimony, on almost every
point on which information might be desired, could scarcely
have been given.
4. Next may be mentioned his cotemporary Melito,
Bishop of Sardis, about A.D. 170 ; and who consequently
may have presided over that See at the very time when
the letter from the Gallic Churches was sent to it.1 He
wrote a Treatise on the Revelation of St. John : and is
allowed by Michaelis2 to be one of the witnesses in its favour.
5. Of Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch about 181, Euse
bius says that in a work of his against the Heresy of Her-
mogenes he made use of testimonies, or quotations, from
John's Apocalypse.3 It was undoubtedly, as Michaelis
allows, received by him.
6. Apollonius, a writer at the close of the second cen
tury, and called by Jerome a most eloquent man,4 (though
probably not the same that, when accused before Perennis,
the Praetorian Prefect under Commodus, about A.D. 186,
read an eloquent apology before the Senate, and then
suffered martyrdom,) is also noted by Eusebius as one that
acknowledged the Apocalypse, and borrowed testimonies
from it.5
7. Its reception by Clement of Alexandria, an inquisi
tive and learned writer who flourished, as Lardner gives the
date, about 194, is as undoubted. He has frequently quoted
from it, and referred to it, as the work of an apostle:* and
adds, as we shall presently see, his testimony to fix its date.
8. Finally in this half century comes Tertullian, the co-
temporary of Clement ; the most ancient, and one of the
most learned, of the Latin fathers. His testimony to the
Apocalypse is most full and ample. He quotes or refers to
it in more than seventy passages in his writings ; appealing
1 So Dean Woodhouse. 6 He refers to Apoc. xxi. 21, (" The
2 p. 466. twelve gates are twelve pearls," &c.) as
3 Lardner, Vol. ii. p. 214. the work of an apostle. — Paed. Bk. ii.
4 De V. I. c. 42. Again, referring to Apoc. iv. 4, he says,
5 Euseb. H. E. v. 18.— Lardner thinks " Such an one, though here on earth he
him a different person from the Roman be not honoured with the first seat, shall
martyr of that name, and a few years sit upon the four-and-twenty thrones,
later : on the authority of Jerom, who judging the people ; as John says in the
speaks of him as flourishing under both Revelation." Strom. Bk. vi. Lardner,
Commodus and Severus. Compare ibid. ii. 245.
pp. 323 and 392.

24 GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
to it expressly as the work of the upostle John, and the
same that wrote the 1st Epistle of St. John.1 He defends
too the authenticity of the book against the heretic Marcion
and his followers, by asserting its external evidence ; thus
appealing to the Asiatic Churches on the point : " We
have churches that are disciples of John ; for though Mar
cion rejects the Revelation, the succession of bishops, traced
to its original, will rest on John as its author." 2
Thus far not a single writer of the Church had impugned
the genuineness, or the divine inspiration, of the Apoca
lypse of St. John. Only the Alogi, an heretical sect that
rose up ere the end of this half century, (so Epiphanius
tells us,) and derived their name from an absurd antipathy
to the term Logos, (The Word,) did on this account reject
both the Gospel of John and the Apocalypse of John, which
alike gave the obnoxious title to Jesus Christ.3 The only
other objection they pretended against the latter, was that
there was no "Church of Christians existing at the Apoca
lyptic station Thyatira :4 of which statement, if referred to
St. John's time, they offered no proof; and, if referred to
their own time, the circumstance did not militate against
there having been one some seventy or eighty years be
fore.5 Their ascription of the Book to Cerinthus, — whose,
obviously, it could not be, as I have already shown in my
brief anticipatory notice of these earliest objectors against
the Apocalypse,6 — did not help their case. And altogether,
Michaelis confesses, " the estimation in which they were
held by their cotemporaries was not sufficient to inspire
much respect for them in a critic of the present age."
III. Early, however, in the next half century, it is said,7
a man of some repute in the Church rose up to impugn the
genuineness of the Apocalypse ; I mean the Roman pres
byter Caius. If so, it was evidently under the influence
1 See Lardner, ii. 295; and the Index 3 See Michaelis, ibid. p. 468.
of Scripture citations at the end of the 4 Kai ouk evi exet eKKhijoia Xparriavuv.
best editions of Tertullian. So Epiphanius reports their language.
3 " Habemus et Johannis alumnas ec- Gibbon could not find in his heart to
clesias: nam, etsi Apocalypsim ejus pass by the objection. See his History,
Marcion respuit, ordo tamen episcopo- ii. 359.
rum, ad originem recensus, in Johannem 6 So Michaelis ibid.
stabitauctorem," Adv. Marcion. B.iv.c. 5. ° See Note2, p. 4. ' About A.D. 212.

CHAP. I.J GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. 25
of strong anti-millennarian prejudices, and with almost as
little just pretension to authority as his Alogistic predeces
sors : since he appears to have urged no argument against
it, except its (by him misunderstood) millennial doctrine ;
and, with the absurdity of the Alogi, to have ascribed it to
Cerinthus.1 But, in fact, this view of Caius' meaning seems
questionable.2 — However certain writers in Egypt,3 cotem-
porary with him, or nearly so, — under evident prejudices
against, and misconceptions of, this millennial doctrine of the
Apocalypse, — attacked it as obscure, unconnected, and in
deed false in statement : — inasmuch as it called that a revela
tion which was covered with darkness, and represented John
to be its author, when in fact it was the work of Cerinthus.4,
These continued the line of objections and objectors, from
their first origin with the Alogi down to Dionysius : — that
same Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria about the middle of
the third century, of whose arguments I have already given
a succinct account ;6 and who, we have seen, though he
entered with better judgment and temper on the inquiry,
was yet as unable as his predecessors to adduce any histo
rical testimony whatsoever, of the least weight, to aid his
argument. Meanwhile the chain of testimony was continued still
onward to the genuineness and divine inspiration of the Apo
calypse. 1 . First Hippolytus, — a Christian Bishop who flou
rished, according to Cave and Lardner, about A.D. 220,
in early years a disciple of Irenseus,5 and in more mature
life a martyr to the cause of Christ, — not only elsewhere
1 The following are the words of Caius, eluded that the Revelation above referred
as reported by Eusebius, H. E. iii. 28 : to by Caius was probably the Apocalypse
" Cerinthus also, — who, by his revela- of St. John; and not the spurious Reve-
tions, as if written by some great apostle, lation of St. Peter, written in the 2nd
imposes upon us monstrous relations century, or any other. — But Prof. Hug,
(TepaToAo7ias) of things of his own in- citing Paulus, thinks that Caius did not
vention, as if shown him by angels — mean St. John's Apocalypse. Introd. to
says, that after the resurrection there is the N. T. ii. 649. (Wait's Transl. 1827.)
to be a terrestrial kingdom of Christ; 3 So Michaelis, p. 475.
and that men shall live again in Jerusa- 4 See Michaelis, p. 477. These seem
lem, subject to sensual desires and plea- to have been the Allegorists whom Nepos
sures. And being an enemy to the di- opposed in his E\eyxos AWiryopioTuv.
vine Scriptures, and desirous to seduce And it was either these, or Caius, or the
mankind, he says there will be a term of Alogi, that Dionysius must have meant,
1000 years, spent in nuptial feasting." when he spoke of previous questioners
2 Lardner, in his later judgment on of the inspiration of the Apocalypse. See
the point, (compare his pp. 401 and 705 Note 2, p. 4. 6 p. 4, &c. supra.
ibid.) and Michaelis, p. 474, have con- 6 So Photius, cited by Lardner, ii.

26 GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. [pRELIM. ESSAY.
and otherwise bore testimony to it,1 but moreover wrote an
express commentary on the Apocalypse :2 and this with so
much weight of influence from his character, authority, and
talents, that Michaelis attributes to it very principally the
general reception of the Apocalypse thenceforward in the
Christian Church.3 — 2. After him (not to speak of the
Egyptian Bishop Nepos, and of his EXey/ps AXkfjjopta-Toiv,
to which Dionysius' work was an answer,4) Origen, the
most critical and learned of all the ecclesiastical writers of
his time, though a decided anti-millennarian,5 did yet re
ceive the Apocalypse into the canon of inspired Scripture ;
and this without the slightest doubt, so far as appears, of
its genuineness. " What shall we say of John," is his ob
servation in one place, " who leaned on the breast of Jesus?
He has left us a Gospel : ... he wrote likewise the Reve
lation, though ordered to seal up those things which the
seven thunders uttered : he left too one Epistle of a mode
rate length; and perhaps" (I beg the reader to mark the
discrimination exercised by him) " perhaps a second and
third." 6 — 3. And with Origen, in Eastern Africa, there
agreed, we know, on the important point of our inquiry his
424; MaBijTiis Se Etpijvatov i 'lmroXvTos. engraved of his writings, and one of them
Photius eulogizes him as in his style is recorded as " On St. John's Gospel and
clear, grave, concise : ri\v <ppa<rw o-a<j>r;s Apocalypse." Michaelis p. 478. — Simi-
eori, «ai imoaepvos, Kai anepirros. He larly Ebedjesu, who was Bishop of Nisibis
was bishop of some place called Partus in the Nestorian Syrian Church, near
Romanus : but whether the modern Gstia the close of the 13th century, (see
at the mouth of the Tiber, or the mo- Lardner, iv. 320,) in the 7th chapter of
dern Aden at the mouth of the Arabian his metrical catalogue of ecclesiastical
Gulf, each of which bore that name in writings, mentions among other works of
ancient times, has been a point contro- Hippolytus,
verted. See Lardner, ii. 427 ; also my ch inst Caius
own notice of Hippolytus in the Appen- An/a drfe5nce of the Apocalypse>
dix to Vol. iv. . t- k • t c „,. And the Gospel of St. John,
So in his work on Ant.chr.st S 36 : The A k ^ ^ ^{st_
St. John saw in the isle of Patmos a r
revelation of awful mysteries, which he His Commentary on the Apocalypse is
taught to others without envy : " and, referred to several times by Andreas of
presently after ; " Tell me, holy John, Caesarea ; also by Jacob the Syrian,
thou apostle and disciple of Christ, what Bishop of Edessa from A.D. 651 to 710.
thou hast seen of Babylon." Cited by Michaelis, pp. 478, 479.
Lardner, p. 437. 3 Ibid. p. 478.
2 Jerome mentions among the writings 4 See Lardner, ii. 655, 691, &c.
of Hippolytus one entitled, " On the 5 Michaelis with his usual candour
Apocalypse." — Again, on the curious notes this ; " Origen, notwithstanding
marble monument of Hippolytus, now in his warm opposition to the doctrine of the
the Vatican, a monument dug up near Millennium, received the Apocalypse ; "
Rome in 1551, and of which an account Sic. p. 480.
is given in Lardner (p. 428), a list is " Quoted by Eusebius, H.E. vi. 25.

CHAP. I.J GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. 27
equally eminent cotemporary, the bishop and martyr of
Western Africa, Cyprian.1
So ends our catena of testimonies to the genuineness
and divine inspiration of the Apocalypse, traced as pro
posed through the three half centuries that followed after
its publication. Alike from East and West, North and
South, — from the Churches of the Asiatic province and
the Syrian, of Italy and of Gaul, of Egypt and of Africa,
— we have heard an unbroken and all but uniform voice
of testimony in its favor.2 Nay, even what there is of
contrary testimony has been shown only to confirm and
add new weight to that which it opposes : for it proves
how unable they who most wished it were to find evidence
or argument of this kind, of any real value, and such as
could bear examination, on their side of the question.
Let me just add, by way of supplement to my sketch of
the earlier historic evidence, that in what remained of the
3rd century, while no other opponent to it appeared of any
note, the Apocalypse was received as the work of the in
spired apostle John, alike by the schismatic Novatians and
Donatists,3 and by the most eminent writers of the Ca
tholic Church; e. g. Victorinus* Methodius,5 Amobius,6
1 See Lardner, iii. 47. Cyprian in Exodus, Leviticus, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Ha-
several places cites it, and speaks of it as bakkuk, Ecclesiastes, and the Canticles ;
inspired Scripture. In the only passage all books of the canon of scripture. — See
where he mentions the name of the Lardner, iii. 163.
writer, he simply calls him John ; evi • I doubt not that the book still extant
dently meaning thereby the most emi- under the title of Victorinus' Commen-
nent person of that name, viz. the apostle tary on the Apocalypse is really his, and
John : for how else could he have viewed the one meant by Jerome, though inter-
the book as inspired ? polated. See the notice on this question
The same might be said of an author in the second Chapter of my Treatise on
cotemporary, as it would seem, with Apocalyptic Interpretation, in theAppen-
Cyprian, and whose Treatise is one of dix to my fourth Volume.
those that has been often joined with 5 A cotemporary of Victorinus ; bishop
Cyprian's works. — See Lardner, iii. p. 64. first of Olympus in Lycia, afterwards of
2 So Woodhouse. Tyre; and who, like Victorinus, suffered
3 Lardner, iii. 121, 565. The Nova- martyrdom under Diocletian. So Jerome.
tian schism began about A.D. 251, the He often quotes the Apocalypse as a
Donatist about 3 1 1 . Book of Scripture ; speaks of it as written
4 Bishop of Pettaw on the Drave, by " the blessed John," (S p.aKapios
about A. D. 290, according to Lardner luavvns,) in all probability meaning the
(iii. 162) ; and who suffered martyrdom apostle John ; and is mentioned by An-
in the persecution by Diocletian. He drew of Caesarea, in conjunction with
wrote a Commentary on the Apocalypse, Irenaeus and others, as among those who
as Jerome informs us, evidently as a had borne testimony to the divine in-
book of divine inspiration: his other spiration of the book. — Lardner, iii. 181,
Commentaries, mentioned by Jerome in 198.
association with this, being on Genesis, 6 On Psalm cii he says, " Si vis videre

28 GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
Lactantius .-1 — further, that in the earlier half of the 4 th
century, while Eusebius doubted,2 Athanasius received it ; 3
and in its later half, while Cyril of Jerusalem apparently
hesitated respecting it,4 and Gregory Nazianzen,5 and Chry-

divitem et mendicum, Sancti Apostoli
Johannis lege Apocalypsim ; " besides
elsewhere referring to it as to a book of
canonical Scripture. Lardner, ibid. 480.
1 He borrows from, and moreover
cites the Apocalypse, as both a book of
Sacred Scripture, and as written by
John. Inst. vii. 17, Epit. c. 42, 73, 74,
&c. — See Lardner, iii. 541.
2 A person might put it, he said, if he
so thought fit, among the &p.o\oyovpt.eva,
the acknowledged Scriptures of inspira
tion ; or if he preferred, among the voBa,
ox apocryphal. HE. iii. 25. He seized,
we find, on the facts of Papias having
mentioned John the Presbyter as one
whom he had learnt from, as well as
John the Apostle, and of the tombs of
either being (according to traditional
report) at Ephesus, as a ground- work for
the theory of its having been not im
probably the simple presbyter John that
saw the Apocalypse : Eikos yap Tey oev-
repov, ei pi] ris eBe\oi rov irpurov, ti\v eV
ovoparos <pepop.evnv luavvov A.iroKa\v\jtiv
eupaxevai. H. E. iii. 39. On which
doubt as to the apostolicity of its origin
was mainly founded his doubt as to its
inspiration. — Lardner, iv. 126, observes
that he never refers to the Apocalypse
for authority : adding that he was pro
bably influenced in his judgment on this
point by regard to the arguments of
Dionysius ; as well as by aversion to the
millennarian doctrine, which the Apo-
lypse of St. John was brought forward to
support. 3 The Apocalypse is often and largely
quoted by Athanasius. Moreover in the
Festal Epistle, generally allowed to be
his, the list of sacred books given by him
coincides with that of our own received
Canon, and ends like it with the Reve
lation of St. John. Lardner, iv. 155,
158. — I may add, that in the Synopsis of
sacred Scripture, usually joined with the
works of Athanasius, but respecting the
real author of which there exists some
doubt, " the Apocalypse seen by John
the Evangelist and Divine in Patmos "
is reckoned among the Canonical Books.
Lardner, iv. 163.
4 He not only excludes it from his
Canon of Scripture, but in his Chapter
on Antichrist omits all clear direct re

ference to it as an authority; ground
ing his doctrine wholly on Daniel's pro
phecy, and apparently reflecting on the
Apocalypse (for it seems the book re
ferred to) as apocryphal. BaotKevaei 5e
6 Avrtxpicros rpia Kai -qpiav ern pova.
Ovk e| air o Kpvipuv \eyopev, aA\' ek
tou Aavi-qK. frrpri yap, Kai SoBijaerai ev
Xeipi avrov eus Kaipov Kai Kaipuv Kai
i\piav Kaipov. Hence, and not without rea
son, as it seemed to me on reading them,
the Benedictine Editors' inference, and
Lardner's, iv. 175, as to Cyril's rejection
of the Apocalypse. But, since then, my at
tention has been directed by the works of
Professors Liicke and Moses Stuart on
the Apocalypse (the former at p. 335 of
his Einleitung, the latter vol. i. p. 361) to
Cyril's unquestionable reference in his
Catechism, xv. 12, 13, 27, to the figura
tions of the Dragon and the Beast in
Apoc. xii, xiii, xvii ; speaking, as he
does, of " another head of the Dragon ;"
(rov opaKovros etrriv a\\ij KetpaXii') and
of Daniel's fourth Beast in its last form
(that of Antichrist,) that he was to be
the eighth king, (avros oySoos f}airi\ev-
aei.) Thus Cyril cannot be regarded as
a decided rejector of the Apocalypse.
6 The opinion of Gregory Nazianzen
on the genuineness and inspiration of
the Apocalypse has been a subject of
controversy. His metrical catalogue of
the genuine books of the New Testa
ment, begins thus :
MaTfouos pev eypatyev 'EjSpaiois Bavpara
Xpiorow
MapKos 6°lTaAia, Aovxas AxaiaSt.
nao"i 8' Iwavvns, K7jpu£ peyas ovpavotpotrijs.
Then he gives the Acts, then the four
teen Epistles of Paul, and the seven Ca
tholic Epistles, viz. one of James, two of
Peter, three of John, one of Jude. From
which Baronius and others infer that
Gregory did not receive the Apocalypse ;
and Lardner (iv. 287) allows that, argu
ing only from it, this would be the na
tural conclusion. But he adds that in
other of Gregory's remaining works the
Apocalypse is twice cited ; (in one, npos
Be tous eipeoreoTas ayye\ovs- iteiBopai
yap aWovs aWijs kpooTareiv EKK\T)<rias,
us luavvns StSaaKei p.e Sta tijs ATraca-
Avtyeus ; in the other, Kai i uv, Kat i

CHAP. I.J GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE.

29

sostom,1 though not rejecting, did yet but sparingly refer
to it as inspired Scripture, it was on the other hand fully
and unhesitatingly acknowledged, alike among the Greeks
by Epiphanius,2 Basil,3 and Cyril of Alexandria* by

epxonevos, 6 iravroKparup') — also that
Andreas of Caesarea, in his Apocalyptic
Commentary, (as likewise his imitator
Arethas,) names Gregory as one by whom
the Apocalypse was received. — And, let
me add, not only does Andreas so speak
of him at the beginning of his work, but
he actually quotes him several times in
it. Besides which, in the very verse
itself of Gregory about John the Evan
gelist, there seems to me a not impro
bable argument for his reception of the
Apocalypse. For if, instead of Lardner's
figurative rendering of the ovpavotpoiTns,
enlightened with the heavenly mysteries,
we render it literally, " ranging, or con
versant, in heaven," ,it can only allude to
John's rapture to heaven in the Spirit,
so as described in the Apocalypse.* And
if so, it is a direct testimony to the fact
of John the Evangelist being the Apo
calyptic John; and may have been meant
to couple together in brief his two chief
works, the Gospel and the Apocalypse. —
The circumstance of its being alluded to
out of its order in the canon is not any-
strong argument against my inference.
Order is by no means always observed
in the patristic lists. For example,
Chrysostom begins his List of the Books
of the N. T. with St. Paul's Epistles.
Lardner iv. 537-
This controverted point about Gregory
Nazianzen I have the longer dwelt upon,
because Michaelis, on the assumption of
Andreas being grossly incorrect in his
statement that Gregory recognized the
Apocalypse, has unduly used it to shake
his testimony in favour of Papias' recog
nition of the Apocalypse. See his pp.
466, 490. Also my Note 2 p. 21 supra.
1 Lardner, iv. 549, says that Chrysos
tom omits all notice of the Apocalypse
as entirely as if he were ignorant of it. —
But the statement requires several mo
difications. For at the commencement

of his comment on the Epistle to the
Ephesians, he refers to the Apostle John's
banishment into the parts of Ephesus :
an allusion scarce to be mistaken (in
deed the learned Benedictines so explain
it unhesitatingly) to the Apocalyptic
John's banishment to the island of Pat
mos, opposite the Ephesian coast ; there
by almost identifying the author of the
Apocalypse and the Gospel : Kai <S pana-
ptos Be luavvns evayyeKiarns ra iroKKa
evSieTpiipei/ ekei' Kai yap Kai e £ up to 6 i\
ekei, Kai eteAcuttjo-e. — Moreover, as Pro
fessor Liicke observes at p. 337 of his
Introduction, both Wetstein and Schmid
have noted many passages in his Ho
milies on St. Matthew, in which he evi
dently borrows figures from the Apoca
lypse, respecting the future consumma
tion, and happiness of the kingdom of
God. " So that the statement of Suidas,
says Liicke," seems to be borne out
that Chrysostom besides the Gospel
received also the three Epistles and the
Apocalypse of John." (Aexetoi Be <5
Xpvooaropus Kat ras eirioro\as avrov ras
rpen, Kai rijv Air oKaAvty iv.)
2 E. g. in the passage following : 'O
01710s luavvns, dia rov EvayyeAiov, Kat
tuv Eiriaro\uv, Kai r 77 s AiroKaKvtyeus,
eK rov avrov > xaPto"iuaTOS rov ayiov
Tlvevparos pieraSeSuKe. Cited by Lard
ner, iv. 190.
3 This is my conclusion from his hav
ing thus cited the Apocalypse in his
Second Book against Eunomius ; " And
the same Evangelist" (he had been re
ferring to John i. 1.) " in another Book
says, ' Which is, and which was, even
the Almighty.' " Lardner, iv. 279. This
seems to me decisive ; notwithstanding
the fact of his having very seldom re
ferred to the book. Arethas, too, men
tions Basil as one that received the
Apocalypse as inspired.
4 Lardner, v. 13.

* Just as Prudentius in his Cathem. Hymn vi. 73, 112, &c, (see Lardner v. 5) in
reference to St. John's Apocalyptic rapture to heaven ;
Quam clara, quam tacenda, Tali sopore Justus,
Evangelista summi Mentem relaxat heros,
Fidissimus magistri,. ... Ut spiritu sagaci
Nebulis vides remotis ; &c. Caelum peragret omne.

30 GENUINENESS OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
the Syrian Ephrem,1 and, among the Latins, by Am
brose? Jerome, and Augustine.3 — Subsequently in the
Greek Church, though the Book was never formally re
jected by any Ecclesiastical Council,4 yet the same variety
of opinion was expressed by its chief authors as by those
of the 4th century.5 On the other hand, the Syrian Church
seems to have received it, after the time of its eminent
Doctor Ephrem Syrus, the same as before : 6 a Church
which had its ramifications, not only in Assyria and Meso
potamia, countries nearest to the mother Syrian Church,
but also in Arabia, Persia, Tartary, China.7 By the Latin
Church too it was notoriously and universally received :
and in the third Council of Carthage, held A.D. 397, and
presided over by the great Augustine, it was solemnly
declared to be included in the Canon of inspired Scrip
ture.8 And on the whole, and in conclusion, — considering the
early date, continuity, and strength of the external histo
rical testimony to the Book's apostolic Johannic original,
and on the contrary the comparative lateness, brokenness,
and weakness of all counter-historical testimony, — consi
dering too, in reference to the internal evidence connected
1 So Lardner, iv. 3 1 3, to whom I refer branch of this Church a very curious
the reader. illustrative memorial, found in the last-
2 He often quotes the Apocalypse : for named distant country of China, has
example, when writing on Psalm xl. furnished decisive evidence of the fact of
thus ; " Et ideo fortassis Joanni Evan- the Nestorian Churches there receiving
gelista? ccelum apertum, et albus equus it. I allude to an ancient monument
est demonstratus : " viz. in Apoc. xix. (the interest of the locality, as well as
12 — 16. Lardner, iv. 335. of the subject, bids me here to particu-
3 The opinions of Jerome and Augus- larize) dug up at Sanxuen, in the Chi-
tine are too well known to need the in- nese province of Xensi, in the year 1625 ;
sertion of proofs or authorities. But see a monument, as Michaelis is convinced,
Michaelis p. 493, and Lardner. (see his p. 497,) really ancient and
4 Professor Spittler, says Michaelis, genuine. It bore two inscriptions, — one
p. 489, has clearly shown that the 1 6th in Chinese, the other in Syriac, — re-
Canon of the Council of Laodicea, held ferring its erection to the year of the
A.D. 363, and which in its list of the Greeks 1092, or A. D. 781 ; at which
Canonical Books of Scripture omits the time, as well as some centuries later,
Apocalypse, is a forgery. And indeed in there was a very numerous colony of
the chief editions of the Councils the Nestorian Syrians, who regularly re-
Canon is noted as suspect. So e. g. ceived their bishops from the Nestorian
Harduin, i. 792, notes in the margin, patriarch. And on this monument men-
" Hunc canonem Dionysius pretermit- tion was made of the New Testament
tit-" as containing twenty-seven books : — a
5 See the summary given by Michaelis, proof, adds Michaelis, that the Apoca-
p. 491. lypse must have been included in the
6 See Michaelis, p. 495. number.
7 With reference to the Nestorian s See Michaelis, p. 493.

CHAP. II. J DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. 31
with the question, that although the Book's marked differ
ence of style, and more strikingly Hebraistic phraseology,
as compared with that of St. John's Gospel and Epistles,
might very naturally suggest a different authorship, yet
this seems accountable for (in great measure at least) by
the total difference of subject in the Apocalypse, and in
fluence of the same divine afflatus that dictated the effusions
of the old Hebrew prophets, whereas, on the other hand,
the counter-internal evidence of the Book's inimitable
sublimity and holiness seems absolutely unaccountable for
on any other hypothesis than that of an apostolic and in
spired original, — I say, considering and weighing the tes
timonies thus given in by this twofold kind of evidence, it
does appear to me that Augustine and the Latin Council
had good reason for their solemn verdict ; and that we may
safely and unhesitatingly direct our inquiries into the mean
ing of the Apocalypse, as into that of a prophecy of the
future, revealed to the beloved disciple, by none other than
Christ's own divine, eternal, and omniscient Spirit.1

Chap. II. — The Date of the Apocalypse.
This is my second preliminary point of inquiry ; and one
on which also, I believe, the historical evidence will be
found not only ready at hand, but conclusive. For the
testimony of Irenceus, — Polycarp's disciple, let it be again
remembered, who was himself the disciple of the apostle
John, — is as express to the point in question as it is unex
ceptionable. Speaking of the name and number of the
1 I am glad to entertain the belief essay, reaching from p. 283 to p. 450 of
that even in the German theological the first Volume of his lately published
schools there has been of late a receding Apocalyptic Commentary. — As regards
in no inconsiderable measure from the Professor Liicke, if in his Einleitung
old scepticism on this point; and a revert- published in 1832 (p. 388) he has pro-
ing to the view of an. Apostolic origin to nounced a strong opinion against the
the Book here advocated. So Professor apostolic authorship of the Apocalypse,
Tholuck has expressed himself to me in yet in his earlier work on St. John's First
conversation. So Dr. Zullig declares Epistle he expresses himself to quite a
his opinion in his Offenbarung Johannis, different effect. So at pp. 6, 1 1, 27, &c,
(i. 136, &c.) published at Stuttgart in of the Introduction. (Edinburgh Trans-
1834 — 1840. So again Professor Moses lation, 1837.) I trust with him first im-
Stuart, in an elaborate and excellent pressions wiil soon return,

32 DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. |_PRELIM- ESSAY.
Beast in the Apocalypse, he says, that had this been a
matter then to be made known, it would have been dis
closed by him who saw the Apocalypse : " for it [the
Apocalypse evidently] was seen no very long time ago ;
but almost in our age, towards the end of the reign of Do-
mitian." J The attempts that have been made to get rid
of this testimony, and force another meaning on Irenseus'
words, by those whose Apocalyptic theories made them wish
to do so,2 seem to me to have utterly failed.3 It is as clear
a testimony on the point it relates to, as there can be found
to any other fact in any other historian.

1 The following is the passage, which
I quote in full from Eusebius, H. E. iii.
18. rpaipuv ye rot 6 Etpyvaios irepi tijs
t^rjtpov rijs Kara rov Avrixpiarov irpoaij-
yopias (pepopevijs, ev rn luavvov Xeyopevrt
AiroKaAwf/ei, avrats avMafiats ev irepnrru
tuv irpos ras alpeceis ravra irept rov
luavvov <frno-iv. El Be eSei avaipav-
Sov e v ru vvv KaipuKijpvTrea-
6 at tb vo pa avr o v, Si e k etv ov
av ep fie 6 ij too Kai rijv Air ok a-
A. v tp i v eupaKoros' o vo e yap
it p o toAAow XP0V0V eupaBi\,
a\Ka o"Xe^op €1ri ri)S ijp.ere-
pas yeveas, irpos rureKeirgs
A o p.er tavo v apxvs.
2 Michaelis, p. 525, thus candidly
acknowledges the origin and object of
these attempts. " Several modern com
mentators, who wish to refer tine Apoca
lypse to the reign of Nero, that they may
be better able to explain its prophecies,
contend that the words of Irenseus have
been misunderstood by ecclesiastical
writers, and that Irenaeus did not mean
to say that the Revelation was seen in
the reign of Domitian."
3 It will only need, I think, to men
tion the three several counter- construc
tions that have been proposed of the
words of Irenaeus, in order to convince
the intelligent and unprejudiced reader
of their absurdity aud extravagance.
1. Wetstein proposes to apply the
verb eupaBn, not to AiroKa\ui|/is, (not
withstanding the 'eupamros ri\v AiroKa-
Avifiiv of the clause immediately pre
ceding,) but to Ieoawrjs : in the sense
that St. John was seen at the end of
Domitian's reign ! !
2. Knittel would apply the same verb
'ewpa07j to the ovopa of the clause next
but one preceding ; in the sense that the

name of Antichrist, viz. Teirav, (which,
together with AaTewor, had been men
tioned a little before as a likely solution
of the enigma,) had been discovered only
at the close of Domitian's reign : Do
mitian's own praenomen being Titus;
and his character, as a Beopaxos, and
persecutor, and fit type of Antichrist,
then at length made known by his per
secutions of the Christians ! — This, let it
be observed, though the verb in Irenaeus'
text is eupadij, not eipeBi), or eppeBi), —
the noun Teirav, not Titos, — and the
real name declared to be still a mystery,
and only the subject of conjecture ! !
3. Harenberg, admitting that the
'eupaBii must be construed with the
A-uoKaAv^iis, as its nominative, proposes
to give that nominative noun quite a
different sense here from what it had in
the clause preceding : and, whereas it
there meant the Apocalyptic vision seen
by St. John, here to make -it the Apoca
lyptic Book, or Volume; which Book,
says he, was not seen, — that is, not seen
by the Christians in Gaul, — till the end
of Domitian's reign : the words, " by
the Christians of Gaul," or something
tantamount, being thus further sup
plied ! !
Michaelis (p. 525) allows the great
improbability of this solution. Yet it is
an explanation somewhat like it that
was the best Sir I. Newton could devise,
in order to escape from the force of
Irenaeus' testimony. " Perhaps he might
have heard from his master Polycarp
that he had received this book from John
about the time of Domitian's death : or
indeed John might himself at that time
have made a new publication of it; from
whence Irenaeus might imagine it was
then but newly written."

CHAP. II.] DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. 33
Nor is it unsupported by other testimony. — First, Ter-
tullian seems in no dubious manner to indicate this view
of the Apocalyptic date. For in his Apology,1 after spe
cifying Nero's as the first imperial persecution, and this
one by the sword, (wherein, as he elsewhere says, Paul
and Peter suffered,2 no mention being made of John,) he
proceeds to notice Domitian's as the next persecution, and
this as one in which Christians suffered by banishment, the
well-known punishment inflicted on St. John. It is evi
dent that Eusebius thus understands Tertullian ; I mean
as alluding to St. John's banishment as the act of Domitian.3
— Next Clement of Alexandria indirectly, but I think
clearly, confirms the statement. In relating the well-known
story of St. John and the robber, he speaks of it as acted
out by the apostle on his return from exile in Patmos,
" after the death of the tyrant ; " 4 and represents him as
at that time an infirm old man.5 Now " the tyrant,"
whose death is referred to, must necessarily be either Nero
or Domitian; as these were, up to the end of the first cen
tury, the only imperial persecutors of the Christian body.
And Nero it can scarcely be : since at the time of Nero's
persecution, St. John was by no means an infirm old man;
being probably not much above, if indeed so much as, sixty
years of age.6 Thus it must rather have been the tyrant
Domitian. So, in fact, Eusebius expressly explains Cle-
1 "TentaveratDomitianus, portioNe- the time of his death, all tend to that
ronis de crudelitate ; sed, quia et homo, conclusion. And Jerome, Adv. Jovin.
facile cceptum repressit, restitutis etiam Lib. i, says expressly of his age when
quos relegaverat." Apol. c. 5. The verb first called by Christ ; " Ut autem scia-
relego is used by him elsewhere of St. mus tunc fuisse puerum manifestissime
John's exile to Patmos. DePraesc. 36. docent ecclesiasticae historiae." Now
2 Scorpiac. c. 15. Nero's persecution broke out in the year
3 Euseb. H.E. iii. 20. of our Lord 64, and ended with Nero's
4 Quis Dives Salvetur, chap. xiii. The death, A.D. 68.
story is copied by Eusebius into his H. 7 Compare with Clement's emphatic
E. iii. 23, and begins thus : EireiB?j yap, designation of Domitian, as I suppose,
rov r v pavvov reKevriia avr os, under the appellation of " the tyrant"
airo rns Tlarpov tijs vijaov perijKBev ets the undoubted application to Domitian
tiji» E<pe<rov. of the same title, in the same emphatic
6 The statement, eviKaBopevos ri\s manner, by the author of the De Morti-
ijKiKias ri\s eavrav, and the appellative bus Persecutorum, whether Lactantius,
rov yepovra, both occur in reference to or some cotemporary ; " rescissis actis
him : the latter twice over. tyranni." M. P. c. 3. ad fin. So also in
6 For he is supposed to have been Apollonius Tyaneus' celebrated second-
considerably younger than our Lord, sight view and notification of Domitian's
The traditionary reports of his age at death; "Strike the tyrant," &c.
VOL. I. D

34 DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
ment to mean.1 Nor is there any thing whatsoever incon
sistent with this view of the -'chronology of the story, so as
some have supposed, in Chrysostom's second-hand version
of it ; but the contrary.2 — Thirdly, (not to insist on a tes
timony similar to Irenseus', in a Work ascribed to Hippo
lytus, a bishop and martyr of about the middle of the third
century,3) Victorinus, Bishop of Pettaw, and martyr in Dio
cletian's persecution, in a Commentary on the Apocalypse
written towards the close of the third century, says twice
1 H. E. ubi. sup. ing to Cave, four according to Basnage.
2 It is to Sir I. Newton that I more See Lardner, v. 427.
particularly allude ; who has endea- Very much the same limitation of tlje
voured to draw a conclusion from Chry- interval between this man's first conver-
sostom's version of the story, such as to sion and recovery appears in Clement's
make it support his theory of St. John's original narrative. He depicts the sub-
having been banished to Patmos, and ject of the story as a youth nearly grown
seen the Apocalypse, under Nero. His up, when first seen and presented to the
argument is this. "Chrysostom says bishop of the place by St. John;
that the young reprobate continued irpooB\e\fias veavtoKov iKavov ra oupart,
captain of the robbers a long time. &c. He speaks of the interval simply
Therefore this is a story of many years ; thus, XP0V0S e" f-eau- " A certain in-
and requires that John should have re- terval of time past.'' And St. John's
turned from Patmos rather at the death later visit, in which he reclaimed this
of Nero than of Domitian ; because be- young man (toj/ veavioKov, as he is still
tween Domitian's death and that of St. called,) from the bishop, is spoken of as
John there were but two and a half if his next and second visit; made on
years." And so too argues Dr. Tilloch. occasion of some affair arising in the dis-
— But Chrysostom's " long time " is in trict church, (one ov ptaKpav, " not far
fact indefinite.* And that it was not off," says Clement,) which caused them
meant to signify many years appears to send for him. Xpovos ev peau' Kai,
clearly on reference to the original ; rivos eimreaoviriis xPitas> ar/aKaAovffi rov
since the reprobate is there designated luuvvnv — just as if he had in the inter-
as still a young man when recovered by val still lived at Ephesus, within call ;
St. John.f — It should be added that St. and meanwhile no particular occasion
John is supposed to have lived more had arisen for his presence, till then. J
than two and a half years after his re- 3 " The Book De Duodecim Apostolis,
turn : the time being three years accord- attributed to Hippolytus, makes mention
* See on this point of the iroKvv xpovov some illustrations in my supplemental
Paper on the Apocalyptic date, in the Appendix to this Volume.
f The passage in Chrysostom (AdTheodor. Laps.) is as follow. TaSe Kara rov veov
eKeivov, rov irporepov pev luavvov too ZeBeoaiov yevopevov paBl)mv> borepovSe eirt iroAvv
\noTapxri<ravTa xpovov, Kat iraXiv biro ruv ayiuv rov paKapiov Bnpevdevra xeipuv. . . .
ovfie avros ayvoeis. . . . Kat aov iroWaKts i}Kovaa Bavpagovros rijv ovyKaraBatrtv ri\v
iroWijv, Kai 6rt rijv alp.axBei<rav irpurov etptAijae Se^tav t u v e u irepixvBets, Kat obras
avrov eiri t« irporepa eiravnyaye. Where mark the ru vew in the conclusion.
X Let me add, with reference to Chrysostom's own view on this matter, that he,
in common with the other ancient Fathers, (followed, I might add, by Whitby,
Macknight, and most other learned moderns,) dates St. Paul's 2nd Epistle to Timo
thy (then Bishop of Ephesus) just before St. Paul's martyrdom, near the end of
Nero's persecution : Aokei /uoi irpos rep re\ei eivai abri) i) eirioroAT)' eyu yap 7jStj,
<pam, o-irevSopai. (Homily on 2 Tim. ad init.) And is he likely to have supposed
that St. John addrest the Church of Ephesus, and the other six Asiatic churches,
in the tone of apostolic connexion and authority described in the Apocalypse, at the
very time when St. Paul (himself the apostolic superintendant of the Ephesian
church) was yet living, or else very shortly after his death ; so as the notion of
Chrysostom's referring St. John's exile in Patmos to Nero's persecution requires?

CHAP. II. J

DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE.

35

over expressly, and in a part that bears no mark of inter
polation, that the Apocalypse was seen by the Apostle John
in the isle of Patmos, when banished thither by the Roman
Emperor Domitian.1 — To the same effect, fourthly, is the
very important testimony of Eusebius. For, though doubt
ing about the author of the Apocalyptic book, (and in
these doubts we see exemplified the free exercise of his
independent judgment,) yet on the date of St. John's ba
nishment to Patmos, he distinctly intimates more than once
his unhesitating agreement with the tradition of the an
cients, that referred it to Domitian's persecution.2 In fact

of luavvqs. . . . biro Aopertavov. . . . e^opia-
Beis ev Tlarpa., ev i\. . . . AiroKaAvtyiv eBea-
aaro. Opp. Hippol. App. p. 30, Ed.
Fabric."* I quote from Prof, M. Stuart's
Commentary on the Apocalypse, i. 265.
(Ed. 1845.)
1 The two passages are as follows,
taken from the edition of Victorinus
given in the Bibliotheca Patr. Max. (B.
P. M.) Vol. iii. pp. 419, 420.
1. On Apoc. x. 11, "Thou must pro
phesy again," he observes; "Hoc est
quoniam, quando hoc vidit Joannes, erat
in insula Pathmos, in metallum damna-
tus a Domitiano Caesare. Ibi ergo vidit
Apocalypsim : et cum senior jam putaret
se per passionem accepturum recep-
tionem, interfecto Domitiano omnia ju-
dicia ejus soluta sunt; et Joannes, de
metallo dimissus, sic postea tradidit hanc
eandem quam acceperat a Domino Apo
calypsim." 2. On Apoc. xvii. 10, about the Beast's
seventh and eighth heads, he writes;
" InteUigi oportet tempus quo Scriptura
Apocalypsis edita est. Quoniam tunc
erat Ccesar Domitianus ; ante ilium autem
fuerat Titus frater illius, et Vespasiauus
pater, Galba, Otho, et Vitellius. Hi sunt
quinque qui ceciderunt: unusextatswfitjuo
scribitur Apocalypsis ; — Domitianus scili
cet. Alius nondum venit : Nervam dixit."
I have alluded to the work now come
down to us under the title of Victorinus'
Commentary, (the same from which I
have quoted the above,) as being really
Victorinus', though interpolated. Nor
do I think we need have any doubt on
that point. See my full notice of Vic -
torinus' Commentary in the Appendix to

my Vol. iv, on the History of Apocalyp
tic Interpretation.
2 Immediately before the quotation
made by him from Irenaeus, which I have
given at full p. 32, in the first Note of
this Chapter, Eusebius says ; " In this
persecution (under Domitian) it is re
ported (kotexei Aoyos) that John the Apos
tle and Evangelist, being yet alive, was
banished into the island Patmos, for the
testimony of the word of God." — If it
be objected that the whole of this report
is given as from Irenaeus, and that the
date, as well as mention of the Apoca
lyptic John as John the Apostle and Evan
gelist, might perhaps be deemed a part
of Irenaeus' report, rather than his own
opinion, then I may refer, secondly, to
the unequivocal statement made by him
at the end of chapter 20 of the same
3rd Book of his History ; Tote 817 ovk
(viz. on Domitian's death, and Nerva's
accession) Kai rov airoaroAov luavvnv airo
tijs Kara tijv vqaov tpuyqs ri\v eirt tijs
Ktptaov SiarpiBvv anetKijtpevai, i tuv irap
ijptv apxaiuv irapadioum Aoyos : where
he reports the matter not as the tradi
tion of one of the Christian fathers,
Irenaeus only, but of the Christian an
cient writers (in the plural) generally. —
Further, in another passage, H. E. iii.
29, soon afterwards, he adds the state
ment following ; " About this time (Do
mitian's reign) was the heresy of the Ni-
colaitans, which continued for a short
time; of which also the Revelation of
John makes mention." — Moreover in his
Chronicon he places St. John's banish
ment at the 14th year of Domitian.
In the Note at p. 40, it will be shown

* Dr. Davidson, in his Article on the " Revelation" in Kitto's Biblical Cyclopaedia,
p. 621, says inadvertently that " the younger Hippolytus assigns it [the date] to
Nero." D 2

36 DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
it is perfectly evident that he knew of no other tradition
whatsoever as to the time of St. John's banishment to Pat
mos.— The same is the recorded judgment of Jerome;1 the
same of Augustine's friend, Orosius ;2 the same of Sulpitius
Severus.3 — Once more, we find an unhesitating statement
of similar purport in Primasius ; an eminent Augustinian
commentator on the Apocalypse, of the sixth century. In
his Preface to this Commentary, he speaks of the Apoca
lyptic visions having been seen by St. John when banished
and condemned to the mines in Patmos by the Emperor
Domitian.4 — Other ancient testimonies of less importance
might yet be added.5
Such is the later and subsidiary Patristic testimony still
extant, to the fact of St. John having seen the Apocalyptic

that there is nothing contradictory to this
in Eusebius' statement on the same sub
ject in his Demonstratio Evangelica.
1 " Vidit enim (sc. Joannes Apostolus)
in Patmo insula, in qua fuerat a Domi
tiano Principe ob Domini martyrium re-
legatus, Apocalypsin." Adv. Jovin. Lib.
i. So again in his De V. I. chap. 9,
where he speaks of John's banishment as
an event that occurred in the 14th year
of Domitan's reign. Lardner, iv. 446.
I may add that in the Epist. 44 Paula
et Eustochii ad Marcellam, given in Je
rome's works, Tom. iv. ii. 549, (Bened.
Ed ) the Apocalypse is spoken of as writ
ten after the destruction of Jerusalem.
• " Domitianus .... persecutionem in
Christianos secundus a Nerone imperavit.
Quo tempore etiam beatissimus Joannes
Apostolus in Pathmum insulam relegatus
fuit." Hist. B. vii. B. P. M. vi. 436.
3 " Interjecto deinde tempore Domiti
anus, Vespasiani Alius, persecutus est
Christianos; quo tempore Joannem Apos-
tolum atque Evangelistam in Pathmofl
insulam relegavit: ubi ille.. .. iibrum
Apocalypsin. . conscriptum edidit." Hist.
Sacr. Lib. ii. B. P. M. vi. 344.
4 " Haec autem eo tempore videre pro-
meruit, quo in Patmos insula pro Christo
a Domitiano CcEsare exilio missus, et me-
tallo damnatus, terminis arcebatur in-
clusus." B. P. M. x. 288.
4 E. g. 1st. that of Jornandes, the his
torian of the 6th century, inhisDe Regn.
Success. "Domitianus.... manus in
Christianos injiciens, Ioannem apostolum
et Evangelistam, postquam in ferventi
oleo missum non potuissit extinguere, in

Pathmos eum insulam relegavit, ubi
Apocalypsin vidit." B. P. M. xi. 1086.
— 2ndly, and to the same effect, as quoted
by Lardner v. 140, Isidore of Seville,
about 600 A. D. in his Chronicle : — and
3rdly, somewhat later, the Venerable
Bede. See his Homily on St. John the
Evangelist, and also his Prologue to the
Seven Catholic Epistles, quoted in Lard
ner, v. 145, 146.
Besides these I may mention two apo
cryphal authorities. — The first is the
Pseudo-Prochorus (compare Acts vi. 5),
in his Narratiode rebus gestis SanctiJoan-
nis: a writing which Bellarmine (B. P.M.
ii. 46) thinks may perhaps be the same
that Athanasius alludes to under the
title CircuitHs Joannis ; and, if so, may
probably have been of the third century,
when literary forgeries under apostolic
names were rife. (See Mosheim, iii. 2.
3. 11.) This Pseudo-Prochorus is very
full on the subject of Domitian's concern
in their persecution ; and gives the Em
peror's pretended Rescript, addressed to
the Ephesian heathens who had applied
for it, condemning the apostle John to
the mines in Patmos. Chap. xiv. B. P.
M. ii. 53. — My second apocryphal autho
rity is the old Roman Martyrology .-which,
as Whitby observes on Heb. iv. 3, asserts
that Antipas, mentioned Apoc. ii. 13, suf
fered martyrdom under Domitian; so fix
ing the date of the Apocalypse to a time
after that event. (This Martyrium of An
tipas is, I presume, the same that Andreas
of Caesarea in his Apocalyptic Commen
tary tells us he had seen : " Cujas ego
Martyrium olim legi." B. P. M. v. 593.)

CHAP. II. J DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. 37
visions in Patmos under the reign of Domitian : — a chain
of testimony not to be viewed (so as Tilloch would quite
unwarrantably represent it) x as but the repetition of
that of Irenaeus, whom indeed for the most part these
writers do not even refer to ; 2 but as their own deliberate
independent judgment, formed on all the evidence that then
existed. As to any contrary early tradition respecting
the date, if such there was, (as Sir I. Newton and Tilloch,
still without any warrant of historic record, have assumed,3)
it can scarcely have been unknown to them. And their
total silence respecting it is only explicable on one of two
suppositions ; — viz. either that it did not exist ; or that
they deemed it undeserving of credit, and not even worth
the notice.
Nor can this be wondered at : seeing that as to any
contrary statement on the point in question, there appears
to have been none whatsoever until the time of Epiphanius,
Bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, in the latter half of the fourth
century : a writer whose work is decried by Mosheim as
" full of blots and errors, through the levity and ignorance
of the author : " 4 and who in his statement on this very
point, — supposing it correctly written, and not an error of
transcription in our copies, — so exemplifies this ignorance,
as quite to justify the silent neglect of it by those writers
of our catena, viz. Jerome, Sulpitius, and Primasius, who
lived after him. For he speaks of St. John having pro
phesied when in the isle of Patmos, in the days of the Em
peror Claudius : s — a time when, as Michaelis justly ob-
selves,6 it does not appear from history that there was any
imperial persecution of the Christian body whatsoever ;
and when moreover the probability is that of the seven
1 " However numerous the authors are drian Clement, as evidence on this point.
who ascribe it to the end of Domitian's 3 They dwell much on this hypothesis.
reign, the testimony of all of them may Sir I. Newton calls it " a tradition in the
be resolved into that of one individual first churches." Tilloch says, p. 9, "Epi-
whom they copied, (p. 9, " whom they phanius followed some other [and of
refer to,") namely, Irenaeus." Tilloch course earlier"] authority now lost:"
on the Apocalypse, p. 14. So again p. 10, " Early commentators held the
pp. 8, 9, 41. He adds, p. 6, after Sir opinion," &c. 4 iv. 2. 2. 9.
Isaac Newton, that Irenaeus first iniro- 5 Avrov Be irpoipnTevoavTos ev xp°"°'s
duced this opinion. — Why not rather KAavStov Katoapos avurara, ire eis ri)v
Papias or Polycarp ? Tlarpov vnaov viriip^ev. Haer. 51, n. 33,
2 Ip'raythe reader to refer back to the quoted by Lardner, iv. 190.
extracts, especially that from the Alexan- 6 Ibid. p. 520.

38

DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.

Apocalyptic churches scarce one was as yet in existence,1
and the Apostle John moreover in no way associated with
the district.2 But indeed one is almost forced to suspect
some strange error in the transcriber. For Epiphanius
elsewhere implies John's age to have been ninety at the
time of his return from Patmos.3 And can we suppose
that he really thought John to have been ninety years old
before A.D. 54, which was the latest year of the life of
Claudius, or about seventy when called by Christ to be his
disciple ? 4 — Besides which strange theory we are reminded
by Newton and Tilloch of yet another testimony to the
early date of the Apocalypse. The subscription to a Sy
riac version of the book, written about the beginning of the
sixth century,5 is thus worded ; " The Revelation which
was made by God to John the Evangelist in the island of

1 See ibid, and my Note 3 p. 42.
" The reader should remember that in
the Acts and the Apostolic Epistles we
have an authentic history, and series of
historical notices, descriptive of the state
of the Christian Church throughout the
whole of the reign of Claudius ; which
reign lasted only from A.D. 41 to 54.
So that we are perfectly in a situation to
compare the facts of the case with the
Epiphanian theory, as to the time of the
Apocalyptic publication ; and so to con
vince ourselves of its falsehood.
3 The passage I refer to is one in
which Epiphanius speaks of John writing
his Gospel, given in Lardner, iv. 188.
Aio varepov avayKaget to ayiou Uvevpa
tov luavvijv, irapairovpevov evayyeAta-
atrdat Si' evAaBetav Kai raireivotppoavvipi ',
eirt tv ynpaAea. avrov r}AiKta, pera erij
evvevnKovra tijs eavrov guns, pera rt\v
avrov arro ri]S TJarpov eiravodov, rr\v eiri
KAavStov yevopev-qv Kaioapo? Kat pera
tKava eri\ too diarpiipai avrov airo [f. eiri]
T-ns Aatas avayKagerat eKBeoBai to evay-
yeAiov. Haer. 51. n. 12. Where we may
most naturally understand the " after
ninety years of age," as in chronological
apposition with the " after the return
from Patmos, which teas under Claudius
the Emperor." — Does not the whole pas
sage, let me ask, suggest Apoc. x. 11
to one's mind ; " And he said to me,
Thou must prophesy again before many
peoples, &c : " a charge applied by Vic
torinus and other early expositors to St.
John's writing his Gospel and Apoca
lypse after his return from Patmos ?

4 See Note 6 p. 33, supra.— At p. 190
Lardner expresses his suspicion of an
error of transcription in the passages
given in Note6 above and Note5 p. 37.
Vitringa intimates that he should have
thought the same, but from the circum
stance of Epiphanius twice over making
the statement. — And the same suspicion,
I should think, must have crossed the
mind of every reflective inquirer into
the subject. In fact, for my own part,
after again and again considering it, I
cannot help almost settling down into
the persuasion that Lardner's and Vi-
tringa's suspicions were well founded;
and that it is to a transcriber, not to
Epiphanius, that the absurdity is owing.
It will be seen in the next Note but one
that Juvenal designates Domitian as the
Flavins ultimus. And so too Martial says,
" Flavia templa," of temples built by
Domitian. Epig. ix. 4. Might not Epi
phanius have somewhat similarly desig
nated him from his Gentile name? If
so, and the words were QAavtov Kai-
o-apos (I write the $Aaviov as Eusebius in
his Chronicon, quoted from Syncellus in
Clinton's Fasti Romani, p. 80) the rare
ness of this appellation of the emperor
might easily make a transcriber suspect
error ; and by a small alteration he might
think to rectify it, the word being
changed into KAauBiou.
5 " The Syriac version of the Apoca
lypse is now known to be a part of the
Philoxenian version, which was made by
Polycarp at the beginning of the sixth
century." Michaelis p. 521.

CHAP. II.]

DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE.

39

Patmos, whither he was banished by the Emperor Nero."
But of what value is this opinion, then first broached, as it
would appear ? x — Or again, of what that of the commenta
tor Arethas, promulgated still two or three centuries later,2
to the effect that the Apocalypse was written before the
destruction of Jerusalem ;3 an opinion contradicted indeed
elsewhere in the body of his work by himself?4 — Alike the
one and the other slept unnoticed for centuries. And if
waked up by critics of a more modern age, it has only been
(as Michaelis, we have seen, confesses) from the supposed
necessity of such dates, in order to any possible explanation
of the Apocalyptic prophecies.5
It does not need that I discuss at all prominently cer
tain points of indirect and subsidiary historical evidence,
in favour of an early date, which these writers have also
called in to their aid. A sufficient notice of them will be
found below : and it will appear that they all, like the
direct testimony just discussed, prove weak and worthless
on examination.1 — Nor will the only other evidence offered

1 May not the mistake have arisen
from Domitian having sometimes the
title of Nero given him ; and in fact the
original writer of the Syriac subscription
have meant Domitian, not Nero ?
Thus Juvenal iv. 37 :
Quum jam semianimum laceraret Flavius
orbem
Ultimus, et calvo serviret Roma Neroni.
On which Ruperti observes : " Neroni
alteri. . . . Nota sunt Ausonii verba ;
Et Titus imperii felix brevitate, sequutus
Frater, quem Calvum dixit sua Roma
Neronem.
Similarly Tertullian, in his Apolog.
ch. 5, speaks of " Domitianus portio
Neronis." 2 On Apoc. xiii. 2, " The beast that I
saw was like to a leopard, and his mouth
like a lion's," he writes ; " Per os leonis
regnum designatur Babyloniorum, cui
Saracenorum regnum manifesto successit,
qu&d in hoc usque tempus regia eorum
Babylone sit." B. P. M. ix. 771. Now
the Saracen capital of Bagdad near Ba
bylon was not built till A.D. 762. See
my notice of Arethas in the Appendix to
Vol. iv.

3 " Nondum enim vastatio a Romanis
illata Judaeos involverat, ubi haec Evan-
gelista oracula suscipiebat." Comment.
in Apoc. vii. 4 ; B. P. M. ix. 759.
Andreas (Arethas' predecessor and
model) had previously mentioned that
certain preceding expositors supposed an
allusion to this event in Apoc. vii ;
TauTa Tires ets ri\v eirt Oveairaatavov j8a-
otAeus itoAiopKiav e£eAaf3ov airavra, ruv
eipi)pevuv eKaorov rpoiroAoyi\aavTes ;
(quoted by Lardner v. 78 ;) and Micha
elis, p. 524, suggests that Hippolytus'
lost Comment must be the one referred
to. But I find what answers to An
dreas' statement in Tichonius' still extant
Commentary, Homily xiii ; an expositor
of the fourth century. This, however, is
meant in a retrospective sense simply ;
just, for example, as Mr. Faber explains
the Seals retrospectively. — See my notice
of Tichonius in the Appendix.
4 On Apoc. i. 9, he cites with appro
bation Eusebius' date; " Relegatum
ipsum in Patmum insulam sub Domiti
ano fuisse Eusebius Pamphili in Chro
nica sua citat." B. P. M. ix. 743.
5 See Note 2 p. 32 supra.
0 There are two points of subsidiary
historic evidence urged by Sir I. Newton,
in proof of the Apocalypse having been

40 DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
on their side, — evidence internal in its character, and which
has been urged of late years with great earnestness and

written in Nero's persecution; besides
the story from Clement already noticed,
Note 2, p. 34.
I. Of these two the first is thus stated
by that eminent author. " Eusebius in
his Chronicle and Ecclesiastical History
follows Irenaeus : but afterwards in his
Evangelical Demonstrations he conjoins
the banishment of John into Patmos
with the deaths of Peter and Paul : and
so do Tertullian, and Pseudo-Prochorus ;
as well as the first author, whoever he
was, of that very ancient fable, that
John was put by Nero into a vessel of
boiling oil, and, coming out unhurt was
banished by him into Patmos. Though
this story be no more than a fiction, yet
was it founded on a tradition in the first
churches, that John was banished into
Patmos in the days of Nero."
Let us however examine Sir I. N.'s
three authorities on this point, and see
whether they will bear him out.
1. Eusebius, after briefly sketching
the earlier persecutions of the apostles
and disciples, as related in the Book of
the Acts of the Apostles, adds that sub
sequently, or in addition to these, (em
toutou,) James, the Lord's brother, was
stoned to death : and he then passes to
the following notice of Peter, Paul, and
John, which is the passage referred to
by Sir I. Newton ; Kai IleTpos Be 67ri
'Puprjs Kara KetpaAijs ravpovrai, XlavAos
re airorepverai, luavvns re vrjou irapabi-
Sotoi"' — a passage followed by the general
statement that the surviving disciples,
undeterred by these things, persisted in
their Christian profession and designs.
Eusebius Dem. Evan. Lib. iii. p. 116.
(Paris 1628.) Thus we see that there
is here no intimation whatever of syn
chronism between the two events of Paul's
beheading and John's banishment.
2. In Tertullian's Treatise de PraBs.
Hser. c. 36, (who was the first author
of the story referred to,*) the conjoined
mention of John's being thrown into
boiling oil, and Paul's and Peter's death,
is not at all a chronological but a local
conjunction. Speaking of Rome he says :
" Ista quam felix ecclesia cui totam doc-
trinam apostoli cdm sanguine suo pro-
fuderunt : ubi Petrus passioni Dominica?
adaequatur ; ubi Paulus Joannis [sc. Bap-

tistae] exitu coronatur ; ubi apostolus
Joannes, posteaquam in oleum igneum
demersus nihil passus est, in insulam re-
legatur." Not a word is here said of
this last transaction having taken place
under Nero. On the contrary, tradition,
we shall now see, referred it to the times
of Domitian. — For first Jerome adv. Jovi-
nian (Lib. i.) repeats the story imme
diately after the clause given in Note '
p. 36 supra, wherein he states Domitian
to have been the Emperor that banished
St. John to Patmos. — Further Sir I. New
ton's third witness,
3. Pseudo-Prochorus, is direcUy against
him. For, after telling the story at full
length, and similarly conjoining the men
tion of this event with that of Paul's and
Peter's martyrdoms, as a mere associa
tion of place, (for he supposes it to have
occurred at Rome, and that thus the
Porta Latina in that city became a me
morial of one apostle, St. John, as the
Porta Vaticana was of the other, St.
Peter,) after this, I say, he expressly
states the Emperor by whom St. John
was thus thrown into the oil to have
been Domitian, (who soon after banished
him to Patmos,) not Nero. "Audiens
Domitianus de adventu ejus [Joannis]
. ...jussit ut proconsul duceret ante
Portam Latinam, et in ferveutis olei do-
lium ilium vivum dimitti.". ..." Deus
enim per crudelem tyrannum consilium
suum disponebat, ut, sicut virtutibus et
signis Joannes et Petrus socii fuerunt,
ita in urbe Roma memoriam haberent
sui triumphi. Sicut enim Porta Vati
cana," &c. Domitian is again and again
mentioned by this writer as the Emperor
concerned in the persecution of St. John.
B. P. M. ii. 52. See Note 5 p. 36 supra.
One cannot but greatly regret that
such a man as Sir I. Newton should have
written in the above-made citation from
him what was not only so incorrect, but
so calculated to mislead. Perhaps, how
ever, he may have transcribed from others,
and not looked into the originals.
II. The second point of subsidiary his
toric evidence urged by Sir Isaac, and re
peated by Dr. Tilloch with an air of great
confidence and triumph, p. 41, is the
early existence of pseudo-Apocalypses in
the professing Christian Church ; espe-

* See Lardner, ii. 286.

CHAP,

II.]

DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE.

41

some

effect 1 by Dr. Tilloch and others, after Sir Isaac
and Bishop Newton, — be found at all better able to bear
examination. For what is the main argument of this kind ? It is
founded on certain marked similarities discoverable, as they
suppose, in sundry Epistles of Peter and Paul, written be
fore Nero's death, to passages in the Apocalypse f whence
they infer that the Apocalypse was written first, the Epistles
afterwards. — Now in a question of this kind it is important,
indeed essential, to distinguish between cases of reference
to some antecedent writing, (whether direct, or by means
of the article or pronouns demonstrative,) and those of mere
similarity of thought or expression. Of the former class
of examples, adduced by these critics from the apostolic
epistles, there is not one, I believe, which is not explicable
as a reference to the previous prophecies of the Old Testa
ment.3 — As to cases of mere similarity and coincidence of
thought, if we may often see much of it even in uninspired

cially one by Cerinthus, who, they say,
lived so early as to withstand the apostles
in the first council at Jerusalem, (Acts
xv,) and died before St. John : which
false Apocalypses implied the previous
existence of the true. — But what the
authority for assigning this early date to
Cerinthus and his Apocalypses? It is
well known to be a controverted point
(as Mosheim says, i. 2. 5. 16, and
Lardner viii. 409) whether Cerinthus
was of the first century or the second.
Epiphanius,— the inaccurate and un
trustworthy Epiphanius, — is the only
author of the story of Cerinthus being at
the Council at Jerusalem. On the other
hand Irenaeus dates the Cerinthians after
the Nicolaitans ; which last he deemed
(as his date of the Apocalypse proves)
to have been of Domitian's time. The-
odoret implies (as Lardner observes,
ibid.) that Cerinthus did not arise till the
old age of St. John : and Epiphanius him
self puts the Cerinthians elsewhere after
the Carpocratians ; whom all place, I be
lieve, (see Lardner, viii. 393,) after the
end of the first century.
Let me add, had these perverters of
St. John's Apocalypse written as early as
Tilloch asserts, might we not presume
that they would have been as specifically
reprobated as those that wrested St.
Paul's epistles, in 2 Peter iii. 16 ?

1 See the notices of it by Burgh in the
Appendix to his Comment on the Reve
lation, pp. 409— 422 (4th Ed.), and by
a Reviewer in the Investigator, Vol. i. p.
213. The former entirely adopts and
approves the argument ; the latter how
ever much more cautiously, and only in
part. 2 See the enumeration of them in Sir
I. Newton and Dr. Tilloch. The most
striking, I think, are those of St. Peter
about the church at Babylon, the royal
priesthood, and new heaven and new
earth ; and those from the Epistle to the
Hebrews about the heavenly sabbatism,
the general assembly, the coming unto
Mount Zion, the city that hath founda
tions, the heavenly Jerusalem : also, as
Dr. Tilloch adds, p. 99, and his Re
viewer in the Investigator, the expres
sions in 1 Cor. xv. 52, about the last
Trumpet's sounding, and in Gal. iv. 26
about the Jerusalem above, which is the
mother of us all.
3 E. g. St. Peter's promised new hea
vens and new earth may be referred to
Isa. lxv. 17, lxvi. 22, as well as to Apoc.
xxi. 1 ; the city which hath foundations
to Isa. liv. 11, as well as to Apoc. xxi.
14; the last trumpet to Exod. xix. 16,
(compared with Heb. xii. 19, 26 and
1 Thess. iv. 16,) as well as to Apoc.
xi. 15.

42 DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
writings, without implying imitation on the part of one or
other of the writers, how much more may we expect unde
signed resemblances in inspired writings, such as are both
the Epistles and Book of the Apocalypse spoken of; see
ing that, though written by different human penmen, they
were inspired by one and the same divine Spirit : x which
Spirit may just as well be supposed to have dictated an
idea or brief sketch to St. Peter or St. Paul, which was
afterwards to be developed in the finished pictures of the
Apocalypse of St. John, as to have spoken by those first-
mentioned Apostles in terms or figures borrowed from the
previously promulged pictures of the Apocalypse. All
this is very evident ; and with it the exceeding danger of
arguing, so as Newton and Tilloch have done, for the
chronological priority of the Apocalypse, from any supposed
imitations of it which they may think to trace in one and
another of the apostolic epistles. But it is to Dr. Tilloch
himself that we owe the setting forth of the utter unsound
ness and error of this their argument in the clearest light.
For he has plainly shown that on this principle there must
be allowed proof of reference to the Apocalypse in St. Paul's
two Epistles to the Thessalonians, — proof as conclusive as
in any other case : 2 — which two Epistles were, however,
notoriously written3 (and indeed other of the Epistles
also4) before ever a Christian church was founded at
1 2 Peter i. 20, 21 : " No prophecy of Epistle he writes, p. 117; "To the au-
the scripture is of any private interpre- thor of this work it appears certain that
tation : for the prophecy came not in old in these passages of the firstchapter [viz.
time by the will of man, but holy men verses 7, 8, ' Rest with us, when the
of God spake as they were moved by the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from hea-
Holy Ghost." ven in flaming fire,'] the allusions to the
2 Tilloch, Diss. ii. § 11, pp. 110 — 122. Apocalypse are quite obvious."
In the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, 3 Both these Epistles were written,
he says, p. 110, there are several ex- while Timothy and Silas were with Paul,
pressions, which, " if we believe that from Corinth : (compare Acts xviii. 5,
the writer often has allusions to the 1 Thess. i. 1, iii. I, 2, 6, 2 Thess. i. 1) :
Apocalypse in his other Epistles, we can and it was not till after leaving Corinth
hardly have reason to doubt have refer- that he first touched at Ephesus, where
ence to the contents of that prophecy : " there was then no Christian church, but
instancing the wrath to come, the coming only a Jewish synagogue ; (Acts xviii.
of Christ with all his saints, the coming 19;) nor till his second visit, on return-
as a thief in the night, the trumpet of ing from Jerusalem and Antioch, (Acts
God, and the signs and periods, which xix. 1, &c.) that he formed a church in
the Christians addressed perfectly knew ; that city. Indeed Tilloch allows this,
1 Thess. i. 10, iii. 13, iv. 16, v. i, com- pp. 21, 112.
pared with Apoc. vi. 16, xix. 11—14, 4 E. g. the first Epistle to the Corin-
xi. 15, xiii. 5, &c. — Again of the Second thians. For it was written from Ephesus,

CHAP. II.] DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. 43
Ephesus : much more before it had any episcopal angel
presiding over it, such as was addressed in the first of the
Apocalyptic Epistles by the Lord Jesus.1
So as to the primary argument of these writers, to prove
an early date, from internal evidence. A secondary class
of arguments from internal evidence, derived from the allu
sions that we find in the Apocalypse to the Israelitish tribes
and the Holy City, temple, and altar, — as if, say they, the
Jewish city, temple, and altar were still standing,2 — is even
yet more obviously inconclusive. For it takes for granted
that those expressions are meant literally of the old Jeru
salem and Israel, not figuratively, of the Christian Church:
a point which not only have they not proved, but which, I
am well persuaded, (and we shall soon see that the persua
sion exprest is not without reason,) they never can prove.3
Yet a few words, ere I conclude, on two or three cor
roborative points of evidence drawn both from profane
history and Scripture. — First, it would seem from historic
report very questionable whether Nero's persecution of
Christians extended far beyond the precincts of Rome
itself:* a circumstance which, if true, (nor is it contra
dicted by any distinct Christian ecclesiastical record of
as all allow, and is indeed most manifest one of the Apocalyptic churches) had not
(see 1 Cor. xvi. 8, 19), during St. Paul's been formed.
sojourn at Ephesus, mentioned Acts 2 So Sir I Newton, — "allusions to the
xix, in which he founded the Ephesian temple and altar and Holy City, as then
Church.* — I might add the same of the standing."
Epistle to the Galatians, which bears 3 See my observations in Chap, ii of
date probably yet earlier. See Lardner my Introduction to the Prophecy, on the
and Macknight on the Chronology of primary exhibition of a scene like that
St. Paul's Epistles. of the Holy Place of the Jewish temple
1 There is a passage in Polycarp's in Apoc. i ; also those on the sealing of
Epistle to the Philippians, which strikes the 144,000, out of the twelve tribes of
me as illustrative on this point. He Israel, in Apoc. vii.
writes thus, § 11. "St. Paul noticing 4 See especially Tacitus Ann. xv. 44.
you in the beginning of his Epistle, glo- Also Suetonius' Nero c. 16. — The learned
ries of you in all the churches which modern ecclesiastical historians, Nean-
alone then knew God ; for we did not der (i. 90, Rose's Translation, 2nd Ed.)
then know Him." Whence we may Gieseter (Text Book i. 56, Cunningham's
naturally infer, that at the date of St. Translation, Philadelphia, 1836), and
Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, or as Waddington (i. 113, 114, 2nd Ed,), all
late as about the year A. D. 62, the take this restricted view of the Neronic
Christian Church of Smyrna (which was persecution.
* Would St. Paul have simply said 1 Cor. xv. 8, " Last of all he was seen by me
also," if St. John had subsequently, yet before St. Paul's writing to the Corinthians,
been favoured with the vision of Christ in Patmos ; and not rather pointedly referred
to that extraordinary vision, in further proof of Christ's resurrection ?

44 DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
the first four centuries)1 negatives of itself the idea of St.
John having been banished in his persecution to the mines
of Patmos.— $ec<mc%, they furnish no evidence that in
Nero's persecution banishment to the islands, with its
usual penal accompaniments, was one of the punishments
then put in force against accused Christians : whereas, on
the other hand, we have direct profane historic testimony
in proof that that particular punishment was enforced
against persons accused of Christianity in the persecution
by Domitian. The illustrative case of the noble Senator
Clemens' equally noble wife Domitilla will readily occur
to the memory of the classic reader .2 — To which let me
add, thirdly, that it appears from Tacitus,3 that about the
sixth year of Nero, or A D. 61, the city of Laodicea was
destroyed by an earthquake ; in which earthquake, ac
cording to Eusebius,4 the adjacent cities of Colossee and
Hierapolis were also involved. Now, as regards Laodicea
itself, - we read in Tacitus that before he wrote it was re
built : 5 the exact time of its restoration not being specified
by him ; but, according to such memorials as exist, appearing
to have been not till some 10 or 12 years after, perhaps in
the reign of Vespasian.6 Which time of the city's restora-
1 So Waddington ibid, 114; Orosius cpewyoi'Taj Kaniyaye- — a fact precisely
and perhaps Sulp. Severus, both given agreeing with the ecclesiastical tradition
by Lardner vi. 624, being the earliest of St. John's liberation, on that Emperor's
Christian writers who distinctly extend death (whoever he was) that had ba
the Neronic persecution into the Pro- nished him to Patmos.
vinces. Eusebius especially, H- E. ii. 3 Annal. xiv. 27. See Note s.
25, does not. As to the Lusitanian in- 4 In his Chronicon. — I agree with Tille-
scription given by Lardner, p. 623, from mont, ad ann. 61, in supposing Eusebius
the archaeologist Gruter, which would to mean the same earthquake as Tacitus ;
make Nero's persecution to have ex- though he places it in the tenth year of
tended into Portugal, Dean Waddington Nero.
observes (ibid 113,) "The forgery of s " Eodem anno ex inlustribus Asiae
the Lusitanian inscription, according to urbibus Laodicea tremore terra? prolapsa,
which ' Nero purged that province from nullo a nobis remedio, propriis opibus
the new superstition,' is now universally revaluit."
admitted." So too Gieseler, ibid. 6 Turning to medallic illustrations, I
2 The history is found in Dion Cas- find in Mionnet's coins of Colossal not
sius, lxvii. 14, and Eusebius H. E. iii. one between those of Agrippina, Nero's
18. — Flavius Clemens was cousin ger- mother, who died A. D. 59, and those of
man to Domitian, Domitilla his niece. Commodus, above a century after : in
Let me observe that Dion Cassius his coins of Hierapolis a gap from
expressly mentions also the liberation Nero to Trajan : in those of Laodicea a
from exile of those whom Domitian had gap from Nero to Titus only ; there being
banished on the charge of atheism, (i. e. various Laodicean medals both of Titus
of Christianity,) by the Emperor Nerva and Domitian. Neither Eckhel nor
on his accession : ' O Nepouas tous te Rasche supply any others in the case
Kptvopevovs en aoeBiia a<pmte, Kai tous either of Colosstr or Hierapolis. — The

CHAP. II.] DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. 45
tion is of course quite inconsistent with the idea of a Lao
dicean Church existing at the epoch of Nero's persecution ;
much more with the state of wealth and luxury ascribed to
it in the Apocalyptic epistle. On the other hand, on the
hypothesis of a Domitianic date to the Apocalypse, the tes
timony of these monumental memorials well consists with
the idea of Laodicean prosperity sketched in the epistle :
while at the same time the non-restoration, according to
existing monuments, of both Hierapolis and Colossae before
Domitian's death, quite accounts for the silence at that time
in the Apocalyptic letter about Colossee and Hierapolis. —
How rash then Mr. Tilloch's argument from this silence for
a Neronic date j1 even if considered only in the light of
profane history ! How much more rash when considered
also in the light of the additional evidence derivable from
the Scriptures themselves : in which Scriptures we have
an Epistle from St. Paul to Timothy, the Bishop of
Ephesus, written, according to the most probable opinion,2
just before his death under the Neronic persecution : and
which gives not an indication of St. John's being esta
blished in that neighbourhood, or expected ; or of any such
new Churches having been formed there, as are addressed
in five out of the seven letters to the Asiatic Churches !
Thus (to conclude) the varied historical evidence that
has been inquired into, all concurs to confirm the date
originally and expressly assigned by Ireneeus to the Apo
calypse, as seen and written at the close of the reign of Do
mitian : that is, near the end of the year 95, or beginning
of96.3 Accordingly, the great majority of the most ap-
Pictorial Bible on Apoc. iii speaks of an that these churches had ceased to exist at
inscription found on the amphitheatre the date he assigns to the Apocalypse."
at Laodicea, with a date showing that it Tilloch, p. 32 ; and so again at p. 38. —
was in course of erection at the time of Dean Woodhouse, it seems, in account-
John's exile in Patmos, A.D. 96. And ing for the omission of these churches,
the elder Pliny (N. H. v. 29, 30) implies had simply said that they were probably
the existence of a Roman tribunal there not mentioned from the circumstance of
under Vespasian. Vitr. p. 54. their having become of less importance ;
1 " These passages (viz. ' John to the not bethinking him, at the time, of the
seven churches in Asia,' ' The seven earthquake that I have specified.
stars are the angels of the seven 2 So Chrysostom, (see p. 34 supra,)
churches,') prove that the Apocalypse Whitby, Macknight, Michaelis, Paley,
was written before there was a church &c.
at Colosse or at Hierapolis : for Dean 3 Domitian was assassinated Septem-
Woodhouse has not ventured to state ber A. D. 96. Suetonius' Domit. c. 17.

46 DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. [PRELIM. ESSAY.
proved ecclesiastical historians and biblical critics, alike
Eoman Catholic and Protestant, French, German, and
English, — writers who have had no bias on the point in
question, one way or the other, from any particular cherished
theory of Apocalyptic interpretation, — for example Dupin,
Bossuet, Tillemont, Le Clerc, — Turretin, Spanheim,1
Basnage, Lampe, Mosheim, — Mill, Whitby,2 Lardner,
Milner, Tomline, Burton,3 &c, &c, — have all alike adopted
it.4 To whom I am happy to add the living names of the
German ecclesiastical historian Gieseler,5 and of our own
learned chronologist Mr. Clinton.6 We may, I am per
suaded, depend on its correctness with as unhesitating and
implicit confidence, as on the truth of almost any of the
lesser facts recorded in history. And I must say it seems
to me most surprising that respectable and learned com
mentators should have spent their time and labour, in
building up Apocalyptic Expositions that rest wholly and
only on the sandy foundation of an earlier Neronic date.7
The important bearing of the true Apocalyptic date on
Apocalyptic interpretation will soon appear.
1 Spanheim in his Eccles. Hist, speaks (see his Introduction, p. xiv:) — also that
of it as among the things certain. Mr. Tregelles, in his late Critical Edition
2 On Heb. iv. 3. of the Apocalyptic text, (Preface p. x,) ac-
3 Burton, p. 163, says ; " The date of counts for the very much fewer number
all his (St. John's) writings is attended of the Apocalyptic MSS, as compared
with uncertainty, except perhaps that of with those of the other New Testament
his Apocalypse, which must have been Books, from the fact of its having been
written either in the island of Patmos, written, agreeably with Irenaeus' testi-
or soon after his return to Ephesus." mony, at a later period than the rest.
Dr. B. had just before spoken of John's 7 I may particularize, as most eminent
banishment to Patmos as under Do- among the living, Dr. Lee, for some
mitian. years Arabic Professor of Cambridge ;
4 Text Book, p. 63 . — I might add Professor Liicke, late of Bonn, now of
Dean Waddington. For what he says of Gottingen ; and the Hebrew Professor of
the seven Apocalyptic churches, p. 7, the Andover Theological Seminary in
implies it. America, Or. Moses Stuart. Generally
5 Woodhouse, from whom I have speaking, these expositors may be con-
freely borrowed in this Preliminary sidered as of the German school of Apo-
Essay, thus sums up about the date of calyptic interpretation ; a school whose
the Apocalypse, p. 11: "Lampe has general theory will be reviewed in the
asserted, and Lardner fully confirms the Appendix to the 4th Volume.
assertion, 'that all antiquity is abun- In the Appendix to the present Volume
dantly agreed that Domitian was the there will be found a review of whatever
author of St. John's banishment to Pat- new argument or evidence may have been
mos-' ' adduced by any of them in favour of a
6 In his Fasti Romani ad ann. 96. — Neronic date ; more especially by Pro-
Let me add that even Eichhorn, the cele- fessor M. Stuart in his lately published
brated Apocalyptic Expositor of the Ger- and elaborate Apocalyptic Commen-
man School, admits the Domitianic date : tary.

EXPOSITION

APOCALYPSE.

INTRODUCTION TO THE
PEOPHECY OF THE FTJTUBE
APOC. I— IV.

CHAPTER I.
ST. JOHN IN PATMOS.
It was in the year of Christ, as we have seen, 96, or of
Rome 849, that St. John had the visions of the Apocalypse
revealed to him. The chronological eras in which I thus
mark the date, — eras perhaps the most famous in history,
— suggest to us the two kingdoms between which, from
thenceforward, was to lie the visible contest for the supre
macy of the world. Of the former kingdom the then living
ruler and head was the Emperor Domitian, the last of the
twelve Caesars ; who was engaged at the time spoken of in
a bitter persecution of the Christians in his empire : of the
latter the most eminent member and director (for Head it
knew none but the Lord Jesus) was the last and only sur
vivor of Christ's twelve apostles,1 himself a sufferer in the
persecution, the beloved disciple St. John.
" I John, your brother and companion in tribulation,
and in the kingdom and patience (or rather patient ex
pectation2) of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called
1 Such is the received tradition of the Church, handed down in ecclesiastical
history : though of the times, as well as manner, of the deaths of several others of
the apostles, precise accounts are wanting.
2 Ev tv vwopovp lijaov Xptorov. Apoc. i. 9.
VOL. I. E

50 APOC. I. [introd.
Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of
Jesus," — such is the account now given by St. John re
specting himself. He had been banished from his brethren
and friends in proconsular Asia,1 to the barren isle of Pat
mos, simply for bearing witness to Jesus as the Christ and
Saviour of the world : and probably, — if we may form a
conjecture from what was common among the Romans in
the cases of such punishment,2 and from the strength too
of the phrase " tribulation," used by the Apostle to de
signate his own experience of it, — was condemned to penal
labour in the mines or quarries ;3 or perhaps to incarcera
tion in some dungeon of the island. He was now far
advanced in life, much beyond the ^threescore years and
ten that have been noted as the measure of the age of man :
and at ninety, or nearly ninety years, privation and penal
1 Proconsular Asia, of which Ephesus was the capital, must be distinguished from
Asia Minor, as well as from the vaster continent of Asia. It appears that the word
Asia was used by the Romans in four senses : 1st. for the whole Asiatic continent,
as opposed to Europe and Africa ; 2ndly, for Asia Minor in its largest extent, in
cluding Cilicia and other districts beyond the Taurus ; 3rd, for the same in its smaller
extent, embracing only the provinces within the Taurus ; 4th, for Lydian Asia, or,
as it was also called towards the end of the first century, Proconsular Asia, extend
ing along the coast from Pergamos down to Caria, and inland to the Phrygian
frontier, or a little beyond it. — It is in this last sense that the word is used in Acts
xvi. 6, &c, — a passage which has been most appositely cited in illustration ; " When
they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of
the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Mysia they
essayed to go into Bithynia,'but the Spirit suffered them not : and they, passing by
Mysia, came down to Troas." — See the Diatribe of the learned Archbishop Usher on
the subject; referred to by Vitringa on Apoc. i. 4.
Perhaps the little maritime district on the Cayster near Ephesus had first the name
Asia, since Homer so uses the word, II. B. 461, Aaiu ev Aeipwvt, Kavarptov aptpt oeeBpa;
it being called so, according to Strabo (l.xiv. p. 961), from one Asius, a king of Lydia.
Thence the appellation may have extended to a larger and larger signification.
2 His being there as one banished, and in exile, is almost implied in what St. John
says of his being the fellow-partaker with the Asiatic Churches in affliction, &c ; and
it is stated by many of the ancients. So Ignatius' Epistle (as it is called) to the
Tarsenses, \wavvi\s etpvyaoevero ev Xlarpip- (an epistle very ancient, doubtless, if not of
Ignatius' own writing :) and so too almost all the other early fathers cited in the
Essay preceding. — Dr. Tilloch stands nearly alone, I believe, in his strange idea
(pp.12, 15, 16,) of St John having voluntarily gone to Patmos (itself an almost
barren island ! ) merely to preach the Gospel.
Daubuz (ad loc.) observes from Grotius; " By the Roman laws this was the
punishment of seditious persons ; among which were reckoned those who broached
and published new superstitions." And, as it appears from Dion Cassius, (1. lxvii.
14) that many who suffered under Domitian suffered under the conjoint charge of
atheism and Jewish manners, (eyKAnpa aBeoTqros and lovSaiaiv i)Bi\,) — a charge, as
Neander observes (Vol. i. p. 91), clearly pointing out Christians, — it is evident that
this punishment among others would naturally be adjudged to them.
3 Victorinus, quoted p. 35, Note l ; and, after him, Primasius, quoted p. 36,
Note \ affirm this about St. John. — " De vestris semper metalla suspiranl," said by
Tertullian in his Apolog. c. 44, suggests the hardness of the labour in the mines,
enforced on criminals.

CHAP. I.J ST. JOHN IN PATMOS. 51
labour, like this, must needs have been peculiarly pain
ful. But the spirit of the man had that within it which
might well sustain his infirmity ; the peace, hopes, and
joys of the Gospel:— joy at suffering for Christ; joy in
communion with him, through that Holy Spirit whose light
no dungeon could exclude ; joy in looking for a speedy
re-union with Him, and the triumphant establishment,
soon it might be or somewhat later, of his kingdom in
glory. How peculiar, how different from those of the few rude
inhabitants, and perhaps ruder governor of the island
around him,1 were the thoughts and feelings, recollections
and anticipations, joys and sorrows, that filled the mind of
the aged saint ! In part and measure it is not difficult for
us to picture them to ourselves. For besides certain his
torical notices of his life, we have preserved to us the ex
pression of his mind in writings of his own still extant, —
his Gospel, his Epistles, his Apocalypse. Nor, I think,
can we better prepare ourselves for an intelligent and pro
fitable consideration of the extraordinary prefigurative
visions just at this time accorded to him, than by endea
vouring, though but partially and briefly, to picture these
his thoughts and feelings to ourselves : and this as they
embraced within their scope alike the past, the present, and
the future.
1 . The past. It was now above sixty years since the
ascension of his blessed Lord. Surely that was an event
and scene that could never fade from the beloved disciple's
recollection : — then when He led them out as far as Be
thany on the mount of Olives, and there for the last time
blessed them, and as He blessed them, was parted from
them, till a cloud received him out of their sight.2 — It was
then that two Angels, robed in heavenly white, stood by
them ; and said, " Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye so
gazing up into heaven ? This same Jesus shall come in
like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." 3 These
1 Daubuz on Apoc. i. 10, says, " It is likely that St. John was exiled into the
island of Patmos, because there were as yet no Christians therein."
2 Luke xxiv. 50. 3 Acts i. 10, 11. E 2

52 APOC. I. [iNTROD.
were heart-cheering words, never to be forgotten ; — words
indeed that were but the repetition of many to the same
effect that Jesus Himself had before spoken to them.1 At
first the idea, the joyful idea, in their minds was, that the
promise of his coming would very speedily be fulfilled ;
and, long before the generation then living had wholly
passed away, this dearest wish of their hearts have its ac
complishment.2 But the years that had since passed,
(above sixty years we have seen,) had already shown some
error in their expectations on that point : yet only so as,
by unfolding the fulfilment of other of Christ's predictions,
that needs must come first in order of time, to confirm,
and render yet more certain, their assurance of the fulfil
ment of this best promise in its due course also.
Thus, in regard to Jerusalem, when they witnessed the
Lord's ascension, that " holy city " 3 was yet standing. As
they returned from Mount Olivet, the hum of busy life
rose from its thronging population : and with its towers
and pinnacles, its forts and palaces, and its temple the
mightiest and most splendid of all its mighty buildings,
Mount Zion seemed still, as in the olden time, the queen
amidst the hills that surrounded it.4 But Christ had fore
shown to them its imminent destruction and desolation.5
Its people had rejected Him who came to save them ; and
1 It will be found interesting to note these predictions in the order of time, and
with regard to the occasions on which they were given : e. g. Matt. xvi. 27, xix. 28,
xxiv. 30, xxv. 31, Mark viii. 38, Luke xvii. 24, John xiv. 3, &c. &c. It will thus
appear, 1 st, that it was not till after the lapse of a certain time from the calling of
his disciples, that He opened to them the subject of his second coming in glory ; 2nd,
that it was not until after he had mentioned to them the sufferings and humilia
tion that He would have to undergo. Indeed it would seem to have been generally
in direct connexion with pre-intimations on the subject of his sufferings, or on that
of their own coming trials and sorrows, that He spoke of his second and glorious
coming. 2 His saying (Matt. xxiv. 34), " This generation (% Y6«a avrii) shall not pass till
all these things be fulfilled," was not one that the disciples could overlook ; under
standing Christ's coming, verse 30, so as they doubtless did, of his second coming to
glory. On which passage (supposing the word afrrjj read, as we read it, with the
aspirate) the question would arise with them, Is the word generation to be taken in
a chronological sense of thirty or thirty-three years ? Or was the term intended by
the expression to be measured by the longevity of all then alive, so as only to end
with the death of the longest liver ; and thus to extend to some ninety or a hundred
years, from the time when the prediction was spoken ? — Compare too, on this expec
tation of the disciples, Acts iii. 19, 1 Thess. iv. 17, Heb. x. 37, James v. 8, &c.
3 Matt, xxvii. 53. 4 Ps. cxxv. 2.
5 To the disciples, Matt. xxiv. 2, Luke xix, 41 — 44, xxi. 24, &c ; to the people
themselves, Matt. xxi. 40, 41, 43, xxiii. 35 — 38, Luke xxiii. 28, &c.

CHAP. I.] ST. JOHN IN PATMOS. 53
had even imprecated the curse on themselves, when they
cried out for his crucifixion, " His blood be on us and on
our children." And when yet again, — after that the Spirit
had been poured out from on high, and that the apostles,
with all its signs and mighty wonders to attest the truth of
their mission, had preached and pressed upon them with all
earnestness, both at Jerusalem and throughout the pro
vinces, the Gospel of his salvation,1 (it was their Lord's
last charge to them to do so,2) — when that unhappy people
for twenty, thirty, forty years had still rejected, pertina
ciously rejected, this witness of the Spirit, and last offers
of mercy,3 — then at length the Almighty's protection was
withdrawn ; and wrath came on them to the uttermost.
Not without providential warnings loud and many did
it fall upon them. The predicted preliminary signs ap
peared in due course, — of earthquakes, famines, and pesti
lences, of wars and rumours of wars, of false Christs, and
fearful sights, sounds, and wonders, in heaven above and
the earth beneath,4 yea, and even within the solemn re
cesses of the sanctuary : 5 — signs appointed as if to force
the attention of the Jews, if so it might be ; or, if not, of
Christians at least, and perhaps of the heathen world itself,
1 The manner in which St. Paul, in the fulfilment of his mission among the Gen
tiles, always sought out the Jewish synagogue and the Jews, to whom first to preach
the gospel of Jesus Christ, is very remarkable.
2 Luke xxiv. 47 ; " Beginning at Jerusalem."
3 So Euseb. H. E. iii. 7. — Might not what is said, Matt. xii. 31, of the sin against
the Holy Ghost, have had some reference to this rejection by the Jews of the dis
pensation of the Spirit ?
4 See Bishop Newton's, Whitby's, (on Matt, xxiv), or Lardner's (vi. 402, &c.)
historical illustrations of these several points in Christ's famous prophecy of the
destruction of Jerusalem ; illustrations taken chiefly from Josephus. See too Dr.
Robinson's valuable Biblical Researches on Palestine, ii. 1 — 9.
5 Josephus' report (B. J. vi. 5. 3) of the voice, just before the taking of the city,
from within the temple, " Let us depart hence," is known to all.
There is a singular Jewish tradition of a similar sigh, said by the Rabbies to have
occurred forty years before the temple's destruction ; i. e. just at the time of the rejec
tion and crucifixion of Christ by their nation. It is given in Kimchi's Comment
on Zech. xi. 1 — 3, " Open thy doors, Lebanon," &c. Says he : " Our Rabbies of
blessed memory have interpreted this chapter of the desolation of the second
Temple, for Lebanon is the Holy Temple. They say that forty years before the de
struction of the Temple, the doors of the sanctuary opened of themselves. Rabban
Johanan ben Zakkai reproved them, and said, O sanctuary, sanctuary, how long wilt
thou terrify thyself? I know that thy end is to be left desolate ; for Zechariah has
prophesied against thee long since, Open thy doors, Lebanon." On which passage
see Dr. M'Caul's Note, who says that the tradition is found in the Babylonian
' Talmud, Treatise Yoma, fol. 39. Lightfoot, on Matt. xxvi. 3, also mentions the
'tradition. — Compare the fact of the rending of the veil of the temple at that
precise time.

54 APOC. I. [iNTROD.
to the coming judgments as from heaven. And just after
Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, and James too in his
Epistle, had uttered their last warning voice in vain,1
first the war, and then, a year or two after, the siege
began ; and with it those unparalleled horrors that had
been foretold by Jesus, when He looked on the city and
wept over it. The sad story of the catastrophe was but
too fresh in St. John's remembrance : the fulfilment of
the predicted horrors too complete and notorious. No
Christian eye indeed had beheld them in their progress.
Warned by their Lord, the Christians had quitted the
devoted city when first they saw the vanguard of the Roman
army plant its idolatrous ensigns, — the predicted " abomi
nation that was to make desolate," — in the holy precincts
of the Holy City.2 But many a wretched outcast Jew had
since wandered into Asia, a living monument of his coun
try's ruin :3 opprest alike by prince and people ; and bear
ing, like Cain, God's mark of reprobation on his brow.4
The learned and noble Jew, (alas, not Christian Jew,)
Flavius Josephus, had recounted in his lately published
History all the details of the siege in all their horrors ;
and Vespasian and Titus themselves authenticated the
1 The date of each of these Epistles is fixed by Whitby, Macknight, and other
commentators at about A. D. 62 ; only three or four years before the war broke out.
Compare the warnings in Heb. x. 37, and James v. 8, on the imminence of the
coming destruction of the Jewish polity, if not of the world.
2 Euseb. H. E. iii. 5. See too Bishop Newton, ibid.
3 So the Author of the Quaest. et Respons. ad Orthodox, appended to Justin
Martyr's Works, (Ed. Colon.) in Quaest. 1 08, respecting the Jews, after their later over
throw by Hadrian : Ot 5e vvv ru Xpioru aireiBovvres avruv, tt\s pev oiKetas irarpioos
aireAaBevres eis iraoav rijv yi\v eAiKpniBijoav, rots Be eBveoiv eis SovAetav e^eaod'qo'av
aripov, us ra ir pay par a o-ri}Aijs &o % irepttbavearepov.
4 It was the enactment of Titus that all Jews, wherever they were, should pay to
the Capitoline J upiter the same annual tribute of a didrachm that they had been
previously accustomed to pay to their own temple, (see this exemplified Matt.
xvii. 24,) according to the original Mosaic injunction, Ex. xxx. 13. So we read in
Josephus B. I. vii. 6. 6, and Dion Cass. lxvi. 7. This " Judaicus fiscus," as Suetonius
tells us, (Domit. 12) was rigidly and oppressively exacted (" acerbissime actus
est") under Domitian. From Eckhel's observations, vi. 404, on Nerva's coin with
the inscription, " Fisci Judaici calumnia sublata ;" it appears that certain unjust op
pressions connected with the tax were remedied by Nerva. But the tax itself still
continued. So Origen, Kai vvv Jovtiatuv to BttSpaxpov avrois ['PaytcuoisJ reAouvruv,
in his Letter to Africanus. — What a primary fulfilment, let me suggest, of Deut.
xxviii. 64 ; " The Lord shall scatter thee among all people ; and there shalt thou serve
other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone."
In Papal Rome they have been similarly taxed in support of Papal worship.
The trembling Jewish mendicants at Rome are sketched by another cotemporary
of St. John in Patmos, I mean Juvenal, Sat. vi. 543 ; " Arcanam Judaea tremens men-
dicat in aurem."

TITUS' MEDAL
ON THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.

THE JEWISH CANDLESTICK, FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS.

From Montfauccm's Antiquities .

CHAP. I.J ST. JOHN IN PATMOS. 55
narrative.1 Moreover the Christian disciples, alike in Rome
and in Judea, spoke of memorials of the catastrophe, now
visible in either place, a spectacle for the world : — in the
one, the Arch of Titus, exhibiting in its nicely chiselled
sculptures the captured furniture of the once Holy Place,
— the table for shew-bread, the book of the law, and the
seven-branched candlestick ; 2 in the other, the City itself,
desolate and in heaps ; its ruins still stained with blood,
and black with fire ; and of its Temple especially (just as
Jesus had predicted) not one stone left upon another, be
cause the people knew not the time of their visitation.3
Thus Jerusalem was no more ; and, as its temple, so the
ritual, polity, and dispensation essentially associated with
it, overthrown. But meanwhile a better dispensation had
been striking its roots far and wide in the world ; with a
better temple, better worship, better polity, and better
hopes and promises attached to it : — its temple the heavenly
presence, now opened by the blood of Jesus ; 4 its wor
ship a spiritual worship, with Christ Himself the Lamb of
God for its high priest and sacrifice ; its polity one con
stituted by community in a heavenly citizenship : 5 — the
members of which polity, God's election of grace, now
in process of gathering from out of an apostate world,6
1 Xapa|as tjj eavrov xeip' ra BtBAia, says Josephus of the emperor Titus, Vit.
§ 64. And so again in his Book against Apion, i. 9, he says that he presented his
History of the war first of all to Vespasian and Titus ,- appealing to them as witnesses
of its accuracy.
His History of the Jewish War was the first of his publications ; and is referred
by Whiston, iii. 244, (Ed. 1821) to the year A.D. 75. His History of the Jewish
Antiquities seems to have been published, as Tillemont and Clinton (in his Fasti
Romani) agree, A.D. 93, just before St. John's banishment to Patmos.
^- ¦ 2 The engraving is given in Calmet and elsewhere. — He gives also a well-known
medal, struck on the occasion, representing Judah as a woman-captive seated under
a palm-tree, and a Roman soldier standing by ; with the legend Judcea capta. What
an illustration to the very eye of the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy, (iii. 26,) " And
she being desolate shall sit upon the ground."
3 When the Romans had taken Jerusalem, Titus ordered the soldiers, says Jose
phus, to dig up the foundations both of the city and of the temple : ri\v re iroAiv Kai
rov veuv KaratsKanreiv . B. J. vii 1. I. Only, as he adds, a part of the Western wall,
and the towers of Phaselus, Hippicus, and Mariamne were left standing ; as a me
morial of the strength of the captured city, and protection to a Roman garrison.
4 Heb. ix. 24—26, x. 19—21, &c.
5 Phil. iii. 20: "Our citizenship (iroAtrevtia) is in heaven." — So the beautiful
description of Christians in the Epistle to Diognetus, written some eighty or ninety
years probably after the Apocalypse, Eiri yns SiaTpiBovoi, oAA.' ev ovpavu iroAirevovrai.
Lardner, ii. 142.
6 EKKAijiria; lit. an assembly, or gathering, called out of; i. e. out of the world.
Hence the Latin ecclesia ; and the modern eglise, chiesa, &c. Our own words kirk

56 APOC. I. [INTROD.
were at present scattered, despised, persecuted; but assured,
after a little while, of being manifested complete in glory,
number, and union, even at their Lord's coming.1— Mighty
had been the power of the world, mightier still the malice
and the subtlety of Satan, the Prince of this world, to ar
rest its progress, and stop the promulgation of its doctrine
by the Christian disciples. But in vain. In number few,2
so as that an upper room might almost contain them, at the
time when charged by their risen Lord with the commission
to go forth and disciple all nations, they had since then ad
vanced and multiplied into the numbers of a great though
scattered people, known through not Judea only, but the
whole Roman world.3 Persecution itself had but strength
ened the holy cause. The blood of the martyrs had proved
the seed of the Church.— Here too the Lord's prophetic
declaration had been advancing towards fulfilment. " The
kingdom of heaven," He had said, " was like a grain of
mustard-seed ; " which, though itself the least of seeds,
would become a great tree, such that the fowls of the air
might lodge in its branches.4
2. And thus what the present state of the Christian
cause ? Surely scarce a city was there, scarce a town, in
the vast Roman Empire, but some little church had been ga
thered out of it ; with its leaven spreading through the vil
lages adjacent, and that would yet more spread. So that
when at any time the aged apostle, under permission to
emerge to daylight from his subterranean prison, might
look round from the rocky summit of Patmos, and follow
and church are from the word KvptaKn. Together the two Greek words signify, The
Lord's assembly gathered out of the world.
1 Rom. viii. 19. 2 John xx. 19, Acts i. 13.
3 Compare Christ's predictions, Matt. xxiv. 14, "And this gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world, for a witness to all nations, and then shall the
end come," with St. Paul's strong statement, Col. i. 6, 23, that " the gospel had
come into all the world, and been preached to every creature under heaven : " which
Epistle to the Colossians appears to have been written about four or five years before
the Jewish war. — Of course St. Paul's words must be considered the exaggeration
of a common colloquialism, and to have had reference to the Roman world.
It is likely that a larger preaching of the Gospel, even over the whole habitable
world, was here chiefly intended by Christ; as a sign of the great consummation,
and his own second coming, being near at hand. But I conceive that a subordinate
and smaller fulfilment was also intended, on the scale of the Roman world ; as a sign
of the approaching destruction of Jerusalem, and end of the Jewish dispensation, by
his Providential interposition and judgments. 4 Matt. xiii. 31, 32.

CHAP. I.] ST. JOHN IN PATMOS. 57
with his eye in the distant horizon the indented coast of
Asia, and then of Thrace and Greece, with its bays, and
gulphs, and islands, and far-stretching capes and promon
tories, it would rest ever and anon on the sites of notable
Christian Churches : — first, those of proconsular Asia,
where Timothy had fallen asleep, and An tipas recently suf
fered martyrdom,1 and Polycarp still lived a faithful wit
ness for Christ ; churches under St. John's own immediate
superintendence : then the Macedonian and Greek Churches
of Philippi, and Thessalonica, and Bema, and Athens, and
Corinth : — while yet farther, beyond where the eye might
penetrate, he knew that alike in the distant West on the
one side, and the South and East on the other, Christian
Churches existed there also, instinct with spiritual life, in
holy fellowship ; from which the daily incense arose of
prayer and praise and adoration to the same Saviour-God
and to the Lamb. — There was the Church fondly gathered
round the ruins of Jerusalem, over which the aged Simeon
still survived to preside.2 There was the Church at Antioch,
with its faithful Bishop Ignatius,3 where the disciples had
first received the sacred name of Christians. There were
the Churches of Alexandria and Egypt, founded by the
Evangelist Mark;4 of Cyprus, where Barnabas had laboured;5
and of Crete, set in order by Titus.6 Yet once more, West
ward, — omitting, but not forgetting, the blessed germs of
Christianity among the provincials of Spain,7 and Gaul,s
and even Britain,9 — there was that numerous and noble
1 Apoc. ii. 13.
2 He is said to have been Bishop of Jerusalem from after the murder of James,
A.D. 62 or 63, the Christian refugees at Pella having soon after its destruction
returned to the vicinity of Jerusalem; and there remained till A.D. 104 or 106, at
which time he suffered martyrdom. See Euseb. H. E. iii. 11, 32.
3 Bishop of Antioch from A.D. 70 to 107, or perhaps 115. See p. 11 supra.
4 He is reported by Jerom to have died at Alexandria, in the 8th year of Nero,
or about A.D. 62 ; nearly the same time that St. James was martyred at Jerusalem.
De V. I. c. 8. Lardner, iv. 443. 6 Acts xv. 39. 6 Titus i. 5.
7 In Rom. xv. 24, 28, St. Paul himself states his intention of visiting Spain.
Whether he fulfilled it however is very doubtful ; though Clement of Rome, c. 5, says
that he preached the gospel em to reppa ttjj Svireus.
8 Mosheim, ii. 1 . 1 . 5, thinks it very possible that the light of Christianity reached
Transalpine Gaul before the conclusion of the apostolic age.
9 See Euseb. Demonstr. Evang. iii. 7, Usher. Brit. Eccles. Antiq. c. 1, and Gildae
Epist. apud Stillingfleet's Antiquities of the British Churches iii. 3. — Tacitus, ad ann.
A.D. 58 (Annal. xiii. 32), speaks of Pomponia Grcecina, the wife of Plautius, just
before Governor of Britain, as " externa? superstitionis rea ; " a phrase most naturally
to be understood as a charge of Christianity against her. So Lipsius, and other

58 APOC. I. [iNTROD.
Church at jRowiejVhere the beloved brothers Paul and
Peter, under Nero's earlier persecution, conjointly with
many others of the brethren, had sealed their testimony
with their blood.1 There the leaven had penetrated not
only into Caesar's household,2 but into the hearts of some
of the nearest kindred of Csesar. Whilst the aged Cle
ment, whose name St. Paul had noticed as in the book of
life,3 was faithfully presiding as its bishop over the Church
in that vast city, undeterred by the terrors of the persecu
tion,4 another Clement, whose name was also in the book
of life, the cousin-german of the Emperor, had just wit
nessed for Christ, even unto blood : and his wife Domitilla,
with similar constancy of spirit, endured to be transported
to the desolate island of Pandateria ;5 where she was even
now suffering the same punishment for the Christian faith
as St. John himself.
As sorrowful but rejoicing,6 as rejoicing yet sorrowful, —
such was the mixture of feeling which then, as in this
world it ever must do, characterized the true Christian.
Even upon its own account, and of the sufferings it entailed
upon the Christian brotherhood, persecution such as that
to which the Church was now subject could not but be a
cause of pain to the Apostle : but yet more, as considering
whence it all originated ; viz. from the enmity to God of
a world lying under the influence of the Wicked One.7 —
Nor was persecution the worst or deadliest of that great
enemy's weapons against the Christian Church, which the
commentators ad loc. This is certainly a remarkable circumstance, in reference to
the question as to the time" when Christianity first entered Britain.
On the whole the slight general notice of Gaul, Spain, and Britain in the text
seems quite justifiable. — Compare the history of the early Christian Churches' evan
gelization given in Burton's and Waddington's Church Histories.
1 A.D. 65 or 66. This was after the burning of Rome by Nero ; which act he
charged on the Christians. — Tacitus, Ann. xv. 44, clearly implies that the number
who then suffered as Christians was large. " Primo correpti qui fatebantur; deinde
indicio eorum multitudo ingens, haud perinde in crimine incendii, quam odio humani
generis convicti sunt." He adds, with regard to the torments they were subjected to ;
" Pereuntibus addita ludibria, ut ferarum tergis contecti, laniatu canum interirent ;
aut crucibus affixi, aut flammandi, atque ubi defecisset dies, in usum nocturni
luminis, urerentur." 2 Phil. iv. 22. 3 Phil. iv. 3.
4 See Lardner, Vol. ii. p. 30, on Clement. He concludes that Clement became
Bishop of the Roman Church about A.D. 91 or 92 ; and wrote his Epistle, after Do
mitian's persecution, about A.D. 96.
5 So Dion Cassius, lxvii. 14, already referred to p. 44 supra. Jerom, Epist. 86 ad
Eustoch. makes it the island Pontia. c 2 Cor. vi. 10.
7 ev tu irovripif 1 John v. 19.

CHAP. I.] ST. JOHN IN PATMOS. 59
apostle had to lament and to fear. The corruption of the
Church itself, through the intermixture of doctrines of
altogether contrary spirit and origin with the pure and
holy doctrine of Christ crucified, — this was a weapon of
that subtle foe the Prince of this world, the Devil, yet
more to be apprehended. Already indeed this corruption
had begun to work in individuals and in churches, which
yet called themselves after the name of Christ. Those
grievous wolves against which the apostle Paul had so so
lemnly warned the Ephesian elders, when parting from
them at Miletus,1 had already shewn themselves in the pro
fessing Church at Ephesus, and Laodicea, and far and wide
elsewhere. The lovers of Judaic ritualism and Judaic
fables,2 — of the figments on heavenly things of human
philosophy, and science falsely so called,3 — of doctrines of
asceticism,4 or of the lusts of the flesh,5 — had each and all
far and wide propagated their tenets, commixedly or sepa
rately,6 under the Christian name : 7 superseding Christ's
1 Acts xx. 29.
* The first alluded to by St. Paul in Gal. iii. 1, 2, Phil. iii. 2, &c; the second in
1 Tim. i. 4, Titus i. 14, iii. 9, Col. ii. 16, &c.
3 So St. Paul, Col. ii. 8, " Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and
vain deceit; " and 1 Tim. vi. 20, where he speaks of avriBeaeis ti\s VevSuvvpov
yvuaeus' from their pretensions to which yvwois, (knowledge falsely so called,) the
Gnostics derived their name. Also Col. ii. 18; " Let no man beguile you in a
voluntary humility, and worshipping of angels, intruding1 into those things which he
hath not seen;" &c. 4 So Col. ii. 23, &c.
5 So some in the Corinthian Church, spoken of 1 Cor. v. vi ; also those of Jude
4; and again the Nicolaitans in Proconsular Asia, mentioned Apoc. ii. 6, 15.
6 The subject of the heresies that had crept into the Church by the end of the
first century is, as Mosheim says, i. 2. 5. 2, one involved in much obscurity. But
thus much is evident, alike from the inspired epistles and from Irenaeus and other
early ecclesiastical writers, that Judaism and heathen philosophy had both a share in
their production. And sometimes there was an easy commixture and fusion of the
doctrines from one source and the other. For example, the Judaists, with their
rabbinical traditions about angels, (as Tobit, xii. 15, " speaks of " the seven angels
that present the prayers of the saints,") easily fell in with the Platonic doctrine of
damans and dcemon-worship, as mediators. — Again, in respect of the doctrines of
fasting from animal food, and washings and purifications, they as naturally coalesced
with the similar doctrines of the Pythagorean philosophy. — Philo, the celebrated
Alexandrian Jew of this century, affords a notable Jewish illustration. And so too
certain of the Gnostics under a Christian name.
Compare Whitby on Col. ii, Macknight's Preliminary Treatise to the Epistle to the
Colossians, Mosheim i. 2. 5 ; and also, and especially, Liicke on the Epistles of St.
John, pp. 64 et seq.
7 Polycarp, within ten or twenty years of St. John's seeing the Apocalypse,
marks prominently the Christian profession of the Docetic-Gnostic heresiarchs, in
Chapters vi, vii of his Epistle. Airexopevot tuv tyevbaoeAipuv, xai ruv ev
viroKpto ei ipepovT uv to ovoparovKvptov, olrives aicoirAavuoi Kevovs
avBpanrovs. lias yap is av pm ipoAoyn Inaovv Xpurrov ev aaput eAriAvBevat K. r. A.
— So too Liicke ibid. pp. 65, 66. " This theosophical, not to say gnostical pseudo-

60 APOC. I. [iNTROD.
word and his apostles', as the rule of faith, by a human
tradition in their own keeping ;x and, in one way or other
superseding Christ himself, in his character of fallen man's
only prophet, priest, mediator, atonement, and righteous
ness f thereby teaching apostacy from the Head,3 and
destroying the very essence of the gospel. Indeed they
had not only drawn away many insincere professors into
prophetia, [the ij/evSuvvpos yvuois of 1 Tim. vi. 20, and Col. ii. 8 &c,]. . . . pretended
to embody and assimilate with itself Christianity, as well as Judaism. . . . Originally
confused in itself, and threatening and seducing only from a distance, it now had
nestled in the midst of Christendom." And again, p. 69 ; " The- heretics [of Joh.
ii. 10], as it seems,. . . . still externally kept up their connexion with the Christian
community." — So Eusebius of Menander, Simon Magus' disciple, and other con
temporary heresiarchs ; Kv 6' apa SiaBoAtKijs evepyetas bta rotuvSe yorjTwv ri,v
Xptariavuv irpoai\yopiav biroSvopevuv, k. t. A. H. E. iii. 26.
1 Polycarp, in the immediate sequel of the extract given in the preceding Note,
speaks of them as perverting Scripture to their purpose ; is av peBooevn ra Aoyia rov
Kvpiov irpos ras iotas eirtBvpias. — Irenaeus, i. 1, 6, speaks of them as not merely per
verting but also falsifying Scripture. — Further, iii. 2, he tells, in a very remarkable
passage, how they made use of their own tradition, as authority, when hard
pressed by Scripture testimony. Indeed it is so remarkable that I must cite the pas
sage. " Cum ex Scripturis arguuntur, in accusationem convertuntur ipsarum
Scripturarum ; quasi non recte habeant, neque sint ex auctoritate, et quia varie sint
dicta, et quia non possit ex his inveniri Veritas ab his qui nesciant traditionem. Non
enim per literas traditam illam, sed per vivam vocem ; (ob quam causam et Paulum
dixisse, ' Sapientiam loquimur inter perfectos, sapientiam autem non mundi hujus :')
et hanc sapientiam unusquisque eorum esse dicit quam a semet ipso adinvenerit."
— He adds : " Cum autem ad earn traditionem quae est ab apostolis, quae per suc-
cessiones presbyterorum in ecclesiis custoditur, provocamus eos, adversantur ; tra-
dicentes se, etiam apostolis existentes sapientiores, sinceram invenisse sapientiam."
— Compare Mosheim i. 2. 5. 8.
2 The Gnostic teachers generally represented themselves, like their first head
Simon Magus, as " the great power of God ; " (Acts viii. 9, 10 ;) and as having in
themselves those treasures of divine wisdom and knowledge, and being able to impart
from out of them,* which, as St. Paul so strongly insists on in his Epistle to the
Colossians, resided altogether in the Lord Jesus. Hence they superseded Christ in
his character of prophet : while the merits of their gnosis and their ritual superseded
him in his character of our righteousness ; and themselves, and the jEons of their
theogony,-f- in that of priest and mediator.
As to Christ's character as our atonement, that vital doctrine of the Christian
faith (by the Gnostic perfected ones quite unneeded) was in a singular manner
equally set aside by the two grand branches of the Gnostic heresy. The one,
founded by Simon Magus originally, held that our Lord Jesus Christ was a man in
appearance only; a sect called in consequence Docetae, or Phantom'ists : J and thus
made his really atoning death a mere illusion of the senses of the bystanders.lf The
other, that of Cerinthus, admitting the humanity of Jesus, denied his divinity ; and
thus, making his death that of a mere man, denied it the virtue whereby it became
a full and satisfactory atonement to the Divine Father for the sins of the world.
3 Col. ii. 19.
* " Omnes tument, omnes scientiam pollicentur." Tertullian De Prsescr. c. 41.
t On the genealogy of their ./Eons, see Irenaeus i. 1.
X Ignatius vehemently denounces the heretics on this point, in his Epist. ad
Smyrnaeos, § 2 ; ovk, uairep rives Aeyovat, to SoKeiv avrov ireirovBevai, iiitoi to
boKetv ovres, Sec.
U Tertull. adv. Marcion. iii. 8, strongly marks this : saying that if Christ were a
phantasm, his was no true atoning death ; and we are therefore yet in our sins.

CHAP. I.J ST. JOHN IN PATMOS. 61
error, but partially infected even some of the faithful them
selves. — So was the truth of another of the Lord's remark
able parables already illustrated. " The kingdom of heaven
is like unto a man which sowed good seed in his field : but
while men slept, an enemy sowed tares ; and when the
blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then ap
peared the tares also." J — Could things be so, and yet the
Apostle not feel anxiety for the Church, as he looked into
the uncertainties of the coming future ?
3. And this the rather, as he could not forget what had
been foreshown by the Holy Spirit respecting this coming
future, to one and another of the apostles ; and how some
grand apostacy from the faith was to be expected, ere the
second advent of the Lord Jesus. So especially St, Paul
had been inspired to write to the Thessalonian Christians ;
" That day of Christ shall not come except there come the
apostacy first :" 2 together with certain memorable words
besides, respecting the chief of the apostacy ; "And that
man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth
and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is
worshipped ; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of
God, showing himself that he is God." Indeed to himself,
St. John, the same issue of events had been revealed ; and
he had been directed to remind the Christian Church of
this great coming enemy under the very notable name of
" the Antichrist." 3 — I say a name very notable ! For it
was not pseudo-Christ, as of those false self-styled Christs,
(in professed denial of Jesus Christ,) that the Lord de
clared would appear in Judsea before the destruction of
Jerusalem,4 and who did in fact appear there and then : s
but was a name of new formation, expressly compounded,
it might seem, by God's Spirit for the occasion, and as if to
1 Matt. xiii. 26. 2 2 Thess. ii. 3, ri airoaraata.
3 "Ye have heard that the Antichrist cometh." 1 John ii. 18.
This first Epistle of St. John is thought by many to have been written before his
banishment to Patmos, perhaps about A.D. 80 ; by others, as Basnage, as late as
A. D. 98, or after the Apocalypse. To myself it seems very possible that this last
opinion may be correct, as I have already intimated at p. 7. But in any case the
license will readily be allowed me, considering the uncertainty of the question, to
state the matter so as in the text. — See Macknight's Preliminary Essay to St. John's
Epistles. 4 Matt. xxiv. 24, Mark xiii. 22.
5 See Josephus' B. J. or Lardner, or Bishop Newton.

62 APOC. I. [iNTROD.
express some idea through its etymological force which no
older word could so well express, the name Antichrist :
even as if he would appear in some way as a Vice-Christ1
in the mystic Temple, or professing Church ; and in that
character act out the part of Usurper and Adversary,
against Christ's true Church and Christ himself. — Nor
did it fail to strengthen this anticipation, that the Gnostic
and other heresiarchs, whom the Holy Ghost had taught
him so to designate, did in a subordinate sense already act
out that very part of a pseudo-apostolical Antichrist 2 : by
1 AvTixpioros. When avrt is compounded with a noun signifying an agent of
any kind, or functionary, the compound word either signifies a vice-functionary,
or a functionary of the same kind opposing, or sometimes both. The following three
fold list of examples will show this.

AvravSpos, a man's substitute.
AvraoeA<t>os, one in a brother's stead.
AvriBaaiAevs, a vice-king.
AvnoiaKovos, a servant's substitute.
AvTiptoBuros, a mercenary's substitute.
AvTiirpeo-BevT-ns, an envoy's substitute.
AvrtoToaTnyos, a pro-praetor.
AvTiraptas, a Roman vice-quaestor.
AvBimaros, a proconsul.
AvrtBeos, one in place of, or like God.
Avrttppovpos, a vice-sentinel.

AvTayuvioriis, an opposing combatant.
AvrepaoTijs, a rival lover.
AvTijperijs, an opposing rower.
AvTtiraAaio-Tiis, a counter-wrestler.
AvrurraoiuT-ns, an opposing factionary.
Avr tor pariryos, an opposing general.
Avrt(pvAa£, a guard posted against
another, a hostile sentinel.
AvnotSaoKaAos, avrixopnyos, avri<pt\o-
aoipos, &c. a rival teacher, &c.
AvTio-vyKAijTos, a counter-senate.
Avriypacpevs, one who keeps a counter-
reckoning, a check-clerk.
Of which words three, it will be observed, have either meaning ; viz. Avriarpaniyos,
AvrtBaaiAevs, and Avrtippovpos.
The following from Dion Cassius, Book liii, respecting Augustus' arrangement of
the great Provincial Governors, will well illustrate the first of these lists. Ta ovopara
to re tou crpaTiiyov, Kai to too birarov, ev rrt \raAta eri\pi\oe' rovs Se e£u iravias, us
Kai avr' eKetv uv apxovr as, irpoairyopevoev avriarpari\yovs Kai a v-
Bvirarovs. In the New Testament, I believe, the only precise compounds of the kind are
used in the sense of the first of these lists ; * as avBviraTos, Proconsul, Acts xiii.
7, 8, 12, xix. 38. And both on that account, and yet more because the old word
pseudo-Christ would almost have expressed the idea of an adverse-Christ, I conclude
that this must be St John's chief intended sense of Antichrist ; the further idea
however of an antagonist Christ, or rival and usurper of his place in the Church,
being also included. — On the important word avTixptoros I shall have to add a few
further remarks in my Part iv, Chap, iii, § 2 ; where will be found a more direct
notice of the prophecy respecting Antichrist, given in St. John's Epistle.
I must particularly beg the reader to bear in mind that the word cannot with
etymological propriety mean simply a person opposed to Christ ; but only a Vice-
Christ, or an opposing-Christ, or both. — The point will recur and be illustrated as
we proceed, both from the Fathers and from history. It is most important.
2 I use the learned Professor Lucke's language, in his Comment on St. John's
Ep. p. 13, " the pseudo- apostolical Antichrist then already appearing." — It is exem
plified in the citation from Polycarp in my Note 7 p. 59, just preceding.

* For avrtSiKos is not such a word, as tiwos is not a substantive : nor again,
avriKftpevos; which is a compound of a neutral participle, not significative of an
agent or functionary.

CHAP. I.J ST. JOHN IN PATMOS. 63
setting Christ practically aside, while in mouth confessing
Him;1 and professing themselves in his place to be the
power, wisdom, and salvation of God.2
But when, how, and whence, his manifestation ? It was
evidently the very same enemy to the Lord Jesus Christ
and his saints, that had been long before foreshown to the
prophet Daniel :3 — and very singularly his prophecy seemed
to connect this Antichrist with the Roman Empire; the
last of those four kingdoms that were to hold in succession
the supremacy of the world, until the times of the Gentiles
were fulfilled : even as if he were to be the head or chief
over it, not indeed in its present, but in some subsequent
and divided form. 4 — With which view well accorded what
was added in his prophecy by St. Paul. For he spoke of the
1 As regards that statement about the Antichrist that we find in 1 John ii. 22,
" This is the Antichrist that deniclh the Father and the Son," — if compared alike
with the clause next preceding, " Who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is
the Christ," with the verse next following, " Whosoever denieth the Son the same
hath not the Father," and also with the other plainly Gnostic designation of the Anti
christs then already manifested, — it will at once be seen to contain nothing in it con
trary to my description of St. John's Antichrist, as in mouth confessing Christ, while
practically denying him, but rather absolutely to need such an explanation. — So
Augustine, when denouncing as Antichrists certain heretics who yet made profession
of being Christians, in a very remarkable comment on 1 John iv. 3, which I must
subjoin. " Ergo spiritus qui est apud haereticos ex Deo est, quia confitentur Jesum
Christum in carne venisse ? Jam hie erigunt se forte adversus nos, et dicunt ; ' Sed
nos confitemur Jesum Christum in came venisse. Quaere ab Arianis, . . quaere ab Euno •
mianis,. . quaere a\ Macedonianis,. . interroga Cataphrygas, . . .interroga Novationos,. .
confitentur J. Christum in carne venisse.. . Non ergo pseudo-prophetae sunt ? Certe
Antichristi sunt.. . Quid ergo facimus ? Unde discernimus ? — Quaesivimus quis neget
[J. Christum in came venisse] : quia nee nos negamus, nee illi negant. Et invenimus
quosdam factis negare : etadhibuimus testimonium de Apostolo ; qui ait [Tit. i. 16] ;
Confitentur se nosse Deum, factis autem negant.' " Tract, vi. in Epist. Joh. 12, 13.
2 See Note2 p. 60 supra. — Thus Simon Magus, (Acts viii. 9, 10) gave out that
" he was the great power of God." As Irenaeus says of him, i. 20 ; " Hie a multis
quasi Dews glorificatus est, et docuit semet ipsum esse qui inter Judaeos quidem quasi
Filius apparuerit, &c." : and again; " Ipsum venisse uti. . . hominibus salutem prte-
staret per suam agnitionem." Again of the Carpocratians Irenaeus says, i. 24 ; " Ad
tantum elationis provecti sunt, ut quidam se similes esse dicunt' Jesu ; quidam autem
adhuc, et secund&m aliquid, Mo fortiores." — So too Tertuliian De Praescrip. c. 46,
of both Simon Magus, " qui ausus est summam se dicere virtutem, id est summum
Deum," and his disciple Menander : whom (together with other professed Christian
heresiarchs) Tertuliian distinguishes from the Jewish false prophets ; saying, " Ad eos
me converto qui ex evangelio hasretici esse voluerunt." — So too Eusebius, H. E. iii. 26,
of Menander ; who, though a Christian in profession, (see my Note 7 p. 59,) yet repre
sented himself as the real Saviour of men. 'EauTW pev Sis apa eii\ Aeyuv i aurnp, em
tv tuv avBpuiruv avuBev iroBev e| aoparuv aiuvuv airearaApevos aurijpta.
3 Dan. vii. 8, 20, and xi. 36.
4 This great subject of prophecy will of course be again reverted to by me ;
indeed again and again, at certain historical epochs, as we advance in the Com
mentary.

64 APOC. I. [iNTROD.
seed of the apostacy, which was to bring forth Antichrist,
as already sown : 1 but that a certain hindrance needed first
to be removed out of the way,2 — a hindrance well under
stood in the Church to mean the Roman Empire as at that
time constituted ;3 'ere room could be made for the Anti
christ's development.
And when then might the first of these changes occur,
and imperial heathen Rome fall to make way for him ?
Was the awful and increasing moral corruption of the mass
of its population, — a corruption which the heathen Juvenal4
(even as if in illustration of St. Paul5) had just recently
been pourtraying in its naked turpitude, — was the aliena
tion of the public mind from its imperial rulers, through
disgust at their long and almost uninterrupted career of
vice, folly, and csuelty, the subject of Tacitus' dark pic-
turings,6 — and again were the successes of the Dacian,
Pannonian, and other barbarians, hovering on the frontiers
of the empire, that under Domitian's reign had crossed
those frontiers, and boldly attacked and defeated more than
once the Roman legions,7 — were these several signs of the
times, internal and external, to be regarded as indications
that the dissolution of the empire in its present form was
near at hand; and so the first great step about to be taken,
in the progress of events, towards the consummation ? —
1 2 Thess. ii. 7 ; " The mystery of iniquity doth already work," &c.
2 " Only he that letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way : and then
shall that wicked One be revealed," &c. Ibid.
3 So Tertuliian. — But I must again refer to the subsequent parts of my work for
the fuller explanation of these points : and first to my comment on the 5th Seal.
4 Juvenal is supposed to have died in Trajan's reign, and at the time of the
Apocalypse to have been filling a governorship to which he had been appointed by
Domitian on the borders of Egypt : — an honorary kind of banishment as it would
seem for the caustic satirist. Mr. Gifford (whose Life of Juvenal seems to me the
best considered of those I have seen) considers him to have finished his 2nd, 3rd,
5th, 6th, and perhaps 13th Satires, during the latter years of Domitian. If we
merely take the 2nd, what a picture of the depravity of Roman manners then pre
valent, and testimony to the truth of St. Paul's awful descriptive sketch ! — The dis
interment of Pompeii, after sixteen centuries, has in certain of its paintings and sta
tuary furnished a silent, but equally awful, corroborative testimony.
6 Rom. i. 21 — 32.
0 Tacitus too was a cotemporary of St. John : and, like him, died under Trajan.
7 Tacitus (Agricola c. 41) thus briefly sketches the foreign political relations of the
empire just before Agricola's death, A.D. 93. " Et ea insequuta sunt Reipublicae
tempora quae sileri Agricolum non sinerent : tot exercitus in Maesia Daci&que, et
Germania Pannoniaque, temeritate aut per ignaviam ducum amissi ; tot militares
viri cum tot cohortibus expugnati et capti : nee jam de limite imperii et ripa, sed de
hibernis et possessione dubitatum."
Suetonius and Dion Cassius may also be consulted for the history.

CHAP. I.] ST. JOHN IN PATMOS. 65
And then as to the Antichrist that would follow, how long
was to be the time of his reign and triumph ? Mystical
periods in Daniel were given twice over to measure it : in
one place " time, times, and a half time," or 1260 days j1
and again in another, yet more particularly, 1260, 1290,
and 1335 days ;2 a period reaching apparently to the time
of the enemy's destruction by some judgment of fire, like
that of Sodom,3 and the revelation of the brightness and
blessedness of Christ's coming. But were those days
meant as simple days ? 4 Was Antichrist's reign thus to
be very short ; the apostle himself possibly to live to see
1 Dan. vii. 25. 2 Dan. xii. 7, 11, 12.
3 Dan. vii. 11, 2 Thess. i. 8, ii. 8, Luke xvii. 29, Jude 7, &c— Perhaps the very
recent and terrible destruction of the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii by volcanic
fire might also occur to the apostle's mind, as no inapt illustration, on a small scale,
of that later and yet more awful catastrophe.
4 A curious illustration of the manner in which these mystical periods were
thought of about the time of St. John's being in Patmos, as well by heretical sects
that called themselves- Christians, as by the faithful Christians themselves, occurs, if
I mistake not, in the Apocryphal Vision of Isaiah, lately translated from the iEthiopic,
and published by Archbishop Lawrence : to which work, chiefly from its speaking
of but one past persecution, viz, Nero's, (an indication however by no means suffi
cient of itself to prove the point,) he assigns a date before Domitian's persecution, and
the end of the first -century. The writer (a Judaizing Christian Gnostic) thus alludes
to the expected coming of Antichrist. " Berial shall descend, the mighty angel, the
prince of this world, which he has possessed since its creation : he shall descend
from the firmament in the form of a man, an impious monarch, the murderer of his
mother, in the forrri of him the sovereign of the v;orld .-" — thus, according to the
well-known expectation of many in the second century, (compare Victorinus and the
Sybil's prophecies,*) suggesting Nero as him that would revive to act the part of the
Antichrist. — The writer adds that he was to have power three years, seven months,
twenty-seven days. And Archbishop Lawrence explains this of the interval that
actually occurred between the time of Nero's persecution of the Christians, on the
conflagration of Rome, and his death. For the latter happened June 9, A. D. 68 ;
and three years, seven months, twenty-seven days, measured back from that epoch,
would reach to Oct. 30, A. D. 64, which is nearly the time fixed by Mosheim for the
commencement of Nero's persecution, /,* J .;>¦,' ,
But considering that the period was stated by the writer of the Vision not as that
of a past' tyrant's persecution, but of the duration of an antichristian tyrant yet
future, and considering too the exactness of the specification of the number of days
of that predicted tyrant's reign, a number which only approximates to the length of
Nero's, measured from the commencement of his persecution to his death, it seems
to me that we must look elsewhere for another and better solution. And I think
we shall find it in Daniel's predicted 1335 days between Antichrist's rise and the
time of blessedness. For the period in question, resolved into days, is as follows :
3 years =365 x 3 = 1095 days
7 first months"of the 4th year = 212 days
Add for leap year ... 1 day
27 days  27 days.
Indeed J. think there can scarcely be a doubt but that this is the true solution.t
 .  v  :  '  —
* See Lardner iii. 167, 173, and the references there given by him.
+ Since this was printed in my 1st Edition, Professor M. Stuart's Apocalyptic
Commentary has been published, suggesting (i. 47) the same solution.
VOL. I. F

= 1335 days, exactly.

66 APOC I. [iNTROD.
its beginning and end ; and so that memorable saying of
Christ, " If I will that he tarry till I come," to be fulfilled
according to the interpretation which many of the disciples
had originally put upon it ? x — A clearer light on these
grand subjects was needed. And perhaps that light might
not unreasonably be expected. For the Lord had pro
mised just before his death, that he would by his Spirit
foreshow to the disciples things to come ;2 and the promise
had scarcely as yet received its due fulfilment.
I think we can hardly err in supposing that thoughts
like these were much in the mind of the beloved disciple,
during his time of exile and penal suffering in Patmos; and
that they must have often broken out into fervent prayers.
If so, just as in the case of the Prophet Daniel,3 the visions
of the Apocalypse may be considered as an answer to them.
It was one Lord's day during his sojourn there, (perhaps
the Easter- Sunday,4') before sunrise, — conformably with
the season and hour of Christ's resurrection from the dead,
just sixty-three years previous, — that a voice was heard
behind him which told that the revelation was to be given.
" I was in the Spirit," he tells us, " on the Lord's day;"5
that is, rapt in extacy from the earthly scene before him :
" and I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet,
saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last."
It was the Lord himself that spoke. The sound of the
1 John xxi. 23 ; " Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that this dis
ciple should not die," &c. Perhaps Christ's saying in Matt. xvi. 28 may have strength
ened the expectation ; " There be some standing here which shall not taste of death,
till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom : " though another and quite
different explanation of either passage might of course be given. — Tertuliian (De
Anima c. 50) refers to the expectation. " Obiit et Joannes, quern in adventum Do
mini remansurum frustra fuerat spes." 2 John xvi. 13. 3 Dan. x. 12.
4 So Hammond in loc. and Daubuz, p. 82 : the latter referring to a passage in
Tertuliian (De Idol. c. 14) in which he thinks the Easter Sunday to have been meant
by Dominicus dies. But this seems doubtful. The Paschal Sunday was called in
later times it peyaAi) Kvptaxri iipepa. Eichhom however takes the word here as Ham
mond and Daubuz.
The Easter day, I may observe, is said to have been kept by St. John on the 14th
day of the lunar month, whatever the day of the week. So Irenaeus, as quoted by
Eusebius, H. E. v. 24. For he says that Polycarp could not be persuaded by Anicetus,
the Roman Bishop, not to keep it on that day, when not Sunday, " because he had
always so kept it with John the disciple of the Lord, and other of the apostles." In
the case before us, however, we may suppose the then 14th day of the moon to have
been Sunday.
6 See on the Kvpiaien i\pepa my criticism on the Futurist system, in the Appendix
to Vol. iv.

CHAP. II. J VISION OF "THE THINGS THAT ARE." 67
voice, locally behind him, might be meant to imply, accord
ing to a mode of interpretation then prevalent, that the
visions about to be shown would have reference to events
yet future and behind in the course of time : J and the
Lord's own injunction, " Write the things which are,
and the things which are to happen after them," expressly
declared that such would be in part their character. — The
grand hero of the revelation was anticipatively hinted in
the words, " I am Alpha and Omega, saith the Lord ; the
beginning and the ending, the first and the last." And
the command to send what was written to the seven
churches of Asia, showed that the revelation was not in
tended for the Evangelist himself alone, but for the Church
at large : the declaration that was added, " Blessed is he
that readeth, and they that hear 2 the words of this pro
phecy," being alike an injunction and an encouragement
from the Divine Spirit to all members of the Church to
peruse and study it.
CHAPTER II.
THE PRIMARY APOCALYPTIC VISION, ON
" THE THINGS THAT ARE."
It is not my purpose to enter at all fully into the particu
lars of this primary vision, and of the Epistles therein dic
tated by the Lord Jesus to the seven Churches of Asia.
The subject is one rather for the minister, or the theolo
gian, than the prophetic expositor; and of matter sufficient
in itself to constitute a volume.3 I shall only notice in it
a few points respecting the symbolic scene now apparent in
vision, the state of the seven Churches severally depicted,
and the rewards promised to the faithful in them ; these
being the three chief points that have a bearing on the
1 So Daubuz, p. 83 ; who instances from Suetonius' Domitian, c. 23, that empe
ror's dream of a golden neck growing out from his own neck behind, as the emblem
of a future race of emperors, who would introduce a golden age. — Compare Homer's
apa upooau Kai oirio a a; said, as the Scholiast explains it, of things present and
future : and Herodot. i. 75, ev rotat oiriau Aoyoiai; meaning the subsequent or later
Books of his History. 2 i. e. church readings and hearings as of a book inspired.
3 It constitutes, I think, the subject of three out of the four Volumes of Irving's
Lectures on the Revelation. F 2

68 APOC 1, II, III. [INTROD.
visions of the future, subsequently revealed, my more proper
subject. 1 . The symbolic scene.1 — And this appears to have been
a chamber like that of the Holy Place of the Jewish Tem
ple ; with not indeed a seven -branched candlestick or
lamp, but seven separate lamps, lighted and burning in
it : 2 and Christ walking among and overseeing them, ha
bited as the ancient High Priest ; though with the glory
of divinity attached to his human priestly semblance.3 —
Of these seven lamps an explanation was given by Christ
1 Apoc. i. 1. " The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew
unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass ; and he sent and signified
it by his angel unto his servant John : 2. Who bare record of the word of God, and
of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. 3. Blessed is he
that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things
which are written therein : for the time is at hand.
4. John to the seven churches which are in Asia : Grace be unto you, and peace,
from him which is, and which was, and which is to come ; and from the seven Spirits
which are before his throne ; 5. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness,
and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him
that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 6. And hath made us
king's and priests unto God and his Father ; to him be glory and dominion for ever
and ever Amen ! 7. Behold he cometh with clouds ; and every eye shall see him,
and they also which pierced him : and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of
him. Even so, Amen ! 8. I am Alpha and Omega, [the beginning and the ending,]
saith the Lord ; which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
9. I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the
kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the
word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. 10. I was in the Spirit on the
Lqrd's day ; and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, 1 1 . Saying, [I am
Alpha and Omega, the first and the last : and] what thou seest write in a book, and
send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia ; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna,
and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and
unto Laodicea. 12. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being
turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks ; 13. And in the midst of the seven candle
sticks one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and
girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 14. His head and his hairs were white like
wool, as white as snow ; and his eyes were as a flame of fire ; 15. And his feet like
unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace ; and his voice as the sound of many
waters. 16. And he had in his right hand seven stars : and out of his mouth went
a sharp two-edged sword : and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
17. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon
me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last : 18. I am he that liveth,
and was dead ; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen ; and have the keys of
hades and of death. 19. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which
are, and the things which shall be hereafter ; 20. The mystery of the seven stars which
thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars
are the angels of the seven churches : and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest
are the seven churches."
2 It would seem probable that the seven branches of the Jewish Temple lamp-
sconces were removable from the central chandelier : (see Patrick on Exod. xxv.
31 :) perhaps to typify how under a future dispensation, (viz. the Gentile,) the
Church would lose the form of visible unity that it had possessed under the Jewish,
and be scattered in its different branches over the world.
3 Apoc. i. 14, &c. Compare Dan. x. 5, &c.

CHAP. II.] VISION OF " THE THINGS THAT ARE." 69
himself: they symbolized the seven Churches of Proconsular
Asia. In which expression the definite article used im
plied their being either the only churches, or the chief
churches, then existing in the province : an intimation
which, with regard both to the specification of the church
of Laodicea, and the omission of the once famous churches
in its near neighbourhood of Colossae and Hierapolis,1 we
have seen illustrated from the record of certain physical
changes made by an earthquake in the district; just a year
or two only after the date of the Apostle Paul's Epistles to
the Colossian Church and to Philemon.2
Now the temple scenery thus presented to view, with
Christ's own authoritatively attached Christian explanation
of its chief article of furniture, was precisely that which
might best prepare the Evangelist for the similar applica
tion to the Christian Church of similar symbols, borrowed
from the old Jewish tabernacle or temple ; should they ap
pear, as in fact they did appear, in the visions of the
future.3 — In the same way the emblem here seen of
1 That churches were founded at the time of St. Paul's Epistle to 1 he Colossians
in the two neighbouring towns of Laodicea and Hierapolis, appears from Col. iv. 13 ;
" I bear him (Epaphras) " record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that
are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis." Of which two towns, Laodicea was
situated some ten or twelve miles north of Colossae, Hierapolis the same distance
north of Laodicea. There seems every probability in favour of Theodoret's and
Lardner's opinion, that St. Paul himself, while preaching in Phrygia, founded these
churches. See Acts xvi. 6, xviii. 23.
2 It has been already mentioned, (see p. 44 supra,) that in the time of Nero the
three cities Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colossae were destroyed by an earthquake ; also
that Laodicea was not very long afterwards rebuilt. Hence it is natural to suppose
that the main body of the Christians of all the three cities soon congregated thither.
On the other hand the earliest historical information, I believe, that we have respecting
the restoration of the Church at Hierapolis, is that which arises out of the fact of
Papias having been its bishop in Trajan's reign, i. e. somewhere between 98 and
117. And as to Colossce, I am not aware that either city or Church is noticed by
any writer in the second century.
In a Laodicean medal of Domitian's reign, given by Mionnet and noticed also in
Rasche, there appears the following inscription, AaohiKeuv 2ap8r the coin thus fur
nishing its interesting and silent memorial of the union and communion of the two
towns of Laodicea and Sardis, at the very time when the two Churches there esta
blished were addressed conjunctively in the Apocalyptic epistles.
3 E. g. viii. 3, xi. 2, &c— There seems to me nothing to contravene this view in
the use of the word Jews in Apoc. ii. 9, iii. 9; ("I know the blasphemy of them
which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan ; " "I will
make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do
lie, to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee ; ") but
the contrary. For I cannot doubt the use of the word in a mystical and Christian
sense, conformably to all that was Jewish in the visible scenery. So Vitringa on
Apoc. ii. 9. " Nomen lovSaios mystice accipiendum est  Erant inter ipsos
Christianos qui seappellari et denominari cupiebant Judceos, hoc est veritatis purioris
confessores.'' — There could surely have been little trial to the Christians from actual

70 APOC I, II, III. [INTROD.
the seven stars that Christ held in his hand,1 coupled
with his explanation of them as meaning the seven angels,
or rulers and presiding ministers of the churches, would
prepare St. John to interpret the symbol of stars (should
they occur in the subsequent visions), of ecclesiastical
rulers, where ecclesiastical things were concerned ; 2 as also
of secular rulers, I may add, where the subject was of se
cular things.3 — It was observable, that this Holy Place and
its candlesticks seemed to represent the state of the churches,
not as seen by the eye of man, but by the eyes of Him
that seeth in secret ; just as the Holy Place of the Jewish
Temple was only accessible to the priest, while the altar-
court was the scene of what was publicly visible in the wor
ship.4 This was a fact also to be remembered for applica
tion afterwards. — Nor was it of unimportant use to note
the representation of Jesus Christ here given, as the Priest
of the churches, and the designation of their ecclesiastical
presidents or bishops simply as angels, a term borrowed not
from the Temple, but the Synagogue :5 in token, thus early,
Jews, at the time of the Apocalyptic visions : a time when Jerusalem was fallen ;
its nation outcast; and those outcasts, among the Romans, as among the Assyrians
and Babylonians in olden time, " dispectissima pars servientium : " * moreover when
actual professing Jews were by the Christian body universally held in abhorrence.
Hence my persuasion that false professing Christians were here meant — Nor does
difficulty on this head arise from the word cvvayuyn, synagogue. It is a word used
of Christian assemblies by James ii. 2 : and even were it only an appellative of
Jewish assemblies for worship, its symbolic use to signify Christian Church assem
blies, would be only in keeping with the symbolic use in a Christian sense both of
the word Jews, and of what seemed the Holy Place of the Jewish sanctuary on the
Apocalyptic scene. — Compare Gal. iv. 26, vi. 16.
1 In a medal of Faustina's consecration that I have seen, she appears carried up
ward on an eagle, and holding over head a circular band with seven stars in it.
2 E. g. Apoc. xii. 1, " A woman having on her head a crown of twelve stars ; "
and xii. 4, " And his tail (the Dragon's) drew the third part of the stars of heaven,
and did cast them to the earth." 3 E. g. Apoc. vi. 13.
4 Compare my observations on the Apocalyptic scenery in Ch. iv. infra ; and also
those on the temple-scene described in Apoc. vi. 9, viii. 3, xi. 2. ,
5 " Dictio Graeca A77eAoy tijs eKKAniaias respondet Hebraeae "TQ3 IT'vtt?, legatus,
sive delegatus ecclesice. Dicebantur autem Legati ecclesice in Synagoga exercitati
quidam doctique viri, et in his praecipue doctores, qui solenniter delegabantur ad
preces pro ccetu publico fundendas, sive in ordinariis sive in extraordinariis casibus :
ut adeo per angelos ecclesiae hie intelligi debeant Propositi ecclesiae Christianae,
quorum erat preces publice ad Deum in ecclesia mittere, sacra curare, et verba
facere ad populum. — Et cum precandi et docendi officium in ecclesia precipue incu-
buerit tu irpuru ruv irpeo-frvrepuv, primo presbyterorum, quem aetas recentior Epis-
copum vocavit, facile patior Prcesides presbyterorum ecclesiae Christianae hlc potissi-
mCim a Domino notari." So Vitringa ad loc. — Professor Stuart suggests also, from
* Tacit. Hist. v. 8. — Compare Juvenal vi. 543, already referred to p. 54 : also his
line iii. 14, Judaeis quorum cophinus foenumque supellex.

CHAP. II.] VISION OF " THE THINGS THAT ARE." 71
that the offices of the Levitical priests were to be regarded
as fulfilled by Christ ; x and that the functions of the
Christian bishop, or minister in the Church, were those of
leading the devotions, and directing and animating the faith
of the flock ; not functions sacrificial or mediatorial, as with
the Levitical priests of old.2 — Besides all which it will be
well to notice the view lhat is here presented of the Devil,
or Satan, as the real though unseen actor on the different
and hostile scene of this world ; 3— the secret indwelling
instigator of the persecuting emperors and people of hea
then Rome. This might fitly prepare the evangelist for
any symbolic picture, or any explanatory comment, in the
subsequent visions of the future, embodying or hinting the
same great truth.*
2. With regard to the seven moral sketches of the seven
Asiatic churches,5 the question arises whether these had a
the use ofa similar Hebrew word in Haggai i. 18 the sense of prophet or chief teacher
of the Church ; a sense well uniting with the former.
1 Compare Heb. x. 21 ; " Having an high priest over the house of God ; " and
iii. 6 ; " Whose house are we," &c : the temple being meant by God's house, as in
Matt. xxi. 13, &c.
2 The theological importance of the point (which will begin strikingly to appear
in the history of the Church, when we come to the Sealing Vision, Apoc. vii,)
has induced me to quote the above from Vitringa at length. Daubuz (on Apoc.
ii. 1 ) vainly attempts to gainsay Vitringa's view, and to give a Levitical character
to the Christian ministry ; on the strength of his own interpretation of the twenty-
four elders in Apoc. iv, as signifying the same. For it will appear, I trust, in the
Exposition ensuing, that the twenty-four elders meant no such thing.
3 Apoc. ii. 10. 4 Compare Apoc. xii. 9.
5 Apoc. ii. 1. "Unto the angel of the Church of Ephesus write; These things
saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks; 2. I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy
patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil : and thou hast tried
them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars : 3. And
hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not
fainted. 4. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy
first love. 5. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and
do the first works ; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy can
dlestick out of its place, except thou repent. 6 . But this thou hast, that thou
hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate. 7. He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh
will 1 give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the [midst of the] paradise of God.
8. And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write ; These things saith the
First and the Last, which was dead, and is alive ; I know thy works, and tribula
tion and poverty, (but thou art rich,) and I know the blasphemy of them which say
they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. 10. Fear none of
those things which thou shalt suffer : behold, the devil shall cast some of you into
prison, that ye may be tried ; and ye shall have tribulation ten days : be thou faithful
unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. 11. He that hath an ear, let him
hear whatthe Spirit saith unto the churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt
of the second death.
12. And to the angel of the church in Pergamus write ; These things saith he

72 APOC I, II, III. [iNTROD.
prophetic application, besides and beyond their primary and
literal application to those Asiatic Churches then existing ;
which hath the sharp sword with two edges ; 1 3 I know thy works, and where thou
dwellest, even where Satan's seat is : and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not
denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who
was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. 14. But I have a few things against
thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught
Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed
unto idols, and to commit fornication. 15. So hast thou also them that hold the
doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate. 16. Repent : or else I will come
unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of toy mouth. 17.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him
that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna ; and I will give him a white
stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth save he that
receiveth it.
18. And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith
the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are
like fine brass ; 19. I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy
patience and thy works ; and the last to be more than the first. 20. Notwith
standing I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman
Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach, and to seduce my servants to
commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. 21. And I gave
her space to repent of her fornication ; and she repented not. 22. Behold, I
will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tri
bulation, except they repent of their deeds. 23 And I will kill her children with
death ; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and
hearts : and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. 24. But
unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and
which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak, I will put upon you none
other burden. 25. But that which ye have already, hold fast till I come. 26. And
he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power
over the nations : 27. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron ; as the vessels of a
potter shall they be broken to shivers : even as I received of my Father. 28. And I
will give him the morning star. 29. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches.
iii. 1 . And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write ; These things saith he
that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars ; I know thy works, that
thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. 2. Be watchful, and strengthen the
things which remain, that are ready to die : for I have not found thy works perfect
before God. 3. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard ; and hold
fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief;
and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. 4. Thou hast a few
names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments ; and they shall walk
with me in white : for they are worthy. 5. He that overcometh, the same shall be
clothed in white raiment : and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life ;
but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. 6. He that
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
7. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; these things saith he
that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no
man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth : 8. I know thy works : behold,
I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it : for thou hast a little
strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. 9. Behold I will
make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do
lie : behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know
that 1 have loved thee. 10. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also
will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon ail the world, to
try them that dwell upon the earth. 11. Behold, 1 come quickly: hold that fast
which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. 12. Him that overcometh will I
make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out : and I will

CHAP. II. J VISION OF "THE THINGS THAT ARE.

73

and signified further seven several phases that the Church
Catholic would present to Christ's all-seeing eye, in its pro
gress through coming ages, down to the consummation.
Such is the view taken by not a few commentators ; and
which has been illustrated at large in a former age by Vi-
tringa, in the present by Mr. Girdlestone. I subjoin a
chronological diagram of their respective schemes, for the
reader's information.* To myself the view seems quite
write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which
is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God : and I will
write upon him my new name. 13. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches.
14. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write ; These things saith
the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning' of the creation of God ;
15. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold

* Vitringa's and Girdlestone' s Schemes of the Epistles to the Seven churches as
prefigurative.

Ephesus.

V.
G.

From the John to the Decian Persecution, A.D. 250.

Do.

Smyrna.

V. G.

From the Decian to the Diocletian Persecution, A.D. 311.

Do.

Pergamos.

V. G.

From the end of the Diocletian persecution to A.D. 700.

From Constantine to Luther's Reformation, A.D. 1500.

Thyatira.

V. G.

From 700 to A.D. 1200, and the rise of the Waldenses.

From Luther to the Persecutions of Protestants on the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, A D. 1685.

Sardis.

V. G.

From A.D. 1200 to 1500 and the Reformation.

From the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes to the for
mation of the Bible Society, 1804.

Philadelphia.

V. G.

The earlier times of the Reformation, in its political
weakness.

Bible and Missionary Societies' iEra.

Laodicea.

V. G.

The lukewarm state of the Protestant Church following
its establishment, to 1700, &c.

Lukewarmness before the Millennium.

Since the publication of my two first editions Mr. Girdlestone has published a
Pamphlet, entitled "Notes on the Apocalypse" (1847) ; in which he intimates a
renunciation of his original view, here abstracted. He adds, as his present and more
mature opinion, that the seven epistles, together with that historic -cense which I
here ascribe to them, have also further a prophetic sense ; but only as bearing " with
special application " on the state of the church in " the crisis of the last days."

74 APOC I, II, III. [iNTROD.
untenable. For not a word is said by Christ to indicate
any such prospective meaning in the descriptions. On the
contrary, in the two-fold division of the Revelations given
to St. John, a division noted by Christ himself, — " the
things that are," and " the things that are to happen after
them," 1 — it seems to me clear that the Epistles to the seven
Churches were meant to constitute the first division, being
a description of the state of things in the Church as they
then were : and that the visions that followed, — visions se
parated with the utmost precision from the former, alike by
a new summons of the trumpet- voice, and a scene and
scenic accompaniments altogether " new also, — constituted
(alone and distinctively) the visions of the future. Indeed
the summons itself expressly so defined it ; " Come up, and
I will [now] shew thee the things which must happen here
after." 2 — With this simple, striking, and strongly marked
division made by the Divine Revealer, the hypothesis of
the seven Epistles depicting seven successive phases of the
Christian Church, appears to me an interference altogether
rude and unwarranted. Besides that it were easy to show
how ill the states of these seven Asiatic Churches, here de
scribed in local order,3 — I say how ill these severally de
picted ecclesiastical sketches answer to any seven chronolo
gically successive phases of the professing Church, or Chris
tendom, that human wit and research can ever frame out
of its actual history.4
or hot. 16. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will
spue thee out of my mouth. 17. Because thou sayest I am rich, and increased with
goods, and have need of nothing ; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18. I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich ; and white raiment, that thou mayest be
clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear ; and anoint thine eyes
with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten;
be zealous, therefore, and repent. 20. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock : if
any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with
him, and he with me. 21. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in
my throne ; even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
22. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." *
1 Apoc. i. 19 ; Kai a eiot, icat a peAAet yiveoBat pera Tavra.
2 Apoc. iv. 1 ; a Sei ytveoSai pera ravra.
3 That is, in the order of a circuit, such as we may suppose St. John to have
travelled in his visitation of them.
4 It may suffice on this point to refer to my examination of the Church-scheme of
the Seals, which will be found in the Appendix to my fourth Volume. The reader
will easily apply the reasoning there drawn out ; and make for himself the necessary
mutata mutanda in its transference to the argument in the Text
* The marks [ ] indicate omissions in which the chief MSS. agree.

CHAP. II.] VISION OF " THE THINGS THAT ARE." 75
Not but that we may admit of an universality of appli
cation attaching to the moral pictures here set before us.
Such is the case with all the historical and biographical
sketches in holy scripture : especially, for example, with
the pictures from time to time presented of the moral and
religious state of the Jewish people, in the course of their
long history. The character which belongs to all holy
Scripture, of being profitable always and to all, applies of
course to this section of it, as much as to the rest. And,
thus considered, where is the Church, where the individual
Christian, that may not have made profitable use and self-
application of all the several addresses, at one time or ano
ther: with their words of searching and of warning, of
promise and consolation, of expostulation and reproof, of
sympathy and compassion ; — in regard respectively of the
faithful disciples, and the tempted, lukewarm, or fallen.
The words, " He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches," are, as Ambrose
Ansbert has observed,1 a direct intimation that this univer
sality of application was intended in them. And, doubt
less, he whosoever has seriously and with prayerful mind
perused them, has in his own heart experienced the truth
of the declaration, " Blessed is he that readeth, and they
that hear the words of this prophecy." — But this is very
different from the view combated.
I must not omit to add further that these descriptive
sketches of the seven Asiatic Churches seem to have been
intended by its great Head as representative specimens, if
I may so say, of the then existing state and character of
the Church in general.2 And in the admixture which they
unfold of evil intermixed with the good, error with truth,
vice with holiness, there is very strikingly set forth to us
Christ's own view of the energizing within its bosom, even
thus early, of the Spirit of the Wicked One ; of the in-
rooting of the tares sown by him among the wheat ; and
the budding of that germ of evil which as St. Paul had
1 " Cum hie  non unam Ephesi ecclesiam ad audienda dicta Spiritus, sed eccle-
sias invitet, patet certe quia quod uni dicit omnibus dicit." B. P. M. xiii. 434.
2 So Augustine, Ep. xlix. 2; "Johannes scribit ad septem ecclesias quas comme-
morat in illis.partibusconstitutas : in quibus etiam universam ecclesiam septenario
numero intelligimus commendari." So too in his C. D. xvii. 4. 4.

76 APOC. I, IT, III. [iNTROD.
foreshown, was still to go on working till it should expand
into the grand Apostacy.
3. With regard to the promises made to conquerors in
all these various churches, it can scarcely fail to strike even
a superficial reader, that there is a correspondence very
marked between them, and the blessings described as the
privilege of the saints in the Millennary state, or that of
the New Jerusalem. Thus to the faithful ones that over
came in the Ephesian Church, it was promised, " To him
that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which
is in the midst of the paradise of God : " l while in the de
scription of the New Jerusalem it is said, " On either side
of the river was the tree of life. . . . Blessed are they that
do his commandments, that they may have right to the
tree of life." 2 — To the conquerors of the Church of Smyrna
it was promised, " He that overcometh shall not be hurt of
the second death :"3 a promise answering to that which we
find assigned to the partakers of the first resurrection at
the opening of the Millennium ; " Blessed and holy is he
that hath part in the first resurrection ; for on tbem the se
cond death hath no power." 4 — To the overcomers at Sardis
it was promised, " They shall walk with me in white, and
I will not blot out their names out of the book of life." 5
Of which double promise, the former part was seen ful
filled alike in the case of the white-robed palm-bearers, led
by the Lamb beside the living waters,6 and of the bride, the
Lamb's wife, figured as the New Jerusalem, to whom it was
given to be arrayed in fine linen clear and white ; 7 the
latter in those who, on the judgment of the great white
throne, were recognized by Him who sate thereon as hav
ing their names written in the Book of Life.8 — The same
is the correspondence between the promise to the Laodice-
ans, " To him that overcometh I will give to sit with me
on my throne," 9 and the millennary privilege of reigning
with Christ the thousand years, and for ever.10 The thought
ful reader will easily perceive what important and interest-
1 Apoc. ii. 7. 2 Apoc. xxii. 2, 14. 3 Apoc. ii. 11.
4 Apoc. xx. 6. 5 Apoc. iii. 4, 5. 6 Apoc. vii. 14, 17.
7 Apoc. xix. 8. » Apoc. xx. 12, 14, 15. 9 Apoc. iii. 21.
10 Apoc. xx. 4, xxii. 5.

CHAP. III.] THE HEAVENLY COMPANY. 77
ing considerations arise out of this coincidence. Let me
suggest two. The first is how beautifully it helps to mark
the dramatic unity, from first to last, of the Apocalyptic
prophecy ; the second how great the interest it must have
added to the progress of the drama, to know before-hand that
its finale to the saints would be one of such blessedness.
But it is time to leave this preliminary vision, and pro
ceed to the second and grand division of the Apocalyptic
revelations.

CHAPTER III.
THE OPENING VISION OF THE HEAVENLY THRONE AND
COMPANY, PREPARATORY TO THE REVELATIONS OF THE
FUTURE.
In the two preceding chapters of the Apocalypse, " the
things that were," — the state of the church then existing
— had been described to the Evangelist. Then the voice
ceased of Him that had been communing with him ; and
the scene passed from his view of the seven lamps, and the
heavenly High Priest that walked among them. It re
mained that the promised revelation should be made of
things future, — a fjieXXei ytvea-Qou [mto. ravra,1 — the things
which were to follow after the state then existing of the
church and of the world.
And for this, another and higher scene was deemed
suitable. The revelations to be made him were to be com
municated to beings of a higher order also ; that so " unto
principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made
known," through this history of the church, in its prefi
guration, as afterwards both in its evolution and retrospect,
" the manifold wisdom of God."2 So a door appeared open
in heaven ;3 and the voice which had before addressed him
was heard again speaking, " Come up, and I will shew thee
what must happen hereafter." Then was he again in the
1 Apoc. i. 19. 2 Eph. iii. 10.
3 So in Ezek. i. I ; '' The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God."

78 APOC IV, V. [iNTROD.
Spirit : and he seemed to enter at the door : and a vision
of heavenly glory, and scene as of a new world, burst upon
his view.
The vision is thus described. " Behold a throne was set
in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He that sat
was, to look upon, like a jasper and sardine stone. And
there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like
unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four
and twenty thrones : and upon the thrones I saw four and
twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment ; and they
had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne
proceed lightnings, and thunderings, and voices. And
there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne,
which are the seven Spirits of God. And before the
throne there was a glassy sea, like unto crystal. And
in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne,
were four living creatures, full of eyes before and behind.
And the first living creature was like a lion, and the
second like a calf, and the third had a face as a man,
and the fourth was like a flying eagle. And the four
living creatures had each of them six wings about him.
And they were full of eyes within. And they rest not day
and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,
which was, and is, and is to come. And when those living
creatures give glory, and honour, and thanks, to Him that
sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four
and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the
throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and
cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art wor
thy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for
thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are
and were created." 1
Thus the vision, like those of Isaiah and of Ezekiel,2 ex
hibited, as its first and grand object, Jehovah, King of
saints, seated as Lord of all on the throne of the universe.
It seems very possible that a cloud accompanied this reve-
1 I have deviated from the authorized version in the above, in translating Bpovot,
thrones, instead of seals ; vaAtvii, glassy, instead of glass ; and £tua, living creatures,
instead of beasts. a I8. vi. l Ezek. i. 4.

CHAP. III.] THE HEAVENLY COMPANY. 79
lation of God, just as in the Shekinah and other manifesta
tions of the Divine presence : 1 the throne of glory rising,
as we may conceive, out of it ; and the thunderings and
lightnings, here and elsewhere spoken of in the Apocalypse,
proceeding therefrom. — And then that glassy sea, as it
were, like crystal* spread before the throne, (the space
before, or in front of the throne, being the only part un
occupied, and therefore visible3) may be explained, from
other parallel Scriptures, as the firmament of blue trans
parent ether4 on which the four throne-upholders rested,
and the cloud floated. For a basement just similar is de
scribed as attached to the throne, both in the vision of
Ezekiel, and in that seen by the Israelitish elders at Sinai.
" There was the likeness," says Ezekiel, " of a firmament ;
and it was as the colour of the terrible (or* admirable)
crystal ; and above the firmament was the likeness of a
throne." 5 And Moses ; " There was under Jehovah's feet
as it were a pavement of sapphire, and as it were the body
of heaven in its clearness :" 6 — the heavenly firmament then
visible reflecting the glow of the sapphire throne immedi
ately beneath it, but melting beyond into its clear and
1 So in the way from Egypt to Sinai, Exod. xiv. 24, xvi. 10 : — at Sinai, Exod.
xxiv. 16, 18; — in the tabernacle, Levit. xvi. 2 ; — in Solomon's temple, 2 Chron. v.
13, 14; — in Isaiah's vision, Isa. vi. 4 ; — in Ezekiel's, Ezek. i. 4, x. 3, &c. — So, I
see, Rosenmuller ad loc. " Thronus Dei comparator cum nube, ex qua fulgura et
tonitrua exeunt."
In the book of Ecclesiasticus, xxiv. 4, the throne is spoken of as in the pillar of the
cloud ; i Bpovos p.ov ev arvAu vetpeAijs.
2 us BaAaaaa iaAivn. So Scholz and Tregelles, with the us.
3 Because the thrones of the elders, on either side of the divine throne, would
there apparently hide the basement from view.
4 So Cowper of the blue liquid firmamental ether, (Task, B. v,)
Ye shining hosts
That navigate a sea that knows no storms.
5 Ezek. i. 22 — 26. — A Note in the Pictorial Bible on this passage in Ezekiel, ob
serves that- the term N"112n mpH, rendered terrible crystal, " seems to have
been a term of pre-eminence for the diamond; which is indeed an admirable crystal
for its brilliancy and hardness."
6 Exod. xxiv. 9, 10. — In the Septuagint translation of Ezekiel, the word for firma
ment is orepeupa ; answering nearly, (as does also our word firmament,) to the
"pavement," or "paved work," that Moses tells of as seen by the Israelitish
elders. — In Gen. i. 6 we read of the first creation of this firmament. On which pas
sage Robertson (in his Clavis Pentateuchi) observes : " ^Pp"?) proprie expansum,
aer, atmospheria." And then in a Note as follows. " Vox proprie notat metallum
solidum, mallei ictu diductum. Ad coelos transferror Job xxxvii. 18 ; ' Expandes,
deduces cum illo nubila tenuissima, firma ut speculum fusum.' Pavimentum solii
divini, quod ex glacie concretum viderat, vocatur JPpT Ezech. i. 22, 23 : quod, cum
pedibus Dei tonantis subjectum sit, h calcando dicitur."

80 APOC IV, V. [iNTROD.
proper blue.1 — Above was the Form of glory : " Thou hast
set thy glory above the heavens." And, resembling as it
did in colour the red jasper or sardine, there must doubt
less have been something in the appearance very awful, as
well as glorious. Nor without meaning. For indeed,
even under the Christian dispensation, " our God is (in his
holiness) as a consuming fire." But there appeared round
about the throne, as if to re-assure the Evangelist, a rain
bow in which the soft green was predominant, " in sight
like unto an emerald;" — the well-known and lovely memo
rial of the covenant of grace.2 — Next his eye was arrested
by the appearance of seven lamps burning before the
throne. And what their meaning ? They were, we read,
the " seven Spirits of God:" a designation, I conceive, of
the Divine Spirit, the third person of the blessed Trinity,
in respect of his sevenfold influences.3 Else how that invo
cation of grace and blessing in Apoc i. 4 from " the seven
Spirits before the throne," conjunctively with the Father
and the Son ? 4 And I think, considering the septenary
number of these lamps of fire, and the fact of no mention
1 So Milton, P. L. vi. 757, after notice of the four Cherubim, as supporters of the
chariot of God : Over their heads a chrystal firmament,
Whereon a sapphire throne, inlaid with pure
Amber, and colors of the showery arch.
The epithet vaAtvii, applied to the firmamental expanse, like the English glassy, or
Latin vitreus, is a word simply expressive, I conceive, of clearness and transparency ;
thus answering to the " body of heaven in its clearness," in the passage from Ex
odus. So in Job xxxvii. 18, the passage just cited from Robertson ;" Thou hast
spread out the sky as a molten looking-glass."
The explanation of the glassy sea above-given is the same as Vitringa's ; and it
is now, I believe, generally _ acquiesced in by the best expositors. There are some
indeed that still explain it to signify the brazen laver, or sea, in the Jewish tem
ple. But, 1 st, the Evangelist is here describing what was in the inner sanctuary,
not what was in the court without it : 2ndly, it seems difficult to explain why, if the
laver was meant, it should be represented as of glass, and not brazen : 3dly, there
appears no allusion whatever to any such laver in any of the Apocalyptic visions.
2 Compare Gen. ix. 12 — 17, and Isa-. liv. 9, 10.
3 Isa. xi, 2. So the Hymn in our Ordination Service :
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,
And lighten with celestial fire !
Thou the anointing Spirit art,
That dost thy seven-fold gifts impart, &c,
4 " John to the seven churches which are in Asia, Grace be unto you, and peace,
from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits
v>hich are before the throne, and from Jesus Christ." — But for this we might have
explained the seven lamps before the throne of seven angelic spirits : agreeably with

CHAP. III.] THE HEAVENLY COMPANY. 81
being made elsewhere of other seven lamps of the inner
sanctuary, such as St. John had seen in his primary vision,
in type of the Christian churches, — that we may with pro
bability suppose a reference to them in the present sym-
bolization ; seeing that it was only through the Divine
Spirit's influence, that the lamps of those churches kept up
their flames burning before the Holy One.1
But what the meaning of the twenty -four elders, seated
round the throne of the Deitv ? And what of the four
living creatures,2 yet more nearly surrounding it?
We may be thankful that what is most essential to be
known respecting these emblematic beings, in order to our
right understanding of the Apocalypse, is expressly re
vealed to us. Whatever their distinctive characters re
spectively, both the one and the other were unquestionably
representatives of the redeemed from among the children
of men. For this was the song of thanksgiving to the Lamb
the word seraphim, burning-ones ; and the figurative description in Heb. i. 7, " He
maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a. flame of fire."*
1 So the Holy Spirit was figured under the symbol of twelve tongues of fire ; in
regard of his communication to the twelve Apostles of the gift of tongues. See Acts
ii. 3. — It is perhaps a corroboration of this view, that Christ designates himself
(Apoc. iii. 1) as " He that holdeth the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars : "
a natural combination, if the former, as well as latter, had a direct relation to the
the seven churches.
2 Zojo. The word is one used by Clemens Alexandrinus in his Paedag. i. 8, of
man. He calls him KaAAtarov Kat tpiAoBeov guov.
* Prof. M. Stuart, however, advocates the meaning of seven Seraphim, as the true
explanation of the seven lamps of fire before the throne. See his Vol. ii. pp. 17 — 23.
His two chief arguments for it are as follows. 1st, the position being before the
throne was simply that of ministering servants To which I reply, that such was also
the Lamb's position when he took the book, as described Apoc. v. 6. 21y, in Apoc.
viii. 2 seven chief angels are expressly spoken of as so standing before God. To
which I reply ; But these are only called angels , and moreover they received trum
pets, and otherwise acted inconsistently with the symbol of the seven lamps of fire,
which seem to have been stationary in the Holy Place. — In reply to my counter
argument from John's invocation of grace and blessing from the seven spirits before
the throne, the Professor urges as analogical passages, in comparison, 1 Tim. v. 21,
" i charge thee before God, and Jesus Christ, and the elect angels ; " Mark viii. 38,
and Luke ix. 26, " When he shall come in his glory, and of the holy angels ; " and
Luke xii. 8, " Him shall the Son of Man confess before the angels of God." But
these parallels are surely all^quite insufficient and inappropriate. There is not one
passage in the Bible, 1 believe, where grace is invocated from angels. — As to the
Professor's reference to Tobit xii. 15, it may be useful to observe that that Apocry
phal book's designation of the seven angels before God as those that " present the
prayers of the saints " to Him, is directly opposed to the Apocalyptic description
of the seven presence-angels : who in Apoc. viii. 2 are spoken of as those to whom
the seven trumpets were given ; but the incense-receiving and prayer-offering angel
expressly designated as aAAos eryyeAor, quite another.
VOL. I. G

82 APOC IV, V. [iNTROD.
in which they were heard uniting in common chorus soon
afterwards ; " Thou hast redeemed us unto God by thy
blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and nation." r
Moreover, as regards the elders, thus much was also
evident, that they represented the redeemed saints in the
character of a royal priesthood. For in their case, the
intent of the emblematic insignia, — I mean of the thrones
on which they sate, the crowns on their heads, their white
robes, and perhaps too of what is after noted, their incense
vials and their harps,2 — was almost interpreted by the song
itself, " Thou hast made us unto God kings and priests ;" 3
and well accords moreover with -what St. Peter calls the
saints, fiaaiXeiov leparevfjia. a royal priesthood.* — Again, as
to their number 24, it might be explained either, as some
expositors suggest, by reference to the twelve patriarchs,
the heads of the Old Testament church, and the twelve
apostles of the New ; or rather, as others, by reference to
the heads of the twenty-four courses of the Jewish priest
hood, the fit representatives of the whole priestly body.5
But of the four living creatures the explanation is more
difficult ; and very careful consideration is needed to solve
the question at all satisfactorily.
The first step to a right understanding of the point in
question is obviously a reference to the very parallel vision
in Ezekiel.6 In that, too, Jehovah appeared enthroned in
a fiery cloud ; though not at rest, as here, but chariot-like
in motion : and with four living creatures, as supporters of
1 Dean Woodhouse explains the Apocalyptic living creatures as angels ; observing
that no objection has been made to this explanation, but their joining in the song,
" Thou hast redeemed us by thy blood." We might have thought that that one
objection would have sufficed to convince him of its untenableness.
Ignatius seems to have had an opinion, and Jerome joins him in it, that the death
of Christ was influential in the salvation of angels. See Ignatius's Epist. to Smyrna,
ch. 6, and Jerome on the Ep. to Eph. Lib. ii. So that they might consistently have
entertained the interpretation. But the Dean evidently had no such opinion ; and
it is, I believe, altogether without warrant of scripture. — Besides which the living
creatures speak, in common with the presbyters, of being redeemed out of every na
tion and tongue.
2 Apoc. V. 8 ; exovres <pta\as XPvaas yepowas Bvpiaparav, at turtv ai irpoaevxat
tuv ayiuv. The of takes its gender from the substantive following, not that pre
ceding : a construction not infrequent. So Mark xii. 42, Aeirra 5«o i «rri KoSpavriis'
also Gal. iii. 16, Eph. i. 14, &c. 3 lb. verse 10. 4 1 Peter ii. 5, 9.
6 So Rosenmuller, M. Stuart, &c. See 1 Chron. xxiv. 4 — 18, 2 Chron. xix. 8,
xxxv. 8 : also Jer. xix. 1, where they are called "the ancients of the priests," con
tradistinctively to " the ancients of the people." So A. Clarke ad loc.
6 Ezek. i. and x.

CHAP. III.] THE HEAVENLY COMPANY. 83
the throne or chariot, which in almost every point resem
bled the four in the Apocalyptic vision. Their faces were
similarly like those of a lion, an ox, a man, an eagle ; they
were similarly winged, and similarly full of eyes in their
whole body : moreover, emerging, as they were first seen,
" out of the midst" of the cloud of enthronization, they
might similarly seem to have been within the throne, as
well as round about it.1 Now of these we are expressly
told by Ezekiel (x. 20.) that " he knew them to be the
cherubim." To understand his meaning of which word,
and the class of beings intended, we must refer to the earlier
notices of cherubim in Scripture. And first there is that
memorable record of them in the book of Genesis ; wherein
they are described as having been placed by God at the
east end of the garden of Eden ; and, with flaming swords
that turned every way, keeping the way of the tree of life.2
In which passage the meaning of the word seems unequi
vocal. They were evidently angelic beings. — The next
notice that occurs of cherubim is in the sanctuary figur-
ings ;3 which, being figurings ordered by God Himself,
were necessarily a true, though symbolic, expression of
heavenly realities. In these the same angelic order seemed
still intended. And I cannot but just pause to remark, that
whereas the first recorded employment of cherubim was,
as we have seen, the expulsion of guilty man from para
dise, and guarding against his return to the source of life,
the next was that, as here represented, of bending in admi
ration over the mercy-seat, whereby man had a way of access
to the source of life again opened to him : — " which things,"
says St. Peter, in evident allusion to the cherubs in the
sanctuary, " the angels desire, bending over, to look into." 4
— In Ezekiel's own vision there is yet another evidence of
the angelic nature of the cherubim. For they were in
part like unto burning lamps of fire : a symbol the same as
that applied by St. Paul to angels ; ("Of the angels He
saith, He maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a flame
1 Ezek. i. 5, 10 ;x. 12. 2 Gen. iii. 24. 3 Exod. xxv. 18 — 20.
1 1 Peter i. 12, eis a eiriBvpovatv o77e\oi irapaxinfial. The same word is used in
Luke, ch. xxiv. 1 2, of Peter stooping over to look into the sepulchre ; irapanvtyas
BAeirei ra oBovta. — On the posture of the cherubim over the ark, see Exod. xxv. 20.
G 2

84 APOC IV, V. [iNTROD.
of fire;")1 and which serves also, I may add, to identify
them with the seraphim, or burning ones, seen beside the
throne by Isaiah.2
Thus the nature of the four £»« of Ezekiel was evidently
angelical. And what their then employments and func
tions? They were represented to the prophet as support
ing the throne of Jehovah, attending His presence, like as
the chief ministers of state might attend that of an eastern
monarch, carrying out their glances of intuition on every
side into the dominions of their Lord, listening reverentially
for his commands, and going and returning on them like a
flash of lightning : in short, as the angelical intelligences
admitted nearest to his own presence and counsels, and
most confidentially employed by Him in His present pro
vidential government of the world. — The wheels of the
throne that they supported, intersected each other like the
great circles of a mundane sphere. These they appeared
to direct, animate, and move. For " the spirit of the four
living creatures was in the wheels : whithersoever the Spirit
was to go, they went."3 As to the intent of the mysteri
ous faces assigned them, of a lion, an ox, a man, an eagle,
respectively, though all with human hands and likeness,4
we can but conjecture. Royal thrones were framed some
times with carved inanimate supporters in these animal
forms : 5 and possibly there might be a certain reference to
this custom in the figuration. — Whether or not the quali
ties of courage, patience, intelligence, and heavenly soaring
in the cherubim, might, as some expound the similitudes,6
have been further indicated thereby ; or whether they may
have been meant to intimate how these angelical attendants
1 Heb. i. 7.
2 Isa. vi. 2, 3. Their place, (the reader must observe) was beside the throne, not
above, it, so as our translation renders the Hebrew word. See Lowth ad loc.
3 " The appearance of the wheels was like unto the colour of a beryl (sky-blue
mixed with green ; — Lowth) :• • • -and their appearance and their work was, as it
were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel ;  and their rings were full of eyes ; 
and when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them. . . . Whithersoever
the Spirit was to go, they went;  for the spirit of the living creatures was in
the wheels." Ezek. i. 16, &c. 4 Ezek. i. 5, 8.
6 So in the account of Solomon's throne, 1 Kings x. 18, 19 ; " The king made a
great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold. The throne had six steps ;
and the top of the throne was round behind : and there were stays on either side
on the place of the seat ; and two lions stood beside the stays ; and twelve lions
stood on the one side and on the other, upon the six steps." " So Mr. Scott, &c.

CHAP. HI.] THE HEAVENLY COMPANY. 85
on the divine behests, "themselves instinct with spirit,"
acted in and upon the animate, as well as inanimate crea
tures of God, so as to overrule them all in subservience to
the designs of His providence, (a view which some others
have seemed to entertain,)1 seem to be questions beyond
our solution. Nor is the Rabbinical tradition that the
animals, whose likenesses severally the cherubim bore,
were the devices on the four grand standards of Israel, (a
tradition on which yet another view of the Apocalyptic
figure has been founded,)2 at all more to be depended on.3
All these ideas, I say, must be regarded as uncertain.4
But from what seems certain respecting Ezekiel's four
living creatures, or cherubim, the natural and almost neces
sary inference respecting the four that appeared to St.
John is surely this, that as in their form and position they
resembled Ezekiel's cherubim, so in their nature and func
tions they must have resembled them also ; and thus have
symbolized beings of angelic nature, appointed, in that
1 Perhaps Novatian, quoted below, had some such idea.
2 So Sir I. Newton, &c.
3 On the uncertainty, improbability, and late origin of this Jewish tradition, see
the Note on Numb. ii. 2, in Bishop Patrick.
4 Let me add, in further illustration of this difficult subject, the paraphrastic com
ments of a learned Latin Father of the third century, and of a still more learned
English poet of the seventeenth.
First of Novatian, De Trinitate, c. 8; ap. Opera Tertulliani, (Venice 1701,)
p. 433. " Pertingit ejus [sc. Dei] ad usque singula quaeque cura, cujus ad totum, quid-
quid est, pervenit Providentia. Hinc est qu6d et desuper cherubim sedet : id est
praeest super operum suorum varietatem ; subjectis throno ejus animalibus prae
caeteris principatum tenentibus : — cuncta desuper chrystallo contegente ; id est coelo
omnia operiente. Quod in firmamentum de aquarum fluente materia fuerat Deo
jubente solidatum ; ut glacies robusta aquarum terram pridem contegentium dividens
medietatem ; dorso quodam pondera aquas superioris, corroboratis de gelu viribus,
sustineret. Nam et rotce subjacent; tempora scilicet, quibus omnia mundi membra
volvuntur : talibus pedibus adjectis quibus non in perpetuum stant ista, sed transeunt.
Sed et per omnes ortus [qu. orbes?] stellatae sunt oculis : Dei enim opera pervigili
obtutu contemplanda sunt. In quorum sinu carbonum medius est ignis : sive
quoniam ad igneum diem judicii mundus iste festinat ; sive quoniam omnia opera
Dei ignea, nee sunt tenebrosa, sed vigent  Hie est igitur currus Dei, secundum
David." (sc. Psalm lxviii. 17.)
Secondly, Milton, P. L. vi. 749.
 forth rushed, with whirlwind sound,
The chariot of Paternal Deity,
Flashing thick flames ; wheel within wheel undrawn,
Itself instinct with spirit ; but convoyed
By four cherubic shapes : four faces each
Had wondrous : as with stars, their bodies all,
And wings, were set with eyes ; with eyes the wheels
Of beryl, and careering fires between.
Over their heads a crystal firmament, &c. (See p. 80.)

86 APOC IV, V. [INTROD.
character, to ministrations near and confidential in the
conduct of the Lord's providential government. The only
question is, how this could consist with what has been be
fore noticed, — their joining as Christ's redeemed ones in
the song of redemption : in other words, how the redeemed
of the children of men could with propriety be symbolized
as in angels' places, and with angels' employments. A
question confessedly difficult. And yet, if I mistake not,
there is that in holy Scripture which will solve the difficulty,
and show how the whole may consist together.
For, 1st, let it be remembered that this was one of
Christ's declarations respecting the state of the saints after
the resurrection on his second coming, that they should be
then ta-ayyekot,1 equal and like to angels; similarly near
therefore, we may suppose, to the divine throne, and em
ployed in similar ministrations. A declaration illustrated,
as it seems to me, by the apostle's statement,2 that the
world to come was not put into subjection to angelic gov
ernment : but to Jesus the God-man ; and, conjointly with
him, to the saints, his assessors on the throne.3 Now it is
to this their resurrection-state, that is, to their state after
Christ's coming and taking the kingdom, that the elders'
insignia of crowns and priestly white robes would seem to
have had reference ; according to the usual reading of the
words of their song, " Thou hast made us to our God
kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth."4
In which case what more reasonable than to suppose
that the appearance and the position of the four living
creatures, those other representatives of the redeemed, were
intended to symbolize the angelic, as well as royal and
priestly functions, (indeed the angelic might be deemed
1 Luke xx. 35, 36, " They which shall. . . . obtain that world, and the resurrection
from the dead, .... are ura^yeAoi, equal to the angels." 2 Heb. ii. 5.
3 So 2 Tim. ii. 12, " If we suffer, we shall also reign with him;" Matt. xix. 28,
' ' Ye which have followed me, shall in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall
sit on his throne of glory, sit also on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of
Israel;" and Luke xxii. 30. — Compare Luke xii. 44, 1 Cor. iv. 8, &c.
4 Compare Rev. xx. 4, 6, where the saints were seen to take the kingdom.
So Victorinus ad loc. " Viginti quatuor patres et apostolos judicare populum suum
oportet ; " citing Matt. xix. 28, just quoted by me, and so fixing his meaning to the
saints' future reign. — So too the yet earlier Father Clement of Alexandria. In his
Strom. Lib. vi, he says; " Such an one, though here on earth he be not honoured
with the first seat, shall sit upon the twenty-four thrones, judging the people, as
John says in the Revelation." In which passage he also evidently refers to Matt.
xix. 28, as Lardner observes, ii. 245 ; and construes the symbols of the twenty-four
Apocalyptic Presbyters, as anticipative of a reign in the world to come.

CHAP. III.] THE HEAVENLY COMPANY. 87
the highest of the royal functions,) which, in that world to
come, the redeemed were destined to fulfil ? — Or, 2ndly, if
we read ^aa-tXevovaiv in the present tense,1 then a present
sense may be ascribed to the Apocalyptic picturing of re
deemed ones as cherubim-upholders of the divine throne,
by reference to Christ's assumption even now to a part in
God's government of the world: as He said, "All power
is given unto me in heaven and on earth."2 Indeed in any
case this may hold.
Thus, and in this manner, I conclude that the twenty-four
elders, and four living creatures of the Apocalyptic vision,
symbolized the church of the redeemed ones. — And
whereas there are two grand divisions of that church, the
larger one that of the departed in Paradise, the other that
militant on earth, it seems that it is specially the former
that we must suppose depicted here. Such I conceive to
be the inference from the position of the elders and living
creatures in the inner Temple, the place of the manifested
presence of God. Besides which, there appears in their
garb and their demeanour nothing either of that, sense of
defilement, or fear and awe, which generally characterized
God's saints and servants, when admitted, while still in
their mortal state, to the sight of God ; so, for example, as
in the cases of Isaiah, of Daniel, of the High Priest Joshua,
and of St. John himself.3 Nor again was there any change
from their garb of triumph to one of mourning; as the figu
rations proceeded, and the trials and persecutions of the
Church on earth were the subject depicted. — Hence, on
the whole, they must, I think, be regarded as symbolic
representatives specially of the church in Paradise, or
spirits of just men made perfect.4 Yet not so but as, in a
certain sense, to signify the feelings and the desires of the
1 The reading here of the best MS. authority is BaaiAevovaiv, in the present tense,
3rd person ; " and they reign." Another reading also of good authority is BaatAev-
aovaiv in the future. The latter is adopted by Griesbach and Scholz, the former by
Tregelles ; avrovs being read by all three, instead of the Vulgate iipas, in the clause
preceding. From the nature of the case I cannot but prefer to adopt the reading
with the future tense. For surely Christians do not now reign on earth. (Compare
1 Cor. iv. 8.) — The avrovs M. Stuart refers to the elect out of the tribes and nations.
'H/ias is much more simple : the sense substantially the same.
2 Matt, xxviii. 18, Eph. i. 20 — 23.
3 Isa. vi. 5 ; Dan. x. 8 ; Zech. iii. 3 ; Apoc. i. 17.
4 So Rosenmuller : " Videntur 24 presbyteri esse imago optimorum et praestan-
tissimorum civium regni ccelestis, qui olim in his terris virtute et meritis enituerunt."

88 APOC IV, V. [iNTROD.
church militant on earth likewise : forasmuch as in heart
the latter also dwells above where Christ is ; J and, in re
spect of all that concerns the advancement of his kingdom
and glory, is with the former in desire and sympathy even
as one. Whence perhaps, on occasion of the Apocalyptic
Book being opened, the circumstance of the twenty-four
elders being depicted with harps and incense-vials, express
ing generally the prayers and gratitude of the saints.2
The future view of the elders and cherubim, first sug
gested, receives illustration from what our Lord said in para
ble respecting himself, when referring to the interval be
tween his ascending to the Father, and his coming again at
the second advent. " A certain nobleman went into a far
country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return." 3
In which words he alluded to a custom, prevalent in those
times, of subordinate kings going to Rome to receive the
investiture to their kingdoms from the Roman emperor,
and then returning to occupy them and reign ; intimating
thereby that he was about to receive from the Father, after
his ascension, the investiture to his kingdom ; but with the
intention not to occupy it till his return at the second
coming. Indeed it seems to be in token of this investiture
that, in the vision before us, he takes his seat as the Lamb
on the divine throne.4 Just similarly, the twenty-four
elders, and the four living creatures, representing specially
that part of the church which has past from earth to para
dise, might appear with their insignia of investiture to the
high offices destined them in Christ's coming kingdom :
the same of which, in their militancy on earth, they had
received the promise ; and of which the actual enjoyment,
as we have seen, was yet to come.
Such was a part of the company gathered on this august
occasion. Besides which, as we read presently afterwards,
there were Angels attendant, in numbers without number.
— It was indeed a glorious gathering, albeit only in symbol,
of no little part of the magnificent assemblage told of by
St. Paul to the Hebrew Christians. There was the germ
1 Col. iii. 3.
Apoc. v. 8. M. Stuart explain this of the prayeis of the twenty-four presbyter-
saints themselves, only. 3 Luke xix. 12. 4 See Note2 p. 90.

CHAP. III.] THE HEAVENLY COMPANY. 89
of the general assembly of the church of the firstborn,
whose names were written in heaven ; there were the
spirits of just men made perfect ; there was an innumerable
company of Angels : all in presence of God the judge of
all ; and presently after, as the Evangelist proceeds to tell
us, of Christ the Lamb of God. For as they waited, all
attent and eager, we may be sure, for the promised revela
tion, the question arose, where and who the Revealer that
was to open it to them ? There was a book in the right
hand of Him that sat upon the throne, in which they knew
it was written. But the book was closed and sealed. And
when an Angel, — a strong Angel, as he is somewhat sin
gularly called,1 — made proclamation if there was any one
worthy to open it, not an individual could there be found
of merit sufficient, among angels or men, in heaven or on
earth. Yet one there was who was indeed worthy, of a
higher nature. As the Evangelist, not merely from per
sonal feeling, but as the representative also of the christian
earthly church and ministry,2 (I must beg the reader to
mark thus early this his representative character on the
scene,) was weeping at the disappointment of his hopes,
one of the elders bade him " weep not." And he there
with pointed to. him a lamb standing in the hemicycle of
the throne, and of the four living creatures, and the elders :
one that bore marks as if it had been slain ; and yet had
seven horns, the symbol as of all power in heaven and on
earth, and seven eyes, as of the spirit of omniscience. It
was evidently the Lamb of God, the fellow of Jehovah,
that had been slain, and now appeared alive again ; yea
1 May not the epithet, otherwise unmeaning, suggest that it was the individual
who in other times talked with Daniel, and bade him seal up the book of his pro
phecy ; him whose name was Gabriel (7N1,"153), or, " My strength is God? "
There are but two other passages in the Apocalypse where the epithet taxvpos is
applied to an angel. In both of these the subject is of a nature to call for the ex
ertion of strength. The first in x. 1, on occasion of a memorable intervention of
the Angel of the covenant to vindicate his own rights, and deliver his church, at
the time when the gates of hell seemed prevailing : the second with reference to the
forcible overthrow of Babylon, Apoc. xviii. 21. — Such is not the case here.
The reader need scarcely to be reminded of the close connection of the prophecies
of Daniel and the Apocalypse ; such indeed that the statement has been made by
Mede, that Daniel is but the Apocalypsis contracta, (that is, in respect of their
common subject, the history of the fourth kingdom,) and the Apocalypse Daniel
explicaius. (Mede's Works, Bk. iv. Ep 32.) Sir I. Newton says more generally,
" He that would understand the old prophets must begin with this."
3 So, generally, the patristic Commentators ad loc. and many moderns.

90 APOC IV, V. [INTROD.
and was alive for evermore, to make intercession, and to
receive gifts for his people — Having made the promise to
his disciples, ere ascending, that he would shew them things
to come,1 He now came to fulfil it. Advancing to the
throne, He claimed and received the book from Him that
sate thereon : and forthwith, taking his seat beside Him,2
prepared to open the Seals, and reveal the secrets of futu
rity. — Then the acclamations of heaven burst forth in
adoration of Him. The song was begun by the living
creatures and the elders : and it was responded to by the
whole angelic choir, and echoed back from all creation.
" When he had taken the book, the four living creatures
and four-and-twenty elders fell down before the Lamb,
having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of
odours, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sung
a new song, saying, ' Thou art worthy to take the book, and
to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast
redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred,
and tongue, and people, and nation ; and hast made us
unto our God kings and priests : and we shall reign on the
earth.'2 — And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many
Angels round about the throne, and the living creatures,
and the elders : and the number of them was ten thousand
times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands ; saying
with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to
receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and
honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature
which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth,
and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard
I saying, ' Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power,
be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb for ever and ever.'4 And the four living creatures
said, Amen ! And the four and twenty elders fell down,
and worshipped5 [Him that liveth for ever and ever]."6
1 John xvi. 13. 2 So I infer from comparing Apoc. vii. 17, iii. 21, xxii. 1.
3 I prefer the readings r/pas and BatrtAewopev, as observed before.
4 This expression concerning the voice of all creation may either befigurative, as
denoting the voice that it appears to have in the ears of the saints : or perhaps
prefigurative like that used by St. Paul; in Rom. viii. 19, 22, about the longing
expectation and groaning of the creation, after a better state to come.
6 Compare Phil. ii. 6 — 10, &c. " He humbled himself unto death, even the death
of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him : that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow ; of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things
under the earth, &c." G Omitted in all the best MSS.

CHAP. IV.] THE APOCALYPTIC SCENERY. 91

CHAPTER IV.

THE MODE AND MANNER, PLAN AND ORDER,
OF THE REVELATION.
And what then was to be the mode and manner of unfold
ing, before the august company thus assembled, this great
revelation of the coming future ? Was it to be simply, as
in the case of some other revelations from God,1 by the
reading out of what was written in the Book ? Not so.
The subject-matter therein contained was, in a manner far
more interesting, to be visibly enacted, even as in a living
drama ; and, for the requisite scenery, and agency alike
heaven and earth put in requisition. Nor, again, was the
beauty of dramatic plan and order to be wanting ; indeed
of plan and order the most perfect. — And I think that,
before entering on the prefigurative visions themselves, it
will be of real advantage to consider these two points pre
paratorily : I mean, first, the scenic imagery made use of in
the development of the prophecy ; secondly, its plan,
order, and chief divisions, as marked in the seven-sealed
book containing it. Let us then address ourselves to this
in the present Chapter.
I. — The Apocalyptic Scenery.
Now of the apocalyptic scenery, as the reader will be
aware, no detailed or connected account is given us. We
have only incidental notices of it. These, however, occur
perpetually ; and, if carefully gathered up and compared
together, will be found wonderfully to harmonize ; so as
indeed to indicate a scenery designedly provided for the
occasion, consistent and complete. And the importance of
an early and familiar acquaintance with it will hence suffi
ciently appear, in that it is that from which the character
and meaning of many important points in the apocalyptic
1 As in that communicated through Jeremiah, Jer. xxxvi. 2, 6, 32.

92 APOC IV, v. [introd.
prefigurations is alone to be deduced ; and that too which
connects and gives unity to them as a whole.
The scene then first visible, and which remained station
ary throughout the visions in the foreground, was as of the
interior of a temple ; including in its secret and inmost sanc
tuary the throne of Jehovah already spoken of, and the
blessed company attendant round it. For this did not
appear in open^pace, or public: but, as seems manifest in
the progress of the prophetic drama, and is indeed in one
place directly intimated, within the inclosure of a temple
sanctuary.1 — It was a temple resembling Solomon's; or, yet
more, the tabernacle framed earlier, " after the pattern
shown him in the mount," 2 by Moses in the wilderness ;
although on a grander scale, at least as regards the inner
sanctuary,3 and with other marked peculiarities. The
which resemblance is also expressly intimated to us. For
it was called upon one occasion " the temple of God;" on
another, in words only referable to the Jewish temple or
tabernacle, " the temple of the tabernacle of witness, in
heaven."4 — Moreover in its parts and divisions it well cor
responded with that of Israel. The temple proper, or
sanctuary, was similarly constituted of the holy place and
that most holy : save that there was no vail, as of old, to
separate them : the one being characterized by the golden
altar of incense, and, I think too, by the seven burning
1 xvi. 17 ; " There came a great voice out of the temple [of heaven],* from the
throne." Thus the position of the Apocalyptic throne, as of that seen by Isaiah,
(Is. vi. 1,) is fixed within the temple : the opening of which is noticed as a new
thing, Apoc. xi. 19.
2 Exod. xxv. 40, xxvi. 30, Heb. viii. 5. 3 Compare Heb.ix. 11.
4 xi. 19, xv. 5. Compare Acts vii. 44 ; " Our fathers had the tabernacle of wit
ness in the wilderness."
The old tabernacle was first called " the tabernacle of testimony," or *' of wit
ness," in Exod. xxxviii. 21, immediately after its completion by Bezaleel. It seems
to have been so called from having " the ark of the covenant " in its most holy
place ; into which ark Moses was directed to put " the testimony," or " two tables
of testimony," viz. those on which the ten commandments were written. See Ex.
xxv. 16, 21, 22, xxxi. 18, xxxiv. 29. Hence the ark of itself is frequently after
wards called in brief " the testimony." So, by anticipation, Exod. xvi. 34 ; and
afterwards Exod. xxvii. 21, &c. The two tables, the ark, and the tabernacle, were
thus all a testimony to Jehovah's covenant with Israel, as their lawgiver and king.
As there were afterwards placed also in the ark, by God's direction, a pot of manna
and Aaron's rod that budded, the ark contained within it a testimony to Christ also,
in his character of High Priest and Bread of Life ("the hidden manna"), as well
as lawgiver to Israel.
* Probably to be omitted. So Griesbach and other textual critics.

CHAP. IV.] THE APOCALYPTIC SCENERY. 93
lamps ; 1 the other by the divine glory, and the ark of the
covenant.2 A court too appeared attached to this sanctuary,
just as to the Jewish, and one similarly marked by an altar
of sacrifice standing in it :3 besides that there was the simi
lar appendage of an outer court also, as if of the Gentiles*
As the visions proceeded, other objects appeared in con
nected landscape, around and beneath the temple. Near
est was seen the Mount Zion and its holy city : 5 not the
literal Jerusalem, which had been levelled to the ground,
and was now literally in bondage with her children ; 6 but
that which, though in some things different, sufficiently re
sembled it to have the likeness at once recognised, and to
receive the appellation : — then, beneath and beyond, far
stretching, (even as it might have appeared from that high
mountain, whence were seen in a moment of time the king
doms of the world and the glory of them,7) the miniature
but living landscape of the Roman Empire. — Both the
Mount Zion and the temple seem to have appeared high
raised above the earth, although not altogether detached
from it ; and the former, as well as latter, in near proximity
to the heavenly glory within the sanctuary. So that while,
1 See my observations on " the seven burning lamps " p. 81 suprSl. As the
" altar of incense" is spoken of Apoc- viii. 3, ix. 13, as " before the throne," the
local station " before the throne," which is assigned in Apoc. iv. 5 to the seven
lamps, does not negative this idea.
2 iv. 5, viii. 3, ix. 13, xi. 19. — The absence of a vail between the holy place and
that most holy appears from this, that what passed in the one, as well as the other,
was alike visible to St. John : whose station, from its commanding the view both
without the sanctuary and within it, we may not improbably suppose to have been
near its entrance door. This difference might perhaps have been expected in a
temple symbolic of the Christian church ; the vail having been rent at Christ's death,
and the way made open into the holiest. Compare Matt, xxvii. 51, with the apostle's
exposition, Heb. ix. 8, x. 19, 20. See also Bishop Lowth's remarks on Isaiah's
vision of Jehovah enthroned in the temple, Is. vi.
3 The first notice of the altar is under the fifth seal, vi. 9 ; " I saw the souls
under the altar," &c. — It is to be observed that wherever in the New Testament the
word altar (Bvataarnptov) occurs alone, the brazen altar of sacrifice seems intended
by it. So Matt, xxiii. 19, 35; Luke xi. 51; 1 Cor. ix. 13; Heb. xiii. 10; Apoc.
vi. 9, viii. 3, 5, xvi. 7. I might add Apoc. xi. 1, xiv. 18 : only here the altar-court,
as well as altar, would seem to be intended. — Where the altar of incense is meant, it
is expressly so designated. So Luke i. 11 ; " The angel of the Lord appeared unto
Zacharias standing on the right of the altar of incense; " and Apoc. viii. 3, ix. 13 ;
•' the golden altar before the throne." 4 The outer court is noticed, xi. 1.
5 Apoc. xiv. 1, xi. 2. 6 Gal. iv. 25.
i Matt. iv. 8. On which supernaturally extended view Milton observes in his
Paradise Regained, iv. 40 ;
By what strange parallax, or optic skill
Of vision multiplied through air, or glass
Of telescope, were curious to enquire.

94 APOC IV, V. [iNTROD.
on the one hand, the temple might be called " the temple
of the tabernacle of witness in heaven," and they that were
true worshippers and citizens in the temple and Mount Zion,
" the tabernaclers in heaven," — yet, on the other, the outer
court of the temple appeared accessible to the inhabitants
of the earth below, and the holy city susceptible of inva
sion from them.1
Such was the standing scenery throughout the Apoca
lyptic visions. Nor was it depicted before St. John as a
mere ornamental appendage ; but was to be made use of,
as I have already intimated, both emblematically and choro-
graphically, — to furnish figures and to designate localities,
— just as the scenery of countries elsewhere prophesied of,
with a view to the elucidation of the prophecy.
It is to be remembered that the subject of the promised
revelation was large and complex, — " the things which
should happen thereafter." It was to be the" same, in effect,
as that which in its retrospective delineation constitutes the
combined secular and ecclesiastical history of Christendom :
— the former, or secular, comprehending the grand political
changes and revolutions of the Roman world, with the agen
cies instrumental in causing them, whether from without or
from within : the latter, or ecclesiastical, the outward for
tunes, adverse or prosperous, of the church ; its purity or
corruptions of doctrine and worship, its general apostacy
in the course of time, the coalescing of the apostatizing
church with the world, and the separation, sufferings, faith,
protection, and ultimate triumph of the saints, that is of
the true people, the spiritual church of God.
Such being the subject, so large, various, and complex,
— and the more complex from the events of its two great
divisions, the secular and the ecclesiastical, often intermin
gling, — the difficulty must be obvious of fitly exhibiting
it ; especially in respect of marking the due connection of
events, and with the proper unity of effect. The difficulty
has been frequently felt and noticed by those who have de
lineated it in history ; and must apply of course in full
measure to its foreshowing in prophecy. Which being the
1 Apoc. xii. 12, xv. 5, xiv. 1,2; and xi. 1, 2.

CHAP. IV.] THE APOCALYPTIC SCENERY. 95
case, it is really most interesting to observe how suited the
provision of the apocalyptic scenery was to lessen, if not to
overcome it.
In the first place, to represent Christ's Church in
respect of its worshipping, (that Church which is "the
house of the living God," x ) there was the symbolic tem
ple : — its inmost or most holy place including, as the fit
locality, that part of the church-constituency, the spirits of
the just, which was then with Christ in heaven2 and of
which I have in the preceding chapter already spoken :
its outer sanctuary, or holy place, (the vestibule and pas
sage to the former, ) figuring, by what might be noticeable
within it, the secret spirituality of the worship, as seen and
accepted by Christ, of his saints on earth ; and the temple-
court, and what past therein, what was publicly observable
in their public and corporate worship.3 — Further to symbo
lize their peculiar polity and citizenship, there appeared the
holy city and Mount Zion; the visible picturing of St.
Paul's ideal metropolitan city of the Christian body,4 with
its base on earth, its mountain-top towards heaven : — a
symbol of the saints, in truth, as significant as it was beau
tiful : forasmuch as they' are members of a city and king
dom different from those of this world ;5 while in the world
1 1 Tim. iii. 15. Compare Eph. ii. 21. — The symbol is often adopted by the
Fathers. So Clemens Alex. Strom, vii ; (given by Suicer on Naos ;) Naoj Se eoriv,
i p.ev peyas, us ii eKKA-naia' k. t. A. Lactantius, M. P. 2, in Apocalyptic figure
calls it in one place " the heavenly temple : " " tyrannus [sc. Nero] prosilivit ad
exscindendum coeleste templum :" and again in c. 15 says of its constituency; " ve-
rum Dei templum quod est in hominibus." 2 Compare Heb. ix. 24, Phil. i. 23.
3 So Bishop Hall in his Contemplation on Zachary in Luke i. 9 ; " The outer Tem
ple was the figure of the whole Church upon earth ; like as the Holy of Holies re
presented heaven." An idea adopted and applied in one of our well-known hymns ;
" The holy to the holiest leads."
4 Heb. xii. 22 ; " Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living
God." &c.
5 It should be remembered that heavenly is a word often used of things on earth,
which have a heavenly origin, association, or ending. So in Heb. viii. 5, St. Paul
speaks of the things in the Jewish temple as a " shadow of heavenly things ; " mean
ing thereby things spiritual in the christian church. And so too Christ's kingdom of
heaven, spoken of in the gospels, embraces the saints on earth. Similarly what is
called " the heavenly Jerusalem," or, " the Jerusalem above," (Heb. xii. 22, Gal. iv.
26,) in either case an ideal city, embraces them also. Thus it was used by St. Paul
as a type of the whole christian church, — militant as well as triumphant ; and seems
in that sense to have been visibly represented to St. John. — In Gal. iv. 26, St. Paul
contrasts Mount Zion, or the Jerusalem above, as the type of the Christian church,
with Mount Sinai, as the type of the Jewish. On which passage Macknight ob
serves : " The catholic church, consisting of believers of all nations, which is formed
on the covenant published from Mount Zion, St. Paul calls the Jerusalem above, be-

96 APOC IV, V. [INTROD.
being not of the world,1 but having their citizenship, their
voXirevfm, in heaven.2 — Besides all which, in order the better
to signify events, views, or changes of importance, affecting
or characterizing at any time the apostolic line of the Chris
tian ministry, there was the further and very remarkable
help of the apostle John's own presence on the scene, in
his representative character ; (for such I doubt not will be
found to have attached to him ;) himself to take part in
the sacred drama, and enact as a living actor the roll as
signed him.3
In contrast with all which, and to represent the world
as distinguished from the saints, there was the terrene
landscape of the Apocalyptic or Roman earth, 4 and its
great city ; the earth being the fit emblem of those who, in
heart, only dwelt on earth.5 In the event, which was soon
to take place, of its inhabitants nationally abandoning Pa
ganism and professing Christianity, the symbol of the Gen
tile or outer court of the Temple was at hand, as joined on
to that of Israel, to represent their profession as proselytes ;
— as excluded therefrom, to mark their complete and recog
nized apostacy.6 — In the firmamental heaven which over
looked the terrene landscape, and its sun, moon, and stars,
cause its most perfect state will be in heaven." And Whitby on Heb. xir: 22 ; " It
is styled the heavenly Jerusalem ; not that heaven is primarily intended by it, and
not the church of Christ on earth : but propter originem etfinem ; as having its rise
from heaven, and as leading to it." ' John xvii. 14.
2 Phil. iii. 20, 'llpjev to woAirevpa ev ovpavu 'virapxei. — Compare Augustine's well-
known similar view of the saints as the Civitas Dei, which, " in terris peregrina, in
coelo fundata est." (Sermon on Luke xi.-9.) Also the beautiful view of them given
in the Epistle to Diognetus, by an author; Justin Martyr's cotemporary: — " Chris
tians are not separated from others by country, by language, or by customs. They
are confined to no particular cities, use no particularity of speech, adopt no singu
larity of life. Dwelling in the cities, as every man's lot is cast, following the customs
of each country in dress, and diet, and manner of life, and, like other men, marrying
and having children, they yet display the wonderful nature of their peculiar polity.
They dwell in their own country but as sojourners : they abide on earth, but they
are citizens of heaven. In a word, they are in the world what the soul is in the
body. The soul is diffused through all the members of the body, and Christians
through the cities of the world. But the soul, though dwelling in the body, is not
of the body ; and Christians dwell in the world, but are not of the world."
3 So especially in Apoc. vii, x, and the beginning of xi ; where the point will be
more fully discussed. 4 See the proof of this identity Note 'p. 113 infra.
6 So Apoc. xiii. 12, " The earth and they that dwell in it," in the sense of " the
earth, or they that dwell on it;" the one including and symbolizing the other. Just as
xii. 12, " The heavens, and they that dwell therein ; " and xi. 1, " the altar, and they
who worship therein." The figure is not infrequent.— The fitness of the earth as a
symbol of the men of this world is noticed by Jerom ad Dardanum, on Apoc. viii. 13.
6 Apoc. xi. 2.

CHAP. IV.] THE APOCALYPTIC SCENERY. 97
there was that which might fitly designate, as in other pro
phecies, the secular powers of the world ; whether in the
lustre of supremacy, or as eclipsed and cast down.1 There
was in the movement of atmospheric storms, the overflow
ing of rivers, and other such changes, visibly passing from
without upon the landscape, the ready symbol of foreign
invasions ; and again in its earthquakes, that of political
commotions and revolutions from within.2 — Further, as
there seems to have been a chorographical truth in the ge
neral landscape, and the four quarters of the Roman earth,
and its inland sea, and frontier rivers, and other localities
to have been designated,3 there was a scenic facility of not
merely symbolizing invasions, or other such events oc-
current, but of visibly marking the particular localities
originating -or affected by them, if in any case deemed
requisite. Besides all which it must be remembered that there was
the opportunity of superadding, from time ,to time, supple
mental hieroglyphic signs or symbols, such as in chap, xii,
for example ; symbols associated for the most part with the
scenic landscape : and, finally, that the connexion of the
histories of the world and of the church, — the intermingling
of events secular and ecclesiastical, — might be easily and at
once made manifest to the eye in the Apocalyptic imagery ;
as its glances were directed from Mount Zion, or the tem
ple, and what passed therein,*to the earth below ; from the
earth to^the temple and Mount Zion.
II. Next as to the plan and order of the Reve
lation. It is evident that plan and order must have been essen
tial to the distinctness of so extended a prophecy. And
while, no doubt, one object of representing the events of
the coming future as written in the Book in the right hand
of the enthroned One, was to mark them as all preordained
in his eternal counsels, yet the chief object of their being
there written, must have been, I think, that of signifying
1 Apoc. vi. 12 — 14, viii. 12, &c.
2 Apoc. viii. 7, 8, 9 ; and vi. 12, xi. 13, 19, &c.
3 Compare AfJoc. vii. J,-ix. 14, viii. 7, 8, &c.
VOL. I. l H

98 APOC IV, v. [introd.
what it is now our purpose to consider, — the plan, order,
and grand divisions of the prophecy.
The form of the Book seems to have been that of a roll.
Such was a common form of books among the Romans ;
and the almost universal one, I believe, at least of sacred
books, among the Jews.1 The divisions externally and at
once apparent on it were twofold. First, the Book ap
peared as one written within and without ; secondly, as one
sealed with seven seals : the seals being all visible on the
outside ; and so constituted, as that they could be only
opened in succession.2 — Further, after the seventh seal
had been opened, intimation was given of other divisions.
There appeared seven angels with seven trumpets ; which
trumpets were successively sounded, and symbolic visions
connected with them, successively exhibited : each, I
conceive, like the visions of the seals before them, with its
counterpart either written or painted, (for the word yeypafj.-
pevov will admit of either meaning,) in the columns of the
seven-sealed Book.3 — Finally, on the seventh trumpet's
sounding, and after a retrospective digression somewhat
long and varied, seven vials were poured out, each having
its description written in the Book also ; the last reaching
to the close of the present dispensation, and the triumph
and glorious reign of Christ and his saints.
1 This presumed form of the Apocalyptic book as a roll, is well illustrated by the
comparison in Apoc. vi. 14 ; where it is said that the heaven passed away from the
Evangelist's view " as a book (BiftAtov) rolled up." — The same form is noticed in Jer.
xxxvi. 2, "Take thee a roll of a book." And we may compare also Ezek. ii. 9, 10,
Zech. v. 2.
2 A construction of this kind would be very simple. It is easily conceivable how
in folding a parchment-scroll, we might at any particular point seal the lower part
of a projecting slip of the parchment, (like those of the Seals that project in my
Apocalyptic Chart,) to the part of the scroll previously folded : in which case, "ere
the unfolding began, one and all of the Seals would appear on the outside ; and in
the unfolding, as each successive Seal was broken, the scroll only unfold to the point
where the next occurred.
3 Compare Jer. xxxvi. 23 ; " When Jehudi had read three or four leaves [of the
roll], he cut it with a penknife." On which Lowth observes that these were columns,
or partitions, into which the breadth of the parchment was divided." Just such
columns, or partitions, I conceive to have been in the seven-sealed Apocalyptic
scroll. As regards both this columnar division of the scroll, and also what 1 have sug
gested from the word yey pappevov, as to the possible union of painting with writing
in it, a beautiful illustration exists in the celebrated manuscript of the Book of
Joshua, in the Vatican Library. This parchment-scroll, which is thirty-two feet
long, is said to be a Greek manuscript of the 7th century ; and represents the history
given in the Book of Joshua in a series of columnar miniature illuminated paint
ings, with short descriptive words or sentences superadded.

CHAP. IV.] THE APOCALYPTIC SCENERY. 99
Thus the question arises, what might be the nature and
relation of these several divisions ? What of the writing
within and without ? What of the seals, trumpets, and vials ?
And as regards that primary mark of division, its being
written within and without, does it not seem natural to sup
pose that, according to the forms of writing then custom
ary, what was without might be 'probably intended as a
part supplemental of that within : — supplemental, not acci
dentally, or, as occasioned by an unexpected and overflow
ing redundancy of matter, so as was often the case in the
rolls of human writing ; but purposely and with premedi
tated design : perhaps so in fact as to answer to, and com
prehend, the very digression after the seventh trumpet just
spoken of? Such, I think, it will prove.1 — Again, as to
the relative chronological position of the Apocalyptic seals,
trumpets, and vials, would not the most natural arrange
ment of them seem to be that which supposes each of the
latter series of sevens to be consecutive on the former :
the seventh seal comprehending within it the seven trum
pets, and the seventh trumpet the seven vials ; the
trumpets carrying on the history chronologically from the
end of the sixth seal, and the vials from the end of the
sixth trumpet ? Such, in fact, appears to myself the self-
commending simplicity of this view of the Apocalyptic
structure, that I think to the mind of the Evangelist it
must almost at once have suggested itself; and almost at
once carried its own evidence of truth along with it.
Besides which divisions there were noted from time to
time important chronological periods, in the development
of the prophecy ; periods most useful, especially in the
case of the great supplemental digression just spoken of, to
fix the order and connexion of certain of its parts : — the
most notable of these periods being that of the time, times,
and half a time, or 1260 days : as one whereby not merely,
it is to be well observed, was the connexion indicated
between different parts of the Apocalyptic drama; but
also between them and certain celebrated prophecies of
Daniel, to which the same chronological and most remark-
1 See on this view of the subject-matter of the Apocalyptic opisthographism the
beginning of my Part i v, Chap, i : also my Chart, which depicts it at once to the eye
H2

100 APOC. IV, V. [INTROD.
able period attached. — Thus, on the whole, was the most
perfect order and plan, as well as the fittest scenery, pro
vided for the due unfolding of the Apocalyptic drama.
As to the dignity and grandeur of this drama, who can
express it ? Its subject nothing less than the prolonged
conflict, even to its termination, between the antagonistic
powers of Christ's true* Church and the world : its moral
that, whereas at the beginning the crown and glory and
dominion appeared attached to the potentates of this world,
and the Church oppressed and low,— at the ending do
minion and crown and glory were all seen to pass away
from the men of this world, and to be transferred to the
saints and Church of Christ ! — And then, such a theatric
scene ! such music ! such an audience ! How, in the
comparison, did the boasted splendor of the grandest of the
imperial theatric displays, lately exhibited in the proud
capital of the world, fade into meanness ! 1
And more especially was its pre-eminent grandeur mani
fest in this additional circumstance characterizing it, that
the Evangelist was admitted, as it were, behind the scenes,
in the figuration of the great mundane drama ; and in what
passed in the secret recess of the Holy of Holies, permitted
to behold Him and his acting, who was the Almighty
Overruler of all. I have already just hinted at this matter:
and I must now beg for a little while to detain the reader ;
that he may consider with me beforehand, somewhat in de
tail, the grand lessons that thus, as the drama proceeded,
were set before St. John.
And, first, there was thus manifested to him the real
origin of events in the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Hence, he saw, the lightnings, thunderings, and voices, that
had their echoes in the changes of this world : hence the
1 I refer especially to the famous Ludi Seculares, exhibited by Domitian at Rome
in the year 88, seven years before the visions in Patmos.
With direct reference to the same Ludi Seculares, as exhibited by the Emperor Se
verus A. D. 204, or somewhat above a century afterwards, Tertuliian wrote his
Treatise De Spectaculis ; (see Pameliiis' Preface to it :) and in it he contrasts, with
those imperial theatric shows the grandeur, not indeed of the Apocalyptic prefigura
tion of the great Christian drama, so as I here do, but of its actual realization.
" Quale autem spectaculum in proximo est ; adventus Domini jam indubitati, jam
superbi, jam triumphantis ? Quae ilia exultatio angelorum ! Quae gloria resur-
gentium sanctorum ! Quale regnum exinde justorum ! Qualis civitas Nova Jeru
salem I &c." De Spectac. L-. 30.

CHAP. IV.] MAJESTY OF THE REVELATION. 101
commissioning of angels, with their invisible and mysterious
agencies ! — Man is apt in these things to look only to
second causes. The inner-temple vision, in the exact spirit
of Bible history, directed the apostle's eye to the great first
cause of them all, in the glorious high throne of the hea
venly sanctuary.1
Secondly, there was thus strikingly marked out to St.
John, the very reasons and motives which dictated these
counsels of Him that sate upon the throne, thus ordering
all things. It is in true and sublime description that our
great philosopher depicts the divine mind as the sensorium
of the universe.2 And, as the Evangelist marked what was
said and what was done in the inner Temple, he might see
that there was nothing of all that passed on earth unob
served by the divine mind, nothing unfelt by it. Thither,
he perceived, came up the memorial of the sins of its inha
bitants, while immature as yet, and when fully ripe ; 3 each
with its own call for judgment : thither, in striking con
trast, what concerned his own people, his saints of the
church militant. Not a sigh could escape from, nor a
suffering vex them, but its pulse was evidently felt there.
Thither tended, as to their proper centre, the cries of the
souls slain beneath the altar ; thither, as sweet incense, the
prayers and adorations of the saints.4 And then mark the
result ! It was on the cries of the martyrs rising up that
the political heaven, the supremacy of their oppressors was
seen to pass away. It was in requital of its oppression of
the saints, that great Babylon was made to drink of the
wine-cup of the wrath of God.5 And amidst all the com
motions and changes, the woes and judgments on the earth,
he heard declarations made by the Spirit, from time to
time, and saw heaven-sent visions given, to assure his people
of the provision made for their safety, and that all things
should work together for their good.6
A third point notable in what passed within the Temple,
— and indeed in what passed without also, — was the em
ployment of angelic agency in producing the varied eventful
1 Apoc. iv. 5 ; xiv. 15 ; xvi. 1 ; &c. 2 Sir I. Newton, Principia, ad fin.
3 Apoc. viii. 5, xiv. 18. 4 vi. 10, 11 ; viii. 3,4. & vi. 11, 12; xviii. 6.
6 Apoc. vii. 3 ; ix. 4, &c.

102 APOC IV, V. [iNTROD.
changes in this world. Most truly, as well as beautifully,
has it been said by Milton, " Millions of spiritual creatures
walk the earth, unseen, both when we sleep and when we
wake." He has said it truly, because it is precisely ac
cording to the uniform representations of Holy Scripture.
When the firstborn in Egypt, or the army of the Assyrians
was to be slain, it was by the agency of a destroying angel.
When Elisha or Peter was to be delivered, it was still, as
represented in Scripture, by angelic instrumentality. Un
der the present dispensation, we are told, they are employed
as ministering spirits to the good, destroying spirits to the
evil. Similar was the view presented to St. John in this
prophecy. Numbers of them, indeed, without number
were seen engaged in the heavenly temple in contempla
tion and praise. But to others he saw given commissions
in the sphere of active employment : and in fulfilment of
them, they appeared afterwards directing the tempests,
sounding the trumpets, pouring out the vials, scattering
the fire, gathering the vintage.1 The language indeed is
figurative : but the truth I speak of can scarce be mistaken
as exhibited under it.
Yet once more it was evident from what passed within,
how in time, as well as in measure and manner, every
event was ordered, — even to the minutest accuracy. It
needed not that there should be any dial-plate in the sanc
tuary. That infinite mind was seen to be to itself its own
measure of succession. There was marked the passage and
the progress of time, alike in its minutest moments and
largest cycles ; the hour, and the day, and the month, and
the year : the time, times, and half a time ; one day as
a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day : — the
exact and fittest moment of loosing or restraining, of de
liverance or judgment ; — the hour known to no man, no,
not to the angels in heaven, of the harvest and the vintage,
of the mystery of God ending, the consummation of all
things, the day of judgment.2
I must not forget to observe, in conclusion, that where-
1 Apoc. vii. 1,3; viii. 6, 7, &c ; xiv- 18 ; xvi. 1, &c.
2 ix. 15; xii. 14; xiii. 5 ; xiv. 15, 18 ; x. 6, 7, &c.

CHAP. IV.J MAJESTY OF THE REVELATION. 103
soever explanation might be needed, each class of the
blessed ones present in the temple-scene appeared prompt
to confer with the Evangelist. The living creatures, as the
first four seals were opened, invited him in turn to come
and see.1 From the elders there came one to point out the
palm-bearing multitude to him, and tell their origin and
their history. An angel was the party to show him the
closing scene of Babylon, and the glories of the New Jeru
salem. Lastly, voices of an unseen one from heaven, as of
the Spirit of Jehovah, spake from time to time to him of
what he was writing ; as if superintending it, in order that
there might be in it no error, no deception. And Jesus
himself, the beloved one of his soul, as He had begun the
revelation, so in his own person and with his own promise
ended it : " Surely I come quickly." 2 — It was a beautiful
exemplication of that union and communion of saints below
with beings of a higher order above, of which St. Paul
had written to the Hebrew Christians : " Ye are come to
(or are in association with) the general assembly and church
of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven, and
the spirits of just men made perfect, and an innumerable
company of angels, and Jesus the Mediator of the new
covenant, and God the judge of all." Indeed the whole
passage is most illustrative of the subject we have been
discussing. For, if we include its previous and commenc
ing clause, " Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the
city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem," it brings
before us the very scene, in part, as well as celestial com
pany present in the apocalyptic visions. Insomuch that I
cannot believe the resemblance fortuitous. The ideal ima
gery seems to me to have been purposely dictated by God's
Spirit to one apostle, as the intended prototype of what
was here, some thirty years after, to be visibly represented
to another in the visions of Patmos. For, " no Scripture

1 i. e. supposing the received text correct, epxov Kai PAeire. If the Kai BAeire be
eliminated, after the more critical editions, and the epxov otherwise applied, still the
sympathy of the four living creatures is implied in that of the 24 elders, as part of
the same body of the redeemed. See pp. 80, 87 supra.
2 vi. 1, 3, &c, ; vii. 13; xvii. 1 ; xxi. 9; x. 4 ; xiv. 13; xxii. 16, 20, compared
with i. 17, 18.

104 APOC IV, V. [iNTROD.
is of private interpretation ; but holy men spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost." 1

CHAPTER V.
ON THE ENSUING HISTORICAL EXPOSITION OF THE
REVELATION.
And now, as the conclusion of this introductory Part, it
may perhaps be useful to set before the reader a brief
general statement of the principles, plan, and (as I hope)
evidence of truth, that he will find to characterize the fol
lowing Exposition of the apocalyptic prophecy.
Its subject-matter I assume to be the continuous for
tunes of the church and of the world, (that is of the Roman
world and Christian church settled therein,) from the time
of the revelation being given, or time of St. John's banish
ment, to the end of all things. This its commencing date
I consider, as already observed, to have been fixed by
Christ's own words, " I will shew thee the things that must
happen after these things." (« Set ytveaBou pera ravTa..)
If the words " these things," mean the state at that time
of the apocalyptic churches, as described in the seven
epistles, — a point which, I suppose, few will doubt, —
then must Christ's declaration, as it seems to me, distinctly
and necessarily imply that the foreshowing of the future
should begin from the time of John's banishment, or soon
after. This is indeed admitted by the most competent
judges.2 And the importance of the canon of historical
exposition of the Apocalypse thus fixed cannot be over
estimated. It sets aside of itself, — what there is indeed,
as I think, superabundant other evidence also to set aside,
— interpretations based on the principle of the Apocalypse
being a prophecy figurative only of the times yet future of
1 2 Peter i. 20 : ibtas eirtAvireus meaning, I suppose, a prophecy's separated, de
tached interpretation. See Bishop Horsley's Sermon xv, on the text.
2 Seethe extract from Michaelis given Note 4, p. 8 supra. — Nearly similar is the
judgment of Augustine; CD. xx. 8. 1.;  " totum tempus quod liber iste
[Apocalypsis] complectitur, a primo scilicet adventu Christi usque in scculi finem."'

CHAP. V.] CHARACTER OF THE EXPOSITION. 105
the second Advent. I believe the words a p-AAe* ytveaSai
jt*€T« ravra must have positive violence done them, in order
to extract therefrom any other meaning than that which I
have given.
In the divine foreshowing of its great subject I have felt
persuaded, and have carried out my exposition on the per
suasion, that the two following rules must have been ob
served: — first, that the epochs and events -selected for pre
figuration must have been such as are confessedly the most
important and eventful ; (by confessedly meaning, in the
judgment of what are considered standard authorities ;) —
secondly, that the figuring emblems must have been, in some
approved consistent sense, characteristic and distinctive.
Such would be the case were a master-mind among men to
develop the great general subject in a series of descriptive
sketches or pictures. How then can we suppose it other
wise in the prefigurations of the Omniscient Spirit ?
The direct evidence of truth hence arising, in case of
agreement between the symbol and the historical object it
is applied to, will at once be felt by the intelligent reader :
specially from the circumstance of the symbols being not
expounded after the Interpreter's own fancy, that bane too
often of prophetic exposition ; but in a sense, as I said,
approved : that is, according to their recognized meaning,
more especially at the time and in the country supposed
to be referred to : or perhaps as otherwise fixed ; e. g.
by some local or geographical peculiarity, strongly marked
in the prefiguration. — Of course the evidence- will be felt
strong in proportion to the number of details combined in
the symbol, their distinctiveness of character, and the ex
actness of their application to the sera and the subject. It
might be expected a priori, and will be found in fact, that
in the long series of prophetic figurations there will be
some more circumstantial, distinctive, and striking than
others ; and some indeed quite brief, and comparatively
general in character. But the former will be found, I be
lieve, much more frequent than the latter ; and certainly
abundantly sufficient in frequency and strength to serve
as effectual buttresses to the sacred building, and to keep
up its continuity unbroken. — Nor will the seeker for truth

106 APOC IV, V. [iNTROD.
fail to consider the argument cumulative in this case : and
how, if in a long continuous series of prefigurations one,
and another, and another, each in its precise order of time,
be shown to have had its fulfilment, the strength of the
evidence of truth must needs rapidly increase each step ;
indeed with almost the rapidity of geometrical progression.
Besides which direct evidence the Reader will find
offered from time to time in the ensuing Exposition a spe
cies of indirect evidence, hitherto unnoticed I believe, of
the nature of what I may call allusive contrast. Examples
will best illustrate it. But I may thus briefly explain its
nature. Supposing the great subject of the Apocalyptic
Revelation to be the histories, in connexion or in contrast,
of Christ's faithful church and of the world, (of the latter,
either in its primary state of avowed Paganism, or its sub
sequent state of corruption and apostacy under the Chris
tian name,) then, — just as in God's actual interventions at
one and another crisis, for the revival of his Church, and
vindication of his own rights and honour, the revelations
of gospel-light and truth made by Him would be neces
sarily in marked contrast and opposition to the then pre
valent errors and corruptions, — so in the Eternal Spirit's
foreshowings of the same, a similarly marked contrast must
be expected to appear, on putting the Apocalyptic picturing
of the heavenly revelation side by side with the historic
picturing of the chronologically correspondent corruption
and heresy. The same too, partially, in the Spirit's pre
figurative sketchings, from time to time, of its faithful ones ;
faithful among the faithless. Some three or four examples
of this will be substantiated, if I mistake not, in the ensuing
Commentary, specially in Apoc. vii, x, viii ; the view of St.
John in his representative character, hitherto quite barren
of results, furnishing under this head, as well as under the
former, most important accessions of evidence. — Nor let me
pass on without just hinting the theological importance of
each such substantiated allusive prefiguration: inasmuch as it
must present not merely evidence of the fulfilment of pro
phecy in matters of historic fact, but evidence of the divine
judgment in matters of religious doctrine.
With regard to the plan, order, and chief divisions of

CHAP. V.] CHARACTER OF THE EXPOSITION. 107
the Exposition ensuing, they have been already almost
intimated in the preceding chapter. For that which an
expositor may have declared to be in his opinion the most
natural plan, order, and chief divisions of the Prophecy,
those self-same, except for very cogent reasons, he ought of
course to follow out in his own Exposition. Accordingly
the three septenaries of Seals, Trumpets, and Vials will be
interpreted by me as connected and consecutive series ; —
the seventh Seal unfolding itself in the seven Trumpet-
Visions, the seventh Trumpet in those of the seven Vials :
and this with no intermission or interruption ; save only
that of the supplemental retrogressive Part, (marked as
such by clear internal evidence,) which I have supposed to
have occupied the outside of the Apocalyptic Scroll. —
Hitherto this scheme of arrangement has not, I believe, been
consistently developed. There are some expositors who,
though admitting the consecutiveness of the three septen
aries, have yet encumbered its development by the surely
strange supposition of the seven-sealed Book containing but
a part of the Revelation, and its other and larger part being
inscribed in the little Book held . by the rainbow-crowned
Angel of Apoc. x.1 Others again have explained the
witnesses' death and resurrection, noted apocalyptically
under the sixth Trumpet, as having reference to events
long subsequent to those which are the main subject of
that Trumpet, and indeed to the sounding of the seventh
Trumpet after it.2 Hence an involved structure at the
best ; and a proportionate want of the self-evidence of the
simplicity of truth.
And, turning from the prophecy to the history, there
seem to me on the whole to be six chief parts, or acts,
clearly defined in the sacred prefigurative drama before us ;
a division well agreeing with that more obvious one already
noted, of the succession of Seals, Trumpets, and Vials :
their historic subject-matter being, respectively as follows :
I. That of the temporary glory, and then the decline and
1 E. g. Mede. See the notice of his Scheme in my Vol. iv, Appendix.
2 E. g. Keith. So at least in the Signs of the Times ii. 32 ; 3rd Ed. In his 8th
Edition he regards the 7th Trumpet as yet future.

108 APOC IV, v. [introd.
fall of Rome Pagan, before the power of Christianity : —
the subject of the six first Seals.
II. The ravage and destruction of Rome Christian, after
its apostacy, in its divisions both of east and west ; of the
western empire by the Goths, of the eastern by the Sara
cens and Turks:— the subject of the six first Trumpets.
III. The history of the Reformation, as introduced about
the middle of the sixth Trumpet.
IV. The supplemental and explanatory history of the
rise and character of the Papacy and Papal Empire, that
sprung out of the Gothic inundations of Western Europe :
— a part corresponding, as I conceive, with the writing
without on the prophetic roll ; and which was exhibited pre
paratorily to the figuration of the Popedom's final overthrow.
V. The final overthrow of the Papacy and Papal empire,
under the outpouring of the Vials of God's wrath ; and
then the coming of Christ to judgment — Consequent on
which follows,
Vlthly, The glorious consummation ; including the de
scent of the heavenly Jerusalem, and the reign of Christ and
his saints on the renovated earth.
Of which Parts the first four seem to me to have been
accomplished already ; and of the fifth the prefigured events
to be now far advanced in progress of fulfilment.
In the following Treatise it is my purpose, first, to trace
the historical fulfilment of the four former Parts, together
with that of the six earlier Vials of the fifth Part, more at
length : then, in regard of the remainder, as yet unfulfilled,
to enquire briefly and cautiously into the grander and more
prominent points that may seem prefigured in it, as des
tined to take place in the coming future. — The circum
stance of the fifth prophetic Division having been only in
main part fulfilled, as I view it, in part still future, will
cause this measure of divergence in my actual arrangement
from the Division just sketched, that I shall include what
seems to me unfulfilled of the fift h Part under the sixth and
last of the prophecy.
But what a field for historic research lies here before us !
A field extending over seventeen centuries, and over coun-

CHAP. V.J CHARACTER OF THE EXPOSITION. 109
tries many more than those of European Christendom ! —
With reference to which point, and ere I enter on the ex
position, let me call upon the reader to admire with me the
divine wisdom, in so ordering things that, amidst the partial
wreck that there has been of the literary records of some
of the centuries here prefigured, and the original paucity
of those of others, (especially of the earlier part of the
dark middle ages,) there should yet remain to us docu
mentary evidence sufficient whereby to illustrate almost all
of the events foreshown, and to evince the truth and accu
racy of the prefigurations. — And, again, let me suggest it
as a thing admirable, that He should so have overruled the
intellectual tendencies of a mind like Gibbon's, in these
latter days, as to direct it to the development of the same
period, and nearly the same subject, as the larger half of
the Apocalyptic prophecy. It is scarcely needful, I pre
sume, to detail his peculiar qualifications as an illustrator
and a witness : — endowed as he was with powers of research
and memory very rare, and an absolute enthusiasm in his
subject, such as precisely the best to fit him for searching
out historic truth, even where obscurest ; — endowed, too,
with a comprehensiveness of view and philosophic sagacity,
which led him, instinctively almost, to mark the relations
of things, trace results to their causes, and, amidst the mul
tiplicity of details, to appreciate the real importance and
grand bearing of events and epochs ; — besides the being
possest of a turn of mind and imagination eminently
dramatic and picturesque ; such as to suggest a development
of his general subject with no little of dramatic unity
of effect, and a grouping and painting of the details in gra
phic descriptions, that approach, as near almost as descrip
tive language can do, to the mode of exhibiting them here
chosen, of actual pictures. — Thus was the infidel Gibbon
prepared to become unconsciously the best illustrator of no
small part of the prophecy : that self-same heavenly pro
phecy that he has himself made the subject of a sneer.1
The absolute need of such a pioneer to Apocalyptic inter
pretation has been well set forth by Michaelis, in his sketch
1 " A mysterious prophecy which still forms part of the sacred canon ; but which
.... has very narrowly escaped the proscription of the Church." Gibbon, ii. 304.

110 APOC IV, V. [iNTROD.
of the pre-requisites for a proper Apocalyptic expositor.1
Nor is there any one that can so fully as the Expositor
himself appreciate the immense advantage derivable from
his pioneering — It is however an advantage in which the
Reader may also participate. Gibbon's work on the Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire offers him a book of refer
ence easily accessible, and in secular history almost always
to be depended on ; 2 whereby himself to test the correct
ness of the historic views and statements propounded to
him. It will be my object to facilitate such reference. The
use will soon appear.
1 Ch. xxxiii. § 6, p. 505, &c. Afjter noting as the first qualification a competent
knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew, as the second a taste for poetry and painting,
he adds, as the third and most important, a complete knowledge of history, more
especially of the history of Asia. And then he notes the palpable defects on that
point of nearly all former expositors.
2 See Guizot's testimony to Gibbon on this point, in his Preface to the French
Translation of Gibbon. It is quoted in the Quarterly Review, No. 50, p. 289. Mr.
Milman has borne a similar testimony.

PAKT I.
SIX FIRST SEALS.
THE TEMPORARY PROSPERITY, AND THEN THE DECLINE
AND FALL, OF THE EMPIRE OF PAGAN ROME.

A.D. 96 TO 395.

APOC. CHAPTER VI.
" And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals ;
and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as it
were with a voice of thunder, Come ! And I looked, and
behold a white horse ! And he that sat on it had a bow :
and a crown was given unto him : and he went forth con
quering, and to conquer. — And when he opened the second
sealj I heard the second living creature saying, Come !
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. — And when he opened
the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying,
Come ! And I looked, and behold a black horse ! And, he
that sat on it had a pair of balances in his hand. And I
heard as it were a voice in the midst of the four living
creatures saying, A chcenix of wheat for a denarius, and
three choenixes of barley for a denarius ; and see thou hurt
not [or, wrong not in regard to] x the oil and the wine. —
And when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of
1 Kai to eAatov Kat tov otvov pi\ ao~iKi\o~ns. I shall have . to remark under my third
Seal on the alternative translation here given.

112 APOC VI. [parti.
the fourth living creature saying, Come ! And I looked,
and behold a pale horse ! And his name that sat on him
was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power
was given unto him over the fourth part [or, over the four
parts] x of the earth to kill with the sword, and with fa
mine, and with pestilence, and by the wild beasts of the
earth. — And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under
the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of
God, and for the testimony which they held. And they
cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Master holy
and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on
them that dwell on the earth ? And a white robe was
given unto each one of them : and it was said unto them,
that they should rest yet for a little season ; until their fellow-
servants also, and their brethren that should be killed as
they were, should be fulfilled. — And I beheld when he
opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake.
And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair : and the
full moon became as blood : and the stars of heaven fell
unto the earth ; even as a fig-tree casteth its untimely figs,
when it is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven de
parted as a scroll when it is rolled together: and every
mountain and island were moved out of their places. And
the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the chief
captains, and the rich men, and the mighty men, and
every bondman and freeman, hid themselves in the caves
and in the rocks of the mountains ; and said to the moun
tains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of
Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of
the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come ; and
who is able to stand ? " 2
The passage above quoted constitutes the first Act in
1 So Jerome's Vulgate, " super quatuor partes terrae." I shall have to remark
on this various reading under my fourth Seal.
2 1 have in the above followed Tregelles' text ; of the deviations of which from
the received text the most observable is the omission of the Kat BAeire, after epxov,
on the opening of each of the four first Seals, in which omission Scholz has pre
ceded him. I shall remark more fully on it under my first Seal. — I hove "also
generally fohowed Mr. Tregelles inliis translation ; and, like him, have deviated from
the received version in translating gua living creatures, ins'tead of beasts ; and a$i)S
Hades, instead of hell. I deviate from both in translating x°'"'l chcenix, instead of
measure; biqvapiov denarius, instead of penny ; Bavaru pestilence, instead of death ;
Bi)fiuv wild beasts, instead of beasts : also Aipip famine, and i\n treAitvri full moon.

INTR0D.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE FIRST FOUR SEALS. 113
the heavenly drama ; — that represented under the six first
Seals. Its general subject I have presumed to be the decline
and fall, after a previous prosperous (era, of the empire of
Pagan Rome. And it may be well to observe by anticipa
tion, that, though it was only in a later part of the pro
phecy that the Apocalyptic earth, which the Seals soon
began to speak of, was expressly identified with the Roman
earth,1 yet there was that in the emblems of the very first
Seal, if I mistake-not, which, instead of leaving its reference
doubtful or indistinct, must almost at once have suggested
the Roman empire and emperors, as its intended subject
of figuration: — i. e. to an observer unprepossessed by
other expectations as to the intent of the prophecy ; and
conversant, like the Evangelist, with the manners and cus
toms of the age. The evidence of this I trust "soon to
bring not only before the mind, but even the eye of the
reader  Before doing so, however, it may be useful to
make a few preliminary remarks, bearing on the right in
terpretation alike of the symbols of this first Seal, and of
those of the three next following ; which four comprehend
that quaternion of horses and horsemen, with the succes
sion of which the revelations of the future given to St.
John opened. The principles suggested will be found very
simple; and such, I trust, as will readily approve themselves
to the common sense of the intelligent and candid reader.
And 1st, the chronological reference of each vision, as
fixed by the prophecy itself, is evidently a point most ne
cessary to attend to : — that of the first Seal being deter
mined by its position, next after the Angel's a Set yeveadai
fu.Ta -ravra, to signify what was to happen soon after the
epoch of St. John's seeing the visions in Patmos ; that of
the second, third, and fourth, in like manner, being fixed
to events, or changes, that were to have commencing
dates each in chronological sequence to the commencing
1 In Apoc. xvii. 18 we read that the woman, or Roman seven -hilled city, was
the great city which ruled over ruv BaatAeuv ri\s yns, "the kings of the earth."
And so inverses 2, 5, 8 of the same chapter. The 8th verse speaks of " the inha
bitants -of the earth" as in connexion with, and subjection to, the Beast who was
associated with the woman. So too in Apoc. xiii. 8, xi. 10, &c. ; whereby the 717',
or. earth, of Apoc. xvii may be traced back to, and probably identified with, the yi\
or earth, of the Trumpets and Seals preceding.
VOL. I. I

114 APOC VI. [part I.
dates of the events, or changes, signified in the vision of
the Seal next immediately preceding.1 — Hence the inad
missibility not merely of such directly anti-chronological
explanations as that of the martyrologist Foxe and Mr. Fa-
ber,2 which interprets the four horses and horsemen of the
four successive military empires of Babylon, Persia, Mace-
don, and Rome, the three first of which had already some
centuries before St. John passed away : — but also of such
as Dr. Keith's, which would interpret them to symbolize
the four successive religions of primitive Christianity, Ma-
hommedanism, Popery, and Infidelity; though elsewhere
insisting on the establishment of the reign of Popery and
the Popes, as dating near a century before the rise of Ma-
hommedanism.3 — Hence too the probable exclusion of that
very old and recently revived explanation,4 which makes
the first Seal to symbolize Christianity and its gospel-
preaching in triumphant progress, the three next the seve
ral evil agencies of war, famine, and pestilence, introducto-
rily to Christ's second advent : these being not supposed to
follow each other in any distinctly marked order of chro
nological sequence, on a grand scale ; but rather to occur
in a series of recurring exemplifications, on a small scale,
all chronologically intermixt together; after the type of
those predicted by Christ, as what would occur before the
destruction of Jerusalem.5
2. The presumption against this last-mentioned view
1 Of course there may be a certain overrunning by the subject of one vision into
the period of that of the vision succeeding ; supposing these subjects of the two
visions to be not incompatible, but rather altogether consistent one with the other.
2 See Faber's Sacr. Cal. ii. 205 ; (2nd Ed.) and, forFoxe's view, my notice of him
in the History of Apocalyptic Interpretation in the Appendix to Vol. iv.
3 I have noticed this in my Vindiciae Horariae, pp. 9, 20.
4 E. g. Victorinus of old ; and in our own times Mr. Burgh, and I believe the Fu
turists generally.
6 Our Lord's prophecy Matt. xxiv. 7, 14, is referred to for authority, both by
ancients and moderns : " For nation shall rise against nation,. . . . and there shall be
famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places." Where, mark the
plural of these nouns, and the " divers places " ascribed to them, Aipot xai Xoi/uoi
Km oeiapoi Kara tottovs' also the correspondent account in history of their various
occurrences before the destruction of Jerusalem ; (see p. 53 supra :) in contrast with
the Apocalyptic distinctness of chronological order and succession.
Mr. Burgh, p. 159, (4th Ed.) to make the parallel more striking, adds the further
statement in Matt. xxiv. 9, " Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted," &c.
as answering in order, as well as subject, to the vision of the 5th Seal. But in Luke
xxi. 12 it is said, (after notice of the famines, Sec,) " But before all these things
they shall lay their hands on you," &c.

INTR0D.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE FIRST FOUR SEALS. 115
seems to me strengthened by the fact that abstract ideas,
such as of war, famine, and pestilence, are I believe never
depicted elsewhere in Scripture under the form of symbolic
impersonations, after the manner of these introductory
Seals. Death stands alone in this respect ; and from the
very singularity of the circumstance needed to be specific
ally named, where his personification occurs in the 4th Seal:
while war and famine (the supposed subjects of the two
preceding symbolic impersonations) are specified in that
same Seal in simple literal language, as two out of the four
agencies by which Death was to kill.1 — It will be seen
hereafter that the price of barley named in the 3rd Seal,
suffices of itself to put the idea of famine having been there
intended altogether out of the question.
3. Abstractions being thus presumptively set aside, we
seem very much reduced to the idea of some nation and
empire, or else the Church, being the main subject of the
four symbolizations. And I think it will be admitted on
this head that, whichever of these two be chosen, the ho-
megeneity of the symbols of a horse and horseman, common
to the four first Seals, would seem to require a homogeneous
interpretation of them. Hence, the exclusion of views
like Mede's ; who would explain the first Seal's horse and
rider with reference to Christ or his Church, the three next
Seal's horses and riders with reference to the Roman empire
or emperors.3 — The rule is of course applicable in detail.
What the horse singly is meant to symbolize in the first
Seal, whether the Church or an empire, that it might rea
sonably be expected to symbolize in the three next Seals,
though under new and different aspects. And in the three
first Seals the rider too ought to be interpreted on the same
common principle. I say in the three first Seals ; the case
of the fourth Seal's rider being, as before remarked, peculiar.
4. As to the grand question just mooted, whether it be
the Church, or some nation and empire, that is designated
1 " And his name that sat thereon was Death :. . . . and power was given unto him
to kill with sword, and with famine, and with pestilence,' ' &c. Apoc. vi. 8.
2 So Vitringa, p. 310. "Si fata Romani Imperii symbolicis imaginibus priorum
quatuor sigillorum depingerentur, necesse erat ut Romanum Imperium, continua tem-
poris serie, sub quatuor his prodiisset aspectibus qui his imaginibus exhibentur.".
This he says in refutation of Mede's exposition. I 2

116 APOC. VI. [parti.
under the figure of the horse in these four Seals, the pre
sumption in favor of the former idea which many have
entertained, in consequence of its being Christ that appears
crowned as the rider on a white horse in a later vision,
like as the first Seal's rider too sate crowned on a white
horse, that presumption will utterly vanish, I believe, before
a more careful comparison of the two symbolizations. For
the only real point of resemblance will be found to -be
the mere indistinctive one of riding a white horse : while
the differences will appear so many and so marked, as to
place the two symbolizations (so as I have suggested before
when speaking of the moral of the drama x) in the light of
a marked contrast, not an identity of subject.2 — The im
practicability, according to Vitringa, (the most eminent pro
bably of the Church-system advocates,) of carrying out an
explanation of the horse and horseman on this system into
the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Seals, otherwise than as of one com
pound emblem,3 increases the already strong presumption
against that view : besides that the fitness of a horse to
1 At p. 100 supra.
2 I have urged this point fully at pp. 10, 11 of the Vindiciae Horariae. I there
observe as follows.
" In the one case it is simply a rider on a white horse, without a single declared
attribute, name, or emblem of divinity ; bearing in his hand a bow, receiving a crown,
(aretpavov) , and with the simple destiny of conquering on the earth, so as any mere
human conqueror might do, and that he should conquer. In the other case it is
One with eyes like a flame of fire, and on his head many diadems (oiaSriuaTa) , and
with his vesture dyed in blood, and the incomprehensible name, the Word of God,
written on him, and in his hand a sword, (not a bow,) and his point of egress not
earth, (whereon the Church-theory would require him to have been progressing
victoriously ever since his first outgoing,) but heaven." — I then further state that
the one and only point of similarity in the two cases, viz. that of riding a white
horse, is any thing but a distinctive : seeing that neither in Psalm xiv, nor Habak-
kuk iii, (passages cited as parallels,) is the color of the Messiah's horse specified ; and
that in the vision of Zech. i. 8, where we read of horses (with riders on them) red,
speckled, white, it is on a red horse, not ivhite, that the Messiah is there repre
sented as riding. — I also shew that the mere difference of time, to which the visions
of Apoc. vi and Apoc. xix respectively refer, does not account for the vast multi
tude of differences in the representation, were the rider in the first case, as in the
second, really Jesus Christ : seeing that much of the same divine glory that appeared
attached to him in the vision of Apoc. xix, appeared attached to him also in the
primary vision of Apoc. i ; and that the many diadems could only signify the same
universal kingdom which the crown did, were the Church-scheme of the Seals cor
rect ; Christ's investiture to this universal kingdom having taken place immediately
on his ascension.
In fine, I conclude that the differences are purposely made thus many and great,
in order to set aside all idea of identity between the two riders, in the one case and
the other.
3 " Videbam interpretes qui per equum album hlc intelligunt ecclesiam Christi, . .
vehementer laborare in seoucnte emblemate recte exponendo." p. 328.

INTR0D.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE FIRST FOUR SEALS. 117
designate the Church, even supposing Vitringa's difiiculty
to be overcome, seems very questionable.1 Nor, I am
persuaded, will human learning or ingenuity ever b'e found
able to carry out satisfactorily a detailed historical expla
nation of the four Seals, on this view of the horse as signi
fying the Church.2
Hence, in fine, the a priori probability of the Apocalyptic
horse meaning a nation or empire : and, if so, then of course
that nation with which, more than any other, Christ's
Church both was, and was to be, locally connected, and
which was the subject consequently long before of Daniel's
prophecy ; viz. the Roman nation. The circumstance of
other heathen nations, or empires, having been elsewhere
similarly symbolized in Scripture prophecy, not merely as
wild beasts, (their emblems in the persecuting character,)
but under figure also, with reference to their mere national
history, of certain of the domesticated animals, (e. g. the
Persian nation as a ram, and Macedonian as a goat,3) is one
confirmatory of this view. And the fitness of the war-horse,
sacred to Mars, to signify the martial Roman nation, espe
cially as claiming to be the Mavortia proles, with Mars for
their father, — seems almost self-evident. Of which their
fabled parentage the memorial, we read, was ever publicly
kept up : at spring and at autumn, each year as it rolled
round, from Romulus' time, it is said, down to the time of the
emperors, the Romans being wont to see the horse exhib
ited in sacrifices and in games, as the animal sacred to their
father Mars.4 — Nor, if the appropriateness of the Scriptural
emblems of the ram and the goat to Persia and Macedon
has been evidenced to us by those nations' actual adop-
1 The horse and his rider is an expression continually used in Scripture in desig
nation of a heathen military power. So Exod. xv. 21, Jer. Ii. 21, Ezek. xxiii. 6,
Hagg. ii. 22, Zech. ix. 10, &c. There is but one passage in the Old Testament,
where the symbol of a horse is used of any but a military heathen power, viz. Zech.
x. 3 ; where God says, " I will make Judah my goodly horse in battle : " and there
it is borrowed, if I may so say, from the custom of Judah's enemies boasting (ib. 5)
of their horses and riders. Indeed horses were expressly forbidden to the Jews : see
Deut. xvii. 16, Ps. xx. 7, &c. — Moreover Judah is not the Christian Church.
2 See my review of the Church-Scheme of the Seals in the Appendix to Vol. iv.
3 Daniel viii. 20, 21.
4 The sacrifice of the horse, in one annual festival to Mars, is noted by Festus in
Octob. and the horse-races by the same author, in Equiria, as at another.— So Ter
tuliian de Spectac. c. 5 ; " Dehinc equiria Marti Romulus dixit ; " just afterwards
mentioning Romulus as Mars' son. On which passage Pamelius illustrates the insti
tution from Varro, Festus, and Ovid. — On the horse's consecration to Mars see ib. 9.

118 APOC VI. [part I.
tion of them for types on their coinage, (so as Persian and
Macedonian coins still extant prove to us,1) is similar ocu
lar proof of symbolic fitness wanting in the present instance.
Multitudinous Latin, or, as I may truly call them, Roman
coins, of early date and beautiful fabric, such as the reader
now sees engraved before him, still remain to illustrate to
modern eyes this recognized connection of Mars, the horse,
and the Roman people.2 Besides that a horse too was
one of the ancient Roman war-standards.3 — Nor should I
omit to observe, though somewhat anticipatively, since
symbols were often borrowed from real life, that in the
times of St. John the horse was frequently seen by Romans
in association with riders to whom such insignia belonged
as those on the three first Seals, the crown, the sword, and
the balance, — the first more especially :4 that in this associa
tion moreover occasions sometimes arose when the horse was
viewed ominously; and that it was then, by a natural prin
ciple, interpreted with reference to those whom the official
rider might be ruler over ; that is, a Roman army, or tie
Roman People.5 1 Engravings of these coins will be given in my 3rd Volume.
2 On these coins see Eckhel, vol. v. pp. 46 — 49 ; who explains the horse on them
to have been the Roman horse, sacred to Mars at Rome. " Ad Romana hie typus
sacra pertinet. Refert Festus ; ' Equiria ludi quos Romulus Marti instituit per
equorum cursum, qui in Campo Martio exercebatur.' De equo dicto Octobri, qui
singulis annis Marti in Campo Martio immolabatur, vide eundem Festum in October
equus." — From a mistaken impression as to the chief districts where the coins were
found, and for some other reasons, Eckhel supposed them to have had a Campa
nian local origin. And Niebuhr, in his history of the second Samnite war, suggests
that they may probably have been struck by a community of Roman colonists early
settled at that time in Campania: (French Translation of Golberry, vol. v. p. 399 :)
their date being probably somewhere between the times of the second Samnite and
first Carthaginian wars. More recent researches however have assigned them to
Latium, as their chief locale, rather than Campania. See my Paper on the Roman
coinage, in the Appendix at the end of this Volume. — Some of this class, Eckhel
adds, were restored as Roman by Trajan. " Quod non mirum : nam numi hi, etsi
peregrini, tamen Romae fuerunt obvii; et cum in iis expressum Roma? nomen
legeretur, poterant monetae Romanae accenseri." Ib. p. 46.
3 So Pliny x. 4 ; " Erat et antea aquila prima cum quatuor aliis. Lupi, mino-
tauri, equi, aprique singulos ordines anteibant." So up to the time of Marius.
4 See Lipsius in Tacit. Ann. xv. 7 : also certain notices on the point in my 1st,
2nd, and 3rd Seals respectively.
5 So Plutarch relates, as an omen of the destruction of Crassus and his army in
the Parthian campaign, that one of his war-horses richly caparisoned leapt into the
Euphrates, and was seen no more. (c. 36.) And Tacitus too, in relating the consul
Paetus' passage over the Euphrates, on some military expedition in the time of Nero,
says that it was made " tristi omine:" because " in transgressu Euphratis, quem ponte
transmittebat, nulla palam causa turbatus equus, qui consularia insignia gestabat,
retro evasit." (Annal. xv. 7 .) So the retreating back of the horse that bore the consul's
insignia was interpreted to betoken the retreat of the Roman army and its consul.

Vol. I.. P. 118.

TllK ROMAN HORSE , SACRKT) TO MARS.

THE ROMAN" IMPERIAL HORSEMAN.

From Medals in the British Museum

INTR0D.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE FIRST FOUR SEALS. 119
The meaning of the Apocalyptic horse thus presump
tively settled, that of the other details of the symbol will
readily suggest itself. Its colours, in the successive Seals,
marked obviously the successive symptomatic phases that
the body politic which the horse represented would exhibit,
from that of high health and prosperity at the first to that
of mortal dissolution ; its riders the characteristic agents or
agencies, by whom, during the times respectively intended,
it would be thus acted on and influenced ; — the instru
mental causes, in effect, of these symptomatic phases. — To
prevent mistake as to the particular agents or agency sig
nified in each case, the rider bore, or had given him, in the
successive visions, some distinctive badge of his class, as
the crown, bow, sword, balance, &c. I say of his class : —
for in each case, I conceive, it was not an individual that
the rider was likely to represent ; but, conformably with
the corporate signification of the emblematic horse, and
other such symbols in prophecy, a collective body, class, or
series. Thus simply, if I mistake not, were the main points that
Gibbon deemed it important to mark in his philosophic
history of the Roman empire, set forth before the Evange
list in the four first of the Apocalyptic figurations : — I
mean, not the events or changes alone in that empire's
history ; but, together with them in each case, the instru
mental cause and the symptomatic phase. — Nor let me omit
to add, with reference to the epochs and aras, as well as
subjects, chosen as I presume for delineation, that they
too will be found well to agree with those that Gibbon and
other historians make prominent in their pictures, as bearing
most importantly on the grand subject of the decline and
fall of the Roman empire. Indeed these epochs, and the
new agencies for good or evil then successively introduced,
did so bear upon it, that, as it seems to me, no philosophic
history of the fortunes of Imperial Rome for the period they
include could omit them. Nor, let me add, does it seem
to me that the philosophy of history would require the
introduction of any more. Short as are the four figurations,
they contain within themselves, I believe, the very spirit
of the Roman history, for the next two centuries after St.

120 apoc vi. 2. [part i.
John : — i. e up to the memorable epoch of the year 292,
when the unity of the empire was practically dissolved. —
And let me not forget to add, ere closing this introductory
Section, that there was then further foreshown to St. John
in the fifth Seal, though under imagery quite different and
peculiar, another and different sera and causal agency, which
bore yet more directly and strongly on the overthrow of the
empire and religion of Pagan Rome than even any de
picted before : it being so the fit introduction of the sixth
Seal's hieroglyphic, charged with the prefiguration of that
overthrow ; itself the grand consummation of this first Act
of the heavenly Drama.
Thus much premised, proceed we more particularly to
consider the sacred figurations. On the first Seal's opening,
the voice of the first of the four living creatures, in sign
and token of Christ's already assumed part in the providen
tial government of the world,1 called as with a voice of thun
der, Come ! 2 And instant, as if in obedience to the
summons, a horse and horseman, with certain peculiar and
significant insignia, appeared issuing forth, as I suppose,
upon the Roman landscape.

CHAPTER I.

THE FIRST SEAL.
And what then was to be the characteristic state of the
Roman empire, according to the first Seal's prefiguration,
in the aera next following (for so, as before said, the Angel's
words to St. John fixed the chronology 3) after the time
then present of the Apostle's exile in Patmos ? — Methinks
it might not unnaturally have been expected by Christians,
1 See p. 87 supra.. — Christ was not indeed to take his kingdom visibly till the
end. But meanwhile " all power was committed to him in heaven and in earth ;"
and so the Providential government of the world, in connexion with the Church,
committed to him.
2 I have already noticed this as the simple reading in the best text ; epxov without
the BAeire. Professor M. Stuart, while adopting it, would yet construe the words in
the same sense as epxov Kat BAeire, i. c. as addressed to St. John. It seems to me
more probably to be a call in Christ's Providence on the new agency that was to
appear in the Apocalyptic or Roman earth. 3 o 5ei yeveoBat pera ravra.

CHAP. I,] THE FIRST SEAL. 121
who, like him, were suffering from Domitian's persecution,
that it would not be very long before, under the sentence
of God's righteous judgment, the great persecuting empire
of Pagan Rome would be seen declining towards its disso
lution. And, indeed, the vices, follies, and oppressions of
the emperor then reigning, as of most that had preceded
him,1 might suggest an internal cause then already in
operation, and moreover the recent successful incursions of
the frontier barbarians an external one, (the facts have
been already noticed by me,2) each apparently almost suffi
cient of itself to produce that result. — But such a result
was not indicated to St. John. On the contrary, the first
symbol under which the Roman people was represented (as
I am presuming) to his view, represented it somewhat
strangely under the colour of triumph, prosperity, and
health in the body politic. " I looked, and lo ! a white
horse ! and he that sat thereon having a bow ; and a crown
(aTe<f>avoi) was given him ; and he went forth conquering,
and to conquer."3 Combining the chief indications here
given," it was as if prosperity long unknown would spring
up, and continue for some considerable time, within the
empire : — a prosperity introduced in some striking manner
by wars of victory ; and that would be still attended by vic
tory, whenever and wherever wars might arise afterwards,
even to the end of the period prefigured : to which wars
there would be a going forth under guidance answering to
that of the crowned bow-bearing rider ; thereby assuring
the general inviolability from foreign foes, and perhaps (for
the words might seem to intimate as much) advancing the
limits and the greatness of the empire.4
1 Gibbon, i. 28, thus sketches their " age of iron," from Tiberius to Domitian ;
Vespasian and his son Titus being alone excepted. " Their unparalleled vices, and
the splendid theatre on which they were acted, have saved them from oblivion. The
dark unrelenting Tiberius, the furious Caligula, the feeble Claudius, the profligate
and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius, and the timid inhuman Domitian, are con
demned to everlasting infamy."
2 See my brief historic picture of the state of the empire at the time of St. John's
seeing the Apocalypse, given at p. 64 supra; and especially the extract in the
Note 7 from Tacitus. I must beg the reader very carefully and distinctly to realize
to himself this state of things in the Roman world under Domitian, at the outset of
our inquiry into the prophecy of what was to follow afterwards.
3 Kat etSov, Kai tdov iniros Aevttos, Kat i Ka&ijpevos eir' avrov exuv to|ov Kai eBoBij
avru o-Te<pavos, kui efyABe vikuv Kai iva viKi)(rn. I give Mr. Tregelles' text generally.
4 I must beg the reader most distinctly to mark at the outset the indication of the
white colour of the horse ; a colour significative of prosperity and joy, in direct con-

122 apoc vi. 2. [part i.
I. And, first, did not this answer very notably and dis
tinctively to the general state and history of the Roman
empire for the 30 or 90 years succeeding John's banish
ment? that is, from Domitian's death, A. D. 96, through
out the successive reigns of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and
the two Antonines, until the accession of Commodus, and
triumphant peace made by him with the Germans, A. D.
180 ; or indeed, yet a year or two farther on, to the com
pletion of his Germanic successes, and coincident primary
deterioration of his government in 183 or 184?1 I turn
to Gibbon, whose History, by a singular coincidence, in
respect of commencing date, as well as of subject, agrees
with the Apocalyptic prefigurations : and find him, just as
in this first Seal's symbolic sketch, deferring for a while to
enter on his great subject of the decline of the Roman em
pire ; in order, in the first place, to describe its glory and its
happiness in this precise sera, as being that which immedi
ately preceded its declining. In fact, he makes it the bright
ground, if I may so say, of his historic picture : whereon to
trace out afterwards more effectively in dark colouring, the
successive traits of the empire's corruption and decline.
He represents it (and his representations are well con
firmed by the original histories remaining to us) as a
" golden age'' of prosperity, union, civil liberty, and good
government ;2 a period " unstained with civil blood" (like
the white of the first Apocalyptic horse, in contrast with
the red of the second,3) and "undisturbed by revolution;"4
trast to the black colour of the horse in the 3rd Seal, the sign of distress and
mourning ; as well as the intimations of military triumphs. The former, which con
tinued through the whole period of the Seal, implied continued national happiness :
the " went forth conquering, and that he should conquer," does not imply uninter
rupted war and conquests : (if so how would the white during any long period be
realized ?) but only and just what I have above stated. — I observe this, because it
has been inconsiderately objected by certain critics of the Horae that the prophecy
prefigured an uninterrupted course of war and victory.
1 It seems that those of Commodus' medals that bear the titles Imp. iv, Imp. v,
Imp. vi, were struck in the years 180, 182, 183, respectively: also, from history,
that these were the only ones in his reign struck in reference to Germanic successes ;
and that the last preceded Commodus' discovery of Lucilla's conspiracy, in 1 83, which
caused the first great deterioration of his government. 2 i. 1, 128.
3 It is in regard of this contrast that I the rather wish these words to be marked ;
as furnishing from Gibbon an unintended illustration, not only of the white of the
first seal, but of the red of the second.
4 i. 118. Partially this one good distinctive, as Gibbon states, applied also to
the darker period antecedent, from Augustus' establishment in the empire to Nerva's :
but only quite partially. For there occurred in it the great exception of the mighty

CHAP. I.J THE FIRST SEAL. 123
a period remarkable, both at its commencement and at its
close, for very wonderful and almost uniform triumphs in
war, whereby the glory of the empire was illustrated, and
its limits extended;1 and of which the middle interval,
though not without occasional wars (always successful) on
the frontiers, was generally a time of profound and happy
peace.2 In short, he thus sums up his view of it ; — " If a
man were called to fix the period in the history of the
world, during which the condition of the human race was
most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation,
name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the
accession of Commodus." 3
I said that the wars of the Romans during this period,
were all but uniformly triumphant. And, not to rest on
Nerva's primary Pannonian triumph, which instantly, as
the new sera opened, served to mark the return of victory
under it to the Roman banners,4 — I say, not to rest on
this, who knows not of the triumphs under Trajan, the
Roman Alexander, by which Dacia, Armenia, Mesopota
mia, and other provinces, were, in the course of the first
twenty years of the period I speak of, added to the Roman
empire ? The forty-three years which followed, constitut
ing the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, were years
for the most part of honourable and glorious peace :5 of
civil wars of Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian ; and also the conspiracies against,
and murders of, Caligula, Nero, and Domitian.
1 Ib. 8—10, 14. 2 Ib. 13.
3 Ib. 126. — As regards the testimony of original historians to the same effect, I
shall refer to several more presently, when speaking of the causal agents of this na
tional happiness of the Romans during the period spoken of. But I must at once
introduce that of the greatest of Roman historians, Tacitus ; who having lived and
held office in " the iron age " preceding, lived also to enjoy and to record the golden
age that followed ; his death not occurring (so Lipsius in Vit. Tac. supposes,
though the exact date is not known,) till the reign of Hadrian. In his life of Agri-
cola, ii. 1, he thus writes. " Nunc demum redit animus : et quanquam, primo
statim beatissimi seculi ortu, Nerva Caesar res etiam dissociabiles miscuerit, princi-
patum ac libertatem, augeatque craotidie felicitat em imperii Nerva Trajanus, &c." — -
And so too another cotemporary historian, Suetonius, whom I shall have to refer to
a little later, Vit. Domit. c. 23. See my Note 4, p. 134 infra.
4 So the cotemporary Pliny ; who speaks of it as synchronous with Trajan's adop
tion by Nerva. " Allata erat ex Pannonia laurea : id agentibus Diis ut invicti 1m,
peratoris exortum victoriae insigne decoraret." Paneg. ch. 8.
6 How honourable will well appear from Gibbon's statement, i. 13 : "The fiercest
barbarians frequently submitted their differences to the arbitration of the Emperor i
[sc. Hadrian or Antoninus Pius :] and we are informed by a cotemporary historian
[Appian], that he had seen ambassadors who were refused the honour which they
came to solicit, of being admitted into the rank of subjects." — Compare the younger

124 apoc vi. 2. [part i.
peace unbroken indeed except by the Jewish war under
Hadrian, confined to a single province, in which the rebel
lion of that unhappy people was put down with fearful
slaughter ; and those lesser wars under Antoninus Pius on
the frontiers, just before alluded to, which served not only
to exercise the Roman legions, as Gibbon expresses it,
but also to illustrate Rome's still realized destiny, as " to
conquer." 1 — After this, however, and towards the conclu
sion of the octogenarian period that I speak of, wars arose
again, and of the most formidable character. From East
and West, North and South, it seemed as if the whole bar
barian world had been stirred from its very foundations, to
overwhelm the envied glory and prosperity of the empire.2
And on the sudden surprise, once, and again, and a third
time, alike on the Euphratean and the Danubian frontier,
the Roman frontier army was overthrown.3 But so soon
as the imperial strength had gathered itself against the in
vaders, not only was the invasion on either side, and in
every case repelled, but the war carried triumphantly into
the invaders' own territory. The Parthian war was suc
cessfully ended by the total overthrow of that people, the
capture of the chief Armenian and Parthian cities, Artax-
ata, Seleucia, Ctesiphon ; and readdition to the empire of
the great Mesopotamian province, which, originally con
quered by Trajan, had, from motives of policy, been volun
tarily ceded by Hadrian.4 — And even in the most mighty
Victor on Antoninus Pius ; c. 3. " Adeo trementibus eum atqne amantibus cunctis
regibus, nationibusque, et populis, ut parentem seu patronum, magis quam domi-
num imperatorem, reputarent : omnesque uno ore, in caelestium morem, propitium
optantes, de controversiis inter se judicem poscerent."
There is a common class of medals of these emperors, which well illustrate the
respect paid them by the barbarians of the frontier. Barbarian kings are repre
sented as receiving a tiara or diadem from them, with the legends, " Rex Parthis
datus," " Rex Quadis datus," &c. See Spanheim, p. 832. (Ed. 1671.)
1 " Per legates suos plurima bella gessit. Nam et Britannos per Lollium Urbicum
legatum vicit. . . . et Mauros ad pacem postulandam coegit ; et Germanos, et Dacos,
et multas gentes, atque Judaeos rebellantes, contudit per presides et legates." Capi-
tolinus Vit. Antonin. c. 5.
2 " Gentes omnes ab Illyrici limite usque Galliam conspiraverant; ut Marcomanni,
Narisci, Hermanduri, Quadi, Suevi, Sarmatae, Latringes, Buri : hi, aliique cum Vic-
tovalis Sosibes, Sicobotes, Roxolani, Bastarnae, Alani, Peucini, Costoboci. Im-
minebat et Parthicum bellum, et Britannicum." Capitolinus Vit. M. Aur. c. 22.
3 In the Parthian war Severianus with his army : in the three successive Marco-
mannic wars, 1st Victorinus, 2ndly Vindex.
4 So Rufus Festus Breviarium. " Sponte propria, reductis exercitibus, Armeniam,
Mesopotamiam, Assyriam concessit," sc. Hadrianus. — So too Montesquieu on the

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST SEAL. 125
of all those wars, the Marcomannic, victory after victory still
attended the Roman standards under the second Antonine ;
till the German barbarians, driven into their forests, were
reduced to submission.1 — So that the destiny assigned to
the white horse's rider, " and to conquer," continued
to be realized by the Romans, even to the end of the period
under review. And as the magnificent Column of Trajan
still remains at Rome,2 the just memorial of the triumphs
of its commencement, so it has been ordered that there
should remain also that of Antoninus Aurelius, the magni
ficent although inferior monument of those of its close.
II. Thus far of the empire's triumphs and prosperity
during the next coming sera. But whose the influential
agency that would cause it and them ? In other words, who
the agents personified by the rider ? Now to ourselves what
is related of the reigning emperors throughout this sera, —
their absolute authority, for under them " the Roman em
pire was governed by absolute power under the guidance
of virtue and wisdom," 3 " the armies being restrained by the
firm and gentle hand of four successive emperors," 4 and
their power used only to cherish the nation's happiness,
advance its prosperity, or guide it to its triumphs, — must
at once have suggested them as the persons symbolized.
As Gibbon says, " The delight was theirs of beholding
the general happiness of which they were the authors."5
voluntariness of Hadrian's cession, Grandeur et Decad. c. 15 ; also Eckhel vi. 483.
See my Vindiciae, pp. 90, 91.
1 I beg to refer to my full historical sketch of these wars given in my Vindiciae
Horariaepp. 95 — 105. — M. Aurelius' decisive triumph in the Marcomannic war is
noticed by Gibbon i. 381, and Schlegel in his Philosophy of History, ii. 36. The
latter thus states the permanent effectiveness of Aurelius' triumphs over them.
" M. Aurelius, by his successful resistance of the Alemannic invasion, was the means
of deterring the barbarians for a long time from similar enterprises." In fact for
some fifty or sixty years. — On the triumphant nature of the peace concluded with
the Marcomanni, immediately after M. Aurelius' death, see Dion Cass, lxxii. 2, 3 ;
also my Vindiciae, p. 103.
2 On the top of this column Trajan's ashes were placed in a golden urn ; a
triumph having been previously celebrated to his image, in place of himself. A
thing unparalleled! 3 Gibb. i. 127.
4 Ibid. By " the four emperors " Gibbon means those after Nerva : Nerva him
self who, during his short sixteen months' reign, having failed partially in this one
point of good government.
5 Ib. — So the ancient historians of the period. Thus both Suetonius and Tacitus
represent the earlier emperors of the series, Nerva and Trajan, as introducers of a
golden age: (see my Notes pp. 123, 134:) and similarly, notwithstanding the dangerous
wars, and plague too, that occurred under the reign of Aurelius, Dion Cassius (lxxi.

126 apoc vi. 2. [part i.
Nor were the visible symbols wanting in the vision, to
foreshow the same to the Evangelist. First the rider's
white horse might suggest it; white having been both
in earlier times the chosen colour for horses used by
Roman generals in their triumphs, and still by Roman
emperors.1 Then the crown given him would seem suffi
cient absolutely to confirm this impression : the triumph
and triumphal crown-wearing having been from the time of
Augustus all but withdrawn, as too great an honour, from
subordinate generals ; and appropriated, as his own proper
distinctive, to the reigning emperor.2
It so happens, indeed, that as regards this very point
an objection has been made, to the effect that the diadem,
not the are(pavos or crown, would have been the badge re
presented, if Roman emperors had been symbolized : and
that, in fact, instead of the presentation of the crown fixing
the meaning to individuals in that high office, the want of
the diadem positively precludes the idea of their being the
persons meant,3 But the objection has been founded evi
dently on misapprehension. The respectable writer object
ing, (and I believe he is not alone in it,) seems to have con
founded either between the kingly and imperial offices, or
between the practices of the earlier and later Roman em
perors. Let me explain. — By the imperator, or emperor,
up to the time of Augustus, was meant, as is well known,
simply the victorious Roman general, saluted with that
title by his soldiers on the field of battle, and with the
triumph and its coveted honours and insignia following.
36) represents his reign as also of the golden age. So again, Eutropius, viii. 1,
speaking of Nerva's accession and his successors ; " Respublica ad prosperrimum
statum rediit, bonis principibus ingenti felicitate commissa : " and of Aurelius;
" Fortunatam Rempublicam et virtute et mansuetudine reddidit." And so too
Victor. — Even the Christian writer Lactantius passes his eulogium on these five
Princes. In his De Mort. Persec. c. 3. ad fin. he says ; " Secutis temporibus (sc. post
Domitianum) multi boni principes Romani Imperii clavum regimenque tenuerunt."
1 Pliny notes the ancient custom, in his account of Trajan's return to Rome from
his foreign victories; Panegyr. xxii. "Priores in vehi et importari solebant, non
dico quadrijugo curru et albentibus equis, &c." So Plutarch of Camillus' triumph.
And Dion Cassius, xliii. 14, speaking of Caesar's returning from the African war, says
similarly that the Senate decreed to him Katra eirtviKia ra irpoe\ftri<pio-p.eva, eiri re
Aeukcoi' iir7rto v. — So, again, as Suetonius relates, Domitian rode on a white horse
in his father Vespasian's Jewish triumph. Domit. 2. — Lactantius, M. P. 16, also
alludes to the old custom.
2 Gibb. i. 102, Note '". On the exceptions, see Note 3 p. 127.
3 Cuninghame's Apocalypse, p. 3 (Ed. 4.) ; and Answer to Faber, p. 1 56, Note.

CHAP. I.] THE FIRST SEAL. 127
Now though with Augustus and his successors the most
absolute monarchical power attached to their emperorship,
yet it was their policy to veil it under the old military or
imperial badges. Hence their public insignia (of which
the mock robing and erowning of Jesus by the Roman
soldiery is an affecting remembrancer)1 were still the laurel
crown and purple robe. The assumption of the diadem, or
broad white fillet set with pearls, viewed as it was by the
Romans as a badge of oriental despotism, and of the servi
tude of subject vassals, these emperors carefully shunned.
The remembrance long remained with them of the feelings
exhibited by the Roman people, on its being offered by
Antony to their great ancestor Julius Csesar ; 2 insomuch
that it was considered an act of madness on the part of
Caligula, (and the act was quite isolated,) to attempt to
assume it. Abundant memorials exist to show that, all
through the time to which our 1st Seal refers, the crown
remained the badge of Roman emperors, the diadem of
barbarous kings.3 In fact not till about the time of Dio
cletian,4 near 200 years after St. John's banishment to
Patmos, was the diadem adopted by Roman emperors : the
innovation being accompanied both with the other insignia,
1 Only in his case it was oreipavos aKavBtvos : a crown not of laurel, but of thorns.
3 How striking is Cicero's description ! " Sedebat in rostris collega tuus, amic-
tus toga purpurea, in sella aurea, coronatus. Ascendis ; accedis ad sellam ; diadema
ostendis. Gemitus toto foro. Unde diadema? Non enim abjectum sustuleras,
sed attuleras domo ; meditatum et cogitatum scelus. Tu diadema imponebas cum
plangore populi; ille cum plausu rejiciebat." Cicero Orat. 2 in Antonium, c. 34. —
Compare Suetonius Calig. c. 22 : alsol Mace. viii. 14.
3 Illustrations abound both historical and medallic. — Eckhel on the cultus capitis
of the Augusti, Vol. viii. p. 360, states that in the interval between Augustus and
Domitian the only three persons that appear to have worn the imperial crown, be
sides the reigning emperors, were Claudius Drusus, L. Vitellius, and Domitian him
self, previous to his accession. From after Domitian's accession however he says
that it was an absolute distinctive. " Deinceps in legem abivisse ut nemo nisi Au
gustus laurea praecingeretur, numi luculenter docent."
Herodian (viii. 6), illustrates the continuance of the imperatorial symbol of a
crown, by an example of the date A. D. 238. When the Aquileians would intimate
to their besiegers the senatorial emperors acknowledged by them, they did so by
exhibiting from the walls their portraits crowned with laurel.
On the other hand, as before observed in my Note p. 124, Spanheim notices, as
common Roman medals of the aera of Trajan and the Antonines, coins in which barba -
rian kings are represented as receiving a tiara or diadem from the Roman emperor.
Similarly Dion Cassius, lxvii. 7, tells how Domitian, in profession and pretence
of his having the disposal of that barbarian kingdom, put the diadem on a Dacian
king's envoy : ru Aii\yi8i S taSij pa eireBiiKe, xuBairep us aAi)8as KeKparnKus, Kai
BaoiAea riva to is A ait o is Bovvai owapevos.
4 So Gibbon, Vol. ii. p. 165. — See my Essay on this subject in the Appendix at
the end of Vol. iii.

128 apoc vi. 2. [parti.
and even the adoration too, attendant on eastern royalty.
The change constituted an epoch in Roman history ; and
one markedly noticed, as will hereafter appear, in the Apo
calypse.1 (I append illustrative engravings.2) — Thus then
about Diocletian's time, and thenceforward, but not till then,
the diadem was the imperial badge ; — for a century or more
conjointly with the laurel,3 then I believe exclusively. So
that whereas, with reference to such a period as the close
of the fourth century, it would have been an impropriety,
and with reference to the sixth an anachronism, to repre
sent the arecpavos, or laurel crown,4 as a badge of empire,
on an imperial or royal head, — just as much, and indeed
still more, it would have been an anachronism to represent
a Roman emperor of the two and a half first centuries with
a diadem. Thus the objection has only led us to see the more
clearly the exact chronological propriety, as well as the
personal distinctiveness, of this particular emblem in the
first Seal's hieroglyphic. — And I cannot but add that the
very going forth of the Apocalyptic rider, and presentation
of the crown to him, were yet additional points of resem
blance in the symbolic picture to the imperial usages at
Rome in the time of St. John. For an emperor's going forth
to war was an occasion perpetually taken by the senate
to express their good wishes, and their auguries of suc
cess, often in those cases falsified : and, in token thereof,
medals were struck ; depicting the emperor galloping forth
on horseback, striking down an enemyv and with the
legend, Profectio, or, Expeditio Augusti. 5 Further, sup-
1 See my explanation of Apoc. xvii. 41, in Part iv. Ch. iv.
2 In the Plate opposite, the specimens of laureated and diademed emperors
given, — the one of Nerva, near the end of the first century, the other of Palentinian
of the fourth, — are copied from Pitiscus' Edition of Victor.
3 Hence the laureated heads of the Constantinian emperors, for example, often
seen on the imperial medals of that period. — But the proper badge of royalty was at
that time understood to be the diadem. Thus when Constantine's corpse lay in
state, we read in Eusebius that it was arrayed in purple and with the diadem, as the
royal insignia; BaatAiKots Koopots, irop<pvpa re Kat SiaSrjjuan. De Vit. Const, iv. 06.
— See my Paper on the diadem in the Appendix to Vol. iii, which I have already
referred to.
4 In the Apocalypse the seven-headed dragon with diadems, Apoc. xii. 3, seems
used in reference to the opening of the fourth century; the ten-horned diademed
Beast, Apoc. xiii. 1, with reference to the sixth.
5 " Equites Imperatores solebant Romani diverso more pro variis eorum gestis
repraesentare. Cum aliquis solito equi gradu incedit, profectio est Augusti ; accele-

THE EMPEROR NERVA WITH THE IMPERIAL CROWS .

THE EMPEROR VALENTINTAN WITH THE ROYAL DIADEM.

Ironi Engra.-raigs in Ptuscils' Edition, of Aurelius Victor

Vol.l.-P.129.

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CHAP. I.J THE FIRST SEAL. 129
posing that success had already begun to favour him in the
war, they had a mode of expressing the successes accom
plished, as well as those that might be anticipated for the
future. He was pictured, it might be, with a captive enemy
prostrate at his horse's feet j1 or else perhaps, whether on a
triumphal arch, or on terra firma, as going forth between
trophies and captives : and with Victory in either case
crowning, or with crown in hand preceding him. Such
e. g. is the device on a medal of the emperor Claudius,
with the exergue " De Britannis " underneath, in memo
rial of his conquest of Britain ; 2 such, more fully, that on
another, which depicts a triumphal arch erected to that
emperor's father Claudius Drusus, after victories over the
Germans : — of which latter an engraving is appended.3
And I think that after viewing it, and considering what
has been also further observed respecting the crown and
the white horse,- the reader will deem me. justified in ex
pressing the persuasion I did in the Introduction to this
Chapter ;4 to the effect that a person conversant, like St.
John, with the Roman usages of the age, could scarcely
but have had suggested to his mind, d priori, by these em
blems of the first Seal, the idea of a Roman emperor speed
ing forth to victory. — It is observable that medallic memo
rials still remain of the five several emperors in question,
depicting them, more or less fully, under guise of these self
same semi- Apocalyptic devices : — the two chief conquerors
Trajan arid M. Aurelius riding forth, as in the Profectio
Augusti; and all the five either "crowned, or with the crown
rate passu "ejus expeditio : captivum prosternens virtus Imperatoris ; gradu lento
advenlus ejus in urbem." Rasche, ii. i. 724. See also Rasche on the words Pro
fectio Augusti, vol. iv. p. 175 — 188 ; and Spanheim, 705, 834.
1 So Rasche of one of the later emperor Caracalla's coins, which he describes ii.
716 ; " Eques Imperator, dextram elevans, a Victoria volitante coronatur : ante pedes
equi captivus : " &c.
2 Given by Gessner, Vol. ii. Tab. xii : also by Ackerman, in his work on Roman
medals, i. 105. The horseman in it is speeding forth between trophies on a trium
phal arch. It is described too by Vaillant (Ed! 3) p. 58, and Eckhel vi. 240.
3 It is given by Gessner ii. xiii ; byJMontfaucon ; and by Bellori, in his Veteres
Arcus Augustorum ; (Rome, 1824 :) and is supposed, as he intimates, to be the same
with that still standing, though dismantled of its statuary, near the gate of S. Sebastian.
The words, " De Germanis," appear inscribed on the peristyle of the arc ; and on
the coin, round the head of CI. Drusus, there is the inscription, " Nero Claudius
Drusus Germanicus Imper." Compare Vaillant ibid, and Eckhel vi. 176.
I should observe that in the plate opposite, the Victory has been added by me, by
way of illustration, from another triumphal arch, adjoining this in Montfaucon's
Plate, vol. iv. p. 108. (Ed. London 1724.) 4 p. 113 supra.
VOL. I. * K

130 apoc vi. 2. [parti.
held out to them, by Victory.1 And in their cases, we
know, the medals spoke truth ; not, as in some other cases,
mere false flattery.
One objection however may still present itself, one dif
ficulty seem to stand in the way of this our imperial applica
tion of the prophetic symbol ; — I mean the fact of the rider
having a bow in hand. For the weapon represented in the
hands of Roman emperors, on medals and other extant
monuments of antiquity, is generally the javelin; sometimes
the sword ; never, so far as I know, the bow. And hence
indeed Vitringa, — though not unconscious of the general
fitness of the emblem of a crowned rider on a white horse,
going forth conquering and to conquer, to depict the sera of
prosperity and triumph under the five Roman emperors
whose reigns followed next after the date of the Apocalyptic
visions,2 — yet argues that the bow was an Asiatic and bar
barian weapon and badge ; and purposely inserted in the
hieroglyphic, to divert the thoughts of the observer from
the Roman empire and emperors.3 In which view he has
been followed by other commentators.
But is this correct ? Was the bow a badge of Asiatic
and other barbarians only ? Was there not one particular
province and people, among the provincials of the Roman
empire, of whom it was also distinctive ? distinctive not
equally alone, but almost even more than of any barbarian
people whatsoever ? If the reader will consult the records
of antiquity, he will find, if I mistake not, that such was
indeed the case with the island and islanders of Crete.
Alike their colonial origin, mythological traditionary legends,
military history, and manufactures, attest this peculiar con
nection of the Cretans and the bow. — As to their origin, it
appears from ancient authors that Crete was originally
peopled, in part at least,4 from that part of Palestine situ-
1 See Gessner, Vaillant, Eckhel, &c. I have given notices of some of these coins
in my Vindicise, pp. 86, 94, 98. Splendid medals exist of Trajan crowned triumphing.
2 " Sub bonis et laudatis princibus Si Nervft usque ad Commodum fades Romani
Imperii satis fuit aequabilis, et embJemate. . . . albi equi cum sessore victorioso figu-
rari potuisset." p. 310.
3 " Emblema. . . . desumptum esse ex moribus gentium Asianarum, quae arcu in
bellis utebantur quod Romani moris non erat." p. 323. " Addo Spritum certo con-
silio huic Imperatori dedisse arcum, non gladium, ut cogitationem nostram A Roma-
nis Imperatoribus abduceretad Christum." p. 325.
4 The Univ. Hist. viii. 219 (on Crete), while allowing Bochart's correctness in

CHAP. I.J THE FIRST SEAL. 131
ate on the Mediterranean coast, which was by the Arabs
called Keritha, and by the Syrians Creth; its inhabitants
bearing the similar Hebraic appellation Crethim, or, as the
Seventy have translated it, Kp^ec : * — respecting which
Crethim, Bochart adds, that they were noted archers, some
of them employed by David as his life-guard.2 — It is Sir
Isaac Newton's supposition that Crete was thus peopled
from Palestine about 1045 B.C., when many of the Phoe
nicians and Syrians fled from King David into Asia Minor,
Crete, Greece, Lybia. Others date the migration earlier.3
But, whatever the epoch, this is certain, that in Crete itself
the archery habits of the Syrian Crethim colonists, as well
as their name, remained. The earliest traditionary legends
of the Cretan islanders ascribe a similar pre-eminence in
the art to those of their forefathers that were in the island
native-born. It is told us by Diodorus Siculus that Apollo
(the Cretan Apollo) was affirmed in these legends to have
been the first inventor of the bow, and how he taught the
natives archery; whence their superior skill in the art
before and above all other men.4 (Memorial Cretan medals
are still extant, some with the device of Apollo and his bow,
some of Diana and her bow,5 and the inscription Koivov
KpvjTuv.6) — Descending from the times of legendary fable to
those of real history, we find the connexion of the bow and
stating that some of the Philistines mingled with the Phoenicians that attended Cad
mus into Crete and Greece, yet observes, net without good historic authority, that
k Pelasgian colony had arrived in Crete before him. — But it was the Phoenician
Crethim that gave their name to the island.
1 So 1 Sam. xxx. 14, Ezek. xxv. 16, Zeph. ii. 5.
2 See 2 Sam. viii. 18, xv. 18, xx. 23, 1 Kings i. 38, 1 Chron. xviii. 17 : in all of
which places the word, though in our translation rendered Cherethites, is in the origi
nal Crethim ; and this word by the Chaldee Paraphrast interpreted archers. — In the
above I have nearly copied the observations of Macknight, in his Preface to the
Epistle to Titus, § 3.
3 The reader will probably be aware that Sir I. Newton's Chronology dates the
early settlement of Greece some 300 or 400 years later than the more received Chro
nology of Usher and Playfair.
4 Diodorus, Lib. v. c. 74 : AiroAAuva Se avayopevovat, evpernv rov ro\ov yevopevov,
Sioa^at rovs eyxupiovs ra irept rrpf ro\eiav a*p* ijs alrtas paAiora irapa rots Kpito-iv
egnAaaBai rtpr to\ikt\v.
5 See my Engravings. The medal with the huntress Diana is a Cretan coin of
Trajan's time.
6 These Koiva of different nations, after the establishment among them of the
Roman dominion, were chiefly for the purpose of common games, and common
sacred rites. So the Marmor Lyttiorum Cretse apud Gruterum, p. 1094. 5; 'lepov
Ayuvos irevTaernpiKov too Koivov tuv KprjTuv. See Eckhel's Chapter on the Koiva,
Vol. iv. p. 428— 431. K 2

132 apoc vi. 2. [part i.
the Cretan islanders constantly marked thenceforward
for ages, in the military annals of the neighbouring states.
Among Homer's heroes it was the Cretan Merion that
bore away the palm in archery.1 By Pindar the appella
tion bowmen was attached as a distinctive appellation to
the Cretan islanders.2 And Pausanias states that in those
earlier historic times the Cretans alone of all the Greeks
were archers : impugning the correctness of a piece of
sculpture, which represented Diitrephes as pierced by ar
rows ; his slayers being other Greeks, not Cretans.3 With
reference to later times, Thucydides relates how in the
Peloponnesian war archers were fetched by the belligerent
parties from Crete:4 — as regards those of Macedonian
supremacy we are reminded of the same fact by Plutarch:5
— and with reference to those of Roman greatness, from
the Carthaginian wars down to those of Caesar, when Crete
had been made a Roman Province,6 and afterwards as late
even as the reign of Claudius Gothicus in the 3rd century,
by Polybius,7 Livy,8 Lucan,9 Hirtius,10 and Trebellius Pol-
lio.11 It was suggested by astronomers, in explanation of
the fact of their long-continued eminence in the art, that
Crete lay under the zodiacal sign of the Archer, Sagitta
rius.12 — Moreover, the Cretan manufacture of bows, (not to

1 II. ¥. 880.
-> He calls the Cretans To£o<popoi, kot' e£oxnv, Pyth. Od. 5. 54.
3 Toaovrov pev irapeoTi) pot Bavpa es tijv eiKova too Attrpetpovs, in ottnois eireBe-
0Aijto' 'EAAijotv, bit pij Kpiiaiv, ovk eirixuptov ov To£evetv. De Atticis.
4 Lib. vi. 43. — So too his cotemporary Aristophanes, in the Rana;, 1356 ;
AW to Kpirres, ISrjs reKva,
Ta ro£a AaBovres eirapware.
So also Xenophon Anab. i. 2. 9. speaking of Clearchus bringing ro£oras Kpnras
tiaKoo-tovs. 6 In his Life of Pyrrhus.
6 Crete was made a Roman Province by Q. Metellus, hence surnamed Creticus,
B. C. 66. — To those of my readers who have visited Rome, the name of this Metellus
Creticus will have been made familiar by the majestic sepulchral tower raised to his
daughter Csecilia Metella, still standing two miles outside of the gate of S. Sebastian ;
and the deeply touching lines upon it in Childe Harold.
' Polyb. Lib. v. s Livy, Lib. xxxvii.41. xxxviii. 21.
D Lib. iii. 185. "> Bell. Alexandr. 1.
11 Vit. Claud, c. 16; "ex sagittariis Creticis sexaginta."
12 So Manilius, Lib. iv.
Gnosia Centauro tellus circumdata ponto
Paret, et in geminum Minois Alius astrum
Ipse venit geminus : celeres huic Creta sagittas
Asserit, intentosque imitator sideris arcus.

Yol.L-P.133

THE CRETAN APOLLO AND DIANA WITH THEIR BOWS

Irom a com in the Vienna Imp exial Collection .

Erom a coin in ihe British Museum

A CRETAN BOW MAKER.

From a, coin in the British. Museum.

CHAP. I.J THE FIRST SEAL. 133
say of arrows also,1) was celebrated. No European bow
was noted like theirs. The name Cretan in fact came to be
attached as an appellative to bows ; 2 and it was a national
device impressed on their medals. I append one, copied
from Pellerin, as a specimen ; and subjoin the observations
on the device, as a Cretan distinctive, of a Eoman poet
and German medallist.3
Under all which circumstances can I be wrong in stating
that the bow was pre-eminently a Cretan weapon and
badge ; or in inferring that, when a bow was pictured em
blematically before St. John in a European warrior's hands,
the intention would be to signify that the warrior was of
Cretan ^origin ? — In fact it so happens that, over and above
all the other accumulated evidence just adduced, we have
extant a Greek epigram, or epitaph, consisting of a set of
emblems, the bow inclusive, with an express explanation to
this effect. A magpie sculptured on the tomb-stone was
to mark the loquacity of the person whose epitaph it was ;
the cup her proneness to drink ; the wool her diligence in
work ; the bow, — what did the bow mark ? It is explained
that this was to signify that she was a Cretan.* — I must
confess that, considering the important bearing of this
1 So Plutarch in the life of Pyrrhus, KpirrtKu BeAei irAiryeis; and Manilius in the
verses just cited, " celeres huic Creta sagittas asserit."
These five or six last references I have borrowed from Meursius' work on Crete,
p. I78,*&c. (Ed. Amsterdam 1675.)
2 So in the passage above cited from Diodorus Siculus ; which after paAiora irapa
rots Kpijfftv egijAuaBat rijv to^iktjv, adds, Kai ro to^ov KpnrtKov ovopaaBipiai. For I
think of the correctness of Boch art's and Wesseling's correction of KpijTiKov for
SkvBikov little doubt can be entertained. See Wesseling's Note. So too, says
Wesseling, Pollux (i. 149) speaks of theTo|oi/ KpririKov.
3 Eckhel, ii. 309, after describing a medal of Cydonia, in Crete, in the reverse of
which a man is represented as manufacturing a bow before a fire, says ; " In this
there seems to me an allusion to the celebrated skill of the Cretans in preparing
bows : " and he quotes Claudian's lines,
" Quis labor humanus tantum ratione sagaci
Proficit ? excipiunt trucibus Gortynia capris
Cornua : subjectis eadem lentescere cogunt
Ignibus ; intendunt taurino viscere nervos."
4 I refer to the epigram on Bitthis, by Antipater, a Greek poet of Sidon, who
flourished about a century before Christ ; given in Brunck's Anthologia Grseca,
(Argentor. 1776,) Tom. ii. p. 31.
Tav pev aei iroAvpvBov, aei AaAov, u £eve Kiooa
$aer rav Se peBas ovvrpoipov ijSe kvAi£.
TAN KPH22AN AE TA TOEA- to S' eipia rav ipiAoepyov
AvSepa 5' av jLUTpas rav iroAioKporatpov.
ToiavSe oraAovpyos <S8' eKpvipe BirnSa rvpBos,
TipeAov axpavrov vvptptSiav aAoxov.

134 apoc vi. 2. [part i.
point on the commencement, and consequently on the
whole scheme of Apocalyptic interpretation, it has seemed
to me a matter for thankfulness that so illustrative an epi
gram should have been preserved to us.
But what the application of all this, the reader may be
thinking, to the point in hand ? or how the sense that we
have inferred to attach to the emblem of a bow to connect
itself with the hieroglypic of the first Seal, and its imperial
horseman riding on to triumph ? I now proceed to show
this. — It is well known then that, up to the accession of
Otho, the reigning Csesars, from Julius to Galba inclusive,
were of old Eoman families. Agreeably with the Eoman
jus imaginum,1 they exhibited in each of their halls the
busts of a long line of Eoman nobles, their ancestors, —
whether of the Julian gens, the Claudian, or the Sulpician.2
And as for Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, and Vespasian's two
sons Titus and Domitian, if not all of Eoman, yet they
were of Italian extraction ; and indeed Otho of an Ita
lian family still more ancient and noble than all the rest ;
for he was descended from the Etruscan kings.3 — But after
Domitian, there was a notable change on this head in the
character of the imperial succession. It is said to have
been pre-intimated in a dream, a little before his death, to
Domitian. He dreamt, says Suetonius, that a neck of gold
appeared to grow branching off from his own neck behind :*
that which so branched off implying a new line of empe-
1 See Adams, or any other book of Roman Antiquities, on the Jus imaginum.
2 The Julian line of emperors was extended by successive adoptions down to
Claudius, of the Claudian gens, who adopted Nero. Galba was of the " Sulpician
gens. — Suetonius on Galba, c. 3, says: " Imagines et elogia universi generis [Sul-
picW] exsequi longum est : familiae [Galbse] breviter attingam."
3 So Suetonius Vit. Othon. i; "Majores Othonis orti sunt oppido Ferentino, fa-
milia vetere et honorata, atque ex princlpibus Etrurian." — Respecting Vitellius the
same historian says that it was a disputed point whether he was of noble or of base
ancestry; but it was Italian. So Eckhel, i. 105, speaking of Samnium, observes:
" Certe" gens Vitellia, ex qui prognatus erat Vitellius Augustus, ex Sabinis Romam
antiquitQs profecta est : cum subinde quidam Vitelliorum, belli Samnitici tempore,
prasidio Rom& in Apuliam misso, deinceps subsiderent Nuceriae, et longo post in-
tervallo repeterent urbem, ut refert Suetonius. (In Vitell. c. 1.)" — Of Vespasian's
¦ ancestry Suetonius speaks as connected with the neighbourhood of Reate " in Sa
binis ; " the gens Flavia being however " obscura quidem, et sine ullis majorum
imaginibus." 4 " Ipsum Domitianum ferunt somniasse gibbam sibi pone cervicem auream
enatam; pro certoque habuisse beatiorem post se lsetloremque portendi statum
Reip. Sicut sane brevi cvenit, abstinentia et moderatione insequentium Principum."
Suetonius in Domit. § 23.

CHAP. l.J THE FIRST SEAL. 135
rors; and the gold their character as introducers of a golden
age. Another historian, Aurelius Victor, expressly sets
forth the novel character of this line as a fact very remark
able, in respect of its being one of princes of foreign extrac
tion : " Hitherto men of Roman or Italian origin ruled the
empire ; from after this time foreigners in extraction." x In
which statement he is followed, indeed copied, by the
younger Victor : 2 and they both note at the same time
the increased happiness that accrued to the empire from the
innovation. — And what then the foreign country, or pro
vince, to which the five emperors might be ascribed, as to
lineage and family, that followed next after Domitian, and
introduced and kept up this golden age of the empire ?
Prior to which question another must indeed first be an
swered ; Can they all be classed together under one and
the same head and family ? The answer to which latter
question is, that they may be so classed together ; because,
in a manner quite unparalleled in the subsequent history
of the Eoman emperors, they were all connected, as in the
line of one and the same family, by successive adoptions.
Trajan was adopted by Nerva, Hadrian by Trajan,3 Anto
ninus by Hadrian, Aurelius by Antoninus : * — each, as their
1 " Hactenus Romce seu per Italiam orli imperium rexere ; hinc advena. Nescio
quoque an (Q_u. annon ?), ut in Prisco Tarquinio, longe meliores. - At mihi quidem
audienti multa legentique plane compertum urbem Romam externorum virtute, at-
que insitivis artibus, praecipue crevisse. Quid enim Nerva," &c. Aurel. Victor,
Vita Domit. ad fin.
It should be clearly understood that in the expression, " Roma? aut per Italiam
orti," Victor refers not to the birthplace of the individuals spoken of, but to their
ancestral origin. As regards birthplace, two out of the twelve Caesars that pre
ceded Nerva were born out of Italy : viz. Claudius at Lyons, as Suetonius tells us ;
and C. Caligula in the camp near Treves. At least such is Victor's own view of
Caligula's birthplace, ("natus in exercitu,") as well as that of Tacitus. Annal. i. 41.
2 " Hactenus Romse seu per Italiam orti imperium rexere; hinc advenae. Unde
compertum est urbem Romam externorum virtute crevisse. Quid enim Nerva pru-
dentius aut moderatius ? Quid Trajano divinius ? Quid praestantius Adriano ? "
3 After Hadrian's accession two reports prevailed, as we learn from Dion Cassius,
Spartian, and other historians, about this emperor's adoption by Trajan : one that
Trajan really adopted him very shortly before his death ; the other that the adop
tion was falsely asserted by Trajan's wife Plotina, and forged letters of adoption, as
by Trajan's order, sent by her to the Senate. In my Vindiciae, pp. Ill — 113, I
have fully discussed the existing historical evidence on the question, and given rea
sons for my own decided leaning to the former. One thing however is certain ; viz.
that both the Roman Senate and people recognized the adoption as valid, and in
consequence accepted Hadrian as emperor. — The other three adoptions were public
and notorious.
4 In the following inscription, found on an ancient stone in Milan, and given by
Montfaucon in his Supplement, Antiquities of Italy, p. 18, the names of all the five

136 apoc. vi. 2. [part i.
medals and other extant memorials of antiquity illustrate
to us, taking the name of his predecessor in virtue of the
adoption.1 Thus, according to the well-defined Eoman
law of adoption, all were reckoned as of Nerva's family ; 2
he being the head of the line. — And what Nerva's own
national origin and extraction? In Dion Cassius we find
what is evidently an allusion to him, as an Italiot ;3 which
word will by a reader versed in the Greek language be well
understood to mean a colonist of Greek extraction, settled
in Italy.4 His exact Greek provincial origin, however, he
emperors may be considered as virtually thus associated together. For L. Aurelius
Verus was the adoptive brother of M. Aurelius.
Imperatori Caesari
L. Aurelio Vero
Aug. Armeniaco
Medico Parthico
Max. Trib. Pop. vii
Imp. iiii. Cos. iii. P. P.
Divi Antonini Pii
Divi Hadriani Nepoti
Divi Trajani Parthici Pronepoti
Divi Nervae Abnepoti
Dec. Dec.
i. e. " To the Emperor L. Aurelius, &c, son to the divine Atttonine, grandson to
the divine Hadrian, great grandson to the divine Trajan, great great grandson to the
divine Nerva." Decreto Decurionum. — Two similar inscriptions with the nepote,
pronepote, and abnepote, attached to M. Antoninus, will be found in Canina's Foro
Romano, pp. 192, 193.
1 Alike in histories, medals, and marbles, we find Trajan called Nerva Trajan,
Hadrian called Trajan Hadrian, Antoninus Pius called JElius Hadrian Antoninus,
and M. Aurelius called M. Aurelius Antoninus. So Tacitus Agric. 3 ; Capitolinus
Vit. Anton. Phil. 1, 5, 7 ; Vaillant, pp. 126, 141, 165, 171, 176, &c. See the cita
tions in my Vindiciae, p. 115.
2 "The effect of adoption was to create the legal relation of father and son, just
as if the adopted son were born of the blood of the adoptive father in lawful mar
riage. The adopted child was entitled to the name and sacra privata of the adopt
ing parent." Smith's Diet, of Antiquities in voc. Adoption. — Compare e. g. the
words of Galba to Piso, when adopting him, given in Tacitus, Hist. i. 15.
3 He says, lxviii. 4, that Trajan was the first emperor that was aAAoeBvns, or
altogether foreign ; being of purely Spanish parentage, always settled in Spain, and
himself actually born out of Italy : also how Nerva did not overlook his merits, be
cause he was thus Spanish, and neither an Italian nor an Italiot, iri \Bi\p i Tpatavos,
aAA' ovk lTaAos ouS' I t a A t u r t\ s : i.e. not Italian, as all the former emperors
except Nerva : nor Italiot, as Nerva himself. The allusion is plain. Compare
Aurelius Victor before quoted.
4 So Ammonius distinguishes between lraAos and ItoAiccttjs, StKeAos and 3<Ke\iw-
Ti]S. IraAot Kat IraAturat Siaipepovoi. IraAoi pev yap oi apx"1!^ xwPav otKOvvres'
IraAiurat Se inoaot ruv 'EAAnvuv eiruKijoav pera Tavra. To avro Kat eirt tuv 2ik€-
Aiutuv. He is quoted to this effect by Reimar on the passage in Dion Cassius. So
too the Scholiast on Thucydides v. 5 ; Duker ibid. iv. 58, 64 ; and also Matthiae in his
Greek Grammar, § 103, on Nomina Gentilia. Reimar illustrates by a quotation
from Lucian ; who, speaking of Pythagoras, says ; IraAtuTns SoKei rts etvai, tuv ap.fi
Kpuruva Kai Tapavra Kai ri\v Tavrp *EA\a5a.

CHAP. 1. J THE FIRST SEAL. 137
does not mention. But Aurelius Victor supplies the omis
sion. He tells us,1 (and most of our best-known modern
historians of the earlier emperors ofEome repeat the state
ment,2) that Nerva was, in respect of family extraction, a
Cretan.3 Yes ! the meaning of the bow in the rider's hand is now
indeed manifest. And how admirable, beyond what the
most learned of human artists or scholars would have de
vised, appears the point and the comprehensiveness of this
device of the Divine Spirit ! Had a javelin or a sword
been in the hand of the rider, so as Vitringa would have
had it, in case of his representing Eoman emperors, the
weapon carried would have added precisely nothing either
to the meaning or the distinctness of the hieroglypic : the
crown sufficing to designate emperors ; and the javelin and
the sword, although appropriate, not being distinctive of
them. But by the addition of the bow (the bow held in
hand, observe, before the crown was given him) there was
prefigured the very provincialism of the family to which
(first of any families not of Italian origin) the empire
within a year from after the visions in Patmos was destined
to be committed : and under which, in a measure quite un
precedented, the symbolic horse was to assume and to re
tain the white colour; the Eoman nation to flourish in pros
perity; and in its wars, both at first and whenever after-
1 The passage from Victor Aurelius quoted p. 135 Note ' supra, goes on, " Quid
enim Nerva Cretensi prudentius ? "
2 So, for example, Tillemont, ad ann. 96 : " Nerva etoit originaire de Crete par
ses ancetres, mais ne" a Narni dans l'Ombrie. C'est le premier empereur qui ne fut
pas Romain ou Italien d'origine." And so too, after him, Crevier.
Again the Ancient Univ. Hist. Vol. xv. p. 104 : " Nerva was a native of Narni in
Umbria ; but his family came originally from the island of Crete : so that he was
neither by birth a Roman, nor descended from an Italian family."
And the Encycloptedia Metropolitana, Art. Nerva Augustus : " The Flavian family
left the throne of Augustus to the descendant of a Cretan colonist."
On an interesting medallic illustration and corroboration of this fact, see my Ap
pendix to this Volume, No. 2.
3 Nerva's great grandfather would seem to have been the first of his ancestry that
was dignified by Roman honors; he having been consul U.C. 718, some 35 years
before the Christian aera. See Tillemont ibid. But this settlement of the family in
Italy would not prevent the memorial being kept up of its early Cretan origin. Com
pare the parallel case of the Emperor Hadrian. He had in like manner a great
grandfather, ennobled, first of the family, as senator at Rome. Yet in a memoir of
himself he tells of his ancestral origin as Spanish. See Spartian's Hadrian, c. 1.

138 apoc. vi. 3. [part i.
wards occurring, to realize the predicted destiny of con
quering and to conquer.1

CHAPTEE II.
THE SECOND SEAL.
The second Seal is opened ; and behold, on the second
living creature's voice like thunder, the white horse has
past from view, that symbol of the Eoman nation in joyous
prosperity and triumph : and another, a red horse, passes
over the scene before the eyes of the Evangelist ; depict
ing it a under the different colour of war and bloodshed.3
But what the kind of bloodshed ? The explanatory words
that were added defined it to be that of civil war : —
" There went forth another horse red;* and to him who
sate thereon it was given to take peace [tyjv eipyvrp, the
peace left by the former seal]5 from the [Eoman] earth, and
that they should kill one another." — And whose the causal
agency in the matter ? It was indicated to be those whose
fitting and distinctive badge was the sword-bearing : "And
there was given unto him [the rider] a great sword."6
1 St. John, as Irenseus tells us, (B. iii. ad init.) "lived to the times of Trajan ; "
and so was himself a living witness of the commencing fulfilment of the Apocalyptic
prophecy. In like manner, the similarly beloved and favoured Daniel lived to see
the destruction of Babylon, and the supremacy and decree of Cyrus ; and in them
the commencing fulfilment of the prophecies of the future revealed to him.
2 It has been objected by Mr. Faber that the horse being aAAoi i7nroj, another
horse, it ought to designate another and different nation or empire, from that sym
bolized by the horse of the 1st Seal. But in Gen. xii. 3, 19, we read of seven fat
kine first appearing in vision, and then afterwards seven other lean kine. Yet the
latter we know, depicted the cattle not of another land than Egypt, but of the same
land, only in a new and different state.
3 Xlvppos, fiery ; or, as it is often explained, bloody. So Hermas (B. i. Vision iv.
chap, iii.) " The fiery and bloody colour; " and Epiphanius on the sardine stone in
the Apocalyptic vision, Xlvpuiros ru eiSei Kat diparoeiSris. — The epithet might be ex
plained either actively or passively. In Hesiod's description of Mars, Atpari tpotviKoets
Stare faovs evapt^uv, it has an active force, significative of the blood-shedder. Else
where it is used passively, or neutrally, of the persons whose blood has been shed.
So I conceive here, after the analogy of the other Seals. — Thus Christian con
fessors who witnessed unto blood were called rubri. Maitland's Catacombs, p. 83.
4 The special color of the horse sacred to Mars : " russeum [equum] Marti con-
secraverunt." Tertull. de Spectac. c. 9.
5 When peace (eipiji/rj) is meant in the abstract, or without speciality of reference,
it is usually without the article. So e. g. Matt. x. 34, " Think not that I came
BaAeiv eiprpnpi, to send peace. &c ; " and in many other passages, which the reader
will find on turning to a Greek Concordance.
* Kai ire i\vott,e tt\v oippayitia tt\v Sevrepav, nKovaa rov Sevrepov guov AeyovTos,

CHAP. 1I.J THE SECOND SEAL. 139
We ask then, was there any strongly marked new sera
and change, accordant with this figuration, in the history of
the Eoman empire ; following next after the sera of the
first Seal, and through such a causal agency ? — These are
on this head our two points of enquiry.
1. As to the former let us turn, as before, to Gibbon
for an answer. And on consulting his pages what find we ?
We find the bright period above-described (a period includ
ing, as we have seen, the triumphant peace made with the
Germans after Aurelius' death by his son Commodus, and
the first few years of Commodus' reign following, in which
he governed well, while acting, " as by a kind of tradition,"
on his father's principles and arrangements,1) we find this
period, I say, followed in his narrative — by what ? Just
by the breaking up of the state of national prosperity
and peace, (correspondently with the sacred symbolization,)
through the evil, not of foreign invasion, but of civil wars,
revolution, and bloodshedding : an evil begun to be prepared
immediately after 185, as we shall presently see, by the mal
administration of Commodus; and which outbroke in vio
lence a.d. 193 on the assassination of that emperor.2
From which epoch it still continued, with scarce more
than two intervals of intermission, some eighty or ninety
years onward, even until the accession of Diocletian : hav
ing however, in the course of this long period, been joined
and aggravated by certain fresh evils, internal and exter
nal, at two well-defined intervening epochs; of which aggra
vations more in my two next ensuing Chapters, as being
the subjects of the third and fourth Seals respectively.3
It may be well to glance in rapid view at the detail, for
the first fifty or sixty years at least, of these civil wars,
and mutual attendant slaughters. — The immediate sequel
then of Commodus' assassination first mentioned, was the
%pXov. Kat el-ijA&ev aAAos liriros irvppos' Kat tu Ka&i\p.evu eir' avrov eSodij avrtp AaBeiv
tijv eipijvnv eK ttis yns, Kai iva aAAijAovs a$a£ovaf Kat eSoBii avru paxaipa peyaAi/.
1 So Niebuhr's Lectures on Roman History (Schmitz' Ed.) ii. 289.
• The epoch is noted by Montesquieu, as well as Gibbon : also by Schlegel in his
Philosophy of History, Heeren, Denina, and Sismondi ; as will appear from subse
quent notices in this chapter.
3 The overrunning of one element of evil, prefigured in one vision, into the periods
of others figuring other fresh evils, is what I intimated at p. 1 14 Note *, as a thing
reasonable to be expected ; and which indeed in real life perpetually happens.

140 apoc Vi. 3. [part i.
elevation of Pertinax to the Imperial throne, and within a
month or two after, his murder : J then the setting up of
Julian as his successor, and the civil wars consequent, pro
longed for four "years, and ranging from East to West over
the extent of the empire, through which the elder Severus
fought his way to the throne ; a throne established on the
defeat and slaughter successively of the three rival empe
rors, Julian, Niger, and Albinus.2 — Next, after an interval
of repose throughout the remainder of Severus' reign,
wherein, however, " although the wounds of civil war lap-
peared healed, yet its mortal poison still lurked in the vitals
of the constitution," 3 and indeed, by Severus' aggrandize
ment of the causal agency of the evil, (of which more pre
sently,) a preparation was made for all its subsequent aggra
vation, — next after this, I say, followed the murder of his
one son and successor Geta by the other Caracalla, and
soon after of the latter by Macrinus, in the camp of Carr-
hse by the Euphrates : * then, and in consequence, the
civil war which crushed Macrinus, and raised Elagabalus
to the throne : 5 then Elagabalus' assassination at Eome : 6
then, — after a second interval of partial, and but partial
repose, during the thirteen years of the reign of his succes
sor the second Severus,7 — the murder of that well-inten
tioned prince in the camp by the Ehine : 8 then the civil
wars, raised against his murderer and successor Maximin,
wherein the two emperors of a day, the Gordians, father
and son, perished in Africa,9 and Maximin himself, and
his son, fell by assassination in the siege of Aquileia: 10
then the murder at Eome of the two joint emperors Max-
imus and Balbinus next set up by the Senate;11 and, quickly
after, that of their associate in the empire, the third and
youngest Gordian, on the banks of a river of other and
holier associations, the river Chaboras :12 then the slaughter
of the next emperor Philip, the last that I shall particu
larize, together with his son and associate in the empire,
in the battle near Verona ; which, in the year A.D. 249,
1 Gibbon, i. 165. 2 Ib. 183—195. 3 Ib. 198.
4 Gibbon i. 214, 221. • Ib. 230. 6 Ib. 239. 1 Seep. 144.
8 Gibbon i. 276. 9 Ib. 289. 10 Ib. 299. " Ib. 304.
12 Ib. 309. — It was by the same river Chaboras, or Chabor, that Ezekiel saw some
of the most glorious of his visions. Ezek. i. 1, x. 15, &c.

CHAP. IT.] THE SECOND SEAL. 141
as above mentioned, decided the civil war between himself
and Decius.1 — Can the history of any empire on record
present in any other sexagenarian period such an exempli
fication of what the Apocalyptic prophecy before us pre
figured ; viz. peace being taken from the empire, and men
killing one another ? — Much more would the case seem
unparalleled, were we, like Sismondi, to trace the evil some
twenty or thirty years yet further forward ; after it had
been conjoined and aggravated by the fresh evil of wars of
foreign invading foes : a subject which ¦ belongs however
more properly to our fourth Seal. It may suffice to give in
brief his more extended summary. Says he ; " With Com
modus' death commenced the third and most calamitous
period  It lasted ninety-two years, from 192 to 284.
During that time thirty-two emperors, and twenty-seven
pretenders to the empire, alternately hurled each other
from the throne by incessant civil warfare. Ninety-two
years of nearly incessant civil warfare taught the world on
what a frail foundation the virtue of the Antonines had
reared the felicity of the empire."
2. Next, what the causal agency ? — And, in a general
way, the Apocalyptic symbol seemed to designate it as the
military; the rider of the red horse having, it is said, a great
sword given him. For the sword was a natural, nearly uni
versal, and in St. John's time well-recognized and distinc
tive badge among the Eomans, of the military profession :2

1 Gibbon i. 385.
2 So Statius, Domitian's cotemporary and friend, in his Silvae, v. 2. 177, thus ad
dresses the young Crispinus, dn his first receiving from the emperor a commission
in the army ; " Felix cui primum tradit Germanicus ensem : " an expression the
same in sense as that in verse 165, " qui aquilas tibi nunc et castra recludit." See
Barthe's Note on the passage ; who speaks of it as agreeable to the Roman custom,
" ut nemo sua, sed Principis aut militaris alicujus Praefecti auctoritate, gladium
cingat." Let me also give the following from Pitiscus' Lexicon Antiq. Roman, on the word
gladius. " Nemini praeter militibus gladio moribus Romanis licebat incedere .- "
. . . . " et his concessum fuisse existimo eos qui milites non essent, tali aliquo
cinctos prodire visos, exarmare." In proof of which latter statement he adduces the
following passage from Petronius ch. 42. " Haec locutus gladio cingor latus, mox
in publicum prosilio. . . . Notavit me miles : et, Quid tu, inquit, commilito. Ex qua
legione es, aut cujus centurice ? Cum constantissime et centurionem et Iegionem essem
ementitus, Age ergo, inquit ille; in exercitu vestro phcecasiati milites ambulant?
Cum deinde vultu atque ipsa trepidatione mendacium prodidissem, me ponere arma
jussit." (Petronius, I may observe, was a writer in the reign of the Emperor Gor-

142 apoc vi. 3. [part i.
while its strange and unnaturally large size in the Apoca
lyptic figure x indicated further an undue authority now
given to, and undue and unnatural use made of it.2 Pre
cisely accordant with which appears the fact, on the very
surface of history, as to the origin of the sad events we speak
of: the causal agent of the civil insurrections and blood
shed being as Sismondi and others state,3 from first to last
military men; those whose vocation was war, whose weapon
the sword, and who by the sword rose, and by the sword
fell. — The manner in which, throughout the favoured pe
riod of our first Seal, the license of the soldiery was re
strained, and its mighty power kept in subordination to the
magistrate, and used only in defence of the country and of
order, is one of the chief topics of praise attaching to the
great emperors of the second century. Then the law was
supreme, the sword of the army its enforcer, the civil ma
gistracy sustained in their functions, the Senate's high
authority recognized ; and, as regards the Imperial dignity
itself, the choice left with the Senate, the approval only
with the armies.4 — But with Commodus began the fatal
change. It may be first dated from the epoch of his ex
alting Perennis, commander of the Praetorian Guards, and
dian; and consequently of the period of the second Apocalyptic Seal.) — To much
the same effect is Eckhel' s notice of the parazonium, or short sword held in the
hand on Roman coins. " Certi esse possumus hoc aut praedicari virtutem, aut
militare in alios imperium." He cites Martial on the parazonium :
Militiae decus hoc, et grati nomen honoris :
Arma tribunicium cingere digna latus.
1 The word ptaxatpa here used means properly a small sword ; such as in fact the
Roman sword was, in comparison of that of various other nations. Hence in the
figure of a great paxaipa a something of unnatural or illegitimate size seems indicated.
2 So Sophocles in his Antigone, v. 1 27 ; Zeus yap peyaAqs yAuirans Kop.irovs
virepexBaipef an undue, improper, and too large use of the tongue being indicated by
the figurative phrase a large tongue.
3 So Sismondi, in the extract partially given by me in the preceding p. 141 : —
" The third and most calamitous period; that which we have characterized as
the period of upstart soldiers of fortune who usurped the imperial power. It lasted
92 years, &c."
So too Heeren, speaking of Commodus' assassination; "This was the first com
mencement of that dreadful military despotism, which forms the ruling character of
this period." Manual of History, p. 433. (Engl. Transl.) — And again Montesquieu,
who thus contrasts this and the preceding aera. " La sagesse de Nerva, la gloire de
Trajan, la valeur d'Adrien, la vertu des deux Antonins, se firent respecter des soldats.
Mais lorsques de nouveaux monstres prirent leur place, I'abus du gouvernement mili-
taire parut dans tout son exces ; et les soldats qui avoint vendu l'empire assassin-
erent les empereurs : &c."
4 " The emperor was elected by the authority of the Senate, and the consent of
the soldiers." Gibbon i. 118. — See too Montesquieu in the Note preceding.

CHAP. II.] THE SECOND SEAL. 143
then Cleander his successor, to despotic authority at Eome
and in the state ; not without military insurrections, civil
strife, and bloodshedding, even then as its accompaniments:1
indeed this seems well to answer to the figure of a great
sword being put into the hand of the rider of the second
Apocalyptic horse. — Next, as to the immediate effect of the
murder of Commodus by the Prefect Laetus,2 and the Prae
torians' consequent sale of the empire, as their right, it was
not merely, according to the prophecy, " to take peace" on
that occasion "from the earth," and cause " mens' killing one
another," but also to manifest in a way never to be forgotten
the supremacy of what Gibbon, writing on the precise sub
ject, in very illustrative language calls " the power of the
sword : " 3 and so to inculcate on both themselves, and their
fellow soldiers on the frontiers, the lesson of improving that
supremacy to their own advantage. — And then, after the
civil wars between the several rival armies, which by almost
necessary consequence thereupon followed, and the esta
blishment of the chief of the successful one, S. Severus,
on the throne, what the policy of that emperor, during
the remaining 13 or 14 undisturbed years of his reign? It
was directed, — not, as in the age of the Antonines, to the
curbing of the license of the military, and restoring the
Senate and the civil magistracy to their proper station,
authority, and independence ; but to the rivetting upon
the empire, and strengthening, and perpetuating of the sys
tem of pure military despotism. The licentious Praeto
rians that overawed Eome were quadrupled.4 The prime
ministry of state, with authority over the whole civil as well
as military administration, was attached by him systemati
cally and de jure, as it had been by Commodus de facto,
to the Praetorian Praefecture: an office which thencefor
ward consequently, as it has been remarked by Montesquieu
and Denina, came yet more to resemble that of a Turkish
Grand Visier ;5 and in which, for seven out of those four-
1 See my sketch of Commodus' reign, after Perennis' elevation, in this point of
view, in my Vindicise pp. 123 — 130. 2 Conjunctively with Marcia and Electus.
3 Gibb. i. 167. This is on the opening of his Chapter about the Praetorians'
public sale of the empire, after the assassination of Commodus.
4 In a Letter still extant he himself complains of their license. Gibb. i. 199.
5 Montesquieu sur la Grandeur ch. 16 and 17 ,- Denina Rivoluzioni d'ltalia, Book
iii. c. 3. — Denina's primary date is from the increase of the power of the Praetorian

144 apoc vi. 3. [part i.
teen years, Plautian made Eome tremble.1 The Senate
he despised and degraded, nor would allow of any such
" intermediate power between himself and his army." 2
And true in death, as in life, to the system, he bequeathed
his maxim of ruling by the sword, as the one grand prin
ciple of government, to his son Caracalla; "Enrich the
soldiery ; despise the people : " 3 — a maxim well remem
bered and acted on by Caracalla ; and which soon issued, as
might have been anticipated, in a succession of revolutions,
civil wars, and imperial murders, worse even than before.4
Says Gibbon ; " The dissolute tyranny of Commodus, the
civil wars occasioned by his death, and the new maxims too
of policy introduced by the house of Severus, all con
tributed to increase the dangerous power of the army."5
So that, in fine, the civil wars, murders, and insurrec
tions before Severus' accession, must be viewed as con
nected in one with those after his death, by his use of
the intervening thirteen or fourteen years for the aggran
dizement of that which was the causal agency of both : in
other words, (reverting to the Apocalyptic figure,) by his
enlargement of the sword in the hand of the mystic rider
of the red horse, in order to his more effectually carrying
out the destiny assigned him, " to take peace from the
earth, and that men should kill one another." — As to the
younger Severus' ineffective efforts at reform, they did but
aggravate the evil they were intended to cure. The army
murdered him.6 — And then what next? Says Mon
tesquieu of the state of things immediately following;
" What in that age was called the Eoman empire was a
Praefect de facto by Commodus, A. D. 185. " Allora," he says, "la Praefectura Pne-
toriana commincio a comprendere, come di propria ragion, tutta l'administrazione
dell' impero, cosi civile che militare, come il gran Vi&irato appresso gli lmperatori
Ottomani." Severus attached this power to them de jure. — Gibbon dwells much
on the increase of their power Dy Sulp. Severus, who augmented the numbers of the
Praetorians from 16,000 to 50,000. Vol. i.p. 200.
1 See the sketch given of Plautian's administration in Dion Cassius lxxv. 14 — 16,
lxxvi. 2 ; or its abstract in my Vindiciae pp. 135, 136. Also Gibbon i. 200.
2 Gibbon 4. 201.
3 Tovs ffrpaTiuras irAovnfrere, tuv aAAuv iravruv Karaippovetre. Dion Cass, lxxvi. 1 5.
4 Montesquieu, Grand, et Decad. c. 16. He thus contrasts the nature and the
results of Adrian's and Sevel'us' policy respecting the soldiery. " Des deux grands
empereurs, Adrien et Severe, l'un e'tablit la discipline militaire, et l'autre la relacha. -
Les effets repondirent aux causes. Les regnes qui suivirent celui d' Adrien furent
heureux et tranquilles ; aprts Severe on vit regner toutes les horreurs."
s i. 254. « See Gibbon i. 249 ; also Dion Cass. lxxx. 2, 4.

CHAP. II.] THE SECOND SEAL. 145
kind of irregular republic, not unlike the aristocracy of
Algiers, where the militia, possessed of the sovereignty,
creates and deposes a magistrate styled a Dey. . . . What
was the emperor, except the minister of a violent govern
ment, elected for the private benefit of the soldiers? . .The
army exercised the supreme magistracy." x And Sismondi ;
" The sovereignty had passed into the hands of the
legions." 2
In a state of things like this it was to be expected, of
course, that it would be for the most part the commander
of one or another army that would be put forward as its
candidate for the imperial office ; and, if successful, consti
tute the representative and impersonation, for the time
being, of the military dominancy. Such in fact was the
case very generally in the Eoman civil wars of the century
between Commodus and Diocletian. Instead of their arising
out of strife between members of previously reigning royal
families, on questions of disputed succession, so as in most
of the civil wars noted in the histories of modern Europe,3
it is the generals of Eoman armies that figure most pro
minently on the arena ; whether as the nominees of the
Praetorians, or of some other army. — And perhaps this very
class of persons may be judged to-have been specially indi
cated in the Apocalyptic figuration : considering the facts
both of the sword-bearer there exhibited being depicted as
on horseback, and moreover the presentation of the sword
made to him apparently as in public. For, when thus so
lemnly acted out before the Eoman world,- the presentation
of a sword, (which might otherwise have been simply a gene
ral designation of the military profession,) implied that there
was to be the official bearing of it : and this bearing of it
signified, not the mere general military duty of wielding
it against the foe, but the right of judicially using it ;
(the^'ws gestandi, as the Eoman law expressed it, implying
and signifying the jus exercendi : *) and this against mili
tary criminals, as well as citizens. For, it is to be observed,
there was a long distinction 5 between the sword-badge,
1 Grand, et Decad. c. 16, 17. 2 P- i- 37.
3 So e. g. in the case of the long-continued wars of the rival roses in England.
4 So the old rule is exprest in Justiniafa's later Digest of Roman Law, Lib. i. Tit. 18.
5 In the 3rd century the phrase jus gladii became a less distinctive one; being
VOL. I. L

146 apoc vi. 3. [part i.
thus worn by the one functionary now spoken of, and the
axe carried by lictors before another. The latter symbol
ized power over the lives of Eoman citizens only, the for
mer over the lives of Eoman soldiers ; 1 whether distinc
tively, or conjointly with the civil judicial power also. The
emperors themselves, of course, by their imperatoria potes-
tas, as first established under Augustus, and perpetuated
under succeeding emperors, had in its fullest sense the
power of the sword, including all capital jurisdiction, both
military and civil : 2 and, in token of it, they were wont to
wear about them the badge I speak of ', a small sword ; whether
borne in hand, in front, or at the side.3 They esteemed the
military part of the authority it symbolized as one of their
highest imperatorial prerogatives. And so jealous were
they of it, that for Eome itself and Italy * they delegated
the power to but one individual, viz. the commander or
Praefect of their own Praetorian guard, in the fortified
camp just outside the city walls : 5 and moreover in the
provinces entrusted it not to the Senatorian Proconsuls,
but only to their own Military Lieutenants ; (those to whose
care were assigned the provinces least settled, and which
consequently required and maintained a large military force
resident ; ) functionaries appointable and removable at the
emperor's sole pleasure.6 In either case it was the delivery
of the sword-badge into their hand that marked the dele
gation of this power of the sword. Thus while the sena-
then applied sometimes to supreme jurisdiction, with power of life and death, merely
over citizens. The sword-badge however continued to be still military.
1 See Note 2 p. 147 for illustration. 2 See Gibbon i. 102, with the context.
3 In Montfaucon, iv. 11, Augustus is sketched with one. So Suetonius of Galba,
c. 1 1 ; " Iter ingressus est paludatus, ac dependente a cervicibus pugione ante pectus : "
and of Vitellius, c. 15, "Solulum i latere pugionem consuli primum, deinde illo re-
cusante magistratibus, ac mox senatoribus singulis porrigens, nullo recipiente, quasi
in aede Concordiae positurus abscessit." This was on his abjuring the imperial office ;
and is noted, with an explanatory remark, by Tacitus also, Hist. iii. 68 ; " Adsistenti
consuli exsolutum a. latere pugionem, velut jus necis viloeque civium, reddebat.
4 So Dion. Cass. liii. 13 says of Augustus ; ra ovopara ro re rov aTparriyov Kai to
to« virarov ev rn I t a A i iy ernpncre. And as the Praetorian Prefect was the acting
delegate of this his important power in Rome, so I presume for all Italy also ; there
being within Italy no other delegate.
5 This Praetorian Guard, as first instituted by Augustus, consisted of some 10,000
men ; but it had been increased in Vitellius' time to 16,000. Tiberius fixed it in a
fortified camp, to overawe the city, just outside the walls, near the Porta Viminalis ;
of which camp remains are still seen on the broad prolonged summit of the Viminal
Hill. See Gibbon i. 168. A sketch of the Pratorian Camp, as designed by Ligorio
from the ruins remaining in the 16th century, is given in Montfaucon, iv. 83.
0 Like the Legati of the ancient Proconsuls of the Republic.

CHAP. II.] THE SECOND SEAL. 147
torian Proconsul, when entering on his provincial govern
ment, had but the badge of lictors attendant, with the rod
and axe intertwined as of old in their fasces,1 it was the
custom for the Imperial Lieutenant, on appointment to his
province, publicly to receive and assume the military sword,
as well as cloak, outside the pomaerium of Eome ; (where
also on the termination of his office he laid them down : 2)
and for the home general, or Preetorian Prefect, on his ap
pointment to office, to be similarly invested with the sword
by the emperor within the city walls. The memorable
words used by Trajan on one such occasion, " Use this for
me, if I rule well ; if not, against me ; 3 " will be remem
bered by the classical scholar as one illustration of the cus
tom. And the scriptural reader will not forget another
and different illustration of it in St. Paul; when thus writing
1 Koi avBvrrarovs KaAeifrBat, '. . . fiaBSovx0 is re otpas xP7l<J^aL • ¦ * eKeAevae.
Dion Cass. ib. 13. So too Gibbon, after him, i. 103.
2 After speaking of the senatorially appointed avBviraroi, as in the Note preceding,
Dion Cassius proceeds to notice the avrtarpaTiryovs, or Propraetors, appointed by
the emperor. And he speaks of the latter as rnv re orpaTiuTiicnv aroAnv tpopovvras,
Kai £ i <p o s, ols ye Kai orpaTiuras biKatuaai e\eanv, exovias' whereas the former
were neither £i<pos rrapaguvvvpevovs, nor oTpaTiurtKy eaBr\rt xpuP-evov5' adding, in
explanation, AAAu yap ovSevi, oure avBviraru, ovre avTuxrpari\yu, ovre eiriTpoiru, ^itpi}-
ipopeiv StSorat, u p-n Kai orpariurnv riva airoKreivat e£eivat vevopitrrat. He further
states that these badges of the Imperial Lieutenant's office, tijj apxns eirtoiipa, were
only to be assumed by them, on appointment, outside of the pomaerium of
Rome ; and to be instantly laid down on the cessation of office.
This power of the sword, over soldiers as well as people, given to the imperial
Lieutenants, appears to have been very much the same with that given to the Pro
consuls in their several provinces under the old Republic. Thus Niebuhr, speaking
of the settlement of the first Roman Province, Sicily, observes thus in his Lectures,
i. 140 : " After the peace which terminated the first Punic war, Sicily was consti
tuted as a Roman Province. This was a new system ; and Sicily was the first
country to which it was applied. A Province, in the Roman sense of the word, was
a country in which a Roman general, either during the time of his magistratus curu-
lis, or (in case of his year of office having elapsed) during the time for which his
imperium was prolonged, exercised Over his soldiers, as well as over the inhabitants
of the country, the same power as in times of war, by virtue of the lex de imperio."
3 " Cum insigne potestatis, uti mos erat, pugionem daret." So Victor in his
Life of Trajan : also Plin. Paneg. 67; and Dion Cassius lxviii. 16.
On the passage from Pliny Bernegger has the note following : " Praefecti prae-
torio, praeter alia, insigne erat gladius, vel ensis, aut pugio (£k(>oj) , quo donari atque
accingi solebat k principe ; quern nonnunquam et ipsi gerebant imperatores. Si-
quidem soli principes et praefecti prcetorio Romce usum gladii habebant. Reliqui
magistratus togati erant. Eo autem merum imperium, et jus vitae ac necis civium,
ipsis tribuebatur : cujus nota et signum gladius. Hinc. . . . gladium ponere est prae-
fectura praetorii se abdicare : ut Tigellinus apud Plutarch, in Galba." — In which Note
however Bernegger seems to me to have overlooked the original and more proper
power indicated by the sword-bearing, as Dion explains it, viz. the power of life and
death over the soldiery ; noting only that over the citizens, which soon came to be
included also. — The old jurisdiction of the Praetor in criminal cases of life and death
was not indeed, I believe, ever formally abrogated ; but it was gradually superseded
by the superior dignity of the Imperial courts. L 2

148 apoc vi. 3. [part i.
to the Eomans, even like an eye-witness to eye-witnesses,
about a magistracy and magistrate of high authority there,
whether the emperor himself, or his prefect ; " He beareth
not the sword in vain." 1
Thus then, and considering further that alike the Prce-
torian Prefects at Eome, and the Imperial Lieutenants
commanding the legions in the provinces, were wont to
appear on horseback in their high offices,2 it seems to me
very possible that these might suggest themselves to the
mind of the Evangelist as the chief agency through which,
in the second aera prefigured, the Eoman military sword,
itself a small one,3 would become, as it were, of exagge
rated size and illegitimate use ; so as to take peace from
the Eoman earth, and redden the body politic with the
blood of civil carnage. And certainly it was to these, the
chief commanders of the Eoman military, that the civil
wars, insurrections, and bloodshed were often owing.
It was in the persons of the Praetorian Praefects under
Commodus, as we lately saw,4 that the military power was
first seen exalted to absolute supremacy with insurrec
tions and civil strife and bloodshed immediately resulting,
that told ominously of greater evils that were to come:
and in the murders both of Commodus, and of Pertinax,
(consequent on which latter was the Praetorians' sale of the
the empire to the highest bidder,) the Praefect Laetus had
a part.5 It was the three chiefest of the Imperial Lieute
nants in the provinces, Severus, Niger, and Albinus,6 that
led in the civil wars following. After which, alike in the
wars and murders consequent on the first Severus' death,
and in those too after the murder of the second Severus,

1 Rom. xiii. 4 ; ov yap etKi} rip/ paxaipav ipopei. In which passage we ought to
mark the piaxaipa, the same word for the sword as here, — the (pope t, — and the trans
ition from the plural, when speaking of apxovres, governors, to the singular, in
speaking of the sword-bearing magistrate in Rome. — Under this sword, shortly after,
St. Paul suffered martyrdom . It would seem that there were then two Praefects ;
appointed by Nero, pro illo vice, in place of Burrus. See Clement's Ep. c. 5, and
Jacobson's note on it.
* So the Consuls and Praetors under the old republic, to whom a horse was
assigned by the State. And so too similarly, (the old custom being kept up,) the
Propraetors and Proconsuls under the Imperial regime. See Note 6 p 118 supra.
» See the Note ' p. 142 supra. 4 See p. 143 supra.
5 Dion Cassius expressly states the prominent part acted by tortus in both cases.
'• Their provinces were Pannonia, Syria, Britain ; — -all imperial provinces.

CHAP. II.] THE SECOND SEAL. 149
each took their share in the deeds of blood.1 — Hence, I
say, it seems to me very possible that there may have been
a special reference in the Apocalyptic symbol to these re
presentatives of the military autocracy, established from the
time of Commodus. But the specific reference to them is
not essential. The symbolic sword-bearing rider may be
regarded, if we prefer it, simply and comprehensively, as
the impersonation of the military body, whose badge was
the sword ; inclusive alike of soldiery and commanders,
whether of the provincial armies or the Praetorians.2 The
historical application is in either case the same.
In conclusion let me beg to impress upon the reader that
the aera and the subject which I suppose here prefigured
was no aera or subject of small importance in the Eoman
history, pressed into the Apocalyptic expositor's service
for the occasion, and exaggerated for his purpose. The
aera and the evil has been most strongly marked, as we
have seen, by historians of the highest eminence ; 3 indeed
as strongly as the prosperous aera of Trajan and the Anto-
nines which immediately preceded it. The evil introduced
under Commodus into the body politic was one that acted
out its part on a mighty scale, both as to duration and as
to injurious effect, on the Eoman people. And it both pre
pared the way for, and indeed almost necessitated the se
quence of, other social and political evils; which soon joined
1 Macrinus, the assassin and successor of Caracalla, was a Praetorian Prefect. (It
is on this occasion that Gibbon writes, "The decisive weight of the Praetorian guards
elevated the hope of their Prefects ;.. .. who began to assert their legal claim to fill
the vacancy of the Imperial throne." i. 224.) Again, Elagabalus (Macrinus' successor)
was murdered in a sedition of the Prcetorian bands ; who were also afterwards the
murderers of Maximus and Balbinus. Moreover their Prefect Philip, acting on the
army generally, effected the conspiracy against the younger Gordian, in which that
emperor perished. — On the other hand Maximin, the murderer of Alexander Severus,
was one that held the first military command in a provincial army : and Decius, who
revolted against Philip, was an Imperial Lieutenant ; though as an extraordinary
functionary, and on an extraordinary mission to the Mcesian army. — After which, in
the times of the so-called thirty tyrants, the exemplifications are superabundant.
2 The Praetorians' subsequent history was this. Both in regard of number arid
powers, they were greatly reduced by Diocletian ; and by Constantine the whole
body suppressed, their camp destroyed, and their Prefects deprived of military autho
rity, and confined to civil functions. So Aurelius Victor, referred to by Gibbon,
ii. 161, 235.
3 See the testimonies of Sismondi, Heeren, Montesquieu, Denina, &c. cited at
pp. 142, 144 &c. supra. The subject is noted in much the same way too by Schlegel
in his Philosophy of History, ii. 34.

150 apoc. vi. 3. [part i.
with it, as we shall hereafter see, (agreeably with the 3rd
and 4th Seals' prefigurations,) in undermining the empire's
strength, and accelerating its decline. The " increase of
the dangerous power of the army," begun by " the disso
lute tyranny of Commodus," and augmented alike by " the
civil wars occasioned by his death," and " the policy" after
wards following of " the house of Severus," constituted, as
Gibbon expresses it, " an internal change which under
mined the foundations of the empire:"1 — and again ; "The
licentious fury of the Praetorian bands [i. e. against Per
tinax] was the first symptom and cause of the decline
of the Eoman empire."2 — And I cannot but think it remark
able that, as Tacitus, the greatest cotemporary historian of
the commencement of the 1st Seal's aera, has left his strong
testimony to the astonishing change to national happiness,
introduced with the new age under Nerva and Trajan,3 —
so Dion Cassius, the most eminent cotemporary historian
of the commencement of my 2nd Seal's aera, has left his
similar testimony to the evil change introduced under
Commodus. He speaks of his reign as one of change from
a golden age to one of iron :* paints in strong colouring the
military despotism and license then commencing, as the
grand evil of the times :5 and in telling of a conflagration
in Eome, just before Commodus's assassination, of mysteri
ous origin and terrible fury,6 — which, falling on the mag
nificent Temple of Peace by the Via Sacra, left it a ruin,7
and thence, crossing to the Palatine, ravaged the Imperial
Palace and its archives, inextinguishable by all the arts
and efforts of man,8— he adds that it was regarded as
1 i. 254 : a passage cited before in part, p. 144 supra. 2 i. 168.
3 See p. 123 supra, Note 3. 4 lxxi 36 : otto XP"0"^ BaoiAetas es otSi\pav.
5 See e. g. his observations lxx. 4.
6 Herodian, i. 14, says that it was caused either by lightning, or the eruption of
some volcanic subterranean flame. Oure yap opBpov irpovirap£aVTos, owe vefuv
aBpoiuBevrup, aeiopov Se oAiyov irpoyevopvov yi\s, ene OKi)irrov WKTup KarevexBevros,
eiTe koi irvpos iroBev eK tou aeurpov Stapivevros, irav to ttis Zipnvns repevos Kare(j>AexBil,
peytarov Kai KaMioroc yevopevov tuv ev rn iroAet epywv.
7 The temple had been built by Vespasian to receive his Jewish spoils. — The cele
brated physician Galen had a shop adjoining, and tells of its destruction. &voiv pev
e| outjjs [sc. irpayparetas^ tuv irpuruv B'BAiuv eKSoBevruv, eyKaraAeupBevruv Se ev
tii Kara rqv tepav iSov airoBnKy pera tuv a\Auv, i]viKa to ttjs Eipijnjs repevos iAov
ftiavthi, (cai Kara to iraAariov al peAio-rat B BAtoBiiKai. Tom. xiii. p. 362.
8 OuSe yap Karoo BeaBi\vat avBpuwtvji xe'PL ifiwnBii, says Dion, lxxii. 24, koitoi
trapiroAAuv pev tSturuv, wapiroAAuv Se orparturuv bSpoipopovvruv, Kai avrov rov Kop-
poSov eireABovros eK rov wpoaaTetov, Kat eiriotrepxovros .

CHAP. III. J THE THIRD SEAL. 151
ominous of the overthrow of peace that was to follow ; and
that " the evil would not be confined to the city, but would
extend to the whole Eoman world." x

CHAPTEE III.

THE THIRD SEAL.
" And when he opened the third seal 2 I heard the third
living creature say, Come ! And I beheld, and lo a black
horse ! and he that sat on him had in his hand a pair of
balances :3 and I heard as it were a voice in the midst of
the living creatures, saying, A chcenix of wheat for a
1 Ibid. So too Herodian. WLeytffrov re Setvov Kat rov irapovra Kaipov eAvicijo-e, Kat
irpos to p.eAAov oiuvtapan Kai <pauAo> avpBoAu xP&P-evovs iravras erapa^ev. And again ;
^vveBaAAovro re rives eK ruv KaTetAijipoTuv, troAepuv or\petov etvai rip/ rov veu tijs
Eipijvijs anwAetav. Ta yap OKoAovBijaovra. . . . eK tijs airo@ao"eas rrjv irpovirapxovoav
iprptriv eirio-TuBuTo. — The ruins of this Temple of Peace are still seen, looking across
the Via Sacra towards the Palatine.
2 Kat *OT6 ijvoi\e rr\v atppayiSa ttjv rpirtjv ijKovca rov rpnov £uov Aeyovros, Epxov.
Kat etSov Kai iSov liriros ixeAas, Kat i KaBijpevos eir avrov exuv £vyov ev tv xeiPl
avrov. Kat rjKovaa us tpuvnv ev petru ruv reiroapuv £uuv Aeyovaav' Xotpt£ onov
bfivaptuv, Kai rpeis x°iviKes KpiQuv Sijvapiov' Kat To eAaiov Kat rov otvov pi] aSlKljffljs.
3 So, and I doubt not correctly, in our authorized English translation ; the word in
the original being gvyos. — However, Woodhouse and others after him would trans
late it, after its other signification, a yoke : observing that it is always so used in the
New Testament ; and that where it is meant to signify a pair of balances, there is
generally added some other word in the context to suggest that meaning as intended.
Now surely, as regards the latter remark, one might have thought that the accom
paniment of the word chcenix would have been precisely all that the Dean needed,
to determine him in favour of the meaning of balances in the passage before us.
As regards theformer, if other words had been used in the New Testament in the
sense of balances, to the exclusion of gvyos, the argument would have had weight in
proportion to the frequency of those instances. But the truth is, there is no men
tion of balances in one single passage in the New Testament, unless it be in this.
So that the value of the argument is just nothing.
As conclusions of no little importance have been built in part on the critical pro
priety of substituting the word yoke for balances in the translation of this clause, it
may be useful to enter a little more fully into the Lexicographical question.
There are five words in Greek that signify a balance ; rpvraviji raAavrov, araBfuov,
araBpjts, and gvyos. Of these none being used, as before observed, in the New Tes
tament, (except it be in this passage,) it becomes us next to enquire what is their
use in the Septuagint. And the answer is that rpvravij is never used at all in it ;
that toAoitoc and aiaBpiov, though used, are only used in the sense of a weight
(the latter answering to the Hebrew ]DN a stone) ; that the use of oraBpos also is
confined all but constantly to the same sense of a weight; it beingthe usual rendering
of the Hebrew /pIBfo, and having the meaning of a balance once only, viz. in
Isaiah xl. 12, where a second word, beside the usual one, was needed in that sense.
The usual, I may say the constant, word in the Septuagint for balance is gvyos ;

152 apoc vi. 5, 6. [part i.
denarius, and three choenixes of barley for a denarius ; and
see that thou hurt not [or rather, I conceive, that thou
wrong not in regard to~\ 1 the oil and the wine."
The intent of the figuration in this Seal is less obvious
than in the two former, and will require some considerable
thought and attention. Let us then 1st consider the usually
received, but, as will appear, incorrect solution ; next,
2ndly, apply ourselves to seek one more correct and satis
factory. T. A famine of the chief articles of food (whether lite
rally taken or metaphorically) has been supposed by nearly
all interpreters to be denoted by it : their opinion being
grounded on these two suppositions ; — 1st that the chcenix
spoken of was the common small Attic chcenix ; 2ndly
that the specified prices for such a measure of wheat and
of barley was a famine price.
Now, as to the former of these suppositions, it is to be
observed that, though the Attic chcenix seems to have been
the best known and most extensively used in the Eoman
empire, yet there were other choenixes used in it also : —
not to add that the word is sometimes a designative of
measure in the general ;2 which generic sense however,
from the specifications of price given, is here of course
being so used some nine or ten times in it : — among others in the above-noted
passage from Isaiah, Tts earijoe to opij oraBpu, Kai ras vairas fryu; in Prov. xi. 1,
Zvyoi SoAiot, oraBptov Sikuiov ; in Ezek. xiv. 10, Zvyos SiKaios, pterpov Sixatov, xolvl£
SiKaia : where, as here, the x°"''l 's in association with it ; also in Levit. xix. 36,
Hos. xii. 7, &c. &c. Hence, if the idea of balances was intended to be expressed in
the passage before us, gvyos would be of all others the fittest word.
Thus a balance being a version of guyos as legitimate and authorized, in the sacred
as well as the classic writers, as that of a yoke, the associated notice of a measure in
the hieroglyphic, just as in that example above quoted from Ezekiel, might of itself
induce a preference of the former rendering. Besides which (and I would beg the
reader's attention to the fact), whereas in Roman usage, — to which usage, as we
have already seen, the apocalyptic symbols are strikingly conformed, — the balance-
holding was, as will be afterwards shewn, a very common symbol, that of a yoke-
holding was, if I am'not mistaken, altogether unknown. — Nor indeed is it so used
in Scripture. In Jeremiah xxvii. 2, andxxviii. 10, we have an example of the prophet
bearing upon his neck bonds and yokes, in type, passively, of the approaching oppres
sion and captivity of Judah ; but no where do we find the holding of a yoke in the
hand as a type, actively, of oppressing.
1 So Mede, ne sis injustus : also Junius, as Brightman states, and Daubuz, and
others. I shall give reasons afterwards in support of this reading.
2 So Scheidius in his edition of Lennep's Etymologicum Graecum ; " figuraomnis
excavata in quam aliquid infundi vel inseri potest." Similarly the Scholiast on
Aristophanes' Pluto, 276, calls it irav irepupepes. And in Ezek. xiv. 10 the Septua-

CHAP. III.] THE THIRD SEAL. 153
clearly out of the question. Already long ago Mr. Mede
observed on this variety of size in the ancient choenixes,
though not, I think, quite correctly or satisfactorily : x and
from a copious Essay on the subject in the Memoires de
l'Academie des Inscriptions,2 and notices about it in later
Treatises on the Greek and Eoman measures by Professor
Wurm and others,3 I infer it to be the general opinion of
the learned that there were three choenixes in use among
the Greeks and Eomans, of the value of 3, 4, and 8
cotylae, or half-pints, respectively :* the Attic, or most
common, being, as some would have it, a measure of 3
gint translators have used the word in this generic sense, Zvyos Stnaios, /cat perpov
StKaiov, Kai xnLVi£ Stxaia earu bpiv rov perpov. " Let there be among you a just
balance, and a just measure, (of length ? ) and a just chcenix."
1 His words are ; " Chcenix significat demensum diurnum, ijpeporpoipiSa, sed in-
certa admodum mensura. Variavit enim pro ratione gentium, locorum, et hominum.
Chcenix militaris (ut minores chcenices praetermittam opilionum, villicorum, vinito-
rum) quatuor fuit sextariorum. Sed veteri Lexicographo Grasco-Latino x0"''! est
semimodium, id est militaris duplum : imo Hellenistis, Ezek. xiv. 10, 11, xo""l est
bathus, amplissima Hebraeorum mensura." (In Apoc. p. 444.) — Thus the measure
of the Attic and best known chcenix is not at all particularized by Mede. — As to
his " old Lexicographer," we ask, Who is he? and what the value of his authority,
for the statement of there having been a chcenix equal to half a modius? I doubt
its correctness. — On the contradiction between the first clause in the above quota
tion, and all that follows, it scarce needs that I remark. For if one particular and
small choenix of wheat, the Attic, was a sufficient day's measuie for a man's con
sumption, of course each larger chcenix of wheat was more than a day's sufficiency.
In a Commentator like Mede such an inaccuracy is surprising.
2 The immediate subject of the Memoir (Tom. viii. pp. 377 — 401) is an inscrip
tion on a Roman standard weight yet remaining : in part as follows : " Imp. Caes.
Vespas. 6 Cons  Mensurae Exactae in Capitolio p. x." — It seems that there was
a correspondence between this weight and that of the congius, filled with rain-water,
as a measure of capacity. — In the course of the Memoir the learned Academician
observes; " Quatre mesures differentes avoient le nom de choenice : la plus petite,
communement appelle x°"''l Attique, avoit trois cotyles Attiques. La seconde en
avoit quatres. On en comptoit 6 a la troisieme, et 8 a la quatrieme." The Aca
demician's choenix of 6 cotylae may be neglected, as supported by little comparative
authority. 3 For example the Writer of the Article on Chcenix in Smith's valuable and re
cently-published Dictionary of Antiquities.
4 It is defined as a measure equivalent to 3 cotylae by Pollux in his Onomasti-
con, iv. 3 ; by Table 7 in what are called the Fragments of Galen, and Table 10 pub
lished among the same Fragments from the Cosmetics of some one named Cleopatra.
— It is made equal to 4 cotylae by Table 5 among the same Fragments, thus com
paring it with the modius and sextarius ; i p,oSios i Atyvirrws Kai i IraAtKos exei
XotvtKas ¦ij, i Se x°""f leoras j8' : (which Table, together with the four preceding, I
conceive to be Galen's own ; as they form a complete connected set ; and stand at
the head of the Fragments bearing his name in the inscription, TaAijvov rov ootpu-
Torot; pierpuv kui araBpuv SiSaaKaAia) also by a Parisian MSS, says Professor Wurm,
cited in Pancton's Metrolog. and other authorities. — Once more, its value is stated
at 4 sextarii, or 8 cotylae, by Table 8 in Galen's Fragments, thus ; 'O xovs exei
Atrpas SeKa' d Xolvi£ exei Atrpas e£* i ^eo-rijs exei Airpav a ipntav also by the author
generally called Rhemnius Fannius ; (but who should rather be named Priscian, as
Prof. Wernsdorf shows in the Prolegom. to his 5th Volume of the Poetae Latini
Minores ;) in the verses following :

154 APOC VI. 5, 6. PART I.
cotylae; as others, with more reason I think, that of 4.1 —
Besides which values it is used in one passage by the Greek
Septuagint Translators as a term answering to the tenth
part of the Jewish chomer ; 2 that is, as equivalent to the
much larger measure of an English bushel.
Out of which varying values the horse's colour black,
the constant emblem of distress and mourning,3 seems at
once to set aside all idea of the large Syrian chcenix of the
At cotyla cyathos bis ternos una receptat :
Bis quinae nunc faciunt drachmae, si appendere velles :
At cotylas recipit geminas sextarius unus ;
Qui quater assumptus Craco fit nomine chcenix :
Adde duos x°vs fit, vulgo qui est congius idem.
Such is the reading of the passage given by almost all the Codices ; and recognized,
as expressing Priscian's view of the choenix, by nearly all modern writers on the
Ancient Weights and Measures ; e. g. Wurm, Eisenschmid, Hussey, the French
Academician, the Writer on the Choenix in the Dictionary of Antiquities, &c. More
over in Isidore's Origines, (a writer of the 7th century,) we seem to have evidence
of the reading being the one received by him : as he there (xvi. 25) almost quotes
the passage ; " Sextarius duarum librarum est ; qui bis assumptus bilibris nomina
tor ; assumptus quater fit Graeco nomine choenix." — I learn however from Mr. Ar
nold that in one Codex, followed by Endlicher, there is the reading, " Qui quater
assumptis," in the last line but one ; and duas, instead of duos, in the last line. Cor
recting the qui in which to quels, and understanding cheenices as the noun to duas,
Endlicher makes Priscian define a choenix as the third of a X"vsi or congius; i. e. as
equal to two sextarii. But the weight of MSS authority is greatly against this.
1 The reason of my saying so is because the Attic choenix is specified by Thu-
cydides iv. 1 6 as the ijpeporpoipts, (so Heraclides Lembus called it, as we are told by
Athenaeus iii. 54,) or minimum of barley for a slave's daily sustenance ; being the
same doubtless that Herodotus also speaks of, vii. 187, as the daily ration of wheat
to each of Xerxes' soldiers. And we learn both from Polybius vi. 39, and Cato
De Re Rustica c 56, (compare Terence's Phormio i. i. 9,) that the usual demen-
sum or monthly allowance of corn to both the common soldier and the working
slave was 4 modii ; and consequently about the 8th part of a modius, i. e. 2 sextarii,
or 4 cotylae, the daily ration. — This is the value given to the Attic chcenix by Dr.
Arnold, in Thucyd. among others. In the Thucydidean case some small measure of
meat was allowed besides the barley.
2 To SeKarov rov yopep x0""? : where the Hebrew for X"""'! is ^"12 a bath, and
which is said in the same verse to be equivalent to an ephah. Now the chomer
"IJpn with the n, or yop,ep, is equal to ten bushels ; and consequently the chcenix
here used to one bushel.
Palladius [Octobr. tit. 14] mentions a Syrian choenix. "Tribus cadis unam floris
mensuram, quam Syri chcenicam vocant, adjicies." He does not state its capacity.
But as the cadus was a measure of twelve congii, and the congius nearly an English
gallon, this Syrian chcenica may have been of considerable size ; and very possibly
the same as that of the Septuagint.
3 So atra cura, ater luctus, atrum funus, &c. On Plotina's death, Dion tells us,
lxix. 10, Hadrian mourned for her, eirt ijpepas evvea peAavetpovijaas. On M,
Aurelius' death, the senate, says the younger Victor, " in curi&, veste tetrd amictus,
lachrymans convenit." — I find the figure applied to the horse in the following appo
site passage from Martial's Epigram on the charioteer Scorpus' death :
Heu facinus ! prima fraudatus Scorpe juventa
Occidis, et nigros tarn cito jungis equos.
On which the Commentator Rader observes that the black horse is used as the fit
associate of mourning, like as the white horse of triumphs and joy. — I need hardly

CHAP. III. J THE THIRD SEAL. 155
Septuagint being intended : seeing that wheat at a dena
rius, i. e. 8d. a bushel, would indicate superabundant plenty;
a state of things directly opposed to general mourning and
distress. — Nor would the chcenix of 8 cotylae, or 4 quarts,
at the Apocalyptic price of wheat, imply a famine such as
to cause the faces of the sufferers to gather blackness. For
it would be but about 80s. a quarter ; a price not very
materially higher than what we learn from the elder Pliny
to have been the average price in Italy, shortly before the
time of Domitian and St. John's exile in Patmos : the
price of which time of course (not the prices of quite other
times) is the standard of reference.1 — Try we then the Attic,
or more common chcenix. And with it, I readily admit, the
say that a similar sense attaches to the black colour in Scripture. So Malachi iii. 14 ;
" We have walked mournfully ; " lit. in black : Ezek. xxxi. 15; "I caused Lebanon
to mourn for him : " lit. to be black.
1 The following is the statement in Pliny (Lib. xviii. Cap. 10). " Pretium huic,
annona media, in modios farinae xl. asses : similagini castratae octonis assibus am-
plius : siligini castratffi duplum." — On which Arbuthnot thus comments. " He
tells us that the bread made of a modius of coarse flour cost 40 asses ; of that which
was entirely purged from the bran, or very fine flour, 48 : and what was made of the
flour of the siligo, or the finest of all, was double of the first. If we proceed accord
ing to our English manner, it will make the peck of the cheapest or household
bread, 2s. 6d. 2£q., that of the wheaten bread 3s. Od. 2Jq., and the finest 5s. Id.
O^q." — Now " the assize of wheaten bread in London is pretty near as 3 to 5 ; that
is when wheat is 15d. the peck, the peck loaf is sold for 25d. And, as the price of
the middle sort of bread, which answers to our wheaten, according to Pliny, was
3s. Od. 2£q — reckoned according to the forementioned proportion, it will make
wheat per quarter at 63s. 6d, as the common or middle price." So Dr. Arbuthnot ;
(Ancient Coins p. 122 ;) making the price in Pliny's time 2s. for a modius or peck.
I may observe that the proportion existing in his day between the prices of bread
and corn still continues. Thus while I write, among the Prices Current I find wheat
at 74s. a quarter ; and bread at 9d, the 41b. loaf. Now, as a peck of wheat weighs
on an average about 18£lb. (Arbuthnot, p. 89,) the weight of 32 pecks, or a quarter,
is 18J x 321b., or 592 lb. Of which the present price being 74s, it is 74d. for one-
twelfth of 592 lb. i. e. for 491b. Again, as the average price of bread is 9d. each 41b.,
that of 491b. is about llOd. Hence the proportion between the prices of the same
weight of wheat and of bread appears to be as 74 to llOd ; i. e. as 37 to 55, or 3 to
5 nearly. — I notice this in order to obviate a possible objection to Arbuthnot's cal
culation. The proportion seems to be one in the nature of things.
The calculation of prices from Pliny's statement may with advantage be made di
rectly in terms of the denarius ; the denarius, being, as it is observed by Arbuthnot,
universally, in classic writings, the equivalent to ten asses. Thus, if we take Pliny's
48 asses, or about 5 denarii, as the average price of a modius of bread, we shall have
5 x f==3 denarii, as the average price of a modius of wheat.
It is to be regretted that commentators on the passage before us should have
given collectanea on the subject of the prices of corn from different countries, and
different ages, mostly quite foreign to the case and time before them ; the object
being to make out a standard of average price of wheat among the ancients, much
below the true price in St. John's time. Thus Daubuz, for example, gives a quotation
from the poet Martial, as an authority on the point ; " Amphora vigessis ; modius
datur aere quaterno : " and he reasons as if the poet (who lived under Domitian)
really intended to state four asses a modius, as the then market-price of wheat ! "It
is mentioned," as Arbuthnot observes on the passage (p. 129), "poetically .'" — Again,

156 apoc vi. 5, 6. [part i.
price of wheat named would be a scarcity-price, though
hardly one of famine.1 But what of the very singularly
added specification of the price of barley, " three choenixes
of barley for a denarius ?" Surely this is one such as to
put all idea even of scarcity out of the question. For
three choenixes for a denarius would be but 53s. a quarter,2
on the hypothesis of the Attic choenix : a price not nearly
double of the usual price about Domitian's time. Or, (to
put the argument otherwise, and perhaps more clearly,) as
the Attic choenix was notoriously the yftepoTpocpif, or day's
sufficient quota for a man, of wheat or barley,3 and at the
same time a denarius was approximately the daily wage of
labor in St. John's time,4 the price specified would indicate
that a labouring man would gain under this Seal a three
day's sufficiency of barley-bread, (above 5lb. in weight,)
to take the case of living expositors, Mr. Burgh (p. 1 55) speaks of " History telling us
that in the time of plenty from 16 to 20 measures of corn were given for the sum of
a denarius." No doubt in the Carthaginian wars, 300 years before Domitian. But
what had that to do with the price in Domitian's time ? Hume speaks of 6s. 8d. a
quarter of wheat, and 3s. 4d. of barley, being in our Henry the 6th's time the price of
plenty. What would Mr. B think, if any one were to make that the standard-price
of plenty now? — So again Dr. Wordsworth, p. 182; making the price in Cicero's
time the standard.
Of authentic remaining notices of the prices of wheat in Roman pre- Apocalyptic
history, we may remark that of Polybius, who reports that in the scarce times
of the second Punic war wheat was at 15 denarii the medimnus, or two-fifths of a
modius for a denarius ; — of the Cassian law, B. C. 73, rating it at one denarius the
modius; — of Cicero, in his Verreian OraHons, rating it about the same; — and of
Pliny, A.D, 79, whose testimony I have above given.
1 So Michaelis iv. 514; "When a chcenix of wheat cost a denarius, it may be
said that wheat was dear, but not that there was a famine." — We may compare here
what Eusebius says in his Chronicon (i. p. 79, Scalig.) of the price of wheat in the
famine that opprest Greece in the 9th year of the emperor Claudius. At/toi; Kara
tijv 'EAAaSa yeyovoros peyaAov, i rov atrov poSios l£ StSpaxpuv eirpaBij ; i. e. that
wheat was at 12 drachmae (or denarii) the modius, or a denarius and a half for the
Attic choenix ; a price half as much again as the price in the text ; and without any
remarkable comparative cheapness in the barley to act as a counteractive and miti-
gant. — Caesar in his B. Civ., i. 52, speaks of the price of wheat rising in one of his
campaigns to 50 denarii the modius.
2 As wheat of the medium quality was about 64s. a quarter in the time of St.
John, (see the note from Pliny, 155 supra,) barley would be at about 32s.
3 See my Note ', p. 154 supra,.
4 The inference has been drawn from what is said of a denarius as the day's wages
in the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, Matt. xx. 2 ; which proves that such
was the case in the Jewish province, at the time when our Lord spoke the parable.
It is indeed somewhat loose to argue thence to the general price of wages in other
parts of the empire, and that at a period sixty years later. Yet as it seems that the
pay of common soldiers in Julius Caesar's time was a denarius, and in Domitian's
time restored to nearly that value, (see Arbuthnot's Ancient Coins, p. 180,) as well
as from other data, it may perhaps be not unfairly argued that in the provinces gen
erally the free labourer's day-wages did, about St. John's time, not vary very mate-
rially from it.

CHAP. III. J THE THIRD SEAL. 157
by one day's labour ! Did ever man hear of such a famine
as this P1
Thus even if the value of the chcenix, the most favour
able to this hypothesis of famine be taken, and if no other
difficulty were to occur, yet we find that the hypothesis
would break down utterly on this one single account. But in
fact, besides this, all else in the figuration, except the black
color of the horse, is opposed to it. There is 1 st the in
junction on the rider, " See that thou injure not, or that
thou act not unjustly about the oil and the wine," the two
other next most important articles of culture and consump
tion in the Eoman world ; 2 an injunction of which the
spirit (whichever translation of the py aliKriays be taken)
was directly opposed to the idea of its being the main ob
ject in the voice as from the throne to enjoin a famine. —
2. The circumstance of its being a conjunctive, («<«) not
disjunctive, (aXXa) which connects this latter clause of
charge to the rider about the oil and wine with that charge
in the former about the wheat and barlev,3 constitutes of
itself a strong argument in favour of the former being of a
similarly kindly purport with the latter. — Moreover, 3rdly,
the balance in the rider's hand, associated as it is, not with
a man's weighing out bits of bread in scanty measure for
his own or his family's eating, so as iu the often cited pas
sage from Ezekiel iv. 16,4 but in association with the buy
ing and selling of corn, — I say, in this association the
balance, instead of being an indication of famine, might
just as well be an indication of plenty ; seeing that at all
times corn and bread were sold by weight or measure. In
fact in the Eoman baker's sepulchral monument, outside
1 Compare the quantity and quality allotted to Ezekiel, when appointed to typify
a time of famine, Ez. iv. 9, 10 : " Take unto thee wheat and barley and beans and.
lentiles and millet and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread
thereof. . . . And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels
a day." Now a shekel was about half an ounce, according to Calmet, Arbuthnot,
(p. 37,) &c. If so his daily ration of this bread (such as it was) was only ten ounces,
or less than one-half of a chcenix : — a chcenix of wheat being about two pounds in
weight ; of barley a little less. Even at the shekel's higher value of 270 grains,
assigned by some, as Arbuthnot tells us it would be but half a chcenix.
2 How important in the Jewish world will be seen by turning to the many places
in Scripture, where oil and wine are so mentioned, e. g. Deut. vii. 13, xxviii. 51, &c.
3 Let it be well marked that the whole address of the voice, like as from the
throne, is to one and the same person, viz. the rider. " A choenix of wheat for a
denarius ; and see that thou pij aSiKijoigs, &c."
4 " They shall eat bread by weight, and with astonishment."

158 apoc. vi. 5, 6. [part i.
the Porta Maggiore at Eome, among the various imple
ments of his trade there sculptured, a pair of balances is
one.1 Was this then a fit symbol for Famine ? 2 Surely a
more unfit one could scarce have been devised.
II. The idea of famine thus decisively set aside, we are
forced to seek for some other and quite different solution, such
as may better suit the conditions of the case. And, in order
to this, and with reference to one very important particular
in those conditions, it needs that we now settle prelimina
rily as to the right construction of that latter clause in the
voice as from the throne, Kai to eXaiov Kai tov oivov [uq abiKV}ay]c'
whether in the sense of injure not, or, wrong not in regard
to, the oil and wine. — Now the admissibility of the latter,
as well as the former translation, results clearly and neces
sarily, as it seems to me, from these two undisputed and
indisputable facts ; 1st, that abrxeu is a neutral intransitive
verb, as well as verb transitive and active ;3 2ndly, that in
the case of intransitive neutral verbs generally there is
frequently appended to them an accusative of definition,
i. e. one defining the object to which the verb relates :* in
which case, let me add, the accusative usually precedes
the verb,5 so as here.6 I subjoin a few illustrations below.7
1 See the notice of this very interesting monument, in Murray's Hand-Book for
Rome p. 311. " The frieze still retains some fragments of bas-reliefs, representing
the various operations of baking ; from the carrying the corn to the mill to the final
weighing and distribution of the bread." It is ascribed to the age of Augustus.
2 Compare the fitness of a personification such as by Cowper ;
He calls for Famine ; and the meagre fiend
Blows poisonous mildew from his shrivelled lips,
And taints the golden ear.
" So e. g. Apoc. xxii. 11 ; & uSikuv aSiKitoaTu ert.
' So Rost in his Grammar, as cited by my critic Mr. Arnold. " Since the accu
sative  serves always to designate the object to which an action immediately
passes over, it frequently stands also with intransitive verbs, and adjectives, containing
a general expression ; and indicates the part, or more definite object, to which the
expression must be immediately and principally referred. This is called the accusa
tive of nearer definition ; and is to be expressed in English by different prepositions
especially by in, as to, in respect to."
5 So e. g. in Anacreon ; Tptxos yepuv pev eon
Tas Se tppevas vea^et,
Matthiae notes the fact of this position of the accusative.
c Kat toc oifov Kat to eAatov prj aStKijans. In the three Apocalyptic examples of
an accusative of the thing injured occurring in connexion with the verb aStxeu in
the active sense of injury, the accusative follows the verb ; aSiKTjirat rijv yijv pij
aSiKTio-rjie tijv yijv p.ij aSiKijauoi tov xoprov. vii. 2, 3, ix. 4.
? Cases of accusative neuter, in the sense of accusative of definition as to the

CHAP. III. J THE THIRD SEAL. 159
The only possible way of escaping from this my conclu
sion, is by denying to the neutral abiKeto the constructive
rights of neutral verbs generally : that which no gramma
rian has ever done, and which no biblical critic has any
right to do. — The admissibility of the second reading of
ahKya-Yis thus settled, a decisive reason at once suggests
itself for preferring it. In order to any consistent sense
with the rendering " injure not," the articles specified
must needs be articles susceptible of injury, from some such
famine-causing agency as that which the advocates of this
translation recognize (incorrectly, as I have shown) in the
rider. But what the articles here specified ? Not, be it
well observed, vines and olives ; on which the destroyer
was often let loose by an angry Providence, with his wea
pons of blight or hail: but the already expressed juice of
the grapes and olive-berries, oil and wine, when housed and
secured by the owner in his casks and cellars.1 To which
argument what the answer ? The only answer that I have
seen made is that we are to suppose the oil and wine to be
here put poetically and figuratively for olives and vines.2
That is, we are to suppose poetry and figure intruded in
noting them into the latter clause of a sentence, of which
the former, when noting other fruits of the earth, is confes
sedly literal and prosaic. For we read not there, in poet
ical phrase, of waving corn-fields ; but simply of wheat and
barley; and this in the state evidently of grain threshed
out, and ready for measuring out and sale.3
matter wronged in, occur frequently with aSweu. So e. g. Plutarch ; laouv ra putpa
Seiv aSiKetv eAe7€f, evtKev tov ra peyaAa StKatoirpayeiv : (ap. Stephan. ad voc.) i. e.
" that we should act unjustly in little things, in order to our acting justly in great
things:" Eurip. Phoenissaa ; aStKet raruv Beuv " in the things of the gods :" 2 Sam.
xix. 19 ; pit pvijoBns iaa ijSiKijoev i irats. — In Philem. J 8 we have an example of a
double accusative, et Tt oe ijStKijoev in Xen. Cyrop. iv. 5, one, as I prefer to con
strue it, of an accusative of definition in the feminine ; tijv Se ayopav rijv ovaav ev
tu arparoireStp Kijpv^aru pev nSij, etpij, pij aSiKetv pijSeva' " in regard of the market
in the camp, that none act injuriously."
I observe with some surprise as well as satisfaction, that Heinrichs, the favourite
expository referee of my objecting critic on this point, Mr. T. K. Arnold, prefers to
construe the accusative as governed by Kara understood, just as I do. After stating
the apparent unsuitableness of the charge not to hurt the wine and oil to the character
of the black horse's rider, he thus proceeds : — " Suspicor itaque aSiKijoai sumendum
esse sensu vulgari, injuriam afferre ; et ante eAatov, Sec, subintelligendum Kara-
ut bomini illi . . . acclamatum sit, Quod attinet ad oleum vinumque, quorum usus
est ad delicias, non aStKijaijs, sc. homines." On the charge from the throne Hein
richs notes its " brevitas imperatoria." Another coincidence between us.
1 Thus it is olives and vines that are marked out for God's judgments in the Old
Testament. 2 So Mr. Arnold in the British Magazine.
3 It is a little amusing to read Dr. M. Stuart's comment (ii. 155) on this ; consi-

160 • apoc vi. 5, 6. [part i.
A word on yet another and equally important part of
indication in the symbol ; — I mean the balance in the hand
of the black horse's rider. Let it be well understood then
by the reader that this symbol, instead of being in itself
any way mysterious or difficult of comprehension, was in
fact one most common and obvious at the time of St. John's
exile in Patmos ; and always I believe, in one way or ano
ther, as a symbolization of Justice.1
And now then, our analysis of the several parts of the
symbol being completed, proceed we in search of a solution
such as may satisfy them all. Whose or what the agency,
we have to ask, in the Eoman empire that was symbolized
by the balance-holding rider : — whose or what the voice
admonishing him as from the throne, and wherefore in such
terms about the price of corn, and against injustice in the
matter of wine and oil :— how, though holding the balance
of justice, his influence such, in aggravation of the other
previous evil, as to deepen the ensanguined red of the Eoinan
aspect into the darker blackness of distress : — finally, what
the main intent of the hieroglyphic as a whole ; and how
designative (as it seems presumable) of some notable cause
of further suffering and decline introduced into the Eoman
body politic ; — introduced at a time following on that of
the establishment of military misrule, with its concomitants
of civil wars and bloodshedding, so as under the second Seal,
and preceding that of the pestilence and mortality which,
we shall soon see, attached to the fourth ? This, I say, is
the question. And though to ourselves for the present it be
obscure and enigmatic, from want of that familiarity with
dering that, like so many others, he makes the Seal figure famine. " To eAaiov . . pij
aSiKijorjr a difficult, if not as yet an inexplicable clause. Eichhorn indeed adopts a
very easy method of interpretation ; * Positio mere ornans : * . . . and remarks that
a scarcity of wine and oil would contribute nothing towards creating famiue.
Yet," argues Dr. S. most justly, " is not olive oil one of the most nutritious of sub
stances ? And would not wine contribute to the comfort of those who were under
going starvation ? " — He adds ; " What seems strange is that the mass of interpre
ters sicco pede earn sententiam praetereunt; just as though no explanation were
needed." What adds to the strangeness is that Dr. S. himself should, like others,
have past over the price of barley sicco pede, and in silence; though yet- more de
cisive against famine being meant than even what is said of the wine and the oil.
' Multitudes of Roman medals, of almost every emperor and every province of the
empire, are extant, bearing the deyice of a pair of balances : and all, I believe, in
symbolization of equity; excepting those relative to the coinage, and the goddess
Moneta, where the primary intent of the figure is the weighing out of money. See
the coin of Alexander Severus in my next Plate ; and Rasche on Bilanx.
I observe in Papal medals of the Annona Pontificia, or distribution of corn in
largess, that the balance is still one of the symbols made use of. See Bonanni, i. 271.

CHAP. 111.] THE THIRD SEAL. 161
Eoman symbols and usages which may probably have made
the figuration at once clear to the Evangelist, as a cotem
porary, yet on looking for light into history, and especially
into that same philosophic and picturesque history of the
Eoman empire, which has already so admirably illustrated
the subjects of our first and second Seals, the clue, I be
lieve, will be found, the solution appear.
On consulting Gibbon then we find him, towards the
close of his sketch of the reign of Alexander Severus, re
ferring to the aggravated oppressiveness of taxation, conse
quent on a memorable'edict of the preceding emperor Cara
calla, (an edict which had to be enforced by the Provincial
Governors,) as a fresh and wasting evil then introduced into
the body politic. — It is after a retrospective glance at that
primary cause of the empire's decline, which! suppose to
have been pictured in the symbolization of the 2nd Seal,
(I mean the pUre military despotism, of the soldiery and the
sword,) that he takes it up for notice; even as if another
influential cause of the decline of the empire. And he
deems it of importance such as to call for a long digression,
on the subject of Eoman taxation to which it relates.1 —
Let me briefly abstract his statement.
In the original constitution then by the Eoman Eepub-
lic of its conquered provinces, it seems that tributes more
or less onerous were imposed on them ; which tributes,
after the conquests of Greece and Syria, had become so
productive, as to suffice to pay all expenees of the govern
ment, and to allow of the entire exemption of Eoman citi
zens from all taxes. This exemption however continued
only until the time of Augustus : who, soon after his esta
blishment in the empire, declared the necessity of their
1 i. 254. — I have already at p. 144 quoted the commencement of the passage. "The
dissolute tyranny of Commodus, the civil wars occasioned by his death, and the new
maxims of policy introduced by the house of Severus, had all contributed to increase
the dangerous power of the army... This internal change, which undermined the foun
dations of the empire, we have endeavoured to explain with some degree of order
and perspicuity. The personal characters of the emperors, their victories, laws,
follies, and fortunes, can interest us no further than as they are connected with the
general history of the Decline and Fall of the monarchy. Our constant attention
to that great object will not suffer us to overlook a most important edict of Anto
ninus Caracalla : " — that same of which I have now to speak ; and the results of
which he proceeds to develop in connection with the subject of Roman taxation.
VOL. I. M

162 apoc vi, 5, 6. [part i.
again bearing a share also of the public burthens. Thus
thenceforward the provincials had their distinctive taxes to
pay, the Roman citizens (among whom all Italians were
now included) theirs: — the latter consisting of custom-
duties and excise, (taxes the more oppressive from the
constant and pernicious habit of farming them,) and the
tax of one twentieth on all legacies and inheritances ; the
former either of tributes of produce in kind, or a money
capitation-tax.1 During the era of Trajan and the Antonines, says Gib
bon, the mildness and precision of the laws, ascertaining
the rule and measure of taxation, and protecting the sub
jects of every rank against arbitrary interpretations, anti
quated claims, and the insolent vexations of the farmers of
the revenue, alleviated the burthens, though they did not
remove them. But some thirty or forty years after the
death of the last Antonine, and while the rider of the red
horse of civil war was yet in full career, they received, in
so far as the provincials were concerned, a sudden aggra
vation. The emperor Caracalla issued the memorable edict
with which his name is associated, by which the Eoman
City was made co-extensive with the empire : an edict
not of liberality, as might at first have been imagined, but
simply of avarice : for it was clogged with the condition
that the provincials, thus admitted to Eoman citizenship,
should thenceforth pay both their provincial tributes as
before, and also, in addition, the distinctive taxes of the
Eoman citizen. The edict was compulsory, and the weight
of taxation thus forced upon them intolerable. Even Italy
itself escaped not from the tyrant's financial oppression,
though under another form. " The great body of his
subjects," says Gibbon, " was oppressed by the aggravated
taxes ; and every part of the empire crushed under the
weight of Caracalla's iron sceptre."2 — Nor did the evil of
fiscal oppression, thus and then aggravated, end with him.
It was continued onward substantially, as I must observe,
1 The Scripture reader may be reminded by the mention of this provincial money
payment, of the question in Mark xii. 14 ; " Is it lawful to give tribute (kijvoov, the
yearly census or poll tax) to Caesar ? . . . . And he said, Bring me a denarius." In the
parallel place of St. Matthew (xxii. 17) the same word Kijvaov is used ; in Luke xx.
22 tpopov. So, again, Matt. xvii. 25 ; " From whom do the kings of the earth receive
custom or tribute? TeAijij kijvoov." - i. 219, 267.

CHAP. III.] THE THIRD SEAL. 163
an inward canker in the state. Macrinus, whose brief reign
for but a year succeeded, enacted a partial mitigation of it.
But under Macrinus' successor, Elagabalus, the oppression
became as intolerable nearly as under Caracalla. Then did
the protesting voice of the law of equity, for long time
almost silenced, speak again under the next reigning em
peror, Alexander Severus ; the only one for many years
in those wretched times, whose character it was to do jus
tice and love mercy. And he indeed did seek to mitigate
the evil ; above all by inculcating the spirit and the law of
equity upon the administrators of the provincial government,
and of the revenue, throughout the Bo/nan world. But to
reduce the tribute to any large amount, such as the case
demanded, and such as some have supposed,1 was what I
feel well assured he neither did, nor could do. The grand
sources of the expences of government were lasting in their
nature. The soldiery, the real masters of the empire, must_
at any cost be satisfied. "Am not I he," was his own lan
guage to the mutinying troops at Antioch, " who bestow
on you the corn, the clothing, and the money of the pro
vinces ? " 2 " His administration was an unavailing strug
gle against the corruption of the age : " 3 and for what he
didj or showed that he wished to do, he paid the penalty of
his life.4 — After his murder the evil soon became oppressive
as before. Through the reigns of Maximin and his succes
sors, we trace it still running on, (in meet sequence of the
military tyranny that necessitated it,) with disastrous influ
ence on the body politic. In speaking of the empire's inter
nal state under Philip A. D. 248, some 13 or 14 years
only after the death of Alexander Severus, the following
is Gibbon's descriptive sketch : — " Its form was still the
same, [i. e. as under Hadrian or Augustus ;] but the ani
mating health and vigor was fled. The industry of the
1 I refer especially to Salmasius and Gibbon. I doubt not to prove their opinion
on the matter quite erroneous. See my Paper on this subject in the Appendix to
the present Volume ; or my Vindiciae Horariae on the 3rd Seal.
2 Gibb. i. 252. 3 Ib. i. 251.
4 " His prudence was vain ; his courage fatal." " The troops blushed at the patience
with which they had supported the discipline imposed on them ; and determined to
elect for their prince one (Maximin) , who would assert their glory, and distribute
among his companions the treasures of the empire." ib. i. 249, 275. — Compare what
I have said of this emperor, with reference to the subject of the 2nd Seal, at p. 144
supra.
M 2

164 apoc vi. 5, 6. [parti.
people was discouraged and exhausted by a long series of
oppression." 1 And again, with reference to the calamitous
times that followed soon after Philip's death, (of which more
under the next Seal,) that " the general famine, which
then befel the empire, was the inevitable consequence of
the rapine and oppression, which extirpated the produce of
the present, and the hope of future harvests." 2 — Nor did
the evil stop then and there ; but still continued onward to
Gallienus' death ; and even afterwards, under the next suc
ceeding restorers of the Eoman empire, Claudius, Aurelian,
Probus. Until in fine Diocletian, conjunctively with his
new imperatorial scheme,3 more fully developed the fiscal
system ; its branch of provincial contributions in kind pro
minently inclusive : and therewith the oppression and
desolation of the provinces.4
Such is in brief the account handed down to us of the
nature and aggravation of the evil under Caracalla ; of A.
Severus' vain attempts at applying an effective or permanent
remedy ; and of the perpetuation of the evil, as a further
cause of decline in the empire. It is my conviction that we
have here the very evil, and vain attempts of law and equity
to arrest it, figured in the vision under consideration. — Let
us then now, as under the previous Seal, compare the history
and the prophecy ; in respect, 1 st of the fiscal evil itself, as
causing the dark colour of distress on the emblematic horse;
2ndly of its administrators, as signified by the horse's rider.
I. Now, as to the 1st, the epoch of course well accords
with the chronological position of the hieroglyphic before us;
following closely, as it did, on the sera of the introduction
of the military despotism depicted under the second Seal,
and preceding that of the mortality under Valerian and
Gallienus, the subject of the fourth.
Further, another point of agreement will appear in the
identity of the articles of produce on which the Eoman tax
ation fell, with those noted in the vision. For the former, like
the latter, comprehended both corn-produce, including
' '¦ 314. 2 i. 455. 3 See Lactantius M. P. 7.
4 I must again beg to refer my readers to my Paper in the Appendix, on the subject
here cursorily sketched.

CHAP. III.] THE THIRD SEAL. 165
wheat and barleij, and also, from such of the provinces as
best produced them, wine and oil.1 — And let me add that
in the system of largesses, as about this time acted out at
Eome, they were all, or nearly all, included ; and so the
evil aggravated that we speak of. At first it was other
wise. For a long time corn only was distributed to the
citizens.2 The largess of oil given on one occasion by Ju
lius Caesar was an extraordinary donative, and not repeated.
Again, when Augustus was petitioned to supply them with
wine, he declined.3 In the reign of Septimius Severus,
however, father to Caracalla, a largess of oil was again ac
corded ; and, after a short intermission under Elagabalus,
the donative renewed and established by Alexander Seve
rus.4 Not very long after which, wine may perhaps also have
been granted to them by Aurelian.5 — So that at the time to
which I refer the voice in the vision, not only were all the
four items of taxation mentioned in the vision regularly
in requisition from the vectigales, or produce-paying pro
vinces, but three out of the four had received aggravation
from the system of largess above-mentioned ; as did, soon
after, the fourth also.6 " We shall be too often summoned,"
1 Barley, as well as wheat, was included in the required tributes from Sicily. Of
it Cicero speaks more than once in his Orations against Verres. So e. g. ii. iii.
31, &c. Also wine and oil. So ib. 7 ; " L. Octavio et C Cottae, consulibus, sena-
tus permisit ut vini et olei decumas, et frugum minutarum,. . . . Romae venderent."
Columella, in his Treatise De Re Rustica, (written about A.D. 42, in the reign of
•Claudius,) speaks of wine as exacted from the Cyclades, Gaul, and Portugal. — See
too Synesius and Cassiodorus in Burmann de Vectigal, p. 50.
By Augustus there was drawn up a Canon frumenlarius, stating the quantity
of corn that each province was to pay It is noted, with reference to the reign of
Tiberius by Tacitus, Annal. vi. 13 ; of S. Severus by Spartian, c. 23 ; of Elagabalus by
Lampridius, c. 27. — The corn collected in accordance with it was laid up in public
granaries, both at Rome and in the provinces ; from whence it was given out by the
proper officers to the needy people and the soldiers gratuitously. Others might buy
from the stores. See Schwarz Excur. on Plin. Paneg. 29.
2 The laws ordaining this distribution of corn to the poorer citizens, gratuitously,
or at a trifling price, were called Leges frumentario?, corn- laws. Among the most
famous was the Lex Sempronia by the celebrated T. S. Gracchus.
3 He said it was sufficient to have provided aqueducts that furnished them with
good water. (Suetonius Vit. August, c. 42.) Similarly it was said by Pescennius
Niger, about two centuries afterwards, to his mutinying troops in Egypt, " Nilum
¦habetis, et vinum quaeritis ? " Spartian, Vit. Nig. c. 7.
4 " Oleum quod Severus populo dederat, quodque Heliogabalus imminuerat, tnr-
pissimis hominibus prefecturam annonae tribuendo, integrum restituit." Lamprid.
Vit. A. Sev. c. 22.
5 " Statuerat vinum gratuitum populo Romano dare; ut, queniadmodum oleum
et panis, et porcina gratuita praeberentur, sic etiam vinum daretur." Vopisc. c. 47.
Whether he fulfilled his intention does not seem certain. See Note * p. 185 infra.
The aggravation thus caused was large. The extent of imports into Rome alone

166 apoc vi. 5, 6. [parti.
says Gibbon, " to explain the land-tax, the capitation, and
the heavy contributions of corn, wine, oil, and meat, exacted
from the provinces for the use of the court, the army, and
the capital." 1 The explanations that he here alludes to,
were to be given with reference more particularly to the
times and the financial system of Diocletian. But, as before
observed there is good evidence, of the perpetuation of this
oppressive branch of the Eoman fiscal system throughout
nearly the whole interval.2
Moreover, yet again, in regard to the state of the Roman
people as affected by the evil spoken of, its accordance
with the black colour of the horse in our hieroglyphic, —
the sign of distress and impoverishment in the body politic,
— is equally evident. Indeed, in the graphic descriptions
of Gibbon, the very trope of the black colour of this third
horse is adopted, (just as of the white and red of the two
Seals preceding,3) to illustrate the effect of the evil, with
reference both to its earlier and its later operation. He
speaks of " the dark prospect of distress and calamities be
queathed [through Caracalla's " prodigality"] to his suc
cessors:"4 and how this fiscal evil, as " a noxious weed,
sprang up again with the most luxurious growth ; and in
the succeeding age darkened the Roman world with its
deadly shade."5
II. Nor, I think, as regards the agents in these oppres
sions, (those whom the rider of the black horse must be sup-
" for the use of the court, army, and capital," of this fiscal com and oil under the
emperors, is illustrated by certain specifications that we find in the younger Victor
and Spartian. The former, in his life of Augustus, says that from Egypt alone
" urbi [Roma?] annua ducenties centena millia/)-wme«riinferebantur:" i.e. twenty
million of modii, or between 600.000 and 700,000 quarters : a quantity increased by
Tiberius. (Tac. Ann. vi. 13.) The latter, c. 23, thus writes. "Moriens (S. Severus)
septem annorum canonem, ita ut quotidiana 75 millia modiorum expendi possent
reliquit : olei vero tantum, ut per quinquennium non solum urbis usibus, sed et totius
Italiae quae oleo egeret, sufficeret." The annual distribution of the government com
at Rome only would thus be about 850,000 quarters. The public allowance for
Alexandria, as fixed by Diocletian, is stated in the Paschal Chronicle, (referred to
by Gibbon ii. 136,) at 400,000 quarters. — Other great cities also partook of the
bounty. And then there were the great frontier armies too to be supplied.
1 Gibb. i. 268. 2 See my Paper in the Appendix.
3 See p. 122 supra. * Gibbon i. 227.
8 i. 268. — The words " sprang up again" arose out of Gibbon's erroneous im
pression that Alexander Severus succeeded in effecting a very material temporary
reduction in the produce-taxation : that same error to which I allude Note ' p. 163.
The metaphor darkened is of course as applicable to Caracalla's time as to Diocletian's.

CHAP. III. J THE THIRD SEAL. 167
posed to have impersonated,) in other words the provincial
Presidents, Proconsuls, or Procurators,1 to whom, as to the
Praetors and Quaestors of the old Eepublic before them, was
now intrusted in each province the collection of the pro
duce and the revenue, will the Apocalyptic twofold indica
tion be found less characteristic : — I mean the indication,
1st of the words addrest to the black horse's rider from the
throne ; 2ndly of the balance held by him in hand.
As to the former, it was obvious respecting persons in
offices like those of the provincial Proconsuls, that, as oppor
tunities abounded for exaction, (more especially in respect
of payments in kind, or of purchases in kind,2 when extra
supplies, as was often the case, were required by the sove
reign government at Eome,) so, unless rigorously checked,
abuse of those opportunities was likely to follow. In early
times this forced itself on the notice of the Eoman senate and
people ; and precautionary laws were enacted by them, laws
adopted and added to subsequently by the emperors. They
were styled laws de repetundis, or against extortion and in
justice on the part of the provincial governors ; 3 and in
1 See for a more particular notice of these public officers Note 4 p. 175. — Sigonius
de Provinc. ii. 5, arranges the duties of the Provincial Praesides or Proconsuls,
generally speaking, under three chief heads : — that concerning the jus, or judicial
matters ; that concerning the res frumentaria, or corn ; and that concerning the
military of the province.
2 Middleton, in his Life of Cicero, (Sect, ii,) speaking of Sicily, and the times of
the Roman Republic, observes that the tenth of the com in all the conquered towns
of Sicily belonged to the Romans ; which was always gathered in kind, and sent to
Rome : also that, as this was insufficient for the public use, the Praetors had an ap -
pointment also of money from the treasury, to purchase such further stores as were
necessary for the current year.- — And Burmann De Vectigal. pp. 41, 42, speaks of
the same right and custom of purchasing, as prevalent too in imperial times, and
with reference to the Provinces generally.
Money payments were, however, sometimes taken by the Provincial Governor, in
lieu of payments in kind : " a method," says Gibbon, (iii. 86) " susceptible of the
utmost latitude, and of the utmost strictness : and which, in a corrupt and absolute
monarchy, must introduce a perpetual contest between the power of oppression and
the arts of fraud."
3 In the times of the Republic there were enacted the following laws de repetundis ;
U. C. 604 Lex Calpurnia ; by which trials for extortion were made one of the four
Quaestiones perpetuae : i. e. one of the six Judicial Praetors, annually
chosen, was through the year to devote himself to the trial of those
causes.
— 627 Lex Junia ; by which, besides the litis eestimatio, and damages, the officer
convicted was to suffer banishment.
— 653 Lex Servilia, ordaining severer penalties than before against extortion ;
but permitting that the defendant should have a second hearing.
— 683 Lex Acilia ; by which the defendant's right of a second hearing was ab
rogated.

168 apoc vi. 5, 6. [parti.
their general charges against injustice well corresponded, it
will be observed, with the tone and spirit of the monition
to the rider in the text. — Besides which, and with the same
object of preventing injustice, particular precautionary
provisions were sometimes, in other laws, made against it ;
especially by naming the price at which the governor was
to rate and purchase. I may cite as a specimen the Cas-
sian frumentarian law. And really the expressions in it
are so remarkably similar to the words pronounced in the
apocalyptic vision, — so illustrative of their preceptive and
admonitory character, and of the object and meaning in
that character of the charge they contain as to the price of
corn,1 — as to seem like an actual comment of explanation
on them. It having been enacted, at the instance of Cas
sius, that 800,000 modii of wheat should be bought for
the citizens of Eome by the provincial authorities, the
price to be paid for it (about the fair market-price evi
dently) was by the legislating supreme government en
joined upon those authorities, in phrase brief and simple,
as in the text ; " A modius of wheat for a denarius ! " 2 —
Such was at that time the admonitory direction of the
supreme law and government at Eome to the provincial
authorities ; such the naming of the price of corn, and the
purport of its naming. Nor was the case different after
wards with any of the really justice-loving emperors :3
whether urging the thing with successful effect, like Trajan
— 694 Lex Julia, by Julius Caesar; of which there were above 100 heads, some
very severe.
I copy from Adams' Roman Antiquities. A fuller account is given by Ernesti ;
prefixed to the Clavis in his edition of Cicero.
1 It should be observed that the genitive of price, as we have it in the text,
(x»""? o-itou Snvapiov) is applicable both to buying and selling. It is used of buying,
Acts vii. 16, uvijoaro rtprjs apyvptov of- selling, Matt. xxvi. 9, "This ointment
ijSvvaro irpaBijvat iroAAov" and is generally a term of value.
2 " Ex Senatus Consulto, et ex Lege Terentia et Cassut. . . . pretium constitutum
.... frumento imperato, in modios singulos, H. S. iiii ; " i. e. at a denarius a modius.
Cicero inFrument. Verrina c. 70.
3 Definito pretio," occurs frequently in the Roman imperial laws. So Burmann
De Vectigal. (p. 41, 42) says that the emperors were wont " a subjectis gentibus
pretio data emere," when more corn was wanted than the tribute in kind supplied :
" et eo casu coactos fuisse Provinciales, pretio a fisco accepto, frumentum vendere ;
quod onus dicitur irtruvia, coemptio." — He adds, with reference to the price enjoined
by just or unjust emperors ; " Quemadmodum vero avari et impotentes Imperatores
hoc frumentum nullo vel perexiguo pretio Provincialibus extorquebant, sic boni et
justi Principes pretium congruens solvi jubebant." And he instances the case of
Trajan ; " Unde earn laudem Trajano, Plin. Paneg. c. 29 ; ' Emit [rather siniQ fis-
cus quidquid videtur emere : hide copiae, inde annonae : de qua inter licentem ven-

CHAP. III.] THE THIRD SEAL. 169
and the Antonines ; or, like A. Severus, less successfully. —
And whence such monitory laws? Surely, forasmuch as both
these, and the general laws against extortion, were con
ceived in the spirit of equity, they might well be considered
as emanating not only from the subordinate earthly powers
ordained by God, but from Him the habitation of whose
throne is justice and judgment,1 and who has solemnly de
clared himself in his written law against all defrauding, op
pression, and wrong : a even the same that in the Apoca
lyptic visions sate enthroned in the midst of the living crea
tures,3 God Himself. For, as Hooker beautifully says,
" Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her
seat is in the bosom of God: " * a truth which even hea
then Eomans saw and acknowledged.5
The price of wheat named in the Cassian law varied indeed
greatly, as will be seen, from the one here mentioned; the
former being a denarius for a modius : the latter a denarius
for a choenix or eighth part of a modius : that is, if we fol
low the most natural hypothesis about the choenix, and sup
pose the common Attic choenix to be the one intended.6
dentemque conveniat." ' On which passage see the Excursus of Schwarz ; the same
that I have already referred to at p. 165.
Of later imperial laws this is the language : " Frumenti pretium non justum sta-
tuere non potest ordo cujusque civitatis." Justinian Corpus Jur. Civ. Index in voc.
Frumentum. ' Ps. lxxxix. 14.
2 " Thou shalt not steal." Thou shalt not defraud. " A just weight and a just
balance are from the Lord." Again, Deut. xxv. 13 ; " Thou shalt not have in thy bag
divers weights ; " (Hebr. a stone and a stone) one, heavy, to buy with, — another,
light, to sell with : but only " one stone," or one true weight.
3 Compare Numb. vii. 89 ; " When Moses went into the tabernacle of the con
gregation, then he heard the voice of one speaking to him from off the mercy-seat
that was upon the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim."
4 Eccl. Pol. B. i. ad fin.
3 Lex est recta, et a numine Deorum tracta ratio, imperans honesta, -prohibens
contraria." So Cicero de Leg. And he calls the law of nature and equity lex divina,
jus divinum. De Offic. iii. 5, &c. So again Seneca, Epist. 94, on law : " Legem
brevem esse oportet, quo facilius abimperitis teneatur: — velut emissa divinitus vox
sit." In which passage Seneca's " velut emissa divinitus vox," is really almost like
a translation of the Apocalyptic phrase, ' ' a voice as it were from the midst of the
living creatures." — Similarly in Homer Beptares, as Daubuz observes, signifies both
the oracles of God, and the laws of a king.
Dr. Arnold, Hist, of Rome, Vol. ii. 19, on a subject not dissimilar from that on
which I am speaking, thus remarks. If " false to its divine origin and purpose"
then " the voice of law is no longer the voice of God."
6 I had originally supposed the choenix of 8 cotylae to be distinctively the one
used at Rome ; being led to this impression by the French Academician's speaking
of it as a measure " naturalisee h Rome." But on reverting to the Memoir I see
that he only so speaks of it in common with the other choenixes ; and both the more
ancient testimonies of Herodotus, Thucydides, Theocritus, and also, under the em-

170 apoc vi. 5, 6. [parti.
But it is to be remembered that as time went on, and the
republic passed into an empire, and the empire became
settled and mature, great changes took place in the price of
corn throughout the Eoman empire : under which circum
stances changes proportionate, of course, occurred in the
amount of price equitably dictated to the provincial Go
vernors, in the laws of equitable emperors, at which to
estimate, to buy, and indeed also to sell.1 Of the average
price at a period not very long before the Apocalyptic
vision we have already seen authentic record in the elder
Pliny, who died a.d. 79, two years only before Domiti
an's accession ; stating it as then about three denarii the
modius, or three times greater than in the age of Cassius.2
This price would seem to have continued pretty much the
average through the prosperous times of the second cen
tury : after which it declined ; till it stood at just half
Pliny's price under the Constantinian emperors, in the first
half of the fourth century.3 And on the reasonable hypo
thesis of the decline having progressed nearly about one
third at the opening of the second quarter of the third
century, the date of the reign of Alexander Severus, the
price would at that time have been about two denarii and
a half for the modius of wheat, or near one third of a de
narius for the Attic chcenix. — But how then ? The price
is still altogether at variance with that enunciated in the
Apocalyptic vision ; " A choenix of wheat (not for one
third of, but) for a whole denarius." Hence in truth at
first sight a great difficulty. Indeed for a long time it
seemed to me insurmountable, on the hypothesis of the
perors, those of Athenaeus and Galen, testify to the general diffusion and notoriety
of the Attic chcenix throughout the Roman world.
1 See p. 165 Note '. Schwarz, at the end of his Excursus, there referred to, thus
notes the imperial officers selling to the public. " Fiscus tunc (i. e. in Trajan's time)
neminem provincialium cogebat ad frumentum insano pretio emendum, quo abun-
dabant aliquando horrea publica : sed sinebat emere quidquid cuique e re sua vide-
batur." — Compare Note ' p. 168, on the inclusion of this in the Apocalyptic moni
tion from the throne. 2 See the abstract from Pliny in Note ' p. 155 supra.
3 The Emperor Julian, about the middle of the fourth century, states in his Miso-
pogon that the price of wheat was 5, 10, or 15 modii for an aureus, according as it
was a time of plenty or scarcity. Now the aureus equalled at that time lis.
" Whence," says Gibbon, (iv. 146,) " and from collateral sources, I conclude that
under Constantine's successors the moderate price was about 32s. a quarter;"
i. e. just half the price of Pliny.— Prices probably attained their maximum in the
Roman empire about the end of the first century.

CHAP. III.] THE THIRD SEAL. 171
Attic chcenix : and I fell back, in consequence, on the sup
position of the larger and less common chcenix of 8 coty
lae being meant, as its best solution.1 But I had overlooked
one most important element for consideration in the ques
tion, which at once sets all right ; viz. the intrinsic value
of the denarius, at the time supposed to be depicted in the
vision. For so it is, as I now find, that though the dena
rius for centuries previous, under both Eepublic and Em
perors, had been always scrupulously coined of pure silver,
yet from the commencement of the third century it began
to be gradually more and more adulterated : — to the value
of one-half in the reign of the first Severus ; and in the
reign of the second Severus to the value of just two-thirds.2
So that, as under that last-mentioned prince the denarius
had but one third the silver, and consequently but one
1 See p. 1 69 Note 6.
2 In proof I subjoin extracts to this effect from Professor Wurm's Book on the
Ancient Weights and Measures ; and also from Eckhel.
1. Wurm, p. 30. " Ex accuratiori examini subjectis compluribus denariis Dar-
cet invenit florente Republica eorum argenti puritatem adscendisse ad 0. 993, (posita
integritate absoluta=l,) donee paulatim ad 0. 965 deprimeretur. In Augusti quo-
dam denario Bouterone reperit argenti puritatem=0. 9826. Sub primis imperatori-
bus imminuta parumper puritas sic satis sibi constitit ad Severum usque. Pos-
teriores enim imperatores monetam mirum in modum corrumpere ausi, quo lucra-
retur aerarium ; unde puritas denariorum Septimio Severo imperante recedit ad
0. 494, sive ad \\. — Caracalla novum monetae genus excudit, modulo majori, argen-
to deteriori ; quanquam cum successoribus nummos quoque ex veteri institute
ferire perrexit. — Sub Alexandro Severo nummi quidem pondere antiquis pares ; sed
nonnisi tertiam Us argenti partem inesse expertus est Savotus. — Nummorum Galli-
eni puritatem Letronne ait fuisse 0. 339, sive circiter £; Bimardus adeo = 0. 200,
sive \. A Claudio Gothico usque ad Diocletianum Romae exulat argentum ; ut
nonnisi rarissimi sint nummi argentei, iique valde impuri. Cum Diocletiano redit
moneta argentea."
2. Eckhel, Vol. i. Prolegom. p. xxvii. " Alexander Severus veteris formae argen-
teos sic commit, ut etsi pondere a veteribus non differrent, tamen nonnisi tertiam
argenti portionem in Us inesse expertus est Savotus." At p. xxxvii he says that
this adulteration affected the coinage in the Provinces, as well as at Rome. " Adde
monetam argenteam inde a Severo non Romae modo, sed etiam in provinciis, si qua
adhuc in his signata fuit, vilioris metalli admixtione pessime corruptam."
Niebuhr also remarks on this, in his History of Rome (Ed. Schmitz) Vol. ii. p.
358, with reference to a later part of the 3rd century : and Ducange notes from
Pollio the brass denarii of the emperor Aurelian ; of which " sex millia solidum con-
ficiebant." It is by this adulteration, and great depreciation of the value of the denarius, that
the high prices of produce given in the Stratonicean inscription are alone to be ex-
o o
plained : — e. g. " Milipisti KM unum # centum ; Panici KM * quinquaginta." The
inscription is an imperial decree, stating the maximum of prices in terms of the
denarius; and is given in full by Col. Leake, in his tour in Asia Minor, p. 331.
It was probably of the time of Diocletian. And Lactantius, in his M. P. 7, both
admirably illustrates, and is admirably illustrated by it. " Diocletianus, cum variis
iniquitatibus immensam faceret caritatem, legem pretiis rerum venalium statuere
conatus est : &c." — But this is with reference to a time 60 years after Alex. S-everus.

172 apoc. vi. 5, 6. [parti.
third the value, of the older and. standard denarius, the
Apocalyptic charge, " A choenix of wheat for a denarius,"
proves to have been the literally true expression of about its
average price at that particular sera.1 Surely the coinci
dence must be deemed very remarkable. — As to the price
of barley specified in the voice from the throne, it is con
siderably lower than its usual proportion to that of wheat :
it being but a third ; not, as more commonly, a half.2 But
there does not seem to be here anything inconsistent with
historic probability : Alexander Severus' large and cele
brated procurations of corn quite accounting for it ; since
these were doubtless most by far of wheat.3 Let me just
add, ere passing from this subject, that the taking of the
denarius as the standard-price, may perhaps have been bor
rowed from the Cassian law : and that this would involve
the specification of that small wheat-measure the chamix,
rather than the modius ; it being the equivalent in value at
the time figured in vision to a denarius. Unless indeed we
prefer to account for the small standard-measure on the
1 At that one aera almost distinctively and alone. For under the first Severus the
current denarius would have been probably more than the average price ; under
Gallienus less. See the extract from Wurm in the Note preceding ; stating the
adulteration under the former emperor to have been to the value of but one half,
under Gallienus of four-fifths.
2 Such was the proportion after the ending of the famine in Samaria. (2 Kings
vii. 1, 16.) The same is noted by Cicero as the proportion in Sicily at the time of
Verres' Praetorship (Lib. iii. in Verrem) ; " Quaternis H. S. tritici modium, binis
hordei." It is nearly the proportion also in our own country : at least according to
statistical tables of prices for the last forty-seven years, i. e. from 1790 to 1837 ; the
exact average proportion being as 87 to 160.
Daubuz broaches a curious theory, to the effect that the comparative cheapness
of barley noted in the vision, as compared with that of wheat, was a sign of scarcity.
His argument is quite unintelligible to me, and is indeed refuted by fact. From the
above-mentioned tables it will appear that the lower or higher ratio of the price of
barley to that of wheat, has no connexion either with the fact of plenty or scarcity. —
In some of the years included in the tables, I may observe, the comparative price of
barley was much lower than as 1 to 2; e. g. in 1816, it was as 1 to above 2-J. — Fleet
wood, in his Chronicon Pretiosum, gives examples of price from our earlier British
history ; in some of which the proportion is as low as 1 to 3, the same as in the text.
3 It is said that Alexander Severus replaced all the com which Heliogabalus had
wasted. See too his appeal to the mutinying soldiers, on the subject of his procura
tions for them. The word here used by the historian, in relation thereto is indeed
annona ; (" acceptam a provincialibus annonam ; " Lamprid. 53 ;) a word including
barley. But, as the procuration was for the citizens of Rome and the army, — and
by the former barley-bread was despised, and with the latter to be fed on barley,
" hordeo pasci,'' was a military punishment, — we may safely conclude that the pro
curations were in by far the largest proportion of wheat. This would of course raise
the price of wheat somewhat disproportionately.
Doubtless it was the despised barley-bread on which Christ often fed. " We have
here five barley-loaves."

CHAP. III. J THE THIRD SEAL. 173
principle of the minuteness of A. Severus' legislation on
such subjects ; 1 through regard to the minute wants of
the people, in transactions of buying and selling corn at
the public granaries. Casaubon thinks that the Eoman
tesserae frumentariae were probably tickets for a choenix of
corn.2 And the small measure thus deemed suitable for
gratuitous distribution to the poorest, might suit a class less
poor for purchase. Somewhat curiously a weight of 21b,
just answering to the chcenix measure of wheat,3 has been
lately found at Eome : stamped as a government-weight
under Alexander Severus ; and destined for the use of his
ayopavo/xoi, or superintendants of weights and measures.4
Thus is the specified price, as well as all else, found to
suit our hypothesis about the rider : though with special
reference, in so far as regards the Apocalyptic voice as from
the throne, to the reclamation of the law of equity under A.
Severus. And indeed I cannot but think that with St.
John those words enjoining the price of wheat and barley
must almost of themselves have suggested Imperial Provin
cial Governors, as the parties addrest under figure of the
rider ; just as the monitory words of the Cassian law might
in earlier times have suggested the Provincial Administra
tors of the old Eepublic : — more especially as there was
added that other monition in the same spirit of equity,
about the wine and the oil ; precisely the like to which
seems to have been enjoined from time to time on the Pro
vincial Presidents by the juster emperors, in connexion
with the imperial exactions of wine and oil, in their Canon
Frumentarius.5 — If however of itself this indication was
1 " Leges de jure populi et fisci moderatas et infinitas sanxit." So Lamprid. Vit.
Alex. Severi. o. 16. 2 On Spartian's Life of S. Severus, c. 23.
3 See my abstract from Arbuthnot, Note 1 p. 155 supra.
* See the very interesting and learned Dissertation of the Jesuit Father Secchi on
this AiAenpov. it has stamped on it on one side ETOT2. A. I. 'TIIATETONT02
T.IOT KAATIOT, 2EOTHPOT ITAAIKON; on the obverse, ArOPANOMOTNT02
MENE20EA2 XPH2TOT AIAEITPON.
6 In the Codex Theodosianus, intermixed with stringent laws for the due gather.
ing of the tributes of "wine and oil, as well as of corn, we find not merely such cau
tions about a fair price for the com as were exemplified by me pp. 167, 168 supra ;
but generally against all extortion, injustice, and oppression of the people, in the
collection of the various tributes. — These monitory laws appear from their language
to have arisen generally out of complaints against the imperial officers. A circum
stance this which is illustrated by what Spartian (c. 13,) says of the emperor
Hadrian's energetic proceedings against unjust and oppressive Provincial Governors in
his reign. " Adrianus, circumiens provincias, Procuratores et Praesides pro factis

174 apoc vi. 5, 6. [part i.
insufficient, the second and additional indication of the
rider's holding a balance, must, I conceive, when con
joined with the former, have sufficed to set all doubt on the
point aside. For the balance, from being the emblem of
justice,1 came to be an official badge of those that had ap
pointment , to the administration of justice ;2 such as the
Praetors at Eome, and the Provincial Governors in the
Provinces. Which latter accordingly, under the old Ee
public, used sometimes to have a balance over the curule
chair of their high office, on coins struck in connection
with their appointment : and, together therewith, sometimes
also an ear of corn, or it might be a Roman measure, with
reference to the procurations of corn charged more or less
directly upon them ; just as in the medals which the reader
here sees engraved before him.3 — In imperial times indeed
supplicio affecit ita severe, ut accusatores per se crederetur immittere." Also by
Capitolinus, c. 6, of Antoninus Pius; " Contrat procuratores suos conquerentes
libenter audivit."
It will be observed that there is this distinction in the Apocalyptic monition, with
reference to the wheat and barley on the one hand, and the wine and oil on the other,
that a price is named for the former only. I presume that this may have been be
cause, besides the provincial tributes of corn, a vast quantity had frequently to be
bought for the imperial service. But the wants of wine and oil were for the most
part abundantly supplied by the tributes ; and no buying of them consequently
requisite. ' See Note 2 p. 160 suprk.
2 So the Oneirocritic cited in Daubuz : Eav ris i5v /cot' ovap £vyov,.. .. touto eis
vpoauirov voenu KpiroV " If one see in vision a balance, it indicates a judge."
And Job xxxi. 6 ; " Let him weigh me in balances of justice." Marg. i. c. as a. judge.
—In his Dialogue nept AiKatov, Plato draws out the comparison.
3 They are copied from Spanheim De Usu Num. Diss. vi. p. 545, After speaking
of the sella curulis, which the reader sees in the first of my engraved medals, as
often marking the consulare fastigium, he goes on as follows. " Easdem sellae cu
rules in denariis Gentium Romanarum ad designandos alios curules magistratus,
Praetores, yEdiles, Praefectos Urbis : quibus etiam varia symbola vulgo adjuncts, puta
lances, spicas, thyrsos ; idque, ut observo, ad discrimen eorum magistratus quibus
sellae curulis jus competebat. Hinc lances videas cum sella curuli in denario Gentis
Liciniae ; adposite ad Praetoris aut Legati Pro Prtetore officium indicandum, cui
juris dicendi partes incumbebant. ^Ediles autem curules, quos cum annonce tum
ludorum procurationem habuisse nemo nescit, et quos proinde Curatores Urbis, an
nonce, ludorumque solennium vocat alicubi Tullius, frequenter etiam sella curulis,
modo cum spicis a lateribus, modo cb.m thyrso Liberalium symbolo, designat ; sicut
in denariis Gentis Lolliae ac Valerias. Eandem vero annona? curam innuit etiam
modius frumenti cum duabus spicis, in denario Gentis Livineiae."
The medals are noticed by Eckhel also in his 5th Volume, pp. 153, 233, 159, 235.
— It seems that the first has the name of Metellus Pius Scipio Imp. on the other
side ; P. Crassus Junius having been his Legatus Pro Praetore, at the time when he
was contending for the empire in Africa with Caesar, as the head of the Pompeians
after the battle of Pharsalia. — The second has inscribed on its other side the names
of the Quaestors Piso and Ccepio ; who were appointed by the Senate, some time
during the Republic, to buy corn. — The third has the name of L. Regulus Praetor. The
precise date of the two last is uncertain. See my Paper on Roman Medals in the
Appendix to this Volume.

Vol.1.- B 175.

THE ROMAS" PROPRETORS' & QU^STORS' EMBLEMS
of a B alauc e , an E ax of ~Wie at , aai a Cora-measure .

From SparJieam.

THE BALANCE ON AN IMPERIAL COIN OE ALEXANDER SEVERUS.

From, a. coin in the British. Museum .

CHAP. III.] THE THIRD SEAL. 175
the supreme judicial and financial, as well as supreme mili
tary power, centred in the emperors : whence the ascription
to them of the balance of justice ; whether in historic
writings j1 or, with the legend Mquitas Augusti around it,
on imperial coins.2 But the authority that the balance indi
cated, as well as that indicated by the sword, (the latter
whether militarily or simply civilly judicial,)3 was delegated
of course by them to their subordinate provincial' and finan
cial governors.4 Just as in other times, and another country,
by our Henry the Vth to the English Lord Chief Justice ;
" Hold thou still the balance and the sword." 5
Which being so, and the two Apocalyptic indications
when combined together, of the voice as from the throne
about corn, wine, and oil, and the balance, thus character
istic and distinctive of a Eoman Provincial Governor, ob
serve with what beautiful propriety they have been com
bined in the hieroglyphic before us : — the rider's being a
3 So Constantine Manasses, with reference to the equity of Trajan's administra
tion, eis ftptaets appeireoraroi £vyoi SiKatoavvijs (in Chron. p. 44) : an eulogium, ob
serves Vitringa, (p. 309) which applies to the administration of Trajan's three suc
cessors, as well as to Trajan himself. So Capitolinus, c. 6, of Antoninus Pius ; " Pro-
curatores suos modeste suscipere tributa jussit : excedentes modum rationem fac-
torum suorum reddere praecepit : nee unquam laetatus est lucro quo provincialis
oppressus est." — With regard to Hadrian's similar care to ensure equity in his
provincial administration, see Spartian's testimony given Note 5 p. 173 supra.
2 See my Plate. 3 See p. 145 Note 5.
4 See Tac. Ann. xii. 60. — There were Pr&fecti Annonce at Rome, over the import
ant department of the annona. Augustus himself once undertook the office. But
it was the Provincial Governors, with whom of course the Praefecti Annonae were in
communication, that had to superintend the matter in the Provinces. Of these
Provincial Governors the generic title, I believe, was Prcesides Provinciarum ;
though the appellation had properly a more restricted meaning. It seems that be
sides the greater Provinces, governed either by the Emperor's Legati Pro Prastore or
the Senate's Proconsuls, there were other smaller or less important Provinces. In
the former or larger Provinces, besides the Propraetors or Proconsuls, there were the
Procuratores Ccesaris, high officers charged specially with the care of the revenue ;
in connexion however with, and in a measure subordinateto, the superior Governors.
In the latter or inferior Provinces the Procurator was himself the Prases or Gover
nor. So in old inscriptions; "Procurator et Praeses Alpium;" " Procurator et
Praeses Provinciae Sardinia? ; " &c. (See Salmasius' Note on Spartian's Life of Adrian
u. 13, ad fin. and Burman de Vectigal, p. 146. Thelatter refers to Lipsius' Excursus
on Tacit. Annal. xii. q. v.) — Under these Presides there were of course subordinate
officers for the collection of the tributes : " qui per Provincias mittebantur, ut vec-
tigalia tam frumenti quam pecudum et vini et olei colligerent ; et qui vel a specie-
bus Frumentarii dicebantur, vel generali voce Susceptores." — In the Provinces
governed by higher Officers the Procurators had jurisdiction only in fiscal causes,
the supreme Governor having the supreme and general jurisdiction. So Salmasius,
ibid. " Rem fisci curabant, et nullam nisi in fiscalibus causis jurisdictionem habe-
bant." In the other Provinces they had of course the whole jurisdiction in their
hands. s Shakespear, Henry IV (2nd Pt.) Act v. Sc. 2.

176 apoc vi. 5, 6. [part i.
position of authority, the balance held in hand, and the
prices and measure and charge to equity audibly enunti-
ated from the throne. — Nor let me forget to add that a horse
was presented for his use to the Provincial Governor, on
which to go forth publicly to his Province, as well as to the
Military Propraetor.1 So that in respect of the black-horse's
rider, as well as of the red-horse's, the Apocalyptic emblem
might be considered as one drawn from the life.
And now, I think, we may draw to a conclusion. — We
have seen what were the charges to equity addrest to
the Provincial Governors. And their very badge of the
balance might seem almost a profession of equity. But they
were professions, from Caracalla's time first figured in the
vision, with few and brief exceptions, almost always falsified ;
and the injunctions of the law to equity, however solemn, for
the most part altogether in vain. "Those," says Gibbon,2
" who had learning enough to read the orations of Cicero
against Verres, might instruct themselves in all the various
arts of oppression, with regard to the weight, the price, the
quality, and the carriage ;3 and the avarice of an unlettered
governor would supply the ignorance of precept or prece
dent." The " robbers of the provinces " was both A. Se
verus' and Aurelian's too just appellation of them.4 — More
over as in the wide-extending branches of financial admi
nistration they acted out this mockery of justice, so too
in the judicial and general administration.5 — Hence the
solution of the enigma that at first sight seemed scarcely
explicable ; how, under the influences of one that held the
balance of equity as his badge, the aspect of the Eoman'
horse, or people, should yet gather blackness. For it was
but in official symbol and profession thafTie held the balance
1 So Lamprid. Vit Alex. Severi c.42. Compare Note " p. 148 supra. 2 iii. 87.
3 It may illustrate the subject of the Seal, as well as Gibbon's language here quoted,
if we observe that in Sicily, when the wheat-procurations were required from the
islanders, the market-price being not above one denarius the modius, Verres exacted
three denarii from some of them as a money equivalent for each modius due. Cicero
in Frument. Verr.
4 " Fures." Lamprid. Alex. Sev. 15, 28. " Provinciarum praedatores " Aur.
Victor Vit. Aurelian.
6 So Cyprian paints the judicial administration at Carthage, as a mere mockery of
justice. "Judex? Sed sententiam vendit, &c." Epist. 1 . ad Donat. p. 22. (Ed.
Paris 1846.)

CHAP. III.] THE THIRD SEAL. 177
of equity. The reality of the case with him, as with
Ephraim, was that described by the prophet, " The balance
of deceit is in his hands ; he loveth to oppress." 1 The
voice of natural equity indeed never, even from the first,
ceased its reclamations. And by Alexander Severus, as we
saw, there was in a very remarkable manner a waking up
of the voice of law in support of it : 2 even as by one
who had studied and loved the golden precept of Christi
anity, "Do as ye would be done by."3 But it was all in
vain. After brief and partial amelioration the evil triumphed
as before. Throughout what remained of the third cen
tury the laws against extortion and injustice, like many
others which meet the eye in history, must be looked on
rather as records of the crime, than preventives of its
commission And does it need that I impress upon my readers a
sense of the .gravity of the evil ? With characteristic fore
thought the great Trajan likened the undue enlargement
of the taxation, with exacting procurators to collect it, to
the morbid enlargement of the spleen in man's body, caus
ing atrophy.4 And, after Alex. Severus' vain attempts at
effective amelioration, the history of the sequel illustrates
too fully the truth of Trajan's comparison. A general in
ternal wasting of the Eoman state resulted from it, as I
have already stated from Gibbon.4 The agriculture of
the provinces was insensibly ruined : and thus preparation
made for famine ; which, as we shall see under the next
1 Hosea xii. 7. — The old Apocalyptic Expositor Tichonius, in his 6th Homily on
the Revelations, expresses very much the same view of the rider's falsification of this
symbol of equity. " Habebat stateram in manu, libram ; — id est examen aequitatis :
quia, dumfingit sejustitiam tenere, per simulationem laedit." And so too Primasius.
2 So Lampridius of him, Ch. 42 ; " Praesides provinciarum. . . si male [egissent,]
in quadruplum reddituri, praeter condemnationem aut peculates aut repetundarum."
3 Alex. Severus' admiration of Christian morality is well known ; and will be
noted by me again under the fifth Seal.
4 " Exactiones improbans et detestans, fiscum lienem vocabat, qu&d eo crescente
artus reliqui tabescunt." So the younger Victor, Epit. ch. xiii.
5 See p. 164 supra. — I- see that MdSheim, in his Church History, i. 1. 1. 2, has a
paragraph on the incdmmoda of the Roman empire : and inr'it makes the evil treated
of under this Seal a prominent subject ; contrastedly (as here) with the equity of
the Roman law, which in vain sought to furnish % defence against it. " The Roman
government, with respect both to its form and laws, was mild and equitable. But
' the injustice and avarice of the Provincial Governors. . . . together with the rapacity
of the publicans, by whom the taxes of the country (vectigalia) were farmed, were
the source and occasion of innumerable grievances to the people." — Again Murphy,
the translator of Tacitus, speaks in the same strong manner of " the rapacity of
VOL. I. N

178 apoc. vi. 5, 6. [part i.
Seal, soon succeeded. In fine, in its not very remote conse*
quences, it involved both the depopulation and desolation
of provinces once the most fertile in the empire r1 and
also personal and family distress, such as to reduce the in
habitants to despair ; 2 and to banish from the provincials
every sentiment of patriotism.3
Thus, by any one that considers the end from the begin
ning, this aera of Caracalla cannot but be regarded in the
same light in which it has been delineated by the historian,
as one of the introduction of fresh and grievous morbific
principle into the Eoman body politic, under which it
would indeed gather blackness. — And who then can doubt
but that it was a subject deserving of prefiguration ? Or
who, that it was the very subject prefigured under the
Seal before us ? For surely, I may say, not a particular is
there in the emblematic vision that has not been shown to
have had its correspondency in the features, as noticed by
me, of this period of Eoman history. In truth, brief as is
the description of the figuration in the text, the whole sub
ject of this long chapter seems to pass embodied before us, as
the imperial Procurators, as among the causes that finally wrought the downfall
of the empire." Ad. Tac. Agric. § 34 ; and referring to Tac. Annal. xii. 60.
1 In Vopiscus' Life of Aurelian, c. 47, 48, we read of vast fertile tracts in Etruria,
along the Aurelian way, even then lying desolate. See Note4 p. 185. With reference
to a later period, Gibbon, iii. 87, states that sixty years after the death of Constan
tine, and before a barbarian had been seen in Italy, an exemption from taxes was
granted for 330,000 acres in the fertile province of Campania, that is for one-eighth
part of the whole province, as being by actual survey ascertained to be desert : and
he ascribes it to the long impoverishing effect of fiscal oppressions ; of the aggrava
tion of which this prophetic figuration marks a chief aera. — It is to be observed that
Italy was reduced, about the end of the third century, to a level in respect of tax
ation with the other provinces. Aur. Victor xxxix 31.
2 In speaking of a humane law of Constantine, made early in his reign with a
view to remedy the evil, Gibbon observes as follows. " The horrid practice of ex
posing and murdering their new-born infants was become every day more frequent
in the provinces, and especially in Italy. It was the effect of distress : and the dis
tress was principally occasioned by the intolerable burden of taxes; and by the
vexatious as well as cruel prosecutions of the officers of the revenue against their
insolvent debtors. The less opulent, or less industrious,., instead of rejoicing in an
increase of family, deemed it an act of paternal tenderness to release their children
from the impending miseries of a life which they were themselves unable to support.
The humanity of Constantine, moved perhaps by some recent and extraordinary
instances of despair, engaged him to address an edict to all the cities of Italy, and
afterwards of Africa, directing instant relief to those parents who should produce
before the magistrates the children whom their own poverty would not allow them
to educate." Vol. ii. 250.
3 " Let them come then those barbarians 1" So Michelet; Hist, de France, in a
sketch of the feelings of the French peasantry ground down by taxation, on the
Gothic barbarians' first irruption.

CHAP. IV. J THE FOURTH SEAL. 179
we once again read it. " When he opened the third Seal,
I beheld, and lo ! a black horse ; and he that sat on it
having a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a
voice, as in the midst of the living creatures, saying ; A
chcenix of wheat for a denarius, and three chcenixes of barley
for a denarius ; and see that thou wrong not in regard to
the oil and the wine ! "

CHAPTEE IV.
THE FOURTH SEAL.
" And when he opened the fourth Seal, I heard the voice
of the fourth living creature say, Come ! x And I looked,
and behold a pale 2 horse ! And his name that sat on it
was Death : and Hades followed after him. And power
was given unto him over the fourth part [or four parts] of
the earth ; to kill with sword, and with famine, and with
pestilence,3 and by wild beasts of the earth."
There is no research needed here to explain the intent
of the prefigurative symbol. The rider was not, as before,
the representative of human functionaries and rulers; whose
distinctive emblems, though well understood at the time,
might now require investigation to unfold them. It is a
symbol of meaning as obvious to the reader now, as it could
1 Kat ire ijvoi%e tijv crippayiSa rijv reraprijv, ijKOva'a ipuvijv rov reraprov £uov Ae-
yovros, Epxov. Kat etSov, Kat tSov iiriros xAwpos, Kat i KaBijpevos eiravu avrov, ovopa
uvru i Qavaros' Kai i 'ASijs ijKoAovBei per' avrov. Kat eSoBij avru e^ovota eiri ro
reraprov rijs yrjs, airoKreivai ev ftoprpaia, Kai ev Aipu, Kai ev Bava.ru, Kai biro ruv
Qrjpiuv rijs yijs.
2 XAupos, first grassy green ; also pale ; and then, livid. Its application to death
in either of the latter senses is obvious and frequent. So " pallida mors," Horace :
xAapov Seos, Homer. — In these and such like examples the epithet of the effect is,
by a metathesis, applied to the causal agent. In the symbol of the 4th Seal (like as
in the colours of the horses of the three Seals preceding) it is applied, and more
appropriately, to the party affected. So the emperor Constantius, father to Con
stantine, was called Chlorus from his paleness.
Hippocrates, in his 2nd Book on Prognostics, enumerates among the symptoms
of approaching death, the colour of the facial skin becoming thus green and black :
ro xpoipa rov l-upiravros irpoauirov x^-taP0V re Kai pieAav eov.
3 So Bavaros ought here to be rendered, as most commentators observe. Its use
in this sense is borrowed from the Septuagint ; which thus, in near thirty places,
renders the Hebrew "151 ! a word translated in our English version, and without
doubt correctly, pestilence. So 2 Sam. xxiv. 13, 15; " Or shall it be three days'
pestilence ? " where the Septuagint translation is Bavaros. — The difference of read
ing given parenthetically will be noticed afterwards.
Vol. i. N 2

180 apoc vi. 7, 8. [part i.
have been then to the seer. For who it meant is expressly
told us. It was the personification of Death ! To mark
that it was the actual King of terrors, — and not, as other
wise it might possibly have been construed, the destroyer
merely of political existence, — his badge, so to express it,
is said to have been Hades following him ; the recipient,
with his opening jaws, of the victims slain by Death.1 The
commission was given him, by the supreme arbiter of life
and death, to kill upon the Eoman earth with all the four
sore judgments of God ; — with the sword, and with famine,
and with pestilence, and with the wild beasts of the earth :
and the horse, symbolizing the Eoman empire and people,
appeared deadly pale and livid under his influences ; a hue
symptomatic of approaching dissolution.
An aera of terrible mortality, and to an extent scarce
precedented in the annals of human history, was here evi
dently prefigured. The question for us is, Was there then
such an aera in the Eoman imperial history ; and one fol
lowing, so as from the sequence of this vision on that of the
Seal preceding, we might expect it to do, at no great dis
tance after the time of the second Severus ? — The answer
is soon given.
An aera in the Eoman history, commencing within four
teen or fifteen years after the death of Alexander Severus,
is so strongly marked by coincidence in every point with
this terrible prefigurative emblem, that interpreters who
explain the six first Seals of the history of Pagan Eome,
one and all agree, I believe, in referring the fourth Seal to
it. By Mede and Daubuz, and after them by Lowman,
Newton, and others, passages have been quoted from
ancient authors well descriptive of its multiplied mise
ries. For my own part, having given Gibbon's testimony
so much as my authority, in illustration of the former
Seals, I wish to give him (though not exclusively) on this
also. And, after all, who so graphic an illustrator ? Who
like him for extracting the spirit of cotemporary history,
and infusing it, concentrated, into his own paintings?— He
speaks then of the period from the celebration of the great
1 So Isa. v. 14 ; " Therefore hades hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth
without measure ; and their glory, and multitude, and pomp, shall descend into it."

CHAP. IV.] THE FOURTH SEAL. 181
secular games by the emperor Philip, a. d. 248, to the
death of Gallienus, a. d. 268, as the twenty years of
" shame and misfortune, of confusion and calamity." He
speaks of it as a time in which (mark again the corres
pondence of his figure with the death-like colour of the
horse in the apocalyptic emblem) " the ruined empire seemed
to approach the last and fatal moment of its dissolution," 1
He depicts the various agencies of destruction consuming
it. The sword ! " Every instant of time was marked,
every province of the Eoman world was afflicted, by barba
rous invaders and military tyrants;"2 — the sword from with
out, and the sword from within. — Famine ! " Our habits
of thinking," he says, " so fondly connect the order of the
universe with the fate of man, that this gloomy period has
been decorated with inundations, earthquakes, uncommon
meteors, preternatural darkness, and a crowd of prodigies,
fictitious or exaggerated." Of none of these fictitious evils,
let it be observed, was there any notice in the apocalyptic
vision. " But a general famine," he adds, in correspond
ence with that which had been predicted, " was a calamity
of a more serious kind : " and still expounding our pro
phecy, though now retrospectively that of the third Seal,
he observes that it was " the inevitable consequence of ra
pine and oppression, which extirpated the produce of the
present, and the hope of future harvests." 3 — Yet again the
agency of pestilence had been prefigured. Accordingly,
though little aware in what track he was following, he goes
on to notice this also. " Famine," he says, " is almost
always followed by epidemical diseases, the effect of scanty
and unwholesome food. But other causes must have con
tributed to that furious plague, which, from the year 250
to the year 265, raged without interruption in every pro
vince, every city, and almost every family in the empire."4
During a part of that time, he adds, " 5000 persons died
1 i. 384, 411. So Eutropius, ix. 9 ; " desperatis rebus, ac delete pcene Romano
imperio. 2 ib. 384. 3 ib. 455 : already cited p. 164 suprit.
4 ibid. -Others date it from A.D. 251. So Cedrenus: EireKparei S Aot/*os ev rats
f,pepais eKetvais [sc. of Gallus, emperor from 251 to 254,] KivrjBeis airo AiBioirtas
pexpt tijs Svoeus, us piiSepiav iroAiv petvat roviov apoipov' iroAAaKts Se Kai Sis rijs
iroAeus emjpxero' eireKparei Se erij te. Similarly speaks Zonaras. Zosimus says of
its ravages ; i Aoipos, iroAeot re icat Kuuats eirtyevopevos et ri AeAeippevov ijv avBpu-
ireiov yevos, SteipBeipev. See Clinton's Fasti Rom. ad ann. 252.

182 apoc. vi. 7, 8. [part i.
daily in Eome ; and many towns, that had escaped the hands
of the barbarians, were entirely depopulated." And, could
we venture to extend the analogy of Alexandria, where
statistical tables were kept, to the other provinces, " we
might suspect that war, pestilence, and famine had con
sumed, in a few years, the moiety of the human species." ]
Truly the history must be allowed to agree thus far with
the prediction. If the prophetic emblems were terrific, the
facts of the history of the period that we suppose them to
refer to appear, if possible, yet more so. — In the secular
or centenary games celebrated by Philip, whence this aera
of mortality had its commencing date, it is observable that
solemn sacrifices had been offered, according to custom, to
Hades, or Pluto, (as was his Greek appellation) whereby
to ensure the preservation of the Eoman empire.2 And
what the response ? " Behold a livid pale horse ; and his
name that sate thereon was Death ; and Hades followed
after him. And power was given him to kill on the Eoman
earth with sword, and with famine, and with pestilence,
and by wild beasts of the earth."
There is just one of the destroying agencies mentioned
in the vision that is passed over without notice by the his
torian ; — that of the wild beasts of the earth. But though
unnoticed by him, it is not unillustrated. For it is a well-
known law of nature that where the reign of man fails, that
of the wild beasts begins ; and that they quickly occupy
the scenes of waste and depopulation. " I will not drive out
the inhabitants from before thee," said God to Israel, " in
one year ; lest the land become desolate, and the beasts of
the field multiply against thee." 3 In fact we have it on
record, that at an epoch some twenty or thirty years after
1 i. 455, 456 — It was during this pestilence that the Christian Bishop Cyprian
wrote his treatise " De Mortalitate," of which the very title illustrates the imagery
of this fourth Seal : comforting his brother Christians who suffered under it ; re
minding them that all things, even death, were theirs ; that in this world they were
strangers ; and that death would but take them to their home with Jesus.
2 See the Pagan historian Zosimus B. ii. ad init. who says of these secular games,
^vvreAet Se irpos Aotpuv, Kai (pBopuv, Kat vouuv aKeaets. He then gives a long ac
count of their origin, and the ancient mysteriously discovered altar 'ASoo Kai riep-
oeipovijs, on which the chief sacrifices were offered: tells how, on the raging of wars
and diseases, the Sybilline books inculcated these games and sacrifices 'A5p /cat Tiep-
oetpovri ; (as well as to other gods also, specially Apollo and Diana;) and how, ac
cording to the oracle, the Roman empire was to be secured in his greatness and
power by the celebration of the games ; tovtuv airavruv Kara Beopov etrtreAovpevuv
etpvAarreTo pev ij tuv 'Pupatuv apxn. 3 Exod. xxiii. 29.

^^:2m. )y_

CHAP. IV.] THE FOURTH SEAL. 183
the death of Gallienus, their multiplication had arisen to
an extent, in parts of the empire, that made it a crying evil.
" Quando cum feris bella," said Arnobius, about the year
296,1 " et prcelia cum leonibus gesta sunt? Non ante
nos ? Quando pernicies populis venenatis ab anguibus data
est ? Non ante nos ?" 2 So does he specify wild beasts as
one of the plagues with which the land was then afflicted,
and of which Christians were upbraided as the guilty cause.
— But this, as I said, was written in 296, twenty or thirty
years after the date of Gallienus' death. And the question
suggests itself, What of the intervening period ; and can it
too be classed under the prefiguration of the 4th Apoca
lyptic Seal ? A question this quite necessary to attend to,
as I date my 5th Seal not till the year 303 : and the rather,
as it has been asserted that the whole interval was one so
markedly of restoration, not destruction, as to be in direct
contrariety to, not accordance with, the symbolization of the
Seal before us.3 — The answer to this question involves of
course an historic review of the period intervening ; more
especially up to the notable epoch of Diocletian's quadri-
partition of the empire a.d. 292, which I regard as the in
cluded terminus of the 4th Seal. It shall be given as briefly
as possible. A fuller abstract has been given elsewhere.4
It is to be understood then that after the emperor Vale
rian's disastrous capture in the 6th year of his reign, A.D.
260, by the Persian king Sapor,5 leaving Gallienus, his
son and associate on the throne, sole emperor, Gallienus'
wretched character induced insurrections and rebellions so
frequent and universal, that the rival assumers of the pur
ple during the next twelve or fourteen years are designated
by Pollio and other historians, as the 30 tyrants. Of these
the larger number were mere ephemeral emperors. But
three stand out prominently, as having for several years
1 So Clinton fixes the date ad ann. 296. " Trecenti sunt anni ferme," says Ar
nobius c. 13, " ex quo ccepimus esse Christiani : " and in another passage ; " Annos
ducit urbs Roma quinquaginta et mille, aut non multum ab his minus." Now U. C.
1050 corresponds with A.D. 297.
2 Adv. Gentes, Lib. 1. p. 5. (Lugd. Bat. 1651.)
3 Especially by Dr. Keith, in his Strictures on the Horse.
4 Viz. in my Vindicise Horariae. See its pp. 165 — 182.
5 This unhappy prince after being taken by Sapor, king of Persia, died in his cap
tivity. At Nakshi Roustam there still remains a sculpture in the rock commemora
tive of the event. A sketch is given in Sir R. Porter's Travels in Persia, Vol. i. p. 540.

184 apoc vi. 7, 8. [part i.
severed three great divisions of the empire from the central
empire under Gallienus in Eome and Italy ; — viz. Odena-
thus and Zenobia, from A. D. 260, in Syria and the East ;
Aureolus, from A. D. 261, x in Ulyricum ; and Posthumus
and then Tetricus, from 258, in Gaul, Spain, and Britain.
Such was the empire's mutilated internal state (of the bar
barian invasions, synchronically, from without I have
already spoken,) on Gallienus' death A.D. 268; and the
election of Claudius, the first of the five restoring emperors,
as his successor.
On his election the cry of the Eoman people and senate
to him was, Save the empire!2 Aureolus' own soldiers opened
the way to this by assasinating him at Milan. Then came
the news of a terrible Gothic invasion. He wrote thus on his
road to the Senate : — " 320,000 Goths have invaded the
Eoman territory. . . The whole Eepublic is fatigued and
exhausted. . . The strength of the empire, Gaul and Spain,
[with Britain too] are usurped by Tetricus : . . and the
archers of the East serve under the banners of Zenobia." 3
In a great battle fought near Naissus in Dardania, the
legions at first gave way, " opprest by numbers, and dis
mayed by misfortunes ; " till Claudius' generalship decided
the victory in his favour. Still the Gothic war continued,
and was diffused for a while over the provinces of Maesia
Thrace and Macedon ; then at length repelled within the
mountain-tracts of Haemus. There the pestilence made
havoc among both Goths and Eomans, as the sword had
done before it ; and, among its Eoman victims, cut down
Claudius himself.4 Had the destroyer Death yet resigned
his commission to kill with the sword and with pestilence
on the Eoman earth ? — The armies chose Aurelian for his
successor ; the second of the restoring emperors. " A
bloody and doubtful conflict" with the Goths, was the first
act of his reign : followed by a peace ; of which the most
memorable and important condition was Aurelian's final
abandonment to the Goths of the great province of Dacia.5
1 So Pollio, the nearest cotemporary historian, and Zosimus. 2 Pollio's Claud, c. 4.
3 Gibbon ii. 11. See the original Letter in Pollio's Claudius, c. 7.
4 See Pollio c. 12, and Zosimus : also Niebuhr's Lectures (Ed. Schmitz) ii. 336.
6 Gibb. ii. 19, 20. — It was the same great province that Trajan had added to the
empire, in the period of my 1st Seal. See p. 123 supA.

CHAP. IV.] THE FOURTH SEAL. 185
Next came an Allemannic invasion of Italy ; one as alarm
ing as that of the Goths before it. Three great battles
ensued : in the first of which, fought near Placentia, the
Eomans suffered so terrible a defeat that " the immediate
dissolution of the empire was apprehended." x Then the
Sibylline books were consulted at Eome by Aurelian's
order. But " all too late," cried a voice in the Senate-
house, " for the salvation of the Eepublic. It is like sick
men, who only consult eminent -physicians when in absolute
despair of recovery." 2 At the same time those walls of
larger circuit were traced out round Eome, which still
arrest the stranger's eye by their solemn grandeur : in order
to the temporary defence, if so it might be, of the other
wise "defenceless mistress of the world."3 In the two
subsequent battles, however, Aurelian conquered. The
actual dissolution of the empire was prevented : and Aure
lian proceeded to reunite to the empire those vast sepa
rated members that Claudius's Letter made allusion to, of
Gaul and Spain in the West, Syria in the East. He
effected each and either object : but only through the
means of two bloody civil wars : (for such the Eastern
was, in fact, as well as the Western : ) and having done so,
and triumphed at Eome for his victories, he set out to
repel a Persian invasion a.d. 275, and on the march, near
Byzantium, was by one of his generals assassinated. — In
the course of Aurelian's sad, though splendid reign, let me
ask again, had Death ceased to kill with the sword on
the Eoman earth, or the empire cast aside its hue of threat
ening dissolution ? * — But what next ? Says Gibbon :
" The strength of Aurelian had crushed on every side the
enemies of Eome : but, after his death, they seemed to re
vive with an increase of fury and numbers." 5 In the
year next following we read of hosts of the Alani, that
spreading themselves over Pontus, Cappadocia, Cilicia,
and Galatia, traced their course by the flames of cities and
1 Gibb. ii.25. Vopiscus, c. 21, says, "Tantaapud Placentiam clades accepta est,
ut Romanum pcene solveretur imperium." 2 Vopisc.c. 19. 3 Gibb. ii.26, 28.
4 In an Edict by Aurelian, given in Vopiscus c. 47, mention is made incidentally
of the already begun desolation in Italy. He urges agriculturists to plant vines in
certain extensive fertile lands of Etruria, that had been deserted ; whence to fur
nish the Roman populace with wine. 5 Ib. ii. 75.

186 apoc vi. 7, 8. [part i.
villages, but who were at length repulsed by the aged em
peror Tacitus : and then of that emperor's sudden death,
(by assassination probably,) and also the assassination of his
brother and successor Florian : and then of the election of
Probus, the third of the five great restoring emperors ;
who " set himself," says Niebuhr, " to rescue the em
pire from the wretched condition in which he found it."1
First came the deliverance of Gaul, opprest by invading
armies of Franks, Batavi, Burgundians, and other barba
rians ; " who, since Aurelian's death, had ravaged that
great province with impunity :" 2 then a successful inroad
into Germany : and a peace, of which one of the condi
tions to which Gibbon calls attention, was, that the barba
rians should supply the Eoman army with 16,000 recruits.
For, says he, " the infrequency of marriage, and ruin of
agriculture, had affected the principles of population ; and
not only destroyed the strength of the present, but inter
cepted the hope of future generations." 3 Next came the
revolt, and successful marauding expedition round the
whole maritime coast of the empire, of a colony of Franks
settled by Probus in Pontus : then the revolt and defeat of
Saturninus, one of the most distinguished of the Eoman
generals in Egypt ; then the rebellion and defeat of Bono-
sus and Proculus in Gaul. So at length in the year 28 1 ,
all enemies seeming to be vanquished, Probus, like Aure
lian before him, triumphed at Eome ; and, like Aurelian,
was immediately after assassinated. — A poet's idyl, written
on Carus' election thereupon to the imperial throne, ex
presses his ardent hope that this new emperor might be
the heaven-sent instrument of putting an end to the then
existing aera of affliction and mourning, banish war to its
proper abode in Tartarus, and bring back white-robed Peace
and Justice.4 Had Death, in his view, ceased to destroy on
1 Niebuhr ii. 341. z Gibb. ii.77. 3 Ib. 83.
4 Calpurnius : .... dabit impia vinctas
Post tergum Bellona manus, spoliataque telis
In sua vesanos torquebit viscera morsus.
Et modo, quae toto civilia distulit orbe,
Secum bella geret. Nullos jam Roma Philippos
Deflebit ; nullos ducet captiva triumphos.
Omnia Tartareo subigentur carcere bella ;
Immergentque caput tcnebris, lucumque tenebunt.
Candida Pax aderit. . . . Jam, legibus omne reductis,

CHAP. IV.] THE FOURTH SEAL. 187
the Eoman earth even under Probus, or the empire assumed
a healthful or joyous hue ? — The shorter reign of Cans
was marked by the repulse of the Sarmatian invaders of
Illyricum ; and an invasion of Persia, successful probably,
but of which the details are uncertain. What is however
certain is, that Carus, in some mysterious manner, there met
his death, whether lightning-struck, or by assassination ;
and that the Eoman army then returned homeward. This
was near the end of 283. Then civil strife ensued between
three several candidates for the empire. Numerian was
murdered by Aper, Aper by Diocletian : which last in a
great battle fought in 285, near Margus in Mcesia, defeated
and slew Carinus, and secured the empire to himself.
And now began a new and memorable aera in Eoman
imperial history. Judging the weight of the whole empire
too great for any one emperor, Diocletian formed the plan
of dividing it. So in 286 he began by its bipartition be
tween himself and Maximian ; and in 292 completed his plan
by a quadripartition : Galerius and Constantius being added
in the East and West, respectively, as the two Caesars ; in
association with the two senior emperors, or Augusti. Just
previous to this quadripartition Maximian had had success
in some battles with barbarian invaders of Gaul ; but been
unsuccessful in a war with Carausius, the usurper of Britain;
whom, in fact, he and Diocletian were forced to acknowledge.
So Eutropius : — "It was while Carausius was in rebellion in
Britain, and Achillaeus in Egypt, while the Quinquegentiani
were harassing the African Provinces, and Narses [the
Persian king] making war on the eastern frontier, that
Diocletian made Maximian Herculius Augustus, Constan
tius and Galerius Caesars." ! Nor does Eumenius, in his
Panegyric addrest in the year 297 to Constantius, give a
different picture of things as that which in 292 existed in
the Western Provinces.2 In fact, he compares it with the
disgraceful state of the Eepublic under Gallienus.3 Ma-
mertinus, in his previous Panegyric of 289, had declared
Jus aderit, moremque foro, vultumque priorem,
Reddet; et adfiictum melior Deus auferet avum.
Gibbon alludes to this Eclogue ii. ' Eutrop. ix. 22. So too Victor, Vit. Dioclet.
2 See Eumenius' Paneg. Constantii, c. 12. There exist coins of A.D. 290, with
the heads of Carausius, Diocletian, and Maximian ; and the inscriptions, Carausius
et Fratres : — Pax Auggg. Eckhel viii. 47.
3 " Minus indignum, quamvis triste, fuerat sub Principe Gallieno harum Provin-

188 apoc vi. 7, 8. [part i.
the reign of famine and pestilence to have continued down to
Maximian's accession in 286.1 — After this, however, (per
haps we may say from 292,) a real and more effective res
toration of the empire began, only in its new form.
So have I brought down my historic sketch, as proposed,
from Gallienus' death a.d. 268 to Diocletian's quadripar
tition of the empire in 292. And now let me once more
repeat my question, Had Death as yet vacated his seat of
power; or given up his commission of killing over the Eoman
earth with the four several agencies of sword, famine, pesti
lence, and wild beasts ? — It is precisely at this closing epoch
of the period under review that Arnobius gives us his very
illustrative testimony, already in part cited, to the truth of
the 4th Apocalyptic Seal. "Men complain, There are
now sent us from the gods pestilence, droughts, wars, scar
cities, locusts, hail, and other things noxious to man :
. . but was it not so in ancient times also ? " Again ; " If
every species of corn be now devoured by locusts,2 or if
floods destroy the human race, was it not so before ? Were
there not wars with wild beasts, and battles with lions, and
destruction from venomous snakes, before our time ? "3
Very striking seems to me this picture of the empire in
296 ; with its distinct and particular specification of all the
four evils mentioned in this Seal : and very striking its
contrast with Tertullian's picture of the empire's cultiva
tion, populousness, and prosperity about a century before,
shortly after the ending of the prosperous period of my first
Seal.4 Indeed could there be a more direct contrast ?
I must now advert to one point of marked apparent dif
ference between the prophecy and the history : viz. that in
the prophecy Death's destroying commission might seem to
be expressly limited to the fourth part of the Eoman earth;5
ciarum a Romana luce discidium. Tunc enim, sive incuria rerum, sive quadam in-
clinatione fatorum, omnibus fere membris erat truncata Respublica." c. 10.
1 " Scimus omnes, antequamvos salutem Reip. redderitis, quanta frugum inopia,
quanta funerum copia fuit, fame passim morbisque grassantibus." c. 15.
2 These and such like destroying insects, moreover also venomous snakes, are
included in the Apocalyptic word Bijpta; as much as in the noisome beasts of Ezekiel.
3 Hence his argument that " it was not on account of Christians that the
wretched race of man was opprest and afflicted by these evils."
4 Tertull. De Anima, c. 50. "Certainly the world is now from dayto day brought
more under cultivation. Pleasant farms have obliterated ill-famed solitudes : culti
vated fields occupy the place of woods ; wild beasts have been driven away by cattle ;
sands are sown, marshes dried. Everywhere there is the inhabited house and popu
lation ; everywhere the republic, everywhere life." This was about A.D. 200.
fi Kat eSoBtj aurip e^ovoia airoKreivai ciri to maprov tt/s 777s.

CHAP. IV.] THE FOURTH SEAL. 189
whereas, in the history of the period just reviewed, from
a.d. 248 to 292, his devastations extended over it all. But
let my readers well mark that if the prophecy here differ
from the history, it differs from, and is inconsistent with, it
self also : seeing that the whole horse is depicted with the
pale death-like hue, not its fourth part only. Besides that
the whole tenor of the prophecy seems to mark this Seal's
evil as the climax to the evils of the two preceding Seals, to
which no such limitation attached. What then the solution
of this difficulty ? And can we find one probable in itself,
and that shall reconcile the prophecy alike with itself, and
with the facts of our historic aera ? After much consider
ation, and reconsideration, my mind has turned more and
more to that very remarkable reading in Jerom's Latin
Vulgate, to which Mede long since called attention, super
quatuor partes terras ; " over the four parts (instead of the
the fourth part) of the earth." The genuineness of this,
as Jerome's own version, and not any mistake of a later
copyist, is indubitable :2 and since his faithfulness to the
Greek text is as unquestioned as his critical judgment in
choosing between various readings in it,3 it follows that he
must have had before him some correspondent reading in a
Greek MS, or MSS, of authority, though our extant Greek
MSS. do not exhibit it; and which he deliberately preferred,
as of all the best. As to what that reading was, I have little
doubt that Mede rightlyconjectured it to have been to rerpa-
§iov Tru yvjf, instead of to reraprov, or rerparov : for my original
objection against this, as a word that would require a plural
1 My first suggested solution was to the effect that out of Death's four destroying
agencies the 4th part of the earth might define the scene simply of one of those
agencies ; viz. that of the sword, next specified. I cited in illustration Jer. xv. 2 ;
" Such as are for the pestilence to pestilence ; and such as are for the sword to
sword; such as are for famine to famine ; and such as are for captivity to capti
vity : " also Ezek. xxxiii. 27 ; " Surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the
sword; and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured; and
they that be in the forts and cares shall die of the pestilence." So too Ezek. v. 12.
2 I was enabled to satisfy myself of this on occasion of i visit to Florence : hav
ing there inspected in the Laurentian Library what, I believe, is the earliest existing
MS. of the Vulgate ; (one assigned to the 6th or 7th century ;) and found the reading
in it, as in the modern copies, " super quatuor partes terra?." Moreover I have found
it in all alike of the earliest Latin Apocalyptic expositors who used Jerome's version,
Bede, Ansbert, Haymo ; though on certain other points exhibiting variations in their
copies. E. g. in Apoc. xvii. 17 Ansbert reads et bestia ; the others, in bestid.
3 " Novum Testamentum Gracce reddidi auctorilati." So Jerom to Lucinius. To
Jerom's critical eminency and faithfulness, and the value of his version, we have the
testimony of the best scholars ; e. g. Bentley. See my notice of him, and his version,
in my History of Apocalyptic Interpretation, in the Appendix to Vol. iv.

190 apoc vi. 7, 8. [parti.
genitive to follow, I find to be invalid.1 And, supposing it to
have been Jerome's and the true Greek reading, the compa
ratively unusual form of the expression would perfectly and
easily account for copyists substituting for it the more com
mon Teraprov, or rerpanv ; by a mere change of the AI into T.
Admitted, this reading makes the prophecy at once consist
ent with itself. As applied to history what it requires is that
the Eoman empire, at the time predicted, should have had
some kind of quadripartition. Will then our historical so
lution bear this new and trying test ? Turn, reader, to p. 184
supra ; and read the answer to this question in the fact of
the then three great divisions of the empire from the cen
tral or Italian fourth; viz. those of the West, East, and Illy-
ricum, under Posthumus, Aureolus, and Zenobia, respec
tively : 2 — just that same quadripartion, in fact, which was
soon afterwards adopted and legitimatized by Diocletian ;
and which, as I may hereafter observe, was in a measure
the original of that other famous Apocalyptic tripartite
division, of which we read in the first four Trumpets.
In conclusion, let me add the testimonies of three of our
most eminent modern historiographers of Eoman history,
Sismondi, Schlegel, Niebuhr, with reference to the state of
the empire at that precise epoch of its legitimatized quadri
partition that I have brought my historic sketch down to.
Says Sismondi; "Diocletian put an end to this long
period of anarchy. But such a succession of invasions and
civil wars, and so much suffering disorder and crime, had
brought the empire into a state of mortal languor, from
which it never recovered."3 — Says Niebuhr, speaking of
the state of things after Diocletian's accession ; " After
the cessation of the plague, [" which began to decrease in
the time of Probus,"] the empire was suffering from general
distress : and its condition was very much like that which
followed after the cessation of the black death in the
middle ages."4 — Says Schlegel: " The division of the empire
among several sovereigns appeared then [under Diocletian],
1 I observe in Petrus Siculus, c. 13, tijv rov EvayyeAtov rerpaKrvv. So too rerpa-
liov Bi&Aov in Stephens' Thesaurus in voc. if I rightly understand him.
Else the true reading might be supposed, eirt ra 5" tijs yijr (ptepi) understood :)
and to have been turned by a copyist into to 8v : the Greek numerals and fractionals,
as exprest by letters, being the same. Compare the numeral xJs"' of Apoc. xiii. 18.
2 See Pollio's Claudius, ch. 4. 3 i. 41.
4 ii. 346. It is as if Niebuhr would illustrate this prophecy.

CHAP. V.] THE FIFTH SEAL. 191
as afterwards, an unavoidable and necessary evil. In other
words the several parts and members of the vast body of
the Eoman empire, which approached nearer and nearer to
dissolution, began to fall to pieces." 1 — How long, we may
think, would its utter and total dissolution have been de
layed, but for the infusion, not very long after, of Christi
anity into its political system, as a new principle of life ?
CHAPTEE V.
THE FIFTH SEAL.
Thus in a series of consecutive homogeneous figurations,
— figurations each one of a symbolic horse and horseman,
passing forth, as I suppose, over the Eoman landscape,2
and repeated in this homogeneous form until the mind of
the Evangelist must have become familiarized with them,
and till the obvious presumptive solution of the three last,
on the same principle of Roman reference, must have illus
trated and confirmed in his mind that which we have ex
pounded as the most simple and natural interpretation of
the first, — in this series, I say, the imminent secular for
tunes of the great military empire of Eome had been pre
figured to St. John, as time would in its lapse unfold them :
— -first, and under the rule of a new line of emperors, an aera
of remarkable and protracted prosperity and triumph ; next,
under the abuse of the power of the sword, a commencing
aera of as remarkable civil warfare and bloodshed ; then,
on a scale suddenly enlarged, an aera of aggravated suffer
ing from the iniquitous administration and fiscal oppres
sions of them to whom rightfully appertained the balances
of equity, with a notice of the last vain reclamations of law
and justice against them, and the marked and final triumph
of official corruption ; lastly, an aera characterized by the
letting loose on the devoted empire of the judgments of
sword, famine, pestilence, and wild beasts ; the evils of the
two preceding Seals, themselves still in force, having in
fact prepared the way for these four sore judgments of God :
— under which, at length, the very vitality of the empire
1 Phil, of Hist. ii. 37. 2 The scene fixed by the yi\ in verse 4.

192 apoc vi. 9, 10, 11. [part i.
seemed threatened, and its pale and livid hue indicative
of approaching dissolution. — But what, meanwhile, of the
Christian church and cause ? About the time of the reve
lation being communicated to St. John in Patmos, Christ's
new and heaven-born religion, as also the church gathered
out of the world professing it, had so far spread throughout
the empire, and so widely and prominently exhibited its
extraordinary pretensions and effects, as necessarily to at
tract public observation : and that not of the lower orders
only; but of the great and the learned also, of philosophers,
statesmen, provincial governors, emperors. Under such
circumstances, and long spared as it appeared the empire
would be, through all the subsequent varying vicissitudes
of the first four Seals, would it profit, the Evangelist might
think, by th,is prolongation of the day of its* visitation : and
both rulers and people direct their enquiries into the evi
dences that Christianity had to show of heavenly origin ;
and, recognizing them, believe and embrace it ? That
such would not have been the case during the*period of the
Seals thus far opened, he might almost have inferred from
the figurings of the secular fortunes of the empire shown
under them. For, had Christianity been in reality and in
the spirit embraced by it, the red, the black, and the pale
would scarcely have been, one after the other, the distinc
tive phases of the Eoman state. Christianity would have
been to it as the panacea of the evils of its social, as well
as of its moral system. Under its influence they that bore
the sword would have borne it as God's ministers ; a terror
to evil doers, and the praise of them that did well : and
they, again, to whom the balances appertained, would have
administered with the balance of justice. " Truth would
have sprung out of the earth, and righteousness looked
down from heaven." And then, instead of the four sore
judgments of God, the land, it might be supposed, would
have yielded its increase ; and peace and plenteousness flou
rished within it.— Thus much, I say, as it seems to me,
St. John might have inferred as to the non-reception of
Christ's holy religion during this period, from the very
prefigurations of the second, third, and fourth Seals them
selves. But now, on the fifth Seal's opening, direct in-

CHAP. V.J THE FIFTH SEAL. 193
formation was to be given him on the subject. For the
vision, while primarily depicting a crisis of the church
during a new and memorable aera which was to follow after
that of the fourth Seal, retrospectively intimated also its
condition and treatment in the Eoman empire, during the
period of all the four Seals preceding.
On this fifth symbolic vision we are now to enter. — And
in doing so let me first and briefly call attention to the new
and different scenery now brought prominently into view,
as connected with it. Hitherto, as before observed, the
figurations presented to the apostle may be most probably
supposed to have past over the landscape of the Eoman
world, to which they more immediately related. But when
the fifth Seal was opened, another and nearer part of that
significant scenery was called into use, to aid in the deve
lopment of the subject prefigured. The attention of the
observer was directed to something passing in the altar-
court of the apocalyptic temple ; and this locality so inti
mately associated with the new vision, as to constitute in
fact an integral and essential part of it. Now as, under the
Jewish ritual, it was the altar-court of the literal temple that
was the scene of what was visible and public in the divine
worship, and there were seen the ministrations at the altar,
the offerings piacular, votive, and eucharistic, the varied
lustrations, the presentments of incense by the people wor
shipping, and their solemn prayer and psalmody, led by
the priests and Levites ministering, — so in this Apocalyp
tic temple it might even a priori have been expected that
the altar-court, and what passed in it, would furnish the
local scene and indication of whatever had to be prefigured,
as characteristic and important, respecting the visible wor
ship, from time to time, of Christ's true and faithful people.
And just such will prove the fact. We shall find associ
ated hereafter with the local scene spoken of, the figura
tions of all such matters as chiefly concerned church-wor
ship :- — whether that of the church's thanksgivings for
signal deliverances and mercies ; — that of the saints' pre
sentment to the High Priest of their profession, when such
presentment of it was distinctive, of the incense of prayer
and praise; — or that of their consistent ministrations, when
vol. i. o

194 apoc. vi. 9, 10, 11. [part i.
others might not be faithful in there ministering, at the
great altar : 1 — I say at the great brazen altar of sacrifice ;
that standing memorial, in the emblematic temple, of Christ's
piacular offering : as constituting, to the end of time, the
very centre and essence of all true Christian worship. — ¦
Thus in the present case, as the scene depicted was the
altar-court and the voice heard, a voice thence issuing,
they might be supposed to indicate, here as elsewhere,
something notable and characteristic of the times, in re
spect of the Church's visible worshipping. What then, we
ask, was the thing now signified respecting it ? What the
foreshown characteristic of the worship publicly rendered
by Christians to their Lord, in the next, notable aera after
that of the fourth Seal ? — This is the first point for con
sideration. 1. "And when he opened the fifth Seal, I saw under
the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word
of God, and for the testimony which they held. And
they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Master
holy and true, dost thou not avenge our blood on them
that dwell on the earth ? " 2
Thus the scene now depicted in the altar-court was one
not of living worshippers, but dead; the voice heard one, not
of psalmody or praise, but of suffering. It issued from
beneath the altar ; and came, as the sacred description tells
us, from " the souls of them that had been slain for the
word of God and the testimony of Jesus :" — shadowy hu
man forms appearing there, we may suppose,3 since white
1 The figure of an altar is applied to the Christian Church by St. Paul, Heb. xiii.
10; "We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the taber
nacle : " i. e. we Christians, distinctively from the Jews.
The meaning of this symbol, and its apocalyptic usage, a subject just touched on
in the text above, will be abundantly illustrated, as we proceed. See especially my
comments on Apoc. viii. 3, xi. 1.
2 Kat ire ijvoi£e tijv irepirTijv o-QpayiSa ctSov viroxaru tou BuataoTijpiov ras ij/ux"'
tuv eaipaypevuv Sta rov Aoyov too Qeov, Kai Sia tijv paprvpiav rjv eixov. Kat eKpa^av
tpuvrj, peyaArj, Aeyovres, 'Eus irore, i Aeoirorijs i ayios kui oAijBivos, ov Kpiveis Kat
eKStKetsTO aipaijpuv ex ruv KarotKovvruv eirt rijs yns; Apoc. v. 9, 10.
3 So Vitringa. — There seems a peculiar propriety in this description of the i|<uxa,>
as appearing under the altar: seeing that the animal soul (<J™xi)> or life, was, as Dau
buz observes, supposed to be in the blood; (so Deut. xii. 23, in a'tpa eariv ij if/vxi-)
and that the blood was poured out at the base of the altar, or upon the altar, in the
Jewish sacrifices, according as the victim was given for a sin-offering, or a peace-
offering. — The Classics similarly connect the soul and the blood. So Virgil, " Pur-

CHAP. V.J THE FIFTH SEAL. 195
robes are afterwards said to have been given them : per
haps like those elohim seen ascending out of the earth in
olden time by king Saul.1 There was prefigured, evidently,
some notable eera of persecution against the church, from
" them that dwelt on the earth," i. e. the Eoman rulers
and people ; they having been raised up, apparently, in
strength to effect it, from the destroying judgments of the
Seal preceding : — a persecution of virulence such that other
visible worship and witnessing for the faith would be now
suppressed ; and this would alone remain to Christians, to
offer themselves in sacrifice, in the cause, as well as after the
example, of their dying Master ; or, as St. Paul expresses it,
to pour out their souls in libation, at the foot of his altar.2
And of this the historical fulfilment is most striking.
Little as was the probability of such an event, during the
desolating judgments of the earlier half of the fourth Seal,
the Eoman empire was raised up from its state of imminent
dissolution. " Oppressed and almost destroyed " as it had
been, to use Gibbon's language, li under the deplorable
reigns of Valerian and Gallienus,. .it was saved by a series
of great princes, Claudius, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian,
and his colleagues : who, within a period of about thirty
years, triumphed over the foreign and domestic enemies of
the state, . . and deserved the title of restorers of the Roman
world." 3 — It is observable, indeed, that although raised up
in its integrity, (saving indeed that Dacia, the acquisition
of Trajan, was abandoned by Aurelian to the Goths,) it
was not so, practically speaking,4 in its unity; — a quadripar
tite division under two senior emperors, the Augusti, and
two juniors, the Ceesars, having been instituted by Diocle-
puream vomit ille animam ; " and Horace, " Non vanoe redeat sanguis imagini."
In Psalm xvi. 10, tyvxrj seems to mean the separate spirit, " Thou wilt not leave my
soul (tyvxil) in Hades." In Levit. xix. 28, xxi. 1, Num. v. 2, ix. 10, Ezek. xliv. 25,
i^uXI 's used °f toe dead body, through which defilement was communicated.
1 1 Sam. xxviii. 13.
2 So Phil. ii. 17, Eyu et airevSopai eirt tij Bvota riji iriareus vpuv; and 2 Tim. iv.
6, E-yto yap ijSij airevSopai, " I am now ready to have my life poured out as in a
libation." Compare too Rom. xii. 1, " Present your bodies a living sacrifice : "
also, with regard to the martyrs' fellowship with Christ's sufferings, agreeably with
the Apocalyptic figuring of their self-immolation as upon the same altar on which
the sacrifices typical of Christ were offered Col.i. 24, 1 Peter iv. 13, and Matt. xvi. 24, &c.
3 Gibb. ii. 1. So too Montesquieu, ch. 16. " Et, — Gallien ayant e'te' toe", — Claude,
Aurelien, Tacite, et Probus  retablirent l'empire pret a perir."
4 I say practically ; because in theory the empire was still viewed as tine-
02

196 apoc vi. 9, 10, 11. [part i.
tian, (so as already observed by me under the fourth Seal,)
as necessary to provide against the difficulties and dan
gers that now on every side claimed the imperial atten
tion. So that the dissolution of the horse, the symbol pre
viously of the undivided empire, had, in fact, taken place.
The empire under its old constitution was no more. " Like
Augustus, Diocletian may be considered as the founder of
a new empire." J — Still the restoration was effective. The
empire revived in strength. But it only revived to exhi
bit, in signal display, the spirit of enmity to Christianity
that animated it. During the progress of its restoration,
indeed, the Christian churches enjoyed toleration and rest.
But no sooner had the restoration been completed, — in fact,
in the very same year that that auspicious consummation
was celebrated byDiocletian in his triumph at Eome, (the
last triumph that Eome ever saw,)2 in that same year, A. D.
303, the persecution that we speak of began.
It was early that year, in the royal palace of Nicomedia,
that secret and ominous councils began to be held between
Diocletian himself, and Galerius, the eastern Caesar previ
ously nominated by him. Maximian, the other Augustus,
though absent, concurred in them. The destruction of
Christianity was the subject. " Perhaps," says Gibbon,
it was " represented to Diocletian that the glorious work of
the deliverance of the empire was left imperfect so long as
an independent people," (i. e. the Christians) " were per
mitted to subsist and multiply in it."3 So then the blow was
struck. On the 23rd of February the mission of an armed
force to destroy the great church of Nicomedia, and burn
the sacred books in it, was the signal for commencing per
secution ; — a persecution the longest, the most universal,
and the fiercest, that ever yet raged against the Christians.
History, alike secular and ecclesiastical, agrees in thus re
presenting it : and by a remarkable coincidence, and as if
on purpose to call attention to the fulfilment in this perse
cution of the fifth Seal's prefigurative vision, a chronologi-
1 Gibb. ii. 1 14. — The epoch is an extremely important one, and strikingly noticed,
if I mistake not, in a later apocalyptic vision. See my Part. iv. Ch. iv 5 1
2 Ib. ii. 157.
3 Ib, 466. — The bitterness of the Pagan multitude against Christians, and accusa
tion of them as the guilty cause of all the then recent calamities, must also have
had its effect. See Arnobius' testimony, cited pp. 183, 188 supra ; and referred to
again p. 200 infra.

CHAP. V.] THE FIFTH SEAL. 197
cal aera, dating from Diocletian's accession, and, until the
introduction of the Christian aera in the sixth century, of
general use among Christian writers,' — I say this aera,
though instituted for other and astronomical purposes, has
received its title from it,1 and is called the JEra of Ma-
tyrs. Churches to be demolished, the Holy Scriptures
burnt, church property confiscated, the holders of religious
assemblies put to death, and Christians generally put out
of the protection of the law, — such were the heads of the
first edict. Then followed others, imposing penalties
of imprisonment, tortures, and death, first against the
Christian bishops, presbyters, and other ecclesiastics,
then against all Christians, if obstinate in their faith.
In this series of cruel edicts, Diocletian declared " his
intention of abolishing the Christian name." The fury
of the populace readily, for the most part, seconded
the declared intention of the emperor. And thus, with
the partial exception of the western provinces, under
the rule of the Caesar Constantius Chlorus, (I say partial,
for Spain and Britain too furnished many victims,)2 Chris
tian blood was shed throughout the extent of the Eoman
world. And long before the nine or ten years of the per
secution expired, such had been its effect that the three
other emperors, Diocletian, Maximian, and Galerius, united
to raise pillars commemorative of their success ; on which
pillars inscriptions, still extant, recorded their vain boast of
having extirpated Christianity.3 For church-service the
Christians now met in caves 'and catacombs. Their only
visible public witnessing for Christ was by martyrdom.
1 The sera is still used by the Copts and Ethiopians. See Sir H. Nicholas' ChronoJ.,
of History, p. 12. It dates from the persecutor Diocletian's accession, A.D. 284.
2 St. Alban, of Verulam, is commemorated as amongst the British martyrs of this
persecution. Indeed Christianity is spoken of by some writers as almost destroyed
at this time in Britain. So Echard, ii. 550. Compare Euseb. V. C. i. 13.
3 The following are the inscriptions found on columns at Clunia, a Roman colony
in Spain. They are given by Lardner, vol. vii. p. 548 : also in Walsh's Book on
Christian Medals.
1 Diocletianus Jovius et Maximian. Herculius Caes. Augg.
Amplificato per Orientem et Occidentem Imp. Rom.
Et nomine Christianorum deleto.
Qui Remp. evertebant.
2 Diocletian. Caes. Aug. Galerio in Oriente adopt.
Superstitione Christ, ubique deletH
Et cultu Deorum propagato.

198 apoc vi. 9, 10, 11. [part i.
2. " How long, O Lord, dost thou not avenge our blood
on them that dwell on the earth ? " — In the words, " How
long," it was further implied to the Evangelist, as I before
observed, that although this persecution was the first and
only one noted in the prefigurative visions, thus far exhi
bited, yet it would not be then a new thing for Christian
blood to be shed by them that dwelt on the Eoman earth,
including, as the words signified, both rulers and people ;
but only a continuance or repetition of the treatment long
previously experienced by them. To verify this is my
next object. And in doing so I must crave permission
from the reader not to hurry over the investigation. A
sketch of the persecutions of Christianity in the Eoman
empire is almost necessary to our entering into the feelings
expressed in the words, " How long," by the souls under
the altar. And, after dwelling so much at length on the
secular fortunes of the Eoman empire throughout the pre
ceding centuries, it seems scarce allowable not to pause
awhile on the cotemporaneous and parallel history, as con
nected with it, of the Church of Christ.
Do we wonder that this should be, as we find it, a his
tory, in no little measure, of resistance, persecution, and
suffering ? The wonder will cease with us when the glori
ous fact is remembered that Christianity was in its very
essence a war of aggression on error, idolatry, superstition,
and vice, in all their forms and in all their workings : — an
aggression unprecedented in the world's history ; and begun
at a time when, with growth of ages, they had associated
themselves with all the political institutions, as well as all the
lesser individualities of domestic and social life : and this
in an empire the mightiest the world ever saw. — During
the supremacy of the three preceding empires, the Persian,
Babylonian, and Grecian, it was otherwise. Then it was
ordered in God's Providence that religious truth should be
in retirement: on the principle of seclusion, not publicity;
and with self-preservation as its object, not aggressive war
and victory. Hence it was shut up within the narrow
limits of Judea, as the religion of one particular nation,
not of mankind or the world ; and by all its connected
ceremonies, laws, and institutions, prohibited almost from

CHAP. V.J THE FIFTH SEAL. 199
extending itself. The times of ignorance in the world at
large God then winked at. But on the introduction of
Christianity the case was directly the reverse. " Go ye
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,"
— such was the charge to his apostles by Him who had
come as the Saviour into this lost world : and in it was
declared their commission to go forth and make war,
though not with carnal weapons, on evil and error in its
every form ; " casting down all imaginations, and every high
thought that jexalted itself against the knowledge of God."
Could it be expected that man's corruption would not rise
against the religion that disturbed it ? Or that the strong
man armed, the Spirit of evil, the Prince of the darkness
of this world, when thus assailed in his very citadel, would
fail of acting out the bitterness of his enmity ?
It was from the populace that the persecution of Chris
tian teachers and people began in the Eoman empire. This
was to be expected. The war was made, not, like other
wars, on men in the associated mass in the first instance, —
the political body, the state, the empire, — but over men
one by one individually ; and, in every case, the conquest
sought was that not of the mere profession, but of the
heart. It was sought there ; and, in the case of many, it
was won there. For in spite of its self-denying lessons,
and in spite of its outward cross of persecution also, there
attended the Christian faith those high credentials of its
truth and divinity, and that power and sweetness in its
doctrine to convince the reason, calm the troubled conscience,
comfort the sorrowing heart, and satisfy its irresistible
longings after the knowledge of God and after immortality,
(longings that amidst the speculations and vain boastings
of philosophy had been hitherto altogether unsatisfied,)
which with the sincere overcame every obstacle ; and led
them to join in willing union with that new and despised
body of men called Christians, after the name of their cruci
fied Master, Christ Jesus. — In every such case new tastes
and principles, and by consequence new habits of life, new
associations, and the relinquishment of the old followed.
Thus the family first felt it. There consequently began the
first outcry and opposition. The members of a house were

200 apoc vi. 9, 10, 11. [parti.
divided, three against two, and two against three. Then
it was felt in each little social circle ; then, as the numbers
increased of converts to Christianity, in the towns and
districts surrounding. So from a thousand centres the out
cry rose, and waxed louder and louder ; " These are they
which turn the world upside down." — The Prince of this
world had his ready instruments to fan the gathering odium ;
the Jews scattered over the Eoman world, indignant at the
thought of the truth and salvation of God being offered to
Gentiles ; 1 the Magicians who found their false miracles
exposed and confounded by true ones ; the Pagan Priests
and trades that found their craft threatened ; and, at length
the Philosophers too, indignant at their philosophy being
exposed as foolishness. Superstition, with its dark and
unholy terrors, added to the feeling against Christians, and
gave it a deeper bigotry. As they had no idol-statues, it
vilified them as atheists.2 The disasters of the natural
world, whensoever occurring, — inundations, earthquakes,
dearth, pestilence, — and those of war too, it charged on
them.3 It was the anger of the gods against the Christians.
From the people the outcry against Christianity rose up
to the Governors. At first, like Gallio, they treated it with
indifference. Then other results followed. The first im
perial persecution of Christians, that by Nero, was one of
singular character and origin. It was not an act of state-
jealousy against them. They had not as yet sufficient
power or eminence to excite his jealousy. Nor was it a
persecution ordered against them for their peculiar doctrines.
Of these, probably, he knew nothing. But it was a taking
advantage of the odium prevalent against the Christian body
in Eome, to fix on them the guilt of a then recent incen
diary firing of the city : the excessive hatred they laboured
under, rendering them the fittest class on whom to avert
from himself, the real criminal, that odious charge.4 — Under
1 So Justin Martyr in his Dialog, cum Tryph. p. 234 (Ed. Colon. 1686 :) Ov povov
Se ov perevoijaare, aAV avSpas eKAeKrovs eKAe£apevot Tore airo 'lepovoaAijp. e^eirep.-
i^a-re ets iraoav tijv yijv, Aeyovres alpeaiv aBeuv xPl(rriavuv iretpavBat' KaraAeyovres re
ravra ctirep KaB' ijuuv oi ayvoovvres ijpas airavres Aeyovoiv.
2 So in the Account of Polycarp's Martyrdom, § 3 ; Aipe tovs aBeovs. So too
Dion Cassius, in the extract given Note 2 on the next page. 3 See p. 196 Note3.
4 So Tacitus, " Quos per fiagitia invisos vulgus Christianos appellabat ; " adding, as
his own judgment on Christianity, the words " exitiabilis superstitio." Ann. xv.44.

CHAP. V.J THE FIFTH SEAL. 201
Domitian, the second imperial persecutor, the case was dif
ferent. The numbers had now so increased in the empire,
that his jealousy, being awakened by informers against
sundry classes as plotting treason, (crimen majestatis,) na
turally directed itself against Christians among others.
Besides the usual charge of atheism, it was said that this
aspiring body was seeking a kingdom.1 So the jealous
emperor slew, in the person of his own cousin Clemens, the
Christian of noblest blood and rank ; 2 banished the only
surviving apostle of the Christian faith to Patmos ; and
summoned the nearest surviving relatives of Him the Chris
tians called their King. But he found the last-mentioned
poor men ; heard that it was a kingdom not of this world ;
and dismissed them with contempt. — Thus far St. John
himself had beheld the progress of persecution. Soon
after, on Nerva's accession, Christians, among other suffer
ers from Domitian's tyranny, were set free. Against Chris
tians, as Christians, no direct law as yet existed.3
About this time however, or soon after, the effect on
the public habits and feelings had become so striking, and
constituted a social phaenomenon so entirely new, and on
so vast a scale, as necessarily to arouse both the curiosity
and the anxiety of the ruling powers. The governor of
Bithynia, the younger Pliny, wrote to the emperor Trajan
of the temples being in disrepute, and almost deserted in
his province, from the influence of the body of men called
Christians : and, at the same time, of the popular fury
being such against them, as to charge them with every
crime,4 and violently to call for their punishment ; though,
on examination, their morals seemed to him to be singularly
virtuous and innocent. — This was an aera in the history of
1 So Justin Martyr ; Kat vpeis, aKovaavres BaatAetav irpooSoKuvras ijpas, axptrus
avBpuirtvov Aeyeiv ijpas uireiAijtpare, ijpiuv tijv pera ®eov Aeyovruv. Apol. ii. p. 58.
2 Dion Cassius, lxvii. 14, in narrating Clemens' execution by Domitian, and the
banishment of his wife Domitilla, in a passage already referred to (pp. 44, 58 supra),
thus remarkably describes their crime ; EirijvexBij Se apipotv eyKAijp.a aBeor-nros' vif>'
ijs Kat aAAot es ra tuv JovSatuv ijBij e^oKeAAovres iroAAot KareSiKaoBijaaV Kai ol pev
aireBavov ol Se ruv yovv ovoiuv earepijBijffav ij Se AopirtAAa vrrepupiaBij povov eis
IIaj/SaTep«ia</. Of Clemens' execution, I may observe, Dio uses the word Kareaipa^e ;
the same that is here applied to the martyrs.
3 Bishop Kaye, however, thinks that Nero's law was still in force against them.
Tertull. p. 115.
4 So Justin Martyr and others tell of charges made against them of Thyestean
banquets, &c.

202 apoc vi. 9, 10, 11. [part i.
the persecution of the Christian Church. In Trajan's re
script, the law was first declared respecting them. It had
long previously been recognized, Cicero tells us, as a prin
ciple in the Eoman legislation, that no gods were to be wor
shipped "nisi publice adsciti;" i.e. unless admitted and re
cognized in the public law. On this Maecenas had strongly
counselled Augustus to insist, as a preservative principle to
his empire. And upon this Trajan seems now to have formed
his rescript. It was true that in the subsequent admission
of the Egyptian gods and religion into Eome, a principle
of tolerance had been acted on inconsistent with the former
law ; and the Jews' religion too had become a religion re
cognized in the empire, and under legal protection, a " re-
ligio licita." But the peculiarity of Christianity that I
before alluded to seemed to demand other treatment. Both
the Egyptian religion, and that of the Jews, were peculiarly
national, — religions for the people of those two nations dis
tinctively ; and not proselyting, not aggressive, at least to
any marked or dangerous extent. But in the phaenomenon
now before him he beheld a religion, as before said, essen
tially proselyting, essentially aggressive on the paganism
established in the empire ; and in its pretensions challeng
ing and marching on to be universal. His inquiries must
have represented the Christians as a numerous and rapidly
increasing body of men in the empire, separated in spirit
and in habits from the common mass of Eoman citizens : a
body neither Eoman nor barbarian, but sort of " genus
tertium," as Tertuliian tells us the Christians were reproach
fully called:1 — being indeed in the empire, but not of the
empire ; and constituting an imperium in imperio, a civitas
in civitate; just according to that Apocalyptic figure, which
depicted them as a holy city, locally associated with the
great city of this world, but not blending with it. — The
mysteriousness of their religious faith made them of course
the more objects of suspicion ; no visible temple, altars,
images, or sacrifices appertaining to it, so as to other re-
1 Tertuliian De Spec. — Bishop Kaye expresses doubt as to Tertullian's intent
in this reproachful appellative of Christians. Neander explains it as meaning they
were neither Roman nor Jew. But it seems to me more agreeable to Roman phrase
ology, which divided the world into Romans and barbarians, to explain it as I have
done.

CHAP. V.] THE FIFTH SEAL. 203
ligions : and yet more, the singular and unintelligible close
ness of their union ; and their obstinacy, which was such as
it was found no torture nor death itself could triumph
over.1 In Trajan's rescript, the law was thus far mildly declared,
that there should be no inquisition for Christians by the
public officers ; but that, when brought in regular process
of law before the governor, and tried by the test of sacri
ficing to the gods, the recusants should suffer punishment.
The rescript, I say, may have been thus far mercifully in
tended, as a protection of innocent Christians against the
violent seeking out and tearing them from their homes by
the popular fury. Yet as it constituted Christianity in it
self a religio illicita, a faith criminal to adhere to, it fur
nished a ready plea under which Christians might be thence
forward accused and punished, whensoever the ruler was
unjust, or the populace enraged, and the governor (like
Festus) willing to do them a pleasure. So in many parts
it even now operated. Souls of martyrs were gathered
from one place and another under the altar. Ignatius, the
venerable bishop of Antioch, headed them. In the full
triumph of faith he journeyed to Eome, his appointed place
of martyrdom. " Wherefore," said he, " have I given my
self up unto death, to fire, to the sword, to wild beasts ?
The nearer I am to the sword, the nearer to God. When
I am among the wild beasts I am with God. In the name
of Jesus Christ I undergo all, to suffer together with him."
Such is reported to us as his language, in a letter written
on the journey to the Church at Smyrna.2 A little after
writing it, his journey was accomplished : and in the great
amphitheatre at Eome, which still remains in its colossal
grandeur, the martyr's memorial, amidst the brutal shouts
of assembled myriads, he was thrown to the lions.
Now began the apologies of Christians. Quadratus and
Aristides were the first to appeal in behalf of the Christian
1 This obstinacy of Christians is particularly noted in Pliny's letter as criminal.
Their peculiar unitedness must also have been very obnoxious to Trajan ; who had,
only a little before Pliny's letter promulgated a general law against eraipeiat, i. e.
associations, or clubs, of whose affiliation and meetings he was jealous.
2 Ch. 4. I here follow the generally received opinion as to the genuineness of this
Epistle to the Christians of Smyrna. See, however, my notice at p. 16 supra; of the
Syriac version of Ignatius' Epistles, in which it does not appear.

204 apoc vi. 9, 10, 11. [part i.
body to Trajan's successor Hadrian ; then afterwards Jus
tin Martyr to Antoninus Pius. And both Hadrian, in the
spirit of equity, issued his rescript against punishing Chris
tians for any thing but political crimes ; and the first An-
tonine yet more decidedly, though not uniformly with
success, protected them against violence. But with the
second Antonine the face of things was changed. His
proconsuls in various places, if not himself,1 treated Chris
tianity as a direct crime against the state ; enjoining inqui
sition against Christians, the application of torture, if they
refused sacrificing, and, if still obstinate, death. The wild
beasts, the cross, the stake, — these were the cruel forms of
death that met the faithful. Many were now gathered
under the altar : among others the souls of Polycarp, of
Justin Martyr, and of the faithful confessors of the
church at Lyons. — Then the white horse passed from
view. As the period of the red horse succeeded, and when,
amidst the civil commotions ensuing, they that shed Chris
tian blood had it given them in a measure to drink blood,
the Church enjoyed a temporary respite ; which lasted
1 Melito's Letter to the emperor suggests this alternative. See the citation from
it in Eusebius, H. E. iv. 26. Neander (i. 101, Rose's Translation) thinks this doubt
was expressed by Melito, in order that he might ask his repeal of the edict with a
better grace. This seems to me very doubtful; especially considering the full con
viction Melito expresses of M. Aurelius arriving at an opinion about the Christian
bodyjeven yet more philanthropic, as well as philosophic, than that of his two kindly
disposed predecessors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. Se Se Kat paAAov irepi tovtuv
tijv avnjv eKeivois exovra yvupijv Kat iroAv ye tptAavBpuirorepav «ai (piAoaotpurepav,
ireiretopeBa iravra irpaaoeiv ioa aov SeopeBa. Eusebius himself, H. E. v. 1, describes
the persecutions of Christians that occurred in certain places in the 17th year of
Aurelius, as arising, not from any edict of M. Aurelius, but from popular outbreak -
ings of enmity ; e£ eirtBeoeus tuv Kara ras iroAeis Sijpuv. — The persecuting edict
referred to by Neander, which has the name of Aurelian attached to it, cannot of
course be relied on as really belonging to Aurelius.
On the whole, after carefully considering the statements made by Mosheim,
Neander, and Waddington, on this subject, and also the original authorities, I can
not but conclude that these authorities do not warrant their ascription of the per
secutions of Christians in M. Aurelius' reign to that emperor directly himself. — A
view this which his general character of justice, so universally recognized, strongly
confirms ; and also Tertullian's testimony in his favour, Apol. c. 5, and Lactantius'
marked omission of him in the list of imperial persecutors. M. P. c. 3.*
* In Aurelius' objectional notice of the deaths of Christian martyrs, which has
been cited by Neander i. 102 and Waddington i. 119, pij Kara -tyiAijv irapara^iv, us ot
Xptcrrtafoi, a\A.a AeAoyiopevus , Kat oepvus, Kat arpayuSus, it seems to me that the
Kara tyiAijv irapara^tv might be more exactly rendered, " in the mere spirit of anta
gonism, (sc. to their judges;) rather than obstinacy, as Neander, or ostentation as
Waddington.

CHAP. V.] THE FIFTH SEAL. 205
through the reign of Commodus, and to the commence
ment of that of Sulpitius Severus. But, shortly after, a
law of the last-named emperor, forbidding conversions to
Christianity under heavy penalties, while it indicated the
increasing progress of that divine religion in the empire,
did also, as Christianity could not but be aggressive and
proselyting, revive persecution against it. The brunt of
the persecution fell on the churches of Africa and Egypt.
And Tertuliian, the Carthaginian presbyter, rose up as their
apologist. He tells, in his Apology, of the insults and in
juries that the Christians suffered under. " How often,"
says he, addressing the Governors in Proconsular Africa,
" do ye use violence against the Christians ; sometimes at
the instigation of private malice, sometimes according to
the forms of law ! How often also do the common people
attack us in their rage with stones and flames ! " But,
added he, " Truth wonders not at her own condition. She
knows that she is a sojourner upon earth ; that she must
find enemies among strangers ; that her origin, her home,
her hopes,- her dignities, are placed in heaven." 1 And then
again : " Call us, if ye will, by names of reproach, sarmen-
ticii, semaxii ; — names derived from the stake to which we
are bound, and the faggots with which we are surrounded
when burnt to death ! These are but our ornaments of
victory, our robe of state, our triumphal chariot." 2
Under the third Seal, and when again, in God's righte
ous retribution, the people that had so long instigated the
malice and the rapacity of unjust provincial governors
against Christians, had their lot darkened by the letting
loose of that very rapacity and injustice on themselves, —
at that time that self-same voice in the imperial government
that called, though all ineffectually, for equity in the general
administration, called, but still as ineffectually, for equity
specially towards Christians. Alexander Severus confessed
his admiration of Christian morality, and of Him too who
had been its first and divine teacher.3 On a particular oc
casion he even recognized the Christians as a lawful corpo-
1 Apol. ch. 1. 2 Ib. ch. 50.
3 " In larario suo, in quo. . . . Christum, Abraham, . . . . et hujuscemodi deos habe-
bat, rem divinam faciebat." Lamprid. Vit. A. Sev. c. 29. Gibbon refers to this,
ii. 4-50.

206 apoc vi. 9, 10, 11. [parti.
ration,1 and protected them at Eome against their enemies.
But it was a protection partial only and transient. Martyrs
were still slain. The name of Hippolytus, bishop of Porto,
stands eminent among them. Moreover, the former laws
against Christians remained unrepealed.2 And, after his
death, his successor Maximin renewed the imperial perse
cution against them ; the rather as against a body which
Alexander had favoured. His edict was directed specially
against the bishops and leaders of the Church. But in its
effects it went further. It animated the heathen priests,
magistrates, and multitude against Christians of every rank
and order. " Smite the shepherds, and the sheep shall be
scattered." The actual martyrdoms unto death had not indeed thus
far been very many ; i. e. as compared with the multitude
of the Christian body. So Origen declared near the middle
of the third century.3 There had been enough to show
man's bitter enmity against the truth, enough to exhibit
the glorious sustaining power of Christian faith. If not
more, it was His doing who could shut the lioris' mouths.
Moreover, if the martyrs slain were not so many, the con
fessors who suffered in other ways for the faith were innu
merable. But while Origen made this statement respecting
the past, he added, in a remarkable passage respecting the
future, that the tranquillity then prevailing was not to be
expected to continue : that the irresistible progress of
Christianity, and the impression generally prevalent as to
the downfal of the established religion necessarily conse
quent thereon, and together with it untold disasters to the
empire, — that this would soon again revive the flames of
persecution ; and that it would then rage with an intensity,
probably, greater than ever : — concluding thus ; " But, if
God will, let it come : Christ has overcome the world." 4
Such was at that time the anticipation of Origen ; and
1 He assigned to the Christian Church at Rome a piece of ground, which they
disputed with the corporation of popinarii ; i. c. of restaurateurs, or tavern-keepers.
Lamprid. c. 49.
2 This appears from his minister Ulpian's work, De Officio Proconsulis ; in which
a collection of Rescripts against Christians is noticed by Lactantius, Instit. v. 1 1.
3 Adv. Celsum 1. iii. It is cited by Gibbon ii. 427.
4 See Neander's Church History, p. 128 ; — the excellent author whom I have
chiefly followed in the above sketch of the persecutions of Christianity. Compare
Gibbon's celebrated chapter xvi, on the same subject.

CHAP. V.] THE FIFTH SEAL. 207
very soon it had its fulfilment. The period of the fourth
Seal succeeded to that of the third. It was seen by the
emperor Decius that if the heathen state-religion were to
be preserved, the Christian must be crushed ; that the two
could not long consist together. Thereupon he made his
decision. He determined on crushing Christianity. — Like
those of certain preceding emperors, his edicts commanded
inquisition of Christians, torture, death. Then was the con
sternation great. The bishop of Alexandria, Dionysius,
expressly records it. For the Church had now lost much
of its first love. There were some apostacies ; there were
many faithless : the libellatici and the acta facientes : —
professors who at the same time dared not confess, yet dared
not apostatize; and bribed the magistrates with money,
to spare them the conflict. — But now Death on the pale
horse, having received his commission, had entered the
empire. The sword of the Goths, one of his appointed
instrumental agencies, struck down the persecuting empe
ror.1 — His successor Valerian, presently after, animated by
the same spirit, renewed the persecution. It was against
the bishops and presbyters, who led on the Christians to
the conflict, — and the Christians' assemblies, which supplied
the means of grace that strengthened them to endure it,
— that the imperial edicts were now chiefly levelled. Then
it was that the bishop of Carthage, Cyprian, confessed
among others, and was added to the glorious army of mar
tyrs. — But God again interposed. As Decius by the
Gothic sword, so Valerian had his reign cut short by the
Persian.2 And Gallienus, his son and successor, trembling
under God's sore judgments, though still as before uncon
verted, sensual, hard-hearted, issued for the first time
(A. D. 261) an edict of toleration to Christianity.3 Their
churches and burial-grounds (Ko/pj-nj/wa) were now restored
to Christians; their worship permitted. Though the
popular outbreaks against the disciples were by no means
altogether discontinued, Christianity was legalized.
Such, in brief, were the persecutions of Christians in the
1 Compare Lactantius M. P. c. 4.
3 Comp. Lactant. M. P. c. 5. 3 The Edict is given by Eusebius H. E. vii. 13.

208 apoc vi. 9, 10, 11. ' [part i.
Eoman empire, prior to that by Diocletian. During the
progress of what has been called by some the gradual
restoration of the empire, commencing soon after Galli
enus' edict of toleration, (for the emperor Claudius, the
first of the restorers, succeeded him in the year 268,) the
toleration continued. Christian churches were now built ;
Christian worship might be held in public. To use the
Apocalyptic figure, the symbolic altar-court of the Chris
tian temple, with its ritual of sacred worship, was now
opened to general view. But no sooner was the restora
tion completed than an aera began, as we have seen, under
the new Seal, which was emphatically, and beyond any
other, the asra of martyrs. Persecution broke out afresh
after its slumbering, like a giant refreshed with sleep. It
combined in itself the bitterness of all the former persecu
tions : — confiscation, imprisonment, torture, death ; — a
special vengeance against churches and church-assemblies,
bishops and presbyters ; — with the new feature moreover
super-added of war against the holy Scriptures ;J that guide
and source of strength to the suffering church, by the de
struction of which, it was now rightly judged, Christianity
might best be destroyed. " When he had opened the
fifth Seal, I saw the souls of them that were slain for the
umrd of God,2 and for the testimony which they held."
Some there were, yea many, faithless under the terrors of
the persecution ; many traditores, that betrayed their trust,
gave up the Holy Scriptures, and helped to prompt the
persecutors' boast of having extirpated Christianity. But
the faithful, the faithful even unto death, were many also.
The Bible was preserved : (indeed a special provision had
been previously made in God's providence for its preserva
tion :)3 and the Church continued to witness for the word
of God, and the gospel of Jesus.
1 So Eusebius, H . E. viii. 2 . . . . ras Se ypatpas atpavets irvpi yevenBat itpoararrovTa.
He had previously said, las Se evBeovs Kat iepas ypaipas k«to peoas ayopas irvpi
irapaStSopevas avrots eiretSopev oipBaApois. And so Lactantius, M. P. 12 ; " Qui
dies cum illuxisset, repente ad ecclesiam prafectus cum ducibus et tribunis et ra-
tionalibus venit ; et, revulsis foribus, simulachrum Dei quseritur, Scripturse repertse
incenduntur." 2 I do not mean by this to confine the meaning of the clause to the Christians
preservation of their Scriptures. I only mean- to suggest this point, in addition to
the more usual intent of the phrase, with reference to the preaching God's word.
3 The copies, as well as versions, of the Scriptures had been so much multiplied

CHAP. V.] THE FIFTH SEAL. 209
But let us advert to what remains of the vision.
3. " How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? "
During the progress of these persecutions the feeling
with the martyrs themselves, (at least; the earlier martyrs,)
that for the most part overpowered all other feelings, was
that of joy and gratitude at being permitted the privilege
of partaking in Christ's sufferings, and after his example
offering themselves, like burnt-offerings, (not piacular in
deed, but of self-devotion,1) on the altar of God. Witness
the recorded language of Ignatius and of Polycarp, on oc
casion of their martyrdoms ; language alike beautiful, and
most illustrative of the Apocalyptic imagery under which
their martyr-deaths were here depicted.2 Afterwards how-
in the empire, that the most severe inquisition could no longer be attended with
fatal consequences. See Mosheim, iii. 1. 1. 5. The learned Origen had availed
himself of the previous tranquillity to make his famous Edition of the Old Testar
ment in six versions, called the Hexapla. See Lardner, ii. 327, 473.
1 Compare St. Paul's similar figurative language given p. 195 Note '*, supra:
2 Ignatius, in his Epistle to the Roman Christians, ch. 2, — an Epistle written on
his journey to Rome, after his having been seized and bound " like a choice ram
for sacrifice,* by the ferocious soldiery," — begs them, as the greatest favour they
could do, not to interpose to prevent his being poured out as a libation to God on
his altar ; HAeov plot pr, irapaaxvaBe rov o-irovStaBijvat &eu, us ert Bvoiaarijpiov
eroipov eariv -. and again, c. 4; Airavevoare rov Xpiarov birep pov, iva Sta tuv opyavuv
tovtuv Qvaia evpeBu.
As to Polycarp, the whole passage in the Acts of his Martyrdom, to which I refer,
(ch. 14) is so beautiful in itself, and so illustrative of the points specified above,
that I cannot but transcribe it. " Having his hands tied behind him, and being
bound [to the stake] as a ram [chosen] out of a great flock for an offering, and pre
pared for a burnt-sacrifice, acceptable unto God, he looked up to heaven, and said ;
O Lord God Almighty, the Father of thy well-beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ,
by whom we have received the knowledge of thee, — the God of angels, and powers,
and of every creature,, and [especially] of the whole race of just men, who live in
thy presence, \ — I give thee hearty thanks that thou hast vouchsafed to me that at
this day, and this hour, I should have a part in the number of thy martyrs, in the
cup of thy Christ, unto the resurrection of eternal life, both of soul .and body, in
the incorruption of the Holy Spirit. Among whom may I be accepted this day be
fore thee as an acceptable sacrifice ; as thou hast before ordained  For which,
and for all things else, I praise thee, I bless thee, I glorify thee, with the eternal
and heavenly Jesus Christ, thy beloved Son ; to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost,
be glory both now, and to all succeeding ages. Amen."
So again Cyprian. " Quasi holocausta hostise accepit illos." AdJFortun. 12.
The figure continued to be used in the Church afterwards. So Prudentius in his
Cathemerinon, to the Innocents : (B. P.M. v. 1009 :)
Vos prima Christi victima,
Grex immolatorum tener,
Aram ante ipsam simplices
Palma et coronis luditis.
* us Kpios eiriaijpos. Acts of Ignatius' martyrdom.
t Compare the Apocalyptic figuration of the 24 presbyters, and my comment on
it p. 87 supra.
VOL. I. P

210 apoc vi. 9, 10, 11. [part i.
ever, as the clause in the vision just quoted may perhaps
suggest to the reader, there were mingled at times with
this joyous gratitude other thoughts and feelings. They
knew that God would not leave them unavenged; and
spoke to each other, and to their persecutors, of a coming
vengeance. So for example, in the persecution last before
Diocletian's, the African martyr Marianus. " As if filled,"
we read, " with the prophetic spirit, he warned his perse
cutors, and animated his brethren, by proclaiming the
approaching avenging of his blood." 1
But it is in fact the seeming cry of the martyred saints,
— the voice of their blood in the ears of those surviving
Christians of the true Apostolic line and character whom
I suppose St. John here as elsewhere to have impersonated,2
— that the analogy of what is said in Scripture of Abel's
blood crying from the ground3 points out as the precise
meaning of the symbolic language of the clause. And by
these, the attendant and surviving ministers of the Chris
tian body, the cry of the blood of their martyred brethren,
was construed as in harmony with their own feelings; and
as calling for vengeance, speedy and destroying vengeance,
on the murderers. To which vengeance the Church of
the third century did for the most part, like Marianus, ex
pect and look for. Mark, for example, the language of
Tertuliian and of Cyprian :* language in truth too maledic-
1 " Ibi et Marianus, prophetico spiritu jam repletus, fidenter ac fortiter prsedicabat
proximam justi sanguinis ultionem; variasque sseculo plagas, velut de ccelijam cul-
mine, minabatur ; luem, captivitatem, famem, &c. Qua prsedicatione non tantum
gentilibus insultabat fides martyris, sed etiam fratribus vigorem semulandse virtutis
prsecinebat." Acta St. Jacobi et Mariani, ap. Daubuz, p. 279. His martyrdom is
dated about A. D. 259, under Valerian.
2 See p. 96 supra. This will be illustrated at large under the Sealing Vision.
3 Gen. iv. 10, compared withHeb. xii. 24. — So Shakespeare, in his Richard the 2nd ;
Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries
E'en from the tongueless caverns of the earth,
To me for justice.
4 So Tertuliian; " There remain other spectacles; — the last and eternal day of
judgment. What a vastness to that spectacle ! How shall I admire, how laugh, how
rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many proud monarchs, reported to have been
received into heaven, groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness; so many provincial
governors who persecuted the name of the Lord, liquifying in fiercer fires than they
ever kindled against the Christians." &c. De Spectac. c. 30.
So too Cyprian. First to Demetrianus : " We are sure that whatever we suffer will
not remain unrevenged ; and that the greater the injury of the persecution, the hea
vier and justerwill be the vengeance :" — also to his Christian Brethren, Ep. 56; (Ed.
Baluz.)" Christ is coming to avenge our sufferings : " and, " O that day when the

PI. 8.

Vol.1. -PER.

EPITAPH IN THE CATACOMBS ON A MARTYR
SLAIN IN DIOCLETIAN'S PERSECUTION.

1/
RTMU*

Pi

?IU5

A MARTYR'S TASE OE BLOOD, IN THE CATACOMBS AT ROME.

LVuni Boldotti.

CHAP. V.] THE FIFTH SEAL. 211
tory ;* and hardly in unison with the spirit of Stephen,2 or
of Polycarp.3 But behold, in contravention of such ex
pectations, it was delayed through one, through two centu
ries, and more. From year to year, from reign to reign.
Christian blood was again and again shed by their enemies,
specially in this last and most terrible persecution by Dio
cletian. Then the voice seemed to them to wax louder
and louder : and, with a tone of murmuring and impati
ence mixt in it, as well as of suffering, — yea, and with almost
an impeachment of God's attributes of holiness and truth,
for having so long spared the guilty, and left his saints to
suffer, — to cry, " How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost
thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the
earth ? " — In the catacombs at Eome, whither the perse
cuted Christians fled for concealment in that day of trou
ble, memorials still exist, the most impressive and affecting,
both of the martyrs then slain, and of their blood crying
as it were from beneath the ground against them that shed
it. I allude to monumental tablets long extant there, (such
as the Eeader sees now before him,) with inscriptions rudely
sculptured to their memory: and vases of small size often
seen beside them, whereinto had been poured, as would
seem, what the Christian bystanders could collect of life's
ebbing flood at the scene of martyrdom ; 4 inscribed with
the single but significant word, Sanguis, "Blood !" Did there
Lord shall have begun to reckon up his people ; and, recognizing the merits of each
by the rule of his divine omniscience, to condemn our persecutors to the burning of
the penal flame, and to grant to ourselves the reward of our devotedness and faith."
1 Augustine, on Matt. v. 44, suggests in apology for the Apocalyptic cry, (which he
explains as uttered by the martyrs themselves,) that it might have been a cry against
the Roman kingdom of sin, rather than against its living constituents. " Nam ipsa
est sincera, et plena justitise et misericordise, vindicta martyrum ; ut evertatur regnum
peccati, quo regnante tanta perpessi sunt." 2 Acts vii. 60.
3 " Pray ye," wrote Polycarp to the Philippians, at the time when Ignatius was
passing onward to martyrdom, " for kings and princes and magistrates, even those
that persecute and hate you." § 12.
4 The engravings are from Boldetti.
In the former the E. P. S. is the abbreviation for " et posteris suis; " showing
that the tomb had been legally appropriated to Lannus and his family after him :
and also fixing the inscription to the time immediately following his martyrdom.
As regards the inscription in the latter a controversy exists, which will be found
noticed in Dr. C Maitland's Book on the Catacombs; most reading Sang... for
Sanguis ; some Sane, for Sancto. Dr. M. inclines to the latter; and supposes that
the vase was one that the funeral attendants drank out of, at the agape or love-feast,
on the burial. In Aringhi's Roma Sotteranea, (vol. i. p. 497,) there is engraved
one which has the G more clearly written. And this would tend to confirm the
view of those who regard the word inscribed as Sanguis. The circumstance how-
P 2

212 apoc- vi. 9, 10, 11. . [parti.
not seem to them to be, as it were, a voice, a cry, in that
simple memorial word against their murderers ?
Now methinks, when such thoughts arose, it should have
been considered by the early Christians, much more than
was usually the case, that towards nations, even as towards
individuals, the divine long-suffering is an attribute which
must needs magnify itself, as well as the divine justice and
holiness. Long had been Jerusalem's experience of this ;
and even the heathen Nineveh felt it also. If, after the
time when Christianity and the glorious gospel of the Lord
Jesus had been fully brought before the consideration of
the Eoman people, — a time which I have dated as about
coincident with that of the giving of the Apocalypse, or
close of the first century, — if, I say, after this, a period of
prolonged prosperity and peace, such as of the white horse,
was appointed to the empire, and with it the most favour
able opportunity for the calm consideration of the evidences
and claims of the holy religion offered them, — what was
there in this but what accorded with the usual acting of
God's Providence towards men individually; yea, and which
they^themselves had each one probably experienced ? Or,
again, what was there but in accord with his usual forbear
ance, if, when this period of the white horse had passed
unimproved, it was ordered that those of the red, the
black, and the pale that succeeded, should be periods of
attempered suffering and punishment, just such as might
best force the sufferers to consider the heavenly message ;
— of punishment, but not more ; — not of destruction ? — As
to his own persecuted people, the Christians, who in that
vast empire were as sheep in the midst of wolves, had He
ever of C being sometimes inaccurately written in old inscriptions, and a little like
G, renders it not decisive. — Dr. M. mentions that the Congregation of Relics, held in
1688, after " having carefully examined the matter, decided that the palm-branch
and vessel tinged with blood are to be considered most certain signs of mar
tyrdom." It seems that a chemical examination of a vase, conducted by Leibnitz,
and published by Fabretti, proved favourable to the presence of blood, or at least of
organic matter, in it. But, says Dr. M., the experiments instituted are far from
being satisfactory to the modern practical chemist : though they serve to refute the
assertion, that the red matter contained in the vessels was merely a mineral impreg
nation from the surrounding soil. See Dr. Maitland on the Catacombs, pp. 127,
142 — 149 ; to whom I was originally indebted for these drawings.
It strikes me that it would be satisfactory to compare the supposed remnant of
blood, with the remains of liquid, some reddish, some yellow, found in funeral urns
at Pompeii ; and proved by analysis to have been mingled water, wine, and oil. See
Adams' Roman Antiq. Note to p. 420 (Ed. 1834.)

CHAP. V.J . THE FIFTH SEAL. 213
not so overruled the times of their bitterest persecutions,
(the Decian, for example, and those of Valerian and Dio
cletian,) as that they should fall on the Church when con
fessedly corrupted,1 and needing something to stay the in
creasing corruption ? Had He not moreover in some mea
sure blessed those persecutions, to their purification and re
covery ? If so, then, instead of there being any failure in all
this of his faithfulness and truth, it was but the very acting
out and expression of those attributes towards them. And
so indeed some, like David of old, felt it. "I know, O
Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou of very
faithfulness hast afflicted me."
4. But mark the progress of the vision. "And white
robes were given unto every one of them : and it was said
unto them that they should rest yet for a little season,
until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren, that
should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." 2 Such
was the voice heard by St. John, still of course in his re
presentative character : defining the time of the judgment
which those martyrs seemed to call for, as thus far approxi
mate, — that there would only intervene before it the period
of the rise and slaughter of another and distinct body of mar
tyrs, similarly witnessing for the word of God and the testi
mony of Jesus. I say another and distinct body : for the very
singular symbolization, coincidently, of the presentation of
white robes to all and each of those that had appeared in
this vision under the altar, constituted a marked sign of
separation between its martyrs, and those that were to
come; of which sign more under the Head following. For
the present let us confine our inquiry to the chronological
intimation here given as to the time of the desired consum
mation ; and see how the giving of it was fulfilled in the case
of those whom at this point in the drama John represented.
It is assuredly very striking and instructing to observe
with what earnestness of interest the fathers of the early
1 The cotemporary statements of Cyprian, and retrospective statements of Euse
bius, (e. g. H. E. viii. 1,) are express to this effect.
3 Kat eSoBij [ettasry] oroArj AevKij' /cat' eppeBn avrois tva avairavouvrai ert XP0V0V
piKpov, eus irArjpuBuci Kat o\ ovvSovAoi avruv, Kai ol aSeAtpot avruv, ol peAAovres
airoKTevveoBai us Kai avroi.

214 apoc. vi. 9, 10, 11. [parti.
Church, throughout the whole era of Pagan persecution
referred to, — as Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, for example,
Tertuliian and Hippolytus, — searched into the inspired pre
dictions handed down to them. These were to them no
unmeaning, no profitless writings. However they may
have been in doubt with regard to some particulars of the
future, there was a certain great outline that they found
clear in divine prophecy : and both in this, and in the views
that it opened to them throughout, of God's care and kind
ness to his Church, they found an admirable stay to their
faith, together with counsel, encouragement, comfort. So
that there was fulfilled to them, even thus early, what was
written, " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear,
the words of this prophecy." — It was specially the prefigu
rative visions in Daniel and the Apocalypse, of the quadri
partite symbolic Image and four symbolic wild Beasts, and
the predictions in St. Paul and St. John respecting the Man
of Sin and the Antichrist, that fixed their attention. And
what their inferences, as to the things then present, and the
things future ? First, they judged with one consent that
Daniel's fourth wild Beast symbolized the Eoman empire ;
as also that the little horn of this wild Beast, or its equi
valent the last head of the Apocalyptic Beast, symbolized
one and the same antichristian power as St. Paul's Man of
Sin, and St. John's Antichrist. Further they judged that
the Eoman empire, in its then existing state, was the let or
hindrance meant by St. Paul, standing in the way of An
tichrist's manifestation ; and that its removal would take
place on the empire's dissolution into a new form of ten
kingdoms : among which, or cotemporarily with which,
Antichrist, the Man of the Apostacy, would forthwith arise,
and reign over the Eoman world and empire in this its
latest form ; Eome itself, and its empire, having been re
vived to supremacy under him. Moreover they were agreed
that this Antichrist would persecute the Christian Church
with a fierceness altogether unparalleled : and thus that
there would be a second series of Roman persecutions, and
a second series of martyrs slain under Eoman oppression ;
— persecutions that would only terminate in Christ's com-

CHAP. V.] THE FIFTH SEAL. 215
ing and taking vengeance, at the end of the world.1 — Once
more, as to the time of the vengeance on Eome, and its
empire, — that great vengeance so graphically described in
Apoc. xvi, xviii, when the vials of God's wrath should be
poured out thereon, and " in her should be found the blood
of prophets and saints, of all that had been slain on the
earth," and the saints should be told " to reward her as she
1 It may be well to quote or abstract from the Christian Fathers referred to in
their chronological order.
1. Justin Martyr. — In his Dialogue with Trypho, p. 336 (Ed. Colon.) he speaks
of Christ's coming again in glory, irav Kai 6 tijs airoor aaias avBpwiros, i
rcai eis tov 'T i|* i <r t ov e | a A K a AaAuv, eirt tijs yijs avopa roAprjo"n eis rjpas
rovs XpioTiavovsm thereby identifying Daniel's Little Horn of the fourth Beast, that
" spoke great things against the Most High," with St. Paul's Man of Sin, or Man of
the Apostacy ; also noting his lawless persecution of Christians living at the time,
and his succession and destruction by Christ's glorious advent.
2. Irenasus. — In his Work on Heresies, B. v. ch. 25, this ancient Father says ;
" Daniel novissimi regni finem respiciens, (id est novissimos decern reges in quos
divideretur regnum, super quos Filius perditionis veniet,) cornua dicit decern nasci
Bestise, et alteram cornu pusillum." Again, ch. 30, after commenting on the pre
dicted number of the Beast, 666, (as a probable solution of which he mentions the
word Aarewos, — probable because of this being the name of the last of the four king
doms, or Roman, then reigning, " quoniam novissimum regnum hoc habet vocabulum,
Latini enim sunt qui nunc regnant,") he goes on to say ; " Scientes hunc numerum,
sustineant * primum quidem divisionem regni in decern ; post deinde, illis regnanti-
bus, et incipientibus augere suum regnum, qui de improviso advenerit, regnum sibi
vindicans, et terrebit prsedictos, habens nomen continens prsedictum numerum."
Thus he explains the Latin or Roman empire, then existing, to be the fourth and
last of Daniel's great kingdoms ; and its division into ten kingdoms to be the event
immediately preceding the manifestation of Antichrist : who, whencesoever origin
ating, (and Irenaeus had the impression of his being a Jew in origin,) was yet some
way in the result to be a Latin man, and the ruler of the Roman empire in its
last form.
3. Tertuliian. — In his Resur. Cam. ch. 24, commenting on St. Paul's prophecy
on 2 Thess. ii. 3, 4, he thus writes ; " ' Nisi veniat abscessio primo,' — hujus utique
regni." Then on the clause, " He that letteth shall let until he be taken away,"
he expounds his sense of this let or hindrance, by the question, " Quis nisi Romanus
status ; cujus abscessio, in decern reges dispersa, Antichristum superducet." — Then,
after further comment on the same prophecy, he turns to the Apocalyptic passage
now under consideration ; his comment on which will be given Note 3 p. 217 infra.
4. Hippolytus. — In Hippolytus' Treatise on Christ and Antichrist, given in Com-
befis' Bibliotheca Patrum, (Paris Ed.) there is a full exposition of Daniel's symbolic
visions of the quadri-partite Image and the four Wild Beasts ; and, like others before
him, he explains the first three empires to be the Babylonian, Persian, and Macedo
nian, (the last-mentioned divided, he says, into four parts on Alexander's death, like
the four heads of the Leopard in vision,) the fourth the Roman, then existing and
reigning " in its iron legs." And what then, he adds, remains for accomplishment
but the division of the iron feet of the Image into its ten toes ; the growing out of
the fourth Beast's head of its ten horns. Tt TrepiAetirerat eppijvevoai ijptv uv eupaxev
i TlpoipiiTijs, aAA' ij to ixvij tuv iroSuv tijs eixovos' k. r. A. Upon, and from among
which 4th Beast's ten horns, he judged that the Little Horn of Antichrist would arise.
— Again ch. 49, he says of the last state of the Roman Beast ; " This is the fourth
Beast, whose head was wounded and healed again, because of its being destroyed or
* That is, Let them patiently wait ; the verb sustineo being used in the same
sense here by Irenseus, as by Tertuliian in a passage which will be given in the sub
sequent Note 3 p. 217.

216 apoc vi. 9, 10, 11. [part i.
had rewarded them, and in the cup which she had filled to
fill to her double," — this time they inferred to be very nigh
at hand. For nothing, they reasoned, prevented Anti
christ's development but the intervention of the Eoman
empire in its then existing state,1 which state they thought
would pass away speedily ; and that then Antichrist's pre
dicted short-lived reign, and his persecution of but three
and a half years would follow, and be succeeded instantly
by Christ's second coming and the consummation.2 — Not
to add that certain considerations too of the age of the world,
as if not far from 6000 years, began now to enter into
dishonoured, and resolved into ten diadems. And Antichrist, being a man of re
source, will heal and restore it ; so that it shall again revive through the laws esta
blished by him." * (The Treatise, in Latin, is given in the B. P. M. xxvii. 1.)
1 Tertuliian, in his Apolog, ch. 32, writes thus expressly to that effect : " Vim
maximam universo orbi imminentem, ipsamque clausulam sseculi acerbitares hor-
rendas comminantem, Romani imperii commeatuf scimus retardari." And again
Adv. Scap. ch. 2 : . . . . " Imperatoris, quem sciens a Deo suo constitui, necesse est ut
ipsum .... honoret, et salvum velit cum toto Romano Imperio, quousque seculum
stabit : tamdiu enim stabit."
2 Justin Martyr thus speaks of Antichrist as at the doors, and of his destined con
tinuance for 3i times, in his Dialogue with Trypho, p. 250 : Ton BAao-<pijpa Kat toA-
prjpa eis rov 'Ytyiorov peAAovros AaAetv ijSij eir l Bvp at s ovtos, iv Kaipov Kai
Katpovs Kat ijpiffv Kaipov SiaKaOe£eiv AavtijA pijvvei. Which term, he says, the Jews
incorrectly calculated on the principle of a prophetic time meaning 100 years, and
consequently the 3£ times 350 years : he himself regarding them as literal years.
Similarly Tertuliian, De Fuga in Persecutione, ch. 12, writes; " Antichristo jam
instante." And again, in his De Spectac. ch. 30, " Quale spectaculum in proximo
est; " with reference to the destruction of the persecuting powers at Christ's
coming. In another place, Adv. Marcion. v. 16, he speaks of the Marcionist heretics,
then teaching, as if precursors of Antichrist.
Cyprian repeatedly dwells on this topic of the nearness of Antichrist and the con
summation. So De Exhort. Mart, ad init. " Quoniam pressurarum et persecutionum
pondus incumbit, et in fine atque in consummatione mundi Antichristi tempus in-
festum appropinquare jam coepit." Again Ep. 55; "Antichristi propinquantis ; "
Ep. 58, " Imminente Antichristo ; " Ep. 68, " Deficiente jam mundo, atque appro-
pinquante Antichristo ;" Ep. 56, " Scire debetis, et pro certo tenere,. . occasum seculi,
atque Antichristi tempus, appropinquasse : " De Unit. Eccl. i, " Appropinquante jam
fine seculi." Yet again, De Mortal, ad init. " Regnum Dei coepit esse in proximo ;"
and Ep. 56 ; " Venit Antichristus, sed et supervenit Christus : grassatur et saevit
immicus, sed statim sequitur Dominus, passiones nostras et vulnera vindicaturus."
Once more, to Demetrianus he dwells on the existing plagues, miseries, depopula
tion, &c, as signs of the world's approaching end not to be mistaken. — The end of
my last citation has been already quoted at p. 210 ; as illustrative of the voice that
seemed to issue in vision from the souls of the martyrs.
Besides the above more eminent Fathers, I must observe that Judas Syrus, a co-
temporary of Tertullian's, spoke also of Antichrist's manifestation as near : (so
Euseb. H. E. vi. 7, and Jerom. V. 1.52:) — moreover that the Christian pseudo-
Sybil, at a time yet earlier, predicted (B. viii.) that the third emperor after Adrian
would be the last Roman emperor; and the 948th year of Rome, or A.D. 196, be
the fated year of Rome's destruction, and the consummation.
* Origen too, in Genes, p. 6, expounds Nebuchadnezzar's image in Daniel as sig
nifying the same four empires of Babylon, Persia, Macedonia, and Rome, as the rest
of th» fathers. f In the sense of prolonged existence. So Pamelius.

CHAP. V.J THE FIFTH SEAL. 217
their reasonings ; and confirmed them in the idea that the
end was near.1' — Thus did the voice of divine prophecy, as
their minds apprehended it in those times of fiery trial, cor
respond most exactly with the voice which fell on St. John's
ears in the fifth Seal's vision, as if addressed to the mar
tyred souls under the altar. " It was said to them that
they should rest (waiting their avenging and reward) 2 yet
for a little season, until their brethren, which should be
killed as they were, should be fulfilled." Indeed this very
passage of the Apocalypse was cited and commented on by
them ; as in part, and conjunctively with the other prophe
cies, an authority for this their expectation and hope.3
I . Tov /iera rpets ap^ovoi, iravoaraTov ijpap exovres.
2. Tots 5e rpiuKOffiovs teat Teo*0"apa/coi>Ta icat oktu
XlAijpuoeis AvKaBavras, irav ooi Svopopos ijty
Motpa Bta^opevij' reov ovvopa irAijpuo-atra.
1 So Irenarus, v. 28 ; "Si dies Domini quasi mille anni, in sex autem diebus
consummata sunt quae facta sunt, manifestum est quoniam consummatio ipsorum
sextus millesimus annus est." And again c. 29 "Antichristi, in quem recapitulabitur
sex millium annorum apostasia."
Hippolytus is said by Photius to have thus reasoned, and so to have fixed Anti
christ's coming, and the world's end, at about A. D. 500. See Lardner ii. 425.
Cyprian, in his De Exhort. Mart, to Fortunatus, thus writes ; " Jam sex millia
annorum psene complentur :" ad init. Again in c. 11, he speaks of the world's seven
days of creation and rest as typifying its seven millennaries.
In the curious Tract moreover De Pascha Computus, attributed to Cyprian, and
appended to the Oxford Edition of his Works (1682), — a Tract which, whether his
or not, is fixed by the notice of Arrian and Papus as Consuls at the time at which
his computation ends, and by other evidence, to about A.D. 243, — an expectation is
expressed of the consummation, and its judgments on the wicked, occurring at the
end of the 6000 years then, according to Cyprian, near expiring. " Ecce, Dei gra
tia, quam prseclara et admirabilia nobis ostensa sunt per annos xlviiii. Qui anni a
contrario infidelibus, et persecutionem servis Dei facientibus, magnam demonstrant
superventuram calamitatem. Qui autem ratione videamus. Hie enim mundus, in
quo justi et injusti ab initio seculi conversantur, sex diebus est consummatus ; qui
bus suppletis benedictus est dies Septimus; ille scilicet superventurus sabbati seterni.
In his itaque diebus ab initio non tantum Diabolo et angelis ejus, sed et omnibus
peccatoribus a Deo ignis est prseparatos." The 49 years mentioned refer to some
supposed mystical intimation in the seven hebdomads of Daniel.
These are the earliest applications, I believe, of the world's supposed nearness to
its seventh millennary, in proof of the nearness of the consummation : an argument
which, in the course of our Apocalyptic exposition, we shall more than once have
again to recur to. — They were all based on the Septuagint's mundane chronology.
Of which however there were different versions ; Clemens Alexandrinus (Strom, i.
21) making Christ's birth A.M. 5624, others earlier ; and the expectation prevailing
(so the Computus) that God would shorten the days.
Lactantius, who belonged as much to the time of the sixth Seal, as to that of the
fifth, or more, will be quoted p. 220 Note ' infra.
2 So Cyprian, De Lapsis, explains the phrase; saying that the souls under the altar
are bade in it " requiescere ac patientiam tenere." So too in his De Zelo. — Compare
Daniel xii. 13, " Thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days."
3 So Tertuliian, De Res. Cam. ch. 25 : " Etiam in Apocalypsi Johannis ordo tem-
porum sternitur, quem martyrum quoque anima? sub altari, ultionem et judicium
flagitantes, sustinere didicerunt : ut priils et orbis de pateris angelorum plagas suas

218 apoc vi. 9, 10, 11. [part i.
It of course needs not to say that in regard to this last
point, I mean the time to which they looked for their final
avenging and reward, History, the great interpreter, has
proved them wrong. In fact the phrase " yet a little sea
son," just like the word " quickly " elsewhere used by our
Lord respecting the time of his coming,1 was one of larger
or less duration according to the standard by which it
might be measured. And I may remark here, what I
shall have occasion to remark perhaps more than once
again, that the phrases used in prophetic scripture respect
ing the time of the consummation, were purposely so
framed as to allow of a duration shorter or longer being
attached to them ; and so of the Church in each age look
ing for its Lord's advent as not far distant. Admitting
(what was generally understood to be the fact) that the
great destroying vengeance on persecuting Eome was not
to take place at the breaking up of its empire into ten
kingdoms, but after their rise, and Antichrist's cotemporary
rise and reign over them, there was needed, in order to
decide the length of the time still to intervene before that
catastrophe, (so as indeed I have already hinted,)2 the de
cision of the two preliminary points following: viz. 1st, what
the interval before the empire's breaking up into its last
decemregal form, and Antichrist's cotemporary or imme
diately subsequent manifestation ; 2ndly, what the length
of the three and a half predicted years of his persecuting
reign, and whether to be understood literally, or of a much
longer period. — But on these questions it is not my pre
sent business to enter. Suffice it to have shown that the
Christian Church and Fathers passed through and out of
the period of the fifth Seal, and of the persecutions referred
to in it, with the distinct conviction impressed on their
ebibat, et prostituta ilia civitas a decern regibus dignos exitus referat, et bestia Anti-
christus, cum suo pseudo-propheta, certamen ecclesise Dei inferat, atque ita, Diabolo
in abyssum interim relegate, primae resurrectionis praerogativa de soliis ordinetur ;
dehinc, et igni dato, universalis resurrectionis censura de libris judicetur."
And again, in his Scorp. adv. Gnostic, ch. 12 : " Quinam isti tam beati victores,
(Apoc. iii. 12,) nisi proprie martyres ? Illorum etenim victorias quorum et pugnae ;
eorum vero pugnse quorum et sanguis. Sed et interim sub altari martyrum animae
placidum quiescunt, et fiducia ultionis candidam claritatis usurpant, donee et con
sortium illarum gloriae impleant. Nam et rursus innumera multitudo, albati, et
palmis victoriae insignes, revelantur ; (Apoc. vii. 9, &c:) scilicet de Antichristo tri-
umphales." ' Apoc. xxii. 12, &c. 2 pp. 64, 65 supra.

CHAP. V.] THE FIFTH SEAL. 219
minds, even as by a voice from heaven, that there only
needed to be completed another and different series of
martyrs, viz. those to be slain under Antichrist ; and that
then, without further delay, their Eedeemer would surely
manifest himself, and execute final vengeance on their
enemies. 5. In the meanwhile there was to be fulfilled, in regard
to the souls of martyrs already under the altar, the fact
symbolized by their investiture with white robes, just
when the voice under this Seal ended speaking. A symbol
certainly very remarkable ! Explained forensically, or
with reference to persons condemned or arraigned as cri
minals, it signified their justification. So elsewhere, " The
white robes are the justification of the saints." x In case
of this investiture occurring in the inner sanctuary, or
before God, so as in the passage just cited, or again in the
case of the High Priest Joshua described in Zechariah,2 it
would imply justification in the sight of God. But where
the scene was the open altar-court, — just as their dejection
there under the altar indicated the condemnation and exe
cution of the Christian saints as criminals before the world,
— so their investiture with white on the same public scene
must be construed to imply their as public justification
before the world, and in the view of their fellow-men. —
But how so? How could there be a public recognition of
these martyrs' righteousness, begun even before the open
ing of the sixth Seal, and that great revolution which it
was to signify ? — Yet the fact was even so. Before Lac
tantius had yet finished that famous treatise De Divinis
Institutionibus,3 wherein he repeated, as its latest echo by
the Church under Eome Pagan, that same prophetic voice
about Eome, and the Antichrist, and the consummation,
1 Stxaiupara, Apoc. xix. 8. 2 Zech. iii. 4, 5.
3 Lardner, iii. 492 — 494, shows that the writing of Lactantius' Institutes must
have been probably between A. D. 306 and 311 ; and its publication soon after the
latter epoch. See especially Book v. ch. 6, 12 of the Institutes ; which was evi
dently written during the raging of the persecution. The inscription to Constan
tine, i. 1, is wanting in many MSS; and may probably have been added after the
completion, and perhaps the first publication, of the Book. Lardner refers also to
his Epitome of the Institutions, c. 53, speaking of some of the persecuting princes
as having miserably died, some still surviving : a circumstance, he justly says, only
suited to the date A. D. 3 1 1, 3 12, or 313.

220 apoc vi. 9, 10, 11. [part i.
that we lately noted in the writings of the Fathers of the
third century that preceded him,1 an edict of the persecutor
Galerius was issued, (an edict agreed to by two of the
other emperors,) confessing, by implication at least, to the
wrong he had done the Christians, putting an end to the
persecution, and even entreating the Christians to pray
to their God for him.2 An act of justification this
that was applicable of course as well to the memory of the
martyred Christian confessors, as to the character of those
that still survived : and thus surely a true fulfilment of this
clause of the Apocalyptic vision. — Nor was it less notable
at the period itself as a sign of the times. For it was a
confession of the moral triumph of Christianity over Hea
thenism, while the latter was in all its imperial power and
supremacy; and thus might almost seem to portend, sooner
or later, even a political triumph following. — And hence
indeed it appeared, with regard to the slaughter of Chris-
1 In his Div. Institut. vii. 1 6, he speaks of the predicted destruction of Rome as
near. " Romanum nomen, quo nunc regitur orbis, (horret animus dicere, sed di-
cam quia futurum est,) tolletur de terra ;  et id futurum [brevi condones pro-
phetarum denunciant."— And so again, ib. 25. "Etiam res ipsa declarat lapsum,
ruinamque rerum brevi fore : nisi quod incolumi urbe Roma nihil istiusmodi vide-
tur esse metuendum. At vero cum caput illud orbis occiderit, . . . . quis dubitet
venisse jam finem rebus humanis orbique terrarum? Ilia est enim civitas quae ad-
huc sustentat omnia : precandusque nobis et adorandus est Deus coeli, (si tamen
statuta ejus et placita differri possunt,) ne citiusquamputemus tyrannusille abomi-
nandus veniat, qui tantum facinus moliatur, ac lumen illud effodiat, cujus interitu
mundus ipse lapsurus est." — He had immediately before noted 200 years, as the
largest margin which the varying mundane chronologies of chronologists allowed
before the completion of the 6000 years, (a point already argued on by Irenaeus, Hip
polytus, and Cyprian, see p. 217 supra) and the consummation. But on this I shall
have to speak more fully in a subsequent part of my Book ; viz. on Apoc. viii. 13.
2 " Debebunt Deum suum orare pro salute nostra." — Galerius' Edict of Toleration
was issued by him in his last illness, Apr. 29, A. D. 311. It is given in full by
Lactantius, M. P. 34, and Eusebius, H. E. viii. 17 ; also by Gibbon, ii. 485 ; and will
be noticed by me again in my next Chapter. " In consequence," says Gibbon, " great
numbers of Christians were released from prison, or delivered from the mines. The
confessors, singing hymns of triumph, returned to their own countries." — Donates,
to whom the M. P. is inscribed, was one of these liberated confessors. "Tunc,
apertis carceribus, Donate carissime, ciim caeteris confessoribus e custodia liberates
es ; cum tibi career sex annis pro domicilio fuerit." M. P. 35.
3 This view of the justification of the martyred Christians, as symbolized by the
white robes given them on the apocalyptic scene, may be illustrated by a somewhat
parallel case in an earlier aara of the imperial history, that of Pertinax's accesssion.
It is thus related by Gibbon, i. 162. "The unburied bodies of murdered senators
(for the cruelty of Commodus endeavoured to extend itself beyond death) were de
posited in the sepulchres of their ancestors : their memory was justified ; and every
consolation bestowed on their ruined and afflicted families." — Now a similar indig
nity was offered to the bodies of some of the martyred Christians in Diocletian's
persecution. (See Aringhi Lib. i. c. 4.) Of course, on Galerius' Edict of Toleration,
which was for a while accepted and acted on also by Maximin, these bodies would
receive honorable burial. — Eusebius, ib. 10, marks the contrast, as in the text.

CHAP. VI.J THE SIXTH SEAL'S PRIMARY VISION. 221
tian saints by the Eoman emperors, that whereas the varied
calamities depicted under the three preceding Seals, were
causes and symptoms of the decline of the Eoman Heathen
empire, politically considered, this too, which was prefigured
under the fifth Seal, was in perfect consistency with the
dramatic unity of the Seals, a cause and symptom of its
decline religiously considered, fully as influential as the
others ; — indeed that it was the immediate cause, as well
as precursor, of its fall.

CHAPTEE VI.
THE SIXTH SEAL'S PRIMARY VISION.

u

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth Seal, and
lo ! there was a great earthquake. And the sun became
black as sackcloth of hair ; and the moon became as blood;
and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-
tree casteth forth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of
a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll
when it is rolled together ; and every mountain and island
were moved out of their places. And the kings of the
earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief
captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and
every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks
of the mountains ; and said to the mountains and the rocks,
Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth
on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb ; for the
great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to
stand?" Apoc. vi. 12— 17.1
Thus, as on the fifth's Seal's opening, the Evangelist's
1 Kat etSov ire ijvoi^e tijv otppayiSa tijv eKrijv Kai oeiapjts peyas eyevero' Kai i
rjAtos eyevero p.eAas us oukkos rptxtvos, Kai ij oeAtjvij iArj eyevero us atpa, Kat ol
aorepes rov ovpavov eireaav eis tijv yvv, us avKij BaAAet rovs oAvvBovs avrijs, biro
avepov peyaAov aeiopevij' Kai i ovpavos airexupioBtj us B'BAiov eAiooopevov , Kai irav
opos Kai vijtros eK ruv roiruv abruv eKivrjBijoav Kai ol BaotAeis tijs yijs, Kat ot peyia-
raves, Kai ol xtAtapxoi, Kai ot irAovoioi, Kai o\ ioxvPol> Kal nas SovAos Kat ekevBepos
expvibav 4avrovs eis ra oirijhaia Kai eis ras ireipa< ruv opeuv. Kat Aeyovot rots opetrt
Kat rais irerpats, Tleffere etp' ijpas, Kat Kpv^are ijpas aito irpoauirov tov Ka&ijpevov eirt
rov Bpovov, Kai airo rijs opyijs tov apviov irt ijABev ij jjpepaij peyaKrj tijs vpyijs avrov,
Kat tis Svvarat oraBijvat;

222 apoc vi. 12 — 17. [part i.
eye had been directed from the terrene landscape to the
nearer altar-court, so now it was directed back from the
altar-court to the terrene landscape ; with which landscape
the temple and holy city adjoining were, as before observed,
associated ; and which seems to have appeared with both
seas 1 and land outspread in view, and with its heaven
(or sky) and heavenly luminaries above them. It imaged
evidently the Roman world : that in which the Christian
church had already planted itself; and with which its future
fortunes were, in God's providence, to be most closely con
nected, even to the end. And as the Jewish-like Apoca
lyptic temple did fitly symbolize the faith and worship of
Christ's people through an atoning and mediating Ee-
deemer, (the same that the ancient Jewish temple, altar,
sacrifices, and priesthood had ever while standing prefi
gured,) and moreover the holy city symbolized their polity,
as the aspirant and constituent members of the kingdom of
heaven, — so was the earth, outspread in vision, as fitly em
blematic of its heathen inhabitants : even as of a people in
taste, principle, and feeling belonging only to this world ;
" of the earth," as St. Paul expresses it, " and earthy." 2
The heaven above this Apocalyptic earth, was, we must
remember, its own firmamental heaven, or sky ; — being
altogether distinct from that spiritual unchanging heaven
constituted by the Divine Presence in the inner temple.
According to the usual scripture use of such terms, it was
to be considered as representing the ruling department in
the dominant polity; and its luminaries as the actual rulers,
and governing powers, therein. 3
Now ere the sixth Seal was opened, these luminaries
appeared fixed in the sky, and the earth at rest and still.
But behold, on its opening, the whole scene in agitation !
A great and sudden earthquake shakes the earth. The
mountains and the island-rocks sink beneath the shock.
The sun becomes black ; the full moon blood-red, as in
total eclipse. The stars fall from the heaven in which
they were before shining, even as figs from a fig-tree in a
windy tempest. Kings and generals, freemen and slaves,
1 In verse 14 the islands are specified as visible. 2 See p. 96 supra.
3 This will be illustrated at the close of this chapter.

CHAP. VI.] THE SIXTH SEAL'S PRIMARY VISION. 223
(dress probably in a measure distinguishing them,1) appear
inflight; as men ^panic-struck, and seeking to caves or
holes in the rocks wherein to hide themselves. And this
was chiefly observable, — that in the cry which St. John
heard uttered by them, no earthly foe was named as their
object of terror.2 They spoke as men conscious that Jesus
that was crucified was their conqueror and their foe. They
called on the rocks to hide them from Him who sat upon
the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.
The general intent of this vision does not seem to me to
have been difficult to understand. It surely betokened
some sudden and extraordinary revolution in the Roman
empire, which would follow chronologically after the sera of
martyrdoms depicted under the Seal preceding ; a revolu
tion arising from the triumph of the christian cause over
its enemies, and in degree complete and universal. No
partial change would answer to the strength of the sym
bolic phraseology ; nor, again, any mere overthrow of the
persecuting emperors by other milder and more tolerant,
but still heathen emperors. Nothing less would answer it
than a destruction of Heathenism itself throughout the em
pire, before the progress and power of Christianity ; or, at
least, a sweeping from their high places in it of Heathen
powers and authorities : — and this, not through the gentle
progress of opinion, but with circumstances of force accom
panying, such as to strike those Heathen opposers with con
sternation and dismay. — Let us look then to history to
see whether, so interpreted, the vision received its accom
plishment. Doubtless, according to mere human probabilities, it must
have appeared most unlikely that such a consummation
1 A distinctive servile dress was not actually enjoined on slaves by the Roman law.
In fact, when a law of that purport was once proposed, it was negatived as dangerous,
because it would have revealed to slaves their numbers ; which, according to the
most probable calculation, equalled that of freemen in the empire ; and under the
early emperors amounted to perhaps sixty millions. (See Seneca de Clemen, i. 24,
and Gibbon i. 66.) The emperor Severus was similarly dissuaded afterwards from
enjoining a distinctive dress on the different ranks and classes in the empire. (Ml.
Lampridius Vit. A. Severi, c. 27.) Yet a distinctive dress was customary ; as appears
from the phrase in common use, servilis habitus, servilis vestis, &c. So Eusebius
and Lactantius speak of Maximin disguising himself after his defeat in a slave's dress,
oiKerov oxvpa, " servilis vestis." Euseb. V. C.i. 58, Lactant. M. P. 47. — The official
dress of emperors, officers of state, and soldiers was also distinctive.
2 Unless their enthroned one was an earthly Christian king. Compare Apoc. xii. 5.

224 apoc vi. 12—17. [part i.
should be brought about, and at such a time : — a time
when christians constituted but a small minority of the
population ;x and when, by the long previous persecution,
they had been reduced apparently to the lowest point of
depression. But unto Him who ruleth all things after his
will, both ;in heaven and on earth, what are difficulties,
what are improbabilities, to frustrate the accomplishment of
His declared purpose? Eather, as has been often and most
truly observed, man's extremity is God's opportunity.
That precisely at the time depicted in the vision, — the time
following on the sera of the Diocletian martyrdoms, — a
revolution of the character described took place in the
Eoman empire, is one of the most memorable and most
astonishing facts of history. The cotemporary writers seem
lost in admiration when they speak of it;2 and, in the calm
estimate of modern philosophy, it has lost nothing of its
character of the marvellous.3
And whose then the agency employed? When God
is about to act, the fittest instruments appear ever ready
for his service. .Behold, as in the olden times He raised
up Cyrus, in order to be the restorer, agreeably with fore
going prophecies, of his captives from Babylon, — so now
from the far west, for the deliverance of his church in the
Eoman empire, as here promised, He raised up Constan
tine. Already that Prince was known as a favourer of the
Christians,4 ere he bore down from the Alps against Max-
1 Lactantius writing at this precise epoch, says, " Quoniam pauci utuntur hoc
coelesti beneficio : " i. e. that few comparatively had embraced the Christian religion.
Instit. i. 1. So also Gibbon ii. 371 ; who estimates the Christians as not more than
a twentieth part of the population before the conversion of Constantine.
2 Eusebius again and again speaks of the deliverance and triumph of the church
through Constantine's victories, as most extraordinary, and beyond expectation ; —
irapaSo£oraTa (pus ijpiv KaraAapiruv eipijvijs' — 7raoa5o|oTaTa irt7rTet biro KuoraVTivov
Ma^evrios'. — ijSij irapa rots irAeitTTois airotyvxovoijs irpooSoKias' &c. Hist. Eccl. ix. 7,
8, 9; viii. 16, &c.
3 Dr. Adam Clarke, on this passage in the Apocalypse, observes ; — " The final
destruction of Jerusalem, and the revolution which took place in the Roman empire
under Constantine, were the greatest events that have ever taken place in the world,
from the flood to the- 18th century of the christian aera; and may well justify the
strong figurative language used." — Of course he means events of a politico-religious
nature. And if he had only added the Reformation as a third to his list, it seems to
me that his selection of them, and estimate of their unparalleled importance, must
have approved itself to ey£ry one's considerate judgment.
4 This was his character, indeed, from the beginning of his reign. Gib. iii. 243.
Eusebius represents his father Constantius as a Christian at the time of his death.
V. C. i. 21, 27. — Lactantius' early dedication of the Divine Institutions to him has
been already noticed.

CHAP. VI.] THE SIXTH SEAL'S PRIMARY VISION. 225
entius, the son and successor of the persecuting emperor
Maximian.1 Then in a manner most extraordinary, and
most illustrative of the prophecy under consideration, he
avowed his espousal of the christian cause, and of that of
Him whom the Christians worshipped, the crucified One
of Nazareth, the Lamb of God. From as early a date as
that of the great battle with Maxentius, according to the
testimony of both Lactantius and Eusebius, he adopted
the cross as his distinctive military ensign.2 That object
of abomination to the heathen Eomans3 was seen " glitter
ing on the helmets, engraved on the shields, and interwoven
into the banners" of his soldiers.4 The Emperor's own
person was adorned by it, wrought of richest materials,
and with finest workmanship. Above all in his principal
banner, the labarum,5 he displayed at its summit the same
1 The following Constantinian dates may be useful. — A.D. 306, July 24, Con
stantius' death and Constantine's accession as Augustus: — 309-310 Maximian's
capture and death: — 311 Galerius' death: — 319 C.'s war with, and defeat of, Max
entius ; Oct. 25 Battle of Milvian Bridge, and C.'s entry into Rome :— 313, May 1,
Maximin defeated by Licinius ; June 5, Milan Decree in favor of Christianity : deaths
of Diocletian and Maximin: — 314, war with, and defeat of, Licinius: — 323-324,.
second war with, and defeat and death of, Licinius : Constantine sole Emperor : —
325, Council of Nice : — 337, Constantine's death.
3 " Transversa X litera summo capite, circumflexo Christo, in scutis notat. Quo
signo armatus exercitus capit ferrum." Lactant. M. P. 44. — Eusebius (V. C. i. 3 1 )
states that Constantine himself wore the sign of the cross upon his helmet ; and
(H. E. ix. 9) how, on his entering Rome, after the battle and victory, he ordered
the cross to be placed in the right hand of the statue that was about to be raised to
him, with the following inscription on it ; " Hoc salutari signo vestram urbem
tyrannicse dominationis jugo liberatam servavi, &c." — When sole emperor, he wrote
to Sapor, the Persian king, that his soldiers bore it on their shoulders. V. C. iv. 9.
3 ' Nomen ipsum crucis absit non modo a corpore civium Romanorum, sed
etiam a cogitatione, oculis, auribus." So wrote Cicero in •his oration for Rabirius,
ch. 5. And what a comment does it furnish on St. Paul's magnificent exclamation,
made in the midst of the Roman empire, when that empire was in its height of
power and glory ; — " God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ ; by whom the world is crucified untq^me, and I unto the world,"
4 Gibbon iii. 257.
6 The labarum* is described by Eusebius V. C- i. 31 ; also, as in Note2 just above,
by Lactantius. I add Prudentius' description : (in Symmach. ii. 486 :)
Christus purpureum gemmanti textos in auro
Signabat labarum ; clypeorum insignia Christus
Scripserat ; ardebat summis crux addita cristis.
It seems that fifty men were specially appointed to guard it. (V. C. ii. 8.) — I ap
pend an engraving of it from a medal of Constantius, with its famous motto circum
scribed. Also one of Constantine, helmeted with the monogram.
The labaristic monogram appears in some of the inscriptions in the^CataCombs.
* The word labarum, about the origin of which there has been some literary doubt
and discussion, (see Ducange on the word) had been long before used as the name
of a chief standard in the Roman armies. So Tertuliian/ Apol. c. 16; "Vexillo-
rum et labarorum." See Eckhel viii. 494. Constantine gave it a new device, but
retained the old name.
VOL. I. Q

226 apoc vi. 12 — 17. [part i.
once accursed emblem ; with a crown of gold and gems
above it, and the monogram of the name of Him who,
after bearing the one, now wore the other.
We may be sure that the question was in every mouth.
Why so strange an ensign ? And let it not be forgotten,
that besides other reasons to impress him, — as the excel
lence of the doctrine, the virtues of its professors, and
other internal and external evidence of the truth of Chris
tianity, — there might have been mention made of a mys
terious vision of a cross of flame, just before seen on the
sky, in the night-watches, by the western emperor ; and
how he had been warned in the vision, by a voice from
heaven, to adopt that ensign of the cross, with the promise
added that through it he should conquer.1 Scepticism, as
we know, has been frequent in expressing its disbelief of
this asserted fact. For my own part I am unable to resist
the force of Constantine's solemn declaration to Eusebius
of its truth. The time, as well as solemnity of his state-
Dr. Maitland, p. 169, gives an example ; with the heavenly words addrest in the
vision to Constantine. In Hoc Vinces.
X
Sinfonia et Filiis.
v. ann. xlviii. m. v. d. iiii.
where the v. in the last line is vixit : " lived 48 years, 5 months, 4 days."
1 Compare Mosheim's critical but candid discussion of the story (iv. 1.1. 9.) with
Gibbon's sceptical critique, iii. 259. Mosheim's conclusion is that the vision of the
cross was seen by Constantine in a dream before the battle with Maxentius, with the
inscription, " Hac vince." This agrees with Lactantius's account. " Commonitus
est in quiete Constantinus ut coeleste signum Dei notaret in scutis, atque ita prae-
lium committeret. Fecit ut jussus est ; et transversa X litera," &c. See Note 8 p. 225.
— This account was written by Lactantius very soon after the defeat of Maximin ;
and before Licinius' apostacy to Heathenism, and first war with Constantine ; as ap
pears from the concluding chapters of the work : consequently in the year 313 or
314; or, at furthest, not more than two years after the battle with Maxentius.
Lactantius was already acquainted, it would seem, with Constantine ; judging from
his dedication of the Institutions to him : and he was in 317 made tutor to Constan
tine's son Crispus.
It is quite surprising to me that a writer like Dean Waddington should have
entirely set aside this most important testimony, in his critique on the subject, i.
170 : — saying in his text : " The story is related byno contemporary author except
ing Eusebius : " and in his Note ; " We have ventured to omit the dream published
by the uncertain author of the Book ' DeMortibus Persecutorum.' " — Nazarius in his
Panegyric, pronounced A. D. 321 at Rome, speaks of the rumour prevalent in Gaul,
that heavenly warriors had appeared to Constantine, and led him jn the war, c. 14, 15.
It may help to guide the reader's judgment on the question whether the vision
was a truth or an imposture, to compare it both in its own nature, and in the time
and manner of its announcement by Constantine, with some other asserted vision
of a similar character, such as was proved in fine to be an imposture : for instance,
the vision of the golden lance, so famous in the first crusade.

PL 9

Voll-PZ2S

THE CONSTANTINIAN LABARUM.

Iram.IiaiLd.-tm aiii the Eritisl. Museum. Cabinet

CHAP. VI.] THE SIXTH SEAL'S PRIMARY VISION. 227
ment, — a time when nothing was to be gained by the fic
tion, for it was made when life was drawing to a close, —
and, moreover, the whole character of Constantine, so little
prone either to credulity or to deception, — seem to me
alike to forbid its rejection. If true, it satisfactorily explains
to us the fact of his adoption of the cross as his ensign,
otherwise all but inexplicable ; and as to its miraculousness,
surely the case, if ever, was one that from its importance
might seem to call for the supernatural intervention of the
Deity. — Thus Constantine was the first crusader ; and,
with better reason than the Princes of the eleventh century
at Clermont, might feel, as he prosecuted the war, that it
was "the will of God."1
" By this ensign thou shalt conquer." Such was the
tenor of the promise. And well, we know, was the promise
fulfilled to Constantine. Army after army, emperor after
emperor, (for since Diocletian's division of it there were,
according to the prophetic intimation, several cotemporary
emperors, or " kings of the earth,")2 were routed, and fled,
and perished, in battle after battle, before the cross and its
warriors ; — Maxentius' generals, Maxentius himself, Max
imin,3 and, after his apostacy to the pagan cause, Licinius.4
A bas-relief still remaining on Constantine's triumphal
arch at Eome,5 represents to us the terror of Maxentius
1 " Instinctu Divinitatis ; " said the Inscription on Constantine's triumphal Arc,
with reference to his expedition against Maxentius, See Montfaucon's engraving
of it, iv. 108.
2 So Gibbon, ii. 169, after noting Diocletian's change of the government : " Three
or four magnificent courts were established in the various parts of the empire ; and
as many Roman kings contended with each other for the vain superiority of pomp
and luxury."
3 I include Maximin's defeat in this list, although accomplished by Licinius ; be
cause Licinius was at that time in strict alliance with Constantine as a joint cham
pion of the christian cause. So Eusebius speaks of the two together, as at this
time Svo BeoiptAuv ; and tells how Licinius seemed only second to Constantine in
understanding and piety. Eccl. Hist. ix. 9, 10.
4 I might have headed the list with Maximian ; who, first of all, had been put to
flight, besieged, taken, and thenimprisoned, and killed by Constantine. For this heathen
and persecuting emperor was defeated by Constantine after the latter's known fa
vour to the Christians. See Note 4 p. 224. — On the whole there were not less than
ten or eleven battles (including that of Licinius against Maximin) before the com
plete triumph of the Christian cause : viz. those of Susa, Turin, Verona, and the
Milvian Bridge against Maxentius ; that of Heraclea against Maximin ; and those
of Cibalis, Mardia, Hadrianople, Byzantium, Chalcedon, and Chrysopolis in the two
wars against Licinius.
5 It is in the inside of the central arch ; and is engraved in Montfaucon vii. 426.
It represents Maxentius's army drowning, while pursued by Constantine and his
army, in the retreat across the Tiber. — This destruction of Maxentius and his host in
Q2

228 apoc vi. 12— 17. [parti.
and of his army, in their flight across the Tiber after defeat
in the battle of the Milvian bridge.1 A similar conster
nation attended the others also. — And this was chiefly re
markable, — that it was not the terror of their earthly vic
tor's wrath that alone oppressed them. There was a con
sciousness of the powers of heaven acting against them ;
above all, the crucified One, the Christians' God. For the
war, in each case, was felt to be a religious war. In the
persecution just preceding, the emperors Diocletian and
Maximian had struck medals of themselves in the charac
ters, and under the names, of Jove and Hercules, destroying
the serpent-like hydra-headed monster Christianity ;2 and
these titles of Pagan mythology had been adopted in the
same spirit by their successors.3 When Maxentius went
forth to battle, he went fortified by heathen oracles ;4 — the
champion of heathenism against the champion of the cross.
When Maximin was about to engage with Licinius, he
made his vow to Jupiter, that, if successful, he would ex
tirpate Christianity.5 When Licinius, again, marched
against Constantine and his crusaders, he was urged to the
enterprise by the response of heathen gods that he had con
sulted : and then, in public harangue before the soldiers, he
ridiculed the cross, and staked the falsehood of Christianity
on his success.6 — Thus, in all these cases, the terrors of
defeat must have been aggravated by a sense of their gods
the Tiber is compared by Eusebius, ibid, to that of Pharaoh and the Egyptians in
the Red Sea : and, to express the Christians' triumph, he adopts the words of the
song of Moses ; " They sunk like lead in the mighty waters." &c.
It is observable that neither in the bas-relief on the arc of Constantine, nor in
the medals with the labarum, do the soldiers' shields appear marked with the cross.
In the triumphal arc it is accounted for by the circumstance of the sculptured figures
on it having been taken from other triumphal Roman monuments of more ancient
date; especially Trajan's arc of triumph. So Montfaucon, iv. 108.
1 An a famous picture of this battle by Le Brun, the labarum, or banner of the
cross, appears so prominent among the standards of the Constantinian army, and
the consternation of the defeated Pagan Romans before it so strikingly depicted,
that it might almost be deemed a comment on this part of the sixth Seal's prefigura
tions. — It is the subject too of one of Raphael's famous pictures.
2 The medal of Diocletian as Jovius, striking down with his forked lightning a
wretch whose form ends in the folds of a serpent's tail, is given in Walsh : — of that
of Maximian as Herculius, smashing with his club a seven-headed hydra, a copy is
given in my 3rd Volume on Apoc. xii. 3. Where, see my remarks on the medal.
3 See the passage from Lactantius, quoted p. 230 Note 3, infra. 4 M. P. 44.
5 Ib. 46. " Tum Maximinus votum Jovi vovit, ut, si victoriam cepiss^t, Christian-
orum nomen extingueret funditusque deleret."
G V. C. ii. 4, 5. Elsewhere Eusebius calls Licinius' war against Constantine a
Beopaxia, or war against God. V. C. ii. 18. i

CHAP. VI.] THE SIXTH SEAl's PRIMARY VISION. 229
having failed them ; and of the power of heaven being with
Christ, the Christians' God, against them. It was ob
served that wherever the labarum, the banner of the cross,
was raised, there victory attended. In the war against
Constantine, after Licinius' apostacy, " Licinius," says
Gibbon, " felt and dreaded the powe/ of that consecrated
banner ; the sight of which in the distress of battle animated
the soldiers of Constantine with invincible enthusiasm, and
scattered terror and dismay through the ranks of the ad
verse legions." x All this must needs have deepened the
impression. — Besides which there are to be remembered
the recorded dying terrors of one and another of the per
secuting emperors. A dark cloud seems to have brooded
over the death-bed of Maximian, if not over Diocletian's
also. The report was, that oppressed by remorse for his
crimes he strangled himself.2 Again, Galerius had from
an agonizing and awful death-bed evinced his remorse of
conscience, by entreating the Christians in a public pro
clamation, to pray to their God (i. e. Christ) for him.3
And Maximin soon after, in similar anguish of mind and
body, confessed his guilt, and called on Christ to compas
sionate his misery.4 Thus did a sense of the wrath of the
crucified One, the Lamb of God, whom they now knew to
be seated on the throne of power, lie heavy, intolerably
heavy on them. — And when we combine these terrors of
the death-bed with those of the lost battle-field, — which
latter terrors must have been experienced alike by offi-
1 iii. 258. — Eusebius states that Licinius, on joining battle, bade his soldiers take
care to avoid assaulting Constantine's great banner of the cross. V. C. ii. 16.
2 See respecting Diocletian's death the M. P. 42, and Eusebius H. E. viii. 13,
Orat. ad Sanct. 25 : on Maximian's M. P. 30, and Euseb. H. E. viii. 13. Gibbon
seems to think that Maximian was put to death by Constantine, and that the report
published abroad of his suicide was untrue. But he has not substantiated his, re
presentation. Nor indeed is his disbelief of the reports of Diocletian having put an
end to his own life, or died raving mad, sufficiently authenticated. See his Vol. ii.
p. 177, 212. — The other view is, I see, adopted from Eusebius and Lactantius by
the author of " Rome Pagan and Papal; " ii. 83 — 85.
3 The edict is given in full by Eusebius, H. E. viii. 17, and Lactantius, M.P. 34.
Near the conclusion is the clause ; " Juxta hanc indulgentiam nostram debebunt
Deum suum orare pro salute nostra." His death was by a horrid disease, like that
of Herod described in Acts xii. 23 : viz. being eaten by worms.
" Tunc demum, amisso visu, Deum videre coepit candidatis ministris de sejudican-
tem. . . . Deinde quasi tormentis adactus fatebatur ; Christum subinde deprecans et
plorans ut suimet miseretur." Lactantius M. P. 49. Similarly Eusebius, (E. H.
ix. 1 0,) EvSikus Tavra tijs Kara rov Xpiarov irapotvias xaPtv ipoAoyijaas iradeiv, rrjv
tyvxnv aipiijotv.

230 apoc vi. 12 — 17. [part i.
cers and soldiers, each active partizan in the persecution
and the war, including low as well as high, the slaves 1 as
well as the freemen, all- in short that are particularized in
the sacred vision, — when, I say, we consider the terrors of
these Christ-blaspheming kings of the Eoman earth, thus
routed with their partizans before the christian host, and
miserably flying and perishing, there was surely that in the
event which, according to the usual construction of such
scripture figures, may well be deemed to have answered to the
symbols of the prefigurative vision before us : in which
vision kings and generals, freemen and slaves,2 appeared
flying and seeking to the caves of the rocks to hide them ;
to hide them from the face of Him that sate on the throne
of power, even from the wrath of the Lamb.
Thus, under the first shocks of this great earthquake,
had the Eoman earth been agitated, and the enemies of
the Christians destroyed, or driven into flight and conster
nation.3 Thus, in the political heavens, had the sun of
pagan supremacy been darkened, the moon become eclipsed
and blood-red, and of the stars not a few been shaken vio
lently to the ground. But the prophecy had not as yet
received its entire fulfilment. The stars of the pagan hea
ven had not all fallen, nor had the heaven itself been
altogether rolled up like a scroll, and vanished away. On
Constantine's first triumph, and after the first terrors of the
opposing emperors and their hosts, though the imperial
1 Informations were frequently laid against the Christians by their slaves. So
Tertuliian in his Tract. Adv. Gent. c. 7 : " Tot hostes ejus quot extranei : et qui-
dem proprii ex semulatione Judaei, . ... ex natura ipsa domestici nostri." And again ;
" Quid ? cum domestici eos vobis produnt ? Omnes a nullis magis prodimur." —
With reference to this notice of slaves in the vision, it is not unworthy of remark,
that one of the persecuting emperors (Maximin) after his defeat, put off his impe
rial insignia, and disguised himself in a slave's dress, the better to prosecute his
flight, and elude the conquerors. V. C. i. 58, M. P. 47.
2 The expression, " every bondman and freeman," is to be restricted of course
to those engaged in the war against the Christian side. This amplification of
phrase is common. So Jer. xxxiv. 1 ; " When Nebuchadnezzar, and all his army,
and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion, and all the people fought against
Jerusalem:" and Matt. iii. 5 : "Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea,
and all the country round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan :" &c. &c.
3 So Lactantius M. P. 1. " Nunc qui adversati erant Deo jacent : qui templum
sanctum everterant ruina majore ceciderunt : qui justos excarnificaverant coelestibus
plagis, et cruciatibus meritis, nocentes animas profuderunt." And again, 52, ad fin.
" Ubi sunt modo magnifica ilia et clara per gentes Joviorum et Herculiorum cogno-
mina ; quae primdm a Dioclete ac Maximiniano insolenter assumpta, ac postmodum
ad successores eorum translata, viguerunt ? Nempe delevit ea Dominus, et erasit
de terra."

CHAP. VI.] THE SIXTH SEAl's PRIMARY VISION. 231
edict 1 gave to Christianity its full rights and freedom, yet
it allowed to the heathen worship a free toleration also.
But very soon there followed measures of marked prefer
ence in the imperial appointments to the Christians and
their faith. And, at length, after Constantine's final de
feat of Licinius, and establishment as sole emperor over the
Eoman world, in spite of the indignation and resentment
of the Pagans, he issued edicts for the suppression of their
sacrifices, the destruction of their temples, and the tolera
tion of no other form of public worship but the Christian.2
His successors on the throne followed up the same object
by attaching penalties of the severest character to the pub
lic profession of Paganism.3 And the result was that, un
der Theodosius' reign, before the century had ended, its
stars had all fallen to the ground : * its very heaven, or po
litical and religious system, vanished : and, on the earth,
the old pagan institutions, laws, rites, and worship been all
but annihilated ; and its votaries constrained to seek to caves
and rocks (erst the Christians' refuges,) wherein to hide
their devotions, prohibited on penalty of death.
1 It is given by Lactantius, M. P. 48, and Eusebius, H. E. x. 5.
2 see Mosheim iv. 1. 1. 7. 10 : also, for an authority justifying his statement,
Eusebius V. C ii. 45, nept vopuv kuAoovtuv pev Bvoias, oiKoSopeiv Se eKKAijaias
irpooranovTuv' and iii. 54, entitled, EtSuAeiuv Kai \oavuv iravraxov KaraAvats.
See also Mosh. ib. 16, on a probable exception in the execution of these anti-pagan
edicts, in favour of certain philosophers and generals.
Hence the chief argument against my application of .this vision. SayVitringa,
Cuninghame, and others, " Were not Pagans still promoted to the highest dignities
of the state ? What necessity for them to call on the rocks to cover them ? " — But can
we forget the introductory wars through which the revolution was effected, and
the terror and dismay of the vanquished heathen emperors and their armies, whose
terror the vision seems especially to picture ? Or that after this, though heathenism
subsisted for a while in a few great cities, yet it never more flourished. Except at
Rome and Alexandria, says Gieseler, i. 181, " the heathens were everywhere obliged
to conceal themselves in remote places in the country : whence the names Pagani,
Paganismus." This under Constantius. As to the toleration of Pagans in office,
it was the exception, not the rule. See V. C ii. 44.
Compare, on this subject, the prophecy of Babylon's overthrow, noticed p. 232.
3 Gieseler, i. 1-80, gives, in brief, the chief anti-pagan laws of Constantine's family.
— 1st, C. himself, a little before his death, forbade all heathen sacrifices; (compare
V. C. ii. 45, iv. 23, 25 ;) and on pain of death, according to Theophanes : but the law,
says he, was not acted out.- — 2nd, Constantius, A. D. 341, referring to Constantine's
prohibitory law, decreed the prohibition of sacrifices : " Sacrificiorum aboleatur in-
sania;" with a "vindicta" against them. Cod. Theod. xvi. 10. 2. — 3rd, A. D.
342, the "superstitiopenitus eruenda," but edifices preserved. Ib. 10. 3. — 4th, A. D.
353. " Placuit omnibus locis claudi protinus templa ;. . . . etiam cunctos sacrifices
abstinere." The offender " gladio ultore sternatur," and his goods confiscated ; with
similar penalty on all provincial governors that might overlook the crime.
A To Se ireoeiv rovs aarepas, Kai rovs SoKOwras eivat tpworijpas evi Koopu irnrreiv
says Arethas.

232 apoc vi. 12 — 17. [part i.
The interpretation that I have given to the various
symbols of this Seal has been illustrated and confirmed,
by one and another interpreter, from the similar use of
similar figures in other passages of prophetic scripture.
Thus, to show how, from earliest times, the symbols of the
sun, moon, and stars were used of rulers, so as I have ex
plained them, a reference has been made to Joseph's dream,
(Gen. xxxvii. 9,) in which the sun and moon are expressly
interpreted of the chief heads of a nascent nation, — the
stars of its inferior heads. — To illustrate the meaning of an
earthquake, and the consequent convulsions and changes in
the firmamental heavens and their luminaries, there have
been quoted passages from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and
others, in which the symbol is used of political revolution
in a state or kingdom, of the subversion of its institutions,
and fall of its governing powers. So in Jeremiah's vision,
(iv. 23, &c) of the destruction and desolation of the Jew
ish kingdom by the Babylonians : " I beheld the land, and
lo ! it was without form and void ; and the heavens, and
they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and lo ! they
trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and
all the cities thereof were broken down, at the presence of
the Lord, and by his fierce anger. For this shall the earth
mourn, and the heavens be black. The whole city shall flee
from the noise of the horsemen and bowmen : they shall
go into thickets, and climb up on [or into] the rocks." So
in Ezekiel, (xxxii. 7, &c,) of the overthrow of Pharaoh
and his kingdom by the king of Babylon : " When I shall
put thee out, I will cover the heavens, and make the stars
thereof dark : I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the
moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of
heaven will I make dark over thee, and I will set darkness
upon thy land, saith the Lord." And so again in Isaiah,
(xiii. 9, 10, 17,) of the overthrow of Babylon by the
Medes : it being said that " the day of the Lord should
come against it, with his wrath and fierce anger ; and that
the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof should
not give their light, and the sun should be darkened in his
going forth, and the moon should not cause her light to
shine." J In which passages besides the more prominent
1 Compare too Amos viii. 9, Zeph. i. 14, 15 ; in which latter passage the time of
Judah's destruction is spoken of as " the gi'eut day of the Lord."

CHAP. VI.] THE SIXTH SEAl's PRIMARY VISION. 233
parallelisms with the Apocalyptic imagery in the symbolic
changes noted of the heavenly luminaries, it will be well,
I think, to observe also what is said of the presence of the
Lord as manifested, though acting by human agency : and
again, of the day of the Lord and his fierce anger being
shown in the subversion of the former political government,
and the dethronement and destruction of its political go
vernors, even in cases where, after the first shock of the
catastrophe, it does not appear that the conquered gene
rally were treated with any particular oppression, or the
yoke made very grievous. — Finally, to illustrate what is
said of the pagan hosts " hiding themselves in the dens
and rocks of the mountains, and saying to the mountains
and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him
that sitteth on the throne," &c, a reference has been made
to Hosea's prediction 1 of the Israelites thus calling on the
mountains to cover them, and the hills to fall on them, un
der the terror and calamities of Shalmanezer's invasion.
To which we may add what is told us, historically, of the
Israelites hiding in such rocky caverns, whensoever, as in
the times of Saul or of the Maccabees,2 the enemy might
have gained possession of the country. — All which being
put together, there will not, I believe, remain a single
symbolic phrase in this prophecy of the sixth Seal unillus-
trated, or with the interpretation referring it to a political
revolution (such as has been here given) unconfirmed, by
similar figures in other prophecies, to which the scriptural
context has itself already furnished a similar interpretation.
Since, however, in regard to not a little of the phrase
ology of the prophecy, there is in so far a resemblance to
what is said elsewhere of the catastrophe of the last great
day of judgment, as to have induced with many a suspi
cion, with some a full conviction, that such must be the
reference and meaning also here, — it may be useful, with a
1 Hos. x. 8 ; " The thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars ; and they
shall say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall on us ! " — In which pas
sage, as in the vision of the sixth Seal, the falling on them is evidently meant of the
caverned or hollowed hills, — falling, not to crush, but to hide.
Similar to this is the language in Luke xxiii. 30 ; " Then shall they begin to say
to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, Cover us ! " with reference, first, to
the sufferings in the siege of Jerusalem ; and further, also, — as appears from the word
" begin," — to the sufferings of the dispersion afterwards.
2 I Sam. xiii. 5; 1 Maccabees ii. 28, 36. Compare also Esdras xvi. 28.

234 apoc vi. 12 — 17. [part i.
view to the reader's clearer and fuller persuasion, to look a
little more closely into the subject : and to add yet a further
observation or two, on the internal evidence derivable, first
from the language of the prophetic description, as com
pared with that of other prophecies confessedly predictive
of the last convulsions ; secondly, from its relative position
in the series of the Apocalyptic visions ; — in support of the
meaning that I have attached to it.
And, first, it should be distinctly understood that the
expressions here used respecting the earthquake, and the
phenomena in the sun, moon, and stars, cannot be inter
preted literally, or as referring to those physical changes in
the material earth and firmament of heaven, which other
prophecies lead us undoubtingly to expect at the consum
mation of the great day. The clearest literal description
of these physical changes is perhaps that given in 2 Peter
iii. 10: — " The day of the Lord shall come as a thief in
the night, in the which the heavens, (or the firmament,
Gen. i. 7, 3,) shall pass away with a great noise, and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat ; the earth also, and
the works that are therein, shall be burned up." 1 Now of
a conflagration, like this, no hint is given in the vision of
the sixth Seal. Moreover in such a conflagration neither
would the sun become black as sackcloth, nor the moon
appear blood-red ; still less the stars fall to the ground.
The expressions must be taken metaphorically, and as re
ferring to political changes, like those in the other parallel
prophecies just before referred to. There seems to me a
physical necessity for this, from what is said ; as well as
almost a necessity from what is not said : besides the ne-
1 So in Isaiah li. 6 : " Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth
beneath ! For the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax
old like a garment ; and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner." — In that
remarkable chapter, Isa. xxxiv, there seems to be a description both of the political
and the physical revolution occurring at the end : the former very analogous to the
language of the sixth Seal ; but with a notice also of that which is the grand charac
teristic of the consummation, — the burning of the mystical Edom, or Rome. " The
indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies. He
hath utterly destroyed them. The mountains shall be melted with their blood. (Com
pare Rev. xiv. 20.) And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved; and the heaven
shall be rolled together as a scroll ; and all their host shall fall down as a falling fig
from the fig-tree. And the streams thereof (of Edom) shall be turned into pitch :
and the dust thereof into brimstone ; and the land shall become burning pitch ; it
shall not be quenched night nor day:" &c.

CHAP. VI.] THE SIXTH SEAL'S PRIMARY VISION. 235
cessity arising from the requirements of symbolic language,
in a confessedly symbolic prophecy.
Still the suspicion may remain that, though referring to
political revolution and changes, it may be the political
changes attendant on the last great consummation. For
that there are to be then, and in connection with the great
final catastrophe of the earth's drama, extraordinary politi
cal commotions and revolutions, is a truth revealed both in
the Apocalypse itself, and in many other of the sacred pro
phecies.1 This I fully allow. But I think internal evi
dence is here, too, not wanting, to shew that it is not these
that are intended in the sixth Seal. For, let but the de
scription of the earthquake of the sixth Seal be compared
with that of the xvith chapter of the Apocalyptic book, —
which latter is allowed on all hands to be the description of
the great final political revolution, — and how is it possible
but that an unprejudiced mind will be struck with the marked
differences?2 The earthquake of the xvith chapter is so great,
that " there never was any like it since the time that men
were on the earth ;" — this, simply, " a great earthquake."
And whereas the most prominent points of accompaniment
and result in the former case are the tripartite division of
the great city, Babylon receiving the wine-cup of God's
anger, and a tremendous hail-storm falling on the inhabit
ants of the Eoman earth, — to neither one nor another of
these is there the least allusion, in the description of the
earthquake of the sixth Seal before us. — Were the one in
deed but a notice in brief, as it were, the other the descrip
tion in detail, the omission and the difference would not be
so remarkable. And thus it seems to me very possible,
and even probable, that the earthquake noticed on the
sounding of the seventh Trumpet, at the close of chap, xi,
may be the same in brief, as that of chap, xvi in detail,
on the effusion of the seventh Vial.3 But in the vision of
1 Such, I believe, are Matt. xxiv. 21, and the corresponding prophecies in Mark
and Luke. Such, perhaps, Hag. ii. 6, Heb. xii. 26, and Joel ii. 10.
2 I say an unprejudiced mind. One who is not unprejudiced writes thus : " The
revolution of this sixth Seal is the same as that again mentioned on the sounding of
the seventh Trumpet, xi. 19, and more particularly described under the seventh
Vial; (xvi. 17 — 21 ;) between which, and the sixth Seal, there is a remarkable simi
larity." Cuninghame, p. 23. Of this similarity let the reader judge ; after com
paring the two descriptions together, as here set before him.
3 Two characteristic notices serve to identify the earthquake of xi. 19 with that

236 apoc vi. 12 — 17. [part i.
the sixth Seal the description is as detailed and full, indeed
more so, than that of chap. xvi.
Thus my conclusion from simply comparing the descrip
tive language in the two passages is this, — that they por
tray different and distinct earthquakes ; that of the sixth
Seal the less, that of the seventh Vial much the greater :
although it is allowed that the former may be possibly in a
certain sense typical of the latter ; in the same way that a
less event, of the same character, is often in scripture typical
of a greater following : — a conclusion confirmed by the
figuring of the earth, sea, and sky, in this same Seal's next
vision, as all restored; so as after the last earthquake they
certainly will not be.1 — Then, consider the vision further in
respect of its relative position in the Apocalyptic series, and
connection with, and sequence on, those of the previous
five Seals. And when we think how exactly every successive
great epoch of change in the Eoman Pagan Empire, with
its characteristic causes and symptoms, from the time of
Domitian's death, at the close of the first century, to the
persecution by Diocletian and Galerius at the beginning of
the fourth, has been depicted, all in order, in the consecu
tive visions of the successive Seals preceding, and find
ourselves thus brought by them to the very eve of the
great politico-religious revolution of the time of Constan
tine, — I say, when, with the evidence of this its position
and context, we consider the vision of the symbolic earth
quake represented on the opening of the sixth Seal, — it
seems to me that all reasonable doubt as to its intended
application is precluded ; and that it cannot but be the pre
figuration of that wonderful revolution. — Nor let me omit
to observe, in further confirmation of this explanation, that
the infidel illustrator of the Apocalyptic prefigurations fails
not here, as usual, to add his remarkable corroborative tes
timony. " The ruin of the Pagan religion," says Gibbon,
" is described by the sophists as a dreadful and amazing
prodigy ; which covered the earth with darkness, and re
stored the ancient dominion of chaos and of night." 2
of xvi. 1 8 : — 1 st, that of the temple in heaven being in either case previously opened ;
(i. e. connecting xvi. 18 with xv. 5 ;) 2ndly that of the great hail, mentioned as a
concomitant in the one case and the other. ' Except as a new earth.
Kat ti pvBuSes Kat aetSes okotos rvpavvrjoei ra eirt yijs KaAAiora. So Eunapius

CHAP. VII.] THE SIXTH SEAL. 237
CHAPTEE VII.
THE SIXTH SEAL'S SEALING AND PALM-BEARING VISIONS.
" And after this I saw four angels standing on the four
corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, so
that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea,
nor on any tree. — And I saw another angel ascending from
the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried
with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given
to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth,
neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the serv
ants of our God in their foreheads. — And I heard the
number of them which were sealed ; and there were sealed
144,000 out of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Out
of the tribe of Judah were sealed 12,000. Out of the tribe
of Eeuben were sealed 12,000: &c.
After these things I beheld, and lo, a great multitude,
which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds,
and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and
before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in
their hands. And they cry with a loud voice, saying,
Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and
unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about
the throne, and about the elders and the four living crea
tures, and fell before the throne on their faces, and wor
shipped God, saying, Amen ! Blessing, and glory, and
wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and
might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen ! And
one of the elders answered, saying unto me, Who are these
which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to
me, These are they which are to come 1 out of the great
tribulation ; and they washed their robes, and made them
white, in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before
the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his
of the 4th century, in his Life of Eustathius; with reference to the then imminent
utter ruin of Paganism. Referred to by Gibbon v. 123.
1 ot epxopevot. So Mark x. 30 and Luke xviii. 30, aiuv i epxopevos, the world to

238 apoc vn. [part i.
temple : and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell
among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst
any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any
heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne
shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains
of waters ; and God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes."1 — Apoc. vii.
§ 1. THE FOUR TEMPEST-ANGELS.
Thus the first of the two connected visions with which
the sixth Seal closed, opened with a representation of four
destroying tempest-angels, just now under temporary re
straint, but destined ere while to desolate the Eoman earth :
which earth appeared tranquil again after the earthquake,
and with its luminaries shining in the new firmamental
heaven.2 The intent of the figure is at once explained by
Gibbon's notice of "the threatening tempests of barbarians,
which so soon subverted the foundations of Eoman great
ness."3 But wherefore now commissioned against the
empire, after a revolution so blessed as had been foreshown
in it, and the overthrow of the enemies of Christianitv ?
Might not a very different result have been anticipated ?
It will be interesting, I think, and may serve as a fit in
troduction to what follows, to suspend for a few moments
our investigation of the prophecy ; and to consider the
feelings and anticipations of Christians, as exhibited in the
Eoman empire at the period just alluded to, of its first
Christianization under Constantine.
When heathenism had been cast down from its supre
macy, and Christianity established in the Eoman world,
the changes consequent were immense and universal. Now,
come ; Eph. ii. 7, ev rots atutri rots eirepxopevois, the ages to come : 1 Thess. i. 10,
airo tijs opyijs tijs epxopevrjs, the wrath to come. Also Mark xi. 3, John xviii. 4, &c.
So M. Stuart, ii. 62 ; " epxopat, venturus sum."
1 There is no variation in the critical editions, of the least importance, from
the received text in this chapter.
2 This is obvious in part from verse 1 of this chapter, where the wind is spoken
of as not blowing on the land or the sea ; in part from verse 1 2 of the next chapter,
where the sun, the moon, and the stars are implied to have shone during the three
first Trumpets on the Roman earth. 3 iii. 97.

CHAP. VII. § 1.] THE FOUR TEMPEST-ANGELS. 239
throughout its vast extent, the cross once so despised was
every where in honour ; l and the persevering and conquer
ing virtue made the theme of exultation, which every where
attended it.2 Now the righteousness of the slaughtered
martyrs that had been gathered under the altar, was acknow
ledged in public edicts ; and the living confessors restored
to their homes in triumph, from the mines and dungeons
where they were suffering.3 Instead of vaults and cata
combs for the sacred assemblies of Christians, and other
hiding-places shut out from the light of heaven, to which,
like their earlier Christian brethren,4 they had been reduced
during the late persecution, there arose in the cities and
towns churches of magnificence ; and the ritual was cele
brated with a pomp corresponding. Instead of desertions
and apostacies from the Christian body, such as had been
the case with not a few under the fiery trial, the daily ac
cessions to it were innumerable. Candidates in throngs now
applied for baptism; and at the Easter and Pentecostal
festivals the newly-baptized neophytes, in their white vest
ments, grouped conspicuous around each Christian sanctu
ary.5 Once more, under imperial auspices, the Christian
1 " Attende gloriam crucis ipsius," said Augustine (in Psalm xxxiv), somewhat
later than the epoch spoken of; "jam in fronte regum crux ilia fixa est cui inimici
insultaverunt." 2 to ouTijptov anpetov' a favourite phrase used by Eusebius to designate the cross.
3 Id. de Vit. Const, ii. 29, 30, &c.
* See Mosheim ii. 2. 4. 8, on the subject of the humble churches in which the
early Christians assembled for worship, whether private houses, or caves, and cata
combs : also Burton's History of the Church, p. 229 (Ed. 4.) " It was long," says
the latter, " before the intolerance of their enemies allowed the Christians to enjoy
the light of heaven, whilst engaged in their sacred duties. . . . We may perhaps con
clude that few, if any, religious buildings had been possessed by the Christians, till
the time when Alexander Severus decided a case brought before him in their favour."
The case decided by Alex. Severus in their favour, has been before alluded to ; p. 206.
— After Gallienus' edict of toleration the Christians began to erect more convenient
and spacious edifices (Euseb. Hist. Ecc. viii. 1) ; and, in some cases, not devoid of
grandeur. So, for example, the great church of Nicomedia, which was destroyed
at the first breaking out of Diocletian's persecution.
5 The white dress of the neophyte, or newly baptized, was worn eight days by him,
then laid up in the church. So Tertuliian in his De Cor. Mil. calls the baptized
albati. See Bingham's Antiq. xii. 4. 1, 3, 4.
Gibbon, iii. 277, speaks sneeringly of 12,000 men baptized in one year at Rome,
besides an equal number of women and children, to each of whom a white garment
and twenty pieces of gold had been promised, according to report, by Constantine. —
At a later period, near the close of this century, we read of 3000, just baptized by
Chrysostom's presbyters at Constantinople, being attacked by the soldiers while
Aevxetpovovvres, i. e. in their white dress. — Again, we read of a law of Theodosius
the Second, prohibiting the celebration of public games during the Easter-week ; as
being the week during which the neophytes, who had been baptized on the Easter

240 apoc vii. [part i.
professing Church Catholic was gathered for the first time in
oecumenical council. Eepresentatives attended from every
province, nation, and tongue, in the vast empire. The
palace-gates were thrown open to the holy delegates. The
emperor stood, till requested to sit down, in respectful de
ference before them.1 If in the use of his power he was
to the church as a nursing father, his behaviour was respect
ful as that of a son.
Can we wonder then at the exultation that was felt- at
this time by many, perhaps by most, that bore the Chris
tian name : or at their high-raised expectations as to the
future happy destiny of the Eoman, now that it had been
changed into the Christian, nation ? 2 It seemed to them
as if it had become God's covenanted people, like Israel of
old : and the expectation was not unnatural, — an expecta
tion strengthened by the remarkable tranquillity which,
throughout the extent of the now re-united empire, fol
lowed almost immediately on Constantine's establishment
of Christianity,3 — that not only the temporal blessings of
the ancient Jewish covenant * would thenceforth in no small
measure attach to them, but even those prophesied of as
appertaining to the latter day. — Hence on the medals of
that sera the emblem of the phoenix, all radiant with the
rising sun-beams, to represent the empire as now risen into
new life and hope; and its legend which spoke of the happy
restoration of the times.5 Hence, in forgetfulness of all
Sunday, (which Sunday was then one chief season of baptism, Whit-Sunday being
the other,) wore their white robes. Bingham xx. 6. 1.1. These, though exemplifi
cations of a -later period, may yet illustrate to us the neophytes' numbers and
conspicuousness. 1 V. Ciii. 7, 10, 15, &c.
2 " All former evils were forgotten. There was a self-abandonment to the enjoy
ment of the "present good things and the expectation of future." So Eusebius con
cludes his Church History : x. 9.
3 With reference to this, Eusebius quotes, from Psalm xlvi. 9, 10, " Come and
see the works of the Lord, what wonders he hath wrought on the earth ! He
maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the world." He adds ; " And now a day of
cloudless serenity shone on the Church." Hist. Ecc. x. I. — There is a medal of
Constantine, struck a.d. 321 or 323, in commemoration of this remarkable tranquil
lity, bearing the legend Beata TranquilHtas.
4 It was natural to compare what had been said of the rests given to Judah under
the pious kings Asa and Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xiv. 1, 5, 6, 7, and xx. 30.
6 A copy is given in my Plate from Spanheim, p. 245. It is a coin of Con
stantius. — Spanheim adds another medal , which he supposes to be of Constan
tine's own striking : with two figures ; one sitting on a trophy, the other in military
dress presenting him a globe with aphcenix- Eckhel however, viii. Ill, doubts its
having been struck in the great Constantine's life. But Mionnet confirms Spanheim.
See his Medailles Romaines. Tom. ii. p. 229. (Paris 1847.)

TL.10

Vol 1-1-24:0

THE COS" STAB" TITIAN PHCEKXK..

Prom Coma in {he British Museum..

CH. VII. § l.J THE FOUR TEMPEST- ANGELS. 241
former prognostications of Antichrist and fearful coming
evils, the reference by some of the most eminent of their
bishops to the latter-day blessedness, as even then about
fulfilling. The state of things was such, Eusebius tells us,
that it looked like the image of the kingdom of Christ.1
The city built by the emperor at Jerusalem, beside the
new and magnificent church of the Holy Sepulchre, — the
sacred capital, as it were, to the new empire, — might be
perhaps, he suggested, the new Jerusalem, the theme of so
many prophecies.2 — Yet again, on occasion of the opening
of the new church at Tyre, he expressed in the following
glowing language, not his own feelings only, but those, we
may be sure, of not a few of the congregated Christian
ministers and people that heard him. " What so many of
the Lord's saints and confessors before our time desired to
see and saw not, and to hear, and heard not, that behold
now before our eyes ! It was of us the prophet spake when
he told how the wilderness and the solitary place should be
glad, and the desert rejoice and blossom as the lily.3
Whereas the church was widowed and desolate, her children
have now to exclaim to her, Make room} enlarge thy bor
ders: the place is too strait for us. The promise is fulfill
ing to her, In righteousness shalt thou be established : all
thy children shall be taught of God : and great shall be
the peace of thy children."4 — And so too, with reference to
other similar prophecies, in a direct Commentary on Isaiah.5
1 " The event surpassed all words. Soldiers with naked swords kept watch around
the palace-gate. But the men of God passed through the midst of them without
fear, and entered the heart of the palace. And they sat down, some at the empe
ror's table, the rest at tables on either side of his. It looked like the image of -the
very kingdom of Christ ; and was altogether more like a dream than a reality."
V. C. iii. 15.
2 V. C. iii. 33 ;. Kot' avro to aurijpiov paprvpiov ij vea KaTeaKevagero 'lepovoaAijp,
avTiirpoouwos rrj iraAai Boupevrj . . . . raxa irov Tavrijv ovaav tijv Sia irpotpijriKuv
Beoirioparuv KeKijpvypevijv Kaivijv Kat veav 'lepovaaAijp' ijs irepi p.aKpoi Aoyoi, pvpia 5t'
evBeov irvevparos Beoiri^ovres avvpvovai. See also ib. iv. 40, respectirig the dedication
of this Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
3 So Eusebius, e\avBei us Kpivov — His application .of these prophecies to his own
times is express : Tavra irpoiraAat irepi ijpuv ev iepais BiBAots KaraBe$AijTO. H. E.
x. 4 ; pp. 313, 310. So too in his De Laud. Const, c. 16, p. 543. (Ed. 1695.)
4 H. E. x. 4. pp 310—314.
6 This Work of Eusebius is given in the Folio Edition of Athanasius, Paris 1706.
The Comment appears to have been written after 324, the year of the Nicene Coun
cil ; though the exact time is uncertain. The whole spirit of it is to the effect de
scribed above.
It is to be observed that Lactantius, in his " Divine Institutions," still, like the
VOL. I. R

242 apoc. vn. [part i.
Could there well be a greater contrast to all such anti
cipations of the future, than in the true prospective of the
future, as here set before St. John in vision, and afterwards
realized in fact : — the vision one, we saw, of four tempest-
angels, the well-known Scripture emblem of desolating
invaders,1 prepared, like the evil angels once let loose on
Egypt,2 to burst in fury on this self-same Christianized
Eoman earth, so soon as a temporary restraint laid on them
might be withdrawn : — the fact, to use Gibbon's words,3
that " the threatening tempest of barbarians," which in Con
stantine's and Constantius' time "had been suspended or
repelled on the frontiers," had, on Valens' defeat and death
in 378, established itself within the frontier ; prepared,
until momentarily arrested by Theodosius, at once " to
subvert the foundations of the Eoman empire ? " It
surely needed nothing more to show how erroneous the
Eusebian idea, not only as to the future destiny, but also
as to the general character, of the now professing Church
and Israel in Eoman Christendom. Could it be that in
righteousness it had been established, or that all her chil
dren were taught of God, when such judgments were seen
darkly lowering on the land? — In the Sealing Vision, how
ever, which next followed, distinct intimation was given as
to the very different state of the professing Church : toge-
Fathers before him, dwells on the expected coming of Antichrist, and the evils con
sequent. But this seems to have been written before Constantine's overthrow of
the heathen and persecuting emperors. See Note ' p. 220, supra.
1 So e. g. Jer. iv. 1 1 — 13 ; " A dry wind from the high places of the wilderness
towards the daughter of my people, even a full wind from those places shall come
unto me : . . . . behold he [Nebuchadnezzar] shall come up as clouds, and his chariots
shall be as a whirlwind :" and again, Isa. xxviii. 2 ; " The Lord hath a mighty and
strong one, [sc. Shalmanezer and the Assyrians,] which as a tempest of hail, and a
destroying storm, .... shall cast down to the earth."
2 Psalm lxxviii. 49 ; " He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, in
dignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them."
On the figuration itself of the tempest-angels, let me make the four following re
marks. — 1. The four winds may be considered as representing all the winds. Com
pare Ezek. xxxvii. 9, Dan. vii. 2, Matt. xxiv. 31. — 2. Their angel-directors may be
compared with the imaginary gods of each wind, as depicted in the ^olian cave of
Virgil. — 3 Kparovvres, holding, may be understood probably, not in the sense of
restraining, so as by Mr. Cuninghame and others ; but in that of holding, so as we
might hold a weapon of war, for use- So Kpareiv Sopv, o-KUToA7)f, to{ok, &c. ;
2 Chron. xxv. 5, 2 Sam. iii. 29, Jer. vi. 23. (Septuag.) For the commission to in
jure, implied in verse 3, belonged evidently to the same four angels that held the
winds in verse 1. — 4. The particle tVa in verse 1 (" that it blow not") seems to be
meant in the sense eventualiter, as Schleusner expresses it : that is, as signifying the
event or result ; not the desire, or design. 3 iii. 97.

CH. VII. § 2.] UNSEALED MANY IN THE ROMAN ISRAEL. 243
ther with hints, if I mistake not, as to the precise incipient
form, and first principle, which (in connexion with that
earthly Eusebian idea about the Church) would characterize
the then already germinating antichristian apostasy. At
the same time that God's own counterview of what was
his true Church, his true Israel, was, I will not say hinted,
but most strikingly and prominently set forth before the
Evangelist :— -that counterview which was destined to be
the chief antagonistic idea and antidote, as received for ages
after by the faithful, to the apostatic principle. — Proceed
we to develop these* three several points, agreeably with
their importance, in three separate and distinct Sections.
§ 2. INTIMATIONS OF GENERAL UNFAITHFULNESS IN
THE NEWLY PROSELYTIZED ROMAN ISRAEL.
As to the above-specified intimation, to the effect that the
great majority of the professedly christianized population
of the Roman world would be, at the time prefigured, Chris
tians in profession only, it will be found, I believe, to fol
low instantly and conclusively from the sealing Angel's
words, " Wait till we have sealed the servants of God,"
(i.e. out of the twelve so-called tribes of Israel,) compared
with what is added afterwards as to the small number of the
sealed ones : — supposing this one thing only, viz. that by
the Apocalyptic twelve tribes of Israel, (including of course
the 144,000 sealed out of them,) we are to understand the
then professing Christian body ; not the Jews, and their
twelve tribes, literally taken. And I think that, after what
has before been intimated on this head,1 1 might really almost
assume this as a point proved. Considering however its ex
treme importance in Apocalyptic interpretation, I think it
better to recur to the matter ; and to draw out the proof
more fully than before.
Let it be remembered then, in the first place, that long
before the revelation in Patmos, and even while the literal
Jerusalem was yet standing, St. Paul taught the Gentile
Christians to appropriate to themselves, all fully and unre-
1 See pp. 69,70, 193 supra. R 2

244 apoc vn. [part i.
servedly, the name and privileges of Israel : — even as those
that were Abraham's seed -,1 those that were, by adoption,
of the commonwealth of Israel f and those that had been
grafted into the true Jewish olive-tree ; while the literal
Jews themselves, having rejected their Messiah, were to
be regarded as branches broken off.3 Moreover both by
him, and by others of the apostles, the emblems of the tem
ple, house of God, and sacrifice, (whether that of prayer,
praise, or self-devotion,) had been applied in a Christian
sense to Christian believers, and the Christian Church :4
emblems derived, as no one will think of denying, from the
Jewish temple, and Jewish temple-worship. All this, T
say, even a priori to the Apocalyptic revelation. — And
then, turning to the Apocalypse, what, let us ask, was
the nature of the symbol seen by John in the very open
ing vision, and as explained by Christ himself? Why,
the scene presented was that of a sacred chamber like
that of the Jewish sanctuary, with its seven candlesticks :
and Christ himself expressly interpreted the latter emblem,
as typifying the seven then existing Christian Asiatic
churches.5 Besides that he interwove, in his several ad
dresses to them, other similarly christianized Jewish figures
and even appellations:6 all as if expressly to prepare
St. John, (as observed in the Introduction to this Com-
1 Gal. iii. 29. 2 Eph. ii. 12, 13, 19.
3 Rom. xi. 17 — 19. — Not without intimation added (let me observe) of the pos
sibility, indeed danger, of these engrafted branches falling away from the spirit of
their profession, as Christ's anti-typical Israel ; even like the Jews, the typical Israel
of old. So 1 Cor. x. 6 ; " Now in these things they were our types:" (for so, I
conceive, the clause, Tavra Se rxnroi ijpuv eyevijBijoav, is to be construed, understand
ing Kara before touto :) where the context sets forth the sundry unfaithfulnesses
of the ancient Israel in the wilderness, as examples for the warning of Christians.
So too Rom. xi. 21 ; " If God spared not the natural branches," &c.
4 The temple, or house of God; 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17, vi. 19; 2 Cor. vi. 16 ; Eph. ii.
21; 1 Tim. iii. 15; ("in the house of God, which is the church of the living
God ;") 1 Pet. ii. 5, &c : — sacrifices ; Rom. xii. 1, Phil. iv. 18, Heb. xiii. 15, 1 Pet.
ii. 5, &c.
5 Apoc. i. 20. — And so too the term angel used by Him for bishop : a term der
rived from the Jewish synagogue. See p. 70 Note 5 supra.
6 Figures : as Apoc. ii. 20, " Thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth her
self a prophetess," &c ; iii. 12, "I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God,
and I will write upon him the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem : "
a passage noted in my text. — Appellations ; as Apoc. ii. 9, and iii. 9, " that say
they are Jews, and are nnt." See on this my Note a p. 69 supra : with the expla
nation given in which, I see, not Vitringa only, but also Mede, (on Apoc. vii) coin
cides ; " adeo ut pscudo-christiani , in Epistolis ad ecclesias, pseudo-judai audiant."
Op. p. 454. So again in his Comment. Minor, p. 908. (Ed. 1672.)
Admonitions were here too sometimes included, which implied, like those of St.

CH.VII.§2.] UNSEALED MANY IN THE ROMAN ISRAEL. 245
mentary,1) for attaching confidently, and at once, a similar
Christian meaning to such Jewish' imagery and appella
tions, as might occur in the subsequent Apocalyptic visions,
on things future. — Above all there was the reference to the
New Jerusalem, that was to come down out of heaven, as the
city of all true Philadelphian Gentile Christians ; of which
city however the citizens were declared in a later Chapter
of the Apocalypse to be distinctively and exclusively the
twelve tribes of God's Israel:2 — a passage this so conclusive
on the point in question, that I believe it utterly impossible
to gainsay the fact, of its fixing a Christian meaning on the
Israel and the Israelitish emblems generally throughout the
Apocalypse. Thus directed then, and by Christ Himself as the ex
plainer, it was unhesitatingly assumed by me, in my antici-
pative sketch of the Apocalyptic scenery,3 that such was to
be the intent of the Jewish temple and city, when apparent
afterwards in the visions of the future. And the accordance
of historic fact with the Apocalyptic figure, so construed, in
the first and only example of Jewish scenery that has since
occurred, (I refer to the vision of the souls under the temple-
altar,) cannot, I think, but already have added confirma--
tion in the reader's mind to the correctness of my presump
tion :* — confirmation that will be found to gather strength
each step as we proceed, I may I think truly say, from the
equally clear correspondence with historic fact of all the
other Jewish visible imagery, so construed, yet to come ;5
not to add, from the failure also of all attempts at consis
tently explaining it, on the principle of a literal Jewish
Paul, that, although they had assumed the place and the name of the ancient Jews,
yet the Christian Churches might themselves become similarly corrupt and rejected :
e. g. Apoc. ii. 5 ; Repent, or " I will come quickly, and remove thy candlestick."
1 P. 69 supra. 2 Apoc. xxi. 12, iii. 12. 3 See p. 95.
4 We must not forget moreover the fact of the understanding of the vision in
this Christian sense, and self-application of the Jewish figure, by the Christian martyrs
of the Eera* figured ; for example by Ignatius, Polycarp, Cyprian. See p. 208, supr&.
Tertuliian (adv. Marcion. iii. 23) thus specifically expresses himself on the symbol
in question ; " Abstulit Dominus Sabaoth k Judea . . . Spiritum Sanctum, qui ffidificat
ecclesiam ; templum scilicet, et domum, et civitatem Dei : " — thereby noting the
literal Jews' exclusion from answering to the figure of God's city and temple ; and the
substitution for them, in that respect, of the Christian Church.
5 As in the explanation of the incense-offering scene, Apoc. viii. 3, — that of the
voice from the four corners of the golden altar, Apoc. ix. 13, — that of the measur
ing the temple and altar, Apoc. xi. 1, 2, — that of the 144,000 seen with the Lamb
on Mount Zion, Apoc. xiv. 1 , — and that of the New Jerusalem, Apoc. xxi ;— besides
the present vision.

246 apoc vn. [part i.
application.1 And if Jewish inanimate visible symbols are
thus to bear a Christian meaning, it would surely be no
thing less than a palpable and gross inconsistency not to
affix a Christian sense also to the personal appellative of
Israel : even had there been no such declaration as that be
fore observed on, to the effect of the twelve tribes of God's
Israel constituting the citizens, wholly and only, of the New
Jerusalem ; which new Jerusalem however is set forth to
each true Christian as the mother of us all. — Let me add,
ere I pass on, that there are two peculiarities in the order and
names of the tribeshere enumerated, which might seem further
fitly framed to confirm us as to the intended application of
the term to the christian Israel, and the exclusion of the Jewish.
In the first place, there is an intermingling of the tribes sprung
from the bond-woman with those sprung from the free-
woman : an arrangement suited only to the Christian dis
pensation ; in which we read, there is " neither bond nor
free ; but Christ is all, and in all." In the next place Levi
is here inserted in the twelve tribes ; a token of his not
being detached from the rest by any peculiar office, as
under the Jewish dispensation : 2 in other words, of the
Israel intended being one in which there would be no longer
1 There are two classes of interpreters who have attempted this. The one con
sists of those who would make part of the Apocalypse to be fulfilled in the destruction
of the ancient Jerusalem ; a class stopped and excluded at the very outset, by the
simple date of the Apocalypse, compared with the declaration that the prophecy was
to prefigure things subsequent to that date : — the other of those that explain the
whole Apocalypse to be as yet unfulfilled ; a class similarly shut out by the declara
tion that the visions of the Book were to refer to things that would happen in con
tinuous succession next after the state of the seven churches then existing.
But on these two theories of Apocalyptic interpretation, and their literal explana
tion of the Judaic imagery in this Book, I must beg the reader to consult my full
examination of them in the Appendix to my 4th Volume.
2 In Gen. xxxv. 23, &c. the list of the sons of Jacob is given according to primo
geniture : those of the same mother only being placed together ; and the sons of the
freewoman, Leah and Rachel, taking precedence before the sons of their respective
handmaids, the bondwomen Bilhah and Zilpah.
The relation of the order in this list to that here given in the Apocalypse, will be
best seen in their juxta-position. In that from Genesis subjoined, L. R. B. Z. are
the initials of the four mothers.
Gen. Apoc.
L. Ruben Judah
Simeon Reuben
Levi Gad
Judah Asher
Issachar Nepthali
Zabulon Manasseh
In the enumeration in Numbers, after the institution of the Levitical law, Levi i
* The same as Ephraim ; just as in Amos vi. 6.

Gen.

Apoc.

Joseph

Simeon

Benjamin

Levi

Dan

Issachar

Nepthali

Zabulon

Gad

Joseph*

Asher

Benjamin

CH. VII. § 2.] UNSEALED MANY IN THE ROMAN ISRAEL. 247
any thing of the ancient peculiarity of the Levitical priest
hood ; and consequently one in which the Levitical ritual
would be done away. " For the priesthood being changed,
there is of necessity a change also of the law." 1
This essential premise having been established, I next
observe, as to the mutual relation of these twelve tribes
of Israel and the 144,000 sealed ones, that they were
not identical, so as many have represented the matter ; 2
but the latter an election out of the former. It is not said
of the 12,000 sealed from Judah that they constituted the
tribe of Judah, but that they were sealed out o/that tribe;
or, again, of the 144,000 that they constituted the twelve
tribes of Israel, but that they were sealed as an election out
of them.3 Where the preposition etc, or out of, stands after
any such verb as sealed, between a definite numeral and a
noun of multitude in the genitive, sound criticism requires
absolutely that the numeral should be thus construed, as
signifying not the whole, but a part taken out.4 — Which
being so, the twelve tribes, the large body in all its tribual

omitted, (i. 3, 49,) and Ephraim and Manasseh placed instead of Joseph their fa
ther : his increase into two tribes having been provided, so as to supply the defect
in the SuSeKaipvAov caused by Levi's withdrawal.
In their marches and encampments in the wilderness, they were formed in four
divisions, East, South, West, and North ; in order as follows : —
Dan, Asher, Nepthali
Levi,

Levi,

Taber nacle.

Levi,

Levi,
Simeon,

Gad.

Judah,
Issachar,
Zabulon,

(E.)

Ephraim,
(W.) Manasseh, Benjamin, Reuben,
The first-mentioned tribe, in each case, was the standard-bearer. The reason of
J udah's precedence is given, 1 Chron. v. 2; "Judah prevailed over his brethren,
because of him came (or was to come) the Prince."
On Dan's omission in the apocalyptic list, curious speculations have been founded
by some of the fathers, as if it were an intimation of Antichrist's being of that
Jewish tribe. It seems to me reason sufficient that, to make room for Levi's inser
tion, which was important, the omission of some one tribe was needed : so as in the
genealogical series, 1 Chron. iv, v, &c ; where indeed Zabulon also is omitted. — It
is observable that Dan, from the time of the Judges even to the captivity, continued
in idolatry. So Judges xviii. 30. 1 Heb. vii. 12.
2 Many have called the 144,000, the sealed tribes. See p. 252, Note l.
3 eatppayto-pevoi eK iraoijs (pvArjs vluv lopav,A' ex ipvAijs lovba iB' X'^-iaSes, &c.
4 The following passages may serve as illustrations. Exod. xxxii. 28 ; Kai eireoav
ex rov Aaow eis rptoxiAtovs avSpas' " There fell 3000 of, or out of, the people : "
1 Sam. iv. 10; eireoov e| lapaijA rpiaKovra x'AiaSes' "There fell of Israel, or out
of Israel, 30,000 : " Judges xx. 35 ; AieipBetpav ex ra Heviapiv eiKoo-i Kai irevre
XiAiaSas, &c. : Numb. i. 21 ; ij eirioKe^is avruv eK rijs (pvAijs 'PovBijv el) Kat reatrapa-

248 apoc. vii. [parti.
completeness, must necessarily signify the whole Christian
professing body in the Apocalyptic world, or Eoman em
pire ; the latter, God's true servants out of it. In the
figurative language of the Apocalypse, the one was the
professing Israel, the other the Israel of God, or true Israel.
For just as under the Jewish dispensation, so under the Chris
tian, " all were not Israel that were of Israel;" ov iraine?
lo-pavjk ol elf \aparjk. God had out of each his election of grace.1
And what then the proportion of the faithful to the no
minal, the true to the professing ? It was intimated that the
former would be but few in the comparison. This appears
from their number being stated as only 144,000 out of all
the tribes of Israel : whereas the population of the twelve
tribes, or lo>leKa<pv\ov, at the time when they were united as
a kingdom under David or Solomon, (the standard, I con
ceive, to be referred to, answering as the Church now did
to Israel settled under regal government,2) must have
amounted altogether to some six or seven millions;3 and
much the same probably, if the Jewish population in Christ's
own time and the apostles', before the destruction of Jeru
salem, were made the standard. According to which stand
ard the proportion indicated was not more than one to fifty ;
according to any, a proportion but small.4
Besides which there was further to be inferred from the
prophecy the substantial identification of these twelve mere
KovraxtAtaSes, &c. ; "46,500 (of the age of twenty and upwards) out of the tribe of
Reuben." So, again, in the latter half of the chapter we are considering; "Hooked,
and behold a great multitude, out of every nation, and tribe, and people, and tongue ;"
eK iravros edvovs, Kat <pvAuv, Kat Aauv, &c : and in ch. vi. 1 ; " When the Lamb had
opened one of the seals," ptav eK tuv oippayiSuv. So Matthise says : " Ek serves to
denote a choice out of several objects," &c. Greek Grammar, (Blomfield's Transl.)
p. 996. — In Josh. iii. 12, we have airo in the same sense; Ilpoxeipurao-Be bptv SuSeKa
avSpas airo tuv vluv lopaijA, eva a<p' eKarijs (pvAijs.
1 So Lowth on Ezek. xlviii. " The 12 tribes denote the pure Christian Church in
the New Testament. See Luke xxii. 30, Rev. vii. 4, &c. Twelve is a hieroglyphi-
cal number in the same book; denoting the true Church, built upon the doctrine of
the twelve apostles. See Rev. xii. 1, xxi. 14. By the same analogy the number
144,000 (Rev. vii. 4, xiv. 1,) signifies the Church of pure Christians who continue
stedfast in the apostolic doctrine; 12 being the square root out of which the
number ariseth."
2 Not to its wilderness-state : when however the number of men in Israel above
twenty years old (Numb. i. 3, 46) was some 600,000, and whole population conse
quently near two millions ; or above twelve times 144,000.
8 In Joab's numbering of the people under the reign of David, 1,000,000 were
found to he the number of the men of war. So 2 Sam. xxiv. 9 ; or, as 1 Chron.
xxi. 5, 1,470.000 : and this exclusive of Levi and Benjamin. The which implies at
lonst six millions for the whole population. Now under Christ (Gal. iii. 28) male
and female are alike to be reckoned. 4 See Note .

CH. VII. § 2.] UNSEALED MANY IN THE ROMAN ISRAEL. 249
professing tribes, in respect of their popular constituency,
with the inhabitants oftheRoman earth: seeing that whereas,
on the one hand, the 144,000 were declared to be an elec
tion out of the twelve tribes, they were also depicted as an
election out of the inhabitants of the Eoman earth. For in
the saying, " Hurt not the earth till we have sealed the ser
vants of God on their foreheads," it is implied that, but for
the sealing, these servants of God would have been subject,
like others, to injury from the tempests ; and consequently
that, in respect of the locality of their habitation, they were
mingled among the inhabitants of the devoted land. Hence,
as both the habitant body of the Apocalyptic earth, and the
MexachvXov of the Apocalyptic Israel, did alike include,
though alike distinguished from, God's servants the
144,000, the two former must have been either identical,
or else the one have constituted a notable part of the other.
In fact in the next chapter, just before the bursting of the
tempests, two only out of three are alluded to as existent ;
— the inhabitants of the Eoman earth, and the saints or
sealed ones i1 so that by that time the identification I speak
of had been evidently completed. — But in what way ? Not
so much (so the designation adopted showed) by the Eo
man world being absorbed into the church, as by the pro
fessing church being assimilated in spirit to the world.
The mass of the professing Israel, all in fact but the sealed
ones, were thenceforth designated (just like the Eoman
heathen population before)2 as the inhabitants of the earth;
that is, according to the sense of the term in Apocalyptic
phraseology, as in spirit earthly, and of the earth : 3 the
sealed ones alone being, in heart and spirit, raised above
earth, and citizens of heaven.4
Such was the tenor of the general intimation given to
St. John, as to the state of religion in the Eoman empire,
after the dissolution of Paganism, and first national profes
sion of Christianity. And mark its verification in history.
First, it has been already shewn from Eusebius, how, after
1 viii. 3, 5. 2 So Apoc. vi. 10.
3 See at p. 96 supra the reference to Apoc. viii. 13, and Jerome's remark on the
uniform bad sense in the Apocalypse of "the inhabitants of the earth."
4 Apoc. xiii, 6.

250 apoc vii. [part i.
the overthrow of the Pagan emperors and supremacy by
Constantine, the Eoman people in multitudes, and at
length in the mass, embraced Christianity. Nor must we
fail to remember also how the christian body, thus enlarged,
imperially headed, and ere Constantine's death recognized
as the chief constituency of the Eoman state, ere the end
of the 4th century as its only constituency, 1 did ac
tually itself adopt the figurative designation in this
Apocalyptic vision; and exult in the application nationally
to itself of the appellative Israel, and of the predic
tions too respecting Israel's final glory.2 An application
this of the Old Testament prophecies respecting Israel's
final glory, to that of the Church visible, in its earthly
state, under the present dispensation, and previous to
Christ's coming, which was, if I mistake not, an innovation
now first made on primitive doctrine: — the earlier Fathers
having indeed, like St. Paul, applied the scriptural promises
about Israel to the Christian Church, but only in respect of
that Church's true constituency of real believers ; nor
looked for their grand fulfilment till the end of the Church's
pilgrimage at Christ's second coming, and introduction,
under him, of a better dispensation.3 — Further, the ac
counts handed down to us of the religious state, at this
time, of the mass of the professedly christianized inhabit
ants of the Eoman empire, do too well correspond with the
1 Before Theodosius' death laws were passed constituting heathen worship illegal
in the Roman empire. About the end of the century, as observed in a former Note,
the profession of the heathen religion was styled Paganism, or the religion of pagani,
obscure villagers. So Augustine calls its professors, in his Comment on the Epistle
to the Romans, c. 15 ; a Treatise written A. D. 394. And in 423 a law of Theodosius
the 2nd states that there were no more Pagans in the empire. 2 See p. 240.
3 The earlier Fathers, in any application of the name and privileges of Israel to the
Christian Church visible, made it in the spirit of charity ; trusting that those who
joined their body, depressed and persecuted as it was, were sincere. So Clemens
Romanus ; (Ep. c. 29 :) " Let us therefore come to Him with holiness of mind,
loving our gracious and merciful Father, who hath made us partakers of his elec
tion : for thus it is written, . . His people Jacob became the portion of the Lord, and
Israel the lot of his inheritance." (Deut. xxxii. 8, 9, Sept.) — So again Justin
Martyr, Dial, cum Tryph. pp. 352, 360. In answer to Trypho's question, "tpeis
lopaijA etrre ; he says : Aei£as rovs airo iravros yevovs aipovpevovs TreireicBat avrov rn
BovAv Sin too XpidTou, (iv Kat IukuB KaAei koi Io-par|\ ovopafa) tovtovs Kat \aKufi
koi lo-po7j\- and again, p. 355, Xlavres it 8t" avrov (Xptorou) Tip Uarpt irpotHpevyovres
evAoyijpevos l<rpaijA eort. In another place (Apol. i. 25, 23,) he thus limits his
meaning to true Christians. 01 5' av pij evpioKuvrat Biowres tir eStSaJe (i Xokttos),
yvupi^eaBuirav pij ovres Xpiariavoi, K'of Aeyuai 8ta yAuaorjs ra tov Xoiotov SiSaypara.
In the Conclusion of my Work I shall have to refer again to this very important
distinction.

CH. VII. § 2.] UNSEALED MANY IN THE ROMAN ISRAEL. 25 1
prophetic intimation, in their testimony to the general and
grievous lack of vital practical godliness among them.
Even Eusebius, notwithstanding his earlier glowing antici
pations of good,1 and though in no wise altering his views
of prophecy, yet confesses in later life the multitude of
hypocritical accessions to the church.2 Similar to which
are the representations of other cotemporary Fathers, as of
Cyril and Gregory Nazianzen, for example; not to add those
of candid and learned moderns, such as Mosheim,3 Neander*
Gieseler.5 And indeed the ready and multitudinous pro
fessions of Arianism in the empire, on the Arian Constan
tius' accession,6 furnished practical corroborative proof clear
and public. IToAAoi xXtjtoi, oXijqi eKXexrot' " Many are called,
but few chosen ;" was a saying now markedly true, accord
ing to the best testimony. Hitherto the distinction be
tween the professing and the true, the outward Israel and
the Israel of God, — though it had indeed existed always,
— was yet during the three first centuries much less ob
servable, in consequence of the repression of hypocritical
professors in great measure by the general disfavour of
Christianity, and its frequent and sharp persecutions.7 But
now that the sunshine of prosperity, and of imperial recog
nition and favour, had beamed on the Church visible, and
men abused, as they are wont, the bounty of God, and the
christian ordinances of man thereunto conforming,8 the
distinction described became too prominent to escape co-
temporary and historic notice; just as it had long previously
been foreshown by God in the visions of Patmos.
Thus much on the more obvious and general Apocalyp
tic intimation, as to the fact of a rapid defection from
1 See p. 241 supra.
2 eipuveiav aAexrov tuv tijv eKKArjciav viroSvopievuv, Kat to XptffTtavav eimrAaarus
axnp-ari^opevuv ovopa. V. C. iv. 54 ; a book written after Constantine's death.
3 iv. 2. 3. 17, &c. 4 See the quotations from him in my next Section.
6 Eccl. Hist. vi. 101, 102. 6 So Mosheim iv. 2. 5. 14.
7 Hence probably the selection of faithful confessors under Pagan Rome, for the
one and only Apocalyptic picture of the Christian body, during the period of the five
first seals, as being the most characteristic one.
8 The duty of a christian sovereign to favour, promote, and establish Christianity
in his dominions, seems to me clear : being the same, only on a larger scale, as that
of a christian head of a family. I believe few who speak against Constantine's
establishment and patronage of the christian church, would be prepared to carry out
their principle, bond fide, in their own families.

252 apoc vn. [part i.
Christian faithfulness very soon after the christianization of
the Eoman empire, here given to St. John. Nor let me
proceed further without suggesting to the reader the ex
treme importance of his marking the distinction just noted,
between the large corporate body of the professing Israel
in the Apocalypse, and its small election of the 144,000 of
God's true Israel, with a view to his right understanding
of this prophecy. From the neglect of observing what I
speak of, commentators of eminence have fallen into what
I cannot but call the grossest misconceptions:1 nor is it
possible, without using the key it offers, to enter at all into
the spirit of what remains of the sacred prophecy. For the
distinction described was not a mere temporary, but an
abiding one. The whole subsequent history of the chris
tian church, as time would in its lapse evolve it, was prefi
gured in what follows of the Apocalypse under the two
great divisions which this distinction recognizes : — the one,
the great body of professing Christians, the inhabitants of
the Eoman earth, and constituency of the Eoman state or
city, who are represented as departing farther and farther
from spirituality and the truth, notwithstanding the checks
1 For example, Mede designates the 144,000 as the " ecclesia gentium catholica,
figurata typo Israelis ; " omitting all notice of the unsealed Israel. And in his Com
ment. Minor, on Apoc. ii. 9, he thus writes : " InApocalypsi passim observare licet.
Judseos, sive Synagogam Israeliticam, personam verse Christi ecclesiae ex gentibus
surrogatae sustinere." Op. pp. 454, 908.
Others, as Daubuz and Bishop Newton, interpret the sealed ones, or 144,000 of
the Jews admitted by baptism into the visible church about the time of Constantine ;
and the palm-bearing multitude of the Gentile converts in the Roman empire. Dau
buz even supposes the sealing angel from the east to represent Constantine ! But if
all these were alike to be preserved, who were the excluded ones from the benefit of
the sealing, and on whom the injury from the tempests was to fall ? The still un
converted Jews, or unbaptized heathen in the empire ? Certainly not the former :
for it is the mass of the Roman earth's inhabitants that are indicated as the destined
sufferers. And, as to the latter, both Daubuz and Newton represent the angels as
only beginning their tempest-blasts against the Roman earth, and its inhabitants,
about the beginning of the fifth century ; when, except in obscure villages, no un
baptized heathen were to be found on it. The inconsistency is palpable.
The difficulty of their explanation meets them again in another form at chapter
ix. 4, where the locusts are commanded to hurt those only " who had not the seal
of God on their foreheads." To be consistent they ought of course to interpret
these as signifying unbaptized Jews and heathens in the empire. But this they find im
possible from the facts of history ; and they now therefore interpret the expression,
and I doubt not correctly, of apostatizing, though baptized, christians. Thus they
are at length forced on that distinction between the true and the mere professing
Christians, on which I have insisted ; and which, if applicable to the sealed and the
unsealed in Apoc. ix, must necessarily be also applicable to them in Apoc. vii.
Moreover in Apoc. xiv. 3, they make the 144,000 to be the whole faithful Church ;
though in Apoc. vii. it was only its Hebrew section. — Vitringa, more justly, explains
the 144,000 of Apoc. vii. as the faithful ones out of the professing church.

CH.VII. §3.] HINTEDANTI-CHRISTIANISMOFUNSEALED. 253
of God's severe chastening judgments, until at length in
volved in complete apostacy i1 — the other, the little body
of his elect and sealed ones, the constituency of the holy
city, and worshippers in His temple and presence ; who,
though approved and sheltered by God from real evil, are
yet described as having to pass through great tribulation,
suffering persecution very soon from the professing world,
and being trampled down, vilified, slaughtered ; until at
length, the time of their vindication having come, they
appear under a designation that has reference evidently to
this their original constitution, I mean that of " the called,
and chosen, and faithful," 2 to participate in their Lord's
final triumph.
But the importance of attending to this distinction will
soon appear more strikingly ; as we proceed in the next
Section to sketch, in detailed contrast, the characteristic fea
tures of the one class and the other, the sealed and the un
sealed Israel, as intimated to us in the sacred vision.

§ 3. INTIMATIONS OF INCIPIENT ANTI- CHRISTIANISM IN
THE UNSEALED AND UNFAITHFUL ROMAN ISRAEL.
I use the word anti-christianism, in the heading of this
Section, in its truest and most peculiar sense : — the sense
most properly affixed to it, as we saw long ago,3 by refer
ence to its etymology : the sense too affixed to it in fact by
John himself; when applying it to heretical pseudo-apos
tolical teachers, who, while in name professing Christ, did
yet practically deny him, by virtually substituting them
selves, in respect of his various saving offices, in Christ's
place. — Now it had been foreshewn to the evangelist,
under these imperfect shadows of the future, that the great
predicted Antichrist of Daniel and St. Paul was to appear
under some such character in its full perfection. Moreover
Paul had declared that he would have rule and precedency
in God's temple; i. e. (for such seemed clearly the meaning
1 They are traced onward by notices in chapters viii. 5, 13, ix. 4, 20, xi. 2, 9, 10,
&c, into the fully developed apostacy, headed by Antichrist, which is alluded to in
Apoc. x, and described in Apoc. xiii. 2 Apoc. xvii. 14.
3 See pp. 62, 63 supra.

254 apoc. vii. [part i.
of the phrase) in the Christian professing Church .-1 and yet
more, that the germ of the evil, which was in due time to
grow into, and be unfolded in, that great antichristian
apostacy, was even then already working ; a declaration
the truth of which the many quickly appearing heretical
antichrists well illustrated and proved. At that time, how
ever, God's professing Church was in its mass sufficiently
enlightened and true, to recognize, disown, and cast off its
heretical members.2 But could this be so when the time drew
near for the great foretold apostacy in the Church itself?
Thus when St. John had intimated to him, so clearly as we
saw in our last Section, that after the overthrow of heath
enism in the Eoman empire, while the bulk of its constituent
population would become the Christian Israel or Church by
profession, God's own Israel, or Church, would be but a
small election out of it, it seems to me that he would be pre
disposed to suspect that this might be probably a first prepa
ratory step to the unfolding of the great predicted apostacy:
and, if so, scarce fail of looking out for some intimations as
to the first and earlier features of anti-christianism, that
might, even at this primary stage of its development, disco
ver themselves in the now incipiently apostatizing Church.
For methinks, considering the exceeding importance of
the subject, it would be not unreasonable to hope for
some hints at least respecting the primary and subsequent
most characteristic causes and features of the great eccle
siastical defection, as now and afterwards to be developed;
and so respecting the chief steps and (eras of the progress
of the corrupted church into complete apostacy. Such is
the method constantly adopted by the Divine Spirit in its
biographical portraiture of individuals, — of a Saul, for ex
ample, or Jehu., or Ahab ; selecting, as it does, for sketch
ing the most characteristic traits, and most important steps
and epochs, in their spiritual history and downward pro
gress in evil. Indeed it seems to me the only method by
which the great moral lessons of the subject, whether in re
trospective or predictive history, can be duly set before us.
Nor, I think, if with thoughts of this kind we apply our
selves to a closer examination of the Apocalyptic prophecy,
1 See my later notices of St. Paul's prophecy. 2 1 John ii. 19.

CH.VII.§3.] HINTED ANTI-CHRISTIANISM OF UNSEALED. 255
shall we fail of becoming convinced that such notices about
the apostacy were in fact there given : and that, before the
fuller descriptions of it, first in Apoc. xi, then more at
large in Apoc. xii and xiii, (chapters where it is sketched
out chiefly with reference to Antichrist's heading it after
its completion,) there were three or four distinct refer
ences to its operation on the mass of the inhabitants of
Eoman Christendom, as beginning, advancing, and then
completed : x though in the way of hint and implication
chiefly ;2 by that method of allusive contrast, of which I
spoke in my Introduction.3 Even by St. John personally,
when seeing the vision, the hints on this head would, as I
conceive, be by no means overlooked in their significancy.
But the fullness of that significancy could scarce be appre
ciated except by readers living afterwards : seeing that they
only could compare the prophecy in its several parts with
the actual historic facts of the period to which it might re
late; and by that comparison seethe fullness of its meaning.
I said that even to St. John himself these hints (though
only hints) would, in my opinion, have been by no means
insignificant. For was he not familiar with Holy Scripture ?
And did he not thus know that it was the habit of that
holy book, in its portraiture of one out of two opposed
classes, to sketch the one with distinct reference to the
points of characteristic contrast in the other ? For example,
when Ezekiel spoke of the righteous man as one that
" had not eaten on the mountains, had restored to the
debtor his pledge, had spoiled none by violence," &c,4 — did
not John well know that the prophet wrote that descrip
tion allusively, and in condemnatory contrast, to principles
and habits quite the contrary, by which the great bulk of
the Jews were then characterized ? — Nay, when he himself
in his. first Epistle wrote in one place of Jesus being the
Christ,5 — in other places of Jesus Christ having come in
the flesh, come not by water only, but by water and blood,6
— and again, of the knowledge of certain things the most
1 The first in this chap, vii ; the next in Apoc. viii. 3 ; and then afterwards in
ix. 20, 21, andx. 1, &c.
2 I say chiefly, because in Apoc. ix. 20, 21, the notice of the apostacy is a direct
one. 3 See p. 106 suprSt.
* Ezek. xviii. 6, &c. 5 1 John v. 1. " Ib.iv. 2, v. 6.

256 apoc vn. [pART *•
precious being given by Christ distinctively to true Chris
tians,1 — could he have helped knowing, and afterwards re
membering, the point of his own statements; and their refer
ence, in the way of allusion and contrast, to Gnostic heretics
and heresies then abounding : — I mean those Gnostics who
taught that Jesus was a mere man, not the Christ : (the
Christ, a divine JEon, having indeed entered the man Jesus
in the water of, baptism, but left him at Calvary ere his
baptism in blood :) and moreover that they were the only
yvuo-rixoi, or knowing ones ; they the only teachers that had
attained to knowledge in divine things, and that possessed
the key and the power of communicating it. Michaelis
observes,2 that the scope and point of such verses in the
Epistle are not fully to be discerned, without an eye to this
allusive antithetic reference, as meant by St. John. — Thus
was the apostle himself experimentally familiar with the na
ture and uses of this Scriptural principle of allusive contrast.
And indeed it is so natural, and so frequently applied, as
to have abundant illustration in human writings also.3
1 lb. v. 20, ii. 20, 3, iv. 13, 8, iii. 2, 5, 14, v. 15 :— " We know that the Son of
God is come, and hath given us an understanding to know Him that is true."
" Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things." " We know that
we know him, if we keep his commandments." " We know that we dwell in Him,
and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit." " He that loveth not,
knoweth not God, for God is love. We know that we have passed from death unto
life, because we love the brethren." " If we know that he heareth us, we know
that we have the petitions we ask of Him." " We know that He was manifested
to take away our sins, and in Him is no sin." " We know that when He shall
appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." &c. &c. — St. John
adds, ii. 26, " These things have I written to you concerning," (or with reference
to) " them which seduce you."
In contrast with this, the Christian disciple might well feel how poor and vain was
all the boasted knowledge of the wise of this world ! — Compare Cowper's beautiful
contrast of the unlettered and poor Christian widow with the great Gnostic of the
French Revolution, Voltaire : —
" Yon cottager who weaves at her own door,
Pillow and bobbins, all her little store,
Just knows enough, — no more, — her Bible true :
A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew."
2 Introduction to the New Testament, Chap. xxx. 3 ; p. 402.
3 It may be well for the reader's satisfaction to give a few illustrations from men's
writings. And in truth so copious are the illustrations, that we can scarce refer to
any Code of legal enactments, any Creeds, Acts of Councils, or Articles of Faith,
^without finding the principle exemplified. 1st. Take the Niceiw Creed. "I be
lieve in Jesus Christ of one substance with the Father," is its language : in which it
not merely marks therein the true belief, but marks it contradistinctively to that of
the homceousian Arians, who would have Christ's nature to be similar indeed to the
Father's, but not one and the same. — 2. Says the Athanasian Creed, " Though God
and Man, yet not two, but one Christ ; " and again, " One not by confusion of
substance, but by unity of person:" therein pi imaiily defining " the catholic and

CH. VII. §3.] HINTED ANTI-CHRISTIANISM OF UNSEALED. 257
And what then the particulars here pointedly noted to
St. John, as characteristic of the sealed Israel, contradis
tinctively to the unsealed Israel ? — It will, I presume, be
readily granted me that the seal-bearing Angel from the
East was no created angel, but the Angel of the covenant,
the Lord Jesus. For to what Angel but Him belonged the
symbol of the " light of the world," the " day-spring from
on high visiting us ? " *" Of what other Angel was it the
prerogative to seal with God's seal of the Spirit,2 whereby
believers are sealed unto the day of redemption " ? 3 Of
what other, as the Father hath life in Himself, so to have
given him to have life in Himself ; * (for such seems here
right faith ; " but not without distinct allusive contrast to the Nestorians and Euty-
chians ; doctrinists who were supposed to hold, the one that Christ had two persons,
the other that Christ had but one substance or nature.* — And so again, 3rdly, and
once more, (not to extend the illustrations beyond what is necessary,) the Articles
of the Church of England very generally. Take, for example, the vith on the Suffi
ciency of Scripture, the xith on Justification by Faith, the xivth on Works of
Supererogation, the xlxth on the Church, the xxvth on the Sacraments, &c. &c : —
not only is the true Christian doctrine laid down there on these points ; but it is
stated in direct allusive contrast, all along, to the contrary and erroneous doctrines of
the Church of Rome. Even on a first perusal of them, a discerning person can
scarcely fail to see a certain pointedness in the phraseology, which might make him
suspect that some such allusion was intended ; and then, on instituting inquiry, and
turning to expositors like Bishop Burnet, he finds his suspicions verified, and, point
by point, the peculiar force and value of the Article thereby illustrated.
1 John viii. 12, Luke i. 78. In the latter passage the Greek word for the day-
spring is avaroAij. And so too the Septuagint in Zech. iii. 8 ; " I will bring forth
my servant, tijv AvaroAijv ; " not, as our Version, " the Branch." In correspondence
with this, Tertuliian remarks, (cited by Bishop Kaye, p. 404 ;) " Amat figura
Spiritus Sancti (i. e. columba) orientem, Christi figuram." Contra^ Valentin, c. 3.
In 2 Cor. iv. 6, the illumination of the soul is ascribed to God : " God, who com
manded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give us
the lightof the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ." Now what God
does, Christ, as God, of course partakes in : besides that the light given is only as
reflected from theface of Jesus Christ.
2 So John i. 33, Matt. iii. 11, &c ; "He it is which baptizeth with the Holy
Ghost: " also John xv. 26, "The Comforter whom I will send you from the Fa
ther;" and xx. 22, " He breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost,"
&c. 3 Eph. iv. 30. So also in the same Epistle, i. 13 ; " On whom, also, after that
ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest
of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession : " (Greek, Ev
t>..eo-<ppayiaBiiTe ru Vvevptan tijs eirayyeAtas) marking, I think, Christ as the
sealer, the Spirit as the seal imprest. (See Macknight.) And, again, 2 Cor. i. 22 :
," He who stablisheth and hath anointed us is God ; who hath also sealed us, and
given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."
4 John v. 26. Compare verse 24 : also John i. 4 : " In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men ; " &c. and John xvii. 2 ; " Thou hast given him power over all
* It is in fact known from these very allusive condemnatory references to Nesto-
rius and Eutyches, that the Creed, though called Athanasian, was composed not till
near a century after Athanasius : the Council of Ephesus, convened against the former,
having been held A.D. 431; that of Chalcedon, against the latter, A.D. 451.
VOL. I. S

258 apoc vii. [part i.
the force of the epithet living, " having the seal of the living
God:"1) and so to number names in that register which
was in fact the Book of Life ?2 Of what other to stay the
destroying angels, and in the plural language of Divinity
to say to them, " Hurt not till we have sealed ? "3 —
Admitting which, it was by Him, as the Author of their
salvation,4 that the 144,000 were represented to St. John
as distinctively noted, indeed chosen out,5 from amidst the
mass of the professing Israel, while coincidently illumined
and quickened under his influences by Him too sealed
with the Spirit, and numbered, without a single omission,
in the register of the true Israel, the Book of Life : God's
mark resting thenceforward on their foreheads, in token
of the consistent open testimony of a holy profession and
life to the fact of their being indeed, what they are called,
God's servants.6 — In the present world, amidst the threat-
fiesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him : and this
is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent." Indeed the whole history of Christ's people, as intimated in John xvii, may
be most fitly and profitably compared with the history of the 144,000 as traced in
the Apocalypse.
1 This use of the word living, especially when applied to God or Christ, is com
mon. So John vi. 57, "As the living Father (i \uv irarijp) hath sent me, and /
live by the Father :" also ib. 51, " I am the living bread ;" called in verses 35, 48,
" the bread of life." Compare also Acts vii. 38, Ao7to guvra, and Heb. x. 20,
iSos guaa' &c.
2 Compare Apoc. iii. 5 ; " I will not blot out thy name from the book of life :" also
Ezek. xiii. 9, " They shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be
written in the register of the house of Israel." Which last passage should be
collated with the preceding vision (so parallel with this Apocalyptic one) of Ezek. ix :
in which the sealing angel-priest is represented with an ink-horn, as the registrar
of God's servants in apostate Jerusalem. — Compare too Ps. lxxxvii. 6, Apoc. xiii. 8,
xvii. 8.
3 On the staying of the destroying angels compare 2 Sam. xxiv. 1 6, and Ezek. ix.
5, 6 ; where the act is spoken of as Jehovah's.
On the appropriation of the plural first person, axpis atppayio-upiev, " Wait till we
have sealed," compare Gen. i. 26, "Let us make man in our image:" also Gen.
iii. 22, xi. 7, and Isa. vi. 8 ; " I heard the voice of Jehovah saying, Whom shall I
send? Or who will go for Mi?" Commentators are generally agreed in explaining
the use of the plural, in these collated passages, as the indication of one of the per
sons of the Holy Trinity ; and Vitringa here makes the same inference from it. —
I observe that ' Kimchi, on Zech. xi. 5, refers to Job xxxv. 10, " Where is God my
makers," and Psalm cxlix. 2, " Let Israel rejoice in his makers ; " as passages where
the plural is similarly used. " Another instance," says Kimchi's Editor, Dr. M'Caul,
" of the plural being applied to God."
4 Elsewhere, if I mistake not, we shall find this same Angel of the Covenant de
picted, in similar contrast to opposed anti-christian agencies, as the Angel-Mediator
and the Angel-Justifier. So viii. 3, x. 1.
6 They are called in Apoc. xvii. 14, " the called, chosen out, and faithful," kajjtoi
koi eKAeKToi Kai irtrof a passage already referred to.
6 So that this description of the origin, concomitants, and moral consequences of
the sealing with God's seal answers well to the two characteristics elsewhere attached

CH.VII.§3.] HINTED ANTI-CHRISTIANISM OF UNSEALED. 259
ened and quickly-coming judgments, this sealing was re
presented as a preservative to the sealed ones : — a preserv
ative evidently of the aggregate body, in its completeness,
from destruction j1 a preservative too of the individuals
constituting it from real evil. And, as regards a future
and better world, a glimpse was opened in the here appended
and connected vision of the palm -bearers, of their assured
ultimate realization of the true Israel's promised heavenly
blessedness. They are depicted, in the numbers numberless
of all their aggregated generations, after the end of the one
great remaining earthly tribulation now soon about to have
its commencement, as entering into the beatific presence :2
to it : —first, recognition of his own by God ; " The Lord knoweth them that are
His:" secondly, holiness in the appropriated; "Let every one that nameth the
name of Christ depart from iniquity." 2 Tim. ii. 19.
1 So Mede ad loc. Comp. Apoc. xiv. 1 .
2 I here take for granted the entire identity, in respect of origin and constituency,
of the sealed ones and the palm-bearers i an identity, which, I presume, none will
hesitate to admit, supposing my proof previously given (see pp. 243 — 247 supra) to
be decisive, as to the Christian significancy of the Israelitish tribes in this vision ;
just as of all other Israelitish or Jewish representations and references throughout
the Apocalypse.
The following parallel of the points noted of the Sealed ones and the Palm-
bearers respectively, may be useful with a view to their yet clearer identification. I
distinguish between what is said of the one and the other in their earthly state,
during the present atuv, and what is said of their heavenly state afterwards.
The Sealed ones, or 144,000 ; i. q. God's
servants, Apoc. vii. 3.
In this atuv, or world, they are per
petuated through the coming tempests,
Apoc. vii. 3, the tribulation of the
Trumpets, Apoc. ix. 4, and reign of the
Beast, Apoc. xiv. 1 . — Also, they wash
their robes (i. e. in the blood of the
Lamb,) Apoc. xxii. 14,* compared with
Apoc. xxii. 3, 4. — Further, at the close,
they are exhibited as " the called, and
chosen, and faithful," Apoc. xvii. 14,
victorious over the Beast and his allies.
In the future aiuv they are described
distinctively astheinhabitantsof the New
Jerusalem ; in virtue of their character
alike as God's Israel, God's servants,
those whose names are in the Lamb's
book of life, and those that have God's
mark on their foreheads : Apoc. xxi.
12, xxii. 3, 4. Also, as its citizens,
they are before the throne of God and
of the Lamb ; God dwells with them ;
they have access to the river of life; and
God himself wipes away every tear from
their eyes. Apoc. xxi. 3, 4, xxii. 1, &c.

The Palm-bearers.
In this atuv they have to pass through
the trial of " the great tribulation : "
also they " wash their robes white in
the blood of the Lamb .'' Apoc. vii. 14 :
And the palms indicate their having
come out from the great conflict vic
torious.

In the future ataii' they are before the
throne of God ; God dwells (aKijvucei)
with them ; the Lamb leads them be
side living fountains of water, and God
himself wipes away all tears from their
eyes. Apoc. vii. 15, 17.

* irAvvovres ras oroAas avruv. Such is the best reading.

S 2

260 apoc vn. [parti.
the palms they bore indicating the triumphant issue of their
conflict; their white robes the white garments of justifica
tion, washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb ; 1
a welcome greeting them from the 24 representative pres
byters of the Church in Paradise, as well as from the
company of angels ; and their song being one of thanks
giving to their Saviour God, and to the Lamb, which would
never end.2
Now the 144,000, it will be observed, were not thus
pointedly characterized in the Apocalyptic vision, in con
tradistinction to the members of any open or profest
apostacy from the Christian Church and faith : so as God's
earlier sealed ones, in the very parallel vision of Ezekiel,3 were
contradistinguished from Jews that practised direct idolatry
in the chambers of imagery, or were worshippers of the
Sun, or of Thammuz;4 — but contradistinctively to the mass
of those who were in profession the ^exacpvXov of the Chris
tian Israel, the corporation of the Catholic Church. In
which character would not the latter too be supposing that
the divine election and sealing, the registry in the Book of
life, salvation through this world, the washing away of sin,
and the immortality of future blessedness, — were blessings
secured to them ? Surely such, it might be presumed, would
be the case with them : else how could they call or suppose
themselves to be Christians? — Would it then prove that on
these points there would be, at the time here figured, some
primary unfolding in the Church of the anti-christian prin
ciple : a principle which would in effect ascribe these blessings
to some other agency within it, rather than Christ's ; and ac
quiesce in the human and formal and unreal thing, instead
of the real and divine ?
So I say, as it seems to me, St. John might even a priori
have had his suspicions directed by the simple hintings of
the Apocalyptic description to the earliest form of antichris-
tianism in the professing Church, when now fast advancing
1 It is said in the past tense, " they washed their garments and made them
white," &c. So that the white was their colour while in this world, as well as after
it. So Apoc. iii. 4, 5.
2 "They serve him day and night in his temple," — " they shall hunger no more,"
&c; statements which indicate the never-ending of their sacred enjoyments and
employments. 3 Ezek. ix. 1 — 7. 4 Ezek. viii. 10, 14, 16.

CH.VII.§3.] HINTED ANTI-CHRISTIANISM OF UNSEALED. 261
into the apostacy. — For ourselves, who live after the times
prefigured, there is the advantage of looking back into
Eoman and ecclesiastical history ; and seeing whether in
deed there did appear then and there any such incipient
unfolding of antichristianism as, it has been thought, might
even a. priori have been inferred as probable from the sacred
vision. — Turn we then, without further delay, to the eccle
siastical history of the 4th century ; and let us carefully
ponder its sketches of the Church of that period.
And here, in a manner somewhat remarkable, it is speci
ally to the initiation of its members that our attention is
directed, I may almost say forced, by its prominence in
the historic records of the sera. This was of course by
the rite of baptism. And in so far as this outward rite
was concerned, we find that all was done in order. They
were regularly admitted by the bishops and presbyters into
the congregation of the visible church. The crowds of
adults thus admitted by baptism, after Constantine's acces
sion to the supremacy, have been already noted.1 It was
quite a feature of the times. And thus far it was well.
But what of the neophytes' personal looking in faith to
Jesus, as the soul's life and light, whereby alone to secure
the spiritual blessings shadowed out in the sacramental rite ?
Of this and of the doctrine inculcating it, we read little.
On the other hand, it is scarce possible for a student of
the church history of the times not to be struck, as he
reads, with the exaggerated and unscriptural notions then
widely prevalent of the virtue attached to the outward bap
tismal rite, as if in itself sufficient to secure them : that is,
when duly performed by the ministering presbyter ; or, as
in Levitical phrase, and with Levitical functions attaching,
he was now generally called, the ministering lepevc, sacerdos,
or priest ? 2 — Throughout the whole of the preceding cen
tury, and even earlier, a preparation had been making for
these views by the accumulation of titles of honour on it.
1 See p. 239 supra. I beg the reader to mark my word adults. We have here
little comparatively to do with the difficulties of infant baptism.
2 It is much to be regretted that the same word priest should have come in our
language to be used for both the Greek word irpeoBvrepos, presbyter, and the very
different word lepevs : the latter properly a sacrificing priest, as in the Jewish or
the heathen ritual.

262 apoc vn. [parti.
Besides its earlier title of the Xovrpov naXXiyyevecriac, it was
now denominated, as Bingham tells us,1 the a<ppayig, yapeamip
Kvpiov, tpiOTiafAOf, (f>vXaxTVjpiov, aipdapaiag evftvpa, awTrjpiov ; the
seal, the Lord's mark, the illumination, the phylactery or
preservative, the investiture of incorruption, the salvation.
In the language of an eminent bishop of the day ; " It
was the ransom to captives, the remission of offences, the
death of sin, the regeneration of the soul, the garment of
light, the holy seal indissoluble, the chariot to heaven, the
luxury of Paradise, the procuring of the kingdom, the gift
of adoption." 2 The partial counteractives that had previ
ously operated to prevent the abuse of similar unguarded
expressions by earlier Fathers of the Church,3 — the coun
teractives, I mean, not of mere doctrinal cautions, (such as
were still indeed at times addressed to candidates, neophytes,
and the Church generally, though by no means, either in
frequency or in evangelical clearness of doctrine, according
to the exigency of the case,) but that of a stricter proba
tionary discipline, and yet more of persecution from with
out * — these were now either wholly or comparatively in
operative. A magical virtue, as it has been expressed, was
too generally thought to attach to the rite ; and that not
only were all sins ipso facto washed away by it,5 but all
1 xi. 1.
2 Cyril. Cat. Lect. Introd. 16. And so again, very similarly, Cyril's cotemporary
in the fourth century, Gregory Nazienzen : who in his 40th oration writes thus of
baptism ; Aupov KaAoopev, xaptapa, xPlffPat (puriopa, atp&apo-tas evSvpa, Aovrpov
iraAtyy eveotas, otppayiSa, irav i ri riutov.
3 E. g. by Clement of Alexandria, about A.D. 200. " Baptism is called grace,
illumination, perfection, washing : — washing, because by it we wash away our sins ;
grace, because through it there is remitted the punishment due to our sins ; illumi
nation, because by it that holy saving light is beheld through which we behold God ;
perfection, because in it there is nothing wanting.
4 Mr. Faber, in his Work on the Primitive Doctrine of Regeneration, p. 123, thus
notes both these counteractives. " In early times, during the period of vehement
persecution, few would become candidates for baptism, who were not deeply im
pressed with the necessity of seeking a refuge from the wrath to come : and the
Church was careful to admit none to the holy rite, save those who had passed
through the probationary state of catechumens ; and might be justly hoped to have
given the required answer of a good conscience to the legitimate interrogation pro
pounded solemnly at the font."
6 So Cyril above. Again Athanasius speaks of it as KafloprtKof irooijs otas SniroTe
hpaprtas' (a passage quoted by Faber, p. 168 :) and Ephrem Syrus, on Dan. xii. 9,
10, explains " the many to be made white," as " baptismi lavacro dealbandos."
Dr. Maitland in his Book on the Catacombs, p. 22 1 , gives the inscription following,
to much the same effect, from a fragment in the Vatican Lapidarian Gallery, which
seems to have belonged to a subterranean baptistery :
Corporis et cordis maculas vitali[s aqua? fons]
Purgat, et omne simul abluitund[a nefas.]

CH.V1I. §3.] HINTED ANTI-CHRISTIAN1SM OF UNSEALED. 263
evils, as by an amulet, averted.1 — The ceremonies now su
peradded to the simple form prescribed and practised at its
original institution, added to this impression. The custom
is recorded how the candidate turned to the west, while
priestly words of exorcism were uttered, by which it was
supposed that he was now at length delivered from the do
minion of the Prince of darkness ; 2 then to the east,3 as
to receive, together with the baptismal immersion, the illu
mination of the Spirit. And then he was enrolled in the
church-register, as being of the number of the christian
Israel. A crown was borne by him, in token of his vic
tory over sin and the world ; a white dress put upon him,
as on one washed from sin, and robed for immortality : and
moreover, as Gregory Nazianzen tells us, he was led up
before the altar in token of the beatific vision of the life
to come, (not to speak of any expected blessedness in this
world,) and received with psalmody, as in foretaste of the
hymnings of the blessed.4 — Thus were all the constituent
In this way of speaking of the pardon of sin in baptism, Clemens Alex, had, we
have seen, preceded. And so (not to mention others) the Council of Carthage,
under Cyprian, called it indulgentia divina ; a term famous afterwards. — Says
Bingham, " The true ancient proper notion of an indulgence is God's pardoning sin
by the ministerial application of his sacraments." xi. 1.2. It was in fact a phrase
borrowedfrom imperial usages. In them it signified, 1st, remission of punishment due :
2nd, remission of tribute due. See Capitolinus, in Antonino Pio c. 10, with Salma
sius' Note ; Ammianus Marcel, xvi. 5 ; and the Codex Theodos. Tit. De Indulgentiis.
1 On its virtue as a phylactery, Cyril says ; " The blessed John discourses much
concerning this chrism : " (that used in baptism :) " for this holy thing is a spi
ritual preservative of the body, and safeguard of the soul." Cat. Lect. xxi. 7. And
similarly Basil says of it : Mi; airoAeoijs ro (pvAaKrijpiov.
Clement, in his history of the youth that was reclaimed from his apostacy by St.
John, furnishes a notable example of the manner in which, in Clement's view, this
notion of the preservative power of baptism might be abused. He says that the
Bishop entertained, cherished, and at length enlightened, that is, baptized him, (tox
veavioKov erpeipe, ovvetxev, to reAevratov etpur ice,) then neglected the young man,
trusting to this his baptism's prophylactic virtue : vtpijKe tijs irAeiovos emueAeias (cot
irapatpvAaKijs, us ro reAetov avru ipvAaKTi]piov eiruXTijoas tijv aippayiSa rov Kvpiov.
See pp. 33, 34 supra.
2 Neander (p. 355) says that the first unequivocal trace of exorcism in baptism is
found in the Council of Carthage A.D. 256, mentioned above. So too Mosheim.
3 This turning to the East was a custom early applied to prayer. Tertuliian
notes the practice in his Apology, ch. xvi. And Clemens Alexandrinus thus explains
it : ETret Se yeveBAtov ijpepas etKuv ij avaroAtj, KaKeiBev to <pus av^erai, eK okotovs
Aaptyav to irpurov, aAAa Kat rots ev ayvoia KvAivSovpevois averetAe yvuaeus aAtjBeias
rjpiepa, Kara Aoyov rov ^Atoo irpos tijv euBivijv avaroAnv al evxui' Stromat. vii. p. 856.
Mosheim ii. 2. 4. 7, notes its superstitious tendency.
4 Bingham, x. 2. 6, xii. 4. 8. — Mosheim notices the crown worn by the neo
phytes, and its understood typical intimation of their victory over the world and sin.
" Initiati, corona candidaque veste ornati, domum revertebantur. Ilia victorias de
mundo vitiisque partae, haec innocentiae acquisitae signum erat." iii. 2. 4. 4.

264 apoc vii. [part i.
members of the twelve tribes of the antitypical Israel ini
tiated into the Christian Church ; thus unguardedly its
consequent blessings intimated to them. After which ini
tiation, besides the title of eKXe-xroi, or chosen, (a title
already attached to them from the time when they were
accepted by the bishop as fit candidates for baptism,1) they
were further designated as 07/0; and mo-rot, the saints and
faithful. For, as Bingham says, with reference to the
practices of the church as early as the century under con
sideration, " The names ayioi, mo-rot, exXeKToi, saints, be
lievers, elect, names which occur frequently in ecclesiastical
writers, signify not any select number of Christians, (as
now the words saint and elect are often used to signify
only the predestinate,) but all Christians in general, who
were entered into the communion of the church by the
waters of baptism." 2
And now is it needful that I draw the reader's attention
to the parallel, or rather contrast in the way of parallel,
which, point by point, meets the eye between this historical
picture of the general professing church catholic of the sera
of Constantine, (specially in respect of their initiation,) and
that of the 144,000, God's election of grace chosen out of
them, as sketched to us in the Apocalyptic vision ? In the
ecclesiastical phraseology of the times, — a phraseology con
tinued, it is to be observed, from Constantine's time down
wards, — the former were the elect, holy, and faithful. In
the divinely inspired language of the Apocalypse these same
titles elect , holy, faithful are attached to the latter, and to
them distinctively and alone.3 — The former, we read,
claimed to have been marked with what they called the
Lord's seal and mark upon the forehead : it was the seal of
1 Bingham x. 2. 5.
2 i. 1. l.— It was a little before the third century that Christians were divided into
faithful and catechumens, the initiated and uninitiated. See Waddington, Ecd. Hist.
i. 388. 3 The appellation of 07101, holy, or saints, is often thus distinctively applied to
Christ's " peculiar people." A notable instance, the first after this chapter, occurs
chap. viii. 3, and will be there noticed. In Rev. xix. 8, the saints are identified with
the white-robed ; " The white robes are the righteousness of the saints." The
title occurs also Rev. xiii. 10, xiv. 12, xi. 18, xx. 6, &a— As regards the other appel
lations elect and faithful, we find them (as already observed) distinctively applied in
Rev. xvii. 14, to the partakers in Christ's final triumph. These are called the
kAijtoi icat ejcAtitTot Kai vioroi, the called, and chosen, and faithful.

CH. VII. §3.] HINTED ANTI-CHRISTIAN1SM OF UNSEALED. 265
water-baptism, impressed on them by the officiating pres
byter, and perfected with the chrism of the confirming
Bishop j1 this last being deemed an essential point.2 The
latter are here represented as marked with God's true seal
on the forehead; even the seal of the Holy Spirit's baptism,
and as applied by Christ himself. — The former, looking to
the east at the time of baptism, were supposed to receive
from it, — and perhaps by angelic ministration at the font,3
— both life from the death of sin, and spiritual illumination.
The latter are here symbolized as receiving those heavenly
gifts in reality : and this through the direct ministry and
spiritual revelation of Himself to them of the Lord Jesus,4 —
that only true Angel from the east, the day-spring from on
high, the life and light of each dead soul. — The former, we
read further, after receiving the mark of the baptismal seal,
were enrolled by the priest in the diptychs or registers of the
earthly church catholic, the professing Israel.5 The latter
are here described as numbered and enrolled by Christ in
1 The Presbyter only baptized by permission from the Bishop. The Bishop's
confirmation, of which anointing was the sign, was then administered soon after
baptism. See Bingham, xi. 4. 1, xii. 1. 1. (Hence the word christening, i.e. anointing.)
2 See Cyprian's 73rd Epistle on this point. He strenuously insists on the inva
lidity, and even uselessness to spiritual good, of baptism administered either by
heretics or unauthorized persons ; and on the necessity of the Bishop's adding his
confirmation to it. " Intelligimus non nisi in ecclesia Praepositis, et in evangelic^
lege ac dominica ordinatione fundatis, licere baptizare, et remissam peccatorum
dare. . ..Qui. .baptizantur Praepositis ecclesiae offerantur; et per nostram orationem
ac manus impositionem Spiritum Sanctum consequantur, et signaculo Dominico
consummentur." Cyprian urged the necessity in other cases of re-baptism. " Qui-
cunque ab adulter! et profana aqua\ veniunt, abluendi sunt et sanctificandi salutaris
aquaa veritate." ibid.
Rome allowed the baptism ; but, equally with Cyprian, required episcopal confir
mation. So the Roman Bishop Stephen ; and Cornelius, as quoted by the Oxford
Editor of Cyprian (p. 202) from Eusebius ; 'OSe tuv Aotiruv ervxe iiv XPV peraAap-
Baveiv, rov re o-typayiaBijvai inro rov eirioKoirov rovrov Se pij rvxuv irus av rov aytov
Tlvevparos ervxe. ; — Also, about the /ore/iead-anointing specially, Pope Innocent I,
(who died A.D. 417,) in his 1st Epistle, D'Achery i. 545. " De consignandis infantibus
manifestum est non ab alio quam ab episcopo fieri licere : nam presbyteri, licet sint
sacerdotes, pontificatfis tamen apicem non habent. Haec autem Pontificibus solis
deberi, ut vel consignent, vel Paracletum Spiritum tradant, non solum consuetudo
ecclesiastica demonstrat, verum et ilia lectio Act. Apost. (viii. 14, 15,) quae asserit
Petrum et Joannem esse directos qui jam baptizatis traderent Spiritum Sanctum.
Nam presbyteris, seu extra episcopum, seu praesente episcopo cum baptizant, chris-
mate baptizatos ungere licet ; sed quod ab Episcopo fuerit consecratum : non tamen
frontem ex eodem oleo signare, quod solis debetur episcopis, cum tradunt Spiritum
Paracletum." 3 Angelus baptismi arbiter," &c. So Tertuliian de Baptismo, c. 6 ; referring to the
angel at the pool of Bethesda. See the whole passage in Bishop Kaye's Tertuliian,
p. 433. — The baptismal water is explained by Cyprian, Ep. 63, to be " the water of
eternal life," spoken of Joh. iv. 14, vii. 38.
4 Compare 2 Cor. iv. 6. 5 Bingham x. 2. 6.

266 apoc vii. [part i.
his own register of the Israel of God ; an enrolment of
names the same as that which is elsewhere called their being
written in heaven. — The former, in the outward act of bap
tism, had, as they supposed, a phylactery, or amulet of de
fence from evil. The latter are here represented, in vision,
as alone and already possessed of the one real phylactery
from evil : even in his recognition and care, who stays the
angel of destruction in their defence ; and, as in Lot's case,
shews that He can take no step in the way of judgment
until He has first provided for their security. — The former
are described to have made display before their fellow-men
of their white garments, as those who by the act of baptism,
even as if it had been the blood of Christ,1 had been both
justified from guilt, and made innocent and holy. The
latter are represented, in the second and appended vision,
as having the white garments of their justification recog
nized before God and his holy angels in heaven : but as
made white through another and a different washing, the
washing from the fountain opened on Calvary, the blood
of the Lamb. — Finally, the former are described to us as
in their white robes, and with crowns of victory, introduced
into the inner sanctuary of the Christian temple: and there,
as the 0-^ofii.evoi, or saved ones,2 received with psalmody, in
anticipation of the heavenly ending of their pilgrimage.
Nor ought I to omit in the parallel, how, as the year rolled
round, they were wont in palm-bearing processions to resort
to the churches, on the festival substituted in the Christian
Church for the feast of Tabernacles ; and, — not without
similar anticipations of personal salvation and triumph, — to
place their palms that symbolized it on the altar, and hymn
their alleluias :3 or, again, how the custom had grown up
1 " The neophyte emerged from the waters of baptism in a state of perfect inno
cence. The dove, (the Holy Spirit) was constantly hovering over the font, and
sanctifying the waters to the mysterious ablution of the sins of the past life 
The water itself became, in the vivid language of the church, the blood of Christ:"
it was compared by a fanciful analogy to the Red Sea. The daring metaphors of
some of the Fathers might seem to assert a transmutation of its color." Milman,
Hist, of Christianity, iii. 427.
2 Cyril. Cat. L. Intr. 15. — Compare Gregory Nazianzen's Trivmavra truBrjoopai,
" then I will be saved; " in the sense of, "then I will be baptised."
3 The marai, or church-members, including the baptized of the preceding Easter,
bore palm-branches in procession on the next return of the Easter festival. For its
fourteen days of festival, — then the chief season in the church for baptism, — included
the week before Easter Sunday, as well as the week after ; and thus began with Palm
Sunday, which was called also Dominica Competentium, from candidates for baptism

CH. VII. §3.] HINTED ANTI-CHRISTIANISM OF UNSEALED. 267
at the time we speak of, to go forth with palms and with
hosannas, to give greeting to the bishops and presbyters of
the church, the earthly operators of their supposed salva
tion.1 The sealed ones, on the other hand, are here sym
bolized, as the real erai^uevo/, or saved ones ; and, like the
palm-bearing Israelites at the feast of Tabernacles, cele
brating, though not till after a long interval of tribulation,
the actual triumphant accomplishment of their earthly pil
grimage : then as received into the heavenly presence
amidst the hymnings of angels, and rendering their alleluias
of salvation alone to their Saviour God and to the Lamb.
After the consideration of which parallel between these
two classes, and supposing what, after all that has passed,
the reader will, I trust, be fully prepared to allow me, —
viz. first, that the sealing vision appertains chronologically
to the times following on the politico-religious revolution
under Constantine and his sons, secondly, that the 12 tribes
then offering themselves. On which Sunday, as we learn from Epiphanius, there
was already begun in the fourth century, and celebrated with much pomp, that same
palm-bearing festival which continued afterwards through the middle ages. (See
the Homily of this Father Eis ra Bam. ) It was the substitute in fact in the Chris
tian Church for the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, and its palm-branch bearing ; (see
Lev. xxiii. 40 :) the time of the celebration being however changed from the autum
nal equinox to the vernal, i. e. from the end of the Jewish year, to the beginning, in
consequence of what passed at our Lord's entrance in the paschal week into Jerusa
lem : somewhat like the change of the seventh day sabbath to the first.
Epiphanius, in his Homily on the day referred to, speaks as if the whole profess
ing Christian body (designated as the daughter of Zion, in Judaic figure similar to
that of the Apocalyptic vision,) might expect to partake of the benefit of Christ's
triumph: the Church ovKen a'tpart SovAiKip ipvpupevij, oAA1 at pari BetKa
o-rppaytgopevij, and in its service imitating the songs and stations of angels.
In the Jewish festival there was a similar union of the commemorative and antici-
pative. They commemorated their ancient dwelling in booths in the wilderness, and
subsequent triumphant entrance into Canaan. They anticipated Messiah's giving
them further and greater triumphs : whence, in accompaniment of their palm-bear
ing, their shouts in the language of supplication, " Hosanna ! Save, Lord ! "
1 Valesius, in his notes on Eusebius, (H. E. ii. 23,) mentions that it was the
manner of the Christians of those earlier times thus to meet the bishops and pres
byters with hosannas and palm-branches : citing as follows from the monk Anto-
nine's Jerusalem Itinerary, whose journey appears to have been made just before the
death of Constantine. " Ibi venerunt mulieres in occursum nobis, cilm infantibus,
palmas in manibus tenentes, et ampullas cum rosaceo oleo ; et prostratae pedibus
nostris plantas nostras unguebant, cantabantque lingua\ aegyptiac£, psallentes anti-
phonam, Benedicti vos a Domino, benedictusque adventus voster ! Hosanna in
excelsis ! " — Well might Jerome, (on Matt, xxi.) soon after express alarm at this
appropriation to the earthly ministers of the church of what belonged to its heavenly
head only. " Videant ergo episcopi, et quantumlibet sancti homines, cum quanto
periculo dici ista sibi patiantur, si Domino, cui vere hoc dicebatur, . . . pro crimine
impingitur." It was indeed a sign of the times !

268 apoc vii. [part i.
of Israel, and the 144,000, mentioned in it, designate respec
tively the visible professing Church in the Eoman empire,
and Christ's true Church, the election of grace, gathered
out of it, — I say, granting this, is it conceivable that the
sketch here given us of the latter, in regard specially of
their initiatory constitution as Christ's peculiar people, by
his own lifegiving, enlightening, and sanctifying influence,
can have been drawn without distinct reference to that
which history tells us characterized the former ? Or,
again, if thus drawn in designed contrast, can it have been
so drawn for the mere sake of point and effect, by the hea
venly limner ; or without the implication of his solemn
condemnatory judgment on both the doctrinal system, and
the church characterized thereby, to which his sketch of
the 144,000 stands so markedly opposed : — the church that
of the mere outwardly professing, and outwardly or ecclesi
astically initiated and constituted ; the doctrine that of the
ex opere operato efficacy of the legitimately -ministered ini
tiatory sacrament- ? To my own mind alike the one sup
position and the other seem inconceivable. The Apoca
lyptic Christian picture cannot, I think, but have been
drawn antithetically to the anti- Christian ritualistic system
and doctrine of the times referred to. For in it, just as in
all the other figurations of this wonderful book, we see
sketched, though but in hintings, the real spirit of the age ;
The very age and body of the times,
Their form and pressure.
— Nor was it about a light or passing error. It was in
regard to an evil the deep-rooted permanency of which in
the Christian professing Church (like that of its cognate
error in the Jewish)1 is attested by the protests of the An-
1 See St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, (" the foolish Galatians,") passim : also in
that to the Romans, chaps, iii, iv, &c. Thus, as against the doctrine of an ex opere
operato sacramental justification, or forgiveness of sins, Rom. iv. 8 ; " Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Cometh this blessedness on the cir
cumcision only, or on the uncircumcision also ? For we say that faith was reckoned
to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned ? When he was in cir
cumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith
which he had yet being uncircumcised :" &c— And against resting in the mere out
ward form, ib. ii. 28 ; " That is not circumcision which is outward in the flesh ; but
circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter :" &c— In these
and^similar passages, who that considers the subsequent history of the Church can
suppose that the Eternal Spirit, speaking by St. Paul, had only as his object to guard
the church agamst judaizmg errors then prevalent ? and not rather to guard it against

CH. VII. §3.] HINTED ANTI-CHRISTIANISM OF UNSEALED. 269
glican and other Eeformed Churches against it,1 1200
years after ; and the gravity of which appears from the fact
of its being the foundation-stone of the great predicted
apostacy, thenceforward more and more to be developed :
— that apostacy of which the one grand object and charac
teristic, ever followed out by the master spirit of evil,
its originator, and with admirable unity of purpose, was to
be this ; — within the Christian Church itself, 2 and while
professedly exalting Christ and his institutions, practically
to set. Christ aside out of the Christian system, from first
to last, the priesthood being substituted in his place, in one
and all of his offices.3
I have spoken of this baptismal error as one peculiarly
characteristic of the times of Constantine and his succes
sors in the 4th century : — not indeed overlooking the 3rd
century, as that in which it began to appear ; but resting
on the 4th as that in which it was most fully and largely
developed, after that the subversion of the Pagan power in
the Eoman empire had made the way open and easy to the
profession of Christianity. In illustration of this historic
fact I have noticed, from eminent and approved fathers of
the third and fourth centuries, the various exaggerated
titles of honour, and superstitious ceremonies, which had
similar errors which He foresaw would prevail, and with yet longer and more per
nicious influence, through abuse of the christian corresponding sacrament ?
1 Let it be well observed that the doctrine of the Anglican church as to the grace
following the baptismal rite is pointedly opposed to that of Rome. The former says
in its Articles, that no sacrament is of use, but " to then*- that receive it worthily ; "
and in its Catechism, that repentance and faith are essential to its right recipiency .
(See p. 271, Note '.) — On the other hand, the doctrine and spirit on this point of
the Church of Rome is well illustrated in what passed at the first discussion of Car
dinal Cajetan with Luther : in which one of the things which the Cardinal required
above all things to be abandoned by Luther, and to which Luther above all other
things was resolved to adhere, was this statement, — that, in order to benefit from
the Sacrament, there must be the exercise of faith in the recipient. See Merle
D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation, B.iv, c. 6. — But in this I am anticipating.
2 The professing Church no longer having strength and purity to cast out the
antichristian leaven as heretical ; so as in the case and times of the Gnostic Anti-
christianity, alluded to in St. John's Epistles.
3 Various occasions will occur afterwards for illustrating further from history the
development, in this point of view, of the apostacy, and of Antichrist, its destined
head. — For the present let me only add Dr. Arnold's opinion, exprest on the modern
revival of that particular perverted doctrine of the fourth century, which has been
the subject of this Section : " I call all this Judaizing a direct idolatry. It is exalt
ing the Church and the Sacraments into the place of Christ ; as others have exalted
Christ's Mother, and others in the same spirit exalted circumcision." Life, Vol, ii.
p. 74.

270 apoc vii. [part i.
been then superadded to the simple title and ritual ordained
by the Lord Jesus. And perhaps these might of them
selves suffice, as evidence of the chronological propriety of
the apocalyptic picture. In order, however, that no sus
picion may remain with the reader of my having strained
the unguarded expressions of a few church-writers of the
day, construed too harshly a harmless ceremonial, or given
an exaggerated view either of the prevalency or pernicious-
ness of the error at the time spoken of, — it may be well
that I set before him the opinions, on the point in question,
of a few modern ecclesiastical historians, who are generally
known and approved. — Dean Waddington then, speaking
of the preceding, or 3rd century, thus observes : " The
original simplicity of the office of baptism had already un
dergone some corruption. The symbol had been gradually
exalted at the expense of the thing signified : the spirit of
the ceremony was beginning to be lost in the form." 1 — ¦
Mosheim, while noting the multiplication of rites and cere
monies in the christian church during that same century,
specifically in the matter of baptism, attributes this, as well
as other nascent superstitious notions and practices, very
much to the corrupting influence of the platonic and orien
tal or gnostic philosophy, which, about the middle of the
century had partially infused itself into the church.2 By
Milner this is the judgment pronounced on the prevalent
religion of the 4th century, after Constantine's establish
ment of Christianity in the Eoman empire. " There was
much outward religion, but this could not make men saints
in heart and life. The true doctrine of justification by
faith was scarce to be seen ; and that of real conversion
very much lost, or external baptism placed in its stead." —
A living writer, not unconversant with the subject he han
dles, designates the religion of the Constantinian sera as " a
religion of sacraments : " 3 and quotes in confirmation a
striking passage from the celebrated Boethius's Compendium
of Christian Faith, (a work in date somewhat later,) in
which, as the grand means of man's recovery from the evil,
guilt, and condemnation consequent on Adam's fall, he de-
l j 94. 2 iii. 2. 4. 1, 4, &c.
3 Antient Christianity, p. 247. See also p. 191, 235, &c,

CH. VII. § 3.] HINTED ANTI-CHRISTIANISM OF UNSEALED. 271
clares that Christ has granted to us remedial sacraments ;
— " just as if the sacraments," says Mr. Taylor, " when
duly accepted from the priest's hand, were potent drugs, or
chemical antidotes, infallibly dispersing the poison inhe
rited from Adam ! " — Neander, — in terms often so similar
to those of Bishop Burnet in his exposition of the Articles
of the Church of England, that but for the greater warmth
and feeling of the former, one might almost doubt whether
it was the German historian, illustrating the corrupt doc
trine of the church catholic of the third and fourth centu
ries, or the English prelate that of the Eomish church in
the sixteenth,1 — again and again laments the prevalency
of what he designates the opus operatum doctrines, then
germinated and in vogue, — more especially in respect of
baptism, — and the idea of a magical effect and charm at
taching to the rite. " Oh ! " he exclaims, " that men had
not so soon confused the divine thing and the sign which
represented it ; and had not wished to bind the work of
the Spirit on the outward sign ! " 2 — Finally, both he and
Bishop Kaye, — the latter in his learned sketch of the church
in the age of Tertuliian,3 and thus with reference to as early
1 Neander, i. 355, &c. (2nd Ed.) So Bishop Burnet on Art. xi. p. 153 ; "The doc
trine of sacramental justification is justly to be reckoned among the most mischievous
errors in the Church of Rome. ... It is as if the sacrament were of the nature of
charms," &c. Again on Art. xxv; "We look on all sacramental actions as acceptable
to God only with regard to the temper and inward acts of the persons to whom they are
applied, and cannot consider them as medicines or charms, which work by a virtue
of their own." And he quotes 1 Pet. iii. 21 ; " Baptism saves us ; not the putting
away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God."
Again : " The doctrine of Rome represents them as so many charms ; which may
heighten the authority of him who administers them, but serves to extinguish or
deaden all true piety." * Neander, p. 360.
3 p. 247, 8. " The teachers began," (i. e. in the age of Tertuliian,) " by insist
ing on the necessity of repentance and amendment of life. Unfortunately, the effect
of their exhortations upon the minds of their hearers was frequently counteracted
by a fatal perversion of the doctrine of the church respecting the efficacy of baptism.
In every age, the object of a large portion of those who call themselves christians
has been to secure the benefits without fulfilling the conditions of the christian
covenant. When therefore the proselyte was told that baptism conferred upon him
who received it the remission of all his former sins, he persuaded himself that he
might in safety defer the work of repentance," &c.
The learned prelate speaks of this as a " perversion of the doctrine of the Church."
And, doubtless, many cautions are to be found in Cyprian, Origen, Cyril, &c. Yet
while so much was made of the ceremonial, and while such language was common
on the subject as in the passage that Bishop Kaye quotes from Tertuliian, (De Poe-
nitent. ch. 6,) "Neque ego renuo divinum beneficium, id est abolitionem delictorum,
inituris aquam omnimodo salvum esse," — was not the perversion a natural one ? The
suggested difficulty of a man's obtaining baptism in case of his being impenitent, —
" Quis enim tibi, tam infidae pcenitentia? viro, asperginem unam cujuslibet aquae

272 APOC VII. [parti.
a period as the beginning of the third -century, — notice a
practice then introduced, and in the fourth century preva
lent, (I mean the delaying of baptism to the death-bed,)
that furnishes the most striking possible illustration of the
real nature and evil working of these notions respecting
baptism ; and show that the (hap/xaiceiai, the phylacteric
charms of the apostacy, had already begun. They did
this, says Neander, in order that they might the longer
give themselves to sin ; and yet, " in the hour of death,
being purified by the magical annihilation of their sins,
might be received into eternal life." J It was in fact, in
estimation and in practice, the extreme unction2 of the
day. After the establishment of Christianity in the Eoman
empire, this practice became, as I said, prevalent. The
emperor Constantine himself offers us the most illustrious
example of it. Notwithstanding his conversion to Chris
tianity full 20 years before, and more, he deferred his
baptism to his death-bed. I subjoin the affecting account
given us of it in Eusebius ;3 and commend it to the read-
commodahit," * — was not likely to be of much counteractive force. It is also ob
servable that the qualifications now insisted on were mostly repentance and amend
ment, not evangelic faith ; — faith in Him with whom personal communion is essen
tial, both to the beginning and the continuance of spiritual life.
1 p. 363. — The following note of Gibbon is too illustrative of the subject to be omit
ted. " The fathers who censured this criminal delay could not deny the certain and
victorious efficacy even of a death-bed baptism. The ingenious rhetoric of Chrysostom
(Ep. ad Hebr. Horn, xiii.) could find only three arguments against these prudent
christians. 1. That we should love and pursue virtue for her own sake, and not
merely for the reward. 2. That we may be surprised by death without an oppor
tunity of baptism. 3. That although we shall be placed in heaven, we shall only
twinkle like little stars, when compared to the suns of righteousness who have run
, their appointed course with labour, with success, and with glory." — He adds ; " I
believe this delay of baptism, though attended with the most pernicious conse-
-quences, was never condemned by any general or provincial council, or by any public
act or declaration of the cffurch." iii. 274.
2 When the whole empire had become Christian in profession, and baptism conse-
quentlycame to be administered almost universally to infants, — this ceremony of
baptismal extreme unction was cut away from the superstitious ritualist. But the
ministration of the Lord's Supper was ready at hand as a substitute. So Paulinus
in 794 to the homicide Heistulphus. " In ultimo termino vitae tuae pro viatico.. ..
ut accipias communionem corporis et sanguinis Domini tibi concedimus." Harduin
Concil. iv. 912. — Extreme unction, as a seventh sacrament, was afterwards added or
substituted. See Martene De Rit. L. v. c. 8.
3 The account is thus given by Eusebius. On finding his health declining, Con
stantine gathered the Bishops around him, he relates, and declared his wish to have

* Let the reader observe, in passing, this proof of baptism having been sometimes
administered by sprinkling, ere the close of the second century.

CH. VII. §3.] HINTED ANTI-CHRISTIANISM OF UNSEALED. 27 3
er's perusal. The charitable hope is most allowable, — and
it is one which we will fondly cherish, — that his error was
forgiven him : and that the spiritual grace of the sacra
mental rite, and all the blessings of the gospel covenant,
were in this case really imparted to the dying neophyte ;
even as to one, in sincerity of heart, repentant and believ
ing. And thus we may look with a melancholy satisfac
tion to the narrative, as an exemplification alike of his
conversion to the truth, and of the wonderful triumph of
Christianity over heathenism, effected so greatly through
his instrumentality, in the Eoman empire. But we must
also painfully look to it as illustrating the manifestation
and acting, even then, of this earliest unfolded feature of
the mystery of iniquity.1 It may serve as a memorial to us
of the first cera, and, as Gibbon would say, of the first symp-.
the rite administered ; as that whereby all the sins of his past life would be cleansed
and washed away.* " ' This,' said he -to them, ' is the time so long looked for
by me, thirsting and praying that I might partake of the salvation of God. This is
the time of my enjoying the seal that confers immortality. I had wished to have
partaken of this washing in the streams of Jordan, where the Saviour was baptized
as an example to us. But God, who knows what is best, has ordained that it should
be here. Now then let there be no hesitation. If the Lord of life and death will
that my life be»prolonged, and it is once settled that I be numbered with his people,
I promise I will lay down to myself a rule of life becoming.' — Then they, after the
usual ritual, imparted to him the holy mysteries. And thus Constantine, alone of
Roman emperors, in the Church of the Martyrdom of Jesus, was regenerated and
• made perfect : and, having the divine seal impressed on'him, he rejoiced in spirit,
and was filled with heavenly light. — Then, after the other ceremonies, he put on a
dress of white, bright as the light ; for he would no more touch the purple : and,
raising his voice, he thanked God, and spoke of his happiness, as having been
thought worthy of immortal life. Then, having admitted some of the generals and
• captains of his troops into his presence, as they wept around him, and wished
him* years of prolonged life, he answered them that he had now been made partaker
of that which was indeed the true life : that none but himself could be aware of the
blessings he had received ; and that he was fain to depart and not delay his passage
to God. All this took place in the Pentecostal festival : " (i.e. the fifty days be
tween .Easter and Whitsunday, the chief season of baptism at that time :) — " and
on the Pentecostal Sunday itself, the seventh Lord's day from Easter, at the noon
tide hour of the day, by the sun, Constantine'was received up to his God." V. C.
iv. 61—64.
1 Let me observe that the emperor Valentinian, in the latter half of the fourth
century, furnished another example of the operation of the same erroneous views of
the baptismal rite : but in his case death overtook him before Ambrose, whom he
had sent for to perform it, arrived. Ambros. De Obit. Valentiman.-^The Count
Theodosius, father to the great emperor of that name, was another eminent example
of delaying it $ill immediately before death. Orosius, B. vii. B. P. M. vi. 443.
Let me further observe that Ambrose, in noting Constantine's baptism, tells how
" Baptismatis gratia, in ultimis constitutes, omnia peccata dimiserit ; " without any
remark on the error of thus delaying it! D.e Obit. Theodos. vii. 37.
* e-neiSij eis evvoiav rjKet tijs ie Bib reAevrrjs, KaBapoeus rsrov eivai Kaipov ruv
iroie avru irenAijppeAijpevuv, Sffa oia Bvijru Siapapreiv eirijABe, '
VOL. I. > T

274 apoc vii. [part i.
torn and cause, (here allusively pre-inti mated to St. John,)
of the now rapidly advancing anti-christian apostacy.
Oh ! how was it, we may well say with Neander, that
men so soon confused the divine thing with the sign which
represented it ! And how was it that they did not even
then perceive the real nature and portentous evil of the
doctrine ! Surely, had they profited by the light of scrip
ture and its holy prophecies, as by a light shining in a dark
place, they would have recognised, through the obscure
mistiness of the moral atmosphere, the awful features of
the instealing phantom, and the enemy of man animating
and guiding it. Apparent dirae fades, inimicaque Trojae
Numina.
— But the word of God, though not as yet forbidden, was
yet not studied or explained with the same simplicity and
singleness of mind as once. Silently and slowly an advance
had been already made to that which was essential to the
successful establishment of the Apostacy, the supercession
of the written word. In the undue reference to supposed
apostolical unwritten tradition1 an almost coordinate stand
ard of authority had been set up. In the philosophy of
the Alexandrian Platonics, an engine had begun to work,
which, through allegorizing, did away with much of its
true and simple meaning.2 In the discipline of the secret
it was made part of a religious system to hold reserve, ex
cept to the baptized or initiated,3 on certain of the gospel
1 Even in some of the earlier fathers, unguarded statements will be found on this
point. Thus Irenaeus, — although in i. 1. 15 noting the preference of unwritten tra
ditions to Holy Scripture as a characteristic of heretics, and in iii. 2. saying of them,
" Cum ex Scripturis arguuntur in accusationem convertuntur ipsarum Scriptura-
rum, quasi non recte habeant, . . et quia non possit ex his inveniri Veritas ab his qui
nesciant traditionem, non enim per literas traditam illam sed per vivam vocem," —
does yet soon after himself appeal to the tradition kept by the Bishops of the Church.
Though indeed he might perhaps intend by this the written tradition of Holy
Scripture. — Again Tertuliian, De Cor. Mil. iii. 3, thus asserts its authority. " In
traditionis obtentu exigenda est, inquis, auctoritas scripta. Ergo quaeramus, an et
traditio non scripta non debeat recipi ? " And then, having first limited the cases
in which unwritten tradition was of authority to such as Scripture had not determined,
(" Si nulla Scriptura determinavit, certe consuetudo corroboravit, quae sine dubio
de traditione manavit,") he exemplifies in the baptismal rite: in which rite sundry
things then done, that had not been enjoined in Scripture, (as three dippings,
tasting milk and honey, and abstaining for d week from the usual ablutions, &c,)
were, he thought, thereby sufficiently sanctioned. — Yet the very limitation shows that
Tertuliian was mainly sound on this point. See Riddle's Christian Antiq. p. 71.
2 See Burton's Church History, ch. xiv. 3 pepvijpevot.

CH. VII.§ 3.] HINTED ANTI-CHRISTIANISM OF UNSEALED. 275
verities : especially on one the most glorious of all, and
against which, as the great object of justifying and saving
faith, the Apostacy was to direct its bitterest enmity, — I
mean the vicarious and propitiatory atonement of the Son
of God.1 Once more, by the falsitas dispensativa it was
deemed permissible, and even meritorious, for approved
ends to pervert truth and Scripture.2 — Thus no wonder
that the true and only source of light, life, and justification
to the soul should have been more and more forgotten . No
wonder that the doctrinal error should have crept in of
mistaking the form for the spirit, the outward for the in
ward, the instrument for the original and effectual agent,
the means for the object and end. No wonder that the
so-called priesthood too, as well as Church and ritual,
should have begun to interpose themselves between the
people and Christ. — Indeed it should never be overlooked,
in our view of the first germinating of the Apostacy, that
it was very mainly owing to a neglect of the spirit and
cautions of the written word ; even while otherwise by
many held in honour.3 Hence the mistaken and formal
earthly view of God's true Israel, or Church. Hence the
superstitious exaltation of the ceremonial. Hence the mis
apprehension of the character and functions of the clergy
that ministered in it ; and the changing of the communion
table into the altar, and of the commemorative supper into
1 This too originated in the Alexandrian School. See Bishop Kaye's Tertuliian,
pp. 35, 250, 251. He concludes: "Having already given our opinion respecting
the mischievous consequences which have arisen to the church' from the counte
nance lent by the writings of Clemens Alexandrinus to the notion of a disciplina
arcani, we shall now only express our regret that Protestant divines, in their eager
ness to establish a favourite point, should sometimes have been induced to resort
to it."
"The disciplina arcani," says Lardner, iv. 231, "was unknown to Justin Mar
tyr, Tertuliian, Minucius Felix, and other primitive Christian writers."
2 See Gilly's Vigilantius, p. 269. — Augustine's strong reprobation of this, as ad
vocated by Jerome, appears both in his Letters xxviii. 3, lxxxii.21, addrest to Jerome
himself, and also abundantly elsewhere. Mosheim is unjustifiable in classing him
with others his cotemporaries, iv. 2. 3. 16.
3 Witness Origen's more early critical labours on it, and Jerome's later : also
Chrysostom's strong exhortations to its study ; not to add those of that apostolic
man, of whom I shall speak fully afterwards, Augustine.
4 Basnage adann. 100, quoted by Lardner, iv. 212, says that this Judaizing lan
guage about the christian clergy and sacraments had not come into vogue in the
earlier half of the second century : " Germana virorum apostolicorum scripta,
Clementis scilicet,* Polycarpi, Justini, vocabula pontificis, sacerdotum, Levitarum,
* i. c. the Roman Clement, T 2

276 apoc vii. [part i.
something like the sacrifice of the mass :l — it being forgot
ten that in the Christian Israel Levi mingles with the other
eleven tribes ;x and that the priestly functions attach, all
and only, to its great High Priest above.
So, in fine, did instealing Judaism, by the infusion of its
spirit into the religion which had subverted it, furnish one
primary principle of the Apostacy : while Heathenism too,
(as we shall very soon see more fully,2) found occasion
also, even thus early, to enter in and assist. And together
Christiano clero significando nunquam usurparunt : neque magis Clementinae aetatis
est vocabulum BoataoTijpiov, altare, ad eucharistiae mensam indicandam." — These
earlier fathers applied the Judaic sacerdotal figure, like St. Paul, and Peter* rather to
the whole Christian body.f But the innovations had begun even before the third
century : (see Mosheim ii. 2. 4. 4 :) and Cyprian continually applies the term sa
cerdos to the Christian Minister ; e. g. Epist. i. " Singuli divino sacerdotio honorati,
et in clerico ministerio constituti, non nisi allari et sacrificiis deservire debeant," &c :
and in Ep. 55, in startling language about the Bishop ; " Unus in ecclesia ad tempus
sacerdos, et ad tempus judex, vice Christi:" language more guarded in another
Letter 63 ; " ille sacerdos vice Christi verfc fungitur, qui id quod Christus fecit imita-
tur." — Compare Neander's Observations, i. 383, 384.
Mosheim (iv. 2. 4. 8.) says that in the fourth century the elevation of the sacra
mental elements prepared the way for their adoration soon afterwards.
1 See p. 246 supra. 2 See my Part ii. ch. 1, infra : also Part iii. ch. 3. &c.
* Hebr. xiii. 10 ; " We [i. e. all Christians,] have an altar, whereof they [viz. the
Jews] have no right to eat that serve the sanctuary : " 1 Pet. ii. 5 ; "Ye [i. c. all
true Christians] are a royal priesthood."
+ E. g. for Ignatius' view on this point see the quotations given p. 15 supra. He
uses the figure of being within the altar (of the antitypical altar-court) as a figure
not of the local ministering position of the Christian clergy, but of church-member
ship generally. — So too Justin Martyr.
Again, Irenceus speaks of all believers as priests, in the Levitical or sacerdotal sense
of the word. So iv. 20, " Omnes justi sacerdutalem habent ordinem." And again
v. 34, " Ostendimus in superiore loco quoniam Levitt et sacerdotes sunt discipuli
omnes Domini." — The offerings too that he speaks of were the offerings given by the
whole early Church at the Lord's Supper ; as the whole Jewish Church offered their
first-fruits : " Novi testamenti oblationem, quam ecclesia ab apostolis accipiens in
universo mundo offert Deo, ei qui alimenta nobis praestat, primitias suorum mune-
rum jn novo testamento : " citing Malachi's prophecy, " From the rising of the
sun to the setting, incense shall be offered, and a pure offering." Compare iv. 34,
where he says that God " dedit populo prseceptum faciendarum oblationum, ut dis-
ceret Deo servire : sic et ideo nos quoque offerre vult munus ad altare frequenter
sine intermissione ; " explaining the altar meant by him thus ; " Ergo altare in
ccelis ; illuc enim preces nostra et oblationes diriguntur, et ad templum ; quemadmo-
dum in Apocalypsi Joannes ait, ' Et templum Dei in coelo apertum est.' " &c.
(Apoc. xi. 19).
I agree with Basnage in not excepting on this head Clemens Romanus. For his refer
ence, ch. 36, to Christ as the Christian's High Priest, and chs. 42, 44,^47, 54, 57
to presbyters and deacons, as if the only ecclesiastical rulers in the Corinthian Church,
(for the contexts show, that By the eirio-Koiroi of ch. 42 were meant presbyters,)
seems to show that the three Levitical orders mentioned by him, ch. 40, just as the
Jerusalem and the altar of ch. 41, were meant literally and simply of the old Jewish
system. — Tertuliian too, though he sometimes speaks Levitically of the Christian
ministry, does yet in a well-known passage (De Exhort. Castit. ch. 7) apply the
sacerdotal figure to all Christians; " Nonne et laid sacerdotes sumus ? Scriptum
est, Reges nos et sacerdotes fecit." &c.

ch. vii. §4.] Christ's church of the sealed ones. 277
they helped forward, — and with singular union of effect, —
that which was the grand object of the Apostacy with the
Master Spirit that devised it ; — viz. the obscuration and
supercession of Christ Jesus.
§ 4. — contra-distinctive revelation of god's ISRAEL,
OR true church, of the sealed ones.
It may probably have already occurred to an attentive
reader that there is this remarkable novelty and peculiarity
in the prefigurative vision now under consideration, as
compared with others previously given, that whereas those
earlier visions, in regard of all that was figured outside of
the heavenly sanctuary of God's manifested presence, de
picted simply and only what was to be visibly realized
afterwards upon the earthly scene before the eyes of men,
— there was now on the contrary depicted to St. John,
though upon the same earthly scene, a something spiritual,
and such as mortal eyes would not see ; viz. the Lord's
marking out, and sealing, and numbering the constituent
members of the Israel of God, his own true Church, indi
vidually and personally, from among the visible corporate
body of the professing Church, the soi-disant Israel. — And
this may have been further noted, as yet another remark
able peculiarity in the vision before us, that not only was
there thusdepicted in it the constitution of God's true Church,
which, though a spiritual and invisible transaction, did yet
occur chronologically at what has appeared to be the pre
cise aera that the vision related to, (i. e. the close of the 4th
century,) but also a fact concerning this true Church, which
might seem prima, facie altogether unchronological, as it was
only to be realized at the consummation, — viz. the ultimate
salvation of all its aggregated generations.1 A consumma-
1 The identity of the aggregated sealed ones and the palm-bearers has been already
proved. See p. 258 supra. — So the ancient expositor Berengaud, as I see, explains the
symbols. " Per 144,000 electi, qui in ecclesia Dei singulis temporibus laborant, de-
signantur : et quia in comparatione reproborum exigua est turba electorum, non
immerito numero 144,000 designatur. In coelesti vero beatitudine, ubi singulis
temporibus ex omnibus gentibus tribubus et Unguis congregantur, tanta eorum
efficitur multitudo, ut nullo numero comprehendi possit."
The difference of number between the sealed ones and the palm-bearers was after
wards beautifully illustrated by the form of the heavenly Jerusalem, a later symbol
of the same collective body of the redeemed in their heavenly glory : — it being a cube

278 apoc vn. [part i.
tion, let it be observed, not to happen till after some great
intervening tribulation, the same doubtless that had been
pre-intimated to the souls under the altar,1 in other words
that of the times of Antichrist : it being after it, according
to the presbyter-informant's declaration,2 that their intro
duction was to take place, whether as palm-bearing con
querors,3 after the Roman similitude, or palm-bearing pil
grims after the Jewish,* into the divine presence.
In truth, it is doubtless very mainly from this evident
figuring in the palm-bearing vision of things that were to
happen at the consummation, that many expositors have
adopted views different from my own of the Apocalyptic
structure ; views such as to refer the whole sixth Seal, its
sealing and palm-bearing Visions inclusive, (just as well as
the last Trumpet and last Vial,) to the time of the end. —
whose height and length and breadth were equal ; whereas each living generation of
the sealed ones was but a square number, viz. 144, or 12 times 12 chiliads. See
Apoc. xxi. 16.
1 It was said unto them that they should wait " until their brethren, that were to
be slain even as they, should be completed." Which words implied a second term
of tribulation, as well as second body of martyrs, to succeed after that of the per
secutions of Pagan Rome. See pp. 213 — 217, supra.—" The great" tribulation is a
term of comparison evidently with some other previous and less tribulation ; and
might imply its being the longer as well as fiercer tribulation of the two. Such is
the force of the word in the case of the Jews' great tribulation. Compare Matt.
xxiv. 21 with Luke xxi. 24. — As to the historical fact, see what Gibbon says at the
conclusion of his chapter on the Pagan Persecutions, about the superior greatness of
those that Christians suffered from Papal (so called) Christians, ii. 495, 496.
2 The circumstance of St. John's instruction by one of the presbyters, as to the
meaning of the palm-bearers in the vision, (certainly a remarkable circumstance,)
might perhaps be meant to indicate the scriptural source of the doctrine thus mani
fested : in other words, that it would be derived from the scriptures of the twelve
apostles : the same that, as I conceive, might be symbolized by twelve of the twenty-
four Presbyters, as the heads of the New Testament Church.
3 In Roman medals a palm-branch is the perpetual symbol of victory : and hence
was sometimes sculptured on the tombs of the dead, to betoken the soul's entrance
into Elysium. So on that of the Nasoni, in Montfaucon v. 102. — Similarly on the
early martyrs' tombs in the Roman catacombs palm-branches were often sculptured,
in token of their then heavenly triumph and joy. See an example in the Epitaph
of a Christian martyr, taken from Boldetti ; in my examination of the Church
Scheme of the Seals, given in the Appendix to my 4th Volume.
4 Compare Lev. xxiii. 34 — 43 ; " The fifteenth day of the seventh month shall be
the feast of tabernacles :. . . . And ye shall take you branches of palm-trees, and shall
rejoice before the Lord seven days:.. .. And ye shall dwell in booths seven days,
all that are Israelites : that your generations may know that I made the children of
Israel dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt."— Compare
too Isa. xii. 3, " With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation :" — a
figure drawn from the same festival. Also Isa. xxxv. 1 — 10 ; " The wilderness and
the solitary place shall be glad for them, &c. &c. And the ransomed of the Lord
shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads :
they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." So
again Isa. xxv, 8, &c. — Compare too 1 Mace. xiii. 51.

ch. vii. §4.] Christ's church of the sealed ones. 279
Now that this structure cannot be the true one, follows as
a necessary consequence from the proof of my explanation
of all that precedes : (supposing only that that proof be
deemed satisfactory :) not to note other clear evidence
against the theory, which will however be given by me
fully elsewhere.1 And I wish besides to add (and I beg
the reader's particular attention to it) that there exists, if I
mistake not, in the palm-bearing vision itself an internal
mark, clear and distinct, though hitherto unobserved by
expositors, indicative of the Vision being necessarily, so as
I explain it, one prospective and anticipative of a futurity
still distant at the aera of the tempest-angels and the sealing.
The mark is this, — that there is no change in the general
Apocalyptic scenery during its exhibition, correspondent with
that new state of things which is to be introduced at the
actual time of the consummation, and of the saints entering
on their heavenly blessedness. The emblematic inner
temple, depicted before St. John on the Apocalyptic
visions first opening, and which afterwards continued in
view as the perpetual foreground of the scene, with its
twenty-four presbyters and four living creatures, the re
presentatives of the separate spirits of the just, in their
time of waiting and expectation, around the throne of
God and the Lamb,2 still continued throughout this palm-
bearing Vision, just as before, in the heavenly foreground.
Nor again is a hint given of any happy change taking place
cotemporarily in the visible terrene landscape. There the
angels of the winds seem to have remained still each in his
quarter ; all ready, as before, to let slip the winds in their
fury, the instant that the Almighty restraint upon them
might be removed. — Whereas, when the occasion came for
representing, in its true order of time, the actual realization
of this blessed consummation, there was instantly a corre
sponding change in all the visible scenery ; a change such
as not the propriety alone, but indeed the very necessity
of the case required. Instead of the representative pres-
1 Viz. in my Examination of the Church Scheme of the Seals, referred to in the
Note next but one preceding, as given in the Appendix to my 4th Volume. The
important fact of the sealing vision being interposed between the earthquake of
the 6th Seal and the palmbearing vision has been already noticed. See p. 236
supra. 2 See pp. 81—88.

280 apoc. vn. [part i.
byters and living creatures then observing any more their
posture of quiescent waiting, new thrones were seen set ;
and on them the King of kings, the Lord Jesus, took seat,
together with all the saints, whom these presbyters and
living creatures had hitherto represented, for his assessors.1
Moreover the New Jerusalem appeared descending upon
earth, with the visible glory of God enlightening it; a glory
then no longer hidden within a temple- wall's covering:2
and there was a new heaven and a new earth, the former
things having passed away.3 — So that, whatever the pecu
liarity of the case, the palm-bearing vision, if judged of
simply by the light of its own internal evidence, could not
depict the saints' consummation of blessedness at the real
time of its accomplishment in the calendar of the Apocalyptic
chronology. It could only be, so as I have supposed it, a
prospective vision of the final salvation of the sealed ones of
the mystic Israel, given anticipatively to St. John, from the
earlier Apocalyptic epoch of the tempest-threatenings and
sealing. — Is it asked, Why such a vision here alone, and
not elsewhere, — the answer will be found, if I mistake not,
in the circumstance of St. John seeing it as a symbolic or
representative man ; and of its importance, indeed neces
sity, as will soon appear, in order to the complete figuring
of a certain doctrinal truth, revealed at the real sera of the
tempest and the sealing vision, to those whom he here thus
symbolically represented.
Now as to the fact that the Evangelist saw, heard, and
acted too as a representative man on the scene of vision, I
have already hinted it in the Introduction ;4 and in the
vision of the souls under the altar 5 have applied and ex
emplified the idea. It is here first, however, that its ap
plication becomes a point of exceeding importance as a
principle of apocalyptic interpretation. Which being so, I
think it may be well, before proceeding, to pause a while ;
and to illustrate the nature and truth of the principle by
examples from the older prophecy.

1 Apoc. xx. 4.
2 Apoc. xxi. 22 : " And I saw no temple therein ; for the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb are the temple of it." 3 Apoc. xxi. 1.
4 p. 96. 6 pp. 210 et seq.

ch.vii.§4.] Christ's church of the sealed ones. 281
It is to be observed then, as remarked long since by
Irenseus, that the ancient prophets fulfilled their office of
predicting, not merely in the verbal delivery of predictions,
but by themselves seeing, hearing, or acting out the things
in type, which were afterwards to be seen, heard, or acted
out by others in reality : — and this whether in real life, or
perchance in vision. In all which cases they were to be
considered, as they are called in Isaiah2 and in Zechariah,3
nyiaia, mophthim ; that is, figurative or representative
persons. Thus, to begin with their actings in this character in real
life, when Isaiah went barefoot, and without his sackcloth-
garment, for three days, or years, it was for a sign
of the men of Egypt and Ethiopia soon walking similarly
unclothed, as captives to the king of Assyria.4 — When
Jeremiah made yokes, and wore them on his neck in pub
lic, he typified, as he declared, the kings and people of
Moab, Edom, Tyre, Sidon, that were soon about to come
under the yoke of the king of Babylon.5 — When Ezekiel,
having portrayed on a tile the city Jerusalem, laid siege
thereto by casting up a mound, setting a camp, and plant
ing battering rams against it, he figured, as was evident,
Nebuchadnezzar and his besieging army.6 Again when,
as described elsewhere, he publicly prepared his stuff by
day for removing through the wall in the twilight, and then
carried the stuff forth thereby, as those that flee from cap
tivity, he represented the Jews seeking to escape on the
capture of Jerusalem by the enemy.7 And most generally
indeed it was these, their own people, that the prophets in
cases typified.
Next, and in nearer parallel with the case of the apostle
1 Lib. iv. ch. 37. " Non enim solo sermone prophetabant Prophetae, sed et
visione, et conversatione, et actibus quos faciebant, secundum id quod suggerebat
Spiritus :  quae quidem videnda erant videntes, quae vero audienda erant ser
mone praeconantes, quae vero agenda erant operatione perficientes ; universa vero
prophetice annuntiantes."
2 Is. viii. 18 ; " Behold I and my children are for signs and for wonders in Israel,
from the Lord of Hosts." On which Patrick observes, " The word mophthim, trans
lated wonders, signifies here more properly types or figures." So too Gesenius in
verb, nDiji, " typical or symbolical men ; " " symbols of future events."
3 iii. 8 ; where the word is rendered in our version, men wondered at. — Compare
also Ezek. xii. 11;" Say I am your sign : like as I have done, so shall it be done
to them." 4 Is. xx. 2. See Vitringa or Bp. Lowth in loc.
5 Jer. xxvii. 2, &c. 6 Ezek. iv. 1, &c. 7 Ezek. xii. 3—7.

282 apoc vii, [parti.
St. John hearing, speaking, and acting representatively,
so as we presume him to have done in the Apocalyptic
visions, take we cases where the ancient prophets acted as
mophthim, even while rapt in vision. — Such then, 1st, is
the example at the beginning of Isaiah's prophecy. In that
early vision with which he was favoured of Jehovah, upon a
throne high and lifted up,1 we read of his being solemnly
commissioned as a prophet, (after previous purification,
through the application of a live coal from the altar,) and then
receiving the charge, "Make the heart of this people fat
and their ears heavy ; lest they see with their eyes, and
convert, and be healed." On which the question and an
swer that followed, — " Then said I, Lord, how long ? and
he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant,
and the land be utterly desolate," — shewed that the terms
of the commission extended to times long subsequent to
the prophet's own life, even up to the destruction of Jeru
salem ; and so had reference not to Isaiah himself only,
but to the succession of Prophets long after : — that pro
phetic line of which, as measured from the epoch of Israel's
casting off in Isaiah's days, Isaiah may properly be regarded
as the representative and head. — Again in some of the
latter chapters of Isaiah's pfophecy, especially the 63rd
and 64th, another notable exemplification occurs.2 Eapt
into future times, the prophet seems here almost to lose
his own personality™ His mind and soul being thrown,
as it were, into that of the Jewish people, such as it will
be developed at the crisis of their restoration, whatever he
sees, hears, or speaks, is as their impersonator. It is in
this character that he sees and speaks with the Eedeemer
coming from Bozrah ; in this that he mourns over the then
state of Jerusalem, " Zion a wilderness, Jerusalem a deso
lation, our holy and beautiful house burned up with fire ; "
in this that he expresses both remorse for the past, and
concomitant relentings and penitential prayers. — To which
we may add yet again the case of Ezekiel prophesying to the
dry bones in the valley of vision ; at which prophesying the
bones began to move and come together : all this being in
1 Is. vi. 1, &c. - Irenaaus, ubi supri, makes Isaiah here symbolic, but somewhat
differently. 2 I think Hengstenberg has vindicated these latter chapters, as Isaiah's ev eKOTao-ei.

ch. vii. § 4.] Christ's church of the sealed ones. 283
type of Israel's latter-day restoration, at the voice of gospel-
preachers of that latter day, Ezekiel's successors in the
prophetic office.1 — And so much the same,' once more, in
Zechariah's vision of Joshua the High Priest before Jeho
vah's bar in heaven.2
Thus, I think, we have all that can be needful to satisfy us
on the soundness of the hermeneutic principle in question.
And, its soundness and propriety thus established, how
can the thought help striking us, with reference to its ap
plication to the visions of the Apocalypse, that if important
to the understanding of other Scripture prophecy, it must
be pre-eminently so in the Apocalyptic : — seeing that,
whereas other prophetic visions were insulated and de
tached, those of the Apocalypse form a continuous chrono
logical series : so that at each chief crisis in the history of
the true Christian church and ministry, we must expect
St. John in his seeings and doings to enact a varying re
presentative part ; accordantly with the seeings and doings
of those represented by him at each sera respectively. — Thus
the principle will be no barren one, such as it has been in
the hands of the older interpreters Tichonius, Primasius,
Andreas of Ceesarea, Ambrosius Ansbertus, &c ; and of
certain modern expositors too of eminence, as Vitringa and
Daubuz, who, though recognizing the principle, have yet
altogether failed to work it out with consistency or advan
tage. In the present Commentary the reader has already
seen its use and truth, on a minor scale, in the vision of
the souls under the altar.3 Elsewhere, where St. John
is described as something more than a mere observer, he
will find it applied with results more new, striking, and
important, towards the elucidation of the prophecy. Most
of all this will appear in my explanation of" the present
two-fold Vision of the sealing and the palm-bearers ; and
1 Ezek. xxxvii. 7, &c.
2 Zech. iii. 8. For it was in the vision which Joshua was depicted as having had of
the Angel Jehovah that he was told, " Hear now, Joshua, thou and thy fellows are
mophthim ; " — i. e. figurative men. After which followed the prophecy of the Branch,
and then the vision of the golden candlestick and two olive trees : to which latter
vision it will be necessary to revert when considering the description of the two Apoca
lyptic Witnesses in Apoc. xi. 4. — In Dr. McCaul's edition of Kimchi on Zechariah,
there is given a very interesting and elaborate explanation of the prophecy in Zech.
xi, of the shepherd priced at thirty pieces of silver, on this same principle, pp. 138
—146. 3 See p. 210 supra.

284 apoc vii. [part i.
in that of the later Vision of the rainbow-crowned Angel
in Apoc. x, xi ; the latter the very fellow or sister-vision,
if I may so say, to the former.
For, as regards the twofold vision now under considera
tion if the sealing vision first seen by him was one figura
tive, not of events cognizable in real life by mortal eyes, or
of the visible actings on the Eoman mundane scene of a
visible Providence, but of certain invisible and spiritual
actings by Christ Jesus, whereby to constitute and mark
out for himself an election of grace, as his true Israel from
amidst the professing, his spiritual Church from amidst the
formal, — then the Evangelist's seeing this must have indi
cated a perception on the part of apostolic men of the de
picted &ra, such as he was then impersonating, of those self
same spiritual actings of Christ ; and of the so constituted
true Church of the elect. — Moreover the added palm-bear
ing vision must have indicated that the view of Christ's true
Church, thus strikingly revealed to those whom St. John
here represented, embraced the far future, as well as the
present : — the perpetuation of this true Church in its inte
grity, amidst the already-gathering tempests of the political
world, and through the great predicted tribulation of the
coming apostacy and Antichrist; (a perpetuation of it
which forms a prominent subject in fact in all the subse
quent figuration of the Apocalypse ;J) and, in fine, the
1 For these 144,000, or sealed ones, God's election of grace, are alluded to after
wards as a succession still existing on the earthly scene, undestroyed by the tem
pests of the four first trumpets,* in contrast with the perpetual succession, generation
after generation, of what are called the inhabitants of the earth, or. children of this
world, alike at the opening of the judgments of the fifth Trumpet, + and also both
¦ during, and up to the close of, the Beast Antichrist's reign.} Further, on the blast
* The correspondence of the fearful tempests which, on the soundings of the four
first Trumpets, after the seventh Seal's opening, fell upon the Roman earth, trees,
sea, and shy, (viii. 7, &c.) with those which the four angels of the winds pictured in
this viith chapter were, just before that Seal's opening, spoken of as destined to
cause, — the commission of these latter being (so soon as the time of respite was
ended) to " blow on the earth, trees, and sea," — is almost too obvious to need
suggestion to the reader.
•f On the fifth Trumpet sounding, the scorpion-locusts, that constituted its woe,
are said to have had the charge given them to " hurt only those men that had not
the seal of God in their foreheads : " — a charge implying that there were others on
the scene of action who bore that seal's impress, and were not to be hurt.
t Apoc. xiv. 1 ; " I looked, and lo a Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with him
144,000, having his Father's name written on their foreheads." This is in contra
distinction to the mass of the Apocalyptic earth's inhabitants, that had the Beast's
name and mark on their right hand or foreheads (xiii. 16.); and consequently, in
respect of time, a symbolization synchronous with the Beast's reign.

ch. vii. § 4.] Christ's church of the sealed ones. 285
realization by the whole collective body of its many suc
cessive generations, and by each and all of its individual
members, of the blessedness of accomplished salvation, and
glory of the beatific vision.
And can it be shown then that there were those of the
true apostolic line and ministry, at the close of the 4th
century, to whom a revelation about Christ's true Church,
as thus distinct from the professing, thus constituted, thus
characterized, thus tried, thus preserved, even unto the end,
was thus strikingly given : — a revelation so remarkable in
itself, and so important in its results, as well to mark it out
as a fit subject of Apocalyptic prefiguration ? We ask the
question ; and the answer is given decisively and at once
in the single word, Augustine.
Let me 1st briefly note the chief events of the life of
this eminent servant of God, in chronological order ; 2ndly
the view communicated to him of Christ's true Church,
(that which may be called characteristically Augustinian,)
in the various points of view we have been considering.
1. As to the chronology of Augustine's life, the dates
of its chief epochs may be stated as follows.1 He was born
near Hippo, in North Africa* A.D. 354, during the reign
of Constantius. He went to Eome, and thence to Milan,
A.D. 383, 385 ; shortly after the fatal battle of Adriano-
ple had, agreeably with the Apocalyptic prefiguration, es
tablished the Gothic hosts on the Eoman earth :2 (that
of the seventh Trumpet, they are described as all, both dead and living, being about
collectively to receive reward, on Christ's taking the kingdom ; the identity of the
rewarded ones of that final Trumpet with the sealed ones of chap, vii being evinced
by their having attached to them the same designatives, elsewhere attached to the
144,000 also, of God's saints and servants :* and finally, as already elsewhere noted.-f
their constituting the whole citizen population of the New Jerusalem.
1 I follow the dates given in the Life prefixed to the last Volume of the Benedic
tine Edition of Augustine; Paris, 1836; to which Edition my subsequent references
are made.
2 " I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four
* Compare Apoc. vii. 3, " till we have sealed the servants of God in their fore
heads," with what is said viii. 3, just after the sealing and palm-bearing visions, of
the " prayers of all the saints;" evidently meaning those of the sealed ones. (So too
xiii. 7, 10, xiv. 12, &c.) Also Apoc. xi. 18 : " The time is come that thou shouldest
give reward unto thy servants, the prophets, and the saints, and them that fear thy
name, both small and great :" — in which passage I think the expression, " thy ser
vants,' ' was intended to include not the prophets only, but the rest of the saints,
also specified. t See p. 258 supri.

286 apoc vii. [parti.
"tempest of barbarians '' which, to use Gibbon's illustrative
words yet again, "was so soon to subvert the foundations of
Eoman greatness :") and when Theodosius, raised up by an
extraordinary intervention of Providence for the purpose,
had been enabled, still accordantly with the prophecy, effec
tually to arrest them. There and then he heard the Bishop
of Milan, Ambrose ; and was converted, and baptized. This
was between the years 385 and 387. In 388 he returned, a
changed man, and with changed views, to Carthage; was in
391 ordained Presbyter, and in 395 Bishop of Hippo, near
Carthage ; the last shortly after the death of Theodosius.
His episcopate and life continued for near thirty-five years
afterwards. At length, just when the tempests that had
during that time been desolating the European or land
provinces of the empire, crossing the sea, began to make
their ravages felt in the African transmarine province also,1
— the great work assigned him by his Divine Master hav
ing been completed, — even as if the tempests' reaching him
had been the signal preordained of his death, he was taken
from the evil to come, and fell asleep in Jesus, A.D. 430.
2. As to his most characteristic views of divine truth,
we find them from the very first2 to have had reference to
two things, and those the self-same two things that are
most prominent in the Apocalyptic visions before us ; —
viz. 1st, that of Christ's true Church being that of real
spiritual believers, simply and alone, contradistinctively not
merely to heathens, heretics, and schismatics, but also to the
mere formal professing corporate Church of the baptized ;
and, 2ndly, of the origin and formation of this true Church
being the work of divine sovereign grace : — of grace
electing, preventing, quickening, illuminating, adopting,
saving : saving alike from sin's dominion, and from all other
real evils of this life,3 and saving unto the end. So copious
winds," &c. — Compare Ezek. vii. 2 ; "An end is come on the four corners of the
land : " said with reference to the time when the woe had actually arrived there.
1 " Hurt not the land, nor the sea, till we have sealed," &c. Apoc. vii. 3.
2 His earliest Treatise, according to the Chronology of his Life by the Benedic
tines, was the " De Moribus Ecclesia: Catholico?,," written A.D. 388, before returning
from Italy to Carthage. Also in 394, while yet a Presbyter among other works,
he published his " Inchoata Expositio " on the Epistle to the Romans, and his Ex
position of the Epistle to the Galatians. The reader should bear these dates in'mind,
when reference is made to these Treatises. 3 See p. 290, Note *, infra.

ch. vn. §4.] Christ's church of the sealed ones. 287
is he on this subject, and so much is it his own, that his
name has in fact been associated with it in all subsequent
ages ; — I mean his own, in contradistinction to other co-
temporary or preceding human teachers of theology. For
from the time of Justin Martyr, downward, this doctrine
of grace had been by the doctors of the Church very par
tially propounded and obscurely taught.1 — The manner in
which he was himself prepared by Divine Providence to
understand and feel its truth and value, and the manner
in which by the same Providence he was led zealously and
effectively to advocate it, alike deserve notice. Born of a
Christian mother, and at one time anxious while a boy for
Christian baptism, (it was on occasion of a dangerous ill
ness,) his wish was strangely not complied with ; the danger
of sin after baptism, according to the current superstition
of the day, constituting an objection in the minds of his
parents.2 So that he grew up into life not even by bap
tism, or outward profession, a Christian. In the course of
his youth and early manhood that followed, he tells us in
his Confessions how he was led captive by his lusts : and
then how, in the desolation of a mind dark, restless, and
unhappy, he wandered into speculations on man's forma
tion, and the origin of evil ; and at length in the sensual
and fatalistic doctrines of Manicheism,3 — doctrines which
alike did away with all idea of holiness and love attaching
to God, and of moral guilt and responsibility attaching to
sinful man, — sought refuge from himself, but in vain. It
was in this state of heathenism, sensuality, hardness of
heart, and philosophic pride and darkness, that he visited
1 So Milner, p. 297, remarks that Chrysostom, in commenting on that passage
' Not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,' &c, " introduces the doctrine of
free-will in the same manner as most of the Fathers who spoke of it at all, from the
days of Justin, and observes that the whole is said to be of God because the greater
part is." At p. 276 he remarks the same of Ambrose. — Compare Justin Martyr's 2nd
Apology,p. 80; (Ed. Colon.) and Tertuliian adv. Marc. ii. 5 ; on the subject of free-will.
In Mr. Faber*s historical Work on the Primitive Doctrine of Election, the patristic
novelty of the Augustinian doctrine is the foundation of his argument. He appeals
against it to pure primitive consenting antiquity. But where, let me ask, was the
doctrine of pure antiquity to be found, except in the apostolic writings ? seeing that
the leaven of the apostacy was to begin its insidious working in the Church visible
even from apostolic times ?
2 So he tells us in his Confessions i. ii ; " quia videlicet post lavacrum illud major
et periculosior in sordibus delictorum reatus foret."
3 A sketch of this doctrine, very much drawn from Augustine, will be found in a
later portion of this work. See my paper No. 2, in the Appendix to Vol. 2.

288 apoc vn. [part i.
Milan, and heard, and was converted to Christianity. Thus
was he plucked like a brand out of the burning ; and made
to feel in his own experience, while yet unbaptized, both
the truth of God's free, sovereign, converting grace, and
the truth too of God's true Church being constituted dis
tinctively and only of those that had felt and been sancti
fied by the same divine influence.1 And so he began, we
find, very early afterwards, (in fact ere the fury of the
barbarian tempests had yet been let loose on Eoman Christ
endom,) both to preach, and to write, on this subject of
God's free grace towards his true Church ;2 and about that
true Church as thus chosen, thus sanctified, thus sealed
with God's likeness. Very soon the view of the final
perseverance of the saints was added to his other views of
Divine grace :3 just as figured in the vision of the palm-
bearers; " After this I beheld, and lo a great multitude," &c.
— A few years later the diffusion of the Pelagian heresy of
free-will drew from him argumentative and copious disser-.
tations on the whole subject : and, under his direction,
ecclesiastical Councils were induced solemnly to condemn
the Pelagian error ; and solemnly at the same time to re
cognize the doctrines of God's grace to his true Church.4
— ^Further, on occasion of Alaric's capture of Eome, A.D.
410, the heathens that remained having cast reproach on
Christianity, as if the cause of the catastrophe, and Chris
tians too being disappointed and in bitterness, such as had
1 So in his De Mor. Eccl. Cath. c. 34, he charges the Manichees to whom it was
addressed, not to object to what he said of real vital Christianity, the evil morals or
superstitions of many professors of the Christian name. Says he ; " Novi turmas
imperitorum  qui vel in ipsi vera religione superstitiosi sunt, vel ita libidinibus
dediti ut obliti sint quid promiserint Deo. Novi multos esse sepulchrorum et pic-
turarum adoratores, &c : " (a passage which I shall refer to again on Apoc. viii. 3 :)
and he adds that these were but the tares among the wheat, or but chaff in the
threshing-floor. As to the true servants of God, it was all (c. 10) through Christ the
power of God and the wisdom of God, (the light which was the life of men,) that the
life is given : love of God being the master-principle infused in the heart, because
he first loved us ; and God's own likeness the seal stamped by the Holy Spirit.
2 See, for example, his Expositio quarundum Propositionum ex Epistold ad Ro
manes, written while he was yet a Presbyter, 1, 7, 8, &c.
3 In later years, when charged with innovation on the doctrines of grace, election,
and perseverance, he says that he wrote on the subject as early as the beginning of
his bishoprick-, A.D. 395. See Tom. xiii. col. 1434, 1435 ; also col. 1353, 1354, &c : in
his Treatises on the Predestination of the Saints. Compare his Comment on the EpisUe
to the Galatians, written in 394, ch. 31, 40, 46, 61, where the same views appear.
'So the Councils of Carthage, held A.D. 412 and 416. See Harduin, i. 1214,
and for Rome's primary anti-Pelagian declaration, Hard. i. 1255; also Mosheim v.
2. 5. 23, 24. — Milner, p. 322, notes, as I do, God's Providence in the matter.

CH.VII.§4.] CHRISTS CHURCH OF THE SEALED ONES. 289
entertained hopes and opinions, like Eusebius before them,1
that there would attach a preservative virtue to the Eoman
Empire in the fact of its political and professed Christiani
zation, — he was led to write his great work on the City of
God :2 (of the main idea in which work we see the germ
even in his earliest Treatises :) it being his object therein to
distinguish this city, commonwealth, or kingdom of God,
from the city, commonwealth, or kingdom of this world,
alike in respect of its constituency, character, privileges,
present state, home, destiny : — its constituency, the whole
body (not of the circumcised,3 or baptized, or professing,
many of whom though called were not chosen* but) of the
predestinated and elect by God's sovereign grace ; their
character, that of the love of God, contradistinctively to
the love of self and this world ;5 their privilege, that of
being enlightened, quickened, sanctified, and saved by the
same divine grace, even to the end ; their state in this
world that of pilgrims and strangers, with warfare and tri
bulation here appointed them ; but with the assured hope
of being all gathered at length to their heavenly home, in
the Saviour's presence. In short it was the very embody
ing of the idea of the 144,000 elect sealed ones of the Apo
calyptic vision into a corporate form ; and both historically,
1 See pp. 240, 241 supra. — In a wTork by Cosmas Indicopleustes, of the later date
of Justinian, I find him declaring that the Roman Empire, being identified with
Christianity, and in fact Daniel's kingdom of the saints, (Dan. vii. 24,) would be
eternal. B. ii. p. 147.
2 De Civitate Dei. Our word city can scarcely convey the idea that civitas does,
of a community, or state, made up of its citizens. 3 Under the law.
4 So, for example, in C. D. xviii. 49, headed, " De indiscreta multiplicatione Ec
clesia?, qua in hoc saeculo multi reprobi miscentur electis." &c. Also ib. 51. 2;
" Multi sunt intus qui corda pie viventium suis perditis moribus cruciant." — In
C. D. xx. 7. 3, he distinguishes between the regenerate (by baptism), and the elect
(the citizens of the Jerusalem above) ; saying that the former are often seduced by
the devil, i. e. to perdition, the elect never. See too, Vol. iv. 2508, in his Tract on
1 John ii. 18, § 5, " They went out from us because they were not of us ; " " Multi
qui non sunt ex nobis accipiunt nqbiscum sacramenta, accipiunt baptismum,..et
quidquid in sacramentis Sanctis est, ipsius altaris communicationem accipiunt nobis-
cum, — et non sunt ex nobis." Again De Correp. et Grat. c. 21, 22 (Vol. xiii.
1297) ; " Fuerunt ergo isti ex multitudine vocatorum ; ex paucitate electorum non
fuerunt " Also Epis. 93, Vol. ii. 366, &c. &c.
5 C. D. xiv. 28 ; " Fecerunt civitates duas amores duo : terrenam scilicet amor
sui, usque ad contemptum Dei ; celestemvere amor Dei, usque ad contemptum sui."
And on Psalm lxiv. § 2 : " Duas istas civitates faciunt duo amores - Jerusalem facit
amor Dei; Babyloniam facit amor seculi:" adding, "Multi cives sanctae matris
Jerusalem cupiditatibus Babyloniae corrupti tenentur.. . Sed novit Dominus, conditor
Jerusalem, quos cives ejus praedestinaverit, quos videat adhuc sub dominate Diaboli,
redimendos sanguine Christi." (Vol. v. 898.) So too in the Treatise. De Genesi
ad Litt. xi. 20. (Vol. iii. 452.)
VOL. I. U

290 apoc vii. [part i,
with regard to the past, and prophetically with regard to
the future, the tracing out of their fortunes in this world
and the next, contradistinctively to those of the kingdom
of this world; and its citizens.
Even in regard of details, it will be found, his descrip
tion of this body of the elect agrees most exactly with that
in the symbolic visions under consideration. He speaks
of them as not merely elect Israelites,1 but specifically as
God's twelve tribes of election out of Israel's twelve profess
ing tribes ;2 and further too, as of the constituency of the
New Jerusalem.3 He asserts their inviolability, as God's
sealed ones, from real injury by the Devil, or any of his
instruments.4 He notes the number as a number definite,5
and answering, while on earth, to the Apocalyptic 144,000 :6
moreover as one, though small in comparison at any given
period with the number of the reprobate,7 yet in itself and
in the aggregate very large ; indeed, (for more than once
he quotes in proof the very words of the palm-bearing
1 So on Psalm xlix. § 14 : " Israel nomen electionis est : " Psalm cxiii. § 2,
" Nullus Christianorum se a nomine Israel arbitretur alienum:" C D. xx. 21,
" Fratres electorum Israelitarum." &c.
2 On Psalm cxxi, " Thither the tribes go up," § 8 ; " Duodecim tribus erant po-
puli Israel; sed erant ibi mali, et erant ibi boni. .. Quid est tribus Domini ? Quae
cognoverunt Dominum. Ex ipsis enim duodecim tribubus malis erant ibi boni de
bonis tribubus ; . . et ipsa erant grana inter Mas tribus, qua? inter paleas commixta
sunt. Ascenderunt autem non cum paleis, sed tribus purgatae, electae, quasi tribus
Domini." Again on Psalm cxxxiv. § 7, he distinguishes the " Israel Dei," or
" Israel pertinentem ad Deum."
3 " Civitatem sanctam Jerusalem, quae nunc in Sanctis fidelibus est diffusa per
terras : " C. D. xx. 21.3 : — including, as another part of its citizens, the saints and
angels above : " Est in coelo aeterna nostra Jerusalem, ubi sunt cives nostri angeli,"
&c. Ps. cxxi. § 2. So too in his early work on the Epistle to the Galatians c. 24.
4 C. D. xviii. 51. 1 ; " Diabolus, princeps impiae civitatis, adversus peregrinantem
in hoc mundo Civitatem Dei, vasa propria commovendo, nihil ei nocere permitti-
tur :" and in C. D. i. 10 he particularizes, in stating that the good had lost nothing
in the taking of Rome. — Again in Tract. 50 on John xi. 55, he says, " Signum
Christi & nobis repellit exterminatorem, si cor nostrum habeat Christum habitato-
rem," with allusion to the destroying Angel of Exod. xii : contrasting this with the
mere outward signature in baptism ; " Multi facile habent in fronte signum Christi,
et corde non recipiunt verbum Christi." In Sermon 156. 16, he speaks of the Spirit
of adoption, sealing true Christians, as their arrhabo or pledge of salvation : his being
the " unctio spiritualis, (Vol. iv. 2509) cujus sacramentum est in unctione visibili."
5 E. g. Epist. 186, 25 ; " Certus est ergo Dei praescientise definitus numerus,
et multitudo sanctorum : quibus diligentibus Deum omnia co-operantur in bonum.
Quos enim praedestinavit," &c. Also De Corrept. et Gratia, 40 ; " Numerus sancto
rum per Dei gratiam Dei regno praedestinatus, donata sibi etiam usque in finem per-
severantia, illuc integer perducetur, et illic integerrimus jam sine fine certissimum
servabitur : adhasrente sibi misericordia Salvatoris sui, sive ciim convertuntur, sive
cum praliantur, sive cum coronantur."
.6 De Doctr. Christ, iii. 51 ; " Centum quadraginta quatuor (mille), quo numero
significatur universitas sanctorum in Apocalypsi." 7 Epist. 93. 30, &c.

CH.VII. §4.] Christ's CHURCH OF THE SEALED ONES. 291
vision,) as a number numberless.1 He speaks of them as
to be gathered out of all nations and kindreds and tribes ;2
and of -the remaining time consequently of the Church's
pilgrimage and tribulation, including specially that of An
tichrist's predicted persecution,3 as probably by no means
so short or near its ending, as Hesychius and others, like
many of the Fathers before them, had been led to expect.4
He describes them, moreover, as washed and made white
through the alone cleansing blood of Jesus :5 and, yet once
1 E. g. in his Sermons, 249, 250, on the narrative of the disciples fishing, given
in John xxi. 3 — 11 ; Vol. vii. pp. 1500, 1506. In this world, he says, speaking of
the mixed number of fish through which the ship was nearly sinking, the Church
(the visible Church) has in it many bad; " Turba turbavit ecclesiam : " — then, with
regard to the 153 fish drawn to land, that it represents the collective body of the
true saints, gathered together at the resurrection. "Tunc congregatio sanctorum
erit ; divisiones hereticorum non erunt. Pax erit, et perfecta unitas. Nemo minus,
nemo plus erit. Integer numerus erit. Sed valde pauci sunt, si 153 tantum sunt.
Absit a nobis ut tot soli sint in hac plebe : quanto magis in universa ecclesia Dei !
Apocalypsis ipsius Johannis Evangelistae ostendit visam fuisse tantam multitudinem
sanctorum, et in ilia aeternitate felicium, quantam numerare nemo possit.. . Et tamen
omnes ad numerum istum pertinet, 153." — So too Epist. 93. 30; where also (after
the clause referred to in my last Note) he refers to the palm-bearing vision's num
ber numberless ; " Millia quae numerare nemo potest videntur in Apocalypsi, in
stolis albis palmisque victricibus."
2 C. D. xix. 17 ; " Haec coelestis civitas (vel potius pars ejus quae in hac mortali-
tate peregrinatur) . . ,dum peregrinatur in terra, ex omnibus gentibus cives evocat, at
que in omnibus linguis peregrinam colligit societatem." — So too in his early com
ment on the Epist. ad Galat. c. 24 ; noting the ingathering as going on " usque in
finem. saeculi."
3 So on Psalm xlix. 22 ; " Cujus tribulationis ? Nostra peregrinationis." With
the constant trial of an antichristian world, in Augustine's sense of antichristian,
viz. as opposed to Christ, (so he explained the prophetic phrase,) and with the crown
ing tribulation of Antichrist's persecutions and reign, ere the close. " Martyrum
numerus complebitur Antichristi temporibus :" Vol. xii. 999. (Contra Gaudent) :
these martyrs being the final complement, he says, of the number afterwards to be
killed, referred to by the souls under the altar. — See also CD. xxi. 26. 4, &c.
4 So Epist. 93. 31 ; " Ecclesia, quae per omnes gentes crescit, in frumentis Do-
minicis conservata est; et usque in finem, donee omnino gentes omnes etiam bar-
baras teneat, conservabitur." Also Epist. 197 — 199, referred to by me in a later
Chapter ; expressing his conviction of the world not being then very near its end,
because the Gospel had not then by any means been preached to all nations. See
too his observations on Luke xii. 45, and Matt. xxiv. 42. See Part ii. ch. iii. infra.
5 " In Apocalypsi, revelante Angelo, Joannes vidit turbam multam quamdinu-
merare nemo poterat. Hanc requirens quaenam esset, responsum accepit, Hi sunt
qui laverunt stolas eorum, et Candidas eas fecerunt in sanguine Agni. Jam agnoscis,
anima Christiana, quemadmodum et tu ex illo sanguine efficiaris Candida : " &c.
Vol. ix. p. 1004. — The Benedictine Editors doubt this Treatise being Augustine's
If not, it was the treatise of an early Augustinian ; and agreeable with Augustine's"
own doctrine. So p. 1238, Vol. iii, citing Apoc. xxii. 14, as with the reading paKaptoi
ol irAvvovres ras oroAas avruv, he paraphrases, " Blessed are they that have washed
their robes ra the blood of the Lamb, that they may have right to the tree of life, and
to enter into the holy city." Again on Psalm ciii. §1.6; "Anima decora esse non
potes, nisi confessa fueris fceditatem ei qui semper pulcher. . . . Dicitur de te (Ecclesia)
Quce est ista quee ascendit dealbata ? Dealbata quia non per se alba. Accedit gratia
dealbans. Primo nigra fuisti, sed facta es alba ex gratia illius ; " — the grace of him
" qui pro impiis moreretur." — And again on John xix. 34, " Quid isto sanguine
U 2

292 apoc vir. [part i.
more, as in their heavenly blessedness destined to realize,
like the Apocalyptic palm-bearers, alike the type of Israel's
rest and festival-keeping in Canaan, after its long and
weary wilderness-wandering,1 and also the Paradisiacal
emblems in the Old Testament and Apocalyptic prefigura
tions of heaven ;2 there to see God,3 to drink of God's own
fountain of life and knowledge,4 and to have all tears wiped
by Him from their eyes.5
Such were Augustine's doctrinal views of divine grace ;
such of Christ's true Church of the election of grace ; doc
trines learnt not from patristic doctors, but, as he tells us,
from the apostolic Scriptures,6 (even as from one of the
enthroned presbyters in vision,)7 under the immediate re-
mundius ? " See too his remarks in C D. x. 22, 24 ; and those on Psalm cxxix. § 3,
where he descants on the Christian's propitiatory provided of God : "With thee is
propitiation." With all this contrast Tertullian's explanation of the Apocalyptic cleansing ;
" Multitudo albati, et palmis victoriae insignes, revelantur, sc. de Antichristo tri-
umphales ; sicut unus de Presbyteris, ' Hi sunt qui veniunt ex ilia pressura magna
&c.'.. ..Vestitus enim animae caro ; sordes quidem baptismate abluuntur; maculae
vero-martyrio candidantur." Scorp. adv. Gnostic, c. 12. — Compare too Ephrem
Syrus, cited p. 262 Note 5 supra. Also Ambros. de Myst. cap. 7. and Apol. David.
cap. 12, to the same effect.
1 So Tract xxviii. on John vii. § 9, "The Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand : "
where he compares the Christian's course through this world to Israel's through the
wilderness ; and observes that as Christ's time, so the Church's time for celebrating
that festival, is not till its arrival in a better world. Vol. iv. pp. 2002, 2003. So
again Psalm lxxii. 5 ; " Quidquid in eremo passus est ille populus, et quidquid eis
Deus largitus est, .. signiflcationes sunt rerum quas in solitudine hujus vitae ambu-
lantes in Christo, quaerentes patriam, accipimus ad consolationem, et patimur ad pro-
bationem." 2 C. D. xx. 26. 1 ; " Illud tempus. . . . nulli tempori comparandum est nisi quando
primi homines in Paradiso ante praevaricationem innocentissima felicitate vixerunt."
This of their freedom from sin. — Then he applies to it Isaiah's prophecies about the
new heaven and earth, Isa. lxv, lxvi; " Perlsaiam, inter caeteraquae ibi de sanctorum
beatitudine per allegorias et aenigmataexsequitur," &c. So again C. D. xxii. 3. — See
too the exquisite passage in his De Cantico Novo, Vol. ix. 1000 ; " patria cujus
cives angeli, &c."
3 " Locus qui promittitur tam pacatae ac securae habitationis aeternus est  ubi
erit veraciter populus Israel. Hoc enim nomen interpretatur Videns Deum."
4 " In illo regno quae bona accepturi sumus !. . Rerum ibi omnium quanta et quam
certa scientia ! ubi Dei sapientia de ipso suo fonte potabitur." &c. C. D. xxii. 24. 5.
6 CD. xx. 17 ; " In Libro Apocalypsis obscure multa dicuntur. . . Veriim in his ver
bis, ' Absterget Deus omnes lachrymas ah oculis eorum, et mors non erit, neque luc-
tus,' &e, tanta luce dicta sunt de seculo futuro, et immortalitate sanctorum, . . ut nulla
debeamus in litteris sacris quaerere vel legere manifesta, si haec praterimus obscura."
6 While faintly referring to three of the Fathers as having held the doctrine before
him, he rests on the Scripture's as his true authority: " Istam pradestinationem
quam secundum Scripturas defendimus." De Pradest. " Praedestinatio praedicanda
est, quemadmodum earn Sacra Scriptura evidenter eloquitur." — Writing to Prosper
and Hilary, he says that God will reveal the doctrine to them that pray for it. Ib.
i. 2. See Faber on Election, p. 123.
7 See August, in Ps. 121. § 9, where he speaks of the twelve apostles as on twelve
thrones of judgment in heaven.

CH.VI1.§4.J Christ's CHURCH OF THE SEALED ONES. 293
velation of the Holy Ghost : and to prefigure which revela
tion, — regarding as it did the future as well as present, the
saints'^naZ perseverance to salvation as well as their election
by grace, — there was needed, we now see, not the saints'
sealing vision alone, but the prospective vision of the palm-
bearing saints also, in their final triumph. — Indeed I must
beg the reader, ere he passes onward, just to pause and
think with himself, whether he can possibly imagine any two
symbolic figurations, that would more exactly symbolize the
doctrinal revelation made to Augustine, than these two that
were exhibited at the exactly correspondent epoch in the
Patmos visions, to the representative man St. John.
3. Finally, I have to observe on the manner in which,
through the divine overruling providence, it was both suit
able and effectual, even beyond Augustine's own intentions,
as an antidote with the faithful against the baptismal, as
well as other corruptions of the age. — In so far as contro
versy about it was concerned, Augustine's direct object was
not correction of the "baptismal and ritualistic errors, now
more and more prevailing, but of the Pelagian doctrines of
man's free-will, merit, and inherent inborn power for work
ing out his salvation. Indeed, though he distinguished care
fully, as may be seen, between baptismal regeneration and
the regeneration or conversion of the heart,1 — to which last
change personal faith in Christ was deemed by him essential,2
1 " In baptizatis infantibus praecedit regenerationis sacramentum ; et si Christi-
anam tenuerint pietatem sequetur etiam in corde conversio :. . . quibus rebus osten-
ditur aliud esse sacramentum baptismi, aliud conversionem cordis." Adding ; " Illud
(sacramentum baptismi) sine isto (conversione cordis) potest esse in infante, et hoc
sine illo potuit esse in latrone," &c. Contra Donat. iv. 31, 32. — See on this Faber
on Election, pp. 82 — 89. " Nothing is more evident," says Mr. Faber, p. 86, than
that what Augustine in the case of baptized infants styled conversion, is precisely
that moral change of disposition which Calvin universally and in all cases denominates
regeneration." The same is illustrated in Mr. Faber' s Work on Regeneration, pp.
67, 209, &c.
Compare what he says in his earliest Treatise, De Mor. Cath. Eccl. c. 80. " Illo
sacrosancto lavacro inchoatur innovatio novi hominis, ut proficiendo perficiatur, in
aliis citius, in aliis tardius : a multis tamen proceditur in novam vitam, si quisquam
non inimice, sed diligenter intendat." — Also in his next Treatise on the Epistle to the
Romans : " Many," says he, c. 16, insufficiently educated, after baptism " per igno-
rantiae tenebras vitam turpissime ducunt : nescientes omnino quid Christiana disci
plina jubeat aut vetet, quid polliceatur et quid minetur, quid credendum, quid
sperandum, quid diligendum."
2 " Sic enim caro nostra regenerabitur per incorruptionem, quemadmodum est
anima nostra regenerata -perfidem." C. D. xx. 5. 3. Also Epist. 217. 10 : " Vera-
cissima Scriptura dixit, omne quod non est ex fide peccatum est : " &c. Adding ;

294 apoc vn. [part i.
— though conscious, from observation of men around him,
that the baptized did not in the majority of cases profit
unto spiritual life,1 as well as of their abuse of the baptismal
rite, and on the other hand conscious from his own experi
ence,2 (as well as from the examples of the Ethiopian
eunuch and others,3) that spiritual life might be begun
before and independent of baptism, yet did he entertain a
high opinion of the benefits often conferred by baptism, or
rather by the Divine Spirit in baptism ; that is, if rightly
performed, and followed by faith in the recipient.4 And
thus it was that his doctrine of electing preserving grace
obtained a general sanction and credence in the professing
" Nihil sic agit Princeps tenebrarum ut non credatur in Deum, nee ad Mediatorem
credendo veniatur." To which effect our Homily on Faith also cites Augustine.
1 " Si non nascitur ex Spiritu nisi qui veraci conversione mutatur, omnes qui
saeculo verbis et non factis renunciant non utique de Spiritu, sed ex aqua sola nas-
cuntur." And again ; " In illis sunt quos Apostolus, jam per sacramentum Novi
Testamenti natos, adhuc tamen dicit animales non posse percipere quae sunt Spiritus
Dei." Contra Donat. i. 24. See too the extract given Note 4 p. 290 ; and others in
Faber on Regeneration, 57 &c.
2 Here we may mark the importance of the fact of his conversion taking place
before baptism. So he describes it distinctly in his Confessions, ix. 1, 4.
" Was it my will, or words, or deeds that have done it? No, but thou, Lord, good
and merciful, and thy right hand, looking at the dep'th of my death, and exhausting
the abyss of corruption from the bottom of my heart. In a moment I bowed my
neck to thy easy yoke, Christ Jesus my helper and Redeemer. Thou ejectedst those
delightful vanities, O my true delight, and enteredst in their room. I communed
with thee, my light, my riches, my Saviour, my God. ... I had tasted the internal
eternal life." (I have a little abridged) Afterwards follows an account of his bap
tism, but with no particular remarks on it. s Acts viii. 37, x. 47.
4 On infants he considered that it conferred justification from the birth-sin derived
from Adam, its guilt and its condemnation. So C. D. xxi. 16. (In which sense, I
presume, our Augustinian Homily also speaks of justification in baptism, not in any
other.) With regard to other sins, Augustine adds, that so soon as the child may
be of age to understand God's commands, the conflict must begin : and that sins
are not really overcome " nisi vera delectatione justitiae, in fide Christi." ibid. — In
the case of adults he considered that not only did this justification from original sin
accompany the sacrament, but much inward spiritual grace, provided the recipient
came in faith.
Mr. Faber in his Work on Election, p. 89, observes on this, Augustine's distinc
tion between the cases of infants and adults. — And would it not be well, let me ask,
in questions concerning the saving efficacy of baptism, and its necessary prerequisites,
to argue rather from the case of adults to that of infants, than vice versa, — from the
more plain to the more obscure ? — For example, (if I may be allowed the illustra
tion,) in Geometry we reason from the rectilinear to the curvilinear. What holds
true always of inscribed rectilinear figures, however its bounding right lines may in
length be diminished, in number increased, until at length approximation is made to
the curve, — that we argue must hold in the curve itself. Similarly since, in the case
of adults, faith (personal faith) must needs accompany baptism to make it effectual,
and this holds of the youngest adults, if only the age be rational, — the same, we may
argue, must hold proportionally in the baptism of stilt younger children and infants
also, in order to its being effectual to spiritual life and salvation; — i. e. that faith
must be then so implanted in the germ, if the child become at that moment in the
largest sense of the word spiritually regenerate, that, in proportion as reason is de
veloped, faith shall be developed also.

CH.VII.§4.] Christ's CHURCH OF THE SEALED ONES. 295
Church, Eome itself assenting,1 (and this indeed the rather,
because pure Pelagianism tended to make men independent
of the ecclesiastical system of salvation, which Eome fondly
cherished, as well as of Augustine's more spiritual and
scriptural system, ) such as the eloquence, talents, episcopal
authority, and weight of character, with which God had en
dowed this his eminent servant and instrument, influential
as they were, would by themselves doubtless have failed
to obtain. — But who does not see the contrariety of
this system of salvation by grace, — God's own individual,
direct, electing, and saving grace, — to a system of salva
tion ecclesiastical, begun by the opus operatum of the
priest in baptism, and carried on simply by the saving vir
tue of church ceremonies and church observances? — In fact
the contrariety of the two systems was quickly felt : and
Eome (though still professedly reckoning Augustine in its
list of saints) eschewed very soon its former direct approval
of his doctrine ; and substituted virtually, in its place, a
mongrel system of ecclesiastical semi-Pelagianism.2
And so, after the barbarian tempests from the North had
been let loose on the Eoman world, a twofold stream of doc
trine was perpetuated in the Church visible through the ages
following; the one the ritualistic ecclesiastical doctrine of
religion, the other the Augustinian spiritual doctrine of
saving grace : — and a twofold view also, correspondently,
of Christ's Church of the promises : the one regarding it as
the earthly corporation of the Church visible and Catholic,
under a vice-Christian priesthood ; the other as being the
little flock, simply and alone, of those that were united
by living faith to Christ the living head. In chapters that
are to follow I shall have to note, on the one hand, the
names of many in the middle ages, professedly of the
Eomish Church, who fed on this spiritual doctrine as on
heavenly food,3 and found in it a blessed antidote to the
1 So Pope Zosimus. See Augustine's Life. Also afterwards Pope Celestine.
2 Take for example the extract following from Pope Gregory Ill's Judicia Congrua
Pcenitentibus, written about the middle of the eighth century. Hard. iii. 1871.
" Prima est remissio qua baptizamur in aqui, secunda caritatis effectus, tertia
eleemosynarum fructus, quarta perfusio lachrymarum, quinta afflictio cordis et cor
poris, sexta emendatio morum, . . septima intercessio sanctorum, octava misericordiae
et fidei meritum, nona conversio et salus aliorum, decima indulgentia et remissio
nostra I " 3 In my Chapters on the Western Line of Witnesses.

296 apoc vii. [part i.
ritualistic formalism in vogue, down even to the Eeforma
tion ; and, on the other, to observe how Eome more and
more shrunk from, and hated, and opposed it.1 Indeed I
might trace both Eome's opposition to it, and God's bless
ing on it, even beyond the Eeformation. Witness the
histories of Huss,2 of Luther,3 of the Jansenists ;4 and in
deed of our own Anglican Church also : — a church in its
doctrines (we might almost say) half Augustinian,5 as well
1 E. g. in the case of Gottshalk, which will be noted subsequently.
2 See Luther's dispute with Eck in Merle D'Aubigne's History of the Reforma
tion, B. v. c. 5.
3 He was an Augustinian monk ; and Augustine's writings united with the Bible
to help him to the discovery of evangelic truth.
4 See in Harduin, xi. 1634, Pope Clement XI's condemnation, A. D. 1713, of the
101 Propositions of Jansen, mostly taken from Augustine: from which, as being
eminently illustrative of my subject, though in respect of chronology long antici
patory, I must here beg to extract.
The Pope selects for condemnation among other propositions of Jansen the fol
lowing :
1. Quid aliud remanet animae quae Deum atque ipsius gratiam amisit, nisi pecca-
tum et peccati consecutiones, superba paupertas, et segnis indigentia ; hoc est gene-
ralis impotentia ad laborem, ad orationem, et ad omne opus bonum.
2. Christi gratia, principium efficax boni cujuscunque generis, necessaria »est ad
omne opus bonum : absque ilia non solum nihil fit, sed nee fieri potest.
5. Quando Deus non emollit cor per interiorem unctionem gratias suae, exhor-
tationes et gratiae exteriores non inserviunt nisi ad illud magis obdurandum.
8. Nos non pertinemus ad novum fcedus, nisi in quantum participes sumus ipsius
novae gratiae, quae operatur in nobis id quod Deus nobis praecipit.
14. Quantumcumque remotes a salute sit peccator obstinates, quando Jesus se ei
videndum exhibet lumine salutari sua? gratis, oportet ut se dedat, occurrat, sese
humiliet, et adoret Salvatorem suum.
25. Deus illuminat animam, et eum sanat, aeque ac corpus, sola sua voluntate.
26. Nullae dantur gratiae nisi per fidem.
27. Fides est prima gratia, et fons omnium aliarum.
28. Prima gratia quam Deus concedit peccatori, est peccatorum remissio.
29. Extra ecclesiam nulla conceditur gratia.
72. Nota ecclesiae Christianae est que-d sit catholica, comprehendens et omnes
angelos cceli, et omnes electos et justos terrae, omnium saeculorum.
73. Quid est ecclesia nisi coetus filiorum Dei, manentium in ejus sinu, adoptato-
rum in Christo, . . redemptorum ejus sanguine, viventium ejus Spiritu, agentium per
ejus gratiam,, et expectantium gratiam futuri saeculi.
75. Ecclesia est unus solus homo, compositus ex pluribus membris, quorum Chris
tus est caput, vita ; unus solus Christus, compositus ex pluribus Sanctis, quorum
est sanctificator.
80. Lectio sacrae Scripturae est pro omnibus.
This enumeration ended, the Bull condemns them as — " falsas, perniciosas, im-
pias, blasphemas, haeresim ipsam sapientes," &c. &c. — So, says Ranke, iii. 199,
speaking of this Bull Unigenitus, " the Jansenist doctrines of sin, grace, justifica
tion, and the church, even in their mitigated expression, and sometimes as literally
taught by Augustine, were denounced as heretical."
Gibbon, vi. 24, when observing on the affinity between Augustine and Calvin,
remarks justly also on the secret repugnance of Rome to the former. And Mr.
Newman, in his work on Romanism, p. 93, notes that in an Edition of Augustine
published at Venice, the publishers speak of having " taking care to remove what
ever might affect the minds of the faithful with heretical pravity."
0 So I see the author of the Life of Savanarola, p. 384, observes that the Roman

CH.VII. §4.] CHRISTS CHURCH OF THE SEALED ONES. 297
as half Lutheran : though with an Augustinianism mode
rate as the Apocalyptic figuration which I suppose to have
symbolized it ; omitting all deeper mysteries of the doc
trine, and asserting simply its grand spiritual truth of the
Lord's marking out from amidst the professing Church of
an individual election of grace ;J to be preserved, through
sanctification and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, unto
everlasting life.
Which being so, and the Augustinian light the chief
that still, long time after its first brighter orient beams,2
glimmered through the dark ages,3 down to the outburst
of gospel-sunlight at the Reformation, I cannot but pray
the reader, in conclusion, to mark the admirable prophetic
truth and propriety, wherewith the Apocalyptic Eevelation,
ere passing onward to depict the Gothic tempests' irrup-
Catholic Church has been for a long time Pelagian ; that the Church of the Refor
mation is Augustinian ; while the Greek Church may perhaps be called Cassianist.
1 I refer, of course, to its Art. xvii, On Predestination and Election. " They
which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God (predestination to life) be called,
according to God's purpose, by his Spirit working in due season : they through
grace obey the calling : they be justified freely : they be made sons of God by adop
tion : they walk religiously in good works ; and at length, by God's mercy, they
attain to everlasting felicity."
Compare the Collect for All Saints' Day ; " O Almighty God, who hast knit to
gether thine elect in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of thy son
Christ our Lord; " where the sense of the word elect, as meant by our Church, is
fixt by its choice of the very passage under consideration for the Gospel ; I mean
Apoc. vii. 2, &c, with its 144,000 sealed ones and palm-bearing company.
Mark too the Augustinianism of the Anglican Church doctrine in its Articles ix,
x, on Original Sin and Freewill. In Art. xxix, on the inefficiency of the sacrament
in case of wicked partakers, Augustine is expressly cited. — The writings of Cranmer,
Hooper, and others of the real founders of our Reformed Church, abound with
references to Augustine.
2 Augustine's cotemporary Paulus Orosius, in the Preface to his History, speaks
of the light shed on the Church and Christendom by the first ten Books just then
published of the De Civitate Dei, in figurative language very correspondent with
the Apocalyptic symbol : " Quorum jam decern orientes radii mox, ut de specula
ecclesiasticae claritatis elati sunt, toto orbe fulserunt."
Now I conceive that the light-bearing of the angel from the East in the Apoca
lyptic vision may have been intended to denote the general doctrinal light thereby
shed upon the scene, as well as the heart-illumining of each real heart-recipient of
the light: just as in the similar figure about Christ's first advent in Luke i. 78,
" The day-spring from on high hath visited us ; &c."
3 " It is evident that real Christianity, notwithstanding its nominal increase under
the emperors, must soon have been extinct, if God had not interposed with a second
great effusion of his Spirit. This involves the private life of Augustine. — The effects
of this diffusion of the Spirit were solid, though never brilliant. The light from
Augustine's writings never broke out into a vivid extensive flame ; but shone with
a moderate brightness at first, and afterwards glimmered through many ages, down
even to the Reformation." Milner, v. 2, 3 ; also v. 9.

298 apoc vn. [part i.
tion into and desolation of the Eoman world, paused at
this precise sera to depict it, with its two light-shedding
visions from heaven of the sealing and the palm-bearing.
The peculiarity and distinctiveness of the figuration will
appear to us yet more remarkable, on finding, as we go
forward, that there was depicted for some time afterwards
before the Evangelist no other figuring of light from
heaven ; but only figurations of tempests, and woes, and
sins, and of Christ's two witnesses witnessing in sackcloth:
until at length, just in the midst of the second or Turkish
woe, the same divine Angel, in yet more glorious vision,
appeared descending to illuminate the scene, with the sun
light beaming from his face, and a rainbow encircling his
head : which vision will be shown to have designated with
equal, or even greater accuracy of delineation, the outburst,
and successive epochs and events, of the glorious Reforma
tion. — The one picture is in fact the sister or fellow, so to
say, of the other. Nor can either the evidence of their mean
ing respectively what I have expounded them to mean be
fully appreciated, (satisfactory as it may have already ap
peared in the present case,) nor the admirable suitableness
of the two symbolized revelations of gospel-truth themselves,
— the one to combat the incipient antichristian apostacy,
with its seemly yet earthly church-scheme of mere ecclesias
tical salvation, the other the perfected antichristian apos
tacy, with its worse than earthly terrors to enthral a fear
ful conscience, — and by consequence their suitableness to
preserve to the Lord a true Church in Christendom, unless
they be considered and compared together ; each with its
own proper comment and illustration in history. — Let him
who would understand God's philosophy of history, as
sketched in this wonderful Book, well ponder on them,
both the one and the other.

PART II.

APOC VIII. 1.— IX. 20.

THE FIEST SIX TEUMPETS.
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE BY.
THE GOTHS : AND THE EASTERN EMPIRE BY
THE SARACENS AND TURKS.

a.d. 395 to 1453.

CHAPTEE I.
THE HALF-HOUR'S SILENCE IN HEAVEN, INCENSE-
OFFERING, AND TRUMPET-SOUNDINGS.
" And when he opened the seventh Seal, there was silence
in heaven1 about the space of half an hour. — And I saw
the seven angels which stood before God: and to them
were given seven trumpets. — And another angel came, and
stood at the altar, having a golden censer : and there was
given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with
the prayers of all the saints,2 upon the golden altar which
was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense,
which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up be
fore God out of the angel's hand. — And the angel took the
censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it upon3
the earth. And there were voices, and thunderings, &c.
1 eyevero oiyij ev ru ovpavu us ijptupiov. 2 ruv ayiav iravruv, with the article.
3 ets tijv yijv. I prefer to render the preposition by upon, rather than into.

300 apoc vm. 1 — 6. [part ii.
.... And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets
prepared themselves to sound." — Apoc. viii. 1 — 6.
So began the Second Part, or Act, of the great Apo
calyptic Drama. — In the sealing Vision, just preceding,
intimation had been given to St. John that almost imme
diately after the dissolution of the Eoman Pagan Empire,
and its conversion into one professedly Christian, there
would appear in it the rapid development of an antichristian
apostacy. But could it so be without judgments from
heaven following ? To this question the associated figura
tion of threatening tempest-angels, prepared to desolate the
Eoman earth, even then gave answer. It is the evo
lution of that figuration of the tempest-angels, the symbol
of barbarian invading hosts, that constitutes the Act of the
Drama now opening. The scenic representation which
heads the present chapter was its introduction.
I. " And when he opened the seventh Seal, there was
silence in heaven for about the space of half an hour."
What might be the meaning of this half -hour's silence in
heaven, is here the inquirer's primary question.
Of course, noticed as it is in connection with the seventh
or last Seal's opening, Expositors have regard to their own
several theories of the structure of the Apocalypse, in the
explanations that they offer of it. — Of those who suppose
the Book to consist of a triple series of prefigurative visions,
(chronologically parallel with each other, and each reaching
to the consummation,) correspondently with the three sep-
tenaries of the Seals, the Trumpets and the Vials, — the one
class, viewing the seventh Seal and its figuration of the
half hour's silence as the ending of the first series, expound
this silence to signify the millennial rest of the Church,
following on the final convulsions and revolution desig
nated, as they presume, by the earthquake, &c. of the pre
ceding sixth Seal. So, for example, Vitringa.1 But now
can we suppose a repetition, after the seventh Seal's open
ing, of that which had been depicted, as they judge, in the
1 Somewhat similarly the ancient expositor Tichonius makes it signify the com
mencement of the saints' eternal rest ; and Bede, the peace of the Church, in some
brief interval between Antichrist's destruction and Christ's second coming.

CHAP. I.] THE HALF-HOUR'S SILENCE IN HEAVEN. 301
palm-bearing vision before its opening ? Or, again, how
can we suppose a half-hour's silence in heaven to figure the
joyous active rest of the Church on earth in the Millen
nium ? — Another class of the advocates of a triple parallel
ism of structure, — who, however, make the first series to
end with the visions of the sixth Seal, those of the sealing
and palm-bearing inclusive, and the seventh Seal to com
prehend the seven Trumpets, and so, with its opening
vision, to begin a new and second series, — these, I say,
explain the silence as a pause in the heavenly representa
tions ; a pause simply significative of this break of separa
tion between the two parallel series of prophecies. So
Dean Woodhouse, Mr. Cuninghame, and others.1 But
surely in such case the silence ought to have occurred
before, not after, the opening of the seventh Seal ; before,
not after, the commencement of the new series : besides
that, in that case, there ought to have been a similar pause
of silence elsewhere also, to mark the break between the
second and the third series.
I pass to those expositors (as Mede, Daubuz, and Bishop
Newton) who adopt what I conceive to be the correcter
view of the Apocalyptic structure ; i. e. who not only regard
the Trumpet-septenary of visions as included in the seventh
Seal, but also regard this new septenary as chronologically
consecutive on that of the six Seals preceding. Their view
is to the effect that the half-hour's silence in heaven figured
the Church's silence in prayer before the Trumpet's sound
ing, during the incense-offering by the angel-priest, noticed
in a verse that follows : stating, in support of this view,
that the Jews were wont to pray silently in the court with
out, while the priest (like Zechariah, Luke i. 10) went
within the temple to offer incense. But the silence is not
represented as distinctively accompanying, and connected
with, the angel-priest's offering the incense. It is represented
as begun at least before that latter action ; there being de
picted the act of the seven angels that stood before God
having the seven Trumpets given them, as one to intervene.
Besides that the expression " silence in heaven," if used
1 Somewhat similarly Chytrceus, Aretius, and Bullinger explain it, (so Foxe says
in his Eicasmi,) to be a mark of transition from the Seals to the Trumpets.

302 apoc viii. 1 — 6. [part ii.
with reference to what past in the Apocalyptic Temple,
ought rather surely to signify a silence in the Holy of Ho
lies, which here distinctively figured the heaven of God's
presence ; not a silence in the temple-court, simply and
alone.1 And what then the meaning of the symbol ? — As regards
the silence in heaven, it really does not seem to me that we
need have much difficulty. The word heaven (ovpavoc) is
a word often used in scripture, and elsewhere, of the aerial
firmament ; 2 as well as of the invisible heaven, the seat of
God's manifestation. Indeed, in the immediately preceding
vision of the sixth seal it had been pretty much so used by
St. John.3 — Again, silence is a word used often also to
designate the stillness of inanimate nature.* Which being
so, the complex phrase silence in heaven might fitly, should
the context suit, be interpreted to mean stillness from
storms in that firmamental region. In fact Pliny, St.
John's cotemporary, so uses the self-same phrase ' ' silente
ceelo ;"5 nor does the usage of the Hebrew scriptures dis
agree.6 — And does not this idea of the thing suit with the
firmamental state of things, as figured and left in the pre
ceding vision? Precisely so. For in it we were told
1 As to Daubuz' 's peculiar notion that this silence signified the peace of the wor
shipping Church after Constantine's establishment of Christianity, the same incon
sistency attaches to it as to the millennial explanation before noted. For there would
be then a repetition, under this new emblem, of what Mr. D. himself considers as
the subject also of the palm-bearing vision, just preceding. A strange idea!
Heinrich's, let me add, makes it the heavenly company's silence of astonishment
and fear at what was to happen : M. Stuart that of " deep and fearful sympathy
with the expected sequel." But, were this all, why so only here?
2 So in the Old Testament, Gen. i.,7, 8; " And God made the firmament, and
divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were
above the firmament. And God called the firmament heaven." So again in the
New Testament, Matt. vi. 26, "the fowls of heaven:" ib. xvi. 2, " The shy (or
heaven, ovpavos) is red : " James v. 18, " the heaven gave rain : " &c.
3 Apoc. vi. 14, " The heaven (or firmament) departed like a scroll." So again
ib. xi. 6, " These have power to shut heaven, that it should not rain : " &c.
4 E. g. in Psalm cvii. 29, " He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof
are still ; " where the Hebrew word for calm is literally silence ; and again in Jonah
i. 11, " that the sea may be calm unto us ; " where the literal Hebrew is, "that the sea
may be silent to us." — Similarly write the Greek classical authors, asTheoc.ii. 38; —
HvtSe, oiya pev irovros, aiyuvri St artrat.
And Latin; as Virgil. Eclog. ix. 57,
Et nunc omne tibi stratum silet aequor.
On which last Heyne observes, " Silere solenne de ventis cessantibus."
6 Nat. Hist, xviii. 28. — So Ovid, " Silet humidus aer." Metam. vii. 187.
G Compare Psalm lxxvii. 17, 13 ; " The sky sent forth a sound : the voice of thy
thunder was in the heaven."

CHAP, I.] THE HALF-HOURS SILENCE IN HEAVEN. 303
of the four winds being authoritatively restrained from
blowing ; in other words, (to use Pliny's phrase,) of there
ensuing thereon silence, though but for a brief interval, in
the firmamental heaven ? Surely then this may without
hesitation be here taken as the simple natural meaning of
the symbol.1 To use the words of our own great poet,
'Twas as we often see against some storm,
A silence in the heavens ; the rack stand still.
The bold winds speechless, and the orb below
As hush as death : anon the dreadful thunder
Doth rend the regions.2
It was the stillness before the storm.
But what the half-hour's predicated duration of the si
lence, or rather the " as it were half-an-hour's ?" I incline
to consider St. John's " as it were," as meaning that it ap
peared to and affected him, as the half-hour's stillness before
a storm might do in common life. — At the same time the
alternative seems open to him who prefers it, — while ex
plaining the silence to mean stillness from the threatened
tempests, as before, — yet to interpret the half-hour on the
prophetic year-day scale, as but a very short interval, even
as of a few days.3 — So that in any case the interval between
the opening of the 7 th Seal, and the first outbreak of the
tempest of barbarian invasion, was indicated as but very
small. For on the half-hour's ending, the previous check
upon the threatened tempests, and the spirits riding them,
was evidently to be withdrawn. Just accordant with which
(if I may anticipate for a moment) is the record of history.
Theodosius died in Jan. 395 ; the epoch, I conceive, of the
7th Seal's opening ; and " before the winter ended," says
Gibbon, " the Gothic nation was in arms : " — that " tem
pest of barbarians," as he elsewhere calls it, " that was to
subvert the foundations of the Eoman empire." And so
too Mr. Hallam: " The fourth century set in storms."*
But why the specification of so minute an interval of
respite ? Just, I conceive, in order to the exhibition of a
1 Since thus writing I see that Grotius explains the figure similarly : " Factum est
silentium in coelo : id est venti illi, de quibus actum supra vii. 1, quievere."
2 Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2.
3 A half-hour on the year-day scale equals 7£ days, if we allow 24 hours to the
day. But as Christ says, " Are there not twelve hours to the day," ithas been sug
gested by some that a prophetic hour might more fitly be regarded as the 12th part
of a prophetic day ; and consequently half-an-hour as answering to a fortnight.
4 Middle Ages, iii. 307. (3rd Ed.)

304 apoc viii. 1 — 6. [part ii.
scene of temple-worship, characteristic of the precise epoch
that answered to it : a scene such as to suggest the reason
of God's proceeding to execution of the before threatened
judgments of the tempest-angels, even as against an empire
in which that last term of respite was unimproved, and the
already hinted sin of apostacy unrepented of and in pro
gress : — at the same time that occasion was given thereby
at once to note prominently that distinction in Eoman
Christendom between the sealed and the unsealed, the
saints and the men of this earth, which would exist and be
recognized by God throughout all the coming Trumpet-
judgments ; the Sealing Angel himself, we may see reason
to suppose, having in the meanwhile just given in his re
port. — This temple-scene is the next point to consider, and
a most important one. And, as before, we must, in order
to its right understanding, first analyze the vision itself,
then trace the fulfilment in history.
II. 1. The scenic vision, then, was as follows. "And
another Angel came," — i. e. after the delivery of the seven
trumpets to the seven .trumpet-angels, — " and stood at the
altar, having a golden censer. And there was given to
him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers
of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne.
And the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers
of the saints, ascended up before God out of the Angel's
hand." After which follows : " And the Angel took the
censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it upon
the earth : and there were voices, and thunderings, and
lightnings, and an earthquake." — Such was the vision. And
to understand that its significancy was to the purport that I
stated, it only needs that we attend carefully to three points :
viz. the Angel-priestministering ; — hisposition at the altarere
receiving the incense; — and the persons described as offering
incense through Him, in contrast with others who did it not.
First, the Angel-priest ministering. And whom can we
scripturally suppose to be hereby intended but the Lord
Jesus ? For He is " the great High Priest over the house
of God, passed into the heavens." In that character He
was expressly represented as acting on the mystic temple-

CHAP. I.] THE INCENSE-OFFERING. 305
scene, at the opening of the Apocalyptic visions. Nor is
the angelic-title here ascribed to the ministering priest in
consistent with our supposition; seeing that this priesthood
was but one of the functions of Christ as Angel of the
Covenant.1 — An argument confirmatory of this interpreta
tion is derived by Sir I. Newton2 and others, from the
specification of the censer as a golden one that was used by
the angel-priest. For they state, from the Eabbins, that
the High Priest alone used a golden censer in the Jewish
ritual ; the common priests using one of silver.3 — Besides
which there is yet another confirmatory argument, and
which I cannot pass over in silence, deducible from the
vision in Ezekiel ix: — a vision of which the first part was
noted by me as strikingly parallel to the Apocalyptic vision
of the sealing ;* and of which the concluding part is as
strikingly similar to that we are now considering. In
Ezekiel it is the same person, clothed in the linen garb of
the priesthood, that had been previously marking God's
servants on their foreheads,5 who is described as afterwards
coming into the sanctuary, to make report of the fulfilment
of his commission ; and then taking the fire from between
the cherubim, and scattering it over the apostatized city
Jerusalem. What then the natural inference, but that
here, too, (immediately consequent as the present incense-
offering vision is on that of the sealing,) the Angel who
now goes into the Holy Place, and afterwards takes of the
altar-fire to scatter over the apostatizing land of Eoman
1 Compare what is here said of the incense ascending up out of the Angel's hand
with the description of the Angel of the Covenant ascending in the flame of Ma-
noah's sacrifice ; Judges xiii. 20.
8 " On other days it was the custom of the priest to take fire from the great altar,
in a silver censer. But on the day of expiation the High Priest took the fire from
the great altar in a golden censer." — Sir Isaac is referring this to the high priest's
ministration on the great day of expiation only. But as no mention is made of the
angel-priest going further than the altar of incense, entering the Holy of Holies, or
performing other of the rites peculiar to that day, we do not seem warranted in
using the statement of the Jewish Rabbins further than I have done.
3 In the Apocalyptic temple, created angels appeared often habited as ' priests,
and officiating as priests ; but, I think, no where as performing the functions of
high-priest, or the proper sacerdotal functions of sacrificing and incense-offering.
s 4 See p. 260 supra.
5 From comparing Ezek. ix. 6, " Come not near any man upon whom is my
mark," with Ezek. xxi. 3, " I will cut off from thee (the land of Israel) the righteous
and the wicked," I infer that in this, case, as in Apoc. vii, the guaranteed salvation
of the sealed ones was from spiritual and real evil.
VOL. I. . X

306 apoc viii. 1 — 6. [part n.
Christendom, must be the same as the sealing Angel of the
former vision, whom we saw reason to conclude was the
Lord Jesus : — He having past into the sanctuary, we may
suppose, from acting out one of his characters before St.
John, in the illumination and sealing of his own people ;
and, ere he scatter fire on the earth, stopping in another,
viz. in his priestly and mediatorial character, (still before St.
John,) to receive and present the prayers of his people.1
The next thing to be here noted and explained is the
Angel's representation, at the opening of the vision, as
standing with his censer beside the altar, to receive the
incense of the people offering ; i. e. beside the great brazen
altar of sacrifice in the temple-court. " He stood" it is
said, " at the altar, and much incense was given him."
The position was that of the officiating priest under the
Levitical law, when about to exercise the same ministra
tion : and it arose out of the divine ordinance, that forth
with, on receiving the incense of the worshippers, he should
take burning coals from off the altar, place them on his
censer, and carrying them at the same time as the incense
into the sanctuary, apply the sacred fire to the incense to
make it burn, after laying it on the golden altar before the
veil. The which particular in the ritual was insisted on as
most important, indeed essential. Other fire than this in
the ministration was called " strange fire :" and, for offering
incense with such strange fire, Nadab and Abihu, though
sons of Aaron, were struck dead by God upon the spot.
The true reason for all which particularity was, that a deep
and holy mystery was shadowed forth in this ordinance of
the Mosaic ritual ; viz. that except by association with the
meritorious atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God, and the
application to them of its purifying and propitiatory virtue,
1 I the rather beg attention to this important parallelism, as confirmatory evidence
of the incense-receiving Angel being the Angel of the Covenant, because Professor
M. Stuart and others of the German school explain him to have been a created
angel. Added to that of the function and office being one so distinctly ascribed to
Christ in Scripture, both elsewhere and in the Apocalypse itself, it seems to me to
make out a strong case of evidence in favour of the view here given by me, in
common with so many other expositors.
I should add that Professor Stuart accompanies his explanation with a statement
that this view of the incense-bearing angel as a created angel does not at all justify
the Papal doctrine of worshipping angels ; a direct prohibition of this (and by im
plication of saint-worship, also) being given Apoc. xix. 10, xxii. 9.

CHAP. I.] THE INCENSE-OFFERING. 307
the prayers and praises of his people could never rise up
acceptably before the mercy-seat. — Now then in the sym
bolic vision before us, the Angel's standing by the altar,
and receiving the incense of such as offered it, indicated
that in their case this essential, in order to acceptableness,
was attended to. There was the association of Christ with
their offering, in his two-fold antitypical character and
office, — of sacrifice and of priest. Just as the true Chris
tian's privilege is elsewhere stated; " We have an advo
cate (an intercessory priest) with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous ; and He is the propitiation (the propitiatory
sacrifice) for our sins." 1
And thus we are led to inquire, thirdly, who were, and
who were not, the offerers that gave Him incense ? This
is a question soon answered. It was " the saints " that
offered it ; i. e. the 144,000, the sealed ones. — It was
these, — " all these," we read, — and (let this be marked)
these alone. There is evidently an allusive contrast here
(just as before in the sealing vision) to those that were not
the Lord's saints ; as pointedly not present, and not par
taking in the action. Indeed the inhabitants of the earth,
generally, (for " the earth," mentioned in verse 5 as the
object of God's wrath and judgment, implies its inhabit
ants,) may be almost said to be expressly noted in con
trast, as not participating.2
But how not participating ? Was it to be inferred that
they had forsaken the altar-court, and virtually at least
renounced the offered privileges of Christ's atoning sacri
fice and Christ's mediatorship ? Such in truth seemed the
meaning of the symbol ; — a meaning fully confirmed by a
subsequent and most notable use of the same symbol in the
same sense in a later chapter.3 Indeed, as the vision de-
1 1 John ii. 1, 2. — On the lAacrpos, (propitiation,) compare Numb. v. 8, where the
ram of the atonement is called Kpios rov tAaopov ; and again Ezek. xliv. 27, vpoooitr-
ovaiv tAao-pov : passages which show that it was in his character of an atoning sacri
fice that Christ has here the term applied to him. So too 1 John iv. 10, "He sent
his Son to be a propitiation (lAaopov) for our sins."
-2 A similar contrast occurs in a later prefigured period of the apostacy, Apoc. xiii.
7, 8, between the inhabitants of the earth that worshipped the Beast, and the saints
(07101) against whom the Beast made deadly war.
3 Viz. Apoc. xi. 1 ; " Rise, and measure the temple, and the altar, and them that
worship in it : but the court without the temple (including its worshippers) cast
out, for it has been given to the Gentiles." See Part iii, Chap, vi, vii. X 2

308 apoc viii. 1 — 6. [part ii.
picted what passed in the altar-court, the scene of what
used to be visible in the ancient Jewish public worship, it
seemed implied that this forsaking of the altar-fire and the
High Priest of the altar, by the mass of the inhabitants of
Eoman Christendom, would be characteristic, not of their
private worship and devotions only at this time, but of their
public worship also :_— insomuch that, even publicly, Christ's
saints would be now peculiar in availing themselves simply
and sincerely of his mediation, and of his propitiatory
atoning sacrifice.
But how, and for what, could they thus have forsaken
Him ? — For the answer to this question we must recur, as
proposed secondly under this head, to history.
2. And indeed the history of the times at once answers
the inquiry. For it tells how the invocation of saints and
martyrs, and new means of propitiating God, had now
come into vogue among the inhabitants of the Eoman
world ; and how they were thus quick relapsing, though
under the Christian name and profession, into a Christ-re
nouncing idolatry. This was in fact the second great step
of the anti- christian apostacy : and it was one that spe
cially deserved observation, as being that whereby the in
visible world itself became allied with the visible in strength
ening it. — Hear Dean Waddington's account of the strange
lapse of the professing Church into it. The Christians
of the ante-Nicene Church, he says, shunned with horror
every approach to the abomination of idolatry. " So defi
nite and broad was the space which in this point separated
between Christianity and Paganism, that it seemed impos
sible that . . a compromise could ever be effected between
principles so fundamentally hostile. Yet the contrary result
took place : and a reconciliation, which in the beginning of
the fourth century could not easily have been imagined,
was virtually accomplished before its termination. Enthu
siasm [respecting the martyrs~\ easily passed into supersti
tion. Those who had sealed a Christian's faith by a mar
tyr's death were exalted above the condition of men, and
enthroned among superior beings. Superstition gave birth
to credulity. Those who sate among the powers of heaven

CHAP. I.] THE INCENSE-OFFERING. 309
might sustain by miraculous assistance their votaries on
earth  Hence the stupid veneration for bones and
relics. It was inculcated that prayer was never so effica
cious as when offered at the tomb of some saint." x — And,
as to the kind of public worship resulting, take the graphic
sketch of Gibbon. " If in the beginning of the fifth cen
tury Tertuliian or Lactantius had been suddenly raised
from the dead, to assist at the festival of some popular saint
or martyr, they would have gazed with astonishment and
indignation on the profane spectacle, which had succeeded
to the pure and spiritual worship of a Christian congrega
tion. As soon as the doors of the Church were thrown
open, they must have been offended by the smoke of the
incense,2 the perfume of flowers, and the glare of lamps
and tapers ; which diffused at noon-day a gaudy, super
fluous, and in their opinion a sacrilegious light. If they
approached the balustrade of the altar, they made their
way through the prostrate crowd : consisting for the most
part of strangers and pilgrims, who resorted to the city on
the vigil of the feast, and who already felt the strong in
toxication of fanaticism, and perhaps of wine. Their de
vout kisses were imprinted on the walls and pavement of
the sacred edifice ; and their fervent prayers were directed,
whatever might be the language of their church, to the
bones, the blood, or the ashes of the saints, which were
usually concealed by a linen or silken veil from the eyes of
the vulgar. They frequented the tombs of the martyrs, in
hope of obtaining from their powerful intercession every
sort of spiritual, but more especially of temporal blessings.
. . . [In case of the fulfilment of their wishes] they again
hastened to the martyrs' tombs, to celebrate with grateful
thanksgiving their obligations to the memory and relics of
those heavenly patrons. The walls were hung round with
symbols of the favours which they had received ; — eyes
and hands and feet of gold and silver : and edifying pic
tures, which could not long escape the abuse of indiscreet or
1 History of the Church i. 232. See too Gieseler C. v. 5 96, 97 ; also Mosheim,
v. 2. 3. 2; and Le Bas' sketch of the church of the fourth century, taken from Chry
sostom, in his Life of Wiclif, p. 7, 11, &c.
2 Tertuliian (Apol. 42) declared that even trading in incense was sinful; because
it was a thing burnt on heathen altars.

310 apoc viii. 1 — 6. [part ii.
idolatrous devotions, represented the image, the attributes,
and the miracles of the tutelar saint." 1
Such is Gibbon's graphic sketch. It occurs in a chap
ter thus significantly headed, " Destruction of Paganism ;
Introduction of the worship of saints and relics among
the Christians .•" 2 and which, I beg the reader to observe,
is placed, in exact chronological accordance with our in
cense-vision, between the epoch of Theodosius' death, A.D.
395, with which epoch, as I suppose, the seventh Apoca
lyptic Seal opened, and that of the Gothic revolt and first
irruptions A. D. 395, 396, the fulfilment, I further con
ceive, of the immediately-following earthquake, lightnings,
&c. of the Apocalyptic vision. — Nor, I am persuaded,
will he who candidly consults the most authentic memorials
of the times 3 fail to acknowledge, that whether as regards
the main fact asserted of saint and martyr-worship having
now come in, (even as of beings who both chiefly exer
cised the intercessorial office between man and God, and
constituted moreover God's chief executive to favor the
supplicants addressing them,4) or as regards the relics and
1 v. 134. 2 Ch. xxviii.
3 I would recommend the reader, who wishes thus to form his own judgment on
the subject, to read Dr. Gilly's very interesting, picturesque, and instructive Volume,
entitled Vigilantius and his Times : a Volume in which certain illustrative documents
of this nature are embodied : and the ecclesiastical spirit prevalent at the close of
the fourth century as truly as strikingly set forth.
* See generally Dr. Gilly's Chapter on Paulinus ; (Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, and
" the delight of his age," as he was called ;) and particularly the specimens inserted
by him of the many natalitial odes addressed by Paulinus to St. Felix, his avowed
patron saint, and the domincedius of the church and monastery built by the former
to him. The following from the first, second, and eighth odes, and of the dates
A.D. 393, 394, 400, are fair samples, and sufficiently illustrative.
1 . Vectus in aethereum sine sanguine Martyr honorem,
0 pater, O domine, indignis licet annue servis. . . .
Seu placeat telluris iter, comes aggere tuto
Esto tuis ; seu magna tui fiducia longo
Suadeat ire mari, da currere mollibus undis : &c.
2. Et maria intravi duce te, quia cura pericli
¦Cessit amore tui ... .
Semper eo et terris te propter tutus, et undis.
3. Sancte, precor, succurre too ; scio proximus adstas,
Et de contigua missis hunc auribus aede
Audisti, Felix, fletum infelicis alumni.
And the same in prose as poetry. Indeed the worship of St. Felix was a matter
of all earnestness with him, the very business of his life. So that the Romanists
(Baronius and others) may well cite Paulinus as an authority for saint-worship.
(Gilly, p. 80—83.)
Pope Damasus, who died A.D. 384, had however preceded Paulinus in this invo-

CHAP. I.J THE INCENSE-OFFERING. 311
images through which that worship was paid,1 the fictitious
miracles that supported it,2 or the pilgrimages and the re-
vellings with which it was accompanied,3 — I say in respect
cation of St. Felix. In the B. P. M. xxvii. 84, among some of his Carmina, I find
the following. De Sancto Felice.
Corpore, mente, animo, pariter de nomine felix,
Sanctorum in numero Christi sacrate triumphis,
Qui ad te sollicite venientibus omnia praestas,
Nee quendam pateris tristem repedare viantem,
Te duce servatus, mortis qu&d vincula rupi,
Versibus his Damasus supplex tibi vota rependo.
And I must add in the same category the well-known name also of Sulpicius Se
verus. In his Epist. 2, after speaking of the death of Martin of Tours, he thus refers
to the departed monk as his ever-present guardian, intercessor, and hope. " Non
deerit nobis ille ; non, non deerit. Intererit de se sermocinantibus, adstabit oran-
tibus ; quodque jam hodie prastare dignatus est, videndum se in gloria sua saepe
praebebit, et. . assidua benedictione nos proteget. . . Spes superest ilia sda, ilia post-
rema, ut quod per nos obtinere non possumus, pro nobis orante Martino mereamur."
B. P. M. vi. 356. Also Ep. 3 ; " Mine (from Abraham's bosom) nos, ut spero,
custodiens, me haec scribentem respicit, te legentem." Ib. 357. — So too Gregory
Nyssen, of Meletius, " Intercedit pro nobis et populi erratis ; " A.D. 381 : and
Synesius, (Bishop of Cyrene in Libya, A.D. 410,) in his Hymns; B. P. M. vi.
157; &c.
1 Saints' relics were so in demand that battles were fought for them, (Theodoret
Vit. Jacob 21,) and monks hawked them for gain. August. Oper. Monach. 36.
Hence the saint-worshippers were called cinerarii by Vigilantius and others. — Of
course what were saints' bones, what those of persons less holy, was often doubtful.
In one case Martin extorted, it is said, a confession from the demon, that the bones
adored were those of an executed malefactor, not a saint. See Gilly 53, 146, 210;
and compare Mosheim iv. 2. 4. 5. — Pompous translations of the bodies or bones of
supposed saints formed another visible variety in the actings of the same supersti
tion at this time. We have Gregory Nyssen's funeral oration on the translation of
Meletius' body to Antioch, ("ecclesiam vectus ad suam, thesaurus ingens,") A.D.
381. Jerome, in his book against Vigilantius, alludes to the more celebrated transfer
of Samuel's bones to Constantinople, A.D. 406, by the Emp. Arcadius. " Episcopi. .
cineres in serico et vase portaverunt :. . omnium ecclesiarum populi occurrerunt Sanc
tis reliquiis, ettanta laetitia &c." And in 416 followed that of St. Stephen's to Africa.
Pictures of saints too were now introduced. Paulinus introduced them at Nola ;
Sulpitius at Primuliac ; these latter being pictures of St. Martin and Paulinus. Gilly
52, 86. — A picture of Christ was destroyed on the hanging vail before a church-door
by their cotemporary Epiphanius ; as tending to idolatry.
2 See Gilly, p. 187, for specimens of the reported miracles of St. Felix: also
p. 443. See too, p. 62, Paulinus' account of the manner in which, among the three
crosses found buried in the earth of Mount Calvary, the true one was discovered to
Helena, by the miracle of its raising a dead man to life.
3 In the year 395, the year when Vigilantius visited Paulinus at Nola, there was
a grand feast in honour of St. Felix. " The people," says Paulinus, " assembled in
such crowds that there was no counting them. It was a dense multitude, urged on
by one vow and object. Lucania, Apulia, Calabria, Campania, Latium, poured in
their population : worshippers came from Capua, Naples, and even Rome. You
might suppose it was Rome itself rising before you, not Nola." Then, on the
manner of keeping the feast ; " Oh that they would offer up their vows of joy with
more sobriety ; that they would not be quaffing wine within the sacred precincts.
Yet some allowance must be made. Simple piety fancies that the saints will be
pleased with the offerings of fragrant wine poured on their tombs," &c. Gilly, p.
216. — See too Augustine's Ep. 22, 29, written A.D. 392, 395, describing and de
nouncing the excesses.
I add an earlier example from Gregory Nyssen's life of Gregory Thaumaturgus, a

312 apoc viii. 1 — 6. [part n.
of all these points the candid investigator will, I am per
suaded, be forced to acknowledge that Gibbon's historic
sketch is here, as usual, literally correct.' — And, let it be
observed, that it was not a mere few of the population, or
simply the lower and less instructed, that thus deserted
Christ Jesus, the one only appointed Mediator between
God and man, for other and imaginary mediators and in
tercessors. The highest and most influential of their
bishops and doctors, Pope Damasus, Gregory Nyssen,
Paulinus, Sulpitius,1 (may I not add Jerome? ) these led,
and the multitudes followed.2 And when (not to speak of
certain discerning and scriptural Christians, of whom more
presently,) alike the Manichaean heretic, and the Pagan
sophist, (of which latter class still a few remained,) objec
ted and ridiculed the heathenish character of the new wor
ship, — when, in sequence of the apostate Julian somewhat
earlier,3 Eunapius the Pagan exclaimed in A.D. 396,
" These are the gods the earth now-a-days brings forth, —
these, the intercessors with the gods, — men called martyrs;
before whose bones and skulls, picked up and salted, the
monks kneel, and lay prostrate, covered with filth and

celebrated bishop of the middle of the third century. " When Gregory perceived
that the ignorant multitude persisted in their idolatry on account of the pleasures
and sensual gratifications (corporeas delectationes et voluptates) which they enjoyed
at the Pagan festivals, he granted them permission to indulge themselves in the like
pleasures, in celebrating the memory of the holy martyrs ; hoping that in process of
time they would return of their own accord to a more virtuous and regular course
of life." — I quote from a Note in Mosheim's Eccl. History, ii. 2. 4. 2; who adds
that by this permission, Gregory allowed the Christians to dance, sport, and feast
at the tombs of martyrs ; and to do every thing at their festivals which the Pagans
were accustomed to do in their temples, during the festivals in honour of their gods.
— The same policy was pursued afterwards by Pope Gregory I ; and it is to be traced
in the missions of the Romish church in Japan, China, India, &c, even to the present
time. See of late years the Abbe Dubois' work on the Indian Mission.
The Rev. H. Wilberforce, in his late Prize Essay, (p. 2) alludes to Gregory's suc
cess in the conversion of the Pagans of his diocese to Christianity. The above extract
will show that his example is not exactly one to be either admired or followed.
1 Seethe Notes pp.310, 311. 2 Compare Mosheimv. 2. 3. 2.
3 In A.D. 352 a letter from Gallus Caesar to his brother Julian says, " I am as
sured you can hardly be removed from the tombs of the martyrs, and are altogether
attached to our religion." — When emperor, Julian thus expressed himself against
the Christian superstitions : " At what you have done in adding new dead to your
first dead man, who can express sufficient disgust? You have filled every place with
sepulchres and monuments." (Cyril adv. Jul. vi. vii.) — On Jovian's accession the
Christians were characterized by another as airo Qeuv eirt rovs veKpovs pera rerpap-
nevovs, turned away to dead men and their relics. — Similar charges are found in the
cotemporary Sophist Libanius, Orat. xxv, and the historian Ammianus Marcellinus
xxvii. 7.

CHAP. I.] THE INCENSE-OFFERING. 313
dust," x — and the Manichsean Faustus, A. D. 400, " You
have but exchanged the old idols for martyrs, and offer to
the latter the same prayers as once to the former," 2 — what
was the defence put forth for the Church by its chief and
most influential champions, such as the monk St. Jerome ?3
He did but, while most loudly disclaiming the charge of
idolatry, both admit, and indeed contend for, just such a
veneration and view of dead saints and martyrs, as was
essentially anti-christian. For throughout the whole of
his two treatises, in answer to the charge of saint-worship
and martyr-worship, — while not one word was said about
Christ's being our great mediator and high priest, not one
word expressive of jealousy for his honour, or to show that
He was not to be superseded in the office,4 — the whole
strength of this church-advocate's oratory was expended in
magnifying the dead saints and martyrs in question : as
serting, as he did, their ubiquity,5 influence with God,6
and power to hear and answer supplicants, even to the ex
tent of miracle-working in their behalf;7 as also to punish
neglectors, and torture demons.8 In short he asserted a
relation between men and them, which, if not that of wor-
1 Abridged from Lardner, viii. 66. The year 396 is his date of Eunapius' Lives of
the Sophists, whence the extract is borrowed. — Similarly wrote Maximus the Gram
marian of the saint-worship prevalent, A.D. 390. See Augustine, Epist. 16.
2 " Sacrificia Gentilium vertistis in agapes ; idola in martyres, quos votis similibus
colitis : defunctorum umbras vino placatis et dapibus : &c." Ap. Augustin. contra
Faust, xx. 4.
3 Both Jerome's Letter and Treatise against Vigilantius, the one of the date A.D.
404, the other 406, are given in full by Dr. Gilly in chapters xvii and xviii.
4 I pray the reader to mark this. The contrast with Augustine, when speaking on
the same subject, as will soon appear, is most striking.
5 " Do you put them in bonds? " says he to Vigilantius, in reply to his assertion
that they had a fixed place appointed them. ' ' Are they not with the Lord, of whom
it is written, They follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth ? If the Lamb is every
where, they who are with the Lamb must be believed to be everywhere. And since
the devil and his angels wander over the whole world, . . shall martyrs be cooped
up under the altar ? " Gilly, p. 398. — Omniscience too was of course another of the
martyr's attributes. So Paulinus Natal, vi ;
.... qui lumine Christi
Cuncta et aperta vides, longeque absentia cernis.
6 Moses, he argues, obtained pardon for 600,000 men, while alive; and Stephen
besought forgiveness for his persecutors. After being with the Lord, shall they
less prevail ? Gilly 399.
7 " Answer me this, How is there such efficacy of signs and miracles in this most
worthless dust and ashes? " &c. Gilly, p. 408.
8 " The unclean spirit which compels you to write these things, has often been
racked by this trashy dust. — I give you my advice : enter the churches of the mar
tyrs :.. and you will then be burnt with invisible flames, and confess what you now
deny." Ib. 409.

314 apoc vm. 1 — 6. [part ii.
shippers and the worshipped, was yet that of clients and
patrons ; r — patrons invested with the chief intercessory
and mediatorial, as well as chief ministering functions, be
tween God and man. A view this which could not but
involve practically the supercession of Christ, in his cha
racter of the one Mediator, to whom was given all power
for the help of his saints, alike in heaven and earth : — as
well as in that also which could not be separated from the
former, (and which was also most unequivocally noted in the
Apocalyptic vision,) of the propitiatory meritorious sacri
fice ; whereby alone sinful man's incense-offering could be
purified, and made acceptable before God. — I say which
could not be separated from the former. For how was Christ
a prevailing Advocate with the Father, except as being
Christ the righteous, who had made atonement for our sins ?2
And how, in the counter-system, could departed saints be
supposed successful mediators, except as having a stock of
merit, sufficient to propitiate God?3 — Besides which, human
merit was now needed of such kind as might propitiate the
saints ; (for an anti-christian system of merit like this, once
begun, knew no ending ;) especially of ritual devotion (or
rather rioting) * at their tombs, and of church-gifts and
alms-deeds.5 So that it was all strange fire now with the
offerings. God's own ashes of the altar-fire, as well as
God's own High Priest, were, according to the Apoca-
1 I add an illustration from Prudentius, riept Sre^avuv, Hymn 6 ; written about
A-D. 405, with the precise title of patrons given to the saints : in which hymn
however, Christ is just mentioned, though not as the intercessor ; — indeed distinctly,
as not one to be addressed by sinners. (Lardner, v. 5.)
Indignus, agnosco et scio,
Quem Christus ipse exaudiat ;
Sed per patronos martyres
Potest medelam consequi.
2 1 Joh. ii. 1. Compare Is. liii. 11, 12.
3 So Paulinus, of St. Felix (Gilly, 53) :
Sancta sub aeternis altaribus ossa quiescunt;
Ut dum casta pio referantur munera Christo,
Divinis sacris anima; jugantur odores.
Or, as the French translators ;
Les os sont enfermes sous l'enclos del'autel;
Ou, quand s'offre au Seigneur l'holocauste immortel,
L'odeur de ses vertus, en tous lieux reverses,
Se joint au doux parfum des offrandes sacrees.
4 See Note 3 p. 311 ; and especially Augustine's Ep. 29, there referred to.
' Without alms-deeds, says Chrysostom somewhere, how can the incense be
accepted ?

CHAP. I.] THE INCENSE-OFFERING. 315
lvptic figuration, forsaken by the mass in Eoman Chris
tendom. Oh ! sad apostacy of the Church from that which was
its proper and glorious oflice, (I mean the directing each
sinner's soul to personal communion with Christ as its Me
diator, atonement, righteousness, and Saviour,) into a sys
tem whereby it became more and more the instrument of
interposing itself and each sacred thing between Christ
and the soul ; — whether the sacraments,1 or church -ritual,
or tradition; or the dead saints, or the living priests ! —
Surely ! had but God's holy written word, construed in
the simple unperverted sense,2 been taken for its guide and
rule, neither example, nor church authority,3 nor traditi
onal observances,4 would have availed so to lead it wrong.
— No doubt the seeds of martyr-worship were early sown.
They were sown as innocently as unconsciously. What
more allowable, as well as natural, than that when the early
martyrs fell under the enemies of the faith, their remains
should be regarded as precious, and their remembrance be
kept up annually, on the returns of those their birthdays
into eternal life ? 5 Again, what more innocent, as well as
natural, than the solemn commemorative services at their
1 See the first section of my chapter on the Sealing Vision.
2 See, for an example of the perversions of Scripture by Jerome, that which has
been already noted, of the Apocalyptic passage about the 144,000 that follow the
Lamb whithersoever he goeth. In its true meaning we shall hereafter see, I doubt
not, that it has no reference whatsoever to dead saints after death, but to saints
while still living. But Jerome held the falsiias dispensativa, spoken of p. 275
supra. See for specimens Gilly, 199, 267.
3 Jerome urges this : " Was the emperor Constantine guilty, and the emperor
Arcadius, and all the bishops sacrilegious and fools, who carried the ashes in silk and
in a golden vessel ? Does the Bishop of Rome act amiss, &c. and the Bishops of the
whole world? " &c. 4 This consideration hampered even Augustine.
5 Acts viii. 2 ; " And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great
lamentation over him." — As yet nothing more. But even as early as Ignatius' mar
tyrdom we see the tendency in Christians to an undue estimate of the value of the
martyr's relics. " Parts of his holy remains," it is said in the Acts of his Martyr
dom, eh. 6 ad fin. " were taken to Antioch, and laid up in linen, a treasure past
price to the Church : Bijoavpos aripijros, viro tijs ev ru p.aprvpt xaPlTOS t-tj ayia
eKKAijaia KaraAeupBevra.
So too in a very illustrative passage in the Acts of Polycarp's martyrdom, ch. 18 ;
'Hpieis Te aveAoptevoi ra ripiurepa AiBuv iroAvreAuv, Kai SoKtpurepa birep xpootov, oara
avrov, aireBepei&a iirov Kai aKoAovBov rjv' evBa, «s Svvarov, rjptv avvayopevots, ev ayaA-
Aiaoei Kat xaP"? irape^ei & Kvptos eirneAetv tijv tov paprvptov avrov ijpepav yeveBAiav,
eis Te tijv tuv ijBAijkotuv pvrjpiijv, Kat tuv peAAovruv aOKijoiv re Kai eroipaoiav. In
ch. 1 7 the Narrative speaks of holding fellowship with his holy flesh, Koivuvijaat tu
ayta avrov oapKiKu. Yet not in the way of worship, it is said, butcommemoration.
Toutoi' pev (Xpio-Tov) irpooKvvepev, rovs Se paprvpas ayairupev.

316 apoc viiiv 1 — 6. [part n.
tombs ? J And then what more natural than the inquisitive
searchings into their actual state in the world of spirits ;
and the persuasion that they were not only still living and
conscious, but with the same affectionate interest about sur
viving Christian friends, which erewhile on earth prompted
them on their behalf to intercessory prayer ? 2 Once more
what more natural (but ah ! here began the danger of
speculating on things secret, here the trenching on the
great Mediator's office) than the speaking to and asking
their prayers ? — Alas ! nature's was no safe guiding. What
said the Scripture ? Was it not just such a stealthy rise and
growth, from earliest beginnings, that had been predicted
of the great apostacy ? " The mystery of iniquity," said
St. Paul, " doth even now work." 3 And were not omi
nous words spoken in Scripture about the worship of dae
mons, or deified dead men, as one marked feature that
would characterize the unfolded apostacy ? * — As it was,
these holy warnings were neglected ; and as might be ex
pected, whatever other and human checks there might be
to the grosser excesses of the incoming superstition, proved
also vain. Perhaps there might seem to be a grave check
in the canon of the Council of Laodicea, which forbad the
worship of angels.5 But in truth it was almost beside the
mark, and quite ineffectual : for those the people now chiefly
invoked as intercessors, were departed saints, not angels. —
And herein indeed appeared the master-hand of Him that
was from the first, and ever after, directing the course of
man's corruption, though under a Christian profession, into
the great Apostacy. The angels, having nothing material
1 So Cyprian Ep. xxxiv; " Palmas k Domino et coronas illustri passione merue-
runt. Sacrificia pro eis semper offerimus, quoties martyrum passiones et dies
anniversaria commemoratione celebramus.'' So too Ep. xxxvii.
2 So Origen Exhort, ad Martyr, p. 192 ; " The souls of martyrs slain for the wit
ness of Jesus SiaKovsai rots evxopevois a/peaiv apapriuv. On which see Wetstein's
Note. (Ed. Basle 1674.) Also Gregory Nazianzen, on Basil's death a. d. 378:
" Nunc ille quidem in ccelis est : illic, ut opinor, sacrificia pro nobis offert, ac pro
populo preces fundit : neque enim ita nos reliquerit ut prorsus reliquerit." I
quote from Baronius iv. 387.
3 It was not the gospel-doctrine and church that was to be a thing of gradual devel
opment, so as some would now have it in Rome and at Oxford ; but the apostacy.
4 1 Tim. iv. 1, " Doctrines of daemons : " Apoc. ix. 20; " They repented not of
worshipping daemons ,-" — in my comment on which clause the sense of the word
dwrnons will be amply discussed, and that which is here given justified. See
especially Paper 1 in the Appendix to Vol. II.
'' Canon 35 : ov Set Xpiortavovs eyKaraAeiiretv tijv eKKAijoiav rov ®eov, Kat airtevai,
Kai «77e\uvs ovopageiv, Kat ovva(eis iroietv. This Council was held A. D. 372.

CHAP. I.] THE INCENSE-OFFERING. 317
about them, could not be so well visibly connected with
certain particular ecclesiastical localities,1 as the dead saints,
whose bodies must needs have each their own place of se
pulture ; nor consequently so associated with the priestly
functionaries of the martyrium, or church built over the
martyr's tomb.2 On the other hand, in the latter case, and
supposing the saint to be the effectual intercessor with
God, who so effectual a helper to the saint's favour as the
priest that watched the saint's relics ? Hence a copart
nership in the anti-christianism of the apostacy, as now
unfolded at the closing in of the fourth century ; a copart
nership between the visible world and the invisible, the
earthly priest, and the heavenly martyr. So that indeed
the priests came even thus early, as well as the departed
saints, to be viewed as and entitled mediators.3 — And hence
too, more and more, a superstitious awe among the people
of the clerical body ; and a regard to them and to the
monks, not only as the specially holy and elect,4 but as
those who had the dispensing of the favor and the wrath
of heaven.5 Not to add, what could not but follow also,
an awful increase of pride and vanity among the clerics ; 6
1 It will be observed, in regard of the angel-worship forbidden in the Laodicean
Council, that Christians left the church for it.
2 Not only above ground were churches built over martyrs' tombs, so as to be
martyria, but even in the catacombs the altars of the chapelries seem often to
have been so built. See Dr. Maitland's Catacombs, p. 216. — I give one illustration
from Prudentius, Peristeph. H. xi. B. P. M. v. 1034 :
Ilia sacramenti donatrix mensa, eademque
Custos fida sui martyris, apposita
Servat ad aeterni spem judicis ossa sepulchro,
Pascit item Sanctis Tibricolas dapibus.
3 peonai ; a term used not infrequently by the Greek fathers of the latter half of
the fourth century.
4 So Paulinus called his monastic associates, " fraternitatem electorum Dei."
And Jerome, comparing his own monastics at Bethlehem, and their poverty, fasts,
and self-mortifying austerities, Intimates even to Paulinus that these only, and such
as these, were the elect; saying, "Many are called, but few chosen." Gilly 175, 248.
Compare God's definition of the elect, as the chosen, quickened, illuminated by
divine grace. See p. 259, &c, supra. Also observe how at the end of the fourth cen
tury these very doctors, however otherwise erring, did thus confess that the evidence
of being made holy, elect, and faithful, simply through the baptismal rite, was in
sufficient and untrue.
5 The Emperor Theodosius II, when excommunicated by a monk, for refusing
him a favour, dared not taste a morsel till the excommunication was removed. Mil-
ner, Cent, v, Ch. 12.
6 Gilly (p. 23), in his sketch of Martin of Tours, mentions how, in presence of the
emperor Maximus, he passed his drinking cup to a Presbyter, before handing it to
the emperor : so marking that church officers ought to take precedence of all secu
lar dignitaries. So the Romish Editor of Sulpicius' Life of the Saint ; " Dignitas

318 apoc viii. 1 — 6. [part n.
of pride altogether the most contrary to their Master's spi
rit, and their Master's charge.
So had the Apostacy advanced, just as pre-intimated in
the vision before us, yet another and a mighty step in its
anti-christian course. And here let the reader again stop
and think whether he can imagine to himself an emblema
tic vision that could more exactly suggest by allusive con
trast,1 the characteristic error of the time, as well as more
truly the contrasted faith of the saints, than this in the
Apocalypse. Point by point the parallelism might be
drawn out by us, just as before.2 But indeed Gibbon has
saved us the task. It needs but to put his lately cited
picture of the professing world's worship at this epoch,3 and
the Apocalyptic picture of the saints' worship, side by
side, to be struck with the perfectness of the contrast. —
So this error was now established : and, like the former, or
baptismal error, it was abiding.* — Well then might the
prophecy speak henceforward of the mass of the inhabit
ants of Eoman professing Christendom under the self-same
title as of its heathen population previously, — " the inha
bitants of the earth." For Heathenism had indeed now
joined with Judaism, by its idolatry, as before by its philo
sophy,5 in corrupting the Christianity that had overthrown
it. Alike the infidel Gibbon, and the Christian Bishop
Van Mildert, speak of heathenism as revived in the empire.
And so too the Christian philosopher Coleridge : " The
pastors of the church had gradually changed the life and
light' of the gospel into the very superstitions they were
commissioned to disperse ; and thus paganized Christianity
in order to christen Paganism." 6
But all had not thus become blinded to, and forsaken,
their only true and divine High Priest and Intercessor.
Far from it. " There was given to the Angel much in
cense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the
saints upon the golden altar before the throne." So the
sacerdotalis regid dignior." — See too in Sulpicius' Dialogue i. 14, a lively sketch in
detail of the foolish vanity and pride of the Gallic clergy generally :— a sketch that
might perhaps apply to other and later ages also. Also Gieseler vi. § 101.
1 See p. 255 supra. 2 See p. 264 et seq. 3 See p. 309. 4 See p. 268 supra.
5 See p. 274. 6 Quoted by Gilly, p. 269, from the 5th Essay in "The Friend."

CHAP. I.J THE INCENSE-OFFERING. 319
prefiguration. And does not history verify this its direct
picture, as well as its allusion ? " Whom shall I look to as
my Mediator," said Augustine, A.D. 400, just when all
this forsaking of Christ was manifested at Eome and Nola,
at Primuliac and Bethlehem ; " Whom shall I look to as
my Mediator ? Shall I go to Angels ? Many have tried
this, and deserved to be the sport of the illusions that they
loved. A mediator between God and man must have the
nature of both. The true Mediator, whom in thy secret
mercy thou hast shewn to the humble,1 the man Christ
Jesus, hath appeared a mediator between mortal sinners and
the immortal Holy One ; that by his divine righteousness
he might justify the ungodly. He was shown to ancient
saints, that they might be saved by faith in his future suf
ferings ; and we by faith in the same sufferings already past.2
How hast thou loved us, O Father, delivering up thy Son
for us : for whom he, our priest and sacrifice, (our priest
because our sacrifice,) was subjected to death. Well may
my hope be strong in such an Intercessor."3
Yes ! it is no doubt true that Augustine was not alto
gether uninfected with the prevalent superstitions about
departed saints : for he credulously believed in miracles
wrought by their relics •* and even joined in the established
commemorative services, in which mention was made of
their praying for the living.5 Alike his humility and his
charity made him credulous. The living authority of the
Church, the opinions and practices of friends, and ritual
istic tradition handed down even from men like Cyprian,6
1 I of course suppose this vision of Christ as High Priest to have been seen by St.
John in his representative character ; and so as impersonating in the present case
the faithful ones of the Augustinian aara.
2 Observe Augustine's view of the intent of the Levitical altar, sacrifices, priest,
and ritual; — the precise symbols in the Apocalyptic vision.
. 3 Confessions, x.42, 43, abridged. 4 C. D. xxii. 8.
5 Cyril gives us the prayer then offered after consecration of the holy communion :
" We offer these sacrifices in memory of them that have fallen asleep, that God by
their prayers and intercessions may receive our supplications."
6 See Cyprian, quoted before, Note ' p. 316. Also p. 318. Note 3.
Cyprian, writing in 251, allows the possible efficacy of martyr intercession, but in
a guarded manner. " We are as willing as any can be to make all fit allowance to
the merits of the martyrs, and to their interest with our righteous Judge : but not
till the day of judgment." Till then the answer to such prayers of the martyrs, as
well as to other of their prayers, was deferred ; as stated in the Apocalyptic vision
of the souls under the altar. Moreover he would have none to presume on the
martyrs' prayer, " lest the unhappy sinner should have added to his other misfor
tunes that of the curse denounced by God on such as trust in man." De Lapsis p. 187.

320 apoc. vm. 1 — 6. [part ii.
so far swayed him. But what he did was with such views,
and such explanations to his people and the public, as
showed his regard to Christ, as the Christian's only and all
perfect mediator, to be just as clear, direct, and influential
as our own. When consulted by Paulinus on the state of
the departed saints, their knowledge, and the functions
they might exercise in behalf of those they had left be
hind, he stated explicitly that he did not believe they were
present at their shrines, or knew what passed on earth at
the time ; excepting only what they might hear from other
souls more recently departed from earth, or by communica
tion from God : moreover, as to miracles said to be done
by them, that these might probably be by angelic minis
tration, even though under the martyr's semblance.1 Be
tween which confessedly doubtful and restricted views, as
to the saints knowing, hearing, and acting, and the views
of Paulinus and Jerome, what a contrast ! and how com
paratively innocuous in such case the belief that whilst in
the separate state departed saints pray for men ; I mean
innocuous as to diverting the eye from Christ ! — And thus,
when any question arose about the mediator and High
Priest that was to make man's offerings acceptable to God,
we have seen how clear he was, and how strong. In his
sermons on the saints' commemorations he still as expressly
stated the same opinion.2 In his answer to Faustus the
Manichsean, (while allowing much evil in the matter that
the Church unwillingly tolerated)3 he added with regard
1 See his Treatise De Cura Gerenda pro Mortuis, 19, 20 &c. from which Trea
tise Dr. Gilly has briefly abstracted, p. 87 — 90.
2 Tom. viii. 1625 ; " Non martyribus sacerdotes offerunt. Absit. . .Deo offerun-
tur." Again 1685 ; " Pro martyribus non oratur : tarn enim perfect! exierunt ut
non sint suscepti nostri, sed advocati : neque hoc in se, sed in illo cui capiti perfecta
membra cohaaserunt. Jlle est enim vere advocatus unus, qui interpellat -pro nobis
sedens ad dextram Patris." (Serm. 273, 285.)
3 In Faustum B. xx. c. 21 ; " Aliud est quod docemus, aliud quod sustinemus ;
aliud quod praecipere jubemur,- aliud quod emendare praecipimur, et donee emende-
mus tolerare compellimur."
In his Epistle to Januarius he says ; " I cannot approve the new practices ; neither
dare I censure them too freely, lesj: I should give oflvnee. But it grieves me that so
many salutary precepts of Scripture should beflield cheap, while our religion abounds
with commandments of men. Therefore as to all those customs which" are not con
tained in Scripture, ordained by Councils, or sanctioned by the tradition of the
church, they ought to be laid aside. They burden religion with servile usages, which
God intended to be free. However, the church, surrounded as she is with chaff and
tares, may endure many things ; though not what is contrary to Christian faith and

CHAP. I.] THE INCENSE-OFFERING. 321
to the honour judged due by him to departed saints, that it
was but of the same nature as was paid to them when alive,
though warmer in degree ; l and that the saints themselves
would repudiate any higher worship, as more hateful to
them than even drunkenness itself at their feasts.2 — So that
in this, as in every other point, the holy Augustine was as
eminently and essentially christian, — as eminently with
the eye and heart directed to Christ, as the alone Media
tor, propitiatory sacrifice, and High Priest, — as the pre
vailing system was eminently and essentially anti-christian.
It was a subject indeed which he delighted to dwell on.3
And he declared that whosoever directed men to another
mediator might be considered Antichrist*
Nor was Augustine as yet so singular in his views and
feelings. " There was much incense given to the Angel."
Multitudes doubtless under his influence, as well as others
elsewhere under other teaching, united in offering the in
cense of their prayer and praise simply through the media
tion and propitiatory atonement of Jesus. May we not
trust that the promoters of the Laodicean Council, how
ever timid and partial in their restriction of the crying evil,
were yet influenced by sincere regard to Christ ? Again
of Jovinian may we not hope the same ? 5 Aye, and even
practice." — He adds that the votaries of superstition silenced and neutralized the
efforts of true reformers. Ep. 55. 35.
The same spirit and views appear in his earliest Treatise, that written in 388, De
Mor. Cath. Eccl. i. 34. " Follow not the crowds of the unwary; who in their very
religion are superstitious, . . so as to forget what they have promised to God. For I
know that there are many adorers (adoratores^ of sepulchres and pictures of
saints ;" &c.
1 " Colimus martyres eo cultu dilectionis et societatis quo et in hac vita coluntur
sancti homines Dei ; . . sed illos tanto devotius, quanto securius post certamina su-
perata." ContraFaustum xx. 21.
2 Ib. So. too in the context of the passage quoted in the preceding Note.
3 So C D. ix. 17 ; " Ad consequendam vitam beatam . non tali mediatore indi-
gere hominem qualis est daemon [sc. bonus], sed tali qualis est unus Christus." And
so elsewhere in this ixth Book of the C. D. copiously; and again, strikingly and
beautifully, in the C. D. x. 22, 24.
4 So Tom. xii. p. 93, on 1 John ii. 1, (" We have an advocate with the Father,
Sec,") he says ; " If John had said, ' If any man sin / will pray for him ' (as Par-
menianus in one place makes the Bishop the mediator between the people and God)
who would tolerate it of faithful Christians ? Who not view him rather as Anti
christ than an apostle t" " Quis sicut apostolum Christi, et non sicut antichristum
intueretur ? "
v 5 " Dicit virgines viduas et maritatas, quae semel in Christo lotae sunt, si non
discrepent caeteris operibus, ejusdam esse meriti. Nititur approbare eos qui plena
fide in baptismate renati sunt, a Diabolo non posse subverti. Tertium proponit in
ter abstinentiam ciborum, et cum gratiarum actione perceptionem eorum, nullam
VOL. I. Y

322 > apoc viii. 1 — 6. [part ii.
of not a few clouded on this point, and superstitious ? —
Most of all we must note " the Protestant of his age " Vi
gilantius .-1 one that was more prominent than Augustine
himself in the direct act of protesting against the prevalent
superstitions ; and whom we may well believe with Dr.
Gilly to have done this, not in the mere way of protesting
against false mediators, but as himself seeing, and worship
ping through, the true one.2
esse distantiam. Quartum, quod et extremum, esse omnium qui suum baptisma
servaverint unam in regno ccelorum remunerationem." So his vituperator Jerome,
of Jovinian's heretical doctrine. What Jerome notes is mainly Jovinian's anti-asce
tic views. But he seems to have formed these on the Bible ; and the antagonism to
one superstitious error, on the ground of Scripture doctrine, must have involved
opposition to others. See Giesler c. vii. § 104 : also Milner, Cent. v-. ch. ».
1 Gibbon v. 126.
2 Vigilantius was so remarkably the Protestant of the times when he wrote, that
it would be wrong not to quote what is recorded by a bitter enemy concerning his
protestation. In his Letter then to Riparius, Jerome says that Vigilantius called those who re
ceived the martyrs' relics cinder-gatherers and idolaters (cinerarios et idolatras) :
also that Vigilantius abominated the vigils, or night -watchings, kept by pilgrims at
the shrines of the saints on their festivals.
In his Book against Vigilantius, written after receiving copies of his writings, he
again states him to have denied that the sepulchres of the martyrs were to be vene
rated, and to have condemned the vigils. Also he quotes him as having written
thus : " What need is there for you with so much respect not only to honour, but
even to adore, and in your adoration to kiss, dust folded up ill a linen cloth ? Under
the pretext of religion we see a custom introduced into the churches which approx
imates to the rites of the Gentiles ; viz. the lighting of multitudes of tapers, even
when the sun is yet shining. And every where men kiss in their adoration a small
quantity of dust folded up in a little cloth, and deposited in a little vessel. Men
of this stamp give great honour forsooth to the most blessed martyrs : thinking with
a few insignificant wax-tapers to glorify those whom the Lamb, who is in the midst
of the throne, enlightens with all the brightness of his majesty."
Again; " The souls of the apostles and martyrs have settled themselves either in
Abraham's bosom, or in a place of refreshment, or under the altar of God; and they
cannot escape from their tombs, and present themselves where they please." And ;
" So long as we are alive we can mutually pray for each other : but after we are
dead the prayer of none for another can be heard ; especially since the martyrs pray
ineffectually to obtain vengeance for the shedding of their blood." Again; "Do
the souls of martyrs love their ashes, and hover round them, and be always present ;
lest, if any suppliant should perchance happen to draw near, they might not hear him
in consequence of their absence? " Finally, it was his saying, " that the miracles
said to be done in the churches of the martyrs were profitable for the misbelievers,
not for the faithful." *
Besides which Vigilantius protested against the system of celibacy and monachism :
against the former by asserting that it led to incontinence ; against the latter by
saying, " If all should shut themselves up, and live in solitude, who will serve the
churches ? Who will win the men of the world ? Who will exhort sinners to
* Dr. Gilly thinks Vigilantius' meaning in this to be, that when true faith was in
the heart, the internal evidences of the truth were sufficiently convincing, and there
was no need of a show of miracles (p. 443). But might he not rather mean that it
furnished occasion to the heathens against Christianity, seeing that they could not
but see the falsehood? Just such was the case of Eunapius, the Pagan sophist
quoted p. 312 supra.

CHAP. I.] THE TRUMPET-SOUNDINGS- 323
And what the result of their so offering ? It was indi
cated in the vision. The Covenant- Angel received their
offering : " and the smoke of the incense, which came
with the prayers of the saints, ascended up (accepted)
before God out of the Angel's hand." Yes ! they might,
some at least, like Vigilantius,1 be cast out as heretics by
their fellow men : but they were accepted before God. —
But on the rest, the earthly ones in Eoman Christendom,
and neglectors of Christ the Saviour, judgment must follow.2
" The Angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the
altar, and cast it (the fire) upon the earth : and there were
thunderings, and lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake.
— And (then) the seven angels that had the seven trum
pets prepared themselves to sound."
III. Eeserving my explanation of the historical fulfil
ment of the thunderings, lightnings, and earthquake, here
spoken of, to the next chapter, let me, in what remains of
the present, add a few observations on the probably in
tended significancy of the trumpet-soundings now preparing;
trumpet-soundings under which, in sevenfold succession,
the judgments fore-doomed were about to be represented
to the Evangelist. For, since we are told 3 that it was by
God's own appointment that trumpets were made and used
in the ancient Israel, as also that their uses were all ex
pressly defined by Him, and these uses of them to be made
in the Jewish temple, by priests that "stood before God,"4
— and since in the apocalyptic visions the temple was simi
larly the locality of the trumpet-blasts, and the trumpet-
angels similarly designated as those that stood before God,
— therefore we seem warranted in supposing an analogy
between the two cases ; and that a significancy attached to
the trumpets in the latter case not dissimilar from what
attached to them in the former.
Now under the Levitical law the uses of the priestly
trumpet were of a twofold character. 1st, and as regarded
the Israelites, its use was to proclaim to them the epochs
virtue ? " Further, he deprecated sending money to the monks at Jerusalem, &c ;
deeming it better to attend to the poor of his own neighbourhood;
1 Vigilantius is still in the Roman list of heretics.
- Compare again Ezek. viii. 11, x. 2. 3 Numb. x. 1 — 10. 4 Deut. x. 8.
Y 2

324 apoc viii. 1 — 6. [part ii.
of advancing time, — the sabbaths, the new moons, the new
years, and annual or other festivals ; on these summoning
the congregations for praise and prayer : besides that it
served also, whilst they sojourned in the wilderness, to pro
claim each forward movement of the camp, and thus to
note their advancing steps towards the end of their pil
grimage.1 — 2ndly, during war-time, and as regarded their
enemies, its use was to proclaim war against those enemies,
as from God Himself: the trumpets blown by his priests
against them being a declaration that the Lord had taken
up Israel's cause as his own cause, and that He would fight
for Israel.2
And it seems to me that of these two kinds of uses, we
may apply not the one only, but both, to the emblematic
trumpet-soundings in the Apocalypse. — To his own Israel,
to the 144,000, — emerged indeed out of the Egypt of
Pagan oppression, but having still the tribulation and long
pilgrimage of the wilderness to pass through, — each trum
pet-angel's sounding, like the hour-strikings on a chrono
meter, might be regarded as a chronological epoch in the
prophecy, a note of advance towards the consummation.
Such, for instance, is the chronometrical use made of them
in the vision of Apoc. x : in which vision the sun-beaming
Angel, that descended and stood with his feet on land and
sea, when he would distinguish the true time of the consum
mation from the wrong, thus expressed his meaning ; " He
sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, that," — not in
the days of the sixth Trumpet-angel, under which his descent
took place, — but " in the days of the seventh, the mystery
of God should be finished." This, I say, was one thing
signified to St. John by the successive trumpet-soundings.
And just as to him by the figurative trumpet-clangs, so to
the saints from time to time living, — in so far as under
standing on the subject might be given them, — by the
voices of the actual events prefigured ; as one, and then
another, they pealed upon a startled world.3 — Further,
1 See besides Numb. x. 1 — 10, already referred to, Levit. xxv. 9; Ps. lxxxi. 3;
&c. Also 1 Cor. xiv. 7, 8. 2 Jer. Ii. 27 ; Zeph. i. 16, &c.
3 Isa. xviii. 3 ; " When He bloweth a trumpet, hear ye."— So Vitringa; " Clan-
gores tubae, qui praecedunt Dei judicia in Romanum imperium, significant ilia Dei

CHAP. I.J THE TRUMPET-SOUNDINGS. 325
since during all this time there was a state and a people in
open opposition to the truth and the true Israel, therefore
the successive trumpet-soundings might be considered,
also, as the repeated proclamations of war from the Lord
Himself against them. Indeed this is the meaning most
prominently marked in the trumpet-soundings of the Apo
calypse ; as it is the use most frequent of the figure in
other scriptures. — Let me just add that, supposing the
trumpets to have been blown in the temple of vision, like
those in the ancient temple of Jerusalem, " over the burnt-
offerings and peace-offerings " on the great altar,1 then it
must have looked like an intimation that the cause, thus
espoused by God, was espoused as the cause of those who
had made a covenant with Him by sacrifice; and as against
them specially that had forsaken that holy covenant.
There were to be seven Trumpets sounded, and under
the seventh Trumpet seven Vials poured out. The numeral
resemblance of these to the seven trumpet-blasts sounded
on seven successive days against the ancient Jericho, and
which were followed on the seventh day by seven compass-
ings of its wall, till on the last the wall fell down, and en
trance was given to Israel into that first city of the pro
mised Canaan,2 — this interesting resemblance, I say, has
been noted by Ambrose Ansbert in old times, and in more
modern times by Vitringa, and other apocalyptic commen
tators after him. It almost seemed as if some power were
marked out hereby as the New Testament Jericho ; whose
domination opposed, and whose overthrow would introduce,
the saints' enjoyment of the heavenly Canaan. And if so,
what power but that of the now nearly dominant anti
christian apostacy ? — It is observable, and perhaps confirm
atory of this view, that in the ancient Jewish Feast of Ta-
judicia fore notahilia, magnum in mundo editura esse sonum, omnium. . suscitatura
attentionem, et per universum mundum per famam vulganda, &c." p. 440.
It is observable, as Mede has appositely remarked, that Ammianus Marcellinus,
the most eminent historian of the times we speak of, adopts the very same figure of
trumpet-soundings to mark certain threatenings of universal war (which however did
not then fulfil themselves) in the reigns of Valentinian and Valens. " Hoc tem
pore, velut per universum orbem Romanum bellicum canentibus buccinis, excitae
gentes saevissimaa limites sibi proximos persultabant." Lib. xxvi. 4. This was
with reference to the invasions of the empire by the Northern barbarians, A D. 364.
But it was not yet God's time for his trumpet's sounding. The invasions were all
repulsed. ' Numb. x. 10. 2 Joshua vi. 3 — 16.

326 apoc viii. 1 — 6. [part ii.
bernacles, there was kept up a constant commemoration of
the above-noted manner of the fall of the ancient Jericho ;
and this with a certain reference to the future, in the
ritual, as well as to the past. On seven successive days,
(according to the divine ordinance,) a palm-bearing pro
cession, with trumpets blowing, were then wont to visit the
Temple ; and, on the last of the seven, seven times to
compass the altar, still sounding the trumpets, and chanting
Hosanna! x Now as the cry Hosanna was, as I think I have
elsewhere had occasion to observe, supplicatory, signifying
Save Lord, it seemed to refer to some enemy yet to be con
quered by Messiah for his people, some Jericho yet to be
overthrown. — Many a time must St. John himself have
witnessed the celebration of this ceremonial. And thus
when he saw prefigured an earthly anti-christian power, to
which the • duration meted out was that of the seven trum
pet-soundings, and under the seventh trumpet the seven
vials out-pouring, the remembrance of it, and the applica
tion, could scarce fail to strike him. — Of the fall of the first,
or Canaanitish Jericho, the commemoration was in that
Jewish Feast of Tabernacles of which I was just speaking.
Of the fall of the second, the celebration was to be in the
anti-typieal heavenly Feast of Tabernacles, yet future : —
that same festival that St. John had a little while before
seen figured anticipatively in vision ; and to which the
eyes of the saints have ever since been directed, as the
destined term to all the evils of the wilderness, and to the
persecutions and opposition of every enemy.

CHAPTEE II.

THE FOUR FIRST TRUMPETS.
" And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire
of the altar, and cast it upon the earth : and there were
thunderings, and lightnings and voices, and an earthquake.
1 See Goodwin's Moses and Aaron, and Home's Introduction, Vol. iii. P. iii. c. 47.
on this Festival.

CHAP. II. § 1.] THE FOUR FIRST TRUMPETS. 327
And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets pre
pared themselves to sound.
" And the first sounded, and there followed hail and fire
mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth ;
and the third part of the earth was burnt up, and the third
part of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was
burnt, up. — And the second angel sounded : and as it were
a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea :
and the third part of the sea became blood ; and the third
part of the creatures that were in the sea which had life,
died ; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. —
And the third angel sounded : and there fell a great star
from heaven, burning as it were a lamp ; and it fell upon
the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of
water ; and the name of the star is called Wormwood :
and the third part of the waters became wormwood ; and
many men died of the waters, because they were made
bitter. — And the fourth angel sounded. ; and the third
part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the
moon, and the third part of the stars ; so that the third
part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a
third part of it, and the night likewise." — Apoc. viii. 5
— 12.1
The four first Trumpet-visions, like those of the four
first Seals, are connected together by certain strongly
marked features of resemblance ; and which are here of
such a nature as to make it desirable to consider the four
visions together. They depict the destructive action of a
series of tempests, successively affecting the third part of
the Eoman earth, third part of the sea, third part of the
rivers, and third part of the firmamental luminaries. By
English Protestant interpreters they have been generally
explained, and I doubt not truly, of those successive inva
sions and ravages of the Goths, chiefly in the fifth century,
which ended in the subversion of the Western empire. At
the same time there has been as to the details, and the ap-
1 There is here no variation in the critical editions from the received text of the
least importance ; except the insertion in verse 7 of the clause Kai to rpirov rijs yijs
KareKaij, " and the third part of the earth was burnt up : " which I have accordingly
inserted.

328 apoc viii. 1 — 6. [part n.
portionment of its part in the Gothic ravages to each one
of the four Trumpet-visions distinctively, such a remark
able difference of opinion, — scarcely two commentators, I
believe, explaining them alike, — as to have thrown discre
dit, in the opinion of not a few, on the Gothic application
altogether ; and to have shown that the principles, on
which we are to form a distinctive and particular applica
tion of the several figurations, need still to be established.
— To this point, then, let us first direct our attention.
§ 1.  ON THE PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION APPLICA
BLE TO THE FOUR FIRST TRUMPET-VISIONS.
Now on the preliminary question whether these four
Trumpet-visions were intended, or not, to prefigure the
Gothic irruptions, the reader, whosoever has thus far fol
lowed and agreed with me, will soon see reason not to he
sitate. Considering that we were brought by the visions
of the six first Seals to that period of the Eoman history
when Paganism fell, and Christianity was established under
Constantine and his successors, — and that the sixth Seal's
closing figurations of the four threatening but temporarily
arrested tempest-angels, and the sealing and palm-bearers,
fixed our position at Theodosius' arrest of the Gothic
insurrection under Valens, and the cotemporary Augusti
nian revelation, — an arrest of which the instant ending at
Theodosius' death might seem to mark a new and fateful
epoch, just such as to answer to the seventh Seal's opening,
— considering, I say, that in comparing the parallel course
of the prophecy and the history, we were thus brought by
the apocalyptic visions to the precise epoch of the com
mencement of the great Gothic irruptions into the Eoman
empire, and that then (after a preliminary figuration that
seemed not obscurely indicative of that sera's crowning sin
of saint and martyr- worship,) the symbols in vision next
following were such as well to suit those Gothic devasta
tions, — being the symbols of trumpet-sounding from on
high, and an earthquake with thundering and light- '
ning ; then of tempests, volcanoes, and meteors, succes
sively cast upon the Eoman earth,— it seems to me almost

CHAP. II. § l.J THE FOUR FIRST TRUMPETS. 329
impossible to doubt but that the latter were intended as a
prefiguration of the former. — There are two further coinci
dences that must not be omitted, as furnishing corrobora
tive evidence of the truth of this conclusion. The one is,
that as the Gothic ravages terminated in the extinction of
the Western emperors and empire, so the fourth Trumpet-
vision, the last of the series, depicted the partial darkening
of what were the well-known symbols of rulers,1 — the sun
and the heavenly luminaries. The other, that as the Go
thic desolations were succeeded, after a half century's in
terval, or rather more, by the Saracen invasions, so the
fourth Trumpet-vision was succeeded, after a forewarning
notice which might well correspond with that interval, by
the fifth Trumpet- vision ; — a vision almost demonstrably
prefigurative, as I hope to prove, of that very Saracenic woe.
The which preliminary point being settled to our satis
faction, we come next to the question of the right parti
cular application of each one of the four visions to the one
particular irruption of the Goths really corresponding. For
that some such particular application is intended, and that
distinctive marks are given in the visions to fix it, we can
not doubt. The divine selection of the symbols, being the
best possible, must needs, as we might feel assured a priori,
be precise and distinct : and their precision and appropri
ateness in every one of the apocalyptic visions that we have
hitherto considered, has very strikingly illustrated and con
firmed the fact. The only doubtful question is as to the
distinctive mark intended. — The question is narrowed by
the important fact, to which notice has been called already,
of the fourth vision of the series almost obviously prefigur
ing ( if the general reference be admitted ) the extinction
of the Western Caesars. So that it is only in the cases of
the former three, that we have need to seek out the dis
tinctive characteristics.
And now then, as with this view the reader considers
the three Trumpet- visions in question, this will, I think,
very soon strike him ; — that though there may be, and pro
bably is, something partially characteristic of each particu
lar invasion in those of the symbols, respectively, that pre-
1 See my observations on these symbols, under the sixth Seal, p. 232, supr&. .

330 apoc viii. 5 — 12. [part n.
figure the powers invading, I mean the hailstorm, the
volcano, and the blazing meteor, — yet that the measure of
similarity of character between them, as being all alike
figures of hostile and desolating armies, is such as to pre
clude them from furnishing any decisive distinction.1 And
thus he finds himself forced to look to other stated particu
lars in the several visions, for the marks he is in search of ;
specially to their designations of the locality or geographical
division in each case invaded : — the which indeed, from the
singular and marked character of the phraseology that de
fines them, appear expressly intended to fix the attention
of the reader ; " the third part of the land, and of the
trees,"2 "the third part of the sea," "the third part of
the rivers." 3
But behold Commentators of high name interpose ; and
tell us that there is nothing of local or geographical mean
ing in these expressions ; — that they are all mere figures.
" The Eoman universe," says Mede, (and he is followed
in the spirit of his exposition by many, perhaps by most
subsequent expositors of note,) * " is compared to the mun-
1 Thus Vitringa observes in his Preface, that " the burning mountain cast into the
sea might, of itself, indicate either the evils which the Jews suffered from the Ro
mans, — those which the Western Romans suffered from the Goths, — or the Eastern
Romans from the Turks." p. v.
2 So Griesbach, Scholz, and Tregelles ; to rpnov tijs yijs being added to the to
rpnov ruv SevSpav.
8 Mr. Faber suggests a geographical distinction of a different kind; viz. with
reference to the quarters (not on which the tempests were to fall, but) from which
they were to blow. This is founded on the hypothesis of each one of the four
tempest-angels corresponding with one of the four trumpet-angels; and of their
blowing one by one singly, in the first four trumpet- visions, then ceasing : a suppo
sition that takes for granted what should be proved, as to the separate action of each
of the four tempest-angels ; not to add that it is inconsistent with the much longer
commission which, it seems probable, as will be seen hereafter, attached to them. —
And even waiving these objections, how indistinct would be the distinction pro
posed ; because there is nothing to fix the order in which, in such case, the winds
should blow. Mr. Faber's order of North, South, West, and East, is altogether
arbitrary ; as indeed would be any other. See his S. C. i. 250, &c.
4 So Mr. Cuninghame says (p. 49) ; " All interpreters of note agree that this
universe is to be considered symbolical." — There is, however, much variety in the
application. Vitringa in Trumpet 2 makes the sea, like the earth, to be the Roman
empire : elsewhere, p. 456, to symbolize the barbarous nations separated from it."
Daubuz says that the sea means the greater part of the Roman population ; " the
rivers the small remaining part." p. 377. Faber thinks that by the sea is to be
understood " the people of the Roman empire, distracted by the wars and revolu
tions of the 1st Trumpet : " (S. C. i. 263 :) though elsewhere (S. C iii. 260) limit
ing it to " the largest nation of the divided Roman empire." " The rivers and
fountains," he explains to be the numerous Gothic kingdoms of the divided Western
Empire." (S. C. i. 267.) — This mav suffice.

CH. II. § l.~] MIXTURE OF LITERAL AND SYMBOLIC. 331
dane system, which consists of earth, sea, rivers, heaven,
stars ; the system or constitution of the empire having as
its earth that which is the base and foundation, as it were,
of the whole polity ; as its sea, that amplitude of rule
which circumscribes its earth, as the natural land is circum
scribed by the natural sea ; its political rivers also which
flow from and into the sea, viz. the provincial magistrates,"
&C.1 — And then, as to the third part, whether of land, sea,
or rivers, he expounds it to mean the whole Roman earth ;
as constituting, he says, about one-third of the known
world, at the time of the Evangelist.2 — Who can wonder
that by interpreters who have adopted any such principle
of interpretation, the visions of the three first Trumpets
should be applied with equal facility and plausibility to one
as to another of the Gothic invasions ? For the very dis
tinctiveness of these symbols in the sacred text is annihi
lated by their interpretation : and a meaning so nearly
common attached to them, that, whosoever or whensoever
the invader, in so far as any one of the three designated
objects might be disturbed by the invasion, — whether the
figurative earth, figurative sea, or figurative rivers, — it
must needs be that the two others would be thereby dis
turbed also.
Of the meaning of the third part I shall speak presently.
But let me first ask, what can be the reason for thus setting
aside the natural geographical and topographical sense of
these expressions, land, sea, rivers ? It has arisen, I be
lieve, from an opinion that whenever any one prominent
part of a prophecy is clearly symbolic in its language, the
rest ought to be interpreted in a symbolical or figurative
sense also ; at any rate in such an example as that now be
fore us. So that in the present case the land, sea, and
rivers mentioned ought to be construed symbolically, be
cause the burning mountain, tempest, and meteor are so.
This opinion, which seems to have prevailed widely
1 Mede's Works, p. 459.
2 So also Daubuz, Bp. Newton, &c. — Lawman interprets it as to mean a great
part. Mr. C'uninghame, after a lengthened discussion on the subject, confesses,
(p. 62) that if the question were put to him, why the proportion of one third of the
symbolical universe should be the limit affixed to the effects of the four Trumpets,
he cannot answer. (My references are to the last editions of Cuninghame and Faber.)

332 apoc vin. 5 — 12. [part ii.
among commentators, is evidently of too great import
ance, and if true, of too extensive application, not to de
mand an immediate inquiry into its correctness.1
I have put the question restrictedly, viz. as applicable to
an example involving local terms, like that before us, be
cause really as regards the general question, the mixture of
the literal and the symbolic is so palpable and so frequent
in prophetic scripture, that it seems quite needless to de
tain the reader by citations to prove it. He can scarce
open a page in the prophecies without seeing examples.2
Would any man in his senses suppose that because in Ps.
22 the predictive words "All my bones are out of joint,"
and those, " They parted my garments among them, &c,"
are to be taken literally, therefore the " fat bulls of Basan,"
mentioned in connection, are to be construed literally also ?
Or vice versa ? I believe not an Apocalyptic Commentator
can be found, whatever his predilections in favour of taking
all literally or all symbolically, that has been able fully to
carry out the rule into practice.3 It is indeed in my opinion,
almost, an impossibility. — Thus it is the limited question
of the admissibility of literal localities, and a literal geo
graphy, into prophecies generally symbolical, that seems
alone to need proof or illustration. Nor will it detain us
long to furnish it.
The best proof seems to be that of examples from other
prophecies, where the mixture spoken of is unequivocal.
Let me then cite a few. — My first shall be from Ezek. xxvii.
26 ; " The east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the
seas." In this passage, Tyre is symbolized as a ship, and
Nebuchadnezzar as the destroying wind that shipwrecked
1 Thus Archdeacon Woodhouse, when objecting to the usual interpretations of
the fifth Trumpet, as having reference to the Saracens, says ; " To make out the
interpretation, Commentators are obliged to apply the prophetic characters some
times in a borrowed, sometimes in a literal sense ; which I suppose is unwarranted.
They ought all to be applied in the same sense." So too, in a measure, the Re
viewer of Keith's Signs of the Times, in the Investigator, iii. 271.
2 Augustin, C. D. xx. 212, suggests a reason: " Locutiones tropica? propriis pro-
phetico more miscentur ; ut ad intellectum spiritaalem intentio sobria, cum quodam
utili ac salubri labore, perveniat."
3 Woodhouse is probably one of the most consistent advocates of the wholly figu
rative principle, Burgh of the literal. Yet the former sometimes deviates into literal
interpretation; the latter sometimes rato figurative; e. g., in his explanation of
the horses from the Euphrates of the sixth Trumpet. — There is, if I rightly remem
ber, a similar inconsistency in Dr. Park.

CH.1I. §1.J MIXTURE OF LITERAL AND SYMBOLIC. 333
it : — yet, symbolical as is the general phraseology, the
chorographic phrase, " in the midst of the seas," designates
the literal locality of the situation of Tyre; and " the East"
that of the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar with respect to it.
I the rather select this as a first example, because it illus
trates the manner in which the locality from whence a
threatened evil is to issue, is often, by the peculiar appro
priateness of the emblem, intimated in scripture metaphors ;
as well as that on which the evil is to fall. That the mean
ing I have attached to the emblem, as thus significant, is
not undesigned or fortuitous, will appear from its frequent
and distinctive use elsewhere to the same effect.1 — A second
example that I shall cite is from chap, xxxii of the same
prophecy. Here Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his people
and power, are figured under the symbol of a crocodile.
After which comes the clause following : " I will water with
thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the
mountains ; and the rivers shall be full of thee." Of which
the meaning is plain. The waters of the Nile being wont
to overflow from mountain-chain to mountain, which form
the Egyptian valley, and, except at flood-time, to separate
at the Delta into many different streams, — the prediction
made was that these literal rivers, this literal land, should
be tinged with the blood of Pharaoh and his people  In
which example observe that, though the land previously
spoken of means the literal land of Egypt, and the rivers
its literal rivers, yet the sun, moon and stars are in the
1 For instance in Ezek. xix. 12;" Thy mother (Judah) is like a vine, &c. But
she was plucked up in fury ; she was cast down to the ground : the east wind dried
up her fruit." And again in xvii. 10, a passage very similar. So also in Jer. xviii.
17, and Hosea xiii. 15. In all these cases the emblem that I speak of, the east wind,
is appropriate both figuratively, (with reference to the general picture,) and geo
graphically, with reference to the situation of Babylonia and Assyria as lying east of
Judaea. So in Isaiah xii. 2, Abraham's coming out from Mesopotamia or Babylonia
to Canaan is spoken of as his coming from the east ; and in Matt. ii. 1, the wise
men from Babylonia are called the wise men from the east.
It is to be observed that the Babylonians, though east of Palestine, yet entered it
from Damascus and the north. Hence they are sometimes spoken of as coming
from the north. So Jer. i. 13, 14 ; "I said, I see a seething-pot, and its face is
toward the north. Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north shall an evil
break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land." But no-where is such a figure
as a whirlwind from south, ox west, applied to Nebuchadnezzar or the Assyrians ;
though winds quite as suitable to cause shipwreck as the east wind. Compare Isa.
xxi. 1, and Zech. ix. 14 ; in both which the whirlwind from the south is the figure :
and it is used in the one case of Persia attacking Babylon, a city north of it ; in the
other of Judah attacking the Greeks, whose Asiatic cities (as Antioch, &c,) were
situated north of them.

334 apoc vm. 5 — 12. [part n.
very next verse used figuratively of its governing authori
ties ; just as is the case in the symbols of the fourth trum
pet, as compared with those of the three former. For these
are the words of verse 7 ; " And when I shall have put
thee out," (i. e. out of the water,) "I will cover the hea
ven, and make the stars thereof dark ; and I will cover
the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.
All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee,
and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord." — Take a
third example from Ps. lxxx. 8, 11; " Thou hast brought
a vine out of Egypt : — it sent out its boughs into the sea,
and its branches unto the river :" where, though the vine is
symbolic, yet the Egypt, sea, and river, (Euphrates), are
all notoriously literal. — Once more, for a case of minuter
locality, we may refer to Jeremiah iii. 6. " Hast thou
seen that which backsliding Israel hath done ? She is gone
up upon every high mountain, and under every green tree,
and there hath played the harlot." Here the harlotry of
Judah is figurative ; but the high mountains, and the green
trees, indicated the literal localities, where that figurative
harlotry was committed against God.1
Thus much on the admixture of the geographically or
locally literal with the figurative, in the phraseology of
other Scripture prophecies. To which let me add, that
in the Apocalyptic prophecy itself there are localities spe
cified, as we shall see, both general and particular, which
must necessarily be interpreted literally as localities. So,
for example, in passages like that of Apoc. xii. 12, where it
is said, " Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the
sea ! " For unless the land were the literal land, and the
sea the literal island-studded sea, how could they have in
habitants ? And so again in Apoc. ix. 14, where the Eu
phrates spoken of must needs mean the literal Assyrian
river ; supposing only that proof can be given satisfactory,
(of which I do not doubt,) that the judgments figured under
the sixth trumpet were those of the Turkish woe.
It remains that we investigate the meaning of " the
third part ;" a question certainly more difficult. — It has
been mentioned that many commentators interpret the
Just the same image, and same mixture of literal and figurative, occurs Is. lvii. 5.

CH. II.^l.J " THE THIRD PART." 335
phrase as one designative of the whole Eoman world, or
perhaps of some large but indefinite portion of it. The
unsatisfactoriness, however, of all such indefinite explana
tion is evident. To say nothing of other inconsistencies
in it, it makes one of the most strongly-marked phrases of
designation in the whole apocalyptic prophecy, — one used
seven times here, and twice elsewhere, — it makes this, I
say, altogether unmeaning. No wonder therefore that they
who thus interpret should be themselves dissatisfied with
their interpretation ; and shew, like Mr. Cuninghame, that
they have only given it, because of not perceiving any
threefold division of the Eoman world, such as in their
opinion to answer to the conditions of the prophetic clauses.
That the earth or world spoken of in the Apocalypse means
the Roman earth or world, cannot, I think, be doubted ; it
being a use of the term frequent in other scriptures,1 (not
to say in the best profane writers also,2) and already proved
I believe elsewhere to be the true Apocalyptic sense.3
Again that some actual threefold division of the empire is
intended by the phrase " third part," seems to me also in
dubitable ; just as by that of " the four parts of the earth,"
in Seal 4, taking Jerom's reading. The only question is,
what ? — And though it be a question confessedly difficult,
yet, let it be remembered, that it is one on which we do
not enter without a hint to aid us. For from the fourth
trumpet-vision's exhibiting the third of the sun as eclipsed,
in symbolization of an event which we saw reason antici-
patively to regard as the extinction of the Western empe
rors, the inference follows that, whatever were the other
two of the apocalyptic thirds, the Western empire must
needs have been one; — indeed the one intended all through
the present four visions.
1 E. g. Luke ii. 1 ; " A decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be
taxed." 2 E. g. Dionysius Hal. Lib. i. ad init. 'H Se 'Pupaiuv troAts airao-ijs pev apxet yijs,
Sail mi avepBaros eart, iraons Se Kparet BaAaaoris, &c. And Ovid Fasti ii. 683 ;
' Gentibus est aliis tellus data limite certo,
Romans spatium est urbis et orbis idem.
It would have been needless to quote authorities on a thing so notorious, except for
Mede's suggestion, as to the Roman empire being the third part of the earth.
3 See p. 1 13 supra ; where I have referred to the connexion of this earth, or 77),
with the seven-hilled city, Apoc. xvii. And so the use of the word has been already
exemplified in the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Seals : e. g. in those words of the last-men
tioned, " How long dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth."

336 apoc. vm. 5 --12. [part n.
And this seems of itself sufficient reason why the natural
tripartite division of the Eoman world into European, Afri
can, and Asiatic, — the same that has been suggested as an
alternative by Vitringa,1 and subsequently adopted by Mr.
Faber and others, — should be set aside. For, at the time
we speak of, the Western empire, — 'that over which the
Gothic and Vandal invaders extinguished the Eoman Go
vernment, — instead of embracing the whole of the Euro
pean provinces, agreeably with this natural division, and
no more, comprehended in itself only four European pro
vinces, I mean Britain, Gaul, Spain, Italy, (the addition
of Noricum and Pannonia being, as I shall presently ob
serve, doubtful,) and at the same time comprehended the
province of Africa. — The same objection seems decisive
against that political trisection of the empire which was
made, on the death of Constantine, between his three sons,
Constans, Constantine, and Constantius ; and which other
expositors, as Messrs. Frere and Irving, have imagined to
be here referred to.2 For the western third then included
the provinces of Britain, Gaul, and Spain only ; both Italy
and the African province being detached from it. Suppos
ing my presumption respecting the fourth trumpet-vision's
meaning to be correct, it must be regarded as the first essen
tial characteristic of the true trisection intended, that its
Western third, like the Western empire overwhelmed by the
Goths, should comprehend at once the African province, and
the four provinces also that have been specified in Europe.
1 " Nihil probabilius quam per tertiam terrae partem vel esse intelligendam unam
ex tribus majoribus terrae partibus, Asia, Africa, vel Europa, in quas olim non ter
rain tantum totam a geographis, sed Romanum quoque imperium, sub titulo orbis
terrarum, divisum fuisse ex numis constat ;.. vel majorem aliquam Romani Imperii
partem ; &c." Which latter alternative is that which he actually adopts. — Mr.
Cuninghame objects against Mr. Faber, as inconsistent with himself in carrying out
his theory of this natural trisection. — Dr. Keith's interpretation of this point I am
unable to comprehend. He no-where states clearly what threefold division he in
tends : and when he does make a statement, seems soon after to contradict it. Thus
at the commencement of his exposition of the fourth Trumpet, he speaks of one
third part as "the transalpine provinces," i.e. Britain, Gaul, Spain; ot another
third as the maritime province of Africa ; and then of Italy as a third third. After
wards, in the same chapter, i. 285,* he seems to speak of the Constantinopolitan
empire as yet another third, or two-thirds. Then in capitals he thus marks an
historical extract respecting the proceedings of Odoacer and the Heruli, after that
the Western empire had been extinguished by them ; " one-third of those ample
estates, to which the ruin of Italy is originally imputed, was extorted for the use of
the conquerors."
*' And so too Cressener more early, and Bicheno ; Signs of Times, i. 222 (6th Ed.)
* See 3rd Ed.

CHAP. II. §1. J " THE THIRD PART." 337
And thus we find ourselves forced on another and differ
ent trisection of the Eoman world : 1 one which we shall
find to have existed de facto at the precise time to which
I refer the first Trumpet-sounding ; and which had been
indeed regularly marked out, some 80 or 90 years before,
as a de jure trisection, on an occasion passing, but most
notable, alike in history and in the Apocalyptic drama.
1 It may be satisfactory to the reader to see here a statement of all the successive
legitimate divisions of the Roman imperial world. I therefore subjoin it, arranged
chronologically. It will be seen from it, that there were no de jure tripartitions ex
cept those specified in the text. Other divisions were into four, two, and once six
A.D.
290 Division into four Praefectures by Diocletian : the 1st, Italy and Africa
2nd, Asia and Thrace ; 3rd, the Rhine frontier, and three Western Provinces
4th, the Danube frontier and Illyricum.
This quadripartition continued till the death of Constantius A. D. 306
when, Constantine having succeeded him in the West, Maxentius being empe
ror at Rome, Maximian, (who had resigned) resuming the purple, and two
subordinate emperors, instead of one, being made by the Eastern Augustus
Galerius, (viz. Licinius for the government of Illyricum, and Maximin for the
government of Syria,) — for the first and last time.
308 The Roman world was divided between six emperors. This continued till
311 the death of Galerius. — That same yearwar arising, the result was the first
tripariition of the empire, — that between Constantine, Licinius, and Maximin,
spoken of in my text above.
313 On Maximin's defeat and death the Roman world was bipartitioned between
Constantine and Licinius. Licinius had the East and Illyricum.
314 On Licinius' first defeat, Illyricum was transferred to Constantine.
324 On Licinius' second defeat, the empire was reunited under Constantine.
337 On Constantine's death there was a tripartition again ; that between his
three sons, Constantine, Constans, Constantius.
350 After civil wars, and the death of the two other brothers, Constantius again
reunited the Roman world. The monarchy continued after his death under
Julian, and then Jovian. — On whose death,
364 The celebrated bipartition into Eastern and Western was made by Valen-
tinian and Valens. The Western Empire included the whole of Illyricum ;
the Eastern Thrace and Meesia. (See Gibbon iv. 242.)
379 On Gratian's appointing Theodosius Eastern Emperor, after the death of
Valens, as the Gothic war was to be Theodosius' care, the Illyrian Prefecture
was dismembered, and the Dioceses of Dacia and Macedonia added to Thrace,
Asia, and Egyi>t, as Theodosius' portion.
385 On Maximus defeating and murdering Gratian, Theodosius arranged tem-
.387 porarily with that usurper that he should confine himself to the countries
beyond the Alps, leaving to Gratian's brother Italy, Africa, and Western Illy
ricum. (Gib. v. 13.) This was much the same trisection as between Con-
394 stantine's three sons.
For a year or two Theodosius (Valens' successor) reunited the Empire.
396 Then on his death it was at length finally partitioned into Eastern and Wes
tern, under his two sons Arcadius and Honorius : the Illyrian Praefecture
being divided between them, nearly as now between the Turks and Germans.
Noricum, Pannonia, and Dalmatia belonged to the West ; Dacia and Mace
donia, (the other half of the Illyrian Praefecture,) to the East. Gib. v. 138.
The result was very speedily a total separation of the tw,o empires. Gibbon
I observes that about 410 A.D. such was the absolute separation of the two
monarchies, both in interest and affection, that Constantinople would rather
have obeyed the orders of the Persian than those of the Latin Court, v. 161.
VOL. I. Z

338 apoc viii. 5 — 12. [part n.
The epoch I allude to was that memorable one when,
Galerius having died, and Maxentius been drowned in the
Tiber, the Eoman world found itself under the dominion
of the three emperors Constantine, Licinius, and Maximin.
At which time what the partitionment of the provinces,
that then fell to the three respectively ? To Constantine,
we read, there attached Gaul, Spain, Britain, Italy, Africa;
to Licinius the vast Illyrian Praefecture, which coincided
with, and embraced, the rest of Eoman Europe ; to Maxi
min the Asiatic provinces and Egypt : — a trisection this
which, in so far as regards the Western third at least, pre
cisely answers to that indicated by the 4th Trumpet vision
of the Apocalypse. And there is a direct and striking re
ference to it at its first forming, (as I think will appear,)
in a vision chronologically anterior to the four Trumpets,
though in the Apocalyptic arrangement placed after them ;
I mean that of the travailing woman and the dragon in the
xiith chapter : where it is said of the dragon, that " he
drew with his tail the third part of the stars of heaven ; "
in reference, if I mistake not, to the then sole representa
tive and head of the Eoman Pagan power, Maximin. —
Hence altogether a presumption in favor of this, as the
verv trisection here intended.
No doubt it may be objected that other temporary divi
sions of the empire followed afterwards; and, more especially,
that, just before the irruption of the Goths, there was made
one too memorable on many accounts in history, and too
permanent, to be overlooked in the prophecy : — I mean, of
course, the twofold division into Eastern and Western, first
made under Valentinian and Valens, then finally under
Theodosius' two sons Arcadius and Honorius. — But the
truth is that, considering the matter merely on the de jure
principle, the original intermediate Illyrian Praefecture will
be found to have been so shifted from time to time, now
to the Eastern, now to the Western empire, that it might
seem almost needful for clearness' sake, even on that ac
count, to preserve a notice of the old tripartite division, in
which Illyricum held a separate place.1 — And yet more,
1 The apportionment of Illyricum was variable both before, and after, the bipartite
division under the emperors Arcadius and Honorius. — Before the first war between

CHAP. II. §1.] " THE THIRD PART." 339
considering the matter de facto, it will appear that at the
aera to which the 1st Trumpet is supposed by me to refer,
(I mean the aera after Theodosius' death,) Illyricum was so
detached by Gothic occupation from the rule of both Eas
tern and Western empire, that its fortunes could not be
considered as involved in those either of the Western or
Eastern empire ; but, for distinctness sake, needed (I may
say absolutely needed) to be considered separately. Al
ready Elyricum had been the scene of the earliest occu
pation and devastations of the Goths, after the battle of
Adrianople. Nor did the peace that they made shortly
after with Theodosius, cause any effectual alteration in their
occupancy of it. " The vast regions they had ravaged,"
says Sismondi, " were abandoned to them, if not in abso-
Constantine and Licinius, the Illyrian Praefecture was attached to the Eastern em
pire ; but, after the first war between them, it was taken from the East, and added
to the West. — When a repartition was next arranged between Valentinian and
Valens, it was all again attached in the same manner to the Western empire.*
But on Valens' death, and Theodosius' accession, the Praefecture was dismembered ;
and its Eastern half, including Dacia and Macedonia, added by Gratian to the Eastf
¦ — It was this last that was the line of separation settled on in the bipartition be
tween Arcadius and Honorius, to which our difficulty chiefly refers. Yet we find
that, some ten years after, the Western emperor claimed jurisdiction over the whole
of Illyricum, " according to its true and ancient limits : " X — and about 20 years
still later, a new arrangement was made between the two emperors, by which the
whole of the Western Illyricum was ceded to the Eastern empire. This took place
A.D. 425. § It was the final line of dispartition, and one to which I shall again
have to call the reader's special attention. — Thus the staple, if I may so say, or
permanently legitimate territory appertaining to each respectively, was still Constan
tine's original third for the Western empire, and Maximin' s original third for the
Eastern empire. — In every case, I should observe, the latter included Thrace.
* See the tabular view p. 337. t Gibbon iv. 422. J Ib, v. 234.
§ Ib. vi. 7. This partition was made between Theodosius 2nd, and Valentinian
the 3rd. " The emperor of the East acquired the rich Province of Dalmatia, and
the dangerous sovereignty of Pannonia and Noricum ; which had been filled and
ravaged for about twenty years, by a promiscuous crowd of Huns, Ostrogoths,
Vandals, and Bavarians." — He refers to Count Buat, a laborious investigator of the
antiquities of those times, as his authority for this Treaty ; and which he considers
quite satisfactory. — Yet it would seem that still the Western emperor revived his
claim to one of its provinces. For in an embassy to Attila he sent the civil and
military governors of 'Noricum as his envoys. Gibbon vi. 92. So also Sismondi,
Roman History, i. 160: who says indeed that the complaint of Attila had reference
to things embezzled in a church at Sirmium ; a town situated a little south of the
modern Belgrade. — In A.D. 453, again, the emperor Marcian granted all Pannonia,
as far as Vindobona (Vienna), to the Ostrogoths.
The ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Eastern Illyricum was a point similarly dis
puted between the Roman and Byzantine Sees. Thus in the year 45 1 , the Council of
Chalcedon adjudged that the Patriarchate of the Constantinopolitan Bishop extended
over Eastern Illyricum : yet in 490, we find that Pope Felix 2, (or 3,) had his vicar
in the Eastern Illyricum, resident at Thessalonica. See Mosheim, v. 2. 2. 1, vi. 2. 2.
1 ; and also the letters of the Illyrian Bishops addrest to the Pope, as to the vicar of
Peter and Christ.andtheirmetropolitan, A.D. 531. They are given in Hard. ii. 1117 &c.
Z 2

340 apoc viii. 5 — 12. [part n.
lute sovereignty, yet in terms little at variance with their
independence." Thus they already constituted, as it were,
a living wall of separation between the two divisions of the
empire which were most properly Eoman in their popula
tion.1 — More especially such was the case after Alaric's
and the Goths' first revolt on Theodosius' death, and
overrunning of the southern part of this same Praefecture ;
Alaric being thereupon constituted, (as I shall afterwards
again have to mention,) Master-General, or in fact inde
pendent Prince, of Illyricum. And it was precisely at this
epoch, as I conceive, not before, that the first Trumpet
sounded. Nor indeed was it at this time only that the Illyrian,
or intermediate third, was thus separated in its history and
fortunes from the other two-thirds. The same continued
the case afterwards. In the 6th and 7th centuries the
Bulgarian power was formed ; and the result was that
Avar, and then the Bulgarian dominion intruded into it :
and " Maesia, during the middle ages, was broken into the
barbarian kingdoms of Servia and Bulgaria." 2 — In the 9th
century, Macedonia and the eastern Illyricum were inun
dated by Sclavonic hordes, by whom the whole region is
said to have been Sclavonized ;3 and which were thus not
in language only, but also in government, very much
separated from the Greek Empire. — Finally, and much
later, the Franks in their crusading expeditions severed the
southernmost of the Illyrian provinces from the Greeks,
and long occupied them. — I the rather mention this last
act, in tracing the distinct and separate history of the
Illyrian Praefecture, because it carries us down to the times
of the Turks : and shows how properly the self-same tripar
tite division of which we have spoken, was used even under
the 6th Trumpet in the prophecy ; seeing that it was but
" the third of men,"4 — the eastern third, — against whom the
1 So Ambrose, on Luke, Lib. x. 10, writing A.D. 386, nine years before Theodo
sius' death, says : " Nos quoque in Illyrico exules patriae Gothorum exilia fecerunt : "
with reference to the Gothic hordes driven through terror pf the Huns across the
Danube ; and which, after conquering Valens, occupied, though as subjects to Theo
dosius, much of Illyricum. — Again Jerome, Ep. 91 ad Ageruch. written A.D. 409,
says that for thirty years the Goths had been occupying and desolating Pannonia.
2 Gibbon i. 37, viii. 194, x. 196 &c.
3 eoKAaBuBii iraaa ij xuPn. Constantine Porph. Them. ii. 6. 4 Apoc. ix. 15.

CH. II. §2.] THE FOUR FIRST TRUMPETS. 341
slaying commission of the Euphratean horsemen could be
properly said to be given.
Thus the result of our investigation has been to show
that on general grounds, and with reference to the general
tenor of Eoman history, at and subsequent to the time of
the Gothic invasions, instead of the tripartite division that I
speak of being a division inappropriate to make use of, in the
prophetic prefiguration of those events and times, because
of the notable bipartition of the empire into Eastern and
Western that had taken place a little previously, it was pre
cisely the most appropriate that could be chosen. It only
remains to see whether it will suit the details of the three
first trumpet visions, as we have already by anticipation
seen that it does those of the fourth. And when we shall
have completed the comparison of these details, with the
details of the history corresponding, I trust that on this
point also the reader will find himself equally satisfied.
§ 2.  HISTORICAL EXPOSITION OF THE FOUR FIRST
TRUMPET-VISIONS.
In order to enter in this part on our comparison of the
prophecy and the history to the best advantage, it will be
peculiarly desirable that we should endeavour to place our
selves, as it were, in the situation of the Evangelist ; and to
see the varied images of the successive visions, as far as
possible, so as he saw them : — more particularly, I mean, as
each locally affecting, and locally associated with, its as
signed portion of the Eoman world ; that same Eoman
world that seems to have been extended in living though
miniature landscape, beneath and around him, with its
triple divisions of territory marked therein, and their re
spective boundary lines, whether of river, sea, mountain, or
desert. All this, — though the unassisted human eye could
not comprehend it, — the prophetic eye might, as usual
with the prophets, or indeed the natural eye, as with Christ
in his temptation,1 be strengthened to discern. And need
I suggest what an advantage it must have afforded to St.
1 Matt. iv. 8 ; " The Devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and
showeth him all the kingdoms of the world," &c. See p. 93 suprau

342 apoc viii. 5 — 12. [part n.
John all through, towards the right understanding of the
visions ? Much of that to which a laborious train of rea
soning has already thus far conducted us, would have been
manifest to him, as I conceive, at a glance. And as in
regard to what has preceded, so in regard to what is to
follow also : above all in figurations such as we are now
entering on ; where distinctive symbolic details are compa-
tively scanty, and the most distinctive part of the symbol
is its local origin, course, or destination. Hence the im
portance to those who have not had it given them to be
eye-witnesses, of calling the imagination in aid, in the man
ner I suggested. To facilitate this a Map has been ap
pended ; with the three great divisions, which we have seen
reason to suppose alluded to, distinguished upon it by dif
ferent colours : and in regard to which several territorial
divisions it may be well to remind the reader, that each
one included its third of the Mediterranean or Eoman
sea,1 as well as its third of the land : and each one also its
own characteristic stream of the three great frontier rivers,
the Ehine, Danube,2 and Euphrates. — In order yet more to
aid the imagination, I shall make the attempt, before enter
ing on historical events and fulfilment, to describe the im
agery of the successive visions, so as I conceive it to have
passed over the landscape of the Eoman world before the
eye of the Evangelist : — always taking care that there
shall be in this no unlicensed play of the fancy ; and no
thing inconsistent with that faithful adherence to the
written descriptions which is due to every word of God's
Holy Book. — I have already hinted that it is one and the
same Western third of the Empire to which I apply alike
all the four first Trumpet visions ; — its land territory, its
maritime dependencies, its frontier ra)er-vallies and foun
tains, its sun and stars. This the unity of these four
visions seems to me to require.
I. The imagery of the preliminary altar-scene,
1 The Mediterranean was often spoken of by the Romans as their sea, "mare
nostrum." Hence when the word sea was used by itself, this would be the mean
ing attached to the word by them.
2 The higher third of the Danube indeed belonged to the Western division ; but
its whole lower stream to the Illyrian.

CH. II. §2.] IMAGERY OF THE FOUR FIRST TRUMPETS. 343
IN THE APOCALYPTIC TEMPLE, AND OF THE FOUR FIRST
TRUMPET-VISIONS CONSEQUENT.
Behold, then, the Angel-priest has come forth from offer
ing the incense of his faithful ones in the inner temple : his
censer still in hand ; but emptied of the sacred embers of fire,
with which that incense had been kindled by him before
the Holy One : — and see ! he moves straight back again
to the great altar in the altar-court, and takes again of the
same burning embers, and fills the same censer with them ;
— only now not to bless, but to destroy. For having filled
it, he scatters the fiery ashes from the temple-height, that
they may fall on the despisers of his proffered mediation
and atonement in the world below ; — the world professing
but apostate. Not an instant passes without signs of recog
nition in heaven and on earth, alike by the animate and the
inanimate creation, of this devoting of the land to a curse.
Forthwith from the cloud of glory there issue thunderings
and lightnings : — and see, they are responded to by the
bursting of tempests (the four angel -forms seen darkly
careering therein) over the central provinces of Illyricum,
Greece, and Epirus ; the first that same district which
they had sometime before overhung, murky and threaten
ing. The Eoman earth quakes simultaneously through its
vast extent ; and the faces of men gather blackness : some
from present suffering, all from forebodings of greater evil
to come.
But look to the temple again. See ! the trumpet-angels
are preparing themselves to sound ; and therewith the
more definite evolution of the divine judgments to be de
fined, and to proceed. Which is the first grand destined
scene of suffering ?
1st Trumpet.1 — The first Angel sounds his trumpet:
and lo the same tremendous tempest as before, black with
other clouds from the cold hail-generating countries beyond
the Danube,2 and charged with lightning and hail, appears
driving westward. " The third of the land," or conti
nental provinces of the Western division of the Eoman em-
1 Kai 6 irpuros [ayyeAos"] eo-aATrioe' Kai eyevero xaAa£a Kat irvp peptypeva aipari,
Kat eBAtjBri eis tijv yijv Kat to rptrov tijs yijs KareKaij, Kai ro rpnov tuv SevSpuv
KareKaij, koi iras xapros xAupos KaTc/corj. Tregelles' text, as before.
2 On the cold of ancient Germany, see Gibbon i. 346.

344 apoc viii. 5 — 12. [part n.
pire, is declared the fated scene of ravage. . The Asiatic
continent and maritime province of Africa are to remain
unharmed by the storm : and the European provinces, too,
of the Eastern Empire mostly to escape. The skirts of
the storm discharge themselves, as it passes forward, on
the Ebaetian hill-country. Then quickly its course is to
wards Italy. As it sweeps across the Italian frontier, other
terrific thunder-clouds from the distant north-west quarter
of the heaven succeed, and intermingle with the first. Once
and again the almost united tempests spread in devastating
fury over Italy, beyond the Alps and Appennines. Then
dividing, a part, impelled yet further south, bursts with
terrific lightnings directly over the seven-hilled imperial
city, and passes thence to the southernmost coast of Brut-
tium beyond. A part, driven backward, takes a westerly
course over the Ehine into Gaul, and far and wide devas
tates it ; then, crossing over the Pyrenaean chain, pours
its fury on the Spanish provinces : nor spends itself till it
has reached the far shores, west and south, of the Atlantic
and the Mediterranean. — Thus has the entire continental
division of the western empire been involved in its ravages.
Throughout the whole the lightning-fire runs along the
ground, even as in the plagues of ancient Egypt ; burning
in wide-spreading conflagration country and town, trees
and pasture. And there are signs too, not to be mistaken,
of the destruction of life, as well as of vegetation : for
blood appears mixed with the fire and hail. Slowly at
length the storm subsides ; destroying, however, even in
its subsidence. The desolation that it leaves is frightful.
The land was as the garden of Eden before it. It remains
a wasted wilderness.
2nd Trumpet.1 — A pause ensues. Then presently there
is heard another trumpet-blast of judgment. — Now is the
visitation of the Western third of the Mediterranean sea,
and the islands and trans-marine province included init ;2 a
1 Kai 6 Sevrepos ayyeAos eoaAiri<re' Kat us opos peya irvpi Katopevov eBArjBij eis tijv
BaAaoaaV Kai eyevero to rpirov tijs BaAaooijs aipa' Kai aneBave ro rpnov ruv Knopa-
tuv tuv ev to BaAaoo-rj ra exovra tf/vxas- Kai to tpitw tuv irAotuv SierpBapijoav.
2 The sea was a word used by the Romans to include the islands and maritime
coasts. So Facciolati ; "Mare interdum est regio maritima et insulae maris;"
quoting Nepos in Con. 4 ; "Ad mare missus est, ut Cyprus et Phoenicibus naves

CH.II.§2.] IMAGERY OF THE FOUR FIRST TRUMPETS. 345
part hitherto unscathed and safe. Behold yon giant moun
tain-rock, blazing with volcanic fires, that upheaved from
the southernmost point of Spain near the straits of Gades,
and cast into the sea, looks like Etna in its raging ! Mark
how the waters of the midland sea are agitated by it ! The
lava pours down the mountain-sides. The igneous stones
and ashes of the volcano are scattered for hundreds of miles
all round, on sea and mainland, coasts and islands ; 1 first
on the coast of Africa, then on that of the opposite conti
nent, from the Atlantic straits, all along up to the head of
the Adriatic. Ships appear set on fire by them, at sea
and in the harbours, and light the water with their confla
grations. Blood marks the loss of life accompanying ; the
same as in the former vision. Over the whole maritime
scene of its devastations whatever is habitable appears de
solated ; whatever had life, destroyed. " The third part
of the sea became blood ; and the third part of living crea
tures 2 in the sea [i. e. those that were in the third part
of the sea] died ; and the third part of ships was de
stroyed." 3rd Trumpet.3 — The volcano has not yet fully spent
longas imperaret ; " and Tacitus Hist. i. 2 ; " Plenum exsiliis mare." — So in Scrip
ture " the sea," is used for " the strength of the sea," i. e. Tyre, Isaiah xxiii. 4.
1 This is no exaggeration of the extent of volcanic action, seen in nature. Dion
Cassius (lxvi. 23) relates that in the eruption of Vesuvius, in which Pliny lost his
life, the ashes reached Africa, Syria, and Egypt, and filled the air above Rome. —
Cassiodorus, describing an eruption of the same volcanic mountain in the time of
Theodoric, says; " Pertotampene Italiam cognoscitur quando ilia indignatio commo-
vetur. Volat per mare magnum cinis decoctus, et terrenis nubibus excitatis trans-
marinas quoque provincias pulvereis guttis compluit." B. P. M. xi. 1157. — In more
modern times during one eruption of Etna, an area of 150 miles in circumference
is said to have been covered with a stratum of volcanic sand and ashes twelve feet
deep. In the year 1783 a current of lava sixty miles long, and twelve broad, was
formed by a volcano in Iceland. And in 1815, as Mr. Bakewell states, in the erup
tion of the volcano of Sumbawa the clouds of smoke and ashes darkened the sky
for 300 miles round ; and the sound of the explosions was heard in Sumatra, 970
miles distant. See Memoire sur les lies Ponces ; and Bakewell's Introduction to
Geology, p. 342, 343.
2 KTicpa. Compare 1 Tim. iv. 4 ; irav Krtapa KaAov and James i. 18; us airapxn
rav KTtaparuv. Also, Rev. v. 13 ; irav Kriopia d eartv ev ru ovpavu, Kat ev tij yrj,
Kai eirt r-ns BdAaoaiis a. eon, ijKovoa Aeyovras, &c. In St. James the word is evi
dently used of intelligent creatures.
3 Kai 6 rpiros ayyeAos eoaAiriae* Kat etreaev eK tov ovpavov aarijp peyas Katopevos
us Aapiras' Kat eireaev eirt ro rpnov ruv irorapuv, Kat eirt ras irrjyas vSaruv Kai to
ovopa tov aorepos Aeyerai & AtytvBos' Kat eyevero ro rpnov tuv vSaruv eis atytvBov
Kat iroAAoi ruv avBpunuv aireBavov eK ruv vSaruv, bri eiriKpavBijaav. — It is to be
observed that the limiting epithet, a third part, applies to the rivers only, not
to the fountains of waters.

346 apoc viii. 5 — 12. [part n.
itself, when another of the angels sounds his trumpet-clang.
Which the new scene of judgment? " The (Western)
third of the rivers," it is said, " and the fountains of waters."
— It begins where yon mighty river to the North forms
the ancient limit between barbarian Germany, and the
Illyrian or middle Praefecture of the Eoman empire. Mark
the portentous meteor that glares over it ; like a blazing
torch trailing its red line of light 1 behind it in the North
ern sky ! And see ! where the Teiss, pouring itself into
the Danube, marks the central point of the base of the
great Illyrian Praefecture ; there suddenly it descends, and
blazes, and taints with its sulphureous exhalations the
downward course of that ancient river. — But it was the
same Western third of the Empire, as before, that was in
this case too to taste specially of the bitterness of the woe.
And mark how, in fulfilment of its mission, the meteor
tracks the course of the upper Danube, and then reaches
and moves along the Rhenish frontier-river of the Western
Empire ; blazing over and poisoning its waters, down even
to the Belgic lowlands. Thence again unquenched it
rises ; shoots in rapid course westward ; is repelled, as if
by some counter electric force, and as from a region on
which it behoved not that it should permanently shed its
malignant influences ; then in southerly direction falls on
the fountains of the European waters, there where the
Alpine snows are dissolving from their eternal glaciers. —
Wheresoever it has fallen, the rivers and their tributaries
have been poisoned by it ; and the dead and dying, of those
that drink them, appear lying on the banks. " For the
name of that star is Wormwood ; 2 and many died of the
waters because they were made bitter." — Having thus done
its part, it shoots back towards the Danube ; there blazes
for a moment longer, and is extinct.
1 " A great star blazing like a torch." This designates a meteor, as distin
guished from one of the starry luminaries. So Virgil, JEa. ii. 694,
de ccelo lapsa per umbras
Stella facem ducens multa cum luce cucurrit.
2 Compare Jer. xxiii. 15 ; "I will feed them with wormwood, and make them
drink the water of gall; " i. e. in the afflictions of the Babylonish captivity. Also
Lam. iii. 15, 19. The metaphor is not uncommon. In Antar, the Arabic Romance, we
find it applied, as here, to death. " Death served them with a cup of absinth by my
sword." Hamilton's Trans, iii. 129.

CH.II.§2.] FULFILMENT OF FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS. 347
4th Trumpet.1 — The vision has past ; the fourth angel
sounds. Hitherto, though its land, its sea, and its frontier
river and fountains of waters have been desolated, yet the
sun has still continued shining on the Western empire, as
before. But now at length this too is affected. To the
extent of a third part of its orb, it suffers eclipse. The
shadow falls over the Western empire. Then the night
supervenes.-— And see the eclipsing influences act on the
luminaries of the night also. Presently the Western third
of the moon becomes eclipsed ; and of the stars scattered
over the symbolic firmament, all that are in the third of
the Eoman sky, are darkened also.
So closes this fourth vision. And then another angel,
diverse from the seven trumpet-angels, breaks upon the
continuity of their succession. By his solemn and loud
cry in mid-heaven of, " Woe, Woe, Woe, to the inhabit
ants of the earth, from the voices of the trumpet-angels
that have yet to sound," he occupies the seer's attention
for a while, with a warning voice of judgments yet to
come ; and seems to intimate also a certain break, and per
haps change of character, between the judgments gone
before, and those that were to follow.
Such, I conceive, may have been the manner in which
the phaenomena of the successive visions passed before the
Evangelist : for I have stated nothing but what is con
sistent with, and, — if we suppose the same to have been
geographically represented before him, — in no little mea
sure implied in, the brief descriptions of the visions in the
text. And what, let me ask, would be the natural, the
almost necessary interpretation he would attach to them ?
Surely, considering the character of the symbolic figures,
both in themselves, and as illustrated by their use in other
prophetic Scriptures,2 he would construe them as prefi
guring the ravages of some terrible invaders from North-
1 Kai 6 tctootos ayyeAos eouAirio-e' Kai e7r\5J77j ro rpnov rov ijAtov, Kat to rpnov
tijs aeArivi]S, Kai to rpnov ruv aorepuv- iva u-kothtBii to rpnov avruv, Kat ij rjpepa pij
tpatvrj ro rpnov avrijs, Kat ij pu| dpoius.
2 1st, The tempest. — So Is. xxviii. 2 ; " The Lord hath a mighty and strong one :
which, as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters over
flowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand." This was said of Shalman-

348 apoc vm. 5 — 12. [part n.
era Germany : — invaders who would desolate first the
European continental provinces of the Western empire ;
then its maritime provinces, islands, and fleets in the Me
diterranean : — a fresh and dreadful scourge being super
added, commencing on the Illyrian Praefecture, but soon
to ravage the Western provinces watered by the Ehine
also, and the Alpine regions, the local source of the Euro
pean waters ; — followed, finally, by the extinction of the
imperial dynasty of the West, and soon after of its subor
dinate rulers also. — Such, I conceive, must have been his
interpretation. It remains to see how the figurations were
fulfilled in the progress of the Gothic, Vandal, Hunnish,
and Ostrogothic desolations. This was to be my second
Head. II. THE HISTORICAL FULFILMENT.
And, in demonstrating this, need I detail at any length
the history of the five great destroyers of the Western em
pire, — the two earliest associated nearly as one, in the time
and scene of their devastations under the first Trumpet : —
I mean of alaric and rhadagaisus, in the first instance;
then of genseric, attila, odoacer ? The tale has been
often repeated by expositors, as well as historians. A brief
sketch will suffice. — We have first to trace in their history
what may answer to the introductory earthquake thunder
ings and lightnings, that followed on the malediction signi
fied by the altar-fire cast on the Roman world ; — then the
fulfilment of the four Trumpet-visions themselves.
1. The introductory thunderings, lightnings, and earth-
ezer and the Assyrian invasion. — And again of Gog; Ezek. xxxviii. 9 ; "Thou
shalt ascend, and come like a storm -. thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land :
thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee."
2. The volcano or burning mountain. — So Jeremiah li. 25 ; " Behold I am against
thee, O destroying mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyest all the earth. And
I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will
make thee a burnt mountain." — This was said of Babylon. It is compared, says Dr.
A. Clarke, " to a burning mountain ; which, by vomiting continual streams of
burning lava, inundates and destroys all towns, villages, fields, &c. in its vicinity. . .
So had the Babylonish government set the nations on fire, deluging and destroying
them by his troops : till at last exhausted, &c, it is extinguished ; " — becomes an ex
tinct volcano.
3. The meteor, or star blazing as a lamp or torch. — With this we may compare
what is said of the invading kings of Syria and Israel in Is. vii. 4 ; " Fear not, nei
ther be faint-hearted, for the two tails of these smoking fire-brands ; for the fierce
anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah."
4. The eclipsed heavenly luminaries . See my p. 232 suprA.

CH. II. §2. J FULFILMENT OF FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS. 349
quake. — The epoch of the seventh Seal's opening answered
(in my view), as before said, to that of the death of Theo
dosius. And how long did the silence in the firmamental
heaven, the stillness from the long-threatened tempests, last
after it? He died Jan. 17, A.D. 395; and before the
winter had ended, says Gibbon, the Gothic nation was in
arms. So that it was an interval rather of days than
weeks. For it needed but the circulation of the news to
rouse the Goths, among the farms occupied by them in the
Illyrian and Maesian Provinces. And then, according to
the prophecy, "to the seven (war-denouncing) angels there
were given seven trumpets : " and according to history, the
Goths armed themselves forthwith, with threat of war against
the Eoman empire. — But not before there had been enacted
in the empire, alike what might answer to the saints' incense-
offering figured in the Apocalyptic temple, and to the implied
Christ-renouncing counter-worship of the men of the earth.
For then was precisely the aera to which our ecclesiastical
sketch of the preceding chapter relates, the aera of 395, 396 :
when Augustine, just about entering on the Episcopate, was
in doctrine and life setting forth Jesus as the propitiation
and mediator, as well as life and light, of sinful men ; and
Vigilantius too (not to speak of other faithful ones) was
preparing for his protestant stand against the inrushing
superstitions of the apostacy ; — while Sulpitius, Paulinus,
Jerome, Gregory Nyssen, Martin of Tours, and other such,
were all too prominently countenancing and helping forward
those superstitions, to the neglect and forsaking of Jesus.
And so then in 396 the first fearful tempest burst (a
tempest characteristic as well as introductory of all that
followed) on the central and hitherto unravaged provinces
of Thessaly, Greece, Epirus, and the Peloponnese, under
the devastation of Alaric and the Goths. The land trem
bled before them in terror. " The deep and bloody traces
of their march could be traced," we are told, " by the tra
veller, many years afterwards." — Well had the pious empe
ror Theodosius been taken, like another Josiah, from the
evil to come. And well had there been strange convul
sions of nature, and earthquakes, and elemental storms, and
tempests, just before his death, (portents renewed this very

350 apoc viii. 5 — 12. [part ii.
year,) such as to cause general forebodings of evil being
at hand. For so Ambrose and Jerome tell us ; J and the
Chronicles of the time confirm their statements.2 It was
like nature's own alarum, with men's voices of alarm re
sponding ; as well as the furnishing by nature of the very
portents used symbolically of the events, and epoch, in the
Apocalyptic vision.
2. Then was a pause. The Trumpets were to be sounded
specially, not against the already detached Illyrian Praefec
ture, but against the Western Empire, against Italy, and
Eome. It was a pause in which Alaric had to prepare
himself for the mighty task. " The trumpet-angels pre
pared themselves to sound." And see the wonderful man
ner in which this was facilitated. By the infatuation of
the emperor Arcadius, he was made Master-General of the
Eastern Illyricum ; 3 and so furnished with arms for their
destruction from the Eomans' own armouries. Thus he
occupied himself four years in preparation for his great
enterprize. Seated in authority in the centre of that vast
Praefecture, which since the days of Valens had been very
much occupied by the Goths and other barbaric tribes, —
there, " on the verge, as it were, of the two empires ;" * he
had but to meditate, like an eagle of prey, on which of the
separated halves he should fall of the devoted carcase ; then
to seize, and to devour. The Gothic chieftains elevated
him on a shield and solemnly proclaimed him King of the
1 " Hoc nobis motus terrarum graves, hoc juges pluviae minabantur, et ultra soli-
tum caligo tenebrosior denuntiabat, quod clementissimus Imperator Theodosius ex-
cessurus esset e terris. Ipsa igitur excessum ejus elementa maerebant." So Am
brose, De Obit. Theodos. ad init.
Jerom'snotice on the subject was when Vigilantius was with him, in 396. There
was then an eclipse as well as earthquake : and Jerom says, " Obscurato sole omnis
mundus jam jamque venturum judicem formidaret." Gilly's Vigilantius, 304, 307.
2 The Benedictine Editor of Ambrose notes on the former extract; " Marcellinus
in Chronico suo auctor est profligate Eugenio terram continuis motibus, a mense
Septembri adNovembrem usque, in quibusdam Europas regionibus quassatam fuisse,
anno (A.D. 394) qui Theodosii mortem antecessit." See the B. P. M. ix. 519.
Marcellinus also notes in his Chronicle the earthquake and portents of 396 ;
" Terra? motus per dies plurimos fuit, ccelumque ardere visum est : " i. e. in the
year next after Theodosius' death. B. P. M. ibid.
3 So Claudian, Eutrop. ii. 213 ;
Vastator Achivse
Gentis, et Epirum nuper populates inultam,
Prajsidet Illyrico. * Gibbon x. 189.

CH.II.§2.] FULFILMENT OF FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS. 351
Visi-goths.1 On their part, as well as otherwise, his pre
paration was complete.
And then the first Trumpet sounded. His course was
to Italy. As he told an Italian hermit afterwards,2 " he
felt a secret and praeternatural impulse, which directed, and
even compelled his march to the gates of Eome." — As his
trumpet sounded, and his march advanced, terrible omens
and prognostications, we read, preceded him. " The Chris
tians," says Gibbon,3 " derived comfort from the powerful
intercession of the saints and martyrs." So does he note
again the very cause that had been hinted in the Apocalypse
of the coming judgments. Thrice, in fulfilment of his des
tiny, Alaric descended from the Alps on the Italian plains ;
marking his course each step, as the awe-struck historians of
the times tell us, in country and in town, with ravage, confla
gration, and blood ; till the gates of Eome itself were opened
to the conqueror, and the Gothic fires blazed around the
capital.4 — In the mean time other destroyers, of a kindred
race and origin, had extended their ravages to the trans-
rhenane provinces. Between Alaric's first and second
invasions of Italy, Bhadagaisus, from the far north of
Germany, with a host of Vandals, Suevi, and Burgundians,
burst, like a dark thundercloud from the Baltic, as Gib
bon graphically describes it,5 on the Ehaetian and Italian
vallies. With slaughter and difiiculty they were repulsed
by the Eoman general from near Florence. But it was
only to bend the course of the vast remnant westward ; and
overwhelm the provinces, till then flourishing and fertile, of
1 Gibbon v. 189. 2 Ib. 254. 3 Ib. 193.
4 " At their entrance through the Salarian gate, they fired the adjacent houses to
guide their march, and to distract the attention of the citizens. The flames, which
encountered no obstacle in the disorder of the night, consumed many private and
public buildings : and the ruins of the palace of Sallust remained in the age of Jus
tinian, a stately monument of the Gothic conflagration." Gibbon v. 317.
5 v. 214. — The chronological intermingling of the invasions of Italy by Alaric and
Rhadagaisus will appear from the following tabular sketch.
A.D.396 Alaric's invasion of Greece.
400—403 His first invasion of Italy. (Gibbon v. 190.)
406 Rhadagaisus with 300,000 Vandals from the Baltic, marching by way of
the upper Danube, invades Italy. — Defeated and killed under the walls of
Florence, the remains of his army retire from Italy, and cross the Rhine
into France.
408 Alaric's first siege of Rome. 409 Second siege.
410 Third siege and capture. — In the same year followed Alaric's death.

352 apoc viii. 5—12. [part ii.
Gaul and Spain. Blood and conflagration here marked
each step of their track ; just as that of Alaric in Greece
and Italy. The burning of trees and herbage, as well as
of cities, is pathetically particularized by the chronicles of
the times. "The consuming flames of war," says Gibbon,1
" spread from the banks of the Ehine over the greatest
part of the seventeen provinces of Gaul. The scene of
peace and plenty was suddenly changed into a desert ; and
the prospect of the smoking ruins could alone distinguish
the solitude of nature from the desolation of man." A simi
lar description is given of the desolation of Spain.2 — And
the desolators entered, never to retire. " This passage" of
the Ehine, he adds, " by the Suevi, Vandals, and Bur-
gundians, who never afterwards retreated, may be consi
dered as the fall of the Roman empire in the countries
beyond the Alps. The barriers which had so long sepa
rated the savage and the civilized nations of the earth, were,
from that fatal moment, levelled with the ground."3
The era of Alaric and Ehadagaisus, — that is, of the first
Trumpet, — is to be considered as chiefly embracing some
ten or twelve years, from A.D. 400 to about A.D. 410 ;
though, as the ravages of the provinces were not then dis
continued, we may perhaps consider the vision before us to
embrace a period somewhat longer. In that latter year the
Vandals had extended their conquests to the straits of
Gades :* and Alaric, who had accomplished his destiny, and
reached in his desolating course the southernmost coast of
Italy, — while meditating still further conquests,5 which
were intended however for another hand and another Trum
pet, — was arrested suddenly by the hand of death. His
royal sepulchre, we are told, adorned with the spoils and
trophies of Eome, was built in the midst of the bed of the
1 lb. 225. ' Ib. 352.
3 Ib. v. 224. — Daubuz (p. 368) notices Claudian's comparison of Alaric and his
Goths to a hail-storm, (De Bel. Get. v. 173,) as in the Apocalypse :
Grandinis aut morbi [nimbi ?] rite, per devia rerum
PraBcipites, per clausa ruunt.
Schlegel too (Philos. of Hist. ii. 54) uses the same Apocalyptic figure. " To de
fend himself from this people, [the Goths,] the sons of Theodosius knew no other
expedient than to let loose on Italy these barbarians, and to divert and point the
storm of invasion towards that quarter."
4 Gibbon v. 352. 5 Gibbon v. 329.

CH.1I.§2.] FULFILMENT OF FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS. 353
river Consentia in Bruttium ; and the secret for ever con
cealed by the massacre of the prisoners employed in con
structing it : — the last Italian blood that mingled with the
fire and the hail, under the judgments of the first Trumpet.
To the Vandal genseric was allotted the conquest of
the maritime provinces of Africa, and the islands : all in
short that belonged to the western empire in the Mediter
ranean ; and which Alaric (as just alluded to) was pre
vented attempting by death. It belonged, I say, to Gen
seric; " a name," observes Gibbon, " which, in the destruc
tion of the Eoman Empire, has deserved an equal rank with
the names of Alaric and Attila."1 It was in the year 429
that he entered on it. In the course of the 1 8 years pre
ceding, no new invasion had broken on the Western em
pire. The desolation of Gaul and Spain and other districts,
was indeed, as observed just before, not discontinued: but
it was rather by the wars of Goths against Goths, than of
Goths against Eomans. Italy, meanwhile, having been
evacuated soon after Alaric's death by the Goths under
Astolphus, had partially recovered from its ravages : and
Africa, the granary of Eome and Italy, had continued to
flourish intact, as before. But now its time was come. In
vited by Count Boniface, governor of the province, under
the influence of temporary infatuation, Genseric, in the
year above-mentioned, transported thither his Vandals
from Spain across the Afric sea : all fit and ready, like that.
burning volcano which, ere his course was run, convulsed
Auvergne,2 for the work bf destruction. — Then, as under
1 Gibb. vi. 13.
2 The terrible eruption of these volcanoes, which in their extinct state have be
come so celebrated among modern geologists, took place A. D. 458— 460. Both
Auvergne and Dauphin^ were convulsed by the accompanying earthquakes, and the
face of nature changed in their immediate neighbourhood. The Rogation days after
Ascension Day, which still remain in our church ritual, were then instituted by Ma-
mertus, Bishop of Vienne, with the view of deprecating God's wrath. — The account
is given in a letter of the cotemporary writer Sidonius Apollinaris, and a Rogation
Homily of Alcimus Avitus, the next Bishop of Vienne, still extant. See the B.P.M.
vi. 1108, ix. 591. The subject has been lately noticed in the Quarterly Reyiew.
Let me add to what is there stated, that the character of the deprecatory rogation
then in use, appears, sufficiently from the conclusion of Sidonius' letter: where
he speaks Of one martyr's body, fortunately found whole by Mamertus, and the head
also of another martyr, both transported to Vienne ; and begs, in consideration of
this last having been a native'of Auvergne, that he and his neighbours of that dis
trict might share the saint's patronage. "Pro compensatiohe deposcimus nt nobis
inde veniat pars patrocinii, quia vobis hinc rediit pars patroni." — I observe, that the
VOL. I. 2 A

354 »apoc viii. 5 — 12. [part n.
the former Trumpet, fire did indeed mingle with blood in
the desolation of the unhappy province of Africa.1 — In the
second year of the invasion, A.D. 430, the siege of Hippo
was formed : and while it was advancing, (how can I omit
noticing the event ?) Augustine, its sainted Bishop, was
gently released by death, and joined to the white-robed
company before the throne. This was on the 28th of
August, A.D. 430. 2 Then was Hippo taken, and burnt;
and then in 439 Carthage. With the capture of which city
resistance ended. The whole province was subjected to
the Vandals, and finally severed from the Western empire.
— Thus a part of the prefigurations of the second Trumpet
had been fulfilled. — But its ships, and the insular provinces
of Sicily and Sardinia, still remained to the Western em
pire : of the destruction of which the prophecy seemed to
speak also. For it said, " The third part of the creatures
which were in the sea, and had life, died ; and the third
part of ships was destroyed." Was this too fulfilled by
Genseric ? Mark what followed after the capture of Car
thage. Finding himself shut in to the south by the desert,
Genseric, we are told, cast his eyes to the sea, and deter
mined to create a naval power. And then " the fleets (the
Vandal fleets) that issued from the port of Carthage again
claimed the empire of the Mediterranean." Sicily was con
quered by them, and Sardinia, and the other Western
isles ;3 all that was in the third part of the sea : — a division
of it comprehending both that vast basin of the western
Mediterranean included between the straits of Gibraltar
and Sicily, and the part which, expanding beyond, sweeps
round the south-east of Italy to form the deep gulf of the
Adriatic ; — the sea-third answering to the land- third of
the Western empire. — The coasts, moreover, of Spain, and
Gaul, and Italy, the latter as far up as the head of the
celebration of the Rogation days was in the year 511 enjoined by the Council of
Orleans. Canons 27, 28. See Hard. ii. 1012.
1 So Muller, Univ. History, ii. 110 ; (Hess' transl. Paris 1814 ;) " Genseric wasted
it all with fire and the sword." And Gibbon vi. 181 ; Genseric determined to " reduce
Mauritania to a desert. He burnt the villages, and poisoned the springs." From
Priscus p. 42. 2 See p. 286 supra.
3 Victor Vitensis expressly says that Genseric had Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Ma
jorca, Minorca ; B. P. M. viii. 676. See too Gibbon vi. 146 ; and Sismondi, Ro
man History, i. 172.

CH.H.§2.] FULFILMENT OF FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS. 355
Adriatic, were mercilessly ravaged by Genseric. When
asked by his pilot what course to steer, " Leave the deter
mination to the winds," was his reply : " they will trans
port us to the guilty coast, whose inhabitants have pro
voked the divine justice." l Twice, on occasions alike me
morable, the Eoman navies, with vast preparations, were
collected to destroy the Vandal power. But suddenly and
most disastrously, in the harbours of Carthagena and Bona,
when the eyes of the Eomans were fixed on them with
hopes raised to the highest, they were utterly destroyed ;
— in the latter case by fire-ships driven among them in the
obscurity of night. So that the remainder of the predic
tion was fulfilled also. The fire of the Vandal volcano
might not exhaust itself, until not only what was habitable
in the Western sea was destroyed, but " the third part of
the ships " also ; — those that navigated the sea-third of
the Western empire.
In the mean time, and long ere the extinction of the
volcano, and death of the tyrant of the sea, Genseric,
(which was not indeed till the year 477,) yet another
plague was commissioned against the devoted empire; I
mean " the scourge of God," the king of the Huns, At
tila. Alone of conquerors, ancient or modern, he united
at this time under his sway, the two mighty kingdoms of
Germany and Scythia. For the Huns had advanced their
course and their conquests, since the time when the Goths
fled before them in the days of Valens, to the furthest
limits, West and North, of Germany. The kings of the
Ostrogoths and Gepidae were among Attila's subject-
princes ; and a crowd of vulgar kings watched his nod.
Superstitious awe concerning him added to his power. He
was deemed something greater than human. " The bar
baric princes could not presume to gaze with steady eye
on [what they deemed] his divine majesty."2 How much less
his enemies ! He was in their eyes like the baleful me
teor that even then blazed in the heavens, boding ruin and
war.3 For the first eight years from his accession (which
1 Gibbon, vi. 187. 2 Ib. 44, 46.
3 " Stella quae crinita inciter per plurimum tempus ardens apparuit. Bleda et
•2 A 2

356 apoc viii. 5 — 12. [part n.
was in A.D. 433) he had been occupied with other wars
in Germany, Persia, Scythia. Then, descending on the
Danube, he fixed the royal village near where it takes its
great bend to the southward, not far from the modern
Buda i1 crossed it to attack the . Eastern empire ; and,
tracing its course downwards in blood, as far as Marciano-
polis, retired not until the Eastern empire (A.D. 446) had
acknowledged him lord of the lower Danube. " The Huns,"
says Gibbon,2 " were masters of the great river." — But it
is specially the river-frontier of the same Western third of
the empire to which the other Trumpets refer, that I sup
pose chiefly intended in the present. Accordingly, about
A.D. 450, in fulfilment of a treaty with Genseric, he
moved against the Western provinces along the upper
Danube : reached and crossed the Rhine at Basle, and
thence tracing the same great frontier stream of the West
down to Belgium, made its valley one scene of desolation
and woe ; burning the cities, (of which Strasburg, Spires,
Worms, Mentz, Andernach, Treves, Tongres, Maesfricht
are specially particularized,) massacring the inhabitants,
and laying the country waste : — until, at length, having
left that valley, which had been marked out as one destined
scene of his ravaging, and advanced farther into the inte
rior, his course was arrested, and he was repulsed in the
tremendous battle of Chalons. — And whither then, when
thus forced to retrace his steps, did he direct them ?
Whither but to fall on another destined scene of ravage,
" the European fountains of waters," in the Alpine heights
and Alpine vallies of Italy. Then Aquileia, Pavia, Ve
rona, Mantua, Milan, Turin, felt his vengeance. " From
the Alps to the Apennines," says Sigonius, " all was
flight, depopulation, slaughter, slavery, and despair."
Many fled to the low and marshy islands at the mouth of
Attila fratres, multarumque gentium reges, Illyricum Thraciamque depopulant." So
Marcellinus' Chronicon, on A. D. 444, and the first mention of Attila.
Idatius in his Chronicle adds a notice of other meteoric portents ; especially of
fiery northern lights, like flashing spears, in the year of Attila's invading Gaul :
" signi ostensio quas mox ingenti exitu perdocetur." B. P. M. vii. 1235.
1 The village of Attila is still visited by visitors from Buda. See Travels by Rev.
C. B. Elliott, Vol. i. p. 61. " About four miles hence, on some high ground, is Alt
Buda, or old Buda, known to the ancients under the name of Aquincum, where
Attila held his court. Few or no vestiges are now to be seen of that savage con
queror's abode." 2 Gibbon, vi. 69.

CH.II.§2.] FULFILMENT OF FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS. 357
the Adige, Po, and Brenta, as their only safe refuge. And
he who has seen the fair Venice, may do well to remember
that he has seen in it a memorial of the terrors and ra
vages of that scourge of God, the Hun Attila.1 — But what
further of his course of devastation? Surely, with Italy all
defenceless before him, one might have expected that, like
his predecessor Alaric, it would have continued on to Eome
and the far coast of Bruttium. Instead of this, behold, an
embassy from the Western emperor Valentinian, accom
panied by the venerable Eomish bishop Leo the First, was
successful at this point in deprecating his wrath : and hav
ing granted them peace, and leaving bands only of Heruli
and Ostrogoths in the Tyrolese country intermediate, he
repassed the Alps, and retired. — Wherefore a result, hu
manly speaking, so unlikely ? Methinks we may see the
reason. The prediction had expressly marked the term of
Attila's desolating progress ; — " the third of the rivers, and
the fountains of waters." Already Attila had made bitter,
besides the surplusage of more Eastern scenes,2 the river-
line of the upper Danube and Ehine, and the Alpine foun
tains of waters. Many had died, and still continued to die,
that drank of the waters, through famine, disease, and pes
tilence. This being done, his course was to end. " Thus
far thou shalt go, and no further." Eeturned from Italy,
he recrossed the Danube ; reached the royal village between
it and the Teiss ; and there, the very next year, was sud
denly cut off by apoplexy. This occurred A.D. 453. So
the meteor was extinct ; the empire and power of the
Huns broken. The woe of the third Trumpet had past away.
4. Thus was the final catastrophe preparing, by which
the western emperors and empire were to become extinct.
The glory of Eome had long departed ; its provinces one
after another been rent from it ; the territory still attached
to it become like a desert ; and its maritime possessions,
and its fleets and commerce, been annihilated. Little re-
1 For authorities see the Univ. Hist. xvi. 567. See too Midler's Hist. ii. 115".
Gibbon is not so particular and detailed in this part of the history as usual.
2 Some object this surplusage to my reference of the Trumpet to Attila. Would
they object to St. Matthew's application of Isaiah's prophecy, ix. 1, 2, about the
light on Zabulon and Nepthali, on account of a similar surplusage of light from
Christ's ministry ?

358 apoc viii. 5 — 12. [part n.
mained to it but the vain titles and insignia of sovereignty.
And now the time was come when these too were to be
withdrawn. Some twenty years or more from the death
of Attila, and much less from that of Genseric, (who, ere
his death, had indeed visited and ravaged the eternal city,
in one of his maritime marauding expeditions, and thus yet
more prepared the coming consummation,) about this time,
I say, Odoacer, chief of the Heruli, — a barbarian remnant
of the host of Attila, left on the Alpine frontiers of Italy,
— interposed with his command that the name and the
office of Roman emperor of the West should be abolished.
The authorities bowed in submission to him. The last
phantom of an emperor, — one whose name Romulus Augus
tus was singularly calculated to bring in contrast before the
reflective mind the past glories of Eome and its present
degradation, — abdicated : and the Senate sent away the
imperial insignia to Constantinople ; professing to the
Emperor of the East that one Emperor was sufficient for
the whole of the empire. — Thus of the Eoman imperial
sun1 that third which appertained to the western empire
was eclipsed, and shone no more. I say that third of its
orb which appertained to the western empire : for the apo
calyptic fraction is literally accurate. In the last arrange
ment between the two courts, the whole of the Illyrian
third had been made over to the eastern division.2 — Thus
in the west "the extinction of the empire" had taken
place ;3 the night had fallen. — Notwithstanding this, how
ever, it must be borne in mind that the authority of the
Eoman name had not yet entirely ceased. The Senate of
Eome continued to assemble, as usual.4 The Consuls were
appointed yearly, one by the eastern Emperor, one by
Italy and Eome. Odoacer himself governed Italy under
a title (that of Patrician) conferred on him by the eastern
1 It should be remembered by the reader that, "on the division of the empire
into East and West, an ideal unity was scrupulously preserved." Gib. x. 152. The
imperial sun was one. — The same is indeed implied in the Senate's address to the
Eastern Emperor, on Odoacer's mandate.
2 See above, p. 339. 3 The expression of Gibbon, vi. 226.
4 For example we find Lt assembling in 500 A.D. to welcome Theodoric; in 536
sending deputies, in conjunction with those of the Pope, clergy and people, to invite
Belisarius to the deliverance of the city ; in 546 temporarily broken up by Totilas'
banishment of its members on his cpture of Rome ; then restored, and at length
in 552 finally abolished, as a body exercising political functions, by Narses. Gibbon,
vii. 30, 223, 368, 370, 377, 389.

CH. II. §2.] FULFILMENT OF FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS. 359
Emperor. And as regarded the more distant western pro
vinces, or at least considerable districts in them, the tie
which had united them to the Eoman empire was not alto
gether severed.1 There was still a certain, though often
faint, recognition of the supreme imperial authority. The
moon and the stars might seem still to shine on the west,
with a dim reflected light. In the course of the events,
however, which rapidly followed one on the other in the
next half century, these too were extinguished.2 Theodo-
ric the Ostrogoth, on destroying the Heruli and their
kingdom at Eome and Eavenna, ruled in Italy from A.D.
493 to 526, as an independent sovereign: and on Belisa-
rius' and Narses' conquest of Italy from the Ostrogoths, (a
conquest preceded by wars and desolations in which Italy,
and above all its seven-hilled city, were for a time almost
made desert,3) the Eoman senate was dissolved, the con
sulship abrogated. Moreover, as regards the Barbaric
princes of the western provinces, their independence of the
Eoman imperial power became now more distinctly averred
and understood. After above a century and half of cala
mities unexampled almost, as Dr. Eobertson most truly re
presents it,4 in the history of nations, the statement of Je
rome, — a statement couched under the very apocalyptic
figure of the text, but prematurely pronounced on the first
taking of Eome by Alaric, — might be considered as at
length accomplished ; " Clarissimum terrarum lumen ex-
tinctum est," 5 " The world's glorious sun has been extin-
1 E. g. the Emperor of the East conferred on Clovis the title of Consul and Patrician.
2 See Gibbon viii. 126, on the sequel. — The Lombard invasion of Italy followed
soon after Belisarius' and Narses' conquests, A. D. 568.
3 See Gibbon, vii. 370, &c. Marcellinus (referred to by Gibbon) states in his
Chronicon that after Totilas had taken, partly demolished, and then evacuated
Rome, carrying off the senators with him, the city remained for forty days desolate ;
" quadraginta aut amplius dies Roma fuit desolata, utnemo ibihominum nisi bestiae
morarentur." — Then occurred Belisarius' visit from Ostia ; he having cut his way
with 1000 horse through an interposing division of the Gothic army, " to visit with
pity and reverence (as Gibbon says) the vacant space of the Eternal City." Of
which visit Dr. Miley, the Roman Catholic Priest, in his "Rome Pagan and Papal,"
(i. 263, ii. 196,) has given a very picturesque description.
4 Charles V, pp. 11, 12 : "If a man were called on to fix upon a period in the
history of the world. . the most calamitous, it would be that from the death of Theo
dosius to the establishment of the Lombards."
6 Quoted Note 2, p. 367 — In similar figure Eumenius, in his Panegyric to
Constantius, c. 10, when speaking of the separation of the provinces from Rome
under Gallienus' disastrous reign, characterizes it as the " triste provinciarum a Ro-
mand luce discidium."

360 apoc viii. 13. [part n.
guished ;" and that too which our own Poet has exprest,
still under the same beautifully appropriate Apocalyptic
imagery,
She saw her glories star by star expire : 1
till not even a single star remained, to glimmer on the vacant
and dark night.

So ended the history of the Gothic period. So did
every point noted in the first four Trumpet-visions appear
fulfilled in it.2 And with it ends this division of our subject.
— For a while the prophetic scene shifts : and we shall be
called presently tclook Eastward, to see the judgments of
God there fulfilling. On returning West again afterwards,
it will be to contemplate the Eoman empire revived in its
old capital under a new aspect, and as it were a new head.
And then a history and a fate will be found attaching to it,
according to the sure word of prophecy, (in part fulfilled,
in part still unfulfilled,) the one more remarkable, the other
more awful, than even that which we have just been tracing
of the ancient Goth-subverted Eome.

CHAPTEE III.

FOREWARNINGS OF COMING WOE.
" And I beheld, and heard an angel 3 flying through the
midst of heaven ; and saying with a loud voice, Woe, Woe,
1 Childe Harold, Canto iv, Stanza 80.
2 Let me observe, in concluding, that the exposition of the four trumpet- visions
here given resembles generally that of Whiston, Bicheno, and Dr. Keith : there
being excepted my interpretation of the third part, of which mention has been made
before : and the connection of Attila with the river Rhine ; a point almost
overlooked by Whiston and Keith, though not by Bicheno.
3 Griesbach and the other critical Editors read aeTou instead of o/yyeAou, an
eagle instead of an angel. And the external evidence of Manuscripts is decidedly in
favour of the former reading. —On the other hand the internal evidence of Scriptural
analogy, with which Griesbach and the rest did not concern themselves, is as de
cidedly, — indeed, as it seems to me, even more so, — against it. For no where in the
Apocalypse is the proclaiming function assigned to a bird, or indeed to any being
but an angel or the divine Spirit. We may compare chap. xix. 17, and xiv. 6, 8, 9.
In the first of these passages a proclamation is made not by, but to, the-fowls that

CHAP. III.] FOREWARNINGS OF COMING WOE. 361
Woe, to the inhabitants of the earth, by reason of the other
voices of the trumpets of the three angels which are yet to
sound!" Apoc. viii. 13.
This vision, occurring as it does between the fourth
Trumpet-vision and the fifth, corresponds with that period
of time which intervened between the extinction of the last
rays of the old government at Eome, and the rise of Ma
homet and the Saracens: — an interval of some 40 or 45
years, which we may date from Justinian's death, or the
Lombards' establishment in Italy, A. D. 565 and 570 ;
and which was chiefly memorable in Eome and Eoman
Christendom from the Pontificate which closed it, of Pope
Gregory the Great.1 It is a period of transition from what
we may designate as the ancient, to the more modern divi
sion of Eoman history ; and this both as regards the West
and the East. As such it is notable, and indeed noted by
historians.2 With regard to the vision before us, it is to be observed,
that the warning-cry of the coming woe was made not by
an angel in the inner temple, — the council -chamber of the
Eternal One, — but by an angel flying through the midst
of heaven. Hence we may infer, I conceive, agreeably
with the analogy of other such Apocalyptic visions, that it
was not a mere private intimation to the evangelist of what
yet remained to be foreshown respecting the coming future,
but signified that which would have its fulfilment in some
forewarning signs in real life, publicly observable by men at
the time prefigured : — just, for example, as the very paral
lel proclaiming cry of the angel that appeared afterwards
fly in mid-heaven : and for what ? to fulfil their proper functions of devouring flesh.
In the second the proclaiming agents in mid heaven are thus described : " I saw an
angel flying in the midst-heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach, and
crying," &c. : " And another angel followed, saying :" Sec. — I therefore do not hesi
tate to retain the reading ayyeAov.
(Since writing this I see that Dr. Ziillig, in his Apocalyptic Commentary, ii. 108,
argues for, and adopts, the reading a77e\ou on much the same grounds as I do. He
also mentions that the learned critic Wolf had similarly contended for the inte
grity of the O77e\ou. 4th Ed.) ' Pope from A. D. 590 to 604.
2 So Hallam, with reference to the Eastern empire. " The appearance of Ma
homet, and conquests of his disciples, present an epoch in the history of Asia even
more important and definite than the subversion of the Roman empire in Europe.
Hence the boundary line between the ancient and modern divisions of Byzantine
history will intersect the reign of Hcraclius." Middle Ages, ii. 162.

362 apoc. viii. 13. [part n.
flying in mid-heaven,1 may be shown to have had facts
clearly answering to it in the correspondent historic aera.
— So that we must not be satisfied to pass onward, without
looking into the history of the times here referred to, and
seeing whether there was in them any thing, and what,
that might be regarded as a warning-voice of calamities
impending : — a warning-voice audible, and fit to strike
upon the minds of men, throughout the length and breadth
of that which, from the professed christianization of the
Eomano-Gothic kingdoms, might in regard of the West,
as well as East, be still called Eoman Christendom.
Nor, as it seems to me, does it need more, in order to
our perceiving the thing we seek for, than that we should
throw ourselves, as it were, into the times spoken of; and
identify our thoughts and our sympathies, for the moment,
with those of the age. — I purpose, in what follows, to
speak of the signs of the times, 1st as they might strike
foreboding and fear into the minds of reflective men gene
rally : 2ndly, as they might affect the minds more particu
larly of the discerning among God's true servants ; men
such as St. John himself specially represented, that had
the seal of God on their foreheads, and whose judgments
of things were formed by the rule of God's written word.
I. And let me begin with observing on the solemnity
of the aera, and the solemn prognostications connected with
it, from its following immediately on the close of that
mighty revolution, the fall of Rome's ancient empire. —
Escaped from so terrible a wreck, it might have been natu
ral perhaps for the survivors, independently of any peculiar
causes of apprehension, to look with awe into a dark and
uncertain future.2 But to regard it in this point of view
merely, will be altogether to underrate the awfulness of the
crisis. The reader has already seen how, on the sure war
rant of Scripture, the destruction of the Eoman empire had
been all along looked forward to by the early church as an

1 Apoc. xiv. 7.
2 So Dupin, v. 123, in speaking of the apprehensions of someat the time referred
to says ; " Whenever there have been great revolutions, Christians have easily per
suaded themselves that the end of the world was approaching."

CHAP. III.] FOREWARNINGS OF COMING WOE. 363
event fraught with consequences most peculiar and most
awful. He will not have forgotten the predictions of Anti
christ's fated coming : — how his manifestation was under
stood to be connected with the dissolution of the Eoman em
pire, its dissolution into ten kingdoms ; and that persecutions,
calamities, and judgments very fearful were to follow, and
after them the end of the world. He will remember how
the fathers of the second, and then those of the third cen
tury, construed the -nare^pv of St. Paul, — the let and hin
drance to Antichrist's manifestation, — as the then existing
empire of Eome 51 and the intense interest, consequently,
with which its continuance was regarded by them, the
alarm with which its apprehended fall. " We pray for
the Eoman emperors and empire," said Tertuliian, in a pas
sage already long since in part cited ; "for we know that con
vulsions and calamities threatening the whole world, and the
end of the world itself, are kept back by the intervention of
the Eoman empire."2 And so again, just after the termina
tion of the third century, Lactantius: "The fact itself
plainly assures us that things will ere long totter and fall.
Only while the city of Eome is safe, there seems reason not
to apprehend it. For that is the state which as yet props up
all things." 3 — The same conviction continued afterwards
through the fourth century, as we learn from the consent
ing statements of the Latin fathers and the Greek, — of
Cyril and Chrysostom, Ambrose* and Jerome :5 and solemn
1 See pp. 215, 216; where Justin Martyr, Irenseus, Tertuliian, and Hippolytus
are quoted to this effect. 2 Apol. c. 32 ; quoted p. 216 Note 1, supra.
3 Div. Inst. vii. 25 ; quoted more fully p. 220 Note 1, supra.
4 That is, if we may reckon on the Comment on the Epistles given under Ambrose's
name, but which is rather the comment (in part at least) of a cotemporary of Am
brose, perhaps Hilary of Rome, (see the Benedictine remarks,) as fairly representing
his opinions. See the notice of Ambrose in the next Note.
5 It will be useful on more than one account, as well as interesting to the reader,
to subjoin a somewhat copious abstract of the opinions of these eminent fathers of
the fourth century, on the great cognate prophecies respecting Antichrist of Daniel,
St. Paul, and the Apocalypse ; opinions involving the point alluded to, about the Ro
man empire's dissolution into a new decem-regal form, as the event that would be
introductory to his manifestation. — Intermixed will occur notices also of their opinions
as to the nature of the predicted apostacy, (whether in the church, or out of it,) to
which I may refer again at the close of this chapter. — This will be a sequel to that
given at pp. 215, 216, 220, of the sentiments of the earlier fathers, Justin Martyr,
irenaeus, Tertuliian, Hippolytus, Cyprian, Lactantius.
1. Cyril ,- ordained Bishop of Jerusalem A D. 350, died 386.
He, like the Fathers before him, explained the four wild Beasts of Dan. vii. to be
the Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian and Roman empires, and identified the fourth

364 apoc viii. 13. [part ii.
thoughts as to the coming future crossed the minds even
of the earlier of those fathers, as they watched the premo-
Beast's little horn with St. Paul's Man of Sin and St. John's Antichrist. Further he
judged that the time of his coming was to be when the times of the then Roman em
pire were fulfilled, (brav irAijpuBuoiv ot Katpot rijs ruv 'Pupatuv BaaiAetas,) and it was
dissolved into ten kingdoms, kingdoms rising up cotemporaneously, but in different
places : — that then Antichrist, (" some great man raised up by the devil,") falsely
calling himself the Christ, and so seducing the Jews, would by magical arts and
false miracles seize on and usurp the power of the Roman empire, eradicate three of
the ten kings, and subjugate the other seven : — that at first mild in semblance, and
prudent, and the abolisher of idols, (all with a view to self-exaltation) he would
afterwards show himself as God, sitting in the Jewish temple ; (" for God forbid it
should be that in which we are;") and for three years and a half persecute the
Church : — finally that the apostacy St. Paul spoke of as Antichrist's precursor, meant
a religious apostacy, " from the right faith, from truth, and from good works." (So
Catech. xv.)
2. Ambrose ; ordained Bishop of Milan A.D. 374, died 398.
The only prophetical notices on the point proposed in the genuine writings of this
father, are those in his Comment on Luke xxi. 20 ; Book x. § 15 — 18. He there
(like Cyril) explains the apostacy of St. Paul to mean an apostacy from true religion :
(" a vera religione plerique lapsi errore desciscent : ") — that it would be the Jewish
inner or mental temple in which Antichrist would sit : and that then, seizing on the
kingdom, (I presume the Roman kingdom or supremacy,) he would claim for him
self a throne of divine authority ; " sibi divina? vindicet solium potestatis."
In the Comment on 2 Thess. ii. of the Pseudo-Ambrose, the hindrance to Anti
christ's manifestation is explained to be the Roman empire ; its defection (airoora-
aia) or abolition, being the occasion of his appearance ; and that he would then
restore freedom to the Romans, " sub suo nomine : " — that the mystery of iniquity
spoken of by St. Paul was Nero's persecuting spirit against Christians, which still
afterwards had continued to actuate succeeding Pagan emperors down to Diocletian
and Julian; finally that he would "in domo Domini, in sede sedeat Christi, et ipsum
Deum se asserat."
3. Chrysostom ; ordained A.D. 380, made Bishop of Constantinople 398, died 407.
He too (on Daniel) expounded Nebuchadnezzar's quadripartite Image, and Daniel's
four Beasts, as the other fathers. " The days of those kings," said of the time of the
stone being cut out, he explains as the days of the Romans : and that in smiting
and destroying the Roman kingdom it would destroy the others too, as included. —
Also in his Horn, iv on 2 Thess. ii. he made the Roman empire to be the let or hin
drance to Antichrist's manifestation meant by St. Paul ; (tout' errrtv rj apxv v
"BupaiKij- brav apBnex peaov Tore eKeivos 7){ei-) and explained the temple in which he
would sit, to be rather the Christian churches every where, than the Jewish temple.
— The mystery of iniquity he thought might be Nero, as in spirit a type of Anti
christ : Nepuva uffavei rvirov ovra too Avtixpiotov' Kai yap Soros eBovAero voptgeoBai
0eos- and that Antichrist was to be avuBeos rts. — The apostacy Chrysostom identifies
pretty much with Antichrist himself ; tos iroAAovs peAAovra airoAAvvai Kai arpiarav.
He adds that as Rome succeeded Greece, so Rome would be succeeded by Antichrist,
and Antichrist by Christ.
4. Jerome; ordained A.D. 378, died 420.
On Dan. ii. he expounds the gold, silver, brass, and iron of the symbolic Image to
be the same four kingdoms as the other fathers : the stone cut out of the mountain
without hands being Christ born of a virgin ; whose kingdom, upon the destruction
of all the other kingdoms, was finally to fill the whole earth. The breaking of the
iron legs into ten toes, — part iron, part clay, — he explained of the weakness of the
Roman empire at the time he wrote, — about A.D. 407, according to the Benedic
tines : " Ut in principio nihil. . durius fuit, ita in fine rerum nihil imbecillius ; quando
et in bellis civilibus, ct adversum diversas nationes, aliarum gentium barbararum
indigemus auxilio." — On Dan. vii he explains the four Beasts of the same four
empires ; the four heads of the third or Macedonian Beast indicating its subdi
visions, on Alexander's death, into the kingdoms of Ptolemy, Sdcucus, Philip, Anti-

CHAP. III.] FOREWARNINGS OF COMING WOE. 365
nitory signs of the times.1 Much more when, as the fifth
gonus. On the divisions of the fourth, or Roman, he writes : " Ergo dicemus, quod
omnes scriptores ecclesiastici tradiderunt, in consummatione mundi, quando regnum
destruendum est Romanum, decern futuros reges qui orbem Romanum inter se
dividant; et undecimum surrecturum regem parvulum, qui tres reges de decern
regibus superaturus sit : quibus interfectis etiam septem alii reges victori colla sub-
mittent:" — adding that this eleventh king is to be a man, with Satan's spirit in
dwelling, the same as St. Paul's man of sin: also that the Roman empire is to be
finally destroyed on account of this Antichrist's blasphemies, and with it all earthly
kingdoms. " Idcirco Romanum delebitur imperium quia cornu illud loquebatur
grandia. In uno Romano imperio, propter Antichristum blasphemantem, omnia
simul regna delenda sunt ; et nequaquam terrenum imperium erit, sed sanctorum
conversatio, et adventus Filii Dei triumphantis." — This was written between 407
and 410 A.D.
Further, on Jer. xxv (written A D. 416) he explains the let or hindrance in the
way of Antichrist's manifestation (2 Thess. ii) to be the then existing Roman em
pire : " film qui tenet Romanum Imperium ostendit : nisi enim hoc destructem
fuerit sublatumque de medio, juxta prophetiam Danielis Antichristus ante non
veniet : " adding that St. Paul did not mention this, for fear of stirring up persecu
tion against the then infant Christian church. — In the Quaestio xi ad Algasiam, he
says very similarly, as to the let, that "nisi prius Romanum deleatur imperium ....
nisi fuerit desolatum," Antichrist would not come. He also explains the mystery of
iniquity, even then working when St. Paul wrote, to be the evils and sins with
which Nero then oppressed the Church, and prepared for Antichrist ; and the airoo-
racria, or apostacy, to be a political apostacy or defection of the nations from the Roman
empire, " ut omnes gentes qua? Romano Imperio subjacent recedant ab iis : " — that
Antichrist's self-exaltation over all that was called god, &c, meant, " ut cunctarum
gentium deos, sive probatam omnem et veram religionem, suo calcet pede : " and
that the temple he would sit in would not be the temple at Jerusalem, but the
church: "in ecclesia ut verius arbitramur." — It should be observed in the above that
he makes a two-fold destruction of the Roman empire : the one its desolation and
dissolution by a breaking up into ten kingdoms, introductory to Antichrist's mani
festation ; the other its total and final destruction, to take place on account of Anti
christ's blasphemies at Christ's coming.
Finally, on Dan. xi, he explains that Antichrist is to rise from the small nation of
the Jews ; at first to be low and despised, and not have royal honour : then through
fraud, falsely pretending to be the chief of God's law and covenant, and falsely pre
tending to chastity also, to obtain the supremacy, break and subdue the Roman
people opposing him, and gain (what no Jew ever gained before) the empire of the
world : " Faciet quia simulabit se ducem esse foederis, hoc est legis et testamenti
Dei : " and that he will then fight against the holy covenant.
5. Augustine, CD. xx. 19, 23, notices and agrees in Jerome's view of the four
Beasts, and as to the identity of the fourth Beast's little horn with St. Paul's man of
sin and St. John's Antichrist. He explains the apostacy in 2 Thess. ii. of a religious
apostacy ; indeed, (expounding the abstract of the concrete,) as the apostate Anti
christ himself; " Nisi venerit refuga primum, utique a Domino Deo :" — also as to
the temple he would sit in, that it seemed to him dubious whether it meant Solo
mon's temple, or the Christian Church : that at any rate it could not be an idol's or
demon's temple ; because that would not be called God's temple : — further that the
let or hindrance in Antichrist's way, might not absurdly be taken to mean the Ro
man empire, though he professed hi6 own ignorance in the matter : — that as to the
ten kings the number might be perhaps indefinitely meant, ten for the whole num
ber :— that the mystery of iniquity might be said of Nero's spirit and actions ;
although the idea of his personal resurrection was absurd : or, as others thought,
that it might signify the unsound and bad in the professing church, (ficti et mali in
ecclesia",) until grown to a number sufficient to makeup a great people for Anti
christ : — finally that it seemed to him doubtful whether Antichrist's miracles would
be pretended only, or real.
1 Cyril (ubi supra) spoke of the wars without, and the religious schisms, divi
sions, and mutual hatred of Christians within, (which last seemed to him to be the

366 , apoc vm. 13. [part 11.
century opened, the Gothic inundation swept over the
Western empire, and soon temporarily overwhelmed Eome
itself, as well as the provinces, it could not be but that an
unusual awe and apprehension should fill the minds of re
flective men. " Judge ye," said Sulpitius Severus, from
his retirement at the foot of the Gallic Pyrenees, " of the
precipice that is before us !" This was said near about the
time of the first Vandal irruption into Italy and Gaul ; (an
irruption which must still further have evidenced to him
the truth of his previously-expressed conviction that the
breaking up of the iron legs of the Eoman empire into its
ten toes of iron and clay had then begun i1) and in con-
working of the mystery of iniquity,) as signs that Antichrist's manifestation was near
at hand. He noted too the fact (or supposed fact) of the gospel having been then
nearly preached over the whole world, as a further corroborative proof. This was
about A.D. 350 or 360.
Ambrose too, writing about A.D. 386, (so the Benedictines date it,) on Luke xxi.
9, refers to the then recent wars, especially those of the Goths against the Ro
mans in which Valens perished, and which had resulted in their occupation of Illy
ricum, as well as to the rumours of wars, pestilences, &c, as evidence that the world
was near its end. " Verhorum autem ccelestium (sc. ' When ye hear of wars and
rumours of wars,' &c.) nulli magis quam nos testes sumus, quos mundi finis invenit.
Quanta enim praelia, et quas opiniones accepimus prseliorum ! Chunni in Alanos,
Alani in Gothos, Gothi in Tayfalas et Sarmatas insurrexerunt. Nos quoque in
lllyrico exsules patriae Gothorum exsilia fecerunt : et nondum est finis. Quae omnium
fames, lues pariter boum atque hominum, &c ! Ergo quia in occasu seculi sumus,
prascedunt quaedam aegritudines mundi. jEgritudo mundi est fames, asgritudo
mundi est pestilentia, aBgritudo mundi est persecutio." Lib. x. § 10. — Again § 14,
he refers to the then recent christianization of the Goths and Armenians, as proofs
of the Gospel having been preached over the world. " Praedicetur evangelium ut
saeculum destruatur : sicut praecessit in orbem terrae Evangelii praedicatio, cui jam
Gothi et Armenii crediderunt; et ideo mundi finem videmus."
1 This occurs in the second Book of his Sacred History, written, as he tell us
afterwards, fifteen years after Priscillian's execution, (an event of the year 385,) and
consequently A. D.400, or 401. The passage is a remarkable one. Speaking of the
iron legs of Nebuchadnezzar's symbolic image, he says; '' Crura ferrea imperium
quartern idque Romanum intelligitur, omnibus ante regnis validissimum. Pedes
vero partim ferrei, partim fictiles, dividendum esse Romanum regnum, ita ut nun-
quam inter se coeat, prafigurant. Quod aeque completum est : siquidem jam non
ab uno imperatore, sed etiam a pluribus, semperque inter se armis aut studiis dis-
sentientibus, res Romana administratur. Denique commisceri testum atque ferrum,
nunquam inter se coeuntem materiam, commistiones humani generis futurae a se
invicem dissidentes significantur. Siquidem Romanum solum ab exteris gentibus,
aut rebellibus occupatum, aut dedentibus semper pacis specie traditum, constat ; *
* The allusion is evidently to the occupation of the Illyrian provinces by the
Goths, begun under Valens, some by forcible seizure, some by surrender on the part
of the Roman emperors : the same that Ambrose alludes to in the extract given in
the Note preceding, and Jerome also some years later ; see Note ', p. 340. — This
being the commencement of that overflowing of the Roman empire by the Goths,
whence the Gothico-Romano kingdoms afterwards rose, Bishop Newton was hardly,
I think, so incorrect in quoting Sulpicius, by way of illustration to his exposition, as
Mr. Maitland would make him. Second Enquiry, p. 140.

CHAP. III.] FOREWARNINGS OF COMING WOE. 367
nexion with his record of the solemn declaration of Martin
of Tours, made some eight years before, that Antichrist
was even then born, and in his nonage.1 And when Ala
ric threatened, then attacked, and at length took Eome,
the graver voice of Jerome cried once, and again, and
again, from his monastery at Bethlehem ; " The Eoman
world rushes to destruction, and we bend not our neck in
humiliation : " — " The hindrance in Antichrist's way is re
moving, and we heed it not :" — "In that one city the whole
world hath fallen."2 — But the impression at this time proved
to be premature. As the inundation retired from central
Italy, both Eome and the Eoman empire, though mutilated
exercitibusque nostris, urbibus, atque provinciis permixtas harbaras nationes, et
praecipue Judaeos inter nos degere, nee tamen in mores nostros transire, videamus.
Atque haec esse postrema tempora Prophetae annuntiant." B. P. M. vi. 338.
1 " Que-d autem haec ab illo audivimus," says Sulpitius, i. e. that Antichrist was
even then born, and in his boyhood, " annus octavus est. Vos autem aestimate quo
in prascipitio consistunt quae futura sunt." Dialog, ii. 16. — Moreri gives the differ
ent opinions of learned men as to the time of Martin's death, with dates varying
from 396 to 403 ; and concludes himself on Nov. 400 as the true date. Baronius'
date is 402. So that, reckoning the time of Martin's expressing his opinion to have
been near his death, the time of Sulpitius recording it would be about A.D. 409.
With which date well agrees Jerome's mention of the work in his commentary on
Ezekiel ch. xxxvi, as then recently published ; " Nuper Severus noster in Dialogo
cui Gallo nomen imposuit : " this commentary having been written about A.D. 410.
— Sulpitius Severus, who was Martin's disciple and panegyrist, lived retired after his
death, as before, in Narbonensian Gaul. See the notice of him p. 311 supra, and in
Gilly's Vigilantius, ch. 3.
2 First, A D. 396, on Alaric and the Goths' revolting on Theodosius' death, and
invading Greece, in his Epist. 35 ad Heliodor. " Ubique luctus, ubique gemitus.
Quid putas nunc animi habere Corinthios, Athenienses, Lacedaemonios, Arcadas,
cunctamque Graeciam, quibus imperant barbari. Romanus orbis ruit ; et tamen
cervix nostra non flectitur."
Secondly, A.D. 409, after the great Vandal irruption into Gaul, in his Epist. 91
ad Ageruch. " Verum quid ago ? Fracta navi de mercibus dispute Qui tenebat
de medio fit ; et non intelligimus Antichristum appropinquare, quem Dominus J.
Christus interficiet spiritu oris sui." Then, after describing the barbarians' over
running and desolation of all between the Alps and Pyrenees, Rhine and Ocean,
(" Quadus, Vandalus, Sarmata, Halani, Gepides, Heruli, Saxones, Burgundiones,
Alemanni, et hostes Pannonii,") and the statement of Pannonia having been
ravaged for thirty years, the anticipatory warning cry follows, " Quid salvum erit si
Roma perit? " (Mark the number ten in Jerome's Gothic list.)
Lastly, A.D. 411, in his Prolog, to Ezekiel ; " Mihi Romanes urbis obsidio. . nun-
ciata est. Atque ita consternates obstupui, ut nihil aliud. . nisi de salute omnium
cogitarem. Postquam vero clarissimum terrarum omnium lumen extinctum est,
imo Romani imperii truncatam caput, et, ut verius dicam, in una urbe totus orbis
interiit, obmutui et humiliates sum."
Let me add that as early as A.D. 398, in his exposition of Matt. xxiv. 14, " The
gospel must first be preached &c," he had intimated that he thought that predicted
preliminary to the consummation nearly fulfilled. " Signum Domini adventus est evan-
gelium intoto orbe praedicare, ut nullus sit excusabilis : quod aut jam completum,
aut in brevi cernimus complendum. Non enim puto aliquam remansisse gentem quae
Christi nomen ignorat."

368 apoc viii. 13. [part n.
and broken, remained still standing: nor, moreover, amidst
the flux and reflux of its agitated waters over the Western
provinces, could the forms of the expected ten kingdoms
be as yet seen clearly emergent. — Still events seemed hast
ening to the crisis. The Bishop of Salona, Hesychius,
during the interval between the judgments of the first and
second Trumpet, asserted his deliberate conviction that the
end of the world was near at hand ; specially with refer
ence to Daniel's prophecy about the destruction of the
fourth or Eoman beast, and the commotions and distress
of nations then apparent x1 nor did the objections of Augus
tine weigh with him, more than with Ambrose and Jerome
before, against it.2 Again Evagrius from his monastic re
tirement in Gaul observed, and urged on others, the signs
of the times: "The Eoman emperors are driven from their
kingdoms: wars rage: all is commotion: Antichrist must be
at hand."3 And Theodoret, from his more distant bishopric
in Syria, after long and studious consideration of the pro
phecies, confidently re-asserted that it needed but the re
solution of the Eoman empire into ten kingdoms, — and
then Antichrist would be revealed, and the fearful conse
quences apprehended follow.4 — So when, at length, in the
1 See his epistle to Augustine (of the date 419 A.D.) numbered 198 in the Bene
dictine Edition. On " the signs in the sun and moon, and distress," &c, he says :
" Ea quae patimur confiteri et poena compellit, si forte non curet voluntas ; nam in
uno tempore et signa in ccelo, et pressuram gentium in terris, ab hominibus videri
et sustineri manifestam est.. . Nullam patriam, nullum locum nostris temporibus non
affligi aut humiliari certum est ; sicut dictum est, Prae timore et expectatione quae
superveniant universo orbi," &c.
2 Augustine's Letters arenumbered 197, 199. — Augustine's chief objection, (be
sides that it was not for men to know the times and seasons) was that the gospel
was not yet preached to all nations ; which Christ said must first be, and that then
the end should come. — To which Hesychius answered what St. Paul had said of the
Gospel having been preached, even in his time, to every creature under heaven.
3 The Author, as would appear, of the Consultatio Zachoei et Apollonii ; a treatise of
about the date 420. " Ardet bellandi furor :. . regna regnis confiigunt : insuspicabiles
sceptris justarum sedium Augustas depellunt. Adde prodigiorum ineffabiles minas,
&c. jEstima, quasso, utrum hoc ferre diu saeculum possit." Hence his conclusion :
" Adesse confestim -suprema [et Antichristum] dignoscimus." Dacherii Spicileg. i. 39.
On the author, and the date, see the Chronological Index prefixed to the Treatise,
by D'Achery's later Editor : also the Histoire Litteraire de la France, Tom. ii. 252,
referred to by Mosheim v. 2. 3. 7.
4 Theodoret explains the four kingdoms and the little horn, in*Dan. ii and vii, as
the preceding fathers. — In St. Paul he expounds the apostacy as Antichrist, he being
the great apostatizer from the truth ; the let as the Pagan idolatry, that was to be
removed to make way for his worship ; the mystery of iniquity as the heresies of
apostolic times, preparing for him ; the temple as Christian Churches, in which he
would usurp the irpoeSpeta, as if God. — Theodoret wrote his Comment on St. Paul's
Epistles after 431 A.D. See Dupin, iv. 94.

CHAP. III.] F0REWARN1NGS OF COMING WOE. 369
quick succession of events, and under the judgments of the
fourth Trumpet, first the office and name of Eoman em
peror in the West had been extinguished by Odoacer, and
then, about A.D. 550, those of Consul and Senate by the
generals of Justinian, —when in this manner each final ves
tige of Eome's ancient imperial ruling power had been
swept away, and moreover barbaric kingdoms had risen up
out of its ruins in the provinces, perhaps to the very pre
dicted number, — -there seemed scarce room for doubting
that the crisis had arrived, and that the awful events and
judgments so long anticipated were indeed at hand.1 From
Eome prostrate and ruined, a voice seemed to issue un
speakably solemn, and which called on the whole world to
hear it ; " Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, by reason
of the calamities and judgments even now impending !"
There was a chronological characteristic of the aera, that
tended not a little, with some, to confirm these awful fore
bodings respecting the coming future. It was now between
500 and 600 years from the time of Christ's birth : and,
according to the chronology of the Septuagint, then gene
rally received in Eoman Christendom, either somewhat
more, if the standard of the Alexandrine copy were taken,
— or somewhat less, if that of certain other copies,2 — than
6000 years had elapsed from the Creation. Now, not
among the Jews only, but among the christian Fathers
also, the idea had been entertained, as already long
since hinted,3 that the seventh millennary was to be the'
1 In the Oxford Tracts on Antichrist, (No 83 of the Series, p. 24), the following
statement is made. " Another expectation of the early Church was that the Ro
man monster, after remaining torpid for centuries, would wake up at the end of the
world and be restored : &c." I presume the writer refers to the wild idea mooted
by some, that Nero would rise again to act the part of Antichrist. (See p. 65 Note 4
supra.) But instead of " the early church " embracing the idea, it was but a few
individuals, and none of great eminence : the view of Chrysostom, and men like
him, only referring to Nero's spirit, not person. (See the abstract pp. 363 — 365
supra.) Moreover even the Sybil's wilder notion had to do with the Beast's head,
an individual ; not the beast or empire collectivefy, so as the Oxford writer, in
order to suit his argument, would represent it. The idea of its " lying torpid for
many centuries," was an idea the most alien, if I mistake not, from patristic expec
tations. 2 See Hales' Chronology, i- 211, 212; also Gibbon ii. 302. See too the copious
list of authorities in Malvenda de Antichristo, pp. 64 — 67.
3 See my p. 217 supra. — For a full list of patristic authorities on this point, I
may refer to Mr. Greswell's work on the Parables, Vol. 1, p. 340. See also my
Chap, vi, Part vi, on the First Resurrection.
VOL. I. 2 B

370 apoc viii. 13. [part 11.
millennium of the triumph of the church : — a consum
mation great and glorious ; but to be preceded immediately
by the last grand outbreak of evil under Antichrist, and
the destruction of the world. It was under this conviction,
and in reliance on the accuracy of the generally-received
Alexandrine Septuagint chronology, just observed on, that
Hippolytus, bishop and martyr in the reign of Alexander
Severus, had gone so far as to predict the year of the
world's ending, and fix it at A.D. 500. x In precise accord
ance with whom the learned Lactantius, at the commence
ment of the fourth century, gave his opinion that the com
ing of Antichrist, and commencement of the millennium,
would not be delayed much more than 200 years.2 And
Eustathius of Antioch, exiled soon after under Constantius,
in writing on the Hexaemeron of the Creation, asserted that
" there wanted but 469 years at the time of Christ's re
surrection to the end of the 6000 years, and commence
ment of the Sabbath;''3 so fixing its commencing epoch
still about A.D. 500. " Once more Hilarion, in the year
402, thus wrote : "It now wants 101 years to the end of
the sixth chiliad ; about the closing of which the ten kings
must arise, Babylon now reigning fall, Antichrist arise and
be destroyed by Christ's coming, and so the saints' sabbath
millennary begin."4 — The opinion was recognized and
sanctioned by Jerome, about the opening of the same cen
tury ; and indeed as evidenced in part by yet another kind
of proof. For He connected that saying of St. John, " It
is the last hour," with our Lord's parable of the labourers
in the vineyard, hired each one, successively, at each of
the twelve hours in the day : he inferred that the whole
allotted period of man's probation, from the creation to the
world's end, might be resembled to the day's twelve hours;
that, this period being otherwise known to be 6000 years,
1 So Photius informs us. See the Note 1 p. 217 supra.
2 Div. Inst. vii. 25. See p. 220 supra. 3 B. P. M. xxvii. 34.
4 De Mundi Duratione, B. P. M. vi. 376. " A fabrics mundi usque ad passionem
Christi Salvatoris nostri anni sunt V.M.DXXX. Proinde ad conclusionem 6 millium
annorum debentur anni 470." And presently again : " A passione Domini Christi. .
anni compleantur necesse est 470, ut concludatur summa VI mille annorum.. . De
quibus 470 annis. . . . transierunt 369. Restant itaque anni 101, ut consummentur
anni VI [sc. mille :] qui anni non ante complentur, nisi prius, prope ultimum, reges
decern exierint in mundum, et filiam Babyloniae quae nunc obtinet de medio tulerint
&c."— The Tract is curious ; but has hitherto been overlooked by prophetic writers.

CHAP. III.] FGREWARNINGS OF COMING WOE. 371
each mystic hour of the twelve must answer to 500 years ;
and consequently that St. John's last hour, including of
course the whole time of the gospel-preaching to the Gen
tiles, from Christ's birth or ministry to the consummation,
would extend to 500 years only.1 — But behold, as events
progressed, that epoch of 500 A.D. passed, and the con
summation came not. It might be that there was some
small error in their calculation. It might be that the 500
years were to be measured from the first gospel-preaching
to the Gentiles, not from the incarnation. It might be
that the true date of Christ's birth was earlier than the
Alexandrine copy of the Septuagint made it, — perhaps, as
Sulpitius Severus, A.M. 5419 : 2 in which case 581 A.D.
would end the age and world: or, as Augustine calculated
it, A.M. 5351 ; in which case it would be A.D. 650 be
fore the sixth millennary would have its completion.3 If
so, there was still reason, on this account, as the sixth cen
tury was advancing to its close, to look with awful expec
tations to the future. — Even Augustine's theory respect
ing the Apocalyptic millennium, as commencing from
Christ's first advent, and Satan's partial binding by the
1 " Siquidem in consummatione saaculorum, in reprobationem peccatorum, per
hostiam suam Salvator noster apparuit, et undecima hora\ ad conducendos operarios
venit. Et, complete ejus passione Johannes loquitur ; Novissima hora est. In sex
millibus enim annis, si quingenti anni per horas diei singulas dividantur, novissima
hora consequenter dicatur tempus fidei gentium." On Micah iv.
Augustine notices the same argument. Alluding to the words, " It is the last
hour," he says ; " Quod nonnulli sic accipiunt, ut sex annorum millia constituant
velut unum diem, eumque in partes, velut horas, duodecim partiantur ; ut sic quin-
gentos annos postremos hora videatur habere postrema. In [qu. de?~\ quibus
annis jam Johannes, inquiunt, loquebatur, quando novissimam horam esse dicebat."
De Fine Saeculi, Ep. 199. 17.
Palladius also, a cotemporary of Jerome's and Augustin's, thus in his Lausiac
History connects this same statement by St. John, with the barbarous capture of
Rome and Antichrist's coming. Melania, he observes, [about A.D. 400] spoke thus
to friends at Rome. WaiSta, irpo rerpaKoatuv eruv eypa<pi],ini eoxarrj upa eorf ti ovv
eptptAoxupeire rrj paraiorirri rov Btov, piriroTe (pBaauctv at ijpepat tov Avrtxptarov,
Kai pij SvvrjBijre airoAavoat tow irAovrov bpuv. So she led them away to Sicily, and
thence to Jerusalem; after which, says Palladius, the barbarian storm burst on
Rome, as predicted: BveAAa rts 0apPapiKij, ij Kai ev irpoipeneiats iraAat Keipevn,
eiretrrij rrj *Pufirj' Kat . . iravra iropBijaaoa PapBaptKri airovota irapeSuKev airuAeta,
lis yeveoBat rnv "Pupijv tijv ev x'^'O" Sionoo-iou ereotv ipiAoKaArjOeirrav, Kara rijv rijs
%iBvAAijs prjcrtv pvpijv. Bibl. Patr. (Paris 1624) ii. 1034.
2 Sulpitius Severus dates the consulship of Stilicho (which was A.D. 400) at
A.M. 5819 ; (though some read 5869 ;) so making A.D. 581 to be the time of the
end of sixth chiliad. B. P. M. vi. 371.
3 See Hales i. 212. — Eusebius' Chronicon dates Christ's birth, still earlier, viz.
A.M. 5200 ; so making the sixth chiliad to end A.D. 800. 2 B 2

372 APOC VIII. 13. [PARTJI.
gospel,1 did not do away with the impression^ For, both
by himself and his followers, this millennium of time was
supposed to mean only what remained at Christ's birth of
the sixth chiliad, or the world's duration.2 Thus the chro
nology of the times was still that which might naturally
add strength to the forebodings of coming evil.
The outward state and aspect of things was not of a
nature to dissipate the gloom of such prognostics. In the
West, the wars and agitation of the new-formed Gothic
kingdoms had by no means subsided. The Lombards, a
fresh and barbarous Gothic horde, had but recently come
down from the Danube ; (it was in the year A.D. 570 ;)
and, with the somewhat remarkable exception of Eome
and a connected district, had seized upon, and established
their kingdom in Italy. In the East the Avar Tartars, —
having, in their flight from the Turks of Mount Altai,
tracked the course of the Huns from the Caspian to the
western Euxine and Danube, subjected and made tributary
the Sclavonic Bulgarians, their immediate predecessors in
the work of devastation, destroyed, (conjointly with the
Lombards,) the Gepidae of Hungary and Pannonia, and
settled down into a kingdom in those provinces in their
place, — there hung now like a dark thundercloud : pre
pared to burst at any moment, so far as human foresight
could discern, on the eastern empire ; and (with the Per
sians, perhaps, from the Euphrates co-operating) to sweep
it away, as the western empire had been swept already,
from the face of the earth.3 The eye of the Eoman con-
templatist could find no light there. — Yet more, there was
that which might alarm it, in turning from the inflictions of
man to those of God. The historian commemorates " the
comets, earthquakes, and plague, which astonished or
1 De Civit. Dei, xx. 6, 7. Augustin ended his work A.D. 426. His millennary
view will be given more fully at the end of this Work, Part vi, Chap. vi.
2 CD. xx. 7. 2. — So too in Tichonius' Apocalyptic Commentary, written pro
bably about A.D. 400, and Andreas' and Primasius' Commentaries, written about
550 A.D. The first (Horn, xvii.) says; " Mille annos dixit, partem pro toto. Htc
reliquias mille annorum sexti diei, in quo natus est Dominus et passus, intelligi
voluit." The last speaks of the " spatia posteriora," of the sixth chiliad as then
evolving. B P.M. x. 331. For Andreas' views see B. P.M. v 626.
3 Gibb. viii. 119, 194, &c.

CHAP. III.] FOREWARNINGS OF COMING WOE. 373
afflicted the age of Justinian." 1 More recent researches
have only aggravated this view of the portents then mani
fested in the natural world.2 And as to the miseries ex
perienced, they were almost unexampled. The plague
especially is described as having for 52 years, from 542 to
594, infected the greater part of the empire. Many cities
of the empire were depopulated and made desert. In va
rious country-districts the harvest and vintage withered on
the ground. At Constantinople 5000, and at length
10,000, died daily.3 At Eome, in a solemn procession for
imploring the mercy of heaven, 80 persons dropt down
dead within an hour, from the infection of the pestilence.4
Procopius relates that by the triple scourge of war, pesti
lence, and famine, 100 millions of the human race were
exterminated -in the reign of Justinian.5 — Were not these
visitations very like what Hippolytus the martyr had
noted as to precede the world's ending ? 6 Under judg
ments somewhat similar, during the mortality of the fourth
Seal, the venerable Cyprian thought that he discerned the
signs of decaying nature, and of a world near its disso
lution.7 Were the signs less portentous or significant
now ? 8
There was one who was emphatically the man of the
1 Gibbon, vii. 412.
2 See a notice on this point in an Article in the Quarterly Review for Oct. 1844,
already referred to p. 353. 3 Gibb. ibid.
4 Gibb. viii. 159. This was from a local pestilence. — Dr. Baron, in his Life of
Jenner, i. 193, expresses the opinion that this plague was the small-pox : which
unquestionably about the same time attacked the Abyssinian army besieging Mecca,
A.D. 568. 5 So Procopius as corrected by Gibbon, vii. 424.
6 See his Consummat. Mundi, Bib. Pat. (Paris 1624) ii. 346.
7 See the extracts p. 216 supra. He concludes in one place ; " Cernimus ccepisse
gravia; scimus imminere graviora."
8 An eastern illustration occurs in Agathias of Smyrna, writing under Justinian.
" Tum portenta mox quaedam ; et predictiones absurdae in vulgus temere' divulgari,
et mundi hanc machinam praedicari quam concitatissime collapsuram. Nebulones
praeterea quidam, et deceptores, veluti divini quidam et vates, sponte sua circumire,
et sibi visa praedicere, terroresque multis incutere, quibus facile poterat, ut antea
territis, persuaderi. Hi itaque, sive incassum furere, et pravo exagitari daemone se
simularent, gravissima quaedam passim jactabant, et tanquam ex adnata sibi pravo-
rum daemonum specie fuissent futura edocti, de que suis admodum furiis jactaren-
tur. Alii praeterea astrorum decursus figurasque animo agitantes, majores calami-
tates, et perinde communem rerum eversionem fore significabant. Itaque terrore
omnes percellebantur." Hist. v. 3. — I cite from Malvenda de Antichristo i. 1 1 7.
In an Epistle of Queen Radegunda to the Bishops of the district, written A;D.
567, on the formation of her monastery, the phrase used by her, " Mundo in finem
currente," indicates the vulgar belief in the West. Harduin iii. 369.

374 apoc vm. 13. [part ii.
age, — the most sagacious, the most observed, the most in
fluential : — I mean the bishop of Eome, Pope Gregory the
Great. We know what, on a general contemplation of the
state of things around him, he thought. His forebodings
are on record. " Believing," says Dupin, " that the Eo
man empire was within a finger's breadth of its ruin, and
participating in the idea that it was only to end with
the world's end, he came to the conviction that the last
judgment was at hand ; and in many of his letters expressed
this his conviction." 1 The impressiveness and weight of
such declarations from such a man, and at such a time,
need scarcely to be suggested to the reader. We must
remember, too, that of all modes of publication at that
time, in regard specially of things religious, that by the
Pope's letters missive was the most diffusive,2 as well as the
most influential. Thus throughout the length and breadth
of Christendom, from England in the far north-west, to
Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria in the east and
south, his warning voice was directed, charged with pre
sage of the dreaded evil. Was it not like the angel 3 fly
ing in mid-heaven ; that cried, " Woe, Woe, Woe, to the
inhabiters of the earth, by reason of the judgments about
to come ? " We may take his warning-cry to king Ethel-
bert4 as a specimen. " We know from the word of Al-
1 Dupin Bibl. Eccl. v. 123. (Ed. Mons 1621.)
2 Thus of one of Gregory's successors in the papacy a few years afterwards, — I
I mean Pope Martin, enthroned A.D. 649, — we read how, after holding a Lateran
Council against the Bishop of Constantinople, he sent its canons, " per omnes trac-
tus orientis et occidentis, et per manus orthodoxorum fidelium disseminavit."
Summa Concil. p. 293.
3 I have preferred the reading angel to eagle, for the reasons stated at the be
ginning of this chapter. But let me observe in passing, should any one get over the
difficulty of supposing a work of proclamation consigned to such an agency, and,
on account of its superior external evidence, wish to adopt the reading eagle, that
the eagle still continued to Papal, as to Pagan Rome, a characteristic ensign.
4 This Letter to King Ethelbert is given by Bede, p. 84. (Ed. 1838.) " Pra-
terea scire vestram gloriam volumus quia, sicut ex verbis Domini Omnipotentis ag-
noscimus, praesentis mundi jam terminus juxt& est, et sanctorum regnum venturum
est, quod nullo unquam poterit fine terminari. Appropinquante autem eodem
mundi termino multa imminent quae antea non fuerunt ; videlicet immutationes
aeris, terroresque de coelo, et contra ordinationem temporum tempestates, bella,
fames, pestilentiae, terrae motus per loca. Quae tamen non omnia nostris diebus
ventura sunt, sed post nostros dies subsequentur."
Dupin (ubi sup.) particularizes other passages, in Gregory's Letters to the same
effect; viz. Lib. ii. Ind. 2, Ep. 62; Lib. iii. Ep. 44; Lib. vii. Ind. 2. Ep. 128, &c.
Fleury thus states Gregory's strong persuasion on this subject; Vol. viii. 102, on
A.D. 595. " II ftoit effectivement persuade1 que la fin du monde etoit proche ; et

CHAP. III.] FOREWARNINGS OF COMING WOE. 375
mighty God that the end of the world is at hand, and the
reign of the saints which shall have no end. In the approach
of which consummation, all nature must be expected to be
disordered ; seasons deranged, wars raging, and famines,
and earthquakes, and pestilences. If not in our days," he
concludes, " we must expect it in those following."
Nor in his warning-cry as to the judgments precursive
of the world's end being at hand, did he omit the warn
ing of Antichrist being at hand also. He connected the
one awful apprehension with the other in his forebodings,
just as had been done by most of the Fathers of the
church before him. — A notable occasion had arisen to call
forth the public declaration of his sentiments and his fears
on this subject. The Patriarch of Constantinople, John
the Faster, had just then assumed the title to himself, —
though not, we may be assured, in the full meaning of the
words, — of Universal Bishop.1 Against this, Gregory, —
as indeed Pope Pelagius just before him, — raised his most
solemn protestations. In letters written and published at
different times, from 590 (or rather, including that written
in Pelagius' pontificate,2 from 580) to nearly the end of
the century, and addressed to the Greek Emperor, the
Empress, the Patriarchs of Constantinople, Antioch and
Alexandria, the Bishop of Thessalonica, and many others,3
en regardoit comme les preTiminaires tant d'incursions de barbares, tant de guerres
et de calamites publiques, dont son siecle etoit afflige. II en parle en toute occasion;
et ne repete rien plus souvent, dans tons ses discours et toutes ses lettres, que la
venue du juge terrible, et la rigueur de son jugement."
In regard to Rome itself, he repeated the prediction of St. Benedict ; a prediction
interesting, as showing that the expectation of the earlier fathers as to the peculiar
fate of Rome, and which was derived from Scripture, was still kept up : " Roma it
Gentilibus non exterminabitur ; sed tempestatibus, coruscis turbinibus, ac terrae
mote, in semet ipsa marcescet." Dialog, ii. 15. — Compare Lactantius, vii. 15, &c.
on the fate of Rome.
1 Mosheim vi. 2. 2. 1. — The title had been, it seems, in the century preceding
addressed to Pope Leo by certain oriental correspondents, but not adopted subse
quently thus far by his successors. — In disputing this title with Gregory, John the
Faster is assimilated by Baronius (ad ann. 595) to the apostate Angel rising against
the most High God ; — a comparison, says Dean Waddington, i. 299. not far removed
from blasphemy.
2 Gregory, then a deacon, was Pelagius' delegate on this occasion to Constantin
ople : and from the similarity of the Papal protestation, then given in by him, to
those that he wrote and published afterwards, it has been conjectured that Gregory
was probably himself the composer of it.
3 The reader will find copious extracts from these letters of Gregory in Daubuz,
ad loc. p. 393, &c. He was indeed so struck with Gregory's protestations and
warnings on Antichrist's near approach, as to have explained the woe- denouncing in
the vision altogether of them. In the which notice he was preceded by Pareus.

376 . apoc viii. 13. [part n.
he declared before Christendom, that whosoever in his ela
tion of spirit, called himself or sought to be called, univer
sal bishop or universal priest, that man was the likeness,
the precursor, and the preparer for Antichrist : * — that he
bore the same characteristic of boundless pride and self-
exaltation : that the tendency of his assumption, if con
sented to, was that which was the grand object of Anti
christ, viz. to withdraw all members of the church from its
only true head, Christ Jesus, and to attach and connect
them in the stead with himself .- 2 — -moreover that, in so far
as the priesthood might have acquiesced in it, there had
been prepared an army not of soldiers indeed, but of priests,
to assist him in carrying out that design into effect.3 It
was stated or implied in his letters, that he regarded the
title spoken of as the name of blasphemy connected with
the ten-horned beast in the Apocalypse ; * the self- exalta
tion manifested above all his fellow-men, as that predicted
of the man of sin in St. Paul's epistle to the Thessalo
nians ; 5 and the consenting thereto as that departure from
the faith, and that apostacy which was predicted also in the
same epistle, and in that to Timdthy.6 As to the Greek
1 " Ego fidenter dico, quia quisquis se universalem sacerdotem vocat, vel vocari
desiderat, in elatione sua Antichristum praecurrit, quia superbiendo se casteris prae-
ponit." Ep. to the emperor Maurice ; Lib. vi. Ep. 30. — Dr. Maitland in his Book
on the Catacombs, p. 188, observes that the Benedictines deserve credit for retaining
in their edition of Gregory's Works this embarrassing epistle ; considering that the
Vatican copy omits the entire epistle, and the one following it.
2 " Frater et co-episcopus noster Johannes, mandata dominica, &c. despiciens,
eum per elationem praecurrere conatur in nomine : — ita ut universa sibi tentet ad-
scribere, et omnia quae soli uni capiti cohaerent, videlicet Christo, per elationem
pompatici sermonis, ejusdem Christi sibi studeat membra subjugare." Lib. iv.Ep.36.
3 " Omnia enim quae praedicta sunt fiunt. Rex superbiae prope est ; et (quod
dici nefas est) sacerdotum est praeparatus exercitus." Ib. Ep. 38.
I read exercitus for exitus, with Pareus and Daubuz. Pareus (p. 306, Engl. Ed.)
says ; " Most copies have, exitus sacerdotum est praeparatus. But the words that
follow in Gregory show that it cannot be so : viz. ' Because the clergy war and strive
for mastery and advancement, who were appointed to this end, to go before others
in humility.' "
4 " Absit a cordibus Christianorum nomen istud blasphemiae." Lib. iv. Ep. 32.
Compare Apoc. xiii. 5 ; " There was given unto him a mouth speaking blasphemies."
5 The " in elatione sua,' ' and " per elationem," are in evident allusion, as Daubuz
observes from Du Plessis Mornay, to the " exalting himself," virepaipopevos eirt
iravra Aeyopevov Beoi/ ij oeBaopa, of 2 Thess. ii. 4 : — a clause, let me observe, which
has been sometimes construed as alluding simply to God ; but of which the meaning,
— as' inferred from the expression Aeyopevov Beov, and the added word aeBaopa, or
Augustus, — seems rather to be the high secular authorities of this world. Compare
John x. 35 : and see also Stephens' Thesaurus on oeBaopa. — The whole prophecy
will be discussed in a later part of this Work.
c 1 Tim. iv. 1 ; "in the last times some shall apostatize from the faith," airocr-

CHAP. III.] FOREWARNINGS OF COMING WOE. 377
Patriarch's having so acted, he said that it surprised him
not : that he only saw in the fact prophecy fulfilling ; and
recognized in it a sign of Antichrist being close at hand.1
Under which persuasion he could not but the rather raise
his protesting voice : and that not as in a personal cause ;
but in that of God and of the whole church: earnestly
hoping that, when revealed, Antichrist might not find that
which was his own in the principles, or even in the titles,
of the priesthood.2
Oh ! sagacious and most true observer ! sagacious in
perceiving that the effect of any such allowed and recog
nized pretensions to a universal episcopate would, as regards
men, involve the prostration beneath it of all authority,
secular as well as ecclesiastical ; as regards Christ, the
withdrawal of the church into apostacy from Him, its only
true Lord and head ! — But what then when, in spite of
this declaration, — thus pressed as it had been on the atten
tion of Christendom, thus dispersed, thus repeated, and
even enregistered in the canon-law of theEomish Church,3
— this very title was within 10 or 15 years after, officially
conferred on, and assumed by Gregory's own successor in
the Eoman episcopate, the Greek emperor himself confer
ring it : — assumed by him, not in its restricted meaning, as
by the Eastern Patriarch previously ; but in its full and
plain meaning of universal episcopal supremacy over the
whole professing church on earth, and as a title thenceforth
never to be abandoned ! * Surely the fact was one calcu
lated to excite both the ponderings and the misgivings of
thinking men : and to awaken enquiry whether that dreaded
phantasm, the very Antichrist of prophecy, might not
rijaovrai T7js irtoreus- where the verb is one cognate with the noun in 2 Thess. ii. 3 ;
" Except there come the apostacy " Gregory had said, Lib. iv. Ep. 39 ; " In isto
scelesto vocabulo consentire nihil est aliud quam fidem perdere."
1 " Propinqua jam esse Antichristi tempora designator." Lib. iv. Ep. 34. '' An-
tichristus juxta est." Lib. vi. Ep. 28. &c.
2 " Studiose cupio ne proprium quid inveniat, non solum in moribus, sed etiam
nee in vocabulo, sacerdotum." vi. 28.
3 Pelagius' remonstrance is extant, says Daubuz, " in the Collections of the
Councils, and inserted in the Collection of the Canon Law, and elsewhere."
Moreover many of Gregory's Epistles, — for example, those to the Bishop of Tlies-
salonica, — were circular.
4 It was conferred by the Emperor Phocas, A.D. 606. — The grant itself, and the
epoch constituted by it, will be recurred to in another part of the work. Vid. on
Apoc. xiii.

378 apoc viii. 13. [part n.
even then have been brought into existence in the world,
albeit under a form in some respects little expected ; and,
if so, with fearful evils, doubtless, following in his train.
II. But the idea thus suggested will be better judged of,
after remarking on the awful prognostics in the religion of
the times, as viewed by men such as St. John then speci
ally represented ; them that kept the commandments of God,
and judged of things by the unerring ruleof his word. In the
definition of which persons I add the second characteristic
to the first, because from the infirmity of the human mind,
the speciousness sometimes of error, and the undue influ
ence of example and authority, it is too lamentably noto
rious in church-history that many good men have erred in
judgment on points most important, and thereby uninten
tionally helped forward the cause of evil and error. — As
to the sentiments of these wiser few on the point we speak
of, we can scarcely fail to judge correctly, if we glance
with them at the then general state and aspect of religion ;
including a brief retrospective view of its history and pro
gress, during the century and a half of the Gothic revolu
tions and settlements preceding.
In other and earlier parts of this apocalyptic comment,
the instealing into the church visible of the great Apos
tacy has been already set before the reader, in respect of
its two earliest unfolded principles and features, both as
prefigured in the prophecy, and as fulfilled in the historic
times corresponding ; — the times namely of the middle and
the close of the fourth century.1 It was on account thereof
that God's judgments were represented in vision as com
missioned against Eoman Christendom : and hence, accord
ingly, that fearful burst upon it of the symbolic tempests of
the four first Trumpets, of the fulfilment of which we
have just traced the progress. — And what then the moral
effect resulting ? Did God's judgments in the Gothic woe
in any measure effect their intended end ; and lead to the
energetic expurgation of those apostatizing errors from
among them, by the people of Eoman Christendom : —
either in the Eastern Empire, which from afar, though
1 See Part i. Chap. vii. § 3, and Part ii. Ch. i.

CHAP. III.] FOREWARNINGS OF COMING WOE. 379
itself not altogether unscathed, witnessed the woe ; or the
Western which was convulsed by it, and at length sub
verted ? Far from it. Throughout the century and a half,
or two centuries, during which the judgments from God had
gone on fulfilling their commission, the evil had also gone
on advancing. New superstitions and corruptions had been
added to the old ; and the old become more deeply rooted
in the church, and confirmed. The baptismal sacrament
was still ministered, and regarded, as that which operated
with the mysterious efficacy of a charm to men's salvation ;
and much of the same mysterious vivifying influence, ex
opere operato, ascribed to the other and more awful sacra
ment.1 The saints and their merits were still invocated
and set forth, and this even in the authorized liturgies, as
the most powerful mediators, and best plea, with God ;
and their relics and pictures more than ever venerated and
worshipped. Alike in the West and in the East the prac
tice had now become all but universal.2 And who more
influential than Gregory himself in finally fixing it? In
his Sacramentary it is the saints' merits and the saints' in
tercession that are set before the worshipper as his ground
1 Alike Ambrose, the two Cyrils, Chrysostom, and other fathers of the close
of the fourth century, already then used such strong language about the character
and effect of these " tremendous " mysteries, as might well awe men's minds into a
very superstitious view of the sacrament ; and also pave the way for the transub-
stantiation of the middle age. These views, and this language, continued in vogue
afterwards ; not the simpler and more scriptural views of Augustine. The latter
viewed the Lord's Supper as a commemorative rite, though with grace accompanying
it to the faithful participant. See his Epist. xcviii. 9, Contra Faust, xx. 18, 21,
Contra. Adimant. xii. 3, Doctr. Christ, iii. 24, and on Psalm iii. 1. — I refer the reader
to an elaborate review of the origin and progress of the doctrine of Transubstantia-
tion in the American Bibliotheca Sacra, No. 1.
2 Mr. Palmer, in his valuable work on the Origines Liturgical, i. 278, notices the
freedom of the ancient Oriental Litanies from the invocation of saints ; and that it
was not admitted into the Roman Litany till the seventh century. But, in fact,
Litanies of this character had been long before chanted in the East ; as on the
memorable occasion of Nestorius' condemnation at Constantinople, A.D. 431. " A
long order of monks and hermits, carrying burning tapers in their hands, chanted
litanies to the Mother of God." Gib. viii. 295. — Mr. P. suggests further that where
that invocation of saints was practised, it was rather "prayer made to God for the
intercession of saints," than direct invocation o/them. I suppose he means through
the saints ; so as in Pope Gregory's Sacramentary. But surely, even so, neither the
guilt nor the folly of the supplicants were diminished thereby ; for it was a worship
that involved the supercession and neglect of Christ, (just as depicted in that most
striking Apocalyptic figuration of the incense-offering scene, Apoc. viii. 3 — 5,) alike
in his character of man's propitiatory atonement, and man's one great and divinely
appointed Mediator !
Fleury ascribes Gregory's settlement of the Roman worship, to the year A.D. 599.
His septiform Litany seems to have been instituted in 590. Cave, Hist. Lit.

380 apoc viii. 13. [part n.
of hope.1 And when the Christian Bishop, Serenus of
Marseilles, seeing the idolatrous worship paid them by the
people, cast out the saints' images from the churches of his
diocese, Gregory took part with the people against him :
and, though not indeed without protesting against the
actual worship, yet ordered that which entailed it, the re
tention of the images.2
Besides all which, another error and corruption, long
covertly instealing into the church, had just now by the
same Pope Gregory been authoritatively established, which
was likely on peculiar grounds to excite the alarm and the
misgivings of each Christian contemplatist ; — I mean the
error of purgatory. It was an error not unconnected with
that of saint-invocation just before mentioned; as it simi
larly related to the inhabitants of the invisible world, and
rose indeed from the same source. For the foolish minds
of men having transgressed the limits of the written word
in their speculations respecting departed saints, what was
there to prevent the extension of those speculations to the
state of other departed ones ; — viz. of those that could not
be considered saints at the time of dying ? The solemn
church-prayers for the dead,3 — though originally only ap-
plicatory to martyrs, and others of the Christian brethren
departed, in the Lord, and in such case confined to thanks
giving for their past faith and victory, and supplication
for the speedy hastening of the Lord's coming, and there
with of the perfect consummation of the saint's bliss in
body and soul reunited,4 — had in process of time been
1 I extract the following from the Sacramentary. " Memoriam venerantes im
primis gloriosae semper Virginis Mariae. . . . sed et omnium sanctorum tuorum ;
quorum meritis precibusque concedas ut in omnibus protectionis tuae muniamur
auxilio : " adding, however, the formal and now almost valueless saving clause,
" per Christum Dominum nostrum." — Compare Cyril's private explanation to the
same effect, p. 319, Note 5.
See also Gregory's own extraordinary report about the relics of St. Paul to the
Empress Constantina ; in exemplification of his superstition on that head. Wad
dington i. 296. 2 So by the Church, as once by Gnostics, Christ
as the Mediating God-man was set aside.
3 See on this subject generally a brief digest of patristic testimony in Riddle's
Christian Antiquities, pp. 377 — 394 : also Mr. Hall's Book on Purgatory.
4 Such is Dr. Burton's general view of the early church's prayers for the dead :
(p. 318 ;) it being understood that the Christians of the 2nd century, and part of the
3rd, expected that the saints' resurrection would precede that of the wicked, and take
place at the Millennium ; also, according to Tertuliian, that during the Millennium
the order of the saints rising would be in order of merit. " Oblationes pro de-
functis, pro natalitiis, annua die facimus." " Pro anima ejus orat, et refrigerium

CHAP. III.] FOREWARNINGS OF COMING WOE. 381
extended to embrace more doubtful characters, — indeed
all departed professedly in the faith : 1 and opinions had
been broached by learned and eloquent fathers in the
fourth century, though doubtfully and indeed self-contra-
dictorily, that in cases even of men deceased in sin (unless
aggravated cases) these prayers of the Church might per
haps avail to obtain jbr them mitigation, if not remission,
of the judicial punishment.2 But, if so, must there not
be some purifying fire to burn out their sins : perhaps ap
plied, so as heathen poets and Platonists set forth, instantly
after death;3 and which possibly a passage in St. Paul
might have meant,4 though otherwise indeed explained by
the fathers ? 5 — So, during the century and a half or two
centuries preceding, the foolish minds of men had been
darkly intruding into things not seen,6 those secret things
that belonged to the Lord God ;7 and preparing further
meanwhile, by their increased credulity in relics and mira-
interim postulat ei, et in prima resurrectione consortium." " Modicum quoque
delictum mord resurrectionis luendum." So Tertuliian De Cor. Mil. 3, De Monogam.
10, De AnimS. 58.
1 The prayer after consecration of the sacramental elements, Cyril of Jerusalem
tells us, had these words : " We offer these sacrifices in memory of all that have
fallen asleep," &c. ; i. c. in the communion of the church : consequently those about
whom charity might entertain hope, in all hope's various degrees.
2 So especially Chrysostom. " They," the wicked, " are not so much to be la
mented, as succoured with prayers and alms. For not in vain does he who stands
at the altar when the tremendous mysteries are celebrated, cry, We offer unto thee
for all those that sleep in Christ. The common propitiation of the whole world is
before us : and we may obtain a general pardon for them by our prayers and alms."
Again he says, " that prayers were made for all deceased in the faith (i. e. profess
edly ;) and that none were excluded from the benefit but catechumens, dying in a
voluntary neglect of baptism."
Epiphanius in one passage said that prayer should be made even for sinners ; in
another, that after death there can be obtained no help. — The same inconsistency at
taches to Ambrose, and even Augustine ; supposing certain passages adduced by Ro
manists from the latter to be genuine. But some of these we know are not genuine :
(see Hall :) while many other passages in Augustine are express to the effect that
after death there is no change. So, e. g. Epist. 199. 2 ; " In quo quemque invenerit
suis novissimus dies, in hoc eum comprehendet mundi novissimus dies : quoniam
qualis quisque moritur, talis in die illo judicabitur." Also Ep. 153. 3, Serm. 161.
4, De Peccat. Merit, i. 55, C. D. x. 22. 3 See Hall on Purgatory, Introduction.
4 " Every man's work shall be made manifest ; for the day shall declare it ; be
cause it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work, of what
sort it is. . . . If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss ; but he him
self shall be saved, yet so as by fire." 1 Cor. iii. 13, 15.
° See the patristic expositions in Mr. Hall. Origen, Jerom, and Augustine thought
that the apostle meant the fire of temporal tribulation before death ; which even
Gregory. I. himself allowed might be the sense. Lactantius, Basil, Ambrose referred
it to the general conflagration at the day of judgment ; Gregory Nazienzen, Chry
sostom, and Theodoret, to hell itself.— In the judgment Augustine thought it not
unlikely that sincere but inconsistent Christians might have temporal suffering to
go through. ° Col. ii. 18. 7 Deut. xxix. 29.

382 apoc viii. 13. [part n.
cles and visions, for any delusions on this point that the
priesthood, itself also debased by superstition, might for
gain or for ambition palm upon them. And now behold, as
the sixth century closed in, Pope Gregory arose to fix
authoritatively the awful truth of a purgatorial fire imme
diately after death.1 It was on the evidence of superna
tural visions and revelations. Germanus, Bishop of Capua,
had himself seen the soul of Paschasius the deacon boiling
in the hot baths of St. Angelo !2 — Who could calculate the
depth of superstition into which the purgatorial doctrine,
thus established, was likely to lead the people? Who the
effect that it must have on the position and influence of the
priesthood ?
And indeed it seems to me that the influence and power
gathered to the priesthood, from the accumulated supersti
tions of the last three centuries, was a point that could
scarce fail to impress deeply the mind of the discerning
Christian. Ever since the commencement of the Apostacy,
each successive step of departure from gospel-truth into
superstition and error, had been of a nature to give and to
increase to them an illegitimate, unscriptural, and most
pernicious power ; in substitution for that better and hal
lowing influence assigned them in God's own holy word.3
The sacramental error, as I have before stated, tended to
make them viewed by the people not only as God's honoured
instruments of good, by bringing men outwardly into co
venant with him who was the soul's life ; but almost as the
efficient cause of life and salvation.4 The saint and relic-
worship, requiring attendance as it did at the churches en
shrining those relics, which were under their care, sug
gested the necessity of securing the priest's co-operation
and favour, who was the supposed saint's chief intimate, as
1 " De quibusdam levibus culpis esse ante judicium purgatorius ignis credendus
est." Dial. iv. 39, 41.
2 Ib. 40. — See on Pope Gregory's Establishment of the Doctrine of Purgatory, Dean
Waddington's Remarks, E. H. i. 404. 3 See Hebrews xiii. 7, 17, 1 Tim. v. 17, &c.
4 See p. 266, 269 supra. " The Jewish priests," says Chrysostom, " had power to
remove the leprosy of the body ; or rather to examine only the cleansed, (tMraAXa-
yevras,) and not any power to cleanse: (airaAXoTTeiK') and you know how that
office was contended for. Whereas Christian priests have received authority, not to
remove the bodily leprosy, but the corruption of the mind ; not merely to verify
the removal, but to remove it entirely : " aTaAAarretv iravreAas. De Sacerdot. ch.
vi. § 190.

CHAP. III.] FOREWARNINGS OF COMING WOE. 383
well as chief voucher.1 The substitution by Pope Leo,
about the middle of the fifth century, of private confession
to priests, instead of public in the church, — and moreover
the extension somewhat later of the virtue of indulgences
granted by them, to the remission of guilt, as well as of
penance,2 — these fresh innovations, already brought in be
fore the epoch of our text, had also each immensely added
to their power. And the doctrine of purgatory, which
now followed, as we have said, put a climax to it. For if
the former had made them masters of the consciences, and
almost fate, of the living,3 the latter represented them as
masters in no little measure of the fate of those dear to the
living among the dead. It had given them, what Archi
medes wanted, another world on which to fix their lever ;4
and with it they might move this. — A power such, and so
derived, was fearful to contemplate: — the rather, as the
now enforced celibacy of the clergy, (might not this be the
evil predicted by St. Paul, 1 Tim. iv. 1 ? )5 detaching them
from other ties, could not but have the effect of directing
their ambition into the only line open to it, that of ecclesi
astical power ; 6 and this when (in no little measure from the
1 See p. 317. — I might say canonizer ; only that it was not till the tenth century
that the canonization of saints was actually solemnized. See Mosheim x. 2. 3. 4.
2 Polidore Virgil, in his work De Inventor, viii. 1. (published A.D. 1499), refers
the origin of the Romish doctrine of indulgences, as afterwards developed, i. e. as
including the remission of the guilt of sin, as well as of its temporal punishment, to
¦ the time of Gregory I. For the assignment of which late date to it, his Book was
put into the Index Expurgatorius. Bingham, vi. 595.
3 On the injunction by Pope Leo I, Dean Waddington, after noticing its connexion
both as effect and cause with the increased immorality of the times, has the fol
lowing important observations. " But another consequence which certainly flowed
from this measure, and which, in the eye of an ambitious churchman, might coun
terbalance its demoralizing effect, was the vast addition of influence it gave to the
clergy. When he delivered over the consciences of the people into the hands of the
priest, when he consigned the most secret acts and thoughts of individual imperfection
to the torture of private inquisition and scrutiny, Leo had indeed the glory of laying
the first and corner stone of the papal edifice ; that on which it rose and rested, and
without which the industry of his successors would have been vainly exerted."
i. 253. See too Mosheim, v. 2. 4. 3.
The practice existed earlier in the Eastern church ; but was, about A.D. 390, dis
carded in consequence of abuses resulting. Socrat. v. 19 ; Sozom. H. E. vii. 16. It
was however soon restored, and has been ever since continued. See Waddington
on the Greek Church, p. 51.
4 Aos irov aru. I use, I believe, Mr. Hume's striking simile.
5 Said Ignatius, in a fragment preserved by J. Damascenus, (ap. Galland. Bibl. i.
288.) Tlap&evtas tvyov pijSevt eirmfrei. And Theodoret, in his comment on 1 Tim.
iv. 1, (" Forbidding to marry,") that it was not the approbation of celibacy, but the
legal enforcement of it, that was to mark the apostacy meant.
6 So the Koran, ch. ix, charges it against the Christians of Mahomet's time :
" They take their priests and monks for their lords, besides God." Sale ii. 8. **

384 apoc viii. 13. [part ii.
same cause) their morals and their knowledge were almost
alike debased and low.1 As to its use it would be all neces
sarily antichristian : — i. e. not to lead men to Christ; but,
by the interposition and substitution of living priests, just as
of departed saints, to shut Christ more and more out of
view. Insomuch that as a doctrinal system of anti-chris-
tianism, the Apostacy might seem to have been now almost
brought by its secret deviser and guide to perfection ; not
without but within the professing Church, according to so
many ancient Fathers' understanding of those words " sit
ting in the temple of God," said by St. Paul of the great
Antichrist of the apostacy :2 and indeed only to need the
superposition of one single individual heading it, to consti
tute Antichrist ! — For which and whom, on a much
larger view of the evidence than Gregory had taken, the
Christian contemplatist's conclusion would be that the
priesthood were prepared, even like an army, (I use Gre
gory's own strong language,) to abet and aid him ; i. e.
supposing that, as so long expected, this aitoaracria, should
be but his vpetpofMs,3 and he should at length appear.
Finally, — as to this Antichrist, — it seems to me that
when regarded in their history, character, pretensions.,
local site, and relation to the too generally apostatized
church and priesthood in Christendom, there was that in
the see and the bishops of Rome which might well have
appeared to the reflecting Christian, as wearing to that
awful phantasm of prophecy a most suspicious likeness.
Considering that, while the apostacy was progressing, those
bishops had been too uniformly its promoters and inculca-
tors, and that now, when it was all but brought to matu
rity, Pope Gregory had most zealously (though not alto
gether consistently)4 identified himself and his see with its
whole system,— alike with its infusions of Judaism and of
Heathenism, its enforced clerical celibacy and its monasti-
eism, its confessional and its purgatory, its saint, relic, and
image worship, its pilgrimages, and its lying miracles,5 —
1 See Mosheim, vi. 2. 3. 1.
2 See the opinions of Jerom, Augustine, Chrysostom, Theodoret, &c, p. 364, 365,
supra. 8 Cyril, &c. See p. 364.
4 I refer to the often apparent mixture of piety with his superstition.
6 I may refer to Dean Waddington's Church History, i. 291 — 304, and 403.
for an excellent summary of Pope Gregory the 1 st's acts, policy, and character.

chap, hi.] forewarnings of coming woe. 385
considering that the seat of the episcopate thus heading
the Apostacy was Rome, the fated seven-hilled city, the
seat of the Beast in apocalyptic prophecy, and place to
which all the Fathers had looked as that of Antichrist's
supremacy, — Eome so singularly freed, by means of the
'very wrecking of its empire, from the " let" long time con
trolling it of the overlooking Eoman imperial power, and
then, by Belisarius' and Narses' conquests, from the subse
quent but short-lived let of Italian Gothic princes, similarly
near and controlling,1 — considering that the power of the
keys was now believed in the West to attach individually
to but one bishop, viz. to St. Peter's episcopal successor
and representative, (not, as of old supposed, to the body of
priests or bishops,) and that the fact of St. Peter's having
visited, and been martyred and buried at Rome, had de
termined that representative to be the Roman bishop, —
considering that, in consequence, the bishop of the now re
vived Imperial city was indicating pretensions, enduring
evidently as the world itself, to a spiritual empire over Chris
tendom immeasurably loftier than that of old Pagan Eome,
and had not merely accepted and assumed the before-
mentioned title of Universal Bishop, given by the Emperor,2
but accepted and assumed the yet loftier title, distinctively
ascribed to him a little earlier by the Italian bishops and
priesthood in Council, of Christ's Vicar, or God's Vicar,
on earth,3 — the very characteristic predicated of the Man
of Sin by St. Paul, and identical title, only Latinized,
'i. e. of the Herulian and Ostro-Gothic dynasties, each of which embraced Rome
in their kingdoms, and exercised royal power over it. See Mosheim vi. 2. 2. 2.
The Lombard kingdom, which followed after Narses' final conquests, had nothing to
do with Rome -.'which was then a dependency (though very much independent in
action) of the Constantinopolitan Exarchate or Vice-royalty of Ravenna. — Other
results of Belisarius' expedition were but transient. "
The existence of such a man as Gregory at this conjuncture, to take advantage of
it, was assuredly -a very remarkable coincidence.
2 The appellation moreover of Pope, or Tiaras, hitherto the general designation of *
Bishops, in the West as well as the East, was now by an order of Gregory I applied
exclusively to the Bishop of Rome. Baronius Annal. ann. 1076, n. 31.
3 Ennodius in his Apolog. pro Synodo, on occasion of the contest A.D. 503 be
tween Symmachus and Laurentius for the papacy, wrote " Vice Dei judicare Ponti-
ficem;" and the Roman Council adopted it. SeeMosh.wi. 2. 2.2,4; Hard. ii. 983.
— I say in the text distinctively, because the phrase ascribed to him, or something
similar, had been ascribed in earlier times to budiops generally. So in unguarded
phrase even Ignatius, (supposing the passage genuine,) had said that the bishop was
eis roirov Beov : as also Cyprian, Epist. 63, cited already by me p. 269 supra. — So
early had the train begun to be laid. t
VOL. I. 2 C

386 apoc viii. 13. [part n.
with St. John's term Antichist, — considering that, besides
the priesthood thus taking part to elevate him, the people
also of the western part of the apostatizing church acqui
esced in it, (like Augustine's multiplied "ficti et mali," to
aid in Antichrist's development,)1 and specially the kings
of the new-formed Gothic kingdoms, thus adding power
throughout the west to his name and office, — considering
all these resemblances, I say, in respect of place, time, titles,
station, character, might not the thought have well occurred
to the reflecting Christian of the day, that the bishops of
Eome, regarded in their succession and line, might very
possibly be the identical Antichrist predicted : — he whose
incoming was to be with lying miracles ; he who was to sum
up in himself as their head, to use Irenaeus' expression, all
the particulars of the long progressing apostacy ; and to
be in short, as Justin Martyr had called him, " the Man of
the Apostacv," 2 as well as, in St. Paul's language, " the
Man of Sin"?"
No doubt there was in Gregory himself much respecta
bility of character, and semblance of piety. But this con
stituted no objection. Both Pagan emperors, and unchristian
heretics, had often been personally respectable ; and Hippo
lytus, and Cyril, and other Fathers had exprest an opinion
that Antichrist would at first, (under direction of the evil
Master- Spirit inspiring,) in order the better to seduce men,
wear that deceptive guise.3 — No doubt, again, such a view
of Antichrist * was in this point different from that of the
earlier Fathers, that they had looked to see him in one sin
gle individual. But here they might very possibly be wrong.
For the apostle St. Paul's own language in designating the
Roman imperial succession, that was to be the let to Anti
christ's manifestation, under the figure of an individual
man, (6 xaTeywv, he who letteth,5) showed that the phrase
the man of sin might similarly be a living succession. —
Once more, if the 1260 days, or three and a half years,
1 See p. 365 supra.
2 " Whose coming is after the working of Satan with lying miracles," &c. 2 Thess.
ii. 9. — " In se recapitulans apostasiara." So Irenaeus. — " The man of the apostacy "
is Justin Martyr's title to Antichrist. See p. 215 supra.
3 See pp. 215, 364, 365, supra : also an abstract of patristic opinions about Anti
christ, in my- Examination of the Futurists' Scheme of Apocalyptic Interpretation, in
the Appendix to Vol. iv. 4 See pp. 215, 364 supra. 5 2 Thess. ii. 7.

CHAP. III.] FOREWARNINGS OF COMING WOE. 387
predicted of Antichrist's continuance, would seem in such
case to be too short a period, various late learned exposi
tors, e. g. Tichonius and Primasius, had [suggested what
might be a solution of the difficulty, and one well accord
ant with Scripture usage : viz. that the days in prophetic
formulae might have a mystic and extended meaning ; in
deed, as those expositors had in one place stated, that each
day might probably symbolize a year.1
But however this might be, — and it is a subject that we
shall have to discuss fully elsewhere, — of one thing he must
have felt assured, viz. that the state of the bishops and
priesthood, and church generally, alike in East and West,
(for even as regarded Antichrist, the Eastern Patriarch was
just as much prepared to enact the character as the Wes
tern, could he but have accomplished it,) I say that the ec
clesiastical state, alike of East and West, was such as to
call for the signal judgments of God. Already, — excepting
the (pcvoi, the religious murderings, — there was not a single
one in the catalogue of sins afterwards enumerated as the
cause of the sixth Trumpet's woe and the woe preced
ing,2 that had not, at the close of the sixth century, be
come markedly characteristic of the professed christian
church and clergy. There was the worship of dcemons, or
saints canonized, and of images or idols of gold, silver,
brass, stone and wood, which could neither see, nor hear,
nor walk ; 3 and there were the sorceries, or lying charms
and miracles ; and there were the fornications, and priestly
religious thefts. — And must not all these have seemed to
1 Comment on Apoc. xi. 3, 9. The important year-day question will be fully
discussed elsewhere. See on Apoc. xiii ; where the whole subject of the papacy,
as the predicted Antichrist, will also come under review. See too my sketches of
Tichonius and Primasius' Commentaries in the Appendix to my Vol. iv.
2 ix. 20, 21 ; " The rest of the men, which were not killed by these plagues, yet
repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship daemons,
and idols of gold, and silver, and stone, and of wood, which can neither see, nor
hear, nor walk. Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries,
((pap/iaKeiav,) nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."
I shall fully support the application of the word damans, made in the text above,
when we come to the consideration of the passage here quoted.
3 In an expedition of the Romans into Persia, A.D. 589, a miraculous image of
Christ, one said to be made by higher hands than of man, was carried before the
army. Gibbon, viii. 180, observes that this was the first example of what were
afterwards common, the axeipoironjroi Christian images ; " I had almost said," he
adds, " idols." — In these cases the sorceries and the idols were combined in one ;
and the ancylia of Rome Pagan outdone in Rome Christian. 2 C 2

388 apoc viii. 13. [part n.
an enlightened Christian to cry to heaven for vengeance ?
— Of the causes of coming woe against Jerusalem speci
fied by the ancient prophets, and of those afterwards sim
ilarly specified by Christ and his apostles, how few were
there but now applied to corrupted Christendom ! 1 Spe
cially it was for its rejection, its determined rejection, of
his own blessed gospel dispensation long offered it, that the
Lord Jesus had finally denounced woe against Jerusalem :
— a denunciation, of which that maniac prophet's cry, which
Josephus describes to us, of " Woe, Woe, Woe, to the
city and the temple," 2 was but the echo. And if woe was
then boded against Jerusalem, how not, at this fearful crisis
of its apostacy, against Roman Christendom also ? Surely
the very air must have seemed vocal to each thoughtful
Christian, into which ascended the incense of its Christ-
denying worship and blasphemies. To the West indeed,
if his suspicion were right respecting Antichrist, a temporary
freedom from the woe might be probably presumed in order
to admit of Antichrist's development, in fulfilment of the
Scripture prophecy. Yet, sooner or later, the woe must
be expected to embrace it too. So that the forewarning
cry, not unlike that of the apocalyptic angel in mid-heaven,
might seem to him to embrace within it all that remained
of the seven Trumpets ; and in triple boding-cry, to pro
claim Woe, Woe, Woe, against all the inhabiters of the
apostate Eoman earth ! 3
1 Take for example the following from the Old Testament. Isa. v. 20 ; " Woe to
them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for
darkness," &c : Isa. xxx. 1 ; " Woe to the rebellious children that take counsel, but
not of me ; and cover with a covering, but not of my spirit : " Jer. xxiii. 1 ;
" Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture : "
Ezek. xiii. 3 : " Woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit, and
have seen nothing : " Hos. vii. 13 ; " Woe unto them ; for they have fled from me :
. . . though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me : " Hab. ii.
19 ; " Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake ! to the dumb stone, Arise, it
shall teach ! It is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the
midst of it." — And from the New Testament: Matt, xxiii. 13; Woe unto you,
scribes and pharisees, hypocrites ; for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against
men ; ye neither go in yourselves, nor suffer them that are entering to go in : Woe
unto you, hypocrites, for ye devour widows' houses," &c. Jude 11 ; " Woe unto
them ! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and run greedily after the error of
Balaam for reward." 2 Josephus, De Bell. Jud. vi. 5. 3.
3 Jerome (Ad Dardanum) observes on this expression as one always used in a bad
sense in the Apocalypse. "Ubicumque habitalor terra legitur, et priora, et media,
et extrema tractemus, et liquido scripturarum poterit regula comprobari, semper
habitatores terrae peccatores appellari : de quibus in Apocalypsi Johannis illud ex-
emplum est, Vae habitatoribus terra? I " So also Ambrose Ansbertus. — How this

CHAP. IV.] THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 389
CHAPTEE IV.
THE FIFTH OR FIRST WOE TRUMPET.
" And the fifth angel sounded : and I saw a star fallen
from heaven to the earth : and to him was given the key of
the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit :
and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a
great furnace : and the sun and the air were darkened by
reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of
the smoke locusts upon the earth. And unto them was
given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And
it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass
of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree ;
but only those men which have not the seal of God on their
foreheads. And unto them it was given that they should
not kill them, but that they should be tormented five
months : and their torment was as the torment of a scor
pion when he striketh a man. And in those days shall
men seek death, and shall not find it ; and shall desire to
die, and death shall flee from them. And the likeness J of
the locusts were like unto horses prepared for war : and on
their heads were, as it were, crowns like gold.2 And their
faces were as the faces of men : and they had hair as the
hair of women ; and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
And they had breast-plates, as it were breast-plates of iron ;
and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots
of many horses running to battle. And they have tails
like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails : 3
and their power was to hurt men five months. And they
sense arises out of the figurative character of the Apocalyptic scenery, has been no
ticed in the Introduction ; pp. 95, 96. Compare the expression, " Them that
dwell in heaven," used of the saints, Apoc. xiii. 6.
1 bpjoiupara- translated shapes in our English version.
2 us aretyuvot bpotoi xpv"u. So Tregelles and Hahn ; as also the received text.
Griesbach and Scholz prefer xpoooi.
3 So Griesbach and Hahn, as well as the received text ; Kai exovotv ovpas Spoias
(rKopirtots, Kat Kevrpa rjv ev rats ovpais avruv' Kai ij e£ovo~ta avruv aSiKijoat k. t. A.
Tregelles reads:.. . . OKopiriots, Kai Kevrpa' Kai ev rats ovpats avruv ij e£ovota avruv
aSuajoai. And so too Scholz, only with ts before aSiKijoai. Thus there is for both
readings perhaps equally good MS. authority. I have here followed the former ; but
shall again revert to the latter.

390 apoc. ix. 1 — 11. [part n.
have a king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit :
whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon ; and in the
Greek tongue he hath his name Apollyon." — Apoc. ix.
1—11. The interval of forewarning depicted in the last vision
had passed away ; and the trumpet, sounding again in the
apocalyptic temple, gave sign to the apostle of judgment
as afresh in action, and of the first of the three threatened
woes as about to begin. — We do not find any particular
division of the Eoman earth and its inhabitants marked
out expressly in this vision, either for infliction or exemption.
But, from the comparison of a statement made in it with
an apparently contrasted statement in the vision following,
the former in verse 5 of the chapter before us, the latter in
verse 15,1 — it might have been probably inferred, perhaps,
that the same third that was to be destroyed under the
sixth Trumpet, i. e. the Eastern third, was under this to
be a principal sufferer  Hitherto this division had nearly
escaped. Under the first and third trumpet, though the
European provinces of the Greek empire had suffered, yet
neither by Alaric nor Attila had Constantinople been vio
lated,2 or the war carried across the Hellespont. Again,
though all open and exposed by sea to Genseric, when
master of the Mediterranean under the second Trumpet,
yet the Eastern coasts had scarcely been visited by him.
" The fury of the Vandals was confined to the limits of the
Western empire." 3 The same exemption continued after
wards. The extinction of the imperial sun in Italy and
the West, was an event by which the tranquillity of Con
stantinople and the East was little affected. Through the
50 years that succeeded, — including the reigns of Zeno,
Anastasius, and Justin, — the silence of its annals evinces
the general freedom of the Greek empire from external
war and suffering. Under Justinian it even put on the
aggressive ; and, both in Africa and in Italy, was crowned
1 Verse 5 ; " And to them (the locusts) it was given that they should not kill
them, but that they should be tormented five months." Verse 15 : " The four angels
were loosed, which were prepared. . to kill the third part of men."
2 It will be remembered that Constantinople and the Thracian district adjoining
were parts of the Eastern third. See pp. 337, 339 supra. 3 Gibbon vi. 189.

CHAP. IV.] THE FIFTH TRUMPET. 391
with success specious and surprizing. It is true that the
desolating irruptions made into the Elyrian provinces by
the Bulgarians about the middle of the sixth century, and
by the Avars at its close, were ominous of the reverses
that might be. But into the Asiatic third proper, compre
hending Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, they reached not.
The Hellespont was still to that division its guarantee
Northward ; and, towards the East and the Euphrates,
the 100 years' peace with Persia, which had been concluded
in 444 A. D. by the second Theodosius, and renewed
after a year or two of war,1 A. D. 551, by Justinian. —
But now at length its hour was come to be judged. For
of its time of reprieve it had made no profit. Throughout
the two centuries reviewed in the last chapter, its religion
had been sinking deeper and deeper into superstition. In
the history of its theological controversies and synods,2
which constitute perhaps the most characteristic feature in
the Greek ecclesiastical annals of the period thus retro
spectively glanced at, we seek in vain for the Christian
spirit. Bather, even when most zealous and agitated for
the letter of orthodoxy, the spirit of the apostacy may be
discerned as that which most deeply moved the people.3
And therefore judgment must visit them. The first bitter-
1 A war of longer continuance branched off into Colchis and Armenia ; but with
this the Greek provinces in Asia had no concern.
2 The chief Councils in this period were that of Ephesus, A.D. 431, against Nes-
torius, in which it was concluded that there attached to Jesus Christ but one
person ; and that of Chalcedon, A.D .451, against Eutyches, in which it was concluded
that there attached to Christ two natures. These were the third and fourth General
Councils. — The decisions of these, and of the two General Councils of Nice and Con
stantinople preceding, respecting Christ's nature, were said to be briefly compre
hended in four Greek words ; viz. that Christ is God and man, aArjBus, reAeius,
aStaiperus, aovyxvTus*
3 It was Nestorius' assertion that the Virgin Mary ought not to be entitled
©eotokos, Mother of God, but rather XpiororoKos, Mother of Christ, which first in
flamed the passions of the priests and populace at Constantinople, and throughout
Egypt and Asia Minor : — i. e. zeal for the Virgin, who was already the object of their
worship, not for Christ. Of the feeling at Ephesus, where the Council was held,
Dean Waddington says : " Popular tradition had buried her in that city ; [sc.
Ephesus ;] and the imperfect Christianity of its inhabitants had readily transferred
to her the worship which their ancestors offered to Diana." Eccl. Hist. i. 349.
* So the Athanasian Creed. " The right faith is that our Lord Jesus Christ is
God and man ; ... . perfect God and perfect man : . . . . equal to the Father as touching
his Godhead :  who, although he be God and man, yet he is not two, but one
Christ: one altogether; not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person."
Hence the proof of the Creed being one of at least a century later than Athanasius :
as I have stated in the foot-note on p. 257 supra.

392 apoc. ix. 1 — 11. [part n.
ness of the first woe must fall on the Eastern third of the
Eoman world.
But what the scourge, and whence ? Was it from the
Avars, now established, as we have seen, on the lower
Danube r Or, from the Persians, ready at any time appa
rently to break in from the Euphrates upon the Eastern
provinces ? There were, in fact, irruptions as the new cen
tury opened, by the Avars.1 And there was a succession
of invasions, from 611 to 621 A. D.2 very desolating and
terrible, by the Persians under Chosroes. But the former
were transient ; and confined, as before, to the European
limits. And on Chosroes the tide of war and victory was,
after that ten years, fearfully rolled back by Heraclius :
indeed, ere a very few more suns had accomplished their
annual revolution, the Persian empire was swept away from
the earth.3 But this was by another instrumentality ; —
the same that was destined, as here foreshewn, to scourge
the Greek empire also. — And what and whence then, I
repeat, that avenging scourge ? The annals of the seventh
century declare it to us in characters so glaring and terri
fic that he who runs may read them. And, if I mistake
not, it was indicated to the Evangelist also, in a manner
scarcely less intelligible, by means of the symbols, the
locally characteristic symbols, of the prefigurative vision.
— But this is a species of evidence, and involves a principle
of interpretation, which it may be well to set forth in a
distinct preliminary Section.
§ 1. — THE LOCAL APPROPRIATENESS OF SCRIPTURE
SYMBOLS.
Let me then remind the Eeader,— -and I think it may
1 Gibb. viii. 194, 200.
2 In the four or five years preceding, which included the reign of Phocas, the Per
sians had been engaged chiefly in reducing the Roman fortresses on the other side
the Euphrates ; and so, thus far, had not carried their invasions within the more
proper limits of the empire.
3 It was about the year 616 A.D. that Chosroes, like a second Sennacherib, when
Heraclius earnestly supplicated for peace, returned the blasphemous answer : " I
will never give peace to the Roman emperor, till he has abjured his crucified God,
and embraced the worship of the sun." (Gibbon viii. 230.) It was in 621 that the
tide of success was for ever turned against him : and in 636, after he had himself
miserably perished, that the Persian monarchy was annihilated by the Saracens.

CH. IV. § 1.] SYMBOLS LOCALLY APPROPRIATE. 393
be well worth his while to pause for a few moments on the
topic, ere proceeding to examine the imagery of the vision
before us, — that the symbols and hieroglyphics of Scrip
ture prophecy are not of that locally indefinite character,
for the most part, as simply to indicate characteristic qua
lities ; without reference in the selection to what we may
call geographical propriety. Many images there are in
deed, and these too useful and striking to be left out of the
language of symbolic prophecy, that belong alike to every
country ; such as (to borrow examples from Apocalyptic
visions already analyzed) those of the luminaries of the
heaven above, and the tempests and the convulsions of the
earth beneath.1 On the other hand, as there are many
varieties, — whether we regard its plants and animals, or
the dress, visible customs, or assumed insignia of the inha
bitants, — by which, in the wise appointment of the world's
great Creator and Governor, one country under heaven is
in a measure distinguished from others, so, where these
characteristic objects afford suitable emblems of the things
to be signified of a people, it is the frequent habit of Scrip
ture to select them for its purpose. The beauty of this
local appropriateness of the Scripture imagery, wheresoever
the locality may have been stated, must doubtless have
often struck the tasteful and observant reader. Again
where it is unnamed, as in the unexplained prophecies, —
and it is to this point that I here wish to call the reader's
attention, — the mind may reason on the imagery ; and,
with no slight measure of confidence often, argue from the
symbol to the country symbolized. We might almost do
this when glancing at the graphic comparisons that are
sometimes used by uninspired writers ; — writers such as
are both intimate with the countries spoken of, and select
in their choice of figures.2 But the habit of scripture to
1 Yet even to them, as we have seen in my chapters on the four first Trumpets, a
local appropriateness may be attached : — in the one case by the intimation of some
peculiar division of the heavenly luminaries ; in the other by a statement of the
quarter of the compass from which in any particular case the tempest might blow.
The latter either directly, as where the wind is called the East wind ; or indirectly,
as where the tempest is spoken of as one bringing hail, and so from the North. See
pp. 333, 343, 347.
2 I may first exemplify from the earliest of the classic poets, Homer. A student
need but visit the Troad, as the author himself can testify, to be struck with delight
at the perpetual realization before his eyes of one and another of Homer's similes,

394 apoc ix. 1 — 11. [part ii.
make use of locally appropriate imagery is much more
marked than that of any uninspired writer. Moreover
that which I am here proposing to argue from, meets us
in the form of symbolic impersonation, not of mere com
parison. Hence the force of the inference is in its case
greater in proportion.
In order to judge of the strength of the argument thence
arising, it seems necessary that the reader should satisfy
himself as to the strength of this Scripture habit, if I may
so call it. I shall therefore beg him, in the present Sec
tion, just to cast his eye with me over some of its symbols ;
and to observe how strikingly, whether the figure be bor
rowed from the botanical world or the zoological, or from
the appearance, dress, or other visible characteristics of the
inhabitants of a country, the local appropriateness that I
speak of still marks the selection. He will find that the
symbolic pictures are indeed for the most part pictures
drawn from life.
1st, let us notice examples of emblems from plants-
on the self-same living scene. The following may serve as specimens ; — specimens
alike from the natural scenery, the zoology, and the works of man.
B. 456. Hure irvp a'CSijAov eirttpAeyei atrirerov vAijv
Ovpeos ev Kopvtprjs, eKaBev Se re tpatverai avyij'
E. 87. .. . .iroTapu itAijBovti eoiKus
Xeipappu, tor' uKa freuv eKeSaoae yetpvpas,. .
EABovt' e^airivijs, oV' eiriBptorj Aios opBpos-
T. 151  rerriyeao-iv eotKores, one KaB' vAijv
AevSpeu eipegopevot oira Aeipioeooav leioi'
E. 499. '&s 5' aveuos axvas ipopeet lepas KaB' otAaas,
AvSpuv AiKpuvruv, Sre re i\avBij Aijpijrijp
Kpivy, eireiyopevuv avepuv, Kapirov re Kai axvas,
At S' inroAevKaivovrat axvpptai.
Among modern Poets, illustrations may be found innumerable. For example,
when Goldsmith draws his comparison from
.... those domes where Caesars once bore sway,
Defaced by time, and tottering in decay,
it is of the Italians, and especially the Romans, as we might expect, that he is
speaking. — Again in the comparison,
Dull as their lakes that slumber in the storm, ¦
it is of the inhabitants of Holland. — I need but to name Walter Scott's Lady of the
Lake, Moore's Lalla Rookh, &c. to suggest to the reader's own memory multitu
dinous other examples.
Even among historians, whose mind and style partakes of the graphic and pic
turesque, an observance of the same rule of propriety is often to be marked. So,
for example, in Gibbon. When speaking in his History (ix. 312) of ambassadors
kneeling before Mahomet's throne in Medina, he says they were " as numerous,
according to the Arabian proverb, as the dates that fall from the maturity of a palm-
tree ; " — an Arabian simile for an Arabian subject.

CH.IV. § 1.] SYMBOLS LOCALLY APPROPRIATE. 395
Is it then Judah that is to be symbolized ? We find
the olive, the fig-tree, and the vine, selected to symbolize
it i1 — fruit-trees, because the point and moral of the com
parison had reference to its religious culture by God, and
consequently expected fruitfulness ; but all fruit-trees of
the country : and of these the vine most frequently, as
being of all others, perhaps, the most characteristic of its
mountain-produce ; indeed, as such, particularized in Ju-
dah's blessing by Jacob.2 And as of Israel nationally, so
of particular classes in it. Of its princes and high ones,
the cedar of Lebanon, the loftiest of the trees of Israel, is
the frequent symbol : the beauty of its holy ones is re
sembled to the palm, perhaps the stateliest fruit-tree in the
land : 3 and the people, when withering under God's dis
pleasure for sin, to the dried up grass upon the housetops*
— The same is the case in respect of other countries. So
when Egypt is the subject, and the particular point to be
illustrated its weak and faithless friendship to the Jews
trusting in it, the reed is the symbol chosen ;5 that charac
teristic produce of the Nile banks. Or when a Babylonish
dependency, then the willow ; — that of which Zion's cap-
1 The olive, Jer. xi. 16; " The Lord called thy name a green olive-tree, fair and
of goodly fruit." Again Rom. xi. 17 ; " If some of the branches be broken off,
and thou, being a wild olive-tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them par-
takest of the root and fatness of the olive-tree;" &c. Also Isa. xvii. 6, xxiv. 13.
&c. — The fig. In Matt. xxi. 19, the fig-tree described as cursed by Christ, is allowed
by all commentators, I believe, to be a symbol of the Jewish barren, and at length,
accursed nation. So too Joel i. 7 ; " He hath barked my fig-tree : " and Hosea ix.
10; &c. — The vine. Psalm lxxx. 8; "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt;
thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it." &c. Isaiah v. 7 ; " The vineyard of
the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant."
Also Jer. ii. 21 ; Ezek. xv. 2 ; Hosea x. 1 ; Matt. xxi. 33, &c. &c. — In Abimelech's
Parable, Judges ix. 8, &c. we have the three, the olive, the fig-tree, and the vine,
united. 2 Gen. xlix. 11 ; " Binding [his foal to the vine, and his ass's colt to the choice
vine." 3 So Ezek. xvii. 3, 22, quoted in the next paragraph ; Zech. xi. 2 ; 2 Kings xiv.
9, &c. — In one passage, viz. Ezek. xxxi. 3, a foreign king, the Assyrian, is also
likened to a cedar in Lebanon : perhaps in the enlarged use of the figure as any
high cedar ; perhaps from the Assyrian havfhg, in the height of his power, possessed
himself, for a while, of Lebanon. So he boasts, Isaiah xxxvii. 24. — In some ex
amples the cedar and palm are united. So in Psalm xcii. 12 ; " The righteous shall
flourish as a palm-tree : he shall spread abroad as a cedar of Lebanon."
4 2 Kings xix. 26, Isa. xxxvii. 27. The Israelites of Samaria were among those
to whom this comparison applied. See 2 Kings xviii. 34.
5 2 Kings xviii. 21 ; Isa. xxxvi. 6; " Dost thou trust upon the staff of this
bruised reed ? Also Ezek. xxix. 6 ; " They have been a staff of reed to Israel."
Compare Isa. xix. 6; Exod. ii. 3.

396 apoc ix. 1 — 11. [part n.
tives told as growing by the rivers of Babylon. " A great
eagle came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of
the cedar. He cropped off the top of his young twigs,
and carried it into a land of traffic. He took also of the
seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field : he
placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow-tree. And
it grew, and became a spreading vine." 1 It was Jehoiakim,
king of Judah, that was the top-most branch of the cedar.
It was Nebuchadnezzar that was the eagle that cropped it,
and carried it to Babylon. It was Zedekiah that was the
seed of the land, and consequently a vine in the prophetic
imagery : but which was planted as a willow-tree ; i. e. as
a prince dependent on, and to be supported by, the king
of Babylon.
2. Next let us turn to emblems from animals.
It is less often that Judah is so symbolized. For its
relation to God is that which is most constantly and pro
minently dwelt on in what is said of Judah : and thus the
illustrative emblems required, are in character such rather
as those already noticed; or perhaps that of a city dedicated,
or a virgin affianced to Him ;2 not of a wild animal. Still
there occurs at times occasion for the animal symbolization ;
and then the zoology of Judah furnishes the emblem.
Thus is it Judah conquering ? The figure is that of the
lion, such as might rise up from the swelling of Jordan :
" Judah couched as a lion : who shall rouse him up ? " Or
Judah foolishly snared by her foes ? It is that of the dove,
so common in the land ; (as that bird's constant use in the
Jewish sacrifices assures us ;) " Ephraim is a silly dove."
Is it Judah apostatizing ? Then, it may be, the dromedary
is the figure ; impatient of the holy city, and bent on re
gaining the wilderness of its preference.3 Or Judan in
desolation ? " I am like a pelican in the wilderness, like
an owl in the desert."4 — Of other nations the animal class
1 Ezek. xvii. 3, &c. — Compare, on the willow, Psalm cxxxvii. 1, 2.
2 In the Apocalypse, the church too, — as we have partly seen already, (p. 95,) and
shall see more as we proceed, — is figured in both of these emblematic characters.
3 The lion, Gen. xlix. 9; Isa. xxix. 1, margin, &c. The dromedary, Jer. ii. 23.
The dove, Hosea vii. 11 : also Luke ii. 24, Matt. xxi. 12, &c.
4 Ps. cii. 6. The writer of the Psalm seems here to impersonate the Jewish nation.

CH. IV. § 1.] SYMBOLS LOCALLY APPROPRIATE. 397
of symbols is frequent.1 And see the suitableness. The
symbol of Edom was that of the eagle that might have
built his eyrie in the mountain-rock ; the very image, —
as he that has seen pictures of Petra, or other Idumean
cities, must be aware, — of the high rocky excavations that
they inhabited.2 The wild ass of the desert is the not less
characteristic symbol of the Arabs ; " Ishmael is a man, a
wild ass : " 3 and the crocodile, the dragon of the Nile,
that of Egypt.* — Nor, passing to Daniel's animal-symbols,
do we find any thing inconsistent with the usual Scriptural
rule of local appropriateness in the selection. In the case
of the four wild beasts emblematic, according to the all
but universal consent of commentators ancient and modern,
of the four successive heathen and persecuting powers of
Babylon, Persia, Greece, Eome, there is indeed less of dis
tinctiveness ; in consequence of the wide-range, over many
countries, of such savage animals as might fitly represent
the persecutors of God's people. Yet still the lion was a
native of Babylonia ; the bear of the Median mountains ;
and the leopard, — as we may infer from hints in the old no
tices of the neighbouring countries, — of the forests of Pindus
and Macedon.5 Besides that the winged lion has been found
1 Compare Peter's vision, Acts x. 12 ; in which the animals in the sheet let down
from heaven are expressly said to have typified heathens.
2 Jer. xlix. 16; " O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest
the height of the hill, though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, yet
I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord." — So Numbers xxiv. 21, of the
Kenite, and Jer. xlviii. 28, of Moab. — Sketches, such as I allude to, may be seen in
Laborde, in Finden's Scripture Illustrations, or Keith's Fulfilment of Prophecy.
3 Gen. xvi. 12 ; DIN S"lS The former word is the wild ass in Job xxxix. 5.
T T
4 Ezek. xxix. 3 ; "lam against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt; the great dragon
(crocodile) that lieth in the midst of his rivers," &c. On which see Scheuchzer.
So also Psalm lxxiv. 13, and Isaiah li. 9. Bochart asserts that Pharaoh means cro
codile in Arabic, which language has many Egyptian words in it ; and he blames
Josephus for saying it meant king. — It was stamped, I may add, on the Roman
coins, on the conquest of Egypt, as its fittest symbol.
Egypt is elsewhere symbolized as a heifer, Jer. xlvi. 20, 21 ; with reference ap
parently to the worship of the bull Apis. And it is observable that Diodorus Sicu-
lus notices the habit of the Egyptian kings to wear about the head, irporopas ravpuv
Kai SpaKovruv, o-npeia rijs apxvs. Biblioth. i. p. 39.
5 So Jer. 1. 17, notices the lion as of Babylon. Xenophon, in his Cyropasdia, i. 4.
7, notices the bear as one of the wild animals of the Median mountains. And as
both Pindar (Pyth. iv. 143) speaks of the leopard-skin as worn by his Thessalian
heroes, at the foot of Mounts Olympus, Ossa, and Pelion, and Homer (II. r. 1 7,
&c,) of his, at the foot of the Trojan Mount Ida, we cannot doubt but that the
leopard existed in the earlier days of Greece in the forests and mountains of Macedon.
Let me suggest further, whether as the lynx is of the leopard genus, and as the names
of the region Lyncestis, the town Lyncus, and the river Lyncestius, (all appurtenances

398 apoc ix. 1 — 11. [part ii.
by Capt. Layard, as almost a self-appropriated Assyrian em
blem, in majestic sculpture at the gates of the royal palace
of Nineveh.1 Again in another of Daniel's visions, (that
in chap, viii,) the nature of the comparison allowing it, we
find selected as the symbols animals directly character
istic, in the same manner as the last noted, of the powers
symbolized ; that is, of Persia and Macedon respectively.
For the symbols are those adopted by the nations them
selves, as in a manner their own appropriate emblems, and
stamped as such, by the one and the other, on their re
spective coinage ; — I mean the ram in symbolization of
Persia, the goat of Macedon.2 Of which two emblems one
at least, and perhaps both, may further have had allusion
to a current name of the country or nation.3
The examples last given being those of symbols not other-
of Macedonia,) may not improbably have been derived from some legend connected
with the lynxes of the country, (See Ovid, Metam. v. ad fin. " Lyncum. . . . lynca
Ceres fecit,") the leopard may not have been chosen partly on this account as the
representative of Macedon ? — EvBeus us it apSaAis eKeiBev oppijoas d AAe£avSpos,
says John Malela of Alexander; adopting Daniel's emblem. Ap. Daubuz p. 561.
Three of Daniel's destroying beasts, and perhaps the fourth also, are particularized
in Hosea xiii. 7 ; " I will be to them as a lion : as a leopard by the way will I observe
them : I will meet them as a bear bereaved of whelps : . . the wild beast shall tear them."
1 See the plate in Layard's Nineveh. — Dr. Keith, in his " Signs of the Times,"
i. 15, (3rd Ed.) speaks of the " four-winged leopard as the identical emblem engraved
on the shield of Alexander." But, in reply to my enquiries, he informs me that
he has been unable to find his authority for the statement ; though believing (I fear
erroneously) that the authority exists. He proposed to cancel the statement in
subsequent editions.
2 Engravings are given in a later part of this work, on Dan. viii, from Calmet ;
Taylor's Edition, Vol. 5. The ram is stated to he from the Hunter Collection.
Mionnet gives a copy of the goat, also ; which is not uncommon. The symbol con
tinued in use under the Sassanides. Ammianus Marcellinus notices it as a part of
the insignia of king Sapor : (xix. 1 :) " Aureum capitis arietini figmentum, inter-
stinctum lapillis, pro diademate gestans."
3 The name of the capital of Macedon, Mgee, of its people Mgeadce, and per
haps too of its sea the Mgean or Goat-sea, arose out of the tradition that Caranus,
the first king of Macedon, was directed, according to an oracle, by a flock of goats
to its site. With reference to which same circumstance Alexander's son byRoxana
was called Mgus, son of a gout.
As to Persia, or Blam, its scriptural name, Mede notices the affinity between the
word /^M a ram, and Dv',5?, Persia. — It is observed by Heeren in his Researches,
that all the great empires of Asia seem to have been founded either by mountaineers,
or nomad tribes, which invaded and overran the more wealthy regions. Such, he
says, was the origin, among others, of the Persian empire, the Parthians, &c. If so,
the ram was a natural emblem of the Persians, as nomads.
On the allusion in popular symbols to popular names, see Eckhel's chapter (iv.
341,) headed " De adlusione ad urbis populive nomen." In which chapter he ex
emplifies in the towns of Mge, Gardia, Leontini, Melos, Rhodes, Selinus, &c : of
which the appropriated symbols were severally a goat, a heart, a lion, an apple, a
rose, a sprig of parsley, &c. So again in his Vol. v. p. 90.

CH. IV. § l.J SYMBOLS LOCALLY APPROPRIATE. 399
wise locally characteristic only, but self-applied as charac*
teristic by the inhabitants of the countries symbolized, I
might naturally proceed, were it the occasion, to notice
other self-adopted national emblems, — whether derived
from animals or other objects,1 and whether designative of
the people themselves collectively, or of certain ranks or
offices of note among them, — that have been likewise, with
its usual beautiful appropriateness, adopted and applied by
sacred Scripture. Such, for example, are those striking
symbolizations, (and more striking, I think, there could not
be,) that have occurred to our notice under the three first
Seals of this Apocalyptic prophecy. And indeed I wish,
by this passing retrospective notice of them, to connect the
emblematic imagery of the parts already discussed of the
Apocalypse, as well as that of those which remain, with this
general view of the local fitness of Scripture emblems, and
of the argument from it. But my present more immediate
object is to prepare the reader for a right appreciation of
the symbols of the fifth Trumpet. And I shall therefore
hasten on to suggest just one other class of symbols, locally
significant, that are more directly illustrative of the vision
I am referring to ; I mean the class of the prosopopeeia.
In the which class, the symbolic figure exhibited being
in the human form, occasion is taken to notice distinctive
points, 3rdly, in the personal appearance, — whether in respect
of dress, armour, or otherwise, — of the people symbolized.
Take, as a first example, that beautiful personification
of Judah given in Ezek. xvi, as a woman-child saved at
the birth, and brought up through childhood and youth
by her God, then affianced to Him, but soon faithless and
apostatizing. Here, in the dressing up of the prosopopseia,
there are certain details of personal appearance naturally
brought into the description ; — the woman-like growth of
hair, the anointing with oil, the white and broidered appa
rel, the jewels, and other personal ornaments : and com-

1 Such as the eagle, the well-known Roman ensign, which is used to symbolize
the Roman power, Matt. xxiv. 28, Luke xvii. 36, and Apoc. xii. 14 ; — a ship, the
emblem that we still see on the Tyrian coins ; and which is perhaps meant to sym
bolize Tyre, Ezek. xxvii. 26.

400 apoc ix. 1 — 11. [part n.
mentators, not without reason, as it seems to me, have
assigned an emblematic meaning to them, as significant of
the spiritual privileges and graces conferred by God on
Israel.1 However this may be, and whether they were in
tended to be emblematic themselves, or merely appendages
to the general emblematic picture, in one thing we cannot
be mistaken, viz. that these characteristics of appearance
and dress in the female personified, were drawn from the
appearance and dress of the noble ladies of Israel : — that
is, that the details of personal appearance portrayed in the
hieroglyphic were those of a portraiture drawn from life.
A second example, and one precisely of the same cha
racter, will be found in Ezek. xxiii : but with this addition,
that besides the female personifications of Judah and Israel,
the neighbouring heathen with whose idolatries they asso
ciated, — both the Assyrians and others, — are here also in
a manner symbolized ; viz. as their lovers. The descrip
tion paints them as cavaliers, all goodly young men, girded
with girdles, and with turbans of dyed attire, or it might
be crowns, on their heads : 2 a description that must be
noticed afterwards, as containing in it points of resemblance
very striking to certain of the details in the imagery of the
fifth Trumpet. — But there is no need at present of further
dwelling on this example, as it is so similar to the former.
I therefore proceed to,
A third example, different from the other, and indeed
somewhat peculiar in character ; but which may yet par
tially, if I mistake not, be connected with the class I speak
1 The spiritual application of such figures is beautifully intimated in Psalm xiv.
13 ; " The king's daughter is all glorious within." Compare also what is said in
1 Pet. iii. 3, of the spiritual adorning of the Christian female ; and in Rev. xix. 8,
of the meaning of the white robes of the saints. — In the passage from Ezekiel, though
the articles of dress and ornament may be all shewn to have been worn by Israelitish
ladies, and the anointing with oil, &c. &c. to have been customs familiar to them,
yet there is, in regard of much that is said, such an applicability to the tabernacle,
its priesthood, and its services, that the Targum understands the whole as having
reference to them.
2 See verses 15,42. In the latter verse the Sabeans from the wilderness are
mentioned among Aholibah's lovers, "which put bracelets on their hands, and beau
tiful crowns on their heads." It is a question among expositors whether this was
on their own heads and hands, or on those of Aholah and Aholibah. But the con
text seems clearly to favour the former meaning : because one only of the two
women is mentioned either in this verse or the two verses preceding ; and thus the
plural pronouns seem scarcely explicable, but of the Sabeans. This conclusion is
confirmed by the mention of the head-covering of Aholibah's lovers in verse 15.

CH. IV. § 1.] SYMBOLS LOCALLY APPROPRIATE. 401
of: I mean that of the symbolic image of gold, silver, brass,
and iron, seen in vision by Nebuchadnezzar.
In this there were figured to himself, and to the prophet
Daniel, those four kingdoms that, rising round Judah as
a centre, and all connected with it, were in succession, and
each in image-form, (i. e. as associated with, and upholding
idolatry,)1 to hold the empire of the civilized world, until
the establishment at the last of God's own kingdom. It
has been the all but universal opinion of commentators,
both ancient and modern, that the four kingdoms, thus pre
figured, were the Babylonian, Persian, Greek, arid Eoman.
And with reason. For the succession of these four great
empires is a plain historical fact, recognized by the most
learned heathen writers, as well as christian.2 And the
suitableness of the component metals of the image to sym
bolize them, in regard at least of the golden splendour of
the first and the iron strength of the last, is obvious, and
partially confessed even by Gibbon.3 — Besides which illus-
1 This explanation of the meaning of the image-form is I think the correct one ;
and not, as Lowth, Newton, and others explain it, that it was a mere form of splen
dor; the result, in this dream, of Nebuchadnezzar's own view of the glory of mighty
empires. Thus the hieroglyphic of this vision will well harmonize with that of the
four wild beasts, under which the same four empires were afterwards figured to
. Daniel. In the one was figured idolatry invested with power ; in the other its per
secuting spirit against God's saints. — The fact that idolatry should be thus asso
ciated with, and upheld by, the whole succession of dominant powers in the world,
even to the consummation, was a fact most singular to predict, but which has yet
been fulfilled. In Apoc. xiii the manner in which idolatry was to be associated with
the last form of Nebuchadnezzar's image, I mean when in its ten toes, is expressly
and wonderfully illustrated. See my Chapter on the Image of the Beast.
» 2 Of the heathens I may mention, 1. Dionysius of Halicarnassus ; who, expressly
including the Seleucidae and Ptolemies in the Macedonian dynasty, as mere branches
of it, speaks of the Perso-Median empire as followed by the Macedonian, the Mace
donian by the Roman: 2. Tacitus; (His. v. 8) who prefixes the Assyrian to the
Perso-Median ; " Dum Assyrios penes, Medosque et Persas, oriens fuit " ; &c :
3. Ptolemy ; who regulates his Canon by this same succession of the four empires.
From the Fathers ample quotations have been already given to the same effect ;
showing especially that they regarded the Roman empire as the fourth of Daniel's
prophecies^ Jerome says it was the view of alt previous ecclesiastical writers.
I believe Porphyry was the first to suggest the Seleucidae as a distinct empire ;
his object in which was obvious ; viz. to escape from the cogency of the Christian
argument from prophecy. Grolius subsequently adopted the idea. But, with all
his learning, Grotius is little to be depended on in explaining prophecy.
3 " The arms of the Republic . . advanced with rapid steps to the Euphrates, the
Danube, the Rhine, and the ocean : and the images of gold, or silver, or brass, that
might serve to represent the nations and their kings, were successively broken by
the iron monarchy of Rome." vi. 407. — Similarly Schlegel, speaking of the Roman
empire, Phil, of Hist. i. 337 ; "It was as if the iron-footed God of war, so highly
revered by the people of Romulus, actually bestrode the globe." Again, Lord Byron,
speaking of the Roman legions, calls them, " the men of iron."
The very name Rome ('puprj, strength) seems alluded to in the prophecy ; " The
VOL. I. 2 D

402 apoc ix. 1 — 11. [part n.
tration from qualities, it has been further and appositely
observed by expositors, that there was in one case a visible
resemblance between the nation symbolized and the sym
bolizing metal ; inasmuch as the very appearance of the
warrior Greek was characterized by his brazen armour.1
Now the same kind of illustration, it appears to me, might
be carried further. In comparison of the appearance of
the Greek (or indeed of the Eoman) battalia, the splendid
adornment of the Persian with silver or with gold (the
Babylonians having at this time been absorbed and included
in the Persian empire) was very characteristic, and often
observed on. It was noted on occasion of the battle of
Platsea, in the grand review of Xerxes, and on the fields
of Issus and Arbela ; 2 and was but the result and expres
sion of that superiority in wealth, which shewed itself also
in their general appearance and habits of life. On the
other hand in the Roman battle-array, iron, a metal of later
discovered working,3 at least for military purposes, was as
observable as the gold and silver in the Persico- Assyrian,
or the brass in the Grecian. The Mars they worshipped
fourth shall be strong as iron." Such an allusion to name is quite according to
scripture custom : and that this was the origin of the word Rome is suggested by
profane authors. So Solinus in his Polyhistor, and Festus in Romam ; observing
that it was sometimes on this account called by the Latin equivalent, Valentia. See
Facciolat. Lexic. in Roma.
1 So Homer speaks of the Axaioi xa^KIXlT<"'fs> continually. — So Herodotus (ii.
152) of an oracle respecting men of brass, x"Aiceoi avSpes, fulfilled by the landing on
the coast of brazen-armed Greeks. From the same circumstance Palaephatus ex
plains the story of jEolus surrounding his city with walls of brass : and Strabo (p.
723) relates a legend, that the Chalcidean Greeks of Eubcea were so called from
having been the first to wear brazen armour. (Ed. 1707.)
2 So at Ptatcea in Masistius's case ; Herod, ix. 22. In Xerxes' Review the same
historian relates, vii. 83, that the Persian troops, over their other accoutrements,
were splendidly adorned with gold : xPv°-ov iroAXoi' Kai aipBovov exovres eveirpeirov.
At Issus, Alexander bade his troops behold the " aciem hostium auro purpuTaque
fulgentem." Curt. iii. 10. The same at Arbela; Justin, xi. 13. — I may observe that
long after, and when the Sassanidan kingdom of Persia was just about to fall under
the Saracens, the same national characteristic was still observable. The golden
armour of the Persian general was the prize of his victory to Heraclius. Gibbon,
viii. 241. — After Alexander's conquest of Persia the Macedonians imitated the Per
sians, in this point as in others. Curt. viii. 8.
3 This fact seems the groundwork of Hesiod's statement in his Efrya, 149 :
Tois S'ijv xaAKea pev reuxea, xaAKe01 8e re oikoc
XaAKuS' epyagovro' peAas S' ovk eoKe oiSijpos.
Lucretius asserts the same fact ; Lib. v. 1285.
Posterius ferri vis est aerisque reperta :
Et prior aeris erat quam ferri cognitus usus.
So also Pausanias, Laconia, iii. 3.

CH. IV. § 1.] SYMBOLS LOCALLY APPROPRIATE. 403
as their father, was not, as with the Greeks, the brazen,1
but the iron-armed Mars.2 It was early inculcated on them
by their generals, that iron armour, not gold and silver, as
with more luxurious nations, was the proper guise of the
Eoman soldier.3 And when, in the progress of their con
quests, even oriental kings had been subjected to Eome,
the poet describes it as the subjection of the purple to the
Latian iron.4 — Thus we see a correspondence in the metals
of the image with certain characteristics in the visible ap
pearance not of one only but of all, of the respective peo
ple. — Nor was the image-form in which they were com
bined an objection to this their national distinctiveness :
because the idolatry that these kingdoms successively exhi
bited and enforced was but as part and parcel of themselves.
It was the golden splendor of himself and his empire, that
Nebuchadnezzar would have homage done to, in that golden
image that was set up in the plain of Dura.5 The same
was the case with Darius, and with the Seleucidae.6 Finally
it was Eome's own iron will and power to which the consci
ences of men were required to bow down, when it allowed
of no other worship but that of its idolatrous state-religion.
And now we shall be better prepared for an intelligent
consideration of our present subject. The point of per
sonal appearance, observed on in the last example, I mean
as regards the metal armour, will not be without its use in
illustrating a part of the imagery of the 5th Trumpet.
The two previously noted examples under the same head,
of direct living impersonations, will yet more illustrate it.
And when with these there is conjoined in the reader's re
membrance the class of Scripture animal hieroglyphics
1 Homer, II. v. 704, 859, &c. x«*«E°e Apijs.
2 " Mars ferrates," is in Rutil. Itin. &c. Statius figures even his palace as of
iron ; Theb. vii. 43.
" Ferrea compago laterum ; ferro arcta teruntur
Limina ; ferratis incumbunt tecta columnis."
3 " Docti a ducibus erant horridum militem esse debere ; non caelatum auro et
argento, sed ferro et animis fretum." Livy, ix. 40. This was on occasion of the
Samnite army appearing in gold and silver armour.
4 Lucan, vii. 228 ; " Atque omnis Latio quaa servit purpura ferro."
5 " It was designed to represent Nebuchadnezzar himself, or the genius of his
empire, according to Jerome, supported by Daniel ; ' Thou art this head of gold.' "
Home's Introduction, vol. iii. Geogr. Index, p. 17.
8 Vid. Dan. vi. 1, Mace. i. 41, 47, &c. 2 D 2

404 apoc ix. 1 — 11, [part n.
noted under a former head, he will find himself furnished,
I think, with all the parallelisms that he could desire, to
help him to a right appreciation of the point and meaning
of what I may call the prima facie nationally distinctive
symbols of the vision.

§ 2.  THE SYMBOLS OF THE FIFTH TRUMPET ANALYZED
TO SHEW THE ORIGIN OF THE FIRST WOE.
I now proceed, as proposed, to the consideration of the
symbols of the fifth Trumpet vision. It was a vision por
tending woe, as we are told, to the Eoman earth and its
apostatized inhabitants ; and what the woe, and whence, and
how originating, was all to be found intimated, if I mistake
not, and this not indistinctly, in the description following.
" The fifth angel sounded : and I saw a star fallen1 from
the heaven to the earth ; and to him was given the key of
the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit :
and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a
great furnace. And there came out of the pit locusts upon
the earth. And unto them was given power, as the scor
pions of the earth have power. And the shapes of the lo
custs were like unto horses prepared unto battle. And on
their heads were, as it were, crowns like gold. And their
faces were as the faces of men : and they had hair as the
hair of women : and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
And they had breast-plates, as it were breast-plates of iron :
and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots
of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like
unto scorpions ; and there were stings in their tails. — And
it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass
of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree ;
but only those men which have not the seal of God in
their foreheads."
The quotation above given includes all the chief em
blems of the vision : and in them an intimation as to the

ireirTUKora.

CHAP. IV. § 2.] ORIGIN OF THE FIRST WOE. 405
origin of this woe to Christendom,— both as respects the
people commissioned, their new and false religion, their
commission to destroy, and their primary prophet and leader.
These I propose to discuss in the present Section : reserv
ing for another what remains of the prophecy ; as it had
relation chiefly to the subsequent progress and history of
the emblematic locusts.
I. And first, as to the country and people whence it was
to originate ; — a point this for which the Section preceding
will have prepared us. For while, by the admixture of
human similitudes in the hieroglyphic with the bestial, it
was shewn that men were the destined scourge, not literal
wild beasts, as in some of the ancient prophecies, — there
was further indicated, as I feel persuaded, and in the man
ner illustrated by the examples in that Section, the very
country and people intended.
Thus in regard of the animal resemblances. — As the
ground- work of these, if I may so say, in the hieroglyphic,
there appeared the locust : — with the following marked pe
culiarities, however, that it was in look movement and
sound like the horse, in teeth like a lion, and in the tail and
poison-sting like a scorpion. Now the qualities of the in
vaders thus prefigured were obvious. Ihe locust-form in
dicated their swarming in numbers numberless ;J their being
in their migratory progress rapid, far-ranging, and irresis
tible ; and moreover, — except from some special preventive
check, such as in this case, the prophecy foretold, would be
actually given,2 — being wide wasters of the herbage and
vegetation.3 The horse-like appearance seemed to imply that
they would be hordes of cavalry ; the likeness to the lion,
that they would be savage destroyers of life ; and the scor
pion-likeness, that of the men in Eoman Christendom,4
whose lives they spared, they would be the tormentors,
even as with a scorpion's poison-sting. All this, I say,
seems obvious. — But, passing this for the present, let us
1 So Nahum iii. 15 ; " Make thyself many as the locusts." — In the Arabic poem
Antar, we find the comparison used similarly ; " I shall command these armies,
numerous as the locusts ;" &c. i. 6. Also iii. 73, &c. 2 Verse 4.
3 As in Exod. x. 15, Deut. xxviii. 42, &c. &c. 4 Verse 5.

406 apoc ix. 1 — 11. [part n.
look to see, as suggested, what the local or national indi
cations contained in these animal symbols. On doing so
we shall find, I doubt not, that they pointed the Evangelist,
and that not obscurely, to Arabia and the Arabs.
First, and chiefly, the locust, the ground-work of the
symbol, is peculiarly Arabic. So the sacred history of an
cient times informs us. " It was the east wind," it says,
" which brought the locusts " on Egypt : 1 from which the
inference arises, that the country they issued from must
have been that which, in all its extent, lies east of Egypt,
that is Arabia. Such too, in modern times, is the testi
mony of Volney ; " the most judicious," as Gibbon calls
him, " of Syrian travellers." " The inhabitants of Syria,"
he observes, " have remarked that locusts come constantly
from the desert of Arabia." 2 Lebruyn, from the convent
at Eama, gives the same report : 3 and the Moorish wri
ter Leo Africanus, from the Western part of North
Africa, one not dissimilar.4 Besides that the very name
for locust, — and similarity of names is a thing not unat
tended to, as we have seen, in scripture symbols,5 — I say
the very word for locust might almost to an Hebrew ear
suggest Arab : the names of the one and of the other being
in pronunciation and in radicals not dissimilar; — of the
locust n?7^ (arbeh), of an Arab T?? 6 (arbi). And in
deed the locust-simile is one used in other and earlier scrip
tures, with its usual appropriateness, to designate the num
bers and character of an invading Arab horde.7 — Again,
as of the locust, so of the scorpion, the native locality was
1 Exod. x. 13. 2 Chap. xx. Sect. 5. 3 Vol. ii. 152.
* " Persia, et potissimum Arabia, ubi plurimae generantur [locustae], hoc insecto
scatent ! ' Cited by Robertson in his Clavis Pentateuchi, on Levit. xi. 23.
5 For examples of the paronomasia in Hebrew see Stuart's Grammar, pp. 193,
194. I select one example from Jer. i. 11, 12; "What seest thou, Jeremiah? And
I said, a rod of an almond-tree, ~f|?.^, Then said the Lord, Thou hast well seen ; for
I will hasten, 1\)WJ my word, to perform it." In the New Testament we have the
notable example, Matt. xvi. 18; "Thou art Peter, Xlerpos, and upon this rock
irerpa," &c. — See too the same in the words for ram and Persia, remarked on
p. 398 supra ; and my notice there, from Eckhel, of the very frequent custom of
such allusion to names in classical types and symbols.
6 So rQ*l5 is a desert ; and, with the definite article prefixed, the desert, i. e. the
Arab desert between the Dead and the Red Seas. In this case the V is the initial
letter ; in the Hebrew for locust, the M- But these two letters are frequently inter
changed, and in sound not dissimilar. See Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon on N.
7 Judges vi. 5 ; " They (the Midianite Arabs) came as locusts for multitude : "
where the Hebrew word is the same POnS ; incorrectly rendered grasshoppers in

PL 12.

Vol KP 411.

THE APOCALYPTIC SC OE.PIOU-L 0 CUS I.

A Sketch, from, imagination, llhistrative of the possible
combination of the details of the Apocalyptic symbol.

CHAP. IV. §2.J ORIGIN OF THE FIRST WOE. 407
by the Jews considered the Arabian desert. Witness
Moses' own words to the Israelites, on emerging from it,
after forty years wandering ; " that great and terrible wil
derness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions." x — And
who know not, if facts so notorious be worth mentioning,
that it is Arabia, still Arabia, that is regarded by natural
ists as the original country of the horse ;2 and that its wil
dernesses are the haunts also of the lion ? 3 — The zoology
of the hieroglyphic is all Arabian.
Next as to what was human in the appearance of the
symbolic locusts : viz. their faces as the faces of men, their
hair as the hair (the long hair) of women,4 with crowns as
of gold on their heads, (or, it might be, gold-adorned tur
bans,)5 and breast-plates like iron breast-plates.6 — The qua
lities and character indicated, are here too sufficiently
our translation. So too Judg. vii. 12. — Mr. Forster in his Mahommedanism Un
veiled, i. 217, writes : " In the Bedoween Romance of Antar the locust is introduced
as the national emblem of the Ishmaelites ." He adds ; " It is a remarkable coinci
dence with these illustrative facts, that Mahommedan tradition speaks of locusts
having dropped into the hands of Mahomet, bearing on their wings this inscription,
' We are the army of the Great God.' " He does not here give his authority.
1 The Hebrew for scorpion, Sip.? (akrab), is still retained in the Arabic. " The
most remarkable creature," says Mr. Buckingham, in his account of the desert East
of Orfah, " was a large black scorpion, called in Arabic akrabee." Travels in Meso
potamia, p. 140. Its bite or sting, he adds, is generally fatal.
2 " Arabia, in the opinion of the naturalist, is the genuine and original country of
the horse." Gibb. ix. 224. His reference is to " the incomparable article on the
Horse" in Buffon's Nat. History.
3 " The land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion."
So Isa. xxx. 6 ; on which Bp. Lowth observes, that the same deserts are here re
ferred to that the Israelites passed through in their way from Egypt. " Her speech,"
i. e. of Arabia, says Gibbon, ix. 240, " could diversify. . the 500 names of a lion." It
is the constant emblem of valiant warriors in Antar.
4 1 Cor. xi. 15 ; " Doth not even nature teach that . . if a woman have long hair it
is a glory to her; for her hair is given her for a covering." So Mary Magdalen's,
John xii. 3. To cut it short was a mark of mourning. So Jer. vii. 29 ; " Cut off
thine hair, O Jerusalem, and take up a lamentation : " and similarly Micah i. 16.
And the same among other nations. Thus Clemens Alex, observes, Pajdag. Lib.
iii. p. £24 ; 'O ©eos tijv pev yvvatKa ijBeAeaev eivat avrotpvij ttj Kopy povrj, uoirep lirirov
tij x"in yavpopevijv. (Paris Ed. 1629).
5 us irreipavoi bpotoi xpoou. The word oreipavos is the usual rendering in the
Septuagint of the Hebrew nit037 : and they are both used, not merely of royal
crowns worn by kings, but of ornamented turban-like circlets for head-covering,
such as on festival days were worn by Jewish women. So Ezek. xvi. 12, " I put a
beautiful crown on thy head : " (Hebr. i"H£i3?, Sept. trrecpavov :) some encircling
covering " made of fine linen, silk, or gold intermixed with the same ; " says Green-
hill ad loc : also in the striking passage, Ezek. xxiii. 42, which will be noticed more
particularly in the Text presently afterwards.
The more usual Hebrew word for the mitre, or turban, is £pD2 or its cognates ;
the Greek pnpa, or KiSapis. But the two are united, Ezek. xxi. 26, (Hebrew, verse
31,) " Remove the diadem; take off the crown."
6 Bupaxas us Bupaxas otSrjpovs. The word is repeated in the Greek.

408 apoc. ix. 1 — 11. [part ii.
plain. There was indicated man-like courage, but united
apparently with effeminate licentiousness ; 1 a combination
somewhat singular : also invulnerability in war, and splen
did and constant victory. — But, for the present, what I
would wish chiefly to inquire into is, here as before, the
local significancy of these features in the symbol ; and
whether any, and what particular nation, might seem to be
figured by them. For in cases like this, as we have seen,
the portraiture may be generally supposed to be drawn from
life : and, considering all the particulars specified, it is
assuredly very characteristic and distinctive. — Applying
this test then, by what is said of the faces as faces of men,2
(i. e. with beard or moustache,) the Goths and other kin
dred barbarian tribes are set aside : the faces of these being
very singularly noticed by a cotemporary of their earliest
incursions, I mean Jerome, as having faces shaven and
smooth ; faces, in contrast with the bearded Eomans, " like
women's faces." 3 — Again, while from the usual habits of
both Greeks and Eomans in the empire, that which is
perhaps most remarkable in the described appearance, viz.
1 This seems inferable from the hair being as the hair of women, and the turban
head-dress, conjointly. So Suidas ; ovSets Koprjrijs bans ov jJ/ijpifeTai, quoted by
Daubuz, p. 422 ; and again, BijAvpirpos 6 iropvos. Compare Cicero's description of
Clodius; — " P. Clodius a mitra, a muliebribus soleis," &c. De Harusp.Resp. 21.
The Lusitanian mountaineers too had once the distinction of flowing hair like
women ; BaBeiav KaraKexopevoi tijv Kopijv, yvvaiKuv Sikijv. So Strabo p. 232. (Ed.
Casaub.) But these were the inhabitants only of a provincial district.
2 The Greek word for men is not indeed that which is absolutely distinctive of the
masculine sex, avSpuv ; but avSpuirwv, a word often used of human beings, irrespec
tive of sex. But where used, so as here, in immediate association with, and contra
distinction to, yvvaiKuv, women, — " they have faces as the faces of men, and hair as
the hair of women," — there, I conceive, it must be taken as having a distinct refer
ence to the masculine sex. So Matt. xix. 3, 5, 1 0, three several times successively,
1 Cor. vii. 1, &c. So again in the Septuagint Gen. ii. 18, Exod. xiii. 2, Levit. xx.
10, Esther iv. 10, Eccl. vii. 2, 9, Isa. iv. 1, &c. &c. And so too in classic authors ;
e. g. iEschin. in Ctesiphon 76. 4 (Reiske) ; &c. Had the clause next following
" and with hair as the hair of women," been wanting, the meaning might be simply
" with human faces," in contrast to the bestial locust-likeness previously mentioned.
As it is, supposing the faces woman-like, surely the needless and misleading avfpwiruv
would have been omitted; and the description run thus, "And they had faces and
hair as of women." The word avBpuiruv is, I conceive, preferred to avSpuv, in order
thereby to intimate the double contrast in the face, alike to the general bestial re
semblance, and to the womanlike fashion of the hair.
3 " Foemineas incisas facies praeferentes, virorum, et bene barbatorum, fugientia
terga confodiunt." In Isa. viii. Tom. iii. 75.
As regards the beard, it was sometimes worn by the Romans, sometimes not : —
on this point the heads on Roman coins, &c, vary. See Eckhel's chapter De Cultu
Capitis, viii. 363. From Nero to Hadrian, the imperatorial custom was to have the
beard shaven ; (So Dion Cass, lxviii. 15 ;} from Hadrian to Constantine unshaven;
afterwards (with Julian's single exception) down to Phocas, shaven.

CHAP. IV. §2. J ORIGIN OF THE FIRST WOE. 409
the hair as the hair of women (not to add the turban head-
covering also) was abhorrent,1 — there were two great
neighbouring nations, and I think but two,2 with whose
national costume and habits both these and the other points
of description well suited ; I mean the Eersians and the
Arabs. Of the Persians, alike in the earlier times of their
history and the later, the appearance is nearly thus repre
sented, both by historians, and upon ancient coins and
bas-reliefs still remaining.3 And of the Arabs, of whom I
must speak more fully, as being the people indicated appa
rently by the points previously considered of the hierogly
phic, — of them descriptions are given yet more exactly
agreeing with that before us. So Pliny, St. John's co-
temporary at the close of the first century, speaks of the
Arabs as wearing the turban, having the hair long and
uncut, with the moustache on the upper lip, or the beard •*
— that " venerable sign of manhood," as Gibbon, in Arab
phraseology calls it.5 So Solinus describes them in the
1 This appears from the Apostle's question, addressed to the Corinthian Greeks,
1 Cor. xi. 14 ; " Doth not even nature teach you, that if a man have long hair, it is
a shame to him ? " Just like their poet Phocylides, 290 ; Apoeoiv ovk eireoiKe Kopij.
Originally the Greeks wore their hair long, as Homer describes them, KapnKopto-
uvres Axoioi. But the custom had very much past away before the Peloponnesian
war, as the Elgin marbles show us. Afterwards, mingling in the Roman empire, the
Roman customs in this respect seem to have prevailed among them. — Among the
Jews the same habit, as to the hair, seems to have prevailed : for when the Nazarite
let his hair grow long, it was as a badge peculiar to himself. Absalom, I conceive,
cherished his hair somewhat in the spirit of Clodius ; as an effeminate man. See
2 Sam. xiv. 26.
2 On Trajan's column the Dacians sculptured with long hair are the nobles. So
Niebuhr (Ed. Schmitz) ii. 248. The same was the case with the Franks in the 5th
century. " These princes (the Merovingians) allowed their hair to descend in long
curls over their shoulders ; while the rest of the Franks shaved the hair on the back
part of the head : whence the Merovingian dynasty were entitled the longhaired
kings." W. Scott's Tales of a Grandfather, France, i. 42.
The Lusitanian mountaineers too had once the distinction of flowing hair. . . So
Strabo, p. 232. (Ed. Casaub.) But these were the inhabitants only of a provincial
district. 3 The beard, the long hair, and the turban, are seen on the Darics of the Achae-
menides, and on the rock-engraved bas-reliefs of the Sassanides. See Mionnet for
the one, and the plates in Sir R. K. Porter's Travels for the other. So Herodotus
describes the Persians as both KopijTai and pnporpopoi ; in the latter respect con
trasting them with the Egyptians; vi. 19, iii. 12. — I have used the word nearly, in
the text above, because with the Persians neither the pirpa, nor the bushy form of
wearing the hair, were so woman-like as with the Arabs.
The Lydians and Phrygians were anciently bonnetted. But after being long ab
sorbed into the Roman empire, it is probable that their better classes, as of the
Greeks, adopted Roman costumes and habits. — The turban, or mitre was, I believe,
never worn by the Romans.
4 "Arabes mitrati degunt, aut intonso crine. Barba abraditur, prceterquam in
superiore labro. Aliis et hcec intonsa." Nat. Hist. vi. 28. ° ix. 235, 238.

410 APOC. IX. 1 — 11. [part II.
third century ; r so Ammianus Marcellinus in the fourth : 2
so Claudian, Theodore of Mopsuesta,3 and Jerome,* in the
fifth : — of the last of which writers the acquaintance with
the people he wrote of must have been most familiar ; as
he passed most of the latter years of his life at Bethlehem,
on the borders of the Arab desert. This was about two
centuries before the great Saracen irruption. Yet once
more, in the age immediately preceding that irruption,
and which indeed included Mahomet's childhood, the same
personal portraiture is still given of the Arab. In that
most characteristic of Arab poems, Antar, a poem com
posed at the time I speak of,5 we find the moustache and
the beard, the long hair flowing on the shoulder, and the
turban also, all specified.6 — And let me add, in regard to
turban-crown, it happens very singularly that Ezekiel
(xxiii. 42,) describes the turbans of the Sabaean or Keturite7
Arabs under this precise appellation ; " Sabseans from the
wilderness, which put beautiful crowns upon their heads :"8
and, still as singularly, that even the perhaps hinted re
semblance of them in the vision to crowns or diadems,
(they being spoken of as like gold,9) is one that has been
1 u. 53 : " Plurimis crinis intonsus, mitrata capita, pars rasa in cutem barba."
2 •' Crinitus quidam," sc. e " Saracenorum cuneo." xxxi. 16.
3 On Jer. x ; " Saracenos ait eomam fronte quidem detondere, retro autem inton-
sam demittere." So Valesius, on the above passage from Ammianus Marcellinus,
reports Theodore's testimony : adding also Claudian's ; " Hunc mitra redimitus
Arabs." We may compare Herodotus' statement, iii. 8, Ketpovrai Seu irepnpoxaAa,
irepi^vpovvres rovs Kporaipovs, with the first clause in Theodore.
4 Jerome, in the life of Malchus, says ; " Ecce subito equorum camelorumque
sessores Ismaelitae irruunt, crinitis vittatisque capitibus.'' — The above authorities are
given by Bishop Newton from Mede, &c.
5 See the Preface to Mr. Hamilton's translation, from which I quote. In the
reign of Haroun Al Raschid, copies were by his order compared, and so a corrector
copy formed. It was the Ossian of the Arabs, but more genuine.
0 i. 340 ; " He adjusted himself properly, twirled his whiskers, and folded up his
hair under his turban, drawing it from off his shoulders." i. 169; "His hair
flowed down his shoulders." iii. 117 ; " Antar cut off Maudi's hair in revenge and
insult." iv. 325 ; " We will hang him up by his hair." ii. 4 ; " Thou foul-mous-
tachio'd wretch ! " &c. &c.
7 So Forster in his Geography of Arabia : making these Sabaeans the descendants
from Abraham and Keturah ; tribes which intermingled with the Ishmaelites. See
p. 419 Note K
8 Hebr. JTltiS, Greek oreipavov, as before. See p. 400 Note 2.
9 I have already stated that the reading of the textus receptus, dpotot xpoou, is
also the reading adopted in the latest critical Edition of Tregelles, (as well as in that
of Tittman and Hahn,) in preference to Griesbach's xpooot. — In explaining its force
I say, " the perhaps hinted resemblance to crowns or diadems," because it may pos
sibly have been intended merely in the sense of the beautiful colouring of the crowns,
so as in Ezekiel, Compare Ps. lxviii. 13, " the wings of a dove covered with silver,

CHAP. II. §2.] ORIGIN OF THE FIRST WOE. 411
made by the Arabs themselves. Of the four peculiar things
that they were wont in a national proverb to specify as
bestowed by God upon the Arabs, the first was that their
turbans should be to them instead of diadems.1
The testimonies thus quoted refer to three out of the
four points of personal appearance noted in the vision.
And on the fourth, that of the locusts appearing breast-
plated with iron, both Antar, the Koran, and the history
of Mahomet and the early Moslem Saracens, will also
satisfy us. In Antar the steel or iron cuirasses of the Arab
warriors are frequently noticed.2 In the Koran, among
God's gifts to the Arabs, their coats of mail for defence
are specially particularized.3 And in Mahomet's history
we read expressly of the cuirasses of himself and his Arab
troops.4 — Individual Arabs, no doubt, like the one more
early noted by Ammianus Marcellinus,5 might not seldom
astound the foe by their " naked bravery." 6 And hence
by some it has been fancied the general habit. But the
Saracen policy was the wearing of defensive armour. The
breast-plate of iron was a feature of description literally
and her feathers with yellow gold : " or, as in the Septuagint, ev x^wporrjri xpvotov,
the greenish yellow of gold.
1 " It was a usual saying among them, that God had bestowed four peculiar things
on the Arabs ; that their turbans should be to them instead of diadems, their tents
instead of walls and houses, their swords instead of intrenchments, and their poems
instead of written laws." Preface to Antar, p. xi ; on the authority of Abulfeda,
Pococke, and others. — Mr. Forster in his " Mahommedanism Unveiled," i. 217,
quotes, as a precept of Mahomet, from the Mishcat-ul Masabih, " Make a point of
wearing turbans, because it is the way of angels."
2 ii. 203 ; " A warrior immersed in steel armour." — ib. 42 ; " 15,000 men armed
with cuirasses, and well accoutred for war." — i. 23 ; " They were clothed in iron
armour and brilliant cuirasses." — iii. 274 ; " Out of the dust appeared horsemen
clad in iron." — Also ii. 145 ; i. 238, 176, &c. &c.
3 ii. 104 ; " God hath given you coats of mail to defend you in your wars."
4 Seven cuirasses are noted in the list of Mahomet's private armoury. Gagnier
iii. 328—334. In his second battle with the Koreish 700 of the little army are
spoken of as armed with cuirasses; &c. Gibbon, ix. 296, 300, 304.
Similarly in the first Saracen irruption into Syria, under the first Caliphate, among
the spoils of the defeated Roman army described as " inestimable to the Arabs,"
and as the instrument to them of new victories, we find particularized innumerable
suits of the richest armour. Ib. 391, 405.
Euthymius Monach. Zigabenus relates, as one of Mahomet's sayings, Tov BupaKu,
rov atSijpovv irapa too AaBiS Aeyei irpurov eirivoijBrjvai. Bibl. Pat. (Paris 1624)
ii. 301.
5 xxxi. 16. — Such was Derar, described as so formidable to the Christians of
Syria, in Ockley's History of the Saracens. Gibb. ix/389.
6 Gibbon x. 145 : " The Arabs in the tenth century disdained the naked bravery
of their ancestors." So too ix. 369. Gibbon is in this point, where he deviates from
the Apocalyptic description, a little incorrect.

412 apoc ix. 1 — 11. [part ii.
answering, like the three others, to the Arab warriors of
the 6 th or 7 th century.
Thus, on the whole, the country whence the woe was to
originate might seem almost fixed, by these concurrent
symbols, to Arabia. And, turning from prophecy to his
tory, if we ask whether there was then, about the times of
Heraclius, and the opening of the seventh century, any
correspondingly destructive irruption of Arabs on Eoman
Christendom, the agreement of fact with the prediction is
so far notorious. A mighty desolating locust-like Arab, or
Saracen 1 invasion, is the chief topic of the history of that
century.2 II. But it is further said of the locusts prefigured, that
they issued out of the smoke of the bottomless pit, or pit of
the abyss ; 3 the pit having been just opened previously,
and the smoke ascending thereupon, out of it, as the smoke
of a great furnace. What might this mean ? And does
it apply to the origin of the Saracen invaders just men
tioned ? The point is one strongly marked in the hiero
glyphic, and evidently most important.
The word a^vaaoc, abyss, answers in the Septuagint
most generally to the Hebrew Dinfi. It is the same word
that is used of the deep on which the primaeval darkness
rested, in Gen i. 2 ; and which seems to signify, most pro
perly, that depth or hollow of the earth which is the bed of
the ocean-waters, though often used also of those waters
themselves.4 By an easy extension or change of meaning,
1 " The name Saracen," says Niebuhr, (Roman History Lectures, Ed. Schmitz,
ii. 333,) "is derived from the Semitic Shark, i.e. the East." He adds that it
occurs long before the time of Mahommed. I have myself observed it in a letter of
the Emperor Aurelian's, given by Pollio, in his Triginta Tyranni, c. 30 : " Non
Arabes, non Saraceni." A century after, Ammianus Marcellinus uses it.
2 " Their [the Saracens'J victorious marches must have been like the flight of
locusts ; and the devastation they occasioned have resembled the calamities wrought
by those devouring insects." Barthe, Hist, of the Christian Church, p. 80. — So too
in the so-called " Revelations " of Methodius of Patara : Erunt [sc. the Saracen in
vaders] tanquam locustoz in multitudine, quae coagulantur a vento." B. P. M. iii. 731.
3 (ppeap rov aBvaoov.
4 e. g. Ezek. xxxi. 4 ; " The waters made him (the cedar) great, the deep set him
on high; " &c. And Ezek. xxvi. 19, of Tyre, " I will bring up the deep, (Hebrew
Oln.Pl Sept. tijv uBvaaav,) upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee." So
again Job xii. 32, of the crocodile stirring upon the waters; where however the
Hebrew word is different.

CHAP. IV. § 2. J ORIGIN OF THE FIRST WOE. 413
it came to signify sometimes that deeper depth, in which
opinion, if not Scripture, placed the receptacle of the de
parted; at least of the departed wicked. So it is used,
for instance, in Ezek. xxxi. 17, where it is rendered hell
by our translators; " They went down into hell with him,
unto them that be slain with the sword ; " and it is thus
connected with the supposed habitation, or rather destined
habitation,1 of evil spirits. In the New Testament this
seems to be the more general use of the word. In Luke
viii. 31, the abyss into which the devils entreated that they
might not be sent, seems directly contrasted with the sea
into which they precipitated the swine, immediately after
entering and possessing them. And in the Apocalypse, —
passing over those two passages that speak of the Beast
from the abyss, in chapters xi and xvii, where its meaning
might seem more equivocal,' — there remains that other at
the beginning of chap, xx, in which the sense of the word,
as signifying the prison-place of evil spirits, can scarcely
be mistaken ; — I mean that in which an angel that had
the key of the abyss, is described as seizing the Devil, that
old serpent, and casting him into the abyss, and there
sealing him up. — In the present case the word <f>peap, or
pit, (" pit of the abyss,") that is added, confirms this as
the meaning. For it signifies evidently an opening in the
earth, a shaft of communication, as it were, between the
earth and the infernal region beneath.2 — And it is yet
more confirmed by the notice of the smoke, as of a great
furnace, ascending from it. For in every case in Scrip
ture, where the smoke as of a furnace is described as rising
from out of, or from beneath the earth,3 the context shews
1 Probably this latter is the more correct expression. At present the evil spirits
seem to have the range of our earth, and the power of the air. See Mede on this
subject, Disc, iv : and compare Luke viii. 31, alluded to above, Job i. 7, 1 Pet. v. 8,
Eph. ii. 2, John xiv. 30, Matt. xxv. 41, Apoc. xx. 3, 10. — But this does not prevent
allusions to the locality beneath, as the source of what is hellish now on earth.
Thus St. James says, iii. 6 ; " The tongue is set) on fire of hell : " biro rijs yeeyvijs.
So too John viii. 23. — " Quomodo cor animalis in medio est, ita et infernus in
medio terrae esse perhibetur." So Jerom on Jonah ii.
2 <ppeap answers continually to the Hebrew Tl3, a pit. So Jer. xii. 7, 9, a dry
pit; Psalm Iv. 23, where the word is used metaphorically; "Thou, O God, shall
cast them into the pit of destruction : " tppeap tijs SiaipBopas. — Compare also
Psalm lxix. 15 ; " Let the pit shut her mouth upon me : " where the cognate word
"1S2 is used.
3 When above the earth, as for instance in the case of Mount Sinai, Exod. xx.

414 apoc ix. 1 — 11. [part ii.
that it is the smoke of penal fire. So in the case of Sodom ;
so in that predicted of the mystic Edom in Isaiah ; so in
that of the Apocalyptic Babylon.1 — Thus, on the whole,
the observer could scarce be mistaken in interpreting this
smoke from the pit of the abyss as an emanation from the
pit of hell : — i. e. as some system of error and false religion
thence originating : originating, it would seem, all on a
sudden ; and of which the effect would be, almost instanta
neously, to darken the moral atmosphere, and dim the im
perial sun in the firmamental heaven.
Which being the thing predicted, we have again to
recur to history, and to inquire, — 1st, whether, about the
opening of the seventh century, there arose any hellish
and false religion in Arabia, in its manner of development
sudden, and in strength such as almost at once to darken
Christendom ; — 2ndly, whether it was out of it that the
Arab invaders before-mentioned issued forth to be a woe
to the Eoman world.
And to both of these questions who knows not the
answers ? — Who knows not of the sudden rise of Mahom-
medism in Arabia, just at the very time we speak of: — that
most extraordinary invention of fanaticism and fraud ;
which being, as it was, from beginning to end a lie, in its
pretensions superseding the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, in
its doctrines inculcating views of the blessed God dark,
cruel, and unholy, and in its morals a system of pride, fero
city, superstition, sensualism, — indicated too well to any
one that had eyes to see, that it had indeed its origin from
hell, and was an emanation, like the pestilential smoke in
the vision, from the pit of the abyss ? — Again, who knows
not the fact that it was after embracing Islamism that the
Saracen cavalry hordes burst forth in fury on Eoman
Christendom ; and yet more, that they were imbued from
this very source with the qualities that the symbols in the
vision indicated ? For there is indeed a perfect fitness
in the representation of the symbolic locusts as issuing forth,
all formed in character, out of the smoke from the pit of the
the smoke and the fire were simply the accompaniments and indications of the
presence and majesty of Jehovah.
1 Gen, xix. 28 ; Isa. xxxiv. 9, 10 ; Rev. xix. 3.

CHAP. IV. ^2.] ORIGIN OF THE FIRST WOE. 415
abyss. It was the religion of Mahomet in fact, that made
the Arabs what they were.1 It was this that for the first
time united them as one, in numbers countless as the
locusts ; this that gave them the locust-like impulse to
speed forth as its propagandists over the world ; this which
imparted to them, as to lions of the desert, the irresistible
destroying fury of fanaticism ;2 this, further, which, in case
of their conquering the provinces of Christendom, as I
shall notice in the next Section more at large, had already
prepared in them a scorpion-like venom of contempt and
hatred, wherewith to torment the subject Christian : — this,
finally, that made them the ByjAv^tTpot described : that added
sensualism to their ferocity ; suggesting indulgence of their
lusts in life, and bidding them look and fight for a heaven
of lust beyond it. — So that here, too, there was no one
point in which the Saracen character and history did not
answer to the prophetic emblems. — It was the same,
Illdly, in respect of the commission said to be given to
the Apocalyptic locusts : — the positive commission, to hurt
the men that had not the seal of God on their foreheads ;
the negative, not to hurt the grass or trees. — For, as regards
the former, what do we read in the Koran but that Maho
met understood and declared his mission to be against ido
laters ; and that he urged his Saracen followers against
the men of Eoman Christendom, as being of the number ?3
1 " The Arabs, or Saracens," says Gibbon, " had languished in poverty and
contempt, till Mahomet breathed into those savage bodies the soul of enthu
siasm." 2 " The religion of Mahomet," says Hallam, " is essentially a military system.
The people of Arabia found in the law of their native prophet, not a license, but a
command to desolate the world." Middle Ages, ii. 165. It only needs to read the
ixth chapter of the Koran, to see the justice of this statement. — Schlegel yet more
exactly depicts the spirit, after the Apocalyptic picture : calling it " the infernal spirit
that produced that antichristian combination of spiritual and temporal authority,
&c;" "the new power of hell." Philos. of Hist. ii. 76, 93.
Let me add that, besides the general religious fanaticism that animated them in
battle, there were two principles inculcated in the Koran that exercised a mighty
influence to this effect on them : first, the absolute belief in predestination ;
secondly, the ambition of a crown of martyrdom on the field of battle, as that on
which the joys of the Mahommedan paradise were promised to follow. Gibbon,
ix. 297.
3 In the Koran, ch. 5, the Christians of the Roman Empire were distinctly
charged wjjh worshipping the Virgin Mary as God. And in ch. 9, it is said of the
priests and monks specifically ; " Very many of the priests and monks devour the
substance of men in vanity, and obstruct the way of God." Sale's Koran, i. 141,

416- APOC IX. 1  11. [PARTII.
— Again, as regards the latter, the very restriction that in
the prophecy was put on the destroying career of the
locusts, — " It was commanded them that they should not
hurt the grass of the earth,1 neither any green thing, neither
any tree," — had its precise counterpart in the Koran. The
often-quoted order of the Caliph Aboubeker, issued to the
Saracen hordes on their first invasion of Syria, " Destroy
no palm-trees, nor any fields of corn, cut down no fruit-
trees, nor do any mischief to cattle," was an order origin
ating not from 'the individual character of the Caliph, but
from the precept of Mahomet.2 It was dictated to him,
not by motives of mercy, but of policy. And its policy
was soon evidenced, in the rapid formation of flourishing
kingdoms out of the countries conquered by the Saracens ;
— a formation that but for this could never have been ac
complished. But what I wish here to impress on the read
er's mind is its distinctiveness, as a characteristic of the
Saracens. For let him but mark the direct contrast that
they herein presented to other conquests and conquerors.
132, ii. 8. Sale explains the first charge against the priests, as having reference to
their fraudulent gains, by the sale, exhibition, and false miracles attached to relics.
What has been already said pp. 310, 380, 387, might well suffice to justify this
charge of idolatry. But I add the following, as referring to the exact epoch we
speak of, and as what Gibbon could not omit in his sketch of the rise of Mahom-
medism. " The Christians of the seventh century had insensibly relapsed into a
semblance of Paganism ; their public and private vows were addressed to the relics
and images that disgraced the temples of the East : and the throne of the Almighty
was darkened by a cloud of martyrs, saints, and angels, the objects of popular vene
ration." Gib. ix. 261.
" The Greeks have been every where worsted by the Arabs," said one of his offi
cers to the Emperor Heraclius, " because they have for a long time walked unworthy
of their Christian profession, and corrupted their holy religion," &c. So Theophanes
Chronogr. p. 276, cited by Hales, Chronol. iv. 331.
1 Top x°prov tijs yijs. The word xaPros includes corn. So Matt. xiii. 26, ire Se
eBAaarrjo-ev 6 x°pros, Kat Kapirov eiroiijoe. So again Gen. iii. 18 ; ix. 3 ; Sept.
2 So Gibbon, ijc. 311. Speaking of the siege of Tayaf, 60 miles South East of
Mecca, he says that " Mahomet violated his own laws by the extirpation of the fruit-
trees." — It is curious that, while I am writing, a modern illustration of this law
should meet my £yes. In the Evening Mail of Dec 25, 1839, there occurs, in the
Correspondence from Circassia, the following passage. " My host and a man from
Semez were disputants ; the latter maintaining the impropriety of burning the corn,
the former its necessity in the present emergency. Our guest said, " It is contrary
to the injunction of our Book, the Koran." '
Compare the merciful ordinance in Deut. xx. 19 : for what was dictated by policy
in the Koran, was dictated by mercy in the law from Sinai. " When thou shalt
besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy
the trees thereof by forcing an ax against them : for thou mayest eat of them, and
thou shalt not cut them down ; for the tree of the field is man's life.. . Only the trees
which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut
them down."

CHAP. IV. § 2.] ORIGIN OF THE, FIRST WOE. 417
For example, in the invasions of the Goths, Huns, and
Vandals, the desolation of the trees and herbage was a
striking feature.1 The eprj^iat, or desert places, that
abounded in the provinces conquered by them were long a
memorial of it.2 Hence in the Apocalyptic prediction of
the Goths, the. wasting of the vegetation by them is made
a distinct feature of prophecy ; in that of the Saracens,
now before us, there is the foreshowing of the direct re-

IV. But who, or what, that fallen star to whom the
key was given wherewith to open the abyss ? Here is a
difficulty that by some has been thought almost fatal to
the Saracenic solution. Various indeed, as Dr. Hales re
marks,4 " have been the queries of commentators [i. e. of
those who agree in our general view of the vision] con
cerning this star." By some it has been interpreted of
Nestorius, with reference to his heresy that prevailed at
that 'time in Syria and the countries adjacent ; by some of
Sergius, a Nestorian monk, who is said, but on doubtful
authority,5 to have furnished religious instruction to Maho
met. Mede explains it of Satan .- Lowman (almost always
¦ unhappy in his explanations) of an angel from heaven ; the
opener of the pit of the abyss on this occasion, as he was
the sealer up of Satan in it at the commencement of the
Millennium afterwards : Fareus, Willet, and, after them,
Cuninghame, Faber, and others, of the Bishop of Rome,
as being then completely fallen into apostacy : Keith of
Chosroes, king of Eersia ; as having by his fall, consequent
on the victories of Heraclius, removed the obstacle of effec
tive Persian resistance, and so opened the way to the suc
cesses of the Saracens quickly following.6 — On the other
1 " I shall not be easily persuaded," says Gibbon, vi. 21, " that it was the com
mon practice of the Vandals to extirpate the olives, and other fruit-trees, of a coun
try where they intended to settle." But his authorities are against him : and his
own narrative embodies the fact. See pp. 352, 354 supra.
2 See the strong statements to this effect, from Muratori and others, in Robert
son's Charles the 5th, Vol. i, Note 6, E..
3 Theophanes, in his Chronographia, notices that the administration of Persia,
after its conquest by the Saracens, was regulated by an actual survey, not only of
men, but of cattle and plants of the earth ; eyevero Se ri avaypatpij Kat avBpuiruv xai
ktijvuv xai <pvruv. Ib. 375. The act was characteristic.
4 Chronol. iii. 615. 5 Gib. ix. 259.
c I need not of course give Vitringa's explanation of the star, as he expounds
VOL. I. 2 E

418 APOC IX. 1  11. [PARTII.
hand Daubuz, Bishop Newton, and Hales expound it of
Mahomet. And certainly, unless Mede's interpretation be
admitted, — against which there lies the serious objection
that Satan is never represented in the Apocalypse as a
fallen star,1 — it is to my mind inconceivable how the figure
could with the least plausibility be referred to any other
agent. If, I repeat, the smoke from the pit on its opening
symbolize Mahommedism, then of human agents none but
Mahommet can, in my opinion, be regarded as its opener.
All this probably would be allowed, even by the disagreeing
expositors above alluded to, but for the unsatisfactory ex
planations hitherto offered of Mahomet's resemblance to a
fallen star. Thus Newton says the star must be considered
as a meteor, and so fitly symbolising Mahomet as a false
Prophet. But it is plain that the emblem is not a meteor,
or wandering star, such as is used in Jude to symbolize false
teachers ; but simply a firmamental star, and one at the
opening of the vision fallen. Hales offers no explanation.
Daubuz supposes it was meant of Mahomet, as heading re
bellion against the emperor Heraclius. But, first, Hera
clius was not the liege lord of the Arabs of Mecca ;
next, had he been so, the rebelliousness of one of his
dependants could not constitute the rebel a fallen star.
And what then ? Is there no explication of the diffi
culty ? Is the statement of Dean Woodhouse correct,
" that by no interpretation, literal or figurative, can the
crafty enthusiast Mahomet be said to have fallen from hea
ven ; " and so, supposing Satanic reference to be inadmis
sible, our whole solution endangered ? By no means. The
reader will find, I believe, that the explanation is very sim
ple. Bearing in mind that a star, as all agree, indicates
properly a prince or ecclesiastical ruler, and therefore a
fallen star a prince degraded from supremacy and power,2
this Trumpet of the Goths ; or Woodhouse's, who, as strangely, or yet more so, ex
pounds it of the Gnostic heretics.
1 Mr. Birks (Myst. of Provid. p. 224) overrules this objection, comparing Luke x.
18 and Apoc. xii. 9. Neither passage, I think, touches my objection from the sym
bol. But the point of difference is one which in no wise affects the general solution.
2 Compare, "There shall come a star out of Jacob," Numb. xxiv. 17; and,
"How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning." Isa. xiv. 12;
said of the fall of the King of Babylon. — In Antar the same figure appears : " The
chiefs were stars in the eyes of the beholders." iv. 366,

CHAP. IV. § 2.J ORIGIN OF THE FIRST WOE. 419
he will only have to look with attention into Mahomet's
early history to find it.
Let it be remembered then that Mahomet was by birth
of the princely house of the Koreish, governors of Mecca.1
— Originally the principality had been in the hands of the
Jorhamites. But one of the Koreish had bought from them
the keys of the Caaba,2 and that which went with the keys,
the principality of Mecca; which from him descended
lineally to Mahomet's grandfather, and was, in fact, in his
hands at the time of the grandson's birth. Now this prin
cipality and government was one of no small eminence
among the Arabs. Of the many small states into which
Arabia was divided at this time, " most seem to have looked
up to Mecca," says Hallam,3 " as the capital of their nation,
and chief seat of their religious worship." — Nor could this
eminence of the family have been unknown to the Eomans.
1 In Mr. Forster's recently published and learned work on the Geography of
Arabia, a clear and satisfactory view is given of its colonization, grounded on evi
dence scriptural, classical, and that of modern researches. — He traces it from six
different sources, as follows, 1. Cush and his sons, who, before the confusion of
tongues, colonized the coast of Bahrein and Oman along the Persian Gulf, and the
north-east part of Hadramaut. — 2. Joktan, the fourth from Shem ; (brother to
Peleg, in whose days, Gen. x. 25, was the confusion of tongues ;) whose settle
ments occupied the interior, Nejd ; and thence in time extended to Hadramaut and
Yemen, where the Hamyarites preserved the name of Hamyar, grandson to Joktan.
— 3. Ishmael, whose twelve sons were heads of twelve tribes, and their names still
traceable through the peninsula; the chief being the Nabatheans and Kedarites ;
the latter the acknowledged progenitors of the Koreish and Mahomet. These (under
the general names of Ismaelites, or Hagarenes) stretched from the wilderness of Sin
and Sinai across the neck of the Arabian peninsula, so as at length to invade the
Cushites of Bahrein. — 4. Abraham's sons by Keturah, who intermixed with Ish
mael across the neck of Arabia : the most remarkable tribe being the Midianites ;
the Sabaeans (mentioned in Ezekiel xxiii) another. — 5. Esau ; whose descendants,
under the names of Edomites and Saracens, (the latter, Mr. F. thinks, meaning the
children of Sarah,*) occupied the desert nearest to Judaea ; among them Amalek.
On Amalek's destruction it would seem that a division, fleeing under Omar, made
a final settlement in Arabia Felix, where they were known as Homerites. — 6. The
tribes of Ad, son of Uz, son of Aram, son of Shem, according to Arabian tradition.
The Holy Scripture does not mention them.
It is of these last that the famous Hamyaritic Inscription speaks ; which Mr.
Forster considers himself to have decyphered. But whether correctly, is, I believe,
doubtful. 2 Gibbon ix. 246, says ; " The tribe of Koreish, by fraud or force, had acquired
the custody of the Caaba. The sacerdotal office devolved through four lineal
descents to the grandfather of Mahomet. The family of the Hashemites, whence he
sprang, was the most respectable and sacred in the eyes of their country.'' — Again
p. 257 ; " Mahomet was educated in the bosom of the noblest race of Arabia."
3 Midd. Ages, ii. 162. — Mecca is the Macoraba of Ptolemy ; " the second member
of which word," says D'Anville, (Geogr. ii. 9) " is made use of to designate a. great
or principal city." * See Niebuhr's different solution p, 412 supra. 2 E 2

420 apoc ix. 1 — 11. [part n.
For, although with the vast interior desert of Arabia they
had little concern, and almost as little acquaintance, yet
with the frontier tribes, — whether on the Syrian border, or
the Euphratean, or along the coasts of the Eed and the
Erythrean seas, comprehending both Hejaz, of which Mec
ca was the capital,1 and Yemen further south, — with these
frontier tribes they were well acquainted.2 Indeed on the
Eed Sea coast, not very far from Medina, they had a cus
tom-house only a few years before the birth of Mahomet.3
And besides the maritime traffic that connected the Arabs
of those parts and the Syrian provincials, there were cara
vans that twice a year travelled between Mecca and Da
mascus. Thus, I say, the elevation of Mahomet's ances
tors as the Governors of Mecca, must have been well known
to the Eomans. As Gibbon says, " The grandfather of
Mahomet;, and his lineal ancestors, appeared in foreign and
domestic transactions as the princes of their country." 4
They were in the view of the Syrian Greeks as among the
stars on the horizon of the political heaven.5 — But just after
his birth his father died ; and, very soon after, his grand
father also : and the governorship of Mecca, headship of
the tribe, and keys of the Caaba, passed into the hands of
another branch of' the family. His prospects of greatness
seemed all blasted by their deaths. He found himself, so
he recounted his own history afterwards, a neglected and
1 Keith, by mistake, represents Mecca as in Yemen ; and reasons, and grounds
his exposition of the little horn in Dan. viii. 9 (Signs of the Times i. 35, 8th Ed.)
on that supposition.
2 The Arab tribes on the Syrian frontier often entered into alliance with the Ro
mans ; as did those on the Euphratean with the Persians. It was probably this
fact that caused Daubuz's mistake, noticed in Page 418 preceding.
3 " Justinian," says Gibbon, ix. 230, " relinquished a palm country often days
journey south of Elah (Procopius, Bell. Pers. i. 19) ; and the Romans maintained
a centurion and a custom-house at a place in the territory of Medina."
The Roman connexion had existed in fact some centuries earlier. " Thus much
is certain," says Niebuhr of the Emperor Trajan, " that he made Arabia, as far as
Medina, a Roman province, and received the homage of the native princes... Nubia
itself came under the dominion of Rome, and remained under it till the middle of
the 3rd century." ii. 255. (Ed. Schmitz.)
Cave thinks that the Portus Romanus of which Hippolytus, of whom we have
more than once spoken, was bishop, was not the Italian Portus, at the mouth of the
Tiber, but that So called, and also Adana, which is now the British Gibraltar of the
Red Sea. Hist. Lit. i. 67. This by its name Aden, or Eden, gave the title of
Arabia Felix to the country of which it was the capital on the coast of Yemen.
4 ix. 234.
5 Attila's meteoric star is similarly represented as blazing in the Roman political
firmament, its locality being just on the borders.

CHAP. IV. § 2. J ORIGIN OF THE FIRST WOE. 421
destitute orphan.1 Though by birth a star on the horizon
of the political firmament, he was now, at the opening of
the seventh century, a star fallen to the ground ; and must
so have appeared to the Eomans and Syrians, when, in the
character of servant of the widow Cadijah, he came to
traffic in the markets of Damascus.
But thoughts were even then working in his mind which
were to raise him to an eminence (a bad eminence indeed !)
immeasurably higher than that of Prince of Mecca. May
I not say (so to the point is each trait in the Apocalyptic
prophecy) that the fall of the star was probably the very
cause of all that followed afterwards ? 2 Methinks, had he
not lost the keys of the Caaba, the holy place of the Pagan
religion of his ancestors and countrymen, he would have
sought no other. But lost as these were, and with a mind
brooding on his loss and fall, when another key, likely to
lead to his re-ascendancy, that of a new and false supersti
tion, was by the. father of lies presented him, he eagerly
grasped it. — The secret cave of Hera, three miles from
Mecca, to which he withdrew each year, and where he con
sulted, says Gibbon, " the Spirit of fraud or of enthusiasm,
whose abode was not in the heavens, but in the mind of the
prophet," has not inaptly suggested itself to interpreters as
the mouth, as it were, of that pit of the abyss whence the
pestilential fumes and darkness were seen to issue. — Then
at length he declared his mission ; first privately ; three
years after publicly. For a while the elders of the city,
and uncles of Mahomet, affected to despise the presump
tion of an orphan.3 They chased him from Mecca. His
flight marks the Era of the Hegira. But soon fortune
changed. "After an exile of seven years, the fugitive mis
sionary was enthroned as the prince, and the prophet (too),
of his native country." *
Thus does this point in the emblematic description, just
1 "She (Cadijah) believed in me, said Mahomet, when men despised me; she
relieved my wants when I was poor, and persecuted by the world." Gibbon ix.
328 ; from Abulfeda.
2 " The inj ustice of Mecca, and the choice of Medina, transformed the citizen into
a prince, the humble preacher into a leader of armies." So says Gibbon (ix. 322,)
of later operating causes.
3 Ancient Universal History, xviii. 41 1, &c. * Gibbon, ix. 308.

422 apoc. ix. 1 — 1 1. [part n.
as the three before considered, answer precisely to the his
tory of the origin, and originator, of the Mahommedan im
posture in Arabia. And I will only add, in conclusion of
this Section, that the very emblem of the key, here figured
as given him, might almost seem to have been selected in
allusive contrast to its counterpart in the Koran. In the
latter the key of God is asserted to have been given to the
false Prophet ; that which was to open to believers the por
tals of the true religion, and of heaven. Hence it was
borne by his followers subsequently, — at least by those of
them who achieved the western conquests of Islam, — even
as the holy cross by Christians, as both a religious and a
national emblem : ' and the sculpture on the proud Gate
of Justice in the Moorish Alhambra still retains and exhi
bits the symbol.2 But the Apocalyptic vision more truly
represented it as the key of the abyss : and the smoke that
rose from the abyss, on his opening it, as the fumes and the
pestilential darkness of hell.3

§ 3. — PROGRESS OF THE FIRST WOE, AS PREDICTED AND
FULFILLED.
In what precedes, we have examined the chief symbols
1 See Essais sur l'Espagne, by M. Peyron, forming the third Volume of a Transla
tion of Travels in Spain by the Chevalier de Bourganne. At page 189 he says ; " The
Koran continually speaks of the key of God, which opened to them the gates of the
world and of religion. So in the Koran ; ' Did not God give to his legate the power
of heaven which is above, and fire which is beneath ? With the key, did he not
give him the title and power of a porter, that he may open to those whom he shall
have chosen ? ' "
The following form of renunciation of Mahommedism, enjoined by the Greek
Church on a convert to Christianity, and which is given in Nicetas' Saracenica,
Bibl. Patr. (Ed. in four vols. Paris 1624), VoLii. p. 286, thus alludes to Mahomet's
pretended key of heaven : Ava&eparigu tijv irapa rots SapaKijvois airoKpvrpov SiSaoKa-
Atav Kai birooxeo-iv ts MuapeS- ijtis <pijoi KAetS exov avrov yevijoeoBai re Xlapa-
S e to ov.
2 The key was also an armorial bearing of the Andalusian Moors. So Peyron, ubi
supra. When they crossed from Africa into Spain, it was on their standard ; and
was thus, with a double significancy perhaps, sculptured on the archway of the Al
hambra. An engraving is given.
8 Let me note from the Koran another contrasted representation to that before
us, which has struck me. Mahommedism is here denounced as an imposture ema
nating from the smoke of the pit of hell. In the Koran, ch. 77, I read ; " Woe be
on that day (the day of judgment) to those who have accused the prophets of im
posture. It shall be said to them, ' Go into the shadow of the smoke of hell ; which
shall ascend in three columns, and shall not shade you from the heat." ' Sale ii. 470.

PL 13

Voll-T422

KEY ON THE ARCH OE THE GATE OP JUSTICE OP THE AXHAMBKA

Brom Murphy's Alhambra

CHAP. IV. § 3. J PROGRESS OF THE FIRST WOE. 423
of the prophetic vision ; and seen their suitableness to figure
the me of Mahommedanism, and of the Moslem Arabs,
in the seventh century. It remains that in the history of
the Arab invasions of Christendom we trace the fulfilment
of the other intimations given respecting them ; intima
tions in which was foreshown what was most material in
their subsequent progress and history.
I. There was indicated, as well by the hieroglyphic itself
as by the words of explanation accompanying, that to the
Arab cavalry hordes, thus gathered to the smoke of the
hellish exhalation, there would be opened a fearful career of
conquest over Eoman Christendom: one in which they would
fly, as it were, with locust-wings, destroy what opposed
them with the strength of lions' teeth, and torment the
subjugated Christian inhabitants1 as with the poison of a
scorpion-sting. — And was there then a correspondence
with this in the facts of the subsequent Saracenic history ?
— It was in the year 629 that the Saracens first issued
from the desert into Syria, with proclamation of war against
Christendom. They appeared, and they retired : it was
but the omen of what was to follow. But in 636 they re
turned to prosecute their mission in earnest ; and behold,
within less than three years Syria was subdued. When
Damascus had fallen, and then Jerusalem, the unhappy
Heraclius, with tears of anguish, bade farewell to the
Syrian Province. He saw that it was lost to his crown irre
trievably. The Patriarch of Jerusalem, yet more unhappy,
had to attend the victor Caliph through it. He muttered
as he passed on, " The abomination of desolation is in the
Holy Place ! " And soon, as if to remind the christian
remnant of the fact, there resounded that voice of the
Muezzin, from a mosque erected on the site of Solomon's
temple, which, except with brief intermission during the
reign of the crusaders, has since then never ceased.2 — The
1 The Apocalyptic locusts' commission was against rovs avBpuirovs. So verses 4,
6, 10. In Dion Cassius, lxxvii. 9, I observe that the same insulated phrase is used
of the inhabitants of the Roman empire, distinctively.
2 The Muezzin began with Mahommedism. He is mentioned expressly in the
capitulation of Jerusalem. " The Muezzin," said Omar, " that calls the faithful to
prayers, shall not stand on the steps of the Church of Constantine."

424 apoc ix. 1 — 11. [part n.
subjugation of Egypt followed quickly on that of Syria ; —
then, some 20 or 40 years after, that of the African Pro
vince ; then, at the beginning of the eighth century, that
of Spain. All this, within the limits of Eoman Christen
dom: and cotemporaneously, — though without those limits,
and consequently without the sphere of the Apocalyptic
prefigurative vision,— that of Persia in the second quarter
of the seventh century, and that of North-west India and
of Trans- Oxiana at the commencement of the eighth. —
Let us take, in exemplification of the rapidity and extent
of their conquests and destructions, two historical state
ments. The one, that in the ten years of Omar's Caliph
ate, from 634 to 644, the Saracens had reduced to his
obedience 36,000 cities or castles, destroyed 4000 churches,
and built 1400 mosques for the exercise of the religion of
Mahomet. The other, that at the end of the first century
of the Hegira, the Arabian empire had been extended to
200 days' journey from East to West, and reached from
the confines of Tartary and India to the shores of the At
lantic. " Over all which ample space," says Gibbon, " the
progress of the Mahommedan religion diffused a general
resemblance of manners and of opinions :" 1 — over all which
ample space, we may add, the venom of the scorpion-sting
of their conquerors was made to rankle in the breasts of the
subject Christians.
For indeed the bitter contempt and hatred flowing out
from the Moslem faith towards them could not but be felt
perpetually. It was marked in the very terms of appella
tion, Christian dogs and infidels.2 The enactments of the
capitulations granted them were their every day remem
brancers of it. Deprived of the use of arms, like the He-
The minareh, it may be observed, was not erected till 690 A. D. ; and then first
at the great Mosque of Damascus. D'Herbelot iii. 157. Hence the Muezzin's
standing in Omar's time on the church-steps.
1 Gibbon ix. 361, 501.
2 " Ye Christian dogs, ye know your option, the Koran, the tribute, or the
sword." Such was Caled's characteristic address to the Romans before the battle
of Aiznadin. Such, near 200 years after, that in the letter of the Caliph Haroun Al
Raschid to the emperor Nicephorus ; " Haroun Al Raschid, Commander of the
Faithful, to Nicephorus, the Roman dog." Gibb. ix. 390, ». 54. — In later years it
has been the same from the Turks, and from the same cause. " What care I whe
ther the dog eat the hog, or the hog eat the dog ? " was the Vizier Kiuperli's an
swer to the French Ambassador, on his informing him of Louis XlVth's victories
over the Spaniards. Eton's Turkey, p. 110.

CHAP. IV. § 3.J PROGRESS OF THE FIRST WOE. 425
lots of old, and with tribute enforced as their annual life-
redemption tax, — with a different dress enjoined them from
their masters, and a more humble mode of riding, — an
obligation to rise up deferentially in the presence of the
meanest Moslem, and to receive, and gratuitously enter
tain for a certain time, whosoever of them when on a jour
ney might require it, — such were the marks of personal
degradation ordained in the Capitulations. And then, in
token of the degradation of their religion, — that to which,
notwithstanding all their superstitions, they clung with
fond attachment, — there was the prohibition to build new
churches, to chime the bells in those retained by them, or
to refuse admission into them to the scoffing Moslem,
though they regarded his presence as defilement.1 Add
to which, the inducements to apostacy, operating to an
incalculable extent, on the young and thoughtless in fami
lies more especially, and then the penalty of death against
their returning to the christian faith, the insults moreover
to christian females, and thousand undefinable injuries of
oppression ; — and how could it be but that the bitterness
of" their lot should be felt, and the poison rankle within
them, even as in other days with the Jewish captives in
Babylon, so as to make life itself almost a burden ? 2
And now we shall be better prepared to consider,
Ilndly, What is said of the locusts having a king over
them, " the angel of the bottomless pit ; whose name in the
Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath
1 The above is extracted from the Capitulation of Jerusalem granted by Omar ; a
document given by Al Wakedi, and copied into the Modern Univ. Hist. i. 429.—
Compare Gibb. ix. 499 ; who speaks of these degrading enactments as in force 200
years after.
2 " And in those days shall the men seek death, and shall not find it, and shall
desire to die, and death shall flee from them." Verse 6. A statement, of which the
meaning is made clear by the parallel one in Jer. viii. 3 ; where it is said of the
Jews taken captive to Babylon ; " And death shall be chosen, rather than life, by
all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places
whither I have driven them." And so again Job iii. 20 ; "Wherefore is light given
to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul? Which long for death,
but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hid treasures : which rejoice ex
ceedingly when they can find the grave." It is a strong proverbial expression of
great wretchedness.
Under the judgment from the sons of Ishmael, says the Pseudo-Methodius Pataren-
sis, cited p. 412, supra, " desperent homines de vita sua, in captivitatibus et calami-
tatibus suis." B. P. M. iii. 732.

426 apoc ix. 1 — 11. [part n.
his name Apollyon." By Mede this angel is explained as
meaning Mahomet. And Daubuz notices a curious fact,
as corroborative of that interpretation : I mean that not
only during his life-time did the myriads of the Arab Mos
lems acknowledge Mahomet " as both their prophet and
their king," 1 but that, even after his death, they who suc
ceeded him in the headship of the Saracens and of Islamism,
the Commanders of the Faithful, considered and called them
selves Mahomet's Caliphs or Vicars.2 — The objection to
this interpretation is, that in the Apocalypse, wherever
angels are mentioned, they seem to have been the angelic
spiritual agencies, good or bad,3 by whose unseen instru
mentality human affairs are affected. We may however,
by a modification of the interpretation, reconcile it in a
measure with the proper apocalyptic use of angel, and carry
out its point and force much further : viz. by supposing
not Mahomet personally to be intended, but the Spirit of
evil that, like the lying Spirit in the mouth of Ahab's pro
phets,4 inspired him ; and of whom Mahomet was but the
mouth and instrument. — And then, and as so interpreted,
we see not merely a singular fact predicted, but one of
important bearing on all the main points of the prophecy.
For the prediction was to this effect, — that wheresoever
the Arab locusts might travel in their career of conquest,
there they would carry the false religion of Mahomet with
them ; there, for however long, be ruled by its laws, and
actuated by its spirit. Now this was not a result neces
sary, or to have been anticipated a priori. By no means.
The Gothic invaders that conquered and settled in the
Eoman empire, embraced, almost immediately after, the
religion of the conquered, and so were rapidly amalgamated
into one people with them. The same was the case with
the Saxons afterwards, the Hungarians of the tenth cen
tury, and other invaders. But as the prediction (thus
understood) noted the fact respecting the symbolic locusts,
so in the case of the Saracens was it fulfilled. Through all
' Gibbon ix. 354. 2 So Gibb. ix. 329.
3 In Apoo. xii. 7, we find noticed the Dragon's angels, as well as God's.
4 I Kings xxii. 21, 23. — It is well to remember that the Spirits of evil, as of good,
have an individuality of work and office, as well as of person. — As to the name here
noticed, it simply marks character ; just as in Mark v. 9 ; " Our name is Legion,
for we are many."

CHAP IV. §3.] LIMITS OF THE FIRST WOE. 427
their conquests, in countries the most remote, the Koran,
the book dictated by the Spirit of the abyss to Mahomet,
was the code of religion and of law that governed them ;s
and the Caliphs, invested with civil power, were invested
simply in virtue of their religious character and office, as
Caliphs or Vicars of the false Prophet. — And hence, in
fact, the perpetuation of their character through this period
as destroyers to Christians. For the name of that Spirit
of the abyss , their king, was Destroyer. Such it appeared
in the doctrine of the Book ; such on the field of battle.
And when we consider not only the destruction of bodily
life resulting, but also the destruction of soul from the poi
sonous doctrines of Mahommedism, surely the suitableness
will be allowed by all, of the name thus given him. Oh
what a contrast, (it is one that even Gibbon cannot help
alluding to,) 2 what a contrast in character, doctrine, and
results to mankind, between the spirit that animated maho-
met and his Koran, and the Spirit of him and his Gospel
against whom Mahomet set himself, — the Prince of Princes,
the Lord Jesus : — the one the Spirit of Peace and Salva
tion ; the other the Abaddon, the Destroyer ! 3
III. But there was a term and limit prescribed to these
locusts ; a limit as to effect, — a limit as to time. They
were not to kill the men of Christendom, so as were the
agents under the second woe ; * i. e. to annihilate them as
a political christian body ; but only to torment them. And
this was to be for the defined period of 1 50 days. These
are the next points for investigation.
And first, as to the limit in effect. — When the reader
consults any carefully written history of the Saracens, he
will be almost sure to find the notice of their successes fol
lowed by a notice of certain remarkable checks that they
received after a while ; the consequence of which was the
preservation of- Christendom, both in the east, and in the
1 " It is not the propagation, but the permanency of his religion, that deserves
our wonder. The same pure and perfect impression which he engraved at Mecca
and Medina, .is preserved, after the revolutions of twelve centuries, by the Indian,
African, and Turkish proselytes of the Koran." Gibbon, ix. 350. 2 ix. 295.
3 Professor Lee compares Dan. viii. 23, 24, " A king of fierce countenance, and
that shall destroy wonderfully :" a description very similar; though the Hebrew word
there is not 13N as here. * Apoc. ix. 15, 18.

428 apoc ix. 1—1 1. [part n.
west. And he will find, intermingled with these state
ments, expressions of surprise and admiration, at checks
such as these occurring, after so long and irresistible a pro
gress of success.1 — Thus, as regards the eastern empire.
Twice did the Saracens, in the pride and plenitude of their
power, attack the vital part of that division of Christen
dom, by besieging Constantinople ; — 1st, in the seven years'
siege, which lasted from 668 to 675 ; 2ndly, in the years
716 — 718, when Leo the Isaurian was on the imperial
throne. Alike on either occasion they were unsuccessful ;
and obliged to retire, defeated and disgraced, as they had
never been before. — Similarly, in the west, after that the
Visi-gothic empire in Spain had been all but destroyed,
A.D. 71 1, in the fatal battle of Xeres, and when, its rem
nant and only germ of re-vivification being with Pelayo in
the mountains of Asturias, the Moorish Saracens, flushed
with victory, attacked, in order completely to destroy that
remnant, — their former success forsook them. They were
twice repulsed with great loss, and gave up the enterprise. ¦
Again, and yet more remarkably, in the year 732 when Ab-
dalrahman and his Moorish Saracens had prolonged a vic
torious line of march above 1000 miles, from Gibraltar to
the Loire, " adjudging to the obedience of the Prophet
whatever yet remained of France or Europe . . and in the
full confidence of surmounting all opposition either of na
ture or of man,"2 — at that crisis, when, as Gibbon declares,
" it appeared impossible for France to avoid subjugation,"
in the which case all Europe would probably have fallen,
and as regards our own island, " the interpretation of the
Koran be now taught in the schools of Oxford, and her
pulpits demonstrate to a circumcised people the truth and
1 So Gibbon x. 2 : " The calm historian,. . who strives to follow the rapid course
of the Saracens, must study to explain by what means the Church and State were
saved from this impending, and as it should seem, inevitable danger." And Hallam,
Middle Ages, ii. 169. "These conquests, which astonish the careless and super
ficial, are less perplexing to a calm inquirer than their cessation : — the loss of half
the Roman empire, than the preservation of the rest." Also ibid. p. 3.
2 Gib. x. 21, 23. Sismondi, ii. 48. In Vol. ix. p. 483, Gibbon thus notices,
further, the design of the Moorish conqueror Musa against all Christendom : " to
extinguish in Gaul and Italy the declining kingdoms of the Franks and Lombards ;
to preach the unity of God on the altar of the Vatican ; thence, subduing the bar
barians of Germany, to follow the course of the Danube to the Euxine sea ; to over
throw the Greek or Roman empire of Constantinople ; and, returning from Europe
to Asia, to unite his new acquisitions with Antioch and the province of Syria."

CHAP. IV. § 3. J LIMITS OF THE FIRST WOE. 429
sanctity of the revelation of Mahomet," — at that crisis a
bulwark was raised up most unexpectedly by the Franks
under Charles Martel. The Saracens recoiled broken and
discomfited from the blows of him that was called the ham
mer of Western Christendom ; and "Europe owes its ex
istence, its religion, and its liberty, to his victory." His
torians, I repeat, agree in speaking of these deliverances
of Christendom as events of which, at the time, there could
have been no reasonable anticipation. But to the student
of the Apocalypse, who has thus far followed and agreed
with me, it will appear all accounted for. It was said to
the Saracen locusts, " that they should not kill," not poli
tically annihilate the united church and state of Christen
dom, either in the east, or in any one of the kingdoms of
the west ; — however scorpion-like they might mutilate the
political body, and torment the men, its constituents. In
attempting to annihilate them, they exceeded their com
mission, and were repulsed.
Again there was a restriction as to time. It was to a
period of five months, or 150 days1 that their commission
was confined, to injure the inhabitants of Eoman Christen
dom. — In order to the understanding of which restrictive
clause, (a clause that will necessarily detain us some length
of time,) it is important, indeed essential, that the reader
should bear in mind two things : — 1st, that the period noted
is not that of the duration of the symbolic locusts, but of
their aggressively striking, injuring, and tormenting the
men of Eoman Christendom, with their lion-like teeth and
scorpion-stings : 2 — 2ndly, that the period intended by the
150 days is, if I am right, 150 years. For I adhere to
the principle of expounding a day as significant of a year,
in the chronological periods of symbolic prophecy: — a
principle early suggested, as I have already intimated,3 and
1 For 30 days went to a month. E. g. if we compare Gen. vii. 1 1 and viii. 3, 4, it
will appear that 150 days are the equivalent of five months.
2 Verse 5 ; " And it was given them that they (the apostatized Christians)
should be tormented by them five months ; and their torment was as the torment of
a scorpion when it has struck a man ;and in those days men shall desire to die, and
death shall flee from them." Verse 10 ; " And their power is to injure (aSiKijaai)
the men five months." — The period seems to me to be twice noticed, only by way of
emphasis; like those in Apoc. xii. 6, 14; xx. 4, 6. That is, if we accept Griesbach's
and the received text in this clause. On the various reading preferred by Tregelles
(see p. 389 supra) I shall remark afterwards. 3 p. 387 supra.

430 apoc ix. 1 — 11. [part n.
partially applied, by certain old prophetic expositors of
eminence ; and subsequently, and in more modern times,
adopted and fully carried out by Mede, and most other En
glish Protestant interpreters after him. An examination
of the objections lately urged against it, by Mr. Maitland
and others, will of course be necessaiy. This I reserve for
my comment on Apoc. xiii, as the most fitting occasion.
For the present I will only repeat my deliberate conviction
of the truth of the principle ; and beg attention to the re
mark that, in its application both here and elsewhere, it
will be my care to allow myself no more license or latitude
than such as we find distinct precedent and authority for
in other scripture chronological prophecies ; prophecies
allowed on all hands to have received their fulfilment.
This premised, we -turn to the history of the Saracenic
warfare against Eoman Christendom, to see whether there
be discernible in it any well-marked period of five symbolic
months, or 150 years, defining what we may call the inten
sity of the woe : — in other words that of the irresistible
aggressive movement of the symbolic locusts ; (irresistible,
except with the reserve implied in the restriction as to effect
already noted ; ) and that of the full outflowing of the
venom of their scorpion-stings, to wound and to torment.
In the carrying out of which inquiry, the first question
of course must he, from what act or event, as an epoch,
to date the commencement of the period. And here, — -just
as in regard of those two famous ancient prophecies, the
one Jeremiah's, respecting the seventy years of the Baby
lonish captivity, the other Daniel's, respecting the seventy
weeks to the Messiah,1 — it is not one epoch only that sug
gests itself, as that from which we might reasonably date
the commencement of the period we speak of, but two or
three. Thus did we know when first the idea established
itself in Mahomet's mind of preaching his new and false
religion, that perhaps might be considered a fit epoch of
commencement ; as being the time when the key of the
abyss was given him.2 Next there was that of the year
1 Jer. xxv. II ; Dan. ix. 24.
2 Bishop Newton on Dan. xi. makes A.D. 606 the year in which Mahomet re
tired to his cave to forge this imposture.

CHAP.IV.§3.] LIMITS OF THE FIRST WOE. 431
A.D. 609, when Mahomet began privately to preach his
divine mission, and so, in the eyes of his family, to open the
pit of the abyss ; and, yet again, that of 6 1 2, when he first
publicly announced his prophetic mission,1 and so publicly
caused the smoke of the pit of darkness to rise up before
the eyes of men. Fourthly, there was the epoch of the
year 629, when the locust-armies first issued out of the
smoke, to make their attack on Syrian Christendom.2 —
Now out of these four epochs I agree with Daubuz in se
lecting the third. I prefer it to the two first, because in
regard of the term of duration of any public woe, we ought,
I think, to have some noted public act, and not any thing
merely private, to mark both its commencement and its
end. And I am led to it, in preference to the last, because
the commencing epoch of 612 has, as we shall see, a suit
able epoch of termination corresponding with it, whereas
that of 629 has none.3 — It is to be observed, that in the
circumstances of this public opening of his mission, A. D.
612, there was then for the first time expressed that prin
ciple of propagating his false religion by violence and with
the sword, which made his followers a woe to all the coun
tries near them, and was specially a declaration of war on
Christendom. Nay, more : the organization might then
be said to have begun, the destroying commission to have
been given, and in the person of AU, whom Mahomet named
1 Gibbon ix. 255, 255, 284. — Elmacin (Hist. Sarac. p. 3.) thus notes the chro
nology of these acts. " Ut annos implevit 40 vocatus fuit ad munus propheticum :
anno autem setatis suae 44 manifestavit vocationem ; ante enim clanculdm tantum
invitavit ad Islamismum." He adds afterwards, " Anno decimo quarto migravit
Mohammed Medinam." — Hence his supposed prophetic call was in the fourteenth
year previous to the flight of Medina : or (since this flight gave date to the famous
Mahommedan aera of the Hegira, A. D. 622) A.D. 609.'
2 It is to be observed that the Christians in Arabia, and along the Red Sea,
suffered previously to the year 629 from Mahomet's persecutions : e. g. those of
Dawmat Al Iandal; as related by Al Iannabi, p. 147, referred to in the Mod. Univ.
Hist. i. 137. Some were Roman subjects. See the Note about the Roman de
pendencies in the Red Sea, p. 420 supra.
3 Some object te the application of this principle, for the determining of the
commencing epoch of the woe. To myself, common sense seems to require it. On
what other principle do we decide on the particular Persian Edict of restoration,
whence to date the 70 weeks of Daniel ? So too as to the 400 years of Gen. xv. 13.
Mr. Birks prefers the reckoning from Mahomet's death, and the Caliph Abubeker's
accession A.D. 632, to 782, when Haroun Al Rashid carried on a fierce and successful
aggression on the Eastern Empire, and concluded a treaty by which the empire was
made a permanent tributary to the caliph. I refer the reader to some subsequent
remarks on this point, and the double reckoning of the 150 years, also preferred by
Mr. Birks.

432 apoc ix. 1 — 11. [part n.
the Lion of God, the locust-form, with its lion-teeth and
scorpion-sting, to have been discernible in the smoke from
the just opened pit. For what passed on that occasion ?
" Who," said Mahomet, after announcing his mission, " will
be my Vizier and Lieutenant ? " " O Prophet," replied
Ali, "I am the man. Whoever rises against thee, I will
dash out his teeth, tear out his eyes, break his legs, rip up
his belly. O Prophet, I will be thy Vizier." On which
I find Mr. Hallam thus observing i1 " These words of Ma
homet's early and illustrious disciple are, as it were, a text
upon which the commentary expands into the whole Sara
cenic history." And, just as in the case of the 400 years
of affliction and servitude, predicted as to befal Abraham's
seed,2 the epoch of Isaac's mocking by Ishmael has by
some been fixed on as that of the commencement of the
period, because that in that mocking laugh there was mani
fested the spirit and the germ of what was more fully deve
loped afterwards,3 — so, in the case before us, the epoch of
the announcement and first manifestation of the bitter,
fanatic, persecuting spirit of Mahommedism against all op-
posers, or even dissentients, may as justly be fixed on as
that of the commencement of the. 150 years of the chief
virulence of the Saracenic woe. " After the year 6 1 2,"
says the Modern Universal History, " Mahomet sought to
propagate his religion with all his might." *
But supposing the epoch of the commencement of the
woe thus fixed, when may we consider that its five months
period of intensity ended ? Not evidently during the pro
gress of the aggressive religious wars and victories of the
Saracen Moslems. Not, that is to say, during the first
prophetic month (or thirty years) from this commencing
epoch of 612, in the course of which Syria and Egypt fell
before them: — not during the second month, in which
month Cilicia was reduced to obedience, their inroads ad
vanced to near Constantinople, and the African province
1 Middle Ages, il. 166, 167. 2 Gen. xv. 13.
* So by Mr. Ainsworth, and Dr. A. Clarke, ad loc. They compare Ga^iv. 29.
4 Mahomet's celebrated Letter to Chosroes the Persian king, enjoining him to
acknowledge him as the Apostle of God, and on his refusal, and tearing the letter,
declaring, " God will so tear the kingdom of Chosroes," occurred as early as A.D.
615, according to Boulainvilliers. See his Life of Mahomet. Gibbon would place it
somewhat later. Gibbon, viii. 226.

CHAP. IV. § 3. J LIMITS TO THE FIRST WOE. 433
invaded : — not during the third month, that in which the
subjugation of Africa was all but completed ; — or the fourth,
in which Spain was subdued, and the south and centre of
France almost to the Loire.1 The earliest date for the end
of the chief intensity of the Saracenic woe, that can for a
moment be thought probable, is that of the battle of Poic-
tiers, already spoken of, in which Charles Martel defeated
them, and which occurred in October 732, the beginning
of the fifth prophetic month. But though defeated, or at
least repulsed, on that memorable occasion,2 their power and
spirit to aggress and to torment, with all the bitterness of
fanaticism, was not terminated. " The vanquished spoil
ers," says. Mosheim,3 "soon recovered their strength and fe
rocity ; and returned with new violence to their devasta
tions." In France the strength and power of the Saracens
was so far from being crushed, that we find' its Southern
districts continued in subjection to them till the middle of
this century. Charles Martel besieged Narbonne, the chief
town of the Saracens, in vain after the battle.4 In 739 he
had to invoke aid from Luitprand King of the Lombards
against the Saracens, who had taken all the chief cities ' in
Provence, and extended their ravages as high as Vienne,
near Lyons.5 Nor were they finally driven out till some
15 or 20 years afterwards.6 In Spain the tide of their
success and supremacy, notwithstanding the ill success
of their efforts at totally extinguishing Pelayo and the Go
thic remnant, had not yet begun to ebb.7 In Africa, some
* The Syrian war was from 632 to 638, A.D. ; the Egyptian from 638 to 640;
the African began 647. " The conquests of the Saracens, suspended in Africa near
twenty years, were resumed 665, and in 689 advanced to the Atlantic. In A.D. 670
Cairoan was founded, their African capital. The conquest of Africa was completed
in a war from 698 to 709. That of Spain occupied them from 710 to 713. That of
the south of France, from the Garonne to the Rhone, was effected, 721 ; to the
Loire, 731. — The battle of Poictiers was in the month of October, 732: i. e. (as it
would seem that the date of Mahomet's public opening of his mission, A.D. 612,
was in an earlier month than October, perhaps July,) at the beginning of the fifth
prophetic month. So Daubuz, p. 414, 415.
2 "It is now believed that the slaughter at the battle near Poictiers was by no
means immense, and even that the Saracens retired without a decisive action." So
Mr. Hallam, Note 14 to the Supplement to his Middle Ages. He refers to Sismondi
ii. 132, Michelet ii. 13. 3 viii. 1. 2. 2. 4 Michelet, Hist, of France.
6 This is stated in Paul Warnefrid's History of the Lombards : and he says that
Luitbrand, accordingly, crossed the Alps to give the requested aid to Charles Martel.
6 Pepin recovered Septimania and Narbonne till A.D. 759, Sism. ii. 59.
7 Fleury (Hist. Eccles. ix. 297) gives from Sandoval (p. 87) the substance of a
treaty between an Arabian chief, and the Goths. and Romans of Coimbra in Portu-
VOL. I. 2 F

434 apoc ix. 1 — 11. [part n.
twenty years after the battle of Poictiers, the torment of
the scorpion-sting so operated, as to induce nearly the whole
Christian population of the province to apostatize, and be
come Mussulman.1 From east to west, throughout the
vast Mahommedan world, one Caliph still governed the
locust-hordes in the name of the Prophet. Their power
remained unbroken.
But just about the middle of the eighth century a change
occurred, marked by two events of such a nature, and such
importance, as to be regarded by historians, both the one
and the other, as constituting epochs most memorable in
the Saracenic history. The change was this. The Abbas-
sides, descendants of a different family of the early follow
ers of Mahomet, in the year 750 supplanted the Ommiades
in the Caliphate. — And then what followed? First the
one and only survivor of the deposed and proscribed family
escaped to Spain : and behold he was there received, ac
knowledged, and established as the lawful Caliph. This
was in the year A.D. 755. So at length was the Cali
phate divided. There was thenceforth a Caliph in the
west, in opposition to the Caliph in the east. " The Co
lossus," says Sismondi, " that had bestridden the whole
south was broken." And he adds, " This revolution did
more for the deliverance of Europe from the Mussulman
arms than even the battle of Poictiers." 2 — Such was the
first notable result.
Further, out of this change of dynasty, a second most
important consequence followed in the east. The new Ab-
bassidean Caliph, dissatisfied with the Syrian capital, where
his rivals and enemies, the Ommiades, had so long lived
and reigned, determined on building another on the western
bank of the Tigris,3 just a few miles beyond the old Eoman
gal, fixing the tax to be paid by them for permission to live as Christians ; a treaty
of the date A.D. 734.
1 In A.D. 750 a lieutenant of Africa informed the Caliph that the tribute of the
Infidels was abolished by their conversion. Gib. ix. 495.
2 Fall of Roman Empire, Vol. ii. p. 92. He dates it about the middle of August.
3 See the Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. ii. pp. 277, 279, 284, for a full account of the
building of Bagdad, and with the original Arabic authorities subjoined. The palace
of Al Manzor, and the oldest part of the city, were built on the western or Euphra
tean side ; the fort of Al Mohdi on the eastern ; round which the city afterwards
chiefly gathered. — So Benjamin of Tudela also reports of the site of the Caliph's
palace in his time ; i. e. in 1 170. — Travels, ch. xii.

CHAP. IV. §3. J LIMITS TO THE FIRST WOE. 435
Euphratean frontier. It was in the year 762 that Almanzor
there laid its foundations ; and thither the government and
head of the locusts then took its flight, far eastward, away
from Christendom. This was the era, as Daubuz well calls
it, of the settlement of the locusts.1 They no more roved,
he says, in a body as before, in quest of new conquests.
And so Dean Waddington ; 2 " The [Arab] conquerors
now settled tranquilly in the countries they had subdued."
In fact the ancient warlike spirit, at least in this eastern
division, had ceased to animate them as of old. " War,"
says Gibbon, " was no longer the passion of the Saracens."3
The very name that the Caliph gave to the new capital,
was but an indication of the comparatively peaceable cha
racter that was thenceforth to attach to the Saracens. It
was named Medinat al Salem, the City of Peace. — The
era is further noted by historians as that of the decline of
the Saracenic power. So Gibbon observes ; 4 "In this
City of Peace, amidst the riches of the East, the Abbas-
sides . . . aspired to emulate the magnificence of the Persian
Kings." — " The luxury of the Caliphs (i. e. of the Ab-
bassides,) relaxed the nerves and terminated the progress of
the Arabian empire." So Mills, in his History of Mahom
medism.6 " The period preceding was that of . . . the rise of
the Saracenic power ; that which succeeds of. . .its decline
and fall : " and Hallam: " The Abbassides . . .never attained
the real strength of their predecessors."6 — Nor must I
omit to observe on the manner in which the very geogra
phical position of the new capital contributed to the relax
ation of the woe. For not merely with reference to mari
time enterprises against it, as Mr. Hallam suggests,7 but
with reference to military also, the distance of the new
seat of government added to the difficulty, and diminished
the temptation. The locusts were no more in such imme
diate contact, as before, with Eastern Christendom.
And now, behold, instead of aggressive war on the part
of the Saracens, aggression has begun against them, and
victoriously too, on the part of the Christians. In the
1 Daubuz, p. 415. — It is to Daubuz that we are indebted for this explanation of
the 150 years. 2 ii. 44. 3 x. 41. s Ibid. 36, 40.
5 As abstracted and referred to by Faber, Sacred Calendar, ii. 285.
6 Middle Ages ii. 173. 7 Ib. 177. 2F2

436 apoc ix. 1 — 11. [part n.
west, under the son of Charles Martel, Narbonne and Sep-
timania were in the year 759 recovered, and the Saracens
driven beyond the Pyrenees.1 Again in 761, as Baronius
marks the date,2 the Christian remnant in the mountains of
Spain, under the first Alphonzo, began to roll back the
tide of war on their Saracen oppressors. — It was the same
in the east. There Constantine Copronymus, the then
reigning emperor, seized the opportunity for avenging the
wrongs, and enlarging the limits, of the Greek empire.3 —
So that the septenary of years begun A.D. 755, and end
ing 762, is obviously every way remarkable, as the period
of the deliverance of Christendom from the chief terror
and persecution of the Saracens. And either its year of
commencement, 755, or that of its termination, 762, is
just the fittest epoch, so far as I see, the one or the other,
at which to consider the intensity of the Saracen woe as
terminated. And what then the length of the period of intensity and
aggression, thus defined ? — It is possible that the exact time
when the idea was first formed by Mahomet of acting the
part of false prophet, and when thus the key was presented
to him wherewith to open the pit of the abyss, may have
been about the year 605,4 — four years before his private
preaching ; and so have furnished a date of inceptive com
mencement, corresponding with the year 755, as that of the
inceptive termination. But the epoch of decided com
mencement may rather be fixed, as we have said, at Ma
homet's public opening of his mission, A.D. 612; and
the epoch of full termination, — as regarded the Greek em
pire at least, to which in this and the next Trumpet there
seems all through a special reference, — at the removal of the
Caliphate to Bagdad, A.D. 762. Indeed there is in the
next vision, as it seems to me, a direct allusion to this re
moval, as constituting an epoch recognized and marked out
for notice in the Apocalyptic prophecy. And the interval
1 So Sismondi ii. 59, and the Univ. Hist. xxii. 393. Gibbon, a. 27, dates it
A.D. 755. 2 Others give the date A.D. 757.
3 Gibb. x. 52. — How strange, when such were the facts, the statement of Dean
Woodhouse ; that " the progressive conquests of the Saracen Mahometans continued
more than double the length of the period of 150 years ! "
4 Bishop Newton says A.D. 606. See p. 430, Note 2.

CH. IV. § 3. J SEQUEL TO THE SARACEN HISTORY. 437
between these dates of commencement and termination is,
as the reader sees, precisely that laid down in the prophecy ;
viz. five prophetic months, or 150 years.

And now we have discussed, I think, all the prophetic
details, and seen their truth and their fulfilment; more
especially as characterizing the Saracen woe during its
term of chief intensity, the above-mentioned 150 years. — A
discussion this somewhat discursive ; and which has forced
us, like the historian of the Decline and Fall, though all in
relevancy to his and our great topic, into inquiries respect
ing " the genius of the Arabian prophet, the manners of
his nation, and spirit of his religion." 1 It is to be remem
bered, however, that this period did not define the whole
duration of the Saracen power or woe.2 It was but, I
conceive, a marked primary period, within the whole period
of the vision ; just like another noted (I beg the reader's
attention to the parallel) as a primary marked period of the
second woe, under the sixth Trumpet.3 — And thus it seems
fitting that we glance, ere we quit the subject, at what
remained of the history of these apocalyptic locusts, after
the ending of their first 150 years, and memorable flight
beyond Euphrates : their later history being one of a period
during much of which the woe on Christendom might seem
to have been almost bound ; and bound, as I have already
hinted at as foreshown in the prophecy, and shall in my
1 " The genius of the Arabian prophet, the manners of his nation, and the spirit
of his religion, involve the causes of the decline and fall of the Eastern empire : and
our eyes are curiously intent on one of the most memorable revolutions, which have
impressed a new and lasting character on the nations of the globe." ix. 218.
2 In proof that the woe had not wholly terminated, yet that its character, in
respect of aggressiveness, strength, and bitter religious venom against Christians,
was very different from what it had been before, I may refer the Reader to the his
tory of the Abbassidean Caliphs, in the English Modern Univ. Hist. Vol. ii.
And hence, in fact, the opinion propounded by some expositors (Mr. Birks the
latest) as to two periods, of 150 years each, being indicated as the full duration of
the woe, by the twice exprest mention of the period of five months : — the first that
of tormenting, as in verse 5 ; the second that of injuring merely, as in verse 10. But
since verse 4 ascribes the aStKia, or injuring, to the five months' period, on its
first mention, and verse 10 the tormenting scorpion's sting to the period on its
second mention, I cannot think we are warranted in thus interpreting. Rather it
seems to me to be only emphatic ; like the twice exprest mention of the 1 000 years
in Apoc. xx. 3. 5, which does not imply two millenniums.
3 Apoc. ix. 15 ; " An hour and day and month and year."

438 apoc ix. 1 — 11. [part ii.
next Chapter have more fully to notice, by that selfsame
Euphratean locality.
There then, far East, in Bagdad and the country round
it, — after a brief temporary splendour, and temporary re
vival too into military enterprize and success, (though not
the enterprize of aggressive warfare,) from 781 to 805,
under the reigns of Mohadi and Haroun al Eashid, wherein
the Greek Emperors who had provoked it suffered pain
fully,1 — we must think of the once terrible power of the
Saracens as declined and declining : luxury and licentious
ness working their usual sure process of decay with both
prince and people, and the fervour of religious fanaticism
past away. At length, in the year 84 1 , the reigning Ca
liph, distrusting the martial spirit of his Arabs, hired a
band of 50,000 Turkmans from beyond the Oxus, to be
the support of the Caliphate at Bagdad : and these, acting
precisely the same part as the Eoman Praetorian guards
before them, revolted against, insulted, humiliated, and
deposed the Caliphs ; and so, in this case too, became a
further and powerful accelerating cause of their sovereigns'
downfal — Meanwhile among the Moslems both in Africa
and in Asia, the example of the Spanish schism had had
1 That these were not aggressive acts on the part of the Abbassidean Caliphs,
but retributive, is expressly stated by Gibbon, x. 52, 54, 55. He says : " In the bloody
conflict of the Ommiades and Abbassides, the Greeks had stolen the opportunity
of avenging their wrongs, and enlarging their limits. But a severe retribution was
exacted by Mohadi, the third Caliph of the new dynasty." An army of 95,000 men,
under his son Haroun al Rashid, after desolating Asia Minor, appeared A. D. 782 to
the terror of the empress Irene, opposite Constantinople, who bought favour by
the promise of a tribute. " As often as they [the Greeks] declined the payment
of tribute, they were taught to feel that a month of depredation was more costly
than a year of submission." On Nicephorus' accession, and refusal to pay, it was
Haroun's message, " Irene submitted to pay a tribute :.. . restore therefore the fruits
of your injustice, or abide the determination of the sword." So again afterwards,
when Nicephorus felt " encouraged to violate the peace." In every case, during these
wars of Haroun al Rashid against the Romans, which Gibbon (x. 52) dates as from
781 to 805, the aggression, or aStKia, was on the part of the Greeks. And so too on
the only other occasion recorded by Gibbon of the Saracens of Bagdad invading
Greek Christendom ; viz. in 838, when Amorium was destroyed by the Caliph
Motassem. Moreover in every case these were but desolating inroads, not terri
torial conquests.
From what has been said the unfitness of Mr. Birks' terminating epoch (A.D.
782) of the first 150 years of the Saracenic woe will be, I think, apparent. It in
cludes the 20 years before 782, when the Greeks were successfully aggressing on the
Saracens, not the Saracens on the Greeks. It makes the war of 781, 782 one of
Saracenic aggression, when it was one of retribution. Once more, it draws the line
of division at 782, in the middle of Haroun's wars against the Greeks; which wars
Gibbon classes together, as continued from 781 to 805.

CH.IV.§3.] SEQUEL TO THE SARACEN HISTORY. 439
its imitators. At Fez and Tunis, in Egypt and in Syria,
in Chorasan to the North, and Persia to the East, new and
independent dynasties were set up in the course of the
ninth century : until at length, as the tenth century opened,
the Fatimites, — descendants of that AU, Mahomet s first
Vizier, of whom we have before spoken,1 and of his wife
Fatima, Mahomet's favorite daughter, — asserted their right
ful claim, not to independent political sovereignty only,
but even to the Caliphate itself: in the prosecution of this
claim reduced Africa, Egypt, and Syria ; and, from Cairo
as their capital, became known as the third Caliphate of
Islamism, excommunicating and excommunicated by its
rivals, both at Cordova and at Bagdad. — Thus more and
more dismembered, the Abbassidean Caliphate at Bagdad
more and more languished : until the Persian independent
Moslem dynasty of the Bowides, interposing on occasion
of the factions there prevalent, advanced in the year 934
to Bagdad ; stripped the Caliph of his secular office and
supremacy ; and reduced him to his spiritual functions as
chief Pontiff of Islamism, the mere phantom thenceforward
of departed power.
Such was the progressive decline of the eastern Sara
cens ; and in that decline their brethren in the west in a
measure participated. Throughout the ninth century the
Christians of Spain were ever gaining ground on their
Moorish oppressors. In 904 the capital of Asturias was
advanced from Oviedo in the Gallician mountains to Leon ;
and that of Arragon from Jaca, in the Pyrenean vallies, to
Pampeluna. — The spirit of bravery and enterprise indeed
had not yet left the western Arabs. It appeared in the
Spanish battle-fields. It appeared in the exploits of
the marauding bands that issued both from Spain and
Africa: — of whom some, ere the middle of the ninth
century, conquered the islands of Crete and Sicily ; at
tacked, though vainly, Eome itself; nor were expelled
from their conquests, till after a tenure of above a century
in Crete, and two centuries in Sicily.2 — But these were
1 P. 432 supra.
2 Crete was seized by Saracens from Spain A.D. 823 ; regained by the Greek
emperor Nicephorus Phocas, A.D. 960. — Sicily was attacked by Saracens from Africa

440 apoc. ix. 1 — 11. [part n.
but like the marauding enterprizes of the Normans of the
eleventh century ; indeed not so remarkable. The strength
of the lions' teeth, and the venom too of the early religious
fanaticism, was greatly wanting.1 The intensity of the
woe to Christendom had evidently passed away. The Sa
racenic conquests and incursions in Crete, Sicily, and Italy,
were but a memento of what had been.
There remains just one other point to which I would
wish to call attention, ere concluding this present Chap
ter ; I mean the fact of two remarkable coincidences be
tween certain notable epochs in the history of the Saracen
woe already noticed, and others equally notable in the
ecclesiastical and religious history of Eastern Christendom.
Its apostacy, its open apostacy from Christ,2 has been
mentioned as the predicted cause of the infliction ; and
further how Mahomet and the early Saracen Moslems, un
derstanding their special commission to be against idolaters,
avowed that it was as regarding its people in that charac
ter, that they carried the war into Eoman Christendom.
Now throughout the seventh century this charge was made
against them by their conquerors and tormentors altogether
ineffectually. At length, some twenty years, or less, from
the commencement of the eighth century, the celebrated
Isaurian family was raised to the imperial throne of Con
stantinople. And its princes, otherwise doubtless illustrious,
A.D. 827 ; subdued 878 ; reconquered by the Normans, for the Greek empire, A.D.
1060 — 1090. — Rome was attacked by the Saracens from Sicily A.D. 846 ; repulsed
by Pope Leo the 4th, A.D. 849.
1 In proof of the former point we may illustrate from the facts of both the Sicilian
and Roman campaigns. To effect the conquest of Sicily, it cost the Saracens above
50 years ; viz. from A.D. 827 to 878 ; notwithstanding the weakness of the Greek
occupants of the island to resist them. Again the attack on Rome was but a
marauding attack ; which even the weak Papal government, aided by some Greek
ships from Gaeta, Naples, and Amalphi, was able to repulse. So Gibbon : " the
[old] design of conquest and dominion was degraded to a repetition of predatory
inroads." x. 61.
In proof of the latter point, let it be observed that the marauding band that
attacked and conquered Crete, did, in their marauding voyage from Alexandria, pil
lage alike the settlements of Mohammedans and of Christians, and destroy mosques
as well as churches. Says Gibbon, x. 57, " The conquest of Crete is disdained by
their own writers." — Again in Western Spain, where Christians were held in sub
jection, we read that from soon after 757 Abdulrahman, the Moorish king, changed
the former mode of treating his Christian subjects to one of greater mildness. In
the ninth and tenth centuries the Saracens even courted alliances with Christian
powers. Hallam, ii. 4.
2 It was against " the men that had not God's mark on their foreheads."

CH.IV.§3.J RELIGIOUS HISTORICAL COINCIDENCES. 441
became chiefly so on this account, because for sixty years
almost uninterruptedly, — supported by not a few really
religious, as even Gibbon admits,1 but with opposition
bitter and abiding from the great majority within the em
pire, and the Eoman Popes without it,2 — they set them
selves strenuously to wipe away the reproach of image-
worship, at least from Eastern Christendom.3 And what
followed ? It was in A. D. 717, very soon after the em
peror Leo's accession, and first decided attempt at this re
form of the church, that the grand armament of the Sara
cens attacked Constantinople. It attacked it, but was
completely defeated and repulsed. — Again, in A. D. 754,
Constantine Copronymus, the successor of Leo in determi
nation of spirit on this point,4 as well as in the throne and
kingdom, (it is of his public acts simply that I now speak,)
convened a grand synod at Constantinople, — the seventh
general Council, as he most properly called it, though it
was afterwards stigmatized and disowned, — for the express
purpose of condemning image-worship. It passed that
public sentence of condemnation on it : and behold the
very next year, as historians record, the Caliphate was
divided ; the Mahommedan colossus broken ; the scorpion-
locusts carried away, as by a strong west wind, to the
Euphrates ; the intensity of the Saracenic woe brought to
an end.
Alas ! the efforts of these emperors and of the more en
lightened of their subjects, always resisted by the majority,
proved abortive. — In the year 781 Irene succeeded to the
imperial throne : and, having murdered her iconoclastic
1 ix. 122 ; " They (the monks) were now opposed by the murmurs of many
simple or rational Christians ; who appealed to the evidence of texts, of facts, and
of primitive times, and secretly desired the reformation of the church."
2 They were branded with the reproachful name of iconoclasts : — a name of re
proach which, by a curious coincidence, was the very selfsame applied by the heathen
Sophist Eunapius, in the latter half of the 4th century, to the Christians of that
time, as the destroyers of heathen idols.
3 Gibb. ix. 129, 130, describes both the determination of the then reigning Em
peror Constantine, and the reluctance of most of his subjects to it. Upoypappa yap
egeirepipe trara iraoav e£apxiav tijv biro rijs xslpos avrov, iravras viroypa-tyai Kai opvovat
rov aBerijoat tijv irpoffKvvijoiv' ruv aeirruv eiKovuv. So John Damascenus, Op. i.
625 ; quoted by Gibbon.
4 Theophanes, on the 27th year of Copronymus, complains that whosoever said
0t oroKe Boij&ei, in address to the Virgin Mary, was punished as an enemy to the king.
See the Dissertation on the Byzantine coinage in Ducange's Supplement, p. 27.

442 apoc ix. 12. [part n.
husband, who stood in the way of her object, she gathered
in 787 another synod, the famous seventh General Coun
cil ;x in the which the decrees of the former Council were
reprobated and disavowed, and the worship of images, by
a solemn act of the Catholic Church, declared lawful. It
was just about this time that the Saracenic woe, though
already broken, seemed as if it had received a temporary
revivification. Guided by Haroun Al Eashid, (as already
before intimated,) the Arab forces from Bagdad swept
across the lesser Asia, on provocation from the Greek Em
peror, not once only, but eight times, bearing down all
opposition before them. Was there not a memento of
warning from heaven in it ? — But the Eastern Church per
sisted. Under the influence of the empress Theodora the
struggle ended finally, in the year 842, in the undisputed
ascendancy and establishment of image-worship. — And
what then the consequence ? With characteristic forbear
ance, as we have seen, the Lord continued to this guilty
people the interval of mitigation and of respite, through
the ninth and much of the tenth century. But would He
endure the provocation much longer ? How long would
be the respite before another woe ? 2

CHAPTEE V.
PAUSE BETWEEN THE FIFTH AND SIXTH TRUMPETS.
"One woe is past ! — Behold there come two more woes
hereafter." 3 Apoc. ix. 1 2.
When might the Saracen woe be said to have termi
nated ? — Perhaps we might fix on the epoch of A. D. 934,
when the Caliphate at Bagdad was stripped, as has been
noted, of its temporal power : perhaps on the period of
from 960 to 980 or 985, when the public and striking
1 Called also the second Council of Nice.
2 Our Homily on Peril of Idolatry, Part ii, speaks similarly of the idolatry of
professing Christendom as the cause of the Saracenic and Turkish woes.
8 There is no difference of the least importance between the texts of the received
and the critical editions.

CHAP. V.] PAUSE BEFORE THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 443
evidence of it was exhibited to Christendom, in the con
quest, from those once terrible enemies, of Crete, Cyprus,
Cilicia, Antioch ; when the Greek arms were borne tri
umphantly eastward, even across the Euphrates ; and, in
the west, the last great attempt of the Moorish Saracens
against the rising Christian kingdoms in Spain, was, after
a temporary success, totally repulsed, and the Moslems,
with continually contracted dominions, reduced finally, and
almost for ever, to the defensive.1 Let us take the last-
mentioned epoch, which dates, we said, about the close of
the tenth century. In correspondence with it there seems
to have been a pause in the prophetic representations : and
perhaps too a silence from tempests in the firmamental
heaven ; such as that noticed as occurring before the
blowing of the Trumpets.2 And nothing broke it to the
Evangelist on the apocalyptic scene, but the solemn inti
mation, " One woe is past ! Behold there come two more
woes after it."
The aera that I suppose to be here referred to is one me
morable in European history, for a panic of very remarkable
origin and results, which then intensely agitated men's
minds, especially in Western Christendom. It was supposed
that with the end of the tenth century the world would end
also. The opinion arose, doubtless, from Augustine's in
terpretation of the apocalyptic millennium, as that millennial
or rather quasi-millennial period of Christ's triumph by his
church over Satan, which, beginning at his first advent and
miracles, would only terminate with Satan's re-loosing and
Antichrist's manifestation, just before the consummation of
all things.3 I say quasi-millennial, because in Augustine's
1 I allude to the wars of Almanzor, Vizir of Haccham the 2nd ; who for a short
time almost revived the Saracen woe to the Spanish Christians. In A.D. 980, he
attacked and defeated them, and destroyed Leon and Barcelona ; but was in 990 and
998 defeated by Dons Sancho and Garcia : and, after the latter repulse, in despair
committed suicide. " With him," says the learned writer in the English Univ.
Hist. xxii. 411, "expired the fortune of the Cordovan Moors." So too Hallam ii. 4.
2 See p. 303 supra.
•1 Mosheim (x. 2. 3. 3) speaks of the opinion as first springing up in the ninth
century; " superiori jam saaculo ex loco Johannis Apoc. xx. 3, 4, nata." He does
not however advert to Augustine's interpretation of that passage : an interpretation
grounded by him on our Lord's saying, Matt. xii. 29, " No man can enter a strong
man's house, &c, unless he first bind the strong man;" and which I shall have
to set forth more fully in the closing Part of this Work.

444 apoc ix. 12. [part ii.
own mind, we have seen, as well as in that of interpreters
following him in the fifth and sixth centuries, the full defi
nite value of 1000 years was not supposed to attach to this
ecclesiastical millennium. Their expectation that the sab-
batism of the saints would ensue after the world's lasting
6000 years, and belief in the Septuagint chronology, which
reckoned 5500, or else 5350, or at least 5200, out of the
6000, to have already elapsed at the Nativity,1 made them
construe the apocalyptic millennium as only that interval
which yet remained after Christ's birth to complete the
sixth millennary ;— perhaps 500 years, or it might be 600,
or 700, or a little more.2 But the Greek Septuagint with
its chronology having, in the long interval since Gregory I,
been altogether superseded in Western Europe by the La
tin Vulgate, and Hebrew chronology there given, — and the
sabbatical theory too having been probably forgotten in
the darkness of those dark ages, — the main point only of
Augustine's interpretation was remembered; I mean his
construing the time of Satan's binding to signify that of
the present supremacy of the church over him. And
the natural and reasonable alteration having been ap
plied to this his opinion about the millennium, of its being
not, as he had supposed likely, a mere fraction of a thou
sand years, but a thousand years fully and exactly, it was
scarce possible but that, as the tenth century drew near,
and yet more after it had begun and was advancing, the
subject should be felt one of intense personal interest. Thus
it was then frequently preached on, and by breathless
crowds listened to ; the subject of every one's thoughts,
every one's conversation. The time, they thought, was
actually come ; the end of all things at hand ; the loosing
of Satan, Antichrist's manifestation, and, what was most

1 See p. 371. Augustine's words are these: "Mille anni duobus modis possunt
intelligi : — aut quia in ultimis annis mille ista res agitur, i. e. sexto annorum milliario,
cujus nunc spatia posteriora volvuntur, secuturo deinde sabbato quod non habet
vesperam ; ut hujus milliarii novissimam partem, quae remanebat usque ad terminum
Sfficuli, mille annos appellaverit, eo loquendi modo quo pars significatur a, toto ; aut
mille annos pro annis omnibus hujus sseculi posuit." C D. xx. 7. 2.
2 The Vulgate was the Latin translation made by Jerome from the Hebrew; and
A.M. 4000 the date of Christ's birth, as computed from it. About the year A.D. 527
Dionysius, a Roman abbot, computed from, and mainly contributed to introduce
into use, this the Vulgar JEra.

CHAP. V.J PAUSE BEFORE THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 445
terrible, the day of judgment.1 — Belief on such a subject
could not be inoperative. Its form of working took its
character from that of the times. Under the impression
of its truth multitudes innumerable, says Mosheim, having
given their property to monasteries or churches,2 travelled
to Palestine, where they expected Christ to descend to
judgment. Others bound themselves by solemn oath to
be serfs to churches or to priests ; in hopes of a milder
sentence on them, as being servants of Christ's servants.
In many places buildings were let go to decay, as that of
which there would be no need in future. And on occasions
of eclipses of sun or moon, the people fled in multitudes for
refuge to the caverns and the rocks. — But the time of the
consummation, fixed in God's counsels, was not yet. In
the apocalyptic chronology it was written, " One woe hath
past : behold there come yet two more woes after them."
— The dreaded 1000th year came and past, without any
great calamity accompanying ; and gradually the alarm
and the expectation died away.
Yet there was woe at hand, the prophecy declared, though
of another kind;— the woe of the sixth Trumpet. And
where to fall, and on whom ? Was it to be on western
Christendom : which, though not without spots less dark
at times, and points of relief,3 had been too universally and
1 Both Mosheim, ubi sup., and Michelet, Hist, de France, iv. 1, furnish interesting
illustrations. 1. In the records of the Council of Trosly, held A.D. 909, we read thus. "Dum
jam jamque adventus imminet illius in majestate terribili, ubi omnes cum gregibus
suis venient pastores in conspectuni pastoris aeterni." (from Mansi xviii. p. 266.)
2. Trithemii Chronic. A.D. 960. "Diem jam jam imminere, dicebat (Bernhardus
eremita Thuringiae), extremum et mundum in brevi consummandum."
3. Abbo, Abbot of Fleuri on the Loire, A.D. 990. (Galland. xiv. 141.) " De fine
quoque mundi coram populo sermonem in ecclesia Parisiorum adolescentulus andivi,
qubd statim finite mille annorum numero Antichristus adveniret, et non longo post
tempore universale judicium suceederet. . . . Fama paene totum mundum impleverat,
quid quando Annunciatio Dominica in Parasceue contigisset, absque ullo scrupulo
finis saeculi esset."
4. Guglielmi Godelli Chronic, (ap. Script. Fr. x. 260.) "A.D. MX in multis
locis per orbem, tali rumore audita, timor et maeror corda plurimorum occupavit ;
et suspicati sunt multi finem saeculi adesse."
5. Rad. Glaber, iv. 49: " jEstimabatur enim ordo temporum et elementorum
praeterita ab initio moderans secula in chaos decidisse perpetuum, atque humani
generis interitum."
2 Almost all the donations of this century, says Mosheim, mention as their occa^
sion, " Appropinquante mundi termino," — See too his notice of the panic, and its
passing away, xi. 2. 4. 3.
3 Such, I doubt not, were to be found in some few of the Benedictine monasteries ;
as well as in the more eminent exceptions of reformers, like Claude of Turin.

446 apoc ix. 12. [part ii.
progressively settling down since Pope Gregory's time,
last-noted,1 into the damionolatrous apostacy,2 with its pre
dicted accompaniments (of which more in a later chapter)
of clerical fraud, avarice, superstition, and licentiousness ;3
till in the tenth century its moral debasement was such, as
to fix on that century the appellation of the iron age ? *
Or was it to fall distinctively on Rome itself, the western
religious capital : where all these evils had been long more
than elsewhere rampant ;5 and where the impiety and pro
fligacy, specially of its popes and cardinals, (witness the
names of Theodora, Marozia, and John XII) had in this
same tenth century risen to such a height,6 as according,
1 See pp. 378—388 supra.
2 Witness, for example, Claude's account of the universal image-worship in his
diocese, on his entering it about A.D. 820.
3 See for the prediction Apoc. ix. 20, 21, a passage which will come under full re
view in Part iii, chap, i ; and for historical proof of its incipient fulfilment, before the
Turkish woe, Mosheim's dark general sketches of the 7th, 8th, '9th, and 10th cen
turies, with the authorities in his margin.
Let me add, by way of corroboration, (as Mr. Maitland has lately given a very dif
ferent colour to the period in his " Dark Ages,") a reference to the following Coun -
cils; the ixth and xvith of Toledo, Canons 10, 3, respectively held A.D. 655, 693 ;
that of Chalons, Canons 14, 15, 18, held 813 ; that of Aquis Granum, Canon 39,
&c, held 816 ; that of Paris, Canons 25, 34, held 829 ; that of Aquis Granum again,
Canons 11, 12, held 836; and that of Trosly, near Soissons, Canon 9,held 909.
In that of 836 the following statement is made respecting certain convents ; a
statement which will serve to introduce others similar, that will be quoted in Part
iii, ch. i, with reference to a later age ; " Monasteria puellarum in quibusdam locis
potius lupanaria videntur esse quam monasteria." Hard. iv. 1398. — And in that of
829 there occurs an allusion to a habit, evidently not infrequent, of the clergy being
licensed to live in concubinage, for a money-price paid to their ecclesiastical supe
riors ; which will also there be shown by me to have had its continuance and ex
pansion in a later age. Berengaud, a Benedictine monk of that aara, reprobates it in
his Comment on Apoc. xviii, as a crying sin of the time : " Scelus pessimum ab iis
qui archidiaconi appellantur committitur ; ab adulteris presbyteris pretium accipiunt,
et tacendo in malum consentiunt." The passage is well worth referring to. The
Benedictine Editor refers to the Councils of Paris, Chalons, &c, in illustration. See
too in D'Achery, i. 347, or, Ratherius de Contemptu Canonum, A D. 950.
4 So Baronius; "Saeculum quod pro boni sterilitate ferreum appellari consuevit."
6 The Roman Popes in the 8th and 9th centuries had been the main agents in
effecting the enactment and reception of the idolatrous canons of the 2nd council
of Nice. — Further, the current though mistaken belief of the existence and story of
the female Pope, Joan, may suffice to characterize the moral state of Rome and its
pontificate, in the latter part of the same 9th century.
6 " Romanorum antistitum qui hoc saeculo vixere historiam non hominum, sed
monstrorum, scelerum, fiagitiorum atrocissimorum historiam esse, optimi quique
scriptores, et ipsi Romanorum pontificum patroni, fatentur." — Mosh. x. 2. 2. 2.
Genebrard speaks of the Popes as rather apostates than apostles. " Hoc quidem
infelix quod per annos fere 150 Pontifices circiter 50, a Joanne scilicet VIII ad
Leonem IX usque, a virtute majorum prorsus defecerint ; apotactici apostaticique,
potius quam apostolici." Hist. p. 552, on the beginning of the 10th Century, cited
by Vitringa, p. 150. And so too Baronius.
Of the earlier half of the eleventh, or next succeeding century, let the case of
Benedict IX. be taken as a sample : — a boy brought up in debauchery, and made

CHAP. V.] PAUSE BEFORE THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 447
not to Mosheim only, but even to Baronius, might seem to
have cried to heaven, like as from another Sodom, for
vengeance ?
No ! not so ! For Antichrist (supposing our presump
tion as to his identity with the Eoman Popes correct) had
not yet grown up in those western regions to full maturity
of development : and it was in God's purpose, as before
said, that for this his predicted complete development scope
and time should be given. — For the present eastern Chris
tendom was to be again the chief and primary sufferer : it
being indeed sunk as deeply as the west in apostacy ; though
not, like it, subject to a single heading Antichrist. Here
it was, I say, and near about this time, that the new woe
was fated to fall : although certainly at the time spoken of,
judging by human calculations, the probability of such a
visitation might have seemed very small.
It was the second Basil that was then on the throne of
Constantinople : x his long reign having extended from the
year 976 through the first quarter of the 1 1th century.
And when we think what, on his looking around, and con
sidering what was and had been, must have past before
him, it will be found that he might reasonably, as I said,
on mere human calculations, have prognosticated prosperity
and splendour, rather than woe, to the Greek empire.
For let us make the review with him. — Since the era of
Haroun Al Easchid no woe, like that of the Saracens, had
come near, so as to mutilate or to mar the empire of the
city of Constantine.2 The only irruption on Christendom
Pope at the age of twelve : and of whose subsequent character in the Pontificate,
Desiderius, Abbot of Cassino, afterwards Pope Victor III, thus writes ; " Cujus qui-
dem post adeptum sacerdotium vita quam turpis, quam fseda, quamque execranda
extiterit, horresco referre." Cited by Merle in his Hist, de la Reform, i. 29. (Ed. 1 839.)
1 He was of the fourth Greek dynasty subsequentto the rise of Mahommedism. —
The one first reigning was the Heraclian ; which continued through the seventh
century, and so bore the brunt of the Saracen woe. The next was the Isaurian ;
which filled the eighth century, and was memorable for its part in the iconoclastic
controversy. Thirdly there was the less notable Phrygian dynasty, which continued
only about fifty years : and then, fourth, the Macedonian, begun by Basil I, A.D.
867, and to which belonged also that Basil II of whom we now speak, as reigning
150 years after. It was superseded by the Comnenian, A.D. 1057 ; just in time to
receive and suffer under the first Turkish onset.
2 So Gibbon of Constantinople in the tenth century, x 103; " Her treasures
might attract ; but her virgin strength had repelled, and still promised to repel, the
invasions of the Persian and Bulgarian, the Arab and the Russian."

448 apoc.-ix. 12. [part ii.
that might at all be deemed a woe, that of the Hungarians,
from 889 to 955, x had scarcely been felt in the Greek
dominions. Its course had been* speedily deflected from
Constantinople ; followed the line of the Danube into the
heart of Germany ; thence sent out its ravaging detach
ments into Italy, North Germany, and the south of France ;
and been then at length utterly defeated, and repelled out
of Christendom, into that ancient Dacian province, which
has subsequently borne from them the name of Hungary.
Thus enjoying a long comparative exemption from the
desolations of foreign invasion, with a loyalty and civil
union of its provinces unknown in other kingdoms, — the
insurrectionary movements of the Greeks, when such there
were, scarce ever extending beyond the day and the capi
tal, — with a superiority of naval strength in the Mediter
ranean, and an active commerce, the source of national
wealth resulting, the empire had had time and means to
recover in no little measure from the effects of the tremen
dous Saracenic scourge. — There seemed indeed to be in
herent in it a principle of vitality, and of endurance, un
known elsewhere. Unchanged itself, how many the
changes that had been witnessed by the city of Constan
tine ! Inviolate, how many assaults had she repulsed !
Yea, more ! She had within the last half century waked
up, as with somewhat of the revived vigour of youth, to
a measure of military enterprize and success. — The two
immediate predecessors of Basil, — Nicephorus and John
Zimisces, — had conquered Crete, Cyprus, and Cilicia from
the Saracens. And Basil had himself just achieved (it was
in the year 1017) a yet more important triumph, in the
conquest of the Bulgarians : — that power of which the rise
was associated with the history of Belisarius and Justinian ;
which had in 680 been consolidated into a kingdom ; and
which, — including as it did, under its jurisdiction not Bul
garia proper only, between Thrace and the lower Danube,
but the provinces also, half peopled by its colonists, of
Dardania, Thessaly, Epirus,2 — and connected too, as it
1 A.D. 934 is the date of Henry the Fowler's victory; 955 of that of Otho.
2 In the famous dispute of ecclesiastical jurisdiction between the patriarchs of
Eome and Constantinople in the ninth century, the provinces of Dardania, Thessaly,

CHAP. V.] PAUSE BEFORE THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 449
was, with the kindred bands of Servians, Bosnians, Croats,
Wallachians, by which in the eighth and ninth centuries
the whole country obliquely from the Danube to the Adri
atic had been occupied and Sclavonized,1 — had been al
ways, even after its embracing Christianity, like a thorn
in the side to the Greek empire.2 Thus circumstanced, —
with victory again attending its banners, with a measure of
fresh spirit infused into both rulers and people, with its
dominions extended from Antioch to Belgrade,3 and from
the mouths of the Danube, beyond Greece, to its subjected
province in the south of Italy, — was there not reason for
Basil, from considerations of its own present state, to augur
well of the future prospects of his empire ?
And certainly these anticipations might have been
strengthened by a consideration of the state of other sur
rounding countries. For whence was any overwhelming
woe- likely to arise and fall on it ? From the western
European states ? But these were but constituent parts
of the christian world : a guarantee, it might seem, almost
of itself, against their falling as a woe on another division
of Christendom. Moreover, if the will were theirs, the
power seemed wanting. United though they were by
that singular religious tie of looking to Eome as their com
mon ecclesiastical head, (a relation to it from which the
Greek empire had in the ninth century completely eman
cipated itself),4 yet politically there was no confederation,
nor any likely principle of combination, for common pur
poses of war. And separately considered, and individually,
it needed not the practised eye of a Greek politician to
discern their weakness. The Anglo-Saxon dynasty in
and the two Epiri, are assigned to the kingdom of Bulgaria. So Baronius Ann. Eccl.
A.D. 869, referred to by Gibbon x. 196.— Lychnidus,*or Achrida, was the Bulgarian
capital, and seat of its patriarch.
1 "As early," says Gibbon, x. 105, "as the eighth century, Greece,. and even
Peloponnesus, were overrun by some Sclavonian bands, which outstripped the royal
standard of Bulgaria." He quotes from Constantine Porphyrogenitus the state
ment; EcrBAaBuBii iraaaij xuPa< Hai yeyove &ap$apos'* (Themat. ii. 6 :) and from the
Epitomizer of Strabo, whose date is fixed by Dodwell at A.D. 980, Kai vvv Sij iraoav
'Wtreipov, Kai 'EA\a5a axeSov, Kat MaKeSoviav, Kat He\oirovvijoov Sicudai ^xAaBot
vepovrai. — This was the Illyrian or middle third of the Roman Empire in the 4th
century; on which see my pp. 339, 340 supra.
2 In the year 903 the Bulgarian king dictated the conditions of peace, while be
sieging Constantinople. Anc. Un. Hist. xvii. 87. 3 Gib. x. 351.
4 Under the patriarchate of the famous Photius.
VOL. I. 2 G

450 apoc ix. 12. [part n.
England had just been conquered by Canute the Dane ; 1
— a new conquest that might be expected to prolong its
state of civil disunion and semi-barbarism. In France the
Carlovingian dynasty, fallen by its own weakness, had been
succeeded by that of Capet ;2 and the latter, — disorganized
as the whole kingdom was, and specially paralyzed by the
inroads on its north-western coasts of the ferocious Nor
mans, — shrunk from even the attempt of subjecting the
independent princes that held fiefs of the crown. In the
Germanic empire a similar multitude of independent prin
cipalities was conspicuous ; notwithstanding even their
temporary combination under Henry the Fowler and Otho,
for the repelling of the Hungarians. The attempt of
Charlemagne to bind together his vast dominions, had
proved to be premature. They were compressed by his
giant grasp, not combined ; and when his grasp was re
laxed in death, separated necessarily into their political
molecules. It was possible that out of these molecules,
instinct as they were with vitality, new forms of political
life and energy might in time arise. But for the present
a retrogradation into barbarism was the consequence. In
Spain the christian nascent kingdoms of Asturias and Na
varre had too full occupation for their rude valor and chi
valry in the Moorish wars, to think of others far distant.
And as for Italy, trisected as she was, (and seemed fated to
be,) between the papal estates in the centre, the northern
attached to the Germanic empire, and the southern, now
chiefly in the hands of the Greeks themselves, what could
she do, except with her papal thunders, which in Constan
tinople and its empire were impotent ? — Thus much as re
garded the states of western Christendom. To the north,
the conquest of Bulgaria had not only removed an enemy,
but restored to the empire the Danube, as its strong fron
tier line of defence. And the settlement of the Hungarians
beyond it might, now that they had become christianized,3
be deemed a further bulwark ; indeed all that was needed
against other invaders from that quarter. — It was true that
1 A.D. 1016. s A.D. 987.
3 This was in the tenth century. — The family of Aipad formed, and reigned 300
years over, the kingdom of Hungary; beginning A.D. 972.

CHAP. V.J PAUSE BEFORE THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 451
the Russians, a new barbarous power, half Scandinavian,
half Sclavonian, had explored another route in their naval
marauding expeditions ; and descending their rivers from
the far North into the Euxine, had from time to time
threatened, and sometimes humiliated, the Greek capital.1
Moreover respecting them a singular prophecy was rife,
said to be inscribed on an equestrian statue in the square
of Taurus, to the effect that the Eussians would in the
last days become masters of Constantinople.2 But their
power, sufficient to annoy, seemed quite insufficient to con
quer ; and the prophecy idle, and to be despised. — Thus
the Mahommedan dynasties to the east and south alone re
mained to be considered. And certainly, split as the
Saracens had been into three hostile Caliphates, and ten
or twelve fragments of kingdoms, — from those of Spain,
Morocco, and Fez westward, to the principalities of the
Fatimites in Egypt and Syria, and so on to the Abbassides
at Bagdad, and beyond them the independent dynasties of
Khorasan and Persia, — I say, thus divided as they had be
come among themselves, and inferior to the Christians as
they had proved of late in battle, there seemed little to be
apprehended from them. The only really formidable power
1 These Russian marauding excursions were continued at intervals from 865 to
1043. The christianization of Russia began, but with very partial success, during
the patriarchate of Photius. The more proper aera is that of the baptism of the
Russian Queen Olga in Constantinople, A D. 955.
2 So Gibbon x. 233 ; " By the vulgar of every rank it was asserted, and believed,
that an equestrian statue in the square of Taurus was secretly inscribed with a pro
phecy," &c. And in his Note he says that this was a brazen statue which had been
brought from Antioch, and was melted down by the Latins. He refers for autho
rities to Nicetas Choniates, Codinus, and a writer on the Antiquities of Constan
tinople, who lived about A.D. 1100. "They witness," he says, "the belief of the
prophecy; the rest is immaterial."
In a curious Book entitled Vaticinia Abbatis Joachimi, printed at Venice A.D.
1589, the Editor, Paschalinus Regisilmus, states in his Annotations at p. 1, that
certain Greeks asserted their nation's propriety in Joachim's prophecies ; ascribing
them to one of their emperors, of philosophic turn, named Leo, and reporting that
they were engraved on an ancient column at Constantinople. Paschalinus rebuts
the claim indignantly, as an injury to the prophetic fame of Joachim ; and adduces
evidence to show that no such engraved column or statue then existed in the By
zantine capital. — Presuming that the column or statue intended was the same with
that mentioned by Gibbon, the asserted melting it down by the Latins, on their
capture of the city, would account for its disappearance. That a remembrance of
the prophecy itself, or some similar one, has been kept up among the Turks as well
as Greeks, even till now, the author can himself testify ; his Janissary having related
it to him, and added that it was frequently talked of in the Turkish coffee-houses at
Constantinople. — The prophecy is noticed by Mr. Forster, i. 491. He refers to Wal-
lichius, Vit. Mohametis, p. 158. 2 G 2

452 apoc ix. 12. [part u.
was that, of which rumour must have told, of the Sultan
Mahmoud of Ghizni, near Caubul, in the far East.1 But
this was far distant. He had almost absorbed himself in the
great enterprize of the subjugation of India ; and he was
now moreover in his old age, and the empire likely to fall
to pieces at his death. — Thus even to that quarter Basil
might have looked without any great apprehension. Poli
tical security, and even prosperity, seemed assured to his
Greek kingdom, on the most considerate review that he
could make of the then state of the world. No woe seemed
from any side to threaten ; least of all from the Euphrates
and Bagdad. Could a power so fallen be resuscitated?
Could religious fanaticism be rekindled from its embers,
and under a new commission, become again terrible ?
So might the royal Basil have naturally thought within
himself. Devoted as he was to the Greek superstitions, it
is not likely that the guilt of image-worship, and of its
many accompanying corruptions, such as, we shall pre
sently see, still flourished unchecked in the empire, would
have weighed upon his mind, as that which must needs
bring down again God's vengeance. That fearful declara
tion against them that receive not the love of the truth,
" God shall send them strong delusion that they shall be
lieve a lie," had already begun to have its fulfilment. — But
with real Christians, such as St. John represented on the
Apocalyptic scene, the impression must have been most
different. As they had seen one woe already sent to
punish the apostate nation, so there must have sounded in
their ears a foreboding sound of other judicial woes yet to
come. For self-delusion was not security. In fact even
while men were saying, Peace and safety, sudden destruc
tion impended on the Greek empire ; and that from the
very quarter least looked to with apprehension. The
agencies were prepared : the Trumpet blown again : and
the four angels, under a new commission to destroy, let
loose from the Euphrates.
' Cities that have of late years been the scenes of the triumph, and once of the cata
strophe, of British armies. The question seems natural, Can it be without some high
object in the divine counsels, that the British from the far west have, in this latter age
of the world, advanced their Indian empire to the confines of Cabul and Ghizni?

CH. VI. ^ 1 .] OCCASION OF THE SECOND WOE. 453
CHAPTEE VI.

" And the sixth angel sounded ; and I heard one x voice
from the four horns of the golden altar which is before
God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet,
Loose the four angels that are bound at the great river
Euphrates.2 And the four angels were loosed ; which
were prepared for (or after) 3 the hour and day and month
and year,4 to slay the third part of men. And the number
of the armies of the horsemen were [two] myriads of my
riads :5 I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the
horses in the vision, and those that sate on them, having
breast-plates of fire, and of jacynth, and brimstone. And
the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions : and out
of their mouths issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone. By
these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire,
and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out
of their mouths. For the power of the horses 6 is in their
mouths, and in their tails. For their tails were like to
serpents, having heads : and with them they do hurt." 1 —
Apoc. ix. 13 — 19.
§ 1.  THE OCCASION, LOCAL ORIGIN OF, AND NATION
COMMISSIONED IN, THE SECOND WOE.
" And I heard one voice from the four horns of the golden
altar which is before God ; saying to the sixth angel which
had the trumpet, Loose the four angels that are bound by
1 ptav (puvijv.
2 rovs SeSepevovs eirt tu irorapu. On the above rendering of the eiri compare Matt.
xxiv. 33, eyyvs eortv eirt Bvpais, he is near at the door ; Thucydides, iii. 99, irepnro-
Atov em tu AAijki iroraptu, by the river, &c. It is Tregelles' rendering.
3 So Mede ; "post diem &c." I shall observe on it afterwards.
1 eis tijv upav Kai ijpepav Kai pijva Kat evtavrov.
6 Suo ptvpiaSes pvptaSuv. So the textus receptus. Tregelles reads SvopvptaSes.
Griesbach and Michaelis prefer altogether to reject the Svo, as I shall have to mention
afterwards. 6 'H yap e^ovoia ruv iiriruv ev ru aropart avruv eon, Kai ev rats ovpats avruv.
Griesbach, Tregelles, &c.
7 There are no other variations in the critical editions from the textus receptus,
but those that have been specified.

454 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part ii.
the great river Euphrates ! — And the four angels were
loosed : which were prepared . . ; . . for to slay the third
part of men."
I. The thing most observable in the voice here spoken
of is the point whence it issued ; viz. the four horns of the
golden altar of incense. Now, when a voice of command,
whether as here for the commissioning of judgment, or as
elsewhere for its arrest, proceeded from the throne in the
inner temple, from the heavenly Spirit, or from some
divinely-sent angel,1 — in cases like these the meaning is
plain. It was an intimation that it originated from God.
But what when proceeding (which is more seldom the case)
from some other local scene or source ? In every such ex
ample we shall find, if I mistake not, that the locality
whence the voice invocative of judgment proceeded, was
one associated with the sin or guilt to be punished. So in
the history of Cain, Gen. iv. 10 ; " The voice of thy bro
ther's blood crieth unto me from the ground." So in Job's
protestation of innocence, xxxi. 38 ; " If my land cry
against me, or that the furrows thereof complain ; if I have
eaten the fruits thereof without money, or caused the own
ers thereof to lose their life." So in Habakkuk's denunci
ation against Babylon, ii. 11; " The stone shall cry out
of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer
it ; Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and esta-
blisheth a city by iniquity:" and, yet again, in the denun
ciation by St. James, v. 4, against the Jews of his time ;
" The hire of the labourers who have reaped down your
fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth." Once
more in Isaiah lxvi. 6, (an example more exactly parallel
with that before us,) we read; "A voice of noise from
the city ! a voice from the temple ! a voice of the Lord
that rendereth recompence to his enemies : " and we find
this preceded by an appalling statement of the manner in
which not only otherwise had the Jewish citizens done evil
against God, but even in the temple itself had provoked
Him, by profaning its holy sacrifices and services. " He
that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man ; he that offereth
1 Compare Apoc. iv. 5, xvi. 17; xiv. 13; vii. 2, &c.

CH. VI. §1.] OCCASION OF THE SECOND WOE. 455
an oblation as if he offered swine's blood : he that burneth
incense as if he blessed an idol." So that in that case the
very incense-altar and altar of sacrifice, profaned as they
had been by the Jews, were scenes of their guilt ; and
scenes consequently from which, as well as from the city
of their iniquitous lives, a voice issued denouncing ven
geance against them : — " A voice from the city ; a voice
from the temple; a voice of the Lord rendering recom-
pence ! " — Just similarly, though with an inversion of the
reasoning, in the case before us, since a cry was heard
announcing and commissioning judgment against the third
part of men, from the incense-altar, in the Apocalyptic
temple of vision, it was to be inferred that that mystic
incense-altar had been a scene of special sin, (whether
through profanation or neglect,) on the part of the above-
noted division of the men of Eoman Christendom.
But this explanation is only partial. The Evangelist
does not in mere general phrase describe the voice as issu
ing from the incense-altar, but specifically from the four
horns of it : "I heard one voice from the four horns of the
golden altar which is before God." It would seem there
fore as if there had been guilt contracted, in respect of
some such particular ritual as these horns of the altar were
one and all alike concerned in. And what, we inquire, the
rites of this character ? I believe there were just three
services in the Mosaic ritual, and only three, in which,
agreeably with the divine injunction, this altar's horns were
thus used. The two first were the occasional atoning ser
vices for sins of ignorance, when brought to light, either
of the priests as priests, or of the people collectively as a
people ; the third that of the stated and solemn annual
atonement, for the sins both of priests and people, on the
great day of expiation.1 Thus the object of the three ser-
1 On the rite of atonement for the priest's sins of ignorance see Levit. iv. 3 — 7 ;
on that for the people's, ib. 13 — 18 ; on that of the great day of atonement, Lev.
xvi. 1 — 18. — The original command of the last-mentioned rite was given in Exod.
xxx. 10. It had been previously said, with reference to that part of the usual ritu
alistic service with which the incense-altar was associated, " Aaron shall burn sweet
incense thereon every morning, . . and at even ; . . a perpetual incense before the Lord
throughout your generations. Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon." So that
three points were herein enforced ; the offering morning and even, — the doing it by
the Aaronic priesthood, — and the offering sweet incense ; besides what was added
elsewhere, (Lev. a. 1, 2,) using fire from the great altar of sacrifice : in any of which

456 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part n.
vices was similar : and, with the exception of what was
peculiar to the great day of atonement, in the High priest's
entering into the Holy of Holies and the rite of the scape
goat, there was much of similarity in the ceremonials. In
each case the hands of the party seeking reconcilement and
forgiveness were to be laid on the head of the victim, and
his sins told over it ; then, after the sacrifice of the animal
victim, its blood to be sprinkled by the priest seven times
before the vail of the sanctuary, and then some of the
blood to be put upon the horns of the altar of incense.
So was an atonement to be made for the sins of the trans
gressors, especially for their sins in respect of holy things ;
and so it was promised that their sins should be forgiven
them, and that the holy place, tabernacle, and altar should
be cleansed from the uncleannesses of the children of Israel,
and reconciled. — It was thus that king Hezekiah, with all
solemnity and earnestness, made atonement for Israel, after
its notable apostacy under the reign of his father Ahaz.1
For they had, both priests and people, for years previous,
forsaken the house and altars of the Lord, and sacrificed
and burnt incense to other gods in every city of Judah ;
in spite alike of severe national chastisements, sent to bring
their sin home to them, and of the remonstrances of Isaiah
and other holy prophets. But, this rite of atonement hav
ing been performed, the promised reconciliation with God
followed. From the temple, and altar, and each blood-
bedewed horn of the altar, a voice as it were went forth,
not of judgment, but of mercy ; of mercy through Him
whose expiatory blood-shedding, and its application by
Himself to purify and to reconcile, the whole ritual of
atonement did but combine to typify. Instead of sum
moning destroying armies against Judah from the Euphrates,
it staid them, when thence advancing to its invasion under
Sennacherib: 2 (thus direct was the contrast between Israel's
case under Hezekiah, and that of Christendom as here
points there might be transgression. Then it is added, verse 10 ; "And Aaron shall
make an atonement upon the horns of it, once in a year, with the blood of the sin-
offering of atonements : once in the year shall he make atonement upon it through
out your generations. It is most holy unto the Lord." — We may compare also
Ezek. xliii. 20.
1 See 2 Chron. xxix. 20—24. 2 Ib. xxxii. 21 ; Is. xxxvii. 33, 34.

CH.VI.^L] OCCASION OF THE SECOND WOE. 457
figured in the Apocalyptic vision) : it staid them, I say ;
and, with authority not to be resisted, bade them back.
Such were the particulars common in these three rites of
atonement ; and with their real and spiritual meaning, just
as with that of the rest of the Levitical ritual, St. John,
we know, like his beloved brother Paul, was well familiar.1
It was by this knowledge that he had been prepared to
understand the intimations given from time to time, respect
ing the religious state of the Christian Church, in the mute
but significant language of what was enacted on the Apoca
lyptic temple-scene : specially, for instance, how at the time
correspondent with the first preparing of the trumpets of
judgment, the large majority in Eoman Christendom would
have forsaken the great High Priest of their profession, in
respect of his connection with either altar ; in other words
both as their atoner for sin, and as their intercessor, medi
ator, and offerer of their incense of prayer, on the golden
incense-altar before God.2 And now then, when, after the
judgments of five successive trumpets against them, he
heard a voice denouncing judgment yet afresh from the
four horns of the golden altar, — that altar which was ap
propriated to the true priest's offering the true incense, —
those horns of which the one and only use was in the rite
of reconciliation for a transgressing priesthood and people,
— what could he infer from the figure but this, that in spite
of the fearful previous rebukes of their apostacy from hea
ven, neither the priesthood nor the collective people, at
least of this third of Christendom, would have repented
and returned ; but the offer, the means provided, and cri
tical occasion of respite given for reconcilement, been let
to pass unimproved and unheeded. More particularly, as
the rite had special reference to the sins connected with the
incense-altar itself, it was to be inferred that those sins
would be persisted in : to wit the abandonment of Christ,
in his character of the one great propitiatory atonement, for
other kinds of propiatory merit ; and in his character of
High Priest over the house of God, for other intercesssors
and mediators ; just as we have seen was the very fact
1 How beautiful the allusions to the Levitical rites in his first epistle, i. 7, 9 ;
ii. 2 ; iii. 5 : v. 6 ; &c. 2 See on Apoc. viii. 3, p. 306 — 314, supra.

458 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part n.
throughout the previous times of the Saracenic woe : — that
thus the sin would be graven even on the four horns of the
golden altar ; and their one and common voice,1 or that
of the intercessorial High Priest himself from the midst of
them, forced to pronounce the fresh decree of judgment,
" Loose the four angels to slay the third part of men ! " —
Such, I say, as it appears to me, would be his interpretation
of the voice in question.2 Issuing from the points whence it
did, I think there could be no other meaning put upon it,
accordantly with the spirit of the Levitical ritual : as also
that no other imaginable typical action on the temple-scene
could so accordantly with that spirit, and at the same time
so simply and definitely, have intimated the important fact.
— And alas ! if the intent of the prefiguration was thus
clear to St. John, there were answering facts in the religi
ous character and state of Greek Christendom, at the time
we speak of, equally clear to the discerning Christian. The
offered opportunity for repentance and reconcilement, in
regard more particularly of those crying sins against Christ
of which I have been speaking, did pass unheeded. Nei
ther the bitterness of the former woe, nor the taunts of the
Mahommetan foes, nor the reclamations of their own icon
oclastic princes, or of certain purer witnesses for Christ
amongst them,3 had the effect of bringing home a sense of
their sin either to the priesthood or people. The guilt of
inveterate antichristian apostacy was fixed upon them. It
was stamped on their ritual-worship. It was stamped on
their hearts. It was stamped, and continued to be stamped,
on their very coinage. Witness the specimens here set be-
1 pia tpuvij, one common voice. So in Acts xix. 34, ipuvij eyevero pta ex iraviuv,
said of the one cry in common of the Ephesians. So again, in Martial's epigram on
Vespasian or Titus' amphitheatre, and the crowds of spectators visiting it ;
Vox diversa sonat, populorum est vox tamen una :
Cum verus patriae diceris esse pater.
Perhaps too, as the four horns pointed to the four different corners of the land, it
might be signified that all parts of the land had been alike guilty.
2 Daubuz, alone of the commentators that I have seen, explains the passage under
consideration by reference to these Jewish rites of atonement. But he does not
particularize the special sin connected with the altar of incense. — He at the same
time supposes a reference to the horns of the altar, as a place of refuge for cri
minals. But in this supposition he seems to be in error. It was the horns of the
altar of sacrifice, not of the altar of incense, that were thus used. See 1 Kings i.
50 — 53 ; where the expression " brought down from it " implies height and ascent.
3 I allude to the Paulikians ; of whom I shall have to treat in my 2nd Volume, as
among the Witnesses for Christ at the time referred to, in Eastern Christendom.

MARIOLATROUS COINS.
o£ the middle age Greek Byzantine Empire.

Join Zimis c e s .

Horn anus III

AadTonicus II. & Michael IX. Paleologus.

Item. Medals in the Biitisli Museum..

CH.VI.^1.] OCCASION OF THE SECOND WOE. 459
fore the reader ; a visible memorial of the fact that has been
preserved to our own later age.1
II. "And I heard a voice from the four horns of the
1 Of these numismatic memorials of the Greek established Mariolatry and hagi-
olatry, during both the Macedonian and the Comnenian dynasties, before the Latins'
capture of Constantinople, and that of the Palasologi, after the Greeks' recapture of
it,* Eckhel thus writes, Tom. viii. p. 506. " Maximus in hujus ffivi numis honos
habitus Virgini Deiparai. Pingitur in numis placido ac tranquillo statu, aut stans
expansis ad protegendum manibus, vel sedens, et infantem Christum in sinu gerens.
Inscriptiones sunt Aeoiroiva Scejois, in numo Constantini XII, Monomachi ; vel ©eotok.
BoijB. 'Pupavu, Romani IV Diogenis. Frequentissima est sigla MP. ©T, id est Mijrijp
®eov. Singularis est imago Deiparae moenibus urbis Constantinopolitanae circum.
data; quam vide in numis Michaelis VIII, et Andronici II, Palaaologorum. — Sanctis
quoque locus in moneta honorifieus datus. Ac primum quidem Archangelo Michaeli
in numo Theodori I Lascaris, aliisque nonnullis, scripto 'O 'Ayios Mi. vel 'Aytos Apx-
Mi : deinde S. Georgia,. . in numis Alexii I Comneni, Johannis II Porphyrogeniti, &c.
— Hi tantum Ducangio fuerunt cogniti. Serius emerserunt S. Eugenius. . et S. De
metrius." The coins I have engraven are those, 1st of John Zimisces, who reigned from 969
to 976, the immediate predecessor of Basil II : 2ndly of Romanus IV, from 1068 to
1071 : Srdly of Andronicus II, from 1282 to 1328. They are in the collection of
the British Museum ; and are described in Mionnet, as well as Eckhel.
Thus we may regard the specimens given, as characteristic of the Constantinopo-
litan coinage and superstition, both through the times of the Seljukian Turks, up to
the temporary capture of Constantinople by the Latin Crusaders ; and also, subse
quently to its recovery from the Latins, during that of the Othmans. The superstition
still continued in full force to the very last. During the final siege of Constantinople
by the Othman Turks, and just before its storming, the divine image of the Virgin
was brought out, and exhibited in solemn procession, as the last and best hope of
the Greeks.
With regard to the device on the coins of John Zimisces, we read the following
illustration in history. It seems that after defeating the Russians in Bulgaria, he
placed on a triumphal chariot an image of the Virgin of great reputed sanctity,
" adorned with the spoils of war, and the ensigns of Bulgarian royalty ; " and made
with it his public entry into Constantinople. Gibbon x. 238.
On the general subject of the Byzantine Mariolatrous coinage let me refer further
to the Dissertation annexed to Du Cange's Supplement p. 27, and Plates 3 and 7 : —
also, on the nimbus round the Virgin Mary's head, in the coin of John Zimisces, to
Eckhel viii. 502 — 504. It would seem from his statement that the word originally
signified the nubes divina, or bright nebula, which was often anciently depicted as
encircling the heads of the heathen gods ; and then of the deified emperors. So
first on the coins of Antoninus Pius ; then (strangely of the Constantinian em
perors ; then of Christ, and the Virgin Mary, and Saints.
* The Macedonian dynasty, as already stated, p. 447, lasted near 200 years, from
Basil I, A.D. 867, to Michael VI Stratioticus, A.D. 1057. It included Nicephorus
Phocas, John Zimisces, and Basil II, to whom reference has been made in this
Chapter. The Comnenian dynasty, of 1-2 or 13 princes, lasted from 1057 to near the Latins'
capture of Constantinople in 1204. It began with Isaac I Comnenus ; and included
Romanus IV Diogenes, who was defeated and taken by the Turks in 1070, as men
tioned by me afterwards : also Alexius I Comnenus, the reigning emperor during
the first Latin Crusade, John Calo-Johannes, and Manuel.
The Palceologian dynasty of seven princes, from Michael Palaeologus A.D. 1260
(who in 1261 recovered Constantinople from the Latins) to the taking of Constan
tinople by the Turks in 1453. It included, among others, Andronicus II, John
Pateologus, his son Manuel, and the last Constantine.

460 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part n.
golden altar, saying, Loose the four angels that are bound
by the great river Euphrates ! And the four angels were
loosed, which were prepared ... for to slay the third part of
men." — The question now comes before us, Who, or what,
might be these angels : — angels four in number ; — angels
commissioned in the work of judgment, specially, in the pre
sent case, for the destruction of the third part of the men of
the Roman Christendom ; — angels that had been bound pre
vious to the blast of this Trumpet,1 apparently as if in action
before the act of binding ; — and whose binding had begun
and continued by the great and famed river Euphrates ? — I
say, by the actual famed river so called. For that the local
appellative is to be taken thus literally seems clear to me,
alike from that common scriptural habit of intermixing
such literal local designations with symbolic prophecies,
which I have sometime since remarked on and illustrated ;2
and also from the evident unreasonableness of attaching
any figurative sense to it, so as some have done, as if the
figurative river of Rome, the figurative Babylon : 3 seeing
that Babylon is but one out of three Apocalyptic designa
tions of Borne ; the other two being Sodom and Egypt ; *
and consequently the Nile, just as fit as the Euphrates, to
be made its figurative river. — But who then, I repeat, or
what, these angels ? — The notorious fact of Turks from the
Euphratean frontier having subverted the empire of Eas
tern Christendom, has naturally and reasonably suggested
a reference to them, as the grand subject of the sixth Trum
pet-vision. And, led by this conviction, the majority of
Protestant interpreters, I mean of those who regard the
Apocalypse as already in great measure fulfilled, have
sought to explain the four angels of four Turkman, or, at
least four Mussulman powers, that, in succession, or cotein-
poraneously, took part in this work of destruction. But
1 rovs SeSepevovs. Of this perfect passive participle the precise and full sense, I
believe, is, those which having been previously bound are still bound.
2 See pp. 333, 334 supra. The appropriateness of the example from Ps. lxxx. 11.
will be evident : " She (sc. the symbolic vine) sent out her boughs unto the sea,
and her branches unto the river : " i. e. the literal river Euphrates. A representa
tion historically verified in 1 Kings iv. 21, 24.) — So too in Jeremiah's symbolic pro
phecy, through burying his girdle by the literal Euphrates. Jer. xiii. 4, 6.
3 So Dr. Wordsworth of late in his Apocalyptic Commentary, p. 214.
4 Apoc. xi.8.

CH. VI. § l.J WHO THE FOUR ANGELS LOOSED. 461
the interpretations are found on examination to be, one and
all, inadmissible. As the commissioning and loosening of
the four angels in vision was but a single act, so the agen
cies symbolized must necessarily have been at one and the
same time loosed or commissioned : by which consideration
alone all such successions of destroying agencies seem ex
cluded, as Vitringa, and after him Woodhouse, have sug
gested in explanation.1 And as to cotemporary Turkman
dynasties, whether we refer to the list given by Mede and
by Newton after him, or that by Faber and by Keith from
Mills and Gibbon,2 there is no quaternion of them that can
be shewn either to have combined together in the destruc
tion of the Greek empire, — to have been all locally situ
ated by the Euphrates, — to have had existence at the time
asserted to be that of the commissioning of the four angels,
— or to have continued in existence up to the time of the
completion of the commission given, in the destruction of
the Greek empire.3 In short the manifest inconsistency
1 Vitringa proposes the Saracens, the Seljukian Turks, the Tartars under Zenghis
and Tamerlane, and the Othmans. So also Woodhouse ; they being four Mahom-
medan nations, he says, memorable near the Euphrates. But, — besides the decisive
objection mentioned above, — it is plain that the Saracens, having been the subject
of the former Trumpet, cannot be figured here. Moreover, after they became a
Euphratean power, they ceased to be a destroying woe to Christendom. As to the
Tartars under Zenghis, and then Tamerlane, how did they help to destroy the Greek
empire ? The former destroyed, not the Greeks, but the Seljukian Turkish dynasty,
that was long the chief enemy of the Greeks. The latter overthrew Bajazet, Sultan
of the Othman Turks, another most deadly enemy of their empire ; and thereby de
layed its fall, instead of accelerating it, (as will soon appear,) for perhaps half a century.
2 Mede's list gives us the dynasties of Bagdad, Damascus, Aleppo, and Iconium :
founded, he says, from 1055 to 1080, A.D. ; and of which the three last, I may ob
serve, were founded during Male,k Shah's life, and were dependent on him. So
Bishop Newton also. The list given by Faber and Keith is the quaternion into
which Malek Shah's empire split on his death, A.D. 1092; viz. Persia, Kerman,
Syria, Roum. — The two lists are nearly similar : there being this difference how
ever, that Kerman has place in the latter, not in the former ; and that Mede's
Aleppo and Damascus axe supposed in the latter to have coalesced into the one
kingdom, if so it be called, of Syria.
3 That decisive objections exist against these lists, and such as these, objections
alike chronological, geographical, and historical, will thus appear. 1 . Chronological :
That Mede's four dynasties did not all come into existence till some time after A.D.
1057,* whence he and Keith compute the hour, day, month, and year, follows from
the various dates of their founding, from 1055 to 1092, given in the Note preceding.
Again Faber's Kerman dynasty perished above a century before 1301, his date of the
loosing. t- 2. As to geographical situation, Kerman was separated from the Eu
phrates by 500 miles of space at the nearest, and by the intervening kingdom of
Persia ; Roum (or Iconium) by the Halys and Mount Taurus ; Damascus by the de
sert. So far were the four from being all watered, as Keith represents, by the Eu-
* This is Mede's and Keith's date of the investiture ; but it should be A.D. 1058,
as will hereafter be shewn. ¦*• Gibbon x. 369, Note 47.

462 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part n.
with historic fact of every such attempted solution, has been
hitherto, in the minds of the more thoughtful and learned
prophetic students, like as it were a mill-stone about the
neck of the whole Turkish theory of interpretation.
But who then, we must repeat, or what, these four angels?
And does the impossibility of finding four Turkman powers
answering to the four angels, affect the truth of the general
reference of the vision to the Turks r By no means. We
need only, I think, to look at the nature and use of angels,
as represented in the apocalyptic figurations, to have sug
gested to us a view of the point in question very different,
and one that will leave the rest of the Turkish interpre
tation altogether unincumbered.
For in the apocalyptic prophecy, just as in all other re
vealed Scripture, the angels figured as acting on earth
seem to mean, almost uniformly, superhuman angelic intelli
gences, bearing commission from God as the executors of
certain defined purposes in his providential government ;
and in execution of them making use of, directing, con
trolling, and over-ruling certain earthly and human agen
cies subordinate. — In such case the number of angels speci
fied is not conformed to the number of earthly agents
subordinately employed, whether national or individual.
phrates and its tributaries. 3. Historically considered, neither Kerman nor Persia
had any thing to do with the Turkish wars against the Greek empire. And as to the
Syrian Moslem dynasty, whether under Noureddin or Saladin, though it had much
to do with the Latin crusaders, it had little concern with the Greeks. I may add
that Syria was not united to the Othman Turkish power till Sultan Selim's time,
A.D. 1517, long after the taking of Constantinople. — It was the Turkish dynasty of
Roum, or Iconium, that was alone charged with the commission of slaying the third
part of men.
Foxe, — the earliest interpreter I have seen that applies this prophecy to the
Turks, — expounds the four angels of the Turks from Persia, Tartary, Arabia, Scy-
thia. Martyrs, iv. 102. To this theory similar objections apply.
Mr. Cuninghame, after mentioning each of these solutions, and his dissatisfaction
with them, finally takes refuge with Woodhouse in the number four as a sacred and
complete number ! iravra ev rrj rerpaSi,
Mr. Foster in his " Mahommedanism Unveiled," i. 223, cites what follows from
the Abbot Ekkehard's Chronicle, (a Chronicle composed about the year 1117, and
given in Martene and Durand's Vet. Mon. Collect. T. v, p. 514) in evidence of four
other Seljukian powers answering to the prophecy. " Inito per annos aliquos con-
silio, emerserunt ab aquilonari plaga de terra Gorizana praescriptorum Paganorum
[sc. Turcarum] copise multse, quae sub quatuor Sultanis divisse (sic enim satrapas
suos nominare solunt) uni tantum Persico imperatore paene divini cultus more sub-
jecti, per Armeniam, indeque Cappadociam, totamque Romaniam atque Syriam, diffusi
sunt." But is the terra Gorizana by the Euphrates ? or did the Syrian branch take
part in the destruction of Constantinople ?

CH.VI.§1.] WHO THE FOUR ANGELS LOOSED. 463
For example, the circumstance of its being one angel,
(Apoc. xiv. 6,) that was seen flying in mid-heaven, having
the everlasting gospel to preach to every nation under hea
ven, (and the remark applies to the other two angels also
that in succession followed,) did not imply that, it would
be one individual, or one nation only, that would furnish the
earthly agency. Many probably might be co-operators in
the work. Again, the specification of four angels in Apoc.
vii, as appointed to desolate the Roman empire, was no in
timation of four nations, exactly and only, being intended
to combine in that desolation. Bather the number four
was chosen in accordance simply with the propriety, or
what older commentators call the decorum, of the figure.
The thing intended to be figured being that from every
side fierce tempests of invaders would fall on the devoted
empire, in the course of the then about commencing Trum
pet-judgments, four angels of the winds was the number
depicted on the apocalyptic scene ; in correspondence with
the well known fact that four winds from the four corners
of the heaven are the proverbial representatives of all the
winds.1 From the above there follows this obvious inference, with
respect to the passage before us, that there is no necessity
to suppose four earthly powers to be prefigured as com
bining in the work of the sixth Trumpet, because four
angelic agencies are represented as concerned ; — rather that
the number of the latter may have been chosen from con
siderations altogether different. Moreover there is sug
gested yet further a suspicion that, as the number of judg
ment-angels here mentioned is the same with the number
mentioned in Apoc. vii, (and it is mentioned, let me add,
no where else in the Apocalypse,) so it is not unlikely that
they may be, the one and the other, the very same identical
quarternion of angels. Which idea once suggested, it will
I think only need that we trace out the characteristics
either stated or implied respecting the first-mentioned quar
ternion, and compare them with those stated or implied re
specting the other, in order to recognize their identity, and
1 Jer. xlix. 36 ; Ezek. xxxvii. 9; Dan. vii. 2; Matt. xxiv. 31, &c.

464 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part n.
to see that this is indeed the true and simple solution of
the whole matter.
With regard then to the four tempest- angels of Apoc.
vii, the nature and range of the executive commission given
them under the sjxth Seal, was thus defined, " to hurt the
land, trees and sea,"1 of the Apocalyptic Boman world. A
commission this, let us observe, of very general and large
import, in so far as that world was concerned ; and one pos
sibly of long duration too, perhaps even as long as that of
the 144,000 sealed, byway of protection from them: though
liable of course to arrests and interruptions, such as in fact
checked them at their time of first appearance; more espe
cially in subordination to Christ's purposes and provision
for the preservation and good of that his election of grace.
— Which being their commission, and the angels figured
as ready, with the winds in leash, to execute it,- that instant
that restraint was withdrawn, — it could not surely be but
that the process and results of their acting it out would
enter into the subsequent figurations.2 — Admitting which,
and considering that on the next or seventh Seal being
presently after opened, the judgments thereupon inflicted on
the apostate world were pictured under the several tempest
like figures,3 first and introductorily, of thunderings light
nings and an earthquake,4 then, on the two first trumpets
sounding, of hail and volcanic fire, affecting (as it is ex
pressed with singular coincidence of phrase) " the land,
and trees, and sea,"5 — considering this, it must, I think,
be deemed scarce credible but that these selfsame judgments
were the primary results of the acting of the above-men-
1 Apoc. vii.' 1.
2 The circumstance of the angels themselves not being again mentioned in the
subsequent figurations of judgments no more negatives this fact, than the subsequent
silence, after the first mention of their loosing, about the angels from the Euphrates ;
whom yet we, certainly know to have been the spirits, whether seen or unseen after
wards, that impelled and directed the woe of the^ Euphratean horsemen.
3 As to the thunderings, lightnings, and hail, of the seventh Seal's introductory
Vision and first Trumpet, it is needless to show the connexion of winds with them.
It is notorious. With regard to their association with earthquakes and volcanic fire,
as under the second Trumpet, I may suggest Isa. xxix. 6 and xxx.30, for scriptural
examples ; and further beg to refer to authentic accounts of most great volcanic
eruptions, in illustration. For example, in that at Sumbawa, (noticed by me p. 345
supra,) Daubeny says ; " Between nine and ten, ashes began to fall ; and soon after
a violent whirlwind ensued, which blew down nearly every house in the village of
Sangir," &c. Daubeny on Volcanoes, p. 34.
* Apoc. viii, 5. 5 Apoc. viii. 7, 8.

CH. VI. §1.] WHO THE FOUR ANGELS LOOSED. 465
tioned four tempest angels. — And, if so, why suppose their
commission and their action to terminate with the second
Trumpet? Why not rather to go on under the third
Trumpet, and the fourth ; seeing that it is still the same
third of the Boman world that is the scene of the inflic
tion ; and that the meteoric judgment of the third Trum
pet, at least, is as notoriously associated as those preceding,
alike in poetic figure and in nature, with winds and tem
pests ? 1 — Thus have we advanced to the fifth Trumpet ;
and have only once more to inquire why, if the four de
stroying angels were in action thus far, we should negative
the idea of their acting still; so as in fact, gathering
round,2 to have brought the locusts on Christendom :3
especially considering that the same body of Christ's sealed
ones, that were originally noted in association with the
four tempest-angels, are referred to as on the scene now
also ; 4 and the same care implied in the charge given to
the earthly agency of the scorpion-locusts, that these sealed
1 So Virgil, Georgics, i. 365 ;
" Saepe etiam Stellas, vento impendente, videbis
Prsecipites coelo labi, Sec.
And with the obscuration of heavenly luminaries, such as in the fourth Trumpet, the
winds are also associated ; as in Matt. xxiv. 29.
2 The view taken supposes the combined action of these angels under each of the
Trumpets, — just as of the four winds let loose against Elam in Jeremiah xlix. 36, of
the iravToiot avepoi of Homer, and the " Una Eurusque Notusque," &c. of Virgil, —
to introduce and direct the judgment-woes.
3 So Exod. x. 13 ; " The east wind brought the locusts." Compare the extract
from the Pseudo-Methodius of Patara, given by me p. 412 supra. : " tanquam lo-
custse in multitudine, quae coagulantur i vento."
Similar is their association also with riverfloods ; such as appear from Apoc. xvi.
12 to have been the accompaniment of the lion-headed horses, that issued at the
blast of the sixth Trumpet, from the swellings of the Euphrates against Christendom.
So Matt. vii. 25, &c.
Let me further observe here, that the action of these angels of the winds as God's
commissioners, is not inconsistent with the cotemporary action, though in another
way, of a spirit or angel from hell : — such, I mean, as in the fifth Trumpet is de
scribed as acting in and influencing the locusts : or, again, such as is spoken of in
the xiith Apocalyptic chapter as urging on the Gothic invasions ; they being there
represented as a flood out of the mouth of the dragon, though in the viiith figured
as tempests raised and directed by the angels of the winds. I say there is in
.this conjunction of the two agencies no inconsistency. For it is but an exemplifi
cation of a truth uniformly taught in the Bible ; viz. that evil angels are permitted
to act in this world's political affairs, as well as good : in such wise, however, as that
the former are overruled and controlled by the latter ; and that nothing can result
which is not according to the will and foreseen purpose of God. — See what is said in
Apoc. xii. 7, of the action of the devil and his angels, as well as of Michael and his,
in the affairs of this world. Compare too the striking narrative in Job i, ii ; and
also Dan. x. 12, 13.
4 Apoc. ix. 4 ; "It was said to them that they should. . only hurt those men that
VOL. I. 2 H

466 apoc. ix. 13 — 19. [part ii.
ones of Christ should not be harmed in the infliction,
as in the tempest-angels' original commission. Nor can
I see any reasonable ground for pronouncing against this
view. Thus much as to the probable acting of the four tem
pest-angels. — Then as to their restrainings let two things
be observed. The one is, that in any case of the restraint
being long and entire, (so, for example, as when the Sara
cen woe ceased,) the figurative phrase bound would be
perhaps the most fitting of all others to designate it, con
sidering the element they impersonated ; whether judged
of by classical or scripture usage. 1 — The other is that, sup
posing the local spot of their arrest, and cessation to act, —
in other words, that of the earthly agency directed by
them lapsing into quietude, — to be one very marked, then
it would just be accordant with scriptural analogy to repre
sent them as bound at that particular spot. So, for ex
ample, in the memorable instance of the angel of pestilence,
commissioned against David and Israel. His course having
advanced with the pestilence from Dan to Beersheba, he
is described as with hand outstretched locally over Jerusa
lem to destroy it, at the time when the plague was there
commencing to destroy ; and also to have been arrested
and stayed locally by the threshing-floor of Araunah the
Jebusite, when at that very spot, presently afterwards,
the plague was stayed-2 — Now then apply we this Scrip
ture mode of speaking of angelic agencies, to the case of
the Saracen locust-plague figured in the fifth Trumpet.
And supposing the four angels of Apoc. vii to have both
acted in it during its progress, and ceased acting when it
had not the seal of God on their foreheads : " a charge implying the existence of,
and the protective care over, those that had it.
1 So Virgil depicts the tempest-winds as bound when inactive. yEn. i. 52 ;
Hie vasto rex iEolus antro
Luctantes ventos tempestatesque sonoras
Imperio premit, ac vinclis et carcerefrcenat.
He also speaks, in similar figure, of their being loosed, when afresh raging ; ib. 63 ;
qui fcedere certo
Et premere, et laxas sciret dare jussus habenas.
In all this Virgil follows Homer. — Compare also Prov. xxx. 4 ; " Who hath
gathered the winds in his fists ; " where, as in Virgil, the winds of all the four quar
ters are depicted as gathered and held in one spot ; — also Psalm exxxv. 7.
2 2 Sam. xxiv. 15, 16, &c. ; 1 Chron. xxi. 15, 16, &c.

CH.VI. § 1.] WHO THE FOUR ANGELS LOOSED. 467
ceased, the locality at which their arrest might be fitly
described as taking place, could be no other than that
where the plague itself received its arrest, viz. Bagdad by
the Euphrates : 1 the place where they might be said to
have remained afterwards fettered and bound, no other
than that where the power of the Saracenic caliphate re
mained paralyzed in its declension, and had at length its
temporal power of the sword formally taken from it ; — still
the same Bagdad by the Euphrates.
In fine the conclusion we are forced to is this ; — that
both in respect of the local spot of their implied previous
arrest, and in respect of the local spot of their subsequent
continued restraint, a Scriptural description of those four
tempest-angels of judgment, of whose original commission
we read in Apoc. vii. 1, must at this point of time (on the
hypothesis of the prolongation of their commission and
their acting,) have exactly answered to what was said, Or
implied, at the sixth's Trumpet's sounding, respecting that
quaternion of angels that were to act in the new commenc
ing woe : — they too being said to have been bound, (after
an implied period evidently of previous acting,) and to
have also continued bound, by the great river Euphrates.
Thus the characteristics of the one quaternion of angels
and of the other agreeing, it seems to me that they may be
reasonably considered identical.2 And the Turkish inter-
1 It has been already mentioned (see p. 434) that Bagdad was built on the Tigris,
within some twenty or thirty miles from the Euphrates. It had in the twelfth cen
tury, according to Benjamin of Tudela, a canal from the Euphrates falling into the
Tigris at that very spot. In the course of years changes have taken place, and some
of the canals been dried up. But it may be well to add a statement or two from
both ancient authors and modern, to show that the level of the Tigris there has been
always lower than that of the Euphrates ; and the intervening land such as to allow
of the Euphratean water, whether by canal or otherwise, finding its way to Bagdad
or its neighbourhood. 1st. Arrian, who says, vii. 7 ; b uev Tiyprjs iroAv ti rairewo-
repov peuv rov Evipparov, Siupvxas iroAAas eK rov Evipparov es avrov Sexerai' — 2.
Dion Cassius, lxviii. 28; 6 Evrpparris iroAv bipnAorepos tou TtyptSos eon. — 3. Mr.
Buckingham, in his Mesopotamia, p. 495 : " Near the bend of the Tigris, about two
hours below Bagdad, we were shewn the marks of an inundation all the way from
the Euphrates ; rafts even coming over from one river close to the other by its wa
ters. This .... proves that the bed of the Euphrates is higher at Felugiah, than
that of the Tigris at Bagdad, in the line of east and west."
2 Since this was written my attention has been directed by a friend to the words
avepovs and avepoi, instead of ayyeAovs and ayyeAoi, among Griesbach's various
readings, as readings in the Codex N. 30. Heinrichs ad loc.also mentions it; and
adds both that it had evident reference to the four angels of Apoc. vii, and also that
Knittel approved it. " Indubie ex capite vii. 1 a corrigentis manu invectum est ;
2 H 2

468 apoc ix. 13— 19. [part n.
pretation of the sixth Trumpet being thus freed from the
difficulty of showing four Turkman nations answering to
the four Euphratean angels, which has so long encumbered
it, it only remains, in explanation of so much of the pro
phecy as stands at the head of this Section, that I show
respecting the Turkman power, or new earthly agency, as
I presume, employed under the angelic, —
LTIrdly, the two points following : — 1st, that the locality
where it received its commission, was the same as that
where the preceding Saracenic scourge was arrested and
bound, viz. Bagdad, by the Euphrates ; 2ndly, that its
people and power, then and there commissioned, continued
thenceforward in political life and action ; so as, in due
time, to effect the work assigned to the Euphratean horse
men in vision, of slaying the third part of men.
And to prove these two points, nothing more will be
necessary than to trace, in brief narrative, the history of
the Turkman nation, from its first commissioning as a
Moslem power against Christendom, to the time of the fall
of Constantinople. 1 . In my sketch of the state of the world, cotempora-
neously, given in the last Chapter, as that which might
have suggested itself to the mind of the second Basil at the
commencement of the eleventh century, the name of Mah-
moud of Ghizni was mentioned as the only reigning poten
tate, whose power could reasonably have been deemed
formidable to the Greek empire. It was also noted, as
probante autem Knittelio." — In my History of Apocalyptic Interpretation, given in
the Appendix to my Vol. iv, it will be seen that both Primasius and Ambrose Ans
bert so read or understand the clause.
[I observe too that Prof. Lee p. 328, and Dr. Wordsworth p. 214, in their late pro
phetical works affirm the identity of the two quaternion, as I do. 4th Ed.]
Heinrichs thus objects. " Istos quatuor angelos, qui vii. 1 nominantur, cave
cum his confundas. Sunt illi naturae bonee, hi malignee ; illisque locus prorsus divi-
nus a nostra assignatur." But surely what is told us about the first quaternion's de
stroying commission, will agree with what is said of the destroying commission of the
latter ; and whatever the nature of the angels employed. And of course good angels,
when so employed, are just as subject to recall or restraint, as bad angels. Compare
the case of the temporary arrest of the four angels of Apoc. vii themselves ; " Hurt
not till," &c. Also, as to the place of their restraint, the case of the pestilence-angel
checked at Araunah's threshing-floor, mentioned in the text. To Heinrichs' argu
ment in favour of the four Euphratean angels being " maligna? naturae," because of
certain Rabbinical traditions assigning to daemons a place in the most remote places
of the East, or deserts by the Euphrates, it is not worth refuting.

CH.VI. § l.J THE TURKS FROM THE EUPHRATES. 469
that which might allay apprehensions of danger from that
quarter, that Mahmoud seemed absorbed in his Indian con
quests ; that he was then in his old age ; and that his em
pire was likely, in all human probability, to fall to pieces
at his death. — We now proceed to observe, that, as it might
then have seemed probable, so it happened. In the year
1028, three years after Basil's own death, Mahmoud died:
and, on his death, forthwith his vast empire began to fall to
pieces. Among his subjects had been numerous Turkman
tribes, — descendants of those Turks of Mount Altai from
whom, in the seventh century, the Avars had fled, and
with whom the emperor Justin had negotiated : — tribes
whom it had been Mahmoud's policy to move southward
to Khorasan, a country between the Himalaya and the
Caspian ; thereby to separate them more entirely from
their countrymen beyond the Oxus and Jaxartes. It was
these that were now to become a woe to Christendom.
Soon after Mahmoud's death (it was in the year A.D. 1038)
they rose in assertion of their independence ; chose Togrul
Beg of the house of Seljuk as their chief; defeated and
killed Mahmoud's son Massoud ; drove the Ghiznivite
nobles eastward to the banks of the Indus ; and stood forth
before the world as the chief power in central Asia. — Ori
ginally idolaters in religion, they had lately, both prince
and people, embraced with fervour the religion of Maho
met : and, thus become co-religionists, they were called in
the year 1055 to his assistance by the Prophet's Vicar, the
Caliph of Bagdad, on occasion of some threatening danger
of domestic factions. And then the following memorable
consequence resulted. (I state it in brief, because the his
tory must be given by me more in detail in the next Sec
tion.) After the quelling of the factions, and the extinc
tion of the weak dynasty of the Bowides, who had ruled
since A. D. 933 in Persia, their chief, Togrul, was ap
pointed by the Caliph his Lieutenant ; (the inauguration
being performed soon after with solemnity suited to the
importance of the occasion ;) and the Turk thereby legi
timately constituted temporal lieutenant of the Prophet's
Vicar, and head of the secular power of Islamism. Then,
and thence, was the reviving and reloosing of the long qui-

470 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part n.
escent Moslem power against Roman Christendom.1 And
I must here pray the reader well to mark the place ; as I
shall in the next Section call on him to mark the time.
For it was the very place noted in the prophecy, as that
from whence the destroying angels, under the sixth Trum
pet-blast, were to be loosed and re-commissioned to destroy,
— Bagdad, by the Euphrates.
This was one point that we were to prove in respect of
the Turks. It only needs to pursue their history to see in
it the fulfilment of the other.
2. Thus invested then, and with a freshness of fanatic
fervour which spoke them animated by the same spirit
from hell as their early Arab precursors, a holy war against
Greek Christendom was speedily resolved on, in the very
spirit of their commission. The chief Togrul himself
dying, it fell to his nephew Alp Arslan, — the successor to
the office, title, and spirit of his uncle, and " with his
name, next after that of the Caliph, similarly pronounced
in the public prayers of the Moslems," 2 — to execute the
project. Bearing in the very name of Alp Arslan, " the
Valiant Lion,"3 both his own character and that of his
army, — according to the prophetic symbol, "I saw in the
vision the heads of the horses as the heads of lions," of
which more in the next Section, — " he passed the Euphra
tes," A.D. 1063, " at the head of the Turkish cavalry:"
and the loss of the kingdom and frontier of Armenia, A.D.
1065, " was the news of a day."4 — But mightier change

1 So Turner in his History of England, Vol. i. p. 307. " Togrul Beg produced, .a
revolution still more momentous to the mind and fortunes of mankind. Under his
reign the great Turkish nation adopted the religion of Mahomet. And professing it
with all the energy of their native character, and all the zeal of recent converts, they
became its fierce champions at that precise aera when it was losing its hold on the
human intellect ; and, but for the support of their simple, rude, uncriticizing, credu
lous, and vehement spirit, might have quietly expired." I copy from Mr. Forster's
Mahomm. Unveiled, i. 221.
2 " The Turks deem no Sultan legitimately inaugurated until the Hutbe prayers,
on a regularly-appointed Friday, shall have been solemnly offered up, for the health
and prosperity of the new sovereign." Faber, S. C. ii. 297.
3 This kind of title, which reminds one of those of the American Indians, seems
to have been common among the Turkmans. So Kizil-Arslan, the red lion, (as
D'Herbelot, iii. 370, in the Article on Tacash explains it,) a chief cotemporary with
Thogrul Beg : and again, Kilidge Arslan, the Sultan of the Turks encountered by
the Franks of the first Crusade, at Nice. * Gibbon x. 352.

CH. VI. §1.] CONTINUITY OF EUPHRATEAN TURKS. 471
seemed portended by the then glaring comet in the heavens.1
The emperor Diogenes Bomanus, (successor, after two or
three brief reigns intervening, to the second Basil spoken of
in the preceding chapter,) hastened to the defence of his
empire. Franks, Normans, Bulgarians, mingled with the
Greeks to add strength to his army ; and the invisible tute
lage of the Virgin Mary was invoked too, as we have seen,
to his succour.2 But succour came not to the Mariolatrist.
In the fatal field near Malazgerd (A.D. 1 07 1 ) his army was
defeated, himself taken prisoner, and the fate of the Asia
tic provinces sealed irretrievably. — The victorious career
of Alp Arslan himself against Greek Christendom was in
deed cut short by assassination. But it was followed up
under Malek Shah, the greater son of a great father : him
of whose empire we read that it extended, in its final am
plitude, from the Chinese frontier, west and south, as. far
as the neighbourhood of Constantinople, the holy city of
Jerusalem, (now just taken from the Fatimites,) and the
spicy groves of Arabia Felix. — I say the victorious career
of the Turks against Greek Christendom was continued
under him. For it was under the shadow of his sceptre,
as the Asiatics express it, that Suleiman, one of the many
Seljukian subordinate princes, achieved in 1074 the con
quest of Asia Minor; and, with Nice as his capital, founded
what was then the dependent principality of Asia Minor, or
Roum. This was indeed, remarks the historian, "the
most deplorable loss that the church and the empire had
sustained since the first conquests of the Caliphs." Nor
did the severity of the scourge end at Malek's death. For
though three out of the four kingdoms into which his
dominions then split, I mean those of Persia, Kerman, and
Syria, had nothing to do with the fated desolation of the
Greek empire, the destiny of the fourth, Roum, now become
an independent kingdom, was different. — It seems that
Suleiman had been originally urged to the war against the
christian infidels by the voice of the Caliph, as well as of
1 In 1066 appeared the great comet; great as never seen before. "The appalled
multitude," it has been said, " gazed night after night at the messenger of evil ; the
long-haired star darting its awful splendour from the horizon to the zenith : "—a
portent that " with fear of change perplexed monarchs." Quart. Rev. Oct. 1844,
p. 301. 2 See the coin of this emperor in my plate p. 459 supra.

472 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part n.
the supreme Sultan : and as he deserved from them the
title of Gazi, or Holy Champion, by the vigour and suc
cess with which he conducted it, so by the manner also in
which he continued to make it subservient to the propaga
tion of the Mahomedan faith. Throughout the whole extent
of the new kingdom, from the Euphrates to Constantino
ple, mosques were built, the laws of the Koran established,
the mission of Mahomet preached, Turkish manners and
language made to prevail in the cities, and Turkman camps
scattered over the mountains and plains. On the hard
condition of tribute and servitude, the Greek Christians
might enjoy the exercise of their religion. But their most
holy churches were profaned, their priests insulted, thou
sands of the children circumcised, and of their brethren
multitudes induced to apostatize. Alexius trembled on
the imperial throne of Constantinople, and in plaintive let
ters implored the succours of western Europe : : for unless
some great intervention should occur to prevent it, it
threatened to extinguish his empire, and kill the third part
of men. And such an intervention did in fact arise. The Cru
sades began, (as I shall again have to notice in the next
Section,) and continued for two centuries; not indeed so as
to avert the destruction, but to delay it. And what I wish,
at the present point of our enquiry, to call the reader's at
tention to, is this ; that throughout those two centuries, —
a period memorable in the historic page, as comprehending
within it the rise, progress, and end of the Crusades from
western Europe, — the Turkish Sultany of Roum, in spite of
the hostility thus aroused against it, still all through pre
served its vitality. The host of the first Crusaders indeed,
(A.D. 1097) having taken Nice, and once and again de
feated the Turkman hordes, forced them to move back the
capital of their now contracted territory into the interior,
to Iconium.2 But in 1 147 the leaders of the second Cru
sade, Conrad and King Louis VII, had in melancholy
strains to relate to their countrymen that the power and
spirit of the Anatolian Sultan remained unquenched ; and
how the bones of their christian hosts lay bleaching among
1 See the history in Gibbon, whose words I chiefly use. 2 Gibbon xi. 104.

CH. VI. §1.] CONTINUITY OF EUPHRATEAN TURKS. 473
the Pamphylian hills, a monument of the continued sharp
ness of the Turkish arrows. Yet again in the third Cru
sade, A.D. 1189, the Emperor Frederic 1st, traversing
the same route to the Holy Land, found every step of his
fainting march besieged by the still innumerable hordes of
the Turkmans : till, in desperation, he stormed Iconium,
and forced the Sultan to sue for peace. — It was not until
the next century that a power of a different character, and
from a different quarter, viz. that of the Moguls under one
of the generals of Zenghis, sweeping across Anatolia, broke
the kingdom of Iconium : and then in manner, and with
results, such as not to extinguish the Turkman power in
Asia Minor, but only the Seljukian dynasty that had ruled
over it.
Not, I say, the Turkman power. For so it had been
ordered by an overruling Providence, that, just before this
destroying Mogul irruption, a fresh band of Turkmans
from Charisme and the Oxus, under Ortugrul and his son
Othman, fleeing from the Moguls, had in A. D. 1240 en
gaged themselves in the service, and become subjects of the
kingdom, of Aladin the then Sultan of Iconium.1 And
when the Seljukian dynasty had been extinguished, as be
fore stated, one of these, reuniting some of the broken
fragments, furnished a new head to the Turkmans of Ana
tolia. Gradually, but continuously, this process of reunion
went on under the Othmans : the decline of the Moguls,
and death of Cazan of the house of Zenghis, having, as
Gibbon says,2 given free scope to the rise and progress
of the Ottoman Empire. And at length, in the course of
the 14th century, every fragment having been united by
them, and the whole of Anatolia (including both Iconium
and Nice, the more ancient and the later capital) embraced
in their dominion, even as in the earlier and palmy days of
Suleiman's greatness, — with the same manners, language,
and laws remaining to it as before, as well as the same reli
gion, and with an armorial momento too, as I believe, of
the Seljukian ensign, in the crescent that gilded and sur-
1 " Ortogrul became the subject and soldier of Aladin; and established at Surgut,
on the banks of the Sangar, a camp of 400 families, whom he governed fifty-two
years (A.D. 1247 — 1299), in peace and war." Gibb. xi. 432. 2 xi. 431.

474 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part ii.
mounted its banners,1 — it might truly be said, as Gibbon
remarks with his usual accuracy, that the ancient kingdom
of the Seljukians had again revived under the Ottoman
princes. The ruling dynasty was indeed different ; and a
brief interval of anarchy had passed before the revival : but
not so (let the reader well mark the point) as to affect the
unity and continuity of the Turkman Anatolian kingdom.
Just as the Visigothic power in Spain was continued under
Pelayo and his successors, or as the Frank kingdom, after
the dissolution of the Carlovingians and anarchy consequent,
1 The origin and date of the adoption of the crescent as a Turkish ensign, has been
a subject of much difference of opinion among the learned. Many suppose that it
was not adopted till the taking of Constantinople ; and then- because of its having
been a symbol of old Byzantium. So Franciscus Menenius and Busquebius ; to
wards whose opinion Paulus Pater leans, as I am informed, in his Dissertation en
titled "Insignia Turcica; " though allowing the uncertainty of the question. Von
Hanmer too thinks it not improbable that European writers (among whom are
Gibbon, Hallam, Mills, &c.) may have been guilty of anachronism; and have spoken
of the crescent, as waving on the banners of Saladin and the Seljukian Turks, by
anticipation. On the other hand, Sir Harford Jones Brydges, whose oriental knowledge is well
known, and who has been engaged in a Life of Saladin, gives it as his opinion on
the subject, (as I learn through the kindness of Sir Robert Inglis,) that the crescent
was one of the earliest bannerial distinctions used by the Sunni Mahommedans.
Thus he thinks that Saladin, for example, (who was a Sunni,) carried a crescent
marked on a green flag, the Abbassides of Bagdad on a black.
For my own part I cannot but strongly incline to the latter view. For 1st, it
seems little credible to me that the Turks should have gone back above 1000 years
to the antiquities of the old Byzantium for an ensign. 2nd, I read in D'Herbelot,
on the word Tacash, that in a poem composed by one Kemaleddin in honor of his
prince, a Chorasmian Turkman, after his defeating the Seljukian Thogrul Beg, there
occurs in it the passage following : " Takash will raise the religion and state of the
Mussulmans as high (as the Seljukidae themselves) . The crescent, which glitters
above his pavilions, has already received the homage of the greatest princes on
earth." So that at that early date, about A.D. 1070, it is spoken of as a Mussulman
ensign. 3rd. In the conquest of Muscovy, about 1250 A.D. by Tartar detachments
from Zenghis Khan, we read that, on converting the churches of the country into
mosques, they fixed the crescent as the badge of Mahommedanism upon them : and
that when, 200 years after, John Bascovitch delivered his country from the Tartar
yoke, and restored the churches, he left the crescent standing, and planted a cross
over it. — See Rees' Encyclopaedia, on the word Crescent.
Hence on the whole I infer that it was, as a Mussulman ensign, common to va
rious Mussulman nations, as early as the 11th century; and so to the Seljukian
Turks, the chief of the Mussulmans. — Considering the Turks' (I might say the
Moslems') reverence for the new moon, of which Purchas speaks in his Pilgrimage,
p. 295, the ensign was very natural.
Mr. Forster in his late work on Arabian Geography, i. 340, assuming that the
crescent was a Saracenic banner, suggests the passage Judg. viii. 21, " Gideon took
away the ornaments (Marg. Ornaments like the moon) that were on the camels'
necks," (of the Midianites Zeba and Zalmunna,) in illustration. " The regal cre
scent," he says, " on the war-camels of the Midianitish kings would naturally pass
into the standard of the nation, and hence become the standard of Mahomet and
his followers." He allows, however, that no mention of the crescent occurs in the
early history of the Saracens. And I believe it was a Turkman ensign, not Arabian.

CH.VI.^1.] CONTINUITY OF EUPHRATEAN TURKS. 475
was yet kept up in the new line of Hugh Capet, — just as,
(to take a biblical example,) Judah, when revived under
Nehemiah or the Maccabean princes, after the longer or
shorter periods of interregnum consequent on the inva
sions of Nebuchadnezzar and Antiochus, was still regarded
in scripture prophecy and promise as the same Judah, —
so is the identity of the Ottoman with the old Seljukian
empire demonstrable, on this reorganization of the Turk
man power.1 And as under the one dynasty it began the
fulfilment of the prophecy of the sixth apocalyptic Trum
pet, so under the other, as I must now briefly notice, it
completed it.
Although indeed, as to the rest, what need it to tell the
well-known history ? Of the Sultans Othman and Orchan,
Amurath and Bajazet,2 who knows not ; and of the pas
sage of their victorious armies across the Hellespont ?
Who knows not how, from the Danube to the Adriatic,
the European provinces of the empire were then, one after
another, rent from it by the ruthless foe, until its vitality
was almost confined to the city of Constantine : just as
vegetable life sometimes dies down to the root : or, where
the limbs are dead, the animal life may still beat at the
heart ? Then at length, says the historian,3 for the first

1 Foxe in his Eicasmi in Apocalypsin, explaining this Trumpet of the Turks, simi
larly traces the continuity of the Seljukians and Othmans. " Turcos post 192 annos
Tartari attracti ab Armeniis, A.D. 1240, deturbatos principatu, sibi parere coegerunt.
Etsi Turci ipsi nondum prorsus aboliti sparsim quaedam retinuerunt in Cappadocia,
Galatia, et Bithynia. Principe tantum caruerunt ; donee, Tartarorum imperio pau-
latim labefacto, circa A D. 1300 pristinam denuo potentiam sub principe Othmanno
recuperarunt." So too Mills, Hist, of Mahommedism ; " The Seljuks of Iconium and the Cho-
rasmian Tartars became one people, known in history by the common name of Otto
man Turks ; and the sword and sceptre of power were transferred from the sluggard
Seljukian princes, to their ambitious and enterprizing generals." p. 261. Cited by
Faber, ii. 288.
I believe the title Tartar is here incorrectly given to the Ottoman Turks. M. Kla-
proth distinguishes between Turks and Tartars ; considering the former as of Cau
casian, the latter of Mongol race.
2 The dates of the reigns of the four first Ottoman princes are as follows : Oth
man, A.D. 1299—1326; Orchan, A.D. 1326—1360; Amurath, A.D. 1360—1389;
Bajazet, A.D. 1389—1403.
It was about the time of the decline of the Moguls, and a little before the acces
sion of Othman, that the Latin Crusaders were finally driven out of Palestine. 1291
was the date of that event.
Orchan subdued the Asiatic provinces to the Bosphorus and Hellespont, consum
mating the captivity or ruin of the seven Asiatic churches. Amurath was the first
to cross into Europe. 3 Gibbon xi. 445.

476 apoc ix. 13— 19. [part n.
time for above 1000 years from its foundation, Constantino
ple was surrounded both on the Asiatic and European side
by " the arms of the same hostile monarchy." r The four
tempest-angels seemed to have occupied each its corner of
the heavens, whence to destroy : and the Turkman Sultan,
Mahomet the 2nd, furnished the earthly agency for the con
summation of the catastrophe. — On the particulars of this
catastrophe it is not my present purpose to dwell. There
are various most interesting points of detail, which will call
for notice in the next Section. Suffice it in the present to
have shown, as I proposed, the national continuity of these
Turkmans, from the time of their first commissioning, and
the loosing of the Moslem power under them against Bo-
man Christendom, down to that of their destroying the Greek
empire. And in conclusion, let me only remark, how by
their official titles and appellatives the Turkman Sultans
seemed almost to proclaim before the world, their identity
on those points with the prefigured agents of the second
woe. Slayer as he was, in apocalyptic phrase, of the third
of the men of Christendom, the Sultan called himself Hun-
kiar, the slayer of men.1 Beviver and relooser as he was,
agreeably with the apocalyptic prophecy, of the long dor
mant spirit of the preceding woe, i. e. of the spirit of the old
Moslem Caliphate, he had soon the caliphate, or spiritual
headship of the Moslem world, yielded up to him,2 (as, long
before, its temporal headship,) and added it also to his titles.
Finally, having in 1530 united Bagdad to his dominions,
— just as if to direct the attention of an enquirer to that
city by the Euphrates, as the local source whence, as here
foretold, his primary commission issued, — he inserted it
prominently into the list of his proud titles of empire. " I
Sultan of Sultans," was his style of writing, " Governor
of the earth,  Lord of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusa-
1 See Dallaway's Constantinople, p. 41, and Thornton's Turkey, p. 95. Thornton
explains this of the Sultan's right of slaying his own subjects. But is this probable ?
2 It was solemnly renounced in the year 1517, in favour of the Turkish Sultan
Selim, by the Caliph Motawakkel, Mohammed, after the overthrow of the Circas
sian Mamelucs in Egypt. This was at that time the only Moslem caliphate re
maining : the caliphate at Bagdad having been extinguished by the Tartars in the
year 1258 ; and that of Cordova yet earlier, before the middle, I believe, of the
eleventh century.— Hence the Sultan's title of Imam ul Muslimim, Chief Pontiff
of Mussulmans ; and the almost divine sacredness of his character in their eyes, in
consequence. Thornton pp. 93, 94.

CH. VI. §2. J i! I HEARD THEIR NUMBER." 477
lem, &c. &c, — and more particularly of the capital of the
Caliphs, Bagdad." 1

§ 2.  FURTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NATION
COMMISSIONED IN THE SECOND WOE.
In the preceding Section the two first noted and most
prominent particulars, designative of the people that were
to be God's scourge under the second woe, viz. their re
ceiving their commission from the same locality where the
former or Saracenic woe had been bound, i. e. by the
Euphrates, and their destroying the third part of men, the
Greek empire, have been shown to apply to the Turks, —
the Seljukian and Ottoman Turks. And it surely needs
not to say that they can apply to no other nation whatso
ever. In order, however, yet more distinctly to fix the
application, there are added certain other characteristics of
the people intended ; describing their numbers, their per
sonal appearance, the particular instrumentalities used by
them in destroying and injuring, and the period of time (a
period very singularly defined) within which they were to
execute their commission of slaying the third part of men.
These I proceed now to consider — the simpler points more
in brief; the difficult and the most important more at
large. 1 . And, first , as to their numbers. " The number of
the armies of the horsemen," it is said, " was myriads of
myriads :2 — a numeral phrase indefinite, but, according to
its natural and not infrequent use in scripture,3 expressive
1 Ferrario, Part iii. See also Thornton's Turkey, p. 54 ; who gives the list as
heading a Treaty of A.D. 1790, with the king of Prussia.
2 Many manuscripts read Svo pvptaSes or Svs pvptaSes. These our translators have
followed. Griesbach, on external evidence, prefers the more simple reading pvptaSes
fivpiaSuv; which seems to me preferable on internal also. So too Michaelis, in his
Introduction to the New Testament, Vol. vi. p. 537. (Marsh's Translation) He
thinks the Svo " very improhable."
3 Compare Gen. xxiv. 60 ; 71x011 eis X'*-'aoas pvptaSuv. " Be thou the mother of
thousands of myriads : " — Num. x. 36 ; eirio-rpetpe Kvpie X'^'tSas pvpiaSas ev tu
loparjA' " Return to thy thousands of myriads (Heb. myriads of thousands) in
Israel ; " an example strikingly to the point, as the numbers of Israel are mentioned,
in the census of Num. i. 45, 46, to have been only 603,550 above twenty years old :
— Dan. vii. 10 : pvpiai pvptaSes rrapetorrjKetoav avru" " Myriads of myriads stood

478 apoc ix. 13— 19. [part n.
of large numbers ; and of which the applicability charac
teristically to the Turkman armies, more especially as it is
not mere numerousness of soldiers that is noted, but nume-
rousness of horsemen, is to a student of the history of the
times notorious. Numerous indeed were the cotemporary
armies of western Europe, at the close of the 1 1 th cen
tury ; though not innumerous like the Turks. But herein
was a greater distinction. With them the cavalry or knights
were comparatively few ; the bulk of the army being foot-
soldiers : whereas of the Turkman, as of the Saracen
armies before, (and who so well knew the fact as the Greeks
and Franks that encountered them ? ) the numbers num
berless were cavalry.1 — Further it has been suggested by
Daubuz, and I think not without reason, that there may be
probably an allusion also in the form of expression to the
Turkman custom of numbering by tomans or myriads.
For though not unused among other nations,2 yet there is
probably none with whom it has been from early times so
prevalent as with the Turkmans and Tartars. Thus in the
Seljukian age, if I remember right, the population of Sa-
marcand was rated at seven tomans, because it could send
out 70,000 horsemen warriors. Again, the dignity and
rank of Tamerlane's father and grandfather was thus de
scribed, that they were the hereditary chiefs of a toman of
10,000 horse.3 So that it is not without his usual pro
priety of language, that Gibbon speaks of " the myriads
of the (Seljukian) Turkish horse overspreading the Greek
frontier, from the Taurus to Erzeroum :"or of the cavalry of
the earlier Turks of Mount Altai " being, both men and
horses, proudly computed by millions." * He had doubt
less the Turkman phraseology and mode of numbering in
his mind, when he penned the two. sentences ; and, in the
before him : " — and the same nearly, Rev. v. 11 ; ijv b aptBpos avruv pvpiaSes
pvptaSuv i. e. according to Griesbach's reading. Compare Procopius' pvptaSuv
ptvptas, (Gibb. vii. 424,) said of the numbers that fell by the plague under Justinian.
1 e. g. The forces of the Seljukian Sultan Soliman, encountered by the first Cru
saders at Nice, are stated by the Christians, says Gibbon, (xi. 60,) at 200 or even
360 thousand horse. Again Knolles states the number of the Timariot horsemen
of the Othman Turkish empire, as alone amounting in his time, i. e. in the earlier
half of the 17th century, to above 700,000.
2 e. g. Of the inhabitants of Nineveh there are said in Jonah, iv. 11, (Septuag.)
to have been twelve myriads.
3 Gibbon, xii. 4. * Gibbon, vii. 287, x. 351.

CH.VI. § 2.J BLUE, RED, AND YELLOW COLOURING. 479
last of them, their proud habit of exaggeration also. And
wherefore then may we not suppose a similar reference,
since the turn of the phrase is similarly apt and character
istic, in the apocalyptic notice of number before us ?
It is added, "And I heard the number of them." And
considering the pointedness of the declaration, — appended
as it is to the notice of the numbers previous, in an order
and form unusual,1 — and also John's representative charac
ter on the Apocalyptic scene, I cannot but think that it
may have been meant to betoken that the report of the
Turkmans' might and numbers would fall with more than
common impressiveness upon the ear of the christian church.2
If so, it surely needs but a glance at history to see the
realization of the intimation. Passing over the terrors of
the Turkman name to the Greek christians, we know that
by Peter the Hermit personally, and by the letters also of
the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the report was carried to all
the princes and churches in western Christendom. " Je
rusalem has been besieged, taken, sacked, razed, triumphed
over. What may the rest of Christendom promise to itself?
The strength of the Turks is daily increased : their forces
are fiercer and stronger than the forces of the Saracens :
they have already devoured the whole world in hope. We
call on you for help, as christians not in the name and pro
fession only, but in heart, soul, spirit. Ere the tempest
thunder, ere the lightning fall on you, avert from your
selves and children the storm hanging over your heads ! 3
1 The usual and simple mode of expressing the thought would have been ; " And
I heard the number of them, myriads of myriads ; " the notice of hearing being
prefixed to the statement. Compared with which the emphasis of the actual ex
pression, " the number of them was myriads of myriads : — and I heard the number
of them : " will be evident.
2 Compare a somewhat similar, though less emphatic use of the expression in 1
Sam. xiii. 3, 4 : " Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba;
and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout the land,
saying, Let the Hebrews hear ! And all Israel heard say that Saul had smitten a
garrison of the Philistines ; and that Israel was had in abomination with the Phil
istines." So too 1 Sam. xvii. 23, &c. It marks impression.
Compare too what occurs in " the burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of
Amoz did see." — " The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great
people:., the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle." Isa. xiii. 4. Also
2 Kings vii. 6 : " The Lord hath made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of
chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host : " &c.
3 Observe here the Apocalyptic 'figure of a tempest; a figure agreeing with the
supposition of the four tempest angels being the invisible directors of the woe.

480 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part n.
Deliver us : deliver your religion ; and God shall requite
you." So as Knolles relates,1 the report was echoed and
thrilled through western Christendom : — among the true,
as well as the false, that bore the christian name : the for
mer having as yet not formally, or in a body, separated
from the church visible. And what followed ? The Coun
cil of Clermont : the fermentation through Christendom :
and then its precipitation in the crusades against the
Euphratean horsemen. All was but the result of that hear
ing of the bruit of the Turkish might and terribleness from
Jerusalem. " And I heard the number of them."
2. The next descriptive trait represents to us their per
sonal appearance and array. This is a point not for
gotten, as we have seen, in the figurative prophetic descrip
tions, whether of the Old or New Testament. So, for
instance, in that of the Assyrian lovers of Aholah in
Ezekiel ; " Horsemen riding upon horses clothed with blue,
captains and rulers : " 2 and again, turning to the Apoca
lypse, in that of the Saracens with man-like faces, but hair
as the hair of women, just preceding ; and in that of Papal
Bome and its hierachy, as typified by the scarlet-coloured
Beast, yet to come.3 So here of the Euphratean armies :
" I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sate on
them, having breast-plates of fire, (i. e. of fire-colour,)
and jacinth, and sulphur ,•" or of red, blue, and yellow. On
which it is the just remark of Mr. Daubuz, " that from their
first appearance the Ottomans have affected to wear war
like apparel of scarlet, blue, and yellow : a descriptive trait
the more marked from its contrast to the military appear
ance of Greeks, Franks, or Saracens co temporarily." And,
indeed, I may add that it only needs to have seen the
Turkish cavalry, (as they were before the late innovations,)
whether in war itself, or in the djerrid, war's mimicry, to
leave an impression of the absolute necessity of some such
notice of their rich and varied colourings, in order to
1 See the Patriarch's Letter in Knolles' History .of the Turks, p. 13: alsoGibb.x.385,
2 Ezek. xxiii. 6. — So again in Ezek. xxvii. 7, of Tyre ; " Fine linen with broidered
work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail ; blue and purple
from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee." Also Nahum ii. 3, &c.
3 Apoc. xvii. 4.

CH.VI. §2.] BLUE, RED, AND YELLOW COLOURING. 481
give in description at all a just impression of their ap
pearance. The word hyacinthine, let me observe, fixes the primary
meaning of the other two words, fire-like, sulphur^like,
thus to signify colour. At the same time the singularity of
the words used to figure it,1 cannot but strike us. And the
general appropriateness of Scripture emblems, — an appro
priateness largely evidenced and exemplified in a former
chapter,2 — may suggest the suspicion of fire and sulphur
having been things in some peculiar and characteristic man
ner connected with the Turkish armies : — a suspicion con
firmed, and also explained, by a subsequent mention of fire
and sulphur in the emblematic figuration of them ; and of
which this twofold notice tends to show the importance.
3. To this point, then, let us next direct our attention.
" The heads of the horses," the Evangelist proceeds to ob
serve, "were as the heads of lions : and out of their mouths
goeth forth fire, and smoke, and sulphur. By these three
was the third of men slain, — by the fire, and the smoke,
and the sulphur that proceedeth out of their mouths. For
their power is in their mouths, &c." — The horses and their
riders are here evidently a composite symbol : the riders
being mentioned just once, as if, like the human resem
blances in the Arab scorpion-locusts, to notify man's agency
in the scourge ;3 but all the principal characteristics, inclu
ding such as must needs refer not to animals, but to men,
being said of the horses. So in the clause, " their heads
were as the heads of lions." On which let me just observe,
in passing, that as the heads, being unnatural, are of course
symbolic, and the symbol, according to its all but constant
use in scripture,4 to be interpreted of leaders of the Eu
phratean armies, — it might seem a preintimation that to
1 We may indeed compare the irvptvos in this sense with the irvppoi of Apoc. vi.
4 and xii. 3 ; but the BetuSets, sulphur-like, is not used elsewhere in Scripture to
denote colour. 2 See p. 392, &c, supra.
3 The " decorum " of the symbol here, but not there, admitting of this mode of
introducing the human element.
4 E. g. Isa. vii. 8 ; " The head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is
Rezin : ' Dan. ii. 38; "Thou art the head of gold." Judges xi. 11 ; "They made him
to be a head and governor : " KecpaAijv Kai apxijyov. Again in Rev. xiii we read in
this sense of the seven heads of the Beast; and in Psalm xviii. 43, " Thou hast
made me to be the head of the heathen."
VOL. i: 2 I

482 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part n.
these leaders the same lion-like destroying character would
attach, as to the Saracens before them. And we know that
there was an answering, in respect not of character only,
but even of title, in the Alp Arslans and Kilidge Arslans,
the Valiant Lions and Noble Lions, of the Seljukians; and
in the pretensions and character of the Othman Sultans
also.1 — But it was specially of the new destroying agency,
predicated of them, that I was to speak, as the really cha
racteristic point in the description. "Out of their mouths,"
says St. John, " issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone :2 " it
being added, as if to limit and define their instrumental use ;
" By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire,
and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out
of their mouths." Now that there is in this, as Mede sug
gests, an allusion to the modern artillery used by the Otto
mans against Constantinople, seems to me so obvious and
so striking, that I cannot but wonder that any one, as
Dean Woodhouse, should have objected to, or even, as
Vitringa, hesitated about it.3 Wherefore could the Dean
speak of the interpretation as a force on prophetical lan
guage, unworthy of respectable names ? If the arms of a
nation be often elsewhere noticed in prophetic scripture,
why not here ? — And where, indeed, and on what other
occasion, did ever the arms employed bear so memorable,
so all-important an influence, on the great catastrophe?
For I would wish strongly to impress this point on the
reader's mind. It is marked prominently in the prophecy
before us. It is marked prominently also in the history.
It was to " the fire and the smoke and the sulphur," to the
artillery and fire-arms of Mahomet, that the killing of the
third part of men, i. e. the capture of Constantinople, and
by consequence the destruction of the Greek empire, was
owing. Eleven hundred years and more had now elapsed
since her foundation by Constantine. In the course of
them, Goths, Huns, Avars, Persians, Bulgarians, Saracens,
1 So Rycaut on the Turks, chap, xxi : " The Turks compare the Grand Seignior
to the lion, and other kings to little dogs." 2 Or sulphur.
3 " An mystice hie alludatur ad morem bellorum gerendorum per machinas flam-
mam ex incenso pulvere sulphureo evomentes,. . fidenter asseverare non ausim." p.
541. — Probably Vitringa's hesitation on the subject, arose out of his unfortunate
exposition of the four angels, as meaning four successive Mussulman powers that
attacked the Greek empire ; of whom none but the Turks used cannon.

CH.VI.§2.] THE FIRE, SMOKE, AND SULPHUR. 483
Bussians, and indeed the Ottoman Turks themselves, had
made their hostile assaults, or laid siege against it. But
the fortifications were impregnable by them. Constanti
nople survived, and with it the Greek empire.1 Hence
the anxiety of the Sultan Mahomet to find that which
would remove the obstacle. " Canst thou cast a cannon,"
was his question to the founder of cannon that deserted to
him, " of size sufficient to batter down the wall of Con
stantinople ?" Then the foundery was established at Adri-
anople, the cannon cast, the artillery prepared, and the
siege began. — It well deserves remark, how Gibbon, always
the unconscious commentator on the Apocalyptic prophecy,
puts this new instrumentality of war into the foreground
of his picture, in his eloquent and striking narrative of the
final catastrophe of the Greek empire. In preparation for
it he gives the history of the recent invention of gunpow
der, " that mixture of saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal : "
tells of its earlier use by the Sultan Amurath ; and also, as
before said, of Mahomet's foundry of larger cannon at Adri-
anople : then, in the progress of the siege itself, describes
how " the vollies of lances and arrows were accompanied
with the smoke, the sound, and the fire of the musketry
and cannon :" how " the long order of the Turkish artillery
was pointed against the walls ; fourteen batteries thunder
ing at once on the most accessible places :" how " the for
tifications which had stood for ages against hostile violence,
were dismantled on all sides by the Ottoman cannon, many
breaches opened, and, near the gate of St. Bomanus, four
towers levelled with the ground :" how, as " from the lines,
the gallies, and the bridge, the Ottoman artillery thun
dered on all sides, the camp and city, the Greeks and the
Turks, were involved in a cloud of smoke, which could only
be dispelled by the final deliverance or destruction of the
Boman empire : " how " the double walls were reduced by
the cannon to a heap of ruins :" and how, the Turks at length
" rushing through the breaches," " Constantinople was
subdued, her empire subverted, and her religion trampled
in the dust by the Moslem conquerors." I say it well de-
1 I have not particularised the Latin capture of Constantinople, A.D. 1203, be
cause the Latins had a party among the Greeks. 2 I 2

484 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part ii.
serves observation, how markedly and strikingly Gibbon
attributes the capture of the city, and so the destruction
of the empire, to the Ottoman artillery.1 For what is it
but a comment on the words of our prophecy, " By these
three was the third part of men killed ; by the fire, and by
the smoke, and by the sulphur, which issued out of their
mouths." 4. Next as to the appearance of the horses' tails. — And
in this, according to what I cannot hesitate to regard as
its true interpretation, — though to support it we have not,
as before, the authority of many consenting interpreters,
but by all of them that I have seen, except Dr. Keith, it
is not so much as hinted, and by him only glanced at allu
sively, and in a Note, — I say there seems to me in this
descriptive point a symbol as remarkable and as character
istic of the Turks, as even that on which we last com
mented : — I might perhaps say more so. For what are
the terms of the description ? " " The horses' power (4)
d-ov<ria tcov iW«v) is in their mouth, and in their tails : for
their tails were like unto serpents, having heads,2 and with
them they do injury." Now had it been simply said,
" their tails were like serpents, and with them they injure,"
the case would have resembled that of the scorpion-locusts'
tails of the plague preceding ; 3 and might be presumed
to have indicated here., just as there, the injury merely,
and venom of a false religion accompanying it, done by
the new agencies of woe. But there is mentioned, in ad
dition, the peculiarity of these serpent-like horse-tails* seen
1 Gibbon xii. 62, 197, 210, 211, 228, 229, 231.— I observe that the same point is
noted somewhat strikingly in the narrative of the Byzantine historian Chalcocon-
dyles. 2 ex01"701 KetpaAas' i. e. the ovpai, or tails of the horses.
3 Apoc. ix. 10 ; " They (the locusts) have tails like scorpions, and stings were in
their tails."
In explaining the emblem under consideration, we see much inexactness in some
expositors. E. g. Bishop Newton : " They (the horses) very much resemble the
locusts ; the tails of serpents, with a head at each end, being attached to the horses."
And Dr. Hales ; " The horsemen sting with scorpions' tails." By this misapprehen
sion of the prophetic statement, these interpreters seem to me to have blinded
themselves and their readers to the singular significancy of the symbol. The tails,
according to the prophetic language, were still horse-tails ; but serpent like, through
having heads at their extremity (probably serpent-like heads) ; collecting and com
bining the hairs, so as to give thewhole horse-tail a serpent-like form and appearance.
The word oipeotv, let it be observed, is masculine, the ovpai and exovoai feminine.
4 In illustration of this serpent-tike allusion in the symbol, we may observe that

PI. 15.

Vol. I. -P. 48 6.

TURKMAN STANDARD OF THREE HORSE-TAILS.

Prom the Pictorial Bible .

CH.VI.§2.] THE HORSE-TAILS HAVING HEADS. 485
in vision, having heads. And thus, according to the usual
well-known prophetic use of the symbol of a head, as
already a little while since observed,1 the further idea is na
turally, I may almost say necessarily suggested, of rulers, or
governing authorities,2 in association with the horse-tails.
But how so ? The crown seems a sufficiently natural symbol
to denote a conquering emperor, the diadem a monarch, the
sword a military prefect, the balance an administrator of
justice. But a horse-tail to denote a ruler ! Strange as
sociation ! Unlikely symbol ! Instead of symbolizing au
thority and rule, the tail is in other scripture put in direct
contrast with the head, and made the representative rather
of the degraded and the low.3 Besides which it is not
here the lordly lion's tail, but that of the horse. Who
could ever, a priori, have conceived of such an application
of it ? And yet among the Turks, as we all know, — among
the Euphratean horsemen that were to kill the third part
of men, — that very association had existence, and still ex
ists to the present day. It seems that in the times of their
early warlike career the principal standard was once lost, in
the progress of battle ; and the Turkman commander, in
its default, cutting off his horse's tail, lifted it on a pole,
made it the rallying ensign, and so won the victory.4
Hence the introduction and permanent adoption among
the Turks throughout their empire of this singular ensign;
— among the Turks alone, if I mistake not, of all the na-
at the time of the first rise of the Seljukian Turks, it was said of them by one of his
Omrahs to Massoud, son of Mahmoud of Ghizni ; " Your enemies were in their
origin a swarm of ants. They are now like little snakes. And unless they be in
stantly crushed, they will acquire the venom and magnitude of serpents." The
above is quoted by Gibbon x. 343 ; and illustrates, in respect of the serpent-like form
of the Apocalyptic horse-tails, not the figurative sense only, but in a manner also
the national appropriateness of the symbol. 1 See Note 4, p. 481, supra.
2 Mill reads, al e^ovotat avruv, " their authorities are in their tails." A notable
reading! The word is similarly used in the plural Luke xii. 11, Rom. xiii. 1, &c.
3 So Deut. xxviii. 44 ; Outos eorat eis KeipaAijv, ov Se eo-rj eis ovpav " He shall
be the head, and thou shalt be the tail."
4 So Tournefort in his Travels ; also Ferrario. The following is Ferrario's account
of the origin of the ensign. " An author acquainted with their customs says, that
a General of theirs, not knowing how to rally his troops that had lost their stand
ards, cut off a horse's tail, and fixed it to the end of a spear ; (porno d'una lancia ;)
and the soldiers, rallying at that signal, gained the victory." Costumi &c. i. 126. —
He adds further, that whereas, " on his appointment, a Pasha of three tails used to
receive a drum (tamburo) and a standard, now for the drum there have been sub
stituted three horses' tails, tied at the end of a spear, round a gilded haft. One of
the first officers of the palace presents him these three tails and a standard."

486 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part ii.
tions that have ever risen up on this world's theatre : 1 and
this as what was thenceforward, — from the prime vizier to
the governors of provinces and districts, — to constitute
each ruler's badge, mark his rank, and give him name and
title. For it is the ensign of one, two, or three horse-tails,
that marks distinctively the dignity and power of the Turk
ish Pasha.2 — Marvellous prefiguration ! And who but He
could have depicted it, to whom the future is clear as the
present; and who, in his Divine prescience, speaks of things
that are not as though they were ?
" And with these they do injustice :" afiiKovo-t. There
seems a certain antithesis in this to what is predicated of
the heads in front. With the lion-like fire-breathing heads
in front the symbolic horses were to kill the third of men ;
i. e. to kill them in their political or national character.
With these heads behind they were afterwards to injure
and oppress the individuals of the remnant left ; while also
diffusing around them the poison of their false religion. —
And alas ! turning to historic records for illustration on
this point, where is the writer on the Turkish conquests
and administration, that does not tell of the oppression of
the christian subject rayahs by these Turkman Pashas ? As
Knolles, in his Sketch of the Turkish Greatness, expresses
it ; " His Bassaes, like ravening harpies, as it were suck out
the blood of his poor subjects." And where is the traveller
through European Turkey, (at least if his travels dated
before the late Greek revolution,) that has not with his
own eyes witnessed the same ? — Even now the scene rises
in memory before the author, of the long train of a Turk
ish Pasha, proceeding to his Pashalik in Greece; that past
him by, winding in picturesque array up one of the passes
* The Hetman of those Cossacs that migrated to Poland is also stated, I have
somewhere read, to have been presented by the Polish king with a horse-tail, among
other ensigns of authority. But these Cossacs were but a small tribe ; and it seems
likely that they borrowed this military ensign, as they did many of their military
terms, from the Turkmans.
2 In Blackwood's Magazine for August, 1842, the writer of the Chapter on Turkish
history, thus appropriately makes use of the figure. " The recent overthrow of the
Mameluc power by the Ottomans had extended the shadov) of the horse-tails far along
the coast of Africa." He is speaking of the times of Barbarossa.
And in this same North of Africa we still find the figure used, by the remnant-few
of the once mighty Turkish empire there remaining. On General Bugeaud's sum
moning the tribe of Mascara to submission, the answer began thus : " 77ie horse of
submission has no tail." Semaphore de Marseilles, June 12, 1841.

CH.VI.§2.J THE HORSE-TAILS HAVING HEADS. 487
of Mount Othrys, near where that mountain-chain frowns
over Thermopylae : and bright, he remembers, shone the
sunbeams on the varied colourings, the " red and blue and
yellow," of the horses, horsemen, and foot-retainers, in the
procession ; and proudly the ensign was borne before the
Turkman of two horse-tails, to mark his dignity. But
associated with the remembrance there rise up other recol
lections also : — the scene of a village which, on entering it
a few days before with his companions, he had found de
serted, though with marks of recent habitation ; and from
which, as a straggler emerging from his hiding-place in
formed them, men women and children had fled to the
mountains, to escape from the visit, on some errand of op
pression, of one of the officers of a neighbouring Pasha.
Nor again can the scene be forgotten of other permanently
deserted villages, such as the traveller's path each day
almost had to pass by ; and often with nothing but the
silent grave-yard in its loneliness, to tell the tale of former
life and population. Thus was there set before his eyes
how the inhabitants had failed before the oppressions of
the Turkman Pashas. And, long ere he thought of enter
ing on the direct investigation of prophecy, the singular
aptitude and truth of this symbol, as applied to them, fixed
itself on his mind : " The horse-tails were like serpents,
having heads ; and with these they do injury and oppress."
So ends our analysis, and identification with the Turk
man destroyers of Greek Christendom, of what was visible
to the eye in the details of the Apocalyptic symbol. Of
course in a case like this, especially as involving so much
admixture (i. e. according to my view of it) of the lite
ral and the symbolic, objections might be anticipated, and
have been made, against the explanation. And I feel it
right that the reader should see and consider them.1 But
the truth of the coincidences that have been affirmed be
tween symbol and fact remains unshaken. And the utter
flatness and unmeaningness of the sacred symbol, according
1 See my Paper on the objections to the Turkish solution in the Appendix to this
Volume. — The Paper referred to, and also the above written Paragraph in the text,
first added to this 4th Edition of the Hora;, are the result of certain controversies
that I have had to carry on, with reference to the 6th Trumpet, since the publication
of my former Editions.

488 apoc ix. 13— 19. [part n.
to these objectors' counter-view of it, seems to me only to
add confirmation strong, though most unintended on their
part, to the correctness of the Turkish solution.
5. There remains for explanation but one point more in
the prophecy; viz. the time within which, as measured from
the loosing of the four angels at the 6th Trumpet's sound
ing, their commission to destroy the third part of men was
to be accomplished. A point this of great interest, and some
difficulty. For, though freed by our explanation of the four
angels spoken of, and of their binding near the Euphrates
previously to the sixth Trumpet-blast, from various difficul
ties which have caused no little embarrassment to many
former expositors,1 it is yet one that needs careful consider
ation, in order to the satisfactory fixing of the meaning of
the phrase in which the chronological term is announced.
This settled, the historical fulfilment will soon appear.
As to the chronological term it is expressed as follows :
" And the four angels were loosed ; which were prepared
etc Trp> wpav Kat y)ft,spa.v Kai fj.y]va Kai eviavrov, to slay the third
1 Nothing, I conceive, can well be clearer, as to the chronological intimation con
tained in the prophecy, than these three things : — 1st, that the four angels must have
been in existence both at the earlier time of their binding, and at the later time of
their loosing : — 2. that the time of their loosing must have been at the sounding of
of the sixth Trumpet : — 3. that the predicted period of the hour day month and
year, (if those words be meant to signify a continuous period,) must have been the
interval between the angels' loosing, and their accomplishment of the stated subject
of their loosing, viz. to slay the third part of men.
But what say expositors on this point, who, like Mede and Newton, Faber and
Keith, explain the four angels to mean four Turkman Euphratean powers ? As
they cannot find any such four to have been constituted, or to have had existence,
till about A.D, 1080 or 1090, (see my Note p. 461 supra,) they therefore necessarily
look for some later event than this to answer to the binding of the angels. And they
think to find it in the restriction of the Turkman power by the crusades ; and the
angels' loosing consequently, (and that of the 6th Trumpet's sounding,) in the cessa
tion of that restraining power somewhere between the years 1280 and 1301 ; a
time when the curbing power of the crusades had ceased, and the Othmannic
Turkman come to the supremacy. But mark ! at this epoch neither Mede's quater
nion of kingdoms, nor Faber's, were any longer in existence. — Further, the period
of the hour day month and year, being made to end by Mede and Keith, where I
think the Apocalypse really intends it to end, viz. at the capture of Constantinople
by the Turks, and fall of the Greek empire, this period is necessarily from its very
length made by them to begin about 1055 ; i. e. 250 years before their epoch of the
sixth Trumpet's sounding. — On the other hand Bishop Newton and Mr. Faber,
rightly deeming that its true, commencing epoch ought to be that of the Trumpet's
sounding, and of the angels loosing, do yet make if end, in consequence of their
date of the sounding, 250 years after the slaying of that third part of men, the Greek
empire, which was to be the prophetic period's terminus.
I have thus reverted to, and expanded, my chronological argument at p. 461, from
a sense of the importance of the point involved in it.

CH.VI. §2.] FIRST GRAND iERA IN THE SECOND WOE. 489
part of men." I conceive its meaning to be, that the slaying
should either continue for, or be completed at the end of,
the mystical term of an hour day month and year, aggre
gated together. Hence both my view of the aggregation
of the nouns of time, and my view of the sense of the pre
position eis, governing them, are the first things to be here
explained and justified.
Now as to my construction of the nouns of time collect
ively, and in the aggregate, I so understand them on two
accounts. 1st, because that which is the only alternative
construction appears to me on every account inadmissible :
I mean that which, taking them each separately, would
render the clause thus ; that at the destined, hour, and des
tined day, and destined month, and destined year, they
should slay the third part of men.1 For, — 'to say nothing
of the want of the article prefix to three out of the four
nouns, a prefix needed, I conceive, for such a rendering,2
— it will be obvious that it explains the clause as made up
of tautologies : tautologies such that every successive word
after the first, instead of strengthening, only weakens the
supposed meaning ; and which bring out, at last, as the
result of their accumulation, nothing more than this, that
the destruction spoken of should be effected at the time
appointed. Do the inspired Scriptures ever speak in this
way ? — 2ndly, I so take them, because in another complex
chronological phrase, and one, in respect of its enigmatic
form, perhaps the most nearly parallel to the present that
prophetic scripture offers, we have the exposition of inspi
ration itself, interpreting the constituent terms of the
phrase as to be taken in the aggregate. I allude to the
well-known clause in Daniel, (xii. 7) «? Kaipov, Kaipov?, Kat
Ylixiav Kaipov, " for a time, times, and half a time," or year,
years, and half a year : which chronological formula, being
made the equivalent of 1260 days,3 i. e. of three years and
a half, must consequently be a period of a year, two years,
and half a year, aggregated together. — In this view of
the clause now before us, the article prefix, standing at
its head, may be understood not only to govern all the
1 So, or nearly so, Vitringa, Daubuz, Heinrichs, M. Stuart, &c.
2 So Matt. xxv. 13 ; ovSe tijv ijpepav, ouSe tijv upav.
3 Compare Dan. xii. 11 ; Rev. xii. 6, 14, &c.

490 apoc ix. 13— 19. [part n.
accusatives that follow, so as we find done elsewhere,1 but
also to be a means for the better uniting of them, as it were
under a bracket, as an hour day month and year, all added
together : at the same time that it may mark them also as
together making up the period ; i. e. the period fore-or
dained and fore-shown in the divine councils.
As to the rendering of the preposition eis, whether in
the sense of for, or else after, at the expiration of, it must
of course depend very mainly upon the sense attached to
the verb avoKreivai, to kill. If that verb may be taken
in its less natural sense of a continued slaying of the inha
bitants of Greek Christendom, until completed at length
in the political slaughter of them as a national corporate
body,2 then the preposition will have its more common and
natural sense of for, or during, attached to it. If, on the
other hand, an-oKTeivai be deemed a verb denotative rather
of the grand completed act of politically slaying the third
part of men, i. e. the Greek empire, — then it seems ne
cessary to take the preposition in its less common sense of
after, or at the expiration of. — As regards the first-men
tioned chronological sense of the eis, (and I may suggest
generally that in its application to chronological periods,
or statements, the varied meanings of the word seem all
borrowed from those which attach to it in its primary re
ference to place,)3 I say as regards my first-mentioned
1 tijv Svvap.iv Kai ttAovtov Kai ootpiav Kai icrxvv, &c. ; Apoc. v. 12. More generally
the article is repeated; as ib. 13 ; ii evAoyta, Kai ij rtuij, Kat ij Sofa, &c.
2 Less natural, because the slaying predicated is that of the third part (ro rpnov)
of the men of Roman Christendom collectively and nationally. Were it the slaying
of the individual members of that third part, then a continuous acting out of the
slaughtering commission would be natural. Just as in Homer, II. A. 154, Aiev airoK-
reivuv ever Apyeioiot KeAevuv.
3 The original meaning of the preposition eis, and that from which those relative
to time are derived, is one implying motion towards a place, as its term and object ;
— motion which may be incomplete and that of progress, or completed by arrival ;
very much as represented in the English equivalents, unto, at. Tlopevopevos eis
'lepoooAvpa- going to or tmvards Jerusalem : here the movement is incomplete.
KareABuv eis Kaarapeiav having come to, or arrived at, Csesarea : here it is com
pleted in arrival. To which latter class belong those cases in which actions, trans
ient or continuous, are done at the place after arrival ; as in, Aei pe iroiijoat tijv
eoprijv eis 'lepoa-oAvpa- " I must keep the feast at Jerusalem:" En-ecr^e XP0"0" eis
tijv Airiw " He stopped a while at or in Asia." * Because, when the sentences
are filled up, this would be the form of them ; " Having arrived at Jerusalem, I must
there keep the passover : " t " Having arrived in Asia, he stopped there."
From these meanings of eis that refer to place, the transition is easy to ideas of
time : and the English until, up to, or at, the point of time limiting, answer here, in
* Lukeix. 53; Acts xviii. 21, 22; xix. 22.
t Compare Matthise on eis ; p. 1006. (Blomfield's ed. 1832.)

CH. VI.§2.J FIRST GRAND iERA IN THE SECOND WOE. 491
chronological sense of the ets, as for or during, applicable
in the case of the airoKxeimi being meant of a continuous
slaying of the men of Greek Christendom, illustrative pa
rallel cases abound. So, for example, Y.itovbas eis eviavrov, a
truce for a year: Karirr/vo-e 'Vofioajj. eis err] rpia, Behoboam
was strong for three years ; &C.1 Just similar to which also
is one use of the analogous adverbs of time, «o? and ayj>i.2 —
As regards the other suggested meaning of eis, as after, or, at
the expiration of, a meaning needed in the case of airoKreivai
being taken in the sense of the individual momentary act
of killing, or destroying the national existence of, the third
part of men, the following two examples occur in illustra
tion. 1st, according to the usually received punctuation
of the Septuagint copies, Dan. xii. 7 : " He said; How
long {eis wore) shall it be to the end of these wonders ?
And he sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, on eis
xaipov Kaipovs Kai i)iuuv Kaipov, ev tco o'vvreKea-6'rpai %ao~Kopu:io--
fMV, yvtoo-ovrai iravra ravra- " they shall know these things at
the rendering, to the English unto, up to, or at, in the cases just given of motion to
a local limit. Eis Sre ; until when ? Eis rjeAtov KaiaSvvra, till sunset.* S.Bevro ets
rtjpijaiv eis tijv avptov " they put them in ward till the morrow." f In all these the
implied motion to the fixed point of time limiting is incomplete. — H ABov ets tijv upav
ravrijv " I came to, or have arrived at, this hour : " irAijpuBijoovTai eis tov Kaipov
avruv " My words shall be fulfilled at, or when arrived at, their season." X Here
the progress toward it is supposed to be completed.
To which general observations this must now be added : that whereas, in cases of
a local term or limit, the part nearest of that local limit is yet at a certain distance
from the original point of motion, and allowing consequentiy of progression towards
it, there are sometimes, on the other hand, chronological cases in which the term of
time limiting, (being not a fixed moment, but a term of some extent) is in its nearest
point in actual conjunction with the time then present, or that from which the pro
gression is to be reckoned. In such cases the limiting point is necessarily the end
of the term, not the beginning ; and the meaning of the eis either up to that end, in
the sense of duration through the whole term mentioned, or at the end, according to
the nature of the action noted. So, first, in cases like those cited in my text :
SirovSas eis eviavrov " a truce for a year," i. e. " up to the end of a year, dated
from the time then present : Keipeva eis erij iroAAa' " goods laid up for, or, to the end
of, many years :" § eis aei* "for ever, or to the end of the atuv, or world : " Zuv
eipt ets rovs aiuvas ruv aiuvuv " I am alive for, or to the end of, the ages of ages." |[
All these are examples of duration through, or up to the end of, the period. — In cases
of the other rendering, at the end of, there may be applied a similar principle of ex
planation. ' 2 Chron. xi. 17. Sept.
2 Save only that axpt and eus have a genitive following, the preposition eis an,
accusative. So eus, Dan. vii. 25 ; " They shall be given into his hand eus Kaipov.
koi xatpuv Kai ye ijpiav Kaipov" i. e. up to the end of the aggregate period, and
through or during it. — The same too with axpt. So axpt Kaipov, Luke iv. 13;
" the devil left him for, or up to the end of, a season : " and again Acts xiii. 1 1 ;
where we are told of Elymas being blind apxt Kaipov, for a season.
* Homer Odyss. ii. 99 ; iii. 138. t Acts iv. 3.
X John xii. 27 ; Luke i. 20. So again Phil. ii. 16 ; Kavxnpa pot ets ijpepav XptoTov.
Job xii. 5 ; ijroipaoro ireoetv eis xpovov raKrov &c. § Luke xii. 19.
II Apoc. i. 1 8. Similarly 2 Peter iii. 18 ; Auny ij 5ojo, koi vvv koi eis ijpepav aiuvos.

492 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part ii.
the end of the aggregated time, times, and half a time."
But the punctuation here seems more than doubtful.1 In
verse 12, however, of the same chapter, we have an exam
ple not to be questioned : M.aKapias o imoj^evuv, xai <j>8aaas, eis
yjMpas '/lAias rptaKoaias TpiaKovra itevre- " Happy is he who
arrives (not at the beginning, but) at the end of the 1335
days."2 A use of the eis precisely similar again to that of
the analogous adverbs eus and ayjpi.
After which last example when we turn to the passage
we are discussing, " And the four angels were loosed,
oi v]Toi[Aao-f*,evot eis TfjV upav Kai rjfxepav Kai fjjfjva Kai eviavrov, ha
airoKTeivuai ro rpnov tuv avQpuiruv" the probability may suggest
itself of the preposition being here too intended in the
same sense ; and of the true rendering of the phrase being
that after, or at the expiration of, the aggregated term of
an hour day month and year, (calculated from the time of
the angels being re-commissioned and loosed) " they should
slay the third part of men."3 — Supposing however the
other value of the eis to be preferred, in connexion with the
other value of the airoKTeivuo-i, " they were prepared for an
hour day month and year, to go on slaying the third of
men," i. e. until the slaughter was completed in the destruc
tion of their national existence,4 — the sense of the passage
will come practically to the same thing : the chronological
term in either case giving the interval between the epoch
of the angels loosing, and the epoch of their completed
killing of the third of men.
What the exact length of this period, and how many
1 Surely a full stop should follow the Kaipov ; and the eis, before the terms of
term, be construed in the sense of duration. Thus : '¦ It shall be for a time, times,
and half a time. At the end of the dispersion they shall know all these things."
2 Of the axpt, as in Acts xx. 6 ; ijABopev irpos avrovs ets tijv TpuaSa axpts ijpepuv
irevre' " We came to them at the end of five days ; " i. e. of five days of travelling.*
Of eus, as Matt, xxvii. 64 ; " That impostor said, After three days (perarpeis iipepas)
I shall rise again : command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the
third day ; eus tijs rpirrjs ijpepas." Where " until the third day " answers to " after
three days ; " and consequently means not until the beginning, but until the end, of
the third day. So again Dan. xii. 6 : 'Eus irore to irepas av etpijKas Bavpaoiuv.
3 I have the rather elaborated the foregoing criticism because of the importance of
the point it relates to : and partly too because of the difficulty felt by some com
mentators respecting it ; and the hasty, and, as it seems to me, incorrect criticisms
passed on it by others. See Woodhouse, Faber, &c. — Mede construes the eis as I
have, " after ; " but does not support his translation. — Keith makes the whole time
that of the preparation of the four angels : as if the participle were in the present,
eroipupevoi, preparing ; not in the past, rpoipaopevoi, prepared.
4 So Mr. Birks in his Mystery of Providence.
* So I-Ioogeveen translates it (p. 83) " Venimus intra quinque dies."

CH.VI.§2.] FIRST GRAND JERA IN THE SECOND WOE. 493
prophetic days it would in all make up, depends of course
on the value that we attach to the evtavros, the year men
tioned : whether we prefer to consider it as, like the Katpos,
a year of twelve months of thirty days each, i. e. a year of
360 days, not counting in the supplemental days added to
make it accord with solar time ; or whether as the actual
current year, of near 365 days 6 hours. The latter value is
attached to it by Mede and others : and there is, I think,
a priori probability in its favour from the adoption of the
word evtavros, in the place of -naipos, here, and here only in
prophetic scripture ; a word signifying etymologically that
which returns into itself.1 At any rate the question is an
open one; and the agreement of historic fact (as we shall
show) with the calculation, as thus made, may be consi
dered as deciding in its favor. — Thus estimated, then, the
length of the period will be found to amount, on the year-
day system to 396 years 1 18 days ; reckoning 12 hours to
the prophetic day, on the principle some time since stated.2
1 Compare Wintle on Daniel, Preliminary Dissertation, p. xlix. After observing
that the Babylonians and Persians, as well as Jews, held the division of the year
into twelve months each of thirty days, he adds ; " But Daniel adopted the name of
times (fO^S) for his periods, instead of calling them by the name of D'OEJ, anni;
which more properly applied to the full annual revolutions of the sun." And then
he appends a Note as follows. " D^EJ, anni, from rDt£7, ilerare ; wherein the
sun reiterates his course, and returns to the same point whence he set out : or, ac
cording to Buxtorf, ' inre sua per vestigia semper volvatur et redeat.' So the Greek
eviavros, from his revolving in himself ( ev eavrip) : and hence the Egyptian hiero
glyphic of a serpent with its tail in its mouth."
2 As the Julian year equalled 365 days 6 hours, the correspondent Apocalyptic pe
riod would, on the year-day principle, be in amount as follows :
A year = 365£ days = 365 years + £ of a year.
A month = 30 days = 30 years.
A day = 1 year.

Years 396.
£ of a prophetic day, or year, = 91 days, 1 _ gg d
Deduct Gregorian correction of 3 days,*/ " "
An hour = fit of a prophetic day or year = 30 days.

Total = years 396 + 118 days.
An hour = rj> of a prophetic day, or year,t = 30 days.

Total = years 396 + 118 days.

* The exact length of the year is 365 days, 3 hours, 48 minutes, 57 seconds ; or
about 11 minutes less than 365£ days; a difference which in about 130 years
amounts to a day. Hence the necessity of retrenching a day from the Julian year
every 130 years, or so, in order to keeping true time.
T See p. 303 supra. Mr. Barker has suggested, Mr. Birks adopted, this view of
the " hour."

494 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part ii.
This was the period at the end of which, as measured from the
epoch of their loosing, on the sixth Trumpet-blast, from the
Euphrates, the horsemen of the vision, it was foretold to
St. John, were to destroy the third part of men. And
convinced as we have been that the Turks were the horse
men that acted under the guidance of the four angels in
the matter, what now remains for us to do is only to look
at historical dates : and, so calculating, to compare with the
aforementioned prophetic period, the actual historic interval
between the first loosing from the Euphrates of the Moslem
power, after revivification through connexion with the Turk
mans, and the taking of Constantinople, and destruction of
the Greek empire, by the Turks under the 2nd Mahomet.
In regard to the circumstances and the date of the for
mer important event and epoch, we may be thankful that
we have full and authentic information in the two well known
Arabic historians Abulfeda and Elmakin ; and indeed in
the earlier and fuller historians, Al Bondari and Emad
Eddin.1 From them I borrow my statements and chrono
logy in what follows.
It has been already noted 2 that in the year 1055, or of
the Hegira 447, the Bagdad Caliph wrote to Thogrul Beg
to come to his assistance against some threatening danger;
the Bowid chieftain, who was at this time the secular head
under him, having proved altogether an inefficient protec
tor. Thogrul immediately answered to the summons, and
gave the protection asked for : then, on occasion of some
civic tumult occurring, seized on and imprisoned the Bowid
Chief, thus extinguishing the supremacy of the Bowides,
after it had lasted, says Elmakin, 127 years.3 He was
now by the Caliph appointed, and publicly proclaimed in
the mosques, " Protector and Governor of the Moslem
empire ; " the secular authority of the caliphate delegated
to him ; and his name recited, next to the Caliph's, in the
1 See the notice respecting these authors, p. 496, 497 infA.
2 See p. 469 ; also on the origin of the Bowid rule at Bagdad, p. 439.
3 He adds as to date and publicity ; " Et cessavit oratio ejus in fine Ramadani ;
atque ita desiit imperium Boijtarum : " — the oratio that he speaks of, being that
same public prayer for the Bowid, as chief lord of the Moslems, which I noticed in
reference to the Othmans, p. 470 supra.

o

CH. VI. §2.] FIRST grand JERA in THE SECOND WOE. 495
public prayers.1 — All this occurred in the month of Bama-
zan of that same year ; that is in December A. D. 1055.
This is the epoch noted by both Abulfeda and Elmakin,
and not without reason, as that of the commencement of
the Seljukian empire at Bagdad : the inauguration and in
vestiture celebrated some two years after, or a little more,
being only a more splendid solemnization of that appoint
ment to his high office, which now already took place.
Thus appointed, then, Thogrul Beg fixed his head-quar
ters in the citadel of Bagdad ; and stayed there thirteen
months : meanwhile establishing his authority,2 and cement
ing his connexion with the Caliph, among other things, by
giving him his sister in marriage. The effect of the con
nexion was, as regarded the Turkman army and people, to
give them a character of religious consecration to the ser
vice of Islamism : while, on the other hand, the power of
the Moslem caliphate, so long paralyzed at Bagdad, was
prepared by it with new energies ; and revivified, as it were,
to act again in the cause of its false faith.
And now we are directed by the terms of this prophecy,
to mark the time when the Moslem power, thus revivified,
was loosed from the Euphrates : in other words, when
under its new Turkman head, it went forth from Bagdad,
on the career of victory and aggrandizement thenceforth
afresh destined for it. The date is given by Abulfeda ;
the 10th of Dzoulcaad, A. H. 448. That was the day in
which Thogrul with his Turkmans, now the representative,
as we have said, and head of the power of Islamism, quitted
Bagdad to enter on a long career of war and conquest. —
The part allotted to Throgrul himself in the fearful drama
soon about to open against the Greeks, was, like the mili
tary part enacted long previously by Mahomet, in regard
of Christendom, preparative. It was to extend and establish
1 After stating that it was in that year that the power of the Bowides ended, and
was transferred to the Seljuks, Abulfeda adds ; " Eo enim (sc. anno, A. H. 447) pri
mus Togrul Bee, ut summus post Chalifam princeps, imperiique Muslemici protector
atque gubernator, per templa proclamatus piisque votis decorates fuit.'' He also
says ; " Consensu et jussu Chahfoe preces ipsi Bagdadi publicse fieri incipiebant die
vicesimo secundo nonse mensis hujus anni ; " i. e. the Hutbe prayers for Togrul Bee.
De Guignes observes, of the same circumstances and period, " II fut revetu de
toute l'autorite."
2 " Thogrul Becus domicilium fecit in arce imperiali ; fuitque ei Bagdadi stabili-
tum imperium." Elmakin. So too Abulfeda.

496 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part n.
the Turkman dominion over the frontier countries of Irak
and Mesopotamia ; that so the requisite strength might
be attained for the attack ordained in God's counsels
against the Greek empire. His first step to this was
the siege and capture of Moussul ; his next, of Singara.
Nisi bis, too, was visited by him: that frontier fortress
that had in other days been so long a bulwark to the
Greeks. Everywhere victory attended his banner ; a pre
sage of what was to follow. And on his return after
a year's campaign to Bagdad, for the purpose of the
more solemn inauguration that we spoke of,1 (an inaugur-
ative ceremony celebrated - in oriental history,2) the result
1 The date of the investiture is fixed by Abulfeda as on the 25th Dzoulcad, A. H.
449 : with which date Elmakin's narrative perfectly agrees.
2 As regards this ceremonial, Elmakin thus speaks : " Chalifa induit principem
Togrul Becum veste imperiali, eumque coronavit, et torque atque armillis ornavit,
scripsitque ei auctoritatem consignatam de praefectura aula? suae." Abulfeda adds
that the Chalif committed the charge of the empire to him in words like these :
" Mandat Chalifa tuae curse omne id terrarum quod Deus ejus curae et imperio com-
misit; tibique civium piorum, fidelium, Deum colentium, tutelam sublocatorio no
mine demandat."
In De Guignes' abstract of the history, the date is printed 25th Dzoulcad, A. H.
448, simply by an error of the press for 449. That it is a misprint is plain ; for
De Guignes dates Thogrul Bee's quitting Bagdad the 10th Dzoulcad 448 ; then
speaks of his besieging Moussul for four months, then Singara, and not till after
these events, returning to go through the ceremony of investiture at Bagdad. Un
fortunately Dr. Keith did not observe that it was a misprint, or consult original
authorities ; and building his calculations and exposition of this apocalyptic period
upon it, built on a foundation of sand.
As the ceremonial was very notable, it was one that might not improperly have
been made an epoch of commencement to the prophetic period, if its chronology had
answered. At the same time it must be remembered, first, that we date a reign
from the accession of the monarch, not from his coronation : (and both Abulfeda
and Elmakin, as the reader has seen, assign Togrul Beg's appointment or accession to
the office of Secular Head of the Moslem empire, to the year A. H . 447 :) also that the
epoch noted in the prophecy is that of the reloosing from the Euphrates of the power
that had been bound there, not of its re-invigoration.
De Guignes' fuller narration is borrowed from Al Bondarv's Arabic History of the
Seljukides : about whom Gibbon says in a Note, when referring to De Guignes, Vol.
x. p. 349, " I am ignorant of Bondari's age, country, and character." As the sub
ject described is an interesting and curious one, both to the general reader and the
prophetic student, and I found, on reference to our University Libraries and the
British Museum, that the same want of information still continued with regard to
this the chief author on whom we have to depend for the narrative, it seemed to me
worth while to make inquiries at the King's Library at Paris ; where I doubted not
Bondari's manuscript would be found. In reply M. Reinaud (of the Library) obligingly
gave me the following information on the manuscript and its author. " L'ouvrage
est une Histoire des Sulthans Seljoukides, ecrite en Arabe par Emad-eddin, secretaire
du grand Saladin. (Voyez sur Emad-eddin ce que j'ai dit dans mon Introduction
aux Extraits des Historiens Arabes des Croisades, Paris 1829, en 8vo.) Cetouvrage
fait partie des manuscrits Arabes de la Bibliotheque Royale, fonds St. Germain, No.
327. Comme il e'tait ecrit dans un style poetique et plein d'emphase, un compa-
triote d'Emad-eddin, le Sheikh-Fath, fils d'Aly, fils de Mohammed, al Bondary, al
Ispahany, l'abregea, et le reproduisit sous des formes plus simples. La redaction

CH. VI. § 2.J FIRST GRAND .ERA IN THE SECOND WOE. 497
is thus described by Elmakin ; " There was now none
d'Al-Bondary se trouve parmi les manuscrits Arabes de la Bibliotheque, ancien fonds,
No. 767, A. C'est celle-ci dont De Guignes a fait usage."
He was so good as to forward at the same time a French translation of Emad-
eddin's account of the ceremonial at Bagdad, made for me by M. Munk, an eminent
oriental scholar at Paris ; which the literary reader will, I am sure, thank me for
subjoining. Retour de Togrulbeg d Bagdad. — II se prSsente devant le Khalife.
II retourna a Bagdad victorieux, et dans toute la plenitude de la puissance. Le
Khalife lui donna une audience, le jour de Samedi 25 de Dhou'l Kaada (de l'annee
449.*) II s'embarqua sur le Tigre, faisant courir son esquif sur l'onde du fleuve,
jusqu'a ce qu'il arriva a la porte de misericorde de la sublime cour, et du palais.
La on lui presenta un coursier qu'il monta ; et il entra a cheval jusqu'au vestibule
du palais de la paix f et de la citadelle d'Islamisme. Ensuite il descendit, etmarcha
it pied ; et les Emirs marcherent devant lui, sans armes, jusque la ou residait la
majeste, et oil la direction (de la foi) subsistait par Kaiem : lieu digne de la mission
(prophetique), siege perpetuel de l'Imamat; oil la prophe'tie ne cessait d'etre here-
ditaire, et oilTenaissait sans cesse la valeur. Un rideau plein d'eclat eteit suspendu
sur le pavilion, et la purete de la grandeur etait empreinte sur cette magnificence.
Al-Kaiem-biamr-Allah etait assis derriere le rideau, sur un tr6ne eleve'; dans un por-
tique qui etait bien fait pour donner sejour a la grandeur, et dans un palais dont le
sol etait un ciel pour la gracieuse reception. Sur ses epaules, et dans sa main, on
voyait la Borda et le sceptre du prophete, arroses de l'eau (de l'eclat) pure de Mo
hammed. Lorsque Togrulbeg se fut approche" du sublime siege, et des marches
voilees, lorsque le rideau du pavilion fut leve, et qu'il vit briller le visage du Khalife,
comme la lune dans les tenebres du trdne sublime, il s'acquitta de ses devoirs (de
lespect), et se prosterna. Ensuite il se releva; etdebout devant Kaiem, il attendait
es ordres qui lui seraient donnes. Le supreme Rei's monta sur un siege elegant.
Le Khalife lui dit : Fais monter Rocn-eddaula X aupres de toi. Avec lui se trouvait
Mohammed-ben-Mansour al Condari, qui lui servait d'interprete. On placa un
siege pour Togrulbeg. II s'assit, et Amld-al-mulc § lui lut l'acte d'investiture du
Khalife. || Ensuite Togrulbeg se leva pour aller a l'endroit ou il devait recevoir sa
haute dignite, et ^tre revetu du manteau d'honneur (Khilah) 1f....0n lui mit des
bracelets et un collier, et on le revetit de six Khiltit noires, montees sur un seul
bord (autour du cou), et par lequelles on lui confia a la fois le gouvernement des
sept climats. II fut pare d'un turban musque et dore ; et il portait a la fois les deux
couronnes des Arabes et des Perses ; ce qui lui fit donner les surnoms de Motawwedj
couronne) et Moammem (orne d'un turban).** On lui ceignit uneepee ornee d'or.
Puis il sortit, et revint s'asseoir sur le siege. II voulut se prostefner ; mais il ne le
pouvait pas, a cause de la couronne Imperiale qu'il portait. II demanda la faveur de
baiser la main du Khalife. Celui-ci la lui donna deux fois : il la baisa, et la porta
sur ses yeux. Le Khalife lui fit ceindre une autre epee qu'il avait devant lui; et
par les deux epees il se voyait investi du gouvernement des deux royaumes. Le
* L'annee 449 n'est pas indiquee par Bondari ; mais on la trouve a la fin du
chapitre precedent dans l'ouvrage original, dont celui de Bondari n'est qu'un extrait.
Le chapitre suivant commence dans les deux ouvrages par l'annee 450.
f Allusion au nom de la ville de Bagdad, qui s'appelait aussi Ville, ou Habitation,
de la Paix. X Soutien de I'empire, titre d'honneur de Togrulbeg.
§ Ministre de Togrulbeg residant a Bagdad. Voyez Aboulf. Annal. Moslem.
Tom. iii. p. 161.
|| L'enumeration de tout ce que le Khalife lui confia en le nommant Emir-al-
Omora. ^f Je supprime ici quelques mots qui ne s'accordent pas dans les deux manuscrits.
lis ne tenferme qu'une paraphrase poe'tique de la Khilah.
** [N. B. Compare this notice of the Arab gilded turban, or crown, with the Apo
calyptic " crowns like g-oW,";said of the locusts. See pp. 409, 410, 41 1, supra.]
VOL. I. 2 K

498 apoc ix. 13— 19. [part n.
left in Irak or Chorasmia who could stand before him." 1
And what then the interval between this epoch of the
loosing of the united Turco-Moslem power from the
Euphrates, and that of the fall of Constantinople ; in other
words, between the 10th Dzoulcad A. H. 448, and the
29th of May A.D. 1453, on which day the siege (begun
on the 6th of April previous) fatally ended ? And how
does it correspond with the prophetic period before us ? —
The calculation is soon made. The 10th Dzoulcad, A.H.
448, corresponds with January 18, 1057 A. D.2 From
this to January 18, A. D. 1453, is 396 years ; and to May
29 of that same year, 1 30 days more. Such is the exact
historical interval. — And now, turning to the prophetic in
terval, since its hour and day and month and year amounts,
as has been already shown, on the most exact calculation,
to 396 years, and 1 18 days,3 we find that it falls short of
the whole historic interval by but 12 natural days, or
less than half a prophetic hour : so -that, in fact, had the
prophecy been expressed as " two hours and a day and a
month and a year," it would have overleaped the real epoch
of the fall of Constantinople by near three weeks. — Nor
this alone. We may trace the fulfilment yet more exactly.
The precise day of the Apocalyptic period's expiring, and
consequently that " after which," according to it, the third
of men was to be slain, was May 1 6, the fortieth day of
the siege. And is then our usual Apocalyptic expositor,
Gibbon, silent about it ? Not so. We find him marking
Khalife l'appela Roi de I' Orient et de I' Occident ; et ayant fait apporter le diplome,
il lui dit, " Voici notre diplome, dont notre ami Mohammed-ben-Mansour va vous
donner lecture. Nous le deposons entre vos mains. Gardez-le bien. Cest un
lien sur, et qui merite toute confiance. Et maintenant levez vous. Que Dieu vous
accorde sa protection, et que son ceil veille sur vous ! " *
1 " Nee in utraque Irace et Chorasmia. quisquam fuit reliquus qui litem ei
moveret." 2 In the Latin translations of Abulfeda and Elmakin, the date by the Christian
jEra is noted marginally, as well as the year of the Hegira. But the reader who has
not access to these works will find in Sir H. Nicholas's volume on Chronology, in
Lardner's Encyclopaedia, both a Table of the Turkish months, and a simple rule for
turning Turkish time into that of the Christian Mxa. The Turkish year, being lunar,
is 1 1 days short of the solar. Of its 12 months Ramadan is the 9th, Dzoulcade or
Zicaad the 11th.
3 See p.. 493 supra. — In support of my view of a prophetic hour as ^ath of a pro
phetic day, i. e. a year, I omitted to observe at p. 303, that Ezekiel's " day for a
year" was evidently one of 12 hours only, not including the night.
* Lit. garde1 par le calme de Dieu, et regards par l'ceil de sa protection.

CH.VI.^2.] FIRST GRAND iERA IN THE SECOND WOE. 499
that last crisis in the siege, when Mahomet, by transporting
his ships across the isthmus of Galata into the inner harbour,
had completed the investment of the devoted city ; and,
without a hope remaining to it any longer, was preparing
his final assault. And then follow the unintended ex
pository words ; " After a siege of forty days the fate of
Constantinople could be no longer averted." 1
Such is the result of our investigation. And surely it
must be deemed most remarkable. For my own part,
when I consider the length of the period embraced by the
prophecy, scarce less than 400 years, — and when I consi
der further, that of all symmetrical chronological formulas,
such as symbolic prophecy alone makes use of,2 there
does not seem to be one that could express the interval
with anything like the same exactness as that before us, —
I cannot but partake of Mede's feeling of admiration,3 and
marvel greatly at it. Who but He could have announced
the period, who knoweth the times and the seasons, and fore-
seeth the end from the beginning ? — Nor let me forget to
add, with reference to that singular mystical form in which
the period is exprest, " the hour and day and month and
year," that even this would almost seem to have had in it a
something of Turkish character. The only term of time
similarly exprest, that has ever met my eye in historic
record, is that which defined the truce granted to our
Bichard the 1st by the Turkman chief Saladin ;* — " three
1 xii. 221.
- e. g. a time, times, and half a time ; — forty-two months ; — 1260 days ; — 70
weeks. The only way of expressing the period before us more or as exactly as the
Apocalyptic formula, is by computation of the whole in hours. The actual in
terval amounts to 4755f. prophetic hours, the Apocalyptic to 4755. Would the
former rude expression have accorded with scripture use or beauty ?
3 Mede, like his follower Dr. Keith, dates indeed from the epoch of the inaugu
ration of Thogrul Beg ; and is, like him, incorrect in his calculation, although in a
different way. He knew the true year, A. H. 449, of the inauguration, from El
makin, but not the month : and, supposing it might be the very beginning of that
year of the Hegira, inferred a coincidence between the historic period thus com
menced, and the prophetic, which did not exist. But this is a comparatively un
important difference. The main point is the reference of the commencement of
the prophetic period to the Turkman's connection with the caliphate under Thogrul
Beg. Of this, Mede is the originator. And certainly it was due to Mede, oh the
part of Dr. Keith, to have so mentioned him.
4 " The truce was concluded for three years, three months, three weeks, three
days, and three hours : a magical number which had probably been devised by the
European." So Hume, in his Richard I, Vol. ii. p. 21. Now that this was a
form of the Turkman Saladin's devising, not King Richard's, or other European's,
appears from the fact that Saladin dictated the terms of truce; which was n ego -
2 K 2

500 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part ii.
hours and three days and three weeks and three months and
three years " all nouns of time to be added together, let us
observe, just as here, and taken in the aggregate.
dated with him by Saladin's brother Saphadin, from friendly regard to Richard, in
his illness and difficulties.
As to his original authority for so stating the period, Hume specifies none. .Nor
does the French " Biographie Universelle," Tom. xxxvii, p. 540, when similarly
stating it ; " II se vit oblige" de conclure avec Saladin une tr£ve de trois ans, trois
mois, trois semaines, trois jours, et trois heures." And I have had some difficulty
in ascertaining the point. Generally the Chroniclers, both European and Oriental,
speak of the time of truce, as one for three years from a certain day. So Vinisauf,
(p. 422) : " Saphadin solicite tales sub hac forma procuravit inducias : viz. ut As-
calon. . . . dirueretur, a nullo hominum reparanda ante terminum trium annorum, ad
Pascha proximum sequentiumvelincipientium ; sed post Ires annos quisquis superiori
vigeret potentia cederet Ascalon eamoccupanti:" and again; " inducias in tres annos."
So again similarly Roger Hoveden ; " treugas a Paschate proximo venturojoer trien-
nium : " and Matthew Paris ; " treugae inter Christianos et Paganos,. . a Pascha sub
sequent! usque ad terminum trium annorum." So too Bohadin, in his Life of Saladin,
p. 259 : " Conditiones pacis in tres annos, quae initium sumeret a die Mercurii, 22
Sjabani, anni 588 (= A.D. 1192):" adding that " die Mercurii, 22 Sjabani illuscente,
omnes ad regem [RicardumJ se sistere jussi. Ejus accept! manu, jusjurandum
quoque exegerunt." — Abulfeda, however, ib. 55, 56, says that it was for three years
and three months. " Induciis ansam praebuit morbus regis Angliae, longa jam fessi
militia. ... De induciis transactum est die Sabbati 18 Sjabani, ejusdemque mensis
22, qui Mercurii erat dies, jurejuratum. . . . Communes terra marique paetae induciae,
quae tres annos et tres menses durarent, inciperentque ab Elulo, qui congruit in 21
Sjabani." — And Richard of Devizes (a cotemporary of King Richard) in his Chro
nicle, § 93, gives the time precisely as Hume and the French Biographer. " The
Council was assembled before his brother Saladin : and, after seventeen days of
weighty argument, Saphadin with difficulty succeeded in prevailing on the stubborn
ness of the Gentiles to grant a truce to the Christians. The time was appointed,
and the form approved. If it please King Richard, for the space of three years,
three months three weeks three days and three hours, such a truce shall be observed
between the Christians and the Gentiles, &c."
Now at first sight there will appear to be in these various reports such direct
inconsistency, as to the exact length of the truce granted by Saladin, that it may
seem scarcely warrantable to take for granted, like Hume and others, the correctness
of Richard of Devizes' statement ; notwithstanding even its important, though only
partial, confirmation by Abulfeda. In fact the well-known modern French Historian
of the Crusades, M. Michaud, resting implicitly on Vinisauf, does not hesitate to
state the length of the truce at 3 years and 8 months : his 8 months expressing the
interval from the time of signing the truce to the next ensuing Easter, which
festival he evidently supposes Vinisauf to have meant by the " Pascha proximum ; "
and his 3 years being Vinisauf s three years, beyond and after that Pascha.
After however considering and comparing the several reports, I perceive clearly
that there is a way of reconciling them ; and this, one that quite justifies and cor
roborates the statement of Richard of Devizes. — First, it is evident, as regards that
chronicler, that he understood his remarkably exprest period of the truce, as meant
to be reckoned from the time when it was signed by Richard. Now we know both
from Bohadin and Abulfeda that this time of signing was Wednesday morning, at
day-dawn, on the 22nd of the Turkish month Sjaban A. H. 588 : i. e. as Abulfeda
explains it, the 2nd Elul, or 2nd September A.D. 1192; seeing that the Syrian
month Elul answered entirely to the September month of the Latin Calendar.*
* So Sir H. Nicholas, in his Chronology of History, p. 10. Speaking of the
Seleucidean Era, " which prevailed not only in the dominions, but among almost all
the people of the Levant," he says that " the Julian year, formed of the Roman
months to which Syrian names was given, was used;" and that the Syrian month

CH.VI.§2.J FIRST GRAND iERA IN THE SECOND WOE. 501
There is just one thing that I must not omit, ere I con
clude this head and chapter. I mean to impress upon
the reader's mind how remarkable, and contrary to all human
probability, after once the Turkman woe had been let loose,
was the protraction of its accomplishment of the work of
destruction assigned it, to this far distant sera. Ere 40
years had elapsed from Thogrul Beg's inauguration, Con
stantinople and its empire were on the very verge of ruin
by the Seljukian Turks : and nothing less than an almost
miraculous intervention seemed capable of averting it.
But the intervention occurred. The crusades from western
Europe, however ultimately ineffective in Syria, yet so crip
pled the Seljukian power, as for 200 years to aid in uphold
ing against it the Greek empire.1 Then the Moguls under
Zenghis yet further crippled, and delayed the resuscitation
Next, and with reference to the other chroniclers, it will be found that the word
Pascha, which occurs in their definition of the time of truce, was not one exclusively
applied by the middle-age ecclesiastical writers to the Feast of Easter ; but also to
the other two great Christian festivals of Christmas and Whitsuntide, specially the
former* Which considered, it may well suggest itself, even a priori, as most pro
bable, that the Pascha proximum meant by our chroniclers, when writing of a
transaction in September, would be the next Christmas festival. Let us then cal
culate the period on this hypothesis, and compare it with the other. And,
since from September 2nd to December 2nd is 3 months, from December 2nd to De -
cember 23rd 3 weeks, from December 23rd to December 26th 3 days, it results that
Vinisauf's, Matthew Paris', and Roger Hoveden's 3 years of truce " post Pascha
proximum," i. e. "after the next Christmas," added to the previous interval of truce
from the time of signing, corresponds quite to exactness with Richard of Devizes'
period of 3 years 3 months 3 weeks and 3 days; the 3 hours additional fixing the
. expiration qf the truce at about 9 a.m on the day after Christmas-day, 1195. +
1 The Latins weakened indeed the Greek empire ; but not so as to interfere with
their delaying its destruction by the Turks. So Gibbon, xi. 105 ; " The first crusade
prevented the fall of the declining empire."
Eloul answered to the Roman September : also that the Greeks of Syria generally
commenced the year with September I .
Bohadin's and Abulfeda's date of the truce well agrees with the other Chroniclers'
report of what preceded and followed. The last previous date in Vinisauf is the day
of St. Peter ad Vincula, or August 1 . On that day occurred King Richard's relieving
Joppa; and shortly after a dangerous conflict, in which Richard repulsed his assail
ants, but afterwards fell ill from the fatigue. Which illness gave occasion to the ne
gotiations for a truce. The truce concluded, he embarked, for Western Europe on
Thursday Oct. 8. So Hoveden: "post festam S. Michaelis, octavo Idus Octobris,
feria 5."
* So Ducange in his Mediaeval Dictionary, on Pascha. " Quodlibet magnum
Festum in quibusdam provinciis vocari Pascha observat Durandus. Certe constat
hodie omnes majores festivitates Paschata Italos et Hispanos vocare." And so Sir
H. Nicholas ibid. p. 121 : " Paque de Noel, Christmas day : formerly called I'aque
without any addition ; distinguished from the Feast of the Resurection by the latter
being called Les grandes Paques."
t If we count from the 1 st of Elul, as does I think Abulfeda, then the truce would
expire at 9 a.m. on the Christmas-day, 1295.

502 apoc ix. 13 — 19. [part n.
in its strength, of the Turkish power. — And after it had
at length risen up in all its pristine vigor, under the Amu-
raths and the Bajazets of the new Othman dynasty, and
when, some fifty years and more before the hour day
month and year had come to a completion, Constantinople
and the empire were again on the verge of destruction ; —
when the chivalry of the west, vainly intervening, had been
broken in the battle of Nicopolis, and the victorious Baja
zet thus addressed the emperor, " Our invincible scymitar
has reduced almost all Asia, and many and large countries
in Europe, excepting only the city of Constantinople : re
sign that city, or tremble for thyself and thine unhappy
people;" — when, I say, the slaying of the third part of
men seemed thus imminent, full half a century before the
prophetic period had elapsed that fixed it, what was there
that could occur to prevent the catastrophe ? Behold, from
the far frontiers of China, Tamerlane was brought against
him. " The savage," says Gibbon, " was forced to relin
quish his prey by a stronger savage than himself: and by
the victory of Tamerlane the fall of Constantinople was
delayed about fifty years." 1 — But when the predicted
period had elapsed, and the Sultan Mahomet was pressing
the siege, like some of his predecessors before him, then no
intervention occurred to delay the catastrophe, either from
the east or west, from the crusaders of Christendom or the
savage warriors of Tartary. On the dial-plate in heaven,
the pointing of the shadow-line told that the fatal term had
expired, the hour and day and month and year. Then
could no longer the fate of the unhappy Greeks be averted.
And the artillery of the Othmans thundered irresistibly
against Constantinople : and the breach was stormed : and
the city fell : — and, amidst the shouts of the conquering
Turkmans from the Euphrates, and the dying groans of
the last Constantine, the third of the men were slain, the
Greek empire was no more ! 2
1 Gibbon xii. 460, xi. 26. The date of Bajazet's defeat by Tamerlane was July 28,
1402 ; the place Angora.
2 It is the observation of Aristotle, Polit. iv. 14; ii yap iroAireia $tos rts eon
rijs ToAeus' the same figure of life being applied by him to political constitution and
independence as here. — Scriptural examples occur elsewhere. So Hosea xiii. 1 ;
" When Ephraim offended, then he died." So too the Christian father Jerome, of
Rome and its empire, when first threatened by Alaric ; " Roma vitam auro redimit."

APPENDIX TO VOL. I.

No. I.
NOTICE OF THE ARGUMENTS OF PROFESSORS LUCRE
AND M. STUART FOR THE NERONIC DATE
OF THE APOCALYPSE.
(See Page 46.)
Subsequently to the printing of the greater part of my Second Edition,
Professor Moses Stuart's Apocalyptic Commentary came into my hands ;
the result, it is said, of some twenty years' thought and labour i1 and,
after the publication of that Edition, the "Einleitung" to the Commentary
promised by Professor Liicke. And I have carefully looked into both
the one and the other to see by what new evidence or argument they
might seek to justify the Neronic date, on which in fact their systems
are alike mainly based. The argument occupies in M. Stuart from p.
263 to p. 284 of his first Volume ; in Liicke the Sections 29 and 44,
beginning at pp. 245, 403, respectively. The greater part of the ground
I have already gone over ; but there are some points new. And I think
it right, as the subject is so important, the advocates on the side I op
pose so well known for ability and learning, and a movement of mind
among some of the more literary in this country, especially of the dissent
ing body, been lately manifested in unison with the German and Ameri
can Professors,3 to put the reader in full possession of their arguments
1 So the Bibliotheca Sacra.
2 I infer this from an Article in the Eclectic Review of Dec. 1844, entitled Theory of
Prophetic Interpretation, followed by another in Kitto's Biblical Cyclopaedia on the
word Revelation ; both, it seems, by Dr. Davidson of the Lancashire Independent Col
lege : and from an Article entitled " On the Date of the Apocalypse," in the Biblical
Review and Congregational Magazine of March 1846.
[In our own church Professor Lee has also advocated a date prior to the destruction of
Jerusalem. Butinhis recently published elaborate work on Prophecy (London 1849), he
does not enter on the argument from historic testimony : simply saying, p. 237 ; " It is true
tradition makes Patmos the place of John's exile under Domitian .* but this seems to have

504 prof, lucre's and stuart's arguments for [app.
and evidence : — of Professor Stuart's more particularly ; as having writ
ten latest, and perused and made use of Liicke. Their argument embraces
of course both the external evidence, (that of historical testimony^) and
the internal. Let me notice what seems noticeable in it under either head.
I. Professor Liicke' s and Stuart's external, or historical evidence.
1. And here, in his opening summary,1 Professor Stuart admits dis
tinctly in the first instance the futility of the attempts that have been
made to get rid of Irenaus' famous testimony asserting the Domitianic
date, by supplying another nominative case, instead of AnoKa.Xviptc, to
the verb eupadrj, so as I have stated at p. 32 supra : whether \uavvnq, on
Wetstein's principle ; or ow/ms, on Knittel's and Storr's -, or the Beast,
on that of the Latin translator. An admission in which Liicke preceded
him.3 And really the true construction with AiroKo^Av^n; is so palpable,
that one is astonished at this time of day to find any respectable writer
so bewildering himself, as to attempt the revival of the absurdities that
Professor Stuart thus rejects.3 Also he here admits, (though afterwards,
we shall see, recalling or modifying that admission,) as probably to be
construed the same way with Irenaeus' testimony, that of Clemens Alex-
andrinus, and that of Tertuliian, given by me at p. 33 supra, : fairly ob
serving that Eusebius and Jerome, at least, distinctly so understood and
represented the testimony of those early fathers. Nor does Liicke
materially differ from him.4 Further he adds, on the same Domitianic
side, the direct testimonies of Victorinus, Eusebius, Jerome, Sulpicius
Severus, Augustine's friend Orosius, and that of the author of a Greek
work on the twelve Apostles, vulgarly ascribed to Hippolytus :5 to which,
let me observe, we may probably add that of Gregory Nyssen.6 — Against
no better authority than that of conjecture." A most strange statement surely, and strange
omission : considering, on the one hand, the notorious strength of historic testimony in
favour of the Domitianic date ; on the other, the fact of the Professor's whole system
of Apocalyptic interpretation depending upon its falsehood ! 4th Ed.] 1 i. 263. 3 p. 298.
8 So however the writer in the Biblical Review, referred to in a preceding Note, who
adopts Wetstein's view. — Let me put a parallel case. Suppose a writer at this present
time noticing some enigmatic allusion in Coleridge's Christabel ; and then observing ;
" Had it been necessary it would have been explained to us by him whose poetic eye saw
pictured before it the imagery of the poem : having been seen not very long since, but
almost in our own generation, shortly before the end of the reign of George the 3rd."
What should we think of a critic arguing that it was the writer's meaning that Coleridge
himself was then seen ; (qu. as an apparition ?) not the imagery of the poem ?
4 At least as regards Clement. See his p. 405.
• All cited or referred to by uie pp. 34 — 36 supra.
* He calls the Apocalypse reAeuraio ttji xaprros /SijSAos. Tom. iii. p. 601. I borrow

NO. I.J THE NERONIC DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. 505
all which weighty and strong evidence what has he to oppose ? Ex
cepting a dubious passage from Origen, of which, as most important, I
deem it best to take notice by itself afterwards, and an anonymous Latin
Treatise, supposed to be of the date 196, and acknowledged by him to be
nearly worthless,1 there is nothing more than the old names of Epipha
nius, the Syriac Version's Title Page, Andreas, Arethas, and Theophylact :
— i. e. of Epiphanius, advocating a Claudian date, not a Neronic ; and
exposing in it withal, as I have shown, his own self-contradiction and ab
surdity : 3 — of the Syriac Version, against the generally-admitted late
ness of which, as being the Philoxenian of the date a. d. 508,s Professor
Stuart has only to state that this " is somewhat doubtful; " and "that it
would rather seem that there was a Syriac Version of the Apocalypse
earlier than the Philoxenian," because Ephrem Syrus of the 5th Cen
tury often appealed to the Apocalypse, and " is generally supposed not to
have understood Greek : " (an hypothesis on an hypothesis :) — of An
dreas of the 6th Century, from whose statement that there were some
who applied Apoc. vi. 12 (though he himself did not) to Titus' destruc
tion of Jerusalem, our American Professor argues that " they of course
believed that the Apocalypse was composed before that event : whereas,
since Andreas also states that there were expositors who explained the
successive Seals of Christ's birth, baptism, ministry, and burial,4 he
might equally well argue that these expositors believed the Apocalypse
to have been composed before Christ's birth : — of Arethas, whom Pro-
this from Dr. Wordsworth's recent Apocalyptic Commentary p. 1. I presume the
TeAeuTOio has reference to the time of the Book's composition ; which would hardly have
been regarded as a clear fact by Gregory, unless he had judged it to have been written
under the Domitianic persecution, not the Neronic.
1 " A fragment of an ancient Latin writing, probably about A.D. 196, first published by
Muratori in his Antiq. Ital. iii. p. 854, and attributed by many, yet without good reason,
to the presbyter Caius. C. F. Schmidt has copied it. It contains a kind of catalogue of
the N. T. Scriptures : and, among other things says ; ' Paulus, sequens pradecessoris
sui Johannis ordinem, non nisi nominatim septem ecclesiis scribit ordine tali.' John
therefore was Paul's predecessor, according to this writer : and as John wrote only to
seven churches by name, so Paul, following his example." So Professor Stuart, p. 266 ;
adding : " No great reliance can be placed on this incondite composition." — And with
good reason. For what does the writer make St. Paul do? Since John did not (even on
the Neronic theory) return from Patmos, and publish the Apocalypse, till after Nero's
death, and Paul suffered before Nero's death, by making Paul to have written his Epistles,
or settled the number of them, after St. John's publication of the Apocalypse, our author
makes him to have done so after his own death ! !
2 See my p. 37, 38 supra. So Liicke 406 ; " Diese Meinung, so singular und unwahr-
scheinlich, . . . folgt Niemand weiter."
3 See my quotation from Michaelis, p. 38, Note s.
1 See my notice of Andreas' Commentary in the Appendix to my Vol. iv.

506 prof, lucre's and stuart's arguments for [app.
fessor Stuart states to have been also of the 6th Century, whereas I
have proved him to have been as late at least as the 8th or 9th ; ' and
whose self-contradicting testimony, and recognition of the Domitianic
date of St. John's banishment to Patmos, (also cited by me,)3 the Pro
fessor states but in part, and therefore unfairly : 8 — also finally of Theo-
phylact, a writer of the xith (!) century.
Such, I say is Professor Stuart's own list of the opposing historic
testimonies. And, in reviewing and comparing the two lists, what
might we expect to be his judicial sentence as to their comparative
weight and value ? Surely this, that there is in reality no comparison
whatsoever between them : the one being so strong, not in respect of
number only, but of age, weight of character, and consistency ; the other
in every respect so weak. Instead of this, however, we have the amus
ing statement ; " If now the number of the witnesses were the only
thing which should control our judgment, we must, so far as external
evidence is concerned, yield the palm to those who fix on the time of
Domitian :" — there being added, in order to make the other side seem
even to preponderate, the assertion that " a careful examination of the
matter shows that the whole concatenation of witnesses in favour of the
Domitianic date hangs upon the testimony of Irenseus ; " and moreover
a most unwarranted depreciation (in spite of certain expressions of re
spect) of Irenaeus' own testimony. — I say a depreciation of Irenseus' tes
timony. For it is spoken of as that of a man who lived, or wrote, some
100 years after Domitian ; 4 and only inferred what he tells about the
Apocalyptic date from the Apocalypse itself ill-understood.5 Yet did
not Irenseus pass his youth, and learn his lessons about St. John, as
he himself tells us, at the feet of John's own disciple Polycarp ; which
latter was martyred within little more than a half century from the Domi
tianic persecution ? 5 — As to the asserted dependency of all the other
1 See p. 39 supra; also the notice of Arethas in the Appendix to my Vol. iv.
2 See Arethas' Note on Apoc. iii. 10, cited in my Vol. iv. ibid.
3 p. 268.' — Liicke states the thing more fairly ; p. 409.
* So Stuart pp. 281, 302; in sequence of Liicke p. 411. " Irenseus lebte hundert Jahre
nach Domitian : also ziemlich fern von der Abfassungsheit der Apokalypse."
5 Who a better refuter of M. Stuart's own arguments on this point than M. Stuart
himself? Read what he says at p. 301, on the value of Irenaeus' testimony respecting
St. John's authorship of the Apocalypse, as in fact representing Polycarp's own. "Could
Irenaeus have believed in the apostolic origin of the Apocalypse, if Polycarp had not be
lieved the same ? And must not Polycarp have certainly known what was the fact in
regard to the authorship of the Apocalypse? .... In his remarks on Rev. xiii. 18 (about
the number of the Beast) Irenosus speaks of the testimony to the reading x|s*, as being
delivered by eKeivosp tow kot' o-^iv top laavvijo etfpaKoruiv. Is not Polycarp included

NO. I.] THE NERONIC DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. 507
testimonies on that of Irenseus, how does it appear ? Does Clement
then confess to this ? or Tertuliian ? or Victorin ? or even Eusebius,
Jerome, Sulpitius, or Orosius ? By no means. But because " their
evidence is little more than a mere repetition of what Irenseus has said."
So the Professor at p. 269 : whereas at p. 271, only two pages in ad
vance, he urges that there are such varieties as to detail in the testimo
nies on the Domitianic side, (Tertuliian having apparently placed St.
John's return from Patmos before Domitian's death, Clement of Alex
andria, Eusebius, and Jerome, on Nerva' s accession after it, and Victo
rinus added the statement of St. John's being " in metallum damnatus,"
condemned to the mines or quarries,1) as " make strongly against any
uniform and certain historical tradition, with regard to the subject before
us." The Professor here answers himself too well to need any other
answer. But I cannot pass from the argument without observing that
there seems to me to be (somewhat as in the case of the Evangelists)
just enough variety to mark independence in the testimony ; nothing of
such variety as to affect its truth.
2. But now comes the testimony of Origen ; one which, from the
importance attached to it ahke by Liicke, Stuart, and others of the
same school,3 and also as having not at all noticed it in my own sketch
of evidence, I have thought best, like Professor Stuart himself, to reserve
for separate consideration. The passage is as follows. " But the king
of the Romans, as tradition teaches, condemned John, who bore testi-
among these ? And, if not, does not the testimony necessarily imply, that some of the
personal acquaintances of John had ascertained from him, what the reading in question
was, and told Irenaeus ? " Why, this is the very passage in which Irenasus tells of the time
of the Apocalyptic vision in Patmos, as seen under Domitian. See the extract in my p. 32.
So Professor Stuart would have it that Irenaeus must needs have had Polycarp's or St.
John's own testimony, to one of the points that he affirms about the Apocalypse, viz. St.
John being its author ; and yet have learned nothing whatsoever, and heard nothing
whatsoever, as to that other important point that he affirms, of its having been seen under
Domitian ! ! — Stuart himself (p. 281) dates Irenaeus' birth about a. d. 100.
1 " Condemned to the mines (?) in Patmos." So writes Professor Stuart, p. 271, with
a note of interrogation ; implying apparently the sceptical question, " Were there then
mines in Patmos ? " But metallum signifies marble quarries, as well as mines : such
quarries as are not in Paros and Antiparos only, but in many other of the -/"Egean islands.
So Statius Silv. iv. 3. 98 ; Arcus belligeri ducis trophseis,
Et totis Ligurum nitens metallis.
I have observed a note in Burmann De Vectigal, p. 108, to exactly the same effect. He
says ; " Sub metallis etiam lapidicinte habentur : marmora enim et saxa, et aurum et
castera metalla, ex terra effodiuntur. Hinc in Codicum Titulis de Metallariis plerseque
leges de lapidibus loqimntur."
2 Liicke p. 404, Stuart 271 . It is also noted, and argued from, in the Numbers of the
Eclectic Review and Biblical Cyclopaedia, already referred to.

508 PROF. LUCRE'S AND STUART'S ARGUMENTS FOR [APP.
mony for the word of truth, to the isle of Patmos. And John informs
us respecting his own testimony ; (or martyrdom ;) not stating who
condemned him : saying in the Apocalypse these things ; ' I John, your
brother, 8ec. was in the island that is called Patmos for the word of God :'
and he seems to have seen the Apocalypse in that island." I subjoin
the original, with the immediately preceding context.1 — On this passage
Professor Stuart and his followers thus argue. Origen could not but
know Irenseus' declaration, as to Domitian having been the king that
banished John. Yet, knowing this, he refers not to it as decisive, nor
to tradition as according with it ; and even says that John himself has
not decided the question, who the king was that banished him : thereby
evidently showing that in his judgment the thing was doubtful, and not
to be decided in any way that Origen knew. A fact most important,
considering that " Origen was the greatest critical scholar of the first
three centuries."2 — Now there is just one little question which an intel
ligent and reflective reader would wish to put, before acquiescing in this
view of the passage itself, and of Origen's meaning in it. Does it occur
in a discussion, like our own, on the subject of the date of the Apoca
lypse ; or in any critical sifting of the evidence about it, such as might
lead to a " decision," on the side of the one Roman king, or the other, as
the actual banisher, — Nero or Domitian ? To which question the simple
answer is, Nothing of the kind ! Origen had been speaking of Christ's
saying to the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, that " they should
drink of his cup, and be baptized with the baptism he was baptized with.
And after an argument of some length, to show that by this baptism
Christ meant, not the baptism in water, but that of martyrdom or suffer
ing, he then adds, that if this be admitted as the sense of the phrase,
then Christ's saying may be shown to have had fulfilment in respect of
either of the two sons of Zebedee. For, adds he, " Herod indeed " (the
Jewish king) " killed James with the sword ; but the Roman king, as
the tradition reports, exiled John to Patmos : who himself tells us the
fact, though not mentioning who it was that condemned him ; saying,
1 XleiroiKaai Se iroTijptov, Kat to fiairTtcrpa e/SairTurOijoav, ol tow ZefieSaiov viot'
eiretirep 'Hpa>oijs pev aireKTeivev \aKwfiov [rov aoeAtpov~] liaavvov paxaipa- 6 be 'Ptoftaiaiv
fiaoiAevs, ebs ij irapaooois oidaotcti, KareotKaoe rov lotavvijv, p.aprvpovvTa oia tov tijs
aAijoeias Aoyov, eis noT/ioi/ tijv vijoov. AioaaKei oe ra irepi too paprvpiov eavrov
laavvijs, p-ij Xeyaw tis auToe KareStKaoe' ipaoKuv ev rrj AwoKaAv^ei Taura* E7W luav-
vijs 6 aoeAtpos bp.oiv, Kai atryKotvavos ev rrj 8Ai\\ni Kai paoiAeta Kai fiirojuoi'jj tou Iijo-oi,
tyevojxijv ev ttj vrjotp rij KaAovjievrj naT/iqi 5ia tov Aoyov too 0eou* Kai to ej-rjs. Kai
eoiKe tijv AiroKaAvtyiv ev rrj vijotf TeBewpijKevai. 2 Stuart 272.

NO. I.J THE NERONIC DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. 509
' I was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God, &c.' " The
context shows clearly enough, as it seems to me, that the point of Ori-
gen's allusion to what St. John had omitted specifying, was its being a
Roman, not (as in his brother James' case) a Jewish khig, that was the
author of his suffering.1 Had Origen wished violently to deviate from
his whole subject, so as darkly to refer to a disputed chronological point,
would he not, instead of 'O Se 'Vap.aiuv jSao-iXeu?, have rather said, 'Pa-
lAatm ie jSao-iXeu; ti$ ? — The passage is surely, on the face of the thing,
utterly worthless, for the purpose for which it has been adduced. In
deed, in so far as it goes, it is in favor of the Domitianic date, not the
Neronic. For Origen says, in the singular, " as the tradition reports to
us :" (a>; -fj wapaooo-ii; SioWKer) not, in the plural, "as two or more vary
ing traditions report." So that he would seem to have known of but
one tradition ; just like Eusebius 70 or 80 years afterwards : 3 and that,
by necessary inference, the tradition of Irenaus ; as he could not be
ignorant of it. — In corroboration of which view I may add that Victo
rinus, who so decidedly and unhesitatingly refers John's banishment to
Domitian, and was apparently quite unaware of any doubt or variance
of opinion on the matter, is expressly said by Jerom to have been a
careful student of Origen.3
3. Comes Professor Stuart's addendum on the external evidence for
the Neronic date, written after receiving Guerike's adhesion to that view:
and which in part reverts to the old previously- disputed evidence ; in
part reports a certain new light profest to be thrown on the subject by
Guerike. — As to the old, he says that he inclines to think, on reconsi
deration, that both Clements testimony and Tertuliian' s may be regarded
as favouring the Neronic, rather than the Domitianic date : 4 the first,
1 At first it occurred to me that Origen might have had in his mind, when so speaking,
the kindly and forgiving spirit of St. John, in thus never naming his injurer. The very
parallel case of Professor Hug, in his Apocalyptic Commentary, had struck me : who,
speaking of the Beast's ten horns as figuring ten Caesars up to Domitian, thus expresses
himself on John's supposed omission of Domitian ; " But has he counted only the dead,
and is he silent respecting the living? (i. e. Domitian.) This Caesar had opprest Chris
tianity, and banished John himself. What honourable mention should he make of him ?
And was it in the spirit of his Master to speak evil of him ? Then, if he could not say
good, and might [not] say evil, had he any choice but to be silent respecting him?" Introd.
to New Testament, ii. 680. But, on reconsideration, the explanation seems to me clearly
enough to be that given above. 2 See to this effect my pp. 35, 37 supra.
3 " Taceo de Victorino, et cseteris, qui Origenem in explanation duntaxat Scripturarum
sequuti sunt." Ad Vigilant. Ep. 36. Cited by Lardner iii. 172.
4 The writer on the Date of the Apocalypse in the Congregational Magazine before
referred to, when abstracting Professor Stuart's catena on the Neronic side of the ques-

510 prof, lucre's and stuart's arguments for [app.
because John could hardly at the age of ninety-five have been supposed
to travel on horse, or on foot, as Clement relates, after the young prodi
gal : J (but is not John's great age at. the time one essential point in
Clement's story ?) — the second because it rather seems to him that Ter
tuliian meant to note a synchronism of suffering in Paul, Peter, and
John, though indeed he does not say anything of the kind. To this
I deem no further answer necessary, beyond what has been already
given by me.2 — But the new point is a curious one, and deserves notice.
tion, not only does so without stating the admissions made by the latter with regard to
the weakness of the evidence, or drawbacks in certain cases, but even lays claim to Cle
ment and Chrysostom, unlike the doubtful and vacillating American Professor, as distinct
and decided witnesses on that side, in respect of their story of the recovered reprobate. In
order to this it is essential that the story he made one of many years ; more than can he
supposed to have elapsed between John's return from Patmos, on the hypothesis of the
Domitianic date, i. e. A.D. 96, and his death. Accordingly (though doubtless from inad
vertence) the Reviewer makes Chrysostom so state it ; " Some time after this, Clement
says not how long, but Chrysostom says many years : " — which however Chrysostom
does not say. His expression is 7roAw %povov a chronological phrase variously to be
construed as to length, according to the nature of the thing which it relates to ; and which
may even sometimes only mean a few days, or hours. So in the case of Ajax's body re
maining unburied; (Sophocles Ajax Mastig. 1404;) Kbij yap iroAvs eKTerarai
Xpovos, k.t.A. On which says the Scholiast; IIoAvs xpovos a<p ov rereAevrriKev
6 Aias, Kai rjoij Sei avrov raipijvai. So again in Arrian's History, v. 27 : Taura enroi-Tos
AAe^avopov iroAvv p.ev XPOVOV oiomij ijv, oure avriAeyeiv roApavrwv irpos tov
BairiAea eK tov evdeos, ovre ovyxopeiv edeAovrwv. In the present case a year or two
would surely satisfy the requirements of the phrase. And this would well consist also
both with Chrysostom's intimation that the reprobate was still a young man when reco
vered ; and with Clement's yet more characteristic intimation, of the interval being
simply one in which nothing had occurred in the country Church (though, 0v paKpav,
not very far off,) to make it needful previously to send for St. John from Ephesus. Now
John's life was prolonged into Trajan's reign, according to Irenaeus ; its 3rd year, say
Eusebius and Jerome : thus giving four years' interval between his return to Patmos, on
the Domitianic hypothesis, and death.— As to John's age, which the Reviewer says must
have been at the lowest computation 90 at Domitian's death, (so presuming on a ques
tioned point, on which see the next Note,) it is a marked feature in the story.
I have in the above somewhat repeated what is already more briefly said at p. 34, from
wishing to satisfy the objections of this respectable, hut surely inconsiderate writer.
1 On St. John's age Jerome's is, I believe, the most authoritative statement of ancient
tradition ; the same that I have given p. 33, Note e, supra. According to this, he was
still a puer, when called by Christ ; a word which, I think, would suggest the age of not
more than 18. Professor Hug (i. 251,) reckoning his age asat that time about 16, makes
him but 19 at Christ's death ; and thus 84 on Nerva's accession.
As to St. John's not being able to travel on horse or on foot at the age of 95, compare
Eusebius' account, or rather that of the cotemporary record inserted by him, of Polycarp's
capture and martyrdom. In which record Polycarp is stated to have moved from village
to village, on foot apparently, and then rode hack on an ass, then walked on foot with
alacrity to the Pro-consul's tribunal, though at an age that can hardly have been less than
95; as he speaks of having served God 86 years. (M. Stuart, indeed, i. 292, makes
this 86 years to mean the whole length of Polycarp's life. But this does not seem to
me the natural meaning of his words.)
8 See my p. 40 supra. In order to do away with the argument from Tertullian's noting

NO. I.] THE NERONIC DATE OP THE APOCALYPSE. 511
Guerike has discovered that Irenarus' own evidence is for Nero, not Do
mitian. How so ? It is thus. Irenseus says that " the Apocalypse
was seen, almost in our generation, irpoc tk reXei rye AopeTiavov apx/jc."
Now, argues the German critic ; 1st, if Lopxriavov were a noun and
proper name, it ought to have the article ™ before it, Ti\t rov Aopenavcv
apxK > and, as this is wanting, it must be taken adjectively . Which
being so, then 2ndly, in accordance with the law of Greek grammatical
formations, it must be regarded as derived from the name Domitius, not
Domitian : for the adjective formed from Domitian would be kopeTiuvt-
koc. Hence Domitius Nero must be the emperor referred to ; Domitius
having been Nero's prsenomen.
Such is Guerike's discovery and argument. No wonder Professor
Stuart is much struck with it. " The conjecture is very ingenious ; or,
if we must rank it higher, the criticism is acute and discriminating.
The usual fact is (as he states) that nouns ending in — xo?, form adjec
tives in — iko;. ... If Guerike is right in his criticism on the word Ao/*e-
tiavov, the past opinions in respect to it present one of the most singular
cases of long-continued and oft-repeated philological error, which has
ever come to my knowledge." 1 Yet the two circumstances, 1 . that so
many Greek fathers, and Latin ones understanding Greek, supposed
Domitian to have been meant by Irenaeus, 2. that Domitius was so very
unusual an appellation of Nero, make the American Professor hesitate
at acquiescing in Guerike's solution, and still retain " some doubts"
respecting the matter.
Now what is the real state of the question, and real value of Guerike's
criticism and argument ? 1 . Instead of the article tou being required
before Aopenavov, in case of Ao/teriavou being a proper name, we have in
the very chapter of Eusebius, H. E. v. 8, no less than three cases of
proper names without the article, in precisely the same collocation, be
tween an article preceding them, and the noun that belongs to it follow
ing : — "Slept rijq luavvov airoKaAvipeai;' Me/AVij-rai he tiji; luavvov upariji; eiria-
toKijc' Ek rav MapKtuvoi; o-vyypap,p.aTav' not rov luavvov, or tov MapKiuvot;.
— 2. Even were Aop,eriavov taken adjectively, it is not true that it can
John's banishment as a punishment inflicted on St. John, and the known fact that Domi
tian so punished Christians as well as others, Professor Stuart says, p. 281, " Doubtless
banishment of Christians took place under both ;" i. e. under Nero, as well as Domitian.
But he gives no authority to prove this ; and, I believe, can give none. See my obser
vations at p. 44. It is an assumption on the part of the Professor just as gratuitous, as
that other assumption, so necessary to his theory, that Nero's persecution of Christians
extended beyond Rome, into all the provinces of the empire. > i. 283.

512 prof, lucre's and stuart's arguments for [app.
only be derived as an adjective from Aofteno;, not AopeTtavoc. It may
be from the latter proper name, quite as well as from the former i1 and
in fact we have examples of both. But mark ! Whereas in reference
to Domitius Nero, Domitius is the usual adjective made use of, (so "Do-
mitia gens " in Suetonius, speaking of Nero's gens and kindred,) never,
I believe, Domitianus, — in reference to the emperor Domitian the adjec
tive Domitianus in question is expressly used ; and this by his own
friend and cotemporary Statius. In the Preface to the 4th Book of his
Silvse, Statius speaks thus of a road formed by Domitian, called in
common parlance "The Domitian road;" "Tertio viam Domitianam
miratus sum." And indeed he heads his third Ode with the title, (this
being the subject of the Ode,) " Via Domitiana."
II, So much on the Professors Stuart and Liicke's external evidence.
—As to their internal evidence it is based primarily on three points : —
all alluded to, and sufficiently refuted, I believe, in my preceding Essay.
1. There is urged the fact of St. John's Gospel being written in better
Greek, the Apocalypse more Hebraic, as well with more of fire and
spirit : a fact accounted for quite otherwise, as I have shown in my
Note 2 page 5, supra ; and on which see also to the same effect Prof.
Hug, i. 675.2 — 2. They argue that Jerusalem must have been standing
when the Apocalypse was written, because of sealed ones out of the
tribes of Israel being noted in Apoc. vii, and the temple measured, and
" city where our Lord was crucified" spoken of, in Apoc. xi : — an argu
ment this which taking for granted, as it does, the literal meaning of the
designation Israel, and the temple-symbol, &c, is one of the most extra
ordinary cases of the petitio principii that I have ever met with : espe
cially considering their recognition of the seven candlesticks, in a temple
like the Jewish, at the opening of the Apocalypse, as symbols of Chris*
tian Churches ; and of "the twelve tribes of Israel" in the New Jerusa
lem, at the end of the Apocalypse, as meant of the spiritual Israek or
1 So e. g. Codex Justinianus :
2 Dr. Wordsworth well cites the case of Horace, as composer both of the Sermones and
the Odes, in quite totally different styles, in illustration of the unreasonableness of those
objections, that have been drawn from the different styles of the Johannic Gospel and the
Apocalypse, as showing that the John that was the author of the one cannot be the author
of the other. — The same illustration may be applied, in proof that the greater fire of one
composition of an author does not prove it to be the composition of a younger age, the
more prosaic style that, of an older age. Horace's Sermones were productions of a com
paratively young age, muny of his suhlimest Odes of an older. See Bentley's Chrono
logical Essay, prefixed to Gessner's Horace.

NO. I.] the neronic date of the apocalypse. 513
Christian Church} — 3. They note the circumstance of five Roman em
perors having fallen, reckoned from Julius Csesar, says Stuart, from
Augustus, says Liicke ; and the 6th reigning at the time of the Apoca
lypse, according to the Angel's statement in Apoc. xvii, whether Nero
or else Galba. Which last argument also takes for granted, what needs
to be proved, that the Beasts heads mean single emperors ; contrary
to the analogy of Daniel vii. 6, viii. 22. On which point, however, and
other difficulties connected with the view of these expositors, I must
beg to refer to my examination of the Praterist Apocalyptic Scheme in
the Appendix to my 4th Volume. They are difficulties, I believe, which
the Prseterists can never get over.2
4thly there is referred to by them that point of internal evidence,
arising out of comparison of the Apocalyptic picturing of the Asiatic
Churches, and the Pauline, on which I have cursorily touched in my
primary Essay on the Date ; 3 but on which the arguments of these ex
positors of the German school make a few additional remarks desirable.
— It is fully admitted by them that the difference of the Apocalyptic
picture and the Pauline, in respect both of the number of the Christian
Churches in Proconsular Asia, of the state of the two older Churches of
Ephesus and Laodicea, (the only two out of the seven that occur in
either picture,) and of the governing apostle, or bishop, in the one case
Paul and Timothy, in the other St. John, — that these differences are so
marked, as to require the supposition of a certain not inconsiderable
interval of time to account for it.4 But, says Stuart, " some seven or
eight years probably had intervened between Paul's Letter [to the Church
of Ephesus] and the Epistle of St. John : " (an interval which Liicke' s
hypothesis of the Apocalypse having been written under Galba, rather
than Nero, would increase to some nine or ten years : 5) and that this
1 M. Stuart ii. 379.
2 Dr. Davidson's internal evidence is a mere repetition of the above from Stuart and
Liicke. 3 See my p. 45 supra. * Liicke p. 245 ; Stuart, pp. 273, 279.
5 Stuart, ibid. — Liicke, p. 413, expresses himself on this point with a rather strange
indistinctness. " Zwischen der Paul. Stiftung des Christenthumes in diesen Gegenden,
und dem Zeitpunkte wo, nach unsrer Bestimmung, die Apok. geschrieben ist, war wenig-
stens eine Zeit von mehr als zehn Jahren verflossen. Das ist ein Zeitraum in welchem
nicht nur eine Menge neuer Gemeinden, die Paulusnoch nicht kannte, entstehen, soudern
auch in den iilteren Gemeinden, wie Ephesus, die erste Liebe und Reinheit sich schon
verlieren und schw&chen konnten." He here speaks in his first sentence of the ten years'
interval at least between St. Paul's " stiftung des Christenthumes," planting of Chris
tianity in the Asiatic district, and his own date of the Apocalypse, as written under Galba.
In his second sentence he speaks of a change having then taken place to more Churches
VOL. I. 2 L

514 prof, lucre's and stuart's arguments for [app.
interval is quite sufficient to account for the changes. — Now I must
beg the reader here to observe the strange omission made by these
writers, as if the Epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon,
were the only Pauline documents extant, to compare with the Apoca
lyptic. We have also for comparison St. Paul's two Epistles to Timo
thy, Bishop of Ephesus ; and more especially the 2nd Epistle : one
written, as may be inferred from almost decisive internal evidence,
during a second imprisonment of St. Paul at Rome, very shortly before
his martyrdom ; i an event assigned by Liicke himself to the year 68,
the last of Nero.2 Thus the time of the Epistle must be considered as
almost touching, certainly scarce more than a year or two years prior to,
the date assigned by Stuart, or even Liicke, to the Apocalypse.3 And
consequently, were their theory of the Apocalyptic date correct, we might
expect the hints that we find in it about the Asiatic churches to corres
pond in considerable measure with the Apocalyptic picturings. But
is it so ? Surely rather the contrary. Not a hint do we find in it of
any such large accession and combination of Christian Churches in Asia
as the Apocalypse tells of: — not a hint as to persecution (persecution
that might probably be unto death) having reached, or threatened, the
in the district than St. Paul knew : which his knowledge is of course to be inferred
from St. Paul's epistles to the Churches ; epistles dating much later than the " stiftung "
spoken of, and consequently separated hy a much shorter interval than ten years from
Lucke's Apocalyptic aera.
1 The argument for referring the 2nd Epistle to Timothy to a second imprisonment of
St. Paul has been well drawn out hy Michaelis and others, and seems to me quite decisive.
St. Paul's first imprisonment at Rome followed on his voyage from Caesarea through the
Mediterranean, hy the South of Crete, Malta, and Puteoli : and during the two years
it lasted he was in his own hired house ; and seems to have had a considerable measure of
liberty, with friends ministering to him, and full expectation of a release. The imprison
ment under which he was suffering when he wrote the 2nd Epistle to Timothy, followed
evidently after a voyage, and journey, in which he had dropped Trophimus at Miletus,*
Erastus at Corinth, and, between those two places, left a cloak and parchments at Troas.
(2 Tim. iv. 13, 20.) Moreover there was then a state of persecution and imminent danger,
in which he knew that he would have to suffer martyrdom.
2 Liicke p. 245 ; " die Zeit von dem Todte des Apostels Paulus in der Neronischen
Verfolgung, etwa 68. "¦ — Clinton, ad ann. 65. dates the death of St. Paul in that year. But
in this he seems to me to have varied without sufficient reason from Eusebius and Jerome,
who place it about two years later.
3 Nero was slain in June 68. Therefore Stuart can hardly fix his Neronic date of the
Apocalypse later than the end of 67.
* Some who advocate the idea of this being Paul's first imprisonment, explain the
Miletus here mentioned as that in Crete ; and as thus in accord with St. Paul's first route
to Rome by sea. But, if the reader looks at the map, he will see that St. Paul's vessel
sailed along the South coast of the island hy Lasea, the Fair Havens, and Phcenice ;
whereas the Cretan Miletus was on the North side of the island.

NO. I.] the neronic date of the apocalypse. 515
Churches there : — not a hint as to the beloved disciple St. John's arrival,
or expected arrival in Ephesus, to supersede Timothy in the chief super
intendence of the Asiatic churches, and be ready to bear the brunt of
the coming storm upon them.1 There is on the face of the documents
a marked chronological interval between the times of the writing of
the one and of the other ; precisely such an interval as that of the
thirty years between the Neronic persecution, under which Paul suf
fered ; and the Domitianic, under which, according to Irenseus, St. John
saw the Apocalypse in Patmos.
5thly, and finally, let me advert to Lucke's chronological argument,
from comparison of the Apocalyptic report as to the then state of the
Laodicean Church, with the fact of the Laodicean earthquake in the
6th year of Nero, A. D. 60, as dated by Tacitus. The subject is one
that I have noticed cursorily in my primary Essay on the Date : 2 but I
am glad of the occasion to revert to it a little more critically, and at
large. — Lucke's argument on this head is directed not against the Domi
tianic theory of date, but against theories which would date the Apoca
lypse at any considerable time before Galba. Could it have been said
to the Laodicean Christians, he argues,3 " Thou sayest, I am rich, and
increased with goods, and have need of nothing," until several years
had elapsed after the earthquake, and given its inhabitants time to re
cover from its effects ? And, so far, his argument seems fair and unan
swerable. I observe that Professor Stuart, who advocates a Neronic
date, before Galba, though he had Lucke's Essay in his hands, yet en
tirely omits adverting to this point.4
But, in order to a really satisfactory application of this argument, we
must introduce other testimony bearing on the fact of the earthquake,
whether historic or medaUic. This I have done, but only briefly and
imperfectly, in my Essay. I will now endeavour to supply what seems
to me imperfect in it.
It is to be remembered then that, besides Tacitus' testimony respecting
an earthquake at Laodicea, we have also that of Eusebius ; and that the
latter varies from the former on two very notable points. For 1st, whereas
1 I heg my readers to run their eye through St. Paul's second Epistle to Timothy, with
this particular point in view. 2 pp. 44, 45 supra.
3 Liicke pp. 418, 4)9.
4 There can hardly be less than a year's difference between Stuart's Neronic, and
Liicke's Galbaic date. And as Nero's persecution began in the year 64, the former may
be as much as 3 or 4 years earlier than the latter.
2 L 2

516 prof, lucre's and stuart's arguments for [app.
Tacitus assigns his to the 6th of Nero, Eusebius refers his to the 10th
of Nero, four years later. And 2ndly, whereas Tacitus only mentions
Laodicea as overthrown by it, Eusebius mentions also Hierapolis and
Colossae.1 Now in my Essay I followed Tillemont in supposing the same
earthquake to be meant in either case ; and in assigning Tacitus' date
to it. But I omitted one important element for consideration, in order
to a critical judgment on the matter : I mean that of the internal evi
dence bearing on it, in St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossian Church, and
to the individual Colossian Philemon. It is generally admitted, nor with
out reason, that these two Epistles were written and despatched by St.
Paul from Rome, during his first imprisonment there.3 It is difficult to
fix the precise date. In our larger Bibles it is given as A.D. 64. But this
seems a little too late. The best critics give the date A. D. 62, towards
the end of the year. So Whitby, Macknight, Lardner, &c. — Now then
what hints find we in these epistles about Laodicea, Hierapolis, Colossse ?
Of course the circumstance of St. Paul's writing to the Colossians, and
sending messages to, or respecting, the Christians of Hierapolis and
Laodicea,3 shows that those cities were all three then in existence.
And, from his making not the slightest allusion to such an event, we
may also all but indubitably infer that no such tremendous catastrophe,
as that of an overthrow by an earthquake, had just immediately before
that time befallen any one of the three cities. Hence a doubt, and more
than doubt, as it seems to me, on the accuracy of Tacitus' date ; and a
1 " Eodem anno [sc. 6th of Nero] ex inlustribus Asiae urhibus Laodicea, tremore terrae
prolapsa, nullo a nobis remedio, propriis opibus revaluit." So Tacitus, Ann. xiv. 27 ;
already cited by me p. 44.
" Anno Neronis 10. Nero, ut similitudinem ardentis Trojas inspiceret, plurimam par
tem Romanae urbis incendit. In Asia tres urbes terrae motu conciderunt, Laodicea,
Hierapolis, Colasae." So Eusebius, Chronicon.
2 I learn indeed from Kitto's Cyclopaedia, on the word Colossce, that of late years this
has been controverted by Dr. Schulz ; who would have both this epistle, and those to
Philemon and to the Ephesians, to have been written by St. Paul during his two years'
imprisonment at Caesarea. But the writer of the Article shows that the internal evidence
is by no means conclusive in favour of this view : which being the case, (and more I
think might he added against Schulz1 hypothesis,) " the testimony of tradition may fairly
be permitted to settle the question: and this is unequivocally in favour of the opinion
that these epistles were written from Rome, during the earlier part of St. Paul's confine
ment there." — It is curious that the fact of the earthquake at Laodicea should have been
past over in silence (as I infer from the Cyclopaedia) in this controversy.
3 Col. ii. 1 ; " I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them
at Laodicea, &c." iv. 13, 15, 16: "I bear him record (sc. " Epaphras, who is one of
you,") that he hath a great zeal for you, and for them that are in Laodicea, and them in
Hierapolis. Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea  And when this epistle is
read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans."

NO. I.] THE NERONIC DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. 517
presumption in favor of that of Eusebius : with which presumption, let it
be observed, the medallic and historical evidence referred to by me in
my Essay well suits. As to the time of Colossse's restoration, the
negative medallic evidence there mentioned by me militates against its
having occurred till a long time after. Pliny however in his N. H.
v. 41, written probably under Vespasian,1 cursorily mentions Colossse,
with eight others, as among the most famous towns of Phrygia. But
writing from books apparently, (see his B. iii. c. 1) rather than from
personal knowledge of the locality, he may perhaps have repeated in
this some earlier account about the towns of Phrygia, written before the
catastrophe of the earthquake. On the other hand in the copious and
particular enumeration of all the cities in that neighbourhood, then
standing, by Ptolemy the learned geographer of the times of Hadrian
and Antoninus Pius, the name of Colossse appears not.2
On the whole this is, on the present head, the result of our investiga
tion. 1. From the notices of Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colossse in
St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians, if of the date of about 62 A. D. it
seems almost incredible that any earthquake should have destroyed
Laodicea in the just preceding year 60 ; and yet more incredible that it
should also have then destroyed Colossse and Hierapolis. 2. Hence the
probable correctness of Eusebius' date of earthquake ; i. e. A. D. 64. —
3. But, if so, then in Lucke's own exprest judgment the interval be
tween this Laodicean earthquake, and his presumed Apocalyptic date
under Galba, in the last half year of 69, is too small to consist with the
Apocalyptic picture of Laodicea's then flourishing state of worldly ease
and opulence : — an inconsistency still greater in the case of Prof. Stu
art's somewhat earlier Neronic date. 4. But all and every indication,
medallic and historic, scriptural and classical, internal and external, ac
cord perfectly and completely with the supposition of a Domitianic date
to the Apocalypse.
1 In the year 72 Pliny was writing his 14th Book ; in the year 77 he dedicated the
completed Book to Titus. See Clinton F. R. on those two years.
1 I observe in Ptolemy mention of Pergamos among the Mysian cities ; of Thyatira,
Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, among those of Lydia and Mceonia ; and of Hierapolis in
Phrygia :. besides of course the greater and more famous cities of Ephesus and Smyrna.
Thus all the seven cities of the Apocalyptic Churches are mentioned by him ; which
makes his omission of Colossae, conformably with the Apocalyptic omission of it, the
more remarkable. Lib. v. c. 2. pp. 119, 120. (Ed. Amstelod. 1605.)

APPENDIX.

No. II.
NOTICE ON THE ROMAN COINAGE, WITH SPECIAL
REFERENCE TO THE ROMAN COINS
ENGRAVED IN THE HORjE.
(See Page 55.)
As I am here beginning to illustrate my Apocalyptic Exposition by
Roman coins, it will, I think, be both interesting and useful to the
reader, with a view to his correcter judgment on the illustrative value
of the medals thus made use of by me, to have before him a brief gene
ral sketch on matters connected with the Roman coinage. I purpose
therefore in my present Paper first to give this general sketch ; then to
add a few remarks in detail, such as we may then and thereby be better
prepared for, on certain particular Roman undisputed coins engraved in
my book. On two or three, with which controverted questions are con
nected, there will be separate Essays.1 I shall abstract almost through
out from Eckhel' s great work on the Doctrina Veterum Nummorum ; a
work confessedly the most learned and authoritative that exists on the
general subject.
I. The date of the first coinage of money seems to have been nearly
about the commencement of the Olympian JEra., B. C. 776, or founding
of Rome, B. C. 753 : the metals silver, and, though much more rarely,
gold ; the country Greece.2 Thence the art and custom past in early
times to its various Western colonies, especially those in Magna Grsecia
1 Viz. 1st, on the Roman character of the coins with the horse and Mars'1 head and
Rome ; 2ndly, on the Cretensic reference of Nerva's Dianic coin ; 3dly, on the earliest
imperial coins on which the Roman emperors were depicted with a diadem.
2 Eckhel Prolegom. i. ix. —Demosthenes refers to a law of Solon's imposing the penalty
of death on such as adulterated the public money. Now Solon, we know, lived some 500
years before the Christian aera ; and was the cotemporary of Cyrus king of Persia, and
Tarquinius Prisons the 5th king of Rome.

NO. II.] NOTICE ON THE ROMAN COINAGE. 519
and Sicily : so that we have coins of Rhegium and Messana still extant
of as early a date as V. C. 276,1 or B. C. 477 ; also of Zankle, (the pre
vious name of Messana,) of Caulonia in the Bruttii, and of other ancient
neighbouring cities, still earlier.2 — The Roman coinage is said to have
begun under king Servius, whose death occurred V. C. 218 ; 3 though
none of so ancient a date yet remains : and it was at first, and for a
long time after, only of brass ;4 in direct contrast with the earliest Greek
coinage, which, as observed, was originally of silver. The date of the
first Roman silver coinage is fixed by Pliny at V. C. 485, five years
before the first Punic war ; 5 with which statement the evidence of me
dals still extant sufficiently agrees. — The earliest and standard type of
the Roman brass coinage seems to have been for the as Janus' head on
the obverse, for the lesser coins the head of Jove, Minerva, Hercules, or
Mercury; with a ship's prow in all on the reverse :6 the type of the as
having reference to Saturn's arrival in a ship, according to an ancient
tradition; and teaching a certain Tuscan primitive King, Janus, both other
arts of civilization, and specially the coining of money.7 Of the denarius,
the chief Roman silver coin, (in value equivalent to a Greek drachma,
and also originally to ten Roman asses, whence its name,)8 the earliest
type extant is a winged head of the helmeted Minerva on the obverse,
and on the reverse the Dioscuri Equites, or Castor and Pollux : 9 after
which, somewhat later, the reverse presents some one of the Roman
gods in a biga or quadriga ; whence the frequent ancient appellation of
the coins, as bigati or quadrigati.10 — Gold money does not appear to have
been struck at Rome, except on certain extraordinary occasions, till the
time of Julius Csesar' s dictatorship.11 The want of a Roman native silver
1 The aera V. C. that is Urbis Condita, is always made use of by Eckhel.
2 Eckhel v. 10, i. 220. — Zankle was the original name of Messana; which new name
that city received on the old inhabitants being dispossest hy a colony of Messenians from
the Peloponnesus, under Anaxilaus, shortly after the battle of Marathon. So that, says
Eckhel, coins with Zankle or Dankle on them cannot he of a later date than V. C. 276 ;
the old name having been superseded by the new one of Messana. — On the antiquity of
the Caulonian medals, see ib. i. 167. 3 So Pliny : ib. v. 2. 4 Ibid. v. 2, 3.
6 Ibid. v. 7. See too Arnold's Rome ii. 534. 6 Ibid. v. 11.
7 Ibid. v. 14. So Ovid, Fasti i. 229 :
Multa quidem didici : sed cur navalis in sere
Altera signata est ; altera forma biceps ?
Causa ratis superest. Tuscum rate venit in amnem,
Ante pererrato falcifer orbe Deus.
At bona posteritas puppim servavit in aere ;
Hospitis adventum testificata Dei.
From Janus originated the name of the hill Janiculam.
8 Ib. 18. 9 lb. v. 42, 84. >» Ib. v. 19, 42, 43. " Ib. «. 37-40.

520 NOTICE ON THE ROMAN COINAGE. [APP.
coinage before the first Punic war, and want of a native gold coinage
afterwards, seems to have been supplied by the abundant influx, or im
portation, of foreign silver and gold money. So Festus ;' whose state
ment is well illustrated by various facts in the Roman Republican history.
During the Republic the proper and only ordinary place for the
Roman coinage was Rome itself. Under extraordinary circumstances
however it might be elsewhere : and when struck with Roman types, of
Roman weight, and by Roman officers, it was rightly to be regarded as
Roman money.3 Probably the money noticed in my next Section was an
early example of this.4 Later, the money called Lucullean, struck under
Sylla's direction for use in the Mithridatic war, was coined in the Greek
Peloponnesus. We have also extant Roman money struck ex S. C. at
Osca in Spain. And in the times of the civil wars we find thatthe Consuls,
driven from Rome on Csesar' s passage of the Rubicon, struck denarii at
Apollonia in Illyricum ; that Metellus Scipio struck denarii in Africa, on
the renewal of the war V. C. 707 against Csesar ; and that, still later,
money was coined by Brutus and Cassius in different towns in Greece,
and by Antony at Lyons.5 — With regard to the right of coinage, as this
was always and in every nation considered as a mark of sovereignty, so
republican Rome ever jealously vindicated that right to herself ; 6 the
special charge over it, and over the Treasury, being entrusted to the
Senate.7 Hence on the earliest consular silver coins, stamped with types
such as I have before indicated, there appears neither name, nor effigy,
of Consul or other Magistrate ; but only Roma? Later the names of
certain Magistrates appear inscribed, whence the coins are called Numi
Familiarum ; but never their effigies : such effigies as appear on certain
of the coins being not those of the Magistrates themselves, but only of
some illustrious ancestor of theirs ; for stamping which, special permis
sion was obtained from the Senate.9 It was to the dictator Julius Csesar
1 In Patres. " Solebant Romani, jam inde a Romulo, numis auri atque argenti signati
ultramarinis uti ; id quod publican et privatae rationes commentariorum docent."
2 Eckhel, v. 41, gives examples of this importation, on the successful ending of wars in
Greece or Asia. " Invexit Quinctius ex Graecia redux intriumpho Philippeos 14,515 :
Scipio Asiaticus, victo Antiocho M. 140,000 ; M. Fulvius in triumpho de .lEtolis 12,422
&c." How much vaster the influx from the ordinary course and necessities of commerce !
3 Ib. v. 68. 4 See my next Section itself.
5 Ibid. ° Ibid. i. lxx — lxxii. 7 Cicero Vatin. 15.
" Eckhel calls these Numi Consulares, in contradistinction to the Numi Familiarum ;
though the latter of course were also struck under the Consular regime. " Praevertunt
astatem, antequam mos signandae in numis familiar esset invectUB." v. 42.
9 Prolegom. i. lxxi.

NO. II.] NOTICE ON THE ROMAN COINAGE. 521
that the right of stamping his own image on the coinage was first as
signed by a Decree of the Senate : after whom the Triumvirs Octavian
Antony and Lepidus, and also Sext. Pompey and M. Brutus, coined in
their own name, and as by their own right ; an introduction this to
Augustus' and his successors' subsequent supremacy over the mint and
coinage.1 In subordination to the Senate the City Quastors had charge
over the treasury ;2 the Triumviri Monetales over the coinage : which
Triumvirs are stated by Pomponius to have been first appointed as early
as V. C. 465 ;3 though the evidence of this on coins themselves is, and
could only be, much later.4 It does not appear that there was any
regular annual coinage, or issue of money ; but that this was made only
as required. The Magistrates, whether Consuls, Prsetors, iEdiles,
Qusestors, or others, seem to have made application for it to the Senate,
according as it might be needed for purposes of war, public games,
procuration of corn, public buildings, &c, &c. : which application granted,
they ordered it from the Triumviri.5 Hence frequently, in the last two
centuries of the Republic, their names on the coins, as well as also
sometimes those of the Triumvirs ; and symbols either of their office, or
of the purpose the money was granted for. — When Roman money was
struck in the Provinces, the Provincial Qusestors had superintendence
over it, so as the Triumvirs at Rome : and they inscribed either their
own names, or that of their Proconsul or Proprsetor, or both.6
As the Roman dominion extended itself more and more in every
direction, so as at first to include Italy, then by degrees more and more
of what at length ere the end of the Republic, and under the Emperors,
became known as the Roman World, the circulation of its coinage natu
rally extended far and near. Yet it was still permitted both to the
Italian cities after their incorporation with the Republic, and afterwards
to the ultramarine Provinces, to retain among other rights of liberty
that of coining their own money, according to their respective wants
and means : so that, for example, the Asiatics of the Ephesian or Pro-
1 Ibid. Ixxii. 2 Ibid. Ixxvii.
3 Ib. lxxix; v. 61, 65. Pomponius speaks of them thus; " Constituti sunt eodem tem
pore . . Triumviri Monetales, aeris argenti auri flatores." But as to their coining of silver
and gold, Pomponius, observes Eckhel, must have spoken irpoAijirriKus ; as silver was not
coined till V. C. 485, twenty years later, and gold not till long afterwards.
4 Because no names of any magistrates, or public officers, were admitted to be engraved
till some considerable time afterwards. — Names of Triumviri Monetales appear on coins
of the last century, or century and a half, of the Republic's duration.
5 Eckhel v. 67. 6 Ibid. 69.

522 NOTICE ON THE ROMAN COINAGE. [APP.
consular Asia still coined as before their silver cistophori in vast abund
ance, the Athenians their tetradrachms.1 — To the Roman colonies too,
whether in Italy, Sicily, or elsewhere, the right was attached of coining
their own money.2
So as regards the Roman coinage, and that of the Roman Provinces,
during the times of the Republic. On the Republic becoming changed
into an Empire under Augustus and his successors, various changes
occurred both at home and abroad. At Rome the exclusive authority
over the gold and silver coinage was attached to the Emperor ; that
over the brass coinage being alone left to the Senate : 3 and in both one
and the other the name and effigy of the Emperor appeared on the ob
verse. The Triumviri Monetales were still continued as the executive
officers over the Mint : the office being one assigned by the Emperor to
certain individuals chosen by him out of the Equestrian order ; and re
garded, in common with three or four other offices, similarly appointed
to from out of the Equestrians, as the stepping stone to higher offices in
the State.4 — With regard to the Provinces it seems to have been Augus
tus' wish to carry out gradually the policy urged on him by Msecenas,
of making the Roman the sole coinage current through the Roman
world.5 Thus with the Italian cities the right of coining seems to have
ceased on the first accession of Augustus. In Gaul, Spain, Sicily, and
the African and Cyrenaic Provinces, it ceased under Tiberius and Caligula.
The East however, from Greece proper to Mcesia on the N. E., and to
Egypt, Arabia, and Mesopotamia on the S. E., continued still to strike
coins ;6 whether autonomi, as they are called, i. e. without the head of
1 Eckhel i. lxxi, 82. 2 Eckhel iv. 499.
* lb. i. lxxiii — Ixxviii. Hence the s. c. only on the imperial brass money: except when
the subject of the type of a silver or gold coin might be something ordered hy the Senate ;
such as the consecration of a deceased Emperor, or an arc or statue dedicated to him.
Then the Ex. s. c. may appear : as indeed on Republican coins also, in the case of types
similarly significative, more anciently. — On the brass the s. c. ceases under Gallienus.
4 Ib. i. lxxix, v. 62, 63. So Ovid of his own appointment to the office, Trist. iv. 33 ;
Ccepimus et tenerae primos aetatis honores ;
Eque viris quondam pars tribus una fui.
There are still extant marbles which speak of Triumviri A. A. A. F. F., (i. e. aurum
argentum aes flando feriundo,) of the age of Trajan, that of Severus, and that of Gordian.
Eckhel i. lxxix.
5 " Numismate, pondere, mensura peculiari urbs nulla utitor, sed nostris omnes." So
Dion Cassius, Iii. 30. The advice was given, says Eckhel, i. 82, in the year V. C. 725,
>vhen Augustus was doubting whether or not to restore the Republic.
6 i. 82, 83.

NO. 1I.J NOTICE ON THE ROMAN COINAGE. 523
Emperor or Empress, or officiosi, with it \l with this restriction however,
that the privilege of coining silver was only granted to comparatively
few cities, and those of the highest rank : such as Alexandria in Egypt,
the Syrian Antioch, Csesarea in Cappadocia, &c.3 For the Roman Colo
nies it was necessary to receive the special permission of the Emperor,
or the Proconsul : and though under the Republic this permission seems
to have been unrestricted, yet it was now only granted to certain Colo
nies, not to others ; and, where granted, only extended to the right of
coining brass money.3 — Such continued the state of things, as regarded
the coinage of the Eastern Provinces, till the latter half of the third
Century of the Christian ^Era. Then under Gallienus and Claudius
their coinage ceased almost altogether ; the Alexandrian alone lingering
a few years longer, till the reign of Diocletian.4 Imperial mints, Officinx
Monetales, were now established permanently at different places over
the empire, as Siscia in Pannonia, Treves, Lyons, Carthage, Constanti
nople, &c. &c, as well as Rome ; 6 thus in a more systematic manner
supplying the wants of the Provinces. So was prepared in respect of
the coinage, as well as in respect of the political constitution of the
Roman world, the grand transition in Imperial history from the earlier
to the later or lower empire.
II. I now proceed to notice more or less cursorily, as need may be,
those coins of which use has been made in the Horse : addition being
made, on any point previously illustrated in the body of my Work, of
whatever may seem fitted to make clearer, or to strengthen, my argu
ment. In this I shall follow a chronological order : arranging the coins
under heads, according to the time when they were struck.
1 . Those of earliest date engraven by me are the medals of Mars and a
horse, or horse's head, with Roma or Romano inscribed ; the same that the
reader has seen at p. 117 of this volume. For they come before those
which are generally called Numi Familiarum, from a reference in their
types to some particular person, or some particular historic fact of cele-
1 Ibid. i. lxxi. 2 Ibid.
3 i. Ixxi. 82 ; iv. 497, 499. Such a colony was Philippi, mentioned Acts xvi. 12.
4 i. ix, x.
5 Permanently, in contradistinction to the mints temporarily established, under particu
lar passing circumstances, by certain of the Emperors ; as by Vespasian at Antioch, Pescen
nius Niger in the East, Clodius Albinus in Gaul, &c. Eckhel i. lxxxi. In his 8th Vo
lume Eckhel gives a full list of the towns where the Roman mints were permanently
fixed.

524 NOTICE ON THE ROMAN COINAGE. [APP.
brity, connected with the particular family of the Roman official coining.
On these coins, or at least on the class inscribed with Romano, I have in
my commentary ad loc. cited the judgments of Eckhel and Niebuhr,
our highest authorities on such a subject. As the medals in question
however involve controverted matter, and this of some considerable im
portance in its bearing on my view of the four first Seals, I have thought
it best to treat of the subject separately in my next Essay.
2. My Roman medals of next earliest coinage are those of the Numi
Familiarum. Of these many examples will be found described in my
fourth Paper in this Appendix : and three engraved in my Commentary,
p. 1 74 supra, in illustration of the 3rd Seal.
Of these three coins the second and the third are illustrative of those
procurations of corn under the Republic, made by order of the Senate
for distribution among the poorer citizens, as the inscription Ad. Fru.
Emu. Ex. S. C. on the one, and the modius and ears of corn on the
other, indicate. Of which procurations I noticed the extension under the
Emperors of the third century, with a view to the supply of the vast
wants both of the army and the Roman populace, as materially aggra
vating the pressure of the heavy tax of contributions of corn required
from the Provincials ; carried out as those procurations too often
were, with injustice and oppression. The modius often appears, I may
observe, in a similar significatory sense on Imperial coins : for example
on one of Nerva's, exhibiting a " modius prominentibus spicis," and
with the inscription, Plebei Urbanm Frumento Constitutor — The obverse
on the third coin, is a head of some ancient Regulus, (not improbably,
we may suppose, of the Regulus so famous in the first Carthaginian
war,) the ancestor of the L. Livineius Regulus, for whose use in the
public service the money was struck ; 2 and thus illustrates what was
before stated, respecting the human effigies that appear on certain of the
1 Eckhel vi. 407.— From the Numi Familiarum let me add, as another illustration, the
description of a denarius of the Claudian Gens, and family of the Marcelli, given by
Eckhel v. 170; J* Caput Palladis alatum, pra? quo x, pone modius.
\ M. Marc. Victoria in bigis, in imo duae spicae, et Roma.
2 Eckhel v. 235. This medal was restored by Trajan. Of whose restorations of the
ancient republican coins, Eckhel, after giving a list of what are still extant v. 98, &c.
observes that it is probable he restored most, or even all. " Cum Trajanus obscurarum
familiarum numos restituerit, verisimile est ab eo illarum plerosque, et forte omnes, resti
tutes ; sed quos hactenus videre non licuit. Videmus enim eorum numerum, etsi lente,
6ensim tamen augeri; et baud dubie complures in variis Museis latent, sed nobis ignoti."
p. 110.

NO. II.] NOTICE ON THE ROMAN COINAGE, 525
Numi Familiarum, as not those of the inscribed magistrates themselves,
but (by the Senate's permission) of some one of their ancestors.1 The
obverse on the second coin, is a head which seems to be that of Saturn ;
the obverse on the first, the head of Jupiter Terminahs. — With regard
to the balance on the first coin engraved, (the most important emblem
of course in the three medals towards the illustration of my third Seal,)
it is to be understood that it appears both on Roman Republican and
Roman Imperial coins, as the symbol of justice : and this in reference
specially to two acts, or offices, in which equitable dealing is most im
portant, on the part of governing authorities, to the commonwealth
governed ; viz, 1st the judicial office, or as it is often characteristically
called, the administration of justice ; 2ndly, the coinage of the public
money, with just weight and purity of metal. The latter view of justice
was naturally a favorite subject with the officers of the mint : and they
were able specifically to point out a reference to it, by the added signs
either of a mass of metal, or instruments of coining,2 or significant
words or letters inscribed,3 or the personification of one goddess super
scribed Moneta, or perhaps three, with the balance beneath ; the three
indicating the three metals struck in coinage.4 In other cases, the re
ference either to justice in its largest sense, — justice executive, legisla
tive, and administrative, — or to the judicial administration of justice in
particular, was also made evident. I subjoin illustrations.5 In the en-
1 Eckhel v. 154, 159.
2 The instruments of coining appear, for example, on a medal of the Gens Carisia, thus
described by Eckhel v. 163 ;
( Moneta. Caput muliebre.
\ T. Carisius. Incus, pileus Vulcani, forceps, malleus.
The mass of metal appears on an Alexandrine medal of Commodus, given by Eckhel
iv.77; {Kofi/iofios, &c.
MovijTa. Moneta stolata stans, d. bilancem s. sceptrum ; ante pedes acervusasris.
3 So in a medal of the Emperor Claudius, given by Eckhel, vi. 238 :
( T. Claudius Ccesar Aug. Dextra bilancem tenens, intra cujus lances P. N. R.
\ Cos. Des. It. Pont. M. Tr. P. Imp. In medio s. c.
where Eckhel explains the p. N. R. to mean Pondus Numi Restitutum. — Of the word
Moneta examples have been given in the Note preceding.
4 Eckhel, vii. 188, describes a coin of this character of the Emperor S. Severus.
(" S. Severus A ug. Caput laureatum.
\ ASquitati Publico?. Tres Monetae stantes cum bilance et cornu copiae. Juxti
i singulas, prae pedibus, massa metalli.
In Gessner and elsewhere the reader may see engravings of the three Monetae.
6 In the mass of Roman medals with the figure of Justice bearing a balance in hand,
and the inscription JEquitas Augusti, reason requires that we give this large meaning to
the symbol.— Similarly in the Alexandrine medals, where we have multitudes of types

526 NOTICE ON THE ROMAN COINAGE. [APP.
graving given by me, the suspension of the balance above the curule chair
is sufficiently significative of this latter reference : this being under the
Republic the seat of the Prsetor, or Proprsetor, in administering justice.
I have given ad loc. Spanheim's notice of the symbol to this effect, in
his earlier and smaller work De Prsestantia Nummorum ; and I now sub
join the notice of it to the same effect, in his later and larger Work.1 —
Similarly in imperial times this association of justice and the curule chair
was still so familiar, that the goddess Justice was sometimes depicted as
sitting on a curule chair for her tribunal.3 In those times indeed both
the idea of justice, and the symbol of the balance significative of it,
attached primarily to the Emperors themselves : as the supreme legisla
tors and administrators of law in the State.3 Subordinately, however,
both the idea and the symbol attached to those also who administered
the law under the emperors.4 So Manilius, writing near the close of
the reign of Augustus, speaks not only of the emperor, but also of the
Prsetor and Judge, as fitly born under the zodiacal sign of the ba-
of the Emperors or Empresses, with personifications accompanying of various other vir
tues, as EA7T«, Eipijvij, Tvxv, Tlpovota, and also that of AtKoioovvrj, or Justice,— as the
other personifications are general in their meaning, so too, we may reasonably suppose, the
AiKaioovvij ; whose type, like that of JEquitas, in the Latin coins, is a balance. I may
cite for example one of the Emperor Claudius, given by Eckhel iv. 51 ;
f Ti Claudius, &c.
{AtKaioovvij. l. r. Mulier stans, d. bilancem.
Rasche on AiKaioovoij mentions an " insignis numus," given by Seguin, Vaillant, and
Morell ; on which " hinc Tiberii caput, illinc libra aquis lanabus, cum adscriptis circum
nominibus BaotAtooa UvdoSapts Kotuos." And he adds in explanation : " Signata ibi
libra cum lancibus ad praedicandam Tiberii justitiarn ; dum ah eo id impetravit haec Re-
gina Pythodoris, ut in ultionem occisi per fraudem a Rhescuporide mariti ipse in Senatu
damnaretur, et Alexandriam delatus capite ibi lueret."
1 I refer to his Vol. ii. p. Ill, and Section headed, " De Praetoribus in Numis." He
there observes : " Quum curulis foret itidem magistratus, neque unum paulatim constitu-
tum sit Praetorum in Urbe genus, verum eorum primo qui Jits Roma! dicerent, dein qui ad
regendas Romani Populi Provincias, aut caeteroquin cum militari imperio mitterentur, tum
qui prius quaestiones puhlicas de certis criminibus in Urbe exercerent, — ita promiscue
iidem initialibus primis illius magistratus Uteris pr, seu Praetoris, et communibus praeterea
sella curulis, bilaneis subinde, (vulgati justitiae, ut similiter in aliquot Caesarum numis,
symboli,) fascium praeterea, quandoque et securium insignibus utebantur."
2 " Sellae curuli, nempe pro tribunali, adsidet Justitia, hasta pura insignis ; et, por-
recta patera, religionem sibi curae esse ostendit." So Rasche, on Justitia, referring to a
gold coin of Hadrian's given hy Khell in his Supplement, p. 70.
3 So Rasche on JEquitas Augusti; observing that justice was considered to attach pro
perly to those, most of all, " qui jus dicere solent : " so as did the Augusti, as the head of
the law and government.
1 Just as they were the head of the army also, and so wore the sword of supreme com
mand ; which sword however was borne, as the badge of military command, by the Im
perial generals under them.

NO. II.] NOTICE ON THE ROMAN COINAGE. 527
lance.1 Now in the hieroglyphic of the third Seal this latter application of
the balance in the hand of the rider, I mean to the subordinate adminis
trators of justice, (its administrators both judicially and executively,) was
fixed alike by the absence of the crown from his head, and by those
most significant words of charge and monition, addressed to him in the
voice from the throne, about the price of corn, and against injustice,
which Emperors " lege soluti" never received, but Provincial Governors
received perpetually ; and of which I have fully spoken in my comment
on the Seal. 2
3. A word next, ere I pass to my Roman imperial coins, on the two
examples of the Provincial coinage, under the Republic and under the
Emperors, exhibited in my two Cretan coins given at p. 133 of this
Volume. — The Cydonian medal is of silver, and may very possibly be in
date earlier than the epoch of Crete becoming a Province of the Roman
Empire. If later it illustrates the fact of the permission, accorded very
generally to the Provincial towns under the Republic, to strike their
numos autonomos, as before. The obverse has on it a Woman's head
adorned with flowers, and the inscription Nevatroc Eiroei, designating the
designer or coiner. — The other of the Cretan Diana is of Roman impe
rial times : it being struck by the Koivov KpyTuv : which Koivov, like
many others whose names appear on medals, were communities formed
under the Emperors, with a view simply to the common celebration of
public games and religious festivals. Eckhel 3 gives a list of the various
1 Viz. in his 4th Book. In one passage, verse 545, he says ;
Sed cum autumnales caeperunt surgere Chelae,
Felix 33quato genitus sub pondere Libra,
Judex extremae sistet vitaeque necisque ;
Imponetque jugum terris, legesque rogabit.
This with special reference to Augustus, the supreme judge and legislator; whom he
here supposes to have been born under the sign of the Libra, though others referred his
birth to the sign of Capricorn. (See Scaliger's Note.) Elsewhere he connects with it
judges, and law advisers, and administrators more generally.
Librantes noctem Chelae cum tempore lucis,
Per nova maturi post annum tempora Bacchi,
Mensura? et tribuent usus, et pondera rerum : . . . .
Hie etiam legum tahulas, et condita jura,
Et licitum sciet, et vetitum quae poena sequatur,
Perpetuum populi privato in limine Praetor.
Libra was the sign of Astraea, the heavenly goddess of justice.
2 From seeing the reverse only, (so as in Spanheim's smaller work,) and the inscription
Leg. Pro. Pr. on it, I had originally supposed the coin with the balance to have been one
stamped with the name of a Legatus Propraetore under the Emperors. It was struck, we
see, just before the establishment of the empire under Augustus.
3 Vol. iv. p. 428, &c.

528 NOTICE ON THE ROMAN COINAGE. [APP.
Koiva formed about this period ; and mentions that the extant coins of
this Cretan Konw extend from Tiberius to M. Aurelius inclusive. The
Diana occurs in Cretan coins of Hadrian and Anton. Pius, as well as Tra
jan : so common and recognized was the huntress-Diana type as Cretan ;
at, and for a while after, the time of the striking of Nerva's own Dianic
coin. I observe in Gessner, another characteristic coin of the Cretan
Kotvov, of Domitian's time : the obverse presenting Domitian's head, with
Aopir. liato-ap ; the reverse Kpijruv Koivov, with a man holding a bow.
Eckhel ' adds the inscription on a very illustrative marble of the Lyttii
of Crete, from Gruter ; 'lepov A'yaim; HevraeTvjpiKov Tov Kaivov Tuv
KpijTuv ; showing that the games of this Cretan Community were quin
quennial. 4. Of Imperial coins of the first grand division of the history of the
Roman Empire, from Augustus' accession to that of Constantine, five are
engraven in the Horse ; viz. of Augustus on horseback, of Claudius Drusus
on a triumphal arch, of Vespasian's coin of Rome on the seven hills, of
Titus on the destruction of Jerusalem^ 'and of Nerva's head with the laurel
crown : 2 together with that of Maximian, given at p. 16 of my third
Volume, which belongs to a kind of transition period between the two
great historical and chronological divisions of the earlier and the later
Empire. — On the Nerva, Vespasian, and Titus there does not occur to
me any thing here needing observation.— The equestrian Augustus sug
gests a similar medal of Domitian, the reigning Emperor at the time of
St. John's exile in Patmos, engraved in Patin's Numismata, p. 157 ;
one which represents that same equestrian statue to him, which in my
Note ad loc. I stated to have been the subject of one of Statius' Odes. —
As regards the triumphal arc of Claudius Drusus, let me correct a slight
inaccuracy in the notice of it in my 1st Edition. I had supposed the
arc to have been built, or at least the medals which represent it to have
been struck, about the time of Claudius Drusus' German victories. But,
as Eckhel states,3 there is clear evidence that both the arc was raised,
and the medals struck, in his honour, somewhat later ; viz. under the
reign of his son, the Emperor Claudius. There still exist both gold,
silver, and brass medals, (the latter with the S. C.) which exhibit the
triumphal arc. Eckhel thus describes them :

1 iv. 431. 2 The Vespasian in my ivth Volume; the rest in my 1st.
3 Vol. vi. 176,177,

NO. II. J NOTICE ON THE ROMAN COINAGE. 529
{Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus Imp. Caput Drusi laurea-
tum, in aliis nudum.
De Germ, inscripturn arcui triumphali, super quo Drusi statua
equestris inter duo tropea.
And he cites Dion Cassius, stating that the honor of statues and tri
umphal arcs was decreed to Drusus after his death. This of course
makes no difference with respect to the purport of the design on the
arc. — As regards medals of similar design, struck on occasion of the
Profectio Augusti to war, let me here mention two or three, in addition to
those given in my Book. First, and in illustration of the continued cus
tom in St. John's own time, let me mention the S. C. flattering medals
of Domitian, struck on one of his goings forth to war, with a horseman
at full speed, striking a prostrate enemy. Next I may note one of Tra
jan's, described by Eckhel a thus ;
STrajano Optimo Aug. (Trajan's Head).
Profectio Augusti. Imperator eques d. hastam gestans, prsece-
dente figura militari, tribus sequentibus.
Which medal, he says, was struck on Trajan's going forth on his Par
thian expedition. Patinus, at p. 176, gives another of Trajan, which
exhibits that emperor galloping forth, and striking down an enemy ;
with the inscription round it, S. P. Q. R. Optimo Principi. Once
more in Gessner, Tab. 164 N. 34, I observe a medal of Alexander Se
verus, struck on occasion of his going forth to war, of similar character :
but on which, besides the emperor galloping forth and striking down an
enemy, there is also Victory, with a crown, preceding him, and a soldier
following. With regard to my sixth imperial medal of this class, that of Nerva's
Diana, and my seventh, that of Maximian, it is needless to speak here ;
the full disquisition, following next but one in this Appendix, having re
ference to the one ; and that in the Appendix to my Vol. iii to the other.
5. Lastly there are my eight Imperial medals, of the times from and
after Constantine, viz. the Constantines with the labarum or phcenix, the
Valentinian with the diadem, the Theodosius with the globe-surmounting
cross, and the much later Constantinopohtan coins, with the images of
Christ 'and the Virgin; — given either in this 1st or in the 3rd Volume.
On some of these, viz. the Constantinian coins and that of Theodosius, as
also on Maximian' s struck in the immediately preceding sera, the reader
1 Vol. vi. pp. 449, 452.
VOL. I. 2 M

530 NOTICE ON THE ROMAN COINAGE. [APP.
will observe at the bottom of the coins the marks of those OJficina Mo
netales, which I spoke of in my first Head, as established about the close
of the third century at different places throughout the Empire ; ESIS,
ASIS, TRP, TESOB. The Sis in the two first signifies Siscia in Pan
nonia, a town on the Save, some fifty miles e. n. e. of Trieste ; the
prefixt A and E designating the particular offices of the mint there
established. The TV of the second indicates the mint at Treves, in North
Eastern Gaul ; the P percussum, or struck. The intent of the Tesob is
more doubtful ; as also that of Conob, another word of similar form, often
found at the bottom of imperial coins of this period. I must refer the
reader to Eckhel' s discussion of this point, in his Section on the Officinse
Monetales, near the end of his last Volume.
As to the Constantinian coins, with the labarium and pheenix, I may
observe that it is from Dufresnoy's Lactantius, Vol. ii. p. 191, that I
have taken the medal of Constantine, representing the sign of the cross,
and monogram of Christ, on the Emperor's helmet. — As regards my
second phamix, that in which a military figure standing is depicted as
presenting a globe surmounted with a radiated phoenix to another, in mili
tary garb, sitting on a trophy, with the inscription Gloria Seculi, Virtus
Caisaris, Spanheim thus explains the emblem, with reference to the times
of the Christian Emperors. " Phoenix velut novse ac seternse vitse, aut
novi quasi et fortunati seu aurei sseculi, symbolum est sub Christianis
Csesaribus frequentatum." So in like manner Patinus ; adverting, in
explanation, " ad religionem Christianam quam Constantinus M. propa-
gaverat, filiique omni cultu prosequebantur." l — The symbol had pre
viously been made use of by Hadrian, to signify the " golden age " of
which his reign was a part. Which medal of Hadrian is thus described
by Eckhel, Vol. vi. p. 508 ;
'Imp. Ctesar. Trajan. Hadrianus. Aug. Protome laureata.
) Sxc. Aur. P. M. TR. P. Cos. iii. Vir seminudus stans, et s.
tenens globum cui phoenix insistit, d. circulum contingit quo
totus ambitur.
And he observes on it ; " Aversa hujus numi aureum imperante Hadri-
ano sseculum deprsedicat : " the circulus of the coin being explained as
signifying " orbem sseculi in se revoluti."
In the Theodosian coin the symbol of a globe surmounted by the cross oc
curs. This was first introduced on coins by the Emperor Jovian, imme-
1 p. 472.

NO. II.] NOTICE ON THE ROMAN COINAGE. 531
diately after the fall of the Pagan Julian : i. e. a few years before the
great Theodosius, to whom I originally ascribed the introduction of the
symbol. Eckhel, in his last Volume, discusses and illustrates this point :
and he mentions that although Jovian first introduced it on the coinage,
yet in a statue of the great Constantine at Constantinople, it appears by
the report of Nicephorus Callistus to have been some little time before
similarly applied ; a golden sphere with the cross upon it being held in
the right hand of that statue.1
Finally, with regard to the latest Roman Imperial coins given by me,
and which indeed might rather be called Greek Imperial coins, — I mean
those with an image of the Virgin, of the Emperors John Zimisces, Roma
nus IV, and Andronicus II, — my observations ad loc. supersede the
necessity of any further observations here.
1 Previously, from the time of Augustus, a globe had been frequently depicted in the
Emperor's hand surmounted by a Victory. So in a medal of Julian's given hy Patinus,
p. 482. At length, says Eckhel, viii. 506, " globo, dejecta Victoria? imagine, imposita
crux : argumento ejus virtute non veterem modo superstitionera, sed imperii etiam hostes
fuisse profligatos." And at p. 148, after describing a medal of Jovian's, where the " Im-
perator paludatus stans d. labarum, in quo monogramma Christi, s. globum cum Victoriola,"
he proceeds : " Iidem Joviani numi jam globum imminente Victoria, jam globum cruci-
gerum offerunt. Prior modus ex vetere religione est ; hie ex nova, et nunc primum com-
paret." — He then quotes from Nicephorus' H . E. vii. 49, the passage about Constantine's
statue ; in which however the historian, it seems, foolishly took the globe or sphere to
be an apple : xPv°eov pijAov p.eytOTOV rrj Se^ic* Karexuv xeiPl> eiravio tov rtptov
KaTeirijyvv oravpov.

2 M 2

APPENDIX.
No. III.
ON THE HORSE WITH THE MARS' HEAD, AND ROMA OR

(See Page 118.)
It is important that it should be always borne in mind, as stated by
me in my Apocalyptic Commentary and elsewhere, that the fitness of
this emblem of the horse, in the view in which I represent it, is altoge
ther independent of the illustrative medals given by me : the horse hav
ing been sacred to Mars, the reputed father of the Mavortia proles, or
Roman people ; and accordingly, from the earliest times of Roman his
tory, both horse-races established as an annual festival in honor of him,
and also each October the solemn sacrifice of a horse to him. So asso
ciated with the Romans' reputed origin, earliest national history, public
religious festivals, and known national character too, how could there
but be intrinsic fitness in the symbol of a war-horse to signify the Roman
martial people ? There is just as much fitness of symbol here surely,
as in the goat, from its association with the early national legendary
history of the Macedonians, to signify the Macedonian empire : the pro
priety of which latter symbol is recognized in Scripture ; as appears
from its adoption in Dan. viii. 5, 21.
The only attempt to impugn the justice of this argument, that has
met my eye, is that made by the Rev. W. G. Barker, first in his
" Friendly Remarks on the Horse," and afterwards in his Answer to my
Reply, in the Churchman's Monthly Review.2 And what then his objec
tion ? Why, he asserts that the horse was not sacred to Mars. A really
startling assertion this, to any one pretty well versed in classical litera-
1 The present Paper is copied from the Appendix to the Vindiciae Horariae, with some
slight alterations. This will explain Hb controversial form.
2 Friendly Remarks, pp. 4—6; Churchman's Monthly Rev. for 1847, pp. 718—720.

NO. III.] THE ROMAN HORSE. 533
ture ; and which is based solely and wholly on an induction drawn by
him from the statement following in Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities :
" It may be considered as a general rule that those animals which were
sacred to a god were not sacrificed to him ; though horses were sacri
ficed to Neptune, notwithstanding this usage." For Mr. B. thence
argues ; " If this be true, the horse was sacred to Neptune, and was not
sacred to Mars." But is a writer's general rule to be made universal,
with only one exception, simply because, in illustration of its not being
universal, he gives but one example of exception ; which however may
very well be one out of several ? 1 — Let me beg to ask Mr. B. has he
considered what was meant by the ancients in speaking of one and ano
ther animal as sacred to a god ? Was it not simply that the God was
supposed to delight in, and affect the company of that animal; so as
Jupiter that of the eagle, Juno of the peacock, Venus of the dove,
Minerva of the owl ? And was not the horse thus associated with Mars ?
What reports Pausanias on this point ? That among the two or three
statues of Mars that he saw in Greece, one was Mars on horseback.2
What Horace? " Martis equis acheronta fugit." What Ovid? "Marsque
citos, junctis curribus, urget equos." — It is from this mythological no
tion of Mars then harnessing his horses to the chariot, that Ovid derives
the institution of those equiria, or horse-races, that I before spoke of,
celebrated in the Campus Martius on the Kalends of March in honor of
him.3 And as regards the sacrifice of the horse to Mars, Festus explains
that it was either with reference to the wooden horse by which Troy was
taken, or because of Mars' complacency in the animal ; " qubd eo genere
animalis Mars delectari putaretur." — Accordingly, not without reason,
the most learned lexicographers and antiquarians declare the horse to
1 The cock was sacred to JEsculapius; yet, as in Socrates' well-known example, was
sacrificed to him ; the stag sacred to Diana, (judging from the stags harnessed to her car,)
yet stags sacrificed to her; and so too sometimes, as Pausanias tells us in his Laconics,
even the dog. Again the liorse was sacred to the Sun, yet the horse sacrificed to him.
" Constat Soli equos fuisse sacros, et sacrificatos. . . Sic Rhodios, &c." So Eckhel v. 49.
Also Ovid, of the Persians ;
Placat equo Persis radiis Hyperiona cinctum.
2 So in his Eliacs. — Montfaucon, Vol.vi. p. 42, after reference on this point to Pausa
nias, observes that Mars, Neptune and Minerva were the only three gods of the ancient
mythology, that were represented sometimes as on horseback ; and that they were each
one designated in consequence by the title Hippius.
3 The passage with its context stands thus : Fasti B. ii. ad fin.
Jamque duae restant noctes de mense secundo ;
Marsque citos junctis curribus urget equos.
Ex vero positum permansit equiria nomen ;
Quae Deus in campo prospicit ipse suo.

534 THE ROMAN HORSE. [APP.
have been sacred to Mars. So Hoffman, on the word Mars : " Sacrum
ei fecerunt equum, lupum, canem, et picum ; quos in Dei hujus tutela esse
credi voluerunt :" adding also ; " Effinxere eum veteres ardentem, nunc in
curru, nunc in equo armatum, cum hasts\ &c." So again Adams in his
Roman antiquities ; " The animals sacred to Mars were the horse, wolf,
and wood-pecker : " and once more Facciolati, on the word Equus :
' ' Fuit equus Marti sacer, propter usum belli, et quotannis ei Romse im
molabatur." — Tertuliian, as stated by me under the second Seal, speci
fies the horse of red color, in particular, as sacred to Mars.1
Thus the question of the Roman reference and origin of my engraved
medals, is one on a matter subsidiary, not essential : and I believe that
on this point too the case of the impugners of the Horse will be found
on examination totally to break down. The question, as put by my first
and friendly correspondent on the subject Mr. B. Lewis, is whether or
not the horse on the medal is what may be called the Roman horse, as
being the horse sacred to the Roman Mars, whose head is on the obverse
of the coins. I was at first led to suppose by Mr. L.'s report that
Eckhel' s authority was against me on this point : and, not having Eckhel
at hand to refer to, thought it right so to state the fact in my 2nd Edi
tion ; though it seemed to me a little strange in such case that there
should be the horse, the Mars, and the Roma or Romano, all three com
bined together. Subsequently I had the opportunity of consulting
Eckhel ; and found that, although thinking that the type was not a pro
perly Roman type, nor Rome the mint of these medals' coinage, but ra
ther a type and mint of some people of Greek connexion subject to
Rome, like those in Campania, Magna Grsecia, or Sicily, (of which more
presently,) yet, as to the point I was most concerned with, viz. the horse
being the Roman horse, and the Mars the Roman Mars, to whom that
horse was sacred,3 the opinion given by him was, in fact, in favour
of my view, not against it. " Ad Romana hie typus sacra pertinet.
Refert Festus ; ' Equiria ludi quos Romulus Marti instituit, per equ-
orum cursum, qui in Campo Martio exercebatur. De equo dicto Octo-
bri, qui singulis annis Marti in Campo Martio immolabatur, vide
eundem Festum in October equus." 3 I cited this passage in a reply to
1 See my Vol. i. p. 138 Note \
2 The frequent similar connexion of the types on a medal's face and obverse is thus
stated by Eckhel, i. cv. ¦' In Numis autonomis pars aversa plerumque cum antica com-
ponitur. Sic Dii Deaequo sua habent in aversis seu attributa, seu sacra sibi animalia, 6eu
victimas, &c. Cum Jove aquila ; cum Cerere porcus, ejus victima." 3 Eckhel v. 49.

NO. III.] THE ROMAN HORSE. 535
Mr. Arnold, in the British Magazine for March 1847 ; together with a
quotation from Niebuhr, stating his opinion that this class of medals
was struck by the Roman colonists early settled in Campania.1 Nor was
any reply attempted, or contradiction given to my statement, either by
Mr. Arnold or Mr. Lewis. — It is to be observed that the only other
medal noticed either by Eckhel, Mionnet,2 or other medallic authors
that I have consulted, in which the horse and the Mars' head are united,
so as here, is one of Cosa, (Cosa in Etruria ; according to Eckhel ;) in
which place a Roman colony was fixed, just as in Campania also, a little
before the first Punic war. So that this particular medal might well serve
to corroborate Niebuhr' s general theory. — Mr. Barker, referring to
Dr. Glen King's Tables of Roman medals, says that amidst " thousands
of engraved coins of the Roman empire, in consular and imperial coins,
the horse, as a symbol, is never to be found." Now, 1st, Dr. G. King's
Tables commence with the Roman Numi Familiares ; and therefore could
not include these, which are of a class earlier. 2ndly, as to his require
ment of the horse being engraved as a symbol of the Roman people,
there is not the least need of my proving it such.3 The question is,
whether in this particular class of coins, (a class most abundant,) the
1 Golberry's Transl. v. 399.
2 Except one sine epigraplte, and consequently on which no judgment can be pro
nounced. 3 Indeed Mr. Barker affirms that, in order to answer my purpose, the horse ought
not merely to he on Roman medals " as a symbol" (i. e. " of the Roman empire,")
but moreover to be on them "everywhere."* — In illustration of his meaning in the
former of these two requirements, that of being on the coins as a symbol, he says ; " We
should recognize the coins of Rome by their horse, as we do the coins of Peloponnesus by
their tortoise." But 1st, I am not aware that any coins of Peloponnessus were stamped
with a tortoise. Those so stamped, and with the letters AIH, once ascribed to ./Egium
in Acbaia, are now recognized as coins of JEgixia,, an island not Peloponnesian ; in
which island they abound, or at least used to do, as I knew from personal experience."!"
It was only from their large circulation in the Peloponnesus, that they were sometimes
loosely spoken of as Peloponnesian. There never, I believe, was any common medal of
the Peloponnesus as a whole. — 2ndly, as regards the various really Peloponnesian types,
such as the pegasus of Corinth, the eagle's head of Elis, the wolf of Argos, &c, they are
no otherwise symbols of the cities, than as referring to some legendary story connected
with, their early history or religion ; precisely as the horse in the coins under discussion
(according to Eckhel and the rest) referred to the supposed origin from, and worship of,
Mars at Rome. — As to Mr. B.'s second requirement of the everywhere, where will he find
any numismatic device of any people of which this could be predicated? Certainly not
of the Persian ram, the Macedonian goat, or the Roman eagle ,¦ all which however are
used as types of those nations in the holy Scriptures.
* Monthly Churchman, p. 720.
\ See Mionnet on Aigina. — In Eckhel's time this class of medals were not so well
known as they are now.

536 THE ROMAN HORSE. [APP.
horse engraved was not meant to be the horse sacred to the Roman Mars.
Mr. B.'s mere positive reassertion against this,1 without any supporting
argument or evidence, is of course valueless.
While at Rome last winter I took the opportunity of consulting two
antiquaries there, well known for their knowledge in numismatics; I mean
the Cavaliere Visconti, (a gentleman who holds high office in the Anti
quarian Department under the Papal Government,) and Signor Capranesi.
Alike the one and the other expressed to me their persuasion that this
class of coins was to be regarded as Roman in character, even though
struck (if so it was) in Campania : and the latter gave me a Disserta
tion of his own in which the subject is alluded to, and in which he takes
for granted, as a thing known and admitted, that the horse is the horse
of the Roman Mars? — Signor Capranesi also referred me to a Treatise
of the learned Jesuit Fathers Marchi and Tessieri, of the Kircherian
Museum, on the early Italian coins of this class ; and another on the
same subject, of a little later date, by Signor Gennarelli. — In the former
(entitled AEs Grave del Museo Kircheriano, ovvero Le Monete Piu Antiche
de' Popoli delV Italia Media, Roma 1839) there are given (Plate xii) the
selfsame two coins that are engraved in the Horse ; I mean with the
Mars bearded or beardless, the horse or horse's head, and inscription of
Roma or Romano. And in the comment it is stated, at p. 70, that they
were engraved under the direction of those learned antiquaries, with the
express object of vindicating them, not only as Roman coins, but coins
expressly of the mint at Rome ; ( " non per altra ragione, se non per
rivendicarne il pieno diritto alle offtcine urbane di Roma") Then allud
ing to Eckhel's opinion, that from their magnificent workmanship their
local origin might be probably Campania or Lucania, [districts where
the chief cities were of Greek colonists,] it refers to other medals of
similar beauty of fabric, and at the same time of unquestionable Roman
types, e. g. the Hercules' head and ship's prow ;3 states that some of the
most ancient Roman denarii are also of excellent workmanship ; and in
fers that it would thus seem that Rome early availed herself of the skill
of foreign artists. — So write the Jesuit fathers of the Kircherian Mu
seum. — In the other Dissertation of Dr. Achille Gennarelli on the Mo-
' " The coins in question were not Roman." Churchman's Monthly Rev. p. 719.
2 " Le monete de' Romani di argento e bronzo, anche con la scritta Romano o Roma,
portano alcune la testa di Marte, ed il busto di cavallo nel riverso." Monete Antiche
Illustrate da Francesco Capranesi.
3 I have myself various coins of this class, of unquestioned Roman type, which I
bought while at Rome.

NO. III.] THE ROMAN HORSE. 537
neta Primitiva dell Italia Antica, Rome 1843, (a Dissertation crowned
by the Pontifical Academy of Archaeology,) the subject is noticed at p. 33 :
and having stated, as the four grounds on which some would refer this
class of coins to Campania, 1st, that the coins come chiefly from Cam
pania ; 2. that the beauty of the workmanship is unsuited to the rude
civilization of Latium ; 3. that there is the Campanian termination in
many of the no (Romano, Aiserni»o, &c.) ; 4. the correspondence of the
types with those of coins that were certainly Campanian, — he then
proceeds to answer all. — Thus, as to the 1st point, he rephes that the
coins do not come exclusively from Campania, but are much more fre
quently found in "our" [i. e. the Roman and Latin] districts than Cam
pania : so that, as all coin-sellers know, they are of less value at Rome
than at Naples.1 2. The arts flourished in Latium, at least as much as
in Campania ; a point which the author prepares to establish in his Dis
sertation. 3. The no termination is not exclusively Campanian : but,
as the Cav. Avellino has shown, exists ahke in the medals of the Um-
brians, Latins, Samnites, Campanians, and Lucanians. [As to the types,
4thly, many, as observed before, are unquestionably Roman.] — On the
whole, the writer considers that the Jesuit Padre Marchi was wrong in
excluding all from a Campanian origin, that have the inscription Roma
or Romano ; seeing that there are some with both that, and also a Neapo
litan inscription. But the larger number he seems to consider as of
Roman or Latian origin ; in general agreement with the Jesuit fathers.
Let me add that Millingen too, in his Work on the Numismatique de
V Ancienne Italie, suggests that these coins may have been struck in part
by Roman Consuls, or Roman Quxstors, for the use of the armies sta
tioned in the Samnite or Campanian districts.
So that every authority tends to establish for my engraved coins a
Roman reference, whether struck at Rome, or elsewhere ; and to justify
my original insertion of them as coins stamped with the Roman horse,
sacred to the Roman Mars.1
1 I beg the reader's particular attention to this point, as decisively negatively one chief
ground on which Eckhel grounds his anti-Roman judgment. Eckhel was under the dis
advantage of writing at Vienna, not Rome, and moreover at a time when much less was
known about this class of medals than is known now.

APPENDIX. No. IV.
MEDALLIC ILLUSTRATION OF NERVA's CRETENSIC ORIGIN.
(See Page 137.)
As regards the Roman medal of Nerva given by me, that bears on its
reverse the type of the huntress Diana with her quiver and bow, Vaillant,
seeing that this was an unusual type on Roman money, explains it by
reference to Nerva's Cretensic origin ; Diana having been an object of
specially devoted worship with the inhabitants of Crete. Eckhel in his
Vol. vi. p. 404 objects to this, in the passage following, after descrip
tion of the coin : —
/•" Imp. Nerva Czes. Aug. Pont. Max. Tb. P. Caput laureatum.
¦i Cos. ii. Desig. m. P. P. Diana venatrix gradiens, d. sagittam ex pharetra
\ promit, comite cane.
Observat Vaillantius mine aversse typum in moneta Romana insolentem
esse. Censet igitur, cum Nervam ex Creta oriundum dicat Victor,
Diana autem singulari in hac insuM religione coleretur, propterea earn
huic denario insertam. At dixi supra non satis unius Victoris testimo-
nio Cretense Nervse genus probatum. Cseteram similis Dianse typus
frequens est in numis Augusti, quem ibi ad Siciliam referendum dixi-
mus." He had just before (p. 403) grounded his rejection of Aurelius
Victor's statement as to Nerva's Cretensic origin, and his preference of
the younger Victor's intimation that he was born at Narni in Umbria,
on Dion Cassius' authoritative declaration that Trajan was the first
foreigner (aXXoeSnj?) that held the Roman emperorship.
But in reality there is nothing whatever contrary in the younger Vic
tor's statement to that of Aurelius Victor ; for the latter may be consi
dered as speaking of his family origin, the former of his birth-place : — a
view this taken by the writer in the Ancient Universal History, cited ad
loc. by me : " Nerva was a native of Narni in Umbria, but his family

PI 16.

Vol. I. -P. 538.

NERVAS ROMAN COIN OF THE HUNTRESS DIANA.

!Erom a coxa in the British 15us euro. .

NO. IV.] ON NERVA'S CRETENSIC ORIGIN. 539
came originally from the island of Crete ; " as well as by the writer,
also cited by me, in the Encyclopsedia Metropolitana. And as to Dion
Cassius, his words are strongly confirmatory of Aurelius Victor's state
ment, not contradictory. For he shows his own meaning about Trajan, by
contra-distinguishing his foreign extraction, not merely from that of the
Itali, or persons of original Italian extraction, but also from that of Itali-
ota, or pe^ons of Greek extraction half Italicized by settlement in Italy.
Precisely of which latter class Nerva was, according to the combined
testimonies of the two Victors ; and Nerva alone of all the Emperors
preceding Trajan. So that were we to set aside Aurelius Victor's state
ment, and suppose Nerva, like all his predecessors in the empire, to
have been of original Italian extraction, Dion Cassius's introduction of
the Italiotcs, as well as of the Itali, in contra-distinction to Trajan's
wholly foreign origin and birth, would be so utterly without point or
object as to be little better than absurd.
Which premised let us consider, on Eckhel' s own accurate princi
ples of investigation and judgment as applied to medals, whether his
or Vaillant's view of the medal now in question be the more probably
correct. Says Vaillant, as the groundwork of his argument, " The huntress
Diana is an unusual device on Roman money." (On Roman money, the
the reader will observe, or money struck at Rome, as this is ; not coins
struck in the Greek provinces under the Emperors ; which is quite ano
ther thing, and of another argument.)' Eckhel denies not Vaillant's
statement of the type, as a Roman type, being unusual. But, says he,
" the same type appears frequently on the coins of Augustus : " as if
this were a sufficient precedent, and sufficient reason, for its appearing
on Nerva's. — But was there then nothing peculiar in Augustus' case,
with reference to this monetary device ; nothing but what might attach
1 For of course certain types might he natural and proper to the coinage of foreign pro
vincial cities, whether hy reference to the productions of the soil, or the religious worship
of the country, that might he strange, except for some special justifying cause, on a Roman
coin. A palm-tree might be natural on a Syrian or African provincial coin ; an elephant
on an Asiatic ; a crocodile on an Egyptian. But if seen on an emperor's Roman coinage,
the question must arise as to what particular cause might have originated it. And his
tory generally explains the particular reason ; as in the elephant coins of Julius Csesar, the
palm-trees of Vespasian and Titus, the crocodiles of Augustus or Hadrian. — Similarly in
regard of types betokening the religious worship. A Diana waB a natural and common
type on an Ephesian or a Cretan coin, considering the Dianic worship predominating
there. But it was not a common Roman type ; except in that form of the bigati,.'m which
form most of the chief gods of Rome were from ancient times stamped on the Roman
coinage, Diana as well the rest.

540 MEDALLIC ILLUSTRATION OP [APP.
to succeeding Emperors, in their simple character of Roman Emperors,
as well as to him 1 Eckhel himself tells us quite the contrary ; and
indeed some of Augustus' own medals that have the Diana on them, tell
it us also quite as clearly. Augustus' high fortune and attainment of
the empire arose chiefly, Eckhel justly observes, out of his two great
naval victories : the one over Antony, at Actium in Epirus ; the other
over Sext. Pompey, off Artemisium in Sicily. Now at Actium there
was a temple of Apollo ; at Artemisium, or Dianium, as it is in Latin,
one of Diana. To these deities then Augustus ascribed his fortune.
And in expression and commemoration of it he struck frequent medals,
of many successive years : some inscribed Act. Imp. with the type of
Apollo of Actium; others with Diana's bust, or Diana as a huntress, and
a reference to Artemisium. There seem to be two chief varieties of the
latter or Dianian class, which are described thus by Eckhel r1 —
1. ( Protome Dianae.
( Imp. Casar. — Templum, intra templum trophseum navale, triquetra.
2. i Aug. Div. F. — Caput nudum.
\ Sicil. Imp. viii. — Diana stolata gradiens d. telum ex pharetra promit, o. arcus.
Now it is to be understood that the triquetra, or three-legged figure,
in the former medal of the two, is the well-known symbol of the trian
gularly-shaped Sicily ; while in the latter the name Sicil. occurs. Thus
the reader sees that the reasons of Augustus' striking medals with the
type of Diana are indicated on the medals themselves, as distinctly those
which affected him individually and alone ; and which consequently
could in no wise have suggested the type to Nerva. The reasonable
inference is, that Nerva must have had some peculiar individual reason
for striking his coins with the Diana, as Augustus had for striking his :
the rather if, as I believe, the Diana Venatrix does not appear on any
Roman money of the ten intervening emperors : save and except, per
haps, on a brass coin of Domitian,3 who celebrated the Ludi Seculares
in her honour. Which brass coin was of the Senate's striking, not the
1 Vol. vi. p. 85, 93.
2 Mionnet alone gives this of Domitian. Medailles Rom. i. 169. Eckhel, Gessner,
Morell, I think, give none. I observe in Patinus, p. 151, a coin of Titus with Diana
and a bow, which some I believe have considered Roman. But it is without any name
of a people. And Patinus suggests that it was probably struck either at Ephesus or in
Crete : as being the two chief Eastern localities most famed for Diana's worship.
Mr. Barker, disputing my above-made statement, mentioned various Imperial Dianic
coins of intervening emperors. But, on examination, they proved every one to be pro
vincial coins ; whether of Ephesus, Colophon, Crete, or Patras ; the latter being the
Laphraan Diana, whose temple there was famous.

NO. IV.] NERVA'S CRETENSIC ORIGIN. 541
Emperor's ; a difference notable in the view of numismatists : * whereas
Nerva's was a silver coin, struck under his more personal direction.
And I am led to regard this inference as yet the more strongly pro
bable, from observing that in the Roman Republican coins too this
precise type of Diana the huntress seems unknown ; 2 and indeed where
other types of Diana occur, Eckhel almost always seeks a particular
reason for the type ; and generally finds it. Thus in coins of the Mmilia
gens, struck by the Questor Buca, we have, " Diana, adstante Victoria,
ad virum dormientem descendit." 3 And we find that this Buca was
Qusestor to Sylla : and that the story was current of a goddess having
appeared in a dream to Sylla, whether Luna (one of Diana's names), or
Minerva, or Bellona ; bidding him strike his enemies, and presenting
him with a thunderbolt. Which same explanation applies also to coins
of the Cornelia Gens, struck by Sylla himself, with three different types
of Diana ; 4 one very similar to that just described.5 — In a coin of the
Caninia Gens, where there appears on one side Diana's bust, with the
quiver and bow, on the other a dog running, Eckhel reasonably sup
poses an allusion in the dog (canis) to the name Caninia : and that the
Diana is added as the dog's natural companion.6 — In a coin of the Plan-
da Gens we have on one side a woman's head, with a pileus ; on the
other a mountain-goat, and by it a bow and quiver. And Eckhel ex
presses himself delighted with Visconti's solution : who, explaining the
woman as Diana, (an explanation obvious from the mountain- goat, bow,
and quiver on the reverse,) refers in illustration to an old marble, on
which there is mention made " Dianse Plancianse," of the Plancian Dia
na : whence, says he, we may infer that there was the private worship
of Diana in the houses of the Plancii.7 — In one coin of the Posthumia
Gens there is the head of Diana, and on the reverse a man in the toga
on a hill sacrificing a bull, the inscription bearing the name of A. Post
humus Albinus : while another coin of the same family has the head of
Diana, and a dog running. And these are explained from Livy's statement
that A. Posthumus Albinus was made Decemvir for celebrating sacred
1 " Confer cum his (sc. the imperatorial gold and silver coinage) monetam aeneam sub
primis imperatoribus signatam, qudm enorme utrinque discrimen, nullis certe aut nonnisi
raris communibus typis." i. lxxiv. On the Senate's superintendance of the brass coinage,
Bee my p. 522 supra. 2 I still go on Eckhel's authority.
3 Eckhel v. 121. 4 Ib. pp. 192, 194.
5 i Caput Veneris, juxta globus.
\ Vir humi decumbens ; adsistentibus Diana, et Victoria palmae ramum tenente.
6 Ib. 16*2. 7 lb. 275.

542 MEDALLIC ILLUSTRATION OP [aPP.
rites ; which probably, says Eckhel, were the Ludi Seculares, in honour
of Apollo and Diana.1 — The same Ludi Seculares furnish the explanation
given by Spanheim, he tells us, of a medal of the Claudia Gens, struck
by P. Clodius, with Diana holding a torch in either hand : while in
another medal, struck also by P. Clodius, we have the Sun radiated on
one side, the Moon among stars on the other ; which Sun and Moon
are but other names and figures of Apollo and Diana.2 Eckhel himself
offers the alternative of a reference to the private family religion of the
Claudian Gens ; another coin of which also presents Diana's head, with
the accompaniment of a quiver and bow. And he further suggests these
alternative explanations of the Ludi Seculares, or a Dianian private
family religion, in explanation of a coin of the Aquillia Gens ; where the
radiated Sun appears on one side of a coin, and Diana on the reverse.3 —
These medals, together with two of a probably Sicilian reference, and
two curious coins of the Mamilian and the Hostilian Gens respectively,
in which the Diana seems to refer to something in the histories of
Ulysses and King Hostilius, the reputed ancestors of the two families,4
make up the whole, I believe, of the Republican coins on which Diana
is stamped ; save and except three or four on which she appears in the
biga ;5 that common ancient type, in connexion with Rome's various gods
and goddesses, whence the old coins were often called bigati.6 Thus, in
almost all, we see, some particular explanation of a Dianian type is sug
gested and illustrated by Eckhel.
What then, on the whole, the probable and fair conclusion respecting
the device of Diana the huntress on Nerva's coin, but that Nerva had some
particular individual reason, as I before said, for choosing it? And what a
more natural or satisfactory reason than that suggested by Tristanus and
Vaillant from Nerva's Cretensic original, and consequent Dianian family
religion : seeing that Diana was a goddess worshipped with special de
votion in most of the cities of that island, as their several coins still
abundantly testify;7 while on certain coins of the Koivov 'K.pijTuv, or Cretan
'lb. 288. 2 Ib. 172. 'Ib. 141. 4 Ib. 226, 242.
6 Viz. in the coins of the Axian, Flavian, and Furian Gentes ; noted by Eckhel, pp.
148, 213, 222.
0 Noted by Tacitus, De Mor. Germ. 5 ; " Pecuniam probant veterem, et diu notani,
serratos bigatosque." Also by Pliny and Livy. See Eckhel, v. 1 9, 1 11 .
7 Ovid in his Fasti, iii. 90, thus notices together Mars as the chief Roman tutelary
God, Diana as the chief Cretan : —
Et tamen ante omnes Mortem coluere priores,
Hoc dederat studiis bellica turba suis.
Pallada Cecropidae, Minoia Creta Dianam ; . . .
Mars Latio venerandus erat.

NO. IV.] NERVA'S CRETENSIC ORIGIN. 543
community under the Emperors, as will have been already seen,
there is just a similar type to that on Nerva's ; viz. of Diana as the
huntress, with her quiver and her bow ? 1 For as to the idea of Nerva's
having chosen the type from any special connection with Sicily, Ephe
sus, or any other place, Crete alone excepted, where Diana's worship
peculiarly prevailed, it seems out of the question. Nor, we know, did
it fall to his lot, as to Domitian's, to celebrate the rare and slowly re
turning Ludi Seculares. — A conclusion this which seems not a little
corroborated by the frequent recurrence of the same Dianic type after
Nerva under the reign of his sons by adoption, Trajan, Hadrian, and
the two Antonines.2
1 See my engraving. — Let me add that Vaillant gives another coin of Nerva, which
he thinks to have a Cretan bearing.
J AvroKp. Nepovs.
\EAevS. Atjuov. Mulier stolata (sc. Libertas.)
It is doubtful who were the people thus enfranchized by Nerva : but Vaillant thinks some
people of Crete.
2 Trajan's seems to have been struck at the beginning of his reign. Eckhel vi. 443.

APPENDIX.

No. V.
ON THE CONTINUED PRESSURE OF THE AGGRAVATED
TAXATION ON THE PROVINCIALS OF THE ROMAN
EMPIRE UNDER ALEXANDER SEVERUS,
AND AFTER HIM.
(See Page 163.) l
It is Gibbon's statement,2 as from Lampridius, and has been urged
against me by Dr. Keith, that Alexander Severus reduced the tributes
(that is the more proper provincial tributes) to a thirtieth part of the
sum exacted at the time of his accession. Referring to the original in
Lampridius,3 we find it to the effect, as will be seen, that Alexander
reduced the public vectigalia so far, that he who paid ten aurei under
Elagabalus now paid only one third of an aureus : also that, in order
to facilitate the payments on this reduced rate into the exchequer, he
first coined half aurei ; then, as the vectigal was further reduced, coins
equivalent to a third of an aureus.4 On this passage Salmasius ex
presses his conviction that in the word vectigalia the provincial tributa
were meant : and on this opinion of Salmasius Gibbon's statement is
wholly founded. In my judgment however it is quite an erroneous one.
I proceed to state my reasons.
1 This Paper is taken from the Vindicise Horaria?. s Gibbon i. 268.
3 " Vectigalia publica in id contraxit, ut qui decern aureos sub Heliogabalo praestite-
rant tertiam partem' aurei prsestarent, hoc est tricesimam partem. Tuncque primum se-
misses aureorum formati sunt ; tunc etiam, cum ad tertiam aurei partem vectigal decidisset,
tremisses." ch. 39.— The value of the aureus was not very different from that of a gold
Napoleon: a pound of gold (the equivalent to £40 sterling, says Gibbon, iii 89) being
coined under Alex. Severus into 48 aurei. So Salmasius. In this gold coinage the
purity was always kept up ; even during the times of adulteration of the silver, in this third
century. 4 So Dupuis in the Memoires des B. L. vol. xxviii. p. 683. This, as Eckhel observes,
is the evident meaning of Lampridius. Salmasius, overlooking it, would change the
scmisses into tremisses.

NO. V.] PRESSURE OF TAXATION UNDER ALEX. SEVERUS. 545
For, in the 1st place, let it be observed, this is not the proper mean
ing of vectigalia. So Salmasius himself fully allows. Tributa, says
he, is the more proper expression for the land-tax and capitation-tax
paid by the provincials ; (the former paid in money or kind ;) vectigalia
for the custom-duties paid on imports or exports. The distinction indeed,
as he adds, was not always observed. But why the word should be
here taken in its less proper and more unusual sense, and one different
too from that which Lampridius himself clearly elsewhere attaches to it, '
neither Salmasius nor Gibbon explain to us.2 2. The reduction of tax,
if so understood as by Salmasius and Gibbon, would have been to an
extent that seems to me utterly incredible. For let my readers only
consider the vast amount of the provincial tribute, as elsewhere esti
mated by Gibbon. He tells us that it could seldom be less than from
fifteen to twenty millions sterling.3 Now is it conceivable that Alexan
der Severus should at one fell swoop have all but sacrificed this fifteen
or twenty millions of revenue ; preserving nothing more of it than the
trifling remnant of some £600,000 or £700,000 : it being remembered
that the grand expence of the army remained the same under him as
under Caracalla himself ; (for Macrinus' intended plan of reduction had
proved abortive ;)4 and consequently that the chief subjects for reduction
of state-expenditure must have been those only of what we might call
the civil list 1 5 3. As regards the supposed particular application of
the immense reduction spoken of to the land-tax, it is to be further
borne in mind that Alexander Severus' abundant supplies of provisions
for the troops, and also for the citizens, is a matter quite prominent in
Lampridius' history ; while the palace too retained its share. We find
express mention made of his public granaries, established and well-stored
in all the various parts of the empire.6 " Am not I he," was his lan-
1 Ch. 24, K Vectigal pulcherrimum instituit ; " viz. one on breeches-makers .... glass,
skins, waggons, &c. So too c. 64, and elsewhere.
2 Indeed Salmasius in fine admits of the word being here taken, if persons so prefer, in
its other and more proper sense ; " Sive de tributis hunc locum accipiamus, sive de vec-
tigalibus." 3 i. 260.
4 I do not forget the fact of the provincials having now the Roman citizens' taxes to
pay. But so it was under Elagabalus, with the proper provincial taxes besides. There
fore I think it insufficient to justify Salmasius' theory, on this head of objection.
5 e. g. Lampridius tells us that A. Severus bound himself hy oath to have no one ad-
scriptum of the vacantes, " ne annonis Remp. gravaret : dicens malum pupillum esse
Imperatorem qui ex visceribus provinciarum homines non necessarios, nee Reip. utiles,
pasceret." ch. 15. So again, c. 41, that he had as many only in office in the palace " quot
necessitas postularet."
0 C. 39; " Horrea in omnibus regionibus publica fecit." To which horrea, it is added,
those who had no safe custodia of their own might bring their goods.
VOL. I. 2 N

546 PRESSURE OP TAXATION UNDER ALEX. SEVERUS. [.APP.
guage to the mutinying troops at Antioch, " who bestow on you the
corn, the clothing, and the money of the provinces ? " 1 Now then,
does it seem consistent with such conduct that this should have been
the particular branch of revenue all but sacrificed by him ? — 4. Not a
word of this extraordinary and immense reduction of the provincial tax
ation is mentioned either by Dion Cassius or Herodian : though in the
former's brief concluding notice of Alexander Severus' reign,3 there
might seem to have been the exact occasion for stating it ; I mean when
he tells of that emperor's minister Ulpian rectifying many of the evil
measures of Elagabalus's administration.3 Instead of this he proceeds
next to speak of Mammsea's avarice, and collecting money from all quar
ters. — 5. If Lampridius' statement were true, in the sense attached to
it by Salmasius and Gibbon, there must then have been coined, and
scattered over all the provinces, a vast profusion of the half and third
aurei pieces, connected with the fiscal reduction ; seeing that this fiscal
reduction, and new coinage, (if the passage be so understood) must
have applied to all the provincials of the empire. Yet not a vestige of
the said coinage is to be found.4 — 6. There is the inconsistency arising
out of the two combined facts which all the historians unite in stating ;
first of Mammsea, Alexander Severus' mother's ascendancy over him,
insomuch that his reign was almost like her regency ; 5 secondly of her
covetousness :6 a covetousness which is noted as one of the chief draw-
1 Gibbon i. 252. So Lampridius c. 53 ; " eum qui acceptam a provincialibus annonam,
qui vestem, qui stipendia vobis attribuit." In c. 15 it is mentioned how, generally
speaking, " annonam militum diligenter inspexit : " in c. 45, 47 how depots were pro
vided on their marching expeditions. Of the citizens at Rome we read c. 21 ; " Com-
meatum Populi Romani sic adjuvit, ut cum frumenta Heliogabalus evertisset, vicem de
propria pecunia loco suo reponeret : " again 22 ; " oleum, quod Severus populo dederat,
quodque Heliogabalus imminuerat, turpissimis hominibus prsefecturam annonae tribuendo
integrum restituit." (So 24 about oil for the baths ; particularly the baths of Caracalla,
which were finished by him. ) Again 26 ; " Congiarium populo ter dedit, donativmn
militibus ter; carnem populo addidit."
2 Though Dion Cassius' history breaks off at this point, yet he seems to have survived,
as Niebuhr states, to the reign of Maximus and Balbinus.
3 lxxx. 2. The inferior authority of the biographies of the Augustan History to that
of Dion or Herodian is well known. 4 So Eckhel, vii. 279.
6 1. Dion. lxxx. 1 ; jj (i. e. Mammaea) tijv tuv irpayparuv otKovofitav pieTaKexetpioro-
and ib. 2 ; 6 Se avretireiv rrj ftijTpt ovk rjovvaro, Karapxcvorta vrou. 2. Herod, vi. 1 ; ij
tijs apxns oiKovop.ia biro rats yvvai^i ottpKeiTo- i. e. under Mammaea and Maesa, till
Massa's death : then, ibid. ijpXe yap avrov birepfiaAAovTies ij prjryp. 3. Lamprid. c. 60 ;
" Egit omnia ex consilio matris." So too c. 14.
6 Dion. lxxx. 2 ; Httwi' ouo"o xPVP^toiv ij AAe£avopov p.ijrnp expijaart^eTo vavra-
XoSev. Herod, vi. 1 ; Htioto Se Kat tijv p.ijTepa....bpa>v avnjv avoav (piAoxprjuaTov,
Kat irepi tovto bireprpvws eoirovbaKvtav . ... Kai Sie^oAAeK eoff birij tooto tijv apxv'

NO. V.] PRESSURE OP TAXATION UNDER ALEX. SEVERUS. 547
backs to the good of Alexander Severus' reign ; and to which probably
we are to ascribe the new taxes which Lampridius himself tells us of as
a thing objected to him.1 The inconsistency is noted by Niebuhr.2
After mentioning Alexander's weakness in this subjection to his mother,
insomuch that " his government was in reality the regency of Mammsea,"
he goes on thus to express his opinion on the subject that we have been
discussing: — "On the one hand we read of a great reduction of the
taxes ; while on the other hand, we hear of great complaints of his
mother's avarice ; which are contradictory things." s
On all these grounds, grounds which I trust will be acknowledged to
be abundantly strong and convincing, I conclude that Salmasius' expla
nation of the vectigalia that were reduced almost to extinction by Alex.
Severus, as if meant in the improper sense of the word, with reference
to provincial-tributes, is incorrect ; and that the statement has reference
rather to certain of the vectigalia, or custom- duties, taking the word in
its more proper and natural sense, that had been instituted by Augustus.4
In which case Rome itself might be the limited locality to which the
reduction would apply ; and a comparatively small issue of the new
coinage all that would be needed for the intended reduced taxation : a
fact (if such it was) accounting for the semisses not now existing. — Thus,
as regards the provinces, the amount of taxation would remain much as
before : except in so far as Alex. Severus' endeavours to select proper
governors might be successful ; and his appeals for equitable dealing in
the provincial administration duly responded to. But I conceive, in
agreement with Gibbon's other and juster notice of the state of things
under this reign, (and here Dr. Keith himself concurs with me,) that
his success was but partial, as well as transient ; " his administration
being," as we both state after that historian, " an unavailing struggle
against the corruption of his age." 5 So that if the Apocalyptic horse
was, as I have supposed, the symbol of the Roman people or empire,
the darker aspect which it had assumed 6 on account of this aggravation
avrov aKOvros Te Kat aoxaAAovros, ovotas Tivotv, Kai KAijpovop.tas, e£ eirijpetas bipapira-
aaaTjs eKeivrjs. Similarly Lampridius 14, 59.
1 Lampridius c. 64, says that among the faults charged on Alex. Severus, one was
" quod aurum amabat, (a fault previously ascribed to Mammaea distinctively,) et quod
vectigalia multa inveniebat. " 2 ii. 307.
3 His references are merely to Lamprid. c. 39, 14.
4 The duty imposed by Augustus varied in amount from £th to ^th of the value of
the goods imported. Gib. i. 261. 6 Keith, i. 233 ; Horas i. 163 ; Gib. i. 251.
5 " And darker, as it downward bears,
Is stained with past and present tears."— W. Scott. 2 N 2

548 PRESSURE OF TAXATION AFTER ALEX. SEVERUS. [APP.
of former evils, under Caracalla's fiscal and administrative oppression,
can by no means be considered to have wholly passed away even under
Alex. Severus.
And what when we pass onward to the next following reigns of
Maximin and his successors, from a. d. 235 downwards ? — That under
Maximin the administration of the provincial governors, was in respect
of fiscal exactions and extortions, as well as otherwise, most oppressive,
we have the strong concurrent testimony not merely of the historians
Herodian and Capitolinus, but yet more decisively of the contemporary
consular writer of the letter to Maximus and Balbinus. Says Capitoli
nus of Maximin' s general administration, "He encouraged false accu
sers ; condemned all brought into court on the accusation ; and made of
the richest men paupers." l And Herodian tells how, beginning with
the impoverishment of the rich, he proceeded to that of the less wealthy,
and of the populace in general : 2 the provincial governors (as for ex
ample the one over the Carthaginian province)3 being his ready instru
ments of oppression. In similar terms the consular writer of the grat-
ulatory epistle to Maximus and Balbinus, on Maximin's death,4, thus
alluded to the laceration of the provincials by the avarice of their go
vernors ; " gratulatus provinciis quas, inexplebili avaritid tyrannorum la-
ceratas, ad spem salutis reduxistis." The oppression, in truth, would
seem to have been as great and general under Maximin after Alexander
Severus, as under Elagabalus before him.5 — To change which for the
better the succeeding emperors, Maximus and Balbinus, whatever their
inclination, can have done but little during their few months' precarious
tenure of the empire ; they being slain in the self-same year, 238, of their
accession. And the younger Gordian too, who followed, is said during
the earlier years of his reign to have trod in the steps of the evil admi
nistrators that preceded him, not of the good ; his administration being
consigned to the eunuchs of the palace, who sold the honours and offices
of the empire, as Gibbon tells us, 6 to the most worthless of mankind.
1 Vit. Maximin c. 13.
2 Herod, vii. 3 ; ti yap ijv otpeAos. . . . Aetas airayetv tuv exOpuv, yopvovvra Kat tos
ovaias atpatpovp-evov tiov oiKetuv ;. . . . ^KaoTijs yovv ijpepas ijv tSeiv tovs exoes irAovo-i-
unarovs tijs eirtovaijs peranoovTas. . . .Tooavrij Tts nv tijs TvpavvtSos ij ipiAoxpnuaTia,
eiri irpofpaaei tijs irepi tovs OTpariuTas xpnparatv ovvexovs xopvyias. k. t. A.
3 Ib. 4. 4 Capitol. Max. et Balb. c. 17.
5 Gibbon in fact, in his Index of Contents to Vol. i, speaks of the relief under Alex
ander Severus as only a passing one ; indeed as limited, if I rightly understand him>
simply to A. Severus' own reign : — " Temporary reduction of the Tribute."
6 Gibb. i. 306, 307.

NO. V.] PRESSURE OF TAXATION AFTER ALEX. SEVERUS. 549
Two years, and but two years, succeeded of a better administration
under the care of his father-in-law Misitheus. And then came Gordian's
death, and Philip's succession and murder : and therewith the commence
ment of that fearful period of war both foreign and civil, and of famine too,
and pestilence, which I assign to the 4th Seal ; and in which historians
describe the effects of the evil that I speak of, so long previously in ope
ration, as only the more made manifest. — In the concluding paragraph of
his Chapter on this sera, Gibbon thus notes the changed aspect of the
empire under Philip from what it had been under Augustus or Hadrian ;
and with reference to the long previous continuance of that self-same
evil, as its causal agency, which I suppose to be the evil specially figured
in the 3rd Seal. "To the undiscerning eye of the vulgar, Philip ap
peared a monarch no less powerful than Hadrian or Augustus had for
merly been. The form was still the same ; but the animating health and
vigour were fled. The industry of the people was discouraged, and ex
hausted, by a long series of oppression." ' And again, somewhat later,
in his sketch of the twenty years of confusion and calamity that followed
after the death of Philip ; that " the general famine [which then befel
the empire] was the inevitable consequence of the rapine and oppression,
which extirpated the produce of the present, and the hope of future har
vests : " a passage cited by me in my Horse, under the fourth Apoca
lyptic Seal, in illustration of my view of the 3rd Seal. — Nor did the
evil stop there ; but still continued onward under Gallienus, and even
under the then afterwards commencing restorers of the Roman empire,
Claudius,2 Aurelian, Probus ;3 (Gibbon, not without due historical autho
rity for it, so painting the thing :) until in fine with the sera of Diocle
tian, a. d. 284, and the re-establishment of the empire under him, there
was developed more fully and systematically, in the oppressive fiscal
system established by him, that same particular branch of oppressive
provincial contributions in kind, which, as Gibbon observes in his earlier
sketch of the oppressive Roman fiscal system begun under Caracalla,
did then, and thenceforward, " darken the Roman world with its deadly
shade." 1 This expresses precisely my idea of the intent of the 3rd Seal's symbol.
2 Claudius, addressing his soldiers, represents the people aB " ruined by oppression,
and indolent from despair ; " and unable consequently " any longer to supply a numerous
army with the means of luxury, or even of subsistence." Gibbon ii. 8. The historian says
at the same place, that " the frequent rebellions of provinces had involved almost every
person in the guilt of treason, almost every estate in tlie case of confiscation."
3 See on these two last-mentioned reigns my p. 186 supra.

APPENDIX.
No. VI.
(See Page 236.)
ON THE CONSTANTINO-THEODOSIAN REVOLUTION, AND
OVERTHROW OF PAGANISM, AS THE SUBJECT OF
THE PRIMARY VISION OF THE 6TH SEAL.
There is nothing novel in the general view that I have taken of the
6th Seal's primary vision, as symbolic of that mighty revolution whereby
Paganism was overthrown and ruined in the Roman empire : — a revolu
tion begun by Constantine, and completed 80 years after by Theodosius.
It is one however which, perhaps more than any other of the particular
interpretations in the Horse, has incurred the censure and opposition of
more than one class of critics and expositors ; alike of those of the Fu
turist School, and of some too of the Protestant Historic School. It
may seem desirable therefore, more especially as the question is one of
great importance, to add yet a few further remarks upon it, its evidence,
and the objections and counter-schemes opposed to it ,* albeit that my proof
has been drawn out in the Chapter on the Seal pretty fully, and as I
think satisfactorily : and to show that, while that proof and that solution,
fairly considered, cannot be set aside, alike that which the Futurists offer
in its place, and that which the Section of Historic expositors referred
to offer, crumble into ruin when tried by a critical examination.
As regards my own Constantino-Theodosian revolution theory I said
that it was that which fairly considered would stand the test of criticism,
because on no point has there been more of misrepresentation. By one
and another and another objector the theory has been represented as if
it made the 6th. Seal symbolize wholly or chiefly Constantine's victories,
and the establishment of Christianity thereupon in the Roman empire.1
But events the most opposite in character may be connected and conco-
1 So, first, Dr. S. R. Maitland, on Antichrist pp. 21, 22; " According to all the
writers whom I have mentioned [Brightman, More, Bishop Newton, Faber, &c,] the
language of this tremendous prediction appeared to predict the setting up of Christianity

NO. VI.] ON THE CONSTANTINO-THEODOSIAN REVOLUTION. 551
mitant ; and pictures very different be required to depict the one and
the other. It would be but poor and reckless criticism to object to
some dark and sad picture of Napoleon on his fall, after the battle of
Waterloo, that the picture was absurd on account of the joyousness of
the event to England and the European continent generally. There
fore the first charge that I would here inculcate on my readers is, never
to be misled by any misrepresentations, however reckless and pertina
cious, so as to forget that it is the overthrow of Heathenism from its high
place of dominancy in the Empire that we make the subject of the 6th
Seal : a revolution begun with Constantine's series of victories, but com
pleted by Theodosius ; and of which the magnitude was such, that there
has never yet occurred any politico-religious revolution so mighty and
momentous, in the whole history of Christendom.1 — When the theory has
thus been fairly stated, then the next thing must be to require of the
objector to disprove the parallelism of all those several Scripture pas
sages that I have cited from the Old Testament prophets, couched under
similar imagery to that of the 6th Seal ; and on the fact of the reference
of which to political or politico-religious revolutions our view of the 6th
Seal's meaning was mainly grounded. And let it be remembered that,
if the objector wish to explain the strength of the symbols in any of
those ancient prophecies by supposing that the lesser overthrow of wicked
states, there primarily depicted, was figured in symbols of grandiloquence
almost beyond the occasion, because of that lesser revolution being in a
manner typical of the great and final revolution of the consummation,
wherein all the powers of evil are to be cast down and broken before
the power of Christ, the same may be said of the awful and grandiloquent
imagery of this 6th Seal, though meant primarily as explained by me.
Indeed that first great Apocalyptically figured revolution might perhaps
the rather have been depicted in such language and imagery, in order to
admit of the thoughts of Christians, under the persecutions of the 2nd
on the ruins of Paganism, under Constantine." And a Reviewer in No. viii of the Quar
terly Journal of Prophecy thus writes, p. 376. " It is the necessary consequence of this
arrangement [viz. of the 7 Trumpets being included in the 7th Seal] that the 6th Seal
must be explained of the time of Constantine. We have always thought this interpretation
a blot upon most of our modern Apocalyptic schemes." And then he says that a Work
called, " The time of the end not yet," supplied " a tempting illustration of the shifts to
which it is necessary to resort in its support : " viz. by speaking in detail of one of
Constantine's victories over Licinius. So again Mr. C. Maitland, p. 62, speaks of " the
peaceful reign of Constantine being taken for the great day of the wrath of the Lamb."
Dr. S. R. M. had no reference to my own Work in his remarks, for it was not then
published. The other two writers were acquainted with it.
1 There must be remembered too Eunapius' and Gibbon's very similar imagery in de
scribing this revolution, as given in my p. 236 supra.

552 ON THE CONSTANTINO-THEODOSIAN REVOLUTION [>PP.,
and 3rd centuries,' being thereby the more led to hope for the great final
overthrow of their enemies as an event not very far off; because, as it
might seem, not unsuitable to the symbols of the first and earliest Apo
calyptic figuration of any great catastrophe.1
Then as to any counter-view of the Seal to be substituted, the question
of Apocalyptic structure is of course one which must 1 st, and prelimina
rily, be urged for consideration. The Reviewer in the Quarterly Pro
phetic Journal, whom I cited just now in a Note preceding, observes,
with reference to this point, that the structural theory of the Apocalypse
which supposes the Trumpets to be included in, and the evolution of, the
7th Seal, necessarily involves the Constantinian (he should have said
the Constantino-Theodosian) explanation of the 6th Seal. This is not
quite correct ; for even some Futurists, as Mr. Burgh, admit this view of
structure. But certainly, on the historic principle of interpretation, which
I presume the Reviewer himself adopts, such a structure of the Apoca
lypse does offer an eminently strong confirmation of my explanation of
the Seal, as figuring the Constantino-Theodosian revolution. For what
mighty revolution was there but it, subsequent to John's exile in Patmos
under Domitian, to which all the Trumpet-figured events might be
viewed as posterior 1 Whence the necessity of every inquirer, and every
objector, looking well to the evidence on this point. I have already
elsewhere2 noticed the a priori probability in favor of the structure spoken
of from its simplicity : — out of the three consecutive sevens of Seals,
Trumpets, and Vials, the 7th Seal seeming so naturally to be evolved in
the seven Trumpets, the 7th Trumpet in the seven Vials ; just, it has
been said, as the 7th compassing day of Jericho had seven compassings
on that day to evolve it. To which let me now add, in further evidence of
this being indeed the relation to each other of the 7th Seal and the seven
Trumpets, that such a relation is all but defined to exist between the
7th Trumpet and seven Vials. For, as the 7th Trumpet was declared to
be the Trumpet of the last woe, and its epoch marked by very peculiar
phsenomena in the scenic temple in heaven attending it, so the seven
Vials were declared also to be the last plagues of God's wrath ; and the
epoch of their introduction marked by scenic phsenomena in the temple
in heaven so similar, as to seem almost like a repetition of the former.3
Whence the all but necessary inference of the seven Vial-plagues being
1 Let me refer to some valuable remarks by Mr. Irving bearing on this point, near the
end of the Preface to his Translation of Ben Ezra, pp. xxxiv, xxxv. 2 See p. 99 supra.
3 Compare, on the one hand, Apoc. x. 7, xi. 14, 18, 19; on the other xv. 1, 5.

NO. VI.] AS THE SUBJECT OF THE SIXTH SEAL. 553
the evolution of the 7th Trumpet's woe. But, if so, then (going back)
it surely further follows that the seven Trumpets must be also the evolu
tion of the 7th Seal. For a Scheme which made the seven Vials to be the
development of the 7th Trumpet, and yet the seven Trumpets not to be
the development of the 7th Seal, would have no concinnity ; and, like a
bird with but one wing, fall to the ground. — If however the objector re
ject this strong presumptive evidence, and set aside this Scheme of struc
ture, he must then needs have the series of the seven Apocalyptic Seals
to end, not with the next following (i. e. the sealing and palm-bearing)
figurations of the 6th Seal, but with the 7th Seal ; and of that Seal must
make what he can. And what will this be ? Will the 7th Seal's subject
(and so the grand ending of his first Apocalyptic series of visions) be the
half-hour's silence in heaven ; or will it be nothing ? The objector must
make his election. Let my readers never fail to remember and to press
this. I shall have to notice the last point again in my particular review of
certain such structurists of the historical school in the next Section :
and I think that exemplification and illustration will make the argument,
hence resulting, very clear and convincing. — So as to the point of struc
ture. — And then, 21y, as regards all objectors and their counter-schemes,
the question of the construction of the imagery of the 6th Seal's primary
vision will come up : and there must be enforced on them the necessity
of plainly stating how they expound the elemental convulsions of the 6th
Seal's primary vision ; whether literally of the physical convulsions of
nature, or figuratively of political or politico-religious revolution. If in
the latter sense, then their exposition is pro tanto in favor of that which
I advocate. If in the former sense, then we must ask them to explain
how, after the stars had actually struck our earth,1 the earth could still
continue in its orbit ; and with inhabitants good and bad remaining on it,
so as the second vision of the self-same 6th Seal, i. e. the sealing-vision,
represents to us. If I mistake not, they will be found to shrink somewhat
sensitively from this question : and, when prest with it, to evince the
wish either of ejecting that sealing vision itself from the seven-sealed
Book ;2 or of ejecting the subject figured therein from the place assigned
it by St. John, after the preceding primary vision of the 6th Seal, and as
in chronological sequence to it.3 But wherefore ? From any Scriptural
1 Olshausen says that such a particular in a vision as stars falling to the earth tells of
itself that it must be taken symbolically.
2 So Dr. Todd, as noticed in my Vol. iv. p. 569.
8 So Mr. Barker, as noticed in my Vol. iv. pp. 598, 599.

554 ON THE CONSTANTINO-THEODOSIAN REVOLUTION. [APP.
internal evidence suggesting such notions ? Not at all. There exists no
internal evidence of the kind whatsoever. The one and only reason for the
thing is that their own literal theory of the primary vision of the 6th
Seal imperatively requires it. Now I trust my readers will think with me
that the sound way of reasoning in such a case is the very reverse ; and
that the theory which involves such downright violence to all internal
evidence must be itself a false one.
The observations just made apply to all objectors to my suggested
view of the structural place, and historical intent, of the 6th Seal. In
regard of the two different classes of objectors, viz that of the Futurists
and that of certain Historical Expositors, the argument may be urged yet
further by showing in detail the failure of each and either counter-
view of the Seals, propounded by the one or by the other. And this I
propose to do, as regards objectors of the Historical school, fully and at
length in my next Section.
As regards the Futurists, since their view is antagonistic to my own,
not in respect of the Seals only, but of the whole Book of the Apocalypse,
I think it better to reserve my criticism on them till the end of this
Commentary. The reader will find it in the Appendix to my 4th Volume.
But let me here just so far forestal as to say that the Futurist theory of
the Seals, though specious perhaps at first sight from its simplicity, breaks
down utterly on examination. The Seals exhibit, they say, the signs
mentioned in Matt, xxiv as signs precursive of Christ's coming ; — the
preaching of Christ's gospel over the world, wars, famines, pestilences,
persecutions, and a revolution in which the sun and moon are to be
darkened, &c. But in the 1st Seal little indeed is there of evidence for
Christ's being the rider of the white horse -1 so little that even Mr. Kelly,
the most zealous of all zealous Futurists, makes him Antichrist. In the
2nd Seal civil wars, to which its prophecy is restricted, ill suit with that
of nation rising against nation. Above all, passing on to the 3rd Seal's
symbols, with its 51b of barley at a denarius, and its plenty of wine and
oil, to convert this into a symbolization of famine is nothing less than an
immense absurdity.2 With the failure of which the centre of our ex
positors' counter-line is broken, and so the whole Futurist idea of paral
lelism between the two prophecies overthrown : — overthrown, I trust,
utterly and for ever.
1 I must beg my readers to familiarize themselves with the argument on this point, as
drawn out on my pp. 116 Note 2 supra. 2 See my p. 156—158 supra.

APPENDIX.
No. VII.
EXAMINATION OF THE CHURCH SCHEME OF THE SEALS.
The Church-scheme of the Seals was made chiefly notable after the
Reformation by Pareus' and Vitringa' s adoption of it : 1 and it has been
subsequently adopted, with various modifications, by Woodhouse, Cun-
inghame, Bickersteth, and other English expositors.2
With regard to Vitringa I must premise that perceiving the palpable
fitness, for the most part, of the symbols of the first Seal to depict the
state of the Roman Empire, from Nerva's accession, immediately after
the Apocalyptic revelations, to that of Commodus,3 he would appa
rently at first fain have seen his way to some consistent continuous
scheme of Roman interpretation, could he have done so. But having
only Mede's scheme before him, which was indefensible, and perceiving
1 So far as regards its explanation of the first Seal with reference to the Church, it was
a scheme, as we have seen, of early patristic origin. But after the first Seal, the idea of
explaining the Apocalyptic horse to mean the Church was not received, I believe, or the
Seals interpreted with reference to it, till Anselm of Havilburg in 1245. See p. 375 supra.
2 Dr. Keith can scarcely be counted in the number ; his peculiarities of view being too
considerable. For while supposing the white horse to figure the Christian Church, he ex
plains the red of Mahommedism ; the black of Popery ; the pale of Infidelity. I have
sufficiently shown its untenableness in my Vindicia Horaria. As it has not, I believe,
been much adopted by other expositors, there seems no need of my further noticing it here.
3 " Sub bonis et laudatis principibus, a Nervil usque ad Commodum, facies Romani
Imperii satis fuit aequabilis; et emblemate, non rufi [as Mede], sed albiequi, cum ses-
sore victorioso, figurari potuisset." p. 310. — And, on the general scheme ; " Neque ego
jnficias earn, banc interpretandi rationem [viz. of applying the six first Seals as a prefigu
ration of the fortunes of the Roman Empire, up to the Revolution under Constantine]
magna se commendare specie." p. 306. He gives two additional reasons which much
influenced him in its favour : — 1. that, except on this scheme, the immensely important
revolution under Constantine seemed left unprefigured in the seven Seals : — 2. that if,
instead of the Constantinian revolution, the sixth Seal was made to figure the revolution
at the consummation of things, (the only conceivable alternative,) then the seventh Seal
would seern to have nothing of prefiguration attached to it. — He proposes to obviate the
latter objection by making the silence at the opening of the seventh Seal (its whole sub
ject, according to him) signify the millennial rest : the former by reference to the vision
in the xiith Chapter (i. e. in another series of the Apocalyptic figurations) as supplying
the defect, and prefiguring the Constantinian revolution. Thus he satisfied himself.
But his followers, for the most part, are not satisfied with it ; and offer consequently mo
difications of the scheme, some of which will be seen in what follows of this Appendix.

556

REVIEW OF CHURCH-SCHEME OF THE SEALS.

[APP.

no better, he settled on that counter-scheme which I have to review : —
the grand characteristic of which is to regard Seals as a series of figura
tions detached and complete in themselves, symbolizing the phases and
fortunes of the Church, from its early origin to the consummation.
As Vitringa' s scheme, though in this main point like the others, has
yet differences sufficiently marked to render a distinct view of it desir
able, a separate diagram of it is subjoined.1
And there are three things to be particularly noted in his scheme,
when considered in comparison with the others: — 1st, that he insists,
again and again, on the point that it is the external state of the Church,
whether of the Church visible in the Roman world, or of the true Church,
(for he makes the four first Seals figure the Church visible, the fifth the
true Church,) that is the subject of the symbolization ;2 — 2. that he most
strongly repudiates the idea of interpreting the horse and his rider, in
each of the four first Seals, separately, and of making the horse, by itself,
the representative of the Church visible : his judgment being that the
rider and the horse should be taken (centaur-like) together, as a composite
symbol, to represent the phases of the Church : 3 and that whosoever
1 Vitringa's Scheme.

First Seal.

Second Seal.

Third Seal.

Fourth Seal.

Fifth Seal.

Sixth Seal.

White Horse.

Red Horse.

Black Horse.

Pale Horse.

Souls under
the Altar.

Revolution.

The 150 years

Persecutions

Mournful dissen

Desolations

Persecutions

Final judg

of compara

of the Church

sions of the Ch., ' of the Church

and martyr

ment on

tive peace to

from Decius

from 4th to 9th

Visible, and

doms of

Christ's ene

the Church,

to Diocletian,

century : — also

specially of

Christ's true

mies, preser

from Nerva

inclusive.

corruptions of es

Greek

Church, Lb. of

vation of the

to Decius.

sential evangelic

Christendom,

"Waldenses,

elect, & last

doctrines, the

by the

Bohemians,

great tribu

bread of life, as by
Saracens and
and early
lation.
A.D.96— 250.
250—310.
the Arians ; and
of the doctrines of
Turks.
Reformers :
continued
Seventh
grace, the Chris
from
Seal.
tians' tome & oil,
A.D. 1200 for

as by Pelagians ;
5 centuries ;
Silence in
¦ — the Church Ru
nor yet
heaven : the
lers and Councils
ended, i. e.
millennial
holding the ba
in 1700 A.D.
rest of the
lance, and dis
Church.
pensing the true
bread and wine.
2 " Sigillis hisce aeteriorem ecclesia? statum depingi jam seepius monuimus." p. 364. —
He expressly makes the true Church the subject of" the 5th Seal : saying that from the
calamitous state of the Eastern Churches in the fourth Seal, St. John " transit ad statum
externum vera ecclesice in occidentali Christiani orbis plaga." Ibid.
3 " Perspexi . . equum non designare subjectum rationale, h. sessore equi distinctum ; sed
certa solummodo demonBtrare scssoris attributa et proprietates." As, for example, if the
rider were to represent a minister of the Divine Providence, the horse would represent the
quickness of his executing the divine commands; its colour the character of the providen
tial dispensations committed to him. p. 328.
NO. VII.] REVIEW OF CHURCH-SCHEME OF THE SEALS. 557
attempted more, and explained the horse, as above-intimated, by itself,
would, though he might do well enough in the first Seal, find himself
inextricably embarrassed in those that followed -1 — 3. that he includes
in his first prophetic series the seventh Seal, as itself figurative of the
Millennium ; whereas most Commentators of this Church-scheme of the
Seals end their first series with the sixth Seal, and make the seventh to
include the seven Trumpets, and so to constitute their second series. — I
must say that his declaration as to the impracticability of explaining the
horse separately, amounts very nearly, as it seems to me, to a confes
sion that he was unable, on the principle of applying the Seals to Church
history, to make out a fully satisfactory interpretation of them, or at
least of the four first Seals. And enough will be stated of what is
applicable to Vitringa's scheme, in the examination now to be entered
on of that of the best known living commentators who have adopted
an interpretation mainly similar, to confirm this view of its unsatis-
factoriness. I proceed to consider more particularly the schemes of Messrs. Cun-
inghame and Bickersteth :2 — schemes substantially the same with each
1 " Videbam interpretes, qui per equum album hie intelligunt Ecclesiam Christi, sive
apostolos super quibus dici potest vehi, vehementer laborare in sequente emblemate recte
exponendo." Ibid.
2 The following are the Schemes of Messrs. Cuninghame and Bickersteth.

B. First Seal.

Second Seal.

Third Seal.

Fourth Seal.

Fifth Seal.

Sixth Seal.

White Horse.

Red Horse.

Black Horse.

Pale Horse.

Souls under
the Altar.

Earthquake.

Victories of

Discord of

Spiritual

Spiritual

Cry of the

French

Church visible

Ch. visible.

famine of Ch.

desolation.

Martyrs.

Revolution.

and militant.

{Sword sent.
Matt. x. 34.)

visible.
Papal yoke.

A.D 70—320.

324—530.

533—

1073—

1438.

1789.

Apostolic

Nicene ortho

Superstitions.

Papal Church

Height of

ChuTch.
dox Church.
in the climax
of corruption.
Papal power
before
Reformation.
Oj
i the horses of t
le first four Seals, see Zechariah
vi. 1—5.
C.
Bloody perse
cutions of true
Souls of slain
martyrs cry
White, as in
Spiritual
Christians, in
for vengeance
primitive pu
famine to the
13th century
about
rity. Crown as
Same.
generality, and
and four fol
A.D. 1500.
Same.
of spiritual
Scripture hid.
lowing. Sword
White robes
and heavenly
But to the few
kills the body.
given them,
warriors. The
real Christians
Famine is spi
about
rider the
abundance of
ritual famine :
A.D. 1552.
rulers or mi
Begins
comforting &
Pestilenee,
Begins
nisters of the
sanctifying
' pestilential
Church.
grace of Holy
doctrine :
about
Spirit.
Wild beasts,
wolves in
sheep's cloth
1792.
A.D. 319.
Begins about
ing.
Begins about
A.D. 33—312.
A.D. 509.
A.D. 1200.
558 REVIEW OF CHURCH-SCHEME OF THE SEALS. [APP.
other, and which alike take Woodhouse as their original ; being only
somewhat more elaborated. The Diagram subjoined on the preceding
Page gives a general view of them.
Now by these commentators, notwithstanding Vitringa's warning, the
horse is boldly taken as a separate symbol ; to figure throughout, they
say, the professing Church visible : — at which preliminary point let me
caution the reader always, when the Church is named, to mark distinctly
what Church is meant, and in what point of view. And, to justify its
symbolization as a war-horse, this Church visible is called also by them
the Church militant ; a confusion, I must say, of two things very differ
ent : *¦ in the sense, it seems, (but one, we shall soon see, that will ill bear
the testing,) of its being " the Lord's instrument," (so Mr. B. expresses
it,) through all the four Seals, " for subduing the kingdoms of the world
to himself." 2 As to the riders, they are, says Mr. Cuninghame, the
rulers or ministers of the Church for the time being : says Mr. B. the
four Spirits of the heavens, some bad, some good, noted in Zechariah ; 3
though surely the mere thought might have deterred Mr. B. from such
a notion, that it makes Zechariah's fourth rider, or the fourth Spirit of
the heavens, like the rider in the fourth Seal, to be Death. — Then the
colours of the horse they expound to signify rather the inward and spi
ritual state of the Church visible, than its earthly and external guise, as
Vitringa : though not so, if I rightly understand them, as altogether to
exclude the latter sense also. — And thus, according to them, the white
horse represents this Church in its inward primitive purity and earthly
course of conquest, from Christ's ascension,4 or the fall of Jerusalem, to
1 So Mr. B. himself : " The Church " (true Church) " is a gathering of his people, not
only out of the world, but also out of the visible Church ; a gathering that has been going
on in every age. Part of this Church is now with the Lord; part is militant here on
earth." — Homily Sermon, p. 27. Militant, I conceive, (said of the Church) means at war
with sin, the flesh, the world, the devil, as Christ's faithful soldiers ; and thus is only ap
plicable to true Christians.
2 " The visible Church in unbroken union we see existing in the first four Seals, as the
Lord's instrument for subduing the kingdoms of the world to Himself." Prayer Book
and Homily Sermon, p. 28. Both Bickersteth on the Prophecies, p. 363, and Cuning
hame, p. 5, speak of the Horse as the Church militant.
3 See the diagram. — The passage in Zechariah vi. 1 — 5 referred to for the explanation
of the riders, is as follows ; " These are the four Spirits of the heavens which go forth
from standing before the Lord of the whole earth ; " and follows on a vision of four cha
riots with their respective pairs of horses, — red, black, white, and grisled and bay : but
without a word being said either of riders ox drivers. In Zech. i. 8, however, there is a
vision of a red horse with his rider, and of some others speckled and white. — Both prophe
cies are most obscure. And if the riders be explained from Zechariah's vision, should
not the horses also ?
4 For notwithstanding the chronological intimation by the revealing Angel, " I will

NO. VII.] REVIEW OF CHURCH-SCHEME OF THE SEALS. 559
Constantine's establishment of Christianity in the Roman Empire : — the
red horse the visible professing Church in its state of discord and feud
from Constantine to Justinian : — the black horse the visible professing
Church (at least that part of it in Western Christendom), in its state of
spiritual famine under the Papal yoke from Justinian, for some five cen
turies, to the time of Pope Gregory VII : — the livid pale horse the
Church visible in its state of spiritual desolation and corruption, after the
Popedom had attained its climax of corruption and of power, from about
1070 to 1400 or 1500 : l— while the vision of the fifth Seal, or of the
souls under the altar, represents in its first part the cry of slaughtered
martyrs, from Huss to the Reformation inclusive ; 2 in its second part the
vindication of the martyrs by the establishment of the Reformation.3 —
Finally, the earthquake, &c, of the sixth Seal they suppose to figure that
of the French Revolution ; and the winds threatened afterwards to indi
cate some final desolation and judgment on Christendom.
Now, ere we enter on the more particular historical examination of
this scheme, let me just suggest, in passing, the general unfitness of the
emblem of a horse to be the representative, so as they would have it, of
the Church visible. Even as an emblem of the Church in its primary
course of progress, during its earlier purer state, the symbol seems sin
gular : — seeing that Judah' s victories, when God makes it (to quote the
text adduced as a parallel) " his goodly horse in battle," 4 are to be, as
is generally supposed, victories obtained by actual force, and in a literal
field of battle ; whereas those of the earlier Church were obtained by the
foolishness of preaching, and the force of its members' holy life, and
patience in suffering. Much more how in later days the Church visible
could be God's horse at all, " for subduing the kingdoms of the world
to himself," — I mean after its purity had altogether past away, and it
had become (so as both Mr. B. and Mr. C. most truly, I believe, assert
it to have become from Justinian's time) the Church of Antichrist, not
Christ, — how, I say, it could thenceforward be God's horse at all for
subduing the world to Himself, appears to me not only incomprehensi-
show thee what is to happen after these things," Mr. C. thus antedates the prefigurations
of the Apocalypse. — See Irenseus' decisive testimony on this point, as well as other evi
dence, in the Preliminary Critical Introduction to this work.
1 In Mr. C.'s scheme the commencing date given is 1200, in Mr. B.'s 1073.
2 Mr. Cuninghame's commencing date is about 1500, Mr. Bickersteth's 1438. But I
conceive the latter at least includes Huss.
3 In explanation, with Vitringa, " of the " white robes being given them."
4 Zech. x. 3.

560 REVIEW OF CHURCH-SCHEME OF THE SEALS. [APP.
ble, but that the very idea savours of making God the associate of evil ;
and especially if the rider be supposed one of the delegated Spirits of
his Divine Providence. I know nothing in Scripture to justify such a
representation. Can the Devil's chosen instrument be God's chosen
instrument ? Can Christ have communion with Belial ? or cast out
devils by Beelzebub ?
From this general view I pass on to consider their explanations more
in detail. And here at once, as we enter on the first Seal, the fact (as
well as reason for it) strikes us, of their giving to the symbols that cha
racterize the Church and its state,1 a meaning chiefly spiritual; though
with a sufficient measure of the earthly and visible to introduce confu
sion. As what they call the conquests of the Church in the second and
third centuries, confessedly appeared in the extension of its visible limits,
and increase of its adherence and influence, — indeed was so palpably a
visible and earthly success and advancement, that Gibbon's description
of it is referred to by Mr. B. in illustration,2 — it might surely be ex
pected, that to the crown, given the rider of the horse of this Seal, there
would be attached the sense of an earthly crown; and to the white of
the horse, that of earthly triumph and joy. But not so. The crown is
construed as half earthly, half heavenly ; in designation of the horse and
his rider being heavenly warriors, as well as of their gaining earthly
triumphs : 3 while the white of the horse is explained simply in a spiritual
sense, as indicating the then inward and primitive purity of the Church.
Why is this ? Archdeacon Woodhouse had himself declared that the
white was a symbol of " victory, peace, and happiness." 4 And, not
withstanding Mr. Cuninghame's disclaimer,8 the thing is notorious.
Again, the crown was as notoriously a badge of earthly conquest, and
imperial supremacy. And, let me add, the circumstance of the crown
1 In direct contrast to Vitringa.
2 Viz. Gibbon, chap. xv. On Prophecy, p. 373.
* I will quote the sentence. " Being invested with the crown is the. symbol of a spi
ritual or heavenly warrior. And the whole complex hieroglyphic denotes the host of the
Lord, that is, his Church militant, going forth shining with itsprimitpve purity, in a career
of victory ; and it marks the triumphant progress of the Gospel during the three first cen
turies." p. 5.
1 p. 1 22, 2nd Ed. He shuns this meaning however, like the rest, in bis explanation.
6 " White is every where used as the symbol of holiness," p. 4. I presume he means in
Scripture only. And even so, we might object the white of the asses of Jewish judges and
governors, the white of Esther's royal robe ; &c. But the main point here to be consi
dered is, what authority has an expositor to exclude the Roman or Greek meaning of
symbols; Beeing that they are notoriously taken into account in Holy Scripture else
where ?

NO. VII.] REVIEW OF CHURCH-SCHEME OF THE SEALS. 561
in the vision being given to the rider forthwith upon his setting forth,
and on the other hand of the heavenly crown being never spoken of in
Scripture as given to the Christian warrior, or the true Christian Church
collectively, till after death, or at Christ's coming, shows clearly enough
that the earthly, not the heavenly, was meant.1 But in truth our ex
positors must have known that the symbols, if so construed of eatthly
success and joy, would be utterly unfit to depict the visible state of the
Church during the greater part of these two centuries. Let the accounts
be read that have been given in a previous chapter of this work, and illus
trated by extracts from eminent Christians of the time,2 — and it will, I
think, be seen that to have applied the bright symbols of this first Seal
in any earthly sense to them, amidst their bitter sufferings, mockeries,
and often tears of blood, would have been felt as an aet adding insult to
injury.— At any rate we may require consistency in expositors. If the
crown of the rider of the white horse be the heavenly crown, and the
1 So Apoc. ii. 10 ; " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."
Also 2 Tim. iv. 8 ; 1 Peter v. 4, &c. Similarly the crowns of the twenty-four presbyters,
&c, seem to be those of departed saints.
2 Part i, ch. v. See for example the quotation that I have given from Tertuliian, p. 205
supra. Let me illustrate this further by the subjoined inscription on a martyr that suffered
under the second Antonine ; the inscription being on a commemorative tablet in the cata
combs of Rome, and given by. Boldetti.
ALEXANDER MORTUUS NON EST, SED VIVIT SUPER AS
TRA, ET CORPUS IN HOC TUMULO QUIESCIT. VITAM
EXP1EVIT SUB ANTONINO IMP. QUI, UBI MULTUM BENE-
PITII ANTEVENIRE PR^VIDERET, PRO GRATIA ODIUM
REDDIDIT. GENUA ENIM FLECTENS, VERO DEO SACR1FICA-
* TURUS, AD SUPPLICIA DUCITUR. O TEMPORA INFAUSTA,*
QUIBUS INTER SACRA ET VOTA NE IN CAVERNIS QUIDEM*
SALVARI POSSUMUS. QUID MISERIUS VITA. SED QUID MISE-
RIUS IN MORTE, CUM AB AMICIS ET PARENT1BUS SEPELIRI
NEQUEANT. TANDEM IN CCELO CORUSCANT. PARUM
VIXIT QUI VIXIT IN X. TEM.
This last clause is explained by Mr. Charles Maitland, to whom I am indebted for the
inscription, as an abbreviation for, in Christianis temporibus. " He scarcely has lived
who has lived in Christian times." If this may be considered doubtful, the O tempora
infausta, and again the Quid miserius vita, admirably illustrate the unsuitableness of the
application of the white horse and his rider, to whom a crown was given, going forth con
quering and to conquer, to the Christian Church of the second and third centuries.
Let me add a brief descriptive clause of the sad state of the Christians in Clement of
Rome's time, immediately after St. John : Bios ijpuv aAAo ovSev et pij davaros' also in
the third century, as given by Celsus, viii. 418 ; rpevyovres Kai KpvirTojj.evot, -n aAioKoptevoi
Kat airoAAvfievot.
* Here stands the monogram for Christ, the same as on the labarum : to signify the
devotion of the deceased to Christ.
* * Here a palm-branch ; an emblem generally of martyrdom.
VOL. I. . 2 0

562 REVIEW OF CHURCH-SCHEME OF THE SEALS. [APP.
white that purity which is described as belonging, or attributed, to the
saints and church collectively in the heavenly state, then let his conquests
be consistently explained as those conquests over sin, the flesh, and the
devil in the inward heart, to which that crown and robe of white are
attached in Scripture. Alas ! if they attempt this, the whole solution
is found to crumble to pieces in their hands. For then the white and
the crown would belong not to the horse, — the whole visible professmg
Church of the second and third centuries, — but to a part only (perhaps
much the smaller part1) out of it ; and not to this small minority during
the second and third centuries only, but just as much to the end of time.
— In fact a consistent explanation of the first Seal on this theory cannot
be given.
It will not need to say much of the second Seal, and its red horse,
whose rider had a great sword given him " to take peace from the earth,
and that they should kill one another : " — a symbolic picture which the
expositors spoken of explain to signify the theological dissensions and
feuds of the Church visible, from Constantine to Justinian. It may suf
fice to suggest two questions in reference to it. One is, on what au
thority do they apply our Lord's language, " I am not come to send
peace on the earth, but a sword," 3 in explanation of the sword of this
vision, to the feuds of the visible Church as begun not till after the
time of its establishment by Constantine ? It is usually explained, and
I conceive with good reason, of the enmity that would forthwith be
shown by the unbelieving members of each heathen and Jewish family
into which the gospel might enter, towards such of its members as em
braced the faith. And if so, then Christ's saying about the sword sent
would rather apply to the times before the imperial estabhshment of
Christianity than to those after ; i. e. to the times of the first Seal,
rather than of the second. — My other question is, how many thousands
of Christians do Messrs. C. and B. suppose to have been killed by their
brother Christians throughout the whole extent of the Roman empire,
during the two centuries alluded to ; and what the population of the

1 Notwithstanding the representation given of the Church as preserving its primitive
purity through the three first centuries, the reader will see, on the testimony of the most
eminent of the Christians themselves, that such was far from the case. See my p. 213
supra; also Mosheim, and (though I think the work too severe on the early Church)
Mr. Taylor's " Ancient Christianity." — Compare too the Epistles to the seven Churches.
2 Matt. x. 34.

NO. VII.] REVIEW OF CHURCH-SCHEME OF THE SEALS. 563
whole empire1 (now professedly christianized), out of which that number
was slain ? I suspect that the numeral returns given would show clearly
enough, by themselves, that the mutual slaughter of Christians which
occurred in a few places, (much the most in the single African pro
vince,2) was utterly insufficient to answer to the fearful symbol of the
blood-red horse under the great sword of its rider, and the fateful sen
tence pronounced that its constituent members were then " to kill one
another." 8
I turn to the third Seal and its black horse, with a rider holding a yoke,
(so they prefer to interpret the fyyov,4-) who had certain words addressed
to him from the throne about corn, wine, and oil ; in symbolization, they
say, of the spiritual famine of the visible Church, for some five cen
turies of the middle age, from Justinian till Gregory VII : which famine
however, as I have already shown, the price of barley makes an impos
sibility. — Of course, as the horse appears again in his integrity, we might
expect the Church visible represented to be that of Roman Christendom,
in the same full extent as before. But this, it seems, is not so. The
rider's yoke being the Papal, the horse is to be understood of Western
Christendom only : and the other half of the Church visible, at the
pleasure of the expositors, excised.5 — Pass we this, however, to consider
the horse's colour ; which, being black, ought certainly, so as when ap
plied elsewhere to pictures of famine, to signify the distressed aspect,
and thus the distress itself, of the famished ;6 then when the appetite
1 Gibbon's second Chapter (Vol. i. 68), compared with his notices of the subsequent
decrease of the population, will furnish data for this.
2 By the Oircumcelliones, a band of ruffians hired by the Donatists. — Much more gen
erally the war carried on hy the Christian antagonistic sects was one of the tongue :
kot* aAAijAtcv avrt Soparav eKtvovv ras yAtoooas. Theodoret i. 6.
3 It will be seen, on comparing Vitringa's scheme with the others, that, as his second
Seal is included in their first, so his third is their second.
4 Wrongly I am persuaded. See my Note, p. 151 supra. — Vitringa considers, as I
do, the concurrent mention of the chomin to be a reason for understanding the word gvyos
in the sense of a balance. And the fact (for fact I believe it is) that such an emblem as
a yoke held in the hand is positively unknown in arcliasology, furnishes an argument pretty
decisive of itself against the word having the meaning of a yoke here.
5 Woodhouse indeed speaks of the yoke of superstition imposed upon the Greek Church,
and even on Mahommedans also. But Mr. Cuninghame understands it distinctively of
the Papal yoke. And so too, I suppose, Mr. Bickersteth : since the duration of his 3rd
Seal, reaching from a.d. 533 to near 1073, (the date of his next Seal,) embraces a period
for the greater part of which nearly all communion between Eastern and Western Chris
tendom was cut off.
s So Lam. iv. 4 ; " The young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them."
2 0 2

564 REVIEW OF CHURCH-SCHEME OF THE SEALS. [APP.
craves, and there is nothing to satisfy it. But how can this' apply to
the state of Christendom during the time spoken of? The ecclesiastical
history of the times negatives the idea of any such spiritual craving on
the part of the mass of the population. Not merely as seen by man,
but (to adopt Mr. Bickersteth' s way of putting the case) as seen by the
Holy Ghost, ' there was then nothing, "or almost nothing, of the dis
tressed aspect of spiritual famine. The general case was that of Judah
in Jeremiah's time ; " The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests
bear rule by their means, and my people love to have it so." a
But it is the address to the rider about the corn, wine, and oil, that
perhaps most curiously exhibits the difficulties and infelicity of this part
of their interpretation. The spiritual state of the Church visible being
the supposed subject of symbolization through the Seals, it is laid down
by all who adopt it, (indeed by Vitringa, as well as by Woodhouse, Cun
inghame, Bickersteth, &c,) that the corn, wine, and oil are to have a
spiritual signification : — though on the question, what precisely is the
spiritual thing signified, there appears a certain diversity of opinion :
some explaining those articles of food, all alike, of Church doctrines,3
Church ordinances, and the Bible itself; some the oil and wine, at least,
of the comforting, rejoicing, and sanctifying influences of the Holy
Spirit : 4 which last surely ought not to be omitted.5 But how recon
cile the two clauses of the address ; the first tantamount (on their
understanding of it) 6 to, " Let the wheat and barley be at scarcity
price," — the second, " Hurt not the wine and oil," — with each other,
and with historic fact ? Vitringa argues fairly that the first clause is
rather a charge to moderate the scarcity of corn, than to cause it ; and so
in apposition, not contrast, with the second about the wine and oil.
Agreeably with which explication of the symbol, he asserts that the
After which comes the description of the aspect of famine, ascribed to another cognate
class of the sufferers ; " Their visage is blacker than a coal."
1 Prayer Book Sermon, p. 29. 2 Jer. v. 31.
3 So Vitringa, as illustrated in what follows ; and, in part, Woodhouse and Bickersteth.
4 Compare, on the symbols of corn and bread, Psalm Ixxii. 16, lxxxi. 1 6, Prov. ix. 5,
Amos viii. 11, John vi. 35; — on the wine, Prov. ix. 2, Isa. xxv. 6, Iv. 1 ; — on the oil,
Psalm xxiii. 5, xiv. 7, Isa. lxi. 3, Matt. xxv. 3.
5 Woodhouse explains the wheat and barley of the great saving doctrines of Christianity ;
the wine and oil of the divine knowledge laid up in the Bible as a depository; which,
he says, has been always accessible to some persons, [Qu. how many in the dark ages?]
and handed down to us with its text uncorrupted. — Cuninghame understands the wheat
and barley of the word and ordinances, dispensed to all within the pale of the visible
Church ; the wine and oil of the comforting and sanctifying influences of the Spirit of God,
imparted only to true believers, p. 12.
6 They consider not thp three barley cliosnirres for a denarius. See p. 156, &c, supra.

NO. VII.] REVIEW OF CHURCH-SCHEME OF THE SEALS. 565
councils and rulers of the Church, from the fourth to the ninth century,
(in his view the sera intended) defined and preserved the true doctrines
of religion, especially on the great contested questions of Arianism and
Pelagianism. And so, very much, Woodhouse also. But, on consulting
historic testimony, it will appear that, though on the two questions spe
cially noted by him, the councils and rulers, at the beginning and end of
the fourth century, did indeed define and assert the truth, yet at the
same time they had even then begun, and in the four succeeding centu
ries went on, so to inculcate superstitious idolatry, so to make void
God's word by their traditions,' and so too to teach a system of semi-
pelagianism also,3 as almost to cut off the people from all nourishment
of the evangelic doctrine of God's word, and so from the grace and in
fluence of Christ's Holy Spirit ; in short, to introduce a spiritual famine.
Really it is astonishing that by such a man there should have been pro
pounded an ecclesiastical picture of the age referred to so incorrect. —
But even this is not so marvellous as that which attaches to Mr. Cuning
hame' s and Mr. Bickersteth' s exposition ; supposing even that, for ar
gument's sake, we were to admit the price specified of barley, as well
as of wheat, to be, what we have long since seen it cannot be, a famine
or scarcity price. For Vitringa, in all he says, supposes the sera repre
sented to be prior to that of the Apocalyptic Beast, or Antichrist.3 But
Messrs. B. and C. while supposing the sera to be that of the Papal Anti
christ, and indeed most strongly and energetically insisting on the point,
do vet, in their interpretation of this Seal, assert an authoritative charge
to have been given to the then rulers of the Church visible, (whether
the popes, or priesthood, or Spirit of superstition,4) not to injure the
wine and the oil of spiritual grace and joy,6 at that very time when, ac
cording to their own exposition of other parts of the prophecy, Christ's
true Church would be living in the barrenness of the wilderness? and the
body of the Church visible, or constituency of the black horse, (which of
course was as well to profit by the conservative charge about the wine
and oil, as to suffer from the restrictive charge about the wheat
and barley,) would be drugged,— universally and willingly drugged,—
1 See my sketch of the sera, pp. 378—388, supra.
2 See my observations, Vol. ii. p. 213.
3 Vitringa would prefer to regard the Z\ years of the reign of the Papal Beast as
meaning 3£ centuries. See his Commentary, p. 620.
4 The latter, Mr. B.'s hypothesis, it will be remembered ; the former, Mr. C.'s.
s See the abstract from Mr. C. in the Note on p. 556.
6 Apoc. xii. 14. See my Vol. iii. pp. 39—40.

566 REVIEW OF CHURCH-SCHEME OF THE SEALS. [APP.
through the agency of these self-same rulers, with wine from the poison-
cup of the fornication of the mystic Babylon ! ! 1
Nor does this interpretation succeed better in the fourth Seal, and its
vision of Death on the pale horse; with Hades following, and all the
destroying agencies in operation, in reference to '^the fourth part of the
earth," of the sword, famine, pestilence, and wild beasts. — Wherever
Death is impersonated, it always, I believe, — and certainly always when
associated, as here, with Hades,2 — means the King of terrors, the
destroyer of natural life. And Vitringa, sensible of this, «s well as of
the necessarily literal meaning of the sword, (of which more presently,)
forms his interpretation accordingly ; and explains the Seal of the
dreadful destruction of life made in Christendom by the successive
scourges of the Saracen and Turkish invaders : — though hinting, how
ever, the possibility of the spiritual injury done by them to the Christian
life and faith of the inhabitants being also intended. The other inter
preters too that I have spoken of consider the rider Death to be an
impersonator of the destroying powers of life natural, as well as life
spiritual : 3 and, though explaining his weapons of famine and pestilence
spiritually, viz. of the pestilential doctrines and famine of the sword and
ordinances introduced by him, yet admit that the sword must mean lite
rally that of persecution. It is another example of the sliding scale
between things spiritual and temporal. — And who then suffers from this
sword ? Of course (according to the purport of the symbol) they that
are represented by the horse; — i. e. the Church visible of the times.
Yet, in the nature of things, could this be so 1 The ghastly and putrid
colours of the horse, presignifying, it is said, the Church visible in its
then climax of corruption and spiritual death,4 would indeed be of itself
evidence of its having suffered from the spiritual famine and pestilence :
1 Apoc. xvii. 2, xviii. 3. — Mr. Cuninghame indeed would have the oil and wine, spared
hy the rider, to be set aside for Christ's true servants alone. But there is no distinction
whatever in the words from the throne as to the parties to be affected respectively by
the charges respecting the wlieat and, barley on the one hand, and the oil and wine on
the other. And in either case it was evidently to be those that constituted the body of
the horse.
3 Compare Apoc. i. 18, "I have the keys of Hades and of death ;" xx. 13, " Death
and Hades gave up the dead that were in them ; " xx. 14, " Death and Hades were cast
into the lake of fire,"
8 So WoodhouBe, Cuninghame, and I believe Bickersteth.
4 Bickersteth on Prophecy, p. 366,(6thEd.) and Sermon for Prayer-Book and Homily
Society, p. 29.

NO. VII.] REVIEW OF CHURCH-SCHEME OF THE SEALS. 567
and from the wild beasts of the earth, too, if interpreted of false ministers
" like wolves in sheep's clothing," so as Mr. Cuninghame somewhat
curiously would explain the emblem.1 But this very putridity and moral
corruption would be its safeguard from the rider's sword of persecution.
I say, from the very nature of the symbol, and character of the rider, as
they themselves represent it, that sword could only be directed at indi
viduals of spirit essentially and altogether distinct from that of the horse :
—individuals spiritually alive, not dead. Just agreeably with which
view of the necessity of things, the history of the sera supposed to be
represented describes the subjects of the fierce Papal persecutions of
those middle ages to have been persons solemnly excommunicated and cut
off from the body of the Church ; 2 nay more, depicts the members of the
Church visible, of that aera, — in other words, the constituent body of
the pale horse, — as the active energetic co-operators with their ecclesi
astical superiors, or animating malignant Spirit, figured by the rider, in
this persecution of the excommunicate Waldensian and other heretics.
Turn it which way we may, this palpable inconsistency will be found
essentially involved in the above scheme of interpretation of the 4th
Apocalyptic Seal. — How far it accords with scriptural theology to repre
sent God as commissioning a minister of his providence, and arming
him with the sword of persecution, against his own faithful servants, is
another and more serious question.3 This, however, has been already
hinted at. And I feel bound to repeat that I believe it directly contrary
to all spiritual representations of the dealings of God.
Thus there remains only for consideration on this head the explanation
offered in the scheme we speak of, of that fourth part of the earth on
which the rider Death is presumed 4 to have had to execute his commis
sion. In regard of which, Dean Woodhouse by his generahsm of ex
planation,5 and Mr. Cuninghame by his entire silence on it, alike confess
1 p. 19. — Bickersteth explains them of the idolatrous secular empires. " The effects
(of Death's going forth) were persecution, famine of the word, false doctrine full of
deadly infection ; and the kingdoms of the Western Empire became eartlily and idolatrous."
Homily Sermon, p. 29. 2 See my Vol. iii. pp. 196, 217.
3 When God's servants apostatize and are unfaithful, then God, as the God of justice,
is frequently described as sending a sword against the people or land. In regard of the
faithful, Satan sends the trial, as in Job's case ; God permits and overrules it.
4 The reader will remember the different reading of the clause preferred by me. See
pp. 189, 190 supra.
6 " It may perhaps be found that the Christian countries which underwent the rage
of this Seal bore this proportion (one-fourth) to the remainder." p. 140. The Dean uses
the word rage in reference to the sword of persecution, which he seems to view as the
main subject of this Seal.

568 REVIEW OF CHURCH-SCHEME OF THE SEALS. [APP.
by implication their inability to offer a satisfactory interpretation. Mr.
Bickersteth, however, boldly meets the difficulty, by identifying this
fourth part of the earth with Daniel 's fourth empire .-1 — a parallelism and
identification of chronological order with geographical division surely
most extraordinary ; and only to be justified, even prima facie, on the
hypothesis that Daniel's four great successive empires had each its pecu
liar and distinct territory, and that the territories of all four united
together, reaching from the Atlantic to beyond the Indus, constituted
the Apocalyptic earth. It scarcely needs to say that not only is there
no evidence in favour of such hypothesis,2 but abundant evidence against
them. If we look but at the context, we shall find that both in the
Seal next but one preceding, and in that too next following, " the earth,"
used integrally, means, according to Mr. B. himself, simply Western
Christendom ; that is to say, has the same sense that he now attaches
to the fourth part of the earth, And as to the third part, no sooner has
he laid it down as an axiom in his prophetic scheme that it always sig
nifies (i. e. territorially) the Greek, or third of Daniel's great empires,3
than he contradicts his own statement : explaining the judgment on
the third part of the sea, figured under the second Trumpet, as " the fall
of the Latin Emperorship of Rome." 4
After this it will not need, I am sure, that I enter at any length on
their explanations of the other three Seals. Suffice it to say that they
are clogged with difficulties and inconsistencies, just like those before.
For example, who can believe that the vision of the souls under the altar
in the fifth Seal, crying for vengeance against the earth's inhabitants,
and then having white robes given them, and being told to rest till other
martyrs were slain like themselves, can be meant in its latter half as a
picture of the Reformation : — that glorious event which was elsewhere
partly prefigured, as we have seen, (and Mr. Bickersteth owns the cor-
1 So in his work on Prophecy, p. 365, and Prayer- Book Sermon, p. 22.
2 1st, I know not what territory could be assigned to the Babylonian empire, (except
that of North Africa, of which Berosus speaks, reaching to the straits of Gades) that did
not belong also as properly to the Persian : which latter empire began with, and dates
from, its subjugation and incorporation of Babylon.
2ndly, no evidence whatever exists of the Apocalyptic earth, in its original and largest
extent, having reached beyond the Euphrates or Tigris ; the limits of the old Roman
Empire in the East.
8 Axiom 52 ; " The third part denotes uniformly the third or Eastern empire." — Ax
iom 54 ; " The second Trumpet (i. e. ' The third part of the sea became blood, and the
third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died,') relates to the-fall
of the Latin emperorship of Rome." Ibid. p. 365. 4 Compare pp. 573, 574 infra.

NO. VII.] REVIEW OF CHURCH-SCHEME OF THE SEALS. 569
rectness of that part of my view,1) by the living representative of true pro
fessing Christians taking possession of that mystic altar-court, and casting
out their enemies 1 Not to add that the enemies of the Reformation,
occupying still nine-tenths of Roman Christendom, instead of thence
forth recognizing the earlier Protestant martyrs' innocence, (according
to the import of the white robing in the symbol,) have ever since blas
phemed them, as before. — Again, in the sixth Seal it is hard to see
what its earthquake and revolutionary convulsions of earth, sun, and
stars, — the prototype, they say, of the French Revolution, — had to do
with the spiritual state of the Church visible ; which spiritual state they
affirm to be the great subject of the Seals : — besides that, so far as
we have yet seen, there has appeared nothing in the feelings of the na
tions judged under the French Revolution, to answer to that conscious
ness of suffering under the wrath of the Lamb, which was expressed by
the parties judged under the 6th Seal. — And then, as to the notable
sealing vision which follows, (still in the same 6th Seal,) introduced by
the Evangelist with the note of time, " After these things I saw," and
which consists of two contemporary and parallel parts, viz. of Angels
of the winds standing prepared to desolate the earth, but temporarily re
strained from it, and of the sealing of God's servants, as a safeguard from
the winds, by God's seal-bearing Angel, — does it need my suggesting
that it adds its own strong evidence, alike from either of its two great
subjects of figuration, against the scheme in question ? 1. With regard
to the tempest-angels, if their temporary restraining was of importance
such as to call for particular symbolization, (an importance strongly
dwelt on by Messrs. C. and B.2) much more must their letting loose the
tempests have been of importance to call for it. Yet, in the scheme
under review, the prophecy is made to pass at once from the vision of
these tempest-angels' restraint, and the contemporary sealing by the
other Angel, to the palm-bearing vision, figuring (they say) the Millen
nium, without the slightest prophetic intimation of the outburst of the
1 It having been communicated confidentially to Mr. B. So in the Sermon before the
Homily Society, before quoted, p. 29 ; where he refers to it with entire approbation.
2 Mr. C. Pref. p. x. (4th Ed.), speaks of this as the key to our present position in the
prophecy : that is, on the understanding (in which Mr. B. agrees with him) of its signi
fying the restraining of the European nations from war since the Peace of 1815. — I must
observe that, whereas in the vision the sealing-angel is plainly from the time of his rising
the restrainer, and the four tempest-angels the prepared inflictors of the judgment, Mr. C.
strangely makes these last the restraint's : applying it to the four allied powers, England,
Austria, Russia, Prussia; and their endeavours, ever since 1815, to preserve the peace of
Europe.— Vitringa makes the four angels the desolators of the earth, as I do.

570 REVIEW OF CHURCH-SCHEME OF THE SEALS. [APP.
tempests ; which, however, must notwithstanding necessarily have hap
pened in the interval. — 2. With regard to the sealing and the sealed
ones, here first depicted to St. John in vision, there is a very observable
notice in the figuration of the 5th Trumpet,1 of a certain few then visi
ble, or at least then existing, on the Apocalyptic scene, not only of the
same general character as these sealed ones, but that bore, and were to
be recognized by, the precise mark and stamp here described as im
pressed by the Angel : whence the natural, might I not say necessary
inference, that the chronological sera of the 5th Trumpet-vision (just
according to its position in the Apocalyptic record) is subsequent to
that of this sealing vision. Whereas the Church-scheme of the Seals
inverts this order ; making the date of what the sealing vision figures
no less than 1200 years later than that which is figured under the 5th
Trumpet : — nor do either Messrs. B. or C. seem to me to offer any
explanation of the anachronism.
And thus at length, and through all these difficulties and inconsisten
cies, the interpreters in question come to the seventh Seal : which how
ever they can ill agree what to do with. Mr. C. feeling justly that at
any rate this Seal ought to contain something, and also that the palm-
bearing vision, symbolizing the Millennium, is the fittest possible termi
nation to his first prophetic series, makes it embrace the seven Trumpets,
and so begin the figurations de novo ; with the same commencing chro
nology as the first Seal.2 On the other hand, Mr. B. dissatisfied with
this inversion of order, makes the seventh Seal the termination of his
first series, like Vitringa before him. Also, like Vitringa, finding no
other subject-matter in it (since he will not admit it to contain the Trum
pets) but the half hour's silence before the Trumpets' preparation, he is
fain to make something sufficient out of this : and, after first identi
fying the silence with the previously described pause on the restraining
of the tempest-angels,3 has subsequently settled down into the view of
1 Apoc. ix. 4. — I might refer too to the mention of the 144,000 sealed ones seen on
Mount Zion with the Lamb, Apoc. xiv. 1 ; since, according to the most natural significa
tion of that vision, it seems to be one in general opposition to that of the Beast's kingdom
and followers, during the 1260 years. But Mr. C. makes its chronological position iden
tical with that of the seventh Trumpet's sounding ; and is therefore not necessarily
chargeable on this head of his scheme with inconsistency.
2 See the Diagram prefixed to his Work : — a Diagram which (like the cycles and epi
cycles of the old astronomers) strikingly marks to the eye the want of. simplicity, and
consequently (I should say) of probability, in the scheme depicted.
3 So in his Work on Prophecy, (6th Ed.) p. 363; " Seal vii, Apoc. viii. 1, Pause be
fore judgment ; A.D. 1815."

NO. VII.] REVIEW OF CHURCH-SCHEME OF THE SEALS. 571
its meaning some " pause at the return of Christ," so as in Apoc. xix,
xx ; a whether in the sense of its figuring the millennial rest, or what
else precisely, I do not well understand. Now that one of the Seals
should simply reveal a pause seems to me little credible ; above all
when the Scripture evidence for such a pause is so wanting that we are
given the large margin of Apoc. xix, xx, in which to seek it.2
Thus, on the whole, our close examination of this Scheme of the
Seals has issued, I believe, in seeing its total failure : — a failure, not as
regards one Seal only, but every Seal ; nor as tried by one test only,
but by multiplied tests : and, if I mistake not, without one single strong
point of evidence appearing in its favour.

I might suggest, in yet further corroboration of my argument, the
impossibility of fitting the symbols of the next opening series of the
Trumpets to the events of Roman history, as begun and progressing
from after the time of St. John's seeing the visions in Patmos ; so as to
furnish any plausible historic evidence for its being a prophetic series
of chronological parallelism with the Seals. This impossibility appears
more clearly than ever before in the attempt at overcoming it made by
Mr. Birks himself, in his recently published book on " The Mystery of
Providence ; " and will be briefly noticed by me in my Paper next
following. 1 So in a corrected copy of his Scheme communicated to me.
2 In his 7th Edition, p. 295, 1 see that he adds, " Events unfolded Apoc. xix, xx."
This makes thejcase no better, but rather worse. If the subject-matter of the Seal be a
pause, how can it include stirring events 1

APPENDIX.
No. VIII.
ON " THE THIRD PART " IN THE APOCALYPTIC TRUMPETS.
(See Page 337.)
Objections have been made in two or three or more critical notices
of my work 1 to the particular political and territorial tripartition of the
Roman world referred to by me, as explanatory of "the third part"
spoken of in the prophecies of the four first Trumpets : — objections
grounded partly on its alleged inconsistency with the explanation re
ceived alike by myself and by most of my reviewers, of a similarly
exprest fractional designative in the 6th Trumpet ; partly on its al
leged inconsistency with the facts of the history, to which under one
and another Trumpet I apply it. They have been urged by none, I be
lieve, more fully than by Mr. Birks, in his lately published Work on the
" Mystery of Providence : " so that an answer to him may be regarded
as an answer to all.
And let me premise, before entering on my reply, that Mr. Birks has
really himself no presentable theory of "the third part," to offer in sub
stitution. In accordance with his structural theory of the Apocalypse,
as recommencing its historic prefigurations of the future (from after St.
John's time) with the new series of the Trumpets, he supposes the
Roman empire's prosperous octogenarian period from St. John and Nerva
to the 2nd Antonine inclusive, to be " a season of intercession," sym
bolized by the vision of the incense- offering angel :2 (on which we have
only to ask, what period might it not just as well have symbolized,
since when was the time that was not to the Church a season of inter
cession ? and if, as Mr. B. says, under persecution, where a hint of the
persecution ?) — and then the voices thunderings and lightnings, on the
1 E. g. in the Presbyterian Review, if I remember right ; also in an early number of
the Quarterly Journal of Prophecy ; as well as by Mr. Birks in his Mystery of Provi
dence. 2 Mystery of Providence, Ch. i.

NO. VIII.] ON " THE THIRD PART " IN THE APOCALYPTIC TRUMPETS. 573
angel's casting fire on the earth, as meant of the civil tumults and bar
barian preparation, during the 70 years next following ; from the 2nd
Antonine's death to Philip's death, and the accession of Decius, a. d.
248 :' — symbols these significant indeed of wars and commotions; but
with nothing at all distinctive in them, so as to fit them to Mr. Birks'
proposed period more than to twenty others. And then next comes
the 1st Trumpet, with its third of the earth burnt by the hail mixt with
fire ; and then the 2nd Trumpet, with its third of the sea turned into
blood, on a great burning mountain being cast into it; and then the 3rd
Trumpet, with its third of the rivers made bitter by a fiery meteor fall
ing into them ; and then the 4th Trumpet, with its third part of the sun
moon and stars darkened and eclipsed : — all which calls on him for his
counter- view of the third part. And what this counter- view ? It is
still the same in the main that I referred to as put forth in a much ear
lier publication by him and Mr. Bickersteth, when noticing their expla
nation of the 4th part of the earth in the 4th Seal, in my critique on
their Church-Scheme of the Seals now reprinted next before this present
Section ;2 with just however certain addenda and alterations here and
there, intended apparently to meet a part of my so made objections.
The third part of the earth is always, says Mr. Birks in his late pub
lication on the Apocalypse, the third in succession of DanieVs four
great prophetic empires, i. e. the Greek empire ; while the fourth part of
the earth, so as in the 4th Seal, means the fourth in succession of Da
niel's four empires, i. e. the Roman.3 But what the grounds for so
extraordinary a successional sense to the phrase before us ? Because,
says he, (this seems to me his chief reason,) out of the many times in
which this phrase the third is used in other Books of the New Testa
ment, it is always, or all but always, used in an ordinal or successional
sense ; and therefore here too might with reason be expected to be used
similarly : 4 and if so used here, and in the sense of order and succes
sion, of what so naturally as of Daniel's four successive empires on the
prophetic earth ; the connexion of Daniel's prophecies and the Apoca-
1 lb. Ch. ii. 2 See p. 568 supra. " p. 62.
* pp. 63, 64. I speak of this as his chief reason ; because his two other reasons in
proof of such an " ordinal " view of the numeral adjective being " grammatically probable,"
seem to me really scarce worth the mentioning: — viz. 1st, that there is no mention in
the Apocalypse of one half of the Roman earth, but only of one third and one fourth :
21y, because the fourth part is thus introduced ; " When he had opened the 4th Seal I
heard the 4th living creature say, Come and see : and behold a pale horse ; . . and power
waB given them over the 4th part of the earth."

574 ON "THE THIRD PART" IN THE APOCALYPTIC TRUMPETS. [APP.
lyptic being so intimate ? But can it really be the case that that phrase
the third, when conjoined so as here with a noun of territorial or local
significancy in the genitive, is used elsewhere in the New Testament in
an ordinal or successional sense ? Assuredly not. The cases Mr. B. refers
to, as if parallels, are all cases where a noun implying order and succes
sion is exprest, or understood, after the numeral adjective ; — the third
hour, the third time, the third husband, and so on. But what have these
to do with such a phrase as that under consideration, the third part of
the earth P Because the tenth hour of the day, in John i. 39, means the
tenth in the sense of order and succession, are we therefore to seek out
some ordinal or successional sense to the same numeral adjective, when
St. Paul tell s of the tenth of the spoils given by Abraham to Melchisedec ? '
Our friend, however unintentionally, has been evidently practising a de
lusion on both his readers and himself. — Indeed it looks as if, in fine,
he had half waked up to a consciousness of the delusion. For he sug
gests that there may perhaps be intended a partitive sense to the Apoca
lyptic phrase, as well as an ordinal ; and sets to work to try if he cannot
make out the two senses in accordance. Out of Daniel's four successive
empires, argues he, the two first had pretty much the same territorial
dominion, viz. that of central Asia : (a supposition not quite correct ;
but which may be granted for argument's sake :)2 and thus, taking the
whole prophetic world of Daniel's and the Apocalyptic visions into ac
count, from the Indian frontier Eastward to the Atlantic Westward, it
might be considered as in a manner territorially tripartited ; the Baby
lonian and Persian being the same first third, taken partitively ; and the
Greek territory, (that of the 3rd empire ordinally another partitive third.)
But would not then the Roman territory, or territory of the 4th empire
ordinally, be a third also, (the remaining third,) partitively ; whereas,
according to Mr. B.'s hypothesis, and to suit his explanation of the 4th
Seal, it ought to be partitively a fourth ? — The theory is evidently alto
gether unfounded ; indeed, I may say, impossible. It would be easy to
show how, in its application to history, (so as made by Mr. B.) it palpably
fails. I just give one specimen pretty fully below.3 Enough however has
been said on the grammatical sense of the expression to prove that his
1 Heb. vii. 4.
2 Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian empire extended further West, according to Berosus,
than the Persian ; the Persian, if I mistake not, further East. See p. 568 Note 3.
3 My exemplification is from the 2nd Trumpet : — " The second Angel sounded ; and as
it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea : and file third part of

NO. VIII.] ON " THE THIRD PART " IN THE APOCALYPTIC TRUMPETS. 575
view of it is out of the question. Some territorial or political tripartition
of the Apocalyptic or Roman world, correspondent with the sera sym
bolized, must, I conceive, be intended. The only question is, what 1
And since, as between Mr. Birks and myself, there is entire agree-
the sea became blood : and the third part of the creatures that were in the sea that had
life died : and the third part of the ships was destroyed."
Originally Mr. Birks had explained this simply as symbolizing " the fall of Rome :
a.d. 365—412." So in Mr. Bickersteth's Guide to the Prophecies (7th Ed.), p. 294. But
a change in the chronology now appears. The \st Trumpet he expounds of that irrup
tion of barbarians over the Roman earth, from a.d. 250 to 268, which I consider to have
been figured in the 4th Seal's Death on the pale horse : and, in regard of which, the dif
ficulty I felt from the universality of the destruction over the Roman world during that
period, as compared with the apparent prophetic restriction of the destroying agencies (on
the usual reading of Apoc. vi. 8) to the 4th part of the earth, will suggest the difficulty
Mr. B. must have in reconciling a period of such universal destruction with the 1st Trum
pet's restricted third of the earth. Then Mr. Birks has a 4th Chapter headed, " The
Pause of Judgment ; " which he explains of the 100 years' interval of comparative free
dom from judgment from a.d. 270 to 365, including the mighty Constantinian revolu
tion and fall of Paganism ; though there is not a word to answer to such a pause in the
Apocalyptic Prophecy. — And so he comes to the 2nd Trumpet, which he applies historically
to the esctinction of the Western Empire : including the successive stages of its fall, from
the first Gothic irruption under Valens, a.d. 365, to the abdication of the Western Em
peror on Odoacer's bidding, a.d. 476. But how, the reader will be thinking, can this be
made to accord with Mr. B.'s theory of the third part ; seeing that the Apocalypse makes
the third of the sea become blood, which, according to that theory, ought to be the Eastern
or Greek empire : whereas Mr. B.'s history is all about the fall of the Western or Latin
empire, the 4th of Daniel's empires, and (as he says) the 4th of the earth in the Apoca
lypse ? It is brought out thus. The volcanic mountain burning with fire he considers
to be figurative, not of the destroying agency in this case, so as in the case of the hail and
fire cast on the earth in the 1st Trumpet ; but of the subject of the judgment, i. e. the
Western empire, as torn up, cast into the sea of barbarians, and extinguished. " The
first wave that burst on the empire was the invasion of the Alemanni." But does the
prophecy speak of the sea as coming up with its waves against the mountain ? Not at all.
The prophecy plainly makes the volcanic mountain to fall as the destroying agent into
the sea, and the sea to suffer ; so that " the third part of the sea became blood." Again,
if " the sea " generally is the barbarian flood invading, what is to be said of the " third
part of the sea," in accordance with Mr. B.'s theory ? Says he, it means " that the tribes
of barbarians who were connected locally, or by treaty, with the third empire, would suffer
slaughter and bloodshed themselves : " as well as " that they would inflict it on the sub
jects of the empire." And so he refers to the massacre of certain of the Goths scattered
through the Asiatic part of the Eastern empire, before Theodosius' accession, as the first
point in the solution ; (a massacre perpetrated before ever the sea of barbarians had
touched the burning mountain ;) and to certain defeats that some of the barbarians sus
tained. But let me ask was Rhadaghast, who of all perished most cruelly when invading
Italy, connected locally with the Greek empire ?
But it is surely needless to go further. If this is all that a man like Mr. Birks can
make historically of this theory of the third part in the 4 first Trumpets, construed ac
cording to the requirements of his Apocalyptic structural theory of the Seals and Trum
pets, what must be thought of that theory of structure, and that theory of the third part ?
Indeed but for the fact of Mr. Birks' valued name being attached to it, I should not
have thought it worth the while to notice the theory. For it is not that I have se
lected a weak part, and that other parts of the historic application are strong. I do not
think there is a single point of strength in the whole.

576 ON " THE THIRD PART " IN THE APOCALYPTIC TRUMPETS. [APP.
ment of opinion as to the fact of the only two other territorial triparti-
tions of the Roman world that can compete with my own failing to
answer to the conditions of the prophetic problem, — I mean the Euro
pean Asiatic and African tripartition, — and the tripartition, on Con
stantine's death, between his three sons, — there seems no need of en
larging on that point, or adding to the argument against each and either
of them, drawn out in the body of my Commentary on the subject.'
My present duty is simply to support the view there given, as the tri
partition preferred by me ; and to show that the objections made against
it are vain.
The objections then that have been made are fourfold : — 1. that it
secures no harmony between the 4th part of the earth in the 4th Trum
pet, and the 3rd part (now our main question) in the Trumpets : —
2. that it was a tripartition very brief and evanescent ; lasting as it did
scarce a year during the joint reigns of Constantine, Licinius, and Maxi
min : — 3. that it is inconsistent with the sense which I admit attaches
to the third part of men spoken of in the 6th Trumpet, that being ex
plained of the Greek empire destroyed by the Turks : — 4thly, and finally,
that it does not agree with the facts of the histories of Alaric, Genseric,
and Attila, to which I apply it, under the three first Trumpets.2 — I will
answer these objections in succession.
1. As regards the 1st, then, I felt in my former editions the want of
a manifest harmony and connexion between the quadripartition of the
Apocalyptic earth in the 4th Seal and its tripartition in the early Trum
pets ; though such a harmony and connexion between them did not
seem to me to be a thing essential. But now that, after very much
thought and consideration, I have settled on Jerom's reading in the 4th
Seal, " on the four parts of the earth," the harmony and agreement be
tween the two Apocalyptically noted divisions becomes really striking :
and I could hardly express it better than in Mr. Birks' own language,
when thus narrating the facts of that epoch; "In October 1812 Con
stantine defeated Maxentius ; and the previous fourfold division became
threefold." 3 For, as I have stated in my Chapter on the 4th Seal,
there was for some years when the plagues of the 4th Seal were most
fiercely raging, that selfsame quadripartition of the empire pretty nearly,
de facto, which Diocletian, just at the close of the period included in that
Seal, established de jure} And, as Mr. B. says, it was out of this quad-
1 See my p. 336 supra. 2 See for the objections, Birks pp. 59, 60. a lb. p. 60.
4 See my p. 190 supra.

SECT. VIII.] ON " THE THIRD PART " IN THE APOCALYPTIC TRUMPETS. 577
ripartition, simply by Constantine's overthrow of Maxentius, and the
then adding of his territorial dominion to his own previous one, that the
empire past into the form of a tripartition.
2. As regards the 2nd objection I have to reply that a division of
empire, even though transient, may yet, if it occur at some great crisis
such as prophecy loves to depict, and still more if prophecy has actually
depicted it, be well had respect to, even more than many less transient
divisions, in the after figurations. Now of the pre-eminent and critical
importance of the sera of the tripartition of the empire in 313, under
Constantine, Licinius, and Maximin, who can doubt ? It is set forth pro
minently on the historic page, as connected with the first edict of perfect
toleration to Christianity in the Roman empire. And then prophetically
it is seized on, according to both Mr. Birks' and my own view of the
vision of the Dragon and Woman in Apoc. xii, as an epoch too mo
mentous to pass over without express prefiguration : and in that prefigu
ration a prominent notice of the tripartition in question occurs ; the Dra
gon, the inspirer of the Roman Paganism, being figured as having but
one third only of the empire under his sway, when making his last great
fight as a Roman ruling power against the Christian Church.1 It was
thus a tripartition of the Roman world stereotyped in prophetic symbol.
— And though, during the interval of some 70 or 80 years after, till Theo
dosius' death, the tripartition was not actually revived, yet there was
perpetually, as I have shown in my Tabular Scheme in the Commen
tary,2 what we may regard, as a certain reference to, and reminiscence of
it, in the fact of the central Illyrian division being sometimes shifted to
the Western division of the empire, sometimes to the Eastern : until
at length, just at the time of the Goths' first grand outbreak, in other
words just at the epoch (as I construe the prophecy) before the 1st
Trumpet's sounding, Alaric first attacked South Illyricum, then was offi
cially appointed ruler of it ; and in fact for the next 3 or 4 years, from
396 to 400, ruled that division so independently alike of the West and
of the East, as to have virtually very much re- constituted the old pri
mary tripartition of the Roman world ; — its tripartition into the Western
Empire, Eastern empire, and Illyricum?
1 See my Vol. iii. 14 — 20. — That Mr. Birks construes the time of the vision of Apoc.
xii similarly, appears from his Scheme of Sacred Chronology, appended to Mr. Bicker-
steth's Guide to the Prophecies, p. 416 ; where we read thus : — " a.d. 313, Travail of the
Church, Apoc. xii. 2." 2 p. 337 supra.
3 Thus Mr. Birks is incorrect in saying (p. 60) that " this particular division never re-
VOL. I. 2 P

578 ON " THE THIRD PART " IN THE APOCALYPTIC TRUMPETS. [APP.
3. As regards the next objection, to the effect that I suppose one of the
thirds of the empire to be meant in certain visions, and another and differ
ent third in other of the visions, — viz. the Eastern third in the vision of the
Dragon and Woman Apoc. xii, and in the, vision too of the 6th Trum
pet, where the horsemen were loosed from the Euphrates " to slay the
third part of men," but in the four first Trumpets the Western third, —
it does not seem to me to have any good foundation. It is the definite
article prefixed which gives it its chief apparent strength. Indeed,
except for this, I presume no objection of the kind would for a moment
be raised. For in the passage from Ezek. v. 12 cited by Mr. B. (p.
64), and also by myself before him, — "A third part of them shall die
with the pestilence, and a third part shall fall by the sword round about
thee, and I will scatter a third part to all the winds," — not the same third,
but different thirds, are one after another respectively signified ; and no
one would object that such an understanding of them is not proper and
natural. Indeed it must strike the reader that the very nature of the
statement in Ezekiel requires that a different third should in either clause
be meant ; the other two thirds being in the prophetic clause itself other
wise disposed of. Now turn to the original Hebrew text of Ezekiel :
and we shall find that in the two latter clauses of the verse, though the
English version renders it " a third," the Hebrew expresses it " the
third." ' Which being so, and that the Hebrew prefix of the definite
article, in such a case of the numeral adjective, is but tantamount to
the English prefix of the indefinite article, and St. John's frequent
Hebraistic idiom in the Apocalypse being a thing notorious, we may
hence I think infer that the expression of "the third," alike in the
vision of Apoc. xii, and in those of the four first and the 6th Trumpets,
is to be regarded as but a Hebraism, and as tantamount to our English
a third. — Admitting which, and considering that in the prefiguration of
the four first Trumpets one third of the Roman empire was depicted as
given up to desolation, it seems to me that the a priori probability, on
coming to the 6th Trumpet's later woe, would be that the third of men
spoken of as " to be killed " under it would mean a different third
from the former, not the same third.
4. There remains only the 4th objection, that the facts of history do
appeared." It virtually reappeared, as I have stated, at the exact epoch that preceded
(in my view) the 1st Trumpet's sounding.
1 iTSpbtPn- So too 2 Sam. xviii. 2, 2 Kings xi. 5, 6, and 2 Chron. xxiii. 4, 5;
where the English version is a third, the Hebrew original the third.

SECT. VIII.] ON " THE THIRD PART " IN THE APOCALYPTIC TRUMPETS. 579
not answer to my theory ; and that in regard of each Gothic host and
leader, whom I consider to be figured in the three first Trumpets respec
tively, viz. Alaric,1 Genseiic, Attila, not merely was there a certain sur
plusage of ravage accomplished by them beyond the hmits of the Western
empire, but the East was in Alaric's case at least, and Attila' s, " their
chief theatre." To the correctness of this statement I altogether demur.
Let us look to history ; and see in the records of each of these three
chief Gothic executors of God's judgments against the Roman empire,
how the case really stands.
As regards Alaric then my readers will remember that I consider the
primary insurrection of the Goths under his leadership, immediately
after the great Theodosius' death, a.d. 395, and ravaging of the South
Illyrian provinces of Macedonia and Greece, until, being made Viceroy
of Illyricum by the Eastern Emperor, he did so in fact, as before observed,
reconstitute virtually the old tripartite division of the Roman world, —
I say it may be remembered by my readers that I regard all this as an
swering to the thunders lightnings voices and earthquake that followed on
the angel's casting fire on the earth, after the opening of the 7th Seal,
preliminarily to the sounding of the 1st Trumpet? I so explain it because,
1st, I conceive that those lightnings, thunderings, &c, were meant to be
pre -significations in symbol of the general character of the events des
tined to follow, in the 7 Trumpets under which the 7th unsealed part of
the Apocalyptic scroll was to be evolved ; just as, on the sounding of
the 7th Trumpet, the symbolization then immediately occurring of the
thunders lightnings voices earthquake, and synchronic opening of the
temple in heaven, (a sign this last quite peculiar,) was indicative of what
was to follow in the seven vials that evolved that 7th Trumpet : — and
that, 21y, I conceive there must have been events on earth answering to
those symbols of the prophecy ; events similarly preliminary, and similarly
significant too, to a discerning eye, of what was to follow.3 There is
nothing new in this view of the intent of such preliminary symbols. It
is one adopted (though with different historic and chronological expla
nation) by Mr. Birks himself ; and surely is altogether reasonable.
Which admitted however, all that Mr. B. has to urge against my making
the Western Roman empire (or Western third of the Roman world)

1 Conjointly with Rliaclagaisus. See next page. 2 See pp. 348—350 supra.
3 See ibid, for the one example ; and for the other the 1st Chapter of my Part v in the
3rd Volume. 2 P 2

580 ON " THE THIRD PART " IN THE APOCALYPTIC TRUMPETS. [APP-
Alaric's grand sphere of operation under the 1st Trumpet at once falls
to the ground. For after those preliminary transactions, and during the
time of his establishment (a.d. 396 — 400) " on the verge of the two
empires," as Gibbon says, in his government of the Eastern Illyricum,
he felt irresistibly impelled, as by a kind of secret and prseternatural
influence, distinctively against the Western empire.'1 And from his first
movement Westward a.d. 400, down to his death in the extreme south
of Italy, a.d. 410, it was the Western empire, and Western empire alone,
that was the scene of all Alaric's ravages. — So too of all those of his
coadjutors in the work of desolation, Rhadagaisus and his Vandal hosts
from the Baltic : the latter pointedly included by me in the 1st Trumpet,
though Mr. Birks seems to represent me as restricting it to Alaric ; 2
and who extended their desolations over Gaul and Spain.
Next as regards Genseric. — Premising here that alike the Western
third and Eastern third, or Western empire and Eastern, had its own
proper part of the Mediterranean sea attached to it, with the islands and
transmarine provinces inclusive, (notwithstanding Mr. Birks' strange dis
claimer of there being any such correspondent division of the sea, as well
as of the land?) it only needs that we state, with the dates, Genseric's chief
acts of conquest and ravage, during the long 48 or 49 years of his
career, to see whether it was the Western third of the sea, or the Eastern
third, that was the chief sphere acted on by him. I abstract in what fol
lows from the Universal History and Gibbon. — a.d. 429 Genseric crosses
from Spain into Africa with his Vandals ; 43 1 — 439 progress of conquests ;
439 takes Carthage, and begins his reign there. " Casting his eye to
wards the sea, he resolves to create a naval power ; and the fleets that
issued from the port of Carthage again claim the empire of the Mediter
ranean." " 439 — 455 Naval power of the Vandals." 440 he ravages
Sicily : 442 Valentinian yields to him the African province : 455 he
sails up the Tiber, and sacks Rome : 456, sailing against Gaul and
Italy, he is repulsed by Ricimer near Corsica. — Rejects the Greek
emperor's request not to ravage the Western Empire. 457, Vandal fleet
surprised at the mouth of the Liris in Campania; " but Majorian (the Wes-

1 See pp. 350, 351 supra. " Birks, pp. 60, 204.
" Mystery of Provid. p. 60. Would Mr. B. argue that the islands of Sicily and Sar
dinia appertained as much to the Eastern empire as to the Western ; or vice versa those
of Cyprus or Samos ? Would lie have it that the transmarine Provinces of Egypt and
Cyrene belonged as much to the West as to the East; and vice versa those of Western
Africa ?

SECT. VIII.] ON " THE THIRD PART " IN THE APOCALYPTIC TRUMPETS. 581
tern Emperor)' s strictest vigilance was insufficient to protect the long-
extended coast of Italy from the Vandal depredations : " 460, on Majo-
rian's preparing an expedition against him, Genseric attacks the Roman
fleet near Alicant (in Spain), and destroys it : 461, Genseric ravages the
coasts of Sicily and Italy, and conquers Sardinia : 462, the Western
Emperor begs help from the Eastern Emperor against the Vandals ; who
dechnes granting it, because of a treaty with Genseric : so " the fury of
the Vandals was confined to the limits of the Western empire : " 1
462 — 466, yearly descents on the coasts of " Spain, Liguria, Tuscany,
Campania, Lucania, Bruttium, Calabria, Venetia, Dalmatia, Epirus, . .
Sicily : " 3 467, Genseric, incensed against the Eastern Emperor in conse
quence of some neglect of his wishes, ravages the Peloponnesus and
Greek islands, and appears once before Alexandria, but unsuccessfully :
468, Genseric destroys by fire-ships, in the neighbourhood of Carthage,
a Roman fleet of above 1000 sail, sent against him by the two united
emperors : 468 — 472, Genseric conquers Sardinia,3 Sicily, and " all the
islands between Africa and Italy ; " then ravages the coasts of Italy,
Peloponnesus, and the Greek islands. 475, Genseric makes peace with
the Eastern emperor. 477, Genseric dies.
Such is the chronological abstract of events. From the year 429,
when he crost over on his destroying mission into Africa, until 467 or
thereabouts, it does not seem that there was any ravaging of the Eastern
empire. After that, now and then, its coasts came in for a share, but
a comparatively small share, of the Vandal ravages. Conquests of
islands by them in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean there was none.
It was only when allied to, and helping the Western emperor, that the
Greek fleet was burnt, conjointly with the Western fleet, and this in the
Western waters. Does it need more to show how truly it may be pre
dicated of Genseric, and his Vandals, that the Western third of the great
Roman sea was distinctively the chief theatre of their conquests and de
solations 1 — Let me add, what was omitted in my Commentary, that the
contemporary poet Sidonius almost adopts the figure of the 2nd Trum
pet in describing them. " It was," says he, " as if Mount Caucasus [the
native volcanic mountain of the Scythian Vandals], transported into
1 Gibbon vi. 189.
2 Gibbon (vi. 187) inserts Greece before Sicily, but with the date 461—467. I here
eliminate Greece, because its ravaging by Genseric's fleet was not till 467.
3 Sardinia had been momentarily taken from the Vandals just before, by the great
naval Roman expedition in 468.

582 ON "THE THIRD PART " IN THE APOCALYPTIC TRUMPETS. [APP.
burning Africa, did thence yearly cast its desolating fires on our
coasts." 1
Last as to Attila. Respecting him my reader will observe, by refer
ence to the historic sketch in my Commentary,2 that into that which
might be considered the Eastern third proper (the same that constituted
Maximin' s and Licinius' dominion successively, when making the last
war against Christianity) Attila never penetrated. The surplusage of his
desolations, I mean over and above those on the lines of the Upper
Danube and the Rhine in the Western empire, and on its Alpine foun
tains and vallies, was confined to those parts of the Eastern Illyricum
which in the prophecy, as I conceive, were considered in a manner dis
tinct from both the one prophetic third, and the other prophetic third, or
Eastern third and Western third of the Roman world. — Now, as before
intimated, the fact of some surplusage of action, beyond the sphere spe
cially marked out in prophecy, seems by no means to negative the ap
plication of that prophecy to a particular agent. It suffices, I conceive,
to show that the grand and chief sphere of the agent's destroying
action was the particular territory or empire particularly marked out in
the prophecy. Was the Turks' destroying career restricted to the
Greek Byzantine empire ? Assuredly not. But it was the chief sphere
of their destroyings and of their success. And so I conceive that both
Mr. Birks and myself are justified in explaining them to be the Euphra
tean horsemen entrusted with the special commission under the 6th
Trumpet, " that they should destroy the third of the men." The case
is the same here.
So ends my reply to Mr. Birks' objections. Of course my readers
will not forget further the corroboration of the view of the Apocalyptic
third part here advocated which arises out of the fact of the next or
4th Trumpet's symbolization of the eclipse of the third part of the sun
moon and stars, in the Apocalyptic firmament, coinciding so strikingly,
1 Hinc Vandalus hostis
Urget, et in nostrum numerosa classe quotannis
Militat excidium : conversoque ordine fati
Torrida Caucaseos infert milii Byrsa furores.
On which passage Gibbon observes, " The poet seems inspired by his subject ; and ex
presses a strong idea by a lively image." vi. 187. — I presume that the furores Caucaseos
are meant of volcanic hres ; as I know not what other furores of a mountain could well
be said to be cast upon a country. That Caucasus is one of the mountain-ranges of vol
canic action will be found stated in the scientific Treatises on such subjects.
2 See p. 3.56, 357 supra.

NO. VIII.] ON " THE THIRD PART " IN THE APOCALYPTIC TRUMPETS. 583
both in respect of subject matter and of chronology, with the next great
event on the page of Roman history, viz. the extinction of the Western
emperors and empire. I have at p. 335 noticed this, as that which ori
ginally predisposed me to my view of the third part in the four first
Trumpets ; and at p. 358 — 360 have illustrated it from history. If
any one would wish more distinctly to realize the strength of its corro
borative evidence, let him look to what theorists with Mr. Birks'
views have to offer in its stead. Of necessity they cannot expound it
to mean the extinction of the Eastern emperors and empire : for there
occurred no such extinction, at the time preceding the 5th or Saracenic
Trumpet, to which Mr. B. refers it. It means, he says, the partial
obscuration or eclipse of the Eastern empire, a.d. 540 — 622, from Jus
tinian to Heraclius. But, on Mr. B.'s theory of the thirdpart, the third
of the sun must needs mean the whole imperial ruling power of the Eas
tern or Byzantine empire ; and its eclipse consequently the eclipse of
its whole imperial power, i. e. its total eclipse, or extinction. And, be
sides that there was no such total eclipse of it in the sera referred to, we
have to remember that the sera is one that includes at its commencement
some of Justinian's triumphs in Italy ; and issues at its close, imme
diately before Mahomet and the Saracens, in Heraclius' splendid course
of victory against the Persian invaders of his empire : which splendour
Gibbon, as cited by Mr. B. himself,1 compares to "the brightness of
the meridian sun." 2 1 p. 225.
" With regard to the 2nd Trumpet's figure, and reference of it to the burning "furo
res " of Caucasus, as transported into Africa and the neighbouring seas, the following
illustrative passage has met my eye in Zornlin's Recreations in Physical Geography,
p. 272, on " Volcanic Regions." After stating that there is a marked indication of ener
getic subterranean heat between the Caspian and Black seas, and that in this [Caucasean]
region, near Baku in Azerbijan there is situated the remarkable tract called The field of
fire, — a tract which is the native country of Zoroaster, — the writer proceeds to speak of
the inexhaustible springs of naptha in it. This, he observes, from its lightness floats on
water ; and that " the inhabitants by the Caspian frequently in calm weather form a
splendid exhibition by pouring whole tons of it into that sea. Being then set on fire,
and borne on the surface of the waves, it presents the appearance of o sea of flames."

VOL. I. 2 Q

APPENDIX. No. IX.
ON THE APOCALYPTIC SYMBOLS, AND CHIEF OBJECTIONS
MADE TO MY VIEW OF THE SYMBOLIC PURPORT OF
CERTAIN OF THEM.
(See pp. 119, 487.)
Ere concluding the Appendix to the present Volume, it may be useful
to turn retrospectively to the Apocalyptic symbolizations whence my
inferences as to the things predicted have been drawn ; seeing that
already almost the whole body of the Apocalyptic symbolic imagery
has been brought into play : and to consider the chief objections made
against such my interpretation of them.
It will have been observed by intelligent readers that there is the
greater facility for comprehending and forming a judgment on this sub
ject, from the circumstance of my having regarded and explained the
symbolizations, more perhaps than any preceding expositor, as having
some of them a certain local fixedness and permanence on the Apoca
lyptic scene ; so as to serve, in fact, like a kind of point d'appui for all
that was more passing and changeable. — Thus I throughout suppose
the temple, with its triple divisions, to have constituted the foreground
of vision to St. John ; and all, agreeably with St. Paul's use of the
figure, as emblematic of the Christian Church : — the Holy of Holies, with
God's throne in it, and its saintly and angelic attendants, represent
ing that part of the Church which has past into his heavenly presence ;
the Holy place, with its golden incense-altar, the earthly worshipping
Church as apparent distinctively to the eyes of God ; and the open altar-
court, with its brazen altar of burnt sacrifice, the same earthly wor
shipping Church as visible (like the corresponding court in the Mosaic
tabernacle and the temple of Solomon) before the eyes of men. Again,
I throughout suppose the Apostle St. John to have sustained the cha
racter of representative of the apostolic line, through each successive
age prefigured, of the then living faithful ministers of the Gospel : always

NO. IX.] ON THE APOCALYPTIC SYMBOLS. 585
with a Christian eye observing what might pass upon the mundane
scene ; and moreover, on two extraordinary occasions, himself speaking
and acting. Once more, I throughout regard the Apocalyptic landscape,
that was stretched out beneath and around the apostle St. John and
the temple with which he was associated, to have been the fixed minia
ture of the Roman world ; with its sea and land, its chief political divi
sions, and its frontier rivers too, (e. g. the Euphrates,) marked upon it ;
and with its firmamental sky, and sun moon and stars, as figures of the
place of political elevation, and of the chief ruling dignities. — For this
general view of the intent of the several symbols specified I gave reason,
as we past on, from other Scriptures couched under the same imagery,
and where their meaning is clear and undoubted. Nor indeed was there
any material novelty in this my general view of them ; various other
expositors of successive ages having taken much the same.1 What was
more new was, as I just now said, the carrying out the idea of them as
the permanent standing scenery of the Apocalyptic prefigurative drama :
and rigidly construing the phsenomena that successively past on one
part of the standing scene or another, and the symbolic subsidiary-
impersonations also that from time to time appeared on it, with reference
to the local spot of their appearance, as well as to the chronological
order of time and succession. — Hence, on the one hand, certain distinct
and very important inferences, which had previously been more or less
overlooked by expositors : — e. g. in reference to the first Apocalyptic
temple-symbol, my inferences severally as to the intent of the vision of
palm-bearers seen by St. John to enter it, at the time when the tempest-
winds were just about to burst upon the Roman earth under the 6th Seal ;
as to that of St. John's measuring it, and casting out certain heathen
abominations from its altar-court under the 6th Trumpet ; and as to that
of its appearing opened to the world, with those holy mysteries of God's
gospel-covenant which its ark symbolized, in visible local association
someway with the firmamental sky of the Apocalyptic standing scenery,
at the aera of the opening of the 7th Trumpet, and during the outpour
ing of its 7 Vials.2 Hence too, on the other hand, as already hinted,
a far greater facility of testing the correctness of an exposition of the
1 See on the Apocalyptic scenery and symbolization my primary and introductory
notice, Vol. i. pp. 91 — 97. — My copious sketch of the history of Apocalyptic interpreta
tion, in the Appendix to my 4th Volume, will afford to the readers ample facility for com
paring my views on this point with those of other previous expositors.
2 See this Vol. i. pp. 279, 280, 284; also Vol. ii. pp. 179—183, and Vol. iii. pp. 308,
309.
2 Q 2

586 ON THE APOCALYPTIC SYMBOLS, [APP.
symbols ; professing, as it does, to view them as thus continuously and
consistently significant.
On my construction of these standing local symbols there have been
made two chief but almost contrary objections : — viz. 1st, that urged
by futurists, who would have the Apocalyptic temple to be literally that
of Jerusalem, and the firmament, (in the 6th Seal at least) with its sun
moon and stars, to be the literal firmament physically convulsed at
Christ's second coming ; views altogether and palpably untenable, in
my apprehension, and on which I have elsewhere fully entered : ' 21y,
that made by certain historical expositors opposed to my view of the
details of some chief local divisions of the Apocalyptic earth, (the often
recurring third more especially,) and who prefer to construe the sea
land rivers, &c, as meant wholly and only in an emblematic sense, not a
chrorographic or territorial : on which point of difference I have also
sufficiently entered, where the course of the exposition brought the sub
ject before us.2 — There remain the objections made to my view of cer
tain of the detached symbolic living figures, or impersonations, that were
exhibited from time to time on one part or other of the Apocalyptic scene :
among which that made by Mr. Lord of New York against my view of
the horses and horsemen of the four first Seals, and that made both by
himself and others against my view of the Euphratean horses and horse
men of the 6th Trumpet, seem to me best to deserve notice ; as being
each specimens of a class, and specimens perhaps of all others the most
notable and characteristic.
I. TlIE HORSEMEN AND HORSES OF THE FOUR FIRST SEALS.
Mr. Lord's objections to my view on this part of the Apocalyptic visions
were exprest primarily and more moderately in his own Comment on
the Apocalypse, published at New York in 1 847, a year after the publi
cation of the 3rd Edition of my Horse ; afterwards, and in language less
becoming and moderate, in a review of my Book in Dr. Berg's Protes
tant Quarterly Review, Philadelphia, 1848. In the latter publication he
reiterates his main objection so often, that I should think it must have
been wearisome to himself as well as to his readers. He affirms it how-
1 See generally my examination of the Futurist Scheme in the 2nd Part of the Appen
dix to my 4th Volume, Sect. 3 : also my notice on the 6th Seal in the Paper No. 6 in the
Appendix to this Volume ; and that on the temple-altar in the Appendix to Vol. ii, p. 541.
2 See on my view of " the third part," &c, not only my primary argument pp. 329 —
340 6Upra ; but also my supplementary Paper, Sect. 8 in the Appendix to this same
Volume ; further, on the mixt symbolic and chorographic force of the emblems, ib. p. 97.

NO. IX.] AND CHIEF OBJECTIONS TO MY INTERPRETATIONS OF THEM. 587
ever to involve a great law of true symbolic interpretation ; l one hidden,
not from the author of the Horse only, but from the mass of prophetic
expositors alike of our own and of preceding ages. And thus probably to
his own mind he has justified that unwearied repetition of the same thing,
by the thought alike of its importance, and of its having been until his
own enunciation of it a hidden secret.2
The objection has reference to my expounding the horsemen of the
three first Seals to be representative symbols, each one, of a class or suc
cession of men to whom in real life such badges attached as attached to
the horsemen in vision. After quoting from my Book passages in which
I state this as my guiding principle in the interpretation of those intro
ductory symbolizations of the Apocalyptic prophecy,3 he objects that
quite a different law of interpretation of prophetic symbols is laid
down by Christ himself, or by the angel communicator with St. John,
to the effect that the symbols are not specimens of, or of the same order
with, what they represent : the stars in vision denoting not stars, but
messengers of the Churches ; the candlesticks churches, not candlesticks ;
the heads of the wild Beast orders of human rulers, &c, the horns dynas
ties of kings. Which being so this must be taken as the law of prophetic
1 So in the Section on " the Laws of symbolic Representation," at pp. 22—36 in his
Exposition. " The symbols of the Apocalypse and all the prophets are taken, in all
cases where the subject is of a nature to admit it, from objects or phsenomena of a dif
ferent class from those which they are employed to represent. . . Thus when symbols like
the four first Seals are drawn from the military and civil chiefs of the Roman empire,
they denote, not such actors and actions in that civil and military state, but analogous
agents and agencies in some other body of men." p. 25. " This is the first great law of
symbolization." p. 28, &c. And so in his Review of theHora^, pp. 7, 8, &c.
2 "Mr. Elliott's faults are not wholly peculiar to him. . . There are works issued every
year on the Apocalypse and Daniel that are marked by the same misconceptions. There
is not one indeed of the long series who have published on the symbolic prophecies since
the Reformation, who has entered into any inquiry whether these symbols are to be inter
preted as mere specimens of the agents and acts which they foreshow, or as representa
tions of agents and agencies of a different order. There is not one who has not, without
assigning any reason, explained them partly on one of these hypotheses, and partly on
another. . . Their explanations accordingly are not grounded on any law. They are mere
systems of ignorant conjecture and rash assertion ; inconsistent with themselves, and with
out authority from the prophecy. In the many volumes of Mede, Whiston, Daubuz,
Cressener, Bishop Newton, Faber, Cuninghame, Frere, Keith, Habcrshon, and a crowd
of others, there is not we believe a single explication that can be vindicated on any of the
views which they have advanced on the nature of symbols. This is a startling truth."
Berg's Protestant Preview for 1848, p. 106.
This is a specimen, though indeed but an inadequate one, of Mr. Lord's style of criti
cism : — made up as it is of sentences of the same objurgations repeated and repeated again
with little variation. Like a succession of driving hail-gusts having no solidity or hard
ness but that of his own dogmatic assertions, it will be found to melt innocuously almost
as soon as it comes into contact with its object. 3 e. g. Vol. i. p. 119, and Pref. p. viii.

588 ON THE APOCALYPTIC SYMBOLS, [APP.
symbols : and so my construction of the three first Apocalyptic horse
men set aside, as resting on a different interpretative principle.1 Such
is his objection. — But can it stand ? Surely it scarce needs any sugges
tion of mine to make the more intelligent of my readers recognize the
unphilosophical nature of Mr. Lord's generalizing induction from cer
tain particular examples of symbolization. In order to establish a " law"
of symbols, such as he talks about, he ought to have cited and examined
into all the exemplifications of symbolic prophecy given in the Bible ; and
seen whether his rule, or law, would apply to all. Had he done so he
would have found that facts were in other cases directly against him.
In Pharoah's dream, e. g. the seven good ears of corn, and the seven with
ered ears, were specimen-symbols of seven harvests of good ears of corn,
and seven harvests of withered ears respectively.2 And the same too of
the seven fat kine, and the seven lean kine. Again, turning to the Apo
calypse, we have St. John as the living representative on the scene of
vision of faithful ministers of the apostolic spirit ; and the two sackcloth-
robed witnesses as representatives of a class and fine of witnesses for
Christ's truth, through successive ages, such as the Paulikians, Wal
denses, &c, of the same order and character that is ascribed to the
two witnesses : and this not according to my view only, but according to
Mr. Lord's own view and interpretation.3 Hence, himself being the
judge, his supposed general " law " of prophetic symbols proves to be
no law at all; but only an unwarranted cramping and narrowing of the
symbolizations, in a prophecy where God has markedly used them in all
the noble fulness and variety of the imagery of other Scripture. Which
being the case, his objection to my exposition of the representative
symbols of the three first Seals at once falls to the ground.
Such is Mr. L.'s grand objection to my interpretation of these intro
ductory Seals. I see that he adds, as a further though lesser objection,
that in construing the horse to mean the Roman people, or something
of a different order from the symbol, while the horseman is construed to
mean, in each of the three first Seals, something of the same order of
1 Review, pp. 4, 5, 6, 7, &c. To make my absurdity the more evident he adds : — " On
Mr. E.'s theory the wild Beast of 7 heads and 10 horns would foreshow that a monster
precisely like itself was to appear on the earth." p. 8. Also p. 4, &c. Mr. L. as before
said, is never weary of repeating the same objurgation or objurgatory argument.
2 Similarly Josephus, B. J. ii. 7. 3, speaks of Archelaus having seen in a dream 9 ears
of corn, in signification of 9 years of reigning: each ear being the representative, as Mr.
Greswell observes, (i. 274) of a harvest.
3 Lord's Commentary, pp. 25, 251, 253^ &c.

NO. 1X.J AND CHIEF OBJECTIONS TO MY INTERPRETATIONS OF THEM. 589
agents, I am inconsistent with myself, as well as with the Scriptural law
of symbols. In answer to this it will suffice to refer him to Zech. x. 3,
" The Lord of hosts hath made them [the house of Judah] as his goodly
horse in the battle." Here the Lord of hosts, the rider is the Lord him
self ; yet the horse ridden is the symbol of the Jews.
Ere concluding this head I must beg to express my satisfaction at
the testimony given by him, even when making his objection, to the
accuracy of my historical application of the very various and peculiar
badges of the symbols of the three several Seals : copying, as he all but
does, my own explanations of the symbolic impersonations. For he makes
the horseman of the symbol of the 1st Seal to be '¦ doubtless Trajan,
who in the year 96, immediately after the visions in Patmos, was adopted
by Nerva ;" and adds that " Hadrian and the Antonines, who followed
him, princes of a similar character, and under whom the empire conti
nued to flourish, may also he considered as embodied in the horseman :" '
— further, that " the individual taken for the symbol of the 2nd Seal is
perhaps Quadratus, [the Praetorian Prefect,] the first in the long series
of conspirators and usurpers, that rapidly followed each other from the
beginning of the reign of Commodus to the accession of Diocletian ;
. . .which usurpers and rivals took peace from the earth :" 2 — also that
the symbol of the 3rd Seal is similarly " taken from political life in the
Roman empire, and is a ruler who reduces his subjects to want and
misery by taxation ; as is denoted first by the balance, the symbol of a
civil magistrate, as a bow or a sword is of a warrior ; next by the wheat
and barley, the oil and the wine, which indicate that he exercises autho
rity over those articles ; thirdly, by the price which implies that he de
termines the rates at which they are to be valued : . . . and finally by
the colour of the horse which is indicative of affliction." Moreover as
to the exact person or time intended in this symbol of the 3rd Seal, Mr.
Lord, still copying the Horae, adds that " it is doubtless Caracalla, who
commenced a system of excessive taxation, and was followed by a long
train of similar oppressors." s
So writes he, accordantly with myself, as to the prototype of these
several symbols ; though in the most marvellous manner, and by the rule
of contraries, making them to mean something quite different from those
actors themselves and their actions. For he supposes these successful
Roman warriors, military usurpers, and oppressors by taxation, to be
1 Review, p. 67. 2 Ib. pp. 74, 75. 3 Ib. pp. 105, 109.

590 ON THE APOCALYPTIC SYMBOLS, [APP.
severally but types of other actors, somewhat similar in character, and
of nearly the same commencing date, but with agency only in matters
of religion and the Church. Now where any one expositor is a declared
and vehement antagonist to the system of another, it cannot of course
but be peculiarly satisfactory to the latter to find his antagonist thus,
by borrowing and copying from him some of the most characteristic,
original, and important points in his commentary, doing homage, albeit
without acknowledgment or confession, to its truth and accuracy.1
II. The Horses and Horsemen from the Euphrates, of the 6th
Trumpets. I select this example of detached symbols of a different character from
what they symbolized, as being perhaps of all others the most complex
and peculiar, i. e. according to the interpretation of it given in the
Horse ; 2 and consequently that against which one might a priori have
expected that objections would be made. And, as it was to have been
expected, so it has proved. The Rev. T. K. Arnold has here been the
chief objector. And I think that I cannot better exhibit to the reader
a view of the objections to which the interpretation is subject, and an
swers that may be given, than by citing from my reply to him in the
British Magazine of June 1847 that part which relates to some chief de
tails of the symbols, and my explanation of those details severally.
Let me premise that, as St. John tells us that he only heard the number
of the Euphratean horsemen, it is my impression that what he saw in
the vision was but one individual horse and horseman. For though it
is said, " Thus I saw the horses and them that sate on them," in the
plural, yet it is not very infrequent with the evangelists to use the plural
for the singular.3 Supposing which to be the case here, there is no
1 The rather because Mr. L. often accuses me of historical inaccuracy. — On other
points, if Mr. Lord will look more carefully into the thing, he will find that his accusa
tions of me on the score of inaccuracy are generally founded on his own misrepresenta
tions either of me, or of historic fact. Where such is not the case, had he used my 3rd
Edition, (an Jidition published a year before his own Commentary, and two years before
his Review,) instead of the 1st, he would, I believe, have found the few real incorrect
nesses noted by him already corrected.
2 So given there, as the reader knows, after many other expositors, from Foxe down
wards. See my History of Apocalyptic Interpretation in the Appendix to Vol. iv Sec
tions 5 and 6. — The complexity and peculiarity of the symbol will appear indeed in every
interpretation of it.
8 " It is usual in the evangelists to ascribe that to many which agrees only to one of
them. So that is said to bo written in the prophets which isonly written in one of them :
as will he evident from comparing Mark i. 2, Mai. iii. 1 ; John vi. 45, Isa. liv. 13; Acts

NO. IX.] AND CHIEF OBJECTIONS TO MY INTERPRETATIONS OF THEM. 591
need to apply what appeared in the monstrous form seen in the vision
to each particular horse and horseman of the whole number. Rather it
might be construed as a collective symbolic type, like the seven-headed
dragon or beast, of the whole body of the Euphratean invaders.1 — This
premised, I proceed with my extract from the British Magazine.
1. First comes up for Mr. Arnold's criticism and objections my expla
nation of the fire smoke and sulphur, that seemed to issue from the horses'
mouths in the vision ; which I expound, after Mede and other inter
preters, to be symbolic of the artillery to which, as a principal instru
mentality, both modern and earlier historians refer the capture of Con
stantinople by the Turks, and consequent destruction of the Greek Em
pire. " And the heads of horses were as the heads of lions, and out of
their mouths issued fire, and smoke, and sulphur • by which three was
the third part of the men killed ; by the fire, the smoke, and the sulphur,
which issued out of their mouths." — On this, and my explanation of the
fire smoke and sulphur all conjointly, as the one destroying agency of
artillery, Mr. Arnold objects thus. " We have here three destructive
agencies, emphatically distinguished as separate agencies. It is first
stated generally that the third part of men was destroyed by these three ;
and then, to prevent as it were a mistake, the three are again separately
enumerated, each with its own article, by the fire, and by the smoke, and
by the brimstone." — My reply is obvious. Mr. Arnold is anxious, as we
have elsewhere seen, that the Apocalyptic language should be regarded
and explained as " inspired Hebrew poetry." And I therefore cannot
act more in accordance with his wishes and his judgment than by refer
ring, on the point of objection here mooted by him, to the use of simi
lar constructions of language in the writings of the Old Testament.
Take then the example in Levit. xiv. 52. I read there ; "And he shall
cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running
water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with
hyssop, and with the scarlet." According to the rule laid down by my
critic against me, all these ought to be separate and distinct agencies of
xiii. 40, Hab. i. 5. See Glasse, Lib. iii. tr. 1. de Nomine, Can. 27." Whitby on Luke
xxiii. 40. Elsewhere, on Matt, xxvii. 38, Whitby illustrates the same from comparison
of Luke xxiii. 36, John xix. 29, saying that the soldiers brought Christ vinegar, with Matt.
xxvii. 48, Mark xv. 36 saying that one of the soldiers did it :— also Matt. xxvi. 8, saying
that the disciples had indignation, with John xii. 4 saying that one of the disciples had in
dignation. 1 This will be an answer to some objections by Mr. Lord.

592 ON THE APOCALYPTIC SYMBOLS, [APP.
purification. But what, in fact, was the case ? That the blood of the
bird killed was to be received in and mixed with the running water, then
the cedar-wood hyssop and scarlet together dipped in it, and then the
mingled blood and water sprinkled by them on the house ; all uniting toge
ther to constitute one single act of purification. Take another example
from Gen. xix. 24 ; which I adduce, though otherwise less appropriate
than the former one, because two of the self-same instrumentahties of
destruction are specified as in the case under discussion. " Then the
Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone (or sulphur) and fire
from the Lord out of heaven ; and he overthrew those cities &c." Was
the fire here spoken designative of one agency of destruction, the sulphur
of another ; the first altogether separate and distinct from the second ?
By no means. " Quum duo nomina substantiva, vel synonyma vel
diversse significationis, conjungantur, eorum alterum vicem adjectivi cum
emphasi sustinet : ut hie, Et pluit sulphur et ignem ; id est, ignem sui-
phureum." So Robertson in his Clavis Pentateuchi, ad loc : and I
observe that Rosenmiiller compares Gen. iii. 16, "I will greatly multi
ply thy sorrow and thy conception ; " in the sense of thy sorrow in, or
as connected with, thy conception. — Mr. Arnold advances yet another
argument against my explanation : viz. that it is the balls of lead pro
pelled by means of an explosive power, of which the brimstone is indeed
one ingredient, " that are the real instruments of destruction in the
modern artillery ; while the fire and smoke, by which the explosion is
accompanied, are both perfectly innocuous." But are they indeed inno
cuous, if considered causally ? It is curious to contrast Chalcondylas'
notice of the invention of gunpowder and cannon, and of the Othman
Turks' use of them against his country and people, with this statement
of Mr. Arnold's : — " Omnis potentia in ignem, ut casuam, referenda est."
And on the question, whether an intermediate causal agency may not
properly have the final effect predicated of it, let us refer again to, exam
ples in the Hebrew Scriptures for information. We there read David's
prayer, Ps. Ii. 7 ; " Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean." Was
then the hyssop by itself in any wise of purifying efficacy. Its only
efficacy consisted in applying the blood of purification. Again, to cite
another example, we read in Daniel ix. 27 of the abomination making
desolate. Now if we explain this, as most expositors do, of the idol-
standards that accompanied the Roman army which besieged and
destroyed Jerusalem, were these standards, we ask, the actual instru-

NO. IX.] AND CHIEF OBJECTIONS TO MY INTERPRETATIONS OF THEM. 593
ments of Jerusalem's destruction ? They were but, we know, that
destroying army's innocuous, though significant and necessary accompa
niments. Still more does the case apply to my purpose, if we explain
the phrase to mean the Jewish abomination of sin, brought into the
temple, as inducing God's judgment.1 As to the propriety of depicting
the fire smoke and sulphur as issuing from the horses' mouths, if
intending to figure, so as I construe it, the fire smoke and sulphur
literally combined in the discharge from the Turkish artillery against
Greek Christendom, it may perhaps be well to suggest as an illustrative
parallel that well-known and awful passage in Isaiah xxx. 27, 33 :
where, with reference to the fire and sulphur literally destined to be
employed in the final judgment on this our earth, (for I suppose it will
be allowed that there is in the passage this reference,) they are depicted
by an anthropopathic figure as proceeding from the Almighty's mouth,
and kindled by his breath.2
I have now gone through Mr. Arnold's objections on this head ; ob
jections on the strength of which he is pleased to designate this parti
cular in my solution, as " not only very unsatisfactory, but absolutely
absurd :" and my appeal is to the intelligent and candid reader, whether
Mr. A. has been successful in proving its absurdity at all. — I must not
pass on without adding that he has here further favoured us with a de
tached fragment and specimen of his own counter -view of the Apocalyp
tic symbol ; a favour the more to be prized as it is so rare. " The smoke,"
he remarks, " as being itself one of the rptic nAyyai, must be a thick
pestilential vapour emitted by the avenging monsters." But must, as I
have had occasion to observe more than once before in this controversy,
is a word often used somewhat rashly and inconsiderately by Mr. Ar
nold. Will he have the goodness to mention where in sacred Scripture
the word Kanvot;, or its Hebrew equivalent, is used per se to signify a
destructive pestilential vapour ? Even the example from Ovid, (and
how, with his sensitiveness about treating the Apocalypse otherwise
' Such is my own more mature opinion on that passage. See it exprest to that effect in
my Vol. iv. p. 617. — And so nearly, as I have learnt since that was written, Mr. Alford
is inclined to explain it.
2 " Behold the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with his anger : his lips are
full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire. — For Tophet is ordained of old ;
yea for the king it is prepared ; the pile thereof is fire and much wood : the breath of
the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it." I presume Mr. Arnold will not
differ from me in supposing an ultimate reference to the great conflagration and judgment.
Compare Ps. xviii. 8 ; " There went out a smoke in his presence, and a consuming fire
out Of his mouth."

594 ON THE APOCALYPTIC SYMBOLS, [APP.
than as inspired Hebrew poetry, could he resort to such an illustration ?)
I say, even this example from Ovid of the brazen-footed bulls of Col-
chos seems ill to support him ; as it was not from any thing pestilential
in the bulls' breath, but from the heat- of the fiery blast, that the sur
rounding herbage is fabled to have been dried up and withered.1 —
Moreover by the exegetic law that he has laid down for himself and
others, he is bound to explain the sulphur, equally with the smoke and
fire, as separately and by itself a distinct agency of destruction. But how
such an acting of the pure sulphur, whether explained literally or figura
tively ? I cannot but think that if he will be so good as to favour us
with his explanation of this particular of the symbol, and also of the
" avenging monsters" themselves, of whose description it constitutes a
part, Mr. A. will find that he has involved himself in difficulties of
which the solution will not be easy.2
2. We come next to the horse-tails. " For the horses' power is in
their mouth and in their tails :3 for their tails were like unto serpents,
having heads ; and with these aZiKovai, they do injury or injustice."
On the "have" and the "associated with," I do not wish to enter
further : save and except to protest against Mr. A.'s assertion, as quite
unwarranted, that I must know " that the question, whether we are, or
are not, associated with the things we have, was never mooted, and is
entirely irrelevant." I neither did know it, nor know it now. It seemed
to me, and still seems, to have been very much the hinge on which his
irony about that part of my interpretation turns.4 And as unthinking
readers are often caught by burlesque and irony, I thought it both fair
and right to shape my reply in a form of burlesque in return. But let
that pass. As an almost universal rule, the less of burlesque that is in
troduced with controversy about sacred subjects the better. And as
I remain fully persuaded of the propriety and truth of my solution of
this part of the Apocalyptic symbol, let me endeavour to propose and

1 " Tactasque vaporibus herbae arcnt."
2 Mr. Arnold says that " my solution contains no explanation of the agreement be
tween the fire, smoke, and brimstone, and the Bapaxas irvptvovs baxivBtovs (= nigricantes
or fermgineos) BeiaiSets. He has overlooked my remark in the Horse (Vol. i. p. 481,)
2nd Edition) that these adjectives significative of colour seem to have been chosen with
reference to the irvp Kairpos and Beiov so prominent in the symbol ; as symbols were fre
quently borrowed from anything remarkable in the living type.
3 So the MSS. of the best authority.
4 See the quotation from his pamphlet given by Mr. Arnold, British Magazine, p. 421.

NO. IX.] AND CHIEF OBJECTIONS TO MY INTERPRETATIONS OF THEM. 595
support it in a manner which I almost hope will convince Mr. Arnold
himself that it is not so liable as he has supposed to objection.
The horses then in the symbol had tails ; and these horse-tails, end
ing as they did in serpent-like heads, (for such seems evidently to have
been the nature of the heads,) presented to the view a serpent-like ap
pearance. Agreed thus far, we are also agreed, it would appear, in the
opinion that there must have been some pointed intent and meaning in
so singular a part of the symbol. But, if so, what the meaning and the
force according to Mr. Arnold ? His reference to the real or fabulous
amphisbena (itself singularly inappropriate, as it seems to me, even for
that purpose J) was only suggested, he himself now tells us, " as an
illustration of a head placed at the end of the tail." But he further
suggests, after Heinrichs and Ewald, that these serpent-like heads at
the end of the tail emitted fire smoke and brimstone, as well as the lion
like heads in front ; in order thus both to add to the terribleness of the
symbol, and to show in what manner the serpent-like tails took their
part (as he asserts it is directly stated that they did) in the destruction
of the third part of men. On which let me observe that his assertion
on this point seems to be grounded on a mis-reading of the sacred
record. For, instead of " the death of the third part of men by the fire
smoke and brimstone being connected with the statement about the tails
being like serpents by the conjunction for" so as Mr. Arnold asserts,
there is an intervening clause, headed by the same conjunction, between
the one clause and the other.2 Moreover there seems in that same
record an express distinction between the effect of the lion-like heads as
killing, and the serpent-like heads as doing injury or injustice. As to
the idea of the tails emitting fire brimstone and smoke, it exists only in
the imagination of the expositors ; and, in the absence of any express
scriptural declaration on the subject, it appears to me that we are bound
to suppose the intended mode of the symbolic serpent-heads, which
were appended to the horse-tails, doing injury, to have been the same as
1 Because it is no other part whatsoever of the symbol but the horse-tails that is noted
as presenting a snake-like appearance ; and, consequently, all that was snake-like was,
as a snake, with but one head. It is easy to see how the horse-tails, if at all twisted, as
we often see them in real life, in serpentine folds, and with a snake's head at the end,
would present the appearance described.
2 " By these three (plagues) was the third part of men killed ; by the fire, and by
the smoke, and by the sulphur, which issued out of their mouths. For tlieir power is in
their mouth, and in tlieir tails. For their tails were like unto serpents having heads ; and
with these (o^ikovoi) they do injury."

596 ON THE APOCALYPTIC SYMBOLS, [aPP.
that in which serpent-heads in real life do injury ; — namely by their bite
and the venom discharged with it. Thus Mr. Arnold's suggestions
seem in no way to help us to any rational explanation of the purport of
this very remarkable particular in the Apocalyptic symbol. Nor do I
know any view of the symbol which offers it, except that which I advo
cate : which view, as the reader knows, supposes the horse-tails in the
vision to have prefigured the horse-tail standards of the Turkish Pa-
shaws, and so the Pashaws themselves ; who following in course, after
the overthrow of the Greek empire, oppressed, and with venom like as
of poisoned serpents embittered, the lives of the subjected Greek pro
vincials. The only question is, whether this explanation be admissible,
as that which is accordant with the analogy of other parallel scriptural
symbolic imagery, or not.
The reader will have observed that all which my solution requires to
be allowed me is, that to the body of an animal symbolizing a nation,
there may properly be appended the badge of some ruling magistracy
of that nation, in sign of the magistrates themselves ; and further that
to this badge there may be appended, in addition, some emblem in
dicative both of the personality attached in the divine idea to the
badge spoken of, and also of the character of them to whom it should
belong. And to show that I am warranted in requiring this there is nothing
more needed, I believe, than that I refer to two scriptural examples
for authority and illustration. My first example is from Ezek. xix. 10,
&c. We have there a figure of Judah and its ruling magistrates bor
rowed from the vegetable world. " Thy mother is like a vine planted
by the waters : . . and she had strong rods, for the sceptres of them that
bear rule : . . but she was plucked up in fury ; and her strong rods were
broken." Here the vine that had strong rods for the sceptres was a
symbol of the Jewish nation : and the strong rods, which were a part
of the vine, (as much a part of it as the horse-tails of the horses,) de
signated the sceptres, or magisterial badges, of them that bear rule, and
so the rulers themselves. Respecting the character of these rulers, how
ever, and their official rule, no intimation was to be given ; and there
fore the addition of no further emblem was there required. Not so in
my second example from Daniel vii. We there read of a little horn rising
among other horns from out of the head of the fourth Beast, " with eyes
as the eyes of a man." Now the Beast itself depicted, as we know, the

NO. IX.] AND CHIEF OBJECTIONS TO MY INTERPRETATIONS OF THEM. 597
body of the fourth and last great ruling mundane empire ; and the horn,
from being a common symbol in the sacred writings for ruling power
and strength, was taken to signify the king himself to whom that power
would attach ; while further, to express the character of this king — in
other words, of Antichrist, — there were added eyes, as the eyes of a man,
at the extremity of the horn ; in signification either of Antichrist's craft,
or of his pretensions to a universal episcopate. Surely, with the excep
tion that the emblem in Daniel appeared in front of the body of the
symbolic animal, in the Apocalyptic passage under discussion behind, the
parallelism between the two is obvious ; and quite sufficient to justify
my interpretation as one not unaccordant with the analogy of Scripture.
But this, says my critic further, "is such a riddle-making style of
dealing with the prophetic Scriptures as deadens all sense of meanness
and incongruity, even in men of cultivated minds." It is not the first
or second time that Mr. A. has thus pointed his satire against the riddle-
making, as he is pleased to call it, or riddle-solving, in the Horse. Thus,
in the Letter now before us, with reference to the allusion supposed by
me in the prophecy to the Turkish dress ; — "This literal (!) fulfilment of
what such a fulfilment would turn into an inspired conundrum : " and
again, in an earlier Letter, with reference to my supposition of an allusion
to Nerva's Cretan extraction, in explanation of the bow in the hand of
the rider of the white horse, " It is a conundrum unintelligible for any
but the genealogist." I have thus been led to reflect what it is precisely
that he means by such remarks ; and what the view he takes, and would
require to be taken, of prophecy and its dark sayings; but I have
reflected in vain. Mr. Arnold does not surely mean to deny that it was
intended there should be riddles or enigmas in prophecy ; enigmas such
as the fulfilment alone would or could explain. What, to take a case or
two from unsymbolic prophecy, of Elisha's prediction to the nobleman
in Samaria, " Thou shalt see the plenty with thine eyes, but shalt not
eat thereof?"2 What of Ezekiel's saying about Zedekiah; " I will
bring him to Babylon, yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.3"
These were riddles only to be explained in the fulfilment. And so too,
to take a case of prophetic symbol, how was the full propriety of the
symbol of a he-goat to designate the Macedonian empire discoverable,
until that very symbol had been stamped, and known to be stamped, on
1 See British Magazine for March 1846, p. 332.
2 2 Kings vii. 2, 17. 3 Ezek. xii. 13 ; 2 Kings xxv. 7.

598 ON THE APOCALYPTIC SYMBOLS. [APP.
Macedonian coinage ? ' Nay, if we turn to Mr. Arnold's own view of
the present prophecy, what does it present to us, in whole and in part,
but an immense enigma ; only to be resolved, if he suppose its solution
to be ever intended, by some extraordinary facts and phenomena yet
future : — viz. the enigma of " avenging monsters," that are to kill men
by smoke, in the sense of pestilential vapour, and also by fire, each as
a distinct separate agency ; and, in order to this, to make their dis
charges from the tails as well as from the heads! !2 In truth it seems to
me, judging from prophecies which all allow to have been fulfilled,
that not only while a prediction remains unfulfilled, but even after its
meaning on all main points may have been made clear by the fulfilment,
there may still be expected to remain in it certain minor details, that
will continue to present somewhat of difficulty and of enigma to the
accurate investigator.
1 See Dan. viii. 5. I have given an engraving of a Macedonian coin with this device
in the Hora.
2 Asa further illustration of the absurdity of certain semi-German critics that impeach
the Turkish historical interpretation, let me refer to M. Stuart. " The Turkomans and
other Orientals train their horses to the assault with the hinder part as well as with the
front!!"

END OF VOL. I.

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