a largeness of plan, extending even beyond the earth: the bow and the "conquering and to conquer," convey somewhat of that vast circumference of surrounding nations, to which Constantine's acting extended itself. The second is expressly confined to the earth as Theodosius's action was; the third is in a degree limited to Rome, where were the stores of wine and oil; and the fourth is felt mostly upon a fourth part of the earth, namely, Africa and Italy, as we shall see in the sequel. While I make this remark, it is not to bring into doubt that the Roman empire, and particularly the West, is the scene of all these seals; and that in this respect they have a common locality signified by the name "the earth," and also by the riders, or horses, of which locality to express the different states under four acts of progressive judgment, these four colours are given; but simply to point out the specialties which are to be found in each, and which being perceived goes so far to try a false and insufficient interpretation, to confirm a true and complete one. The patience of an ob server is his best quality: hurry and haste argue a theorist, not an observer. We are now prepared to proceed to interpretation, and to shew that under Honorius, who succeeded Theodosius in the West, this symbol of blackness, of yokes, and of famine, had exact fulfilment.

The master-key of our interpretation of the seals is, that they are acts of powerful judgment upon Satan and his servants, who have usurped the inheritance of this earth; to the end of their being utterly destroyed, cast out, and supplanted, in order to make room for Christ and his servants to possess it, and rule over it for ever. And because Rome had been the centre of all opposition. to Christ and his church, and thence had gone forth the edicts for their persecution and martyrdom, therefore upon the arena of the Roman empire, which Satan had chosen for his seat and stronghold, is the controversy carried on, and the victory wrought out. The first two seals have brought the invisible powers of darkness to an end; they have done judgment upon the gods, or rather the demons, which as God were worshipped. Paganism is at an end; the dragon and his angels are cast down; the chief part of the victory is accomplished. It remains now that the earthly powers, the constitutions of empire, the people

and the language, the cities and the territories,—in one word, the whole Roman estate should be visited. First the idols, then the idolaters; first the rulers of the darkness, then the instruments with which they have served themselves. This is according to the method of God in times past, and according to the rules of strict responsibility. These two latter seals we shall accordingly find do fall upon the earthly, as the two former fell upon the spiritual powers, who wrought together such havoc of the church.

The "yoke" which this third rider carries in his hand, is the symbol of that miserable bondage and subjection into which all the Western Empire in his time were brought by the barbarous nations which then came to act together as the scourge of God. These nations occupied all the northern frontier of the Roman empire, from Scotland in the west to the extreme limits of Persia, and even of China in the east. In the reign of Valens, the predecesssor of Theodosius, they had been imprudently admitted across the Danube, within the bounds of the empire, which they continued to disturb until, Valens having fallen in battle against them, Theodosius was raised up and made them friendly, and even serviceable, to the empire in his time. But no sooner was this master as well of policy as of war removed from the helm of the troubled state, than these Goths whom he had kept quiet in the plains of Thrace and Thessaly arose, and exchanging their recently adopted implements of agriculture for their ancient weapons of war, and having over them one raised up and endowed of God for such a work, Alaric, who under the second trumpet is represented by the symbol of a mountain burning with fire, they laid waste the whole of Greece, and there, being resisted with success by Stilicho, the general of Honorius, they shaped their course for Italy by the head of the Adriatic, and fell down upon Honorius enjoying his luxurious ease, in the palace of Milan. Thence hardly escaping, and closely pursued, he was forced to throw himself into the fortified town of Asta or Asti, and there endured a siege from the Gothic king. So soon did he begin to wear the emblem of the yoke. Though this storm blew over in a short time, it was sharp enough so to affright the Roman em

peror, as to make him feel himself insecure at Rome, and retire to Ravenna, because of its position, impregnable to land forces; and here, for the rest of his life, he made himself a voluntary prisoner in his own dominions, justifying still more exactly the symbolical character of the rider with the yoke of bondage in his hands, rather than the sword or the bow. This is so very remarkable an event in the history of the Roman emperors, and so exactly fulfils the symbol of " the yoke," that I shall give it in the very words of the historian. "The recent danger to which the person of the emperor had been exposed in the defenceless palace of Milan, urged him to seek a retreat in some inaccessible fortress of Italy; where he might securely remain while the open country was covered by a deluge of barbarians.... This advantageous situation was fortified by art and labour; and in the twentieth year of his age, the Emperor of the west, anxious only for his personal safety, retired to the perpetual confinement of the walls and morasses of Ravenna. The example of Honorius was imitated by his feeble successors, the Gothic kings, and afterwards the Exarchs, who occupied the throne and palace of the Emperors; and till the middle of the eighth century, Ravenna was considered as the seat of government, and the capital of Italy." (Gibbon, vol. iv. pp. 141-143.) I consider this to be the personal thing proper to Honorius, which is represented under the figure of "the yoke." But in this respect he was only an emblem of his kingdom, whose miscrable bondage and wretchedness we proceed further to narrate.

It was not the Eastern half of the empire, or, as it is called in this book, the third part of the earth alone, which was to receive the scourge of the barbarous nations into its bosom, the hail mingled with blood of the first, and the burning mountain of the second trumpet; now that Alaric is driven out of Italy, the Western or Roman half is to be deluged as with swarms of First come the locusts following in swift succession. Northern Germans, under Radagasius, to the very gates of Rome (A.D. 406), who were defeated, and mostly destroyed by Stilicho; and those that were left fell back upon Gaul, and reduced it to a state of great misery. Two years thereafter, Alaric a second time broke down from the

north of Italy, moved, as he himself asseverated, " by a solemn and preternatural impulse which directed, and even compelled, his march to the gates of Rome." And he invested it so closely as to bring upon it the uttermost extremities of famine. "The food, the most repugnant to sense or imagination, the elements the most unwholesome and pernicious to the constitution, were eagerly devoured, and fiercely disputed, by the rage of hunger. A dark suspicion was entertained, that some desperate wretches fed on the bodies of their fellow-creatures, whom they had secretly murdered; and even mothers (such was the horrid conflict of the two most powerful instincts implanted by nature in the human breast), even mothers are said to have tasted the flesh of their slaughtered infants. Many thousands of the inhabitants of Rome expired in their houses, or in the street, from want of sustenance." When for a contribution of money this first siege was raised, and the communications with the country opened again, the historian observes, that "the future subsistence of the city was secured by the ample magazines which were deposited in the public and private granaries." I quote these words as casting light upon the voice which came from the midst of the beasts, and in explanation of the condition of things under this seal. This same year he besieged the city a second time, and overawed it in a manner which confirms still more the language of this seal, as applicable to these times. I give it again in the language of that historian, who, less than all others, will be supposed capable of favouring prophecy, and yet one. would almost think the following passage was written with an eye to this seal. "The Roman port (Ostia) swelled to the size of an episcopal city, where the corn of Africa was deposited in spacious granaries, for the use of the capital. As soon as Alaric was in possession of that important place, he summoned the city to surrender at discretion, and his demands were enforced by the positive declaration, that a refusal, or even a delay, should be instantly followed by the destruction of the magazines, on which the life of the Roman people depended. The clamours of the people, and the terrors of famine, subdued the pride of the senate." This year also, the city was spared; but the year following (A.D. 410), being besieged

a third time, it was taken and given up to the sack of the Goths. This was a direful retribution upon that wicked city, for the blood of the martyrs which it had shed. In the midst of it, God spared his own people; for Alaric being a Christian, though, like the rest of his nation, devoted to the Arian heresy, had given orders that the churches should be spared, with all who took refuge therein. And God's hand was both seen and acknowledged in the series of events which thus terminated the glory of Rome. "The learned work, concerning the City of God, was professedly composed by St. Augustine to justify the ways of Providence in the destruction of the Roman greatness. He celebrates with peculiar satisfaction this memorable triumph of Christ; and insults his adversaries, by challenging them to produce some similar example of a town taken by storm, in which the fabulous gods of antiquity had been able to protect either themselves or their deluded votaries." To describe the misery which attended, and ensued upon this righteous judgment of God, would be almost impossible; a few sentences, however, may be transcribed to help our conception: "The nations who invaded the Roman empire had driven before them whole troops of hungry and affrighted provincials, less apprehensive of servitude than of famine. The calamities of Rome and Italy dispersed the inhabitants to the most lonely, the most secure, the most distant places of refuge....the most noble maidens of Rome were basely sold to the lust and avarice of the Syrian merchants. The Italian fugitives were dispersed through the provinces, along the coast of Egypt and Asia, as far as Constantinople; and the village of Bethlem, the solitary residence of St. Jerome and his female converts, was crowded with illustrious beggars of either sex, and every age, who excited the public compassion by the remembrance of their past fortune. This awful catastrophe of Rome filled the astonished empire with grief and terror. So interesting a contrast of greatness and ruin disposed the fond credulity of the people to deplore, and even to exaggerate, the afflictions of the queen of cities. The clergy, who applied to recent events, the lofty metaphors of oriental prophecy, were sometimes tempted to confound the destruction of the capital and the dissolution of the globe."