wind; the face of the sky is then rolled up, as the ancients folded up their manuscripts, which exhibited to the view of all mankind the Lamb of God sitting on his throne, surrounded by the ministers of his just and holy displeasure. The earth, morever, is in constant trepidation; every mountain and island move out of their places, and all the inhabitants of the earth, great and small, call upon the moving mountains to hide their guilty heads from the angry countenance of the judge. Like imagery is employed in the Old Testament, when the fall of the empires, there foredoomed, is described. Nothing less than the supplanting of Paganism by the corrupt church can equal the grandeur and extent of this revolution.

It was of a religious nature, the Lamb of God was the great agent; it could not have been the revolution of a civil government merely, which seldom much affects the common people, who are only transferred amid such changes from one master to another; but this is the similar and equal dismay of

every member of the community. When Paganism was no longer countenanced by the court, and all favour flowed into the lap of Christianity, every rank in the empire, down to the common slave, felt the pressure and injustice of the new and unlooked-for partiality.

We have now brought down the history to the destruction of Paganism and the firm establishment of the Christianity of that day as the religion of the empire. The zeal, circumspection, and piety, that so greatly distinguished its first advocates, gradually yielded to the corrupting influence of prosperity, wealth, and honour; the devoted servants of God, however, were many in number in every rank of life, who stemmed the torrent of corruption, propagated the truth in the countries that bordered the empire, and delayed the evils they were unable to prevent, but feared would increase, till they were ripe for the judgment long foreseen. This delay comes before us in the following symbols.

CHAPTER VII.

War described as winds.

- Decay of the military spirit. Judgment delayed until the servants of God are sealed, or deprived of influence. — Palm-bearing multitude, &c. -The corrupt church.

Verse 1. "AND after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree."

Irruptions of an enemy a, wars, or national contentions, are described as winds in prophetic language. The revolutions that ultimately broke up the Western and Eastern empires are here intended, for when the restraint of the four angels was severally removed, the blasts of the trumpets were successively heard. The first wind, perhaps, ushered the Northmen into Europe, the

a Isaiah, xxvii. 8.; Hosea, xii. 1.; Jer. iv. 11-13.

south wind brought a swarm of Saracenic locusts into Syria and Africa, the blowing of the east wind laid waste the Byzantian empire, and destroyed the sixth head of the Roman dragon; and the west wind, when it blows, will complete the divine judgments, and bring about a holier state of things than the world has yet beheld.

As the military spirit of the empire degenerated by the voluptuousness of the court and of all ranks, the inroads of the barbarians became more menacing and dangerous. Theodosius was the last emperor who firmly held them back; but the bribery and gifts of his successors only increased their demands, till, finding the empire ripe for dismemberment, they accepted no other terms but unconditional surrender.

The cause assigned for delay is the sealing of the servants of God. But to seal a thing a in prophetic language is to hide it. When the book was opened by the Lamb in the

a Isaiah, viii. 16.; Dan. ix. 24.; xii. 4.

midst of the throne, the corruptions of the Church were brought to light, or their establishment was declared; and as these corruptions grew into enormity, they threw such a dark shadow upon the truth, that it was no longer clearly seen, but in its turn was obscured or sealed in the shades of night. We learn by this symbolical language that God would not allow the barbarians to dismember the empire for the punishment and correction of a false church and his professing people, as long as there existed outward marks of a true church, and whilst his servants obviously conducted or considerably influenced ecclesiastical affairs. This, how

ever, did not long continue.

Verses 2-8. "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, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of God in