impatience, that they were actuated by the purest benevolence, and were desirous, above all things, for the establishment of true religion and happiness throughout the world, it is added-that "white robes were given to every one of them." These were the emblems of innocence and purity, as the inspired writer himself has more than once explained them": and the possession of these fully acquits those, to whom they were given, of any uncharitable or improper feeling.

The answer, however, to their question, introduces the subject of the present prophecy. "It was said unto them, that they should rest yet "for a little season, until their fellow-servants

also, and their brethren, should be completed, "who were about to be slain, even as they had " been."

Of this description was to be the period denoted under this Seal! It was evidently to be far more distinguished by sanguinary proceedings against Christianity, than by any other circumstances whatever. And though it is here denominated "a little season," yet it will soon be perceived, that it was incomparably more dreadful, on account of the duration and unremitted violence of the predicted persecution, than any that had preceded it. As a portion of time, it was, indeed, short, in respect to that which had elapsed since the opening of the first Seal; but, as a period of

d Rev. vii. 14. and xix. 8. See also p. 116.

violence, oppression, and cruelty, it must have appeared tedious and distressful beyond measure.

I. The Prince, the latter part of whose reign is disgraced by these enormities, was Dioclesian; who was proclaimed at Chalcedon, on the seventeenth of September of the year 284; but was not firmly seated on the throne till after the death of Carinus, about the middle of the next year, when his sovereignty was universally acknowledged. And, for this reason, as the Emperor Carinus, and Julianus, who had assumed the purple in Venetia, were both put to death in the former part of the year 285, I have preferred including that part of year within the period comprehended under the fourth Seal, to commencing that under the fifth Seal, with the date of Dioclesian's proclamation, when he was by no means master of the empire.

the

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In an historical point of view, however, the day above mentioned is the more remarkable, as it is the beginning of a new Era, called " the Era of Dioclesian," and sometimes "the Era of the Martyrs ;” which, for many ages, continued in use in the Church; and is still in use among the Cophts, the Abyssinians, and some other nations of Africa®.

The edict against the Christians, which gave

* For an account of this ever memorable reign, the reader may consult Anc. Univers. Hist. Vol. XV. book III. chap. xxiv. p. 483-508. and Gibbon's Decline and Fall, Vol. II. chap. xii. xiii. p. 109-184, and chap. xvi. p. 458-489.

rise to the last general persecution of them throughout the Roman Empire, was published at Nicomedia, by Dioclesian, at the instance of Galerius, on the twenty-third day of February, in the year 303. "Dioclesian and Galerius passed "the winter of 302 at Nicomedia in Bithynia, in "consultation,-not about the means of extend

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ing the empire, and securing it against the in"cursions of barbarians, but-concerning the "most effectual methods of utterly extirpating "THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, to which Galerius had "imbibed, from his infancy, an irreconcileable "hatred. He found means to inspire Dioclesian "with the same fury, and, as we may call it, mad"ness; the effect of which was the most bloody "and dreadful persecution the Church had yet "suffered.

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"It raged ten whole years with a fury hardly "to be expressed, the Christians being, almost every where, without distinction of sex, age, or "condition, dragged to execution, and tortured "with the most exquisite torments, that rage,

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I cruelty, and hatred, could invent. Such num"bers of Christians suffered death in all the pro"vinces of the empire," except Gaul, "that the

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tyrants, imagining they had compassed their "wicked intent, and entirely abolished Christianity, told the world in a pompous but lying inscription, that they had extinguished the "Christian name and superstition, and every "where restored the worship of the gods to its

"former purity and lustre. But the Church triumphed over all the powers and artifices “of men; and, in spite of the utmost efforts of tyranny, prevailed, a few years after, in the very metropolis of idolatry and superstition."

Such is the brief epitome, which the writers of the Ancient Universal History have given us, from Eusebius and other authors, of this hitherto unparalleled period of distress %. Mr. Gibbon, with the evident view of apologizing, in some degree, for the inhumanity and tyranny of the persecutors, attempts, in opposition to the same historians, and especially Eusebius, to extenuate the sufferings of this dreadful time; and, by a calculation, to diminish the numbers of those who are said to have suffered. But it is quite sufficient for the fulfilment of the prophecy, that, according to his own statement, many must have suffered; and that the interval alluded to must have been a season of great distress and difficulty to the Church".

It was not till towards the close of the year 312, that Constantine, jointly with Licinius, published a decree in favour of the Christians, which allowed them the free use of their religion, and the power to build Churches; and, thus, placed them beyond the reach of further persecution. II. It may, perhaps, be interesting, as contain

VOL. I.

g In Vol. XV. p. 502.

h Decline and Fall, Vol. II. p. 489-494.

P

ing a clearer elucidation of the accomplishment of this prophecy, if we trace the gradual progress of the evil, till it had attained its greatest extent of calamity. And, in doing this, I shall follow the arrangement of a very learned ecclesiastical historian, who has written more largely upon the subject'.

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1. It commenced, then, with the edict above mentioned; the purport of which was-" to destroy the Churches of the Christians; to burn "all their books and writings; to take from them "all their civil rights and privileges; and to ren"der them incapable of any honours or civil pro"motion."

2. This order, however, although it occasioned the destruction of many, and especially of those who refused to deliver up the sacred books, was not yet deemed sufficiently severe and inclusive; and, therefore, by a second edict it was enjoined, that" all the Bishops and Ministers of the Chris"tian Church should be cast into prison."

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3. Nor did the implacable enmity of Galerius rest here for a third edict was soon after issued, by which it was commanded, "that all sorts of "torments should be employed, and the most in"supportable punishments invented, to compel "these captives to renounce their profession, by

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sacrificing to the heathen gods." The consequence of this was, as my author has eloquently

i Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. Cent. IV. Part I. chap. i. § 1—4.