martyrdom does not. The one is a sort of implied approbation of their own measures; but the other is a flat condemnation of them. The one says, that the cause in which the person was embarked was false, or not of sufficient importance to be contended for unto blood; but the other represents it as the very truth, most sure, and of such value and importance, that no sacrifices for it can be too liberal. Hence every method which craft and policy could suggest was employed to induce the Christians to apostatize their enemies appeared willing to give them their lives, upon what they apprehended to be the simplest conditions. If they would not part with the whole volume of the Scriptures, they signified, that they were willing to accept of any particular book, or part of a book, which belonged to the Scriptures; and that they might retain the rest in their own custody, and make what use of it they pleased, provided it was done privately. Or if they would not deliver up the Scriptures, they also signified their readiness to accept of any other book in lieu of them, as a sort of implied token of their having renounced the other. If they would not return to the stated worship of the gods, they told them, that their lives would nevertheless be spared, provided they would occasionally present themselves in their temples. Or if this were accounted too much, they required that for once they would come and offer sacrifice; and if they accounted the sacrifice of a lamb, or a kid, or a hog, to be too great a mark of respect, they required that they should throw the smallest quantity of incense into the fires of the altars, as a simple testimony of respect to the gods of their fathers. In short, they assured them, that any token of respect, however small, would be accepted as the price of safety; and that after this was given, they would never be molested, either in their persons or property, in any future period, upon the score of religion.

Too many were caught in these snares; but others would give no place whatever to the enemy. They resisted unto blood, striving against sin; and their death was generally the more cruel, that the conditions of safety offered them were

supposed by their enemies to be liberal and condescending. A heathen could not conceive that there could be any crime in offering a whole hecatomb to the gods of other nations; he therefore looked upon the Christians as foolishly obstinate and bigoted, when they would not so much as bow the knee, or offer a particle of incense to any god but their own. He also thought, that by rejecting such liberal offers, they were ungenerous and ungrateful, as well as obstinate, and therefore never could be punished with too great severity. Hence none of the modes of torture and of punishment was so severe as those which were employed against the Christians.

This is con

We have next an account of what was heard. tained in the two following verses, and consists of a petition and an answer.-The request is expressed in ver. 10: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? Malice or a thirst of revenge cannot certainly lodge in the bosom of any of the spirits of just men made perfect. When the martyrs were upon the earth, they were by no means actuated by a disposition to retaliate upon their persecutors. When they were in the act of stoning the first Christian martyr, he kneeled down, and prayed that the Lord might not lay that sin to their charge. Many that followed him in the cause of martyrdom gave striking proofs that they had drunk deep into the same amiable disposition. This proved, in numberless instances, to be the means of exciting a spirit of inquiry among their persecutors. They were compelled to reflect upon the singular nature and spirit of the religion of the martyrs, which could make them so cool and collected in the hour of death, and influence them to forgive their murderers, and to pray for them. Actuated by this spirit of prayer and forgiveness while they were yet in the body, we cannot for a moment suppose, that any portion of an opposite temper can dwell with them in the regions of perfection.

What then are we to understand by this cry of the souls beneath the altar?-It is intended to impress our minds with the two following truths:-1st, The sin of murdering the saints

is peculiarly heinous.

Great transgressions, such as murder, or the more gross and sensual violations of the law, are described as if they had a voice which might be heard; and the cry of these transgressions is always the louder in proportion as their aggravations have been the more heinous. Hence the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is said to have been great, because their sin was very grievous, Gen. xviii. 20; the blood of Abel is said to have cried unto God from the ground, Gen. iv. 10. In like manner, because the sin of murdering the martyrs was great, their souls are represented as crying with a loud voice.-2d, The principle of retaliation forms a part of the system of the Divine government. Our Lord has taught this doctrine in the plainest terms, in his sermon on the mount; 'With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again,' Matt. yii. 2. When he announced this doctrine, he did not teach any new or strange opinion; it had been declared from the beginning: Surely,' said God to Noah and his sons, your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man,' Gen. ix. 5, 6. And in a subsequent part of the Revelation we find, that because Babylon had shed the blood of saints and of prophets, she is to get blood to drink; for she is worthy, chap. xvi. 6. It is common in the history of Providence to find, that retributions are made in kind, and that delinquents may read the peculiar nature of their crimes in the species of punishment with which they are visited.

The objects of this merited vengeance are said to be those that dwell on the earth. As the earth is meant of the Roman empire, those that dwelt upon the earth must be intended of the subjects of that empire. Judgments had already been inflicted upon them. During the three preceding seals, they had been drinking of the cup of indignation. But their crime of shedding the blood of the saints was so aggravated, that no adequate punishment had yet been inflicted. Instead of being

reclaimed by the judgments with which they had been visited, they were become more than ever infuriated against the saints; a deeper and a more imbittered cup was therefore awaiting them.

This vehement cry is enforced by an argument taken from the moral character of the God of judgment; they designate him holy and true; and no argument could have been more forcible, as it is selected from the perfections of his nature, for the honour of which he cannot be a single moment indifferent. The truth and holiness of God are deeply interested in the punishment of iniquity; accordingly, when judgment is deferred, some shade appears to be cast over the lustre of these excellencies; and the more aggravated transgressions have been, that shade must always appear to be the deeper. The dying martyrs could forgive the offence, considered as an outrage committed against themselves; but they could not be indifferent about the interest which the declarative glory of God had in the merited punishment. Their concern for that matter was so great, it seemed to border upon a degree of impatience. Hence, while their mouths were filled with arguments which shew that the punishment was justly merited, their language runs in the form of a warm expostulation, as if they meant to insinuate, that both truth and holiness were injured by the delay. • How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ?'

The following verse (11th) contains the answer to this expostulation; in which we have an account of what was done, and of what was said in reply.

White robes, we are told, were given unto every one of them. These robes cannot be meant either of their justifying righteousness, or of their sanctification, both of which are often represented under the emblem of robes, or garments; neither can they be understood of glory in the abstract: because if any of these were intended, nothing farther would be suggested by the figure, than what is known to be the common attainment of all the spirits of just men made perfect. Even in this

life, believers are clothed with the robe of righteousness, and the garments of salvation; and when death has done its work upon them, whether it be by martyrdom, or by one of the more ordinary ways of dying, their sanctification is then completed, and their robes of glory are put on. But as robes, especially such as are of a white and splendid appearance, are a very common symbol of honours, by these garments may be intended the special honours of the martyrs; at any rate, they are fitted to remind us of the very remarkable change of circumstances in their case. When they were slain, many of them were stripped naked, and others were dressed in the coarsest, the most fantastic, and most shameful apparel; but now the naked were clothed, the fool's coat was taken off, and the garments of those that triumphed were put on.

As if there were some peculiar honours connected with sufferings for the truth, it is very common to speak of martyrdom under the notion of a crown; and there appears to be sufficient warrant from the Scriptures for the use of this language; Paul speaks of it as an honour conferred on some, that they had to suffer for Christ, as well as to believe on him, Phil. i. 29. And, indeed, if it be an honour to a person that he has been enabled to discharge his duty, his honour must always be the greater in proportion as the circumstances in which he was placed appeared to be unfavourable for the service. Hence military honours are generally considered as the most splendid which the world can bestow, because they are won on the field of danger and at the risk of life. I shall not, however, compare the circumstances of the martyr with those of the soldier. It is one thing to stand in the ranks of war, where there are many chances of escaping without a wound, and where the mind is so much occupied with the part which the soldier has to perform, that it has no leisure for cool and deliberate reflection, either about living or dying; and another thing to mark the slow steady march of death, especially when he is appearing in a form the most terrific that the genius of cruelty and injustice can invent. Though the death of the soldier might secure the victory to his country, very few would