I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake. The word signifies any violent shaking or concussion in the system of things. It must be understood in

all the latitude of its meaning here; for this concussion affected the heavens as well as the earth. The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, the moon became as blood, and the stars fell from heaven. The shock was so violent, that the whole system appeared as if it were to be reduced to its original chaotic state, and either to be melted down into its first principles, or to be thrown into such confusion that it could be no longer habitable.—In the language of symbols, an earthquake, or any violent concussion in nature, is uniformly taken to denote a revolution, either in political or in religious society. Two other earthquakes are described in this book as the symbol of changes by which the state of religion was to be deeply affected, chap. viii. 5. and xvi. 18. And this earthquake may be intended as the symbol of some change which was deeply to affect either the church or her adversaries. To see what this change is, it will be necessary to consider the different particulars in the description, as stated in the order of the verses.

The first object mentioned is the sun; And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair. The allusions are borrowed from the appearance of the heavens about the time of an earthquake. On these occasions the sun is seldom visible; the moon is shrouded, or assumes a bloody appearance; fiery meteors glide through the atmosphere, and drop like stars from their spheres; the whole region of the heavens has the most scowling and ominous appearance. Even the brute creation are amazed and terrified, and hasten to their dens and places of retreat.-Our blessed Saviour is frequently compared to the sun; and he is certainly of all that advantage to the church which the natural sun is to the system of things. He is the light and life, the soul and ornament, of the whole society; he unites all genuine believers into one body mystical; and how ́ever remote they may be from one another, either in respect

of time or place, they are all within the sphere of his attraction, and are the subjects of his power and grace. Without him there could not be such a society as the church, any more than there could be a planetary system without a sun.

But this mystical sun cannot be meant of Christ; for in no period of the church's existence did her sun ever become black as sackcloth of hair. Were it meant of him, then the moon would be the symbol of the church, and the stars the hieroglyphics of her public ministers. But the concluding verses of the chapter are at variance with this interpretation: for there the wicked are described as being filled with the greatest dismay; which would not have been the case, if this sun were meant of Christ, and the moon were intended of the church, because there is nothing they desire more, than that the splendour of the sun of righteousness were concealed, and the moon of the true church perpetually shrouded, or covered with blood.

The meaning of this symbol will be best ascertained, by attending to the nature of the dispensations which the figures are meant to describe. And any one may easily perceive, that they are judgments, and not mercies; and that they were not to be inflicted upon the church, but upon her adversaries. They are the practical answer to the cry of the souls beneath the altar; they are the righteous retributions of God, for the blood of the saints which had been wantonly shed by the men that dwelt upon the earth. When this seal was opened, the brethren and fellow-servants of the martyrs were supposed to be slain, the list of martyrs under the Pagan state of the empire was completed, the cup of the iniquities of Heathen persecutors was full, the little season was run out, and the period of the Divine forbearance was come to a close. No obstacle therefore remained, which might retard the work of judgment any longer. Accordingly, the object of this smiting must have been the sun of Heathen persecutors and idolaters, and not the sun of the true church. And of what object can this mystical sun be interpreted, but of the false gods of the Heathen? was in the cause of these gods, that they imbrued their hands

in the blood of the martyrs and confessors of Jesus. As Jéhovah executed judgment upon all the gods of the Egyptians, when he brought up the ancient church out of the furnace of Egyptian persecution, so he here threatens to execute judgment upon all the gods of the Roman state, whose worshippers had manifested the same spirit of intolerant zeal with Pharaoh and his subjects. When the worship of idols was abolished, when their statues and temples were thrown down, when every law that had been enacted in favour of the ancient idolatry was repealed, and Christians were permitted to meet together for the exercises of social worship, and secured against harm, it was then that the sun of Heathens was smitten, and the system of superstition and idolatry, of which that sun was the centre, appeared as if it were about to be dissolved.

So completely was this false luminary shorn of his beams, that he became black as sackcloth of hair. The clothing of mourners and of penitents was usually of the coarsest fabric and of the blackest hue. It was generally made of hair; and the darker the natural colour of the materials, it was always accounted the more suitable for the occasion on which it was worn. Cloth fabricated of hair which was naturally black, did not require any artificial die, and was sure to retain its colour; the tinge which it received from the hand of nature could not be taken out by any applications which the ingenuity of man might suggest. To this species of sackcloth is the allusion in the text; and the figure seems intended to intimate, that this sun would never be permitted to resume his splendour. The whole mass or substance would be affected, so that the light would be turned into perpetual blackness and darkness. And if you except the short reign of Julian the apostate, Paganism has never, since the time of Constantine, been the established religion of the Roman empire. Other forms of religion, many of them no better than those of the ancient Heathen, have been established within its limits; but the Divine displeasure has continued to be marked against the monstrous polytheism of the ancient Romans, by preventing the name of

Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, or any other Heathen god, from being honoured by acts of worship sanctioned by the authority of those in power. The sun of Heathenism continues to shine in many countries beyond the ancient territorial possessions of the Romans: it is an affecting consideration, that the largest half of the inhabitants of this globe are still in a Heathen state; but Satan has not been able to add any new territories to his Heathen dominions. Ever since the introduction of the New Testament dispensation, the Pagan state of his kingdom has been mouldering away.

The second object affected by this concussion was the moon; And the moon became as blood. The planet called the moon, like our earth, derives all its light from the sun. Owing to its varied positions in the heavens, it is continually presenting some new appearance to the eye, either waxing or in the wane, shining with a full orb, or so faint as hardly to be discerned. It never fails, however, to exert a very powerful influence over the earth, especially over its fluid parts.-The accommodation of these particulars to illustrate the state and character of the church were easy. But this symbolical moon cannot be intended of that church which derives her light from the sun of righteousness, because, though all the suns of the Pagan world had been extinguished at once, she would not have become as blood, nor her lustre fallen under any sort of eclipse. She made no part of the system of which they were the centre; she derived none of her light from them; neither did she put forth any influence by a virtue derived from them. Though the Pagan world had been annihilated, or reduced to the wildest chaos of confusion, the moon of the true church would have continued to shine.

The moon spoken of in this prophecy must be intended of that society which stood in the same relation to Heathen gods, that the true church does to Christ. It was the moon of Pagans, and not of Christians, that became as blood. And when the sun had become black as sackcloth of hair, it was impossible that the moon could give her light; she was covered with

a perpetual shade; yea, she appeared to be shrouded in blood. And this was certainly her true aspect, when God in righteous judgment avenged the blood of his martyrs, by giving to their persecutors and murderers blood to drink, for they were worthy.

This prophecy met with a remarkable accomplishment in the wars of Constantine the Great. When he was saluted with the title of emperor, in the year 306, the Romans were under the rule of four different chiefs; two of them bore the title of emperor; the other two were called Cæsars. These different rulers exercised a sort of joint domination over the whole empire; while each of them occupied a distinct part, over which his jurisdiction was more immediately exercised. Each was an emperor or a Cæsar within the limits of his own provinces, and enforced his rule, not simply by the powers with which he himself was invested, but by the conjoined authority of the other three. It was not to be expected that such a mode of rule would continue any length of time, as the authority of the senate was now no longer a check upon the the prerogatives of those in power. The consequence was, that these rulers soon became rivals to each other; each became jealous of the power of his colleagues, and only wanted some plausible excuse to make war upon them. A state of warfare soon became the natural consequence of their jealousy and ambition. Accordingly, between the year 306 and 323, the Roman history is full of the account of battles and sieges, plots and conspiracies, and all those calamities that are incident upon a state of the fiercest civil contention. It may be sufficient to remark, that in this bloody strife for pre-eminence, one of these great captains fell after another, till Constantine was left without an opponent. In the year 323, he was declared to be sole emperor; but before he attained to this proud distinction, the moon of the Heathen world was covered with blood; thousands, if not millions, of the worshippers of false gods were slain. Among the sufferers in this terrible carnage there was a very great proportion of those who had been most active in the persecutions against the Christians; not a few of whom