themselves, especially if they have been puffed up by the blind admiration in which their gifts were held by others.

The substance of what has been advanced for the explanation of this text, may be presented in the following paraphrase. Immediately after the remarkable symbols of the sixth seal had been contemplated by the prophet, his attention was called to another scene, in which Satan, the restless and implacable enemy of the church, was beginning to embroil the heavens with new storms, and to give vent to his fury in a more dangerous manner than he had hitherto attempted since the introduction of her New Testament state. Every wind of error and delusion was ready to sweep the different districts of the Roman earth, and carry away the numerous tribes of nominal professors at once. And but for the interposition of the ministers of Providence, who restrained for a season the fury of this tempest, it had not been suspended for a moment; but, for the sake of the elect, and till the designs of God with respect to them were accomplished, a short season of tranquillity was afforded.

The calm, or season of tranquillity, predicted in this text, under the emblem of four angels holding the winds that they should not blow, appears to have been realized in the time of Constantine the Great. His accession to the undivided authority of the supreme power was a season of rest to the church and of peace to the state. Prior to this event both of them had been in the most afflicted condition. Everywhere the sword of civil contention had been bathed in blood; and no man durst avow himself to be a Christian, but at the risk of life, and of every thing which he accounted dear. But when a prince that professed himself to be a Christian was placed at the head of the empire, an injury could not be done to a Christian without incurring the displeasure of one who was able to avenge the quarrel, and give full redress of the wrong. The church was everywhere freed from persecution, and her members sat down under their vines and fig-trees, no man making them afraid. The rivals of Constantine having

perished in their contests with him, or with one another, civil war was brought to a termination; and, since the birth of Messiah, a more general peace had not been granted to the earth, than immediately after the opening of the sixth seal. It lasted till the year 340, when the civil wars commenced between Constantine the Second and Constans, two of the sons of Constantine the Great.

The internal peace of the church was not of so long continuance. The foundation of serious quarrels was laid in this society before any restraints were imposed upon her open and avowed enemies. The severe persecutions to which she had been subjected did not prevent the origin and progress of diverse and strange opinions; nor did Christians, even in times of persecution, always remain as one firm compacted body under the same discipline and government. Errors of a dangerous character had sprung up, and schisms and divisions were extremely numerous. In order to heal these divisions, and to put every one upon his guard against the influence of the pernicious doctrines of this age, a general council was assembled at Nice in Bithynia, by imperial authority, in the year 325. The immediate occasion of this council being convened was the controversy with Arius, one of the presbyters of Alexandria. He had publicly taught, that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was inferior to God; that he was a super-angelic being, the first creature whom God had formed; and was a worker with God in the creation of other beings, only as a mere instrument is employed by a workman. This heresy, so degrading to the eternal Son of God, and destructive to the souls of men, was nevertheless received by multitudes in the East; and while others could look upon it only with abhorrence, there seemed to be no way of vindicating the truth, and healing the divisions of the church, but by a general council deciding upon a question which affected the whole system of revealed truth. In this council, the blasphemous tenets of Arius were condemned, the true and proper deity of the Son of God was vindicated, and that famous creed or confession

VOL. II.

was drawn up, which has been commonly called the Nicene creed, and which to this day is nearly the same as established by that council. So far as the angels of the churches could check the progress of heretical opinions, by a judicial declaration of the truth and condemnation of error, this was done in that celebrated council. But, within the space of ten years after, a council of a very different complexion assembled at Tyre, in which the celebrated Athanasius was deposed and banished, and Arius, without recanting his opinions, was restored to the exercise of his office, and to his place in the church of Alexandria. To the honour, however, of the presbyters of that city, it deserves to be mentioned, that they absolutely refused to give him a seat among them, or in any way to countenance his public ministrations. Great influence was used by the emperor to overcome what a certain class in that age might reckon the obstinacy of the Alexandrian presbyters; but they were fixed in their determination, That, without a public renunciation of those opinions, whereby he had degraded the divine Saviour to the level of a mere creature, they would not have any ministerial or Christian communion with him. He was therefore removed to Constantinople, where he soon after died.*

We have alluded to the affecting circumstances with which the death of some of the most violent persecutors was attended; and as the concluding scenes of the life of Arius were not less remarkable than theirs, it may not be improper to subjoin a short account of them.

When Constantine found, that, notwithstanding the decision of the council of Tyre in favour of Arius, the presbyters of Alexandria would not admit him to fellowship with them, he brought him to Constantinople, that he might be admitted one of the presbyters of that church. The See of Constantinople was then filled with a prelate who was sound in the faith, and of great piety and integrity. Alexander, the bishop, was not to be intimidated by the threatenings, nor cajoled by the smiles of the emperor, to act contrary to what he believed to be his duty. Constantine knew his character, and therefore saw that there could be no way for the regular admission of Arius but by getting the scruples of the old bishop removed by some professed recantation on the part of the heresiarch. He accordingly ordered Arius to be brought to his palace, and there laid a copy of the Nicene creed before him, which he ordered him to subscribe. The orders were no sooner given than they were obeyed. He next ordered him to swear to what he had subscribed, which was also done.-After these solemn attestations, who, unless it were Alexander the bishop, would have been so uncharitable as to entertain a doubt of the orthodoxy of Arius? More solemn assurances, that

The period between the councils of Nice and Tyre appears to be the season of restraint imposed upon the winds, and in which the work of sealing is to be understood as carried on.

he was now attached to the Nicene faith, could not have been given; but, in this unhappy man, these assurances were nothing but the highest colouring which can be given to villany and deceit. Arius was the same man that he had ever been; he no more believed the true Godhead of the Saviour after these solemn protestations than he did before he gave his subscription and oath. He held under his arm a bundle of papers which contained his genuine sentiments; and by an equivocation, which has seldom been equalled in later times, even by those who have made the different methods of deceit their deliberate study, he swore that he believed as he had written, meaning, that he believed what he had written in his own papers. Constantine had no suspicion of the deceit; and as the way appeared to be perfectly clear for his admission, he ordered that he should be received in due form upon the following day. But Alexander had too many proofs of the duplicity of the Arians, to put much faith in their subscriptions or oaths. Of the twenty-two Arian bishops that voted in the council of Nice, only two had the honesty to refuse their subscription to the creed; all the rest subscribed it, as a pledge to the council, that they would teach no other doctrines than what were agreeable thereunto, the falsity of which soon appeared in all of them. And considering the deceitful and cruel measures which the whole party had adopted against Athanasius, in order that he might be deposed and banished, and how they had succeeded in their designs against that steady friend of truth, it is not to be wondered at, if Alexander did not pay much deference to the professed recantations of their chief. But what was the good man in such circumstances to do? The orders of Constantine were peremptory; and in case they were not complied with, they were likely to be followed by civil pains. He had still one refuge left. From the time that Arius had come to Constantinople, Alexander had spent the greater part of his time in fasting and prayer. When he received the orders of the emperor, he became more importunate than ever at the throne of God. In the fervour of his supplications, he prayed, That if Arius was in the right, he himself might not be spared till the following day to make any opposition to him; but if the faith which Arius had opposed was the true faith, he prayed that God would yet interpose, and by some visible mark of his displeasure, prevent his admission.-When the day arrived, Constantinople was little better than in a state of tumult, so great were the crowds that assembled upon the streets to witness the scene of Arius' admission. It was then clearly seen, that none of the friends of Arius believed there was any change in his views with respect to the divinity of the Saviour; nor did they take any offence at his having subscribed and sworn a creed which was in direct opposition to his own belief. As if they had won some great victory by the most honourable means, they paraded the principal streets of the city, carrying Arius in triumph towards the church where he was to be admitted, till they reached the forum; when the hero of the party was seized with a sudden panic, and at the same time with such excruciating pains in his bowels, that he could not proceed any farther, but requested that they would set him down, and shew him a privy where he might retire to ease himself. He was told there was one immediately behind the forum, which he no sooner reached, than he voided his bowels and expired! The place of his death was long memorable to posterity, till a rich Arian purchased the spot, and built a dwelling-house upon it, that the event might gradually sink into oblivion. But though the place may not now be easily ascertained, the fact itself can neither be forgotten nor disbelieved, as we have no fact in history which is more completely established.-Milner's Ch. Hist, v. II. cent. 4. chap. 3.

OBSERV. 1st, The church on earth is in a militant state. One campaign is no sooner finished than another commences ; one battle is no sooner fought than preparations must be made for another. The enemy with whom she has to contend is restless and implacable. His determination is to cut her off from being a nation, and to leave her without a name and a memorial on the earth. Accordingly, we are no sooner told of her warfare with Heathen persecutors being brought to a close, than we are informed of new trials which were awaiting her.

2d, The troubles of the church, like those of particular believers, are increased with her years. For the space of three hundred years, she had had trials of cruel mockings, of scourging, of bonds, and imprisonment.' She was first subjected to the resentment of the infidel Jews, and then to the weight of all that vengeance which Roman emperors and those in power could inflict. In reviewing the history of her trials, we see that they were not only protracted, but augmented in proportion to the time of their continuance. Hence, her last persecution from Heathen powers was by far the most severe. But afflicting as those evils were, this prophecy discloses others which appear to be more alarming, as the sky never wore a more scowling aspect, and the storm threatened to break out from all points of the heavens at once.

3d, Satan's malice against the church is implacable. Accordingly, when one method of doing her an injury fails, he instantly adopts another. In the period of the seals, he employed force rather than fraud, as he had then the secular powers upon his side; but the strong arm of Pagan violence was no sooner broken, than he made every effort to give currency to error and imposture. In this mournful period of the trumpets, both Antichrist and Mahomet arose. The delusions of the latter have spread over the East, those of the former over the West. Heathen persecutors could only kill men's bodies, but these adversaries have ruined their souls.

4th, Corrupt doctrines and opinions are various. Truth