When Chrift opened the second seal, so much more of the roll, as was contained between the fecond and third feal, was rolled off, and John faw, drawn upon it, the picture of a red horfe, with a rider upon him holding a great fword in his hand.

This hieroglyphic was drawn in fuch a manner as to intimate, that power was given to this rider to take peace from the earth; and that the inhabitants of it fhould kill one another. The red colour of this horfe, the great fword in the hand of the rider, and the notes intimating that he was to take peace from the earth, and that its inhabitants should kill one another, are as plain a declaration, as could be made in any language, that this hieroglyphic fignifies that, during the period to which it refers, there should be much perfecution and bloodshed on the earth.

The earth is the fymbolical name for the Roman empire. We fhall meet with this fymbol very frequently in this book, and fhall find it always used for the Roman empire. In Luke ii. 1. All the world is used to fignify the Roman empire: "And "it came to pass in those days that there went forth "a decree from Cæfar Auguftus, that all the world "fhould be taxed." In this paffage, there can be no doubt that, by all the world, is meant all the Roman empire, for the emperors of Rome could never impofe taxes beyond the limits of the Roman em

pire

pire, comprehending all the nations which were tributary to it.

It will be proper that here, once for all, I explain the principle on which the Roman empire is reprefented by this fymbol. The reafon why, in this book in particular, and in the writings of the New Teftament in general, the Roman empire is called the earth, is, that during the period in which the New Testament was written, and to which the events predicted in this book relate, the Roman empire was the only univerfal empire on earth known in fcripture. And alfo because it is ftiled "The kingdom on earth," by Daniel, whofe book of prophecy is opened up in this book, and therefore it is highly proper that the name given to the Roman empire in the fhort predictions of Daniel, fhould be preferved in this book, which may be confidered as Chrift's commentary on Daniel's fealed book. Daniel foretold four great monarchies under the. appellation of the kingdoms of the earth, and alfo another and a spiritual kingdom under the appellation of the kingdom of heaven, Dan. ii. 31,-45. He predicted thefe more fully in Dan. vii. 15,-27. which paffages the reader is defired to confult with attention. Of thefe four kingdoms he faith, "they "fhall rule over all the earth. They fhall arife out “of the earth. And the fourth beaft fhall be the "fourth kingdom upon earth" Of the other and fpiritual kingdom he faith, "And in the days of

"thefe

"dom.

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"these kings fhall the God of heaven set up a kingAnd the kingdom and dominion and the greatnefs of the kingdom under the whole heaven "fhall be given to the people of the faints of the "Moft High." These four kingdoms on earth were the Affyrian, the Perfian, the Grecian, and the Roman empires. These followed each other in regular fucceffion. And each of them, during the period of its continuance, was ftiled the earth in fcripture. Thus a proclamation of Nebuchadnezar, a king of the first of these, runs thus, Dan. iv. 1: "Nebuchadnezar the king, unto all people, na"tions and languages that dwell on all the earth." Of a king of the fecond it is faid, Ezra i. 2. “Thus "faith Cyrus king of Perfia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the "earth." Of the third, under the hieroglyphic of a he goat, it is faid, Dan. viii. 5. “And as I was confidering, behold a he goat came from the weft in "the face of the whole earth, Verse 21. And the "rough goat is the king of Grecia." Of the fourth kingdom or Roman empire, it is faid, Dan. vii. 23. "The fourth beatt fhall be the fourth kingdom

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46

upon earth. It is in reference to what is faid of the fifth kingdom, as the kingdom which the God of heaven shall fet up, that the real church of Chrfit is, uniformly, ftiled the kingdom of heaven in the writings of the New Teftament. And it is for the fame reafon that, in this book, heaven is the fym-'

bol

bol for the church for Chrift, and earth is the fymbol for the Roman empire.

This hieroglyphic predicts bloody perfecutions, to which Christians should be exposed in the Roman empire. The rider on the red horfe fhall take peace from the earth or Roman empire, and they shall kill one another. The contentions in which the Roman empire fhould be engaged fhould not be wars with a foreign enemy; and those who fhould be killed fhould not be fubjects of any other kingdom on earth. The citizens of Rome should perfecute and kill those who were their fellow citizens.

Christians are here reprefented as citizens of Rome. Better citizens never were in the Roman nor any other empire than the Chriftians of this period were. They had learned from the united precepts and example of the Divine Author of Christianity, to render unto God the things which were God's, and unto Cæfar the things which were Cæfar's. The better Chriftian any man is, the better fubject is he of that civil government, be its form what it will, of which, in the course of divine providence, he is placed as a citizen. Whilft in matters purely religious, and which are not the proper objects of human authority, he calls no man master on earth; in matters of a civil nature, taught by the infpired and infallible ftandard of fcripture, Rom. xiii. 5. "He is fubject not

"only

only for wrath but also for confcience fake, verfe 7. "He renders unto all their due, tribute to whom "tribute is due, cuftom to whom cuftom, fear to "whom fear, honour to whom honour, 1 Pet. ii. 17, "He fears God and honours the king." Tim. ii. 2,-3. "He prays for kings and all in authority, "that Chriftians may lead quiet and peaceable lives "in all godliness and honesty; for this is good and acceptable in the fight of God, our Saviour, who "will have all men to be faved and to come to the "knowledge of the truth."

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1

As Chriftians could, with a good confcience, acknowledge themselves citizens of Rome in its heathen state, and did act properly as fuch in all matters merely civil, they are not diftinguished, in this book, from the other citizens of Rome, by a particular name, fo long as the empire continued heathen. But whenever the empire became papal, Chriftians are diftinguished, in this book, from the citizens or rather votaries of Rome. Then the former are uniformly filed faints, and the latter them that dwell upon the earth. And the kingdom of the former is called heaven, and that of the latter the earth, as fhall appear as we proceed. After the Roman empire became papal, as its conftitution was then partly of the civil and partly of the religious kind, Chriftians could not acknowledge themfelves citizens of that empire, VOL. I. without