first those only were seized who confessed their persuasion; and afterwards, by their information, a vast multitude were apprehended and condemned, not so much for their crime of setting the city on fire, as for their hatred of all mankind. Their sufferings at the place of execution were embittered by derision and insult. Some were disguised in the skins of wild beasts, and torn to pieces by dogs; some were crucified; while others, smeared over with combustible matter, were used as torches to illuminate the night."

Suetonius, speaking of Nero's reign: "The Christians, a race of men of a new and impious superstition, were severely tortured." 1

Juvenal 2 says of the same reign, speaking of a creature of Nero's whose name was Tigellinus,

"If you dare to speak of his enormities, you shall suffer as the Christians do. You shall suffer the same punishment with those who stand burning in their own flame and smoke; their heads held up by a stake fixed to their chins, till they make a long stream of blood, and melted sulphur on the ground."

Another ancient writer 3 turned their sufferings into ridicule, and mocked the heroic firmness with which these noble missionaries of Christ went to their death. I attempt a paraphrase:

"Look into the arena. You will see a Christian; his name is Mucius. He is about to place his own limbs on the burning pyre. Do not be so dull as to consider him a hero or a martyr ; it is nothing more than obstinacy; for when he is offered the choice of wearing his shirt steeped in pitch, or of sacrificing to the statue of the emperor, he says, I cannot do it; I prefer to die."

1 "Afflicti suppliciis Christiani, genus hominum superstitionis novæ et maleficæ."--In vitâ Neronis, 16.

2

"Pone Tigellinum, tædâ lucebis in illâ,

Quâ stantes ardent, quâ fixo gutture fumant,

Et latum mediâ, sulcum deducis arena."- Sat. i. 155.

3 Martial: "In matutinâ nuper spectatus arenâ

Mucius, imposuit qui sua membra focis,
Si patiens, fortisque tibi, durusque videtur
Abderitanæ pectora plebis habes,

Nam quum dicatur tunicâ præsente molestâ,

To this testimony I shall add that of the Christian histories themselves.

Eusebius1 says: "Nero, having the government firmly established under him, began to take up arms against that very religion which acknowledges the one Supreme God. He was the first of the emperors that displayed himself an enemy of piety towards the Deity. Thus Nero, publicly announcing himself as the chief enemy of God, was led on in his fury to slaughter the Apostles. Paul is therefore said to have been beheaded at Rome, and Peter to have been crucified under him."

Tertullian :-"Consult your edicts, there you will find that Nero was the first who savagely persecuted this sect, springing up ́every where, and especially at Rome, with the imperial sword. But we even glory in such a leader of our punishment, for whoever knows who he was, can understand that there could be nothing great and good but what was condemned by Nero."2

I beg you to observe from this accumulation of evidence, that the period immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem was one of savage and fiery persecution to the Christian Church; and that, although the Fifth Seal may be referred to any period of suffering when martyrs have cried from beneath the altar, it can refer to none with greater perspicuity than to Nero's reign. Persecutions, indeed, arose under Domitian and Diocletian; martyrs have been found in every age and dispensation of the Church; but the point for which we contend is this, we have named a certain date as the date of the writing of the Apocalypse-we find, from the internal evidence of the book, that it was written when the martyrs' blood was poured out like water; and we want proof to show that at that period such martyrdoms took place.

That evidence I consider we have in large abundance. Nothing can be more clear or convincing. The prophecies of our Lord the facts related in the Scriptures-the testimony of Heathen writers-and the evidence of Christian Fathers-all

1 Eus. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 25.

2 "Consulite commentarios vestros; illic reperietis primum Neronem in hanc sectam, cum maxime Romæ orientem, Cæsariano gladio ferocisse. Sed tali dedicatore damnationis nostræ etiam gloriamur. Qui enim scit illum, intelligere potest, non nisi grande aliquod bonum a Nerone damnatum."Tertull. Apolog. 5.

go to prove that this particular period was a period of great and terrible persecution, when Christian blood flowed in torrents; and that the Fifth Seal is a confirmation of our Lord's own words" The time cometh when whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service."

Having shown that the period immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem was an æra of martyrs, above that of any period which preceded it, I invite your attention to the appeal of these martyred saints to God, to "judge and avenge their blood on them that dwelt on the earth."

"How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth."1

Now this vengeance can only refer to that avenging wrath which fell upon Judæa and Jerusalem. No other vengeance came down upon any persecutors at any other age of the Church. Domitian and Diocletian persecuted the Church, but Rome Pagan did not fall in consequence of their persecutions. When Rome Pagan had merged into Rome Papal, the Waldenses and the Albigenses were hunted down like wild beasts by the edicts of Pope Leo X., but Rome Papal only reared her head the higher because of these exterminations. Protestants died by thousands on St. Bartholomew's day; but the Te Deum was chanted forth at Rome in honour of that slaughter, as if Rome had achieved some mighty victory.

Not so with the persecuting Jewish Church. That Church drank deeply of Christian blood, and deeply was that blood avenged. The souls of martyrs from beneath the altar implored vengeance, and that vengeance was at hand. The hour of retribution against those whose unrelenting hatred had followed the disciples from city to city" had arrived, and the prediction of the Saviour was about to receive its accomplishment:-"Wherefore behold I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city, that

1 Observe the expression "on them that dwell on the earth "—¿ò TÕV KAτοικούντων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς—an expression only used in the Apocalypse of the inhabitants of Judæa, which is abundantly proved by the many passages in which it is found in contrast to "every kindred, and tongue, and people, and

upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar; verily I say unto you all these things shall come upon this generation." 1

Eusebius2, in a wonderful manner, illustrates this vengeance as coming in consequence of the shedding of this righteous blood. He gives us an account of the martyrdom of James the Just; not James the brother of John slain by Herod, but James the son of Alpheus, the brother, or near relation, of our Lord, the first bishop of Jerusalem, called James the Just, on account of his pre-eminent justice.

The Jewish people come together unto James, and desire him to persuade the people not to be led astray after Jesus as the Messiah. They place him upon a wing of the temple, and say to him, "O thou just man, whom we ought all to believe, since the people are led astray after Jesus that was crucified, declare to us what is the door to Jesus that was crucified," and he answered with a loud voice, " Why do ye ask me respecting Jesus the Son of Man: he is now sitting in the heavens, on the right hand of great power, and is about to come, — μéλdeɩ μέλλει Epxeolai, is soon about to come, in the clouds of heaven."

-

At this they cast him down from the wing of the temple, and began to stone him, saying, "Let us stone James the Just ;" and one of them, a fuller, beat out the brains of Justus with a club that he used to beat out clothes.

Clement, whose words are quoted by Eusebius, adds, “Immediately after this, Vespasian invaded and took Judæa."

Hegesippus, quoted also by Eusebius, "So admirable a man was James, that even the wiser part of the Jews were of opinion that this was the cause of the immediate siege of Jerusalem, which happened to them for no other reason than the crime against him."

Josephus declares, "These things happened to the Jews to avenge James the Just, who was the brother of him that is called Christ, whom the Jews had slain, notwithstanding his pre-eminent justice."

It is impossible to imagine more satisfactory proof than this. One would almost imagine that the writers in question 1 Matt. xxiii. 34. 36. 2 Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 23.

must have read the prophetic statement before us,—must have heard the martyrs' cry, "How long, O Lord, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" This blood is poured on the earth like water—it ascends reeking up to heaven-it brings back its response.

"Immediately after this Vespasian invaded and took Judæa.” "This was the cause of the immediate siege of Jerusalem." "These things happened to the Jews to avenge James the Just."

Then was the martyrs' cry answered, then was the martyrs' blood avenged, "when all the righteous blood, from the blood of Abel to that of Zacharias came upon that generation," when the "Lord sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers1, and burnt up their city," when "Jerusalem that killed the prophets, and stoned them that were sent unto her,”—when the "city drunk with the blood of the saints and of the martyrs of Jesus," received double at the hand of the Lord for all her iniquities, -when the prediction had its full accomplishment, "Rejoice over her ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her."

I have yet one more point to establish, which is that this vengeance came soon. The martyrs are bid to rest for a "little season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled" (“oi μéλdovTES ÁTTOKTEίVEσla," that should soon be killed—the invariable force of the verb μew being to designate something soon about to happen).

This is a powerful argument for the Neronic date of the Apocalypse. The only people and city upon which vengeance was taken for the blood of the martyrs were the people of Judæa and the city of Jerusalem.2 That people and city perished

1 Matt. xxii. 7.—In this parable the Jews are called murderers, because of their persecution of God's holy apostles and prophets; "The remnant took his servants, and intreated them spitefully, and slew them."

2 If it be objected, why should vengeance come upon Jerusalem for persecutions which took place at Rome, it must be answered that the Jews in every land were the ringleaders of persecutions against the Christians; they were so at Antioch, Iconium, Corinth, and elsewhere. Jerusalem, moreover, was the only city threatened with vengeance for persecution, and upon her came all the righteous blood shed on all the earth."