The same reasoning may be applied to show, that the remaining symbols of the sixth seal cannot, any more than those which have been considered, be referred to the revolution in the time of Constantine. The heaven, or political constitution and government of the Roman empire, did not then pass away, nor did the mountains and islands, the kingdoms and states, remove from their places. In fact, there were at that time no independent kingdoms and states within the limits of the empire; it formed one undivided kingdom or mountain. I am happy to have it in my power to support the above reasoning by the authority of Vitringa, whose arguments on the subject are accurately abridged as follows by the author of the Illustrations of Prophecy: "In the time of Constantine, the civil government was not overturned. It is true," says Vitringa, "some emperors were divested of their power. But in this there was nothing new or singular. The same rank and the same title The imagery of " which Constantine had wrested from his rivals, he "himself continued to retain. "the sixth seal exhibits to us the change and sub"version of the state of some empire, which should "be accomplished with a sudden shaking and the "most violent commotion.' But the alterations in"troduced by Constantine, were executed in a period of profound peace; and there was nothing in them that corresponded to the figures of the subject. The present state of Europe seems to me to resemble an edifice, hastily built with loose stones, without mortar or cement I still believe that we are in the midst of the last great earthquake. February, 1817. "prophet. In the subversion of paganism the "Christian emperor did," says Vitringa, "proceed "with moderation and with caution. Many of its 66 temples and its shrines continued untouched; the "art of divination was still publicly practised; their "estates, their salaries, their privileges, still remained "in the hands of the vestals, and the priests, and the "hierophants, in the greater cities, and especially "at Rome, where an altar stood to the honour of "the goddess Victory. Public sacrifices were per"mitted; and a large proportion of the Roman "senate, many years after the time of Constantine, "continued in the belief, and persevered in the patronage, of the heathen superstitions. Do these, "and other things which I omit, answer to the imagery of the sixth seal? Whilst men addicted "to the idolatry of paganism were every where "promoted to the highest dignities of the state, at "a time when Christian emperors held the reins of government; had they any necessity to say to the "mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide "us from the wrath of the Lamb? Was paganism "subverted with violence and a mighty commotion, "when, long after the time of Constantine, it sub"sisted and flourished in the principal cities of the empire?" In further confirmation of the arguments of Vitringa, it may be mentioned, that the seven first Christian emperors continued to accept, without hesitation, the title, the ensigns, and prerogatives, of sovereign pontiff of the pagan rites, which had been instituted by Numa, and assumed by Augustus.* * Gibbon's Decline and Fall, cap. xxi. The foregoing reasoning seems sufficiently to refute the common interpretation of the sixth seal; and the whole imagery of it shows, when compared with various other passages of the prophetical writers, particularly those above quoted from Joel and the Evangelists,* that it relates to that great and final revolution which is to agitate and convulse the nations of Christendom before the second advent of our Lord with the clouds of heaven. Indeed no other application of this seal, will either correspond with its sublime and terrific imagery, or its place in the chronology of the Apocalypse; for. we have seen, that the fourth seal leads us down to the period of the great persecutions by the papal power, and that the fifth seal contains the promise of a day of retribution for the blood of the saints, when the number of those who were to die as martyrs for the faith should be completed. Having read this promise, when we afterwards peruse the account of the sixth seal, it is quite natural to apply it to the promised day of recompence, but altogether forced and unnatural to turn back to the times of Constantine for its accomplishment. Indeed, in what possible sense can it be said, that the number of the martyrs was completed in the times of Constantine, when the greatest and most bloody persecutions of the faithful disciples of Christ did not take place till about eight centuries afterwards? The sixth seal must therefore be applied to that main revolution, as it is termed by Sir Isaac Newton, * See also Isaiah xxxiv. 4—8; which evidently refers to the destruction of the anti-christian powers, and in which the same language is used as in the sixth seal, which is immediately to precede the establishment of the glorious kingdom of Christ upon earth. This revolution is predicted by the prophet Daniel, under the symbol of the coming of the Ancient of Days, and the sitting of the judgment; the slaying of the fourth beast, and the giving of his body to the burning flame.* These events happen immediately before the coming of the Son of Man, with the clouds of heaven, to receive that glorious kingdom, of which we read so much in the writings of the prophets. The scene of this revolution is therefore. to be sought for within the body of the fourth beast, or in those kingdoms which formed the Western Roman Empire. It is the same revolution which is again mentioned in the Apocalypse, on the sounding of the seventh trumpet,† and more particularly described under the seventh vial,‡ between which and the sixth seal there is a most remarkable similarity. The principle of this exposition of the earthquake of the sixth seal is of a very remote antiquity. That "it predicted the great events which were to happen "at the destruction of Antichrist, was the opinion of Victorinus, of Andrew, and of Arethas, whose "commentaries on the Revelation are still extant. "The first of these filled the episcopal see of Pettaw, "in Austria, and suffered martyrdom under Diocle"tian; the second, about the close of the fifth "century, was bishop of Cæsarea, in Cappadocia ; " and the last is supposed to have been bishop of the same see in the succeeding century."§ Vitringa thus quotes the sentiments of Arethas: "On con Dan. vii. 9—14. + Rev. xi. 19. Ib. xvi. 17-21. "sidering this matter, Arethas, after saying that "some interpreters refer these emblems to the "overthrow of the Jewish state, excellently observes, Though it be most true that these things were so, 'yet they shall be more completely fulfilled at the coming of Antichrist; not in the quarter of "Judea only, but in the whole world. This (says Vitringa) he "afterwards confirms by the sym"bols of the four winds, which shall in that time "concur to produce this great catastrophe of things." In like manner, the same learned writer quotes the sentiments of Victorinus, expressed in the following laconic but decisive sentence; " This "is the last persecution;" by which he means the persecution of Antichrist." Now it is well known, that the ancient fathers connected the coming of Antichrist with the last times, and imagined, that the second advent of our Lord was to take place immediately after the revelation of Antichrist. According to this view, therefore, any event which was placed by them at the coming of Antichrist, was immediately and indissolubly associated, in their minds, with the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Having thus seen, that the commonly received interpretation of the sixth seal is erroneous, and that it refers not to any thing that took place in the time of Constantine, but to the final revolution which is to precede the second advent of our Lord, I shall defer the further consideration of the first part of that seal till we arrive at the seventh trumpet, and the seven vials of wrath, in which the revolution - of the sixth seal is more particularly described. In the mean while I remark, that it appears to me, |