their reign was brief; That they were soon compelled to seek their spiritual sustenance from God in a solitude created by dissimilarity of spirit, faith, practice, and number, from the public worshippers around them; That a struggle for religious supremacy between the Christians and Unbelievers ensued, resulting in the discomfiture, and political degradation of the Unbelievers, together with the permanent downfall of their religious system (which the historical extracts we have quoted now enable us to denominate Paganism), and its officiating dignitaries; that the Christians greatly rejoiced over their victory and the triumph of their Master's kingdom; congratulated each other on their exemption from the persecutions to which their brethren before them had been subjected by the false accusations of their unbelieving enemies; and triumphantly proclaimed that their persecuted and slain brethren had contributed to the present victory by preferring death to abjuring their faith in the efficacy of the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, or to ceasing to bear testimony to the truth of his holy word; That these exultations were accompanied by acknowledgments and proclamations of the happiness accruing to a people under Christian government; That Paganism, although dethroned and degraded, still lived amongst sections of the Roman people and amongst the barbarians; That furious struggles, promoted by despair, were made by the Unbelievers to restore the influence of their religion, resulting in entailing calamity and woe upon its vanquished adherents; That signal efforts to deprive the Christians of the spirit of the religion that had advanced them to their recently acquired elevated position, were made by the Unbelievers, who, having gained some new and important accession of strength, directed their forces towards extinguishing the vitality of the Christian religion; That their efforts resulted in banishing the spirit and the disciples of that religion into obscurity for 1260 years; That the remaining public worshippers retained the name without the spirit of Christians; That the mitigated result of banishment in the place of extermination was due to the favour and support of an emperor, who was sole master, and united under one

standard the military power of the Roman empire; That the exterminating efforts of the Unbelievers, thus partially frustrated, were continued in the form of a flood of poisonous doctrines and insidious religious subtilties, which threatened to complete the unfinished work by overwhelming the Spirit of truth whilst fleeing, and after his flight into the retirement, "prepared of God" necessary to his safety; That the Roman people, or their successors, in the course of time, absorbed, extinguished, or mitigated the effects of those doctrines and subtilties to such an extent as to save the Spirit of truth from the annihilation threatened by the flood; That true Christians, or those "who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ," were few in number, and but a remnant of those who had cast down the Unbelievers, together with their religious system, from the Roman throne; That the future experience of that remnant betrayed the enmity of the prince of this world, and the active obedience yielded by his adherents to his secret instigations; and lastly, That, on the expiration of 1260 years, "the waters of the flood had abated from off the earth," that the dragon's power to make successful war with the Christian remnant was curtailed, that a manifestation of the reappearance of the Spirit of truth took place, and, as a visible sign thereof, that Christians were invested with marks of stability and permanence sufficiently distinctive and remarkable to be held as consistent evidence that the term of their banishment from collectively taking conspicuous part in public events had terminated.

In reply to these requirements history informs us :-That the Christians, having been from time to time persecuted with more or less severity by the Pagan emperors of the Roman empire, were, in the year 303, subjected by the emperor Diocletian, at the instigation of Galerius, to a persecution of such severity that its term of duration (ten years) has been historically styled the era of martyrs. We have the circumstances of this persecution thus reviewed in Lecture III. p. 66:-"That a memorable era of Christian persecution, emphatically styled the era of martyrs, occurred A.D. 303 to 313, has been abundantly shown and found to be

in its chronological place; also that Christian blood was shed by the Roman rulers and people, to an extent previously unknown; that martyrdom was the only visible Christian worship is illustrated by 'being left destitute of any public exercise of religion,' and 'the punishment of death decreed against all who should presume to hold any secret assemblies for the purpose of religious worship;' to which may be added the silent testimony of inscriptions, still existing in caves and catacombs where the Christians secretly congregated for worship, cut in memory of a martyr, or otherwise referring to the cruelties of Diocletian's persecution. That they would be slain in the character of a sin-offering, is answered by 'everyone refusing to offer sacrifice should immediately be burnt alive,'' the magistrates were commanded to employ every method of severity which might reclaim them from their odious superstition, and oblige them to return to the established worship of the gods,' and, ‘the edicts which we have published to enforce the worship of the gods,' all implying the Christians being sacrificed to appease the wrath of the heathen gods, to whom the presence of the Christians was deemed to be a great offence, and the cause of the calamities that had lately befallen the empire. The governors in the provinces were authorised in punishing with death the refusal of the Christians to deliver up the sacred books,' illustrates that they would be found preferring death to parting with their bibles or abjuring their faith. Ten years shows the persecution to have been remarkable for the length of its duration, and the circumstances thereof, for its unparalleled severity. The edict of toleration extracted from Galerius by the torments of a loathsome disease, and a sense of his approaching end, illustrates in its fullest sense, the public acknowledgment of injustice and error, and the public recognition of the righteousness of the Christian cause—' desirous of repairing the mischief that he had occasioned,' indicating remorse, and we hope that our indulgence will engage the Christians to offer their prayers to the Deity whom they adore for our safety,' indicating fear in his last moments, of being judged for his cruelties, and the blood of the martyrs shed by him being eternally

avenged;" from which it will be seen that the Christians' experience previous to the year 313 furnishes a perfect comment on the prophetic figure, "And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered," which has been held to denote that the struggles of the Spirit of truth to give to the Christians a public position in the world, such as they had not hitherto occupied, were attended by circumstances of great trial and peril; as also will it be seen that the prophetic figure is parallel with, and refers to the same event as that of the fifth seal, "And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" and therefore that the experience of the Christians foreshown by," And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars," should follow the edicts referred to of the dying emperor Galerius.

That this experience did follow is thus shown in Gibbon's 16th chapter. After reciting the last edict of Galerius, issued A.D. 311, which will be found in vol. i., p. 63 of our first series, the historian says:

"When Galerius subscribed this edict of toleration, he was well assured that Licinius would readily comply with the inclinations of his friend and benefactor, and that any measures in favour of the Christians would obtain the approbation of Constantine. But the emperor would not venture to insert in the preamble the name of Maximin, whose consent was of the greatest importance, and who succeeded a few days afterwards to the provinces of Asia. In the first six months, however, of his new reign, Maximin affected to adopt the prudent counsels of his predecessor; and though he never condescended to secure the tranquillity of the church by a public edict, Sabinus, his prætorian prefect, addressed a circular letter to all the governors and magistrates of the provinces, expatiating on the imperial clemency, acknowledging the invincible obstinacy of the Christians, and directing the officers of justice to cease their ineffectual prosecutions, and to connive at the secret assemblies of those enthusiasts. In consequence of these orders, great numbers

of Christians were released from prison, or delivered from the mines. The confessors, singing hymns of triumph, returned into their own countries; and those who had yielded to the violence of the tempest, solicited with tears of repentance their re-admission into the bosom of the church."

Having thus sufficiently shown us for our present purpose that the Christians were indirectly recognised by the emperor Maximin and directly favoured by the emperors Constantine and Licinius, before giving that favour and its consequences more conspicuous mention, Gibbon proceeds to illustrate, "And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth; and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born;" which have been held to require in illustration, that a third authority in the empire opposed the Spirit of truth, and degraded his bishops; and that the unbelieving representatives of all the heathen nations, instigated by the prince of this world and filled with malignity at the imminent prospect of the Christians obtaining a political existence in the empire, leagued themselves together to deprive them of that existence so soon as obtained. These requirements the historian satisfies by saying in continuation :

"But this treacherous calm was of short duration; nor could the Christians of the east place any confidence in the character of their sovereign. Cruelty and superstition were the ruling passions of the soul of Maximin. The former suggested the means, the latter pointed out the objects, of persecution. The emperor [fit representative of the symbolic dragon's tail] was devoted to the worship of the gods, to the study of magic, and to the belief of oracles. The prophets or philosophers, [the dragon's representatives of all the idolatrous nations of the earth], whom he revered as the favourites of heaven, were frequently raised to the government of provinces, and admitted into his most secret councils. They easily convinced him that the Christians had been indebted for their victories to their regular discipline, and that the