thy works, O Lord God Almighty. This canticle is here said to be the canticle of Moses the servant of God, because it bears the sense, and is sung in imitation, of the canticle which the Israelites-sung to God, after having passed the Red Sea under the conduct of Moses, and seen their enemies perish in its gulf. For thus sung they: Let us sing to the Lord; for he is gloriously magnified, the horse and the rider he has thrown into the sea, &c. Exod. xv. 1. To the canticle of Moses the Christian saints immediately join the canticle of the Lamb, singing: Just and true are thy ways, O Kings of Saints; thus extolling his justice and bounty in his dispensations to them, for having subjected them to severe trials, having safely conducted them through by his grace, and crowned them with victory. Then they conclude their religious hymn in addressing Almighty God thus: Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and magnify thy name? For thou only art holy for all nations shall come, and shall adore in thy sight, because thy Judgments, or punishments on the impious, are manifest.

From what has been exhibited in this scene, we learn, that the Almighty is jealous of whatever injuries are offered to his servants, and takes upon himself the judgment of their cause. Though for the proof of their zeal, and for their greater crown, he permits their enemies for a while to exercise their tyrannical power over them, yet in his wisdom he reserves to himself a time, in which he will revenge the evils done to them, and severely punish their persecutors. Not only former ages furnish a great number of known instances of such punishments, but the word of God openly declares such to be the tenour of the divine economy. Will not God, said our Saviour, revenge his Elect who cry to him day and night : and will he have patience in their regard? I say to you, that he will quickly revenge them, Luke xviii. 7, 8.-Hence we are prepared for what follows.

V. 5. And after these things, proceeds St. John, I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.

V. 6. And the seven Angels came out of the temple,

and possessed of many amiable qualities, which gained him from the senate the title of " Optimus," or "Good Prince." But this glorious title received a black and indelible stain from the persecutions which he permitted to be carried on against the Christians. For though he issued out no new edicts against them, he suffered the former sanguinary laws to be executed in different parts of the Empire in the years 106, 107, &c. A clear instance of this appears in his answer to Pliny the Younger, Governor of Pontus and Bithynia, who had written to know his pleasure, what should be done with the Christians, who were very numerous in the provinces of his government. Trajan's answer was, "Let "the Christians not be sought for; but if they be accu❝sed and convicted as such, let them be punished.” The chief of those who gained the crown of martyrdom in his reign were, St. Clement, Bishop of Rome; St. Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem; St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, whom Trajan himself condemned and sent to Rome, there to be torn to pieces by wild beasts in the Amphitheatre.

The fourth Persecution under Marcus Aurelius.

The fourth persecution finds its place in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, in the year 166, &c. Many Christians indeed had been sacrificed under the Emperor Adrian, by virtue of former laws remaining in force, but at last he mitigated them by an express order. Marcus Aurelius was extremely superstitious; and as he also boasted of being a philosopher, he was easily instigated by the heathen priests and philosophers against the Christians, whose principles of religion and philosophy were so contrary to theirs. If Aurelius issued out no new edicts, he permitted at least the Governors of provinces to put in execution the laws subsisting. And that the persecution was very violent and bloody, appears from the several Apologies presented to him by St. Justin, Melito, Athenagoras, and Apollinaris, entreating him to put a stop to it. The same is also evident from the number of those that were crowned with martyrdom. In Asia, St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna,

was put to death, and many others about the same time. At Rome was beheaded St. Justin, who wrote two Apologies for the Christians. Several others shared with him the same crown. At Lyons, St. Pothinus the Bishop, and many of all ages and conditions, were, through the most acute and cruel torments, conveyed to Heaven. At length the Emperor put an end to the persecution about the year 174, prevailed upon, as is supposed, by the signal favour he and his army, in the German war, received from Heaven, by the prayers of the Christian Legion. He was shut up in narrow defiles, and surrounded by the Quadi and Marcomanni, and his soldiers were ready to perish with excessive heat and thirst. Under these calamities, the Christian soldiers humbly addressed themselves to God, who immediately sent a plentiful shower of rain, which relieved Aurelius's army, and at the same time a violent storm of hail, with dreadful flashes of lightning upon the enemies; which gave a complete victory to the Emperor.

The fifth Persecution under Severus.

After the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180, the Christians enjoyed a respite of tolerable peace till the reign of Severus, a crafty, treacherous, and bloody prince, and by his nature truly answering his name. He at first treated the Christians with humanity, but was afterwards prevailed upon by their enemies to commence a furious persecution. He not only suffered the Governors of the provinces to persecute the Christians by the laws already standing, but he gave out in the year 202 fresh edicts, which were executed with such rigour and barbarity, that the Faithful imagined the time of Antichrist was come. About the beginning of this persecution, Tertullian wrote his Apology for the Christians, a masterly work, in which he refutes all the calumnies published against them, shows the divine morality of their doctrine, and exposes the absurdity of the Pagan religion. But it does not appear that so pathetic an address had any effect. The fire of this persecution raged through all the provinces of the Roman Empire, but far from consuming the Church of Christ, it only

served to purify it, and to make it shine with greater lustre. The most illustrious victims immolated on this occasion were, St. Victor, Bishop of Rome; Leonidas, Origen's father, beheaded at Alexandria, and several of Origen's scholars; St. Potamiæna, an illustrious virgin, and her mother Marcella, after various torments, were burned alive; S. S. Felicitas and Perpetua, the one a noble lady in Mauritania, and brought to bed but the day before; the other at that time a nurse; St. Speratus and his companions beheaded at Carthage; St. Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, and many thousands of his people martyred with him.

The sixth Persecution under Maximinus.

During the space of twenty-four years, times were peaceable for the Christians, till Maximinus stept into the Imperial Throne in 235, a man of base origin, and barbarous nature. He raised the sixth persecution, chiefly against the bishops and ministers, and the teachers and principal promoters of Christianity. The historian Capitolinus says of him, that "never did a more "cruel beast tread on the earth." St. Pontian Pope suffered in this persecution, and several others. Happily it did not last above two years, Maximinus being cut off after a short reign.

The seventh Persecution under Decius.

For ten years from the death of Maximinus till the reign of Decius, the Church enjoyed a tolerable tranquillity and as Maximinus's persecution was chiefly levelled against the pastors, the bulk of Christians had tasted the sweets of peace for thirty-eight years. This period of tranquillity occasioned, conformably to the bent of human nature, a remissness in the Christians, and a relaxation in their morals; of which St. Cyprian, who lived at that time, grievously complained. Almighty God, therefore, to punish their neglect, to revive their fervour, and to try them in a fiery crucible, permitted a most severe general persecution under Decius, in the year 249. This savage emperor, seeing that Christianity had gained prodigious growth over the whole Ro

man empire, and that Paganism on that account visibly declined, was resolved to support the latter by effectually ruining the former. He therefore issued out a cruel edict against the Christians, and sent it to all the governors of provinces. The Christians were immediately driven from their houses, and stript of their estates: whips and prisons, fires and wild beasts, scalded pitch and melted wax, sharp stakes and burning pincers, were the ordinary instruments used for their torments. Slow tortures were particularly employed, in order to tire out the patience of the sufferers. This persecution crowned at Rome Fabian Pope, Abdon, and Sennen, and many others. A great harvest of martyrs was made at Carthage: Apollonia, with many others, suffered at Alexandria, as related by St. Dionysius, bishop of that see. In the East it swept away Babylas, bishop of Antioch, Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, with thousands more. Such was the rage of the pagan magistrates, that the historian Nicephorus declares, it would be easier to count the sands of the sea, than to reckon up all the martyrs of this persecution. Many Christians fled from this scene of slaughter into the deserts. One of this number was St. Paul, of the province of Thebais in Egypt, who became an eminent anchoret, and is styled the first hermit.

The eighth Persecution under Valerian.

Valerian being invested with the imperial purple, was at first very favourable to the Christians; but he suffered his mind to be poisoned by the suggestions of magicians, who persuaded him, that to procure success in his wars, and prosperity to the empire, he must render the gods propitious by suppressing Christianity. In this view he issued out edicts, and commenced a bloody persecution in the year 257, which lasted three years and a half. Some of the chief martyrs were: at Rome, St. Stephen Pope, his successor, St. Xystus, with St. Lawrence, his deacon; St. Fructuosus, bishop of Tarragon in Spain; St. Saturninus, bishop of Toulouse, and St. Felix, of Nola. Many were the holy victims in Egypt, as St. Dionysius, bishop of Alexan