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hot judg& avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth?

feal is Dioclefi

fecution.

Severus.

See here what clearly fignifies a Period in The fifth which the Church fuffers a cruel perfecution; & 'tis that which was caufed by Dioclefian an's per & his fucceffors, the most bloody that ever was, longer & more cruell than the nine others taken together: For faith Orofius, Sulpitius during ten years they ceafed not to burn Orofius. the Churches, to profcribe the innocent, Scaliger & to make Martyrs by Maffacres & Punish- dat Teing. ments. In Egypt alone were Maffacred 144 thousand men, & 70 thousand were banished. Thence comes the name of Era Diocletiana & Era Martyrum, an Epocha famous in the history of the Church.

After this comes the fixth feal, under which we have faid we must find the fall of Paganism. Indeed a little time after Dioclefian, Conftantine afcended the Throne of the Emperours, & made the Chriftian Religion reign. He & his Succeffors ruin'd Paganifm. This fall of the Pagan Religion is thus reprefented to us.

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1.5.

And I beheld when he had opened the fixth.11 feal, lo there was a great Earth-quake, & the Sun became black as fack-cloth of hair, the Moon becamered as blood.

And the Stars of Heaven fell to the Earth, even as a fig-tree cafteth her untimely figs, when fhe is fhaken of a mighty Wind.

And the beavens departed as a fcroll when it is rolled together, & every mountain I island were moved out of their places.

And the Kings of the Earth,

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V. 57.

The fixth

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the chief captains, the mighty men, & every bond-man, & every free-man hid themselves in the dens & in the rocks of the mountains.

And faid to the mountains & rocks, fall on us,& hide us from the face of him that fitteth on the Throne, & from the wrath of the Lamb.

For the great day of his wrath is come, & who shall be able to ftand?

All these images are borrowed from the Trumpet laft judgment, wherfore they are ufually the fall of applied to it. Becaufe indeed this fall of Paganism. Paganism. is the moft terrible judgment that

yet ever fell fince the beginning of the World
on the Devil's Empire. We must know that
in the whole Revelation we see these three
heads reigning, the Dragon,
the Dragon, the Beast,
the falfe Prophet. The Dragon is the Devil, the
Beaft is the Roman Empire, the false Prophet
is the Pope. The Dragon hath two Empires,
the First is pure Paganifm, & purely Pagan.
The fecond is Antichriftian Paganism mingled
with Christianity. See here the fall of the
first Empire, that is the purely Pagan Empire
of the Dragon.

1. There is agreat Earth-quake. In the style of the Prophets, & particularly of St. John; an Earth-quake always fignifies a Change of the face of affairs in the world, because Earth-quakes overturn the Earth, & make it Change its face. Now what change of the face of affairs in the world can be imagin'd greater than that which happen'd under Con

frantine

ftantine & his fucceffors. The Church had been beat down, maffacred, it was bathed in its own blood, & all on a fudden behold. 'tis the Miftrefs of the world. It is become. rich & powerfull, it builds ftately Temples, it overturns the Temples of Idols.

2. The fun becomes black as fack-cloth. We muft hold it for certain that the Sun, the Moon & the Stars in the Revelation always fignify the Sovereign, the Dignities & Powers of the Empire treated of. We fhall afterwards fee this every where. Here the Empire treated of is that of the Red Dragon, viz. The Devil. So that the Sun is the Soveraign of: that Empire who is the Devil himself. The Moon is the Pagan Religion, which borrowed: all its power from the Devil, as the Moon takes all its light from the Sun. The Stars are the Pontifexes & Priefts of Paganism. Allthese powers fuffer'd an Eclypie, were deftroyed by the Chriftian Emperours,& tumbled to the ground like Figs by a great

wind.

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3. Every mountain & Every Ifle were reat moved out of their places, i. e. the Temples, the Idols, the Cities, the places peculiarly i confecrated to the devotion of certain Pagan divinities were changed, & fuperftition therin was abolisht. The hand of God fell heavily on the Gods of the Romans, as formerly it did on the Gods of the Egyptians.

4. Lastly, The Kings & all men of every age & condition are exceedingly terrified, run up & down, flee, hide themselves, &

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endeavour to efcape the judgment & the wrath of God. One might have seen above a hundred times more than what the Prophet here faith, if one could have feen the commotions that then happen'd, the terrors, the diftreffes, the frights that the invifible Empire of Demons fuffer'd at the fall of Paganism. All that the Devil fuffer'd at the coming of J. Chrift into the world was nothing in comparifon of this. He reigned notwithftanding; he was mafter of Empires, Crowns, Temples, Altars, But all on a fudden, & at that very time, when he thought he had entirely ruin'd the Empire of J. Chrift by the perfecution of Dioclefian, behold him himfelf caft down on the Earth. 'Tis eafy to judg that the Horrours & Commotions of the evil Spirits were unconceivable. And moreover, who can doubt but that this great body of Pontifexes Priests & Pagan Ministers felt a prodigious commotion, when Constantine turn'd Christian, & his fucceffors beat down & ruin'd all the Temples of the Idols. Hiftory tells us enough of this; & tho it faid nothing, it would be very eafy to apprehend that the images here made ufe of are not too lively to reprefent the commotions of the Heathens & of Paganism. This Period brings us to Theodofis the great, under whom Paganism expired; but after whom alfo the glory & quiet of the Empire was quite loft, as we shall fee hereafter. The greatness of the Roman Empire & Paganism fell at the fame time. This was a great matter of triumph, to the

Pagans &

Pagans, who faid, The Gods had abandon'd the Empire, fince their Altars had been beaten down. But God was providing for great events & it was neceflary the temporal Empire should fall, to make way for the Spiritual Empire of Antichrift.

CHAP. VI.

An explication of the four first Trumpets, which are the five degrees of the Fall of the Roman Empire, or the Soveraignty of Rome.]

the 144

fealed

Ch.

He 7th. Ch. is a vifion that interrupts the The my courfe of the feven feals. Here God ery of causes his Elect to be fealed, & their number thoufand amounts to 144 thoufand. We thall fee in perfons the process of this difcourfe that 144 is a facred in the 7th. number, appointed to fignify the Church; a number that arifes from twelve multiplied by it felf. For the prefent it is fufficient to obferve that God takes the time between the fixth feal & the firft Trumpet to caufe his elect to be fealed, because more unhappy fad, & much more fatall times were at hand than the foregoing ones. In the ages of the Heathen Emperours & under the Seals there were cruell perfecutions, men had fuffer'd much in their bodies. But under the Trumpets must come the dark Kingdom of Antichrift, wherin the fouls of the Chriftian-Church must be attack'd with Spiritual Temptations,

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