"and lo," a black horse! denoting mourning and woe, darkness and ignorance. "And by him that sat on the horse having a yoke in his hand, is signified a state of bondage to ceremonies, authorized penances, rigorous fastings, and monkish austerities—a state directly opposite to that of the happy liberty of the Gospel, and to which we are exhorted to stand fast, and resist every attempt to subject us to ordinances and a yoke of bondage."*

With regard to the character and acts of Justinian, a good deal has been advanced in the work on Old Testament prophecies,† from which it will be perceived what a lasting and portentous influence his reign had on the religious aspect of the times: and it is almost sufficient to refer to what is there said respecting the epoch which he formed in the Christian church, to shew its peculiar adaptation to this season of mourning and spiritual famine here described. His victorious career, added to his great talents, enabled him to hold with a firm hand the reins of government; and to silence the discord of war and contending factions in the church. But in doing this he created a new era, and set the seal of his overwhelming authority to evils of greater magnitude; and the cessation of those bitter feuds settled down, as a natural consequence, into a state of gross spiritual darkness, ignorance, and the most deplorable spiritual oppression throughout the whole of the Christian world.

* Gal. v. 1; Col. ii. 16; 1 Pet. ii. 16. + Diss. pp. 245, 251.

This was more effectually accomplished by means of the code of laws which this emperor promulgated, and which are even famous to this day. In these he new-modelled the laws of the empire; and likewise, besides numerous separate edicts, he incorporated the ordinances relative to the regulation of church discipline; making his own faith the rule and measure of orthodoxy to the whole empire. Indeed it was one of the chief businesses of this emperor's eventful life, to interfere with every thing, and with the most arbitrary authority to order every thing respecting church affairs. In character Milner represents him, though chaste and temperate, the slave of superstition and avarice, and the consequence of all his schemes to have been "dissensions and schisms, forced conversions attended with cruelties, which alienated men's minds still more from godliness, the growth of superstition and formality, the miserable declension of real internal godliness, and the increase of ignorance and practical wickedness.'

وو

The sole object and attention of the ministers of religion, from the highest to the lowest, appear to have been schemes of ambition and avarice; and no arts are represented to have been too gross to satisfy their rapacity, nor any crimes so flagrant of which they were not guilty. The language of Mosheim is, that at this time "the cause of true religion sank apace, and the gloomy reign of superstition extended itself in proportion to the decay of genuine godliThis lamentable decay," he says, was sup

ness.

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plied by a multitude of rites and ceremonies." In short, the austerities and abstinence of monks, the number of which was prodigiously increased; the senseless round of ridiculous and most unauthorized mortifications, penances, and rigorous fastings, imposing a most oppressive and intolerable yoke, superseded altogether the simplicity of Gospel truth; whilst the most corrupt doctrines, such as the worshipping of images, relics, and saints; prayers for the dead, tales of purgatory, the efficacy of good works, and the traditions of men, took place of the word of God.

Such was the direful state of the visible church universally throughout both the eastern and western portions of the empire at this era of its history. It is well that a voice from the highest authority and most dread command-for it is stated to be from the midst of the four living creatures who were stationed close around the throne, and therefore it was the voice of God-it is well that such a word offered one restraint to its most pernicious consequences. The meaning of this voice, divested of metaphor, is, that although there should be a dreadful scarcity of the word of life, for the famine here spoken of, means "Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the words of the Lord,"* of that bread by which the souls of men are fed and sustained,—yet that there should be some supply of this living food left, though it should be exceedingly scarce, and

* Amos viii. 11.

purchased at a high price; and that it should be, though in such small quantity, pure and uninjured.

The word thus spoken by God, has, it is our happiness to experience, been, during the long progress of these dark times, wonderfully fulfilled. There has always been a moderate supply of spiritual food. The grand saving doctrine of Christianity, of salvation by faith through the blood and righteousness of Christ, has always been taught. "And that invaluable store-house and repository of Divine knowledge, of spiritual wine and oil, the holy Bible, the word of God, has been accessible to some persons in all times since this injunction was delivered. Through all the ignorant, fanatical, factious, and corrupt hands, by which this sacred treasure has been delivered down to us, it has passed, in the main, uninjured. The corruptions of it, even for the base purposes of party zeal and worldly domination, have been miraculously few. Thus hath the prophetical injunction from the throne been wonderfully fulfilled, through a dark period of long continuance, and of great difficulty and danger. "The oil and the wine have not been injured."*

THE OPENING OF THE FOURTH SEAL;

Or the utter and entire Corruption of the Visible Church, and its attendant Miseries.

"And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, Come and see. And I looked,

† Dean Woodhouse.

and lo! a pale livid-green horse! and his name that sat upon him was Death, and hell followed with him. And power was given unto him over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” (vi. 7, 8.)

It might have been imagined that no state could have been worse than the one which has just been described; yet here we have another of still deeper horror and guilt presented to our view; and history fully verifies the prophecy that another gradation of ecclesiastical barbarism, still more terrific than the former, did, at the time we are about to consider, set in the deepest gloom over the fourth part of the empire, and one that in all respects answered to the symbols of this seal.

The horse here is represented the livid colour of corruption" of a grassy green which, though beautiful in the clothing of the trees and fields, is very unseemly, disgusting, and even horrible, when it appears upon flesh."

"There is a sublime climax," observes Dean Woodhouse," or scale of terrific images exhibited in the colours of the horses in the four first seals, denoting the progressive character of the Christian times. It begins with pure white, then changes to fiery, or vengeful; then to black, or mournful; and when we imagine nothing more dreadful in colour can appear, then comes another gradation in colour much more terrific, even this deadly pale." But this is not all-" he that sat upon him" his name was Death, he is not described; the picture of this

*Dean Woodhouse's translation.