fcape his righteous judgment; for he gave them over, fome to be flain in the wars; fome to be tortured with horrible diseases; fome to be poifoned; fome to be murdered; and fome to murder themfelves. Thus did God the avenger fhew himfelf from heaven, as history reports, and pay home to the full thefe perfecutors of his church, making them examples of his wrath, and fpectacles of his vengeance to all nations.

And when he had opened the third feal, I heard the third beaft say, Come and fee. Then I beheld, and lo a black 'horse, and he that fat on him, had balances in his hand,' &c.

By the black horfe, famine and death is fignified; for the black colour is a mournful fad colour, and what maketh men more penfive and fad than famine, and extreme hunger? for it is a thing intolerable; and therefore the Holy Ghoft faith, they be better that are killed with the fword, than they that die of famine,' Lam. iv. 9. He that fitteth on this horfe, hath a balance in his hand, which fignifieth great penury and scarcity of all things, but efpecially of victuals, infomuch, that men must be put on allowance, and their bread and drink must be delivered out by weight and meafure, as is often the cafe with cities that are long befieged. This is the punishment

which God threateneth in Leviticus xxvi. 6. and Ezekiel iv. 5. That he would break the ftaff of bread, and that ten women 'fhould bake in one oven, and deliver bread by measure.'

Now to declare the grievoufnefs of this famine, a voice cometh from the throne and from the angels, that a measure of wheat fhould be for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny:' the meafure here spoken of is a chenix, which fome writers fay, was as much as would ferve a man for bread-corn for one day: And the Roman penny under Domitian, was always feven pence of our money. And at that time the labouring man did work for a penny a-day, which would do little more than buy him bread-corn. How then should his wife and children do? whereas it is faid, wine and oil hurt thou not,' I take that it fhould rather be tranflated, In wine and oil thou fhalt not do unjustly:' as the word will bear it. And the fenfe is, that in the state of corn and victual, they shall deal confcientiously and mercifully, not felling at the higheft, hut rather at the loweft rate now in the times of extreme fcarcity.

Now all this is to be understood of that moft grievous famine which we read to have been about the year of our Lord 316,

and fundry times afterward. And all this for the contempt of the gofpel preached by Christ and his apoftles upon the whitehorfe, and the murdering of God's faints, by him upon the red-horfe, and his inftruments. So grievous and fearful a thing is the contempt of the gofpel, and the perfecuting of the faints. And God did moft justly cause the world to fmart for it, and make them with forrow enough to feel the punishment of the gospel rejected.

And when he had opened the fourth feal, I heard the voice of the fourth beaft fay, Come and see,' Rev. vi. 7.

And I looked, and behold a pale horse, • and his name that fat on him was death, and hell followed after him,' &c. ver. 8.

This pale horfe fignifieth the peftilence and other contagious diseases, which God moft justly brought upon the world for the contempt of the gofpel, and the murdering of Chrift and his apoftles. And as I noted before out of the fcriptures, that when God cometh either in mercy or judgment, he is faid to come on horfe-back, to note his expedition and fwiftnefs, both in the one and the other; fo, as before, Chrift is upon the white-horfe, the devil upon the red-horfe, famine upon the black horfe: fo here death and hell are faid to be upon the pale horfe;' for peftilence and death mak

eth men look pale; but being dead, he faith hell followed. For affuredly. hell doth always follow the death of the body, excepting thofe only whom Chrift hath delivered from hell and damnation by the power of his death.

Thus then it is; the red horfe with blood, the black horfe with famine, the pale horfe with peftilence, have power given over the fourth part of the men to murder, kill, and flay; as all history do fhew, that for the rejecting of Chrift and his gofpel, thefe plagues were carried as it were on horfeback, over a great part of the world. Now as touching this famine and peftilence which fell out upon the opening of the third and fourth feals, they are to be referred unto thofe times efpecially, wherein the Huns, Goths and Vandals, and other barbarous nations which were the wafters of the world, did waste and destroy the Roman empire both far and near. Whereupon grew this famine, fcarcity, and pefti- lence, and frrange difeafes here fpoken of, which happened about three hundred years after Christ.

And when he had opened the fifth feal, I faw under the altar, the fouls of them that were killed for the word of God, and for the teftimony which they maintaimed,' Rev. vi. 9.

Here is discovered the ftate of the mar tyrs after this life, and the condition of the fpirits of all just and perfect men. For whereas it might be demanded, what became of all thofe heaps and multitudes of men which were flain for the testimony of Jefus in the ten perfecutions, it is here anfwered, that they were under the altar.John in a vifion feeth them under the altar.' That is, under the merciful protection of Chrift in heaven, who for them and for us all, was made both altar, priest, and facrifice. This altar Christ, is afterwards called the golden altar, which is 'before the throne of God,' Rev. viii. 3. So then it is clear, that the fouls of the martyrs were with Chrift in glory. For he faith to his difciples, where I am, there 'fhall you be alfo,' John xiv. 3. another place he faith, If I were lifted up 'from the earth, I fhould draw all men un

And in

to me,' John xii. 32, that is all believers. Then it followeth, that the fouls of thefe juft and righteous men were in paradise, and in Abraham's bofom, which is the very port and haven of falvation. For although the perfecuting emperors, and other tyrants of the earth, had power to kill their bodies, yet they had no power over their fouls, as our Lord Jefus affirmeth.