son for believing, then "what must be after these things" can only relate to the things which immediately succeed. Now at the conclusion of the last Pagan persecution, and we may say without an interval of time, and, what is remarkable, on the same day, in distant parts of the world, the two persecuting emperors (for the empire was then divided between two) did resign the imperial dignity, and Constantius the father of Constantine was chosen in the room of one of them. He, shortly after, dying at York, constituted his son Constantine, born of the princess royal, and heiress of the British throne, to be emperor in his stead; and this same Constantine, emerging, as it were, out of the last Pagan persecution brought Pagan persecution to an end, and established Christianity instead of Paganism, over the bounds of the Roman Empire: and from this time forth the Christian church hath a new aspect, under conditions altogether new. We should expect, therefore, both from the language of the text and from the revolution in the condition of the church, that what is temporary in the application of this second vision is to the time immediately consequent upon the Pagan persecution, and commencing with the era of Constantine's advancement to the imperial throne.

With respect to its place, we shall, upon grounds which cannot be disputed, and which are wholly derived from the vision itself, now demonstrate that it is the western half of the Roman empire which acknowledged Rome for its head, after the eastern part had found another head in Constantinople, which this same Constantine built, to be the capital of the whole empire, and so to supplant old Rome. But Providence had otherwise purposed, that by this act the empire should fall asunder into two parts, each under its own metropolitan city; and that this division should be the means of exhibiting a double mystery,—the one the mystery of a church preserving the truth, but in a state of imprisonment; the other denying the truth altogether: the one of a church in a state of apostasy, the other of a church in a state of heresy: the one making idolatries out of truth, the other denying and altogether losing sight of the truth the one of the Roman, the other of the Greek church. And God having thus provided, we have the western empire, with Rome at its head, as the locality of this vision on which we are now entering, and we

have the eastern empire, with Constantinople at its head, as the locality of the next vision, which is the vision of Christ the Avenger, the vision of the seven trumpets of woe. Though it be somewhat premature, and doth as it were anticipate the progress of the vision, to enter upon the locality of this vision, we do it on purpose, because when laying down the time of the things that occur in this vision, it is natural to desire likewise to know the place. The time is from the raising up of Constantine, to fight under the Cross the battles of the church, and triumphantly to establish it upon the throne of the empire; the place is that western half of the empire which Constantine was chiefly instrumental in dividing, by the erection of another metropolitan city.

Of the time, little or nothing further need be said; it is expressly after the things of the former vision: but upon the place it may be convenient to enlarge a little. For, as we have observed in our former discourses, time and place are essential elements of every prophecy. Not indeed the highest and noblest elements thereof, which are the knowledge of God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the method of their dealings with the nations and cities of the earth. But forasmuch as every prophecy of Scripture needeth to have some marks by which it may be known to be of God, and not of man, these marks of Divine authenticity are given to it, through the conditions of place and time, which man can judge of, and by which man can know that the prophecy is of God; according to the rule given by Moses, unto the children of Israel, Deut. viii. 22 : "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously.' In all Divine prophecies, therefore, there are conditions of time and place, whereby to ascertain the fulfilment of the word spoken, and thus to know that the whole information, instruction, and revelation built thereon for the use of men, is truly from the Lord. Having ascertained therefore the time of the act of this vision, to be upon Constantine's setting up his standard of the Cross, we observe, further, with respect to the place; that it is the region called the earth, of which a fourth part was smitten under the fourth

seal, and peace was taken from it under the second seal, and vengeance was called down upon it by the martyrs, under the fifth seal, and its kings and great men, and every bondman, and every free man, were astonied by the judgment of the sixth seal, and the instant judgment of the seventh. Now the question ariseth, And what is meant by the earth in this prophecy? We answer, Not the whole world, between which and the earth a distinction is taken (Rev. xvi. 14): " They are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world." Without entering at large into a matter which, I may say, hath hardly been disputed, and hardly admits of a dispute, amongst those who are read in this book, we answer, that the earth, when used to express a limited space or bounds, to which some action of the book extends, always denotes the Roman territory, the dominions of the fourth beast of Daniel. For example (Rev. xiii. 8), it is said of the tenhorned beast out of the sea, which is, as we shall shew, the Papal Roman empire, consisting of the ten kingdoms of the west, "all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” And, in like manner, in the same chapter, all the doings of the other beast, with two horns as a Lamb, and speaking as a dragon, extend to the earth (verses 12-14). And again it is the region over the kings of which Babylon, the mother of harlots, ruled (Rev. xvii. 18): "And the woman which thou sawest, is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth." And again (verse 2); “ With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication; and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." From these, and a great many other passages of this book, and likewise from the continuity of Daniel's prophecy, which useth the same language, the earth," when speaking of the kingdoms of Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander, and the Romans, we conclude that the place of this vision is the bounds of the Roman earth; that same space of the world which was under the fourth beast of Daniel. Now, it is to be observed, that though Daniel's fourth kingdom be undoubtedly the entire Roman empire, which trod down those

that preceded it, yet have its symbols, the ten horns, and the little horn, and its more specific action, to wit, the persecution of the saints by the little horn, a more limited locality; to wit, the Western Roman empire, which fell under the overruling influence of the Papal supremacy. The like intermixture of a larger, and a more limited locality, never passing beyond the bounds of the Roman empire, and never falling within the limits of the Papacy, should we expect to find in this book, which, as hath been said, is only the continuation or enlargement of that part of the Book of Daniel which relates to the fourth or Roman kingdom.

There is another observation, confirmatory of what hath been said, which though it may be thought somewhat out of place, we shall now add. It is, that the locality of the next vision, which is the vision of trumpets, is confined to a third part of the earth. Every act of that sevenfold judgment is limited to a third part: "The third part of trees, the third part of the sea, the third part of the stars, the third part of the men." Now it is known to all acquainted with history, that the Roman empire, or the prophetic earth of the Apocalypse, was first divided into three parts, upon the death of Constantine, whereof one included Constantinople and the East; but within less than thirty years of this division, it fell into another division of two parts, the East and the West. The West, having Rome for its capital, and the ten kingdoms which submitted to Imperial and Papal Rome, for its bounds; the East, having Constantinople for its capital, and the Asiatic and Grecian dominions for its bounds. This also became the origin of the division of the church into Greek and Latin, under which it still continues. Now it was both due unto Constantine, that the empire took the threefold division, and afterwards took the twofold division; the one was appointed by his will, and the other grew out of his building of the city of Constantinople, and making it the seat of his empire. In so remarkable a manner is this first of Christian emperors implicated with this second, and likewise with the third vision of this book. And so much are we confirmed in making "the things which are to be hereafter," to commence from Constantine's time; for, except to those seven and

twenty years which occurred from his death, to the division of the empire into two parts, it never subsisted in three parts; so that unless the visions do commence from Constantine's time, there was no meaning in this third part, which continually occurs in the vision of trumpets. If, as some say, they commence from the beginning of the Christian æra, there was then no threefold partition of the earth; if after Constantine's time that division had been done away with, we therefore conclude, upon the whole, with respect to the place of the vision of seals, that it is generally the Roman earth, but more particularly the Western, or Papal part thereof which for thirteen or fourteen centuries hath looked to Rome as its head. And for the locality of the vision of trumpets, we hold it to be specifically that third part of the earth whereof Constantinople was the head, and which fell to the eldest son of Constantine, and which hath kept separate from Rome, both by religion and by government unto this day.

Having thus, from the book itself, ascertained both the time and locality of this vision, we now proceed to shew first the celestial machinery, so to speak; and, secondly, the terrestrial action thereof, whereof the former is contained in the fourth and fifth chapters, and the latter in the sixth and seventh. The seer, being transported to heaven by the Spirit, as Philip was from place to place upon the earth, and as Paul was, when he heard things unutterable in the third heavens, was permitted to see a scene which, being looked upon generally, doth exhibit to us that king and council, that throne and government, within the veil of which all the things that happen upon the earth are the results. But being examined particularly which we cannot now do, but shall as we proceed, doth open to us more insight into the condition of Christ and departed saints, and angels, than all the other Scriptures besides. The thing which the Apostle saw in heaven, may be aptly denominated the vision of Christ, as Prince of the kings of the earth. Here he is seated upon his Father's throne; the councillors and the executioners of his counsels are around him; and every act which is done produces a great revolution upon that part of the earth to which the vision hath respect. It is