3. Of the reigns of Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius;

4. Of that scene of havoc and misrule, which took place in the Roman Empire, from the accession of Commodus to that of Dioclesian;

5. Of that dreadful persecution, begun by Dioclesian, and put a stop to by Constantine the Great, which completed the sufferings that the Christians were to undergo, from the hostility of pagan Rome;

6. Of the reign of Constantine the Great, under whom Christianity was firmly established as the religion of the Empire.

So that the conclusion of the first grand division of time, already mentioned, corresponded with the opening of the sixth SEAL.

7. The opening of the seventh SEAL is to be the means of disclosing to view all the remaining parts of the great Book of "The Revelation;" which, in consistency with those of them that have already received their fulfilment, will doubtless succeed each other, according to the order of their respective accomplishments.

But, it first displays to view the sad change, which took place in the Roman Empire upon the death of Constantine, and the causes which produced it; and, then, the preliminary steps which were adopted by Divine Providence for the sounding of the seven TRUMPETS,—by means of the descent of barbarians, in countless multitudes, upon the frontiers of the Empire, and the famous partition of it by Valentinian into the Western and Eastern, the better to make head against them.

The sounding of the first six TRUMPETS introduces the following events, in regular succession,

1. The horrible ravages committed by barbarous nations in the Western Empire, from the time of this partition, till the accession of Honorius.

2. The augmented miseries, and desolation, of this part of the Empire, arising from the circumstance of this prince having transferred the seat of his government from Rome to Ravenna ; in consequence of which fatal step, that ancient capital was overwhelmed by the barbarous hordes, which now inundated her dominions, and was thrice taken and sacked.

During this disastrous period, moreover, no less than seven out of the ten kingdoms, which are so often the subjects of prophecy, were formed within the territories of the Western Empire.

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3. The fall of the Empire in the West, in consequence of the dethronement of Augustulus, and the establishment of the kingdom of the Heruli in Italy; which was soon succeeded by that of the Ostro-Goths. These constituted, in fact, two more of the ten kingdoms already mentioned; although the princes, who respectively administered the government of them, retained the same forms, laws, magistrates, and offices of state, as had before been in existence under the emperors.

4. The kingdom of the Ostro-Goths having been overthrown by the arms of Justinian, the Roman people came again under Imperial dominion; but it was that of the Emperors of the East; and, after a short interval, they were governed by Exarchs created by them. Under these high officers of state, all those remains of Imperial forms, laws, and magistracies, which had been retained by the Heruli and the Goths, were entirely superseded; and Rome herself, degraded from her ancient pre-eminence, was governed by Dukes, appointed by the Exarchs.

At the same time, the North of Italy falling under the dominion of the Lombards, their kingdom became the tenth, and last, of those, which, agreeably to the prophetic intimations, should arise within, what had been, the territories of the Empire of the West.

Things had not been long in this state, before preparations were made, and a most solemn warning given, for the purpose of introducing the successive blasts of the three remaining TRUMPETS; which, as the periods denoted by them, would be distinguished by great, and long-continued calamity, are thence denominated the three WOE TRUMPETS.

But, throughout the disastrous period which had elapsed since the death of Constantine the Great, there are sufficient indications in the prophecy, as well as from the very nature of the case, to point out, what must have been the deplorable state of morality and religion in the Roman Empire, during that interval.

5. The termination of the preceding period brings us down to the end of the second portion, in the great division of time already specified, as

being that, into which the whole space, included in the prophetic scenery of this book, is resolved.

Now commenced the period of the one thousand two hundred and sixty years; and the first decisive overt-acts of the two great Systems of Apostacy, which are destined to continue through the whole of that long and dreary term, were exhibited, the one in the East, in the framing of the Imposture of MAHOMET, and the other in the West, by the elevation of the Bishop of ROME to the lawless pre-eminence of UNIVERSAL BISHOP.

And the effects of the first of these systems of judicial infatuation became quickly visible, in the rapid conquests of the Saracens, the extensive diffusion of their doctrines, and the oppressions they exercised upon Christians, whom they could not convert, wherever they carried their arms. These effects continued in full operation for the space of one hundred and fifty years; after which the power of these people gradually declined, in consequence of divisions among themselves.

But, while the Empire of the East was thus weakened, and endangered, by these enthusiastic Arabians, that in the West arose, as it were, out of the ruins in which it had been buried; and was