The third seal opened, ver. 5, 6. sets forth the calamities which should befal the church by famine ; yet not so much a literal as a figurative famine, as a grave and learned commentator j expounds it, like that mentioned, Amos viii. 11, 12. which fell out under Maximinus and Trajan ; the former directing the persecution, es- pecially against ministers, in which many bright lamps were ex- tinguished ; the latter expressly condemning all Christian meetings and assemblies by a law. The type by which this persecution was set forth, is a black horse. A gloomy and dismal day it was indeed to the poor saints, when they eat the bread of their souls, as it were, by weight ; for he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. Then did John hear this sad voice, " A measure of " wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny." The quantity was but the ordinary allowance to keep a man alive for a day, and a Roman penny was the ordinary wages given for a day's work to a labourer. The meaning is, that in those days, all the spiritual food men should get to keep their souls alive from day to day, with all their travail and labour, should be but sufficient for that end.
The fourth seal opened, ver. 7, 8. represents a much more sad and doleful state of the church ; for under it are found all the for- mer sufferings, with some new kinds of trouble super-added. Under this seal, Death rides upon the pale horse, and Hell, or the Grave, follows him. It is conceived to point at the persecution under Dioclesian, when the church was mowed down as a meadow.
The fifth seal is opened in my text, under which the Lord Jesus represents to his servant John, the state and condition of those precious souls which had been torn and separated from their bodies, by the bloody hands of tyrants, for his name's sake, under all the former persecutions. The design whereof is, to support and en-
* Adco ut viderit repletas humanis corporibus civitates,jace?ites morluos, simul cum par* vulis senes,Jbcminarumque absyuc vlla sexus revcrentia, in publico rejecta cadavera. f Taciti 1. xv. Annal. j Durham on the place.
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 557
courage all that were to come in the same bloody path. / saw under the altar, 4*c. In which we have an account,
1. We have an account of what he saw; " I saw the souls of " them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony " which they held.11
Souls, in this place, are not put for blood, or the dead carcases of the saints who were slain, as some have groundlessly imagined ; but are to be understood properly and strictly, for those * spiritual and immortal substances, which once had a vital union with their bodies, but were now separated from them by a violent death ; yet still retained a love and inclination to them, even in a state of sepa- ration ; and therefore here brought in complaining of the shedding of their blood, and destruction of their bodies.
These souls (even of all that died for Christ, from Abel to that time) John saw, that is, *(* in spirit ; for these immaterial sub- stances are not perceptible by the gross external senses. He had the privilege and favour of a spiritual representation of them, be- ing therein extraordinarily assisted, as Paul was when his soul was wrapt into the third heaven, and heard things unutterable, 2 Cor. xii. 2. God gave him a transient visible representation of those holy souls, and that under the altar : he means not any material altar, as that at Jerusalem was ; but as the holy place figured hea- ven, so the altar figured Jesus Christ, Heb. xiii. 10. And most aptly Christ is represented to John in this figure, and souls of the martyrs at the foot or basis of this altar ; thereby to inform us,
(1.) That however men look upon the death of those persons, and though they kill their names by slanders, as well as their per- sons by the sword ; yet, in God's account, they die as sacrifices, and their blood is no other than a drink-offering poured out to God, which he highly prizeth, and graciously accepteth. Suitable whereunto Paul's expression is, Phil. ii. 17.
(2.) That the value and acceptation their death and blood-shed have with God, are through Christ, and upon his account ; for it is the altar which sanctifieth the gift, Mat. xxiii. 19. And,
(3.) It informs us, that these holy souls, now in a state of sepa- ration from their bodies, were very near to Jesus Christ in heaven. They lay, as it were, at his foot.
Once more, they are here described to us by the cause of their
* Eidov rag -^xjyctg. \. e. / saw Vie souls; here the word soul is taken for the im- mortal spirit of man, as in Mat x. 28. in which sense John here says, that he saw the souls, &c. Marlorat on the place.
f Souls divested of bodies are invisible to corporeal eyes; therefore John saw them in the Spirit. Pareus on the place.
558 A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.
sufferings and death in this world ; and that was, " for the word " of God, and for the testimony which they held ;" i. e. They died in defence of the truths, or will of God revealed in his word, against the corruptions, oppositions, and innovations of men. As one of the Martyrs, that held up the Bible at the stake, said, This is it that brought me hither. They died not as malefactors, but as witnesses. They gave a threefold testimony to the truth ; a lip- testimony, a life-testimony, and a blood-testimony ; whilst the hypocrite gives but one, and many Christians but two. Thus we have an account what John saw.
2. Next he tells us what he heard : and that was,
(1.) A vehement cry from those souls to God.
(2.) A gracious answer from God to them.
(1.) The cry which they uttered with a loud voice was this, " How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not avenge our " blood on them that dwell on the earth ?" A cry like that from the blood of Abel. Yet let it be remembered,
1. This crv doth not imply these holy souls to be in a restless state, or to want true satisfaction and repose out of the body ; nor yet,
2. That they carried with them to heaven any malevolent or revengeful disposition : that which is principally signified by this cry, is their vehement desire after the abolition of the kingdom of Satan, and the completion and consummation of Christ's kingdom in this world ; that those his enemies, which oppose his kingdom, by slaying his saints, may be made his footstool : which is the same thing Christ waits for in glory, Heb. x. 13.
(2.) Here we find God's gracious answer to the cry of these souls, in which he speaks satisfaction to them two ways :
1. By somewhat given them for present.
2. By somewhat promised them hereafter.