In the answer given by the Spirit to the emblematic souls underneath the altar, the professors of christianity still alive and contemporary with the fifth seal period, are divided into two classes the one the fellowservants, and the other the brethren, of the deceased souls. The brethren are fellowservants, but all the fellowservants were not brethren -- even as christadelphians are christians, but all christians so-called are not christadelphians. The brethren of the souls were all fellowservants of the Lamb’s household in the service of "conquering" the idolatry enthroned in the Dragon empire. The Nikolaitanes, the spurious Jews of Satan’s synagogue, the Balaamites, Jezebel’s children, the dead Sardians who had only a name to live, the feeble Philadelphians, and the lukewarm Laodiceans, were all fellowservants in this crusade against that which hindered the manifestation of the Man of Sin. They all belonged to the ecclesiastical community called "Christian" by the idolators, and were exposed in common to all the persecutions raised against it by the priests and rulers of the Roman Habitable. Multitudes of them were killed in this long and sanguinary religious war. But, though they thus became what ecclesiastics call "martyrs," they "remembered not from whence they had fallen, to repent and do the first works;" they repented not of the blasphemy of styling themselves Jews when they were only of the Satan’s synagogue; they still taught that believers might eat things sacrificed to idols, and themselves sacrifice as an expedient to save their lives in times of persecution, and, though thus "lapsed," on the restoration of peace, be received again among "the brethren;" they still adhered to "the depths of the Satan as they teach;" they kept not the word, and denied the Spirit-Name; they repented of none of these things, but still styling themselves "Jews inwardly," or christians, they waxed worse and worse to the times of the Sixth Seal, saying, at the crisis of the war against the Dragon, "We are rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;" but they knew not that they were "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."

Many of them "gave their bodies to be burned" in this great antipagan war; but, not possessing the agape, or love which comprehends the one faith and the one hope, believing and hoping all the things, and rejoicing in the truth, and styled in the Common Version, most incorrectly, "charity," they were sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Paul had prevision of these "fellowservants" in the war, who, indeed, brought much trouble upon him in his day. In reference to them, he warned the Ephesian Brethren that from among their own Elders men would arise "speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them;" and, in writing to the saints at Corinth, says of their class in 1 Cor. xiii. 2: "Though I have prophecy, and understand all the mysteries, and all the knowledge; and though I have all the faith, so that I could remove mountains; and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor (charity); and though I give my body to be burned, and have not agape, or love, (as he defines it), it profiteth me nothing." Hence, the "martyrdom" of the many of these fellowservants of the souls underneath the altar, so glorified by their class in then present and aftertimes, was of no profit to them; it served for a testimony against paganism and judgment upon themselves for their apostasy.

About fifty years previous to the opening of the fifth seal, a broad line of demarcation began to be drawn ecclesiastically between these "fellowservants" and "the brethren." As we have already seen in our account of the Novatians, these fellowservants, who called themselves "Catholics," because the majority, and holding chiefly the offices of the Ecclesias, expelled "the brethren" from their pale. Cyprian, whom modern Episcopalians regard as the great "father" who championed the things which they approve, was a notable chief of the fellowservants in the Roman Africa. He was a notable specimen of a pious, eloquent, and charitable ecclesiastic; he would have made a first-rate archbishop of Cambray, or Canterbury; or a zealous minister of any other denomination. No one can doubt his sincerity; for he suffered death for the testimony he held against paganism. But he was not of "the brethren." We refer the reader to Vol. I, (III.iv.5), for reference to him more in detail than is necessary here. He may also turn to II.iii.7 of that volume, for things taught and believed by "the fellowservants." None who rejoice in such traditions can be brethren to "souls slain for the word of the Deity." This does not teach the inherent and hereditary immortality of ground-souls; it does not teach, the salvation from, or damnation in, flaming sulphur, of infant immortal souls; it does not teach sacramentalism; or the impartation of converting and regenerating spirit, technically styled "grace" by Laodiceans, through unenlightened formalism; or the subjection of an infant, or ignorant faithless adult, to the ceremonial use of water, bread, and wine, in any form; it does not teach, either baptism or rantism -- immersion or sprinkling -- for the remission of original sin; nor does it teach, that baptism came in the room of circumcision. The word of the Deity, on account of which the souls underneath the altar were slain, teaches none of these "depths of the Satan;" therefore they were not slain on account of them; and the living styled "their brethren," could not have believed them.

The Brethren in the period of the fifth seal had become what would now be styled "a contemptible few." They were, however the "little strength" of the dilapidated and demoralized christian body. The true scriptural understanding of the word was with them. They were the salt, without which the whole community of professors would have been currently putrescent. The Lamb, for their sakes, still delayed to "spue them out of his mouth;" but, when the number of the Brethren that should be killed by the pagan power should be filled up, there would no longer be any reason why the spuing should be deferred.

During the period of the first Six Seals the number of "the Brethren" or christadelphians, continually decreased, while that of "the fellowservants" as persistently and rapidly increased. This will appear, not only from history, but from the general tenor of the epistles to the seven Asiatic ecclesias. In Ephesus, contemporary with the giving of the apocalypse, the Brethren of Christ were in the majority, as they were also in all other parts of Asia Minor. The Spirit commends their works, and labor, and patience; though indeed, they were not up to that standard of excellence that prevailed in the time of Paul. They had "fellowservants" among them when John wrote; but being in the official, as well as the popular majority, they were able to try and convict pretenders to apostleship; and to denounce their Nikolaitanism as a hateful and detested imposition. But, in two hundred years after, a great revolution in affairs had been effected; and the relative position of parties altogether reversed. The Brethren had entered the Sardian state. They had dwindled down to "a few names," and to but a "little strength;" while the Fellowservants had gained official and numerical ascendancy; they "had a name that they were living;" that they were vigorous, and strong. They now formed a distinct and independent republic, in the midst of the empire, governed by its own laws and magistrates, possessed of a public treasury, and intimately connected in all its parts, by the frequent assemblies of its bishops, to whose decrees their numerous and opulent congregations yielded an implicit obedience. Thus ecclesiastically organized, the Fellowservants considered that "they were rich and had need of nothing," but a military leader, (for they already swarmed in the armies of the state) to place the sovereign power in their hands. But against all this "the Brethren" protested as indicative of spiritual death; that those who approved it were "dead;" and that the system itself, as a divine institution for the separation of a people from among the Gentiles for the Spirit-Name, was "ready to die." But the protest of the Brethren was unheeded by their Fellowservants, or the "Catholics" so-called. The events of the Sixth Seal furnished these with the desired Military Chieftain in one of the six emperors of the Roman world. Thus led, they became victorious over Jupiter and Hercules; and in their prosperity, ignored all connection with "the Brethren;" who, having been mostly killed in the period of the fifth seal, were added to the souls underneath the altar; so that the "little strength" of the Philadelphian state being reduced to lukewarmness among the Fellowservants, these under the sixth seal entered the Laodicean, in which they shone forth "clothed with the sun, and the moon under their feet, and upon their head a stephan, or coronal wreath, of twelve stars" (xii. 1). Politically, they had "conquered" the Pagan, whose philosophy spiritually had vanquished them.

In conclusion, it may be remarked under this head, that the term "fellowservants" is as appropriate for "the Catholics" of the latter part of the third century and the early part of the fourth (but not "catholics" of succeeding times) as the term "sanctified ones" was to the pagan Medes and Persians in Isa. xiii. 3. These were the Spirit’s sanctified ones in the sense of their being separated by him for the work of overthrowing the Babylonish Lion. The primitive catholics were separated, or sanctified, to the service of "casting the great red Dragon and his angels out of the heaven" (Apoc. xii. 7-10); because he was the prosecutor of "their brethren." The Brethren themselves, who were not allowed the use of carnal weapons, could not have effected this expulsion; it was therefore reserved for the time when the Brethren would be inappreciably few, and in effect superseded by mere nominal professors of christianity calling themselves Catholics, to expel by these the Accuser from the heaven. These christians in name, having become in the sight of Deity "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" -- only a slight spiritual improvement, if any, upon the vicious and bloodstained idolators -- he assigned to them the service of dethroning Jupiter by the sword; for "the wicked are His sword." They were sanctified to this work; or, in modern phraseology, this was their mission. The doctrinal defeat of paganism, in the conversion of the worshippers of the gods to "the faith once delivered to the saints," was due to "the Brethren" who faithfully adhered to "the word of the Deity;" but the political and military overthrow of the common enemy, to "the Fellowservants" or catholics under the Sixth Seal, who were prepared like the troops of Cyrus, to combat on the principles of the flesh, for dominion and the glory of the world. Victory gave them these, and they have retained them to this day. The use they have made of them has been worse than pagan. Having become putrid, the Spirit ejected them with disgust and loathing; and as "the thinking of the flesh" now obtained full sway, they were inimical to the Deity and "the word of his grace," and became the violent and bitter persecutors of "the Brethren," -- "the remnant, who keep the commandments of the Deity, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (xii. 17).

In conclusion lastly, the reader may now "see" the reason why the symbolization of the first seal was white indicative of peace and prosperity within the limits of the Roman Habitable; and of the succeeding seals, red, black, livid pale, and the sun of the heavens black as sackcloth of hair, indicative of war, distress, famine, pestilence, and total obliteration. The reason may be found in this. Christ said to his disciples, "ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it (the earth) be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and trodden under foot of men." During the first seal-period, the Body of Christ had not lost its savor; it salted Roman Society, "the earth," with divine wisdom; and society had peace and prospered. Life and property were secure; government was fairly administered; and the people were successful in trade and commerce. But, in the second seal-period, the savor of the salt had much deteriorated -- civil war took the peace away from the earth in retribution; in the third seal-period, the savor had still more diminished, and there were superadded greater public calamities: in the fourth seal-period, it was hardly possible to discover any salt in the so-called Body of Christ at all; and the consequence was that famine, pestilence, and sword, brought the state to the verge of dissolution, and reduced the population of the world to half: in the sixth seal-period, the salt had become tasteless; in the mouth of the Spirit, it was utterly insipid, and "good for nothing but to be cast out;" and therefore, as he threatened to do if they repented not, he spued the self styled "catholics" out of his mouth -- He repudiated them with all their speculations about immortal souls, eternal torture with and by the devil in flaming brimstone, going to heaven at death, infant damnation and salvation, baby and adult sprinkling, baptism in the room of circumcision, salvation of apostates, the saving efficacy of martyrdom, salvation by sacraments without faith, the apostolic successorship of ecclesiastics, and many other vain traditions too numerous to mention here -- He spued them all out of his mouth as the loathsome and nauseous putrid sloughs of a carcase he pronounced "dead," and dissolving in corruption. Such was the end of primitive christianity in the times parallel with paganism in power. It went forth "conquering" and it "conquered." It gained the stephan in the games; but in its victory became a wreck.