choenix, which was the eighth part of a modius; and that a modius of wheat did not usually sell for more than a denarius: so that wheat is represented here as eight times its usual price, and that a day's allowance of wheat for one man would exhaust all his day's wages; that is, there is a great spiritual scarcity; a famine of hearing the word of the Lord1; a leanness of soul': and barley is three times as cheap as wheat; that is, degenerate doctrine is much more plentiful than true 3.

What, then, is the meaning of this emblem?

The first mode by which the Evil One had attempted to destroy the Church was by the Sword of Pagan Persecution. This, therefore, was represented under the former Seal. But God mercifully put an end to the sufferings endured by the Church from open violence; the Roman empire was Christianized. Then the Opponent of Christ resorted to another mode of attack, more insidious and not less deadlyHeresy1.

was a denarius. Tacit. Annal. i. 17. The xong weighed two libræ, and contained an eighth part of a μόδιος : it was an ἡμερησία τροφή. See Diog. Laërt. viii. 8. Athen. iii. p. 90, E. Slaves had an allow ance of four modii, or thirty-two chonices a month. (See ad Cic. de Off. ii. 17.) A modius was usually sold for a denarius, sometimes for half a denarius. Cic. Verr. iii. 81, and Divin. c. 10.

1 Amos viii. 11.

2 Psalm cvi. 15.

3 The κpion is contrasted with σiros, just as Dinarchus was called ó κpílios Anμoo0évns (see Ruhnken Rutil. Lup. ii. v. p. 88); and hordeo pasci was a military punishment. Liv. xxvii. 13. Differt (says Joachim in h. loc.) inter triticum et hordeum, quod triticum est hominum, hordeum jumentorum.

4 See Theodoret, Eccles. Hist. i. 1; who indirectly, by a recital of facts, supplies a very striking comment on this Seal.

The former Seal then having displayed Persecution from without, it follows that the present Seal exhibits Heresy from within.

And what is the fact?-what does this Seal display?

The Foe of the Church appears no longer now with the warlike Sword in his hand, but he holds the peaceful Balance. Yet Satan is opposed to Christ, Who is on the White Horse, no less when Satan rides on the black horse than on the red horse; no less with the Balance in his hand than with the Sword.

He raised up many persons, especially in the Eastern Church, such as Arius', (A.D. 318,) Nestorius, (A.D. 428,) and Eutyches (A.D. 448); and after them many more in succession, who were skilled in the intricate subtleties of scholastic dialectics; and, being shrewd and subtle disputants, they inveigled many by sophistical syllogisms and plausible professions of Equity, holding, as it were, a Balance in their hands, and weighing spiritual doctrines in the scales of human Reason; and thus, under a specious pretence of scrupulous regard for logical accuracy, and philosophic calmness, and intellectual acumen, corrupted the saving doc

1 Joachim in loc. In Equo nigro Arianorum intelligendus est clerus: Statera est disputatio literæ quâ abutuntur hæretici.-Anselm (Bishop of Havilburg, A.D. 1145). Hi sunt hæretici qui in manu dolosam stateram trutinantes habent; æquitatem de fide disputando proponunt, sed minus cautos levissimo vel minimi verbi pondere fallunt. He mentions Arius, Sabellius, Nestorius, Eutyches, Donatus, Photinus, Manes.

trines of Divine Revelation; and, while feigning a zeal for Justice, destroyed the Truth'.

It

We may extend this emblem still further. may be applied to some Ecclesiastical Synods of later times; such, for example, as those of Constance, Basil, Florence, and of Trent, in which there was a pomp of Justice, but the work of Death. In them the pure grain of God's Word was not liberally measured out to Christ's household, but was weighed in the Balance of human Traditions, and was treated as of less weight than those Traditions: in a word, there was in them a semblance of Equity, but, in fact, the cruel hand and heart which make a famine for the soul.

3

This power is represented as mounted on a Black Horse-dark with error and sin and death. What, then, is the guide and comfort of the true Christian?

The Warning Voice of the Gospel; which detects

See Hooker V. xlii. 2, concerning "Arius, a subtle-witted, and a marvellously fair-spoken man ;" and on the Arians generally, S. Ambrose de Fide, i. 8. "Omnem vim venenorum suorum in dialecticâ disputatione constituunt. Sed non in dialecticâ complacuit Deo salvum facere populum suum.”—Socrat. i. 5. "Αρειος, ἀνὴρ οὐκ ἄμοιρος τῆς διαλεκτικῆς λéoxns.-Epiphanius (Hæres. p. 09) says of the Anomoans, "They exhibit the Divine Nature by means of Aristotelic syllogisms and geometrical data." So Euseb. v. 28, concerning Artemas and his followers: Abandoning the inspired writings, they devote themselves to geometry," symbolized by the (vyòs of the Apocalypse.

66

2 Luke vi. 38.

3 Lightfoot in loc. "Here corn for scarcity is weighed, like spicery, in a pair of balances."

the artifice of Satan, and which follows the heels of the sable Rider, with a declaration of his true character. The Balance may be in his hand, but Hunger is in his rear. Therefore, the faithful Church will not be deceived: she will hear the warning voice; she will not weigh the truth in the scales of deceit, but in the unerring balance of the Word of God'.

Here then, I conceive, we have a compendious History of Heresy, and of the sufferings of the Church, from its specious and cruel arts. And here the stewards of the Great Householder may read their own duty: which is, to dispense to every one, without grudging, his spiritual meat in due season2; and not to elevate the human Will and Reason, in a Pelagian spirit, so as to disparage the sacramental influences-the Oil and Wine -of Divine Grace.

This Heavenly Voice is also raised for the consolation of the true Christian.

Whatever may be the fraud and power of Satan in the propagation of strange Doctrines, the voice. of the Gospel will never cease to be heard; and he

'The comment of Joachim deserves to be cited. Hæretici quâdam staterâ utuntur, sed abutuntur in disputando; legimus enim in Nicænâ Synodo plures convenisse philosophos qui astutiâ dialecticæ artis fidem Catholicam impugnarent. Sed quo vult pergat Philosophus : tu tene tuum pondus; tu serva numerum quem audisti.

This Seal is also very applicable to the Scholastic and Rationalizing Theology of later times, and of our own day.

2 Matth. xxiv. 45. Luke xii. 42.

3 Primasius ad loc.

In vino et oleo vim Sacramentorum prohibet

violari.

will never be able to hurt the Sacraments of Christ.

The next Seal opens a still more dismal picture.

A pale, or, rather, a livid' Horse appears. Its rider is Death; and Hell follows with him; and he has power over the fourth part of the earth, to destroy with the Sword, and with hunger and death, and with the Beasts of the earth.

Here is a grievous and manifold persecution. The Sword now mentioned is not the imperial Sword, but the barbarian Seymitar. It refers to furious ravages committed by savage tribes,-Goths, Vandals, Saracens3. It pourtrays sufferings produced by spiritual famine. It exhibits evils consequent on the suppression of God's Word by a corrupt Church. It reveals her wickedness in feeding the starving soul with hungry husks of fanatical fables. It speaks of the calamities to be produced by the Beasts, that is, by the two Anti-Christian Beasts, which, according to the manner of the Book of Revelation, are supposed to be already known to the reader, as they are to the writer, and which will be described more fully hereafter in the latter parts of the Apocalypse. So ends the Fourth Seal.

1xwpòs, expressing the ghastliness of violent death.

Not páxaupa, gladius, but poppaía, framea.

3 Joachim, p. 116. Quis tam rectè Mors appellari potuit quam homo ille perditus Mahumetes qui tot millium hominum factus est causa mortis ?

4 Amos viii. 11.

5 Rev. xiii. 1-11. This word Beasts, here introduced, is a chronological catchword, and shows that this Vision belongs also to the time of