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empire then remaining. This will be granted in all cases, when the symbols employed shall appear necessarily to point out such interpretation; but not otherwise †.

The application of the prophecies of the seals to the fortunes of the Roman empire, and to the character of its princes, appears to me forced and unjusti fied. It would be curious to observe whence it took its rise, and how by degrees it obtained so general a reception in modern times; or at least in our country. There is reason to believe, that the most ancient commentators, Papias, Irenæus, Methodius, Hippolytus, &c. (mentioned by Andreas Cæsariensis, as exhibiting the lights which he followed in his commentary,) entertained no such idea. For Andreas has interpreted the three first seals to exhibit the history of the Christian Church. The prophecy of the fourth seal, he indeed supposes, with the modern commentators, to foretel the slaughter, pestilence, &c. which raged in the Roman empire under Maximin. But such a comment on the fourth seal, could not be derived from these ancient expositors; because they did not live to see those times, and explain the prediction by the event. It is therefore not their exposition, but probably that of Andreas himself, who wrote about the year 500. And certainly it must be thought inconsistent, and disorderly, after interpreting the three first seals as relating to the fortunes of the Christian Church, to understand the fourth as respecting the Roman empire. But this application of the fourth seal by Andreas, seems to have afforded

See Mede's Works, p. 441.

+ This subject is treated more at large at the conclusion of the prophecy of the four first Trumpets, ch. viii.

Præf. in Apocalypsin.

the

the first hint of this mode of application, which modern expositors have gradually followed. Viega, a Jesuit, who wrote in the sixteenth century, seems to have been one of the first who applied all the four seals to the Roman history. Mede, who by his just reputation as an ingenious interpreter, has given the greatest encouragement to this mode of application, though he interpreted the second, third, and fourth seals, as relating to the Roman empire, yet understood the first to treat clearly and exclusively of the Christian Church. Indeed the first seal cannot, consistently with the symbols compared in Scripture, be otherwise applied. And if the first seal has so evident a designation, why, in the interpretation of the rest, are we to change our object, without special and compulsive reason? The writers who have followed Mede, have been aware that consistency required of them, to apply all these predictions to the same kind of history: but, to obtain this consistency, what method have they pursued? They have not relinquished Mede's interpretation of the second, third, and fourth seals, thereby to bring them in unison with that of the first: but, labouring to make the symbols of the first seal agree with his interpretations of the three following, they have most unscripturally and unfitly represented the rider of the white horse, (whose purity can belong only to the most perfect Christian,) to signify those bloody and heathen soldiers, Vespasian and Titus! If Vespasian can be thought worthy of this almost divine honour, it is but another step to suppose him gifted with divine miracles, as related by Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dion

Jurieu seems to have been the author of this intepretation adopted by Bishop Newton,

X

Cassius,

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Cassius, and as vaunted by David Hume But, if the conquests of these Roman Emperors had been foretold in this vision, surely they would have been sufficiently expressed by the single word, "conquer

ing," without that additional commission, "and for "to conquer;" which must imply a distant period, far beyond the twenty-eight years of their empire. On the whole, I can perceive scarcely any colour of argument, arising from the words and symbols of the seals, to justify the interpretation of any part as concerning the fates and fortunes of the Roman Empire, or of any political establishment whatever. It must therefore belong to the fates and fortunes of God's Church; which appear to me, in this place, to be represented under four distinct successive characters; such as history has recorded them. Each horse is separate and distinct; he is "another horse," though still representing the Church: for, the Church was so changed under the progress of these different characters, as no longer to appear the same.

The white horse, representing the Church in its purity (and the true Church is always pure), is in progress through the whole of the vision. He goes out conquering; is then eclipsed, as it were, for a time, by the other horses,-by the corruptions of Christianity; but at length appears again, in chap. xix. "conquering, "and for to conquer." Together with this distinctness of character, there is also an unity to be observed. They are all horses; and all pass, by a regular gradation, from one colour to another; from the mild and peaceful rule displayed in the character of the first horse, to the dreadful tyranny of Death and Hell which characterizes the last. This unity and completion of parts is also

Essays, 4to. 350.

insinuated

insinuated by their being contained under the cardinal number four, answering to the four sides of the Throne, and to the four Cherubim there stationed, who speak on the opening of each seal, until the voices have through the complete square of the Throne. This unity also accords with that of the four first trumpets, and of the four first vials, as will be seen in their places *.

gone

These four seals present us with a general view of the progress of Christianity, from its first establishment in purity, to its utmost corruption and degeneracy under the papal usurpation. They contain the first outlines of a history, which we shall see afterwards extended and filled up by the same prophetic Spirit. And this method is analogous to that of other sacred prophecies; of those of Daniel in particular, in which, as Sir Isaac Newton observes, the same subject is retraced; the subsequent prophecies adding continually something new to the former †.

* See the note, ch. xvi. 17: and observe also, that as the ancients accounted the number seven of all others the most perfect (see note, ch. i. 4.); so, among other reasons for its perfection, they assigned this, that it is compounded of the numbers four and three; the first of these, the most perfect of the even numbers; the second, of the uneven. (Cyprian. de Spirit. Sanct.; August. de Civ. Dei, c. 30.; Macrobius in Somn. Scipionis.) Certainly, in this book of Revelation, the number seven evidently divides into these component parts,-in the seals, in the trumpets, and in the vials.

+ Şir Isaac Newton, on Prophecy, part i. ch. 3.

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The opening of the fifth Seal.

CHAP. VI. VER. 9-11.

9 And when he opened
the fifth seal, I saw,
under the altar, the
souls of those that
were sacrificed for the
word of God, and for
the testimony which
10 they held. And they

cried with a loud voice,
saying, "How long,
"Sovereign Lord, the
"Holy One and True,
"dost thou not judge,
"and avenge our blood

"upon those that dwell
11" on the earth?" And
there was given unto
them white raiment;
and it was said unto
them, that they should
rest yet a time, until
their fellow-servants
also, and their brethren
should be completed,
who were about to be
slain, even as they had

been.

9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they 10 held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, Holy and True, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood

on them that dwell on 11 the earth? And white

robes were given unto every one of them, and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

Ver. 9. Under the altar.] We are not informed whether the altar here mentioned, is the golden one of incense which makes part of the scenery in ch. viii.

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