his first onset appear with the sword, but the sword was given him in his progress; just so the corruptions of the church proceeded at first without power, but obtained that power under the auspices of their imperial head. After what has been said of Bishop Newton's principle in applying these symbols to Roman state affairs, it would be idle to enter further into a discussion and refutation of his interpretation; but it is curious to observe, how he attempts to make them bear upon the Christian church, as if he had a feeling of consciousness that he was advancing in a wrong road. He winds up a long string of wars and tumults, of massacres and murders, between the Jews and the Romans, and counts them as so many glorious triumphs to the professors of Christianity, the disciples of the meek Jesus. I shall now dismiss this seal, in full assurance that I may assume the rider to be, as I shall hereafter make it more fully appear, the little horn of Daniel's fourth beast, the first sevenheaded ten-horned beast of St. John. The third seal opens and discovers a black horse, and he that sat on him having a yoke or balance in his hand. A dark, gloomy, superstitious spirit of ignorance; bearing, if a yoke, the emblem of slavery; if the balance, of rigid parsimony as illustrated by the following words: 6 "A measure of wheat for a penny, and three " measures of barley for a pennyp." I shall here ask with Dean Woodhouse, "By these pro"visions for food, what are we to understand? "Wheat, barley, wine, oil, in their plain and " proper meaning? Surely not. The tenour of " prophetic language forbids, directing our at"tention, as our Lord has directed it, to an"other kind of scarcity, even that of which the " prophet Amos speaks; Not a famine of " bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the "words of the Lord q.' 'I am the bread of life, "saith the Lord; he that cometh to me shall " never hunger, and he that believeth in me shall "never thirst'.' 'Man shall not live by bread " alone, but by every word that proceedeth out "of the mouth of Gods." What then do we learn from this symbol? but that there should be a time of dark ignorance, when the pure and saving truths of the Gospel were to be had indeed, but in the greatest scarcity, and at a high price; this is figured by the measure of wheat for a penny: the less essential and more common and corrupted doctrines, figured by the barley, were to be had more plentifully, and at a cheaper rate: but the wine and oil, P Ver. 6. ৭ Vid. Woodhouse, p. 143. Matt. iv. 4. Amos viii. 11. G the more precious commodities of life, viz. the Scriptures themselves, were scarcely to be had at all, not even weighed, or measured out at any price; but nevertheless, they were to remain uninjured, uncorrupted. The black horse then portrays that gloomy night of the dark ages, when ignorance and superstition starved the spiritual life of man, and depressed him under their fearful yoke. For the rider of this horse we shall be at no loss, when we come to consider the two horned beast of the Apосаlypse. But here let it be observed, that I have considered the symbol in the hand of the rider, in either sense of a balance, or a yoke, or both; that it may mean a balance, I think is evident, from the words which immediately follow, denoting measure, and price; but that the original meaning of the Greek word is a yoke, there can be no doubt, and I will refer my reader to Dean Woodhouse's excellent criticism on this place. Bishop Newton has adopted the balance; he could do no otherwise to make it applicable to his interpretation, an interpretation so extraordinary as to stand in much need of this plausible construction. The Bishop, speaking of Septimius Severus, who began, and Alexander Severus, who closed the period to which the interpretation is applied by him, says, "The colour of the black horse befits the seve"rity of their nature, and their name." Whatever connection there may be between blackness and severity, let it be remembered, that in the time between these two emperors, we have to reckon four others, men of very different charac ters, viz. Caracalla, Geta, Macrinus, and Heliogabulus; two of these, men of no great note; the other two, monsters in wickedness as great as ever stained the imperial throne: and Alexander Severus, the last of this period, so far from participating in the stern character of his namesake, had, as Mr. Gibbon informs us, “a " natural mildness and moderation of temper, "which preserved him from the assaults of " passion, and the allurements of vice:" however then the black horse with the balances may befit the severity and justice of Septimius, neither can the balances be applied to his four immediate successors, nor the blackness of severity to Alexander Severus. The fourth seal opens, " and behold a pale "horse: and his name that sat on him was "Death, and Hell followed with him. And 66 power was given unto them over the fourth " part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and "with hunger, and with death, and with the " beasts of the earth." A horse pale, livid, gangrened; a spirit of fear, a total decay, bearing a dead faith, a living death, the worm that dieth not, and the fire which is not quenched. And power was given unto them to pervade the universal church with oppression, with a want of spiritual food, with lifeless faith, and ravening wolves in sheep's clothing. If we can point out a time when these miseries began to appear, nay if we do know a time, when these miseries do appear, though perhaps they are not yet arrived at their utmost pitch, (for the blasphemous beast has not risen yet to his highest power,) we shall be able to mark the era poisoned by the influence of this baneful horse. Excellent as is Dean Woodhouse's note upon this place, I think he has here made some confusion; arising from what I conceive to be a misapplication of the prophecy. He considers both the black horse and the pale to represent the Papacy: the former in its first stages, and the latter under its deeper corruption. But in explaining the fourth part of the earth in ver. 8. he says, "It may perhaps be found, that the "countries which underwent the rage of this "seal, bore this proportion to the rest of the " inhabited, or at least Christian world." Не goes on to say, " but the slaughter and devas"tation (which is to be explained under the " ensuing note) reached only to certain parts." The ensuing note is upon the fifth seal, which |