LECTURE III.

OPENING OF THE THIRD, FOURTH, FIFTH, AND SIXTH SEALS.-SEALING OF THE 144,000.-OMISSION OF THE TRIBE of Dan.-REVELATION VI. 5-VII. 8.

In the preceding Lecture, the horse seen by St. John on the opening of the first four seals was shewn to be symbolic of the Roman Empire; and its colour to signify the symptomatic changes which occurred in the Empire between the day of the Apostle and the age of Diocletian. As each seal was opened, one of the four living creatures, with a voice of thunder, directed John's attention to it, saying, "Come and see." Thus pointing out to us one part of the office of these mysterious intelligences, as superintending the events, and controlling, at the inspiration of the Spirit of God, the judgments of the earth. We have a similar instance of the active interest they take in the affairs of mankind, recorded in the Old Testament, when, accompanied by the same cherubim, the Lord descended to visit the iniquity of Jerusalem, and shewed to Ezekiel its manifold idolatries, when the inhabitants presumptuously said, "The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth." It was then that the "coals of fire from between the cherubim"signifying the hot displeasure of the Almighty-were commanded to be scattered over the city, and "one cherub took the fire," and put it into the hands of him who was appointed to execute the judgment of the Lord.

We have already shewn, by reference to history, the meaning and the fulfilment of the first and secend seals, to which John's attention had been called by two of the living creatures, and shall now proceed to the explanation of the third.

"When he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo, a black horse; and he that

sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine." (ch. vi. 5, 6.)

The colour of the horse in this vision, connected as it seems to be with the price of corn, has been generally understood to indicate famine; but black is the constant emblem of mourning and distress, and does not necessarily imply scarcity of food. Besides, there is no personification of famine in the rider;—he bears in his hand the balance of equity, and is admonished not to injure or be unjust. For the clause "see that thou hurt not," would be more correctly translated "see that thou wrong not in regard to the oil and the wine." Neither does the price of wheat intimated in the vision denote scarcity; for a denarius (or penny) for a Roman measure (which is doubtless the measure meant, and not the Greek, as all the other symbols refer to the Roman empire,) is about ten shillings a bushel, which was probably the medium price of corn in those days.

The vision therefore has been explained by learned commentators as having reference not to a state of actual famine, (to be killed "with hunger" is one of the plagues inflicted under the following seal), but to a condition of oppressive taxation, to which the Empire was reduced by the Emperor Caracalla. The celebrated edict by which he made the city of Rome co-extensive with the empire, compelled the Provincials to pay taxes which were intolerable; not only those usually imposed upon the provinces, but also, in addition, the distinctive taxes of the Roman citizen. "Every part of the Empire," says Gibbon, "groaned under the weight of his iron sceptre." The black colour of the horse was the sign of distress and impoverishment in the body politic: and Gibbon, speaking of this fatal edict, says, "it sprang up with the most luxurious growth, and darkened the Roman world with its deadly shade." In fact, the edict of Caracalla produced lasting and increasing distress; for the taxation having special reference to the fruits of the earth,-the corn, the oil, and the wine, as the vision intimates-the agriculture

of the provinces was insensibly ruined, and thus preparation was made for the famine which soon succeeded.

The historian assigns the oppressiveness of the taxation consequent on this edict, especially as administered by the Provincial governors, as the second notable cause of the decline of the Roman empire. The articles of produce on which the taxation fell, were those noted in the vision,-and the corn, wine, and oil were also included in the largesses, or donations, which at this period were drawn from the provinces and distributed by the Emperors among the Roman citizens. "We shall be too often summoned," says Gibbon, "to explain the land tax, the capitation, and the heavy contributions of corn, wine, oil, and meat, exacted from the provinces for the use of the court, the army, and the capital."

The political heavens in consequence grew black, like clouds obscuring the light of the sun, and at last burst in a terrific and devastating storm upon the earth. One awful effect of the crushing taxation of the corn, wine, and oil, by which the people were impoverished, was their inability to maintain their children; and the horrible crime of infanticide prevailed throughout the empire as the result. Attempts, indeed, were frequently made to mitigate the evils, by fixing the price at which the corn, the oil, and the wine should be sold; but these imperial edicts were ineffectual.* Alexander Severus, whose character it was to do justice and to love mercy, in trying to effect a reformation, only inflamed the ills he meant to cure: and for what he did, and shewed that he wished to do, he paid the penalty of his life.

The agents in these oppressive exactions were the provincial presidents or Proconsuls, who were wont to strike coins or medals stamped with the very symbol borne by the rider on the black

* The brevity and simple language of these edicts are singularly illus. trative of the text. One is cited by Elliott, stating the price to be paid by the Provincial authorities-" A modius of wheat for a denarius !"—remarkably similar to the words pronounced by the voice from the midst of the four living creatures.

horse, viz.-"a pair of balances." The Divine Spirit thus marking with distinctiveness and beautiful propriety, as in the other visions, the party intended by the rider; while the Roman measure, the wheat and the barley, which in the simple hieroglyphic did not admit of visible delineation, were audibly mentioned by the voice from the midst of the four living creatures.

The opening of the fourth seal exhibits a pale horse, (more correctly grassy green or livid,) "and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed after him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth." (ver. 8.)

This denotes an era of terrible mortality; and Gibbon faithfully explains the vision. From the year 248, he says, to the death of Gallienus in 268, was a period of "shame and misfortune, of confusion and calamity;"-"The ruined Empire seemed to approach the last and fatal moment of its dissolution-every province was afflicted by barbarous invaders, and military tyrants;" "a general famine," he continues, "the inevitable consequence of rapine and oppression, extirpated the produce of the present, and the hope of the future harvests." For fifteen years a furious plague raged without intermission in every province, every city, and almost every family in the Roman Empire. For some time 5,000 persons died daily in Rome, and many towns were entirely depopulated. "We may suspect," he adds, "that war, pestilence and famine, had consumed in a few years the moiety of the human species." The wild beasts also, as a natural consequence of this extraordinary diminution of mankind, multiplied to an alarming extent in many parts of the Empire: adding to the horrors of the survivors, and increasing the terrible destruction that marked the footsteps of the pale horse, as he careered with his ghastly rider through the length and breadth of the Roman world.

The rider in the fourth seal was not the representative of human functionaries or political rulers. It was the personification of Death -the king of terrors—and his badge or accompaniment was Hades or the Grave; and power was given to them over the fourth part