the Prætorian prefects; we need not refer these intestine troubles to sixty years of Roman history. There and then at the time-the coming of the Romans led to intestine troubles among the Jews; and this civil slaughter depopulated Judæa more than the sword of foreign invasion. "Oh, most wretched city," said Josephus, "what misery so great as this didst thou suffer from the Romans, when they came to purify thee from thine intestine hatred; for thou couldest be no longer a place fit for God, after thou hadst been a sepulchre for the bodies of thine own people, and hadst made the holy house itself a burying-place in this civil war of thine."

THIRD SEAL.

"And 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 that thou hurt not the oil and wine." 1

This is referred by Elliott and Cumming to the oppressiveness of the provincial governors during the reign of Caracalla, which Gibbon states to be one of the principal causes of the decline of the Roman Empire. It is needless to observe, that this oppressiveness is no more true of the Roman provincial governors during the reign of Caracalla than during any other reign; most of them, amongst whom I may instance Festus, Albinus, and Florus, being guilty of terrible exactions.2

1 Wheat, barley, oil, and wine, the especial productions of Palestine; "A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, a land of oil olive, and honey."-Deut. viii. 8.

2 Character of Albinus and Florus." Albinus, who succeeded Festus, did not execute his office as the other had done, nor was there any sort of wickedness that could be named but he had a hand in it. Accordingly, he did not only in his political capacity steal and plunder every one's substance, nor did he only burden the whole nation with taxes, but he permitted the relations of such as were in prison for robbery, to redeem them for money; and nobody remained in the prisons as a malefactor, but he who gave him nothing."Bell. Jud. lib. ii. cap. 14.

"But although such was the character of Albinus, yet did Gessius Florus,

I hope to arrive at a more satisfactory explanation. The colour of the horse, black, is indicative of mourning and distress.1 The rider holding in his hands a pair of balances, for the purpose of measuring and weighing food, shows that this distress is occasioned by want of the necessaries of life. This is confirmed by the voice saying, "a measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny, and see that thou hurt not the oil and wine."

Did events corresponding to this seal take place during the Roman invasion of Judæa ? Is it known that famine prevailed to a great extent ? Were the prices of food raised considerably higher; and was there any occasion which justified the emblems conveyed under this seal?

This is no matter of conjecture. The account is given us by one, who, whilst he was a captive in the hands of the Roman armies, outside the walls of Jerusalem, had his wife and children within the walls, a prey to the horrible famine which he describes 3:-"Many there were," he says, "who sold what they had for one measure: it was of wheat if they were

3

who succeeded him, demonstrate him to have been a most excellent person upon the comparison; for the former did the greatest part of his rogueries in private, but Gessius did his unjust actions to the harm of the nation, and as though he had been sent as an executioner to punish condemned malefactors, he omitted no sort of rapine or of vexation; he thought it but a petty offence to get money out of single persons, so he spoiled whole cities, and ruined entire bodies of men at once."-Bell. Jud. lib. ii. cap. 14.

"Wives and families that are in black, mourning for their slaughtered relations."-Bell. Jud. lib. iv. cap. 4.

2 Xoir, "a measure.". - There is so much difference of opinion with regard to the meaning of the word translated a measure, that we cannot form an accurate judgment as to what extent the famine prevailed.

3" As for myself, I have composed a true history of that war, having been concerned in its transactions; for I acted as general with those among us who are called Galilæans, as long as it was possible for us to make any opposition; and when I was taken captive by the Romans, Vespasian and Titus ordered me to be kept under a guard, but commanded that I should attend to them continually. At first I was in bonds; afterwards I was set at liberty, and was sent to accompany Titus when he came to the siege of Jerusalem, during which time nothing was done which escaped my knowledge. What happened in the Roman camp I saw, and wrote down carefully; what information the deserters brought out of the city I was the only man who could understand it."-Jos. Contra Apion, lib. 1. c. 9.

"Judæus Josephus antiquitatum Judaicarum vernaculus vindex.”— Ter

of the richer sort, but of barley if they were poorer. When these had so done, they shut themselves up in the inmost rooms of the houses, and ate the corn they had gotten; some did it without grinding it, by reason of the extremity of the want they were in; and others snatched the bread out of the fire half baked, and ate it very heartily."

" 1

He further adds:-" That a bushel of wheat was sold for a talent (3751.); and that when it was not possible to gather herbs by reason of the city being all walled about, some persons were driven to that terrible distress as to search the common sewers and old dunghills of cattle, and to eat the dung which they got there; and what they of old could not so much as endure to see, they now used as food." 2

This appears to me to be a more likely interpretation than that which refers this seal to the cupidity of the Roman governors during the reign of Caracalla. Were they the only avaricious Roman governors, and were they all avaricious? and did their avarice only commence in the year 240 and extend over a period of eight years? We must suppose that, in the seal, there is some mystic intelligence which ordinary minds cannot fathom, to signify that it begins with the year 240, and ends with the year 248. I confess, I cannot find it, and that, if it is to be interpreted of the avarice of the Roman governors, it might as well extend over the whole period of Roman usurpation and tyranny, as over a particular period of eight years.

FOURTH SEAL.

The Fourth Seal is ushered in under circumstances of peculiar majesty and terror. "And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see; and I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and hell followed with 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."

"This seal," says Dr. Cumming, "almost explains itself. It represents Death riding rough-shod over the length and

1 Bell. Jud. lib. v. cap. 10.

2 Ibid. v. cap. 13.

breadth of the empire, and Hades, or the grave, following at his heels to receive the victims as they fell. It was during this seal, from A.D. 248 to A.D. 268, that there occurred the most terrible contemporaneous combination of sword, famine, and pestilence, that ever visited a guilty population."

Gibbon describes it thus:-"Every province was invaded by barbarous military tyrants; there was a general famine, a dreadful plague, so that 4,500 persons died each day at Rome." And a heathen writer states, "The wild beasts invaded the cities as the natural consequence of the decay of man."

It is possible that precise period of Roman history might have been visited with sword, and famine, and pestilence; but I am prepared to show that these punishments of God fell upon a particular land, and at a particular time: not commencing with the year 248, and ending 268, but immediately after the Apocalypse was written, and confined within the period of the Jewish war.

Observe the colour of the horse-pale, cadaverous, livid. the colour suiting the rider for his name is Death. Hell or the grave follows him; and power is given him to "destroy with sword, and hunger, and with death (the same word is often used to signify pestilence), and with beasts of the earth." The description is highly allegorical; yet at the same time magnificently stern and grand. It is

"The Giant steed to be bestrode by Death,

As told in the Apocalypse."

Poets and painters have fastened on the symbol, and gathered from it sublime, though erroneous, imagery.

However, nothing can be plainer than the meaning which lies hid under this symbol. Death, famine, and pestilence follow in the steps of war; nothing is more natural than that famine should tread on the steps of war, or that pestilence should follow famine.

The question is-did such pestilence-such famine-such wholesale slaughter and destruction, happen at this time? Did Death on a pale horse ride rough-shod over his victims, and did hell and the grave follow him?

Josephus says that when "Titus, in going his rounds along the valleys in front of Jerusalem, saw them full of dead bodies, and the thick putrefaction running from them, he gave a groan,

and spreading out his hands to heaven, called God to witness, that this was not his doing." 1

In another passage-"The multitude of carcases that lay in heaps one upon another was a horrible sight, and produced a pestilential stench." 2

In another statement" The multitude of those that therein perished exceeded all the destructions that either man or God brought upon the world.”

I might quote innumerable passages besides these, but these are sufficient. If Death on the pale horse ever had a revel, and feasted over human victims, his greatest banquet was at the time of Jerusalem's downfal.

According to our Lord's words (Matt. xxiv. 21, 22.) "Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened."

Such I conceive is the reasonable and satisfactory interpretation of the first four seals. They have each the common basis of a horse and his rider; they each refer to scenes of conquest, war, and bloodshed; they each have a continuous signification, for the horseman goes forth "conquering and to conquer;" they each are introduced by one of the four living creatures, and each are prefaced with the words demanding attention, "Come and see." It is natural to look for a continuous interpretation, and we find one, not by ranging over the history of 200 years, not by turning over the pages of Gibbon to find some event likely to suit the seal, but in the defined and specific period of the Jewish war.

First comes the foreign invader, on his white horse, armed with his bow, the emblem of previous victories, and going forth conquering and to conquer.'

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Then civil war following in the footsteps of foreign invasion. Then famine, with its balances and short measures.

Then pestilence bringing up the rear of this terrible array. All is easy, simple, natural, and all finds an exact and literal fulfilment in the period which we have assigned.

1 Bell. Jud. lib. v. cap. 12.

3 Ib. lib. vi. cap. 9.

2 lb. lib. vi. cap. 1.