It will, I think, be deemed confirmatory of this exposition now given of the first four seals, to find in a book of an almost Apostolical character, generally thought to have been written by the Hermas mentioned by St. Paul (Rom. xvi. 14.), in such high estimation with the early Christians that it was called the Scripture," and "publicly read in the churches,' that a beast (the common emblem of the Roman power) is represented rising "from the sea as a whale," (compare Rev. xiii. 1.; Dan. vii. 3.) "having upon its head four colours."

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"The beast had upon its head four colours, black, then red and blood-colour; after that pale; last of all, white.

This beast came on so fiercely as if it could destroy the city at a blow this beast is the emblem of the wrath which

is about to come."1

It will be observed there is a marked coincidence between the colours of the four horses mentioned in the Apocalypse and the colours upon the head of the beast mentioned by Hermas; and when to this it is added, that the beast, both in the Apocalypse and the Book of Hermas "rises from the sea," that the object of his terrible approach is to "destroy the city," and that the beast is defined to be "the emblem of the wrath which is about to come," (an explanation allowed by the best commentators to refer to the distress about to come upon Judæa and Jerusalem), there will be little doubt but that the Apocalypse and the Vision of Hermas both prefigure the same events, and that the application of these symbols to the distress caused by the Roman invasion of Judæa is correct. This gives great weight to the exposition which refers the first four seals. to the calamities about to come upon the Jewish people in consequence of the invasion of the Romans. It shows that these views harmonise with the original interpretations of the symbols. of the Apocalypse, and that the theories of our conjectural age are a modern myth and a hypothetical novelty. It shows that Cretan bows were as little likely to be prefigured in those symbols as Staffordshire earthenware, and that Prætorian pre

1 "Habebat autem bestia illa super caput colores quatuor, nigrum, deinde rubrum et sanguinolentum, inde aureum (χλωρός, ὠχρός, λευκοῦ ξανθῷ μετ pyμérov) deinde album . . . . sic autem veniebat bestia illa ut posset in ictu civitatem delere ... bestia hæc figura est pressure superventure" T

fects Occupy about as legitimate a place in the Apocalypse as the rapacious provincial governors of the reign of Caracalla whose rapacity lasted neither more nor less than eight years. It shows that neither Greek epigrams on females, nor the loquacity of magpies, serve to throw much light upon its mysteries, and that the fable of the Cretan dynasty is worthy of the Cretan character as given by St. Paul.

*

In a word, it shows that the principles on which such interpretation is conducted are false and mischievous, and productive not only of much negative folly, but of much positive harm; and it teaches us, that if we would obtain a solution of the symbols of the Apocalypse, we must be content to look for it at a period when symbolic teaching was by no means uncommon, that men of an Apostolic age were more likely to have understood Apostolic mysteries than would-be prophets of later times, and that the explanation given by them of these symbols is probably more in unison with truth, than the interpretation offered by modern theorists; in fact, that the reasonable exegesis of contemporaneous authority is more worthy of credit than the guess-work of after ages, and the " scriptural" definition of Apocalyptic symbols, as Irenæus, Origen, Jerome, and Eusebius, would have called the exposition of Hermas Pastor, more fit to be trusted than the crude hypothesis of the nineteenth century.

Such, then, the nature of these outpourings of the wrath of God upon a race of evil-doers. Such the mighty conqueror, and such the woes that followed in his train; and to crown the whole, these distinct and specific miseries, so graphically portrayed in the first four seals, are made the subject of previous imprecation. In the period immediately preceding the coming desolation, innocent blood ascends reeking up to heaven, and cries for vengeance, shaped to the very form and

1 "And, first, as to the principles adopted. These, as far as I have been able to ascertain them, are those only of ingenious conjecture, supported in detail by what may be termed the doctrine of resemblances; for example, the meaning of a prediction of Scripture is, in the first place, guessed at; in the second, the event so supposed to be had in view is made to quadrate with it to a certain extent, just in proportion to the amount of ingenuity exerted; the resemblance so obtained is, as it is then thought, too near to have been undesigned, and the conclusion is, that the needful has been satisfactorily ascertained."- Professor Lee on Prophecy, Preface, 1849.

letter of these Apocalyptical predictions. In the words of that unconscious witness, from whose unwilling lips we wring the sublimest confirmation of the truth of our holy religion, these four terrible visitants, war, famine, civil discord and pestilence, were invoked at that time upon that guilty nation, and that awful invocation was confirmed by Almighty God. 66 Now, whilst they (the zealots) were slaying him (Niger of Peræa), he made this imprecation upon them, that they might undergo both famine and pestilence in this war; and besides all that, they might come to the mutual slaughter one of another, ALL WHICH IMPRECATIONS GOD CONFIRMED AGAINST THESE IMPIOUS MEN, and was what came most justly upon them when, not long afterward, they tasted of their own madness, in their mutual seditions one against another."1

1 Bell. Jud. lib. iv. cap. 6.

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LECTURE IV.

THE FIFTH SEAL. THE ERA OF MARTYRS.

REV. vi. 9, 10, 11.

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 held :

10. 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 the earth?

11. 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.

OUR previous lecture embraced the subject of the first four seals. These were shown to be symbolical of invasion, civil discord, famine, and pestilence. With the opening of the First, a warrior goes forth, "conquering and to conquer." He is described by symbols which make it evident that Rome is the source of his mission, and that his triumphs would be successive until they closed in victory. And the overruling providence of God so accurately fits the fulfilment to the prediction, that Judæa is for the first time desolated by a Roman conqueror (for previous reductions of Judæa by the Romans did not terminate in its destruction), and these desolations are suffered to continue until, as a nation, the Jews became extinct.

With the opening of the Second, not only is the nature of the misery caused by this foreign invasion accurately defined, but the particular land is pointed out upon which this misery should "The peace is to be taken from the earth” (Tŷs yŷs) -Judæa. The previously existing amity between the Romans and the Jewish people is to be broken up, and Judæa is to be filled with internal discord and civil slaughter.

come.

With the opening of the Third, the scene of the coming desolation is still unmistakably defined. Not only is the price

to be paid for the "measure of wheat" and the "three measures of barley," said to be a "denarium,"—the Roman penny spoken of John, vi. 7. and elsewhere, at that time the current money of Judæa,—but the peculiar productions of that land, described as "wheat, and barley, and oil, and wine," are smitten by the famine. No language could more clearly determine the particular land upon which this scarcity was to come; whilst the distinct recognition of the current money of the land, makes it morally certain that Judæa alone must be intended.

With the opening of the Fourth, the particular land which death and hell are to cover with their victims is again specifically delineated. "Power was given to them over the fourth part of the earth," (rŷs yŵs)—Judæa-" to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth,” (Tŷs yŷs)—Judæa. I need not say how faithfully this symbol received its accomplishment; how at that particular time there was "great distress in the land," (enì TŶS YŶS)— yûs)— Judæa" and wrath upon this people," the Jews; or how the dead bodies were cast out naked, and seen to be the food of dogs and wild beasts.” 1

Indeed, the first four seals present a combined and connected view of what would naturally happen under the circumstances. Nothing would be more likely than that foreign invasion should be followed by civil war, famine, and pestilence. We have ample testimony that such was the case at that time, and that the invasion of the Romans was the signal for the commencement of those heart-rending desolations which exterminated the ancient people of God,-an extermination which the lapse of 2,000 years has not obliterated, and which the historian of that age has forcibly described as "exceeding all the destructions that either man or God brought upon the world."

A new picture is presented to us under the Fifth Seal. The Roman horse and horsemen fade from our view,-war, strife, famine, and pestilence, recede. The actors in this seal are no more connected with conquest and battle, and a new vision opens upon us, a vision of plaintive martyrs and mourning

saints.

1 Bell. Jud. lib. iv. cap. 5.