I believe that the Emperor referred to is Honorius, and that the events of his time are symbolically described in the third seal, which let us now patiently examine.

If I err not, the blackness of the third horse is significant of the darkness and desolation, and oppression of death, which came on the Roman empire upon the death of Theodosius, with whom, according to Gibbon, "the glories of Rome expired." His two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, succeeded, the former in the East, the latter in the West. It is with the latter, as emperor in Rome, that we have to do; for the seals are chiefly confined to the West, as the trumpets are to the East. The following extract from that eloquent and learned historian well characterizes both the person and the period of Honorius. "The predecessors of Honorius were accustomed to animate by their example, or at least by their presence, the valour of the legions; and the dates of their laws attest the perpetual activity of their motions through the provinces of the Roman world. But the son of Theodosius passed the slumber of his life a captive in his palace, a stranger in his country, and the patient, almost the indifferent, spectator of the ruin of the Western empire, which was repeatedly attacked, and finally subverted, by the arms of the barbarians. In the eventful history of a reign of twenty-eight years it will seldom be necessary to mention the name of the Emperor Honorius."

Next to the blackness of the horse on which the rider sat, is to be taken into account that which the rider had in his hand, translated in our version "a pair of balances," but which in the original signifies "a yoke," and is always so rendered in the New Testament (Matt. xi. 29; Acts xv. 10; Gal. v. 1; 1 Tim. vi. 1). It is not difficult to perceive what led our translators to the deviation from their own constant rule of rendering the word by its true and common signification. In the following verse they observed something indicative of a time of famine, and not apprehending but that this, in the hand of the presiding person, must have allusion to the same state of things, they chose to understand it of "a pair of balances." Being convinced that interpretation should on no account be permitted to interfere with translation, I shall preserve the proper signification of the word, and try this first. The

bow with the crown, the sword, and the yoke, are the three symbolical characters of the three riders; given to distinguish them from one another, as the lion, the bear, and the leopard of Daniel's vision, distinguish the successive emperors of Babylon, Persia, and Greece. The first we have interpreted of a royal potentate sending forth hist decrees of righteousness to the ends of the earth: the second, of a great warrior who drew his sword in civil war: and the yoke which is in the hand of the third can only be the sign of subjection, not of one who imposes a yoke, but of one on whom a yoke is imposed. An emperor whose times should be characterised by oppression is what natural sagacity would make out of the rider with a yoke in his hand, To this answers the colour of blackness, which oppression and strangulation bring over the countenance of man. This colour is also in Scripture commonly connected with famine: "Our skin was black like an oven, because of the terrible famine." (Lam. v. 10.) If we understand this to indicate both the oppression of the yoke, and the blackness of famine, we will find ourselves confirmed by the colour of the next horse, or period of judgment, which is greenness; for the word translated "r pale," should be rendered " green," as it is in other parts of this book (Rev. viii. 7; ix. 4); indicating, as I take it, the colour which flesh puts on in its progress to corruption. And this also I think to be signified by the person who rides thereon being denominated "death." There would then be a gradual succession from whiteness and purity of health, through this fiery redness of inflammation, to the coal blackness of violence or famine, and thence again to the livid greenness of corruption in death. It is not necessary that I should connect the black colour either with the yoke separately, or with the famine separately; seeing both go together in the description of this symbol. While it is necessary sometimes to anticipate, we are not taking it for granted that the next verse refers to famine, which we now proceed to shew.

It is introduced in a very peculiar and almost unprecedented way, by a voice from the midst of the four living creatures, which utters these words: "A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny, and see thou hurt not the wine and the oil." Some

have inclined to interpret these words symbolically, and to see under them a scarcity of the means of spiritual life; and some even are offended that every thing whatever in the book should not be symbolically interpreted. To the former we make answer, that the voices which come from heaven, and in general all the voices put into the mouths of angels and spirits in this book, admit only of a literal interpretation. For example, the three words "Come and see," with which each seal is introduced, signifies nothing more or less than come and see: there is no mystery or second meaning in the words at all. In like manner, the voice in the fifth seal coming from the souls under the altar, «How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not avenge our blood upon them that dwell on the earth ?” And the words from the kings of the earth, “Fall on us and cover us," &c. and every other such voice, without any exception that we have been able to find, is strictly explicative, and as explanation to be received and interpreted. This also is the answer to the second class of objectors, who would deprive us of all the helps scattered up and down the vision, and leave it as a riddle to be made out according to every man's notion. A sound and judicious interpreter will take his helps from every quarter, both from his natural sagacity in interpreting symbols, and from the hints which are cast out for his correction and guidance. Such a hint I believe this before me to be; and because it comes out from the middle of the four beasts, and not from any one of them, I understand it to be a word of interpretation affecting not this seal only, but casting a light upon the general subject of the four seals; shewing us that they are concerning judgments. Now the words. uttered surely refer to famine, and to nothing else. The measure of wheat for a penny, the three measures of barley for a penny, both indicate a state of famine, being double the common price at which these commodities were wont to be sold; reducing the allowance of the common people, which is commonly scanty enough, to one half of what is necessary to support life. This would be felt in any part of the world as a state of famine, but especially in Rome; where, long before this time, the people had been brought to the very edge of continual want. The second part of the expression, "and see thou hurt

not the wine and the oil," doth not convey to us the forcible meaning which it must have done to an inhabitant of Rome. And indeed these words are almost a proof that unto the city of Rome this seal specially referreth; for there only were large stores of wine and oil laid up. It is not to the olive, or to the grape, that the words have reference, but to the stores of wine and of oil which were laid up in Rome, and which here are commanded not to be injured, because of their preciousness, in consequence of the destruction and desolation which was about to come over the olive-yards and the vine-yards. The words indicate a want of the ordinary supply, by calling for care of the stores which had been accumulated. The oil was wont to be obtained from Africa, the wine from Italy: these two together formed the fourth part of the earth whereon complete destruction comes in the next seal; and therefore, in anticipation thereof, the voice proceeds forth under this one. It is an actual scarcity therefore, with a prospective desolation of the regions from which the stores were wont to be supplied. The state of society is so different among us, from what it was in those days in Rome, that it is necessary here to make a quotation of some length from the historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, in order to possess the unlearned reader with the true state of the case.

“The name of that city was still pronounced with respect; the frequent and capricious tumults of its inhabitants were indulged with impunity; and the successors of Constantine, instead of crushing the last remains of the democracy, by the strong arm of military power, embraced the mild policy of Augustus, and studied to relieve the poverty, and to amuse the idleness of an innumerable people. I. For the convenience of the lazy plebeians, the monthly distributions of corn were converted into a daily allowance of bread; a great number of ovens was constructed and maintained at the public expense; and at the appointed hour, each citizen, who was furnished with a ticket, ascended the flight of steps, which had been assigned to his peculiar quarter or division, and received, either as a gift, or at a very low price, a loaf of bread of the weight of three pounds for the use of his family. II. The forests of Lucania, whose acorns fattened large droves

of wild hogs, afforded, as a species of tribute, a plentiful supply of cheap and wholesome meat. During five months of the year, a regular allowance of bacon was distributed to the poorer citizens; and the annual consumption of the capital, at a time when it was much declined from its former lustre, was ascertained, by an edict of Valentinian the Third, at three millions six hundred and twenty-eight thousand pounds. III. In the manners of antiquity, the use of oil was indispensible for the lamp, as well as for the bath: and the annual tax, which was imposed on Africa for the benefit of Rome, amounted to the weight of three millions of pounds, to the measure, perhaps, of three hundred thousand English gallons. IV. The anxiety of Augustus to provide the metropolis with sufficient plenty of corn, was not extended beyond that necessary article of human subsistence; and when the popular clamour accused the dearness and scarcity of wine, a proclamation was issued, by the grave reformer, to remind his subjects, that no man could reasonably complain of thirst, since the aqueducts of Agrippa had introduced into the city so many copious streams of pure and salubrious water. This rigid sobriety was sensibly relaxed; and, although the generous design of Aurelian does not appear to have been executed in its full extent, the use of wine was allowed on very easy and liberal terms. The administration of the public cellars was delegated to a magistrate of honourable rank; and a considerable part of the vintage of Campania was reserved for the fortunate inhabitants of Rome." Vol. iv. pp. 191–193.

It is evident from this account of the city, which is written for the very time we suppose our seal to be conversant with, that from Africa and Italy, Rome was supplied with the necessary articles mentioned in the text. And if it shall appear that in the time of this, and the following seals, these regions of the earth were doomed to utter spoliation, there is at once a beautiful harmony with the exposition given above, and a great light for that which is to follow, contained in this voice; which, coming as it doth from the midst of the four beasts, we understand as having to do in some way or other with all the seals. Moreover it gives a distinctness of locality to this seal which none of the rest has. The first indeed seems to have