This Rider, then, is CHRIST, and is further identified with Him by one of the later Visions of the Apocalypse. I saw heaven opened, and behold a White Horse; and He that sate upon him was called Faithful and True; and His Name is the Word of God, King of Kings, Lord of Lords.

Christ is the Word. He is Universal King. He therefore it is Who rides conquering, and in order that He may conquer 2; He Who says to His Church, In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world3.

The colour White, in the Apocalypse, appertains, as we have said, to Christ. Whatever then is contrary to white is opposed to Christ. This leads us to the interpretation of the following Seals.

2. The SECOND symbol is a Red horse, and his Rider bears a sword; not a barbarian falchion, but the imperial sword *. This Sword, as St. Paul teaches us, is the emblem of imperial Power: He beareth not the sword in vain. This Seal then, with its red horse and drawn sword, prefigures Satan, shedding the blood of Christians by the sword of the Pagan

1 Rev. xix. 11-17.

2 iva vikηon, "in order that He may conquer," are the words of the original.

3 John xvi. 33.

4 μάχαιρα, not ῥομφαία.

5 Rom. xiii. 4. οὐκ εἰκῆ τὴν μάχαιραν φορεῖ.

6 Cp. Zech. i. 7-17. Hengstenberg Christologie, § 501.

Emperors of Rome', especially from Decius to Diocletian; that is, from A.D. 249 to A.D. 303.

3. The THIRD SEAL displays another colour, also, opposed to that of Christ. It shows us 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 Living Creatures say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and wine.

This symbol must be understood in a spiritual sense 3. It relates not to secular markets, but to the bread of life, and to the meat that perisheth not *.

To interpret it of natural wheat and barley is to fall into the error of the Disciples, who, when our Lord told them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, thought that He spoke of the leaven of bread".

The horseman, we see, is on a black horse: he is

1 It is remarkable that Tertullian, speaking of the first persecution, uses the word gladius. "Primum Neronem in hanc sectam (Christianorum) Cæsareaneo gladio ferocisse." Apol. v. Haymo ad loc. per Domitianum et cæteros; and Joachim, p. 114 (reverse), Equus rufus est Romanorum exercitus. In sessore isto intelligendi sunt Romani Imperatores. Quantum vero sanctorum sanguinem Romani effuderunt Imperatores Diocletianus maxime et Maximianus! See Lactantius de Morte Persecutorum, c. 7-24. Euseb. libb. viii-x.

2 Cf. Rom. viii. 36. Psalm xliv. 22.

3 See Arethas in Cramer's Catena, p. 268, who has well expounded it.

4 John vi. 27. 35.

5 Matth. xvi. 6. 12.

therefore opposed to Christ, Whose Horse is white. He is the Adversary, our Enemy, and the Enemy of Christ and His Church-Satan. Here he holds in his hand-not a Sword, as he did when on the red horse-but a Balance, the emblem of Justice. While, therefore, he practises Wrong, he professes Right'. The figure is derived from the Prophet Hosea: The Balances of deceit are in his hands; he loveth to oppress 2. But, in order that no one may be deceived by his aspect and gesture, a voice is heard from the four Living Creatures beneath the Throne of Godthat is, from the four Evangelists-proclaiming, A measure of wheat for a penny (or denarius), and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and wine.

To understand this warning Voice, we must remember that the penny, or denarius, was a day's wages; and that the measure here mentioned is the

1 Auctor anon. ap. S. August. ad loc. well says: "Habet stateram in manu; quia dum fingit se justitiam tenere, per simulationem lædit." The same Author, speaking of the three horses in succession after the White Horse, well adds: "Isti tres equi, qui exierunt post album et contrà album, sessorem habent Diabolum."

2 Hosea xii. 7.

3 See above, Lecture II.-Aquinas ad loc. Concors doctrina Iv Evangeliorum Ex hoc patet quod recurrendum est ad doctrinam sacræ paginæ in adversis temporibus.

4 The symbol is λμoû deîyμa, says Arethas. A soldier's daily pay was a denarius. Tacit. Annal. i. 17. The xoîvέ weighed two libræ, and contained an eighth part of a μόδιος : it was an ἡμερησία τροφή. See Diog. Laërt. viii. 8. Athen. iii. p. 90, E. Slaves had an allowance of four modii, or thirty-two chonices a month. (See ad Cic. de

choenix, which was the eighth part of a modius; and that a modius of wheat did not usually sell for more than a denarius: so that wheat is represented here as eight times its usual price, and that a day's allowance of wheat for one man would exhaust all his day's wages; that is, there is a great spiritual scarcity; a famine of hearing the word of the Lord'; a leanness of soul: and barley is three times as cheap as wheat; that is, degenerate doctrine is much more plentiful than true 3.

What, then, is the meaning of this emblem?

The first mode by which the Evil One had attempted to destroy the Church was by the Sword of Pagan Persecution. This, therefore, was represented under the former Seal. But God mercifully put an end to the sufferings endured by the Church from open violence; the Roman empire was Christianized. Then the Opponent of Christ resorted to a second mode of attack, more insidious and not less deadlyHeresy.

The first Seal having displayed Persecution from

Off. ii. 17.) A modius was usually sold for a denarius, sometimes for half a denarius. Cic. Verr. iii. 81, and Divin. c. 10.

1 Amos viii. 11.

2 Psalm cvi. 15.

3 The κpion is contrasted with σîros, just as Dinarchus was called 8 κρíðivos Anμoodévŋs (see Ruhnken Rutil. Lup. ii. v. p. 88); and hordeo pasci was a military punishment. Liv. xxvii. 13. Differt (says Joachim in h. loc.) inter triticum et hordeum, quod triticum est hominum, hordeum jumentorum.

4 See Theodoret, Eccles. Hist. i. 1; who indirectly, by a recital of facts, supplies a very striking comment on this Seal.

without, the second Seal exhibits Heresy from within.

The Foe of the Church appears no longer now with the warlike Sword in his hand, but he holds the peaceful Balance. Yet Satan is opposed to Christ, Who is on the White Horse, no less when Satan rides on the black horse than on the red horse; no less with the Balance in his hand than with the Sword; no less when he acts by heresy than by persecution.

He raised up many persons, especially in the Eastern Church, such as Arius' (A.D. 318), Nestorius (A.D. 428), and Eutyches (A.D. 448); and after them many more in succession, who were versed in the intricate subtleties of scholastic dialectics; and, being shrewd and subtle disputants, inveigled many by sophistical syllogisms and plausible professions of Equity, holding, as it were, a Balance in their hands, and weighing spiritual doctrines in the scales of human Reason; and thus, under a specious pretence of scrupulous regard for logical accuracy, and philosophic calmness, and judicial impartiality, corrupted the saving doctrines of Divine Revelation; and, while feigning a zeal for Justice, impugned the Truth 2.

1 Joachim in loc. In Equo nigro Arianorum intelligendus est clerus : Statera est disputatio literæ quâ abutuntur hæretici.—Anselm (Bishop of Havilburg, A.d. 1145). Hi sunt hæretici qui in manu dolosam stateram trutinantes habent; æquitatem de fide disputando proponunt, sed minus cautos levissimo vel minimi verbi pondere fallunt. He mentions Arius, Sabellius, Nestorius, Eutyches, Donatus, Photinus, Manes.

2 See Hooker V. xlii. 2, concerning "Arius, a subtle-witted, and a