A

DISSERTATION,

&c. &c.

CHAPTER I.

THE FIRST FIVE SEALS.

THE sixth chapter of the Apocalypse contains an account of the opening of six of the seals of the book, which had been exhibited to the eyes of the apostle John in the preceding chapter. The first four seals discover to us the same number of hieroglyphics, each of which is sufficiently distinguished from the rest, by its appropriate characters, to mark that they all relate to different events: but yet, as all the four hieroglyphics are evidently homogeneous, or of the same kind, they must, according to the just principles of interpretation, be applied to objects of the same nature.

Most interpreters have lost sight of this principle in expounding the prophecy of the seals: for, while there is a pretty general agreement among them, in referring the first seal to the victorious progress of pure Christianity, in the primitive age

A

of the church, they usually apply the three following seals to the history of the Roman empire.* But if the first seal relate to the church, the next three being homogeneous with it, must also be applied to the history of the church.

Bishop Newton has indeed avoided the common error of violating the principle of homogeneity, in expounding the visions of the four horsemen; and this he does by applying the first seal to the history of the Roman empire during the reigns of Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, and Nerva; and the other three to the state of the empire in the subsequent period, down to the accession of Diocletian. But it may be here observed, as will be afterwards more fully shown, that there is nothing in the symbols which can justify this interpretation, since they are of a nature to be applied only to the church and things spiritual.

Archdeacon Woodhouse, in his learned work on the Apocalypse, seems to be the first writer who has adopted an uniform and consistent interpretation of that part of the prophecies of this book, which we are now about to consider. And as I have followed his scheme in its great outlines, in interpreting the first six seals, I think it right to set out by acknowledging my great obligations to him. I may add, that till I saw his work, I rested in the commonly received interpretation of the above seals, the inconsistency of which has been so clearly pointed out by the learned Archdeacon.

* It will be understood that I here speak of interpreters whose works bear an earlier date than that of the first edition of this volume, viz., the year 1813.

Having made these general remarks, I now proceed to consider more particularly the prophecy of these seals.

THE FIRST SEAL.

The symbol or hieroglyphic exhibited under this seal is a white horse with a rider, having a bow: "A crown was given him, and he went forth con"quering, and to conquer." Horses, chariots, and their riders, are, in the Scriptures, used to denote hosts or armies. Thus the chariots and horsemen, or horses, seen in Isaiah xxi. 7, 9, signify the united armies of the Medes and Persians. The horsemen of the sixth trumpet, or second woe, are the armies of the Turks. Now we know from the Scriptures, that God in the administration of the moral universe employs various agents. His holy angels are his celestial hosts, or armies, who run to and fro on mingled messages of love and of penal inflictions.* These angels are therefore his chariots, or horsemen, and the symbols are manifestly used in this sense in Ps. lxviii, where the twenty thousand chariots of God, according to our authorized version, and also that of Bishop Horsley, signify angels. The chariots of fire and horses of fire which 'surrounded Elisha,t are in like manner to be understood as signifying the heavenly host of angels. The Lord has also his spiritual armies of the race of Adam, and these are his church, whether militant upon earth or triumphant in the presence of her Lord.

* Ps. ciii. 21. + 2 Kings vi. 17.