Church will not be deceived: she will hear the warning voice; she will not weigh the truth in the scales of deceit, but in the unerring balance of the Word of God *.

Here then, I conceive, we have a compendious History of Heresy, and of the sufferings of the Church, from its specious and cruel arts. And here the stewards of the Great Householder may read their own duty; which is, to dispense to every one, without grudging, his spiritual meat in due season†; and not to elevate the human Will and Reason, in a Pelagian spirit, so as to disparage the sacramental influences-the Oil and Wine +-of Divine grace.

This Heavenly Voice is also raised for the consolation of the true Christian.

Whatever may be the fraud and power of Satan in the propagation of strange Doctrines, the voice of the Gospel will never cease to be heard; and he will never be able to hurt the Sacraments of Christ.

The next Seal opens a still more dismal picture.

*The comment of Joachim deserves to be cited. Hæretici quâdam staterâ utuntur, sed abutuntur in disputando; legimus enim in Nicænâ Synodo plures convenisse philosophos qui astutiâ dialecticæ artis fidem Catholicam impugnarent. Sed quo vult pergat Philosophus: tu tene tuum pondus; tu serva numerum quem audisti.

This Seal is also very applicable to the Scholastic and Rationalizing Theology of later times, and of our own day.

+ Matth. xxiv. 45. Primasius ad loc.

prohibet violari.

Luke xii. 42.

In vino et oleo vim Sacramentorum

Its

A pale, or, rather, a livid* Horse appears. rider is Death; and Hell follows with him; and he has power over the fourth part of the earth, to destroy with the Sword, and with hunger and death, and with the Beasts of the earth.

Here is a grievous and manifold persecution. The Sword now mentioned is not the imperial Sword, but the barbarian Scymitar t. It refers to furious ravages committed by savage tribes,-Goths, Vandals, Saracens t. It pourtrays sufferings produced by spiritual famine §. It exhibits evils consequent on the suppression of God's Word by a corrupt Church. It reveals her wickedness in feeding the starving soul with hungry husks of fanatical fables. It speaks of the calamities to be produced by the Beasts, that is, by the two Anti-Christian Beasts, which, according to the manner of the Book of Revelation, are supposed to be already known to the reader, as they are to the writer, and which will be described more fully hereafter in the latter parts of the Apocalypse ||. So ends the Fourth Seal.

*xλwpòs, expressing the ghastliness of violent death. + Not μaxaipa, gladius, but poppaia, framea.

Joachim, p. 116. Quis tam rectè Mors appellari potuit quam homo ille perditus Mahumetes qui tot millium hominum factus est causa mortis ?

§ Amos viii. 11.

|| Rev. xiii. 1-11.

This word Beasts, here introduced, is a chronological catchword, and shows that this Vision belongs also to the time of the Sixth and Seventh Trumpets, when these Beasts exercise power. cp. note §, p. 190.

The Fifth reveals the souls of the Martyrs who have been slain in the previous persecutions for the Word of God and for the testimony which they held, and which cry from beneath the altar, on which their blood has been spilt. How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not avenge our blood upon those who dwell on the earth? They who dwell on the earth, be it observed, is a frequent expression in the Apocalypse*, and always designates those who have not their hearts in heaven, but are of the earth, earthy; and are opposed to the children of the kingdom of heaven. And, They who were slain receive white robes, and they must rest a little longer till the number of their brethren and fellow-servants, who are to be offered up as victims, as they were, is fulfilled † ; and then their happiness will be complete.

The Sixth Seal reveals a great revolution-an earthquake, darkness, and the falling of stars from heaven.

The present is a proper place for offering some remarks on the figurative character of these prophecies.

St. Peter thus speaks on the day of Pentecost: This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel §; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall

* Rev. iii. 10. xi. 10. xiii. 8. xiv. 6. xvii. 8. cp. Luke xxi. 35. + Rev. vi. 11. § Joel ii. 28.

Acts ii. 16.

dream dreams and on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy.

Mark now what follows.

And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke. The Sun shall be turned into darkness, and the Moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.

Thus we are taught by an inspired Apostle not to expect a literal fulfilment of the prophecies in this Seal, which describe a great elemental convulsion. We are not to look for any terrific changes in the heavenly bodies before Christ's second coming. But these prophecies are spiritual, and to be understood spiritually.

This is very necessary to be remembered, lest our mind's eye should not be open to the signs of our Lord's coming, and so its signs should be no signs to us; and lest we should look for other signs than the true ones; and then that day should come upon us unawares*. It will so come on the World. Upon the World it will come as a Thief in the night†; but we are to take heed, lest that day should overtake us as a thief.

In another respect also St. Peter's interpretation is very important.

* Luke xxi. 34.

+ 1 Thess. v. 2.

‡ 1 Thess. v. 4.

2 Pet. iii. 10. Rev. iii. 3. xvi. 15.

It puts into our hands a divine key for the unlocking of these prophecies.

This key is divine: but with us it is in human hands, and must be used with great care, and under divine guidance.

By this I mean, that we ought not to assign to any passage of Scripture a spiritual meaning, which is not authorized either directly by Scripture, or by way of rational induction from Scripture. We must use the key, and use it aright. If we take these prophecies in a literal sense, we do not use the key if we give them a spiritual sense, unauthorized by Scripture, we use it amiss.

Let us now return.

The Sixth Seal is opened. Here we enter the domain of unfulfilled prophecy, and must tread with caution.

A great Earthquake ensues. This Earthquake is described hereafter more fully under the Sixth Trumpet †, and again under the Seventh Vial‡: and thus, if we may so speak, it serves as a Catchword to connect all these together. Like other words and phrases in this Book, serving for the

* See Waterland's Scripture Vindicated, Works, vi. p. 18-20. Jones on the Figurative Language of Holy Scripture; Theol. Works, iii. 1-191.

Rev. xi. 13.

Rev. xvi. 17—21.

§ I have marked these catchwords by a particular type (called Clarendon) in the Harmony of the Apocalypse, in Vol. ii. of these Lectures.