any limit fixed to the extent of its course, but those of Christendom or the Roman empire, so neither are we warranted in fixing any period to the time, for which it is to hold its progress, short of that, which is appointed for the complete accomplishment of the whole prophecy. Certainly the history of events will justify us in carrying it thus far.

So far as

II. The chariot with black horses. the character of the agents and the events hereby represented are to be determined by the colour of the horses, no advantage can be derived in this instance, from a reference to the horsemen in the first part. It may however be supposed, that much light will be thrown upon the subject, by a comparison of the horseman, who, in the Revelation of St. John, appears, at the opening of the third seal, mounted on a black horse, with -the chariot and horses now before us. Famine, On severe scarcity, are certainly the subjects of prediction in that seal. But then we collect our interpretation, not so much from the colour of the horse, as from the implements born by the rider, and still more clearly from the voice of the cherub, which both urged and restricted his Take away those circumstances from the description; and then the colour of the horse cannot well be supposed to enter farther into the

career.

As such it must be tak

representation of famine, than as it may signify the general lamentation ensuing on so great a calamity. Black is often used in scripture, as well as by profane writers, for the sign of mourning; as the most expressive and eminent of all tokens of sorrow. en here. But as mourning itself may spring from other causes besides famine, so again may black be used for the sign of other things beside mourning; and consequently the colour of the horses of this chariot, though it must be considered as indicative, among other things, of deep mourning, is not to be restricted to that signification. Black is the robe of darkness, as well as of grief; the word is often joined in scripture with words expressive of darkness; and darkness is so often and so familiarly applied to the mind in a state of ignorance or of delusion, that the application is almost proper and void of metaphor. The colour of these horses therefore must be interpreted of ignorance, as well as of mourning; and especially, as the main subject of the vision obliges us to understand it, of religious ignorance, a state directly opposed to that typified by the candlestick,

The angelic charioteer then, who rules the black horses, is either commissioned to introduce into Christendom, or is sent to watch and

regulate there, a season of deep distress and mourning, and also of ignorance, or of intellectual and religious darkness.

The order of procession determines the events, signified by this figure, to a period posterior to the introduction of the calamities, which the preceding chariot carried in its course. I have said posterior to the introduction of those calamities; for neither the description given by the prophet, nor the nature of the subject, requires us to suppose, that the course of the former must have concluded, before that of the latter commenced. At the same time, the things signified thereby are for the most part subsequent, and even consequent, to those denoted by the former, though they are also in some part concomitant with them. The calamities of repeated invasions, of frequent and almost continual tumults, of civil wars and religious dissensions have a direct and almost necessary tendency to produce some great and remarkable catastrophe, that may be suitably signalized as a subject of general mourning, and also to introduce and perpetuate a period of intellectual night and darkness. Such events have taken place accordingly. But before we proceed to apply them to the prophetic emblems, it must be observed, that the predicted woes are limited to a certain quarter of Christendom, as

appears by the third circumstance attending this chariot, the quarter to which its course is directed and confined.

6. "As to that*, in which are the black horses,

they are going forth to the land of the north." The third chariot also will be found to go to the north, while the fourth alone will be observed to go southward. Thus we see, that although the four chariots are said to represent the same subjects, as the four winds of heaven, whence we naturally expect to find them severally proceeding to the four points of the compass; yet the first turns its course in all directions, while those

* Dr. Blaney, considering it impossible to construe the first words of this verse, has joined them to the preceding one, and has rendered the clause thus; "before the Lord of the whole earth and of that which is therein." In order to effect this new construction, he is obliged to prefix to the word the particle Vau, which he supposes to have been lost from before it. But the restoration, or rather addition, of this letter is made without the warrant of any manuscript or version, and demands admission, only as an happy conjecture, relieving the construction of the passage from the heavy charge of impossibility. The sense of the passage, however, is far from being improved by an addition, so unnecessary, where the object of the writer or speaker is not to extol the power of God, and so feeble in expression, if it were; and the difficulty of construction is -effectually remedied in the version I have given. The pronoun relative refers to the substantive an understood; that is taken as a nominative absolute, and is construed, "as to the chariot, x, in which," or in latin, "quod curSee Buxtorf. Thes. Gr. p. 432, or

rum attinet, in quo.' Shroeder, p. 316.

сс

of the three last lie only northward and southward, leaving the east and west unvisited by any winds particularly appropriated to them. The best, perhaps the only, way to remove or overcome the difficulty hence arising, in a general view, is to consider the limitations, not as intended to restrict the operations of the winds themselves, but only to specify the locality of the subjects, on which those operations take effect, and which are particularly affected by them. Thus considered, the number four will have regard, not so much to the cardinal points of the compass, as to the totality of the heavenly agents employed, the completeness of their operation within the circuits allotted to them, and their sufficiency to the work assigned to them.

But still a question remains; why are these three chariots thus limited; or what is the meaning of their limitation? It is plain, beyond any doubt, that it must have respect to some actual, permanent, political partition of the Roman empire, according to which it was divided into two parts, which may with propriety be distinguished, as the northern or southern portion respectively, and which must have taken place previously to the commencement of the course of the second chariot. Now it is certain, that a permanent partition of the Roman empire was made