native.

The prophecy connected with the "horses" seems as regular as
possible, beginning from the times of the Apostle. The white horse
and rider is universally considered as emblematic of the gospel,
going forth "conquering and to conquer." The red horse is the horse
of blood, under Trajan, who literally took "peace from all the
earth." The pale horse designates the famine and dreadful
pestilence under Gallienus. I have shown, not from the writers in
favour of Christianity, but from the attestation of the most astute
and insidious writer against it, the regular succession and
wonderful accordance, in the several successive periods, of the
fact and the prophetic adumbrations. Under Gallienus, how
remarkable are these words, as applicable to the "pale horse," and
pestilence, in the third century, commencing about one hundred and
fifty years after the death of John! "Famine is almost always
followed by epidemical diseases: other causes, however, must have
contributed to the furious plague which, from the year 250 to the
year 265, raged, without interruption, in every province, every
city, and almost every family of the Roman empire. Five thousand
died daily in Rome; and we might suspect, that war, pestilence, and
famine had, in a few years, consumed the moiety of the human
race."--_Gibbon_.

THE RED HORSE.--"Take peace from all the earth." Trajan's
conquests. "Every day the astonished Senate received intelligence
of new names and new nations that acknowledged his sway. The kings
of Bosphorus, Colchis, Albania, &c.; the tribes of the Median and
Carducian hills had implored his protection; Armenia, Mesopotamia,
and Assyria were reduced to provinces."--_Gibbon_.

For the elucidations of this last book, I have referred, generally,
to commentators, chiefly Bishop Newton, though the reader may
sometimes be disposed to smile rather than acquiesce.

But I cannot omit my own views of some particular passages. One
head of the beast, wounded, "but not to death," is most singularly
descriptive of the Roman empire, restored to strength and power,
under Claudius the Second and Aurelius. "And the beast which I saw
was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear,
and his mouth as the mouth of a lion." How unexpectedly do they
tally wi