"It was given to him (the rider) to take the peace from the earth."

"The earth" in this place cannot be the earth wherever men dwell, comprehending what we term Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australasia. The last two were unknown to the ancients; and may therefore certainly be excluded from "the earth" having relation to events being transacted in their time. The use of the phrase in this seal furthermore, could not have comprehended even all the territory known to them, for the prediction was "to take the peace" of the first seal "from the earth." Now, "the peace" of this seal was internal, not external, peace; for although it was a "most prosperous and happy" period for the Roman people, they still waged great wars against the Persians, Jews, Quadi, Marcomanni, &c., in the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Antoninus. Hence, the territories inhabited by these peoples must be excluded also from "the earth" of this text. In other words, "the earth" was bounded and confined to the frontiers of the Greco-Latin Dragon of Daniel and John; extending two thousand miles in one direction, and three thousand in another; and inclosing within its circuit the Mediterranean sea. This was the sense in which "the earth" was understood by the Greeks and Latins in John’s time. A writer named Dionysius speaks thus concerning it, He de Rhomaion polis apases men archei ges, hose me anembatos esti, pasis de kratei thalasses -- the city of the Romans indeed governs the whole earth, as much as is not inaccessible, and holds possession of all the sea. And Ovid sings,

Gentibus est aliis tellus data limite certo,

Romanae spatium est urbis et orbis idem.

that is, to other nations territory is given with a defined limit; to the Roman the extent of the city and the orb is the same; and in another place, he says, Roma caputorbis, -- "Rome the head, or capital, of the earth." This will remind the reader of what John says of this city in his day under the figurative name of "Babylon the Great," in Apoc. xvii. 18, "that great city having dominion over the kings of the earth."

This formula, then, "the earth" in this prophecy of the six seals, is to be interpreted of the Roman territory -- all that portion of the orb we inhabit subject to the dominion of Pagan Rome. Beside the text before us, we have it occurring in verses 8,10,13,15. In all these places "the earth" has the same limitation; and is to be interpreted only as the arena of events happening to the peoples and government of Rome.

Having thus expounded the beautiful and expressive figuration of the second seal, I shall now proceed to lay before the reader a narration of events illustrative of the foregoing exposition. I shall condense it from Gibbon as the best historian who has compiled the history of the seal-periods. If I wrote for the learned, this would still be indispensably necessary; for, though they may be well acquainted with the transactions of the times, very few of them are able to trace the apocalyptic vein of the fine gold that runs through them; in other words, to run a parallel between the prophecy and its historical fulfilment. But, this exposition is for the same class of readers as that to whom John was ordered to send the prophecy -- "to the servants of the Deity;" and these in all the ages and generations since his day, have been mostly of the poorer sort; and but little acquainted with what has happened in the world beyond what is written in the scriptures. It is necessary, therefore, for their sakes, not only to explain the symbols, but to give so much history as will enable them to "see" for themselves, the reasonableness of the explanation; so that, when they shall have the prophecy in symbol turned into the prophecy in signification, and the history before them, they may be able to conclude that it can only mean what is shown, and nothing else.