(7) And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. (8) And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
Here, at the opening by Christ, of the fourth seal, we have the end, for the present, of the ministry of the Beasts and we hear no more of them until the pouring out of the Vials, at Revelation 15:7, and then, but one of them. I do not presume to speak decidedly concerning them, but by their kind invitation to John, at the opening of each seal, to come and see, I am inclined to consider them, as representing ministers in the Church. We find their number four, in their place as before, and again towards the close of this Book of God, worshipping, Revelation 19:4
This pale horse, and death upon him, closeth up the judgments. Indeed, death, as it relates to the present world, is a final close to all. But here was the awfulness of this judgment, hell followed. The Lord had said by his servant the Prophet, that he would bring his four sore judgments upon Jerusalem; the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, Ezekiel 14:21. But here, the tremendous addition at the opening of this fourth seal, in hell following death, gives the finishing stroke to misery, and sums up all in everlasting woe!