Revelation 6:7,8 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And when he had opened, &c.— The fourth seal or period is distinguished by a concurrence of evils, war and famine, pestilence and wild beasts, and was proclaimed by the fourth living creature, which was like an eagle, and had his station in the north. These are the same four sore judgments with which Ezekiel, ch. Ezekiel 14:21 threatened Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence: for, in the Oriental languages, the pestilence is emphatically styled death. These four were to destroy the fourth part of mankind; and the image is very poetical of death riding on a pale horse, and hell, or the grave, following with him, ready to swallow up the dead corpses. This period commences with Maximin, who was an emperor from the north, being born of barbarous parents in a village of Thrace. There was not a more cruel animal upon earth. The history of his and several succeeding reigns is full of wars and murders, mutinies of soldiers, rebellions of subjects, and deaths of princes. There were more than twenty emperors in the space of fifty years, all or most of whom died in war, or were murdered by their own soldiers or subjects. Besides lawful emperors, there were, in the time of Gallienus, thirty tyrants or usurpers, who came all of them to violent and miserable ends. Here was sufficient employment for thesword; and such wars and devastations must necessarily produce famine; and the famine is another distinguishing calamity of this period. In the reign of Gallus, the Syrians made such incursions, that not one nation subject to the Romans was left unwasted by them; and every unwalled town, and most of the walled cities, were taken by them. In the reign of Probus also there was a great famine throughout the world, which was the occasion of his armies mutinying and slaying him. The usual consequence of famine is the pestilence; and the pestilence is the third distinguishing calamityofthisperiod.Thispestilence,arising from Ethiopia, pervaded all the Roman provinces, and for fifteen years together incredibly exhausted them. It raged so furiously, that fivethousand men died in one day. When countries lie thus uncultivated, uninhabited, unfrequented, the wild beasts multiply, and come into the towns to devour men, which isthe fourth distinguishing calamity of this period; and we read that five hundred wolves entered into a city together, which was deserted by its inhabitants, where the younger Maximin happened to be. The colour of the pale horse is very suitable to the mortality of this period; and the proclamation for death and destruction is fitly made by a creature like an eagle, which watches for carcases. This period continued from Maximin to Dioclesian; about fifty years.