Revelation 6:1

Here begin the proper prophecies of the book extending onward from the writer's day to the end of the world. For the general plan of the series and the principles on which its several parts are to be interpreted. In the present chapter every thing depends on the interpretation of the sixth seal. There are those who suppose that the seven seals and the seven trumpets run, either wholly or in part, parallel with each other in time, each carrying the history of the church and the world down to the era of millennial glory. Such of course apply the sixth seal to the mighty revolutions, commotions, and overturnings that immediately precede the millennial reign of Christ. But it seems impossible to reconcile this view with the plain words of the apostle in chap Revelation 8:1-2, which represent the seven trumpets as included under the seventh seal, and therefore following the sixth. Taking then this latter as the true view, we may inquire to what great event in past history the sixth seal applies. They who suppose that the Apocalypse was written before the destruction of Jerusalem very naturally refer the sixth seal to that awful catastrophe, and they find an interpretation of the five preceding seals in our Saviour's words which describe the signs preceding that event, Matthew 24:6-14, where the triumphant progress of the gospel amidst wars, famines, earthquakes, pestilences, and bitter persecutions, is set forth, and the great catastrophe itself is described, verse Matthew 24:29, in imagery remarkably agreeing with that of the opening of the sixth seal. If, according to the more usual supposition, this book was written after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, A.D. 70, there are but two events to which the sixth seal can, with any degree of probability, be referred-the overthrow of paganism by Christianity in the first half of the fourth century, or the dissolution of the old Roman empire by the invasion of the northern barbarians. The imagery employed seems more appropriate to the latter event than to the former. If we apply the sixth seal to that mighty revolution by which the fact of the civilized world was permanently changed, it will be best to understand it as representing the dissolution of the old Roman empire, not in its successive stages, but in its entireness; in other words, the breaking up of that great central power which had, for so many centuries, kept the world in subordination, thus preparing the way for the series of desolating invasions from the north which had their origin in the decay of the Roman state, and which completed the work of its destruction.

One of the four beasts; according to the interpretation of the four living creatures that has been given, that they represent the sum of the created powers and agencies by which God administers his providential government over the world, the call to "come and see" proceeding from them will signify that the events predicted are of a providential character.