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Rev 6:2. Ἵππος λευκὸς, a white horse) D. Lange altogether applies these seals to the future, Comm. Apoc. f. 73, where he uses five arguments:
I. From the figures of the seals. I reply, The Past, when rightly explained, agrees with them.
II. From the failure of the reasons on which Vitringa, together with others, relies. I reply, Better reasons both exist in abundance and are brought forward. See on ch. Rev 4:1.
III. From the parallelism of Mat 24:6 and following verses with the second, third, fourth, and fifth seal. See fol. 83, 257. I reply, That the end, in Mat 24:14, denotes the destruction of Jerusalem, is proved by the whole connection of the discourse, and especially by the particle οὖν, therefore, Rev 6:15, and the question of the disciples, as Mark and Luke represent it. A similarity in the plagues inflicted in each text does not imply that the plagues themselves are the same. See above, p. 135 and next.
IV. From the parallelism of Zechariah 6 with the same seals. See fol. 84. I reply, In Zechariah there is not one horse only of each colour, but there are more, and they too joined to chariots: nor are the colours entirely the same (D. Lange undoubtedly puts paleness for whiteness); nor is there the same order of the colours; nor is there the same road to the four quarters of the world, nor the same expedition. In the first seal he applies the white horse to the conqueror, Christ; in the third, the black to the dearness of corn: in what manner this is parallel with Zec 6:6; Zec 6:8, cannot be shown.
V. From the connection [of the seals] with the trumpets and vials. I reply, As this celebrated interpreter too much extends the epistles, so he also too much compresses the seals, trumpets, etc. The vials almost exhaust the whole of that space, which he supposes to be represented also in the seals and trumpets. There are four distinct spheres, each of which has its own subject-matter agreeing with the titles, churches, seals, trumpets, and vials; and where they are explained distinctly [as distinct from one another], they obtain an amplitude worthy of this prophecy. In such a manner the true explanation preserves the natural ARRANGEMENT of the book; but if this is once laid aside, there is nothing which the ingenuity of man cannot divide and put together, and congratulate itself on the discovery of the truth. As far as relates to the system of the venerable D. Lange, the little season under the fifth seal, the 42 months and 1260 days in ch. 11, the 1260 days and the short time, and the (1) time, (2) times and half a time, in ch. 12, the 42 months in ch. 13, and the short space in ch. 17, which are periods of times, differing both in every kind of way, and widely and elegantly, are not only regarded by that system as equal, but are also put for one [period], and that a period of three years and a half, and the seals and trumpets are arranged in accordance with that hypothesis: Comm. Apoc. f. 16, 115, etc.: they who shall duly weigh the same, f. 15, 88, 95, 133, 143, etc., will perceive how many things are moved from their place and disarranged by this view. In his Epicrisis, for instance, p. 390, he has not sufficiently weighed my arguments, from a reliance on those things, which he had before written.[74]
[74] νικῶν, conquering) Shortly after the publication of the prophecy, the Roman Empire breathed nothing but victories.-V. g.