The warfare under this seal is not against outside enemies; for they kill each other. This, then, indicates an era when the church shall be disquieted, and her peace interrupted by internal dissensions. Such was its history during the third, fourth, and fifth centuries. This period was distinguished for the contentions of the clergy; their usurpation of power not conferred by the apostles; their divisions and sub-divisions into parties; their opposing councils; their collisions and distractions; their love of power; their pride, discord, strife, and tyranny; their mutual anathemas and excommunications; the envy, jealousy, and detraction they indulged in, and the other hateful passions which they exercised. Thus they marred the peace of the church; and by causing many to apostatize, killed each other with spiritual death. The Third Seal. “And when he opened the third seal I heard the third living being say, Come! And I beheld, and lo, a black horse; and he, who sat on him, had a balance in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living beings say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and injure thou not the oil and the wine.”—Rev. 6:5, 6. This foreshadows a period of great scarcity and cruel exactions. Applying it to the only department of society which is analogous to civil life, and the famine symbolized, is like that predicted by Amos: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine into the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it,” Amos 8:11, 12. This, then, marks a period when the traditions and opinions of men are substituted for the word of God. With Origen was introduced a new mode of interpreting scripture, which afterwards became prevalent. The scriptures, instead of being received in their natural and obvious sense, were regarded as mystical and allegorical. Milner, in his Church History, says: “From the fanciful mode of allegory, introduced by him, and uncontrolled by scriptural rule and order, there arose a vitiated method of commenting on the sacred pages.” And Mosheim says: “The few who explained the sacred writings with judgment and a true spirit of criticism, could not oppose, with any success, the torrent of allegory that was overflowing the church.” Following this example, Luther says, “men make just what they please of the Scriptures, until some accommodate the word of God to the most extravagant absurdities.”