Substituting the conceptions of their own fancy for the word of God, they withheld from the people the bread of life, and produced a famine for the word of the Lord. Crude notions took the place of Bible doctrines; and pernicious speculations were substituted for the teachings of Christ and his apostles. Baptism and the Lord’s supper, lost their emblematic significance, and were regarded as saving ordinances. Heaven was sought to be merited by works, and sanctification was supposed to be gained by penance and mortification of the flesh. In short, all the corruptions of the apostasy were substituted for the primitive faith, and the Bible became a sealed book to the great mass of the people. The Fourth Seal. “And when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living being saying, Come! And I looked, and behold, a pale horse: and his name, who sat on him, was Death, and the pit followed with him. And power was given to them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, and with the wild beasts of the earth.”—Rev. 6:7, 8. The Christian church alone being analogous to the civil power, it is within its pale that the fulfilment of this symbol is to be looked for. During this period, violence is substituted for famine; and men are compelled to apostatize, which results in spiritual death. The Papacy having the power to enforce her decrees, Christians had to embrace her faith, or be handed over to the secular power for punishment. They produced death by compelling men to apostatize, by withholding from them the word of life, by infusing into their minds pestiferous doctrines, and by the fear of the civil power,—symbolized by the sword, famine, pestilence, and beasts of the earth. The Fifth Seal. “And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those slain on account of the word of God, and on account of the testimony, which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on those, who dwell on the earth? And a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them, that they should rest yet for a short time, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that were to be slain as they were, should be filled up.”—Rev. 6:9-11.