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lowers of Christ, therefore, commit themselves to him in faith and patience, proceed with zeal and diligence in their work, and "be looking for the mercy of God unto eternal life."

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SECTION XIII.

The Sounding of the four first Trumpets.
Chap. viii. 7-13.

THE first angel sounded, and there followed hail, and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

The sounding of the first trumpet has been considered by some as commencing immediately on the opening of the seventh seal, and its chronology has been fixed to the year 324 or 325. Others have brought it to A. D. 331, and some have protracted it to 338. If we consider the silence in heaven as emblematical of six or seven years' peace in the Church, after the accession of Constantine as the first Christian emperor, or if we view the preparation of the angels to sound as symbolically filling up any part of the chronology, there can be no impropriety in fixing on the year 331, as referred to when the first angel sounded. But what are the events principally referred to under the emblematical predictions of the four first trumpets? They undoubtedly are the calamities which produced the subversion of the Roman empire in the western part of the world; but as connected with those of the eastern provinces, which are also implied. Some commentators of respectability and note have supposed that the four first trumpets refer particularly to the cala

mities that afflicted the Church by the corruptions and heresies that deformed her during the period which they mystically predict. Among these, they specially notice the Arian heresy, which commenced about the time that the empire became professedly Christian; the attempts of Julian to restore paganism during his short reign, from A. D. 361, to A. D. 363; and the Pelagian heresy, which broke out in the year 404. But as the series of the prophecy of the first four trumpets appears to favour the interpretation of those commentators who explain it as referring to the events which overturned the Roman empire in the West, and as unity of design seems to require that one great subject only is referred to, I shall confine my remarks to this alone.

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It may be proper here briefly to inform the reader of a few circumstances respecting the eastern empire. Constantine the Great built Constantinople, and made it his residence and the metropolis of the whole Roman empire. But after his death, this immense empire was divided into two parts, and verned by two distinct successions of emperors. But though the eastern and western empires were thus separated, yet they were not entirely unconnected. The ruin of the western empire was attended by great convulsions in the eastern: and the subsequent subversion of the latter, occasioned manifold evils in the countries which had constituted the former. As, therefore, the events which related to the two divisions of the empire were thus involved with one another, it was proper that the predictions of them should be so likewise. But this chapter primarily predicts the subversion of the western, and the next that of the eastern empire.

Having premised these remarks, I shall proceed to point out the manner in which the predictions of the first trumpet were fulfilled. In the year 331, "Alaric, king of the Goths, instead of expecting

"the attack of the Roman legions, boldly passed "the Danube, and spread terror and devastation "through the province of Mœsia. To oppose the "inroad of this destroying host, the aged emperor "(Constantine) took the field in person; but on this "occasion, either his conduct or his fortune betrayed "the glory which he had acquired in so many foreign " and domestic wars. He had the mortification of

"seeing his troops fly before an inconsiderable de"tachment of the barbarians, who pursued them to "the edge of their fortified camp, and obliged him "to consult his safety by a precipitate and ignomi"nious retreat."-Gibbon.

This northern invasion was but the commencement of that tremendous storm of "hail and fire, "mingled with blood," which continued partially to fall on the empire till the death of Theodosius, A. D. 395, and then burst forth with terrific violence over the Roman world. In the year 334, the Sarmatians attacked the empire. From 357 to 359 the Quadi and Sarmatians invaded it; and about the same time the Franks and Alemanni, or Germans, ravaged parts of Gaul. From this time, till 386, the hail-storm continued to increase in its violence. The Germans, the Burgundians, the Saxons, the Scots and Picts, the Goths, the Quadi and Sarmatians, the Guthungri, and the Ostrogoths, perpetually like hail battered the northern provinces of the Roman world.-In the year 395, the tempest assumed a still more tremendous form. The death of the martial Theodosius was immediately followed by the revolt of the Goths. Alaric, the Gothic king, led his barbarous troops into the provinces of Greece. "The barriers of the Danube were thrown open; "the savage warriors of Scythia issued from their "forests, and the uncommon severity of the winter "allowed the poet to remark, that they rolled their ponderous wagons over the broad and icy back of "the indignant river. The fertile fields of Phocis

"and Boeotia were covered with a deluge of barba"rians, who massacred the males of an age to bear "arms, and drove away the beautiful females with "the spoil and cattle of the flaming villages. The "travellers who visited Greece several years after

wards, could easily discover the deep and bloody "traces of the march of the Goths."-(Gibbon.) In the year 400, Alaric, reinforced by fresh swarms of barbarians, proceeded to the invasion of Italy. After continuing his ravages there for some time, he was compelled to retreat. Five years afterwards he again invaded Italy, and meditated the conquest of Rome, the ancient metropolis of the world. He besieged the city, and reduced it to a state of famine, of which many thousands died. To this succeeded a destructive pestilence. At length the city was compelled to purchase its deliverance from the Gothic king by a large sum of money. But the terms of peace being rejected by Honorius, who had shut him self up in Ravenna, the city was again besieged by Alaric in 409, and was obliged to submit to the dictates of the conqueror. In 410 the Gothic army once more appeared before the gates of Rome, and the city was taken and sacked. A cruel slaughter was made of the inhabitants, the streets were filled with dead bodies, and the female captives were exposed to the violence of a brutal soldiery. Having enriched his army with the plunder of the capital of the empire, Alaric proceeded to ravage Italy, destroying whatever opposed his progress, and spoiling the unresisting country. Italy remained in the possession of Alaric till the year 412; but shortly afterwards a treaty was concluded with Adolphus, his successor, who, in consequence, evacuated Italy and marched into Gaul, in the southern provinces of which the Goths established a powerful and independent kingdom.

These are a part only of the calamities which befell the Roman empire in the West during the period

designated by the first trumpet. Those who wish to see a more amplified account of them, may read Gibbon, the elegant historian of these times; who, without intending it, has in many instances shewn the exact fulfilment of these prophecies. He has unconsciously borne his testimony to the truth of prophecy, and has occasionally used the same allegorical language as that employed by the sacred writer who has recorded the predictions. Speaking of the mighty hosts of the Vandals, Suevi, Burgundians, and Alani, who invaded Italy under Rhodogast or Rhadagaisus, during one of the short respites granted by Alaric, he remarks, "The correspondence of na"tions was so imperfect and precarious, that the "revolutions of the North might escape the knowledge of the court of Ravenna; till the dark cloud "which was collected along the coast of the Baltic, "burst in thunder upon the banks of the upper "Danube."-Had an historian penned the annals of the Roman history with an express view of illustrating the prophecies of the Apocalypse, he could not more effectually have accomplished his object, than it has in many instances been actually done by this infidel writer.

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8. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea and the third part of the sea became blood: 9. And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

The great burning mountain here spoken of seems to be an emblem of a mighty destructive warrior; and it may be applied either to a warlike nation, or to an individual hero who commanded it. The sea is the emblem of the Roman empire with its multitude of people and nations. This great burning mountain, therefore, being cast into the sea, turning a third part of it into blood, destroying a third part of the creatures that had life, and a third

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