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part of the ships, represents, in a most awful manner, the direful irruptions of barbarous nations, with their ferocious leaders, into the Roman empire, shedding the blood of immense multitudes, destroying the cities, and desolating the country with fire and sword. If Etna or Vesuvius had literally been thrown into the sea, it could not have produced a greater effervescence upon the surrounding waters, than was produced upon the nations of the Roman empire by the ravages of their ferocious invaders. After Alaric, with his Goths, had terminated his depredations, Attila, at the head of a vast army of Huns, entered the empire, and shook the East and West with the most cruel fear, deforming the provinces of each empire with all kinds of plundering, slaughter, and burning. "The whole breadth of "Europe, as it extends about five hundred miles "from the Euxine to the Adriatic, was at once in"vaded, and occupied, and desolated, by the myriads "of barbarians whom Attila led into the field."(Gibbon.) He afterwards invaded Gaul, and ravaged it with fire and sword. He then entered Italy, besieged Aquileia, which he took and destroyed so completely, that the next generation could scarcely discover its ruins. The cities of Altinum, Concordia, and Padua, were also reduced to heaps of stones and ashes. This ferocious ravager filled all places between the Alps and Apennine with flight, depopulation, slaughter, servitude, burning, and desperation. The nature of this desolating march may be estimated in some measure from a saying of its ferocious conductor, that "the grass never grew where his "horse had trod." Such a man, with his vast armies of barbarians, might be compared to a great mountain burning with fire. He called himself the scourge of God, and the terror of men; and boasted that he was sent into the world by God for this purpose, that, as the executioner of his just anger, he might fill the earth with all kind of evils. His conduct was al

together consistent with his impious boast, for he bounded his cruelty and passion by nothing less than blood and burning.-The calamities that occurred under the invasions of Attila, from A. D. 441 to A. D. 452, may be especially intended by the prophetic imagery of the second trumpet; but we may also include under it, all the afflictive events which befell the empire from A. D. 412 to the last-mentioned period, about which time Attila evacuated Italy, and died in the following year, 453.

10. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; 11. And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

A star, when applied to temporal things, is an emblem of a king or a prince; this star, therefore, burning like a lamp, is a symbol of a prince armed with the fire of war. The name Wormwood, and the effects of its falling upon the waters, denoted the further desolations of the empire, and the ruin of the remaining comforts which had been left to the relics of the miserable inhabitants; who were so harassed and afflicted, that they could not seek for the necessary support of life without exposing themselves to the fury of the invaders. Thus the embittering and poisoning of the rivers and fountains, completed the former judgment of turning the sea into blood.-Let us examine the fulfilment of this symbolical prophecy. Within two years after Attila's retreat from Italy, Valentinian, the emperor, ravished the wife of Maximus, one of his senators: Maximus, in return, caused him to be murdered, usurped his throne, and compelled Eudoxia, the empress, to marry him. Eudoxia, in hatred to the murderer, solicited Genseric, the king of the Vandals, settled in Africa, to come and revenge

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Valentinian's death. Genseric accordingly, like a burning star falling as a lamp, embarked with three hundred thousand Vandals and Moors, and arrived upon the Roman coasts in the summer of 455. Maximus, not expecting such an enemy, fell into despondency; and the senators stoned him to death, and threw his body into the Tiber. Genseric marched directly towards Rome; the inhabitants fled into the woods and mountains, and the city fell an easy prey into his hands. He abandoned it to the cruelty and avarice of his soldiers, who plundered it for fourteen days together; not only spoiling the private houses and palaces, but stripping the public buildings, and even the churches, of their riches and ornaments. Thus the splendour of the western empire was nearly extinguished. Genseric left it in a weak and desperate condition: it struggled hard, and as it were gasped for breath during eight short and turbulent reigns, for the space of twenty years; till, at length, it received its death-blow, as it were, on the sounding of the fourth trumpet, A. D. 476, under Momyllus, who, in derision, was called Augustulus, or the diminutive Augustus.

12. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

On the sounding of the fourth trumpet, the third part of the celestial luminaries were smitten and obscured. This, in the symbolical language of the prophecies of this book, evidently refers to the extinction of the imperial and other subsequent forms of government within the limits of the western empire, between the years 476 and 568. The sun is an emblem of the Roman empire under its imperial head. The sun was smitten when the imperial government terminated under Momyllus, A. D. 476, as has been mentioned above. This change was effected

by Odoacer, king of the Heruli, who, coming to Rome with an army of mercenaries, composed of a mixed multitude of barbarians, put an end to the western empire as imperial, and caused himself to be proclaimed king of Italy. Still, however, though the Roman sun was smitten, the moon and stars, its subordinate luminaries, continued to shine with a faint light for some time subsequently. The senate, the consuls, the patricians, and all the ancient magistrates, were retained by Odoacer. The power of this conqueror was destroyed by the Ostrogoths in 493; but Theodoric, their king, changed none of the Roman institutes. The senate, and all the other offices of magistracy, were still held by Romans. About the year 533, Justinian, the eastern emperor, resolved to attempt the reconquest of the West. His general, the celebrated Belisarius, eradicated the kingdom of the Vandals in Africa and the Italian isles between that year and 536. In 537 he invaded Italy, and after a long war, Belisarius, and Narses his successor, subdued the Ostrogoths in 553; and Italy, after one or two more minor vicissitudes, was made a province of the Roman empire. Longinus was sent there in the year 566 by the emperor Justin II. to govern Italy with absolute authority: he changed the whole form of government, abolished the senate and consuls, and all the former magistrates of Rome and Italy, and in every city of note constituted a new governor with the title of Duke. He himself presided over all; and, residing at Ravenna, and not at Rome, he was called the Exarch of Ravenna, as were also his successors in the same office. Rome was degraded to an equal level with other places; and, from being the queen of cities and the empress of the world, was reduced to a poor dukedom, and made tributary to Ravenna, which she had used to govern. Thus the western empire was completely subverted.

From the contents of this section we may be led

to reflect on the wretchedness and misery to which the enemies of Christ and his people are exposed. The hail and the fire, at the command of the Almighty, shall fight against them. The mountains shall be torn from their bases, and cast into the midst of the sea; the sun, the moon, and the stars, shall be darkened in their orbs; and nature shall be thrown into the most convulsive agonies, to punish and overwhelm the nations and the people that oppose the Gospel and persecute the disciples of Christ. -True believers, in the midst of the most terrible calamities, have abundant cause of encouragement and consolation. The blessed God will take their part against all their enemies, and support them under all their trials.-The dreadful representations given by the four first trumpets, remind us of the sovereign and almighty power of God, at whose awful word, when it gives forth its voice, "hailstones and "coals of fire descend; at whose rebuke the pillars of "heaven tremble, and the foundations of the earth 66 are shaken; who speaks to the sun, and it shineth "not; who darkeneth the moon, and sealeth up the "stars." May this almighty Jehovah, who is thus terrible to his enemies, but infinitely compassionate to his people, conduct us at length to his heavenly presence, though it should be through days of darkness, waters of bitterness, and seas of blood!

SECTION XIV.

Remarks on the four first Trumpets.

BEFORE I proceed to the consideration of the three last trumpets, I shall make a few remarks with reference to the four first.-The events which took place under the first four trumpets, refer to the partial destruction of an universe consisting of dry

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