came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. (4) And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God, out of the angel's hand. (5) And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. (6) And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound."

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The seventh seal or period is of much longer duration, and comprehends many more events than any of the former seals. It comprehends indeed seven periods distinguished by the sounding of seven trumpets. At the opening of this seal (ver. 1,) "there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." This silence of half an hour is a sign that the peace of the church would continue but for a short season. It is an interval and pause as it were between the foregoing and the succeeding visions. It is a mark of solemnity, to procure attention, and to prepare the mind for great and signal events; and not without an allusion to a ceremony among the Jews. Philo informs us, the incense used to be offered before the morning, and after the evening sacrifice; and while the sacrifices were made, (2 Chron. xxix. 25-28,) the voices and instruments and trumpets sounded; while the priest went into the temple. to burn incense, (Luke i. 10,) all were silent, and the people prayed without to themselves. Now this was the morning of the church, and therefore the silence precedes the sounding of the trumpets. It was necessary, before the trumpets could be sounded, that they should be given (ver. 2) to the seven archangels, who were to execute the will of God, and to sound the trumpets each in his season. At the same time, (ver. 3, 4, 5,) "another angel," like the priest, "having a golden censer," offereth incense "with the prayers of all saints;" and then filleth the censer "with fire of the altar, and casteth it into the earth;" as in Ezekiel (x. 2,) "coals of fire are taken from between the cherubim," and scattered over Jerusalem, to denote the judgments of God to be executed upon that city. Whereupon immediately ensue "voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake," the usual prophetic signs and preludes of great calamities and commotions upon earth. Then the angels (ver. 6) "prepare themselves to sound :" and as the seals foretold the state and condition of the Roman empire before and till it became Christian, so the trumpets foreshow the

2 Πρό τε τῆς ἑωθινῆς θυσίας καὶ μετὰ τὴν ἑσπερινὴν—Ante matutinum et post vespertinum sacrificium-Philo de Animal. sacrif. idon. § 3.

fate and condition of it afterwards. "The sound of the trumpet (as Jeremiah (iv. 19) says, and as every one understands it) is the alarm of war:" and the sounding of these trumpets is designed to rouse and excite the nations against the Roman empire, called the third part of the world, as perhaps including the third part of the world, and being seated principally in Europe, the third part of the world at that time.

(7) "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 burned up, and all green grass was burned up."

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At the sounding of the first trumpet (ver. 7) the barbarous nations, like a storm of "hail and fire mingled with blood," invade the Roman territories; and destroy "the third part of trees," that is the trees of the third part of the earth, and "the green grass," that is both old and young, high and low, rich and poor together. Theodosius the Great died in the year 395; and no sooner was he dead, than the Huns, Goths, and other barbarians, like hail for multitude, and breathing fire and slaughter, broke in upon the best provinces of the empire, both in the east and west, with greater success than they had ever done before. But by this trumpet, I conceive, were principally intended the irruptions and depredations of the Goths' under the conduct of the famous Alaric, who began his incursions in the same year 395, first ravaged Greece, then wasted Italy, besieged Rome, and was bought off at an exorbitant price, besieged it again in the year 410, took and plundered the city, and set fire to it in several places. Philostorgius, who lived in and wrote of these times," saith that 'the sword of the barbarians destroyed the greatest multitude of men; and among other calamities dry heats with flashes of flame and whirlwinds of fire occasioned various and intolerable terrors; yea, and hail greater than could be held in a man's hand fell down in several places, weighing as much as eight pounds.' Well therefore might the prophet compare these incursions of the barbarians to "hail and fire mingled with blood." Clau

Socratis Eccles. Hist. 1. 6, c. 1. Sozomen. 1. 8, c. 1. Zosomi Hist. 1. 5 et 6. Pauli Orosii Hist. 1. 7, c. 37, &c. Car. Sigonii Hist. de Occident. Imperio. 1. 10.

Zosim. Oros. Sigon. ibid. &c. Philostorgius, 1. 11 et 12.

Βαρβαρικὴ μὲν γὰρ τὸ τῆς φθορᾶς πλῆθος εἰργάζετο μάχαιρα-Αυχμοὶ φλογώδεις, πρησ στηρές τε ἐστὶν οἷς ἐμβαλλόμενοι, ποικίλον τε τὸ δεινὸν ἐποίουν καὶ ἀφόρητον· καὶ δὴ καὶ χάλαζα μείζων ἢ κατὰ χερμάδα πολλαχοῦ γῆς

κατεφέρετο. Αχρι γὰρ καὶ ὀκτῳ τῶν λεγομέν νων λιτρῶν ἕλκουσα βάρος ὤφθη κατασκήψασα. Nam et barbaricus ensis maximam hominum multitudinem delevit ;-siccitates flammeæ, et ignis turbines cœlitus immissi, multiplicem atque intolerabilem intulerunt calamitatem. Sed et grando, lapide manum implente major, multis in locis decidit. Deprehensa enim est alicubi, quæ octo librarum, ut vocant, pondus æquaret. Philostorgü Hist. Eccles. 1. ii. c. 7.

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dian in like manner compares them to a storm of hail in his poem on this very war. Jerome also saith of some of these barbarians, that they came on unexpectedly every where, and marching quicker than report, spared not religion, nor dignities, nor age, nor had compassion on crying infants; those were compelled to die, who had not yet begun to live.' So truly did they destroy the trees and the green grass together.

(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."

At the sounding of the second trumpet, (ver. 8, 9,) "as it were a great mountain burning with fire," that is, a great warlike nation or hero (for in the style of poetry, which is near akin to the style of prophecy, heroes are compared to mountains,) "cast into the sea, turneth the third part of it into blood, and destroyeth the fishes and the ships therein;" that is, falling on the Roman empire, maketh a sea of blood, with horrible destruction of the cities and inhabitants: for waters, as the angel afterwards (xvii. 15) explains them to St. John, "are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues," and the third part is all along the Roman empire; for it possessed in Asia and Africa as much as it wanted in Europe to make up the third of the world, and the principal part was in Europe, the third part of the world at that time. The next great ravagers after Alaric and his Goths were Attila and his Huns, who, for the space of fourteen years, as Sigonius says,' shook the east and west with the most cruel fear, and deformed the provinces of each empire with all kind of plundering, slaughter, and burning. They first wasted Thrace,' Macedon, and Greece, putting all to fire and sword, and compelled the eastern em

.

Claudian de Bello Getico, ver. 173.

'Ex illo, quocunque vagos impegit Erinnys,
Grandinis aut morbi ritu per devia rerum
Præcipites, per clausa, ruunt.'

Where Mr. Daubuz would read nimbi instead of morbi.

* 'Insperati ubique aderant, et famam celeritate vincentes, non religioni, non dignitatibus, non ætati parcebant, non vagientis miserabantur infantiæ. Cogebantur mori, qui nondum vivere cœperant.' Hieron. Epist. 84, de morte Fabiolæ, col. 661.

So Virgil of his hero, Æn. xii. 701.

'Quantus Athos, aut quantus Eryx, aut ipse coruscis

Cum fremit ilicibus quantus, gaudetque nivali

Vertice se attollens pater Apenninus ad auras.'

9 Sigonius de Occid. Imper. 1. 13, init. 'Hunnica jam hinc bella scribere ordiemur, quæ post per quatuordecim annos sævissima orientem, occidentemque formidine concusserunt, atque utriusque imperii provincias omni direptione, strage, atque incendio deformarunt.' 'Sigonius ibid. Ann. 443. Jornandes de rebus Get. &c. &c.

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peror, Theodosius the Second, to purchase a shamerul peace. Then Attila turned his arms against the western emperor, Valentinian the Third; entered Gaul with seven hundred thousand men, and not content with taking and spoiling, set most of the cities on fire. But at length being there vigorously opposed, he fell upon Italy, took and destroyed Aquileia with several other cities, slaying the inhabitants, and laying the buildings in ashes, and filled all places between the Alps and Apennine with flight, depopulation, slaughter, servitude, burning, and desperation. He was preparing to march to Rome, but was diverted from his purpose by a solemn embassy from the emperor, and the promise of an annual tribute; and so concluding a truce, retired out of Italy, and passed into his own dominions beyond the Danube. Such a man might properly be compared to "a great mountain burning with fire," who really was, as 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, and he bounded his cruelty and passion by nothing less than blood and burning.

(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."

At the sounding of the third trumpet, (ver. 10, 11,) a great prince appears like a star shooting from heaven to earth; a similitude not unusual in poetry. His coming therefore is sudden and unexpected, and his stay but short. "The name of the star is called Wormwood," and he infects the third part of the rivers and fountains with the bitterness of wormwood; that is, he is a bitter enemy and proveth the author of grievous calamities to the Roman empire. The rivers and fountains have a near connexion with the sea: and it was within two years after Attila's retreat from Italy, that Valentinian was murdered, and

2 Jam omnia, quæ intra Apenninum et Alpes erant, fuga, populatione, cæde, servitute, incendio, et desperatione repleta erant.' Sigon. ibid. Ann. 452, fin.

Deo missum jactabat, ut tanquam justæ illius vindex iræ terras omni malorum genere permisceret, et crudelitatem ac libidinem suam non nisi sanguine et incendio terminabat.' Sigon. ibid.

'Qui se Flagellum Dei, et Terrorem hominum appellabat, et ad id in mundum a 4 Homer, Iliad. iv. 75. Οἷον δ' ἀστέρα ἧκε Κρόνου παῖς ἀγκυλομήτεω, *Η ναύτησι τέρας, ἠὲ στρατῷ εὐρεὶ λαῶν, Λαμπρόν· τοῦ δὲ τε πολλοὶ ἀπὸ σπινθήρες ἵενται.

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Maximus, who had caused him to be murdered, reigning in his stead, Genseric, the king of the Vandals, settled in Africa, was solicited by Eudoxia, the widow of the deceased emperor, to come and revenge his death. Genseric accordingly embarked with three hundred thousand Vandals and Moors, and arrived. upon the Roman coast in June 455, the emperor and people not expecting nor thinking of any such enemy. He landed his men, and marched directly towards Rome; whereupon the inhabitants flying into the woods and mountains, 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. He then set sail again for Africa, carrying away with him immense wealth and an innumerable multitude of captives, together with the empress Eudoxia and her two daughters; and left the state so weakened, that in a little time it was utterly subverted. Some critics understand rivers and fountains with relation to doctrines; and in this sense the application is still very proper to Genseric, who was a most bigoted Arian, and during his whole reign most cruelly persecuted the orthodox Christians. Victor Uticensis, or Vitensis, as he is more usually called, who wrote in three books the history of this persecution by the Vandals, speaking of St. Austin, hath used this very same metaphor, of the river of his eloquence being dried up, and his sweetness turned into the bitterness of wormwood.

(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."

At the sounding of the fourth trumpet, (ver. 12,) the third part of the sun, moon, and stars, that is, the great lights of the Roman empire, are eclipsed and darkened, and remain in darkness for some time. Genseric left the western empire in a weak and desperate condition. It struggled hard, and gasped as it were for breath, through eight short and turbulent reigns, for the space of twenty years, and at length expired in

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Evagrii Hist. Eccles. 1. 2, c. 7. Zonaræ Annal. . 13, in fine. Sigonius de Imper. Occid. 1. 14, Ann. 455, &c. &c.

Vossius de Hist. Latinis, 1. 2, c. 18. Hofmanni Lex.

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Tunc illud eloquentiæ, quod ubertim per omnes campos ecclesiæ decurrebat,

ipso metu siccatum est flumen; atque dulcedo suavitatis dulcius propinata, in amaritudinem absinthii versa est.' Victor Vit. de Persecut. Vandal. 1. 1, n. 3. Vide etiam Vitam Augustini, l. 8, c. 11, § 2.

Sigonius de Occid. Imper. 1. 14 et 15, in init.