ferred for as those judgments overturned the Roman empire, and made way for the setting up of the kingdoms of Europe, and of those hierarchies which have committed fornication with them; so the vials are to pull them down. Let us then take a survey of the judgments of the trumpets, especially of the four former ones.

*

There is hardly any controversy about the fifth and sixth trumpets, called the first and second woes. The latter is, most evidently, to be referred to the Turks, whose empire was founded about the year 1300, and who have been the ministers of God's vengeance against the corrupted Christians, and for the overthrow of the eastern empire, called the killing the third part of men, that is, the utter destruction of that part of the old Roman empire, which remained standing, nearly 1000 years, after the other two parts were broken to pieces, and formed into ten kingdoms. + The woe preceding, or the fifth trumpet, all agree to apply to the Saracens, the disciples of Mahomet, who, in the former part of the seventh century, let loose this swarm of locusts upon the earth, that for so long a period proved such a terrible scourge to both the eastern and western world. With their head they tormented the eastern apostates for 150 years; and with their tail, the latter part of their reign, they tormented those of the west, for the same period. ‡

The four first trumpets are generally allowed to signify some four extraordinary calamities which hastened the fate of Rome; and brought to an end the empire in the west. Of this there can be little doubt, and yet there is some difficulty when we descend to particulars, and attempt to ascertain the events which belong to each trumpet. Interpreters have differed: but let us examine for ourselves. If we are successful, we shall have, I think, a certain clue to conduct us to the interpretation of the vials, and obtain a considerable degree of assistance towards the better understanding the progress of the judgments of God through the nations of Europe.-Think me

*To prevent the unnecessary multiplication of words, I use, all along, the term kingdoms, in the same sense as the sacred writings, for, states and empires of all descriptions; for whether they be monarchies, aristocracies, or republics, if they are corrupt and tyrannic, the consequence will be the same.

† Chap. ix. 13-19.

Ver. 1-11. We trace these trumpets backwards as the most certain way of fixing the period of the four former.

1

not presumptuous. Recollect the preface to this book. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein. What is meant by reading and hearing, but to endeavour to understand? And how are we to keep these things, that is, Come out of Babylon and not partake of her sins; nor receive the mark of the beast, nor the number of his name, if we are ignorant of the things here written? An unclouded knowledge is not to be expected; but all that is necessary to direct in duty; to teach the wonderful ways of God, and to guard from evil; the wise may understand." *

"The evils of those trumpets," says Dr. Cressener, "which happened during the reign of the beast, must be "the most remarkable calamities that befel the Roman empire within the twelve hundred and sixty years of "his reign. From hence it would be inferred, that the "Saracen vexations of the Roman empire, must necessa86 rily be one of the plagues of these trumpets." He goes on to argue that the Turkish hostilities must be the business of another, and that the Saracen, and Turkish empires, must necessarily be the first and second woes. Of this, indeed, there can be but little doubt among wellinformed Christians. This being admitted, we next proceed to inquire which were the four most remarkable calamities that fell upon the Roman empire, and hastened its ruin, previous to the irruption of the Saracens? And as the overthrow of the Eastern part of that empire was reserved for the Turks, the inquiry more immediately concerns those calamities which precipitated the ruin of the Western part; the body of the fourth beast of Daniel, and of these calamities, four of them must be more remarkable than the rest.

The fourth trumpet appears plainly to have brought those calamities, which hastened the downfal of the western Cæsars, Consuls, Præfects, Senate, &c. for sun, moon, and stars, we have seen to signify, in the prophetic style, the supreme and subordinate rulers in a state. Nor are we to look, as is generally agreed, for the commence

* Dan. xii. 10.

Judgments of God, &c. p. 13. The Jesuit Pererius in Disput. 9. in Apoc. says, "This is above all to be retained, that there are here "foretold the most eminent and most remarkable fortunes and events in "the Church, both prosperous and the contrary, from the beginning of "it to the last end of it."

ment of the judgments of the first trumpet, till the Roman empire becane Christian in the reign of Constantine; and it is probable, that the half hour's silence in heaven, (the political heaven, verse 1.) signifies the universal peace, which succeeded the settlement of Constantine on the imperial throne, that is, from the year 314 to 322; for silence, as Daubuz has observed, " metaphorically signifies any ceasing from action, silence in war is a ces"sation from acts of hostility, thus Tully's Silentio civile "bellum confecerat,* and Statius, Jusitque silentia bello."+ According to prophetic time, the period of the above peace exactly agrees with this half hour's silence.

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Allowing that we are to look for the judgments of the first four trumpets, between the time when the empire became Christian, or rather Antichristian, and the ravages of the Saracens, as all our best writers agree, our business then is to examine whether history supports the propriety of this application, and what those four great calamities were, which terminated in the smiting of the third part of the sun, moon, and stars, of the Roman empire.

Men having, from the earliest ages, made the convulsions of nature, and the changes which it undergoes from the agitation of the elements, the symbols of political commotions, and revolutions; it is no wonder that the terrors of the one should excite in their minds foreboding apprehensions of the other. This was the case previous to the bursting out of those extraordinary miseries which precipitated the fall of the western Roman empire. “In

the second year of Valentinian, and Valens, (A. D. 365.) "the greatest part of the Roman world was shaken by a "violent earthquake. The impression (says Gibbon) was

communicated to the waters; the shores of the Medi"terranean were left dry, by the sudden retreat of the "sea; great quantities of fish were caught with the "hand; large vessels were stranded on the mud; and a "curious spectator amused his eye, or rather his fancy, "by contemplating the various appearance of vallies and "mountains, which had never, since the formation of the "globe, been exposed to the sun. But the tide soon re"turned, with the weight of an immense and irresistible

M.T. Cic. Philip, xiii. § Pap. Stat. Theb. Lib. x. ver. 756.

deluge, which was severely felt on the coasts of Sicily, "of Dalmatia, of Greece, and of Egypt; large boats were "transported, and lodged on the roofs of houses, or at "the distance of two miles from the shore; the people, "with their habitations, were swept away by the waters; " and the city of Alexandria annually commemorated the "fatal day, on which fifty thousand persons had lost their "lives in the inundation. This calamity astonished and "terrified the subjects of Rome-they considered these "alarming strokes as the prelude only of still more dread"ful calamities; and their fearful vanity was disposed to "confound the symptoms of a declining empire and a "sinking world." But, as the historian adds, "Man "has much more to fear from the passions of his fellow"creatures, than from the convulsions of the elements. "The mischievous effects of an earthquake, or deluge, a "hurricane, or the eruption of a volcano, bear a very in"considerable proportion to the calamities of war.—In "the disastrous period of the fall of the Roman empire, "which may justly be dated from the reign of Valens, "the happiness and security of each individual were personally attacked, and the arts and labours of ages were rudely defaced by the barbarians of Scythia and Germany. The invasion of the Huns precipitated on the "provinces of the west, the Gothic nation, which ad"vanced, in less than forty years, from the Danube to "the Atlantic, and opened a way, by the success of their arms, to the inroads of so many hostile tribes, more savage than themselves."

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From this period we may date the sounding of the first trumpet. In the year 376, the Northern nations, inhabiting the vast regions from the Caspian to the Baltic, were instantaneously, as at the sound of some mighty trumpet, put into one general commotion. The Huns were the first who started from their comparative repose: and suddenly transporting themselves, their flocks and herds, their wives and children, their dependants and aliies, across the Volga, they first attacked the Alans, and then the Goths; and seizing their territories, drove before them innumerable multitudes of wretched fugitives, who fled to seek a new country. †

* Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. IV. page 338-340.

Gibbon, Vol. IV. page 371-375.

P

Those who were first driven upon the confines of the Roman empire were the Visigoths; that is, Western Goths. Their multitudes, says Gibbon, covered the space of many miles along the banks of the Danube. Urged by despair and hunger, they, with out-stretched arms, and the most bitter lamentations, solicited admission into the Roman territory. Valens listened to their prayers,, and they were transported over the Danube, and a settlement allotted them in Thrace. The number of Gothic warriors are fixed at two hundred thousand men, and, with the women and children, Gibbon calculates the whole mass of people, which composed this formidable emigration, to amount to near a million of persons of both sexes, and of all ages.

Soon after these followed the Ostrogoths, or Eastern Goths, who also intreated a settlement in the Roman territory. "The refusal of Valens suspended their progress "refused a settlement, they advanced into the unknown "countries of the north; but, after four years, they re"turned to the banks of the Lower Danube, and though "defeated by the Romans, obtained, from Theodosius, a "settlement in Thrace and Italy." As to the Visigoths, no sooner had they passed the Danube, than, pinched with hunger, and cruelly oppressed by the Roman governors, they revolted; and, defeating the Roman army, they ravaged Thrace and the adjoining provinces. This was the beginning of the most dreadful evils that ever afflicted the Roman empire. In the year 395, being under the conduct of their renowned leader, Alaric, they turned their arms against Greece, Macedonia, Thessala, and Pannonia, destroying all with fire and sword. In the year 400, the west was alarmed with a sudden irruption of the same Barbarians. Italy, they again, and again, laid waste; and, in the year 410, Rome was taken by Alaric, and given up to plunder. "The calamities of "Rome and Italy (says Gibbon) dispersed the inhabitants "to the most lonely, the most secure, the most distant places of refuge. This awful catastrophe of Rome "filled the astonished empire with grief and terror." + Alaric dying, (A. D. 410.) he was succeeded by Ataulphus, who, negotiating a peace with the Imperial Court, * Univer. An. Hist. Vol. XVII. page 191. Gib. Vol. V.

177.

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page 176, Vol. V. page 190, 252, 289, 303-S22. Univ. An. Hist. Vol. XVII. page 194-197.