the waters became [bitter as] wormwood. And many amongst men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

We have here an emblem totally different from the preceding, and that cannot be confounded with them.

No ftorm of hail, again ;-not an irruption of various fierce and barbarous independent nations, or of different clans:-no mountain caft into the fea; not a scene of mischief proceeding from a body of barbarians that had been incorporated with the Roman people and armies :—but a blazing ftar; a comet; a great Potentate, and powerful Prince, defcending from a far country, with all his train, to ravage the third part of the empire, and the fountains of waters, (i. e. the ftates and cities near the metropolis of Rome :) but who yet, like a comet, fhould not touch the fun, that metropolis itself, but fhould go away again rapidly as he came.

His name, however, is Bitterness; for the effect of the evil fhould be exceeding great. Perhaps we may venture to affirm, that, from the time of the prophecy, to the end of

the

399.

the empire, there was but one event that could answer this defcription exactly; and that one was peculiar to the period which now fucceeded, in order of time, on the founding of the third Trumpet.

This event was the ravaging of the empire by Attila and the Hunns, who came from a far country; and having, under their preceding king, begun to ravage Thrace in 425, and, having laid it wafte, entered other parts of the empire under Attila in 441, and took many cities; and in 447 447 and 448 committed ftill greater ravages; in 451 deftroyed all with fire and fword throughout Germany and Gaul; and at last, in 452, entered Italy, and put all to the fword that fell into their hands: yet at last, in 453, left Italy without ever touching Rome; and, departing into Gaul, were there totally defeated by the Alans, and all their glory and greatness was totally evaporated and loft.

To what could this invafion of this mighty conqueror, to whom the Romans bowed, and of whom they repeatedly endeavoured to purchase peace to what could this be more fitly compared, by any spectator at Rome, than to

a mifchievous blazing ftar, approaching the city, and fpreading terror and defolation, and then fuddenly departing and disappearing?

And it is remarkable, that, befides this one 400. great phænomenon, the principal event of this age was merely the appearance of another, of much the fame kind, in another part of the the empire; and that was the ravaging of Africa by Genferic and his Vandals, who committed, wherever they came, the most aftonishing cruelties.

This ravage was in 430; and was, like that of Attila, only feen and heard of at a diftance from Rome. It is true, however, that Genferic afterwards plundered Rome itfelf, into which he had been admitted peaceably, having been invited into Italy by the emprefs Eudoxia. But as this was not done in the courfe of what was really his purfuit, or in the course of his conquefts, it did not alter the more general aspect of the times; which was marked rather, and defined, by these great Commanders making all their principal attacks at a diftance from Rome.

The depredations of both Hunns and Vandals of à leffer kind continued till 468; and therefore we may juftly conclude, the whole VOL. II. period

H

period of the events defigned to be marked out by this third trumpet to have been from 412 to 468.

And it ought not to be forgotten, that Genferic brought with him, and spread every where, the most pernicious part of what were called the Arian doctrines: the spreading of which, more than ever, was alfo a reinarkable characteristick of this age; and might not improperly be deemed a bitter ingredient, in the midst of the rest of the mischief of the times.

There were other events happened in this age; but they were neither of importance. enough, nor by any means in their nature fuch characteristick marks, either of this period, or of any other period, as to be capable of distinguishing it properly by its peculiar features, even if one would endeavour to characterize it by any other outlines than thofe here given; fo that it is almoft impoffible to avoid the right application of the emblem. Whence we may 401. perceive how far the interpretation of this divine book of prophecy is from being a vain conceit, or mere partial application of the emblems, as fome have conceived.

Ch. viii.

Ch. viii. ver. 12.

12. Καὶ ὁ τέταριος ἄγελος ἐσάλπισε, καὶ ἐπλήγη τὸ τρίτον τῇ ἡλίε, καὶ τὸ τρίτον τῆς σελήνης, καὶ τὸ τρίτον τῶν ἀτερῶν· ἵνα σκολισθῇ τὸ τρίτον αὐτῶν, καὶ ἡ ἡμέρα μὴ φαίνῃ τὸ τρίτον αὐτῆς, καὶ ἡ νὺξ ὁμοίως.

12. And the fourth Angel founded; and the third part of the fun was fricken, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the fars; fo that their third part was darkened, and the day appeared not [as ufual] as to one third part of it, and the effect upon the night was fimilar.

When the idolatrous Pagan empire was to be totally fubverted, and another fubftituted in the room of it, the emblem ufed to defcribe the event was, that the fun became black, as in a total eclipfe; and the moon like unto blood, as in a total eclipfe alfo ; and the ftars fell to the earth. But here the emblem, although fomewhat of the fame kind, is yet, in its peculiar circumftances, very different. The fun, the moon, and the stars