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ject, the firft is part of an extract made by the authour from an historian of the time. "The ardour of Damafus and "Urfinus to seize the episcopal feat (of "Rome) furpaffed the ordinary measure "of human ambition. They contended "with the rage of party; the quarrel

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was maintained by the wounds and "death of their followers; and the præ

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fect, unable to refift or to appease "the tumult, was conftrained by fu.

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perior violence to retire into the fu"burbs. Damafus prevailed.-One "hundred and thirty-feven dead bodies were found in the Bafilica, where the

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chriftians held their religious affem"blies; and it was long before the angry minds of the people refumed their accustomed tranquillity. When I "confider the fplendour of the capital, I am not aftonifhed that fo valuable

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prize fhould inflame the defires of ""ambitious

"ambitious men, and produce the fierceft and moft obflinate contefts,

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the fuccessful candidate is fecure, that " he will be enriched by the offerings of matrons; that as foon as his dress is compofed with becoming care and elegance, he may proceed in his chariot, thro' the ftreets of Rome; " and that the sumptuoufness of the im

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perial table will not equal the profuse "and delicate entertainments provided

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by the taste and at the expence of the Roman pontiffs.', (ch. 25.) other paffage on this head I extract from the account of the perfecution of the Donatifts given in the thirty-third chapter. By these feverities, the fanatics "were provoked to madness and despair, "the deftroyed country was filled with "tumult and bloodfhed; the armed "troops of Circumcellions alternately pointed their rage against themselves or

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" against

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against their adverfaries. Under these "circumftances Genferic fhewed himself "to the Donatifts as a powerful de"liverer, the conquest of Africa was

facilitated by the active zeal, or secret favour of a domestic faction; and the "intolerant fpirit which difgraced the triumph of chriftianity, contributed "to the lofs of the most important pro"vince of the weft."

HAVING faid thus much at present in support of my interpretations; I proceed in the propofed review; during the progress of which, other testimonies to the fame purpose may, perhaps prefent themselves.

THE trumpets which precede the fall of the ancient Roman empire are three; and the judgements prefigured under them have been applied to the three great

great invafions of the imperial territories, which took place one after the other, beginning with the very period of time marked in this prophecy, by the founding of the first trumpet; and which were feverally conducted by Alaric the Goth, Atilla the Hun, and Genferic the Vandal: whofe powerful attacks contributed in fo especial a manner to the overthrow of the empire, that we find them claffed together in the following paffages of the hiftorian hitherto fo conftantly cited by me-" The terrible Genferic; a name "which in the deftruction of the Roman

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empire, has deferved an equal rank "with the names of Alaric and Attila ' (Gibb. ch. 33) The following are the words in which St. John defcribes the firft of these fatal inflictions_" And the "first angel founded, and there follow“ed hail and fire mingled with blood, "and they were caft upon the earth:

"and

"and the third part of the trees was

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burnt up, and all green grafs was burnt up."

ALTHOUGH I have in general referred the reader to former writers, for the interpretation of particular emblems employed in this prophecy, it seems in fome. measure neceflary here to notice the four divifions made under the first four trum pets of the Roman world: a phrase under which that empire is, in conformity with ancient writers, frequently mentioned by the authour of the hiftory of it's decline and fall. From the well known emblem then, used under the fourth to exprefs the ruling powers of the state, that is, the heavenly bodies, we may from analogy conclude, what is meant. by the earth, on which the hail and fireunder the first trumpet were caft. For as the earth is in it's natural fituation

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