the merits and death of Christ. They are, like the children of Israel, arrived at their Canaan or land of rest, and they shall no more suffer hunger, or thirst, or heat, as they did in the wilderness. They are now happily freed from all their former troubles and molestations; and their heathen adversaries shall no

more prevail against them. This period we may suppose to have continued with some little interruption, from the reign of Constantine the Great to the death of Theodosius the Great, about 70 years.

CHAPTER VIII.

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 off 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 fate and condition of it afterwards.

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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.

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 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.' Claudian 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 com

pelled to die, who had not yet begun to live." So truly did they destroy the trees and the green grass together.

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 part 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 emperor, Theodosius the Second, to purchase a shameful a shameful 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 Appenine 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 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 kinds of evils, and he bounded his cruelty and passion, by nothing less than blood and burning.

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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 connection with the sea: and it was within two years after Attila's retreat from Italy, that Valentinian was murdered, and Maximus who had caused him to be murdered reigning in his stead, Genseric the king of the Vandals settled in