women and children."* The angels also, ver. 11, 12, join in the celebration of God upon this occasion: for if there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth,'Luke xv. 10, much more may those heavenly spirits rejoice at the conversion of whole countries and nations. Then one of the elders, ver. 13-17, explains to St. John some particulars relating to this innumerable multitude of all nations. They have palms in their hands,' as tokens of their victory and triumph over tribulation and persecution. They are arrayed in white robes,' as emblems of their sanctity and justification through 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 seventy years. CHAP. VIII. 1. AND when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. 2. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and, to them were given seven trumpets. 3. And another angel 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. The seventh seal or period is of much longer duration, and comprehends many more events than any of the former seals. It * Hoc tempore Romæ baptizati sunt e Judæis et Idololatris ultra duodecim hominum millia, præter mulieres et pueros. [Translated in the text.] Abul Pharajii Hist. Dyn. 7, p. 85, Vers. Pocockii. Vide etiam Epiphanii Hæres 30, sect. 4, &c. p. 127, vol. i. edit. Patavii comprehends indeed seven periods distinguished by the sounding of seven trumpets. At the opening of this seal there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour,'-ver. 1. 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 werebetween the foregoing and the succeeding vision. 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 prepare themselves to sound,'-ver. 6; 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. 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 • Προ τι της έωθινης θυσίας και μετα την εσπερινην —ante matutinum et post vespertinum sacrificium. [Translated in the text.] Philo de Victimis, p. 836 edit. Pars 1640. the third part of trees were burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. 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.' Claudian, in like manner, compares them to a storm of hails * Socrates Eccles. Hist. lib. 6, cap. 1. Sozomen. lib. 8, cap. 1. Zosimi Hist, lib. 5 et 6. Pauli Orosii Hist. lib. 7, cap. 37, &c. Car. Sigonii Hist. de Occidentali Imperio, lib. 10. + Zosim. Oros. Sigon. ibid, &c. Philostorgius, lib. 11 et 12. * Βαρβαρική μεν γαρ το της φθορας πληθος εργαζετο μαχαιρα. αύχμοι φλογώδεις Φρητήρες το εσιν οἷς ἐμβαλλομενοι, ποικίλον τε το δεινον ἐπειων και ἀφόρητον και δη και χαλαζα μείζων ή κατα χερμαδα πολλαχε γης κατεφέρετο. ἀχρι γαρ και έκτω των λεγο μενων λίτρων έλκυσα βαρος, ώφθη κατασκηψασα. Nam et barbaricus ensis maximam hominum multitudinem delevit ;-siccitates flammeæ, et ignis turbines cælitus immissi, multiplicem atque intolorabilem intulerunt calamitatem. Sed et grando, lapide manum implente major, multis in locis decidit. Deprehensa enim est alicubi, quæ octo librarum, ut vocant, pondus æquaret. [Translated in the text.] Philostorgii Hist. Eccles. lib 11. cap. 7. Claudian de Bello Getico, ver. 173. Ex illo, quocunque vagos impegit Erinnys, [Where'er the furics drive, the scattered host 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 lero, (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 destroyed 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 ravages 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 Rush through dark paths and labyrinths unknown; Like showering hail, or pestilential breath.] Where Mr. Daubuz would read nimbi, [of a shower,] instead of morbi, [of a disease.] • Insperati ubique aderant, et famam celeritate vincentes, non religioni, non dignitatibus, non ætati parcebant non vagientis miserabuntur infantiæ. Cogebantur mori, qui nondum vivere cœperant. [Translated in the text.] Hieron. Epist. 84. de morte Fabiola. col. 661. tom. 4, par. 2, edit. Benedict. t So Virgil of his hero. Æn. xii. 701. Quantus Athos, aut quantus Eryx, aut ipse coruscis Vertice se attollens pater Apenninus ad auras And shakes the sounding forest on his sides."-DRYDEN.] 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 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 kinds 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 Sigonius de Occidentali Imperio, lib. 13. 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. [Translated in the text.] + Sigonius, ibid. Jornandes de rebus Get. &c. &c. ‡ Jam omnia, quæ intra Apenninum et Alpes erant, fuga, populatione, cæde, servitute, incendio, et desperatione repleta erant. [Translated in the text.] Sigon. ibid. Ann. 452. » Qui se Flagellum Dei, et Terrorem hominum appellabat, et ad id in mundum a 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. [Translated in the text.] Sigon. ibid. |