Italy, and besieged Aquileia, which he took, and destroyed so completely, that the succeeding generation could scarcely discover its ruins. The cities of Altinum, Concordia, and Padua, were also reduced into heaps of stones and ashes. Alarmed for the safety of Rome, the emperor and senate sent a solemn embassy to deprecate the wrath of the conqueror a peace was in consequence concluded, and Attila evacuated Italy, and died in the following year.

The successive invasions of the empire by Attila were probably the accomplishment of the third trumpet, on the sounding of which "a great star "fell from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and "fell upon the third part of the rivers and the foun"tains of waters." The star seen by the Apostle in this trumpet appears to have been a comet which is a fit emblem of a mighty conqueror. Indeed, in the symbolical language, a star, when applied to temporal things, always means a king or a prince: this star burning like a lamp, therefore, denotes a prince armed with the fire of war. The wormwood into which the waters were converted by this star, seems emblematical of the bitter and dreadful sufferings inflicted on the empire by Attila and his Huns.*

*The Reviewer of this work, in the Investigator feels here a difficulty, because a star falling from heaven, is commonly understood to signify, when spoken of secular princes, not a career of victory, but the loss of authority and rank.

I answer, that our verb to fall though usually neuter, has also an active sense- -Were I to say, that A fell upon B, and wounded him, it may be that A fell from an elevated scaffold,

On the sounding of the fourth trumpet, the third part of the celestial luminaries were smitten and obscured. This, in the language of symbols, evidently refers to the extinction of the imperial government of Rome within the limits of the western empire, which was effected between the years 455 and 476. In the first of these years, Rome was taken and sacked by Genseric, king of the Vandals, who carried away with him immense spoil, and an innumerable multitude of captives; among whom were the empress Eudoxia and her two daughters. Rome never recovered this stroke. In the year 476, the imperial government was subverted, and Augustulus, the last emperor of the west, was deposed and banished from Rome by Odoacer, the general of the Heruli, who was elected, and reigned, the first barbarian king of Italy.

Having thus given a brief sketch of the series of events to which the symbols of the first four trumpets seem to be applicable, I shall now offer some remarks in confirmation of the foregoing interpretation. It is important, in considering these trumpets, not to lose sight of the oneness of the complex symbols which are therein presented

where he was working, upon B, who was below or it may be that A and B were together, and had a dispute, when A fell upon B, with a large stick, and severely beat him-So the Greek verb, Tw, has not only a neutral sense, but also an active. Thus, in Acts xi. 15, the Holy Ghost fell upon them, Now it is plain that the sense is active, in this passage. In like manner, the Star of the third trumpet being armed with the fire of war, burning as a lamp, certainly falls on the rivers and fountains, in an active sense.

επεσε.

to our attention. To say that these trumpets are all homogeneous, is not enough: they are more than homogeneous, they in fact all belong to one undivided subject; and that is, as I observed before, a symbolical universe, and we may hence deduce a new argument to show the impropriety of those interpretations which refer some of the symbols to spiritual, and others to secular objects. This symbolical universe is viewed as consisting of two great divisions, the terrestrial and celestial. The first of these must be considered as representing the territories and population of the empire, and the second its government or ruling powers.

It also appears that the terrestrial symbolical world is considered as consisting of three distinct parts, the dry land, the sea, and the rivers and fountains; but it does not follow, that each of these portions of the symbolical earth is applicable to distinct and specific parts of the Roman empire.* The

This remark, and the one ma de at the beginning of the following paragraph, receives a very remarkable confirmation from the following passage of Vitringa's commentary:-" Ego vero lubens concedo, imagines symbolicas variis casibus non esse nimis quæsite et anxie ab interprete tractandas, sed sæpe in complexu, non singulatim esse exponendas; nec abnuo in ipsa hac imagine symbolica id forte alibi usu venire: aliis tamen locis et in hac prophetia ubi partes emblematis fusius et explicatius recensentur, et subjectum ad quod emblema referendum est partium emblematis præcipuarum interpretationem particularem admittit, eadem negligenda non videtur cum aliunde constet partes emblematis ut sunt sol, luna, stellæ, insulæ, montes, arbores, singulas per se mystice et allegorice res alias significare posse, et ad eas figurandas adhiberi."-Vitringa Anak. Apocalyp. p. 283. It is proper for me to add, that when the two paragraphs, so remarkably confirmed by the language of Vi

above division of the symbolical earth seems rather to be made for the purpose of exhibiting to us the universality of the desolation of the empire which is represented by the symbols. To enlarge a little upon this idea, it may be observed that the natural globe which we inhabit is actually divisible into the above three parts of dry land, sea, and rivers, and fountains. When therefore the natural world is used as a symbol to denote any particular empire, the destruction of that empire, in all its parts, must be shown by the destruction of the symbol which represents it in all its parts. Thus, if only the dry land of the symbolical world were destroyed, it would imply that only a part of the empire was to be affected. But as in these trumpets, the dry land, sea and fountains, are all affected, it denotes universality in the desolation of the empire.

In making the above remarks, it is not my intention to maintain that there are no cases in which the symbolical dry land and sea, and rivers, and fountains, have specific and definitive significations. In considering the prophecy of the last seven vials of wrath, which refer to the final destruction of the Roman empire, I shall endeavour to show that these symbols are, in the accomplishment of the vials, each referrible to particular objects. But it is observable, that the Roman empire, at the period of the pouring out of the vials, is divided into a number of independent kingdoms and states, which considerably facilitates such a reference. In the meanwhile I shall only remark, that the earth or dry land is in tringa, were originally written, I had no knowledge of the writings of Vitringa.

general a symbol denoting the territorial dominions of the empire which is the subject of the prophecy and that the sea, and rivers and fountains, which together form the collective body of waters, signify, in the language of symbols, the united population of the empire, or the "peoples, and multitudes, and "nations, and tongues," who inhabit it.†

There is a circumstance with respect to the trumpets, we are now considering, which seems to have perplexed all our interpreters. It is, that on the sounding of each trumpet, only a third part of the object against which it denounces vengeance is destroyed. I have not, in any author whose writings I have met with, seen any sufficient reason for this singular fact. Bishop Newton supposes that there is in it a reference to the Roman empire, as being at that time a third part of the known world, and the Bishop is followed by Mr. Faber in this idea.

* Faber's Dissertation on the 1260 years, vol. i. chap. 2. + Rev. xvii. 15.

But

In his Sacred Calendar, Mr. Faber has adopted a new exposition of the third part. He divides the Roman empire and symbolical universe into three parts, the western, the eastern, and the provinces of Africa, and he supposes the destruction of one of these thirds to denote the overthrow of the western empire. But this is inconsistent with his own explanation of the vials ; for in their effusion, the whole earth, sea, and rivers and fountains, and not a third part of them, are the objects of vengeance; and yet Mr. Faber limits the effects of those vials to certain parts of the Latin, or western empire. Thus the sea of the second vial is France. Now, if the whole sea of this vial be France only, where is the consistency of saying the third part of the sea in the second trumpet is the whole western empire? Mr. Faber's new explanation does not, therefore, afford a satisfactory