of Italy, destroying whatever dared to oppose his paffage; and contenting himfelf with the plunder of the unrefifting country. Nor did the Goths leave it till after his decease, when they had reigned over it four years without controul; having in their ravages, flaughters and conflagrations, exhibited a fcene which bears no common fimilitude to the prophetic reprefentation, " of hail and fire

mingled with blood, being caft upon "the earth, whereby the third part of "the trees were burnt up, and all green grafs."

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Still the completion of this Trumpet fhould not be difmiffed without noticing, that one contemporary writer compares thefe very incurfions of the Goths to a ftorm of hail. (See Claudian as quoted by Newton and Daubuz on the place.) And another afferts that the prediction of the Hail was literally accomplished

by

by the falling of fuch in feveral places, fo large as not to be holden in a man's hand.

The Vifion proceeds, " and the fe"cond Angel, founded, and as it were

46

a great burning mountan was caft into

the fea: and the third part of the fea "became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and "had life died; and the third part of "the fhips were deftroyed."

Under the firft Trumpet a ftorm of barbarians, and especially of Goths under their leader Alaric, having fallen on the land of the Roman world, according to the interpretation of that emblem already given; the next great invader of the imperial Teritories was Attila with his Huns; and the part of the Roman poffeffion which he by falling on it, turned into blood was the figurative fea, confifting of the troops and garrifons

which

which defended her frontier; though at the fame time, his irruption alfo contri.buted to the deflruction of her fhips in a literal fenfe for history teftifies that Attila by his invading the empire enabled Genferic to obtain the command of, the Sea; while the imperial forces were employed in repulfing the former, and the confequence of this was the ruin of the Emperour's naval power. By a mountain we find in Scripture reprefented not only a City, but a power or Kingdom, as the ftone which was cut out without hands) in the dream of Nebucahdnezzar related in the fecond chapter of Daniel) and became a great mountain, was a reprefenta. tionof the kingdom of the Meffiah. And as in a Vulcano or Burning mountain it is the head which gives the figns of Fury, fo in this nation of the Huns, their leader Attila betrayed a violence of character correfponding acurately to the type. Of him Mr. Gibbon fpeaks in the fol

lowing

lowing terms; The haughty fteps, and "demeanour of the King of the Huns expreffed the consciousness of his fuperiority above the reft of mankind, "and he had a custom of fiercely rolling "his eyes, as if he wished to enjoy the "terror which he infpired.-He delight"ed in war, and the barbarian Princes "confeffed, in the language of devotion " or flattery, that they could not pre"fume to gaze with a steady eye, on the "divine Majefty of the King of the "Huns." And again "this is a faying,

"worthy of the ferocious pride of Attila, "that the Grafs never grew on the spot "where his horfe had trod." The fteri. lity caused by the eruption of a burning mountain cannot be better parallelled. And how great was that mountain, of which he formed the head, may be conceived from the following period of the hiftory; "when Attila collected his military

military force he was able to bring "into the field an army of five, accord"ing to another account of seven hun"dred thousand Barbarians." (Gibb. Ch. 34.)

How this enormous mountain execut ed the evil predicted next claims our attention." The Illyrian frontier, says "the hiftorian, was covered by a line "of castles and fortreffes, and though "the greatest part of them confifted only of a fingle tower with a small garrifon,

they were commonly fufficient to repel, or to intercept the inroads of an

enemy, who was ignorant of the art, " and impatient of the delay of a regu"lar fiege. But these flight obftacles "were inftantly fwept away by the in"undation of the Huns, they destroyed "with fire and fword, the populous "cities of Sirmium and Singidunum, of Ratiaria, and Marcianopolis of NaifG

fus