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    114 Biblical Crtiicum.—On the Contents o...

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    On The Contents Of The Booh Of Revelatio...

    and his Huns , is thrown upon the sea , upon the . congregated nations of the Western Roman empire , and the third part of the ^ fish , i . e . the men in the empire , were destroyed by his invasions , and with them the third part

    of the shipping . r l he dreadful consequences of thevse invasions may be judged of by their effects . AquiJea was totally destroyed ; Atinutn , Concordia and Padua were reduced to a

    heap of stones * The families that fled from his fury made some compensation for the ruin of the maritime strength of Italy , by taking refuge in the Adriatic islands , for they laid there the foundation of the future glory of the Venetian Republic . This second blow at the Western Roman

    empire ended in A . D . 452 * 10 , 11 . This dreadful trumpet was immediately followed by the souuding of the third trumpet , and the calling fresh hosts of barbarians to the destruction of the civilized , but enervated Romans . The Vandals and

    Alani under Genseric , between A . O . 439 and 445 , had seized upon the fertile territory of Africa , from Tangiers to Tripoli . Having increased his subjects with the inhabitants of Africa , and enlarged his fleets , he made

    conquest of Sicily ; and A . D . 455 * on the invitation of Eudoxia , the widow of the emperor Valentinian , he made a descent on Rome , plundered it for fourteen days , and carried the empress and her two daughters captives with him to Africa . This star , or rather

    meteor , by his frequent incursions on various parts of the empire , dried up the nations whose influx hafl kept up the population of Rome ; whilst his predatory invasions of all the coasts of Spain , Italy and Africa , cut off

    the resources of the Roman people , so that , when Genseric had taken away her patrimony , and robbed her of her wealth , those temporal charms were faded which brought into her city the conflux of nations . The rapidity of his attacks was swift as the descent

    of a meteor , and was death to the greatness , riches and freedom of Rome . Chap . viiL 12 , 13 , is the sounding of the fourth trumpet . This produces the darkening of one third of the sun , of the moon , and the stars . These

    figures describe the ruling or imperial authority of the Western Romau empire * and ako of the princes and ' ma-

    On The Contents Of The Booh Of Revelatio...

    gistrates who receive splendour from it . A total eclipse of these is a subversion of the government ; a partial eclipse represents a change , and not an overturning of the national polity , in 476 . This took place when Augustulus , the son of Orestes , was chosen emperor , under the guardianship of his father . The barbarian soldiers

    demanded one third of the lands of Italy , as a recompence ; but being refused , they murdered Orestes , removed Romulus Augustulus from the throne , and made Odoacer , theiv general , king of Italy . A . D . 490 , Odoacer sunk under the superior genius of the king of the Ostrogoths , who restored Italy to order and peace .

    About this time Clovis , or as . it should be pronounced , Louis , began to rise into power . He was the head of the Salian tribe in the isle of Batavia , and the dioceses of Tournay and Arras , comprehending at most five thousand warriors . He first de *

    feated Syagrius , the king of the diocese of Soissons , enlarging his own small dominions with the cities of Belgia and the diocese of Tongres . Having , A . D , 49 < 3 , conquered the Alemani in the bloody battle of Tobiac , he penetrated their forests and united their

    country to his dominions . After the battle of Tobiac , Clovis and three thousand of his soldiers were baptized at Rheirns , and being the only Catholic king then existing , was much aided by their clergy in all his

    afterconquests ; so that the French monarchy may in a great degree be ascribed to the firm alliance and steady union of one hundred prelates , who reigned in the discontented and independent cities of Gaul .

    A- D . 497 , Clovis , by an honourable capitulation , increased his power by an equal union with the Armorican republic ; this was followed by the conquest of the kingdom of Burgundy , and in 508 , of Aquitaine . A , D . 510 , the em per or An astasi us conferred upon

    Clovis the honour of the consulship , and this about A . D . 531 was fully confirmed to the sou of Clovis , by the emperor Justinian ; and whilst it completed the prophecy of the fourth

    trumpet , by a change of persons only , whilst the government itself nominally remained as it was , being only partially eclipsed , ii laid the foundation for the Germanic Roman empire , whoae empire ^ under the character of the first

    114 Biblical Crtiicum.—On The Contents O...

    114 Biblical Crtiicum . —On the Contents of the Book of Revelation . No . Ii

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 22, 1819, page 114, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_22021819/page/46/