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and that whoever retired there fhould be fafe. The Chriftians therefore fled thither, and with them fome alfo of the Pagans, who by that means fuftained no hurt.

For three days, the city lay under the tyranny of the Goths; who then leaving it, paffed into the pro- : vinces of Campania, Lucania, and Calabria, wafting the country, and loading themfelves with the fpoils of it. But being arrived at Confentia, a town of Calabria, as if the Almighty chofe to drop therod of juftice he had made ufe of, there Alaric fickened and died in a few days. Athaulph his fucceffor, made peace with the Emperor, and obtained for himself and his Goths a fettlement in the fou-thern parts of France.

But the anger of God was not yet affuaged. The Vandals, the Alans, and the Suevi, not content with having ravaged Gaul, had paffed the Pyrenean mountains in 409, and entering Spain, another province of the Empire, defeated the Roman Armies there. The calamities caufed by these favage people in that country were moft dreadful. Befides the' deftruction made by the sword, the famine became fo exceffive, that many did not fcruple to eat human flesh, and even mothers murdered their own children to feed upon them. To thefe miferies was alfo added the plague, which carried off multitudes; and the wild Beafts accustomed to human flesh from the number of carcaffes that had perished by the fword, famine, and plague, affaulted even the living and devoured them. This account we have from Idatius, a Bishop of Spain in that century. The three above-mentioned barbarous nations, after the reduction of the country, in 411, divided its provinces among themselves, and fettled there.

Attila, King of the Huns, a Pagan people of. Scythia, now Tartary, broke into different provinces of the Empire with a prodigious army, called himfelf

himself the "Scourge of God," and anfwered that name by his devaftations and barbarities, destroying all before him by fire and fword. He was feared as a more fierce and lavage barbarian, than cither Alaric or Radagaifus, In the year 451 he invaded Gaul and was there beat by the Roman army affifted by the Goths, Alans, Franks, and Burgundions. Upon his defeat he retired into Pannonia, which became the feat of the Huns, part of that country being called from them Hungaria. Attila having reinforced his army, marched into Italy, where he fpread deftruction. As he advanced in his career, he was met by St. Leo Pope, who addreffed him with fo much energy, eloquence, and dignity, that the Barbarian let himfelf be perfuaded to retire out of Italy.

The Vandals had got footing in Africa from the year 427, and afterwards a fixed fettlement there by agreement with the Emperor. In 455, Genferic, their King, was invited into Italy by the Emprefs Eudoxia, through a disgust she had taken to Maximus her husband who forced her to marry him. Genferic had accepted with pleasure the invitation, and landed in Italy with an army of Vandals and Moors. Maximus, who had ufurped the Empire, fled; and Genferie entering Rome without oppofition, delivered it up to his foldiers, who pillaged it for fourteen days, and then fet fire to it. Genferic left the place loaded with riches, and at his return into Africa seized upon the whole remains of the Roman dominions there.

Odoacer, king of the Heruli, a people of that part of Germany now called Mecklenburgh, invaded Italy in the year 476 with a powerful army. He defeated the Roman Iroops under the command of Oreftes, took the city of Pavia by force, and exposed it to the pillage of his foldiers, who deftroyed all with fire and fword.. Here Odoacer was faluted

King of Italy. He then advanced to Rome, where he depofed the Emperor Auguftulus, and thus effectually established his own Regal title.

In Auguftulus ceafed the Roman Empire in the Weft. The Imperial Title was now loft, the authority of Rome was extinguifhed, its dignity trampled under foot, and its extenfive domain torn to pieces, and parcelled out among a set of barbarous people. Spain was divided among the Goths, Alans, Suevi, and others. Africa was poffeffed by the Vandals, Britain, having been before abandoned by the Romans, was fubdued by the Saxons, who had lately affifted the Britons against their enemies, the Scots and the Picts. The Goths, Burgundions, and Franks, had erected their feveral kingdoms in Gaul; and now at laft Rome itself with Italy, the fountains of waters, that had triumphed over the reft of the world, became enflaved to a barbarous king. In thefe latter times Italy, by the ravages of the invaders, had been depopulated, and the imperial armies had confifted chiefly of Barbarians, as Goths, Huns, Alans, Heruli, Suevi, and others, hired under the name of auxiliaries. These foon faw their own ftrength and the weaknefs of their mafters. They therefore fhared out to themselves fuch morfels of the Empire as they moft relished.

Theodoric, King of thofe Goths that were fettled in Italy got Odoacer treacheroufly murdered in 493, and himself proclaimed King of all Italy. This country from that time remained under the power of the Goths, till Juftinian the Great, Emperor of Conftantinople, fent thither his General Belifarius, who fubdued a confiderable part of it, reduced the Gothic power to a low ebb, and united Rome to the eaftern Empire. Thus was that unhappy city toffed from hand to hand, and now become a member of that Empire, of which fhe had formerly been the head. However, Totila being chofen king of the

Goths

Goths in Italy, found means to retrieve the declining state of their affairs. He recovered a great part of the country, and in 546 invefted Rome, which he blocked up fo clofely, that it could receive no provifions. This occafioned fuch a raging famine, that the Inhabitants were reduced to the utmoft extremity of diftrefs, feeding upon the most filthy things, even their own excrements. Belifarius attempted to fend in provifions, but the attempt proved unfuccfsful. The arm of God was ftill lifted up against Rome, and was to ftrike another blow, before the Divine Juftice could be finally fatisfied. By a piece of treachery in the Sentinels posted at one of the gates, Totila was admitted in the night into the city, which he gave up to the pillage of his. foldiers. The Goths fpent feveral days in plundering the Inhabitants; and the Senators and richest people were even stript of every thing, that they were neceffitated to beg their bread of the very Goths who had thus reduced them. The walls of Rome were thrown down, the public monuments demolished, the city was burnt, and Totila carried away with him all the inhabitants; fo that the place remained defert for above forty days. Procop. lib. 3. c. 12. lib. 4. c. 13. and Evagr. lib. 2. c. 7.-Thus was completed the destruction of ancient Rome.

CHA P. IV.

A further Account of the third Age. HAVING in the preceding chapter elucidated by plain hiftory, the brief enigmatical defcription of the fall of the Roman Empire, which St. John gives us in the third Seal, Trumpet, aud Vial; we are now better prepared to understand the other, more explicit account, he has added in the 17th and 18th chapters of the Apocalypfe. The event is fo interefting to the Chriftian Church, that he enlarges

enlarges on the circumftanees of it, particularly on the ruin of Rome herself, as she had been the greateft enemy of Chrift upon earth, the inftrument of Satan in oppofing the worship of God, and in fine the centre of Idolatry. Thus fpeaks our Prophet: APOC. Chap. XVII. v. 1. And there came one of the feven Angels, who had the feven Vials, and Spoke with me, faying: Come, I will fhew thee the condemnation of the great harlot, who fitteth upon many waters.

V. 2. With whom the Kings of the earth have committed fornication: and they who inhabit the earth, have been made drunk with the wine of her whoredom.

V. 3 And he took me away in spirit into the defert. And I faw a woman fitting upon a fcarlet-coloured beaft, full of names of blafphemy, having feven heads

and ten horns.

V.4. And the woman was clothed round about with purple and fearlet, and gilt with gold, and precious Stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of the abomination and filthiness of her fornication.

V. 5. And on her forehead a name was written; a myftery: Babylon the great, the mother of the fornications, and the abomination of the earth.

V. 6. And I faw the woman drunk with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jefus. And I wandered, when I had feen her, with great admiration.

St. John is here invited, ver. i. to be a spectator of the Divine punishment upon the great harlot, who reprefents pagan Rome, as we fhall fee prefently. The invitation comes with propriety from one of the feven Angels who held the Vials of the wrath of God, as it was the function of thofe Angels to execute the Divine Judgments on mankind. The Apostle is therefore taken up, as he thought, by the Angel, v. 3. into a defert, that very defert where Rome ftood. The country round that Metropolis of the world was filled with towns and inhabitants

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