And whilst the
Emperors were busy in repelling these enemies, the _Hunns_ and _Alans_ and
_Goths_ came over the _Danube_ in two bodies, overcame and slew _Valens_,
and made so great a slaughter of the _Roman_ army, that _Ammianus_ saith:
_Nec ulla Annalibus praeter Cannensem ita ad internecionem res legitur
gesta_. These wars were not fully stopt on all sides till the beginning of
the reign of _Theodosius_, A.C. 379 & 380: but thenceforward the Empire
remained quiet from foreign armies, till his death, A.C. 395. So long the
four winds were held: and so long there was silence in heaven. And the
seventh seal was opened when this silence began.
Mr. _Mede_ hath explained the Prophecy of the first six trumpets not much
amiss: but if he had observed, that the Prophecy of pouring out the vials
of wrath is synchronal to that of sounding the trumpets, his explanation
would have been yet more complete.
The name of _Woes_ is given to the wars to which the three last trumpets
sound, to distinguish them from the wars of the four first. The sacrifices
on the first four days of the feast of Tabernacles, at which the first four
trumpets sound, and the first four vials of wrath are poured out, are
slaughters in four great wars; and these wars are represented by four winds
from the four corners of the earth. The first was an east wind, the second
a west wind, the third a south wind, and the fourth a north wind, with
respect to the city of _Rome_, the metropolis of the old _Roman_ Empire.
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