private Christians, whom they found not in arms to oppose them, and especially those who rejected the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, with the utmost lenity and indulgence, and granted them perfect religious liberty; whilst on the contrary they reduced the Pagans to slavery, if they refused to become Mahomedans. Mahomed prohibited his followers by a Testamentary Diploma from disturbing the Christians in his dominions in the enjoyment of their religion, or temporal possessions, the genuineness of which the Mahomedans unanimously acknowledge. This testament has greatly mollified the rigour of their measures, and assisted to accomplish this prophecy, by interdicting all public persecutions against the Church of Christ.

1

As the seal of God in their foreheads, here designates the Christian character of true believers, or their publicly confessed and acknowledged membership in the Church of Christ; so those wanting the seal of God, are the Pagans, and the unconverted Christian inhabitants of the Roman empire. The first would have been the principal sufferers, during the ravages of these locusts, but were restrained by Providence from public persecution or martyrdom; and in regard to the last, ¿dó‡n (ižxsía) they had only received authority to torment, and not to overwhelm with utter destruction. This word Basavicw, to torment, however often signifies to explore, to extort by numerous torments, and is used to express the pains of the body, and the anguish of souls in hell, Luke xvi. 23; thus indicating the greatest degree of misery human nature can sustain. Such has actually been the deplorable condition of millions, during the Mahomedan invasions. Elated by success and prosperity, these imperious lords of the East, treated the Heathens with the greatest severity, and at last, many Christians without moderation. They made them feel all the rigour of despotism, by loading them with insupportable taxes, and obliging them, like slaves,

to suffer a variety of vexatious and oppressive measures. Fines, confiscation of goods and banishments were the order of the day, whilst those who remained inflexibly firm to their Pagan idolatry, were maimed and tormented in various ways. When the kingdom of Spain A. D. 713, fell a prey to their invasions, the sufferings of the Church were incomparably smaller, than the torments of the votaresses of chastity in the power of those brutal violators. Thousands would have preferred death, to the pangs of such a vile defloration of their families, or to being made the subservient victims of such violence in their own persons. And yet, this lamentable state of sufferings prevailed for many years, more or less, in every country conquered by the Saracens, without amelioration or redress. These poignant distresses are here compared to the torment, occasioned by the poisonous stings of terrestrial scorpions; which is said to consist in great bodily pain, and inexpressible anguish of soul, when the poison contracts the heart.

Verse 7. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads

were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

8. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

9. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

10. And they had tails like unto scorpions; and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

This description of locusts, contains the distinguishing characteristics of these invading hosts, which so perfectly accord with no other nation, as with the Saracens. They are here delineated as vigorous and swift, like horses of

war; with crowns, or turbans, like gold, as having enriched themselves by their invasions. Their faces were like the faces of men, by which are indicated their humane pretensions; of waging all their wars for the purpose of bringing the nations of the world to the knowledge of the only true God, and to the enjoyment of happiness. They had the hair of women, a strong desire after carnal pleasures; teeth of lions, were much inclined to rage and plunder; breastplates of iron, great courage in war; high sounding wings, a boisterous and terrible behaviour during their invasions; tails like scorpions, subjecting the vanquished to great oppression and innumerable sufferings, by the execution of rigorous and inhuman laws.

Verse 11. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the

Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek` tongue hath his name Apollyon.

Natural locusts have no king, Prov. xxx. 27. but these Saracens had a powerful leader, the angel of the bottomless pit. According to the tenets of the Chaldean philosophy, and the generally received opinion of the ancient Asiatics, who assigned a ruling angel for every important enterprize, this was a mighty being from the regions of the abyss, by whom they were rallied, urged them on, and directing all their movements. He is designedly mentioned by both his Hebrew and Greek name, in order to intimate, that he would bring great calamities on those, who worship in both these languages; and by his own name, to distinguish him from Satan, who has his angels, and is never called an angel himself. Rev. xii. 7. Math. xxv. 41. Some expositors have considered the fallen star in the beginning of this chapter, and this Apollyon to denote the same object; but they are evidently two distinct beingsApollyon the cause, and Mahomed his instrument. Both names, Abaddon and Apollyon, signify a destroyer, and may be regarded as an opposition to the names of our

Lord. His name Abaddon, being his chief character by the instrumentality of Mahomed, as opposed to our Saviour's name Jesus; and Apollyon, as directly adverse to his name Christ, since Antichrist is termed vids Ts awλías, the son of perdition, the son of Apollyon. 2 Thess. ii. 3.

Their power was to hurt men five months. This is a prophetic number, which according to that most probable system of computation by the pious and learned Bengelius, comprises a period of 79-1-3 years of our time. And here is another strong proof, for the justness and confirmation of my ordinary system of calculating this series of prophecies. Bengelius' system, though just in itself, as re ferring to the extraordinary time of particular predictions, stands unconnected with the preceding numbers, and thus loudly calls for the ordinary series of calculation, to determine the commencement of his periods, which are unconnected links in his chain of computation, and only settled a posteriori, from the page of history. The ordinary system of calculation refers to the periods of the trumpets, and the extraordinary numbers comprise the time of the woes, as a protraction of those periods; for the calamities under the trumpets are called woes, from that time, and so long only as they materially affect the Church. If we now add the ordinary time of the trumpet, 50 years, and the extraordinary time of this woe, 79-1-3 to the preceding chain A. D. 622, we have the year A. D. 751, when the power of the Saracens ceased to endanger the existence and prosperity of the Church in their dominions, and they made no more excursions of consequence. At least, the fury of their religious fanaticism had abated, when the city of Bagdad was built A. D. 762, and their daring intrepidity had settled itself into a more rational calm, where they held the sceptre. In Spain and Portugal at least, the Christians in a few years regained Gallicia, Leon, a part of Okl Castile and of Portugal, and since 778, also Navarre and Ca

talonia, which they kept in constant possession; while in other parts, they met with no considerable loss from this time.

SECOND INTERVAL OF FIFTY YEARS.

Verse 12. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

To facilitate a more perfect knowledge of these prophecies, the Church of Christ should be considered the centre of the prophetic horizon in these visions, and the most endearing object of divine solicitude, to which every prediction has a principal reference. This is more particularly necessary in regard to these woes, and the three preceding intervals, in which the woes are anticipated. The word annabe, it is past, gone by, expired, does not necessarily require, that the calamities of the former woe must have totally ceased every where, even among Pagan nations. It only informs us of a pause, during which these poignant distresses to the amount of a woe, shall cease to affect the Church in essential parts, and no new enemy suffered to rise up against her, and cause fresh disasters within her pales. This, in my opinion, is an elucidation of the true sense here, and ch. xi. 14. where the third pause or cessation is intimated, by a similar form of expression.

VI. TRUMPET ACCOMPLISHED FROM A. D. 801–To 1062, Vere 13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,