worn by the Arabians, who boast of having those ornaments for the common attire of their heads, which are considered as crowns and diadems with other nations.-" Their faces were as the faces of "men; and they had hair as the hair of women." The Arabians, accordingly, wore their beards or mustachios as men, while the long hair of their head was flowing, or plaited, like that of women."Their teeth were as the teeth of lions; and they "had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron.' The former may signify their rapacious fury, or their offensive weapons to destroy; the latter denote their defensive armament; and the strength of both is evidently intended by the imagery.-" And the sound "of their wings was as the sound of chariots, and of "many horses rushing to battle." This, again, refers to their skill in horsemanship, and to the irresistible impetuosity with which they should rush upon and overwhelm their enemies.-Thrice in the prophecy they are compared to scorpions: "And they "had stings in their tails like unto scorpions." This denotes the poisonous effects of the false religion of Mahomed, which always followed the conquest of the Saracens, as they carried their doctrines every where with their arms.-It is farther said that these locusts "had the power to hurt men five months." This has been considered as spoken in conformity to the type; for locusts are observed to live about five months, or one hundred and fifty days; namely, from April to September: and it has been asserted that the Saracens made their excursions in the summer months, and retreated again in the winter. But the five months have been more properly understood by most commentators as referring to one hundred and fifty prophetic days, reckoning a day for a year. Upon this principle the chronological prophecies of Daniel must be explained, as well as most of the mysterious predictions of this book. This is so evident, and so generally admitted, that I shall not

The

here take up my reader's time in demonstrating it. Let it be only observed that a week, containing seven days, is the symbol for seven years. Hence the celebrated prophecy of Daniel's seventy weeks includes four hundred and ninety years; and accordingly, at the end of that period, it received its accomplishment. Hence, also, a month, consisting of thirty days, is the symbol for thirty years. year, as Sir Isaac Newton has shewn, was anciently divided into twelve months, and every month into thirty days, so that the year consisted of three hundred and sixty days; and three hundred and sixty years is the period of time always meant in this book by the prophetic year. Hence, five prophetic months is one hundred and fifty years; and it has been remarked by all writers, that from the year 612, when Mahomed first began publicly to propagate his false doctrines at Mecca, till the year 762, when the caliph Almansor built Bagdad, and called it the City of Peace, there were exactly one hundred and fifty years, or five prophetic months. From that year the Saracens became a settled people: they ceased to make those extensive and rapid conquests which had distinguished the commencement of their career; and the wars in which they were henceforth engaged were like the common and ordinary wars of other nations. One more circumstance respecting these mystical locusts remains to be considered: "They had a king over them, the "angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the "Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek "tongue hath his name Apollyon," the destroyer. This king was Mahomed and the caliphs his successors. The genius of Mahomedism is to bring destruction upon the bodies and souls of men. perhaps, Satan himself, the destroyer, and the grand instigator in the mischief and ruin effected by Mahomedism, may be intended by the " king of the "locusts, the angel of the bottomless pit."-" One

But,

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woe is past, and behold there come two more woes hereafter."- This is added, not only to distinguish the woes, and to mark more strongly each period; but to shew that some considerable time would intervene between them. Accordingly the sixth trumpet did not sound till A. D. 1281.

We here see how God punishes the abuse of spiritual privileges. When the Church became corrupted by false doctrine, and was dishonoured by unholy practice, the Mahomedan power was raised up to punish and afflict it. The denunciations of God's wrath are sometimes slow but always sure. He whose kingdom ruleth over all, has the most terrible armies of men and devils at his command, to execute his provoked judgments; and he can easily restrain or loose them, according to his sovereign will and pleasure. Beyond this none of the instruments of his providence can go. ABADDON, APOLLYON, the great and mighty destroyer, cannot effect any of his destructive purposes without the permission of the Preserver and Redeemer of mankind; nor can he ever exceed his appointed limits. Even the mischief which he does is overruled to subserve the wisest and kindest designs, by Him who is continually educing good out of evil.-In the future world the wicked will be tormented, but not destroyed; they will desire non-existence, but death will flee from them. How necessary it is then, that we should fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell!-Happy are those who are brought to a saving acquaintance with Jesus Christ, the friend and Saviour of sinners; for, whatever portion of temporal calamities they may, in the holy providence of God, be called to endure here below, they will at length enter into "the "rest that remaineth for the people of God," and share in the "inheritance which is incorruptible "and undefiled, and which fadeth not away."

SECTION XVI.

The Sounding of the second Woe.

Chap. ix. 13-21.

AND the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14. Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. 15. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. 16. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. 17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. 18. By these three was the third part of men killed by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. 19. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails; for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. 20. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk. 21. Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

After the sixth angel had sounded, a voice proceeded from the four horns of the golden altar (the scene being still in the temple), commanding the angel to loose the four angels who had been bound near the great river Euphrates; which was done accordingly. The golden altar is a symbol of Christ

the atoning Lamb of God. A voice, therefore, proceeding from this altar, is a strong indication of the divine displeasure, and plainly intimates that the sins of men must have been very great, when the altar, which was their sanctuary and protection, called aloud for vengeance; and at the same time it seems to denote that the judgments about to be predicted, were appointed to punish them for corrupting the Gospel, and so turning it into a savour of death and condemnation. The prophecy foretells the conquests of the Turks and Othmans in the thirteenth and following centuries. The only material objection to this interpretation is, the distance of time between the events before predicted and the ravages of the Turks. But this objection is obviated by the following considerations. The three woe trumpets take in a large period of time; namely, from the commencement of the seventh century till the establishment of the millennium, when all the "king"doms of this world shall become the kingdoms of "our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for "ever and ever." The period, therefore, must necessarily include the one thousand two hundred and sixty years' reign of the Antichrists, and the intervening space, whatever it may be, between their destruction and the commencement of the millennium. Independent of the consideration, therefore, that no other events can be fixed on satisfactorily correspondent to the prediction of this trumpet, an earlier period would leave a far greater distance between the second and third woe trumpets, than this interpretation leaves between the first and second. It will likewise be recollected, that after the blast of the first woe, the second woe was not to come quickly, but hereafter. Accordingly, such was the fact. Several centuries elapsed between the ravages of the Saracens and of the Turks. It may also farther be remarked, that the desolations wrought by the disciples of Mahomed, whether Saracens or Turks,