The First Trumpet.

The first trumpet of the seventh seal begins from the final disturbance and overthrow of the Roman idolarchy at the close of the sixth seal; and as it was to bring the first plague on the empire, now beginning to fall, it lays waste the third part of the earth, with a horrible storm of hail mingled with fire and blood; that is, it de populates the territory and people of the Roman world, (viz. the basis and ground of its universal polity) with a terrible and bloody irruption of the northern nations, and overthrows and destroys the nobles and plebeians. You may see the image of hail, referring in the same manner to a hostile invasion in Isaiah, c. xxviii. v. 2. " Behold a strong and mighty one from the Lord, (he alludes to Salmanasser) as a tempest of hail, and a whirlwind of destruction, as a flood of many waters, overflowing, he shall cast down mightily on the earth. The crown of pride, the drunken of Ephraim, shall be trodden under his feet." Also Isaiah, c. xxx. v. 30, of the slaughter to come on the Assyrians: " And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the descent of his arm in the indignation of his anger, and in the flame of a consuming fire, ill dispersion and tempest, and hailstones; for at the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down," &c. Here it is to be observed, that hail is usually accompanied with thunder, especially in the warmer regions. Therefore fire is joined with the mention of hail, both here, in St. John, and in Isaiah, and in the eighteenth Psalm, ver. 13, 14. Nay, in the Scripture history likewise, Exod. c. ix. v. 23. But John mixes blood with it likewise, that he may point out by this index, that the whole imae relates to slaughter.

Let the reader likewise consult Isaiah, c. xxxii. v. 19, with regard to the image of hail, and the Chaldee paraphrast upon it. Moreover, the same paraphrast teaches us that trees, in prophetic parables, signify the great and rich, who for oaks of Basan (Isaiah xi. 13) substitutes the princes of provinces; for cedars, (Isaiah xiv. 8) rich men; for fir-trees, sometimes princes, (Isaiah xxxvii. 24) sometimes kings, (Isaiah xiv. 8) Who likewise paraphrases that passage of Zecbariah xi. 2. " Howl, fir-tree ; for the cedar is fallen! because the mighty are spoiled. Howl, ye oaks of Basan, for the fenced forest is fallen ! Howl, ye kings, for your princes are debased; ye who were rich in wealth are spoiled. Howl, satraps of provinces, for the region of your strength is laid waste." Whence, by analogy, it is easily collected, that herbs are to be taken for the common people, when, as in this place, they are connected with trees.

Now, in order to collect something respecting the event from history, I would deduce the beginning of this trumpet (until something more certain shall be established) from the death of Theodosius the First; that is, from the year of Christ 395 ; because then the Christian religion seems to have plainly triumphed over the gods of the Gentiles; and at the same time, as combined in a certain common term with the end of the former, and with the beginning of the present seal, the irruptions of the Barbarians having in a small degree been attempted before, but been repressed in the ensuing years, when the empire was again at peace, began at length to take place in a horrible manner, and to hang over the whole Roman world, continually and cruelly wasting and depopulating it with fire and sword.

For in this very year, Alaric first, with an immense army of Goths and other barbarians, broke into Macedonia, from Thrace, sparing neither towns nor inhabitants. From thence, proceeding through Thessaly, and having occupied the straits of Thermopylae, he descended into Greece, that is, into Attica, and overthrew every city except Thebes and Athens. He made an irruption into Peloponnesus, and laid waste Corinth, Argos, and Sparta. From thence he invaded Epirus, where he proceeded to commit the same depopulations and devastations. In the following year, quitting Epirus, he made an incursion into Achaia, and hasted to despoil it shamefully, together with Epirus and the neighbouring provinces, by burnings and depopulations. When he had thus, for five years, harassed the east with his cruel ravages, he turned his attention to the invasion of the west, passed into Dalmatia and Pannonia, and laid waste those regions far and wide.

Hear Jerome, who was then alive, deploring the very distressed state of this period, while the tempest was still assailing it. Lpist. III. "Between Constantinople and the Julian Alps, Roman blood is every day shed. Scythia, Thrace, Macedonia, Dardania, Dacia, Thessaly, Achaia, Epirus, Dalmatia, and all Pannonia, the Goths, the Sarmatians, the Quadi, the Alans, Huns, Vandals, and Marcomani, invade and seize. How many matrons, how many virgins of God, and freebore and noble persons, are become the sport of these brute beasts! Bishops are taken captive, priests slain, and the functions of divers clergymen suspended! Churches are subverted, horses are stabled at the altars of Christ, the relics of martyrs are dug up. The whole Roman world falls to pieces. What, courage do you suppose at this moment is possessed by the Corinthians, Athenians, Lacedemonians, Arcadians, and all Greece; over whom the barbarians rule?"

In the following year, A.D. 401, the same Alaric, with Goths, Alans, and Huns following his footsteps, when lee was preparing to carry the war into Italy, broke through Noricum, and entered Venetia through the forest of Trent, reduced those cities in a short time under his power, and besieged the emperor Honorius at Hasta; so that almost all men in Italy were beginning to think of changing their habitations. But here at length, Stilico, the general of Honorius, leaving prepared a great army, checked his fiery, and forced him to trace back. his steps into Pannonia, from whence he had come, after he had been more than once conquered and worn out by disadvantageous battles. From whence, a short time after, having entered into a league, and being honoured by Honorius with a military prefecture, he withdrew into Illyrium, a province of the east.

While Alaric was quiet for a short time, that the west might not from thenceforth enjoy an hour of rest, immediately after, in the year 404,. another memorable irruption of the barbarians was prepared against Italy, Radagaisus, a Scythian, being their leader, who with an army of Goths, Sarmatians, and Germans, to the amount of two hundred thousand, having overthrown the garrisons in tee Alps, passed into the territory of Venetia, Emilia, and Etruria, and laid siege to Florence, where being conquered by Stilico with an immense slaughter, he was taken and beheaded. This enemy, however terrible, having been removed in a short space of time, and with little loss, soon after, in the year 406, the third, that most grievous and very destructive irruption of the Vandals and Alans into the west, took place, accompanied by the Marcomanni, Heruli, Suevi, Alemanni, Burgundiones, and a rabble of other barbarians, by which Gallia first, and from thence Hispania, and lastly Africa, were taken possession of, and afflicted with calamities of every kind, which destructions Jerome partly expressed and partly imphed in his second epistle. "Innumerable and very fierce nations," says he, "have occupied all the Gallias: Whatever is between the Alps and the Pyrenees, what is included by the ocean and the Rhone, the Quadian, the Vandal, the Sarmatian, the Alans, the Gipedes, the Heruli, Saxon, Burgundian, Alleman, and Pannonian enemies have laid waste. Dlagunciacum* has been taken and overthrown, and in the church many thousand of men have been butchered. The Vangiones t have been exterminated in a long siege. The city of the Rhenixxx, though very strong, the Ambiani, the Atrebates�, Morinill,** Tornacelf, the Nemeta#, and Argentoratif,have been translated into Germany. Aduitania,the country of the Nine People, the provinces of Lyons and Narbonne, except a few cities, have been wholly depopulated. I cannot make mention of Tolosa++ without tears, which the merits of the holy bishop Exuperius, up to

* Mentz, or Mayence.

xx People about Worms, in the Palatinate.

xxxRheims.

� Artois.

**Bretons.

#Near Spire.

++Tholouse.

*** Inhabitants of Tournay.

!Argentina Stxasburgh,

this period, contributed to preserve from turn. The provinces of Spain are even now trembling, as just ready to perish. Rome redeems its life by gold. And this was that terrible cloud of hail mingled with fire and blood; an image, indeed, of so obvious an application, that I cannot help referring to Nicephorus of Gregora, in book ii. c. vii. never thinking of the Apocalypse, but treating of the Scythians; and yet what fell from him is so suitable to this subject. As, says he, "terrors from heaven are often excited in men by God, as lightnings, fires, and frequent rains, &c. so these northern and hyperborean terrors are reserved by God, that they may be let forth for punishment, when and by whom it may seem right to Providence."'

But let me add likewise the corollary from Achmet, for the farther confirmation of the Reader.

Collary taken out of Achmet, of the signification of Hail, Fire, and Trees, in the interpretation of Dreams.

Chap. cxci. Of the Explanations of the Indians,Persians, and Egyptians.

" Snow, hail, and cold portend troubles, anxieties, and torments."

" If any one thought he saw hail fallen on any spot, let him expect a sudden hostile attack."

" If he thought he saw hail that injured the stalks of wheat or barley, in that place, as far as the stalks are broken, will warlike slaughters ensue."

To the same purpose is Chap. clxix. Of the Divination of the Indians; Chap. clx. Of the Explication of the Persians and the Egyptians.

" Fire signifies death, war, battles, punishment, and affliction, if any thing or person had been seen to burn."

Also in Chap. cli.. The Persians, Indians, and Egyptians interpret Trees by Men, principally Magistrates, Noblemen, and very illustrious men.

" If any one has seen trees watered and flourishing, a very eminent man and the people will be fostered."

" If a king has seemed to himself to have planted trees, he will appoint new magistrates." Also,

" If trees by length of time become injured and rotten, the nobles of the king will die a natural death."

" If he has thought he saw shrubs which grew up into trees, this refers to the promotion of his great men."

"If he has thought he saw the leaves of trees collected into his house, wealth shall be gained from the great in the manner of leaves," &c.

The Second Trumpet.

The second trumpet which ushers in ruin on the Roman world by a heavier plague, it being already laid waste as to its land, assails the sea; the third part of which, and what belongs to it, it renders entirely bloody, by the fall of a great mountain threatening it of old, but now set on fire, together with a great slaughter of animals or fishes living in it, and of the vessels navigating therein.

That is, the destruction of Rome, the great city, captured again and again, spoiled and burning with hosthe flames, broke forth with the ruin of the amplitude of the Roman dominion or jurisdiction; the barbarians, on account of the weakness of the capital, thus affected, now seizing on its provinces, and dividing them into new kingdoms, with an irreparable slaughter of the legions at that time remaining for its defence, with a loss of all aids of retaining and supporting its power, even by negotiation.

The sea of the political world is, as I have observed, that amplitude of dominion which embraces all the inhabitants .in the communion of the same political laws. By this image the dominion of Babylon is expressed, Jer. c. li. v. 36. where the Lord threatens that "He will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry;" which ver. 44 explains by the retention of the same metaphor, "The nations shall no longer flow together to her." The amplitude of the Assyrian kingdom likewise, is thus described, Ezek. c. xxxi. v. 4. " The waters have made her to increase;" (that is, the Assyrian cedar) "the abyss or the sea has exalted her." Perhaps the dominion of Pharaoh is the sea. Isa. c. xix. v. 5. It is said of the destruction of his kingdom, "The waters of his sea should fail;" that is, his empire should be taken away. Therefore those great empires are seen by Daniel 11 ascending out of the sea; "that is, arising out of the circumference of dominion.

But as " the third part of the sea," that is, of the Roman sea, is said to have become bloody, it is to be understood that blood is used in the first place for slaughter, and then for death, even without blood. Death is to be taken generally for destruction, even of a substance without life. Vide Ezek. c. xiv. v. 19. and c. iii. v. 18. 20. and c. xviii. v. 13. Amos, c. ii. v. 2. Rom. c. vii. v. 9. Whence blood, or to become bloody, is the image which has suffered destruction, as if it were like an animal slain or butchered, dropping with gore. When, therefore, it is said here that the sea is made bloody by the overthrow of a great mountain, it denotes nothing else than that it should suffer some kind of death, or violent extinction by that event. What is said in the vials, where there is the same image, is a little more clear, " it became as the blood of a dead man." The meaning is, that the Roman dominion, or extent of power, suffered ruin, was mangled, dismembered, and destroyed.

The like symbol of a mountain, signifying a city, is to be found of ancient Babylon, in Jer. c. li. v. 25, " Behold I am against thee, O destroying (or corrupting) mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyeth (or corrupteth) all the earth, and I will stretch out my Band, and will make thee a burnt mountain, (or a mountain of combustion)" where the Septuagint has a burning mountain, in the same sense in which John uses it here, a mountain burning with fire. Of the same Isaiah says, c. xiii. v. 2, " Lift ye up a banner on the high mountain." The Targum has it, 11 On the city which dwelleth confidently." Again, c.cxxxvii. v. 24, to Sennacherib, king of Assyria, "Thou bast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots have I ascended to the height of the mountains: The Targum, "Have I ascended into their fortified cities." But whether rightly, I doubt.

Moreover, that a mountain should here be said to be cast into the sea, is a proper figure, because, by no other means could a mountain hurt the sea, than by being cast into it. And this you will remember, likewise, takes place in the following trumpet of the falling star.

With relation to history, Rome was first captured in the year 410 by the same Alaric, king of the Goths, who in the former trumpet had exhibited, as it were, a prelude of its fate. But now, after the death of Stilico, exciting new disturbances, and setting on foot a new and fatal expedition against Italy, by which he reduced Honorius to such straits, that the barbarian him self gave to Rome a new emperor of the name of Attalus, with whom he besieged Honorius Augustus at Ravenna, who was already meditating from the desperate state of his affairs, to fly into the east, and to abandon the west. But the enemy, induced by his submission, and Attalus having abdicated the empire, restored Honorius to his power.

The dismemberment of the Roman empire followed immediately the destruction of Rome. I call Sigonius as a witness, who says, "The miserable devastation of Italy, continual wars with Gaul and Spain, and at length, new regal governments of barbarians in both provinces, followed the destruction of Rome."

For, in the first place, Honorius, in order to recover the possession of Rome with the empire, having made a league with Alaric, was compelled to grant settlements to the Goths, and a kingdom in the Gallias. Two years after, in the year 412, the Huns pouring into Pannonia, which the Goths had left, he being destitute of sufficient force to make resistance, under such difficulties, entered into a treaty with them, giving and accepting hostages.

Then in the year 413, Constantius, the general of the same Honorius, that he might not accidentally fall into any warlike difficulty, willingly received the Burgundians into amity, and assigned them seats on the Rhone, who in the preceding years lead thrown themselves into Gaul with the Vandals.

Lastly, in the year 415, the same Honorius, (as Procopius relates) when the Goths, a little while after, had passed into the neighbouring part of Spain, granted to the Vandals likewise, with their king Gunderic, who had lately been expelled from Gaul by the Franks, the habitation they had occupied, under the engagement of waging war with the Goths.

He who desires to know more may consult the beforenamed Sigonius on the western empire, books x. and xi. from whence we have quoted these particulars.

And thus, from henceforth, the extent of the Roman dominion was daily more and more mangled and dismembered, until Rome being again taken and sacked in the year 455 by Genseric, the Vandal, in the year immediately following, or in rather less time, the whole body of the empire appeared to be divided into ten kingdoms in all; which, together with the names of the people, and kings, and the provinces over which they reigned, the following little table will exhibit, together with some illustrations from history, to throw greater light upon the subject.

And in this manner, at lenth, those ten kingdoms, into which the Holy Spirit had predeclared, both by Daniel and St. John, that the Roman empire should be divided in the latter days, seem to be made out, and are not altogether to be estimated by the bare names of so many regions, or tracts of the earth, as is commonly done, but by kingdoms, into which the extent and dominion of the empire was to be forcibly torn asunder.

In the mean time, however, we do not think that the circumscription of this denary is to be so rigidly interpreted, as to exclude more kingdoms at any one time, or dynasties of some kind or other; but that the empire was to be rent into ten kingdoms, at least, or into ten principal kingdoms. Which, from the original declaration which we have now represented, down even to the present age, under so many fates and changes of republics and kingdoms, I beheve to have been always true; though it might be sufficient to confirm the truth of the oracle, if it had only been divided in the beginning into so many kingdoms, though afterwards, perhaps, the number had diminished.

Now that this circumscription of the decade of kingdoms is to be understood in the manner which I have stated, and not otherwise, the similar prophecy respecting the division of the Alexandrian monarchy may teach us. In which, though over and above those four principal kingdoms of Macedonia, Asia, Syria, and Egypt, a fifth was added, namely, that of Thrace, by its founder Lysimachus, yet the Holy Spirit defined that multiplicity by a quaternion, suggesting there would be so many at least, or so many principal kingdoms. For the Thracian kingdom, though it began at the same time with the rest, and lasted forty years, yet had no successor, but expired with the first king, Lysimachus, and therefore is not to be referred to the number.

In like manner we are to judge of this tenfold Roman division. Therefore, let no one be surprised, if, beside the kingdom enumerated in the Gallias, he should possibly find that of the Aurelian Alani, and also the dynasty of the Armoric States, remaining even from the reign of Honorius to these times. The latter, indeed, he will find to have been of very moderate extent, and the former to have lasted for a very short space of time, (or not more than ten years) Neither,then, is to be reckoned in the same place and order as the rest, though otherwise something of the same nature may be discovered.

TABLE

The Third Trumpet.

The third trumpet wholly overthrew and extinguished that burning star, the Roman Iiesper, or Caesar of the West, which fell headlong from the time when Genseric, king of the Vandals, pillaged the captured city of Rome; though, for a little time, to contend with death under those merely nominal Caesars, Avitus, Majorianus, Severus, Anthemius, Olybrius, Glycerius, and Nepos, who perished by mutual treacheries and murders, at length, in the year 476, drawing its last breath under the fatal name of Augustulus, was entirely hurled from the heaven of his power by Odoacer, king of the Heruli, who had fallen upon him, with a very bitter calamity to the fountains and rivers, that is, to the cities and provincial magistrates.

By the Hesperian Caesar I understand him, who, from the confirmed division of the empire into eastern and western, even from the death of Theodosius the First, yet remained emperor of ancient Rome, and of the West, but for a very short period, as, after the year 91, he began secretly to fall from his heaven at the sound of this trumpet. For though the Roman bishop, more than 320 years after the Hesperian Caesar had fallen in Augustulus, substituted the king of the Franks, (and afterwards of the Germans) in the same name and title, he did nothing else but contrive, that by this drawn curtain of a revived Caesar, or the sixth head of the beast, he himself might not be so clearly perceived by the less perspicacious, to be the last head, that is, AntiChrist.

The Papal Caesar, however, does not appertain to the heads of the Roman beast, but to the horns or kingdoms, into which the empire of the sixth head, just ready to give place to the last head, were to be divided. For, after so long a space as 325 years*, there could not be a succession, as in continuation of the western Caesars.

*From Augustulus to Charlemagne.

But it is time now to throw light on the text of John, that the reasonableness of the interpretation may appear. " And there fell from heaven, (says he) a great star, burning as a lamp." He seems to describe a hairy star, or comet, among whose species is enumerated by Pliny the Lampadias, or blazing star, especially so called. And indeed, the Caesar of the West might not unaptly be designated by a star of this kind, on account of his brief duration. Of whom it is said, c. xviii. "And when he cometh, he must continue a short space." But the star was great, in order more aptly to figure the supreme majesty, whose splendour the sun, in other places, represents in prophetic parables. And it is very well known that there leave been comets, which seemed to equal even the sun in magnitude, of which kind, perhaps, he will not be in an error, who affirms this star to have been one.

But that you may not entertain a doubt of the application, Isaiah apphes a similar image of a falling star, c. xiv. v.12, to the fall of the king of Babylon. " How (says he) bast thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations*! "In other places likewise, as in that passage of Isaiah, c. xxxiv. v. 4, just now quoted, stars falling from heaven are understood of the ruin of princes and nobles. A star, therefore, of a singular and unusual magnitude, designates a prince above the common lot of princes, that is, great and illustrious. It follows: " And the name of the star is called Wormwood." It is the prophetic plan, that the quality or fate of the thing or person of which it treats should be pointed out by the imposition of a certain proper name, since there are other instances in the Hebrew language where 1;npa, ns-T, is the same as ro 7rpaypu, that is, the word signifies the thing, as Luke c. i. v. 37, " There is not any word impossible with God **," and to be called signifies the same as to be or exist, as Isaiah c. Ivi, v. 7, " My house shall be called the house of prayer," for which Luke has, c. xix. v. 4, "My house is, (that is, shall be accounted) the house of prayer." And Gen. c. xxi. v. 12, " In Isaac shall thy seed be called," that is, "shall be." See likewise the Septuagint Isa. c. xiv. v. 20. Ruth, c. iv. v. 11.

* The king of Babylon is likened to the morning star, as ruler in the East. This may be considered as the evening star, the emblem of the Emperor of the West. R. B. C.

** That is, there is no word spoken by God in prophecy, but what shall surely come to pass.

But examples of the figure which I have noticed are every where to be met with. For thus says Isaiah, c. vii. v. 14, " His name shall be called Emmanuel* "that is, He shall be God-man; and c. ix. v. 6, " His name shall be called Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace;" that is, he shall be all these. Also Jerem. c. xxiii. v. 6, " And this is the name by which he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness;" and Zech. c. vi. v. 12, "Behold a man whose name is the Branch." It follows, " For he shall grow up out of his place," &c. add Rev. c. xix. v. 13, �� His name is called the Word of God." Akin to these examples are what we find in Jer. c. xx. v. 3, 4, 11 The Lord doth not call thy name Pashur, but Magor Missabib, (i. e. fear on every side). " For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself and all thy friends;" and Ezek. c. xxiii. v. 4, " Their names (i. e. the names of Samaria and Jerusalem) are Aholah and Aholibah." Add 1sa. c. viii. Hosea, c. i. 6, ?. By a similar figure in every respect, is this fallen star called Wormwood; that is, according to the Hebrew notion, (by which abstracts are used for concretes) Absinthites, or the prince of bitterness and troubles. Of this kind in truth, if ever there was one, was that Hesperian Caesar, exercised with perpetual troubles from his first rise to his end; during whose possession of power the Roman empire was ready to fall; nay, in whose appointment was given an occasion of falling, because in the division of empire thus introduced, a way was opened for the barbarians, and the Roman commonwealth was exposed to the most dreadful calamities. Might not he be properly called Wormwood, on account of a fate so bitter to himself and others? According to that saying of Naomi, "Call me not Naomi, call me Xlarah; for the Almighty has aficted me with bitterness," Ruth c. i. v. 20.

* The Sept. has ~:U~EOfts, you shall call.

But before I quit this subject, something must be said of the state of the city and the Roman commonwealth, that the way may be prepared for the interpretation of the following trumpet.

The Caesar of the West, then, being thus overthrown and extinct, in the mean time Odoacer, king of the Heruli, held Rome for sixteen years under the name of king, who, after two years restored, and from that time preserved, the consulate to Rome and the West, which in his anger he had at first taken away. Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, succeeded him, and that, as Paul the Deacon relates, by Zeno, the emperor of the East, delivering Italy to him in a formal manner, and confirming it by the imposition of the second veil on his head. He, after Odoacer was conquered and slain, besides Dalmatia and Rhetia, which were provinces of Odoacer, added Sicily also to his kingdom, rebuilt the walls, and some of the edifices of the city of Rome, having collected a large sum of money for that purpose; so that nothing seemed to be wanted to its attainment of its former state, except the infamy of a city plundered and burned. He regulated the kingdom most wisely; he changed no Roman institution, but retained the senate and consuls, the patricians, prefects of the praetorium, prefect of the city, questor, commissary of the sacred largesses, offices of the privates, and of the military, masters of the foot and horse, and the other magistrates, who were then in the empire, and entrusted the offices only to Romans. Which regulations were for some time continued by his successors also, Athalaric, Theodostratus, and Vitiges, Ostrogoth kings of Italy. Vide Sigonius on the Western Empire, Lib. xv. Anno, 479, Lib. xvi. Annis, 493, 494, 500.

The Fourth Trumpet.

The fourth trumpet having advanced a little farther, proceeded to take away entirely the light of Roman majesty in the city of Rome, with which it had hitherto shone under the Ostrogoth kings, after the consulate of Rome had fahed; namely, from the year 452, in that Ostrogothic war, waged first by Belisarius, and then by Narses, general of Justinian, for the purpose of recovering Italy: And then the city itself, having been repeatedly taken by Totila, burnt, and a third of it demolished, deprived, moreover, of all its inhabitants, (a memorable sport of fortune!) being recovered at length by Narses, after so many deaths and so much slaughter, was thrown down a short time after by a whirlwind and thunderbolts. Once the queen of cities, but now at length deprived of the consular power, of the authority of the senate, and of the other magistrates, with which, as stars, she had hitherto irradiated the globe, she fell from such splendour of glory into I know not what ignoble Duchy of Ravenna, over which she had formerly ruled, and was afterwards compelled (what obscurity!) to be subject to the Exarchy, and to pay tribute.

And this was that percussion of "the third part of the sun, and of the moon, and of the stars," by which it came to pass that " a third part of the day did not shine, and likewise a third part of the night." Where the diurnal light, which is that of the sun, is called by the name of day, and the nocturnal light of the moon and stars, by that of night. Like that in Jerem: c. xxxi. v. 35, "Who giveth the sun for the light of the day, and the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night."

The sun shone at Rome as long as the insular dignity and the kingdom was possessed of authority over other cities and provinces. The moon and the stars shone there, as long as the ancient power of the senate, and of the other magistrates, remained. But these being all taken away, (which was done by this trumpet) what was there but darkness, and a universal failure of light, both diurnal and nocturnal? namely, what belonged to that city, to which a third part of the light of heaven was attributed.

The image of the sun, moon, and stars, in this sense, is very frequent with the prophets. As Isaiah, c. xiii. v. 10, also c. Ix. v. 20, where, instead of "Thy sun shall no more set, and thy moon shall not be diminished," the Targum has, " Thy kingdom (it is addressed to' Jerusalem) shall no more cease, and thy glory shall not be withdrawn." Also, Jerem. c. xv. v. 9, where of Jerusalem he. says, "Her sun is set, while it is yet day," the Targum translates it, "Their glory has departed during their lives." And Ezek. c. xxxii. v. 7, the same paraphrast turns that passage concerning Pharaoh" And when I shall extinguish thee, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark" Tribulation shall cover thee, when I shall extinguish the splendour of the glory of thy kingdom." The reader may transfer hither also the observations I have made above from Aclimet, in order to throw light on the sixth seal. It is wonderful how they agree.

Of the Three Woe Trumpets.

There still remain three trumpets, the greatest and most grievous of all, and therefore discriminated from the former by the appellation of Woes. For after the conclusion of the fourth trumpet, "I saw and. heard," says he, "an angel flying in the midst of heaven, and saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels, which are yet to sound. "Also, c. ix. v. 12, and c. xi. v. 14.

Doubtless, since the Christian inhabitants of the Roman world, whilst the other trumpets were sounding, had contaminated themselves with the worship of new idols, the trumpets which remained were made more important for the purpose of punishing the double sin. For, it is apparent, that this sin, likewise, of the Roman world, together with the former one, of the slaughter of the martyrs, was reckoned in the account of the crime to be avenged, because this enunciation is subjoined to the second woe; namely, The rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not ' worship demons, and idols of gold and silver, and brass and stone, and wood, which neither can see, nor, hear, nor walk," c. ix. v. 20.

The Era Woe Trumpet, or Trumpet the Fifth. . .

The first woe trumpet is long since passed. It sent forth those horrid troops of locusts, issuing from the smoke of the Tartarean abyss, now opened by the work of Satan, to devastate the globe; that is, the Saracens, or Arabs, (a nation as populous and numerous as locusts) were excited to the destruction of so many nations, by the astonishing false prophecy of Mohammed.

For the smoke ascending from the infernal pit is Islam, which the Mohammedan knaves call Islam. This covered the whole earth with a new obscurity, long since illuminated by the empire and discipline of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, after the darkness of the Gentiles had been dispersed. And the type of locusts is the more exact, because the Egyptian locusts likewise came from the same Arabia, bordering on Egypt to the east. For thus says Exodus, c. x. vv.13,14, " The Lord brought an east wind on the land, and it brought the locusts; and the locusts went up upon all the land of Egypt , and settled in all the coasts of Egypt." The Arabs, besides, on account of the remarkable multitude of the nation, are compared to locusts. Judges, c. vii. v. 12, 11 The Midianites, and Ainalekites, and all the sons of Kedem, or of the east, lay in the valley as locusts* in multitude. Their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea shore for multitude." Where it is to he observed, that the Arabs are peculiarly denominated the sons of the east, as Arabia itself is nz Kedem, or the east; namely, with respect to Egypt, where the Israelites had learned to speak thus. You may see, Gen. c. x. v. 30, and c. xxv. v. G. 1 Kings, c. iv. v. 30. Isa. c. xi. v. 14. Jer. c. xlix. v. 28, and perhaps Matt. c. ii. v. 1. Plainly for the same reason as Asia Minor is at this day called Natolia,** and Arabia Felix is called by the rest of the Arabians, Ayaman, or south, whence the queen of the south, Matt. c. xii. v. 42. But this by the way.

* In our version grasshoppers.

**Anatolia from 'AraroXfj.

A similar image of locusts is to be seen in Joel, in the two first chapters, speaking of the Assyrians and Babylonians, who were about to lay waste Judea, from whence he who Bath compared the description of both, will not deny that the type was borrowed.

Achmet shows from the use of the east, that the interpretation is to be referred to hosthe forces; whose words I have thought proper to insert in this place. It is thus he writes in clap. ccc. from the sciences of the Indians, Persians, and Egyptians: "The locust, no doubt, is generally to be referred to a multitude of enemies: For so it is recorded in the sacred writings, that . locusts by Divine command go forth like an army to the devastation of countries." This allusion to sacred writings, applies to those of the Indians alone, as well as every thing in this book, which seems to imply a knowledge of the Christian religion, as will be apparent to the reader. He proceeds, "If any king or person endued with power has dreamed that he saw locusts going forth towards a particular region, he may expect in that place, a multitude of enemies with great power; and as much injury as the locusts have done, so much damage will they occasion."

Having now then established the image, we will look to the remainder of the description.

"And to them was given power," says ver. 3, " even as the scorpions of the earth have power;" "for they had tails like scorpions, and in them stings with which they hurt; and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when it striketh a man." That is, they had not only the power proper to locusts of eating up and depopulating the countries through which they passed, but, what was a kind of prodigy, they had tails like scorpions, with the stroke of which, likewise, they diffused poison. Wonderful! A locust scorpion. But the nature of the evil which it imphes, the symbol of a serpentine species seems to point out; for the scorpion is of the serpent kind. In that resemblance, in which the devil first deceived mankind, and turned him away from God, the Holy Spirit loves still to introduce him when he is about to deceive men. Whence that expression" The old serpent, which deceiveth the world," c. xii. v. 9, and c. xx. v. 2. The tail, therefore, of a scorpion, with the sting, denotes the propagation of that diabolical false prophecy of Mohammed, with its whole apparatus, on which the Arabian locusts relying, not less than on warlike force, inflicted hurt, alas! wherever they went. Nay, this train of foulest errors, the Saracens first, from the creation of man, drew after them; and, I believe, no nation before them, relying on a similar imposture, in religion, and under the pretext of destroying the worship of idols, ever contended for the empire of the world.

But it was said to them, "that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green tiling, nor any tree, but only those men who had not the seal of God upon their foreheads."

As to the signification of the particle Et ~n but only, the sense is either exceptive, "that they should not hurt any herb, (for this is the meaning of X(Sf)ros with the Hellenists) nor any thing green, nor any tree, unless those herbs, trees, and green things only, which were not inscribed by the seal of God ;" so that men and herbs, and green things, mutually explain one another. Or it may be explained not exceptively, but in opposition, according to the use of the particle ii piI in sacred Hellenism, for Ma, Matt. c. xii. v. 4, Rom. xiv. v. 14, and elsewhere ; namely, that it might be said to them, that they were not to feed altogether after the manner of common locusts, on herbs or trees, nor on ally thing green, but above those things to which they were accustomed, they were to harass men alone ; of the number of those whom the seal of the angel, at the beginning of the trumpet, had not exempted from those plagues. In whichever mode it be taken, we might trouble ourselves in vain about the signification and difference of green grass and trees, since those things belong only to the propriety of the figure in. which a mystery is not to be sought for. For thus it is said of the Egyptian locusts, Exod. c. x. v. 15, "They covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land. was darkened ; and they consumed every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees, and there remained not any green thing in any tree or herb of the field through all the land of Egypt. "But our locusts afflicted the very men, and from hence it is apparent that they were not of the genus of insects, that is, not natural, but symbolical locusts.

On which occasion, it will be worth while, once for all, to lay dowel this rule: Whenever any thing is attributed to the prophetic type, which is slot agreeable to the nature of the same, that will lead us to the understanding of the thing signified by the type, and teach us that the interpretation is to be made according to the condition of the teeing so signified; and this, you will observe, is to be done four times, at least, in this vision; as when there is given to locusts not only the power of attacking men, but also a human face, feminine flair, golden crowns, and iron breast-plates; by all which it is intimated that men and not insects are designated; and they, indeed, by no means hooded as some suppose*, but in all respects such as go forth in arms, for the destruction of others. Of which locusts it is said, "And to them it was given, that they should not kill men, but that they should torment them for five months;" that is, in this respect the Arabian locusts differ from the Euphratean Horsemen, of whom mention is made in the following trumpet.

It was given to the Saracens to torment for a long time, and in a cruel manner, the nations of the Roman name; but it was by no means given to them to despoil of life that Roman triental, if I may so call it, on any side. For since, while the former trumpets were sounding, out of the ruins of its political state, a new pontifical kingdom of ancient Rome had grown up, with a progress equal, as it were, to the ruin of the other, the Saracens could let destroy this, her tho kingdom of Constantinople, the new Rome. On the other hand, the Turks, after the capture of the royal city, entirely took away the Constantinopolitan dominion, as we shall hear in the following trumpet. Of the five months to which the torment of the locusts is limited, we shall speak with more propriety when we come to the repetition of the same.

*Mede means to say, they were not monks. R. B. C.

If In those days men shall seek death, and shall not find it. And they shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them." That is, such shall be the calamity of those times, that men shall be weary of their lives. For you are not to imagine that this was done by mere persuasion, or tricks of delusion. The business was effected by arms, and that by the institution of Mohammed himself; the apparatus of which, indeed, and it is sufficiently terrible, together with the amplitude of the dominion to be acquired, and the dress of the nation waging war, is depicted in a lively image. The warlike apparatus is thus described: " And the figures of the locusts were like horses (i. e. cavalry) prepared for battle;" "their teeth were like those of lions," i. e. strong to devour. Joel, c. i. v. G. Dan. c. vii. v. 7. 23. "And they had breast-plates like breast-plates of iron, and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots with many horses rushing to battle." The whole description is taken from Joel, from whence, as I observed, is borrowed the very image of locusts. Vide c. ii. v. 4. c. i. v. G. c. ii. v. 5..

The crowns, like crowns of gold, placed on their heads, indicate the success and extent of dominion to be acquired ; nor indeed undeservedly. No nation ever reigned so extensively, nor in so short a space of time were so many kingdoms, so many regions, brought under the yoke of domination. Incredible is it to be told, yet it is most true,, that in the short space of eighty, or not many more years, they subjugated and acquired to the diabolical kingdom of AIobacnined, Palestine, Syria, both the Armenias, almost the whole of Asia Minor, Persia, India, Egypt, Numidia, all Barbary, as far as the river Niger, Lusitania, and Hispania. Nor did their good fortune or ambition stop here, till they had added great part of Italy, even to the gates of Rome, besides Sicily, Candia, Cyprus, and the other islands of the Mediterranean Sea.

Good God! what a vast tract of land "How many crowns are here". Whence it is worthy of observation, that no mention is here made, as under the other trumpets, of the trient, or third part; since the plague fell not less beyond the bounds of the Roman empire, than within it ; stretching even to the extremest parts of India.

The dress of this warlike nation remains to be considered. " And their faces," says he, were as the faces of men." They were locusts with a human countenance ; that is, truly men, (lest any one should suppose that insects were spoken of) " having hair as the hair of women; " that is, they were Arabs by nation, who, according to Pliny, wear their hair uncut, and in the manner of women, having turbans on their heads. Pliny, lib. vi. c. 28. Whose custom it is at the present day, as travellers affirm, when they are going into battle, to braid their hair into horns and curls. Camerar. operum subciss. Tom. i. c. 93. Whence it appears manifest that a passage quoted from Herodotus in Thalia, as implying the tonsure of the Arabs, is not to be understood as of the shaving of the head, but either of that of the beard, in some mode used by the Arabs, in imitation of Bacchus, (of which Pliny also mentions something, when he says, " the beard was wont to be shaved by them, except upon the upper lip,") or of the roundness of the ends of their hair, beyond the entire tonsure of the head; both of which modes perhaps, because it was the mark of the worshippers of Bacchus, a Heathen deity near them, God forbad to his people. Levit. c. xix. v. 27. c. xxi. v. 5. However it might be, I doubt not but Pliny had seen Arabians at Rome.

It follows, with regard to the duration of the plague, that it is to be actually terminated in five months, according to the type of locusts, wllo last for so many months, namely, from the rising of the pleiades, (called by the ancients the end of spring, being about one month froth the vernal equinox) when, from the eggs left in the earth, during winter, they come forth to the light, until the beginning of autumn, when, leaving deposited other eggs in the earth for the stock of the next year, they immediately die. See Pliny, lib. xi. c. 29.

God, however, intended to suit this notation of time, not only to the type, but also to the antitype, since he delivered up Italy, the chief state of the earth, and of the sin which drew down the foremost plague, to be infested by the Saracenic locusts, from the year 830 to the year 980, that is, 150 years, or five months of years.

In other parts of the world indeed; but in a certain order, and for different periods of titne, the plague remained longer ; chiefly in the oriental regions of Syria, Egypt, and of Asia Minor, which being conterminous to the head of that empire, which was first at Damascus, and afterwards at Bagdad, fell, as it were, into the anterior parts of the Saracenic body for many ages.

Here I would observe, that though, in whatever lands they occupied, they wounded the inhabitants with the envenomed stroke of that scorpion tail of which I have spoken, yet the Italians seem to have felt the stroke in some different, unknown, and singular manner. The whole swarm being assimilated to a body, and the anterior parts assigned, as they ought to be, to the east, what will those African troops be, stretched out at so loose a distance from the head towards the west, but the tail? And from thence arose all the calamity of Italy, which they repeatedly struck by an oblique stroke (see the nature of scorpions) through the Mediterranean sea, as well as its islands of Sardinia and Sicily. As if the Holy Spirit expressly pointed hither when it said, with the reiterated mention of months, " And they had tails like scorpions, and stings, and they had power in their tails to hurt men five months." For so reads the Coniplutensian Codex, according to the testimony of Syrus, Primasius, Andreas, and Aretas. Though an interpretation of this kind be not unsuitable to the designation of the time, yet I do not change my opinion that there is another signification of that serpentine train, and much mole widely diffusing itself, as I leave said above. If any one will suffer himself to be persuaded of a secondary sense, (which I am not accustomed easily to admit) he is at liberty to adopt it with my consent.

Now, this is one way by which the five months of the type of locusts may be adapted to the event. There is also another, provided those months are doubled in consequence of those five months being twice mentioned, as if indeed the Holy Spirit meant to apply the number Five according to the analogy and propriety of the type; but to double it that it might answer by another period, to a more illustrious antitype.

For why otherwise should he repeat the notatioli of those months nearly in the same words? Is there not a mystery under this repetition? I do not remember a similar circumstance elsewhere, in the continued description of the same type. If this, then, should be satisfactory, three hundred years, as many as twice five months of years amount to, will comprehend that noted period of the Saracenic kingdom, which, from the beginning of the Caliphate of the Abasides, (who first fixed the seat of empire at Bagdad) extends to the capture of the same city by Togrulbec, king of the Turks, (who is called by us Tangrophilix) ; that is, from the year of Christ 750 to the year 1055. This, indeed, is a longer space by about five years; but when the calculation is made by months, no more notice is to be taken of some days, than, when the computation is by days, it is customary to take of hours.

It may be added, that this interval will begin commodiously from the removal of the yoke of the exarchate from the city of Rome, with which the calamity of the preceding trumpet ended. It happened at the same time, perhaps even in the same year. ' If you should still inquire why the Holy Spirit did not comprehend the whole duration of the Saracenic plague within these numbers, since, before this principality of the Abasides, namely, from the year 630, the Saracens bad extended their empire by continued successes; so that it lead thus then arisen to its acme?

It may be answered, that the number of five months leas more to do with the type of locusts than with the antitype of Saracens, and therefore it was sufficient, if wliat properly suits the former was exhibited in some more remarkable kind of period, tllougli it sliould not pleasure the whole. I assert nothing, however, on this point, but leave it to others to whom more leas been given by God, to search into it farther. (N.B) This difrcnlty, liotwitlistanding, is by no means prejudicial to the interpretation respecting the Saracens; for whichever interpretation you follow, the same difficulty will pursue you.

There yet remains to treat of the king, and his panic. "And they had," says he, a king over them, the angel of the abyss." His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he has the name of Apollyon, that is, the Destroyer.

The Holy Spirit seems to insinuate, as he calls their king the angel of the abyss, that these locusts were not a Christian, but an infidel nation, which had not given their name to Christ. For the children of infidelity, or Pagans, are said by St. Paul to be subject to the prince who had the power " of the air," who is no other tlian the angel of the abyss; on the contrary, those who become Christians are said "to be delivered from the power of Satan, and to be converted to God."

Whatever the reason may be, the matter is worthy discussion, why he should call this prince of the abyss by a name evidently new and unheard of, and not as he commonly is, the Devil, Satan, the Serpent, or Dragon: or if he had given him ogle froin the notion of destroying, wily not rather Asmodeus, from the name 'loo;uvaftoorrc, by which the Jews used to call him, but Abaddon never? Is it not because, when the Atoll amllledans boasted that they worshipped and adored no other God than the one and only God, the Creator of all things, or the Maker of the Universe, who is denominated Abuda by the Clialdeans and Syrians, and is distingished also by the Arabians themselves by the epithet vnR Abdi, that is, Eternal; the Holy Spirit designed to oppose them with a word of a contrary sense, but of similar sound by which, in truth, he intimated, that they were so far from venerating (whatever they might assert) Abuda, or Abdi, the Eternal Maker of the World, that in the estimation of God himself, whom they will have to be of one Person,and riot to be approached through Christ, they lead, in the place of king or deity, not him, but the evil angel Abaddon, that is, not the Maker, but the Destroyer of the world.

Thus, when the followers of Jeroboam thought that they worshipped the God of Israel in their calves, the Scripture says that they sacrificed to demons. 2 Chron. c. xi. v. 15. Or shall we say that there is here an allusion to the common name of the kings of that portion of Arabia whence Mohammed, in the first place, had issued forth with the locusts; who from an ancient king, Oboda, referred by them into the number of their gods, and from whose sepulchre the name of Oboda remained in a Legion of the Nabatheans, they were thence called Obodae, by a name of power, as the kings of Egypt, 1'11,i- raolis and Ptolemies, those of the Romans Coesars, of the Parthians Arsacx, and the neighbouring kings of the Arabs of Petrwa, Aretae ? For Stephen of Byzantium, out of the fourth book of Uranius, a writer on Arabian affairs, says, " Obodas is a country of the Nabatheans, where Obodcs the king, whom they made a god, was buried. Now, from this circumstance, Strabo and Josephus induce me to beheve that the kings of that country were from thenceforward called by the common name Obodas, the latter of whom commemorates two of this name, the' ogle warlike, and too well known to the Jews by the slaughter of their king Alexander Jamnenus; whom, ill fact, Obodas the Arab compelled to fly from Jerusalem, his whole army being slain in the region of Galaad, about ninety years before Christ, whom the Jews, not undeservedly, by a slight alteration, might have called Abaddon, that is, the Destroyer.

The other king was dull and heavy, the contemporary of Herod the Great, whose procurator Syllaeus (who administered his affairs according to his pleasure) demanded Salome, the sister of Herod, in marriage; but being deprived of his wish, and rendered the enemy of Herod, brought him into no small dispute with Augustus by his calumnies. Of this Obodas, Strabo makes mention more than once in the expedition of Xlius Gallus into Arabia, and that with the same mark of dulness, and says he was connected by affinity with the neighbouring king Aretas, (and this, as I said, was the common name of the kings bordering on Petraea) From the same author it is to be collected, that the more southern kingdom of Obodas reached to the Red Sea, which tract of land, I belive, the Ismaelites and Saracens inhabited; for certainly it appears that the Nabatheans, whose country, by: the testimony of Uranius, embraced the region of Obodas, were Ismaelites, having obtained that name from Nabaiotll, the first-born son of Ismael. Josephus adds, that Obodas having departed this life, Aretas, by the favour of Augustus, annexed his kingdom to his own. If any one being much struck with such a coincidence and congruity, shall think that the Holy Spirit apphed this name Abaddon designedly, that by a certain paranomasia of the royal name he might point out that nation whose custom it was to designate their kings, and even their gods, by a similar appellation, I should think him deserving pardon, especially since both words seem to come from the same root, common to the Hebrews and Arabians, although, as is also the case in other instances, with a contrary signification, and since in the ancient prophets, examples of allusions, not altogether dissimilar, sometimes occur. Thus as Isaiah had called Christ 1n Nezr, that is, a branch, St. Matthew transfers to Jesus the name of Nazarene, c. ii. ver. ult. You may see likewise Jerem. c. i. v. 11, 12. Schaked, an almond; Schoked, I watch ; Amos, c. viii. v. 2. Kajits, a basket of summer fruits, because it comes from Ketz, which means the end, &c. And that the Jews of the latter age were not averse to agnomina of such a kind, may be proved from this, that just before our Saviour's Advent, because Acheron, the river of the infernal regions, did not differ in sound from Accaron, a city of Palestine, (for so was Ekron anciently pronounced) from Beelzebub, its god, they made a name of Satan, prince of that place, that is, of the infernal regions. For hence, as I conjecture, Beelzebub is called in the Gospel the Prince of the Demons.

The Second Woe Trumpet, or Trumpet the Sixth.

Another woe productive of plagues (which, lamentable to be reflected on, still broods over us), calls forth the tetrarchs of the Turks with a most numerous body of cavalry, from Euphrates, (where they they had long rested) to invade the Roman world.

"Loose," says the voice from the four horns of the altar of incense, " the four angels who are bound upon the great river Euphrates." The angels are used for the nations over which they were thought to preside, by a metonymy not unusual in this book. It appears to be so from the circumstance that those who are loosed, immediately, according to the direction of the Oracle, are Equestrian armies, sent forth to slay men. It commands the angels who had been bound, to be loosed, as those who, during the continuance of the former plague, when they burst forth on the Roman regions, had been restrained to the Euphrates for so many ages, that they alight not proceed at will. In the beginning, hadeed, they advanced a little farther, even to Nice, in Bithynia; but Solyman being conquered in the expedition from Jerusalem by the Argonautic Christians, they were at length .confined to the Euphrates. Moreover, the four angels signify so many sultanies, or kingdoms, into which the Turks were divided, when, after crossing the Euphrates, they poured themselves on the neighbouring tracts of Asia and Syria.

These, Christopher Richer, from Schex, a Greek author, thus enumerates: 'The Asian, the Aleppian, the Damascene, and the Antiochian. The first of which, the Asian, or that of Asia D1inor, owed its original to Cutlumusus, (called, if I am. not mistaken, by Elmachinus, by another name, that of Sedijduddaula) a neighbour of that Tangrophilix who first took Bagdad. He, on the same authority, when Ccsarca 111 OI1'fa- dociawas taken and destroyed by the Romans, about the year of Christ, 1080, gave birth to the kingdom in the parts of Asia conterminous to the Euphrates; the bounds of which, his successor, Solyman, enlarged to Nice in Bithynia; but being conquered by our forces in that well known expedition from Jerusalem, he was compelled to give up the whole region which he lead acquired, and to retreat to the Euphrates. And the seat of this tetrarchy, though elsewhere in the beginning, was still, as to its principal part, in the same Cappadocia of Iconium.

The second tetrarchy was the Aleppian, front its metropolis Aleppo, which is washed by a branch of the Euphrates, and therefore derived from one of the sultans. Its first king (on the authority of Elinachinus) Sjarfiiddanilas, who was possessed of Aleppo in the year 1079; to whom succeeded Roduwan Salghucides, in 1095.

The third tetrarchy, with its metropolis Damascus, had for its founder, on the same authority, Tagjuddaulas Nisus, the grandson of Togrulbec, or Tangrophilix, wlio subjugated Damascus in the same year 1079. His successor was Ducatlles, or Decacus, the brother of Rochew an, the sultan of Aleppo, in the year 1095. To whom, says Scilix, the whole region of Decapolis was subject. This bordered on the Euphrates. With these Scilix numbers the fourth, the Antiochian, contained within narrow bounds. For, says he, the caliph of Egypt, of the Saracenic race, possessed Laodicea, even to the regions of Syria. But as that kingdom of Antioch was not only a little too remote from the Euphrates, but lasted only fourteen years, Antioch being taken by our people under their leader, Bohemond, it will be better, perhaps, leaving expunged that, to and the Bagdadian, or Persian empire, froni the other bank of the Euphrates, (for Scilix only took account of the Turks who lead Massed the Euphrates) in order to complete the quaternion, that so the whole Turkish empire, both beyond and on this side of that river, should be understood as divided into those four sultanies, which with the series for some time of kings and sultans, may be contemplated by the reader more distinctly in the following

DIAGRAM

Of the Turkish Empire, near the Euphrates, divided into Four Parts, from the year 1080, and thenceforward, taken out of Ehnachinus, an Arab, and Scilix, a Greek Author.

And that was the state of the Turkish affairs when they had first passed the Euphrates; and having given a specimen of their intrution into the Roman dominions, were restrained by the appointed chains to the Euphrates. However, that quaternion of sultanies did not remain entire to the time or relaxation, but underwent several vicissitudes. Notwithstanding, the Holy Spirit estimates the elation from the state of its first irruption, in which, when they had passed the Euphrates, they were bound for an appointed time.

" And the four angels were loosed which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, that they might kill a' third part of men."

This loosing of the Turks happened a little before the year 1300, the caliphate of Bagdad. (with which the first woe wholly expired) being now extinguished by the Tartars in the year 1258, and the remnant of the Turks, who had been possessed of the realms from the other bank of the river, even to Persis, being ejected by the same people, as from a sling, in the year 1289, on the Roman countries on this side the Euphrates. For, things being thus prepared, it happened likewise, at the same time, that the Latins, who had now, for almost two hundred years, imposed curbs and fetters on the first irruption of the Turks, were expelled from Syria and Palestine, about the year 1291. In the mean time the Turks, though as yet divided into various satrapies, began to make incursions into almost the whole of Asia Minor, to divide it among themselves, to be possessed by hereditary right, and at.length, uniting under the empire of Othman alone, to advance astonishingly, and wholly without restraint, to pass over into Europe; nor could they longer be resisted by any force, until they had destroyed the whole Constantinopolitan empire with miserable devastations. But the Oracle (unless I am deceived) points out the time of this Constantinopolitan destruction, namely, that it should be after a day, a month, and a year; that is, 306 years after the Turks, by the gift of the Saracenic empire to them, had began to be prepared by God ; that is, from the time of Bagdad being captured by them.

This was the beginning of the Turkish irruption, by which the Saracenic empire began to be demolished, and the dominion of the Romans to be afflicted ; in such a manner, however, that the force of the mischief was to be restrained to the time prescribed for the relaxation. The interval of time certainly agrees exactly ; for Elmachinus, the Arabian historian whom I have so often quoted, than whom, no one marks the successive periods of time more accurately, relates that Togrulbec Saglucides, the prince of the Turks, (who is called by our writers Tangrolipix, of the Zelzucian family) having taken the rout of Bagdad, was invested by the caliph Cajim Biamrilla with the imperial garment, and was inaugurated into the kingdom in the year of the hegira 449, that is, of. Christ 1057.

"Then," says he, " was the empire confirmed to him."

From this time, then, the stronghold of the Saracenic empire being given to them with the whole Trans-Euphratean dominion, the Turks were prepared, that after a prophetic day, and a month, and a year, they should kill a third part of men ; that is, in the year of Christ 1453, they should utterly destroy the remnant of the Roman empire in the East, by the capture of the royal city of Constantinople. For the interval from 1057 to the year 1453, when Constantinople was taken, is precisely 396 years, of which a day forms one, a month thirty, and a year three hundred and sixty-five. Such is here the accuracy of the calculation, that any one may easily be led to suspect the hour likewise, (which, according to the mode of reckoning the other parts of time, would produce fifteen days, would equally correspond with the event, if the month of the inauguration of Togrulbey was handed down to us as well as the year. In the mean time, till that be established, the hour may here be taken for a seasonable time, and the conjunction may be explained exegetically, as if they were. prepared against a seasonable time, namely, for a day, a month, and a year, that they might kill a third part of men.

How many years should thence run on to the destruction of the Turkish dominion, is no where explained; only it is said that it should be about the end of the times of the beast; that is, that the second woe should then be on the point of concluding, when the third woe should threaten the abolition of the kingdom of the beast, c. xi. v. 14, 15.

But, before I quit this subject, I will, not unwillingly, confess, that if the exact correspondence of the prophecy with the event did not, as it were, force conviction upon me, another interpretation of the following kind would have been by no means unpleasing, that those angels were prepared and appointed for every occasion, whether it were for an Hour, or a day, or a month, or even for a year, for performing the work of which there was need. But whether it is likely that so accurate an answer as to time, as the event here exhibits, could have happened by chance, let others judge. It will be for him to farm an opinion with whom there is a doubt.

The next point is of the quality and number of the forces. "And the number, (says he) of the army of horsemen was two myriads of myriads," i. e. two hundred thousand.; or two hundred million. He names the horsemen, and not any other kind of force, in the whole description of the plague, as if this enemy from the Euphrates was wholly composed of cavalry. Is it because, in the Turkish army, the cavalry so far exceeds the infantry, that the latter, in comparison with the former; is of no consequence' Yes, (and that, I beheve, was principally regarded by the Holy Spirit) because this is the character of the nation Magog, long ago, consecrated by Ezekiel, from which the Turks were descended. For thus, in that most celebrated prophecy of Gog, which was a common name of the kings of Magog *, as Pharaoh of the Egyptians, he describes that nation from its equestrian army, c. xxxviii. v. 4. " And I will bring thee forth and all thy army, horse and horsemen, all clothed with breast-plates:' Again, v. 15. "And thou shaft come from thy place, from the sides of the North, thou, and many people with thee, all riding on horses," &c. moreover, Gog himself is called the chief Prince of Mesech, and Jubal; that is, he, who, coming forth from his bounds, ruled in both the Armenias, on this, and on the farther side of the Euphrates. Here, in the name of the hither Armenia, I comprehend the Cappadocia;ns, anciently denominated nIes- cltini, or 11Zoschi, where both the chief town Nazacha, afterwards called Cesarea, and the Moschic mountains in the same tract, are no obscure marks of the inhabitants being sprung from Mesech.

* Mog, among the Turks, is at this day called Gioc or Kioi whence Kioccan ; Gogelp, which is Gugelp.

The farther, or greater Armenia, is what is called at this day 1'urcomania, from the inhabitation of the Turks; in which was formerly the city Thelbalana, the Tibaunian and Balbitenian people, the river Teleboas, and other vestiges of the name of Tubal. The war, however, which Ezekiel relates, is not to be understood of that undertaken in this irruption of the Turks, which John describes, (this he seems only to allude to) but of another, the last after the return of the Jews; and, if it be lawful to conjecture, which the power which now occupies the country shall have first in some degree receded from it.

But on the type of cavalry, there is something else I would add with the leave of the reader, provided no one will think me too much given to the play of names and etymologies. Even solid and well-cooked food is apt to be more palatable with sauce. Let not the reader, then, be disgusted, if I subjoin something of this kind. The Turks, in truth, before they were set loose, had become, by long inhabitation, Persians, and were every where called by that name in the Byzantine historians. Nicetas, certainly, who embraces in his history the greatest part of the tithe when they were restrained to the Isuhhrates, almost always calls them Persians, very rarely, Turks. But the Persians, you will observe, are horsemen, even from the very sound, since 1'aras, by which name Persia is called in the sacred books, (and Parthia is the same, only with another pronunciation) signifies in the three Oriental languages, the Hebrew, the Chaldee, and the Arabian, a horse or horseman. For this reason, then, the Turco Persians are called the Luhltratean horsemen, that is, the inhabitants on the Euphrates, are called by the national name of horsemen. Nor does there appear to be wanting (if any one should object to theauthenticity of this) an example in Daniel, c, viii., where the Macedonians, who at that tithe were called Lgeades, (that is, goats) are designated under the type of goats, and their king under the figure of a he-goat. " Behold," says he, " a male of the goats, came from the west," &c. He means Alexander the Great, the king of the Egeades.

They are the Macedonians. For so that nation was called, when the first seat of the kingdom was established, froth Caranus the founder, two hundred years, more or less, before the time of Daniel. Justin the epitomizer, of Thogus, relates the cause of the name, whose words I shall not think it troublesome to subjoin. "Caranus," says he, " with a great multitude of the Greeks, being commanded by the answer of the oracle to seek for habitations in Macedonia, when he came into AEmathia, occupied the city Edessa, having followed a herd of goats, flying from the rain, the inhabitants not being aware of it, in consequence of the heavy cloud and rain, and recalling the oracle to mind, by which he had been ordered to seek for empire under the guidance of goats, he made it the seat of his kingdom, and afterwards made it a religious observance, wherever his troops moved, to have the same goats before his standards, esteeming them who had been the authors and founders of his kingdom, as the leaders of his undertakings. He called the city Edessa, in memory of the benefit received, Xgeas, and the people Xgeades." Vide cetera.

There is such an agreement here, that one might be tempted to suspect the type of a ram in the same vision, apphed to the king of the Persians, alludes to the signification of the name Elam, one of the two by which that nation is called. For 5w in the Hebrew, (whence the name 5v Aries, ram) and b~4 and d5y in the Chaldee, signify the same; namely, strong or robust. Perhaps, therefore, n$sy Elam had the same sound as 5v ram to these, and thence the king of Elam is described under this type by Daniel. However it be, when the thing itself is otherwise confirmed, this agreement of names with the type cannot help being matter, of pious delight to those who are studious of these matters, whether it be beheved to have happened from accident or otherwise. And this by the way.

Now I return again to the Euphratean horse, "whose number," says he, "was two myriads of myriads." others read myriads of myriads, expunging the two, as c. v. v. 11. It signifies an immense multitude, as Psalm hviii. " The chariots of God are two myriads; "twenty thousand. For a myriad wan or ~ss~? is one of those words of number, which in Hebrew are words to be indefinitely taken, as among the Latins six hundred, and does not denote the number ten thousand, but some great number, especially when thus doubled, as may be seen in Daniel, c. vii. v. 10. But how great and how immense the forces of the Turks were in their expeditions, and usually are at this day, must be unknown to no one.

" And I heard," he adds, "their number." Since it might be asked whence John was acquainted with the number, as what was not possible to be represented to him in a vision, he says, " I heard." The like is to be understood likewise in other visions, as often as any thing is related which could not be exhibited to sight; namely, that the apostle was informed by a voice. The next subject is the armour. "And thus I saw the horses in appearance, and those who sat on them, having breast-plates of fire, and hyacinth, and sulphur, and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceeded fire, and smoke, and sulphur. By these three were killed the third part of men."

No where in any part of the prophets, or elsewhere in the sacred writings, occurs an image of this kind, " of fire and hyacinthine smoke and sulphur." Where I understand it literally of that new (and previous to this trumpet) unheard of arms, which those Eupliratean enemies made use of, immediately after they had been set loose. I understand it of cannon, vomiting fire, smoke, and sulphur. For gunpowder is ignivomous, with byacinthine smoke, and sulphureous matter, which those who use in war, obtrude themselves on the senses of their enemies, as covered with breast plates of fire, hyacinth, and sulphur, from a medium involved in fire, smoke, and the smell of sulphur; on which account the horses' heads are seen to be of a fierce and terrible appearance, like those of lions. Hence John says, that he saw the horses and horsemen, not really, but in appearance, such as he describes. In appearance, I say, ev op6tcret, not in reality, having breast-plates of fire, hyacinth, and sulphur; in appearance, having heads like lions; lastly, in appearance, not in reality, out of the mouths of the horses proceed fire, and smoke, and sulphur; since it is wont to appear so to those who behold it on the opposite side. 'this is the force of the expression ev oPaaet, in semblance, which is used twice in this sense in the fourth chapter, v. 3, "He was in appearance like 'a jasper stone and "a rainbow in appearance, like an emerald."

No where else, except once only, does that word appear in the New Testament. By this triple plague of fire-arms, namely,"of fire, smoke, and sulphur," he adds, " were the third part of men killed;" that is, those who were of that trient, or third part, which we called the Roman world. For it is not necessary here, or elsewhere, where a third is mentioned, to understand the whole of that third, but to take it partitively. Examples of which kind of ellipse of the partitive words occur elsewhere in the Scriptures, as well as in this book; as Jud. c. xii. v. 7, " Jeplithah was buried in the cities of Ghead;" that is, in one of ~ the cities. And Apo. c. xviii. v. 16, " The ten horns hate the Harlot ;" that is, some of them. So, ro' rpirov, " the third part of men were killed," imphes those of that third part.

Who does not know that this was abundantly fulfilled in the destruction of Constantinople ? Was not that most illustrious city, the chief of the third part of men, besieged with those fire breathing machines, and given up to slaughter? Listen to Chalcocondylas! "Mechmet," says he, "in the expedition against Byzantium, ordered the largest cannon to be made, of a size which at that time we had never known to lave existed. He dispersed them every where through the camp, that they might throw their balls against the Greeks. One of which was of such magnitude, that it was drawn by seventy yoke of oxen. and two thousand men. To this, two others of the largest size were attached, on either side, each of which sent forth a stone, whose weight was equal to half a talent. After these, carne that wonderful mortar which threw a ball whose weight amounted to three talents, and threw down great part of the wall. Whose thundering explosion is reported to have been so great that the neighbouring region was shaken to the distance of forty stadia; that is, five miles. This piece of artillery sometimes sent forth seven balls; one by night, which was a signal for the coming day, and indicated to what point in that day the balls would be directed." He who desires to know more, and how, even in the maritime siege, cannon' were made use of, and how the walls, after being for forty days stoutly battered by cannon, fell at length; and how Longus, duke of Genoa, with his people, assailed by cannon balls, deserted the place, and opened a way into the city for the Turks, let him resort to Clialcocondylas himself. From the same author, moreover, he will learn that the Peloponnesian Isthmus, having been attacked by Amurath, the father of A'lechmet, with the same arms, and the inhabitants compelled to obey his commands, were entirely subjugated by Mechmet himself, Corinth having been attacked likewise with a force of fire-arms, immediately after the capture of Constantinople.

To this account of their arms, is added something about the nature of the horses and their riders. That " their power wits not in their mouths" only, (of which we have hitherto treated) but " in their tails ; for they have tails like serpents, having heads with which they hurt." That is, the same as was said above, concerning the Saracens, holds true likewise of the Turks; that they effected mischief, not only by hosthe force, but likewise by the train of the Mohammedan imposture, wherever they proceeded. These, therefore, not less than the Saracenic locusts, (whose religion they adopted) are serpents in their tail. '.that one kind of serpentine tail may be attributed to the latter; and another to the former, arises from the natural shape of each, and the difference between locusts and horses, by which the pointed tail of scorpions is most suitable to the former, and tails with serpents' heads best adapted to the latter. But "the rest of the men who were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk," &c.

Now who these are, it will not be difficult to collect; since in the whole Roman world, or on this side the Euphrates, there are none which worship images, with shame and sorrow be it spoken! besides Christians. Does it not necessarily follow, then, that it is they who worship demons also ? since the worship of both is ascribed to the same persons in this place. But what in fine you will say, are demons? Not, in truth, what they themselves hold to be impure spirits, and often call them so, (for what Christian would knowingly and willingly worship them ?) but what were understood under this name by the theologists of the Gentiles deities, consecrated under the names either of angels or dead men. " Every demon, says Plato, " is a being between God and mortals." Again, God holds not communication with man, but through a demon in every conference:" In Symposis, intercourse carried on between the gods and men. The other Platonic philosophers, and most of the various sects, except the Epicureans, held the same. " I will quote the words of Apulcius only, in which the opinion of Plato, and the rest, is fully and perspicuously contained : Demons," says he, "are middle powers, through whom loth our desires and merits pass to the gods. They are carriers between mortals and the heavenly inhabitants, fronm hence of prayers, from thence of gifts; who bear to and fro from Hence petitions, and froth thence supphes; or, indeed, they are interpreters and ushers on either side. For it would not," says he, " be. suitable to the majesty of the celestial gods, to attend to these things."

They had, in truth, two sorts of gods; the celestial, who, perpetually residing in heaven, and the stars, did not Bumble themselves to these earthly things, and were not to be defhed with their contagion. (These were properly and especially called gods) The others were demons; who, as mediating powers, and ministers of the celestial or highest gods, had the management of human aflh,irs. The former, (if I rightly conceive) the Holy Scripture calls the host of heaven; the latter, (especially those who were made of dead men) it calls Baalim; from Baal, a king of the Babylonians or Assyrians ; or in the Chaldaic pronunciation, Bel, who was the first who was consecrated a demon after death by his people ; from whence it came to pass afterwards, that powers of this kind were called Baalim or Baals, as Baal Peor, Baalberitlt, Baalzebub,Baal Moloch, Jer. c.xix., as from the first emperor Julius Caesar, the rest of the Roman emperors were called Cwsars. Now how this theology of demons agrees with the worship of saints and angels among false Christians, the hict itsclr declares ; only with this difference, that they had many supreme or celestial gods : we have only one, the Father of all. But we ought like wise to have only one Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ, if false prophets had not introduced more in the nature of demons. Plainly, according to what St. Paul prophesied, 1 Tim. c. iv. vv. 1, 2, 3, " that it should come to pass, in the latter times through the hypocrisy of liars," inventing lying miracles, and through the feigned sanctity of monks abstaining by a vow from marriage and meats, that" the doctrine of demons," that is, the theology of heathen deities, should be brought back again into the world. The interpretation will agree with the words, if we take the genitive demons passively, that is, a doctrine concerning demons, as Heb. c. vi. v. 22, AuaXn (3afiTmf"ov, V Wa i6rcBfQ~ws ,tFrfwv, ,Rzc. The doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, &c. For, in truth, the expression, " through the hypocrisy of liars," and the words that follow, in order that the construction of the syntax may be preserved, is to be explained by the government of the two substantives, the preposition Fr through, denoting the instrument and cause (which is familiar in the Hebrew) But I have treated more diffusively of this passage in a particular tract, and I have no intention to repeat it here.

THE PROCLAMATION

Of the Third Woe Trumpet, or Trumpet the Seventh.

The vision of the sixth trumpet being finished, (for there is only one vision under one trumpet, as under the seals and phials) the next place in order was due to the sounding of the seventh. This, however, is deferred, and the Holy Spirit, in the prophecy of the little book, to which he is now about to bass, in order that nothing might be wanting to the completion of the prophecy of the seals, now just finishing, supphes the place of that trumpet's sound which is deferred, by an oath, under which the effect of that trumpet is generally indicated. That it should surely come to pass, when flat angel shall have sounded, that the Roman beast, in the latest times of the last head, having been accused, " the mystery of God should be finished, as he bath declared to his servants the prophets." For so it was predicted long ago to Daniel, that the fourth beast being slain, the King of the Saints should come to rule over the whole world, (c. vii) and at the same time, the glorious promise of the restitution of Israel should be completed, (c. xii) For that this is the kingdom which he calls the fulfilment of the mystery of God, the acclamation subjoined to the sound of that trumpet will not suffer us to doubt. " The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever." So that it is wonderful that any persons should be found who understand it in a different sense. The time, of which the angel here swears, that nothing should extend beyond it, can be no other than either the time of the fourth monarchy universally, (or to come more closely to the point, though it is the same thing) of the last kingdom, that is, the Roman; the last period of time, and half a time: Since the same which is said by John to come to pass "when time shall be no more," is pointed out by Daniel to come to pass when the period of the last tunes shall be finished.

And this consummation of the mystery of God, is the subject matter of the seventh trumpet; to which seven thunders are added as accompaniments, for they are not the very subject which the trumpet exhibits as contemporary, with it.

While the angel is making his proclamation about the mystery of the trumpet, seven thunders utter their voices. "He cried," says he, " with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth, and when he cried, seven thunders uttered their voices." That is, when he had begun his proclamation, seven thunders began to speak. And they cannot but contemporize with the seventh trumpet, since what follows the sixth trumpet necessarily falls within the seventh*. But what is the voice of thunder? Is it not Bath Kol ? If so, the seven thunders will be as many oracles by which the period of the seventh trumpet will be distinguished as by certain dates, but on a subject wholly unknown, and not to be understood until its own times. And this the prohibition given from heaven to St. John, when he was about to write down the words of the seven thunders, tunes, and seems to intimate: Seal up those things which the seven thunders have spoken, and write them not." In vain, therefore, will it be for us to my quire, what God wished to have concealed and reserved to its own times. And in this manner sufficient use is made of the seventh trumpet in its place and order, though the explanation of its sound, by which the whole mystery would be fully disclosed, is referred to another time; on the design of which reference, and the whole art of the contrivance, it will not be superfluous or unprofitable to dwell afresh and a little more diffusively, though notice was taken of it in the Apocalyptical Key, since the reason of it escapes most of the interpreters. The diligent contemplation of the system of the Apocalyptical visions, constructed on the characters of the synchronisms, first enlightened me on this subject, and will also, O Reader, if I am not deceived, enlighten you.

* May there not be an interval? R. B. C.

The fact then is, (for I would unfold it with as much perspicuity and brevity of expression as possible) both prophecies, as well that of the seals, as of the Biblandion, are concluded by the same issue of events, by that in truth, which the seventh trumpet exhibits. To indicate which, the Holy Spirit leaving slightly, but as much as was necessary, there presignified the mystery of the seventh trumpet in its. own place, in the series of trumpets, deferred the fuller explanation of its sound, until he lead made a transition to the new prophecy of the little book, (ch. x. from v. 8 to the end) and carried forward the first vision of it, having completed in like' manner its Apocalyptical course to the saine issue of things, (C. Xi. V. 14) and then that mystery of the seventh trumpet, the common catastrophe of both prophecies, and the former (that of the seals) only promulgated in a general manner, is here at length, on the uttering of the sound, fully unfolded; and that, indeed, in a most cominodious manner, since otherwise, and without 'the previous knowledge of both prophecies, what depended upon each could not have been understood. And Hence it is, that the business of this transition was not brought about by any angel of the trumpets, but by that great and illustrious angel who held in his hand the Biblandion, the symbol of the second prophecy, which was soon to be devoured by St. John.

It belonged to him who revealed the second prophecy, that the manifestation of the trumpets sound, which contained the catastrophe of both prophecies, should be so far defined. Nay, if that angel, as play seen. capable of being collected from his more august clothing and whole apparatus, was Christ the Lord*; to no one snore properly belonged this right of suspending the last sound for the sake of another prophecy, than to him who was the author of both hitherto, indeed, he had appeared in the form of a lamb, but now he seems to have taken to him the person of an angel **, since he was about to reveal to John the same mystery of consummation, which he had formerly revealed to Daniel under the same appearance of an angel ***, and with the same formality and words of an oath. You may compare Dan. c. xii, v. G, 7, with ver. 5 of the xth chapter.

*I doubt it, for reasons to be afterwards assigned. R.B.C

**Query

*** Query ?

Aenean ornare velit lacus, ac varius enim lorem ullamcorper dolore aliquam.

Aenean ornare velit lacus, ac varius enim lorem ullamcorper dolore aliquam.

Aenean ornare velit lacus, ac varius enim lorem ullamcorper dolore aliquam.

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