that is from April to September. Scorpions too, as (3) Bochart afferts, are noxious for no longer a term, the cold rendering them torpid and inactive. But of thefe locufts it is faid, not that their duration or exiftence was only for five months, but their power of hurting and tormenting men continued five months. Now thefe months may either be months commonly fo taken; or prophetic months, confifting each of 30 days, as St. John reckons them, and fo making 150 years at the rate of each day for a year; or the number being repeated twice, the fums may be thought to be doubled, and five months and five months in prophetic computation will amount to 300 years. If these months be taken for common months, then, as the natural locufts live and do hurt only in the five fummermonths, fo the Saracens, in the five fummermonths too, made their excurfions, and retreated again in the winter. their usual practise, and

It

appears that this was particularly when (4)

they

they firft befieged Conftantinople in the time of Conftantine Pogonatus. For " from the month "of

of April till September, they pertinaciously " continued their fiege, and then despairing of fuccefs, departed to Cyzicum, where they wintered, and in fpring again renewed the "war: and this courfe they held for seven years,

as the Greek annals tell us." If thefe months be taken for prophetic months or 150 years, it was within that space of time that the Saracens made their principal conquests. Their empire might fubfift much longer, but their power of hurting and tormenting men was exerted chiefly within that period. Read the hiftory of the Saracens, and you will find that their greatest exploits were performed, their greatest conquefts were made, between the (5) year 612 when Mohammed first opened the bottomless pit, and began publickly to teach and propagate his imposture, and the year 762 when the caliph Almanfor built Bagdad, to fix there the feat of

cum occupaverunt, atque ibi hyemarunt et vere rurfum Chriftianis bellum fecerunt. Hoc modo feptem annos fe geffere. Cedreni Hift. Compend. p. 437. Edit. Paris. p. 345. Edit. Venet. Vide etiam Theophanis Chronograph. p. 294. Édit. Paris. p. 234. Edit. Venet.

his

(5) Prideaux Life of Mahomet. p. 14. 8th. Edit. Elmacini Hift. Saracen. Lib. 1. Cap. 1. p. 3. & Lib. 2. Cap. 3. p. 102. Abul-Pharajii Hift. Dyn. 9. p. 141. Verf. Pocockii. Blair's Chronol. Tab. N° 36. Part 2d.

(6) Elmacini

his empire, and called it the city of peace. Syria, Perfia, India, and the greatest part of Afia; Egypt, and the greatest part of Africa ; Spain, and some parts of Europe, were all subdued in the intermediate time. But when the caliphs, who before had removed from place to place, fixed their habitation at Bagdad, then the Saracens ceafed from their excurfions and ravages like locufts, and became a fettled nation; then they made no more such rapid and amazing conquests as before, but only engaged in common and ordinary wars like other nations; then their power and glory began to decline, and their empire by little and little to moulder away; then they had no longer, like the prophetic locufts, one king over them, Spain (6) having revolted in the year 756, and fet up another caliph in oppofition to the reigning houfe) of Abbas. If these months be taken doubly, or for 300 years, then according to (7) Sir Ifaac Newton, the whole time that the caliphs of the Saracens reigned with a temporal "dominion, at Damafcus and Bagdad together, was 300 years, viz. from the year 637 to the year 936 inclufive;" when (8) their empire

66

(6) Elmacini Hift. Saracen. Lib. 2. Cap. 3. p. 101. Blair ibid. (7) Sir Ifaac Newton on the

was

Apoc. Chap. 3. p.305. See likewife p. 91. of Mr.Jackfon's Address to the Deifts: wherein are

fome

was broken and divided into feveral principalities or kingdoms. So that let these five months be taken in any poffible conftruction, the event will still answer, and the prophecy will still be fulfilled; tho' the fecond method of interpretation and application appears much more probable than either the first or the third.

A

In the conclufion it is added, (ver. 12.) One woe is past, and behold there come two woes more bereafter. This is added not only to distinguish the woes, and to mark more ftrongly each period, but also to suggest that fome time will intervene between this firft woe of the Arabian locufts, and the next of the Euphratéan horsemen. The fimilitude between the locufts and Arabians is indeed fo great that it cannot fail of ftriking every curious obferver: and a farther refemblance is (9) noted by Mr. Daubuz, that "there hath happened in the extent of this "torment a coincidence of the event with the "nature of the locufts. The Saracens have made "inroads into all thofe parts of Christendom "where the natural locufts are wont to be feen "and known to do mifchief, and no where else: "And that too in the fame proportion. Where "the

fome pertinent obfervations concerning the completion of this and the fucceeding Woe.

(8) Elmacin. Lib. 3. Cap. 1. p. 203. Blair's Tab. No 39. (9) Daubuz. p. 409., (1) Elmacini

"the locufts are feldom feen, there the Sara"cens ftayed little: where the natural locufts

66

are often feen, there the Sacracens abode moft; " and where they breed most, there the Saracens "had their beginning, and greatest power. "This may be eafily verified by history."

13 And the fixth angel founded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God,

14 Saying to the fixth angel which had the trumpet, Loofe the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

15 And the four angels were loofed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to flay the third part of men.

16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thoufand: and I heard the number of them.

17 And thus I faw the horses in the vision, and them that fat on them, having breaft-plates of fire, and of jacinct, and brimftone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths iffued fire, and smoke, and brimftone.