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nocent of the blood that will be spilt; may it fall on your own head. This manifesto was followed by instant action. Gregory cast his pastoral letters like fire-brands through Italy, and the whole Peninsula was in a blaze. The Imperial fleets and troops, were baffled in a series of conflicts by the undisciplined valour of fanaticism. A final battle was fought on the Po, with such slaughter of the Greeks, that for six years, the people refused to eat the fish of the river. Rome became once more independent of the Eastern Empire; and the imperial vassalage of seven hundred and fifty years, was closed; and as the proudest symbol of victory, image-worship was established the religion of the western world.

CHAPTER XIII.

Rev. ix, 1. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit; 2. and he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; & the sun & the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 3And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth; & unto them was given power,as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

The seventh seal contains in it, a general revelation of the Divine government of the church and of the world to the end of time. It is then revealed in detail under many separate parts for the better understanding of the whole. All the vicis situdes and changes in the government of the ancient nations were but new shapes given to the former oppressors and tyrants of the world, still retaining the same spirit of the anci ent Babylon, with increasing malignity. In the former chapter we have the destruction of the western part of the Roman Empire, the rise of the ten horns, the little horn, or blasphe

mous king, or the great star fallen from heaven, whose name is wormwood, which polluted the rivers and fountains of waters. In this chapter we have a full veiw of another star fallen from heaven unto the earth. This is Mahomet. To this star was given the key of the bottomless pit, which he opened, and there arose a great smoke out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun (of science and religion) was darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, the Saracen armies.— The great furnace shows that his conquests and impositions were to be very extensive. But he had no power to hurt the sealed servants of the living and true God. The command was positive and omnipotent, to hurt none but such as had not that seal. But I shall leave it to the excellent writers, who have traced the history of the Saracen wars in fulfilment of this prophecy. A good, sober and rational deliniation is given by Bishop Newton. I wish to hasten on to that conclusion which I think is still more interesting to the present and coming generations. In the year 612, Mahomet first "openened the bottomless pit," and began publicly to teach and propagate his imposture. This is the pestiferous smoke that produced the locusts. In the year 762, when the Caliph Almansor built the city of Bagdad, to fix the seat of his empire, and called it the eity of peace, Syria Persia, India and the greatest part of Africa, Spain, and some parts of Europe, were all subdued by them. In the intermediate time, they beseiged Constantinople seven years, but never took it; that being reserved for the seeond woe, and to be accomplished by the Turks, which they did in the year 1357.

5. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. That is, they would not wholly exterminate the people; but would take the place of their former tyrants and oppressors and would make them feel it so intolerably keen and sharp,

that it might well be compared to the sting of a serpent or scorpion when he striketh a man; and their sufferings would be such that men would choose death rather than life. Let the reader look at the picture given in a former chapter of this work, of the squalid poverty, starvation and death at this moment in England, by the same kind of oppressors; in a land of gospel light and boasted civilization, a land of plenty and in the nineteenth century.

6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall desire to die and death shall flee from them. 7 And the shape of the locusts was like unto horses prepared unto battle; & on their heads were, as it were, crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. 8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. 9 And they had breast-plates, as it were breast-plates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. 10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months. 11. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. 12. One woe is past; and behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

Here is shown, by the spirit of prophecy, the rise of the notorious impostor, Mahomet, the locusts out of the smoke of the bottomless pit, the Saracen armies, their military dress and armour, and their fire arms and gun-powder, their king, the time of their conquests, their termination, the end of the first woe; with a solemn proclamation of two woes more to follow. Here is another Anti-christ, appears with the fell design of exterminating the christian religion out of the world; and while. Popery sells his divine master for thirty pieces of silver,and betrays him with a kiss, this one comes boldly in the darkness and night, of the smoke from the bottomless pit, with lanterns and torches and weapons and seizes him in the garden. Thi

two-fold Anti-christ sets both his feet on the church of christ at the same time, the one in the East, & the other in the West. Where is there any of the ancient churches that has not been crushed under the tremendous weight, of this double imposture of Mahomatanism and Popery? 13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the gol den altar which is before God. Now here is the commencement of the second Woc. 14, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. The scene was still in the temple, and like all the former trumpets was a further symbol of war. The smoke from the bottomless pit, still pervaded the earth; the Saracen locusts had produced four distinct governments orSultanies, two on each side of the river Euphrates. 1. One at Bagdad, founded by Togrul Beg, in the year 1055. 2. One at Damascus, founded by Tagjuddaulus, in the year 1079. 3.→→ One at Alleppo, founded by Melech the same year, 1079. 4And one at Iconium in Asia, minor founded by Cutlu Muse, in the year 1080. These four Sultans were bound, and restrained from extending their conquests farther than the territories and countries adjoining to the river Euphrates, primarilly by the good providence of God, and secondarily by the popish crusaders, in the latter part of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, into the holy land. Nay, the European crusaders took many of their cities and countries,& confined them in narrower bounds. For although these two grand enemies of God and man, have both the same aims, and wishes, like the other horns of the beast, push at and gore each other most fearfully. But when the Papists totally abandoned their crusades, and conquests in Syria & Palestine, in the latter part of the 13th century the "four angels on the river Euphrates were loosed." Soliman Shah, the first chief and founder of the Othmans, retreating with his three sons from Jinghiz Chan and his Tartars, in attempting to pass the Euphrates, got drowned. Discouraged at this sad accident, two of his sons returned to their former hab

itations: but Ortogrul the third, with his three sons, Condoz, Larubani, and Othman, remained for some time in those parts, and having obtained leave from Aladin the Sultan of Iconium, he came with four hundred of his Turks, and settled in the mountains of Arminia. From thence they began their excursions; and the other Turks associating with them, and following their standard, they gained several victories over the Tartars on one side, and over the christians on the other. Ortogrul dying in the year 1288, Othman his son succeeded him in power and authority; and in the year 1299, he was proclaimed Sultan, and founded a new.empire; and the people afterwards, as well as the empire, were called by his name. These like their fore-runners, the Saracens, all rose out of the same smoke from the bottomless pit. Thus, under their leader. Othman, all the Turks of Iconium, Bagdad, Aleppo, and Damascus, were prepared "for an hour and a day, and a month and a year, for to slay the third part of men." The western part of the empire was broken to pieces under the four first trumpets, and the first woe. The Greek or eastern part of the empire was hurt and cruelly tormented, under the fifth trumpet; and now under the sixth trumpet and second woe, is to be slain and utterly destroyed. Accordingly Asia minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Thrace, Macedon, Greece, and all the countries which formerly belonged to the Greek or eastern empire, the Oth mans have conquered and subjugated to this day. They first passed over into Europe, in the reign of Orchan their second Emperor; and in the year 1357, they took Constantinople in the reign of Mahomet, their seventh Emperor; and in the year 1453, and in time, all the remaining parts of the Greek empire, shared the fate of the capital city. The last of their conquests were Candia, or the ancient Crete, in 1669; and Cameniec in 1672, from the Poles. Their instruments of war and destruction, and their numerous armies, are described, as well as their military equipage.

Verses, 16, 17, 18, 19. And the number of the army of the

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