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depths of hell*. The assailants of the sixth come from Euphrates; where had stood Babylon, the grand source of corruption to the ancient Church, and which was the instrument applied by the Almighty to punish, and to restore her. This passage compared with the two concluding verses of this sixth Trumpet, will shew, that, under this invasion, idolatry, as well as other kinds of wickedness, is to be punished; which does not seem to be the case under the fifth Trumpet, where there is no allusion to this sin.

4. The swarm of locusts is commissioned to torment, not to kill; and the unsealed only are the objects of their rage. The armies of cavalry kill onethird part of the Christian world; and there seems no return to life, as in Zech. xiii. 8. they are totally cut off from God's people †.

5. The swarm of the fifth Trumpet is appointed for a certain period of continuance; after which, its ravages may be supposed to end. The armies of the sixth for a certain determined time of commencement, against which they were kept ready: ητοιμασμενοι εις την pay. This sense of the construction will appear manifest by consulting similar passages in the Greek, viz. Job xii. 5. Psalm xxi. 31. Prov. xxiv. 27. Ezek. iv. 7. 2 Tim. ii. 11. Yet, by the addition of the words, day, month, year," more may be implied than the commencement, to express which, the word hour alone would have been sufficient. But even if a continuance be implied, it is not a determinate one, like that of the fifth Trumpet; the duration may be long, but the time is not ascertained,

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6. The locusts of the fifth Trumpet are like horses for war. The assailants of the sixth are horses, One

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* Compare ch. xx. 2. 1

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See notes, ch. iii. 1. vi. 8.

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set of invaders wounds with the tail; the other with the mouth and tail. The locusts have the teeth, the horses the heads, of lions. The crowns of gold, the appearance of men, the delicacy as of women, are wanting to the invaders of the sixth Trumpet, who seem to prosper by terror more than by persuasion. But both come on with the din of war; both have terrific breast-plates; one army comes on in smoke, from the bottomless pit; the other destroys by smoke, and by fire and sulphur, which are described in Scripture as produced from the same source. The armour of these assailants agrees with their weapons; being:

Their armour Sugives of vanilies of deinders of brimTheir weapons x augos fire, ex xaww smoke, (ix de stonet.

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7. The attack of the fifth Trumpet is not ordained, as that of the sixth is, to be a plague, or punishment, upon the idolatrous, and such an one as should produce no amendment.

From this comparison it will appear, that the points

See Is. xxx. 33. Rev. xiv. 10. xix. 20. xx. 10. xxi. 8.

This comparison will shew the sense in which axis is used, namely, to express that black and blue smoky colour which would arise from the burning brimstone on the iron armour: for, the hyacinth, vos of the ancients, appears to have been a dark colour with a cærulean tinge, such as we see on violets,

Καὶ το ιον μελαν ενι, και & γραπία ακινθος.

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By fire, in the figurative language of Scripture, violence, war, and devastation, are denoted, (see note, ch. vi. 4.); by smoke, dark confused doctrines, clouding the light of pure revelation, (see note, ch. ix. 1-12. p. 196.); and brimstone, in union with these, implies their infernal origin. See ch. xix. 20. xx. 3, 10. xxi. 8.

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in which the visions under these two Trumpets agree, and resemble each other, are these: Both represent invasions on the Christian Church; by an innumerable host of assailants; in formidable power; and proceeding from the sources of infernal iniquity; under the leading and direction of evil angels; and gaining an ascendency over the men, by applying to their sensual and brutish passions.

First, as to the body,
In the fifth Trumpet,

They differ in these points. which is the object of attack. we have only a general description of its iniquity; but that under the sixth Trumpet, beside this general description, has a particular character,-it is idolatrous. Secondly, the assailing power: in the one, it attacks like an army; in the other, it is an army. The one is appointed for a certain season of continuance; the other for an appointed period of commencement, or, if of continuance, for an undetermined time. The one is seductive, as well as formidable; the other overbears by terror and force. The one torments the nominal Christian, but hurts not the sincere and sealed; the other destroys and annihilates one-third of the body attacked. The one injures by the tail; the other by the mouth and tail. Lastly, the invaders under the sixth Trumpet, and under that only, are described as instruments of correction and punishment upon the wicked and idolatrous; by which, however, they who survive the calamity are not reclaimed.

In our attempts, therefore, to assort this prophecy, we must endeavour to fix our eyes upon some great calamity (for it is a woe) which has happened to the Christian Church; first, by a multitude of invaders, who are known to have attacked it, not

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only by false doctrines and seductions, as under the fifth Trumpet, but also by arms : secondly, at a time when the Church had relapsed into idolatry, and was generally corrupt; and when the altars of Religion were so ill served, that from the altar in heaven vengeance was demanded upon them: thirdly, when so large a part of the body as one-third was separated from the Church; and in such a manner as to lose their spiritual life in Christ, calling no longer upon his name: fourthly, when the residue of the Church, which witnessed, and seemed itself exposed to, this dreadful visitation, continued unrepentant, corrupt, and idolatrous, as before.

Before we proceed to apply all these circumstances, in their order, to events in history, it will be useful to ascertain that which belongs more especially to the second of these heads; the time when this calamity took place. It was in a corrupt period of the Church, when the altar of Religion called for vengeance; when idolatry in particular was a reigning vice, (verses 20, 21). Now it is impossible to fix this stain upon the Church in the early periods of it; in the fourth century indeed, and perhaps in some small degree in the third, we may acknowledge the seeds and beginnings of a corrupt and idolatrous worship*. Yet the progress of this evil was slow and gradual; and it was a long time before it could justly be said to have amounted to that general prevalence described in the 20th and 21st verses. This character is not fairly and generally applicable to the Christian Church, before the sixth century. But toward the end of the

Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. viii. c. 1. Mosheim, cent. iv. ch. 3. Cyprian. de Laps. p. 170. Sir Isaac Newton on Prophecy, 124, 202. 287.

sixth and the beginning of the seventh century, the measure of this iniquity became full. And at that time, history records a dreadful invasion of the Christian world by numerous armies, assailing it at the same time by corrupt doctrines and by the terror of their arms; with such success as to cut off from the hope and comfort of Christianity, and from the communion of the Church, so large a body of Christians, as may fairly be accounted one third part of the whole; yet leaving those parts of the Christian Church which remained, idolatrous and unrepentant.

Under this description, I shall easily be understood to intend the invasion of the Mahometan Saracens, whose numerous armies, famous for their cavalry, beginning their destructive progress early in the seventh century, soon overran, and subdued not only to their arms, but to their corrupt doctrines, a great part of the Christian world; thus fulfilling that which is predicted in verses 16, 17, 18, 19, and comprized under the first head proposed. 2. The time, in which they burst forth upon the world, is that already ascertained, and accords with verses 20, 21, of the prophecy ; from which verses it is plainly inferred to be a very corrupt, and, in particular, an idolatrous time. All historians are agreed in describing the dreadful corruption, and idolatry of the Church at the time of the Saracene invasion, and especially of that Eastern part of it, which chiefly sank under the calamity. And to this corruption of the Church, and to the unchristian divisions and animosities accompanying it, they unanimously ascribe the success of Mahomet and of his followers, accounting this calamity to be a punishment, which the Church had justly de

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