It is remarkable, too, that while those parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe, where this novel species of idolatry prevailed, were exposed to the ravages of the Saracenic tribes, the lower parts of France, Savoy, and Piedmont, which were afterwards the refuge of the true Church, when she dwelt with the Valdenses and Albigenses in the wilderness, were preserved from their ravages, and when they attempted to penetrate into these regions they were defeated with great slaughter by the celebrated Charles Martel. It is added in the text, "that they were not to kill them, but that they should be tormented five months."

This is to be understood of the idolatrous nations which they were raised up to torment and scourge. It cannot be intended that they should not kill multitudes of people in the countries which they overran, for this, by their warlike apparatus, they were prepared to do; but that they should not put an end to the political existence of those whom they were commissioned to annoy.

Though, therefore, they plagued those Christians which had departed from the true faith, and corrupted themselves with idols and false worship, they were not allowed to take either Rome or Constantinople, or to extinguish their political or spiritual power.

Their scorpion stings, however, and the pain which they inflicted by the venom of their

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wounds, were such, that in the words of the text-" In those days shall men seek death and shall not find it; and shall desire to die and death shall flee from them;" that is, they should bring such calamities on the nations that men should be weary of their lives.

In the seventh and following verses, the qualities of these locusts are described in such terms, as while they allude to the nature of the insect, point out the Arabian horsemen as the objects presignified by the prophetic type. The first quality mentioned is their being "like unto horses prepared for battle." Now the natural locust has a head somewhat resembling a horse, so that the Italians call them cavaletti, or little horses. In the second chapter of Joel the same image is introduced of a warlike force. "The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and as horsemen so shall they run." The Arabians have always been famous for their horses and horsemanship, and their strength consists chiefly in their cavalry.

The next character attributed to them is having on their heads as it were "crowns like gold." This alludes to the turbans or mitres of the Arabians, for which they have always been distinguished, and yellow turbans would aptly exemplify the text. Whether the real locust has any such resemblance to a covering of the head let

the naturalist determine 1. It is added-" their faces were as the faces of men, and they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions." The first part of this description relates chiefly to the antitype.

It is well known that the Arabians wore their beards, at least on the upper lip, while their hair was suffered to hang down, or was plaited like that of women. Their lion's teeth is another image, taken from Joel, in his comparison of a warlike nation ready to devour with the sword, to locusts, ch. i. 6. "A nation whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion." This is very apposite to the natural locust, which has power, as Pliny says, to bite and gnaw every thing, even the doors of houses. "They had also breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron." This is a literal description of the defensive armour of the Saracens, as it is of the insect also, which has a hard shell or skin which has been called his armour. "And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle." This is a similar description to that of Joel, ch. ii. 5. "Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains"-and it points out the rapid

1 Mede supposes that the crowns may also refer to the number of kingdoms which the Saracens subdued.

months are to be considered as consisting of thirty days, and each day as a year, so that five months, in the language of prophecy, would amount to 150 years. Now it appears from history, that the greatest exploits of the Saracens, and their principal conquests, were made between the year 612, when Mohammed first began to propagate his imposture, and the year 762, when the Caliph Almansor built Bagdad, and called it the City of Peace. From this time, though their power existed for a while, yet it was concentered, and they no longer continued to hurt and torment other nations. Indeed from the period of their settlement at Bagdad their glory began to decline, and their empire to moulder away.

There is another interpretation which was suggested by Mede, and adopted by Sir Isaac Newton, that as the period of five months is twice mentioned, it may imply that the 150 years is to be doubled, and Sir Isaac remarks, that the whole time which the Caliphs of the Saracens reigned at Damascus and Bagdad was 300 years, from 637 to 936, after which their empire was broken and divided. But this seems to be straining the prophecy farther than the language will justify, and we may be satisfied that it received its completion in the 150 years which elapsed from the beginning of Mohammedism to the final settlement at Bagdad, while the annual period of the

Saracenic attacks on other nations will account for the repetition of the term, as corresponding so closely with the incursions and depredations of the natural locusts.

The last circumstance mentioned respecting these locust-scorpions is, that "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, has his name Apollyon."

The Holy Spirit, as Mede observes, seems here to insinuate that this locust nation were under the dominion of Satan, who is here called the Angel of the Abyss, as he is otherwise called "the Prince of the Power of the Air," and the name given him, which is a new name, is explained, by the Greek interpretation, to signify the Destroyer. The conjecture of Mede, likewise, is well worthy of consideration and adoption, that the reason for this appellation might be attributed to the following cause. The Mohammedans boasted that they worshipped the one and only God, the Creator of all things, or the Maker of the Universe, who by the Chaldeans and Assyrians is denominated Abuda, and by the Arabians themselves Abdi, or the Eternal ;whereas, the Holy Spirit shows, by the adoption of a word similar in sound, but opposite in sense, that while they rejected the divinity of Christ,