4. "There arose a smoke out of the bottomless pit, as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit." Smoke symbolizes several things, but is used to repre sent the coming of war; it also represents false doctrino in motion. Isaiah foretold war by this symbol; as "out of the north there cometh a smoke."-(Sym. Dic.) The sun being darkened by the smoke, symbolizes that the civil power of the empire would be greatly disturbed by it. The air symbolizes the place of evil spirits, or an evil people generally, throughout the empire. A great and warlike error is, therefore, to be understood by the symbols, as threatening the empire generally, and the eastern empire particularly; as the sun, or civil power, was already observed in the west.

5. "And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, and unto them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power." Locusts symbolized hostile armies, among the prophets.-See Jer. xlvi.; Na. iii.; Deut. xxviii.; Ps. lxxviii.; Amos vii.; Ex. x.; Judges vi. and vii. Scorpions are wicked or impious enemies, Ezk. ii.; Eccl. xxvi.

6. "And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, but only those which have not the seal of God in their foreheads." The seal of God plainly represents true Christians, in opposition to the impious professors of Christianity in the empire.

7. "And to them it was given not to 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. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them." This shows that the government

would not be overthrown, but that it would be terribly afflicted.

8. "And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were, as it were, crowns like gold; and 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. And they had breastplates as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to battle. And they had tails as the tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails; and their power was to hurt men five months. 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. One wo is past." This whole account is plainly doubled, as the mention of the five months twice clearly shows. The whole prophecy represents plainly the Saracenic conquests and empire. The locusts represent the militant Mohammedans, and the king symbolizes the civil authority under which they were organized. Newton and others have interpreted this trumpet so well, that their views need but little revision. The reader can see our improvements, by comparing our points of differ ence. These hosts sprung up from Mahomet, but, in his day, no attack was made upon the empire; but the smoke had ascended from him, and filled the empire with fear. ful forebodings. In 632, the invasion of the empire began; and the last attempt of the Saracens was made against Rome about A. D. 848. From the first invasion to the last, as near as can be estimated, was 215 years, and the five months during which this scourge was to continue, equal 215 years and 175 days.

SECTION VI.

SIXTH TRUMPET, AND SECOND WOE-TURKISH INVASION. "Behold, there come two more woes hereafter. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying, to the sixth angel, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates." The Eastern empire had stood firm amid all the assaults of the Saracens, for their commission was to torment the empire, but not to overthrow it; but now comes up a power to annihilate it.

1. The four angels in the Euphrates find a full coincidence in the four sultanies of the Turks; the capitals of which were Bagdad, Damascus, Aleppo, and Iconium. In the year 1299, A. D., these were combined, under Othman, and began their conquest and destruction of the east. The sultanies were near, and on the Euphrates. Gibbon says, the first attack of this power on the eastern empire was "on the 27th July, 1299;" and that, from the conquest of Prusa we may date the true era of the Ottoman empire.

2. "And the four angels were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, to slay the third part of men." "" The third part of men means the third part of the empire; and as the west was already slain, or broken down, the eastern, or Asiatic, empire must be meant; and it was here the Turks prevailed, and do prevail at the present day. The period of this prevalence over Asia, or the eastern empire, was to be for 13797 months, or for 561 years and 357 days.-(See discovery.) If we date this on the 27th July, 1299, we are brought down to the year 1861, and about the fourth of July, for the date is old style, or eleven days too much.

3. "And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand, and I heard the number of them." The Turks were generally horsemen, and hence, their whole host or population is represented by that symbol. As to the great number of them, it may have had a literal accomplishinent by the time the empire falls. They boasted that they produced cavalry by the million. 4. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire and jacinth, (or hyacinth) and brimstone; and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed; by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths." Here is an evident allusion to the use of gunpowder and ordnance, which were first used extensively, by the Turks, in the subjection of the east and attacks upon the west.

5. "For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails were like unto serpents, and they had heads, and with them they do hurt." The mouth here represents civil and military authority, and their tails represent doctrine, or their church, as the tail of the dragon. The Turkish government was an absolute: despotism, and exceedingly cruel, and their church was the Mohammedan. The horses' heads and tails are a collective representation of the whole Turkish system, civil, military, and ecclesiastical. They fully overturned the eastern empire and Africa, and were the heirs of the Saracens; so that they may be properly said to have destroyed the third part of the Roman empire.

6. "And the rest of the men that were not killed by these plagues." That is, those parts of the old empire in the west, which were not overturned by the Turks

"Yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold and silver, and brass and stone, and of wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk." These symbols are put for the idolatry of the western church. The Mohammedans and Jews both charged upon the west, that, in the worship of saints they were idolaters. "Neither repented they of their murders."-The murder of true Christians. "Nor of their sorceries."-Their deceptious arts over the people. "Nor of their fornication.". Monachism was the universal and fruitful source of this sainted crime in Europe. "Nor of their thefts."-They "stole the livery of heaven to serve the devil in," and swindled the people out of their money, under pretense of giving them salvation in exchange.

7. "The second woe is past." That is, it will be past at the fall of Turkey, and not before. It certainly will not close till after the rise of the witnesses, and the fall of one of the principal or tenth parts of Europe, at the coming insurrection; because the end of the woe is placed in the text as occurring there.-Rev. xi. 14. The fall of Turkey is to be simultaneous with this rising of the witnesses. We have placed it in 1861, but, unless we are greatly mistaken, the witnesses will rise much sooner. But we can not be far in error. We have been less particular than usual in explaining these trumpets, because they have, for the most part, been properly explained by Newton, Faber, and others.

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