of history must be consulted to learn the devastations of those hosts of destructive Saracens, which, under the guidance of Mahomet and his successors, alighted upon and wasted the apocalyptic earth. Yet, notwithstanding the phantasms that came forth from the pit of the abyss, bore a general resemblance to locusts, they were marked by several peculiarites, by which they were more perfectly adapted to typify the people designed to be thus shadowed out. These we shall consider as we proceed.

Ver. 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. -By the command that they should not hurt the grass, nor the trees, but men only, it is evident that these were not natural, but symbolical locusts; and also that they were under providential control. The same thing appears from other attributes assigned them, which plainly belong to the objects signified, and not to the sign; as the human face, the woman's hair, the golden crowns, the iron breastplates. But it is very common in the symbolic diction of prophecy, to find the literal and the allegorical sense intermixed, and that even in the same passage. We are thus furnished with a clew to the real meaning of the symbols. By the precept here given, the emblematic locusts were required to act in a manner perfectly dissimilar to the ravages of natural locusts: and yet how faithfully the command was obeyed, may inferred from the remarkable injunction of the caliph Abubeker to Yezid, upon setting out on the expedition against Syria, the first undertaking

be

of the Saracens in the way of forcign conquest, recorded in chap. xii. of this volume.* It has accordingly been noticed, that those parts of the Roman empire which were left untouched by these Saracen hordes, were those in which it appears from history the remnant of the true church of of God was still found residing: they were only to hurt the men who had not the mark of God on their foreheads.

Ver. 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.— Mr. Gibbon's undesigned commentary on these words will show how the commission was fulfilled. "The fair option of friendship or submission, or battle was proposed to the enemies of Mahomet. If they professed the creed of Islam, they were admitted to all the temporal and spiritual benefits of his primitive disciples, and marched under the same banners, to extend the religion they had embraced. The clemency of the prophet was decided by his interests; yet he seldom trampled on a prostrate enemy, and he seemed to promise, that on payment of a tribute, the least guilty of his unbelieving subjects might be indulged in their worship." The period assigned for the power of the locusts, in this prediction, is "five months.” Prophecy has its peculiar mode of computing time. A day for the most part stands for a year. Five months, therefore, of thirty days each, amount, in the computation of prophecy, to

* See page 228.

one hundred and fifty years.

As five literal months is the utmost term of the duration of the natural plague of the locusts, so the prophetic five months actually denote the period of the main conquests of the Saracen empire, computing from the appearance of Mahomet to the foundation of Bagdad. "Read," says Bishop Newton, "the history of the Saracens, and you will find, that their greatest conquests made, within the space of five prophetic months, or one hundred and fifty years, between the year 612, when Mahomet opened the bottomless pit, and began publicly to teach and propagate his imposture; and the year 762, when Almansor built Bagdad, and called it the city of peace." The comparison of the locusts' torments to that of the scorpion will be considered subsequently.

Ver. 6. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, but death shall flee from them.-This prediction has usually been considered as awfully expressive of the hopeless sufferings and despair of eastern Christendom, under the lawless insults, violences, and oppressions systematically practised by their Saracen masters. We would not deny that this may have been alluded to; yet, as it would seem that men desirous of escaping suffering by death, might easily, in a thousand ways, have accomplished their object, it may be suggested, whether the Saracens themselves are not the persons here referred to, as coveting death in battle, from a view to the honour, and the rewards of such a decease. The following passage from the Koran, is worthy of special note in this connection. "Moreover, ye did sometimes wish for

On these words

death, before that ye met it."* Sale remarks, in a note, "that several of Mahomet's followers, who were not present at Beder, wished for an opportunity of obtaining, in another action, the like honour as those had gained who fell martyrs in that event." The import of the language, therefore, may be, that God should give to the Moslem hosts such an uninterrupted tide of conquests, they should so uniformly come off victorious in their engagements, and that with such inconsiderable losses, that numbers in the height of their enthusiasm, should pant in vain for the glorious privilege of dying in the field

of battle.

Ver. 7. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle.- Arabia," says Gibbon," is, in the opinion of naturalists, the native country of the horse." The horsemanship of the Arabs has ever been an object of admiration. "The martial youth, under the banner of the Emir, is ever on horseback and in the field, to practise the exercise of the bow, the javelin, and the scimitar." In correspondence, therefore, with the hieroglyphic of the prophet, the strength of the Saracens consisted very much in the numerous cavalry, and the unrivalled speed of the Arabian coursers forms the most striking possible emblem of the rapid career of the Saracen armies.

And on their heads were, as it were, crowns of gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. "Make a point," says a precept of Mahomet "of wearing turbans; because it is the way of

* Koran, ch. iii.

angels." The turban, accordingly, has ever been the distinctive head-dress of the Arabs, and their boast has been, that they wore, as their common attire, those ornaments, which, among other people, are the peculiar badges of royalty. The notice of the "faces of men" seems to be intended merely to afford a clew to the meaning of the emblem; to intimate, that no natural locusts, but human beings, were depicted under this symbol.

Ver. 8. And they had hair, as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.— The Arabs, as Pliny testifies, wore their beards, or rather mustachios, as men, while their hair, like that of women, was flowing or plaited. The "teeth like those of lions," has reference to the weapons and implements of war; and the "breastplates of iron" to the armour made use of by the Saracen troops in their expeditions. The "sound of their wings as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle," is but a part of the same expressive imagery denoting warlike scenes and preparations.

Ver. 10. And they had tails like unto scorpions: and there were stings in their tails.-The interpretation of the symbols of the Apocalypse must be sought for in the Old Testament. From the following words of Isaiah (ch. ix. 14, 15) it appears that the tail of a beast denotes the false doctrines or the superstition which he maintains: "Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day. The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail." The emblem, therefore, strikingly represents the infliction of