the Mediterranean, should turn the third part of it into blood. The propriety of the adaptation of the different symbols to each other in these trumpets, is also worthy of our most attentive observation. The general idea presented by them, is that of the desolation of the symbolical earth, sea, and rivers, by foreign bodies precipitated upon them, which are used as symbols of hosts of barbarian conquerors. Now, what could have been selected as a fitter agent of desolation to the symbolical earth than hail mingled with fire? What a more proper emblem of the destruction of an inland sea, than a burning volcano torn from its basis and cast into the sea? There is also a beautiful proportion between the smaller apparent magnitude of the blazing comet, and the rivers and fountains upon which it fell.

CHAPTER VI.

THE FIFTH TRUMPET, OR THE FIRST WOE.

" AND I beheld and heard an angel, flying through "the midst of the heaven, saying with a loud "voice, Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the "earth, by reason of the other voices of the "trumpet of the three angels which are yet to "sound."*

This solemn denunciation seems to be introduced for the purpose of drawing our attention to the great importance of the events which were to happen under the last three trumpets. It serves also as a chronological mark, to show that these three trumpets are all posterior to the first four, not only in order, but in time; and that they belong to a new series of events. This denunciation is, as it were, the introduction or preface, to the three woe trumpets.

It is immediately followed by the sounding of the fifth angel. The Apostle then sees "a star "which had fallen from heaven to the earth, "and to him was given the key of the pit of the "abyss; and he opened the pit of the abyss, and "there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke "of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were "darkened, by reason of the smoke of the pit."t I shall premise what I have to offer on the Rev. viii. 13. + Ib. ix. 1, 2.

subject of this trumpet, by saying, that I entirely concur with the great body of commentators, in thinking, that the locusts who appear in it, are the Saracens under the false prophet Mahummud: and I shall afterwards give my reasons for holding this opinion. But in interpreting the symbols which are introductory to the appearance of the locusts, I feel myself obliged to dissent from many respectable writers.

*

The symbols of this vision evidently belong to things spiritual. The star is, therefore, a Christian pastor or bishop. His falling from the heaven to the earth, signifies his fall from primitive purity and simplicity into apostasy. This star, or apostate bishop, is the great agent in opening the pit of the abyss, or pit of hell, out of which a black smoke arises, which I conceive to be a symbol of the false doctrines and gross ignorance which overspread the Christian Church, during the fifth and sixth centuries. These false doctrines consisted, chiefly, in the adoration of saints, relics, and images, and in rigorous monastic austerities, the merit and efficacy of which, were highly extolled by the ignorant and superstitious clergy, the blind leaders of the blind. The following account of the state of the Church, during the sixth century, taken from Mosheim, seems sufficiently illustrative of the nature of that symbolical smoke, which issued from the pit of the abyss. "The public teachers and instructors of the people degenerated sadly from the apostolic character. They seemed to aim at

* Rev. i. 20. The seven stars are the angels (bishops) of the seven churches.

nothing else than to sink the multitude into the most opprobrious ignorance and superstition; to efface in their minds all sense of the beauty and excellence of genuine piety; and to substitute in the place of religious principles, a blind veneration for the clergy, and a stupid zeal for a senseless round of ridiculous rites and ceremonies. This, perhaps, will appear less surprising, when we consider, that the blind led the blind; for the public ministers and teachers of religion, were, for the most part grossly ignorant: nay, almost as much so, as the multitude whom they were appointed to instruct.

"To be convinced of the truth of the dismal representation we have here given of the state of religion at this time, nothing more is necessary than to cast the eye upon the doctrines now taught concerning the worship of images and saints, the fire of purgatory, the efficacy of good works (i. e. the observance of human rites and institutions) towards the attainment of salvation, the power of relics to heal the diseases of the body and mind, and such like sordid and miserable fancies which are inculcated in many of the superstitious productions of this century, and particularly in the Epistles and other writings of Gregory the Great. Nothing more ridiculous, on the one hand, than the solemnity and liberality with which this good but silly pontiff distributed the wonder-working relics; and nothing more lamentable, on the other, than the stupid eagerness and devotion with which the deluded multitude received them, and suffered themselves to be persuaded, that a portion

G

of stinking oil, taken from the lamps which burned at the tombs of the martyrs, had a supernatural efficacy to sanctify its possessors, and to defend them from all dangers both of a temporal and spiritual nature."*

The testimony of the historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, may, by many readers, be deemed no less important and unexceptionable than that of Mosheim. Mr. Gibbon concludes the account of the introduction and progress of the worship of saints and relics in the Christian Church, in the following words: "The sublime and simple theology of the primitive Christians was gradually corrupted; and the monarchy of heaven, already clouded by metaphysical subtleties, was degraded by the introduction of a popular mythology which tended to restore the reign of polytheism."

"If," continues the same writer, "in the beginning of the fifth century, Tertullian or Lactantius had been suddenly raised from the dead, to assist at the festival of some popular saint or martyr, they would have gazed with astonishment and indignation on the profane spectacle, which had succeeded to the pure and spiritual worship of a Christian Congregation.""The Christians frequented the tombs of the martyrs, in hope of obtaining from their powerful intercession, every sort of spiritual, but more especially of temporal blessings. They implored the preservation of their health, or the cure of

* Mosheim, Cent. VI. part ii.