·

no less without the bounds of the RomanTM empire than within it, and extended itself ' even to the remoteft Indies.'

men;

They had also faces as the faces of men, and hair as the hair of women: and the Arabians wore their beards, or at least muftachoes, as while the hair of their heads was flowing or plaited like that of women; as (6) Pliny and other ancient authors teftify. Another property copied from Joel is their having teeth as the teeth of lions; that is strong to devour. So Joel defcribes the locufts (I. 6.) as a nation, whofe teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great lion: and it is wonderful how they bite and gnaw all things, as (7) Pliny fays, even the doors of houses. They had also breastplates, as it were breaf-plates of iron: and the locufts have a hard fhell or fkin, which (8) hath

Plin. ibid. Plurimis crinis intonfus, mitrata capita, pars rafa in cutem barba. Solinus Cap. 33. p. 46. Edit. Salmafii. Crinitus quidam &c. Ammian. Marcell. Lib. 31. ubi notat Valefius, Talis erat habitus Saracenorum, ut docet Hieronymus in Vita Malchi. Ecce fubito equorum camelorumque feffores Ifmaëlitæ irruunt, crinitis vittatifque capitibus &c: et Theodorus Mopfueftenus in caput X Hieremia, Saracenos ait

comam a fronte quidem detondere, retro autem intonfam demittere. &c. p. 654. Edit. Paris. 1681.

(7) Omnia vero morsu erodentes, et fores quoque tectorum. Plin. Nat. Hist. Lib. 11. Cap. 29. Se&t. 35. Edit. Harduin. (8) Claudian. Epigram. 32. De Locuità: Fragmentum.

cognatus dorfo durefcit amictus.

Armavit natura cutem.

(9) Tanto

hath been called their armour. This figure is defigned to exprefs the defenfive, as the former was the offenfive arms of the Saracens. And the found of their wings was as the found of chariots of many horfes running to battle. Much the fame comparison had been ufed by Joel, (II. 5.) Like the noife of chariots on the tops of mountains fhall they leap: and (9) Pliny affirms, that they fly with so great a noise of their wings, that they may be taken for birds. Their wings, and the found of their wings, denote the fwiftness and rapidity of their conquefts; and it is indeed astonishing, that in less than a century they erected an empire, which extended from India to Spain.

Moreover they are thrice compared unto fcorpions, (ver. 3, 5, 10.) and had ftings in their tails like unto fcorpions; that is they should draw a poisonous train after them, and wherever they carried their arms, there alfo they should distil the venom of a falfe religion. It is farther added (ver. 11.) that they had a king over them; the fame perfon fhould exercife temporal as well as fpiritual fovranty over them; and the caliphs were their emperors, as well as the heads

(9) Tanto volant pennarum ftridore, ut aliæ alites credantur. Plin. ibid.

(1) Mede, ibid. p. 470.

of (2) Vergiliarum exortu parere, [Circa Maii Nonas] deinde ad Canis ortum obire, [Circa XV. Calendas Augufti]

of their religion. The king is the fame as the ftar or angel of the bottomlefs pit, whofe name is Abaddon in Hebrew, and Apollyon in Greek, that is the deftroyer. Mr. Mede (1) imagins, that this is fome allufion to the name of Obodas, the common name of the kings of that part of Arabia from whence Mohammed came, as Pharaoh was the common name of the kings of Egypt, and Cæfar of the emperors of Rome : and fuch allufions are not unusual in the stile of fcripture. However that be, the name agrees perfectly well with Mohammed and the caliphs his fucceffors, who were the authors of all those horrid wars and defolations, and openly taught and profeffed that their religion was to be propagated and established by the sword.

One difficulty, and the greatest of all, remains yet to be explained; and that is the period of five months affigned to these locufts, which being twice mentioned, merits the more particular confideration. They tormented men five months, (ver 5.) and again (ver. 10.) their power was to hurt men five months. It is faid without doubt in conformity to the type; for locufts (2) are observed to live about five months, that fupra quinque menfes vivere folent. Bochart. Hieroz. Part Poft. Lib. 4. Cap. 8. Col. 495.

(3) Nec

et alias renafci. Plin. Nat. Hift. Lib. 11. Cap. 29. Sect. 35. Edit. Hard. Locufte vere natæ fub finem æftatis obeunt, nec

that is from April to September. Scorpions too, as (3) Bochart afferts, are noxious for no longer a term, the cold rendering them torpid and inactive. But of thefe locufts it is faid, not that their duration or exiftence was only for five months, but their power of hurting and tormenting men continued five months. Now thefe months may either be months commonly fo taken; or prophetic months, confifting each of 30 days, as St. John reckons them, and fo making 150 years at the rate of each day for a year; or the number being repeated twice, the fums may be thought to be doubled, and five months and five months in prophetic computation will amount to 300 years. If these months be taken for common months, then, as the natural locufts live and do hurt only in the five fummermonths, fo the Saracens, in the five fummermonths too, made their excurfions, and retreated again in the winter. It appears that this was their usual practise, and particularly when (4)

they

(3) Nec fruftra eft, quod myfticis locuftis, quæ fcorpionum caudas habent, non datur poteftas nocendi hominibus, nifi

per menfes quinque. Quippe ut locuftæ, ita nec fcorpiones diutius nocent. Nam per frigora torpent, nec quidquam ab iis eft periculi. Bochart. ibid. Lib. 4. Cap. 29. Col. 640.

Hift. of the Chap. 4. Sect. απο μηνός Απριλλιε υποτρέψαντες εν παραλαμβάνεσι,

nas

εκεί. και κατά

(4) Howel's World. Part 3. 7. p. 288. εις σεπτεμβρ Κυζικῳ, ταύτην χειμάζεσιν και όμοίως επολεμεν μετα των χριστ TiDvor, E71 iπla T.-ab Aprili ufque ad Septembrem menfem. Inde barbari revertentes Cyzi

nas

cum

they first befieged Conftantinople in the time of Conftantine Pogonatus. For "from the month "of April till September, they pertinaciously " continued their fiege, and then despairing of "fuccefs, departed to Cyzicum, where they "wintered, and in fpring again renewed the war: and this course they held for seven years, "as the Greek annals tell us." If thefe months be taken for prophetic months or 150 years, it was within that space of time that the Saracens made their principal conquefts. Their empire might subfist much longer, but their power of hurting and tormenting men was exerted chiefly within that period. Read the history of the Saracens, and you will find that their greatest exploits were performed, their greatest conquefts were made, between the (5) year 612 when Mohammed firft opened the bottomless pit, and began publickly to teach and propagate his imposture, and the year 762 when the caliph Almanfor built Bagdad, to fix there the feat of his

cum occupaverunt, atque ibi hyemarunt: et vere rurfum Chriftianisbellum fecerunt. Hoc modo feptem annos fe geffere. Cedreni Hift. Compend. p. 437. Edit. Paris. p. 345. Edit. Venet. Vide etiam Theophanis Chronograph. p. 294. Edit. Paris. p. 234. Edit, Venet.

(5) Prideaux Life of Mahomet. p. 14. 8th. Edit. Elmacini Hift. Saracen. Lib. 1. Cap. 1. p. 3. & Lib. 2. Cap. 3. p. 102. Abul-Pharajii Hift. Dyn. 9. p. 141. Verf. Pocockii. Blair's Chronol. Tab. No 36. Part 2d.

(6) Elmacini