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ferred a political death under the sway of the Khalif, to a national independence under the intolerant rule of the Pope or the Emperor. From the accession of Harun 786, to the Khalifate of Rabdi, or accession of Otho the Great, 936, we may reckon the hundred and fifty years tormenting hostilities of these ravenous destroyers; and after the year 936, in which they surprised Genoa and carried off its treasures and riches, after having slain all its inhabitants save women and children, we hear of their ravages no more.

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IX. 1.-And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him 2 was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; 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 3 reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth; unto them was given power as the scorpions of 4 the earth have power. 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 5 God in their foreheads. 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 6 striketh a man. And in those days shall the men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall de7 sire to die, and death shall flee from them. 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 8 the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of 9 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. run10 ning to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt the men five months. 11 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, i.e. Destroyer. 12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

SECTION VIII.

Sixth Stage of the Public Sounding of the Mystery.

After the Saracens had reigned for some time in the East, the Turks, who had been enlisted in their service, rose in arms against their masters, dispossessed them of Persia, and invaded the provinces of the Greek Empire. Three dynasties of Turks, the Seljukians, Kharismians, and Atabeks, issued from the former kingdom, and alternately ruled over, or possessed the Asiatic part of the Greek Empire. To these another dynasty succeeded, the Ottoman; and the four at last became consolidated into one Empire. From the time of the founding of the Seljukian dynasty by Togrul Beg, A.D. 1046, to the Ottoman, Mahomet II. the Great, a period of about 400 years, the Turks had been restrained by the Crusaders, the Zingis

khanides, Timour the Tartar, or Tamerlane, John Huniades, and Scanderberg within the Præfecture of the East, and from possessing the long-wished-for prize of the seat of the Cæsars; but at length on the morning of the twenty ninth of May, in the fourteen hundred and fifty third year of the Christian era, fixed upon by the astrological calculations of Mahomet, 400,000 men led by the Sultan and his three Viziers, and attended by an artillery more formidable than any that had hitherto appeared in the world, the second, if not the first, which had ever been arrayed against Constantinople, effected what had been hitherto vainly attempted by the Saracens and Amurath II. The city, and shortly after the whole Præfecture of Illyricum, one of the three into which the Western Empire was divided, fell into the hands of the Turks; in whose possession it has continued ever since. This calamity to the Empire might have been easily prevented, had not all quarters of Christendom, it seems, been possessed with one mind to leave the Greeks to their fate.

13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard one voice from the four horns of the golden altar 14 which is before God, saying to the sixth angel

which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound on the great river Euphrates. 15 And the four angels were loosed, which were pre

pared at the hour, day, month and year, for to slay 16 the third part of the men. And the number of the

army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand and I heard the number of them. 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone; and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions: and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brim

18 stone. By these three was the third part of the men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. 19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

SECTION IX.

Unrepentance of the Two Præfectures of the Gauls and Italy.

The Præfecture of Illyricum having fallen into the hands of the Turks, the two remaining Præfectures of the Gauls and Italy were still left to the spiritual jurisdiction of the two-horned monster, the Pope, who after the ruin of Arianism gained at least two thirds of the Empire. But the Latin church was not benefitted by the Saracenic plague, or by the punishment which befel their brethren the Greeks they still adhered to the worship of saints and angels; still imbrued their hands in the blood of the saints; still fabricated their lying miracles for the sake of gain; still practised concubinage in the persons of their clergy by reason of the celibacy imposed on them by their master; and still committed public robberies by the sale of pardons and indulgencies.

20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, 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, 21 nor hear, nor walk: neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

DIGRESSION II.

FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE LAST PERSECUTION OF ANTICHRIST.

SECTION I.

The Reformation, and the Seven Stages of the
Republication of the Mystery.

About the time that the Eastern Empire came to its end, our High Priest who had been caught up to God and his throne by the apostacy of the Romans, ever mindful of his covenant with his church, and his promise that he would be with it to the end, is now seen descending again from heaven by the light of Wickliffe, A.D. 1360, John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, with a new edition of his gospel, cleared of the additions and traditions of popery, reduced to its native digestible size, translated into the vulgar tongue, and printed, now no longer sealed as at the beginning, having been already opened by the preaching of the apostles and having descended, and placed one foot upon the Empire of Germany, and the other on Rome, he lustily inveighs by his servant Luther, 1518, against the abominable corruptions of the church; and having sent forth his outcry, the seven thunders of those sons of thunder, the Reformers, by the seven stages of the glorious republication of that little treasure, his gospel, give echo to his voice. A.D. 1518-1843.

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X. 1. And I saw another mighty angel coming

down from heaven, clothed with a cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: 2 and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot 3 on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when

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