A Scripture Line of Time, Treatise · Part 2 · Section 10
SECT. X.
Wherein is undertaken to be prov'd, That the Mahometan Sarazens are the Locuſts deſign'd in the fifth Apocalyptick Trumpet; and that the five Months given to them comprehend Four hundred-thirty five Years from the Mahometan Hegira at 622, and ſo reach to 1057. upon Rev. c. 9. v. 1. &c.
I Paſs on from this joynt of Time, engraven with the real and ſubſtantial Characters of the Angel proclaiming the three Woes, the Star falling, the Key of the bottomleſs Pit given to him. All which I have explain'd.
I come now to ſpeak of the Deſcent of this Star to the opening the bottomleſs Pit, and of that Smoak that iſſued out upon it, and the unexpected Events of Locuſts coming out of the Smoak; which produce a new Line of Time beginning at 622, and not ending till 1453; but divided by Prophecy into two parts, the five Months, and five Months of the Locuſts, and the Hour, Day, Month, and Year of the Army of Horſemen; between which will come in the Account of intimate Time: and ſo we will diſcourſe each in their order.
Antichriſt then appearing in the Star fallen to the Earth to ſhine there, as an univerſal Paſtor, of which ſort the Firmament of Heaven knows none, nor can bear any ſuch, ſo he muſt needs fall to the Earth; and the Beast here tranſmigrated into by the Dragon, and beginning to exalt the Woman by carrying his Ʋniverſality in an Image, inſcrib'd with the Name of the Woman, and having receiv'd the Key of the bottomleſs Pit, in place of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, he immediately proceeds to open it, and lets out Error, Falſehood, Blaſphemy, the Doctrine of Balam, Nicolaitaniſm, Antichriſtianiſm, ſpiritual Pride and Tyranny, like the Smoke or perpetual Vapour of the Abyſs, and its open Mouth, that darkned the whole Air of the Chriſtian Doctrine and Profeſſion; and in this by degrees he aſcends higher and higher, till he comes to his number 666.
But Sathan above him in this bottomleſs Pit, turning every way, and moving more ways than one to advance his Kingdom, eſpecially over-rul'd, and govern'd by God in fulfilling the courſe of his Judgment, ſo impregnates this Smoke, in that time of ſpiritual drought, and of the Heaven ſhut as Braſs, and the Earth as Iron, a Time ſpecifick for theſe Locuſts as drought is for the natural ones, that unawares to this fallen Star, there comes a ſwarm of Locuſts out of the Smoke, and they prove armed, crowned Locuſts, dreadfully annoying, and Tormenting the Antichriſtian World. viz. by the Mahometan Saracens.
Having thus far then prepar'd to it, I come to the main poſition of this Section, the proof of which I am to undertake; that theſe Locuſts are the Mahometan Saracens, whoſe five, and five Months meaſure from 622 to 1057,
The firſt Argument I derive from the Style, in which this Argu. 1 Prophecy ſpeaks of their King. He is the Angel of the bottomleſs Pit, whoſe Name is Abaddon in the Hebrew Tongue, and in the Greek, Apollion.
Now by this Deſcription it is moſt evident ſome Potentacy is deſcrib'd, that hath its place in the World, and whoſe very Conſtitution ſhould of all that hath ever been in the World, be ſuch a one, as Sathan himſelf, who is the only proper Angel of the bottomleſs Pit, hath, and would chooſe to appear in, be the immediate Intelligence of, and the Spirit that acts it, above any Potentacy, that hath been in the World to this day.
But it is in the firſt place to be conſider'd, that as the Locuſts and Horſe-men, we ſhall find plainly united in their empoyſon'd Tayls of Serpents, ſo they are in their King, and his Title is therefore ſet in the joynt between the fifth and ſixth Trumpet, to communicate with both.
The Potentacy then muſt be a Potentacy on Earth, and it muſt ſeat it ſelf in the Hebrew and Grecian Acropoles, or chief Cities, as the Hebrew and Greek Tongues imports; like as the Inſcription upon our Saviour, This is the King of the Jews, was providentially written in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, to ſhew the chief Reſidency of his Kingdom, in thoſe ſo known parts of the World.
I appeal then to all Chriſtians, whether ſince the days of Chriſt, or indeed ſince the Creation; there hath been an Empire in the World, that may be compris'd in one word, viz. Mahometan, that for the foule, fordid, baſe Impoſtures of its Religion, and Alchoran, the ignorance and bruitiſhneſs of its very Profeſſion, the Cruelty and ravage it hath made upon humane Nature, to the utmoſt ſignification of the Words, Abaddon or Apollion, or wherein Sathan hath moſt immediately appear'd as the Enemy and Deſtroyer of Mankind, can be ſaid to be under the Angel of the bottomleſs Pit, as its King; with ſuch propriety as the Mahometan; Abating the confeſſion of one God, and the abhorrence of Image-Idolatry, there is not any thing, in which the utmoſt Effects of the Angel of the bottomleſs Pit have not been ſeen; and even that good in that Confeſſion of one God is improv'd by his Malice, againſt the Knowledge of the true God in the Son and Holy Spirit, and ſo may well be couch'd in the very Words Abaddon and Apollion, as the every way moſt incomparable Dr. More hath with higheſt Ingeny and Learning obſerv'd.
The fallen Star, that had the Key of the bottomleſs Pit, who is ſathanick enough, in whom the Dragon alſo inhabits; who hath been bloody to great Extremities, yet is even eſſentially enough diſtinguiſhed from him; He is a Star fallen from another Sphere, deſcends with the Key, and aſcends and lets out the Smoke, but is in regard of the true Religion, he profeſſes ſtill, and maintains, however debauch'd by Antichriſtianiſm, not a Native of the Abyſs, as this Angel is; he holds the Scripture, while he lets out the Smoke alſo. But this Angel of the bottomleſs Pit, hath no more of God, but what Hell hath, that believes one God, trembles in the acknowledge of him. All elſe is perfect Hell.
The Time moſt eminently and illuſtriouſly agrees. For after the Roman Weſtern State was in Juſtinians Time ſo wholly unenlightned; after the Christian three Woes proclaimed by Pope Gregory the firſt; after Ʋniverſality given by Phocas, and receiv'd by Boniface, and that there was ſome time for opening the bottomleſs Pit, and letting out the Smoke; out of that Smoke comes Mahomet the falſe Prophet, and King of the Locuſts, inhabited and poſſeſſed by the Angel of the bottomleſs Pit, of which his Epileptick Fits were an Emblem, if not the Effects of a very poſſeſſion, according to the eminently judicious Mede upon the foreign, the poſſeſſed in the Goſpel, he comes, I ſay, a falſe Prophet in Armour, leading theſe Men-locuſts, who have a King over them; for Solomon obſerves, Proverbs 30. 27.thoſe natural Inſects have no King that we may thereby know, Theſe are Men-locuſts.
This Mahomet upon his Perſecution for his helliſh Impoſture makes a flight from Mecha, and ſets up for Prophet and King; that flight becomes in the Judgment of God, a famous Hegira; an Era or Date of Time at Anno Dom. 622. from thence this Prophecy draws a Line, to the taking Conſtantinople 1453. of juſt 830 years, of which allowing five Months, and five Months to the Locuſts and their Action, and an interſpers'd five months after the manner of Locuſts before, between, and after the heat and height of their Action; their ſhare will be to 1057; that is, Four hundred thirty five Years, when the Turkiſh Sultany entred into a remarkable Appearance in the World in Tangrolipix, as then prepar'd for an Hour, a Day, a Month, and a Year. Which is moſt exact as to point of Time, as will appear in that part to 1453, when Constantinople became the Ottoman Port.
The Symbols or Parables of the Prophecy, and the Parallels of Hiſtory are moſt exact. The Locuſts came out of the Drought and Smoak of the Apoſtacy. Thus Mahometaniſm ſprung, as is obſerv'd, out of the Idleneſs, Stupidity, and Superſtition of Monkery: for Sergius the Monk incubated the Alcoran. Their Power, as the Scorpions of the Earth have Power; their having Stings in their Tails, and their hurting with them, are all ſignificant of their falſe ſerpentine Religion, and their falſe Prophetiſm, which Scripture compares to a Tail. Now the propagation of this their Venome, is the great pretence for their Cruelty, and this envenom'd Syrma of a deviliſh Religion ſtrikes; under, and for the ſake of which, their enſlaving is worſe than Death it ſelf.
Their hurting neither the Graſs of the Earth, nor any green thing nor any Tree, ſpeaks the univerſal Blaſt of the Apoſtacy, and its Drought; that there was no ſuch thing in Appearance to be hurt, the Witneſſes, the Worſhippers, the Servants of God, were all cloſe; The Woman in the Wilderneſs, where the Serpent could not find her, as before explain'd. No green Olive Tree appeared, tho' ſtill ſecretly they emptied their Oyl: but in the Time of theſe Locuſts, Elijah's Drought had withered all Appearances, but what was ſecretly in the Temple, in the Houſe of God, Pſal. 52. 8.
The Emblems of their Warlikeneſs are very admirable; their Likeneſſes were, as Horſes prepar'd to the Battel; on their Head was the Gliſter of their Helmets, like Crowns of Gold; their Faces as of Men; their Arabian Locks like the Hair of Women; their Teeth as of Lyons, their Breaſtplates of Iron, the noiſe of their Wings was as the ſound of Chariots and Horſes running to the Battel, and a warlike King over them: All theſe are demonſtrative Emblems of armed men: The deſcription of Locusts, Joel 2. is ſo like this of the Apocal. 9. that I cannot think, but that beſides the litteral ſenſe, it had a proſpect upon them; And Theſe, as They came out of the Drought deſcrib'd c. 1. of that Prophecy, viz. the univerſal Wither of all the Greenneſs of Religion; For ſo Scripture Prophecy both deſigns before-hand for, and after derives from it ſelf.
The Diſtribution of their dreadful Effects to a five months of Torment upon men, like the ſtroke of a Scorpion, while it was a vexation to underſtand the Report; we ſuppoſe, according to Hiſtory, was their firſt invading the World in general, and hovering over the Apoſtate Kingdom. The ſwiftneſs of their Succeſs was ſo prodigious, that it could not but be thought, that the Lord uttered his Voice before his Army; and that as his Camp was very great, ſo he was ſtrong that executed his Word, that the Day of the Lord was very terrible, and none could abide it: before their Face all People were much pained, and all Faces gather'd Blackneſs. The continual Tidings of their Victories and Succeſſes was to be continually tormented, as with Job's Meſſengers, or with the ſtroak of a Scorpion, a not being kill'd, but a living in pain.
But when this Army drew nearer into Italy, and even to Rome it ſelf, in the ſecond five Months; when it enter'd the very Gates of that great City, they ran up the Walls, and enter'd in at the Windows to pillage and plunder, and were alſo perpetually ſtriking with the Tails of not only their falſe Religion, but in Contempt and Scorn of the Antichristian Idolatry, and Image-worſhip: it was worſe than a ſpeedy Death, or a total Conquest, the prophetical Death here intended, eſpecially when it came to cruel Slavery.
It was no wonder then, men ſought for Death, that is, a quiet State, although of being conquered, and in Subjection, and could not find it, it fled from them; for God had determin'd them this lingring Torment, and not a ſpeedy Death or Conqueſt over them; and even theſe Locuſts could do no more than what was commanded them and given to them. Now their Power the five ſecond Months was more than the first; it was not only to torment with their terrour and report, but to hurt with a real Preſence; but it was only to hurt, and not to kill, (as the Turkiſh Cavalry was to do at Conſtantinople;) ſo they could do no more than hurt, they could not kill: the Beſtian Rome and Empire were to ſurvive them.
Thus they had five Months, and five Months of Action, eminent grand Action; but ſeeing they had the ſpace of five Months more in their Fourhundred and thirty years, they muſt be ſuppos'd to come out of a firſt Formation, and rude Preparations; or to be at a diſtance from the effects of Torment and Hurt upon the unſealed, Anticbriſtian, eſpecially Weſtern State: And at their latter end of Power a winterly Torpor and Deadneſs ſeis'd them, and the Turkiſh Power drove them into a deſolate Land, and their ſtink, as of an Army of dead Serpents, came up, that yet in their Time had done great things; and ſo is their Memory at this day. And thus Hiſtory and Prophecy will agree in the account of their Time, at leaſt in relation to the Beſtian Kingdom, beſides ſuppoſable Interſperſions or Truces of their Impreſſions upon the Earth of the fallen Star or Antichrist.
The juſt, and natural, enſuing Woe upon this firſt, as cloſe Arg. 4 as the two Beſtian Times one to another, and yet diſtinguiſh'd too, under the very ſame Mahometan King, or Angel of the bottomleſs Pit, and in the Entail of the ſame ſerpentine Religion, is a very perſuaſive Argument of the due Explication of theſe things in Prophecy, whoſe Situation, Connexion, and Sequence one upon another, even as the Hour, Day, Month, and Year, upon their Five Months, Five Months, and their Vacation, or Non-Term of Action, is cloſe and inſeparable: but this will riſe into a farther Obſervation upon that part of the Line; in the mean time, as a ſtrong ſupport, it helps to ſuſtain the Point we are upon.
The very great fitneſs of theſe Locuſts under their King Mahomet, is every way moſt admirable to be a Scourge and Arg. 5 Woe upon the Antichriſtian Empire, and their Months or Half-Moon to be a portentous Paraſelene or another Moon upon them. They are a mock-ſtate every way to them by the ſevere Vengeance of God; an Antichrist to Antichrist, coming by Sergius the Monk out of their very Smoak, let out by the Key-bearing fallen Star. Their King an Angel of the bottomleſs Pit rivals the Star of the bottomleſs Pit: the Monarchy of the Beast, and his ten Horns, is mated by the Monarchy of this King, and one Ʋniverſality by the other; the pſeudo or falſe Prophetiſm of the one by that of the other; the Miracles of the one by thoſe of the other; the Superſtition of the one, and the Cruelty and Bloodineſs of the one, by thoſe of the other: both are ſharers in the Roman Empire; each hath his Rome, one old Rome, the other new Rome; each of which Imperial Cities are in this prophetick Emblem Thirds of Men. Both aſpire to the Poſſeſſion of Jeruſalem, as having the promiſe of Univerſal Monarchy and Dominion; but both miſtake the Jeruſalem in Bondage, for that which comes down from above, at which both will be vaniſh'd. Both are Draconick, and oppoſe and ſtave off the true Kingdom of Chriſt; both oppreſs the Witneſſes and Servants of God, but the Beaſt by ſingle War with them, the King of the Locuſts, in the general, and miſtaking the falſe Church for the true, and its earthly Glory for the Glory of Chriſt, and ſo cannot hurt the true Glory; both laſt, the one as a Beſtian Kingdom, the other as a Woe, till the end of the 1260 Days. Both are to be utterly deſtroy'd before the Glorious Kingdom of Chriſt.
But the latter is a Judgment, and a Woe-Trumpet on the former, both, as it is Chriſtian in Pretence and Profeſſion, to which Mahomet is a profeſs'd Foe; and, as it is Antichriſtian, Idolatrous, and Superſtitious; for ſo it is ſcorned, and abuſed, and derided, as well as perſecuted by Mahometaniſm.
Now to ballance theſe two Antichriſtianiſms one with another, and the Intereſt of Satan in them, it is thus to be ſettled: in one, Satan is as an Angel of Light, falling from Heaven, and making uſe of the Key of the bottomleſs Pit, as if it were the Key of the Kingdom of Heaven; in the other he is plainly the Angel of the bottomleſs Pit, and acts as the Deſtroy…r. Now the firſt muſt be neceſſarily the moſt hateful to God, becauſe it is the greateſt Blaſphemy; its Moon eclipſes the Kingdom of Christ moſt directly; and as it were in the Draconick Nodi, ſurpris'd it when it was to appear, at the caſting down Satan from Heaven, and the manly Birth caught up to the Throne of God: upon which Antichriſtianiſm, as the Fineſs of Sathaniſm, Mahometaniſm was provided, as a Scourge and Woe of the courſeſt and thickeſt of the bottomleſs Pit, and the blackeſt Appearance of the Angel of it: and therefore, though Mahometaniſm ſhall be finally deſtroyed, and ſent back to the bottomleſs Pit, yet Antichriſtianiſm ſhall receive greater Damnation.
And ſo much for the fifth Trumpet that gives way to the ſixth, even as the Saracenick Caliphate did to the Turkiſh Sultany.