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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 This denunciation is, as it were, the introduction or preface to the three woe trumpets.

events.

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." +

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I shall premise what I have to offer on the 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

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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 apostacy. 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

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degenerated sadly from the apostolic character.

They seemed to aim at 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 princi

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

ples, a blind veneration for the clergy, and a stupid "zeal for a senseless round of ridiculous rites and "ceremonies. This perhaps will appear less sur

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prising 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.

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"To be convinced of the truth of the dismal re"presentation we have here given of the state of religion at this time, nothing more is necessary "than to cast an 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

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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 pro"ductions 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 " 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." *

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* Mosheim, Cent. VI. part ii.

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."

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If," continues the same writer," in the begin"ning 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 fre"quented the tombs of the martyrs, in the hope of

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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 their infirmities; the "fruitfulness of their barren wives, or the safety " and happiness of their children. Whenever they << undertook any distant or dangerous journey, they "requested that the holy martyrs would be their

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guides and protectors on the road; and if they "returned without having experienced any mis"fortune, they again hastened to the tombs of the "martyrs to celebrate with grateful thanksgivings

"their obligations to the memory and relics of those "heavenly patrons." *

It will scarcely be disputed by those who have given a close attention to the analogies of the language of symbols, that the universal prevalence of the false doctrines, which are described in the foregoing extracts, might be fitly symbolized by a black smoke rising out of the pit of the abyss, or the infernal regions. By this smoke the sun and air were darkened. As the context relates to spiritual objects, the sun and air must in this passage be understood in a spiritual sense, i. e. as belonging to the church. In the preceding trumpet, a third part of the sun is smitten. But the sun of that trumpet is the sun of the political, and not the ecclesiastical heaven, and therefore denotes the Roman imperial power. The smiting of the sun in that trumpet is also quite different from the obscuration of the sun in this. The smiting of the third part of the sun, denoted that his body or disk was proportionably affected, and actually shone with diminished lustre. But the darkening of the sun, in the fifth trumpet, by means of the smoke from the infernal pit, does not imply any diminution of lustre in him; but only that by means of the smoke, his rays are intercepted so as to render him invisible.

In the heaven ecclesiastical the sun denotes our Lord. It is easy to see how the prevalence of false doctrines in the church, with respect to the mediation of dead saints, and the lawfulness and efficacy of worship addressed to them, and to their images and dry bones, had the effect of hiding Christ, the * Decline and Fall, chap. xxviii.

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