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"Lombard prince violated, without any remorfe, an engagement which he had entered into with re"luctance. In the year 755 he laid fiege to "Rome for the fecond time, but was again obliged "to fue for peace by the victorious arms of Pepin, "who returned into Italy, and forcing the Lom“bard to execute the treaty he had fo audaciously "violated, made a new grant of the Exarchate "and of Pentopolis to the Roman pontiff, and his "fucceffors in the apoftolic fee of Peter. And "thus was the bishop of Rome raised to the rank of a temporal prince."

In how striking a manner is the period of 150 years accomplished in terms of the prophecy? If Aiftulphus the Lombard prince had not violated the folemn treaty which he entered into with Pepin in the 754, nor returned and laid fiege to Rome a fecond time in the year 755, the bishop of Rome would have been made a tenporal prince more than a full year before the predicted time was come. But the purposes of heaven, and the predictions of God. must be minutely accomplished in fpite of all oppofition. Inftruments fhall never be wanting to accomplish them. The very wrath of man fhall thus be made to praise God, and the remainder of his wrath he fhall reftrain. Aiftulphus vented his wrath against Rome until the 150 years were accomplished, but he vented it no longer.

Though

Though he knew not what he was doing, and though he was acting with very different views, he he was the inftrument under God of preventing the Pope from becoming a temporal prince until the 150 years were expired; and when the predicted time was come, he could prevent him no longer, though he would as willingly as ever have done it. One of the three woes denounced in verfe 13th of the preceding chapter against the inhabitants of the earth, the citizens of the Roman empire, is past in the events by which the predictions under the fifth trumpet were accomplished. Thefe events were productive of much vexation and trouble to the citizens of Rome at the time, and they are the fources from which much greater troubles fhall flow in future. Two of these woes ftill remain, and they fhall be denounced by the fixth and seventh trumpets.

Verses 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21.-And the fixth angel founded, and 1 heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, faying to the fixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loofed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year,

for

for to flay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thoufand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I faw the horfes in the vision, and them that fat on them, having breast plates of fire, and of jacinct, and brimstone: and the heads of the 'horfes were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths iffued fire, and smoke, and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, by the smoke, and by the brimstone which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouths and in their tails: for their tails were like unto ferpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they fhould not worship devils, and idols of gold and filver, and brass and stone, and of wood : which neither can fee, nor hear, nor walk: neither repented they of their murders, nor of their forceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

The

The hieroglyphic under the fixth trumpet is introduced by a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which was before God: Upon the horns of the golden altar Aaron was to make atonement once in the year, Exod. xxx. 10. Hence the voice from the horns of this altar fignifies, that the judgements denounced on the citizens of Rome by this trumpet, are a punishment, and as it were a facrifice of atonement for their national idolatry and fuperftitions. The hieroglyphic contained in thefe verfes intimates, that in the period contained under this trumpet, a command from God, in the course of his providence, should be given to loose four angels, that is, four meffengers and ministers of the divine will, whose refidence fhould be on the fide of the river Euphrates. And that these four inftruments of the divine will should accordingly be let loofe for the space of 391 years and 15 days. In the fymbolical language, a day is one year, a month is 30 years, a year is 360 years, and an hour, the 24th part of a year, is 15. days; all which added together, make up 391 years and 15 days.

Thefe meffengers of divine providence fhould flay a great number of the citizens of Rome. They fhould lead forth to the field of battle very large and numerous armies of horfemen. The number of their cavalry fhould be very remarkaple for its greatnefs. Hence in verfe 16th, John

first

first says that the number of them were two hundred thousand thousand, and next, that he heard the number of them.

Both the horfes and the horsemen fhould be ve-, ry fierce and warlike. The breaft-plates of fire, jacinct, and brimftone, fignify, that the colour of the breast-plates fhould be that which is made up by a mixture of flame and smoke. Fire is red, jacinct blue, and brimftone yellow. The mixture of these three colours is precisely that of the fire and fmoke mixed together, which is emitted from a musket or cannon when it is fired off. By this colour of the breaft-plate, it is fignified, that these horfemen fhould be armed with offenfive rather than defenfive armour, and the terribleness of their appearance is fignified.

It is also faid, that out of the mouths of the horfes iffued fire, and smoke, and brimstone. These three epithets, like the three colours of the breaftplates, probably intimate that thefe horsemen fhould use fire arms, at leaft in their latest attacks upon the empire: A confiderable quantity of brimstone is used in the compofition of gunpowder; and fire, and smoke, with the smell of brimftone, is a moft natural fymbol of the appearance of the mouth of a gun when it is discharged. That these three fignify deftructive weapons, is ftill farther evident from verfe 18th, in which it is faid, “by

these three was the third part of men killed, by

"the