o scorpions. (Ezek. ii. 6.) But these locusts are under
restraint. They are permitted to hurt only "those men which have not the
seal of God in their foreheads." The time of their continuance is "five
months," of thirty days each, making 150 years,--"a day for a year."
(Ezek. iv. 6.) In the year 606, Mahomet began his imposture by retiring
to the cave of Hera. In 612 he appeared publicly as the apostle of his
new religion at the head of his deluded followers. Between 612 and 762,
he and the warlike chiefs who succeeded him, overran with terrible
destruction, Syria, Persia, India, Egypt and Spain. Although the
Saracenic empire continued for a longer time, yet from this time it lost
the disorderly _Locust_ character and because a more settled
commonwealth. In the year 762, the city of Bagdad was built by one of
the caliphs, who called it "the city of peace." This put a stop to the
devastations of the locusts, when the empire began to decline. It was
foretold, however, that during the time of successful war by these cruel
invaders, they would inflict such miseries upon their wretched victims,
that they would earnestly but vainly desire death to put an end to their
exquisite torments. It is farther said that these locusts resembled
horses, as indeed they do, especially in their heads. The Arabians
excelled in horsemanship, and their chief force lay in cavalry. The
"crowns upon their heads" may refer to the turbans worn by the Arabians
as part of their national costume; or to the kingdoms which they
subdued. Flowing hair is also characteristic of these people. Their
"teeth" like those of lions indicated their strength and fury to
destroy. "Breast-plates of iron,"--defensive armour, indicates
self-protection by the most effectual public measures. The sound of
their wings may denote the fury of their assaults, and the rapidity of
their conquests. But the deadly stings in their tails were their most
fatal instruments of torture, symbolizing the poison of their abominable
and ruinous religion.

Their king is "Abaddon or Apollyon," the destroyer: for so is his name
by interpretation, both in Hebrew and Greek. He is from the "bottomless
pit,"--from hell, the vicegerent of the devil. Mahomet in person, and in
the person of his official successors, will alone answer to this
_duplicate_ symbol. This is, without a rational shadow of ground for
controversy, the _Great Eastern Antichrist_, sufficiently distinguished
from the _Western_.