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him was given the key of the bottomlefs pit. And he opened the bottomlefs pit, and there arofe a smoke out of the pit, as the fmoke of a great furnace: And the fun and the air were darkened by reafon of the fmoke of the pit, and there came out of the fmoke Locufts upon the earth: And unto them was given power, as the Scorpions of the earth have power. And it was command"ed them that they should not hurt the

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grafs of the earth, neither any green

thing, neither any tree; but only "those men which have not the feal "of 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 65 torment was as the torment of a fcorpion, when he ftriketh a man. And in thofe days fhall men feek

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death

"death, and fhall not find it; and "fhall defire to die, and death fhall

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flee from them. And the fhapes of the Locufts were like unto horfes. prepared unto battle; and on their "heads were as it were crowns of gold, and their faces were as the faces of

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men, and they had hair as the hair of " women, and their teeth were as the "teeth of lions. And they had breaft

plates as it were breaft plates of iron, and the found of their wings was as "the found of chariots of many horfes "running to battle. And they had

tails like unto fcorpions, and there"were ftings. in their tails: And

their power was to hurt men five "months. And they have a King over them, which is the angel of the bot

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tomlefs pit, whofe name in the He"brew tongue is Abaddon, but in the "Greek hath his name Apollyon."

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The very high though undefigned Eulogium which Porphyry paffed on fome of the prophecies of Daniel, when he afferted, that they were written after the events which they described, thus bearing a moft unequivocal testimony to the accurate correfpondence, which time. demonftrated between them and the events which they prefigured, might with equal juftice be beftowed on this admirable prediction: Which contained in a book that had been quoted and commented on four hundred years before the birth of Mahomet, defcribes with extraordinary precifion the rife and progrefs of the Empire begun by him, and eftablished by his fucceffours. On perufing the paffage that " to a star which "had fallen (for fuch is the correct "tranflation of the original)

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"Heaven was given the key" &c. the reader may perhaps recollect those triumphant words of our bleffed Saviour,

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"I beheld Satan as lightning fall from "Heaven;" and comparing with this declaration the war between Michael and Satan mentioned in the 12th chapter of this book, where a woe is pronounced on the inhabitants of the earth, and fea, because the Devil is come down unto, them having great wrath, may easily conclude that he fhall but anticipate the interpretation I am about to offer of this emblem, by fuppofing it was intended to inform us, that this plague of figurative locufts was brought on the earth, through the juftly permitted interference of the great adversary of mankind. But though much may be urged in favour of this folution, when I reflect, that by an analogy drawn from the Scripture which promises, that " they "that turn many to righteoufness, fhall "fhine like the ftars, for ever and "ever;" one who has apoftatized from,

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the duty of teaching righteousness answers accurately to the figure of a fallen ftar, I am ftricken with the powerfull manner in which the affiftance of a Christian or a Jew, which Mahomet received in the compofition of the Koran is here characterized; by a "fallen ftar to whom was given the key "of the cave of the bottomlefs pit;"

This is a fact which Mr. G. does not feem cordially to admit, though confirmed by the internal evidence of the Koran itself; for as the impoftor could neither write nor read, the paffages of that book borrowed from the facred writings, which many incontestably have been, muft have: been fupplied by fome one converfant with thofe writings: While the answer to this charge given in the Koran (fee the Life of Mahomet at the end of Ockley's History of the Saracens, p. 12), by its cxistence proves, that the accufation was known to the impoftor, and by its weakness juftifies our prefumption of its truth, nay it demonftrates, that he had converfed with the Perfian Jew at least.

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