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Niger, Portugal and Spain. Neither did their fortune or ambition stop here, till they had added also a great part of Italy, as far as to the gates of Rome; moreover Sicily, Candia, Cyprus, and the other islands of the Mediterranean Sea. Good God! how great a tract of land! how many crowns. were here! Whence alfo it is worthy of obfervation, that mention is not made here, as in other trumpets, of the third part; forasmuch as this plague fell no less without the bounds of the Roman Empire than within it, and extended itself even to the remoteft Indies."

Their faces were as the faces of menthey had a bold and manly countenancebut they wore their hair in an effeminate manner. They had their hair as the hair of women.-The Saracens let their hair grow to a great length, and wore it plaited, and in treffes. It was obferved by Pliny, that the Arabians wore a kind of turbans, or mitres on their heads; that they dreffed and twisted their hair in a particular manner; fo that one part of the Saracens was distinguished by it from another.

Their

Lowman, p. 121.

teeth

teeth were as the teeth of lions.-They were as well furnished with the inftruments of deftruction, as if nature had given them the teeth of the strongest animals.—And they had breaft-plates, as it were of ironWell furnished with the means of deftruction, they were equally well equipped with defenfive armour. As the locuft is defended by a hard fhell of the colour of iron, fo the Saracens were guarded by coats of mail calculated to repel the darts and other weapons of their enemies. Their formidable and clamorous onfet, when haftening forward to engage their enemies, was as the found of chariots of many horfes running to battle.

The exact season of the year, during which the Saracens made their moft remarkable ravages and conquests, is repeatedly pointed out. The men whom they affailed, were tormented five months". The locufts infeft the countries of the Eaft for the five warmest months, and they are in

y "The found of their wings denotes the swiftness and rapidity of their conquefts; and it is indeed aftonifhing, that in lefs than a century they erected an empire, which extended from India to Spain." Newton. z Lowman, p. 122.

VOL. II.

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active and torpid for the reft of the year. It is well known, that the manner in which the Arabs invaded their neighbours, was by fudden incurfions during the fummer months; retiring again and dispersing during the winter, and gathering together the next spring, for a new fummer's invafion. According to the military laws and conftitutions of the Mahometans, war was forbid during the facred months, which were the two firft and the two laft. The prophetical defcription is not lefs exact in a figurative, than in a literal fenfe. The days that conftitute the months, in which men were tormented, may be reckoned as equivalent to 150 years, according to the ufual mode of prophetical computation". Within the space of thefe 150 years, the Saracens made their greateft conqueft b. Ma

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The number being repeated twice, the fums may be thought to be doubled, and amount in prophetic computation to 300 years: then, according to Sir I. Newton, "The whole time that the Caliphs of the Saracens reigned with a temporal dominion at Damafcus and Bagdad together, was 300 years, viz. from the year 637 to the year 936, inclufive;" when their empire was broken and divided into feveral principalities, or kingdoms. So that let these five months be taken in

any

Mahomet emerged from the cave of the abyfs, and began to propagate his religion in the year 612; and Bagdad, or the city of peace, was built by the Caliph Almanfor, in the year 762.' This was the first fixed establishment of the Caliphs, where they enjoyed the fruits of their conquefts, and funk in luxury and repose. "In this city of peace, amidst the riches of the East, the Abaffides foon difdained the abftinence and frugality of the first Caliphs, and afpired to emulate the magnificence of the Perfian kings. After his wars and buildings, Almanfor left behind him in gold and filver about thirty millions fterling, and this treasure was exhausted in a few years, by the vices or virtues of his children." After the period destined for the ravages of the locufts, the rage of the Saracens for conqueft and plunder began to fubfide, the torments inflicted by these fatal Scorpions began to abate, and the diftrefs and defolation, which they had spread over fo confiderable a portion of the earth, re

any poffible construction, the event will ftill anfwer, and the Prophecy will still be fulfilled." Newton, vol. iii. p. 110, III.

Gibbon, c. 52.

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ceived an extraordinary check from their own inteftine difputes, and the fettlement.

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of established monarchies in Perfia, Africa, and Spain. The fovereignty of Arabia was loft by the extent and the rapidity of conqueft. The colonies of the nation were fcattered over the Eaft and the West, and their blood was mingled with the blood of their converts and captives. After the reign of three Caliphs, the throne was tranfported from Medina to the valley of Damafcus, and the banks of the Tigris; the holy cities were violated by impious war; Arabia was ruled by the rod of a fubject, perhaps of a stranger; and the Bedoweens of the defart, awakening from their dream of dominion, refumed their old and folitary independence.".

Notwithstanding fuch great and fignal punishments were inflicted upon the Chrif tians of the East, and of the South, and of the Weft, by the propagation of the false religion of Mahomet, and by the oppreffions exercised over them by the Saracen locufts, yet no general reformation was produced either in the establishment or the

• Gibbon, c. 50.

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