Star.
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pervaded the body, at the time when they came out'
of the smoke against the earth : suffice it to say that
all the writers of the fifth century, whose probity and
virtue intitle them to credit, are unanimous in their
accounts of the luxury, arrogance, avarice and volup-
tuousness of the sacerdotal orders :—vices which
would never have been endured, had not the greatest
part of mankind been sunk in superstition and igno-
rance, and all in general formed their ideas of the
rights and liberties of christian ministers from the
model exhibited by the sacerdotal orders among the
Hebrews, the Greeks and Romans, during the law of
Moses and the darkness of paganism. The barbarous
nations also, those fierce and warlike Germans, who,
after the defeat of the Romans, divided among them
the western empire, bore, with the utmost patience
and moderation, both the dominion and vices of the
bishops and priests, because upon their conversion to
christianity, they became naturally subject to their ju-
risdiction ; and still more, because they looked upon
the ministers of CIIMST as invested with the same
rights and privileges, which distinguished the priests
of their fictitious deities
ple of all kinds were every where admitted, without
examination and without choice, into the body of the

clergy Many of these ecclesiastics were con.
fined to no fixed places or assemblies, had no employ-
ment of any kind, but sauntered about wherever
they pleased, gaining their maintenance by im-
posing upon the ignorant multitude, and some-
times by mean and dishonest practices."(f) The
Monks, another genus of the same order, of whom
I have yet much to say, had hitherto lived only for
themselves, in solitary retreats, without assuming any
rank among ecclesiastics. They were now gra-
dually distinguished from the populace, became so
wealthy, though originally professed beggars, and
obtained such honourable privileges, that they were
now enabled to claim an eminent station among the
supports andpillars of theAntichristian community (g).
They were become so celebrated for piety and sanc-
tity that vacancies among the higher orders of the
hierarchy were often filled out of their body, and the
passion, which had long prevailed, of building and
endowing edifices, in which the Monks and the Holy
Virgins, another part of the family of the locusts,
might serve Goo, in the most commodious manner,
was now carried to the most extravagant lengths(h).
Oneirocritics inform us that to such as need aid,
locusts signify neither friend: nor support, but only
words and idle-tali respecting their affairs ; and to such
as are in fear they indicate impotent threats(i). The for-
mer part of this description is so apposite that it must
strike every person. What do the men here alluded to
give to their votaries? 'Words, idle talk—"profane bab-
bling:, and oppositions of science falsely so called" (2 Tim.
vi. 20) " great swelling words of vanity, promising liberty
while they themselves are the slaves of corruption" (2 Pet.
ii. 18, 19.) Nor is the latter part less descriptive of
these men, though at first view it may appear other.'
wise ; for locusts, in the strictest sense, mean only
talkers about mysteries, and if nothing else were here
coupled with that symbol, would denote mere impo-
tence as to any power, proper to them, by which they
could punish those who might despise their threats.
But, " unto them was G PEN—Perm, as the scorpions of
the earth have power"—a 'thing not more proper to
them than the sting of the scorpion to the natural
locust. This was what the sealed book foretold res-
pecting the king of these locusts—" his power shall be
mighty, but not by HIS PROPER POWER," that is, he shall
have the power of another given to him l and we learn
elsewhere (Rev. xvii. 17) that the power given to the
locusts was that of the ten kings----and hence their
ability to do mischief.
The power conferred on them, to speak in the idiom
of our own language, was like that proper to the land-
scorpion—a power to injure and hurt those whom they
chase to attack When the Egyptians wished to re-
present an equal combat between two adversaries,
they painted a scorpion (k) and crocodile ; for these
animals threaten mutual amiihilation : but if they
meant to point out a victor they represented him as
one of these animals—as a crocodile if he obtained'
the victory speedily, but as a scorpion if he obtained it
slowly (1). In this
,particular, the symbol of the
power given to the locusts is very striking : they did
not acquire their influence in a short time, but by
slow degrees and persevering industry : they were
secretly at work so early as the days of the Apostles,
but they did not attain, in its fullest extent, the domi-
nion for which they struggled, till the Inlperial head
of DANIEL'S fourth empire was destroyed. But then
the power of Antichrist became tremendous, and the
mightiest monarchs were made to feel Alm weight of
its dreadful tyranny.
The hieroglyphic employed to designate the ma-
lignity of the power conferred on the locusts intimates
also the means by which it was acquired and the spirit
by which it has been invariably accompanied : the
land-scorpion is a particular symbol of treachery and
fallacy (m)." SOPIIOCLES has this proverb, " The scor-
pion is constantly on the watch under a stone ;" and
Nic*wuza (in his Theriaci) observes, that the scorpion
places itself in ambush beneath a stone. APULEWS
denotes by the scorpion a ma* of a sour and morose
disposition : " Do you know a certain cruel tything-,
man of this city, whom, on account of the morose-
ness of his manners, the common people call scot-- I
pion "—and the ancient astrologers maintain, among
their aphorisms, that those born under the sign of the
scorpion are lustful, voluptuous, quarrelsome, irasci-
ble and subtle in surprising their adversaries. Na-.
turalists also tell us of the scorpion, that of all the
class of noxious insects it is the most terrible—its
shape is hideous, its size among the insects is enor-
mous, and its sting often fatal. No animal in the
creation is endued with such an irascible nature :
when taken and put into a place of security, it exerts
all its rage against the sides of the glass vessel that
contains it; st attempts to sting a stick which is
brought near it, and attacks a mouse or a frog with-
, out any provocation. The vindictive spirit of this
animal is equally dangerous to its own species on
being incommoded in the least degree. MAUPERTUIS
put about 100 of them into the same glass, and they
scarce came into contact, when they began to exert
Mosheha, 1101.11. p. 30. Edit. 1790.
trtiUtsl=L4ti.tgl:claisl=rioni. 1 app.
Artimedorus, lib. H.
(1) liorappolinis Hierog. lib. ii. cap. 35.
(1) " A !anti-scorpion" according so PIKRIU 5 ; for the seater-
atertion, or a laud-scorpion covered with water, was the symbol
of impotent malice. CY rainx says, that neither scorpions nor ser-
pents possess the power to injure wheat isiamersod-in water.
(m) Pixams, lib. avi. cap. Iwo