1841 William Miller Evidence from Scripture & History - A2Z.org

a star fall from heaven unto the earth; and to him wae
given the key of the bottomless pit" After the downfall
of Pagan Rome, and the rise of the anti-Christian
abomination, Mahomet promulgated a religion which
evidently came from the bottomless pit; for it fostered
all the wicked passions of the human heart, such as war,
murder, slavery, and lust .
2d verse, "And he opened the bottomless pit, and
there arose a smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a
great furnace ; and the wn and the air was darkened by
reason of the smoke of the pit" The figures used in
this text are, the bottonJesspit, which denote the theories
of men or devils, that have no foundation in the
word of God. Smoke denotes the errors from such doctrine,
which serve to blind the eyes of men, that they.
cannot see the truth. As the smoke of o great furnuce
shows the great extent or effect of this error over the
world. 3'he sun denotes the gospel, which is the great
luminary of the moral world The air denotes the
moral influence on the mind, which is commonly called
@t$ As air supporta or gives to the lungs animation
in e physical world, so does the piety of the heart tothe
moral.
This, then, is the me sentiment of this passage. And
by reason of the Mahometan errors which would be believed
or followed by a great multitude, the gospel and
the pious influence of the same would be in a great
mewive hid or lost to the world.
3d verse, "And there came out of the smoke locusts
upon the earth ; and unto them was given power, as the
scorpions of the earth have power." By these locusts I
understand armies. See Joel, 1st and 2d chapters.
Therefore I should read this t6xt thus : And there carno
out from these Mahometan followers large armies, which
should have great power to execute the judgments of
God on this anti-Christian beast, which had filled the
carth with her abominations.
4th verse, "And it \sfas commanded them that thy
should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green
thin , neither any tree, but only those men which hare
not &e ~eal,of God in their foreheads." By pus, gna
a