by public license of brothels.  And finally,—­“thefts.”  By these are to be understood the illegal exactions and oppressive impositions, by which the nations of Christendom have been plundered of their revenues to enrich the lordly hierarchy of apostate Christendom.  This state of things still continuing after the sixth angel sounds his trumpet, and no evidence of repentance; who can doubt that the same community is yet to be visited with the “third woe?” Surely the Lord may justly still say,—­“For three transgressions, and for four, (of Antichrist,) I will not turn away the punishment thereof.”  The eastern church, in which the first corruptions prevailed, was punished by the first woe of the Saracens; and this not producing repentance, her ruin was completed by the second wo of the Ottomans.  So, when God judges, he will overcome; therefore the western church, still persisting in her abominations, without repentance, shall be destroyed by the third woe.  Let not the pious reader suppose that by these penal inflictions on churches, the church of Christ is to perish.  No, no.  But, on the contrary, their overthrow is subservient to her preservation.  This also will appear with increasing evidence as we proceed with our meditations on this instructive book.

In the mean time it may be well to remark here, at the close of those woes which developed the rise and progress of Mahometanism, that the creed of this religious sect is substantially the same as that of those Christians called Socinians.  Both presumptuously and arrogantly claim to be the worshippers of the one God,—­commonly called Unitarians.  This is one of the “depths of Satan.”  All who worship, as well as believe in, three co-equal Divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, believe in, and worship one God, and in this sense are Unitarians.—­the only scriptural Unitarians.  “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.” (John ii. 23.) And the same is true of such who “have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.” (Acts xix. 2.) “He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son,”—­a deceiver and an Antichrist.  It is doubtless in view of these soul-ruining heresies, that the beloved disciple tendered the caution,—­“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” (1 John v. 21.)

We would expect the tenth chapter to begin with the sounding of the seventh trumpet; but we find it is not so.  Indeed, we shall not find any direct intimation of the work of the seventh angel till we come to the fourteenth verse of the eleventh chapter.  The sixth trumpet continues to reverberate throughout Christendom for centuries; and during the intermediate time, our attention is called to another scene, which the Lord Jesus deemed necessary as preparatory.

CHAPTER X.