Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/154

 and so St. John tells us, that this implacable enemy of God and man took his stand "upon the sand of the sea."

An able Catholic interpreter (Preuves Incontestables de l'Eglise Catholique, chap. v. p. 297), explains this to mean Arabia, for that country might well be termed "the sand of the sea," both from the vast tracts of sandy desert, of which it is mainly composed, and from the fact of its peninsular form being chiefly surrounded by the sea. But I should also interpret this expression, according to what we have already seen of St. Jerome's interpretation of the term "sea," to mean the most worthless portion of mankind, for if "the sea" signifies mankind, then the sand of the sea signifies all the scum and cast-off deposit, which the sea throws up upon the beach: and what would this be, but those reprobate outcasts of the Church, whom Mahomet seized upon as his instruments to propagate his mighty heresy? and as the grains of sand are infinite in number, so countless was the multitude of that light and faithless generation, which the hurricane of his impiety drove in clouds over the deserts of Asia and Africa, till the sun of Divine truth was darkened, and God's moon, the Church, was turned into blood, so that in those desolate regions she no longer reflected the rays of her