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Those that fat upon the horfes had breastplates of fire, and of jacinet, and brimstone. The colour of fire is red, of hyacinth, or jacinct, blue, and of brimstone yellow and this, as Daubuz obferves, hath a literal accomplishment; for the Othmans, from the first time of their appearance, have affected to wear fuch warlike apparel of fcarlet, blue, and yellow. Of the Spahis particularly, fome have red, and fome have yellow ftandards, and others red or yellow, mixed with other colours. In appearance too the heads of their horfes were as the heads of lions, to denote their strength, courage, and fiercenefs.

The fire, fmoke, and brimstone, which are represented as iffuing out of the mouths of the borfes, immediately fuggeft the idea of gunpowder, which was not invented till this trumpet founded another woe to "the third part of men." The Turks not only used firearms in their military expeditions, but fuch cannon as were of a moft enormous fize. To this fact the hiftorian bears ample teftimony int the following paffages. Among the imple

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some say that they are a million; and befides thefe, there are Spahis and other horfemen in the Emperor's pay.”— Newton, vol. iii. p. 121.

Newton, vol. iii. p. 121.

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ments of deftruction Mahomet II. ftudied with peculiar care, the recent and tremendous dif of the Latins: [in the fifteenth century] and his artillery furpassed whatever had yet appeared in the world. A foundery was established at Adrianople; the metal was prepared; and at the end of three months, Urban (the cannon-founder) produced a piece of brafs ordnance of stupendous and almost incredible magnitude. A measure of twelve palms is affigned to the bore; and the ftone bullet weighed above fix hundred pounds ."....And again in the fame chapter, "The great cannon of Mahomet has been feparately noticed, an important and visible object in the hiftory of the times but that enormous engine was flanked by two fellows almost of equal magnitude: the long order of Turkish artillery was pointed against the walls; fourteen batteries thundered at once on the most acceffible places; and at one of these it is ambiguously expreffed, that it was mounted with one hundred and thirty guns, or that it discharged one hundred and thirty bullets." With fuch engines was Conftantinople, the capital of the world, overthrown; and thus was realized the symbol of one third of men being killed by the fire, Smoke,

• Gibbon, c. 68.

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and brimftone proceeding out of their mouths. Mahomet II, took the ifthmus of Peloponnefus, and spread a general confternation throughout Greece. Two hundred and fixty towns in Christendom yielded to the power of his arms; and for his great fuccefs in war, he was principally indebted to the myriads that composed his cavalry, and the number and enormous fize of his cannon *.

"The last particular noticed by St. John in his description of the Ottomans, is, that, like the locufts, with their tails they do burt. For their power is in their mouths, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. That under the Turkish empire, the false doctrine of Mahomet has been spread with no lefs zeal than under the Saracens, is too well known to need the testimony of history: yet, to fhow that our Hiftorian continues to bear witness to this Prophecy, we tranfcribe a paffage, which

"There is in the arsenal of Conftantinople the breech of a cannon which was melted in a fire a century ago, of a moft enormous fize (I am forry I have not the meature of it) but those of the Dardanelles are diminutive in comparison to it. It was one of those used at the fiege of Conftantinople. Eton's Survey of the Turkish Empire, p. 95. " Whitaker, p. 153.

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may be confidered as containing a reason for the power of their mouths, and their tails to hurt being fo closely conjoined in the text: fince it shows that conqueft was the means of propagating the faith. "To propagate the true religion was the duty of a faithful Muffulman: the unbelievers were his (the Sultan Amurath II's) enemies, and those of the Prophet; and in the hands of the Turks, the fcymeter was the only inftrument of converfion." Wherever they had carried their arms, they have left the poison of their doctrines.

As the Eastern Chriftians, who had been enlightened by the carlieft rays of the Gospel, were the first in the commiffion of offences, fo were they the first that felt the weight of divine punishment. Of this we have memorable examples in the fall of the feven celebrated churches of Afia, to which St. John in the beginning of the Revelation addressed his admonitions, and his conditional promises and threats. The infidel Historian, so often quoted, gives a melancholy picture of their prefent ftate; yet the force of truth draws from his reluctant pen a ftriking conformity between fact and prediction. Is not the city of Philadelphia in Afia marked out by the Prophecy as the peculiar object of the divine commenda

tion and favour, in confequence of its fuperior firmness and perfeverance in the faith? and has not that city, even according to the defcription of the Hiftorian himself, been distinguished by the fame perfeverance, and remained independent, and even triumphant, when all the other cities have been been either deftroyed, or overpowered by the Turks?

"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, these things faith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man fhutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. I know thy works; behold I have fet before thee an open door, and no man can fhut it; for thou hast a little ftrength, and haft kept my word, and haft not denied my name. Behold I will make them of the fynagogue of Satan, behold I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee, Because thou haft kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which Shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that faft which thou haft, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh, will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him

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