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conclude, that the application of the symbol of the four angels, to the four sultanies or governments, leading the Turks to their invasion of Christendom, has no fair and legitimate foundation. The Turks were not divided into four nations, nor seated on Euphrates, at the time of their irruption in the fifteenth century; nor was this their original seat. And if to be there seated, can give a claim to the application of this prophecy, the Saracene Mahometans will be found to possess this claim in an equal or superior degree. For, powerful tribes of the Saracens *, were seated in Mesopotamia adjoining to Euphrates, at the time when this apocalyptic vision was seen. They there touched upon the boundaries of the Roman and Persian empires; and made devastating incursions on each f. About the year 378, their armies spread desolation in the East; and afterwards were employed by the Romans against the Goths . Again, in the seventh century, the Mahometan Saracens were in early possession of Euphrates, having turned their victorious arms thither in the fourteenth year of their Hejirah. Cufah, seated on that river, became the residence of the Caliph Ali; and Bagdat, built in 762, by the Caliph Almansor, ten leagues. from the site of ancient Babylon, was for many centuries the capital seat of the Mahometan dominion §.

If therefore it were a necessary part, to the completion of the prophecy, that the invading armies

* Called by the Greek and Latin writers of the first century, Scenites, because they dwelt in tents, but afterwards Saracens, from the Arabic, Sarak, a robber. Amm. Marcellin. lib. xiv. 4....

+ Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 1109. Plinii Nat. Hist. vi. 26. 28. Socratis Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. c. 36. Sozomen. lib. vi. c. 38. Ockley's History of the Saracens.

should

should come from Euphrates, this will appear fulfilled in the Saracene invaders, more truly and completely than in the Ottoman Turks. And if, to answer to the symbols of the four angels, four distinct nations, or armies of invaders, are to be expected, I would suggest to the consideration of the learned reader, whether four distinct periods of successful Mahometan invasion, and by four different nations, may not be found to present themselves in history.

The first, by the Saracens, which in the seventh and eighth centuries subdued to the Mahometan laws, Syria, Palestine, Persia, Armenia, Egypt, the States of Barbary, and Spain.

The second under the Mahometan Turks Maymud and the princes of the Seljuk dynasty, when in the eleventh century the extensive regions on the Euxine Sea, India, Anatolia, and Asia Minor, were conquered.

The third by the Mogul Tartars under Timour, or Tamerlane, in the fourteenth century, when in widely extended regions of the East, in China, Tartary, and a great part of Asia, Christianity was eradicated, not only by authority and persuasion, but by the utmost efforts of persecution, to make way for the Mahometan creed

The fourth by the Ottoman Turks, in the fifteenth century, when the Eastern Roman empire fell to them, with its dependencies.

I do not propose this four-fold division as perfectly examined and arranged; esteeming it no necessary part to the completion of the prophecy: but if such a kind of fulfilment should be thought needful,

* Mosheim, cent, xiv. part i. ch. i.

it

it appears probable, that it will be more easily discovered in the history of all the Mahometan invasions, than in that single one by the Ottoman Turks, which has been exclusively applied to this prophecy.

II. The smoke, fire, and brimstone of the sixth Trumpet seem inconsistently understood, as expressive of the guns and gunpowder used by the Turks in the fifteenth century. Smoke from the bottomless pit, (ch. ix. 2.) under the fifth Trumpet, is applied by Mede and his followers to signify the darkening 1eligion of Mahomet. And, in prophetical language, it will certainly admit that application, as well as to the dark confused doctrines of the Gnostics. This is fair and legitimate interpretation; and, by referring to ch. xix. 20. xx. 3. 10. xxi. 8, it will appear, that in the pit or lake, whence the smoke ascended, were fire and brimstone. When therefore under the sixth Trumpet, we meet with smoke, fire and brimstone, united, our interpretation should be uniform. These, issuing from the mouths of the invaders of the Church, must, if interpreted consistently, be stated to represent corrupt, infernal, destructive doctrines. these are applicable to the Saracens, in common with other Mahometans. But to understand them as signifying great guns and gun-powder, seems to be a force upon prophetical language, unworthy of the respectable names, which have countenanced the interpretation. It is not of Mede's devising; I have found it in commentaries more ancient.

And

III. The hour, day, month, &c. are applied to signify a continuance of time, answering to the continuance of the successful warfare of the Ottoman

* Mede's Works, p. 497.

Turks.

Turks. But it has already been shewn, that the original language will not admit of this construction. Or, if the construction could be admitted, even then it would not be found to answer the purpose of the commentators: for the continuance of time to be measured, is that, during which the evil angels continue to slay the third part of the men*. But this period is surely, in continuance, so long as the Mahometans continue to alienate from the Life which is in Christ, the third part of the men, or nations, which were once Christian. The Mahometan woe or plague is not yet come to its end; but the measure of continuance proposed by Mede and his followers, reaches only to the year 1672 †

I must now leave to the learned and judicious investigator to determine, whether the prophecy of the sixth Trumpet do not appear to be more fitly and perfectly fulfilled in the great original irruption of the Mahometans, (comprehending perhaps also their subsequent inroads,) than in the later and more partial one by the Ottoman Turks. The interpretation now proposed will be found, not only to accordmore accurately with the symbols exhibited in the vision, but also to bring the prophetical narration to that precise period, which is seen to open in the eleventh chapter, where the prophetical history, after a previous exhibition in the tenth chapter, proceeds. In that, and the ensuing chapters, the famous period of forty-two months, or 1260 days or years, comes

* See verse 15.

+ About that time it may be allowed that the belligerent power of the Mahometan nations became less formidable to the Christian world. But which of these nations is yet become Christian? which of them has yet renounced the destructive doctrines of Mahomet?

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into view. And this, in the apprehension of almost all the commentators, had its beginning many centuries before the victories of the Ottoman Turks; probably from those of the Saracene Mahometans. If therefore the sixth Trumpet be understood to begin with this first Mahometan invasion, it will stand in its proper historical place. So beginning, it may be supposed to run through the whole period of 1260 years, and to contain all the successful warfare of the Mahometans on the Christians. It is not to the nation, but to the religion, to which, prophecy seems to advert. And all these invasions seem nearly of the same character.

1 Kai idor ἄλλον ἄἴγελον ἰσχυρὸν καὶ ταβαίνοντα ἐκ τῶ ἐρανό, περιβεβλη μένον νεφέλην και ἡ ἴρις ἐπὶ τῆς κει φαλῆς αὐτῷ· καὶ τὸ πρόσωπον αὑτῷ ὡς ὁ ἥλιος, καὶ οἱ πόδες αὐτῇ ὡς σύλοι του 2 μός. Καὶ ἔχων ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὑτῷ βιβλαρίδιον άντω μένον καὶ ἔθηκε τον πόδα αυτό τὸν δεξιὸν ἐπὶ τῆς

PART III.

SECTION VI.

The little Book.

CHAPTER X.

1 And I saw another
mighty angel coming
down from heaven,
clothed with a cloud,
and a radiance over
his head, and his face
was as the sun, and his
feet as pillars of fire,
2 And having in his hand
a little book opened.
And he set his right
foot upon the sea, and
his left foot upon the
3 land. And he cried

with a loud voice, as
when a lion roareth.

1 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as 2 pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, 3 And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion

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