two myriads of myriads, though some copies omit the two. Taking a myriad as 10,000, and considering the expression as implying multiplication, 20,000 times 10,000 would be 200,000,000. But this is an incredible number, and I should rather conceive, that as the myriad or 10,000 is mentioned, two myriads of myriads implies 20,000 multiplied by ten, which would give 200,000 for the amount of their cavalry. This supposition agrees with the facts of history, and as St. John heard the number repeated to him by a voice from heaven, we should rather conclude it to be definite than indefinite. They are described as cavalry, because it constituted the chief part of the Turkish force.

This, as Mede observes, was the principal character of the nation of Magog, from which the Turks were descended, for Ezekiel, in his description of their army in his celebrated prophecy of Gog, the chief prince of Mesech and Tubal, says, chap. xxxviii. 4. "And I will bring thee forth and all thy army, horse and horsemen, all clothed with breastplates ;" and again, 15. "And thou shalt come from thy place, from the sides of the north, thou and many people with thee, all riding on horses," &c. With respect to their description, as horse or horsemen, Mede farther observes, that by long residence in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates, the Turks had become

Persians. And these, he remarks, by the very sound are horsemen; for Paras, by which name Persia is known in the sacred books, (Parthia being the same, with a different pronunciation,) signifies in the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabian, a horse or horseman.

"And thus I saw the horses in the vision, (or rather in appearance,) and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of hyacinth, and brimstone; and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions, and out of their mouths issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone."-" By these three was the third part of men killed; by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths."

This is a most remarkable prophecy; and its allusion to the appearance of a Turkish army mounted on horses, with artillery in front, is so peculiar and striking that its interpretation carries conviction of its truth to the mind.

"Thus I saw the horses, in appearance," says St. John, "and those that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and hyacinth, and brimstone," i. e. as far as relates to colours of red, blue, and yellow; and these, according to Mr. Daubuz, have always been the favourite martial colours of the Othmans since their first appearance. Then, he says, "the heads of the horses were as the heads

of lions, and out of their mouths issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone."

Perhaps the effect of cannon and of the fire of gunpowder in front of a mounted army, many hundred years before those destructive engines and that ignivomous material were invented, could not be more distinctly described by one who saw and heard the fire, and smoke, and thunder of artillery without knowing the cause. He sees at a distance a vast assemblage of cavalry; he does not at once discover the cannon before them, but on a sudden their mouths appear to open, which, in conjunction with the horses, give to them the semblance of lion's heads, and mouths roaring for their prey, and vomiting forth fire, and smoke, and brimstone. Here too are the same images as were used before in the appearance of the army, the red or yellow fire, the hyacinthine smoke, and the sulphureous smell of brimstone.

To those who know that gunpowder was then first used, and that enormous pieces of artillery (some still remaining) were employed in the taking of Constantinople, not a word more need be said in illustration of this wonderful prophecy. By these were the third part of men killed, that is, the remains of the Roman empire, long transferred to the east, and which had once prevailed

over a third part of the habitable world, were by these means subdued and destroyed.

"For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails; for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt."

Here it is asserted that this formidable force should not only prevail by their resistless attacks in front, but that they should draw after them a train of evils, connected with the Mohammedan imposture; and as the Saracens were compared to locusts, with tails like scorpions, so the Turkish horse are compared to lions, with tails like serpents, having heads. May not this image allude to the power exercised by the Turkish governors or pachas, whose emblems of authority were horses' tails?

"And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk. Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."

This lamentable conclusion of the effect of the first and second woe is entitled to our particular

power

attention. It shows the design of the providence of God, in permitting, if not raising up, the of the Saracens and Turks, under the influence of the Mohammedan imposture, as a punishment on corrupted Christianity. By the former the remains of the Roman empire, now become nominally Christian, but having departed from Christian faith and practice, were long plagued and tormented; by the latter, the Eastern or Greek empire was overwhelmed and destroyed; and yet, alas! "the rest of the men," that is, the inhabitants of the western empire, now revived in a new form, under the Antichristian sway of the Pope, were not reformed by these plagues, nor repented of their idolatrous and wicked practices.

Where in fact, but in the Latin Church, within the scope of these visions, which is the boundary of the Roman empire, did men worship demons, or mediatory gods, saints, and angels, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and wood? No where, but in the countries subject to the Roman Catholic religion.

The spirit of prophecy denounces that corrupted Church so expressly that the charge cannot be evaded. They did not repent of their murders by persecutions and inquisitions, nor of their sorceries by pretended miracles and revelations, nor of their fornication, whether spiritual

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